Justin Katz

Suspicions of an Ex Post Facto Gotcha

By Justin Katz | March 1, 2006 |

Fred’s sarcasm in the comments to Andrew’s foregoing post regarding my previous complaints that Mayor Laffey hadn’t tied his arrest of Maria Hernandez to the issue of school choice doesn’t really work based on Laffey’s ex post facto announcement. Will’s comments fair a little better, since his previous assertion was of an unseen plan on…

That’s Our Chafee

By Justin Katz | January 30, 2006 |

To be honest, I’ve been a little surprised at the intense interest in Senator Chafee’s vote on Alito. From conservatives’ standpoint, the only intriguing turn of events would have been a “yes” vote on the nomination and the questions that it would have raised about whether Chafee might make further efforts to court us. What…

Notes on the Breakfast Table, Page 3

By Justin Katz | January 17, 2006 |

Representative Bruce Long’s discomfort when the U.S. Senate primary race came up during his East Bay GOP Breakfast introduction of Mayor Steve Laffey spoke volumes. It might go too far to speculate about an underlying fear that a primary will alert Rhode Islanders to the fact that they have erroneously elected a Republican. Whatever the…

Notes on the Breakfast Table, Page 2

By Justin Katz | January 16, 2006 |

Although I smirked at the bit-too-genuine surprise that he expressed regarding the credibility with which Anchor Rising is treated, I left the East Bay GOP Breakfast impressed with Bill Harsch. In constructing his message as he campaigns to become Rhode Island’s attorney general, Harsch has hit upon the core idea that Rhode Islanders need to…

Notes on the Breakfast Table, Page 1

By Justin Katz | January 15, 2006 |

Sometimes I think that writers on social or political matters have an obligation not to participate in the processes or events of which they write. It is much more difficult, for example, to speak ill of a player whom one likes personally, or through whom one wishes to gain advantage. And surely both analysis and…

Yes, Virginia, I Am an Editor

By Justin Katz | January 11, 2006 | Comments Off on Yes, Virginia, I Am an Editor

For those who might be wondering: “tramping” is le mot juste for the new category that I’ve begun with my previous post.

Getting to Work… by Postponing Work

By Justin Katz | January 11, 2006 | Comments Off on Getting to Work… by Postponing Work

It was one thing to do nothing more active than sit in my office, blog, and write columns when I actually managed to make time to write. Lately that hasn’t been possible. So, with the thought that “getting to work” in a metaphorical, political, and Anchor-Rising-al sense may now require me to actually leave the…

Vaulting over the Same Old Same Old

By Justin Katz | January 10, 2006 |

Edward Achorn offers we sighted Rhode Islanders, today, our periodic fix of motivational disheartenment at the state of our state. None of it’s surprising, including the feeling — at least in this overworked blogger — of desperation to do something to make Rhode Island a better place to live and a more fruitful participant in…

Setting Some Things Straight

By Justin Katz | December 20, 2005 |

Although this isn’t something that I expected ever to write, the coming year’s Republican primary in Rhode Island is already a subject for blazing passions. That, in itself, strikes me as a healthy turn of events. Still, I remind commenters that Anchor Rising will insist that their conversations be civil. I should also clarify my…

Toward a Non-Pixelated Movement

By Justin Katz | December 16, 2005 |

Believe me that I tried, as the comments on the Laffey Photoshop controversy trickled in yesterday, to convince myself that I was making a flaw out of a quirk. Believe me, too, that I’m not altogether happy about the contrast between these posts and the more substantive ones that others are publishing around them. Nonetheless,…