WP: Mining Town Rises in Anger After Boy Is Killed by Boulder

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A51556-2005Jan5?language=printer

It hurled like a cannonball into Dennis and Cindy Davidson's house, right through the wall of the bedroom and onto the bed where 3-year-old Jeremy was sleeping.

The huge boulder continued its path, crashing through a closet before finally stopping at the foot of 8-year-old Zachary's bed. Zachary would be fine. Jeremy was crushed to death.

A bulldozer operator widening a road at a strip mining operation atop Black Mountain had unknowingly dislodged the half-ton boulder that August night. And now, more than four months later, Jeremy's death is still being felt across the coal mines of southwestern Virginia.

For many residents, the toddler's death has come to symbolize what they consider the companies' and the state's callous disregard for their safety.

"Since the child got killed, it's sort of like when the towers got bombed and the country came together," said Carl "Pete" Ramey, a coal miner turned anti-strip-mining activist. "The death of an innocent child that had nothing to do with what's going on has brought us together. I think a lot of people feel guilty they didn't do something before."

[tk2kewl]

1. bushCo lifted the ban on topping mountains

more blood on *'s hands

[kwolf68]

2. Oh yea he did

Bush's connection to the coal industry is almost as perverse as his connection to the petroleum industry.

[MidwestTransplant]

3. How many of those people negatively affected are Bush voters I wonder

Probably a huge percentage.

[MountainLaurel]

5. More nonvoters I would guess

There is so little hope in these communities, and a belief (rightly so) that no one in government cares about their needs or is willing to help.

[Cooley Hurd]

17. Don't forget the funeral industry...

In fact, ChimpCo has cornered the market on the whole "-gate" cliche.

[MountainLaurel]

4. I'm sickened

There have been sooo many close calls over the years in Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky, and no one in government was willing to do a goddamned thing about it because they were so far into the pockets of the coal companies, as they have been for 100 years. And now, a sleeping child is dead.

:vomit:

[kwolf68]

6. I recommend

Bobby Kennedy, Jrs. book "Crimes Against Nature". He has a really good chapter on the coal industry and its seedy connection to the Boy King.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

7. But there are TOO MANY frivolous lawsuits!!!!!

snip


The A&G work crew did not learn about it until an hour later, when a mechanic driving home at the end of his shift passed the Davidsons' house and saw the ambulance. After asking what had happened, he returned to the mountaintop to alert his co-workers.

The agency contends that Jeremy Davidson died not because the laws were lax but because existing laws and rules were broken. It has accused A&G of "gross negligence." Elsey Harris, an attorney for A&G, declined to comment, citing the lawsuit and potential criminal charges.

The Davidsons have largely stayed out of the public debate that has ensued. When asked in an interview whom they blame for their son's death, they turned to their attorney, Del. Terry G. Kilgore (R-Scott).

"Anytime you have steep inclines like this, you shouldn't be pushing boulders toward people's residences," he said.

"It's an accident waiting to happen."

That conclusion is supported in two reports the state mining agency has issued. It said the mining company's permit did not authorize the road widening.

It accused the company of negligence for doing the work at night above occupied dwellings and using an inexperienced bulldozer operator working without adequate lighting.

It issued three violations and fined A&G the legal maximum of $5,000 for each violation. The company is appealing the citations.

Since the accident, the Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy has stepped up its review of mining operations in the area.

Inspectors have flown over the mountains in a helicopter looking for violations and visited every local mine, seeking potential problems.

[Ian David]

8. They've been Bushslapped

Oh, yes.

Those damn liberal democrats who want to destroy America's business through regulation, environmental protection, and lawsuits.

They have been Bushslapped

When someone realizes that voting Republican has caused them terrible harm.
Workers Lear Seigler Services Incorporated in North Carolina, a company that repairs huge gas-guzzling Hummers, were just Bushslapped with a massive layoff on the day they were supposed to get Christmas bonuses.

He was a proud Republican, until he was Bushslapped back into the army fifteen years after he'd retired from service.

After her husband was killed in Iraq, she felt Bushslapped when she saw the pResident making a joke about looking for Weapons of Mass Destruction under his office desk.

[Cooley Hurd]

18. I heard an interesting twist to the story of Bush and tort reform...

...on Al Franken yesterday. Here's a bit of the story (from http://www.centerjd.org/press/release/020126.htm ):

<snip>
George W. Bush. In 1999, Bush sued Enterprise Rent-A-Car over a minor fender-bender involving one of his daughters in which no one was hurt. Although his insurance would have covered the repair costs making a lawsuit unnecessary, Bush sought additional money from Enterprise, which had rented a car to someone with a suspended license. In this case, Bush seemed to understand one of the most important functions of civil lawsuits — to deter further wrongdoing. The case settled for $2,000 to $2,500.

What a fucking hypocrite!:grr:

[NVMojo]

9. Bush is setting up the people of the United States to be brutalized

by every rich friend he has, doctors, corporations ...you name it, they will buttbong us!!

[Erika]

10. Money is Maximized and Christ's Will

is minimized. Profit before all else. Bush is taking us back to Hugo, Zola, and Dickens.

[Divine Discontent]

15. wow...

may I say it? You sound very smart!

God bless you...

[SemperEadem]

11. And * says this qualifies as a frivolous lawsuit

because the family had no business putting the boy's bed against a wall through which a boulder could potentially crash after rampaging down the hill behind his home and crushing him to death.

As far as * is concerned, the parents should just be thankful that they live in America and gays can't marry. (/sarcasm)

[saigon68]

16. Those gay guys marrying

That's scary shit</sarcasm>

That all the religious fuckers talk about in church lately--- the sodomites and how this lifestyle affects their grandchildren.

[diamond14]

12. BIG time bush* voters in that part of Virginia....it's a real scary area

to go into...because of all the confederate flags flying everywhere, and guns....


those same people for YEARS have voted reTHUGlican, claiming that the Federal Government should stay out of their business (COAL)...they said NOTHING when bush* opened up the mountain tops for strip mining....AND 'environmentalist' is a BAD word down there...

these are the people who suffer most from bush* and his whole cabal, but at the same time...they LOVE bush*....they even send their children off to bush* wars and are PROUD of it....

[Erika]

13. They should read Emile Zola

and ask for forgiveness to what they are doing to their children.

No wonder the South is looked down on.

[The_Casual_Observer]

14. it's sort of like when the towers got bombed

Everything is like when the towers got bombed. Iraqis probably feel that way to.

[jbnow]

19. Iraqis probably wish they did

9/11 was horrible and terrifying but it was a day of terror.

What they wouldn't give for just that! In Iraq 9-11 goes on and on and on.