Wednesday Open Thread
If it’s Wednesday then it’s time for an open thread. Let’s thread!
Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship has already demonstrated his contempt for safety and the life of his workers. He’s also a PR disaster and the shareholders of his company want him gone.
Shareholders are calling on Massey Energy to seek the immediate resignation of chairman and CEO Don Blankenship in the aftermath of the West Virginia disaster that killed 29 miners, the worst in forty years. The Change to Win Investment Group — a union pension fund group with over $200 billion in assets — believes the Upper Big Branch mine explosion is the “tragic consequence of the board’s failure to challenge Chairman and CEO Blankenship’s confrontational approach to regulatory compliance.” New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, who controls about $14.1 million of Massey stock as the trustee of the New York State Common Retirement Fund, blasted Massey’s “callous disregard for the safety of its employees” as a “failure both of risk management and effective board oversight”:
Massey’s cavalier attitude toward risk and callous disregard for the safety of its employees has exacted a horrible cost on dozens of hard-working miners and their loved ones. This tragedy was a failure both of risk management and effective board oversight. Blankenship must step down and make room for more responsible leadership at Massey.
Blankenship will become the fall guy but he’ll get his golden parachute and will still be a rich a-hole. Massey Energy will pay a minimal fine and the profits will keep rolling in for the shareholders. (Yes, I’m cynical)
Yesterday we talked about Carl Paladino, Republican Tea Party candidate for governor of New York (Teapublican). Paladino talked to the Buffalo News but didn’t really help himself:
“I shouldn’t have sent them, no question about it,” he told The Buffalo News late Monday. “But they were sent to friends to illustrate the humor of the day as Obama was running for president.”
Did you ever notice how Republicans always call their mean-spirited stuff humor?
Paladino said he “absolutely” would not resend such e-mails if he were elected governor or now as a candidate.
“I apologize to women who may have been offended,” he said. “I’m not politically correct and never have been. I’m not perfect.”
“But if the worst I ever did was send out some nonpolitically correct e-mails — my God,” he added.
He’s only apologizing to women who might have been offended? What about everyone else?
This part’s just for David:
Still, Paladino found himself in damage-control mode, even though his Republican and Conservative allies were not abandoning him. Erie County Republican Chairman James P. Domagalski, who has not officially endorsed Paladino but has been saying increasingly favorable things about his candidacy, declined to comment.
But his Conservative counterpart, Ralph C. Lorigo, said he was sticking with Paladino. He noted Paladino did not create the e-mails but simply forwarded humorous items that e-mail subscribers receive all the time.
It’s just good, clean fun to forward racist emails and videos of a woman engaged in bestiality.
Tags: Open Thread
Birther doctor refuses to deploy on orders from the Kenyan Usurper. A real patriot.
I remember when a birther doctor was someone who delivered babies.
Golden parachute, my butt….what he deserves is a prison jumpsuit. His complicity in the deaths of 29 people and the maiming of who knows how many others is sickening. Let him be held accountable for his years of bad behavior. Time to pay the fiddler; not fill the parachute.
Just read the article from the Buffulo News….is it me or does that joker resemble Daniello? Same thuggish demeanor, right?
Take this with a huge grain of salt. The anecdote comes from an anonymous Discovery Channel insider:
I love that they asked for “Public Defenders” (and they thought they could bring down our government), undercover FBI agent, sweet. Since their inception the Tea party crowd (not a movement since they do have the numbers or clout) because they are haters not debaters or as others have dubbed them screamers not dreamers. The simpleton Tea baggers are the same whiners that were crying when the McCain/Bailin ticket lost. Now that their yelling and screaming failed to stop the health care debate and the bill from passing they are crying again. Let’s face it the Republicans had eight years to deal with health care, immigration, climate change and financial oversight and governance and they failed. The Republicans are good at starting wars (two in eight years, with fat contracts to friends of Cheney/Bush) but not at winning wars as seen by the continuing line of body bags that keep coming home. Instead of participating in the health care debate of ideas the Republicans party turned inward to their old fashion obstructionist party. In my opinion the Republican Waterloo loss was caused by the party allowing a small portions (but very loud) of the republican party of “birthers, baggers and blowhards” to take over their party. I will admit that this fringe is very good at playing “Follow the Leader” by listening to their dullard leaders, Beck, Hedgecock, Hannity, O’Reilly, Rush, Savage, Sarah Bailin, Orly Taitz, Victoria Jackson, Michele Bachmann and the rest of the Blowhards and acting as ill programmed robots (they have already acted against doctors that perform abortions). The Tea party crowd think they can scare, intimidate and force others to go along with them by comments like “This time we came unarmed”, let me tell you something not all ex-military join the fringe militia crazies who don’t pay taxes and run around with face paint in the parks playing commando, the majority are mature and understand that the world is more complicated and grey than the black and white that these simpleton make it out to be and that my friend is the point. The world is complicated and presidents like Hamilton, Lincoln, and Roosevelt believed that we should use government a little to increase social mobility, now it’s about dancing around the claim of government is the problem. The sainted Reagan passed the biggest tax increase in American history and as a result federal employment increased, but facts are lost when mired in mysticism and superstition. Although some Republicans are trying to distant themselves from this fringe most of them, having no game plan/ vision for our country, are just going along and fanning the flames. For a party that gave us Abraham Lincoln, it is tragic that the ranks are filled with too many empty suits. But they now claim they have changed, come on, what sucker is going to believe that? All I can say to you is remember Waterloo.
Prelude to a boom…
Bernanke tells Congress exactly what Greenspan told Clinton in 1993 – reduce deficits:
Note that deficits can be reduced by raising taxes as well as by spending restraint.
Buffalo is pretty socially conservative, but Balkanized, ethnically. They won’t like this.
That seditious Marine with the Facebook page we all wrote about yesterday has a link to this LTC’s website which is raising money for his legal defense team. The good doctor is a member of “The Oath Takers,” service members who are challenging their deployment orders (and other things) on the basis that POTUS is not a citizen.
Speaking of SGT Stein, it appears that his Facebook page for the “Armed Forces Tea Party Patriots” has disappeared and has been replaced by a group under the same name but under the control of an alte-cocker named Len Olson. According to a post from Olson, the military forced Stein to shut down his FB page.
Now where did I put my Kenyan birth certificate. I know I have one. I had it last summer at Drinking Liberally.
Ted Kaufman just gave a rippin’ interview on All Things Considered about bank re-regulation and related topix. Audio available at 7:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125997204
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_DQUAuNUvw&feature=player_embedded
A great speech to listen to on the eve of teabag-a-paloosa.
… on the eve of teabag-a-paloosa.”
How many wahmbulances will be on standby in DC?
Not many based on the turnout today in Boston (about 1,000 for Sarah Palin when 10,000 were expected).
Siddown!
https://sites.google.com/a/deldems.org/bench-mike-castle/?gclid=CPCYpoC8h6ECFSd75Qodun3LOw
Thrusday morning. WILM, 1450 am…Karen Weldin Stewart is about to speak. This should be good.