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
SwM,
Can you answer what the Congressional invvestigation is about? I asked in reply to your saying it had started in spring.
To mine him and pay in services (including daily snow jobs and ego pumping) seems to be an exclusive business right that Broadwell felt she had.
Why should FBI/DoJ tell the truth and admit that it was the wife contesting her rights? Then it would all become so ordinary. Can’t sell commercial time on that, now can you.
Mystery, intrigue, secret persons/witnesses, high drama.
Was he kicked now for the simple reason that they want us to vorget the election and our vows tó change the nation?
Wait, wait, let me get this straight.
Broadwell is having an affair with Petraeus, who is married. That’s step 1, OK?
THEN SHE GETS JEALOUS?
How does somebody who is having an extramarital affair with a married public figure manage to accumulate the chutzpah to get JEALOUS?
So she gets jealous so she not only allows herself to go there, but she actually confronts some other woman because she thinks the other woman is stepping where she shouldn’t oughtta step? Excuse ME?
So in the midst of this psycho-inanity, you’re telling me she uses her lover’s e-mails as “evidence” of something she feels gives her a right to feel JEALOUS of somebody?
Will somebody please tell me how everyone in this country has become so insanely entitled? We’re not talking here about being entitled to enough of an income to put white bread and peanut butter on the table; we’re talking about a whole different kind of entitlement and where, I’m asking you, where did THAT come from?
Ex-Spy Chief David Petraeus Gave His Mistress Access To His Email
By Kashmir Hill
11/11/2012 @ 9:39AM
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/11/11/ex-spy-chief-david-petraeus-gave-his-mistress-access-to-his-email/
Excerpt:
…The FBI stumbled upon the affair during an investigation of Broadwell, after she was accused of harassing a woman in Florida who she apparently suspected was competing for the affections of the general, reports the Wall Street Journal.
Yes, cyber harassment is what led to the unraveling of one of the country’s most powerful leaders. The FBI became concerned about a security breach because the emails that Broadwell sent to the woman included private emails that Petraeus had sent to the unnamed woman. The FBI was worried that Broadwell had hacked into Petraeus’s personal Gmail account. After they investigated, they found out that’s not what happened. What actually happened was that the defense expert and head of the country’s intelligence bureau had a privacy breach. Via the WSJ:
“The FBI and prosecutors in Florida and North Carolina began investigating the possibility of email hacking, because at least some of the emails sent by Ms. Broadwell to the other woman included contents of messages that appeared to come from Mr. Petraeus’s own account, these people said. The Justice Department and high-level officials, including Attorney General Eric Holder, were aware of the investigation for months, having to approve certain parts of the investigation.
“Over the course of the probe, prosecutors realized there wasn’t a cyber-breach. Instead, Mr. Petraeus had shared some access to the account with Ms. Broadwell, possibly to exchange messages, these people said.”
Seriously. Our intelligence chief gave his mistress access to his email account. In a worst case scenario, he gave her his email password — which is a spectacularly bad idea, by the way. More likely, he may have stayed signed into Gmail on a computer she had access to. She read his email and apparently saved or forwarded messages that made her suspicious.
Dianne Feinstein: David Petraeus News ‘Was Like A Lightning Bolt’
By Elise Foley
Posted: 11/11/2012 9:57 am EST
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/11/dianne-feinstein-david-petraeus_n_2113527.html
Excerpt:
WASHINGTON — Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said Sunday her committee will investigate the Federal Bureau of Investigation after it failed to inform them in advance of its findings on former CIA Director David Petraeus, who resigned Friday after admitting to an affair.
“We received no advance notice. It was like a lightning bolt,” she told “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace.
The FBI is required by law to keep Intelligence Committee members abreast of developments of this nature, but Feinstein said did not hear of its findings on Petraeus until Friday morning, when her staff faced inquiries from the press.
Yet more security concerns emerge about Paula Broadwell’s access to Petraeus
Posted by Max Fisher on November 10, 2012
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2012/11/10/yet-more-security-concerns-emerge-about-paula-broadwells-access/
Excerpt:
Broadwell’s access to Petraeus appears to have been high, perhaps inappropriately so, even before the e-mail threats and FBI investigation. The Associated Press reports that some in the CIA had worried at how freely their director had invited her into his world, and at the spotlight-seeking Broadwell’s care with what she learned.
But her access was unsettling to members of the secretive and compartmentalized intelligence agency, where husbands and wives often work in different divisions, but share nothing with each other when they come home because they don’t “need to know.”
In one incident that caught CIA staff by surprise, Broadwell posted a photograph on her Facebook page of Petraeus with actress Angelina Jolie, taken in his 7th floor office where only the official CIA photographer is permitted to take photos. Petraeus had apparently given Broadwell the photo just hours after it was taken.
Posting a photo of Petraeus with a movie star on a Facebook page is obviously not much of a national security breach. But what may have raised concern is the pair’s apparent disregard, at least in this incident, for following security procedures and for circumspection. If she was posting unapproved photos of the CIA director’s office on her Facebook wall, then, you have to wonder, what did she see as too sensitive for social media but fine to share with friends? Or what did Petraeus feel was appropriate to share with her privately?
The point is not that Broadwell had access to anything more sensitive than a forbidden photo of her secret lover’s office, or that Petraeus had to share anything more. The point is that they, based on the reports out so far, disregarded normal CIA security procedures — which would also require disclosing a secret affair, given the potential for blackmail — and appeared to have invented their own. That Petraeus would invite someone into his personal and professional world — especially someone who was well known for being temperamental — without regard for normal security standards would be no small breach.
Gene,
I think you might be correct….
FBI Probe Uncovering Petraeus Affair Followed Complaints
By Phil Mattingly and John Walcott
November 11, 2012
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-11-09/cia-director-petraeus-resigns-citing-extramarital-affair
Excerpt:
The Federal Bureau of Investigation traced the e-mails to Paula Broadwell, the author of a Petraeus biography identified as having the affair with him, these officials say. They say her messages warned the other woman to stay away from Petraeus.
In their probe, investigators stumbled across what one of those familiar with it describe as extensive online correspondence between Broadwell and Petraeus, most and perhaps all of it using their respective G-mail accounts…
Concerned after discovering correspondence because of an earlier Chinese hack into the Google Inc. e-mail service, which the McAfee Internet security company dubbed “Operation Aurora,” the FBI was investigating whether Petraeus’s private or CIA e-mail accounts had been compromised, the official said.
They so far have found no evidence of a security breach, any loss of classified material or any evidence that another foreign power was aware of Petraeus’s infidelity, which the official said could have exposed him to blackmail.
One does not have privacy if he or she accepts a clearance. You can be investigated. If you don’t like it, don’t apply.
In a few days Petraeus may end up with a shattered career like John Edwards.
Photo from 2010 confirmation hearing with both the wife and girlfriend. http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1199956!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_635/alg-wife-broadwell.jpg
I think harassing emails to anyone from the D/CIA might interest the FBI.
Biographer’s threats led to Petraeus FBI investigation
Recipient of emails sought the FBI’s help
By Greg Miller and Sari Horwitz | WASHINGTON POST
NOVEMBER 11, 2012
http://bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2012/11/11/fbi-stumbled-upon-petraeus-affair-while-investigating-harassing-emails-sent-mistress-another-party/aUXNK0P3xoXFvD3zf8ZgZI/story.html
Excerpt:
The identity of the woman who received the e-mails was not disclosed, and the nature of her relationship with Petraeus is unknown. The officials said the woman did not work at the CIA and was not Petraeus’s wife, Holly.
The law enforcement officials said the e-mails indicated that Broadwell perceived the other woman as a threat to her relationship with Petraeus…
The e-mails from Broadwell indicated that she thought the other woman was becoming involved with Petraeus, according to the officials. They said the e-mails were ‘‘threatening and harassing’’ but not specific enough to warrant criminal charges.
One of the officials said that the recipient of the e-mails complained to Petraeus about them and that the FBI later obtained e-mails between Petraeus and Broadwell in which they discussed the harassment.
Interesting new report out. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/11/us/fbi-said-to-have-stumbled-into-news-of-david-petraeus-affair.html?hp Says “The identity of the woman who complained about the harassing messages from Ms. Broadwell has not been disclosed. She was not a family member or in the government, the officials said, and the nature of her relationship with Mr. Petraeus was not immediately known. But they said the two women seemed be competing for Mr. Petraeus’s loyalty, if not his affection.” Also quotes an unnamed government official as saying “Think of a small circle of people who know each other.”
If all correct, there goes my speculation that it’s a high placed coworker. But, maybe the wife or family member of a VIP?
Depends on the wife I’d say Waldo. Some of those gals are feisty and have a wicked sense of revenge. 😀
“It was likely his wife, immediate family or a co-worker.”
I think someone intimately involved in national security is a good guess. Someone like that getting harassing emails might well motivate the FBI to investigate where as your average person complaining to the FBI about receiving harassing email would likely not get the time of day from the FBI. His wife getting harassing email would certainly get the attention of the FBI, but you’d think his wife would tell him first and, if that happened, you’d think he would not get the FBI involved.
Smom,
I’m going to have to partially agree with nick on the motivation issue, but it’s a ratio and a psychological issue. There are people in government every bit if not more motivated than any in the private sector, however, you must consider what motivates them. The motivated people you find in government tend to motivated by principle. The motivated people you find in business tend to be motivated by greed. There are a lot less principled people in the world than greedy people in the world. Consequently, you tend to see less motivated people overall in government. There is also the scalar difference in size. Most corporations (but not all) run on a much smaller workforce than a given national governmental agency which also skews the numbers. You see the same skewing in small and mid sized companies versus large Fortune 500 companies. The smaller companies have more motivated people as a ratio than the large corporations. However, motivated people do exist in both areas.
“Maybe I’m crazy, but I don’t think the FBI gets involved in most instances of harassing email. Makes you wonder who was the unknown woman who is high enough up that the FBI starts digging when she gets a harassing email.”
It was likely his wife, immediate family or a co-worker. Waldo.
“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”
Maybe I’m crazy, but I don’t think the FBI gets involved in most instances of harassing email. Makes you wonder who was the unknown woman who is high enough up that the FBI starts digging when she gets a harassing email.
Also, I wonder whether the FBI had a court order to read Broadwell’s emails. Kinda ironic if the D/CIA lost his career and reputation because of America’s ever growing security state and loss of civil liberties.
SWM, Credentials do not equal competence. In my varied career I worked for Federal and County govt. I also worked for small and mid sized companies along w/ a major corporation. Finally, I had my own small business for almost 30 years. Govt. had the least motivated and competent employees by far. My experience is not unique.
Woosty, yeah. Voter suppression backfired. 🙂