Monique Chartier

National Geographic Rains on the Global Warming Parade

By Monique Chartier | May 6, 2009 |

… though snows would be the more accurate verb. Ha! (Additional silly jokes supplied upon request.) The sun is the least active it’s been in decades and the dimmest in a hundred years. The lull is causing some scientists to recall the Little Ice Age, an unusual cold spell in Europe and North America, which…

Banned from Britain: Michael Savage’s Company

By Monique Chartier | May 5, 2009 |

(… his real name is Michael Weiner?) From the BBC News. Islamic extremists, white supremacists and a US radio host are among the 16 of 22 excluded in the five months to March to have been named by the Home Office. Since 2005, the UK has been able to ban people who promote hatred, terrorist…

Repackaging Global Warming (Surprisingly, Not “Climate Change” This Time)

By Monique Chartier | May 3, 2009 |

And speaking of fibbing, someone’s fingers slipped when entering recipient e-mail addresses and a draft memo outlining a … rebranding campaign for global warming got wider distribution than intended. From Friday’s New York Times; h/t Drudge. The problem with global warming, some environmentalists believe, is “global warming.” The term turns people off, fostering images of…

Attorney General Belatedly Enters the Irons Fray

By Monique Chartier | May 3, 2009 |

… pointing out that the RI Supreme Court 1.) has messed up 2.) by skipping past grounds to exonerate William Irons. The attorney general argues the high court need not take up the constitutional question at all, that the Ethics Commission itself issued an advisory opinion that gave Irons the OK to cast legislative votes…

Poll: Gun Rights Pulls Almost even with Gun Control

By Monique Chartier | May 2, 2009 |

NewsBuster’s Noel Sheppard points to the results of a Pew Research survey released Thursday. For the first time in a Pew Research survey, nearly as many people believe it is more important to protect the right of Americans to own guns (45%) than to control gun ownership (49%). As recently as a year ago, 58%…

Tancredo in Pawtucket

By Monique Chartier | May 1, 2009 |

Our coverage this time is courtesy of Joe Bernstein who, along with myself, was one of over a hundred in attendance at the event Wednesday night. Joe walked right by me that night without saying “hi”, not that I’m calling him a snob. But in his comments under Justin’s post, Joe channelled and articulated my…

Boats All Around

By Monique Chartier | April 29, 2009 |

Or vacations. Or home remodeling. Or a down payment. Whatever a second home mortgage will buy. Today’s Washington Post reports that taxpayers will be picking up part of the cost of these goodies for distressed (second) mortgagors. The Obama administration unveiled an expansion of its $75 billion foreclosure prevention plan yesterday, providing new subsidies to…

Thoughts on Immigration: Tancredo Here; Howard Down Under

By Monique Chartier | April 28, 2009 |

Former Congressman Tom Tancredo will have two public appearances tomorrow in Rhode Island: the first, at 4:30 pm outside of the gate (outside because the college did not invite him to speak inside; there are conflicting reports as to how and why this came about) of Providence College; the second, at 7:00 pm at the…

Head of Homeland Insecurity

By Monique Chartier | April 27, 2009 |

Can we please trade in Janet Napolitano? She has a seriously distorted take on the source and extent of domestic terror threats. (Her eventual apology for the worst of that report does not change the fact that she clearly possesses bad instincts for the job.) She thought the 911 attackers arrived here from Canada. (They…

The Mayor’s Supplemental Budget: Not Necessarily Better Late than Never

By Monique Chartier | April 26, 2009 |

On the one hand, the concessions requested by Mayor Cicilline from 5,000+ city employees sound reasonable and necessary given the constraints on both local and state revenue faced by budgeters. [Side note: Local 1033, the city’s largest public labor union, is to be applauded for signing on.] An increase in the health insurance co-share to…