Essay
We’ve written about this multiple times before, banning the master lever, also known as straight ticket or straight party voting. It’s that option at the top of a ballot where you can simply connect one line and vote for every candidate on the ballot affiliated with that party, in partisan races. I believe this should…
While filling in at WPRO last week, John Loughlin shared a political rumor that Governor Chafee might take a position in the Obama administration – in the Department of Energy as (and it’s possible that John was being facetious about this title) the Deputy Undersecretary of Twirlie Lightbulbs. In that possibly fictional position, Mr. Chafee…
An unanticipated (unprecedented) leap in employment just prior to this year’s presidential election brought the Current Population Survey (CPS) data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) an unusually high degree of technical scrutiny. As I’ve been noting, the seasonally adjusted and unadjusted results have been a bit peculiar. With data from December now available,…
First a disclaimer. I’ve been asking questions about this and trying to get information from various sources, but I think the questions coming from me, a known conservative, leads the receiver to believe I’m being sarcastic with my questions. I’m not. I’m being truly honest, as is what I’ll state below. The same-sex marriage bill…
Feeling hopeful, RI?; “top priority” is shown, not stated; RI gets fatherless children first; surviving sans regulation; surviving sans net income; and surviving sans a documented framework for working together. Continue reading on the Ocean State Current…
It took me a couple of read-throughs to put my finger on the eery blank space in Mike Stanton’s group interview with Rhode Island’s three most powerful politicians: House Speaker Gordon Fox, Governor Lincoln Chafee, and Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed. Although only the two legislators are officially Democrats — Fox from Providence and Paiva…
We’ve talked about the problems inherent in “big government” around here for, well, ever. More government means more taxes (ie; “revenue”), more regulations and more of government trying to pick winners and losers. Rhode Island is a perfect example. Despite the myriad problems in our state, our politicians don’t like dealing with the root causes.…
This column by Steve Frias in the Cranston Herald contains, among other things, some fascinating history about the evolution and implementation of public pensions and collective bargaining in RI. Some quotes highlighted by Frias from the early 1990’s in particular stand out, not so much because of their substance, though they are absolutely correct, but…
As it happens, somebody forwarded to me the following Wall Street Journal political diary entry by Allysia Finley on the same day that the Providence Journal’s Philip Marcello reported that the Republicans in the Rhode Island House are considering championing the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity’s proposal to eliminate the state’s sales tax. Continue…
It seems the RI Republicans in the State House might be finally stumbling on to an idea they can hang their hats on. Eliminating the state sales tax. Granted, it’s one that they may be simply saying “me too” on as the RI Center for Freedom and Prosperity suggested this back in June. However, that’s…