Two senators from Wyoming who don't have a clue

Here are two GOP senators from Wyoming who don't have a clue about what people are facing out here. I sent them a plea to pass the HEROES Act that the House passed more than two months ago. The Republicans in the Senate, led by McConnell, sat on it for two months hoping COVID-19 would go away magically just as Trump believes. It did not go away. Millions are unemployed and all they care about is making sure businesses can't get sued by people who lost their jobs, possibly their lives, during the pandemic. This is the same bunch who passed a trillion-dollar tax cut for rich Americans. They just don't care. And they are as cruel as Trump, their ringmaster. 

Dear Michael, 

Thank you for taking the time to contact me about the ongoing federal response to the COVID-19 crisis. It is good to hear from you.

I appreciate you sharing your support for H.R.6800, the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act.  America is in an unprecedented health and economic crisis. To save lives and save our economy, Congress has a duty for the duration of this emergency to assist Americans who are facing uncertainty. American's deserve assurances with their jobs, in their homes, and when sending their children back to school. Any relief funding passed by Congress should be temporary, targeted, and focused on keeping Americans employed, getting our students back to school, and providing our healthcare professionals have the resources they need.  The Senate is considering several targeted measures that address impacts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and I look forward to debating these measures along with other proposals that will be brought forward during that debate.  Please know I will keep your thoughts in mind as the Senate continues its work on this issue.  

Again, thank you for taking the time to contact me about the coronavirus crisis. I value your input and look forward to hearing from you in the future.

John Barrasso, M.D.
United States Senator

Barrasso's net worth in 2018 was $15,928,012 according to Open Secrets. He is the 14th-richest U.S. Senator. Wall Street Journal (9/2019), using info from Roll Call, estimated $2.7 million. I'm sure it's higher now, in the COVID-19 year of 2020, especially after he gave himself a sweet tax cut.

 

Dear Michael:

 

The outbreak of COVID-19 is being carefully monitored and the federal government is working closely with state, local, tribal, and territorial partners to respond to this public health threat.

 

I voted in support of the third Senate package to combat the outbreak of COVID-19, the CARES Act (S.3548), and the Senate passed it unanimously. This package helps to fill in the gaps of the previous packages and provide the financial assistance needed for small businesses and employees in order to avoid massive unemployment lines and a complete economic collapse of our country.

 

In terms of a future relief package, the legislation is still being debated. I believe it is important for Congress to spend responsibly. I recognize the unprecedented crisis presented by COVID-19 and I have supported the necessary response, but we have already run up a $2.7 trillion deficit this year, more than triple the size of the deficit we ran at the same time last year. Our focus with any new legislation should be helping kids get back to school, getting Americans back to work and providing health care resources needed to fight this virus. In the meantime, it’s important for folks to continue to slow the spread within our communities by wearing masks and socially distancing when possible.

 

I will certainly keep your thoughts and concerns in mind as I continue to work with my colleagues on this critical issue. Thanks for getting in touch.

 

Sincerely,

Michael B. Enzi

United States Senator

Open Secrets (Center for Responsive Politics) shows Mike Enzi worth $2,137,028 in 2018 (ranked 48th in Senate). Wall Street Journal shows a mere $500,000. Still, Enzi takes his dough into a retirement paid for by you and me, the great unwashed who do not deserve a weekly unemployment bump of $600 because the U.S. has a big budget deficit created by some mysterious force that has nothing to do with the U.S. Senate.

It's not always a beautiful day in the neighborhood

Chris, Annie and I saw "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" on Thanksgiving Day. Walking down the corridor to the theatre, I was almost trampled by a rampaging mob of tykes on their way to see "Frozen 2." We have neither tykes nor grandtykes as excuses to see animated films. You could call them movies for children's but I like the term family films. Disney and Pixar know that the under-10 crowd needs parental accompaniment. The filmmakers throw in enough inside adult jokes and jibes to keep us interested. A good thing because these films will be watched dozens of times at home. Our daughter Annie saw "Charlotte's Web" at least a hundred times.

I knew that "Neighborhood" was a feel-good movie because Mr. Rogers was a feel-good guy. So is Tom Hanks. My younger self might not have gone to this movie. If I did, I would crack wise about it on the way home. I could never resist. When visiting from college, I gave my sisters grief for watching "Little House on the Prairie" or "Mr. Rogers." I thought I was funny. I always thought I was funny. In my youth, I teased family members and friends. I outgrew it, thankfully. Being a wise-ass has its uses. But it's not conducive to forming relationships, That takes vulnerability and humility. You know, Mr. Rogers' traits.

That's what hit me as I watched Tom Hanks as Fred Rogers. He was a humble soul, a friendly man who sought out people like Lloyd, the acerbic Esquire journalist assigned to do a short profile on the children's TV star. Lloyd was a broken man, hobbled by his hatred of the father who abandoned his family. He is struggling to be a partner to his wife and father to his baby. When his father reappears, he is so pissed that he punches Dad at his sister's wedding. When his father is hospitalized with a heart attack, he refuses to see him, opting instead to go to work. Mr. Rogers helps him to heal by being himself and asking the right questions. I  won't say what happens next as I don't want to spoil it.

I left the theatre with a warm feeling. Chris liked the film but Annie did not. She grew up with Mr. Rogers and liked him. But the movie didn't have enough oomph for her. She is a Millennial who avoids network TV and spends her Roku-fueled spare time with life looking for horror films, oddball YouTube videos, and funky indie films. She is kind and creative but impatient. We enjoy a lively banter and has picked up wiseassery from me. My son Kevin has a quick wit, too. He has always had a sensitive soul and I hope that remains. We don't see him much as he lives 900 miles away. I want my kids to be good people. Bad people seem to be on the ascendancy, at least in the public sphere.

I would love to be Christ-like in my behavior toward others. My writing style sometimes allows that, as does my daily behavior. I crave Mr. Rogers' understanding nature. I've long admired Elwood P. Doud, the rabbit-conjuring soul in "Harvey." I would wander the town introducing my pooka Harvey to strangers. I would hand them my card and ask them if I could buy them a drink. I would hope that people tolerated my quirky nature and and invisible companion. Unfortunately, those who wander from acceptable social behavior tend to be discounted even vilified. Americans, bless their hearts, like to believe they tolerate the eccentric among us.

I know a man who's a fixture in our downtown. He has a mental illness and works full time. He tells jokes when he shows up at events. He writes poetry as he hangs out at a local coffee house. On one chilly fall evening. he spotted me pushing my walker along a downtown sidewalk. I saw him scribbling on a sheet of paper as he made his way to me across the street. Before I could even greet him, he handed me the paper. On it were "get well soon" wishes. It was nice and I thanked him. I wish I would have told him it was the best card I had ever received. It was the best because it was the nicest gesture. I could see Mr. Rogers doing this. I could also imagine good wishes from Mr. Doud. He, of course, would have invited me into the Paramount Ballroom for a warm drink on a cold night.
And I would have accepted.

Revealed: Full List of ALEC's Corporate Members (and a Wyoming company is on it)

Common Cause has a full list of ALEC's Corporate Members (via AlterNet). Couldn't find the names of any Wyoming corporate members, but there are very few major corporations based in WY. The list shows that Cloud Peak Energy is located in Colorado. But that's not what it says on the CPE web site:

Cloud Peak Energy Inc. (NYSE:CLD) is headquartered in Wyoming and is one of the largest U.S. coal producers and the only pure-play Powder River Basin (PRB) coal company. As one of the safest coal producers in the nation, Cloud Peak Energy specializes in the production of low sulfur, subbituminous coal. The company owns and operates three surface coal mines in the PRB, the lowest cost major coal producing region in the nation. The Antelope and Cordero Rojo mines are located in Wyoming and the Spring Creek Mine is located near Decker, Montana.

The company employs lots of people and sponsors worthy causes in the state. So why does it belong to an anti-worker org such as ALEC? Find out more about the American Legislative Exchange Council at ALEC Exposed. Here's a snippet from its site:

Through the corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council, global corporations and state politicians vote behind closed doors to try to rewrite state laws that govern your rights. These so-called "model bills" reach into almost every area of American life and often directly benefit huge corporations. In ALEC's own words, corporations have "a VOICE and a VOTE" on specific changes to the law that are then proposed in your state. DO YOU?

We're number three! -- on the list of most corrupt states

At least we're not number one: States with the most lax anti-corruption laws

Wyoming legislators with ties to ALEC

This list goes a long way toward explaining some of the more extreme laws proposed in this session of the Wyoming Legislature (last year's session, too). This is an updated list to the one we ran in August 2011. Thanks to Larry Kurtz at Interested Party for the update:

ALEC is not a lobby; it is not a front group. It is much more powerful than that. Through ALEC, behind closed doors, corporations hand state legislators the changes to the law they desire that directly benefit their bottom line. Along with legislators, corporations have membership in ALEC. Corporations sit on all nine ALEC task forces and vote with legislators to approve “model” bills. They have their own corporate governing board which meets jointly with the legislative board. (ALEC says that corporations do not vote on the board.) They fund almost all of ALEC's operations.  

Participating legislators, overwhelmingly conservative Republicans, then bring those proposals home and introduce them in statehouses across the land as their own brilliant ideas and important public policy innovations—without disclosing that corporations crafted and voted on the bills. ALEC boasts that it has over 1,000 of these bills introduced by legislative members every year, with one in every five of them enacted into law. ALEC describes itself as a “unique,” “unparalleled” and “unmatched” organization. It might be right. It is as if a state legislature had been reconstituted, yet corporations had pushed the people out the door. Learn more at ALECexposed.org.

Wyoming Legislators with ALEC Ties

House of Representatives 

§  Rep. Peter Illoway (R-42), State Chairman
§  Rep. Allen Jaggi (R-18)
§  Rep. Lorraine Quarberg (R-28)
§  Rep. Richard L. Cannady (R-06), ALEC Civil Justice Task Force Member
§  Rep. Lisa A. Shepperson (R-58), ALEC Civil Justice Task Force Member
§  Rep. Carl R. Loucks (R-59), ALEC Civil Justice Task Force Member
§  Rep. Dan Zwonitzer (R-43), ALEC Telecommunications and Information Technology Task Force Member
§  Rep. Rosie M. Berger (R-51), ALEC Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force Member
§  Rep. Charles P. Childers (R-50), ALEC Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force Member
§  Rep. Bryan K. Pedersen (R-07), ALEC Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force Member
§  Rep. Tim Stubson (R-56), ALEC Public Safety and Elections Task Force Member
§  Rep. Lorraine K. Quarberg (R-28), ALEC Public Safety and Elections Task Force Member
§  Rep. Thomas E. Lubnau, II (R-31), ALEC International Relations Task Force Member
§  Rep. Kathy Davison (R-20), ALEC Health and Human Services Task Force Member
§  Rep. Thomas Lockhart (R-57), ALEC Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force Member
§  Rep. Matt Teeters (R-05), ALEC Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force Alternate and Education Task Force Member
§  Rep. John Eklund, Jr. (R-10), ALEC Education Task Force Member
§  Rep. Allen M. Jaggi (R-18), ALEC Education Task Force Member
§  Rep. Pete S. Illoway (R-42), ALEC Commerce, Insurance and Economic Development Task Force Member
§  Rep. Jon A. Botten (R-30), ALEC Commerce, Insurance and Economic Development Task Force Member
§  Rep. Clarence J. Vranish (R-49), ALEC Commerce, Insurance and Economic Development Task Force Member
§  Rep. Sue Wallis (R-52), ALEC Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force Alternate
§  Rep. Amy L. Edmonds (R-12)^[16], ALEC Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force Alternate
§  Rep. Pat Childers (R-50), ALEC Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force Alternate  

Senate 

§  Sen. Grant Larson (R-17), ALEC Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force Member

§  Sen. Bruce Burns (R-21), ALEC Civil Justice Task Force Member

§  Sen. Stan Cooper (R-14), ALEC Telecommunications and Information Technology Task Force Member
§  Sen. Curt E. Meier (R-03), ALEC Telecommunications and Information Technology Task Force Member
§  Sen. John M. Hastert (D-13), ALEC Public Safety and Elections Task Force Member
§  Sen. Eli D. Bebout (R-26), ALEC Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force and International Relations Task Force Member
§  Sen. Leslie Nutting (R-07), ALEC Health and Human Services Task Force Member
§  Sen. Dan Dockstader (R-16), ALEC Health and Human Services Task Force Member
§  Sen. James Anderson (R-02), ALEC Education Task Force Member
§  Sen. Cale Case (R-25), ALEC Telecommunications and Information Technology Task Force Alternate and International Relations Task Force Member
§  Sen. Henry H. Coe (R-18), ALEC Education Task Force Alternate

Wyoming Rep. Cynthia Lummis: "She is the 1%! She is the 1%!"

Wyoming Republican Rep. Cynthia Lummis speaks as Rep. Eric Cantor looks on (from Rep. Lummis's Facebook page)

Depending in which year's Congressional financial disclosure you use, Wyoming Republican Rep. Cynthia Lummis is either the 25th-richest or 29th-richest member of the U.S. Congress. This, in itself, is not bad. But this status as a member in good standing of the 1% does help explain her voting patterns in support of big corporations, tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans (the 1%), cuts in federal programs for the 99%, drill-baby-drill, weakening of environmental regulations, anti-worker legislation, corporate personhood and all the rest. Read Greg Nickerson's excellent WyoFile article at http://wyofile.com/2011/12/wyoming-delegation-rep-cynthia-lummis-among-richest-members-of-congress/

Denver in 2008: Obama clinches Dem nomination. Denver in 2011: Shame on Obama!

Occupy Denver Rally starts from the Greek theater in the Civic Center Park on Saturday. Three years ago, Barack Obama accepted the Democratic Party's nomination for president at the convention in Denver. I was there, cheering him on. Now Occupiers are holding up images of Obama that say "Shame." I was there 10/8/11. What is going on? Will Denver be the place that both launched Obama's career and also brings him down? Photo by Hyoung Chang of the The Denver Post

Who needs Rainbow Family Rocky Mountain gatherings when you have the Koch Brothers Platinum Lovefest?

A brave coterie of protesters gathered outside the recent Koch Brothers Right Wing Lovefest in Vail, Colorado. CommonBlog has a list of corporate aircraft that flew Right-thinking corporate CEOs and pundits to the conference. Thanks, planespotters. Target is on the list. See if your favorite corporation is there. For more, go here.

Is this the most rigid and close-minded Legislature in Wyoming's 121-year history?

I'm not the only one who's noticed that the Wyoming Legislature has gone crazy this year.

Lander journalist and one-time Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Sniffin decried legislative craziness in a column in today's Wyoming Tribune-Eagle. He notes that

In my 41 years of covering Wyoming lawmakers, I have never seen a group this conservative.... There are fewer women and fewer Democrats in the Legislature than almost any time since territorial days.

That's a 121-year span! Nice to see that we've progressed so far in The Equality State that there is less legislative representation now than there was in 1890. Let's see, 1890 predates the entire 20th century. Wyoming women had voting rights but women in the rest of the nation would have to wait until 1920. Full voting rights for African-Americans were 64 years away. Automobiles were a rarity, and the first flight at Kitty Hawk was 13 years away. Ronald Reagan, savior of the universe, wasn't even born yet. And the source codes for Facebook were locked up in the DNA of Mark Zuckerberg's great-great-great-grandparents.

The world keeps moving ahead. Wyoming gets less equal and more rigid. Various factors have diminished the number of Democrats. One of those is decline in union membership. Another is Wyoming Democratic Party disorganization. Wyoming has a graying population, coupled with the fact that smart young people flee their rural roots for life in the West's cities, all of which, with the possible exception of Colorado Springs, are more progressive places. More Westerners now live in cities than in rural areas.

Wyoming has a part-time legislature. Many of its members come from counties of low population and run unopposed on the Republican ticket. There is a mind meld that goes on with these legislators. Everyone I know in County X thinks this way, so everyone must think this way. And we can't forget the undue influence of Fox "News" and talk radio.

So we get bills that discriminate against gays and lesbians, anti-brown-people-from-south-of-the-border bills, We Hate Obama and His Socialist Policies laws, anti-women's-choice acts, union-busting proposals and mandatory Pledge of Allegiance legislation (see my previous post).

Not all of these are generated in the windblown hinterlands. Most, notably the anti-teacher laws, are crafted in D.C. by right-wing think tanks and brought to Flyover Country by folksy predators wearing spit-shined cowboy boots. Often our legislators are brought to D.C. to be fed this pablum and they can bring it back to Wyoming their own selves.

Bill Sniffin lays out some of the reasons that our Republican-dominated Legislature is a sitting duck for bad advice. Corporate and right-wing interests select good ol' boy lobbyists that often become the legislator's best pal. Legislators are overworked and "it is almost impossible for them to obtain impartial information with coverage of both sides of certain issues." Since big money hires big lobbyists, they are the ones who get heard.

Top advisers to the lawmakers on important issues (like severance tax, for example) are the same lobbyists whose job it is to prevent such laws from passing.

Only when there is a hue and cry from the people are these lobbyist-crafted bills defeated. Sometimes it is the minority who speaks out, as we saw with women legislators (D & R) speaking against anti-choice legislation. That sometimes is not enough. As Mr. Sniffin pointed out in this column, there are fewer women than ever in the legislature.

Maybe this session is an aberration. Wyoming, for the most part, has been known for the moderate strain among its conservatives. If that disappears from the scene along with Democrats and women and Hispanics and Native Americans and African-Americans, youngsters, gays/lesbians and other dissenting voices, Wyoming is in for its own Dark Ages.

When the coal and oil and gas and trona run out, what's left will be the creativity of its citizens. If open-minded creative voices are not heard, we are in big trouble.

Bad company -- Wyoming Rep. Cynthia Lummis and staffer Johnnie Burton

From today's Casper Star-Tribune:

CHEYENNE -- Wyoming's 2010 congressional race heated up recently, as Democratic candidate David Wendt blasted incumbent U.S. Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., for employing the controversial former director of the federal Minerals Management Service.

Lummis' campaign fiercely denounced the accusation, in what could be the start of a contentious election campaign for the state's lone U.S. House seat.

In a letter sent last week, Wendt demanded Lummis explain why she employs Johnnie Burton, who came under fire during her five years as head of the MMS, the federal agency that oversees offshore drilling and revenues from energy exploration on federal lands.

Burton, who served with Lummis in the state Legislature in the 1980s and was also director of the Wyoming Department of Revenue, serves as a Cheyenne-area field representative for the congresswoman, helping constituents with issues such as receiving veterans' benefits or obtaining travel visas.

As MMS director, Burton oversaw the agency plagued with what one federal investigator later called a "culture of ethical failure." Agency workers were caught taking bribes from, having sex with and using drugs with energy industry employees. Burton also promoted a now-defunct royalty-in-kind program that allowed energy companies to avoid making billions of dollars in payments to the government.

She also was criticized for not acting quickly enough to correct blunders on offshore energy leasing contracts that cost the federal government billions of dollars in royalty payments.

Read all about the scandals that plagued the MMS during Burton's tenure in the Denver Post's investigative report from September 2008 at http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_10431998

And read this scary post at emptywheel: http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2010/06/02/dick-cheneys-wyomings-face-at-mms/

There's more. So much more. And you thought that the Gulf of Mexico was oily.

Greedy banks that got taxpayer bailouts try to stop student loan overhaul

From Monday's New York Times:

President Obama sharply criticized the nation’s largest banks for trying to stop legislation that would overhaul federal student loan programs.

Mr. Obama, speaking at a community college, said that American banks had received bailout money from the federal government, and yet were still fighting against a proposal that would eliminate an unwarranted subsidy which the banks receive for providing student loans.

“Ending this unwarranted subsidy for big banks is a no-brainer for folks everywhere,” Mr. Obama said, before lashing out against his favorite target of late. “Everywhere except Washington, that is. In fact, we’re already seeing the special interests rallying to save this giveaway.”

One of 10 Lee Stranahan videos on health care reform

HM supports Alaska's gutsy prog-bloggers

Ah, to be an Alaskan prog-blogger this Fourth of July weekend 2009.

Gov. Sarah Palin resigns in a huff and under a cloud. Palin's lawyer Thomas Van Flein turns his hairy eyeball on blogger and radio host Shannyn Moore. Linda, my fellow DNCC state blogger last summer, is digging up the dirt and raising funds and raising hell at Celtic Diva's Blue Oasis. The Mudflats! tells it like it is in the blogosphere and on the air waves.

These are gutsy bloggers in The Land of the Midnight Sun. Stand by to raise money for their defense fund.

What in the world is Sarah Palin hiding?

Health insurers pay execs handsomely by denying our medical claims

America's top-ten for-profit medical insurers pay their executives handsomely. That's one reason they so fiercely oppose a single-payer health care system for the U.S.

Nyceve on Daily Kos did a roundup of executive pay along with some choice comments like this:

"...keep in mind the for-profit health industry exists for only one purpose, to generate profits for shareholders. In order to do so, this industry collects premiums and then it delays and denies medical care--think you're insured, think again. The situation is so bad that doctors are in revolt. They are sick and tired of fighting the insurers for every treatment, every medication and every test."

Nyceve found the top ten insurers' compensation numbers at the Fierce Healthcare site. I located the CEO of my health plan, CIGNA, and was not too shocked to see that he has profited enormously by delaying and denying the claims of me and my fellow state workers in Wyoming. Here are the sordid details:

H. Edward Hanway, CIGNA
Total Compensation: $12,236,740
Details: Hanway took a significant pay cut from 2007 to 2008, due mainly to a drop off of more than $11 million in his non-equity incentive plan compensation. Still, his base salary of $1,142,885 surpasses that of Aetna's Williams, and is supplemented by just over $3.6 million in option awards, and just over $820,000 in non-qualified deferred compensation earnings. Also, nearly $21,800 in "other compensation" included the use of a company car with a driver, in-office meals, and emergency assistance services relating to medical exams.

Get all the details at http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/26/735411/-Health-insurance-industry-CEO-salary-survey,-stay-calm-for-this

Question: Why aren't the Democrats in Congress pushing harder for a single-payer plan?

Religious affiliation: None

Leonard Pitts, Jr., writes for the Miami Herald, a daily paper known for a tell-it-like-it-is columnists. I first noticed him during the election, when his syndicated columns appeared in our local paper. He targets fools and hypocrites of all stripes, with his most scathing columns targeting conservative foolishness.

His column in today’s Wyoming Tribune-Eagle, "Religion is Losing Us," addresses the recent American Religious Identity Survey which "found a sharp erosion in the number of people claiming religious affiliation." He reels off some of the survey’s finding. He then sums up why many Americans have distanced themselves from religious wackos:

People of faith usually respond to that ugliness -- by which I mean a seemingly endless cycle of scandal, controversy, hypocrisy, violence and TV preachers saying idiot things -- in one of two ways. Either they defend it (making them part of the problem), or they regard it as a series of isolated, albeit unfortunate, episodes. But irreligious people do neither.

And people of faith should ask themselves: What is the cumulative effect upon outside observers of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker living like lords on the largess of the poor, multiplied by Jimmy Swaggart's pornography addiction, plus Eric Rudolph bombing Olympians and gays in the name of God, plus Muslims hijacking airplanes in the name of God, multiplied by the church that kicked out some members because they voted Democrat, divided by people caterwauling on courthouse steps as a rock bearing the Ten Commandments was removed, multiplied by the square root of Catholic priests preying on little boys while the church looked on and did nothing, multiplied by Muslims rioting over cartoons, plus the ongoing demonization of gay men and lesbians, divided by all those ''traditional values'' coalitions and ''family values'' councils that try to bully public schools into becoming worship houses, with morning prayers and science lessons from the book of Genesis? Then subtract selflessness, service, sacrifice, holiness and hope.

The church I attend sporadically (First United Methodist Church) isn’t like this. But the list of transgressions outlined by Pitt are just some of reasons I no longer go to the local Catholic Church.

Churches don’t need me. I used to think I needed a church to bring meaning to my life. But that’s not true. Only I can do that. I still describe myself as a Christian. But when I'm filling out paperwork and I come to the "religion" section, I write in "none."

Sen. McCaskill reads riot act to "idiots"

Watch Claire McCaskill (D-MO) take apart the idiot financiers who got us into this mess: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yt90KUwCCoE

This one is for my college chum Bob in Missouri.

Dubya gets snowmobile, wreaks havoc

"A Snowmobile for George" is a new election-year documentary. Here's a description from the film's web site:

When President Bush reversed regulations that would have banned the two-stroke snowmobile, filmmaker Todd Darling asked the question: why would he bring back a machine that pollutes dozens of times more than any automobile? Baffled by this regulatory change, he straps his own family’s sled onto a trailer, and drives across America looking for the answer to just why exactly did President Bush change that rule?

Along the way he digs into "de-regulation" and looks at how environmental rule changes have affected a wide range of Americans.

Yurok fishermen on the Klamath River along the Oregon/California border, suffer calamitous losses to their fishery when Karl Rove helps re-write the rules about how much water a fish needs.

Cowboys in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming are now locked in a range war with oil companies because political appointees to the Interior Department stopped the enforcement of clean water rules.

Firemen and paramedics in New York City suffer serious health problems because the White House suppressed key environmental rules during the 9/11 clean-up.

And, in Washington DC the filmmaker meets some lobbyists, and discovers a pattern to this de-regulation that amazingly enough hinges on the Bush Administration's view of the snowmobile.

Thanks to the meltdown on Wall Street, the phrase "de-regulation" has re-entered the popular imagination. Now find out what happens when de-regulation lands right on your doorstep.

You can see the film in the WY/CO/MT region during the next two weeks. here's the schedule:

Oct. 8, Denver, CO, Starz Entertainment Center, "The Election Year Series," presented by The Denver Film Society, 7 p.m.
Oct. 9, Laramie, WY, film and discussion with filmmaker, 7 p.m., Rm. 129, Classroom Bldg., UW

Oct. 10, Sheridan, WY, WYO Theater, 42 N. Main, presented by Powder River Basin Resource Council, 7 p.m., http://www.wyotheater.com/

Oct. 16, Fort Collins, CO, Lyric Theater, http://www.lyriccinemacafe.com/

Oct. 17, Billings, MT, Billings at MSU, time and venue TBD, presented by Northern Plains Resource Council, http://www.northernplains.org/

Feb. 13-22, 2009, Big Sky Fill Festival, Missoula MT, Roxy Theatre

Voter suppression tales in MT, IN, etc.

The usually very alert jhwygirl in Missoula emerged from her cold medicine haze to notice that she's on the list of 6,000 voters being challenged by the Repubs in Montana. All she had to do was dash over to this site: http://www.montanavotersuppression.org/home2

She also noted this:

Lt. Governor John Bohlinger wrote an op-ed for the Montana Standard this past Sunday, listing a few of the disgraceful challenges the Montana Republican Party put forth for this upcoming election: Kevin Furey, former legislator who left the legislature to serve in Iraq; Cindie Kalan-Green, serving in Iraq; Mathew Robison, deployed to Fort Drum; Chelsi Moy, the Missoulian journalist who broke the story; Babe Aspholm, an elderly man from Anaconda who merely moved across town to live in a senior living center; Tom Detonacour, a Deer Lodge County policeman; Frank St. Pierre, 86, Medal of Honor recipient for his service in WWII; Mrs. St. Pierre

And the list goes on and on.

Alan Boswell sent this update this afternoon:

Here’s a brief roundup of the various voting rights news of the past few days. Also note the legal mess in Indiana holding up early voting sites and the 6000 voters whose right to vote is being challenged in Montana.

Election Protection’s 866-OUR-VOTE hotline is THE place to report any foul play (and get basic answers to any question a voter may have). You can also follow more frequent voting rights and voter suppression updates at twitter.com/866OURVOTE.

FMI: Alan Boswell at 866ourvote.org

Wasn't it a Republican who said this: "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." Nope, that was Thomas Jefferson.

Ehrenreich explores nation's "great divide"

Montana has nurtured many fine writers -- Tom McGuane, Richard Hugo, James Welch -- but Montanan Barbara Ehrenreich is a writer and activist with a pissed-off populist bent. I'm reading her latest book, "This Land is Your Their Land: Reports from a Divided Nation." She no longer lives in Montana, but does spend a few weeks each year in the Rocky Mountain West.

I need to see vast expanses of water, 360-degree horizons, and mountains piercing the sky -- at least for a week or two of the year.

As a Westerner sojourner, she is suddenly confronted with those changes that we residents see day-by-day, such as the morphing of small scenic towns into playgrounds for the rich. Driggs, Idaho, for example, where she and a friend rented a small house.

At that time, Driggs was where the workers lived, driving over the Teton Pass every day to wait tables and make beds on the stylish side of the mountains. The point is, we low-rent folks got to wake up to the same scenery the rich people enjoyed and hike along the same pine-scented trails.

But the money was already starting to pour into Driggs... I haven't been back, but I understand that Driggs has become another unaffordable Jackson Hole. Where the waitstaff and bedmakers live today I do not know.

I don't know either. I do know that plenty of people still commute to Jackson over the pass from Driggs and Victor, and up from Alpine, Afton and Thayne to the southwest and Pinedale to the southeast. Long commutes, especially with the winter we had this year. The super-rich are replacing the just-plain-rich, and the locals keep searching for affordable housing. Some has been built, but more is needed. Meanwhile, the waitstaff and bedmakers and coffee baristas and white-collar workers get hit the hardest by growth and the sputtering economy. That drive over the pass in that second-hand SUV just gets more and more expensive.

Ehrenreich's book is full of pithy examples of the growing inequality between the haves and the have-nots. Read it -- and prepare to get as ticked-off as she is.

This day in history: Who would Jesus bomb?

Who said this, and when:

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

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

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

Source: Editor & Publisher web site