hummingbirdminds

• Sunlight of a Cheyenne autumn morning

  Driving my daughter Annie along I-25 this morning to visit a friend. She commented that she liked this part of the morning, about 9 a.m. The way the light looks and feels, the way it lights up the prairie. I had to admit that it was a beautiful November morning. [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 25, 2009, 10:27am EST
  

• In the trenches with Dick "5 Deferments" Cheney

  Casper's Dick "Five Vietnam War Draft Deferments" Cheney knows war from the grunt's P.O.V. Just listen as he speaks on right-wing radio:
  
  I worry that there’s a lack of understanding there of what this means from the perspective of the troops. You know, if you’re out there on the [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 24, 2009, 8:02pm EST
  

• Local physician sees need and steps in

  From the Associated Press 11/24:
  
  A doctor in Cheyenne says he'll open an interim free clinic to help patients that will be otherwise without care when the Cheyenne Community Clinic closes at the end of the year.
  
  Dr. Jason Bloomberg with Access Health Care says he'll have Tuesday [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 24, 2009, 11:06am EST
  

• UW's Science Posse gets big NSF grant

  Phil Noble at the Cowboy State Free Press reported two science-related stories on 11/23. The first was about the new supercomputer being built west of Cheyenne. Great news for Wyoming's science footprint and also economic development -- the kind that actually has a huge impact on the economy and [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 24, 2009, 9:12am EST
  

• Wyoming's future: from Equality State to Land of the Dumb & Sick

  Digby recounts a Chris Matthews interview with Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour talking about how Mississippi has all the answers to our health care woes. An excerpt:
  
  Barbour: ...candidly, a lot of Republicans, including me, believe it would be much better to let the states do some things [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 23, 2009, 10:18am EST
  

• Fact Check: Wyoming Sen. Barrasso's statement on health care reform

  The Wyoming Democratic Party did a little research and came up with a fact check on some health care reform comments by Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, M.D. (hope he's a better doctor than researcher):
  
  Brianna Jones, WyoDems communications director: Please see below for a fact check of the [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 22, 2009, 8:55pm EST
  

• Progressives bring opposing P.O.V. to Casper teabagger rally

  Casper progessives joined with a contingent from Laramie to present an opposing point of view at a teabagger rally Saturday across the street from Wyoming Medical Center. According to Laramie's Meg Lanker, the Casper tea party rally was co-sponsored by the Wyoming 9/12 Project, Wyoming Watchdogs' [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 22, 2009, 2:14pm EST
  

• Letter from D.C. -- and my response

  Letter from Wyo. Rep. Cynthia Lummis, with her comments in red and mine in blue:
  
  Dear Michael:
  
  Thank you for contacting me regarding healthcare reform. It is good to hear from you.
  
  Congressional Democrat leaders are working to create a new government-forced healthcare system that would put [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 20, 2009, 5:17pm EST
  

• CIGNA -- can you hear me now?

  This comes from Badtux the Snarky Penguin (via Skippy the Bush Kangaroo), a blog that's new to me. Then again, lots of things are new to me. Oh brave new world that has such blogs in't! And I'm always partial to prog-blogs with animal names.
  
  CIGNA denies [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 20, 2009, 11:46am EST
  

• Dear Rep. Lummis: You'll be known by the company you keep

  Rep. Cynthia Lummis toes the Republican National Committee line on most issues. She's consistently voted against health care reform, health insurance coverage for children, climate legislation and equal rights for gays. She loves the Department of Defense yet despises the gubment's role in almost all other things. So odd how [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 19, 2009, 9:52pm EST
  

• Enzi tours Wyoming to probe minds of voters

  Brianna Jones at the WyoDems sends this:
  
  This is a heads up that Senator Enzi’s staff will be holding sessions in the following communities over the next few weeks and starting tomorrow. Please share this information!
  
  Buffalo – Thursday, Dec. 10 – Town Hall – 11 a.m.-12 [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 18, 2009, 6:46pm EST
  

• Learning something new from "WWII in HD"

  B-17 Stratofortress, B-24 Liberator, M-1 rifle, dogface, Tarawa, D-Day, Kasserine Pass, Patton, Mt. Suribachi, panzer, blitz...
  
  And so it goes.
  
  Watching "WWII in HD" on the History Channel, I realized that all these terms -- and many more -- are etched permanently into my brain. Chris and I [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 18, 2009, 7:08am EST
  

• Cheyenne Zonta Club announces "16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence"

  Mona Pearl at the Zonta Club of Cheyenne sent out this announcement today:
  
  The Zonta Club of Cheyenne is again participating in 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence. The campaign formally kicks off on Nov. 25. Proclamation signings by Governor Dave Freudenthal and Cheyenne Mayor Rick Kaysen will [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 17, 2009, 10:11pm EST
  

• An issue of morality -- "Healthcare For All Americans"

  [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 15, 2009, 3:10pm EST
  

• Cheney/Palin in 2012? How about Palin/Cheney?

  The talking heads were having fun this morning over at Fixed News Sunday. Did I watch it? No. I was working on my own fiction in the form of a new book of short stories. I prefer fiction that comes out of my head (and heart) to that manufactured by [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 15, 2009, 2:25pm EST
  

• Montana progressive org hiring director

  This comes from the always-alert jhwygirl at 4&20 blackbirds
  
  Forward Montana (FMT), a homegrown organization dedicated to training, mobilizing, and electing a new generation of progressive leaders based in Missoula, Montana, and Forward Montana Foundation, dedicated to engaging young Montanans in civic life, seek an energetic Managing Director [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 14, 2009, 1:59pm EST
  

• Got wood? A modest proposal from Digby

  Digby is the Jonathan Swift for our times:
  
  I have a moral objection to paying for any kind of erectile dysfunction medicine in the new health reform bill and I think men who want to use it should just pay for it out of pocket. After all, I won't' [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 13, 2009, 8:58pm EST
  

• Rep. Millin and WyoDems thank veterans

  Representative Lori Millin, Democrat of Cheyenne, is my rep in the Wyoming House. She issued the following statement to mark Veterans Day:
  
  “On Veterans Day, the Wyoming Democratic Party would like to take a moment to thank the past and present service members who have selflessly devoted their lives [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 11, 2009, 10:34am EST
  

• Instead of imagining "Medicaid cheats," Wyoming legislators should ensure mental health coverage

  More on the Wyoming Medicaid situation by Wyoming Tribune-Eagle reporter Bill McCarthy:
  
  
  Bob Peck, Wyoming Department of Health chief financial officer, met with the Wyoming Legislature's Joint Appropriations Interim Committee last week.
  
  Without federal money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, he said, the' [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 09, 2009, 9:25pm EST
  

• Increased demand stresses Wyoming Medicaid funding

  A story in Monday's Wyoming Tribune-Eagle addressed the state's Medicaid and CHIP programs.
  
  The number of children on Wyoming Kid Care CHIP is declining, but the number of children on Medicaid is going up.
  
  Bob Peck, chief financial officer for the Wyoming Department of Health, said one explanation [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 09, 2009, 7:52am EST
  

• Mental health issues, in war and in peace

  I am not a military veteran, and only know about war second-hand.
  
  But I do know depression first-hand. I know how DNA and bad juju can combine to make a potent cocktail of melancholia. It can lead to extensive funks or something worse. Suicide, even murderous rampages.
  
  Vietnam [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 08, 2009, 9:33am EST
  

• Shame on CIGNA, my health insurer

  This comes from Buzzflash:
  
  On the same day Cigna posted a 92 percent increase in 3rd quarter profits, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) released the following statement condemning Cigna for its opposition to health care reform.
  
  "Cigna opposes urgently needed health care reform, and today we know why." [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 07, 2009, 9:45pm EST
  

• Health care reform bill passes U.S. House

  And as if you didn't know -- Wyoming lone Rep., Cynthia Lummis of Cheyenne, continued her role as a Republican Know-Nothing and voted against the bill. She did vote for an earlier amendment that would limit women's right to choose. Busy day for Rep. Lummis.
  
  FMI: [www.nytimes.com][...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 07, 2009, 9:36pm EST
  

• Follow health care reform as it happens

  This info comes to hummingbirdminds from Mike Kruger, online outreach specialist, U.S. HOuse Committee on Education and Labor:
  
  

  Dear Michael:
  
  As I’m sure you’ve heard the House plans to vote on the Affordable Health Care for America Act - H.R. 3962 this weekend. I thought you and the [...]

  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 07, 2009, 8:30am EST
  

• Mental health care for Wyoming teens is usually far from home

  Let's say that your 16-year-old daughter announces in the dead of night that she wants to commit suicide. It's nothing to trifle with. You rush her off to the local hospital emergency room. The staff psychiatrist, psychologist and social worker assess her and decide that she needs to be evaluated [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 06, 2009, 8:50pm EST
  

• In Cheyenne, the uninsured are up the creek

  Great series of health care articles by Michelle Dynes in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle. The headline for the front-page article was "Resources shrink for uninsured." The main resource that is shrinking for the local uninsured is the Cheyenne Community Clinic, which will close on Dec. 31 for lack of funding. [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 01, 2009, 4:15pm EST
  

• Names of the Dead on the Day of the Dead

  
  [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 01, 2009, 8:34am EST
  

• Wyoming Democrats support public option

  The Wyoming Democratic Party is asking state residents to support the public option in health care reform. You can go to the WyoDems' web site and print out a petition calling for the public option. Get ten supporters to sign on and send it back to the WyoDems so they' [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 01, 2009, 7:42am EST