AFL-CIO imagines "Mitt Romney's America"

Something fun to do in Tampa tomorrow:

“Welcome to Mitt Romney’s America” Parade: Sponsored by AFL-CIO. Tampa official parade route The event is called “Welcome to Mitt Romney’s America” and will look a lot like a carnival but will showcase what will happen to America if he is elected President in November. Contact: Cheryl Schroder at 813-368-7124 or cschroeder@wcffl.org or Joshua Anijar at 850-228-9841 or janijar@flaflcio.org.

RNC dispatches from my secret bunker in Cheyenne

So why is Mike Shay at hummingbirdminds covering the RNC in Tampa, Florida, from his bunker in Cheyenne, Wyoming?

I'm not. But I think that my landlocked readers are interested in all of the anti-RNC goings-on around Tampa Bay. You won't get it on the TV networks. You may get some of it from MSNBC and NPR and CSPAN. But you need to dial into the blogs to get the view from the street.

One other thing: I spent my formative years in Florida. I surfed its beaches and canoed its creeks and rivers. Traveled the state with my high school basketball team. Voted here in many elections and met the candidates, including Ronald Reagan during his unsuccessful 1976 campaign (apparently he learned a few things along the way). I am a Florida Gator, which gives me carte blanche to act like a fool during football season and to like Tim Tebow, no matter whom he plays for.

I haven't lived in Florida for 34 years but my roots are there, and so are my seven brothers and sisters and most of their offspring. Thirty years ago, my one and only marriage took place at a Catholic Church adjacent to the beach, salt-water scent drifting through its open windows. 

It's a wonderfully crazy place, a battleground state, pitting Miami Liberals vs. Panhandle Right-Wingers. If you know the place by reading Carl Hiaasen's novels and Miami Herald columns, you know some of its quirky nature.

Besides, things are quiet here in Wyoming -- for now. Our Republicans are battling each other, CROW vs. the RINOs. The Dems are struggling to keep the few seats we have in the state legislature. It will get much more interesting come October, so stay tuned.

Meanwhile, from Florida, there is this and that.  

RNC in Tampa due for a direct hit from Hurricane Meg

The Tampa Bay area may have received only a glancing blow from Hurricane Isaac, but it's about to be hit with the full impact of Hurricane Meg. On Monday, Meg Lanker-Simons of Cognitive Dissonance interviewed Libertarian candidate for prez and former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson. He's disgruntled with the Republicans and crony capitalism, among other things. Listen to the interview here.

Forget the networks -- get live video and on-the-street blogging from the Republican National Convention

We're beginning to get a sense of who will be covering what at the Republican National Convention in Tampa. Forget the major networks and their talking heads -- they'll miss all of the important stories. CSPAN will have unedited feeds of the proceedings, and may even catch some of the action on the streets. My attention will be tuned to Laramie's Meg Lanker-Simons and her Cognitive Dissonance blog, whose irreverent take on the world is always refreshing. Go to http://cognitivedissonance.tumblr.com/. Reporting live feeds from the Romneyville encampment a mile from the convention center will be Mobile Broadcast News. Go to http://mobilebroadcastnews.com. 

Progress Florida offers the Progressive's Guide to the RNC at  http://progressflorida.org/rnc/

To be continued...

Interested Party blog: Bakken pipeline could mean the end for Wyoming sage grouse

Our blogging pals at Interested Party out of South Dakota had a post this morning about the Bakken Pipeline.

If completed, it would transport raw natural gas liquids (NGLs) south through easternmost Montana and Wyoming into northern Colorado, where it will connect to the existing Overland Pass Pipeline.

It may also spell the end of the threatened Wyoming sage grouse, and endanger equally tenuous (and drought-plagued) water supplies. The pipeline's projected path through Laramie County takes it west of Burns and Carpenter and east of Cheyenne. Did you know that? I didn't.

Read the rest at interested party.

Thanks IP!

Magical thinking makes the GOP go 'round and 'round and 'round... like a hurricane

Neat column by Beau Friedlander on the Huffington Post:

While I was reading commentary about Rep. Todd Akin's overshare regarding abortion, the female body and the dark night of the GOP's soul, it occurred to me that the same attitude that allowed him to say what he said (call it ignorance, anti-intellectualism, magical thinking) has been at work in the GOP fight against Dodd-Frank, gay marriage, food and product safety, government spending and all the other GOP panic button social issues that have been causing a bottleneck in Congress since Obama took office.

Akin is today's GOP. The grease that moves things is magical thinking, whether we're talking about "self-regulating" businesses that can make or break the world economy or federal roads that build themselves or schools that somehow have everything they need to prepare kids for life without much in the way of tax revenue. What Akin thinks matters, because his thinking reveals a lot about the cultural conservative movement in the United States. It's the dunderheaded certainty of a religious person who believes God is not only concerned with individuals in a granular way, but that He will quite literally provide. This is a version of God that assures his followers there is no cause for alarm with regard to climate change (after all God knows what He's doing). This is a God that says, "Truly I say unto thee, shopping is beautiful in the eyes of the Lord. Nothing to see here. Get back to work."

Rest the rest at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/beau-friedlander/while-i-was-reading-comme_b_1821617.html

REMINDER: Dem Picnic Today!

The Laramie County Democrats will hold its annual 

Meet the Candidates Picnic on Saturday, Aug. 25, 1-4 p.m.,

at 2218 Champion Drive, Cheyenne. Meet and hear from

our candidates. Get fired up for November!

Hamburgers, hot dogs, beer, sodas and water will be provided.

Please bring the following:

Last name A-I: Dessert

J-Q: Salad

R-Z: Covered dish

Cool conversations will abound! 

Donations will be accepted.

Sod Farm Festival organizer takes page from Vaudeville to raise funds for Nicaraguan schools

Speaking of creativity:

Music lovers in Sheridan County will be able to get their fill with 16 acts set to take the stage at this year's Sod Farm Festival to benefit Project Schoolhouse, which builds schools and water systems in Central America. This year's goal is to raise $35,000 for an entire school in Nicaragua. 

Event Organizer Tab Barker says that in order to get through 16 acts in the allotted time, he's taken a page from the retro-Vaudeville acts he's seen at Sheridan's WYO Theater. Listen to his unique method. 

Event headliner is the band Seu Jacinto from Austin, Texas, which Barker is a member of.

The Sod Farm Festival will take place from 3 to 10 p.m. at the Green Carpet Sod Farm West of Sheridan. To get there take Big Goose Road until you hit Owl Creek Road, then take a right and follow the road until it ends Tickets for the Sod Farm Festival are $20 and can be purchased in advance at the WYO Theater, or at the gate Saturday evening.

Soldier-writers bare "The Soul of America" -- and they're coming to Wyoming this fall

Lance Corporal Nicholas G. Ciccone by Michael D. Fay, a portrait drawn during their duty in Afghanistan. Ciccone committed suicide in 2003. Courtesy of the Art Collection, National Museum of the Marine Corps, Triangle, Virginia.

I'm constantly amazed with the creative ways that humans confront their many challenges. Not surprising that many of those responses involve the arts. The arts allow us to express our deepest emotions, such as fear, anger and love. Where would we be without the poetry of love expressed in a Shakespearean sonnet? The anger expressed in a Bob Dylan or Green Day protest song? What about the pain expressed by the warrior in "All Quiet on the Western Front" and "Habibi Hlaloua," a modern dance production about choreographer and dancer Roman Baca's U.S. Marine platoon in Iraq? If they didn't exist, we would have to invent them and, amazingly enough, we are always finding new ways to do just that.

Yesterday I was reading the quarterly magazine of the National Endowment for the Arts. It's dedicated to the military and the arts. Researchers have discovered that writing or creating an artwork about a painful experience, such as trauma experienced in battle, stimulates the same part of the brain -- the right hemisphere -- that is activated with "traumatic recall." This also helps unlock the speech center in the left hemisphere that shuts down when presented with a painful memory. 

This is why veterans such as Ron Capps have found healing in creative writing, and why he went on to found the Veterans Writing Project. Capps has enlisted a slew of talented writers workshop leaders. Some are veterans (Tobias Wolff, Joe Haldeman, Brian Turner) but many are not (Bobbie Ann Mason, Mark Bowden, Marilyn Nelson). Some understanding of the battlefield is a plus, but it's more important to be an effective teacher and a writer who possesses more than the usual quota of empathy. Bobbie Ann Mason wrote a terrific novel about soldier returning home from Vietnam, "In Country." Jeff Shaara never served a day in the military but he puts his readers in the middle of the fighting at Antietam and Vicksburg and, more recently, Normandy and The Battle of the Bulge. You can see and hear some of these writers in the terrific documentary, "Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience." Brian Turner is featured in a segment "What Every Soldier Should Know."Vietnam veteran and novelist Tim O'Brien also is interviewed.

Coincidentally, Turner and O'Brien will be in Wyoming this fall. If you'd like to take a free writing workshop with O'Brien (and who wouldn't?), he will be conducting one on Friday, Oct. 5, as part of the Literary Connection at LCCC in Cheyenne. He is one of three workshop teachers that day from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. -- the others are outdoor writer John Calderazzo from Colorado State University (one of my mentors from my CSU days) and Cat M. Valente.

Turner will be featured at the Equality State Book Festival in Casper Sept. 14-15. On Friday at 1 p.m., he will be reading from his work along with the three winners of the Wyoming Arts Council's poetry fellowship competition. On Saturday at 10 a.m., he will discuss the role of the soldier-writer with fellow Iraq War veteran Luis Carlos Montalvan. The panel moderator will be veteran, poet and Casper College professor Patrick Amelotte. Turner also will be signing copies of his books, "Here, Bullet" and "Phantom Noise" throughout the weekend.

How did these writers translate their experiences into written form? Come on out to these events and find out. They're both in the vicinity, as Casper is only a few Wyoming interstate highway miles away from your Cheyenne neighborhood. 

Rodger McDaniel: Welcome to UW, the un-university

Rodger McDaniel writes today about the un-University of Wyoming in Laramie, a place where academic freedom is only an afterthought (if that). Read Rodger's take on the "Carbon Sink" artwork debacle at http://blowinginthewyomingwind.blogspot.com/2012/08/uw-censorship-is-more-emblematic-of.html. And tune in tomorrow to his blog to read about UW's dark history of censorship.

Obama for America Wyoming off to Fort Collins

President Barack Obama will be speaking next Tuesday night at CSU in Fort Collins. A major get-out-the-vote effort is on the agenda for this weekend. precedes This comes from Obama for America Wyoming:   Obama for America Wyoming will be conducting a major export canvass to help our friends in Fort Collins. Colorado is a major swing state in this election, and a victory there will help us get one step closer to 270. We'll be meeting up at the Organizing for America office in Fort Collins at 10:00 a.m. Hope you can join us! If you need a ride down to Fort Collins, contact Nigel Latham at 307-772-1551. Start: Saturday, August 25, 2012 End: Saturday, August 25, 2012 Host: Janet Whitehead Location: OFA-CO office in Fort Collins (Fort Collins, WY) 401 South Mason Street Fort Collins, WY 80521

Voter turnout high in Laramie County -- and it shows

Pleased to see that Laramie County voters had the foresight to approve all of the infrastructure propositions on the Aug. 21 ballot. Voters will get a new Botanic Gardens building, along with road improvements to the park and vicinity. The municipal pool will get much-needed upgrades. The old airport building will be replaced by something that resembles a facility that serves the state capital and its largest county. Downtown's 17th Street will get a makeover, and we will construct a new building for the Cheyenne Police Department. And then there are all those county flood control and sewer and water projects that are not flashy but necessary. All good stuff. And it looks as if Laramie County had the highest voter turnout in the state with almost 65 percent. The statewide numbers were dismal, coming in at less than 50 percent, the worst in 30 years.

What to make of the defeat of the recreation center and the Archer Complex facility? I have no good advice except this: back to the drawing boards, people! Come back to us when you have better plans.

Literary Death Match: Ayn Rand vs. J.R.R. Tolkien

Saw this on Facebook (via writer pal Pamela Painter) and had to share. I read both novels at about the same time, in my early 20s (I matured late). I read "The Fountainhead" too. Ayn Rand provided some good reads and, for a short while, food for thought. But I read the "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy twice, and the stories stayed with me, feeding my standing-in-line-on-opening-night obsession with the LOTR movies by Peter Jackson. I like orcs, and they scared me too.

President Obama will speak at CSU in Fort Collins Aug. 28

President Barack Obama will speak at my alma mater next week just down I-25 in Fort Collins. His timely visit, on the eve of Mitt Romney's acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, speaks volumes about the importance of Colorado in the 2012 election. It also speaks volumes about the importance of younger voters and college-educated voters to the Democratic Party. This news comes from KUNC Public Radio in Greeley:

President Barack Obama will travel to Fort Collins next Tuesday for a campaign event.

The visit is part of a two-day swing through Iowa, Colorado and Virginia, according to an Obama for America email. The timing of Obama speaking on Tuesday will happen just before Mitt Romney is expected to accept the Republican nomination on Wednesday.

In 2008, historically Republican-leaning Larimer County voted for Obama. Questions about the economy loomed large back then, and are front-and-center in Obama’s 2012 reelection bid.

As of July 2012, the county had almost 15,000 more active registered Republicans compared to Democrats with almost 61,000 unaffiliated voters.

The Obama for America Campaign expects to release more details about the visit in the coming days.

According to the Associated Press and the Coloradoan, the event is expected to take place at night on the Colorado State University campus.

BioBlitz and Biodiversity Fest coming to Rocky Mountain National Park

This looks like fun, science and the arts mixing it up, and it's happening at my favorite (and closest) national park (from the 5280 mag web site):

To celebrate the U.S. National Park Service's 100th birthday, National Geographic is hosting a BioBlitz at a different national park every year during the decade leading up to the centennial celebration in 2016. Rocky Mountain National Park was chosen to host this year's event. 

So, what exactly is a BioBlitz? For 24 hours, scientists, students, teachers, volunteers, and science junkies will work together to identify as many species in the park as possible. That means plants, insects, birds, fish, mammals—even fungi. By offering scientists and community members a chance to conduct fieldwork together, coordinators hope to highlight the importance of ecosystem biodiversity.  

Everyone is welcome, but the event is especially important and entertaining for young people. "We are the first mountain ecosystem highlighted," says Kyle Patterson, Public Information Officer for Rocky Mountain National Park. "This is an extremely unique event in our own backyard and an incredible way to connect kids to science and nature."  

The BioBlitz's companion event, the Biodiversity Festival, will be held at the Estes Park fairgrounds Friday and Saturday, August 24 and 25 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. More than 40 exhibitors will have hands-on activities, science and ranger demonstrations, speakers, and live animals. You can even graduate from "Biodiversity University." When the sun starts to set on Friday, break out the blankets and enjoy live music, an outdoor movie, and a photo presentation (from National Geographic, so you know it's gonna be good). 

Register for the BioBlitz here.

Shoot Out Cheyenne 24-Hour Filmmaking Contest ready to roll

From filmmaker Alan O'Hashi:

The Shoot Out Cheyenne 24 Hour Filmmaking Contest and Festival has a $1000 cash prize for the "Best TSOC Classic Film". A GoPro 3D camera rig for the "Best TSOC 3D Film".

You don't have to make a film to take part - come to the Top 10 screening at the Atlas Theatre on Sunday October 7th, 1p.m!

TSOC is offering a 25% discount on the already discounted Early Bird prices through September 22nd. Just enter promo code: tsoc2012.

TSOC asks filmmakers to trust their courage, imagination and determination by making a film in just 24 hours. The challenge and skill involved becomes evident with the list of required technical, material, and timing 'rules' for creating the films. There are three categories this year: TSOC Classic Films - 7 minutes; TSOC 3D Films - 90 seconds; TSOC Smart Phone Philms - 7 minutes. FMI: http://www.theshootoutcheyenne.com/

New Cheyenne performing arts group holds informational meetings Aug. 26 & 27

Jeff Tish is a freelance theatre scenic designer from Cheyenne. He sends this news about a new non-profit organization dedicated to the performing arts:

Next Step Performance Company, a newly formed non-profit organization, will be hosting two informational meetings and Q & A at the Laramie County Library August 26th (Willow Room) @ 2:00 PM and August 27th (Cottonwood Room) 7:30 PM. The public is encouraged to attend. We will discuss the plans for our first season as well as answer questions about public involvement, funding, performance opportunities and our plans for a Performing Arts Scholarship that will be funded by Next Step events.
• No need to RSVP.
• Seating is limited.
• Open to the Public

The NEXT STEP PERFORMANCE COMPANY will be a producing company that will support local and regional programs in Dance, Music and Theatre related performances. At the heart of the NEXT STEP PERFORMANCE COMPANY is our performing arts scholarship program. We will be raising money to give to performance arts students attending college and performing arts schools. We hope you will be as excited in this project as we are.

Please feel free to pass this information to anyone you think may be interested in this. If you have any questions please email me @ jtish52@gmail.com or call me at 307-630-7778.

Vote on Tuesday, Aug. 21

Reminder: Tomorrow is election day. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wyoming allows you to register at the polls and/or change your party affiliation, if you so desire. Let's face it -- there are more choices on the R side of the ballot than there are on the D side.

What's at stake? Contested races for city council and county commissioner. State Legislature primary races and one U.S. Senate and one U.S. House seat. Lots and lots of sixth penny tax proposals.

I plan on voting for all of the sixth penny proposals, with the possible exception of the recreation center (Proposition 1). The rec center seems the least important, and one that will take shape after all of the other infrastructure projects on the ballot are completed. Is a new facility for plants (Cheyenne Botanic Gardens) more important than one for people? The Botanic Gardens is a city treasure, one that promotes the health and well-being of flora and fauna, even big fauna such as humans. It's one that is brought up over and over again as one of those "amenities" that make Cheyenne a great place to live. Cheyenne outgrew its original Botanic Gardens building at least a decade ago. It's time to get with it. The new building will have more room for plants and research and more room for people in the form of meeting rooms.

Go vote tomorrow, if you haven't already. Be a citizen. Do your duty. And if I hear you complaining after the election, whining that the rec center or Botanic Gardens or airport terminal or flood control project is a waste of money, I will ask you if you voted. If you did, then we have something to discuss. If you didn't, I'm not talking to you. I don't mind whiners, as long as you're a voting whiner.

If you're confused about polling places, go to the Laramie County Clerk's web site at http://www.laramiecountyclerk.com/elections.aspx. There's a cool little search box where you only have to type in your street address to find the correct polling place.

Progressive attendance needed at Sept. 12 Cato Insitute event in Cheyenne

This comes from Wyoming Democratic Party Communications Director Brodie Farquhar:

Sept. 12, 5:30-8:30 p.m., Little America, Cheyenne: Progressive attendance needed at Wyoming Liberty Group's presentation by Cato Institute on the "dangers posed to your family" by Obamacare. Come tell the truth about the Affordable Care Act (ACA)! To register, $30/fee to the Wyoming Liberty Group, 307/632-7020. To rally, contact Democratic Party headquarters, 1909 Warren Avenue, Cheyenne.

Cheyenne NAACP banquet includes awards and presention about "Big Medicine" of the Lewis & Clark expedition

Attended the Cheyenne NAACP (Unit 4108) Freedom Fund Banquet last night for the first time. My wife Chris has been a number of times, as she's actively involved with the local NAACP in planning the annual Juneteenth Celebration in Martin Luther King Jr. Park. It's the longest-running Juneteenth event in Wyoming and, until recently, the only one. Chris and I were given a gift membership to NAACP last year. This year, we renewed the membership.

Also attending were about a dozen members of the Laramie County Democrats and the the Laramie County Democratic Grassroots Coalition. Love & Charity hosted a big table of youth, giving them an opportunity to see the NAACP in action. A number of Colorado NAACP members were present, including the Wyoming/Nebraska/Colorado region chair.

Cheyenne NAACP President Elder Rodney McDowell presented a number of awards to sponsors and volunteers. Chris was surprised when she received a "President's Choice" plaque, so surprised that she burst into tears. She does most of her work behind the scenes and isn't used to blatant public presentations of awards. She got as standing ovation, to boot, and a big hug from Elder McDowell. The wording on the plaque: "In appreciation of your commitment and dedication to Civil Rights and Social Justice in Cheyenne and throughout Wyoming." Those words mean so much in Wyoming, a place that doesn't always lived up to its motto of "The Equality State." So proud of you, Chris!

Guest speaker was Dr. Robert Bartlett, actor and professor of Africana Studies at Eastern Washington University in Cheyenne, Wash. He performed a one-man presentation, "Manservant York." York was the manservant/slave that William Clark brought with him on the famous "Voyage of Discovery." The two has grown up together on the Clark Kentucky plantation. Clark taught York outdoor survival skills as the two hunted and fished the wilderness. When Jefferson appointed Lewis and Clark to make their trek, Clark felt that York's skills would come in handy. They did. York became known as "Big Medicine" to the Indians encountered along the way. On more than one occasion, his presence dissuaded the Indians from killing the voyagers. One Nez Perce chief thought so much of Big Medicine that he had him bed all four of his wives.

During the expedition, York became a free man in the wilderness. On his return to St. Louis, he once again became Master William's slave. He was even beaten after he'd asked for his freedom once too often. York's end is a mystery, although Bartlett opines that he lit out for Indian country, spending the latter part of his life with the Crow Nation in northern Wyoming. York urged the audience to look for him in the history books, "although you'll have to look awfully hard."

Look for York; see if you can find him.