Guess which Wyo. Rep. voted against The Credit Card Holders Bill of Rights?

Trick question.

There's only one U.S. House member from the State of Wyoming. That's right. Cynthia Lummis, looking after the state's citizens by voting against a bill that would put the brakes on predatory practices of the credit card industry.

She was one of only 70 House naysayers, all Republicans but one. She was joined by the likes of Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), who thinks that Matthew Shepard's murder had nothing to do with him being gay. Other free-thinkers voting against this consumer-protection bill were Michelle Bachmann (R-Minn.), who once called for an "anti-American" investigation into Democratic Party members of Congress, and Ted Poe (R-Texas), who believes that waterboarding prisoners is a fine idea. What great company Ms. Lummis keeps.

Here are excerpts from an AP story by Marcy Gordon about the Credit Card Holders' Bill of Rights:

Riding a crest of populist anger, the House on Thursday approved a bill to restrict credit card practices and eliminate sudden increases in interest rates and late fees that have entangled millions of consumers.

The legislation passed by a bipartisan vote of 357-70 following lobbying by President Barack Obama and members of his administration.

The measure would prohibit so-called double-cycle billing and retroactive rate hikes and would prevent companies from giving credit cards to anyone under 18.

If they become law, the new measures won't take effect for a year, except for a requirement that customers get 45 days' notice before their interest rates are increased. That would take effect in 90 days.Similar legislation is before the Senate, where its prospects appear promising.

Consumer advocates and some Democrats have unsuccessfully sought for years to
bring new rules to the industry. "A big vote in the House will create an even bigger momentum as it goes to the Senate," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters.

Before approving the bill, dubbed the Credit Card Holders' Bill of Rights, the House adopted a series of amendments -- some of which were pushed by the White House -- that amplified the restrictions on industry practices.

The House measure incorporates Federal Reserve regulations due to take effect in July 2010 but goes further by adding restrictions for credit cards for college students. Double-cycle billing eliminates the interest-free period for consumers who move from paying the full balance monthly to carrying a balance.

Wyoming Rep. Cynthia Lummis votes against Matthew Shepard Act

Matthew Shepard, the Casper native who was murdered in 1998 in Laramie

Today, the U.S. House overwhelmingly passed the the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act, also known as the Matthew Shepard Act.

Matthew Shepard's mother Judy Shepard, a Casper resident, responded to the decision saying, "No one should face violence simply because of who they are. This bill is a critical step to erasing the hate that has devastated far too many families."

U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO), vice chair of the LGBT Equality Caucus and co-sponsor of the measure, said: “Every hate crime is an attack on the liberty and equality valued by every American. This legislation will provide state and local law enforcement agencies with resources they need to investigate and prosecute hate crimes, while also protecting the exercise of free speech and religious expression provided under our Constitution.”

Matthew Shepard, oldest son of Dennis Shepard and Judy Shepard, was born in Casper on December 1, 1976. He attended Crest Hill Elementary, Dean Morgan Junior High, and the first two years of high school at Natrona Co. H.S., Dick and Lynne Cheney's alma mater. He was a member of St. Mark's Episcopal Church.

On the cold night of Oct. 6, 1998, he was followed when leaving a gay bar, beaten up, tied to a fence and left for dead. The girlfriends of the two young men arrested testified that they had targeted Shepherd because he was gay.

Wyoming's lone representative in the U.S. House, Cynthia Lummis, is from Cheyenne and graduated from the University of Wyoming, the same school attended by Matthew Shepard. Today, she joined her Know-Nothing colleagues (a.k.a. Republicans) in the House and voted against the Matthew Shepard Act.

Shame on you, Cynthia Lummis. Shame.

You're no better than Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) who spoke against the House legislation by saying that the story that Matthew was murdered because he was gay is a "hoax" played on the American people. This "hoax" idea is a popular theme on wingnut blogs.

Those must be the blogs that Rep. Lummis reads.

Rain today, hurricanes tomorrow in Wyoming

Chris Boswell talk to the LarCoDems last night and depressed the heck out of us.

Maybe it was just me. Fortunately, I'm always heavily medicated, a prerequisite for Wyoming Dems.

Ten percent budget cuts for state government in FY 2010. More severe cuts later on. "It may be raining tioday, but it's really going to rain tomorrow." State collecting less money on mineral taxes. Natural gas was selling for $8 per Mcf a year ago and now it's down to $2.37 Mcf. The companies are still pumping out the gas and selling it for less, even though a dramatic oversupply is predicted for this summer. Other mineral prices are down, although Wyoming is selling its coal like there's no tomorrow.

And there may not be.

Greenhouse gases. Global warming. Alternative energy. These are not welcome terms in Wyoming. Boswell mentioned that one of three main companies digging up our low-sulphur coal is a global warming-denier -- and actively works against any new legislation on CO2 emissions.

That may have been fine in the Bush Administration, when every federal office had an open-door policy for energy companies.

But that's changed. There are some coal-producing states that have a seat at Obama's table. Illinois, for instance, the president's old stomping ground. West Virginia (Sen. Byrd!) and Kentucky, too. Dare I say Pennsylvania and its new Dem senator? Our neighbor to the north has two Democratic senators who support coal -- and a powerful and popular Governor who has all sorts of way-out plans for King Coal.

Who is representing Wyoming and its magnificent low-sulphur coal at these meetings? Sen. Enzi is busy with health care reform and, to his credit, working on it in a bipartisan manner. The almost-rookie, Sen. John Barrasso, is too busy ragging about Obama on Fixed News. Too bad, Boswell says, because "he's an intelligent man." A physician, too, and a big supporter of the Muscular Dystrophy Association who votes against stem-cell research and tows the Repub line on just about everything -- including global warming.

Rep. Lummis? She votes against anything that comes across her desk. A lost cause, just like her predecessor.

Boswell noted that it doesn't help that the "Big Three" coal conglomerates that operate in Wyoming haven't done a good job promoting their product -- and investing in clean coal technologies.

That has to change if Wyoming is going to keep selling its energy products. It's the taxes on oil and gas and coal and trona that keeps the state afloat. The impregnable Repub fortress that is our legislature won't raise taxes, not even on gasoline (one of the lowest taxes on gas in the U.S.). They won't spend any money unless there's a zillion-dollar surplus, as there has been in the past four years or so. We need to spend more on renewable energy sources and then figure out a tax structure for them.

Wyoming is on the wrong end of history, energy-wise. Otherwise, too, now that the president that I helped elect is making the decisions, backed by a huge Dem majority in Congress.

Next time: impact of the stimulus bill on Wyoming.

New Dem Chair supports Pres. Obama's higher-education plan

This is the second press release I've received from Leslie Petersen, the new chair of the Wyoming Democratic Party. Thing is, she's been in office for less than two weeks. Hope she keeps up the pace.

In this release, Leslie supports Pres. Barack Obama's higher education plan, which was presented on Friday.

Said Leslie:

“Students in Wyoming – like young people all across America – are struggling to cope with the skyrocketing cost of higher education. In recent decades tuition has grown ten times faster than a typical family’s income – putting an undue strain on families and making the cost of higher education too expensive for far too many.

“At the same time, students are competing in a global marketplace with countries like China and India, and we need to ensure that the American workforce has the tools to rise to the challenge. That’s why the President today announced a plan to make college more affordable and to continue his administration’s historic investment in America’s future.

“President Obama has already enacted legislation making the cost of college more affordable by making working families eligible for a $2,500 tax credit to help offset the cost of tuition, modernizing and expanding federal loan programs and reforming the Pell Grant program. The plan the President announced today to eliminate waste in the current loan programs and expand Pell Grants will help ensure that more students can afford college and that our system is as efficient as possible.

“As unemployment rises, a college degree is more important than ever. We must do
everything we can to make sure all eligible students can get the education they need to succeed. We are thankful that with President Obama at the helm, we are much closer to making the dream of an affordable college education a reality.”

If only our all-Repub Congressional delegation would get behind this plan. At one point, Sen. Enzi was a champion of education. But I suspect that the Know-Nothings in his party got to him.

We already know that Sen. Barrasso and Rep. Lummis are too busy sucking up to the wingnuts to be of any help on this issue.

Cheney and Yellowstone wolves prowl Wyoming

Dear Democratic Party of the USA:

I understand that you are still trying to raise $202 to send former Veep and Unrepentant Scourge of Humanity Dick Cheney back to Wyoming.

How goes the fund-raising? I'm sure that Marylanders are excited, as it will rid them of Cheney. But Donald Rumsfeld will remain. How can you get rid of one scourge but leave the other one in the neighborhood? Your strategy is flawed.

Let's leave Cheney where we can keep an eye on him. Once he gets loose in Wyoming, there's no telling where he may end up. You know the story of the wolves released into Yellowstone. The National Park Service told the wolves two things: don't wander out of the park boundaries and don't kill any cows or Republicans. Did the wolves listen? No, they have wandered far and wide. There were reports last week that the carcass of a Yellowstone wolf was found in northwestern Colorado. Panic gripped Casper last week. A wolf pack had been spotted and alarums raised throughout Natrona County. One elderly resident of Casper swears that she saw a Yellowstone wolf sipping a pina colada at a downtown bar. His hair was perfect.

On the second count, the wolves have killed a number of cows. No Republicans -- human variety -- have fallen victim to wolf predation. It is, however, a matter of time.

See how difficult it is to corral a predator once it's let loose back into the wild? It's entirely possible that the former Veep will not stay put in his mountain redoubt but will prowl the territory, looking for fresh Democratic blood. He will have many choices in Jackson. But once he wanders outside Teton County into the Repub strongholds of Sublette and Lincoln counties, he may very well end up like the wolf that starved to death in Colorado.

Please, keep Cheney where he can be tagged and observed. You owe that to the citizenry of Wyoming, especially the Dems who worked so hard to elect Barack Obama.

Sincerely,

Fairly Frightened in WYO

Young Democrats rally Tuesday at UW

Bill Luckett sends this announcement:

Democrats at the University of Wyoming plan to hold a press conference tomorrow to discuss the impact of President Obama’s investments in education on students in Wyoming.

TIME: Tuesday, April 28, 2009, 12:15 p.m.

PLACE: University of Wyoming, Simpson Plaza, in front of the Wyoming Union

CONTACT:
Dana Walton, Chair, Young Democrats of Wyoming, 307-258-1825
Rey Fuentes, Vice Chair, Young Democrats of Wyoming, 307-679-4125
Bill Luckett, Executive Director, Wyoming Democratic Party, 307-631-7638

One suggestion. Support Barack Obama's plan for student loans, which boots out the mercenary private lenders and makes more federal funds available through Pell Grants.

For more, go to http://hummingbirdminds.blogspot.com/2009/04/pres-obama-takes-on-student-loan.html

Colorado's got a fever for Wyoming's water

Some guy named Million wants to suck millions of gallons of Green River water from Wyoming to water lawns in Colorado.

No kidding, this water entrepreneur's name is Aaron Million and he came up with this keen idea in grad school to relieve Wyoming of its water.

That's not sitting too well with Wyomingites, especially those in the southwest part of the state.

Great column on the subject by Walt Gasson in today's Wyoming Tribune-Eagle. He's a Sweetwater County native and the head of the Wyoming Wildlife Federation.

Lots of people fish in the Green River. The Flaming Gorge Reservoir on the Green is one of the best recreation areas of the state.

According to Gasson, Million's plan to send Green River water via pipeline to the Front Range. This would draw about a quarter of the area's available water -- it's already one of the driest parts of the country. And it's not only a pipline that needs to be built. The plan calls for construction of 16 natural gas fired pumping stations and several reservoirs.

Notes Gasson: "There is no law in Wyoming that requires Mr. Million to use any Million dollars to leave a minimum flow in the Green River."

That figures. Wyoming law is so lax on so many things that the state is plundered regularly by smooth operatrors from other states and countries. Yes, Wyomingites hate too much government and too many regulations. But when that attitude collides with reality, it's just plain recklessness.

The lack of water in the Green will kill trout and salmon and wreck the environment. It will hurt Wyoming's tourism business. The real tragedy is that there is absolutely no need for it. Colorado needs to conserve water. Period. I acknowledge that my home state has done more than Wyoming to conserve water and energy, especially during the past decade. But (and I really mean this Colorado) you just can't have Wyoming's water.

Written comments on the project will be accepted until May 19. Send them to Ms. Rena Brand, Regulatory Specialist, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Omaha District), Denver Regulatory Office, 9307 S. Wadsworth Blvd., Littleton, CO 80128. To chat with Ms. Brand, call her at 303-979-4120.

Finally, a children's book about beer

Not enough books out there with beer as a subject.

But now there's "B is for Beer," subtitled "A Children's Book for Grown-ups" and "A Grown-up Book for Children."

Tom Robbins was one of my favorite writers back in the 1970s. "Another Roadside Attraction" (1971) featured a vagabond football player, mistaken identity, a Vatican hit squad, tourism and a possible Second Coming. The main character in "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues" is Sissy Hankshaw, born with a very large thumbs tailor-made for hitchhiking adventures. A movie was made by Gus Van Sant in 1993. I never saw it, but maybe I should put it on my list.

An adventurous English prof at World's Most Famous Beach Community College used "Another Roadside Attraction" in his class. I devoured the book. Kooky and well-written, it's hippie-era mysticism suited for the times. The only other English classes I'd taken to that point focused on the classics of American and Brit lit. This was a welcome change. However, I did go on as an English major to take many more lit classes, most featuring the classics, but made interesting by talented profs at Hogtown U in Florida and Aggieville in Colorado.

I read "Cowgirls" later on my own. I liked it less well that "Roadside," but it was fun and entertaining. I lost touch with Mr. Robbins after those first two books. He has others, I know, but methinks he was keeping to himself in the wilds of Washington state.

His new book demands attention. He'll be at the Tattered Cover in Denver's LoDo on Thursday, April 30, 7:30 p.m. This is one of those free ticketed events. The TC will give a ticket to the first 275 people who who buys a copy of "B is for Beer" ($17.95 Ecco Press). Since TC started giving out tickets last Tuesday, they probably are all gone. You can still hang out in the TC corridors and hear Mr. Robbins -- you just won't be able to hear him. To get a signed copy of the book, e-mail books@tatteredcover.com.

Here's a description of the author and his new book from the TC web site:

Maverick bestselling novelist Tom Robbins will discuss and sign his new book B is for Beer, a children's book about beer, but also a book for adults, from the author known for his ability to both seriously illuminate and comically entertain. Once upon a time (right about now) there was a planet (how about this one?) whose inhabitants consumed thirty-six billion gallons of beer each year (it's a fact, you can Google it). Among those affected, each in his or her own way, by all the bubbles, burps, and foam, was a smart, wide-eyed, adventurous kindergartner named Gracie; her distracted mommy; her insensitive dad; her non-conformist uncle; and a magical, butt-kicking intruder from a world within our world. Populated by the afore-mentioned characters -- and as charming as it may be subversive -- B Is for Beer involves readers, young and old, in a surprising, far-reaching investigation into the limits of reality, the transformative powers of children, and, of course, the ultimate meaning of a tall, cold brewski.

Sounds like a Tom Robbins book.

I look forward to imbibing it.

Voices in Wartime seeks submissions for "Waging Peace"

The Voices in Wartime Education Project seeks submissions for an on-line booklet, "Waging Peace," to celebrate the International Day of Peace in September. Voices is asking for contributions from members of poems, narratives, quotes, photographs and pictures. You have to join My Voice to submit your entries. Go to My Voice.

One of the submissions comes from poet and poetry performer Judyth Hill, formerly of Sapello, N.M., and now living in San Juan de Allende in Mexico. Judyth sent this poem to me in slightly different form when war was breaking out in Iraq six years ago.

Wage Peace

Wage peace with your breath.

Breathe in firemen and rubble,
breathe out whole buildings and flocks of red wing blackbirds.

Breathe in terrorists
and breathe out sleeping children and freshly mown fields.

Breathe in confusion and breathe out maple trees.

Breathe in the fallen and breathe out lifelong friendships intact.

Wage peace with your listening: hearing sirens, pray loud.

Remember your tools: flower seeds, clothes pins, clean rivers.

Make soup.

Play music, memorize the words for thank you in three languages.

Learn to knit, and make a hat.

Think of chaos as dancing raspberries,
imagine grief
as the out breath of beauty
or the gesture of fish.

Swim for the other side.

Wage peace.

Never has the world seemed so fresh and precious:

Have a cup of tea and rejoice.

Act as if armistice has already arrived.
Celebrate today.

New WyoDems Chair: The Doctor is "out of touch with reality"

Bill Luckett sends this press release from WyoDems HQ:

Wyo. Democratic Chair Petersen responds to Barrasso criticisms of President Obama

WILSON - John Barrasso's recent criticisms of President Obama are out of touch with the reality of a president who has lowered taxes on 95 percent of Americans and restored fairness to the tax code, Wyoming Democratic Party Chair Leslie Petersen said Friday.

Barrasso recently appeared on Wyoming Public Radio to launch several attacks on President Obama.

Furthermore, Petersen said, Barrasso's embrace of divisive partisan politics does nothing to further Wyoming's interests in Congress and represents a disappointing departure from the style of the person he replaced in the Senate, the late Craig Thomas.

"It was very disappointing to hear our freshman Senator abandon the moderation and civility of his predecessor, the late Craig Thomas," Petersen said. "Senator Barrasso ignored the fact that Obama's leadership has resulted in lower taxes for 95 percent of Americans and balanced taxes more fairly between the middle class and the very wealthy. We hope he'll stick to the facts in the future."

She said President Obama's many accomplishments in his first 100 days range from getting a stimulus bill passed to save the nation's economy from the brink of true disaster, to improving children's access to health care by expanding the SCHIP program, to signing the Lily Ledbetter Act, to ensure that women must be paid the same as men for the same work.

Congressional Republicans, meanwhile, have offered no constructive solutions and have contented themselves with obstructionist tactics, establishing themselves as "the Party of No."

"In the past three months, President Obama had fulfilled many of his campaign promises, greatly improved America's standing around the world, and taken necessary steps to repair the economic disaster left over from the Bush Administration," Petersen said. "John Barrasso, sadly, has offered no serious solution to any of our country's problems. Let's hope he will change his partisan tone and instead focus on working for the people of Wyoming."

Dear Democrats: Please rethink Cheney one-way bus ticket campaign

I have a bone to pick with my Democratic Party. It is raising money to buy Dick Cheney a one-way bus ticket back to Wyoming.

This must stop!

For one thing, we don't want him amongst us. He has proven to be a negative influence on the population of the U.S. and the planet. He also has undue influence in Wyoming. He's received at some of the best houses, in Jackson and elsewhere. When he addressed the Wyoming legislature a few years ago, he was cheered lustily by both houses, while the citizenry stood outside in the cold, unable to come into its "House of the People" to hear the assistant leader of the free world deliver his platitudes.

He could have a damaging effect on a state that is only now emerging from the 19th entury. Besides, he or his wife might run for office. If Dick Cheney were to elected governor, a huge wall would be built around the state, and all Wyomingites with liberal leanings would be thrown into re-education camps where Lynne Cheney would torture us by reading her super-patriotic children's books over and over and over again. Can you say "Ronald Reagan Is God?" I thought you could.

Second, your humorous travel map at https://www.democrats.org/page/contribute/cheneybus?source=20090425_JOC_ND1 is all wrong. The red dot at the end of the bus route is in the incorrect place. If the former Veep were to disembark at this spot, he would be in the windswept fringe of the Red Desert and not Jackson.

As you may know, Jackson is a village of quaint restaurants and a lively art scene. The views are spectacular. While some of its denizens are Democrats, Cheney's rich Republican pals would scoop him into their collective arms and whisk him to safety at his mountain redoubt.


The scenery around Jackson (Teton Lake)

If he gets off in the Red Desert, no telling what would happen. He could be ripped to shreds by packs of escaped Yellowstone wolves or shot by some vision-impaired hunter. He could perish of thirst while he waits for helicoper pickup.

Wyoming's Red Desert (note pack of wolves in background)

Wait just a doggone minute! That spot that you D.C. Dems marked on the map really is Jackson and not the Red Desert. I was mistaken. That's a great place to drop him off. I've never been good at geography.

But, as I said, this campaign has to stop. Yes, we're terminally a red state and the place where Cheney grew up and entered politics. But he was born in Nebraska. Send him there. Or what about Utah? Or Iraq? Families of dead Iraqis would stage a grand welcoming party at the Baghdad bus station that Cheney would not soon forget.

Or maybe he would.

First, we kill all the credit card company lawyers execs

This comes intact from Crooks and Liars:

I expect a bit of deja vu, in which Obama tells them he's the only thing between them and the pitchforks:

This afternoon President Obama will tell top executives from 14 credit card companies -- including American Express, Bank of America, Discover, MasterCard and Visa -- that greater consumer protections are coming for their customers, with or without their cooperation.

The House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday passed "The Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights," a bill from Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-NY, that would require companies to provide a 45-day notice before any rate increase; prevent the companies from retroactively imposing higher interest rates to existing balances; and ban "universal default," which the companies use to raise interest rates on consumers late in payments to completely different creditors.

Oh yeah, universal default. That's the policy that allows them to jack up your credit card rate because your payment to the phone company was late!

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, and National Economic Council director Larry Summers will join the president at the meeting.

An industry source tells ABC News that the executives expect to hear from the White House that "the industry is unpopular right now." The source forecasts that the meeting will be "a carrot-and-stick" deal -- the administration will tell the executives that they need their help in dealing with problems such as high interest rates, but they will emphasize the threat of legislation.

"It will be a come-to-Jesus type of meeting," the source said

Let's not forget to include the always witty Capitol One in these proceedings.

Another reason we call him "Dick"

Former Veep Dick "The Dick" Cheney will be strutting his muscle-bound physique around Jackson, Wyoming, this summer. If his true physique is as muscle-bound as his mouth. we're all in trouble.

Photo borrowed from Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show."

Poetry on a spring night in Cheyenne

Attended an open mic poetry reading tonight at the Laramie County Public Library. A crowd of about 50 first heard the featured poet, Luke Striker (sp?) from Laramie. He's a young poet with a goatee (but no black beret). He received his M.F.A. in creative writing from University of Wyoming two years ago and now teaches there. As is the case with most M.F.A. writers, he's looking for a full-time job and writing his heart out.

He opened with "Lawrence" by one of his influences, Tony Hoagland. It's about D.H. Lawrence and how a batch of academics sneered at the man's work, although they weren't fit to drink his piss (not the exact quote, but you get the idea). Lawrence a man of the world and definitely not an academic. A big influence on writers from the West due to his wild streak and his time in Taos.

Some great lines in Luke's poems "Rock Hopping" and "Ars Poetica." In the latter poem, he managed to slip in William Carlos Williams' "red wheelbarrow" reference (something to do with chickens). I have to admit I never understood that poem, but that may be the point. I like Williams' poetry but I crave his short stories.

After Luke stepped down from the stage, up went a rapid procession of poets and musicians. Chris Howes (sp?) recently returned to Cheyenne after a decade in other places. He played guitar and sang an original song about his home state. My daughter Annie read two poems, one she just wrote today called "Dreams of the Afterlife."

Born out of Virgin Mary, her
womb an orb of light and purity.

And this from a kid of cradle Catholics. She was baptized in the church (our choice), but now is a 16-year-old vegetarian atheist (her choice).

But I walk on thin cracked ice
each step precarious and unsure,
I feel the cold pierce my feet.

This is the first time she read her work in public. She was nervous, and I was a proud papa.

Her friend Brandon read two of his poems. Ed Warsaw, founder of Serendipity Poets, read his poetry and Dick Hart, Cheyenne's poet laureate, read his take on "that's the way it is in the West." An eighth-grade singer/songwriter and a high school sophomore trying out the first verse of his new song (still working on the second verse -- not the same as the first).

Carrie Hartmann, assistant county librarian, read the first poem she ever wrote (at 16) and then a new poem celebrating her daughter's impending college graduation. She then performed Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky," utilizing her considerable acting skills.

We express ourselves. So crucial. On a spring night in Cheyenne.

Meanwhile, the white chickens are outside in the rain, doing something with a red wheelbarrow.

Earth Day: "What Matters Most in WYO?"

This Laramie event comes from Nancy Sindelar's e-mail newsletter:

On Wednesday, April 22, 3 p.m., Education Auditorium on the UW campus in Laramie: "Environmental Education For Life: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue on What Matters Most in Wyoming." Keynote speaker will be Rebekah Simon-Peter, who will join five University of Wyoming professors and a school principal to bring out the issues that need be addressed by education in all life's phases.

This event is free and open to the public.

FMI: Suzanne, shlewis@bresnan.net.

Leslie Petersen new chair of WyoDems

This news comes from the Wyoming Democrats:

The new state chair of the Wyoming Democratic Party said she is excited to be working with such a strong team of leaders that will guide the party over the next two years.

"I’m excited about this opportunity to help elect progressive leaders at all levels of government throughout Wyoming," said State Chair Leslie Petersen of Wilson. "I'm pleased to have such a great Executive Committee to work with and thrilled with the newly elected Young Democrats who are full of energy, enthusiasm and technological expertise."

The Wyoming Democratic State Central Committee elected new officers in Casper on
Saturday, April 18, and the Young Democrats of Wyoming also met to elect representatives on the state party governing board.

State party officers elected Saturday include State Chair Leslie Petersen of Teton County, Vice Chair Mike Bell of Laramie County, Secretary Linda Barton of Fremont
County, and Treasurer Chuck Herz of Teton County.

In addition, the Young Democrats of Wyoming elected the following officers for the next two years: Dana Walton, chair; Rey Fuentes, vice chair; Sean Williams, state
committeeman; and Ellie Bolender, state committeewoman.

Chairman Petersen said two of her highest priorities for the coming election cycle will be spreading the Democratic Party's message and finding quality community leaders to run for elected office.

"We need to let the people of Wyoming know the many ways in which Democrats are working for the best interests of working families," she said. "Getting our message out is a critical component of the work we need to do over the next two years."

She said Democrats need to maintain their momentum from the past two elections, in which Democrats have gained a total of five state House seats. At the same time, the
party needs to improve its performance statewide in county-level elections.

"There are a lot of good leaders in this state who are Democrats and who would make good elected officials," Petersen said. "Our mission will be to find those people and get them elected to office."

Leslie Petersen has previously served as a Teton County commissioner and has been involved with various conservation, political and natural resource boards. She has been a Teton County Democratic Party activist for years, is a former Teton County party chair, and served as the county's state committeewoman for the previous election cycle.

She also worked as legislative liaison for former Wyoming Gov. Ed Herschler, and she was the Democratic Party's nominee for secretary of state in 1982 and for a state
House seat in 1990.

Petersen has helped organize fundraising events for presidential candidates Sens. John Kerry and Barack Obama that she said each raised more than $450,000.

Everything you know about Columbine is wrong

Jesse Kornbluth wrote in HuffPost today about Dave Cullen's new book, "Columbine." To read the column, go to http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jesse-kornbluth/a-disturbing-new-book-abo_b_180613.html

Two weeks ago, during spring break, Chris and I wandered into the Tattered Cover LoDo and discovered that Cullen was in-house that evening talking about his book. We found a few chairs in the back of a very crowded room.

Didn't take long to get very depressed. Everything I thought I knew about Columbine was wrong. Eric Harris was a psychopath, according to the author, and Dylan Klebold was his disturbed follower. Cullen bases his conclusions of a huge cache of documentation, including journals from both killers and interviews with law enforcement and witnesses. He's been researching this topic since it happened on a pleasant spring day in the Denver burbs.

I have not yet read the book, so this isn't a review. But after sitting there in TC listening to Cullen's talk, I sank into my chair, life's fragility weighing me down. How well do we know our kids -- really know them? Sure, Harris's parents could have done a better job keeping an eye on their son. But the kid got good grades and went to the prom just a few days before the massacre. He'd been in some trouble, but weaseled his way out of any major punishment. He was a fine liar. And a leader. That's what's so chilling. The kid next door seemed pretty normal. Never shot up the neighborhood or blew up anything up. Bombs? Guns? Never saw any.

Until April 20, 1999. And then it was too late.

All the President's books

On Friday, President Obama accepted a book from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. The book was Eduardo Galeano’s "Open Veins of Latin America." Obama should read it, he really should. Galeano is an amazing writer. An outspoken leftist who had to flee right-wing death squads in his home country of Uruguay and more death squads under Argentina’s military junta. Galeano wrote his masterpiece "Memory of Fire" (Memoria del Fuego) while an exile in Spain.

Pres. Obama may read the gift book from Chavez. The prez, after all, is a reader. A writer, too. Reading good writers keeps the mind open, allows new ideas to permeate the brain and circulate freely. Allows you to consider new ways to do things. Chat with former enemies of the U.S., for instance.

Americans seem to have the idea that we invented the world. But the world was well on its way by the time we formed our democracy. Some 300 years of Latin American history had transpired by 1776. And a bloody history it was. In his book, Galeano tells short stories of the good and the bad and the in-between. The stories are compelling and the history, compelling and infuriating. How can humans make the same mistakes over and over again? So writers have something to write about.

I learned volumes about the history of this region from "Memory of Fire" when I read it in the early 1990s. As a writer, I was impressed with Galeano’s style. He did his research and transformed it into this book that was both personal and universal. Wikipedia described it this way: "It starts with pre-Columbian creation myths and ends in the 1980s. It highlights not only the colonial oppression that the continent underwent but particularly the long history of resistance, from individual acts of heroism to mass revolutionary movements."

He also prompted me to read John Dos Passos’s "U.S.A." trilogy, which documented our history in a similar fashion. Dos Passos documents labor struggles and war and politics through a variety of characters. He intersperses that with "newsreel" sections which document world events in the manner of movie theater shorts. It was a very original idea and ahead of its time. Dos Passos went from being a rabble-rousing leftist in the 1930s to a diehard Republican in the 1950s. People can change, can’t they?

"Open Veins of Latin America" has already shot up the book sales lists. I would like to see a photo of our president reading Galeano’s book. Sipping coffee in the Oval Office, his attention on reading. This photo would send out all kinds of messages. The main one is: "I read. I understand."

Gov Dave thought that April 15 tax protests "would be bigger"

Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal held a press conference yesterday and addressed issues relating to state government budget cuts, trans-basin water diversion and Tax Day protests in across the state and the nation. He said this about the protests, including one that happened outside his office window:

“I actually thought that they would be bigger. This is not a state that has affection for the federal government on any day, and the affection on tax day is even less.”

"True Grit" gets new film treatment from Coen brothers

I make it a point to read Jenny Shank's Western Book Roundup at New West. Somehow I missed her April 1 post, probably because I was hobnobbing with a batch of visual artists over in Laramie. She wrote some good news about books-to-film:

Oh joy: According to Variety, Joel and Ethan Coen will make a film adaptation of Charles Portis’ Western classic True Grit for their next project, and joy of joys, it’s not to be a traditional remake of the 1969 John Wayne vehicle, but a version intended to hue closer to the novel. (I wrote last year about the charms of Portis’s True Grit in honor of its 40th anniversary.) The Coen brothers were at work on another literary adaptation — of Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policeman’s Union —but True Grit will now come first.

Joel Cohen told London’s Daily Mail that they plan to stick closer to the perspective of the14-year-old narrator, Mattie Ross. “The book recounts the girl’s story. In the John Wayne film, she was played older. We want her to be her real age - it’s her story!”

If there is a better match between filmmakers and book, I can’t think of it.

I second that, Jenny. First Cormac McCarthy and "No Country for Old Men" and now "True Grit." The New West of McCarthy and The Old West of Portis. Sorry to see that "The Yiddish Policeman's Union" is being rescheduled for later. But I can wait. A terrific book. The Coen Brothers will treat it well.

Almost ready for spring planting

WyoDems meet Saturday for elections

Bill Luckett, executive director of the Wyoming Democratic Party, announces this:

The Wyoming Democratic State Central Committee will meet in Casper on Saturday primarily for the purpose of electing state officers for the coming two years, Executive Director Bill Luckett announced today.

The meeting is scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday, April 18, at the Natrona County Agricultural Resource and Learning Center at 2011 Fairgrounds Road in Casper. The meeting is open to the public.

Positions up for election include chair, vice chair, secretary and treasurer.

Also on Saturday, young Democrats from across the state (those 35 years old or younger) are invited to participate in elections for the Young Democrats of Wyoming. The Young Democrats of Wyoming will elect the positions of chair, vice chair, state committeeman and state committeewoman, all of whom will be members of the State Central Committee. That meeting begins at noon, also at the Ag Resource & Learning Center.

In March throughout the state, Democrats in each county met to elect their county officers for the coming two years. The county chairs, vice chairs, state committeemen and state committeewomen elected at those meetings comprise the State Central Committee, which will hold the elections in Casper.

Other members of the State Central Committee include the current state chair, vice chair, secretary, treasurer, national committeeman, national committeewoman, and with one representative each from the Democratic House and Senate caucuses.

FMI: Bill Luckett, (307) 473-1457, (307) 631-7638, luckett@wyomingdemocrats.com

Who were all those Cheyenne teabaggers?

One thing's been bugging me since I attended the lunchtime teabagger rally yesterday at the Wyoming State Capitol.

Who were all these people? I've lived in Cheyenne for 18 years. Sure, I hang mostly with Democrats and artists and writers and other nogoodniks. But I do know a lot of Republicans. I recognize Wyoming politicos of all stripes. There are several hundred employees in our division of state government, most of whom I recognize on sight. When I used to go to church on a regular basis, I was surrounded by folks whom I surely would now recognize, as my faculties are mainly intact.

I saw only two people at the rally who looked vaguely familiar. And I did recognize Dave the radio DJ who made one of the speeches.

Where were the state and local politicians? Where were all the right-wing rabble-rousers who yell at us leftists as we're staging antiwar rallies or vigils or holding up peacenik signs at street corners?

The article in this morning's Wyoming Tribune-Eagle featured a photo of an old guy from Lingle holding a sign. The reporter interviewed a couple from California who said they heard about the rally while passing through in their RV. They, of course, were wildly indignant about Obama and taxes and nearly everything else.

One of the speakers was a guy named Perry Martin who seemed to be in charge of the "Sovereignty Petition," which he displayed behind a booth that featured "Constitution Restitution" T-shirts and flyers for the gay-hating WyWatch Family Institute. I did not recognize Perry. You'd think I would have run into such a politically active fella during the past 18 years. Later, I met a well-dressed woman who was taking photos for WyWatch. I asked her where she was from. She said "Cheyenne," but I have my doubts (WyWatch only lists a PO Box as an address).

Who were these outside agitators taking over the Wyoming Capitol? Anyone know?

Top Ten Republican Tax Day Lies

This comes courtesy of Crooks and Liars:

Here, then, are 10 Republican Tax Day lies:

1. President Obama will raise taxes on small businesses.
2. The estate tax devastates small businesses and family farms.
3. 40% of Americans pay no taxes.
4. Tax cuts always increase revenue.
5. The GOP is the party of fiscal discipline.
6. Ronald Reagan was the greatest tax cutter of all time.
7. FDR caused the Great Depression, or at least made it worse.
8. Obama's cap-and-trade plan will cost each American family $3,100 a year.
9. Obama's tax proposals will undermine charitable giving.
10. The rich pay too much in taxes already.

Go to crooksandliars.com for the sordid details.

Scenes from a Cheyenne T.E.A. party

Angry citizens were lining up to sign petitions today at the Tea Bag Rally in Cheyenne. Sign a petition and get a red, white and blue cookie that read "Tea 233," the number signifying the age of the U.S.A. I got close enough to cadge one of the cookies, but felt guilty because there was no way in hell I was signing one of the petitions.

It was a few minutes after noon, and only a handful of teabags were steeping in the brine of outrage.

This trio of teabaggers were holding signs along 24th Ave., which runs by the Wyoming Capitol Building. I believe they were trying to goad passers-by into honking, but weren't having much luck. The signs read: "What would George Washington do?" and "Memo to Barry (a.k.a Pres. Barack Obama): 1. America is Judeo-Christian; 2. We don't bow to anybody!; 3. Give better gifts." The third sign read: "Save our auto companies -- get rid of the unions."

What would George Washington do? Probably go to the dentist, as dental care was sorely lacking in The Father of Our Country's time. I was a bit puzzled by the "give better gifts" part of the memo to Barry. Did I miss something on Fixed News? I do know about the bowing reference. As for saving the auto companies by getting rid of unions? Ha, ha, ha. Funny teabagger.

I like the juxtaposition of these two signs. The one in the foreground is held by an African-American on a cell phone. The one held by an old white guy in the background reads: "Deport!!! All Illegals! Close the Border! Preserve America."

Wandering through the crowd, I heard one grey-haired guy quip to another: "This is like spring break for old people." The average age of Tea Party attendees was about 60. There were some young people, but they were few and far between. Lots of men wearing "Vietnam War Veteran" and "Korean War Veteran" caps. Cheyenne is heavy on ex-military.

The gentleman on the right tried to put his "Bring troops home now" sign on the Nellie Tayloe Ross statue in front of the Capitol. And he succeeded -- for a few minutes. A dour gentleman came by and whispered something to the old guy and he reclaimed his sign. Maybe he said something like "Why do you hate the troops?" or maybe "get that sign out of here or I'll see that your taxpayer-funded V.A. benefits go away."

That's what I was thinking, looking at all the veterans and their anti-government signs. Who do you think paid your salary for 20 years? Who do you think pays for your health care? Just asking...

This was a very nice young mother who posed with her baby and sign. The other side of the sign said "7 months old and in debt." She was the one who really made me think. This is a huge debt burden we are leaving our kids and grandkids and beyond. Many of these people at the rally are genuinely concerned about their kids' future. They have enough gumption to go to the Capitol Building, baby in tow, to make a statement. Later, KGAB Radio talk show host Dave Chapman told the crowd not to blame the Democrats or Republicans or anybody else. Just look in the mirror -- and then take action. Dave's the guy who keeps us updated on road and school closures on snowy days.

Who can argue with that?

A guy and his tea bag hat

More signs of the times

Right-wing kooks on the march

A report from the Department of Homeland Security says membership in right-wing extremist groups may be increasing. Here are some of the details via an online CNN story:

Though the nine-page report said it has "no specific information that domestic right-wing terrorists are currently planning acts of violence," it said real-estate foreclosures, unemployment and tight credit "could create a fertile recruiting environment for right-wing extremists and even result in confrontations between such groups and government authorities similar to those in the past."

The report, prepared in coordination with the FBI and published April 7, was distributed to federal, state and local law enforcement officials under the title "Right-wing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment."

It compares the current climate the 1990s, "when right-wing extremism experienced a resurgence fueled largely by an economic recession, criticism about the outsourcing of jobs, and the perceived threat to U.S. power and sovereignty by other foreign powers."

It cites proposed restrictions on weapons as likely to increase membership in extremist groups and expresses concern the groups might try to recruit veterans.

The election of President Obama is cited as a key recruitment tool.

"Many right-wing extremists are antagonistic toward the new presidential administration and its perceived stance on a range of issues, including immigration and citizenship, the expansion of social programs to minorities, and restrictions on firearm ownership and use," the report said.

"Celebration of Wind" in Rawlins

The entire I-80 corridor, from Pine Bluffs on the Nebraska border to Evanston on the edge of Utah, is wind country.

Rawlins doesn't seem to be any windier than Cheyenne, but it is is adjacent to one of the largest wind farms in the state. The city is hosting its "Celebration of Wind" on Friday and Saturday, April 24-25. The event includes lectures and demonstrations on wind energy, activities in the schools, dinners, kite flying, weather stations, radio-controlled helicopters and display booths. Locations include Rawlins High School, 1401 Colorado, and the Depot, 400 W. Front St., and Carbon County Fairgrounds. Most events are free.

FMI: 307-328-9274, http://www.cchec.org.

Thanks to Nancy Sindelar's e-mail newsletter for this info.

More Earth Day activities April 18 in Cheyenne

The Wyoming State Museum in Cheyenne will hold an Earth Day Festival on Saturday, April 18, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

Sixteen organizations from around Cheyenne will be set up booths to inform visitors about conservation, recycling, wildlife, ecology, and other topics related to maintaining a clean and healthy environment for Wyomingites. This is an educational family event that will include a scavenger hunt and free t-shirts for kids, face painting, refreshments, and a bake sale. There will also be a cell phone recycling booth, so please bring your old cell phones!

FMI: Sue Castenada, 307-777-7021.

Earlier, hummingbirdminds wrote about an Earth Day Festival at the Cheyenne UU Church. The two venues are only six blocks apart. Catch one, and then the other. Both precede the actual Earth Day date of April 22.

Pres. Obama takes on student loan industry -- and it's about time

Reporter David M. Herszenhorn reported in the New York Times April 12 about the brewing student loan clash in Congress:

The private student lending industry and its allies in Congress are maneuvering to thwart a plan by President Obama to end a subsidized loan program and redirect billions of dollars in bank profits to scholarships for needy students.

The plan is the main money-saving component of Mr. Obama’s education agenda, which includes a sweeping overhaul of financial aid programs. The Congressional
Budget Office says replacing subsidized loans made by private banks with direct government lending would save $94 billion over the next decade, money that Mr. Obama would use to expand Pell grants for the poorest students.

But the proposal has ignited one of the most fractious policy fights this year.

I'm backing Obama on this one. The private lending industry has abused our trust. The whole system is out of whack and we need a new -- and better -- one.

Why are Wyoming Republicans protesting taxation without representation?

One person's protest in another one's pointless exercise.

I'm a long-time supporter and participant in protests and marches. The protest is usually against something, but isn't that what they're supposed to be about?

Ruffin Prevost writes in today's Billings Gazette about so-called "tea party" protests on April 15 in Montana and Wyoming. You may have heard about these protests on Glenn Beck or Bill O'Reilly -- any of those Fixed News shows. Ostensibly, these protests are against high taxes and taxation without representation.

"Taxes have always been too high, but I think this year, what's going on has really concerned Americans," said Eric Olsen, an organizer of a tax day "tea party" protest scheduled in Billings, Mont. Olsen, who owns an independent oil and gas company, said he has been politically active for years, and writes his congressional representatives weekly. His most recent letters have focused on stopping federal bailout and stimulus spending."What it's going to take is a bigger collection of Americans standing up and talking, and I believe we'll see that this year," he said. He expects 2,000 or more to show up at noon Wednesday in front of the Yellowstone County Courthouse.

That's a pretty good crowd. These people have neen energized by wingnut radio hosts and right-wing advocacy groups. Hey, they deserve some time on the streets too. Progressive activists pretty much dominated the protest circuit during the last eight years. Turnabout is fair play.

I'm just not sure what the protestors are protesting. Reminds me of some of the Lefty anti-war gatherings during Bush's rush to war in Iraq. Speakers would rant about homelessness and greed and the military-industrial complex and the 9-11 conspiracy and poisons in our food and just about everything else under the sun and moon. Worthy topics (except for the 9-11 hoaxers) but the message got mangled amongst all the diatribes.

So I'm not sure about the tea party message. The original Boston Tea Party protested taxes levied by the King in a faraway land called England. The merchants dumped the tea into the harbor rather than pay the taxes. That's a pretty good protest. Something big was at stake. Something real.

Organizers will circulate petitions opposing federal bailout spending, budget priorities and tax rates, he said. David Kellett, owner of a computer networking support business, said the protest he is planning in Powell is one of nearly 2,000 in the works across the country, all modeled after the Boston Tea Party of 1773, which protested taxes on tea without legislative representation.

April Poley, who operates a home-based business in Buffalo, has set up a blog and Facebook page to publicize a tea party she is helping to organize in Sheridan."I sent out a little e-mail and very quickly, within 24 hours, started receiving e-mails from people I don't even know, all wanting to help," she said. The Sheridan protest, planned for 5 p.m. at Grinnell Plaza, in front of City Hall, has attracted people of varying political backgrounds, Poley said. "It doesn't matter what your politics are, you can still be angry at spending and Washington not listening to you, although we're fortunate in Wyoming in that our representatives have listened to us," she said.

So Wyomingites already have taxation WITH representation. If you're a Republican. I've been protesting taxation without representation in Wyoming. I'm being taxed to pay for a pointless war in Iraq, Cold War military weaponry that is useless in guerrilla wars, and no-bid contracts for Halliburton war profiteers who pay fewer taxes than I do. Every time I brought up these expenditures to our Wyoming delegation during the past decade, I was basically told: "Hey buddy, there's a war on. Why do you hate the troops?"

And here's the kicker:

U.S. Census data put Wyoming 10th in 2007 in federal spending per capita, while Montana ranked 20th. Both states are perennial net federal spending winners, with Wyoming receiving $1.11 back for every dollar paid in federal taxes in 2005, while Montana got back $1.43.

Taxation without representation in Wyoming and Montana? Give me a break. Our delegation really brought home the bacon during the Bush years. Let's see what happens now.

Student loan borrowers "too small to help"

Arthur Delaney reports this on Huffington Post:

A new report released Thursday on the private student lending industry offers a bit of deja vu.

"It's the same sad story: irresponsible lending," says Deanne Loonin, author of the report and director of the National Consumer Law Center's Student Loan Borrower Assistance Project, in an interview with the Huffington Post.

The report (PDF), titled "Too Small To Help: The Plight of Financially Distressed Student Loan Borrowers," laments that "unlike the lenders that made these loans" -- potential beneficiaries of the government's TALF and TARP bailouts -- "the borrowers are 'too small' to help."

Private lenders like Sallie Mae, Wells Fargo, and Citi relaxed their standards as the economy boomed and extended private loans to more students at lower-tier schools -- students often already maxed out on federal loans and unlikely to able to pay up.

The report calls out the newly infamous process of securitization for fueling bad lending: "Creditors made and sold loans to borrowers, but with the specific goal of selling them to investors. Loan products were thus developed for the repackaging rather than to provide the most affordable and sustainable products for borrowers."

Loonin's report says the Obama administration's Home Affordable Modification Program for modifying mortgages should be a blueprint for student borrowers. The report says the government should require lenders benefiting from bailout funds to work with borrowers, restore bankruptcy rights to student lenders, and increase industry regulation in the areas of underwriting and interest rates, among other things.

A poem to accompany "The Disappeared"

"The Colonel" (From The Country Between Us, by Carolyn Forche.)

What you have heard is true. I was in his house. His wife carried a tray
of coffee and sugar. His daughter filed her nails, his son went out
for the night. There were daily papers, pet dogs, a pistol on
the cushion beside him. The moon swung bare on its black cord over
the house. On the television was a cop show. It was in English.
Broken bottles were embedded in the walls around the house to scoop
the kneecaps from a man's legs or cut his hands to lace. On the
windows there were gratings like those in liquor stores. We had
dinner, rack of lamb, good wine, a gold bell was on the table for
calling the maid. The maid brought green mangoes, salt, a type of
bread. I was asked how I enjoyed the country. There was a brief
commercial in Spanish. His wife took everything away. There was some
talk then of how difficult it had become to govern. The parrot said
hello on the terrace. The colonel told it to shut up, and pushed
himself from the table. My friend said to me with his eyes: say
nothing. The colonel returned with a sack used to bring groceries
home. He spilled many human ears on the table. They were like dried
peach halves. There is no other way to say this. He took one of them
in his hands, shook it in our faces, dropped it into a water glass.
It came alive there. I am tired of fooling around he said. As for
the rights of anyone, tell your people they can go fuck themselves.
He swept the ears to the floor with his arm and held the last of the
wine in the air. Something for your poetry, no? he said. Some of the
ears on the floor caught this scrap of his voice. Some of the ears
on the floor were pressed to the ground.

"The Disappeared" still haunt us

Nothing prepares you for the exhibition currently at the University of Wyoming Art Museum.

"The Disappeared/Los Desaparecidos" brings together the work of 26 living artists from Latin America who, over the course of the last 30 years, made art about those who have disappeared.

I viewed the exhibit last week when I was in Laramie for the UW Art Museum's public art symposium.

The largest of the works shows a Guatemalan flag made from the exhumed bones of those killed during the country's dirty wars, which really were Cold War proxy battles between the U.S. and Soviet Union. Many of Latin America's killer thugs were military men trained at the U.S. Army's School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Georgia. Not all, of course. Paramilitary bands roved Guatemala and Argentina and El Salvador and Uruguay. They operated with the sometimes explicit -- and always implicit -- consent of the ruling juntas.

One of the most depressing works of the exhibit shows couples who were disappeared. Their crimes? Subversive activities. Belonging to student activist groups. Consorting with suspicious characters. Complaining about the government. Some couples were married and some weren't. The women were pregnant and they and their babies still are missing. The legend under the pictures read: "Baby was born on or about April 5, 1979" or "Baby thought to be due in December 1977." The mother was bayoneted or thrown from a chopper or beat to death while pregnant. Or the baby was born but never seen again. Neither was the mother and -- oftentimes -- the father. These were young couples who looked a lot like couples I knew when I was in my twenties in the 1970s. They looked like pictures I have of my wife and I. Happy. Together. But we're alive and they aren't.

"Exhumations: Appearing the Disappeared - Uncovering Repressive Archives in the Recovery of Historical Memory in Latin America" will be the topic discussed by Kate Doyle at the next Art Talk hosted by the UW Art Museum. Her presentation is set for Monday, April 13, 7 p.m. Doyle is a Senior Analyst for the National Security Archive at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Her talk will focus on uncovering the truth of military actions in Latin America during the mid-20th century, and the people who disappeared as a result.

Art Museum Director Susan Moldenhauer notes, "This talk comes at an historical moment in time, given the current news regarding the conviction of former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori for crimes related to the death squads in that country." Doyle considers Fujimori’s conviction to be a landmark event. She states, "He is the first democratically elected president to be convicted of human rights crimes by his own country... in the world! Ever!"

The National Security Archive campaigns for the citizen’s right to know, investigates U.S. national security and foreign policy, and uses the Freedom of Information Act to obtain and publish declassified U.S. documents. Doyle directs several research projects on U.S. policy in Latin America for the Archive, including the Mexico Project, which aims to obtain the declassification of U.S. and Mexican government documents on the Mexican dirty war, and the Guatemala Project. Since 1992, she has worked with truth commissions in Latin America, including in El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala to obtain records from secret U.S. government archives in support of their human rights investigations.

Doyle’s public talk is in conjunction with the UW Art Museum’s current exhibition The Disappeared/Los Desaparecidos exhibit. Doyle will also be giving a Gallery Walk Through of the exhibition from 10:30 a.m. to noon on Monday, April 13 at the Art Museum.

FMI: UW Art Museum at (307) 766-6622 or visit www.uwyo.edu/artmuseum
or the museum’s blog, www.uwartmuseum.blogspot.com/.

The museum is open Monday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free.

Interesting to see that the exhibit originated with the North Dakota Museum of Art. N.D. poet Thomas McGrath would be proud.

Exhibit photo: Fernando Traverso from Rosario, Argentina, made a wall of silk "tombstones" emblazoned with the ghost image of a bicycle, one for each of his fellow resistance workers disappeared during those dark years of dictatorship. Why the bicycle? Because if someone went missing their abandoned bicycle served as early evidence of their fate. Entitled "In Memory, 2000-2001," the work consists of 29 silk banners, each 10 x 3.5 ft. with screened images of bicycles. Courtesy of the North Dakota Museum of Art.

Earth Day Fest April 18 at UU Church

The local Unitarian Universalist Church actively supports issues relating to peace and justice, the arts and ecology.

On Saturday, Aprul 18, the UU Church will sponsor an Earth Day Festival from 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

Vendor tables will feature info from conservation groups and sale items by companies with green products. Students will display arts and science projects, and there will be screenings of environmental films.

Donate aluminum cans to Habitat for Humanity, eyeglasses to the Lions Club, or prescription meds to the Laramie County Centralized Pharmacy. Recycle your printer cartridges and safely dispose of your hazardous materials.

This free event will take place in the Social Hall of the UU Church, 3005 Thomes Ave.

FMI: Green Coalition of Cheyenne at 307-632-7521.

Hippie-dippy posters at Denver Art Museum

I spent several hours Wednesday revisiting the past. Chris and I, along with 16-year-old daughter Annie and friend Brandon, toured the Denver Art Museum's psychedelic poster exhibit. I didn't actually see any of these original posters in their first incarnation on the streets of San Francisco. But I do remember most of the bands -- even saw a few of them in concert. The great thing about the poster exhibit was the stories behind the work. Rick Griffin, a guy who grew up in the Southern California surfing scene and then moved to San Francisco in the mid-sixties to discover LSD and rock. I remember his Griffin & Stoner comics in Surfer Magazine. Later, I tried to decipher Griffin's work in Zap Comix.

One of the oddest aspects of the exhibit was the wall devoted to work advertising concerts at The Family Dog on West Evans in Denver. Chet Helms, founder and purveyor of concerts at the Avalon Ballroom, decided to expand his psychedelic territory by opening another joint in Denver. I wondered why he chose Denver and not Portland or Seattle or L.A. According to the exhibit descriptions, the Denver cops were not happy about such a hippie-dippy venue place landing in their fair city. Denver cops of that era were not known for their tolerance. In fact, the force was just coming off the biggest scandal in its history. In 1961, 42 cops and former cops were indicted for burglary, embezzlement and other assorted crimes in the biggest such scandal in U.S. history. Over the years, Denver cops have been involved in a variety of nefarious schemes, including a massive snooping campaign aimed at anti-war and anti-nuke activists.

So, in 1967, the cops kept their eyes on the hippies and other nogoodniks. During its three short months, the Family Dog featured some of the big names: Grateful Dead, Blue Cheer, Mothers of Invention, even the Allmen Joy, who contributed to rock lore a few years later under the name Allman Brothers. The Family Dog's closure was due as much to hippie-era mismanagement as to police harassment. Besides, it was a long way from Market Street to Evans Avenue, both in miles and in culture. The museum narrative said that the closing of The Family Dog was the beginning of a long string of business setbacks for Chet Helms.

In San Francisco, the beat went on, even after the so-called Summer of Love was over and the Haight was claimed by addicts and hucksters.

Another interesting aspect of the exhibit was about a band I've never heard of: The Charlatans. Band members dressed in Old West garb and were known mainly for playing bars in Virginia City, Nevada. They came out of the mountains and into San Francisco and were thought to be "the first band to experiment with the fusion of rock ‘n’ roll, blues, folk, and jug band music that became known as the San Francisco Sound. Other bands on the scene included Blue Cheer, Big Brother and the Holding Company, the Grateful Dead, and Jefferson Airplane." That comes from the museum's descriptions. So, I've heard of all these other groups. But The Charlatans? And their Butch Cassidy and The Wild Bunch duds? As we now know, there were a lot of Wild West influences in the bands of the S.F. scene. Many of the exhibition's posters include images of cowboys and Indians -- mostly Indians, as the Native-American cultures were fascinating to hippies.

I'm now formulating an idea for an old-fashioned melodrama that combines the wild-and-wooly aspects of the Old West with the wooly-and-wild characteristics of the New West hippies.

Wish me luck.

Poster art: "Denver Splash" poster from 1967 advertising a concert by Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band and Solid Muldoon at The Family Dog, 1601 West Evans Street, Denver. Art by Rick Griffin and Victor Moscoso.

Gardening begins at White House, Wyoming still a month (or so) away

In the High Lonesome, we're more than a month away from planting our gardens. Seeds have been sprouted, plans have been made, but the planting comes somewhere between mid-May and Memorial Day. Even then, we can get snow -- which isn't so bad -- and frost -- which is bad. This is why many of us plant container gardens. And the rest of us keep a ready supply of old sheets and other frost-defying coverlets. Watch the sky!

Meanwhile, in the White House low country, Michelle Obama and kids from Bancroft Elementary School were turning the soil and putting in the crops including heirloom varieties from jefferson's Monticello). A press release from FLOTUS (First Lady of the United States) had lots to say on the subject. Gardening is good for kids, it can help with the obesity epidemic, drives the wingnuts crazy. I made that last part up. It's true, but the White House won't say it in print. But the wingnuts start foaming at the mouth when any mention is made of ecology, gardening, Michelle Obama, locavore, global warming, peace & justice, etc. Almost anything can make them foam at the mouth.

I read an article the other day about people in more temperate climes replacing their water-sucking front lawns with vegetable gardens. I have contemplated this. But our growing season is so short that the blooms don't stay around and come October we're left with dried-up stems that looks like weeds. Better to have a brown lawn than a weedy rock garden. We're challenged to intersperse the plants with evergreens with rocks with ground covers and mulch and possibly some yard art. Looks better. But it's a chore.

I'm revamping my entire yard this summer. Stay tuned for the painful details.

Lefties hang their heads in triumph

Fox News celebrated the fall of Baghdad six years ago today with some trumpeting by Dick Morris:

"Over the next couple of weeks when we find the chemical weapons this guy was amassing, the fact that this war was attacked by the left and so the right was so vindicated, I think, really means that the left is going to have to hang its head for three or four more years."

My head is hanging so low, so low. Thanks to Greg Mitchell for this quote. He's editor at Editor & Publisher and author of the book "So Wrong for So Long" about the media and the Iraq War.

On May 1, we will mark Pres. Bush's infamous "Mission Accomplished" speech. What, exactly, was the mission? What, exactly, have we accomplished?

Hear that old lonesome whistle blow

Mead Gruver wrote a groovy April 9 AP story about the possibility of passenger rail service returning to Amtrak's Pioneer Route. The route passed through Cheyenne and across southern Wyoming along the old route of the Union Pacific. It didn't actually stop in town at the old depot. Instead, you had to get into an old horse-drawn buggy with a gang of dusty coal-miners and get hauled out to a breezy way station where you were lucky to get on the train before freezing to death.

The route was abandoned by Amtrak in 1996 due to a whopping budget shortage. Unlike olden times, travelers prefer (and still do) the interstate to an aging passenger train that travels slower than the average car and much slower than the average interstate truck. It's a well-known fact that the Rawlins High School track team used to work out by racing the Pioneer through town, usually winning the contest with enough time left over to chug a couple beers and wave at the train as it chugged by.

I rode the old Pioneer in 1980. I was living in Denver at the time and decided to visit my brother in Santa Barbara. Instead of doing the sensible thing -- flying from Denver to L.A. in two hours -- I decided to take the 24-hour train ride. I boarded the train at Union Station, an historic building that still looked a lot like it did when my father left it for Army basic training in 1942. Probably looked about the same as it did when my Irish immigrant grandfather worked there in the 1920s.

The ride was scenic, I'll give you that. The windows were big and you could view the great outdoors with ease. As we left Denver, a passenger from California said he thought that the city's train yards were ugly. You know, he was right but I wasn't about to give him the satisfaction of agreeing with him. If he could only see those rail yards now. Not a train in view. Unsightly tracks ripped up and replaced by condos and coffee shops and a Six Flags and a big retro-style baseball stadium. The only warehouses have been turned into artist studios and galleries. If Amtrak decided to run the Pioneer through Denver, I'm not sure where the passengers could get on. Do any railroad tracks remain at Union Station?

My 1980 trip was mostly uneventful. I viewed the Wyoming scenery on a pretty September day. Changed trains in the middle of the night in Utah. Disembarked in steaming Las Vegas for an hour. And rode through the endless expanses of metro L.A. on the way to its Union Station. I didn't see that California guy on the train. If I had, I would have shared my opinions about the ugliness of the L.A. train yards.

Seems silly that I haven't been on a passenger train since. I've ridden plenty of subways and light rail lines, including the one in Denver. But I would like to see the return of train travel, preferably the high-speed variety. We need options to leave our cars behind. I can only imagine how pleasant it would be to get on a train in Cheyenne in January and zoom across the mountains and high prairie to Rock Springs, leaving the white-knuckle winter driving to others.

Spring break trip to DAM

I like this photo for the angles and edges and shadows -- and I'm not talking about those tiny people looking at us. The human subjects (left to right) are Chris, my wife; Annie, my daughter; and Brandon, Annie's friend. We were gathered outside the Denver Art Museum before spending the day inside. The DAM roof is under construction (note workers dangling from ropes on the slanted roof in the background). The entranceway is covered with multicolored plastic sheeting with instuctions pointing out the way to out-of-towners. On the far right side of the pic is a massive sculpture that can be dark and foreboding if you face it with foreboding on a dark winter day. It seemed slightly playful the day we were there. Also, out out of the picture on the right was a trio of stoners who were laughing hysterically. Maybe they were laughing at the sculpture, but I prefer to think they were laughing with it. Later, one detached himself from the group and wandered over to bum a cigarette. I began to deliver my standard "smoking is bad for you" routine, when the kid held up his hand and said: "I don't need no lectures, man. I just need a cigarette." I told him that Chris and I quit smoking 25 years ago when Chris was pregnant with our son. He sighed in disgust and wandered away. I'll have to remember how boring my lectures are next time I'm confronted by a big city cigarette moocher or panhandler.

Fiction becomes film becomes reality

Brad Cain of the Associated Press reports that part of the Oregon State Hospital in Salem will be spared the wrecking ball and serve as a museum to commemorate the 1975 film "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," based on the book by Oregonian Ken Kesey.

I don't remember (maybe you do) whether was book was set in the Oregon State Hospital. It's at least implied.

Demolition crews are going to spare one section of the hospital, the marble hydrotherapy device that Chief Bromden throws through the window, Bromden's broom (which earned him the nickname "Chief Broom") and a bathtub used by Danny DeVito in the film. It will eventually become the Museum of Mental Health. Meanwhile, the new Oregon State Hospital will be built next door.

Writes Cain:

The movie based on Ken Kesey's 1962 novel was fictional, but it has become closely associated over the years with real-life problems at Oregon's crumbling, overcrowded psychiatric facility.... Hospital superintendent Roy Orr said mental health advocates are divided on whether "Cuckoo's Nest" helped promote the cause of the mentally ill or was an overly sensationalized depiction of brutality in state mental institutions. But he supports devoting part of the museum to the movie."I guess I just view it as a part of our past; and now it's time to move on," he said.

Care in mental hospitals has come a long way since the lobotomies and forced incarcerations of the 1960s. But mental health care in general has a long way to go.

But I'm all in favor of any museum that raises the issue. It can also become a site on "The Literary Tour of the West," which should include other key sites in the region's (and Wyoming's) fictional history: a Rock Springs motel commemorating Richard Ford's story of the same name; Brokeback Mountain, located somewhere (possibly everywhere) in Wyoming; The Virginian Hotel in Medicine Bow, which does exist; the site of the castle wherein lives Philip K. Dick's "The Man in the High Castle;" and C.J. Box's town of Saddlestring. Others?

"Designing the New West"

"Designing the New West: Architecture & Landscape in the Mountain West" will be held April 16-17 at the Gallatin Gateway Inn in Bozeman, Mont.

After just spending four days at a Laramie conference about "Public Art & Community," I'm not anxious to go to another confab so soon. But I heard great things about the previous New West-sponsored conference, so I encourage all you builders and architects and town planners and -- yes -- artists to attend. We're faced with some big challenges in the West. While the word "planning" tends to irritate denizens of the West, we're sunk without it. And we need creative approaches. City and county planners talking to neighboring ranchers. Artists talking to government officials. And Repubs talking to Dems (and vice versa).

Here's info on the conference from the New West web site:

"Designing the New West" features leading architects, developers, land planners and landscape designers from around the Rockies, with the aim of tracking design and development trends, showcasing best practices, and understanding how thoughtful and place-inspired design can help us shape our region in the most positive possible ways.

Thursday, April 16, will feature three pre-conference design charrettes and workshops, with specialists' presentations, discussions and site visits on a green home, a commercial development, and land planning & subdivision design. The day will conclude with a conference opening reception and social.

Friday, April 17, is a full-day program at the Gallatin Gateway Inn with a mix of presentations, panel discussions, and networking opportunities. Highlights include:

• Analysis of the state of the business in the region in light of the broad-based economic slowdown -- and the opportunities presented by the federal economic stimulus program.
• Discussion of creative approaches to sustainability, conservation-based design, and urban infill, including a look at new materials, new methods for project planning and management, and new financing models.
• Presentations on innovative land design, architecture and community development projects from some of the nation’s leading practitioners.
• Lively networking with some of the top design and development professionals from around the region.

"Designing the New West" will also offer continuing education credits for certified planners, real estate agents and engineers.

Register here