Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/load.php on line 651
Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/theme.php on line 2241
Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387
Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387 January 2013 – Page 5 – RI Future Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387
Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387
Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387
Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387
Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387
Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387
Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387
Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387
Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387
Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387
I’ve enjoyed spending a day or so paging through the Secretary of State’s virtual archives, exploring the 502 photographs, documents, and other items collected and archived by our government; and then placed online for our convenience.
It’s really an incredible bit of historical documentation. My personal favorite image is at right; the opening of the then privately operated Mt. Hope bridge in 1929 (there’s actually a series of photographs from the opening). The description doesn’t explain who’s in the photo; why there are Indians there, who the two whites are, are left up to speculation on the part of the viewer; I’m guessing something to do with the fact that Mt. Hope used to be a major Wampanoag center. I’m guessing the white on the left was the governor of Rhode Island at the time, Norman S. Case; but the one on the right remains an enigma.
Part of the charm for me in the archive is that it doesn’t appear to have been organized by date. Images appear in series, the 1960s, the 1970s, then jump back to the 1910s and 1920s, the 1940s float by, then the 1840s; then to the 1930s, 1890s, etc., etc.
Governor Ronald Reagan (the future President poses with R.I.’s Republican men of the late 1960s)
There are plenty more interesting images, and a few pictures of architecture or events that are dying to be Photoshop-collaged into pictures of the modern day.
Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387
“I don’t like predatory lending practices,” Fox told RIPR, “but I also understand for folks that have nowhere else to go, it might be a valid tool for them to go to and not be driven to more onerous kinds of lending, including Internet lending, at higher interest rates, if you could imagine such a thing, or backroom lending, which is even worse.”
In fact, there are three alternatives in the local lending market: the Capital Good Fund and the West Elmwood Housing Development Corporation, both in Providence, as well as Navigant Credit Union, which has 13 locations in the state including branches in Central Falls, Pawtucket and Woonsocket.
Reform advocates testified about alternatives last session at the State House and RI Future reported on them then. Additionally, Margaux Morisseau, of the Coalition for Payday Lending Reform, said her group has presented the data to Fox.
“We’ve given him the information,” she said. “We need him to read the information.”
Gina Raimondo, a proponent of payday lending reform, mentioned these alternatives in a Providence Journal op/ed in May.
Fred Reinhardt, chief lending officer at Navigant Credit Union, said they offer a “short term, small dollar” loan that allows credit union members to borrow between $200 and $600 for up to 90 days at 18 APR. Payday loans can carry interest as high as 260 percent annually.
“We designed this product primarily specifically so people can refinance existing payday loans,” Reinhardt said.
He said they just started offering the loan in April and since then “most of them have been repaid on time,” he said.
Borrowers must be credit union members for 30 days before taking advantage of the loan, he said, but he noted that branch managers have told him that several people have opened accounts in order to apply for the loan.
The Capital Good Fund loan does not require a waiting period and loans up to $2,000 and 20 APR, according to Andy Posner of CGF. The average interest in a $325 loan from CGF is $87.80 compared with $468 from a payday lender.
The West Elmwood Housing Development Corporation loans up to $1,500 at 18 to 25 APR, Morisseau said.
According to the Pew report, “Most borrowers use payday loans to cover ordinary living expenses over the course of months, not unexpected emergencies over the course of weeks.”
Rhode Island is the only New England state that still allows predatory payday lending. Currently they are exempt from usury laws and charge interest up to 260 percent a year. Reform legislation last session introduced by Rep. Frank Ferri and Sen. Juan Picahrdo would cap them at 36 percent.
Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387
Rhode Island Public Radio should hire Andrew Gobeil to host a moderate and fair call-in talk radio show. The Ocean State could really use this. I haven’t spoken to either party about about this idea, but it sure seems to be a no-brainer to me. RIPR is a great young radio station in need of a personality to engage its listeners and Gobeil is a talented talker and a proven journalist who was fired by WPRO last week.
I know RIPR has long-sought to create something like a local On Point – a topical, call-in show with guests that enlightens listeners through engaging conversation. The still-young start up radio station would be wise to do so. There are so many of us media consumers out here working away on laptops and in offices or who would tune in daily. And if you also made it a podcast, you would get that many more listeners. Think in terms of the “virtuous circle” that WPRI is investing in.
I’m pretty certain Gobeil is the perfect fit. He’s great at live radio, he’s a proven reporter, he’s well-known, he’s well-respected and he’s all over the local social networks.
If station manager Joe O’Connor and news director Catherine Welch want to check out what Gobeil is capable of on air, they should listen to last Wednesday’s John DePetro Show. After being on live from 5 to 9 a.m., Gobeil was asked to fill in for DePetro who didn’t show up for work. Not only did he put in three additional hours on the spot with no prep time, he nailed it. I even tweeted as much at the time – twice! Here and here.
It was nuanced and fair and intelligent talk radio. Not to put too fine a point on it, but such content simply isn’t what WPRO is interested in producing. And, quite frankly, management there might indeed be right that the market won’t support it. This economic reality is both why Gobeil was fired and why public radio exists.
Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387
GoLocalProv reported on Monday that Rhode Island owes the federal government $200 million for unemployment benefits. When the Great Recession hit, there wasn’t enough money in the state’s unemployment trust fund and we had to borrow to make up the difference.
But about a third of the way through the article a subhead asks, “Is RI too generous?” and goes on to refer to a study on the website 24/7 Wall St. which labels Rhode Island as the “most generous” state in the country when it comes to handing out certain benefits.
GoLocalProv referenced the same study on December 25.
The implication is that Rhode Island has to borrow money from the feds because the state is doling out extravagant unemployment checks. But the reporting in both the 24/7 Wall Street piece and the GoLocalProv posts that cite is severely lacking in context.
While it may be true that Rhode Island is the second highest in the country for unemployment payments as a percentage of weekly wages, this is just one way to measure the “generosity” of UI, and nowhere does the article mention how these payments compare to the cost of living in our state.
According to the Economic Progress Institute’s 2012 Standard of Need, a single adult in Rhode Island living solely on the average unemployment benefit of $381.89 weekly would come up $4945.72 short for their annual living expenses. A single parent receiving the same benefit while trying to care for two kids would be short $37681.72.
Granted, that single parent might be eligible for other forms of assistance to help close that gap. But what if we use the example of “Christina” on page 6 of the EPI’s report (see graph at right)—say she gets laid off, and let’s assume that like 24/7 Wall St. says, she receives 43.4% of her wages in unemployment payments. That comes out to $10356.54 annually—and while we hope Christina isn’t out of work the entire year, the average length of unemployment is still around 40 weeks, so that’s not too unlikely of a scenario.
You can see how it becomes impossible for Christina to make ends meet when faced with a long-term unemployment scenario, even with our state’s “generous” unemployment payments. And this hypothetical situation is a tragic reality for many unemployed workers in Rhode Island—folks I meet week in and week out as part of the Where’s the Work project.
Rhode Island having to borrow $200m from the Feds to cover unemployment payments has nothing to do with those payments being “over-generous” (which they clearly are not) and everything to do with a failure on the part of our leaders to plan appropriately for—and respond adequately to—this unemployment crisis.
Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387
Public banking is something every good progressive should know about. To that end, I’m going to listen in on a conference call being led by esteemed RI Future contributor and local progressive economic expert Tom Sgouros.
It’s the first of a two-part, over the phone lesson “for anyone who wishes to learn the basics about banking in order to become better advocates of public banking.”
Thursdays call will deal with bank accounting and operations, while the call next week’s will be more about the nuts and bolts of actually starting a community-owned bank.
Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387
Tonight’s your chance to help bring tax fairness to Rhode Island. Ocean State Action is holding a phone bank party its headquarters at 99 Bald Hill Rd. in Cranston from 5:30 to 8 p.m.
“We’ll be mobilizing Rhode Islanders from Woonsocket to Westerly to contact their elected officials in support of tax fairness,” said Kristina Fox, who is leading OSA’s tax equity campaign. “Every phone call counts, and we need your help to reach as many folks as possible.”
Last session, Ocean State Action lobbied hard for the legislature to pass Rep. Maria Cimini and Senator Josh Miller’s tax equity bill. That legislation would have increased taxes on those who earn more than $250,000 annually but also tying that tax rate to the unemployment rate to encourage job growth.
Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387
RI Future would like to extend a big giant progressive welcome to Paul J. Spetrini, the new news editor at GoLocalProv.
The Providence native who grew up on Atwells Avenue, comes to the Capital City journalism scene after serving as the editor of the Standard Times, the North Kingstown weekly paper owned by Southern Rhode Island Newspapers.
“I’m really excited about it,” he told me. “I’ve never done the daily grind before. I think it’s going to be a challenge but it’s going to be a fun challenge.”
Spetrini replaces the well-respected Dan McGowan, who is off to become the second digital reporter at WPRI. McGowan launched his journalism career as a blogger for RI Future.
Spetrini was the editor of the Standard Times for two years. Prior to that, he covered sports for Southern Rhode Island newspapers for four years. He went to college at RIC, where he majored in criminal justice and says he stumbled into journalism by accident.
“I went to the wrong meeting,” he said. “I thought I was going to the RIC TV meeting.”
Instead, he was at the school newspaper meeting. So he started covering sports for The Anchor.
Spetrini started for GoLocal on Monday, he said. He is on Twitter at: @PaulSpetrini
Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387
Here are some pictures from the Idle No More flash mob in that took place in Providence yesterday afternoon. Similar flash mobs have occurred across the country and Canada as a sign of solidarity with indigenous peoples’ rights.
Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387
Teresa Paiva Weed gave new state Senator William Conley the worst job in the legislature. He gets to be the fall guy for marriage equality this session as the x factor on the newly constituted Senate Judiciary Committee.
Five Senators will likely support marriage equality and four won’t. Conley is holding his cards tight for the time being. If he votes against it, it dies as a tie. If he bucks the Senate President, leadership can still intervene and kill the bill in a 6 to 6 tie. This scenario would be politically ugly for Paiva Weed.
But Conley is a former East Providence city councilor, so he’s not stranger to politics. Or voting on same sex marriage politics. In April 2011, the East Providence City Council debated a resolution to endorse marriage equality legislation at the State House, according to East Providence Patch.
Councilwoman Katie Kleyla introduced a resolution supporting the passage of marriage equality legislation by the General Assembly. “This is an issue of fundamental fairness,” she said. But several speakers, including the pastor of First Baptist Church in Rumford, opposed the resolution. “I don’t think you have the right to speak for me or for the people of East Providence on this issue,” one woman said. Kleyla then asked for the resolution to be tabled, which passed 3 to 2.
The post does not indicate which way Conley voted.
Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387
All else being equal, if a URI and a Brown grad both apply for the same job, the kid with the Ivy League degree is probably going to get the gig. That Brown diploma ought to be more valuable; at $54,000 a year, Brown costs a lot more than does URI, which runs the average student about $24,000 a year.
In 2011, the average Brown grad owed $20,455 for their degree while the average URI grad owed $25,973. At Brown, only 45 percent of 2011 graduates had student loan debt while 73 percent of URI grads did.
The Project on Student Debt Rhode Island ranks Rhode Island as having the fourth highest average student loan debt in the nation at $29,097. RISD didn’t report its data for the study, but here are some of the others:
Salve Regina ……………..$43,237
Roger Williams ………….$38,365
Bryant University ………$37,813
Providence College …….$32,850
Rhode Island College …$21,384
The Brown Daily Herald had an article about this back in November with a great lede: “Despite having the highest tuition in Rhode Island, Brown had the lowest average debt of all reporting colleges in the state for class of 2011 graduates, according to the Project on Student Debt, a report published by the Institute for College Access and Success, a nonprofit.”
Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387
Haneen Zoabi is a Palestinian who was elected to the Israeli Knesset in 2009. Israel often reminds us of the rights it grants to “Arab Israelis,” avoiding the word “Palestinian.”
In 2010 Ms. Zoabi was on the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara in the international flotilla carrying humanitarian supplies for Gaza. She witnessed the assault on that ship (in international waters) by Israeli commandos. And she was there when those Israeli pirates boarded the ship and killed nine unarmed civilians including an American citizen.
On her return, when Ms. Zoabi rose to tell of this in the Knesset, some members shouted out calling her a “terrorist” or a “traitor.” Others supported her right to speak. Ms. Zoabi also received hundreds of threatening letters and phone calls including death threats.
Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387
As mediation starts this week, someone might want take a closer look at Illinois proposed pension reform legislation.
The bill might not pass there, but it might be worth using as a model in mediation here because it corrects a similar-sized unfunded liability in a way that seems less onerous on retirees without raising taxes in roughly the same period of time.
Although Illinois is the only state in the country with a pension plan in worse shape than our own, the proposed legislation there would only freeze COLAs for six years, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Among the key features of the House plan is a freeze on cost-of-living increases for all workers and retirees for as long as six years. Once the cost-of-living bumps resume, they would apply only to the first $25,000 of pensions. The inflation adjustments also would not be awarded until a person hits 67, a major departure public employees who have been allowed to retire much earlier in some cases and begin reaping the benefits of the annual increases immediately.
Of course, the devil is in the details, but it can’t hurt to give this a once-over. Also, it’s worth noting that we didn’t have to reform pensions in a fashion so impressive to the ALECs and Manhattan Institutes of the political worlds…
NPR did a really well-balanced story on Illinois’ pension reform efforts this weekend. Aside from having the two most unfunded state pension plans in the country, NPR points out another similarity with Rhode Island’s pension problems:
Over those many years, Illinois’ teachers, state troopers, university professors and other state employees have been paying their share, contributing about 8 to 12 percent out of every paycheck to their pension funds. But the state hasn’t.
They also included this pretty cool YouTube video Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn made:
Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387
Moderate Party chairman and possible gubernatorial candidate Ken Block is out with a new website, masterlever.org, which petitions the Governor and the General Assembly to eliminate the ability to vote solely based on party line (a.k.a., the “master lever”).
As a case study for why it should be banned, Mr. Block offers up the 9000+ Rhode Island voters who used the option to vote for the Moderates, despite only three candidates running under the Moderate banner (two Moderates ran in nonpartisan races).
I personally think this is a good idea, the option is archaic, and obviously damaging in nonpartisan contests (of course, I also oppose nonpartisan contests, but that’s beside the point). Yet there’s a cynic in me that has to guess what may come. I worry political leaders in the General Assembly might attempt to squash this merely to prevent the Moderate Party any sort of win. I think this is short-sighted. Let me offer the cynic’s perspective on why the lever should be banned.
Republicans have long advocated the elimination of the master lever, and in this case it’s no surprise to see virtually every local politician from the Grand Ol’ Party backing Mr. Block’s crusade. In fact, non-Democrats often point to the master lever as a reason why they can’t compete in this state.
So, it will be refreshing when the convenient cover of the master lever is eliminated. Perhaps non-Democrats will have to face the unpopularity of their policies for a change. More likely, they’ll rely more heavily on the “stupid Rhode Islanders” line that their candidates and supporters have been throwing around lately. I’m sure that will do wonders for their popularity.
General Assembly leaders should speedily remove the master lever, or at least mandate its placement at the very end of the ballot. Mr. Block rightly points out that his party gained 9000+ votes with the lever alone; votes which the Moderates might not necessarily have received had people had to vote race by race. It’s likely the top-ballot placement gave the Moderate Party the most exposure it got during the last cycle.
With the elimination of the master lever, perhaps non-Democrats will start focusing on issues that affect Rhode Islanders more than once every other year or so. They might consider following in the footsteps of former Sen. Bethany Moura and former Rep. Daniel Gordon; who both spent a great deal of their time fighting foreclosure in our state, much of it fraudulent in nature. I believe conservatives are supposed to care about protecting citizens’ property.
Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387
Bishop Tobin’s blog might make more headlines, but a “broad and growing coalition” representing more than 100 clergy from 13 “welcoming and affirming faith denominations” is committed to passing marriage equality.
Rev. Gene Dyszlewski, in a press release, reminded Tobin that the law will still allow his religion to practice bigotry.
“Faith organizations that do not affirm same-sex relationships will in no way be required to do so when this bill becomes law,” Dyszlewski said. “However, for those of us who do lead welcoming and affirming faiths, it will finally remove a long-standing obstacle to our pastoral care – and allow us to minister equally to all families in our community.”
Tobin, of course, thinks the proposal is “immoral and unnecessary.”
Tobin’s screed demonstrates some basic confusion over the roles of religion and government: “The natural law, the Holy Scriptures, and long-standing religious tradition are very consistent in affirming that homosexual activity is sinful, contrary to Gods plan.”
And he immediately concludes from this that marriage between couples of the same sex “should never be encouraged, ratified or ‘blessed’ by the state.”
Deriving public policy from the religious beliefs of conservative Catholic leaders is contrary to everything the United States in general and Rhode Island in particular stands for. At least Tobin put the word “blessed” into quotes, affirming that the Bishop understands that our secular government does not claim supernatural power and that any such “blessings” conferred are only metaphorical.
Near the end of his piece, he says that “If we are in fact forced to discuss the nature of matrimony in our state, it should be placed before the general public in a referendum Let us vote!”
Those who value American principles will disagree with Tobin that human rights should be granted or taken away at the whim of the majority electorate, but a very recent and unscientific poll conducted by me sees “more than 100 clergy and 13 denominations” for marriage equality versus 1 Bishop and 1 denomination against. It seems to me that the religious question of marriage equality has already been decided by referendum.
The time for marriage equality in Rhode Island is now. Actually, the time was nine years ago, but it is not too late to catch up. Let’s hope enough state Senators understands this.
Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387
The NPR program Tell Me More’s section “Barbershop”, after discussing various political issues, switched over to football. Some commentator made the point that football, America’s most popular sport (the NFL ranks above Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer for most attendance among professional leagues), is the biggest thing Americans can agree on.
This led me back to the old “people treat political parties like sports teams” argument that crops up, especially when decrying partisanship. And it got me wondering: if the political system resembled any of our various sports systems, would we be better off?
Sports teams tend to be focused around geographic markets. Organized into divisions, conferences, and leagues, teams are constantly competing with different teams for victory, groups that have various strengths and skills. Each major league team tends to be linked to numerous lower teams, farm teams that aren’t necessarily in the same geographic region as their affiliates. Deals are made all the time, even between so-called “rival” teams, trading players based on perceived value.
As a fan, I can also hold various loves and hates as I wish. I’m free to love the Patriots because I grew up with them, but also love the Packers because they’re America’s only fan-owned major league team. I can hate the Cowboys just ’cause, and hate the Steelers because a rapist is their quarterback. I have overlapping and hierarchical loyalties, and that’s perfectly alright.
In contrast, politics is a sad variation. Imagine if every game, from opening day to the World Series was just played by the Red Sox and the Yankees. Yes, you’d dislike your opponent intensely (the Yankees suck). But you might also grow bored, drop out, and ignore baseball altogether. U.S. politics contains virtually no variation, except for a few scatterings of Democratic Party affiliates in the Midwest, and a third party or two.
Imagine if no party held more than a regional dominance in our nation. If multiple parties had to combine to form a coalition in Congress, or elect a president. Can you imagine you might find compromise more often, even if it meant more rigid partisanship in geographic areas; more fanaticism, so to speak?
Obviously the metaphor is imperfect (and always has been); political parties aren’t sports teams. But the overall point is this: the party system, like the sports system, is a created institution. It’s set up, both by organically-created convention, but also deliberate and intention decisions. It helps the national parties to have state parties subject to them, to be strongly affiliated and associated, even if that means damning a state party by association. It helps the national parties to create a rigid dualism in our political scene. Just as our leagues are self-created, so to are our political leagues.
How we structure our political system matters. First-past-the-post voting, where the largest vote getter wins the seat instead of requiring a majority vote, tends to create a rigid two party system (Canada being the major exception; local conditions are important). A bicameral system favors older and conservative parties, preventing new parties from achieving goals. Expanding constituencies, either by creating at-large seats or by reducing number of districts, favors richer and more oligarchic candidates; as do nonpartisan contests (lack of party affiliation requires greater spending for name recognition). Runaway spending on elections, where candidates (or “independent” groups) spend many times the equivalent of their potential governmental salaries in a few months, also favors the rich (or at least those with connections to the rich).
I think there are only a few ways to change the way this system is organized. First, a mass movement, perhaps even a Dorr Rebellion-style movement (which established an alternate government under the People’s Constitution), could possibly highlight the need for change and after its likely suppression force a change among establishment politics. Second, the political establishment might feel significantly threatened by a potential upstart political organization (either in their own ranks or as an outside force), and make the required changes. Third and finally, a successful upstart political organization could change the rules after seizing power under the old rules; but only if their victory is marginal enough that they would feel strengthened by rearranging the system.
Politics isn’t going to change on its own; there’s no incentive for Democrats or Republicans the change the structure of politics in the United States as it presently stands. Both have won key elections in past four years. Pressure, from dedicated citizens, is going to need to be applied. How to apply it, and where, are questions that must be considered. But what we want the new political system to look like, that also must be dealt with. And despite calls for “bipartisanship” and a change from the inside-the-Beltway mindset, I see no one offering a clear vision for an alternative.
Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387
It’s time for Rhode Island to be idle no more. Or, at the very least, Idle No More will be in Kennedy Plaza tomorrow at 4:15.
Idle No More is a movement in the form of a flash mob moving its way across the continent to call attention to indigenous peoples’ rights. This from the group’s Facebook page:
Idle No More Providence is calling on all Natives throughout the Rhode Island/New England area to take a visible stand in support of Indigenous Rights across the globe, and in particular against Canada’s continued disrespect of and disregard for its Native Treaties as well as for the sacrifice of Attawapiskat First Nation Chief Theresa Spence. No speakers, just people from all directions uniting to take a stand for what is right.
Chief Theresa Spence is hungry. The Attawapiskat First Nation leader began a fast 27 days ago to draw public attention to Canada’s Bill C-45. Critics charge that the omnibus legislation will challenge indigenous sovereignty and negatively alter the ways in which land and water are protected. Attawapiskat is in Ontario’s northernmost region. Edging the Hudson Bay, it’s plagued by deep unemployment and woefully inadequate housing. The only real employer is a DeBeers open pit diamond mine, about an hour’s drive from where most people reside. Attawapiskat is just 600 straight miles from Canada’s Parliament Hill in Ottawa, but because road conditions are so dire you won’t find a map that will instruct you how to get there: it’s so remote, one has to fly in or out of major cities in order to get there.
Spence is aligned with the broader Idle No More movement, which has sparked international solidarity for Canada’s First Nations. Started by four Native and non-Native women, the movement began with a teach-in two months ago and has helped people realize the disproportionate ways in which environmental degradation affects Native people. Like Spence, Idle No More is drawing attention to Bill C-45—but in Canada alone, there are currently ten bills that specifically concern First Nations.
And here’s what the flash mob looked like in Boston on last week:
Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387
The Rhode Island Progressive Democrats host their monthly meeting tonight at the Rochambeau Library and there is much of interest on it agenda.
“The General Assembly session is heating up, and we have the potential for a huge slate of victories–gun control, tax equity, voter ID repeal, and marriage–but only if we work hard to hold our legislators accountable,” said Sam Bell, the local coordinator for the Progressive Democrats of America and a contributor to RI Future, about tonight’s meeting.
Specifically, the Progressive Democrats plan to talk about: EngageRI; marriage equality, gun control measures, marijuana legalization (this presentation is slated to take 4 minutes and 20 seconds, by the way) and their upcoming meeting with House Speaker Gordon Fox.
1. Brief updates
a. Cicilline
b. Marriage
c. Massachusetts
d. EngageRI disclosure
2. Tax equity phone bank
(5:30 on Wednesday at OSA) signup
3. Voter ID
a. Updates
b. Meeting with Gordon Fox
4. Guns
5. Elections
a. State Coordinator
b. Deputy Coordinator(s)
c. Events Coordinator
d. New Positions
i. Fundraising Chair
ii. Webmaster
iii. Phone Banking Coordinator
iv. Other positions
6. Banking and monetary policy lecture
(30 minutes)
7. Marijuana legalization initiative
(4 minutes, 20 seconds)
8. New business
9. Announcements
10. Adjournment 8:45
Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387
While Rolling Stone magazine may have called us the , two high profile Rhode Islanders are killing the buzz.
Former CD1 Congressman Patrick Kennedy, who now lives in Jersey, is lending his political star power to a group called SAM, or Smart Approaches to Marijuana, that will advocate for lowering sentencing instead against legalization.
And, perhaps of greater political significance, Miss Universe Olivia Culpo of Cranston told Fox News that she isn’t an advocate of ending pot prohibition, though she said she supports medical marijuana.
Not that I think either member of this odd couple will have an effect on the debate locally, but I did say it would be just retired cops and school drug counselors fighting against legalization and so I stand corrected. Add to the list a recovering Oxycontin addict and a beauty pageant winner. Stiff competition indeed.
Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387
The horrific images from the shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School are still seared into our minds – of six-year olds fleeing from danger, law enforcement officers overwhelmed with emotion, and parents grieving for loved ones taken from them forever.
President Obama’s powerful words after the shooting spoke directly to the soul of a nation searching for answers following another in a long line of gun-related massacres.
During my time as Mayor of Providence, one of the most difficult responsibilities I had was to meet with mothers and fathers whose children were victims of deadly gun violence. No words of mine could ever match the excruciating pain they felt.
Following this tragedy, I hosted a meeting on Capitol Hill, along with the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and met with families whose lives have been devastated by gun violence. These were families who lost loved ones in brutal attacks at Columbine, Aurora, and Virginia Tech. I thanked them for their courage and willingness to push now for commonsense policy changes – stronger limits on assault weapons, tighter restrictions on sales of ammunition, and more thorough background checks on gun sales. But for many of the families I met with there was a larger concern – each of them have experienced the pain of not only losing a loved one, but also watching in vain as our leaders in Washington failed to take action to ensure these tragedies never happened again.
And, unfortunately, this apathy seems to be the rule rather than the exception in recent years.
Our national lawmakers have refused to act on the issue of gun safety even after every mass shooting that has taken place in recent years. There has been no serious push to reinstate the assault weapons ban that expired in 2004 or to require tougher background checks on all gun sales. And there has been no real effort in recent years to strengthen background check requirements to keep guns from ending up in the hands of criminals or individuals suffering with serious mental illness.
The tragedy in Newtown is, unfortunately, only the most recent of a long series of violent killings involving guns, but it is especially horrific because it involved the slaughter of 20 innocent children and their teachers.
It is my hope that it will mark a turning point in the debate over commonsense gun safety laws.
The response of the leaders of the National Rifle Association to the horrors of gun violence and in particular to the devastation at Sandy Hook Elementary School was to argue for more guns in schools and to use this occasion to re-state their strong opposition to any commonsense gun safety legislation.
We should move ahead to protect our children and communities from the dangers of gun violence despite strong opposition from the powerful gun lobby. While there is no perfect solution that will eliminate all gun crimes, there are many things we can do to significantly reduce the danger of guns getting into the hands of criminals and those that are seriously mentally ill, as well as restricting the sale of particularly deadly weapons and ammunition.
The fact is, we don’t need to wait for new proposals to be put forward – there are already a number of bills that I and many gun safety advocates have already co-sponsored that would provide significant changes to existing laws.
The Fix Gun Checks Act would ensure that anyone who should not be allowed to have a gun is listed in the national instant criminal background check system and require a background check for every firearm sale.
The Gun Show Loophole Closing would require background checks on any firearms sales that take place at a gun show.
The Stop Online Ammunition Sales Act would require in person purchases of ammunition, licensing of ammunition dealers, and reporting regarding bulk purchases of ammunition.
We can ban the types of devices typically used in mass shootings by passing the Large Capacity Ammunition Feeding Device Act which would achieve this and also re-enact the Assault Weapons Ban.
And the Fire Sale Loophole Closing Act to end the practice by which gun dealers who lose their license can convert their inventory into a “personal collection” and sell them privately.
The time for action is now. Enough is enough! We owe it to the families of all those who have lost loved ones to gun violence to do all that we can to end this human carnage. We have many good proposals pending in Congress right now. Let’s honor the memories of those who were murdered at the Sandy Hook Elementary School by taking strong action immediately.
They deserve nothing less.
**This blog was originally featured on The Huffington Post
Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387
Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387
Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387
Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387
Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387
Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387
Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387