Temporary and Topical is a one day public art event taking place in Manchester, NH's Victory Park on Saturday, July 14th. The hours of the park event are between 11am and 6pm. The event is not your typical "art in the park" spectator event. Temporary and Topical is an experiment in free artistic expression, direct involvement and participation. All artists (painters, sculptors, writers, poets, activists, scholars, dancers, performers etc.) are free to express their vision on any topical issues they wish.

Last Sunday, two thousand people came out to protest at the meeting of President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin, two imperialists ready to get their lounge on in the upper-class vacationland of Kennebunkport, Maine. The diverse group of protestors including antiwar activists, veterans, lawyers, revolutionary communists, civil libertarians, anarchists, labor leaders, women's groups, and one marching band.

The purpose for most was to call for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney. Signs read, "Impeachment is the path to peace," and "Democracy breached, time to impeach." Not everyone, of course, felt impeachment was the most important goal. "The priority is getting out of Iraq, not impeachment. We can get them for war crimes later," said Judy, a Maine resident.

The reason that SICKO is not playing in Portsmouth is not because of a decision made by Regal, but by the film's distributor, Lions Gate.

The film was scheduled to open in 2,000 cinemas nationwide, but that number - and the number of prints - has been reduced to a mere 300. (Normally a film does not play in Portsmouth on national opening if less than 600 screens are involved.)

Here is even more interesting information: MARK H. RACHESKY, M.D and 3 partnerships he has interests in bought approx 44% of Lionsgate Stock. Dr. Rachesky gives his business address as Neose Technologies, which is a biopharmceutical company. The board of directors of Neose is made up of men from the biggest pharmeceutical, chemical and defense contractor companies.

This is the SEC filing apparently on June 20th.

IBEW and CWA demand Verizon rescind overly broad "quiet period" memo.

Verizon managers issued a memo on June 18 warning all employees in New England that, "…employees should not make public statements which speculate about either the operations of northern New England before or after the FairPoint transaction, or the success or future performance of FairPoint."

Verizon claimed the "quiet period" order was needed because of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rules governing the proposed sale of its operations in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont to FairPoint Communications.

The Democratic Presidential debates proved to once again be a big bunch of nothing.

On Sunday, June 3, the first of two presidential candidate debates sponsored by CNN and WMUR was held at St. Anselms's college in Manchester. This one focused on the eight major Democratic candidates. I attended the debates as an independent photojournalist and would sum up the whole affair by saying that it was the most discouraging display by politicians that I have ever seen.

On Friday the 18th I heard Senator Barack Obama speak in a "town hall meeting" campaign event in Rye, NH. Rhetorically, he claims opposition to the war in Iraq as the centerpiece of his presidential campaign. Yet in practice, his ambition and partisanship eclipses his desire to end the war as soon as possible.

On Wednesday May 9th, nine New Hampshire residents committed civil disobedience at Senator John Sununu’s Manchester office in protest of the Senator’s continued support for the war in Iraq. About 30 other antiwar protesters from Seacoast Peace Response and other organizations throughout the state demonstrated outside in support.

STOP THE RAIDS!!!

END DEPORTATIONS, KEEP FAMILIES TOGETHER!

Rally at Manchester City Hall Plaza - May 1st 4:00 PM

Sign-making - May 1, 1 PM, Latin American Center, 521 Maple St., Manchester