AP Interview: Mine boss defends efforts

[underpants]

Source: AP/Yahoo

He said he rushed into the mine in his street clothes and began digging out the men, buried under 5 feet of coal, with his bare hands. "I never hesitated to go in there. I was the first man in and the last man out," he said.

Murray, who has been a target of families' anger over the suspended search for the missing miners, said he later dropped out of a debriefing with federal officials and began wandering around the mine yard in the moonlight, reliving the collapse. He said he broke down.

"I came apart," he said. "I was under a doctor's care for a couple days."
---
It was an emotional exchange (See story) with an owner who had insisted since the collapse that the rescue of the miners was his top priority. And it revealed more than just the frustration of people in this mining community in central Utah's coal belt, where most still speak in whispers when criticizing the officials whose businesses pay their bills.
---



Miners' advocates accuse the Mine Safety and Health Administration of being too accommodating to the industry at the expense of safety. They also say MSHA was too quick to approve the mining plan at Crandall Canyon despite concerns that it was too dangerous for mining to continue when Murray bought it a year ago.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070822/ap_on_re_us/utah_mine_collapse

[Hugin]

1. Dang...

Didn't even take time to change out of his 'street clothes'...

I wonder if his Talking Squirrel Buddy was there too?

[shain from kane]

2. Squirrel: "Help me, Mr. Murray, I'm buried under the coal."

Murray: "Be right with you as soon as I change into my mining clothes."
Squirrel: "Don't bother with that. This is SERIOUS."

[underpants]

3. Ah yes the talking squirrel

what a wonderfully imaginative story from and "imaginative" story teller ;-_

[soothsayer]

4. "My coal! My COAL!! My precious, precious coal!!!"

[underpants]

7. Okay you are never going to believe who I heard ragging on Murray this morning

I get into my car after dropping off our girl at daycare and the radio is on.

The John Boy and Billy radio show-I refuse to listen to their often racist bile, I couldn't believe what I heard.

It wasn't from the shows namesakes but one of the supporting cast was slowly painfully trying to point out that Murray was not only a "lightning rod" as John Boy called him but that he was way over the top using the press, from the beginning, to attack his perceived enemies and outrageous tirades.

Then this (paraphrased) "Look I uh... I am no union guy or anything but uh... (long painful gaps) I just don't see why labor can't get together with management I mean these guys are out there laying it out on the line for US everyday and I mean regardless of whether we should still be doing coal I mean can't they work in a safe place" (agreeing grunts and "uh-huhs" in the background) "I mean labor has to do something for these guys they ...everyday they are out there our listeners in West Virginia and Kentucky and Virginia and I mean and now THIS GUY Murray says they are going to continue mining in the same mountain!!!" ( "uh-uh"s and "Oh man" s can be heard in the background) "I mean when when profit going to I mean human human beings and their families when what order can you put them in"

About the time that I stopped listening to this show they actually had on someone from Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform on this show spewing their nonsense with the whole gang in agreement. That and some other horribly sexist racist and flat out ignorant crap was why I refuse to flip over to their show.

This was pretty amazing to hear them going off about.

[momster]

5. Him and Rudy Guiliani

n/t

[yardwork]

6. Look at the photos of Murray's hands. Soft, unmarked, diamond pinkie ring.

That man has never touched a rock or piece of coal with his hands. What a liar.

[cboy4]

8. This miner owner is a disgusting human being. Not only

was he by all accounts operating an unsafe mine just to get rich.

Now he has the nerve to be talking about restarting mining operations while those men are trapped down below?

This asshole must be a Republican to care more about making a buck than the welfare of the human beings who work for him.

:puke:

[TXDemGal]

9. Murray is so full of

excrement it isn't even funny. This P.O.S. and his co-owner(s) (if there even are any co-owners, but I did see one article that mentioned he wasn't the sole owner) want to REOPEN THE MINE to extract the last lumps of coal. They want to reopen it UNDER A DIFFERENT NAME. Yet, they won't attempt to retrieve the dead bodies that are entombed in the mine.

This is all about the almighty $$$, plain and simple. Why should Murray blow more of his Repub fortune "earned" off the sweat and risk of other mens' brows, trying to get out a bunch of dead guys? He'd much rather go back in to the same mine WITH A DIFFERENT NAME to get out MORE COAL = MORE $$$ FOR BOB.

This whole saga just makes me irate and ill.

[Scooter24]

10. Everything he says is nothing but an attempt to lay blame elsewhere.

Had I known that this evil mountain, this alive mountain, would do what it did, I would never have sent the miners in here," he said. "I'll never go near that mountain again."

As usual, he has to go straight for the "earthquake" problem. This even after the USGS certified the 3.9 quake as caused by the mine itself.