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Dimitri Drekonja

Minneapolis, MN
Commenter for
4 years 26 weeks

Recent Comments

Posted on 08/18/11 at 02:11 pm in response to I witnessed a dark side of Michele Bachmann's character

It would indeed be nice to hear about Bachmann's plans on the economy, health-care, and energy. Once she says something other than she'll create jobs, bring gas down to under 2 dollars, and repeal "obamacare", Eric and his colleagues can proceed to report on it.

If Bachmann is content to spout off banal slogans with no specifics, her supporters shouldn't complain that the news isn't reporting those details. It's hard to report on non-existent plans.

Posted on 07/21/11 at 07:48 am in response to Franken lays into Focus on the Family leader at hearing

It's refreshing to find a Senator who not only reads a study, but also understands enough about science to read the basic definitions before jumping right to the conclusions. I bet he can spell ridiculous, too.

Posted on 07/21/11 at 01:43 pm in response to Franken lays into Focus on the Family leader at hearing

The study authors confirmed that their use of nuclear family was not gender specific; if you have issues with their definition, take it up with them. Senator Franken did what we teach all physicians and scientists in traning to do: read a paper carefully, and make sure that the subjects and endpoints of a study are clearly defined; don't just skip the methods section and jump to the final paragraph.

Posted on 07/15/11 at 03:08 pm in response to It's a Blogapalooza over the Minnesota budget deal

I'm surprised; I didn't think my opinion of the viking's front-office could go lower, but I underestimated them. Clearly, this is the ideal time to ask for state funds for a stadium: the only new revenue the repubs could find palatable was "borrowing" from our schools and more borrowing against future payments, so of course we should raise some taxes for the local franchise of a 10-billion dollar industry.

Any republican that tries to explain how tax increases are great if they're for...

Posted on 07/11/11 at 11:36 am in response to To win in Iowa, Pawlenty could take the Huckabee approach

Not being in politics, perhaps this is just a stupid comment from an uninformed observer (who happens to enjoy Pawlenty being mired in single digits)- why would Pawlenty want to model his campaign after Huckabee's? Last I checked, he didn't get the nomination, and he's currently reaping the big bucks as a talking head. If Pawlenty is shooting for this, great. Beats working for a living.

I'm just waiting for the backlash from the tea-partiers now that he decided to talk about Bachmann'...

Posted on 07/08/11 at 12:07 pm in response to Should we charge our doctors for wasting our time in their office waiting rooms?

I just finished my morning clinic, and today was on time for all patients. That doesn't always happen. Sometimes a patient arrives so sick that I end up admitting him/her to the hospital, and spend a fair amount of time contacting the accepting team, making sure that no vital information is missed in a handoff, and ensuring that the most urgent issues are well known. Other times, I'm trying to explain the pros and cons of a difficult decision to a patient with mild dementia, and end up...

Posted on 07/01/11 at 02:09 pm in response to Budget gap shrinks, but massive philosophical divide remains in shutdown battle

Kudos to Craig (#10). I hope all here will take the time to call or write to Dayton, Koch, and Zellers, and hopefully get at least one other person to do so. At this point public pressure is going to be key.

mark.dayton@state.mn.us
sen.amy.koch@senate.mn
rep.kurt.zellers@house.mn

Posted on 06/30/11 at 02:31 pm in response to Despite both sides' certainty that they're 'right,' Minnesotans will blame them all if shutdown happens

There will be a slice of people who are disgusted with both sides, but the majority will do as the commentators are: laying the blame at the Republican's feet. It's just too clean a narrative for the usual propaganda machine of the right to distort.

The Gov has shown his willingness to go further than he or his base would like- both in passed legislation, and in offers regarding the budget. Those that haven't expressed their opinions to Ms Koch and Mr Zellers certainly should:

...
Posted on 06/30/11 at 04:37 pm in response to Despite both sides' certainty that they're 'right,' Minnesotans will blame them all if shutdown happens

Yes, darn those state employees with their 20 weeks of vacation. Cleary, that is exactly what Gov Dayton wants. When he proposes a tax on the top 2% of earners, it's not being done because of the costs to the state (healthcare, energy, incoming bills from businesses that do work for the state); that's just a red herring. When he gets the extra revenue, he'll yell "surprise" and he and all state employees will go for a cruise for the first 2 weeks of their 20 weeks off. Good lord, where do...

Posted on 06/29/11 at 11:57 am in response to Irked GOP legislators consider Rep. Winkler's 'cave in' comments 'fightin' words'

"Will anybody who goes up to the bar for a beer really notice if they pay an extra nickel?" Howes wondered.

Oops, watch out. Tony Sutton will notice, as will Grover Norquist. That's just the type of reasonable thinking that will get you the lable of "RINO" and a tea-party endorsed challenger from within the party.

Of course, if the standard is "will anyone really notice", there are some UnitedHealth executives who won't notice missing nickles until a few hundred thousand go...