As Kaiser points out in "Act of Congress", the one thing members of Congress have in common is that they don't know anything but attack politics. What politicians and pundits have in common is that they need each other.

You can't survive in Washington unless you are a part of and a supporter of its corrupt, elite and power greedy culture. There is nothing worse than the greed for power, which is on full display in the NSA-Snowden story.

Americans' respect for the presidency and Congress has been in the tank since Eisenhower. What little trust in the military that existed was undermined with the appointments of Hagel as Secretary of Defense. As for national intelligence agencies, think 9/11, Boston Marathon, etc. There is no there there.

As a conservative Republican who always has given institutions and the government the benefit of the doubt until people like LBJ, Nixon, Carter, Clinton and Obama showed their true colors, the decline in trust in American institutions, including the media, is disappointing and alarming, but not a surprise.

Americans outside the beltway have 1000% better access to information than we did in the 50s, 70s and even the 90s. We've learned that all the blather that we hear on the Sunday suckup shows is coming out of the mouths of West Point C students and affirmative action and trustee Ivy League kids who know politics and little else.

If the elite don't listen to the people and respect their knowledge and assessments of what is happening in Washington, the powers of the elite will go the way of the once powerful GOP "establishment."

While I understand that market conditions and regulations keep Verizon and AT &T, the two biggest carriers, from covering every RV Park and city in America, I don't understand how they can leave their millions of customers in the dark when they are out of those companies' service areas. Don't they understand that free roaming is critical to keeping the millions of their customers who travel happy when they're away from home?

Verizon phones and its MIFI card don't connect in Colter Bay, WY, or West Yellowstone, MT. And the very nice West Yellowstone KOA isn't able to provide Internet connections via TengoInternet, a service used by many RV Parks. Even a dumpy little Cooke City, MT, motel we had to check into after a pass was closed due to snow had an unworkable internet as well as no Verizon. 

In the Fairmont RV Park at Anaconda, MT, just west of Butte, we finally got a weak Verizon MIFI signal that we both could use. 

All of this has been very frustrating for a political news junky like me who also is trying to keep up with the NBA playoffs and the stock, money and commodities markets.

When you have to do a hard shut down of your iPhones and Mi-Fi in Wyoming and Montana, you know that Verizon doesn't take care of rural America. RV park neighbors seem to be online with AT&T, and they say their phones get three bars. While three bars doesn't mean much, being able to make phone calls and get on the Internet does.

DW says, get used to it. You're in the boondocks and you're headed to Canada and Alaska where Internet connections will be just as bad. She's probably right.

Meanwhile, we're reading books and writing our journals. It's beautiful and peaceful here, and we'll enjoy it while we can.

Sometimes we luck out. 

First, Susan's hard work put us in a wonderful RV park, the Longhorn, in Du Bois, WY, only about 200 miles from our first stop in Casper. 

Then, we scheduled yesterday as a day off the road. Worked out perfect. Susan turned on a tea kettle and our small electric heater on the same circuit. The GFI blew, but I had to test all the fuses, close and open circuit breaker, call Winnebago tech support and find an electrician. Tech support told me where the GFI is—below the fridge and that we probably had killed the GFI. 

Turns out that Randy, who maintains the park while his wife Sue holds down the phones and store, is a "universal technician." I discovered this after trying to find an RV service person in Du Bois and Jackson. After about 90 minutes, we had a new GFI working and were back in business. Randy, ever the good RV park host, refused my money, but we insisted, and he got electrician's rates. He saved us from driving to Idaho Falls or Billings, MT, or hiring a local electrician. I held the flash light.

The drive to Du Boise, population  1,000, from Casper, was into the wind and climbing most of the way. Thus we got only 13.8 mpg at mostly 55 to 60 mph, compared with 16.5 mpg at 66 to 69 mph before a tailwind between Denver and Casper on Tuesday. Some of Wednesday lower mileage can be attributed to our futile drive around Casper looking for a grocery store. (I had bought the wrong dressing for coleslaw.)

Du Boise is a nice little rural tourist spot that's waiting until mid June for the season to begin. It's been in the 50s, with some rain. Not much to do or see in this kind of weather. But we're on the fast-flowing, rather muddy flood stage Wind River, watching the sky, fling rats (Geese and goslings) and deer. 

I'm well into Jack London's "White Fang." Good tail. iPad makes it easy to read in the darker part of the coach.

Today, we're in for along, hard 65 mile trek Colter Bay, Wy.  I think we can do it.

LINKs:

Longhorn Ranch

Well, our great Alaskan and Canadian adventure began this morning with a flooded kitchen sink in the house, not the RV, which is doing just fine.

So, after a couple visits from the plumber and a lot of last minute fiddling with the itinerary, we finally hit the road to Casper at 12:30 and hooked up the water at about 6 p.m.

The Reyo just pured along at about 16.5 mpg. We enjoyed a moderately strong tail wind at 66 to 69 mph in mostly 75 mph speed zones. Filled with a little over 17 gal at $3.88, or about $66 for the day's diesel guzzle.

We ran into about four construction zones on I-25. The big one is at I-25 and Santa Fe. The rest were 65 mph speed zones. 

Traffic was heavy from just south of Denver to just north of Ft. Collins. Then it was open country and wonderful. 

We stopped for about 40 minutes at Wyoming's new, beautiful  welcome center/museum, which is about four miles north of the Colorado border on I-25. In addition to reviewing a little Wyoming history, I picked up a bunch of brochures and "magazine" style promos as well as a great state map at the center. Don't miss this little gem.

Cruising Wyoming is better than passing the cows on I-80 in Nebraska. Traffic is light, views are broad and wonderful and it made me feel like I was in America, not NYC.

A nice surprise was that our satellite radio from Sirus/Xm worked when we turned it on. Too often, we have to call them on the phone to get a signal restored. So it was nice to  be able to listen to The Five and the Bret Bair Special Report on Fox News. As usual, we turned off Shep Smith. He specializes in hawking the news, not reporting it, imho.

The River RV park on the south side of Casper is only four years old. It's rest rooms and showers are big, beautiful and clean. But its Direct TV offers only Fox News and a few irrelevant channels. So I can't watch the Miami Heat v Indiana Pacers game. I'm watching delayed reports on the net.

Dinner was simple. Chicken sausage salad, cheese and pita and chit chat when we aren't reading.

As usual, Susan drove half the time and I drove half the time. At the moment, she's putting stuff away and rearranging.

We've been talking about our great Alaska adventure for a couple of years and preparing for tomorrow's launch since last summer.

Of course, we're both reporters and researchers and readers. And we've been doing our homework as well as our planning even though we won't remember every tiny detail we've read and won't follow every detail of Susan's 17-page (single-spaced) plan. Memories are short and planning is a learning experience. 

We agree that when we break our plans and forget what we've read, we'll still be better off and having more fun than we would if we hadn't done our reading or planning.

So we both began our reading on RVForum.net. That's where many motorhome owners journal, blog and show pictures of their trips to Alaska from the lower 48.

Then we bought, read and still are using these guide books for RV and motorhome travelers:

1. The Milepost (2012 and 2013 editions) themilepost.com.

2. Travelers Guide to Alaskan Camping; Alaska and Yukon camping with RV or tent.

3. Guide to the Alaska Highway, 2nd ed., By Ron Dalby. http://www.menasharidge.com

4.  Brochures from TravelAlaska.com and NorthtoAlaska.com.

5. Pacific Northwest Camping Destinations; RV and car camping destinations in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia, 3rd ed., by Mike and Terri Church. rollinghomes.com.

6. Alaska & Canada's Inside Passage Cruise Tour Guide. Coastal Tour Guides, publisher. 

7. Frommer's Alaska 2011.

History books:

1. The Klondike Fever; the life and death of the last great gold rush, by Pierre Berton, 1958, Carroll & Graf Publishers, 457 pp. Fantastic, must read for history buffs.

2. Coming into the Country by John McPhee. 1997 (438 pp.)

A couple of coffee table books not worth mentioning.

Fictionalized history

1. Alaska by James Michener

2. Two Old Women, by Velma Wallis. Search web for the title to get to Amazon, Wikipedia coverage of this book. Quick, interesting read.

3. Call of the Wild, by Jack London, a Kondike gold rush survivor. I've downloaded from Amazon for $2.99 the Delphi complete works of Jack London and a collection of his short stories about Canada and Alaska. When the mood strikes me, I'll read some of the stories.

4. Tisha, a somewhat doctored autobiography of a teacher in Chicken, AK, as "told" to and embellished, etc., by Robert Specht, who didn't bother to put the teacher's name on the cover of the book. Interesting and entertaining, but online reviews make me take the story with a grain of salt.

5. Sitka, by Louis L'Amour.

Links:

RvForum.net. Go to the message board, search Alaska. You'll know our contributions when you see them.

A YouTube tour of our 2013 Itasca Reyo (T model) motorhome. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COuaZxL50Jw

Books I'll read this summer because they got good WSJ and Amazon reviews: 

Coolidge by Amity Shlaes.

The Three Languages of Politics by Arnold Kling.

Act of Congress: How America's Essential Institution Works, by Robert G. Kaiser.

With former Congressman Tom Tancredo's pre-emptive announcement today that he's running for the Republican nomination for governor of Colorado, we have to ask whether his nomination would not only help Nathan Dunlap's Gov. John Hickenlooper, but also hurt Rep. Mike Coffman (R-CD 6) win re-election over former state House Speaker Andy Romanoff in 2014?

And will Tancredo discourage strong, electable Republicans from running not only for governor, but also for attorney general, secretary of state, state treasurer and the state's General Assembly?

Coffman is in a tough race against Romanoff who is a smart, politically talented guy in a district that Democrats have Gerrymandered just for him.

Colorado's House GOP gave away control of that body in 2012 by blocking a civil unions bill that enraged Obama Democrats. 

Nathan Dunlap's Gov. Hickenlooper, who also is anti- guns and a tax and spend Obama Democrat, is looking more vulnerable every day. 

But if the corrupt GOP caucus system allows Rick Santorum Republicans nominate Tancredo and like-minded social issues extremists,  Hickenlooper may think that he's already been re-elected and that he is invulnerable.

With Tancredo's early announcement, he not only pre-empts State Sen. Greg Brophy, who reportedly is also considering running, he also is giving Obama Democrats all the amunition they need to recruit strong candidates to run for the state's House and Senate in 2014.

Because 2014 still is so far off, a lot can happen. So it's way too early to predict what will happen. But it's not too early to start vetting candidates and asking questions.

Former Rep. Tom Tancredo (CD-6) just announced that he is running for governor of Colorado in 2014.

And "Nathan Dunlap" Hickenlooper's temporary clemency for Dunlap who was scheduled for execution for killing four people 20 years ago makes the otherwise popular governor a lot more vulnerable than he was a few days ago. Indeed, John Hickenlooper has been making hard left decisions with the newly empowered and over-reaching Democrats who control the state's General Assembly.

So Hickenlooper is very vulnerable if the Rick Santorum Republicans in the state nominate a heavy-weight, non extremist candidate for governor, which seems a bit unlikely at this point.

I covered a couple of dozen or so appearances by Tom Tancredo during his save-the-GOP-form-itself-campaign against John Hickenlooper in 2010 for this blog. Search the blog for "Tancredo". I took my videos of his apperances down when I closed my YouTube account because of the privacy intrusions by its owner, Google (GOOG).

Former Rep. Tom Tancredo (CD-6) just announced that he is running for governor of Colorado in 2014.

And "Nathan Dunlap" Hickenlooper's temporary clemency for Dunlap who was scheduled for execution for killing four people 20 years ago makes the otherwise popular governor a lot more vulnerable than he was a few days ago. Indeed, John Hickenlooper has been making hard left decisions with the newly empowered and over-reaching Democrats who control the state's General Assembly.

So Hickenlooper is very vulnerable if the Rick Santorum Republicans in the state nominate a heavy-weight, non extremist candidate for governor, which seems a bit unlikely at this point.

Alison Felix, economist and branch executive of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City's Denver Branch offers a slide presentation on the Colorado economy vs. the rest of the country. It's a good overview.

Obama Democrats think Benghazi is a non event. Nixon Republicans felt the same way for years. Some still feel that way.

We don't know what Syria will look like when its 2- to 20-plus years civil war exhausts itself. 

The Iowa GOP is having a tough time finding a candidate for the U.S. Senate who could win the party's nomination and the election. UPDATE: Rep. Steve King (R-IA) won't run.

Potential Iowa GOP Senate candidates who could beat a Democrat know they would be crucified by Rick Santorum social issues fanatics.

Santorum's fans and activists, unlike most liberal and Small Government Christians, are not only very Christian like a lot of liberal Christians, they're also nasty and vicious.

Anti-abortion GOP activists (as opposed to non activists) play dirty and try to silence their opponents. They're just like liars for Obama. 

So potentially strong, Small Government Iowa GOP candidates aren't running. We're likely to see the same thing happen in the Colorado Senate contest. Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO) looks unbeatable.

The Iowa GOP base is all about making anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage statements, not about winning elections.

So why would a smart GOP politician waste time seeking his party's nomination?

Hard right Rep. Steve King is the kind of GOP foot-in-mouth candidate Democrats love to demonize. He makes it easy. And maybe he knows that and doesn't want to waste his time, either? That's why he's still undecided.

It's a sad time for the Washington GOP establishment. It seems to have a death wish when it comes to backing candidates. As for the base Republicans who only vote for Rick Santorum suicide bombers, hey, you only live once.

One of the advantages of having been on social media sites for some 30 years is that I've experienced the fun of being on CompuServe, Internet message boards, this blog since 2003, newspapers' comments sections, twitter and FaceBook.

And now we have another social media site that I rediscovered this morning on twitter.com. 

http://www.Medium.com announced its plans last year, and I registered as a member, but I didn't realize that it was up and running until I saw its tweet a few hours ago. 

After signing in with my RealDonJohnson twitter account, I read a few articles and then dug into the "About" pages. (You may have to sign in with your twitter account to read that and other links I'm going to post here.)

Medium appears to be for people who want to write real articles, not just 140 word tweets or one-paragraph posts on FaceBook.

The site wants people to follow its style books, use its specified dictionaries and write "percent" instead of "%", which takes only one keystroke. I'm a "%" kinda guy. But if I decide to post on Medium, I'll try to use their style, which I think will keep a fair number of contributors away.

The next thing I read in the "About" section was a very detailed explantion of how "authors" and commenters can use the site. Writers can authorize readers to post "notes" next to sentences and paragraphs, not far away, deep in the middle of 1,000 comments posted below the article.

Notes appear in the margins of the page, right next to the sentence or paragraph they address. Notes writers are limited to only 200 characters per note, and you can't break those notes into paragraphs.

Long blocks of type are unreadable and unread. I believe in short paragraphs—the old Chicago Daily News style.

What's great about Medium's notes is that an author can turn them off, zap trolls and nasty comments and reply to those who post notes. And the author is the "moderator" and can make useless and nasty notes (flames) invisible to all but the author and the note writer.

In other words, authors and commenters can have real conversations. I'm hoping that Medium's authors will engage their writers. Few if any reporters for blogs, news sites like Politico.com or WSJ.com interact with commenters. I think that's a mistake and missed opportunity to engage readers.

Articles are posted in what Medium calls "collections". There are dozens of them. Sign in and take a look.

LINKS:

http://www.medium.com

http://www.twitter.com

http://www.facebook.com

Who do we blame for soaring health insurance premiums?

You can blame AARP, health insurers, doctors and hospitals and the politicians that they paid with campaign contributions to distort the health insurance and health care markets.

And you can blame uninformed, unorganized and powerless voters for letting the Henry Waxmans of Congress and every president since JFK for making it all go wrong.

Health care is big money and big government.

Big government spends big money.

Big money in the hands of Big Government corrupts. 

Big government corrupts politicians, campaign contributors, drug companies, hospital administrators, physicians and regulators who have anything to do with distorting our health insurance and health care markets.

That's why America's huge government is and looks so corrupt. We're a third world country now.