Madison, Wisconsin's Capital Times is "Wisconsin's Progressive Newspaper." As part of that "progress", columnist Joel McNally has asked one of his five-year-old relatives to write about immigration policy. You can read the results in "Our own Sensenbrenner fights the alien among us".

Since the young 'un isn't named, let's call him "Billy".

Dear Billy:

Congratulations on your first column! However, I believe you don't fully understand this issue, prefering instead to engage in childish name-calling and smearing. For instance, this:

Politicians from states along the Mexican border are so controlled by local fears and racial prejudices they can be downright un-American in proposing vicious, anti-immigrant legislation.

Obviously, Billy, those on the border are on the front lines of an invasion from another country, and that invasion is costing those states a great deal of money and impacting life for all their residents: overcrowded schools, hospitals shutting down, and so on and so forth. Trying to simply blame it on racism is not only wrong, it shows a deep inability to understand these important issues. For just one of the many counterexamples that could be provided, see "Texas' borderland sheriffs: Washington ignores illegal immigration crisis".

I'm going to let your kindergarten teacher correct the rest of your essay, but just to help you out some more, let's look at this:

The bill is so viciously draconian that it is even opposed by such staunchly conservative institutions as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal... You know a congressman is a wild-eyed extremist when he makes President George Bush look temperate...

Ju$t for fun, Billy, I've hidden a $ecret clue in this paragraph that $hould help you under$tand why Bush and those group$ $upport immigration "reform". Can you find it? Very good, Billy!

The paper wants to know what you think, so please do so: tctvoice *at* madison.com.

Previously: I discussed a biased Capital Times news report. And, before then, I wondered whether they were really The Onion in disguise.