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true the vote – RI Future https://www.rifuture.org Progressive News, Opinion, and Analysis Sat, 29 Oct 2016 16:03:26 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.26 Progress Report: Even More Riley Lies; KKK History in Smithfield; Mortgage Gordian Knot; Roger Williams https://www.rifuture.org/progress-report-even-more-mike-riley-lies-kkk-history-in-smithfield-mortgage-gordian-knot/ https://www.rifuture.org/progress-report-even-more-mike-riley-lies-kkk-history-in-smithfield-mortgage-gordian-knot/#comments Tue, 09 Oct 2012 11:34:53 +0000 http://www.rifuture.org//?p=13957 Continue reading "Progress Report: Even More Riley Lies; KKK History in Smithfield; Mortgage Gordian Knot; Roger Williams"

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Downtown Providence from the Providence River. (Photo by Bob Plain)

First Mike Riley was telling lies about Congressman Jim Langevin in TV commercials. Now, we’re pretty certain he’s telling lies about RI Future to other reporters. Or, it’s just another example of why  Mike “McCarthyism” Riley is totally unfit to represent Rhode Island in Congress (we’ll offer more evidence of as much a little later this morning).

Read Dee DeQuattro’s post about Riley this morning and decide which you think it is.

Riley and Langevin debate, without candidate Abel Collins, on WPRI tonight at 7. The market’s leading TV news station blundered big time in not including Collins in the debate, and exacerbated the mistake by not being forthcoming with their reasoning for doing so. Journalism should err on the side of inclusion and explanation and WPRI did neither with their responsibility to host this particular congressional debate. Such decisions deserve scrutiny and ace reporters Tim White, Ted Nesi and others who work there would be demanding nothing less if the subject wasn’t their employer.

For a man who says he possesses uncommon integrity, the ProJo Politifact team sure does catch Brendan Doherty telling a lot of lies. Today, they refute his accusation that Congressman Cicilline, when mayor of Providence, “espoused a sanctuary city.” Doherty has been poltifacted six times and half of those times he wasn’t telling the truth. He was given a half-true and a mostly true and only once was he said to be telling the full truth. This from a candidate whose campaign is based around his opponent being distrustful.

Admit it, you wish you were too high-brow to pay attention to them but Dan McGowan makes great lists. Today’s list shows which RI communities have the highest rates of unemployment and it looks a lot like lists of the communities with the worst budget situations as well as public school high-stakes testing results. What does that indicate? (Hint: it isn’t the unions fault)

Thanks to Ed Fitzpatrick for joining RI Future in calling for the town of Smithfield to change the name of a local road named after a KKK leader … it seemed like a no-brainder to us, too, and we kept waiting for the rest of the state to join the call. But evidently Rhode Islanders were too busy rallying against civil liberties and looking for frightened voters in attics to care…

The mortgage crisis in Rhode Island, in case you didn’t know, is a Gordian knot – meaning untangling the mess may prove impossible without a special solution. That solution looks like it could be loan modifications.

Is True the Vote committing a criminal conspiracy by suppressing voters rights?

Disappointed with our choices for State House seats? Just be glad you don’t live in Arkansas, where candidates garner headlines like this one: Legislative Candidate Endorses Death Penalty For Rebellious Children In Book

October 9 is a pretty significant day in the history of progressive and/or radical politics:

In 1635, Rhode Island founder Roger Williams is banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

In 1940, John Lennon was born.

In 1967, Che Guevara was executed in Bolivia while trying to foment revolution there.

And in 1969, the National Guard breaks up protests related to the Chicago Eight trial. They were accused of inciting violence at the 1968 DNC Convention.

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Progress Report: Romney False Appeals to Middle Class; True the Vote Update; Taveras v. Raimondo; Mark Binder https://www.rifuture.org/progress-report-romney-falsely-appeals-to-middle-class-true-the-vote-update-taveras-v-raimondo/ https://www.rifuture.org/progress-report-romney-falsely-appeals-to-middle-class-true-the-vote-update-taveras-v-raimondo/#respond Thu, 04 Oct 2012 11:12:10 +0000 http://www.rifuture.org//?p=13856 Continue reading "Progress Report: Romney False Appeals to Middle Class; True the Vote Update; Taveras v. Raimondo; Mark Binder"

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Downtown Providence from the Providence River. (Photo by Bob Plain)

Presidential challengers almost always prevail over the incumbent in the first debate of the campaign, and to that end Mitt Romney and Barack Obama did not buck tradition as they faced off last night. But winning the Wednesday night battle might may come with some strings attached for the Republican candidate.

Despite his empty rhetoric about trickle down government (a meaningless phrase, by the way) Romney continually invoked the ideals of trickle up economics in his attempt to woo voters. The guy who deplores the 47 percent and thinks corporations are people made overtures to the middle class all night long … if you think anything about a Mitt Romney administration would benefit the middle class rather than the 1 percent, I’ve got some swamp land in Florida to sell you, and I’ll bet Dems use this flip-flop to their advantage throughout the rest of the race.

But that’s just one take … here are a slew of others, none so favorable to the president as mine…

The ProJo gets wise to the shady ways of True the Vote, a tea party-started group that is trying to purge voter rolls.

Ted Nesi on how close the polls show Angel Taveras and Gina Raimondo, the odds-on-favorites to be the next governor of Rhode Island: “they’re exactly tied at 57.9% statewide and exactly tied at 59.3% among Democrats. Raimondo’s approval rating among union households is slightly higher than Taveras’s, but Taveras has a bit more room to grow since fewer voters have a negative opinion of him and more don’t know him at all.”

Frequent RI Future contributor Mark Binder has turned to a former friend of his opponent Gordon Fox to run his campaign, according to GoLocal.

“I’m not going to say there’s a racial angle, but I’m not going to rule it out,” said James Vincent, president of the Providence chapter of the NAACP told the ProJo about embattled RIPTA head Charles Odimgbe’s suspension.

Planned Parenthood and local Dems tied Brendan Doherty to the Republican-fuled war against women. He attended a Women for Doherty event at the Westin, while outside liberal activists held a Women Are Watching counter-event.

Call me crazy, but I don’t think the fact that Claus von Bulow was accused of poisoning his wife in a Newport mansion necessarily makes it a more desirable place to own.

In the name of all things sacred in New England, please let Curt Schilling keep his bloody sock.

On this day in 1970, Janis Joplin died way too young … how can you not love a woman who sings with this much soul

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Tea Party Uses True the Vote Tactics to Stifle Votes https://www.rifuture.org/tea-party-uses-true-the-vote-tactics-to-stifle-votes/ https://www.rifuture.org/tea-party-uses-true-the-vote-tactics-to-stifle-votes/#comments Mon, 17 Sep 2012 15:35:49 +0000 http://www.rifuture.org//?p=13245 Continue reading "Tea Party Uses True the Vote Tactics to Stifle Votes"

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It turns out Anthony Gemma isn’t the only one using allegations of voter fraud to prop up his political agenda. Local tea party groups are doing so too, using both his tactics and his allegations, under the auspices of True the Vote.

“True the Vote’s plan is to scrutinize the validity of voter registration rolls and voters who appear at the polls,” according to an article in today’s New York Times. “Among those in their cross hairs: noncitizens who are registered to vote, those without proper identification, others who may be registered twice, and dead people.”

This all sounds well and good but read further into the story and you’ll find True the Vote is doing much more than just looking for voter fraud. Here’s what the Times reports about True the Votes efforts in the Wisconsin recall vote:

True the Vote began working in Wisconsin in 2011, the same year it received a $35,000 grant from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, which is based in Wisconsin and is a major backer of conservative causes, including Americans for Prosperity. The foundation’s president and chief executive, Michael Grebe, was Mr. Walker’s campaign chairman for his 2010 campaign and for the recall election, which he won.

The accountability board concluded that about 900,000 signatures were valid and, in a memorandum reviewing True the Vote’s work, criticized its methods. For example: Mary Lee Smith signed her name Mary L. Smith and was deemed ineligible by the group.

Signatures deemed “out of state” included 13 from Milwaukee and three from Madison. The group’s software would not recognize abbreviations, so Wisconsin addresses like Stevens Point were flagged if “Pt.” was used on the petition. Signatures were struck for lack of a ZIP code.

It’s pretty clear True the Vote has political motivations outside of cleaning up voter rolls. According to the Times, “it grew out of a Tea Party group, King Street Patriots, that [was] founded in Texas. An examination shows that it has worked closely with a variety of well-financed organizations, many unabashed in their desire to defeat President Obama.”

So why should Rhode Islanders care?

Because the local incarnation of the Tea Party is using True the Vote methodology to scrutinize elections here too.

This from the Ocean State Tea Party in Action’s August newsletter:

Marina Peterson of East Bay Patriots, is heading up a project to clean up voter rolls. The work must be done within the next couple of weeks. The work can be done on your own time, in your own home with the use of a computer.  Help identify potential voter problems – people registered at commercial properties or vacant lots, numerous people registered at one address, etc.

If you want to be part of a movement that helps protect the vote of the individual and stops the fraudulent casting of votes, then please sign up at http://www.truethevote.org/volunteer/.  The cost to register is $25.  Ocean State Tea Party in Action will reimburse you for this cost.
In fact, True the Vote is even trafficking in Gemma’s unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud lobbed at David Cicilline. In this post it links to a story from the American Spectator, but it’s really just a reprint from the local Tea Party group’s media ally the Ocean State Current, an arm of the conservative Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity.
Update: The East Bay Patriots say they are not a tea party group.
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