Free Republic

Fate has provided an opportunity to compare President Obama's crisis management skills with those of another democratically elected president. Obama and Chilean President Sebastián Piñera each faced a major crisis recently, and their leadership styles have been put on public display for all to judge. Obama faced the unprecedented blowout of BP's deep-water Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico; Piñera faced the rescue of 33 miners trapped deep underground in a gold and copper mine. Ultimately, both situations were brought under control. The Macondo well stopped flowing after BP's "static kill" operation succeeded, and the Chilean miners were...

Contrasting with the jubilation at this week's rescue of 33 miners in Chile, the death toll from an explosion in a Chinese coal mine has risen to 37 with the bodies of the last five miners trapped underground being found, state media said on Tuesday. China's notorious safety standards has made it one of the world's deadliest countries for miners, with some 2,631 miners being killed in 2009 alone.

The first of three rescue capsules specially built to lift out 33 miners trapped since early August arrived at the mine Saturday. Two back-up rescue devices constructed at Chile's naval shipyard are expected to be delivered next week. The man-size capsule will be used to pull the miners out one by one once one of the three rescue holes being drilled reach the men. The government says that should happen by early November or earlier if all goes well. Mining Minister Laurence Golborne showed off the first capsule to relatives of the trapped miners yesterday. Golborne and about a dozen...

I held off on posting this one until dinnertime. You’re welcome. Anyone know who he is? Let’s put a name to this humiliation. Click the image to watch

China Executes Party Official in Mine Disaster That Killed 81 Feb 20, 2004 The Associated Press BEIJING (AP) - A former Communist Party official was executed Friday for trying to cover up a tin mine accident that killed 81 people in 2001, the government announced. Wan Ruizhong, a former county party secretary in the southern region of Guangxi, was convicted of taking bribes from mine managers to conceal the July 17, 2001, accident. Other officials convicted in the disaster have been sentenced to up to 20 years in prison. The government says miners at the Lajiapo mine drowned when blasting...