Once again, Rick “Greasy-Palms” Perry is the Howdygram’s Putz of the Week.

Sam is working late tonight so I think I’ll share a pent-up political rant since living in Texas can often make a person crazy, especially with the GOP clown car running the state. Once again I’m compelled to name Governor Rick “Greasy-Palms” Perry our official Putz of the Week — for maybe the millionth time — because today Governor Perry and his Republican lawmakers rejected a major bill proposing tougher fertilizer plant storage regulations in response to the explosion that leveled the town of West, Texas, in April 2013, killing 15, injuring 200 and causing more than $100 million in damage.

Perry has always dismissed the idea that the disaster in West could have been prevented if inspectors and regulators had done their jobs better, speculating that real Texans support freedom from regulation over being safe from industrial explosions and other preventable catastrophes. “Through their elected officials [people] clearly send the message that they’re comfortable with the amount of oversight they get,” he told the AP.

So I guess it’s no big deal that 540,000 pounds of highly explosive ammonium nitrate were stored next to an apartment building, a middle school, a nursing facility and private homes. Texans apparently have made it clear, by electing Perry to office, that we really don’t give a crap about ourselves or our communities. Ironically, this has become the general theme of his continuing national road show to lure companies to Texas. Perry’s number one selling point? The state’s low regulatory climate, which unburdens businesses and allows them to create more jobs and wealth. Incidentally, if you accidentally blow up a few hundred citizens once in a while we promise not to come after you.

Actually, the only inspections advocated by Governor Perry involve a woman’s uterus. Because fetuses matter; real people not so much.

At this point I should also point out that Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, a right-wing sleazeball of the first degree who’s currently aiming for Perry’s office, is an even bigger douchebag than the clown he hopes to replace. Abbott recently ruled that the exact location of facilities storing potentially dangerous chemicals like ammonium nitrate SHOULD BE SECRET due to security concerns. In other words, municipalities have no right to know if their homes, schools and hospitals are across the street from a nuclear holocaust. The Democrats are having a collective brain hemorrhage.

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It’s almost 11:30 and Sam is still at work so I think I’ll kill some time with a couple of enjoyable late-evening projects, such as filling my pill sorter and injecting insulin. Thank you very much for hanging out with me tonight.