Photo: Space Shuttle Atlantis climbs to the heavens

Cool shot by my sister Mary Powell of today's Shuttle launch

Gulf oil spill revisited on the Montana high prairie

A year after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, caused by corporate negligence, we have a similar spill on the high prairie just north of the Wyoming/Montana border.

Get the lowdown from Button Valley Bugle and 4&20 blackbirds.

While tonight's Rachel Maddow show portrayed Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer as the Hero in the White Hat standing firm against the Black Hats of Exxon-Mobil, things aren't always as they seem. Check out the blogs to see what I mean.

Stuck outside of Hogtown with those Shuttle Launch Blues again

Insignia for the first shuttle launch

We were just outside of Hogtown when the first Shuttle went up. Other cars joined us along the side of I-75 to view history. We were disappointed, not with the launch, but with the fact that we weren't on the beach at Daytona. That was our goal when my wife Chris, my brother Dan and I left Denver two days before.

Stuff happens. A batch of bad gas in Mississippi, or maybe just an aging vehicle. We were stalled for several hours at a truck stop on the Florida panhandle. The car still wasn't running right when we pulled off the highway for the launch.

An impressive sight. Heard and felt it, too. After it climbed out of sight, leaving its contrail drifting in the clear Florida sky, we looked at each other and said, "Let's go to the beach."

All three of us had viewed many launches over the years, some from the beach and some from our backyard. My father worked for the space program out of Daytona, for NASA and G.E. Chris's father used to take her and her sister down to the beach to watch the spectacles. I heard "The Eagle has landed" via the car radio as my high school girlfriend and I were parked on the beach during a July thunderstorm (yes, I was paying more attention to the moon landing than to the business at hand).

I'd like to be on the beach today. To watch the launch and to be on the beach, my old haunt. Chris is in Daytona for her high school reunion. She'll see the launch with her sister and old Seabreeze High School "Fighting Sandcrabs" pals. I don't care much for reunions. But I'm miffed that I'm missing the last Shuttle launch.

Some of my progressive colleagues don't see the value of the space program. They contend that it's too expensive. They don't see the value in the scientific research. They don't understand why we have to send actual humans into space when robots can do the work cheaper and with less risk.

But "manned flight" (lots of women in space, too) is important precisely because it's in our genes to explore. One major benefit from the Space Shuttle are the fantastic images captured by the Hubble. They have opened up the wonders and terrors of our universe like nothing else. Colliding galaxies and collapsing stars and black holes and artistically-shaped nebulae and all of that space (what's with that dark matter?). We must go there to see these wonders and to figure out what they are and what they mean.

I grew up reading Tom Swift and then Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury. Sci-fi fed my imagination. And then came the space program. I had the great good fortune to live at the epicenter of Mercury and Gemini and Apollo.

One closing note: that first shuttle launch happened 20 years to the day after the first manned space flight by the Soviet Union. In 1981, we were still going toe-to-toe with the Reds in space and on the ground (Reagan was newly elected). Now that the U.S is Shuttle-less, guess who we will depend on to get groceries and extra batteries to the space station?

Those darn Russkis. History is a funny thing.

What happened to our agent of change, our Obama?

2008 seems so long ago...

The first post on this blog to carry the label "Obama" was on Feb. 6, 2008, "March 8 Dem Caucus Could Carry Clout." Read it at http://hummingbirdminds.blogspot.com/2008/02/march-8-democratic-caucus-could-carry.html.

I was late to the Obama cause. In 2004, I was a Kucinich delegate to the Wyoming State Convention. We lost. In 2008, I still was rooting for antiwar champ Kucinich, but switched over to John Edwards and, as Mike-come-lately, joined the Obama ranks as he started picking up steam in the early primaries.

My wife Chris was none too pleased with this. She was a Hilary Clinton fan from the beginning and she never wavered. We had some words over this. She made her calls for Hilary in one room and I made my calls from Barack Obama in another. She went out to the local community college to hear Hilary speak and I traveled over the mountain to see Obama raise the roof at the UW basketball arena. I was an Obama delegate at the Wyoming State Convention in Jackson and she was a Clinton alternate. Obama carried the day. I blogged from the convention and you can read about it here and here. I was an embedded blogger at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. You can read about it here and here.

I can be naive in my beliefs. All of us can. I have been disappointed in times with Pres. Obama but he is the clear-cut rational choice when compared with the kooks on the other side.

But if he abandons Democratic Party principles now, that's it for me. I will not be in his corner in the 2012 elections if he caves to the Republicans on The Big Three: Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. This is the so-called Social Safety Net that we all count on, Dems and Repubs and Indies and Greens and Tea Party and even the unaffiliated and noncommittal. This will spell the end of an America that makes sense.

Life will go on. I will continue my snarky posts and my ongoing feud with Tea Party Slim. But it won't be the same. The fire will have gone out. I will putter in the garden and write the occasional letter to the editor wondering what happened to our champ, our agent of change, our Obama.

Hurry up with those flying cars -- Wyoming roads going to hell!

I thought I was seeing things when I read in last Friday's Casper Star-Tribune that Wyoming's roads are going to hell.

The road to hell may be paved with good intentions, but good intentions won't pave the roads through Wyoming.

Money will pave the state's roads, or else they will go to hell for decades without a substantial increase in funding...

Nice lede by reporter Tom Morton. His interview with Lowell Fleenor, district engineer for the central Wyoming division of WYDOT, yielded some great quotes:

"At current funding levels, there is no way the system will not deteriorate."

And...

"Due to funding constraints, WYDOT is moving from a transportation improvement program to a pavement preservation program."

This is bad news for all of us who depend on our roads to get from one place to another. Until jet packs and flying cars assume their rightful place in Wyoming garages, we will remain dependent on driving our four-wheeled personal mobility devices on paved roads.

There are several causes. Decline in federal revenue. Lack of Congressional action on a national highway bill. Low state fuel taxes, with Wyoming's 14 cents a gallon the lowest in the Rocky Mountain region. No action by the state legislature on raising fuel taxes or turning I-80 into a toll road or on retrofitting our cars with anti-grav devices.

Just kidding on that last one. Although that may happen before the legislature ever approves an increase in the fuel tax. Can't even say the "T" word in Wyoming.

So our roads go to hell.

Interestingly enough, Gov. Matt Mead has been talking up the importance of infrastructure. He’s proposed predictable, long-term revenue streams to fund municipalities and highways. His proposals have been rejected by the state legislature. The Governor’s motto is “Wyoming First.” At the Wyoming Association of Municipalities conference in Sheridan, he reiterated that and added that now is the time to invest in the state.

“I go the National Governors’ Association convention and Wyoming is in a much better place than almost every other state. We’re in competition with other states and they can’t do this now. Now is the time for Wyoming to do this. Our municipalities need this. Maintenance and building of infrastructure does not get cheaper with time.”

“If you want healthy economic development, you must have infrastructure.”

For more on this subject, read the CST's editorial in the July 6 edition: "Lack of Wyoming highway funding an emergency."

UPDATE: House GOP plans to cut $15 billion from transportation budget. See story at http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/fiery-words-over-gop-proposal-to-cut-transportation-funds/2011/07/07/gIQAm6fo2H_story.html. Guess we'll have to make do with travel on horseback over rutted trails. Back to the good ol' days!

ANOTHER UPDATE: Not too interested in this $250,000 flying car: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/07/the-flying-car-is-now-cleared-for-highway-use.html

"How the Wyoming legislature became a valley floor filled with dry bones"

Former Democratic state legislator and minister Rodger McDaniel takes on the legislative redistricting process (a.k.a. gerrymandering) in his most recent column. I hadn't thought of the Wyoming Legislature as a valley floor filled with dry bones, but I don't know Biblical references as Rodger does. Other analogies come to mind when I consider the most recent legislative session. Tower of Babel. Mad Hatter's Tea Party -- or maybe another kind of Tea Party. Scenes from "The Crucible."

Excerpts from Rodger's blog post:

The huge one-Party majority in the legislature is not so much about political ideology as it is about the structure incumbents created to protect themselves from competition. The proof is in the extraordinarily high numbers of those incumbents who are never opposed at the ballot box.

Nationwide, the last election saw 28% of all state senate winners unopposed. In Wyoming it was 60%. On the house side, a third of all members nationwide won without an opponent. In Wyoming it was almost 70%.

Read the rest at Blowing in the Wyoming Wind: How the Wyoming legislature became a valley floor ...

"Freedom Riders" asks: Would you put your life on the line?

An amazing documentary. My wife and I saw it on WY Public TV several weeks ago. Donate to Truthout and get a fee copy. 

Laramie County Democrats stage a home-raising for Habitat for Humanity July 17

Jimmy Carter, well-known Democrat, works with locals on 2010 Minnesota  building project

Laramie County Democrats will be participating in a Habitat for Humanity build on Sunday, July 17, noon until 5 p.m. The location for the build house is 3823 Messenger Court.  The site is located off McCann Avenue between Pershing and Dell Range in Cheyenne. Volunteers are needed. To participate contact LCD Chair Linda Stowers at 307-220-1219. Close-toed shoes/boots are required on site.  Please wear Democratic Party and or Progressive t-shirts, pins or other gear if possible as pictures will be taken. Photos will be posted online. 

I have to hit the road for work that day but will stop by to pound a couple nails. I've been a fan of Habitat for Humanity since serving on the first board of directors for Habitat for Humanity of Laramie County. Local minister and blogger Rodger McDaniel once directed Habitat in Nicaragua. Back in the Contra War days, I spent a week in Nicaragua touring Habitat sites. We hauled a suitcase filled with Pepto Bismol and a bulky VW van windshield to Habitat builders in Managua and Esteli. During the American boycott, it was very difficult to get anything except in-country rebar and hometown beer. 

See you July 17. I'll be in my "Wyoming Democrats -- Alive and Kicking" T-shirt. Or maybe my "Wyoming for Obama" T-shirt. 

BYOH -- Bring your own hammer.

Another way to support Habitat -- shop at the Habitat ReStore near you. For directory of Wyoming locations, go to http://www.habitat.org/cd/env/restore_detail.aspx?place=76

Obama Recognizing Military Suicides w/ Condolence Letters, Reversing a Longstanding Policy

This is the right thing to do.

Over the past 5 years, over 1,000 service members have taken their lives, and in the Army, over 20% of those occurred in combat zones. This new policy will cover those who tragically take their own lives while actively serving in such zones, particularly Iraq and Afghanistan.

From Daily Kos: Obama Recognizing Military Suicides w/ Condolence Letters, Reversing a Longstanding Policy

Montana bloggers get jump on Yellowstone River spill

It took a few days for the Exxon-Mobil oil pipeline spill to show up in mainstream media.

But Montana bloggers were on the story from the get-go. Start by dialing in jhwygirl's July 2 post at 4&20blackbirds and keep reading. On July 2, we all were sitting along the shores of at least one pristine Wyoming stream while jhwygirl was sharing posts and photos of a huge spill into the Yellowstone that eventually went to the Missouri and now, according to this morning's NPR interview with Mont. Gov. Brian Schweitzer, is all the way to North Dakota.

Here's one July 2 photo from the owner of the Blue Creek Farms ranch:

The State of Montana as slow to respond and Exxon-Mobil even tardier. But the outrage was clear on the blogs (Twitter, too but I haven't checked it out).

Rob Kailey's been posting from Left in the West. Yesterday's post is particularly poignant. While he points out a report about the spill from crooks & liars, he also notes that comments to the post are particularly mean-spirited when it comes to Red-State Westerners. Go see Rob's comments to the commenters, as he says it much better than I can.

Reminder to me and my readers: "Be Kind." That was Kurt Vonnegut's favorite advice. My mother's, too. Probably your mom's too. It's so easy to say things online that you wish you could take back. I've done it. Next time disaster strikes, remember that those are people under that tornado or in the path of the wildfire or along a polluted river in Montana. People, not statistics, not "those people" who may have voted against you.

Happy 75th anniversary, "Gone with the Wind"

Poster issued for the 1936 release of the book (Hutton Archive/Getty Images)

Happy 75th anniversary to the publication of Margaret Mitchell's "Gone With the Wind."

I have no great love for the book. I read it only once. But my Grandfather Shay made an effort to read it every year. It's the only book that I remember seeing him read. Unlike Pat Conroy, who wrote a nice "fellow Southern writer" tribute on NPR Online for the novel's anniversary, Grandpa had no roots in the South. And he was no writer. He did like Civil War history -- I inherited his 1885 edition of "Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant." He also had a fondness for Scarlett O'Hara's pluckiness. He married a plucky woman, my grandmother, who did have some South of the Mason-Dixon roots from Maryland and Virginia. Family stories link us to Robert E. Lee via my great-grandmother, a Lee from Virginia. Nobody in my family has been able to establish a link. We may eventually have to do some DNA testing. There undoubtedly is a cottage industry in the South devoted to proving Lee lineage.

My grandfather went to war with the Iowa National Guard, first to the Mexican border against those pesky Pancho Villa insurgents and later to France with the American Expeditionary Force. He was born a few decades after the Civil War ended and would have known some veterans of that war growing up in rural Iowa. Grandpa was a young lad when more Iowans went off to fight the Spanish-American War in 1898. His turn came a few years later.

"Gone with the Wind" was the only book written by Margaret Mitchell. She wrote it at a tiny desk in a tiny apartment in Atlanta. She was bit embarrassed by all the attention generated by the book's success and the blockbuster 1939 film. She was hit by a car and died at the young age of 48.

Shortly thereafter, her secretary and custodian of the apartment building, burned the book's manuscript, apparently on orders from Mitchell. Only a few pages survive. 

Fourth of July made for brats and beers and blogging progressively

Happy Fourth of July to everyone, especially the progressive bloggers you see linked in the right sidebar. Fighting the good fight against the rising tide of ignorance. We may see some guest bloggers today at hummingbirdminds. Stay tuned...

UPDATE: Prog-bloggers at July Fourth party intensively engaged in bocce tournament. They will be here to guest-blog another day.

U.S.A. on Fourth of July: Made in China

SF-Oakland Bay Bridge --
Made in China

This is disgusting (from buzzflash):

Did you know that some of America's infrastructure is being repaired after all?

The only catch is that major parts of the work are being done in China, meaning that many US construction workers stay unemployed.

Take for instance the massive $7.2 billion project to rebuild the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, which was compromised by earthquake damage.

The New York Times reports about a surge of construction employment on American projects such as the bridge, in China:

At a sprawling manufacturing complex here, hundreds of Chinese laborers are now completing work on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

Next month, the last four of more than two dozen giant steel modules - each with a roadbed segment about half the size of a football field - will be loaded onto a huge ship and transported 6,500 miles to Oakland. There, they will be assembled to fit into the eastern span of the new Bay Bridge.

The project is part of China's continual move up the global economic value chain - from cheap toys to Apple iPads to commercial jetliners - as it aims to become the world's civil engineer.
Across the United States, Chinese workers are rebuilding America, according to the Times, "In New York City alone, Chinese companies have won contracts to help renovate the subway system, refurbish the Alexander Hamilton Bridge over the Harlem River and build a new Metro-North train platform near Yankee Stadium."

While Congress dithers over a rebuild America program to employ US workers, the Chinese are getting the jobs.

Can you imagine the Brooklyn Bridge having been made in China?

It might very well have been were it constructed in 2011.

Advice to seniors: Turn off the TV and go to school

According to MSN Money:

How Americans age 65 to 74 spend their day in hours(Results for the total population age 15 and older are in parenthesis.)

• Personal care activities (including sleep): 9.67 (9.47).

• Watching TV: 3.77 (2.52).

• Household activities: 2.41 (1.79).

• Eating and drinking: 1.42 (1.25).

• Working: 1.15 (3.50).

• Purchasing goods and services: 0.94 (0.75).

• Reading: 0.62 (0.29).

• Socializing: 0.59 (0.55).

• Relaxing and thinking: 0.55 (0.28).

• Organizational, civic and religious activities: 0.52 (0.35).

• Leisure computer use: 0.38 (0.39).

• Exercise: 0.31 (0.29).

• Caring for non-household members: 0.31 (0.21).

• Telephone calls, mail, and email: 0.23 (0.18).

• Caring for household members: 0.11 (0.51).

• Education activities: 0 (0.47)

Education activities zero? That seems wrong. Every spring, I teach LIFE classes through Laramie County Community College and the classes are packed. I am 60 and my students are 65-and-up. I've also taught at Elderhostel. Zero education activities? Many colleges and universities have adjacent retirement communities. Some of these look a bit scary, such as the one at my alma mater, University of Florida. Eighteen-hole golf course? No thanks. Free paleontology and literature and ag courses at UF? And tix to b-ball? Count me in. 

Turn off the TV, people, especially if you're watching FOX. It's melting your brains. 

Go to school.


P.S.: Retirement village at UF is Oak Hammock. Here are some of the classes offered in the fall:

CLASSES
▪ Alternative Energy Sources 
▪ Native American Art 
▪ The Many Aspects of Forensics 
▪ Law and the Movies
▪ Bees
▪ Jazz III - Gary Langford 
▪ The Profound Art of Cormac McCarthy: An 
Introduction– Robert Gentry
SPECIAL PROGRAMS/LECTURES
▪One day seminar on a Shakespeare play 
 Estelle Aden 
▪Lecture by David Colburn 
▪ Cutting Edge Lectures 
CONTINUING PROGRAMS
▪Understanding and Enjoying Opera 
▪Roundtable Discussion in the Algonquin      
Genre 
▪ Conversational Spanish


Nice line-up. I especially like the Cormac McCarthy course.

"Berry Prairie" taking shape on UW Biodiversity Center roof

Hymenoxys grandiflora by Susan Marsh, from Wyoming Native Plant Society web site.

This is cool (in more ways than one):

Planting is underway on a green roof being established at the University of Wyoming's Berry Biodiversity Conservation Center. Landscapers are installing a variety of native grasses, wildflowers, cacti and shrubs, among other things.

Greg Brown, director of the Biodiversity Center, that native plants are being used, ones that grow within a 20-mile radius of the campus.

WPR: Green roof installed at UW Biodiversity Center

Stories about ethnic traditions in Wyoming at Laramie County Public Library July 14

Not only did I get a cool tie-dye “One World, Many Stories” T-shirt for joining the library’s summer reading program. I will also receive a cool mug when I’ve read at leats 30 minutes a day for 25 days (done!). Also a bevy of good summer programs at the library. Here’s one:

"One World, Wyoming Stories"

When: Thursday, July 14, 7-8:30 p.m.

Where: Laramie County Library Cheyenne (map)

Description: Annie Hatch, Wyoming Arts Council Folk & Traditional Arts Specialist, and Andrea Graham, Folklorist with the University of Wyoming American Studies Program, will share stories about a variety of ethnic traditions in Wyoming. They’ll also encourage participants to share their own stories. This is held in conjunction with the “One World, Wyoming Stories,” exhibit in the library through August 16. (Adults, Sunflower Room, 3rd floor)

Bachmann’s Husband Calls Homosexuals ‘Barbarians’ Who ‘Need To Be Educated And Disciplined’

Bachmann’s Husband Calls Homosexuals ‘Barbarians’ Who ‘Need To Be Educated And Disciplined’

When trying to figure out where presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) gets her stringent, anti-gay views, you only have to look as far as her husband. Dr. Marcus Bachmann, who has described himself as his wife’s “strategist,” runs a Christian-based counseling center in Minnesota that has been rumored to offer reparative treatment for those looking to “ungay” themselves.

Worth repeating: Closing Netroots Nation speech by MN Rep. Keith Ellison

Tonight CSPAN was replaying its live broadcast from Netroots Nation 11 in Minneapolis. Here's Rep. Keith Ellison's inspiring speech.

1971: Eighteen-year-olds get the vote; 1972: Nixon wins in landslide

Marching for the vote in 1971

In 1971, the U.S. Congress ratified the 26th amendment, lowering the voting age to 18.

I was five months shy of 21. New amendment or no new amendment, I as going to be eligible to vote for president in 1972. My politics were rapidly shifting from conservative to somewhat liberal. I had lost my ROTC scholarship in January but still had my college deferment at U of South Carolina. This was a good thing since my draft number was 128, low enough to go if I ever was 1-A. So my politics were this: convince Pres. Nixon to get out of Vietnam before I had to go there. Or elect someone else who would get us out.

Self-serving? Of course, that's what politics is about. If it hits home, it's important at election time. It's the economy, stupid. Or, it's the war, stupid, especially if you're draft-bait.

One word about the draft as practiced by U.S. Selective Service: unfair. If you don't believe me, read the exhaustive and sometimes dense book on the subject: "Chance and Circumstance: The Draft, the War an the Vietnam Generation." The authors, Lawrence M. Baskir and William A. Strauss, were members of Pres. Gerald Ford's clemency board. The book was out of print in 1990 when I read it on microfiche for a writing project at CSU. I was lucky to find the cover art (see photo).

In November of 1972, I found myself voting in an historic church on Boston's Beacon Hill. I voted for George McGovern, a U.S. Senator from South Dakota, a World War II combat veteran, and an odd person to be an anti-war firebrand. McGovern lost, the Vietnam War continued until April 1975. More young Americans died and many more Vietnamese. This is one of the roots of my stubborn Democratic Party voting pattern and my antiwar activism.

I am astonished that everyone doesn't vote. I was astonished by this in 1972, although the polls were darn crowded on that cold Boston night -- I was outside waiting in line. But was less impressed when the results came in, with only Massachusetts and D.C. coming in for Sen. McGovern.

Young voters came out big for Obama in 2008 (read Pres. Obama's proclamation celebrating the 26th amendment anniversary here). They disappeared in 2010. What will they do in 2012, with the the future of America hanging in the balance?

It's good to remember an historic event such as the ratification of the 26th amendment. But when it's 100 years old, it may just be an historical oddity.

Olyeller clashes with Olblue

Tea Party Slim has recreation on his mind this Fourth of July weekend.

"Glendo?" I asked, mentioning a state park about 90 miles north of Cheyenne.

Slim sneered. "Too many Greenies."

I nodded. "We should put up a southern border fence."

Slim looked pensive. "Might work -- just a fence to keep out the Liberals. Colorado's crawling with them."

I laughed. "A fence with a Liberal detector? Turn back anyone with a pointy little head?"

"Or drinking a latte." He joined the laughter.

"Obama bumper sticker? Turn 'em around, tell 'em to get back to Boulder."

"Two Obama bumper stickers? Lock 'em up!"

"On what charge?"

Slim paused. "Reckless endangerment -- of Wyoming's citizens."

"DUI: Driving Under the Influence -- of Liberal Ideas."

A real knee-slapper. Slim slapped his knee. "Aiding and abetting -- terrorists."

I ceased laughing. "See Slim, there you go ruining a good time by going all Tea Party on me."

"What?"

"And we were having such a good time together bashing Colorado Liberals."

Slim tried to make amends. "Look, I was just..."

"Heard it all before, Slim. Obama is soft on terrorists. He may be one himself, seeing as he's from Kenya and his father was a Muslim. Isn't that the Tea Party line?"

"There's no Tea Party line," Slim said, looking defensive. "We're not a political party so we don't have a party line."

"That's true," I said. "Let's just say that those are typical Tea Party talking points."

"We don't have talking points."

"Yelling points?"

Slim smiled. "I just yelled once at a town hall meeting last year and now I'm a yeller?"

"Ol' Yeller?"

"That's a pretty good Twitter handle."

"I'll steer clear of your posts."

"C'mon Mike, I'll be olyeller and you can be Ol' Blue, as in blue state."

I stared at Slim. "Not bad -- Ol' Blue. But it sounds a bit like the name of a hound dog some Alabama KKK guy would own. 'Sic 'em, Blue, sic that pointy-headed Liberal. Get that colored fella next."

Slim slapped me on the back like some Alabama KKK guy. "I love joshin' with you Olblue, but I have to get rolling. The misses and the RV are waiting."

"Where are you going?

"It's a secret."

"State park?"

"No."

"National park? National forest?"

"No."

"BLM land?"

"None of those. A bunch of us own some land up around Laramie Peak. Private land, so we can recreate in peace."

I imagined a forest grove with a dozen RVs circled up like Conestogas. Slim and his fellow Tea Party windbags sat by the fire roasting Obamacare and big gubment. The little women were barefoot (too old to be pregnant) and busy cooking and cleaning and cutting firewood. I wondered what circle of Dante's Inferno this would be.

"You have fun, Slim. While you're recreating in the mountains, the Liberal misses and I will be plotting the overthrow of the U.S. Government."

"Hey," he said, standing tall, "that's our job."

Photo: Tea Party Slim is out there somewhere, plotting mischief. Photo of WY Shirley Rim/Hwy. 77 (used under Creative Commons license).