Posted on 01/04/2006 5:03:15 PM PST by CFC__VRWC
AP) The White House on Wednesday promised a full investigation of the West Virginia coal mine disaster that killed 12 people.
Congressional Democrats called for hearings to look into both the safety record of the mining company and the Bush administration's policies on mine safety.
"We send our prayers and heartfelt condolences to the loved ones whose hearts are broken," President Bush said. "We ask that the good Lord comfort them in their time of need."
He praised West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin "for showing such compassion" during the crisis and thanked rescuers "who risked their lives to save those miners for showing such courage."
"May God bless the good people of West Virginia," Bush said.
Rep. George Miller of California, top Democrat on the Education and the Workforce Committee, and Rep. Major Owens, D-N.Y., on Wednesday wrote the chairman of the committee, Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, urging him to immediately begin hearings.
Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, ranking Democrat on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, similarly requested hearings from panel chairman Mike Enzi, R-Wyo.
"The fact that the Sago Mine had a long history of serious safety violations demands that Congress learn why more wasn't done to keep these workers safe," Miller said.
His letter to Boehner cited the jump in citations issued by the Mine Safety and Health Administration against the Sago Mine and the ineffectiveness of fines that amounted to a few thousand dollars. He said the committee should also look into whether the appointment of officials with close ties to the mining industry to the MSHA had resulted in a rollback in safety regulations.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
I guess we all knew this was coming, but it doesn't make it any easier to stomach. I'm sure the New York Times lead editorial tomorrow will lay the tragic deaths of these 12 miners squarely at the feet of the Bush Administration - they already set it up today, managing to slip into a story about the tragedy, a quote from one of Clinton's MSHA hacks castigating the Bush Administration for not citing mine operators as much as the Stain's MSHA did.
And no doubt that al Katie Quric has already hand-picked the family members of the deceased miners who will be interviewed on The Today Show tomorrow. Of course, those family members will be the ones who will blame the deaths on the Bush Regime and it's cozy relations with energy industry fat cats who drank brandy and smoked cigars while they chuckled over the deaths of the "little guys" who they sent into the earth to die so they could make "obscene profits" by destroying the environment.
Have at it - I've got to go puke.
Considering Wilbur Ross has ties to Toon, I don't think the Dems really wanna go there.
He said the committee should also look into whether the appointment of officials with close ties to the mining industry to the MSHA had resulted in a rollback in safety regulations.
Gee Ted, maybe they were appointed because they just might
have some knowledge of the mining industry.
I'm sure the liberals would prefer a college professor, or
a soccer mom.
"George Bush doesn't care about underground people." /sarc
Would the dems at least have the decency to wait until the miners are buried.
Ross doesn't hesitate to extract any advantage he can in Washington. A longtime giver to Democratic candidates, he was a major fund-raiser for Bill Clinton, but his pragmatic side has him courting the opposition at the moment. These days, he's down in Washington every week to argue his view on trade and the need to protect American jobs. With their eye on next year's election, lawmakers and the political staff at the White House have welcomed meetings with Ross. He has put together something called the Free Trade for America Coalition. With 70-odd members, the protectionist group ranges from labor unions to corporations to agricultural interests and is a formidable lobbying machine. He likes to portray himself as helping to publicize a groundswell of popular discontent at the demise of American manufacturing. But make no mistake: He expects WL Ross to profit. "We are not," he assures, "an eleemosynary institution."
Decency and Dims - that's a good one.
I was listening to the lefty classical music station tonight while driving home in the DC area. Their report castigated the mining company for 'allowing the jubilation to go on for too long', not a word of criticism from their co-religionist fellow travellers in the MSM for spreading the falsehood of twelve rescued in the first place.
Exactly!
Owner of West Virginia mine a big donor to Democratic Leadership Council-affiliated candidates. Wilbur Ross, Jr., the Chairman of the Board of International Coal Group, the operator of the safety hazard-ridden Tallmansville, West Virginia mine where 12 miners died after an explosion, has been a contributor to Democratic Leadership Council. Ross, described as a "vulture capitalist," is a bankruptcy expert for the Rothschild bank in New York.
According to Federal Election Commission records, Ross donated to former Senators Bob Kerrey, George Mitchell, Patrick Moynihan, and current Senator Kent Conrad. Other recipients of Ross's largesse include New York Representatives Jerrold Nadler and Louise Slaughter, Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy, and unsuccessful 1994 Long Island GOP candidate William Manger, a former official of the G. W. Bush Transportation Department.
If Dems want to politicize this tragedy then they do so at their own political peril, and if they attempt to demonize anyone for it then it will backfire in their faces like so many non-political politicizing of tragedies that they've done for the past 5 years
In the years 1917 and 1918, when our expeditionary forces went across the ocean to make the world safe for democracy, there were more men and women killed in the industries of our country than there were American soldiers and sailors killed and wounded by the hostile forces fighting in Europe. In the year 1919, according to the report of the Federation of American Engineers, in this country 23,000 people were killed in our industries. Page 6006 vol. 79 no 78 of the 74th congress, April 16,1935
Moving large volumes of earth and rock is a dangerous occupation. I've heard it said that miners don't really need those lights on their helmets, they just work by the glow of the halo above their heads.
Do the Feds have the only prerogative when it comes to closing the mine, or could the state have done it also?
Nah, what am I thinking? Of course the NYT and the networks will make sure that Ross' Dim connections are thoroughly publicized. Heh heh heh - I crack me up sometimes.
"Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, ranking Democrat on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, similarly requested hearings from panel chairman Mike Enzi, R-Wyo"
While their at it they might look into the Big Dig and its leaks and safety.
LOL. But who needs the MSM any more, right? Long live the New Media :)
This is the same Jerry Waddler (D-NYC) who helped spearhead a congressional bill aimed at denouncing the Iraq war, and the same Representative Waddler (D-NYC) who has a huge gigantic hole in the ground still sitting in his backyard in lower Manhattan .......
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