August 23, 2012 – RI Future

August 23, 2012August 24, 2012

An Independent Take on Gemmapalooza

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First, I’ll admit that I didn’t watch the press conference yesterday. I have seen plenty of the media aftermath though. The impression I get is that candidate Gemma’s accusations of voter fraud are being swept under the rug, and the whole affair is being framed as a media stunt. Even if it was only designed as a way to garner attention for a flagging campaign, it was a success.

However, I think there might be a little more substance to the unsubstantiated allegations than we want to admit. I’ll take a few moments from my own campaign to pile a little more conjecture on top of the pile of Gemmapalooza. After all, it’s not altogether unrelated.

As much as it was about public relations, I believe that Gemma’s campaign was intending to hasten the speed of the state’s investigation of the voter fraud charges. Investigators are likely to put more emphasis on the case with the added pressure of both the media and Doherty’s campaign. Raising the issue now also lays the groundwork for a legal challenge to the primary results if they turn out to be close.

We should all be concerned about whether there is and has been tampering with Rhode Island’s elections. To me, the most probable and meaningful fraud would be the deceased voter scenario. There are many proven occurrences of the dead rising to cast votes (for Kennedy in Chicago famously), and to my knowledge there has never been a serious investigation to see if it’s happening in Rhode Island.

With a long entrenched and dominant Democratic machine in the State, Rhode Island would be fertile ground for such fraud. Former AG James O’Neil thinks so evidently, and I’m not sure he would risk tarnishing his reputation without good reason. If it is discovered that we have a lot of zombie voters, I don’t think that the crime will be pinned to Representative Cicilline. It is more likely to fall on the state Democratic Party.

All in all, I’d say that Gemma’s antics are going to once again hurt the Democrats’ chances of hanging onto the District 1 seat. The silver lining will hopefully be that we have a more honest election.

ps- As I read it, the horrendous Voter ID law we have would do little to stop the occurrence of the dead voting, as I expect they would mostly be mail-in ballots. The law does not specify that anything more than the mail-in ballot application needs to be submitted to the board of canvassers to vote. Am I reading the law wrong?

August 23, 2012August 23, 2012

Labor History Society to Honor URI’s Molloy Tonight

If you believe singer Utah Phillips, the long memory is the most radical notion in this country today. It is in that vein some of us gather tonight in Providence at the Roger Williams Park Casino to celebrate the 25^th Anniversary of the Rhode Island Labor History Society. For a quarter century Rhode Island’s organizers, trouble-makers, boat-rockers, dissatisfied and disaffected with the status quo have met, sometimes under cover of darkness, to meet and pass along the stories of the heroes of our past. People like Seth Luther, Ann “the Red Flame” Burlak , and Rita “the Girl in Green” Brouillette. Songs of struggles are song, memorizing the battles at the Woonsocket Rubber Company in 1885 when the Knights of Labor went up against a Knight of St. Gregory, and the 1934 Battle of the Gravestones, when the State Police massacred striking workers, creating the conditions necessary for TF Green’s “Bloodless” Revolution, and the death of Wilma Schesler, martyred in 1974 on a picket line for public sector workers.

Tonight the Society honors its founder, Professor Scott Molloy. A hero for our times, no strike or rally is complete without a harangue against the injustices of our modern world and the economic royalists and all of their accumulated power from Brother Molloy. As the invitation from the society reads:

University of Rhode Island Professor Scott Molloy will be honored by the Rhode Island Labor History Society during its 25th annual awards banquet, Aug. 23.

The event, “A Celebration of Labor Day in Rhode Island,” will be held at the Roger Williams Park Casino in Providence. Festivities begin at 5 p.m. Donation is $25 for individuals or $250 for a table of 10.

Molloy is founder of the Rhode Island Labor History Society and was a bus driver, shop steward and business agent for the Transit Union from 1973 to 1984. He has been a URI professor in its Schmidt Labor Research Center since 1986, and he has been education director for the Rhode Island Irish Famine Memorial since 1996. He is the author of Trolley Wars; Irish Titan, Irish Toilers; and All Aboard.

The West Kingston resident, known for his colorful and fiery lectures at URI and before civic and labor groups around the region, was awarded the URI Foundation Teaching Excellence Award in 1995.

In 2004, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education chose the West Kingston resident as its Rhode Island Professor of the Year.

Presenters at the event will be:

• Cathy O’Reilly Collette, president of the Rhode Island Labor History Society, retired director of the Women’s Rights Department of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees in Washington, D.C. and former president of the World Women’s Committee of Public Services International, Geneva;

• Tom Cute, bus driver with the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority and vice president of the Amalgamated Transit Union, Division 618;

• Donald Deignan, president of the Rhode Island Irish Famine Memorial;

• Eve Stern, associate professor of history at URI, author of Ballots and Bibles; and

• Patrick T. Conley, retired professor of history at Providence College and president of the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame.

For further information, call Cathy Collette, 315-0535.

“…and agreement is sacred.”

August 23, 2012August 23, 2012

Progress Report: Congrats to Shaw’s Market; DePetro, Gemma; 38 Studios and the State; Improving Rail Service

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Three cheers for Shaw’s Market in Barrington. The grocery store told the Town Council last night that it would voluntarily stop using plastic bags, according to Linda Borg of the Providence Journal. I can only assume they decided doing right by the town and the environment wasn’t as much of a hardship on their business as some said not using plastic bags would be…

While the local media did a great job of seeing through Anthony Gemma’s over-sized claims of voter fraud, it’s important to remember that most Rhode Islanders won’t read much of our work. So yes, the Associated Press did a fantastic story refuting much of what Gemma put forth. But many more people will hear John DePetro on the radio today falsely claim that the the volunteers and staff are leaving the Cicilline campaign as a result of Gemmapalooza.

Both Gemma and DePetro are bad for Rhode Island because they put themselves ahead of the residents and the truth. Together, they are a toxic combination that should not be tolerated, either by the people or by WPRO.

And speaking of people who should shut up, and the AP, for that matter, the local bureau digs deep into how the state and 38 Studios both did their part to ensure the company wouldn’t succeed. It’s interesting to note that the old job creator logic failed miserably for former Governor Don Carcieri … but will RI remember this next time a smooth talking CEO from the private sector says they know how to make government work better???

Speaking of Schilling, Ed Fitzpatrick writes a nice column about how lawyer (and former North East Independent reporter) John Pincince managed to do what few other in the local media have managed to do: get Schilling on record.

And speaking of making stuff work better … there were many good ideas kicked around about how to make rail service work better in the Ocean State and along the northeast corridor at a meeting yesterday afternoon. One great idea: have Amtrak stop at Green Airport.

In important swing states, a poll shows more people trust Obama to handle Medicare than they do Romney.

Why do people trust Obama more than Romney? Because the GOP is moving even farther to the right. In fact, the Republican platform this year is more right-wing than ever before.

Today in 1927, America’s most famous anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti were executed. They are said to have murdered a man in Braintree, Mass, though the trial was at the very least controversial.

And today in 1970, Lou Reed plays his last show with the Velvet Underground.

August 23, 2012August 23, 2012

The Video Barry Hinckley Doesn’t Want You to See

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It must be that Barry Hinckley really doesn’t want Rhode Islanders to see the video we posted of him telling out-of-state donors that although they can’t vote for him, he will vote for them if they help fund in Senate campaign.

It’s a damaging look at his candidacy, especially since he has already been labelled a carpetbagger, so it was no surprise the video was pulled from Youtube shortly after we posted it yesterday morning.

Thankfully for Rhode Islanders who should know that Barry Hinckley has no intention of representing them if elected, RI Future has managed to locate another copy of the video. So in case you missed it yesterday, here it is again today:

Need more proof that this is a central theme for Hinckley’s campaign? Here he is quoted in a press release for a Florida fundraiser saying the same thing:

Hinckley urged attendees to contribute to his campaign because, “Although you can’t vote for me, I can vote for you.”

And just in case you’re still not satisfied, here is another video of Barry Hinckley this time telling a crowd in California that he will vote for these non-Rhode Islanders if they support his campaign financially (at 10:50 mark):

So try as Hinckley might have, here’s all the proof Rhode Island needs to understand that Barry Hinckley doesn’t plan on representing them; his stated intention is to represent those who donate to his campaign regardless of where they live.