Coal Miner's Grave - Hazel Dickens

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Comment by Fang1944 on July 15, 2010 at 7:24am

And today we learn that Massey shut off the methane detector because it was working the way it was supposed to.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128516777&...

Comment by Fang1944 on April 16, 2010 at 2:16pm

From Factcheck.org:

Massey’s Mining Money
April 9, 2010

The West Virginia coal mining disaster that took more than two dozen lives this week brought Massey Energy Corp., the nation’s fourth largest coal company, into the spotlight. The company and its CEO, Don Blankenship, have never been shy about involvement in the political process. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Massey’s political action committee plus individuals associated with the commpany have given more than $307,000 in all to federal candidates since the 1990 election cycle. The overwhelming majority – 91 percent – has gone to Republicans.
Blankenship spent several million dollars on top of that in a 2004 West Virginia Supreme Court race, becoming a poster boy for those who oppose traditionally funded judicial elections and the conflicts that attach themselves to campaign contributions in such races. Blankenship’s favored candidate, Brent Benjamin, won the election, and proceeded to rule in Massey’s favor in a case brought by a smaller coal company. The smaller firm claimed that Benjamin should have recused himself, taking the claim all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court. In June 2009, the Court agreed, saying in Caperton v. Massey that "the probability of actual bias on the part of the judge or decisionmaker is too high to be constitutionally tolerable.”
Blankenship likely never expected that his involvement in the court race would become an impetus for turning West Virginia into a model for those wanting to overhaul state judicial selection. Last month Gov. Joe Manchin signed into law a pilot program that will provide candidates for the state’s highest court with public financing in 2012, as long as they abide by voluntary spending limits. West Virginia is now just the fourth state to publicly finance judicial elections, along with North Carolina, New Mexico and Wisconsin.

Comment by eegriff on April 14, 2010 at 7:17pm

hazel dickens does have a number of coal mining songs. she is the main singer on the soundtrack for the documentary called "harlan county, USA." i highly recommend it. the cathy mattea coal mining cd is also good, she covers many of those old folk songs but her voice is more "mainstream" you might say. a lady named jean ritchie also has several coal mining folk songs. it is a whole genre of folk music closely related to labor songs in general. there are groups on facebook that are promoting charging don blankenship with the various crimes he is responsible for. on one of those groups, someone posted this link with some great rare songs on it: http://www.musicofcoal.com/music.htm i encourage everyone to join those facebook groups. just search groups by typing in don blankenship's name.

Comment by SmackontheWeb on April 13, 2010 at 10:45am

CEO of Mine Where 25 Workers Were Killed Is a Teabagger

Don Blankenship is CEO of Massey Energy Company and is also on the Board of Directors of the US Chamber of Commerce. 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." 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.


http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/massey-energy-don-blankenship-mill...

Comment by Van on April 13, 2010 at 7:25am

There is no more despicable individual than Don Blankenship, and no more despicable corporation than Massey on this planet.

Comment by Fang1944 on April 12, 2010 at 4:20pm

And here we see Blankenship getting all self-righeous about the evil government and global warming:

Comment by Fang1944 on April 11, 2010 at 5:03pm

I see from iTunes that Hazel Dickens has a number of songs about coal mining and appears on an album titled Coal Mining Women.

Another one to look at is Kathy Mattea's Coal.