'The swagger behind a mining tragedy'

Once upon a time (4.00 / 3)

coal operators murdered miners as a bargaining tool in West Virginia. It's why the state wants to get rid of Blair Mountain. Eradicating the blood-soaked history of our government working hand-in-glove with scofflaw mine operators so they can continue to do business here is no less than a calculated strategy.

If you think I'm just making stuff up, then I challenge anyone to walk through the newly remodeled state history museum and find anything negative about the history of the way coal operators murdered miners sleeping in their homes. They spent $17.3 million of your tax dollars to refurbish the place, yet you'll find little more than a poorly lit cubby hole dedicated to one of the most important (and by far the bloodiest) armed revolutions against the oppressive forces of corporate-owned governance in U.S. history.

For instance there's no mention that the only reason that the mine operator's bloody Bullmoose Special didn't roll back through Holly Grove the night they murdered Cesco Estep and wounded others in their own homes was because they ran out of ammunition. And although it significantly caused miners to take up arms in mass revolution, there is scant detail of how mine operators hired Baldwin-Felts thugs to assassinate the unarmed police chief Sid Hatfield and his deputy in broad daylight on his own courthouse steps.

Just to set the record straight (which the WV State Musuem does NOT do) the federal government never bombed miners in West Virginia. The fact is that coal operators hired private planes to do it, as the evidence and testimony during the unsuccessful treason trials of the UMWA leaders revealed. It also proved that their Balwin-Felts mercenaries beat the wives of miners, one so badly that they murdered her unborn child.

These days, in court, Don Blankenship and a pack of scofflaw mine operators have a cadre of mercenary corporate lawyers justifying their poisoning of the wells of communities all across the coal patch. BTW poisoning wells of communities they conquered was a common tactic of maurauders during the middle ages.

Today corporate lawyers defend this maneuver, apparently because it may increase the coal operator's insurance premiums.

Currently, 39 insurance companies added their names as third-party defendants in the lawsuit. Adding to the names of the coal companies listed in the motions - Massey Energy, Omar Mining, Independence Coal Co., Black Castle Coal Co., Peabody Energy Corp. and Pine Ridge Coal Co. - are 39 insurance companies who provide, or have provided insurance to these coal industry leaders through the years.

These 39 insurance companies as listed on the Civil Case Information Statement, are AIG Casualty Company f/k/a Birmingham Fire Insurance Company; AIU Insurance Company; Allianz Underwriters Insurance Company; Allstate Insurance Company as Successor in interest to Northbrook Excess and Surplus Company f/k/a Northbrook Insurance Company; American Empire Surplus Lines Insurance Company f/k/a Great American Surplus Lines Insurance Company; Century Indemnity Company as Successor to CCI Insurance Company, successor to Insurance Company of North America; Certain Underwriters at Lloyd's, London and London Insurance Companies; CNA Insurance Companies; Continental Casualty Company.

Also listed are Employers Insurance of Wausau; Employers Mutual Casualty Company; Evanston Insurance Company; Everest Reinsurance Company p/k/a Prudential Reinsurance Company; Federal Insurance Company; The Continental Insurance Company as successor by Merger to Fidelity Casualty Company of New York; Fireman's Fund Insurance Company; First State Insurance Company; General Star Indemnity Company; Government Employees Insurance Company; Granite State Insurance Company; Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company; Insurance Company of the State of Pennsylvania; Lexington Insurance Company; Midstates Reinsurance Corporation. Additionally, the Mt. MicKinley Insurance Company p/k/a Gibraltar Casualty Company; National Union Insurance Company of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania; Navigators Insurance Company as successor in interest to New York Marine Managers, Inc.; New England Insurance Company; North Start Reinsurance Corporation; Old Republic Insurance Company; Onebeacon American Insurance Company; Royal Indemnity Company; St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company; TIG Insurance Company as successor in Interest to International Insurance Company; Travelers Casualty and Surety Company as successor in interest to AETNA Casualty and Surety Company; Zurich American Insurance Company successor in interest to Zurich Insurance Company all are listed as third-party defendants in the civil action lawsuit.

According to Bell, there a now a total of 21 law firms involved in the Prenter water case. "Judge Thompson will most likely order a formal mediation session to be set up between all parties," Bell said. source

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by: One Citizen @ Fri May 07, 2010 at 15:14:53 PM UTC

To quote Shakespeare ... (0.00 / 0)

"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers."

I mean this as a metaphor. But the explosion of law school grads, combined with the expansion of the corporatist mentality - as demonstrated by that infernal list - has left ordinary citizens in a poor position to fight back.

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by: blonde moment @ Sat May 08, 2010 at 16:04:10 PM UTC

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