Earth Day has come a long way -- but the journey is far from over

Earth Day 40 years ago -- and now ...

I wasn't paying too much attention to Earth Day in 1970.

But I am now.

My formerly all coal-powered blog now taps into some alternative energy generated at the Happy Jack Wind Farm west of Cheyenne.

Like WOW -- training and promoting Wyoming's art and artists

Negotiated the foggy summit between Cheyenne and Laramie yesterday. This time of year brings fog and snow and rain and hail and any number of interesting weather conditions. It also brings lots of arts events.

On Friday, Works of Wyoming (WOW) in Laramie was hosting its first-ever Starving Artists' seminars. It included sessions on "Photographing Your Work," Developing an Arts Web Site" and "Promoting Yourself as an Artist." I dropped in just in time for the latter, taught by digital artist and graphic designer Chuck Egnaczak, who once taught in the University of Wyoming art department and now is at the University of Tampa.

I was the only writer in a classroom full of artists. But every topic covered by Chuck applied to writers as well.

Some notes from my journal:

"Building a personal brand is critical."

"Self-promotion is the most important thing you can do."

"Before you put up a web site, establish its purpose. Design it as a focused strategic ad for you."

"Testimonials are the most efficient way of selling in the U.S."

"Design your own multimedia CV to promote your work."

I thought about my web presence as a writer. I have a blog that's mostly about politics. I have a web site that's moribund. I have established a fan page on Facebook but haven't activated it yet.

Time to rethink all this. Most successful writers I know have their names on their web sites and blogs. I don't, having opted for a more thematic approach in hummingbirdminds. That's in keeping with creative blog titles that match the blogger. "Left in the West" to match Montanan Matt Singer's leftie slant. "Big Square State" to denote the home of some very active Colorado prog-bloggers. "Red State" is a conservative blogger's site and comes from a red state much like my own. And so on.

Again, most successful fiction writers I know keep politics off of their sites -- or keep it to a minimum. This is mostly true of my moribund web site. It features samples of my short fiction. Also essays on a variety of topics: literary tourism, ADHD, mental health and politics. My blog, on the other hand, focuses on my stand as a progressive in a red state. It's a pretty good brand, but I really haven't used it to further my writing career.

By the way, "brand" is a common term in the West. A public walkway that connects the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens with the Old West Museum features imprints of brands from local cattle ranches. If you're a rancher, that brand covers all aspects of your life, from the ranch itself to your family's identity to the cattle you raise. Having a brand is not only important -- it's crucial.

When you say "brand" here, pardner, you better mean it.

Mr. Egnaczak spent a lot of his time on this very subject. I've been thinking about it ever since.

The WOW's Starving Artists' seminars covered three days. It drew artists from around the state. WOW's Sarah Dahlberg says that there will be others. Meanwhile, Works of Wyoming's brochure lists a full slate of activities. Next up is "Works (for and by) Fabulous Women."

Works of Wyoming is calling for artists for our Fabulous Women Show. If you make artwork for or about women (women's issues, tribute to a woman in your life, etc.) or you are a woman and make art, you are eligible to participate in our show. Work can be in any media. Applications can be found online at www.worksofwyoming.org and should be submitted to wow@uwyo.edu by Friday, April 30. There will be a $15 entry fee for works chosen.

Our show is also open to spoken-word artists and musicians if your work is for, about, or by ve minutes to perform or read a piece. Titles, lyrics or descriptions of pieces must be submitted by Friday, April 30, to be eligible.

The gallery opening will be held on Friday, May 14, 6 p.m.

Another big WOW event happening May 14 -- I'll be on hand at 3 p.m. talking about Wyoming Arts Council programs for individual artists.

I encourage my fellow writers in Cheyenne and Laramie to enter a piece for the "Fabulous Women" opening night event. I may do the same.

Not only is it important for artists and writers to get their work out into the public domain. We need to support these homegrown efforts to promote Wyoming's creative folks. WOW sells local art in its gift shop. Offices are in the old civic center building -- new uses for attractive old buildings.

Local art. Local artists. Local writers. Local business.

I pay taxes to the gubment, the gubment fixes my street (maybe)

I'm just finishing up my taxes. I have to pay this year. The payment would be a lot bigger if it wasn't for the Making Work Pay deduction. I'm thankful for that. And I'm glad I used a pencil to fill out my forms the old-fashioned way.

Now if they (the Big Gubment "THEY") could only fill the potholes on my street.

Find out more about Wyomingites and taxes at http://www.ctj.org/obamastaxcuts/wy.pdf

Carlton Davis, author of "Bipolar Bare," speaks April 20 at UW Disability Days

Bill Ayers will speak in Laramie -- townsfolk shaking in their boots

This is old news now, but Bill Ayers is coming to speak at the University of Wyoming in Laramie on April 28. This convoluted story gets more interesting all the time. Suffice to say that it took free-speech advocate Meg Lanker a few weeks to get Ayers to Laramie. He won't be speaking on campus -- that's been ruled out by the administration. But he will be speaking somewhere in Laramie.

I like this quote from UW that appeared in today's Casper Star-Tribune:

On Monday, UW General Counsel Susan Weidel told Lanker in a phone call and a two-paragraph e-mail that the university wouldn’t allow Ayers to speak anywhere on campus.

“The University of Wyoming will not be available as a venue for the event you are hosting for Mr. William Ayers,” Weidel wrote in the e-mail.

“As I mentioned in our telephone conversation, you may want to consider other large venues both public and private in both Laramie and Cheyenne,” Weidel concluded in her e-mail.

Quite nice of Ms. Weidel to suggest other venues in Wyoming towns other than Laramie. But I think she missed the point, which is having Mr. Ayers speak in Laramie.

The Star-Trib story also had this quote:

Brian Profaizer, president of the University of Wyoming conservatives, said that while he isn’t as opposed to Ayers speaking off-campus as he would have been if Ayers spoke on campus, he fears problems when Ayers finally shows up.

Profaizer said he is particularly worried that, even though Ayers won’t speak at UW, many university alumni still might stop sending donations.

“I thought that Laramie, overall, the city the university, we sent a strong message the first time,” Profaizer said.

“There were a lot of upset people the first time around, and I think that that anger is just going to be escalated.”

Empathetic Republicans are always so concerned that anger may be escalated. That's only when it comes to speeches by Liberals. Who cares when Tea Party activists threaten bodily harm against elected officials?

I thought Wyomingites were supposed to be a live-and-let-live bunch? After all, former sixties radicals Angela Davis and Bobby Seale have both spoken to UW. But the wingnuts latched onto Ayers with Pit Bull zeal during the 2008 elections. They're not going to let go easily.

And when did Wyomingites turn into such weinies? Intimidated by a little ol' leftist? People in Laramie scared? What would The Virginian say to that?

This just in -- Tea Party saboteurs unmasked

The Tea Party’s Tax Day protests are just around the corner on April 15. It may be a coincidence, but I’ve been reading a lot of wingnut posts advancing a conspiracy of major import. Some Tea Partiers contend that those protest signs that snarky progressives like to make fun of, those with misspelled words and terrible grammar, are actually designed and carried by snarky progressive saboteurs. Anyone else heard this?

Made me think. Why would a snarky progressive go out of his or her way to make signs and attend Tea Party rallies? Yes, there is the camaraderie of hanging out with a bunch of American patriots. And the stirring speeches – can’t forget those. You can sign petitions to nullify various nefarious government practices. You can get free copies of the Constitution. If it’s a nice day, you can get fresh air and a tan.

Then I received a copy of the following e-mail. Its origins are murky, but it smacks of authenticity. It made me rethink my entire belief system, or at least that part that covers tea bags, spelling and grammar.

The e-mail harkens back to those halcyon days of last April when Tea Partiers were first stirring the pot.

The e-mail:

Dear Fellow Conspirators:

Here’s an update on our effort to disrupt Tax Day 2009 protests planned by the Tea Party across the U.S.

We’ve had limited success on recruiting people for Operation Miss Spell. As of this writing, we were able to locate and recruit less than a dozen saboteurs for upcoming Tea Party rallies. The plan, of course, was brilliant in its simplicity. A bunch of snarky progressives were going to carry signs with misspelled words and bad grammar into the fray. An uproar would ensue. Lots of photos taken. Photos go viral. Tea Partiers would look bad. Ridicule would nip their grassroots revolution in the bud.

We ran into problems almost immediately. Several organizers (including yours truly) were veterans of sixties’ antiwar protests. We were ready to mix it up again, storm the ramparts, engage in street theatre. Problem was, I just had knee surgery and Jim’s allergies were acting up. Sunshine was all for donning her old hippie dresses and carrying signs, but she was invited to a chakra-cleansing retreat in Marin County so had to bow out.

We thought we’d be able to find some fellow travelers, old hippies who had taken one too many bad trips. We’d just hand them misspelled signs and point them in the right direction. They’d be thrilled to march again. We felt that they would fit right in with the clueless multitudes. But then we told them to get haircuts or shaved heads to fit in with the crewcut and balding crowd. They balked. “Gotta let my freak flag fly, man.” We dropped that idea.

We turned to the younger progressive crowd. The bloggers were no help, as they were too busy blogging their outrage to actually go out into the sunshine and feign outrage. One prog-blogger even said what we had expected all along – “I only go out at night – and that’s to the corner coffee shop with free wireless so I can blog some more.”

We tried some of the union members. Teachers’ union members (especially English teachers) said they wouldn’t be caught dead with a sign that spelled "socialism" as "socilism" and "liar" as "lier." We told them it was for a good cause, but they threatened to send us to the principal’s office. History teachers didn't like the idea of comparing an elected U.S. president with Hitler or Stalin. Teamsters wanted to get paid overtime – who were we to argue? Those in the service unions were overwhelmingly ethnic, which ruled them out immediately. We even tried actors and actresses, figuring they’d like to engage in a little street theatre. But they started to rewrite the plan. An avant-garde troupe from Chicago wanted to dress in drag and hold hands while carrying signs. We told them it would defeat the entire purpose. Nobody would believe they were Tea Partiers. And they might get their asses beat. Actors – always trying to rewrite the script.

This brought us to the plan’s major problem. Tea Partiers are white and old. Progressives tend to be non-white and young. Sure, there are a few of us aging white hippies in the mix. But not nearly enough to infiltrate all the Tea Party shindigs.

We’re recommending that Operation Miss Spell be abandoned. It’s turned out to be a gigantic hassle. We have some other ideas, such as hiding all dictionaries and disabling computer Spell Check programs with our "Brown Acid" virus. The committee will continue working on this.

In my book, every week is National Library Week

For links to a library near you, go to http://www.wyominglibraries.org/

For more about National Libraries Week, go to http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/pio/natlibraryweek/nlw.cfm

Local community college stimulated by gubment

I am a graduate of -- and a fan of -- community colleges. They were called junior colleges back in my day due to the fact that they were considered junior partners to four-year colleges. Farm teams, if you will. The place where second- and third- and even fourth-stringers went to brush up on their math and grammar and chemistry before they could consort with their high-SAT-scores brethren and sistren.

Community colleges are now cool. Witness the cool new sitcom "Community" on NBC (with Chevy Chase, no less). Pres. Obama is almost as excited about community colleges as he is about health care reform and NCAA men's basketball bracketology.

I think he picked Kansas as national champ. He's not always dead-on.

Our local community college has received some stimulus funds from the gubment. Here's what the Associated Press reported yesterday:

Laramie County Community College officials say the Cheyenne school is receiving about $5.3 million in federal stimulus funds to contribute to its upcoming budget.

Vice President of Administration and Finance Carol Hoglund says the college will get $2.2 million in stimulus money to help with salaries and costs of enrollment growth. The school will also receive $3.15 million in stimulus money for major maintenance needs.

Glennbeckistan casts its fundie eyes on Wyoming

Why is Glenn Beck casting his crazy eyes at the southwest corner of Wyoming?

Could it be that one of the Republican Party candidates for Wyoming Governor is right-winger and potential Tea Partier Ron Micheli from Uinta County? Is it a coincidence that southwest Wyoming once was part of Utah Territory until it was taken away in punishment for LDS polygamy?

Methinks that Ron Micheli is a card-carrying member of Glennbeckistan.

For more info on this strange and amazing country, go to Chip Ward's article on truthout at http://www.truthout.org/welcome-glennbeckistan58079

Cheyenne's Art Design & Dine featured local art & local food and local friends

I had a great time during Art Design & Dine on Thursday in Cheyenne.

Eight local Cheyenne art and design venues were open for what was billed as "an evening of art, food and fun."

Agreed.

My first stop was Georgia Roswell's Artful Hand Studio and Gallery on the corner of First Avenue and House. It's across the street from the house of my first boss in Wyoming, Joy Thompson. Georgia and Dave Rowswell ventured out from Georgia to live and work in Cheyenne -- and we're glad they did. Georgia incorporates paints and old jeans and cheesecloth and okra into her work. Yes, okra. I'm not a fan of okra unless its teamed up with Andouille sausage and shrimp and tomatoes in gumbo. But Georgia has found a cool new use for this heretofore slimy vegetable.

Georgia has a great new piece showing an aerial view of the Florida Keys (in photo, "The Keys," mixed media, 7"x24"). She's spent a lot of time in Siesta Key. Not my favorite Keys' locale. But she's done a fine job incorpirating cheesecloth and paints in this piece. Made me homesick for the beach. Any beach.

Artful Hand also featured work by local artist and librarian Meghan Cochrane. Meghan spoke about her quilting technique using aerial photographs. She was able to salvage discarded black-and-white aerial photos from the 1940s. She cuts them apart and weaves them by hand and sewing machine to make intriguing photo paper quilts.

Local artist Win Ratz also had work in Artful Hand.

Georgia served up some of her delicious baked goods.

Rebecca Barrett's Link Gallery also featured art and food. The food came from 901, the hot new downtown drinking and dining establishment. Naturally, I haven't been there yet as I'm about as "with it" as black-and-white photos from the forties.

Lots of people in the Link admiring regional art and watching a performance by a local punk/spoken word band. Alan O'Hashi was on hand to announce the line-up for the Cheyenne International Film Festival.

I only managed to visit two of the evening's eight galleries before I launched into a coughing jag. I've been sick all winter, and now have a cough that won't go away. Doctor tells me to take more vitamin C and D and get more sleep. I have a feeling I need some beach time. But the closest I'm going to get for now is ogling the Florida Keys hanging on the wall of the Artful Hand.

Sustainability Summit April 12-13 at UW

UW has had some bad luck of late with speakers. First Bill Ayers gets the ax and then Vandana Shiva cancels her keynote speech at the Shepard Symposium.

But this event is coming up next week and it looks like a winner:


This Sustainability Summit is intended to provide a forum for local leaders and interested citizens to learn about environmental, social, and economic sustainability. The Wyoming Sustainability Summit will provide a venue for sharing information about challenges and successes with sustainability initiatives and how to successfully address these issues in residences, businesses, and communities. We hope this summit will stimulate conversation within and between Wyoming communities. The Summit will include panel discussions, keynote presentations, and round table discussions between community leaders and citizens.

General public registration is now closed. Walk-ins are welcome on the day(s) of the conference for $25, if seating remains. Meals/snacks will not be available for walk-ins.

Contact: Jill Lovato, Co-Chair, UW Campus Sustainability Committee, and Haub School/Ruckelshaus ENR Project Coordinator, (307) 760-4149, or mailto:jillberg@uwyo.edu?subject=Wyoming%20Sustainability%20Summit.

Speakers:

Kick-off Speaker - Taylor Haynes MD, UW Trustee, Owner/President of Thunderbasin Land Livestock & Investment Company, and member of the Ruckelshaus Institute Board. Haynes will discuss organic beef ranching and holistic resource management.

Keynote Speaker - Bob Dixson, Mayor of Greensburg, Kansas. Mayor Dixson will discuss Greensburg's GreenTown program, which is an effort to provide support, resources, and information to residents on creating a model green building community and sustainable principles for rebuilding processes.

Synthesis Speaker - Duke Castle, The Castle Group. Castle will discuss Oregon-based the Natural Step Network, a nonprofit organization that he founded in 1997 to show business and community organizers how they can move toward creating a sustainable society while maintaining a healthy economy.

Lunchtime Speaker (April 12) Brian Kuehl - Managing Partner of the law firm, The Clark Group. Kuehl will discuss how engaging the whole community contributes to sustainability. His talk will include case studies from around the United States to explain how the act of bringing together traditional adversaries is essential for sustainability.


Accommodations:
Hilton Garden Inn and other lodging (click here). Discounted rooms ($99) are available at the Hilton until March 12, on a first-come, first-serve basis. Please indicate that you are attending the "Wyoming Sustainability Summit" when you reserve your room, or contact for Breann Tolman at (307) 721-7570.

UW cancels Ayers' speech, but he still gets paid

From the AP today:

The director of a University of Wyoming center that invited a former 1960s radical to campus says he canceled the event because of safety concerns and because the event's purpose was lost.

The invitation to William Ayers to speak drew hundreds of protests.

Ayers was invited by Franciso Rios, director of the UW Social Justice Research Center.

Rios says he and other UW officials received hostile e-mails and telephone calls about Ayers' scheduled speech on Monday.

Rios says Ayers had originally been invited to speak about educational issues, but controversy over Ayers' personal history had overshawdowed that.

Rios says Ayers will be paid a $5,000 speaking fee. The money comes from the center's private endowment funds.

In praise of indie bookstores supporting local authors in Rocky Mountain states

Hummingbirdminds saw this post on the Rocky Mountain Authors at the Tattered Cover Facebook page. While it was written with Colorado authors in mind, I think it can easily be revised to reflect an interest in writers from a Big Square State other than Colorado.

Here's my revised version:

There are lots of good reasons to read work by local Rocky Mountain authors. Here are a few, and feel free to add your own good reasons to this list!

1. Buying a book by a local author from your local Tattered Cover Book Store helps to keep money in the State of ColoradoWyoming, instead of sending it off around the country where ColoradoWyoming residents can't benefit from sales taxes or business incentives. Money spent in ColoradoWyoming, ON ColoradoWyoming, STAYS in ColoradoWyoming.

2. By supporting local authors, you help diversify the knowledge that can be distributed through the written word in the Rocky Mountain region. We write lots of books here in the Rockies that can be found nowhere else on Earth (except perhaps online on the Tattered Cover website! http://www.tatteredcover.com/).

3. When you buy a local author's book, you are helping to nurture the artistic and intellectual community of ColoradoWyoming. Studies show that great cities and great communities are great not because of their technology or industry, but because of their arts and cultural offerings. Every time you buy a locally written book you add another brick to the cultural palace of the Rocky Mountains!

Other states in the Rocky Mountain West may want to do some customizing of their own. What say you Montana and New Mexico and Utah and Arizona and Idaho?

Now go investigate other regional writers at http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Denver-CO/Rocky-Mountain-Authors-at-the-Tattered-Cover/351469358952?ref=nf

I noticed a very fine section of Rocky Mountain writers (past and present) during a visit last week to Lander's Book Basket on Main Street. I know that the bookstore disguised as a barn at Sweetwater Junction packs plenty of heat by local and regional writers. I didn't stop there during my recent trip due to the fact that I couldn't see the turnoff in the blizzard. I could go on and on about fantastic bookstores in unexpected places. You can find a long list at the Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association page.

Check out Bill Ayers' letter on Meg's blog

Meg Lanker, Laramie rabble-rouser and radio personality, printed a letter from activist Bill Ayers on her blog, http://www.wyomingnewsunderground.com/2010/04/doublespeak-at-university-of-wyoming.html.

This was in response to his invitation and then disinvitation to speak at the University of Wyoming. It's a long letter so I won't reprint it here. But I welcome you to read it and then spread it far and wide like tumbleweeds of truth unleashed by a righteous Wyoming cyclone of social justice.

Discussion on Ayers' cancellation at UW today

The University of Wyoming is hosting a panel discussion on the recent cancellation of a speech by William Ayers. It will take place in the Wyoming Union Center Ballroom in Laramie on Tuesday (today!), 11 a.m.-1 p.m.

Perhaps someone from the UW administration can explain how the cancellation of a speech by an educator and one-time sixties radical Bill Ayers can be seen as a display of academic freedom.

Just asking...

A short lesson in "Teabonics"

Prog-bloggers looking for an array of Tea Party protest signs with "creative" spelling and grammar need look no further than Flickr. Pargon has compiled a "Teabonics" sampler at http://www.flickr.com/photos/pargon/sets/72157623594187379/

More about Jim Corbett, Sanctuary co-founder and "goatwalking" guru

Fie on all writers who introduce me to new people and places and things on a quiet Sunday morning when all I want to do is sip coffee and make snarky Facebook comments.

I just spent the past hour looking up info on Jim Corbett (see previous post). I discovered his 1992 book, "Goatwalking," published by Penguin. I found out that "goatwalking" is now a part of the environmental and social justice worlds. A philosophy, too, one that challenges us to see with "desert eyes." Corbett, alas, had no easy answers. He was a Quaker and a goatwalker and a member of the National Rifle Association until cancer claimed him in 2001.

Find out much more at http://www.amazon.com/Goatwalking-Wildland-Living-Jim-Corbett/dp/0140122478/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_1

And now I have another book to read....

Remembering Wyoming's connection to the West's Sanctuary Movement

Cheyenne's Jack Pugh wrote a great column from Tucson for this morning's Wyoming Tribune-Eagle. It focused on the Sanctuary Movement of the 1980s. Members of Sanctuary gave aid to refugees from U.S.-supported right-wing goverments in Guatemala and El Salvador. Many churches in the West were part of Sanctuary's "Underground Railroad," including mine in Denver -- the 10:30 Catholic Community.

Jack wrote about some little-known history. Jim Corbett, one of the founders of Sanctuary, was born in Casper, Wyoming. His father, George Corbett, was a lawyer and Wyoming legislator who got into deep kimchee when he defended conscientious objectors during World War II. It's dangerous to go up against conventional wisdom, but defending a CO during "The Good War" must have been more than daunting. His political career ruined, he moved his family to a ranch in southeast Arizona.

His son, Jim, became a Quaker and traveled the Arizona wilderness with his goats.

"Jim Corbett led refugees across the Sonoran Desert to safety with his goats, sustained by goat's milk and foraging."

I knew the name of Jim Corbett but had no idea of his history or his Wyoming connection. People in the Sanctuary Movement were brave, truly motivated by deeply held Christian principles. I met some of them -- and those they rescued -- at my Sanctuary Church during the 1980s.

People don't understand how tough it is to act on your beliefs. It's one thing to wave signs and shout slogans. I've done my fair share of that. It's another to live your principles, day in and day out, especially when your life and livelihood are in jeopardy.

"In 1985, the U.S. government indicted 16 Sanctuary workers in Arizona for violation of immigration laws. Eight of them were convicted and received probation."

I wish I could send you to Digital WTE to read the rest of the story. But it's not on-line -- I checked. Guess you'll just have to shell out $1.25 for the printed Sunday paper. Jack's column alone is worth the price.

Setting Sen. Enzi straight on the facts

On Friday, the Cowboy State Free Press ran a piece about the response of the Wyoming Democratic Party to some of Sen. Enzi's scarifying non-facts on health care reform and student loan legislation.

Here are some excerpts:

In a statement on Mar. 31, Sen. Enzi suggested a list of bold numbers in relation to health reform, but there are a few numbers Sen. Enzi forgot to mention, according to Wyoming Democratic Party Communications Director Brianna Jones, some of which are:

128.8% – Increase in health insurance premiums for working families in Wyoming from 2000-2007.

27.9% – Increase in Wyoming worker’s wages between 2000-2007, a difference of almost 100% from the previous figure

71,000 – The number of uninsured in Wyoming as of 2008

$40 billion – Under reform, amount of tax credits available to small businesses to help them offer coverage beginning in 2010

$40 billion – The investment which will be invested in Pell grants to help low income students attend college under the reconciliation legislation.

$2 billion – Investment in community colleges in the next four years, which today serve more than 6 million students.

Sen. Enzi’s rhetoric does not fit with reality and we see that time and time again, She said. For example:

RHETORIC: Wyoming residents will pay higher taxes.

REALITY: It is agreed by economists that by taxing the highest cost plans this provision will lead insurance companies to be more efficient and provide quality care to consumers at lower prices. [White House blog, 12/16/09; PWC, 2009; CBO 2009]

RHETORIC: Wyoming residents who have insurance will see their premiums rise.

REALITY: For a vast majority premiums would go down 14-20 percent as estimated by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Subsidies will lower costs for as much as 59 percent for 18 million people buying their own insurance, said the CBO. [Wall Street Journal Washington Wire, 2/25/10; New York Times, 12/4/09; Bloomberg, 12/1/09]

RHETORIC: Medicare enrollees will see decreased access to care because of cuts.

REALITY: Health reform strengthens Medicare by cutting wasteful spending. The doughnut hole is closed and affordable coverage will be more attainable, says AARP. [AARP letter to Sen. Harry Reid, 12/15/09; FactCheck.org, 11/3/09; CMS Report, 12/10/09]

RHETORIC: Health insurance premiums for Wyoming’s small businesses will rise.

REALITY: $40 billion worth of tax credits will be available to small businesses to help them offer coverage starting in 2010. According to a study by The Third Way Economic Program, “Over the next 15 years, American businesses would collectively spend $637 billion less on their share of health insurance premiums, and their workers would save a collective $177 billion. [Time Magazine, 2/22/10, Bending the Curve: 12 Ways Health Reform Will Tackle Runaway Costs, 1/12/10]

RHETORIC: Medicare Advantage enrollees will see their benefits reduced by half.

REALITY: Reforms to Medicare Advantage will end wasteful subsidies to health insurance companies without affecting benefits and would reduce or eliminate the difference in part by introducing a competitive bidding system to pay the plans [AP, 9/22/09; Boston Globe, 9/24/09]

RHETORIC: Wyoming will be burdened by Medicaid expansions.

REALITY: Health insurance reform will pay for 100% of Medicaid expansion for states through 2017, then 95% for 2018-2019, and then 90% for 2020 and beyond. [White House, 2/22/10]

RHETORIC: Wyoming college students will pay more on student loans to fund health care.

REALITY: Student lending reform will make higher education more achievable and will increase Pell grants, cap repayments, and invest in community colleges. Before students payed 6.8 percent on their unsubsidized federal loans and will continue to pay the same rate. [Politifact, 3/30/10; New York Times, 3/30/10; New York Times, 3/30/10; New York Times, 3/30/10]

Obama puts the "O" in Offshore Oil drilling

Bizarre announcement today by President Obama. Oil drilling off the East Coast? The plan, Obama said in the New York Times, would "balance the need to produce more domestic energy while protecting natural resources." It would allow drilling along the Atlantic coast, just offshore from my old Daytona Beach haunts, all the way up the coast to the Delmarva Peninsula. There also would be more drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the north coast of Alaska. This signals the end of a moratorium on exploration from Delaware to Daytona, an area that covers about 167 million acres of ocean.

I've always been astonished that the McCain/Palin "Drill, Baby, Drill" crowd would want to see drilling along the Atlantic Coast and the Gulf. I was equally astonished that Southern Congressional Republicans would want drilling in their own backyards. Do they really want all of those coastal Repub retirees stepping in globs of goo on their pristine beaches and then writing scads of complaining e-mails to D.C.? I think not. One thing you can count on with retirees: they complain and they vote. They also like their beaches free of goo.

Most Americans seem O.K. with oil drilling in the country's beachless locales. Wyoming, for instance. Oklahoma too. They also are very tolerant of digging coal out of Wyoming's cold, windswept prairie -- or blowing the tops off of West Virginia mountains. Who cares about those cowpokes in Wyoming and the hillbillies of Appalachia? If they really counted, if they were people with clout, they would live on North Carolina's Outer Banks or Georgia's Sea Islands or on Sanibel or even along Florida's Redneck Riviera.

So far, Repubs have been lukewarm to Pres. Obama's plan to "Drill, Baby, Drill." Perhaps they are just being their old obstructionist selves. Or perhaps they have nightmares of what could happen once the gooey byproducts of oil drilling hits the beaches. The envision legions of indignant golf-cart-driving codgers converging on D.C. They halt Beltway traffic and march on Congressional offices. They wave their putters and shout unintelligible slogans. They track oily black sneaker prints through the corridors of power. Security won't stop them, as the protesters look too much like their grandma and grandpa in St. Pete. In fact, they really are grandma and grandpa from St. Pete. "Get out of the way sonny -- those damn oil-drilling, goo-spilling politicians have to be stopped."

This offshore oil drilling plan may be a harder sell that Obama imagines.