In contrast to the aftermath of last week’s storms, the streets were in very good condition (*) this morning. The WSJ mentions that the city “doubled the amount of equipment on main roads to clear the heavy accumulations that continued into the afternoon”, which probably had a lot to do with the success. Well done, […]

The Democratic Party of Dane County is holding elections tonight.
The Critical Badger:
Russell Wallace dropped off over 40 new memberships ($10/piece) to the Dane County Democratic Party last night, just before the deadline to ensure he will have a healthy majority in the race against Wayne Bigelow. A typical PDesque way to ensure victory.
An email […]

I’ve said mean things about them in the past (and sometimes they’ve even deserved it), but the Wisconsin State Journal’s editorial board is right on the money in arguing that Dane County’s current transportation infrastructure is unsustainable, that an RTA is needed, and that the health of the entire region depends on the strength of […]

About a year ago, I asked what the purpose of the Democratic Party was. It was a post largely inspired by this post by Russell Wallace. He argued that:
The purpose of the Democratic party is to turn the views and values of its members into public policy.
That’s exactly right, and we could do a lot […]

I’d like to associate myself with this excellent post at Dane 101, about Calvin and Hobbes, Bill Watterson’s artistic genius, and shame on Pipefitters of State Street.
It’s been almost twelve years since a new Calvin and Hobbes strip has appeared, and there’s still nothing in the daily comics that can replace it, or even […]

I fall into that small subset of sports fans for whom the Big Ten Network is an unalloyed good deal — Big Ten alumni living in the Midwest but outside of their school’s local area, who have high definition televisions and DirecTV. Accordingly, I’m looking forward to this weekend’s launch of the Big Ten Network.
Although […]

If you’ve ever thought that mass transit districts were part of a deliberate, high-level conspiracy by “pro-tax advocates” to force people into “high density housing” (*), price working class folks out of the city, and otherwise “control how we live” (seriously!), you’ll love Eileen Bruskewitz’s absurd and dishonest column in today’s Wisconsin State Journal.
It is […]

While the Bush Administration obviously deserves to be thrown out of office in disgrace, I’m somewhat surprised at the unanimity with which the Dane County Board of Supervisors voted 20-3 “in favor of a resolution urging Wisconsin’s representatives in the U.S. House to support the impeachment of President Bush, Vice President Cheney and other lawless […]

On the Beltline overpass of Mineral Point, someone spray-painted the slogan Unobscene graffiti is free speech, postfixed with a peace sign, which seems like an interesting yet absurd combination of libertarian anarchy and puritanism. How often would your typical vandal add the caveat about obscenity?

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to make the local blogger get-together this evening, which was also serving as a farewell to the Letters in Bottles crew, who are moving on to other things.
Letters in Bottles is, by far, the best conservative blog in town, and I don’t mean that in a “Joe Lieberman is my favorite […]

Today’s edition of madison.com featured an article about adding more wind capacity to Wisconsin’s power grid. The article is a transcript of a report run during the local news, and is at the level of detail appropriate to that forum:
Local environmentalists want to tap into Wisconsin’s wind energy potential. They say wind could power the […]

Seen today in a window in Belleville:
I support our troops and President Bush
With the “and President Bush” portion cut out and thrown away.

We’re number one in Google searches for “beer”, “cheese”, and “brats”. In possibly-related news, there are less than nine days until Brat Fest.

The opening of Sundance 608 is a great thing. It looks terrific, and I hope it does well. See Jeff, Tom , or Ann (with pictures) for more.
But as nice as the occasional art film is, I’m far more likely to spend my movie-going dollars on Harry Potter, or a pirate movie based on an […]

Some kind of financial penalty for chronically negligent landlords is reasonable, and using the number of building inspection calls to approximate the degree of negligence might be reasonable. (The experience of having rented apartments in a college town gives me very little sympathy for bad landlords.)
But Brenda Konkel’s argument against a proposal to fine landlords […]