Democrats on the March

“So When Did You Stop Beating Your Wife?”

By Patrick Laverty | January 5, 2012 |

It’s an age-old journalists’ “gotcha” question. The mere asking of it assumes that the responder has at one time beat his wife. It’s also a tactic that we see being used today in a press release by the RI Democratic party and its chairman, Ed Pacheco. In the release, Pacheco seems to be grasping at…

Cicilline’s Comeback or Journalistic Wishful Thinking?

By Patrick Laverty | November 8, 2011 |

According to David Scharfenberg and his headline writers at the Providence Phoenix, David Cicilline is making a comeback. The same David Cicilline who had a 17% approval rating. The same David Cicilline who said he left Providence in “excellent fiscal condition”. The same David Cicilline who first blocked city auditors from the books, then stated…

Claiborne Pell Was a Fiscal Extremist, According to Today’s Democrats — He Supported a Balanced Budget Constitutional Amendment

By Carroll Andrew Morse | November 7, 2011 |

In September, Rhode Island State Democratic Chairman Edwin Pacheco staked his party to an aggressive stand against adding a balanced budget amendment to the United States Constitution, characterizing such an amendment in an official press release as “extreme economic policy”. But support for Federal spending-with-no-ending has not always been the singularly dominant position amongst Rhode…

Occupy Providence Releases Mission Statement

By Marc Comtois | October 13, 2011 |

As Patrick alluded to, the nascent Occupy Providence movement has released its manifesto mission statement (via WPRO’s Bob Plain). Here’s the full text: Dear People of Rhode Island, We the people of the Occupy Providence movement respectfully convey our intent to gather in Burnside Park on Saturday, October 15th at 5:00 pm and remain there…

The Assumptions Underlying Harrop’s Insanity

By Justin Katz | August 5, 2011 |

One would think that members of an editorial staff would offer each other the service of gently warning their coworkers when they near the deep end. Or perhaps Froma Harrop is firmly convinced of the approaching death of newspapers and is effectively auditioning for a part in the far-left blind heat machine. Granted, her tirade…

Scaring Grandma – The Whitehouse Plan

By Marc Comtois | April 28, 2011 |

So Senator Whitehouse staked out another senior citizens home for the purpose of discussing proposals that would reform Medicare (specifically Rep. Paul Ryan’s plan) and social security. Predictably, the seniors don’t like the idea. Rita Carbon, 80, of Cumberland, a retired high school secretary, said, “We don’t want Social Security to go with Wall Street.”…

Congresswoman’s Shooting, Mass Murder is a Tragedy, Not a Partisan Opportunity

By Marc Comtois | January 8, 2011 |

Prayers to Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her family, including my fellow USMMA alumnus Mark Kelly, and to those who lost people in the horrific shooting in Arizona earlier today. Such a tragedy, especially when we may never be able to make sense of the actions of a deranged man. But boy, don’t we try–and unfortunately,…

More than You Ever Wanted to Know About the Cranston City Council Leadership Dispute (But Also How It Might Tie Into the Big Picture of RI Education Reform)

By Carroll Andrew Morse | December 27, 2010 |

I sat down last night to write a brief post explaining how the politics of the Cranston City Council is tied to the politics of education reform in RI, discovering in the process that it could not be done briefly. Here’s what should be (and will be) the last paragraph, explaining why readers beyond Cranston…

So That Nobody Hasn’t Been Warned

By Justin Katz | September 14, 2010 |

Just in time for election season, I’ve finally managed to read Travis Rowley’s The Rhode Island Republican. For good reason, the largest portion of the forty-page pamphlet addresses unions, specifically public-sector unions, primarily in context of the “Cloward-Piven Strategy”: In 1966, two Columbia University political scientists, Richard Andrew Cloward and Frances Fox Piven, penned an…

RE: Shifting Packs, Political and Economic

By Marc Comtois | August 3, 2010 |

Justin makes a good point: whether Rhode Island can take advantage of the company of other states experiencing Rhode Island-like economic misery will have a lot to do with politics. 70+ years of one party rule haven’t done much for us and you’d think that Rhode Islanders would be ready to try something else. Yet,…