For companies putting profits over people, paying fines for breaking the law has become part of the cost of doing business. So, in the week following the deadliest mining accident in 40 years, it was business as usual for Massey Energy: the company received 130 "significant and substantial" safety violations -- those that present a direct risk to the health and safety of workers. That's why it was great to hear the president raise the possibility of criminal prosecutions resulting from the West Virginia tragedy. He should do the same for Wall Street. Otherwise Goldman Sachs will end up writing a big check for its investment fraud and quickly return to gaming the system. Only criminal prosecutions will finally bring true accountability to corporate America and restore the moral underpinnings essential for a healthy free enterprise system.
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I seem to remember Jimmy Carter calling out the National Guard to put down a coal miner's strike in 1978 or so at the height of the oil crisis.
Was there not evidence enough?
As long as these guys get away with it, more miners will die needlessly.
The next time an accident happens in a Chinese mine, expect the usual blather about how superior we are to those Commies, who don't take good safety precautions.
I just found that that my bank was a tarp bank.
As to Wall Street, why are these large banks still in existence? If they are "too big to fail" aren't they "too big to exist" under anti-trust laws? Wasn't the breakup of AT&T in 1974(?) just the precedence needed for this sort of thing? Why did we bail them out when we could have broken them up into more competative entities, punished the criminals inside the companies we found, rewarded those that were trying to do good within the companies that remained, and gone on.
and I have to agree with Braxton's assessment. If these citations
were ignored, with the expected fines as a cost of doing business, criminal laws
should apply. Too many many businesses adopt this attitude: Fines being a cost of
operations.( Eg: Oil shipments)
The person(s) responsible for addressing these citations, and failure for addressing saftey
concerns in this the operation should be charged in these deaths. Mine owners should also be
held responsible.These laws exist because of greed, and lack of moral standards
in these companies, by their own history, is bad.
David
And I would say something about American citizens and self-government and so forth, but I'll hold off. That's the real difference between us and the French, for example. We're afraid of our government, and their government is afraid of them.
http://nikflorida.org. Where we don't tell you WHAT to think, just to think.
As bad as it may sound, the best we can hope for is history's condemnation of what was done.
It is supposed to be the other way around, but with the advent of bureau/administrative law government from the Federal level..., one simply cannot fight city hall.
I am beginning to like the idea of a Constitutional Convention called by the States. It seems to be the only way to reign in federal power and all the abuses that come with it. 38 of the 50 States have to call for this, thru their state legisative bodies. It is much easier for the people to work on a state level to achieve this. This type of convention is not to overthrow the government. But the Federal branches will pay attention if the people, through their respective states, can call this convention. This convention...yes, the Federal government will fear We the People. Armed insurrection will not work. Ever.
David
You say our society has lost all morals, but by what standard should we measure those morals? I have no problems with you establishing the moral standards for your home, but when you try to dictate my morals then somehow you have stepped over the line.
I'm a conservative and a Tea Party member. I would never, ever try to dictate to anyone what their moral values should be whether they are atheist, Christian, Muslim, agnostic, or whatever. Your values are precious to you and that is wonderful. Enjoy that. But why must others be exactly like you?
http://nikflorida.org. Where we don't tell you WHAT to think, just to think.
From AFL-CIO:
The MSHA report on Upper Big Branch and federal records, not to mention the 49 miners killed at all Massey operations since 2000, lay out an air-tight indictment of Massey’s overall safety record.
Because of Upper Big Branch’s long record of safety violations, MSHA inspectors wanted to place it into what is called “a pattern of violation” status that brings the mine under more intense scrutiny and gives MSHA broader power to stop mining operations and withdraw miners.
But the Bush administration, at the urging of the coal industry and with former coal industry executives running MSHA, changed the rules to make it harder to crack down on pattern violators.
One tactic used by mines w/troubling safety records to avoid potential pattern of violation status is contesting large numbers of their significant and substantial citations. Because MSHA uses only final orders to establish a pattern of violations, and the average contested citation takes over 500 days to adjudicate due largely to a 16,000 case backlog at the independent FMSHRC, contesting large numbers of significant/substantial violations enables operators w/troubling safety records to avoid potential pattern of violation status.
In fact, the Upper Big Branch Mine contested the majority of its serious violation citations that form the basis of the pattern of violation status determination. In 2007 alone, the mine contested 97% of its significant and substantial violations."
Moral: beware of draconian political solutions to these problems dreamed up by grandstanding journalists and elected officials.
this is how the right attempts to show the public how government doesn't work. of course it doesn't work...everyone is afraid of these too big to fail companies whose greed is boundless.
'Bigotry' carries the connotation that feelings are unjustifiable by moral standards. Are implying that these banks aren't deserving of our contempt and mistrust?
The supreme court just declared a few weeks ago that corporations are people.
The problem isn't that the government is at odds with corporations. The problem is that corporations and the government are at odds with working American families.