"We conclude that there is a serious risk of actual bias (click here) - based on objective and reasonable perceptions - when a person with a personal stake in a particular case had a significant and disproportionate influence in placing the judge on the case by raising funds or directing the judge's election campaign when the case was pending or imminent. The inquiry centers on the contribution's relative size in comparison to the total amount of money contributed to the campaign, the total amount spent in the election, and the apparent effect such contribution had on the outcome of the election."
"Justice Benjamin did undertake an extensive search for actual bias. But, as we have indicated, that is just one step in the judicial process; objective standards may also require recusal whether or not actual bias exists or can be proved...The failure to consider objective standards requiring recusal is not consistent with the imperatives of due process."
"Our decision today addresses an extraordinary situation where the Constitution requires recusal."
This is the FIFTH mine disaster since 2000 with a total of 69 deaths. The initial causes of these disasters are primarily from explosion. However, additional deaths were caused at Sago due to collapse. The mines are not in good condition. Sago was a 'collapse' mine in that the companies are trying to exploit ANY remains of coal still in the mine rather than closing it down.
Previous to 2001 there was one mine disaster in the 1990s, which is the safest decade on the last forty years. There is a reason why the 1990s were safer than any other. It would expect the authorities involved to realize that reason and expand on it. This industry, in the light of alternative fuels, may be the most abundant fuel in the USA, but, is obsolete.
The lives of these people have been ravaged enough for generations. Miners may love mining, but, that is no reason to continue this calamity of an industry and its abysmal record of deaths and disease. And there is NOTHING romantic about the human tragedy either.
Blankenship is a real company man, no doubt about that, the question is how long do he and his compnay get away with corruptive practices? The face of a profoundly devoted Plutocrat.
Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship said that a carbon monoxide warning at Massey Energy Co.'s Upper Big Branch mine was the first sign of trouble before a huge underground explosion killed 25 miners.
Blankenship is a master at steering the future of the company. He is the company's best chance at avoiding the truth of their practices. Massey has a long list of violations and simply does not care about the workers, but, only their bottom line. The Massey cases need to be expedited (right to a timely hearing) to the top of the court and agency lists considering the lousey record this company has. There are human lives at stake and they are at chronic danger. The people that work coal mines are no different than much of the populous of the Applachians and the South for that matter, they have NO sense of self preservation. The coal companies are far too powerful 'in balance' to their impact on the USA political infrastructure, court systems, lack of sincere concern for their employees and the devastation of their industry on the Earth's troposphere. They have as lousy a product as they have practices. There is absolutely no such thing as Clean Coal Technology and the face of Blankenship is proof of the inhumanity of it all.
...Blankenship (click here) keeps as a trophy in his office a TV that was hit by a bullet when he battled a past strike. The Upper Big Branch Mine, where three miners had died in the past year, isn't unionized. In 2004, Blankenship spent $3 million for advertising to help a challenger defeat a sitting state Supreme Court justice. The new judge refused to recuse himself in a $70 million case against Blankenship; the U.S. Supreme Court later ruled he should have....
