Madison-based pop culture, humor, and "stuff" blogger theCDP aka theCDP.net aka Communist Dance Party is having a pretty good week. We're going to run with the non-standard definition of week and go back seven days to last Thursday to justify the best week ever title. Please don't sue us VH1. Last Thursday the book 65 Poor Life Decisions was released. This was followed by much rejoicing in the comments section at CDP and probably a big sigh of relief in the CDP household.

With everyone caught up in the Madison Moving Jumble we thought this would be a good time to start a new column on Dane101 - Tenant Resource Q & A. Executive Director Brenda Konkel and her staff will be tackling questions submitted concerning tenant issues and rights. Seeing as it is move in week we will be running a handful of these columns over the next few days - but after that it will run every couple of weeks and most likely on Thursdays. Information on how to contact the Tenant Resource Center or ask a question at the end of this column.

Q: I just moved into my apartment and it is not at all like what they showed me last fall. Can I just move out?

A: So, you just moved in and now you want to move out or maybe you couldn't even move in? Yup. That happens!

This is my final entry on the "Wisconsin" Blummit yesterday in Milwaukee. I'm also finishing up a piece on Net Neutrality, but that goes beyond the Milwaukee discussion so I won't be including it as part of this series.

The one panel I was most looking forward to was the panel "Are all voices being heard in the blogosphere?" This is a tremendous issue in the blogospere as it happens to be very male and very white. While MSJ panelist Eugene Kane pointed out that he is one of the few black men blogging in Milwaukee, he was also quick to quote some statistics he recently read suggesting that the digital divide is closing and more people then ever have access to the Internet. What the panel failed to address is that the issue is more than access depending on race or gender - it is blatantly socioeconomic.

Before I put up my post on the panel from yesterday concerning the "digital divide" I thought I should respond to some of the very excellent points Brad brought up over at Letters in Bottles concerning my criticism of the heavy Milwaukee focus at a "Wisconsin" blummit.

I intended to write one post about the WisPolitics Blog Summit 2007, but when my post began to approach 1400 words I decided to break it up into parts. Here is the first part dealing with the lack of Wisconsin wide diversity and the abundance of "corpobloggers" on the panels. Tomorrow morning I will post my concerns with the discussion on "the digital divide."

Last year I had plans the day of the Wisconsin Blog Summit, and with a decent representation of Madison bloggers attending it didn't seem like my presence was a necessity (Rep. Marc Pocan and Ann Althouse were both on panels and the guys from Letters In Bottles were in the audience). This year I felt more of an obligation to go as the Madison blogosphere representation on panels was pretty much "zero" and a quick email drop to multiple local bloggers found that most of them didn't know about it or were unable to go. Actually, the representation from pretty much every other community outside of Milwaukee County was scant.

I have a picture of Nicole Gruder decked out like Betsy Ross (or at least the Betsy Ross I imagine in my head) handing out your tax receipts for the Iraq War. A gigantic petition seeking a UW tuition freeze. Followed by the line for free ice cream at Ben and Jerry's. What a nice treat for tax day. And finally, a Mennonite handing out anti-war literature. I dig some aspects of the Mennonites (like their bulk food stores - best place to stock up on spices). Essentially the literature says Jesus wouldn't have gotten down off his cross and declared bloody war on those who put him there, so why do Christian's feel the need to constantly declare war in his name? Mennonites, for the record, are Christian Anbaptist.

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Nearly a week has passed since the Madison Common Council passed the so-called “anti-oath” granting elected and appointed officials the right to protest the Gay Marriage Amendment. While they will take the oath of office, they will be able to declare their disagreement with the recently passed Anti-Civil Union, Anti-Domestic Partnership, and Anti-Gay Marriage Amendment in Wisconsin and will declare their resolve to actively work to overturn it. We thought it would be a good time to take a spin around the blogosphere and see what is being said about the council's contentious decision.

There are rumors floating around in the Madison internet ether that a number of local media publications are checking into the face lift clinic. Madison.com's Post section is the first out the door with a much needed overhaul. For what it's worth, Dane101 approves of the upgrades and is pleased to see Cap Newspapers investing some energy into a section that is only bound to become more relevant. The new Post is much more outward looking then the previous incarnation. It includes a directory of local bloggers (similar to our blog aggregator at Dane101.net) and even attempts to categorize the blogs based on content. Site moderator Claire Herbst is probably best known for keeping the law in the Post's forums, we shot her some questions about the upgrades:

The new layout is slick, who helped put the concept together?

Thanks, we like it too! Kreshnik Rushiti is the designer and gets credit for the sleekness. The overall concept was a team effort and the result of feedback and what we learned from prior redesigns. It's a work in progress, so I'd be glad to hear of what's missing or what could be improved.

Now that we are roughly two days beyond the immigration reform rallies around the country, it might be a good time to see what is being said about what happened here in Madison on Monday. Conservative estimates put the rally at 10,000, progressive estimates have it at 25,000 - Dane101 puts the number around 15,000. But mincing numbers is silly, as once you cross the 10,000 mark it is a turn out that can not be denied. When was the last time (John Kerry rally aside) that Madison saw so many throngs of people united for one purpose?

What is easy to determine by reading the various editorials and blog entries on the topic, it is an incredibly difficult topic to address. While all of the individuals I link to below approach the topic from a wide variety of backgrounds, most approach it with an open mind and suggest they realize this is not a case of black and white, but deeply drenched in grey.

While a formal poll hasn’t been done, it is fairly safe to say that Madison may now have one of the highest numbers of politician’s blogging. In addition to Alder Brenda Konkel, both Larry Palm and Zach Brandon have fired up their own blogspot sites in recent weeks. Of course, possibly the most unique is the School Information System site, where multiple Madison school board members hold an open dialogue about what is going on with in-town public education. Of all of these, the highest ranking blogger in town is easily State Rep. Mark Pocan (at least, until we convince Beltway Baldwin to join the cheddarsphere). Dane101 sat down with Pocan last week to talk about why someone in his position would want to embark on such an endeavor.

One of the biggest reasons Pocan said he made this decision came from ongoing discussions with other legislators concerning the local section of the Wisconsin State Journal. Essentially, Pocan said the local news had become “one sheet of paper.”

Someone once said, "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." If that's true, does parody count as sincere flattery or is it more about making fun of something? In any case, Madison's very own non-partisan blogebrity, Ann Althouse, has made quite the impression on someone. So much so that she has her very own parody blogger, Altmouse.

Meet Altmouse. According to her blogger user profile, Altmouse is in the law industry and her interests are nonpartisan pie.

If you are a regular Althouse reader, reading Altmouse is bound to give you deja vu, or something like that. In one post, Altmouse explains how the law is very complex, which is apparently why she avoids discussing it, even though she is a UW-Madison law professor.

This is the second edition of “What they are saying about Madison.” The first edition can be found here. The basic premise, we take a spin around the internet and peak into other blogs to see what is being said about our city. Some of the blogs are local, most are not. This edition is dedicated to Madison’s biggest holiday, Halloween. You know the holiday is on your mind, it is certainly on the mind of City Hall and the MPD. So who is going? What are you wearing?

First up, if you are worried about a chaotic situation in Madison, don’t worry, according to the blog Jessie Bluejay, Santo will be coming to save the day:

Paula Seeger, who blogs over at Dane Co Legal Resource Center Blawg has posted a photo gallery from last week's Banned Books Week event at the Courthouse. The title of the post announcing the photo gallery is "BBW Event Photos" She may experience an unexpected surge in traffic to her site from people googling BBW photos. Try it yourself and find out why or read below the fold to have it explained to you. Warning: google results may not be work safe.

Conservative UW-Madison law professor, Gordon Smith who blogs on the Dane101.net syndicated Conglomerate Blog: Business, Law, Economics and Society...from Wall Street to Main Street recently started recording podcasts on a variety of topics. The podcast, entitled Office Hour is described as

Today we begin a new feature on Dane101.com called, What They Are Saying About Madison. The premise is quite simple, we take a spin around the blogverse, pull quotes from various places that are talking about the city and repost them here in one nice orderly entry. Occasionally some commentary may be provided, but typically we will let the entry speak for itself.

Starting off on a friendly note out of New York, New York, Indistinct Chatter rants about how much she loves Wisconsin:

Wisconsin loves you, too.