Platte County Democrats to Meet Tomorrow Night

Platte County Democrats,

We will meet Monday, November 28, 2011, at the First State Bank Conference
Center at 7pm.

Pete Gosar ran for Governor in 2010 and will be the featured speaker.

Chris Kanwischer, Platte County Clerk, is tracking the redistricting effort
and will provide insight on this important issue.

Please plan to attend and bring your friends. It will be informative and
fun.

Terry R. Jones
Chairman

DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz's Inaugural Speech

Rev. Rodger McDaniel to speak on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

Press Release from the Platte County Democratic Party:

The public is invited to hear Rev. Rodger McDaniel speak on the topic of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The talk will take place on Wednesday, May 25th at the First State Bank Conference Center in Wheatland at 7 p.m. The guest speaker will also welcome questions from the audience.

Rev. Rodger McDaniel served in the Wyoming legislature from 1971-1981, was the Democratic Party nominee for US Senate in 1982, practiced law for 18 years, and was the Director of Habitat for Humanity operations in Nicaragua from 1991-1992. He holds a Masters of Divinity Degree from the Iliff School of Theology, and is an currently the pastor at Highlands Presbyterian Church after serving as director Wyoming Department of Family Services and head of the state's mental health and substance abuse programs for 8 years.

Refreshments will be served following the Q&A. The event is being sponsored by the Platte County Democratic Party.

Hope you can make it!

Platte County Meetings with reps for Enzi, Barrasso and Lummis

Courtesy of Gail Heimbuck (thanks Gail!)

U.S. Senators Mike Enzi and John Barrasso and U.S. Congressman Cynthia Lummis are announcing that their representatives are scheduled to hold Office Hours in Platte County on Wednesday, May 18, 2011.
Their schedule will be:
Guernsey - Town Hall, 81 West Whalen Street, 10 – 10:30 am
Wheatland – Town Hall, 600 9th Street, 11 am – 12 pm
Area residents are encouraged to stop by during these times to discuss matters regarding the federal government. All comments and concerns will be relayed to Senators Barrasso and Enzi and Rep Lummis.
For more information, please call Jamie Gronski at 307-772-2451.

Representative Cynthia Lummis will be in Wheatland on Thursday, May 19th at the Platte County Chamber of Commerce Quarterly Luncheon that will held at the Wheatland Country Club beginning at Noon. She will be giving a Legislative update. Call the Chamber at 322-2322 to RSVP for the luncheon.

If you can attend one of these meetings, please do so! If you haven't heard, our three representatives were recently in the news for being supportive of a U.S. constitutional "repeal amendment" to give individual states to the ability to say "This part of our federal law doesn't apply to us." It's doubtful the legislation would pass through congress, but the implication is that they don't feel Wyoming should have to obey the laws of our union, our UNITED states. I feel the phrase "United we stand, divided we fall!" would be applicable to this situation.

News from the Wyoming Democratic Party Central Committee

We had a good turnout and and got fired up at Wyoming Democratic Party State Central Committee meeting. I'll be posting more information summarizing what I learned at the meeting, to help answer questions about our Democrat party and our function as members. Meanwhile, our Executive Director Bill Luckett summarizes some of the important highlights of the meeting:

The Wyoming Democratic Party State Central Committee convened today Casper College in the Sharon Nichols Auditorium, to elect state officers finalize the delegate selection plan for 2012 state and national conventions.

Central Committee members elected, by acclamation, the following leadership for a two-year term and to lead the party through the 2012 election cycle:
Chuck Herz of Moose as State Chair
Jodi Guerin of Laramie as Vice Chair
Sherry Shelley of Riverton as Secretary
Leslie Petersen of Wilson as Treasurer

The Central Committee amended the 2012 Delegate Selection Plan to hold County Conventions on April 14, 2012, in every county seat across the state. The selection of this specific date will make Wyoming eligible to earn two bonuses in the size of its delegation: one by virtue of waiting until April to hold its “first-step” events in the presidential selection process, and the other for holding its events on the same date as neighboring states. The Nebraska Democratic Party is currently planning to hold its event on April 14, and the Democratic parties of Kansas and Idaho are also considering whether to schedule their events on the same date, pending votes by their respective state committees.

After approving the amendments, the Wyoming Democratic State Central Committee today voted to formally adopt and submit the plan to the DNC's Rules and Bylaws Committee for approval. Under the plan Wyoming will elect 19 delegates and 2 alternates to the 2012 Democratic National Convention. In addition, the state should be eligible for four bonus delegates, pending the formal approval of the plan by the DNC.

The Wyoming Democratic Party Central Committee is composed of the Chairs, Vice Chairs, State Committeemen, and Committeewomen from each county, State Chair and Vice Chair, State Secretary and Treasurer, National Committeeman and Committeewoman, Legislative Representatives selected by the House Caucus and Senate Caucus, and the Young Democrats Chair, Vice Chair, State Committeeman, and State Committeewoman.

Wyoming Democratic Party Central Committee Meeting, April 30, 2011

The following is a letter from Bill Luckett, Executive Director of the Wyoming Democratic Party, regarding the upcoming Central Committee meeting in Casper. I would like to see a good turnout from Platte County, and encourage anyone interested to attend.

Folks,

The Central Committee of the Wyoming Democratic Party will meet in Casper on Saturday, April 30. The meeting will take place at Casper College, in the Sharon Nichols Auditorium in the McMurry Career Studies Building, which is at the extreme south end of campus. Directions: take Wolcott Street (which runs parallel to Center Street, just one block east) southbound toward Casper Mountain. Wolcott Street’s name changes into Casper Mountain Road, but it’s the same street. Go past 15th Street, past College Drive, past T-Bird Drive, and then take a right. THEN, take an immediate left onto Lisco Drive, circle around for 5 to 10 seconds, and turn left into the parking lot. The attached map should help some – just know that on this map, SOUTH is up, so our meeting place is at the top of the map.

Members of the Central Committee include county chairs, vice chairs, state committeemen and state committeewomen. But note that this meeting, like all of our meetings, is open to the public, AND we are going to focus heavily on training for county party leaders, so you may want to encourage others from your county who are not technically members of the Central Committee to attend. They’ll be most welcome. We also especially hope any members of the Legislature who are not technically members of the Central Committee will attend.

In addition to the training, the major orders of business will be to elect state party officers for the next two years and to approve our state party’s Delegate Selection Plan for the 2012 Democratic National Convention. Attached is a tentative agenda.

The Leadership Group of the Wyoming Democratic Party will meet in Casper on the previous day, Friday, April 29, for a session on Party strategy, as previously announced. That meeting is planned for 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Friday the 29th in the downstairs conference room of the Stratton Real Estate/Blue Cross Blue Shield building at 231 E. Midwest Ave., which is between Wolcott and Durbin streets just a half block south of 2nd Street. The Leadership Group and others who’ve indicated interest in attending will get further information on this session early next week.

I look forward to seeing you in a couple weeks!
Bill

Bill Luckett
Executive Director
Wyoming Democratic Party
(307) 473-1457 (office)
(307) 631-7638 (cell)
luckett@wyomingdemocrats.com

Learn About The Affordable Care Act

KD Kneeburg had her Letter to the Editor published this week in both the Casper Star Tribune and the Platte County Record Times. Read it here: Learn about health reform. If you visit the healthcare.gov page as suggested you will find some of the benefits of the Affordable Care Act already in place, including:

Providing Small Business Health Insurance Tax Credits: Up to 4 million small businesses are eligible for tax credits to help them provide insurance benefits to their workers. The first phase of this provision provides a credit worth up to 35% of the employer’s contribution to the employees’ health insurance. Small non-profit organizations may receive up to a 25% credit.

Cracking Down on Health Care Fraud: Current efforts to fight fraud have returned more than $2.5 billion to the Medicare Trust Fund in FY 2009 alone. The new law invests new resources and requires new screening procedures for health care providers to boost these efforts and reduce fraud and waste in Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP.

Expanding Coverage for Early Retirees: Too often, Americans who retire without employer-sponsored insurance and before they are eligible for Medicare see their life savings disappear because of high rates in the individual market. To preserve employer coverage for early retirees until more affordable coverage is available through the new Exchanges by 2014, the new law creates a $5 billion program to provide needed financial help for employment-based plans to continue to provide valuable coverage to people who retire between the ages of 55 and 65, as well as their spouses and dependents.

For more information on the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program, visit www.ERRP.gov

Providing Access to Insurance for Uninsured Americans with Pre-Existing Conditions: A Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan (PCIP) will provide new coverage options to individuals who have been uninsured for at least six months because of a pre-existing condition. States have the option of running this new program in their state. If a state chooses not to do so, a plan will be established by the Department of Health and Human Services in that state. This program serves as a bridge to 2014, when all discrimination against pre-existing conditions will be prohibited.

Learn more about the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan

Extending Coverage for Young Adults:Under the new law, young adults will be allowed to stay on their parent’s plan until they turn 26 years old. (In the case of existing group health plans, this right does not apply if the young adult is offered insurance at work.) Some insurers began implementing this practice early. Check with your insurance company or employer to see if you qualify.

Providing Free Preventive Care: All new plans must cover certain preventive services such as mammograms and colonoscopies without charging a deductible, co-pay or coinsurance.

Eliminating Lifetime Limits on Insurance Coverage: Under the new law, insurance companies will be prohibited from imposing lifetime dollar limits on essential benefits, like hospital stays.

These are but a few of the positive changes made to assist people in keeping the cost of insurance under control and to help people achieve healthier lives.

The Constitution Party in Platte County

You might have seen in the Platte County Record-Times that the "Constitution Party" is going to hold a meeting and formalize their position in the county. I visited their website to read their platform. I had to disagree with them right from the start when reading the party preamble: "The Constitution Party of Wyoming gratefully acknowledges the blessing of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as Creator, Preserver and Ruler of the Universe and of these United States."

This completely ignores Jefferson's call for separation of church and state, and it leaves me with no reason to believe they would follow the constitution and the intent of our forefathers at all. Further reading of their goals and platform issues leaves me flabbergasted at their willingness to promote the rights of only certain individuals. By that I mean the rights of certain, non-gay, pro-life, ten-commandment and end-of-days preaching individuals.

What is this? What happened to the melting pot? E. Pluribus Unum? We are a country of many religions and cultures, with the right for all to practice their beliefs, even the lack thereof. Let's leave the "One religion to rule them all" to other countries like Iran. This is NOT a christian nation, no matter how much they wish it was.

Factcheck.org summarizes the exaggerations the GOP in Iowa

Well, I guess now is as good as a time as any for the GOP to start slinging mud and making irresponsible statements that simply don't correlate with the facts. Here is a link to Factcheck.org's summarization of the exaggerations made by wannabe presidential hopefuls during a get together in Iowa on March 26th, 2011. Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Haley Barbour all manage to distort reality with made up figures. I would say 83% of their information is wrong, which is a number I pulled out of thin air, because hey, if they can do it, why can't I? Oh yeah, because I'm kinda partial to REAL information.

News You Can Use: April 4, 2011

GOP anti-appropriators break up the spending party Cynthia Lummis, in her second term, is the league leader in bucking the committee leadership -- she voted against Rogers and Young 16 times during the HR 1 ...

Barrasso scrutinizes mineral exports John Barrasso, R-Wyo., dashed off a letter of his issues with uranium mining companies operating in Wyoming to the President of the United States, and may have uncovered a potential international incident. Uranium extraction in Wyoming continues to be ...

Obama's energy policy is doublespeak - .: United States Senator ... U.S. Senator Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., made the following comments following a speech by President Obama today regarding his energy policy. ...

Letter to the Editor - Terry Jones

Terry Jones has a Letter to the Editor appearing this week. I have seen it in both the Platte County Record-Times and The Casper Star-Tribune. Go check it out!

Group stops 'robocalls' to Wyoming

After a number of complaints, a nonprofit advocacy group fighting the new federal health care lawannounced Thursday that it’s suspending all automated phone calls to Wyoming.

Republicans and Democrats around the state have complained for several days of receiving as many as three “robocalls” in an hour from Repeal HealthCare Act, a nonprofit 501(c)4 group that’s a project of the conservative political action committee Restore America’s Voice. More from the Casper Star Tribune.

Press Release: Platte County Democrats Elect New Leadership

Wheatland, WY – Last night twenty Democrats from across Platte County gathered and elected new leadership for a two-year term.

Terry Jones of Wheatland was elected as Chair and Stacey Reichardt of Wheatland was elected as Vice Chair. Rick Robbins of Wheatland retained his position as Secretary and Jeff Wilhelm of Wheatland will continue serving as treasurer. Michael Crowley of Wheatland was elected to serve as State Committeeman. The position of State Committeewoman is vacant and will be filled by appointment.

“I’m looking forward to leading the Platte County Democrats. I hope to see a lot more people at our monthly meetings, including a lot of younger faces,” commented Jones.

Monthly meetings of the Platte County Democrats will resume in April. The time and place will soon be announced.

Wyoming Democrats seek comments on 2012 Delegate Selection Plan

The Wyoming Democratic Party is seeking public comment on its draft delegate selection plan for the Democratic National Convention to be held in Charlotte, N.C., in September 2012.

The draft plan is available to the public for comment at the Wyoming Democratic Party's Website at www.wyomingdemocrats.com. The public comment period runs from March 22 to April 21. Written comments may be offered by e-mail to: luckett@wyomingdemocrats.com, or by mail to the state party at:
PO Box 1963,
Casper, WY, 82602.

Here is a summary of the plan:

Wyoming has a total of 19 delegates and 2 alternates.

Wyoming will utilize the results of a two-tier caucus system to apportion delegates to the 2008 Democratic National Convention. The step of Wyoming's delegate selection process will occur on Saturday, April 7, 2012, with a county caucus/convention in each of the state's 23 counties.

Participation in Wyoming's delegate selection process is open to all voters who wish to participate as Democrats. All persons residing in the county and registered to vote as Democrats at least 15 days prior to the county caucus/convention (no later than Mar. 23, 2012) may vote at the county caucus/convention and be elected as delegates to the State and National Conventions.

DISTRICT LEVEL DELEGATES AND ALTERNATES
Wyoming is allocated 10 district-level delegates and 2 district-level alternates. District-level delegate positions will be allocated to presidential candidates based on the presidential preference vote at county caucuses on Saturday, April 7, 2012. Candidates who have not attained a 15% threshold on a statewide basis shall not be entitled to any delegates. At Wyoming's Democratic State Convention in Laramie on Saturday, May 26, 2012, state delegates will elect district-level national delegates.


PARTY LEADER/ELECTED OFFICIAL AND AT-LARGE DELEGATES
Wyoming is allocated 2 party leader/elected official (PLEO) delegates and 3 at-large delegates.

PLEO and at-large delegate and alternate positions shall be allocated among presidential candidates according to the results of a presidential preference vote at the state convention. Candidates who have not attained a 15% threshold on a statewide basis shall not be entitled to any at-large delegates. The election of these delegates and alternates will also occur at the state convention.


"SUPER" DELEGATES
Four members of Wyoming's delegation to the national convention serve by virtue of their respective party or elected office. They are the state party chairman, the state party vice chairman, the Democratic National Committeeman, and the Democratic National Committeewoman.

In an effort to ensure that the presidential selection process more accurately reflects the results of votes by all eligible Democrats, the Democratic National Committee has eliminated the category of “unpledged add-on” delegates to the national convention. Further, Wyoming’s members of the DNC (the chair, vice chair and two national committee people) will be required to declare their support for a presidential candidate within 10 days after the State Convention.

Platte County Democrats Elect Officers

The Platte County Democrats met at the county library on March 22nd to hold elections and discuss plans for the party. Thanks to all who came out to vote! Our new Chairperson is Terry Jones, and our new Vice-Chairperson is Stacey Reichardt! Continuing as our Secretary is Rick Robbins, and maintaining the Treasurer position is Jeff Wilhelm. Michael Crowley (yours truly) is our State Committeeman, and the position of State Committeewoman will be appointed soon.

We were very fortunate to have Brianna Jones, Wyoming Democratic Party Communications Director, with us to review the party's upcoming goals and to discuss the Affordable Care Act, reviewing some of the benefits available to Wyoming citizens. For example, did you know about 9,000 Wyoming residents with preexisting conditions qualify for affordable insurance, but only 50 enrolled for the program? Go to www.pcip.gov for more information.

Brianna will be pursuing other personal goals starting in May, and thus will not continue in her current position. She has been a great asset to the party, and I know our next Communications Director will have big shoes to fill. Good luck and thanks for all your hard work, Brianna!

Our Platte County Democrats members discussed short term goals, and we will be looking at having regular meetups to work on goals, party promotion, and ways to improve local politics!

If you aren't on the local party e-mail list, please send us a message and you will be added. Also, please add to our discussions by joining our Facebook group. This group requires a request to join, so that we can keep it to just to members of our party.

2012 is just around the corner, it's time to get this party energized! Stay tuned...

New Law Requires Women to Name Baby, Paint Nursery Before Getting Abortion

Posting this segment while noting concern that some members of our legislature might think it's a great idea!

Platte County Democrats Meeting

The Platte County Democrats will be holding a meeting on Tuesday, March 22nd at 7 p.m. for the purpose of electing officers for the upcoming term. The meeting will be held at the Platte County Public Library Meeting Room. Linda Shelton is our current chairperson, taking up the chairmanship after the recent resignation of Charlie McDonald. See you there!

Rachel Maddow features Wyoming Legislature

Rachel Maddow recently aired a segment on what small government conservatism can do, using the recent defeat of HB74 in the Wyoming Legislature as an example. Featured in the video are Cale Case and Phil Nicholas, both Republican members of our State Senate, and Chris Rothfuss, one of our four Wyoming Senate Democrats. This bill could not possibly have been defeated without the support of a number of Republicans, who chose to follow the Constitution over the opposing members desire to mingle their personal religious beliefs with the law of the land. Members of Fremont and Albany counties should be damn proud.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Here in good ol' Platte County, we had a wonderful quote from one of our representatives, Frank Peasley: "Listen, I feel like you're destroying everything else that I have. You've gotten involved in the raising of my children, the way I discipline them, the way I feed them, whether or not I can smoke in the car, whether or not I have them properly equipped; you've just gotten into my life so much, let's just let me define the relationship I'm in, OK?”

I'm fairly certain allowing gays to marry would in no way nullify Mr. Peasley's marriage. It wouldn't have anything to do with his marriage. What Peasley is really saying is that he doesn't want other Americans, two consenting adults who love each other, to have the same rights that he enjoys. Why not?

We elect people to make our lives a little better, to uphold our laws, and to create laws that make this state a better place to live. Let's keep that in mind during the next election cycle. Let's vote for fairness and equality.

Wyoming State Senate Kills HB74

Two articles were posted this morning regarding how HB74, the validity of marriage bill, was stopped:


http://equalitystatewatch.blogspot.com/2011/03/house-bill-74-dies-in-senate.html

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wpr/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1770226

From the second piece: "WyWatch State Director Becky Vandeberge was disappointed with the vote, but says she will keep working to keep same-sex unions from being recognized in the state. "The goal here was to get a voting record on a clean bill that defines marriage as between one man and one woman," she said. "And now we have that for the next election."

I couldn't agree more Becky. In Platte County, all of our representatives attempted to pass law that simply pushes for inequality. Senators Curt Meier and Jim Anderson, Representatives Matt Teeters and Frank Peasley all voted Yea on SJ005, the defense of marriage constitutional amendment. It was placed in the general file and was not considered in the committee of the whole. Then our all Republican "representatives" got behind HB74, which was defeated in the Senate yesterday.

Our elected leaders disguise their motivations as being sound, rational attempts at "creating consistent verbiage" across the board to guide our court systems. But I truly feel this is all religiously motivated, an attempt by followers of the christian bible to influence politics, and deny other Wyomingites the freedoms that they themselves enjoy. There is a reason why we have separation of church and state. These Platte County senators and representatives don't understand it. You have the right to practice religion, but you do not have the right to push your agenda on others through the government.

By the way, the e-mails I sent to Frank Peasley and Matt Teeters went unanswered. Thanks for the representation and response to a constituent, gentleman. Outstanding work.

This issue was only one of several bills this legislative session considered to interfere and control the rights of Wyomingites. They wanted government prescriptions for abortions. They tried to force children to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Is if this is the Republicans idea of smaller government, I'm afraid they have their wires crossed. Next election cycle, we certainly will remember this.

EDIT: and from the trib: http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/article_70dd42f1-ba13-519b-b9a8-87c0922aff6e.html

John Barrasso Among the Most Conservative

Aren't we lucky here in the state of Wyoming? Not only do we have two senators who are joined at the hip when voting, but now Thing 2 has the dubious honor of being rated one of the top 10 conservatives in the Senate. Isn't that special? I wonder if he gets a little golden oil well statue with that.

http://nationaljournal.com/magazine/most-conservative-members-of-congress-20110224

WyWatch keeping tabs on our State House and Senate

If you are a Facebook user, I suggest checking out the WyWatch Watchers group, which is doing a fine job of keeping tabs on the legislation and proposals that affect our personal freedoms.

There is just one week to go until the 2011 legislature session. The Republican Party candidates have clearly shown what kind of power trip they go on when they have control of the house, senate, and governorship of our state. It hasn't been pretty to watch, but hopefully this will get our party riled up and start planning for the 2012 election cycle. We need to toss out our district representatives. They have helped push through legislation that denies equality to all Wyoming citizens, and have successfully pushed their so-called morality issues while blindly ignoring our U.S. constitution.

Our county caucus is fast approaching in March. I'd like to see some serious discussion concerning our need to fight back and put some people in power that want to prevent this state from continuing down the path of prejudice and hate mongering.

Senator Enzi's Light Bulb Moment

In the news...
Senator Enzi has got this all figured out. Our state government is finding new ways to interfere with our civil rights, such as the right to marry the person you love, and interfering with your personal choice to have an abortion. These are merely small fry state issues. Enzi, meanwhile, is taking care of the really important issues: Giving the people a choice of the type of light bulb they can buy, an energy saving one or a old style inefficient incandescent one. http://bit.ly/dYL4eQ