The Chairman and Chief Executive Office of Murray Energy, Robert E. Murphy became notorious during the presidential campaign by allegedly forcing workers to go to a Romney rally. Now, Murray has responded to President Obama’s re-election with a prayer and dozens of layoffs.
The Ohio CEO declared that the reelection would continue a “war on coal” and announced a time for prayer and firings — proclaiming “Lord, please forgive me and anyone with me in Murray Energy Corp. for the decisions that we are now forced to make to preserve the very existence of any of the enterprises that you have helped us build.” It appears that he “did not build that” alone, to use an Obama phrase.
Murray then broke away from a request for the grace of God to laid off 54 people at American Coal, one of his subsidiary companies, and 102 at Utah American Energy.
You may recall Murray from the August 2007 mine collapse where six miners were trapped at the Crandall Canyon Mine in Utah.
Later, the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) hit the mine with its highest penalty for coal mine safety violations, $1.85 million. Murray would ultimately lobby heavily against new procedures needed to avoid such deaths in the future.
The employees this week were able to walk out of Murray’s company — a certain improvement. However, before being kicked out, the employees were given Murray’s prayer as solace on their way out the door:
Dear Lord:
The American people have made their choice. They have decided that America must change its course, away from the principals of our Founders. And, away from the idea of individual freedom and individual responsibility. Away from capitalism, economic responsibility, and personal acceptance.
We are a Country in favor of redistribution, national weakness and reduced standard of living and lower and lower levels of personal freedom.
My regret, Lord, is that our young people, including those in my own family, never will know what America was like or might have been. They will pay the price in their reduced standard of living and, most especially, reduced freedom.
The takers outvoted the producers. In response to this, I have turned to my Bible and in II Peter, Chapter 1, verses 4-9 it says, “To faith we are to add goodness; to goodness, knowledge; to knowledge, self control; to self control, perseverance; to perseverance, godliness; to godliness, kindness; to brotherly kindness, love.”
Lord, please forgive me and anyone with me in Murray Energy Corp. for the decisions that we are now forced to make to preserve the very existence of any of the enterprises that you have helped us build. We ask for your guidance in this drastic time with the drastic decisions that will be made to have any hope of our survival as an American business enterprise.
Amen.
Of course, he could not fire the “young people” in his “own family.” This is a familiar lament among some Romney supporters, including one at a Romney fundraiser at the Hamptons who stated:
“I don’t think the common person is getting it. Nobody understands why Obama is hurting them.
“We’ve got the message,” she added. “But my college kid, the baby sitters, the nails ladies — everybody who’s got the right to vote — they don’t understand what’s going on. I just think if you’re lower income — one, you’re not as educated, two, they don’t understand how it works, they don’t understand how the systems work, they don’t understand the impact.”
He is also not alone in threatening or actually firing people if Obama won. Indeed, a Utah CEO fired over 100 people and blamed it on Obama’s reelection. However, Murray does this all with a bit more religious fervor.
Source: Washington Post
The story keeps getting loopier by the minute, Elaine.
Get ready for a movie of the week!
Jill Kelley, Woman Who Sparked Petraeus Scandal, Ran Questionable Charity
Posted: 11/13/2012
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/13/jill-kelley-charity-david-petraeus_n_2124213.html
Excerpt:
WASHINGTON — Tampa, Fla., socialite and military hostess Jill Kelley, one of the women at the center of the ever-expanding scandal that brought down former CIA Director David Petraeus, founded a questionable charity for cancer patients with her surgeon husband, Scott Kelley.
Based out of the couple’s mansion, the Doctor Kelley Cancer Foundation claimed on its tax forms that it “shall be operated exclusively to conduct cancer research and to grant wishes to terminally ill adult cancer patients.”
From the records, it appears that the charity fell far short of its mission. While the origins of the seed money used to start the charity in 2007 are unclear, financial records reviewed by The Huffington Post reveal that the group spent all of its money not on research, but on parties, entertainment, travel and attorney fees.
By the end of 2007, the charity had gone bankrupt, having conveniently spent exactly the same amount of money, $157,284, as it started with — not a dollar more, according to its 990 financial form. Of that, $43,317 was billed as “Meals and Entertainment,” $38,610 was assigned to “Travel,” another $25,013 was spent on legal fees, and $8,822 went to “Automotive Expenses.”
The Kelleys also listed smaller expenses that appear excessive for a charity operating from a private home, including $12,807 for office expenses and supplies, and $7,854 on utilities and telephones.
Jill Kelley’s sister, Natalie Khawam, was listed as the only other officer of the charity. This past April, Khawam filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, listing more than $3.6 million in liabilities, including $53,000 owed to the Internal Revenue Service and $800,000 owed to her sister and brother-in-law.
Efforts to reach the Kelleys and Khawam were unsuccessful.
*****
New twists in Petraeus case: Another general accused of ‘inappropriate’ emails, ‘shirtless’ FBI agent taken off probe
By Liz Goodwin, Yahoo! News
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/twists-petraeus-case-another-general-accused-inappropriate-emails-162656131.html
)O
2) ff the books detention centers—of course they are.
This why, and why the CIA can’t do crap right.
1) CIA has no undercover officers to recruit agents in the Middle East.
2) CIA has only embassy-placed officers there.
3) CIA embassy officers are prime targets for disinformation for many reasons, economic, political, etc.
4) CIA needs places to detain and interrogate suspecs fingered by local disinfomation spreaders.
QED A tent in the desert will not do!
From Glenn Greenwald’s article today:
“(1) One of the claims made over the last week was that Broadwell, in public comments about the Benghazi attack, referenced non-public information – including that the CIA was holding prisoners in Benghazi and that this motivated the attack – suggesting that someone gave her classified information. About those claims, a national security reporter for Fox reported:
“that a well-placed Washington source confirms that Libyan militiamen were being held at the CIA annex and may have been a possible reason for the attack. Multiple intelligence sources, she also reported, said ‘there were more than just Libyan militia members who were held and interrogated by CIA contractors at the CIA annex in the days prior to the attack. Other prisoners from additional countries in Africa and the Middle East were brought to this location.'”
Though the CIA denies that “the agency is still in the detention business”, it certainly should be investigated to determine whether the CIA is maintaining off-the-books detention facilities in Libya.”
Gen. Mark Kimmit, Michael Hastings Lt Col Rick Francona talking Petraeus on Piers Morgan
“CIA Director David Petraeus and Paula Broadwell, a former military intelligence officer and his biographer, adopted a well-worn online trick, in an apparent attempt to keep their communications secret.
They wrote their “intimate messages” as draft e-mails in a shared Gmail account, according to the AP, allowing them to see one anothers’ messages while leaving a much fainter data trail. When messages are sent and received, both accounts record the transmission as well as such metadata as the IP addresses on either end, something the two seemed to be seeking to avoid.
Petraeus and Broadwell apparently used a trick, known to terrorists and teen-agers alike, to conceal their email traffic, one of the law enforcement officials said.
Rather than transmitting emails to the other’s inbox, they composed at least some messages and instead of transmitting them, left them in a draft folder or in an electronic “dropbox,” the official said. Then the other person could log onto the same account and read the draft emails there. This avoids creating an email trail that is easier to trace.
The trick has achieved notoriety as a tactic of terrorists who are rightly wary of espionage.
It’s the sort of measure you take if you fear there’s a risk that someone will look in on you. And it’s been around for quite some time, which may be why the FBI investigators were not fooled by it.” Washington Post
Scandal Surge: The Mid-Summer Adjustment
Posted on November 12, 2012 by emptywheel
http://www.emptywheel.net/2012/11/12/scandal-surge-the-mid-summer-adjustment/
“This investigation turned into a cluster(f)uck back in July, when the principles all started acting in response to the investigation.
Nevertheless, it continued for four more months (continues even this evening, as FBI searches Broadwell’s house).”
WordPress?
Quote of the day?
“Put another way, having the career of the beloved CIA Director and the commanding general in Afghanistan instantly destroyed due to highly invasive and unwarranted electronic surveillance is almost enough to make one believe not only that there is a god, but that he is an ardent civil libertarian.” -Glenn Greenwald (from his article today, link above)
Gene,
From ap’s post above “Who knew the key to stopping the Surveillance State was to just wait until it got so big that it ate itself?”
Now I don’t know if that’s going to stop it but I do believe it is starting to eat itself as Allen is now caught up in the mess.
The notes run along the same lines
“FBI’s abuse of the surveillance state is the real scandal needing investigation”
“That the stars of America’s national security establishment are being devoured by out-of-control surveillance is a form of sweet justice”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/13/petraeus-surveillance-state-fbi
“So not only did the FBI – again, all without any real evidence of a crime – trace the locations and identity of Broadwell and Petreaus, and read through Broadwell’s emails (and possibly Petraeus’), but they also got their hands on and read through 20,000-30,000 pages of emails between Gen. Allen and Kelley.
This is a surveillance state run amok. It also highlights how any remnants of internet anonymity have been all but obliterated by the union between the state and technology companies.
But, as unwarranted and invasive as this all is, there is some sweet justice in having the stars of America’s national security state destroyed by the very surveillance system which they implemented and over which they preside. As Trevor Timm of the Electronic Frontier Foundation put it this morning: “Who knew the key to stopping the Surveillance State was to just wait until it got so big that it ate itself?”
It is usually the case that abuses of state power become a source for concern and opposition only when they begin to subsume the elites who are responsible for those abuses. Recall how former Democratic Rep. Jane Harman – one of the most outspoken defenders of the illegal Bush National Security Agency (NSA) warrantless eavesdropping program – suddenly began sounding like an irate, life-long ACLU privacy activist when it was revealed that the NSA had eavesdropped on her private communications with a suspected Israeli agent over alleged attempts to intervene on behalf of AIPAC officials accused of espionage. Overnight, one of the Surveillance State’s chief assets, the former ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, transformed into a vocal privacy proponent because now it was her activities, rather than those of powerless citizens, which were invaded.
With the private, intimate activities of America’s most revered military and intelligence officials being smeared all over newspapers and televisions for no good reason, perhaps similar conversions are possible. Put another way, having the career of the beloved CIA Director and the commanding general in Afghanistan instantly destroyed due to highly invasive and unwarranted electronic surveillance is almost enough to make one believe not only that there is a god, but that he is an ardent civil libertarian.
The US operates a sprawling, unaccountable Surveillance State that – in violent breach of the core guarantees of the Fourth Amendment – monitors and records virtually everything even the most law-abiding citizens do. Just to get a flavor for how pervasive it is, recall that the Washington Post, in its 2010 three-part “Top Secret America” series, reported: “Every day, collection systems at the National Security Agency intercept and store 1.7 billion e-mails, phone calls and other types of communications.”
Equally vivid is this 2007 chart from Privacy International, a group that monitors the surveillance policies of nations around the world. Each color represents the level of the nation’s privacy and surveillance policies, with black being the most invasive and abusive (“Endemic Surveillance Societies”) and blue being the least (“Consistently upholds human rights standards”):
surveillance
And the Obama administration has spent the last four years aggressively seeking to expand that Surveillance State, including by agitating for Congressional action to amend the Patriot Act to include Internet and browsing data among the records obtainable by the FBI without court approval and demanding legislation requiring that all Internet communications contain a government “backdoor” of surveillance.
Based on what is known, what is most disturbing about the whole Petraeus scandal is not the sexual activities that it revealed, but the wildly out-of-control government surveillance powers which enabled these revelations. What requires investigation here is not Petraeus and Allen and their various sexual partners but the FBI and the whole sprawling, unaccountable surveillance system that has been built.”
OMG, how is it that nobody is ever embarrassed about anything any more?
Guys, you have JOBS now, you have to grow UP now and act like grown-ups! You know, those guys who get to carry guns on TV? Like THEM! Hello Hello!
Blouise,
You know I was thinking you’d say that. 😀
I was just going over those notes last night as a matter of fact.
thanks, ap
Gene,
From my experience it sounds pretty much like par for the course.
From the WSJ article anonymously posted linked:
“WASHINGTON—A federal agent who launched the investigation that ultimately led to the resignation of Central Intelligence Agency chief David Petraeus was barred from taking part in the case over the summer due to superiors’ concerns that he had become personally involved in the case, according to officials familiar with the probe.
New details about how the Federal Bureau of Investigation handled the case suggest that even as the bureau delved into Mr. Petraeus’s personal life, the agency had to address questionable conduct by one of its own—including allegedly sending shirtless photos of himself to a woman involved in the case. ”
Wow. This is starting to sound a lot like the Keystone cops with sex.
Interesting find there, ap. Thanks.
FBI Agent in Petraeus Case Under Scrutiny
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324439804578115410189757452.html
nick,
I can understand Obama not being told … you don’t tell the President something like this unless you a have course of action to recommend … not if you want to keep your job as DI.
What I find much more interesting is who was the FBI agent who blabbed the whole thing to Eric Cantor and maybe also Dave Reichert over a week before anyone in the Executive was notified?
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/11/the-eric-cantor-angle-on-petraeus-broadwell-affair/
What effect did that security breach have on the decision to tell the President? Was there a Petraeus coverup going on that got blown out of the water?
Karl Rove with Paula:
http://gregmitchellwriter.blogspot.com/2012/11/karl-and-paula.html
Again, FWIW.
FWIW (Paula at 1:37):
The big question I still have with Petraeus is why he resigned. If you take the news stories at face value, then Obama did not force him out. He wasn’t going to be prosecuted for any crime. Yes, he broke CIA rules, but it seems like he enjoyed such widespread, bipartisan support that no one would have blamed Obama for keeping him on. So, that leaves me with (1) he viewed this as the honorable thing to do, which seems to be the public explanation, or (2) there’s more to it than meets the eye. I’m a little skeptical of one since he supposedly learned the FBI knew about the affair a few weeks ago and he did nothing. I wonder whether there’s evidence that he did more than simply have an affair, such as sharing confidential information or if someone wanted him out and is holding as yet undisclosed, embarrassing information.