West Chemical and Fertilizer Company was not rated by the
E.P.A. as a major risk because it had no prior accidents. OSHA excluded it from
its National Emphasis Plan which covers businesses using hexavalent chromium, combustible
dust, lead, hazardous machinery and more, because it did not produce
explosives, reports the Times.
Gov. Perry's move-to-Texas ads are not the first time he has
put his boot in his mouth. During a live presidential debate last summer, he
forgot the name of a government department he nonetheless wanted to abolish.
(It was the Department of Energy.)
A speech he gave in New Hampshire during the campaign was so
uneven and bizarre, many accused him of being drunk. "The Republican
presidential candidate seemed to titter at his own jokes, gesticulate wildly,
make odd facial expressions and go off on strange tangents," reported the New
York Daily News.
In the introduction to her 2012 book, As Texas Goes How the Lone Star State Hijacked the American Agenda, Gail Collins says her fascination with Texas began when she heard Gov. Perry deliver an Alamo-like speech at a 2009 Tea Party rally. "We didn't like oppression then; we don't like oppression now," he roared. The problem was, says Collins, "this was a rally about the stimulus package."
Perry's laissez faire attitude toward Texas businesses is not limited to manufacturers. The governor voted against legislation that would have kept farm workers out of the fields while they were being sprayed with pesticides, writes Collins. The reason he rejected the legislation was because the owners said they could be relied upon to work out their own plans for protecting the workers from chemical sprays without government regulation. END
Martha Rosenberg will speak about her acclaimed expose, Born with a Junk Food Deficiency: How Flaks, Quacks and Hacks Pimp the Public Health (Prometheus Books 2012) at Mid-Manhattan Public Library in June.
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