Vice President Spiro Agnew is quite possibly one of the least understood political figures in American history. Apparently, history is not the only one that’s prone to misunderstanding him. Rep. David Segal, using Agnew’s “nattering nabobs of negativism” quote to describe the Projo (of course, not anyone on the Left!), does a good job proving why no liberal should ever be allowed to quote him:

Rules to live by: Distrust the Projo, and quote Spiro Agnew whenever possible.

One should be skeptical of all these damn lists, but given the Projo’s obsession with RI’s rankings along any of a million metrics — especially when we turn up low — don’t you think that this should make the paper:

US News and World Report just ranked Rhode Island’s public high schools 4th-best in the country.

Of course, if they state that Rhode Island’s high schools are the 4th best (although there is currently no supporting documentation for this assertion’s basis), that either means: the country is in far worse shape than we thought; U.S. News and World Report is still not worth subscribing to; or their methodology is seriously flawed. No one (other than overpaid union hacks walking around in duck suits) seriously believes that Rhode Island’s public schools are anything to be bragging about, with the possible exception of Barrington High School.

Now, Vice President Agnew wasn’t known for too much — besides resigning — but he was perhaps best known for attacking his opponents with unusual, often alliterative epithets, including “nattering nabobs of negativism” , “pusillanimous pussyfooters”, and “hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history”.

In one of Agnew’s other quotes, which would seem all too applicable for that local liberal landfill of ludicrousness, he once characterized a group of opponents as “an effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals.”

Some have observed that the running totals available on the R.I. Secretary of State’s website seemingly indicate low numbers towards presidential candidates “qualifying for ballot placement” (QBP) in Rhode Island [1000 valid signatures are required]. There are several very good reasons for that. For one thing, like many things Rhode Island, the process is needlessly decentralized, inefficient, and just plain slow.

Instead of having a central location to turn in signatures, those who gathered them were required to turn them into 39 different local boards of canvassers in their respective cities and towns. There is a significant lag time between when those boards “validate” the names, addresses, and signatures submitted, and when they are then “qualified” (aka “certified”) by the R.I. Secretary of State’s office.

“Validation” is nothing more than looking up the name on the voter list to see if someone is currently a registered voter. They are not actually confirming whether that person was truly the one signing the nomination papers — merely that the name matches that of a registered voter (of course, no funny business would never happen in Rhode Island!). Needless to say, this process is labor intensive and time consuming.

Once a canvassing board “validates” a certain number of names on each sheet, they send the “certified” nomination papers to the Secretary of State’s office, to then be “qualified.” Once “qualified”, the numbers are then updated on the Secretary of State’s website as often as they are able. Although there are differences in terminology, for all practical purposes, “validation” and “qualification” are generally synonymous, and the numbers should be very close to each other. For example, a difference might exist if someone is listed as a registered voter in two R.I. cities, thereby causing a signature which was “validated” by a local board to be disqualified by the Secretary of State’s office. At least on the GOP side, I know that all the major candidates had well in excess of 1000 signatures “validated.” In a few cases, several thousand each.

P.S. One reason why Barack Obama’s numbers look great at present on their website, is that he got in most of his required signatures during the first weekend that the papers were made available to be signed, and turned them in quickly, thus allowing the canvassing employees to begin the “validiation” and “qualification” process earlier for him. It certainly does not mean that because he’s the only candidate listed that has a “QBP” listed next to his name, that he’ll be the only candidate on the ballot!

I guess a little public pressure works every now and then…

Breaking News from WPRI Ch. 12 (which also applies to WJAR Ch. 10):

The NFL has arranged with broadcast television partners CBS and NBC for an unprecedented three-way national simulcast of the NFL Network telecast of Saturday night’s New England Patriots at New York Giants game when the Patriots will try to become the first NFL team to go 16-0 in a regular season, NFL Commissioner ROGER GOODELL announced today.

“We have taken this extraordinary step because it is in the best interest of our fans,” Commissioner Goodell said. “What we have seen for the past year is a very strong consumer demand for NFL Network. We appreciate CBS and NBC delivering the NFL Network telecast on Saturday night to the broad audience that deserves to see this potentially historic game. Our commitment to the NFL Network is stronger than ever.”

CBS and NBC will carry the NFL Network feed of the game with BRYANT GUMBEL and CRIS COLLINSWORTH in the broadcast booth … The telecast begins at 8 p.m. ET with kickoff set at 8:15 p.m. Read the rest of this entry »

As most politically astute Rhode Islanders know, this Wednesday at 4:00pm is the local deadline for presidential candidates’ supporters here to turn in 1000 valid signatures to their boards of canvassers, in order to qualify candidates for ballot placement in the March 4th Rhode Island Primary.

Using my amazing psychic abilities (and having a general understanding of how the campaigns have been doing collecting signatures), I optimistically believe that 6 Republicans will qualify for ballot placement in Rhode Island after all the signatures are turned in and qualified: Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, Ron Paul, Mike Huckabee, and Fred Thompson.

Depending on how many signatures get disqualified, the number could just as easily be as low as 4. However, I still think that Huckabee and Thompson’s numbers are going to be just good enough to qualify, mainly due to some last minute volunteer help, making it 6 Republicans on the Rhode Island Republican Primary Ballot. It would have been nice to get all of those who wanted to be on the ballot on it, but that would require a much more robust GOP here, which at least at this point in time, does not yet exist.

I hate too think so far ahead, but really hope that the General Assembly does something to change the process for signature gathering for the 2012 president election (presuming the Apocalypse hasn’t just happened). It’s bad enough that the number of signatures required is so high. That they also need to be turned into 39 different boards of canvassers — and not a central location — is even worse. To top that off, trying to convince people to gather signatures during the holiday season is unnecessarily difficult. Perhaps they really do want less public participation in our democracy? [Yes, this is a rhetorical question.]

P.S. I’m stating all this despite Ari’s rather glum prediction on RI Future regarding how many GOP candidates will qualify for the Rhode Island Primary ballot. Again, my prediction: as low as 4, as high as 6. The key word here is “optimistic”!

We are currently working on cleaning up some of the CSS on this site, in order to make it more standards compliant. If you are using Internet Explorer to access this site, you may temporarily experience significant distortion when viewing the text on the right side. We know what is causing this (more or less), and the problem should be remediated shortly.

Generally, if you either refresh the page or maximize the page, the problem will temporarily correct itself. This problem apparently only occurs with Internet Explorer (yet another reason to get a Mac). In the interim, we suggest using another browser, such as Mozilla’s Firefox to access the page. Thank you.

P.S. Please keep in mind that up until 6 months ago, I had never even heard of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), so I’m on a big learning curve!

Considering the amount of attention that Gov. Mike Huckabee received last week for allegedly using a subliminal cross (otherwise known as a “bookshelf,” for those of us not looking for a reason to criticize him) in his recent “Merry Christmas” ad, I’m a little more than surprised that the MSM and Democrats (who are more or less the same) have largely given a pass to Sen. John McCain for actually drawing the Cross in the sand, and then having the image of the Cross superimposed right next to his face. Nothing subliminal about that, that’s for sure!

That being said, McCain’s ad emphasizes his major positive attribute (heroic service to his country) and generally comes across as genuine. Regardless of one’s thoughts about the good senator, from a purely political POV, it’s an excellent ad.

The East Providence Republican City Committee [of which I am Treasurer] had a Wine and Cheese Holiday Social at the home of E.P. School Committeeman Steve Santos this Thursday evening.

Besides our own city committee members, we were very honored that both Warwick Mayor Scott Avedesian and former Cranston Mayor Steve Laffey visited E.P. to aid our local effort to get signatures for all of the Republican presidential candidates, as well as to enjoy the evening with free food, drink, and gossip. We were also pleased that several people whom we’ve not met previously, made the effort to come to the event to provide their needed signatures.

Despite occasional rumors to the contrary, Steve and Scott got along very well, were completely cordial, and no blood was shed. One thing that they were in complete agreement about [and there is no way on God's green earth that I would repeat the exact verbiage here], is that a certain mayor of a large city in Rhode Island — which shall remain nameless — did a very poor job handling a recent snow situation.

East Providence GOP Holiday Social Photo Set

We will be doing some testing and upgrading of the comment pop-up windows, as well as cleaning up several other background items, such as CSS, XHTML, and JavaScript, over the next several days. Besides providing “content,” we’re also trying to provide it to you in a unique way (keeping in mind that this is our first blog, so please be patient).

Although we’ve only been public for a little over a month now, we’re almost certainly already the most modularized and widgetized website in Rhode Island. You may notice pop-ups and other related functions [when activated] may appear distorted, disabled or could be missing temporarily, so don’t be alarmed! Everything should otherwise work. Thank you.

P.S. If the comment pop-up window is inactive, you may still leave a comment by clicking the story title / permalink at the top of each story to access the posts directly.

Congratulations to local blogger / news aggregator Tom Shevlin of RI Report for landing a pretty neat assignment as the sole citizen journalist from Rhode Island for MTV’s “Choose or Lose” Election ‘08 coverage.

I guess they could have done worse … it could have been one of those “progressive” RI Future folks!

Here’s a bit from MTV’s Press Release:

New York, NY – MTV, as part of its Emmy-winning “Choose or Lose” campaign (www.ChooseorLose.com), today unveiled “Street Team ’08″: a specially recruited group of 51 citizen journalists – one from every state and Washington, D.C. – who will cover the 2008 elections from a youth perspective and tailor their reports for mobile devices. The members will contribute weekly, multi-media reports (short form videos, blogs, animation, photos, podcasts) that will be distributed via a soon-to-launch WAP site, MTV Mobile, Think.MTV.com and to the more than 1,800 sites in the Associated Press Online Video Network. Carefully selected by MTV after an extensive nationwide search, the one-of-a-kind press corps will be armed with mobile media like laptops, video cameras and cell phones, and charged with uncovering the untold political stories that matter most to young people in their respective states…

Read All About It: MTV News

For Romney, the timing of this announcement couldn’t have been better. Tom may be a one trick pony, but he’s been very consistent in performing it. From Tancredo’s POV, he’s already “won,” by getting so much attention focused on this issue.

Tom Tancredo dropped out of the Republican field for president today and backed former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

“At this point in time, (Romney) is the best hope for our cause,” Tancredo said during a news conference in downtown Des Moines. The cause that vaulted the Colorado congressman into the race — illegal immigration — also motivated him to abandon his pursuit of the nomination, Tancredo said.

His continued presence in an election he could not win, he said, may have helped the campaigns of Gov. Mike Huckabee and Sen. John McCain — candidates Tancredo says are soft on immigration.

Dianne Bystrom, an Iowa State University political science professor, said Tancredo’s exit and endorsement of Romney could shake up the volatile Republican field.

“Tancredo throwing his support behind Romney comes at a key time when Romney is trying to fight off the surge of Mike Huckabee,” she said. “For Romney, it probably couldn’t have come at a better time.”

Several polls show Romney and Huckabee in a tight race for frontrunner status in Iowa leading up to the Jan. 3 caucuses. Tancredo claimed victory on the immigration issue, arguing that his stance in favor of strict enforcement forced the entire Republican field to move toward his position.

“Even the Democrats are tortured by the fact that a misstatement on the issue, like for instance suggesting support for (New York) Gov. (Eliot) Spitzer?s plan to give driver’s licenses to illegal aliens, will cost them dearly at the polls,” he said. “Who would’ve thought this could have happened six months ago?”…

Read All About It: The Des Moines Register

SEES THE WIN AS KEY TO STRATEGY FOR 2008 CAMPAIGN

Rhode Island Republican Party Chairman Giovanni Cicione congratulated newly elected House Representative Steve Coaty of Newport upon his victory Tuesday night and says the win for the District 75 seat is a foreshadow of the 2008 campaign.

“Steve Coaty’s win represents a huge and important victory,” Cicione says. “Coaty talked repeatedly on the campaign trail about the out of control spending by the dominant party at the statehouse, how it’s left us with a huge deficit and how our taxes are bankrupting families. The message got through loud and clear.”

Cicione portrays Coaty as a hard working candidate who embodies the type of candidate the Party seeks for the General Assembly races ahead in 2008.

“Steve Coaty campaigned very, very hard, he worked his heart out, he went out there and met every voter he could, and he carried the right message that one-Party rule by the Democrats at the state house has gotten us into deep fiscal trouble and it’s time for new leaders up there.”

Read All About It: R.I. Republican Party

WELCOME BACK TO THE OCEAN STATE REPUBLICAN, PAT!

You saw it here first…

In news that should hopefully give Republicans in Rhode Island a reason not to jump off the Newport Bridge, Republican Steve Coaty handily beat J. Clement “Bud” Cicilline — a longtime Newport insider who served in the RI Senate from 1992 to 2002; who is also uncle of Providence Mayor David Cicilline — in the District 75 Special Election today. Of course, this special election was called after the death of longtime Representative Pat Paul Crowley*. This is the first time in a while that I can remember a Republican taking a Democrat seat.

The polls closed at 9:00pm and the results were as follows:

Steve Coaty (R): Total 869 (63%)
Bud Cicilline (D): Total 511 (37%)

Total Votes Cast: 1380

St. John’s Church: 116-41
Thompson School: 128-72
Donovan Manor: 97-102
Clarke School: 74-41
Newport Library: 69-74
St. Augustin’s: 181-79
Carey School: 204-102

* Thank you to Mike for noting that it was Paul Crowley who died, and not Pat!

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Mr. Warren’s pathetic and half-hearted performance on John DePetro’s radio show earlier today largely contributed to his rather swift departure. At least give him credit for being so honest about his total lack of effort and attention…

From the Projo 7 to 7 Blog:

Robert J. Warren, the executive director of the state emergency management agency, was fired today by Governor Carcieri and Maj. Gen. Robert T. Bray.

The move comes after government officials were taken to task for their response to last Thursday’s snowstorm and a short time after a meeting of the Emergency Management Advisory Council to discuss the litany of operational problems after the storm.

The storm caused gridlock throughout the greater Providence area and northern region of the state, resulting in commutes that lasted three to six hours in the nation’s smallest state. In Providence, about a hundred school children were stranded on school buses for several hours. The city emergency management director and the mayor were unaware the children were stranded until hours later.

Warren told The Journal last week that he was unaware of the gridlock until around 5:30 p.m. He said he’d gone home to South Kingstown and then returned to the EMA that night, when he was notified by a grandfather at 9 p.m. that children were on school buses caught in the storm. Warren said he offered Providence assistance but was refused.

Read the rest of this entry »

In what I consider to be one of the best “non-political” political commercials in this or any other political season — entitled “What Really Matters” — Governor Mike Huckabee plays on his personal strengths (i.e., warmth, genuineness, empathy, etc.) while sharing the reason for the Christmas season. He mentions that Christmas is actually about celebrating the birth of Christ! Good Lord! Code Orange Theocracy Alert! Paging M. Charles Bakst!

Even more (for the conspiracy theorists among us), if you concentrate on the white bookshelf between Huckabee and the Christmas tree, it seems to take on the shape of The Cross. Could it be a subliminal message? I certainly hope so!

The Rhode Island Republican Assembly would like to thank everyone who was able to attend and enjoy our Annual Christmas Dinner Party this past Saturday, December 15th, at the Coventry-West Greenwich Elk’s Lodge. We’d also like to thank the weather for being cooperative for a change!

We shared a great evening of friendship, relaxation, food and drinks, and live entertainment, with several special guests. Of course, we want to especially thank NFRA President Dr. Rod Martin and his lovely wife Sherri for taking the time to travel from Florida (yes, Florida!) to enjoy the party with us. Rod gave a very inspiring speech (a “Christmas present”) about what’s been wrong with the Republican Party, and how we can go about fixing it. We would also like to thank the Hon. Steve Laffey and his increasingly large family, as well as Rep. John Loughlin for sharing the evening with us.

Besides all the fun, we did some fundraising, including a Silent Auction and a 2008 GOP Presidential Straw Poll. We’re going to hold off announcing the results of the Straw Poll for just a little longer, so stay tuned for that. Some event photos are below.

RIRA Annual Christmas Dinner Party Photo Set

WE NEED YOUR HELP TO GET ALL THE REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES FOR PRESIDENT ON THE R.I. PRIMARY BALLOT!

Each Republican candidate for President needs to get 1,000 signatures on his nomination papers, in order to get on the ballot for Rhode Island’s March 4 Presidential Primary. We have been doing this since last Thursday (the first day we were allowed), and they must be in to local Boards of Canvassers by 4:00 P.M. on December 26.

Based on our progress so far, we are very concerned that WE WILL FAIL in this effort to get our 10 GOP candidates on the ballot.

Let me explain why we are monitoring this so closely, and why we are getting concerned about getting all the candidates on the ballot. It would seem like we have enough people doing this (with 59 volunteers getting signatures; and 22 meetings, parties or events where we are collecting them. But we are not getting the turnout at these 22 events that we expected; due to weather, the time of year, conflicts with Patriots’ games. etc. Less than a third of the number of people who normally attend GOP Committee meetings are showing up at these events. So we have to keep up the push, or else we will FAIL in our goal to get everyone on the ballot.

CAN YOU HELP? We are looking for additional volunteers to get signatures for the 10 GOP candidates. Even if you can only get signatures from your immediate family members (and maybe a few friends & neighbors), it would be a big help. E-mail Dave at DaveTalan [at] aol [dot] com or call (401) 941-3662, if you would be willing to take some papers! We will get them out to you. Read the rest of this entry »

While I was in traffic nearly all day, it occurred to me to break out my camera phone and take some documentary visual evidence, just in case the RIDOT tried to deny that we had a snowstorm or something like that.

I have 28 photos in this set, which I took over the course of a 9 1/2 hour period (2 1/2 hours from Providence to Narragansett, and 7 hours from Narragansett to East Providence). I think I might have even more than the 28 here stored elsewhere on my phone directly, but I’m just too tired to figure out how to do that right now!

Feel free to use any of the photos herein with attribution. Thanks.

Disaster in December Photo Set

U.S. Attorney Robert Corrente announced at 11:00 am today that his office has reached an agreement with Blue Cross-Blue Shield of Rhode Island, wherein they will pay $20 million into a fund, avoid corporate prosecution, and will otherwise cooperate with the government, as it continues with its “Operation Dollar Bill” corruption investigation.

Interestingly, it was mentioned that the $20 million fund will be administered by The Rhode Island Foundation — which, as you may recall, also administered the Fund for Providence, which served as a means of “supplementing” the salary of certain Providence city employees with anonymous corporate and individual contributions. More to come!