Blackwater Donates Tent City to Wildfire Victims (video link)

[Ghost in the Machine]

Blackwater Donates Tent City to Wildfire Victims

Embattled security firm Blackwater USA is behind an effort to provide shelter to some of the victims of the recent wildfires in Southern California. (Nov. 5)

http://www.att.net/s/editorial.dll?bfromind=2720&eeid=5506969&_sitecat=599&dcatid=0&eetype=article&render=y&ac=2&ck=%26_lid=135%26_lnm=hm+mc+videos%26ck=&ch=ne

[Solly Mack]

1. Am I now supposed to think they are the good guys?

Is that what Blackwater is hoping?

A little good deed to erase the murders?

I don't think so.

[Ghost in the Machine]

2. but... but.. we have short memories! Besides, those weren't *murders*, just misunderstandings

I'd be afraid they'd try to lock me in and not let me leave their tent city!

[Solly Mack]

3. To be fair, people to tend to forget..not all people but far too many

and I hear you - I would be afraid they'd shoot me for breaking a rule...say, not being obedient and jumping when they say jump.

[Hubert Flottz]

5. Outfits like Blackwater and tent cities remind me of...

The Ludlow Massacre

snip...

The Baldwin Felts Detective Agency had been brought in to suppress the
Colorado miners. They brought with them an armored car mounted with
a machine gun--the Death Special-- that roamed the area spraying
bullets. The day of the massacre, the miners were celebrating Greek
Easter. At 10:00 AM the militia ringed the camp and began firing into the
tents upon a signal from the commander, Lt. Karl E. Lindenfelter. Not one
of the perpetrators of the slaughter were ever punished, but scores of
miners and their leaders were arrested and black-balled from the coal
industry. MORE...

http://members.tripod.com/~RedRobin2/index-29.html

May 19, 1920: Matewan Massacre

The spring of 1920 was a troubled time in the West Virginia coalfields. A nationwide coal strike settled during the winter had won unionized miners a 27 percent wage increase. Unfortunately, the settlement didn't help most miners in southern West Virginia, the largest non-unionized coal region in the country. When the United Mine Workers (UMW) stepped up its campaign to organize Logan, Mingo, and McDowell counties, coal operators retaliated by hiring private detectives to quash all union activity. Miners who joined the UMW were fired and thrown out of their company-owned houses. Despite the risks, thousands defied the coal operators and joined the UMW. Tensions between the two sides exploded into violence on May 19, when 13 Baldwin-Felts detectives arrived in Matewan to evict union miners from houses owned by the Stone Mountain Coal Company. Matewan chief of police Sid Hatfield intervened on behalf of the evicted families. A native of the Tug River Valley, Sid Hatfield supported the miners' attempts to organize. He was also known throughout Mingo County as a man who was not afraid of a fight. After carrying out several evictions, the detectives ate dinner at the Urias Hotel then walked to the depot to catch the five o'clock train back to Bluefield, Virginia. They were intercepted by Hatfield, who claimed to have arrest warrants from the county sheriff. Detective Albert Felts produced a warrant for Hatfield's arrest, which Matewan mayor C. C. Testerman claimed to be a fake. The detectives didn't know they had been surrounded by armed miners, who watched intently from windows and doorways along Mate Street and, while Felts, Hatfield, and Testerman, faced off, a shot rang out. The ensuing gun battle left 7 detectives and 4 townspeople dead, including Felts and Testerman. MORE...

http://www.wvdhhr.org/bph/calendar/matewan.htm

The Red Neck War

snip...

"I bet I drop six of them when I get over there."
- one deputy boasting shortly before killing unarmed miners

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/9/11/133050/190


The West Virginia Coal Mine Wars
1912-1921

In the late nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries, much of the land of West Virginia was taken over by coal companies. Many people sold their land or were forced to sell their land, not knowing what the consequences would be.

The coal companies set up a system that gave them total control of the town and the people. The houses, hospitals, stores and even the churches were company property. To keep the miners and their families even more dependent, the companies created their own form of money, or scrip, which could only be used in the company stores.

The traditionally independent mountaineers soon became trapped in a dead-end, impossible to leave job. Fortunately, the United Mine Workers of America was created in 1897 and unions were introduced to the area.

The Southern West Virginia counties of Mingo and Logan were kept free of unions due to the iron fist ruling of Sheriff Don Chafin. In order to prevent the penetration of unions, Baldwin-Felts Detectives (gun thugs) were hired to subdue the miners. This was often achieved by carefully watching the miners and enforcing rules such as the prohibition of gathering in large groups, going out at night or anything else that could lead to the discusssion of forming a union. MORE...

http://www.as.wvu.edu/engl01/users/students/kmoore/public_html/minewar2.htm

History repeats if you let it...

[Solly Mack]

6. I can just imagine what 'keeping the peace' would mean in a BW tent city

[Hubert Flottz]

7. Peace is the last thing people like that want...

Peace don't generate blood money for the Bushistas.

[izquierdista]

4. All to buy off Potrero

They want their image to look good, at least until they get their hands on that land in San Diego county. Nice area, too bad to think what it will look like after Blackwater gets done with it.