"All the President's Men" meant one thing in the 1970s and an absurdly different one in 2025

I watched "All the President's Men" on TCM Monday night, and not for the first time. A fantastic political thriller in which the good guys win.

In 2025 Trumplandia, "All the President's Men" seems, well, how do I say this? Quaint? Outdated? Just more Boomer nostalgia?

Yet, the GOP's 1970s illegal activities against the Democrats were both real and disgusting. 

But when compared with Trump's 2025 crimes against America, well, the old depredation looks mild.

Nixon and pals took great pains to cover up their misdeeds. All the lying tied them in knots of denial. They couldn't keep it quiet because real journalists from real newspapers and networks kept doing their jobs. And elected Democrats AND especially Republicans remembered their oaths of office.

The difference with Trump and his MAGA minions? They tell us their misdeeds and do them openly. Trump and Musk brag about them. Their backers spent millions outlining their plans in Project 2025. It was all there for us to read. Journalists were not around to awaken the slumbering multitudes. The New York Times could not do it alone. The Washington Post was a lost cause. Metropolitan dailies had been run into the ground by hedge fund babies. And the GOP was not in thrall to "Fearless Leader."

I was a young man of 21 when the Watergate break-in happened. That November was the first time I voted in national elections at a little church on Boston's Beacon Hill. I voted for McGovern as did many in Massachusetts that day. 

Fat lot of good it did us. Draft-age men were turning out to vote for The Peace Candidate in the hopes that this rural Dem from the West would stop feeding us into the Vietnam meat-grinder. It was odd that this heroic World War 2 veteran would be the peacenik on the ticket but that was the case. Nixon served but he wasn't piloting a B-24 bomber dodging flak and Messerschmitts over Germany. In ATPM, the 1972 elections play out in the background on TV screens.  During that campaign, Nixon worked behind the scenes to manipulate the Paris Peace Talks. His skullduggery extended the war.

But Nixon and his henchmen came tumbling down, thanks to media and the actions of Democrats and Republicans in Congress. This didn't cause us to run for Congress but it did cause many of us to go into journalism. Up-and-coming Woodwards and Bernsteins were everywhere. 

I was an English major during my years at UF but I did take a journalism course and worked for UF Information Services and The Independent Florida Alligator student paper. We knew that the truth could bring down warmongers and slimy political operatives

But America is a big place and soon we learned that the whims of the populace are unpredictable. And here we are now. Old, disabled, and stunned. That describes me. 

But Americans are waking up and speaking out. We donated to Josh Weil, the Democrat running for the House in Florida District 6, a post held previously by a Trump flunky. We donated to the Democratic Party's campaign to stymie Trump's Project 2025 rampage. 

I will not shop on Amazon on Feb. 28 because of Bezos's collaboration with Trump (damn I've spent a lot of money on Amazon). Other businesses are being boycotted for the day. Money is what MAGA understands so hit 'em where it hurts.

Nursing home signs should read: Welcome to the Titanic. There are no lifeboats

I don't always read the AARP Bulletin. It's a good publication with lots of helpful info for retirees like me. But, you know, there are books and the Internet and football and writing and "Queen's Gambit" on Netflix. 

This issue of the Bulletin carried a red banner crying SPECIAL EDITION and below that this header: "Covid-19 & Nursing Homes: An American Tragedy." It grabbed me because my stepmother died of Covid in a Florida long-term care facility. And I have been reading other articles on the subject since March and have been shocked with how many people my own age have died. I am 69 now but next week is my birthday and people in their 70s and 80s with underlying conditions are most vulnerable. I soon will be in that cohort.

This comes from the WyoFile weekly pandemic report, 12/11/20:

The Wyoming DOH has reported 321 Covid-19 deaths. That includes 128 in November, the most of any month so far. Many of these have been related to long-term care facilities. Wyoming now ranks third in the country for its rate of nursing-home-related deaths, the Casper Star-Tribune reports.

So there's that. And this subhead from the Bulletin:

In one of the most devastating health debacles in our nation's history, some 54,000 residents and workers in long-term care facilities died of causes related to the coronavirus within four months of the first known infection.

The article spans the 18 weeks from Feb. 29 and the first death in a Seattle nursing home to June 22. The best things are personal stories of patients, family members and health-care workers. Cami Nedleigh relates the story of her mother, Geneva Wood, a resident of the Life Care Center of Kirkland, Wash. Wood went into Life Care in late January to recover from a stroke. She was supposed to be released in early March but fell and broke her hip the last week of February. She stayed in Life Care. 

This from Wood: 

My roommate was coughing. Everybody was saying bronchitis. The I got a cough and could barely breathe. Thought it was pneumonia. I remember them saying I had a 102 fever. I guess I didn't know enough to be scared.

And Nedleigh: 

Mom got better, thankfully. She's a tough old Texas broad. But Mom's roommate didn't make it.

The article conjures scenes of chaos and bravery. In the first week of March, 27 of 108 residents and 25 of the 180 staff had the virus. And nobody really knew what it was and how to treat it. This led to many deaths.

Timothy Killian (Life Care spokesman): We all grew up with these movies about pandemics, in which the government vans swoop in and take control. As the situation escalated and the facility went into lockdown and people started dying. I kept expecting some type of coordinated response, but we saw nothing of that nature.

The facility, of course, gets some of the blame. Killian had obviously seen "Contagion" and "Outbreak." In the latter film, a monkey has the virus and ends up in a California small-town pet shop and starts spreading the virus. The commanding general of the national response team won't act because he knows the virus came from an Army bioweapons lab. Epidemiologists Dustin Hoffman and Renee Russo sneak into the site and start doing their good deeds while the evil general (the usually heroic Morgan Freeman) makes plans to seal off the town and bomb it to destroy the evidence. The most memorable scene takes place in the town's packed movie theater. A virus carrier coughs and we see spit flying around the room in slow motion, landing in people's mouths. Aw hell no, you might say. And you'd be right. 

It hits a bit close to home. Covid carriers were still going to movies in March and spreading the virus to seatmates. Asymptomatic carriers were going out to crowded bars and attending parties. The virus was in pandemic heaven, latching on to many new human hosts and spreading which is what viruses do.

You can read parts of the Bulletin story at the AARP web site. Kudos to David Hochman and contributors for the story. It appears just as the FDA approves the Pfizer vaccine and hope emerges. That doesn't help the many dead and dying in the U.S., almost 300,000 at last count, with a 16 percent fatality rate in long-term facilities. Compare this to the total U.S. fatality rate is 2.3 percent. 

This final quote is from Judith Regan, a publishing executive whose father, Leo Regan, is a resident of the Long Island State Veterans Home, site of 32 deaths:

The residents and staff are being led to slaughter. He is on the Titanic, but there are no lifeboats.

Why are all of the dad-blamed Gov candidates from Cheyenne?

Article in yesterday's Casper Star-Trib lamented the fact that all three of the announced  Republican candidates for governor are from Laramie County: Incumbent Matt Mead, ticked-off sort-of Superintendent of Public Instruction Cindy Hill, and Tea Party fave Taylor Haynes.

I don't speak for my fellow Democrats when I say "We will keep Mead if you promise to take Hill and Haynes off of our hands." Most of them aren't too crazy about our current governor. He scuttled Medicaid Expansion and joined in on the failed multi-state lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act. But he is arts- and tech- and business-friendly, and seems to have a little more realistic view of the modern world than his fellow Repubs, especially those from the rural areas of the Cowboy State. At least two county Republican conventions (Platte and Hot Springs) recently censured the Gov over the Hill mess (SF 104) and the suspicion that he might be a RINO -- Republican in Name Only. Two other county Republican gatherings resorted to Tea Party mumbo-jumbo (Freedom! Constitution! Something!) but came up short of an outright censure. Interesting to note that our Dem county convention in March fielded a platform plank that would have called out Gov. Mead on the Hill fiasco. It was roundly defeated after a lively discussion. Most commenters thought that it was unwise to wade into this big Republican mess. Even though I seconded the motion, I ended up voting against it.

In today's CST article, Mead's office pointed out the Gov's rural roots in both Teton (richy-rich hangout) and Albany (liberal UW profs and enviros) counties. Haynes admitted that he was busy getting ready to a new ranch in Albany County. Hill couldn't be reached for comment, no doubt framing another spiteful missive to the Gov and his legal eagles who won't let her move back into her Superintendent offices in the Hathaway Building (the Constitution, ya'll!).

But interviewees in the article wondered why we can't have any gubernatorial candidates from some of our more rural counties. It's a good question. There's 98,000 square miles wherein candidates could dwell. Subtract Laramie County and you have left about 97,000. You could beat the sagebrush and find a few likely governors there. Or not. Still they wonder why their leaders come from The Big City and not from The Heartland.

I guess being a rural Wyoming Republican is a bit like being a Wyoming Democrat anywhere. Dems wonder why nobody ever listens to our progressive views. Here we are, sitting in our urban conclave, sipping lattes and plotting the downfall of Christendom, when a bunch of white guys stream into the Capitol Building from Meeteetse and Frannie and Ten Sleep and start ranting about herding gays into concentration camps and banning birth control and stopping the spread of Commie-inspired urban planning and banning the teaching of certain annoying scientific facts (global warming, evolution, earth orbiting the sun) and so on.

Why don't these people go back to their heavenly rural Nirvanas and leave us city people alone.

Men's Journal writer Mark Binelli explores Wyoming and finds it "droughty"

Men's Journal writer Mark Binelli dropped into The Big Square States of Colorado and Wyoming this past summer. He wanted to see what the heck was going on with all this drought and record-breaking heat and cataclysmic fires and dying cattle. He's another in a long procession of coasters who have ventured West to bring reports of the frontier back to the settled multitudes. Nothing wrong with that. Mark Twain did it. He wasn't from any coast, unless you consider him a denizen of the Mississippi River coast, and he did end up living in Connecticut. But writers dropping into Wyoming to explore the curious ways of its populace has a long tradition.

So what did Binelli find? We're in the shit, climate-change-wise. Wyoming cattlemen are worried about the drought and the heat but they also pooh-pooh talk of global warming and hate the federal gubment. Nothing new about that. But Binelli does actually interview real people, as a any good reporter would. He attends a cattle auction in ultra-conservative Torrington (Freedom!) and sits down to breakfast with rancher Bob Cress of La Grange. At the auction, he overhears a couple of cowboys making small talk. One asked another how he's doing. "Droughty," says the other. Droughty -- I like that. It's funny, too, a little poke in the eye to Old Man Drought. That might tell you more about rural Wyoming than a slew of magazine stories. Read the entire Men's Journal article at http://www.mensjournal.com/magazine/will-the-west-survive-20121123?

Will Dem butts fill all of those seats Thursday night at B of A Stadium in Charlotte? We did it in Denver

An AP story by Julie Pace in this morning's Denver Post said that Democratic Party officials are concerned that Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte will not be filled when Pres. Barack Obama accepts the Democratic Party nomination on Thursday night. The stadium seats 74,000. That's a lot of seats to fill with Dem butts, or at least Dem butts and da butts of other curious Tarheels.

Anything short of a full house on the final night of the Democratic Party's national convention will be instant fodder for Republicans eager to use empty seats as symbols of waning voter enthusiasm for Obama.

Democrats have been fretting for months over whether the president can draw a capacity crowd at Bank of America Stadium. Polls show voter enthusiasm is down, as are Obama's crowds for his battleground state campaign rallies.

Obama advisers insist the stadium will be filled when Obama delivers his speech. Vice President Joe Biden also will speak Thursday night, along with Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, who will vouch for Obama's national security credentials.

--clip--

Thursday's event is certain to draw comparisons to 2008, when Obama accepted the Democratic nomination before a capacity crowd at an 84,000-seat stadium in Denver. There was little concern back then over whether Obama would fill the stadium, in part because he was easily attracting tens of thousands of people to his campaign rallies across the country.

This time around, Obama's crowds are far smaller. He drew his biggest audience at his campaign kick-off rally in May, a 14,000-person crowd at Ohio State University. About 13,000 people attended Obama's rally on Sunday at the University of Colorado in Boulder. The campaign says the size of Obama's events this summer have purposely been kept low. Large rallies are more expensive and security requirements are more intense for a sitting president than a candidate.

I waited in line for hours to get into Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium on that warm August evening in 2008. The crowd was impressive, and I took some terrible cellphone photos to prove it. My technical skills haven't improved, nor has my equipment. I'm sure we'll get tons of smartphone and Instagram pix from Charlotte this Thursday. Meanwhile, ogle these pix from DNC Denver 2008.

Lining up at Denver's Mile High Stadium

Dem delegates on the 30-yard line (see anyone you know?)

Jesse Jackson almost buried by media types

Sen. John Kerry, who will speak Thursday night in Charlotte

"The Daily Show's" John Oliver, in a blur (I was moving fast)

Four years after: Dems emerge from hiding for historic 2008 caucus in Cheyenne

Big crowd of Laramie County Democrats cheer their faves during the 2008 caucus in Cheyenne.

Four years ago today, lines were around the block at the Cheyenne Civic Center for the 2008 Democratic Party caucuses in Laramie County. There were Dems in line I've never seen, and I thought I'd seen them all. The party had to rent the concert hall to accommodate caucus-goers who, four years earlier, had plenty of elbow room in the drafty basement of the American Legion hall.

Even a Denver-based Fox News reporter and cameraman were there to record the event for the nation. When their presence was announced, a chorus of boos rang out in the hall.

Those were the days, my friends.

Read my posts from that day here and here.

Wanted: Obscure films and photos of Dick Cheney

Cheney in his most famous role as grumpy old right-winger

Noted filmmaker R.J. Cutler is doing a movie about former Republican Veep and war criminal Dick Cheney. He seeks footage from Dick's years as a callow Wyoming youth.


Let’s see if we can come up with photos of Dick Cheney in a tutu. Or a young Dick torturing a kitten. Or lost footage of Cheney volunteering for the draft and slogging through a Southeast Asia rice paddy (he was so eager to send our children to Southwest Asia to slog through the desert). 

This comes from the Casper Star-Trib (via the Billings Gazette):

Starting in December, Cutler's Hollywood-based production company, Actual Reality Pictures, placed ads in the Casper Star-Tribune asking for film footage or photographs of Cheney, who lived in Wyoming during his teen years, attended the University of Wyoming, and represented the state in Congress from 1979 to 1989. 

Ryan Gallagher, an associate producer at Actual Reality, said the company is looking for footage that they wouldn't be able to find in government archives or purchase from stock film companies.  

"You look for as much exclusive and unknown footage that you can," Gallagher said. "Maybe somebody has a home video somewhere that we haven't heard about and that we'd just like to see."  

So far, Gallagher said his company hasn't gotten much response.  

The Cheney documentary is scheduled to air on Showtime sometime next fall, Gallagher said. Gallagher said it's "premature" to give details about what the documentary will be about, as they're just now starting to work on the film.  

Cutler is best-known for documentaries such as the Oscar-nominated "The War Room," which chronicled Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign, and "American High," an Emmy-winning film about the lives of high school students in suburban Chicago. 

Anyone interested in submitting pictures or film of Cheney can contact Actual Reality Pictures at 213-534-3970 or cheneydoc@gmail.com.

WTE Online: CRMC offers psychiatric service through computer

This is a great idea for a rural state (Wyoming) which has high risk factors for suicide, domestic violence and substance abuse -- and one that serves its 580,000 residents with just 30 psychiatrists (one per 19,333 people), most located in cities: CRMC offers psychiatric service through computer -- Wyoming Tribune Eagle Online

Occupy Cheyenne activists interviewed during OWS cross-country odyssey

Occupy Wyoming!

Arun Gupta and Michelle Fawcett blew into Cheyenne today to interview some of us involved with Occupy Cheyenne.

We kidded them about the wind. Nary a breeze today but they should have been here last night or maybe last week. Those were real wide-open-spaces windy Wyoming days and nights! Wind sculpts us and we speak of it often.

A mighty wind is blowing (to borrow a movie phrase) and it's called the Occupy Movement or more specifically OWS. Arun and Michelle are traveling the U.S. talking to those involved in local Occupy entities. They were in Denver and Boulder yesterday. Albuquerque and Santa Fe before that. Later this afternoon is Laramie, and then on to the Wasatch Front and Boise. They will be on the West Coast by the weekend.

Arun is an indie media reporter based in New York City. He traces his activist roots to The Battle in Seattle, the now-famous anti-globalization protests that rocked Seattle for three days in 1999. He covers social movements for The Indypendent, an actual "physical newspaper" in NYC. It has a web site but hits the street regularly just like in olden times when we all read print. He covered the first three weeks at Occupy Wall Street and considers it "an historic event."

Michelle runs the camera and audio. She's a media professional and teaches as an adjunct prof at NYU. She organized NYC's first citywide indie media conference.

From edenpictures on Fliker via occupyusatoday.com

Eight OC people were able to get off of work and school and other obligations today to meet with Arun and Michelle. We range in age from 25 to 62 and no, I wasn't the oldest one. I only knew one of the people in the room before OC. Nobody but me professed an affiliation with the Democratic Party. An independent-minded group (Independent, too). I have no real desire to recruit for the Dems, as this alleged member of the two-party system is ineffectual in Wyoming. It wasn't always to case, but it is now.

Arun asked about our motives for being involved with OC. We each have our own particular reasons. All of us are angry at the rampant inequality caused by the unholy alliance of our political and financial systems. The fix is in, and we're none too happy about it and want to change it.

You can find out more about Occupy Cheyenne on its Facebook page.

Arun and Michelle will be posting audios, videos and written narratives in The Indypendent and on Salon, The Progressive, In These Times, and The Guardian.

Read the chronicles of their journey at occupyusatoday.com.

Dottie Lamm in The Denver Post: "Other faces in the crowd" at Occupy Denver are a bit older

Former Colorado First Lady and Denver Post columnist Dottie Lamm (on right,
with notebook) interviews one of our fellow "oldies" at Occupy Denver Oct. 8

I missed this column by Dottie Lamm when it first appeared in The Denver Post on Oct. 23. Lamm, Colorado's former First Lady (remember Dick "Gov. Gloom" Lamm?), attended the same Oct. 8 Occupy Denver protest that drew my wife Chris and I. She and her friends ("oldies") were concerned that they hadn't been seeing others of their age cohort at Occupy rallies. Dottie found Chris and I on the Colorado State Capitol steps and interviewed us for her Oct. 23 piece. Read the story at http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_19159646

Keep your eyes peeled for UPLIFT's new billboards

Keep your eyes peeled for a series of billboard that will soon be displayed in Casper, Buffalo and Riverton. Thanks to the generosity of Lamar Advertising (a $2,400 in-kind donation), UPLIFT is able to advertise on five billboards around the state. I am a board member of UPLIFT. Lamar developed the graphic displays and is donating the billboard rental for the Casper boards.  The photo above shows one of the designs that will be used for this advertising program. 

This roadside advertising effort coincides with UPLIFT’s annual fund-raising appeal. This is especially important this year as the federal and state funding that fuels the organization’s crucial programs will be cut.

Here are the location and schedule of the displays.

Casper from October 31 – December 26:

1.       Collins & Poplar

2.       CY Ave. & Oxford

3.       Hwy. 20/26 & 6 Mile Rd

Buffalo from November 7 – December 4:

1.       Hwy. 16 & I-25

Riverton from November 14 – December 11:

1.        Hwy. 26 & Airport Rd.

Community support takes many forms. Thank you, Lamar Advertising.

Donate to UPLIFT by going here.

Suicide solutions in Wyoming should go beyond the glib “it’s a mental health issue”

Thanks to the Casper Star-Tribune, and to reporter Tom Morton, for keeping alive the issue of Wyoming’s high suicide rates.

The Wyoming Survey & Analysis Center reports an average of 107 people a year completed suicides from 2007-2009. Of those completed suicides, 72 percent were accomplished by firearms.

Generally, only 1 percent or 2 percent of people attempt suicide with firearms, but firearms are 85 percent to 90 percent lethal. Other methods, even hanging, can give a person a window to reconsider and get help. Guns by their very nature are lethal. If they weren't, people wouldn't use them for self defense.

--snip—

On personal note, I'm also a survivor of a suicide attempt. I used pills and alcohol. If I had a gun, I wouldn't be here. Preventing suicide by firearm involves many of the practices one finds in hunter safety and the NRA's Eddie Eagle programs. The precautions of storing ammo and firearms separately or using gun locks equals "banning guns."

This scourge of suicide by firearm has become a sad political debate instead of its recognition as a terrible personal and social tragedy needing solutions beyond a glib "it's a mental health issue." And so I'll end with a question: If someone told you s/he was considering suicide and had immediate access to a gun, what would you do? Call a mental health professional for an appointment? Look for antidepressants in the medicine cabinet? I doubt it.

I would hope you would dial 911. I also hope you would do whatever you could to take the gun away from the person as soon as possible.

Banning guns is not an option. Gun safety helps, as do education programs and access to suicide hotlines. The gun is a very final solution to what can often be a passing call to end it all.

Read more: http://trib.com/news/opinion/blogs/morton/touching-the-third-rail-of-wyoming-culture-guns-and-suicide/article_b8558df4-1e90-5ff5-90c2-4622c6381e67.html

Something organic (and very soggy) about Occupy Denver rally

Author with soggy sign

Whenever I attend a protest in another state, I always try to exhibit a little bit of Wyoming. It ties me to home. It causes strangers to approach and say, "Hey, I'm from Wyoming too." On a fall football Saturday, someone might come up and say "Go Pokes."

That's what happened today in Denver during the Occupy Denver rally and march. A young man perused my soggy sign (see above).

"You're from Wyoming?"

"Yes" I said out of my soggy face.

"I'm from Torrington."

"Cheyenne," I said.

"Go Pokes," he said, making a fist.

"Go Pokes," I answered. "They're going to need a lot of Go-Poking today at Utah State."

He laughed and moved on. We were marching and the rain was coming down. My wife Chris and I took turns holding the sign. It was permanent marker inked on poster board. Neither of us are great sign makers as we lack whatever genome helps you make readable yet artistic lettering on a white board. But the sign possessed some Wyoming soulfulness which probably drew the young Torringtonite to us. And later, two young women from Gillette who now live in Denver.

Getting ready to march

They were young, most of the occupiers. The age of our kids. Motivated and peaceful too. Their signs were mostly better than ours, and some had machine-lettered placards which looked really good. Some had covered their placards with plastic. They had planned ahead. It takes some planning to attend a protest, even when that protest seems to have grown organically out of the wet ground.

Some of the Occupy Denver people have been living outside for weeks. Their impetus comes from Occupy Wall Street, which began its life in Manhattan's Liberty Square Sept. 17. The weather, for the most part, has been glorious. Treatment from the Denver Police, pretty good. People drop off clothes and food. The multitudes have assembled their own security force. I asked one of the security guys how he got his job. "I was tall," he said, "so they asked me."

When it comes to visibility, it helps to be tall. Tall and festooned with orange. It is hunting season, after all, and you can't be too careful.

This teacher testifies about the damage done to public education by the undue influence of large corporations. 

Chris and I located the core of Occupy Denver on the Capitol grounds along Broadway. There's also a small tent city which provides shelter for the hardcore OD crew. Each occupy event focuses on what night be called "testifying." A person calls "mike check," comes to the center of the circle and proceeds to outline his/her reasons for attending. Savvy folks break their narrative into bite-bized chunks so the rest can follow. It's basically repetition. It turns all of us into motivational speakers. It engages the audience.

He: The top 400 in this country

Us: The top 400 in this country

He: Have more money

Us: Have more money

He: Than the bottom 150 million

Us: Than the bottom 150 million

Former First Lady Dottie Lamm interviews one of the more seasoned occupiers

And that person goes on until he/she is finished -- or until someone else in the crowd calls "mike check" and take the soapbox. That person may want to dispute what the previous testifier said. That happened at least once today. One guy, obviously infused with the populism of the day, told everyone that the streets were ours and that we were going to walk in the streets during our march, no matter what the police said.

"Mike check," said one of the tall security guards.

Despite what the previous person said!

Despite what the previous person said!

We are not going to walk in the street!

We are not going to walk in the street!

He went on to explain that OD did not have a permit for today's march and that it might be in the best interest of everyone here not to rile the police who, for the most part, have been very helpful and understanding. We were policing ourselves, he noted, and wrapped up with "peace."

"Peace" we all said.

As we testified, two DPD paddy wagons rolled down Broadway. I couldn't help but notice that a squad of riot-equipped officers clung to the side of each wagon.

"Uh oh," I thought.

"Uh oh," thought those around me.

Occupy Denver occupies Colfax Avenue

As it turned out, there was little cause for alarm. Marchers chanted and followed the rules and we walked down Colfax Avenue. Police prowlers prowled the inside lane and the security teams made sure we followed the walk-don't-walk signs. A seasoned woman in a funky hat came up to me and said that she was interviewing "older" participants and she couldn't help but notice that Chris and I were, possibly, a bit older than the majority of the assemblage. She hoped that we didn't mind if she pointed that out. We didn't mind. She introduced herself as Dottie Lamm and said she was writing a column for the Denver Post. She asked why were here on this cold rainy day. We believe in the cause. We were curious. A good excuse to get out of town. She asked for our phone number so she could interview us in detail later. We traded numbers. And she moved on to interview other older participants.

Dottie Lamm, in case you don't know, is Colorado former First Lady, wife of Governor Dick Lamm (1975-87). Dick Lamm was a firebrand in his day, as was his wife. She ran for the U.S. Senate in 1998 and was defeated by Ben Nighthorse Campbell, who had earlier defected to the Republicans.

We walked down Colfax in the rain. We received quite a few honks and we yelled in response.

Who are we?

We are the 99 percent!

What's democracy look like?

This is what democracy looks like!

Whose street is it?

Our street!

But we didn't walk in it. We walked along the sidewalk to Fillmore, crossed the street (with police assistance) and headed back to the Capitol. More chanting. More rain. We called it quits, had lunch and drove back to Cheyenne in a heavy rain.

What had we learned? A lot, as it turns out. I'll explain tomorrow...

Keith Olbermann first confirmed speaker at NN12

Netroots Nation has announced that Keith Olbermann is its first confirmed speaker for the 2012 conference June 7-10 in Providence, R.I.

Great news. I plan on being there. Hope I have an opportunity to discuss James Thurber with Mr. Olbermann. Thurber was a favorite of his late father's and Keith read excerpts to close out each Friday's show on MSNBC. That was before he was cancelled by corporate giant NBC. I also am a big fan of the man's righteous anger, which I miss these days. I'll have to check and see if Optimum (formerly Bresnan) carries Keith's network.

More on NN12 at http://www.netrootsnation.org

Matt Damon defends teachers

The Fix list is in, and hummingbirdminds is on it

Chris Cilliza at the Washington Post's The Fix recently put out a call for the year's best political blogs in each of the 50 states.

Making the list for Wyoming are Jeremy Pelzer's Wyoming Capitol Journal at the Casper Star-Tribune and hummingbirdminds. Thanks to Larry Kurtz at South Dakota's Interested Party for pointing this out.

Regional prog-blogs making the list are Square State in Colorado, Madville Times in S.D., and Montana Cowgirl in Montana.

Great company for this humble ink-stained electron-drenched wretch.

If you want to see candidates for future best-of lists, go to my right sidebar under WY Progressives and click away.

Let 'em buck -- but don't dress 'em in pink!

Local Radical Right scold Richard Wall writes an op-ed in this morning's Wyoming Tribune-Eagle.

What is Richard incensed about now, you might ask?

I already knew, since his anti-Susan G. Komen letter to the CFD has been circulating for a week. It was first illuminated among the local blogosphere by the always-alert Jeran Artery at Out in Wyoming.

Mr. Wall's op-ed skills are quite good. He takes his time working himself into a lather over the real message. Condom posters in Frontier Park restrooms! Public drunkenness! Scantily clad photos of Miss Frontier and her Lady in Waiting! Dogs and cats, living together!

Forget the last one. I just had a "Ghostbusters" flashback.

Wall's main target is the relationship between Cheyenne Frontier Days, "The Daddy of 'Em All," and the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation. CFD works with Komen to promote the fight against breast cancer. To that end, Thursday's CFD activities carry to motto "Tough Enough to Wear Pink."

There were lots of cowboys and cowgirls wearing pink for cancer research the last time I attended the CFD rodeo. They looked pretty tough to me riding buckin' broncs and racing steeds around barrels at breakneck speeds.

Wall objects to Komen's alleged ties with Planned Parenthood and stem cell research. He contends that "25 percent of the money raised by its local affiliate go to Komen's national offices, which permits or takes part in these abuses." He is not clear what those abuses are, but he does say that it involves those "who respect all human life... must steer a wide berth around the Komen organization."

"Respect human life?" Code words for the anti-abortion movement. When they say "all human life," they mean "fetuses."  Once that fetus is actually born, they wash their hands of its fate unless its 80 years later and that sick and aging person is on life support (like Terry Schiavo) and should never be taken off to end the suffering.

These same people support the death penalty and pointless wars that kills innocent civilians including pregnant mothers and their fetuses. They also want to do away with the government's social safety net that prevents starvation in mothers and children. Every sperm is sacred!

They don't like gays either, dressed in pink or not.

How I do go on.

Please read Mr. Wall's screed and let CFD know that they shouldn't cave in to to the Radical Right, especially when our 115-year-old tradition carries such a proud legacy of supporting local causes.

O.K., CFD isn't perfect, especially if you're a vegan or a PETA member or Sheryl Crow or you just don't like mainstream country music. But if we're going to apply a purity test to CFD or any of our organizations, none will come up smelling like a rose. We Lefties are goofy on this too. We have shows such as "Portlandia" and numerous blogs to remind us how strangely human we all are.

Wall is human so give him a break, eh? I would, but he's attempting to insert his narrow-minded agenda into a place where it doesn't belong. Let him talk and write op-eds. But let's not let him bully our CFD.

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.

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....

Ground-breaking enviro-art includes "Blood Lamp"

Blood Lamp from miket on Vimeo.

As seen on Grist: "Mike Thompson's "Blood Lamp," which is powered by a single drop of human blood, represents the dynamic outer fringes of the eco-friendly avant-garde."