[Wildcatk23]

That is correct. I did briefly work with one of the two people (Dexter Short) who were copied on the ridiculous memo that Blankenship dictated when he was a young mine foreman working on Big Creek.

Blankenship claims that his memo was "poorly drafted," which is a huge understatement, and that he later sent out a revised memo. I believe him. I do not know the context in which the memo was sent but taken literally the marching orders that he gave were directing the superintendents to act contrary to the law.

If Massey and Blankenship were as crooked as the liberals here allege, the memo would not have been produced in response to a subpoena. Some managers fire off ill advised memos during an angry outburst that find their way into the company files. Massey's mines would have been shutdown in short order if Blankenship's superintendents had taken his memo literally.

I once worked for a company that lost a multi-million dollar civil suit because a manager wrote a memo while angry at a deadbeat customer. The strategy outlined in the memo to deal with said deadbeat was sound, but the wording of the memo left a bad impression on the jury that we could not overcome. The memo was circulated to only one person - me, and then it was filed. Our company produced the memo during discovery, which is what honest companies do, and shot itself in the foot as a result.

Blankenship and Massey did the same, which is why I do not place much stock in his memo. The tone of the memo suggests that Blankenship needs to spend some time with his own lawyers, listening more and talking less. Anybody in business should always write letters and memos under the assumption that someday they will be blown up to flip-chart size and read to a jury. It is bad business to write while you are angry, whether your anger is justified or not.

No matter in what way he wrote the memo, During The Bush Administration would massey have lost anything. Being a high class supporter of the republican party and being a financial Donor.