Different Day, Same Shit.

Remember Freedom Industries, the fine folks who brought licorice-flavored water and all of its attendant side effects to West Virginians (and possibly folks along the Ohio River) everywhere?

Those guys are filing for bankruptcy. Turns out befouling an entire region's drinking water for the foreseeable future comes with a huge price tag and the folks behind Freedom Industries just aren't prepared to stomach the entire cost:

Freedom Industries, the company that fouled thousands of West Virginians' water with a chemical leak into the Elk River last week, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Friday.

Freedom owes $3.6 million to its top 20 unsecured creditors, according to bankruptcy documents. The company also owes more than $2.4 million in unpaid taxes to the Internal Revenue Service, and the IRS has placed at least three liens on Freedom's property, demanding payment.

The unpaid taxes date back to at least 2000, according to a lien filed in 2010.

Under the bankruptcy code, Chapter 11 permits a company to reorganize and continue operating.

The filing also puts a hold on all of the lawsuits filed against Freedom Industries. Since the leak last week, about a mile and a half upriver from West Virginia Water American's plant in Charleston, about 25 lawsuits have been filed against Freedom in Kanawha Circuit Court. The company also faces a federal lawsuit.

But that's not all:

About an hour after its bankruptcy filing, Freedom filed an emergency motion for what's called "debtor-in-possession," or DIP, financing, which would allow it to secure up to a $5 million loan to continue to function in some capacity. The loan would, according to the filing, "provide additional liquidity to [Freedom] in order to allow it to continue as a going concern."

The lender in a debtor-in-possession case generally gets first priority when it comes time for the debtor, in this case Freedom, to pay money back.

"Under the bankruptcy code, when there is DIP financing from a DIP lender, 99 percent of the time, they get priority over all the other creditors," said Bob Simon, a prominent bankruptcy lawyer with the Pittsburgh firm Reed Smith. "You're putting your money in at risk, and the debtor is not going to have a lot of options, so the bankruptcy clerk permits the DIP lender to get priority over all the other lenders."

Freedom's proposed lender is a company called WV Funding LLC. That company does not exist in West Virginia, according to business records on file with the West Virginia secretary of state. Pennsylvania's secretary of state also has no records online for it.

The DIP agreement has places to sign for Freedom Industries and for WV Funding "by Mountaineer Funding LLC."

Mountaineer Funding was incorporated with the West Virginia secretary of state on Friday. Its one listed member is J. Clifford Forrest, Freedom Industries' owner.

So the owner of Freedom Industries goes and starts a new company the same day of filing the old company's bankruptcy and files an emergency motion that effectively places the new company at the front of the line for the old company's assets in the event of a discharge. It's a slick way to have your cake, eat it and avoid any liability for cleaning up the crumbs afterwards.

And conservatives everywhere not only think this is good business, but want Americans everywhere to hoist the EPA's head on a stick and willingly accept corporate lordship. As serfs, of course. Because every company needs a bunch of serfs who are willing to die for their betters out of sense of misplaced pride and fidelity:

Though some state legislators have called for reforming the state's famously lax regulations, the general response has been to yell at the media and outsiders. The battle cry: Others don't appreciate the personal sacrifices West Virginians make to provide the nation with chemicals and coal.

It is true. Outsiders don't appreciate them and, furthermore, don't respect them. They can't understand why anyone would let absentee landowners level their mountains and bury their streams in waste. Birds don't dirty their own nests.

The hard-luck people of Appalachia deserve their reputation for physical courage and a strong work ethic. But they suffer more from servility than from bad luck. Outsiders wince when the natives angrily declare their independent spirit and then cringe before corporate polluters, however tawdry.(...)

(...)But Waggoner's most powerful "to hell with" was reserved for fellow West Virginians. These were people who bought into the idea of "constant sacrifice as an honorable condition" and who "turned that condition into a culture of perverted, twisted pride and self-righteousness, to be celebrated and defended against outsiders."

Outsiders. Creating an aura of specialness that must be protected from outside influences is how cult leaders keep their members in check. It takes a good deal of mind control to turn mass sucker-dom into a bragging point.

West Virginia is a pretty dire place, even by Appalachian standards. With Big Coal as practically the only opportunity to make a decent living and with those opportunities themselves scarce, the only thing that's often left is pride. And when all a person has is their pride...

The level of odorous chemical in West Virginians' water dropped Friday, but not enough for authorities to lift a warning to avoid drinking, cooking or bathing with it or to give a clear idea as to when things will change.

Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin described the situation in nine counties Friday night as "pretty bad," both for residents being told the only thing they should do with their running water is flush their toilets and schools, restaurants, hotels and other businesses forced to close.
One bit of good news is tests on the affected water supply, which are being conducted on an hourly basis, show "the chemical level is declining."

"But we're just not sure exactly how long it's going to take before it's acceptable to lift the do-not-drink ban," the governor told CNN.

"It's caused us more problems than you could ever imagine," Jones said Friday night, pointing out people can't do things like wash their hands after going to bathroom or wash their clothes.

"... It's a prison from which we would like to be released."

When you park 35,000 gallons worth of hazardous chemicals next to a major water source, stuff like this is bound to happen. To make matters worse, there's no issuing boil orders or throwing a few Brita filters at the problem. And for a triple whammy, this steady stream of 4-methylcyclohexane methanol-tainted water is bound for the Ohio River as early as tomorrow morning.

This should be a wake-up call to anyone who thinks government regulations are an impediment to free enterprise. Some regulations are actually there for a damned good reason.

Also:

(Freedom Industries) President Gary Southern tried several times to walk away from a press conference Friday evening, saying "it has been an extremely long day," only to be called back by insistent reporters -- including one who noted how long a day it has been for all the West Virginians now without drinkable water or a full explanation as to why.

"This incident is extremely unfortunate and unanticipated," Southern said. "... This has been a very, very taxing process."

UPDATE: I wonder what Senator Joe Manchin has to say, especially in light of the following:

U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who led a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency when he was Governor, issued the following statement after the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled in favor of West Virginia. As Governor, Senator Manchin filed the first lawsuit against the EPA for overreaching its authority under the Clean Water Act.

“What a great day for West Virginia. I’m pleased and gratified to hear that the federal court has ruled in favor of our state, the miners who work here and the people who depend on coal for their livelihoods – and against the EPA for overstepping its boundaries,” Senator Manchin said. “As Governor, I sued the EPA because this bureaucratic agency was taking the wrong course. I remain hopeful that this court decision will put us on the path of getting the permits that we need to provide energy and jobs not just for West Virginia, but for this entire country. Looking ahead, I will work to make sure the EPA understands that it needs to work as an ally, not an adversary.”

ERIC BOLLING: What would you call a guy who not only used cocaine, but dealt cocaine in high school and/or college? What would you call that kind of guy?
GREG GUTFELD: The president.

[laughter]

ERIC BOLLING: Besides "president."

No, they're not speaking about George W. Bush's run-ins with the white stuff. Once again, conservative talking heads over at Fox News are doing their best to tag President Obama with what conservatives usually think of blacks (outside of "the good ones" like our old friend, Jesse Lee Peterson). After the media blow-up over Mitt Romney's prep school escapades, they had to use something to redirect attention back onto the president.

Not only did our dynamic duo attempt to suggest our current president had triple beam dreams, but Bolling tried to cement the idea even further into the heads of low-information conservatives everywhere with the following:

SEAN HANNITY: It's -- the biggest campaign donor in 2008 was the media, Eric. What about this issue? Now, he said I was in a daze for years in high school playing basketball. I drank heavily. Used drugs -- plural. He's admitted to cocaine use. And I don't remember many questions about the specifics of his drug use. Where did he get the drugs? Who did he do drugs with? How did he get off drugs? How deep did this go? What drugs did he use? Is that fair?

BOLLING: That's more than fair, and I think he's actually even admitted to buying or selling drugs, as well, which makes it a little bit different.

Bolling apologized, but the underlying message is still out there. You gotta admire (or better still, abhor) conservatives' ability to let loose with lies and coded rhetoric, only to walk it back with quiet, half-hearted apologies, knowing that in the end, the underlying message still hit its mark.

Come to think of it, conservatives are going positively batshit over Obama these days. First, the subliminals from Senator Rand Paul*. Having a gun pointed at the head of a sitting president is generally A Bad Idea™, especially with your smug mug glowing with conceited approval. The Virginia-based National Association for Gun Rights dismissed the ensuing uproar as "silly" and responded with the same gun pointed at Rand Paul's dome.

What's funny about all this is that the president hasn't proposed any type of anti-gun legislation. In fact, he's thrown conservative gun owners a bone or two. Rand Paul and Co. know exactly what they're doing and what kind of message they're sending.

Meanwhile, Obama-induced social psychosis led one West Virginia county to throw its Democratic primary votes in the general direction of a Texas convict:

Keith Judd, the winner over Obama, is also known as Inmate No. 11593-051 at the Federal Correctional Institution in Beaumont, Texas, where he is serving a 17.5 year sentence after being convicted in 1999 for allegedly making threats at the University of New Mexico and also for extortion.

Somehow, someway, Judd was able to get on the ballot and pull out a victory over Obama in Logan County.

Call it the anti-Obama vote or the ultimate protest vote.

Maybe it was the anybody-but-Obama vote.

Whatever it was it wasn’t even close as Judd was able to win by 11 points in an embarrassment to the Obama camp and the national Democratic Party establishment.

With 37 out of 38 Logan County precincts reporting, Judd had grabbed 2,786 votes to Obama’s 2,231, winning 55.5 percent to 44.4.

With nearly 100 percent of the precincts reporting statewide in the wee hours of the morning, Judd was pulling 41 percent to Obama’s 59 and had garnered close to 72,544 votes.

There's a message in here, too. Apparently, Logan County, WV would rather have a convicted felon in office than suffer the indignities of being led by a nigg...ahem. But it wasn't just Logan County that came down sick with a case of the vapors:

The results were even worse next door in Mingo County where Obama was humiliated by 20 points or 1,005 votes by the Texas prisoner. With 100 percent of the precincts reporting, Judd had 2,972 votes (60.1 percent) to Obama’s 1,967 votes (39.9 percent).

Judd also won in eight other counties, taking Lincoln, Boone, Clay, Gilmer, Hardy, Tucker, Webster and Wyoming counties.

Obama only beat Judd by 31 votes in Mercer County by a 2,486-2,455 tally.

Judd took Boone County 2,343 to 2,199 in a 52-48 percent margin and also grabbed Lincoln County 1,533 to 1,382. In Wyoming County, Judd won by a 1,428 to 1,085 vote tally over Obama.

The whole state didn't come down sick -- Obama walked away with Huntington and Charleston, the most populous cities in the state.

And since you're wondering how someone cooling his heels in an federal prison in Texas ended up on a West Virginia ballot? Here's how:

Judd, 53, has been a Democratic presidential candidate before, appearing on Idaho’s 2008 ballot, finishing a distant third behind Obama and Clinton with only 1.7 percent of the vote.

Judd, who lists his hometown as Texarkana, Texas, took advantage of West Virginia’s rather liberal ballot access laws to gain a spot in this year’s Democratic Primary – a head-to-head match-up with Obama.

The law requires prospective candidates meet residency, age and other requirements, including a $2,500 filing fee, to get on the ballot.

Judd met those requirements and landed a spot on West Virginia’s ballot – the only state he was able to do so – despite being held behind bars.

Judd was the only candidate on the WV ballot other than the president. As it turns out, it was more about voting against Obama than it was a genuine preference for a jailbird. In the words of Ronnie Brown, "I voted against Obama." Considering how Hillary Clinton trounced Obama back during the 2008 primaries, you could safely say they just don't like the man.

But I wonder if certain people would have stayed home if the only other alternative on the ballot was yet another person of color. I think I already know the answer to that question.

*Rand Paul serves as proof positive of why voting for Ron Paul is A Bad Idea™