Something to look forward to...

From the Casper Star-Tribune:

Wyoming's Republican candidate for congress, Cynthia Lummis, will address the national Republican convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul Monday afternoon, officials say.

The former two-term state treasurer, will appear before Vice President Dick Cheney takes the podium on Monday.

"We will be so excited from Wyoming to have two of our own speaking," said Amy Larimer, executive director of the Wyoming Republican Party. "It's been such a historic election for us anyway and this is just really, really exciting," she added.

For the first time in anyone's memory, all three federal offices were up for election this year. Lummis will face Democrat Gary Trauner of Jackson in the November general election.

P.S.: TRAUNER WILL WIN!

On conventions, blogging and the West

Now that I've had a day of reflection and power napping, I'm prepared to tackle the convention in retrospect.

It was a spectacle. Heavy-hitting Dems as speakers! Celebrities in the delegations! More media than delegates! More cops than media and delegates combined! Music! Fireworks! Protesters!

It was impossible as a lone blogger to capture it all. I tackled it in slices. Some people stood out for their antics and/or attire. There was the tall blond delegate from Mississippi in her Ole Miss antiwar dress. The TV cameras liked her a lot. There were celebs -- Ashley Judd just behind the Wyoming delegation in the Pepsi Center, and Jamie Foxx walking the aisles. Almost all the Democrats who've been in the public eye during the post-World War II era: Jimmy Carter, Daniel Inouye, Michael Dukakis, John Kerry, Hillary and Bill Clinton, Fritz Mondale, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton. And those are only the ones I saw personally.

But after the first day of the convention, I was less interested in pol-and-celeb-spotting than I was in talking to the people around me. And eavesdropping. And keeping my eyes open. All techniques honed by years of fiction writing. Most of my stories come from personal encounters. The way someone speaks. A passing comment. The look in the eye. A small gesture can turn into a short story which can speak a universal truth -- if you're lucky.

While I was blogging in the hotel lobby Thursday, two volunteer Democrats who been shepherding us all week were chatting. One good thing about publicly typing on a laptop -- people don't think you're listening. But the woman volunteer, who was in her early forties, was talking about moving from Minnesota and how hard it's been on her daughter, who's in high school. She's going to the very huge Cherry Creek H.S., which used to be the largest one in the state but now probably is dwarfed by new and bigger exurb schools. The daughter is "very social" but finding it hard to make friends. The woman volunteer also complained that there was no water in Colorado. "So many lakes in Minnesota," she said, adding that her entire family loves swimming and boating and water-skiing.

The man from Minnesota moved to Colorado Springs to be near his kids, three out of four of them had moved to The Centennial State. He wore a gray pony tail and wire rim glasses, which made him look a bit like John Denver. He seemed perfectly happy in the Springs, even though Dems are outnumbered by insufferable hordes of born-agains.

I contemplated the words of the unhappy Minnesota expatriate. It's very tough to move out of your homeplace. It's really tough on teenagers. Her husband pushed for the move and she went along but now is having second thoughts. What's going to happen to them? Back in the booming 1990s, I heard statistics that 50 percent of those who moved from California to Colorado moved back within five years. They returned to family because they missed them. Didn't like the winters. Discovered that there hadn't been an ocean in Colorado for 30 million years.

I felt the same way when I moved from Florida to Colorado 30 years ago. I missed the beach! Also, warm weather. And my parents and my eight brothers and sisters and all of their kids yet to come. I was born in Denver, so I did have relatives there and still do. But it wasn't the same. My wife, too, was homesick, but possesses the vagabond spirit of the Army brat that she is. But we loved the mountains and made friends with other expatriates from Georgia and Massachusetts and even Minnesota. Now here we are 30 years later as Americans who've spent more than half of their lives in the Rocky Mountain West. Our son was born in Denver and our daughter in Cheyenne. She's the only native-born Wyomingite in the family.

There are many stories embedded in our experiences. Five years ago -- heck, one year ago -- I never could have contemplated attending a national political convention as a blogger. It's one of the many pleasant surprises I've had in my life. More to come, I hope.

Alaska's Palin not the Western governor with highest approval rating

Watching the TV talking heads tonight, and the subject was Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, Sen. John McCain's (72nd birthday today!) choice as Veep.

One thing the Repubs kept saying was the Gov. Palin had the highest approval rating of any U.S. governor. No solid numbers were mentioned, but one Repub talking head said that it was more than 80 percent.

So what? One Democratic governor of a Western red state has -- according to a recent poll -- an 81 percent approval rating. He's the only Democrat among the five state elected officials, and he has to deal with a veto-proof legislature, dominated by Republicans. He's a life-long hunter, and his hobby is rebuilding traditional sheep wagons. He opposed the feds' wolf-reintroduction rules, and boosted the budget of the state arts agency to record levels.

Who is this magic man? Gov. Dave Freudenthal of Wyoming.

So Sarah Palin's a Republican governor in a Republican state and has a high approval rating.

So what?

Thursday night at the convention

Sen. John Kerry advances menacingly toward the paparazzi.

"The Daily Show's" John Oliver broadcasts from the stadium floor. He was circling around the Wyoming delegation all night, obviously too star-struck to engage any of us in conversation.

Convention wrap-up -- final day

Once the bus returned me to the Denver burbs tonight, I drove to my uncle's house, picked up my gear and drove back to Cheyenne, getting in about 12:45 a.m. We made a pretty fast getaway from Mile High Stadium and the buses seemed to get priority entering I-25, which was eerily empty, with only our bus and a white Homeland Security van jockeying for space. The city closed the highway from 5:30 p.m. until midnight for security reasons. Just what prompted that decision is hard to say, since the stadium is far enough from the highway to protect against any kind of explosions. If there's one thing this convention had -- security. Denver cops, Lakewood cops, Aurora cops, ATF agents, TSA screeners, Secret Service and, I'm assuming, FBI. We had police in the hotels and on the buses. When is enough security enough? When we say it is!

One classy move the cops made -- providing an escort for the non-permitted march on Wednesday by Rage Against the Machine and members of Iraq Veterans Against the War. Something like 3,000 participated in that march, which made it the largest one at the convention.

More convention wrapping up in the morning.

At the DNC on finale night

Jesse Jackson meets the press on the floor of Mile High Stadium during the DNC Aug. 29.

A portion of the Wyoming delegation at the DNC

Convention

The eagle has landed! The eagle has landed!

Still in line

Mile High Stadium. Standing in line once again with other people taking photos of standing in line.

Blogging from Mile High -- cell phone only

It's been a long week of carrying around this laptop and connectors and cords and a power strip and all the rest of the gizmos a blogger needs. So, as I prepare to go down to Mile High Stadium, I am leaving this laptop behind. I shall miss it, but blog via tex message and photos on the cell phone. Let's see how this works, shall we?

If you don't hear from me during the next 24 hours, I've probably been detained in "Gitmo on the Platte" for subversive thoughts.

Pray for me.

Code Pink hits the Denver streets

Members of Code Pink bicycled through downtown and stopped at 17th and Broadway to set up and antiwar demonstration. This Code Pink activist's sign reads "Save the Constitution: Impeach!" A re-creation of the U.S. Constitution (remember that?) adorns her shirt.

Hero worship at the DTC Hyatt

Wow! I just met Roosevelt Grier in the lobby of the Hyatt Place Hotel. He's walking with a cane these days and is a bit more gray, but it's him all right. A great man. Marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., active in the Civil Rights struggles from the 1960s onward. And a pretty good football player, too.

Here's some background on "Rosey" Grier from Wikipedia:

As a professional football player, Grier was a member of the original Fearsome Foursome of the Los Angeles Rams and played in the Pro Bowl twice.

After Grier's professional sports career he worked as a bodyguard for Robert Kennedy during the 1968 presidential campaign and was guarding the senator's wife during the Robert F. Kennedy assassination. Although unable to prevent that killing, Grier took control of the gun and subdued the shooter, Sirhan Sirhan.

Grier's other activities have been colorful and varied. He hosted his own Los Angeles television show and made approximately 70 guest appearances on various shows during the 1960s and 1970s. Grier is known for his serious pursuit of nontraditional hobbies such as macrame and needlepoint. He has authored several books, including Rosey Grier's Needlepoint for Men in 1973. Grier became an ordained Christian minister in 1983 and travels as an inspirational speaker. He founded American Neighborhood Enterprises, a nonprofit organization that serves inner city youth.

Obama puts Bush's big lie to the test

Sometimes it takes someone with a keen eye to portray what's happened politically in the U.S. during the past 20 years or so. Bradley Burston writes from New Orleans in the Aug. 27 in Israel's Haaretz.com:

In the end, Bush's inexplicable air of harmlessness may be his real legacy. His genius was the glorification of ineffectuality. He played to perfection the part of the good ole boy who revels in the knowledge that things are not as bad as these insufferable, effete, under-manly liberals, intellectuals, elitists, eggheads, high talkers would have us believe. Here was the common man with the common man's truth -- be happy with what you've got, and as for these nay-sayers, may they not bring all o us down with them.

And no one was as good as Bush at promulgating -- perhaps, also, at himself believing -- the big lie. Here, after all, was the man, the moneyed, Yale Skull and Bones legacy son of a moneyed president, grandson of a U.S. Senator trading on his identity as the caricature of the common man, this self-styled rancher, this apparent dirt farmer. A lie as big as the great Texas sky. And Americans lined up to buy it.

It was too scary not to.

What could be more scary, at this point, than Obama bring right? The extent of the changes that need to be made are, in fact, frightening in dimension. There is, undeniably, something in human nature that suggests that if things are this bad, changing them could only be worse. What frightens me, at this point, is the possibility that Americans have come to prize mediocrity over excellence, turning a blind eye to facing hard truths full on. Fox News, meanwhile, has gone back to trying to persuade America that global warming may be a fiction, after all. Who better than Fox to know a fiction when it reports one? What may frighten some Americans about Barack Obama is his very excellence. His fiercest critics have so far had little else to go on.

Meet the DNC delegates: Patrick Goggles

Patrick Goggles has spent four years in the Wyoming Legislature as the representative from House District 33. His district takes in most of the Wind River Reservation from Crowheart on the west to almost Red Canyon on the east side of Lander. It includes the town of Hudson but not Lander, which Goggles calls "the hole in the doughnut." Just an indication of the strange shapes of Wyoming's districting (and gerrymandering by the Republicans).

I talked to Patrick, a member of the Northern Arapaho tribe, on the floor of the Pepsi Center. He lives in rural Mill Creek but his home precinct is in Ethete.

He said he's been interviewed by Wyoming Public Radio, a radio station in South Dakota, RezNet News out of the University of Montana, and several others. After we talked he was off to be interviewed by the BBC.

This is his first convention, but he remembers watching politics as far back as 1960 and the Kennedy-Nixon debates. He has relatives all over Wyoming, and four of his nephews recently finished Marine boot camp and will be headed to Iraq after further training. His son-in-law has served two tours in Afghanistan with the U.S. Army and one in Iraq.

Goggles is an Obama supporter and nominated Sen. Obama at the Fremont County convention back in March. That upset his brother, a Clinton supporter, but Patrick says that he's getting over it.

He stresses the "unity" theme that's at the heart of this convention. "The end result is a unified front behind one candidate and that's Barack Obama."

Let Wyoming answer the roll call!

It's hell being the last state on the alphabetical list at a political convention.

Sen. Barack Obama was just named the Democratic Party's presidential candidate by acclamation. New Mexico (Home of a bunch of artists especially in Santa Fe!) yielded to Illinois (Home of the Valentine's Day Massacre!) which in turn yielded to New York (Home of New Yorker magazine cartoons that we don't understand!).

And who announced this?

New York Sen. Hillary Clinton.

The delegates roared their approval. And the rest of the alphabet didn't get to answer the roll call.

That included North Dakota, South Dakota, Pennsylvania, Texas, Wisconsin, West Virginia, South Carolina and North Carolina. Do I have all the post-New York states?

Rumor has it that the Pennsylvania governor is really mad. Our delegation is disappointed.

I vote that we secede from the Union and form our own country of states which didn't get to answer the roll call to make Sen. Obama's nomination official. Not sure what to call it. The United States of the Ignored? The Silenced Ones? The USA World Book, Nor-Wyo?

We'll think of something.

Hummingbirdminds answers it all for you

My friend and writing colleague Liz Roadifer from Pine Bluffs has some questions about the convention. I will attempt to answer them.

Q: What does everyone have to eat and drink at the Pepsi Center?

A: As for food, you can get gruel, either plain or with water drizzled over it. Beverages include water.

Q: Do you have access to the press room (is there a press room/area)?

A: Yes. I currently am in the Bloggers' Lounge and it is crowed with bloggers of all stripes. Some are not striped. I was near the CNN control booth and got to meet Bill Richardson. He is as tall and bearded as he is on TV. I wandered into one of the press tents (I have a press pass) and saw journalists from Japan, Mexico, Germany and New York. The Weather Channel is not here.

Q: Have you seen the guys, and gal, from The Daily Show who are working the convention, including Jon Stewart? (he's supposed to be quite short).

A: I have been looking high and low (especially low) for Jon Stewart but haven't seen him. The closest I got was a sign at the Campus Inn near University of Denver that read "Welcome Jon Stewart" in big letters and "Welcome DNC" in very small print. I used to hang out at the Campus Inn when my wife Chris and I lived in Denver and attended DU hockey games. I have been on the lookout for Samantha Bee who seems to be eternally pregnant. No sign of her yet.

Q: Does everyone get to keep the signs they hand out to wave for each speaker? (they really look good on TV).

A: I grabbed some of the signs from last night and hauled them back with me. I saw some people hauling signs away in huge black garbage bags. Wonder what they will do with them?

Liz: Can I pick you up one of those signs?

Fritz Mondale drops by to see WyoDems

Thanks to LarCoDems head honcho Mike Bell for bringing in V.P. Walter Mondale yesterday to meet the Wyoming delegation.

As a younger man in 1990 in Minnesota, Mike worked to elect Mondale's son Ted to the state legislature. He and the Mondales have stayed in touch.

"Mike came in and handled volunteers and we won the election," Mondale said. "So, I told Mike to go to Wyoming and run things there."

(Laughter)

Mr. Mondale looks great at 80. Still has a firm handshake and can make a speech.

"We live in dire times," her said. "It's real and it's now. We must act."

As a former Clinton supporter, he urged us all to get behind Sen. Obama so we can wrest control of the U.S. Government from the Bush-Cheney cabal.

"The only way that we now can support the things that Hillary supported is to get behind Obama. I worry about this country if we can't get that sorted out."

He had high praise for Obama's choice as running mate. "Obama showed what he was made of. This is the single most unambiguous step that a presidential candidate can make."

He paused to survey the room.

"I think that Jimmy Carter was brilliant."

(More laughter)

Mr. Mondale spent the better part of an hour with us, and then melted into the Colorado sunshine.

We're all Dems on this bus

Driving the bus this afternoon from the Hyatt Place Hotel at the Denver Tech Center was William Fentroy from Jacksonville, Florida. We hit it off quickly because he saw my 2006 Gators' National Championship cap and then showed me his official Gator cell phone holder. Gators everywhere.

He graduated in 1986. He's originally from New Iberia, Louisiana, which also is home to fictional detective Dave Robicheaux in James Lee Burke's mystery novels.

What happened to the mills and factories around New Iberia and Martinville is not fiction. All the jobs were shipped overseas by CEOs who wanted to own as many houses as John McCain (seven, at last count). As William explained, it cost 99 cents per six-pack of underwear made at the Union Underwear (Fruit of the Loom brand) Factory. The workers were paid decent wages and thousands were employed there.

The compaany shipped all the jobs to Malaysia where they could pay the workers meager wages and it cost just a quarter for each six-pack of underwear.

"Who reaped the profits?" I asked.

"Who do you think?"

Uh oh. Even more 20,000-square-foot houses for Dick Cheney's exclusive community in Jackson Hole. Just call it the Republican Free-Market Underpants Windfall.

Gary Trauner's statement on energy issues

From Gary Trauner's U.S. House campaign:

ENERGY PRESS STATEMENT 8/26/08 FROM GARY TRAUNER

Since the day I started running for Wyoming's lone seat in the US House, I have been saying that the search for sustainable energy independence is the issue of our time. It affects our national security, our economy, our environment and the legacy we leave to future generations.

But over the past four months, as I have continued to campaign door to door, community to community, I have heard countless stories of the incredible burden that out of control gas prices have put on Wyoming's families, businesses, and particularly, seniors on fixed incomes.

As I attended forum after forum during the primary season, most of my opponents embraced the simple slogan of "Drill Here, Drill Now." That's not enough.

Some of them also mentioned diversifying our energy sources. That's not enough, either.

The key issue of our time is for America to break what President Bush called in his 2006 State of the Union address, "our addiction to oil."

To do that, we must bridge the gap with the energy sources of today to get to the energy sources of tomorrow. With diesel right here at this station [Ghost Town Gas Station, Casper, Wy Diesel $4.19] over four dollars a gallon, our choice has already been made for us. Yet, it is going to take leadership, honesty, straight talk and tough choices to achieve our goals.

That's why simple slogans like "Drill Here, Drill Now" won't get it done. How many of you know that nearly 1/3 of the oil taken from under American territory every day is sent overseas to foreign countries? That's right – everyday, 1.6 million barrels of American oil and petroleum products goes to foreign countries. American oil that could be filling our trucks, heating our homes, and fueling our nation.

Giving new leases to energy companies - without holding them accountable - only puts money in their pocket, and doesn't bring down the price of gas. After all, there are millions of leased acres today that are not being used or even explored.

My proposal has three key elements: Short-term, long-term and immediate action.

In the short term, at the risk of repeating myself, "Drill Here Drill Now" is not good enough; What we need is "American oil for the American people", or if you like "Drill Here. Sell Here. Now." It's really pretty simple. I propose that Congress approve new leases under the following conditions to ensure accountability:
o One, every drop of oil drilled under American soil and American waters must go to the American people.
o Two, just like our coal leases, use it or lose it. If oil companies don't drill in a reasonable amount of time, then we'll find someone who will.

That's to help bridge the gap, but as Oil Tycoon Boone Pickens says, "This is one emergency we can't drill our way out of."

So we must have a long-term strategy too that is more than paying lip service to energy diversity, because that's not good enough either. Therefore, any legislation to allow new leases or to open up new areas to drilling must also be coupled with an "Apollo moon" type of project for long-term energy independence.

This means a firm and lasting commitment from our federal government to work in partnership with private enterprise to provide the policy framework, regulatory certainty and market incentives to encourage, research, develop, and financially support a diverse range of alternative fuel sources.

Let me be clear: government should not and must not dictate which specific sources of energy are the long-term answers. In fact, the answer truly lies in diversity.

We need to explore everything from clean coal technologies (including carbon sequestration to rejuvenate tired oil and gas fields), to wind power, solar power, biofuels, hydrogen, and sources yet unknown. Conservation, and energy efficiency in our appliances, vehicles and buildings are also critical aspects of this firm and lasting commitment.

Finally, we need immediate action, to reign in out of control gas prices. Therefore, we must immediately use all the tools at our disposal to bring down the price of gas. These include:
o Reigning in and properly overseeing speculators who manipulate the futures markets solely for financial gain;
o Acting now to materially increase fuel economy standards;
o Providing market certainty by restoring the expired tax credits for wind & solar that are currently being held up by political posturing in DC, while incentivize other forms of alternative energy; and
o Putting more money in Americans' pockets by eliminating unnecessary tax breaks and subsidies to the most profitable companies in the history of the world.

Taken together, these steps will bring down the price of gas and groceries; allow us to take back our national and economic security from dictatorships like Russia, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Iran; and ensure a lasting legacy for future generations.

There will be resistance to change - there always is. We must also remember that the politics of simple slogans solves nothing. And it won't help make gas more affordable for a rancher filling up his tractor or a miner driving to work. As Charles F. Mason, the H.A. 'Dave' True Jr. professor of petroleum and natural gas economics at the University of Wyoming, said in the Casper Star on June 15, "the notion that the nation could simply drill more wells to become 'independent' of foreign oil imports simply isn't realistic. 'It's a myth,' He went on to say, and I quote: "It's a great place to make a stand if a politician is up for re-election. But realistically, I don't see that as having a significant impact."

My vision will have a significant impact by turning adversity into opportunity and recognizing what has made America great over the years: properly utilizing the role of government to help guide and unleash the power of private enterprise to solve complex issues. Taking these steps will immediately relieve the pain and the pump, continue to grow high quality jobs here in Wyoming and ensure the best jobs for our children in the economy of the 21st are right out their back door here in Wyoming.

The view of the DNC from afar

My sister Molly from Tallahassee says that last night's speakers at the DNC were being viewed negatively in the Sunshine State. Too anti-McCain. Too many attacks on the former POW. Molly is one of those citizens who vote for the candidate, no matter which party. I sometimes wish I was that way but it passes and I vote Democratic. Especially this time out, when McCain is just more of the McSame.

Molly asked about the mood inside the hall. Raucous, enthusiastic, positive. Those are three descriptors I can think of. Many signs distributed. Dancing in the aisles to the R&B songs by the house band. Star-gazing, especially when Ashley Judd sat down about ten rows behind us in the Kentucky section.

It's a big show, an expensive production. But so what? It puts the Democrats on center stage for a week. It gets us charged up. We get to meet cool people. The Republicans will do this all next week.

Here's what I like: being around a bunch of Democrats. We are few and far between in Wyoming. I've met some incredible people. Rode the Light Rail back to the Englewood station last night with a Catholic Sisters of Loretto nun. As you know, nuns these days have been freed from their penguin outfits and now wear civvies and are very engaged in their communities. I believe her name was Maureen Fiedler (sp?) who has her own radio show that melds religion and politics (must look up her web site to get more info). She's from the social justice activist tradition. Since that's my tradition, we had a great talk as we watched ATF agents and their dogs search each train for explosives. I was surprised to see them using Labradors for the searches. Labs are great dogs with sensitive noses, but I thought German Shepherds were dogs of choice for law enforcement.

At the station with us was a man from northern Mississippi who was a state senator. He ran against a Democrat who had switched parties to Republican while in office -- and beat him. He said his district was very much Democratic, and that the state legislature had Democratic majorities. That was cheering to this guy from Wyoming who suffers under a state Senate which is 23-7 Republican and a that also has a ridiculous Repub majority.

Both of these people -- a nun from Maryland who went on a hunger strike for the Equal Rights Amendment battle in 1972 and this Mississippi senator with his down-south accent -- were very positive about the night's proceedings. Positive and tired.

Stay tuned for tonight's action, which includes speeches by Sen. Biden and Bill Clinton and a host of others. I will get there early to avoid the crowds.

Day Two of the DNC wrap-up

Wrap-up on day two of the DNC:

Made it a goal to miss most of the early proceedings this evening. My ass was deadened by six straight hours of sitting last night. Fortunately, I had other blogging errands this afternoon, and then had to stand in a very long line (see previous post).

Gov. Schweitzer of Montana is one spell-binder of a speaker. He knows his energy issues. I'm still not convinced of his coal-to-gas plan, and the whole sequestration thing. We're dealing with the same issues in Wyoming. Big issues. I'm counting on wiser heads to make sense of this stuff for me.

Sen. Clinton has never been a slouch in the speech department. Not on par with husband Bill, but she also gives shorter speeches. "Unity" was the theme and it should be. The Clinton delegates in our group seemed satisfied with her call for togetherness. Tomorrow comes the voting.

And now I have to get out of here before they sweep me up with all the discarded signs.

Bush & McCain: separated at birth

Great quote from Hillary Clinton:

"It's fitting that George Bush and John McCain will be together next week in the Twin Cities."

That got a big laugh. Nice line.

This is dedicated to the one I love

To my wife, Chris:

I am in a stadium full of people cheering for your candidate, Hillary Clinton. To judge by the thousands of waving red, white and blue signs, there must be more Hill delegates than those for Barack. I wish you could be here, as I know you would be cheering the loudest. And you can cheer loudly, if the hundreds of baseball, football and basketball games we've seen together is any indication (I'm still having trouble hearing out of that left ear).

Hillary is gracious in defeat and supportive of Sen. Obama. I know it's taken awhile to deal with your disappointment. You're the feminist in the family and you've taught me a lot about being one, too. You're a member of Hillary's Sisterhood of the Traveling Pantsuits, although I haven't seen you in too many pantsuits (you're more a bluejeans kind of feminist).

You're here in spirit. No doubt you have a few tears watching Hillary deliver her speech.

We'll vote together in November for a Democrat that can lead us out of the morass that the Republicans got us into. We've always pulled in the same direction -- peace and justice for all -- and I hope that all Democrats can do the same.

Schweitzer: Energy sense from Montana

Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer devoted most of his prime-time speech tonight to issues of energy independence.

Here's a great line: "We can't drill our way to energy independence, even if we drilled in all McCain's backyards, even the ones he doesn't know he has."

He also said that McCain wants more of the same Bush/Cheney non-energy policy. "McCain voted 25 times against renewable energy, biofuels, solar energy and even wind power. McCain took more than $1 million in contributions from energy companies. Now he wants to give those same energy companies $4 billion in tax breaks."

Do we need four more years of the same? NO!!!

Dems (most of us anyway) wait in long lines

Some Democrats are more equal that others.

Me and thousands of my most personal friends in the Democratic Party were standing in line to get into the Pepsi Center. It was cordial, with more schmoozing that pushing and shoving. And a lot of texting on cell phones. Dems love to text.

But the minutes turned into a half hour and then an hour. Rumblings could he heard.

And then some people began to butt into line. You know how it was in second grade. "Don't butt." "No cutting." And most of your fellow second-graders listened.

And then some power brokers showed up with their handlers and began shoving into line. Several of us yelled "No cutting." One of them was me. A big dude in a while polo shirt stood up on the flank of the line and repeated, "Thanks for waiting in line.," He had a deep voice and I would have listened. But I wasn't trying to shove in line. I was awaiting like the rest of my fellow proles.

A group of well-dressed Dems of my age group stood with the cops, waiting to butt into line. They wore tenuous looks, as if our shouting was not music to their ears. But they eventually found a way to scoot into the line.

"Thanks for waiting in line" I met him later and he said he worked on veteran's affairs for the New York delegation. I don't doubt it. His first name was Clete. Way to go!

Thanks for waiting in line, indeed.

The DNC better take this situation in hand. Tomorrow evening is the voting. And to have a bunch of delegates miss their votes is not going to go down easy, not even with the line cutting contingent.

Get it now: Obama in a bottle!

Obama in a bottle. This vendor was parked along the 16th Street Mall today selling "Obama in a Bottle" water jugs for $15. An Obama figurine and a flag drift in the bottles. To demonstrate his wares, he had a six foot bottle on the back of the truck. Not too many people were buying. Click on photo for larger image.

Ted Kennedy rouses DNC crowd

His voice wavered a few times, but I think it was more from emotion that from the rigors of cancer treatments.

Ted Kennedy was introduced by Caroline Kennedy, followed by a film of the Senator sailing with his kids and grandkids.

Wish they hadn't closed out the speech with that old Top 40 nugget, "Still the One," which was bad when it first appeared, and hasn't improved with age.

Michelle Obama coming up after we boogie to "Celebrate," by Kool and the Gang, sung by the in-house band.

Nancy Pelosi at the DNC podium

Many of you viewers at home just saw Nancy Pelosi speak at the DNC. So, I won't go into the details, but just give you my impressions.

She's a good speaker. She looks good, although my view was partially blocked by the Torch Ginger blooming right in front of me.

There have been some harsh words in the blogosphere recently about Pelosi and her Congressional Democratic colleagues. Why didn't you end the war in Iraq? Why did you renew FISA? Why didn't you tell your Republican colleagues to stick their mindless obstructionism where the sun don't shine?

It's been frustrating for all of us who got jazzed up in 2006 and gave the Dems the majority in the House and a tie in the Senate. The margins we gave are not enough.

What about next time? No more excuses?

Next time, bring tumbleweeds for DNC decor

Note to self: Next convention, bring some Russian Thistle, sagebrush and Indian Paintbrush plants to decorate the delegation sign and official blogger post. Got the idea from the Hawaiian delegation sitting right in front of us. They brought three-foot-tall cuttings of Heliconia and Torch Ginger which they wrapped around their placard. It's pretty, but the greenery and orangery and reddery is now blocking my view of Howard Dean and Nancy Pelosi at the podium.
We wouldn't have that problem with the very spare limbs of thistle. At the first sign of the breeze (or a good burst of AC air), the Russian Thistle would go tumbling along and become tumbleweeds.

Driftin' along with the tumblin' tumbleweeds.

Trauner in Casper & Cheyenne Tuesday

Just received this from the Gary Trauner campaign for Wyoming's lone U.S. House seat:

Gary Trauner, candidate for U.S. House of Representatives will hold a press conference tomorrow on Tuesday, August 26, at 9:30 a.m. at the Ghost Town gas station at 6680 W. Yellowstone Hwy. in Casper, then at 3 p.m. at the Trauner HQ in Cheyenne, at 211 W. 18th St.

The Cheyenne location will have a dial-in option for those around the state who cannot attend. DIAL IN: 712-451-6100 / PASSKEY: 721718#

Trauner will discuss his "American Energy for the American People" proposal and then take questions.


For further information contact Adam Ruff at 307.699.4956, or reply to this email.

Now -- finally -- Day One at the DNC

The proceedings began at 3 p.m. or so. I was still trying to get off the DNCC bus which shuttled me and one cohort from the Denver Tech Center hotel that houses the WYO delegation. The drive was slow going behind the bus caravan taking the circuitous route through downtown Denver. We had a police guard on our bus -- recent retiree from the Department of Corrections but also a trained cop. He said that the driver had to follow a designated route or else. Not sure what "or else" meant. But I did see a lot of well-armed cops and Homeland Security people along the route.

The good news was that once we got to the Pepsi Center vicinity, we breezed into the secured convention grounds. What took me at least 30 minutes yesterday took 7 today. best to take the bus, especially when we have our own security guard. By the way, I had to ask if he was a Democrat. He said he was not, but his brother in Casper, Wyoming is. Yet another Democrat discovered in Wyoming!

Once I got inside the P.C., I saw former comedian and now Minn. Congressional candidate Al Franken. He's a lot smaller in person.

Howard Dean is at the podium now. Thus far, he has not yelled out in an unseemly manner. But there's still plenty of time for that.

Earlier, we saw Dave Freudenthal and Montana's Brian Schweitzer (sp?) in a film about the rising Dems of the West. Much talk about energy, too, the traditional in-the-ground variety and the new kind that is powered by wind and solar.

More later...

Launch Minus-One: DNC in Denver

And it ain't even started yet....

Sunday began (as I mentioned earlier) with an antiwar demonstration at the Colorado Capitol. More media members were present that protestors. One TV guy lugging a big camera said into his cell: "I'm here at the Capitol Building with a couple-hundred demonstrators. What do you want me to do with them?"

Not sure what the person at the other end of the line said. But I do know what the counter-protesters wanted to do to: shut up. As the sign of the warniks said: "Want peace? Then shut up and let us do our job." If only we knew what that job was.

A FOX News contingent arrived at the demonstration. A trio of three young guys wearing scarves over their faces and dressed in democracynow.org T-shirts, shouted: "FOX News go home!" And then: "Fudge the main stream media." Only they didn't say "fudge." In other words, "shut up."

With so many urging others to shut up, it was refreshing to hear Cindy Sheehan say "they won't shut me up -- don't let them shut you up." "They" were the "corporate entities and corporate political parties" that apparently control both parties, including the Democrats. Disabled Vietnam Vet Ron Kovic spoke out. "Dr. King said that a time comes when silence is betrayal." He urged the crowd to march together peacefully (they did) and not to let "them" shut you up.

"We will not go quietly into this dark American night," Kovic said. "We will not bow, we will not scrape."

He roused the crowd with a shout: "The Whole World Watching!" Not sure if that was a chant at the 1968 Dem convention, or the SDS at Columbia, or maybe the 1972 Repub convention in Miami where Ron was roughed up. It also was featured on a 1970 album by Chicago.

I am having a devil of a time finding wireless spots for my laptop. This morning, I'm at the local public library using a public access computer. Yet another reason to love libraries. Earlier, I tried to connect at a mall Starbucks but after several frustrating tries, the barista told me that I had to buy an AT&T card for two hours of Internet access. In a pinch, I would do that. But free computers are always better -- and more dependable.

Attended a breakfast meeting with the WYO delegation this morning. Everyone received their credentials and many briefings. The gavel goes down at 3 p.m. at the Pepsi Center where I'll be hooked up with an ethernet connection and won't have to search the skies for an AT&T satellite. Besides, we already know that the Pepsi Center has no wireless due to "security concerns."

See you at Monday's convention session...

Nevada Wobblies at antiwar demonstration

Marching through Denver

Lefty vs. Righty on Denver streets

Denver hosted two competing demonstrations this morning.

On the Capitol steps, Cindy Sheehan, Ron Kovic, Eldridge Cleaver's widow and various others took the U.S. to task for wrongs in Iraq, Palestine, Vietnam, throughout the U.S.A, and Across the Universe.

Two blocks away, an array of opposing demonstrators urged us to support the troops by holding up signs that said things like: "Want peace? Then shut up and let us do our job." The image on the sign was of a GI is full battle dress. Another sign showed a finger-pointing Uncle Sam saying "Osama wants you... to oppose the war on terror."

When it came time for the antiwar crowd to march to the Pepsi Center, a phalanx of cops lined up in front of the war promoters. A few harsh words were exchanged but nothing that could provoke a fight between peaceniks and warniks.

More later, along with some photos.

Bring us the head of Dick Cheney

The well-dressed Veep

Stayed tuned for convention blogging

Dear Readers:

I'm leaving for the Democratic National Convention in Denver in a few hours. I'm leaving early to make some time to visit with family before the action begins Sunday afternoon. I'll be posting from the Pepsi Center floor, the convention center and from the streets through Aug. 24-28. On Thursday evening, I'll join some 75,000 others to hear Sen. Obama's speech from Mile High Stadium (a.k.a. as Invesco Field).

Happy reading.

Comments welcome.

Meet the DNC delegates: Ann Robinson

Meet Ann Robinson from Casper, delegate to the Democratic National Convention (in her own words):

I have been involved in politics off and on since I was 11 years old when my father, Lefty Graham from Thermopolis, first ran for the Wyoming State House. He served 6 terms over a period of 20 years between 1958 and 1978.

I first ran for the House District 58 in 1994 after another candidate ran through the primary election and dropped out. That was the Newt Gingrich year of the Contract on America. Nearly every race went Republican, right down to the dog catcher, and I lost by a 5% margin.

In 1996 I ran successfuly against the majority whip in the House. She came back and ran against me several times, but I managed to prevail. I ran unopposed for my last two terms. I served 10 years, from 1997 through 2006. My greatest claim to fame is authoring and being the primary sponsor for the legislation exempting food from sales tax.

My parents grew up in Wyoming, but were in Washington state during the war. They stuck around there long enough that I can't claim to be a Wyoming native. We moved to Thermopolis when I was 13 months old.

This is my first national convention. I am very excited and honored that I was elected to be a delegate.

My goals for the convention are to have a great time and learn as much there about the process and issues as possible.

I hope to bring the excitement of the convention home to Wyoming to energize friends, family and the people of Wyoming to participate in the November election and to understand why it is so important to all of us to elect a president who will move this country forward and get us out of the hole the current adminstration has dug for us.

EDITOR'S NOTE: You may have caught Sen. John Barrasso's TV ads leading up to the primary. In it, he took credit (as a Republican state legislator) for the bill to remove the sales tax from food. I know, if it was on TV it must be true. But it's not. Ms. Robinson, along with Dem allies in the state legislature and the Gov's office, was the real author and mover-and-shaker behind the bill (bills, I should say, as it took several tries). And don't forget all those citizens (Dems, Repubs and Indies) who stood in front of grocery stores on windy winter days to collect signatures for Robinson's bill(s).

Lummis takes page from Cubin's playbook

From the Wyoming Democratic Party:

Not missing a beat, Cynthia Lummis yesterday picked up where she left off, with negative attacks that leave no doubt about the clear choice Wyomingites will have this fall. After regularly and repeatedly attacking Mark Gordon in the primary, Lummis lobbed a personal attack against Gary Trauner on the very first day of her general election campaign. [“Lummis Takes Early Jab at Trauner,” Associated Press, 8/20/08]

“It’s clear that Cynthia Lummis intends on continuing Barbara Cubin’s legacy of negative politics and no solutions. Trying to pit American against American, Wyomingite against Wyomingite, is exactly the type of divisive politics that career politicians practice and that takes America on the wrong track,” said Bill Luckett, executive director of the Wyoming Democratic Party.

Lummis defeated rancher Mark Gordon through a negative campaign in which she strongly criticized his contributions rather than his policies.

“Cynthia Lummis didn’t appear to disagree with Mark Gordon’s policies, just his desire to put people before partisan politics. A majority of Republican primary voters didn’t vote for her because the people of Wyoming are growing weary of personal attacks and prefer positive solutions,” Luckett said. “Cynthia Lummis’ campaign tactics appeal to voters’ worst instincts. We are proud to field a candidate in Gary Trauner who is focusing on issues that matter to Wyoming families and who is running a campaign that will make Wyoming’s people proud to call him their congressman.”

Trying to make sense of low voter turnout

The Casper Star-Tribune reported today that "unofficial primary results showed Nick Carter, a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, held a small but sufficient lead over challenger Keith Goodenough, who conceded the race."

The Wyoming Secretary of State's web site shows Carter with 12,310 votes Tuesday to Goodenough's 12,006, a 304 vote lead. This margin is not enough for an automatic recount.

State Election Director Peggy Nighswonger said the difference needs to be less than one percent of the top vote getter in order to create an automatic recount. Goodenough needed to be less than 123 votes behind Carter for the counties to
sort back through the ballots.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Max Maxfield says that 47 percent of registered voters cast ballots in Tuesday's primary. The count was 104,635 ballots cast out of a total voter pool of 222,600 registered voters.

The Secretary of State's office lists 60,736 registered Dems. Only 24,316 cast votes in the Carter-Goodenough race, which means that 36,420 didn't. So, 60 percent of registered Dems stayed away during one of the most important primaries in one of the most important election years in my lifetime? If only 305 of them showed up and voted for Goodenough, we'd have a different match-up in November against Republican U.S. Sen. John Barrasso. Better? Probably not, since Carter brings a lot of verve and money to the general election. But a bigger turnout would have made the race more exciting and given the winner the momentum going into November.

You'd think that Democrats, charged up during this historic election year, would vote in higher numbers.

Meet the DNC delegates: Kathy Karpan

Kathy Karpan grew up in a Democratic neighborhood. In Wyoming.

"I didn't know there was a Republican Party," says Karpan.

That was in Rock Springs, back when most hard-rock miners were Democrats. Follow the railroad and the mines from Pine Bluffs 350 miles west to Evanston. This corridor, the same one I-80 now transverses, was where you found the majority of the state's Democrats.

Karpan's parents and grandparents -- and thousands of other European immigrants -- were met at the boat by party organizers

"They all had a collective memory that when the gangplank hit the earth at Ellis Island, there was only one political party there to greet them and invite them to be Democrats," Karpan says. "They were very loyal because of that."

Karpan moved upward and outward from Rock Springs. She traces her career in thirds. She spent one-third in the private sector as a journalist in Cody and Cheyenne, as a press secretary in Washington, D.C., and as an attorney. She spent one-third of her career in Wyoming state government. The final third was in the employ of the federal government, mostly in D.C. She did three tours in D.C., the most recent as Pres. Clinton's Director of the Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement.

"That was a nice match-up," she says. "I come from a coal mining family. My grandfathers were coal miners."

Karpan was out of a job when Bush took over in January 2001 (as she puts it -- "when Bush stole the election from Gore"). But later that year, she was still in D.C. exploring other options when her neighbor came to the door one September morning. "I was packing and the neighbor said that they just hit the Pentagon. I lived in Crystal City, a quarter-mile away."

The military commandeered the hotel next to her building. That night she took a photo of the Pentagon. It showed flames still erupting from the building. Helicopters circled the site, their searchlights stabbing through the smoke. "This is as close as I want to come in my lifetime to the London Blitz," noting that it was sobering to think that a U.S. Government building had been hit "by the enemy."

This will be Kathy Karpan's seventh convention. Actually, it will be the seventh she was elected to but only the sixth she's attended. She was elected chair of the Wyoming delegation in 2000 but broke her leg at home in a freak accident while watching the Cheney-Lieberman V.P. debate. She still wanted to go to the L.A. convention, but the doctor scheduled surgery instead.

Karpan remembers that Ed Herschler was the Wyoming governor at the time of her first convention in 1984. "Dave Freudenthal was a delegate -- it was in San Francisco," she says. "I've seen this whole progression," noting that Freudenthal is now Gov. Dave, attending his second of these national Dem gatherings as leader of a red state.

Maybe one of the delegates to this year's Dem convention will be the state's gov in, say, 2032?

Karpan is the "Clinton whip" of the Wyoming delegation. When we talked, she'd just had back-to-back phone calls with the Clinton camp about the upcoming convention. "Hillary was very clear about this, and my opinion is that we are all going to do our best to unite our party."

As whip, she's charged with bringing the Wyoming Clinton delegates news about any position on votes "if something comes up, but," she adds, "this convention will be highly rehearsed."

When it comes to the general election, "people will see the clear choices between candidates and I'm confident that the Clinton people will rally behind our nominee."

Rally for Energy photos from Cheyenne

Man, that's one big check Wyoming taxpayers just wrote to BIG OIL. Kate (at left) helpfully displays the check for Cheyenne motorists while Katy urges them to stop the GOP from giving away our money.

Just so happens that the rally was held in front of the Cheyenne re-election HQ for Republican Senators Enzi and Barrasso (note the red-and-white elephant logo on the Enzi sign). This shows yours truly and (again) Katy.

For more info on Rally for Energy, go to www.moveon.org.

Rally for Clean Energy Aug. 19 in Cheyenne

A Rally for Clean Energy, sponsored by moveon.org, will take place on the corner of 17th St. and Central Ave. in downtown Cheyenne at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 19. Meet at 4:45 to get instructions on proper demonstrating etiquette. Helpful hints: Keep your cool, no cat calls or bird flipping. Also, bring your own sign promoting conservation and clean energy over John McCain's plan to make Big Oil richer than ever.

Here's some background info from moveon.org on Rally for Clean Energy:

On August 19, we're releasing reports around the country with new state-by-state data detailing what billions we give Big Oil in tax breaks could buy in the way of clean energy projects and job creation. We'll tell John McCain and the Republicans: don't use our tax-dollars for Big Oil giveaways -- invest in a clean energy future instead.

Get more info from Kate Wright at 307-220-7447.

Get to the polls on Wyoming Primary Day

Tomorrow is primary day in Wyoming. We're lucky in this state to be able to register at the polls and even change our party registration. So, if Democrats feel like voting for a Republican, they can switch their allegiance, vote, and then switch back. I do know several Dems who say they are doing just that so they can vote for the Republican in their state House seat.

Some people switch just to make mischief. At least one Dem I know says he will switch his registration so he can vote for Mark Gordon in the U.S. House race. He thinks that Democrat Gary Trauner (running opposed in primary) would have a better chance against Gordon. a Johnson County rancher, than against Cynthia Lummis, whose Repub roots go way back. She's been making hay in TV ads that Gordon is not a real Republican because he's given dough to the Sierra Club, John Kerry's 2004 campaign, and the DNC. He contends that that he's intent on conservation of Wyoming lands which is why he gave money to the Sierra Club 10 years ago. Apparently, conservation is O.K. but environmentalism is not. Conservation sounds like "Conservative." Same root word.

I'm not a proponent of election day mischief-making. If I registered as Repub tomorrow, I wouldn't get to vote in the races for Wyoming's two U.S. Senate seats. One pits Al "Big Al" Hamburg against engineer Chris Rothfuss. This is the seat held by Republican Mike Enzi, a likeable guy, a moderate at heart although he votes with the Bushies 90-plus percent of the time. The other U.S. Senate seat is being contended by Gillette's Nick Carter and Casperite Keith Goodenough. The winner of that primary battle will go up against Sen. John Barrasso of Casper, a physician who can't come up with a sensible health plan for all Americans.

Today's Wyoming Tribune-Eagle carried a sample ballot. If you have questions or need more info about polling places, go to http://www.laramiecountyclerk.com/.

See you at the polls.

Meet the DNC delegates: Jason Bloomberg

Cowboy hats and ballcaps outnumber yarmulkes as the headgear of choice in Cheyenne.

Wyoming's Jewish population probably falls somewhere between the numbers for Alaskan natives and New York Yankees fans. However, Judaism has a long history in Cheyenne, according to the Wyoming State Historical Society.

German Jewish merchants came to Cheyenne starting in 1867.... The first Permanent Jewish Synagogue in Wyoming was erected in 1915 by Cheyenne’s Mt. Sinai Congregation. Jewish settlement in Wyoming has been called the furthermost reaches of the Jewish Diaspora since it represented settlement far removed from the limitations that had been placed on Judaism in Germany and Russia. Jewish participation in the life of Cheyenne and Wyoming has made the slogan “The Equality State” more meaningful.

Dr. Jason Bloomberg wears a yarmulke and also speaks out, another factor that increases his visibility among normally taciturn Wyomingites. The first time I encountered the activist physician was at the Democratic Party caucus in March. He was adamant about the country's crying need for a sensible health care plan. His passionate speech in support of Hillary Clinton's health plan over that of Barack Obama's likely clinched Bloomberg a slot as a Clinton delegate to the Wyoming Democratic convention in Jackson. While there, he was elected as a Clinton delegate to the Dem shindig in Denver.

It's tough to pin down this busy citizen for an interview. But he did talk to reporter Lindsey Erin Kroskob for a story in today's Wyoming Tribune-Eagle. No mention is made of Democratic Party politics or the upcoming convention. It's possible he wasn't asked. It's also possible he was asked and replied and the reporter and/or editor chose not to include that in the story. Who knows?

Dr. Bloomberg runs Access Health Clinic, a one-man operation that caters to low-income and uninsured patients.

He told the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle:

"I look at health care and access to health care to be as much a basic human right as food, housing, heat in winter and cool in the extremes of summer."

National statistics show that from 17-20 percent of the population is uninsured, according to Bloomberg. If you apply that to Cheyenne with its population of around 55,000, that means up to 11,000 of your friends and neighbors and their kids could be uninsured. Statewide, that number is close to 100,000. Shameful statistics.

Bloomberg doesn't accept insurance to cut down on processing costs demanded by insurers. He does accept Medicare and Medicaid. Office visits are inexpensive, and the doctor offers a 5 percent discount to those patients who keep healthy by eating right, quitting smoking, exercising, and kicking drug or alcohol habits. Here's how he summed up his approach:

"What I'm trying to convey is that their health is worth it for me to receive a smaller amount of fees for the services I provide.... If you are serious about taking care of yourself, I'm serious about helping you."

Dr. Bloomberg stresses personal responsibility when it comes to health. That sounds like a Wyoming trait to me. I'll bet you can find Republicans who agree with that approach.

But he also knows that health care is a "basic human right" and that insurance companies are a big part of the problem. But Republicans keep insisting that we should put our trust in the same insurance conglomerates that made this mess. Wyoming has a Republican U.S. Senator, John Barrasso, that also is a physician. He's a supporter of Wyo. Sen. Enzi's ten-point health care plan, which touts private health savings plans and other crapola. And, in a recent Wyoming Public Radio forum featuring three of the Republican U.S. House candidates, they all used the term "single-payer health plan" with the same tone Wyomingites reserve for venomous snakes and PETA activists. It's more of the same for these Republicans....

That attitude is reflected on a bumper sticker I saw on a pick-up with Colorado plates driving down a Cheyenne street: "No Thanks, Keep the Change." The "o" is "No" was the distinctive red, white and blue Obama logo.

Meet Wyoming's Dem line-up for Denver

With the Democratic National Convention in Denver only eight days away, I thought it would be a public service to provide a list of those people representing Wyoming Democrats on the national stage. Although it seems like a pretty long list, I assure you that these are not the only Dems in the state. There are a few others staying behind, keeping the homeplace safe for western-style liberalism.

Here's the list, courtesy of the Wyoming Democratic Party web site:

The first 12 people listed here are the 12 PLEDGED delegates to the Democratic National Convention. Those positions were awarded to the candidates based on the presidential preference votes at our March 8 county caucuses and our May 24 state convention. Of those 12, Obama won seven and Clinton won five.
DISTRICT-LEVEL DELEGATES (7 total): Rey Fuentes (Obama), William Neal (Obama), Sara Burlingame (Obama), Jacquelyn Bridgeman (Obama), Kathy Karpan (Clinton), Jason Bloomberg (Clinton), Ann Robinson (Clinton).
AT-LARGE DELEGATES (3 total): Lorraine Saulino-Klein (Obama), Layha Spoonhunter (Obama), Shirley Davis (Clinton).
PLEDGED PARTY LEADER/ELECTED OFFICIAL DELEGATES (2 total): State Sen. Mike Massie (Obama), State Rep. and State Party Secretary Mary Hales (Clinton).

These next six people are the "superdelegates," including Rep. Patrick Goggles, who was elected at the May 24 state convention. The other five were predetermined based on the offices they hold.
UNPLEDGED PARTY LEADER/ELECTED OFFICIAL DELEGATE (1 total): State Rep. Patrick Goggles (Rep. Goggles has announced that he is supporting Obama.)
OTHER “SUPERDELEGATES” (5 total): John Millin, state party chair (announced that he’s supporting Obama), Nancy Drummond, state party vice chair (announced that she’s supporting Obama), Pete Jorgensen, national committeeman (announced that he’s supporting Obama), Cynthia Nunley, national committeewoman (announced that she's supporting Clinton), Dave Freudenthal, Wyoming governor
(announced that he’s supporting Obama).

Those are the 18 voting delegates Wyoming is sending to the Democratic National Convention.

In addition, Wyoming is also sending the following alternates and committee members. These people are NOT delegates (although alternates will replace delegates who cannot attend the convention). However, they will attend the convention. They were awarded to the candidates based on the results of presidential preference votes.
DISTRICT-LEVEL ALTERNATES (3 total): Mike Bell (Obama), Jean Jorgensen (Obama), Dave Lerner (Clinton).
AT-LARGE ALTERNATE (1 total): Marcia Kunstel (Obama)
RULES COMMITTEE (1 position, awarded to Obama): State Party Treasurer Chuck Herz.
PLATFORM COMMITTEE (1 position, awarded to Obama): State Rep. Lori Millin.
CREDENTIALS COMMITTEE (1 position, awarded to Clinton): Story Clark Resor

Casper Star-Tribune endorses Nick Carter

This comes from Eric Hevenor, campaign manager for the Nick Carter for Senate campaign: We received an important endorsement today: The Casper Star Tribune officially threw their support behind Nick Carter. Read the Tribune's glowing endorsement of Nick here.

In its editorial endorsement, the Casper Star Tribune noted of Nick that "he has a wealth of knowledge about the issues" and that Nick is "the strongest candidate to take on Barrasso in November."

Clearly, when the state's most important and widely distributed publication throws their support behind Nick's campaign, it's because Nick is a viable candidate to fight for solutions for the people of Wyoming. On the issues, the Tribune reports that "Carter is also correct when he criticizes the government's failure to build a high-speed rail system, which would be much more energy efficient than auto and air traffic. He says it's the kind of issue that should be debated in the Senate today, so the planning can start as soon as possible.

"Carter has also taken an interesting approach on health care, promoting federal
catastrophic insurance coverage for everyone. Such a system would likely help the economy by reducing the number of bankruptcies people file due to high medical bills."

Clearly, the editorial board of the Tribune realizes that there are many problems facing Wyoming and that Nick Carter is the man to deliver real solutions. The verdict is in: The state's largest newspaper threw their support behind Nick Carter because they realized that Nick Carter is the right candidate to create solutions for Wyoming.

UPDATE: Saturday's Wyoming Tribune-Eagle in Cheyenne added its endorement for Nick Carter over Casper's Keith Goodenough in Tuesday's primary. The paper also featured a side-by-side Q&A with Carter and Goodenough.

RAM performs free concert in Denver

Rage Against the Machine at a concert in The Netherlands earlier this year

According to The Denver Post:

Rage Against the Machine has agreed to perform as part of the "Tent State Music Festival to End the War" on Wednesday, Aug. 27 at the Denver Coliseum during the Democratic National Convention. They will be joined by Denver's Flobots, along with The Coup, State Radio and Wayne Kramer.

Doors open at 9:30 a.m., show begins at 11 a.m.

Tickets are free and available by lottery. Sign up for the lottery, with a valid photo ID (person must be present) at Tent State University at Cuernavaca Park between 11 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. from Sunday, Aug. 24, through Tuesday, Aug. 26 (look for the Tent State Music Festival booth near the Iraq Veterans Against the War Tower).

Winners will be notified by email Tuesday evening, Aug. 26. Winners can claim their tickets at the Denver Coliseum beginning 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 27.

The event is sponsored by the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) and Tent State University.

The Denver Coliseum is located at I-70 (Brighton Blvd. exit #275B) just east of the junction of I-25 with I-70.

"UnConventional" Marilyn Miller exhibits work during Democratic Convention

Rabble-rousing Cheyenne artist Marilyn Miller tells me that she will have two of her works at a Denver exhibition called "UnConventional: Artists Make Action" at The Other Side Arts, 1644 Platte St. The exhibit runs though the Democratic National Convention, which is Aug. 24-28. The gallery is located near the Pepsi Center, where most of the official convention action will be happening.

Marilyn showed me a cellphone photo of one of her pieces. It showed a painting of cemetery crosses on a dark field with red pooling at the bottom of the painting. Next to it hang photocopied lists of American war dead next to even larger lists of Iraqi civilian dead.

Her son, writer David Cronk, says that "I can't even tell you how many galleries she's been thrown out of around here." Yes, Marilyn's ticked off and she lets it all hang out in her work.

Here's a description of the Denver "UnConventional" exhibit:

The Other Side Arts hosts an open community exhibition in reaction to the Democratic National Convention in Denver. TOSA's gallery is located in the growing river front neighborhood, a stone's throw from the convention. Our goal is to spark dialogue between diverse communities around our political climate and how it affects the future of our country.

This exhibit is just one of the many arts-oriented events taking place during the Dem Convention in Denver. Five Wyoming artists, along with peers from the Rocky Mountain region, have photos of their work hanging at DIA. If you're flying in to the convention, stop and take a look before you go all political.

FMI: TOSA at 720-276-2335.

Jefferson-Jackson Dinner Sept. 13 in Casper

The Wyoming Democratic Party's 2008 Jefferson-Jackson Dinner will be held on Saturday, Sept. 13, 7-9 p.m., at the Casper Hilton Garden Inn, 1150 N. Poplar St. Among the featured speakers this year will be candidates for congressional offices, Gov. Dave Freudenthal, and more.

Tickets are $75 per person for the dinner. Guests are also invited to attend a VIP cocktail party prior to the dinner, and tickets for that event are $100 a piece.

For more details, or to buy your tickets, click here. You can also make reservations by calling state party headquarters at 800-729-3367.

Book festival arrives on heels of primaries

Although many Wyomingites are focusing on political issues this time of year, such as whether or not U.S. House candidate Mark Gordon is a "real Republican" (a question posed in Cynthia Lummis's TV ads), others are looking ahead to the second annual Equality State Book Festival Sept. 18-20 in Casper. Some of us are doing both at the same time! A group of very energetic planners in Casper brought Wyoming its first statewide book festival in October 2006.

This one is bigger and better than ever. featured writers include Alexandra Fuller, Jack Gantos, Laurie Kutchins, Gary Ferguson, C.J. Box, John Gierach, Laura Pritchett, and many more (35 in all).

Four, two-day writing workshops offering Casper College continuing education units will be offered Thursday and Friday, Sept. 18 and 19. They’ll be taught by faculty from the University of Wyoming’s Masters of Fine Arts program in Creative Writing: prizewinning poet H.L. Hix, fiction writer Alyson Hagy, nonfiction author Beth Loffreda, and Wyoming Poet Laureate, essayist, folklorist and accordion player David Romtvedt.

Anyone else with a book in print is welcome, too, to reserve a spot for a 15 minute reading and signing at the book fair on Saturday, Sept. 20. Works from anthologies will be accepted for readings as well. Contact kcoe@caspercollege.edu for information. These slots are limited, however, and will fill on a first-come, first-served basis. To register for the workshops, banquet and to reserve a table at the Fair on Saturday, click on the “register” tab on the bookfest web site.

Gary Trauner in Cheyenne for fundraiser

Please attend a reception benefiting Gary Trauner, Democratic candidate for Wyoming's lone seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

At the home of Mike and Amy Bell, 727 Oak Valley Lane, Cheyenne, on Friday, August 15, 6:30-8:30 p.m.

Contributions will be warmy accepted for Gary's run to put the state's House seat into Democratic Party hands for the first time in many moons (I'll look up the stats).

Please R.S.V.P. Grant Mitchell at (307) 413-8203 or grant@traunerforcongress.com

Paint it black at Sturgis 2008

Three pals and their skeletal friend out on the town in Sturgis

I dressed inappropriately for Sturgis.

I wore non-black, which definitely puts you in the minority among all comers, both men and women. Black leathers, black bandannas, black T-shirts, black motorcycles. Actually the motorcycles were much more colorful -- and more artful -- than their riders. Flashy colors and wild designs. The guy camped next to us in the Hog Heaven Campground traded in his Yamaha 650 (he brought a Yamaha to Sturgis?) for a Big Dog Mutt pro-street model. It was blazing orange with lots of polished aluminum (Big Dog's motto: "Only your jacket should be black"). Cost: $25,000. But it was a beauty. The real challenge came when he had to get the bike on his RV's rear-end bike mount built for a smaller Yamaha. The day before, he had taken his RV to a welder who had reinforced the carrier. Blake and Dan helped him and his diminutive wife roll the bike up the ramp and tie it down.

But back to the clothes. I wore my green Cheyenne Frontier Days Hawaiian shirt with palm trees interspersed with trucks and horse trailers (that's me at left above). It's an all-purpose shirt, one you can wear to luaus, rodeos and motorcycle rallies. One woman stopped and commented on the shirt, saying she had never seen anything quite like it. She wasn't wearing black but a white blouse and blue jeans. She and a friend from Rapid City were in town for a day of shopping and ogling.

The real problem with black is that it absorbs the blazing S.D. sun. The sun seemed hotter there than it does in Cheyenne, but maybe that was my imagination. Black doesn't make sense when you spend the day walking around downtown Sturgis staring at motorcycles and women wearing leather chaps over string bikinis. There was also one guy walking around in shorts and a bikini top with this written on his back: "I lost the bet." He was cooler than most of us.

Because black clothes absorb the sun and heat up your body, many bike week denizens slip into the many bars which line the streets. We had to do that several times in desperate acts of self-preservation. When it did rain later in the afternoon, I stood outside while people ran for shelter in the bars. As most Westerners know, these summer showers are quick and gusty and pack little rain. And, if you do get wet, the sun will reappear shortly to dry you out. I maybe got a dozen drops on me, just enough to lower the body heat a degree or two.

So I had no choice but to join the multitudes streaming into One-Eyed Jack's bar.

Sen. Obama believes in the arts

There is one major difference between the arts policies of Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain -- Obama has one, McCain does not.

This is not surprising. Sen. Obama talks about the importance of arts education during his major speeches. He even has an arts policy committee of people in the arts both well-known and obscure. They've been circulating a five-page plan on the subject.

Before I proceed, I do have to say that the arts is not solely the domain of Democratic Party candidates. Wyoming Sen. Mike Enzi serves on the Senate Arts Caucus and has served on the board of arts organizations in Gillette, his hometown. He has worked on this issue with Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy, who had been out of the loop lately with his cancer treatments. If a CONSERVATIVE businessman from Wyoming coal country can work on arts legislation with a diehard LIBERAL city boy from Massachusetts, maybe there is some hope for Arizona Repub John McCain to get on the arts bandwagon.

You can read Obama's plan at http://www.artsactionfund.org/pdf/artsvote/ObamaStatement3b.pdf. It also features a letter from one of the members of the advisory committee, novelist Michael Chabon, author of the "Yiddish Policemen's Union," which I recently devoured.

Have no bike, but will travel (to Sturgis)

Blogger adrift in a sea of motorcycles

The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is a big fat target for Liberals like me. Main reason? John McCain addressed the biking multitudes last week. He urged them to vote for him lest the Democrats get in and take away their motorcycles and guns, raise gas taxes, and make them all wear helmets, even when they're not riding.

McCain didn't say that. But you can be sure he inferred it.

But I steered clear of politics when I was in Sturgis, S.D., over the weekend. My brother Dan from Daytona and our mutual friend Blake were in town for the rally after spending two weeks exploring the Rocky Mountain West. They "trailered" their Harleys behind an RV, opening them up to criticism from the purists who ride their bikes from Daytona and Detroit and Seattle. I saw variations of this theme on a T-shirt: NICE TRAILER, PUSSY." But I saw a lot of RVs and a lot of trailers. One biker friend of mine from Florida sent his Harley out with friends and he flew to Rapid City. I didn't see any T-shirts that read NICE AIRPLANE, PUSSY."

Dan and Blake had parked the RV and ridden their bikes through Glacier National Park -- and other Montana scenery -- Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks in Wyoming, the Big Horns and, finally, the Black Hills of South Dakota. For the Black Hills leg, they hooked up with a friend of a friend who lives in Custer and he became their guide for rides in the Hills. When driving a car in the Hills this time of year, you're outnumbered substantially by bikers. It's kind of like being a Democrat in Wyoming -- always outnumbered.

I had a fine time over the weekend. It was great to see Dan and Blake. My brother's less than two years younger. My mother used to joke that she didn't know Dan could speak until I shipped off to kindergarten. I was his mouthpiece in those early years. But he's spoken for himself since then. Now a retired air traffic controller, he has a business, Daytona Gear, selling leather tank bags to bikers. Kind of a natural fit for a biker from Daytona, considering there are now two big rallies there each year, one in February/March with the annual bikes races and the other called "Biketoberfest."

Dan knew Blake first, but we also became friends when I rented a house next to his in the little burg of Holly Hill north of Daytona. He runs a successful construction company and decided to take a few weeks off because business is not exactly booming in these harsh times.

What does a civilian like me do during Sturgis? The same things that bikers do. Wander the Sturgis streets, looking at all the fancy bikes. Shop, too, at one of the hundreds of stores and vendors. These are some serious shoppers, snatching up T-shirts, bandannas, helmets, and various bike accessories, such as kickstands in the shape of a skeletal arm flipping a bird. Skulls are a favorite design, as are skeletons, wolves, buffalo and eagles. As I looked around for souvenir T-shirts, I was disappointed to find that most of them were cheaply made overseas. The only "Made in the U.S.A." labels I found were on Harley T-shirts. Those weren't selling as fast as the "5 for $25" shirts out on the street. But I wondered how bikers, a subculture that prides itself in its blue-collar and military-veteran roots, could be happy with buying "Made in Vietnam" T-shirts. Also, these bikes aren't cheap. Why would you ride a $25,000 official Harley motorcycle (at least $10,000 more than any car I've bought) and not want to buy a $25 Harley U.S.A. T-shirt?

We all need a bargain, what with rising gas prices and inflation and unemployment and housing foreclosures. A lot of the jobs of working men and women have been shipped overseas by our corporate overlords. Many of those were union jobs at places that make motorcycles and cars and steel beams and beer and even T-shirts. Many of those jobs were shipped overseas by buddies of Bush and Cheney and McCain. Still, McCain has the effrontery to drop into Sturgis and tell the gathered bikers to be very very afraid of the Democrats (especially the "swarthy elitist" Sen. Obama) because they will refuse to extend tax cuts for the fat cats who moved your jobs to our stalwart ally Pakistan which shelters the Muslim extremists who have killed and maimed your sons and daughters serving in Afghanistan.

(More about my weekend in Sturgis in upcoming posts)

Who's got the tickets for Obama's big bash?

The Wyoming Democratic Party was overlooked when it came to tickets for Sen. Obama's big speech at Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium Aug. 28. And why is that? Is it due to the two-to-one Republican registration in the state? Our measly three electoral votes? Our meager population? Did the DNC lose its map of the Rocky Mountain region? We are adjacent to Colorado, the convention state. In fact, many people consider Denver a suburb of Cheyenne. Coloradans got tons of tickets, but not us.

So, Wyomingites are going to have to work for them. Tickets (a.k.a. "community credentials") are available by calling the Denver Convention Wyoming Contact Number. According to the WyoDems web site, "that is the only way to be considered for tickets. Spread the Word!"

O.K., I'm spreading the word.

You need to e-mail commcredentials@demconvention.com or call (720) 362-2500 and leave the following information:
· Name
· Telephone number (including area code)
· E-mail address
· State where you reside

More info at http://www.demconvention.com/invesco/

Who's the next Dick-Cheney-in-waiting?

Word comes this morning that Dick Cheney, Wyoming's not-so-favorite son, may skip the Republican National Convention Sept. 1-4 in St. Paul, Minn. Perhaps he'll be hiding out in his Jackson redoubt.

But there is a new Dick Cheney lurking amongst us. John McCain (McBush) will require his own Dick Cheney. What will he be like? Will he have a forked tongue and long tail? And how will he attempt to subvert the Constitution and destroy the world?

Keep track of all the shenanigans at thenextcheney.com.