A surprising twist on Rita Cosby tonight

[Armstead]

Was anyone watching Rita Cosby? (I was too busy to turn the channel and had it on in the background.)

Not surprisingly they had her down in West Virginia covering the mine disaster. She interviewed one of the sons of a trapped miner. The idea of doing that was in bad taste, but the interview did take an interesting twist.

The son started complaining about the minining company becoming so profit oriented that they were cutting corners and disregarding safety standards. Then he said the problems began when they started hiring non-union workers, which took away protection of the union. "If they still had the UMW in here they would have made sure that safety stanbdards had been upheld."

A sad commentary on our times, and a bit of political/economic reality slipping into the news.

[WCGreen]

1. Earlier in the day I heard the Mine had something like

150-200 safety violations in the last year...

[in_cog_ni_to]

3. That's right and those citations cost ONLY $250.00 each so the mining

company just paid the fines INSTEAD of fixing what they had been given the citations for. Let's see if the WV voters continue to vote these rat bastards back into office in '06 and '08.

ALSO....guess who heads the Labor Dept.? Senator Mitch McConnell's WIFE who knows JACK SHIT about mining or labor regulations. She was put in place to DISMANTLE the Labor safety rules and regulations.

Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao...MITCH MCCONNELL'S WIFE...:grr:

[aquart]

2. Has the union spoken out here?

[ThomWV]

4. Shit, Those Little Scab Mines Are Everywhere

Look, something you need to know about West Virginia. First thing is you can dig a hole dam near anywhere and get coal. You don't have to dig all that deep either.

Every swingin' dick who can afford a dozer gets into the coal business sooner or later. Its like raising cattle, every dam fool thinks he can make a little money at it.

These small operators, and that is what the current mine disaster centers around, operate at the lowest possible cost. Most of them pay as much as the Unions do and to be absolutely honest about it many of them give the same benefits and are just as safe ... or unsafe, depending on your viewpoint.

They are all unsafe. Understand that right up front. They are dark of course, anywhere your head isn't pointed doesn't exist. What a lot of people don't know is that it is also cold and wet. It is always cold and wet. It is also dirty. You know coal mining is dirty but you have no idea how dirty it is. Everything is powered by electricity. So people get electrocuted. That happens pretty often.

Seams of coal can be thick. Mostly they are not. Picture this. Tomorrow you will work under your bed. You will go to work laying flat on your back and other than to go into an out of the way side passage to relieve yourself or eat lunch (watch where you squat down in both cases) you'll stay flat on your back all day. The space you will work in will probably be very close in size to the space under a pick up truck. Its noisy.

Do you know how they stop the choking coal dust from building up and exploding? They spray the walls with choking limestone dust. The miner's get to breath it either way.

[in_cog_ni_to]

7. Damn. I had a friend whose grandfather was a coal miner and died from

Black Lung Disease. Do miners have any new breathing devices to protect their lungs. Any new technology?

[rooboy]

5. And another "Mike Brown"-style Bush appointee contols mine safety. n/t

[KitchenWitch]

6. Another fine example

of how the fucking corporate bottom line comes WAAAAYYYYYYY ahead of the safety of the employees...Human Resources my ass!