News Net Madison is about to get even more bike-friendly

Since sifting through dull newspapers, hyperbolic blogs, and overflowing RSS feeds for meaningful news can be an arduous process, News Net catches and compiles both the amusing and the significant reports that were overlooked throughout the week. Here are some things to think about as the weekend begins.

• Madison’s already stellar bike path system got a nearly $6 million injection of cash on Wednesday, part of Gov. Doyle’s $32.5 million in funding being allocated to complete pedestrian and bicycle projects around the state. Here, $2.5 million of Dane County’s funding will go toward the Cannonball Path, a 4-mile path running between Verona Road and Fish Hatchery Road, complete with a bridge crossing the Beltline. Most of the rest will go toward the Lower Yahara River Trail, which will link McFarland to the Capital City Trail. The paths are scheduled for completion some time in 2012, just in time for you to totally get your bike tuned up and start biking to work like you totally said you would when you bought it three years ago.

• This weekend offers a lot of distractions and a welcome respite from the never-ending barrage of election coverage and campaign ads. But, before you go dropping out and skipping the election, remember that your Nov. 2 ballot will also include Dane County’s non-binding referendum on medical marijuana. It’s a baby step closer to resolutions like the complete legalization of pot that California residents will be voting on, and a message to the new governor and state legislature on Dane county residents’ attitudes toward marijuana—and a referendum communicates a bit more strongly than organizing a group trip to White Castle.

• But before the dust settles on this round of the democratic process, take a moment to look back on some of its more ridiculous moments. Icy-eyed conservative Rebecca Kleefisch had some delightfully ignorant soundbites from the not-too-distant past dug up, and now she’s apologizing like crazy. According to The Associated Press, the Wisconsin lieutenant governor candidate offered her opinion on same-sex marriage to a Christian radio station back in January. She said that the state can’t afford to be “just be handing out money to anyone. This is a slippery slope. In addition to that, at what point are we going to OK marrying inanimate objects? Can I marry this table, or this, you know, clock? Can we marry dogs? This is ridiculous.” It’s doubtful that anyone would want to marry inanimate objects unless, of course, they were extremely charming:

• But Kleefisch’s boneheaded comments sound positively quaint when compared to Dane Deutsch’s abomination of a tweet. The republican candidate for state senate from Rice Lake thought about it really hard, and then decided it would be cool to tweet “Hitler and Lincoln were both strong leaders. Lincoln’s character made him the greater leader whose legacy and leadership still lives on!” Hey Deutsch, we don’t know if there’s a updated handbook on running for office, but we’re pretty sure the section on not tweeting compliments to Hitler wouldn’t even be in there, because it’s common fucking sense not to do that.

• This is all getting so tiresome. Remember back when the election was exciting, and President Obama came to Madison to get everyone fired up? The National does, because those guys were there, and they even included some nice footage of it in the video for the alternate version of “Terrible Love.”