Thursday, May 19, 2011

Report on West Virginia Mine Disaster

The State of West Virginia has now issued its report on the April 2010 mine disaster at the Upper Big Branch Mine which killed 29 miners (NY Times summary here). The report accuses the operators of the mine, Massey Energy, of maintaining "a culture in which wrongdoing became acceptable." This culture, personified by CEO Don "Big Shit" Blankenship, manifested itself in safety short-cuts and what the report calls "profoundly reckless" behavior that ultimately led directly to the deaths of the miners. Big Shit and his fellow laissez-faire, eColi conservatives tried to shift the blame to others and are still disputing the report's findings. Seventeen Massey Energy executives refused to be interviewed for the report.

It's sociopaths like this, populating the ranks of so many corporations as well as their Rethuglican party, who go on living comfortably while others are left to fill the voids in their lives caused by the sociopaths' greed and wanton disregard for human life. Now we want to see those bastards pay.

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