Communication Problems

I see that President Obama is blaming his crushing defeat in the House of Representatives on "the message". When the American people reject a policy that the Democrats and President Obama have created, the President always blames "the message".

This irritates the hell out of me. What President Obama is saying in a "politically correct" way is: "These issues are so difficult understand and the American people are stupid, so we must make our "message" easier to understand."

President Obama, we all didn't have the luxury of getting an Ivy League education, this much is true. But that does not make us stupid. You see, most Americans went to another school and graduated with honors. That would be the University of Hard Knocks. We worked our asses off doing jobs that "Americans won't do" to pay for our way through life.

While our education may be sub-par in your eyes our intellect is enormous. So when you tell us that we do not understand your "message", it is insulting. What you do not understand is the American people "get" your message, we just don't like your message.

The House of Representative changed hands because we "got the message". The messages delivered were:

"You have to pass the bill to see what is in the bill" - Nancy Pelosi

"All this talk about rules, we make them up as we go along" - Alcee Hastings

"We put the legislation together to control the people" - John Dingell

"I do think at a certain point you have made enough money" - B.H. Obama

"You are telling me we have to go spend money in order to keep from going bankrupt? Yes, that is what I'm telling you" - Joe Biden

"I think there are some very rich people out there that we can tax, somewhere down the road, and recover some of this money." - Barney Frank

"I don't worry about the Constitution to be honest" - Phil Hare

"What good is reading the bill if it's a 1,000 pages." - John Conyers

"There are been times where America has shown arrogance." - B.H. Obama

Those are a few items that we have heard Mr. President. We heard those messages loud and clear. Communication is a two way street Mr. President. You talk we listen. Now we spoke and you must listen or the same thing will happen in 2012.

Post Script: President Obama, if you are having such a hard time with communication, why in the hell do you still have that moron Gibbs as your Communications Director?

Teachers Pay

Here is a video of Governor Christie in New Jersey taking some heat because of recent teacher wage freezes....



Finally a politician, in office, who just says it like it is, and lets the chips fall where they may.

Every time there is any kind of budget cut there is somebody that is going to get mad, in this case it is teachers in New Jersey. The teacher in the video was thinking that $85,000 a year was equitable for her job. The current teachers salary is about $58,000 on average in New Jersey. Assuming that teachers work 200 days a year that is $290 a day. The average salary of let's say an accountant is $55,000, in New Jersey. They work 250 days a year or $220 a day. There is also built-in perks of being a teacher: guaranteed summers off, health insurance, weekends off. Regular daytime schedule, etc, etc... Do I think teachers deserve to be paid well? Yes and no. I understand that teachers are doing a difficult job and it is a job the whole country expects them to do well. But as Gov. Christie says in the video, "Teachers go into it knowing what the pay scale is, teachers go into it knowing all that."

The rest of the country is having economic difficulties, folks are losing their jobs, having hours cut or cut wages, there should be no exception for anyone, including teachers. Nobody will ever say..."Oh I make too much money, you can cut my salary." Sometimes "the management" (in this case Governor Christie) has to make a tough choice and cut some pay or hours. That is what you call managing a budget. If the cuts were not made, then I would have to assume later that cuts would have to be made a lot deeper and longer lasting, such as cutting teacher positions, closing schools, etc...

Just like any other occupation you have to roll with the punches. There are times where a small cut may have to be made to 10 employee salaries, so that you can save the jobs of 1 or 2 employees. That is what they call management. President Obama doesn't understand that concept, evidently Governor Christie of New Jersey does.

Teacher Tenure

Right now the Colorado Assembly is contemplating changing teacher tenure in Colorado schools. To me this is an idea that is way overdue. My feelings about tenure started back when Ward Churchill was calling the victims of the World Trade Center attack "little Eichmanns".  My thought was "How can we not fire this [place expletive here]."

I don't understand how one industry can have an established system to allow for unlimited employment. In my opinion it is about time someone based teacher job performance to  pay.  Even the most powerful job in the world, President of the United States, has to have a good job performance to get re-elected.

I understand that teaching our youth is a difficult task. I also understand, if done well, it can be most rewarding. What I don't understand is why teachers would oppose these changes. Don't teachers want  to be better at their job? Every job I have had I have been evaluated on my job performance. Sometimes they are good sometimes they are bad. When evaluations are good I get more benefits or a wage increase, when they are bad I get knowledge on what I can do to improve my job performance, thus making me a better employee. 

On a side note about employee evaluations...The best evaluation I have ever received was actually a poor evaluation of my performance. I knew I had done better than the other employees so I when I asked my boss why I received a poor evaluation he gave me a simple answer.  "Todd, I know you did better then the other employees, but I am not evaluating how you did in comparison to them, I am evaluating your performance based on what I know you can do versus what you have done."  Lesson learned.

Back to my rant...  I believe that if a teacher is going through the motions to pick up a check, maybe this isn't the line of work for them. Equally, I believe that a good teacher can be overlooked, thus an opportunity to learn from the good teacher on how to educate our children best, is lost.

I would think that the good teachers would be in favor of a merit based system, as bad teachers just make their job more difficult as well as lessen the teaching professions credibility as a whole. 

I think that instead of being beholden to the teachers unions good teachers need to stand up and support Colorado Senate bill 191.

Visualization --100 million dollar tax cut

Obama Budget Cuts Visualization

Coal Mining.... an Education

With the tragedy in West Virgina, I have been watching the news and I notice some things about mining that have been taken a bit out of context.  I am no expert by any means, but I have been a miner so I may have a bit more knowledge on the subject then the main stream media.  So here's my two cents worth...

First the violations.  The Upper Big Branch mine in West Virgina has been said to have hundreds of violations and fines that they have not paid. Every mine has hundreds of violations and fines they have not paid.  You have to look at the actual violations. Remember that a mine could be miles underground, just the massive size of a mine can create multiple violations.  You can get violations for eating in the wrong place or poor housekeeping. So look at the actual violations. I do believe the more violations that are "small" in nature can lead to more serous violations or an accident, kind of like a pyramid.

Fines. When a company is inspected and is fined, they don't just say "Oh, OK here's a thousand dollars." A lot of fines can be up to the inspector.  Let's take a popular violation in a coal mine: rock dusting.  When an area is mined, employees follow up applying a limestone dust to the walls and roof of a mine called rock dust. This dust keeps the coal from becoming coal dust, which is as explosive as gasoline. It is important. OK, let's assume the inspector walks down an entry that is seldom traversed and a rock has fallen off the roof, leaving the exposed area without rock dust. They can site you for that and usually will. The mine operator will appeal that type of violation, when it is a "judgment call". When the violation is in appeal they will not pay the fine. Sometimes they win the appeal sometime they lose. The appeals process does take some time (it is the government).

The working area of a mine is inspected by a certified Supervisor prior to every shift. They check for methane, rock falls, and other safety concerns. When a section or panel of the mine has been completed that portion of the mine is sealed off.  Those sealed sections are not inspected as often. I believe those areas are inspected weekly (I could be wrong on that). So if there was a safety problem in those area they would not be noticed as quickly.

Shelters.  Every mine has shelters setup in case of an emergency. These shelters are located about every 1000 feet.  These shelters are stalked with food, water, cribbing (wood for building supports for the roof), large cloths for directing the flow of air, and tools.  There is a chance that if you can get to that shelter you could survive. Every miner is equipped and trained on how to use a rebreather. You wear that on your belt. What a rebreather does is; removes the toxins from the air you breath so you can breath it again. The chemicals in these rebreathers last about one hour. Miners are not equipt with portable oxygen tanks. They may have oxygen at the shelter locations. If the miners at Upper Big Branch made it to a shelter and they have fresh air there is still a chance of survival.

Methane. Methane is very common in a coal mine. Methane and coal naturally occur together in the earth. They do not use methane in the mining of coal.

Training.  All miners are trained for a 40 hours on just the safety aspect of their jobs when they are first hired. Then they are re-trained every year for 8 hours. There is special training for special jobs like the Supervisor and the Electrician. It takes years of experience and testing to get these "papers".

Union vs Non-union and safety. It doesn't matter if they are in a union or not. Miners protect their own, not because they belong to a union or special group. It is because their lives depend on that bond. With most jobs, employees are usually on their own. They do what they can to get the promotion or raise. In the coal mine you depend on the other guy knowing their job, because them not knowing their job could cost you your life.

For example, if you are a smoker, you are not allowed to carry your cigarettes or lighter into the mine. Supervisors do random inspections of lunch boxes. If a lighter or cigarettes are found you will get reprimanded up to termination. MSHA can actully fine you peronally for that infraction. What is worse is the punishment you will get from your co-workers. Everything from being shunned to being beaten to within an inch of your life. No other place I have ever worked takes safety more seriously than in a coal mine, as they should. So when I hear someone stating that maybe they are not adequately trained because they are not in a union, I know that it is total garbage.

Coal mining is unsafe job.  Early in the 20th century an average of 1,000 coal miners a year died. We average about 30 a year now.  As a compairison we had 317 deaths in farming and ranching in 2008.  I think that as an industry coal mining is doing very well. The problem is perception. When a farmer dies in an accident, there is usually only one or two people involved. When an underground miner dies in an accident there is usually a lot more men involved. So it is much more publicized.  Do coal mines need more regulation?  Maybe maybe not. We need to learn from tragedies like the West Virgina disaster and make improvements where we can. But as for being unsafe there have been great strides made.

A side note: Is mining scary? I have had several people tell me that they would never want to be a miner because it is scary. Yes, is it can be scary at times. No miner would tell you they are scared but they have to be scared to work there. It is that fear that makes you a safer miner. The mine to a coal miner is like fire to a firefighter. You have respect for the mine like a fireman has for the fire. It is a necessary evil.  You do what you can to be safe, while learning what not to do from those who have mined before you. It is an experience I will never forget nor would I want to.  When I was working at the coal mine I wrote a miners prayer. A poetic prayer for the miner. It shows you how I felt as a miner. You can find the prayer here.


Summary.  Don't rush to start blaming people based on sketchy media information. Wait for the final determinations made by MSHA and other authorites. We don't know what actually happened and we may never know.  What we do know is that there are 29 families that have lost or missing members. Those people need our prayers. Those people need our comfort during these very troubling times.

Oil and Gas Wells

I was a miner for 10 years so I have a pretty good idea how those systems work. I have never worked for oil or gas well producers so I found this video and I thought it was very enlightening. Now, I understand at least a little bit when I talk to gas well workers around town. Maybe I should say that I will better understand them when they return to town.