July 19, 2013 – RI Future

July 19, 2013July 19, 2013

Ahlquist backs Constitution on 10 News Conference

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Humanist Steve Ahlquist went head-to-head with anti-choice lobbyist Barth Bracy on NBC 10 News Conference to debate the “Choose Life” license plate scandal, but the best part was when the two disagreed over whether or not abortion is akin to killing a human being.

“Why do we have birthdays instead of conception days?” Ahlquist asked rhetorically. “Because we know that upon being born is when you are a person. you are separated from your mother and we know consider you to be an entity.

“The idea that human life begins at conception kind of … There is human life in our blood, in our skin, we are all genetically human. To say that a fetus or a fertilized egg is a human being … there is a potential here, there is a potential to be human here.

Watch the whole show here:

News, Weather and Classifieds for Southern New England

July 19, 2013July 20, 2013

Sequester means fewer swimmers, less money

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The sequester has not only affected the route of the annual Save The Bay swim, but the popular and iconic annual summer fundraiser will also attract fewer swimmers on Saturday and less money too.

Many are disappointed they don’t get to swim across Narragansett Bay from Newport to Jamestown this year because the random federal budget cuts of the sequester prevented the Naval War College in Newport from participating. This will also have tangible affects on Save The Bay’s efforts to save Narragansett Bay, said spokesman Peter Hanney.

“If we had our druthers we would have made it work,” he said, “but it caught up in politics.”

Hanney said the Naval War College was just as disappointed as were Ocean State environmental activists. “The local Naval personnel were very supportive of the Swim and were equally upset with this policy decision from Washington, D.C.”

Last year about 470 people made the swim from Newport to Jamestown and this year about 400 swimmers have registered to swim the triangle pattern around Potter Cove in Jamestown.

And fewer Bay swimmers means less fundraising for Save The Bay. Last year, the swim raised more than $350,000. This year, said Hanney, “we’ll get close but we’re going to come up a little short.” He said the drop in swimmers and dollars are most likely a direct result of the retooled course.

Save The Bay could still match last year’s fundraising efforts – especially if you click on this link to donate now. They call it being a “virtual swimmer.” Click here for more on the swim in general, such as where to park and what to bring.

Since 1978, local swimmers and environmental activists have left from the Naval War College on Aquidneck Island and paralleled the Newport Bridge into Jamestown’s Potter Cove. This year swimmers will travel and triangular pattern around Potter Cove.

The annual Save The Bay swim started as a nonviolent direct action in 1977 designed to call attention to poor water quality in Narragansett Bay. Back then, Save The Bay was best known for opposing a nuclear power plant at Rome Point in North Kingstown and an LNG plant on Prudence Island. Today, both these areas are protected as federal wildlife areas instead.

Since those early swims, Save The Bay activists have been at the forefront of most of the efforts to protect the Ocean State from environmental degradation. In 1986, it led the effort to make Rhode Island the first state in the nation to mandate curbside recycling.

For more awesome old pictures of the Save The Bay swim click here.

Can you identify these pioneering swimmers? If so, please let us know in the comment section below.

July 19, 2013

The election of 2004 (Part 5 of MMP RI)

Voter percentages from 2004. DEM = Democratic Party, GOP = Republican Party, IND = Independent, LIB = Libertarian Party, GRN = Green Party. Some percentages add up above 100% due to rounding. (via Samuel G. Howard) — Voter percentages from 2004. DEM = Democratic Party, GOP = Republican Party, IND = Independent, GRN = Green Party, W-I = Write-In. Some percentages add up above 100% due to rounding. (via Samuel G. Howard)

Turnout was expected to be high in a presidential election year. The Iraq War, which had seen a nation toppled in less than a month, was entering a bloody phase. In April, the US Marines had been defeated at Fallujah, almost exactly a year after President Bush had declared “Mission Accomplished” aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts attempted to hold Bush to one term, in a divisive election that helped solidify the idea of a “red state-blue state” divide in America.

Though Rhode Island was decisively a blue state, a dispute between Providence’s firefighters and Mayor Cicilline prevented Vice Presidential candidate John Edwards from visiting Rhode Island, as he refused to cross the union picket line.

In the General Assembly, Democrats lost seats, even as they won a new seat in Senate. Republicans seized upon that seat gain to suggest that redistricting was a problem; how had Democrats managed to gain a new district seat if their share of the votes had gone down? Democrats countered with the fact that a renewed emphasis on contesting seats had yielded the Republican four new district seats, defeating four Democrats in head-to-head races. Perhaps if Republicans focused on running instead of complaining, they might do better.

In total, Republicans gained two seats in the Senate and five seats in the House. Republicans told their members they were doing better, and the end of Democratic control was coming soon. Democrats grumbled.

Implications

In reality, though the Republicans gained four seats in the House, they actually lost a seat in the Senate. 2004 was the high watermark for Republican turnout, not as a percent wise, but total votes. In both House and Senate races, over 120,000 people cast their votes for Republican candidates. Collectively, Republican candidates tend to must 30,000 to 20,000 votes less. Though Republicans managed to turnout in large numbers, Democrats turnout in even higher numbers, improving somewhere around 40,000 voters over 2002.

RI GA apportioned according to the D'Hondt method. (via Samuel G. Howard) — RI GA apportioned according to the D’Hondt method. (via Samuel G. Howard)

This is Part 5 of the MMP RI series, which posits what Rhode Island’s political landscape would look like if we had switched to a mixed-member proportional representation (MMP) system in 2002. Part 4 (the Election of 2002) is available here. Part 6 is a look at the Election of 2006.