Friends of America Festival brings 100,000 to mountaintop mine site
Organizers call on mining families to oppose Obama’s assault on coal and America’s economy
HOLDEN – They came early and stayed late. They came despite the threat of heavy rain, thunder and lightning. They came because they support the coal industry. They came because they are patriots and care deeply about the future of their country. They came from as far away as Alaska and Europe to let their voices be heard by an American president and a radical Congress trying rob them of their heritage, their jobs and their way of life.
Almost 100,000 people – mostly working coal miners and their families – turned out Monday for the Labor Day “Friends of America” rally at the old Holden 22 mountaintop mine site near Logan, W.Va. The event featured legendary guitarist Ted “the Motor City Madman” Nugent as emcee and Hank Williams, Jr., John Rich (formerly of Big and Rich), Halfway to Hazzard, Taylor Made and the Blackwater Outlaws as musical guests. Also on hand were Fox News commentator and talk radio host Sean Hannity and Lord Christopher Monckton, a science advisor to Margaret Thatcher, a former British prime minister. Monckton is an outspoken critic of global warming theorists.
PATH is a joint venture between Allegheny Energy and American Electric Power (AEP) to build a new, high voltage, interstate transmission line that will go through West Virginia, Virginia and Maryland.
