Larisa Alexandrovna: Another Bush Ground Zero... (Bush Slaughters More Americans/Stickler Info)

[Hissyspit]

http://www.atlargely.com/2007/08/another-bush-gr.html

Another Bush Ground Zero...

I am losing track now of just how many people have died thanks to the corporate loyalty of George W. Bush and as always, the coward continues to vacation during his own mess and the deaths of US citizens.

What am I talking about you ask? Well, you see, our beloved Decider could not get a corrupt guy like Richard Stickler confirmed to head the f Mine Safety and Health Administration under a REPUBLICAN Congress. In fact, he could not get the man into position TWICE. So the Decider waited until the Senate was not in session and made a recess appointment. From AFL-CIO in 2006 (emphasis mine):

"Yesterday, with Republicans still holding a majority in the lame duck 109th Congress, Bush resubmitted two nominations that already had failed to win Senate confirmation: Richard Stickler, as head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), and Paul DeCamp, for administrator of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division. Stickler is a former coal industry insider and DeCamp is a lawyer who represented Wal-Mart. This summer and fall, Bush used backdoor recess appointments to put the pair in charge of the two agencies without Senate approval.

Stickler’s recess appointment to MSHA was a slap in the face to the families who lost husbands, fathers, brothers and sons in the Sago Mine disaster and other deadly mine incidents this year that have resulted in 45 coal miner deaths, the highest since 1995. Several of the deceased miners’ families have urged Bush not to appoint Stickler because of his safety track record as coal industry executive.

The injury rates at coal mines Stickler managed from 1989 to 1996 were double the national average, according to statistics assembled by the Mine Workers before Stickler’s appointment to head the Pennsylvania Bureau of Deep Mine Safety. Twice, the Senate refused to confirm Stickler to the MSHA post.

During his confirmation hearings, Stickler said he believed the then-current mine safety laws were adequate and did not need strengthening. This spring, when coal mine deaths stood at 33—at the time the highest number killed on the job in a full year since 2001—Congress passed legislation to strengthen and improve mine safety."

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