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About the author

	Scooter E-mail me
Welcome. I have lived in southern Wisconsin for about 20 years and in Dane County for the vast majority of those years. Although I hail from the Land of Lincoln originally, Wisconsin is my home now. My interest in politics has grown over the years and I hope this site is both educational and a resource to others.

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Disclaimer

The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view nor any political party's in anyway. Comments posted are the personal opinion of the individual who posted it and are not representative of my opinions unless I posted the comment.

Danger Train Ahead

Published 5/31/2009 by Scooter in Budget | RTA

Tags: rta, environment

Danger Train Ahead

Where to start?

The money we don't have to build a train we don't need? Wait, we'll get money from a Regional Transit Authority (RTA) and then Washington will chip in some dollars. All that money will surely come from "someone else", won't it? At least the folks pushing an RTA are at least a tiny bit honest that we'll be paying the extra sales tax to fund the RTA but it's insulting when they suggest that the rest of the money will come from Washington - as if that isn't our money too. Not to mention when was the last time you saw a government project come in on budget? This boondoggle will surely soar in cost before it's done.

At least this will be good for the environment, right? Big diesel locomotives starting and stopping all day and night through Madison spewing exhaust not to mention all the traffic congestion created. Conservative estimates are that there will be 8,000 new train crossings created per day. I'm not one for climate alarmism but arguing that this commuter rail will be good for the environment as a selling point is pretty weak.

Just to bring this back to home, looking at the proposed route, the train would run potentially from Middleton to just short of Sun Prairie. So if you were inclined to use the train, it would be for those folks along that corridor. Lucky me though, living out here in rural Dane County, I can't imagine ever riding the train but I, and everyone else in Dane County, will get to pay for it.

For more information on the proposed RTA and commuter rail, check out The Great Train Robbery.

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Fiscal Responsibility

Published 5/30/2009 by Scooter in Budget

Tags: fiscal responsibility, budget

So shortly after declaring that I wanted to focus on local politics, I saw this interview with Craig T. Nelson on the Glenn Beck show. I was impressed and since Wisconsin is dealing with it's own budget crisis at the moment it seemed relevant.

While I'm not advocating anyone stop paying taxes, I think the message of fiscal responsibility is important. Any average citizen understands that they need to be able to pay for the things they buy. Generally speaking your expenses shouldn't exceed your income. How come our elected officials can't understand this? It's not rocket science by any stretch.

I'm not against so many of the things that our government spends our money on. Often times they are noble goals. We just can't afford them. Instead of recognizing that simple truth, they just keep on spending...

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Getting started is hard...

Published 5/30/2009 by Scooter in General

Tags: welcome

So I'm finally up and running (again). I had a small problem with the database but I hope that is resolved now. All things considered, sometimes fixing a technical problem can be easier than putting my thoughts to paper.

What is District 79?

District 79 is a reference to the Wisconsin State Assembly District that I live in. District 79 encompasses a lot of the area south and south west of Madison in Dane County. Not that everything on this website is about that small part of Wisconsin but I thought the name spoke to what I'd like to focus on with my blog. I want to focus on local issues, issues to the state of Wisconsin, Dane County, and the surrounding area. That doesn't mean I won't detour into national politics or even out of politics entirely from time to time but local issues will be my main focus.

Why Scooter?

The nick name Scooter was given to me in high school and I've gone by it from time to time so it wasn't a big leap to use it here. I don't know if there is a rule out there that says if you blog you must do it under your full, real name but I'm not. If I was a professional in the media or politics then I think that is possibly necessary to be taken seriously. However, I'm not a professional in those fields, I'm a professional engineer. I'm not naive enough to believe that someone couldn't figure out who I am either from searching web registries or just from clues in my writing. However, it seemed prudent to keep my work life somewhat seperate from what I talk about here.

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