More of this please…
On the heels of the news that the Feds are looking into a criminal probe of Goldman comes this news that the FBI and the DOJ are serious about finding the cause of the recent mining disaster in West Virginia:
NPR News has learned that the Mine Safety and Health Administration is the target of a federal criminal investigation surrounding the explosion of the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia three weeks ago—a disaster that killed 29 miners. The probe also targets Massey Energy, the owner of the mine.Sources familiar with the investigation say the FBI is looking into possible bribery of officials of the Mine Safety and Health Administration, the federal agency that inspects and regulates mining. The sources say FBI agents are also exploring potential criminal negligence on the part of Massey Energy, the owner of the Upper Big Branch mine.
I wait with bated breath, but could it be possible that some corporations might be held accountable for their criminal behavior?
Ah, a lad can dream.
Cheers
April 30, 2010 10:31 am
Posted in: Good News For Conservatives, Republican Crime Syndicate - aka the Bush Admin.
40 Comments
40 Responses
kid bitzer - April 30, 2010 | 10:32 am · Link
“on the heels”—that should heal it.
Svensker - April 30, 2010 | 10:34 am · Link
“bated”—unless you have fish breath
r€nato - April 30, 2010 | 10:35 am · Link
holy homonyms, Batman!
Cole Moore Odell - April 30, 2010 | 10:35 am · Link
I wait with bated breath for him to correct “heels”.
El Cid - April 30, 2010 | 10:35 am · Link
Bated.
“Bated is just a shortened form of abated (meaning – to bring down, lower or depress). ‘Abated breath’ makes perfect sense and that’s where the phrase comes from.”
David in NY - April 30, 2010 | 10:36 am · Link
geez, all four comments with the same carping I was going to do.
Ed.: five
Persia - April 30, 2010 | 10:38 am · Link
Can we prosecute torturers next? Pretty please?
r€nato - April 30, 2010 | 10:39 am · Link
Massey has insisted that its methane detectors showed no sign of unsafe methane levels before the explosion. Which is really irrelevant, since there was an explosion. So either Massey is lying, or the detectors were not working correctly.
Blaming the detectors isn’t going to get Massey off the hook. Let’s hope that between this tragedy and that of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, we can finally wake up America to the real costs of our fossil fuel-powered economy.
jeffreyw - April 30, 2010 | 10:39 am · Link
Need a revised frog march photoshop. Replace Rove with the mine manager creep.
ellaesther - April 30, 2010 | 10:40 am · Link
@r€nato: Well-stated, Robyn.
Dennis G. - April 30, 2010 | 10:40 am · Link
@Cole Moore Odell:
D’oh, d’oh and d’oh.
Cheers
ellaesther - April 30, 2010 | 10:43 am · Link
The bodies of working people are expendable. They can be replaced. We need not worry for their welfare, but only how much money they can put in our pockets. If they are expended in the process, there are always more of them. Working people are like cogs.
This whole story feels like it comes from an earlier era, and I cannot tell you how happy I am that we have this government in place as it unfolds. Can you imagine if this had happened under Rove-Cheney?
Massey’s CEO would have gotten a medal of freedom.
r€nato - April 30, 2010 | 10:44 am · Link
@jeffreyw: I’ve got an ideal, poetic justice punishment for the folks who created and enabled this disaster:
sentence them to work in a Chinese coal mine.
ellaesther - April 30, 2010 | 10:44 am · Link
@Dennis G.: Bless you, lad. My eyes – they burned!
Paul in KY - April 30, 2010 | 10:44 am · Link
The ‘Massey Way’ of mining coal needs to be shot down. Getting on the right side of this issue (that shouldn’t even be an issue) can help Dems in WV.
r€nato - April 30, 2010 | 10:45 am · Link
@ellaesther: there would have been a HUGE cover-up. No doubt about it.
Violet - April 30, 2010 | 10:47 am · Link
@ellaesther:
Good old Adam Smith. We’re expendable, replaceable, and interchangeable. Same as it ever was.
I really hope this report is true and the company is held responsible in some way. More and more of this, please.
jeffreyw - April 30, 2010 | 10:50 am · Link
@r€nato: Better still, force them to work in their own damn mines.
FormerSwingVoter - April 30, 2010 | 10:53 am · Link
It’s about friggin’ time. Why did it take this long for the government to realize that only a threat of prison time was going to stop these guys from acting this way? Why would they care if you sue or fine their company? They’ll just settle out of court the same way GS is now – it’s not like it’s their money.
r€nato - April 30, 2010 | 10:58 am · Link
no worries, since a corporation is exactly like a person according to the Roberts Supreme Court, we’ll just throw Massey in prison. That will teach it a lesson. Right?
FormerSwingVoter - April 30, 2010 | 11:00 am · Link
@Violet:
It’s worth noting that Adam Smith wasn’t nearly as pro-business as the Right wants you to believe – one of his tirades against the East India Company seem fairly relevant to our government’s complete capture by Wall Street:
“The government of an exclusive company of merchants is, perhaps, the worst of all governments for any country whatsoever.”
scav - April 30, 2010 | 11:02 am · Link
Come on, what about the KY mine collapse that just happened? More than 40 closing orders for the mine over safety violations since January 2009. 840 citations for safety violations over the same time. Somethings rotten in that whole industry and its oversight.
Dennis G. - April 30, 2010 | 11:02 am · Link
@r€nato:
Well, seeing that a corporation is now a person, perhaps we should give Massey Energy a death sentence and turn the mines over to the coal miners and their families to run.
Cheers
El Cid - April 30, 2010 | 11:10 am · Link
Adam Smith himself was a humanist in the Enlightenment tradition and a harsh critic of the way power was used by the richest to gain the policy advantages they preferred and to use available resources exclusively to their advantage.
And of course, this famous sentence:
If you mean “Adam Smith as Re-Envisioned by Weirdo Ayn Rand Worshipers,” that’s different.
r€nato - April 30, 2010 | 11:10 am · Link
@Dennis G.: soshulist!
r€nato - April 30, 2010 | 11:12 am · Link
@El Cid:
free market cultists have this weird idea that too much government power is horrible, but too much corporate power is just fine.
Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that corporate power tends to enrich them, while government power tends to help those ‘other people’.
El Cid - April 30, 2010 | 11:14 am · Link
@r€nato: Corporations are just assemblages of people, but governments are magic evil things like some sort of alien cyborg.
See, governments are evil and tyrannical and soshullist because people can elect their leaders on a regular basis, whereas corporations are awesome and super-not-tyrannical because you have no input in their leadership.
khead - April 30, 2010 | 11:21 am · Link
Massey offers 3 million to each family.
ellaesther - April 30, 2010 | 11:35 am · Link
@r€nato: Mind you, if we could actually do that, that would work for me.
“Ok, everyone who had anything to do with the decision making behind these deaths, off you go!”
burnspbesq - April 30, 2010 | 11:36 am · Link
@Paul in KY:
Unfortunately, AFAIK there is no way of mining coal in commercial quantities that doesn’t have huge negative externalities. The adverse impacts of strip-mining are well known. The recent innovation in West Virginia – blowing the tops off mountains to expose the coal underneath – is just unspeakably vile. Underground mining is inherently dangerous – the only way to ensure that no miners will ever die is to stop mining. And if we choose to stop mining coal, that is in effect a vote for nuclear power.
I have no idea which “solution” is least bad. What I do know is that “least bad” is the best we can hope for.
burnspbesq - April 30, 2010 | 11:38 am · Link
@Dennis G.:
Nice fantasy. Any reason to believe they’re competent to do it?
russell - April 30, 2010 | 11:47 am · Link
If this pans out and criminal activity was involved, the Mine Safety folks will go to jail, Massey will pay a fine, and Blankenship will pay nothing.
Brandon - April 30, 2010 | 12:04 pm · Link
Let’s look at the record of the DOI shall we? The folks responsible for oil drilling permits were getting bribed and partying with strippers and coke. It’s amazing that the folks responsible for mine safety were so mundane as to only get bribed. Kind of a let down. But who wants to bet Republicans will call this “Obama corruption” even though it was by Bush holdouts to benefit Republican benefactors. And they’ll get away with it too. The media will say that the corruption and incompetence of government is now bi-partisan.
Dennis G. - April 30, 2010 | 12:09 pm · Link
@burnspbesq:
Any reason to believe that Massey Energy is competent to do it?
They most likely would do a better job as many worker owned corporation have proven.
Roger Moore - April 30, 2010 | 12:14 pm · Link
@burnspbesq:
So then we only have to worry about Uranium miners and the hazards of radiation and Radon build up in mines, rather than coal miners and the danger of explosions and methane buildup. What a wonderful improvement. Perhaps we can consider alternatives like solar, wind, and conservation. [/DFH]
sukabi - April 30, 2010 | 12:16 pm · Link
funny how you don’t hear much about the Kentucky coal mine cave in that happened this week…
and this is why there should be restrictions against folks running from an industry to a federal regulatory agency and back to the industry again:
trollhattan - April 30, 2010 | 12:34 pm · Link
Nobody will eliminate the danger but the danger can be managed with good practices, i.e., the Massey way and the right way.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04.....038;st=cse
And why can’t we mine using robots with frickin’ lasers?
scav - April 30, 2010 | 1:00 pm · Link
@sukabi: funny that, you’d almost suspect a pattern or something. Funnier still that the govt-regulation revolving employment door in finance seems to involve Goldman Sacs . . .
Califlander - April 30, 2010 | 2:05 pm · Link
... could it be possible that some corporations might be held accountable for their criminal behavior?
No.
This has been another edition of simple answers to simple questions.
Lex - May 1, 2010 | 10:36 pm · Link
Forget holding the corporation accountable; what needs to happen is that the government needs to hold Don Blankenship personally accountable.
Let’s say indictment and conviction on 29 counts of voluntary manslaughter (I’m feeling charitable; if a prosecutor can get a first-degree murder conviction on a drunk-driving death, I’m sure he could get a Murder 2 conviction on this), @ 5 years and a hefty fine per count. That gives ol’ Don 145 years in prison.
Sounds about right.