October 18, 2012 – RI Future

October 18, 2012October 18, 2012

Gov. Chafee to Talk About Green Energy at CAP

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chafee_bryant — Governor Chafee addressing a much smaller crowd at Bryant University earlier this year. (photo by Bob Plain)

The independent governor of Rhode Island is going to Washington D.C’s premiere progressive think tank to talk about renewable energy policy on Friday.

Linc Chafee will give the opening remarks at the Center for American Progress for a discussion billed as “Regional Energy Solutions, Moving Beyond ‘Drill, Baby, Drill’”

According to a press advisory on the talk:

The path embraced by the fossil fuel industry claims that we can mine and drill our way to energy independence without regard for the long-term implications. But America deserves better than the “one size fits all, drill everywhere and now” strategy, put forth by the American Petroleum Institute, designed to pad the pockets of the industries of yesterday. We embrace an alternative vision that looks to diversify and strengthen the economy through proactive solutions that move us toward sustainable energy independence; reducing our carbon emissions and dependence on fossil fuels by capitalizing on the various resources available in different regions across America; and realizing their potential to create the good green jobs of the future.

The Center for American Progress, the parent organization of the popular progressive blog Think Progress, will be livestreaming the talk starting at 10 a.m., so you can watch it live here.

CAP and the Center for the Next Generation will be releasing their new report that “examines successful non-fossil-fuel-based economic development strategies in six major regions of the country to showcase the future potential of the clean energy economy,” according to the advisory.

October 18, 2012October 19, 2012

Katz Distorts Truth to Defend Stance on SOCS

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It seems like my post the other day about Justin Katz not being a good fit for a seat on the Tiverton School Committee resonated locally. Tiverton Patch picked up on the story and it caused quite a commotion in the always-vibrant comment section.

While many of the commenters agreed with my assessment that Katz is too committed to Christian dogma to be a healthy addition to the Tiverton School Committee, that isn’t why I am posting more about it. I’m posting more about it to clear up some erroneous statements Katz made about me, my post and RI Future.

First off my post had nothing to do with Katz’s intolerance towards organized labor. While he and I may differ on this issue, it’s simply not the reason I think he would be a bad school committee member. I think he would be a bad school committee member because of his intolerance on issues having to do with the separation of church and state. There’s no shortage of evidence in the RI Future archives that documents this is an important editorial issue to us.

Secondly, Katz asserts that RI Future has a “financial relationship” with the teachers’ union. This is true. The NEA-RI has purchased one ad on RI Future since I’ve owned it. While I very much appreciate their business, and hope they advertise again in the future, I believe everyone at the NEA understands they purchased some temporary real estate on RI Future, and nothing more.

(I should note, that I think it’s pretty ironic that Katz would call into question my financial relationships … ask him who funds his blog and he won’t tell you, but other conservatives familiar with the operation say the money likely comes from big tobacco and big oil companies, the Heritage Foundation, the Koch Brothers and other ALEC-worshiping members of the 1 percent.)

While I often support organized labor in general and the teachers’ unions in particular again, there is ample evidence in RI Future’s archives to illustrate that I do not do their bidding. In fact, my friends at the NEA are often critical of my editorial judgement, just as my friends in the education reform/deform movement are as well. Specific issues that come to mind include their endorsement of state Senator Michael McCaffrey over Laura Pisaturo and Gov. Chafee’s municipal aid package to struggling cities and towns.

Katz offers as evidence of my “ties” to teachers’ unions that a former RI Future owner Pat Crowley works for the NEA. While I like Crowley and his politics (if not always his tactics) he’s got no special influence over me or my web site. In fact, we may just disagree on RI Future more often than we agree!

The assertion that I found the most disingenuous was when Katz wrote in a comment on Tiverton Patch that “suggested that Jesus is ‘creepy.'” This is simply false. I wrote that a passage Katz cited attributed to Jesus was creepy. Katz, on the other hand, called it profound.

Here’s the comment in it entirety, so you can judge for yourself:

I believe Jesus said, “Let the children come to me.” He also said that, where two are three are gathered in His name, He is there. I’m no theologian, either, but it’s awfully curious that the rector supports the boys one by one, but not by twos and threes.

The passage about children is miraculously relevant, here (Matthew 19:13). Jesus had just finished explaining why Old Testament rules allowing divorce should not apply to His followers, and the disciples said that the impossibility of divorce meant it would be “better not to marry.” He then likens men who cannot abide by such rules to eunuchs.

That’s when the children come forward and the disciples attempt to stop them. “The kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

It’s a profound passage.

And here is what I wrote about it:

Hmm, I’d say it’s more of a creepy and weird passage than a profound one … but either way, I’m pretty sure Tiverton parents don’t want someone on their school committee who thinks a parable about Jesus likening would-be divorcees to eunuchs is profound.

I believe Katz understands the difference and was being intellectually dishonest as a way to discredit me. But either way – if he was being intellectually dishonest or if he just doesn’t understand the difference between thinking a statement is creepy and a person – it’s just more evidence that he doesn’t belong in public office.

October 18, 2012October 21, 2012

RI Future, Gordon Fox Serve Those in Charge

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In two of his recent Progress Reports, Bob Plain, the editor of RI Future, posted comments that trouble me on several levels.

It’s unlikely Binder will knock Fox out of office, but he could help move him back toward the left side of the political spectrum. Or he could do just enough political damage to make it hard for him to retain the Speaker’s gavel, which might not be a good thing for progressives…
—Bob Plain, RI Progress Report

Fox is more conservative than we’d like in a Speaker and Binder is less experienced than we’d like in a state Representative. Practically speaking, wheen factoring in both of these circumstances, the House of Representatives probably moves to the right if Binder were to upset Fox.
—Bob Plain, RI Progress Report

This logic remind me of what a Mt. Hope voter said to me recently:

“I don’t think the government is broken. I think it’s working just fine for those who are in charge.”

Unlikely?

As I’ve been knocking on doors throughout my district, the reception I have been getting is warm and congratulatory. People smile and thank me for running, especially against Gordon Fox. Then they say, “Do you think you have a chance?” I answer quite honestly, “If you and all the people you know vote for me, then I will win.”

Fox moves left?

38 Studios: A deal brokered by Michael Corso, a Fox business associate who profited at the expense of the taxpayers. Shoved through in a typical late night session with little debate. Representatives on the floor of the house deny that they knew that the $75 million was slated for a baseball players dream team. Even now, Gordon Fox flip flops on whether he knew/didn’t know before ramming the bill through.
Payday Lending Reform: 50 State Reps co-sponsored a bill to reduce payday lending from 260% to about 36%. Bill Murphy, a former Speaker, was paid $50,000 by an out-of-state payday lending company. The bill died in committee. Fox said that the bill had been watered down. Why didn’t he just put the straight bill on the table?
Marriage Equality: Civil unions are not enough. Maybe when Fox made his great compromise he thought that they were. If so, why have only 52 couples opted for the watered-down civil union option in the past two years? Since then Fox has promised to pass marriage equality but continued to duck his responsibility and avoid wielding his power to bring this black and white issue to a vote. Why? Because it protects Conservative Democrats, and it might fail. Boo hoo.
The Midnight Education Merger: At the beginning of 2012, Fox promised no last minute votes. He broke that promise, and one of the results was the mashup of the Board of Regents and the Office of Higher Education. Asked in a debate why, he shrugged and said, “We have to try something.” No public discussion, no debate. From the folk I’ve talked with one in the elementary schools or universities want to be under the thumb of the same organization. George D. Caruolo, another former Speaker, will have a good job.

Where is the Progressive in these issues?

Political Damage?

Our legislature is dominated by fear. The Reps and Senators give away their power at the beginning of the session to the “leaders” and then beg for crumbs.

They cower in fear in the halls of the legislature and then crow when the leaders give them a line item in the budget or let one of their proposals rise from the black hole of committee. They whisper and confer and suspend the rules and vote on bills that most of them haven’t read. This is called “hardball politics.”

How’s that working for our state? The other day at the gym, a guy on a treadmill joked that every year the legislature passes lots of election bills because they always seems to benefit the legislators.

What else benefits the legislators? They get campaign contributions from special interests, and then submit bills, vote on bills and push bills through that benefit those special interests.

And it’s all out there in the public record.

Gordon Fox collected $7,200 in contributions from auto repair shops, just 90 days before he pushed through a controversial auto insurance bill that benefitted those shops at the expense of consumers. Thankfully, the Governor vetoed the bill.
The law firm Adler Pollack and Sheehan raised $7,300 for the Speaker. Shortly after that, they got the contract from the Joint Committee on Legislative Services to defend the gerrymandering in the legislative redistricting plan in court.
And as recently as September 5th, the Speaker hauled in $5,900 from the lobbyist for the car wash industry and a number of car washes. That came just months after the Speaker rammed through a last minute budget proposal to exempt car washes—an only car washes—from the Governor’s expanded sales tax.

Are these really all coincidences? Who benefits from contributions to Gordon Fox’s $200,000+ campaign slush fund? Voters? Taxpayers?

Was this a move to the right or the right move?

Meanwhile, Fox has bought into the Conservative dogma that raising taxes is bad for business and good for government. And he’s given the Casinos a sweetheart deal that means taxpayers will have to loose three times as much at table games as they do at the slots just for the State to break even on what it gets now.

How’s that all going for us?

Is Speaker Fox retaining the gavel really doing the Progressives any benefit? Is having Gordon Fox in the House benefitting the people in District Four?

I think it’s clear that our “representatives” haven’t been working for us. They have been working for each other and for their special interests.

In Gordon Fox’s case, he’s been working hard for his business associates, former Speakers, and for the campaign contributors. For the people in his district? Not so much.

I will be honored if you vote for me, and help knock them out.

October 18, 2012October 18, 2012

Progress Report: Binder vs. Fox; Dalai Lama, Springsteen on Progressive Values; WPRI Debate Snobs Get Promoted

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Shaping up to be one of the most interested races for a State House seat, author and RI Future contributor Mark Binder’s challenge to Gordon Fox is attracting a lot of media attention. Fox is more conservative than we’d like in a Speaker and Binder is less experienced than we’d like in a state Representative. Practically speaking, when factoring in both of these circumstances, the House of Representatives probably moves to the right if Binder were to upset Fox.

No one sums up progressive values quite like the Dalai Lama. The Associated Press quotes him as saying, “We are part of humanity. Their problem is my problem. Their happiness is my happiness. We have to look to the interests of others.’’ You can read Steve Ahlquist’s story here.

Another well-spoken progressive, Bruce Springsteen, says conservatives will try to suppress people’s right to vote in an attempt to get Obama out of the White House. The Boss writes in his endorsement of Obama, “I believe that all of us, of whatever views, should be opposing these anti-voter, anti-citizen efforts.”

Speaking of being a well-spoken progressive, the Dalai Lama does not curse when speaking in public.

Abel Collins’ campaign must be fuming about this one: the two WPRI employees most responsible for keeping him out of its debate both got promotions this week, according to RIPR.

Here’s an interesting dilemma: should convicted murderers be allowed to vote? Pressing the issue this campaign season is Rhode Island’s most despised child killer Michael Woodmansee, reports the ProJo.

Tiverton Patch picked up on my post about Justin Katz being too religious and right-wing to be relevant on the Tiverton School Committee.

From the files of etch-a-sketch politics, former Providence Journal reporter Steve Peoples, who now covers the Romney campaign for the Associated Press, writes, “On immigration, taxes and women’s issues, Mitt Romney is abandoning his “severely conservative” talk of the Republican primary season and moving sharply to the political center as he looks to sway on-the-fence voters in the campaign’s final three weeks.”

And this, from the files of deregulation is dangerous.

Today in 1988, sit-com “Roseanne” debuts on ABC. Was this the last time a TV show featured a working class family? Here’s how History.com describes the half-hour comedy:

The show was considered groundbreaking for its realistic portrayal of a working-class family and the issues they faced. Barr’s portrayal of the loud, abrasive, overweight Roseanne Conner was a sharp contrast to the stereotypical TV housewife in the mold of Leave It to Beaver’s June Cleaver and The Brady Bunch’s Carol Brady.

October 18, 2012

Dalai Lama Talks Income Inequality, Environment

The Dalai Lama came to Rhode Island yesterday, courtesy of Brown University. The event was held at the RI Convention Center under the the strictest security the United States State Department could provide. I sat with the other media representatives, next to Palden Gyal from Radio Free Asia. Palden had been assigned the task of covering the Dalai Lama’s two week tour of the United States, and had been at every public event so far. He commented to me about the security, so I asked him if he thought the Dalai Lama was in any actual danger from the Chinese government (this while men with flashlights were doing security sweeps in the rafters of the room.) Palden felt that an attack by Chinese assassins was unlikely and that the greater worry was your garden variety crazy person or generic terrorist.

At about ten past two Brown University President Christina Paxson introduced the Dalai Lama, noting that he is a self described “simple Buddhist monk” and a winner of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize as well as the 2012 Templeton Prize, regarded as “the most prestigious award in religion.” (The controversial Templeton Prize is given to those who work to bridge the gap between science and religion, or as Martinus JG Veltman, 1999 Nobel laureate in physics suggested, between “sense and nonsense.”)

The Dalai Lama then took the podium, quickly connecting to the predominantly Brown University audience by wearing a university-branded baseball cap. Known for his somewhat cornball sense of humor, the Dalai Lama removed his hat and made jokes about his white hairs and encroaching baldness, suggesting that they were competing for dominance on his head.

After this brief comedic intro, the Dalai Lama got down to more serious business. He talked about seeing past the ethnicities and borders that divide us, and suggested that we see the world as one planet, where we all live. He said that the gap between the rich and poor must be closed, and as an example he pointed out that Washington DC is the capitol of the richest nation on Earth, yet the city is surrounded by poor.

The other great problem confronting us, according to the Dalai Lama, is the degradation of the environment. Given these problems, and the great silence from most of the governments on this planet, the Dalai Lama declared that if he were to affiliate with a political party, it would be the Greens.

The Dalai Lama then discussed scientific issues, a subject he is very interested in. He stated that science and spirituality used to be separate, but now science is beginning to study the human mind and the mind-body connection. This is true, but though great inroads are being made in neuroscience, and many interesting discoveries are being made, I think it would be a mistake to call these investigations “spiritual” in the sense most people take the word. We are not talking about souls, angels, answered prayers and gods. Under the Dalai Lama’s definition, as I understand it, we are talking about mindfulness and compassion training, (mostly through meditation) the ways they can reduce stress, and the positive mental and physical health benefits stress reduction accompanies.

Perhaps the most interesting and unexpected part of the Dalai Lama’s message was his call for a set of secular ethics based on universal human values. The Dalai Lama makes his case by maintaining that all the world’s religions have common values. He believes that when we sift the common values out of all the different religions, we will have a set of humanistic values upon which a set of secular ethics can be based. These values and ethics would be secular in the sense that they would be common to people of any religion, as well as to those with no religion. He points out that in India, the Founding Fathers were religious people (like Ghandi) but they established a secular Constitution. Of course, this reminds Americans of our own Constitution, a secular document written and ratified by a bunch of Protestants, Deists and nonbelievers. Countries like India and the United States, which have within their borders many forms of belief and non-belief competing for our attention, need a strong secular government to serve as referee.

The common secular values of humanity should be taught in schools, from Kindergarten through University, according to the Dalai Lama, who values education quite highly. Ultimately, he wants humanity to learn that the never ending quest for material success, based as it is in greed and selfishness, is a shallow, empty pursuit unless we also work towards an inner peace through mindfulness and humanistic values.

To some it might seem odd to hear a religious leader champion secular values and secular government, but here in Rhode Island we have our own model, also a Founding Father, Roger Williams. Williams was a Christian minister of unassailable character who was convinced that people could best flourish economically and spiritually under the aegis of a secular state guided by secular values. In that sense the Dalai Lama’s message should resonate here.

The lecture ended with the Dalai Lama answering a few questions, then a final word from the religious leader. “If you feel these points are relevant,” he said, “tell people and investigate them for yourself. If don’t feel these points are relevant, then forget it.” Unfortunately, the person working the closed captioning for the event rendered the words “forget it” as “fuck it.” Now I’m sure I heard “forget it” but the crowd seemed divided on the issue, and I overheard two students who were sure that the Dalai Lama ended his lecture with an expletive. It was an odd and funny ending to an interesting event.