Monique Chartier

Woonsocket School Dept’s Balanced Budget: Savoring the Good Times – However Fleeting in the Absence of Pension Reform

By Monique Chartier | August 30, 2011 |

[Note: In the article excerpted below, the Woonsocket Call, bless them, is using the term “pension reform” erroneously. What they are referencing is the “proposed increase of employer pension contribution”.] [Note II: In the note above, the word “employer” is used as it has widely has in the indicated phrase. While technically correct, it is,…

Oh, The Horror – Iowahawk “Reports” That Gibson Guitars Have Landed In the Hands of Mexican Drug Lords

By Monique Chartier | August 28, 2011 |

As you may have heard, US Fish and Wildlife have been cracking down on those fiends at Gibson Guitar. (H/T Glenn Beck.) Federal Agents of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service raided factories and offices of Gibson Guitar in Memphis and Nashville on Wednesday, seizing wood pallets, electronic files and guitars. Federal authorities are apparently…

Fairness Doctrine Signs Off. But Does the Senior Senator from Massachusetts Approve?

By Monique Chartier | August 25, 2011 |

The Fairness Doctrine has been deep sixed by President Obama’s FCC. Bravo. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said that the decision to eliminate the Fairness Doctrine was part of a larger mandate proposed by the Obama administration to ease regulatory burdens by getting rid of duplicative or outdated measures. Ever since reading about this rare bit…

Cicilline on the Hunt Trail: A Photo Caption Contest

By Monique Chartier | August 23, 2011 |

Is it possible that pro-Democrat bias is creeping back into the ProJo’s coverage of the race for the First Congressional District? Photographs of the three declared candidates for RI-1 adorned the front page of today’s Providence Journal. In one of them, the candidate is frowning into the sun as he speaks. In the second, the…

Cicilline Event This Evening in North Prov

By Monique Chartier | August 22, 2011 |

(With apologies to Marc for breaking in with this time-sensitive announcement.) I’ve noticed that in the last couple of years, when members of our Congressional delegation hold a public event, little effort is made by their office to publicize in advance such availability. Accordingly, in a small effort to pick up the slack, below is…

Damn, I Always Did Like That Jim Baron

By Monique Chartier | August 22, 2011 |

Many thanks to the Pawtucket Time’s Jim Baron for his kind words and solicitation on behalf of Anchor Rising yesterday in the second part of his “Politics as Usual” column, selfishly pasted below in its entirety. It means a lot not just considering the source (from the mind and pen of one of the state’s…

Prez to Illegals: You Can Stay – Just Don’t Murder Anyone

By Monique Chartier | August 20, 2011 |

This is unacceptable. The Obama administration’s plan to review the cases of 300,000 illegal immigrants currently in deportation proceedings to identify “low-priority” offenders has sparked a debate in Washington and beyond. Officials said that by launching the case-by-case review, they are refocusing deportation efforts on convicted felons and other “public safety threats.” Those who have…

Brien Hasn’t Decided Whether To Press Charges; Rainone’s FB Status; And More From the Breeze

By Monique Chartier | August 13, 2011 |

Following upon The Incident, Rep Jon Brien declined various invitations to appear on talk radio. Since then, however, he spoke to the Valley Breeze – exclusively, it appears. In the aftermath of an altercation between the secretary of the National Education Association of Rhode Island and Democratic state Rep. Jon Brien on Wednesday, the Woonsocket…

“Cognitive Capacity” in a Court Elevator

By Monique Chartier | August 11, 2011 |

Kudos to Bob Plain, WPRO’s Digital Reporter. He was quick on his feet and got the near dust-up yesterday between Rep Jon Brien and Louis Rainone, Secretary of the NEA-RI, on tape … er, digital media, as both were exiting the John Leidecker trial proceedings. What amused me (perhaps unduly so) about the incident was…

The Verizon Strike – Reality Calling

By Monique Chartier | August 11, 2011 |

Disclaimer preamble: The matter of labor unions does not move me either to cheers or to condemnation: neither the philosophy itself of workers banding together – now that we are many decades past sweat shops – nor as the cause of the state’s current fiscal travails. (The overwhelming responsibility for the latter accrues to our…