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Dane Smith

St. Paul, MN
Commenter for
5 years 23 weeks

Recent Comments

Posted on 03/30/12 at 12:23 pm in response to Growth & Justice lays out its case for Minnesota single-payer health care

Beth did a fine and fair job of summarizing our study but I want to add an important nuance about the official position of Growth & Justice. This is just a starting point, or perhaps a "starting-over'' point, especially if the ACA is overturned. Any Minnesota proposal that covers everyone, and reduces costs for businesses and individuals, and reduces racial and income disparities, deserves our study and consideration. This particular "unified and universal'' model shows great...

Posted on 03/21/12 at 08:57 am in response to John Cowles Jr. was there at the founding of MinnPost

Good piece Joel, and the Star Tribune's coverage, including Lori Sturdevant's touching testimonial Tuesday, gave us a good picture of this great man.

There are many women and men who serve as community pillars in Minnesota. And then there are the main pillars on which our community's health, wealth and vitality rest. I can't think of a more important load-bearing pillar than John and Sage Cowles. When you consider their influence in bringing us the Guthrie and our reputation as...

Posted on 04/15/09 at 06:41 pm in response to Time waster: Create your own NPR name

Wonderful fun. I choose to be Rodbert Seething (England). I'm now worried that our own MPR local favorites will never make it to the big show because of their mundane first names (Gary, Tim, Laura, Tom, Mike, Cathy, etc.)

Posted on 04/24/08 at 02:26 pm in response to MN shortfalls: We can't go on like this

Tom, I also enjoyed talking to you also on 1280AM last weekend. And the face-to-face conversation with the conservative hosts (Mitch Berg and Ed Morrissey) and callers was constructive and refreshing, and I hope for more of it. I want to assure you: that I do believe that state funding of public schools has been cut, also that I would not sign my name to something I knew to be false, and also that I strongly disagree with your assertion that we are not getting an overall return for...

Posted on 03/14/08 at 12:19 pm in response to Happy Pi Day!

Nice story Susan, very smart and MinnPostish. And from the clever "pie are also round'' line, I'm guessing you might have heard this joke. It's one of my favorites, from my southern redneck roots, and readers need to have this background.

Hillbilly son becomes first in many generations to leave the mountains and go down to the flatlands to attend attend high school and live in a boarding house. Son returns for the holiday, and pappy grills him aggressively wanting to know all...

Posted on 02/26/08 at 08:35 pm in response to In the end, one fallen bridge was enough

I was there and remember the moment when Rep. Erhard made that comment. It was at a Center of the American Experiment luncheon last fall, and the featured speaker was a conservative policy analyst from a conservative think tank in California. He made the case for more PUBLIC (government, taxes, etc.) transportation spending nationally, as well as market solutions such as toll roads. You can read all about it here.
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Posted on 12/19/07 at 07:30 pm in response to Chris Harte: The Star Tribune's Maine man

Pretty darned fair-and-balanced piece, David, as always, very informative, lots of great nuggets. Just wanted to remind you that Minnesota as of right now is no longer a high-tax, high-service state and no longer in Maine's company. Latest Census Bureau government finance states rank us 23rd in total state-local taxes as a percent of income and 31st in spending. Maine is top 10 for sure and maybe top 5 in both. I remember hearing on the Minnesota House and Senate floor, when the huge...

Posted on 12/27/07 at 01:03 pm in response to But if Pawlenty doesn't run for re-election, how about ...

Hey Robert, intriguing piece here, nice analogy to Quie and 1978. You're not so rusty after all, and you wrote the entire thing without once using your favorite sobriquet for the Congressman: "The Rammer." Meanwhile Strib today chases rumors that he will unretire from Congress. Your scenario makes more sense. (Disclaimer: Bob and I were sequestered for almost 20 years together in the state capitol, churning out the first drafts of history in state politics and government. He "wet-...