I have concluded that my "Your Voices" blogs are one small thing that added to the thousands of other political items available on the Internet is helping to raise the meaningless noise of political debate in this country and drown out the reasoned think that ought to drive that colloquy. I have decided that I can do my part by withdrawing from an arena where my writing only increases the noise. To do this, I have decided, painfully, that this is my last post to "Your Voices." Thanks to everybody who encouraged my work. More…

It is virtually impossible to run a campaign for the 2012 Republican nomination when you are the governor of a state as far off the beaten path as Alaska. That and the fight that has been stirred up again about Gov. Sarah Palin's fitness to be the GOP standard bearer in the next presidential election made it unavoidable for Palin to continue being both governor and potential presidential candidate. More…

Billy Bye was so much more than a University of Minnesota football star athlete from 60 years ago. He changed the lives of virtually everybody who knew him. The private Billy Bye and the public Bye were never at odds. He was a successful business entrepreneur who loved the University of Minnesota and supported it with his participation, private counsel and public contributions. He was also a patriot who numbered Democrats and Republicans among his longest and dearest friends. But most of all, he was a son of Minnesota who, regardless of wealth and personal standing, always wanted everyone to know that he loved this state. Most important: He was the author's friend for more than half a century. More…

Based on his personal survey of Minnesotans and their political ambitions, D. J. Leary has discovered that it appears there are only three people in the state who are NOT running for Governor. More…

Young girls and women of Hispanic surnames finally have a hero they can use as a universal role model. After President Obama's nomination of the very distinguished Judge Sonia Sotomayor to a vacant seat on the United States Supreme Court. The hearings will start this Senate, but many, many members of the conservative Republican caucus in the Senate have already said "on the record" that the are going to vote against Sonia Sotomayor. And they said it before she was nominated. She will never have a chance with the haters, but she'll emerge as one of the most popular examples of the Amirican-Latin Immigrant experience in this country's yet young history. More…

With Governor Tim Pawlenty blaming the DFL-dominated Legislature for the failure to pass a budget bill he could sign, and the Democrats coming right back and hurling accusations at Pawlenty for cutting government services to the needy, to working families and struggling farmers, Minnesota may have created a first in this democracy: A No Fault Government More…

The cuts in aid to education now under consideration at the State Capitol have a direct causal effect leading to increased college tuition and the growing mountain of personal debt a student must embrace to get a college education in this state. Lawmakers need to be reminded that it is called "public education" because it is for the public and the cost of it was meant to be shared by all of the public through taxation. An educated public is an essential ingredient of a functioning democracy. More…

Archbishop John C. Nienstedt misused his power, position and office with his abusive efforts attempting to force the University of Notre Dame to rescind its invitation to President Barak Obama to be the featured speaker at this year's commencement, May 17, 2009. Not in recent memory has a church leader of similar power and standing done anything like this because of his opposition to a sitting president's political policies. Notre Dame apparently also regarded Nienstedt's actions as inappropriate because it turned a deaf ear to his Excellency's demands and it will back its invitation by awarding Obama an honorary Notre Dame degree, as it has to 9 previous presidents. More…

Forcing the auto industry in Detroit to declare bankruptcy could have devastating effects that would ripple through the entire economy. It would be particularly painful on the Main Streets of the cities, towns and villages of states like Minnesota, where the only big business left in the central business corridor is often the new car dealership. More…

This nation's founders believed strongly in the Town Hall Meeting as the place for public discussion, debate, disagreement and decision. Today the Town Hall has been replaced by the anonymous readers' responses to online newspapers and internet blogs. The sad display of how willingly people use that anonymity to hide their indiscriminate attack on people who are not in politics or the public arena was seen at its worst this past week. It came as reader comments in startribune.com and other newspapers around the country on the break-off of the engagement between Bristol Palin, the Alaska Governor's daughter, and Levi Johnston, her boyfriend and father of her child. More…