Historic day for Wyoming Democrats

"Democracy," as someone once said, "is messy."

Sure, but it's fun too.

Today in Cheyenne, we had 1,532 Democrats vote in a presidential preference poll. I manned one of the ballot boxes, aided by a stalwart Hillary Clinton volunteer from North Dakota. Our job: make sure that each person votes only once. Caucus-goers, some of whom stood in line two hours to get inside, were a bit restless, anxious to vote and get to work or get home to relieve the babysitter. Two school teachers stood next to the crude voting machine (me), ready to cast their votes and get to an in-service that started at 8:45. They finally got to vote at 10. One young woman had to pick up her baysitter, drop her off at her house, and then go to work, all by 10. She didn't make it to work on time. But she stayed, and cast a vote.

Final tally: 941 votes for Barack Obama, 588 for Hillary Clinton. Three votes were for Edwards or another Dem on the ballot who had dropped out of the race along the way.

Statewide, said CNN, Obama came out ahead in the caucus votes 59-40 percent. He clinched seven delegates while Hillary got five.

The race for the Democratic Party's presidential nominee continues. Wyoming's vote solved nothing, really, but it taught us some things. First, there are more Democrats in Wyoming than we think. Flood them with phone calls, mailers, and TV ads, add a dash of national media coverage, and they'll turn out at the caucuses. Second, Democrats have to do a better job keeping those people involved and motivated.

Today, anyway, there was more than enough motivation to go around. Oilfield workers and government employees and stay-at-home moms were angry about the state of the nation, and the fact that George W. Bush has nearly ruined this country. One of those stay-at-home moms, a young woman named Sarah, spoke in public for the first time today, she said, in an effort to become a Clinton delegate at the state convention on Memorial Day weekend in Jackson. She fell a few votes short in the delegate count, but got the nod as an alternate. She joins my wife, Chris, as a Clinton alternate. I was selected as an Obama delegate. In Jackson, when I'm not delegating, I'll be blogging.

Both CNN and Fox did broadcasts from the Cheyenne caucus (see photo above). When the emcee noted that Fox News was on-site, the crowd roundly booed. The Fox cameraman bowed, no doubt used to such warm receptions from crowds of Democrats

On to Mississippi and beyond....

Lines around the block for county caucus

The votes are being counted during lunch, but even before we know the numbers, it's obvious that thousands of people turned out for today Democratic Party caucuses in Cheyenne. I arrived at 7:30 a.m., and by the time the doors opened at 8, the lines snaked around the corner of the downtown parking garage.

We woefully underestimated the number of Democrats who would show up for the caucus. We guessed 500 to 1,000 would come. We rented a bigger building that seats 1,500. We planned for multiple registration tables. We had lots of volunteers. But still the Dems filed in the doors of the Civic Center, so many that we had to hold the balloting in two shifts.

That didn't seem to dampen the enthusiasm of the attendees (see above).

I have to get back to the action before the delegate selection process begins. More later...

Barack Obama stages huge Laramie rally

Some 10,000 people packed into the Arena-Auditorium tonight at the University of Wyoming in Laramie to greet Sen. Barack Obama. The crowd was jazzed to be at what might be the largest political rally ever held in the state. College and high school students were huddled near the stage. Their elders were huddled in their fold-out seats, most recently used by Pokes' b-ball fans.

As my friend K and I drove into town, we saw the senator's jet circling town, aiming for a landing at Laramie International Airport, with puddle-jumper service twice daily to Denver. I'd never seen a big passenger jet over Laramie. Usually it's the 18-passenger vomit comets piloted by Great Lakes Aviation, and the ocassional Piper Cub. I suppose the Veep uses Air Force Two (accompanied by a fleet of black helicopters and flocks of vampire bats) when he comes to Laramie to raise funds for his alma mater. He's also donated a bunch of his ill-gotten Halliburton gains for scholarships for students studying foreign affairs. Now don't laugh -- Cheney knows a few things about foreign entanglements.

Sen. Obama was in town to rally the troops for the Saturday Democratic Party caucuses. He wants all of Wyoming's twelve delegates at stake this weekend -- and he'll probably get them too. Obama's teams have been in the state for a month, and they're organized and ferocious. And there are a lot of us volunteers making calls and knocking on doors. Now we just show up and vote.

Sen. Obama delivered a fine speech. he's an orator, a trait that Hillary Clinton can't claim. Her silver-tongued husband was in Laramie yesterday charming a crowd not nearly as large as this one. Sen. Obama talked about details of his health care plan and the phased withdrawal from Iraq, which will be complete in a little more than a year after he takes office. He got a rousing cheer from students when he talked about plans to make college more affordable and tax credits for higher-education costs up to $4,000, which would be a boon for us taxpaying parents of collegians. Students would be expected to pay back this largesse with community service, which also received a round of applause.

I sat next to Nancy, an Army veteran who's a member of the national group Vets for Peace and Laramie's Stand Up for Peace. She was knitting a "Vets for Peace" stocking cap and cheering whenever Sen. Obama talked about withdrawal from Iraq. She's been knitting socks and caps for soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. On the other side of me, K used her digital camera to record the event. I took photos, as my digicam doesn't have enough juice for an hour-long video.

It was great to be in the arena, watching and listening an African-American presidential candidate who can draw a crowd of 10,000 on a Wyoming winter night -- and a Friday to boot. An historic event, no matter what happens on Saturday or during April in Pennsylvania or in August in Denver.

"Stand for Change" in Laramie Friday

Sen. Barack Obama's "Stand for Change" rally in Casper is officially sold out, according to the Casper Star-Tribune. You can still attend the rally in Laramie at the UW Arena-Auditorium at 7:15 p.m. Friday. No tix required; first-come, first-served. Get more info at http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/wyhome.



Bill Clinton's Riverton rally for his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton, today drew an SRO crowd of 2,000. Sen. Clinton will be in Cheyenne at 2:15 tomorrow at Laramie County Community College.



A wealth of Democratic riches today in Wyoming. One of these smart & talented senators will be our next president.



My wife Chris has a plan. What about eight years for Sen. Clinton and then eight years for Sen. Obama. "It'll take at least 16 years to clean up Bush's mess," she says. I agree -- it will take several decades to clean up Bush's messes. But I disagree with the order or presidential succession. What about Obama first, Clinton second? Hillary will only be eight years older, much younger than Sen. John McCain ("Won't Stand for any Change!") is right now. She'll still be sharp, with eight years more senatorial -- possibly even vice presidential -- experience.

This day in history: Who would Jesus bomb?

Who said this, and when:

“My faith sustains me because I pray daily. I pray for guidance and wisdom and strength…. But it's a humbling experience to think that people I will never have met have lifted me and my family up in prayer. And for that I'm grateful.”

Give up? Five years ago tonight, on March 6, 2003, Our Fearmongering Leader conducted a televised press conference, saying in his introduction, “We will not wait to see what terrorists or terrorist states could do with weapons of mass destruction.” One weak-kneed but spiritually uplifted reporter asked President Bush to comment on his religious strength. The quote above was his answer.

Two weeks later, his faith sustained him as he gave the order to bomb Iraq back to the Stone Age.

Source: Editor & Publisher web site

Back off, man -- I'm not a political scientist

My message to the old hands of America's Democratic Party: butt out.

This is our election and not yours. We might take your sage advice if it hadn't proven so bad over the past eight years. We lost the presidential elections in 2000 and 2004 because you cautioned caution instead of fighting the Republican Slime Machine. Many of you were in the House and Senate in 2002 and 2003 and bought Bush's load of crap about weapons of mass destruction. Some of you are still in Congress, waffling over war funding and constitutional rights and torture and health care reform.

Why should we listen when you advise us that a long-drawn-out battle between Clinton and Obama is bad for the party when, in reality, it allows all of us to play a role in the selection of the best candidate? You'd prefer that all this messy caucus and primary stuff in the hinterlands would end so you could play your superdelegate card and trump us all. Before the Clinton primary wins on Tuesday, some of the Dem superdelegates (senators, governors, etc.) were saying that Hillary should drop out of the race for the good of the party. See how much they know?

So back off. We are calling voters and walking neighborhoods for our candidate. Mine is Obama; my wife's is Clinton. On Saturday we caucus. And then we keep on marching to the convention.

Obama to speak in Casper & Laramie

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama will speak at 2 p.m. Friday at the Casper Recreation Center gymnasium.

Doors will open at 12:30 p.m., and the public can enter via the Casper Ice Arena. The event is free and open to the public, but space is limited and tickets are required. They are available at the Obama office in Casper, 254 N. Center St., Suite 206, from until 8:30 p.m. today and from 9 a.m-8:30 p.m. Thursday; and at the Sheridan office, 118 N. Brooks, from 9 a.m.-8:30 p.m. Thursday.

Obama will then speak at 7:15 p.m. at the University of Wyoming Arena-Auditorium in Laramie. Doors will open at 5 p.m. Tickets are not required for this event, but admission is on a first-come, first-served basis.

Remember that Wyoming Democratic Party caucuses will be held in each county on Saturday, March 8. Registered Dems -- get out and vote for Sen. Obama.

FMI: http://www.barackobama.com/.

(Bill) Clinton coming to Wyoming?

Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC just said that there was a rumor flying around that our former president, Bill Clinton, might be stumping for Hillary in Wyoming on Thursday. Anyone else heard this rumor? I'll check the blogs and see what I can find.

We were new to Wyoming when Bill Clinton ran in 1992. He actually came to the Cheyenne airport during the campaign against Bush Sr. and seemed to shake every hand in the place. My wife Chris pushed her pregnant self forward twice to shake the candidate's hand. "Make way -- pregnant Democrat here! Make way!" She's shameless. I got only close enough to wave. Outside the airport gates, crazed Wyoming Repubs waved anti-Clinton banners and yelled some things that we didn't want to hear.

We all know what happened that November.

Barack, are you and/or Michelle coming to Wyoming before the Saturday caucuses?

UPDATE: This just in from the Casper Star-Tribune:

Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign has announced that former President Bill Clinton will be in Wyoming on Thursday to attend events in Riverton, Rock Springs and Laramie.

President Clinton will make a series of stops across the Equality State on Thursday.

"I am thrilled to be returning to Wyoming to talk to voters about Hillary's vision for our country and their exciting role in choosing our next president," Bill Clinton said in a statement. Bill Clinton will visit Wyoming in advance of Saturday's Democratic caucuses. Specific times and places of his visits were not released.

Spokeswoman Carolyn Aanestad of Riverton's Central Wyoming College said that Hillary Clinton's campaign notified the college's facilities coordinator of a desire to use the college's food court between 2 and 4 p.m. on Thursday. Hillary Clinton's campaign told the college earlier in the day on Tuesday that the Clintons' daughter, Chelsea, would attend the event.

Carbon sequestration bills become law

Brodie Farquhar wrote a fine wyofile piece yesterday on carbon sequestration legislation that included an interview with Gov. Dave Freudenthal. Read the entire story at http://www.wyofile.com/carbon_capture_sequestration_pore_ownership.htm. Here’s an excerpt:

Tuesday, Gov. Freudenthal plans to sign House Bill 90/HEA 25 (carbon capture and sequestration) and House Bill 89/HEA 18 (ownership of subsurface pore space) at noon in the Capitol Rotunda. The two bills will put Wyoming out in front of all the other states and in front of federal regulations expected from the Environmental Protection Agency this summer. Basically, HB 90 charges the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality with regulating "geologic sequestration" of CO2. Companion bill HB 89 mandates that the surface owner owns below-ground "pore space" in which CO2 might be stored.

Whatever rules and regulations the EPA or Congress may yet come up with, Gov. Freudenthal said he’s confident that Wyoming is headed in the right direction. That confidence was buttressed by a long conversation he had last week with John Bruton, the European Union ambassador to the United States. Europe sees carbon capture and sequestration as an essential element for energy and global warming policies, said the governor.

Return of "Winter Soldier" to D.C.

From the Iraq Veterans Against the War web site:

From March 13-16th, U.S. veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan will testify to what is really happening day in and day out, on the ground in these occupations. To provide a preview, we've created this short film. The film features three members who will be testifying at Winter Soldier and includes videos and photographs of Iraq from their deployments. This video contains graphic content. We need your support to help make Winter Soldier a success. Find out more about Winter Soldier.

Phoning Cheyenne for Barack and Hillary

My wife Chris and I shared the home phone all weekend. She was making calls for the Hillary Clinton campaign, and I was calling for Barack Obama. We didn't keep score, although Chris was wondering by the end of the day if she'd made enough calls. By 9 p.m. Sunday, when I settled in to watch Law & Order on the tube, I knew I'd made enough calls in my precinct. Too many were saying they were voting for Clinton. I thought this was Obama Country. The goal at Cheyenne Obama HQ is to get as many supporters as possible out to the March 8 Laramie County caucus (get there at 8 a.m.). The confirmed Obama supporters I talked to where either busy on Saturday or didn't want to "rub shoulders with a lot of people," as one guy said. Shoulder-rubbing is not a popular pastime in Wyoming, land of wide-open-spaces and taciturnity. But come on, people, a crowd of Democrats never really hurt anyone, right? Get out there and caucus!

The Clinton supporters I talked to were wild about the prospects of coming to the caucus and throwing their vote Hillary's way. Are Clintonites more akin to shoulder-rubbing than Obamaians? Tought to say at this point. I'll blog the caucus Saturday and let you know.

One ominous development: my "Obama for President" yard sign blew away during Sunday's blustery snowstorm. We were issued plastic sleeves that you pull over a U-shaped metal stand and stick into the yard. When I first saw it, I said, "This will never stand up to our winds." I made a vow to duct tape it to the metal stand, and then promptly forgot when I headed out to canvass. I awoke Sunday morning to the naked metal stand, one end pulled out the ground, flapping in the breeze. Obama was gone.

Next time: duct tape. Or a different sign.

Iowa Gov rounds up support for Obama

Iowa Governor Chet Culver, a Democrat, had some nice things to say about Barack Obama when he visited Cheyenne today.

For example, Obama will make the strongest Democratic Party candidate and president. "He can go the distance," Culver said. "Not only can he beat Hillary, he can beat John McCain."

Culver cited a poll that appeared in last Sunday's Des Moines Register which showed that Obama would beat McCain 53-36 percent, but that McCain would beat Hillary Clinton 49-40 percent.

In red-state Kansas, a recent poll showed that Hillary Clinton would lose to John McCain by 34 percentage points. Obama, on the other hand, would lose by only four points. That latter percentage is within the range that can be made up before the November election.

Kansas now has a Democrat as governor. So a shift toward Obama is not out of the question.

Gov. Culver declared for Obama after meeting and talking to all the Dem candidates during the months leading up to the Iowa caucuses. He's urged other Democratic governors (there's 28 of them) to do the same. When asked how we Wyomingites could get our own Governor Freudenthal on the Obama bandwagon, Culver said, "I'm working on him."

Gov. Freudenthal is one of four Dem governors along the Rocky Mountain Front who haven't yet endorsed a presidential candidate. Others are Ritter in Colorado, Schweitzer in Montana, and Richardson in New Mexico (remember him?).

In the West, Dems play it close to the vest when it comes to politics. We know that Clinton superdelegates have been asked to keep it quiet. Maybe that's why we haven't heard an endorsement from our superdelegate governor.

Gov. Culver didn't whip us into an Obama frenzy, but he did get us cranked to go out and knock on doors. After Obama field coordinator Patrick Lane gave us some detailed instructions, we grabbed clipboards and marched to victory.

Here was our team: Sara B, fellow writer, activist and new mom; G, an African-American state highway patrolman who, until last week, was a registered Republican; and a Baby Boomer lawyer, his Mexican-born wife (to translate when we ran into Spanish-speaking households) and their teen son. We spread out over a Southside neighborhood and knocked on as many doors of registered Dems as we could in two hours.

I didn't find any strong Obama supporters. A middle-aged woman who held a yapping dog while we talked said she was undecided but could be persuaded. Health care was a big issue for her, since she didn't have any. She was planning to go to the March 8 caucus. We had a nice talk about the candidates but, in the end, she was still on the fence.

It was a warm day with little wind. One man (not on our convassing list) was outside watering his front lawn. We chatted for a bit but he never asked about my "Wyoming for Obama" T-shirt. I moved on. I encountered one strong Hillary supporter whose husband (not at home) was undecided. One middle-aged Hispanic man with four big-tired pickups in his driveway would only say that his wife was the registered Democrat and he would give her the info.

When I turned in my canvassing lists, Sara told the story of a man she and G had talked to. When they walked up, he was under the hood of his classic Caddie. He was stand-offish at first, Sara said, until G started talking to him about cars. As they talked, the gearhead admitted his disdain for the Bush regime and strong support for Obama. He would be at the caucus. Score one for our side.

More tomorrow....

Photo: Iowa Gov. Chet Culver talks to Dems assembled at Obama HQ in Cheyenne for a day of canvassing. At right is Wyoming Obama campaign director Gabe Cohen; at left is field director Patrick Lane. Photo by Deb Fischer.

Fine weather for a political Saturday

Active weekend in Wyoming politics. Iowa Gov. Chet Culver will be in the state today to stump for Barack Obama. He'll kick off a day of canvassing at the Cheyenne Obama offices, 415 W. 28th St., beginning at 11:45 a.m. Following that, he'll be whisked off to Laramie where he'll do the same. In the afternoon, Obama supporters will knock on doors across town to get Democratic voters out to the March 8 caucuses.

Meanwhile, New Mexico Lieutenant Gov. Diane Denish will be in town to stump for Hillary Clinton. She'll help promote the Wyoming Day of Action for the Clinton campaign. That gets underway at 10:30 a.m. today at the campaign office, 1603 Capitol Ave., No. 209. Most Cheyennites know this as the Majestic Building. At 12:30 p.m., the Clinton campaign office in Casper will host a statewide phone bank.

Tonight is the Nellie Tayloe Ross dinner with keynote speaker U.S. Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin of South Dakota, a Democrat in a Republican district and the youngest woman serving in Congress. Tomorrow is the Democratic Party's "Mockus" at the Plains Hotel which is billed as an event "to help educate voters on the caucus process."

Throughout the fine-weather weekend (61 degrees and sun today, snow tomorrow), we will either be walking neighborhoods or holed up in windowless offices making phone calls. I know which one I'm going to choose. I volunteered to contact Dems and Indies in my precinct to get them out for Obama on March 8. Maybe I can catch them washing their cars....

Find out more about all these events at http://www.wyomingdemocrats.com/.

For Obama info, go to http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/wyhome

Gary Trauner in Cheyenne for Dem events

Gary Trauner dropped into the Democratic Party's legislative reception this evening in Cheyenne.

He's cranking up his campaign for the U.S. House seat being vacated by Barbara Cubin. There's at least one other candidate on the Dem side, and a passel on the Republican side, including Dan Zwonitzer and Cynthia Lummis, both of Cheyenne.

Gary was there with his field director, Eric (didn't catch his last name), a veteran of the 2007-2008 primary battles in Iowa. He's reworking Gary's web site, which is woefully out of date. It should be up and running any day now, said Eric, who's operating out of an office in Casper.

Gary plans another door-to-door campaign like the one he waged in 2006. I know he knocked on thousands of doors two years ago, a tactic that brought him within a whisper of beating Cubin. At least some of the Republicans and Independents who admitted voting for Gary in 2006 said theirs was an anti-Cubin vote. He obviously can't count on that with the Repubs fielding an array of fresh faces, one of which will make it through the gauntlet to the general election campaign.

Trauner is rested and ready, organized and well-funded. He's a veteran of one Wyoming campaign, which should serve him well over this long election season. He's in town this weekend for a variety of events, including Saturday night's Nellie Tayloe Ross Dinner and its salute to the state's women politicians. Keep checking his web site for updates at http://www.traunerforcongress.com/.

Legislature passes carbon storage bill

House Bill 89 passed the full Senate on third reading and now goes to Gov. Freudental for his signature.

The bill makes surface landowners the owners of the geological structures underground where greenhouse gases may be sequestered. In Wyoming, this would be the carbon dioxide produced when our coal is burned in a power plant. The plan is to inject the CO2 into so-called underground pore spaces until we can figure out what to do with it.

I am glad to be the legal owner of my pore spaces. I doubt if they'll be needed in the battle against global warming, as they're located beneath my residential lot in Cheyenne. The nearest power plant is about 30 miles away in Colorado. The nearest Wyoming power plant is about 80 miles away, north of Wheatland. These plants will be looking for closer pore spaces than mine. But first, they have to be retrofitted with carbon capture technology which still is in the development stage.

Kudos to the Wyoming Legislature for planning for the future. It's fitting that yesterday legislators heard from EU Ambassador to the U.S. John Bruton. The main topic was coal, and how the EU will need it for its future energy needs. The EU has committed to reducing greenhouse gases drastically by 2020. Carbon sequestration is the way to do it. Bruton noted that money is a major issue, as adding carbon sequestration equipment to power plants increases costs 30-40 percent. He asked the Legislature: "How are you going to bridge that financial gap?"

A good question for us all.

Life is difficult in the 2008 Dem household

We are a house divided.

I'm working for Barack Obama for president. My wife Chris is a Hillary Clinton supporter.

I will have a yard sign for Obama up by tomorrow afternoon. I dare her to yank it out of the ground. I double-dare her to get a bigger yard sign for Hillary and place it in front of Barack's.

She is canvassing our neighborhood for Hillary. I am a precinct captain for Obama.

On our way home from dinner tonight, we talked about retirement. Chris said she'd be ready to retire in peace and contentment once Hillary was president for eight years and all of Bush's mistakes and crimes had been rectified and/or overturned.

I said that Barack Obama will spend the next four years wiping out Bush's dubious legacy, and then have four more years to put our country on a path that will ensure a bright future for our children and grandchildren.

Chris said: "Tell that whippersnapper Barack he can run when Hillary had made things right."

I said: "His time is now."

No fisticuffs erupted. But I can tell that the next couple weeks in Wyoming will be interesting. We may end up as delegates to the state convention, Chris for Hillary, me for Barack. The convention is in Jackson during Memorial Day weekend so we can suspend our political disagreements long enough for a brewski or two at the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar off the town square.

We may even be together at the national convention in Denver, me as a blogger (keeping my fingers crossed) and Chris as a volunteer.

And in November, when we all vote for America's future, we will both cast our ballots for the Democrat, whomever he or she may be. We win, either way.

Dems hold legislative reception Feb. 29

You're invited to the Democratic Party's legislative reception on Friday, Feb. 29, 6-9 p.m., 514 W. 24th St., home of Karyn and Russ Knutson of the Laramie County Democrats Grassroots Coalition. Tickets are $10 for this reception/fund-raiser, and you can get them at the door. If you're so inclined, you can bring a covered dish. Beverages have been donated to the cause.

This Cheyenne reception is always lively during an election year, even more so this time around, with so much at stake. Dem legislators will be there, as will U.S. House candidate Gary Trauner, Gov. and Mrs. Freudenthal, and Democratic Party candidates for state races. Also expect reps from the Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton offices in Cheyenne.

Get more info about local and state Democratic Party happenings by calling party HQ in Cheyenne at 307-634-9001.

Welcome to "Vietnam with sand"

For an on-the-ground look into the U.S. "surge" in Iraq, read Nir Rosen's "The Myth of the Surge" in the newest issue of Rolling Stone. Rosen speaks Arabic, so he gets to hear exactly what Iraqis are saying to each other. This is a great advantage as almost no American soldier speaks the language. Their homegrown translators often have their own axes to grind. This makes a baffling situation even more confusing. "Vietnam with sand," is how an Air Force veteran of Iraq Wars I & II described it to me last week, adding that a fifth airman at Warren AFB had had just been killed in Iraq.

Read it and weep at http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/18722376/the_myth_of_the_surge

Thanks to my old college chum Bob Page of Independence, Mo., for tipping me off to the story.

Clinton & Obama both have WYO offices

We heard from both Clinton and Obama reps tonight at the monthly meeting of the Laramie County Democrats.

Margy White from Cheyenne and Molly McAndrew from Iowa are working with the Hillary Clinton campaign. The grand opening of Clinton HQ in Cheyenne will be held tomorrow (Wednesday) on the second floor of the Majestic Building at 16th and Capitol. Another office is opening in Casper.

McAndrew's in Cheyenne with three other Clinton staffers. She worked in Iowa, Nevada, and Wisconsin before arriving in Wyoming. You can contact the Clinton office at 319-310-2017 or via e-mail at mollyrmcandrew@gmail.com.

Obama campaign people Gabe Cohen and Julia Warren have been in Wyoming three weeks. Before that, he was field director for Obama in Colorado. He held his first public meeting last spring in the liberal bastion of Colorado Springs. He'd been warned about the Springs, home to a heavenly host of evangelicals such as James Dobson and Focus on the Family. Even when he drove the Ronald Reagan Highway to get to the meeting he wasn't scared. But he knew this campaign was different when he arrived at the meeting and he wasn't the only one there. In fact, the room was packed with 80-100 people.

As Wyoming state director, Cohen's been traveling the state whipping up support for his candidate. He's been to Lander, the Wind River Indian Reservation, and Thermopolis. He was told beforehand that there were some places in Wyoming that Democrats don't go. Thermopolis was one of those. "We had a great meeting there," he said. "We've held meetings in almost every county and the energy is incredible. We've registered a lot of Democrats."

Odd as it seems, Democratic Governor Dave Freudenthal is from Thermopolis. A few Dems are hidden among the many Repubs in Hot Springs County.

As I've mentioned in previous posts, the Obama office is a busy place. When I visited today, staffers said that the campaign could always use more callers and people to canvass neighborhoods. If you want to volunteer, call 307-630-4168 or go to the web site at http://wyoming.barackobama.com.

Did I mention that I'm an Obama supporter? You could tell?

Carbon sequestration bills get support

The Wyoming Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday supported both bills dealing with "potential geologic storage of carbon dioxide." That's the great thing about this issue -- its spawned a plethora of new terms for my personal lexicon. Here's another one: Underground pore spaces. That's a fine phrase, as we're all familiar with our skin's pores which, in teenagers, become packed with goop and yield explosive zits. We hope that nothing explodes when we pack carbon dioxide in our ground's pores. The jury is still out on that.

Meanwhile, we have to legislate. That's what governors from the coal states of Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia were saying over the weekend at the National Governor's Conference in D.C. They were urging that their states not be counted out when it comes to environmental legislation. It's odd that most of these governors are Democrats. Their promotion of clean-coal technologies pits them against other members of our party who promote wind/solar/geothermal and look upon coal burning as the root of all evil. We know that when the Democrats take over the White House and both houses of Congress, climate change legislation will follow. The Govs just want coal to get an equal hearing. Wyoming, after all, annually produces 38 percent of the coal used in the U.S., more than any other state (Montana produces only 4 percent). Our economy depends on it.

The Governors are also calling for legislation on carbon sequestration. Wyoming, apparently, is one of the few to have legislation in the hopper.

Which brings us back to the bills rolling through the Wyoming Legislature.

House Bill 89 calls for surface landowners to control the underground poer spaces where carbon dioxide could be stored. House Bill 90 sets up regulations for carbon sequestration under the supervision of the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality. Both bills must pass two more readings in the Senate before they can be signed into law by Gov. Dave Freudenthal.

Get legislative updates at http://legisweb.state.wy.us/.

The long, long slog in Afghanistan

"Battle Company is Out There" is Elizabeth Rubin's Feb. 24 New York Times Magazine dispatch from the front lines of the war in Afghanistan, now in its seventh year. Rubin spent several weeks last October with the soldiers of Battle Company of the U.S. Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team in the country's rugged Kornegal Valley.

Some memorable moments in the story. Rubin and Capt. Dan Kearney sit down for a chat:

One full-moon night I was sitting outside a sandbag-reinforced hut with Kearney when a young sergeant stepped out hauling the garbage. He looked around at the illuminated mountains, the dust, the rocks, the garbage bin. The monkeys were screeching. “I hate this country!” he shouted. Then he smiled and walked back into the hut. “He’s on medication,” Kearney said quietly to me.

Then another soldier walked by and shouted, “Hey, I’m with you, sir!” and Kearney said to me, "Prozac. Serious P.T.S.D. from last tour.” Another one popped out of the HQ cursing and muttering. “Medicated,” Kearney said. “Last tour, if you didn’t give him information, he’d burn down your house. He killed so many people. He’s checked out.”

At first, I thought this was an example of the GIs goofing on the reporter, trying to freak her out. But mental instability is the recurring theme through the piece. When Kearney's unit came into the valley to replace the Tenth Mountain Division, they found some strange goings-on.

So what exactly was his job out here? To subdue the valley. It’s a task the Marines had tried, and then the soldiers of the Army’s 10th Mountain Division — a task so bloody it seemed to drive the 10th Mountain’s soldiers to a kind of madness. Kearney’s soldiers told me they’d been spooked by the weird behavior of their predecessors last May: near the end of their tour, many would sit alone on the fire base talking to themselves. Privates disobeyed their sergeants, and squad leaders refused to step outside the wire to show the new boys the terrain. No one wanted to be shot in the last days of his tour.

A few months into the unit's tour, the Army called in a shrink because Kearney complained that his troops were going crazy at its lonely outpost.

I had to wonder how I'd behave if I spent month after month in the Kornegal Valley. Every day the soldiers are the targets of snipers and mortar fire. They live in tents and subsist on MREs. When they go into villages, the elders nod and smile and pledge cooperation. At night, the village elders are playing host to insurgents and giving them tips on how to kill the Americans. When the Americans call in an air strike to take out a house or building where they know insurgents are hiding, civilian casualties are inevitable. When the troops go in to investigate, bodies of women and children are displayed by the villagers but bodies of insurgents are mysteriously missing. WTF? Where did they go? Very confusing. Maddening, in fact.

Rubin is on hand for one very bruising battle in which one of the unit's sergeants, on his sixth tour, is killed, and a number of others wounded.

After reading the story, I wondered what would happen to all these young soldiers. Not just in Afghanistan, but when they return to the States. How will these experiences manifest themselves in their relationships and in society at large in 10 or 20 years? I'm not worried so much about myself and my generation. We're moving off center stage. But I am concerned for the world my kids and their kids will live in. Some of these warriors will come carpenters and teachers and politicians. Others won't find a place so easily. Their frustrations could be fed by P.T.S.D. They could freak out with guns. There's a grand tradition of this sort of behavior in the U.S.

One other thing: As I looked at the article's photos, I realized that the Kornegal Valley looks like the landscape in Wyoming's Laramie Range. The trees, the brush, the dust, the rocks. It's eerie.

Wyoming plays catch-up with recycling

As I bring my cans and bottles to Cheyenne's blue-bin recycling posts, I often wonder what becomes of my cast-offs. How far does my fruit cocktail can or Budweiser bottle have to go to be transformed into something else? With rising fuel prices, what's the cost of hauling aluminum cans to Los Angeles or New York or maybe even China?

I've talked to some of my fellow recyclers about this and they don't know the answers. They're a diverse bunch. An airman from Warren AFB with two kids in his SUV said he was from upstate New York where they'd had curbside recycling for 20 years. He wondered why we didn't have something similar. There is a pilot program in Cheyenne's Sun Valley neighborhood. No telling how long the pilot will last and whether it will prove economical enough to expand citywide. One good sign: cranky letters promoting and bemoaning the curbside plan have begun to show up on our local op-ed pages. Once it reaches the op-ed stage, you know that implementation can't be far behind.

I see many families hauling their stuff to our three blue-bin locations. Kids instructing their parents on the wonders of recycling. Retirees, too, whom I see when I use part of my lunch hour for recycling. Lots of women, too, of all ages. More women than men, if my unscientific observations are any gauge. It's possible there here in the rugged West it's the duty of the womenfolk to recycle, the menfolk being too busy wrangling cattle or shooting varmints. It's also possible that women are more attuned to the benefits of recycling and saving the planet.

Wyoming's Sam Western provides some answers to recycling's true costs in a column he wrote for wyofile.com. As befitting someone who's been a correspondent for London's Economist magazine since 1985, Sam did his homework. He estimates that only three to five percent of the state's trash is recycled, compared to a national average of 27 percent.

Aluminum cans typically go east to Anheuser-Busch's Metal Container Corporation; cardboard and paper travel to plants in Montana, Oregon, and Washington, sometimes China; steel cans and small scrap end up at the Nucor Steel plant in Plymouth, Utah.

That's a pretty long haul, paper going to China. But maybe my paper only has to travel next door to Montana. As a writer and reader, I recycle a lot of paper, both at home and at work. All those gin bottles, too, can't forget those. The good part about glass is that there's a company in Wyoming that recycles it.

Contractors in Campbell County, which imports most of its gravel from South Dakota or Johnson County, use crushed glass (called cullet) as filler around landscaping, septic drain fields, retaining wall backfill, and drain pipe bedding.

Other Wyoming companies are getting into the act, recycling plastic bottles and old tires. There's a company in Cheyenne, Tatooine, that collects computers and other electronic devices, breaks them down, and sells the parts. It's the old junkyard concept where you discard your old jalopy and gearheads use it for parts for their old jalopies, which they call classic cars.

Read Sam's entire column under the "Guest" link at http://www.wyofile.com/. He's done an impressive amount of research about trash, landfills and recycling, lassoing all those facts and figures into easily digestible bites. Sam's always been good at the details, as readers saw in his book, "Pushed off the Mountain, Sold Down the River: Wyoming's Search for its Soul." I ran into Sam last Thursday in Cheyenne during a presentation by photographer Adam Jahiel of Story. Sam accompanied Adam to Kyrgyzstan during a trip organized by Jackson's Vista 360. Sam interviewed and wrote while Adam shot the photos of the country's horse culture. The photos were beautiful. The landscape was reminiscent of certain parts of Wyoming. Adam made a brief mention of an upcoming book about the project, but wouldn't reveal any details.

Democrats meet Feb. 26 at Plains Hotel

The Laramie County Democrats will hold its monthly business meeting this Tuesday, Feb. 26, 7 p.m., at the Plains Hotel in downtown Cheyenne. These meetings grow larger and busier as the presidential campaign heats up. Come on down!

Lots of business to discuss. The March 8 county caucus has been switched to the Cheyenne Civic Center to accommodate big crowds. An Obama office has opened and one for Clinton is opening soon, at least according to this morning's paper. Next weekend's a biggie for Dems with a legislative reception Jan. 29 and the Nellie Tayloe Ross dinner March 1. And -- surprise -- there's money to be raised!

FMI: Call the LarCoDems office at 307-634-9001.

Getting out the Obama voters in Wyoming

I made some phone calls the other night for the Obama campaign. A handful of volunteers were calling registered Democrats and independents in Sweetwater County. We urged them to get out to the county caucus March 8 at the Western Wyoming Community College campus in Green River. Nobody cussed me out, although I had a few hang up on me. I left a dozen messages on voice mail, wondering as I did so whether someone was on the other end looking at the caller ID screen and muttering that Barack Obama had a lot of nerve calling during dinner time. I talked high school basketball with a woman in Green River who said that she and her husband were 'leaning toward" supporting Obama. Problem was, they would be on the road with their daughter's high school b-ball team and couldn't be at the caucus.

I didn't find any determined Obama support with the people I spoke with. "Leaning toward" was about as good as it got. I did get a of couple registered Independents on the line who said they liked Obama but would not change their registration to Obama just to vote in the caucus. Wyoming lets you change your registration if you do it by the end of the day tomorrow (Feb. 22). During party primary elections in Wyoming you can walk into the polls and change your registration that day so you can either vote for a candidate you love or you can sabotage the opposing party's candidate(s).

I volunteered as a precinct captain for Obama. I'm charged with calling the Dems in my precinct and getting them out to the caucus in Cheyenne March 8. If I want, I can go door-to-door and see where they stand. I had a lot of interesting conversations in 2006 as I went door-to-door for Gary Trauner and Dave Freudenthal. A lot of people just didn't know who Trauner was, although more know the name this year. Gov. Freudenthal had a lot of name recognition which helped as he clinched the election by a wide margin over Republican opponent what's-his-name.

I'm sure I'll spend many more pleasant hours making calls and ringing doorbells this election year. It makes a difference. Your candidate doesn't always win, but it's the effort that counts. Do I want to tell my grandchildren I sat on my keister during the most important election of my lifetime?

MoveOn: delegates before superdelegates

My name is in the background somewhere. The ad may appear as early as Thursday (tomorrow) in USA Today. FMI: http://www.moveon.org/.

Must register by Feb. 22 for Dem caucus

Voters have until this Friday, Feb. 22, to register as Democrats in order to be eligible to participate in the March 8 Wyoming Democratic Caucuses. This includes registered Republicans and Independents who want to caucus for Barack Obama, as well as new voters.

Seventeen-year-olds who turn 18 by November are eligible to participate in the Dem caucuses, but they must register by Feb. 22.

If you did not vote in the 2006 general election, or if you have moved to a new address since last registering, you must re-register by Feb. 22 in order to participate in the Wyoming Democratic Caucuses.

Voters can register to vote in the office of the county clerk or town clerk in the county where they live. Click here for a list of Wyoming County Clerk locations and contact information.

Grassroots Dems address education Feb. 21

The Laramie County Democratic Grassroots Coalition will meet on Thursday, Feb. 21, 6:30 p.m. in the Laramie County Public Library's Sage Room on the second floor. All interested county residents are invited to attend.

The gathering begins with a short business meeting, followed by a presentation on education issues and the No Child Left Behind legislation. Speakers will be Kathryn Valido, president of the Wyoming Education Association, and Ted Adams, superintendent of Laramie County School District No. 1.

Dems' caucus site switched to Civic Center

It's official. The March 8 Laramie County Democratic Party caucus/convention will be held at the Cheyenne Civic Center at 510 W. 20th St. Registration begins at 8 a.m. and the caucus starts at 9.

The caucus site was changed over the weekend when it became apparent that the original location, the UW Family Pratice Center auditorium, was going to be too small for the record turnout expected this year. Over the weekend, Mike Bell of the Laramie County Democrats guesstimated that up to 1,000 people might show up on March 8. The reason? The tight race between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Every single delegate is important this year.

To participate in the caucus, you must be a registered Democrat by this Friday, Feb. 22. Seventeen-year-olds who'll be 18 by the Nov. 4 general election can register and participate in the caucus.

FMI: Contact the Cheyenne office of the county and state Democrats by calling 307-634-9001.

Rock the vote -- and show up at the polls

Stephen Winn, deputy editorial page editor at the Kansas City Star, wrote a column today in praise of the youth vote. I read it in our local paper, the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle, while sipping coffee and listening to the blasted north wind whistle through the eaves. Winn applauds the younger generation for turning out in large numbers for Barack Obama. And then he bemoans the fact that Baby Boomers (his generation and mine) "have kind of screwed things up." He then lists the many ways that we have failed: electing George W. Bush not once but twice (maybe only once); lack of reform of Social Security and Medicare; running up the national debt; etc.

While our children get saddled with more of the national debt ($30,000 per person) and a whopping college loan debt (if they can even qualify for assistance), the country's older and oldest Americans keep getting more benefits. Why is that? They vote, work at the polls, write their congressional reps, and join powerful lobbying orgs such as AARP. Some of them even blog. They're loud and they're proud. A huge pain in the ass.

So youngsters, take a page from your elders' handbook and get involved to the point of pain-in-the-ass status. It's already happening, and it's good to see. My 23-year-old son, Kevin, voted in his first presidential election in 2004. He recently voted in the Arizona primary. He's outspoken in his support for Barack Obama, although he's too busy to do much electioneering, at least for now. He's paying for his own school, attending classes full-time and working nights. His girlfriend does the same. They're having a heck of a time finding enough financial aid. But they persevere. They're young and they have big plans.

My daughter is still too young to vote but will be in 2012. That same year, I'll be old enough to get Social Security checks. But I won't as retirement will still be a few years away. Will we have S.S. and Medicare reform by 2012? That depends on whether we have a Democrat as president or a Republican. To ensure that, we have to get to the polls and vote.

Speaking of polls, why is it that I'm the only one there who doesn't remember World War II? Born in 1950, I'm usually the youngest poll worker in my precinct. When we set up our e-voting machines in 2006, many of the poll workers gathered around and stared at the machines much like the primates in "2001: A Space Odyssey" stared at The Sentinel in the film's opening scene. They had about as much knowledge of the technology. We had techs from Diebold available to come in and fix any problems, but we did have to show others how to use the things to cast their vote.

Volunteers at polling places are primarily retirees. Younger people are at school or work or taking care of kids. Would that change if we had elections on weekends instead of weekdays? What if everyone had a paid day off on election day? Why not change polling day and see what happens. Or maybe we should change the entire system. We have local control of polling places, just as we have local control for schools. County clerks are responsible for setting up the system and making sure it runs smoothly.

But we've seen the results, most notably in the 2000 presidential elections. But even the latest round of primaries have shown ballot problems and machine breakdowns. Polling place workers are giving out faulty information, possibly because they forgot to take their morning meds.

So just add the crazy voting system to the things that we Baby Boomers should have fixed but didn't.

I've seen the young people getting involved in this election cycle. Men and women in their 20s and 30s are powering the Obama campaign nationally and right here in Wyoming. I think they see this as their opportunity to take charge of a broken system and make it better. There will be heartbreak and compromise along the way. But it's best not to think about that now. Win first, worry later.

Vets face a "daunting & growing" problem

The Billings Gazette reports that Montana Sen. Jon Tester will accompany the new secretary of Veterans Affairs to Billings and Helena on Feb. 20. Tester, a Democrat elected in 2006, invited James Peake to Montana late last year to see firsthand the issues affecting Montana veterans. As is the case everywhere, Montana vets are facing a long list of mental health problems after long deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan. Peake and Tester will hold a public town hall meeting for veterans at the Hilton Garden Inn in Billings at 9:15 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 20. Peake also will tour the Billings VA Clinic. He and Tester will travel to Helena where they'll hold a round-table discussion at 2:30 p.m.

Too bad Peake can’t travel south to Wyoming while he’s in the neighborhood. Perhaps one of our esteemed senators, both Iraq War supporters and Republicans who presumably have close personal relationships with Bush appointees, can do some inviting of their own. Tester’s an opponent of the war, and a newbie to boot. Look what he’s been able to accomplish.

I’m not a veteran, but I do have some expertise on mental health issues both personally, in my own family, and as a governor-appointed member of the Wyoming Mental Health Planning Council. I’ve also been board chair of UPLIFT, the Wyoming affiliate of the Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health.

Larry D. Barttelbort, executive director of the Wyoming Veterans Commission, sent out this press release about a program in the state aimed at addressing veterans’ mental health:

A joint venture pilot program between the Wyoming Military Department, Wyoming Veterans Commission, and the Wyoming Department of Health will ensure Wyoming Veterans are connected with state and federal resources. This pilot program is based on a recommendation from Wyoming's Veterans Mental Health Task Force. We have combined end-of-biennium funds to hire two contract Veteran's Advocates. They will link our Wyoming Veterans, their families, and their employers directly with state and federal resources. We will use Wyoming Military Department federal resources to assist with scheduling, data collection and reporting.

This program will help Veterans overcome the stigma of seeking help and help them connect with these wonderful resources. The advocates will meet with the Veteran, the family, and the employer to ensure the Veteran is using all the resources available to them.

Wyoming is also blessed with two of the finest VA Medical Centers in the U.S., at Sheridan and Cheyenne. The VA's Community Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOC) in Casper, Gillette, Green River, Newcastle, Powell, Riverton and Rock Springs provide outstanding care. The Vet Centers in Cheyenne and Casper provide confidential mental health counseling and also provide contract services in some outlying areas.

If you are approached about a Wyoming Veteran experiencing problems with readjustment issues at home, with friends, or at work don't hesitate to call one of our advocates or the VA resources.

Veteran's Advocates:
Leon Chamberlain (307) 359-2430 (Northern Wyoming)
David Hall (307) 631-3736 (Southern Wyoming)
VA Health Information 1-877-222-8387

FMI: Larry D. Barttelbort, 307-772-5016

Veterans for America recently released a study of soldiers based at Fort Drum in Watertown, New York. You can read the full report at http://www.veteransforamerica.org/. Here are a few paragraphs from the introduction:

A new, in-depth investigative report released by Veterans for America, documents the toll of repeated, lengthy, and unpredictable deployments on Soldiers stationed at Fort Drum, New York, raising powerful questions about the sustainability of U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Over the past decade, Fort Drum’s 10th Mountain Division has been one of the Army’s most heavily deployed divisions. Since September 11, 2001, Fort Drum’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team (BCT) is the most deployed brigade in the Army – with more than 40 months logged away from home in that time.

VFA’s new report highlights the lack of treatment available to combat soldiers and presents potential solutions to what the Pentagon acknowledges is a "daunting and growing" problem.

"Sooner or later, and likely sooner, we’re going to hit the wall and something will have to change," said Bobby Muller, VFA’s founder. "Simple morality and decency demand a change. We cannot continue taking such gross advantage of those who have offered themselves in service to our country."

On their latest Iraq tour, members of the 2nd BCT were more than five times more likely to have been killed than others who have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and more than four times as likely to have been wounded. In all, the 2nd BCT has been deployed four times. Pentagon studies have found that a soldier’s chance of developing mental health problems increases 60 percent upon each deployment.

"Soldiers at Fort Drum have been repeatedly exposed to high intensity combat. Mental health resources must match this level of sacrifice," said Jason W. Forrester, one of the report authors.

More on House's "clean-coal" bills

As I mentioned on Thursday, two "clean-coal" bills moved forward in the Wyoming House. Both concern carbon sequestration. Neither bill supports a linguistic alternative to "sequestration," so it's up to me to keep looking for one.

Here's a bit more info from the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle on those two carbon bills:

CHEYENNE (WTE) -- On second reading Thursday, the Wyoming House of Representatives passed two pieces of clean-coal legislation requested by the governor. House Bill 89 states that surface landowners control the underground pore spaces where carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas and byproduct of burning coal to make electricity, could be stored. House Bill 90 sets up a regulatory regime for the practice of carbon sequestration under the supervision of the Department of Environmental Quality with assistance from the state Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. The bills must pass one more reading in the House, pass the Senate and be signed by the governor to become law.

Obama office opening draws SRO crowd

I joined about 70 others this morning for the grand opening of the Barack Obama office at 415 W. 28th St. in Cheyenne. Surprised to see so many people there, and so many I'd never seen at local Democratic Party gatherings.

But that's what this campaign is about, drawing in those who haven't been involved before -- or not for a very long time. I ran into an old friend who said he hadn't been to such an exciting political gathering since Gary Hart ran for prez in the 1980s. In fact, he hadn't been involved in politics at all since then.

Gabe Cohen is the Obama campaign's Wyoming director. He'll be overseeing offices in Cheyenne, Laramie, Rock Springs, and Casper. To get started, he asked all of us to take out our cell phones and call 10 friends and tell them to get involved in the campaign. Gabe is young, in his 20s or 30s, as are all the Obama people I met. The crowd was a mix of ages, from 20-somethings to the retired. A lot younger demographic than we see at the average meeting of our county party.

Gabe said that "they" called the Obama campaign crazy for opening four offices in Wyoming, adding that he thought this was a natural thing to do "because we're going to get this kind of turnout everywhere." This was greeted with applause and huzzahs. He then quizzed us with this question: "Which state put JFK over the top in 1960?" Many of us shouted the answer: "Wyoming." The parallels have already been drawn between the Kennedy race for president and Obama's. The energy is there, especially with the young people.

This Cheyenne crowd was energized. Gabe introduced Matt Chandler, who's the campaign's communications director for Wyoming. We also met State Rep. Pete Jorgensen from Jackson, who's one of the Dems' five super-delegates. He said he was old enough to remember JFK, and that he'd worked overseas for a time during the 1960s and recalled "the good will we had around the world -- that's all gone now."

Pete named the other super-delegates: Cynthia Nunley, Nancy Drummond, John Millin (state party chair) and Gov. Dave Freudenthal. He also said that he'd just talked to his wife in Jackson who said that several kids from Rock Springs were coming to stay at their house to canvass Teton County for Obama.

Mike Bell, Laramie County Democrats state chair, spoke next. He said that the March 8 county convention will not be held at the UW Family Practice Center auditorium because there won't be enough room. He startled us by saying that as many as 1,000 people could attend the convention. "We need a bigger place," he said by way of understatement. Possibilities include the Civic Center and Storey Gym, but each of those have a $2,000 fee. Little America wants $6,000 for its new conference center. "We're Democrats. How we can we afford that?"

A hubbub erupted. One woman, who said she was a retired state employee on a fixed income, said she would write a $100 check so we could get the best place for our convention. Others said they would do the same thing. Sara Burlingame-Thomas lifted the cap from her three-month-old son's head and started passing it around. Within 10 minutes, we had $1,500 in cash and checks. Mike said he'd go down Monday and rent a bigger place. Huzzahs all around.

Mike had some tips for us. To participate in the caucus/convention, you must be a registered Democrat in Laramie County by Friday, Feb. 22. And don't count on being on the voter rolls if you didn't vote in the 2006 general election, as your name was probably purged at the county clerk's office. If in doubt, check with the county clerk.

Mike said that registration begins at 8 a.m. at the convention, but it may be helpful to be there by 7:30 if we're going to have such a big turnout. I may have to be there even earlier as I've agreed to be on the nominations committee. We'll kick things off with the presidential preference vote, and then move into delegate selection. "This could be a slugfest," said Mike, depending on how many people are there for each candidate. Following that, we'll discuss the party platform.

"The county caucus is very important," Mike added. "The presidential preference vote determines the delegate count." Up to 55 delegates will be chosen here for the state party convention set for Memorial Day weekend in Jackson.

To wrap things up, Obama organizer Pat Lane (another youngster) made a call for volunteers. "We've seen in the West that Barack Obama is well-liked," he said, noting that he's won primaries/caucuses in Colorado, Nebraska and Idaho. "But we didn't do that -- it was folks like you." He noted that the best way to volunteer was as a precinct captain. That person talks to registered Dems in each precinct and gets them out to the caucus. He also said that volunteers of all kinds are needed, whether for the phone bank or walking neighborhoods.

The meeting broke up and I got in line to sign up as a precinct captain. I could tell that people were excited. I took this as a very good sign that Wyoming, and possibly the U.S., will get the kind of change that we need after eight years of the Bush-Cheney regime.

To get more info about the March 8 caucus/convention, call the county and state party office in Cheyenne at 307-634-9001.

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Super-Delegate!

Grumblings and petitions and angry posts about Democratic Party super-delegates are popping up all over the blogosphere. Democrats who work in the trenches and show up at meetings and cast votes in primaries are concerned that these odd creatures, super-delegates, will swoop into the national convention in August and negate all our hard work.

We have four SD's in Wyoming (correction 2/17: there are five). Governor Dave Freudenthal is one; another is state party chair John Millin. The others are (corrected 2/17) Pete Jorgensen, Cynthia Nunley, and Nancy Drummond. They are being courted by both the Obama and Clinton camps. What they're supposed to do is wait until the convention, determine the will of the Wyoming delegation, and then support that by casting their votes accordingly. Will that happen? Who knows. Some media outlets, such as CNN, are throwing super-delegate counts into their delegate numbers for Clinton and Obama. A petition is circulating urging CNN to stop that.

Another petition is over at moveon.org. It's designed to become a paid ad in USA Today. Here's the wording of the petition:

Hi, you've probably heard about the "superdelegates" who could end up deciding the Democratic nominee.The superdelegates are under lots of pressure right now to come out for one candidate or the other. We urgently need to encourage them to let the voters decide between Clinton and Obama—and then to support the will of the people. I signed a petition urging the superdelegates to respect the will of the voters. Can you join me at the link below?http://pol.moveon.org/superdelegates/?r_by=12150-1460962-nGQYmh&rc=comment_paste. Thanks!

I think all of the SD hubbub is another exciting aspect of an already stimulating election season. I am a bit paranoid that super-delegates could screw things up. Let's face it -- Dems are good at that, especially during presidential years. So be vigilant, fellow Democrats, and keep an eye on your own state's designated SD's. Chat with them, drop them notes, and tell them to butt out until August in Denver.

Clinton & Obama target WYO & MONT

On Montana's 4&20 Blackbirds, jhwygirl talks about the Obama-Clinton race, particularly how the battle is shaping up in her state of Montana and her former state of Wyoming. Here's an excerpt:

As LiTW reports today, Hillary is now hiring staff in Montana, Wyoming, and even Puerto Rico. [Matt] Singer says that he thinks that the staff is going to be up and running only for the primaries -- in other words, they’ll pull out or be redirected for the general. He’s probably right….and isn’t that ironic? Even though it has been shown that Dean’s 50-state strategy is really the way to go (flashback 2006), neither candidate will give it the respect it deserves -- until it’s in the rearview mirror. And even then -- only as much respect as they absolutely have to give it. (”Oops!”)

I hadn't heard about Hillary hiring Wyoming staff. But we do know that Barack Obama is opening offices in Cheyenne and Laramie (reported Tuesday). To back up the claim that the Democratic candidates are only interested in capturing delegates in the primaries, I heard through the grapevine that the Obama people have only leased their Cheyenne office for four months, which would take them through the Democratic state convention on Memorial Day weekend. Still, a short-term presence is at least some presence. It may encourage turnout at the county conventions, and raise Sen. Obama's profile in Wyoming. As for Ms. Clinton, her profile is pretty low among Wyomingites, even Dems. A few staffers roaming the state won't be enough to repair damage done a long time ago -- in the 1990s.

UW and GE sign deal on clean-coal project

The big coal-driven news yesterday was a deal between the University of Wyoming and General Electric Energy to develop an Advanced Coal Technology Center.

And in the Legislature, two bills about carbon sequestration passed first reading in the House.

The proposed GE Energy/UW project would, according to a UW press release, "consist of a small-scale gasification system that would allow UW and GE researchers to develop advanced coal gasification technology solutions for Powder River Basin (PRB) and other Wyoming coals."

There’s more:

GE’s cleaner-coal integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) and gasification technology... has been in use at the 230-megawatt TECO Polk I Station in Florida for more than 10 years. The company currently offers a 630-megawatt commercial-scale plant that produces 75 percent less Sox (oxides of sulfur), 33 percent less NOx (oxides of nitrogen), 40 percent less particulate matter, captures 90 percent more mercury and uses 30 percent less water than a pulverized coal plant. Duke Energy, AEP and other utilities in the eastern U.S. have committed to using GE's IGCC technology in proposed projects.

Florida is known more for its orange groves than coal fields, so citrus gasification would be a suitable route for the Sunshine State. But Wyoming produces more than 400 million tons of coal annually which, according to UW, "fuels more than 30 percent of the national electrical power generation needs."

Before this project can proceed, the GE/UW alliance is asking the Legislature for a $20 million match to build the plant outside of Laramie. Gov. Freudenthal backs the project, so do some legislators. My guess is that the Legislature will approve the funds.

While I would prefer that we should focus on conservation and alternative energy sources such as wind and solar, it’s not realistic to think that could replace carbon fuels overnight. Besides, the State of Wyoming’s budget is powered by carbon too, those royalties collected when oil and gas and coal are pulled out of the ground.

Both Wyoming and Montana are looking at clean-coal technologies. While they may be interim steps on the way to energy independence, we can’t forget that we can’t put global warming on hold while we work this stuff out.

Obama to open Cheyenne & Laramie offices

As the Democratic candidates hunt for every delegate, Wyoming enters the picture. According to Channel 5 tonight, Barack Obama is opening offices in Cheyenne and Laramie and sending a team to WYO to campaign during the three weeks remaining before the Democratic county conventions.

I watched Obama's speech tonight from Madison, Wisconsin. He had won the primaries/caucuses in Maryland, Virginia, and D.C. More than 18,000 people packed the university arena and cheered the candidate. In the background, you could see white and black and brown and young and middle-aged and maybe a few oldsters thrown in for good measure. It wasn't necessarily a fiery speech. He did note the victories, and also spent a little time trashing "Bush/McCain" policies on Iraq, the economy, climate change to name a few. I liked how he said "Bush/McCain." It's about time we began linking the two because four years of McCain will be like a repeat of George W. Bush. Bush has endorsed McCain as a "true conservative," and McCain has backed Bush's bankrupt policies in Iraq. He predicts that the U.S. may need troops in Iraq for 100 years. Let's bring them home now.

I listened to as much of McCain's victory speech as I could stomach. He swept all three states for the Repubs. He spoke in front of a half-dozen rapidly aging white folks, including John Warner. I guess he was somewhere in Virginia. All I hear when McCain speaks is "more of the same." Blah, blah, blah. He's 72, Obama's 46. This is the largest age gap we've ever had between major party presidential candidates. That tells you a lot.

Meanwhile, here in Wyoming, we're getting cranked up for our March 8 county gatherings. In Laramie County, we'll select 55 delegates for the state Democratic Party convention set for Memorial Day weekend in Jackson. These county confabs are going to be jammed. See you there!

Capturing carbon a big topic this year

So many bills, so little time.

There is much to keep track of during a 20-day legislative session. Day two hasn't even started and a whole list of things have already happened.

To narrow the scope of my reports, I'll concentrate on one subject and attempt to understand it by the end of the session. Carbon sequestration is intriguing, not only because of the terminology. If I understand it correctly, its aim is to capture the carbon dioxide emitted by coal-burning plants and store it underground until we can figure out what to do with it. So a better term would be Carbon Dioxide Sequestration or, for short, CO2 Storage. We'll work on the wording as the Legislature decides what to do with the bills on the subject it has approved thus far.

Yesterday, the Wyoming House okayed introduction of a bill that would give the state Department of Environmental Quality authority over "carbon injection and sequestration." Another approved bill would give surface owners rights to "any subsurface space that could be used for carbon injection."

As the carbon-based life forms in the Legislature debate the topic, I'll capture more news at this site. Sequestration will be kept to a minimum.

Keep tabs on Legislature via these sites

As noted earlier, the 2008 version of the Wyoming State Legislature convened today. Gov. Dave Freudenthal opened the session with his "State of the State" speech. In his blog on the Casper Star-Tribune's legislative web site, Capitol Bureau Chief Jared Miller noted that the speech was interrupted twice by applause -- at the beginning and at the end. It wasn't one of the Gov's best efforts, as he had to be dragged out of his sick bed to deliver it.

Even the most diehard political junkie should find all he/she/it needs at the Trib site and the state site. And Dems can get plenty to read via Bill Luckett's blog on the Wyoming Democratic Party web site. Get some local info on legislators, central committee meetings, and the March 8 county convention by clicking on Laramie County Democrats.

Now all we need is a webcam in each chamber. That may be a tad too much reality TV.

Wyoming Legislature opens 20-day session

The Wyoming State Legislature opens its 20-day budget session this morning. The governor's budget and an array of bills await their attention during this even-year "short session." Short session, maybe, but long days and nights for legislators.

The Governor presents his state of the state address this morning. You can watch in person at the State Capitol if you get there early. Most of us listen on the radio. While there are rumblings afoot that Wyoming's economy is slowing, Gov. Freuenthal plans to accentuate the positive, according to an AP story in this morning's local paper.

As we know from the national scene, these rumblings and rumors of doom-and-gloom can have major consequences. And it's a stark difference from the past four years, when we've entered the legislative session buoyed by visions of huge surpluses.

We have some major concerns about energy. New coal-fired plants are being scrubbed because of concerns about global warming. Actually, those fears have more to do with corporate paranoia about how a Democratic president might confront the real issue of global warming. Energy companies don't want to build huge coal-fired plants in Wyoming to take advantage of our low-sulphur coal, and then have to retrofit it in a couple years to comply with stricter regulations.

Naturally, carbon sequestering is going to be a big issue this session. Wind power, too, and how to regulate all the huge windmills going up across Wyoming to bring power to Colorado and California. Does Wyoming want to become one big windmill farm for the West? States such as California regulate windmills to deal with NIMBY complaints. Well, Wyoming doesn't want to continue being a cheap-energy plantation -- we've done enough of that already.

To the Legislature's credit, they've provided funds for the Energy Institute at the University of Wyoming. It's turned out to be a great forum for discussing all aspects of energy development, including global warming. Many of us thought it was going to be another good-ol' boys club for the oil, gas and coal industries.

One has to wonder about how much time the Legislature will devote to bills that cater to the Republican Party's pet topics: abortion, illegal immigration, school prayer, etc. There is one Republican bill that makes it a felony to assist illegal immigrants. Not sure what that means. If I give a quarter to an illegal immigrant, am I a felon? I'll have to look at the bill's wording before I ridicule it further.

Get more information about specific bills at http://legisweb.state.wy.us/. And call or e-mail your senator or rep about your concerns. In Wyoming, the best way to do that is when the Legislature is not in session and your legislators are close to home. That's most of the year. But feel free to contact them in the next 20 working days. You'll be glad you did.

Democrats shine light on Legislature; Republicans operate in the dark

From the Casper Star-Tribune:

Democratic legislators are inviting members of the public to attend their pre-session caucus Sunday at the Hitching Post Inn in Cheyenne.

The caucus begins at 1 p.m. At 2 p.m. people who attend will be invited to briefly address the legislators, caucus chairmen Rep. Ross Diercks and Sen. Mike Massie said in a release.

The Republican legislative caucus traditionally has been closed to the public. This year apparently will be no different. But Sen. Kit Jennings, R-Casper, chairman of the Senate Republican conference, said he will put the question on the agenda for discussion Sunday and see if the Republican legislators want to open the caucus next year.

Rep. Tom Lubnau, R-Gillette, chairman of the House Republican caucus, said he was polling House Republicans on the issue but said the caucus probably will remain closed.

Gov. Dave Freudenthal will talk to the Republican caucus at 1:45 p.m. Sunday, followed by a 2:15 p.m. address to the Democrats.

Romney withdraws, blames Democrats

Mitt Romney withdrew from the Republican race for president today. He took a good hard look at the delegate numbers and decided they didn't add up to victory.

He blamed Democrats (Repubs blame us for everything) for his early withdrawal, blasting Democratic Party candidates Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama as being weaklings on national security. Here are his exact words, according to the New York Times:

“They would retreat, declare defeat, and the consequences of that would be devastating.” Staying in the race, he said, “would make it easier for Senator Clinton or Obama to win.” Mr. Romney, who spent tens of millions of dollars of his fortune on the race, added, “Frankly, in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding the surrender to terror.”

So, if Romney stayed in the race, his campaign would aid "the surrender to terror?" His campaign would somehow strengthen the Democrats? Those tofu-eating surrender monkeys would then turn over the keys of American to the terrists, as Pres. Bush so eloquently labels everyone in the Islamic world.

Sounds illogical to me, but Mitt was speaking to the ultra-cons at the Conservative National Action Conference, who later booed the presumptive Republican nominee, war hero John McCain. This group is made up of the 32 percent of Americans who still approve of Bush's handling of the war in Iraq, the sinking economy, and pretty near everything else. Consider the audience....

Snowpack up, but water fights continue

A quick look at this morning's paper reveals that water (surprise!) remains the number one issue in the Rocky Mountain West.

The Cheyenne-Laramie County Regional Planning Commission yesterday voted down a subdivision of 146 ranchettes west of town due to lack of water. That's a surprise, since concerns about water availability hasn't seemed to slow the steady march of ranchettes across the county. Perhaps this signals a change in attitude, although we can be sure that Wild West Development Corp. of Scottsdale, Ariz., will not go away without a fight.

The state's snowpack is up. It's about 95 percent of average statewide compared to 75 percent of historical average this time last year. Good news for summer water supplies. Some places have more snow than others. There's 380 inches of snow at the top of Jackson Hole Ski Resort. Lots of snow all over the western part of the state. The North Platte drainage in the middle of the state is not as healthy, with snowpack about 90 percent of average.

Meanwhile, Montana and Wyoming continue their wrangling over the drought, mainly water supplies flowing from the Bighorn River. Montana is also concerned about coal-bed methane drilling along the border. Lots of water is pumped out of the ground in the drilling process.

A new report from the Wyoming State Geological Survey might alleviate some of Montana's water concerns. The report said that more than 130 billion gallons of water could be saved through an energy moratarium in two drainages: Clear Creek and Crazy Woman Creek. Water flows out of the Bighorn Mountains through those creeks into the Powder River Basin. The moratorium wouldn't have much of an affect on energy supplies but would have a big impact on water availability. The Powder River Basin Resource Council has been pushing for this. We'll see what happens.

Meanwhile, we can all hope that Wyoming and Montana can kiss and make up.

March 8 Dem caucus could carry clout

It could be standing room only at the March 8 caucus for the Laramie County Democrats.

With less than 100 delegates separating Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama after "Super Tuesday," each delegate will count as we churn forward to the Dems' national convention in Denver in August. So Wyoming Democrats will have a say, our voices amplified by the tightest presidential race in recent memory.

Even Kos at Big Kahuna Prog Blog Daily Kos sees Wyoming playing a role (although he shouldn't call our state "tiny" until he actually drives through it):

Hillary's task is to defeat Obama decisively on Tuesday. If she can't manage that, then her plan B is to survive February to fight in March. On Tuesday the 4th, Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas and Vermont go to the polls. Vermont appears the most competitive right now, though that will change with a couple of weeks to campaign in these states. Winning Ohio, in particular will be important for propaganda purposes.... Tiny Wyoming will go on Saturday March 8, with its 18 delegates perhaps actually mattering. Mississippi, with its 40 delegates, should be Obama territory on the 11th. Then...

So what does that mean for March 8? Big doins in Cheyenne. A record turnout at the caucus. Drama in the air. If you're a registered Democrat in Laramie County as of Feb. 22, you can come out and have your voice heard. Delegates will be selected to the state convention set for Memorial Day weekend in Jackson.

The county convention convenes on Saturday, March 8, at the University of Wyoming Family Practice Center, 821 E. 18th St., Cheyenne. Registration begins at 8 a.m. and activities commence in the auditorium at 9.

And remember: be kind to the volunteers. I'll be there early, working on the nominations committee.

Democrats gather March 1 for Ross banquet

The Wyoming Democratic Party has announced details for the Nellie Tayloe Ross Dinner and Awards Banquet in Cheyenne. The theme for this year's event is, "A Celebration of Women in Government and Politics." It's scheduled for Saturday, March 1, at the Historic Plains Hotel in downtown Cheyenne, 1600 Central Ave. Among the featured guests will be Wyo. Gov. Dave Freudenthal and First Lady Nancy Freudenthal, and the keynote speaker this year is U.S. Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, the South Dakota Democrat who is the youngest woman serving in Congress.

To reserve your tickets for the events, call 1-800-729-3367 or register online at http://www.wyomingdemocrats.com/.

The WDP has reserved a block of rooms at the Plains for $70 a night ($80 for a parlor room). For further information or to reserve a room, contact the hotel at 307-638-3311.

Gov. Freudenthal, Mrs. Freudenthal, and Rep. Herseth Sandlin will attend a private reception prior to the dinner. Tickets for this exclusive event, which begins at 5:30 p.m. at the Plains Hotel, are $100 a person.

The dinner itself will begin at 7 p.m., and tickets are $75 per person, or you and your group may choose one of the options offered for a table of eight.

FMI: Bill Luckett, WDP communications director, 307-631-7638.

In search of common-sense health plans

Nothing focuses a parent's attention like a kid in distress.

Our teen daughter was in the hospital recently. She's be all right, but I'm still fuming about my dealings with my insurance company. I've had the same health insurance for more than 16 years. The State of Wyoming and I have paid thousands and thousands of premiums over the years. So why is it when we really need it that the insurance company's first response seems to be: How can we get out of paying this? They don't actually say this, but it becomes obvious when you spend hour after hour talking to disembodied voices in Boise and Denver and Phoenix about covering the medical needs of a teen girl.

The system is archaic and stupid. The presidential condidates on both sides have health insurance plans. Not sure about Ron Paul with his libertarian roots. But all the rest do. It's Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama I'm concerned with. I'm going to actually read their health care proposals. Up until now, I've been content to let others describe them to me. But this is a huge issue, one that will become an even bigger monster as time passes and we Baby Boomers start falling apart. Read the candidates' health care plans? What a concept. For contrast, I'm going to check out the plans of Republican candidates. I may even compare and contrast the plans on these pages, provided my brain doesn't explode during the search for common-sense health care solutions.

Wish me luck.

Democrats hold "Super Tuesday" grand opening for new Cheyenne office

Happy Ground Hog Day!

Laramie County Democratic Party Chairman Mike Bell emerged from his super-secret bunker this morning, saw his shadow, and announced that the sun will shine on the Democrats during 2008.

That means it's time for The Party to party.

The LarCoDems invites the public to attend the grand opening of its new office at 117 W. 17th St. in Cheyenne on "Super Tuesday," Feb. 5, beginning at 6:30 p.m.

Democrats and others (Independents, for example -- even Republicans) from around the county are welcome to tour the headquarters, watch caucus and primary returns from across the nation, and enjoy snacks, beverages, and discussions about the future of our state and our country.

"This is the biggest presidential primary election day our country has ever seen," said Bell. "Democrats across the nation are energized by our candidates, which we can see in the record turnout out in the voting so far in the early primary states. We are looking forward to an exciting evening, and we are eager to show off our new office to anyone who wants to come by."

The Wyoming Democratic Party recently established the satellite office in downtown Cheyenne, and state party Executive Director Brandon Owens moved to Cheyenne to head up the new office. The official state party headquarters remains in Casper.

The downtown Cheyenne office also serves as the new headquarters for the Laramie County Democratic Party, which is sharing the space with the state party.

Contact: Chairman Mike Bell or Communications Director Nicole Novotny, LarCoDems HQ, 307-634-9001.