Marc Comtois

Ocean State Blogger–The Return

By Marc Comtois | March 14, 2007 |

After a 10 month hiatus, I decided to slap a new coat of paint on my ol’ Ocean State Blogger site and bring her back, but with a new mission. Originally, OSB was my solo blog in which I posted about things in much the same way I do here at Anchor Rising. The new…

Airport Expansion: Impacting Real People and Real Communities

By Marc Comtois | March 14, 2007 |

I’ve taken a bit of flack, including a charge that I’ve lost credibility on economic development issues, over my last post discussing the impact of the T.F. Greene airport expansion proposals (more on it here, here). In it, I took ProJo columnist Ed Achorn to task because I thought that (to quote from a follow-up…

Greene Plans Involve More than “Mere” Runway Expansion

By Marc Comtois | March 13, 2007 |

In an otherwise good piece explaining the reason why Mississippi just got a new Toyota car plant and Rhode Island did not, ProJo columnist Ed Achorn writes: Its culture of NIMBYism (Not In My Backyard) is so bad that the state must engage in a prolonged struggle merely to extend the main runway at the…

Time to End “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”

By Marc Comtois | March 13, 2007 |

I have to confess that I haven’t really put a lot of thought into “Don’t ask, don’t tell,” over the last few years. Now, comes this story about General Peter Pace, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Monday that he supports the Pentagon’s…

Avedesian Put’s Union Crossing Guards on Notice

By Marc Comtois | March 13, 2007 |

Warwick Mayor Scott Avedesian has told the city’s crossing guards that their contract may not be renewed. Instead, the city may (finally!) put the contract out to bid. But… The nonrenewal notice does not mean the municipal crossing guards will be replaced with private ones. Rather, it opens the door for one of two outcomes:…

Scientists to Gore: “Cool the Hype”

By Marc Comtois | March 13, 2007 |

The NY Times reports: “I don’t want to pick on Al Gore,” Don J. Easterbrook, an emeritus professor of geology at Western Washington University, told hundreds of experts at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America. “But there are a lot of inaccuracies in the statements we are seeing, and we have to…

Disappointing Rogers

By Marc Comtois | March 11, 2007 |

The ProJo reports: With written pleas for cash to help put “hard-charging, fearless, battle-tested Republican veterans in the U.S. Congress,” they raised more than $415,000 in the 2005-06 election cycle. Two percent of that money went to federal candidates: a total of $9,000 in two years. In that same time period, Rogers and Winthrop paid…

Cocoon Your Kids

By Marc Comtois | March 10, 2007 |

James Lileks (via Glenn Reynolds) thinks he needs to have a talk with his daughter: Something’s wrong with my daughter. There’s not a single cartoon character on TV that doesn’t exactly mirror her own experience, and she doesn’t seem bothered by it. But she should. We’ll have to have a talk. After he surveys the…

What Brings Conservatives and Progressives Together?

By Marc Comtois | March 9, 2007 |

Those who read Providence Phoenix editor Ian Donnis’ Not for Nothing blog have learned that Ian is a certified baseball nut (heck, he made a category for it on N4N). Today, Ian points to a ProJo piece about how some Providence residents are outraged that the city is unilaterally doing away with a baseball field…

Dems Offer Up Pullout Plans….But to Where?

By Marc Comtois | March 9, 2007 |

The Democrats in the House and Senate are expected to debate fresh, new Iraq withdrawal plans next week. The Senate bill requires a “phased redeployment” of forces from Iraq with the goal of a complete withdrawal of combat troops by March 2008. “The troops should not be policing a civil war,” Senate Majority Leader Harry…