Crandall Canyon Mine Disaster blamed on MSHA, Murray Energy; Kennedy asks for criminal probe

From the Tribune, published 20 minutes ago:

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committed released a scathing report on Thursday laying blame for the tragedy also on the Mine Safety and Health Administration for missing "significant flaws" in engineering analysis of the mine and ignoring several red flags, including an earlier cave-in that the report says should have been more thoroughly probed.
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., says the report shows a need for a full, criminal investigation by the Department of Justice.
"The committee's investigation has revealed that the owner of Crandall Canyon mine, Murray Energy, disregarded dangerous conditions at the mine, failed to tell federal regulators about these dangers, conducted unauthorized mining and -- as a result -- exposed its miners to serious risks," Kennedy said in a statement. "MSHA also unconscionably failed to protect miners by hastily rubber-stamping the plan. This is a clear case of callous disregard for the law and for safety standards, and hardworking miners lost their lives."

Read the report here (PDF).

-Bob

Crandal Canyon is all the Gay people's fault

From CW Blog:

Just when you thought Westboro Baptist Church of Kansas' crazy train couldn't run any further off the rails, Fred Phelps & Co. are bringing their Tragical Misery Tour to Utah to protest … a memorial service for the six Huntington miners scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 9 at Canyon View Junior High. Yes, the righteous folk behind GodHatesFags.com sent City Weekly (a heathen organization on The List, we would hope) the following press release: "WBC to picket memorial service for six miners entombed forever in a Utah mountain by a sovereign God … In religious protest and warning: 'Be not deceived; God is not mocked,' Gal. 6:7. God hates fags and fag enablers! Ergo: God hates Utah and America, and is punishing sodomite, idolatrous, Mormon Utah and sodomite America with one disaster after another—from 9/11, Iraq, Katrina, fires, tornados, earthquakes, etc.—to worse and more of it coming. Putrid America is doomed."

First, I love the fact that this group considers Mormons to be too tolerant of gays (and, maybe if we listened to Church leadership on the issue more, we would be...).

However, if God was really that vengeful about gay people, why wouldn't He cause the distruction of San Fran, the SLC gay pride parade, and Sen Craig's office?

-Bob

I'm Not Surprised -- Crandal Canyon, Chinese Lead, Katrina, Iraq, Osama, Hanging Chads

I'm not surprised.

I'm not surprised that the government seems so clueless on mine safety. Upset, but not surprised.

This is, after all, the same government that can't seem to keep lead-contaminated toys off our shelves. The lead is coming in from China. China. The Communists. Surely, you would think that neocons could figure out that communists can't be trusted. That's what they won election with for many, many years. They'll still throw the C-word out when they are backed into a corner. I'm surprised they haven't tried to say that Saddam was a commie.

But, at the same time, I'm not surprised.

This is the same government that couldn't figure out how to get life-saving supplies like food and water into New Orleans. For 100 hours, they said it was impossible. Who cares that NBC and CNN were able to get private cars in and out. Fox News was able to get two satellite trucks in. But, the government, they couldn't figure it out. And that's not to mention they fact that we can airlift food and water into Pakistan 36 hours after an earthquake, but we can't pull it off in our own country. Let's not mention the fact that they turned private-sector charities away at gunpoint from going in.

Guess What? I'm not surprised.

After all, this is the government with the most powerful army in the world that has taken four and a half years to wage a war that we are no closer to winning than we were four and a half years ago.

But, I'm not surprised. This is the same government that has taken 6 years to catch the man who masterminded the worst terrorist attack on our soil. Except we haven't caught him.

But really, should I be surprised? This is the same government that, in answer to an election fiasco, has never addressed the causes of that fiasco. The problem wasn't the hanging chad, it was the fact that there was no definition of what constituted a vote on the ballot. Should we be surprised to learn that there is still no definition in most states?

No. Because it's par for the course.

-Bob

Waste of News Time

OK, I really wished I hadn't had to sit through this story on KSL tonight. I thought they had every angle on the Crandall Mine Disaster covered. I guess they didn't.

The difficulty of a mine rescue is directly tied to how far underground the miners are.

According to mine officials, the six miners are at least 1,500 feet underground. From the mine entrance they're about 15,840 feet into the mountain.

15,840 feet. That seems like a long way. How far is it?

That distance works out to be about three miles.

OK, Thanks. But, I wish someone would show me how far three miles is. I'm just not sure.

To illustrate how far that is, we zeroed out the odometer on an Eyewitness News truck at the Utah Capitol. We turned south onto State Street to gauge the distance.

The distance added up past landmarks like the Matheson courthouse, then eventually just out of downtown and to the intersection of 1700 South.

It's too bad they didn't use two landmarks that are about three miles apart. Since Salt Lake City banned me from dragging State, I'll never know how far those men are in the mine. The State Capitol to 1700 South State is just to obscure. Maybe if I just knew how far down it was...

To give you some perspective, 5 Triad Center, the 10-story building where KSL is located, is about 120 feet tall. That means the miners are the equivalent of 12 and a half Triad Centers underground.

God Bless you, Richard Piatt. Without you, I'd never know how far away we were from finding those men.

-Bob

A look at Bush's Appointees Over Mine Safety

I have been thinking about the incidents down at the Crandall Canyon Mine, and a thought occurred to me: Who is running the show in DC?

It's a question that comes up a lot.

Well, I have an answer.

Elaine Chao is the Secretary of Labor. She is the only member of Bush's first Cabinet still in their original position. Her "qualifications" to be Labor Secretary?

~BA in Economics from Mount Holyoke College. MBA from Harvard.
~Banker with Citigroup
~White House Fellow in 1983, worked in Office of Policy Development
~VP, Bank of America
~In 1986, Deputy Administrator of the Maritime Administration in the Department of Transportation
~Deputy Secretary of Transportation under GHWBush
~1991-1992 Director of Peace Corps
~1992-1996, President and CEO of United Way
~1996-2001, Distinguished Fellow, Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank.

The Department of Labor oversees the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). To be fair, The Assistant Secretary for Mine Safety, Richard Sickler, has a deep background in mining.

-Bob

Greater Love Hath No Man Than This.....

Cave-in kills three rescuers, halts underground effort to reach trapped miners

HUNTINGTON -- A catastrophic failure deep inside central Utah's Crandall Canyon Mine killed three rescue workers and cast grave doubt on whether a rescue mission to find six trapped miners should resume.
Those killed and the six others injured Thursday night were part of a perilous operation to find the missing miners, who were caught in a similar failure 12 days ago. They were burrowing through a rubble-choked tunnel when they were caught in seismic "bump," which can cause the walls of a mine tunnel to implode, at about 6:35 p.m., said Dirk Fillpot, a spokesperson for the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA).