That Was The Week That Was In Wyoming

Oregon Buttes: Not worth protecting

Rough week for forward-thinking people here in Wyoming. Let me see if I can sum it up:

No "crown jewels" protection for our natural treasures

Check.

FMI: Wyoming fails to identify lands worth saving (KGWN) and BLM: No "crown jewels" worth saving (CST)

Drill, baby, drill -- and feel free to poison the air with ozone

Check.

Lungs of Sublette County residents: Not worth protecting

FMI: http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9PGLI3G0.htm (thanks to Mead Gruver at AP article via Business Week) and this media release from the Wyoming Outdoor Council.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Cindy Hill attempts to make up her own personnel rules. On the "good news" side, the WY AG rules that she can't do that. More bad news: the fight isn't over

Check.

FMI: http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/article_fc22d342-a26c-5071-ab10-f0385ae6d876.html (Casper Star-Tribune)

Put all juvenile offenders into adult prisons and throw away the key

Check.

FMI: http://blowinginthewyomingwind.blogspot.com/2011/08/wyomings-tradtion-of-selling-out.html

(thanks to Rev. Rodger McDaniel, who's always on the case when it comes to healthcare and youth issues)

WY juvenile offenders: Not worth protecting (Getty Images)

Shoot all wolves on sight!

Check.

FMI: http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/wyoming/article_d17eccac-d641-11e0-af80-001cc4c002e0.html

Koch Brothers-sponsored Tea Party Express rolls into Cheyenne. WY Dr. Sen. John Barrasso is one of the speakers. He thanks Tea Partiers "for all that you're doing to reclaim America."

Check (and please stop laughing at our esteemed senator).

Get the lowdown (with many fine comments) at "Tea Party members attempt to clarify what they stand for" (neat header, WY Tribune-Eagle)

More fun next week...

On this Labor Day weekend, "Take 'Em Down"

In March, when Wisconsin public workers were battling anti-union legislation, this blog featured a video of the Dropkick Murphys' song, "Take 'Em Down," dedicated to that struggle.

The fight still rages this Labor Day weekend. But it's not only workers in Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio battling regressive governors and legislatures. Workers in almost every state have seen ugly anti-worker legislation raise its ugly head. You can trace these proposals back to ones crafted by the American Legislative Exchange Council or ALEC. Each year, legislators (mostly Republicans) gather at the ALEC conference to pick up their marching orders. This August the conference was held in New Orleans. This fall, you can expect to see more legislation that attempts to take away any protections for public workers, including teachers. Here's a recent article on the subject in The Nation.

In Wyoming, Superintendent of Public Instruction Cindy Hill is attempting to classify all of the department's jobs "at-will." With this designation, any worker can be fired at any time for any reason. Although Wyoming is a so-called "Right to Work" state, permanent state employees (once past the probation period) are covered by various protections from this sort of random, politically-motivated dismissals. Fortunately for state employees such as myself, Wyoming Attorney General ruled this week that agency heads cannot set their own personnel policies. The AG's opinion was issued Aug. 25 and schooled Hill on the law. To put it simply, she cannot make up the rules as she goes along. The Wyoming Department of Administration and Information (A&I) determines personnel policies at the request of the Governor. If it's time for rules to be changed, the Gov has to take that action and not Ms. Hill. Perhaps she forgot to read the state org chart. The Gov's office announced that it may have something to say on the matter next week. Read about the AG's decision in the Sept. 2 Casper Star-Trib.

Interesting to note that 40 people in Hill's 146-employee department have left since the new Superintendent took office in January. In some places, that would be classified as a purge.

Hill came to office in the Tea Party wave of 2010. She handily defeated Democrat Mike Massie, a former state senator and one-time staffer at the Wyoming Humanities Council. Not only did we lose one of our few Democratic senators, we also lost the opportunity to have a highly intelligent and efficient voice for education in the superintendent's chair.

Hill and her pals in the legislature want to blame teachers for Wyoming's lack of progress in public education. The problems go deeper than that. But you know how those Tea Partiers are -- thinking deeply is not their strength.

Meanwhile, let's celebrate workers on this Labor Day weekend. Here are the lyrics to "Take "em Down" by the Dropkick Murphys:

When the boss comes callin' they'll put us down 

When the boss comes callin' gotta stand your ground 
When the boss comes callin' don't believe their lies 

When the boss comes callin' his take his toll 
When the boss comes callin' don't you sell your soul 
When the boss comes callin' we gotta organize 

Let em know 
We gotta take the bastards down 
Let them know 
We gotta smash them to the ground 
Let em know 
We gotta take the bastards down 

When the boss comes callin' you'll be on your own 
When the boss comes callin' will you stand alone? 
When the boss comes callin' will you let them in? 

When the boss comes callin' will you stand and fight? 
When the boss comes callin' we must unite 
When the boss comes callin' we can't let them win 

Let em know 
We gotta take the bastards down 
Let them know 
We gotta smash 'em to the ground 
Let em know 

We gotta take the bastards down 

We gotta take the bastards down 

When the boss comes callin' they'll put us down 
When the boss comes callin' gotta stand your ground 
When the boss comes callin' don't believe their lies 

When the boss comes callin' his take his toll 
When the boss comes callin' don't you sell your soul 
When the boss comes callin' we gotta organize 

Let em know 
We gotta take the bastards down 
Let them know 
We gotta smash 'em to the ground 
Let em know 
We gotta take the bastards down 

Let em know 
We gotta take the bastards down 
Let them know 
We gotta smash 'em to the ground 
Let em know 
We gotta take the bastards down

Roy's a Liberal who sings funny songs about conservatives

Roy Zimmerman was born in San Francisco and still lives in the Bay Area. He could dwell forever in this cone of Liberalism. Yet something inside keeps urging him to get out and meet "Real People," those salt-of-the-earth types that conservatives love, in theory.

A bunch of us Real People went out to see Roy in concert Thursday night at the UU Church of Cheyenne. Some of you may not think of Unitarians as real people or UU as a real religion. We rarely hear about the Cheyenne Unitarians waging holy war against, say, the Sunni wing of the Unitarians over in Laramie.

Despite their namby-pamby ways, UU seems to thrive and put on great programs at their midtown church.

Roy Zimmerman's concert was one of those programs.

Roy wanders the country, seeking out pockets of Liberals to sing to. His plan is to play in all 50 states before the 2012 elections. He did the same thing before the 2008 elections, missing only Hawaii (too far away), Alaska (too cold) and New Mexico (didn't know it was in the United States). He won't make the same mistake again. This time, he started in Alaska, came to Wyoming and this weekend is in Colorado. You probably didn't know this, but Colorado Springs has a UU Church and Roy will play there Sunday. The American Taliban which make up most of the religious in Colorado Springs will not be amused.

One of the funniest songs from Thursday's Cheyenne concert was "The Abstinence Song."

"Abstain with me baby
Abstain with me all night long."

He sang it in a strained voice, as if attempting to keep his devilish desires in check. He also sang "The Bible Tells Me So," which recalls all the great marriages in the Old Testament. You know, King Solomon and his 700 wives and 300 concubines.Another great song is "My Conservative Girlfriend." He used to sing this with Anne Coulter in mind. Now he sings it to Michelle Bachmann.

"Moammar Ghaddafi gives us a glimpse of what a Michele Bachmann presidency would be like," he said as a prelude to the song.

Amen.

You can't visit Wyoming without bringing up the specter of Dick Cheney. And lo, he is quite spectrous. And his new book is out so his Satanic Majesty is all over the news.

Roy sang his "Chickenhawk Song," spelling out the litany of all those draft-dodging warmongers (like Cheney) who were only too happy to send your sons and daughters to die in Iraq and Afghanistan. Possibly the most touching song of the night was the ballad about being the "Last Man to Die in Afghanistan."

He didn't let Liberals off the hook. There was a satiric song about how hard it is to be a Liberal, and one about the "psychedelic relics" of the sixties. And a touching ballad about how regular people are trying to rise up against the bullshit. He reminded us that "hope" and "change" are powerful words, but there is a third one we need to remember: Struggle.

Three words: hope, struggle and change.

Roy is traveling the U.S. with his Starving Ear tour. This is his answer to the Hungry I in San Francisco, a place that featured outspoken activists of the fiftes and sixties. People like Mort Sahl, Bill Cosby, Lenny Bruce, Glenn Yarbrough and a host of others. Hungry I = Starving Ear. I get it.

Look up Roy's stuff at www.royzimmerman.com

Karen Cotton's New York City photos on display at Clay Paper Scissors Gallery starting Sept. 8

I've known the multitalented Karen Cotton for ten years. She's not only a fine musician and writer, but this Green River native has a warm spot in her heart for New York City. 

In honor of the tenth anniversary of 9/11, Clay Paper Scissors Gallery & Studio will present “New York City: Rising from the Ashes.” This exhibit features photographs by Karen Cotton taken four years after the attack on New York City’s Twin Towers. The mix of images combines the vibrant resiliency of New York with haunting images of ground zero, and memorials.

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Opening reception is Thursday, Sept. 8, 5-8 p.m./, as part of the Art Design and Dine art walk. A second reception will be held during the next AD&D night on Oct. 13. The exhibit continues through Oct. 23.

The gallery is located at 1506 Thomes Ave., Suite B. It's in a renovated historic warehouse off of 15yth Street across from the railyards. Open every Saturday from 1-5 p.m. or by appointment. Call 307-631-6039. 

September 2011 a time to celebrate the creators over the destructors

The arts can bring us together and, sometimes drive us apart.

After 9/11, the arts were a strong healing force in America. Ten years after, I still remember that beautiful "America" A Tribute to Heroes" telethon that featured performances Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, Wycleaf Jean, The Dixie Chicks, Celine Dion and so many others. Music was this Sept. 21 show's centerpiece. Unlike most televised music events -- MTV Awards, Grammies, etc. -- the egos were left at the door and they just played.

On that night, when you and your Republican neighbors were watching the same show and thinking some of the same thoughts, who would have thought that we would be such a miserable and contentious and downtrodden nation as we are now? Who would have thought we would still be waging war in Afghanistan and one in Iraq? Who would have predicted how mean-spirited our politics would become? It disgusts me and I hope it disgusts you.

Me -- I'm part of the problem. I regularly attack the other side for what I see as knuckleheaded politics. They, in turn, attack me. That's O.K. a healthy give-and-take of ideas is a good thing. That makes our country stronger. It shows us that the terrorists really didn't win on that sunny day ten Septembers ago. But when we spend all of our time in name-calling mode, I'm not so sure. When politics becomes another excuse to tear our neighbor down, I'm not so sure. After 9/11, we were talking. Our leaders were operating on the same page. Healing and recovery became our goal.

That didn't last long.

Does that mean that I'm going to leave my Cassandra ways behind and become all Pollyanna?

No. I will keep fighting the Know Nothings. But, during September, I'm going to write about constructive things that may make our lives just a bit better. The arts, just to name one topic. The arts are a constructive force. To create is to see toward the future.

And I leave you now with a healing song from from the 2002 CD by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, "The Rising." Great CD. The title song could have been in that long-ago healing concert. It's a performance of "The Rising" at a 2003 concert in Barcelona. Barcelona residents know a bit about rising from the ashes. It was a city in ruins after the Spanish Civil War which divided Spain for generations (and Spaniards are still dealing with it). Is there another civil war in America's future? Let's hope not. Here's the concert link: http://youtu.be/eNnB4dkVRJI. Some of the lyrics:

Can't see nothin' in front of me
Can't see nothin' coming up behind
I make my way through this darkness
I can't feel nothing but this chain that binds me
Lost track of how far I've gone
How far I've gone, how high I've climbed
On my back's a sixty pound stone
On my shoulder a half mile line

Come on up for the rising
Com on up, lay your hands in mine
Come on up for the rising
Come on up for the rising tonight

Left the house this morning
Bells ringing filled the air
Wearin' the cross of my calling
On wheels of fire I come rollin' down here

Come on up for the rising
Come on up, lay your hands in mine
Come on up for the rising
Come on up for the rising tonight

Local actors on stage for New Play Project

Our theatre pal Lois B. Hansen sends this notice:

You are invited to a staged reading of “Rust to Dust” by John Remington, winner of the Cheyenne Little Theatre Players New Play Project, on Friday and Saturday, September 9 and 10, 7:30 pm. Tickets are $5. At the Laramie County Community College Playhouse. The play is set in the time of gunfighters and camp fires, it sees a notorious gunfighter finally meeting his match ... Jane Mortier, played by ... me!!! FMI: http://www.cheyennelittletheatre.org/new_play_project_2011-12.asp

Cheyenne Interfaith Council marks 9/11 anniversary with readings, art and music

The Cheyenne Interfaith Council invites you to a ceremony at the Wyoming State Capitol Building on Sunday, Sept. 11, 3-4 p.m., marking the 10th Anniversary of the attacks of 9/11. The theme is "Remembrance, Healing and Hope." This will be a contemplative ceremony with Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Unitarian readings, Hands in Harmony and an interfaith community choir. Cheyenne artist Forrest King will be there to create a special piece of art symbolizing the movement from brokeness to healing. The public is encouraged to attend. 

Who are the funniest American writers?

Pat Robertson helped me discover Andy Borowitz.

Borowitz writes a great humor blog. The other day he posted this:

Evangelist Pat Robertson sparked controversy in today’s broadcast of his 700 Club program by saying that yesterday’s mild East Coast earthquake was God’s revenge on people “who act kind of gay.” 

I saw the re-post on Facebook and, thinking it was serious, made some sort of snarky remark. Then someone hipper than me sent a status-update that Borowitz was a humorist, fool, kind of like The Onion. Then I looked up the rest of Borowitz's take on Robertson:

"All across the Eastern seaboard, there are men who get manicures, wear designer eyewear and know about thread counts,” Rev. Robertson said.  “God finds this somewhat gay-like behavior confusing, and He responded by getting mildly peeved.” The televangelist warned that if Americans persist in their “seemingly sort-of-gay behavior,” the country should brace itself for additional ambiguous acts of retaliation from the Almighty.
 “God will strike back at people who act sort of gay with all kinds of mild responses,” he said.  “If you keep getting pedicures and facials, you can expect two to three inches of rain and some really hot humid days in your future.”

I get it. Very funny. Cuts close to the truth which is what good satire should do. And I fell for it.

Here's his bio from amazon.com:

Andy Borowitz  is a writer and a comedian whose work appears in The New Yorker and at his satirical website, BorowitzReport.com, which has millions of readers around the world. The author of six books, he is the first-ever winner of the National Press Club's humor award, a two-time finalist for the Thurber Prize for American Humor, and a two-time host of the National Book Awards. He has been called a "Swiftian satirist" (The Wall Street Journal), "America's satire king" (The Daily Beast) and "one of the funniest people in America" (CBS News Sunday Morning).

He has a new book coming out in October. It's called "The 50 Funniest American Writers." Already he's causing controversy with his list. For one thing, Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell aren't on it. To thinking people, they are the most hilarious people in America (along with Michele Bachmann). But other comedians didn't make the grade, either.

But humor writers aren't really comedians. They have comedic talents, naturally, but they also know how to create believable characters and string sentences together into a story. 

Some of Borowitz's favorites are mine too. Ring Lardner, Robert Benchley, S.J. Perelman, Mark Twain, Fran Leibowitz, Molly Ivins, Woody Allen, etc. Others I don't know much about: David Rakoff, Larry Wilmore and Sloane Crosley. Must find out more…

On the literary humor side, the National Book Critics Circle “Critical Mass” blog has been featuring posts all summer by its membership and former winners about the best comic novels. It comes under the title "NBCC Reads." Since I didn’t see this until we were well into the dog days, I had to play catch-up with my reading. 

Favorite comic novel? No surprise there – “Catch-22” by Joseph Heller. It’s a masterpiece, one that I’ve read six times and dip into periodically for some laughs. The characters are fantastic and the writing superb.

I’m a little less insightful on some of the other choices. I haven't read “Lucky Jim” by Kingsley Amis. This makes me feel dumb as apparently everyone else in creation has read this 1953 novel.

I feel smart again when I read about the classic English novels “Tristram Shandy,” “Pride and Prejudice,” and “Tom Jones.” It’s been awhile, but English Department Brit Lit courses are good for something.

David Abrams writes at length about Lewis Nordan’s “Music of the Swamp. I haven’t read that Nordan masterpiece, but I have read “Lightning Song,” “The Sharpshooter Blues” and “Wolf Whistle.” There is always a dark streak to Lewis Nordan, usually darkly humorous – he’s from Mississippi, after all. In the latter novel, he uses it to great horror with the infamous Emmett Till murder.

“A Confederacy of Dunces” was named by three writers. Bharati Mukerjee likes Salman Rushdie’s “Shame.”

Here’s how Rob Spilman describes his favorite, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," by Douglas Adams: “The consistently hilarious series of novels is deadpan funny from the opening destruction of the earth."

My son Kevin would agree with that. He turned me on to the series through audiobook during a cross-state jaunt across Wyoming. He’s still a big fan. I also saw the movie, which sort-of counts.

Go read this Critical Mass series as summer wanes.

I’d like to make a pitch for some of my favorite comedic writers, ones that seem to have been left out of the NBCC series. The late Grace Paley’s stories are amazing. I have a signed first edition of Paley’s “The Collected Stories.” I suppose I should be handling it with kid gloves, but it’s well-worn now. Here’s the opening from “An Interest in Life:”

“My husband gave me a broom one Christmas. This wasn’t right. No one can tell me it was meant kindly.”

It just gets better from there.

Tim Sandlin of Jackson is a fantastically funny novelist. I’m not saying that just because he’s from Wyoming. Go read “Jimi Hendrix Turns 80” or any one of the Gros Vont series. Tell me that’s not funny.

Bronx-born Jerome Charyn writes the Isaac Sidel NYC cop novels. I read the Mysterious Press paperbacks that came out in the 1990s. They are very hard to find now, at least in bookstores, even good ones such as Kramerbooks in D.C. Kirkus Reviews says that Charyn “writes like a rabbi on bad acid.” The NYT Book Review called his books “anarchic in form and apocalyptic in theme.”

Our public library has none of Charyn’s books (they’ve tried to order them). Neither do our bookstores. I have a few copies you can borrow. I’ll temporarily swap you a copy of “Maria’s Girls” for one of “Lucky Jim.”

Billionaires for Wealthcare members welcome the Koch Brothers' Tea Party Express to Cheyenne

All of us local Billionaires for Wealthcare members are gathering in downtown Cheyenne Monday for cocktails and sign-waving. 

The Tea Party Express is rolling into town Monday, Aug. 29, funded by our fellow billionaires, the unfairly maligned Koch Brothers. If you want to act like a billionaire and believe that wealthcare is all we need in this country and the poor and middle classes have it too good because Social Security is a "disease" then come to our rally for billionaires. Dress like the opulent rich person that you are -- tiaras, tuxes, long gloves, formal wear, or whatever. 

We will gather at Capitol Avenue and Lincolnway (16th Street) at 5:30 p.m. Don't be late. That's so gauche.

For more information or to see examples go to www.billionairesforwealthcare.com.

FMI: 307-631-3410 or 631-9990. 

TELL YOUR BILLIONAIRE FRIENDS!

Wyoming Millennial artists doin' it for themselves

I spent my afternoon at the U today.

That's U as in University of Wyoming in Laramie. It's the state's only four-year public university. Many of its leaders, including ones that I can't stomach such as war profiteer Dick Cheney, reactionary U.S. Rep. Cynthia Lummis and Tea Party fave Ron Micheli, graduated from UW. On the plus side, former Democratic Governor Dave Freudenthal was a UW grad, as was artist Dick Termes, literary publisher Rick Campbell, mountain climber Todd Skinner, artist Sue Sommers and basketball jump-shot pioneer Kenny Sailors.

Chris Drury's sculpture, Carbon Sink: What
Goes Around, Comes Around,
one of the many fine public art works
 on the UW campus.

Pretty campus, especially on a late-summer Saturday afternoon. Kudos for the UW Buildings & Grounds crew for its love of fragrant petunias. It's an aggie campus after all, founded to provide diplomas and wives for the sons of cattle and oil barons. It's moved a damn sight further along, graduating strong women in fields such as geology and law and the arts. And the aggie tradition is still strong, although taking paths that stress biodiversity and sustainability over corporate farming and ranching.

As we walked, a group of male and female students played a game of Frisbee football on Prexy's Pasture. Over on frat row, there was a “Greek Week” party going on that involved a massive slip-n-slide -- great way to spend a hot day.

My wife Chris and I are several decades removed from Greek Week on our own campuses of origin. I never rushed a frat. I started college in 1969 and frats were about as relevant as its Greek alphabet. My frat friends at the University of South Carolina seemed to have more dates and better drugs. In fact, they did have more dates and better drugs. I was able to maintain my dignity by looking down my nose at frat boys, possibly the origin of my very annoying Liberal Know-It-Allness.

Chris and I smelled the state-subsidized flowers and investigated the public art, such as Chris Drury's "Carbon Sink" (see photo). UW has gone in for public art in a big way. In fact, it has gone in for all art forms in a big way. This is why the largest campus construction project is the new visual arts building. It is located adjacent to the UW Art Museum and, when completed later this year, will be the largest and most complete visual arts facility in the Rocky Mountain West. Right now, the visual arts department shares a building with theatre and dance and music. There regularly are brawls, pitting the Sharks & Jets' thespians against post-modern neo-formalist painters.

Dear kindly Sergeant Krupke,
You gotta understand,
It's just our bringin' up-ke
That gets us out of hand.
Our mothers all are sculptors
Our fathers play the drums.
Golly Moses, natcherly we're punks!

Doesn’t rhyme, but you get the picture.

After the visual artists move to their new building, the Fine Arts Building will be inhabited only by performing artists. They always get along famously.

We saw some of them in action today.

Chris and I attended a screening of a film inhabited by UW actors and musicians and Laramie roller derby skaters.

O.K., it's bit of a strange combo. But it made for an entertaining 7-minute short.

K. Harrison Sweeney is the filmmaker. He graduated in 1996 from Worland High School in the Big Horn Basin and UW in 2001. He moved to L.A. and has acted in commercials and TV. He now wants to make movies in Wyoming, and will soon be moving back to do just that.

More than 100 people gathered Saturday in the UW Fine Arts Theatre to see a screening of "Undead Lovers." Chris and I were not the only Baby Boomers in the house. Cheyenne native and melodrama Sheriff Paul Sahler was there -- he has a role in the film. Paul and Lynn Montoya, long-time arts supporters and owners of a B&B near Vedauwoo, also attended.

Almost everyone else was a Millennial. Dancers, actors, musicians, filmmakers, writers, roller derby dames. Some were in the film; others were there because they thought it was cool and worth supporting. Sheridan's Micah Wyatt (barefoot as always) performed his music as we went into the film. Laramie's Upbeat Project ("Pure Wyoming Reggae") played while we schmoozed at the reception.

Some very talented people in this windswept state of ours. Keeping them here is a challenge. They need to find ways to support themselves through their art. I work for the Wyoming Arts Council. We make a dent in the artistic poverty rate -- but just a dent. We are playing catch-up when it comes to creative ways to support our artists. We lack creativity. That would be funny (ironic funny) if it weren't so sad.

The best I could do Saturday was encourage all these young creatives to meet me at the WAC so we can come up with new ways to make Wyoming work for them. They are working for Wyoming but Wyoming may not be working for them.

Chris and I have one young creative (son Kevin, 26) who works in theatre in Tucson. We have another one (daughter Annie, 18) who is about to lave the nest for the very creative clime of Tallahassee, Florida. Both university towns. Both communities with younger populations. Strangely enough, they are both in Sun Belt states run by Tea Party governors and legislatures who care little or nothing for the future. The Arizona Arts Commission has been slashed to the bone. Even though artists are scrambling, they are finding new and interesting ways to make it. But will they?

Micah Wyatt's (The Barefoot Band) feet 

Chris and I were among the last to leave the festivities at the UW Fine Arts Building ("The Things That Wouldn't Leave!"). Beautiful evening in the Laramie Range. The slanting sun lit up the rocks of Vedauwoo as a dark curtain of rain fell in the distance. It's beautiful, this place. But as is often said: "You can't eat the scenery."

Tea Party Slim: "Keep the change"

An August Sunday morning. Tea Party Slim and I were dining on the veranda. We weren't so much "dining" as eating doughnuts and swilling coffee. And "veranda" would be a high-falutin' name for my utilitarian back porch.

The sun was out, sprinklers were on and we were at rest on the Sabbath. Slim's wife was at church. Mine was walking the basement treadmill.

I announced: "Which way, Cheyenne?"

Slim looked at me blankly. He held half of a gigantic apple fritter in his hand.

I pointed at the front of the Cheyenne paper. Big headline: "Which Way, Cheyenne?" Smaller subhead: "What do you want our city and county to look like 20 years down the road?"

Slim sat back in the chair. "I like it just the way it is."

"Keep the change, right? Just like your bumper sticker?"

Anti-Obama stickers remained affixed to the massive bumper of Slim's Hummer. I guessed that he was saving them for 2012.

He nodded. "Change is not good."

I finished off my chocolate doughnut and sipped some coffee. "Don't you enjoy electricity and indoor plumbing?"

He waved the fritter at me. "Don't be ridiculous. Our country's been the leader in those sorts of improvements."

"So you wouldn't be adverse to further civic improvements? Paved roads, traffic lights, schools, hospitals, long-range planning, better airports?"

"Paved roads are overrated," he harrumphed. "What kind of long-range planning are we talking about?

I picked up the paper and read aloud about the two long-range plans. The City of Cheyenne Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) is commissioning a new five-year plan as the previous one expires. It will cost $278,000, 90.5 percent paid for by federal funds and the rest split between the city and county. Clarion Associates out of Fort Collins will conduct the study. Laramie County's five-year plan is five years out of date. It will only incur nominal expenses for printing and community events as it plays catch up to things such as the massive Swan Ranch development, the Niobrara Oil Play, increased industrial development along county stretches of I-25 and I-80, etc.

Slim's responses was predictable. "The first is a waste of time and money. The second is a waste of time."

"But the Feds are picking up most of the tab for the first one"

He sat up. "See, there you go again. That's our tax money you're talking about. Why should it go to some nonsense like long-range planning when developers and and businesses and oil companies should be left alone to grow our economy." Slim paused. He looked thoughtful for a micro-second. "In fact, I'm going to write Rep. Cynthia Lummis and tell her to eliminate whatever federal agency is providing money for that stupid study." He jammed the rest of the fritter into his mouth, washed it down with some java.

"Wow, Slim, I didn't know you felt so strongly about boring planning issues."

He chuckled. "You like to push my buttons, don't you?

"I truly do. Hey Slim, did you know that U.S. Secretary of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood recently announced a $400,000 grant to our county. It's for rebuilding the interchange at I-25 and College Drive. The goal is to 'reduce crashes.' Good idea, don't you think?"

"I hate that interchange. Some nitwit from Colorado ran into the Hummer there last winter."

"So it's O.K. to spend federal money on that project?"

"Let those gigantic truck stops pay the costs. There's three of them out there. Plus a bunch of fast-food joints."

"Soak the corporations, eh Slim?" I smiled. "Socialist!"

He laughed. "They benefit the most from he interchange. Let them pay to rebuild it."

I paused. "You may have a revolutionary idea there there, Slim. Have developers actually pay up-front for the roads, sewers, water lines, electric services and everything else that will benefit them. The developers will love that idea."

For the first time that morning, Slim began to look uncomfortable. "People should pay for the services they use. That's all I'm saying. Don't overextend yourself. That goes for people and that goes for our country. That's how we got into this mess. Now everyone wants to get bailed out."

"I don't."

"You're one of the few Liberals who can say that."

"My wife can say that. My kids can say that."

"You know what I mean," he snapped. "Not all Liberals want a bailout. A lot of them do. And so do some Republicans. They should be ashamed of themselves."

I felt a need to sum up the conversation so I could go inside for another doughnut. "So no change?"

"No change."

"Another fritter?"

I fetched more fried dough and brewed dark roast. For a few moments, we sat quietly in the warm morning.

"I probably won't be around in 20 years," Slim said.

"Not if you keep eating those fritters."

He contemplated his lumpy slab of fried dough. "You may be right."

"Your kids and grandkids will be here, though. Mine too."

"I guess they'll have to figure it out," Slim said. "Just like we did."

"Or not."

"Or not," he concluded.

Wyoming legislators travel to Hawaii; state employees told to curtail travel

The Billings Gazette reports today that more than two dozen Wyoming lawmakers who traveled to Hawaii last month for a conference are costing the state about $50,000.

Read more at http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/wyoming/article_f56ff06e-d0e2-11e0-8621-001cc4c03286.html#ixzz1WISPqvWS

Meanwhile, state employees are being told to eliminate out-of-state travel and curtail in-state travel. Budget cuts, you know. Austerity measures must be put in place. Time to tighten your belts, you free-loading state employees.

Meanwhile, Wyoming's current budget surplus is $50 million and growing.

You do the math.

Looking for Vietnam War chapter in Dick Cheney's memoir? Don't bother...

For a detailed (and timely) wrap-up of the situational patriotism shown by Wyoming favorite former Republican Veep, Dick Cheney, go to http://www.thenation.com/blog/163010/chapter-about-vietnam-went-missing-dick-cheneys-book

"Undead Lovers," post-apocalyptic film set in Wyoming, screens Aug. 27 in Laramie

K. Harrison Sweeney grew up in Worland and graduated from the University of Wyoming Theatre and Dance program in 2001. He now lives in southern California making movies. He sends word that he and his cohorts are holding a free screening of his short film "Undead Lovers" (using Jalan Crossland's honky tonk song of the same name) around the state. The first screening is 2 p.m. this Saturday, August 27, at the UW Fine Arts Main Stage in Laramie. Live music and hors d'oeuvres will be available at the reception.

Albany County Dems do a training Saturday -- and you're invited

This comes from the Albany County Democratic Party via its Facebook page: "Got activists? Yes we do, Albany County! Come join the Precinct Leader Training tomorrow Saturday, Aug. 27) on the University of Wyoming campus in the Rendezvous Room in Washakie Hall in Laramie. We'll get started at 10 a.m., break for lunch and reconvene at 1 p.m., so please feel free to stop in, share some knowledge, and lead Wyoming into the wild blue yonder!"

Once upon a time in the West, a WY Republican senator proposed a monorail for Yellowstone NP

Sao Paolo, Brazil, monorail -- this could have served
the Jackson to Old Faithful Inn route, if Sen
Malcolm Wallop had had his way.

Last week, I posted about the traffic congestion at I-25 and College Drive in Cheyenne. I suggested that there may be a solution in sight, as U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced that Cheyenne will receive a $400,000 grant to “reduce crashes” at the interchange.

In that post, I kidded around about monorails. I couldn’t resist. Fans of “The Simpsons” know the monorail song from the fifth series episode in which a Harold Hill-style huckster talks the gullible citizens of Springfield into an ill-fated monorail project.

They’re a joke. Except in Mumbai and Tokyo and Las Vegas and Moscow and Dusseldorf and Singapore where monorails move hundreds of thousands of people a day – and hardly any of the passengers break out in the monorail song. I’ve ridden the tourist monorails in Orlando and Seattle, and people-mover versions at DFW Airport and downtown Detroit.

I was shocked to discover that a Republican U.S. Senator once proposed a monorail for Yellowstone National Park. It was 1991 and people were in an uproar over traffic congestion and pollution at our major parks. Sen. Malcolm Wallop of Sheridan was no environmentalist. But he did think the National Park Service should investigate a YNP Monorail.

I find lots of archival references to Wallop’s proposal. WY PBS did a Main Street Wyoming interview with Wallop on the subject. The Monorail Society’s newsletter lists and summer 1991 story about Wallop’s proposal. But I didn’t have the time or research skills to ferret out the details.

I did find a June 2, 1991, article in the Baltimore Sun by Associate Editor Ernest B. Furgurson. He announced that he was about to set out on an exploration of the West’s national parks:

During the next few weeks, I plan to set foot on some of the most valuable land in America. It is valuable because it is undeveloped, and if there is a heaven it will stay that way. 

--snip-- 

Environmentalists are not the only park lovers who see traffic as probably the most serious single problem. Sen. Malcolm Wallop of Wyoming, with whom they are often at odds, suggested this week that the National Park Service consider "futuristic" mass transport, such as monorails, to ease road crowding. 

His idea was immediately derided as a way to convert national parks into theme parks like Disneyland. But if even Mr. Wallop is willing to impose a slight inconvenience on the all-American motorist who wants to drive every foot of the way, there may be hope for change. 

Building monorail systems in Yellowstone, Yosemite and Denali (Mt. McKinley) parks seems at first glance too much of a project, sure to destroy terrain and mar views. But shuttle buses already are required at Denali, and available at other parks such as Yellowstone. At Yosemite, the park service is limiting the number of cars in the valley to 5,000 at a time.

This seems so long ago and far away. If a 2011 Republican senator proposed a monorail or light rail line to anywhere, he or she would be targeted by Luddite Tea Party conspiracy types who see all mass transportation as an international plot against suburban sprawl. These people have already made a stir in Casper where a few loud yet ill-informed citizens saw a zoning change as part of the nefarious UN Agenda 21 plot. Florida recently turned down millions for a high-speed rail line on its west coast. The Feds took the money and sent it to other rail projects in the northeast and California. In ten years, those blue state voters will be zipping along to the polls while commuters in Tampa and Orlando will spend election day in gridlocked traffic. They won’t be singing the monorail song. They will be singing the blues.

There’s no real reason for a Yellowstone monorail. It would be terribly expensive. Those big concrete tracks and stanchions would be a blight on the landscape. Yellowstone really only has horrible traffic two months of the year -- July and August. Many summer tourists are accommodated by shuttle and tour buses. Modern autos spew much less pollution. Besides, there’s just no way around the fact that we westerners love our cars. I do.

You never know, though. WY Sen. John Barrasso just might surprise everyone by suggesting national park monorails or light rail systems or even blimps. He’ll do anything to get an interview on Fox News.

Holy Double Cheeseburger! "Bibles and Burgers" begins Sept. 19 in Cheyenne

Invitation (via Facebook) from Rev. Rodger McDaniel:

BIBLES AND BURGERS

In addition to “Bibles and Beer” happy hour at Uncle Charlie's (in Cheyenne), we will start a lunch time Bible Study on Monday, September 19, at 2 Doors Down downtown. To get ahead of their crowd, we will start at 11:30 a.m. Put it on your calendar. Bring friends!

Read the Rev. McD's blog at http://blowinginthewyomingwind.blogspot.com

"Just the Facts Please" -- Casper forum will analyze Affordable Care Act

This cartoon is a few years old, but the corporate influence in U.S. health care is still the main problem.

"Just the Facts Please." Great title for a health care forum.

Ever since the passage of the Affordable Care Act, there has been precious little in the way of fact-based discussions on health care issues.

Raucous yet clueless Tea Party Republicans, propped up by lots of money from insurance conglomerates and right-wing think tanks, have hammered away at what they snidely call "Obamacare." A slew of conservative states, Wyoming included, have joined in a lawsuit to block implementation of the ACA. Our Congressional delegation has used the issue to scare constituents and to push their own ultra-conservative agendas. One of them, Sen. Barrasso, is one of only two physicians in the U.S. Senate. Instead of trying to find ways to insure thousands of uninsured Wyomingites, he uses it as a political football and a surefire way to get on Fox talk shows.

So, it is in this poisoned atnmospehere that One Health Voice, a group of Wyoming agencies and organizations "working together to improve access to healthcare in Wyoming," is hosting the 2011 Wyoming Health Care Symposium on Tuesday September 13 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Ramada Plaza Riverside in Casper. The symposium, “Just the Facts Please,” will be the first in a series of informational programs about the Affordable Care Act. Policy experts will be on hand to speak on the issue and take questions.

Keynote speaker will be T.R. Reid. He is the bestselling author of “The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper and Fairer Healthcare,” 

Here's what Publishers Weekly had to say about the book when it came out in August 2009:

Washington Post correspondent Reid (The United States of Europe) explores health-care systems around the world in an effort to understand why the U.S. remains the only first world nation to refuse its citizens universal health care. Neither financial prudence nor concern for the commonweal explains the American position, according to Reid, whose findings divulge that the U.S. not only spends more money on health care than any other nation but also leaves 45 million residents uninsured, allowing about 22,000 to die from easily treatable diseases. Seeking treatment for the flareup of an old shoulder injury, he visits doctors in the U.S., France, Germany, Japan and England—with a stint in an Ayurvedic clinic in India—in a quest for treatment that dovetails with his search for a cure for America's health-care crisis, a narrative device that sometimes feels contrived, but allows him valuable firsthand experience. For all the scope of his research and his ability to mint neat rebuttals to the common American misconception that universal health care is socialized medicine, Reid neglects to address the elephant in the room: just how are we to sell these changes to the mighty providers and insurers?   

Great question, PW, especially when so many opportunists are clouding the waters.

I hope that the forum helps get us down the path to adopting and understanding the ACA, which still only puts a few steps along the road to real universal health care.

Key presenters, aside from Mr. Reid, are:

·        Lynn Quincy, Consumers Union (Non-profit Publisher of Consumer Reports);

·        Nona Bear,  healthcare consultant and former president of the Council for Affordable Health Insurance;

·        Elizabeth Arenales, Colorado Consumer Health Initiative

·        Doyle Forrestal, outreach specialist for Regional Director or U.S. Health and Human Services

·        Marguerite Salazar, Regional Director for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service; and

·        Elizabeth Hoy, health policy advisor to Wyoming Governor Matt Mead

Organizations involved with One Health Voice include AARP, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, Children’s Action Alliance, Consumer Advocates: Project Healthcare, Equality State Policy Center, National Multiple Sclerosis Society CO-WY Chapter, Wyoming Center for Nursing and Health Care Partnerships, Wyoming Epilepsy Association, Wyoming Health Care Access Network/PhRMA, Wyoming Hospital Association, and the Wyoming Primary Care Association.

To register and see the full schedule of events, please visit www.OneHealthVoice.com or email LRosedahl@pubaffairsco.com.

Dems & Dawgs Aug. 25 in Jackson

Live music too. Time: 5-8 p.m.

Rehberg and Tester and Baucus and Lummis and Enzi and Barrasso all have a "veteran problem"

My fellow Rocky Mountain prog-blogger Rob Kailey writes about Rep. Dennis Rehberg's "veteran problem" in an Aug. 20 post on "Left in the West."

Interesting to note that out of six U.S. reps and senators from Montana and Wyoming, only one -- WY Sen. Mike Enzi of Gillette -- claims military service. He has six years in the WY Air National Guard. This is military service but not overseas service, as you will note with the two Vietnam vets and their op-ed in The Missoulian::

For all the partisan talk in Washington, D.C., about standing your ground, Congressman Denny Rehberg is standing on shaky ground when it comes to honoring veterans' service. Rehberg might think he took a principled stand on the budget, but he's got the wrong principles.

Rehberg and some of the most radical members of Congress have taken a hardline approach to fixing our debt challenges. Here's the problem: They've drawn a line at protecting Montanans who fought for their country overseas.

Important lifelines like the Veterans Administration could have been gutted by as much as 25 percent in one of the plans Rehberg recently voted for. Veterans have already paid for access to the VA by serving our country in foreign wars, so it's completely reckless for Rehberg to put our benefits at risk because he won't get rid of tax loopholes for his millionaire friends.

Rehberg's disregard for the impacts of his decisions doesn't just affect veterans -- it affects Montanans who count on Medicare and Social Security, too.

Medicare and Social Security are also important guarantees that Montanans have already paid for by working and paying taxes our entire lives. And just as Rehberg can provide no guarantee that his plans protect veterans' benefits, he can't guarantee protections for Medicare and Social Security either.

The irony is Rehberg - along with many of his colleagues who stood in the way of a bipartisan debt solution - will drape themselves with the flag whenever a TV camera is around.

The tragedy is they haven't backed up their patriotism with action.

Our country is about commitment and responsibility. Not just to those of us who have risked the ultimate sacrifice for our country, but for every American.

To live up to his responsibility to veterans and all Montanans, Rehberg will need to work together to find real solutions to our debt challenges.

When we served our country we worked together with Americans from across the country of all stripes to get things done on the battlefield. We expect Rehberg to do the same in Washington, D.C.

Alex Taft is a retired transportation professional and candidate for Missoula City Council, Ward 3. Montana Sen. Cliff Larsen is a rancher and recently retired businessman and represents District 50 in Missoula County. They are both Vietnam veterans.

This seems really odd, but this peacenik Leftie in Cheyenne has more military experience than five out of six of the Congressional reps and senators that represent more than 245,000 square miles of American real estate (and thousands of veterans). And that experience amounts to 18 months as a U.S. Navy ROTC midshipman whose only active duty involved eight weeks on an aircraft carrier tracking Cuban and Soviet vessels around Cuba. And I also got to party hearty at Gitmo. Weird, eh?

And these people will be curtailing benefits for all those who did serve?

This isn't only a veterans' issue. Mr. Taft and Mr. Larsen make this point over and over again. It affects all of us.