It's a wonder that no one has written something like "See? Them gummint guys ain't worth a dang. Pay 'em all that salary and they don't do nothin'!"

What's more likely is that the mine folks have gotten in good with the Bush Administration, probably with campaign contributions, and get payback with benign neglect by the folks who are supposed to be watching them. It's not that hard - you just don't replace inspectors who retire or leave, or you relax regulations outside of legislation, or you put a guy in charge who's way too close to the industry, or you make the penalties for violations so low that it's cheaper to pay the fine WITHOUT fixing anything. When things go wrong, you let people think the worst of government, because you don't really want people to trust it anyway.