I am NOT given to gratuitous swearing.  However, god damn it all anyway.  54+ dead in Baghdad, 140+ injured.  8 dead in Jerusalem.  The dems don't have a nominee.  Utah ended its stupid ass legislative session (more on THAT forthcoming).  

And this afternoon, competing news releases flying from the committee chair, Ted Kennedy, and the ranking member, Mike Enzi.

Because
Kerry Allred
Don Erickson
Luis Hernandez
Juan Carlos Payan
Brandon Phillips
Manuel Sanchez
Gary Jensen
Dale Ray Black
Brandon Kimber

are DEAD.

And it is the fault of Bob Murray, MHSA, Elaine Chao and w*.

Bob Murray is an easy target.  He is the ugly face of the mining company that co-owns and operates the Crandall Canyon Mine, which we all know about.  Kossacks Devilstower and jlms qkw have already done an amazing job discussing Murray's recently revealed role at the Crandall Canyon Mine.  

But in light of the minutes of the co-owners that were obtained by the Salt Lake Tribune, I think the focus can be expanded, as the mine was co-owned by Murray's company with the Intermountain Power Agency, which is a Utah public entity with strong ties to Southern California local governments.  As explained below, the minutes raise questions for both the residents of Utah and Los Angeles and other Southern Californian municipals as to what their public officials knew and when they knew it.

Headline news here in Utah this morning:
Crandall Canyon bombshell: Months before deadly cave-ins, owners knew of structural woes

All of our worst suspicions are confirmed true.  

There were many fine diaries about the Crandall Canyon disaster last summer, and some followup on the Senate hearings in September.  After months of little to no news, the good old Trib drops this bombshell.

Newly released meeting minutes show that, in the months before the Crandall Canyon mine disaster, its co-owners were dealing with serious structural problems, higher-than-expected costs and subpar coal, but were hopeful that plans approved by federal regulators would get things back on track.
   Those plans hinged on extracting nearly all of the coal from the south barrier pillar, the 450-foot-thick coal wall that helped support the roof of the mine, where three months later the walls collapsed, entombing six miners.

to help with the rescue effort.  I'm a little distraught at the moment, so the clarity of the following might be sub par, but here's what I know about the situation...

The story on Bob Murray keeps getting uglier.  While outwardly pledging that "Coal is my life, not a financial opportunity." he reneged out promises to hire laid off workers and provide wage increases.