Republican oversight

Anyone notice this story in today's news?

PIKEVILLE, Ky. Federal investigators are on the scene of a partial coal-mine collapse that killed a miner yesterday in Pikeville, Kentucky.

[...]

The Lexington Herald-Leader reports the mine has received 114 citations since November, 2004. The list includes violations last fall that required protection against cave-ins. One ordered that no work be done under an unsupported roof. Proposed penalties came to less than seven-thousand dollars.

That's two in as many weeks. Miners are reaping what the administration has sown with its feckless experiment in industry self-regulation.

Anyone who remains unaware of the wider implications is fooling himself. To put it starkly, there's no one in power who is looking out for our safety or health. The miners are just the canaries in the coal mine.