"
I'm finding myself short of breath right now, readers!
Related: Mining Miracle in China
Around AmeriKa: MSM Minding the Mines of West Virginia
Yeah, doing a great job, aren't they?
"Ventilation at issue in W.Va. mine blast; US pushed use of less effective system, firm says" by David A. Fahrenthold, Washington Post | April 27, 2010
CHARLESTON, W. Va. —
Ventilation will be a critical issue in the investigation into the explosion. Specialists believe that the blast may have been triggered by a buildup of methane or flammable coal dust inside the mine. Mine ventilation systems are designed to take toxic or explosive materials out and bring fresh air in for miners.
The Massey officials, including chief executive Don Blankenship, said they still do not know what triggered the explosion. They released new data showing that in the minutes before the blast, foremen deep in the mine had reported finding very low or nonexistent levels of methane.
“No hazards were found’’ by the foremen, said Massey director Stanley C. Suboleski, who helped oversee mine safety under the Bush administration. “And methane measurements ranged from zero to nearly zero.’’
Yeah, didn't we JUST GO THROUGH ALL THIS in 2006?!!!
At the news conference, Massey officials detailed their financial help to the families of the 29, including a plan to ensure that widows receive the equivalent of the lost miner’s paycheck until they remarry or die. The company will also provide health benefits for 20 years and a scholarship for dependent children to attend a West Virginia college.
A sure sign of guilt if there ever was one.
Also, company director Bobby Inman, a retired Navy admiral and former director of the National Security Agency, said the company has no immediate plans to fire Blankenship or ask him to step down.
So that's where he went afterward, huh?
“That’s the last thing you’d want to do in the middle of a crisis,’’ Inman said. He also defended the company against allegations that it puts profits ahead of safety, calling that a “big lie’’ originally spread by union officials and a plaintiff lawyer.
Then it is true.
But
That word again.
Massey officials did not offer many details about their contention that Massey had been concerned about repeated safety citations at Upper Big Branch and that federal inspectors may have helped make the mine’s ventilation worse....
In my mind they are BOTH CULPABLE CRIMINALS!
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Need proof?
WASHINGTON — More than 200 former congressional staff members, federal regulators, and retired lawmakers are employed by the mining industry as lobbyists, consultants, or senior executives, including dozens who work for coal companies with the worst safety records in the nation, a Washington Post analysis shows.
The revolving door has also brought industry officials into government as policy aides in Congress or officials of the Mine Safety and Health Administration, which enforces safety standards. The movement between industry and government allows both to benefit from crucial expertise....
Yup, the ONLY ONE WHO DOE$ NOT is the poor $ap forced to work in the mine$!!!!
Industries from coal to automobiles to food processing have long sought to capitalize on the experience of former government officials or to win the appointment of allies to federal agencies, and there is nothing illegal about doing so.
Of course, THIS is what is WRONG with our system!
And how strange to see the newspaper so concerned about legality, huh?
But
That WORD AGAIN!!!!!!
such relationships have come under increased scrutiny after the West Virginia disaster, which killed 29 miners, and Toyota’s recent safety problems....
Why drag Toyota into it?
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Sort of explains THIS, doesn't it?
NEW YORK — The Mine Safety and Health Administration was created almost 35 years ago, after deadly explosions at a Kentucky mine, with a mission to conduct more inspections of the nation’s mines and enforce safety standards more strictly. It was strengthened four years ago, after more disasters.
Great, another government failure.
But
Saw that one coming.
it remains fundamentally weak in several areas, and does not always use the powers it has.
Well, LOOK WHO is STAFFING IT!!!!
The agency can seek to close mines that it deems unsafe and to close repeat offenders, but it rarely does so. The fines it levies are relatively small, and many go uncollected for years. It lacks subpoena power, a basic investigatory tool.
But SEND IN THOSE TAXES, Americans!!!!!
Its investigators are not technically law enforcement officers, like those at other agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency. And its criminal sanctions are weak, the result of compromises over the 1977 Mine Act that created the agency.
An explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine in Montcoal, W. Va., killed 29 miners last Monday — including four whose bodies were discovered late Friday — in the nation’s worst mining disaster in a quarter century. After the disaster, evidence quickly surfaced that the mine had been cited for hundreds of violations over the last year....
It is just the latest example of what former regulators, inspectors, and miners say is an agency that lacks muscle — a testament to the industry’s political clout, and the practical limits of enforcement.
How are the APOLOGETIC EXCUSES coming with you?
An analysis of federal records by The New York Times shows that of the $123.4 million in major fines levied against the industry by the agency since 2005, only 8 percent has been collected — $10.2 million — partly because mine owners began challenging fines more routinely when the agency threatened to step up enforcement of repeat offenders.....
Yup, EVERYTHING ALWAYS ENDS in COURT here in AmeriKa!!!!
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Related: Officials: Computer error affected mine scrutiny
Pffft!
Also see: Choice for mine review criticized
Double pffft!
More: W.Va. governor orders all mines inspected
Obama orders review of mines’ safety records
Horse already out of the barn and we go through this every time there is a mine disaster, but....
And the results?
"US finding safety violations in Massey mines; One wrongful death lawsuit already filed" by Tim Huber and Lawrence Messina, Associated Press | April 17, 2010
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Federal inspectors have found more than 60 serious safety violations at
It is what we call an ACCIDENT(?) WAITING TO HAPPEN!
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And then we have to put up with the SICKENING S*** SWILL from HIS mouth?
"Obama tells mourners US will improve mine safety; In eulogy, he says miners sought American Dream" by Philip Elliott, Associated Press | April 26, 2010
BECKLEY, W.Va. — They lived and they died pursuing the American Dream, working in dangerous conditions underground to help keep the lights on across the country, a somber President Obama said yesterday in a eulogy to the workers who died in the worst mine accident in a generation.
I can't breath anymore!
I can think of a lot better dreams, you disgusting PoS!
The president told the families of the workers killed in the Upper Big Branch mine, about 35 miles from here, that the nation would honor the workers by improving safety in the mines....
After HIS GOVERNMENT LED and ITS NEGLIGENCE led to the EXPLOSION!
I guess he HAS TO GET OUT THERE and SAY THESE CONTEMPTIBLE THINGS, huh?
Investigators have detected high levels of two potentially explosive gases inside the mine, and it could be a month before investigators can get inside to determine what caused the April 5 blast.
Or longer: Around New England: Silent Gas Under the Sheets in Connecticut
Still no word yet -- at least, not from the Boston Globe, New England's largest daily newspaper.
I wonder what cover story the "investigators" are going to come up with.
Federal regulators have identified highly explosive methane gas, coal dust, or a mixture of the two as the likely cause of the blast, but the ignition source is unknown. The explosion will be the subject of a Senate hearing tomorrow, with the nation’s top mine safety official expected to testify....
Oh, Congress is going to have show hearings again. What a deja vu.
Vice President Joe Biden, speaking before Obama, called miners “the spine of this nation’’ and “roughneck angels.’’
“As a community, and as a nation, we would compound tragedy if we let life go on unchanged,’’ he said. “Certainly, no one should have to sacrifice their life for their livelihood.’’
And yet THAT is EXACTLY what is HAPPENING with this administration.
Of course, if he is talking WARS he is singing a completely different song, isn't he?
Obama and Biden both noted that the mining industry is more than a source of jobs in coal country — it’s a source of energy for the entire nation....
Now, all of a sudden, coal isn't dirty and part of the global warming problem, huh?
Obama linked the West Virginia deaths with the challenges Americans face from coast to coast amid a sour economy. “All that hard work. All that hardship. All the time spent underground. It was all for the families. It was all for you,’’ Obama said. “For a car in the driveway. For a roof overhead. For a chance to give their kids opportunities that they would never know, and enjoy retirement with their spouses. It was all in the hopes of something better. So these miners lived — as they died — in pursuit of the American Dream.’’
Now you know what awaits you, illegals.
A row of 29 white crosses lined the main stage. Behind it were photos of the miners, and to the side stood a large wreath with 29 white roses, along with two yellow ones honoring two injured miners.
As Gayle Manchin, wife of West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin, read the miners’ names, each of their families entered and placed a miner’s helmet on a corresponding cross....
And look who spoiled it all:
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Don't disturb the graves, Globe.
"Mourning begins as W.Va. mine search resumes
MONTCOAL, W.Va. – Grieving relatives began burying victims of the Upper Big Branch coal mine disaster Friday as rescue crews ventured back into the blast-damaged shaft for another agonizingly slow, dangerous and probably hopeless search for survivors.
It was their fourth attempt to find the four miners missing since Monday's explosion killed 25 others in the nation's worst underground disaster since at least 1984. During the previous rescue attempts, searchers were forced to withdraw by dangerous gases and the risk of fire or explosion.
"We are praying for a miracle," President Barack Obama said in Washington.
Didn't get it, and is that what government is depending on these days?
Btw, I don't think HE would listen to YOU anyway since YOU are NOT LISTENING to HIM!!
Rescuers acknowledged that was what it would take for the miners to have made it to a refuge chamber stocked with food, water and enough oxygen for several days. On Friday morning, rescuers made their way about 1,000 feet underground and five miles into the mine to examine one of the chambers, but no one was inside and smoke forced them to turn back before they could check a second one that would represent the last hope the four were alive....
You know, working the AmeriKan Dream!
I mean, it is not like you would want to work on Wall Street collecting mine-worker funded bonuses or anything.
Officials had hoped to lower a camera into the mine to see if the chamber had been used, but the hole was drilled slightly off target, and Kevin Stricklin of the federal Mine Health and Safety Administration said they would not have been able to see anything.
They can't do one f***ing thing right, can they?
More than 300 people packed the Mullens Pentecostal Holiness Church for the funeral of Benny Willingham, a 61-year-old miner who was five weeks from retiring when he died.
That is CRIMINAL, sorry!!!!
He was saved 19 years ago this week, said Rev. Gary Pollard, pastor of the Mullens Family Worship Center, where Willingham was a deacon. The two had weekly 45-minute talks — about God, about Christian living, about their families and friends — every Sunday morning for the past five years. Pollard said the last time he saw Willingham, the miner's words were almost prophetic: "If I die tomorrow, I've lived a good life."
Looks like he was a PROPHET -- not a profit -- readers!!
Officials suspect the blast was caused by a buildup of methane gas. In the nation's capital, Obama said he asked federal mine safety officials to give him a report on the disaster next week, and the House and Senate said they would hold hearings. In the days since the explosion, details have emerged about a long list of safety violations at the mine....
Yeah, the government is ALWAYS REACTING when it comes to YOU and YOUR SAFETY, ever notice that, America?
And then the MSM extols how much they are doing to "keep you safe!"
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Also see: West Virginia churchgoers honor 29 dead miners
Federal inspectors wait outside W.Va. mine
Still waiting, readers.
