Samuel Bell
Math error in Taveras’s pre-K plan
I believe I have discovered a math error in Angel Taveras’s pre-kindergarten plan. Instead of $24.6 million, the total annual cost should actually be $55.2 million. The “Ready Rhode Island” plan is only designed to provide one year of preschool, right before kindergarten, and the math error centers around confusing the figures for all preschoolers with [...]
Come support the Progressive Democrats this Friday!
This Friday, December 6, at 6:30 pm at Waterplace Restaurant (1 Finance Way, Providence), the Progressive Democrats are going to be holding our Progressive Hero Award fundraiser. We’re going to be honoring Congressman David Cicilline and Representative Larry Valencia. A past recipient of the Progressive Hero Award, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse will be on hand to [...]
Come Support Maria Cimini Tonight (Thursday)!
Maria Cimini is one of my favorite politicians in the state of Rhode Island. Far too few state representatives understand the plight of working people like she does. When conservatives attack economic growth and the 99%, she is there on the floor of the House making passionate and moving speeches defending those who are too [...]
Cicilline, Langevin support expanding Social Security
Elizabeth Warren recently made news when she endorsed the effort to expand Social Security. Organized by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, this campaign has been one of the top priorities for progressives in Washington. That is why it matters that both of Rhode Island’s Congressmen, David Cicilline and Jim Langevin, have signed onto this effort. Conservative voices [...]
Taveras’s record on unemployment
On a December 2012 episode of Newsmakers, Providence Mayor Angel Taveras had this to say in defense of Providence’s high unemployment rate: “Our rate is 12%, and when I started, it was 13.7%.” Given the economic devastation that has befallen our capital city under Taveras’s leadership, these numbers are likely to play a major role [...]
Thank you Ken Block!
I don’t agree with Ken Block on very much. But I am here to thank him–for running for governor as a Republican. What has always bothered me about Block is that he used his “Moderate Party” label to portray his Republican views as somehow moderate. But then he became the leader of the conservative group [...]
GOP Rep: House Majority Leader Mattiello is ‘on our side’
One of the most clarifying moments in Rhode Island politics is when the small handful of conservative Republicans in our state admit just how conservative the Democratic leadership of the General Assembly is. This nugget showed up in a post by Tea Party Republican Michael Chippendale on the RI Gun Blog: After this past session’s [...]
Debunking the Business Tax Climate Index
I once had the following conversation with a state senator: She proudly told me that she favored letting the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy expire. So I asked her, “what about Rhode Island’s tax cuts for the wealthy?” “Well,” she told me, “we have to worry about our business climate.” It is a disturbingly [...]
Gina could hurt Democrats in general election
Brown’s recent gubernatorial poll has received a lot of attention. The dubious primary results, which show Raimondo beating Taveras in a Democratic primary where most voters aren’t Democrats, have been widely mocked. (For comparison, a Taveras internal by a reputable pollster put Taveras up 19 points.) The general election portion, however, is significantly more plausible, [...]
Taibbi is still missing the real story
I want to thank Matt Taibbi. Unlike many national journalists, he admits when he goes far too easy on Rhode Island Democrats. On Friday, he published a new article acknowledging Raimondo’s party affiliation and tying her to the national trend of conservative Democrats in the Wall St. camp. If you ignore a glaring and egregious [...]
Does the General Assembly lag RI in religious diversity?
Steve Ahlquist writes, “With 113 seats in the General assembly, there is not one legislator that publicly identifies as atheist or Humanist.” That gets me wondering–what other religious minorities are represented in the General Assembly? My religion does have some representation. There are two Jews in the Senate, Gayle Goldin and Josh Miller. (Interestingly, they [...]
MSNBC doesn’t understand Rhode Island
MSNBC does some great reporting. But when it comes to Rhode Island, America’s left-leaning news channel is missing a good scoop. For example: Last night, All In with Chris Hayes (incidentally, a fantastic show) displayed a map showing the states that with photo ID laws in effect and the states where laws are going into [...]
Progressive Dems deliver letters to congressmen
Each month, members of the Progressive Democrats of America across the country drop letters at the offices of our national representatives. Here is the letter we are delivering to our Representatives this month. This is the Cicilline letter. The main difference in the Langevin letter is that Langevin did not support the Amash-Conyers amendment. Right-wing [...]
Progressive Dems deliver letters to RI senators
Each month, members of the Progressive Democrats of America across the country drop letters at the offices of our national representatives. Here is the letter we are delivering to our Senators this month. (This is the Whitehouse letter. The Reed letter is nearly identical.) In the Spirit of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., we call [...]
Stop calling the pension cuts a ‘reform’
“Pension reform.” It’s a phrase we’ve all heard. We’ve heard it from right-wing pundits and conservative politicians. We’ve heard it from ALEC. We’ve heard it from RIPEC. We’ve even heard it from labor leaders, progressive politicians, and the august pages of this blog. I’m embarrassed to say I’ve heard those words tumble out of my [...]
Whitehouse just introduced an awesome bill
Working with Elizabeth Warren, Sheldon Whitehouse just introduced what I humbly submit is the second-best bill introduced in this Congress. He introduced the Marquette fix. This is a bit of a wonkish issue, but it’s also a BFD, so please bear with me for a moment. Basically, this bill would overrule Marquette v. First of [...]
Why the Sakonnet River Bridge tolls matter
It’s not often that I disagree with Bob Plain, but I think he underestimates the importance of the battle over the Sakonnet River Bridge tolls. There are three important things going on here: First, as progressives, we should oppose tolls as a matter of principle. Because everybody pays the same rate no matter how much [...]
Progressive Dems thank delegation for Farm Bill
Each month, members of the Progressive Democrats of America across the country send letters to our national representatives. Last month, our top priority was killing the Farm Bill because of its draconian cuts to food stamps. In a surprise victory, the Farm Bill went down in the House. By voting against the Senate bill, Senators [...]
Progressives should vote against the budget
Progressives have always had a complicated relationship with House Speaker Gordon Fox. Though deeply concerned that Fox’s very conservative economic policies are destroying our state, we have always supported the House leadership team because Fox’s likely successors, Helio Melo and Nick Mattiello, are even more conservative than he is. When Speaker Fox faced the progressive [...]
Progressive Dems dismayed by Chafee’s support for Gist
The following is an open letter to Governor Chafee from the Rhode Island Progressive Democrats in response to the renewal of Education Commissioner Deborah Gist’s contract: Working teachers have gotten together with their leadership to give voice to the despair they feel over the conditions in the Rhode Island schools. One of those troubling conditions [...]
New Comments