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'We are all brothers and sisters in the coalfields at times like this'

by: Carnacki

Tue Apr 06, 2010 at 09:40:38 AM EDT


Already before we know the fate of the missing miners, before the bodies have been prepared for burial, there are people on the right trying to figure out a way to score political points off this disaster that has the rest of our state united in mourning.

With fingers trembling in anger I write these words: Have you no decency? Have you no sense of dignity and grace, of decorum and propriety?

I will let UMWA President Cecil Roberts speak for me:

"The hearts and prayers of all UMWA members are with the families of those lost today at Performance Coal Company's Upper Big Branch mine. We are also praying for the safe rescue of those still missing, and for the safety of the courageous mine rescue team members. They are putting their lives on the line, entering a highly dangerous mine to bring any survivors to safety.

"As a mine operated by a subsidiary of Massey Energy, the Upper Big Branch mine is a nonunion mine. Nevertheless, I have dispatched highly trained and skilled UMWA personnel to the immediate vicinity of the mine, and they stand ready to offer any assistance they can to the families and the rescuers at this terrible and anxious time. We are all brothers and sisters in the coalfields at times like this.

Clem and others will dismantle the fallacious arguments put forward by those trying to rewrite history with the blood of the dead miners.

This is not that time. This is a time to stand in prayer, in unity, in mourning with all our brothers and sisters in the coalfields.

Update

President Obama on the offers his condolences:

Before I begin, I want to send my deepest condolences, our thoughts and prayers to the families and the friends of the workers who lost their lives after an explosion took place in a West Virginia mine yesterday.  At this moment, there are still people missing.  There are rescue teams that are searching tirelessly and courageously to find them.

I spoke with Governor Manchin of West Virginia last night and told him that the federal government stands ready to offer whatever assistance is needed in this rescue effort.  So I would ask the faithful who've gathered here this morning to pray for the safe return of the missing, the men and women who put their lives on the line to save them, and the souls of those who have been lost in this tragic accident.  May they rest in peace, and may their families find comfort in the hard days ahead.
Carnacki :: 'We are all brothers and sisters in the coalfields at times like this'
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'We are all brothers and sisters in the coalfields at times like this' | 20 comments
West Virginia Black (4.00 / 3)
I asked Clem to change the banner at top to black for mourning.


When a man embarks upon a crime, he is morally guilty of any other crime which may spring from it. Sherlock Holmes.
Pot calling the kettle black (0.00 / 0)
It's a sad day in West Virginia, but what was it Rahm Emanuel said a while back? "Never let a good crisis go to waste". The Democratic party is like the pot calling the kettle black.
Really? (4.00 / 3)
Expressions of sympathy and support from the president and the governor, people pointing out the hundreds of violations by the mining company...that is stating the obvious.

But claiming this would not happen if mountaintop mining was expanded as some on the right have done instead of pointing out the obvious that it would not happen if the safety of people was put ahead of profits is an egregious attempt to push a political agenda.


When a man embarks upon a crime, he is morally guilty of any other crime which may spring from it. Sherlock Holmes.

[ Parent ]
WV run by Dems. (0.00 / 0)
Regardless of which side of the fence the politician is on, they tend to look out for their own best interests in their political career. West Virginia has been run by Democrats since anyone can remember and just look at the fiscal shape of this state in comparison to more Rebublican states like Texas or Tennessee. Just look at what kind of shape NY or California is in right now and take a guess what party is in control there.
That's it? (4.00 / 1)
That's what you bring to this post about deceased miners?


When a man embarks upon a crime, he is morally guilty of any other crime which may spring from it. Sherlock Holmes.
[ Parent ]
wvhillbilly1974 - welcome to west virginia blue (4.00 / 1)
I have no clue what your comment has to do with this thread, but I'll try to be welcoming enough and discus it with you.

Now, I hope I don't sound too rude, but I have can't make heads or tails of the point are trying to make. I can't tell which party you are saying is better at running state governments.

I don't know enough about TX or TN to speak about them, but I have followed a little bit about NY and CA.

The GOP is more in control in both NY and California than they are in WV.

California has a GOP governor. Their laws essentially  require a super-majority to pass a budget--the Republicans in Sacramento have far more sway than any GOP members in Charleston.

The upper chamber of the New York State legislature is just about evenly split between Democratic and Republican party members. If I remember correctly, in the middle of last year the GOP took control when a couple Dems switched parties. The WV Republican party can only dream of having so much influence.

I really don't know if Dems or the GOP have a better track record of running state governments--maybe states do better when one party is in charge or maybe they do better with split gov't, I have no idea.

I know that nationally we do better with Dem. presidents--that's been pretty well established. I also know that I'm yet to hear any serious ideas from West Virginia Republicans about what they would do differently to improve the quality of live for West Virginians.

Anyway, you've brought up an an interesting question--I'd love to see a historical analysis of the 50 state economies related to party rule.

[ Parent ]
? (0.00 / 0)
I'm personnaly not in favor of one party or the other really but I do tend to lean Republican since I am a firm believer in the constitution and limited government. I do wonder with being from a state with such natural resources, why we are so poor? What keeps businesses from coming here? Are they taxed to highly, and are Democrats in favor of taxing businesses more, does that hurt us in the long run? Sorry to get off the subject of this piece, I'm just curious.
curiosity (0.00 / 0)
Curiosity is a good thing. That's a good question with no easy answers.

I think one reason is that natural resource extraction tends to push away lots of other kinds of development. This has sometimes been called a resource curse. Of the bad effects listed in that Wikipedia article, I think that revenue volatility, corruption, human resources and lack of diversification all apply to some degree--the article is written more at the country level, so some of it is confusing to think about for just a state or region.

We've also had challenges with regulatory capture where regulators favor the dominant (wealth extraction) industries in ways that make the state less attractive to other industries.

I don't think taxes on coal companies have much of anything to do with it as coal has remained the lowest cost fuel for pretty much as long as we've been mining it in West Virginia. Taxes on coal and coal companies have just been passed right along to buyers.

[ Parent ]
New Hampshire probably has lowest poverty rate. (0.00 / 0)
Natural resources are extraction. Article Eight of the Alaska Constitution already has a general clause that resources belong to the people. In Alaska they set up the Oil Trust Fund by State Constitutional amendment in 1976. Gov. Palin imposed a windfall profits tax on oil companies in the the state. Each person got a check from this common resource of about $3200. That makes up the difference between the cost of living in Alaska and the lower 48.

Lots of countries are very resource rich: diamonds, gold, oil, etc. and companies from the old colonial power retaining the rights to these resources. It is no coincidence that the diamond market is still in Holland. The year I was born the British were upset that one oil-rich state was going to do what Alaska did, declare that oil belonged to the people who live above it. Their president died. ;-/

That is what we do not have here. You may own the topsoil, but not the rocks. In Tennessee they may extend mineral rights if the rocks stick up above the soil so you don't own them either. Texas claims the environment gets cleaner by not measuring as much. They seem to have hated Pres. Nixon's EPA from the beginning. Why mention Texas or Tennessee?

Mississippi is poor. Republican. Now. So? We experimented with less regulated financial markets and the poverty rate in the United States increased. I don't think American got dumber or lazier, my family sure did not. Is it we are now not able to be blessed? The cost of housing, medical care, transportation are rising at a rate faster than wages. We are blessed that the kid is at WVU on Promise because I know the cost of getting a better education is rising more than the family income!

Please tell me how the unregulated experiment of the last decade improved the General Welfare, that is in the Constitution, anything except the oversea stashed profits of companies that avoid US taxes through drop boxes on a Caribbean Island. You remember your history "if men were angels . . ", that phrase?

Alabama is poor. Republican. Now. So? They have coal and timber, both extractive. Timber is favored in their tax code. They tax income below the poverty level, one of 16 states that do, and the rates are just about the same for those below the poverty level as those above a million. Some thought that was a little un-Christian, since this the home of Ten Commandments Judge Moore, and wanted to raise the taxes on timber and the richest farmers just a little and lessen the burden on the poor. Failed. Blocked by the GOP.

Massey has its HQ in Richmond. Not in the state, so they "not here" but to dig and blast. Yes, they pay wages but the property tax roll of the county has been greatly reduced and the severance tax is a poor substitute. Schools are funded on the property tax base, like it or not, so what future are we preparing our young for now?

Where were you last decade when laws stripping Fourth and Sixth Amendments rights were being passed, just after the terror alert color was deepened crimson, blood of patriots? Roll Tide.

NFTT: Support My Team or I Will Dance

[ Parent ]
Sorry to embarrass you (0.00 / 0)
Sorry to embarrass you with my complete ignorance Mr.Brzezinski, i'm not a scholar just an average guy that doesn't like some of what I see going on in this country. There are plenty of other rights being trampled on that I don't exactly see the left saying a word about. For example 2nd Ammendment rights . Where was the ACLU after Katrina when New Orleans Police was going around from house to house taking peoples firearms? Where does Federal Government get it's power to force its citizens to buy a product like health care? And why is the left so soft on illegal immigration? Arent they coming here taking jobs that could be unionized and pay an American a fair wage? And if the left is so caring, what about the General Welfare of the unborn child. Where are their rights? Just like animals they have no voice but are somehow worth less. The way I look at it, if a woman does not want to have a child she shouldnt be doing the very thing that makes one. Then in some states a child can't go on a school trip without a parents permission but she can go murder her child. Where is the outcry on that one?
[ Parent ]
Just someone with a pocket Constitution (0.00 / 0)
and a mind trained in high school to keep expanding the grey matter.

Where was the ACLU after Katrina when New Orleans Police was going around from house to house taking peoples firearms?

Look into this one, National Guard under Pres. Bush command during a national emergency, state police and Halliburton contractors doing this, and New Orleans Police returned them. Back in 2005. Think it was solved by the law West Virginia passed. You want me to look that one up for you?

I suspect it's the Common Defense and General Welfare clauses in the beginning. The Preamble counts too. Thomas Jefferson was in government, and I think they all knew something about the Constitution.

Where does Federal Government get it's power to force its citizens to buy a product like health care?

George Washington:  Militia Act 1792--buy your balls, powder and ruck sack from a private business or else, and show up
John Adams:  Seamen Act 1798--to help sick seaman, ones working on private ship had paycheck deductions, sign up or else shipowner/captain fined

That last one is so parallel, isn't it? That fine would translate to an equivalent $100,000 based on my monthly deductions for insurance. Geez, nothing like the current law at all.

Immigration in my family goes from 1739 to 1921.  What I am against is labeling everyone with a Spanish surname as "an illegal immigrant" like my dad does. Heck, he married a Russian one! Both spouse and I are in construction so we are well aware of the pressures of the dark cash economy. Enforcement has been stepped up in the last year. Previously, business liked the availability of those underpaid workers, so there was motivation to ignore if your donor base hinted at such. One could say that Bush and the GOP were soft on immigration.

I have my religion, deep, still practicing, and I have the law. From my pocket Constitution:

"All persons born ... are citizens"

The unborn are not persons under the Fourteenth or any amendment. The beauty of this country is that religion and law are separate. The problem in some other places is they are not. I would not want to live there. And that is one of those founding principles that I would think would be in favor with conservatives.

NFTT: Support My Team or I Will Dance

[ Parent ]
"a mind trained in high school" (0.00 / 0)
you mean like, the vast majority of the voting public...no wonder!
[ Parent ]
Are you insulting your clients or your kids' school teachers, silly stevewvu? (0.00 / 0)
You and I BOTH have a college degrees; you brag on your advanced degree.

Most people have a teacher that inspires them somewhere along the years. I remember Mrs. Robeson in fourth grade. She made me love fractions. In high school drama class, Mr. Kubick introduced me to the written word.

Some of the kids I went to high school with were the sons and daughters of the PhD's from Cal Tech that worked on the Navy Base. We had glass blowing in the vo-tech program for specialized scientific equipment. Some of the kids came from the surrounding mining towns.

It was not my choice to move at nine. It was my choice to come back as a young adult. Go find the left over Eater eggs.

NFTT: Support My Team or I Will Dance

[ Parent ]
Once again the p.a. one-liner retort. (0.00 / 0)
Is that your sock puppet or were you just glad to see me?
You have no game.



NFTT: Support My Team or I Will Dance

[ Parent ]
Thomas Jefferson (0.00 / 0)
A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government.-Thomas Jefferson  
[ Parent ]
First Ingural. Then he bought Louisiana. (0.00 / 0)
[ Parent ]
In responce (0.00 / 0)
My argument on the abortion issue was not a citizen of the U.S. issue, its a human rights issue for me. And the examples you gave me on George Washington with the war supplies and John Adams on the Seaman Act of 1798 was on the military not regular citizens. Anybody that has spent anytime in the military would know that when you are in an armed service of this country you have limited rights compared to regular citizens. So no, neither one of these examples are a very good argument on your part with the forcing of citizens of this country to buy healthcare. Why you seem to have so much faith in the Government I will never know. I can't think of a single thing that they run efficiently. And I have never been a fan of President Bush myself, so whoever does something against the Constitution is not a fan of mine.
[ Parent ]
Your argument (0.00 / 0)
on the abortion issue is not based in your profession of limited government or the Consitution it's an issue for you the man which the Founding Fathers warned us against. I am a little rusty on Talmudic tradition but human depends on breath like Adam. I can find no other interpretation but a desire to impose on a class of people a personel moral law through the force and intrusion of government. What is the criminal penalty you would suggest for the woman? For the sperm donor? For the doctor?

Dad was Navy. Uncle Carl was Navy. Captain is Army. So your assumption that I could not possibly know from UCMJ is as off base as the topic in the previous paragraph. Try again.

Now to those facts that have a liberal bias, liberal was not a label George Washington ran from. After 1783 we disbanded the Navy and Army, except the one regiment on the Western frontier. And those cutters Hamilton had at Treasury. Not under control of the Department of War.

So if you read the Militia Act it require purchases of every white man under the age of 45 of those supplies. Not because they were a Marine. They did not exist until 1798. We created an irregular militia of everyone like the Swiss. You can't possbly be suggesting that with that Amendment about quartering that the 1792 private purchase requirement was because everyone was in the Army!

And you do remember we went after the Barbary pirates with privateers? Hence the fines levied against private owners of ships for not providing for the care of disabled seaman. This was not for the crews of those first three ships launched in 1797. We had a Navy for war on paper only in 1794.

So drink your water from the ditch, buy your meat with maggots, hide under your blankets with smallpox, put your kids back in the mines. Go Galt, just stay off my roads to get there.  

NFTT: Support My Team or I Will Dance

[ Parent ]
Thomas Jefferson (0.00 / 0)
He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.-Thomas Jefferson
[ Parent ]
Dueling TJ Quotes! (0.00 / 0)
If there is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest.

For all my love of Thomas Jefferson, on that other $ quote you pulled ...

He inherited debt from his father-in-law, we have the Library of Congress because he sold his books, and his second collection was sold to pay debts. Several of his money-making ventures, like making nails, failed. At the time of his death Monticello was sold as he owned the equivalent of about $2 million in todays dollars.

NFTT: Support My Team or I Will Dance

[ Parent ]
'We are all brothers and sisters in the coalfields at times like this' | 20 comments
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