Yesterday I thought it would be hard to put together a group of people who have been worse for Rhode Island than John DePetro, Don Carcieri and Bernie Healey. But Anthony Gemma proved me wildly off base by showing up as well.

If you missed my live-tweeting of conservative Catholic night at the Odeum Theater on Main Street, East Greenwich last night, don’t worry. You didn’t miss much.

The most exciting moments included DePetro probing Father Healey about whether or not people chew gum in church, Feroce scrolling through his smart phone to read aloud from his email or Carcieri talking about 38 Studios. Oh, that’s right, DePetro didn’t ask Carcieri about 38 Studios; instead they talked about how idyllic life was back in the days when Thanks Don was growing up.

I’m pretty sure Charlie Rose’s job is safe.

It was really more of a fundraiser for the struggling local theater than actual entertainment. Many, if not most, of the attendees were dyed-in-the-wool conservatives and more than a few were friends and/or relatives of the headliners. DePetro made more references to the local restaurant that sponsored the evening than he did to leadership, which was supposed to be the focus of the event.  Local celebrity appearances were limited to former state Senator Frank Maher and Anthony Gemma.

Here’s a Storify of most of my tweets from last night and many of the responses I got.

He spoke about pride in country, love of the land, social responsibility and fiscal responsibility, and then said, “The values I have spoken of tonight aren’t Republican or Democratic values – they’re American values.”

You can read his speech here or watch it here.

Meanwhile over at the Salty Shrine, David Cicilline and Anthony Gemma had a much more substantive and subdued debate than they did last week. Gemma scored some points for not engaging in his smear campaign (talk about a low bar!) and he also finally addressed his phony following on Twitter and Facebook. He said his fake followers have nothing to do with his campaign. Not true: his social networking fraud has everything to do with his character, which he himself has made an issue.

Let’s all take a moment to enjoy the irony of WPRO hosting a more subdued and substantive debate than anyone, let alone WPRI, which offers some of the fairest political coverage in the state. The lack of a crowd was a giant factor in this, but so was the professionalism with which Bill Halberman handled last night’s debate.

Check out this really cool interactive graphic of the most common words being used at the DNC, and who is using them.

One of the most moving parts of the evening was a video tribute to Ted Kennedy … if you missed it you can watch it here.

It’s more expensive to run for a seat in the State House than one might think … or at least, in some races it is.

New affordable housing is coming to Southern Rhode Island – good news seeing how this is one of the areas of the state that suffers the most from economic inequality.

On this day in 1957, Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” was first published. Here’s what the New York Times review thought if it then.

While the local media did a great job of seeing through Anthony Gemma’s over-sized claims of voter fraud, it’s important to remember that most Rhode Islanders won’t read much of our work. So yes, the Associated Press did a fantastic story refuting much of what Gemma put forth. But many more people will hear John DePetro on the radio today falsely claim that the the volunteers and staff are leaving the Cicilline campaign as a result of Gemmapalooza.

Both Gemma and DePetro are bad for Rhode Island because they put themselves ahead of the residents and the truth. Together, they are a toxic combination that should not be tolerated, either by the people or by WPRO.

And speaking of people who should shut up, and the AP, for that matter, the local bureau digs deep into how the state and 38 Studios both did their part to ensure the company wouldn’t succeed. It’s interesting to note that the old job creator logic failed miserably for former Governor Don Carcieri … but will RI remember this next time a smooth talking CEO from the private sector says they know how to make government work better???

Speaking of Schilling, Ed Fitzpatrick writes a nice column about how lawyer (and former North East Independent reporter) John Pincince managed to do what few other in the local media have managed to do: get Schilling on record.

And speaking of making stuff work better … there were many good ideas kicked around about how to make rail service work better in the Ocean State and along the northeast corridor at a meeting yesterday afternoon. One great idea: have Amtrak stop at Green Airport.

In important swing states, a poll shows more people trust Obama to handle Medicare than they do Romney.

Why do people trust Obama more than Romney? Because the GOP is moving even farther to the right. In fact, the Republican platform this year is more right-wing than ever before.

Today in 1927, America’s most famous anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti were executed. They are said to have murdered a man in Braintree, Mass, though the trial was at the very least controversial.

And today in 1970, Lou Reed plays his last show with the Velvet Underground.

First, there was Anthony Gemma, Cicilline’s opponent in the Democratic Primary. Despite trumpeting the need to create more jobs here, it turns out the businesses rather than ones here in Rhode Island. Someone should tell Gemma that the world’s best jobs plan, let alone his, isn’t going to bolster the economy if we don’t spend our money here.

Then, a Brendan Doherty suppoter got caught – on video, I might add – trying to spy on Cicilline. The young man called and asked for some campaign information. Unfortunately, he called from Doherty headquarters so Cicilline staffers knew to get him on film when he arrived. Here’s the video:

Worst part is that the kid got suspended from the campaign for a few days, as if he went rogue and the campaign didn’t know he was going over there. That’s almost as far fetched as Gemma’s jobs plan.

In the interview, Gemma refused to support Sheldon Whitehouse because, in Gemma’s words, Whitehouse “has not done what’s right for me.” Essentially, because Whitehouse is supporting Cicilline, Gemma refused to support him. Edited highlights of the interview can be seen here:

This rejection of his party prompted a flurry of condemnations from fellow Democrats. The former occupant of the seat, Representative Patrick Kennedy called Gemma’s statements “deeply disappointing.” Buckling under the pressure, Gemma backed down. Campaign spokesman Alex Morash announced that Gemma would vote for Whitehouse and support Langevin. However, Gemma has yet to retract his refusal to vote for David Cicilline if he winds up winning the primary.

This episode may be part of a broader problem for Gemma. Even with friendly audiences, he does not interview well. Buddy Cianci is hardly a fan of Cicilline or Whitehouse. In fact, he made fun of their names during the interview. Cianci started the interview very friendly to Gemma, but Gemma was so evasive in handling questioning that by the end Cianci was complaining that getting answers out of him was “like pulling teeth.” The full interview can be viewed here.

I had a similar experience when I interviewed Gemma in June. After refusing to answer a number of relatively simple questions—like whether he supports single-payer healthcare—Gemma wound up saying this about intervening before Pearl Harbor to stop the holocaust:

To put it mildly, this is probably not the best thing to say when you are being interviewed by a Jew, especially one whose great-grandfather narrowly escaped being sent off to the concentration camps well before Pearl Harbor. To be fair to Gemma, who has not apologized to Rhode Island’s Jewish community for his comments, I am willing to believe that he is not actually anti-semitic. Instead, he may just be a weak interviewer who winds up saying things he later regrets.

The Providence Journal describes the conditions of a Middletown group home for children that caused the state to inspect all of its 76 facilities around the state: “broken glass littering the floor, trash strewn in different rooms, and a foul odor in the air, according to the police report.”

It might not be a story that attracts much attention, but it’s an important one none-the-less. The very least fortunate among us, literally orphans and other at-risk kids, are living in conditions described by police as being “deplorable.” If, as a community, we don’t want to afford these tremendously disadvantaged children a suitable home simply because it’s the right thing to do, then we should at least do so because the alternative is surely much worse for Rhode Island in the long run.

While I linked to a clip from Annie yesterday, it’s important to note that there is rarely a wealthy industrialist like Daddy Warbucks who swoops in from the private sector to rescue these kids from state care. It’s up to us to ensure that they grow up to be healthy productive members of society.

Seems like we weren’t the only ones to find Anthony Gemma’s lack of support for Democrats a bizarre. Former congressman Patrick Kennedy chided the increasingly irrelevant candidate for his comments on the Buddy Cianci Show, reports WPRI and RIPR. “This is about Rhode Island, not about each candidate, and I don’t think Mr. Gemma understands this,” Kennedy said. Ian Donnis makes an interesting observation about Kennedy carrying this message for Democrats: “Kennedy, now out of elective office, allows the current members of RI’s congressional delegation to avoid the fray while simultaneously delivering a sharp message that will draw considerable media interest.”

Woonsocket Patch reports on CVS dropping out of ALEC and lets Rep. Jon Brien, the local face of ALEC, get away with a pretty disingenuous description of the far-right wing bill mill.

“ALEC is described by board member and Woonsocket Rep. Jon Brien (Dist. 50, Woonsocket), as a bipartisan group that puts lawmakers together with businesses to come up with ideas (ultimately, legislation) “That will foster a free-market society,” reads the article. ALEC is roughly about as bipartisan as the Rhode Island General Assembly and I’m not quite sure how voter ID and Stand Your Ground laws help “foster a free-market society.”

Speaking of voter ID laws, Vice President Joe Biden continued the White Houses assault on the often-disenfranchising election laws.

A blog that bills itself as being “home of the most self-aggrandizing commenters” details a Twitter exchange with Portsmouth Rep. Dan Gordon. The author of the post describes the Twitter exchange as “pretty odd behavior from an elected official, but Dan Gordon is no ordinary state representative.” True that!

Gordon wasn’t the only Rhode Islander whose handiwork was featured on an out-of-state website yesterday. Freelance photographer and RI Future contributor Ryan Conaty had a . His pictures will be in Sunday’s print edition.

The Boston Globe reports that Mitt Romney worked at Bain for three years longer than he has claimed in the past.

Tomorrow is Woodie Guthrie‘s birthday. It’s also the nine-year anniversary of Rhode Island’s most embarrassing moments in recent memory: when Governor Don Carcieri had the State Troopers raid the Narragansett Indian Reservation because they weren’t paying taxes on cigarette sales.

So let me get this straight: Mitt Romney avoids paying taxes and Republicans call his actions patriotic. But when a Native American tribe does so, well send in the troops.

She told the Providence Journal, “A company does not run out of money overnight. A company is not a year behind [on] product development overnight. So the question is: how has the state been monitoring this investment; how and what has the governor and his staff, in conjunction with the EDC … how have they been working the deal?”

It’s a legitimate question, but it also shines a bright light on the growing rift between Raimondo and Chafee, who may end up squaring off against each other for the governor’s office in 2014.

Raimondo said she has sought information from the governor’s office and has not yet received a reply … we know the feeling, as RI Future is still waiting to hear back from your staff on a weeks-old request for an interview with you!

Ian Donnis on Anthony Gemma’s positive early season poll numbers against incumbent David Cicilline: “That’s like assuming some guy currently batting .340 is going to maintain his excellence through a grueling a 162-game baseball schedule.”

Look for many to use the 38 Studios debacle as a reason to remake the EDC.

The NAACP, an organization near and dear to state Sen. Harold Metts, has endorsed marriage equality. Last I checked, Sen. Metts is against it.

By the way, the New York Times editorial board, far superior constitutional scholars than this state’s on air shock jocks, argues Chafee has a strong case in a piece titled Rhode Island’s Principled Stand.

With state budget season just around the corner (legislators are starting to talk about how certain bills are serving as tea leaves for the impending spending proposal) Ted Nesi posts on the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities guidelines for state budget during a down economy. Many good ideas in there.

The line of the day comes from Linda Borg, of the Projo, who writes: “Now you can buy a Barrington education.” (Though you always could, if you could afford real estate there) Her article is about how the town with the best test scores in the state will now allow a small amount of students to pay tuition to go to school there. This will prove to be disastrous public policy for Rhode Island. Instead of allowing the affluent to pay for a top tier public education, the state should step in to ensure that all students get a good education regardless of how much money their parent’s home costs.

Like Senator Reed, Anthony Gemma now supports marriage equality, too. Even more so than Reed, Gemma’s announcement reeks of political opportunism -he’s a socially conservative Catholic who happens to be running against an openly gay incumbent. But we enjoyed his statement: “This is not a question of being a liberal, a progressive, or a conservative.” Well, yes it is, but as the old saying goes, where you stand depends on where you sit.

A great editorial from the Projo about the cuts the General Assembly made to services for the developmentally disabled. They write, “…how do administrators’ salaries play in all this? There has been a tendency in some non-profits as well many for-profits for the salaries of top people to rise even as those at lower levels are cut. (Our winner-take-all society . . . .)”

Starting today, you can take the train from Wickford Junction to Providence for $2.50.

Scott MacKay handicaps the one congressional race, CD1, that seems to have grabbed Rhode Island’s attention. And if you’re ready to start paying attention to the campaigns for seats in the General Assembly.

Common Cause says ALEC, the pro-business lobby group that drafts conservative model legislation for state legislatures, is abusing its status as a non-profit.

This page may be updated throughout the day. Click HERE for an archive of the RI Progress Report.

Actual exclusive: Dan Gordon did not pay his income taxes. He told Dan McGowan that he hopes his protest sends a message to Rhode Islanders. Yep, it will.

Half of RI politicians told Ted Nesi they’d share their tax returns with him. Anthony Gemma actually said he would share his only if he wins a seat in Congress, but for the time being he has  “family and partners to protect at this point.” Which of course begs the question of who else will Gemma no longer feel obliged to protect if he were to get elected. Here’s one safe guess: Democrats.

Political sin in these here parts: Mass. Sen. Scott Brown took campaign money from New York Yankees President Randy Levine.

It goes without saying that most people disagree with the Vatican’s anti-abortion policies, but did you know only 14 percent of Catholics agree with the church when it comes to whether or not to support women’s rights.

Projo calls Paul Ryan’s budget proposal “dishonest.”

This page may be updated throughout the day. Click HERE for an archive of the RI Progress Report.