"Laramie's "Freedom Has a Birthday" includes fireworks, food, fun and a chance to get your pic taken with the Prez

This Laramie County security detail accompanied Pres. Obama at last weekend's SuperDay! event in Cheyenne.  Albany County Dems will take over security on July 4 in Laramie. Come out, sign a commitment card for 2012, and get your pic taken with the Prez. 

From the Albany County Democratic Party in Laramie: Do you like firecrackers, good community spirit, and serving as a Secret Service agent to the President? Well, do we have a volunteer opportunity for you. Please call Bryon Lee (307) 752-5972 for details about the wonderful booth the Albany Co. Dems are setting up for Freedom Has A Birthday on July 4 in Washington Park. 

Star Wars Festival "food-raiser" set for July 7

Is it possible that Darth Vader is a force for good in the universe?

We often rely on arts and music and creativity to lift our spirits during hard times. They also help turn on lights where darkness reigns.


Fellow prog-blogger and minister Rodger McDaniel announces this good (and fun) cause:


Highlands United Presbyterian Church announces its "Star Wars" Festival “food-raiser” for NEEDS. The STAR WARS FESTIVAL, is scheduled for 6:30-9:30 p..m., Thursday, July 7, at the Highlands United Presbyterian Church, 2390 Pattison Ave., Cheyenne . The public is invited to attend. Admission is FREE with the donation of any non-perishable food item or baby item such as diapers. All items collected will be donated to NEEDS, Inc. for its food bank.


A variety of events are planned as part of this family evening: 

6:30 p.m. - Intergalactic Meet-and-Greet
Want to meet Darth Vader, Imperial Stormtroopers or R2D2? Come early to the talk and meet some of your favorite characters from the Star War films. Bring your camera and take as many pictures as you like! Re-enactors include members of the Mountain Garrison of the 501st Legion -- www.501st.com. Members reside in both Colorado andWyoming.

Dr. Toby Rush presents "The Music of Star Wars"

7:30 p.m. -- Presentation: The Music of Star Wars 
This 90-minute multimedia presentation from UNC music professor TOBY RUSH, includes excerpts from all six films. Dr. Rush will present the music of Star Wars and explore how John Williams used the soundtrack to help tell George Lucas' epic tale.

9 p.m. -- Costume Contest
Wear your Star Wars costume! Guests are encouraged to dress as characters from any of the Star Wars films. A short fashion show, allowing guests to strut their stuff, will be held following Dr. Rush’s talk. Prizes will be awarded for the top outfits!

All this FREE with your donation for NEEDS! So bring the family, this is one event you don’t want to miss! And it’s for a good cause – with all foodstuffs to be donated to NEEDS Cheyenne. 

Highlands Presbyterian Church is located in north Cheyenne at 2390 Pattison Avenue. From Dell Range at Mountain, drive north onMountain Road to the intersection of Pattison and Mountain.

For more information, contact Rodger McDaniel, pastor of Highlands Presbyterian, at 307-634-2962 (church office) or rodger.mcdaniel@bresnan.net.

Photos from 6/25/11 meeting of the Laramie County Democrats

Here I am at Monday's Laramie County Democratic Party meeting explaining (choose one in comments below) 1)  the length of the fish I caught at Seminoe Reservoir the previous weekend; 2)  the span of Michelle Bachmann's nose after she told her latest whopper; 3) the vast chasm (with one millimeter representing a billion dollars) between the richest 2 percent and the rest of us; 4) the vast amount of fun I had at Netroots Nation 11; 5)  I forget.

A very lively gathering of Laramie County Democrats at Monday's meeting at the IBEW Union Hall in Cheyenne.  Pictured (l to r): Misty Heil, mom and education activist; Lori Brand, attorney and firebrand; Mike Shay, writer and activist; Sen. Floyd Esquibel, one of the brave Wyoming Progressive 14 in the state legislature; WY Conservation Voters E.D. Kate McMorrow Wright, and Wendy Soto, head of the Laramie County Grassroots Coalition. Both photos by Bryon Lee, Organizing for American-Wyoming.

Linda hits the road with poetry in her heart and a ukelele in her hands

Sign in the window at Beyond Baroque

My friend and colleague Linda Coatney just returned from a five-day road trip with The Monk -- Detroit spoken-word poet and activist M.L. Liebler -- and Peter Lewis, one of the founders of the seminal California rock band, Moby Grape. Linda is a poet and plays the ukelele. She keeps insisting that Don Ho's favorite musical instrument is making a comeback -- Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder has an entire CD of uke tunes -- but I have my doubts.

The entourage hit a few of California's literary and music hot spots, including Beyond Baroque Literary Center in Venice Beach and the Ashkenaz Music & Dance Community Center in Berkeley. Linda chronicled the trip in a post on the Wyoming Arts Council blog. Go to http://wyomingarts.blogspot.com/2011/06/on-road-with-monk-and-moby-grape.html

Daily Kos: "Why I'm Boycotting The Huffington Post, And I Hope You Will Too"

I do not provide free content (or any content, for that matter) to the Huffington Post, and don't plan to. I'm boycotting Huff Post until my brothers and sisters in the writing/blogging trade get paid. I just removed Huffington Post link from my blogroll.

Here's an excerpt from the Kos post:

Even Kos himself pays his front pagers for their work. He gives them fair pay and even health insurance for the work they put into this site. And for good reason. The front-pagers work very hard to put in quality work that gives the site a solid reputation for progressive activism. Arianna Huffington makes way more money from her site than Markos does (unless Kos made $315 million for this site, which I strongly doubt). She should not only pay her bloggers, but pay them damn well!

P.S.: I'm a Kossack but not a front-pager. I cross-post from my site four or five times a year, creating original material for hummingbirdminds and then sharing it with the larger world.

Why I'm Boycotting The Huffington Post, And I Hope You Will Too

Moveon.org mag looking for new-media savvy interns

Had to pass on this announcement to my fellow Progressive writers/bloggers. Sounds like a great opportunity for some of those energetic young activists I met at Netroots Nation 11. Go for it:

Backpack: paid internship: MoveOn's magazine for the Facebook era is at http://moveonorg.backpackit.com.

MoveOn.org Civic Action is looking for a couple of fiercely intelligent, hard-working, impressively creative, technically savvy interns to help develop its new media project.

Location: Anywhere. We have a virtual office, and collaborate online.
Stipend: $1,000 to 1,500 a month, based on experience, plus health benefits.
Start Date: As soon as possible, no later than July 15, 2011.
End Date: Sept 15, 2011 (but may be extended indefinitely if it works out).
If you’re interested: Please send a cover letter, writing sample, link to something amazing you’ve seen online lately, and resume to editorialintern@moveon.org. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

Me and Harvey the Progressive Donkey invite you to sit a spell here at hummingbirdminds

My pal, the Dem donkey

Life is strange for a progressive living in a Republican state.

I sometimes feel like the family's eccentric uncle.

Uncle Mike says the darndest things. The President was born in the U.S. and not Kenya? Next thing you know, he'll be saying that gay marriages should be recognized in Wyoming, or that women deserve equal pay for equal work. He did say that? That Uncle Mike... 

Ha, ha, ha. Maybe I am the eccentric uncle. Elwood P. Dowd talked to an invisible rabbit named Harvey and the powers-that-be in the play locked him up for it. Elwood didn't think it was strange. "Let me give you my card..." He was a nice man, too, quite happy with his P.O.V.

I have a bit of Elwood in me. I seem quite happy with my P.O.V. My invisible rabbit seems to be a donkey. As long as that donkey stays invisible, all is right in Republican-dominated Wyoming. But if I or any of my fellow Dems acknowledge the donkey, we're eccentric.

Felt a bit like that at the Recent SuperDay! event in Cheyenne. Some people seemed quite shocked that there was a group of Democrats will to be out in public bragging about their county party. And they had a cardboard cut-out of the "Made in the U.S.A." president! You know, that guy from Kenya. Thing is, we were having fun and promoting those causes that we believe in. Maybe we were awakening from the 2010 shellacking at the polls. It's possible that the openly mean-spirited Tea Party shenanigans at our State Legislature freed us to make public our presence and our beliefs. One young father pushing a stroller with his toddler aboard looked at me and my Laramie County Democrats with a sardonic smile. "I'm surprised you haven't been tarred and feathered." I thought it an odd thing to say, a throwback to a time when charlatans and mountebanks and Harold Hill and the Duke and the King in Huck's tale were tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail. The young father said that he was kidding but he didn't take one of my pretty brochures.

It's odd, isn't it, to live in a state where just having a "Proud Wyoming Democrat" bumper sticker on your bright red Ford is a radical act.

At public gatherings, people assume that you are a Republican. They will say the darndest things believing that you think the exact same way that they do. I used to let those things slide, but don't anymore.

Maybe I would if I was a business owner in Cheyenne. I've had more than one Democrat tell me that they keep their Liberal leanings secret so as not to alienate potential clients and customers. I don't blame them. If I owned a little bistro, I wouldn't put an "Obama in 2012" in my front window. You might find new customers that way, but it probably is not a great marketing strategy in a state where registered Democrats are outnumbered more than 2-to-1 and many of those Democrats are moderate or even conservative on some issues and might have voted for Obama but don't brag about it.

The other day, a legislative lobbyist who is a Democrat said that he dare not say anything negative about Rep. Cynthia Lummis or Lummis will hear about it through the Republican grapevine and never, ever do anything for the lobbyist's clients on the national level. Ditto for Dr. Sen. John Barrasso. That's probably predictable in a legislature that has 76 Republicans and 14 Dems. Our entire U.S. Congressional delegation is Republican. All our state electeds are Republicans. That's one extensive grapevine. No wonder progressive lobbyists have to be discreet. But in the end, does anyone in Wyoming expect Rep. Lummis to ever do anything in Washington, D.C., for any progressive cause?

When I arrived in Wyoming 20 years ago, moving from a state that is more purple that blue or red (Colorado), I was shocked to hear Democrats say that they register as Republicans so that they can vote in primaries that matter. I thought that was absurd. I acknowledged that I would never register as a Republican. There was that time that I registered as an Independent, a move that was totally pointless. And I have since learned that Wyoming voters can switch party registration on the day of the primaries and switch back on their way out the door. That happened frequently in the 2010 primaries, when hordes of Dems switched to "R" to vote for Matt Mead against Tea Party fave Ron Micheli. Not surprising that one of the items on the Republicans' legislative agenda this year was to change this user-friendly polling registration system. Now we're seeing a national effort by Republicans to make registering and voting as difficult as possible.

Me and Harvey the Democratic Donkey invite you to linger a bit here at hummingbirdminds and we'll chat. You say you'd rather yell than chat? Guess that's O.K., but Harvey has big ears and sensitive ones. He's big too, really big for a donkey. And he knows karate. Did I mention that he has a blog?

In memoriam: Mary Hartman

Tonight I raise a glass to my old friend, Mary Hartman. She died last Friday, alone, which is a shame on us all. Her neighbors took her to the hospital and Mary, independent to the end, ordered them to take her home. They did, and that's where she died, home, alone.

There will be no memorial service. Mary was not religious. Still, her friends need to remember her in some way.

Words will have to suffice. Mary was a writer. Words will have to suffice.

Here is what I know. Mary left her Nebraska home as a teen and took the train to Los Angeles. Stars in her eyes. She was a looker, that Mary. Beautiful voice, too. She sang at the USO during the war years. L.A. was hopping. Here's what the California Military Museum web site says about L.A. during that time:

During World War II, Los Angeles was the boom town of boom towns. The Los Angeles metropolitan area grew faster than any other major metropolitan area in the U.S. and experienced more of the traumas of war while doing so. By 1943 the population of metropolitan L.A. was larger than 37 states, and was home to one in every 40 U.S. citizens. By the end of the war, the L.A. area had produced 17% of all of America's war production.

Pretty heady stuff for a Nebraska kid. Mary sang with a number of lounge singers and someone along the way, met up with a U.S. Marine named Jack Lummus, all-America athlete from Ennis, Texas. Soon they were engaged. He shipped out and was killed on the sands of Iwo Jima and was awarded the Medal of Honor for the sacrifices he made that day. He has a U.S. Navy ship and an intermediate school named after him.

Mary never got over it. She wrote a memoir about it and later a children's book. "Texas Granite: Story of a World War II Hero" (see photo). She was married, briefly, long enough to have a boy whom she raised alone. She was a newspaper reporter and free-lance writer in Nebraska and Arkansas. In the early 1990s, she moved to Cheyenne, Wyo., to be near her son and grandkids. As a writer, she was drawn to other writers, and that's how we met. Mary was the age of my parents, Great Depression and World War II babies. I was drawn to her for that reason and because we both wrote fiction, loved history and Liberal politics.

Mary and I and another writer formed Southeast Wyoming Writers (SEWW)  in 1992. We also were in the same writing critique group for awhile. Mary shepherded a World War II oral history project through budgets through script through filmed interviews. This video is now part of the U.S. Library of Congress World War II collection. On Veteran's Day 2002, barely a year after the beginning of yet another American war,  Mary was interviewed on National Public Radio. It was almost impossible not to be moved by her decades-old memories, still fresh after all of these years.

Mary and I had lunch together fairly often but not often enough. A few years ago, she tumbled down the back steps of her apartment building and broke both of her wrists. I visited her in the hospital. She dearly wanted to get out. She did, not quite healed but ready to move on with her life.

How do you say good-bye to some who has already departed? I'm not sure. I can see Mary, though, singing with a big band in some smoky L.A. club. The world is her oyster. Her life is ahead of her. She is a loving spirit who gets her heart broken in a big way.

Words will have to suffice, Mary. It's all we have in the end.

Farewell, my friend.

Talking about Netroots Nation Monday night at Laramie County Democrats meeting in Cheyenne

Van Jones

If I can get my laptop (and myself) to function properly, I will be showing a few clips from happenings at the recent Netroots Nation conference during the monthly meeting of the Laramie County Democrats at the IBEW Union Hall, 810 Fremont St., Cheyenne, on Monday, June 27, 7:30 p.m.

Although I have an entire composition book filled with notes, I thought that a few vids might be a lot more fun than a reading a batch of my scribbles from the event. I am especially fond of Jill Sobule's new song about the Tea Party that she debuted at the conference. There's a rousing speech by Van Jones and a wry, deadpan address by Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota, Minneapolis hometown boy. And if we get bored, we can always look at footage of Wingnut Andrew Breitbart trying to crash NN11 because The Right Online conference across the street was so bloody boring.

So come on out. All are welcome. It's free, although LarCoDems' treasurer Gary Roadifer may badger you for spare change. Sometimes we have cookies. Get more info at www.laramiecountydemocrats.org

Another great photo from Laramie County Dems' revel at Cheyenne SuperDay!

Wyoming Organizing for Obama Director Bryon Lee (left) and  Out in Wyoming blogger Jeran Artery (right) flank Pres. Obama at SuperDay! in Cheyenne. A great time was had by all.

It's no accident that the Wyoming State Seal features "Equal Rights" front and center

A colorful rendering of the Wyoming State Seal is being embedded in the new plaza in front of the State Capitol Building. On Friday, I stopped to watch the installation. Joe from southwestern Virginia and Joe from Cheyenne were supervising the work. From afar, the seal looks magnificent. During the legislative session, I had seen an artists's rendering of the finished project.

This is a major improvement over the aging plaza that was in place this time last year. In Cheyenne, we always measure time by Cheyenne Frontier Days -- "The Daddy of 'Em All." It's our version of the New Year's celebration. The year ends or begins with CFD -- not quite sure which. Anyway, the construction barriers and construction crews and the big box surrounding the Chief Washakie statue will all be removed by July 22 to make way for the influx of tourists.

What they will see is instructive. The plaza will be flanked by statues of Nellie Tayloe Ross, the first woman governor of a U.S. state, and Chief Washakie, the legendary leader of the Shoshones. Wyoming may be the only U.S. state to celebrate the contributions of a suffragist and a Native American chief in front of its Capitol Building. You might call this a concrete representation of the stat'e slogan, "Equal Rights," that also is part of the state seal. Has Wyoming lived up to this clarion call for justice? No. Shoshone and Arapaho youth on the sprawling Wind River Reservation continue to commit suicide at alarming rates. The dropout stats for Rez youth are the worst in the state and the unemployment rate is 70 percent. Women nationally earn 77 cents for every dollar earned by a man. In Wyoming, women earn 67 cents for every dollar paid to guys (such as me). The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reported these figures in May.

But the state seal sounds the call for justice. Here's a description of the state seal from the official State of Wyoming site:

The Great Seal of the State of Wyoming was adopted by the second legislature in 1893, revised by the sixteenth legislature in 1921. The two dates on the Great Seal, 1869 and 1890 commemorate the organization of the Territorial government and Wyoming's admission to the Union. The draped figure in the center holds a staff from which flows a banner bearing the words, "Equal Rights," and symbolizes the political status women have always enjoyed in Wyoming. The male figures typify the livestock and mining industries of the state. The number 44 on the five-pointed star signifies that Wyoming was the 44th state admitted to the Union. On top of the pillars rest lamps from which burn the Light of Knowledge. Scrolls encircling the two pillars bear the words, Oil, Mines, Livestock, and Grain, four of Wyoming's major industries.

No mention of the area's original inhabitants, but we'll work on that. The "draped figure" is obviously a woman. The two men flanking the "Equal Rights" figure are a miner and a herder or a cowboy. It celebrates Wyoming's status as the 44th state admitted to The Union. It celebrates knowledge. It celebrates industry, farming and ranching. It celebrates working people.

The miniscule photo above doesn't do it justice, especially when compared to the large state seal that will be the centerpiece of the plaza. 

As I talked to Joe and Joe at the Capitol, the Tea Party was holding a rally on the publicly-funded and maintained Capitol grass. The Tea Party doesn't believe in taxes except for war-making. Not sure what they think of the Capitol renovation. This is just the first stage of a major overhaul of the historic structure, inside and out. Tea Partiers maintain that they pay too many taxes. Most of them drove to the rally public roadways, although some may have beamed in from Planet Tea Party. Many of them are Medicare-eligible, judging by their ages, although maybe they are doctrinaire enough to refuse those benefits which they contributed to all their lives. Some Tea Partiers want to revoke the 10th and 14 amendments of the U.S. Constitution. Some even go so far as to advocate secession.

But the part of the state seal that seems to rankle them the most concerns "equal rights." The Tea Party crowd hates those "illegal aliens," such as the ones that Sen. John McCain says started the Arizona wildfires. The Tea Party crowd loves Arizona's racist SB1070 law and wants Wyoming to have one just like it. There was one proposed in the most recent legislature but it went down in flames. HB94, according to the Equality State Policy Center, "would have led to racial profiling, split up Wyoming families with documented and undocumented members, and hamper police by drawing off resources to enforce federal immigration law." The measure was killed in committee. The Legislative Management Council rejected a move to fund an interim study on the immigration issue. Since the Republicans control all legislative business, it is safe to assume that some Republicans take our "Equality State" motto seriously.

That also applies to the same-sex marriage issue. Live-and-let-live Republicans killed HB74 -- the "Validity of Marriages" bill. This happened only after pressure by live-and-let-live Wyomingites, gay and straight.

The next Tea Party rally will probably be on the completed plaza. It's a public space, and publicly-funded at that. Protesters will stand right on the state seal that promotes equal rights and justice for all (A-L-L) and education and the Union and workers and they will promulgate ideas antithetical to those things we hold dear.

Thanks, Joe and Joe and all the Joes and Janes who continue to build Wyoming and make it a great place to live. It takes hard work and eternal vigilance to keep it that way. 

Letter to the editor: WY Congressional delegation hypocrites on health care votes and quotes

Republican Cowgirl Cynthia Lummis doesn't know her Medicare donut hole from a hole in the ground

I volunteered at the Laramie County Democrats booth today with Seth King. Seth just graduated from Central High School and is an active local voice for progressive politics. He and his cohorts are forming a College Democrats chapters at Laramie County Community College this fall. Read some of Seth's thoughts on our regressive Congressional delegation and their hypocritical votes on health care reform. Yes, Dr. Sen. Barrasso, we are talking about you! You too, Richy-Rich Gal Cynthia Lummis! And Sen. Enzi too! Go here to read the letter.

Local Democrats out in force for SuperDay!

Laramie County Democrats' state committeeman Forrest King, Pres. Barack Obama yours truly at SuperDay!

Laramie County Democrats were out in force today at SuperDay! to sign up new members of the county party and commitment cards for Pres. Obama's 2012 re-election. Much fun was had by all, including Pres. Obama, who wasn't actually there but still wore a smile. I sported full war paint, including a mustache painted on at the Cheyenne Old-Fashioned Melodrama booth and a "Defy the Hate" slogan from the Defy the Hate anti-bullying campaign.

A bit windy as Chris (2008 Hilary Clinton alternate delegate to state convention) hugs Barack Obama

LarCoDems also sponsored a bean bag toss and impromptu hula-hoop lessons. Lots of people stopped by to sign up or chat or toss the bean bags. We had a prime spot in front of the main stage. To our left was the Cheyenne Family YMCA with all of its great family exercise and health programs. To our right were the melodrama folks, some in full costume -- and the others wearing new 2011 melodrama T-shirts. Next to them  was a booth staffed with local Shakespearean players.

A fair amount o progressive hula-hooping went on at the Laramie County Democrats' booth

It was a day devoted to creativity, to the life-affirming values most of us hold dear. As always, the City of Cheyenne Parks & Rec Department did a fantastic job. Thanks to thew main sponsor, Frontier Refining, home to some great union jobs. Fuel from the refinery finds its way to area gas stations such as the on at King Soopers on Dell Range. Local people, local fuel, local jobs.

Laramie County Democrats' Chair Linda Stowers and volunteer Seth King (with new banner in background)

And at SuperDay!, local fun and local political action. Local food too. Kiwanis was cooking up bratwurst lunches for $4 apiece.

Arizona still in the news for all the wrong reasons

The Daily Show - Aliens vs. Senator
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Arizona's SB1070 anti-immigrant bill was one of the major topics at last week's Netroots Nation conference in Minneapolis.

Arizona was back in the news earlier this week when Rapidly Aging Crank Sen. John McCain alleged that the state's raging wildland fires were caused by "illegal aliens." He may have been referring to undocumented workers from Gdansk or Singapore or even Tralfamadore, but we doubt it. In Arizona, "illegal aliens" or "illegal immigrants" or just "illegals" always refers to Hispanics. McCain is now denying he said such an incendiary thing.

Arizona is in the news this morning. An online activist group has hacked Arizona law enforcement files. Here's part of a press release issued by lulzsecurity.com

We are releasing hundreds of private intelligence bulletins, training manuals, personal email correspondence, names, phone numbers, addresses and passwords belonging to Arizona law enforcement. We are targeting AZDPS specifically because we are against SB1070 and the racial profiling anti-immigrant police state that is Arizona. 

The documents classified as "law enforcement sensitive", "not for public distribution", and "for official use only" are primarily related to border patrol and counter-terrorism operations and describe the use of informants to infiltrate various gangs, cartels, motorcycle clubs, Nazi groups, and protest movements. 

 Every week we plan on releasing more classified documents and embarassing personal details of military and law enforcement in an effort not just to reveal their racist and corrupt nature but to purposefully sabotage their efforts to terrorize communities fighting an unjust "war on drugs".  

Hackers of the world are uniting and taking direct action against our common oppressors - the government, corporations, police, and militaries of the world. See you again real soon! ;D

This is a new -- and possibly dangerous -- escalation in the war against some of the nutcase legislation that has been issuing from state legislatures. Anti-immigrant legislation has been very popular after SB1070. Right-wingers tried to ram through a bill in the most recent Wyoming Legislature. It failed.

I don't have the skills to be a hacker. I thought that wingnut trolls might want to know that. However, we all need to come up with new and subversive ways to reverse the Radical Right tide. It's a big Internet and it awaits our creativity.

Testing 1-2-3 in Pinedale

Shotgun Party

Summer is festival time in Wyoming. The Pinedale Fine Arts Council sponsors the SoundCheck festival this weekend. Three bands, all with Austin connections, are featured.

The Pinedale Fine Arts Council will be presenting the fourth annual SoundCheck mini-music fest on June 25, 2011 in the American Legion Park (5 p.m., free) in Pinedale. SoundCheck was first conceived four years ago following PFAC's purchase of a new sound system via grant monies from the Wyoming Cultural Trust. The inaugural event was a hit so it became an annual festival with attendance growing each year. This is sure to be the music event of the summer so mark the date on the calendar, dust off your cooler and camp chairs and come listen to some great music!

Notice that this event has its roots in seed money from the Wyoming Cultural Trust, with funding provided by the Wyoming State Legislature. Every arts event in Wyoming is like a pie in the face to the regressive elements which would shut down free expression and artistic entrepreneurship and creative placemaking and just plain fun. Support these events, and let your legislators know that you support their efforts at making Wyoming a better and more progressive place.

Library's Maurice Sendak exhibit closes June 24

One more day to see this cool exhibit at the Laramie County Public Library in Cheyenne:

IN A NUTSHELL: THE WORLDS OF MAURICE SENDAK EXHIBIT

This exhibition explores the influence of the Old and New worlds in the work of renowned illustrator Maurice Sendak, best known for children’s books, “Where the Wild Things Are,” and “In the Night Kitchen.” (All ages, Entrance Gallery)

UPDATE: Wyoming Progressives -- you may be alone!

My previous post was all about the Wide, Wide World of Online Progressives. I wanted to reassure my fellow Wyoming Liberals/Democrats/Progressives that there is an ever-widening online world at our disposal and that we all should make haste to use it.

Global Internet resources are one thing. But what about Wyoming online resources? What about resources on the ground for our far-flung folks in Crook and Big Horn counties?

I talked yesterday about some fine prog resources that focus on Wyoming issues and dilemmas. You can see many of them on the blog feed on the right sidebar. I invite other progressive bloggers who post regularly to drop me a line and I will happily add you.

We are all painfully aware how few resources are available on the ground. Last night at an Organizing for America planning session at the IBEW Union Hall in Cheyenne, OFA's Bryon Lee outlined a 2012 election strategy that focused on seven crucial counties. I didn't ask him for the list but I know that Laramie County is on the list and neighboring Platte and Converse counties are not. Platte County has a particularly active group of Democrats. Their web site is worth checking out. Wheaterville does a great job of keeping track of wacky activities in Wheatland and Glendo and Guernsey. Natrona County Democrats are organizing to oust the most Tea Party-prone of their legislators which, unfortunately, is all of them.

But Bryon Lee is it as far as the OFA structure. His intern Hannah was assisting as last night's meeting in Cheyenne. The state party is directed by Bill Luckett and just added Dana Walton (sp?) as field director. Congratulations to Dana.

So those of us who have active county parties are in the minority. On the plus side, that leaves many opportunities to get involved. The Wyoming Democratic Party features a list of county party meetings and contact info. Once you volunteer, you may still be alone but you will be too busy to notice, what with canvassing and phone banks and leafletting at the county fair. You can always head down the road to Cheyenne and attend Super Day this Saturday and seek out the Laramie County Democrats' booth -- I'll be there signing up people for Obama in 2012. You can also attend the monthly meeting of Laramie County Democrats on Monday, June 27, 7:30 p.m. I will give a short talk on my experiences at Netroots Nation 11.

And you always know where I am on the web...

Wyoming Progressives -- you are not alone!

One of the most encouraging aspects of Netroots Nation was this: we are not alone. Lots of progressive bloggers out there -- lots of progressives, period! As one speaker said, NN is the annual occasion to recharge and then charge back into the fray at the local level. Netroots bloggers are globally connected but are most effective at acting locally. Where have I heard that before? I learned the tricks of the blogging trade from my fellow bloggers at 4&20 blackbirds and Left in the West in Montana, and from the Kossacks at Daily Kos.

Here's an invitation to progressive bloggers in Wyoming. Get connected with one another. I was a lone wolf for years. I'm a writer, after all, and an independent-minded westerner. Only lately have I started reaching out to my Wyoming brethren and sistren. We need to connect with on another. This blog has a news feed from active WY bloggers such as Out in the West and Blowing in the Wyoming Wind and Equality State Watch.

Next step: start planning for Netroots Nation 12 in Providence, R.I. Democracy for America, America's Voice, Presente and Sojourners. DFA will begin voting next spring for scholarship candidates. Vote early and often, as you did for me. And start saving now for a plane ticket.

Netroots Nation has many sponsors, including SEIU (my union), MoveOn.org, the National Education Association, LiUNA!, AFL-CIO, and a host of others. Hundreds of people contributed to the DFA scholarship fund. I contributed to next year's fund. As I wrote my check, other people at the closing keynote session slipped credit card slips and $20 bills into envelopes as the hat was passed. A generous bunch. We were thinking about how much we got out of this gathering and how energizing it would be for others.

NN12 will be June 7-10. We already know that our presidential candidate will be Barack Obama. But who will be the Republican choice? Whoever it is, he or she will not have our best interests in mind on the long campaign trail to the November elections. He (Mitt Romney?) or she (Michelle Bachmann?) will be actively working to kill union jobs, curtail voting rights, privatize Social Security, dismantle Medicare and Medicaid, and expand tax cuts for corporations and millionaires. Sounds like an anti-American agenda to me.

NN12 will be exciting and energizing. I will be there. Will you?

Wyoming Tribune-Eagle: "Some angry about Wyoming's High Plains Initiative"

Land-use planning? We don't need no U.N.-sponsored Agenda 21 land-use planning in Platte and Goshen counties! Read article here.

Wyoming Organizing for America meeting June 22 at IBEW Hall

From Bryon Lee, Wyoming Organizing for America:

Cheyenne meeting for Organizing for America, Wednesday, June 22, 6 p.m., IBEW Union Hall, 810 Fremont St.

I would like to invite you to a Grassroots Planning Session being hosted by Organizing for America. The purpose of this meeting is to:

1. Discuss the President's accomplishments

2. Highlight volunteer work and hear their successes (at Juneteenth, phone banks, on Facebook, etc.)

3. Create constituency outreach goals for Laramie County (nearly 12,000 Democrats and nearly 800 Obama supporting individuals that want to help)

4. Define and then construct neighborhood teams (work within our precincts)

5. Develop and implement our next steps in making the Laramie Co. Democrats a strong political force that wins elections

If you have any thoughts, questions, or ideas, please feel free to email me or call me at (307) 752-5972.

Thanks, and I hope to see you all tomorrow.

Bryon Lee

Organizing for America - Wyoming

State Director

(307) 752-5972

http://www.facebook.com/ofa.wy

Jill Sobule: "They say they want their America back, WTF do they mean?"

Communing with "just folks" at Netroots Nation 11

At Netroots Nation, I was surprised by the people I met who were not bloggers and not affiliated with a progressive organization. It was the biggest crowd ever for NN's sixth year, with attendance of somewhere between 2,400-2,500.

There was Kathleen, a primary care physician from Minneapolis who, after 17 years, gave up full-time doctoring for life as a neighborhood activist. She has this idea that a neighborhood of no more than 200 homes can support itself with food, pay-as-you-go healthcare and education. A school or community center would be the hub of the neighborhood. I did not tell Kathleen this, but this seemed like a conservative's wet dream. Neighborhood schools. Mom and pop grocery store. Front porches and backyard gardens. And then I realized that this type of forward-thinking approach is opposed by Tea Party types as Leftist social engineering prompted by the scary U.N. "Agenda 21." Good luck, Kathleen! Leftie neighborhood organizers are the new conservatives!

I met a 50-something woman from southwest Kansas who came to Netroots Nation 11 just to hobnob with other Liberals. It's Kansas, after all. The legislature just killed its state arts agency and thinks that creationism should replace real science in school curriculum. I didn't catch her name but wish her all the luck in the world. She will need it.

I've already written about Pamela and her search for progressive policies in northern Virginia. She is a lifelong Catholic who attends mass in D.C. rather that putting up with the condescending anti-Liberal homilies from the narrow-minded Right Wing of the priestly fraternity. At least she can take the Metro to church.

There was the woman from North Dakota who was volunteering for the West Virginia organization working against mountaintop removal. She comes from the land of wind and cold and fracking and bad air. Sounds a lot like Laramie County, Wyoming.

There was the researcher from a San Antonio firm that does human testing for new medications. Not as scary as it sounds. Especially since his cause is revamping the U.S. electoral system. This was his fifth Netroots Nation conference. We rode the Light Rail together to the airport. It's one hell of a publicly-funded government transportation system. I am looking forward to the day when Denver's Light Rail extends to the airport on the eastern prairie.

It always comes down to this -- people, just people.

Outing ALEC legislators in Wyoming and elsewhere

From Daily Kos

Bloggers at Netroots Nation 11 had many discussions about our crazed state legislatures. We know that many of the wildest and most anti-human bills come from ALEC -- the Koch Brothers-funded American Legislative Exchange Council.

We can go down the list of similar bills promoted in our states, especially those in the Rocky Mountain West. Anti-Obamacare. Check. Anti-immigrant. Check. Anti-labor. Check. Anti-public education. Check. Anti-women. Check. Anti-choice. Check. Anti-reason. Check, check and double-check.

ALEC lobbyists write the bills and pass them on to state legislators during sessions at its annual convention. This year, that convention will be in New Orleans in August (great choice, ALEC planners -- Jackson Hole would have been a much better choice for a dog days gathering -- and you could party at Dick Cheney's mountain redoubt). Anti-ALEC and Koch Brothers demonstrations are planned. And a concerted effort is in the works to out those legislators who are lackeys of the Far Right Rich. These state legislators say that they only have the wishes of their district's voters at heart. At the same time, they travel on the Koch Brothers dime to a national convention where shady Right Wing Bagmen slip them briefcases filled with boilerplate bills.

Sounds weird, doesn't it? A scene from a Robert Stone conspiracy flick? We wish....

Much more will be coming out on this topic during the next few months. Stay tuned to your local progressive blogger.

Sources: See Bob Sloan's post today on Daily Kos about ALEC and a model of a petition that can be sent to your state legislators. Go to http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/06/20/986970/-Exposing-ALECupdate-3-+-Petition-for-your-State-Lawmakers?via=search

I shock Tea Party Slim: "You guys are geniuses!"

Tea Party Slim couldn't wait to hear what I learned at Netroots Nation. He was pounding on my door five minutes after I returned from my trip.

"Let me sum it up," I said. "You Tea Party types are (pause for effect) geniuses."

This knocked Slim for a loop. "Geniuses?"

There was a time when I would have responded the same way. Geniuses? The same guys and gals with kindergarten spelling skills, who get all their news from the Fox Propaganda Channel, who shout nonsense at Congressional town meetings?

"Let me rephrase. I'm a little groggy from five days of Liberal politics."

"God forbid." There was a strange light in Slim's eyes, as if imagining Life in Hell.

"The Tea Party movement is genius," I rephrased.

"The Tea Party movement?"

"The big picture, Slim. The motivating force behind all of you."

"You mean the Constitution? The dreams that motivated our founding fathers?"

I summarized a presentation by Van Jones. Van Jones is an environmental advocate, civil rights activist and attorney. He's black, too. All of these assets made him a conservative target in 2009 when Pres. Obama appointed him as point man for the Green Jobs Economy.

"Van Jones said that he spent the past year studying the Tea Party," I said. "His conclusion: there is no Tea Party. It has no director, no D.C. office, no receptionist. It's an open-source brand."

I could tell that Slim was wary, as if he was being lured led into some kind of Liberal trap.

"I know what that is," he said. "It' something anyone can use."

"That's right. A brand ready-made for every Right Wing group in the country. Anti-immigrant groups, Ayn Rand Book Groups, KKK..."

"There you go," he said. "We're not Right Wing, we're true conservatives. You Lefties want to paint us a radicals."

"Lefties?" I smiled. "You got me. Anyway, there were thousands of 'true conservative" organizations ready to adopt the Tea Party mantle. Those small groups became a large force of like-minded people pushing their politicians."

"And we won in 2010."

"Yes, and you want to win forever. But you can't."

A wry smile from Slim. "Wanna bet?"

"No offense, Slim, but you're old and white. I'm getting there too. Tea Party rallies feature gray hairs and gray beards and people with walkers."

"And we vote in large numbers."

"Agreed. But you and I are an endangered species, Slim. Sure, you elected people like Rick Scott and Scott Walker and hundreds of ultra-conservative legislators in Wyoming and all across the U.S."

"And a U.S. House majority -- don't forget that."

"How could I?" I shivered as my mind flashed on an image of Michelle Bachmann. "But your crazies are motivating us. Those Wisconsin legislators who bullied teachers and firefighters are being recalled. Young people are rising up. And progressives have open-source brands of our own."

"Name one."

"Rebuild the Dream, for one."

"And Van Jones is the big cheese?"

"No, he's just getting the ball rolling. Local groups in Wyoming can be a part of it and won't have to pay dues or kowtow to some vaunted leader. The Netroots will be a part of it too."

"Bloggers." Slim said it with scorn.

I decided to switch the narrative, a timeworn Republican trick that Dems are slowly beginning to learn. "How does it feel to be a trailblazer?"

He brightened. "So you're coming to our Open-Source Brand Tea Party rally Friday at the State Capitol?"

"I'm at every Tea Party rally, Slim. Usually I come to privately revel in my scorn. This time I'm attending for research."

"Research?"

"Sure. Van Jones said he wants his open-source brand to be as warm and fuzzy, kind and sharing, as the Tea Party. And as patriotic -- liberty and justice for all, eh?"

Slim rose and headed for the door. "I'll see Friday at noon. Better wear protective coloration and not that." He pointed at my red-white-and-blue Democracy for America T-shirt.

"You guys don't believe in democracy?"

"We're a republic -- as in Republican."

And I thought we were making progress, Slim and I. Maybe we will find common ground Friday at the Tea Party rally.

Photo: Van Jones says that the Tea Party could be a model for Liberal activists.

Dear Pops: Happy Father's Day from Netroots Nation

Thomas Reed Shay (a.k.a. Big Tom)

Alone on Father's Day. That occurred to me as I awoke this morning. I'm in Minneapolis, Chris is in Cheyenne, Kevin is in Tucson and Annie in Denver. By the end of the day, Chris and I will be together on Father's Day, which is important to both of us. Our kiddos have their own lives, as they should.

My father, Thomas Reed Shay, passed away eight years ago. Wonder what he would have made of the Netroots Nation conference? He turned my age of 60 in 1983, when we were knee-deep in the Reagan era. He was happy with the Reagan era and I was not. He was a moderate conservative, one of those people in the South who first went from Democratic to Republican for Nixon in 1968 and again in 1972. The beginnings of the vaunted Republican Southern Strategy, which culminated in two terms of Ronald Reagan chipping away at federal government programs and protections. And now look what we have.

My father would have found some common ground among the working people at Netroots Nation. He would have objected to some of the tough talk against Republicans. Not sure if he would have much in common with Tea Party Republicans such as Michelle Bachmann, a guest speaker at The Right Online conference held across the street from Netroots Nation. T.R. Shay was a William F. Buckley fan and watched him regularly. Free enterprise, hard work, small government. He believed in all of those principles. So do I.

He was the first in his family to go to college and he did it on the G.I. Bill after four years (two in Europe) as Government Issue (G.I.). He bought his first house with no down payment courtesy of the U.S. Government. He worked on government contracts for Martin-Marietta (now Lockheed-Martin) building ICBM missile silos across the West. Later, he worked on the space program with G.E. and NASA. Government programs.

He was a Florida state government employee (now an endangered species, thanks to wacky Republicans) and later had his own accounting business. He was the first one of us to own a personal computer -- the Apple IIe. We considered it a strange and wondrous thing. He seemed at home with it. He built his own crystal radio sets as a boy in the 1930s and, in the 1950s, built his own hi-fi. Not surprising that he was a radio operator with the U.S. Army Signal Corps in World War II.

If my father were still alive, would he be a blogger? I have no doubt that he would be a confirmed user of Facebook. His handle would be Big Tom, which is what his grandkids called him -- at his insistence ("I'm too young to be a grandfather!") If he blogged, he would be somewhere in the middle, caught between moonbats such as myself and wingnuts such as Andrew Breitbart et.al. He might also find himself closer to what I do, as the center has moved to the Right at the insistence of the Right.

As you can see, I'm thinking about my father today. We didn't always agree. But he was always my father. I miss him.

NN11: Telling our stories in in art, in words, in music

One of the mantras I've heard at this conference: we must tell our stories.

A writer knows this. Story telling is our trade. But there are always new stories -- and new ways to tell them.

Favianna Rodriguez is an artist and activist. She's taken on the immigration battle -- specifically Arizona's SB1070 -- with posters. They are designed around the slogan "undocumented and unafraid." It's her way of changing the conservation from thew scary term "illegal immigrants" to "we may not have papers but we are not afraid to stand up and be counted."  Her goal is to blend "the power of image with stories." Proceeds from sales of "undocumented and unafraid" posters go to AltoArizona, one of the groups fighting SB1070 and its many spinoffs. Wyoming saw at least one of those in its recent legislative session.

Favianna was moderator of a panel "Educate, Agitate, Inspire: How Artists are Fighting Anti-migrant Hate." Panelists spoke about the many methods being used in the fight. Musicians have organized a boycott of Arizona gigs. It's called Sound Strike. L.A.'s Javier Gonzales said a number of musicians and groups have signed on. The effort is being pushed by Rage Against the Machine guitarist Zack de la Rocha. Boycotting artists include Cypress Hill, Conor Oberst, Kanye West, My Chemical Romance, Ben Harper, Steve Earle, My Morning Jacket, Mos Def, Chris Rock, Steve Earle and others. Sparks have flown over the boycott, with some performers wondering how their stories can be told to a live audience if they are not playing in Phoenix and Tucson and Flagstaff. But boycotts against Arizona's excesses have been successful in the past. Amazing how quickly some legislators can change their minds (and votes) when the tourism and convention businesses take a hit. We saw that in the wrangle over the Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday.

Artists and musicians tell stories. Amazingly enough, so do writers. Poet Ken Chen of the Asian American Writers Network was a panelist. He spoke about Word Strike, an effort to bring a group of writers to Arizona in September to speak out against SB1070. A September caravan is planned from New York City to the Southwest. Imagine a bus full of writers and poets! I spoke to Ken later and said we'd like to have him stop in Cheyenne or Laramie. He wasn't sure of the itinerary, but we'll be in touch.

The most touching story came from Gaby Pacheco of Miami. She and three of her friends grew tired of the immigrant battle at home and decided to walk to D.C. to meet with Pres. Obama. The story was : "this is what illegal looks like." Four intelligent and motivated young people who are sick and tried of being harassed and harangued and portrayed as "The Other" in the MSM.

Gaby Pacheco

"It was scary walking through the South," said Gaby. "We told our stories thousands of times. We Tweeted and blogged as went, and videotaped the whole thing."

They were surprised by the media coverage. They also were surprised by the huge support generated by social media. They also were unafraid. They went to small town police stations and confronted them about their harassment of local Hispanics. The KKK protested at one stop -- shades of the Freedom Riders of the 1960s. Lots of Tea Party types showed up with big flags and hateful words. It was turned into a short film -- we saw a clip. For more, go to www.trail2010.org.

Many stories and many ways to tell them in the age of new media.

Wyoming asks that darn federal gubment for disaster relief

Tonight, Wyomingites along creeks and rivers in Crook, Carbon, Albany, Lincoln and Sheridan counties are thanking their lucky stars and Gov. Mead that there is federal government assistance available in their time of need. If U.S. House Republicans (and presidential candidate Mitt Romney) have their way, federal disaster assistance will dry up and blow away -- or maybe be washed away in a tide of hypocrisy. From the Casper Star-Tribune:

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead has signed a disaster declaration for damages around the state caused by the ongoing flooding.

The state estimates more than $3 million in damages so far. That includes the cost of preventative efforts, mainly Mead's decision to deploy Wyoming National Guard members.

Rain and snowmelt have flooded several areas of the state, including Crook, Carbon, Albany, Lincoln and Sheridan counties. Many other rivers and streams are running high or near flood stage.

The governor's office says the state Transportation Department has responded to or is monitoring 37 landslides across the state.

Mead says the disaster declaration is needed for Wyoming to qualify for assistance from the federal government.

NN11: Make Clean Energy Not War (through art)

Artwork by Susan Slavick

Minneapolis Convention Center protest by the group 10 Years and Counting, as artists try to put a face to 10 years of war. Protesters hold up a 13-figure number that represents the bill for a decade of wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and various other locales.

Sept 11 - Oct 7, 2011 will mark the ten year anniversary of our nation continuously at war. 10 Years + Counting invites artists and others to take this historic moment as inspiration and use the power of creativity to illustrate the costs of war and image a more peaceful world. 

Paint it, dance it, sculpt it, write it, sing it! Imagine peace and create connections. Concerts, public art projects, garden parties, bake-offs, gallery exhibitions, street art, flash mobs, walks and runs: the possibilities are endless. 

Turn the weeks of this anniversary of devastation into an unstoppable, irrepressible explosion of imagining the possible, a new beginning.

Add your creation, gathering or event to the 10 YEARS + COUNTING calendar by going to www.10yearsandcounting.org

Plea to DNC: Don't forget Wyoming as you plan for the 2012 50-state strategy

Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz at a 2009  town hall meeting in Florida 

Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-Fla.), new chair of the DNC, spoke at the noon keynote. She wanted to let us know that Howard Dean's 50-state strategy will return for the 2012 election. In fact, she will meet with Howard Dean next week to talk about that very thing. She also said this:

The Netroots brought the nation together for Pres. Obama in 2008. Our top priority for next year -- ramping up the participation of the Netroots. We can't do it without you.

It's great to be valued. The DNC dropped a field team into Wyoming prior to the 2008 Democratic caucuses. Every county reported record turnouts. Thousands of new voters registered in Laramie County. They voted that year but then quickly disappeared in 2010. Big question: how do we get back those voters and keep them engaged?

I'm here looking for some answers....

Meanwhile, back in Wyoming...

Photos from the Wyoming Outdoor Council, a reminder of the state's beautiful landscape and why we want to keep it that way.

Netroots Nation 2011: Waiting for Russ

Wisconsin's Russ Feingold

As we waited for Howard Dean and Russ Feingold, Pamela and I talked about Catholicism.

She grew up Catholic in Pittsburgh. She now lives and works in Arlington, Va.

I grew up Catholic in suburban Denver and rural Washington state and Wichita, Kan., and Daytona Beach, Fla. I now live and work in Cheyenne, Wyo.

Different backgrounds. Same era. And we share a common dilemma about Catholicism: do we stay or do we go?

She stayed. I went -- sort of. I called myself a Cultural Catholic, a term I've heard bandied about lately. She refers to herself as an Aesthetic and Cultural Catholic. She likes the ritual and tempo of the mass, the youthful memories of her incense-filled churches in the Irish and Slovak neighborhoods of Pittsburgh. She also stays actively Catholic because, when she travels, she can feel at home in churches around the globe.

All great reasons. I said that I don't go to any of the three Catholic churches in Cheyenne because they are too conservative. I grew tired of haranguing from the pulpit about abortion and Liberals, both equally evil in the eyes of narrow-minded 21st-century priests and deacons.

Pamela avoids going to mass in Arlington's Catholic churches for the same reason. She likes the D.C. churches, only a Metro ride away. I miss that about D.C.

She and I both wondered what happened to Democratic parishes and priests. She grew up surrounded by working people who were Democrats. The priests all seemed to be Democrats and only the bishops were mildly Republican so as to curry favor with politicians (churches pay no taxes and like it that way) and the well-to-do Catholic businessmen who might be Repubs.

I never knew whether my priests and fellow parishioners were D or R. And I liked it that way.

Another great thing about growing up Irish Catholic -- lively conversations with people who have red hair and Irish last names.

Pamela isn't a blogger. She volunteers and contributes to campaigns and causes. She heard about the conference and thought it sounded interesting. But she works for the government and doesn't think it's prudent to blast her opinions into the blogosphere. I've heard others say the same thing. Perfectly understandable, especially in this crazy era.

The lights went up on stage. Howard and Russ were on their way.

Netroots Nation 2011: Day Two

Started the day with the "Big Steaming News Dump" with Lizz Winstead and friends. The Netroots Nation alternative to “Morning Joe” on MSNBC.

Panelists were pundit and author of the John McCain biography Cliff Schecter, lesbian blogger Pam Spaulding, Leftie media maven Shannyn Moore from Alaska, pundit Sam Seder and Jon Sinton, a co-founder of the late Air America.

Many snarky comments about the news that Pakistan had arrested five men who allegedly helped the CIA spy on Osama bin-Laden's million-dollar hideaway. Conclusion: This was a Casablanca-like "round up the usual suspects" moment.

Next topic: Tea Party-sponsored summer camp for kids in Tampa, Fla. Also known as (unofficially the Ayn Rand Camp for Kids. Motto: "Tea Party Camp -- when you're too f-ing crazy for Jesus Camp." Lizz proposed this course for the little Tea Partiers: "Timothy McVeigh's Gentle Side." And so on.

Sam Seder talked about the Politico story that Right Wing slush funds from Americans for Prosperity et.al.  finance Right Wing talk radio. Progressive bloggers have known (or at least suspected this) for years. This news also brings into question the old marketplace theory of radio talk. Left Wing talk can't survive in the marketplace so it must be no good. Well, Wingnut Radio couldn't compete in the marketplace if it wasn't for these slush funds.

"Right Wing Radio has been subsidized from Day One," said Seder. "Those reporters dump stories and the subsidies roll in."

Very difficult for indie bloggers to compete in this cash-rich environment. Right Wing Radio has all of the beachfront property and not nearly enough Leftie Richie Rich's (Lizz's term)  to keep them afloat. Cable TV is too expensive. However, there are some smartphone and tablet apps coming along that will help to even the media playing field. One is the Progressive Voices app that, according to Jon Sinton, will serve as a "one-stop-shop for everything progressive in audio, print and video." Maybe you'll even see hummingbirdminds on there some day.

"There are over 100 million users of smartphones and tablets," said John. "In 2013, it will be a billion."

That's reaching out directly to a lot of people.

He envisions the smartphone becoming as ubiquitous as the transistor radios of the 1950s and 1960s. I remember those -- every kid had one at his/her ear or next to the pillow at night. My transistor radio brought me pop and early rock from exotic locales such as Chicago.

"This app can help cut the strings to mainstream media," John said.

Pam Spaulding of pamshouseblend talked about the emergence of "fake lesbians" in the blogosphere. Two were recently unmasked -- one in Syria and one in the U.S. Several panelists agreed that this was a strange and alarming trend.

The next item to be discussed was the proposed Pebble Mine in Alaska, Shannyn Moore said that the mine will have a tailings' pond 20 miles long and will be perched at the headwaters of Bristol Bay, the continent's largest salmon fishery. It's located -- as is most of Alaska -- along the Ring of Fire volcanic and earthquake zone. She noted that the state's biggest quake in recent history (1964) liquefied the soil -- and the shit will hit the fan when the earthen dam that holds back the waters of the tailings' pond turns to ooze. She brought lots of "No Pebble Mine" stickers to the conference. She also had a bunch of wild salmon shipped in for a party and fund-raiser tonight that I'm too tired to attend.

Lizz rounded up her show with a short interview of the mayor (the guy's everywhere, and he's not running for anything). He wanted us to know about the severe tornado that hit the city's most vulnerable neighborhoods on the side side of town. It didn't get much attention because it happened on the same day as the Joplin, Mo. twister. He said that 5,000 homes were affected. Most housed renters with no insurance and many of the homeowners lacked enough insurance coverage. He urged us to come out Saturday for a big repair and building effort hosted by Habitat for Humanity and Urban Homeworks. Hizzoner told us to go to his Twitter page at rtrybak to get more info. He does his own social media posting. "I don't think that any politician should have someone else doing his Twitter and Facebook.

NOTE: I was at this all day today. Many sessions, many notes. Not a fan of live-blogging because I miss too much. More posting tomorrow....

Netroots Nation 11: Day One

Mayor R.T. Rybak

R.T. Rybak, the mayor of Minneapolis, spoke to us tonight last night at a reception hosted by Democratic GAIN. (I meant to post this last night but couldn't get my my wireless to engage. So Austin, the IT guy from Democracy for America, tapped a few keys on my laptop this morning and engaged the wireless. If this clueless blogger can't find help at a "Netroots" conference, where can he find it?) 

Mayor Rybak is a Democrat speaking to a roomful of Democrats at Solera, a four-story tapas place along restaurant row. Maybe 100 or so, some drawn by the free beer and others drawn for the opportunity to be in a roomful of progressives.

I was a little of both. Hey, who can turn down free beer?

The mayor pointed out the facts that Minneapolis was a bike-friendly city, a green city, the best volunteer city in America, a gay-friendly city, a sleep-friendly city. I didn’t quite get that last part. I assume that Minneapolisians (Minneapolitans?) enjoy a good night’s sleep because they live in a diverse and forward-thinking city.

Meanwhile, over at the convention center, the American Association of Sleep Societies is staging its annual gathering. Coincidence?

We Liberals are losing sleep over the state of the nation. That’s just one of the reasons that we are gathering along one side of the Twin Cities. We are bloggers of the progressive stripe and, by gum, we are ticked off about it and need to find ways out of this mess.

And Minnesota is no progressive Garden of Eden. Michelle Bachmann reigns in the north country. A “real hockey mom,” said one Minneapolis elected official who shall remain nameless. “She knows how to cross check.”

This was an obvious dig at Sarah Palin, who’s a fake hockey mom and could only tough out two years of a four-year governor’s term in Alaska. She's a weiner (lower-case) when stacked up against Bachmann.

 

I’ve been here only seven hours. But already I’ve meet a number of bloggers from all over. I shared a bus seat with Whitney from Boise. There was Kevin from Eugene, Oregon, and Mike from Alaska. Before this is over, I expect to exchanging liberal chatter with bloggers from all 50 states.

One more thing about the mayor: he gave us restaurant recommendations. I look forward at eating at the place that Mary Tyler Moore would have taken Lou Grant for a steak.