Cicilline Calls for House Passage of Buffett Rule Bill
Congressman David Cicilline has joined the Buffett Rule movement, calling on Speaker John Boehner to pass the House version of Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse’s Paying A Fair Share Legislation. “Under current tax laws, working men and women may be asked to pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes than wealthy individuals, many of whom [...]
Whitehouse On SCOTUS: ‘Corporate Activism’
Following President Obama’s lead, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse chided the Supreme Court saying some of its members have become more interested in activism than jurisprudence. “If you can’t tell the difference between health care and broccoli there’s a real problem,” he said this morning at RIC, referencing Justice Antonin Scalia’s line of questioning as the court [...]
Lt. Gov, Whitehouse to Talk Obamacare To Commission
Lt. Governor Elizabeth Roberts will update the Rhode Island Health Care Exchange Commission on what a Supreme Court decision on President Obama’s universal health care plan could mean for the Ocean State. And her special guest at the meeting with be Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse. “We’ll definitely have a brief discussion about it,” she said. “I’m [...]
Obamacare, Broccoli and the Supreme Court
Antonin Scalia observes in court that the government cannot compel a citizen to purchase broccoli, and the government’s lawyers are Struck Dumb. They clearly do not spend time in my local pub. Every week some bonehead appears there with the “broccoli” canard. And there is a simple answer to that stupid assertion: The government can [...]
RI Senators Advocate for Middle Class
Both of Rhode Island’s senators will be here in the Ocean State today and advocating for bills that would benefit the middle class. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, as we reported on Saturday, will be in Cranston for a roundtable discussion on his Buffett Rule bill. And Sen. Jack Reed will be at URI, with school president [...]
More Local Action Toward Justice for Trayvon Martin
The perplexing “missteps” by the Sanford police in the handling of the Trayvon Martin murder are adding up at an alarming rate. We recall that a narcotics detective, and not a homicide detective, was first to assess the scene and engage Zimmerman, or that the lead investigator, Chris Serino, had called for the arrest of [...]
Obama Plugs Whitehouse’s ‘Buffett Rule’ Bill
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse’s “Buffett Rule” bill got a big boost today as President Obama, long a fan of the proposal, focused his weekly address on the legislation that would prevent millionaires from shielding their earnings from income taxes. “Now, some people call this class warfare,” Obama said. “But I think asking a billionaire to pay [...]
Cicilline Comes Out Strong Against GOP Budget Bill
On the Huffington Post and on the House floor, Congressman David Cicilline has come out strong against the House GOP budget proposal. Today, after voting against it yesterday, he penned an op/ed for the Huffington Post today critical of the bill writing, “less than a year after a similar proposal was defeated, the House Republican [...]
Whitehouse Intros Super PAC DISCLOSE Bill
RI Future first reported this story Monday morning, but we thought you might want to know that it has now actually happened. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse introduced the DISCLOSE Act, which would require Super PACs and other anonymous political donors to stand by their TV ads by requiring that they put their names on them. “The [...]
Committee Considers Legalized Marijuana
Marijuana would be legal, and available at designated stores, if a bill being heard at the State House tonight were to become law. “It would be a brave new world,” said Rep. Edith Ajello, a Providence Democrat who is sponsoring the legislation. “It would be taxed. There would be stores that sold marijuana, legally licensed [...]
Whitehouse Bill Would Regulate Super PAC Ads
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse is planning on introducing new legislation later this week that would require Super PACs, corporations and other big donors to divulge their associations with political advertisements. “In the same way at the end of my ads I have to say, ‘I’m Sheldon Whitehouse and I approve this message,’” said the most progressive [...]
Afghanistan and the Sunk Cost Fallacy
The recent news out of Afghanistan is grim. On the heels of a burning of Qurans (along with other Islamic literature) that sparked mass protests in the country, the massacre of 16 civilians, nine of whom were children and three of whom were women, by a lone U.S. gunman; now Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai has demanded [...]
Error Makes Projo Explain Doonesbury Decision
Thanks to a “production error,” the Providence Journal ended up giving us an explanation for why it didn’t run Garry Trudeau’s Doonesbury cartoon that deals with the Texas abortion law. This item was in today’s Corrections: “The distributor of Doonesbury this week offered to newspapers nationwide a choice of two comic story lines. The creator, [...]
Does Romney’s Loss Point To Wounded GOP?
Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney had trouble defeating Ron Paul in the Rhode Island Young Republican straw poll (okay, to be fair, that straw poll was meaningless). Now he crosses the finish line third in the Alabama and Mississippi primaries. At the time of writing, Hawaii and American Samoa are still up in the air, [...]
Reza Rites and RI Future at SXSW in Austin, TX
Heard of South by Southwest, but can’t be in Austin yourself? Pop in daily to “Take 5 with Reza Rites” on RIFuture.org for photos and live updates about her adventures at the annual festival – or follow her on Twitter and Facebook @rezaclif. Besides blogging for RI Future, Reza will be recording interviews and footage [...]
Brendan Doherty and ‘Right to Work’ in Rhode Island
Brendan Doherty, it turns out, thinks Rhode Island would be well-served by making Rhode Island a “Right to Work” state. “Right to Work” is an exemption to federal labor laws that allow employees to enjoy union benefits without being a member. “I believe in a right to work state” Doherty told the Barrington Republican Committee [...]
Doherty Hosts Texas Extremist at Hope Club
Brendan Doherty, Republican candidate for David Cicilline’s seat in Congress, will parse himself as a political moderate as he tries to snatch the seat away from the Democrats. But inviting Congressman Pete Sessions, R- Texas, to his fundraiser at the Hope Club tomorrow afternoon won’t help with that message. This from the Rhode Island Democratic [...]
RI Mulls Pre-Abortion Ultrasound Requirement
You might think that legislation requiring a woman to have an ultrasound before an abortion is something that would only happen in Virginia or Texas. Well, you’d be wrong. In fact, such a bill has been put forward for the last several years in the General Assembly. You also might think, if you are a [...]
Your Tax Dollars At Work
Check this out. This is a really cool map of the US, showing where federal tax dollars are going. That is, to which parts of the country. It has a number of different categories, such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Income Support, Unemployment, plus an overall picture. Guess which parts of the country are hoovering [...]
OP protests Pfizer, ALEC joining 7 N.E. Occupies
Despite the cold rainy weather, about a half a dozen Occupy Providence members took part in the #F29 Shut Down the Corporations at Pfizer in Groton, CT. The national action was called by Occupy Portland to protest members of ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, a front group that writes model pro-corporate legislation. The coordinated [...]
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