Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! I think it’s only fitting to have here the wake scene from the late, great HBO show The Wire. The song is the Pogues’ “Body of an American”. Warning: some of the dialogue is NSFW.

Dave Catanese was already on shaky ground with his explanation of Nixon’s grade of C- for last week. But he really stepped in it with his defense of the explanation.

Let me back up. Yesterday, Dave Catanese gave our Governor Jay Nixon a C-. I suppose the grade could be defensible, but his explanation was essentially that the Missouri GOP has been intransigent on his key legislative priorities. And what’s worse, when Sean at FiredUp called him on it, Dave Catanese responded on Twitter:

@FiredUpMissouri Ponder this: Bush didn’t get immigration reform or social security reform and he gets blamed.

That’s right. If only Bush could have passed the extraordinarily unpopular partial privatization of Social Security, he would have gotten credit and a good grade. Well, from David Broder maybe, but not from voters. Remember that the plan was so popular that administration officials kept trying to switch the term of privatization (is it private accounts or personal accounts) and Bush’s popularity plunged weekly (along with support for the plan) the longer he publicly pushed for it. Only in the Village do people long for “Social Security Reform.”  

One “Adult Entertainment Facility” along U.S. Highway 50 in rural Johnson County, Missouri.

Johnson County, Missouri doesn’t have countywide planning and zoning. Johnson County, Missouri does have “adult entertainment facilities”, a private detention facility, sanitary and demolition landfills, and many other attractions. On April 7th approval of planning and zoning will be on the ballot.

Don’t hold your breath.

An anti-zoning campaign sign along U.S. Highway 50 in rural Johnson County, Missouri

This has been tried before. In 1997 a bill was signed into law which simplified the process for implementing planning and zoning for counties which lacked such:

HB99 MAKES MASTER PLAN OF TEMPORARY COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION EFFECTIVE ON VOTER APPROVAL.

Sponsor: Williams, Deleta (121)

Effective Date:00/00/00

CoSponsor:

LR Number:0337-02

Last Action: 06/12/97 – Approved by Governor (G)

06/12/97 – Delivered to Secretary of State…

…TRULY AGREED

HB 99 — PLANNING AND ZONING

This bill allows for immediate implementation of alternative planning and zoning in all counties upon approval by a majority of the county voters.  Under current law alternative planning and zoning can not be implemented until the election of a county planning and zoning commission.

This bill has an emergency clause.

Planning and zoning was on the ballot in Johnson County shortly after that 1997 bill became law. The issue went down to an ignominious defeat. This was largely due to an organized opposition in the county that didn’t want anyone to tell someone how they could use land.

So why is this on the ballot again, more than ten years after the previous try?

In January 2007 a rumor was circulated that an adult sexual offender halfway house was going to be constructed in the western part of the county. Almost overnight a petition was circulated to have the Johnson County Commission create a temporary commission to “draft a proposed comprehensive plan and zoning regulations for voter consideration”. The county commission did so by June 2007.

As one wag put it, “people don’t want anyone to tell them what they can do on their land, they just want to be able to tell everyone else.”

The temporary Planning and Zoning Commission was appointed, organized, held meetings, held public forums, solicited comment and eventually created a bare bones planning and zoning plan [pdf].

Those home made opposition signs which had been gathering dust since the last go around have come out of storage and are sprouting like mushrooms next to the rural byways in the county.

I wouldn’t bet money that Johnson County, Missouri will have planning and zoning after April 7th.

U.S. Senate photograph of Claire McCaskill (D)

Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill (D) asks for some ideas today via a Twitter post:

Top of the list this week: making decision on subject for first hearing on my new sub committee on governmt contracting oversight. Ideas? about 5 hours ago from web

The membership of the subcommittee (of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs):

Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight

Democrats

Claire McCaskill Chairman (D-MO)

Carl Levin (D-MI)

Thomas R. Carper (D-DE)

Mark L. Pryor (D-AR)

Jon Tester (D-MT)

Republicans

Susan M. Collins Acting Ranking Member (R-ME)

Tom Coburn (R-OK)

John McCain (R-AZ)

Here’s what you do. If you’ve got any ideas about the subject of the first hearing or of people who need to be asked questions or of specific questions that need to be asked and answered, contact Senator McCaskill:

via online form

via telephone: (202) 224-6154

via fax: (202) 228-6326

The subcommittee was created early this year by Joe Lieberman (I), Chair of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs:

January 29, 2009  

LIEBERMAN ANNOUNCES NEW HSGAC SUBCOMMITTEE

MCCASKILL TO GET CONTRACTING GAVEL

WASHINGTON – Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, ID-Conn., Thursday announced he is creating a new, ad hoc subcommittee to oversee federal contracting. Committee Member Senator Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., will chair the new Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight.

“Management of federal contracts is one of the greatest operational challenges facing the federal government,” Lieberman said. “Spending on federal contracts rose to an astounding $532 billion last year. And for years the Government Accountability Office has listed government contracting on its list of programs at high risk of waste, fraud, abuse, mismanagement, or in need of comprehensive reform. This is a problem area that needs as much oversight as we can possibly muster.

“So, to more fully address the array of problems with federal contracting, I am establishing this new subcommittee with pride and great expectations. With her background as a prosecutor and state auditor, Senator McCaskill has unique investigative experience that will be crucial for this new subcommittee. I am certain that she will approach her new responsibilities with unmatched vigor to improve the value of all the taxpayer dollars devoted to federal contracting.”

McCaskill said: “Last year we made major strides in contracting accountability by establishing the Wartime Contracting Commission, and while I look forward to those investigations, we all know that outrageous contracting abuses occur in every facet of government. I can’t wait to get to work saving huge money for taxpayers. They deserve it.”

HSGAC has had a longstanding interest in reducing waste, fraud, and abuse in the area of federal contracting. The Committee has held numerous hearings on contracting problems within the Department of Homeland Security, waste in Iraq and Afghanistan reconstruction programs, problems created by private contractors in war zones, and the rapid increase, government-wide, in contracting for goods and services.

In the 110th Congress, the Committee marked up major contracting legislation introduced by Ranking Member Susan Collins, R-Me., and Lieberman, and co-sponsored by McCaskill. Many of the measure’s provisions were enacted in 2008 and 2009 as provisions of Defense authorization legislation.

###

[emphasis added]

Joe Lieberman. Ironic, isn’t it?

West Lake Landfill, just a stone’s throw from my house, is the only radioactive dump site left in St. Louis from the 40s and 50s, when Mallinckrodt Chemical was burying its time bombs all over the city and county. The others have either been cleaned up or are being cleaned up. But not this one, not the one that is, for god’s sake, on a FLOODPLAIN!

Kay Drey, a longtime anti-nuclear activist, told me her husband Leo’s droll observation about the West Lake site on the Missouri river floodplain: “I don’t know why you’re so worried about it being on the floodplain, Kay. It won’t stay there long.” No kidding, because the Missouri is “one of the most powerful, flood-prone rivers in the world”, and in St. Louis County, several levees have failed in the last fifteen years.

But just in case the levee doesn’t break any time soon and spill all that waste over parts of North St. Louis County, the EPA–with Claire McCaskill’s blessing, I might add–is thinking of doing what it can to increase the chances of spreading radioactive pollution.  The plan is to rip out the foliage covering the illegally dumped waste and add a pile of rocks on top. What a ridiculous solution. Consider:

• that ripping out roots creates hundreds or thousands of tiny funnels in the soil through which radioactive gases–and this waste is extremely hot–can seep.
• that driving trucks of rock over the area will further destabilize the ground.
• that strewing the top with rocks does nothing to protect the groundwater below the radioactive waste from seepage. Indeed, some of the waste is twenty feet down and the fluctuating water table already comes into contact with it. Then that water flows eight miles downstream to the North County water treatment plant in Florissant and to the Chain of Rocks water intake for the city of St. Louis.
• that the rocks that would be thrown on top would also become contaminated, so that if real cleanup ever occurred, they, too, would have to be moved.

Protecting us by dumping rock on the site is like leaving your toddler with a bad tempered drunk for a couple of hours. The child might come out of it unscathed or he might end up worse off than if you’d left him by himself. But neither course would be a sane alternative.

And neither course–ignoring the site or dumping rock on it–is a rational choice. The EPA is supposed to be in the business of protecting the environment, and it doesn’t accomplish that when it leaves extremely hot radioactive waste in the path of a bad tempered, drunken river. West Lake should be cleaned up like the other hot sites in St. Louis:

The wastes can and should be safely excavated under a temporary structure (a negative pressure building that filters the air) and moved to a licensed radioactive waste disposal facility, away from water and away from people.

The EPA is taking public comments on the plan now, and the Coalition for the Environment is urging people to write or call their congressmen about it:

1. U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill
2. U.S. Senator Christopher “Kit” Bond
3. U.S. Representative Wm. Lacy Clay
4. U.S. Representative Russ Carnahan
5. U.S. Representative Todd Akin

Photo courtesy of Flickr user nancyscola. Disclaimer: Mike Lux will be at our blogger meetup, but I make no promises regarding Josh Brolin.

Maryb2004 has put together St. Louis area blogger meetups several times over the last couple of years, including a lovely picnic in Tower Grove Park last summer. So it’s perhaps fitting that one of her favorite bloggers on the national scene, Michael Lux, will be our special guest at The Dubliner in downtown St. Louis this Friday, March 20th at 4:30 PM for happy hour. Michael is in town to kick off the Grand Opening weekend of Left Bank Books new downtown location with a talk and sign copies of his new book The Progressive Revolution: How the Best in America Came to Be. The Left Bank Books event will begin at 7:00 PM. (I also hear there will be an introduction at Left Bank Books from a surprise guest, but I’ll have to stay hush on that for now.)

You can be forgiven, I suppose, for not knowing who Mike Lux is. I certainly had no clue who he was in the summer of 2007,  when I had first heard of him. He suddenly appeared alongside Matt Stoller and Chris Bowers at OpenLeft.com, after the two split off from MyDD.com to do their own thing. At that site, he has offered invaluable commentary on the 2008 presidential primary season (particularly on Iowa), and put into contemporary context some of the hard lessons learned by progressives in the 1990s.

It’s not surprising that Mike would offer such a compelling voice at OpenLeft. He’s been in politics since the 1970s, working first locally in Iowa and later becoming senior staff on the Joe Biden and Paul Simon presidential campaigns. He cashed in those connections to become a lobbyist… for the AFL-CIO. In 1992 he worked in the Clinton/Gore campaign as National Constituencies Director, and later served in the Clinton White House, helping to coordinate the first budget battle (we won) and the health care reform battle (we know how that went.) After he left the White House, he again cashed in his connections… to work for major liberal organizations like People for the American Way. He was one of the first inside the Beltway to understand the power of Internet organizing by working with Wes Boyd and Joan Blades on their online petition to censure President Clinton and “move on” from the Lewinsky scandal. The result of that online petition is MoveOn.org. I haven’t read his book yet, but I’ll be sure to pick up a copy on Friday.

One of the great things about the blogosphere is that it allows ordinary citizens to have a voice and medium with little added effort or startup cost. It allows us to share our experiences and our ideas with one another, with people you would probably never meet in the offline world, and get feedback from those same people.  What many so often fail to understand is that the online world is not only beneficial for those who haven’t ever had access to policymakers – it’s good for those at the top to share their experiences and ideas, and just as importantly, to hear feedback, too.

That’s why I’m glad Mike is blogging at OpenLeft.com, and why I’m glad he’ll be with us at the Dubliner this Friday at 4:30 PM and at Left Bank Books Downtown at 7:00 PM. Don’t miss it!

The Kansas City Star prime buzz links to Dave Catanese at KY3 citing a Boston Globe article from February 2009 which happens to mention that Claire McCaskill (D) is “sitting on the fence” when it comes to changing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell: Skelton A Potential Hurdle to Overturning “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”

…AND: Midwestern Dems Could Be A Problem…

The Boston Globe article:

Obama seeks assessment on gays in military

No rush to repeal ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’

By Bryan Bender

Globe Staff / February 1, 2009

…Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts and a senior member of the Armed Service Committee, is preparing to introduce legislation to lift the ban, but not until he can get a Republican co-sponsor, according to a congressional aide. The aide said Kennedy’s office is lobbying several GOP colleagues to join him, including Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, John McCain of Arizona, and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania. Some powerful members of his own party also appear unconvinced.

“I still think we have significant issues with a lot of the Midwestern Democrats being on the fence,” the aide said, adding that some Democratic senators are considered “shaky.” Some of those include Evan Bayh of Indiana, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, and Ben Nelson of Nebraska – all representing states with significant conservative constituencies. All three declined to provide their views…

[emphasis added]

I don’t think so. Doesn’t anybody do any basic research anymore? There’s a really neat thing on the Internets that’s really easy to use, it’s called teh Google:

A Google Search on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and “Claire McCaskill”. Well, look what pops up.

Senator Claire McCaskill (D) in December 2008:

…Question: Hi, I just have a quick question, my name is Sarah…about the military. Two years ago when you were on Hardball with Chris –  

Claire McCaskill: I know what you’re going to say! Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell!

Question: Yeah. I want to know, two years later, especially with the support of Barack Obama in reevaluating Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and recent document signed by 104 Generals and Admirals, if you have rethought your position on reevaluating Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Claire McCaskill: I think you will see action on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. And, I think that – I think we’re to the point that people realize that that is a probably irrelevant consideration. And as I said to a general the other day, “I wish you guys were as worried about the problems you have in the military in terms of-” I’ve been very involved in looking at sexual assault issues that women have had in the military. And there has been an incredible problem of women being sexually assaulted in the military and us not dealing with it. Not with the right mental health provisions, not with the right criminal consequences provisions, and I think there is now, you know as time goes on, I think you are seeing adjustments, even within the military that I think, it has a very good chance of passing this time, if we, if he changes the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy and I’ll be happy to support it. And my daughter, the one that talked me into voting, publicly endorsing Barack Obama, will be so glad that I’ve said that publicly. [audience laughter][applause] She bugs me constantly about it! Constantly! I will just be sitting at my desk, in the Senate, and I’ll get a text message, in all capital letters, “WHAT ABOUT DON’T ASK, DON’T TELL?” Exclamation, exclamation, exclamation. So Maddie will be glad you asked the question. Yes…

[emphasis added]

“…if he changes the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy and I’ll be happy to support it…”

I was there, this is from a recording which we transcribed, it is in English, and it sounds and reads like support to me. The word “support” would usually indicate that someone isn’t sitting, you know, on the fence.

What’s the matter Dave, too busy uploading video to worry about actual text?

We are what we eat. That would explain the last eight years.

The White House release and transcript:

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

_____________________________________________________________________________

EMBARGOED UNTIL 6:00 AM ET                              SATURDAY, March 14, 2009

WEEKLY ADDRESS: President Barack Obama Announces Key FDA Appointments and Tougher Food Safety Measures

WASHINGTON – In his weekly address, President Barack Obama announced the appointments of Dr. Margaret Hamburg as Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, and Dr. Joshua Sharfstein as the Principal Deputy Commissioner, as well as the creation of a new Food Safety Working Group.  This Food Safety Working Group will be chaired by the Secretaries of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture and it will coordinate with other agencies and senior officials to advise the President on improving coordination throughout the government, examining and upgrading food safety laws, and enforcing laws that will keep the American people safe.

In addition, the President also announced two other measures to protect the American people.  The Department of Agriculture will close a loophole to prevent diseased cows from entering the food supply.  And, the government will invest in the FDA to substantially increase the number of food inspectors and modernize food safety labs.

President Obama announced his appointments of the following individuals today:

Margaret “Peggy” Hamburg

Dr. Hamburg is a nationally and internationally recognized leader in public health and medicine, and an authority on global health, public health systems, infectious disease, bioterrorism and emergency preparedness. She served as the Nuclear Threat Initiative’s founding Vice President for the Biological Program. Before joining NTI, she was the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Prior to this, she served for six years as the Commissioner of Health for the City of New York and as the Assistant Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health.

Joshua “Josh” Sharfstein

Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein is Commissioner of Health for the City of Baltimore.  He also serves as chair of the board of four affiliated nonprofit agencies.  He has been recognized as a national leader for his efforts to protect children from unsafe jewelry and over-the-counter medication, and ensuring Americans with disabilities have access to prescription drugs. He is a member of the Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice of the Institute of Medicine…

…Remarks of President Barack Obama

Weekly Address

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Washington, DC

I’ve often said that I don’t believe government has the answer to every problem or that it can do all things for all people. We are a nation built on the strength of individual initiative. But there are certain things that we can’t do on our own. There are certain things only a government can do. And one of those things is ensuring that the foods we eat, and the medicines we take, are safe and don’t cause us harm. That is the mission of our Food and Drug Administration and it is a mission shared by our Department of Agriculture, and a variety of other agencies and offices at just about every level of government.

The men and women who inspect our foods and test the safety of our medicines are chemists and physicians, veterinarians and pharmacists. It is because of the work they do each and every day that the United States is one of the safest places in the world to buy groceries at a supermarket or pills at a drugstore. Unlike citizens of so many other countries, Americans can trust that there is a strong system in place to ensure that the medications we give our children will help them get better, not make them sick; and that a family dinner won’t end in a trip to the doctor’s office.

But in recent years, we’ve seen a number of problems with the food making its way to our kitchen tables. In 2006, it was contaminated spinach. In 2008, it was salmonella in peppers and possibly tomatoes. And just this year, bad peanut products led to hundreds of illnesses and cost nine people their lives – a painful reminder of how tragic the consequences can be when food producers act irresponsibly and government is unable to do its job. Worse, these incidents reflect a troubling trend that’s seen the average number of outbreaks from contaminated produce and other foods grow to nearly 350 a year – up from 100 a year in the early 1990s.

Part of the reason is that many of the laws and regulations governing food safety in America have not been updated since they were written in the time of Teddy Roosevelt. It’s also because our system of inspection and enforcement is spread out so widely among so many people that it’s difficult for different parts of our government to share information, work together, and solve problems. And it’s also because the FDA has been underfunded and understaffed in recent years, leaving the agency with the resources to inspect just 7,000 of our 150,000 food processing plants and warehouses each year. That means roughly 95% of them go uninspected.

That is a hazard to public health. It is unacceptable. And it will change under the leadership of Dr. Margaret Hamburg, whom I am appointing today as Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. From her research on infectious disease at the National Institutes of Health to her work on public health at the Department of Health and Human Services to her leadership on biodefense at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, Dr. Hamburg brings to this vital position not only a reputation of integrity but a record of achievement in making Americans safer and more secure. Dr. Hamburg was one of the youngest people ever elected to the National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine. And her two children have a unique distinction of their own. Their birth certificates feature her name twice – once as their mother, and once as New York City Health Commissioner. In that role, Dr. Hamburg brought a new life to a demoralized agency, leading an internationally-recognized initiative that cut the tuberculosis rate by nearly half, and overseeing food safety in our nation’s largest city.

Joining her as Principal Deputy Commissioner will be Dr. Joshua Sharfstein. As Baltimore’s Health Commissioner, Dr. Sharfstein has been recognized as a national leader for his efforts to protect children from unsafe over-the-counter cough and cold medications. And he’s designed an award-winning program to ensure that Americans with disabilities had access to prescription drugs.

Their critical work – and the critical work of the FDA they lead – will be part of a larger effort taken up by a new Food Safety Working Group I am creating. This Working Group will bring together cabinet secretaries and senior officials to advise me on how we can upgrade our food safety laws for the 21st century; foster coordination throughout government; and ensure that we are not just designing laws that will keep the American people safe, but enforcing them. And I expect this group to report back to me with recommendations as soon as
possible.

As part of our commitment to public health, our Agriculture Department is closing a loophole in the system to ensure that diseased cows don’t find their way into the food supply. And we are also strengthening our food safety system and modernizing our labs with a billion dollar investment, a portion of which will go toward significantly increasing the number of food inspectors, helping ensure that the FDA has the staff and support they need to protect the food we eat.

In the end, food safety is something I take seriously, not just as your President, but as a parent. When I heard peanut products were being contaminated earlier this year, I immediately thought of my 7-year old daughter, Sasha, who has peanut butter sandwiches for lunch probably three times a week. No parent should have to worry that their child is going to get sick from their lunch. Just as no family should have to worry that the medicines they buy will cause them harm. Protecting the safety of our food and drugs is one of the most fundamental responsibilities government has, and, with the outstanding team I am announcing today, it is a responsibility that I intend to uphold in the months and years to come.

Thank you.

[emphasis added]

The previous eight years of dubya’s right wingnut “damn regulations, let them eat…” are over.

Steve Benen at Washington Monthly:

…The FDA became a rather pathetic joke over the last eight years. A group of federal scientists recently told Obama, for example, “Managers with incompatible, discordant and irrelevant scientific and clinical expertise in devices…have ignored serious safety and effectiveness concerns of FDA experts. Managers have ordered, intimidated and coerced FDA experts to modify scientific evaluations, conclusions and recommendations in violation of the laws, rules and regulations, and to accept clinical and technical data that is not scientifically valid.”

In other words, the Bush administration’s “leadership” on these issues — food safety, medicine, medical devices, consumer health in general — was literally sickening…

There’s a lot to make right in America. It’s going to take a while…