Journalists: Iraq more dangerous than ever

From the Project for Excellence in Journalism:

In a new PEJ survey, journalists reporting from Iraq say the conditions are the most dangerous they've ever encountered. Ninety percent say most of Baghdad remains too dangerous to visit. Nearly 60% of the news organizations have had at least one Iraqi staff member killed or kidnapped in the last year. The survey is of 111 journalists from 29 news organizations reporting from Iraq.

Adobe Town could get stronger protection

On Wednesday, the Wyoming Environmental Quality Council decided to back stronger protection for an area known as Adobe Town in southwest Wyoming. The meeting was held in nearby Rock Springs. According to an article in the Casper Star-Tribune:

The council voted 5-1 to approve a petition from the Laramie-based Biodiversity Conservation Alliance and seven other conservation groups that designates about 180,000 acres in and around Adobe Town as a "very rare and uncommon" area. Commissioners concluded that Adobe Town has the significant scenic, archaeological, historic, wildlife, or surface geological values necessary for the designation.

Here's a description of Adobe Town from the Friends of the Red Desert web site.

Carved into intricate shapes by water and wind, Adobe Town is possibly the most astonishing and remote set of badlands and geological formations in the entire state of Wyoming. Throughout the area, which is virtually untouched by human activity, wide patches of desert and rolling sand dunes stretch across the open spaces between colorful rock formations and rugged canyons. Fossils of long-extinct mammals, reptiles, and invertebrates show visitors what once inhabited this landscape. And several high priority plant species that have adapted to thrive off 5 inches of average rainfall sprout from the arid soil.

I've been to many sections of the Red Desert, including Adobe Town. It's a severe and beautiful landscape, one that needs protection from the ravages that have been inflicted upon other parts of Wyoming. I attended the "Red Desert Symposium" at the UW Art Museum in September. Annie Proulx was there, speaking about her new book, "Red Desert," which chronicles -- in words and stunning photos -- the scope of this wonderful region. I'll keep you posted on the release date for the book.

Keeping an eye on the Republicans

From Mike Gehrke on the Democratic National Committee's e-mail newsletter:

What are Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, John McCain and Fred Thompson telling voters in Iowa and New Hampshire?

As the Democratic Party's Research Director, I spend a lot of time watching what the candidates say when they aren't on CNN or Fox News. Believe me, they're like entirely different people when they're speaking to just a few dozen people in Des Moines or Manchester and don't think the cameras are rolling.

But don't just take my word for it -- watch the video yourself, and let us know right away if you find something noteworthy: http://www.democrats.org/FlipperTV

Dems with cameras have been attending public events by the Republican candidates and recording the proceedings. They then go to their laptops and download the video, making it available to all of us. If you have the time and patience, you might find some good stuff to blog. I'll let you know when I do.

News from the Laramie County Democrats

At the Laramie County Democrats' meeting last night at the Plains Hotel, party chairman Mike Bell announced that Saturday, March 8, is the date for the county convention. It will be held at the University of Wyoming Family Practice Center, 18th St. and Pebrican, Cheyenne. County Dems need to attend the convention if you're interested in becoming a delegate to the state convention on Memorial Day weekend in Jackson. There, the delegates to the August 2008 Democratic National Convention will be selected. Wyoming is allowed 14 delegates and four super-delegates for the Denver gathering. These latter delegates include Wyoming Democratic Party Chair John Millin, Gov. Dave Freudenthal, and the state's two national committee members.

Mike also announced that the annual Nellie Tayloe Ross dinner will be held March 1 and the legislative reception March 7.

The county Democrats will share a new downtown office with the state party at 117 W. 17th St., next door to the Wyoming Epilspesy Foundation offices. No hours have been set, so dial in later for that info.

Also check out the party's new web site at http://www.laramiecountydemocrats.org.

Trauner fund-raiser set for Dec. 8

The Democratic Party Grassroots Coalition will hold a holiday party and Christmas brunch on Saturday, Dec. 8, 10:30 a.m.-1 p.m. at the Historic Governor's Mansion in downtown Cheyenne. Guest speaker will be Gary Trauner, the Democrat from Wilson who's running for Wyoming's lone U.S. House seat in 2008. There is no admission charge. But bring your checkbooks and donate to Gary's campaign. You're also invited to bring along your favorite brunch item to share.

This is Gary's first campaign appearance in Laramie County. For more info on his campaign, go to http://www.traunerforcongress.com.

"Chinatown" on Grist's "green" list

Besides offering comprehensive coverage of environmental issues, Grist magazine periodically offers up "green lists" of movies, cities, politicians, colleges, etc. The mag's list of 15 green movies includes the expected documentaries, such as "An Inconvenient Truth" and "Who Killed the Electric Car," but also some surprises such as "Chinatown." This is my favorite movie because of the acting of Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway, plus the twisted, intriguing plot that keeps its secret until the end. Grist likes it for the subplot that runs underneath the action: L.A.'s insatiable thirst and its history of water grabs. Nicholson's character, private eye Jake Gittes, asks rich-guy bad-guy John Huston how much money he needs. But this aqua-tycoon not only wants more money, but all the water in California and, the creepy heart of the matter: his daughter's (and her daughter's) sexual favors. The movie's title could have been "Greed" but it was already taken. Those Seven Deadly Sins just keep on giving.

See Grist's green movie list at http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2007/06/29/movies/

Surge is working; people keep dying

First Lt. Walter Bryan Jackson, a 2005 West Point grad who recently received the Distinguished Service Cross for service in Iraq, is profiled in today's Washington Post. He's been operated on a dozen times for wounds he received under fire in Iraq. His best friend and college roommate was just killed in an Afghanistan ambush. The Post reporter talked to him as he was shipping off to a new assignment, this one in South Korea:

"It's kind of hard to explain" how it feels to be part of a small segment of the U.S. population that is "bearing the brunt of the responsibilities" from today's conflicts, Jackson said as he waited for his flight at Dulles International Airport. "It doesn't affect society at large in the slightest. Life just goes on, and a lot of people . . . are more concerned about the price of gas than about soldiers fighting and dying," said Jackson, who has lost several comrades in the wars.

So far in November, 32 Americans have been killed in Iraq. Total deaths on the U.S. side are approaching 3,900. Total wounded are in the tens of thousands, although now we hear that some 20,000 returning G.I.s not previously counted in the wounded ranks have returned with some kind of brain damage.

The surge, of course, have reduced overall incidents of violence and U.S. casualties. But is that due to the surge or other factors? Depends which side of the U.S. political fence you live on. I can give credit to Bush & Petreaus for a change in policy. But the Republicans are anxious to pile on the praise for the surge because, overall, the Iraq War has been a disaster for their party and led directly to the Congressional shift in 2006 and most likely a democratic victory in 2008. So they endlessly praise the surge for this war that's lasted longer than World War II.

Our new Wyoming senator, John Barrasso of Casper, was just in Iraq for two days and has heard from Wyoming fighting men and women that the surge is working. Here's an excerpt from a story in today's Casper Star-Tribune by Joshua Wolfson:

He also visited with Wyoming soldiers and gave them quarters, hats and patches from the Cowboy State. After speaking with the troops, Barrasso said the United States has "absolutely" achieved a significant military success since the troop surge began earlier this year. "There has been measurable progress," he said, pointing to figures that show the number of injuries and deaths of Iraqi citizens and U.S. soldiers on the decline.

Reminders of home are much appreciated when you are thousands of miles away in a war zone. But Barrasso may have brought with him another reminder of home, that American Senators have the luxury of flying to Iraq for a two-day jaunt and then returning home to loved ones for the holidays and little post-Thanksgiving shopping. Sen. Barrasso can now return to the Senate in good conscience and keep blocking Dem efforts to set a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq. He and Sen. Enzi have voted in lockstep with other Republican Senators to keep the war going and ensure that this time next year another Congressional contingent will be on the ground in Baghdad.

But the senator gave a stern warning to the Iraqi leader:

During his visit to Iraq, Sen. John Barrasso delivered a message on behalf of his Wyoming constituents to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki."I specifically told him I was the newest United States senator, I was from Wyoming," Barrasso recalled Saturday afternoon, a few hours after arriving in Casper. "We are very direct. We are rugged individualists and we like to have things done quickly. And that I wanted him to know that the people of Wyoming were expecting quicker progress politically in Iraq."

If Barrasso constituents are rugged individualists who want things done quickly, why are they so willing to support an endless war? Bush declared "Mission Accomplished" on May 1, 2003, just weeks after the Iraq invasion. That's 54 months ago. Wyomingites (without my help) voted for Bush and the status quo in 2004. They sent Barbara Cubin back to the U.S. House in 2006. Cubin votes the Bush line every time. I voted for the other guy, Gary Trauner, who's running again.

Quick results. Endless war. Those don't go together at all.

Welcome home, Sen. Barrasso. Now let's get the G.I.s back home where they belong.

Realism in short supply in Western histories

In her New York Times' Review of "Driven Out: The Forgotten War Aagainst Chinese-Americans" by Jean Pfaelzer," Patricia Nelson Limerick said this:

Thinking realistically about the history of the American West easily lands on the list of this nation’s top 10 least favorite pastimes. Hundreds of historians have invested their life force in pointing out the inaccuracies in the image of the 19th-century West as a place of colorful romance and innocent adventure. “No thanks,” the believers reliably respond. “We like our version a lot better.”

Limerick, faculty director at the Center for the American West at the University of Colorado, nailed it. Not only is "thinking trealistically about the history of the American West" one of the "top 10 least favorite pastimes" in the nation, it's also true in Wyoming. This state had its own rampages against Chinese-Americans during the the period Pfaelzer addresses: 1850-1906. There was the infamous Chinese massacre in Rock Springs, in which disgruntled European immigrants murdered their equally disgruntled Chinese cousins. Disgruntlement and disenchantment were rfie among immigrants to the American West.

Pfaelzer writes:

“Whites saw in Chinese workers precisely what they hated about their own lives: hard and underpaid work, long hours, poor living conditions and a dearth of women.” In other words, white workers made the Chinese their scapegoats because of the similarities, rather than the differences, between them.

"Driven Out" is one of this year's "100 Notable Books" in the New York Times. I haven't read it, but now it's on my list thanks to fine review by Ms. Limerick. For entire list, go to http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/books/review/notable-books-2007.html

UF protesters make their point

Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, defender of torture, recieved a warm reception at my alma mater of the University of Florida during his first appearance at a university since resigning from office under a big dark cloud.

The reception by Gator Nation was not friendly.

According to a story by Devin Culclasure in the Independent Florida Alligator where, in 1976, I was a general assignment reporter, protestors greeted Gonzales's canned remarks at the Philips Center for the Performing Arts:

About 15 minutes into his speech, two UF students, Richard Gutierrez and Kevin Hachey, climbed onto the stage wearing orange jumpsuits and black hoods on their heads. University Police Department officers scrambled onto the stage to remove them. Matthew Cox, an employee of the Phillips Center, wrestled with one protester on the far side of stage, grabbing his legs and pulling him down. The other stood directly next to Gonzales, who calmly avoided looking in his direction. As police took the protester away, Gonzales glanced in his direction before attempting to continue his speech while he waited for the raucous crowd to settle down after a few minutes. A few more protesters climbed onto the stage. Meanwhile, even more protesters stood up, removed shirts or jackets revealing yellow T-shirts that read "SHAME," and stood with their backs toward Gonzales. They remained standing in their positions for the rest of the event.

UF cops seemed to handle this event much better than it did a few months ago when they tasered a rambunctious student during another political speech.

Steve Orlando, UF spokesman, said the usual number of four security officers was present. He added that he also thought most of the protesters expressed their views reasonably."A few crossed the line, but I think it went pretty well," Orlando said."I think Mr. Gonzales saw a whole lot of First Amendment tonight," he added with a laugh.

Gonzales remains under investigation by Congress for his questionable firing of attorneys who refused to do Dubya's bidding. One wonders if Mr. Gonzales has actually read the First Amendment -- or any other part of the Constitution of the U.S.

Read the entire Alligator article by going to http://www.alligator.org/articles/2007/11/20/news/campus/gonzales.txt.

PHOTO CREDIT: (Scott Robertson /Alligator Staff) Former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales pauses during his speech as a protester stands next to him at the Phillips Center on Monday night.

Dennis: Stop making sense!

You watch Dennis Kucinich speak confidently about big issues such as global warming and the Iraq War, and you wonder why the MSM ignores him. Maybe it's because he makes so much sense. He's short on irony, long on sincerity. As the bloggers at Crooks and Liars put it, MSM would rather make a big deal of one heckler at the recent debate than spend time on actual issues.

Makes me glad my vehicle sports the only "Kucinich for President" bumper sticker in Cheyenne (that I've seen, anyway). I also was a Kucinich delegate in 2004 to our state Democratic Party convention. No delegates for K went from there to Boston, but it was a start.

Here's Dennis Kucinich speaking at a forum on global warming (via Crooks and Liars):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbkZo5YOCNM

A weekend with Monty Python

Yesterday we felt like watching movies, so went down to the Laramie County Public Library to scan the shelves. Movie-renting is a challenge for us. My wife Chris prefers comedies such as "Galaxy Quest" and "Just Visiting," as well as endless screenings of "The Sound of Music." We rarely agree, although we share a taste for old Woody Allen movies ("Annie Hall" and before). My teen daughter Annie goes for dramas that feature dysfunctional families and psychiatrists. Some of her favorites (for now) include "Running with Scissors," "Junebug" and "The Squid and the Whale."

My tastes are all over the map. I like quirky comedies, indies, old gumshoe films with Bogie and William Powell, musicals, and documentaries. The other day I was happy as a clam to catch "After the Thin Man" on TMC during my lunch hour. The cast includes Powell, Myrna Loy, James Stewart, and Ida Lupino. Stewart plays the smarmy bad guy, a murderer. Very cool.

Yesterday's library haul included "Monty Python and the Holy Grail, "Just Visiting," "Thirteen," "The Great Santini," and "Old School." Chris chose the first two; Annie the others. I couldn't decide on anything. That's how it is with me sometimes. I don't know what I want.

Chris and I had a great time watching "The Holy Grail" that night. I know that Monty Python movies and reruns of the TV show are now considered the province of smark-alecky college kids. But what's not to like about "the knights who say ni" and the killer rabbit? The word "shrubbery" never sounded so dang funny.

Meanwhile, Annie watched "The Great Santini" and "Thirteen" on the downstairs box, a 30-year-old TV encased in a heavy piece of furniture that I never want to move again. I had recommended "Santini" as a representative of the "dysfunctional family" school. Annie found it interesting, but a bit dated as it was set in the 1960s. "Thirteen" spoke to her as more contemporary, more twisted. It's a disturbing film, one that conjures up a contemporary parent's worst nightmares. I've seen it, and once was enough. We've been through that kind of torture already with one teenager and don't want another round. Cuts too close top the bone.

Bring on the knights who say ni!

Latest skirmish in "The Ritalin Wars"

Judith Warner writes the "Domestic Disturbances" column each Friday in the New York Times. On Nov. 15, she wrote about the new study that shows that the brains of some children develop more slowly than others. People seem to be reading a lot into this study, inferring that it finally explains the cause of attention and behavior problems.

Ms. Warner's column addresses several aspects of the issue, but one paragraph really caught my eye:

Facts don’t have much sway when you’re in the grip of a religion. And the beliefs underlying the Ritalin wars (I am using “Ritalin” here as shorthand for the whole practice of diagnosing children and treating them with psychotropic drugs) have truly now become like a creed. They’re only superficially about diagnosis and medication. For most people, they’re more profoundly about a sense of menace bearing down upon the world of our children.

As a battle-hardened veteran of "The Ritalin Wars," I've written extensively about the experience. You can read two essays on my web site at http://www.hummingbirdminds.com. Go to the sidebar and click on "On ADHD."

The name of this blog is taken from one researcher who described his own ADHD as having a "hummingbird mind."

The give-and-take over these latest study results is only a skirmish in the long war. More later on the subject...

Speak for those "living in the shadows"

The poor are invisible in the U.S.

That's why the non-poor -- people with a job and car and house and (one hopes) a conscience -- need to "speak on their behalf," according to Jon Laughlin, pastor of Grace United Methodist Church in Cheyenne.

Laughlin spoke to the monthly gathering of the Democratic Grassroots Coalition last Thursday at the library. It had been a challenge to decide how to spend that evening. Across town, the YMCA was hosting a talk by Laramie writer RoseMarie London. The TV called with the Democratic Party debates out of Las Vegas and new episodes of "The Office" and "30 Rock."

But I went to the meeting because of Laughlin and the fact that it was the night when we gathered canned and boxed goods for holiday distribution at the Salvation Army or the COMEA House.

Laughlin spoke of ways to get the attention of elected officials on behalf of the poor and homeless. A few winters ago, he attended a meeting of the city council where the plight of neighborhood street lights was on the agenda. The council wanted to put another million dollars into the lighting budget. Laughlin had another idea. He suggested that council members could use that money for street lights. If they did, however, could they make sure that the lights were built closer to the ground so that a homeless family could huddle underneath to keep warm. His point made, he requested that the money would be better spent on funding for housing vouchers or the energy assistance plan that helps the working bill pay their heating bills. The council agreed.

Just one example of how we can serve as the voices for "those people living in the shadows all over this community."

Mike Bell, chair of the Laramie County Democrats, suggested another way to assist the poor this holiday season: have dinner with them. COMEA House and St. Mark's Episcopal Church at 1908 Central Avenue will hold a Thanksgiving dinner "with" the homeless on Nov. 22. The problem with most holiday dinners for "the needy" is that the volunteers come out to cook and ladle out the food to their fellow humans, but then they sit on one end of the room and the needy sit on the other. At the St. Mark's feast, everyone will sit together family-style. And dinner guests, homeless or not, will have the opportunity to prepare their own favorite recipes for the feed.

Sounds good to me. If you're interested in taking part, call Faye Mills at 514-3488 or St. Mark's at 634-7709.

When asked to name the top-five action items for the Dems to take out of Thursday's meeting, Laughlin reeled off these: 1. affordable housing; 2. affordable daycare; 3. availability of medical care; 4. a livable wage. He couldn't think of a fifth item, but figured that all of us would be plenty busy with these four items.

Involvement is the key. He acknowledged that he was a registered Democrat. "If you want to know whether people are Republicans or Democrats, watch how they treat (or talk about) poor people," he said. While Democrats often fall short in this regard, they at least have a domestic agenda that promotes the priorities named above.

"Nothing happens on the other side," he concluded.

With Thanksgiving (and lower-case thanksgiving) in mind, here's part of a poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson:

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.

Ghost Road Press books on sale

Denver's Ghost Road Press, publisher of my 2006 story collection, The Weight of a Body, is holding a holiday sale until Dec. 22. GRP is offering free shipping on all titles, and a buy-2-get-one-free sale on select titles (mine included).

At last month's Colorado Book Awards, Ghost Road Press fielded three finalists and two award winners. Finalists were Karen Chamberlain, Jeffrey Ethan Lee, and Janet Bland. Teague Bohlen's novel, The Pull of the Earth, won for best fiction, and Sonya Unrein, GRP's co-publisher) won for best anthology with Open Windows 2007. I read Teague's novel earlier this year and liked it very much.

Order your books at http://www.ghostroadpress.com.

Grassroots Dems Coalition meets Nov. 15

The Democratic Grassroots Coalition will meet on Thursday, Nov. 15, 6:30 p.m., in the Laramie County Public Library's Sunflower Room in Cheyenne. Guest speaker will be Pastor Jon Laughlin of Grace United Methodist Church, advocate for the hungry and the homeless. Bring canned and/or boxed goods for a holiday collection that will be distributed in Laramie County.

This event is free and open to the public, including Republicans.

Correction to previous post

This comes from Walter Reed Medical Center:

Instead of sending an "Any Wounded Soldier" letter or package to WalterReed, please consider making a donation to one of the more than 300 nonprofit organizations dedicated to helping our troops and their families listed on the "America Supports You" website.

Other organizations that offer means of showing your support for our troops
or assist wounded servicemembers and their families include:
http://www.usocares.org/
http://www4.army.mil/ocpa/tooursoldiers/
http://www.redcross.org/

For individuals without computer access, your local military installation, the local National Guard or military reserve unit in yourarea may offer the best alternative to show your support to ourreturning troops and their families. Walter Reed Army Medical Center will continue to receive process and deliver all mail that is addressedto a specific individual.

Send a card to a recovering vet

A thought for Veteran's Day... As you're making out your Christmas/holiday card list, add this:

A Recovering American Soldier
c/o Walter Reed Army Medical Center
6900 Georgia Avenue NW
Washington,D.C. 20307-5001

Cubin decides not to run again

News started circulating yesterday afternoon that Wyoming's lone U.S. Rep., Republican Barbara Cubin, has decided not to run again. She's in the middle of her seventh term and the end can't come too soon. She's been facing many medical problems of her own and her husband's, and has missed half the votes held this session in Congress. Here's an excerpt from a story about Cubin in today's Casper Star-Tribune:

"If it's true that Cubin has decided not to run, then it poses interesting dynamics for the future, because the Republican Party has quite a few people on the bench right now," said Liz Brimmer, former chief of staff to the late U.S. Sen. Craig Thomas and owner of a Jackson communications and statewide public relations firm.

Brimmer said that if Cubin has decided to retire, people in the state should respect that her health challenges are difficult for all families and for any woman working. "Sometimes when people are public servants, that measure of empathy isn't always our first reaction," Brimmer said. "I think in this case we should have a lot of empathy."

I wonder how many times Cubin voted against family-friendly legislation to assist with family medical leave, daycare, minimum wage, health care for needy children, etc. She is adamantly against any kind of universal health care plan, although she benefits from the best plan taxpayer money can buy in the U.S. Congress. Since Republicans nearly always vote against such legislation, since they say it will swell the federal budget, I'm sure that most of her votes were family-unfriendly. She was all for dropping cluster bombs on Iraqi villages. And she never met a Big Oil bill that she didn't like. Petro-dollars are her lifeblood.

Empathy exists on the personal and national and global scale. Ms. Cubin never exhibited the trait in her public life so it's hard to muster any for her now.

I hope that she's replaced in 2008 with a Democrat, Gary Trauner. If Colin Simpson does run on the Repub side and is elected, let's hope he can avoid Cubin's doctrinaire right-wing politics and be a more thoughtful and free-thinking Rep, something on the order of his father, former Sen. Al Simpson.

Generation Gap? That's so sixties

On an MSNBC video clip this morning, Barack Obama talked about the "generation gap." He didn't use that terminology, which is so sixties. But maybe that's how the question was asked. He at least seemed to agree with the idea that he, as a younger non-Vietnam-generation politician, might have an advantage over his older colleagues such as Hilary Clinton. "They've been fighting the same battles since the sixties." That hit me like a ton of cliches, probably because I've been fighting the same battles since the sixties. I'm two years younger than Hilary Clinton. We're the first batch of the Baby Boomer cohort, born 1946-50. We came of age in the sixties and we fought all those battles and we keep fighting them. There are some positives in that, but also a burden. We can't seem to stop fighting them. We have been at each other's throats for so long it seems normal. But where has it lead? True believers George W. Bush and Karl Rove and Dick Cheney on The Right; dumstruck liberals like me and Hilary and Dennis Kucinich and Michael Moore on The Left. Butting heads in the public arena and nothing getting accomplished.

I've thought this for awhile, that maybe it will take someone from a different generation, someone who grew up in a different country, to show us the way out of our morass. Barack Obama might be that person on the Democratic side. Could be Arnold Schwarzenegger on the Repub side. Don't shoot me, fellow Dems. Arnold is getting stuff done across the board in California. Yes, he's still beholden in some ways to the national neo-con agenda, but he's blazing new trails in energy conservation.

Maybe there are other pols out there who can bring us together. We need some visionaries, now more than ever.

Savage capitalism skewers wingnuts

This post is by Kevin Drum at the Washington Monthly:

SCHADENFREUDE ALERT....The New York Times reports today that a group of conservative authors, including Swift Boat nutball Jerome Corsi, is suing right-wing darling Regnery Publishing. The lead plaintiff is Richard Miniter, author of Shadow War: The Untold Story of How Bush Is Winning the War on Terror, who apparently got his hands on a royalty statement he wasn't supposed to see:

"It suddenly occurred to us that Regnery is making collectively jillions of dollars off of us and paying us a pittance." He added: "Why is Regnery acting like a Marxist cartoon of a capitalist company?"

....The authors, who say in the lawsuit that [Regnery's parent company] has been "unjustly enriched well in excess of one million dollars," are seeking unspecified damages. But Mr. Miniter said, "We're not looking for a payoff; we're looking for justice."

Well, we're all looking for justice, aren't we? But if a conservative is a liberal who's been mugged, what do you call a conservative who's come face to face with the naked face of vertically integrated capitalism?

Energy costs just keep climbing

Oil prices inching toward $100 a barrel...gas prices nearing $3 a gallon (again) here in Wyoming -- and way over $3 on the coasts...home heating prices up all across the U.S....people spending around $4,000 per year on energy (according to CNN) which adds up to more than annual out-of-pocket health-care costs...

That's what seven years of a Bush-Cheney administration has done to us. It's disingenuous to say that there is a lack of an energy policy. It's just the same ol' same ol'. Cheney held his secret meetings with the energy czars early on and they all decided to rake in petro-dollars hand-over-fist. And keep on doing it until the wells run dry!

That's not a policy. It's insanity.

Resurrecting the Beatles in cinema

About halfway through "Across the Universe," I began to wonder what I was doing on a Sunday afternoon in 2007 watching a movie featuring Beatles music. I’m 56, grew up on the Beatles, and was about the same age as the film’s main characters as they waded through the strange cavalcade of events that were the late 1960s and early 1970s. While I look at that time with a jaundiced eye, I’m not one of those neo-con cranks who blame all modern ills on sixties' excess. Those years helped make me who I am and I’m kind of fond of my 56-year-old self.

My wonderment of watching a movie with Beatles music is just that. I wonder why the music is still alive and kicking, so full of verve and so relevant. The boys from Liverpool recorded their last album together 37 years ago. Two of them are dead, one from an assassin’s bullet. The surviving two are now in their sixties. Don’t hear much from Ringo. Wouldn’t be hearing much about Paul McCartney if he wasn’t going through a nasty divorce with his young wife. Were the Beatles songs that good? Or were there just so many of us Baby Boomers listening to them?

My daughter Annie is 14. She likes the Beatles and some other bands from that era. She’s kind of a neo-hippie. When I was 14, in 1965, would I have urged my parents to take me to a movie starring a group that had its heyday 37 years before? That would be a crooner from 1928, Rudy Vallee, maybe, or a group that played Charleston dance tunes -- "Flapper" music. There were great jazz musicians, but what did I know of jazz at 14 in Middle America? My father listened to classical music and the rousing tunes of the Scottish Black Watch. My mom liked humming Irish tunes. When I was 11, my father told me not to listen to Elvis or the rest of that rock-and-roll crap I played on my transistor radio. So I absorbed it under the covers at night, Elvis and Dion and Del Shannon and the Shirelles and, eventually, the Beatles and the other bands from the British pop invasion. My very own music, beamed to me via broadcasts from Chicago, Denver, and Wichita.

It may be that the lives of the Beatles so perfectly represented the era. "Across the Universe" begins with young people in the throes of young love. They sing the early songs, which also were about holding hands and love-gone-bad and the pain of long-distance romance. The wild boys from Princeton "get by with a little help from their friends." As the Beatles lives became more serious and complicated – a reflection of their maturity and the times they lived in – so do the songs in the movie. Here comes Vietnam and protests and pot-smoking and hippies and more of Vietnam. At one time, I was afraid the movie would end in a rush of angst and violence, as did the 1960s. But it ends happily – fitting for a musical that has roots in the MGM musical tradition and even the Beatles’ films, "Help" and "Hard Day’s Night." Seems to me a sad or cynical or apocalyptic ending would have gone against the spirit of the band.

Movies in 2007 dwell on the dark side. Not comedies. They tend to dwell on the inane. An unnecessary and unpopular war rages, and we are in the hands of lunatics at home and terrorists abroad. Movies reflect the zeitgeist of the times. "Across the Universe" seems to go against the grain. Maybe we all yearn for some lively song-and-dance. Maybe this Beatles’ immersion in just pure nostalgia for this wrung-out bunch we call Baby Boomers. I’d hate to think it’s only nostalgia. I’d like to think that the Beatles were talented revolutionaries, who helped bring in a wave of great music and good times.

To be continued...

Turner writes requiem for future soldier

I'm not a veteran, nor have I ever pretended to be. Maybe that's why it's so important for me to read what veterans have to say. That was true of Vietnam, the war of my era, and now of Iraq.

One of the best literary works to come out of Iraq (thus far) is Brian Turner's "Here, Bullet." Turner's an Army combat veteran who landed a book contract while still serving in Iraq with the Third Stryker Brigade combat team of the 2nd Infantry Division. "Here, Bullet" was published in November 2005 by Alice James Books, one of the best of the independent literary publishers. Turner was supposed to be in Austin in March 2006 for a reading at the annual Association of Writers and Writing Programs' (AWP) conference. But he was sick at home so a stand-in read some of the poems from "Here, Bullet." Not quite the same.

He's one of the writers for the New York Times' "Home Fires" blog. His latest post was "Requiem for the last American soldier to die in Iraq." Painful and poetic to read. But read it you must (that's an order!) at http://homefires.blogs.nytimes.com/. Scroll down to the Oct. 31 post.