First, we kill all the credit card company lawyers execs

This comes intact from Crooks and Liars:

I expect a bit of deja vu, in which Obama tells them he's the only thing between them and the pitchforks:

This afternoon President Obama will tell top executives from 14 credit card companies -- including American Express, Bank of America, Discover, MasterCard and Visa -- that greater consumer protections are coming for their customers, with or without their cooperation.

The House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday passed "The Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights," a bill from Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-NY, that would require companies to provide a 45-day notice before any rate increase; prevent the companies from retroactively imposing higher interest rates to existing balances; and ban "universal default," which the companies use to raise interest rates on consumers late in payments to completely different creditors.

Oh yeah, universal default. That's the policy that allows them to jack up your credit card rate because your payment to the phone company was late!

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, and National Economic Council director Larry Summers will join the president at the meeting.

An industry source tells ABC News that the executives expect to hear from the White House that "the industry is unpopular right now." The source forecasts that the meeting will be "a carrot-and-stick" deal -- the administration will tell the executives that they need their help in dealing with problems such as high interest rates, but they will emphasize the threat of legislation.

"It will be a come-to-Jesus type of meeting," the source said

Let's not forget to include the always witty Capitol One in these proceedings.

Another reason we call him "Dick"

Former Veep Dick "The Dick" Cheney will be strutting his muscle-bound physique around Jackson, Wyoming, this summer. If his true physique is as muscle-bound as his mouth. we're all in trouble.

Photo borrowed from Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show."

Poetry on a spring night in Cheyenne

Attended an open mic poetry reading tonight at the Laramie County Public Library. A crowd of about 50 first heard the featured poet, Luke Striker (sp?) from Laramie. He's a young poet with a goatee (but no black beret). He received his M.F.A. in creative writing from University of Wyoming two years ago and now teaches there. As is the case with most M.F.A. writers, he's looking for a full-time job and writing his heart out.

He opened with "Lawrence" by one of his influences, Tony Hoagland. It's about D.H. Lawrence and how a batch of academics sneered at the man's work, although they weren't fit to drink his piss (not the exact quote, but you get the idea). Lawrence a man of the world and definitely not an academic. A big influence on writers from the West due to his wild streak and his time in Taos.

Some great lines in Luke's poems "Rock Hopping" and "Ars Poetica." In the latter poem, he managed to slip in William Carlos Williams' "red wheelbarrow" reference (something to do with chickens). I have to admit I never understood that poem, but that may be the point. I like Williams' poetry but I crave his short stories.

After Luke stepped down from the stage, up went a rapid procession of poets and musicians. Chris Howes (sp?) recently returned to Cheyenne after a decade in other places. He played guitar and sang an original song about his home state. My daughter Annie read two poems, one she just wrote today called "Dreams of the Afterlife."

Born out of Virgin Mary, her
womb an orb of light and purity.

And this from a kid of cradle Catholics. She was baptized in the church (our choice), but now is a 16-year-old vegetarian atheist (her choice).

But I walk on thin cracked ice
each step precarious and unsure,
I feel the cold pierce my feet.

This is the first time she read her work in public. She was nervous, and I was a proud papa.

Her friend Brandon read two of his poems. Ed Warsaw, founder of Serendipity Poets, read his poetry and Dick Hart, Cheyenne's poet laureate, read his take on "that's the way it is in the West." An eighth-grade singer/songwriter and a high school sophomore trying out the first verse of his new song (still working on the second verse -- not the same as the first).

Carrie Hartmann, assistant county librarian, read the first poem she ever wrote (at 16) and then a new poem celebrating her daughter's impending college graduation. She then performed Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky," utilizing her considerable acting skills.

We express ourselves. So crucial. On a spring night in Cheyenne.

Meanwhile, the white chickens are outside in the rain, doing something with a red wheelbarrow.

Earth Day: "What Matters Most in WYO?"

This Laramie event comes from Nancy Sindelar's e-mail newsletter:

On Wednesday, April 22, 3 p.m., Education Auditorium on the UW campus in Laramie: "Environmental Education For Life: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue on What Matters Most in Wyoming." Keynote speaker will be Rebekah Simon-Peter, who will join five University of Wyoming professors and a school principal to bring out the issues that need be addressed by education in all life's phases.

This event is free and open to the public.

FMI: Suzanne, shlewis@bresnan.net.

Leslie Petersen new chair of WyoDems

This news comes from the Wyoming Democrats:

The new state chair of the Wyoming Democratic Party said she is excited to be working with such a strong team of leaders that will guide the party over the next two years.

"I’m excited about this opportunity to help elect progressive leaders at all levels of government throughout Wyoming," said State Chair Leslie Petersen of Wilson. "I'm pleased to have such a great Executive Committee to work with and thrilled with the newly elected Young Democrats who are full of energy, enthusiasm and technological expertise."

The Wyoming Democratic State Central Committee elected new officers in Casper on
Saturday, April 18, and the Young Democrats of Wyoming also met to elect representatives on the state party governing board.

State party officers elected Saturday include State Chair Leslie Petersen of Teton County, Vice Chair Mike Bell of Laramie County, Secretary Linda Barton of Fremont
County, and Treasurer Chuck Herz of Teton County.

In addition, the Young Democrats of Wyoming elected the following officers for the next two years: Dana Walton, chair; Rey Fuentes, vice chair; Sean Williams, state
committeeman; and Ellie Bolender, state committeewoman.

Chairman Petersen said two of her highest priorities for the coming election cycle will be spreading the Democratic Party's message and finding quality community leaders to run for elected office.

"We need to let the people of Wyoming know the many ways in which Democrats are working for the best interests of working families," she said. "Getting our message out is a critical component of the work we need to do over the next two years."

She said Democrats need to maintain their momentum from the past two elections, in which Democrats have gained a total of five state House seats. At the same time, the
party needs to improve its performance statewide in county-level elections.

"There are a lot of good leaders in this state who are Democrats and who would make good elected officials," Petersen said. "Our mission will be to find those people and get them elected to office."

Leslie Petersen has previously served as a Teton County commissioner and has been involved with various conservation, political and natural resource boards. She has been a Teton County Democratic Party activist for years, is a former Teton County party chair, and served as the county's state committeewoman for the previous election cycle.

She also worked as legislative liaison for former Wyoming Gov. Ed Herschler, and she was the Democratic Party's nominee for secretary of state in 1982 and for a state
House seat in 1990.

Petersen has helped organize fundraising events for presidential candidates Sens. John Kerry and Barack Obama that she said each raised more than $450,000.

Everything you know about Columbine is wrong

Jesse Kornbluth wrote in HuffPost today about Dave Cullen's new book, "Columbine." To read the column, go to http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jesse-kornbluth/a-disturbing-new-book-abo_b_180613.html

Two weeks ago, during spring break, Chris and I wandered into the Tattered Cover LoDo and discovered that Cullen was in-house that evening talking about his book. We found a few chairs in the back of a very crowded room.

Didn't take long to get very depressed. Everything I thought I knew about Columbine was wrong. Eric Harris was a psychopath, according to the author, and Dylan Klebold was his disturbed follower. Cullen bases his conclusions of a huge cache of documentation, including journals from both killers and interviews with law enforcement and witnesses. He's been researching this topic since it happened on a pleasant spring day in the Denver burbs.

I have not yet read the book, so this isn't a review. But after sitting there in TC listening to Cullen's talk, I sank into my chair, life's fragility weighing me down. How well do we know our kids -- really know them? Sure, Harris's parents could have done a better job keeping an eye on their son. But the kid got good grades and went to the prom just a few days before the massacre. He'd been in some trouble, but weaseled his way out of any major punishment. He was a fine liar. And a leader. That's what's so chilling. The kid next door seemed pretty normal. Never shot up the neighborhood or blew up anything up. Bombs? Guns? Never saw any.

Until April 20, 1999. And then it was too late.

All the President's books

On Friday, President Obama accepted a book from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. The book was Eduardo Galeano’s "Open Veins of Latin America." Obama should read it, he really should. Galeano is an amazing writer. An outspoken leftist who had to flee right-wing death squads in his home country of Uruguay and more death squads under Argentina’s military junta. Galeano wrote his masterpiece "Memory of Fire" (Memoria del Fuego) while an exile in Spain.

Pres. Obama may read the gift book from Chavez. The prez, after all, is a reader. A writer, too. Reading good writers keeps the mind open, allows new ideas to permeate the brain and circulate freely. Allows you to consider new ways to do things. Chat with former enemies of the U.S., for instance.

Americans seem to have the idea that we invented the world. But the world was well on its way by the time we formed our democracy. Some 300 years of Latin American history had transpired by 1776. And a bloody history it was. In his book, Galeano tells short stories of the good and the bad and the in-between. The stories are compelling and the history, compelling and infuriating. How can humans make the same mistakes over and over again? So writers have something to write about.

I learned volumes about the history of this region from "Memory of Fire" when I read it in the early 1990s. As a writer, I was impressed with Galeano’s style. He did his research and transformed it into this book that was both personal and universal. Wikipedia described it this way: "It starts with pre-Columbian creation myths and ends in the 1980s. It highlights not only the colonial oppression that the continent underwent but particularly the long history of resistance, from individual acts of heroism to mass revolutionary movements."

He also prompted me to read John Dos Passos’s "U.S.A." trilogy, which documented our history in a similar fashion. Dos Passos documents labor struggles and war and politics through a variety of characters. He intersperses that with "newsreel" sections which document world events in the manner of movie theater shorts. It was a very original idea and ahead of its time. Dos Passos went from being a rabble-rousing leftist in the 1930s to a diehard Republican in the 1950s. People can change, can’t they?

"Open Veins of Latin America" has already shot up the book sales lists. I would like to see a photo of our president reading Galeano’s book. Sipping coffee in the Oval Office, his attention on reading. This photo would send out all kinds of messages. The main one is: "I read. I understand."

Gov Dave thought that April 15 tax protests "would be bigger"

Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal held a press conference yesterday and addressed issues relating to state government budget cuts, trans-basin water diversion and Tax Day protests in across the state and the nation. He said this about the protests, including one that happened outside his office window:

“I actually thought that they would be bigger. This is not a state that has affection for the federal government on any day, and the affection on tax day is even less.”

"True Grit" gets new film treatment from Coen brothers

I make it a point to read Jenny Shank's Western Book Roundup at New West. Somehow I missed her April 1 post, probably because I was hobnobbing with a batch of visual artists over in Laramie. She wrote some good news about books-to-film:

Oh joy: According to Variety, Joel and Ethan Coen will make a film adaptation of Charles Portis’ Western classic True Grit for their next project, and joy of joys, it’s not to be a traditional remake of the 1969 John Wayne vehicle, but a version intended to hue closer to the novel. (I wrote last year about the charms of Portis’s True Grit in honor of its 40th anniversary.) The Coen brothers were at work on another literary adaptation — of Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policeman’s Union —but True Grit will now come first.

Joel Cohen told London’s Daily Mail that they plan to stick closer to the perspective of the14-year-old narrator, Mattie Ross. “The book recounts the girl’s story. In the John Wayne film, she was played older. We want her to be her real age - it’s her story!”

If there is a better match between filmmakers and book, I can’t think of it.

I second that, Jenny. First Cormac McCarthy and "No Country for Old Men" and now "True Grit." The New West of McCarthy and The Old West of Portis. Sorry to see that "The Yiddish Policeman's Union" is being rescheduled for later. But I can wait. A terrific book. The Coen Brothers will treat it well.

Almost ready for spring planting

WyoDems meet Saturday for elections

Bill Luckett, executive director of the Wyoming Democratic Party, announces this:

The Wyoming Democratic State Central Committee will meet in Casper on Saturday primarily for the purpose of electing state officers for the coming two years, Executive Director Bill Luckett announced today.

The meeting is scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday, April 18, at the Natrona County Agricultural Resource and Learning Center at 2011 Fairgrounds Road in Casper. The meeting is open to the public.

Positions up for election include chair, vice chair, secretary and treasurer.

Also on Saturday, young Democrats from across the state (those 35 years old or younger) are invited to participate in elections for the Young Democrats of Wyoming. The Young Democrats of Wyoming will elect the positions of chair, vice chair, state committeeman and state committeewoman, all of whom will be members of the State Central Committee. That meeting begins at noon, also at the Ag Resource & Learning Center.

In March throughout the state, Democrats in each county met to elect their county officers for the coming two years. The county chairs, vice chairs, state committeemen and state committeewomen elected at those meetings comprise the State Central Committee, which will hold the elections in Casper.

Other members of the State Central Committee include the current state chair, vice chair, secretary, treasurer, national committeeman, national committeewoman, and with one representative each from the Democratic House and Senate caucuses.

FMI: Bill Luckett, (307) 473-1457, (307) 631-7638, luckett@wyomingdemocrats.com

Who were all those Cheyenne teabaggers?

One thing's been bugging me since I attended the lunchtime teabagger rally yesterday at the Wyoming State Capitol.

Who were all these people? I've lived in Cheyenne for 18 years. Sure, I hang mostly with Democrats and artists and writers and other nogoodniks. But I do know a lot of Republicans. I recognize Wyoming politicos of all stripes. There are several hundred employees in our division of state government, most of whom I recognize on sight. When I used to go to church on a regular basis, I was surrounded by folks whom I surely would now recognize, as my faculties are mainly intact.

I saw only two people at the rally who looked vaguely familiar. And I did recognize Dave the radio DJ who made one of the speeches.

Where were the state and local politicians? Where were all the right-wing rabble-rousers who yell at us leftists as we're staging antiwar rallies or vigils or holding up peacenik signs at street corners?

The article in this morning's Wyoming Tribune-Eagle featured a photo of an old guy from Lingle holding a sign. The reporter interviewed a couple from California who said they heard about the rally while passing through in their RV. They, of course, were wildly indignant about Obama and taxes and nearly everything else.

One of the speakers was a guy named Perry Martin who seemed to be in charge of the "Sovereignty Petition," which he displayed behind a booth that featured "Constitution Restitution" T-shirts and flyers for the gay-hating WyWatch Family Institute. I did not recognize Perry. You'd think I would have run into such a politically active fella during the past 18 years. Later, I met a well-dressed woman who was taking photos for WyWatch. I asked her where she was from. She said "Cheyenne," but I have my doubts (WyWatch only lists a PO Box as an address).

Who were these outside agitators taking over the Wyoming Capitol? Anyone know?

Top Ten Republican Tax Day Lies

This comes courtesy of Crooks and Liars:

Here, then, are 10 Republican Tax Day lies:

1. President Obama will raise taxes on small businesses.
2. The estate tax devastates small businesses and family farms.
3. 40% of Americans pay no taxes.
4. Tax cuts always increase revenue.
5. The GOP is the party of fiscal discipline.
6. Ronald Reagan was the greatest tax cutter of all time.
7. FDR caused the Great Depression, or at least made it worse.
8. Obama's cap-and-trade plan will cost each American family $3,100 a year.
9. Obama's tax proposals will undermine charitable giving.
10. The rich pay too much in taxes already.

Go to crooksandliars.com for the sordid details.

Scenes from a Cheyenne T.E.A. party

Angry citizens were lining up to sign petitions today at the Tea Bag Rally in Cheyenne. Sign a petition and get a red, white and blue cookie that read "Tea 233," the number signifying the age of the U.S.A. I got close enough to cadge one of the cookies, but felt guilty because there was no way in hell I was signing one of the petitions.

It was a few minutes after noon, and only a handful of teabags were steeping in the brine of outrage.

This trio of teabaggers were holding signs along 24th Ave., which runs by the Wyoming Capitol Building. I believe they were trying to goad passers-by into honking, but weren't having much luck. The signs read: "What would George Washington do?" and "Memo to Barry (a.k.a Pres. Barack Obama): 1. America is Judeo-Christian; 2. We don't bow to anybody!; 3. Give better gifts." The third sign read: "Save our auto companies -- get rid of the unions."

What would George Washington do? Probably go to the dentist, as dental care was sorely lacking in The Father of Our Country's time. I was a bit puzzled by the "give better gifts" part of the memo to Barry. Did I miss something on Fixed News? I do know about the bowing reference. As for saving the auto companies by getting rid of unions? Ha, ha, ha. Funny teabagger.

I like the juxtaposition of these two signs. The one in the foreground is held by an African-American on a cell phone. The one held by an old white guy in the background reads: "Deport!!! All Illegals! Close the Border! Preserve America."

Wandering through the crowd, I heard one grey-haired guy quip to another: "This is like spring break for old people." The average age of Tea Party attendees was about 60. There were some young people, but they were few and far between. Lots of men wearing "Vietnam War Veteran" and "Korean War Veteran" caps. Cheyenne is heavy on ex-military.

The gentleman on the right tried to put his "Bring troops home now" sign on the Nellie Tayloe Ross statue in front of the Capitol. And he succeeded -- for a few minutes. A dour gentleman came by and whispered something to the old guy and he reclaimed his sign. Maybe he said something like "Why do you hate the troops?" or maybe "get that sign out of here or I'll see that your taxpayer-funded V.A. benefits go away."

That's what I was thinking, looking at all the veterans and their anti-government signs. Who do you think paid your salary for 20 years? Who do you think pays for your health care? Just asking...

This was a very nice young mother who posed with her baby and sign. The other side of the sign said "7 months old and in debt." She was the one who really made me think. This is a huge debt burden we are leaving our kids and grandkids and beyond. Many of these people at the rally are genuinely concerned about their kids' future. They have enough gumption to go to the Capitol Building, baby in tow, to make a statement. Later, KGAB Radio talk show host Dave Chapman told the crowd not to blame the Democrats or Republicans or anybody else. Just look in the mirror -- and then take action. Dave's the guy who keeps us updated on road and school closures on snowy days.

Who can argue with that?

A guy and his tea bag hat