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January 9, 2006
NY Times Exploits Sago Tragedy
In its race to the bottom, the New York Times has caught up with some of the less reputable left-wing blogs by cartoonishly attempting to blame President Bush for the Sago Mine disaster. Says the toothless old whore once known as the Gray Lady:
[T]the Bush administration's cramming of important posts in the Department of the Interior with biased operatives from the coal, oil and gas industry is not reassuring about general safety in the mines. Steven Griles, a mining lobbyist before being appointed deputy secretary of the interior, devoted four years to rolling back mine regulations and then went back to lobbying for the industry.
If the problem isn't low taxes, then off course it must be insufficient regulation. But what the NY Times does not mention is coal mine fatalities statistics as made publicly available by the U.S. Department of Labor. These show a significant decline in fatalities since Bush took office.
Maybe Bush has something to do with coal mining tragedies after all. As NewsBusters points out, the stats "support the contention that staffing Interior with people who actually know their industry has led to greater safety."
Meanwhile, in the leftist paradise of China, where everything down to your thoughts are regulated:
China's coal-mining industry is among the most dangerous in the world, resulting in the deaths of more than 2,600 workers in the first half of 2005 alone... Thus, China's mining-related death rate is almost 100 times that of the United States and 7.5 times that of the average industrial country.
How Chinese mining fatalities might be Bush's fault too is something only the NY Times could explain.
Posted by Van Helsing at January 9, 2006 7:56 AM
Comments
You make some excellent points but doesn't the revolving door (lobbyist/policy maker/lobbyist) cause you some concern? And, yes, mining deaths are down during this administration but the numbers of miners has dramatically decreased over the last decade due to increased use of mining technologies. A more valid statistic would be the number of deaths per 1000 miners. Do you or any of your bloggers know that statistic? I don't.
Posted by: Harry at January 9, 2006 8:46 AM
Harry,
I'd actually be more interested in the death rate per 1,000 of moonbats that swear up and down that we live in a fascist state.
Posted by: Doug at January 9, 2006 2:45 PM
Harry is right that there are fewer miners than there used to be. However, evidence doesn't seem to support a deterioration in mine safety in this country. For example, mining fatalities went down from 28 in 2004 to 22 in 2005, despite the fact that over 270 new coal mines opened in 2005. (Hat tip: Poynter Online.)
Posted by: Van Helsing at January 9, 2006 4:22 PM
