Susan G. Komen Foundation - Secrets that may turn them Pink

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There is no doubt the Susan G.Komen Foundation for Breast Cancer Research is one of the most successful non-profit groups raising money in America.  Over the years it has raised over $1.5 billion for breast cancer research and has the most successful fund raising techniques in existence.

The darling of Hollywood and entertainers, the Pink campaigns of the Foundation are everywhere as they raise about $55 million every year.  But is there a secret aspect to their cancer research efforts that allows funds to be diverted to other more controversial causes that are unknown to those pouring in millions of dollars?

It is one thing to support your own cause, but the Komen Foundation might be funneling millions of dollars into much more controversial causes without telling the full story of how they spend donations.  Recently the web site indicated that the Foundation gave about $780,000 to the right to abortion group Planned Parenthood.

Intense media questioning resulted in the fact the local chapters of the Komen group will actually funnel $7.5 million into Planned Parenthood and their pro-abortion campaigns this year, ten times more than previously reported.

How much more cancer research donations have been diverted to Planned Parenthood and related programs over the years if they received over $7.5 million this year alone?  That is not the charter of the Komen Foundation and certainly is not part of the mission or appeal of the group.  A lot more details must be revealed by the foundation about the secret funding of pro-abortion and other work in the name of cancer research.

Here is the mission of the Foundation according to their web site.  Note there is no reference to giving money to pro-abortion groups.

About Us

Susan G. Komen fought breast cancer with her heart, body and soul. Throughout her diagnosis, treatments, and endless days in the hospital, she spent her time thinking of ways to make life better for other women battling breast cancer instead of worrying about her own situation. That concern for others continued even as Susan neared the end of her fight. Moved by Susan’s compassion for others and committed to making a difference, Nancy G. Brinker promised her sister that she would do everything in her power to end breast cancer forever.

That promise is now Susan G. Komen for the Cure®, the global leader of the breast cancer movement, having invested nearly $1.5 billion since inception in 1982. As the world’s largest grassroots network of breast cancer survivors and activists, we’re working together to save lives, empower people, ensure quality care for all and energize science to find the cures. Thanks to events like the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure®, and generous contributions from our partners, sponsors and fellow supporters, we have become the largest source of nonprofit funds dedicated to the fight against breast cancer in the world.

Message from our Founder

As I look back over the more than 25 years since I founded Susan G. Komen for the Cure, I am amazed at our accomplishments. What began as a promise to my dying sister, Susan G. Komen, has evolved into the world’s largest grassroots network of breast cancer survivors and activists fighting to save lives, empower people, ensure quality care for all and energize science to find the cures.

I am in awe of our victories over the last two decades. We began the global breast cancer movement. We started the Komen Race for the Cure®, the most successful fundraising and education event for breast cancer ever created; pioneered cause-related marketing; created Komen Affiliates serving the breast health needs of millions in their communities; developed educational tools to reach people in more than 200 countries; and became the world’s largest source of private funds for breast cancer research and community outreach programs with nearly $1.5 billion invested to date.

We’re proud of the fact that we don’t simply dump funds and run. We create activists – one person, one community, one state, one nation at a time – to try and solve the number one health concern of women. I am so proud of the work done by the Komen Affiliates who reach into their communities to keep the subject of breast cancer high in the public consciousness. With the help of Komen Affiliates, corporate partners, individual donors, Komen staff and activists, we’ve saved millions of lives, making the 2.5 million breast cancer survivors the largest group of cancer survivors today.

The sad reality is there is still tremendous work to be done. We don’t know what causes breast cancer, and we don’t know how to prevent it. Women are still dying unnecessarily in our own backyards. And on the global front, the situation is worse. Ten million women around the world could die from breast cancer in the next 25 years. Cancer already claims twice as many lives as AIDS worldwide. At least seven million people die of cancer each year and close to 11 million new cases are diagnosed. That's more than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined.

We have come a long way in our fight. When we started, the five-year survival rate was just 74 percent when breast cancer was diagnosed before it spread beyond the breast. Today, that survival rate is 98 percent. Nearly 75 percent of women over the age of 40 now receive regular mammograms compared to just 30 percent in 1982. Now it's time to take an even more aggressive stance. We must raise the expectations of science, of institutions and ourselves.

We are so close to creating a world without breast cancer. The science is there. Now is the time for us to see this fight through so that no one ever has to fear breast cancer again.

We’re on a mission, but we can’t get there without you. We have a multitude of ways you can support Komen and our cause. Please take a moment to peruse our website to find a way that is comfortable for you to participate. Thank you for your consideration and continued support.

With love and gratitude,

Ambassador Nancy G. Brinker
Founder and CEO
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Inside Political Campaigns - Who Wins in Elections Too Close To Call?

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No one can claim to have all the answers when it comes to campaign strategy but experience in local, state and federal elections can give one a perspective that helps them see the light, sometimes. Over the years I have been involved in many capacities in campaigns for Republicans, Democrats and Independents in partisan and non-partisan races.

From local city council to county commissioner, small to big city mayors races, governors, congressmen, senators and presidents and when it comes to a race too close to call, there are two elements that will often tip the race to one candidate or the other. First the absentee ballot effort can provide the winning margin and it takes place before the first vote election day. Second is the strength of the get out the vote effort by the campaign.

Many of the unsung heroes of political campaigns are the volunteers who man the phones and do the leg work for campaigns. These are the people who diligently and patiently must take the often shabby records of the voting history from the election office and build lists that often can win or lose elections.

You see, as the lists of primary and general election voters, turnout during presidential and off-year elections and degree of enthusiasm of the voters are checked, cross checked, and analyzed during the campaign, they become the basis for planning the absentee and get out the vote strategies in the final days of the campaign.

A good campaign will never rely solely on media to win. If it is close, the ground campaign, those efforts that bring the campaign in direct contact with voters, can often provide the winning margin. The thousands of hours of voter research and analysis form the basis for the strategy to be implemented.

Most absentee voter ballots are distributed 2-4 weeks before the election. They have to be requested by the voter in most states. When a list of potentially favorable voters is identified the campaign must find out if they need to vote absentee because if they are disabled or out of town election day that vote might be lost. So the campaign must identify who needs absentee ballots, get them to the voter, and get them sent back in to be counted. In some races there are thousands of absentee votes cast and it can be the difference in the election.

On election day weather can be a huge factor in voting. Highly motivated voters will turn out rain or shine and that gives the Republican and Tea party candidates a big advantage. Right now all polls show the Democrats are not enthusiastic. The campaigns and political parties must make sure their supporters get to the polls to vote rain or shine and that takes a major organizational effort to achieve. If you do not do the massive research in advance it cannot be successful.

Watch the campaigns in the too close to call elections. If they had the foresight to use the time tested techniques of mounting major absentee and get out the vote campaigns, they should win the tightly contested races. It takes planning, knowledge of campaigns and money to support the effort but it is often the best money spent during the campaign.

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First BCS Poll Shows Oklahoma on Top!

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Here are the results of the first BCS poll and as we noted, Oklahoma leaped to first place.  Remember, this is the poll that weighs the strength of schedule in determining results.  We thought you would like to see how the various polls compare.

As you consider the early standings remember Oklahoma still must get past unbeaten Missouri and Oklahoma State and once beaten Nebraska to reach the national championship game.

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College Football - Another #1 Bites the Dust as Boise State (WHO?) Climbs Charts

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For the second week in a row a number 1 team lost, Ohio State, along with two more of the top ten, Nebraska and South Carolina. It is starting to look like all the marquee teams are going to beat each other during the season so either the national championship will be decided between teams with at least 1 or 2 losses, or it will be Boise State versus TCU for the national championship.

Only unbeaten Oregon and Oklahoma stand between Boise State and being number 1 at the moment but threatening in the wings are unbeaten major conference teams like Michigan State, Missouri and Oklahoma State while Utah is also unbeaten.

Looks like bigtime football to me.

While Boise State still faces Nevada (19) TCU must face Utah so at least one more unbeaten will fall. Michigan State, Missouri and Oklahoma State all must face other Big Ten or Big 12 powerhouses so it is highly unlikely they will survive the season unbeaten.

It just might be the year the surprise small team from a small conference slips through the cracks and steals the national championship while the big boys are busy beating up each other. If so Boise State is the most likely champion.

Who and where is Boise State you might ask? It is in Boise, Idaho, capitol of the state with a metro area of 590,000 and about 20,000 students attend Boise State. It is a regional university founded as a junior college in 1932 and upgraded to four year in 1965 with a football program for the top jocks who don't go to the elite football programs but want to show they belong with the big boys.

So, the Boise State Broncos have only lost one game this season and the past two seasons combined, the best record in Division 1 football. When the BCS poll comes out today, which measures teams by strength of schedule, don't be surprised in Boise State isn't #1 for the first time in school history. They will not stay #1 because their schedule is weaker than bigger schools so they need to stay unbeaten and hope the Oklahoma, Alabama and Ohio State teams lose a couple of games.

If there was ever a year a small school might play for the title this could be it. I mean stranger things than that have happened this past year. Stay tuned. Since all my top teams have already lost one game, I am making Boise State #1 until someone knocks them off.

Go Broncos!!!
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Was CNN Unfair in Delaware Senate Debate with Christine O'Donnell?

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Yesterday I made note that I thought the CNN panel was unfair in how they coddled Chris Coons while not treating Christine O'Donnell the same.  Apparently I was not the only one to notice the treatment.  Here is what another website had to say about the coverage.

American Thinker

October 14, 2010

Delaware debate moderator tells Coons, 'Go for it'
Mark J. Fitzgibbons

Nancy Karibjanian, member of the Delaware media and a University of Delaware supplemental faculty member, was co-moderator of the O'Donnell-Coons debate on CNN.

Not long into the debate, Karibjanian zeroed in on O'Donnell's financial and education controversies.

KARIBJANIAN: Let's open the discussion on correcting some of the financial issues here by talking about some of your own personal financial problems. And most people know about it by now, including an IRS lien that was for about $12,000 in taxes and penalties from '05. There was the '08 mortgage default judgment on your home. You just received your bachelors degree, as you said, because it took a decade to pay off the tuition.

Despite Karibjanian's factual inaccuracies, that's fair game for a U.S. Senate candidate. But then comes the impropriety.

KARIBJANIAN: The question, then is, how can voters rely upon your thoughts on how to manage the deficit if you're having such personal financial issues of your own?

O'DONNELL: Well, first of all, that IRS tax lien, the IRS already admitted that it was a computer error and my opponent should not be bringing that up, because as I've gone up and down the campaign trail, I've discovered there are thousands of Delawareans who have faced the same thing. An IRS mistake has caused them greatly, which is all the more reason why we need to reform the IRS, not put them in control of our health care.

Second of all, you mentioned education. I don't have a trust fund. I didn't come from a privileged, sheltered background as my opponent says he did...

KARIBJANIAN: Let's stay to the issue of paying bills...

ODONNELL: I am. I paid for my own college education. I also have a graduate fellowship in constitutional government from the Claremont Institute. I know how hard it is to earn and keep a dollar. And one of the reasons why the Delawareans should be able to trust me is because when I did in this economy, I worked for nonprofit groups. Nonprofit groups were the first to have been hurt. When I fell upon difficult times, I made the sacrifices needed to set things right. I sold my house. And I sold a lot of my possessions in order to pay of my personal debt and to become in a stronger position.

I have worked hard in order to get to the position that I am. So I can relate to the thousands of Delaware families that are suffering right now. And I'm stronger for it. I made it through to the other side. And that's where -- leadership doesn't count in whether or not you fall, it counts in whether or not you've gotten up and that's what I've done.

Karibjanian then turned to Coons like a lawyer to her own witness.

KARIBJANIAN: Let's just remember we're in the discussion portion so if you have anything you want to address on things that have been said on this topic thus far, go for it.

COONS: Well Nancy, I frankly think . . .

I suspect most people outside Delware, as I, had never heard of Nancy Karibjanian before last night. She may be a lovely person. My first impression, though, is that she's a ruling class troll who should never moderate another debate.
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Swiss Complete Another Mining Miracle to Celebrate with Chile Miracle

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Just as the people of Chile were celebrating a technological miracle when they pulled the 33 trapped miners from their tomb a half a mile below the ground halfway around the world in Switzerland another equally important technological miracle of sorts was being achieved by the Swiss.

Today Swiss engineers powered through a mountainside creating the world's longest tunnel and completing an engineering marvel 60 years in the making. As the mighty drill smashed the last rock out of the way the Swiss completed a 35.4 mile long tunnel thus eclipsing the former record of Japan's 33.46 mile long Seikan Tunnel as the longest on earth.

While no lives were saved like in Chile the Swiss wonder, called the new Gotthard Tunnel, will bring about environmental and economic savings of untold millions of dollars to this Alpine nation along with huge infrastructure savings by shifting millions of tons of truck traffic over the Alps to trains running under the mighty mountains.

First conceived in1947 by engineer Eduard Gruner, it will establish an important economic link between the Dutch Port of Rotterdam and Italy's Mediterranean Port of Genoa. It will also eliminate the heavy truck traffic through the Alps proving protection of Switzerland's pristine Alpine landscape for future generations.

Television stations throughout the Swiss nation and Europe showed the break through live along with the joyous celebration by engineers and miners in hard hats and bright orange work gear along with VIPs. It was yet another moment when technology was harnessed for good and people had a chance to celebrate what is right in the world rather than despair in what is wrong.

As trumpets sounded, cheers reverberated and tough miners wipe away tears of joy, foreman Eduard Baer lifted a statue of Saint Barbara, the patron saint of miners through the hole thousands of feet underground in central Switzerland.

The miners, engineers, politicians and people of Switzerland should be proud and should join them in their pride.
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Obamaville October 14 - Ask Pelosi not Republicans for Budget Cuts!

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Why do the liberal media and Democrats in the House and Senate keep complaining that Republicans will never give ideas on how to cut the budget? They make it sound as if there is some conspiracy of silence as a result.

If I were a Republican, which I am not, I would remind the liberal media and incumbents who are running scared that Nancy Pelosi, yes the Democratic Speaker of the House, is responsible for passing the federal budget, not the Republicans. I would also remind them that Nancy Pelosi has been in charge of the budget FOUR years running, not just two since Obama got elected.

They seem to forget the last two years of the Bush Administration it was Speaker Pelosi and a Democratic majority in the House in charge of the largest deficit increase in history before Obama took office and promptly shattered the record the last two years.

Okay, so the Democrats have been in charge all through the massive deficits of the last two Bush years and first two Obama years. What about the current budget for next year that was due last October 1, what cuts did the Democrats approve now that they control EVERYTHING in Washington?

My friends, the United States of America, under the leadership of Obama, Pelosi and Reid, has NO APPROVED BUDGET for the current fiscal year. No budget, no cuts, no guts to even pass a budget. Why doesn't the liberal media attack this truth? Why doesn't Obama demand itemized cuts from his fellow Democrats who are Constitutionally responsible for passing the budget and have ignored their duties?

Truth seems to be in awfully short supply in our nation's capitol. I trust at least the people know the truth.
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Cable News Watch - Blowing the Chilean Rescue - What Fools...

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After spending almost 24 hours glued to the tube watching one the of most heart warming and tear jerking stories in ages, last night as the last miner was being pulled from his tomb nearly half a mile underground, where he had been trapped for a record 70 days, I watched in astonishment as all three of our cable news networks blew the golden ratings goose that had been handed them on a silver platter.

I have worked with television a long time and have a pretty good idea what qualifies as quality news coverage.  What I saw was a pathetic joke.  I mean the entire world was watching the events unfold and come to a climax.  Don't you think the cable networks would have had their best news anchors and reporters handling this historic moment?

Chilean President Sebastian Pinera, center with tie and no sunglasses, poses Thursday with the 33 rescued miners at the hospital in Copiapo where they are undergoing medical exams.

First let us look at CNN where they blew it beyond belief.  Here is the self-proclaimed most popular cable news network who has brought us incredible coverage of major news events over the years from Viet Nam to Afghanistan.  Yet they scheduled a Senate debate in Delaware instead.  To add insult to injury, just when the debate was beginning to get intriguing they cut off the debate broadcast and pick up the mine rescue.

For some really odd reason this network with some exceptioal reporters like Anderson Cooper and others had new political anchors Eliot Spitzer and his co-host Kathleen Parker, both who are new to television and oblivious to news coverage, handle the conclusion of this historic moment and they made a shambles of it.

CNN had no English translation of the Chilean ceremony marking the successful conclusion so rather than let the audience watch and listen the two talked over the ceremony with senseless and classless blabber that had nothing to do with the history being made.  No mention of incredible human interest stories about the miners.  No mention of all the American contractors who were unsung heroes in the rescue.  No mention of the exceptional job by the President and Mining Director of Chile who took over full responsibility for the rescue and directed every step of it.

No mention that this was the second major disaster in Chile this year, with the massive earthquake just last spring, that had been successfully handled by the nation.  No mention of the contrast with American disasters like the BP Spill where our president barely had time for soundbites, let alone leading the disaster rescue efforts.

The crackpot CNN team told senseless jokes during the solemn activites making light of the moment and assuring I will never again watch CNN during a disaster.  The sad part was CNN had by far the best coverage until they turned it over to the ill-informed political pundits rather than legitimate reporters.

So I flipped to MSNBC who was committing the same mistakes when they had access to the entire NBC news team.  It was a joke as well.  Finally I went to Fox News and there was Sean Hannity, yet another political hack, anchoring the final coverage.  At least Fox had a Spanish interpreter giving a translation yet it was only a matter of time before Hannity, used to hearing only his own voice as the voice of authority on TV, could not resist interrupting the broadcast and translation for more trivia.

It was a sad commentary on our cable news media when none allowed the events unfolding to dictate the coverage and when they did talk, it had nothing to do with the amazing stories surrounding the miners, the government of Chile and it's leaders, or the American heroes who played a key role in the historic rescue of the miners.

What a shame the only news on cable is 15 second sound bites and senseless babble.  America used to be better than that.
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Delaware Debate - Another CNN Fiasco - O'Donnell didn't bring her broom but sure did cast a spell.

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Like many others I tuned in out of curiosity to watch the CNN debate between Republican Christine O'Donnell and Democrat Chris Coons. The lead up to the debate on CNN and MSNBC had me waiting for the witch to appear on a broom and cast a spell on her opponent. Pre-debate liberal hype left me wondering how long it would take before the undertaker appeared to haul away a shattered O'Donnell.

At first I wondered if the panel was really as stacked against O'Donnell as it appeared. While Coons carefully spouted the Obama party line, O'Donnell keep trying to focus the often bizarre questions on the issues rather than the idiotic.

The moderators, CNN's Wolf Blitzer and longtime Delaware news anchor Nancy Karibjanian of Delaware First Media, seemed to be pressing O'Donnell and interrupting her far more than they did Coons as if CNN had a vested interest in proving their latest poll showing O'Donnell far behind was the gospel truth.

The more O'Donnell spared with the moderators the more they cut her off and before long it was a contest whether the moderators or the Democrat would lose their cool first. It was obvious Karibjanian was of the liberal elitists who seem to hate Sarah Palin and Nancy was out to prove O'Donnell a dunce as if it would make Palin less as well.

But I agree with the New York Times, normally a liberal bastion, who wrote of the debate the following.

But the Republican Senate candidate, Christine O’Donnell, used the 90-minute debate to present a different image to the country than the ones captured on comedy show videos from her youth.

On a range of issues, Ms. O’Donnell offered answers familiar to conservatives.

Ms. O’Donnell’s opponent, Democrat Chris Coons, sought to rebut Ms. O’Donnell, but appeared frustrated, repeatedly telling the moderators that “there’s so much there.”

What really makes me wonder about CNN besides the obvious bias against O'Donnell was how they cut off the debate midway through just when O'Donnell was beginning to dominate the debate and leave Coons flustered. It seems his canned and well rehearsed responses were not holding up to the withering attacks from O'Donnell.

Now long before the debate CNN knew there was a chance the last miners would be rescued. CNN could easily have run the debate in it's entirety on CNN Headline news and still not interrupted the debate. Why stop it just when O'Donnell was clearly starting to dominate? It was as if someone in the production booth suddenly came to the realization O'Donnell had cast a spell and she was starting to win points with the audience. Pull the plug and protect the liberals.

I believe O'Donnell clearly connected with the public mood and her feisty debate with the moderators, not the Democrat, was just becoming good theater.

If it is true O'Donnell is not a viable candidate then why in the world is President Obama, his wife Michelle and Vice President Biden all coming to Delaware to raise money and campaign for Coons, the Obama mouthpiece? With Democrats in trouble all across the country why waste all their time on a race already in the bag?

Maybe there is more going on in Delaware than we have been told.
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How do I know if I am a Republican or Democrat in America Today?

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Now that is a very good question but in light of the surge in the voter registration for Independents one must re-phrase the question to How do I know if I am a Republican, Democrat or Independent? You see, just this past spring the number of Independents surpassed the number of either Democrats or Republicans in America for the first time in the last 100 years.

Roughly speaking there are now about 40% Independents, and 30% Democrats and Republicans. If you are an Independent you are not responsible for the political nonsense in Washington because your party has not been in charge the last century. Free of blame you are also free to condemn all the crooks in Washington.

Of course it is also true that Independents gave the margin of victory to Obama in the last election so you really aren't completely off the hook for blame. Another problem for Independents is that every party or group from conservative to progressive, radical to just plain nuts, has no other place to go so they are part of your group. Just look on the ballot at all the splinter groups listed as Independent of the two main parties.

That means there is no common platform other than most Independents think the best government is no government, they want a balanced budget, no more national deficit, and get government out of their lives. Things like regulations and laws, taxes and fees drive them nuts.

Democrats seem to like fees, higher taxes, more deficit spending and a big fat federal government. They would rather reduce individual liberty than let maniacs have guns, or free speech if it is opposed to the Democrat party line. They love unions though many have no idea what happens to all the union dues paid. Most lawyers seem to be Democrats though they may work for Republicans.

Socialists are Democrats though Democrats may not be socialists. Liberal advocates are Democrats like the Civil Liberties Union who have sued to get God out of America though most Catholics are also Democrats who kind of like having God around. The means both pro-abortion and pro-life advocates are Democrats as well who seem to cancel each other out in elections.

Of course a lot of Conservative Republicans are also pro-life so one wonders why so many Catholics are Democrats. Just about all Blacks are Democrat though it was the Republicans who freed them from slavery under Republican President Abraham Lincoln. As for Hispanics, illegal immigrants would be Democrats if they could vote but most Cuban Hispanics are Republican because the Democrats gave away Cuba to Castro and Communism.

Anyone oppose to big government, deficit spending or increasing the national debt is a Republican because there is no way the Democrats can please all the radical factions that demand more money for their pet (special) interest. If you believe in cradle to grave care (socialism in other countries) you are Democrat but if you believe in making and keeping your own money you are Republican.

Republicans most likely are strict civil libertarians while Democrats often want to coddle criminals in the interest of criminal rehabilitation which causes the Republicans to make sure we can all own guns to protect us from the people who should be in jail or institutions.

Corporate fats cats used to be mostly Republican until Democratic President Clinton started acting like a Republican and passed the NAFTA act and other big business friendly bills and a bunch of Democrats became fat cats themselves. President Obama claimed to be the innocent outsider though he was the first Democrat to get more money from fat cats than the Republicans. Two years later his legislative agenda seems to have driven the corporate world back to the Republicans, ever since he and sidekick Joe Biden declared war on corporations and small business.

Independents are those mostly silent Americans who have watched the two parties and their schizophrenia and decided there just wasn't any difference between the Democrats and Republicans and wanted nothing to do with either political group.

Perhaps after reviewing the differences or similarities between the Democrats and Republicans, we should not be talking about a third party Independent movement but just get rid of the first two parties.

Sometimes the simplest solutions are the best. Or many we all need a ballot choice of "None of the Above!"

Besides, Democrats and Republicans are not specified in the Constitution or Declaration of Independence so why do we treat them as some type of privileged class?
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Chile Mine Disaster - The Mysterious White Butterfly or Angel - Was God With Them?

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As the stories of the astounding rescue come to light it is clear the strong faith in God guided the miners through the 17 days they were thought to be dead and the entire 70 day ordeal of being buried alive. As one said upon reaching the surface, "I saw the Devil and I saw God when we first got trapped, and I reached out to God."

Why did the miners break their pattern of eating that fateful day of the collapse and all eat together by the rescue shelter rather than be spread out throughout the tunnels that collapsed where they would have been killed? Where did the white butterfly come from 2,000 feet underground that caught the attention of two miners fleeing during the mine collapse? They stopped to watch it in fascination and seconds later the tunnel just ahead of them collapsed. Was it an angel from God? The distraction saved them from being buried live.

In Chile, 33 miners are still trapped underground. Their families are still waiting patiently. Huddled around a fire on a chilly night, they are now telling the incredible story of how a butterfly was their tiny guardian angel.

In a letter to his brother, miner Jorge Galeguillos says he believes a white butterfly saved his life the day the mine caved.

Mining consultant Miguel Fortt is not given to flights of fancy. He says white butterflies flutter around purple flowers that blossom in the desert early in the morning, but they rarely fly deep into a mineshaft. He says the two miners slowed down to observe the butterfly and that saved them from driving into rockfalls triggered by the first cave-in.

"People who are religious would call this a miracle. From a scientific perspective the butterfly may have flown into the mine on air currents. You can draw your own conclusions but that butterfly saved lives," Fortt says.

Galeguillos' brother, who is also a miner, can't explain how a butterfly flew more than 500 meters deep into the mine. But like most of the miners there, he believes the butterfly was protecting his older brother's life.

Whether or not the white butterfly was an angel or a misguided butterfly who flew 500 feet into the tunnel; its a sign of hope for many people who are praying their loved ones will make it out safely from the collapsed mine. As the miners and the families wait for their rescue, at least they can hold onto this superstition to keep their faith going. This was truly an uplifting story to an otherwise tragic event.

“Here is where we meet every day, here is where we plan, where we pray,” he says. “Here is the meeting room where all of the decisions are made with the involvement of the 33 that are here.”

By Guy Adams at the San José Mine
Wednesday, 13 October 2010

They may not take kindly to being called fortunate, given the fear and discomfort they endured an incarceration that would last almost 70 days, but from the very moment at which they were first trapped underground, the 33 men who have now started to emerge from the San José mine benefited from some crucial strokes of good luck.

The rock fall that first trapped them in struck at around noon on August 5, when the men having lunch in a reinforced rescue shelter roughly 700 metres from the surface. At any other time, during a normal working day, they would have been spread throughout four miles of tunnels, meaning that many of them would have been instantly killed.

When the dust settled, it emerged that the miners had access to roughly a kilometre of what seemed to be stable areas of the San José mine. Crucially, that section contained several vehicles, whose batteries they used to power torches. One of those trucks, which had been driven a former Chilean national footballer called Franklin Lobos, also contained a small supply of bottled drinking water.

Their next piece of good luck involved the type of mine they worked in. Copper mines (in which gold is produced as a by-product) are inherently safer than coal ones, which produce potentially-deadly methane. So although ventilation shafts had been blocked during the accident, the men knew that the only way the remaining oxygen was going to be used up was by them breathing it. In other words, time was on their side.

Thirdly, and perhaps most crucially, the 33 miners had a small quantity of emergency food in the corner of their rescue shelter. They also had leftovers from the lunches they had brought down at the start of their 12 hour shift at the small, privately-owned facility in the Atacama Desert, roughly an hour’s drive from the northern city of Copiapo, where most of them lived.

Realising straightaway that the sheer depth at which they were trapped meant it could be days or even weeks until they were located by rescuers, the men embarked on a rigorous rationing system. They would eat just two teaspoons of canned tuna and a biscuit, every 48 hours. Each of these “meals” was to be washed down with two sips of milk.

It was hot in their underground prison – roughly thirty degrees, according to thermometers – but they were able to avoid serious dehydration by supplementing their bottled water by digging a makeshift canal in the floor. By way of a potential last resort, they also drained the radiators of their machinery.

No-one yet fully understands the mood in the mine, during the ensuing 17 days. A second rock-fall, on August 7, closed off a further hundred yards, presumably adding to the sense of foreboding. There is believed to have been bickering over the rationing system, which some deemed too rigorous. But in subsequent letters, “Los 33” say they’ve since vowed never to publicly discuss any of the tensions that arose.

It seems likely, however, that in the stressful conditions, leaders emerged. One such man was Luis Urzua, a 54-year-old topographer. The eldest son from a large Catholic family, who in childhood had helped bring up his younger siblings when his father died prematurely, he was a natural authority figure, and began taking it upon himself to organise the group.

Playing to the machismo of his colleagues – tough men in a hard-scrabble profession – Urzua is believed to have decided that they had a straightforward choice: perish separately, or work together to defy the odds and give themselves the best possible chance of survival. The key to getting themselves out alive, he believed would be “la solidaridad,” meaning: “solidarity.”

Urzua, whose colleagues called him “Don Lucho,” therefore instigated a system by which none of the 33 men could begin eating their tiny meals until all of them had received food. He organised them into three groups, who would venture out, in shifts, to search for signs of any approaching rescue. If nothing else, adding structure to their existence would help pass the time.

At the surface, meanwhile, a frantic rescue operation was underway. At the behest of Laurence Golborne, Chile’s mining minister, and a President who had pledged to spend anything it took to get the miners out alive, experts from the State firm Codelco had assumed responsibility for the search. Using maps of the sprawling mine, they drilled several exploratory boreholes, sending listening devices into areas where they believed survivors might be alive.

For two weeks, nothing. Then, on August 22nd, came yet another break, this time a crucial one. A probe found its way through a wall just yards from the rescue shelter where the men were based. It returned to the surface with a note attached to the end. “Estamos bien en el refugio los 33,” it read [literally: “all 33 of us are well inside the shelter”]. Those first words had been scrawled in capitals on a scrap of paper by Mario Gomez, the eldest of the miners.

In the first hours after they were discovered, a camera was sent down the borehole. It showed the group peering eagerly out of the darkness, shirtless, unshaven and sweltering, but their eyes blazing with euphoria. Their first request, aside from the obvious supplies of food and water, was for toothbrushes.

The rescue teams, meanwhile, swiftly realised that they had two major problems ahead. The first was practical: how to keep the men supplied with sufficient with medication, clothing, meals and drinks to keep them alive during a painstaking operation they initially believed might not be over until Christmas. The second was harder to fathom: how to ensure the men remained psychologically sound and co-operative during an ordeal that would push any human being’s mental endurance to the limit.

A communication system was swiftly designed by Miguel Fortt, a Chilean national and expert in mining rescue operations. He called it “la Paloma” (“the dove”). It consisted of a three meter-long PVC tube, which measured roughly three inches in diameter and would be lowered via cable to the men, delivering them packages containing whatever could be made to fit inside.

At first, each “dove” took four hours to arrive from the surface, and would contain bare essentials: glucose drinks, together with vitamin and mineral supplements. Later, the system was improved. The PVC was swapped with metal tubes, a further two boreholes were drilled, and journey time improved to twenty minutes. That allowed camp beds, communication equipment and clothing supplies to be sent to make the men’s lives more comfortable.

To maintain morale, the rescue team received advice from NASA, which is used to helping grown men live together in confined spaces for extended periods of time. They encouraged the miners to adopt as many of the trappings of normality as possible, sending down dominoes, books and letters and tape recordings from their families, and widening their diet to include tea, sandwiches, fruit, and later hot meals.

Some aspects of their menus were more rigidly controlled. Beans, a staple of many Latin dishes, were excluded from all dishes for exactly the reason you might think, when grown men share a small confined area. A latrine was established a short walk from the areas where they were largely based, which used running water to wash away urine and faeces.

Organised by Urzua, the men were divided into three groups, Grupo Refugio, Grupo Rampa and Grupo 105 - named after the “shelter,” the “ramp” and “Level 105” which are sections of the mine where they slept. They then established shift patterns, carrying out duties such as unloading new “doves,” cleaning their living area, and clearing debris from three rescue tunnels that were being bored into the mine.

When off duty, they slept, exercised (by running or using rubber exercise bans) and sent video, audio, and written messages to their families, who had been living at the surface since early August. Lights shone from 7.30am until 10pm, mimicking daylight. To keep all the trappings of a normal workplace, Urzua used the bonnet of a mine vehicle as his desk, and sent up maps of the area where they were being held.

Urzua wrote each of the men an official job description. Some became “Paloimistas,” unloading the regular supply of “doves.” Others would patrol the mine to check on the structural integrity of its walls. Jimmy Sanchez, the youngest of the group, was the “environmental assistant,” who monitored conditions underground with a handheld computer that measured oxygen, CO2 levels and air temperature,

Other aspects of daily life soon began to fall in place They would shower each morning under a natural waterfall 300 metres up the tunnel, using supplies of shampoo to clean off the orange-coloured mud that found its way almost everywhere. The more religious men – at least two of them “found God” during their ordeal – would take part in a daily prayer organised by Jose Henriquez. Others would listen to uplifting poems written by Victor Zamora, the group’s in-house poet.

It was, of course, very far from plain sailing. Many developed fungal skin infections, and almost all will now require extensive dental treatment. Medical teams at the surface also repeatedly found themselves clashing with some of the miners, whose natural machismo led them to consider the mandatory daily conversations with psychologists to be un-necessary, and perhaps undignified.

They also took exception to the rescue team’s refusal to send supplies of wine and cigarettes down to them, to prevent depression and keep the atmosphere as unpolluted as possible. They also objected to the decision to censor letters from relatives to the men that were thought to be insufficiently optimistic in tone.

At one point, in mid-September, some of the miners effectively went on strike, refusing to speak to their medical handlers. As a result, the psychologists withdrew TV and music that was being provided via the communication system. When the men agreed to speak with them again, a delivery of cigarettes arrived in a “dove.” This carrot-and-stick approach was described by one medic as: “like an arm-wrestle.”

But by that stage, three drills – Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C – were cutting through the roughly 700 metres of rock to reach the cavern where the men were trapped. By early October, they knew breakthrough was imminent. And on Saturday 9th, the Plan B drill broke through. After two months underground, the final stage of their journey to freedom could at last begin.

Chilean President Sebastian Pinera was euphoric in the early hours of Wednesday, minutes after the first of 33 miners reached the surface.

“In this rescue operation we Chileans have shown the best of us,” Mr. Pinera told a press conference at the San Jose copper mine. The miners were trapped August 5 by a shaft collapse in this barren northern Chile desert landscape.

He described the experience as “a wonderful night that Chileans and the whole world will never forget.” “Let the miners’ example stay with us forever,” Mr. Pinera said.

Pinera thanked God and the rescue teams for the success of the operation, stressing it was unprecedented in the history of the world for its magnitude and complexity.

Mr. Pinera noted the “magic number 33,” with reference to the number of miners trapped since August 5 at the San Jose copper mine under the Atacama Desert and to the date of the final rescue, October 13, 2010, which when written in numbers and added up also gives 33.

Chilean president Sebastian Pinera has described the operation to free 33 trapped miners as "without comparison in the history of humanity".

President Pinera and the First Lady have been in the Atacama Desert since the evacuation began to personally greet each man as he emerges from the underground chamber.

Florencio Avalos, the first miner to be rescued from the San Jose mine, received a giant bear-hug from Chile's leader.

Speaking after Mr Avalos was freed from the specially made capsule, Mr Pinera said: "The lesson of the miners remains with us forever."

He added that the group had shown "that when Chile unites in the face of adversity, it can achieve great things".

Mr Pinera has become the champion of the miners during this crisis and the right-wing politician has seen his popularity soar.

In a speech at the San Jose mine ahead of the rescue operation, Mr Pinera praised the "strength and bravery" of the men who have been stuck more than 2,000ft below ground.

"I hope the long journey will end very happily," he said.

Mining minister Laurence Golborne's constant presence at the mine has turned him into a national hero and media star.

He has been on hand to hold press conferences, comfort families and even play the guitar around the campfire in Camp Hope.

His dedication has obviously impressed the public - he has 54,000 followers on Twitter and there is even a Facebook group calling for him to run for president in 2014.

Dios bendiga a Chile!

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