LOTS TO DO...

Bryan Bain's 5th Tuesday Forum will be held Tuesday night at the Grand Theatre. There will be informal tours afterward. Bryan is working hard to do a good job for Oshkosh. If you have a concern make sure to attend. I don't think he has a solution for the wasps but you could ask. (My solution is to use a dryer sheet. Wipe it on your arms and neck.) Go here:
http://www.bryanbain.com

Wednesday evening at 6pm be at the sundial. This is the kick-off for the local 'bring the troops home' referendum. There will be speakers (and a few more wasps). About 3,000 signatures will be needed in sixty days. Paul Esslinger will be speaking. He may/may not be in favor of the referendum BUT he is very much in favor of using the referendum as a tool to gauge public sentiment. Thank you Paul. Go here:
http://www.wpjc.blogspot.com

Wednesday night brings the band LIFEHOUSE to the Leach. This show is part of the PMI series. If you can't make it, they will be appearing on Jay Leno's Tonight Show on September 6. Go here: http://www.lifehousemusic.com

Thursday afternoon around 5pm be at the sundial. The Fox Jazz Fest begins. This will be the first of two nights of Jazz in Oshkosh. The first night will be at Peace Park (OK. Opera House Square) Go here:
http://www.foxjazzfest.com/pgs/cal.tpl

Thursday night brings Rick Springfield to the Leach Amphitheater. Go here:
http://www.waterfest.org
http://www.rickspringfield.com

Friday night the Fox Jazz Fest moves to the Leach. Be there early. The music starts around 5. Remember, the Jazz Fest is FREE!

Friday night will also be the last movie of the series at Peace Park. Bring the kids and a blanket (no chairs please) and enjoy a free bag of popcorn. National Treasure-starring Nicholas Cage is the feature. Go here:
http://www.intergen.org


Don't forget the ART WALK downtown Saturday night from 6-9pm.

Last but not least remember to stop by the official Labor Day picnic at South Park on Monday. This reminds us what Labor Day is about.

Please check back this week for updates.

Peace.

"GIMME A 'W'..."

http://www.buzzflash.com/bradenton/05/08/bra05049.html

I have been a Steve Bradenton fan for a while. He does great work.

Dubya went to the reddest state in the union, Utah, and the Mormons hit the fan. The Mayor of Salt Lake City spoke at an anti-war rally a few blocks away from Bush. Sorry King George but the most Republican state in the country has something to say to you about this sorry war. It was the largest protest in Utah since 1991 previous to the Bush-Daddy War. Mormon friends tell me there is a lot of division among their members over this war.

Pat Robertson should hang it up. When we have a 'so-called' church leader calling for the assassination of a country's leader that's gone way-way over any line of taste, ---much less morals. Robertson should be sent to Texas and executed. Whoops! I'm just kidding. I don't believe in capital punishment. Maybe we should just send Robertson down to Florida and have him room with Joe Paulus. Paulus could get some religion and teach Robertson the fine art of lawn maintainance. I'm sure it's hotter than Hell down there.

Day Ja Beer news is that the UW-Madison is the Nation's party school all over again. So what else is new? Quite a bit. Here is your chance to drink and get paid for it. The Beer Man is gone from the Post Crescent. Rumor has it that he is filing for disability against Gannett, fell off his bar-stool and can't get up...or sober up. {Remember these key words: 1)rumor 2)blog}

At any rate here is your chance to get a new part time job. Go here:
http://www.wisinfo.com/postcrescent/news/beerman

Now all you women go apply for the job as 'BEERMAN'. Think they'll hire you?

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro...

It's been a bit bumpy, but quiet enough to think. Who the hell would invite people to a campfire and then burn painted wood from an old fence? Who got a 'package' from the local gendarmes in the last week? You aren't going to hear a peep from me. Let's hope for better weather this Thursday for the concert at the Leach.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO DO SOMETHING TO HELP SHORTEN THIS BILLION DOLLAR A WEEK WAR? Good. I knew you would agree.

Be at the Oshkosh Public Library on Wednesday evening at 7:00pm. Go to meeting room 'A'. A lot of help is needed. Bring a neighbor. Bring a friend. See you there.
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SHELTER FOR THE POLITICALLY HOMELESS...

Fighting Bob Fest is just around the corner -Saturday September 10. Want to go? There's room for a few dozen people. Guess what? It costs $10-bucks. Guess what? It's in Baraboo at the Sauk County Fairgrounds. Just stop at the cash machine, fill your wallet, then empty your wallet when you fill your tank.

WHOA...WHOA...WHOA... Wait a minute.

Admission to Fighting Bob Fest is a $10-donation. DONATION! Get it. Don't have the $10, don't worry. Just bring yourself. This is a non-corporate event. Give if you can, but the admission price is YOUR call.

About transportation: It's FREE. (DID I SAY FREE?) Yes. The bus will leave the sun-dial in downtown Oshkosh at 8am Saturday September 10. Be there. Meet John Conyers. Meet Amy Goodman. Meet Jim Hightower.

Please go here: http://www.fightingbobfest.com

and then go here: http://www.tonypalmeri.com/fightingbobfest.htm

I'll be your tour guide.
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Thirty Five years ago last week Sterling Hall was bombed in Madison, Wisconsin. It was a sad time for all. Here's a few links:
http://www.madison.com/archives/read.php?ref=wsj:2005:08:18:486338:SPECTRUM
http://www.madison.com/archives/read.php?ref=wsj:2005:08:18:486334:SPECTRUM

and my favorite: http://www.leoburt.com

Peace.

25-CENTS OFF ALL TAPS AND RAIL

This is old news but gets better every time I think about it. Tom Breuer of the Valley Scene monthly rag sez we got it all wrong with the new Wisconsin state quarter. He thinks that it should've just said: 25-cents off all taps and rail. It would become the most popular of all the state quarters. That even beats my idea, which was to put the view of the Wisconsin River at Ferry Bluff looking downriver towards Wisconsin's only public optional-clothes beach. That view has been shown on TV too many times to count. It flashes by on the state tourism ad, is never identified, and then the phone is given: 1-800-432-trip.
This is the view:
http://www.iit.edu/~travel/wisview.jpg
http://www.zoology.wisc.edu/news/floattrip/bluff1.jpg


Doug B. of Oshkosh passed this next thing on to me. It is a new state law soon to be introduced in Wisconsin. It asks simply that all returning veterans be required to take a test to see if they have absorbed any depleted uranium while in Iraq. Great idea. In retrospect this would have been helpful concerning Agent Orange/Viet Nam.

This may shorten the Iraq morass. Iraqis have seen a seven-fold rise in childhood cancers and birth defects since the Bush League follies have begun. Go here:
http://www.rense.com/general67/DUtestingforreturning.htm

RENSE is a site worth bookmarking.
http://www.rense.com

Honor the Dead?

Late note ...While at the Pat Benatar concert at the Leach I had occasion to use the $675,000.00 facilities. They are nice and the lines moved fast enough. The lines did not move fast enough for some of the patrons who decided to use a bank of port-a-potties nearby. Yes. There are not enough restrooms there. Huh?

I ran into my 88yr.-young friend Millie in the Oshkosh Public Library newspaper room today. She was reading the Chicago Tribune, an article on the high cost of dying, and complaining about the cost. Millie sez: "I can just go to Iraq. Then I won't need a funeral."

Iraq just doesn't seem to be working out. Maybe we can iron out the problems so we can get it right in Iran.

Excellent article today in Truthout about Cindy Sheehan down near the Bush estate. Note that I will not call it a ranch. A ranch has animals.
http://www.truthout.org/docs2005/081605A.shtm

Life is good. In fact life is great for the folks in the Saudi Arabia area. Money everywhere. Good times. Life just couldn't be any better. Go here:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/445F5F22-1c05-49E8-AC1C-10D3C6EDC75B.htm

Peace.

Protest

I went to Appleton today. There was a show of support for Cindy Sheehan at Houdini Park. Cindy lost her son last year in the Iraq morass and is camping near the Bush estate with the hope that she might get Dubya's attention.

There were 40-50 people with signs, a lot of honking horns, and media including NBC-26 and the Post Crescent. I wish Cindy S. the best in taking on King George II. She needs support from all of us.

Is 'W' nuts? Doug Thompson has the goods on this. Go here:
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_7218.shtml

The Fair month of August

I have been a fan of the state fair since I was a kid. I have missed the Wisconsin State Fair less than a handful of times in my life. County fairs are wonderful but there is something magical about going to West Allis and chowing down all day...The New Berlin Lion's Club Corn Roast, Sheboygan Brats, roast pig on the spit, pig races, and of course creme puffs.

My favorite for many years was an indoor petting zoo. Every year someone brought a pair of the world's largest rats. The latin name begins with a 'C'. Their names were Fred and Ethyl. They were 60-70lbs. ---not something you wish to see in the wild.

The Fighting Bob Fest is coming September 10 at the Baraboo Fairgrounds. Several people from the Oshkosh area are going including me. If you would like to carpool/drive/ride feel welcome to come along. About 4,000 folks did that last year making it larger than any political gathering in Wisconsin in years. They expect more this year. The all-star line-up is:
http://www.fightingbobfest.com

Social Security is 70 on Sunday. Many do not know that it had it's roots in Wisconsin. Go here:
http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/topics/socialsecurity

My oh my---Have you filled your tank lately? Gas is still about a nickel a gallon in Bagdad. Somewhere between there and here a middleman takes a cut. I found the middleman. Pass this on to your friends so they know who gets the money:
http://www.aztlan.net/oiltanker.htm

To the death.

Dog Days

I enjoy picking up the Scene Magazine, -you know, the free one at the exit of many stores. The Scene is an excellent local rag. It reminds me of reading Isthmus in Madison in the early 70's. Isthmus has become a bit stale and mainstream. The Scene is better reading in 2005 than Madison's Isthmus. It is much more edgy than Isthmus. I hope it stays that way.

Great concert last Thursday at the Leach. The band before Pat Benatar had the most atrocious engineering imaginable. The EQ was way out of whack...no discernable bass, screamy screechy highs with distortion where no distortion belonged. I can't comment on the band. The engineer simply did them in. The sound was excellent from the moment Benatar began.

The Downtown Art Walk was great last Saturday. Once the sun began to dip in the west the streets rapidly became full. The drums by the sundial were really cooking up a storm. It was an extremely professional performance.

Internet chatter about peak oil continues to reverberate daily with talk about $5 per gallon gasoline this winter and much more. My favorites of the last week are these...

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0804-26.htm

http://www.kunstler.com/spch_hudson.htm

This last one I check almost every day:

http://www.fromthewilderness.com

or it's mirror site:

http://www.copvscia.com

Support the People in Uniform

A person in Oshkosh had the temerity to question the support of the troops. Find me someone who doesn't support the troops.

Well. OK. Dubya Bush and the Republicans have cut support of veterans in the last 4yrs. out of five.

Doug Boone and others have collected 1,1912 signatures to bring the troops home as of last Friday. The death toll in Iraq of U.S. troops just topped 1,800 today. Time to bring the rest home while they are talking and walking. There is nothing about freedom going on in Iraq. Get used to it!

What do the soldiers think? Read some letters in the armed services magazine Stars and Stripes:
http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=30636

Peace.

Drugs, Murder, and Armored Vehicles

Wow! CAFTA passed by two votes. Yippee! This has got some people dancing in the streets. Those 'Some People' are the owners of the large pharmaceutical concerns. This is amazing news. Somewhere in the Central American Free Trade Agreement is fine print which calls for drugs distributed in Central America to be of the brand name Rx-type. That's right folks. No generic drugs for you!

This is a death sentence for hundreds of thousands of humans from south of the border. How in the hell could anyone with any kind of a conscience legislate the murder of incredible numbers of people?

To understand this story of murder by slime-ball con artists filling their pockets with money go here: http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/0801-07.htm

Did I mention that one of the largest Rx concerns in the world (Eli Lilly) is owned by the Republicans including the Bush and Quayle families and friends? These pieces of slime are murderers...period.
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Winnebago County has purchased an armored vehicle...value $180,000.00. Something to do with Homeland Security. Portholes for guns, and all the trimmings. Just who are they going to use this on??? They apparently used this twice already. Are the terrorists that close to Oshkosh?

Peace.