Author Archives: dave cieslewicz

As a center-left Democrat, I don’t often look to Texas for good news. Mostly what we get out of the Lone Star State are hard-right gun and God (in that order) worshiping cowboys. But even the Democrats aren’t often my cup of tea. Rep. Al Green, who has made it his signature move to yellContinue reading “This is How Democrats Win”

Maia Pearson, the chair of Madison’s police oversight board and a Madison school board member, has been charged with criminal misdemeanors related to her resisting arrest in an incident in downtown Madison in December. In a criminal complaint, it is alleged that she and her friend, Urban Triage executive director Brandi Grayson, verbally abused staffContinue reading “The Wrong Investigation”

The other day Gov. Tony Evers introduced a state constitutional amendment that would ban partisan gerrymandering. That was a curious thing in a variety of ways. First off, why now? The Assembly has already gone home to campaign for reelection and the Senate has only one more day of session planned. This isn’t going anywhere.Continue reading “Evers’ Good Idea is DOA”

The other day I heard from a reader who noted that he had been abused on Facebook for writing things similar to a recent blog of mine about the antics of a Madison school board member and nonprofit director. I suppose I may have taken some of the same criticism, but I wouldn’t know. IContinue reading “Why Not Ignore Social Media?”

It’s pretty much over now. After seven years of legal battles, the Enbridge pipeline, known as Line 5, is finally under construction. It’s a tragedy, but not for the reasons those who fought it think it is. In fact, it’s an environmental tragedy created by environmentalists. This is an issue that at least tangentially connectsContinue reading “The Waste of the Line 5 Fight”

In my view, Alex Pretti should not have brought a gun to a protest. But if you disagree and believe Pretti was well within his right to bring a loaded concealed firearm to that fateful protest in Minneapolis where he was killed by ICE agents, then do you also think that the January 6th insurrectionistsContinue reading “The Disease of Tribalism”

The University of Wisconsin Athletic Department wants taxpayer money while keeping the public in the dark on how they’ll spend it. And the Legislature is rushing to give them both the money and the cover of darkness.  In the 2023 state budget the Republicans cut the UW system’s budget by $32 million. To get theContinue reading “Bucky’s Dark Money”

I asked an influential Democrat up here in the north woods (where the skiing has been amazing, by the way) who he liked for governor. Before he answered he told me something I hadn’t even thought to ask: he said he thought Tom Tiffany, the Republican Congressman from this part of the state, could winContinue reading “Could Tiffany Win?”

I watched as much of Donald Trump’s State of the Union address as I could stomach, which is to say about 20 minutes of it. I caught up by reading about it this morning. My overall take is that Trump was Trump, which is to say that he revealed yet again what a — toContinue reading “Dems Stoop to Trump’s Level”

Paul Skidmore was a long-time Madison alder from the west side. At an online City Council meeting in September, 2020 somebody mutttered an ugly word directed at a Black woman who was speaking before the Council. It was so muted and subtle that nobody even noticed it in the moment, but it came to lightContinue reading “A Strange Silence”