Posted on 04/27/2013 8:11:03 AM PDT by TurboZamboni
AUSTIN, Texas -- Gov. Rick Perry said Friday he's disgusted a California newspaper ran a cartoon that depicts him boasting about booming business in Texas, then shows an explosion, a week after a fertilizer plant explosion killed 14 people in a Texas town.
Perry said he wants an apology from the Sacramento Bee on behalf of the town.
The cartoon in Thursday's edition shows Perry crowing that "Business is Booming," flanked by signs saying "Low Tax!" and "'Low Regs!" It's a play on the Republican's often
(Excerpt) Read more at twincities.com ...
Get my drift... if there first, they should have bought the lot on which the houses were now on, if they did not want a blast wall, or else put up a blast wall. It takes two to tango this tango.
Gov. Perry is one of very few politicians with any down to earth values and real patriotism.
Agree 100%.
And that’s fine. I’d think that West, Texas might have been lax in not requiring a factory at which fuel for a blast was present to be zoned well away from houses, or vice versa, absent a blast wall or other shield like a woods. Perry’s not to blame for that. Just like we don’t need Barack Obama to tell us when we need a dog catcher.
Which is fair enough. If I was a residential developer and coming in later, I’d want to work with the factory to erect a blast shield or even do it myself in the area facing the factory. I couldn’t in good conscience sell houses in such danger to ignoramuses (notwithstanding that many customers probably would be employees at the factory itself and would know the danger).
The best and brightest Bee brains saw nothing wrong with the cartoon.. it was just satire.
Yet.. earlier they dropped the "Non sequitur" cartoon because one of the cartoons was critical of newspapers.
(1) The population of West has been about the same since the fertilizer plant started up in 1962. People didn't build up around the plant, the plant was built among them.
(2) West Fertlizer was authorized to store up to 27 tons of anhydrous ammonia onsite and to notify the regulator if they had more than 1 ton in storage at any time. They had 55 tons of anhydrous in storage when the plant blew, and 270 tons of ammonium nitrate. They were in flagrant violation.
(3) These substances are ones that terrorists would love to get their hands on, so the company was not only playing with the lives of their neighbors, but by concealing their true stock of goods they were also potentially playing with anyone's life. When sagar talks of "personal responsibility" he is clearly exempting the owners of West Fertilizer from this requirement.
You’re a bit late; sagar already conceded this. It apparently wasn’t a place known for this sort of blast hazard when it was erected. Whether the population change reflects a change in home siting, who knows. We don’t have data to that level. Anyhow, if there was a law and the plant disobeyed, then unless someone told the state and the state ignored it then certainly Perry does not bear blame. Why should we have the state inspecting every facility which is not supposed to have deadly quantities of chemical in it, when it ostensibly does not even deal in that chemical?
... anyhow, until companies in California stop disobeying laws too, maybe this idiot cartoonist should shut up.
It certainly isn’t Perry’s fault, and the cartoonist is indeed an ass. The blame lies solely on those who made the reckless decision to overstock the facility.
Maybe, but probably not. The current owner (a local farmer) bought West Fertilizer about a decade ago, when it was about to go out of business.
The locals were grateful, because they didn't have to start driving to Waco to buy fertilizer and other farming supplies.
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