5 years on, Iraq policy doesn't have a prayer

President Bush is storming the country this week making excuses for his five-year-old Iraq War. Today, he talked to the National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Nashville, where I’m sure he got a rousing chorus of "Amen -- now pass the ammunition."

And now comes something completely different, Christianity-wise.

The following is on the Sojourners’ web site, and includes a call to sign a petition:

This season of Lent, we are truly living "in darkness and in the shadow of death" (Luke 1:78-79) as we mark, on March 19, the fifth anniversary of the war with Iraq. It is a war that is being waged by our country, financed by our taxes, and fought by our sisters and brothers. As U.S. Christians, we issue a call to the American church to lament and repent of the sin of this war.

We lament the suffering and violence in Iraq....
We lament the effects of this war on our country....
We repent of our failure to fully live the teaching of Jesus to be peacemakers....
We believe repentance means more than just being sorry....
We dedicate ourselves to the biblical vision of a world in which nations do not attempt to resolve international problems by waging war on other nations....

Sign on now at http://go.sojo.net/campaign/iraqstatement

How many delegates does Wyoming have?

Bill Luckett, communications director of the Wyoming Democratic Party, sent out an e-mail this weekend as a reminder of how the state's Dem delegates are partitioned. Here are the numbers:

Eighteen delegates, breaks down to six unpledged delegates, and 12 pledged delegates.

UNPLEDGED DELEGATES

Five "superdelegates." These people are entitled to go to the convention, and they do not have to pledge support for any candidate. Wyoming's superdelegates are Gov. Dave Freudenthal, state party Chairman John Millin, state party Vice Chair Nancy Drummond, National Committeeman Pete Jorgensen, and National Committeewoman Cynthia Nunley.

One "unpledged party leader/elected official." This person is entitled to go to the convention, and he/she does not have to pledge support for any candidate. The state party chairman will nominate one or more people for this delegate position, and the person will be elected by the delegates to the Democratic State Convention on May 23-24.

PLEDGED DELEGATES

Seven "district-level delegates" (and three alternates). They will be awarded to the presidential candidates based on the percentage of the vote each receives statewide in the March 8 county caucuses/conventions, with the allocation to each candidate to reflect the vote as closely as possible. This is based on the raw vote totals, or the popular vote, NOT the number of delegates to the state convention.

Three "at-large delegates." (and one alternate). They will be awarded to the presidential candidates based on the vote by the delegates at the Democratic State Convention on May 23-24. The delegates to the state convention, and which candidates they are pledged to support, will be determined within each county based on the percentage of the vote each candidate receives at the March 8 county caucuses/conventions.

Two "pledged party leader/elected officials." They will be awarded to the presidential candidates based on the vote by the delegates at the Democratic State Convention on May 23-24. The delegates to the state convention, and which candidates they are pledged to support, will be determined within each county based on the percentage of the vote each candidate receives at the March 8 county caucuses/conventions.

Dems been down so long, it looks like up

Mcjoan, writing in Daily Kos on the eve of the Wyoming caucuses, did a pretty thorough job of dissecting the situation. She wrapped up with this:

The challenge for Wyoming Democrats, just as it is for Idaho Dems, will be to capture the enthusiasm of new and reinvigorated Wyoming voters in actually being relevant in a presidential campaign, and to harness it to carry through November and beyond. An invigorated and involved Democratic base could make this the election that sends Blue Majority candidate Gary Trauner to Congress.

Maintaining enthusiasm – that’s the challenge for Wyoming Democrats. That goes for Obama and Clinton supporters. I was impressed at the intense campaign waged by the Obama team here in Cheyenne. Those people were organized and they brought fire to the cause. Every Dem household in the state received a phone call. All doors were knocked on. I’ve talked to lots of people received multiple phone calls. When we brought this up to field director Pat Lane, he had an interesting response, one I’d never thought about. He said that supporters won’t be dissuaded by multiple phone calls. They may get testy, but they can be counted on to vote. A second or third call might sway an undecided voter, or it may remind Dems to get out to the polls. Independents and Libertarians may get angry, but it also may get them to the polls. Republicans may see multiple calls as harassment. But what the heck – why not irritate a Republican? Any Wyoming Democrat who hasn't been cussed out on the phone (or in person) by a Republican can't really call himself/herself a Dem.

But Wyomingites never received the amount of calls that Iowans did in the months leading up to its primary. Households received calls from all the candidates multiple times. And they turned out in record numbers this year.

The message is clear. It takes a well-organized and well-funded campaign to win an election. Democrats in Wyoming have been down so long it looks like up to us. Many had just given up. It took a lot of effort to get them out of their lethargy – but they did come out. Almost 8,700 votes were cast statewide. In the 2004 county conventions, less that 700 votes were cast. The 2008 numbers are 12 times those of 2004. Some of those reflect people who switched parties, a Republican or Independent registering as a Dem and who will probably switch back before November. But most of those voters were either new registrants or newly-motivated Dems or people so fed up with the Republican Party that they switched and won’t go back. I know several of those in Cheyenne.

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.