Wyoming

Lummis No. 15 on the richy-rich list! And she doesn't want you to get a student loan!

September 20, 2009 by hummingbirdminds

Wyoming Rep. Cynthia Lummis of Cheyenne was ranked number 15 on Roll Call's list of 50 richest members of Congress. As you may remember, she was elected to Wyoming's lone U.S. House seat in November. Not sure how often she votes the Republican party line, but I estimate it to be 110 percent of the time. But it could be more.

Last week, she voted against a House bill that ends subsidies to banks and student loan companies that have a long history of ripping off students and their parents -- and racking up incredible profits in the process. Pres. Obama said: "This bill will end the billions upon billions of dollars in unwarranted subsidies that we hand out to banks and financial institutions, and will use that money to guarantee access to low-cost loans."

I've always been tickled by student loan companies denying loans to strapped 19-year-olds because their middle-class parents make too much money working three part-time jobs. The House bill's projected $87 billion in savings would be used to expand aid to students and colleges, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Read full richy-rich list at http://www.rollcall.com/features/Guide-to-Congress_2009/guide/38181-1.html

From Roll Call:

Localit grows in Cheyenne and Casper and other Wyoming locales

September 19, 2009 by hummingbirdminds

During the past year, I've been talking a lot about my transformation into a locavore (a.k.a. localvore). I'm growing some of my own food and trying to eat foodstuffs grown and raised close to home. It's a daunting task. Cheyenne isn't Salinas or Iowa City or Vidalia. For that, I can only be thankful. But, people in these cities and other temperate climes have a lot better chance of locavoring than I do at 6,200 windswept feet in America's high dry prairie.

But I keep on keeping on. I have a new batch of strawberries, probably due to the cooling weather. Lettuce, too, its last seasonal gasp. I'm still watching the tomatoes ripen. My Superman-like laser vision has speeded up the process, but not by much. A freeze is forecast on Tuesday, followed by a slight warming trend which some call Indian Summer except the Indians. I may just cover up during the freeze emergency, and then see how many more days the tomatoes have.

As I dwell on fruits and veggies, I was thinking about arts on the local scene, especially writers and poets and books. Let's call it "localit," as in "local literature." Homegrown words by homegrown writers, or at least transplanted writers (like me) who took root in the rocky soil of Wyoming.

We don't need no stinkin' czars

September 17, 2009 by hummingbirdminds

Wyoming's lone U.S. Representative, Cynthia Lummis of Cheyenne, joined other Republican deep thinkers such as Michelle Bachmann (R-Penn.), Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), and Pete Sessions (R-Texas) as co-sponsors for H.R. 3226: The Czar Accountability and Reform Act or "CZAR."

I suppose this is an acceptable acronym. The legislators had to stoop to borrowing the first and second letters of "Czar." In reality, it should be TCAARA, but that's just an abbreviation and not an annoying acronym to wave in the faces of Democrats.

This bill proposes:

To provide that appropriated funds may not be used to pay for any salaries or expenses of any task force, council, or similar office which is established by or at the direction of the President and headed by an individual who has been inappropriately appointed to such position (on other than an interim basis), without the advice and consent of the Senate.

Sponsor is another deep thinker from the South, Rep. Jack Kingston [R-GA1]

The Filibuster: We're Filibusted

September 17, 2009 by johne

[Much thanks to my friend G. We've had many conversations, online & off, over this subject, over the years, and he's been a great source - RS]

"I don't remember the old-timey filibusters well enough to know whether the majority having to hang around is so. And I don't have time right now to look it up. I just remember: how they had to fill everyone's offices and the cloakroom and all with cots, and how cranky everyone got at having to show up in the chamber in bathrobes."

"AND by all means, lets require the filibusterers ACTUALLY TO DO IT."

In the interests of possibly never hearing or reading any more comments like that, I'm putting up this long essay on what it really means to launch and curtail a filibuster.

Filibusters are governed by Rules XIX and XXII of the Senate. All a filibuster is is a form of obstruction where a Senator (or more than one, theoretically, but you don't see that often) attempts to delay or entirely prevent a vote on a proposal by extending a debate on that proposal.