[imgbelt img=Mine_Explosion__kward%40wvgazette.com_31.jpg]Don’t blame politicians for failure to find compromise in Congress. Most voters don’t want leaders who compromise. They want politicians who “stick to their positions without compromise,” according to the National Journal. • The New York Times yesterday wrote in an editorial that “you would think taxpayers have a right to expect passage of a life-and-death measure to protect the nation’s coal miners. And yet decisive action on even this issue may be shunted aside until after the November elections.”This is “intolerable,” the Times editorial said, especially after 29 miners died last April in a West Virginia mine disaster. The Times continues:”Last April, the death toll from Upper Big Branch found both chambers resounding with regret and resolve for reform. So, where’s the action? Can lawmaking be any harder than mining?” • Democrats wonder where environmentalists are during this election cycle. Several rural Ds voted for cap and trade energy legislation that ultimately failed to pass the Senate. Now those House members are under attack from Republican opponents and some Democrats are saying environmentalists are nowhere to be found. • Kentucky Republican senate candidate Rand Paul wants to abolish the U.S. Department of Education. Kentucky education advocates point out that most of the money coming to the state from the department is used to help poor kids. •The American Farm Bureau is backing a bill that would declare broadband internet to be a universal service. That designation would allow broadband to be supported by the Universal Service Fund.The Farm Bureau called broadband “vital” for rural America. “Current and future generations of rural Americans will be left behind their fellow citizens if they are without affordable high-speed broadband service to tap into health care and educational services, government agencies and new business opportunities,” Farm Bureau president Bob Stallman wrote in a letter to Congress. • As farmland prices dropped in 2009, states were able to buy more agricultural conservation easements under the PACE program, Agri-Pulse reports.