The eyes of the nation turn to... Wyoming

While the political eyes of the nation are riveted on primaries in South Carolina, Florida, and Nevada, let's not forget that Wyoming Democrats will be deciding 18 delegates and four super-delegates during the next five months. Unlike our brethren and sistren in the Wyoming Republican Party, we will take our full slate of delegates to the national convention. That's because we didn't monkey with our calendar to get a little extra publicity by luring presidential candidates to the state. The Wyoming Repubs did this, lost half their delegates, and only drew visits from a few candidates. Mitt Romney flew in, but he's almost a favorite son due to his Mormonism, and the western part of Wyoming is basically a Utah annex. Romney's son Josh owns a ranch in Wyoming, and participated in the Repubs' state convention in Cheyenne a few weeks ago.

So, the Wyoming Democratic Party calendar is full. We'll know our delegates at the end of Memorial Day weekend in Jackson. Who knows, the national race may still be undecided at this point and the lateness of our selection may actually give us some publicity. Our county party held a mock debate and straw poll last September and Barack Obama finished first, with Hillary Clinton way down the list. Don't count on too many Hillary delegates coming out of our state convention. But who knows -- maybe her support will increase as she gains delegates on the national scene.

If you wish to read the details of the WDP's delegate selection process, all 47 pages of it, go to http://www.wyomingdemocrats.com. Meanwhile, here's the party's list of key 2008 events:

February 22: Deadline to register as a Democrat in your county in order to participate in the county caucuses.

March 1: Delegate and alternate candidates may obtain statement of candidacy forms from this website or by calling the state party office at 800-729-3367.

March 8: County Caucuses and Conventions held, and Democrats attending the county conventions vote for their preferred presidential candidate.

April 30, 5 p.m.: Deadline for Democrats wishing to represent Wyoming at the 2008 Democratic National Convention to file statement of candidacy forms with the state party office.

May 23-24: State Convention in Jackson. Delegates to the state convention elect Wyoming's delegates and alternates to the national convention.

August 25-28: National Convention, Denver. Our party formally nominates its presidential candidate.

Books for stay-at-home sickos

I've grown tired of the world of contemporary novels. So, during my last trip to the Laramie County Public Library, I picked up a batch of anthologies. A good thing, too, as I finally fell victim to one of the many viruses floating around Cheyenne. I'm home, and I desperately need new reading material, lest I be lured into watching political news on the tube all day.

"Bronx Noir," edited by S.J. Rozan, got my attention because it features work by one of my favorite writers, Jerome Charyn. There are no Charyn books in the library or in our local bookstores. That could be due to the fact that the writer sets most of his work New York City. He's best known for his Isaac Slidel police novels. Before he turned to mysteries, Charyn was a "literary writer," which is usually the kiss of death when it comes to book sales. He also won an NEA creative writing fellowship way back when.

But he's not the only good writer in this anthology by Akashic Books. Hard-boiled Lawrence Block is in here, as well as Terrence Cheng with his great noirish story, "Gold Mountain," about a young Chinese man who jumps ship in New York Harbor with a suitcase full of his boss's cash.

"Wolf Woman Bay" (Carroll & Graf) boasts retro cartoon-like cover art and features 10 of "the finest crime and mystery novellas of the year." I skipped Ed McBain and Joyce Carol Oates and jumped into a story by Steve Hockensmith, who's a mystery to me. The title of his novella, "Gustav Amlingmeyer, Holmes of the Range," caught my attention. It features Miles City, Montana, cowboy detectives Big Red and Old Red. Big Red has been reading Sherlock Holmes to his illiterate brother, Old Red, and it exerts a big influence when there's a murder in town. Hockensmith writes in an easy-going style that flirts with folksiness. The novella is also epistolary (told in letter form), which you don't see much these days.

I don't know how steamy all the stories get in "Killing Me Softly: Erotic Tales of Unearthly Love," but the one I read -- "Jaguar Hunter" by Lucius Shepard -- barely scratches the surface of an "R" rating. The story is great, though, by one of the best contemporary sci-fi (or maybe speculative fiction) writers around. Shepard sets this in an unnamed Central American country, a setting for much of his work. Esteban is an Indian who only wants to give back a TV his wife bought from an unscrupulous store owner in town. But the owner talks him into killing a jaguar. It turns out to be harder that he thought. And much more mysterious. "Killing Me Softly" is a HarperPrism paperback.

Now, back to my reading...

What's $100 a barrel and rhymes with "toil?"

Pres. Bush met with our Saudi Arabian overlords today. And just what is the Prez whispering to King Abdullah? Or is that a kiss? Probably not. A kiss would have to be planted on another part of the king's anatomy.

Reuters had the lowdown:

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah hosts George W. Bush at his desert playground on Tuesday when the U.S. president will get a taste of how the royals live in the world's richest oil-producing monarchy.

Setting aside serious talk of Middle East peace, Iranian challenges and controversial arms deals that dominated day one of his visit, Bush will trade in his business suit for more casual attire and stay the night at the sprawling tent-like structure with walls made of silk.

Even the Arabian stallions the king raises at his Al Janadriyah "horse farm" near Riyadh lead lives of luxury. They are kept in climate-controlled, air-conditioned stables and are treated to aqua-therapy.

The special hospitality is for a U.S. president who hosted Abdullah as crown prince in Crawford, Texas, in 2002 and 2005.

When Bush walked arm-in-arm with Abdullah at his ranch nearly three years ago, oil cost $54 a barrel, a level the Saudi government admitted then was "clearly too high."

Oil is now hovering near $100 a barrel and many Americans are griping about their tax dollars helping to underwrite the defense of wealthy Gulf allies, so the issue may come up again.

Winning the West in 2008

McJoan wrote Sunday on Daily Kos about the presidential race in the West, concentrating on the Rocky Mountain states. The Democratic Party started its run for the White House by paying a lot of attention to the West, and providing money for state parties to beef up their staffs and outreach efforts. Wyoming's a great example of that. The state party has consistent leadership, and PR guy Bill Luckett does a good job of getting out the word, both in person and on the web. Howard Dean's 50-state strategy has helped Wyoming Democrats, although we're not too welcoming when he actually shows up in the state. But that's the key issue, isn't it? Democratic candidates in Wyoming need to be strong progressives but can't be seen as beholden to to the DNC. The only way Dems can win is to woo Republicans, Libertarians, and independents. Gov. Freudenthal did it twice in his campaigns. Former Gov. Mike Sullivan is another good example. Gary Trauner snagged a lot of votes in 2006 as the anti-Barbara Cubin. That won't be so easy this time, as Cubin is retiring.

McJoan made a lot of great points in her DK post. Here's a paragraph that rings true:

Finding avenues of nonpartisan, and even anti-partisan, appeal have been critical to the survival of the Western Democrat in the lean years since Ronald Reagan helped solidify the region as solidly red, as has keeping the national party at arm's length. The key for the Democratic Party in shaping a strategy for the 2008 elections will be allowing Democrats running in the region to run with a high degree of independence from the national party's message and structure. The key for national Democrats running in the West will be to find those issues that can be branded as Democratic and that uphold our progressive values.

Notice that she doesn't use the term "bipartisan." Here's why:

There is also the risk of misreading the basic anti-partisan orientation of these voters as a longing for bipartisanship. It's important to note that, in the context of this region, anti-partisan is not the equivalent of bipartisan. Western voters are highly pragmatic, looking for problem solvers first, and ideological debate is of less interest than action. Misreading this as some great yearning for comity can result in short-lived and uneasy compromises that erode the Democratic brand and end up diluting policies and programs. That doesn't have to happen. Voters in the Mountain West are more swayed by results than by process. Battles can be won, even in the most unlikely of places, by taking strong, principled, progressive stands.

Standing up for constitutional rights, a living wage, energy independence, etc., will go far in the West.

Give me some of that new-era science

After hearing about it on NPR's "Science Friday," I cast my vote of support for Science Debate 2008. Here's a short description of the project's goals:

Given the many urgent scientific and technological challenges facing America and the rest of the world, the increasing need for accurate scientific information in political decision making, and the vital role scientific innovation plays in spurring economic growth and competitiveness, we call for a public debate in which the U.S. presidential candidates share their views on the issues of The Environment, Health and Medicine, and Science and Technology Policy.

The web site features a long list of people who support the effort. It includes scientists, media people, politicians, and bloggers.

What's the likelihood of such a debate? Not bloody likely, as the Republican side has everything to lose and nothing to gain. A recent article in Reason Magazine revealed that all the Democratic candidates believe in evolution and most of the Republicans are on the side of the creationists and the so-called "Intelligent Design" curriculum. Reality-based vs. faith-based.

But hold on a minute. Reason also notes that all of the Democrats also believe in God, so they really fall into the category of "theistic evolutionists." In other words, Obama and Clinton and Edwards and Kucinich and all the candidates who've since dropped out believe that God plays a part in evolution.

That's the tack that the nuns and priests took at my Catholic school way back in the sixties. Evolution was a given, they said, but God's influence was in there somewhere. How much of a role did he/she/it play? After all, doesn't the Bible say that God created this whole mess in six days and rested on the seventh? My university-educated teachers all cautioned us not to take the Biblical account too literally. We should see it as a story, an illustration of the power of God the Creator. We should look at the term "day" as metaphorical. Who's to say what a day means to God? It could be a millisecond; it could be five billion years. This brings to mind the courtroom exchanged in "Inherit the Wind."

The contemporary Catholic Church has fallen into the clutches of its anti-abortion allies in the Religious Right. The Bible has crept back into everyday Catholic teachings, and that doesn't allow for any metaphors. Metaphors out, dogma in. Rigidity, too. That's why so many practicing Catholics have gone over to The Dark Side.

Let's have this 2008 science debate! Sing with me now. "Give me that new-era science, give me that new-era science...."

CAPTION: In the 17th century painting by Guido Reni (above), St. Michael (my namesake) is shown subduing science-loving Liberal Catholics, driving them out of Wyoming and into Denver, where they all become Democrats. This is metaphorical, of course.

Plan for the future, not the past

On Thursday and Friday, Gov. Dave Freudenthal convened his "Building the Wyoming We Want" conference in Casper. Casper Star-Tribune correspondent Brodie Farquhar covered the event and reported in Saturday’s paper that almost 500 people attended. That’s probably why I couldn’t get in and had to settle for a waiting list. It also helps if you don’t wait until the last minute for these things.

It appears that the main point learned at this conference was this: Wyoming has to plan for the future. Lest you think that "planning for the future" is a redundancy, remember that one of the state’s favorite bumper-sticker slogans is: "Wyoming is what America was."

The Governor asked the audience to go home with two concepts:

One, a successful planning process will evolve over time, as thinking and conditions change.

Two, "We can control our own future," Freudenthal said, although that belief has been waylaid in the past by fears of today's boom turning into tomorrow's bust. If Wyoming can successfully figure out how to allocate resources, how to pay for open space and wildlife, how to pay for education, then surely the state can get a handle on growth, he said.

Freudenthal promised the audience that he'd continue to work on a supportive structure for communities what want to plan their future.

I’m hoping that plenty of legislators were on hand to hear this. They too often seem to be planning for the past. The Republicans just love stashing away money in the rainy day fund. We need to spend on infrastructure now. The Joint Appropriation Committee began holding hearings in Cheyenne this opast week and will be meeting until the Legislature convenes on Feb. 11.

To read Brodie’s entire CST article, go to http://www.trib.com/articles/2008/01/12/news/wyoming/.

January 11: Close Guantanamo

Republicans think like it's 1899

Bill Luckett, blogger for the Wyoming Democratic Party, led off his Jan. 9 news digest with a piece about Teton County Republican goals. You just have to ask: what century are these people living in? On what planet do they dwell? Here's the excerpt:

Next, we have this piece from the Jackson Hole News & Guide, which demonstrated to all the people of Teton County just how out of touch their local Republican leaders are (I’ve included the entire piece below, because it’s just two sentences):

GOP goals: Abolish the federal income and estate taxes, deport illegal immigrants who are stopped by police, dissolve the Teton County Housing Authority, and begin planning for another bridge over the Snake River to the west bank. Teton County Republicans voted for these and other positions Saturday as they set their platform for the upcoming election cycle.

N.H. voters voted for... CHANGE!

I've kind of lost touch with Dave Barry and his very funny Miami Herald columns. Seems he was covering the recent New Hampshire primaries from a hotel room while eating Cheez-Its, or so he says. This column serves as an antidote to all the very serious N.H. post-mortems we've been getting for the past two days:

The voters of New Hampshire have made their decision, and the big winner is:
Change. Here's the final vote tally:
Change -- 43 percent
Hope -- 28 percent
Hope For Change -- 17 percent
Hair -- 9 percent
Experience -- 2 percent
Dennis Kucinich -- 1 percent

Now it's time for the politicians and the press to drop New Hampshire like an ant-covered corn dog and sprint for the airport, leaving the residents of The Granite State to spend the rest of the winter plucking 239 billion candidate signs out of their snowbanks, all the while wondering if there ever really was a candidate named ''Mike Gravel,'' or if that was just teenagers playing a sign-planting prank.

Mr. Barry also took a little time to dissect the Hillary Clinton "crying incident," also referred to as the "welling-of-the-tears incident." You decide the proper terminolgy:

Meanwhile there are many unanswered questions about the races in both parties. On the Democratic side: Is Barack Obama for real? Or is he, as sources inside the Hillary Clinton campaign have suggested, a hologram formed by laser beams? Is the nation truly ready for a hologram president? And speaking of Hillary Clinton: When her eyes appeared to well up with tears during a campaign appearance at a New Hampshire diner, was that real welling? Or did she fake the welling? If she did, in fact, well, do we know for certain that those were her own personal tears? Why was no sample made available to the media for testing?

Lest you think he just picks on Democrats:

Among the unanswered questions on the Republican side are: Is John McCain, at 117, too old and cranky to be president? Like, during the White House Easter Egg Roll, would he come outside in his bathrobe and yell, ''You kids get off my lawn!'' Does Mitt Romney contain any human DNA whatsoever? Does he, for example, burp? Can he emit bodily aromas? And is there any TV show that Mike Huckabee will NOT appear on? Are we going to see him one of these nights on Deal or No Deal?

Hillary Clinton fans and "Girl Power!"

My wife is ecstatic about Hillary Clinton's win in the New Hampshire primary. "Girl Power!" she kept shouting all morning. "But," says I, "Barack Obama leads in the delegate count -- and don't forget about John Edwards." "Girl Power," she says. My daughter wishes she could vote in this presidential election but will have to wait until 2012. "Girl Power!" she shouts as she shuffles off the school.

I couldn't think of anything clever to say. "It ain't over 'til it's over," comes to mind. Or as John Edwards said last night: "There are 48 states left to vote." That would be 47 for the Republicans, as the Wyoming Repubs had their say last Saturday.

On to the rest of the primaries!

McGovern: Impeach Bush & Cheney

South Dakota's George McGovern -- writer, bomber pilot, senator and presidential candidate -- wrote an illuminating column for Sunday's Washington Post. In it, he calls publicly for the impeachment of our fearful leaders -- and gives all the reasons why it's high time we did so. In the process, he says a few nice things about his old nemesis, Richard Nixon:

I have not been heavily involved in singing the praises of the Nixon administration. But the case for impeaching Bush and Cheney is far stronger than was the case against Nixon and Vice President Spiro T. Agnew after the 1972 election. The nation would be much more secure and productive under a Nixon presidency than with Bush. Indeed, has any administration in our national history been so damaging as the Bush-Cheney era?

How could a once-admired, great nation fall into such a quagmire of killing, immorality and lawlessness?

Read the rest at the Washington Post on the Jan. 6 op-ed pages.

I cast my first vote for president in the 1972 election. I hadn't thought about lately, but it just ocurred to me that it involved a race between two Westerners: Nixon from California and McGovern from South Dakota. I know that some consider S.D. more Great Plains that High Plains. But the western one-third of the state is more mountainous than many places in eastern Wyoming. And McGovern has written extensively about the region, most notably in his book about the Ludlow Massacre in Colorado.

What other presidential election has pitched West vs. West? We certainly won't have one this time, unless John McCain or Duncan Hunter is matched up against Bill Richardson or Mike Gravel (is he still in the race?). Not likely....

Go, Dennis, Go!

Special Kucinich TV spot available at http://www.usalone.com/kucinich_tv.php

A man of great courage. Too radical to get elected, Democrats say, and too short. Too bad he's been so marginalized by his own party. It would be great to see him win the Democratic Party primary in New Hampshire. My second choice for great N.H. happenings would be a first place finish by John Edwards with second place to Barack Obama. I don't dislike Hillary Clinton. In fact, after today's film clip from N.H., I feel sorry for her as I admire the hell out of her. Alas, her time has come and gone.

FMI: http://www.kucinich4president.com.

Dems watch N.H. primaries Jan. 8

We had such an uplifting time last Thursday during our local "Iowa Caucus Night Party" that we're going to do it again tomorrow night. Join the Laramie County Democrats on Tuesday, Jan. 8, 6-10 p.m. for our "New Hampshire Primary Results Party." We'll gather at the bar at Little America in Cheyenne out in the prairie where I-80 and I-25 connect. Everyone is welcome. The discussion are sure to be lively.

FMI: Nicole Novotny, LCD Communications Director, 307-514-4685.

Local Democrats digest Iowa results

Local Democrats held an informal "Iowa Caucus Party" last Thursday at C.B. & Potts in Cheyenne. I was late to the party, so I skipped the ribs and dove into a flagon of Buttface Amber Ale. We watched two sets of results on two TVs. The good TV showed FOX with its Republican noisemakers such as William Kristol. The other TV, which was as old as Dick Clark, carried MSNBC with Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann. I made the wrong choice and sat facing FOX. I quickly switched seats and engaged in a lively conversation about the Iowa results. Most of the 20-or-so Dems in attendance seemed pleased that Barack Obama took the convincing win. In the fall of ought-seven, Obama had finished first in the Laramie County Democrats straw poll. I was happy to see that John Edwards made a convincing number-two showing, although he finished neck-and-neck with Hillary Clinton.

I was distressed that Kucinich didn't even place. Predictable but still distressing. Kucinich has the best policies of any of the Democratic Party candidates. His stands against the Iraq War and in support of the U.S. Constitution have pushed him to the fringe. His own party has been complicit in this, as you'll notice that Kucinich was nowhere to be seen in the New Hampshire debate. Kucinich is a good man, a brave man. He'd be a radical alternative to what we have now. That's not saying much, I know.

Who attended the caucus party? Local party officers. Union members. Gubment workers such as myself. An Air Force veteran who now flies for United Airlines. Several candidates for public office in ought-eight. A Boston Red Sox fan. A poet. A Vietnam veteran. A young rabble-rouser. A Colorado refugee. A rancher. An historian.

All Americans. People trying to take back their country.

You too can get involved. The next meeting of the Laramie County Democrats will be on Tuesday, Jan. 29, 7 p.m., at the Historic Plains Hotel in downtown Cheyenne. Our county convention will be March 8 and the state convention will be Memorial Day weekend in Jackson. Get statewide news on Bill Luckett's blog at the Wyoming Democratic Party site.

It's Mitt and Fred for WYO Republicans

This comes from Denver Post Online:

Mitt Romney captured his first win of the Republican presidential race on Saturday, prevailing in Wyoming caucuses for a much-needed boost to his candidacy three days before the New Hampshire primary. "This is just the beginning," he declared.

The former Massachusetts governor won eight delegates, former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson got three and California Rep. Duncan Hunter won one.

"The people of Wyoming took the first step towards bringing true conservative change to Washington," Romney said in a statement. "I am honored to have won many of the first delegates awarded this primary season. As the Republican nominee, I promise to fight to seat all of Wyoming's delegates at the national convention." The victory was a welcome development for Romney, coming two days after his loss to Mike Huckabee in the Iowa caucuses and three days before the first-in-the-nation primary in New Hampshire. Those two states have attracted most of the political attention. Wyoming had scheduled its GOP county conventions earlier to attract candidates to the state but had only modest results.

Romney visited Wyoming in August and November and three of his five sons campaigned in the state. One son, Josh Romney, owns a ranch in southwest Wyoming.

Searching for Republican bumper stickers

I prowled the Cheyenne Holiday Inn parking lot this morning searching for signs who the local Republicans might prefer as they hold today's county convention. The results will be available on the local evening news. But if bumper stickers are any bellwether, only Mitt, Fred and Ron are going to get votes. I spied one Mitt 08, one Fred 08, and one Ron Paul. To be fair, the big black truck with the Ron Paul sticker had several of them, including a placard and the legend "Ron Paul for Freedom" scrawled across its windows. The truck bore a Colorado license plate. I did see a bumper sticker that read "Christmas: an American Tradition." I suppose that the sticker is a sign that at least one Republican convention-goer agrees with Pat Robertson and Bill O'Reilly that there's a war on Christmas. This war, according to the fundies and Fixed News, is waged by secularists against god-fearing traditionalists. In reality, if there's a war against the Christian Christmas, it's being waged by rich Republican corporate CEOs. Those same people that are funding the campaigns of the candidates running today in the Laramie County Republican convention. You could say that Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee are not in the pockets of corporate special interests. But just wait...

Revisiting 1968 in 2008

Yet another column about 1968 (40 years gone) and its impact upon the U.S.A. Written by Bob Herbert on the New York Times web site. It does include a few mistakes. "The Sound of Music," for instance, was not released in 1968 but in 1965. Just ask my wife, the world's number one SOM fan. Besides that, though, Herbert's column is a good one. Go here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/01/opinion/01herbert.html?_r=2&ref=opinion&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Reagan on Rushmore could mean a boost to Wyoming tourism

Jim Hightower, "America's No. 1 Populist," revisited the Ronald Reagan presidency in his year-end column:

"I must admit that the seven-year reign of Bush & Company makes me yearn for the years of Ronald Reagan, when the term “conservative” merely meant right wing, rather than full-tilt, bull-goose loopy."

He's a bit shocked that there's a movement afoot to add Reagan's image to that of Jefferson, Washington, Teddy Roosevelt, and Lincoln on Mount Rushmore. Hate to tell you this, Jim, but certain Reagan idol-worshippers have been at this since 1988, when The Gipper left D.C. for his California ranch. But now there's a web site devoted to the cause: “Put Reagan On Rushmore in your home or office." Go to http://www.reaganrushmore.com/. I was going to copy and paste the image but I didn't want to be responsible for spreading it around.

But hey, if you look at it from a Wyoming tourism P.O.V., it's not such a bad idea. Reagan fans from all over would be drawn to the Black Hills during the construction phase, which could take up to five years. Once the giant head is completed, it will receive a constant stream of traffic until the end of time. The most direct auto routes to Mount Rushmore from Orange County, California, take you through Wyoming. Even those voyagers taking the southern route through Colorado would have to transverse the southeastern corner of WYO, where I live. Gas prices will be, like, $10 a gallon by then, so we can siphon off some of that dough from Hummer 5's and the giant SUVs of the future.

Makes you wonder what other GOP hero could be added to Mount Rushmore. Perhaps the beady-eyed visage of Karl Rove? He wasn't technically a president, but he was George W. Bush's "Brain." Maybe we could just stick the brain up there. The actual brain.

Beware of that "brief flash of fear"

I'm a sucker for good literary references. It's the English major in me. Possibly no book has been more abused in this arena than George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. It's the no-brainer lit reference for our times, the era of John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzalez, true champions of the abridged Republican version of the Bill of Rights.

But here's a good one regarding new security methods in use by the Transportation Satety Administration. It was posted Jan. 1 by Avram Grumer at Making Light:

George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Part 1, Chapter 5:
He did not know how long she had been looking at him, but perhaps for as much as five minutes, and it was possible that his features had not been perfectly under control. It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself — anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face (to look incredulous when a victory was announced, for example) was itself a punishable offence. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: facecrime, it was called.

Us, now:
TSA officials will not reveal specific behaviors identified by the program — called SPOT (Screening Passengers by Observation Technique) — that are considered indicators of possible terrorist intent.

But a central task is to recognize microfacial expressions — a flash of feelings that in a fraction of a second reflects emotions such as fear, anger, surprise or contempt, said Carl Maccario, who helped start the program for TSA.

“In the SPOT program, we have a conversation with (passengers) and we ask them about their trip,” said Maccario from his office in Boston. “When someone lies or tries to be deceptive, … there are behavior cues that show it. … A brief flash of fear.”

Looking ahead to ought-eight

As promised, here are my predictions for 2008.

The Bush Administration will decide to dis-invade Iraq, discovering that the long-suspected weapons of mass destruction are in Iran.

We invade Iran.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan.

Not to mention Osama bin Laden.

Barack Obama will be elected president. His vice president is Bill Richardson.

Wyoming Republicans exported to D.C. for the Bush presidency make plans to return to their home state to make mischief of one kind or another. Dick Cheney begins moving out of the V.P Mansion. He and his cabal of ousted neo-cons start making plans to invade Idaho.

For the first time since the 1970s, a Democrat is elected to Wyoming’s lone U.S. House seat. Gary Trauner pledges that he won’t let down his adopted state.

The Republicans in the Wyoming State Legislature, faced with crises in health care, meth addiction, transportation, and education, spend most of their time proposing bills outlawing gay marriage, "fetal homicide," evolution, global warming, stem-cell research, and Democrats. Their only success is the "Why Do They Hate God and Our Troops?" measure, which bans for life all Democrats currently registered in the state.

I move to Colorado. I conspire with my fellow exiles to invade Wyoming. The plot is exposed by an FBI mole (an actual mole named Ralph fitted with high-tech snooping devices) and we are all sent to Gitmo.

We await full pardons from Pres. Obama.

Happy New Year!