Legislature ditches living wage but okays carrying guns anywhere we damn please

From a WyoDems press release:

Members of the Wyoming House voted today to not introduce a bill that would raise the minimum wage for tipped employees, such as waitresses and bartenders, from $2.13 per hour to $5.00 per hour. The bill failed on a vote of 23 in favor and 35 against; a bill requires 2/3, or 40 votes, for introduction during a budget session.

The bill was introduced by Rep. George Bagby of Rawlins, who was discouraged the bill did not reach committee. “This is not a fight we are willing to give up. There are too many Wyoming residents who are in this situation and too intimidated about losing their job to ask their employer to make up the difference when the tips don’t.”

“This is a common sense bill that would do so much good. It would bring greater economic stability to many more Wyoming workers and would not slow business growth or harm our small businesses,” commented Rep. Stan Blake of Green River.

Rep. Mary Throne of Cheyenne noted that this bill would have helped combat the gender wage gap in Wyoming. "The overwhelming majority of tipped wage workers are women and the failure to act on this issue perpetuates the gender wage gap in Wyoming--the worst in the nation. We talk about this problem, but when the opportunity arises to help hard-working women--we fail to act,” said Throne.

Rep. Joe Barbuto of Rock Springs said, “It is a disservice to the people of Wyoming to not even give them the chance to testify on something that would have such an
overwhelming impact on so many of their lives.”

According to the National Employment Law Project (NELP) the minimum wage for tipped workers in Wyoming has been the same since 1996 and has not been adjusted for inflation. In an August 2009 report NELP estimated that if the wage had kept up with inflation it would be approximately $4.90.

Rep. Mike Gilmore of Casper pointed out, “These men and women deserve to make a living wage. Basing an entire salary upon tips, because honestly $2.13 cannot be called a salary, makes a whole sector of our population very susceptible and with this economy I would think we would want everyone to be on the best footing possible.”

Rep. Bagby introduced the legislation and plans to bring it back in the future.

Meanwhile, any damn one will be able to carry their damn guns into any damn place.

Let's hope these less-than-minimum-wage employees don't get any ideas:

Rep. Lorraine Quarberg (R-Thermopolis) introduced a bill giving concealed weapon authority to Wyoming residents over the age of 21. This would do away with the current requirement that residents show knowledge of firearm use and register and receive a concealed weapon permit from the state of Wyoming. This proposal changes the standard considerably by making the requirements to carry a concealed weapon limited to “not suffering from a physical infirmity which prevents the safe handling of a firearm,” not being a convicted felon, not being an abuser of controlled substances or alcohol.

This bill has been referred to the Judiciary Committee.

PETA in pool bed at Capitol

PETA protestors canoodle in an inflatable bed in front of the Wyoming State Capitol. Media was intrigued; bystanders puzzled.

Baby it's cold outside.

And don't you just love it when the Legislature comes to town?

Meanwhile, smiley-faced anti-abortion protest on Wyoming Capitol steps

Suffragette Esther Hobart Morris shows her back to Cheyenne anti-abortion protestors.

More good news from the legislative session

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

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

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

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

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

------

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

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

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

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

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

"Health Freedom of Choice" resolution voted down on first reading in Wyoming Senate

Don't you just the love the names that Repubs give to legislation that announce the exact opposite of what they really mean.


From Cowboy State Free Press:

The Wyoming Senate today voted down on its first reading a bill that would have “sent a message to Washington,” according to it’s sponsors, to not impose it’s health care changes on the state.

Senate President John Hines, R-Campbell County, proposed the “Health freedom of choice,” as a resolution, which stated, “the federal government shall not interfere with an individual’s health care decisions.” The bill also called for “prohibiting any penalty, fine or tax imposed because of a decision to participate in or decline health insurance, or to pay directly or receive payment directly for health care services.”

The bill failed its introductory reading by just three votes.

Denver classical concert Feb. 20 to raise funds for Haiti earthquake relief

This announcement comes from the online newsletter from my old church -- the 10:30 Catholic Community/Capitol Heights Presbyterian in Denver:

HAITI BENEFIT CONCERT AT SAINT JOHN’S CATHEDRAL, DENVER, ON SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 7:30 P.M.

Responding to the devastation in Haiti, Saint John’s Cathedral and many Colorado musicians are planning a benefit classical concert for the people of Haiti. This event will be held at Saint John’s Cathedral, 1350 Washington St., Denver, on Saturday, February 20, at 7:30 p.m. Saint John’s Cathedral has a longstanding and rich musical history in Colorado and also has been actively engaged with the Colorado Haiti Project as part of its many community outreach programs.

FMI: http://www.coloradohaitiproject.org/ or http://www.sjcathedral.org

"Wyoming School’s Anti-Hate Program Reveals Intolerance"

In today's New West, Michael Pearlman wrote about the Wheatland "No Place for Hate" controversy:

Wyoming School’s Anti-Hate Program Reveals Intolerance

Keep gubment out of our health care decisions!

Wonder if this has anything to do with the Democrats' health care reform efforts:

S.J. 0001 to be considered when the Wyoming Legislature convenes tomorrow:

Sponsored By: Representative(s) Hallinan and Lubnau and Senator(s) Anderson, J. and Bebout and Case and Hines

A JOINT RESOLUTION proposing to amend the Wyoming Constitution by creating a new section specifying that the federal government shall not interfere with an individual's health care decisions and prohibiting any penalty, fine or tax imposed because of a decision to participate in or decline health insurance, or to pay directly or receive payment directly for health care services.

Yes, we only want health insurance conglomerates to interfere in our health care decisions.

Go to http://legisweb.state.wy.us/2010/Introduced/SJ0001.pdf for full text of bill.

The "Tumbleweed Connection" rolls on

Listened to Elton John's "Tumbleweed Connection" as I drove through snow showers last night. Returning from a meeting in Casper and I was thinking I might see a tumbleweed roll out of the night and into the grill of my Ford. But the wind was strangely absent. Tumbleweeds were idling in the fields; the only thing rolling along was the country-rock on the CD player.

I wondered why Elton John and Bernie Taupin tackled the American West in this CD. I tracked down this Feb. 18, 1971, Rolling Stone review by Jon Landau:

Tumbleweed Connection centers around and is structured by Bernie Taupin's lyrics. Like the Band and Creedence, both of whom have influenced him, Taupin writes about the mythical American south and west and seems to prefer the past to the present as a subject. "There Goes a Well Known Gun" is about an outlaw on the run; "Country Comfort" concerns the pleasures of the farm. One of its verses brilliantly announces the coming of industrialization:

Down at the well they've got a new machine
Foreman says it cuts manpower by fifteen
But that ain't natural, well so old Clay would say
You see he's a horse drawn man until his dying day.

"Son of Your Father" is a moralistic tale which, after describing a fight between friends that leaves them both dead, concludes that "... charity's an argument that only leads to harm."

Violence is very much a part of the vision Taupin has created here. Besides in "Well Known Gun" and "Son of Your Father," it recurs in "My Father's Gun," which is distinctly reminiscent of "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down."

I'm also a big fan of The Band and Creedence -- grew up with them. That's one reason I like the John/Taupin album so much. So it has something to do with nostalgia. Travel, too. Rolling through Wyoming on a February evening, listening to a country-rock album by a man who's now a "Sir," and considered by most people to be as far away from country as, say, Snoop Dog or Yo Yo Ma.

A year before this album, Bob Dylan recorded "Nashville Skyline" with Johnny Cash. In this case, Dylan was a folk singer and rocker from the Midwest and Cash was a country musician from the South who loved Rock 'n' roll -- was considered a rocker in the early days. So their roots are a bit more clear cut than are those of the two Brits.

Still, imagination is imagination. You don't have to live the life to write or sing about it. Dylan was a nice Jewish kid from Hibbing, Minn., who could sing convincingly about the plight of coal miners and hobos. Keith Richard of the Rolling Stones can play Robert Johnson's blues.

I've liked so many of the rock and country music collaborations. Recently, there was Jack White and Loretta Lynn, and Allison Krauss and Robert Plant. I go way back with the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers and Poco and Little Feat. The Americana artists of today (Jayhawks, BoDeans, Wilco, Son Volt, Old '97s) continue the tradition. Wish there was a way to get the Cheyenne Frontier Days entertainment committee to book some of this alt-country instead of country pop like Taylor Swift. Steve Earle playing Townes Van Zandt at Frontier Days! Now you're talking.

Burn down the mission, if you want to stay alive...

Iraq vet from Pine Bluffs appears in VoteVets ad blasting Sen. Barrasso

Benjamin Cossel from Pine Bluffs served in the U.S. Army in Iraq in 2004-2005. Now he's in a VoteVets ad blasting the short-sighted policies of Wyo. Sen. John Barrasso, global warming naysayer and friend of multinational corporations who do business with Middle East shiekdoms.

Barrasso's spokeswoman said this about the ads in a story by Bill McCarthy on wyomingnews.com:

"The liberal, out-of-state special interest group paying for this ad does not represent Wyoming," Barrasso said Wednesday through his spokeswoman.

Dagnabit. Not those outside agitators again. There are some outsiders Wyomingites like -- oil and gas and coal companies, for instance, and the Republican National Committee. And some they don't like -- the Anti-Defamation League and the Gay and Lesbian Fund of Colorado (see previous posts on the Wheatland controversy) and MoveOn and VoteVets, to name a few.

But Jon Stoltz, co-founder and chairman of Votevets.org, responded this way to Barrasso:

"That's just childish."

Stoltz said the issue is whether the U.S. should continue sacrificing lives of the military and spending a fortune to maintain an unsustainable dependence on foreign oil that causes climate change.Liberal and conservative labels are irrelevant, Stoltz said.

Climate change hampers agricultural production and diminishes water supplies, and that can lead to unstable governments and the dislocation of large populations, according to organizations such as Secure American Future.

Stoltz said that is a national security issue.

Watch the ad. And spread the word.

A strange calm has descended on Wheatland "No Place for Hate" Wyoming

Wheaterville sums up the current state of calm in Wheatland:

Quotes and commentary from the School Board Four are sadly lacking, as are statements from the three who voted to keep the banners up. Why is that? If you haven’t had a chance to ask any of the seven personally why they voted as they did, why not? Ask. Sunlight Disinfects.

Plan on attending the school board meeting on Monday, Feb. 15th. Come early. It doesn’t look as if the School Board is planning to make any accommodations whatsoever for the crowd that they know will be there. Why not?

See you Feb. 15 in Wheaterville.

Mike Mansfield and the 18-year-old vote

Ian Marquand wrote a guest opinion for the Feb. 3 Billings Gazette about the role Montana Sen. Mike Mansfield played in granting voting rights to 18-year-olds.

I turned 18 in December 1968 while a senior in high school. I registered for the military draft, yet I couldn't drink legally and couldn't vote.

That began to change 40 years ago in March when Sen. Mansfield made an historic speech on the Senate floor:

“I happen to think that Congress believes that those between 18 and 21 are excluded unreasonably from the ballot box,” Mansfield said. “I happen to think that the record of such discrimination is clear beyond doubt.”

Mansfield also argued that the 14th Amendment provided Congress with the power to change the voting age on its own, a position supported by legal scholars. His fellow senators agreed and tacked on the voting age provision as a “rider” to the Voting Rights Act. It cleared both the House and Senate and received Pres. Nixon’s signature.

Soon after, the states of Oregon and Texas challenged the voting age provision in federal court. The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately ruled that the law would apply only to federal elections.

On March 10, 1971, almost a year to the day after Mansfield’s floor speech, the Senate approved a constitutional amendment making 18 the legal voting age nationwide. The House soon followed suit and within four months, 41 states ratified the 26th Amendment. Americans between the ages of 18 and 21 finally could vote, anywhere, anytime.

Mansfield’s quickness in recognizing an opportunity and then seizing the initiative drew praise from his fellow senators. Michigan Democrat Philip Hart called the Montanan’s action “boldness and creative politics at its finest,” while Maryland Democrat Joseph Tydings declared, “This was Senator Mansfield at his best.”

I didn't get to vote until 1972, when I was 21 and living in Boston. A Democrat from Montana's (and Wyoming's) neighbor, South Dakota, took an historic drubbing in that election. I'm still glad that I cast my first presidential vote for another courageous senator, George McGovern.

I haven't missed a presidential election yet. And I'm proud to say that my son Kevin voted in the 2004 elections as a 19-year-old. I was working at the precinct when he came in to cast his vote. A proud day for Pops.

Thanks, Sen. Mansfield. Those young voters helped turn the tide in 2008. My hope is that they stay involved. There will be many disappointments along the way. Hell, I lived through Nixon, Reagan and Dubya. I suffered many disappointments at the hands of my own party. We saw good times in '08, and now we're seeing some of the bad. Hang in there!

2011 budget as corny as Kansas in August

The New York Times provided some much-needed budgetary visuals with Obama's 2011 Budget Proposal: How It's Spent

The checkerboard graphic shows blocks of spending in earthy colors. It looks like what you see flying 30,000 feet over Kansas on a clear summer day. On the upper left, is the huge field of corn that's defense. On the bottom left is the equally big swath of wheat that represents Social Security.

On the bottom right are the teeny tiny boxes for science and energy conservation programs.

The $161.3 million proposed for the National Endowment for the Arts comes in a square so tiny that it can't be seen. It's as if my summer garden were tucked into the far southeastern corner of Kansas, somewhere east of Baxter Springs. I couldn't see it from six miles high.

Check out the graphic. Very sobering.

In Wheatland, they're tired of banner-talk

Wheatland residents are tired as hell and they're not going to take it any more.

Michael Van Cassell writes in today's Casper Star-Tribune:

In doughnut shops, breakfast joints and at the local high school, everyone knows about "the banner."

It's the talk of the town, and they're ready for it to end.

Readers of Wyoming newspapers and blogs (and listeners on KOCA-FM in Laramie) know all about the banning of the "No Place for Hate" banners in Wheatland.

Platte County Schools Superintendent Stuart Nelson is tired as hell about the whole fooferaw over the banner. He apparently has talked to every single person in Wheatland (all 3,300 of them) and every one of them supports the banning of the banners.

...the only negative comments he has heard about the board's decision are from out-of-towners, special-interest groups and former residents.

He said all the local parents he's spoken with have supported the board's decision.

Outside agitators!

Nelson told the school's principal to take down the "No Place for Hate" banners after he received calls from five parents. That's five parents out of how many? Apparently the Christian Right rules the roost in Wheatland.

Give credit to the students who continue to post "No Place for Hate" signs on their lockers and are lobbying the school board to reconsider their decision. One of the students interviewed in the CST article was wearing a "No Place for Hate" button.

What did Nelson learn from all this?

The board had not approved the banner. Nelson said he believes the board will filter programs more now.

What filter will the board be using? Four out of seven school board members used the anti-gay filter the last time around. I'll bet that filter still has plenty of good use in it.

Musicians without health care tell their stories

The Musicians Project is making a film about the dreadful lack of health care for musicians. FMI: http://www.musiciansproject.com

Here's some info about the project. If you want to tell your story, go to the web site.

We might shock and surprise you.

• Did you know that the latest Harvard Medical School study shows that more than 44,789 excess deaths occur each year, because people do not have medical insurance?
• Did you know that if you enter a hospital emergency room with a life threatening condition, and you do not have health insurance, you can be turned away?
• Did you know that in 2009 alone, 2,200 veterans died from a lack of health insurance?
• Did you know that every day, 2,500 Americans are forced into bankruptcy by medical costs, the leading cause of bankruptcy in the United States?
  
  We are the musicians project. We are an independent group of musicians, film makers and health care advocates who are making a film about a very special segment of the American population – your favorite Musician.
  
  For many of us, music fills our every day lives, whether it is the dulcet tones of our favorite symphony, the hard rocking beat of our favorite metal band, or the heart breaking revelations of our favorite folk musician.
  
  Music is important to us. We pick songs to enhance our wedding day. We sing to our favorite tunes to pass the time on a long car ride. We remember the first concert we ever went to. Some of us even get tattoos of our favorite musicians and bands immortalized on our flesh. We create fan clubs, we load up our MP-3 players, and we follow our favorite bands on tour.
  
  Music, and the musicians that create it, are interwoven into the fabric of our lives.
  They are a segment of the population of the U.S., dying preventable deaths due to lack of health care.
  
  Please watch, as we give them a voice. These are their words, their tales, their reality.

More wailing and gnashing of teeth over Wyoming's wolves

Jeremy Pelzer wrote about the ongoing wolf delisting controversy in today's Casper Star-Tribune:

Lawyers for the state told a federal judge today that Wyoming should be given control over wolves in the state, calling the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's rejection of Wyoming's wolf management plan "arbitrary and capricious."

Federal attorneys responded that Wyoming's plan would put the state's wolf population at risk because it would allow the animals to be killed anywhere in the state besides national park lands.

Attorneys for Fish and Wildlife and the U.S. Department of Justice faced off with lawyers from the state and Park County during oral arguments before U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson. Both sides now await a ruling from Johnson, which could take anywhere from a few days to several months to be released.

This is a big issue in Wyoming. It's not unusual to see bumper stickers advocating wolf hunting and even wolf elimination. Some Republican media stars have advocated hunting wolves from helicopters.

On my way to work this morning, I happened across a "Delist the wolf" rally on the State Capitol steps. About 30 people in attendance, some holding signs advocating delisting. One said "Delist the terrorists."

Wolves as terrorists? That's a new one. One speaker said that 96,000 elk could be killed by wolves in the next five years. I have no idea if this is true. But the man at the podium said so many wolf kills would take food out of the mouths of Wyomingites and cause hunters not to come to the state and spend tourist dollars.

It is a fact that a number of out-of-state hunters come to Wyoming in the fall. It's also true that there are many hunters in Wyoming who bring the meat home to their families. Some of those families depend on this as part of the yearly food budget. But not all.

Tourists come from all over the world to view Yellowstone wolves in their natural habitat. If you compared number of out-of-state hunters with number of out-of-state wolf peepers -- which would be the larger number? You'd obviously want to know how much money each type of tourist spends in the state. We already know that lodging numbers in 2009 are down quite a bit from 2008, even though visitation to national parks increased dramatically. But who spends more money -- hunters or tourists?

Something else I have to research...

Come on down to Meg's Cognitive Dissonance to comment on banner issue

From Meg Lanker of Laramie:

My name is Meg Lanker and I've met some of you before. I am currently hosting a radio show called Cognitive Dissonance from 10 p.m. to midnight every Friday night on 93.5 KOCA FM in Laramie. This Friday, Jan. 29, I am opening my show to public comment on the Platte County School District #1 tearing down the "No Hate" banners from the Anti-Defamation League due to the banners containing the Gay and Lesbian Fund of Colorado as a sponsor.

School board members have commented that Wheatland is not ready for a pro-gay agenda and is "ultraconservative." I believe this is a slap in the face to anyone who cares about tolerance and diversity in schools.

So, how do you comment? Well, you show up to the studio, I turn on the mic, and you say what you want to say. I will be recording the show and each school board member will get a CD copy next week.

Here's the who and when and all that jazz: (pasted from the event on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=274390997172&ref=mf).

If you're on Facebook, please visit the event to RSVP.

Start Time: Friday, January 29, 2010 at 10:00 p.m.
End Time: Saturday, January 30, 2010 at 12:30am
Location: KOCA Studios
Street: 365 W. Grand
City/Town: West Laramie, WY

New Repub tactic for luring physicians to Wyoming -- ban same-sex marriage

Several Sundays ago, local right-winger Richard Wall surprised me with some common sense in a Wyoming Tribune-Eagle guest column.

He urged increased efforts to recruit more physicians in sub-specialties to move to Wyoming. He was especially insistent that we don't have enough pediatricians who address the medical and mental health needs of children and teens.

That's a bandwagon I've been riding for awhile. More than once I've pointed out that Wyoming lacks child psychiatrists. When I say "lacks," I mean that literally -- there is not one child psychiatrist in the entire state.

Huzzah for Mr. Wall! Now we have common cause on a very important issue.

But my joyfullness was short-lived. In the very same column, Mr. Wall leaped on his favorite bandwagon -- the evils of homosexuality. He wants the Wyoming Legislature to legislate against same-sex marriage. It's not same-sex marriage that irks him. It's the fact that married gays and lesbians can move into Wyoming and expect the Equality State to live up to its name.

During two of the past three legislative sessions, bills were introduced to ban approval of same-sex marriages performed in other states. Both times, the legislation was killed by outspoken Republicans who obviously take seriously our "Equality State" motto. Since our Legislature is heavily Republican, it's easy to pass any bill if all Repubs hop on board. If some hop off, well...

Read details about last year's anti-gay bill at http://hummingbirdminds.blogspot.com/2009/01/wyoming-legislators-confront-same-sex.html. At the time, I noticed that one of the bill's backers was the Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family, the same equality-minded entity that brings you today's Super Bowl ad that aims to demonize every woman who's had an abortion -- or even thought about it.

Also find info about the 2007 bill at http://hummingbirdminds.blogspot.com/2007/03/zwonitzer-takes-stand-for-basic.html

As I look at this year's docket on the Legislature's web site, I find nothing about gay marriage. That's not unusual, as this is a 20-day budget session and consideration of new bills is limited (although you wouldn't know it after looking at the long list).

Maybe by the time 2011 rolls around, the legislative loonies who sponsor these bills will have given up. By then, "Don't Ask Don't Tell" will be a thing of the past in the U.S. military and Wheatland, Wyoming, will have re-installed the "No Place for Hate" banners.

There is a dark cloud on the horizon, equality-wise. In his column, Mr. Wall pledged his support to the 2010 gubernatorial campaign of right-winger Repub Ron Micheli. Mr. Micheli is a rancher from Fort Bridger who spent most of his 16 years in the state legislature towing the fundie line on abortion and gay rights. He's also on the 10th amendment bandwagon (so many bandwagons these days) which puts him in the same category as the Tea Partiers who were whooping it up with Sarah Palin last night in Nashville. Of course, this emphasis on the 10th amendment, which most of us never paid attention to until recently, is also a newly-discovered cause of our Democratic Governor Dave Freudenthal.

Let me get back to Mr. Wall. I still support his call for more and better-educated physicians in Wyoming. I just wonder how that recruitment will go when our Equality State slogan has been so tarnished by the likes of the hate-filled wingnuts among us. Yes, some young physicians are conservatives and will prefer the ambience of high plains small towns such as Wheatland.

But most physicians come from cities (even the majority of Westerners now live in statistical metropolitan areas) and are educated in cities and go to school with ethnic minorities and might even be minorities themselves. They may even be LGBT! Specialists in particular seem to gravitate to city life. Cities boast an array of schools and soccer fields and music classes and theatres and shopping. Pay is better, especially for docs.

Rural living is a hard sell anyway. Add to that an unwelcoming attitude toward people who may be a little different -- you really have a problem.

Philip Gourevitch reads in Cheyenne

I attended the Philip Gourevitch talk this evening at the Laramie County Public Library in Cheyenne.

He writes about what happens when human nature is tested under harsh conditions such as war and genocidal rampages.

Humans don't always come down on the side of the angels.

No news for those of us who see the world in shades of color and shadows instead of black-and-white. But do enlightened liberals really know what they'll do when the killing begins? I don't.

I've already started reading his 2008 book, "Standard Operating Procedure," which Gourevitch co-wrote with documentary filmmaker Errol Morris. It starts with a chilling scene from October 2002. Saddam releases thousands of prisoners from Abu Ghraib Prison in Baghdad. Six months before the U.S. invasion. Cut to the next chapter, where corrections officials from Utah are driving around Iraq in August 2003 looking for someone to make bunk beds for imprisoned Iraqis. Things get a little out of control after that.

The author read sections from his three books that fall under the heading of "confessions."

First up was a Hutu killer from the Rwandan genocides as told in the award-winning book, "We Wish to Inform You that We Will be Killed with our Families." Then we heard from the professional killer in "A Cold Case." Last but not least -- Lyndie England's story from the Abu Ghraib Prison.

Goureveitch writes beautifully. Corporal England is revealed frame by frame, as in a film. In the book's final interview with her following her release from jail, England is taking antidepressants and says "I don't think about anything." She seems to have no real remorse. But basically she was a prop, a young soldier, unsupervised, at the wrong place at the wrong time.

"The political order you are living under makes a big difference," says Goureveitch. "There's no evidence to show that these people would have done this outside of this political order.

"In a well-run army, girlfriends don't hang out in the prison during the night shift with their boyfriends. This was a systems' problem."

"This is the kind of breakdown you have when you allow torture," he concluded.

The government oversaw the Rwandan slaughter. "This wasn't chaos," says Gourevitch. "The genocide was very well planned. Great organization is required to do such a thing."

In the Q&A session, the author was asked if he had learned any lessons about human nature during research for his books.

According to Gourevietch: "We like to think that there is a categorical difference between those who will do a thing and those who won't. Then come circumstances that put people to the test. Some resist but..."

But others can't and don't. They take their machetes and go next door to hack the neighbors to pieces.

Time to get back to my book...

Wheatland students react to school board's decision to remove "No Place for Hate" banners

Wheaterville doing a great job as center of activity for the "Don't Ban the Banner" campaign.

As faithful readers may recall, the Platte County School Board in Wheatland voted 4-3 to take down the "No Place for Hate" banners at Wheatland H.S. and West Elementary. The banner campaign is sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League. That wasn't the problem. A few town busybodies noticed that a co-sponsor of the banners is the Gay & Lesbian Fund of Colorado. They complained to the school board and the board voted to take those banners down.

Some former students wrote this:

LETTER TO Superintendent Nelson and Board of Trustees
Melody Wilhelm Brooks (class of 1986)

Dear Superintendent Nelson and Board of Trustees:

We were shocked and dismayed to read about the school board’s decision against the “No Place for Hate” banners. As graduates of Wheatland High School, we have always been proud of the excellent education we received. However, after this short-sighted decision by the school board, we have serious doubts about the elected leadership of PCSD #1.

Let us say that Wheatland is full of decent, fair-minded people. They need to stand up to intolerance, because nothing positive will come about until they do. This is not about liberal vs. conservative or Republican vs. Democrat. This is a fair vs. unfair and right vs. wrong issue.

The four members of the school board who voted against the banners are not promoting the district’s vision of “Empowerment through learning so students can be successful now and in the future.” Nor are they “Preparing children for the 21st Century”, as noted on the district’s website. In fact, they are actively working against and discouraging both.

The letter is signed by 50 former WHS students.

Read the entire letter (and many comments, most supportive) at Wheaterville.

Dear Dr. John: Thanks but no thanks

Sen./Dr./media star John Barrasso, Republican from Casper, is telling Pres. Obama that it's not too late to sit down and talk -- really talk -- about health care reform.

When you stop laughing, we can proceed.

Andrew Schenkel, Cowboy State Free Press Washington Correspondent, reported this on Tuesday:

“We need health care reform and to get costs down. I am willing to work with President Obama to improve health care and bring down costs,” Barrasso said.

If healthcare is to rise from the dead it will need some sort of Republican cooperation. Barrasso says its will be an incremental process. “Our goal is to get quality and affordable coverage by using a step by step process with each step accomplishing a number of things,” he said.

Barrasso said he is no fan of President Obama’s methods during healthcare debate thus far. “Americans have been locked out of the discussion and decisions,” said Barasso on what he has heard from constituents in recent meetings in Thermopolis and Sheridan.

As for Obama, Barasso says he hasn’t been willing to work across the aisle.

“His approach so far has been ‘my way or the highway.’ Senator Coburn and I have offered to go to the White House and go over the bill page-by-page and offer our perspective as doctors,” Barasso said. “He has refused to take us up on the offer.”

Barrasso and Coburn, a wacko right-wing Oklahoma Republican and member of the C Street Family, are the only doctors in the U.S. Senate.

That's scary enough. After all the Republican obstruction on health care, it's also laughable.

Now here's a quote that I can sink my teeth into:

“I like preventative care, there’s a little in the current bill but not enough. I like addressing mental health issues but there’s only a little in the bill. And none of it takes affect until 2018,” he said. “To me that’s too little too late. That bill is for totally government-centered healthcare not patient-centered.”

What we have now is insurance company-centered healthcare. Patient-centered? In a pig's eye.

More scary talk about global warming, water, Wyoming and the West

Batches of thoughtful people in the West are tackling the issue of climate change (see previous post). In Wyoming, the UW Ruckelshaus Institute of Environment and Natural Resources (ENR) just issued a 28-page report, "Assessing the Future of Wyoming's Water Resources: Adding Climate Change to the Equation."

First of all, the title says "Climate Change." That's pretty good for our very conservative state. Climatechangeclimatechangeclimatechange.

The report itself mentions "global warming," even saying that man has played a role in it. The report stops short of labeling the situation as man-made global warming or, as befitting the Equality State, human-caused global warming.

It's an easy read, chock full of facts, charts, graphs, pretty color photos and scary text. Here's an example of the latter:

"This report covers what we know and what we wish we knew about Wyoming and the West's changing climate and the various impacts on water resources," says Wyoming State Climatologist Steve Gray, the lead author and director of the Water Resources Data System at UW. "What we do know is that Wyoming's water resources are highly sensitive to climate change. This is because Wyoming is a relatively dry state, a headwaters state, and because we are so reliant on mountain snow, the main source of surface water for the entire year."

Gray explains that downstream states are somewhat buffered from the types of drought seen in the historical record: Dryness in one area can often be offset by wet conditions in another. In many cases, through compacts and decrees, water is stored upstream for these states.

Will there come a time when we throw these moldy old 19th-century water pacts out the window and just decide to keep our snowmelt? In the West, that would be tantamount to a declaration of war. I can see the headline now:

Wyomingites dam North Platte; Cornhuskers steamed

CHEYENNE -- Activists from Protect Our Wyoming Water (POWW) finished damming the North Platte on Tuesday where the river crosses into Nebraska southeast of Torrington.

"We threw all the Democrats we could find into the narrows," said POWW leader Bob Huntley. "Some water was still getting through, so we had to round up some Independents and even a few Libertarians. We got 'er done."

Speaking at a press conference in Lincoln, Nebraska Governor Jim Johnson fired a warning shot over Wyoming's bow. He actually fired a warning shot from his deer
rifle. It fell a few hundred miles short of the border.

He went on: "This will not stand. Tear down this dam, Mr. Huntley. Tear it down. And don't forget to administer CPR to the Libertarians."

Then all hell breaks loose. Imagine the chaos. The big question is: would Cheyenne use its nukes?

Perhaps it will never come to this.

But it looks grim.

The UW report concludes that "there is mounting evidence that the Earth is experiencing a warming trend," and, as a result, "any increase in temperature will increase the impact of drought just as population growth and other factors have greatly increased the West's vulnerability to water shortages."

Graphs and figures in the report illustrate datasets on past climates, including tree-ring studies in which scientists look at the widths of annual growth rings in trees to reconstruct a detailed history of ancient droughts. Based on these and other data, scientists can then create scenarios that enable them to examine how future climate change might influence water resources.

"If the dry periods of the 1700s were to return, there would be substantial consequences, and this makes climate change of any type a key factor to consider
as we plan for the future of Wyoming's water resources," Gray says.

"When it comes to our western water resources, there is no slack in the system," says Gray. "Managing for the combined effects of drought and warmer temperatures will be a key challenge in the future."

We're screwed. More severe drought, less snow, shrinking mountain glaciers, hordes of hungry pine beetles, and the traditional Republican-controlled legislature and the all-Republican Congressional delegation.

We're really screwed.

How the West Was Warmed --in lurid detail

Haven't read this book yet, but was drawn to the cover, which shows the devastation caused by the pine bark beetle. Scene on the cover looks like Colorado's Lake Granby. Also, one of the contributors is the very fine writer Laura Pritchett from Fort Collins.

See more at http://www.howthewestwaswarmed.com

Wheatland -- put those banners back up!

"Don't Ban NO PLACE FOR HATE banner" petition now up at http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/NoBanningTheBanner

Get more info about the drive to get the banners back up at Wheatland High School and Wheatland's West Elementary at Wheaterville.

See previous posts about the controversy below...

BoDeans release new CD April 6

This is great news for us BoDeans fans

Dems celebrate diversity at NTR banquet

Democrats will gather in Cheyenne on Saturday, Feb. 27, for the 2010 Nellie Tayloe Ross Banquet. Hear from Democratic Party leaders, the annual NTR Award winner, and special guest speakers to be named soon. Come rally with other Democrats as we celebrate diversity in politics during the Legislature's budget session.

Click here to register or to see more details. Festivities begin at 5:45 p.m. at the historic Plains Hotel in Cheyenne with a cocktail reception, followed by dinner at 7 p.m. Buy a table so you can sit with your friends, or come as you are and enjoy the evening with Democrats from every corner of Wyoming.

You can buy your tickets online at http://www.wyomingdemocrats.com/ or you can call WyoDems HQ at 1-800-SAY-DEMS to make reservations.

Letter from ADL yanks" No Place for Hate" campaign from Wheatland schools

Update to hummingbirdminds 1/22 post...

Found the text of this letter on the Boulderpride blog (thanks Boulder bloggers):

In a letter today to Platte County School Board members, Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Mountain States Regional Director Bruce H. DeBoskey said:

We write to express our outrage and dismay that your School Board voted to ban the display of No Place for Hate® banners at West Elementary School and Wheatland High School because they include the logo of the Gay and Lesbian Fund for Colorado, a major sponsor of this free program. As a result of your decision, we are compelled to withdraw the No Place for Hate® program from the schools in
your District.

The No Place for Hate program is designed to teach young people the values of respect and inclusion for everyone in the school community, and we cannot continue to offer the program in your District if you will not permit the display of a banner (hard-earned by many dedicated students, teachers, and community members) that includes the words “gay and lesbian.” To continue our program in light of your decision would be the height of hypocrisy, turning a blind eye to intolerance and repudiating the principles of inclusivity and respect that our program teaches.

The No Place for Hate® program has been embraced by dozens of schools in Colorado and Wyoming as a successful way to make schools safer and more inclusive, by providing anti- bullying training and promoting respect for all students. At schools where this program has been implemented, attendance is up and disciplinary actions are down. Students have reported that they feel safer and more welcome at school because the students, teachers and community have worked together to make their schools respectful, and inclusive. The safer schools are, the more students will attend, and the more opportunities they will have to learn. It is a shame that your decision will impede the important progress that has already been made on these important issues.

As you heard at the School Board meeting on January 18, this program has been in effect for over a year at one of your schools and for several months at the other school. The Wheatland students who have participated have enthusiastically supported it, believe they have benefited from it, and want it to continue. It saddens us greatly that your decision will send a message to these students that adults in Platte County openly endorse bigotry against the gay and lesbian members of your community.

If you should change your position at any time and permit the banner to be displayed as designed, we would be happy to return our program to your schools.

Unless and until your position changes, however, we must reluctantly and immediately end the No Place for Hate® program at West Elementary and Wheatland High School.

UPDATE: Get more on the story at the excellent Wheaterville blog

ANOTHER UPDATE: Read the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle story and the very educational and entertaining comments (114 thus far) at http://www.wyomingnews.com/articles/2010/01/22/news/19local_01-22-10.txt

No place for "No Place for Hate" campaign in Wheatland

Everything was going along swimmingly in Wheatland. Both West Elementary and Wheatland H.S. had signed up for the "No Place for Hate" campaign, sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League. Posters like the one above were hung on the chimneys with care. Jews and Gentiles were engaging in peaceful coexistence. Lions were lying down with lambs, and dogs and cats were living together. Even the off-white citizens were getting along with the egg-shell white and slightly freckled denizens of Wheaterville.

Then something terrible happened. A concerned citizen noticed that one of the program's sponsors is (close your eyes) The Gay and Lesbian Fund for Colorado.

Uh oh. The program's goal "to organize schools to work together and develop projects that enhance the appreciation of diversity and foster harmony amongst diverse groups" was in jeopardy. The campaign also proposes "to empower schools to promote respect for individual and group differences while challenging prejudice and bigotry."

Here's what happened next, according to an AP article in the Billings Gazette:

Platte County School District 1 trustees voted 4-3 this week to reject a request to keep the Anti-Defamation League’s “No Place for Hate” banners at Wheatland High and West Elementary. District administrators removed the signs after parents and school board members raised concern because the banners list the Gay and Lesbian Fund for Colorado as a sponsor. Some students requested that the banners be replaced, but the board refused.

Wheatland, a southeast Wyoming town of about 3,300 residents, is "an ultraconservative community,” said school board member Lee Dunham.

“If this is the way one chooses, then they can lead this particular lifestyle, but I don’t believe it needs to be publicly displayed in a school,” Dunham said.

School board member Joe Fabian said he believes the Anti-Defamation League is pushing an “agenda that is pro-gay marriage” and that the community of Wheatland is not supportive of that.

“They wouldn’t want the organization, the Anti-Defamation League, dictating to their children that an alternate lifestyle is a normal lifestyle,” he said.

First of all, good job to the students who requested that the banners stay on the walls. They actually read the banners and absorbed the message. The school board gets an F for tolerance and diversity, but receives an "I" for irony.

Now for the rest of the story:

The district intended to allow the anti-discrimination campaign to continue, Superintendent Stuart Nelson said. But the Anti-Defamation League won’t allow the Wheatland schools to participate without the presence of the banners, said Bruce DeBoskey, mountain states regional director for the group.

The Anti-Defamation League “will no longer allow the program if it’s not being honored and used in its fullest intent,” he said.

DeBoskey said there are many Wheatland residents who support the anti-discrimination campaign, and he urged them to speak up.

“The (league) is extremely concerned that this whole program — which is designed to teach young people to respect the differences among us — has been derailed by people who appear to have biases,” he said.

Linda Burt of the Wyoming chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union also criticized the board’s decision, saying it’s “extraordinarily unfortunate and extraordinarily shortsighted.”

“Does that mean this is a place for hate?” she asked. “Does that mean this is a place for discrimination?”

Good questions, Linda.

West Elementary and Wheatland H.S. were two of the 25 schools participating in the 2009-2010 "No Place for Hate" campaign. The only other participating Wyoming school is Whiting H.S. in Laramie. No word yet whether the posters are still up over there.

Jam Haiti benefit Saturday in Denver

From the Flobots web site -- a rockin' Haiti benefit that goes all night.

Legislature to address "cottage foods"

The Casper Star-Tribune featured an article by Joan Barron this week about a little-known issue that will undoubtedly bubble to the surface during the legislative session.

It's all about something called "cottage foods." Those are foods prepared in a cottage (or even a house) and sold at the local farmer's market or community bazaar. These could be potentially hazardous dishes, such as Uncle Joe's chili or Aunt Sue's lasagna. Selling stuff such as veggies and fruits and jams and bread and honey is already O.K.

That's where this gets a little sticky.

This will be the third legislative session the council has addressed problems raised in bills sponsored by Rep. Sue Wallis, R-Recluse.

The first year the bill to exempt so-called cottage foods -- those prepared in home kitchens -- from regulation failed to get through the Legislature.

Last year a modified version did pass. As of July 1 it allows sales of home-produced foods such as jams, cookies and bread at farmers markets and roadside stands without inspection or licensing.

Wallis plans to introduce a bill for the budget session that opens Feb. 8 to expand the cottage food exemption.

Although they have not seen the bill, the council members said they expect it to be the same as the original bills introduced by Wallis before they were modified.

"It would make it wide open," said the council's chairman, Robert Harrington, director of the Casper-Natrona County Health Department.

God forbid we make anything "wide open" here in the libertarian great wide open. What happens when the local foods movement runs up against government food inspectors? We must have safe food. That's a given. But cottage businesses are local businesses making local delicacies. The money stays in the community, unlike the dough you spend in the Wal-Mart grocery section. How will these small businesses, the politician's favorite kind of business, thrive?

I'm glad the legislature will be considering Wallis's bill. Maybe it can help to define ways that local food purveyors can bring real food back to our tables.

I've got those globalized food blues

I've written often on the subject of local food and local art and local politics.

I have a "local" fixation.

But why not? What has globalization wrought? Banks too big to fail that do. Corporations that have been granted the same rights as citizens. Bought-off members of Congress. Far-flung wars fought at the behest of oil companies and foreign oil suppliers. Tasteless food in corporate grocery chains. Publishing conglomerates that publish only sure-fire blockbusters by celebs posing as authors (Sarah Palin, etc.).

All that and more.

I'm just jumping on a bandwagon that has its roots in the farms and villages of our grandfathers. A movement that looks to alternative energy and backyard gardens and the neighborhood quilter and the farmers' market. Nothing big -- and that's the point. Big is bad. Big is too big.

So I keep observing local ideas taking root. In Cheyenne, we have two outdoor farmers' markets and a winter market just getting started. We have at least two organic/sustainable growers in northern Colorado -- Wolf Moon Farms and Grant Farms -- promoting their "Community Shares" program in southeast Wyoming. The Northern Colorado Food Incubator provides a focus for all the growers in the CO/WY nexus. Backyard gardens are sprouting all over, including in my backyard. I'm not the farmer my grandfather was, but I don't face feast or famine as he did in Iowa. I can grow some of my own fruits and veggies, and get the rest through farmers' markets and on trips to Albertson's or Safeway. Were I able to grow my own coffee, I would. I can at least buy the fair trade variety at the store.

This would all seem like so much aging Baby Boomer/naive Gen-X nonsense if it weren't for the many people engaged in local sustainability. I never talk politics with the guy from Brush, Colorado, who sells sweet corn out of his truck bed on September Saturdays. But we do talk sweet corn, and we agree on that. Small-scale tomato growers speak a common language. We speak tomato. Not tow-mah-tow. It's ta-may-tow, or maybe ta-may-ter or, simply, may-ter. I listen to other tomato growers because they most know more than I ever will.

We do have a common enemy in this country's corporate food system. It's making us sick. Not literally, unless you count the occasional tainted spinach or bad beef outbreaks. But it's short-changing our precious bodily fluids through processed foods. That food is also shipped long distances to our stores, burning fossil fuels and polluting the air and contributing to global warming.

Today, in Cheyenne, I saw cantaloupe on sale. August and September are cantaloupe months. That's when Rocky Ford varieties from southern Colorado come our way. I'll eat other High Plains cantaloupe. But in January, Albertson's features cantaloupe from Chile. It's summer in Chile. Chileans are whooping it up at the beach and eating cantaloupe. But how much did it costs to bring the fruit to Cheyenne, where the only beach we're frequenting in January is in our memories?

I received word today that a group of artists are getting together to talk about putting studios in the abandoned Hynds Building downtown. The building on the city's main drag has been sitting vacant for years. Various businesses, including one hotel conglomerate, have talked about buying and renovating the place. But then the economy tanked. If we can get artists in there in the meantime, all the better. Artists creating and providing some after-hours life to downtown. If you're interested in this downtown project, contact Rebecca Barrett at rebecca.barrett3@mac.com.

None of this is going to happen overnight. We only at the beginning of the (dare I say it?) surge.

But, to get this globalization monkey off our backs, we have to start somewhere.

After today's SCOTUS ruling -- SAVE DEMOCRACY!

Go to Save Democracy and sign this petition:

Dear Friend,

This morning, five Supreme Court Justices stabbed at the heart of democracy, our electoral system.

They overturned over 100 years of statute and precedent, and declared that corporations can spend all the money that they want to buy elections. In fact, these five men in robes declared, they have a constitutional right to do so.

Now, we have to fight.

That’s why I just signed Rep. Alan Grayson's petition to support his "Save Our Democracy" legislative package, because we cannot have a government that is bought and paid for by huge multinational corporations. We need a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

I hope you'll join me.

For they are brown and without belief -- or WWJD?

We salute Jesus' General -- he is always on the job:

For they are brown and without belief

'Jesus Guns': Two More Countries Rethink Using Weapons with Secret Bible References - ABC News

This is one of the oddest things I've read all week. Trijicon, a Michigan defense contractor, makes gun sights for the U.S. Marines and U.S. Army that include Biblical references. I'm all for providing good gun sights to our military. I have nothing against Biblical references, as long as they're kept out of the hands (and mouths) of hypocrites such as Pat Robertson and Republican senators. But in a gun sight? Don't you think that our Muslim allies might have a little problem with that?

"It's wrong, it violates the Constitution, it violates a number of federal laws," said Michael "Mikey" Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, an advocacy group that seeks to preserve the separation of church and state in the military.

"It allows the Mujahedeen, the Taliban, al Qaeda and the insurrectionists and jihadists to claim they're being shot by Jesus rifles," he said.

Weinstein, an attorney and former Air Force officer, said many members of his group who currently serve in the military have complained about the markings on the sights. He also claims they've told him that commanders have referred to weapons with the sights as "spiritually transformed firearm[s] of Jesus Christ."

He said coded biblical inscriptions play into the hands of "those who are calling this a Crusade."

Read the entire article at 'Jesus Guns': Two More Countries Rethink Using Weapons with Secret Bible References - ABC News

The hits just keep on coming

My Feedjit feed (see sidebar) keeps logging in hits for a two-year old post based on William Faulkner's quote: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” In it, I talk about the racism I experienced in 1960s Florida and what I saw during Obama's 2008 campaign in Wyoming. Racism is alive and well, I said in the summary.

I was wondering why it was showing up with such regularity. Then I recalled Martin Scorcese's acceptance speech tonight at the Golden Globes. He wrapped it up with the Faulkner quote. Since my post has been online for so long, it's at the top of the Google hit list. Near the top, anyway.

The post is especially relevant on the eve of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Day holiday.

To read the original: http://hummingbirdminds.blogspot.com/2008/03/for-faulkner-and-obama-past-isnt-past.html

Boulder museum stages "open wall" for artists

Saw this event promoted on Facebook. A twist on the open reading concept for writers and poets, although readings are sometimes followed by a book signing if any of us have books to sign. For this event, artists are invited to hang their work on the BMoCA's blank wall and then attendees bid on the art. The 50/50 split is also a great idea -- money for the museum AND the artists. I didn't see anything on the web site restricting entries to Colorado artists.

Here's more info from Elephant Journal:

Citizen Artists: If you would like to sell your piece, a silent auction will take place from 8-10 p.m. to raise money to support the museum… and to support you (a 50/50 split)!

Or, looking to purchase original, fine art? Our silent auction is a great way to support the museum and local artists, and uplift your walls.

Additionally, the museum’s upstairs gallery will feature elephantjournal.com’s selection of community artists. This specially curated space will also offer a grouping of eco-art pieces, complete with “do-it-yourself” tips for “greening” your studio.

The evening will include local music by Harper Phillips and her ukulele, as well as a cash bar. Admission is a $5 suggested donation.

Localarts. Localfunding. Localfun.

And, if we continue with the guidelines for local as locales within a 100-mile radius of Cheyenne, this probably counts. Boulder is 102 miles from Cheyenne. In some ways, "The Peoples Republic of Boulder" is a world away from home of the country's largest outdoor rodeo. In other ways, it's not. Artists and writers are always looking for new and interesting ways to market their work.

By the way, if you're looking for work by Wyoming artists, go to my WAC workplace blog at http://wyomingarts.blogspot.com/. On the right sidebar are links to the state's arts orgs, folk artists, visual artists, performers and writers.

BTW: Cheyenne artist Georgia Rowswell tipped me off to this Boulder event. See her art at http://www.artfulhand.org/.

Wyofile receives Knight Foundation grant

Wyofile is a great source for Wyoming news. It announced this today:

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation announced Jan. 13 that it has awarded the Lander Community Foundation a $122,000 grant for the Wyoming news and public policy website http://www.wyofile.com/ to expand coverage of critical state issues.

The award from the Knight Foundation Community Information Challenge program adds to the $135,000 pledged to WyoFile.com by other sources. Major contributors include the George B. Storer Foundation Inc. of Saratoga, Wy.; Christopher Findlater, a Florida-based philanthropist with ongoing business interests in Wyoming, and the estate of the late Casper oilman, state legislator and U.S. Ambassador Tom Stroock.

“To increase the availability of information on complex state issues, this grant will support WyoFile.com , which examines Wyoming public policy and politics,” the Knight Foundation announced in a press release. “WyoFile.com will increase its staff and reporting budget to further engage Wyoming’s residents, lawmakers, educators and business people through an independent, alternative source.”

The Knight Community Information Challenge is a five-year, $24-million initiative to help community and place-based foundations find creative ways to use new media and technology to keep residents informed and engaged.

In an effort to supplement and support traditional news coverage in the state, WyoFile.com stories are offered at no charge as a public service to all Wyoming media.

“One of our goals in the coming year is to make it easier for state newspapers to use our stories, by offering shorter versions of our in-depth investigative reports and features,” said WyoFile editor Rone Tempest of Lander. “We will also encourage newspapers and other media to seek out help in covering important policy issues in their communities. The Knight grant will be a big help in this regard.”

In July of this year, WyoFile.Com applied to the federal government for non-profit 501 (c) (3) status with the Internal Revenue Service.

WyoFile’s board of directors are Anne MacKinnon (Chairman), Casper, a Western water policy writer, educator and former executive editor of the Casper Star-Tribune; Randall T. Cox, Gillette, an oil and gas attorney and bird wildlife author; Christopher Findlater, Miami, Fla., internet entrepreneur, co-founder and former CEO of NetQuote, an online insurance company; Kathyrn Hogarty, Laramie, attorney and Director of External Relations and Special Assistant to the Dean, Univeristy of Wyoming School of Law; and Jonathan Weber, Missoula, Mont., Publisher and Editor in Chief, NewWest.net.

A "Kangaroo System" documented in "Juvenile Justice in Wyoming"

This trailer is from a documentary by Laramie's Chris Hume.

AAUW: Rep. Cynthia Lummis is a zero

The Wyoming Democratic Party sends this:

The American Association of University Women (AAUW) one of the nation’s top advocacy groups for education and equity on behalf of women and girls, has given failing marks to all three members of Wyoming’s congressional delegation. In an annual report analyzing the Congressional voting record for 2009, AAUW rated Rep. Cynthia Lummis with a 0% and both Senator Mike Enzi and Senator John Barrasso earned a rating of 13%, respectively.

The delegation’s poor performance on issues important to women is extremely distressing, according to Wyoming Democratic Party State Chair Leslie Petersen.

“This report drives home the point that on issues ranging from health reform to equal compensation, Rep. Lummis, Sen. Enzi and Sen. Barrasso are out of touch with the needs of Wyoming people,” Petersen said. “The rights of women, minorities and families are being shoved aside in favor of special interests, big business, and destructive partisanship. It especially saddens me that our lone female representative would continue to vote against her own gender.”

The AAUW’s scores were calculated based on support of issues that would address social inequalities, end discrimination, and support women and their families, among other considerations. This legislation, which received no support from any member of the Wyoming congressional delegation, included:

• Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 – Reopens the courtroom doors to further progress towards pay equity. Takes action on a 2007 court decision which required employees to file pay discrimination claims within 180 days of their employer’s last discriminatory decision and requires claims to be filed within 180 days of their last discriminatory paycheck.


• Paycheck Fairness Act – Strengthens the Equal Pay Act by empowering women to negotiate for equal pay, deters wage discrimination by strengthening penalties, and prohibits retaliation against workers who inquire about wage practices or disclose their wages. The bill also creates incentives for employers to follow the law and strengthens federal outreach and enforcement efforts.


• Healthy Families Act – Would provide accrued paid sick and safe days for employees and would require employers with at least 15 employees to guarantee workers seven days of paid sick leave annually. These days could be used for treatment, recovery, and activities necessary to deal with an incidence of domestic violence.


• Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act - Provides local law enforcement with resources to address hate-based violence and added perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability to the categories protected under federal hate crimes law.

Contribute to Clinton Foundation for Haiti earthquake relief

Citizens and non-profits and gubment bring earthquake relief to Haiti

The always vigilant jhwygirl at 4&20blackbirds provides some great info on Haiti Relief. First, there's this Google link to donate to CARE and Unicef: http://www.google.com/relief/haitiearthquake/. Scroll down and click on Google Earth to view the Haiti devestation, just in case you listen to Rush Limbaugh and are an earthquake denier or a poverty denier or an Obama hater.

She also brings up the text messaging route. Text message “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 to Red Cross relief efforts. Another org is Yonn Ede Lot, which works mainly with Haiti's rural poor. You can text message “YELE” to 501501 to donate $5 to Yele Haiti’s Earthquake Relief efforts. FMI: http://www.yonnedelot.org/.

According to today's New York Times, the Red Cross has collected more than $5 million so far via the texting method.

In other news, the U.S. government has entered the fray by pledging $100 million for relief, sending planeloads of supplies and dispatching an aircraft carrier loaded with helicopters and food and medical equipment. The Air Force's Special Tactics Squadron and its air traffic controllers have brought a semblance of order to the Port Au Prince airport. At the behest of the sitting U.S. president, two ex-presidents (still on the government payroll) are spearheading the public push for Haiti relief.


That darn gubment. Can't do anything right.

Wyoming GOP fires new executive director

The Wyoming GOP is all about change.

The Associated Press is reporting this:

The Wyoming Republican Party has fired its executive director after he served only about two months on the job.

Party Chairman Diana Vaughan says Randy O'Hara was fired on Friday.

Vaughan said Monday she could not comment on the reasons for firing O'Hara, saying it was a personnel issue.

But the Casper Star-Tribune reports that Vaughan said in an e-mail to Republican State Central Committee members that O'Hara's performance did not meet the party's standards.

O'Hara came to Wyoming from Utah where he most recently served as the political director of the Salt Lake County Republican Party in Salt Lake City.

Now who are they going to get? Dick Cheney has some times on his hands....

Study shows that highway stimulus funding does not reduce unemployment

Federal highway stimulus funding has been very, very good to Wyoming --

Nice map, courtesy of the WYDOT web site. Fetching color scheme.

Face it -- everyone likes good roads and bridges that don't fall down. So the Obama administration's highway stimulus funding efforts have been wildly popular among politicians, construction workers and -- once the construction is completed -- motorists.

But a new study shows that it hasn't made a dent in unemployment. The Seattle Times wrote about it today:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2010762109_apusstimulusunemployment.html
Researchers from five universities compared unemployment stats in 700 U.S. counties that received these funds with 700 counties that did not.

No difference in the numbers.

What about Wyoming?

Between November 2008 and November 2009, Wyoming's unemployment rate rose from 3.1 to 7.2 percent, an increased of 4.1 percent. That's according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Most of that increase probably was in the oil and gas fields. But who knows? I'll keep looking for more stats.

The latest highway stimulus bill has already passed the House and will come up in the Senate later in January. I'm all for stimulus, but researchers say we need bigger and more expensive projects to move the employment numbers. High speed rail, for instance.

More later...

Hummingbirds are but a handy metaphor

Photo by twolf1 and plucked from Firedoglake

"Hummingbirds: Magic in the Air" premieres tonight on PBS. Any blog with the term "hummingbird" in it should be interested in this. But hummingbirds are but a metaphor to me. I like them well enough. Nothing like watching these birds flit around a summer mountain meadow. Now, if you replace the bird with a flitting brain, you have the "hummingbirdminds" metaphor, first coined by Internet pioneer and hyper-dude Ted Nelson.

Find out more about the making of the documentary and local air times at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjnc1kHMDDo

UPDATE 9:53 P.M. MST: Watched the documentary and it was very cool. One question: why did PBS air a parental warning at the start of the show? Because it showed unorthodox hummingbird mating habits? Because the it included verifiable evolutionary traits linking flowers and birds? Anyone know?

Act locally and "Move Your Money"

Add "bank locally" to the long list of what all of us should do locally -- eat locally, shop locally, create (and appreciate) art locally, etc.

Wyoming residents interested in investing locally should consider putting at least some of their assets in credit unions or local banks.

This is spurred by a new cause advocated by Arianna Huffington of The Huffington Post. Called Move Your Money, the Facebook fan page is racking up big numbers. The web site has some great info, and included a photo of George Bailey ("the good ol' Savings & Loan") facing off against megalomaniac banker Mr. Potter in "It's a Wonderful Life."

I'm a long-time credit union member. I patronize my local credit union: First Education FCU

Here's a list of Wyoming credit unions: http://www.cuawyoming.com/

And a list of Wyoming banks: http://us1.irabankratings.com/MoveYourMoney/IRACommunityZip.asp?affiliate=moveyourmoney&zip=82001&submit=Search

Sen. Barrasso and I agree on transparency

I suddenly find myself agreeing with Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso.

He wrote a letter to Sen. Harry Reid calling on more transparency in the upcoming debates over the merging of the House and Senate healthcare bills.

Let's forget for a second that the Senator's letter is politically motivated and has more to do with opposition to Pres. Obama that healthcare reform. Sen./Dr. Barrasso has opposed reform from the beginning -- and has said so endlessly on Fixed News. And we had so much transparency when Repubs ruled the Senate roost.

Yet, it's a good letter and worth reading. On Thursday night, Jon Stewart's "Daily Show" skewered Pres. Obama for this very same thing. Stewart showed clips of Obama's campaign promises contrasted with the reality of closing off the hearings to C-SPAN.

Come on, Sen. Reid. Let's see these hearings.

Here's part of Sen. Barrasso's Jan. 7 letter:

To ensure that the American people have the ability to witness the on-going negotiations between the House and Senate, we ask that any negotiations regarding a final health care reform bill be conducted in the light of day. The Chairman of C-SPAN, the network responsible for broadcasting the deliberations of Congress, has offered resources to cover all negotiation sessions live. We urge you to take him up on this offer.

Read all of it at http://www.barrasso.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressOffice.PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=0e9dac58-01df-7453-3ed3-5646c3eb1e98

"Cognitive Dissonance" tonight in Laramie

Laramie rabble-rouser (let's face it -- progressive-minded rabble need rousing) Meg Lanker sends this info about tonight's on-the-air affair on KOCA-FM:

Come check out the Cognitive Dissonance back to class edition!

My sparkling self will be on the air from 10 p.m. to midnight playing the best indie rock and hip-hop offerings. We'll also have local band Blue Routes at around 11:30, fresh off their appearance at Coal Creek Coffee in downtown Laramie from 8-11 p.m. Blue Routes is comprised of Micah Wyatt, Jascha Herdt, and Phillip Cleveland.

Angry Malcontent will be back and d-baggery will be called out. Fundits will frolic. It shall be a marvelous end to break.

We'll also be talking about new shows premiering on KOCA - I guarantee it'll be a good time.

Got a request or d-bag nomination? Deadline is 5 p.m. on Friday. Post it on the wall. Come pre-game it from 10-midnight at KOCA!

Location: 93.5 KOCA studios, 365 W. Grand, West Laramie. Call or text 307-752-7460.

Is this Micah Wyatt of the Blue Routes the same Micah Wyatt who once shaped young minds at the Young Writers' Camp near Story?

More info at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=155510164943&index=1

WPR: Gov. Freudenthal is not doing much fund-raising (2010-01-07)

WPR: Freudenthal's not doing much fund-raising

He's only raised a few bucks for a 2010 campaign. But won't he have enough time to do so even if he declares after the legislative session?

Stay tuned...

P.S.: Governor Freudenthal's Chief of Staff, Chris Boswell, will be the speaker at the Laramie County Democrats first meeting of the year on Monday, Jan. 25, 7 p.m. at the IBEW Hall in Cheyenne. Maybe Chris will drop a few hints as to "will he or won't he?"

Sea-bred vs. grass-fed oysters -- a Wyoming locavore's dilemma

I posted on Dec. 5 about my trip to the Cheyenne Winter Farmers' Market. I said that I did all my Christmas shopping there, although I was joshing just a bit. I bought my wife Chris a homegrown and homemade gift from Sage Hill Fiber Arts in Chugwater and it has come in very handy since she unwrapped it on Christmas Day.

I shopped online for most of my other gifts. I did not shop at Wal-Mart, probably for the first time. I do not hate Wal-Mart for its success, as it brings more variety and lower prices to Cheyenne. However, I am trying to live my life as if Wal-Mart didn't exist. Not sure what to call this pursuit. It's not just about food but all goods. I want to buy locally and eat locally and politic locally and write locally and sell my books locally. That "local" may end of being a 100-mile radius from Cheyenne. It may be a wider circle. But my circle now is big as the entire planet.

During December, I bought a bag of frozen shrimp from Thailand. Defrosted Thai shrimp is also what they sell at the Albertson's Deli. Thai shrimp is nowhere near as tasty as Florida shrimp scooped out of the Gulf Stream and sold at Ponce Inlet or St. Augustine. But Thai shrimp is a quite a bit better than Wyoming shrimp which, when available, is in the form of fossilized rock from the ancient inland seas. Very crunchy.

We do have oysters in Wyoming, but I prefer my oysters sea-bred rather than grass-fed, if you get my drift.

My goal is to bore you endlessly with this topic in 2010. Be forewarned. Economics will enter into it. I know very little about Big Picture economics, so I'll call on experts for that. Small Picture economics focuses on my wallet. How can the average citizen afford to eat and shop locally? That is a huge question. Writers on the Range columnist Charles Finn from Bend, Oregon, tackled the topic in a December essay that appeared Dec. 27 on the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle op-ed pages. He was writing mainly about buying organic foods, but his conclusions hit home:

But once again it comes down to the bottom line. Sure, I value the homemade over the factory produced, the local over the imported. But I also value paying my mortgage and electricity bill.

And why does it always come down to this? Doing what it ethically right and better in terms of health compete against doing what I can afford. It makes me want to scream.

Argh!! I know what he means.

This is one reason among others than I support farmers' markets. So, when I received this e-mail from Cindy Ridenour, chair of the Cheyenne Winter Farmers' Market, I decided to pass it along. It's about the physical market but includes a survey about a proposed on-line version.

Dear ________:

Thank you for making the Cheyenne Winter Farmers' Market a great success with the community. The board is meeting next week to consider plans for next year.

Meanwhile, Wyoming consumers and producers may soon be able to participate in an on-line farmers market. The Wyoming Business Council is conducting a survey of consumers to determine your interest in an on-line market.

Please take a moment to take the attached survey (attached as a Word document). You may either highlight the answers and email it back to Kim Porter at kim.porter@wybusiness.org or call 307-777-6319 or mail it back to Kim at Wyoming Business Council, Attn: Kim Porter, 214 W. 15th Street, Cheyenne, WY 82002.

Please reply to kim.porter@wybusiness.org with your survey response. (I will forward your reply to her, if it comes to me).

Have a great winter, and we'll be in touch!
Cindy Ridenour
Chair, Cheyenne Winter Farmers' Market

By the way, this is also a huge social and political issue, one that challenges know-it-all city dwellers like me to find out more about agriculture and to listen to what farmers and ranchers are saying and doing -- and learn from it.

Cheyenne library opens '10 with funny stuff

From Troy Rumpf on the LCLS blog at http://lcls.wordpress.com/:

We’re kicking the season off with something that really works well for all ages: Humor. While planning this, I was amazed at the bounty of humor-based materials that can be found at the library; I never thought about looking to mystery or sci-fi genres for anything funny or comedic, but oh how wrong I was. Actually, my personal preference for humor writing includes two of my favorite authors, David Sedaris and Augusten Burroughs (and FYI – if you ever get a chance to see them in person, DO SO!), and my colleagues as well as some great Southern friends swear that Celia Rivenbark has made them laugh out loud more than any other writer. Apparently, this caused a bit of embarrassment for one of my friends with a not-so-silent snort she let out as while reading one of these books on a cross-country flight. But that’s another story…

This is my kind of theme. So many humor writers and books I admire. I do confess to a bias toward dark humor which, to my thinking, is true humor. Ha-ha funny is great. I like some stand-up comedians and TV sit-coms and jokes, especially so-called stupid jokes. Horse walks into a bar. "Why the long face," asks the bartender.

Ha!

But I have a long list of books that make me laugh out loud and feel and think.

Here they are in no particular order:

"The Tortilla Curtain" by T.C. Boyle. Because it's funny and outrageous and I get to laugh at pompous California Yuppies. For quick shots of dark humor, I turn to Boyle's short stories, such as "Sorry, Fugu" and "Descent of Man." Opening line: "I was living with a woman who suddenly began to stink."

We have to admit that Irish humor can be the most twisted and most fun. Boyle is a great example. As is Irish writer Flann O'Brien. Best book is "The Poor Mouth," in which the Irish tendency to wallow in poverty is satirized.

Irish treat satire reverently. Jonathan Swift and "A Modest Proposal" (Eat my baby -- please!). James Joyce and "Ulysses." One-time U.S. writer J.P. Donleavy ("The Ginger Man").

The Brits are no slackers in the humor department. The late Alan Coren is one of my faves. Read his essays "All You Need to Know About Europe" and try not to laugh at his biting comments of various Europeans. As for the Netherlands: "Apart from cheese and tulips, the main product of the country is advocaat, a drink made from lawyers."

Monty Python!

Enough about the Brits.

More humor writers whom I admire:

Mark Twain -- All the novels but especially like his takedown of the German language and "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses"

Kurt Vonnegut's books -- all of them.

Joesph Heller's "Catch-22."

Grace Paley -- Her stories are masterpieces. "An Interest in Life" has one of the best openings in fiction: "My husband gave me a broom one Christmas. This wasn't right. No one can tell me it was meant kindly."

Flannery O'Connor --The humor in her stories comes from events bumping up against tragedy. When I first read "A Good Man is Hard to Find," the first few pages had me in stitches. Later on, I wondered if I was going to need stitches when The Misfit jumped out at me.

Woody Allen's short pieces in "Without Feathers" and "Getting Even" are terrific. Sure, I like most of his movies too, but how can you beat these lines from "If the Impressionists Had Been Dentists:"

Mrs. Sol Schwimmer is suing me because I made her bridge as I felt it and not to fit her ridiculous mouth! That's right! I can't work to order like a common tradesman! I decided her bridge should be enormous and billowing, with wild, explosive teeth flaring up in every direction like fire! Now she is upset because it won't fit in her mouth! She is so bourgeois and stupid, I want to smash her! I tried forcing the false plate in but it sticks out like a star burst chandelier.

Ditto Steve Martin's short pieces in "Pure Drivel."

National Lampoon writers who went on to stellar careers: P.J. O'Rourke, Anne Beatts, Michael O'Donohue, etc.

All those passed-away New Yorker writers: S.J. Perelman, Robert Benchley, James Thurber, Ring Lardner, Dorothy Parker, etc.

"One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez --For the writing and the humor.

Mystery writers Carl Hiaasen, Elmore Leonard, Janet Evanovich and Jerome Charyn. Note the Laramie County Library: Order some Charyn books already.

Cheyenne mystery writer C.J. Box writes this great opening line in "Savage Run:"

On the third day of their honeymoon, infamous environmental activists Stevie Woods and his new bride, Annabel Bellotti, were spiking trees in the forest when a cow exploded and blew them up. Until then, their marriage had been happy.

Gets better from there.

Some readers find Pete Dexter ("Paris Trout" and "Spooner") too violent. His humor lies within the violence and his incredible writing. In the tradition of Flannery O'Connor.