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Rick Perry deregulation causes West Texas explosion, Ohman cartoon

west texas boom

The West Texas explosion that has killed 15 people, mostly volunteer fire fighters, is the result of Gov Rick Perry going around the nation selling his Texas brand of deregulation as a boom to businesses.

The fertilizer plant had not been inspected by OSHA since 1985.  The plant was required to report any amount of ammonium nitrate over half a ton to Homeland Security which it did not do. Great zoning laws keeping  300 tons of ammonium nitrate stored across the street from a middle school and a old people’s home.

This cartoon is causing controversy and is being removed from newspapers and areas of the internet. Here in Texas our top political cartoonist Nick Anderson sent the same message in a more subtle black and white rendition of the plant being put across the street from Perry’s governor mansion.