Kentucky Coverup

More thwarting at the hands of the Bush Team.

I'll mention as an aside before picking up my main topic this afternoon that the Plame investigation seems to be expanding from "leak" to "coverup of leak". Not surprising.

Speaking of leaks and their coverups, however, file this one under "do as you're instructed, or else."

A government whistle-blower says the Bush administration covered up the reasons for a toxic coal slurry spill in Appalachia that ranks among the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history...

(Jack) Spadaro was until recently the head of the National Mine Health and Safety Academy and played a key role in investigating the spill, which was 25 times the size of the Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska.

"It polluted 100 miles of streams, killing everything in the streams, all the way to the Ohio River," says Spadaro of the October 2000 spill that affected West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky. "The Bush administration came in and the scope of our investigation was considerably shortened. I had never seen something so corrupt and lawless in my entire career...interference with a federal investigation of the most serious environmental disaster in the history of the Eastern United States."

So what's happened to Spadaro? You probably won't be surprised about that either. Salon has a chilling account of what's gone down. Go watch their 30 second advertisement and read the whole thing.

At least a few in congress are raising questions about the Spadaro vendetta.

And the Miners' Union is pretty PO'd about the whole thing, too. Massey Energy lawyers called the spill "an Act of God" to limit their liability and, of course, defer to the almighty.