The Progressives Are Right

How could I have been so wrong in advocating ideas to empower citizens seeking lower taxes, protection from crime, and a range of customer choice? I have been guilty of Thought Crime.

Teacher unions put educating kids first. If you think education is expensive, try ignorance. Charter schools and vouchers only cream the best students, leaving the public schools serving the worst students and the developmentally disabled.

Bush lied, people died. University of Wisconsin lecturer Kevin Butler was right: 9/11 was an inside job. Walter Reed was run by Halliburton.

Madison needs a streetcar. Progressive Dane is right. Personal autos are a symbol of the repression of the moneyed class and urban sprawl. Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz deserves re-election over Ray Allen. Madison’s smoking ban protects workers in bars and restaurants from second-hand smoke. All of Madison’s drinking water is pure; even manganese levels are within federal standards. Now all employers in Madison should have to offer sick leave to even part-time workers. Landlords should have to install LCD bulbs in common areas.

I am lucky to be represented in Washington by dedicated leaders such as Tammy Baldwin, Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold. Governor Jim Doyle is right to seek a tax on hospital beds, $1.25 more per pack of cigarettes, a fee for filing taxes and a tax on Big Oil for exploiting Wisconsin drivers without passing the tax on to them. Of course, the Doyle Administration does favors for big donors but Doyle is still less corrupt than former Governor Tommy Thompson.

My long friendship with the Van Hollen family blinded me to what a good Attorney General Kathleen Falk would have been. I am fortunate that she is still managing Dane County. Now Wisconsin’s more centrist State Supreme Court should be tilted in favor of Trial Lawyers. It is crucial to elect Madison liberal Linda Clifford over the ethically-challenged Annette Ziegler. People don’t kill, guns do.

Those are just a few of the issues and candidates about which I have been wrong. I love Big Brother.

April Fool!