Engaged Citizen
With the Fed’s announcement that it will bail out insurance behemoth AIG, taxpayers are left asking, “Who’s on first?” It’s as if most corporations were asleep at the wheel during the subprime mortgage boom earlier this decade. And now, everyone’s looking at each other trying to figure out where to cast blame and unsure of…
Then and NOW What a difference twenty-four years and a political party make. In 2008, the National Organization for Women (NOW) has an interesting take on Sarah Palin’s selection as John McCain’s running mate. It is quite a departure from their role in 1984 campaign 2008: NOW statement on Sarah Palin (emphasis added): Gov. Palin…
In a recent column, M. Charles Bakst asks Rhode Islanders to “Wake up!” He opines: Hello, Mr. Carcieri. Hello, Senate President Montalbano. Hello, House Speaker Murphy. Hello, rank-and-file lawmakers. Hello, prospective 2010 gubernatorial candidates Caprio, Chafee, Cicilline, Laffey, Lynch, Roberts Can’t someone come up with solutions and put them across? Not that I disagree that…
[In light of Bishop Thomas Tobin’s call yesterday for ICE to halt “mass” arrests of illegal immigrants, Pastor Mlyniec’s Engaged Citizen post of April has been moved to the top of the blog.] Dear Governor Carcieri, It seems the media has chosen to portray all the clergy in our state as standing together with one…
So says Tom Christian, who attends Rick Warren‘s Saddleback Church in California, after hearing both Presidential candidates make their cases to evangelical voters this weekend. Both McCain and Obama were asked identical questions ranging from their views on leadership, the definition of marriage, and other subjects that affect the evangelical demographic. With respect to abortion,…
When Cumberland Democrat Mayor Daniel McKee took the teachers’ union – the National Education Association – completely off guard by successfully championing legislation that would provide education choice and remove the burden of union control, the response was predictable: “They cheated!” On the Dan Yorke show, Bob Walsh, president of the NEA suggested that the…
According to the Providence Journal, Bob Walsh of NEARI has been prowling the halls of the General Assembly peddling a “plan” to solve this year’s budget deficit. His protégé Pat Crowley has posted a version of it on the left-leaning RI Future blog. Though his proposal is coated in sugary language, should the General Assembly…
Comments made about the recent Anchor Rising post on the Moderate Party ran the predictable gamut from attacks against pseudo-Republicans to the Moderate effort being a waste of time to acceptance of the idea of a Moderate Party because anything is better than the existing status quo. Right up front, I want to address the…
The basic fallacy being promoted by Senator Juan Pichardo and the ACLU of Rhode Island is that “racial profiling” will result from the governor’s initiative (PDF). Nothing could be further from the truth. When I was an INS agent in Chicago, I spent a lot of time on the common carrier detail, which was basically…
As reported in the Providence Journal on March 13: “A coalition of labor unions, environmental advocates and antipoverty groups are collaborating to promote legislation that would help spark new renewable-energy industries in Rhode Island. The group, which calls itself the Green Jobs Alliance, says it has come together to promote a ‘green economy’ that improves…