Young skolars for Rick Perry!

This goes back to a 2010 rally in Houston in which Ted Nugent and Sarah Palin were in town to support Rick Perry. Still, it's priceless.  Houston Press photo.

Al Simpson interview: Obama smarter than those "trying to hammer him"

Denver Post political editor Curtis Hubbard landed a great interview with former Wyoming Sen. Al Simpson. Some highlights are in today DP with the whole interview appearing on Sunday. Go to http://blogs.denverpost.com/thespot/2011/08/05/simpson-guys-trying-to-hammer-obama-ought-to-give-it-up/35502/

Here's my favorite quote thus far:

This guy (Obama) is a little bit smarter than some of the guys who are trying to hammer him. They ought to give it up.

This one, illustrating the reason that Pres. Obama didn't publicly endorse the Simpson-Bowles commission findings, is pure Big Al:

So along came (Rep. Paul) Ryan (R-Wis.), who’s got guts, too, and Ryan knew, he’d been on the commission, and the biggest extraordinary engine that will eventually just eat up America is Medicare. And it doesn’t matter if you call it Obamacare or Elvis Presleycare or I-don’t-give-a-damn-care. It can’t work. It’s totally on autopilot, so, Ryan said, ‘Well, I know I’m going to get ripped, but I’m going for the jugular, of the mastodon in the kitchen,’ and he got ripped. That’s exactly what would have happened to Obama.

"Obamacare or Elvis Presleycare or I-don’t-give-a-damn-care." Good one, Big Al.

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

Casper Star-Trib: "Wyoming can provide shots for needy children"

We agree with the Casper Star-Tribune editorial, "Wyoming can provide shots for needy children."

Wyoming Department of Health has cited budget constraints as the reason it will no longer provide free vaccinations against influenza, meningitis, Hepatitis A and human papilomavirus to needy children. The change will take effect in July. 

Undoubtedly there are places where the state needs to trim its budget and cut unnecessary spending. The vaccination program isn’t one of them. 

When it comes to providing for the public health needs of children whose parents can’t afford the immunizations, we think most Wyomingites would agree that we could sock away a little less into our state’s rainy-day accounts to pay for it.

Fortunately, the state will still provide vaccinations required for children to attend public school. But that still leaves families with children who don’t qualify for a federal vaccination program unable to pay for immunizations against four diseases.

The CST urges Gov. Mead to use some of his discretionary funds to fill in the gap until the legislature can address this issue in 2012. It's a public health issue. It's also the right thing to do. Read the entire editorial at http://trib.com/opinion/editorial/article_97d5faa8-ea58-5b6b-8824-05a7974015ba.html

Rev. Rodger McDaniel takes the long way home

I was pleased to see that today's lead story in our local paper was also on the web site. To read it all, go to: The long way home - Wyoming Tribune Eagle Online.

On the day that Rev. Rodger McDaniel retired from his state job, he grabbed his backpack and walked to the COMEA Shelter to spend a week as a homeless person.

For many years, Rev. McDaniel has been urging others "to get out of your comfort zone." He puts that into practice. He's been involved in the Cheyenne community for many decades. I first met him when we served together on the first Laramie County Habitat for Humanity board. He and his family spent a year in Nicaragua directing Habitat projects. He served in the state legislature. He brought new vitality to the Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services Division of the state Department of Health. He's established partnership with Wyoming social service non-profits, such as UPLIFT. In the interest of full disclosure, I'm on the UPLIFT board. I was on hand on a snowy November evening last year when UPLIFT awarded Rodger its public service award.

As I read about Rev. McDaniel this morning, I thought about David Brooks' column in Thursday's New York Times. We have lost our sense of modesty, he writes, the knowledge that we are limited in our skills and accomplishments and need others to fill in the gaps. The self-effacing are forgotten. The self-aggrandizing take center stage. The stage itself, it seems, has taken center stage.

In a famous passage, Reinhold Niebuhr put it best:

“Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore, we must be saved by hope. ... Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore, we are saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint. Therefore, we must be saved by the final form of love, which is forgiveness.”

The Rev. McDaniel probably won't disagree with this quote. Embedded with it are the Three Virtues that I learned in Catholic school: faith, hope and love. Or rendered a different way: faith, hope and charity. Jesus is quoted about these virtues in 1 Corinthians 13, the passage that so many of us heard (or read) at our wedding masses. It wraps up with a line that's translated in various ways. Here's one version: "So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three: but the greatest of these is love."

When I blog, I'm not always thinking of faith, hope and love. Usually I'm thinking very uncharitable thoughts. For example: "Tea Party members are a bunch of ignorant assholes." Not sure what Jesus or the Corinthians would have made of that. Not much love there, though.

Blogging is an attempt to communicate. But the most visible bloggers, it seems, are those who shout the loudest to rise above the din. I don't shout very loud. But that doesn't mean I am any less interested in my "brand." When I write, I am interested in the content but I also want people to read my work. I am shouting that the content on hummingbirdminds is pretty darn thoughtful and you ought to go read it.

Perhaps I'm deluded. Blogger and Facebook and other social media sites may not be new and innovative ways to connect people. They may just be other ways to say me-me-me.