Third World America - Arianna Huffington [105]
40 What’s more, in the ten years before: Kim Bobo, “Psalm 20 and the Massey Mining Disaster,” 19 May 2010, www.huffingtonpost.com.
41 So how did Massey escape greater oversight: Steven Mufson, Kimberly Kindy, and Ed O’Keefe, “West Virginia Mine Has Years of Serious Violations, Officials Say,” 9 Apr. 2010, www.washingtonpost.com.
42 At the time of the explosion, Massey was contesting: Ibid.
43 According to another loophole in the law: Thomas Frank, “Mines Carry Backlog of $90M in Violations,” 8 Apr. 2010, www.usatoday.com.
44 Only $ 8 million of $113 million: Ibid.
45 The BP disaster has a similar story line: Marcus Baram, “Big Oil Fought Off New Safety Rules Before Rig Explosion,” 26 Apr. 2010, www.huffingtonpost.com.
46 Over the last decade the Minerals Management Service: Eric Lipton and John M. Broder, “Regulator Deferred to Oil Industry on Rig Safety,” 7 May 2010, www.nytimes.com.
47 The piece of equipment that the industry resisted: Russell Gold, Ben Casselman, and Guy Chazan, “Leaking Oil Well Lacked Safeguard Device,” 28 Apr. 2010, www.wsj.com.
48 The replacement value of the Deepwater Horizon platform: Ibid.
49 As for fines for safety violations: Marian Wang, “Oil Companies Pay a Pittance in Penalties to Offshore Drilling Regulator,” 4 May 2010, www.propublica.org.
50 between 1998 and 2007, BP racked up a dozen: Ibid.
51 Even after the Gulf catastrophe, oil companies: Ian Urbina, “Despite Moratorium, Drilling Projects Move Ahead,” 23 May 2010, www.nytimes.com.
52 one of the exempted projects was run by BP: Marian Wang, “After Spill, More Gulf Drilling Plans Got Environmental Exemptions,” 11 May 2010, www.propublica.org.
53 Not content with controlling politicians and kneecapping: Linda Keenan and Janine R. Wedel, “Shadow Elite: Think BP’s the Bad Guy? Think Bigger, Way Bigger,” 13 May 2010, www.huffingtonpost.com.
54 The names of the Wall Streeters: Matthew Vadum, “Goldman Sachs Government,” 16 Oct. 2008, www.spectator.org.
55 The finance industry has 70 former members of Congress: Public Citizen, “Stop Congress’ Revolving Door of Corruption,” www.citizen.org.
56 This includes 33 chiefs of staff, 54 staffers of the House: Arthur Delaney, “Big Bank Takeover: Report Blames Revolving Door for ‘Too Big to Fail,’ ” 11 May 2010, www.huffingtonpost.com.
57 Five of Senate Banking Committee chair Chris Dodd’s: Kevin Connor, “Big Bank Takeover: How Too-Big-to-Fail’s Army of Lobbyists Has Captured Washington,” Institute for America’s Future, 11 May 2010, www.ourfuture.org.
58 Of course, the revolving door spins both ways: Arthur Delaney, “Big Bank Takeover: Report Blames Revolving Door for ‘Too Big to Fail,’ ” 11 May 2010, www.huffingtonpost.com.
59 On the mining front, former Massey chief operating officer: Brad Johnson, “Don Blankenship’s Record of Profits Over Safety: ‘Coal Pays the Bills,’ ” 8 Apr. 2010, www.thinkprogress.org.
60 At the time of the Upper Big Branch accident he was: Ibid.
61 And President Bush named Massey executive Richard Stickler: Ibid.
62 Stickler had such a lousy safety record: Ibid.
63 That’s what happened when Bush put Edwin Foulke: Stephen Labaton, “OSHA Leaves Worker Safety in Hands of Industry,” 25 Apr. 2007, www.nytimes.com.
64 Earlier in his career, while serving as chairman: Ibid.
65 Then there was Bush’s choice of Mary Sheila Gall: “Mary Sheila Gall Named to Chair CPSC,” 20 Apr. 2001, www.consumeraffairs.com.
66 In her ten years on the commission: Lizette Alvarez, “Consumer Product Safety Chief Sets Deadline to Resign,” 9 Aug. 2001, www.nytimes.com.
67 She even adopted a “Let them eat marbles” stance: Hearing on the nomination of Mary Sheila Gall to chair the Consumer Product Safety Commission before the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, U.S. Senate, 25 Jul. 2001, www.gpo.gov.
68 And while I’m all for slapping warnings: Matthew Robinson and Daniel Murphy, Greed Is Good: Maximization and Elite Deviance in America (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2009),