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Joel Jensen

Hopkins, MN
Commenter for
5 years 28 weeks

Recent Comments

Posted on 05/23/12 at 04:19 pm in response to Could Photo ID be scuttled even if Minnesota voters approve constitutional amendment?

The federal REAL ID Act of 2005 (rules go into effect January 2013) will expand the number of people affected by this proposed amendment significantly (applies to all new and renewing applications) and will make the burden much heavier on those affected. Supporters relying on previous SCOTUS decisions upholding similar state laws should take note of how that might change the result of challenges to laws after Real ID goes into effect.

Many States (including MN - and many MN...

Posted on 11/21/11 at 08:33 pm in response to Why do we have so much income inequality?

Despite all the wailing and gnashing of finely shaped pearly white teeth, the rich are making more and paying less of it in taxes than they did 20 years ago, even measured by their effective rate of federal income tax.
We’re not asking them to pay “more”. We’re asking them to start paying something near to what they did 20 years ago, something closer to what the rest of us pay in effective tax rate. This shift from progressive to regressive taxes has distributed more wealth to...

Posted on 06/15/11 at 07:26 pm in response to Background claims by state Senate's global-warming skeptic fail to check out

They want their own 'facts' and their own 'science'.

And people wonder why the legislature cannot find common ground.

How can they when they live on different planets?

Posted on 05/26/11 at 02:39 pm in response to The right's 'ruthless identity border patrol'

@ Mark Martin:

Cap & Trade:
Calling Tim Pawlenty "anti-cap&trade" is like calling Newt Gingrich "chaste". It may be true for now .... http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2007/11/15/govsgreenhouse/

Or for those who wanted to wait for the movie:
Tim:...

Posted on 05/13/11 at 09:03 pm in response to Health care amicus brief latest example of GOP's small-tent politics

We pay more (substantially more) and get less than any comparable country, even when measuring their universal coverage to our coverage that leaves tens of millions without health care coverage. So is "magic market dust" the answer? It would appear the answer to that is not.

We already spend more in private health care expenditures than most comparable countries do in their public, governmental, expenditures, yet our costs are much higher.

As a percentage of GDP for 2008,...

Posted on 05/13/11 at 05:12 pm in response to The limited gene pool of potential prez nominees

How could someone with Obama's relative lack of experience and exposure prevail? I think it comes down to something pretty basic.

Barack Obama offered to America an embodiment of the American Dream, a vision of the promises of our Country yet to be fully realized and of the opportunities that most of us still believe should be open to all based on the strength of their talents and their ideas, blind to the irrelevancies of race or gender or anything other than what is inside the...

Posted on 05/11/11 at 02:59 pm in response to Surprise amendment stuns Senate during debate over health care for poor

If the Golden Rule is "do unto others as you would have done unto you", what rule are these folks operating under?

Conservative groups (including the Tea Party Patriots) still circulate chain-emails calling for a 28th Amendment to the US Constitution to require, in part, that members of "Congress will participate in the same health care system as the American people".

It's still up for debate whether they are oblivious or devious in failing to mention that this is already...

Posted on 05/10/11 at 04:02 pm in response to Is Minnesota ready for government by constitutional amendment?

None of these proposed Constitutional Amendments deserves to be placed before the people because they are each fatally flawed. But as a group, this proposed batch of Republican Constitutional Amendments presents even greater concerns, the whole being worse than the parts.

When this proposed batch of Republican Amendments to the Minnesota Constitution are taken as a whole and viewed in the context of the historic rarity of Republican control of both houses of the Minnesota legislature...

Posted on 11/17/10 at 03:20 pm in response to The student newspaper editorial Benilde-St. Margaret's doesn't want you to see

Disagreement is not disrespect.

Suggesting that allegations are not supported by facts, is not heresy.

The DVD opened up the debate by alleging (or implying) far-reaching societal impact - an argument far beyond "church doctrine".

It's symptomatic of today's "debate" that the more extreme or rigid a belief system is, the more it is outraged, offended and supposedly martyred by rational, reasonable fact-based challenge.

Bottom line, you can't be slandered by the...

Posted on 11/05/10 at 05:15 pm in response to Revved up for recount, MNGOP Chair Sutton won't buy 'Lake Wobegon syndrome'

Recounts are good.

Frivoulous or intentional dog-in-the-manger gambits to keep duly elected Democrats out of office are not.

Undermining the legitimacy of the election process and Minnesota justice system with unsubstaniated and undeserved claims of corruption or incompetence are even worse.

One thing to consider is that a "Coup by Election Contest" (from the MN Republicans lawyering up and utlizing what the French refer to as Operation Escargot) would not help TPAW'...