With a Wing and A Prayer...Yer Fired. Blame Obama & Voters

[Rubiconic Crossings V2 rev 1f]

A prayer, you say?

I'm praying to have Jesus bust into this asshole's mansion and give this guy a good smacking over the head with that book of his.

I am a staunch atheist but that would make me a believer alright...

[Straughn]

Nice to see that people on the right are not sore losers. Oh...wait...scratch that..

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/ ... story.html

After Obama reelection, Murray Energy CEO reads prayer, announces layoffs

By Steven Mufson, Published: November 9

For the chairman and chief executive of Murray Energy, an Ohio-based coal company, the reelection of President Obama was no cause for celebration. It was a time for prayer — and layoffs.

Robert E. Murray read a prayer to a group of company staff members on the day after the election, lamenting the direction of the country and asking: “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.”

On Wednesday, Murray also laid off 54 people at American Coal, one of his subsidiary companies, and 102 at Utah American Energy, blaming a “war on coal” by the Obama administration. Although that charge was repeatedly leveled during the election, energy analysts say that the coal-mining business is suffering because of competition from low-cost natural gas and rising production costs of coal, especially in the Appalachian region.

Murray Energy is the country’s largest privately owned coal mining company, with about 3,000 employees producing about 30 million tons of bituminous coal a year, according to its Web site.

The company was the subject of an article in the New Republic that said the firm forced miners to attend a Romney campaign speech in southeastern Ohio in August. Murray denied the account. The New Republic also reported that Murray Energy employees have given more than $1.4 million to Republican candidates for federal office since 2007.

Murray has been a target of environmentalists. Notably, the company has spilled coal slurry into a creek on seven occasions.

Murray’s prayer from Wednesday first appeared on the Web site of the Intelligencer/Wheeling News-Register. The newspaper said Murray supplied his text. The Washington Post confirmed its legitimacy with a company spokesman, Gary M. Broadbent.

Here is the full text of the prayer:

“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.”

I vote for asshole.

DEFINITELY not trite as i say this, highly evidently ... 2nded.

[Seangoli]

Considering that there have been more coal jobs created under the current administration than the previous administration, I'm calling shenanigans. Likely the layoffs were long in the making due to increased market pressure from plummeting natural gas and they are using this as a convenient scapegoat. So yep. Obvious to me that they are lying bastards. Not something that hasn't been seen in the past in similar sorts of labor industries.

[SaintB]

They found an ingenious way to deflect the blame that many people will buy into. Magically its Obamas fault that jobs were lost because he was relected. They are just preparing for the fallout that they just know hell bring them because the prophet pundits saidit would be thus.

[Indira]

The answer is both. Coal isn't competitive and it makes sense in that respect. On the flip side, using Obama as an excuse is outright class-one bs. If Romney had won (Thank whatever God you believe in or whatever) he'd STILL be laying these workers off and saying how fortunate Romney won so he's not laying off more.

[Lackadaisical2]

I consider myself a conservative and I don't get why obama gets so much flak. I mean he killed Osama deported illegals, and prosecuted some rogue CIA agents ( not 100% sure about the last one). So his one healthcare law makes him into ?

It's the D beside his name. It means he's evil, Satan incarnate, and the Republican party is just looking for their Michael to kick his ass back into the pit.

Vote D for devil on election day. *nod*

[CVT Temp]

Can we get a physicist in here? I want to measure that spin.

Sorry, I don't have enough paper to calculate the Clebsh-Gordon coefficients for a spin that big.

[Pope Joan]

Obama has been a friend of coal. he has not done nearly enough to regulate mountaintop removal
http://science.nationalgeographic.com/s ... -move.html

Gassification of coal was an important part of his original energy independence agenda in 2008.

[Liriena]

Sue this asshole.

[New Sapienta]

Because putting a gun to your workers head in a temper tantrum is such a good idea.

[Liriena]

Because putting a gun to your workers head in a temper tantrum is such a good idea.

He should be glad American unions are not like Argentine ones. If he had done this shit in Argentina, he'd be dead or in exile, and his company would go broke in days.

[Straughn]

Can we get a physicist in here? I want to measure that spin.

Sorry, I don't have enough paper to calculate the Clebsh-Gordon coefficients for a spin that big.

Hey, watch it ... i'm running outta WHOOP WHOOPs for ya.

[Greed and Death]

It seems legitimate to me, the CEO predicts Obama will hurt his industry he has a duty to his share holders to minimize the loss by reducing expenses such as labor.

It maybe was poor form to add an anti Obama rant to the lay offs. Nothing however is particularly wrong with that.

So long as the manner in which the layoffs were conducted did not target people by political affiliation he should be protected from a discrimination claim. Luckily for him Coal is very unionized, so he has a labor contract that dictates how and when he can lay people off ( in most cases last hired first fired).

[CVT Temp]

Hey, watch it ... i'm running outta WHOOP WHOOPs for ya.

I'm such a fucking nerd, but apparently that's popular here.

[Straughn]

Hey, watch it ... i'm running outta WHOOP WHOOPs for ya.

I'm such a fucking nerd, but apparently that's popular here.

Hells and Happy Hunting Grounds yeah it is.

[Greed and Death]

Obama has been a friend of coal. he has not done nearly enough to regulate mountaintop removal
http://science.nationalgeographic.com/s ... -move.html

Gassification of coal was an important part of his original energy independence agenda in 2008.

And your article likely points to the real reason for the lay offs, The company needs less miners to mine more coal thanks to new methods of mining.

But if the CEO predicts that giving his former workers a hatred to the democrat party might result in better shareholder returns I think he might have a duty to create that hatred in his former workers.

[Minnysota]

It is nice to see this thread is filled with adolescents who have no true understanding of how the economy works, or how Obama's policies are destroying the energy industry in America.

Except for damn near every fact checker (if not all of them) has* disproved this.

EDIT: Grammatical error.

[Straughn]

It is nice to see this thread is filled with adolescents who have no true understanding of how the economy works, or how Obama's policies are destroying the energy industry in America.

Except for damn near every fact checker (if not all of them) have disproved this.

Good thing the rapethepublicans publicly dissociated themselves with factchecking as the hindrance they so clearly are. Phew!

[Dyakovo]

Get's worse during summer. We get all sorts of Ancaps, "Libertarians", "patriots", or Nazis then.

And yet how long has it been since we had a good communist ranting about the evils of the bourgeois?

I don't know... When was Andaras on last?

[The TransPecos]

Whatever you may think of Murray, he isn't the only one or the only company doing this. I understand that several companies have announced closures or moves to China because of rising regulatory issues and mandated costs. Locally most (and eventually all?) restaurants are putting everyone on part time so they can avoid health care and other benefits costs.

Here's a fun game. Link me 10 anti-business regulations Obama has passed. Him being such a fucking anti-business communist this ought be easy. Feel free. Obamacare only counts as one.

OK. Let's go. Remember this is about current and rising costs and resultant moving, not whether you think these are good, bad, or indifferent regulations or mandates.

1. Obamacare. You're cheating by calling Obamacare just one because it both phased and contains multiple mandates.
2. CFL lamps are all made in China because of both cheap labor and no evironmental restictions on use of mercury.
3. GM is moving to China. That's a huge market and there are few regulations on auto building activities. GM isn't alone, think everything from toys to diesel engines. (Oh yeah, GM is Government Motors Corp., right?)
4. EPA regulatory processes (e.g. exhaust scrubbing, ozone, etc.) are chaotic and in utter confusion. The electricity generating industry simply doesn't know where to turn. The proposed clean air standards can't be achieved where I live simply because the wind blows (or Texas sucks, take your choice).
5. General bureaucratic delays in rule making. In the pipeline are over 4000 rules that will hit in the next few years, assumimg thet things go even reasonably smoothly. Companies of any size have complete departments that attempt to stay current on regulatory issues.
6. Tier 3 fuel standands will cost the economy about 8 billion dollars. Tier 4 diesel emission requirements will have a lesser but significant effect.

Looking to the future, let's pick some under review by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. (Google OIRA for more details.)

7. New refinery standards, Estimated impact is 460 million dollars. When was the last refinery built in the USA?
8. Vehicle rear view cameras. Estimated impact is 2.7 billion dollars. What is the benefit that is worth that sum of money?
9. Refrigerator Energy Standards. Estimated impact is 875 million dollars.
10. Crystalline silica. Estimated impact is 55 billion dollars. Multiple building stand vacant in and are and economic burden to my city because they contain asbestos and no one will touch them. Silica is everywhere!

We could go on but what's the point. You know and I know that there is a manufacturing flight from the USA. Where possible, service industries (e.g. call centers) have and are fleeing. The equivalent economic action is about to take place in those service and other industries that can't flee.

You just have to face up to the fact and look at the causes. Look at economic growth, look at imports from China, India, and other countries. Look at our national debt. Look at our foreign creditors. They all point to the same fundamental fact; the USA is not the best place, and often is not even a good place, to do business and one main reason is rising regulatory issues and mandated costs

[Minnysota]

*snip*

So outside of EPA regulations and Obamacare, you came up with jobs going overseas? Right, because Obama totally has the power to not only stop that, but to overpower the extremely pro-corporation Republicans in the House if he wanted to stop that.

The rest of them you're ignoring the fact that there are likely government incentives to go forward with these new rules or you're just flat out ignoring the future benefits of said programs. So... I count two legitimate anti-business points you bring up. That number is sketchy itself because I'm not currently aware of the power Obama has over the EPA's regulatory policies.

[Wintersun]

Instances like these are when you simply nationalize the company and accuse the owner of blackmail and/or treason seeing as he increased the unemployment rate, thus sabotaging the nation's economy, simply to try to get his way politically. Stupidity is legal, but stupidity on this level should not go unpunished.

[Hippostania]

Elections have consequences, and the consequences of Obama's re-election are decreased standarda of living, increased regulations and huge lay-offs. Don't say that the Republicans didn't warn you about this.. But oh well, you reap what you sow.

[Tmutarakhan]

3. GM is moving to China.

Uh... no. GM is doing business in China, a lot of it in fact. Chinese love American cars. GM can and will expand its operations in the US and China simultaneously.

[New Rogernomics]

Hate to rip into the founder cult (well not really ) but the founders weren't against a welfare state, instead an all controlling one; not to mention that slavery goes against invividual liberty.

Even the 1900s-50s had big gang problems, robber barons and monopolies. So I don't get how the free market promised land the coal boss is ranting about is 'being ruined', when it never existed. xD