She writes bills that never pass!
Former governor Scott McCallum was right: there’s too much government. Our dwindling press corps is at pains to report all the doings of federal, state, county, and city legislators. Rep. Francesca Hong, D-Madison, is an exception. She can thank John Nichols, whose indefatigable flacking has vaulted his fellow socialist to the head of the nine candidates running for the Democrat(ic) party’s nomination for governor. Still, there is legislation that Comrade John missed, or prefers to tip toe past. Allow our morbid curiosity to fill the void.
Rep. Hong is the beating heart of the pro-Palestine, “reimagine policing,” social justice warriors here in Wisconsin. The huddled masses yearning for more free stuff support legislation like her Assembly Bill 370. It required prisons and jails to allow inmates to get and give a 20-second hug at the beginning and end of each visiting period.
We can envision the warden holding a ticking stop watch while Slugger McGurk and his gun moll perform a Not-Safe-For-Work lip lock. Would smoochie woochies qualify under the legislation? Might have been meat for the courts had not Republicans cruelly blown the whistle on this ACLU-friendly legislation last week.
Snakes on a plane
Undeterred, the indefatigable advocate for the criminal proposed Assembly Bill 740 to require inmates in solitary confinement be given a book, a pen or pencil, the inmate’s personal address book, at least 10 pieces of paper and 10 envelopes. (No Bible, Warden Norton?) Ms Hong also sponsored:
• Granting $5 million for government-run grocery stores.
• Paying lawyers $100/hour to represent tenants contesting eviction notices.
• Easing standards required to bring sexual assault charges against police.
• Allowing colleges, state and local government to boycott Israel.
• Prohibiting private and charter schools from banning transgender athletes in girls sports.
• Making it harder to prosecute prostitution.
• Forbidding police from tracking down suspects using their smart phones without a judicial warrant.
All mercilessly defeated! Heartless Republicans could not abide even Assembly Joint Resolution 38 proclaiming 2025 as the Year of the Snake.
Perfect, enemy of good
In Sunday’s newspaper, Capital Times associate editor Nichols represents that his client opposes A-I data centers — along with fellow socialists Bernie Sanders and A.O.C. A reasonably popular political stance. But on Assembly Bill 840, which would have required data centers, not consumers, to pay for improvements to the state power grid and to recycle cooling water, Rep. Hong voted NO. Maybe it wasn’t the perfect bill that Democrats wanted; the result being, neither bill is law today.
Blaska’s Bottom Line: We pick on Rep. Hong because she is where Democrats are headed — in the direction of Mamdani and Cuba as opposed to Fetterman and West Allis. Also because the plucky lady is comedy that writes itself.
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