Stoking the Coal Fire

Did anyone else catch the end of Wednesday morning's NPR story on the tragedy at Massey's Upper Branch Mine? For those with the stomach, here it is again. NPR quoted S&P Equity as reporting that Massey Energy was again, a good buy for investors. S&P Equity wrote, "We believe that the financial impact of the Upper Big Branch mine tragedy to Massey Energy will be immaterial."

This must be comforting news to the families who lost loved ones--at least the shares of stock they own in the company that cost their loved one's their lives won't decrease in value as a result of the repeated pattern of safety violations and negligence perpetrated by Massey Energy against its employees and the communities they live in.

If the stock price of Massey Energy remains unaffected by the 29 lives lost in the largest U.S. mining disaster in decades, then it must be a safe bet that CEO Don Blankenship, will continue receiving the $19.7 million annual salary he receives at the helm of the 4th largest energy company in the U.S. Mr. Blankenship earns more PER DAY than the Massey employees who were killed earned per year.

Mr. Blankenship earns that kind of money, because he understands what it takes to keep the stock price of an energy company like Massey steady, in spite of the 29 deaths 2 weeks ago, the 16 deaths between 2000-2007, the thousands of citations levied against the Upper Branch Mine for both safety and environmental negligence, the growing concern over mountaintop mining promoted by Massey Energy, and millions of dollars in contested EPA fines. Yes, Mr. Blankenship, knows how to play this game--he is not surprisingly anti-union, anti-regulation, and routinely lines the pockets of election campaigns for officials like Brent Benjamin who would eventually help overturn a $50 million judgement against Massey Energy.

S&P Equity is absolutely right. Unless we as educated consumers, outraged citizens, and voters commit to demanding immediate change, miners who make less in one year than Mr. Blankenship makes in one day, will continue to die, so CEOs like him can take home $380,000 per week and keep the stock prices of their companies "immaterially" affected by the social devastation caused by their unmitigated greed.

It is time to demand that pension fund managers holding Massey Energy stock over the dead bodies of those 29 recently killed employees, insist on Blankenship's firing and criminal prosecution. We must demand that the EPA collect the millions of dollars owed by Massey Energy for past-due safety and environmental citations. Finally, as educated consumers and compassionate citizens we must refuse to do business with companies like Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase Bank, Wendy's, and Arby's who support companies like Massey Energy that repeatedly exploit and endanger their employees while contributing to the destruction of our communities and environments.

For more information on companies to boycott or ways to get involved, visit Boycott Mountaintop Removal Supporters or http://www.ilovemountains.org/.

Secular Socialism...Boo!

At the recent Southern Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans, GOP leaders such as Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, and Liz Cheney took turns explaining why Obama was doing such a horrible job as Commander-in-Chief. Gingrich was quick to paint Obama as the new Voodoo chieftain of "the most radical administration in American history." Gingrich used the term, certain to become the new bogeyman epitaph, "secular socialist machine." Sounds pretty bad doesn't it?

This got me wondering, did any of these folks really have a clue what was being said, with the term "secular socialist," or was everyone just reacting to words supercharged in the vernacular of evangelical capitalists?

Take the word secular, heretofore tossed in front of another Voodoo word, humanist. You may remember these heathens as the people who insisted on doing good in the world based on a moral code that didn't necessarily include a God as the evangelicals understood God. Definitely radical stuff.

These secular radicals aren't as new as Gingrich et al. might have us believe. It was secular radicals like Locke and Voltaire over 200 years ago, that influenced the secular radicals that founded the United States, and wrote a secular Constitution to govern the new Republic. Mr. Gingrich may recollect from his historical study that many of the preeminent founders of this country were by no means orthodox Christians. In fact Washington, Franklin, Hancock, LaFayette, Hamilton, and others, practiced Freemasonry--a very tolerant, inclusive form of deism that many evangelical capitalists might call secular today.

The United States was, in fact, founded by thinkers who recognized the importance and value of secularism in democracy.

Really, is socialism still a nasty word? It's been kicked around recently and brandished almost as much as it was in Senator McCarthy's time--back when we were convinced that folks like Pete Seeger would bring us to our political knees!

Let's look at the top 30 countries in the Economic Freedom of the World Index. This index measures what capitalist's hold near and dear to their hearts. GOP leaders like Palin, Gingrich, and Cheney will find at least some common ground in the values of countries that promote economic freedom among their citizens. At least 22 of the top 30 countries in the Economic Freedom of the World Index have a form of Universal Health Care System. This criteria alone, according to many of the evangelical capitalists, make them socialists. This 'socialist' list includes: New Zealand; Japan; Germany; Belgium; United Kingdom; Kuwait; Sweden; Canada; United Arab Emirates; Netherlands; Finland; Luxembourg; Denmark; France; Australia; Ireland; Portugal; Cyprus; Iceland; Hong Kong; Singapore; and Switzerland. In spite of the fact that they all have universal health care, and are socialists in at least this one regard, they are also some of the strongest allies to the United States. Some might even be secular socialists.

Before you folks pack up your Obama slam-fest there in New Orleans, maybe you can explain to the citizens of that fine city how they might have fared after the hurricane with a radical administration of secular socialists in office? Booga! Booga!