August 29, 2012 – RI Future

August 29, 2012August 29, 2012

Chris Christie’s Mom Didn’t Teach Him Enough

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Chris Christie of New Jersey spoke last night at the RNC. I am not sure whose agenda he was pushing … his own or Mitt Romney’s.

Interesting that after I turned off the RNC speech made by Gov. Christie, I should see this in today’s Dr Diane Ravitch’s blog:

I will protect your pensions. Nothing about your pension is going to change when I am governor. – Chris Christie, “An Open Letter to the Teachers of NJ” October, 2009

In his speech, he mentions several times for dramatic effect, I supposed, by repeating it over and over was “that the greatest lesson his mother of Sicilian descent taught him was that there would be times in your life when you have to choose between being loved and being respected. She said to always pick being respected-love is fleeting.”

Well, I have neither, for this hypocrite who slammed the NJ teacher union (where was the respect, Mr.Christie?) in his speech last night. He also called his mother “the enforcer” and that “he was his mother’s son.”

My mother was an Italian Brooklyn mother, tough as nails, too. And her father, my grandfather was from Sicily….And I am my mother’s daughter, tough as nails. I speak my piece and I let nothing go by that I feel is wrong. But my mother taught me not to insult people like he does; my mother taught me to be humble not arrogant like he is; my mother taught me to stand up for my rights but not be VAIN like he is; my mother taught me to stand up for my principles but not shove them down people’s throats like he did last night in his RNC speech.

And as far as I am concerned the only trip he is going to be on, in his future is his ego trip, not any political one.

Chris Christie is too high and mighty for his own good to capture the vote of anyone who has had to work hard to get and keep what they have, and I thank God every day I was never a New Jersey teacher working under cavalier, cocky and conceited Christie…

August 29, 2012August 30, 2012

Raging Grannies Protest Forbes, Hinckely Event

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Steve Forbes, a multi-failed candidate for the presidential nomination of the Republican Party, will be hosting a fundraiser for Barry Hinckley’s campaign and the Raging Grannies of Greater Westerly will be present at 4:45pm to welcome them.

The event will be at The Ocean House in Watch Hill on Wednesday, August 29.

Mr. Forbes is famous for supporting many proposed reforms of entitlement plans. He has been a time-honored supporter of a program called Trickle-Up Economics, one of the major bipartisan productions that, during the last thirty years, has allowed the rich to appropriate a disproportionate fraction of the wealth of the USA, where the richest 400 people now own more collective wealth than the bottom 150 million.

Mr. Hinckley’s candidacy will continue in this tradition of entitlement programs designed to serve the wealthy. For instance, he told the Providence Journal in April of 2011 that he would cut Social Security benefits: “Citing Social Security as an example, [Hinckley] said he would not change benefits for people already collecting, but would change the assumptions for people who are still years away from collecting. ‘Future generations that are not in the program have to have their expectations reset. End of story,’ he said.”

Instead of receiving social security, in the world according to Mr. Hinckley, people will be doing their own private investing. In so doing, they will pay for an entitlement program for unearned income and bonuses of Wall Street bankers.

Mr. Hinckley is also on record supporting plans to turn Medicare into yet another entitlement program for the 1% by transforming Medicare into a voucher system as of 2022. This will leave seniors at the mercy of private insurers. His plans would do for Medicare what has already been accomplished for the health care insurance industry, where 20 cents of every premium dollar goes toward administrative costs and profit, so that only 80 cents is left to pay for actual health care. Medicare, by comparison, currently pays out more than 98 cents of each premium dollar for actual health care. The difference between the current corporate health care system, on the one hand, and Medicare For All, if it existed, on the other, costs every single one of us about $2,000 per year.

The Raging Grannies note that in spite of the already excessive contribution of the People to entitlement programs benefiting the wealthy, Mr. Hinckley and Mr. Forbes plan to hand over more and more of the nation’s wealth to their corporate paymasters and their criminal Wall Street friends.

August 29, 2012August 29, 2012

Baldelli-Hunt, Brien Plead Dumb on 38 Studios Vote

The Cicilline-Gemma debate at Rhode Island College wasn’t the only question and answer session for candidates on Tuesday. In Woonsocket, constituents were invited to attend a candidate forum hosted by MyWoonsocket.com and WNRI radio to meet the candidates for General Assembly seats in the city.

Radio host Roger Bouchard moderated while local reporters Sandy Phaneuf of the Valley Breeze, Russ Olivo of the Woonsocket Call and Rob Borkowski of the Woonsocket Patch asked the questions.

While the candidates for Senate seats addressed the crowd first, the real fun began when the candidates for Representative came to the stage. Coming later in the questioning, Chris Roberts had the quote of the night when asked what he could get accomplished in the General Assembly as the only Republican running. “There are plenty of people in the the State House who are Republicans in hiding,” he replied while giving a slight glance back to the incumbents on the stage.

Rep. Baldelli-Hunt opened by stating she didn’t owe anyone anything, she was there as a watchdog and that you can’t spend what you don’t have. However, when she was called on her record later, she got very defensive about voting for the bill that authorized $75 million dollars for 38 Studios and the fact that she voted for tax breaks for the rich in 2010. More than once she complained that her opponent was misleading voters but her voting record is documented.

Michael Morin, her opponent in Rep. 49 admitted he would have voted for the supplemental tax bill if he had been in office because by not doing so, the members of the General Assembly, and especially those representing Woonsocket just kicked the can down the road and that he didn’t want Woonsocket to become another Central Falls, where the tax rate spiked to a 35 percent increase after they went into receivership. Despite Baldelli-Hunt’s protestations otherwise, Morin rightly pointed out that even if she never actually came out and advocated for bankruptcy for the city, her failure to act, along with the rest of the city’s delegation, led to a de facto course that would indeed lead to the city now being governed by a budget commission.

In the race for Rep. 50, Rep. Jon Brien pointed out the fact he championed the new Voter ID law and that he led the charge for pension reform but had to play defense on his role in co-sponsoring the 38 Studios legislation. His opponent, Steve Casey, pointed out that he would have worked to negotiate change rather than have pension change foisted upon employees and Morin jumped on the issue as well, stating that the mortality tables they used for firefighters were skewed, with legislators being led to believe the average life expectancy of a firefighter is 87 years old when in fact it is actually 72 years old.

Brien’s default position was that they needed “shared sacrifice” and that the taxpayers should be the last resort. Morin and Casey both jumped on that, saying that they should have worked over the course of the last two years to find $7.5 million in savings for the city. Roberts also jumped into the fray by stating that as a member of the school committee he’s been heavily involved in the budget commission hearings and that he’s not seen an elected Senator or Representative at any of the meetings. He even pointed out that the chairman of the commission has extended invitations to the General Assembly delegation from the city but none has taken him up on his offer to participate in discussions on the city’s future.

In a question about how they could bring more business into the city, Rep. Brien made a stunning statement that the city should do all it can to keep the right people while getting rid of the wrong people and that the first place to start would be to get rid of all the low income housing in the city.

Brien also stated later that Woonsocket, “was the Mill City,” and that they “should get back to their roots,” as he would work to enact legislation to get a waiver so the city could burn sludge in a waste to energy plant. There was no follow up on the question to ask Rep. Brien how that would lead to bettering the quality of life in the city.

Prior to the the House candidates, the candidates for the two Senate seats addressed the crowd. Roger Picard is unopposed and got two minutes to introduce himself and tell his constituents he’d be there if they needed him. After he left the stage to applause, the candidates for Senate seat 24 took the stage as incumbent Marc Cote and challenger Lew Pryeor answered questions.

Even as the newcomer, when asked, Pryeor was the one with quick answers, calling for more neighborhood participation, just like he organized in Warwick when he served on the City Council there. He stressed the need for involvement from the whole community and pushed for the formation of neighborhood associations that would build understanding. He offered that Fifth Avenue School could have been saved if the school department hadn’t hired two administrators for $200,000 but stated that since it was already done, he accepted it and would move forward.

Senator Cote, on the other hand, described his greatest achievements, among them being Woonsocket no longer being a toll call because of legislation he sponsored. He also touted his bill to alleviate taxes on businesses in the city. There was no follow up question about how that had worked out since there are many fewer businesses in Woonsocket since he sponsored that legislation.

In closing, Cote stated his opponent hadn’t made the case for change and that the voters should vote to keep things the same while Pryeor followed him by stating that after 18 years with the same man in office, nothing had really changed and that re-electing the same man would lead to no change.

Rep. Baldelli-Hunt opened by stating she didn’t owe anyone anything, she was there as a watchdog and that you can’t spend what you don’t have. However, when she was called on her record later on, she got very defensive about voting for the bill that authorized $75 million dollars for 38 Studios and the fact that she voted for tax breaks for the rich in 2010. More than once she complained that her opponent was misleading voters but her voting record is documented.

In the race for Rep. 50, Rep. Jon Brien pointed out the fact he championed the new Voter ID law and that he led the charge for pension reform; reform that is now in question. His opponent, Steve Casey, pointed out that he would have worked to negotiate change rather than have it foisted upon them and Morin jumped into the fray as well, stating that the mortality tables they used for firefighters were skewed, with legislators being led to believe the average life expectancy of a firefighter is 87 years old when in fact it is actually 72 years old.

As for the production of the forum itself, it was very difficult to hear the questioners and Russ Olivo was barely audible. Several of the questions were duplicated and one from Rob Borkowski about accessibility was roundly criticized by several in the crowd as a softball. The questioners also did a disservice to the voters who attended by not asking Rep. Baldelli-Hunt if she would pledge to serve out the entire two year term and not run for mayor next year.

The one thing taken away from this forum is that incumbents Brien and Baldelli-Hunt cried foul over and over again and did so in very loud and accusatory tones while their opponents remained humble and stated fact. In the end it will all come down to if the assembled voters recognized the loud, bullying tactics of the experienced incumbents for what they were.

August 29, 2012

Gemma-Cicilline Debate: The Crowd Has No Rules

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This debate was a pissing-match. But not between the candidates. Rather, their supporters, gathered together in a room, attempted to dominate one another by shouting out “liar” when either candidate spoke, booing, chanting their candidate’s name, etc.

For those sitting in the room trying to listen, it made for an unpleasant evening trying to hear their candidates over the shouting. I gather that at home, it was a more enjoyable experience (if you find debates enjoyable).

I question the decision (I assume by The Journal) to put Edward Achorn on the panel, which seems to be the wrong kind of person to put on a Democratic Party debate. Perhaps a Democrat might’ve been better suited to ask Democrats questions. That said, I can see the other side, which is that any Democrat would’ve been compromised in their support, and a right-winger is unlikely to care either way (personally, I think there are enough disaffected Democrats who dislike both candidates to find one willing to ask fair questions).

David Cicilline won this debate, but not as strongly as he should’ve. Without the hour spread out over four candidates, Anthony Gemma was without a doubt an opposition candidate. But not an ideal one. Mr. Gemma was unable to name a single policy or vote of Mr. Cicilline’s that he would’ve done differently, nor was he able to remember the name of a Republican he admired (someone from Texas who does legislation around breast cancer).

Interestingly, Mr. Gemma’s most forceful attack on Mr. Cicilline’s time as Mayor of Providence appeared to be attacking the stewardship of the education system. He also proposed that a program similar to “Race to the Top” be instituted to reduce higher education costs. He was short on specifics, but so was Mr. Cicilline, who said it was a difficult issue.

There were a couple of questions that seemed like neither candidate did well. For instance, when asked about what specifically they would cut, neither candidate came out in favor of massive defense spending cuts; even though a May 2012 poll by the Program for Public Consultation found that on average, 76% of Americans favored a 23% defense spending cut. Mr. Cicilline made a decent point about tax expenditures being spending rather than revenue, but he wasn’t able to name a specific tax expenditure other than the 40 billion in oil tax credits.

Both candidates seemed not too far apart on Iran (do everything possible to prevent war, then go to war). It would’ve been nice if a discussion of Syria had come up, since that conflict doesn’t offer the easy answer of “we have to stop nuclear weapons proliferation.” A real divisive issue was the USPS. Mr. Gemma took the businessman strategy: “streamline” the agency, and cut Saturday service. Mr. Cicilline attacked the laws that force the USPS to pre-fund their pension system, which puts it at a disadvantage with its private-sector competitors.

Oddly, a question on extending the terms of U.S. Representatives raised two viewpoints which were completely valid. Mr. Gemma chose the term-limits argument (cribbing from Bill Lynch’s playbook from the 2010 primary). Mr. Cicilline chose the campaign finance reform argument. Mr. Gemma’s viewpoint aligns with that of Jack Abramoff, who recommends it as a way to prevent the kind of corruption he was convicted as. And campaign finance reform was a bipartisan solution up until the moment Republicans decided they didn’t like it (plus it’s the right thing to do). Mr. Cicilline said exactly the right line in talking about this: “corporations are not people.” Mr. Gemma wasn’t as convincing trying to thread the needle on the need for term limits, yet acknowledging the implication is that good Congress people will be thrown out.

In fairness to Mr. Gemma, I thought it was wrong of the moderator Tim White to push on him for making RI-specific proposals that seem irrelevant to the U.S. House when one question asked specifically about who in the state deserves blame for 38 Studios (neither candidate blamed anyone specific), and another asked to grade Lincoln Chafee for no apparent reason (Mr. Cicilline refused to answer saying he wouldn’t grade anyone he had a working relationship with, Mr. Gemma said “C”). That said, Mr. Gemma does need to be pushed on it, because it’s stupid.

Finally voter fraud. For the crowd, this was the issue to intervene in. There isn’t much to say here. Either you believe Mr. Gemma or you think he’s a liar. Moderator Tim White eventually cut Mr. Gemma’s explanation of the issue short, saying that Mr. Gemma was still failing to provide actual evidence. We learned that Mr. Gemma has spent about $40,000 in campaign cash on his investigation of Mr. Cicilline. Mr. Cicilline eventually waggled his finger in Mr. Gemma’s face, saying that Mr. Gemma was not focusing on the correct issue at hand, instead talking about people holed up in their attics.

And that’s ultimately where the candidates differed. Mr. Cicilline returned numerous times to arguing against the Republican plan for America. Mr. Gemma remained focused on voter fraud and conspiratorial election-rigging, neglecting the Providence attack line that really worries voters, and makes even Mr. Cicilline’s supporters worried about his prospects in November.

But Mr. Cicilline never turned Mr. Gemma’s own talking points against him; he never said something like “how can Mr. Gemma talk about trust and integrity when he’s lying to Rhode Islanders about voter fraud and inflating his social media presence?”

Perhaps that was intentional; Mr. Cicilline’s focus on defeating the Republican Party led to two moments where he trumped Mr. Gemma. Mr. Cicilline would remain loyal to the Democratic candidate, even if his opponent who had so smeared him won; and Mr. Cicilline also admired the respect and honor Mr. Gemma has shown to his mother through the Gloria Gemma Foundation. In comparison, Mr. Gemma only like Mr. Cicilline’s tie, and would not vote for Mr. Cicilline.

I think the WPRI poll was more important to the coverage of this race than this debate.

Notes:

No handshake between the candidates.
Sorry I only got a picture of Mr. Cicilline. Mr. Gemma left before I could snap a photo with my iPhone camera.
I hope that the WPRI employee who was carried off the stage is okay.