UTAH GOVERNOR: MINE OWNER'S BEHAVIOR "UNCONSCIONABLE"

From the Salt Lake Tribune courtesy of AlterNet:

Earlier Thursday at his monthly news conference on KUED-TV, Huntsman lashed out at Murray for what he called callous treatment of the mine victims' families leading up to his announcement that the men were likely dead and would have to be entombed in the mountain.

"There ought to be some modicum of respect for their human dignity and what [victims' families] are experiencing," Huntsman said.

Although he avoided using Murray's name, Huntsman made it clear his criticism was aimed at the outspoken chief executive of Murray Energy. "I'm not going to get into the mine owner other than to say I thought the way the families were treated was unconscionable and they deserved better."

Murray has said Huntsman's push for an independent state investigation of the tragedy was a political ploy.

"No one is playing politics with this situation," Huntsman responded. His appointment of Matheson, his Democratic opponent in the 2004 election, shows mine safety transcends politics, he said.

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From the moment I saw that motherfucker get in front of the television cameras the day after the cave-in and launch an unprovoked attack on the miners union, even though workers at Crandall Canyon aren't unionized, and then assert that the disaster was caused by an earthquake, despite the fact that every seismologist in the country was asserting the opposite, I knew that Robert Murray is one sleazy son of a bitch. "Playing politics," indeed. Murray's been playing politics from the beginning. The anti-union blast is in anticipation of the political fallout that's bound to come from this and other recent mining disasters, and all this "earthquake" nonsense is simply rhetorical cover from the inevitable lawsuits by grieving family members who will have a very good chance of winning. While the Crandall Canyon operation hasn't been cited with any safety violations recently, several of Murray's other operations have. One mine in Illinois had "at least 2,787 violations and more than $2.4 million in proposed fines from the Mine Safety and Health Administration over a two-year span." All the safety record at Crandall Canyon means is that Murray was getting away with it there.

Well now that it's looking like those six miners are dead, there are going to be investigations out the ass, and I'm quite sure that Murray knows he's in deep shit. I hope they fry the motherfucker.

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