If mid-summer is mid-July, then we're already past it. If it's actually 45 days into cosmological summer, we're not quite there, as that's sometime in early August.
But if we're talking growing season, we've reached the halfway mark, at least in Wyoming. First frost can come any time after Labor Day, but may not arrive until late September. But once August merges into the school year, the best growing days are gone.
I've harvested spinach, leaf lettuce and some broccoli. Spinach is gone but lettuce still leafing and broccoli still heading. Just ate the first zucchini of many more to come. Three inches long and the size of my pointer. Tasty. No yellow squash yet and the lone brookneck is not looking so good. Wonder what I did wrong there. All tomato plants are fruiting and next weekend should bring lots of cherry tomatoes. I have six house guests from Tennessee and maybe it's time to call on them for fried green tomatoes. But not crazy about that, although the Fannie Flagg book was good as was the Hollywood film. Green tomato recipes are best for the tail-end of the season, when I'm snapping the greenies off the plants in advance of north winds.
Pole beans are raging on the south side of the house where they share space with wildflowers. marigolds, and a red crabapple tree that's made it through five winters and is as high as the top of the kitchen windows.
This week, the "victory" in Victory Garden is for the triumph of the Democrats' public-option health care plan over the ignorance of the Know Nothings (you know who you are Sen. Enzi and Sen. Barrasso and Montana's confused Sen. Baucus and Nebraska's compromised Sen. Ben Nelson) and the greedheads at the insurance companies.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Obama advocates for community colleges
Look, private colleges are O.K. I hear they have some good ones in places like Cambridge and Palo Alto and Oberlin. But, as a graduate of one community college and two land-grant universities, I'm a firm believer in public-funded higher learning.
Yesterday, Pres. Obama unveiled the American Graduation Initiative, a 10-year, $12 billion plan to invest in community colleges.
I enjoyed my classes at Daytona Beach Junior College (then D.B. Community College and now Daytona State College) more than I did the first two years at Enormous State University in a C.S.A. state. At 22, I was older by a few years, time tested and weathered after a sojourns as a college ROTC dropout wandering the U.S. That may have helped. Time to knuckle down and take enough courses to graduate and head off to another Enormous State University. I rode my bike or hitched a ride to class, and spent off hours at the library or canoodling with my girlfriend who lived a few blocks away.
At 3, I clocked into my job at Halifax Hospital where I spent the next eight hours riding herd on alkies and druggies dredged off Daytona's streets and thrown into the place officially labeled 1100 but we called it the drunk tank. Usually there were two orderlies working behind the ward's locked doors. Sometimes it was just me. I was a big dude, and I held the keys to the kingdom, so they didn't mess with me. We all played cards and told stories, some of which were true. Every so often a patient would go into D.T.'s or devolve into a seizure. I was ready for either. Every so often a call came over the loudspeakers for "Dr. Blue." That meant that all the ordleries were needed at 1400 -- the psych ward. Some very large loonie the size of Chief Broom was going haywire, knocking down doctors and nurses like a scythe through Kansas wheat. I was lucky -- I never got my teeth knocked out during those calls. Usually it took three or four of us to subdue the subject. A few scrapes, a few stories for later regaling at Big Daddy's Bar.
Education comes in many forms. I graduated in May 1974 with a group of auto mechanics and nurses and dental hygienists and pre-law candidates and a few other misguided English majors. I quit my job that August, saying my farewells to the patients (I knew them all by then) and the ghosts and some of my compatriots who were still working on their educations. I headed 100 miles up the road to Gainesville and the next phase of my public education, paid for with loans and work-study jobs. I graduated from UF in 1976 and kept moving on, eventually landing in Denver in 1978 for the adult phase of my education.
The education never ended. Nor will it. I've taught at several community colleges. I like the range of students -- 18 to 78. Some who are just taking composition 101 for the credit and don't give a hoot about the minimalism of Carver and the maximalism of Henry James. Others are like the Vietnam vet whose daughter urged him to finish his associate's degree at the same time she earned hers. Or the grandmother who travelled 140 miles round trip from Kimball, Nebraska, to Cheyenne to take my creative writing class. She had stories to tell. Or the Air Police zoomie who loved to write -- and told me the stories of the ghosts swirling around Warren AFB. Or the recent divorcee who kept journals for the 20 years of her marriage but ripped them up in a burst of anger. And now she wanted to resurrect those shredded memories.
It's not too outlandish to say that there's a direct line from my time at community colleges to my work last year to elect Obama. Sure, Harvard is great. But real democracy is born in the crowded halls and classrooms of your local community college.
Take time to check out the American Graduation Initiative at http://tinyurl.com/m4u746.
Yesterday, Pres. Obama unveiled the American Graduation Initiative, a 10-year, $12 billion plan to invest in community colleges.
During his announcement at Macomb Community College in Warren, Michigan, Obama noted that the economic recession and a changing U.S. economy have reduced the number of automotive industry jobs, a mainstay in Michigan.
The "hard truth is that some of the jobs that have been lost in the auto industry and elsewhere won't be coming back. They are casualties of a changing economy," Obama said, adding that "even before this recession hit, we were faced with an economy that was simply not creating or sustaining enough new, well-paying jobs."
Obama called the investment in community colleges crucial because "jobs requiring at least an associate degree are projected to grow twice as fast as jobs requiring no college experience" in coming years.
I enjoyed my classes at Daytona Beach Junior College (then D.B. Community College and now Daytona State College) more than I did the first two years at Enormous State University in a C.S.A. state. At 22, I was older by a few years, time tested and weathered after a sojourns as a college ROTC dropout wandering the U.S. That may have helped. Time to knuckle down and take enough courses to graduate and head off to another Enormous State University. I rode my bike or hitched a ride to class, and spent off hours at the library or canoodling with my girlfriend who lived a few blocks away.
At 3, I clocked into my job at Halifax Hospital where I spent the next eight hours riding herd on alkies and druggies dredged off Daytona's streets and thrown into the place officially labeled 1100 but we called it the drunk tank. Usually there were two orderlies working behind the ward's locked doors. Sometimes it was just me. I was a big dude, and I held the keys to the kingdom, so they didn't mess with me. We all played cards and told stories, some of which were true. Every so often a patient would go into D.T.'s or devolve into a seizure. I was ready for either. Every so often a call came over the loudspeakers for "Dr. Blue." That meant that all the ordleries were needed at 1400 -- the psych ward. Some very large loonie the size of Chief Broom was going haywire, knocking down doctors and nurses like a scythe through Kansas wheat. I was lucky -- I never got my teeth knocked out during those calls. Usually it took three or four of us to subdue the subject. A few scrapes, a few stories for later regaling at Big Daddy's Bar.
Education comes in many forms. I graduated in May 1974 with a group of auto mechanics and nurses and dental hygienists and pre-law candidates and a few other misguided English majors. I quit my job that August, saying my farewells to the patients (I knew them all by then) and the ghosts and some of my compatriots who were still working on their educations. I headed 100 miles up the road to Gainesville and the next phase of my public education, paid for with loans and work-study jobs. I graduated from UF in 1976 and kept moving on, eventually landing in Denver in 1978 for the adult phase of my education.
The education never ended. Nor will it. I've taught at several community colleges. I like the range of students -- 18 to 78. Some who are just taking composition 101 for the credit and don't give a hoot about the minimalism of Carver and the maximalism of Henry James. Others are like the Vietnam vet whose daughter urged him to finish his associate's degree at the same time she earned hers. Or the grandmother who travelled 140 miles round trip from Kimball, Nebraska, to Cheyenne to take my creative writing class. She had stories to tell. Or the Air Police zoomie who loved to write -- and told me the stories of the ghosts swirling around Warren AFB. Or the recent divorcee who kept journals for the 20 years of her marriage but ripped them up in a burst of anger. And now she wanted to resurrect those shredded memories.
It's not too outlandish to say that there's a direct line from my time at community colleges to my work last year to elect Obama. Sure, Harvard is great. But real democracy is born in the crowded halls and classrooms of your local community college.
Take time to check out the American Graduation Initiative at http://tinyurl.com/m4u746.
Steve Earle drops into Sheridan Aug. 8
Musician and songwriter Steve Earle will perform in concert at the WYO Theater in Sheridan on Saturday, Aug. 8, 8 p.m. Tickets are $29 adult and $27 senior, military and students.
Here's the announcement from the WYO Theater web site:
Here's the announcement from the WYO Theater web site:
The WYO is proud to present a special solo acoustic concert of Steve Earle, touring in support of his new album Townes, a 15-song set comprised of songs written by Earle's friend and mentor, the late singer-songwriter, Townes Van Zandt (Pancho and Lefty and White Freightliner Blues, to name just two). Townes debuted May 28 at number 19 on the Billboard Top 200 chart, the highest debut in Earle's career, and at number 6 on the Billboard Country Chart.
Earle is a master storyteller in his own right, with songs recorded by Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Waylon Jennings, Travis Tritt, The Pretenders, Joan Baez and countless others. His 1986 debut record, Guitar Town, shot to number one on the country charts immediately establishing the term "new country" or sometimes "alt-country," followed by an exciting array of twelve releases including the biting hard rock of Copperhead Road (1988), the politically-charged Jerusalem (2002) and, more recently, the Grammy-winning albums The Revolution Starts...Now (2004) and Washington Square Serenade (2007).
FMI: http://www.steveearle.com/. Listen to Steve Earle's acoustic version of Pancho and Lefty at http://www.myspace.com/steveearlemusic
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Homelessness increases in rural West
A July 13 post by the always-alert jhwygirl at 4&20 blackbirds alerted hummingbirdminds to an alarming trend, one that may have a huge impact on those who dwell (or try to) in these wide open spaces.
In the July 12 Washington Post, Alexi Mostrous writes about the increase in U.S. homelessness, especially in rural and suburban areas.
In the July 12 Washington Post, Alexi Mostrous writes about the increase in U.S. homelessness, especially in rural and suburban areas.
Louis Gill doesn't like to turn anyone away. The director of the Bakersfield Homeless Center in California has taken to laying out cots and mattresses between the shelter's 174 registered beds to cope with the rush of homeless families brought to his doors by the financial crisis.
"Last year, we saw a 34 percent increase in homeless families and a 24 percent increase in homeless children," he said. "Why do we go beyond capacity? Because in a just society, a child should not have to sleep outside or in a car."
Gill is a frontline witness to the change in the makeup of the country's homeless. The stereotype of a homeless person as a single man no longer applies. A resident of the Bakersfield center is far more likely to be a young mother with a "good, solid job and a mortgage that she just couldn't pay."
"They're like folks you know and that you've worked with," Gill said. "Maybe the work's not there right now. Maybe they got behind on their payments. But the idea of a typical homeless person has changed. We're seeing individuals come in that have never had to access the safety net before."
A study by Housing and Urban Development (HUD) measured changes in the number of homeless between 2007 and 2008, before the height of the economic crisis, and Director Shaun Donovan acknowledged that the data do not reflect "the great many more families who were living on the edge, doubling up with friends and family members, and struggling to stay out of the shelters and off the streets."
Some case studies collected by the department's Homelessness Pulse Project suggest that rural and suburban areas were particularly ill-equipped to cope with the new wave of homeless. And many of the states that experienced the largest increases in homelessness are predominately rural.
In Mississippi, the number of homeless increased 42 percent last year; in Wyoming, 40 percent; in Montana and Missouri, 23 percent; and in Iowa, 22 percent.
It's good to know that Wyoming is right up there (or right down there) with Mississippi when it comes to homelessness. But these statistics are now a year old. What's happened around the rural West in the past year, when the walls really came crashing down?
The Welcome Mat Day Center in Cheyenne is the only one of its kind in the Capital City. Comea House at 1504 Stinson Ave. provides overnight shelter. Welcome Mat provides a variety of on-site services at its 907 Logan Avenue facility. The Wyoming Coalition for the Homeless publishes a newsletter, Wyoming Winds. Its web site has a list of homeless resources in Wyoming. Go to http://www.wch.vcn.com/wchsvcs.htm
What's my homeless risk? I have a good job and a house we call home. My wife works and likes what she does. Our teen is working this summer and so is our home-from-college son. If those jobs disappeared tomorrow, how long would it take for us to be homeless? My job includes the health ionsurance that covers us all. No job and no health insurance spells doom, especially when Chris has a pre-existing condition known as diabetes.
We're a resourceful family, but one that spends most of its income on mortgage, cars, groceries and ongoing bills. We were frugal during those boom times when our fellow Americans were spending freely on vacations and boats and eating out at Olive Garden. Retirement is compiling daily, but savings are not.
How close are we to homelessness? What about you?
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Wyoming Cold War residue could harm "our precious bodily fluids"
In "Dr. Strangelove," when Col. Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) starts talking about commies poisoning "our precious bodily fluids," Group Captain Mandrake (Peter Sellers) realizes his commander is nuts. So nuts, in fact, that Ripper has launched World War III.
Col. Ripper says this: "Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous communist plot we have ever had to face? On no account will a Commie ever drink water, and not without good reason."
Baby Boomers probably remember that the John Birch Society made hay with the conspiracy theory that commies somehow arranged to fluoridate our water to neuter God-fearing Americans in time of war, cold or hot.
But the Birchers should have been more concerned with the trichloroethylene (TCE) used to clean our own nukes, here in Wyoming and elsewhere. TCE has been poisoning our precious bodily fluids for 50 years, rendering us useless against attacks by commies, Saddam Hussein's WMDs, swine flu, feminists, wayward Yellowstone wolves, atheists and any other menace (real or imagined) wingnuts can devise.
A plume of TCE, maybe one of the largest in the country, is moving toward Cheyenne. One of these days, it may lurk right under our house near Yellowstone Blvd.
Actually, we already have contamination in our neighborhood from Cold War chemicals used on Wyoming Air National Guard's aircraft. TCE and carbon tetrachloride have been seeping from the sprawling Guard base south of us since the 1960s. To the Guard's credit, it has been on this issue since I moved to the neighborhood back in 2005. I receive frequent mailings on the clean-up status. There's a monitoring station in Mylar Park, just a 10-minute walk from our house. A trench 100 feet long and 35 feet deep is being dug in the park to try to contain the seeping solvents. Groundwater that flows into the trench will be treated and discharged into nearby Dry Creek. The goal, according to an Air Guard release from 2008, "is to prevent further underground contamination and keep the chemicals from getting into the creek."
But the TCE plume at F.E. Warren AFB is more problematical. Between 1960-64, USAF personnel used thousands of gallons of the chemical to clean Atlas rocket engines once the fuel had been removed. The used solvent went into unlined pits and eventually trickled down into the aquifer. For many years, the Air Force and the Army Corps of Engineers refused to acknowledge a problem. Then tests were conducted by the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality. The Corps still did nothing. And in 2007 Sen. John Barrasso got involved. Amazing the difference a U.S. Senator can make when he sets his mind to it. Studies were conducted on this substance that may cause cancer. The obstinate Corps chief was replaced by one more accountable to the citizenry. A a major report detailing clean-up solutions will be issued in September. You can hear the details at a public meeting July 28, 6 p.m., in the Cottonwood Room at the Laramie County Public Library in Cheyenne.
The reason I bring this up? Jared Miller wrote an excellent series of articles for today's Casper Star-Tribune about this threat from the bad old days of the Cold War. Read the series at http://www.casperstartribune.com/articles/2009/07/12/news/wyoming/813bd62b38077e9b872575f00020f944.txt
Col. Ripper says this: "Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous communist plot we have ever had to face? On no account will a Commie ever drink water, and not without good reason."
Baby Boomers probably remember that the John Birch Society made hay with the conspiracy theory that commies somehow arranged to fluoridate our water to neuter God-fearing Americans in time of war, cold or hot.
But the Birchers should have been more concerned with the trichloroethylene (TCE) used to clean our own nukes, here in Wyoming and elsewhere. TCE has been poisoning our precious bodily fluids for 50 years, rendering us useless against attacks by commies, Saddam Hussein's WMDs, swine flu, feminists, wayward Yellowstone wolves, atheists and any other menace (real or imagined) wingnuts can devise.
A plume of TCE, maybe one of the largest in the country, is moving toward Cheyenne. One of these days, it may lurk right under our house near Yellowstone Blvd.
Actually, we already have contamination in our neighborhood from Cold War chemicals used on Wyoming Air National Guard's aircraft. TCE and carbon tetrachloride have been seeping from the sprawling Guard base south of us since the 1960s. To the Guard's credit, it has been on this issue since I moved to the neighborhood back in 2005. I receive frequent mailings on the clean-up status. There's a monitoring station in Mylar Park, just a 10-minute walk from our house. A trench 100 feet long and 35 feet deep is being dug in the park to try to contain the seeping solvents. Groundwater that flows into the trench will be treated and discharged into nearby Dry Creek. The goal, according to an Air Guard release from 2008, "is to prevent further underground contamination and keep the chemicals from getting into the creek."
But the TCE plume at F.E. Warren AFB is more problematical. Between 1960-64, USAF personnel used thousands of gallons of the chemical to clean Atlas rocket engines once the fuel had been removed. The used solvent went into unlined pits and eventually trickled down into the aquifer. For many years, the Air Force and the Army Corps of Engineers refused to acknowledge a problem. Then tests were conducted by the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality. The Corps still did nothing. And in 2007 Sen. John Barrasso got involved. Amazing the difference a U.S. Senator can make when he sets his mind to it. Studies were conducted on this substance that may cause cancer. The obstinate Corps chief was replaced by one more accountable to the citizenry. A a major report detailing clean-up solutions will be issued in September. You can hear the details at a public meeting July 28, 6 p.m., in the Cottonwood Room at the Laramie County Public Library in Cheyenne.
The reason I bring this up? Jared Miller wrote an excellent series of articles for today's Casper Star-Tribune about this threat from the bad old days of the Cold War. Read the series at http://www.casperstartribune.com/articles/2009/07/12/news/wyoming/813bd62b38077e9b872575f00020f944.txt
Dennis Kucinich spanks wingnut doctor
We have our own Wingnut doctor from Wyoming: Dr. John Barrasso, U.S. Senator
Saturday, July 11, 2009
"Richard II" on the soggy fields of Cheyenne
Attended the Wyoming Shakespeare Theatre Company's production of "Richard II" this evening at the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens. The theatre company hauls its sets and equipment from one end of Wyoming to the other in one horse trailer. No easy feat.
Right about intermission time, the skies clouded up and rain fell. Half the crowd departed, but I was hooked on the story and wouldn't leave. Mac -- a family friend -- and I watched the rest of the show under a tree, not a great idea while lightning shot out of the clouds. But at least we weren't holding golf clubs.
"Richard II" all about kingship. What does it take to be a king -- and when is it justified to unseat a king? Richard II makes some wrong moves, pisses off some of the courtly lords who join the banished Bullingbrook in an uprising. Richard is never more charming than when he's deposed. Alas, he's murdered (must have a few bodies on stage in the tragedies) and then we are left with a feeling that all this didn't have to happen. Actually, it did. Without Bullingbrook usurping the throne, we wouldn't have the magnificent "Henry IV," parts one and two, and the much-quoted speech given by Henry V on the fields of Agincourt on St. Crispin's Day. And most significantly, there would be no scenes between Prince Hal and Falstaff.
Kings tend to get murdered in Shakespearean tragedies. Much mayhem ensues, which makes them so much fun. Summer and Shakespare go together like peas and carrots.
Weekend round-up: big issues -- and strange
Rising star of the Young Republicans, Audra Shay, may be a distant relative -- but I certainly hope not. Go to http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-07-10/the-gops-young-hatemonger/
NYT: "Obama Student Loan Plans Wins Support in House." Let's move this thing along. The U.S. student loan system (if you can call it that) is a travesty and needs a major overhaul.
This Sunlight Foundation post goes back to June 22 but was resurrected by Montana’s excellent Left in the West. "...five of Baucus’ former staffers currently work for a total of twenty-seven different organizations that are either in the health care or insurance sector or have a noted interest in the outcome." This may help explain Sen. Baucus’s opposition to "public option."
Papal news from a slip-sliding-away Catholic: National Catholic Reporter does a great job covering Pres. Obama's Rome visit with the Pope. On Sojourners God's Politics blog, Jim Wallis summarizes the Pope's new encyclical, Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth).
In other religious news: "Trickle-down Fundamentalism" or "Godly powerful rich white men should rule the world." See Rachel Maddow's interviews with Jeff Sharlet at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/
Attention gardeners: eat those squash and zucchini blossoms! Go to http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/homegarden/2009448964_yardsmart11.html
NYT: "Obama Student Loan Plans Wins Support in House." Let's move this thing along. The U.S. student loan system (if you can call it that) is a travesty and needs a major overhaul.
This Sunlight Foundation post goes back to June 22 but was resurrected by Montana’s excellent Left in the West. "...five of Baucus’ former staffers currently work for a total of twenty-seven different organizations that are either in the health care or insurance sector or have a noted interest in the outcome." This may help explain Sen. Baucus’s opposition to "public option."
Papal news from a slip-sliding-away Catholic: National Catholic Reporter does a great job covering Pres. Obama's Rome visit with the Pope. On Sojourners God's Politics blog, Jim Wallis summarizes the Pope's new encyclical, Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth).
In other religious news: "Trickle-down Fundamentalism" or "Godly powerful rich white men should rule the world." See Rachel Maddow's interviews with Jeff Sharlet at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/
Attention gardeners: eat those squash and zucchini blossoms! Go to http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/homegarden/2009448964_yardsmart11.html
Weekend garden blogging -- help me save the soul of my wayward Kentucky Wonder
First, the weather. Warm and dry. No rain for three days. That's amazing, because it had rained almost every day since May until Wednesday. It's a rarity around here to let Mother Nature take care of watering the garden. Had to return to the hose on Thursday and Friday. The weatherpeople forecast a stray storm or two for yesterday evening. Storms passed us by to put on a great lightning show, huge anvil cloud hovering somewhere over Hawk Springs on its way to Nebraska. Chris and I sat on the back porch and watched the lightning vein the clouds for an hour.
We may get storms today. I'll hold off on watering and see what develops. Watch the skies!
Some of the spinach plants started to bolt so I clipped them off at the base and we enjoyed a mighty good stir fry with garden spinach cooked in olive oil with chunks of garlic. One of my daughter's favorite treats. Rather have that than ice cream, which makes me wonder about her DNA. A dedicated vegetarian. I keep telling her that ice cream is core food group along with beer and Cheezits. But she's not buying it. What's wrong with this younger generation?
Harvested the outside leaves on my green and red leaf lettuce plants. Cut off the broccoli crowns in the hopes that more crowns will grow. Fruits have formed on my Gardener's delight cherry tomato bushes but the Early Girls ain't so early. I have another tomato plants with fern-like leaves and I can't remember the variety. But it's growing like crazy and blooming but no fruit yet. The bush beans are finally bushing out -- think I planted the seeds too deep. Two zucchini plants are attempting to take over the world. My lone surviving crookneck squash plant is finally starting to leaf out. I bought three seedlings in May. Two of them shriveled and died and only one remains. No such things ever happen to zucchini, even in Wyoming.
My Kentucky Wonder pole beans on the side yard are sending out runners. One has attached to the trellis in the way that God intended. The other keeps leaping off the trellis to commune with the Achillea filipendulina and the shasta daisies. Each evening I return his probe to the trellis, only to find it groping its neighbors the next morning. He's obviously confused about his place in the grand scheme of creation. Perhaps I can have Rev from the Free Will Church of Eternal Damnation come down and talk to this wayward plant. Set it straight, if you get my meaning.
Other than that, the garden grows. We continue to watch the skies for hail-laden clouds.
This week's Victory Garden dedication: To Martin Hett, my grandfather, whose birthday is on July 14 -- Bastille Day. He became a fine self-taught Colorado gardener who grew up hungry in County Roscommon in pre-Republic Ireland. Left home at 12 in search of food -- never went back.
We may get storms today. I'll hold off on watering and see what develops. Watch the skies!
Some of the spinach plants started to bolt so I clipped them off at the base and we enjoyed a mighty good stir fry with garden spinach cooked in olive oil with chunks of garlic. One of my daughter's favorite treats. Rather have that than ice cream, which makes me wonder about her DNA. A dedicated vegetarian. I keep telling her that ice cream is core food group along with beer and Cheezits. But she's not buying it. What's wrong with this younger generation?
Harvested the outside leaves on my green and red leaf lettuce plants. Cut off the broccoli crowns in the hopes that more crowns will grow. Fruits have formed on my Gardener's delight cherry tomato bushes but the Early Girls ain't so early. I have another tomato plants with fern-like leaves and I can't remember the variety. But it's growing like crazy and blooming but no fruit yet. The bush beans are finally bushing out -- think I planted the seeds too deep. Two zucchini plants are attempting to take over the world. My lone surviving crookneck squash plant is finally starting to leaf out. I bought three seedlings in May. Two of them shriveled and died and only one remains. No such things ever happen to zucchini, even in Wyoming.
My Kentucky Wonder pole beans on the side yard are sending out runners. One has attached to the trellis in the way that God intended. The other keeps leaping off the trellis to commune with the Achillea filipendulina and the shasta daisies. Each evening I return his probe to the trellis, only to find it groping its neighbors the next morning. He's obviously confused about his place in the grand scheme of creation. Perhaps I can have Rev from the Free Will Church of Eternal Damnation come down and talk to this wayward plant. Set it straight, if you get my meaning.
Other than that, the garden grows. We continue to watch the skies for hail-laden clouds.
This week's Victory Garden dedication: To Martin Hett, my grandfather, whose birthday is on July 14 -- Bastille Day. He became a fine self-taught Colorado gardener who grew up hungry in County Roscommon in pre-Republic Ireland. Left home at 12 in search of food -- never went back.
Friday, July 10, 2009
For a brief time, Greenpeace replaces Reagan on Mt. Rushmore with Pres. Obama
Greenpeace found a way to cover up the unpleasant visage of St. Reagan recently added to Mount Rushmore National Monument in South Dakota.
Here's what the monument looked like on Tuesday:
Here's what the monument looked like on Tuesday:
Greenpeace enagaged in some July 8 hijinks, covering up St. Reagan with Pres. Obama, along the way making a point about Obama's lukewarm attituide toward global warming:
Vast improvement, don't you think? And protest is patriotic, as American as apple pie -- and Mt. Rushmore.
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Help wanted: Wyoming Democrats need two replacement state senators (w/7/9 update)
Two Democrats have resigned their seats in the Wyoming State Legislature.
Sen. Bill Vasey of Rawlins has retired and moved to Arizona. Much as Wyoming retirees like to think of Arizona as the state’s 24th county, that designation is not yet official, thus Sen. Vasey must bid farewell to his District 11 Senate seat.
Sen. Ken Decaria of Evanston has moved to Cheyenne for a job as government relations director for the Wyoming Education Association. His change of job and venue caused him to resign his District 15 Senate position.
What does a perennial minority political party do when it loses two of its seven Senate seats (out of a total of 30)? Finds new blood – quickly.
Here’s the process as outlined in a July 6 press release:
Dems will go through the same process in Senate District 15, which includes most of Uinta County, including the town of Evanston.
Uinta County Democratic Party Chair Sharon McPhie has announced that the Democratic precinct committeemen and committeewomen of Senate District 15 will meet Thursday, July 16, at 6 p.m., at the Uinta County Library in Evanston to interview those interested in filling the Senate seat. The meeting will be in the Almy Room. Contact: Sharon McPhie, 307-789-3691.
Needless to say, the Rawlins interviews on July 13 and the ones in Evanston July 16 will not require crowd control. The Union Pacific/I-80 corridor, from Pine Bluffs to Evanston in southern Wyoming, used to be owned by the Democrats. Cheyenne, Laramie, Rawlins and Rock Springs were loaded with union members in the railroads and mining. When I interviewed Kathy Karpan last August prior to the Democratic National Convention in Denver, the Rock Springs native recalled how she grew up surrounded by union Democrats and didn’t even know there was such a thing as a "Republican." Alas, there are all too many Repubs in Rock Springs now. Most of the new energy industry jobs are non-union, and the railroad employs a fraction of what it used to. The blue traditions live on, but is fading.
That goes for Rawlins and Evanston. Evanston lies in the extreme southwestern corner that once was Utah territory but was lopped off and given to Wyoming territory to teach Brigham Young a lesson about succession and polygamy. But Brigham Young got his revenge. Uinta County remains solidly LDS and conservative Republican, a segment of the Mormon Corridor that encompasses all of Utah and parts of Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico.
So, the Dems will really miss Sen. Decaria. The Democrats have never controlled the Wyoming legislature, although during Kennedy’s presidency they were very close with the highest percentage of Democrats at 47% (thanks to wikianswers.com).
HM will provide updates next week.
UPDATE on 7/9/09 from Bill Luckett: Please be advised that the date of the meeting to select finalists to replace Sen. Ken Decaria has been changed to TUESDAY, JULY 14, 2009. The meeting will still take place at 6 p.m., at the Uinta County Library in Evanston. For further information, please contact Sharon McPhie, Uinta County Democratic Party Chair, 307-789-3691 (home).
Sen. Bill Vasey of Rawlins has retired and moved to Arizona. Much as Wyoming retirees like to think of Arizona as the state’s 24th county, that designation is not yet official, thus Sen. Vasey must bid farewell to his District 11 Senate seat.
Sen. Ken Decaria of Evanston has moved to Cheyenne for a job as government relations director for the Wyoming Education Association. His change of job and venue caused him to resign his District 15 Senate position.
What does a perennial minority political party do when it loses two of its seven Senate seats (out of a total of 30)? Finds new blood – quickly.
Here’s the process as outlined in a July 6 press release:
Carbon County Democratic Party Chair Vern Whitfield announced today that the Democratic precinct committeemen and committeewomen of Senate District 11 will meet Monday, July 13, at 6 p.m. at the Jeffrey Center in Rawlins to interview those interested in filling the Senate seat. Senate District 11 includes all of Carbon County as well as the Rock River precinct in Albany County.
The process for filling a legislative vacancy is governed by the Wyoming State Statutes and the bylaws of the Wyoming Democratic Party.
The rules require the precinct committee members of the Senate district to meet and select three finalists for the position within 15 days of the party being notified of Sen. Vasey’s resignation. The party plans to select the finalists at the meeting on Monday, July 13.
State party bylaws state that any registered Democrat who lives in Senate District 11 who wants to be considered for the position must either appear in person at the meeting or send a written statement of intent. At the meeting, each candidate will be given the opportunity to present their qualifications and may be questioned by those present. Written statements of intent can be sent to Carbon County Democratic Party Chair Vern Whitfield at 1212 Weaver St., Rawlins, WY, 82301, and must be received by Monday, July 13.
At the meeting, after all the candidates speak and answer questions, the precinct committee members will vote by signed ballot to choose the three finalists. Those finalists' names will be submitted to the county commissioners in both Carbon and Albany counties. Then, the commissioners will have five days to meet and vote to appoint one of the finalists to fill the legislative vacancy. The county commissioners' votes will be weighted by the population of the portion of the Senate District that is in each county, using numbers from the 2000 U.S. Census.FMI: Vern Whitfield, Carbon County Democratic Party Chair, 307-320-7479 (cell), 307-324-4205 (home). Bill Luckett, Wyoming Democratic Party Executive Director, 307-631-7638 (cell).
Dems will go through the same process in Senate District 15, which includes most of Uinta County, including the town of Evanston.
Uinta County Democratic Party Chair Sharon McPhie has announced that the Democratic precinct committeemen and committeewomen of Senate District 15 will meet Thursday, July 16, at 6 p.m., at the Uinta County Library in Evanston to interview those interested in filling the Senate seat. The meeting will be in the Almy Room. Contact: Sharon McPhie, 307-789-3691.
Needless to say, the Rawlins interviews on July 13 and the ones in Evanston July 16 will not require crowd control. The Union Pacific/I-80 corridor, from Pine Bluffs to Evanston in southern Wyoming, used to be owned by the Democrats. Cheyenne, Laramie, Rawlins and Rock Springs were loaded with union members in the railroads and mining. When I interviewed Kathy Karpan last August prior to the Democratic National Convention in Denver, the Rock Springs native recalled how she grew up surrounded by union Democrats and didn’t even know there was such a thing as a "Republican." Alas, there are all too many Repubs in Rock Springs now. Most of the new energy industry jobs are non-union, and the railroad employs a fraction of what it used to. The blue traditions live on, but is fading.
That goes for Rawlins and Evanston. Evanston lies in the extreme southwestern corner that once was Utah territory but was lopped off and given to Wyoming territory to teach Brigham Young a lesson about succession and polygamy. But Brigham Young got his revenge. Uinta County remains solidly LDS and conservative Republican, a segment of the Mormon Corridor that encompasses all of Utah and parts of Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico.
So, the Dems will really miss Sen. Decaria. The Democrats have never controlled the Wyoming legislature, although during Kennedy’s presidency they were very close with the highest percentage of Democrats at 47% (thanks to wikianswers.com).
HM will provide updates next week.
UPDATE on 7/9/09 from Bill Luckett: Please be advised that the date of the meeting to select finalists to replace Sen. Ken Decaria has been changed to TUESDAY, JULY 14, 2009. The meeting will still take place at 6 p.m., at the Uinta County Library in Evanston. For further information, please contact Sharon McPhie, Uinta County Democratic Party Chair, 307-789-3691 (home).
Monday, July 06, 2009
Sunday, July 05, 2009
HM supports Alaska's gutsy prog-bloggers
Ah, to be an Alaskan prog-blogger this Fourth of July weekend 2009.
Gov. Sarah Palin resigns in a huff and under a cloud. Palin's lawyer Thomas Van Flein turns his hairy eyeball on blogger and radio host Shannyn Moore. Linda, my fellow DNCC state blogger last summer, is digging up the dirt and raising funds and raising hell at Celtic Diva's Blue Oasis. The Mudflats! tells it like it is in the blogosphere and on the air waves.
These are gutsy bloggers in The Land of the Midnight Sun. Stand by to raise money for their defense fund.
What in the world is Sarah Palin hiding?
Gov. Sarah Palin resigns in a huff and under a cloud. Palin's lawyer Thomas Van Flein turns his hairy eyeball on blogger and radio host Shannyn Moore. Linda, my fellow DNCC state blogger last summer, is digging up the dirt and raising funds and raising hell at Celtic Diva's Blue Oasis. The Mudflats! tells it like it is in the blogosphere and on the air waves.
These are gutsy bloggers in The Land of the Midnight Sun. Stand by to raise money for their defense fund.
What in the world is Sarah Palin hiding?
Bonanza of articles about Wyoming
A healthy harvest of intriguing recent articles about Wyoming:
KL Energy Corp. has a plant in Upton, Wyo., that makes cellulosic ethanol fuel from wood scrap from Black Hills forests. Go to http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2009/07/04/ap6618033.html
Fourth of July Cowboy Tea Party attendees gather in Cheyenne to steep their teabags of outrage in the brine of wingnuttery. Go to http://www.wyomingnews.com/articles/2009/07/05/local_news_updates/19local_07-05-09.txt
Unearthing Triceratops' horns at a dinosaur dig near Newcastle. Go to http://www.casperstartribune.com/articles/2009/07/05/news/wyoming/560f2e7562d9b58f872575e900210ac8.txt
Tammy Christel writes in the Jackson Hole Fine Arts Examiner about the struggles faced by Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary, a tremendous gallery in Jackson. It's confronting extinction by emphasizing its community base, going green and holding rent parties. Go to http://www.examiner.com/x-11670-Jackson-Hole-Fine-Arts-Examiner~y2009m7d1-Lyndsay-McCanless-Contemporarys-Fourth-of-July-weekend
Writing in New West, Michael Pearlman wonders why bus service has been so long in coming to Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks. Go to http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/bus_service_in_grand_teton_and_yellowstone_is_long_overdue/C41/L41/
Amanda Fry concludes her three-part Platte County Record-Times' series, "Wind Energy in Platte County," with a look at the landowners' views of the issue. Go to http://www.pcrecordtimes.com/V2_news_articles.php?heading=0&story_id=1238&page=72. Thanks to Wheaterville for the tip on this one.
KL Energy Corp. has a plant in Upton, Wyo., that makes cellulosic ethanol fuel from wood scrap from Black Hills forests. Go to http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2009/07/04/ap6618033.html
Fourth of July Cowboy Tea Party attendees gather in Cheyenne to steep their teabags of outrage in the brine of wingnuttery. Go to http://www.wyomingnews.com/articles/2009/07/05/local_news_updates/19local_07-05-09.txt
Unearthing Triceratops' horns at a dinosaur dig near Newcastle. Go to http://www.casperstartribune.com/articles/2009/07/05/news/wyoming/560f2e7562d9b58f872575e900210ac8.txt
Tammy Christel writes in the Jackson Hole Fine Arts Examiner about the struggles faced by Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary, a tremendous gallery in Jackson. It's confronting extinction by emphasizing its community base, going green and holding rent parties. Go to http://www.examiner.com/x-11670-Jackson-Hole-Fine-Arts-Examiner~y2009m7d1-Lyndsay-McCanless-Contemporarys-Fourth-of-July-weekend
Writing in New West, Michael Pearlman wonders why bus service has been so long in coming to Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks. Go to http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/bus_service_in_grand_teton_and_yellowstone_is_long_overdue/C41/L41/
Amanda Fry concludes her three-part Platte County Record-Times' series, "Wind Energy in Platte County," with a look at the landowners' views of the issue. Go to http://www.pcrecordtimes.com/V2_news_articles.php?heading=0&story_id=1238&page=72. Thanks to Wheaterville for the tip on this one.
Saturday, July 04, 2009
Ridin' and ropin' those docile dinos
This photo by John Scalzi is great in so many ways. It's from Kentucky's Creation Museum, and shows a boy riding a statue of a baby Triceratops, which is Wyoming's official state dinosaur. The kid is having fun, and probably doesn't care a wit that Triceratops were never used as rodeo stock. Since it's rodeo season in the West, you can ask just about any cowboy -- horses and bulls are preferable to dinos. It's a fine idea, though, and one which should be considered if we ever get our hands on that dino DNA that was used so disastrously in "Jurassic Park." I think it would be much more fun to ride bareback on a Velociraptor, with others playfully nipping at your boot heels. But that's just me.
The Creation Museum contends that humans and dinos lived side-by-side. It also contends that the T-Rex was a vegeterian. Not sure what those big pointy teeth were used for. Maybe plants were tougher 6,000 years ago.
In Wyoming, we know our dinosaurs and our evolutionary history. That what makes the closing of the University of Wyoming's Geological Museum so sad. In a time of Creation Museums, we desperately need as much real science as possible. So budget cuts are made and the thing that UW decides is expendable is a museum devoted to the reality-based world. The move has been controversial. I heard news yesterday that private funding has been raised to keep the museum in business. Let's hope so.
More dinosaur bones have been dug out of Wyoming that almost anywhere else in the world. Plant and animal life from millions of years ago make up our massive oil and coal reserves. We boast an official state dinosaur and an official state fossil, the Knightia. I think we're the only state that puts so much stock in the ancient world, one that goes back way farther than 6,000 years.
I have a story called "The History of Surfing in Wyoming" that posits a post-global warming Wyoming (Wyoming Islands) where the surf is bitchen on the beaches of the Big Horns and Wind Rivers (formerly mountain ranges) and aqua-rodeo cowboys get their kicks riding sea creatures resurrected from the floor of the ancient inland sea. Reality-based scenarios are fun when it comes to science. But they don't hold a candle to the worlds conjured by the imagination.
I leave you with the Wyoming Islands version of the Beach Boys' Surfin' U.S.A. (feel free to sing along):
If everybody had an ocean
Across the U.S.A.
Then everybody'd be surfin'
Like Wyoming-yay
You'd see 'em wearing cut-off Ryders
Stetsons and (boots) too
A buzz-cut surfers’ hairdo
Surfin' U.S.A.
You'd catch 'em surfin' at Happy Jack
Casper Island Beach
Flaming Gorge and Lander
and the Big Horn Islands
All over South Pass
And down Encampment way
Everybody's gone surfin'
Surfin' U.S.A.
We'll all be planning that route
We're gonna take real soon
We're waxing down our surfboards
We can't wait for June
We'll all be gone for the summer
We're on surfari to stay
Tell the teacher we're surfin'
Surfin' U.S.A.
Rock River and Sundance
and Laramie Peak
Meeteetse and Midwest,
Big Surf Reef near Ten Sleep
All over the Wind Rivers
and Uinta Bay
Everybody's gone surfin'
Surfin' U.S.A.
Weekend Garden Blogging: Fourth of July
Greetings from Cheyenne, the semi-arid capital of semi-arid Wyoming, which has more water than it knows what to do with.Just kidding. We never have quite enough. In dry years, we're parched. In wet years, we're refreshing the landscape parched during dry years.
But this year, we get rain every day. Yesterday brought a gully-washer with raindrops big as eyeballs. I heard the rain pounding the porch's aluminum roof and I thought hail had arrived and panicked because I hadn't covered my still-tender plants.
I left my writing desk for the yard and marveled at the afternoon rain. Came down so fast and furious that it smacked down some of my spinach plants. So I picked the leaves for a dinner salad. Added some leaf lettuce. Later, wading through the drenched gardens between plant rows, had a feeling that my semi-arid garden was turning into a rice paddy. Get your Wyoming rice, freshly harvested from Mike's paddy! Weird.
The tomatoes are blooming and heads have formed on all the broccoli. Bush bean plants shooting up to 4-5 inches. Pole beans on the side yard haven't yet sent out shoots to climb the trellis. Picked one ripe strawberry yesterday and shared it with my wife, who gave me grief for teasing her with one tiny little fruit. More to come, my dear. Much more to come.
Bragging to my college son yesterday about my little feat of engineering that keeps the garden irrigated and the patio dry. A drainage field lurks under the garden and rainwater diverted to garden instead of clay soil yard. Used to flood the basement at least once per summer. But no more.
He said he was impressed. Then he went back to reading his book.
As the sun dipped to the horizon yesterday, a huge bank of clouds rose in the West. Rippled with lightning. Uh oh, I said, another deluge for the rice paddies. But the storm missed us and hit Casper and vicinity with a vengeance. You can see some flash flood photos on the Casper Star-Trib web site.
On this Fourth of July, I dedicate my Victory Garden to the visionaries who risked everything to found the U.S.A.
Pres. Obama: Happy Fourth of July -- and don't listen to the naysayers
And here are a few of the best lines:
These naysayers have short memories. They forget that we, as a people, did not get here by standing pat in a time of change. We did not get here by doing what was easy. That is not how a cluster of 13 colonies became the United States of America.
We are not a people who fear the future. We are a people who make it. And on this July 4th, we need to summon that spirit once more. We need to summon the same spirit that inhabited Independence Hall two hundred and thirty-three years ago today.
Friday, July 03, 2009
"WYOMING: It is for everybody!"
You can find some strange truths in bumper stickers.
I saw one the other day in Cheyenne. It was on a pick-up. It read: "WYOMING: It's not for everybody."
At first, I thought it was another in a series of "Unique Wyoming" bumper stickers: "Wyoming is what America was." "Wyoming: Like No Place on Earth."
The theme that unites them all could be summed up into the fact that Wyomingites like the state the way it is and its residents don't need any of your newfangled coastal ideas.
That's no revelation if you live here. We're a conservative state, more libertarian that right-wing fundamentalist -- although there's a streak of that here too. At best, the libertarian streak reveals a healthy distrust of big government. At worst, it's venomous, mindless gubment-hating more akin to Nativists and neo-Nazis than any sane political philosophy.
But as I mulled over the "WYOMING: It's not for everybody" bumper sticker, I began to wonder: What if Wyoming was for everybody? What if everybody in the U.S. moved to the Equality/Cowboy State? Latest state population figures show 532,668 in an area of 97,818 square miles. That makes for about 5.4 humans per square mile. So, if Wyomingites were placed equidistant from one another across the state, nobody could see his/her neighbor.
That's impossible, of course. You can't tell Wyomingites where and how to live. Besides, everyone wants to live in scenic locales such as Jackson, Sheridan and Cody, or the not-so-scenic-but-already-settled-places-with-jobs such as Cheyenne and Casper and Gillette.
But what is everybody in the U.S. moved to Wyoming? Sure, there would be a lot of gun play, but let's say that most of the immigrants survived the melee. Wyoming would have some 303 million new residents. Suddenly, there would be 3,108 people per square mile. That's a big boost, for sure. A lot less elbow room, especially if you landed in one of the square mile parcels with citizens from "fat states" such as Mississippi and Arkansas. But if you're sharing space with skinny-state Coloradans, you could stretch until the cows came home, although there would be no room for them if they did.
How crowded would it be? Well, if you increased Cheyenne's population of 56,915 by a factor of 575 times, the city would become a teeming metropolis of 32 million. Now that would put a strain on city services. But hey, we still have the Wal-Mart Regional Distribution Center west of town. Wal-Mart, with its super-efficient delivery system, could keep all 32 million of us supplied with Chinese-made snack foods and diapers for the foreseeable future.
But what if I'm giving short shrift to the bumper sticker's message? What if everybody meant "everybody," even the Chinese, North Koreans and Iranians? Now we're talking a population explosion. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates the worlds population at 6.76 billion souls. If you provided a 4-square-foot space for everyone, Wyoming could easily accommodate everybody in the entire world, with a bit of room left over for rivers and lakes and mountaintops and bears and prairie dogs and Wal-Marts.
So the bumper sticker is incorrect: Wyoming is for everybody. Every person on the planet.
I saw one the other day in Cheyenne. It was on a pick-up. It read: "WYOMING: It's not for everybody."
At first, I thought it was another in a series of "Unique Wyoming" bumper stickers: "Wyoming is what America was." "Wyoming: Like No Place on Earth."
The theme that unites them all could be summed up into the fact that Wyomingites like the state the way it is and its residents don't need any of your newfangled coastal ideas.
That's no revelation if you live here. We're a conservative state, more libertarian that right-wing fundamentalist -- although there's a streak of that here too. At best, the libertarian streak reveals a healthy distrust of big government. At worst, it's venomous, mindless gubment-hating more akin to Nativists and neo-Nazis than any sane political philosophy.
But as I mulled over the "WYOMING: It's not for everybody" bumper sticker, I began to wonder: What if Wyoming was for everybody? What if everybody in the U.S. moved to the Equality/Cowboy State? Latest state population figures show 532,668 in an area of 97,818 square miles. That makes for about 5.4 humans per square mile. So, if Wyomingites were placed equidistant from one another across the state, nobody could see his/her neighbor.
That's impossible, of course. You can't tell Wyomingites where and how to live. Besides, everyone wants to live in scenic locales such as Jackson, Sheridan and Cody, or the not-so-scenic-but-already-settled-places-with-jobs such as Cheyenne and Casper and Gillette.
But what is everybody in the U.S. moved to Wyoming? Sure, there would be a lot of gun play, but let's say that most of the immigrants survived the melee. Wyoming would have some 303 million new residents. Suddenly, there would be 3,108 people per square mile. That's a big boost, for sure. A lot less elbow room, especially if you landed in one of the square mile parcels with citizens from "fat states" such as Mississippi and Arkansas. But if you're sharing space with skinny-state Coloradans, you could stretch until the cows came home, although there would be no room for them if they did.
How crowded would it be? Well, if you increased Cheyenne's population of 56,915 by a factor of 575 times, the city would become a teeming metropolis of 32 million. Now that would put a strain on city services. But hey, we still have the Wal-Mart Regional Distribution Center west of town. Wal-Mart, with its super-efficient delivery system, could keep all 32 million of us supplied with Chinese-made snack foods and diapers for the foreseeable future.
But what if I'm giving short shrift to the bumper sticker's message? What if everybody meant "everybody," even the Chinese, North Koreans and Iranians? Now we're talking a population explosion. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates the worlds population at 6.76 billion souls. If you provided a 4-square-foot space for everyone, Wyoming could easily accommodate everybody in the entire world, with a bit of room left over for rivers and lakes and mountaintops and bears and prairie dogs and Wal-Marts.
So the bumper sticker is incorrect: Wyoming is for everybody. Every person on the planet.
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Steve Earle on World Cafe July 7
On Tuesday July 7, Steve Earle will be hosted by David Dye on National Public Radio’s World Café. Wyoming Public Radio features the World Cafe at odd times. Go here to find the schedule. Visit NPR’s World Cafe for more info.
Go to Steve's web site to listen to a "Pancho and Lefty" excerpt from his newest CD, "Townes."
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Make that "cow-manure-on-a-stick"
Molly K. Hooper writing today in The Hill:
As did most Republicans, Wyoming Rep. Cynthia Lummis also voted against the bill. In her description of the bill, she did not say "s--t" or "cow manure," although there is plenty of both items scattered across the state. Her response was much more gentile. She called it "the largest tax hike in history." And then:
That's been the Republican party line, that the energy bill is a tax on us little people. Repubs are always so concerned with the little people -- and I don't think they're talking about leprechauns. That's you and me they're looking out for, folks. Not the lobbyists, of course. Not the bag men and women from Exxon and Peabody Coal and Cigna.
The Repubs feel our pain when we have to spend too much on energy or high-interest credit cards or student loans or health care or mental health care or groceries of a thousand and one other things. They feel our pain when our jobs are shipped overseas by one of their Republican pals. They feel our pain when we have to send our kids to fight wars that they or their kids or grandkids don't have to fight -- or won't. Their empathy knows no bounds.
Nor does their gall.
Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) had a few choice words about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) landmark climate-change bill after its passage Friday. When asked why he read portions of the cap-and-trade bill on the floor Friday night, Boehner told The Hill, "Hey, people deserve to know what's in this pile of s--t."
Using his privilege as leader to speak for an unlimited time on the House floor, Boehner spent an hour reading from the 1200-plus page bill that was amended 20 hours before the lower chamber voted 219-212 to approve it. Eight Republicans voted with Democrats to pass the bill; 44 House Democrats voted against it.
Pelosi's office declined to comment on Boehner's jab. But one Democratic aide quipped, "What do you expect from a guy who thinks global warming is caused by cow manure?"
As did most Republicans, Wyoming Rep. Cynthia Lummis also voted against the bill. In her description of the bill, she did not say "s--t" or "cow manure," although there is plenty of both items scattered across the state. Her response was much more gentile. She called it "the largest tax hike in history." And then:
"The national energy tax will lead to higher costs to create energy by American industries and will be passed directly onto the American consumers who use it, is proportionately impacting lower-income families and all working Americans. It will have a devastating impact on the price at the pump and utility bills, and will dramatically hinder the use of Wyoming coal. It will wreak havoc on family budgets, small businesses and family farms."
That's been the Republican party line, that the energy bill is a tax on us little people. Repubs are always so concerned with the little people -- and I don't think they're talking about leprechauns. That's you and me they're looking out for, folks. Not the lobbyists, of course. Not the bag men and women from Exxon and Peabody Coal and Cigna.
The Repubs feel our pain when we have to spend too much on energy or high-interest credit cards or student loans or health care or mental health care or groceries of a thousand and one other things. They feel our pain when our jobs are shipped overseas by one of their Republican pals. They feel our pain when we have to send our kids to fight wars that they or their kids or grandkids don't have to fight -- or won't. Their empathy knows no bounds.
Nor does their gall.
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