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Ginny Martin

St. Paul, MN
Commenter for
5 years 24 weeks

Recent Comments

Posted on 01/29/13 at 10:08 pm in response to How troubling is Jacob Lew's $1 million bonus from Citigroup?

Just about the time I start thinking Obama seems to be moving in the right direction, he picks that Wall street guy Lew. Another guy embedded in wall street. We already know where his sympathy lies.
How about Sheila Bair? Never get approved. Robert Reich (yay!). He makes too much sense. Republicans would never approve him. Elizabeth Warren. No chance.
None of the smart ones would ever get approved by the Senate.

Posted on 01/29/13 at 10:16 pm in response to How troubling is Jacob Lew's $1 million bonus from Citigroup?

Let's get an economist who isn't a wallstreeter. Robert Reich is one and he's already served in that job so he understands it. Or maybe Sheila Bair. Or Elizabeth Warren. Or Arthur Rolnick. He was head of Minneapolis federal reserve, but he's the one who has been promoting early childhood education for years. He must know something.
But a smart, Keynesian economist would never get senate approval. "Smart" would do him/her in.

Posted on 01/23/13 at 01:28 pm in response to Gov. Dayton faces a tough sell on far-reaching budget ideas

This looks like a sensible, doable plan to me and one that will help education, in particular, and raise revenues without harming the middle and lower classes. I like the idea of a property tax rebate and taxes on things like clothes over $100 for each item.
What does Hann mean, What's the big thing we gain. It looks to me as thought we even out the tax load and tax higher incomes more fairly and, most of all, we increase the education spending. This is so key, I don't know why the...

Posted on 01/23/13 at 01:37 pm in response to Cautious DFL lawmakers praise Dayton’s budget vision but demur on details

The Democrats who are lukewarm, shuffling and looking at their feet, need to take this proposal and run with it. This sounds like a good, comprehensive plan that will raise new revenue in the fairest way possible. Higher income people need to kick in a little more, and this plan provides sales taxes that don't hurt the middle and lower-income class and do provide some property tax relief.
His plan to increase funding for education, from pre-school through universities, is much needed....

Posted on 01/22/13 at 12:17 pm in response to Obama stops begging for bipartisan compromise — finally

Finally, President Obama is no longer willing to grovel for agreement with republicans whose only answer seems to be NO.
He laid out a progressive agenda and it sounds as though he will do all he can to achieve it. He is finding ways to take executive action on some things; at least I hope he is. He can fix the debt ceiling limit in a couple of different ways and I hope he uses that rather than give in to the republicans' "deal" to cut what they call entitlements -- I call earned...

Posted on 01/22/13 at 12:33 pm in response to Joys and tribulations of doggies in the city

My current dog (an Australian cattle dog) came from a rescue organization. I did fill a detailed description of my character, assets, home life, and housing situation. I finally qualified, I guess, because I brought Mandy home eventually but I was shocked at the cost -- over $350 I believe. And even more so when a second shelter person came along and upped it $100. I protested and she dropped it again, but I was astounded. How can people adopt dogs at that kind of money? You can get a...

Posted on 01/19/13 at 12:16 pm in response to Mayor Rybak: 'I don't care what the NRA thinks'

Just to correct one single statistical error in this comment:
Gun homicides in England and Wales per 100,000 - 6
In Brazil - 61.2
Belgium - 39.5
Denmark - 39.5
Finland 19.8

That's just a small sample.

The NRA is not and never has been a grass-roots organization. Look up the facts -- not from NRA sources but from official and neutral sources.

Posted on 01/17/13 at 05:35 pm in response to Was the Second Amendment adopted for slaveholders?

The civil rights movement was based on non-violence. Martin Luther King Jr. was following what he learned from Ghandi on peaceful protest. It was only later when some African Americans grew impatient with the progress that some -- some! -- people began to choose to arm themselves.
I have never heard that blacks fought with weapons against the Ku Klux Klan. They were all terrified of the threat of the KKK and its hangings. You didn't even have to provoke them; any excuse would do. The...

Posted on 01/20/13 at 08:25 pm in response to Was the Second Amendment adopted for slaveholders?

The whole purpose of the second amendment was to allow the southern states to keep their slaves and keep them under control, and also to make sure of the number of slaves for voting purposes: blacks (males) constituted one-third of a vote, so the more people, the more power the state had.
I'm glad to see this coming out, finally.
Let me recommend a powerful and eye- and mind-opening book, Slavery by another Name, by Michelle Alexander. Give you a whole different perspective.

Posted on 01/08/13 at 03:20 pm in response to Tallying gun deaths: one Minnesotan killed every day by firearms

We have enough numbers to draw some conclusions. To be inexact is not to say that strong conclusions cannot be drawn. Young people who shoot on impulse, themselves or someone else, would probably not have pulled the trigger if they had stopped to think. It's all too easy to pull a trigger with a gun. Everything else takes more time. And several accounts I have read recently describe a scene in which the shooter was immediately remorseful--could hardly understand why they did it.
We...