Marc Comtois

When I Grow Up, I Wanna Be a Crony

By Marc Comtois | August 24, 2012 |

I can’t confirm if this was filmed in Rhode Island or not (h/t): “I’m gonna fight for MY piece of the taxpayer pie.” “What’s a crony?” “It’s like having a best friend who gives you other people’s stuff.” “We take care of our friends.” “We get to spend taxpayer money any way we want.” “Why…

UPDATE: QDC Balks at Potential Shipper Expanding to RI

By Marc Comtois | August 22, 2012 |

UPDATE: The original report from NBC 10’s Bill Rappleye–upon which this post was based–has been pulled from the turnto10.com website. I’ve received clarification on a number of issues I originally brought up related to this item. Statement: Eimskip is welcome to bring any amount of cargo to the Port of Davisville, at any time, beginning…

Rasmussen Explains Gap Between Mainstream America and Official Washington

By Marc Comtois | August 21, 2012 |

Pollster Scott Rasmussen explains how common poll questions offered by Beltway “professionals” make no sense to average Americans: In Washington, it’s a given that more government spending is needed to help the economy. Most Americans hold the opposite view. So when you ask whether cutting spending or helping the economy is more important, the question…

Dog Bites Man: Unions are Top Spenders in RI Politics

By Marc Comtois | August 20, 2012 |

GoLocalProv’s Dan McGowan has the surprising news that organized labor Political Action Committees have led the way in political spending this year: The majority of the Laborer’s Political League’s spending has gone to the organization’s voluntary fund in Washington D.C., but the PAC has made $1,000 max-out contributions to Senate Majority Leader Dominick Ruggerio, Senate…

DePetro’s Petard

By Marc Comtois | August 16, 2012 |

You’d have to be living under a rock around here if you’re not aware of the accusations of sexual harassment that have been leveled against John DePetro by WPRO co-worker Dee DeQuattro (the complaint can be found here). Yesterday DePetro talked to RI Future’s Bob Plain (who also used to work for WPRO) in an…

Example of Ryan’s Acumen on Health Care – “Hiding spending does not reduce spending.”

By Marc Comtois | August 15, 2012 |

Via Andrew Malcolm at Investors Business Daily. Vice-Presidential nominee Paul Ryan directly takes on President Obama and explains how his health care reform cost more–not save–money thanks to double-counting and other gimmicks.

Ryan on Medicare

By Marc Comtois | August 14, 2012 |

As the Wall Street Journal writes: There’s no excuse in particular for letting the White House claim that Mr. Ryan would “end Medicare as we know it” because that is demonstrably false. Late last year, Mr. Ryan joined Oregon Democratic Senator Ron Wyden in introducing a version of his reform that explicitly retains Medicare as…

Robert Oscar Lopez: “Growing Up With Two Moms: The Untold Children’s View”

By Marc Comtois | August 12, 2012 |

Robert Oscar Lopez writes of the internal confusion he dealt with being raised by his lesbian mother and her partner. Quite simply, growing up with gay parents was very difficult, and not because of prejudice from neighbors….When your home life is so drastically different from everyone around you, in a fundamental way striking at basic…

Romney Picks Ryan for VP

By Marc Comtois | August 11, 2012 |

Mitt Romney has selected conservative Congressman Paul Ryan from the swing-state of Wisconsin to be his Vice-Presidential running mate. The possibility of Ryan as VP has been gaining ground over the last few days. Politico ran a piece over the supposed “split” within GOP over the notion: Ryan advocates, including some of his colleagues and…

Instant Runoff Election: Pick the Bridesmaid

By Marc Comtois | August 10, 2012 |

Hm. I’m not sure what I think about this idea of a an instant runoff election, yet. In an instant-runoff election voters will rank candidates by preference. If in the election no candidate wins a majority the last place candidate is eliminated and the second choice pick of voters who selected that candidate counts. The…