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
for heaven’s sake, cant folks move the cia talk to another thread ?
Lesson: Don’t put in an email or post anywhere information that would cause unacceptable embarrassment if published on the front page of the NYTimes.
Why David Petraeus’s Gmail account is a national security issue
Posted by Max Fisher
November 10, 2012 at 11:14 am
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2012/11/10/why-david-petraeuss-gmail-account-is-a-national-security-issue/
Excerpt:
The beginning of the end came for CIA Director David Petraeus when Paula Broadwell, a younger married woman with whom he was having an affair, “or someone close to her had sought access to his email,” according to the Wall Street Journal’s description of an FBI probe. Associates of Petraeus had received “anonymous harassing emails” that were then traced to Broadwell, ABC’s Martha Raddatz reported, suggesting she may have found their names or addresses in his e-mail.
The e-mail account was apparently Petraeus’s personal Gmail, not his official CIA e-mail, according to the Wall Street Journal. That’s a big deal: Some of the most powerful foreign spy agencies in the world would love to have an opening, however small, into the personal e-mail account of the man who runs the United States’ spy service. The information could have proved of enormous value to foreign hackers, who already maintain a near-constant effort to access sensitive U.S. data.
If Petraeus allowed his Gmail security to be compromised even slightly, by widening access, sharing passwords or logging in from multiple addresses, it would have brought foreign spy agencies that much closer to a treasure trove of information. As the Wall Street Journal hints, investigators were concerned about Petraeus’s Gmail access precisely because of the history of foreign attempts to access just such accounts:
Security officials are sensitive to misuse of personal email accounts—not only official accounts—because there have been multiple instances of foreign hackers targeting personal emails.
A personal e-mail account like Petraeus’s almost certainly would not have contained any high-level intelligence; he probably didn’t keep a list of secret drone-base coordinates on his Google docs account. But access to the account could have provided telling information on, for example, Petraeus’s travel schedule, his foreign contacts, even personal information about himself or other senior U.S. officials.
Private e-mail services like Google’s, though considered significantly more secure than most, still have susceptibilities to foreign intrusion. And it happens. Technology writers have sometimes discussed what one writer called the “password fallacy,” the false sense of safety created by access systems such as Google’s that balance security against ease of use. Even with Google’s extra security features, the company must also avoid making security so onerous as to drive away customers, making it an easier target for foreign hackers even before Petraeus possibly started sharing access and thus diluting the account’s integrity. And, as a Wired magazine investigation demonstrated in August, personal e-mail accounts often allow hackers access to other personal accounts, worsening both the infiltration and the damage.
All of this might sound a little overly apprehensive – really, U.S. national security is compromised because the CIA director’s personal Gmail account might have been a little easier to hack? – until you start looking at the scale and sophistication of foreign attempts to infiltrate U.S. data sources. Chinese hacking efforts, perhaps the best-known but nowhere near the only threat to U.S. networks and computers, suggest the enormous scope and ferocious drive of foreign government hackers.
nick,
There were a few “intelligence officers” in my family so I really do know what I’m talking about. What Petraeus did was beyond dumb and stupid and there was no honor in it.
Once, over 10 years ago, a family member sent me an email and had I responded to that email by hitting “reply” everything would have been okay. Instead, I copied the address and wrote a stand alone email from my account … I wanted to attach a picture and the “reply” command wouldn’t allow me to do so.
Oh brother … that was a huge mistake! My email ran into the “firewall” and both my relative and I had to spend weeks explaining ourselves before the government was satisfied … and this was pre 9/11! Needless to say, my relative was in far more trouble than I for using the email address in the first place.
Nope, Petraeus’ phuck phest and phurther actions would have landed any regular “intelligence officer” in prison and any “military officer” in front of a Military Court. That Petraeus was simply allowed to resign indicates a whole lot of info nobody wants to see the light of day.
Don’t forget … the FBI has a whole slew of emails this lovesick idiot sent to his true love.
I can guarantee you that no serious intelligence officer has one ounce of respect left for Petraeus.
ID, Just a ballbust, entirely good natured and affectionate. While I know the written word is often bad for subtle communication, I thought you got me by now. I deplore emoticons, maybe I just need to label ballbusts, “ballbust”. For you dumb Swedes[ballbust!]
NickS (and also SwM),
First let me apologize to both. How to explain: LK called me donw today for doing the “let’s you and him fight”. I call it the irresistible urge to take sides in somebody’s ongoing arguments, or at best offering opionion which I have learned offers nothing and is generally ignored
by those disagreeing. I tell myself that I am fighting this habit, but you are proof that I fail, too often.
Now to NIckS. was just trying to prove that I was not hanging on your coattails as I was afraid some would think.
“You’re a Swede!! ” What do you mean by that.
As for scandal chasing, yeah I do. But I also as you do, regard it with a serious view also. But feel resigned that we will never know what lies behind it all.
The walls are too thick, the strings are too many, and the fog is to well laid so our chances are null.
His becoming Dir CIA could be celebrated or deplored. HTF could we know. What was Obama’s purpose in that? Clean up the sewers and bureaucracy, get it under some kind of control, just find a warm competent body to put in the chair. Obama must know that there are more black ops there than he will ever learn about.
If you want to reform it, then break it up, as Kennedy wanted to do so. Only Allen Dulles whom he fired and others got him killed first.
Try reading the appendix to Ishmael Jone’s book. He has a solution to offer. And he was there in the field as a cover op for over 16 years. And kept on the good side of HQ,, and managed to do meaningful work in intelligence gathering.
“At the agency, Petraeus presided over an expansion of the CIA’s Predator drone campaign in Yemen and was recently behind a push to expand the agency’s drone fleet. He was involved in decisions to carry out controversial strikes, including the Predator attacks last year that killed two U.S. citizens: the al-Qaeda figure Anwar al-Awlaki and his teenage son.
Petraeus, who retired from the military last year, is still subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which classifies adultery as a crime.
Practically speaking, however, the odds are extremely low that the military would prosecute a retired officer for having an affair, said Eugene R. Fidell, a prominent military law expert who teaches at Yale University.
“They’re as close to zero as you can get,” Fidell said. “It would have to be a grave matter before the executive branch would prosecute a retiree.” WAPO
Petraeus admits affair, quits as CIA director
By Jonathan S. Landay and Hannah Allam | McClatchy Newspapers
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/11/09/174264/petraeus-resigns-cia-after-admitting.html
Excerpt:
The precise circumstances that prompted Petraeus to make his adultery public and to resign weren’t immediately known. But his statement indicated that the affair was recent. Keeping it secret could have become a potentially crippling security breach had a foreign power learned of it and used it to try to compromise or blackmail Petraeus.
If he committed adultery while in the Army, Petraeus could have been court-martialed.
Petraeus has been at the center of a political storm over a Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. consulate and the CIA station in Libya’s eastern city of Benghazi since it emerged last week that two of the four Americans who were killed were former Navy SEALs on contract to the CIA as security officers. The U.S. ambassador to Libya and another State Department employee also died.
A former aide to Petraeus who’s known the general for two decades said he’d exchanged emails with him since the scandal broke, and that Petraeus was adamantly against news of his resignation being spun into a conspiracy theory involving the Benghazi tragedy.
“The general insists that he felt this was the right thing to do,” said the former aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation. “He insisted that this has nothing to do with Benghazi, nothing to do with Libya, nothing to do with his relationship with the president. Actually, the president took 24 hours to decide on the resignation.”
In a statement confirming Petraeus’ departure, Obama made no reference to the reason for the resignation. He said that the retired four-star general “has provided extraordinary service to the United States for decades. By any measure, he was one of the outstanding general officers of his generation, helping our military adapt to new challenges, and leading our men and women in uniform through a remarkable period of service in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
bettykath, I think you are onto something.
How Was Petraeus’ Affair Uncovered and Did he Really Have To Resign?
By Daniel Politi
Posted Saturday, Nov. 10, 2012, at 10:39 AM ET
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2012/11/10/david_petraeus_affair_fbi_investigation_uncovered_affair_with_paula_broadwell.html
In a town where watching powerful men and women fall from grace is a particularly perverse sport, no one in Washington seemed to be taking joy at the resignation of CIA Director David Petraeus, the man many have qualified as the best military mind in decades, after admitting he had an extramarital affair. As Slate’s Fred Kaplan has reported, the woman with whom he was having an affair was Paula Broadwell, co-author of his biography.
There’s a bit of disagreement over how exactly the unfair was uncovered. While everyone notes the affair became public during an FBI investigation, the Wall Street Journal specifically notes that an inquiry into access to Petraeus’ Gmail account led to the belief that Broadwell, or someone close to her, tried to access his e-mail. NBC News says Broadwell is currently under an FBI investigation for “improperly trying to access his e-mail and possibly gaining access to classified information.”
Politico, however, hears that is likely an exaggeration and that concern over access to Petraeus’ e-mail was not what initiated the investigation. McClatchy hears similar information, noting that sources say “the FBI did not investigate the author for attempting to compromise Petraeus’ computer.” According to this version it seems that, as Reuters hears, investigators stumbled across evidence of the affair while investigating news leaks. Although it’s unclear exactly why the FBI was monitoring Petraeus’ e-mail, a source tells the Washington Post, the FBI found e-mails describing the affair.
Did Petraeus have to resign? In Foreign Policy, Thomas Ricks, who has described Petraeus as the best post-Sept. 11 commander in the U.S. military, hears that President Obama tried to talk him out of resigning. And Ricks describes Petraeus’ decision as the result of overabundance of honor: “Petraeus took the samurai route and insisted that he had done a dishonorable thing and now had to try to balance it by doing the honorable thing and stepping down as CIA director.”
Yet it seems Petraeus didn’t really have much of a choice. It’s not just that an extramarital affair is a no-no for the intelligence community due to fears that it could be used as a tool for blackmail. But the fact that the affair was all seemingly registered in Petraeus’ personal account may have been the decisive factor since foreign hackers have been known to access e-mail of officials in sensitive posts, points out the Wall Street Journal.
Found this:
MSNBC’s Richard Engel reported on Friday evening that the FBI is conducting an ongoing investigation into Broadwell to see whether she had improper access to Petraeus’ emails and may have seen classified information. Engel added that it doesn’t appear that any charges are going to be filed, and that Petraeus himself is not being investigated.
and this:
Broadwell, like Petraeus, graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point….
Bruce
I believe the General is still planning to testify.
SMom, Yes, he needed to resign in the hopes that it would be forgotten after only a couple of news cycles. If he didn’t admit the affair he would be plagued with reporters’ questions about it until he did.
If the investigation was of the harassing emails that lead to Broadwell, then it looks like a woman scorned getting even. We’ll see. There are more shoes to be dropped.
Just before Pertaeus was supposed to testify before congress on the Benginzie coverup.WHAT A COINCEDENCE.
Is this a Fatal Attraction scenario? Any screenwriters here?
Raddatz is a good reporter as is Jim Martin w/ CBS. Good ol’ fashioned defense dept. straight news people. Is the Polish, Jim Mick….ski still w/ NBC. He’s also good.
“Official tells me several people who knew Petraeus got anonymous harassing emails. So investigation started. Emails then traced to Broadwell.” Martha Raddatz
Endearing, just endearing.
bettykath, I think this is going to be way too messy to be quickly forgotten. He did need to resign.