King Coal.

• Author: Hightower, Jim
• Position: Vox Populist - Mining accidents

By gollies, one group in our country has what it takes! One group has done more than just strut around at tea party rallies, barking loudly about nullification, secession, militias, and other big-talk threats to stop federal intrusion into our lives and businesses.

This group has put the walk to the talk, acting again and again to restrain the reach of government so people can prosper. And last month, the fates delivered a fresh and forceful example of the benefits that our society receives from this group's all-out devotion to its "live free or die" ethic.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Of course, twenty-nine West Virginia coal miners did actually have to die because of the group's success at hog-tying the feds--but hey, the freedom to prosper comes at a price.

Those twenty-nine miners suffered a terrible and unnecessary death when methane gas was allowed to accumulate in the Upper Big Branch mine.

"A tragedy," wrote the media. "A horrible accident," decried politicians.

BS.

The fates did not blow up these twenty-nine people. They are dead because self-serving profiteers in the coal industry have routinely used their enormous political clout to fend off commonsense safety regulations by the big bad government, thus making these "accidents" inevitable. In the case of Upper Big Branch, the profiteer is one of America's biggest coal corporations, Massey Energy Company, along with its rightwing, multimillionaire CEO, Don Blankenship.

King Coal, as the industry is known both in Appalachia and on Capitol Hill, deploys more than 100 Washington lobbyists and doles out millions of dollars in campaign donations. All of this political firepower is used to sidetrack the simplest safety measures and muzzle the federal mine safety watchdog. How tight is the muzzle? Deliberate violations of safety rules that lead to deaths are treated as misdemeanors!

Upper Big Branch has been cited by the feds for more than 3,000 worker safety violations since 1995, and its record of dangerous disregard has gotten worse in recent years. Last year, it had nearly 500 violations, roughly double the number in 2008, including ones that create...