Conservative consequences at coal mines
If you’ve been following the news, you’ve no doubt seen recent reports about the frustrating, and so far unsuccessful, search for six trapped miners at the Crandall Canyon Mine in Huntington, Utah. Rescue teams have been drilling where they hope the miners might be, but it’s largely been guesswork.
It’s not a political issue, per se, but the NYT ran an editorial today about Republican policies failed to take important steps on mine safety.
For too long, the Bush administration and the Republican-controlled Congress allowed mine operators to put off making needed investments to ensure their workers’ safety. And last year when a string of coal-mining disasters — that killed 48 miners — forced Congress to enact new safety legislation, it still gave companies far too much time to install communications systems that might have helped find the Utah miners.
Dems have proposed forcing mine operators to adopt, quickly, emergency communications systems that could track and communicate with workers in the event of an accident. Congressional Republicans and the Bush administration have opposed the Democrats’ efforts. It’s another example of what Rick Perlstein has labeled “E. coli conservatism.”
Great. Too cheap to even equip miners with something simple like two-way radios.
Have you heard the mine owner talking to the press? What a sleazeball.
While we are spending gazillion dollars on wars to fight "terrorist" our own country goes to hell.
I wish this guy Bob Murray would be made to get away from that disaster and allow professionals to run the rescue. He's making it all about him and trying so hard to convince us that he's so concerned about the miners. Seems to me he's more worried about covering his ass from legal entanglements.
They want to make sure that the truth does not leave the walls of the mine. http://www.YouPolls.com
Here's a link to Mr. Murray spouting off about how the press is falling prey to the guiles of The United Mineworkers and their propaganda. There are plenty of videos of the guy on YouTube, and in each of them he comes across as...well, you decide. The man is doomed and he knows it. His lawyers can't save him now.
OT, but...
Perfect storm coming! No, not in the Gulf, on Wall Street! Hang on to your hats folks.
anonymous @ 5:
Sorry. Here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0kwjo1iTAI
What does this administration or Republicans in general care about these workers? The workers are not the ones putting million dollar contributions into their re-election war chests or creating sweetheart land deals for them. Those are the mine owners who are not only allowed to get away with hundreds of safely violations, but are appointed by the government to police themselves and their businesses. The workers are the ones who support their families by working in conditions that have greatly deteriorated since the labor unions have been boxed out of these businesses. For the most part, the workers don’t have the opportunity to make money elsewhere--they are trapped in the infamous working poor bind. Trapped by health care costs, rising mortgage rates, rising food costs, and all the problems not being addressed by anyone in government (except perhaps Senator Bernie Sanders and John Edwards).
The workers merely die due to corporate greed. Obviously, the workers are just little people who can be replaced immediately.
Unions now. Public financing of elections now.
Gort @ 6:
Did you check out the Yen compared to every other currency? It's taking off like a duck on methamphetamines. The big guys are dumping all the Yen they borrowed on the cheap for the past 10-15 years.
I just wish Republicans could even consider an issue on its merits (like miner safety) without reflexively consulting their party-issued chart and coming down on the side of the corporation looking to save money on safety gear or avoid taxes or pollute the environment. If every now and then they would make a decision that didn't favor corporations at the expense of citizens, I would be able to believe that they had some shred of morality and decency.
Alas, they are morally bankrupt.
Blastocysts 1....Adult humans 0.....hey it's all about the sacred dollar...it's the repub way
This guy probably didn't consider mine safety issue to be important, since - as I've heard it reported - the miners were all Mexican workers....which would, of course, mean that they don't count (how do you get a sarcasm emoticon with this new system?).
Think of the expense of this rescue effort. (I do hope that it's rescue rather than only recovery.) If the mine owners had put even a fraction of that money into correcting safety problems and violations, the current situation might well not have happened.
Naming a former mine official as head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration is yet another of the Bush administration's fox-guarding-the-henhouse moves, designed to be sure that government doesn't work so that they can justify tearing it down.
Heckofa job.
Blue Buddha @ 9:
Hate to sound like Eeyore, but this will be ugly. Not just today, but for months (years?)!
The credit spigot has dried up basically overnight. And it is hurting the wealthy right now more than the middle-class/poor. (Boo-fucking-hoo, where’s my tissues?)
An amazing event considering Washington has been on it’s knees servicing the rich ever since Reagan had something trickling down his chin in ’81.
The miners were not all mexican, I think 4 of them are, and are they here under legal circumstances ? I don't know. ( the news has not really touched that). I don't think any of the miners count, communication devices would have changed this whole picture. I frankly am sick of all the interviews with the Blowhard coal baron, and he sat there yesterday and basically bullied the guy at the press conference ( reporters asked if it was true that Some workers wanted to be pulled off the search becuase it was not safe). The poor families....listening to Mr.Blowhard go on and on that it was seismic activity....and blaming it as an "act of god"....yeah, the prepugs have alot to do with these workers working in unsafe conditions.
ooops I meant repugs, "repug administration" would be more accurate.
( about the "Noises" I find it odd that we have not heard recordings of these noises)
One of the first things that Bush and the Republican Congress in 2000 was pass legislation reducing mine safety standards.
Murray has been bribing legislatures for reduced safety legislation all along.
Murray understands that murdering miners causes his pockets to bulge with cash.
There's another cold hearted bastard in this world. On CNBC the investment heads were talking about foreclosures going sky high. One guy said, maybe it's time to invest in tents, Coleman tents. Then the whole group had a hell of a good laugh at the expense of people who are losing their homes.
As for Bob Murray, that son of a bitch is setting himself up for some serious Karma. Madam Karma can be a bitch when it comes to situations like this.
In my opinion, anyone who doesn't see these 'repugs', 'neocons', whatever, has been funneling all the money up to the ultra-rich and ultra-powerful for years in many forms such as multitenacled corporations, laws, etc... is a complete idiot.
When it comes to Bob Murray's coal mines, even the canary has flown the coop.
pissed off patricia @ 18:
POP, if you are still out there; Actually, this might get so bad that mortgage companies/banks will be willing to renegotiate with homeowners holding ARM loans a rate lower than originaly contracted, just so they - the banks - won’t have to foreclose on the stressed homeowner. The middleclass Joe might be in a position of strength over the rich bank for once in his miserable life. These mortgage/bank companies are scared they will be holding properties worth ten cents on the dollar.
pissed off patricia @ 18:
Actually I worship a Bitch-Goddess.
Don't think they'll include that in school textbooks though.
This just in:
Bob Murray is hiring Minneapolis Bridge construction to shore up mine shafts.
pissed off patricia @ 18:
I'm surprised that they haven't had a message from headquarters telling them to shed a few crocodile tears for the foreclosees, seeing as their consistent heartlessness is being remarked upon. I noticed Erin Burnett did a little backtrack yesterday to try to make up for her comments about China and how our economy needs their lead-paint toys to function. Well, a couple of the analysts got into a spitting match this morning, so you know the pressure is getting to them. Probably mourning their friends' losses in hedge funds.
As for republicans and safety, didn't they shoot down a proposal from the Dems sometime in the 90's, which was to demand armored doors to cockpits on passenger planes?
As for economy, well, european and asian banks have been buying heavily in the US subprime market a couple of days, I suspect giving US banks some much needed CPR. If it will work in the long term, who knows.
The sweater vested republican funding robber baron didn't give a shit about the miners before they were trapped in his union busting mine
The republican push-back against mine safety legislation in the face of this tragedy as well as their 2000 roll-back of mine safety standards needs to get pub in the media and the Dems need to push it. The right will say it is politicizing a tragedy but is it? Trying to save future minors by recalling the faults and dangers discovered in past mine accidents is not politicizing the situation but learning from the past and pushing for a safer future. Hasn't that been the right's SOP re 9/11 and the desecration of civil liberties.
The fact is far to many people never hear of the absolute and never ending reach-around republican's perform on big corporations. They know about it but gross examples of it, such as this or the Clean Air Act, never really get flogged by the Dems. Flogging it would force the Repubs to answer tough questions like "Why don't you want safer mines?" or "Why did you vote to ease restrictions on corporate polluters and call it the "clean air act"? These are questions with no sensible answer accept - "I wanted to get reelected without you knowing how much of a prick I was".
Why doesn't George Soros give us a new channel?
Sometimes Murray is almost comical in a dark sort of way. He keeps talking about the roof holding up in the chambers they have drilled into and lowered the camera. He's bragging about it, but he fails to mention that the men aren't in those chambers and we have no idea the condition of the roof wherever they are. We aren't as stupid as he hopes we are.
The Dow Jones has opened at 170 down as reported on CNN radio.
What happens when you put a man in charge
who has violated every mining regulation and guideline.
You see those lovely hills
They won't be there for long
They're gonna tear 'em down
And sell them to California
Here come the toxic spills
Miners poking all around
When this place looks like a moonscape
Don't say I didn't warn ya...
Money, money, money...
Money makes the trees come down
It makes mountains into molehills
Big money kicks the wide wide world around.
http://jonimitchell.com/musician/album.cfm?id=28
... and when they get elected on their "no-tax" platforms, we can call them "bridge collapse conservatives."
I prefer Henry Gibson to John.
Flush the John.
You're not even pointing out the OTHER huge point of this thread:
Notice in this NYTimes article that they NEVER SAY, "The Republicans are responsible for voting against mine safety". It' says, "60 votes couldn't be mustered for mine safety." And ALSO not stating, "It passes, but is vetoed by REPUBLICAN George W. Bush because they cound't get 10 measley Republicans for mine safety to override 60 votes."
Why do I notice REPUBLICAN BIAS in the LIBERAL NYTIMES???
The way this NYTimes editorial is written, "CONGRESS" (not the Republicans) stopped the mine safety. Not George W. Bush and the Republicans who got HUGE donations from mine operators!
"In June, Representative George Miller, Democrat from California, and Senator Edward Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, proposed bills to supplement the 2006 mining safety law which would, among other things, require mine operators to quickly adopt existing systems to track and communicate with workers underground in case of an accident — and then upgrade their systems as new technology becomes available.
Until this latest disaster, the chances of mustering the needed 60 votes in the Senate appeared slim. Congress should take to heart the lessons of the Crandall Canyon Mine, and quickly make it law."
I'm surprised they even said "Democrat" Ted Kennedy proposed it!!! They should be like FOX "news", and say, "R-Ted Kennedy was FOR mine safety"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You THINK the NYTimes is "liberal"? WAKE THE FUCK UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
IT'S OWNED BY A CORPORATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What's up with the report that the mine owner Crandell claims an earthquake caused the cave-in? Shouldn't that be an easily confirmed/refuted FACT?
Yesterday, NPR did a story in a "crandell says, but seismologists deny" fashion that left me angry. Can't we verify whether or not an earthquake occurred??!!
Pfft. You think the schmuck that owns this mine is bad, start having a look at Massey Energy. We're talking 168 violations at the Aracoma Mine alone. Massey CEO Don Blankenship called the deaths of his employees at that mine, "statistically insignificant."
Blankenship is a big GOP contributor who buys Congressmen outright, then parks unsafe coal slurries on hillsides above elementary schools. Yeah, he's a prince among men....
Video: Grandfather Tells of Marsh Fork School Kids Made Sick by Coal Mine
Video: More on Mountain "Topping"
decotodd @ 35:
There are seismic sensors placed all over the world, and these pick up tremors thousands of miles away, even if they are too faint for people on top of them to notice them. If there were a quake, it would be all over the news already.
decotodd @ 35:
Actually, that claim was refuted. The cave-in caused the appearance of a quake, it was so forceful.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6846205,00.html
"The cause of the collapse has not been established. Bob Murray, head of Murray Energy Corp. and co-owner of the mine, has insisted it was caused by an earthquake but seismologists say there was no earthquake and that readings on seismometers actually came from the collapse."
Why not drill some holes into a mine before it caves in?
Am I missing something here? Why would you have miners going underground without communication with the surface (telephone lines, cell phones, etc)? Seems like gross negligence on part of the mine management to me.
Monie @ 8:
What did you expect? This fits into the free market capitalism, and small government mantra. Just let the market govern itself in healthcare, infrastructure, worker's safety, environment, justice. The sole purpose of the government to cut taxes, and not to interfere with the business. We all see how great it turns out. Every single f.ing case. People suffer, people die, and this goes on. In the 19th century precisely this triggered Socialism, and it's bastard son, Communism. Right now nobody lifts a finger, because as long as they have a car, a TV, and a place to live in, they think they live in the perfect world. (Talk about propaganda.) Until a crisis strikes. But the society in a whole still remains content, simply because they have things to loose. It's a spectacular scheme of the Big Business to pacify people. They got smarter since the first unions.
You should learn from the French farmers. And start erecting roadblocks before it's too late.
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