Massey Denies It Prevented Miners From Attending Funerals

By GottaLaff

Earlier, I posted about Massey Energy refusing to allow time off for miners who wanted to attend their loved ones’ funerals.

They're denying it.

Massey spokesman Troy Andes:

“We know of no instances when miners were denied a request to attend a funeral.”

They know of no instances. Maybe someone simply forgot to tell them. Or they did this:

The Washington Independent also reminds us that even if this wasn't a Massey policy, it might have been enforced by subsidiaries who actually run the mines and have their own rules.

Massey Coal: No Time off for Miners to Attend Friends’ Funerals

By GottaLaff

A sign outside a West Virginia vigil for coal miners who lost their lives in the Upper Big Branch explosion on April 5 (EPA/ZUMApress.com)

If Massey's CEO, Don Blankenship, had been confronted by strong unions, things might have been different. Lives might have been saved, and this despicable turn of events might have been avoided.

Via the Washington Independent:

Massey Energy, the Virginia-based coal giant that runs the Upper Big Branch Mine, has denied time off for miners to attend their friends’ funerals; has rejected makeshift memorials outside the mine site; and, in at least one case, required a worker to go on shift even though the fate of a relative — one of the victims of the April 5 disaster — remained unknown at the time, according to some family members and other sources familiar with those episodes. In short, the company might be taking heat for putting profits and efficiency above its workers, but it doesn’t appear to have changed its tune in the wake of the worst mining tragedy in 40 years.

Remember the scene in Miracle on 34th Street, when Kris Kringle is talking to Alfred, the Macy janitor and Alfred laments...



That's all that matters to Massey: profit. Profit over lives. The very people who make him money are expendable. But dollars aren't.

“They told my husband, ‘You’ve got a job to do and you’re gonna do it,’” said the wife of one Massey miner, referring to the funerals he’s missed this month for friends who died in the blast. “What else are we gonna do?”

What else, indeed.

The culture of fear is everywhere. It's in politics, it's at gun rallies, at Tea Bagger protests, white supremacist gatherings, and now it's directed at those who lost loved ones:

“I guarantee it: Massey’s already told these guys, ‘Hey, don’t say nothin’. You’re not talking to no reporters. You’re not saying nothin’ about our safety record — or you won’t have a job,’” said Chuck Nelson, a former Massey miner who’s since become an environmental activist with the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition. “That’s the way they operate.”

That's the way they operate. There isn't a heart anywhere in Blankenship's body. He and Cheney should start a club.

Massey wouldn't even let a mourner hang a wreath at the entrance to the mine. Nice people skills, Don. Bully much?

“When we were all union, if there was something that came up, it wasn’t no problem at all to shut that mine down until everything was fixed.” said Nelson, who worked for nearly 20 years in union mines before Massey took over. “Non-union [workers], they ain’t got that right.”

Massey ain't got nothin' right.

H/t: hapkidogal

Right-wing blogger Dan Riehl: "Isn't It Time To Euthanize Reid's Wife?"

By GottaLaff

You're all well aware of the serious automobile crash that Harry Reid's wife and daughter recently experienced. Mrs. Reid has suffered very serious, longterm injuries. I can't imagine the pain she must be in.

Alan Colmes just pointed me to a post about it... a nasty, disgusting post. Dan Riehl needs to be exposed for the heartless sicko that he is:

If Democrats want so badly to abort babies [...] why are we bothering with someone who has a broken neck and back at 69? It sounds to me like she's pretty well used up and has probably been living off the taxpayers for plenty of years [...]

I don't see that she's worth it at this point, frankly. I can't recall her ever doing anything for me.

And it is, after all, all about Danny Boy, who seems pretty "used up" himself.

Yes, it's all about him: The car accident. The frantic worry about Reid's family. The horror and physical suffering. Wow, how could that insensitive Landra Reid allowed herself to end up hospitalized after all Riehl has done for her?

Come on, Harry - do your civic duty. [...] Pull the plug and get back to work. And don't bill us for a full day today, either. [...] Air freight her home, you can bury her during recess on your own time and dime. Or are you going to bill us for that, too?

I'd love the media to get hold of this story and put this guy out of business, allowing him to join the ranks of the unemployed.

That way he could very well find himself without medical coverage. Wouldn't that be ironic?

Then let's see how he'd feel about the pain of living in the Riehl world.

UPDATE: Celtic Diva has more.

Iraqis want Blackwater deal voided

By GottaLaff

The other day, I posted about Blackwater cutting a deal with Iraqis, a deal that didn't go over too well with many of them. They're not too fond of their family members and friends being murdered by mercenaries, followed by hearing that their lives were worth a few lousy bucks, that poor wittle Blackwater was about to become penniless, and finally, being told to just go away.

In fact, now we discover that they were forced into a deal:

Several victims of a 2007 shooting involving American private security guards employed by the firm formerly known as Blackwater alleged Sunday that they were coerced into reaching settlements, and they demanded that the Iraqi government intervene to have the agreements nullified.

The Iraqis said they were pressured by their own attorneys into accepting what they now believe are inadequate settlements because they were told the company was about to file for bankruptcy, that its chairman was going to be arrested and that the U.S. government was about to confiscate all of the firm's assets. This would be their last chance to get any compensation, the victims said they were told.

When criminal charges against the guards were dismissed by a U.S. federal judge on Dec. 31, the Iraqis concluded that they had been duped and that Blackwater, now called Xe, was not in the kind of legal and financial trouble they had been led to believe. [...]

The settlements were reached last fall in meetings at Baghdad's Rasheed Hotel, where the claimants say they were required to sign a paper, written in English, and make videotaped testimony in Arabic, relinquishing all future claims against the company.

Short version: We get to kill your loved ones indiscriminately, shove a few dollars at you, lie to you, and tell you to shut up and get lost.

Xe worst.

Tea Bagger Photoshops his "N Word" sign on website

By GottaLaff

Typical of the Tea Baggers. Remember this?


Whaddya know. The Big Brave Illiterate TeaBagger went all limp on himself and dicked around with his own sign on his own website (photo at link).

Take a look at his lame attempt at a whitewash. Cowardice: One more pathetic trait of the party that wants to take over America.

H/t: Markos

Blackwater to Iraqis: Your lives are worth $100K, take it or leave it

By GottaLaff

It's nice to know Blackwater values life so highly. And here I thought a human being's life was worth only a couple of hundred dollars. What was I thinking?

The security firm formerly known as Blackwater has reached a settlement in seven civil lawsuits filed against it by families of Iraqis killed during what the suits called "senseless slaughter" by company guards. [...]

In Baghdad on Thursday, a shooting victim who has not settled said he still wanted the guards prosecuted in criminal court.

"Iraqi blood is not that cheap," said Mehdi Abu Zaman, 45, who said he lost his sight after being shot. "The civil suit is not enough. There is no justification for this. If they gave me all the money in the world, my vision will not come back."

Another wounded man, Sami Hawas Hamoud Abu Iz, told the Associated Press that the company had offered $100,000 to each family of a person who died and $30,000 to those wounded. He said plaintiffs' lawyers told victims they might not receive anything if they did not agree to a settlement.

Brown lives are on special, apparently. As for wounded brown people? They're worth less than a Ford Taurus.

That Xe, er, Blackwater, er, Xe... they just ooze generosity and love of their fellow man:

The civil suits alleged that Blackwater "fostered a culture of lawlessness amongst its employees, encouraging them to act in the company's financial interests at the expense of innocent human life."

The suits alleged that some of the "shooters," as the plaintiffs said the guards were known, were "chemically influenced by steroids and other judgment-altering substances."

The suits accused Prince of making "a series of verbal and written statements that evidenced his support of the wanton killing of those of the Islamic faith."

Their consistent high regard for human life is illustrated here, too, via Jeremy Scahill.

Go here for more.

VIDEO: Shadegg Uses Baby as Prop During Health Care Debate

By GottaLaff



I wanted to "spit up", and wished Maddy had.

Yes, John Shadegg actually used an innocent infant as a prop, spoke baby talk, and provided us with nothing more than what was most likely in Maddy's diaper at the time. And for this, he got applause.

The collective (im)maturity of the Rushpublic side of the aisle doesn't come close to measuring up to Maddy's level of sophistication.

How utterly humiliating.

Afterthought: Did the Rushpublics start up a new recession era business... Loaner babies?

Losing NY-23 is "what we set out to do—crush the establishment-based GOP candidate”

By GottaLaff

Meet Erick Erickson

We've all heard of Dumb and Dumber. Meet Sick and Sicker:

[Erick] Erickson, who runs the influential Web site RedState.com, drew fire on Wednesday from Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, after Erickson expressed glee over the outcome of New York’s hotly contested 23rd Congressional District race. With help from Sarah Palin and Dick Armey, Erickson had led the online charge to drive the GOP favorite, Dede Scozzafava, from the race, believing her to be too moderate. Erickson’s preferred candidate went on to lose to a Democrat—handing the GOP its first loss in this Adirondacks-based district in more than 100 years. Erickson nonetheless declared victory, saying he’d done “exactly what we set out to do—crush the establishment-based GOP candidate.”

Hear that establishment-based GOP? I love the smell of Rushpublic civil war in the morning.

Now let's see what kind of guy good ol' Erick McErickErick is:

[A]t times his red-meat rhetoric has gotten him into trouble on the local and national stage. After he wrote on Twitter that retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter was “the only goatf---ing child molester to ever serve on the Supreme Court,” he told the local Macon Telegraph that he regretted the remark, although he “felt good at the time saying it.”

Erickson said he knows he sometimes crossed the line, “but at the same time you do want to excite and inspire on your own side.”

Thriving on uncivil instant gratification is so mature.

And how reassuring for our country to know that "his side" is excited and inspired by filth.

Imagine if a Democrat had said those words about Scalia.

And then imagine if after we did, we said this:

[...] "I know I’m right,” he said. “I’m talking to my own side, rallying the troops to take action. I want to make things happen. I want to blow things up and get things done.”

Erick is a sad example of the miserable, hateful bunch is trying to breathe life into a dying party. How ironic that he, and those like him, will succeed at nothing more than killing it.

VIDEO: Meet Pamela Pilger, the Nutcase Who Yelled 'Heil Hitler' at a Jewish Supporter of Health Care Reform

By GottaLaff



Yesterday I posted the video of Potty Pam Pilger screaming "Heil Hitler" at a Jewish man, and then mocking him in the most abrasively despicable way. The above video is an interview with her after that little outburst.

Now we've learned that she's "privatized" her Facebook page, and more:

Pilger was also quoted by one of the local news stations at the town hall:

"I don't care what they do with this health care bill. It will not pay for abortions. If somebody wants to go outand have wild sex, for the fun of it, then they can pay for the consequences. I'm not going to," said Pamela Pilger who was at the meeting and opposed the plan. [...]

Also, Pilger's husband appears to be a McCain/Palin '08 domain squatter, and a Wonkette tipster pointed out that she's wearing an Israeli Defense Forces t-shirt! Irony!

As they say, it's all about the company you keep... right, Rushpublics?

VIDEO: Townhall woman mocks Jewish man, yells ‘Heil Hitler’

By GottaLaff

My blood is boiling. I have no words. None. Just watch:

I am not a violent person at all, but I badly want to smack this woman, or at the very least, kick her sorry, insensitive, despicable, anti-Semitic ass out of that town hall:

Conservatives have strenuously denied that there is any anti-Semitism on display by anti-health reform protesters at town hall meetings nationwide — despite all the evidence to the contrary. Last week, Las Vegas radio station KDWN AM720 sponsored a “contentious” town hall, emceed by conservative morning show host Heidi Harris. At the event, local news stations were interviewing an Israeli man who was praising the “fantastic” “national health care” in Israel.

The video tells the rest of the story. Seriously, I'm shaking mad.

NBC promotes latest Ann Coulter book despite previous condemnations

By GottaLaff

The Madam's Apple is back:

Dear Friend, As you know, Ann Coulter has a long history of making controversial statements. In media appearances and her syndicated column, Coulter has likened President-elect Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler repeatedly, called Al Gore a "total fag," and written that without affirmative action, African-American Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) couldn't get a job "that didn't involve wearing a paper hat." She has also repeatedly discussed potential acts of violence against people she doesn't like or with whom she disagrees, including saying of Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens: "We need somebody to put rat poison in Justice Stevens' crème brulee." » Call NBC and ask why they are reportedly again helping Coulter promote her latest book despite past condemnations by NBC staff for her history of reprehensible comments. Despite this long and well-documented history of controversial statements, NBC has once again reportedly invited Coulter to promote her latest book on its airwaves. On Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, during a segment in which she called Obama an "atheist" and asked if "we could get all of his aliases before he's sworn in on the Quran," Coulter announced that she is scheduled to appear on the January 6, 2009, broadcast of NBC's Today. Enough is enough. Even NBC-affiliated hosts and anchors have expressed disgust over some of Coulter's more offensive rhetoric. Today co-host Meredith Vieira has acknowledged that the media are part of the problem, saying "we're perpetuating it." » Call NBC and ask why they are reportedly again helping Coulter promote her latest book despite past condemnations by NBC staff for her history of reprehensible comments. It is time to hold NBC accountable. In light of both her history and the numerous condemnations of her by NBC staff, the network should reconsider reportedly providing her with a platform from which to make these comments. Call NBC today and let them know what you think. Thank you for your continued support. Eric Burns President Media Matters for America P.S. Invite your friends, family, and co-workers to call NBC as well. Forward them this important message -- Click Here.

---

Good ol' corporate network news.

The ugly Bush stain: Interior Dep't. tainted nearly every decision on endangered species

By GottaLaff

This ugly Bush stain isn't from one of his New Rules. No, this one has some major history and is one of the biggest, ugliest, most horrendous stains imaginable:

A high-ranking Interior Department official tainted nearly every decision made on the protection of endangered species over five years, a new inspector general report finds, concluding she exerted improper political interference on many more rulings than previously thought.

Julie MacDonald, a former deputy assistant secretary overseeing the Fish and Wildlife Service, did pervasive harm to the department's morale and integrity and may have risked the well-being of species with her agenda, Interior Inspector General Earl Devaney said in his report out Monday.

Okay, stop right there. "May have risked the well-being of species with her agenda". Species. In other words, she played god. But her god isn't kind and loving. Her god kills in huge numbers. How's that for compassion?

The Interior Department last year reversed seven rulings that denied endangered species increased protection, after an investigation found that MacDonald had applied political pressure in those cases. The new report looked at nearly two dozen other endangered species decisions not examined in the earlier report. It found MacDonald directly interfered with at least 13 decisions and indirectly affected at least two more.

MacDonald, a civil engineer with no formal training in natural sciences, resigned in May 2007. Department employees reported that they used her name as a verb — encountering political interference from senior managers was called "getting MacDonalded."

I'd like to tell her to get Cheney'd.

She resigned weeks after the report by Devaney last year found that she broke federal rules and should face punishment for leaking information about endangered species to private groups. That report also said MacDonald censored science and mistreated staff.

What a perfect person to have been given unlimited power over living beings, including her own staff.

The new investigation reaffirmed those findings and said MacDonald's influence was even more far-reaching. It also faulted her boss, former Assistant Secretary Craig Manson, as well as several other high-ranking Interior officials, including Randal Bowman, a special assistant to Manson, and Thomas Graf, a department lawyer. [...]

Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., said the findings "paint a picture of something akin to a secret society residing within the Interior Department that was colluding to undermine the protection of endangered wildlife and covering for one another's misdeeds."

She should be dropped off at the North Pole. Let's see if she does as well as the polar bears.

KBR gave troops ice tainted with ‘traces of body fluids and putrefied remains'

By GottaLaff

Support the troops:

A former technician who worked for contracting company KBR in Iraq has filed a class-action lawsuit saying the company “exposed everyone at Joint Base Balad in Iraq to unsafe water, food and hazardous fumes from the burn pit there.” Joshua Eller’s suit includes particularly disturbing charges about KBR’s indifference to proper sanitization and the disposal of human remains:

The lawsuit also accuses KBR of shipping ice in mortuary trucks that “still had traces of body fluids and putrefied remains in them when they were loaded with ice. This ice was served to U.S. forces.”

Eller also accuses KBR of failing to maintain a medical incinerator at Joint Base Balad, which has been confirmed by two surgeons in interviews with Military Times about the Balad burn pit. Instead, according to the lawsuit and the physicians, medical waste, such as needles, amputated body parts and bloody bandages were burned in the open-air pit.

“Wild dogs in the area raided the burn pit and carried off human remains,” the lawsuit states. “The wild dogs could be seen roaming the base with body parts in their mouths, to the great distress of the U.S. forces.”

What does it take to throw these putrid little sadistic slugs at KBR into prison, serve them the same quality of food and water as they've given our military, and then finally, throw away the key?

VIDEO: Witness the hypocrisy of Gramm-pa McCain on robocalls

By GottaLaff

Background here and here. If you haven't read those posts, please take a look before you watch this video. The hypocrisy is astounding.

If this is how he responds to the pressures of a losing campaign, imagine what he'd do under the much more intense stress of a world crisis against a "real" adversary. At this point, Britney Spears is showing better judgment. From Fox News Sunday:


H/t: SharonTomisakTX

Republican women's newsletter shows Obama surrounded by a watermelon, ribs and a bucket of fried chicken

By GottaLaff

More nausea-inducing racism. Get ready:

The latest newsletter by an Inland Republican women's group depicts Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama surrounded by a watermelon, ribs and a bucket of fried chicken, prompting outrage in political circles.

The October newsletter by the Chaffey Community Republican Women, Federated says if Obama is elected his image will appear on food stamps -- instead of dollar bills like other presidents. The statement is followed by an illustration of "Obama Bucks" -- a phony $10 bill featuring Obama's face on a donkey's body, labeled "United States Food Stamps."

I'm just bowled over by Republicans' sharp intellect and well-developed senses of humor.

The group's president, Diane Fedele, said she plans to send an apology letter to her members and to apologize at the club's meeting next week. She said she simply wanted to deride a comment Obama made over the summer about how as an African-American he "doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills."

Oh, pish-posh! Think nothing of it! That's what we all do when we get annoyed by a comment: Publish vile racist tripe.

She said she doesn't think in racist terms, pointing out she once supported Republican Alan Keyes, an African-American who previously ran for president.

I can't be sure, but I bet some of her best friends are African Americans.

"I didn't see it the way that it's being taken. I never connected," she said. "It was just food to me. It didn't mean anything else."

She said she also wasn't trying to make a statement linking Obama and food stamps, although her introductory text to the illustration connects the two: "Obama talks about all those presidents that got their names on bills. If elected, what bill would he be on????? Food Stamps, what else!"

Hey Diane, you're a despicable, bigoted slimebally piece of fecal matter who is beneath contempt. But don't worry. I wasn't trying to make a statement linking you to racists or excrement. I don't see it the way it's being taken. I never connected. It's just words to me. It didn't mean anything else.

H/t: Clancy

Top Tampa GOP Figure Circulates Joke About Killing Obama

By GottaLaff

What is wrong with these cretins? Do they not realize, or care, that they are inciting hatred and violence?

Al Austin, a longtime, high-level Republican fundraiser from Tampa, today sent to his list of political contacts an e-mail containing a joke that refers to the assassination of Barack Obama.

Oh-h-h, it's a joke! Why didn't he just say that to begin with? We all love a good joke. Especially when it's about murdering a presidential candidate who happens to be black. That's a riot. Or it will be if this kind of despicable behavior continues.

When asked about the e-mail, Austin said it was a mistake and apologized and that he wouldn’t knowingly have circulated it. He said he planned to send an apology and retraction to the same e-mail list.

A retraction should take care of everything. Nothing says, "Put down your nooses and shotguns!" like a hasty e-mailed retraction.

Okay, so stop me if you've heard this one before. Tell it to the kids. They can share it with their little friends:

The joke concerns a group of schoolchildren discussing the definition of “tragedy” as opposed to “great loss” or “accident.” The punch line comes when one child says that if an airplane carrying Obama and his wife, Michelle, “was struck by a ‘friendly fire’ missile and blown to smithereens,” the event might be a tragedy “because it certainly wouldn’t be a great loss, and it probably wouldn’t be an accident either.”

How droll.

Austin acknowledged sending the e-mail to his list of political contacts but said he forwarded it without fully reading it and didn’t know what it said. That list included at least two reporters.

Once again, the Republican party proves that the Peter Principle is alive and well.

This poor excuse for a maggot needs to be fired. Now.

The racist solution

By GottaLaff

I'm sorry to do this to you, but get ready:

Now imagine if Obama supporters posted the equivalent of this about IWRC* Palin or Gramm-pa McCain.

It seems like the pushback over this disturbing image made the blogger responsible for nonsense to delete his post.

...but is he remorseful?

Well, it is gone. I'll tell you why. The point of the posting was being lost and the post itself was becoming the story. Which I never wanted to happen.

The point is, I made the far left have a knee jerk reaction. I also gave them something to talk about.

Again, as I stated in the actual posting itself, I never, ever wished any harm come to Obama, at all. I was simply making a point and doing exactly what the left is doing to Sarah Palin.

This is what we're doing to IWRC? Really? Has anyone seen any Democrat anywhere post any graphic images encouraging her murder?

This is what it's come to. The Republican party has self-destructed. It's devolved into a vast stinking garbage heap of malignant bigotry.

Hypocritical Republican pretense of patriotism and flag pins is now reduced to nothing more than fomenting hate and violence. It's despicable, outrageous, and... well, if I had a functioning brain today, I'd come up with something more coherent. At this point, any other words that comes to mind are unprintable.

*"In What Respect, Charlie?"

H/t: Chris

AP: IWRC* Palin's words carry racial tinge

By GottaLaff

IWRC* has a big mouth that spews hatred. That little attack on Obama about Ayers? It could backfire on Gramm-pa McCain:

“…her attack was unsubstantiated and carried a racially tinged subtext that John McCain himself may come to regret.”

“Palin’s words avoid repulsing voters with overt racism. But is there another subtext for creating the false image of a black presidential nominee ‘palling around’ with terrorists while assuring a predominantly white audience that he doesn’t see their America?”

“Whether intended or not by the McCain campaign, portraying Obama as ‘not like us’ is another potential appeal to racism. It suggests that the Hawaiian-born Christian is, at heart, un-American.”

“When the 2008 campaign is over McCain might regret appeals such as Palin’s perhaps more so if he wins.”

More here, but take a look at one more excerpt:

John McCain occasionally looks back on decisions with regret. He has apologized for opposing a holiday to honor Martin Luther King Jr. He has apologized for refusing to call for the removal of a Confederate flag from South Carolina's Capitol.

Which brings us right back to this.

*"In What Respect, Charlie?"

H/t: Jack