Skip to Content

Walt Cygan

Minneapolis, MN
Commenter for
4 years 11 weeks

Recent Comments

Posted on 11/16/12 at 05:01 pm in response to The Electoral College is an accident waiting to happen

Clearly, you don't like the electoral college, but I'm not sure this article presents the right reason to be against it. The bottom line is that we don't have a presidential election in this country; we have 51 of them. The nationwide popular vote is irrelevant. Is that bad? I would argue that it is not necessarily good or bad. A candidate who lost the popular vote but won the electoral college is still elected. That circumstance is not particularly good for the president-elect to try to...

Posted on 11/12/12 at 11:34 am in response to The self-blinding brilliance of Jason Lewis

My first reaction to reading Lewis's piece was to ask whether he needed cheese with his whine. Supporters of voter id never seemed to acknowledge that they were selling a pig-in-a-poke. If he had a complaint with how opponents characterized the possible affects of the amendments, maybe he should have complained to the proponents for not having crafted a clear statement of how they would expect the amendment to be implemented. They purposely left it vague, making it reasonable for opponents...

Posted on 11/08/12 at 05:18 pm in response to Catholic priest to archbishop: 'Resign'

I don't like any lawn-sign stealing, but it was not one-sided. My first "Vote No" sign was stolen, but I got a replacement. No one should infringe on anyone's speech rights; and if someone is caught stealing a sign, they should be prosecuted.

Posted on 11/08/12 at 05:26 pm in response to Same-sex marriage: 'Minnesota, in particular ... is proof the tide has turned'

had standards preventing this kind of thing. Sad. My "Vote No" sign was stolen, too. That kind of childish behavior did not only happen on one side of the issue. But seriously, this kind of comment is beyond the pale.

Posted on 08/13/12 at 01:40 pm in response to Some perspective on the Ryan pick

Practically the first thing that Romney did after naming Ryan was to distance himself from Ryan's budget plan. If you are picking the guy to change the dynamic, why would you throw the major "accomplishment" of the guy you picked on the scrap heap? Seems very strange.

Of course, what Mitt was really doing is throwing a bone to the Tea Partiers, who are not motivated to support him very enthusiastically. But what will TP-ers make of taking their young turk out of the House for at least...

Posted on 07/31/12 at 04:09 pm in response to Who has power to name amendments? Supreme Court poised to settle dispute

According to Pete Barrett's reply to your question here: (http://www.minnpost.com/politics-policy/2012/07/minnesota-amendment-word...) legislatures have previously not given titles and have left it to the Secretary of State to do so.

Posted on 07/31/12 at 04:32 pm in response to Who has power to name amendments? Supreme Court poised to settle dispute

See: http://www.leg.state.mn.us/lrl/mngov/constitutionalamendments.aspx

Until the 2008 amendment, titles were generally not provided. The question submitted to voters is provided but only the three most recently passed have titles, based on my spot-checking. I didn't check them all, but I looked at 8-10 going back to 1959.

Posted on 07/23/12 at 07:30 pm in response to After Muslim Brotherhood controversy, Democrats see an opening against Bachmann

There were Soviet agents in the government in the 1950's. There is no doubt about that. If that is the measure of McCarthy's right-ness, then I would acknowledge that in some cases, he was right.

Where he was wrong, where he was devastatingly wrong was in how he acted as judge, jury, and executioner in destroying guilty and not guilty alike. I think conservative and liberal alike would value the rule of law. If someone like McCarthy or Bachmann uses their personal platform to...

Posted on 06/01/12 at 12:56 pm in response to Almost half of us don't believe in evolution

This poll is seriously terrifying, particularly the part about "within the last 10,000 years or so". So dino skeletons are a joke played on us by God? I think we need a LOT more funding for science education. Apparently, a large segment of the American public hasn't been paying attention in class.

Posted on 05/04/12 at 06:08 am in response to Dayton vetoes 'teacher seniority' bill

On the contrary, the Governor has given the GOP priorities exactly the respect that they deserve.