The two candidates for Senate had no shortage of differences in their first debate last night – you can read about it here, or watch the full thing here. Most interesting to me was Hinckley’s notion that the United States should no longer be tasked with serving as the world’s super power when it comes to global politics.

Progressive Portsmouth blogger John McDaid was at the debate … here’s what he writes.

Speaking of Sheldon, he’ll be at the Wild Colonial tonight for Drinking Liberally … hope to see you there.

And speaking of Barry Hinckley, doesn’t he remind you a little bit of Bobby Newport?

Mitt Romney may have given a shout out to the Ocean State during the POTUS debate Monday night, but he conveniently neglected to mention that his plan would cut funding to Rhode Island’s Medicaid program.

If Michael Woodmansee doesn’t want to vote, well that’s his right too … I have to wonder why he changed his mind…

Something I missed from Tuesday’s ProJo profile on Abel Collins: it said he was not invited to the WPRI debate because he didn’t score high enough in polls. In fact, WPRI chose not to tell the public why it didn’t include him (and CD1 candidate David Vogel) in their debates. The ProJo corrects the error today. It’s troubling enough when the market’s most trusted TV station can keep a candidate out of a debate, but it’s double trouble when the paper of record doesn’t know why…

WPRO’s Matt Allen has some questions about undecided voters … Saturday Night Live has some answers, humorously disguised as questions:

Here’s a profile on Winter Hames, the liberal Democrat from Narragansett running against popular Republican rookie Dawson Hodgson.

Bob Kerr’s column calls George McGovern “the man we should have listened to.”

File these two stories under the media doing good work: The Des Moines Register chastises Obama for not going on the record with them … and here in Rhode Island the AP and the ProJo join with the New York Times to sue the Catholic Church, which doesn’t want the public to know what happened with a woman’s will, whose niece claims she was defrauded.

Just in case there was any doubt in your mind, it’s all about Ohio. Says Nate Silver: “…Ohio is central enough in the electoral math that it now seems to matter as much as the other 49 states put together. I am not sure whether I should be congratulating you or consoling you if you happen to be reading this in Toledo.”

Today in 1940, Hugo Black’s Fair Labor Standards Act becomes law, it codifies a 40-hour workweek, an eight-hour workday and rules for overtime pay. Black went on to serve on the Supreme Court.

No one sums up progressive values quite like the Dalai Lama. The Associated Press quotes him as saying, “We are part of humanity. Their problem is my problem. Their happiness is my happiness. We have to look to the interests of others.’’ You can read Steve Ahlquist’s story here.

Another well-spoken progressive, Bruce Springsteen, says conservatives will try to suppress people’s right to vote in an attempt to get Obama out of the White House. The Boss writes in his endorsement of Obama, “I believe that all of us, of whatever views, should be opposing these anti-voter, anti-citizen efforts.”

Speaking of being a well-spoken progressive, the Dalai Lama does not curse when speaking in public.

Abel Collins’ campaign must be fuming about this one: the two WPRI employees most responsible for keeping him out of its debate both got promotions this week, according to RIPR.

Here’s an interesting dilemma: should convicted murderers be allowed to vote? Pressing the issue this campaign season is Rhode Island’s most despised child killer Michael Woodmansee, reports the ProJo.

Tiverton Patch picked up on my post about Justin Katz being too religious and right-wing to be relevant on the Tiverton School Committee.

From the files of etch-a-sketch politics, former Providence Journal reporter Steve Peoples, who now covers the Romney campaign for the Associated Press, writes, “On immigration, taxes and women’s issues, Mitt Romney is abandoning his “severely conservative” talk of the Republican primary season and moving sharply to the political center as he looks to sway on-the-fence voters in the campaign’s final three weeks.”

And this, from the files of deregulation is dangerous.

Today in 1988, sit-com “Roseanne” debuts on ABC. Was this the last time a TV show featured a working class family? Here’s how History.com describes the half-hour comedy:

The show was considered groundbreaking for its realistic portrayal of a working-class family and the issues they faced. Barr’s portrayal of the loud, abrasive, overweight Roseanne Conner was a sharp contrast to the stereotypical TV housewife in the mold of Leave It to Beaver’s June Cleaver and The Brady Bunch’s Carol Brady.

It has long been accepted that White Collar crime is more serious than street crime.  Even the political debates, which focus on fear and leave rationality behind, don’t have space to waste on street crime- but the Bailout, foreclosure crimes, and mass healthcare fraud make the cut.  Yet when it comes to taking action and making the world a safe and secure place, we come back to the tried-and-true.

The “Woodmansee” legislation will put more pressure on the parole board to either release someone, or serve a long and costly incarceration.  As prisoners age they get more expensive.  Rhode Island will find out.  Still unwilling to do something as little as make marijuana possession a civil penalty, the General Assembly’s thirst for prisoners may never cease.  Even as the state crumbles around them.  It is understandable to want to kill those who have committed terrible crimes, or in lieu of that, lock them up forever.  Two factors need to be factored into that impulse: money and morality.

Plea bargains do as much, if not more, for the taxpayers than they do for the accused.  It is no small thing to plead guilty to a serious offense, to give up any slim hope of exoneration, or being convicted of a lesser charge.  Pleading guilty means admitting to the facts laid out by the Attorney General, and these are not agreed upon in the bargain.  They may be inaccurate, and they may come back to haunt someone who is looking for work years later.  Pleading guilty also means saving the taxpayers the cost of a trial.  Lawyers on both sides should be spending dozens of hours in preparation for a trial.  Their investigators would be spending days in preparation.  Expert witnesses would be found, and paid.  Although the Attorney General’s office and Public Defender are salaried, rather than hourly, enough trials would bring the entire system to a halt.  More staff would be hired at a few more million per year.  And to avoid this, the Attorney General offers a seemingly lighter sentence than would be had from a judge angry at the audacity of taking it to trial.

Judging by the Attorney General’s attitude towards prisoners, that they all should serve as long a sentence as legally possible (and in some cases, such as Woodmansee’s, spitting in the law’s face)… it is impossible to see any space for rehabilitation in the Attorney General worldview.  This is not particular to him.  A.G. Lynch, and most A.G.’s around the country, also have lobbyists who fight against any relaxation in the street crime laws, and also actively pursue increases in these laws.  Thus, they should not be taken seriously when engaging in, or talking about, reentry or rehabilitation.

Eliminating Good Time based on someone’s crime reinforces the notion that someone will always be the sum of a single day.  That they can not change.  That they are their crime.  This analysis is rampant throughout the criminal justice system, and is not very useful in assessing rehabilitative needs.  As someone who has been out for nearly seven years from a second degree murder conviction, I would still be on parole if not for Good Time.  And that is assuming the parole board would have looked as favorably on my situation, if my release date were September, 2013.

I’ve been asked recently if the Woodmansee Law, which will surely go through (yet not affect Michael Woodmansee, of course) will be applied retroactively.  It is not uncommon for states to feel that court decisions, including those ruled by the U.S. Supreme Court, do not bind them.  So it is possible that RI will apply this rule to several hundred prisoners at the ACI. It will not hold up in court however, as prisoners have a “liberty interest” in Good Time credits; once given, they cannot be arbitrarily revoked.

Rhode Island has not hit rock bottom on “Getting Tough” on street crime.  It may take more budget, more staff, more prisons.  There is some debate of whether anything political can change course without a cataclysmic event.  Whereas a minority of the General Assembly do bring some wisdom to the table rather than a “base mobilizing” approach to extremist positions, we shall see.