According to Politico, the National Republican Senatorial Committee has reconsidered a recent ad depicting actors posing as regular guys criticizing West Virginian Gov. Joe Manchin, a democrat. The casting call for the ad stated that actors with a "hickey, blue collar look," were desired. It also suggested they should wear, " Dickies type jackets with a t-shirt underneath, down filled vests, trucker  hats (not brand new, preferably beat up)."

Democrats provided the casting material to Politico, the online magazine, which noted that that its not unusual for political ads to use actors.

A Democratic official told Politico, however, that the casting call and wardrobe description played nicely into the case against Manchin's opponent, John Raese whom they accuse of misunderstanding working people.

The NRSC is pulling the ad that will soon be replaced by something new.

Keeping rural libraries vital requires keeping them free of charge and pushing for open access to materials. Libraries are people-centers, not warehouses for books.

Tuesday morning:

Congratulations to the Bristol (VA) Herald Courier for winning a Pulitzer Prize yesterday. The Bristol paper covers the Tri-Cities area of Virginia and  Tennessee. (The cities are, of course, Bristol, Kingsport and Johnson City.) The Herald Courier's Daniel Gilbert published a series of stories on the way the state mismanaged royalties it was supposed to collect on gas wells. The paper's series can be found here.  The Pulitzer was given in the public service category. The staff of the paper is above and a story about the series and the prize can be found here. Congratulations!

This morning National Public Radio reported that Massey Energy's coal mines nationally have high rates of injuries and long lists of federal safety violations.  NPR follows the Charleston Gazette's story finding that Massey would appeal violations, thus stalling harsher enforcement procedures that could have been used to close certain mines or increase penalties. The original Gazette story on this practice can be found here. 

Julianne Couch, a part-time resident of fictional Oakdale, Illinois, says an early farewell to the cornfield town that's now 30 seconds from Chicago and "The Islands."