Outrageous. The uniformed speculators have littered this comment section with complete rubbish! While Mr. Blankenship has a bad public image, he has very little input as to the daily operations of his mines. He runs the corporation and does not engineer ventilation flow in any of his mines. As with anyone in the industry from the roof bolter to the CEO of the company, safety is the utmost priority. To implicate Blankenship as a murderer or to have any part in the cause of the explosion is ridiculous. No, I am not a big supporter of Don, but the implications here are just foolish.
I am a supporter of the men in the mines. I will tell you that the men at UBB, as with all miners, were very safety conscience. I will also tell you from firsthand knowledge that two weeks prior to the explosion that mine was ventilated very well to the point where you could feel a decent breeze 2 miles underground at the longwall face. The men were very conscience of ventilation procedure and adjusted curtains frequently as the mine developed.  I ASSURE YOU 100% THAT THOSE MEN WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN THERE IF THEY THOUGHT ANYTHING WAS UNSAFE THAT DAY. IF the men underground didn’t know of the unsafe conditions that led to the explosion and the MSHA inspectors who visit regularly didn’t know, what makes you think Don knew?
So instead of spewing inaccurate speculation all over the internet about something you have no knowledge of, step back for a minute and think about the miners and their families. The guys at UBB were a proud bunch of men and absolutely loved what they did. As I said, the men had no clue as to the conditions leading up to the explosion. No one did.
Finger pointing and ignorant gossiping is in poor taste. Please have a little more respect for the men that lost their lives on April 5th at UBB. God bless them all.

Massey Energy and Don Blakenship are bullies and have now crossed the
line to becoming serial killers.  We want to provide legal help to the
families of the 29 murdered coal miners.  People you need to stand up, or
the big coal companies continue this type of treatment to the employees. 
My husband worked for a big coal company, was injured at their fault,
and now we are fighting back.

If money is speech, all political contributions must be anonymous. The money
must be allowed to speak for itself.

I Worked in the Mining industry, And Truly Enjoyed Honest Hard Work,
Sleeping well Knowing you Earned Your Keep. I was Driven Out, by an
injury that Happened, While the parts where IN the warehouse, ready to
Use, that would have Prevented My Injury. I was Left, denied work
comp, by a “Self Insured” Mining Corp, till they Got Their Bond Money
Back from the state, and My State Disability Ran OUT. They kept me
swinging, without being able to get into Pain Management, for Three
and a Half Years, while cutting my disability payment Off Regularly, to
see how “serious” I Really was, till I was Able to get into Pain
Management, after settling for Half a year wages, after years, and
“Future Medical” They then Promptly took Half of That Back Straight out
of my account, without notification. My “Lawyer”, said No Recourse,
Also, No Attempt to get Malfeasance, for the actions of the Corp, in
causing&exasperbateting; the Injury, which was Easily Provable, Too
much Bother, for too little money for him.
  They restricted my Medical treatment, by denial regularly, then
stopped paying all together, and though I Have the “Judgement”, No
Lawyer will touch it, because, there isn’t enough Money in it for them,
and I’m a Crip with NO Income, tossed on Capital’s Trash Heap. Never
thought much of Union’s, but the work practices that Injured Me, went
on to injure Others, and probably will NEVER stop, till reined in, Union
Save’s Lives!
Beyond giving the “Working Man” someone to go to Bat for Them. And
just because you might still be alive,but injured, believe me, Life Loses
something when you hurt all the time, and Cannot support Yourself,
Much less a Family.
By the Way, trying to track down my Lawyer, I Found that HE had
“hurt” his back lifting law books at work, He got a WorkComp Award,
(No Doubt a bit sweeter than Mine), and retired, flushing ALL of his
case records down the Recycle chute, and “WorkComp”, does not hang
on to ANY records past a certain date, And they No longer could help.
Nice setup, toss&forget;.
Probably Relaxing with one of the many Work Comp “Judges”, who
retire from the stress of dealing with it, Having Never even Seen or
Spoken to the People they are Judging, and NO that is Not the people
who injured the workers. Look Out for Your Own Folks, cause to the
Corps, Your Just Another Consumable. Your state may vary, Mine was
Golden California, but the Laws were all set into place in the days of
the Robber Barons, and Probably are Not any different in actual effect.
The Mining Industry Own’s MSHA, and the Major Majority of BOTH
Parties, which have been partying on the Extractive Industry’s dime
since there Were Laws to pester them.
BrucesPoint

It’s amazing how big money and big business can treat life so callously, but we learn from our government, who also have no regard for human life, either. In the words of Smedley Butler, “War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.”
Is there any difference in the attitude of giant corporatists like Blakenship than those of our own government? Is Obama just another Clinton, talking the talk, but not walking the walk. Put Blakenship away for manslaughter for the rest of his life, and maybe we’ll start to hear a different tune from to big to fail corproations. Take these people’s money away from them and their future generations and put them back at the end of the line and maybe we’ll get the changes in the corporation charters that America so needs, to prevent these gross profiteers from throwing away lives like they were chattle, just a cost of doing business, like the soldiers who died in Vietnam for Tin and Rubber, so our miners die for Don’s American Dream, which turns out to be America’s nightmare.