Word Back: Let’s Make America Again Again

Again.

Make America Great Again

I’ve been exploring this phrase as it has taken over conversations, rallies, bots, blather, mind games, etc.

It’s a work of genius, really. It gets everyone on the same page. It does, if you are a true believer in Trumpism. That’s what 70-some million people voted for, right? America is no longer great so we needed to fix it. And we will put in place a supervisor who really has never done anything I could call great. But let’s pretend he has and see what magic time in our recent history he wants to return to, revisit, make great again.

So many T voters were elderly as am I. They remember a time when a middle-class suburban lifestyle ruled lives and airwaves. Our Southwest Denver neighborhood was mostly White Anglo-Saxon Protestant or WASP. Not the kind of WASP who grew up in suburban New York City or Chicago. Our Dads made less money than yours. I say Dads because that’s who left the house to work.

Mom was a housewife or householder – she held the place together. Dad was a contract something-or-other for the Martin Company in Lakewood. I never really know what Dad did for a living. Martin eventually merged with American-Marietta and then Lockheed to become part of aerospace and defense work. Martin got his start building airplanes and so did Lockheed. Martin ranked 14^th among defense contractors and built the B-26 Marauder bomber and the B-29 Superfortress that dropped The Big Ones on Japan. Lockheed was most famous for building the P-38 Lightning, the twin-tailed warplane that all of us kids bought in model kits.

We knew our warplanes in the fifties. We were fed by movies, TV,  and comic books. We heard some stories from our fathers but nothing of great import because that’s the way it was. Dad was an infantryman, a Signal Corps radioman who marched through Europe with the rest of the grunts. His unit was lost in the Ardennes during the Bulge but eventually made it back to American lines. I wondered what it was like, being lost in a war zone, but he never elaborated on it. I saw the fellow vets huddled around the patio bar at or the grill during parties and knew they were telling war stories but we were never invited in. So we had to read about them in books or imagine them.

Most of the neighbor men were soldiers and sailors. No fighter pilots on our street and we would have known if there were any. The dad of the kid next door was a plumber. The kid’s name was John and last name Lennon. He went on to become famous as one of the Beatles. Just kidding. I don’t know what happened to him. On our other side lived an older childless couple. They were nice enough. What I wonder about is what they thought about living next to us, one of the largest families on the street. We were a rowdy bunch. Loud. They complained when Dad installed a set of monkey bars in the backyard. It was perilously close to the older neighbors’ fence and it apparently gave them nightmares about one of us swinging wildly on the bars and breaking our backs on their fence. Looking back, we think it hilarious but, older now, we have our own nightmares about injured children and grandchildren.

The man who lived behind us was an army mess sergeant. An FBI agent lived down the street. Across from, him was the only Hispanic family on the block and Catholics like us. One of the boys was the age of me and my brother and we rode bikes together. He took a spill and was impaled by his handlebars. They rushed him to the hospital. When he reappeared, he showed us his stitches and said his spleen was removed. A spleen? Who knew we had one?

We rode our bikes to Bear Creek and played war. Firecracker wars! No danger there. The creek tumbled from the high peaks but was tame by the time it reached the flatlands. Our father once pole-vaulted across the creek and we thought it amazing. Dad showed us how to skip rocks. We rode our bikes down steep hills and crashed in a cloud of dust and rocks. We explored the mall digs, daring each other to ride down into the holes.

We walked to school four blocks away. It was rare, even when it snowed, to see Moms bundle the kids into station wagons and shuttle them to school. I drive past my local elementary school at the end of the day and there is a traffic jam of SUVs idling on the street. Maybe that’s what MAGA people want? Make schools close enough to walk to! Well, that would mean more schools and more taxes to pay for them and the school library might have a book about two dads or a boy who wants to be a girl and all hell would break loose at PTA meetings.

Why can’t we go back to the days of PTA meetings where the only squabble was how many cakes to bake for the Halloween Walk? You remember that, right? Kind of like musical chairs but if you win you get to take a cake home and hope you are there early enough, dressed in your Popeye costume, to win a chocolate one and not one of those yucky coconut ones. A coconut cake! That mom must be a commie!

Ah, those good ol’ days.

Note to my son: Thank you for sending me the book “Dad, I Want to Hear Your Story: A Father’s Guided Journal to Share His Life and Love.” I will fill out some of the pages but most memories can be found on these pages which I’ve been keeping for 20 years. Most stories are true, although I have been known to take liberties. If I still covered high school sports for A Major Metropolitan Newspaper, I would be much more careful in my reporting. I would take time for better fact-checking and less snark. Enjoy!

The 2017 Women's March gave us hope in the dark and dismal early days of Trump

I feel almost giddy as this week spells the end of Trump in the White House and a new president installed. A new day for Washington, D.C., and America. A new year. Promise is in the air.

On the night of Nov. 3, 2016, all hell broke loose. Hillary Clinton led the results, at least in the beginning. And then came Florida and Pennsylvania and it was all bad news from there. Chris and I left the Democrats' celebration party early. She went to bed. I watched the West Coast returns even though my heart was broken.

I joined a group of millions across the globe in the 2017 Inauguration Day women's marches. We held one in Cheyenne attended by locals aided by protestors from around the state, western Nebraska and northern Colorado. The crowd was estimated by the Cheyenne Police Department as 1,200 but it may have been more as the police are usually conservative in their crowd estimates. It was a big crowd in our Capitol City with a population less than 70,000. Did this old bleeding heart good. Read my recap of the event here. 

We only had a tiny idea of what the next four years would bring. Nature's way of causing us further trauma. It culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol by by raging Trumpists. Many have been arrested for their attack on the seat of this country's duly-elected legislature. They stormed democracy when they stormed the building. Those filmed images will stay with me forever.

Come on Jan. 20, 2021!

Celebrate Free Speech Week by taking illegal Wyoming photos

WyoFile is celebrating Free Speech Week by staging an intriguing photo contest for potential lawbreakers. Let's let the WyoFile folks tell the story -- they're great at that:

Did you get a great picture of a bison in front of the mountains this summer?

What about wildflowers? Do you have some landscapes or sunsets from your trips on public land?

Did you ask the Forest Service, BLM or Park Service for permission to take your photograph first? Believe it or not, Wyoming’s new data trespass laws say if you collect such “resource data” from “open land” without permission, and it could be submitted to someone who works for the government, you’re a lawbreaker. 

WyoFile is an official partner of Free Speech Week.
In celebration of Free Speech Week, WyoFile is asking citizen photographers to submit their once-innocent, now-potentially illegal pictures to WyoFile. Join us in showing Wyoming some examples of photography that, despite the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, Wyoming says is illegal now.

There are some rules. Check them out here and let the shutterbuggin' begin.

Occupy Cheyenne activists interviewed during OWS cross-country odyssey

Occupy Wyoming!

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

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

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

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

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

From edenpictures on Fliker via occupyusatoday.com

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

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

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

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

Read the chronicles of their journey at occupyusatoday.com.

Back-sliding on FDR's "Four Freedoms"

This Norman Rockwell poster is based on the “Four Freedoms” addressed by Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt in a January 1941 speech. The following January, the U.S. would be at war and these freedoms would be at risk abroad and at home. They are:

1.      Freedom of speech and expression

2.      Freedom of worship

3.      Freedom from want

4.      Freedom from fear

They are all worth revisiting 70 years later. We seem to be back-sliding on these basic freedoms. At home and abroad.

Lifted the poster from Kaili Joy Gray's post today on Daily Kos. Thanks, Kaili. 

Wyoming Country Party hates those darn federal and state gubments

The Wyoming Country Party has been floating around the state since spring. Its mission looks suspiciously like that of the Wyoming Republican Party, or maybe a hybrid of the WY GOP and the WY Libertarians.

Anyway, they want to get the darn state and federal gubments off of our backs. Same 'ol, same 'ol. Their logo is kind of clever (see above). Their message as old as the Know Nothings of the 1850s, the John Birch Society of the 1950s and the Tea Party of today.

Here's a taste:

The Wyoming Country Party is a new political party that will nominate, support and elect candidates to the Wyoming legislature who will reduce the size and scope of government. 

We embrace these fundamental principles that Judge Andrew Napolitano speaks of so eloquently:
  that government is best which governs least
  the people are entitled to a government that stays within the confines of the Constitution
  the Constitution was written to keep the government off the people's backs 

The Wyoming Country Party advocates reducing taxes on Wyoming citizens, reducing state government spending, and reducing Wyoming's dependence on the federal government. The party believes that the federal government has grown too large and powerful, and will work to elect Wyoming citizens to the Wyoming legislature who will reclaim, through legal and peaceful means, state responsibility for education, land management, wildlife management and other government functions that were reserved to the states or to the people by the 9th and 10th Amendments to the Constitution.

Celebrate "Read Any Damn Thing You Want To Read" Week Sept. 24-Oct. 1

Don't let the Know Nothings take away your reading choices.

Read any book you want all year 'round. But be especially forceful on your reading choices Sept. 24-Oct. 1.

Banned Books Week is sponsored by the American Booksellers Association;American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression; the American Library Association; American Society of Journalists and Authors; Association of American Publishers; and the National Association of College Stores.  It is endorsed by theCenter for the Book in the Library of Congress. In 2011, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund; National Coalition Against Censorship; National Council of Teachers of English; and PEN American Center also signed on as sponsors.

For more information on getting involved with Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read, please see Calendar of Events, Ideas and Resources, and the new Banned Books Week site. You can also contact the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom at 1-800-545-2433, ext. 4220, or bbw@ala.org.

"Freedom Riders" asks: Would you put your life on the line?

An amazing documentary. My wife and I saw it on WY Public TV several weeks ago. Donate to Truthout and get a fee copy. 

1971: Eighteen-year-olds get the vote; 1972: Nixon wins in landslide

Marching for the vote in 1971

In 1971, the U.S. Congress ratified the 26th amendment, lowering the voting age to 18.

I was five months shy of 21. New amendment or no new amendment, I as going to be eligible to vote for president in 1972. My politics were rapidly shifting from conservative to somewhat liberal. I had lost my ROTC scholarship in January but still had my college deferment at U of South Carolina. This was a good thing since my draft number was 128, low enough to go if I ever was 1-A. So my politics were this: convince Pres. Nixon to get out of Vietnam before I had to go there. Or elect someone else who would get us out.

Self-serving? Of course, that's what politics is about. If it hits home, it's important at election time. It's the economy, stupid. Or, it's the war, stupid, especially if you're draft-bait.

One word about the draft as practiced by U.S. Selective Service: unfair. If you don't believe me, read the exhaustive and sometimes dense book on the subject: "Chance and Circumstance: The Draft, the War an the Vietnam Generation." The authors, Lawrence M. Baskir and William A. Strauss, were members of Pres. Gerald Ford's clemency board. The book was out of print in 1990 when I read it on microfiche for a writing project at CSU. I was lucky to find the cover art (see photo).

In November of 1972, I found myself voting in an historic church on Boston's Beacon Hill. I voted for George McGovern, a U.S. Senator from South Dakota, a World War II combat veteran, and an odd person to be an anti-war firebrand. McGovern lost, the Vietnam War continued until April 1975. More young Americans died and many more Vietnamese. This is one of the roots of my stubborn Democratic Party voting pattern and my antiwar activism.

I am astonished that everyone doesn't vote. I was astonished by this in 1972, although the polls were darn crowded on that cold Boston night -- I was outside waiting in line. But was less impressed when the results came in, with only Massachusetts and D.C. coming in for Sen. McGovern.

Young voters came out big for Obama in 2008 (read Pres. Obama's proclamation celebrating the 26th amendment anniversary here). They disappeared in 2010. What will they do in 2012, with the the future of America hanging in the balance?

It's good to remember an historic event such as the ratification of the 26th amendment. But when it's 100 years old, it may just be an historical oddity.

Who's the "Bull Goose Loony" among Wyoming Congressional Republicans?

Congressional Republicans ponder the "Repeal Amendment" while waiting for their meds 

O.K.. "looniness" isn't a word, at least according to Webster's. You can be loony or looney. I can be loonier that thou, or even the looniest one in the bunch. I can imagine myself as the non-politically-correct "Bull Goose Loony" in an imaginary mental ward ("One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest") or be a member of the "Looney Tunes" stable of animated characters -- Daffy Duck comes to mind.

But looniness is a good descriptor for the legislation issuing forth from Congressional Republicans these days. Wyoming's Congressional delegation was once known as a moderate bunch. Sure, they were all Republicans, but senators such as Al Simpson and Craig Thomas and Mike Enzi usually avoided siding with the Far Right on their looniest causes.

There were causes for concern. During his first term, Mike Enzi sided with Sen. Dr. Bill Frist on Terry Schiavo's right to live a long and healthy life in a vegetative state. Sen. Dr. Frist contended that he could diagnose Mrs. Frist via video and, apparently, that was good enough for Sen. Enzi. It was a tempest in a teapot, like so many of these Far Right causes. Education system not working? Blame unionized teachers and their fat paychecks. Don't like abortion? Force women to view ultrasounds of their fetus -- or charge them with murder after the fact. Budget deficits? Cut taxes for the wealthy and kill Medicare for the elderly and Medicaid for the poor.

As I said, looniness.

Now Sen. Enzi and Sen. Dr. John Barrasso (we don't need no universal health care!) and Rep. Cynthia Lummis (a.k.a. seventh-richest member of Congress) are touting the so-called "Repeal Amendment" which would allow states to get rid of federal rules and regulations they don't like. This is a favorite bugaboo of the Far Right. That damn federal gubment is out to get them with needless regulations about wolves and black-footed ferrets and guns and oil drilling and health care and Gays. Wyoming Tea Partiers, many of whom haver never seen a live wolf, call wolves terrorists and want to be able to shoot them on sight if they wander into their ranchette to munch on Fluffy. But that darn gubment keeps getting in their way.

Meanwhile, as rivers flood and tornadoes drop from the sky or rain refuses to fall, these same people holler for federal disaster relief and scream even louder if they don't get it immediately.

Wyoming is one of those states that pays in fewer taxes than it gets in federal funding. It also has a fair amount of federal land. We have two national parks, Yellowstone being the first in the U.S., and some national monuments, including the first in the U.S. in Devils Tower. We have the huge Wind River Indian Reservation and nuke central at F.E. Warren AFB -- I hear reveille sound every morning from the base's loudspeakers. We have the huge national training base at Camp Guernsey. We have national grasslands and reclamation projects and many millions of federal dollars in our interstate highway system and airports. Wyoming relies on energy and tourism, both heavily subsidized by government infrastructure.

Wyoming will wither up and blow away to Nebraska without federal funding from U.S. taxpayers.

All three members of the Wyoming Congressional delegation will be in Platte County this week. Check out the Platte County Democrats' blog to see the schedule. I am not sure if they also will be in Laramie County. Looked for Sen. Enzi's travel schedule on his web site and couldn't find anything up-to-date.

The Casper Star-Tribune had an excellent editorial today about the loony "Repeal Amendment." Here's the opening:

The last time a coalition of states decided it had the power to nullify federal laws was in 1860, when 11 Southern states objected to the ban on slavery and seceded from the union. We all know how that turned out.  Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., who has decided to ignore history and steer the current states’ rights bandwagon, is sponsoring the so-called Repeal Amendment, the ultimate anti-federal measure. It has almost no value beyond scoring some political points with the tea party crowd and the far right fringe of the Republican Party.

Read the rest here

Next up on the Republican/Tea Party agenda: secession

From the Casper Star-Tribune:

All three members of Wyoming’s congressional delegation have signed on as co-sponsors to a proposed constitutional amendment allowing states to veto federal laws and regulations they dislike.

Sponsored by U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., and U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, the proposal states that any federal law or regulation would be repealed if two-thirds of the states — or 34 states — vote against it, according to an op-ed by Bishop published by The Daily Caller, a conservative news web site.

If the two-thirds majority is reached, the law or regulation would then be sent back to Congress, which could vote to override the repeal and pass it in finality, according to Bishop’s op-ed.

U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., and U.S. Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., will be co-sponsors of the legislation, according to spokeswomen for the two lawmakers.

“I am fighting to return to the rightful owner — the states and the individuals — the power that the federal government has grabbed,” Lummis said in a media release Wednesday. “That is what our founders envisioned, what our Constitution requires and what the people of Wyoming demand.”

Though the idea has been championed by many within the conservative tea party movement, Bishop said the check would appeal equally to Republicans and Democrats.

“It is not a partisan issue,” he stated in the op-ed.

However, Wyoming Democratic Party Executive Director Bill Luckett called the bill “disturbing” and “nothing short of an attack upon the very heart of our Union.”

“It’s sad for Wyoming that both of our U.S. Senators are so caught up in anti-government tea party hysteria that they are endorsing a piece of legislation that would dismantle the Union our Founding Fathers created,” Luckett said in an email.

Tea Party Slim & Sovereign Jake vs. Liberal Mike

I ran into Tea Party Slim at the downtown Starbucks. “Hey Slim,” I said. “Enjoying that Fair Trade Coffee?”

He peered at his grande coffee cup. "Slim” was printed on its side.

"It's just coffee,” said Slim.

I grabbed a colorful bag of beans from the rack. I read: “By working together and paying the prices that premium coffee deserves, we’re helping improve the lives of those farmers and their communities. Find out about additional ways we are working with farmers to ethnically source our coffee at starbucks.com/sharedplanet.”

Slim frowned. “I may have to go back to the doughnut shop. They have regular American coffee there -- and it doesn't preach at you.”

“Even Dave’s Doughnuts serves coffee made somewhere else," I said. "It’s sold by corporations like Folger’s or Nestle. The corporation gets more of the profit and small growers less.”

“Who’s the know-it-all?” Slim’s friend spoke for the first time. He looked a bit younger than Slim, maybe in his fifties. His hair was streaked with gray as was his bushy beard. He wore a striped western shirt, brown vest, jeans and Sunday-go-to-meeting cowboy boots.

“Meet Liberal Mike,” said Slim, “one of the few registered Democrats in Laramie County.”

“I’m Jake,” said the man. “Freeman."

We shook hands. His grip was firm; his eyes held mine.

"Jake Freeman," I said.

"No, my last name is, well, it's not important," he said. "I meant that I am a Free Man -- sovereign."

I'd heard the terms before and wanted to know more. “Let me get some shade-tree-grown Nicaraguan coffee and a whole wheat organic scone and I’ll join you gents.”

I did just that. I grabbed one of the easy chairs across from Jake. He and Slim stared at me. “Do I have a booger hanging out of my nose?” I swiped my hand across my face.

Slim laughed. “Jake doesn’t know any Liberals.” He turned to Jake. “It’s like going to the zoo, eh Jake? Looking at the strange creatures.”

“I have lots of company,” I said. "In 2008, 3,800 new Democrats registered in Laramie County. Many of them voted. That's how Obama won the majority of votes in this county."

"That was then," said Slim. "Where were they last November?"

"I don't vote," said Jake.

This time, Slim and I stared at Jake.

"Don't vote?"

"Don't need to," he said. "Why should I have to register to vote for a government I don't believe in?"

Jake erupted in a diatribe about what it means to be a sovereign. The united states of America (lower case u and s) is a republic based on the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution. The Magna Carta, too. And the Bible. The United States of America (capitalized) was corrupted following the Civil War. It became a centralized, profit-seeking corporation, its many laws and regulations just ways to keep the people in their place. States, on the other hand, are individual republics and make the only laws worth following.

Our coffee cups were bone-dry by the time Jake fell silent.

"I guess you don't pay taxes," I said, recalling the big check I just wrote to the IRS.

He chuckled. "I'm not a slave to the IRS. I believe in free enterprise. Me and my fellow sovereigns barter our goods and services."

"What's your skill?"

"Paperwork," he said with a grin. "In my previous life, I was a Certified Public Accountant with the State of Wyoming. I know all the tricks. I pay my filing fee and present reams of paperwork that some clerk has to input into the system. Clogs up the bureaucracy. Drives them crazy."

"Guerrilla tactics," said Slim the veteran.

"Same kind of tactics that anti-war activists used during Vietnam -- and right now," I said. "Don't pay taxes for the war machine. Or pay in bags of pennies that you haul down to the IRS office. File loads of paperwork to clog the system."

Jake stared at me. "You Liberals have your own causes," he said. "Mostly you believe in big government. An illegitimate government." He paused. "Our president doesn't even have a birth certificate."

"Now you're talkin'" said Slim.

I replied: "I thought you didn't believe in government. That's who handles birth certificates. Do you want government more involved in tracking our personal lives?"

Jake waved away my criticism. "State and local governments have some legitimacy. For instance, I register my vehicles and pay the fees. My truck needs a license plate."

"So some government is O.K.?"

"State and local. The county sheriff is the law of the land."

"If you're so sovereign, why would you take orders from any law officer."

He nodded. "Slim, your boy here is sharper than he looks."

"He has his moments," said Slim.

"There is one thing that we won't register, right Slim?" He padded his vest, lifting it up so I could see the Glock snug in its holster. Slim, in turn, lifted his jacket and revealed the SIG Sauer pistol he had showed off to me several times.

"No gun registration for these bad boys," said Jake. "It's just a way for the One World Government to track us down, take away our guns and lock us away in re-education camps."

The coffee was long gone, and the conversation had taken a bad turn.

"This government will fall, by peace or by force," said Jake.

I stood. "If you gentlemen will excuse me, I'm off to buy a gun."

"I thought you didn't believe in guns," said Slim.

"Hush, Slim," said Jake. "I think we talked him into joining us."

"No," I answered. "When the time comes, I may need it to protect myself and my family from the likes of you."

NOTE: Much of the information on the sovereign movement was taken from an excellent three-part series by Tom Morton in the Casper Star-Tribune. Joe O'Sullivan also covered some similar issues regarding city zoning laws. For some additional stories, read Tom Morton's blog at http://trib.com/news/opinion/blogs/morton/

In new conservative Constitution, only No. 2 remains

The conservative Constitution (Bob Englehart / The Hartford Courant )

Wyoming Sen. Kit Jennings: Guns before people!

Republican Sen. Kit Jennings of Casper on Wyoming Legislature's concealed carry bill: "We kind of drew the line in the sand and said we're going to start here and start working back toward everybody having constitutional rights." He also said that Wyoming citizens and lawmakers sent this message with the passage of the bill: "Quit taking away our constitutional rights."

So why did he vote to strip constitutional rights from Wyoming LGBT citizens? Guns before people? Does he have a list of people he is going to eventually endow with constitutional rights? If so, gays and lesbians and teachers and immigrants must be way down at the bottom.

Check out his contradictory votes at http://legisweb.state.wy.us/

2011 Wyoming Legislature up in arms about nearly everything

At least three bills targeting the U.S. Affordable Health Care Act are on the Wyoming Legislature's docket. The Legislature gets down to business Tuesday in Cheyenne. No word yet on whether members plan to mimic their colleagues inside the Beltway by spending the first day reading the U.S. Constitution (edited Republican version) or the Wyoming Constitution. This won't be necessary if the Legislature adopts a proposal by Sen. Kit Jennings of Casper (kit@kitsenate.com) that would require all holders of civil offices to take a three-hour course on the Wyoming and U.S. Constitutions. While refresher courses on high school civics might be an eye-opener for Democrats and Republicans alike, not to mention the Tea Party faithful, this bill seems like a gigantic waste of time.

Speaking of gigantic time-wasters, here are the three bills (so far) that attempt to undo national health care reform (via Joan Barron and Jeremy Pelzer at the Casper Star-Tribune):

House Bill 39: Health care litigation fund

Sponsor: Joint Labor, Health and Social Services Interim Committee.

Summary: Creates a $2 million account for the state of Wyoming to sue the federal government over the federal health care reform law passed last year.

Background: On Monday, Wyoming will join 20 other states in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of parts of the federal health care law expanding Medicaid and requiring that most Americans purchase health insurance.

Debate: Supporters say the health care law violates Wyomingites' constitutional rights and that the costs of a lawsuit will be cheaper than what the law would force the state to pay in health care funding. Opponents say the health care law needs to be given a chance to work and that the state has more important things to spend its money on than joining an existing lawsuit.

SJ 002: Health Care Freedom

Sponsor: Sen. Leslie Nutting, R-Cheyenne (lnutting@wyoming.com).

This bill would place on the general election ballot an amendment to the Wyoming Constitution to specify no federal or state law shall compel participation in any health care system by any person, employer or health care provider.

Summary: This bill is directed at the federal Affordable Health Care Act.

SJ 0003: Health Care Freedom-2

Sponsor: Sen. Charles Scott, R-Casper (charlesscott@wyoming.com).

This bill would place on the general election ballot an amendment to the Wyoming Constitution to recognize individual rights to make health care decisions and to prohibit specified state actions limiting decisions. It also authorizes the attorney general to participate in litigation to protect the right to make health care decisions.

Summary: This bill authorizes the attorney general to sue the federal government and have the Affordable Health Care Act declared unconstitutional.

As a counterpoint to this nonsense, I offer up evidence of the benefits (thus far) that have accrued to Wyomingites through the Affordable Health Care Act. This comes from a new year's message on Jan. 2 from Chuck Herz, state chair of the Wyoming Democratic Party:

Obama’s signature accomplishment was the health care reform that had long eluded us. It was clouded by controversy and disinformation about what the reform does. But the proof of the pudding will be in the eating.

When fully operational in 2014 "Obamacare" will ensure that millions (thousands of Wyomingites) who’ve had no insurance or insurance that covers too little no longer need play Russian roulette with family health and finances. It will secure us from having to pay for those who choose to play Russian roulette, forcing others to pick up the tab when they can’t pay. Those with "pre-existing conditions" will get coverage. Preventive care will reduce risk of serious illness and costlier care. Your insurer can no longer cut you off just when you need expensive care on grounds of some technical error. Trials of promising ways to limit costs will begin. And according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, all this will reduce, not add to, the federal deficit.

Those who attack "Obamacare" owe an adequate alternative solution to all these problems and a national health care system that has cost us far more of our GDP, and delivered poorer health results (life expectancy, child mortality, etc.), than the systems of other nations.

Here are stats for you from the Obama for Wyoming site: 9,112 Wyomingites with pre-existing conditions will no longer be denied coverage by greedy insurance corporations; 72,000 uninsured Wyomingites will now be insured; and tax credits can be claimed by 44,600 individuals, 400 families and 10,900 businesses.

That ain't hay, now is it?

Repubs know that the longer thoughtful people in Wyoming and elsewhere have to contemplate the benefits of "Obamacare," the less likely they will want to have those benefits taken away. Especially when those benefits are threatened by men and women enjoying universal health care coverage provided by U.S. taxpayers. House Republicans were scheduled to begin debate on repeal of the Affordable Health Care Act this Wednesday in D.C. That has been put on hold due to the tragic events yesterday in Tucson, when one of their own House members was gunned down at a town meeting.

The Wyoming Repubs may get to the topic before their D.C.-based brethren and sistren.

To what end? Most of the newbies in the Wyoming State Legislature owe their elections to Tea Party activists and other voters who were Simply Wildly Indignant about Nearly Everything, real or imagined (mostly imagined). So legislators are carrying out the will -- real or imagined -- of the voters.

Still awaiting word on legislation to investigate Pres. Obama's American heritage ("He ain't no citizen -- I have proof he was born in Kenya!") and his religion ("He's a Muslim -- the Internet said so"). Other zaniness is sure to follow.

Republican Legislators worried about immigration tidal wave inundating The Equality State

So much for our designation as The Equality State. And I'm sure that anti-gay legislation can't be far behind.

From Wyoming Public Radio:

A number of Wyoming legislators are planning to introduce a bill that would bring Arizona's immigration law to this state. Wyoming Public Radio's Renny MacKay reports.

Arizona's law requires police to check immigration status, if they suspect any person they have detained is in the U-S illegally. The law has been controversial, because many people say it will encourage racial profiling. Representative Pat Childers will co-sponsor the bill in this state. He says he believes the bill is written to avoid racial profiling.

"Sometimes it is difficult to prevent a certain amount of that, but the intent of the law is not to do that."

The primary sponsor of the bill is Representative Pete Illoway, from Cheyenne. He says Wyoming does have an illegal immigration problem, and lawmakers should at least debate the legislation. In a statement to WPR, Governor-elect Matt Mead says he could support a bill similar to Arizona's if it is tailored to Wyoming's specific needs, like restricting employers from hiring illegal immigrants.

What does the Fourth of July mean to me?

In 1,000 words or less...

I'm looking out at the high prairie clouds. They drift east, as always, toward Pine Bluffs and Kimball. The people out there will get some fireworks this afternoon -- lightning and thunder and maybe golfball-sized hail. I should be able to see the light show from my backyard. Happy Third of July!

There will be store-bought fireworks in the neighborhood tonight. Already heard some the last two nights. Things that go boom are illegal in the city. Thing is, Cheyenne is ringed by sellers of fireworks. It would be a darn shame to have access to star shell cannons and flaming mortars and not be able to shoot them off. The law seems to stop very few except old law-abiding me.

I respect the law. I've broken a few in my time. Just the usual -- speed limits, marijuana prohibitions (a long time ago!), drinking laws (a very, very long time ago!) and I once watered my lawn on the wrong day. Nothing serious. I've tried to teach my children well, as the song goes.

Some very smart people drafted the laws that went into the U.S. Constitution that was codified 234 years ago. This document is allegedly why we celebrate the holiday, although visiting space aliens (let's see some I.D., you four-headed lizard!) might think the holiday is for blowing things up, burning meat on backyard grills and buying furniture at deep discounts. Also fighting Coloradans for camping spots at Glendo and Guernsey.

The Constitution has been in the news a lot lately. Some people think that the Constitution is just fine the way it is. Others want to change it so the freedoms in the document can be protected from Obama. Not sure how changing it will protect it. But many people talk about the Constitution but few seem to know what's actually in it. God and guns are in there. If you listen to Sen. Coburn of Oklahoma, God actually invented gun rights so it doesn't matter what the Constitution says about it.

Tea Partiers seem to be of two minds about the Constitution. Some want to wrap it in concrete (or Glenn Beck's gold) so it can't be touched. Others want to change some of its amendments in order to protect it from that darn Obama. Either way, they're mad as hell. Freedoms! Nobody gets to mess with the Constitution except us!

The odd thing about the Tea Party is they are religious about the purity of the Constitution but they aren't all religious.

But some are.

Writing in today's Wyoming Tribune-Eagle's Religion section, Sunnyside Baptist Church Pastor Max Janzen wrote about freedoms:

"Despite revisions historians' attempts to dismiss it, the Founding Fathers of this great and blessed nation clearly stated what did, would, could, can and hopefully will keep us from our loss of freedom: faith in God. It is on our money, in our pledge and in the second stanza of our national anthem."

And on our bumper stickers and in newspaper ads and on Fox TV, don't forget those. And at NASCAR races.

"Our freedom, most of the general public agrees, is a gift. Gifts require givers, and those who crafted, protected and granted us those liberties have for the far greater part acknowledged they were not the givers, but that God was and is."

Most of the general public agrees with this. However, there is a part of the general public which does not. As a prog-blogger I am probably part of this minority, as are Liberals such as Rachel Maddow and Al Franken, most poets, atheists (of course), skeptics and New Dealers. We hate freedoms! We are cursed.

"So in order to really celebrate liberty, be unabashedly thankful to the God who created you, in this time, allowing you to live in this place.

"And if you don't believe in God, get to work providing freedom for other people who do. Otherwise, you believe in the slavery of others to your own opinions."

Now I've probably broken my own law and written more than 1,000 words. But I'm free to do so. The Constitution protects my right to say anything I want, even if it exceeds the word limit or makes me sound crazy as a loon. The Constitution also gives me the right to shoot off fireworks any darn place I want to. Says so right there in the 234th amendment.

Happy Fourth of July!

Freedoms!

UW cancels Ayers' speech, but he still gets paid

From the AP today:

The director of a University of Wyoming center that invited a former 1960s radical to campus says he canceled the event because of safety concerns and because the event's purpose was lost.

The invitation to William Ayers to speak drew hundreds of protests.

Ayers was invited by Franciso Rios, director of the UW Social Justice Research Center.

Rios says he and other UW officials received hostile e-mails and telephone calls about Ayers' scheduled speech on Monday.

Rios says Ayers had originally been invited to speak about educational issues, but controversy over Ayers' personal history had overshawdowed that.

Rios says Ayers will be paid a $5,000 speaking fee. The money comes from the center's private endowment funds.

Obama puts the "E" in Education Act

Great news for college students (and their parents).

Pres. Obama today signed the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act. Here are some of the good things that the "Education" part of the legislation will do:

Eliminate wasteful subsidies to private bankers by switching to a system of direct lending of federal student loans.

Make historic investments in America’s workforce by making college dramatically more affordable – at no cost to taxpayers.

Invest $36 billion over 10 years to increase the maximum annual Pell Grant scholarship to $5,550 in 2010 and to $5,975 by 2017.

$68 billion for college affordability and deficit reduction over the next 11 years. The Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act meets Pay-As-You-Go fiscally responsible principles and will reduce the deficit by at least $10 billion over 10 years.

More good news from the legislative session

Another dumb bill failed to advance during the Wyoming State Legislature's 20-day budget session. This dumb bill was based on the recent anti-democratic Supreme Court ruling endowing corporations with the rights of citizens especially the right to buy any election they want.

Here's the info, via Jeremy Pelzer's story in the Casper Star-Tribune:

State representatives on Wednesday voted down a proposal that would have erased state restrictions on independent political spending by corporations, labor unions and other groups.

The rejection keeps Wyoming's election law at odds with a recent landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision and could make the state the target of lawsuits this election season.

Currently, corporations, labor unions and other groups are not allowed to make independent expenditures on behalf of political candidates in Wyoming. But last month, the Supreme Court ruled that such bans on the federal level violated corporations' First Amendment rights to free speech.

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Ben Barr, a Maryland-based constitutional attorney with the Wyoming Liberty Group who wrote a legal brief cited in the Supreme Court decision, said a corporation or other group could resort to a lawsuit to overturn the state rules.

"The Legislature does need to act on this, otherwise Wyoming is in a way being a renegade and quite frankly unlawful after the Supreme Court has spoken on the issue so definitively," Barr said.

Yes, Mr. Barr, the Supreme Court spoke definitively and its five reactionary judges are beyond the pale on this issue. They're not so much renegades as Palin-style mavericks pretending to be populist champions but really being stooges for multinational corporations. Congress is working on legislation to block the impact of the Supreme Court's ruling.

Why would Wyomingites want to turn over their elections to big corporations? Aren't Wyoming Republicans concerned about the right of individual citizens? We know that they are very concerned about second amendment rights (more legislation coming up on that topic). But what about the all-important first amendment?

And who is this Mr. Barr? Another darn outside agitator? Doesn't he know that Wyoming likes being a renegade? Much better than being mavericky.