Mystery of the Grumpy Coal Miners — Solved

Remember the coal miners used as a backdrop at a Romney rally? The ones who really really really didn’t seem to want to be there?

Now we know why they were grumpy. Turns out attendance at the rally was both mandatory and unpaid. No wonder they were, um, grumpy.

After a number of miners complained to local news media that they’d been ripped off of several hours’ pay, mine owner Charles Murray claimed he had closed the mine at the request of the Secret Service. And of course he wasn’t going to pay miners to attend a political rally. But the Romney campaign is saying that closing the mine and herding the miners to the rally was Charles Murray’s idea entirely. The photos of the grumpy miners and their families being herded to see Mittens tell them what a great boss they had certainly impressed the mouth-breathing set.

I did some checking and, no surprise, Century is a non-union mine.

15 thoughts on “Mystery of the Grumpy Coal Miners — Solved

  1. In the words of the immortal Gomer Pyle, USMC – “Well, sooprise, sooprise, soooooorise!”

  2. I just saw this on HuffPo and came racing over here to tell you. Shucks, even with the new hip, I’m still slow!

    I imagine to someone like Charles Murray, who for all intents and purposes is a remorseless mass murderer, harassing employees and then lying about it (or, better still, getting Smithers to lie about it for him) is really no big thing.

    But do we know unhappy workers when we sees em, or what?

    (And for the love of [Emma ]Go[l]d[man], Obama, get yourself re-elected!)

  3. In comments for that posting I tried to construct the thoughts of a miner or two complaining about missing their coffee break. I knew they weren’t there willingly. Argh. Such a crass, cheesy company and boss.

  4. Pound wise and penny foolish. For under a grand he could have put smiles on those props. He’s tighter than a crab’s ass.

  5. “Grumpy coal miners” “Now we know why they were grumpy”

    Though really the coal company could not win. Had they paid the dirt face people props then they would have been paid dirt face people props. Not paying carries a different charge. If I was the manager of the Mine I would have kept Mittens far away. My hope is that if enough people watch Mitt walk, they will stop his run.

  6. Yeah but Gulag, that camerawoman was stealing the nuts-chucker’s soul, by filming. Technology = voodoo.

  7. Chris Christie’s keynote in brief (the part I heard anyway):

    “Everyone hates us blah blah blah… Founding Fathers blah blah blah… stay the course blah blah blah… excuse me, I burped.”

  8. Chris Christie’s keynote speech was absolutely atrocious. What kind of a sentence/statement is: ” My mom came from nothing.”.. The only thing that I can relate the concept of coming from nothing would be from the book of Genesis where Yahweh tells Moses..”I am that I am”

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