In today’s Projo, Scott Mayerowitz reports on Rhode Island’s projected $60,000,000 budget shortfall. The leadership of the legislature is ducking for cover when the subject of closing the budget gap comes up…
Both [State Senator Steven] Alves and [State Representative Stephen] Costantino said it was up to [Governor Donald] Carcieri to propose cuts first. The governor is required in January to submit a supplemental budget for the current year and a proposed budget for next year.
Carcieri has traditionally turned first to the state’s social services when looking for cuts. In the past, he tried to drop people earlier from the state’s welfare rolls if they did not carry through on employment and training plans. Carcieri has also proposed reducing the number of people eligible for state-subsidized childcare. Lawmakers have generally restored his cuts.
Costantino would not speak yesterday about theoretical cuts, but warned: “It has been the tradition of this Assembly to protect children, to protect seniors, and that will always be a focus of this Assembly.”
Governor Carcieri “traditionally” turns first to social services because that is where the largest chunk of state money is spent — $1,228,004,544 out of $3,069,500,007 (40%) to be exact. Here’s every fiscal-year 2006 $100,000,000-plus line-item as listed in the “expenditures from general revenues” table in the state budget program supplement (warning: this link takes you to a honking-big pdf file)…
| Education — Elementary and Secondary | $837,030,846 |
| Human Services — Human Services | $768,915,978 |
| General Government — Administration | $406,451,928 |
| Human Services — Mental Health, Retardation, & Hospitals | $238,267,015 |
| Education — Higher Education – Board of Governors | $182,208,913 |
| Human Services — Children, Youth, and Families | $161,640,261 |
| Public Safety — Corrections | $146,602,300 |
These seven items, by themselves, account for almost 90% of the state budget. Unless the state is willing to drastically cut/zero-out a whole bunch of smaller programs, reconciling the $60,000,000 shortfall has to come from either cuts to the above list or from tax increases. [Open full post]
Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees has won the American League Most Valuable Player award this week. Some of us disagree strongly with his selection over David “Big Papi” Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox.
Here is the best case I have read about why Ortiz deserved to win:
[Open full post]The MVP award wasn’t about defense the year Jose Canseco won it.
The MVP award wasn’t about defense the years Juan Gonzalez won it.
The MVP award wasn’t about defense the years Frank Thomas won it.
But suddenly, this year, defense mattered…
A-Rod had himself another spectacular season, all right. Nobody denies that…
The overall offensive numbers of these two men were amazingly close. Their teams finished with exactly the same record (95-67). And they both made the playoffs. So there wasn’t much justification for using the standings as a means to separate them…
…If it wasn’t about defense, then the wrong man won.
We know this can’t have been about leadership, because that derby was no contest.
The Red Sox fed off Big Papi in a way that the Yankees never did off A-Rod. Ortiz had the presence of King Kong, inspired more smiles than Chris Rock and cast the follow-me aura of the Dalai Lama. A-Rod is the better all-around baseball player — but let’s just say he’s no Derek Jeter in his ability to inspire those mortal humans around him…
If you really look closely at what happened in the batter’s box when the biggest games of the year were on the line, it becomes clear that that can’t be why A-Rod won, either — because that, too, was a Big Papi landslide.
Alex Rodriguez had 24 more at-bats with runners in scoring position than David Ortiz this season — and still drove in 18 fewer runs. That ought to tell you something. But if it doesn’t, we’ll spell it out for you.
Ortiz hit 62 points higher than A-Rod did with runners in scoring position (.352 to .290) overall…But that’s in all games, in all RBI situations. If you keep looking, you find that as the games got tighter, that gap just kept getting bigger.
In the late innings of close games, A-Rod hit .176 with men in scoring position; Ortiz batted .313…
Ortiz’s OPS (on-base plus slugging) in those situations was 1.224 — to A-Rod’s .813…
…A-Rod was vastly more productive in the Yankees’ blowout wins than he was in games where a hit either way was the difference between winning and losing.
In the 20 games each of their teams won by six or more runs, A-Rod hit .549, had an OPS of 1.793 and racked up 46 of his 130 RBI (35 percent). Ortiz, on the other hand, batted .277, had an OPS almost 800 points lower than A-Rod’s (.999) and drove in only 33 runs (22 percent of his overall total).
But in close games (games that either went to extra innings or were decided by one or two runs in regulation), the numbers look a whole lot different.
In those games — and each team played exactly 65 of them — A-Rod batted only .243, had an OPS of .805 and drove in just 38 runs (29 percent). Ortiz, meanwhile, clearly tapped some mysterious force that made him even better in moments like that — batting .321, running up an OPS of 1.116 and knocking in nearly a run a game (62 — or 42 percent of his overall total)…
What a delight to read Andrew’s posting about freedom of speech bursting forth in the town of Coventry!
And what concern all of us should have as we read his posting about potential government regulations which seek to squash the fundamental American right to speak our minds. Here are some earlier postings on this important issue:
Correcting the Bizarre Incentives Created by Campaign Finance Reform Laws
The Looming Threat of Government Regulation to Blogsphere, Brought to Us by Campaign Finance Reform
Will FEC Draft Regulations Lead to Greater Regulatory Control Over Blogging Community?
More on Potential FEC Restrictions on Blogging Community
FEC Hearings on Blogging Regulations
Why We Blog
I don’t know a single American politician today who says we should have opposed funding fax machines for Solidarity nearly 25 years ago in Communist Poland, thereby providing the oppressed Polish people with a way to get the truth out to other freedom-loving people around the world.
Now ask yourself this question: If lifting restrictions on the speech of the Polish people was okay then, why are some of today’s politicians in America voting against ensuring a similar lack of restrictions on our speech by opposing the Online Freedom of Speech Act?
To reinforce Andrew’s concern, read the postings again in the category of Rhode Island Politics and ask yourself if our state would be better off with citizens knowing less about all those issues.
An editorial in Saturday’s Projo compared the poor performance of Rhode Island’s public schools to the better performance of those in neighboring Massachusetts, then listed a number of reform proposals for closing the gap…
Impose high-stakes testing.This list of top-down bureaucratic reforms (some of which are necessary) ignores grass-roots strengths of the Massachusetts education system. 1) Massachusetts has school choice within the public system. Parents can send their child to public schools in the state that have opted-in to the choice program. 2) Massachusetts has a stronger network of charter schools than does Rhode Island. In large part, this is because the Massachusetts legislature has not shown the degree of hostility to charter schools that the Rhode Island legislature has.
Create performance incentives for teachers, through pay — rewarding those who do a great job, and especially those who take on the burden of teaching in urban schools.
Rigorously evaluate teachers annually, with real consequences for performance.
Reform the state’s education schools so that they turn out better-educated teachers.
Pass laws protecting the rights of school administrators, so that they can be held accountable for school non-performance.
Spend money in ways that will directly help the students, rather than simply lining the pockets of politically powerful groups in the form of unusually generous benefits.
Practice citizen participation: Make it clear that voters next year will reject incumbent legislators who fail to support a strong public-education reform agenda.
Rhode Island needs to consider these kinds of grass-roots ideas as part of any education reform. Let parents send their children to the schools that work, instead of having government expend money and effort on schools that don’t. [Open full post]
To build on Justin’s latest post, I’d point you to John Hinderaker’s post in which he boils down what has happened to the Republicans over the last year and asks why they appear so weak-kneed:
So what has happened in the past twelve months to terrify so many of our Republican office-holders? Two hurricanes struck, and some observers accused a federal agency of responding too slowly to one of them. Tom DeLay was indicted, in what was basically a bad joke, by an absurdly partisan and utterly discredited Texas Democrat DA. An aide to the Vice President has been accused of lying to a grand jury about telling the truth to the press about a mountebank Democrat’s lies about the administration. And the President’s poll ratings–more or less irrelevant, given that he can’t run for office again–have dropped into a range occupied, at one time or another, by every President from Lyndon Johnson to the present.
These are pathetic reasons for our representatives in Congress to be in a Chicken Little mode. The Republicans are rapidly snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, and it’s hard to say who is more to blame–the Congressional Republicans, some of whom are afraid of their own shadows, or the White House, which, in studiously refraining from responding to the most outrageously unfair and blatantly partisan attacks launched against an American administration in 145 years, seems intent on a weird kind of martyrdom.
It’s no wonder that Republicans across the country increasingly regard their elected representatives as gutless wonders. There is no objective reason why 2006 should be a disaster for the party, but it will be if our representative don’t stick together and show the voters that the Republican party still stands for security, common sense and limited government. That’s still a winning combination, but only if our representatives vote for it.
Too many elected Republicans–caught in the Beltway echo chamber and desirous of making everyone (the media) happy–seem to believe that they are in a weaker position than they actually are. They seem to have forgotton that they control both Houses and the Presidency. They are sacrificing their conservative principles because they believe that backing off of same will give them some sort of relief. But it won’t and they should know better. Instead, it makes them appear weak and able to be bullied. But their actions do more than betray a lack of faith in their purported conservative principles. They also indicate that, in fact, there may be quite a few more rhetorical than ideological conservatives in the Republican party.
[Open full post]Something in a Corner post by Larry Kudlow might help to tie local Rhode Island concerns to the broader political landscape:
Why Republicans don’t say more about the tax-cut related economic expansion is beyond me. And whether Tuesday’s disappointing election results provide a wake up call for the GOP remains to be seen. But they need a wake up call. Young Turks in the House like Mike Pence, Jeff Flake, and Marsha Blackburn should be represented in the House leadership. Ideas matter. Dick Armey was a great idea man. Speaker Dennis Hastert doesn’t seem to be a great idea man. The Tom DeLay period is probably over. New blood in the leadership is essential.
To offer flesh and fire to the sentence that I’ve italicized, consider an open note that the Anchoress has blogged to the GOP leadership:
The world is tilting, and you useless, ineffectual, dithering moneysuckers seem increasingly to be empty suits, given shape and movement not by ideas and a willingness to serve the electorate, but by wispy tufts of ambitious smoke. You seem directed toward nothing more than keeping your almighty Senate or House seat in your name. You give away your power, you give away your advantages in committee, you leave in place utterly feckless people like Arlen Specter and then, when you finally seem like you are on the cusp of doing something productive and right, like investigating the CIA or okaying drilling in a bare, muddly, uninhabitable tundra, you fall into a faint and go slinking back to your states and districts to gladhand and pump for money and then gladhand some more. …
I will spend the next election, and the one following it, doing everything I can to replace you disappointing, entrenched frauds and fakers with real people who have real stakes in what is going on in the nation and want to effect real change for the better.
Now, I’m not saying that Rhode Island’s own upstart Republican, Steve Laffey, fits the Anchoress’s “leaders wanted” ad, but his campaign opposition, Sen. Lincoln Chafee, is (and will continue to be) living evidence of the GOP’s response. The RNC’s handling of the Chafee v. Laffey contest provides indication of whether it has heard the wake up call that Kudlow notes and the Anchoress amplifies. Similarly, it represents an effective starting point for those who are fed up with the status quo.
The Republican establishment wouldn’t have to promote Laffey over Chafee, but the suits should keep in mind that replacing “disappointing, entrenched frauds and fakers with real people who have real stakes in what is going on in the nation and want to effect real change for the better” doesn’t inherently require those real people to come from the same party. And to the extent that it does, the process can involve some creative destruction and unfold over several election cycles.
It has been revealed by J. Michael Levesque that he himself had broached the topic of “infidelities” with the Governor earlier this year. It seems the timing was…convenient, to say the least:
Levesque said he personally told the governor, during a private meeting eight or nine months ago, “that I had been hearing talk on the streets of that . . . and you never know whether the chatter is, um, uh, you know, whether it’s allegations or whatever, but I thought I did the proper thing in letting the governor know this.”
In response to inquiries, the governor’s office confirmed yesterday that Levesque’s meeting with Carcieri took place at 2 p.m., March 8 — a week before Harrah’s publicly rolled out its latest $650-million, West Warwick casino proposal.
Asked if he had gone to see Carcieri that day in his capacity as a “community-outreach specialist” for Harrah’s, Levesque said: “No, and may I say this respectfully: Why are you bringing Harrah’s into this?
“It’s got nothing to do with Harrah’s. It’s me as a Republican going to the governor, whom I support and defend on a weekly basis,” Levesque said. “The only time the governor and I disagree is on the casino issue . . . because I’m defending my town.”
Carcieri spokesman Jeff Neal said the meeting essentially slipped the governor’s mind when he was first asked, on Monday, if he had heard the rumors of the alleged infidelities before.
After being told of Levesque’s comments, Neal acknowledged the March 8 meeting. During that meeting, he said, Levesque “mentioned that Democrats and their allies were planning personal attacks against the governor and his family. Levesque also mentioned the possibility that one of these attacks would be a baseless accusation of infidelity.”
Neal said the governor did not initially even remember the meeting because he viewed “Levesque’s visit as one big fishing expedition.”
“Knowing that Mr. Levesque is close to Mr. Dufault and is a lobbyist for Harrah’s casino proponents,” Neal said, “the governor put absolutely no faith in anything Levesque had to say.” Asked whether Carcieri perceived Levesque’s visit as a veiled threat of exposure, Neal said: “Who knows . . . but it is certainly something we are thinking about.”
“In retrospect, it certainly appears more sinister than it did at the time,” Neal said. “It seems that Mr. Levesque is as responsible for all of this as this as Mr. Dufault . . . It now seems clear that Mr. Levesque wasn’t reporting rumors, he was actually trying to spread the rumors.”
And, “it is disturbing that he continues to this day to spread these stories by repeating them to you and other journalists,” he said.
For Levesque to claim he went to the Governor as a concerned Republican is laughable given the gleeful cackle that is heard spewing from him when Dufault broached the topic on the infamous Real Deal “OOPS” tape. Thanks to Levesque, we now have even more insight into how to “get things done” in the Ocean State.
[Open full post]Andrew points out that Guy Dufault’s so-called apology to Governor Carcieri wasn’t really an apology. As the Governor himself said, “[Dufault] only apologized for inadvertently allowing his plans to smear me and my family to become public.”
Yesterday also brought us Philadelphia Eagle wide receiver Terrell Owens’ “apology statement:”
I fight for what I think is right. In doing so, I alienated a lot of my fans and my teammates…
This is very painful for me to be in this position…I know in my heart that I can help the team win the Super Bowl and not only be a dominant player, but also be a team player. I can bring that…
I would like to reiterate my respect for Donovan McNabb as a quarterback and as a teammate…I apologize to him for any comments that may have been negative…
It really hurts me not to be part of the team anymore…
It is a sad commentary on American culture that such words have become typical in American public life. The non-apology apology. The utter failure to take responsibility for words and deeds. Sorry for getting caught, with no true penance for the core action itself.
Dufault and Owens are related. And their ilk will stay related until the American people insist that public officials – in all walks of life – be held truly accountable for their words and deeds.
Andrew has pointed out the latest very troubling actions and words of Guy Dufault in the postings entitled Another Crisis in West Warwick? and Carcieri Unafraid of Dufault’s Stuff.
No one should be confused: Dufault’s behavior on behalf of the public employee unions and gambling interests – and to the detriment of the working families and retirees of Rhode Island – is nothing new. Do you remember how the Constitutional Convention ballot vote was narrowly defeated in November 2004? Do you recall who deceitfully led the effort to block Rhode Island citizens from having the right to alter the misguided status quo of politics in this state? Guy Dufault.
A previous posting references an Ed Achorn editorial in the ProJo, which states:
The people who led the fight against a constitutional convention in Rhode Island – members of an organization called Citizens for Representative Government – went to great lengths to cover their tracks. But all roads seem to lead to Guy Dufault, the labor and gambling lobbyist.
The public-employee unions put up the money to run phone banks, air TV and radio ads, and print posters in narrowly defeating a constitutional convention, 52 to 48 percent, on November 2. Mr. Dufault acknowledged on Friday that he filled out most of the group’s campaign-finance report now on file with the Rhode Island Board of Elections.
But you wouldn’t know of Mr. Dufault’s role by reading that public document. He kept that carefully hidden from the public…
What’s the upshot of this?
I don’t know if any of this constitutes filing and signing a false report…But it does seem puzzling that Mr. Dufault and Citizens for Representative Government chose to make it so difficult for the public to find out who was running the show. Why bother?…
Maybe Citizens for Representative Government did not want citizens to find out easily that it was a prominent State House lobbyist for the public-employee unions and gambling interests who fought to deny people the chance to shake up Rhode Island government with a constitutional convention. (Now, citizens will have to wait until at least 2016.)
I would encourage you to read the entire editorial for further details.
Kudos to Governor Carcieri for directly taking on this seedy underbelly of Rhode Island politics. It is about time that a bright light was focused on these people and their unacceptable behavior.
Rod Dreher’s latest addition to the conservative-ire-at-Bush line of commentaries has made an appearance on Anchor Rising, so I thought I’d mention that I’ve contemplated part of it further in a post over on Dust in the Light:
[Open full post]Dreher, it seemed to me, began to drift not long after he made the leap from displaced red-stater-in-NY working for National Review to editorial writer and columnist for the mainstream media down in the Great Red Yonder. He’s still to be counted among conservatives, without doubt, and fairness requires that I admit to not reading him much anymore.
Still, “rolling disaster” is a strong and unambiguous characterization of the war, and I wonder whether being steeped in media that “harp on the negative and pessimistic” explains the ease with which Dreher bowls it out.