The Fix list is in, and hummingbirdminds is on it

Chris Cilliza at the Washington Post's The Fix recently put out a call for the year's best political blogs in each of the 50 states.

Making the list for Wyoming are Jeremy Pelzer's Wyoming Capitol Journal at the Casper Star-Tribune and hummingbirdminds. Thanks to Larry Kurtz at South Dakota's Interested Party for pointing this out.

Regional prog-blogs making the list are Square State in Colorado, Madville Times in S.D., and Montana Cowgirl in Montana.

Great company for this humble ink-stained electron-drenched wretch.

If you want to see candidates for future best-of lists, go to my right sidebar under WY Progressives and click away.

Rep. Cynthia Lummis votes against further cuts to the NEA

Stunned Wyoming arts advocates passed this along to me so I'm sharing it with you:

House Votes against NEA Funding Cuts; Strong Comeback for Arts Advocacy  

July 29, 2011

From: Thomas L. Birch, Legislative Counsel, National Assembly of State Arts Agencies 

The vote in the House of Representatives on July 28 demonstrated a strong victory for arts advocates intent on gaining legislative support for federal arts funding. The amendment offered by Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI), a freshman in Congress and a member of the conservative Republican Study Committee (RSC), would have reduced 2012 appropriations for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to $125 million from the level of $135 million proposed in the bill approved by the House Appropriations Committee. Walberg sponsored a similar amendment last February to bring 2011 NEA funds down to $125 million. That amendment passed by a vote of 217-209. Yesterday's vote, recorded at 181-240, defeated the Walberg amendment. 

This time around, the voting patterns noticeably shifted. Even some of our champions in Congress were surprised at the size of the winning vote. In February, 22 Republicans joined all but three Democrats in voting against the arts funding cut. This week, all Democrats and 55 Republicans voted together to defeat the move to reduce the NEA funds. Conservative Republicans teamed up with moderates from their own party to carry the vote. Almost half the Republicans voting in support of the NEA's budget and against the Walberg amendment are, like Walberg, freshmen in Congress and RSC members. 

Clearly, forces combined to win that outcome. The advocacy of NASAA's members was strong and engaged. Personal contacts carried the day. Our colleagues in other arts organizations were equally involved through their grass-roots networks. Our bipartisan champions in Congress stood visibly against the proposed funding cut. Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID), chair of the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, had pledged earlier to oppose attempts on the House floor to cut the NEA budget. He was true to his word and his Democratic colleague on the subcommittee, Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA), was eloquent on the floor in defense of federal arts funding. The co-chairs of the Congressional Arts Caucus played major roles during the floor debate. Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) organized floor speeches with her colleagues to speak against the Walberg amendment. Rep. Todd Platts (R-PA) whipped votes against the amendment from among his Republican colleagues. 

Here are the 55 Republicans who voted to hold the line on cuts to the NEA, opposing the Walberg amendment. Each of them deserves special thanks. Please let your representatives know how much you appreciate their position in support of the NEA budget and the important role the funding plays in your state. 

Republicans voting against the Walberg amendment:  

--clip--

Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyoming. 

The House of Representatives plans to continue meeting through the weekend to finish work on the Interior Appropriations Bill—and to produce a plan for raising the debt ceiling—but their work is done on the arts appropriations.  

Many thanks again to all of you for your effective advocacy in turning around an important vote on the way to realizing the best possible budget for the NEA in 2012. Please take a moment to express your thanks to your own representatives who stood up in support of funding for the arts.

Thank you, Rep. Lummis. Don't get to say that very often.

Wyoming August night haiku

Dog nights of summer

So still outside my window

Distant barking dogs

Rural states will be hurt the most with arts cutbacks

Kansas

Wyoming

From today's article, "Arts outposts stung by cuts in state aid," in the New York Times:

...much of America’s artistic activity does not happen in major recital halls and theaters; instead it occurs in places like Lucas [KS], population 407, where the cultural attractions include S. P. Dinsmoor’s Garden of Eden historic folk art site and where smaller arts organizations are highly dependent on state grants. 

This is also true in Wyoming. The big differences between Wyoming and Kansas?

Well, Wyoming has a population of 550,000 while Kansas tips the people scale at 2,853,000 -- about five times the Equality State count.

Kansas is flat while Wyoming is anything but. Wyoming is more white than Kansas -- 91 percent to 83 percent. Way above the 50-state average of 72 percent.

One other thing. Wyoming funds the arts a lot better than does Kansas.

Wyoming Arts Council budget: $2.1 million ($1.3 million from the state legislature)

Kansas Arts Commission budget: zero.

Why the difference. Well, the Know Nothings on the Radical Christian Right have a firmer hold on Kansas than on Wyoming. Yes, we have kooky Tea Party types in our legislature. This most recent legislative session told us that. But we can't hold a candle to Kansas.

As do most states, Kansas has a split personality. You have your city liberals and your rural conservatives. But worse -- the state's southern half is part of the Bible Belt. Not only are they conservative. They're bat-shit crazy as is the case with so many on the literalist Radical Christian Right. Remember the battles over evolution (science) vs. creationism in the curriculum.

No Bible Belt in Wyoming. O.K., we have the LDS influence in southwest Wyoming. The most radical Right of the 2010 GOP gubernatorial candidates was Ron Micheli from Uinta County. He's indicative of the very conservative leanings of the state's LDS population.

Here's an irony for you though. Our neighbor Utah, home of the international LDS conglomerate, has the nation's oldest state arts agency, established in 1899. Wonderful ballet and symphony and arts education programs in the Beehive State. But most of the politics is conservative, even reactionary. State firearm anyone?

Wyoming, as a rule, has a live-and-let-live attitude. Not always -- Judy Shepard, Matt's mom, could attest to that. When conflicts arise over art and the funding of art, the battle can get pretty brutal. The Grand Poobahs of the state's oil and gas industry were none too pleased recently with Chris Drury's public installation at UW. Entitled "What Goes Around Comes Around," it illustrates the link between the burning of coal and forest pine beetle infestations caused by global warming. The controversy over the work began with an incendiary piece in the Casper Star-Tribune, raged around the blogs for a day or two, and then died. Perhaps our state's leaders were away fishing in the Wind Rivers or wrapped up in Cheyenne Frontier Days. The fooferaw died out and now Drury's sculpture is drawing lots of visitors.

The biodegradable piece, part of the UW Art Museum's outdoor sculpture project, was partially funded by a grant from the Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund.

During these crazy times, Wyoming will not be immune from Radical Right attacks on art and arts funding. All gubment programs and all creativity will come under attack from these Know Nothings.

This leaves me with one final question: WTF is wrong with Kansas? With a little editing, this could be a book title.

House concerts catching on in Cheyenne

Casper musicians Amy Gieske and Cory McDaniel perform at a Cheyenne house concert Sunday evening. Cheyenne organizers snagged the duo on their way back to Casper from a fund-raiser for Habitat for Humanity in Albany County. House concerts are nothing new but catching on in Wyoming as a grassroots way to hear live music in an intimate setting.  Photo by Linda Coatney.

Putting Wyoming in charge of health insurance will work as well as putting Wyoming in charge of energy policy

From the New York Times:

The Obama administration will soon take over the review of health insurance rates in 10 states where it says state officials do not adequately regulate premiums for insurance sold to individuals or small businesses.

Wyoming, of course, is one of these states. Here's a quote on the subject from Sen. Dr. Barrasso:

Senator John Barrasso, Republican of Wyoming, complained that federal officials were stripping states of the freedom to run their health insurance markets. 

“In Wyoming, state leaders have chosen to let the free market work,” Mr. Barrasso said, “ The president and his administration have no idea what is best for the people of Wyoming. The people of Wyoming know what works for our state better than any Washington bureaucrat.”

Imagine putting our Know Nothing, gubment-hating, Republican-dominated state legislature in charge of our health insurance choices? Sheer suicide. And Dr Barrasso knows this. Seems like he is suggesting assisted suicide for all Wyoming residents. More than suggesting it -- he's advocating it. Maybe this is better (with a nod to Rep. Alan Grayson during the Congressional health care debates): Hurry up and die, Wyomingites. Hurry up and die. 

FMI: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/26/health/policy/26health.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha23

Congressional Republicans just want to watch the world burn

From Meg Lanker . I know that Sen. Dr. Barrasso is in here somewhere with all these OWGs from the GOP.

Little nukes on the prairie: how our Air Force missileers are being trained

A slide from a PowerPoint presentation for nuclear missile officers cites St. Augustine's Just War Theory to teach missile officers about the morals and ethics of launching nuclear weapons. Image: United States Air Force. Re-posted from truthout.

Very interesting set of blog posts today for those of us who are neighbors to the many nuke missile silos that dot the Wyoming prairie.

The U.S. Air Force has pulled a missileer training course that enlists former Nazi Party member (and one of the architects of the U.S. space program) Wernher von Braun as a moral authority and leans heavily on the Bible (and St. Augustine) to justify throwing nukes at our neighbors.

Truthout broke the story and now notes today that the USAF has pulled the Powerpoint program. I was first alerted to the story by problembear at 4&20 blackbirds. This is appropriate since Montana and North Dakota and Wyoming are home to the majority of U.S. land-based nukes.

First read problembear, and then move on to truthout's original piece and today's follow-up.

And then go read The Confessions of St. Augustine (I read it in the eighth grade to little effect) and see what he has to say about throw weights and MAD and nuclear winter.

UPDATE: Read problembear's post and then spend time reading the incendiary comments. Yowzir!

ANOTHER UPDATE: Satirist Tom Lehrer's take on Wernher von Braun' opportunistic politics at http://youtu.be/TjDEsGZLbio

Do Leftie bloggers really hate Christians or their un-Christian attitudes?

Seems that I will always have material for weekend blogging as long as the local Radical Christian Right is on the job.

Harlan Edmonds wrote an op-ed in today's Wyoming Tribune-Eagle. Mr. Edmonds has hit those pages before -- and hit them hard -- with screeds against abortion, Liberals, immigrants, RINOs -- you name it.

I don't mind screeds as I sometimes engage in those same tactics. But shouldn't they make sense or present some solid evidence for the Average Joe (or Mike) to latch onto.

His target is "Tough Enough to Wear Pink" day held Thursday at Cheyenne Frontier Days. On that day, burly dudes in pink wrestle steers and ride bucking broncos. In Thursday's parade, Gov. Matt Mead wore pink, as did Secretary of State Max Maxfield. Members of the CFD committee wore pink. This was a statement advocating increased funding for breast cancer research for all those women in our lives faced with the disease. The CFD's charity of choice on this issue is the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundations. Christian Right activists contend that some of the money donated to Komen MAY end up being donated to Planned Parenthood which MIGHT use it to counsel poor women to have abortions.

In the name of Christian purity, Mr. Edmonds and Mr. Wall contend that not a penny of our money should go to a wonderful charity which saves lives and will some day help to find a cure for women afflicted with breast cancer. They may be our wives or daughters or co-workers or someone we don't even know.

How very un-Christian of you Christian gentlemen.

But that's not the point, is it? Mr.. Edmonds will believe what he believes and logic will not shake him. He spends most of his column with ad hominem attacks local Christian minister and fellow Leftie blogger Rodger McDaniel. Mr. Edmonds says that the Rev. McDaniel "managed to squeeze more anti-Christian bigotry into a single WTE piece recently than Mullah Omar could fit in a four-hour fatwa."

I always like it when Christian fundamentalists try to equate Lefties with Muslim fundamentalists. As we all know, Fundies of all stripes believe in the same basic philosophy -- literalism. This is one of the reasons that some of my fellow Leftie bloggers label the American Christian Right "the American Taliban."

And I just did the same thing. Oops!

Lefties have learned a few things during the past 40 yars or so. Literalism is a dead end, whether it applies to the Bible or to The Communist Manifesto, the Koran or Mao's Little Red Book, the Book of Mormon or The Port Huron Statement. Living your life by the tenets of one little book penned by humans (and possibly inspired by God) eventually backs you into a corner.

It's also un-democratic (small "d"). The humanist principles upon which America was founded call upon citizens to continue to continually think and grow. Fundies, by nature, reach a dead end in their personal growth. All they are left with is a striving toward the End Times and eternal salvation. The hell with society. The hell with my fellow man and human. The hell with cancer cures and global arming solutions and universal health care.

In the end, they are anti-life.

In its efforts to aid humankind, CFD advocates life over death. I have a feeling that there are a few Christians within the CFD leadership ranks. And you can't swing a cat at a rodeo without knocking down a Christian cowboy or cowgirl. I know because I tried that last year and burly security guards wearing pink threw me out of the rodeo grounds.

SECURITY GUARD: "We don't cotton to your kind around here."
ME: "Leftie bloggers?"
SECURITY GUARD: "No, guys who swing cats."

I left, chastened.

Another thing I've noticed about fundamentalists, whether they be Mullah Omar or Harlan Edmonds -- they have no sense of humor.

I strive for humor and sometimes succeed. Maybe that's why I was inspired to wear pink fairy wings during my turn as emcee Thursday evening at the Atlas Theatre's old-fashioned melodrama. The pink wings looked great with my cowboy duds. "Tough enough to wear pink fairy wings!"

Take that, you close-minded fundies.

UPLIFT hosts big yard/parking lot sale Aug. 6 in Cheyenne

On Saturday, Aug. 6, 8 a.m.-noon., UPLIFT of Wyoming is holding its Cheyenne Yard Sale in the parking lot of the Oregon Trail Bank on the corner of College Drive and Lincolnway. Lots of goods for sale. Prizes, and a car wash too. This is UPLIFT"s big fund-raiser for 2011. I've been a board member of this very active non-profit organization since 1998. UPLIFT's mission: "Encouraging success and stability for children and youth with or at risk of emotional, behavioral, learning, developmental, or physical disorders at home, school and in the community." A tall order, considering the huge needs in this very rural state of 97,000 square miles. UPLIFT has offices statewide and, in the past six months, its small staff has assisted 576 youth in 21 counties. Those are kids that would fall through the cracks if it wasn't for UPLIFT services funded by state and federal government agencies and donations from good people like you. A true public-private partnership. Come to this yard/parking lot sale or donate online at http://www.upliftwy.org.

America's own Taliban -- Al Jazeera English

We have some of these strange people in Wyoming. They advocate the destruction of Native American religious artifacts. Go to America's own Taliban - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

Don't be a Know Nothing -- Read!

From Shelf Awareness:

For Banned Books Week, which will be held September 24-October 1 this year, readers, booksellers and librarians around the world can participate by posting videos of themselves reading from their favorite banned books on a special YouTube channel. Excerpts may be up to two minutes long, and people who talk about battles defending banned or challenged books make speak for up to three minutes. 

The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression is encouraging booksellers to film their customers as part of this effort and will provide instruction on how to create the videos. Booksellers can send the videos to ABBFE, which will edit them, add store names and logos and post them. The videos will be tagged so that stores can put them on their websites, blogs, Facebook pages and Twitter accounts. 

ABFFE is also helping booksellers participate in more traditional ways: its Banned Books Week handbook offers tips on promotions, including making displays, as well as listing posters that can be downloaded and reproduced at copy shops. The American Library Association has promotional information, too.

Oregon tests "solar highways"

So Oregon, which has about half of the average annual sunlight as Wyoming, is turning one stretch of interstate into a "solar highway." You might wonder why Wyoming can't do something that Oregon can. For one thing, Wyoming produces most of its and the nation's energy the old-fashioned way, by burning coal. The coal and oil and gas lobbies would never stand for it. Second, Wyoming is running out of highway funds, so it is concentrating its road efforts more on patching the holes than on rebuilding infrastructure or trying new things. Third, Oregon's a blue state with progressive environmental policies and Wyoming isn't. Maybe Colorado, another sun-drenched Rocky Mountain state, will pick up on this idea.

From Grist:

Okay, we know YOU ride your bike everywhere. But the country’s 4 million miles of roads, and 50,000 miles of interstate highway, probably aren’t going anywhere any time soon. Isn’t there anything productive we can do with this giant car playground? Well, we can cover it with solar photovoltaic panels, so it’s at least providing some energy.

Oregon's already testing the idea, installing panel arrays along highway shoulders. Others want to embed the solar panels directly into the road surface, and have already received funding to test the idea. California wants to try it along parts of Route 101. 

 If you think about it, roads are a perfect place to put solar: They're already public land, they've already been cleared and graded, they're adjacent to infrastructure like towns and power lines, and they're super accessible for repair and upgrades. Also, they’re already sitting out in the sun all day. 

Poll: More trust Obama over Republicans in Congress on debt, deficit issues

Listen up, Wyoming Sen./Dr. John Barrasso and Sen. Mike Enzi -- the clock is ticking on your Radical Right agenda: Poll: More trust Obama over Republicans in Congress on debt, deficit issues - The Hill's On The Money

Vertical Harvest @ The Roof in Jackson

Very cool project to build a vertical greenhouse  on the south side of the downtown parking garage in Jackson. The big launch is Thursday, July 28, on the top floor of the garage. Lots of local food and music and beer from the good folks at the Thai Me Up Brewery. Try the Brother Ted Dubbel or the Dopplebock. FMI: http://verticalharvest.wordpress.com/.  

Defy the Hate Open Shoot, Frontier Days version, takes place July 27 at Atlas Theatre

Defy the Hate Open Shoot will be held on Wednesday, July 27, 1-5 p.m., at the Historic Atlas Theatre in downtown Cheyenne. Celebrate Cheyenne Day in a slightly different way by making a statement. First get shot, then go party. While at the Atlas, you can buy tickets for the Old-Fashioned Summer Melodrama.

Here’s info from Matthew Angelo:

It is that time of year for Cheyenne Frontier Days. So in honor of that, we need you to Cowboy Up and make a stand against bullying and hate, but with a western twist. That's right, break out the Wranglers, white t-shirt, and yes the cowboy hat (not a requirement). Let’s show the tourists who come to Cheyenne, that Wyoming won't sit back and let their kids be bullied or hated in any way. 

Roy Zimmerman offers a satirical antidote to Red State weirdness with a Sept. 1 Cheyenne concert

The Unitarian Universalist Church in Cheyenne hosts Roy Zimmerman on Thursday, September 1 at 7 p.m. Below is some information about Roy and there is much more on YouTube or his web site.

“Live From the Starving Ear” is 90 minutes of Roy Zimmerman’s wickedly inventive satirical songs.  The Tea Party, the economy, same-sex marriage, Socialism, Creationism, guns, taxes, abstinence and yes, Obama, all come under tuneful scrutiny. “There’s a whole new political landscape,” he says, “painted by Jackson Pollock.”

In twelve albums over twenty years, Roy has brought the sting of satire to the struggle for Peace and Social Justice.  His songs have been heard on HBO and Showtime.  He has recorded for Warner/Reprise Records.  He’s been profiled on NPR’s “All Things Considered,” and he's a featured blogger for the Huffington Post.  Roy’s YouTube videos have garnered over six million views and tens of thousands of comments, many of them coherent.  And yes, he has a website: http://royzimmerman.com/

The Los Angeles Times says, “Zimmerman displays a lacerating wit and keen awareness of society’s foibles that bring to mind a latter-day Tom Lehrer.”

Tom Lehrer himself says, "I congratulate Roy Zimmerman on reintroducing literacy to comedy songs. And the rhymes actually rhyme, they don't just 'rhyne.'"

Joni Mitchell says, "Roy's lyrics move beyond poetry and achieve perfection."

Watch one of Roy's YouTube videos at http://youtu.be/qNi1sevKNd0

Daily Kos: A New Literary Movement from the Mountain West (And Why it Matters)

Posted yesterday by nonnyidaho at Daily Kos was this intriguing piece about a new artistic movement taking root in eastern Idaho and northeren Utah. Using the name "Parkwood Kind" after "Parkwood Acres" near Rigby, Idaho, these young people are abandoning their LDS upbringings to explore Buddhism and Liberal politics. Their explorations come in the form of poetry and music.

...by using the medium of art, and by appealing to the humanity (not the ideology) of those willing to listen to them. The Parkwood Kind is relevant today because their approach to this polarized political atmosphere could teach all of America a lesson. They are preaching a revolutionary concept: following our own consciences, despite the political or ideological repercussions.  And their consciences, as expressed in their works, are most often proponents of a progressive, environmentally friendly society where individualism, sustainability, and equality are supreme.

Haven't read or listened to the work yet so can't speak to that. But it's always good to spread the word about something positive coming out of the usual depressing dreck that issues from the Tea Party-influenced neighborhood of ID/UT/WY. My neighborhood.

Go to: Unlikely Generation: A New Literary Movement from the Mountain West (And Why it Matters)

Cheyenne's people are not exactly retiring types

Typical Cheyenne volunteers

In my previous post, I was a bit unfair to both AARP The Magazine and Cheyenne The City. Cheyenne is a great town with many amenities. Yes, it has low taxes, which makes many retirees happy. But it also has the 115-year history of Cheyenne Frontier Days, not only a Western tradition but one that depends almost entirely on volunteers.

Not every century-old event can say this.

I am a volunteer at the Old-Fashioned Melodrama, now in its 55th season. It's the summer offering of the Cheyenne Little Theatre Players, now in its 85th year. Easterners used to counting events and buildings and neighborhoods in centuries might scoff at the idea of anything in two figures being a tradition.

But just think about how tough it is to get an organization up and running -- and then to keep it running. I've been a member of organizations that have disappeared after a decade. I've participated in events that start with a bang but end with a whimper a few years later.

So, a 55-year-old volunteer-run event is a thing of beauty.

Yesterday evening, my wife Chris and I were part of a melodrama volunteer corps at the Historic Atlas Theatre. I was house manager and Chris ran the box office. Jim the retiree and Lexie the high school girl ran the concessions. An Air Force retiree and an attorney and a computer guy staffed the bar. Carol ran the 50/50 raffle table. She took a tumble recently and is using a walker. There is nothing on heaven or earth that will interfere with Carol's volunteer time at the melodrama. That includes cancer, which she's been battling bravely for years.

The sheriff is a high school teacher who also coaches the speech-and-debate team. His deputy is a Cheyenne native, brilliant actor and waiter at a local bistro. Jim the emcee works for the state and Jenny the card girl work full time and also is in the melodrama cast. Cast members are teachers and students and entrepreneurs and government employees. All volunteers.

That's what it takes the make this big event work. We represent only a few of the many hundreds who run the parades and night shows and rodeos and pancake breakfasts. We get a lot of fun and satisfaction from our activities. Hey -- CFD is one cool party. But civic pride is also at work. Speaking of work, our police and sanitation workers and firefighters and EMTs all work over time during this ten-day period. And some, in their very spare spare time, volunteer for other things. Officer Colby White is on stage every other summer as a melodrama emcee. There are many others.

Takes more than no income tax and low taxes and conservative politics to make a city appealing to young people and retirees alike.

It takes people who care.

Baby Boomers are juvenile to think that low taxes make for a great retirement

Cheyenne Frontier Days

AARP The Magazine has named Cheyenne one of the ten most livable cities in the U.S.

This could be seen as a compliment. Until you examine AARP's criteria.

"Cheyenne meets many of the criteria for what Baby Boomers are looking for in a place to live."

What are those criteria? Great coffee? Lots of arts and entertainment venues? Fantastic restaurants? Lifelong education venues? Community service opportunities?

No. They are:

Low cost of living.
No state income tax.
No tax on pensions.
Low sales tax.
One of the lowest property taxes in the nation.

What is this, St. Petersburg, Fla., in the 1960s? Really? Low taxes, early-bird buffets and 24-hour shuffleboard?

I am a Baby Boomer in good standing. Born in 1950. I am looking forward to retirement in a few years. But what kind of retirement?

For one thing, I'm going to get as far away from golf courses as possible. And Republican golfers. I have nothing against either. But the lowest circle of hell is reserved for people whose only conversational topic is golf. If I knew that my final years would be spent with golfers, I would request an immediate execution.

My guess is that we've moved beyond golf and shuffleboard and even retirement communities when we talk about retirement.

Here's what I'm going to do in retirement. Read every day. Write every day. Grow some of my own food. Work for the arts, either as a volunteer, a grant writer or an event coordinator. Spend time with my wife and my kids and maybe (some time in the future) my grandkids. Think about the future. Talk to young people about the future. Drink good beer.

And when I complain about the gubment, have some suggestions about how the gubment can do things better.

I think that it's juvenile to be a senior citizen depending on Social Security and Medicare and other retirement income but pining for a place with low taxes. Juvenile and stupid.