This guest editorial contains a larger version of the graph to the left by clicking on the "attachment" at the end of the article.

Since June 2006, our neighborhood has strongly opposed the ATC proposal to site a major 138,000 volt power line and substation in our Fitchburg Hillside Heights residential neighborhood of 50 homes near the intersection of Fish Hatchery Road and Irish Lane.

After participating in this hot issue since last June 2006, I decided to confirm reports that ATC was spending a ridiculous amount of money that was affecting my own electric power rates. So I retrieved my old MG&E invoices to check my own kilowatt hour costs going all the way back to 1990.

On Friday at noon, we recieved the budget amendments that various alders have submitted. That information is available as follows:

Capital Budget Amendments
Operating Budget Amendments
You can find the full Budget information as well.

A list of things that some folks might be intereted in are:

Removing funding for:
- Train Whistle Quiet Zones
- Improvement to State Street
- Improvements to James Madison Park

Adam Bendetto also blogs at his MySpace page. If you would like to be a guest blogger for Dane101.com, drop us a line at "editor (at) dane101.com" We have room for everyone.

On Nov. 7th if WI decides to vote to keep gay people as second class citizens and if WI votes to bring in the Death Penalty I'm going to say, "O Great! now I have to cut my tattoo off the way Russell Crowe cut his Roman Legionare symbol off in the Gladiator. O Great, that's just how I want to spend an afternoon."

Wisconsin has never had the death penalty. We never had it, why would we want it now?

I consider this the first hallmark of a failing educational system because the only way you can support the death penalty is if you don't understand the reasoning behind why Wisconsin has Never had the death penalty.

Tonight, among other things (like Section 8 and a resolution to put a Bring our Troops Home question on the County ballot at the County Board meeting, plus a meeting on Streetcars ) the Mayor is also hosting his first Build Your Own Budget meeting. (Tho you wouldn't know it by looking at the City's website or the many press releases that the Mayor's office puts out. While I'm making parenthetical comments - note how the budget meetings all conflict with the Streetcar meetings.)

There has been discussion on thedailypage.com about where the Section 8 vouchers are being used . . . and I happen to have a map, electronically - so thanks again to Dane101.com for providing a service and allowing me to upload the file! (ed. note: open large version of the map by clicking "read more" in this entry and saving the file to your desktop)

My morning thoughts on Section 8 are here.

Today's contribution is the Capital Budget requests. Generally speaking, the capital budget includes projects that are long term investments in our community or items that last more than 10 years. Often we borrow money to pay for these projects and then pay it back over the next 10 years. These budgets are projected out over the next 5 years so you can see anticipated capital budgets for the next 5 years. Operating budget requests that met the Mayor's 3% cut target are here and the additional or supplemental requests are here.

Police and Fire were exempt from the request for a 3% cut that all the other departments were subjected to . . . and yet, check out all of their additional requests . . .

Yesterday I posted what the departments requested to be in the budget, today . . . here's the things that didn't make it. It's a long list . . .

If you see things here that you think should be supported, you should go to any of the following meetings:

TONIGHT!! Downtown Public Library - 201 W Mifflin 6:00
Mayor's Public Hearing on the Budget

or the following meetings with the Mayor:

Hello Dane 101 Readers . . . it's been a while . . . I"ve been busy with multiple other blogs, but I'm back . . . partly because I feel guilty since Dane101 is what got me blogging in the first place and I feel like I should be contributing, partly because I have a good reason to blog here cuz its a great topic and partly because I couldn't figure out another technology to get this information out there quickly.

So, here's what I have . . . all of the department requests for the budget. The reason this is so important is because tomorrow the Mayor is having a public hearing on his budget, and if you are interested in testifying, its helpful to actually have some information. So here it is (ed. note: open this story and scroll down, there are 43 attachments at the end)!

When we saw this entry on Adam Bendetto's MySpace blog we couldn't resist asking if we could syndicate it. This is what Adam and Christopher Berge would do with Madison if they were jointly Mayor, but what about you intrepid reader? As we approach the election Dane101 would like to invite anyone and everyone to lend their thoughts on how they would run the ideal Madison. Send us 200 words or more and after a wee bit of editing (if needed), we'll toss it on the site. Sky is the limit, be as serious or playful as you would like. Madison is your play-doh. Current or former politicans welcome. Send to editor(@)dane101(dot)com.

A few weeks ago the Wisconsin State Journal printed an article Christopher Berge and I wrote about ways in which Madison could culturally improve itself. The ideas presented were; the creation of an Asian Water Market over Monona Bay, a walking shopping district that intentionally emphasizes café culture and a city subsidized bakery that would give low income neighborhoods jobs while at the same time giving Madison a national reputation as being a city of great bread.

Those were just the ideas we had that ran along cultural lines. But we have more. We've played with these ideas so long that I dont know which of them are mine and which are his. It doesn't matter; now they're ideas and they exist.

Adam Bendetto spent the last few months globe trotting and has finally landed back on these shores. This is the second entry from his journey we have posted. Click here to read: Ideas for Madison from Morocco

April 4, 2006

Epistemology: The branch of philosophy that studies the nature of knowledge, its presuppositions and foundations, and its extent and validity.

The International customs of JFK looks exactly like an empty Wal-Mart. Concrete floors, florescent lighting, and stainless steel bars are accented with signs that explain that all foreign visitors will have a digital portrait taken along with the fingerprints of their left and right fore-fingers as a new policy implemented by The Department of Homeland Security. In the few seconds I pause to read the sign a guard is quick to ask if I'm American. "Yes," I say, "and I have every right to read about how we're treating our visitors." The guard shrugged. A large line quickly forms where they are checking in non-Americans.

This is actually an improvement from a few years back when there were posters of the World Trade Centers in flames just before they crashed with the words, "We will never forget." That was a poor welcoming too. America seems unable to simply say, "Welcome to America."

When I started blogging, I really didn’t know what I was doing, from a technical standpoint. Thanks to help from the Dane101 folks (Shane and Jesse) and Kristian at thedailypage.com, I’m slowing finding my way.

I may not have known exactly what to do; I clearly knew what I wanted to accomplish. I wanted a place to provide information to the public without having to repeat myself/retype the same thing all the time. (ex. IZ myths I and II and budget) I wanted a place to put my (mostly not) lobbying contacts for the public to see. (ex. November, December, January) I wanted a place to post all those letters to the editor that I’ve written in my head, but never bothered to put on paper since they don’t have a good success rate of getting published. (ex. Spat with the Mayor) I wanted a place to say those things that aren’t worthy a news story or a letter to the editor, but that the public has a right to know about. (ex. Realtors want special treatment) I wanted a place for me to explain things in more than a 10 word sound-byte now that the news it getting dumbed down more and more everyday. (ex. IZ equity model and incentives) A place to inform the public of upcoming meetings. (ex. Bus fares) I think my blogging, here, there and everywhere has largely accomplished these goals. Despite the fact that I’ve been accused of being “wonky” – which has been both a complement and a criticism.

Warning: If you don’t like either bowling or local politics and politicians, you won’t want to read this! Even if you like bowling or politics, be forewarned, the two don’t mix so well because the bad analogies are excruciatingly, painfully, endless.

This morning at the Annual City Bowling Tournament, the Mayor’s Office took on the City Council.

Bowling for the Mayor’s team were Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, “Jeanne Hoffman”, “Janet Piraino”, Enis Ragland and “George Twigg”. Though during the 2nd game there were at least three suspicious looking characters bowling under the names Hoffman, Piraino and Twigg and while the real Hoffman and Twigg returned for the third game, Piraino was out with an injury.

If you want to rent a 2 bedroom apartment in the City of Madison and only pay the HUD recommended 30% of your income towards rent, you would need to make $14.46 per hour, or have a roommate and you would each have to work full-time making at least $7.23. That is the finding based on the recent "Out of Reach" study by the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

It's a good thing our minimum wage is now $5.70, but that isn't enough. Look at the kind of wages we need to support an affordable place to live:

Efficiency ($510)

Funny thing about politics, there is rarely any consistency in the arguments that some political groups will make. It makes it near impossible to have a rational conversation about political differences. Take the recent call from business lobbyist groups to request "data" before they will even discuss the Paid Sick Leave ordinance. Nevermind that the Healthy Families, Healthy Cities campaign did provide data that shows: