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
I know y’all are on pins and needles ’bout this…..Obama wins Floriduh…..
oh yes he did…… 🙂
nick, Actually some of the most credentialed people work for the government.
Blouise, May I submit the names Robert Hansen and Aldridge Aimes as Exhibit 1&2 as how the FBI and CIA can be betrayed on a MUCH more serious level. This is the govt., Blouise. The govt. is incompetent, bureaucratic, petty and stupid. Certainly a smart, woman of the world, knows that. Have you ever heard, “Good enough for govt. work”?
“That’s a whole lot of falsehood which, by the way, is as illegal as hell.”
Which in itself is interesting, but not nearly as interesting as it could have shaped up to be. A crazy mistress episode is all well and good for the FBI to be using resources on, but there are a lot more serious illegalities surrounding governmental official actions that merit their attention more. This is now just another dumb pol thinking with their groin story.
nick,
What I really want to know is how he hid this affair during his vetting for the Directorship and how he managed to keep the CIA in the dark through each of his bi annual checks. That’s a whole lot of falsehood which, by the way, is as illegal as hell.
Ishmael Jone’s suggestions for the split-up of the CIA included moving the operative side to the Military Intelligence who were much better for several reasons.
Being correctly informed and knowing the risks while willing to take them without considering career effects was one example he cited.
What he proposed for the analytical side, I don’t recall. It is all in the appendix to his book. “Human Factors”
Even the smartest men get in trouble when they think w/ the little head. Too many examples to list.
Blouise, Thanks, I don’t doubt you know what you’re talking about. You’re one of the folks here w/ many life experiences. I have a cousin who graduated from West Point and was in Army intelligence, mostly in South America since he spoke Spanish. He’s out now but working for the murky Rand Corp. Also have a friend who is a retired Navy Seal officer in San Diego. We get to spend time w/ him when were in SD for the winter. Neither of these guys talked about anything they did when in the service and still say very little. The one thing my Seal buddy has said that going into Iran would be very difficult, much more so than Iraq, where he spent a lot of time.
Murray as with a lot of the pius holier-than-thou types uses his religion to slap at other people. To curse them. It would never dawn on his imagination to look to the Bible for solace. To see what words Sweet Baby Jesus has to salve his soul. He uses the Bible as some people might use “The Yale Book of Quotations”
Its the night of the election and he sees the returns on his TV. Karl Rove throws his tantrum and the Fox execs don’t back down. It really is all lost!He says to himself, “Wait till those ungreatful Obama voting Ex-employees get a load of this” and starts lookin in his favorite reference book for telling others how they should live their lives.
He had that rich man eye of the needle bit edited out of his copy.
“The recipient of the e-mails was so frightened that she went to the FBI for protection and help tracking down the sender, according to the officials. The FBI investigation traced the threats to Paula Broadwell, a former military officer and a Petraeus biographer, and uncovered explicit e-mails between Broadwell and Petraeus, the officials said.
When Petraeus’s name first surfaced, FBI investigators were concerned that the CIA director’s personal e-mail account had been hacked and security had been breached. But the sexual nature of the e-mails led them to conclude that Petraeus and Broadwell were engaged in an affair, the officials said.
The identity of the woman who received the e-mails was not disclosed, and the nature of her relationship with Petraeus is unknown. The law enforcement officials said the e-mails indicated that Broadwell perceived the other woman as a threat to her relationship with Petraeus.” WAPO
Report: FBI investigation into CIA chief’s email “started with two women,” not Petraeus
Xeni Jardin at 11:51 am Sat, No
The Washington Post reports that the investigation into CIA chief David Petraeus began “when a woman whom he was having an affair with sent threatening e-mails to another woman close to him,” citing “three senior law enforcement officials with knowledge of the episode” as sources.
News accounts circulating yesterday suggested instead that the FBI began snooping on the spy boss’ Gmail account for other reasons, so this is a new and significant twist: if the report is true, Petraeus paramour Paula Broadwell used the same email account to send A) Sexmail to Petraeus, and B) Threatmail to the woman she believed to be her rival for his attentions.
By various accounts, the “other other woman” was neither a government employee nor a family member, indicating that it wasn’t, say, his wife—and that the four-star general was perhaps even busier than first thought. My goodness, but this would make a good Jerry Springer episode.
Rcam’
He’ll have to testify to protect his reputation. I don’t think he’s going to take one for the administration. There leaving this administration like rats leaving a sinking ship.
That they could have an affair is equally as disturbing as much else here. All CIA personnel have to pass the “box”, why would Petraeus be an exception. His physical security is so important that he should be monitored 24/7 by if not SSA then by equivalent service.
Some psychopaths rise high, and can not do more than suspect them both of this, and they rarely fail so capitally.
Overachievers have many pitfalls, we had one who turned over the Swedish plans for defense to the USSR. Reason: He felt that he did not get the recognition that he deserved. This woman may have felt the same, and can have recruited herself for the highest achievement of all—-traitor.
We never placed a spy behind the iron curtain. Not one placement. Some volunteered only. USSR and Russia have
had well-placed ones in the CIA (2) and FBI (1).
rc,
“I’m not saying your concern is baseless, but there are other viable explanations.”
Undoubtedly. Turf war, leak, counter espionage, theft, there are a lot of things that could have led to the FBI sniffing about the CIA but that they were doing so at all is (as you acknowledge) inherently interesting. I think even more so given our steady decline into a surveillance police state. “Who’s watching the Watchmen?” is an interesting question but usually not as interesting as “Why are they watching the Watchmen?”
F.B.I. Said to Have Stumbled Into News of Petraeus Affair
By SCOTT SHANE and ERIC SCHMITT
Published: November 10, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/11/us/fbi-said-to-have-stumbled-into-news-of-david-petraeus-affair.html
Excerpt:
WASHINGTON — The F.B.I. investigation that led to the resignation of David H. Petraeus as C.I.A. director on Friday began with a complaint several months ago about “harassing” e-mails sent by Paula Broadwell, Mr. Petraeus’s biographer, to an unidentified third person, a government official briefed on the case said on Saturday.
When F.B.I. agents following up on the complaint began to examine Ms. Broadwell’s e-mails, they discovered exchanges between her and Mr. Petraeus that revealed that they were having an affair, said the official, who spoke of the investigation on the condition of anonymity.
The person who complained about harassing messages from Ms. Broadwell, according to the official, was not a family member or a government official. One Congressional official who was briefed on the matter on Friday said senior intelligence officials had explained that the F.B.I. investigation “started with two women.”
“It didn’t start with Petraeus, but in the course of the investigation they stumbled across him,” said the Congressional official, who said the intelligence officials had provided no other information about the two women or the focus of the inquiry. “We were stunned.”
MSI:
nuts because they seek power or made nuts by the acquisition of power because they were not grounded?
Mr. Bron,
From my experience, that is the expectations of anyone that is honest with themselves. The nut jobs always try and be in charge. Take for instance Cook County, IL. How many well connected nut jobs in power, regardless of the size of the organization or its purpose?
bettykath:
no, the lesson is if you are D/CIA and cannot keep an affair secret there is no hope for the average man. Said by Jay Leno.
All In? An apprapo title in light of this fact.
She is like the diaper wearing astronaut. She has some serious self image problems and so does Petraeus. Nut jobs most always rise to the top in any organization.
Finally, AP calls Florida for Obama.