This poll has been up since at least yesterday on Bob McDonnell’s website. They don’t list how many votes have been cast, which is interesting in and of itself. However many votes they’ve got, the bottom line is that they’re getting crushed in their own poll. I realize it’s not scientific, but still…enjoy! 🙂
Thanks to Tom Whipple for the Wednesday “Clips.”
1. MCDONNELL’S CONFEDERATE HISTORY MONTH PROCLAMATION IRKS CIVIL RIGHTS LEADERS
3. VA. BRINGS BACK CONFEDERATE MONTH AFTER 8 YEARS
6. THE VIRGINIA BLACK CAUCUS IS NOT AMUSED….
8. MCDONNELL WITHDRAWS FROM WIND ENERGY COALITION
11. VIRGINIA DEMOCRATS PRESS CUCCINELLI ON MONEY, STAFF SPENT ON HEALTH CARE LAWSUIT…
13. ENVIRONMENTAL GROUP DELIVERS BIG ‘BILL’ TO CUCCINELLI
16. VIRGINIA REVISES TROUBLESOME NORTHROP CONTRACT
19. ALLEN RALLIES GOP FAITHFUL
20. SUSPECT IN CANTOR THREAT NOT COMPETENT
32. GOV. MCDONNELL’S AIRBRUSHING OF VIRGINIA HISTORY
40. MCDONNELL BLASTS STUDENT LOAN REFORM
48. LOUDOUN COUNTY RAISES PROPERTY TAXES, LOWERS SCHOOL FUNDING
This morning’s Washington Post editorial page writes about Bob McDonnell’s “Confederate History Month” proclamation:
It’s fine that Mr. McDonnell decided to proclaim April as Confederate History Month; the Confederacy is an important chapter of history that merits study and draws tourists to Virginia. But any serious statement on the Confederacy and the Civil War would at least recognize the obvious fact — that slavery was the major cause of the war, and that the Confederacy fought largely in defense of what it called “property,” which meant the right to own slaves. Instead, Mr. McDonnell’s proclamation chose to omit this, declaring instead that Virginians fought “for their homes and communities and Commonwealth.” The words “slavery” and “slaves” do not appear.
Even more incendiary is the proclamation’s directive that “all Virginians” must appreciate the state’s “shared” history and the Confederacy’s sacrifices. Surely he isn’t including the 500,000 Virginia slaves who constituted more than a quarter of the state’s Civil War-era population, who cheered the Union and ran away to it when they could.
The question is, why would Bob McDonnell, or any governor, do this in the Virginia of 2010? In McDonnell’s case, as the Washington Post points out, he has spoken “movingly of slavery’s evils” and “paid eloquent homage to former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, the grandson of slaves” in his inaugural address. So, again, why would he do something so “incendiary” and divisive, as opposed to issuing a proclamation aimed more at uniting all Virginians? The Post offers two possible explanations:
1) “Charitably, we might suspect sloppy staff work”
2) “[L]ess charitably, we’d guess he is pandering to the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a group that lionizes the Confederacy and pressed for the proclamation.”
My guess is the latter, but I can’t get in McDonnell’s head, and I don’t want to try (****shudddddder****). Whatever the reason for McDonnell’s “Confederate History Month” proclamation, and specifically the wording he’s used, it’s troubling and – once again, for the nth time in 3 months – embarrassing to Virginia. What’s even more troubling is that this latest McDonnell administration action comes in the aftermath of the brouhaha they caused over combating – or not combating – discrimination against gays and lesbians. If you recall, we had no “Executive Order” from McDonnell, as we got from Governors Warner and Kaine, on this issue. Instead, we got an essentially toothless “Executive Directive” on the matter. That “Executive Directive” came in response to Attorney General Cuccinelli’s letter to Virginia’s public colleges and universities urging them NOT to protect GLBT students and faculty from discrimination.
Is this becoming the “minority insensitivity administration” or what? At this point, in the aftermath of McDonnell’s omission of any mention – let alone serious discussion – of slavery in his “Confederate History Month” proclamation, it sure is starting to look that way.
UPDATE: This is even worse.
McDonnell said he did not include a reference to slavery because “there were any number of aspects to that conflict between the states. Obviously, it involved slavery. It involved other issues. But I focused on the ones I thought were most significant for Virginia.”
WTF?!? Slavery wasn’t one of the “most significant” parts of Virginia history? My god, what did they teach this guy at Pat Robertson’s law school?
In response – and rightly so! – “The proclamation was condemned by the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus and the NAACP. Former governor L. Douglas Wilder called it “mind-boggling to say the least” that McDonnell did not reference slavery or Virginia’s struggle with civil rights in his proclamation.” I agree strongly with the Legislative Black Caucus and Doug Wilder; McDonnell’s airbrushing of slavery and the civil rights struggle is completely outrageous, shameful, and unacceptable.
UPDATE #2: A couple of quotes on history that I think are relevant.
*”Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana
*”A people without history is like wind on the buffalo grass.” – Sioux proverb
UPDATE #3: NLS reminds us that, back in 2002, then-Delegate Bob McDonnell pushed for the House of Delegates to recite a pledge which came from the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Amazing.
UPDATE #4: Sen. Donald McEachin speaks out.
UPDATE #5: I was just talking about this with a friend; we agreed that if Bob McDonnell’s goal here was to attract tourists to Virginia, he should have been as inclusive as possible – Civil War and African American Heritage Month, perhaps? Instead, he decided to be as divisive and narrow as he possibly could. That’s our governor for you, no surprise to those of us who have been following him for years now, but still pathetic.
video cross-posted from Sum of Change and Blue Commonwealth
Today we were joined by Jim Lindsay of the Virginia Organizing Project. This is part of a series of interviews we have done and continue to do with grassroots activists who devoted time, money, and energy to passing health care reform.
Mr Lindsay is a member of the VOP’s Health Care Reform Committee. We spoke about this recent fight for health care reform and what lessons grassroots activists can take away.
As I said earlier, we continue to reach out to grassroots activists to respond to the recent passage of health care reform. If you would like to suggest someone for us to interview, please contact us.
You can see plenty of our coverage of the Virginia Organizing Project’s efforts on health care reform at this link. You should also check out our last grassroots response from Dr. Margaret Flowers of Physicians for a National Health Program.
What ever happened to moderate Republicans? That was the title of an American Prospect article in 2007. There certainly are none left in Congress. Lately, however, radical conservative GOPhers have really found their stride doing what they do best, obstruction and destruction. They’ve outdone their former rancid rants over any Democratic administration in the past fifty years. They will undo, unravel, destroy, any Democrat by any means necessary. And they will especially do so when the Democrat is the president. You see, the unitary executive was only for Republicans. When Dems are in office, it’s take-down time. When Repugs serve (serve being a loose term because they think voters serve them and not the other way around), watch out. Here’s just a small sampler of how bad it has become. I’ll start with obstructions and dismantling of government as we know it. Then I’ll list some of their more radical efforts:
• John Kyl has vowed to filibuster any nomination to the US Supreme Court (he did this, not upon hearing an specific choice, but rather almost as soon as Obama was elected).
• John McCain has vowed to do nothing and cooperate zero with anything the administration does. Imagine, a former presidential contender (and former “maverick–having falsely claimed that as his meme, he now denies he ever was one) now acting as if there is no legitimate purpose to the presidency–or the US senate.
• The same man who “counseled” John Ensign is holding the unemployed and flood victims hostage.
There’s more below the fold…
•John Kasich got rich on Wall Street and now wants to own the Ohio governor’s mansion.
• The Surge of the corporate candidates: Meg Whitman, Carly Fiorina, or Mitt Romney (and more), act as if corporations buying some office holders with “soft money” isn’t enough.
• The US Supreme Court annihilated one-person-one vote and pretends it isn’t activist. Then the take down of centuries of precedent continues.
• Just today, the US Federal Appeals Court in Washington, DC declared Net Neutrality null and void here.
• Not long ago the GOPhers blocked every single hearing in the Senate. Only Jim Webb stood up to them and carried on without them.
And the above is just the beginning…
• The higher echelons of the GOP have built their entire colossal infrastructure funded by numerous right-wing nuts, whom even ultra-conservative Barry Goldwater thought too far gone.
• Perennial presidential hopeful ?) Newt Gingrich, architect of right wing hypocrisy and the Contract on most US citizens (er America), still claims feigned credibility.
• Dick Cheney’s out of his cave and acting as resident verbal hit squad as he whips up contempt and challenges the patriotism of Democrats and the president.
• Lynn Cheney, Phyllis Schlafly and David Horowitz create professoriate enemies’ lists. As Sarah Robinson notes here, the latter offered not-subtle hints that professors are supposedly evil enemies of America and should be targeted. And on cue, those they try to incite dutifully threaten and intimidate professors around this nation.
• The Manipulative Machiavellian, Dick Armey, through Freedom Works, serves in his thinly-disguised role as astroturf spawner of Tea Party chapters. (Freedom has nothing to do with it, but coddling big corporations has everything.) Along the way, there’s a little sedition sprinkled in, but Dick Armey isn’t responsible for what all those people say or do. Wink,wink.
• Americans for Prosperity doesn’t just support Tea Parties. It also makes sure Exxon pays no taxes. As Lowell notes in an article today, Exxon paid zero taxes in 2009. Nicely done, AFP. AFP is also working hard to strip you of your pensions and Social Security –all for the further enrichment corporate America. Along the way it props up seditious hate-mongering Tea Partiers. Not all Tea Partiers are seditious or hatemongers, of course, but too many of them are.
• But worse, the GOP leadership in Congress, the Edgy Triumvirate of McConnell, Cantor and the Man-with-the-Tan Boehner have not only egged on extremist talk among Tea Partiers, they have appeared at Tea Party events, as they did Nov 9th.
• We’ve got cynical and crafty radio hosts using the very same rhetorical devices used in Nazi Germany ironically calling Democrats “Nazis” (or socialists or communists–they don’t use any of the terms correctly). One of these hosts enacted on the air the poisoning of the Speaker of the House. They spew their venom and urge revolt.
• Sarah Palin called upon supporter to “reload” and then urged them to her FB page where bulls-eye targets were placed on the states where congresspersons she is hostile to reside.
• Right-wing blogger, and now CNN talking head, Erik Erickson, said he’d meet any census worker with a gun.
• As a response to health care reform and other matters she doesn’t like, Michelle Bachmann urged supporters to arm themselves .
• Threats against our president have risen sharply.
• A person threatening the life of Sen Patty Murray was arrested today, April 6th.
• A former candidate for VP’s husband was once in a secessionist group.
• A standing governor urges secession.
• They quite literally make up the most extreme charges against Democrats (killing grandma, death panels, baby killer, communist, socialist, Nazis, etc), and have no qualms about the damage the lies do or whom they incite.
• Things are so bad that even Dan Quayle is calling for GOPhers to dial it back from the Tea Party extremists.
There is a far better list of official GOP and GOP talking head outrages, which most of you have read here. But dialing it back is not the plan.
As Robert Parry shows, the plan, hatched back in the 1960s is to de-legitimize every Democratic president, no matter that they all won real vote counts and without “plumbers” operations. Ironically, their most recent GOP version of a US president “won” only the electoral vote, in a contested state, governed by his brother, and handed to him by the Court headed by his Daddy’s appointee. Yet here we are with their pretense before all the world that president Obama, with a hefty win under his belt, “isn’t legitimate.” Remember, in their script, no Democrat ever is. It is not that there isn’t racism underlying the Tea Parties, but there is much more as well. Repugs were destined to control everything, so sayeth the Lord. “All else is pretense,” they think. And so when things are so bad that numerous Dems have been threatened and intimidated, the GOP did not immediately try to dial it back, they instead stepped it up, blaming the victims for deserving their fate. It’s the Democrats’ “fault,” for even writing to their followers about what was happening. But a man flying a plain into IRS offices, they purported, was “just” angry at gubment. They would not call that act what it was, domestic terrorism. Do they actually hear themselves?
Where all this has led is illustrated by the huge expansion of private, armed militia groups threatening violence against these United States. It has led to plots such as the one uncovered last week. It leads to threats by those who merely disagree against progressives and liberals who have been unjustifiably bullied for merely holding different views. The Republican House Minority Leader Boehner himself gave voice to the notion that a fellow congressman might find it unsafe to return to his district after voting “yes” on the health insurance reform bill, for God’s sake. This leads to bullies flaunting their guns in public spaces, even Starbucks. (I support the right to individual gun ownership. But purposeful intimidation is a nasty and dangerous path.) And it leads to changing this country for the worse, forever. This is the legacy of today’s GOP leadership. And it is by design. So, what to do with such calculated manipulations?
I share the concern raised by two additional authors here and here. I urge you, please read these two articles. The first article analyzes the decades-old effort to de-legitimize all Democratic presidents. The second, examines the growing seditious component to the efforts by a growing strata in the extreme conservative “movement.”
The spectre of sedition has been seeded by right-wing talk shows (including those of Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh) and increasingly has been condoned by the Boehners, Cantors, McConnells, McCains, Bachmans, Palins, Steele’s and many others. It is long past time for those GOP cowards, who are apparently owned by FAUX News’s and talk radio’s most rabid talkers, to find some spine and stand up to the madness. In the latter article, Sarah Robinson says,
“They are either Americans committed to working in good faith within the democratic process to create a common future, or else they are seditionists in intention or fact–and thus enemies fo the state, plain and simple.
What this nation needs most is for some Republican patriots to emerge to rebuild a constructive, moderate (and sane) Republican Party once again. There was a time when Republicans like George Romney (so much superior to Sonny-Boy-Mitt), Charles Percy, Edward Brooks, John Lindsay, John Danforth, Gerald Ford, Nelson Rockefeller and numerous other moderates were credible Republican candidates at various levels. Even Olympia Snow and Susan Collins once stood for something other than capitulation to this nation’s extremist fringe. The truth is that even conservative Ronald Reagan was “liberal” contrasted to today’s pervasive wing nuts. You cannot build “bipartisanship” with such a momentous firestorm of obstruction, destruction, and toying with sedition. The President should not try. He should stop the bragging about adding “Republican ideas” to legislation when he’ll never get their support, not a single vote. Nor should he, or we, cow-tow by just shrugging and moving further to the right. (We’ve done far too much of that already.) That will not satisfy, but only reinforce and enable the destructive force that is today’s official GOP.
As Robinson cautions, we must stop pretending this isn’t happening. We cannot ignore it and hope it goes away. Along with the GOP, we have allowed a small faction of extremists to take over their party and gain far too much power with far too little push back in words or deeds by us. They rose to power by tirelessly building infrastructure, local candidates, local judgeships, fake “news” entities, fake “think tanks” and PACS. They rose on the shoulders of Joseph McCarthy and use his devices and weapons even now. We hung our heads when they hurled vile invective at anyone or anything “liberal.” They have vilified liberal principles, worthy principles which more Americans than not agree with. We even reflexively relabeled ourselves as “progressive,” as if the terms “liberal” and “progressive” are interchangeable labels (they are not)that would help. Now they do the same thing to anything “progressive. Why should we be surprised? It’s a fools bargain to let them define us, to embrace their frame, and to move the midpoint of American life ever “rightward.” Pretending we are in a post-partisan world, denies reality. Every passive acquiescence colludes. Every cave-in emboldens. Every day we are silent, we are part of the problem.
PS: Update: Tom Coburn has apparently taken one verbal step back by telling attendees at a town hall that Nancy Pelosi is a nice person.
As always, Bob McDonnell proves he is a uniter not a divider.
Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) has quietly declared April 2010 Confederate History Month, bringing back a designation in Virginia that his two Democratic predecessors — Mark Warner and Tim Kaine — refused to do.
Sen. A. Donald McEachin (D-Richmond) said he was “stunned” to learn of McDonnell’s decision and even more stunned that the proclamation did not include any reference to slavery. “It’s offensive,” he said.
I guess Bob McDonnell’s decided if he can’t return Virginia to the 1950s, he’ll take us back to the 1860s. At least, back to the Confederate part of the 1860s, not to the messy Union or slavery parts. Heh.
UPDATE: The comments on the Washington Post are absolutely scathing, and there appear to be hundreds of ’em. This decision appears to have really hit a nerve, but definitely not in the way McDonnell intended. No wonder why he made this declaration “quietly.”
Nice job by the Democratic Party of Virginia on this one. Go git’m, guys!
Virginia Democrats File Additional FOIA, After Cuccinelli Refuses to Answer Taxpayer Questions
DPVA: ‘Virginia’s Attorney General appears to have gone rogue’
RICHMOND – Virginia Democrats filed a second Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli on Tuesday, after his initial response avoided answering any questions on the resources expended on a federal health care lawsuit.
Democratic Party of Virginia Executive Director David Mills asked Tuesday for Cuccinelli to come clean with Virginia taxpayers about how much taxpayer-funded staff time was going into Virginia v. Sebelius, Cuccinelli’s health care lawsuit against the federal government. The DPVA’s second FOIA included requests for:
*The schedules of Ken Cuccinelli, Solicitor General Duncan Getchell and Deputy Attorney General Wesley Russell for the month of March;
*a log of communication between Cuccinelli and national Republican political organizations about the lawsuit;
*a log of communication between Cuccinelli and 13 other state attorneys general who filed suit;
*communication between Cuccinelli and Governor Bob McDonnell regarding the health care legislation;
a list of current Office of Attorney General staff and their salaries.The full FOIA filed Tuesday is below. In an initial FOIA response issued last week, Cuccinelli’s office had refused to give any information about the resources used on lawsuit preparation. That response is available here: http://www.vademocrats.org/pag…
Mills released the following statement Tuesday on the DPVA’s second FOIA:
“Virginia’s Attorney General appears to have gone rogue. Ken Cuccinelli refuses to provide any information to Virginia taxpayers about how much taxpayer-funded attorney time and office resources he’s wasting on a frivolous health care lawsuit against the federal government. In an attempt to find these answers, we have filed another FOIA request with the Office of the Attorney General.
“Based on his response to our initial FOIA request, Ken Cuccinelli has clearly chosen the path of hiding information rather than openness. Furthermore, we have serious questions about his use of the working paper exemption to cover up political communication with parties outside of Virginia.
“We will continue to respectfully ask the Attorney General to be accountable to the taxpayers who pay his salary. While Mr. Cuccinelli has been focused on scoring political points, he has shown little interest in openness with Virginia taxpayers. He has tried to obfuscate at every turn, while thousands of Virginians demand answers.
“Attorney General Cuccinelli has personally said that he believes this lawsuit is about ‘defending the Constitution of the United States and the Commonwealth of Virginia.’ [RTD, 3/27]. And yet he also claims that this purported all-important battle for the integrity of the Constitution is only going to cost the Commonwealth $350.
“Based on his office’s statements and response to our initial FOIA request, it seems Ken Cuccinelli wants Virginians to believe that attorneys in his office have devoted no staff time, held no meetings, and diverted no resources of any kind despite the priority he claims to have placed on this lawsuit. Ken Cuccinelli can’t have it both ways: You can’t claim something is a priority in your office and try to pretend it comes cheap.
“We will continue asking the Attorney General for answers through the formal FOIA process. But we ask that Mr. Cuccinelli choose the simpler route: stop ducking answers and come clean with Virginia taxpayers about exactly what resources he is using on this lawsuit.”
As news focuses on the mine tragedy in West Virginia, I wonder if Tazewell County is simply a tragedy waiting to happen. Last October, Massey’s operation in Tazewell County (Knox Creek Coal Corp.) was one of ten that were cited by Federal safety regulators as the worst in the nation. The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration gave the company 90 days to take corrective action.
In December, the Mine Safety and Health Administration filed suit to force corrective action, charging that the company was not taking proper precautions to protect miners from roof falls, a “significant and substantial” violation.
Since Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli evidently doesn’t believe in corporations like Massey having any regulation – note his fatuous “lawsuit” against EPA regulation of greenhouse gases like CO2 – I don’t expect to see him bother to attempt state-level action to pressure Knox Creek to comply.
Meanwhile, news reports get worse and worse from the Massey mining disaster at the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia. Some of the grieving relatives of the 25 miners confirmed killed in the mining disaster are angry because they found out their loved ones were among the dead from government officials or a company Web site, not from Massey Energy representatives.
One deceased miner’s daughter said that the family didn’t even know where her father’s body was taken. Massey has not contacted them in any way.
“They’re supposed to be a big company,” said Michelle McKinney, whose father, 62-year-old Benny R. Willingham, died in the blast. She found out from a local official at a school near the mine. Willingham, who had mined for 30 years and spent the last 17 with Massey, was just five weeks from retiring. He had made plans to take his wife on a cruise.
That mine, located about 30 miles south of Charleston WV, has a history of safety violations. It had 57 infractions last month, several for not properly ventilating highly combustible methane. In the past year, federal inspectors have fined the company more than $382,000 for repeated serious violations involving its ventilation plan and equipment at Upper Big Branch. Massey has stonewalled paying the fines.
This tragedy is just the latest deadly disaster involving CEO Don Blankenship’s company, including one in 2006 that resulted in the largest financial settlement in the history of the industry.
In 2006, two miners died in a fire at Aracoma Mine after Blankenship personally waived company policy and told mine managers to ignore rules and “run coal.” Aracoma later admitted in a plea agreement that two permanent ventilation controls had been removed in 2005 and not replaced.
It appears that one way this company attempts to do exactly what it wants, without regard to regulation, is to try to buy off politicians with campaign contributions. CEO Don Blankenship has long been a donor to politicians that he thinks will help his company avoid taking the actions it should.
Massey and Don Blankenship are a fixture in West Virginia politics, doling out thousands of dollars to candidates he favors – almost all of them Republicans. Perhaps Blankenship’s most blatant attempt to purchase his very own candidate was In 2004 when he spent millions on ads attacking an incumbent West Virginia Supreme Court justice. Partly due to Blankenship’s money, challenger Brent Benjamin won the election.
At that time, Massey had a $70 million case before the state Supreme Court. Benjamin made a controversial decision not to recuse himself because of Blankenship’s support. Another member of the court hearing the case was Chief Justice Elliott “Spike” Maynard, who only recused himself after photographs surfaced showing that he vacationed with Blankenship in Monte Carlo.
Maynard is running this year for Congress in West Virginia’s 3rd district, which is now represented by Democrat Nick Rahall. I’m sure Blankenship and Massey will take care of their “friend” Spike, who has asked Sarah Palin to come and campaign for him.
Blankenship and Massey don’t just hand out money in West Virginia, though. After all, they also have extensive interests in Virginia. Indeed, the corporation has its headquarters in Richmond.
So, last November, Massey donated $40,000 to the campaign of Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell. Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling got $11,000 and Ken Cuccinelli got $10,000. The corporation didn’t even bother offering a pittance to the Deeds campaign.
Since 1997, Virginia Republicans have received $441,463 from Massey. (Democrats got all of $8,250.)
I’m sure that Massey simply loves the absurd lawsuit that Ken Cuccinelli has filed in a vain attempt to have greenhouse gases like CO2 removed from EPA regulation. So, whatever office Cuccinelli wants to run for after state attorney general is sure to draw big bucks from polluters and safety regulation scofflaws like Massey.
From Operation FREE, a new poll of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans “finds that 73 percent of them support Clean Energy Climate Change legislation in Congress, 79 percent believe ending our dependence on foreign oil is important to national security, and 67 percent support the argument that such legislation will help their own economic prospects.” As VoteVets president and Iraq War veteran Jon Soltz says:
This poll confirms what we always knew was true – veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan know, first-hand, the destructive effect our dependence on oil has on our national security, and on the battlefield. They are well aware of arguments made in favor and against bi partisan clean energy and climate change legislation, and firmly fall into the group of Americans supportive of passing that comprehensive legislation. Veterans of the wars we’re fighting want legislation passed now.
If you agree with Jon Soltz and the vast majority of Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans, please click here, “sign your name next to theirs and stand strong with the men and women who have put their lives on the line for our security.” Thanks.
No, really. That’s what Virginia conservative bloggers are actually saying today. Watching them try to deflect attention away from the West Virginia mine explosion tragedy’s cause is like watching the wedding scene from Monty Python & the Holy Grail. Let’s not bicker & argue about who killed who!
Why should we rush to judgment that there could’ve been wrongdoing involved? Just because the mine that blew up was cited for safety violations for this exact problem just last month?
A huge underground explosion blamed on methane gas killed 25 coal miners in the worst U.S. mining disaster in more than two decades. […]
The mine, about 30 miles south of Charleston, has a significant history of safety violations, including 57 infractions just last month for (among other things) not properly ventilating the highly combustible methane.
And because that same mine has had over 3,000 safety violations & over $2.2 million in fines? And because Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship has explicitly told his underground mine superintendents that production trumps safety?
Coal mining is a dirty, deadly business. To pretend otherwise is to approach “Heckuva Job Brownie” territory.
