West Virginia Senator Rockefeller(D) retiring

[rivergator]

Originally Posted by gatorman_07732

In otherwards your graph conveniently stops in 2011.

thru the third quarter of 2012:

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The number of coal-mining jobs in West Virginia dropped by nearly 900 during the third quarter of the year but remained larger than when the Obama administration began a series of new regulatory initiatives, according to new data from the U.S. Department of Labor.

link

[gatorman_07732]

Yeap those EPA regulations are starting to kick in

Report: Up to 17,000 jobs lost from coal plant shutdowns

http://dailycaller.com/2012/10/04/re...ant-shutdowns/

With 205 coal-fired generators shutting down in the coming years due to increased competition from cheap natural gas and stricter environmental regulations, costing the U.S. between 13,000 and 17,000 jobs, according to the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity.

The natural gas is fine but the environmental regulations are a knife in the heart.

[mdgator05]

Originally Posted by DaveFla

Is it your claim that there is no bias in the media?

No. There are millions of asymmetric biases in different media members. But I don't think that is the true essence of your question.

If you are asking whether there is a market-wide, multi-organizational bias against conservative political opinion, the obvious answer is no. Basic econ teaches that each individual can be irrational, but markets as a whole trend towards rationality. Media members provide information as their economic contribution. Therefore, as a whole, the "media" provides information in a rational profit maximizing manner.

The conservative paranoid belief in media bias against themselves has led to one of the biggest problems with modern conservative thought: the inability to deal with any events that challenge their ideas. For example, in the past election, conservatives could not handle that polling was giving them information that they did not want to believe. So they invented another market-wide, multi-organizational bias against themselves, this time by polling firms. This viewpoint was definitively proven wrong (which unfortunately can't occur with some of the other market-wide conspiracy theories invented on the right due to the nature of the specific markets).

It is amazing that a group that professes the strength of the market in dealing with a multitude of issues is unable to see how their beliefs in this gigantic market-wide multi-organizational conspiracy flies in the face of their very own ideology. If the market can effectively deal with a variety of issues such as racism and sexism (as claimed by many on the right), how would it not be able to deal with this massive irrationality? Unfortunately, amongst many on the right, these paranoid beliefs are becoming more important than the underlying ideology favoring market solutions.

[DaveFla]

Originally Posted by mdgator05

No. There are millions of asymmetric biases in different media members. But I don't think that is the true essence of your question.

If you are asking whether there is a market-wide, multi-organizational bias against conservative political opinion, the obvious answer is no. Basic econ teaches that each individual can be irrational, but markets as a whole trend towards rationality. Media members provide information as their economic contribution. Therefore, as a whole, the "media" provides information in a rational profit maximizing manner.

The conservative paranoid belief in media bias against themselves has led to one of the biggest problems with modern conservative thought: the inability to deal with any events that challenge their ideas. For example, in the past election, conservatives could not handle that polling was giving them information that they did not want to believe. So they invented another market-wide, multi-organizational bias against themselves, this time by polling firms. This viewpoint was definitively proven wrong (which unfortunately can't occur with some of the other market-wide conspiracy theories invented on the right due to the nature of the specific markets).

It is amazing that a group that professes the strength of the market in dealing with a multitude of issues is unable to see how their beliefs in this gigantic market-wide multi-organizational conspiracy flies in the face of their very own ideology. If the market can effectively deal with a variety of issues such as racism and sexism (as claimed by many on the right), how would it not be able to deal with this massive irrationality? Unfortunately, amongst many on the right, these paranoid beliefs are becoming more important than the underlying ideology favoring market solutions.

Given this, which part of my original statement are you having difficulty with? Perhaps I can help?

[mdgator05]

Originally Posted by DaveFla

Given this, which part of my original statement are you having difficulty with? Perhaps I can help?

That an entire industry is going to systematically victimize the GOP?

[JerseyGator01]

If many media members actually operated in a truly free market, then yes the possibility of real media bias would be quite small. But unfortunately many parent companies of media outlets do not operate in that environment.

[Swampmaster]

he was as crooked as robert byrd, wasting billions in all this pork for west va.