Bob Murray and his devilish prayer.

You might have heard about Bob Murray, the coal miner owner who carried through with his threat to lay off employees if Obama was reelected.  In doing so, he said the following prayer:

"Lord, please forgive me and anyone with me in Murray Energy Corporation 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."

Laying off people the week after the candidate he backed, failed?  Nothing changed; no new laws, no new regulation; today was the same as it was six months ago as it was one year ago.  He's forced his employees to donate money to Mitt Romney's campaign; forced them to attend a rally for Mitt Romney without pay; he's ignored the safety citations of his mines; he's brushed off the accidents at his mines; he's ignored the pollution accidents of his mines.

As Slate says:

"In 2010, one of Murray’s mines leaked coal slurry into Captina Creek, home of the endangered hellbender salamander. This wasn’t the first time a mine under Murray’s purview had committed such an infraction, or the second. It was the seventh. 

Murray has also tried to shirk the blame for the Crandall Canyon mine catastrophe, when nine people died after the collapse of a Murray-run mine. Crandall Canyon faced 64 safety violations before its collapse, but Murray ignored them all, ultimately insisting that the collapse was caused by an earthquake. (It wasn’t.)"

As TNR noted:

"Murray had suspended Century’s operations and made clear to workers that they were expected to attend, without pay. 

Murray, it turns out, has for years pressured salaried employees to give to the Murray Energy political action committee (PAC) and to Republican candidates chosen by the company. Internal documents show that company officials track who is and is not giving."

Santa keeps delivering Bob Murray giant lumps of coal in his stockings, which only excites Bob Murray with hopes of free (and subsidized) coal.