Roger Wheeler Beach

I have yet more photos of Rhode Island available here on Flickr. This time, the destination was Roger Wheeler beach in Narragansett. The sky and clouds were absolutely phenomenal, even though it was fairly chilly for a beach day smack dab in the middle of August.

As for what's new in Rhode Island, the venerable Newport Jazz Festival just wound up. I really, honestly had no idea Dave Brubeck was still alive., much less touring. Obviously, apologies are in order.

Lincoln Chafee launched a new campaign ad on TV called "Bully", which paints his Republican primary opponent Steve Laffey as some sort of lunatic in favor of old people dropping dead. Don't bother looking for it on his website, because it's not there. Having seen the ad, I'm just counting down the days until I can vote against Chafee.

The Providence Journal, ever eager to read too much into things, wonders if Chafee's situation is comparable to Joe "Joementum!" Lieberman's defeat in Connecticut. The answer is: probably not. You're not going to find Republican activists from around the country flooding Rhode Island with out of state money and activists looking to "punish" Chafee for being a raging DINO, largely because Republicans have worked to expand their base to include people like Chafee. While Democratic activists have sought to punish "heretics" like Lieberman for his pro-Iraq war stance, the Republicans were actually serious about looking for "converts", and creating a "big tent". I'm not happy about Chafee's voting record, or about his sleazy smears on Steve Laffey, but he'll certainly get my vote over Sheldon Whitehouse when push comes to shove.

In other news, more tedious business about the proposed Narragansett Indian casino. It's been put back on the ballot thanks to the Supreme Court, but I'm still not entirely enthused about having a large casino in West Warwick. Put it in Central Falls, and maybe I'm sold on the idea that it's going to pump money into the local economy, revitalize communities, and all that. West Warwick doesn't need any of that as much as Central Falls, after all.