I don't know if you guys know this, but there's been a coal mine explosion in West Virginia.

[Lyric]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36183425/ns/us_news-life/

We have seven confirmed dead, with nineteen miners still missing--maybe trapped--which could make this far worse than the Sago disaster a few years ago. My grandfathers and THEIR fathers were all West Virginia coal miners. My Dad worked at the processing plant when he was young, even though he left the industry eventually to become a carpenter. My Mom remembers what it was like to sit and wait for news and pray to God that YOUR miner was one of the ones who made it out alive.

Please keep them in your thoughts. There are some terrified mothers, fathers, wives, and children in southern West Virginia tonight.

:(

:grouphug:

[AnnieBW]

1. Praying for the Miners

And praying that the ghosts of the dead will haunt Massey Energy.

[Lyric]

4. I think you have to have a soul or a conscience to be haunted.

So far as I know, the people who run Massey have neither.

[happygoluckytoyou]

53. IN A RELATED STORY --> http://www.wvminesafety.org/

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/west-va-coal-company-deadly-explosion-fined-millions/story?id=10293691&hpid=topnews

http://www.wvminesafety.org/

send the first link to the second link ! ! !

[CBR]

2. Horrible tragedy.

Families, friends and communities are in my thoughts and prayers.

:-(

[jody]

3. Those who enjoy the bounty of cheap coal show no respect for miners if they don't recommend. n/t

[stray cat]

6. Since we all enjoy the bounty of cheap coal - that means all of us.

[jody]

9. That's my understanding also. n/t

[Midlodemocrat]

5. I've been sick since I heard.

And refreshing the news every minute.

God. I cannot imagine.

[Berry Cool]

7. I always wonder that anyone can bear to go down into those mines anymore.

I am sad for those already lost and praying for the safety of the rest.

[stray cat]

10. Its a good paying job and people want to support their families - a tough job

[Midlodemocrat]

11. I would guess it's often the difference between feeding your children and not.

I cannot imagine. I cannot imagine the level of trepidation the spouses feel.

I feel incredibly blessed that that being a miner isn't an option for me.

[LeftyMom]

15. West Virginia isn't exactly awash in good jobs.

[bobbolink]

20. For so many, freedom of choice is a myth.

They do what they have to in order to survive.

[RainDog]

8. sorry to hear this n/t

[Starry Messenger]

12. Oh no.

My thoughts to the families. How terrifying. :(

[JerseygirlCT]

13. It's hard to think of a harder and scarier way to make a living

They'll absolutely be in my thoughts and prayers.

[LeftyMom]

14. My thoughts are with them.

One of my grandfathers was a coal miner as a child in Kentucky. He got out while he was still young, but his lungs were ruined.

[get the red out]

16. Agree, bless these people

Your heritage is similar to mine, I just come from next door in Kentucky. I remember my Grandfather talking about the friends he lost in the mines when I was young. Always so devastating.

[Cirque du So-What]

17. The miners and their families are in my thoughts tonight

I am saddened by this news.

[RC]

18. And in other news, no one has been killed in injured in any nuclear mishaps.

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. I swear there was this thing called Chernobyl

and of course A few others here in the US.

NO INDUSTRY is one hundred percent safe.

[liberation]

50. Chernobyl? Nah, that must be a figment of your imagination...

... I also heard that depleted uranium makes a great breakfast treat with cereal and milk.

[amborin]

21. please don't politicize these miners' tragedy

[RC]

37. Those miners would not have died in that mine if this country had a saner energy policy.

Those miners died for the owners money. What caused the explosion? How well was the mine ventilated?

[amborin]

44. pointing out the mine violations is ok; using this tragedy to lobby for nuclear is politicizing it

[PVnRT]

48. There were dinged for several safety violations last month

Instead of working to improve miner safety, the company decided to fight the findings and the fines.

[cascadiance]

45. Makes you wonder if the coal companies might politicize it from this event...

And try to use some rationalization that using mountaintop removal is "safer" than mining underground utilizing the horror of this event to justify the more "silent" horror that many suffer from the effects of mountain top removal for coal mining.

We have to be prepared for that and just say NO if they even think of trying this.

But that being said, I really hope that they can find those remaining missing miners alive, and by best wishes and thoughts for those families affected by this tragedy.

[liberation]

51. Hey, jackass...nuclear fuel is also mined

and a shitload of people die (And have died) extracting it. How do you think uranium ore (to do things like nuclear rods and plutonium) makes it to the nuclear reactor, via pixie dust and unicorns?


Just because a screw in your head is not a good thing, doesn't make a nail a much better alternative.

[YOY]

54. I know a Ukrainian woman who's children are dead because of one.

A beautiful woman with eyes so sad you could not fathom.

I know of an area with higher birth defects to this day because of the same one...

I know another woman with a severely mentally retarded child most likely because of it...

[Brickbat]

22. Fuck Massey CEO Blankenship and his bloody, bloody hands.

Stand up and organize, miners! Mourn the dead and fight like hell for the living.

[amborin]

25. massey:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=239235&mesg_id=239235

[elleng]

27. Miners among the first to organize, I think.

Heckuvan industry.

HOPING.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/us/06westvirginia.html?hp

Dennis O’Dell, an official with the union who was in contact with state and federal safety officials, said the current theory was that the explosion might have been caused by a buildup of methane gas in a sealed-off section of the mine. A similar type of explosion occurred in the 2006 Sago mining disaster, which left 12 miners dead after trapping them underground for nearly two days.

Federal records indicate that the Upper Big Branch mine has recorded an injury rate worse than the national average for similar operations for at least six of the past 10 years. The records also show that the mine had 458 violations in 2009, with a total of $897,325 in safety penalties assessed against it last year. It has paid $168,393 in safety penalties.

Mr. O’Dell said some officials told him the ignition source for the explosion on Monday might have been a device that carries mine personnel to and from the work area. It may have been moving near the sealed section of the mine at the time of the blast, he said.

[Tippy]

28. It's far cheaper to pay the penalties then to fix the problem....

A human life isn't worth much today...Sure the famlies can file a law suit but that won't bring back their loved ones....I pray they find more alive...

[elleng]

29. I suspect there are unsolveable problems.

[Withywindle]

39. WV coal miners WERE among the first to organize, about 100 years ago.

Most of those gains that good people died for are gone now.

[liberation]

52. Interesting piece of trivia: the term "red neck" originated from the WV coal mining struggle

At some point the owners of the mines were literally duking it out with the miners who were being organized, by duking it out I mean that they actually paid mercenaries to fight and kill the miners who dared organize. The conflict escalated to such heights, there was a literal battle between the miners and the thugs hired by the mining corporations raging through the mountains of West Virgina.

In order to identify themselves in the battle (and avoid friendly fire), miners wore bright red bandannas around their necks. And thus the term "red neck" was coined.

It is interesting to see how the term was later deionized and misused to represent a pejorative for the common working folk. And ultimately it has been used as a divisive racially charged term.


You gotta hand it to the top 5%, their job is to amass and concentrate wealth, and come up with all sorts of creative ways to do so.

[elleng]

56. And they do it so well.

It REALLY IS time to get on the 'owners,' and MAYBE due to the noise created by this disaster, the PEOPLE will take it up with our congress critters (and Prez O.)

VERY interesting 'trivia.' So necks not red due to hard work in the fields or somesuch.

[liberation]

57. Nope, I have to recognize I was fascinated when I first learned that

If you also think about it, in its "cowboy" incarnation, the term still implies a fairly elitist amount of contempt towards those performing manual labor. In fact chances are that whoever started perverting the term "red neck" to refer to cowboys working on the ranch, was some city slicker socialite who completely missed the point of the 10 gallon hat. ;-)


It is astounding how much American labor had to struggle, and how most of their achievements have all but been neutralized. It took them a century, but I'll be damned if the elites have not been wildly successful at it. For example, May Day is regarded as "pinko commie treason" day in the US. But in most countries in the industrialized world it has been their "labor day" for a while, among other things in order to celebrate a massacre of American labor organizers at the hands of corporate thugs. This is, the rest of the world is celebrating American labor, while we are so ashamed of their achievements that we celebrate our "own" labor in September 1st not May 1st like the rest of the world does.

Unfortunately, their PR efforts work very well because they have total control of the message. A similar tragedy happened a few years ago, involving the same mine owner. And well, nothing really happened. The guy was not only still in business, but he gets to finance the teabaggers.

[elleng]

58. I've got to think about this. Thanks for making me do so.

My family is anything but red neck, but I've always felt that 'they' were/are against us. NYC Jews, grandpa owned deli, but 3 of 5 kids became lawyers, no way feeling 'elite' (except maybe wife of one of them!) but somehow 'redneck' term not good. THO one of sons clearly a laboring working man.

[Brickbat]

40. Yes, they were. But all of Massey's mines are nonunion.

[amborin]

23. such dangerous work, in ofen very unsafe (and illegal) conditions!

[Codeine]

24. Coal Event. nt

[Hannah Bell]

26. Profitable company has long history of labor troubles

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



By Mike Boyer
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The A.T. Massey Coal Co., the company responsible for the 250 million gallons of coal sludge oozing toward Cincinnati, is one of the biggest and most profitable coal producers in West Virginia and eastern Kentucky.

Massey's history includes a 1991 outcry over its plan to use non-union labor to mine Blair Mountain just across the Kentucky border in West Virginia.

Mr. Massey was also responsible for the “Massey Doctrine,” a company document Mr. Nyden obtained which outlined the company's operating approach.

Basically, the company itself operated the richest and easiest-to-mine coal deposits while turning over more marginal coal seams to contractors, Mr. Nyden said.

These contractors were typically under-funded and have had an “abysmal” safety record, Mr. Nyden said...

http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2000/10/22/loc_massey_coal_co_has.html.

[Bobbie Jo]

30. K&R

Prayers for those still missing. My heart goes out to the families of the lost.

:grouphug:

[csziggy]

31. I'd only heard/seen preliminary reports - no casualty reports

I am so sorry for the miner's families. Sending good thoughts their way, for all the good that will do.

[ejpoeta]

32. Do you think the news will give it more attention than tiger woods?

[elleng]

33. 'More than

100,000 coal miners have been killed in accidents in the United States since 1900, but the number of fatalities has fallen sharply in recent decades, according to the Mine Safety and Health Administration. As late as the 1940s, it was not unusual to have more than 1,000 mining deaths a year; in 2009 there were 35, according to the agency.

But mining remains dangerous work, as the disasters that seem to befall small Appalachian towns every few years attest. And there are persistent alarms raised about mines using antiquated safety equipment, and about lax enforcement and a culture that discourages safety complaints.

In the 2006 Sago Mine calamity, 12 miners were killed by an explosion in an abandoned section of the mine. State officials said they believed those miners could have survived the blast if the seals cordoning off the area where it occurred had been properly installed.

Federal regulations passed after the Sago disaster increased the monitoring of air quality in active and sealed sections of the mines to avoid methane buildup. The new regulations also required mine operators to install stronger barriers between active and inactive sections of mines.

Mr. O’Dell said federal and state regulators would be immediately checking to see how well the mine complied with those and other new safety regulations.

State officials said the mine was a long-wall mining operation, which is one of three major underground coal-mining methods. The method often uses a steel plow, or rotation drum, which is pulled mechanically back and forth across a face of coal that is usually several hundred feet long. The loosened coal falls onto a conveyor for removal from the mine.'

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/us/06westvirginia.html?hp

[ZombieHorde]

34. Super scary. nt

[Lyric]

35. Update: the death toll is now up to 12, and there are ten more still trapped.

Small details are starting to trickle in over the radio.

--It does not appear to be a roof collapse or other instability event. It does appear to be some kind of explosion--at this point, the most likely culprit is methane gas. This particular mine is one that, as a "norm", releases an unusually large amount of methane gas compared to other mines.

--As of right now, the death toll has already equaled the Sago disaster, and could be much, much worse before it's over.

--Massey is remaining very quiet in regard to releasing information. People seem to think that they're gun-shy after the horrific misunderstanding during the Sago disaster falsely informed family members that 12 miners had survived when the opposite was actually the truth--that all 12 were dead.

--Rescuers have found at least one of the safety "caches" in the mine, and some of the emergency equipment has been removed. This could be a good sign that the trapped miners have at least some oxygen and (maybe) a gas curtain to keep the fumes away, but the problem is that the oxygen rescue masks are only meant to last for about an hour, and I haven't heard for sure exactly WHICH of the emergency supplies were missing from the cache. The best possible scenario is that they're uninjured, that they got the equipment to curtain off an alcove from the fumes so they aren't breathing pure poison, and that each miner has several "extra" emergency oxygen masks gleaned from the cache as well as the one that each miner carries on his tool belt.

--Governor Joe Manchin was out of town when the explosion happened, but he is currently heading back as quickly as possible so that he can be there for the victims' families.

Will post more when I hear it.

[malaise]

38. Now 25 dead

four missing and the search postponed for now because of very high levels of methane and coal dust. One lady lost a son and two grandsons. :cry:

[Lyric]

41. It's just awful. Awful.

Worst mining disaster we've had in a very long time.

[blondeatlast]

36. Saying a prayer--oh God, I was just discussing the one in Utah the other day.

My heart is with them and their families...

[KamaAina]

42. Somehow I knew you'd have their back

O sensitive soul. :cry:

[NJmaverick]

43. K & R for the well being of those miners

[femrap]

46. Massey's Energy continues

its lack of safety. CEO is Blankenship....write him a letter. HQed in Richmond, VA.

Hope Karma bites him in a flaccid place very, very hard.

We need to start holding the CEOs of these Corporations accountable....Goddess knows the political minions won't.

[TankLV]

47. Yes - and I pray for them, too...

I keep one eye on that story and one eye others - if someone took a picture of me right now, I'd sure look funny...

[liberation]

49. Isn't this another mine owned by that a**hole with a bunch of "accidents" to his name

and who is funding the teabaggers?

Good grief, when is it enough? How come people get sent to prison for silly things like smoking a plant, but these serial murdering assholes do not just roam free, but they get to use their profits, from the blood of others, to undermine our republic.

[Demoiselle]

55. I'm thinking of them all the time today. Praying for them too.