If fines were effective, probably wouldn't have reached number 208 in the first place. If the war were effective in its supposed goal, less people would be dying.

Looking busy isn't the same as getting things done.

I believe those statistics were posted in the original thread; so it's not as if you couldn't have seen them.

Bush's record on workplace safety overall isn't quite so rosy - after declining for the previous 10 years, workplace fatalities stopped declining around the time Bush became president. But mining fatalities continued to decline.

I also notice that you don't mention that the current owners of the mine have only had it for a few months and that the previous owners were bankrupt - and what I've read indicates that it was the previous owners that racked up the safety violations. (I could be wrong on that, however, I have yet to see a detailed analysis of exactly what safety violations there were in the Saga mine and when they became a problem.)

What is politics for?

Politics is to make the world a better place. Otherwise, what the hell's the point?

Case in point: the tragic, horrific deaths in the Sago mine in West Virginia.

In the past few days, we have been reminded by the mine's owners that mining is no longer "even in the top 10" of the most dangerous jobs in America.

For hundreds of years, it was. What changed? Mine workers organized themselves into the United Mine Workers. And the Democratic Party (along with the occasional Republican -- nowadays, I supposed you'd call `em "Republicans in Name Only") worked to establish rules and regulations to protect them.

In other words: politics.

If you think mining would have gotten safer if it had been left entirely up to mine management, you're so naïve it's a wonder you managed to grow up.

Now, what can we learn from the Sago mine disaster to keep it from happening again?

1. Investigate thoroughly and independently. We don't know yet why this happened. Bring in the technical experts and scientists. Make sure they're given a chance to work unfettered by the industry. That's common sense. But, with the Bush administration in charge, it's a lot to ask. Look at what happened to Jack Spadaro, the widely-admired superintendent of the National Mine Health and Safety Academy who Bush's people hounded out after he told the truth about a disastrous coal mining leak in Kentucky.

It's not "politics" to tell that story. It's just the truth.

Since the Bush administration has a record of interfering with impartial investigations of the mining industry, demand that Congress supervise closely. ("Trust, but verify": where have I heard that before?)

Which brings me to point #2: Get the foxes out of the chicken coop. As soon as he took office, Bush packed the federal government's mining regulatory apparatus with mining executives. Long-planned mine safety rules were systematically and peremptorily abandoned. Budgets and staffing were cut. Aggressive inspections were discouraged. "Industry partnerships" became the watchword.

(Kinda like telling federal labor inspectors they need to give Wal-Mart advance warning of any inspections! You're laughing. Bush did that, too. But that's another blog entry.)

As we work on getting the foxes out of the chicken coop, we might want to revisit those Clinton rules from a more objective, less self-interested viewpoint. It could well turn out that some of them would have saved these lives.

Finally, point #3: You get what you incent. You don't get what you disincent. Simple market economics.

Over the past two years, the Sago mine was charged with 205 orders and citations for health and safety violations, 96 carrying a "significant and substantial" risk of death or injury. And fined $24,000. That's less than $120 a fine.

Subject to deeper analysis, what does this tell you? That the cost of the fines was far lower than the cost of fixing the problems. Low enough to make them a mere inconvenience: just a (deductible) cost of doing business.

OK, what does this tell you about the likely solution? Raise the fines. Make `em hurt. Especially for mines where, as in Sago's case, the violations have been ongoing and worsening.

Three simple points. Each focused like a laser on one positive goal: making mines safer. Each of `em pointing up the difference between Democrats and George Bush. Politics? Damn straight. Politics that does what it's supposed to do: make life better for people who need and deserve the help.

-------

By the way, see the Christian Science Monitor's article on Sago today...

Various trolls here have cited numbers indicating "fatalities" fell under Bush. The numbers they cite don't reflect what they seem to think they do. First of all what has happened over the past two years has been something quite unusual. We have had back to back mine disasters. (A mine disaster is when two or more miners die). In Pennsylvania a mine flooded and the miners were rescued, so a disaster was averted by the rescue, At Sago that did not happen. Mine disasters represent system failures. In Pennsylvania it was mine maps that weren't properly kept, hence the flood, here the mine itself was not properly maintained. These are big deals when they occur because whole shifts are threated as a result. Since the Mine Safety and Health Act was passed these have become exceedingly rare. Most underground coal miners die individually in roof falls.

Here are the average mine deaths per thousand miners employed per year by administration.
                         Mean         Percent Change
Nixon/Ford        0.73                  
Carter                0.52                   -29%
Reagan/Bush     0.43                   -18%
Clinton              0.31                   -29%
Bush II               0.29                   - 6%

You will have fewer deaths if fewer miners are working, so you adjust the numbers to reflect employment. What stands out here is that in every administration since Carter there have been  double digit percent falls in this number. While with Bush II it is almost zero. There are powerful technological reasons why, since Carter, this number would fall. In underground mining there has been a shift a technology called longwall mining which means miners always work under a secured roof. There has also been a shift to surface mining which is safer than underground mining. If MSHA enforcement remained the same while these trends continued we would continue to see double digit falls in deaths per thousands. It is not the same. Furthermore these numbers only cover through 2004. With this mine disaster, and the same performance as the first term, Bush might well be the first adminstration to see an actual rise in deaths per thousand. One more accomplishment to add to his legacy.

This mine was acquired in 11/02 by ICG (stock symbol ICO) so the revenue figures from above are not for the current owner. The mine did not operate in 2002 or 2003, (the WVa. mine website shows no production). Since the inspections were regularly occurring but the infractions weren't deemed to necessitate closure, I have a tough time making the leap to this being the government's fault. There are enough other things that are far more serious (although obviously not to the people in WVa.) particularly the continued lack of up-armored Humvees and body armor. The latest defense appropriation bill contained a provision to reimburse the families $1100 for body armor.When is the last time the army couldn't provide adequate equipment to the soldiers?

Wilbur Ross is a Democrat and has been for a long time,he divorced McCaughey when he wouldn't cough up the money for her to run for office.The guy is in no way a Bush crony (per NewYork magazine).

Yes. You can be sure that they will get there via the coal mining towns of WV, KY and VA...after he preaches "moral values." Some of the folks who lost loved ones at the mine will also vote for the GOP candidate. These people will never learn.

There is a dimension to liberalism that involves being a citizen of a planet, that can get hit by asteroids - that prepares for disasters by building huge spaceships to escape the earth.

Thats the one thats cool. Think for a second. This mine paid, what - 24,000.00 ? And they were an unsafe mine. Slap on the wrist.

No wonder Representative CORNYN of TEXAS wanted to add onto the KATRINA RELIEF BILL the ability of COAL FIRED POWER PLANTS IN PENNSYLVANIA to pollute the air more, with more mercury -

There is a process, that is abused, which is driving the corruption , and that is that each and every bill gets turned into 10,000 pages of pork. As a result, these companies can hire wordsmiths like Matt Stoller to spin and spin various small pieces of the bills around so that the constituency gets all lathered up about it, case in point "the death tax" out of the estate tax.. a moniker that helped cut federal tax revenues significantly and is contributing to underfunded levees in New Orleans in its own way.

This process needs to be corrected.

POST THE BILL ON THE NET, GET ONE SENATOR OR CONGRESMAN TO POST BILLS ON THE NET, AND KEEP THEM FROM BECOMING POORRK

Here's the first message, an overview of the Sago disaster:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sago_outrage/message/1

If you're concerned that there's no justice for coal miners, please join Sago Outrage:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sago_outrage/

Thanks!

richard myers
Moderator, Sago Outrage
Denver, Colorado

rtmyers@h2net.net

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