http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/perry-disgusted-by-california-newspaper-cartoon-depicting-explosion-after-deadly-west-blast/2013/04/26/a80e80e8-aecf-11e2-b59e-adb43da03a8a_story.html
By Associated Press, Apr 27, 2013 12:18 AM EDT
AP Updated: Friday, April 26, 7:18 PM
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Gov. Rick Perry said Friday he’s disgusted with a Sacramento Bee cartoon that depicts him boasting about business booming in his state and then shows an explosion, and says he wants an apology from the newspaper on behalf of a town where 14 people died in a fertilizer plant blast last week.
The cartoon in Thursday’s edition shows Perry crowing that “Business is Booming,” flanked by signs saying “Low Tax!” “’Low Regs!,” a play on the Republican’s often-repeated mantra that his state’s low-regulation, business-friendly climate has its economy humming.
The next panel reads “Boom!” as a blast engulfs the area behind the governor and his signs.
An April 17 explosion in the town of West, Texas, outside Waco, killed 17 people, left a crater more than 90 feet wide and is estimated to have caused more than $100 million in damage. The blast occurred moments after a fire was reported at the West Fertilizer plant. Ten of those killed were first responders who rushed to the nighttime blaze.
In a letter to the Bee’s editor, Perry said it “was with extreme disgust and disappointment I viewed your recent cartoon.”
“While I will always welcome healthy policy debate, I won’t stand for someone mocking the tragic deaths of my fellow Texans and our fellow Americans,” Perry wrote. “Additionally, publishing this on the very day our state and nation paused to honor and mourn those who died only compounds the pain and suffering of the many Texans who lost family and friends in this disaster.”
President Barack Obama was among those who attended a memorial service for the explosion victims Thursday at Baylor University in Waco.
The Bee’s editorial page editor, Stuart Leavenworth, responded Friday that the artist, Jack Ohman, “made a strong statement about Gov. Rick Perry’s disregard for worker safety, and his attempts to market Texas a place where industries can thrive with few regulations.”
“It is unfortunate that Gov. Perry, and some on the blogosphere, have attempted to interpret the cartoon as being disrespectful for the victims of this tragedy,” Leavenworth said. “As Ohman has made clear on his blog, he has complete empathy for the victims and people living by the plant. What he finds offensive is a governor who would gamble with the lives of families by not pushing for the strongest safety regulations. Perry’s letter is an attempt to distract people from that message.”
Ohman defended his cartoon with an Internet post, noting that the fertilizer plant “had not been inspected by the state of Texas since 2006” and that many “Texas cities have little or no zoning, resulting in homes being permitted next to sparely inspected businesses that store explosive chemicals.”
“My job, as I understand it, is to be provocative,” Ohman wrote. “I provoke, you decide. I don’t dictate, I put out my opinion along with everyone else. I sign my name. I own it. In my opinion, I could have gone further. Much further.”
California has seen Perry’s touting of his state’s pro-business prowess firsthand. In February, a public-private Texas marketing firm ran radio ads featuring Perry denigrating California’s taxes and regulation, and then Perry traveled there to recruit jobs. He made a similar trip — this time backed by a print-media ad buy — to Chicago this past week.
Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, also a Republican, called for Ohman to be fired.
“I think it’s reprehensible for a member of the media to sit in safety and mock such a profound tragedy regardless of any ‘point’ he is trying to make,” Dewhurst said.
Perry, meanwhile, wrote that the newspaper “owes the community of West, Texas, an immediate apology for your detestable attempt at satire.”
Ohman posted that he had received “varying levels of concern about the cartoon depicting Gov. Rick Perry’s marketing of Texas’ loose regulations, juxtaposed with the explosion of the fertilizer plant in West, Texas,” but that he would draw the cartoon again without thinking twice.
___
Eds: Associated Press Writer Juliet Williams in Sacramento contributed to this report.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Perry trying to hide behind the people killed
Asshat is thinking of running again in 2016
RickyBobby is such whiny wimp. Trying to poach CA companies, got some serious pushback.
Yep, it's a great laugh for you lib s... Laughing at other peoples deaths...
nobody's laughing at the dead and damages, but laughing at RickyBobby. TX is an pro-business/anti-citizen misogynistic/racist state run in an unregulated "cowboy" style, a Randian paradise. BOOM!
TX judges are letting Keystone steal land from Texans under the "common carrier" LIE.
They're laughing at Perry's actions, dumbass.
Stupid liberal cartoon. Should put one up showing Obama and Dumbo. Both have a lot in common.
Perry is a moron. All his actions did is bring the cartoon some attention. Even some of the stupid rednecks of this state will realize the connection between laissez fair and the explosion when its put right in front of their face.
"The trouble with Ronald Reagan is not that he was ignorant: It's just that he suffered from Alzheimer's and didn't have a firm grasp on reality for the last 20 years of his life"
How are his actions related to a very bad disaster that killed people?
Now consider how many people get humor out of that.
It's ing pathetic.
Well, if he talks about lower regulations being great for business, and one of the consequences of those lower regulations is that some facilities don't get inspected for decades, I think that's a fair comparison to make, certainly. I'm not sure what the inspection schedule/cycle is for facilities like that in other states. Hopefully it's more frequent than every 20 years or so.
I see... mistakes, that a regulation would have prevented...
You are making the assumption, or are defending the assumption, that this accident was cause by some preventable mistake.
What is it was something completely unexpected, or sabotage?
Do regulations stop people who don't obey the laws?
What if CC's "what if" is correct, and it was the actions of the firefighters that caused the explosion? What if it had nothing to do with regulations? Shouldn't such allegations, and acceptance of such allegations, wait for evidence? Wouldn't that be the smart thing to do?
The expected response from the peanut gallery...
Actually, its analogous to the cartoon in that it's laughing at the fool. He has a similar sense of humor to the cartoonist it seems.
I have a 'what if' though. What if you were to not make up stories to exonerate your political allegiance. All your stories have the same ending.
This.RickyBobby is such whiny wimp. Trying to poach CA companies, got some serious pushback.
If they had inspected it over the past two decades, we might have a much better answer and wouldn't have to rely on what ifs. Isn't that what regulations/standards/inspections are for? And if people aren't obeying the laws, then the companies fail their inspections, fire the people not doing their jobs, then hire new people who will.
Also, isn't it more likely that the explosion was due to improper practices/faulty equipment than sabotage? It's going to be hard to determine NOW if the equipment is at fault, since, you know, the whole place exploded. We wouldn't HAVE to be speculating half as much if they just had an inspection, say, three years ago.
So...
Just how liberal do you want to get on regulations and paying for inspectors?
Let's take your "watchman" at ude to a farther extreme. Lets post a policeman at your doorstep, so we know what leads up to the crime you commit in the future.
Bravo WC. So now, inspecting a plant that can hold tons of highly explosive material more than once every 30 years is akin to ins uting thought crime. Could you be any more of a hack?
No, but you're right, the money they saved on inspections those 30 years was totally worth it. I'm sure the families who lost loved ones would agree.
Again, you are taking this from the perspective that something was done wrong.
Would the inspection have eliminated sabotage if this was intentional?
How many times have you seen everyone clean up their act for an inspection, just to go back to the same routine after inspectors left?
Doesn't a business have a vested interest in being safe?
There is no way to be 100% safe. In the case of high pressure containment, I think you pro government regulators are grasping at straws. I see this as a reason to cause more government intrusion Rahm.
You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.
Rahm Emanuel
Wouldn't it be prudent to find out the cause, before talking about more government oversight?
No, whether something was done "wrong" or not is completely beside the point. Inspections are used not only to see if something is wrong, but also as historical do entation for when things are working correctly and fail. If inspections were being done more regularly, and there's no way that x component should have failed, then that means other factories using that equipment should check their stuff.
does a business have a vested interest in being safe? Depends on the bottom line, doesn't it? If a company thinks it is more cost effective to skip inspections, then they might be likely to do so.
Even if someone/thing "cleans up their act" for an inspection, at least that means they are up to date at that moment. Besides, I thought you said the company should have a ""vested interest" in doing things the right way?
"Pro government regulation"? Really? Considering that Tim McVeigh used ammonia nitrate for his bomb, and that there are obviously SOME risk factors at play (you know like the whole place ing exploding), don't you think a little regulation is in order?
No.
Not at all in some cases.
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