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Mark Gisleson

St Paul, MN
Commenter for
5 years 20 weeks

Recent Comments

Posted on 10/12/09 at 04:47 pm in response to Digital River loses biggest customer, sees stock plunge

I can think of very few names in tech I trust more than Digital River.

I wish I could say the same about Symantec. To this day the only software that ever obliterated any of my client files permanently was made by Symantec. (If you can't trust software that backs up your hard drive, what can you trust?)

Posted on 10/08/09 at 03:22 pm in response to Star Tribune debuts new poliblog: Hot Dish Politics

I have to agree with Mr. Titterud. Arbitration is a fraud perpetuated by corporations on their employees and customers. There have been exposes on how gamed the arbitration system is and I for one would never knowingly consent to having any issue resolved by arbitration.

More to the point, de Bernardo is a partner at Jackson Lewis, an infamous law firm that specializes in union busting.

http://tinyurl.com...

Posted on 10/08/09 at 03:45 pm in response to A good time to check all that credit card fine print

"I mean really, ask yourself, do you personally like anyone who identifies themselves as a Yankee fan?"

Since putting up a NY Yankees header on my blog, about half a dozen readers have objected. I have received no positive comments whatsoever.

It's OK, I don't mind. When I became a baseball fan the Twins were still in D.C. And when it comes to evil owners, I think the Yankees match up well with the Twins.

Posted on 10/06/09 at 01:22 pm in response to New York Times’ Cargill burger story turns local stomachs

Most appalling to me is that the USA used to have clean meat packing plants. Corporations ended that. No one misunderstands how fast a line can move like someone wearing a suit and tie.

The size of our meatpacking plants is not the problem. Our workers are not the problem. The problem is a marketplace that rewards executives who cut corners on food safety when instead they should be turning these unindicted front office felons over to the proper authorities.

Start by...

Posted on 10/01/09 at 11:20 am in response to Klobuchar calls for texting-while-driving ban

What a gutless bill! We need laws to prohibit all use of cell phones by car drivers, but that's too what? Radical? Needed?

A zillion studies have been conducted, not one of them shows that driver's multitask well. We can have 50 confusingly different bills on a state by state basis, or one strong sensible approach handed down by the feds.

Just curious? Has our senior Senator sponsored any legislation not prompted by a tragic death?

Posted on 09/30/09 at 05:55 pm in response to From Kersten to ACORN to Franken to no evidence whatsoever

Mr. McConnell, interesting facts you've got there. In that particular district the WFP has historically been hijacked by Republican dirty tricksters trying to keep the WFP from doing what they usually do: listing the Democratic candidate on their ballot line (much as the NY Conservative party often does with Republican candidates, something you can only do in NY so far as I know).

TPM Muckraker some very interesting background on what's going on in Troy, NY:...

Posted on 10/01/09 at 09:23 am in response to Star Tribune hires freelancers to drain comment cesspool

The Strib has a man crush on Pawlenty, and a serious problem with subtlety. I once had to flag an obscene comment about Kersten (a very rude pun) that slipped right past them.

But I'd love to know how long it took for them to yank "Gov. BridgeFAIL"? Was it up long enough for the Guv's staff to have seen it and called to complain?

Posted on 09/30/09 at 01:16 pm in response to Star Tribune hires freelancers to drain comment cesspool

So long as the Strib is looking to paywall stuff, they should consider beefing up online subscriber perks to include private chat rooms. How many here would like to belong to a smaller community of more like-minded commenters?

I don't know if the Strib can ever crawl out from beneath all that debt, but value-added is the way to go, and this is a much needed first step.

Now, if they would just bring back some more of those laid off writers....

Posted on 09/28/09 at 06:11 pm in response to New Star Tribune board chair: Pay up or we shut up

Death spiral is the perfect word for what will come from paywalls. Newspapers have always been free. Historically the price of a newspaper has reflected the cost of printing and distributing it. The content was paid for by advertisers. The internet has radically lowered the cost of delivering news.

Newspapers are the victim of their own very bad business decisions, complicated by owners selling their newspapers to business folks who don't know the first thing about the industry....

Posted on 09/27/09 at 02:12 pm in response to DFL moves up convention dates

No news here. The party activists are staking their claim on this race.

Eric, I hope you break the firewall on Minnesota news media NEVER reporting or analyzing the microscopically small number of individuals who vote in the DFL endorsement process.

Using the caucus system for endorsement purposes is first and foremost an astonishing abuse of the caucus process. Caucuses are ideal for strengthening political parties, but DFLers perversely use theirs to create even deeper...