It's Time to Reregulate Business, Part II

Show your support.
Buzz this article up.

• Share
• Print View
• Comments

As if on cue, more news is coming out that shows how the government has let business say and do things that aren't good for the U.S. public's health or overall working conditions.

Case in point:

Federal safety officials were negligent in their approval of work plans for a Utah coal mine that collapsed in August 2007, leaving nine dead, a Labor Department report concluded Monday.

The report does not reach conclusions about the cause of the collapse at the Crandall Canyon mine, which killed six miners and three would-be rescuers. But it found officials of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration could not demonstrate the agency did "everything appropriate" to protect workers when it approved a plan for the risky mining technique used at the site.

That technique, known as "retreat mining," is a process in which pillars of coal that support the roof of a mine chamber are removed one by one, allowing the roof to collapse behind miners. Investigators were concerned the mine operator pressured officials for permission to use the process.

"MSHA's actions and inactions, taken as a whole, lead us to conclude that [the administration] lacked care and attention in fulfilling its responsibilities to protect miners," the Labor Department inspector general's office reported.

"MSHA could not show how it analyzed roof control plans, the criteria it measured the plans against, the rationale for approving the plans, that the plans were properly implemented or that the plans continued to protect miners over time. These deficiencies evidence the agency's serious and systemic lack of diligence in protecting miners, and we do not believe it is misleading to use the term 'negligent.' "

My guess is the MSHA couldn't show it did anything because it didn't do anything. You can't show what you haven't done.

But that's not all. The FAA again is found to be falling asleep on the job:

Federal aviation regulators have issued a safety alert about a major aircraft-maintenance provider they contend supplied substandard landing-gear parts for hundreds of Boeing widebody jetliners around the world.

Issued a week ago in the midst of various high-profile U.S. government investigations of unrelated maintenance lapses, the Federal Aviation Administration's notice details more than 300 instances when an AAR Corp. unit shipped "unapproved" parts for use on Boeing aircraft in recent years. The agency asserts the landing-gear parts didn't comply with maintenance manuals and one of its mandatory safety directives from 2001.

Although the alert isn't one of the FAA's highest-priority, most-closely tracked safety announcements, critics are likely to seize on it as one more sign that the FAA's oversight of maintenance activities is lacking, particularly because AAR is a major repair company with annual revenue of more than $1 billion.

Such complex overhauls typically require multiple inspections by both the maintenance provider and the airline before the parts are installed on aircraft cleared for flight. No accidents have been caused by the affected parts. But US Airways, an AAR customer, said it voluntarily removed several parts after one of its Boeing 757s suffered a partial landing-gear failure in October while parked at a gate in Charlotte, N.C. Federal accident investigators continue to look into the incident.

Let me go on record here as saying I hate flying. It's not that I'm scared of flying, but planes are without a doubt the most uncomfortable place I have ever been. And now it turns out that flying planes may not be that safe. Just what I needed to hear.

But wait, there's more:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. needs to change its advertising to avoid suggesting its shoppers save an annual U.S. $2,500 per family, the advertising industry's self-regulatory body said in a report Monday.

But the report accepted Wal-Mart's claim that its efficiency and size drive down consumer prices across the entire U.S. economy, generating that $2,500 savings regardless of where consumers shop.

The National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus singled out what it called implied claims in the retailer's ads that consumers who shop at Wal-Mart can realize that much in savings while people who shop elsewhere do not.

Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart said in response it never meant to imply the savings were only for its shoppers.

The world's largest retailer said it was pleased that NAD accepted the argument that Wal-Mart saves all consumers money through its overall impact on consumer prices.

You mean advertising might be deceptive? Say it isn't so!

So -- we now know the agency that was supposed to protect miners didn't. As a result people died.

We know the FAA has been sleeping on the job.

And we know that Wal-Mart might be, well, lying in their commercials.

Individually, these events are alarming.

Together, they are appalling.

Comments

[Sundialsvc4]

Given that we can now conclude ... given that we are now given no choice but to admit ... that the policies of pretty-much "our generation" have been a stupendous DISASTER ...

... I think we need a "Plan B."

I've got an idea, Hale. I know where to find about 320 million people, all of whom happen to be within a short distance of one another, who need both "things" (damn near everything, in fact...) and "jobs." Their government has suddenly discovered that its "paper roses" are "only imitation," but the nation itself happens to be huge, and hungry, and royally pissed-off. Pardon me, "highly self-motivated."

Translation: O-P-P-O-R-T-U-N-I-T-Y.

Now, here's the deal. In just about every town there's a factory, probably closed. Probably with equipment still inside. Railroads still run right to the door; just cut away the weeds. For whatever this factory produced, a factory that consumed that thing is probably not too far away: in the 1930's and 1940's you thought about transportation.

The opportunity is this: we're going to restart an entire national economy. We're going to do it under the protection of a 25% flat-rate tariff on ALL imports which is going to last for 10 years, then be reduced by 5% every 5 years thereafter. We're going to make it self-sufficient and make a bundle of REAL money.. by making our money "real" again.

Deal?

[Guitarsandmore]

As long as we have free markets, that's the most important thing. We are all slaves to the corporation who expects us to go down with the ship! The constitution now reads " We the corporation" and "We the people" is just a distant memory lost in a dark museum in another time and place.

Long live big brother!

[outnow]

Lack of government regulation has been called "silent tort reform." It is a plan to deprive the rest of us of the benefits of government regulation. The SEC, for example, has been gutted. The FDA and every other regulatory agency has been gutted. At the same time, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has tried to push for both silent tort reform and actual tort reform. Recently, immunity from criminal prosecution has been implemented. The Geneva Conventions, the Bill of Rights, The International Criminal Court, and many other powers of the United Nations to enforce concepts of international law have been gutted. The civil remedies, checks and balances and guarantees have all vanished. Indeed, this "post 9-11 world" is a "Brave New World."

[ErnestineBass]

I know for a fact that Wal Mart's claim of "Always Low Prices" is a load of horseflop. One of the locally-owned and operated grocers in my area sells a half gallon of milk for 12 cents LESS than Wally World. Same thing with a dozen large eggs. 20 cents cheaper than at WM.

This is one shopper who'll never set foot in Sam's monster again!

[GreedyOldPsychopaths]

Hey Hale,

Here's a suggestion for a new corporate advertising slogan for Wal-Mart: Instead of "Always Low Prices" how about "Always Low". The implication being that it's not just Wal-Mart "prices" that are low but their "policies" as well. As in, "at Wal-Mart, we're so low, we have to look up to see the curb".

[Purple Girl]

So Privitizing every Agency of Gov't ahsn't Worked - Wow i'm flaberghasted!
Please anyone with half a brain realized That Privitizing such 'Oversight' duties could be a conflict of interest. Check out WHERE all these top Agnecy folks slithered out from - private Industry- fox guarding the hen House. This is no Accidnet this is a Stratedgy. And it's been in progress for nearly a Century now- Private Banking controls the National treasury & Economy the Grand Daddy of All INDEPEDENT CONTRACTORS . Waht part of' Independent' deludes You . Because it sounds so much like Declaration of Independence. It means they have no loyality or allegience to too ITSELF!

[ErnestineBass]

Partisan appointments made by incoming administrations are a big part of the problem. If we want our government to run as "smoothly" and "efficiently" as business, we need to do away with installing a new "CEO" to run every last agency in it every four years. Hire someone who's got the training to run, say, FEMA, then leave him or her alone until they either screw up or retire.

This "partisan hamster wheel" is no way to run a country. Dammit.

[LeftRight]

How about we look at the record profits that the oil companies are making, Bonddad? I'm tired of hearing how it's the higher levels of use, even though EVERYBODY is using less gasoline, and the major oil companies own the whole product from ground to car.......

[BillZBubb]

In the cases you mentioned here, the regulations are in place to stop the abuses. What is lacking is consequences for conservative administrations who willfully choose not to enforce them--thus violating their constitutional mandate and oath to "faithfully execute the laws". What is also lacking is an opposition party with the stones needed to hold them accountable. When "impeachment is off the table", they have no fear of repercussions. Finally, what is lacking is an electorate with enough brains to know the conservatives are screwing them over as always.

[Rule Of Law]

Well, Bill, when you pass a little law like the Military Commissions Act that ignores the fact that Habeus Corpus is a Constitutional guarantee, or you add more signing statements than all previous presidents combined, that in your make believe world allow you to ignore even more laws, then actually enforcing the ones we have on the books--I mean, what's that compared to dissecting the Constitution one piece at a time?

Here's a true life example of that same sense of privilege. Neighbors walking their dog off leash. Dog running in and out of yards, including mine. I ask neighbors, politely the first time, "Could you please keep your dog off our property?" What I hoped for was a taking of responsibility, and a showing of accountability for their dog and an acknowledgment of my rights. Nope! What I got was, "Don't worry, she's friendly!" When I asked again I heard, "She's not hurting anything, you'd like her."

[WIpatriot]

You said it, Bill.

[Rule Of Law]

part two...

When I pointed out that I didn't want their dog on my property, period, and that there was a leash law in the country that required them to control their animal, they called their dog, did not leash it, and with actual eye rolling--amazing--made one more stab at self justification with, "We're just out for a walk..." When I replied, "I want your dog off my property, Now--Do you understand?" they became very frosty, almost hurt, and the woman mumbled, "oh, sorry" as they gave each other looks that could best be described as anything but!

My point? This attitude of self serving entitled privileged I want what I want when I want it behavior has been modeled for this country from the Top, down! It has infected far too many of us. And when it is pointed out that your rights end where the tip of my nose begins, they are genuinely shocked that anyone has called them on their behavior. And it's not just the uber weatlhy, though this young couple is not hurting. I guess a nice long Depression will knock that out of a lot of folks. How we knock it out of Bush and Wall Street, remains to be seen, but my thinking is that every neighborhood needs a mean old man (or men), even if the neighborhood is 300,000,000 people big.