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Dead Constitution See other Dead Constitution Articles Title: UPDATED Utah Mine Owner Used Repub Political Clout To Get Rid Of MHSA UPDATED Utah Mine Owner Used Repub Political Clout To Get Rid Of MHSA by DJShay [Subscribe] It's been more than a week since the cave in at the Utah mine and still no sign of the 6 workers that are trapped. While the story in the MSM continues to be the slim hope of rescuing the workers, new stories are coming to light concerning how the mine owner Bob Murray used his political connections to threaten Mine Safety and Health Adminitration with their jobs for reporting safety violations. This is from a report filed by a reporter for West Virginia Public Radio: Later, a belt repairman testified that Robert Murray pressured miners not to shut down the belt, "unless there’s a man it," and that he would fire them on the spot. A judge ruled the company was not negligent. But problems at the mine continued. Eventually, MSHA ordered the mine to shut down after repeated violations. Murray had enough. He was upset at MSHA’s action, and met with Tim Thompson, then the head of MSHA’s District 3 office that covers a portion of Ohio and northern West Virginia. Back in 2003, Jeff Young of West Virginia Public Broadcasting obtained the notes from the meeting: Jeff Young 2003 report: Those notes show Murray repeatedly threatening to have MSHA employees fired. ‘I will have your jobs. They are gone. The clock is ticking," Murray said at various points. And he stressed his political influence with the agency, saying, "I talked to Laresky (former MSHA director) personally," and again, quoting, "Mitch McConnell calls me one of the five finest men in America, and last I checked he was sleeping with your boss.’ Sen. McConnell of KY is married to Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, who oversees MSHA. And it doesn't stop there. Murray even bragged about getting 2 inspectors demoted: Jeff Young 2003 report: The notes show Murray warned that an inspector in that district would "be riding a desk somewhere, like that guy in Pennsylvania," and again quoting, "If Thompson doesn’t get his ass in gear, I’ll put him in my sites, too." Murray's other mines have racked thousands of violations and millions of dollars in fines. From The Salt Lake Tribune : But his record at one Illinois mine in particular might cause some lost sleep. Murray's Galatia mine in southern Illinois racked up at least 2,787 violations and more than $2.4 million in proposed fines from the Mine Safety and Health Administration over a two-year span, according to government records. That includes more than $1.4 million in proposed fines already this year. (Murray routinely challenges government fines and many are now on appeal. He has paid $588,000 and is delinquent on $116,000.) "That would really raise a red flag to me if I was an inspector going to those mines," said Bruce Dial, a former federal mine safety officer. Murray has also donated thousands of dollars to the Republican Party. And Mitch McConnel has received $176,800 from mining interests since since 2001 This story keeps getting seedier and seedier. I understand the media wanting to keep the focus on the miners until there has been some kind of closure to the incident, but I hope these facts will come to light in the weeks and months ahead. **UPDATE** Again from the Salt Lake Tribune Hat Tip to inclusiveheart in the comments: "It's dangerous. Damn dangerous I would say," Robert Ferriter, now director of the mine safety program at the Colorado School of Mines and a 27-year veteran of the Mine Safety and Health Administration. "What is MSHA doing in all this? They're the ones who are supposed to catch this sort of thing." Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: aristeides (#0)
Only a third of US coal production comes from underground mining. Two-thirds comes from strip-mining.
The Director of MSHA, Richard Stickler, turns out to be a former coal company executive that Bush couldn't get confirmed by the Republican Senate, so he had to give him a recess appointment.
To reason, indeed, he was not in the habit of attending. His mode of arguing, if it is to be so called, was one not uncommon among dull and stubborn persons, who are accustomed to be surrounded by their inferiors. He asserted a proposition; and, as often as wiser people ventured respectfully to show that it was erroneous, he asserted it again, in exactly the same words, and conceived that, by doing so, he at once disposed of all objections. - Macaulay, "History of England," Vol. 1, Chapter 6, on James II.
Bush leaves a wake of destruction in his path.
Heck of a job there, Dick.
To reason, indeed, he was not in the habit of attending. His mode of arguing, if it is to be so called, was one not uncommon among dull and stubborn persons, who are accustomed to be surrounded by their inferiors. He asserted a proposition; and, as often as wiser people ventured respectfully to show that it was erroneous, he asserted it again, in exactly the same words, and conceived that, by doing so, he at once disposed of all objections. - Macaulay, "History of England," Vol. 1, Chapter 6, on James II.
Back in the early 1900s, mining deaths were over 2,000 a year. The head of the IWW, Big Bill Haywood, was a miner.
"It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brush fires of freedom in the minds of men." -- Samuel Adams (1722-1803)‡
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