Patrick Laverty

Trust Chafee…Again?

By Patrick Laverty | December 9, 2012 |

Ok, this is kinda funny. It seems the union leadership is falling for his tagline all over again. “Trust Chafee”. Last year, after hours of hearings and discussion the General Assembly passed a pension reform bill and Governor Chafee signed it into law. This move quickly drew the ire of the unions who supported is…

Why Not Rhode Island?

By Patrick Laverty | December 7, 2012 |

In an interview with Brian WIlliams, Apple CEO Tim Cook yesterday said: “We’ve been working for years on doing more and more in the United States. Next year, we will do one of our existing Mac lines in the United States.” The article doesn’t say where in the US that Apple will begin their manufacturing.…

Keep Christ in Christmas, but the Government Out

By Patrick Laverty | November 30, 2012 |

Ok, so there’s this green tree kerfluffle thing at the Statehouse. People are making a big deal over it and what name the Governor chose to refer to it. He even went on the Bill O’Reilly show last night to talk about it, and I think he did better than I expected. I wish he…

Getting to Root of RI Voting Problems

By Patrick Laverty | November 25, 2012 |

Edward Fitzpatrick has a column today in the Providence Journal about some comments from state officials on their findings about how the voting went during this month’s election. Unfortunately, the focus is always on the precincts that had the most trouble, especially the Juanita Sanchez precinct in Providence where it was reported that some people…

Oh SNAP! It’s Cory Booker!

By Patrick Laverty | November 21, 2012 |

Newark, NJ Mayor Cory Booker is getting some attention today for taking the SNAP challenge. He’s going to live for a week on the amount of money for food that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Plan (SNAP) offers. The rules of the challenge are that you get $35 for the week and all food consumed must…

Free Cars!

By Patrick Laverty | November 14, 2012 |

I’m just amplifying Tim White’s latest WPRI report on the use, and possibly, abuse of state-owned vehicles for top politicians, titled “Taxpayer Taxi.” My immediate reaction is probably the same as everyone else’s, why the heck do they have state-owned and even chauffeured cars? Seriously? Here are all the people who we are paying to…

No, Ralph, No

By Patrick Laverty | November 8, 2012 |

I will admit that when Ralph Mollis first ran for Secretary of State (SoS), I was no fan of his or his candidacy. It seemed that while there wasn’t anything direct to pin on him, there was always a cloud of trouble around him as mayor of North Providence. However in the six years or…

Re: Re: Picking Up the Pieces

By Patrick Laverty | November 7, 2012 |

In response to Justin’s response, I emailed him this below. We figured I should share with all. We’re having separate discussions with a little overlap. It seems his central point is that RI voters are ok with spending like drunken sailors. I agree. We’ve seen that every two years. I thought to myself a while…

Picking Up the Pieces

By Patrick Laverty | November 7, 2012 |

In 2007, the Boston Red Sox were World Champions. Even late in 2011, they were the World Series favorites and the best team in baseball. Then the floor fell out from under them and last year, they were an embarrassment to the history of the franchise. Well, it’s not like the RI GOP has recently…

My Random Election Day Thoughts

By Patrick Laverty | November 6, 2012 |

I might come back and update this post as the day goes on. I voted at the same time today as I did on primary day. On primary day, I casted the seventh ballot at my precinct. Today, I casted the 184th. Where were you people?! Seriously. Do you realize that many elections are decided…