CEO Of Massey Energy Co-"Over $1 Million To Sponsor Tea Party"

[kpete]

Massey Energy & Don Blankenship: Million-dollar Tea Party sponsors
By karoli Tuesday Apr 06, 2010 9:00am

Meet Don Blankenship, CEO of Massey Energy Company. Blankenship is also on the Board of Directors of the US Chamber of Commerce. In this speech above, he denies climate change, derisively refers to Speaker Pelosi, Senator Reid, and others as "greeniacs", and calls them all crazy. Watch the speech, you'll see. In his mind, "the greeniacs are taking over the world."

Massey Energy Company, Blankenship's highly successful strip-mining and mountaintop removal operation is the parent company of Performance Coal Co, where a tragic explosion occurred on April 5th. As of this writing, 25 miners have died and 4 more are still missing. Twenty-five families are without a loved one. Four more may discover they have lost someone they love too. 29 families in all, forever changed by one single, violent event in a coal mine. One single violent event in a coal mine run by a company so obsessed with profit it runs roughshod over employees' and neighbors' health and safety.

Here's something else about Don Blankenship and Massey Energy Company: Blankenship spent over $1 million dollars along with other US Chamber buddies like Verizon to sponsor last year's Labor Day Tea Party, also known as the "Friends of America Rally."http://friendsofamericarally.com/sponsors/ Here's Massey's pitch. Note how he makes it sound like he isn't one of the corporate enemies of America.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiAc5IVXI7g&feature=related

The Friends of America Rally featured such notables as Sean Hannity, Ted Nugent, and Hank Williams, Jr., and was graced by Blankenship himself going off on a diatribe that seemed strange at the time, but has come to be commonplace these days. It concerned President Obama, Democrats, and any one who doesn't salute God, coal, and apple pie. Oh, and we're also going to 'steal their jobs,' if Hannity is to be believed.

Blankenship and Massey Energy spend millions to defend unsafe workplaces

more:
http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/massey-energy-don-blankenship-million-dolla

[underpants]

1. Wiki info and pics on this scum

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8097968

[happygoluckytoyou]

64. IN A RELATED STORY laundry business up on news of white sale on hoods and robes

[Cirque du So-What]

2. You can buy a whole shitload of useful idiots for $1M

Too bad it didn't work out for ya, Blankenship! A million fucking dollars spent in a quixotic venture to influence lawmakers with screaming assholes, while basic safety in his mines suffers - and now people have died. Jail is too good for this reprehensible bastard!

[alfredo]

3. He should have put some of that million into upgrading

safety in his mines.

[HillbillyBob]

14. 'Why there are a dozen more poor mountaineers that need jobs too

I can buy em all day a dime a dozen' That is how that pos thinks I met him years ago and couldn't get out of there fast enough. My dad worked at a paper mile that he had something to do with.

[alfredo]

24. There was a time when mules were more valuable than

miners. Mules cost a lot of money but humans come cheap.

[rpannier]

55. Kind of reminds me of the scene from Blazing Saddles

They pull the handcart out of the quicksand with a rope leaving Cleavon Little and another black man in the quicksand

Taggard (Slim Pickens): That was close. We nearly lost a 400 dollar handcar

It was funny in the movie.
But very true in real life, especially when it involved people of color or Irish

[alfredo]

62. That's it.

I have to admit I lost it when the "Indians" spoke Yiddish.

[quiet.american]

4. K&R nt

[izzybeans]

5. That's half of what he owes in fines for being a criminally negligent mine operator.

[HillbillyBob]

6. We citizens need to do somethinf drastic about the

corporate take over of our lives, comcast with their no net neutral shit godamn ws coporate whore appointees to the supine court, don blankenship and we had better do it fast ....

[TexasObserver]

7. recommend

[Maru Kitteh]

8. K & R

[amborin]

9. Massey is really a criminal, he's got blood of 25+ miners on his hands

[Uncle Joe]

10. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, kpete.

[kpete]

13. as always.

my pleasure to shine the light on scum,

peace, kp

[Kievan Rus]

11. Anybody that thinks Teabaggers aren't corporate shills....

is either willfully ignorant or brainwashed.

[Enthusiast]

50. But that isn't the official M$M

message! Tea Party = grass roots, average real American fed up with Obama's socialistic policies.

[keepthemhonest]

61. Whaat?They are not a grass roots effort like

Palin said.

[me b zola]

12. K&R

[Scurrilous]

15. K & R

:thumbsup:

[HughBeaumont]

16. Why is this asshole not being arrested?

Massey Energy is the perfect Repuke run corporation - ignore critical safety measures, workers get killed, blame the "greeniacs" and the "gub'mint"!! "If'n only them durty revenooers woun't interFERE with things . . ." Bastard.

[Ghost Dog]

18. Render the likes of this guy to the Chinese justice system.

(Only half-joking). x(

[malaise]

17. Surprise!

NOT

[Loki]

19. It is time to see companies and CEO's of these companies

charged with negligent homicide. Please, someone take up this cause, they willfully and negligently caused the death of 25 people. Profit over people and this is what you get and it won't stop until we hold them responsible.

[Bette Noir]

29. + about a million.

[SocialistLez]

43. No argument here nt

[grahampuba]

65. corporate personhood

Just seems logical that if they can have free speech, inalienable rights and political influence. Then those that run them should be held accountable for criminal actions.

forgive the pun, but definitely not holding my breath on that one.

[LeftinOH]

20. Motherf*cker; K&R

[JohnWxy]

21. Recommended! Bookmarked.

[Name removed]

22. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[KamaAina]

23. That's about $1 million more than they spend on mine safety

:grr: :cry:

[Zoeisright]

47. +100000

Sure can tell where his priorities are, can't we?

[colsohlibgal]

25. Dumb And Evil

Thom Hartmann played a couple of clips of him speaking of the dangers of socialism and why unchecked, unregulated capitalism was best for everyday folks, and he called all liberal talkers dumb. What a piece of work this poor excuse for a human being is.

I hope they lock him up and throw away the key and once he expires may he rot in Hell.

[SpartanDem]

26. Be sure to send this to media outlets

these vids to need to get some airplay

[Bette Noir]

27. Disgusting.

[Grand Taurean]

28. The KKK provides the entertainment" Sean Hannity, Ted Nugent, and Hank Williams, Jr. John Rich

[SpiralHawk]

30. The Teabaggery thang is just a corporate front

With their corporate propaganda pimps at Fox and elsewhere, the corporatists (R) have just manipulated the bejabbers out of poor, uneducated Americans to vote and whine against their own best interests.

[MisterP]

31. hmm, I thought they hated "big business and big gub'mint," which they always mention in the same

breath

or is it like the libertarians, founded by a non-employer employee (Rand), a government employee who lived off his pension (Heinlein), MIC science flunkies (many SF writers), ARPANET-derivative employees, and the billions-inheriting Hunt and Koch brothers

[Bolo Boffin]

32. Christ, what an asshole.

Money that could have protected his employees went to foster ill will and hate. Ugh.

[spanone]

33. that's because those dammed liberal democrats want to protect the miners with regulation

we fucking can't have that now, can we???? F U C K
H I M

this was an accident waiting to happen

[Grassy Knoll]

34. Wow, great priorities....

A hate Obama group or safety for your employees.
Looks like the survivors will need government run health care.
What a sad pathetic man.

[Tutonic]

35. Ted Nugent? OK . I'll accept that.

But I'm trying to figure out what the remaining $999,997 was spent on.

[tabasco]

36. Give me five minutes in a room with this puke asshole.

[Stinky The Clown]

37. The hell of it is, he probably finds the tea partiers disgusting, too.

They're simply useful idiots who will vote for more useful idiots who will undo laws that might force him to actually do things to keep his miners safe.

Useful idiots like this guy: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8101700

[Mopar151]

49. I hate being right sometimes

I posted this rant last Friday, describing the violence enthusiasts among the teabaggers. In my ignorance, I did'nt have a name for their backers/enslavers - now I do.

"But these fuckin morons have been waiting all their lives for SOMEBODY to be scared of them. What the FBI and BATF did at Ruby Ridge and Waco was incredibly stupid - incompetence like that should have resulted in prision terms. But loot at haw the recent case of tax protesters Ed and Elaine Brown was handled, and we are seeing a new model - same thing with the Hutaree.
Listen, you stooopid bastids! It does'nt matter how many cops you murder, how many innocents you slaughter. You will not advance your cause in any way, you will not get to be boss! The people who enslave you are not in the White House, they don't come near smelly fools like you. They ride in executive helicopters and private jets, and they are using the threat of you to delay the day they have to pay their fair share of taxes, or get on the same airplane as you. if it takes killing 10 of your children to make their lawn greener, they are fine with that. You are being set up to be their goon squads, their mine police, their Klan - to make war on unions, on liberal churches, on social workers, on educated professionals and skilled craftsmen, on miners and millhands - for the security of the rich, to grind us "back where we belong" - begging for work at starving wages, building castles for the rich while our world falls apart."

[lunasun]

38. Thom Hartmann blurps today on the radio today reveal a real creep

of a guy with lotsa $$$$ to spend spreading his propaganda
A BIG thanks for the link to C+L to hear the whole thing:puke:

also he sez he spent time in china recently and the first thing that goes in these government run places is your nice car and then you are on public transportation then walking...huh?=is he referring to china's big surge in auto use ???? say what Hasn't the opposite happened?? I think he shouldn't call others crazy when he himself appears demented

[bullwinkle428]

46. Blankenship shows what an ignorant assclown he is by

citing China - they've gone completely loco/off the rails with free market capitalism! They've only retained the brutal authoritarian dictatorship part of their communist-ruled days!

[diane in sf]

39. Shouldn't they be spending that money to make their mines safe???

[BrklynLiberal]

40. What a typical repuke POS..

[HughMoran]

41. This evil fuck needs to go down

He supports that right-wing Chamber too - this person couldn't be a bigger scumbag.

[Lifelong Protester]

42. Massey was fined only $168,000 last year, for safety violations

and that amount, according to NBC news, is what Massey makes in....ONE HOUR. Do you think they take safety seriously? Why would they with those paltry fines to be levied. It isn't as if this asshat has a soul, so it there isn't anything else (like human decency) to make him want to do the right thing.

[will_in_chicago]

57. Hit them where it hurts

If money is the only thing that some employers value, increase the fines by a factor of 100 or more. I hate to say it, but there are some Americans who want a return to the 1890s. Some may even want a new version of feudalism, with most of us as serfs.

[oasis]

44. Hey Tea-baggers, how's that "grass-rootsey" thing workin' out for ya?

:P

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

45. he refuses to hire union labor

and has pretty much purchased the political system.

[OhioBlue]

48. yep - he hates unions

my Uncle worked for him - was one of a very few that was grandfathered in under the Union. Massey is openly hostile to Unions.

[Raster]

58. "openly hostile to unions" doesn't even begin to cut it. Massey's goon squads have beaten

"would be" union organizers with axe handles, they've threatened families and used false accusation and innuendo to run whole families out of mining towns. Blankenship is not a good guy, in any measure of the word. In Blankenship's world, mine safety is something to be marginalized because it interferes with profit. Legal regulation is something to be openly derided. In the land of King Coal, Massey rules the roost and Blankenship is outright royalty. He owns--to one degree or another--just about any politician of note wherever he does business.

[myrna minx]

51. K&R n/t

[liberal N proud]

52. I would guess that many miners in WV are tea baggers as well

Not intending to detract from the tragedy and the loss these people are suffering, but we must remember that most of West Virginia would vote against their own best interest every election.

I would guess that people like Blankenship are partially responsible for that right wing political atmosphere within the region.

[mountaincoco]

69. Miners in WV are tea baggers? Where are YOU from?

I would really like to know why you think that most of WV would vote against their own interests...and are Tea Baggers to boot! Are YOU from West Virginia? I think not. I am, and you might be surprised to see that most of us, especially miners (many of whom are members of the United Mine Workers) are Democrats. Blankenship's mines, with the exception of one, are non-union shops, but that is rare. Blankenship is a powerful capitalist who supports right-wing ideologues, and has been slapped down by the Supreme Court. His candidates usually can't get elected here. The few he did get elected have now been tainted by his blood money.

I really hate to see people denigrate West Virginians because they think that we are all stupid, and can't make decisions in our best interests. That is not the case. This is a rugged state with strong, proud (and smart) people. So, please, I ask you to think again...most West Virginians would NOT vote against their own best interests every election. They have a Democratic Governor, a Democratic House and Senate, and so I cannot understand why you believe that they are too stupid to make good decisions for themselves, unless you think yourself better and more aware than we are. You cannot believe everything that you read or see on TV, and I hope that one day, you'll visit us and rid yourselves of these biases. I am also African American, and I would be very surprised if you felt bold enough to use the very same derisive language against people of another race. I think that if you switched "West Virginia" for "Hispanics" or "African Americans", you would easily be accused of being a racist. So, if that is indeed the case, what do you think about your statement now?

By the way, Tea Baggers are people that have way too much free time on their hands to dream up conspiracy theories about government takeovers and how President Obama is really a reincarnation of Hitler. West Virginia's miners are hard working, proud people who are WORKING so that you can turn the lights on and have heat in your house. They don't have time to Tea Bag or any other form of protest. Try going down in a mine one day, and you'll see how much free time and energy you would have to engage in political mental masturbation. I am not a miner, and none of my family is, either. Show some respect and decency for the tragedy, and keep your condescending views in check.

[mod mom]

53. Imprison the bastard and make an example of him.

[Omaha Steve]

54. Great post

K&R!

[marmar]

56. Quelle surprise !!!!

nt

[lonestarnot]

59. One look at that pig, and no one needed to say one word.

:puke:

[liberation]

60. How more obvious do they have to make their contempt for the average citizen?

Good grief. When is it enough?

[Mari333]

63. anyone send this to Rachel Maddow?

[era veteran]

66. Things never change

This won't change anything either. It's a shame.

[harun]

67. Astro-turfers.

[Mari333]

68. k

[MrScorpio]

70. Talk about the banality of evil nt

[Electric Monk]

71. kick