Winter Soldiers

Dr. Tony Palmeri has written about the Winter Soldiers in "Will We Hear the Winter Soldier" and in the March edition of "the Scene", so I won't go into more detail here. I would, however, ask you to read an article in the April issue of "the Progressive" magazine as it contains a Winter Soldier article with in-depth quotes from local Iraq Veteran Jason Moon. The online version can be found at The Progressive Magazine's site.

Many of us have heard Jason personally talk about some of his experiences in Iraq, but his stories continue to have a heart-breaking effect. His willingness to speak publically about his time in Iraq shows extreme courage and also puts a familiar face to the deep devastation this crazy invasion has caused in so many differing ways.

Monitor Elections in Oshkosh, Cutting the Board Question

Election monitors are needed for Oshkosh next Tuesday April 1 for the general election. If you are able to help any time between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., please let me know. It's not difficult, we'll train you, and you learn a lot! Please email Ann at afrisch@voyager.net

The Oshkosh Chamber of Commerce posted candidate questions online here. The asked county board members what their stance was on cutting the board. To no surprise, many support the cut. Also to no surprise, their reasons are horrible.

Mike Malchow and Barefoot Charlie

Saturday, April 5 from 1:00pm - 3:00pm, Oshkosh author Mike Malchow will be at Appleblossom Books (513 North Main Street, Oshkosh) for a book signing of his new title, “Barefoot Charlie and the book of dreams”!

Mike is a great guy who I've only known for a little over a year. What I know of Mike I like - he is always biking, he is active in behind-the-scenes local politics, and he is dedicated to community social activism highlighted by his efforts with the homeless community.

To learn more about Mike, his book, and more, visit www.geocities.com/barefootcharlie/

State Senate Race is now HOT

Carol Roessler (R-Oshkosh) has finally announced what many were suspecting - she is not running for reelection. The writing on the wall was that she wasn't raising any money, but now that she has made it official it is time to see who pops up to challenge for her seat.

Jessica King (D-Oshkosh), currently on the Oshkosh Common Council, has already thrown in her hat and has area Democrats lined up behind her. Peg Lautenschlager is supporting Jessica King, and that carries a lot of weight around here. King will already have a time and money advantage against a Republican opponent as well.

What about the Republicans? Sheriff Mike Brooks (left) is the name thrown around most frequently. Whether Brooks had considered running for Carol Owens open Assembly seat or not is unknown, but the State Senate seat of Roessler is a much bigger catch for Brooks.

Roessler's Senate District consists of the 52nd, 53rd, and 54th Assembly Districts. The 52nd is held by Republican John Townsend of Fond du Lac. Would he be thinking about stepping up to the State Senate now that the Republicans are a minority in the State Assembly? Townsend is up there in age, and may be considering retiring himself. Fond du Lac however could turn out any number of Republicans that might vie for the seat.

The 53rd AD is open with Carol Owens retirement, and Republican candidates for her seat have been entering and exiting the race too fast to keep track of. A Democrat even entered and exited that race. The 53rd is a tough nut - LuAnn Bird in 2004 made a play at Owens as a Democrat and got close but not nearly close enough to consider the race "winnable". It seems likely that the Democrats won't run in the 53rd, and instead (wisely) put their resources on the State Senate race with King.

One thing we should look forward to - based on the Hintz - Pung-Leschke race in the 54th in 06 this Senate seat is going to have a LOT of outside money thrown at it. Republicans lost the Assembly in 06, and are only three seats from loosing the State Senate. Roessler's retirement makes this race a key race for both the Democrats and Republicans.

Who do you think might run? Who do you think will win?

Brothers, Bricco, and the Grand

This Sunday, March 16, at 5:00PM, visit the Grand Opera House (100 High Avenue, Oshkosh) for the premiere of Brothers, a short film by writer/director Troy Perkins.

There will be a reception following the 22 minute film, with music by Madison musician and film score contributor Blake Thomas.

You can check out the film's website at www.brothersshortfilm.com to see a trailer.

Yes, Bricco is in the movie, and that is him in the goofy Briccohat.

School Board Candidates Answer PFLAG Questions

PFLAG of the Greater Oshkosh Area, Inc. has released the answers to the questions it gave school board candidates. There are no real surprises other than Ben Schneider's open homophobia and his obvious lack of language skills. I'm not Grammar Girl, but a quick glance at Schneider's page of short, confusing answers to difficult questions showed at least 8 punctuation and grammar mistakes. I wish he'd stop reminding people that he's the product of the Oshkosh school system; he's making teachers look bad and scaring parents. Is it really too much to ask that a school board candidate be able to write better than a fourth grader? Or, despite his personal opinions about LGBT issues, that he would be minimally diplomatic about student organizations in public schools?

In one of the questions, PFLAG asked, "Federal law establishes the right for students to form GSAs in schools. Do you know if there are any GSAs in the district? Have any students attempted to form a GSA? If yes, what happened? What was/is your position?"

John Lemberger responded that he knows there are no GSAs in any of the Oshkosh High Schools, but he is aware of a "community-wide, grass-roots GSA" and he would support efforts to form a GSA in the district. Tom McDermott reported that he couldn't find a GSA on the high school websites and thinks that's either because the kids aren't interested or "that the students who might feel the need for such an organization may feel intimidated have not come forward." Michelle Monte said that she heard "Superintendent Heilmann claims to have founded such a group in the high schools. I do not know if that is true." She adds that she would "have no problem with a GSA in our high schools" if they follow school district procedures for student groups. All three gave thoughtful answers to the question. Ok, Monte should have probably known that Heilmann can't start a GSA because he's not a student and McDermott shouldn't have had to look on the web to see if there's a GSA, but at least they put some effort into it.

Here's Ben Schneider's entire answer as written: "Yes, I am. My position is; it is something I don't personally agree with."

Let's review. The questions were; "Do you know if there are any GSAs in the district? Have any students attempted to form a GSA? If yes, what happened? What was/is your position?"

"Yes I am." What? Huh? Also, what does not "agreeing" with the formation of a GSA mean exactly? Would he try to prevent the establishment of a GSA? Would he violate the federal Equal Access Act?

Someday, hopefully soon, our high schools are probably going to have GSAs because arrogantly ignorant people like Schneider make them necessary. He's going to have to make a decision, if re-elected, about whether he's going to put the school district at risk for potential legal liability or if he's going to put his religious beliefs aside in order to obey the law. Oddly enough, the Equal Access Act was the result of intensive lobbying by religious groups who wanted to make sure that Christian students could form clubs in schools. I'm assuming those are groups with whom Schneider would personally agree.

From my review, it doesn't seem that any school board candidate has a realistic grasp on the issues facing LGBTQ students or staff members in Oshkosh schools. Granted, it's difficult to estimate commitment to diversity based on a few questions from PFLAG and I understand that candidates have not heard the complaints from students that I have heard. John Lemberger seems, to me, to have the best handle on the issues and I was somewhat relieved to read some of Michelle Monte's responses considering she has aligned herself with Schneider. Tom McDermott honestly admits that he should be better educated about PFLAG concerns and I think that's a great start. Ben Schneider? Perhaps he would be better suited for a position on a parochial school board and a good candidate for a refresher course in grammar, punctuation, and comprehensive reading skills.

The candidates' complete answers to PFLAG can be found here:

http://www.oshkoshsofa.org/school_board_candidates_answer_pflag

What is it like to serve on a board?

If you've ever wondered what it is like to serve on a city government board in Oshkosh, there is a great opportunity online to familiarize yourself with some of the rules and duties for board members. The recently resurrected Energy & Environmental Board had a meeting a couple days ago, and through the miracle of Oshkosh Community Media Services, that meeting is now available online for streaming.

The first ~45 minutes of the meeting is a sort of "orientation" by Acting City Attorney Lynn Lorenson on Open Meetings Law, Open Records, Ethics, a little bit of parliamentary procedure, and other issues and questions.

Streaming Video of Meeting

To see vacancies or apply for a board, check the city's website.

Eye On Oshkosh on Diebold voting machines

I am watching an episode of Eye On Oshkosh on CATV 2 regarding the Diebold voting machine study by Ann Frisch and Corinne Donley, previously posted on MSO here, with some follow-up from the recent primary. The guests are Michelle Bogden and Ann Frisch. I don't know if this episode will air again. CATV 2 programs are not yet part of the OCMS streaming options.

Catch it, if you have a chance. If someone (Ms. Hentz?) is willing to get a DVD or file of the video to me, and permission to do so, I can make it available along with the study itself in our special features section.

Somebody owes me a trash can

This morning I happened to be looking out the window when the trash men came to take the trash. I watched them take the first can, empty it into the back of the truck, then toss the empty can over both the terrace and sidewalk into the front yard, a good 20 feet. They then took the second can and threw the whole can, with trash, into the back of the truck, and then drive off.

Yes, they threw my trash can in the back of their truck.

So I put my shoes and coat on and tried to track them down. They went around the block but I caught up with them down at the next corner. I walked into the street and said to the guy on the back of the truck: "You took my trash can!" pointing up the street.

He looked at me and yelled back: "Yeah. The trash wouldn't come out. It was full of ice."

I must have made some face like "Are you retarded or something" and turned around and started walking home. Arguing with him would get me nowhere, I would just call up the city and file a claim for $10 to replace my trash can. He yelled something else to my back but I didn't make out what he said. I kept walking home. He had a job to do, I had a job to do.

But I just keep thinking - couldn't he have just left the trash can, with the trash in it. Why throw it out. Its like throwing out a clock because the battery is dead, or throwing out a typewriter because the ribbon is out of ink. The trash can has some ice in it, the trash bags (apparently) wouldn't come out (I repeat, apparently, because they wiggled just fine last night), so you just throw the trash can out with the trash.

Stupid.

"If I have hurt your feelings, I apologize, even if you had it coming." -Carol Owens, announcing her retirement

For years, observers and Assembly Representatives have related stories of Carol Owens sleeping right through sessions.

She stayed awake long enough to introduce legislation which would mandate that school kids would call their teachers "sir" or "madam" (apparently it would be ok for them to sleep through class or to rest their heads on their desks or check their eyelids for cracks or whatever the hell it is she's doing here (photo from Playground Politics,which also has posts on Owens sleeping habits).

She kept her eyes open long enough to attend an anti-gay rally in Oshkosh and suggest that the only way gay people could have children was to have a sex-change operation. Perhaps in her upcoming retirement she could go to Theda Clark and teach the sexual reassignment specialists how to perfect their procedure.

She was awake long enough to explain why there are so many Democratic women in Milwaukee; ""There's a large colored population in Milwaukee, so we have pretty good colored representation," and why Milwaukee has a need for social services: "There's many, many families with no head of household. Unwed mothers, you know, the population of unwed mothers is much higher."

She introduced legislation to make sure that guilty people went to prison, even if they were mentally ill, and she fought to make sure pharmacists didn't have to fill contraception prescriptions.

She defended her vote to use tax money to support Miller Park by saying that "if kids are at ballgames, they're not stealing hubcaps."

She got extremely angry when Mark Pocan's "gadget" (which many people call a "cell phone") rang in the Assembly; must have interrupted a really good dream. She demanded an apology and asked that it be taken away from Pocan, who then went to her desk and gave her the offending phone. Owens still insisted that the Sergeants' office staff come and get the "gadget."

I could go on, but it would only get worse.

The Northwestern didn't give a crap. Maybe big advertisers of the paper are Owen supporters; maybe they felt a sleeping Owens was less dangerous than one who was awake. Who knows? But, Owens was a laughing stock in Madison and she made her district look foolish, too.

But, now, NOW, after Owens has announced her retirement, the Northwestern has finally decided to comment on her recent plan to help one of her major donors to overrule the DOT plans for the 41/21 interchange. Like it is some huge surprise, first of all, that someone like Owens would do a huge favor for one of her donors and, secondly, that she's introducing crazy legislation.

The surprise is that she stayed awake long enough to sponsor it.

Oshkosh inspectors move to demolish gay bar

The Oshkosh Northwestern reported today that the City's Oshkosh Inspection Services issued an order to "demolish" the gay bar, known as the 1226 Club (or "CA's 1226"):

"The complaint was there was work going on without the required building permits," Dannhoff said. "We issued (the demolition order) based on the breadth of depreciation or deterioration that we found. If it had just been the siding or just been the windows, we would have probably issued municipal citations for failure to comply. But this is clearly a situation where there is a large and expensive scope of work to be done."

You would think that this place was a dump for the city to declare that the building wasn't salvageable, but is that the case:

Inspectors issued a compliance notice on June 6 and requested a detailed itemization of repairs and improvements and individual costs for each task before inspectors would approve a building permit for the improvements.

On Sept. 10, Vander Velden and Nikolai filed a bid sheet from Sellcrest Construction of Neenah that indicated it would repair the problems for an overall cost of $18,300. Dannhoff did not issue a permit, though, because the cost estimate did not conform to written requests made in the June 6 compliance notice. He said he expects the repairs would cost at least $50,000.

"The company didn't do a very good job of providing the specifics we requested," Dannhoff said. "It was generic in nature and we explained that to the owner when he presented it. And I was not confident that it addressed 100 percent of the issues we presented after inspection."

So the owners found a construction firm that would do the needed work for $18,500, but the city refused to issue a building permit because the bid was too low. The owners get a "demolition order" because they made improvements without a permit, a permit that the city refused to issue because they were going to get the work done cheap.

I don't know if you've driven down Oshkosh Ave just across the bridge by the river recently, but CA's certainly doesn't stand out from the rest of the buildings along that stretch. In fact, its neighboring buildings look pretty junky. For the city to order a business to be demolished when they've already gotten a bid to make the repairs, all within less than a year, but turn around and tolerate certain other colossal eye sores...

Something here smells fishy.

Oshkosh Blogs RIP

I have been mulling this over for about a month now, but I believe that it is now clear that the Oshkosh Northwestern has killed the Oshkosh Blogs.

History

Before 2005, the Oshkosh Northwestern had an absolutely horrible web presence. It didn't even have its own domain name, using a branch of some "Wisinfo" URL. Online it found itself being challenged by a handful of "cutting edge" local websites, including sites like eyeonoshkosh.com and fullofbologna.com, which enabled the public to speak freely and vent on any number of local issues, to sites like tonypalmeri.com and ABVarmytimes, which provided a more static news alternative. When Miles McGuire started the Oshblog and Oshkosh News websites with the Public Library, the Northwestern really started to feel the heat. The Oshblog allowed the public to submit the news, and the website Oshkosh News began to push the envelope in terms of coverage of local political campaigns, a direct threat to the Oshkosh Northwestern's turf. Oshkoshnews.org, in partnership with the Oshkosh Public Library, began to provide a new angle to politics in their coverage of the Common Council race in Spring 2006, and the 54th Assembly District race in Fall 2006. They experimented with video interviews, online debates & forums, and tools that allowed the voters to directly interact with the candidates. Was the Oshkosh Northwestern threatened - you betcha.

Oshkoshnews.org had another affect on Oshkosh Online Culture - it set up RSS Feeds to a number of local blogs, which resulted in a rise of Local Blog Culture in Oshkosh. Beginning in 2006, blogs began popping up left and right in Oshkosh. With Blogger, anyone could create a blog. Michelle Monte's school board campaigns were launched from her blog, and Kent Monte's campaigns for Common Council began as blogs. Tony Palmeri and Cheryl Hentz both expanded their web presence from websites to blogs. My own site, babblemur.com, which began as a static website in 2005 migrated to blog in 2005 and shifted from blogger to the current site in 2006. Elected officials began blogging - including Mike Norton & Bryan Bain, and all were linked to easily from the Grand-father Oshkoshnews.org along with Gary, Jef Hall, and others like the Polly Blog. Oshkosh blogs cross linked to each other, referred to posts on other sites, and dialogs carried over from one site to another.

Blogs were all over the Spring 2007 Common Council race. This site was blatantly promoting Tony Palmeri's campaign. Theresa Theil and Michelle Monte's sites were online battlefields regarding the School Board race. But something started to change. The Oshkosh Northwestern began to make their move. They began with some blogs - including the ill-fated "Everyday Editor" blog by Stew Rieckman. Blogs weren't going to work. So they stepped it up and created the "OshKonversation" forum, and the general northwestern.com forum which allowed users to create accounts and comment on news stories, editorials, local issues and anything else they could come up with. While slow to start, once online users got over sacrificing their anonymity the Oshkosh Northwestern Forums took off.

The Oshkosh Northwestern Forums turned out to have several significant advantages over the blogs. For one, you could comment on any article published in the paper, or at least its online version. Secondly, people comment online because they want their comments to be read, and the Northwestern Forums not only had an automatic larger viewership than blogs, they even took the more colorful comments and printed them in the paper. The Northwestern Forums, by the time 2008 rolled around, has become THE PLACE to go to impact opinion, debate local issues, and most of all find viewers to read what you have to say. And this, in my opinion, is what killed the Local Blogs.

However, while the Oshkosh Northwestern has found a way to draw online readership and engage Oshkosh residents in debate and dialog online, this only challenges one aspect of what made blogs and websites successful in the first place - user engagement. The second aspect is something that the Northwestern can never fill - an alternative perspective to the Oshkosh Northwestern itself.

The Oshkosh Blogs and Websites did more than just involve users in the discussion. They provided an alternative perspective to Local News. They challenged what the Northwestern wrote, and asked questions that the Northwestern didn't seem willing to ask. They brought attention to street level news and events that the Northwestern, with its scaled back press corps, didn't seem to cover. That role - an alternative perspective - is still sorely needed. However, the Oshkosh Blogs are loosing the battle for viewership and involvement and are showing serious signs of fatigue.

Lets take a look at Oshkosh Blogs of late.

The BIG FIVE:

• Oshkoshnews.org, the hub of Oshkosh Blogs, is in the midst of a multi-month redesign that is not showing signs of change yet. The bulk of the site is still RSS feeds to blogs that are being rarely updated themselves. The companion Oshblog has a post up today - the first one in over 29 days.


• Eye on Oshkosh had five posts in February. The companion site is being updated but its bulletin boards have been directly challenged by the ONW Forums.


• Tonypalmeri.com has become more static and less edgy as Tony has less time due to his Common Councilor duties, and since he has moved his commentary (which is what has always drawn people to Tony's site) more to his blog, Talk to Tony.


• Fullofbologna.com appears to be still going strong, although it has always seemed to have its own niche audience immune to blogs or the ONW.


• Babblemur.com has lost a lot of steam. What was once a site pushing alternative local issues, it has struggled to stay current, particularly after the site owner had a second child. The site's Green Party bent hasn't helped with local traffic, but it still maintains a consistent 200 hits per day average.

School Board Sites

• Michelle Monte - Michelle came out as the top vote getter on Feb 19 in her third attempt at a seat on the Oshkosh School Board. Her blog has always been her spokes-piece, and this year is no different. Frequent comments and anonymous capabilities keep Michelle's blog lively despite an average one post per week.


• Theresa Thiel - Theresa's blog arose from her 2007 campaign for School Board, and running against Michelle Monte, her blog directly challenged Monte and offered an additional perspective to school board issues. Thiel's blog only sees a handful of posts each month but plenty of comments.

The Best and the Rest:

• The Chief of Oshkosh posts prolifically but in the last week has been slacking off. Tabbed as "Oshkosh's best blogger" and "Best new Oshkosh Blog" in 2007, The Chief's trademark "post often" policy has fallen by the wayside the last few weeks. Oshkosh waits expectantly for more posts by the anonymous Chief of Oshkosh who is probably just taking a break.


• 53 to 56 has a lot of potential to focus news and information on the 53rd, 54th, 55th, and 56th Assembly Districts (Winnebago County) which have elections coming up this year. The site has not been updated regularly lately but hopefully that will change with election season.


• Jef Hall is a consistent blogger for years. I hope he expands his County Board coverage to go with his Democratic Party news.


• Talk to Tony - Tony is a busier man, but still consistently blogs and comments about relevant news impacting the city.


• Miles 2 Go - Miles McGuire maintains his own blog, which became a high traffic site over the River Mills Sidewalk stories. Miles2go offers unique perspectives on local media, including blog culture. Averaging 3 posts a month.


• Lake Winneblogo - An anonymous university faculty member blog, with topic matter usually reserved for UW Oshkosh issues and stories related to academia and student engagement. Tends to drop off when school is out, but what do you expect.

There are too many others to list them all here, but generally the frequency of blog postings, and the volume of comments on local blogs, both seem to be taking a nose dive. It is a descending spiral as well, because as posts become more infrequent, people check blogs less often, which decreases traffic and bloggers loose interest.

Main Street Oshkosh

It was in this context of the decline of local blogs that a small group started up the Main Street Oshkosh blog. The goal was to try to fill that need for an alternative perspective to local issues from that of the Northwestern, and to also offer some "news from the street". We invited a number of local bloggers and other people to participate, but with mixed reaction.

But the Northwestern out maneuvered Main Street Oshkosh at every turn. We wanted a whole section on Restaurant reviews, and then the Northwestern started a Forum on restaurant reviews. We wanted to profile locally owned businesses downtown, and then the Northwestern started to profile the exact same businesses we were talking to. Everything we tried to do, the Northwestern started to do. What could we do to draw readership and compete with the Northwestern's Forums - what could we say that the ONW didn't either say or let others say.

So posting declined, updates dropped off, and myself with a new child and JC going back to school left poor Main Street without any drivers.

What's Next

While it is easy to concede that the Northwestern Forums have provided the online public a virtual soap box and readership to read the rants, there still remains a need for an alternative media perspective in Oshkosh. Whether blogs will rise again I don't know, but there needs to be something, and there needs to be leaders to lead the charge. Oshkosh needs Independent News.

Please - someone start something! Or join up with Main Street Oshkosh and launch an online revolution!

(crossposted at babblemur.com)