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29 dead in W.Va. mine explosion

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Trey Beamon, Apr 5, 2010.

  1. Crash

    Crash Active Member

    Re: 25 dead in W.Va. mine explosion

    Here's a story from the New York Times on Blankenship that highlights a big problem with why expanding regulations on mines hasn't worked. The main reason: because the miners don't give two shits. They have pride in companies that work them like mules, use them til they can't work any more, then cast them off for-cause so they don't have to pay the full retirement benefits. These companies have strangleholds on the state governments of Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia. They have strangleholds on the EPA, the Labor Dept., the Justice Dept., governor's offices, state supreme courts, the Corps of Engineers and the Fish and Wildlife Depts. You literally can't touch these people, and a lot of it has to do with the fact that the mining families won't stand up to them. They take pride in being coalminers, so they vote for the people who will protect coal interests without realizing that that's really voting against their own interests. Coal production has risen exponentially in this country in the past 30 years, and yet employment has gone down drastically. As soon as Blankenship et al. can find a way to extract coal without paying anyone, they'll do it. And the coalminers in eastern Kentucky and West Virginia and southwest Virginia will still be fighting, and dying, for them.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/08/us/08blankenship.html?src=twt&twt=nytimes
     
  2. Re: 25 dead in W.Va. mine explosion

    From today's Charleston Daily Mail


     
  3. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

    Re: 25 dead in W.Va. mine explosion

    I used to think it was cool when the state's governors went to the site of these disasters and kept the media updated, but now I realize people like Manchin are really little more than spokesmen for the industry anyway.
     
  4. dixiehack

    dixiehack Well-Known Member

  5. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

    Re: 25 dead in W.Va. mine explosion

    I'd love to see some digging in on the industry, to find out just how much the bottom line factors in on safety concerns, insurance, etc. You've got to think there is a piece of paper somewhere that shows that it is cheaper to lose miners in an accident like this than to comply with all of the regulations.
     
  6. fishhack2009

    fishhack2009 Active Member

    Re: 25 dead in W.Va. mine explosion

    Jesus H. Christ.

    These folks are going to be awfully surprised when they kick the bucket and the elevator goes down instead of up.
     
  7. linotype

    linotype Well-Known Member

    Re: 25 dead in W.Va. mine explosion

    After reading the latest AP story, I can't help but compare Blankenship to those little league parents from the Journalism board: "You only cover us when our mine blows up!"

    After all, in Donnie B world, only 25 of the 61 miners died. That's a 59 percent not-dead-so-far rate. Pretty good, says Donnie. Means the mine was in "pretty good shape." (His words, not mine. I'd hate to see what a mine in BAD shape must be like.)

    Appalling.

    Massey's chief executive officer, Don Blankenship, continued to defend his company's record and disputed accusations from miners that he puts coal profits ahead of safety.

    "To some extent the fact that there were more survivors than those that are lost suggests that the mine was in pretty good shape relative to what mines would have been in the past and hopefully by today's standards," he told The Associated Press on Thursday.


    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100409/ap_on_bi_ge/us_mine_explosion
     
  8. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

    Re: 25 dead in W.Va. mine explosion

    The economy of West Virginia relies on two things these days.
    1. The coal mining industry
    2. Media coverage of coal mining disasters.
     
  9. Re: 25 dead in W.Va. mine explosion

    Notice they stayed in Charleston - and never got within 30 miles of the mines.
     
  10. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    Re: 25 dead in W.Va. mine explosion

    Of course.

    Because if they did, they'd be dropped into those mines, and sealed up.

    (As a side note, Phelps and his ilk came to my area a few years back, and whined when several restaurants announced that they would refuse to serve him).
     
  11. NoOneLikesUs

    NoOneLikesUs Active Member

    Re: 25 dead in W.Va. mine explosion

    Wow. He's begging to be killed.
     
  12. Trey Beamon

    Trey Beamon Active Member

    Re: 25 dead in W.Va. mine explosion

    The remaining four miners were found dead. Fuck.

    http://www.wvgazette.com/News/201004090857
     
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