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Hiram Foster

Crystal, MN
Commenter for
5 years 27 weeks

Recent Comments

Posted on 01/07/13 at 12:20 pm in response to Ranked choice voting is achievable and effective

For myself, as someone who is very familiar with election process, seeing the rest of the field as an afterthought, isn't the result of a lack of attention. But what happens with maybe the more typical voter, one who unlike me, isn't involved with the election process? Most voters don't know who their state representative or senator is. Many voters don't know who their congressman and senators are. Given this reality, how meaningful in terms of actually reflecting voter intent, is ranked...

Posted on 01/07/13 at 01:02 pm in response to Ranked choice voting is achievable and effective

One of my favorite things to say is "garbage in, garbage out". Stripped of the pejorative language, what that means is that your conclusions are never better than the data on which they are based, and that they always reflect that data. One thing that means is that it is pretty easy to get the conclusion you want in any given situation by the choice of data you intend to base it on.

Let's note and examine some of the assumptions the author of this piece makes. He assumes that voters...

Posted on 01/07/13 at 05:15 pm in response to Ranked choice voting is achievable and effective

I certainly don't believe that the two party system is a huge problem, and I don't think such a view is widely accepted. Whatever the founders expressed views on the subject, once they actually got around to the business of governing they could hardly wait to form two parties.

Posted on 01/08/13 at 07:13 am in response to Ranked choice voting is achievable and effective

A basic problem here is that lots of solutions are being proposed here without any clear understanding of or agreement on what the problem is, or what the goal of any voting system should be. I assume that the goal of the system should be to reflect voter intent, but that's just an assumption. Others seem to want undermine the two party system and excessive partisanship however we might define that, even if that means the system doesn't represent the will of the voters who are excessively...

Posted on 01/08/13 at 09:47 am in response to Ranked choice voting is achievable and effective

Maybe one problem here is that we speak in abstractions. But elections are never conducted inthe abstract. Which specific elections in recent Minnesota history would have been improved by ranked choice voting? For me, the nightmare scenario for RCV has always been the last Minneapolis mayoral election in which a well known incumbent was enabled by RCV to avoid campaigning altogether.

Posted on 01/04/13 at 08:51 am in response to A gun is no more a deadly weapon than a credit card, says N.H. legislator

The answer is obvious. If credit cards are dangerous weapons we should find ways, consistent with the Second Amendment, to regulate them. For one thing, I am in favor of Congressional legislation requiring rounded edges on all credit cards issued or used in the United States.

You know, I think we are making progress here.

Posted on 01/03/13 at 11:29 am in response to Strange dishonesty of filibuster reform and the 'longest day'

My proposal for senate reform is to make it a purely advisory body with lifetime memberships, something along the lines of it's historical model, the British House of Lords.

Posted on 12/14/12 at 10:07 am in response to Senate pays $90K bill in Brodkorb fight

Stupid clients make for rich attorneys. Obviously this should have been settled long ago, it is almost certainly the case that Brodkorb would have settled for much less than the attorney fees accrued so far, and are yet to be accrued, but for some reason, clients just don't think in those terms. As Chief Dan George observed in a different context in the movie "Little Big Man", this makes them strange to me.

Posted on 12/11/12 at 04:47 pm in response to Senate's Brodkorb legal bill fueled by 'settlement efforts'

I assume the lame duck Republican majority feels itself under a lot of pressure to reach a settlement before leaving office. They want that confidentiality agreement. But if they don't come to an agreement before control of the legislature changes hands, it will be Democrats who will control the settlement machinery, something they could, but not necessarily will use to embarrass Republicans.

Posted on 12/07/12 at 11:42 am in response to Is there enough money to finance the Vikings stadium?

Well, for one thing, any time gambling revenues fall short of expectations, it's good news, not bad news. Among other things, gambling is a drag on the economy.

Quite honestly, if revenues for the Vikings Stadium falls short of expectations, the solution is to reduce the budget for the stadium A peoples stadium truly does not require a lot of bells and whistles.