REV says "Amen brother!"

As the alleged U.S. campaign for democracy in Iraq turns into a raging civil war, and as the Afghan War enters its sixth year, it seems timely to dredge up one of my old stories. "REV" is set in Afghanistan in the not-too-distant future. When I started it, late in 1990, the year in which the story is set (2042) was a lot farther away. Its writing was prompted by the saber-rattling preceeding the First Gulf War, which looks so tame and unsophisticated compared to what we saw in the lead-up to the Iraq invasion in March 2003.

"REV" imagines the Third New Crusades, with U.S. Forces charging toward Kandahar, fighting insurgent mujas along the way. I had no real sense at the time about how the First New Crusades were launched -- and why. But I do now.

Consider this the launch of a five-part series, with a new segment available every two weeks. So, look for the second part of "REV" on or about Nov. 1, 2006.

Go here for Part I of "REV."

Tribal Warfare in U.S. Congress

Norm Orenstein and Thomas Mann were recently interviewed about their new book, The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track. Here’s an excerpt (from Daily Kos):

Q: Is the current Congress demonstrably more partisan than those in the past? Why does it matter?

MANN: Partisanship particularly increased after the 1994 elections and then the appearance of the first unified Republican government since the 1950s. Now it is tribal warfare. The consequences are deadly serious. Party and ideology routinely trump institutional interests and responsibilities. Regular order -- the set of rules, norms and traditions designed to ensure a fair and transparent process -- was the first casualty. The results: No serious deliberation. No meaningful oversight of the executive. A culture of corruption. And grievously flawed policy formulation and implementation.

My conclusion: What other reasons do you need to vote for alternatives to the status quo? We need a return to a two-party system to stop this power grab by Republicans. In Wyoming, vote for Gary Trauner for the U.S. House seat and Dale Groutage for U.S. Senate on Nov. 7.

The Rich Get a Lot Richer with Iraq

A group of about 30 attended the Cheyenne screening for "Iraq for Sale" at the Unitarian Universalist Church tonight. Was I surprised by the revelations that big Republican donors such as Halliburton and Blackwater Security are raking in the dough in Iraq? No, but the size of the rip-offs are staggering. The CEO at Halliburton, Dick Cheney's employer before he joined the U.S. Government, made more than $42 million in salary in 2004. Meanwhile, Halliburton and KBR employees continue to get blown up in Iraq. The last time I checked the blog Iraq Coalition Casualties, seven U.S. contractors have been killed since Sept. 1. Of course, more than 100 U.S. troops have died during that time.

Halliburton doesn't care. The Houston-based company keeps getting contracts from the U.S. Government for substandard services in Iraq. Padded contracts and shady dealings are the rule rather than the exception. And the contributions from KBR and CACI and Blackwater keep rolling into the campaigns of Republicans, including our own Rep. Barbara Cubin and Sen. Craig Thomas.

One of the best things about "Iraq for Sale" was the DVD extras, such as a 15-minute segment about how bills and amendments geared to make civilian contractors accountable have fared in Congress. Poorly, is the short answer. Party-line votes have sunk amendments from Sens. Leahy and Dorgan and Rep. Waxman. It's clear -- not a thing will happen to reverse these corporate rip-offs until one or both houses of Congress goes to the Democrats. To do that, thoughtful people need to get out and vote by the droves.

I wonder how these corporate fat cats sleep at night. Do you ever think about that?

I answered my own question from the previous post. I remembered Cafe Press and sought out bumper stickers and gear at its site. Found two stickers for my newly liberated van plus a cap that bears ears of corn and the slogan: "Corn: It's not just for dinner anymore." See a sample above.

My grandfather, Raymond Shay, came from Iowa corn country. He grew great corn in his Denver backyard, and advised me several times on proper corn growing techniques. Wonder if he would use corn-based fuels? Wonder what he would think of his Iowa National Guard unit fighting in Iraq to safeguard Middle East oil supplies? He enlisted in time for General Pershing and his Mexican border war, and stayed on to go to France with his Iowa cavalry unit in World War I. In my presence, he never questioned the rationale for his war. He grew great pleasure in gardening, and did it well into his eighties.

This fuel's for you, Grandpa.

Ethanol Now

Bought my first tank of E85 ethanol last night. My 2000 Dodge Caravan Yuppie Van didn’t seem to mind. In keeping with the instructions in my owner’s manual, I first put at least a quarter-tank of regular unleaded in my tank at $2.38 a gallon. I get a three cents per gallon discount at Safeway pumps, which are powered by a wind farm across the border in Colorado (ironic, eh?). My 13-year-old daughter was with me. I had been explaining E85 as we ran errands. I was surprised at her interest, as she greets most of my monologues with a big yawn. "Let’s go get some ethanol," she said.

There’s only one station in Cheyenne that stocks E85. The Corner Stop is located on Snyder and Pershing, just across from The Burger Inn. I never have bought fuel at this place because it’s out of the way and doesn’t take credit cards at the pump. But I liked the price at the yellow ethanol pump – $1.99 per gallon – and I pumped until the tank was full. "What does it look like," my daughter asked. "I didn’t look," I said, "but it smells different." She replied: "Is it yellow?" I said it was probably clear, like distilled alcohol.

I wished it was yellow like the corn it comes from. But I’m just glad it’s non-polluting and comes from the corn-growing regions of the U.S. and not the terrorist-raising regions of Saudi Arabia. The yellow fuel would match my corn-leaf green van. My daughter suggests I get a sticker that says the van runs on E85 and not oil. I envision a bumper sticker than says: "This vehicle runs on Iowa corn not Saudi oil." Know where I can get a sticker like that?

IVINS ON KISSINGER

One of my favorite columnists, Molly Ivins, minces no words about old war horse Henry Kissinger, recently pulled out of mothballs to advise the Bushies on Iraq. Here's an excerpt from her Creators Syndicate column on Oct. 9:

The Old War Criminal is back. I try not to hold grudges, but I must admit I have never lost one ounce of rancor toward Henry Kissinger, that cynical, slithery, self-absorbed pathological liar. He has all the loyalty and principle of Charles Talleyrand, whom Napolean described as "a piece of dung in a silk stocking."

Just count the number of Americans and Vietnamese who died between 1969 and 1973, and see if you can find any indication he ever gave a damn.

"IRAQ FOR SALE" SCREENING IN CHEYENNE

"Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers," a documentary about who's making big bucks from Bush's war in Iraq, will be screened on Saturday, Oct. 14, 7 p.m., at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 3500 Thomes Ave., Cheyenne, Wyo. It's a big place, room enough for 100 in the audience, so sign up to attend at the "Iraq for Sale" web site. This event arranged by Cheyenne's Bobby Marcum and Joe Golden.

On Sunday, thoughts turn to....

Verse of the Day from "Verse and Voice," a daily e-letter from Sojourners:

"Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers."

--Romans 12:9-13

Republicans for Trauner

Banner headline this morning in Cheyenne’s paper, the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle: "Trauner nets unlikely ally: Prominent Republican backs Dem; Cubin camp unfazed."

Gary Trauner, of course, is the Democratic Party challenger to Rep. Barbara Cubin in the race for WYO’s lone U.S. House seat. It’s been an exciting race, thus far, especially for us Dems who have been disappointed so many times in this race and also in U.S. Senate battles.

This "prominent Republican" is Steve Simonton from Cody. He’s formed a political action committee, Republicans for Trauner, and is serious in his support for the Dem underdog. Simonton says he supported Cubin in her first House race in 1994, the year the Repubs took over. Since then, he’s been disturbed by the actions of the Congressional majority, particularly Cubin’s tendency to follow the Bush agenda on every issue.

Simonton said this in the WTE article: "I believe that well over the majority of Wyoming citizens do not identify with the agenda of the religious right. Moderate Republicans are more tolerant and open-minded than they are."

He’s particularly irked by Cubin’s anti-choice stance on abortion and her votes against stem-cell research. For the most part, WYO’s vaunted Republicans, in both the House and senate, have been less likely to follow the dictates of the religious zealots who call the GOP’s tune. Former U.S. Senator Al Simpson is a traditional conservative from a long line of WYO Republicans. Yet he supported a woman’s right to choose.

Both of our senators, Craig Thomas and Mike Enzi, are down-to-earth guys with common sense approaches to many issues. However, they also have toed the right-wing line during the Bush administration. Enzi surprised many people when he went ballistic a few years ago over the Terry Schiavo case. He was at the forefront of the Congressional effort to intervene to keep the brain-dead Florida woman alive. That sort of behavior is scorned in WYO, where nothing can anger the citizenry more than the Feds poking their nose into gun ownership, grazing rights, property rights, open container laws, education, the right to be a jackass in public, etc. It must be noted that we hate the intervention but we love the tax dollars the Feds shower on our state.

Simonton noticed that Cubin’s primary opponent, Bill Winney, received 40 percent of the vote, beating Cubin handily in Teton County (Trauner’s home) and here in Laramie County. He also came close in Natrona County. As Simonton wrote in a letter to the editor printed 10/6/06 in the WTE: "Mrs. Cubin received a 40 percent negative vote from her own party in the August primary election, and I concluded that there must be a lot of other Republicans that feel she is a liability to Wyoming."

So he formed Republicans for Trauner. Meanwhile, Cubin keeps attacking Trauner on TV and radio ads, while Trauner takes the high road in his ads by telling Wyomingites what he will do once he’s in D.C. Cubin hopes that mudslinging will obscure her own dismal performance. I’m betting that it won’t.

Vets’ Poll: Unarmored and Overextended

From a VoteVets press release: "A new poll released today of American service men and women who served in Iraq and Afghanistan shows that at the start of heavy combat (2003 and 2004), nearly half of our troops reported they did not have 'up-armored' vehicles that would be considered mission capable. According to the poll, conducted by VoteVets.org Action Fund, the clear majority of veterans – both active duty personnel as well as National Guard and Reservists - believe the Army and Marines are over-extended in Iraq and Afghanistan, having endured extensions of duty and stop-loss orders as the U.S. military increased operations abroad. When the veterans polled returned home, many encountered emotional and physical health problems as well as economic hardship, indicating that the impact of their service extends beyond their tour of duty."

Steal These Letters

Here are some opinion page letters that take on Rep. Barbara Cubin's cheap-shot TV ads as well as dirty campaign tricks by Repub gubernatorial challenger Ray Hunkins and his pal, Drake Hill of the Wyoming Republican Party. Feel free to borrow to your heart's content and mail your letter to the WYO newspaper near you. Here they are:

Editor:
I’ve seen the TV ads by U.S. Rep. Barbara Cubin that distort the record of her Democratic opponent, Gary Trauner. My favorite part is the end of each spot when Cubin appears in a classroom surrounded by elementary school students. "I’m Barbara Cubin," she says with a nervous smile, "and I approved this message."

How ironic that Barbara Cubin is shown in the classroom. Her unquestioning support of President Bush’s "No Child Left Behind" program has forced teachers and students to spend most of their time on tests and very little on actual learning. The children posing with her in the classroom should ask: "Rep. Cubin, why do you make us spend 57 days each year on tests?" That’s almost 12 weeks or one-third of the school year. I would love to hear Cubin’s answer.

For the next ad, Rep. Cubin could be shown surrounded by U.S. troops in Iraq, possibly Wyoming National Guard soldiers. They could ask her: "Rep. Cubin, why have you blindly supported George Bush’s pointless war? Why have you sent us on a mission that is based on lies and has no clear and obtainable objective?" I wonder what her answers would be?

It would be nice to see Cubin travel to Wyoming for reasons other than ostentatious fund-raising galas, such as the one she held Oct. 2 in Casper. She drops in to raise money from rich corporate donors but doesn’t bother to meet with us regular folks. She never has voted to help Wyoming's workers. In this state, we respect hardworking people and honor those leaders who strive honestly to serve our fellow citizens.

Barbara Cubin is showing just how much she has lost touch with Wyoming by resorting to big-league negative campaigning. Can you smell the fear? Barbara Cubin does not deserve to go back to Washington and represent our fine state. Wyoming has only one representative, and we need and deserve better.

Sincerely,
Michael Shay

Dear Editor:
One of your letters last week concerned dirty campaign tactics by the Cubin and Hunkins campaigns. What would you expect from desperate politicians? Can you smell their fear?

It is a shame that candidates who seek our trust should try to fool us. We've had too much of that from the Republicans in Washington. Remember the lies that V.P. Dick Cheney, Wyoming’s favorite son, told us about Iraq?

Are the state’s newspapers aware of what is really going on? It seems like Gary Trauner's campaign is doing its homework on issues important to Wyomingites. On the other hand, Drake Hill and Ray Hunkins seem to have a bad case of foot-in-mouth disease. I bet that the Republicans will engage in the same sort of last-minute nastiness we saw in the 2002 gubernatorial race. The mudslinging probably will pick up now that the campaigns enter the final month before the mid-term elections.

Don’t fall for Republican dirty tricks. We need Gary Trauner as Wyoming’s lone representative in Washington. We need Dave Freudenthal to serve a second term as governor so he can continue his efforts to improve our communities, our economy, and our educational system.

Sincerely,
Michael Shay

It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's a Dick!

The Vice President of the U.S.A. flew into Casper, Wyo., Monday to raise money for a beleaguered Barbara Cubin, the rep who allegedly represents Wyoming citizens in the U.S. House of Representatives. Mostly what she does is tap-dance to the tune played by the Bush/Cheney team. She also is beholden to the oil and gas interests who run our state, not to mention the country and the world.

Cubin was defeated handily in Laramie and Teton counties in the August primaries by Repub challenger Bill Winney. She squeaked by in Natrona County, which is the place that gave us both Dick and Lynne Cheney. Dems hope that Gary Trauner from Teton County can defeat Cubin in the general election and provide us with someone intelligent and responsive inside The Beltway. Trauner's coming on strong and battling push-polling and nasty TV ads from Cubin's puppetmasters in the Repub Party.

I was in Casper at a bookfest meeting while Cubin and The Cheneys fed their faces, raised huge amounts of lucre, and patted each other on the back for Mission Accomplished in Iraq. I was saddened to see our former senator, Al Simpson, on the stage with the D.C. Bozos. He's a Republican who thinks for himself, an endangered species these days. It may be the Repubs are really worried about these elections and they are dragging out all the big guns.

Cheney gave Cubin his full support, which may not mean much this year, even in Wyoming. Then he and his wife, the woman who tried to dismantle the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities during the 1990s, departed, presumably back to The Death Star.

On Reese’s Pieces

During most of the 1970s, I lived in central Florida. Most of that was in Daytona Beach, known for excess partying during spring break, NASCAR races, and motorcycle week. Almost any time, for that matter. I will admit that I indulged on more than one occasion. What’s life at the beach without a keg?

I finally grew up in 1978 and moved to Denver, breeding ground for most of my family. I’ve been in the Rocky Mountain West since then.

The newspaper of record in Daytona was the News-Journal. Not a bad paper – I delivered it as a paperboy in the mid-1960s – but not the best either. The Miami Herald deserves that honor, with the St. Pete Times not far behind. The Orlando Sentinel was the best paper we could get delivered daily in Daytona. My father liked it better that the NJ, which he considered "a liberal rag." The Sentinel was more conservative, better suited to hawkish readers during the Vietnam War and the strange post-war period that followed the abrupt retreat from Saigon in spring of 1975.

My father’s favorite Sentinel columnist was Charley Reese. Reese tackled anti-war liberals, welfare cheats, government waste, "The Reds," etc. Kind of an old-school conservative – perfect match for my OSC Dad. Most of Reese’s wrath seemed genuine and came from sort of a middle-class middle-of-the-road point-of-view. I read the man’s columns in self-defense, lest I be unprepared when I walked into my family’s house. Most of the seventies was devoted to father-son battles over politics. We never did really agree. I even had a short debate with him as he lay dying in 2002. Our subject? Dubya and his obsession with Iraq.

I’ve been reading Reese’s columns the past few years at antiwar.com. Reese writes three columns a week for King Features and most of them end up on this Libertarian web site. One aspect (maybe the only one) I share with Libertarians is my opposition to foreign entanglements. Libertarians are opposed to government in almost all its forms. Conservatives are supposed to be opposed to big government (thus Bush must be a neo-Con and not a Con). Liberals like me are so helpless that we can’t brush our teeth without help from the Gubment. That might be a bit simplistic, but....

So I’ve been reading and appreciating Mr. Reese’s columns since about March 2003 and the invasion of Iraq. This one-time Army tank gunner makes sense and tells it like it is. I especially liked today’s piece on antiwar.com. Here’s his conclusion: "...use your common sense. Ask yourself just what it is that America's young men and women are dying for. To make Iraq a happy place? To make Israel feel safer? To help corporations with insider connections get richer? Not one of those reasons is worth the life of a camel, much less a human being."

"How I Failed as a Blogger"

That was the title I proposed for a presentation to the Colorado Authors League Sept. 27 in Denver. Officially entitled "Blogging for Writers," I experienced a sinking feeling as the day approached. What wisdom can I impart as a blogger? I’m lucky if I get a couple comments a week on either of my blogs.

Meanwhile, I spend an hour or so a day going to blogs such as Daily Kos or Digby or Left in the West or Rake’s Progress or almost any other notable weblog with a progressive or literary bent (or both). Some, like Daily Kos, get upwards of a million hits a day and feature diarists who somehow have all the time in the world to write thoughtful (sometimes thoughtfully angry) posts.

So I decided to go to Denver, eat a free lunch, and learn something about blogging from my other panelists. Leslie Petrovski’s blog is http://www.nakeidknits.com/nakeidknits/. She focuses on knitting and her cats, in that order, and gets about 100 hits a day. Larry Borowsky is a writer who started his St. Louis Cardinals blog, vivaelbirdos.com, a few years back. He gets about 5,000 hits a day and sells his own "Birdos" merch on the site. In other words, he makes a little money.

Leslie came prepared with notes. For the 70-some people in the audience, she outlined blogging basics. When she started her blog in spring 2005, she wanted to bring her passion to the web. She looks at her blog as her journal. Like many of us, she grew tired of keeping a journal just because she thought writers are supposed to keep journals. So, she focused on knitting and discovered "a community of related interest." She estimates that there are a thousand knitting blogs. Nakedknits allows her to talk about her favorite subject. She also can share ideas with others and even find story ideas – a real bonus for a free-lance writer.

Leslie wrapped up her talk with a few stats. Some 12 million people keep blogs. Thirty-nine percent of Internet users read blogs – that’s about 57 million American adults. Her conclusion: "That’s an enormous audience for writers."

Larry combined his childhood love of the Cards with his writing and web skills to carve out his niche on the blogosphere. He has found an almost endless supply of like-minded fans, although he gets so many comments he can’t begin to read them all. But, as he says, "they talk to each other." One of the goals of a blogger – start a conversation with (and among) your readers. Members of the national sports press read vivaelbirdos, and he’s been quoted in newspapers and on the electronic media. He just passed the milestone of one million readers.

When it was my turn, I shared a little bit of my frustration about not building an audience. I also had to admit that I blog for other reasons. I shared my favorite A.J. Liebling quote: "The free press belongs to those who own one." Liebling was getting in a dig against capitalism. He had no way of foreseeing a future when all of us owned a press on the Internet.

I have two blogs. Wyolitmail is part of my job as literary arts specialist at the Wyoming Arts Council. It features news about WYO writers and books. Its sidebar has links to writers and literary resources. Pretty straightforward, really, and it’s linked to a few other lit-oriented sites in the West. My personal blog, hummingbirdminds, grew out of my web site of the same name, which I started in 1999. The web site features my writing, including essays about Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) which I tried (unsuccessfully) to turn into a book. Just one of my unpublished manuscripts.

While my web site features my work, the blog is for my opinions as a "Liberal Writer in WYO," as my subhead attests. I have a lot to say about the subject and few readers, but it’s important for several reasons. I feel strongly about the sorry state of our nation and our state. I’m a lonely liberal in a sea of conservatives. And I own a press and I strive to use it. I sense that I’ll grow into it and, as long as it’s an outlet for my passion, I’ll keep on bloggin’. If hummingbirdsminds ever loses its energy, it’s easy as pie to reinvent my cyber-self.

Our Secret Plan to Save the World

We don’t have one.

It’s boring, really. We just meet and talk and hear from candidates and raise money and make plans to canvass neighborhoods and get out the vote.

Last night at the Laramie County Democrats’ meeting, we heard about the need for more Dems to serve as precinct people on election day. Never enough Democrats here in Wyoming. Spread thin, we are, what with precincts to staff and doors to knock on and campaigns to run and an office to keep open so people can get yard signs and brochures. Yesterday, Dem HQ even received two phone calls, a sign that people are beginning to wake up and notice there’s something going on around here.

That’s politics. Hours and days of grunt work and (maybe) a few minutes of glory when all the votes are tallied in November.

That’s the plan. Keep working hard to help Gary Trauner upset a devolving Barbara Cubin in the U.S. House race. Re-elect Dem Gov Dave Freudenthal. Get Lori Millin and Mary Throne into the State House. Elect Michelle Hoffman as superintendent of public instruction so maybe we can cut down on the 57 days each school year devoted to standardized testing.

Simple goals. Hard work. I take the notes at our meetings so I know.

Today, we hope we get three phone calls at Dem HQ.

Speaking of guns and Rocky Mountain politicians....

This exchange happened at the Sept. 23 public debate in Butte for the U.S. Senate seat in Montana:
Jon Tester, Democratic challenger: "I don't want to weaken the Patriot Act, I want to repeal it. What it does, it takes away your freedom ... and when you take away our freedoms, the terrorists have won."
Later in the evening, when Sen Conrad Burns (Republican incumbent) tried to link him to New York Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer, who is, Burns said, pro-gun-control, Tester replied: "With things like the Patriot Act, we'd damn well better keep our guns."

As I said in my Sept. 24 post, I'm not a gun guy. As the full weight of Tester's words sink in, I may have to reconsider.

Weird to be a WYO Dem

Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal’s re-election campaign announced this news on Sept. 21: "Citing his dedication to the Second Amendment, the National Rifle Association has thrown its support behind Governor Dave Freudenthal in his bid for re-election. In the October edition of American Hunter magazine, the NRA singled Freudenthal out for inclusion on their "A-list" of gubernatorial candidates across the country."

WYO native Dave Freudenthal is a hunter and has owned guns all his life. You don’t see any lying around when you visit his office at the State Capitol ("Don’t sit on that shotgun on the couch!") or when you’re lucky enough to get an invitation to the Wyoming Governor’s Residence. I have it on good authority that attendees at weekend soirees must check their sidearms at the door – but only after tying your horse to the hitching post out front.

I never have a sidearm to check. I’m the only guy in my neighborhood, maybe the entire city of Cheyenne, who doesn’t own a gun. My gun-toting friends say I’ll be in a world of hurt when the shitstorm comes down. That’s a term Colorado’s Hunter S. Thompson used, shitstorm meaning that time when the country finally goes to hell in a handbasket and we’ll need guns to keep the two-legged wolves from the door. Hunter had lots of guns, even ran for sheriff of Pitkin County back in 1972, took potshots at neighbors and wild dogs. If he lived in WYO, he’d probably be a Democrat too, as much as he hated smarmy Republican opportunists like Dick Cheney.

But no guns for me. I’ll continue to reside in the world of unarmed struggle. I’m O.K. with responsible gun owners. I support all the amendments to the U.S. Constitution, unlike some Republicans who tend to favor some amendments (No. 2) and hate some others (No. 1). There are conservatives in the West who like to say Democrats are only waiting for a majority in Congress so they can take their guns away. A recent letter to the editor in our local paper said just that about Gary Trauner, the Democrat from Jackson who’s running for Congress against Republican Barbara Cubin. The letter writer said that if Trauner and his Dem pals get elected, they would join with the Jackson Hole and Hollywood liberals to take away all the guns.

If I could talk to this letter writer, I'd ask him if he thought Democrats or Republicans are better stewards of the U.S. Constitution. While he’s concentrating on the bogeyman of Dem gun-banners, Repubs in the White House and Congress are shredding the Constitution.

This well-known and often-ignored Biblical passage just landed in my mailbox from Sojourners Magazine "Verse and Voice" e-mail newsletter. A source of hope for those of us who question the Judeo-Christian values of Congressional leaders who vote to torture other human beings.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

--Matthew 5:3-12

Switch to Flex Fuel? Consult the Cornulator!

Maybe hybrid’s the way to go. Or maybe flex-fuel. How about just a small but economical sedan?

Ever since gas crossed over the $3 threshold in mid-August, I’ve been flirting with the idea of a new car. Gas prices are dropping as fast as they rose, so it’s possible the emergency is over.

NOT! We continue to import 47 million barrels of oil a year. The Saudis have us over a barrel. As do the Nigerians and Venezuelans. They count on American gas-hoggery to fuel their regimes. If I knew where to go, I’d buy all my gas from Venezuela, the least obnoxious of all the oil states. It’s enjoyable to see the way Hugo Chavez pulls the chain of George Bush and his cohorts. Citgo, apparently, is the company that uses the most Venezuelan petroleum, but the closest Citgo to my house is 100 miles away in Denver.

The best of the hybrids is the funny-looking Toyota Prius. They do sell the Prius in Cheyenne, although you have to negotiate ranks of big trucks and SUVs to get back to the far corner of the dealer’s lot where they stash the little cars. I believe it was on an episode of "The Simpsons" where one of the characters drove around in a "Pious." A Dem couple I know bought matching Priuses and seem quite happy with the mileage and the teardrop design and do seem to have a slightly pious attitude as they roll noiselessly down the street. Dem or not, I cringe when I imagine me in a Prius. I pull up to A TOUGH FORD TRUCK and get the evil eye from the driver. Sure I could say, "Eat your heart out, you gas-guzzling redneck!" The words would still be ricocheting around the car’s simple Japanese interior as the truck crushed me under its massive wheels on its way to the next gas stop.

Maybe I could trade in my 2000 Dodge Caravan for a nice economical American car, such as my wife's Saturn Ion. All my cars have been American. At least, they were made by American car companies – no telling how many offshore parts went into them. But things aren’t looking real good for Ford and Chrysler and all the rest. I’m sure I could get a good deal of a Focus or a Stratus or Cobalt or whatever. But is this what I really want?

No. I want to sock it to the oil producers, no matter which continent they’re on. I also want to zap all their pals in the U.S. government, especially Wyoming’s own oil baron, Dick Cheney.
So I’ve been studying the so-called flexible fuel vehicles, FFV for short. General Motors has a huge ad campaign, "Live Green, Go Yellow," and boasts it has 1.5 million FFVs on the road. All U.S. carmakers either have FFVs or will have in their 2007 models. One major problem is the lack of gas stations that stock the 85-percent ethanol blend, or E85. Consulting the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition web site, I found only four Wyoming stations: Cheyenne, Laramie, Torrington, and Mammoth in Yellowstone National Park. I was happy that Cheyenne had at least one outlet, if I did decide to go FFV. Still, what if supplies grew short, maybe some horrible pest decimated the Great Plains corn crop and led to an emergency on the scale of th Irish Potato Famine? Not to worry – FFVs can also run on unleaded gasoline.


I was surprised to learn that my other home state of Florida just opened its first E85 station, this one in the state capital of Tallahassee. According to NEVC, Gov. Jeb Bush attended the dedication and said this: "Securing a diverse and reliable supply of energy will reduce Florida's dependence on imported oil and ensure that a balanced mix of fuel sources and technologies are available for years to come. The tremendous potential of ethanol to become a major source of transportation fuel for Florida's energy future will be spurred with greater public access to ethanol fuelling stations."

Wonder if he could whisper this in his brother’s ear?

While I was pondering my motoring future, I stopped to gas up. Lately, I’ve only been pumping three or four gallons at a time, hoping the prices continue to fall. I popped open the fuel door and happened to notice a sign that read: "UNLEADED GASOLINE OR E85 ONLY: This vehicle is capable of operating on ethanol fuel. See owner’s manual."

Flabbergasted, I pulled out my owner’s manual and there it was. I owned a flex fuel vehicle, one of the first made by Dodge. My vehicle, a "muscle van," had the largest Caravan engine – 3.3 liter – and that’s the only one of this model-year that was equipped for 85 percent ethanol. What a strange revelation. It was as if I just found out that my house was powered by invisible windmills – or that my roof shingles were really solar panels.

The owner’s manual had a few caveats. Never switch fuels on less that a quarter tank – and make sure you ruin the vehicle for at least five minutes after fueling. E85 is not recognized for temperatures below zero degrees Fahrenheit (hey -- I live in Wyoming!). The manual also said I also might experience difficulty starting the van. My mileage could be expected to drop 20-30 percent. And I had to be sure to buy a special oil blend for the crankcase.

Other than that, I was clear to start gassing up with corn-based fuel. Ah, my van, powered by corn from the Iowa soil my gradfather once farmed. We don’t grow much corn in WYO. We don’t grow much of anything. But who cares, as long as it comes from the U.S.A. and not an oil sheikdom in TerroristLand. When I visited the GM web site, they had a cornulator that shows how much oil you save and how many corn cobs you use when switching to E85. They don’t have any FFV minivans, so I calculated savings with a 2006 Chevy Tahoe. The cornulator showed I would save nine barrels of oil annually and use almost 12,000 cobs. New batches of E85 are being brewed from sawdust and grain chaff and other organic byproducts. Ethanol distilleries are just huge stills, after all. You can probably make the stuff with potato peelings, zucchini (mass quantities available from your neighbors every summer), and lawn clippings.

I drove to the only E85 station in Cheyenne. The price on the green pump was $2.63 a gallon, a few cents more than I just paid for 87 octane unleaded at my friendly Loaf ‘n’ Jug store. I didn’t fill up then, as I still had some cogitating to do. But I did know one thing. When I was ready for E85, my van would be too. That’s good to know after five years of tooling around in my Yuppie van, oblivious to its ability to make me feel superior to my gas-guzzling neighbors.

Hunkins Takes the Low Road

Ray Hunkins of Wheatland is a Republican running against Democratic Governor Dave Freudenthal. Hunkins is being guided in his campaign by the state party, led by Drake Hill. Hill came up with the negative anti-Freudenthal ads in the primary campaign and now is armed with plenty of national Repub money to keep flinging the dirt until the November elections.

Hunkins seems a bit unbalanced in the battles he’s choosing. First he attacked Gov Dave for spending too much money on the state airplane. It turns out the plane wasn’t being used by the governor at all but by another state agency. Hunkins then said the Gov was spending way too much on the Governor’s Mansion and said the state should have commission that oversees those expenditures. The Gov said a commission already existed and he invited Ray to be a member. You could just hear Mr. Hunkins saying "Doh!" about that one.

Now Hunkins contends that military veterans are getting short shrift in WYO. He wants to establish five state-funded veterans service offices across the state. He also thinks that Gov Dave is politicizing the Wyoming Veterans Commission, set up in 1999 by Freudenthal’s predecessor, Wheatland’s Jim Geringer, an Air Force veteran.

In an excellent overview of the issue in the 9/18 Wyoming Tribune-Eagle, reporter Kevin Wingert (a Navy veteran) talks to all the parties in the ongoing debate. Lee Alley, new chair of the Veterans Commission and the state’s most-decorated Vietnam vet, said he doesn’t think that Hunkins’ "blanket" approach to veteran’s issues will work. Ed Wright, the state adjutant general, said that the commission debated this approach two years ago and the commissioners asked for more information and never got it.

I have to admit here that I’m not a military veteran. I care about the issue because I believe in the words of Jeff Spadaro, a U.S. Marine and Vietnam vet, who voices his concern for veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. "That’s the bottom line: Take care of the ones coming home."
That is the bottom line. But there are other aspects of this particular debate. Drake Hill has brought in outside Repub hired guns for this race and I will bet they decided to use the vet issue on Freudenthal. Hunkins is a marine veteran. Freudenthal is not a veteran. Since Hunkins is trailing in the polls, it’s only natural Repubs would fall back on a cynical ploy like this.

But they may be surprised. Freudenthal has gone out of his way to distance himself from anti-war Dems such as yours truly. He also has attended every deployment of WYO units to Iraq and Afghanistan. He also has attended every funeral of a Wyo soldier killed overseas since he took office in 2002.

I participated in two Dem canvasses this summer. One elderly woman, a registered Dem, refused to take any of my material. "I vote for the man, not the party," she said. She already knew she would vote for Dave Freudenthal because he was there when her grandson departed for his overseas deployment. She wasn’t the only one who responded in this very personal way.

My Republican friends are upset about their party’s early attempt at negativity. They think Freudenthal has done a good job this past four years and plan to vote for him again. Yes, many voted Democratic in 2002 because of the nasty campaigning engaged in by Repub candidate Eli Bebout. You’d think the GOP would have learned its lesson. But maybe Drake Hill and Ray Hunkins think that the electorate will respond to Karl Rove-style deceit.