After primary defeat, Goodenough works to elect Natrona County candidates

Casper's Keith Goodenough, defeated by Nick Carter in the primary race for John Barrasso's U.S. Senate seat, sent this message the other day:

Just a quick note to say "thank you" to all of the fine Wyomingites and otheres that helped with my effort to become the Democratic nominee for the U.S.Senate.

The final numbers were 11,984 for myself, and 12,316 for Nick Carter. A difference of 332.

I raised and spent around $5,000.

Now I am going to focus my political efforts on helping some other candidates here in Natrona County. And you will be hearing from me on that front in the coming weeks.

Nobody wrote politics like Hunter S. Thompson

Matt Davis at Ghost Road Press in Denver alerted me to goodreads.com, where readers meet to recommend books, slam others, and just talk about their favorite subjects -- books and authors.

Yesterday Matt sent comments on five of his favorite Hunter S. Thompson books. He gave five-star ratings to "Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72;" "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream;" "Hell's Angels;" "The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time;" and "Generation of Swine: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the '80s."

The first three I've read, the second two I've read excerpts from, whether in Rolling Stone or by just grazing the collections.

In the 1970s, all of us budding writers and journalists wanted to write like Hunter Thompson but knew we never could. The first presidential campaign I really followed was in 1972 when I was 21 and a college drop-out and an escapee from the military draft. It was the first time I realized that these every-four-year contests actually meant something -- a great deal, it turns out. If Muskie or McGovern or any Democrat had won in 1972, history would have been wildly different. Nixon gave us his version of peace with honor at a great price in lives and national honor.

Hunter Thompson took his politics seriously. He was outraged by the spectacle and the hypocrisy he found at every turn. He diatribes against political operatives and Spiro Agnew and media stars were hilarious. The venom burst from the page. It was propelled by righteous anger and, as we all know from Woody Creek legend, drugs and alcohol. He cared about democracy and self-righteous bozos on the campaign trail ticked him off.

"Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" was outrageously funny. In "Hells Angels," he recorded the excesses of the Angels in vivid detail. He got his ass kicked for his trouble.

I wish we had the likes of Hunter Thompson on the 2008 campaign trail. I wonder what he would have made of the Democratic Party's stage-managed spectacle in Denver last week? Or the Repub gathering in St. Paul right now?

One other area where Hunter really showed his stuff was sports. Some of you may have read his coverage of the Kentucky Derby and various professional boxing matches. But he was a sports nut and during his last years wrote a weekly column for ESPN online. Very funny and occasionally outrageous, but not as sharp as his early stuff.

We miss him during this oddest of election seasons.

Donate to Lori Millin's campaign

Lori Millin, my respresentative in Wyoming House District 8, has a donation page at https://secure.dlccweb.com/o/5945/p/10021/donate. Go there and donate $10 to help Lori's re-election, and return her to the State House so she can continue her great work on health care, education and other important issues. While there, throw in a "tip" to ActBlue to support other Dem candidates.

I contributed earlier today, and shall sleep the sleep of the righteous tonight.

Gustav knocks Cheney off RNC podium

We were anticipating with much relish the Dick Cheney speech at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn.

Alas, the Veep was upstaged by Hurricane Gustav as it continues to threaten the Republicans with strong winds, torrential rain and terrible P.R.

One remembers Dick Cheney, Casper's not-so-favorite son being greeted with cheering crowds when he visited coastal Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina three years ago. Oh, now I remember. He was greeted by a guy who said "Fudge You, Cheney," although he didn't say "fudge." After that, Cheney retreated into the mist.

Although it wasn't mentioned in the AP story, Cheney's non-appearance probably means that Republican candidate for U.S. House Cynthia Lummis won't introduce him.

The good news: Pres. Bush won't speak either.

The bad news: Laura Bush and Cindy McCain will talk to the RNC crowd about the importance of being prepared for natural disasters, such as another Republican being elected president.

Welcome to Beijing...or Baghdad...or maybe St. Paul

This just posted on DemocracyNow site and I'm reprinting in full:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE http://www.democracynow.org/

September 1, 2008

Contact: Dennis Moynihan, Mike Burke

ST. PAUL, MN—Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman was unlawfully arrested in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota at approximately 5 p.m. local time. Police violently manhandled Goodman, yanking her arm, as they arrested her. Video of her arrest can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYjyvkR0bGQ

Goodman was arrested while attempting to free two Democracy Now! producers who were being unlawfuly detained. They are Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar. Kouddous and Salazar were arrested while they carried out their journalistic duties in covering street demonstrations at the Republican National Convention. Goodman’s crime appears to have been defending her colleagues and the freedom of the press.

Ramsey County Sherrif Bob Fletcher told Democracy Now! that Kouddous and Salazar were being arrested on suspicion of rioting. They are currently being held at the Ramsey County jail in St. Paul.

Democracy Now! is calling on all journalists and concerned citizens to call the office of Mayor Chris Coleman and the Ramsey County Jail and demand the immediate release of Goodman, Kouddous and Salazar. These calls can be directed to: Chris Rider from Mayor Coleman’s office at 651-266-8535 and the Ramsey County Jail at 651-266-9350 (press extension 0).

Democracy Now! stands by Goodman, Kouddous and Salazar and condemns this action by Twin Cities law enforcement as a clear violation of the freedom of the press and the First Amenmdent rights of these journalists.

During the demonstration in which they were arrested law enforcement officers used pepper spray, rubber bullets, concussion grenades and excessive force. Several dozen others were also arrested during this action.

Amy Goodman is one of the most well-known and well-respected journalists in the United States. She has received journalism’s top honors for her reporting and has a distinguished reputation of bravery and courage. The arrest of Goodman, Kouddous and Salazar is a transparent attempt to intimidate journalists from the nation’s leading independent news outlet.

Democracy Now! is a nationally-syndicated public TV and radio program that airs on over 700 radio and TV stations across the US and the globe.

Video of Amy Goodman’s Arrest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYjyvkR0bGQ

Labor Day: Hope vs. More of the McSame

Labor Day drive across WYO in our trusty high-mileage Saturn Ion, made in the U.S.A. by American workers. Raining along I-25 as we return from visiting our daughter in Casper. Raining outside, political signs from DNC reflect political state of affairs. Notice McCain reflection on far right: THE SAME.

Who would Jesus vote for?

These Repubs in Denver during DNC are close personal friends of Jesus and know that the Dems walking the 16th Street Mall in Denver are doomed.

Homes raided in Minneapolis prior to RNC

Hey, I thought I was finished with convention blogging. I almost forgot about the upcoming RNC in St. Paul, Minn. The Republican's fun began today in Minneapolis.

Read "Massive police raids on suspected protestors in Minneapolis" at Glenn Greenwald’s site at http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/08/30/police_raids/index.html.

Get more updates from the mnblue blog at www.mnblue.com

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune has more at www.startribune.com

The Daily Show finds real Obama bio video

This should have been the Barack Obama bio shown Thursday night at the convention, as it is both funnier and shorter than the DNC version:

Something to look forward to...

From the Casper Star-Tribune:

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

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

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

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

P.S.: TRAUNER WILL WIN!

On conventions, blogging and the West

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So what?

Thursday night at the convention

Sen. John Kerry advances menacingly toward the paparazzi.

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

Convention wrap-up -- final day

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

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

More convention wrapping up in the morning.

At the DNC on finale night

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

A portion of the Wyoming delegation at the DNC

Convention

The eagle has landed! The eagle has landed!