One Whiff of Fresh Air – Literally

One whiff of fresh air — literally — that emerged from a depressing Tuesday was Gov. Vilsack's veto of a bill
that would have effectively killed any hope of meaningful regulation of odors from livestock-confinement facilities. House File 2523 would have set Iowa limits equivalent to federal limits. Republicans fumed, saying if it's good enough for the feds, it should be good enough for Iowa. But remember whose federal government this is.

The GOP pointed out that the federal standards were determined by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, associated with the Centers for Disease Control. Ordinarily, those groups pack heavyweight credibility. But sigh, those were the days before the party of No Business Left Behind retooled federal regulatory agencies so that they do everything but regulate what they're supposed to.

A report from the National Academy of Sciences concluded in 2003 that the criteria used by the feds to
ascertain levels of confinement odors relied too much on atmospheric conditions. Basically, the levels are
affected this way: If it rains or snows over a specific region, the precip disperses much of the odors, thus
lowering the levels, thus lowering the average level for the area! (So if the sun stays out more than a few
hours, put on your gas masks. Fortunately, this is Iowa, so that's rarely a complication.)

Now, the skeptics among you may believe that this method is pure alchemy. Know what? The NAS agreed. The conclusion of its report (it's available for free searching here) called for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency to adopt a process that would generate “scientifically credible information” for their emissions control programs. That was a polite way of telling these agencies that they were relying on a pseudoscience that had less credibility than a carnival fortune teller.

State lawmakers subscribing to this balderdash are either naive, ignorant, or totally dedicated to protecting the industries that bought them instead of the Iowans who elected them. Fortunately, we have a governor who still believes in serving the public, and a series of checks and balances to ensure he can.

Unfortunately, Vilsack couldn't veto the Senate's rejection of Jonathan Wilson to the state board of education. Led by a bunch of bigots waving the God banner, Republicans shot down the nomination of the openly-gay former Des Moines school board member. That was expected.

But what was most disappointing was the Des Moines Register's freely regurgitating the spin from Wilson's
opponents: that he might promulgate some nefarious “gay agenda” on the unsuspecting innocents of this state. Wilson's opponents brought that up time and again, and not once — not once! — did the newspaper ever challenge them to explain what they meant. Even Wilson got suckered into defending himself from that slime.

Typical was this paragraph from Wednesday's story, written by veteran reporter Jon Roos:

“Wilson, who had tried to assure senators leading to Tuesday's debate that he wouldn't pursue a gay agenda, fell 12 votes short of the 34 he needed in the 50-member Senate to be confirmed.”

What in creation is a “gay agenda”? What might Wilson be thinking of? And what was going through the minds of his lynchers? We'll never know, because the “newspaper that Iowa depends upon” declined to tell us.

+++++++++

BUSH IS COMING TO DES MOINES!

Let's give him a rousing Iowa welcome Thursday, April 15, with a demonstration beginning at 10 a.m. by the
Marriott Hotel, Seventh and Locust in downtown Des Moines. For more information, e-mail Nan Stillians.

Contact Ira Lacher here.