Slow Rocket Urban Farm

The founders of Slow Rocket Urban Farm talk about starting their farm in South St. Louis. They will present on Saturday, June 5, for Art/Food, an event organized by the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts and Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis.

Is Ed Martin's Internet Support Illusory?

One of the things driving the local conventional wisdom that Ed Martin is running a tough congressional campaign is his apparent support on the internet. Martin has over 3,000 facebook fans and over 3,000 Twitter followers, which would seem to suggest that he has substantial online support. However, as many are well aware, online support does not necessarily translate to actual votes, so it's interesting to see how effectively Martin's network can be used to get actual results.

If anything is an easy measure of online support, an online poll would have to be at the top of the list. However, as documented by FiredUp Missouri, despite the fact that Ed Martin heavily promoted an online poll by the Missouri Sovereignty Project on Twitter and Facebook, he was crushed by Republican Primary challanger John Wayne Tucker in the poll results announced yesterday.

In fact, Martin's 3,000+ Facebook supporters and 3,000+ Twitter followers only amounted to 99 votes "in district" and 61 votes outside of the district. If Martin's "online support" can only generate 160 mouse clicks, can it really be expected to bring people to the polls in the 3rd district to vote for a former Matt Blunt Chief of Staff?

Ed Martin Misrepresents Bill McClellan

On his facebook page, Ed Martin claimed that Post-Dispatch columnist Bill McClellan was saying that Martin was "outside of Washington" in a recent episode of Donnybrook.

But that's not really accurate. If you go to 22:44 in the video, you'll see Ray Hartman of St. Louis magazine mocking the idea that Ed Martin is a political outsider:

The amazing thing about Ed Martin, I think, is that he positions himself as one of these angry tea party-ish outsiders. He was the arrogant Chief of Staff in the government on our taxpayer's dime for Matt Blunt for some time! And the idea that he can go from being Matt Blunt's tough guy Chief of Staff to being outside the government suddenly is kind-of strange.

And Bill McClellan responds (23:08):

Well, outside of Washington is the argument that he's made.

Now Ed Martin is certainly "outside of Washington" in the sense that he hasn't ever been elected to federal office, but he also seems to have plenty of D.C. insider connections as well as a D.C. Republican insider approach to nearly every issue. Regardless, McClellan did not say that Martin is "outside of D.C." He said that Martin is arguing that he is "outside of D.C." If he simply means geographically, it's a mind-numbingly meaningless point. If he meant something else, then it's a point that needs to be argued for, and Bill McClellen did not argue for it or even indicate that he intended to argue for it.

Update: here's video of the relevant exchange (h/t to Sean at FiredUp for putting it on YouTube):

St. Louis Blog Posts for Progressives - June 1

Some posts and media from locals today that I found interesting...

Environment:
Jean Ponzi of EarthWorms interviewed Julia Butterfly Hill and "No Impact Man" Colin Beavan on Monday.
Ryan Witt at the Political Buzz Examiner discussed the risk of hurricane season combined with the BP oil spill.
Shark Fu at Angry Black Bitch discusses the agony of fubar and the limits of liability.
Arthur Lieber at Occastional Planet writes about the difficulty of managing a crises when everyone's looking.
Joe of Green Cartoons offers three plans for cleaning up the oil spill.

LGBT:
Several interesting articles from the Vital Voice:
A report on the Youth Brunch for Harvey Milk Week.
The Kick-Off of the LGBT Legal Project.
LGBT Elders Get Increased New Support

St. Louis Urbanism
St. Louis/Elsewhere discusses the future of the Delmar Station.
Steve Patterson joins many others in promoting the recent City to River call for activism.
The County Council ok'd a new public health center.

State/National politics:
Jake Wagman at the Political Fix writes about how IL Senate Candiate Mark Kirk distorted his record and how Jo Ann Emerson distorted Tommy Sowers record, although worth pointing out that Wagman let's Kirk off the hook without recognizing the Kirk has made these claims repeatedly.

Twitter founder Jack Dorsey will be on hand at Sowers fundraiser next week, according to the Beacon.

International:
Nathaniel at Stay Curious asks what would have happened if Iran or China attacked a NATO member.
Claire McCaskill weighed in on Israel, the proposed China hub, and gun rights.

Miscellaneous:
The Post-Dispatch had an interesting article about how refugees increasing find a home in St. Louis.
Thomas at Creative St. Louis wrote about the KDHX Monday talk lineup and specifically a discussion of The Archive bookstore.
Chris at the Storch Agency discusses how Imo's new store could have an amazing opening.
Alderwoman Kacie Starr Triplett invited people to "An Evening with A Starr."
Erich Vieth at Dangerous Intersection points us towards an interview of Carl Sagan's son.
The Beacon reports on the fact that many hate crimes often go unreported.
Terry at the Bosque shares a really interesting story about his wife's reunion with her father.
Reads4Pleasure shares her summer reading list.

Bill Hennessy says Allman is "a guy trying to boost his own ratings by taking advantage of people who are trying to run a grassroots organization"

St. Louis Tea Party co-founder Bill Hennessy was on KDHX's Collateral Damage a few weeks ago and was asked about calling Jamie Allman "radio's stammering, pausing, idiot." Hennessy's response was that Allman had knowingly misrepresented what the St. Louis tea party leadership was up to (starting at the 19:05 mark here):

Jamie parsed her statements on there to create some big controversy when there wasn't one. He did this knowing what the reality was. Making accusations that I was keeping secrets from people in St. Louis. Specifically he was hinting that I was hiding this organization called Ensuring Liberty.

Hennessy went on to say the following about Allman:

It's just a guy trying to boost his own ratings by taking advantage of people who are trying to run a grassroots organization. And frankly I think it stinks.

The host then reminded Hennessy that Allman portrays himself as a conservative and Hennessy responded:

Yes he does, but I think he's first a radio guy trying to get ratings.

Hennessy claimed that there was nothing to the controversy. However, he's still never really explained the discrepancies in his statements. Hennessy originally claimed the following on April 22:

As we have decided until primary issues have been resolved, the PAC has not yet been established, candidates have not yet been chosen and thus no money has yet been raised or distributed.

However, he was raising money fro Ensuring Liberty as early as March 19. Why exactly was Hennessy implying that there was "nothing to report" if he had already been raising money for a month?

STL Holocaust Survivor and Activist Works to Break the Gaza Blockade

Hedy Epstein, a survivor of the Holocaust who has been a long-standing member of the St. Louis peace community, was scheduled to be on the flotilla that was trying to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza. She has been on similar boat convoys in the past, but this time was not allowed on the ship. Several local television stations reported on Hedy's involvement in the work to end the blockade:



 

Some good national analysis of the events;
Bradley Burston in Haaretz.
Juan Cole
Glenn Greenwald.
MJ Rosenberg.
Chris Bowers.

In my opinion, the only way someone could support Israel's actions here is if they believe that all of the Middle East's problems will be solved purely through violence and military power, and have given up hope of any sort of diplomacy. This action empowered extremists. It empowered the Iranian regime. It put a major wrench in any serious attempts at negotiation. Of course, this matters little to folks like the St. Louis tea party who think that the best resolution is simply to nuke Iran and bomb anyone else who looks at us the wrong way. But the rest of us should be seriously concerned.

St. Louis Blog Posts for Progressives - Belated Weekend Edition

Here are some interesting stories from St. Louis bloggers/journalists in the past few days:

Memorial Day:
Steve Patterson at Urban Review STL had an interesting post on the architecture of Memorial Day.
Ponytail Tim shared a more traditional Memorial Day video.

LGBT:
Vital Voice writes about the Don't Ask Don't Tell repeal.
Jo Mannies of the Beacon reports from Jefferson Barracks.

The Environment:
Adam at Searching for Sustainability dissects Secretary of Energy Steven Chu's message at his speech to the Wash U Class of 2010.
Erich Vieth at Dangerous Intersections discusses the danger of right wing anti-environmentalism.
Also, follow Ryan Witt on Twitter for great updates about the BP disaster.

Urban Issues:
Steve Patterson interviews Wayne Senville of the Planning Commissioners Journal on his Blog Talk Radio show.
BELT discusses how a fire altered the Belleville downtown landscape.
St. Louis/Elsewhere compares Memorial Drive to Michigan Avenue.
The #3 Forest Park Shuttle is back! So says STL Transit.
Rick at STL Rising encourages people to get involved in City to River.
Michael Allen at Ecology of Absence interviewed Fox Park Neighborhood Association President Ian Simmons about why residents want the historic district expanded.
BELT shares some photos of repairs on the Tower Grove fountain.
Michael Allen of Ecology of Absence asks (rhetorically) why we would want to save an old industrial building.

Labor:
Tony Pecinovsky wrote a response to Mort Zuckerman about public sector unions.

Health Care:
Madonna at Occasional Planet says Single Payer is alive and kicking in Vermont.

College Affordability
Erich Vieth at Dangerous Intersections discusses the college version of the subprime mortgage mess.

State Politics:
Sean at FiredUp writes about Roy Blunt's desire to reenact his wildly unsuccessful "Health Care Solutions Group."
Jo Ann Emerson lied about Tommy Sowers service record. She also refused to apologize.
Meanwhile, Sowers was on a 100 mile road march.
Missouri's competing for Race to the Top school funding.
Jo Mannies at the Beacon reports on Jay Nixon and Claire McCaskill focusing on veterans for Memorial Day.
Dave Drebes discusses the frightening scenario of what happens if Missouri loses a congressional seat.

Education:
Erich Vieth at Dangerous Intersections discusses how to improve math class.
Erich also laments the demise of nutrition education.
The Beacon discusses what students can from hate incidents at schools.

Miscellaneous:
Blogger Shark Fu featured in this month's St. Louis Magazine!
An update from Kymberlie at Misfit Hue Photography.
The Beacon profiles Don Checkett, a pioneering social worker and founder of the Child Day Care Association.
Erich at Dangerous Intersections discusses the politics of ignorance.
The Libertarian Party had a conference in St. Louis last weekend.