Wisco Disco

2007-12-22T08:13:00.000-08:00

Should kids start wearing sledding helmets?
Yeah, probably.
Anyway, the best place to sled on the Northside is not at the Old Sanitarium (Health and Human Services Building) even though from the street it looks like a good ride.
It's a long, slow ride and takes forever to climb back up and if you do manage to get any speed, which you probably wont, there's nothing but a chain link fence at the bottom to stop you.
(Enter Helmet)
The best place to sled up here is on the man-made hill behind Warner Park's Dog Park. It's in the back and not a lot of people go there. You can go down the sledding hill which is really steep , but curves back up to stop your sled from going on forever and thus making for a long up-hill walk, but also there's a short hill going the other way for kiddies or if you're just trying out a snowboard for the first time.
It also has a clearly designated Sledding area vs. Climbing-back-up area to avoid accidents.

Good Times.

2007-12-21T21:13:00.000-08:00

1. I'm sick of call-in shows on the radio where people say that Obama just can't win the election because "other people" are too racist to vote for a black man. Zogby says they're wrong.
(Obama wont win due to lack of experience. It's not exactly going to be Alan Keyes he's running agianst.)
2. I'm against anything that has the words "Stephen" and "Nass" and "Education" in them together.
An attorney general's opinion declaring it unconstitutional to block student transfers from one district to another on the basis of race could have far-reaching implications for the Madison school district.
I can see the point that race shouldn't be an exclusive eliminating factor in preventing students from taking advantage of the open enrollment program, but there has to be some socio-economic balance and The People tend to not do it themselves. (See Sun Prairie.)
In the long run, why would voters approve funding for schools when their kids aren't even going there (it's bad enough that senior citizens who have long since forgotten their own free education have a huge say in what is spent on our schools) and why would a district make any effort to correct racial imbalances when they can get state subsidies for taking on the elite of another district?
There should be a new financial incentive to keep schools integrated racially and economically, or maybe they should have to make a fair trade. Student for student.
3.A group of youths followed a bus rider home Thursday night and robbed him of his cell phone and a Sony Playstation at gunpoint, police said.
Why would you take a Playstation on the bus?
4. The DNR could try a little harder to get people to stop driving during a Air Quality Alert Day.

2007-12-21T07:23:00.000-08:00

I know this isn't Madison, but it's a close suburb to the north, and Sun Prairie is the fastest growing city in Wisconsin and in an age where school closings consolidations and funding are a constant issue for all communities I think it's really important to pay attention to what's going on when any community has this kind of a debate.
SUN PRAIRIE -- Sun Prairie residents are weighing whether, as students around the district are shuffled to fill a new elementary school, the make-up of a school with a lot of poor children should get an extra shake-up.
I understand when parents don't want their children to have to go to different schools or go to a different school than the kids down the block, but when you live in the fastest growing city in Wisconsin, that's bound ot happen. Property was cheap for a while during the housing boom, so there has to be room for adjustment.

Robin and Denny Ehrler, whose children, including a special needs third-grader, would shift to Westside, said they are against moving to the school because it is dirty and poorly maintained
But that's not what the majority of opponents are complaining about. They don't want their children to go to school with poor or minority kids.
The Ehrlers also argued that the self-esteem of poor Westside children may be harmed if they are further mixed with children from wealthier neighborhoods. And the Ehrlers predicted property values will drop.

Nice. Well at least they're honest about it.

2007-12-13T10:53:00.000-08:00

Cynthia McKinney comes to Madison

McKinney has been a frequent critic of the Iraq war and President Bush's leadership. When in Congress, she introduced measures to impeach Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. She has also been a critic of Pentagon spending and the agency's mismanagement of funds...

Her press conference Tuesday drew about 30 people, including Green Party members and those who, as part of the "9/11 truth movement," question the official explanation for the terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center.

She said she was "excoriated" and "vilified" by the mainstream media when she asked in Congress "What did the administration know and when did it know it?"

2007-11-13T14:50:00.000-08:00

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Savers lost: East-side thrift store closes after 10 years

Reasons why this is horroble news:
1. If you live on the North Side or the Near East or even just drive downtown from the East side and don't want to go travel long distances, spend gas, or you want to support the local economy to buy clothing/furniture/dishware/toys/everything you just lost your #1 option in my opnion.
2. The timing was suspiciously close to that of the opening of Super Hellmart, people who shopped at Savers for economic reasons may go to Hellmart instead!
3. A Family Dollar store just opened next door to the Savers, it was a perfect match!
4. The East Towne Salvation Army closed only a few months ago so now your thrift store options on the East Side are even more limited to;
A. Good Will. I'm all for non profits, but Good Will is on the really expensive side of used clothing and furniture, and there is not a lot of wiggle room, like sales or lower prices for lower quality, it's all $7.99 for jeans, $3.99 for a shirt $1.99 for kids stuff. People can do just as well at Target or Shopko.
B. St Vinnies. It's great if you already live there and are just walking or it's on your bus route but parking-not so great with kids and the selection is really really really picked over and again prices just aren't as good as they were at Savers or S.A.

It's a sad sad day, and just in time for winter. I'll be Madison Freecycling for sweaters for the kids this year.

2007-11-07T13:52:00.000-08:00

Tammy Baldwin is doing Wisconsin proud by being one of the 56 cosponsors of Dennis Kucinich's HR333.
Also co-sponsoring(of note) is Steve Kagen, another Wisconsin representative from up nort., and Bobby Jindal, the republican Congressman from Louisianna who just won his state's run for Governor on an anti-corruption platform. Which I don't totally understand.

2007-11-06T20:26:00.000-08:00

Sun Prairie voters FINALLY approve new High School, they voted to split the students between 9th and 10th grades at the old school, and 11th and 12th at a new school.
Sun Prairie is a very tight-knit community and this method of expanding the high schools is supposed to keep students together, while giving them more space.
The other questions on the referendum referred to building pools, which did not pass.
One $100 million vote at a time, I guess.

2007-09-21T10:18:00.001-07:00

Living in America
This kindof crazy gunman shit happens every day all over the country and only makes headlines IF soneone is killed, or more like if two or more people are shot.

For example, just yesterday in suburbia Wisconsin where I work, I had to have an armed-flaked police escort to my van because there was a crazy person with a gun hiding behind the hockey rink I was parked in front of.
Nice.
I'll put in my 4 year old's baby book under "First involvement with a Swat Team".

But the real terror threat in the US is that there are "too many mosques". Prepare to be "infiltrated".

2007-09-05T14:03:00.000-07:00

Impeachment doesn't pass city council, what a waste. I like how Pham-Remmele gives all the reasons to vote for impeachment as her arguemnt against doing anything because congress isn't really going to listen to us anyway. Oh andI like how she calls the pro-Impeachment activists "Jane Fonda standing with the communists."
She threatened to resign from her position if the council voted for recommending Impeachment, so we lost on more than one count.
Michael Schumacher, for whom I didn't vote but by whom I am represented, didn't vote on the issue. Wuss.

2007-09-03T18:20:00.000-07:00

I'm lovin this post by Badgerblues. Many of my West highs School classmates have moved to Texas and I often want to ask..."why?"
I talked to a friend who had lived there about a decade, then moved to Lesotho, about how everyone we went to high school was moving to Texas and she said..."why?"

2007-09-03T18:11:00.000-07:00

OOh, John Edwards just shot up on my radar, perhaps past Kucinich.
Crooks and liars-read the rest
John Edwards; "No more secret prisons, No more torture, no more condoning of torture"
That's what I'm talking about.

2007-09-02T08:26:00.000-07:00

I can't guess why Madison Magazine had to rank all the high schools in Dane County. Especially since the biggest factor for them seemed to be the poverty Index, which isn't really something the school is responsible for. Maybe it's the 80% graduation rate, but I think the rate of poverty should be factored in and should actually boost it's rating since with all that is against kids at East High, their ACT scores aren't that bad and they offer more AP classes than all the other scholls, and their teachers have the most advanced degrees of any area high school, including private ones.
I just think it wasn't judged fairly, although I don't know how one could fairly judge it.
At the back of that issue, there is an editorial byJohn Roach, Edgewood High School graduate who has a plan for the budget problems at Madison Public Schools: better PTA fundraisers, includeing Bingo games and raffle tickets.
I emailed him to politely explain-as a PTA Treasurer- that that doens't put the schools at a fair playing field. And that that wasn't something he should know, because I, a West-sider by birth, was shocked to find how hard it was to raise funds in a poor school myself. I told him that all the parents and community that flooded the school at functions that weren't fundraiseres were absent at any fundraising activity so it wasn't because they weren't involved in the school, the money just wasnt' there.
He emailed me back to say that he didn't really believe that the money "just wasn't there" and that "poverty is no excuse for apathy".
Dayum!
I think he needs a reality check. What makes him an authority on poverty? Must be his conversations with Lauren Bacall or his education at Edgewood-wait, he spent one year at Randall, maybe University Heights was a rough neighborhood back in the day.

2007-07-11T14:30:00.000-07:00

The Northside has been experiencing huge surge of car stereo and equipment theft this summer. People have even reported small change taken out of cup holders when their cars are left out on the street.
A neighbor had his stereo expertly removed not cutting any wires or anything, it was on the same night that I had left an mp3 player in my car in the driveway and was still there in the morning.
Apparently the tech at Best Buy said that was the 3rd car stereo he sold to a Northsider that week.
It's not missing/murdered 22 year old women, but I think it bears mention.

2007-06-13T11:51:00.001-07:00

What ever happened to the cicadas?
I was promised millions and millions of cicadas!

2007-06-05T19:21:00.000-07:00

The arrests in California Monday of Gen. Vang Pao and eight others for plotting to topple the communist government of Laos sent shock waves through last night's Madison school board meeting and threw into doubt whether the decision to name the city's newest elementary school for Vang Pao will hold.

Ya think?
I think Prof. McCoy has been vindicated!
He's so dreamy(McCoy, I mean!)

2007-06-05T19:17:00.000-07:00

This music is called Bon Iver. Its French, and spelled wrong on purpose. No one really needs silent H's. So say it; Bon (as in 'bon' voyage) Iver (e-ver). Bon Iver. You got it.

It was made on a pilgrimage to the woods of northwestern wisconsin. With only guns, venison, firewood, a sears typewriter, and ancient musical equiptment.

Beautiful Wisconsin Music.
Skinny Love mp3

2007-05-29T14:07:00.000-07:00

Cindy resigns.

Good for her, she deserves a break, this can serve as a wake-up call for the rest of us to get of our collective arses and try to get heard.

2007-05-24T14:42:00.000-07:00

I can't say I'm suprised that the Dems are backing down to Bush, it seems like such a waste of an opportunity. If not now, when, October?
Useless.
At least they're finally adressing the minimum wage.
The thing is that the Democrats are really no different than Republicans when it comes down to it, unless you're Russ Feingold* or *Dennis Kussenich, and even then...
Come to the light...

2007-05-24T14:26:00.000-07:00

2007-05-15T20:08:00.000-07:00

Kick-ass Crimefighter Principle of the year award goes to Sandra Gunderson of Mendota Elementary.
You go girl!!

2007-05-14T19:05:00.000-07:00

The School Board has reversed their decision to consolidate Marquett and Lapham. (I saw it on Fox 47 at 9, I know, Sean Ryan, ew!)

2007-05-14T18:37:00.000-07:00

Tommy Thompson has nothing against The Gays, he just really had to poop!
"Nobody knows that," Thompson said. "I've been very sick. I was very sick the day of the debate. I had all of the problems with the flu and bronchitis that you have, including running to the bathroom. I was just hanging on. I could not wait until the debate got off so I could go to the bathroom."

2007-05-07T19:33:00.000-07:00

By Brenda Konkol's math, closing Marquette Elementary only saved $81,000.
Some Marquette parents are upset that their school was closed instead of terminating the strings program, but I don't see it that way, strings and all music programs are really important, especially in schools where parents may not be able to afford private lessons.
The answer is not for the school board to move small amounts of money around, but to change the way it is funded. Otherwise we're just sticking fingers in different parts of the dam and arguing over where we stick them.

2007-05-05T18:26:00.000-07:00

From my TWF mailing list:

Dr. Kevin Barrett, the University of Wisconsin lecturer"hounded by Steve Nass and 61 state legislators, and handed a death threat by Bill OReilly" was denied a tenure-track position at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewateris heading for Casablanca, Morocco to interview still-living 9/11 "hijacker" Waleed al-Shehri.

Waleed says the 9/11 Commission's photo and biography are his, and that he's the guy who trained in Daytona Beach.

Osama Bin Laden's role in 9/11 remains unconfirmed. Rex Tomb, the FBI's Chief of Investigative Publicity, is reported to have said, "the FBI has no hard evidence connecting Bin Laden to 9/11."

FULL TEXT, SOURCES, ETC. at http://911sig.blogspot.com/

2007-05-02T19:45:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone had a really wonderful May Day.

The big Northside deal is that we kept our schools...for another year...until the budget needs to be cut again.
Obviously the system that funds the schools is flawed, it shouldn't be connected to property taxes.
But the cap needs to be eliminated altogether, otherwise the cycle of cutting something every year will never end.
What gets cut next?
I was shocked to hear that at East only one foreign language is taught. I went to West 15 years ago and we had five.
Who wants to live in a city where the kids have to pay to go to chess club and can only take Spanish? I know that having kids makes one think that anything kid related should be on the top of the list, but it's not really fair that I got to take French, the English classes of my own choice, it was free to work on yearbook and I could be on the swim team and go to sporting events for a reasonable fee, yet my own kids just a few years later wont.

Isn't Jim Doyle supposed to be an Education Guy?

It may be a good thing in the end that some of the most affected people were parents who send their kids to Marquette, they come across as a generally well-educated and politically-minded group of people. Maybe they can get motivated to really bring attention to the problems with school funding. Besides, Marquette was rumored ot have a very unpopular principle and in the end those kids are probably going to do fine in life anyway.
Listen to me, I sound like Barbara Bush "This is working out quite well for them!"