"You're Doing a Heck of a Job!" - Part Deux

Does it surprise anyone that the man you see on TV daily at the Crandall Canyon coal mine in Utah, the man in charge of mine safety is another "Brownie," as in, "You're doing a heck of a job there, Brownie?" Richard Stickler is a former coal industry executive that President Shit-for-Brains nominated twice unsuccessfully to head the Mine Safety and Health Administration. He was so vile, so obviously unqualified that not even the GOP-controlled Senate would not vote to approve the nomination. So, SFB, being the SFB that he is, waited till congress was on vacation and resorted to a recess appointment for Stickler, giving him a job congress said he should not have.

Republican Sen. Arlen Specter, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that he "didn't think Mr. Stickler was the right man for the job." Another Pennsylvania Republican, Rick Santorum, also told the paper he was "disappointed" the White House had not let senators debate and vote on the nomination.

In the wake of the January 2006 Sago mine disaster in West Virginia, senators from both sides of the aisle expressed concern that Stickler was not the right person to combat climbing death rates in the nation's mines.

And why were the GOP seators worried about placing a "mine profit over saftey" executive in charge of the MSHA? According to USA Today, "Coal mining deaths soared to a 10-year high in 2006, reversing an 80-year trend of steadily falling fatalities and raising safety concerns as coal production reaches record levels.

"Forty-seven miners died last year, more than double the 22 killed in 2005 and matching the number in 1995. The recent spike is the biggest percentage increase in 107 years, according to federal records dating to 1900."