Actually, the taxpayers are in their thoughts--but not in a good way. But soon I will no longer be saddled with RI policy and/or debt. North Carolina, here I come!

I'm glad Rhode Island's depressed economic condition is such a laugh riot with those three. While they're yukking it up with each other, real people are suffering in the state or choosing to leave because of the state's ineffectual leadership and destructive public policies.

Their cavalier attitudes are typical statist (progressive) utilitarianism: every problem exists in a vacuum and only requires some new, gimmicky public program created by "policy experts" to resolve it. Or, that failing, a sleek new marketing campaign to wallpaper over the mold and turn public opinion. Everything top-down, never bottom-up; a failing state doubling down on its fundamentally misguided course of central economic planning and anti-market inefficiency.

The saddest part, by far, was reading their explanations of why they believe Massachusetts is in relatively better economic condition. They think it's because the Massachusetts state government outlined some "vision" document and pushed it on everyone. Massachusetts doesn't have a "vision," or if it does, it's irrelevant to anything meaningful. What Massachusetts has is lower taxes, a better business climate, a culture of achievement, and world-class private universities. I personally think New Hampshire is the better model (low taxes, small government), but no question that Massachusetts would be a step in the right direction.

is it just me or are these three similar to the clowns at the federal level? barry harry and dopy pelosi?

No...it is not just you.

Related but slightly off topic...did the state have to pay holiday time for GA staff (including Capital Police) in order to commence with the session on January 1? Love to know what it cost to start on January 1 vs January 2....

Yup, gay marriage, tax breaks for artists, and football analogies. That's all we need to bail us out. I heard someone call them the Three Stooges the other day. That's an insult to the Three Stooges. At the end of an episode, the Three Stooges usually saved the day from some evil. Not happening with these three.

Someone made an interesting point to me the other day, regarding bi-partsanship and "reaching across the aisle".

They were referring to Masssachusetts, which is just Rhode Island with a better economy. Scott Brown was bi-partisan because he had to be to hold his seat. So, what did they do? They threw him over in favor of a hard line Democrat, Elizabeth Warren. Remember her, claiming descent from a Casino American.

JTR,

The Senate spokesman tells me that the Constitution requires the January 1st start and that employees who work don't get any additional money for the day; in fact, rather than being paid for their time, they get to take an equivalent number of hours off at some point during the year.

Remember her, claiming descent from a Casino American.
Posted by Warrington Faust at January 2, 2013 5:58 PM

Are you going to just ignore this obviously racist remark from one of your frequent commenters? What say you Justin? Andrew? Mark? Patrick?

The silence is deafening over here! Oh God, why won't you make the silence stop?! The silence, the SILENCE, the cursed silence! Quickly, get a post up on RIFuture about their silence!

The commenter "Dan" has chosen to ignore the racist comment of Warrington Faust. Since I only posted my question to the site's contributers an hour ago, it would be unreasonable to expect an immediate response from them. We should all wait for them to accept personal responsibility for the content of their site and address the situation.

Phil, sorry to give offense,but your feelings about "racism" may be over developed. While "Native American" may be preferred, it now seems to fly in the face of known genetic science/anthropology. It is not doubted that they were preceded here by another ethnic Caucasoid group. On finding those prior occupants, they killed them. The Supreme Court has found there is no genetic link between the "Native Americans" and the prior occupants.

Perhaps I split hairs, Arabs are now accepted as Egyptians after killing the original Egyptians (ever wonder why no one speaks Egyptian). Ethnic Koreans are now "Japanese" by conquest and slaughter of the original occupants.

Phil Spadola - Take your silence-is-deafening/guilt-by-omission garbage back over to RIFuture where Bob Plain or Pat Crowley can run it on a slow news day. Accusing people based on the infinite number of things they don't say is the lamest trick in progressive smear politics. Commenters only speak for themselves and nobody is under an affirmative obligation to address them. Stop with the intellectual dishonesty.

Thanks, Justin - I didn't think it was legal to have people work on holidays in lieu of time-off. I appreciate you looking into it. John The Revelator