The Rhode Islander

Summer in Rhode Island

2007-07-31T02:04:00.000-04:00

Has it really been a month? More than a month? If I've been remiss in updating The Rhode Islander, it's because it's summer. And what better place to spend those hot summer months than in the Ocean State? Summer in Rhode Island means heading to the shore for some sun and surf. Why go all the way to Cape Cod when the Biggest Little State in the Union has miles and miles of the finest beaches in New England?

If you're thinking of visiting, be sure to check out the Providence Journal's Summer Guide for a list of beaches in the Ocean State, including the all important table of parking fees. Hey, sometimes you have to pay for the good things in life, but I assure you - it's worth it.

My street was on fire - again.

2007-06-19T03:26:00.000-04:00

Urban living is full of challenges people out in the sticks and suburbs don't have to deal with. On Federal Hill, I have to put up with all of them. I generally do so with good humor. Rats? I can ignore them. Crime? Hasn't affected me. But today was the second triple decker fire on my street in a year (here was the first). If this keeps up, I'm definitely moving to Warwick.

Armed junkie on the prowl in North Providence

2007-06-18T00:33:00.001-04:00

A man armed with a gun robbed a Brooks Pharmacy on Mineral Spring Avenu e in North Providence on Saturday morning. Did he take the cash? Nope. He took the OxyContin, of course. For quite a while, opiate addicts have been turning to the legal painkiller OxyContin to get their fix. Rhode Island pharmacies have been held up before, but this robbery has a twist. Apparently, the hold up man attempted a bank robbery in Cranston the day before.

Sounds like a job for The Man to me.

New photos: Warwick

2007-06-18T00:10:00.000-04:00

I admit - I haven't been updating The Rhode Islander as often as I have been Dictators of the World. However! This weekend brings new, yes new!, photos of the lovely Ocean State. This time, I've got the goods on Oakland Beach in Rhode Island's second largest city: lovely, crime-free Warwick.

Satisfy your curiosity by seeing the entire photo set over at Flickr.

New photos: Cranston

2007-06-04T01:47:00.000-04:00

Well, let me clear this up. I haven't exactly gone on a picture taking safari around the lovely city of Cranston itself so much as I took a whole bunch of pictures of an older lady's Buick going up in flames at a strip mall on Route 5.

Still! The photos are dramatic ... well, maybe "dramatic" is too strong a word, but I've got the photoset right here on Flickr for your enjoyment.

Jenny, I got your number!

2007-05-19T11:47:00.001-04:00

You know the song, right? Tommy Tutone's "Jenny (867-5309)"? If not, the video might ring some bells:

Anyway, Lincoln based Gem Plumbing is betting you remember the song, and they've been using the infamous number both in the 401 (Rhode Island) and 617 (metro-Boston) area codes for a few years. So why are they getting static from a company who has the same number with a toll free (800) exchange? Read about it here. Personally, I'm rooting for the local guys on this one.

"Bad News" Barnes busted

2007-05-16T04:27:00.000-04:00

Former ABA All-Star and NBA train wreck Marvin "Bad News" Barnes is in trouble again. The Providence native (and resident) was arrested in Johnston by The Man, who found a bag of cocaine in his SUV. Barnes, who was easily the most talented basketball player ever to come from the Ocean State, acknowledged he's still having trouble with cocaine, saying "I'm still getting the help I need".

As usual, I wish Bad News Barnes all the best, but damn, man ... you can do better than this, right?

Ouch

2007-05-10T03:04:00.000-04:00

OK, I've been seriously remiss about updating The Rhode Islander lately, focusing instead on Dictators of the World. What can I say? People just can't seem to get enough about world dictators! Add to the fact that I haven't taken any new photos for a while, and, well ...you get the idea.

I do have a tidbit to tide you over, though. Former Governor Bruce Sundlun is onto something, calling for Rhode Island students to learn about our state's history. Schools in Texas make Texas history a mandatory subject, so why not make Rhode Island history available as an elective subject?

New photos will be coming soon, and since it's spring, this will inevitably involve a trip to the shoreline.

New photos: Providence

2007-04-23T00:28:00.001-04:00

The week long nor'easter is history! Saturday was sunny and warm, and that means new photos. This time, I've added new photos of Providence from the State House, to Kennedy Plaza, to Benefit St.

I've put the pictures up on Flickr, so head on over and get an eyeful.

Earth Day

2007-04-18T09:51:00.000-04:00

My 1996 Crown Victoria has entered Iowahawk's prestigious Earth Day Contest. The photo I submitted is from Narragansett, but I guess I should have specified that I live in Providence? Explaining Rhode Island's geographic subtleties get tricky once you're west of the mighty Mississippi anyway, but I'm certainly glad to see my car up there. Al Gore had better watch his fat ass, because those juicy carbon credits are mine.

No way for Imus Way

2007-04-12T02:23:00.000-04:00

Does anyone outside the Huffington Post actually give a damn about the Don Imus controversy? Well, the Providence chapter of the NAACP does. Sort of. They've asked the city of Providence to rename "Imus Way" to "Jackie Robinson Way".

Back in 1996, mayor Vincent "Buddy" Cianci, a regular guest on the Don Imus show, renamed a tiny, almost vestigial, stretch of Aborn Street between the Dunkin' Donuts Center (then named the Providence Civic Center) and the Holiday Inn "Imus Way" as a gesture of, well, something, to the skeletal talk show host. A sign designating the strip as "Imus Way" was apparently erected as well. By the time the state took ownership of the Civic Center in 2005, the sign was already gone. What's more, Buddy's ceremonial renaming was apparently just that: ceremonial. "Imus Way" is not an address that is actually registered with the city or state, and it doesn't appear on any maps (Google maps takes a stab at it, but fails).

So, with apologies to the NAACP and all involved, I propose an idea: let's keep moronic disc jockeys and identity politics out of city government as much as humanly possible. Neither Jackie Robinson nor Don Imus have anything to do with Providence, and frankly, the city can find better uses for taxpayer money than ceremonially renaming anything to suit interest groups, whether they're dessicated talk show hosts or identity politics lobbying groups.

Does that sounds good to anyone besides me?

Get ready

2007-04-09T01:54:00.000-04:00

Get ready, folks. Former Providence mayor Vincent "Buddy" Cianci will be coming out of jail this summer, and you can bet he'll be returning to the Ocean State. Lock up your daughters, lock up your wives, and lock up your no-bid contracts! While I doubt he'll be returning to City Hall, I will certainly keep my eyes peeled on Federal Hill, camera in hand, for Buddy prowling around the restaurants and bars. I wonder if he'd pose for a picture with yours truly if I told him I'd bought a couple of jars of his signature pasta sauce?

New photos: Warren

2007-04-09T01:34:00.000-04:00

The weather was as bad as the lighting this weekend, but lo and behold, I have pictures of yet another lovely Rhode Island town! This weekend, I had a chance to take some shots of the town of Warren in the heart of America's smallest real county*. I have created a set for the town right here on Flickr for browsing.

* "New York County", aka, Manhattan, is slightly smaller geographically than Bristol County, RI, but let's face it - a city does not make a county, much less one neighborhood of a much larger city.

New photos: Roger Williams Park

2007-04-02T04:32:00.000-04:00

Spring has arrived, and do you know what that means? Why, new photos of Rhode Island, of course. I've added pictures of Roger Williams Park in Providence to my collection of Providence photos on Flickr, viewable right here.

I hope to go back sometime around May, by which time the grass will have turned from dingy early spring brown to a luscious green.

Kathy Sierra sucks. Sorry, it's true.

2007-03-29T06:01:00.000-04:00

Necessary disclaimer: this has nothing to do with Rhode Island.

That being said ...

I don't even know where to start with this nonsense. If you haven't caught up on the Kathy Sierra debacle, now is a good time. Blogger and author has cried foul after "staring into the Goatse.cx of the internet's soul". The solution? A "Blogger's Code of Conduct". In the process, Kathy has transformed herself, solely by virtue of her brush with trolls, from a D list internet celebrity to a C list internet celebrity.

My reaction?

Bitch, please.

If you're going to pull the "I am woman hear me roar" act, you're going to realize, sooner or later, that any halfway visible blogger cum internet celebrity is, eventually, going to expose themselves to crazies. This goes for the men, too. You found people are sexist? Rude? Abusive? Scary? Oh no, not that. It's almost as if the internet is serious business! So you're scared? Of what, exactly? And you think who else needs to take it seriously? Everyone? The same everyone who's supposed to tailor their blog posts to conform to whose standards of niceness and decency, exactly?

I'll take a pass on your drama, unwarranted self-importance, and victim complex, Kathy. Count me the fuck out.

We lose - again

2007-03-26T01:47:00.000-04:00

Well, Rhode Island came close, but once again, the Ocean State is cigar-less. Danielle Lacourse of North Providence came in second to Miss Tennessee in the 2007 Miss USA pageant, the highest finish by any Rhode Island contestant. She could still, conceivably, win the top spot in the event that Miss Tennessee is "unable to perform her duties", and more importantly, she seems to have had fun doing it.

Rhode Island has never won the top spot in the Miss USA or Miss America pageant - a fact memorably lampooned on Seinfeld:

JERRY: I'm going out with one of the Miss America contestants, you wanna go?

KRAMER: What state?

JERRY: Rhode Island.

KRAMER: They're never in contention.

GEORGE: How do you know?

KRAMER: Because I've seen every Miss America pageant since I was six!

Made in Rhode Island

2007-03-23T04:00:00.000-04:00

First we had Rhody Fresh milk, and now Rhody Raised beef? I do believe we are one step closer to the elusive goal of the first ever cheeseburger made entirely of ingredients from Rhode Island. I am officially offering a $1 reward - plus Rhode Island grown french fries - to the first gourmand to put it all together. Top it off with Rhode Island bacon, and I'll up the reward to a whopping $2. Let the mad scramble for the prize money begin ... NOW.

"I would kill you if I could"

2007-03-22T00:53:00.000-04:00

Let's say for a moment that, for whatever reason, you really hated Rhode Island governor Donald Carcieri. Let's also suppose, again for the sake of argument, that you wanted to let him know that you'd like to kill him. What would you do?

I think we can all agree we would not do what 59 year old Robert Pontarelli of West Warwick just did. In a fit of pique for reasons he apparently would rather not name, Pontarelli left two phone messages with the state's Office of Constituent Affairs last Friday night, telling the Governor, among other things, "I would kill you if I could" and "you've never had a round pass by your head".

While declining to detail why he was mad at the governor, Pontarelli was kind (and stupid) enough to leave his name and address in his phone messages. State aides heard the messages on Monday, and contacted the Rhode Island State Police on Tuesday to have a chat with Pontarelli about a felony charge of threatening a public offical and making harassing phone calls. Pontarelli is $25,000 lighter in the pocket and out on bail while awaiting a hearing.

Congratulations then, Robert Pontarelli, for being the dumbest man in Rhode Island this week. I wish we had an award for you, but I suppose your brief notoriety will simply have to do.

Looking for Eastwick

2007-03-21T04:22:00.000-04:00

A transplant from Pennsylvania spends a day searching for John Updike's Eastwick and finds something much more interesting: the real Rhode Island. Were you aware that:

"Once you cross the state line, whether at Pawtucket or Westerly, a subtle change occurs, a cheerful dishevelment, a contempt for appearances, a chimerical uncaring"?

No? Well, I suppose that's just Updike being Updike, but this short essay by Rory Schuler is a refreshing look at a real place where Quahog and Eastwick don't actually exist.

Woonsocket is decadent and depraved

2007-03-20T01:30:00.000-04:00

Remember Rebecca Arnold and David Prata? Sure you do. They were the Woonsocket couple who got in hot water with the state after teaching their daughter the facts of life up close and personal. According to my statistics webpage, a whole lot of people have come here searching for "Rebecca Arnold and David Prata", so I figured an update is due on the story.

Well, Arnold and Prata have been sent through the state's judicial wringer and came out of it with three years of probation. Apparently, the state didn't want a conviction badly enough to put the child on the witness stand - a fairly understandable decision since I imagine she's already fairly mortified at her current level of notoriety among her peers. While Arnold lost visitation rights to her daughter, the state did make it clear that she and her boyfriend were never accused of actually molesting her daughter - a fairly important distinction in this day and age.

UPDATE: My readership statistics are over 10 times higher than normal for this post. Would one of you kind readers let me know how you found out about these two idiots from Woonsocket in the first place?

So what's new? Well ...

2007-03-19T01:59:00.000-04:00

Well, frankly, the Ocean State has been the quiet state in March. There has been an update on one story I've covered here, the proposed closing of two Portuguese consulates. After intense political pressure on the part of the region's congressional delegations, and some good ol' fashioned bitching and moaning, the Portuguese government has thrown in the towel and decided to keep all four of their New England consulates open. How do you say, "it's not my Euros you're wasting" in Portuguese?

Looking towards April, spring will arrive soon, and with it, the chance to take more photos of Rhode Island. Ideally, I'd like to head into the ChaRiHo neck of the woods and get some photos of the lesser visited side of our state, but hey, I'll cross that bridge when we get there.

Arrests made in Stop & Shop fraud scheme.

2007-02-28T05:45:00.000-05:00

Four Armenian men who traveled to Rhode Island from California were arrested at a Stop & Shop in Coventry yesterday after store employees noticed one of the men tampering with one of the store's keypads. According to the Rhode Island State Police and United States Secret Service Electronic Crimes Task Force, a total of $115,000 was stolen from 1,100 accounts at the Coventry store alone.

If convicted on all charges, the men face up to fifteen years in prison each. As reported earlier, similar tampering was found elsewhere, but so far, the only stolen data used to commit bank fraud came from the Coventry store.

And as if that weren't enough, Ocean Staters can sleep easier tonight knowing that Secretary of State Ralph Mollis' ne'er-do-well brother has been arrested - again. For those keeping score at home, Mollis' teenaged son was arrested for shoplifting, his stepson was arrested for attempted murder, and his brother has been arrested for serving alcohol to minors for a second time.

Ralph had better put a halt to his before his wife gets any ideas. I'm just saying.

Stop those presses!

2007-02-22T10:37:00.000-05:00

The blog belonging WSAR AM's resident "portly, pint sized Portuguese political pundit" Keri Rodrigues has vanished (see here)!

A day after receiving a letter from Fall River, MA mayoral candidate Brad Kilby that alleged Rodrigues made libelous comments on air, the blog disappeared. The last post was a defiant rant by the blogmistress laughing at the aggrieved party's stated intention to pursue legal means of redress if necessary.

Whoops! Victory for Brad Kilby! May we infer that WSAR management PWNED their pugnacious pundit? It probably didn't help that the pundit's blogspot URL included the station's call sign, creating the impression that her views reflected the views of ownership and management. Those are, I suppose, the breaks. The Rhode Islander will be investigating this breaking story, and talking to former Keri Rodrigues Show blog regulars Lefty and Professor Inertia to get the straight scoop.

UPDATE: The former URL now redirects to an adult site?!

UPDATE II: Lefty has posted the third part of our continuing series on border disputes between Rhode Island and Massachusetts! We'll be getting his take on the "pundit to porno" scandal soon.

UPDATE III: I was going to talk to Professor Inertia for his take, but ... eh. He's pretty boring. Besides, once Inertia is at rest, it's a bitch to get him moving.

Celona readies for the big house

2007-02-20T14:16:00.000-05:00

Sometimes, political corruption in Rhode Island doesn't pay. Former State Senator John Celona, already facing federal jail time for influence peddling, will be tacking on another one and a half years in the ACI after pleading no contest to corruption related charges.

I have to hand it to Attorney General Patrick Lynch (horribly designed web page here) for getting serious about cracking down on the state's notorious corrupt politicians. If only his predecessor had 1/10th of the same zeal.

Lest I forget ...

2007-02-20T03:17:00.000-05:00

Speaking as a die hard Boston Celtics fan, this has been a long and rough season for the men in green. A series of injuries led to an 18 game losing streak, and as of today, the Celtics have the worst record in the league.

Still, while waiting for the draft lottery, we can still find something to stand up and cheer for. To wit: last Saturday's NBA All-Star dunk contest, where the Celtics' own Gerald Green electrified the crowd on his way to winning the contest. Yeah, I know - it's no substitute for making the playoffs, but it was great fun all the same. Especially when he paid homage with the "pump the Reeboks no-look dunk" that won it all for Dee Brown in 1991:

Oh great.

2007-02-20T02:55:00.000-05:00

The Stop & Shop grocery chain has discovered that some ATM/credit card keypads in their Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts stores have been tampered with, leading to the theft of customer credit card information. Credit card information has been confirmed stolen from the locations in Coventry and Cranston, and tampered key pads were discovered in Coventry and Johnston, while tampered keypads were discovered in Providence, Warwick, Bristol, and Seekonk, Massachusetts.

I've been to two of these stores, and needless to say, I'm checking my statements with fine toothed comb. I think it's time to switch to Shaw's for good.

Snow photos? No.

2007-02-15T06:09:00.000-05:00

Yeah. So, I promised to take pictures of Rhode Island in all of its snowy glory after the long anticipated snowstorm hit. The problem is, Rhode Island hardly got any actual snow. We did, however, get lovely sleet and freezing rain, which promptly froze into a three inch thick layer of ice covering cars, buildings and roads. It's really not very picturesque. Still, there's plenty of winter left, and it has to snow one of these days. Right? Right.

On a different note, this article in the Providence Journal (registration required) about the North Providence police department replacing their fleet with Dodge Chargers depressed me to no end. Why? Oh, I have my reasons. I only hope I can get into the auction when they put their old Ford Crown Victorias up for sale.

Completely unrelated note: Dictators of the World has been lavishly updated. Come to think of it, twice as many people read DotW than this blog. Could it be that people are more interested in dictators than Rhode Island? Perish the thought!

In Woonsocket, it's girls gone wild.

2007-02-13T05:16:00.000-05:00

What the hell is going on with women in Woonsocket lately?

Let's start with Ana Rivera and Maribel Santiago. Last month, Ana Rivera's daughter Amanda was suspended from Woonsocket Middle School for what appears to be a variety of misdeeds (apparently making threatening remarks and inappropriate dress), but that didn't stop her from pursing a grudge against her sworn enemy (middle schoolers with sworn enemies?) Grechel Santiago.

After vowing to take Grechel down on her MySpace page, Amanda convinced her mother Ana to drive her to school so she could get gully with her rival, Grechel. What Amanda and her mother didn't know is that Grechel's mother, Maribel Santiago, was with her at school. Before long, the girls started fighting, and anyone could yell "catfight!', their mothers went after each other. A vice principal who attempted to break up the brawl got socked in the eye by Maribel Santiago, and by this time, a large crowd had gathered to soak it all in. Someone finally called The Man, after which, six people (the girls, their mothers, and two other students who threatened the cops) were hauled off to jail.

This made nationwide news, embarrassing the city of Woonsocket to no end, but hey, it was an isolated incident right? No way.

One mother later, Woonsocket mother Robin Sevigny drove to a school bus stop and waited for her 14 year old daughter, and her 14 year old niece, to get off the bus. Sevigny's daughter walked over to her mother's car, said something to her, and before you could say "Jesus, not again!", Robin Sevigny walked up to her own niece, slapped her, and held her down to the ground. She called her daughter over to start hitting her while she held the girl down on the ground. Apparently, the girl and her cousin had been arguing over a boy, and escalated after threats were made on one of the girls' MySpace pages.

But now comes the weirdest, and dumbest, story of them all. Woonsocket mother Rebecca Arnold can more or less forget about seeing her 11 year old daughter ever again after being arrested for child neglect charges. Child neglect in itself isn't so weird, but the circumstances here are just bizarre.

Arnold's daughter had returned to live with her father in North Adams, MA when she told one of her teachers that her mother and her mother's boyfriend, one David Prata, engaged in lewd acts with each other in front of the then 8 year old girl "for educational purposes". The teacher contacted the Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth and Families to investigate the complaint. Investigator Vanessa Ciesla probably wasn't prepared for how easy the investigation would be. Both of them freely admitted performing a dazzling array of explicit acts in front of their daughter, and didn't, like, see the big deal, man. The report noted in a dazzling mastery of understatement:

"Mr. Prata said that he and [the girl’s] mother believe in a free and open relationship and don’t want to hide anything from [the girl]."

And what was the mother's rationale for her overeager readiness to get it on with her boyfriend, on numerous occasions, in front of her own 8 year old daughter?

“When I was married to my first husband, my mother-in-law and husband would make fun of me” because, Arnold said, she didn’t know a slang term for oral sex. “I didn’t want anyone to make fun of [her daughter]."

Gah. If anyone can think of a stupider reason to go to jail and alienate their children, by all means, share it with me. And for Woonsocket's sake? I hope Woonsocket women find a more suitable outlet for their aggression and lust. Like politics.

Finally - snow is on the way.

2007-02-13T04:01:00.000-05:00

After a long dry and gray winter, Rhode Island will be receiving some snow this week ...

... to be followed by an ice storm and a nor'easter. Could we be looking at getting blasted by bombogenesis again this week? I'm not sure, but I will be taking some pictures when the Ocean State freezes over.

The border is ... where? Part II

2007-02-08T17:25:00.000-05:00

If you haven't read part 1 of my series on the history of Rhode Island's border disputes with Massachusetts, now would be a good time to do so. It might also be a good time to read Lefty's examination of the issue from the Massachusetts side as well.

Despite the acquisition of a royal charter from King Charles II, the demarcation of the Eastern Rhode Island border remained in dispute. When petitioners from Rhode Island informed the King that Rhode Island's neighbors were coveting land granted in the original charter, the King graciously granted Rhode Island a new patent in 1693 extending Rhode Island's boundaries to include land "three miles east and northeast" of Narragansett Bay, despite the existing claim to this land by Plymouth Colony. When Plymouth protested, the King appointed a survey commission to settle the dispute. Unfortunately for Rhode Island, the commission found in favor of Massachusetts.

The border remained the same after Plymouth Colony merged with Massachusetts in 1691. In 1740, however, Rhode Island tried once again to secure the land rights granted in the 1693 patent. Why? Well, timing appears to have a lot to do with it. Having just decided a New Hampshire boundary dispute with Massachusetts in New Hampshire's favor, Rhode Island sensed that King George II might be amenable to Rhode Island's claims under the 1693 patent.

Rhode Island guessed right. King George II appointed another set of commissioners to settle the dispute between Massachusetts and Rhode Island, resulting in decision extremely favorable to Rhode Island. The decision was made to grant Rhode Island all points in a three mile radius from the Providence River and eastward into Narragansett Bay, in adherence with the 1693 patent. Overnight, the present day towns of Bristol, Warren, Barrington, Cumberland, Tiverton and Little Compton were transferred from Massachusetts to Rhode Island, forming all of present day Bristol County and adding considerably to present day Newport County.

So this settled it right? Wrong. Massachusetts accused Rhode Island of jumping the gun, and failing to allow surveyors from Massachusetts the chance to determine where the magic lines radiating from the river and bay determined the new boundary, setting the stage for the next, and final, stage of the dispute.

This just in!

2007-02-02T04:20:00.000-05:00

This just in! Apparently, one party rule in Rhode Island has led to endemic corruption and embarrassing scandals! That's actually not news. But this is:

The voters don't care. Oh sure, they'll continue to complain about corruption, inefficiency, and the drawbacks of having a single party controlling the state legislature from now until the sun burns out, but they'll never actually vote any of their incumbent state representatives out of office. That would take, like, going to the polls and informing themselves about politics (and, like, stuff).

On the technical front, Technorati just can't seem to detect when I update this blog. It detects updates on this site's sister blog (Dictators of the World) without any problems, which has led me to quadruple check my work. Nope. The blog claim code is inserted correctly, but Technorati seems to think it's been over 500 days since The Rhode Islander has been updated. Bizarre.

The State of the State

2007-01-31T03:25:00.000-05:00

While I continue to pore through source material about the history of Rhode Island's border disputes, Governor Donald Carcieri has made his annual State of the State address to the Rhode Island General Assembly. The Governor's mood was upbeat, and his outlook was positive, but he challenged the state legislature to do more, especially when it comes to controlling the skyrocketing cost of benefits for state workers, state entitlement programs, and fixing the state's dismal urban school districts.

Our Republican Governor also touched on something that our overwhelmingly Democratic state legislature doesn't want to hear, namely, how reducing Rhode Island's tax burden has created an upswing in the state's finances, and challenged the Legislature to reduce spending and balance the budget to keep our economic climate friendly to business growth and create an environment for attracting more jobs to the Ocean State.

Somewhat suprisingly, the Governor touched on environmental issues a number of times, setting a goal for 20% of Rhode Island's energy needs to come from renewable sources by 2011 (good luck with that, Don) and proposing an $85,000,000 bond issue to continue to cleanup of Narragansett Bay. A Governor getting touchy feely about mother earth? Sure, especially when it's good business (tourism is our second leading industry, after all).

Lastly, the Governor threw down the gauntlet on Rhode Island's troubled urban school districts, demanding financial discipline and laying down the gauntlet on English immersion versus bilingual education, saying:

"For nearly all of us, our fathers, grandfathers or great grandfathers came to Rhode Island as immigrants. But they came here legally - seeking work and a better life. And they became citizens! They learned English! That's the way it should be!"

I can dig it, Governor. Here's looking forward to a prosperous, and successful, 2007.

The border is ... where?

2007-01-29T03:18:00.000-05:00

In an earlier conversation with Lefty over at A View From Battleship Cove, we discussed the fateful day in the nineteenth century where sections of modern day Fall River north of Tiverton, RI were ceded to Massachusetts from Rhode Island in exchange for land that eventually formed present day East Providence, as well as the city of Pawtucket east of the Blackstone River. Sounds simple, right?

Wrong. As it turns out, there may not be another state in the union that has had to define and defend its borders as much as Rhode Island. In fact, the entire history of the state (including the present day) has been one of border disputes with Connecticut, Massachusetts, and even New York. This is the first part in what I hope will become a series getting to the bottom of Rhode Island's messy territorial disputes with her neighbors. While Lefty handles it from the Massachusetts side, I'll be taking a look from the Rhode Island side.

Let's start from the beginning.

In 1638, Roger Williams finalized the deed honoring the purchase of the Providence Plantations from the Narragansett sachems. By 1642, Williams' original purchases were merged with the newly founded Warwick settlement, and the towns of Portsmouth and Newport on Aquidneck island ("Rhode Island") to create a charter colony uniting the four towns, thereby creating a union between Rhode Island and the Providence Plantations.

By 1643, neighboring the neighboring Plymouth Colony, already annoyed by Williams' perceived assault on the right of Puritans to establish a theocracy, begin staking a claim to land in the nascent Rhode Island and Providence Plantations colony. To prevent ceding his gains to the Puritan colony, Roger Williams hastily sailed to England, secured a land patent from the English parliament in 1644 to preserve the union of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Williams' accomplishment, secured with Parliament during the English Civil War, was secured again after the Stuart Restoration of 1660, whereupon Williams' "lively experiment" with religious tolerance in New England was set on firm legal ground with a new royal charter that set the tiny colony on an equal footing with other British colonies in North America.

After 1660, settlement in the remainder of the Providence Plantations west of Narragansett Bay expanded, and neighboring colonies began to engage Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in a series of continual border disputes, with Connecticut on the west, and Massachusetts and Plymouth colonies on the north and east.

I'm going to hit the books and the web to see where the first important territorial disputes where handled, what land they involved, and how the disputes were settled (and in whose favor) for my next update on this. As always, anyone with any information they'd like to add should just leave me a comment.

UPDATE: Dictators Of The World has more updates than you can shake a kangaroo court at!

Ray Patriarca and the Rhode Island mob

2007-01-28T12:17:00.000-05:00

Forget The Sopranos and forget New Jersey - Rhode Island is, without doubt, America's La Cosa Nostra state.

The Providence Journal (registration required) has begun an excellent special report called "The State of the Mob", examining Rhode Island's infamous mafia past, present and future. If you want to know how Raymond Patriarca Sr. (seen above in mugshot) went from being a small time hood on Federal Hill to ruling Providence as one of America's most dangerous and well known mob bosses, this is definitely required reading.

St. Rose of Lima School: Sit down, and shut up.

2007-01-26T09:18:00.000-05:00

The St. Rose of Lima School in Warwick has taken the never ending battle in ensure student safety to absurd, if logical, lengths. From now on, students are forbidden to talk during lunch as a safeguard against choking.

I thought we had a safeguard against choking already, but hey, I'm not an overprotective parent or teacher, now am I? When I grew up, not only were children allowed to talk during lunch, but we were also allowed to ride bicycles without wearing helmets, play contact sports without bulletproof vests, and even use the toilet without parental supervision.

Politicians for sale? Here? AGAIN?

2007-01-25T02:28:00.000-05:00

Yeah, our state legislators have been caught trading clout for cash. Again. Try not to be so surprised.

This time, the offender was none other than State Senate President Joseph Montalbano. The Rhode Island Ethics Commission has decided that there is cause to pursue eight charges of "knowing and willful ethics violations" against the Democrat from North Providence, ranging from fraudulent financial disclosures, failing to file paperwork documenting a conflict of interest, and participating in votes where he clearly had an undisclosed conflict of interest with a party that stood to gain from his vote - to say nothing of benefiting from his considerable political influence.

Montalbano does not deny the essence of the charges. He admits to collecting nearly $90,000 from the town of West Warwick for legal services assisting the town clear land for the proposed Narragansett Indian casino. He also admits that he failed to disclose this income as required by state ethics laws.

Then, while still collecting money from the town, he failed to disclose his conflict of interest while serving on the State Senate's "Committee on Constitutional and Gaming Issues", where he passed a bill to put a put the casino question on the 2006 ballot to the full Senate for a vote. Naturally, once the bill made it to the Senate, he voted in favor it as well - failing all the while to disclose his financial conflict of interest that would have shown his financial stake in the outcome.

Montalbano's lawyer, Max Wistow, says his client's failure to file financial disclosure papers was "inadvertent", and denies that his client will make a deal. However, things apparently got testy, and Wistow was heard shouting at the ethics commissioners through closed doors - an action that drew a rebuke from Ethics Commission chairman James Lynch, who told Wistow that "I hope when you come back you have a better attitude. You have been discourteous to the members of this commission - especially me."

Montalbano's egregious influence peddling is news to snooze by in Rhode Island, accustomed as we are to public corruption. The only state institution that we really trust is the Rhode Island State Police. So even when a leader with as much influence as Montalbano gets busted, we're outraged for a minute before re-electing him into perpetuity. Even if the ethics charges lead to criminal proceedings, it's a safe bet that an influential Democratic incumbent will be re-elected until he's old and grey unless he goes to jail.

So is the solution to pay our state lawmakers more money? At present, Rhode Island's part time legislators are the third worst paid lawmakers in the nation, which definitely provides temptation to sell their political influence. Or how about putting some teeth into state ethics laws? Or telling our State Attorney Generals to get serious about pursuing political corruption before they decide to run for the US Senate? My answer is "all of the above", but I'm certainly open to any other ideas.

UPDATE: No discussion of political corruption would be complete without my mentioning that Dictators of the World has been lovingly, nay, decadently, updated.

Wal-Mart builds first store in Providence

2007-01-24T04:46:00.000-05:00

A store in Providence that sells stuff people can afford? We definitely can't have that.

This isn't the first Wal-Mart in Rhode Island, mind you, just the first store in Providence. For what it's worth, I'm all for it. The new Wal-Mart on Silver Spring Street replaces a defunct Ames that had been abandoned for years, but apparently, a derelict hulk collecting graffiti in the heart of the 'hood is preferable to a Wal-Mart for some people. True, the 350 jobs created by the new Wal-Mart mostly suck, but to prefer no jobs to non-union jobs? Even in blue state, union controlled Rhode Island, this strikes most sensible people as being completely ridiculous. Thankfully, not everyone gets worked up into a frenzy over the Big Blue Boxes from Bentonville.

Providence Mayor David Cicilline thinks it's a fine thing indeed, and was on hand at the opening ceremony. The Mayor may not shop at Wal-Mart (most wealthy people don't), but he was pleased to any new economic activity in the North End, which has lagged behind downtown and the East Side economically. I couldn't agree more.

How do you say "enough already" in Portuguese?

2007-01-22T02:20:00.000-05:00

It appears that we're overdue for a reality check.

I've already blogged about the brewing brouhaha regarding the potential closure of two Portuguese consulates in Southeastern New England. You may recall that I declined to offer much of an opinion on the subject since the matter doesn't really affect me one way or another.

I've changed my tune following a rally held yesterday at Kennedy Plaza in Providence to protest the closures. The Providence Journal has the story here, but I'll go ahead and vent my spleen for a bit anyway by getting to some of the more outlandishly stupid comments that were made at this rally.

Let's get the ball rolling by highlighting a statement made by a man who's a veritable fountainhead of stupid statements, Congressman Patrick "Patches" Kennedy, who breathlessly told the crowd:

"This consulate is so important because the people of Rhode Island are proud of their heritage, and the people of Rhode Island want to stay in touch with their families in Portugal. That is why we are here today.”

Rhode Island certainly has a large number of Portuguese Americans, a great number of whom are third (or higher) generation families who don't need consular services from the Portuguese government whatsoever because they're American. What's more, foreign consulates don't play much of a role in helping Americans stay in touch with the families in Portugal. As Portugal has long since been a European Union member state, all Americans visiting Portugal are issued a 90 day travel visa upon entry to Portugal. That's it. This covers the vast majority of vacation and business travel between the United States and Europe right off the bat, and doesn't require a moment of consular service.

You need a consulate to contact people in Portugal? Have we forgotten how to use the goddamned telephone? I'll grant you that, perhaps, once upon a time in the old country, the Portuguese had to resort to pinning letters on goats and send them village to village to stay in touch, or resort to launching a golden age of discovery, or even rely on telling their unfortunate slaves to deliver messages. That's not the case now, and we all know it.

The next groaner comes from Gloria Chaves of East Providence who reportedly held up a sign saying "if the consul is closed, the Portuguese will be forgotten"

Bitch, please. If the Providence and/or New Bedford , MA consulates are closed, it means people from Rhode Island may, god forbid, have to travel 45 minutes each way to Boston to visit a Portuguese consulate. Period. The Portuguese are even keeping their consulate in Waterbury, CT open for chrissakes! Does this stupid woman seriously believe for a moment that if they close the Portuguese consulate, non-Portuguese people in Rhode Island will be scratching their heads and ask "What-u-geese? Who?"

By contrast, other ethnic groups in Rhode Island have not turned out en masse to complain that a lack of convenient consular services has destroyed their ethnic identity. Italian Americans are still the largest ethnic group in Rhode Island - one in every five Rhode Islanders is an Italian American. Oh God, it appears that they actually have to travel to Boston or New York to visit an Italian consulate! Funny, though - we haven't seen Italians taking to the streets bitching and moaning about this, have we? Indeed we have not. A cynic might conclude that the Portuguese have much to learn about how to handle life's minor disappointments from their Italian friends and neighbors.

Does it get worse? Oh, indeed. Next up, John Marques of Central Falls who moaned, "if they close this [the consulate], we will lose our connection to home".

According to the Journal article, Marques immigrated to the United States from Portugal 37 goddamned years ago. 37 years! Look, John: after 37 years, America is your home. If you had any doubts about where home is, you should have settled them since the Nixon administration.

The article goes on to describe the crowd chanting "a people united will never be defeated" in Portuguese, while waving Portuguese flags, and generally bitching and moaning, but nobody quoted in the article seems to ask, for a second, why the Portuguese government - who have 14 consulates in the United States - really need four within driving distance of one another. This goes especially for most Portuguese Americans who are not, and who have never been, citizens of Portugal, and don't pay a dime in Portuguese taxes. Shouldn't this issue be left to the duly elected representative government of Portugal? Secretary of State Ralph Mollis didn't think about it either, and put this cherry on the shit sundae of stupidity:

"We have to question the government’s decision to close the consulate in the state with the highest concentration of Portuguese-Americans"

We do? Who you calling we, white man? Why do we need to question a rather logical cost saving decision by a foreign government that will, at worst, mildly inconvenience people in this country?

It's an encouraging sign that people in this country have so few legitimate grievances that we can take the streets and make such an enormous stink about such incredibly trivial matters, but Jesus people, you're embarrassing me.

Politicians for sale? Here?

2007-01-19T03:00:00.000-05:00

I know what you're thinking: corrupt politicians? Here in Rhode Island? You're kidding me!

In all seriousness, the heat over former State Senator John Celona's blatant influence peddling has now spilled over to his clients. To wit, a certain gigantic pharmacy chain headquartered in Woonsocket has drawn the attention of the US Attorney's office in Providence who issued an indictment against two of the company's executives, charging them with bribery and conspiracy. The Providence Journal (registration still tediously required) has the full story right here.

On a different note, I've managed to update Dictators of the World. Hurry up and read it before the secret police haul you away.

Portuguese consulates to close?

2007-01-16T02:49:00.000-05:00

The Portuguese government has announced that it intends to close their consulates in Southeastern New England - a move that has generated a surprising amount of controversy. The consulates, located in Providence, Rhode Island and New Bedford, Massachusetts serve an unknown number of Portuguese citizens in New England, plus an even greater number of Luso-Americans. How many? I can't speak for Massachusetts (although I'm guessing it's enormous), but there are over 100,000 in Rhode Island alone. Quite a large number for a state with a population of only 1.2 million.

Since I'm not Portuguese, I don't really care all that much about this tempest in a teapot, but our congressmen are tripping all over themselves to lobby the Portuguese government to keep the consulates open. Rhode Island Congressman Patrick "Patches" Kennedy has joined Senators Jack "The Invisible Man" Reed and newly elected Senator Sheldon Whitehouse in lobbying the Prime Minister of Portugal to keep their Providence consulate open. Providence mayor David Cicilline has joined the efforts to lobby the Portuguese government as well.

For their part, the Portuguese estimate that closing the two consulates will save their cash strapped government nearly $4 million dollars. A proposal by American politicians to open a replacement consulate in Fall River, Massachusetts (located halfway between Providence and New Bedford) will likely fall on deaf ears as well.

UPDATE: Lest I forget, Dictators of the World has been updated with the latest dirt on Fidel Castro.

The ACLU vs. The Man

2007-01-10T02:40:00.000-05:00

Who's got it right when it comes to the issue of enforcing immigration laws, the Rhode Island State Police, or the Rhode Island chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union?

Back on July 11, 2006, trooper Thomas Chabot pulled over a van containing 15 (!) illegal immigrants from Guatemala on route 95 in Richmond for failing to use a turn signal during a lane change. After running the driver's license and registration, the trooper asked the passengers to produce some identification. When some of the passengers were unable to do so, the trooper then demanded the passengers produce "documents" proving their eligibility to live and work in the United States.

When the passengers were, obviously, unable to comply, trooper Chabot called for backup and informed the driver that the the State Police would be escorting him, and all of his passengers, to the federal Office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Providence. Duly escorted, the 15 Guatemalans were admitted for processing by la migra.

Enter the Rhode Island chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), who filed a lawsuit alleging the State Police engaged in illegal racial profiling and violated the fourth amendment rights of the Guatemalans by submitting them to "unreasonable search and seizure". Naturally, the ACLU is filing a lawsuit seeking compensatory damages against the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, State Police Colonel Steven Paré, trooper Chabot and a trooper named as "Jane Doe" (the trooper Chabot called for backup, whose identity the ACLU has been unable to identify).

Let's forget about the folly of suing someone you can't even identify for damages for a moment and move onto the larger issue: do state and local police have the authority to detain people for violating federal immigration laws and send them to the feds? The answer is yes, although most state and local law enforcement agencies do not because they are unfamiliar with the intricacies of federal statues. The Rhode Island ACLU, for their part, has not even attempted to dispute the authority of the State Police to forward people suspected of violating immigration laws to the feds, but instead contends that they do so via racial profiling. While granting that constitutional protections are granted to "all inhabitants" of the United States and not just citizens, the State Police contend that they are also entrusted with upholding the law, and provided they know which federal laws they are enforcing, they have the authority (nay, the obligation) to uphold them.

The State Police, who conducted their own internal investigation, dismissed the ACLU's complaints as being without merit, stating that trooper Chabot's actions were handled "professionally and appropriately", so now it remains to be settled in court. For their part, the illegal Guatemalan immigrants are looking at a potential payday from the state before being deported to Guatemala, but will likely remain in Providence until the case goes to court.

Lest I forget, Dictators of the World has been updated for your pleasure.

Four more years

2007-01-04T02:03:00.000-05:00

OK, so I may my candidate for the Senate was beaten like a rented mule back in November, but two prominent candidates I voted for were re-elected, and have been sworn in for another term.

Governor Donald Carcieri (pictured above), a Republican, won re-election by a very slender margin against his own Democratic Lieutenant Governor, Charlie Fogarty. Faced with an overwhelmingly Democratic state legislature, he'll have his work cut out for him trying to wheel and deal with state lawmakers to pass a balanced budget, much less get any of his own political agenda points dealt with. I certainly wish the Governor the best of luck, and invite you to read his inaugural address here.

By contrast, Providence mayor David Cicilline was overwhelmingly re-elected, and seems to enjoy a broad mandate from the city's electorate. The mayor's facing something of an uphill battle as well, as Providence's economic and social ills are nothing to sneeze at, but he's trying to look at the bright side. Waxing Obama-esque about hope and optimism, Cicilline deviated slightly from the Obama formula by not only doling out feel good platitudes, but by offering some specifics on what he would like to do to create "the New Providence".

Now, I like David Cicilline, and he's done a fine job as mayor, but he's got to put his money where his mouth is on the issue of Providence's dismal public schools, and he's going to have continue to battle the public employee unions that make the cost of living and working in Providence so inordinately high, and have helped provide a dismal return on the public's investment. Cicilline's first administration worked on the issue of public safety and restoring the public trust in City Hall as a political institution after the Buddy Cianci years. So far, so good. Now it's time for our diminutive mayor to get cracking on the really hard part of bringing Providence back from the brink of economic and political disaster.

New photos: Woonsocket

2007-01-01T00:21:00.000-05:00

It's been too long since I've had any new photos of Rhode Island to share, so I'd like to get 2007 off on the right foot. Let's see if I can make up for it with a gaggle of new photos from lovely, crime-free Woonsocket in the heart of the Blackstone River Valley. As always, these pictures have been gathered on Flickr (viewable here) for your enjoyment.

Update: Well, it's obviously not related to the fine city of Woonsocket, but my Dictators of the World blog has more new content than you can shake an executed Arab strongman at.

Want to live in Rhode Island?

2006-12-22T01:07:00.000-05:00

We've got your affordable housing right here. Residential rental vacancies in the Ocean State are over 7%, and landlords are desperately throwing in incentives like free heat, free first month's rent and even cash incentives for referrals to try and close the gap. The Providence Journal has the story here.

Do they still stink?

2006-12-18T04:30:00.000-05:00

Last month, I excoriated the Boston Celtics on the dismal start of their 2006 - 2007 season. Looks like I may have spoken too soon. Ever since the team found itself involved in rumors that they would be trading for Allen Iverson, the Celtics have gone on a tear, winning five straight games and climbing to the top of the woeful Atlantic Division.

As the lynchpin player in the Iverson trade rumours, Celtics big man Al Jefferson has played like a man possessed - possessed by a desire to stay in Boston, that is. He's putting up all star numbers in December, and he's been key to the Celtics' winning streak. Quoth Jefferson:

" ... I don't want to go. If I leave, I'm going to handcuff myself to the bus and say, 'I don't want to go.' I just don't want to go. I love being here. I love Doc as a coach. I love this team."

As expected, this bold declaration made someone I know swoon with emotion over her soulmate's declaration of love for the Celtics and for the city of Boston. Speaking as a Celtics fan, and as a man!, I'm glad Al's feeling the love, but I'm even happier that he's averaging over 20 points and 10 rebounds a game since his name became linked to the Iverson rumors. 20 points and 10 rebounds a game is getting him closer to Karl Malone territory, so the Celtics did the right thing and quickly took Al out of any possible deal for Allen Iverson. Celtics fans have waited a very long time for another dominant low post player, and they're not going to let Al slip through their fingers.

I don't want to jinx them, of course, and I'll get even more excited when they have a record of .500 or better. But the Celtics have put their dismal start behind them and are looking towards the playoffs - a realistic goal in the NBA's Eastern Conference.

My street is on fire.

2006-12-11T09:20:00.000-05:00

I came home from work and found my street completely shut off by fire and police vehicles, battling a fire two houses down. With nearly dead batteries, I took some pictures and put them up on Flickr. As soon as we get more information on where the evacuated have been relocated to and and how we can help, I'll put them up here.

UPDATE: No surprises here. Make any and all donations to the victims by contributing something to the Rhode Island Red Cross.

Rhode Island getting screwed by Tinseltown?

2006-12-11T02:51:00.000-05:00

With Rhode Island facing a budget shortfall of over $100,000,000, some state lawmakers are questioning the wisdom of handing out tax breaks to filmmakers working in the Ocean State. A study by the Boston based New England Public Policy Center has issued a report (warning - PDF file) pointing out the obvious: Rhode Island gains almost zero long term economic stimulus, and loses quite a lot of tax revenue, by offering filmmakers such generous tax incentives. What's more, there's very little job growth created by movie makers in the Ocean State.

The Providence Journal (registration required) looks at the issue in greater depth here.

Na na na na! Na na na na! Hey, hey hey!

2006-12-08T01:52:00.000-05:00

Goodbye!

Same sex marriage drama!

2006-12-07T06:48:00.000-05:00

Lesbian breakup drama comes to the Ocean State! Should Rhode Island grant a divorce to two women married in Massachusetts? Would this constitute a de facto recognition of gay marriage in Rhode Island? Does anyone really care?

I know one law student in particular who would dismiss the entire thing with a haughty "lesbians don't really exist" before reminding me once again that women are drama junkies who should be quiet, get their overfed asses in the kitchen and start making sandwiches. Then again, she's a total misogynist.

Me? I don't really care. The pugnacious portly Portuguese pundit invites her listeners in Fall River, MA to go out and hate gays over at her blog, but I just can't get that worked up about it.

On a typically unrelated note, Dictators of the World has more new updates than you can shake a military coup at.

Holy crap

2006-12-05T01:55:00.000-05:00

The Providence Journal's website has been redesigned in the past six or so hours. Where it was once fairly bland looking but functional site, it's now horribly cluttered and ugly. Nary a comment on the front page was to why this decision was made, either. Especially egregious is the obtrusive search box in the upper right hand corner. Terrible stuff indeed.

Thankfully, I was able to wade through through the crap and pick out the proverbial kernel of information of interest: an obituary of mafioso Richard "Red Bird" Gomes. Gomes, a contemporary of Rhode Island's notorious Raymond Patriarca Sr. and New York's John "The Teflon Don" Gotti, died of natural causes in his North Providence apartment at the age of 73.

The dog days of early winter

2006-12-03T07:04:00.000-05:00

So what's happened in Rhode Island since Thanksgiving? Frankly, nothing much. There has been more legal drama about the 2003 Station nightclub fire. The Boston Celtics continue to underwhelm. Buddy's locked up in the clink until July. It feels like the state is on hold.

Of course, this presents an opportunity to link to some of my favorite articles from one of my favorite Rhode Island websites: Quahog.org. Presenting all you'd ever want to know about ...

... and so very, much more. Coffee milk and vampires: what more could you want?

But wait, there's more! How about if I throw in a new post at Dictators of the World? Now how much would you pay? Also, blogger Lefty has more on the wide open supermarket field in Tiverton over at A View from Battleship Cove.

What cheer, Netop?

2006-11-24T01:04:00.000-05:00

Oh sure, our neighbor to the north hogs the limelight when it comes to Thanksgiving (even though they shouldn't), but the interplay of English colonists and American Indians played an overwhelmingly important role in the Ocean State's history as well. Take a moment to acquaint yourselves with the Narragansetts, and thank them for being such good sports (at such a great cost) to Roger Williams and company. It took both Williams and the Narragansetts to create the beginning of the Rhode Island we know and love today, and without them, Rhode Island would be just another lump of land in Massachusetts.

"The Supreme Soviet of Rhode Island"

2006-11-14T18:26:00.001-05:00

Moscow on the Woonasquatucket? Edward Achorn at the Providence Journal (registration required) takes his dig at the one party state and compares the Rhode Island General Assembly to the old Supreme Soviet in Moscow in a scathing editorial available here.

It's hard to disagree with the gist of Achorn's main argument, namely, that Rhode Island voters are "ill informed" and "apathetic" politically, and that we would certainly benefit from a healthier opposition party. I would, however, take exception to his claim that the state's Republican party (accurately, if sadly, described as a "pathetic joke") was "torn asunder" by the Senate primary race. After spending his entire article bemoaning the lack of real political choices in Rhode Island and the lack of close races, the Chafee-Laffey matchup provided Rhode Islanders with a chance to determine the direction of the opposition party it needs - always a good thing.

Deep in the hole.

2006-11-14T01:59:00.000-05:00

$100 million is a lot of money - especially in a small state. So when the state with America's fourth highest overall tax burden finds itself staring down the barrel of a projected state budget shortfall that could go into the 9 figure range, you have to stop and ask yourself what's got Little Rhody deep in the red.

Not surprisingly, the cost of state employees and entitlement programs top the list of the fastest growing costs, while on the revenue side, the state saw declining sales tax revenue (those Massachusetts malls are but a short drive away) and declining gambling revenue. The Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council has a complete analysis of fiscal year 2007 here (warning - PDF file). Their recommendations of cutting the size of state government, scaling back the growth of state benefit programs and enacting tax reform to compete with Massachusetts on creating private sector jobs. Here, RIPEC and Governor Carcieri are in agreement, and it sounds fairly Republican. This may probably also explain why the overwhelmingly Democratic state legislature isn't biting.

If Rhode Island can learn anything from the state they used to call Taxachusetts, it's that tax decreases coupled with decreased state spending can, in fact, serve as a serious economic stimulant. It's ironic that Kennedy country benefited economically from Reaganesque supply side economics, but Massachusetts could teach Rhode Island a thing or two about fiscal discipline, private sector job growth and reducing the state tax burden (although with Governor-elect Deval Patrick ready to take office, this may change).

Finally, Dictators of the World has been updated with the latest on Fidel "Feelin' Ill" Castro and a look at retro-politics in Nigeria. If you don't read it, someone else just might!

Failure.

2006-11-14T01:16:00.000-05:00

There's just no polite way to say this: the Boston Celtics are off to a monumentally terrible start. At 1-6, they're the worst team in the league. They've squandered the "soft" schedule that saw them playing most of their November games at home. They managed to lose after having big leads, close games - you name it, they've found a way to lose. This is a team that had high hopes and big expectations, so what gives?

Sure, there have been some injuries. Al Jefferson will be out for a month after an emergency appendectomy, Theo Ratliff is nursing a herniated disc in his back, and Brian "Veal" Scalabrine has an as yet undiagnosed condition that causes him to be stiff, ham handed, and just plain suck at basketball. Second leading scorer Wally "Two Zs, no D" Szczerbiak even missed a game after straining his ass. Yes, his ass. Yet injuries alone cannot seem to account for the Celtics' woeful performances.

On paper, the Celtics have a fairly deep roster, at least by Eastern Conference standards. They've got depth at every position, and some players, like former Providence College standout Ryan Gomes, Paul Pierce, Kendrick Perkins and newcomer Sebastian Telfair are performing well.

Perhaps the Celtics had it coming when they dedicated their season to the recently deceased team patriarch Arnold "Red" Auerbach. Or perhaps, in keeping with someone's theory, there is a curse on the team after the recent decision to become the last team in the NBA to hire cheerleaders (or as that someone calls them, "dance skanks"). That last one is an intriguing theory, but big booties shimmying in tight spandex probably hasn't caused the team to stink up the floor.

If it's not a lack of talent, or cheerleaders, then what's got them playing so bad? I'm desperate to know. And if anyone can tell me, I beg you, tell Doc Rivers and Tony Brown so that they can help turn this mess around. I'll watch every game, win or lose, but I'd certainly get a bit more enjoyment if they weren't the laughing stock of the entire league.

Cry of the RINO

2006-11-10T01:42:00.000-05:00

Let me start off by saying that I'm shamelessly breaking my promise to stop flogging the dead horse that was the 2006 elections. Lest I also forget to mention it, Dictators of the World has also been updated. That said, let's get to it.

Today's Providence Journal (registration required) has a lengthy article interviewing outgoing RINO Senator Lincoln Chafee. What gems of wisdom does he have to share with the people of Rhode Island regarding his loss to Sheldon Whitehouse?

To start with, Chafee blames "the right wing" of the Republican party for his loss. Sorry, Linc - I don't buy that. When someone's at the far left wing of the party, as you are, the middle looks like the far right. You played your cards right for being a Republican in Rhode Island but lest we forget, the electorate here leans fairly left of center. You ran as a Republican largely because you were appointed to the seat by a Republican governor who passed on the position like a Chafee family heirloom, and also because you had no connections to the state's powerful Democratic party machinery, where frankly, your ideological leanings wouldn't have caused so much as a ripple.

Frankly, Linc, I have no idea how Sheldon Whitehouse guessed that voters here are stupid enough to link you to the right wing of anything, or why you let him get away with it. After all, you could stop pretending to be a Republican the second you gained the votes of actual conservative Republicans by default after beating Steve Laffey in the primaries. Running as a Democrat who just happens to be related to a Chafee that the people of Rhode Island really liked was your best strategy, and you blew it.

Ron from Fall River raised an interesting point with me, saying that Chafee would have done well to follow the example of Senator Joe "Joe-mentum!" Lieberman and broken the party bonds by running as an independent. I completely concur. Unlike Lieberman, a solid Democrat who broke party ranks on exactly one issue, Chafee was at odds with Republicans on nearly everything under the sun - an understandable consequence of being a RINO. Yet those left-of-center politics, combined with his name recognition could have offset Sheldon Whitehouse's greatest, or rather only, campaign theme: "Lincoln Chafee's a Republican (boo! hiss!) and I'm not (hooray!)."

You tried to minimize your political risks by being a closet Democrat, Linc. I don't blame you there. After all, how the hell is a real conservative going to win in a state as blue as Rhode Island? But then Linc goes on to blame Steve Laffey of all people for his eventual choke job against Whitehouse, blasting Laffey for having "chose for his own self gratification to oppose a sitting Republican".

Yeah, the gall of that Laffey. Didn't he know this seat belongs to the Chafee family? Where did he get off, exactly, by running as an actual Republican? There's been a Chafee in the Senate for a long time, so it stands to reason, perhaps, that Linc hasn't exactly paid attention to his own party in a while. That's understandable. It explains why he's so dumbfounded at why Laffey chose to run, and why he almost beat Chafee in the primaries. I'll spell it out for you, Senator:

We like you better than Sheldon Whitehouse, but given a choice, Republican voters prefer actual Republican candidates.

Got that? Similarly, in a heavily Democratic state, the voters preferred bonafide Democrats who talk the Democrat talk and walk the Democrat walk to a Republican, no matter how skilled he is at imitating a Democrat. You got lucky once, but this time, Sheldon Whitehouse outflanked your left wing. Don Carcier i shows that the Governor's office is an exception (to offset the state legislature), but you were the rule this time around.

At the end of the interview, Chafee hints that he may leave the party, but not before describing himself as a "loyal Republican". I don't know how to put this nicely, Linc, but if that's loyalty, may God save us from treachery. Steve Laffey may have lost, but we didn't have to swallow our tongues when we voted for him.

Frankly, I like Lincoln Chafee. He seems like a decent man, and I'm sure I'll like him much more now that I don't have to admit he's my Senator. But if the "change" theme of the election rings true, it should also signal a change in the state party machinery. We don't have to vote for Chafee anymore just because we think he'll win - he's history. We have the freedom to start over in the opposition, and play a little offense for a change.

If anyone has Steve Laffey's number, I hope someone tells him to put any plans for 2008 on hold, because we'd love to see him run against Jack "The Invisible Man" Reed.

We wish you a speedy recovery

2006-11-09T07:26:00.000-05:00

A certain someone's soul mate was rushed to the hospital yesterday with horrible stomach pains, and wound up receiving an emergency appendectomy. Get well soon, Al Jefferson!

That's "Senator Douchebag" to you, pal.

2006-11-08T00:37:00.000-05:00

The fat lady is howling. With all precincts reporting, incumbent RINO Lincoln Chafee will be heading back home to Exeter, and Sheldon Whitehouse will be heading to Washington. The final score, as they say in the sports business, was 197.5K to 171.3K - a virtual drubbing by Rhode Island standards. As much as I've dogged Chafee for his lack of strong convictions on, well, anything, I'd rather have suffered 10 years of Chafee to 10 minutes of Sheldon Whitehouse. Such are the breaks, I suppose.

On the plus side, however, Governor Donald Carcieri has been re-elected, squeaking out a close win over Lt. Governor Charlie Fogarty, and the West Warwick casino ballot question has been soundly defeated - by a margin larger than I ever imagined. You win some, you lose some, or as the man said:

You got to know when to hold em, know when to fold em,
Know when to walk away and know when to run.
You never count your money when youre sittin at the table.
Therell be time enough for countin when the dealins done.

Thank goodness this silliness is done with - at least for the next two years, and I can get back to focusing on taking pictures of Rhode Island ... at least until the next time Patches Kennedy does something retarded again.

Senator elect Whitehouse exhorts the crowd to pull his finger

Election day

2006-11-07T01:50:00.000-05:00

A word of warning: if you don't care who I'm voting for, just come back another time.

Today is election day, and somewhat surprisingly, Little Rhody is considered a battleground state for control of the US Senate. Our resident RINO, Lincoln Chafee, has finally managed to turn the tables on Democratic challenger Sheldon Whitehouse in the final pre-election polls, leaving it up to Rhode Island voters to determine the winner. For what it's worth, I'm going to swallow my bile and vote for Chafee. I'm not particularly fond of his politics, or his spineless devotion to staying away from any stance that would harm his chances of re-election in what is, possibly, America's bluest state, but I loathe Whitehouse's brainless left-wing populism even more.

I will also be voting to re-elect Governor Donald Carcieri. Let's just face it - the man hasn't given us very much to complain about, and he helps serve as an effective counterweight to the state senate.

I may also be voting for not one, but two!, Democrats this time around. To be honest, it's difficult to avoid in Rhode Island, but I believe David Cicilline has earned another term as mayor of Providence, and my congressman, Jim Langevin, hasn't any credible opposition worth voting for (although I haven't ruled out writing in François "Papa Doc" Duvalier because I'm just gully like that).

Then there are the ballot questions (viewable in a PDF file here). I'm going to vote one question 1, against the Narragansett Indian casino initiative, largely because the tribe's involvement will be limited to 5% or so of the profits, and because I'm not fond of the way Harrah's took the co-operation of the state electorate and our rotten legislators for granted.

I'm going to vote yes on question 2, for the restoral of voting rights to parolees and probationers. Frankly, if it were up to me, the voting rights of prisoners inside jails would be restored as well. After all, voting is a responsibility of every citizen, and incarceration, for whatever crime, does not invalidate one's citizenship.

I will also be voting yes on question 3, in the vain hopes that amending the state constitution will force our legislature into accepting fiscal discipline. The rest of the ballot questions are on bond issues on everything from the Roger Williams Zoo, to affordable housing, to educational grants.

Needless to say, I'm breathlessly awaiting the final results. Stay tuned, folks.

Stop the presses!

2006-10-30T04:26:00.000-05:00

The Boston Globe has confirmed long standing rumors of a small state within commuting distance of Boston. This state, known as "Rhode Island", was long thought to be a hoax, but the intrepid reporters for their Sunday magazine segment have been to this "Ocean State" and have written a lengthy article about the Biggest Little.

Though most certainly not Rhode Island related, I've updated Dictators of the World, where the question of female dictators (or the lack thereof) is examined.

Finally.

2006-10-25T04:20:00.000-04:00

It's been six months, but the Boston Celtics are almost ready to start the 2006 - 2007 NBA regular season. This season finds the team looking at the big questions. Will the Celtics win enough games to make the playoffs? Will Danny Ainge make more boneheaded trades? Will Rajon Rondo win Rookie of the Year honors? Will Sebastian Telfair find himself in hot water with the law? Will the Celtics beat the New Jersey Nets to take the top of the Atlantic Division? I don't know the answers, but I'm glad we won't have to wait much longer to find out.

I'm not even going to address basketball's emotional subcurrents that some people seem to find more interesting than the game itself, but I will certainly get a lump in my throat when the Celtics and the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets tip off on November 1st in Boston.

New photos, politics, the usual.

2006-10-23T04:29:00.000-04:00

This weekend, I managed to get a few more pictures of Colt State Park in lovely Bristol. As always, I've got the photos up on Flickr.

In other Ocean State news, the world's shortest man has died in Providence of unknown causes. The race for Senate is also heating up, with Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse now leading Republican (and I use that term lightly) incumbent Lincoln Chafee in the polls by the margin of error: 4%.

I'm not sure why I used the death of Nelson de la Rosa as a lead in for the hideous Senate campaign, but I'd like to think that Nelson had more dignity with his disability than we've seen out of Chafee and Whitehouse. To be sure, this is a campaign that's alienated the rank and file of both parties.

Having viewed video recaps of the debate, it seems that Whitehouse has, perhaps unwisely, staked out ground well left of center. Whitehouse's repellent campaign ads appear to have been prepared by a checklist handed straight from the Huffington Post or Daily Kos: anti-Bush? Check! Using men and women in uniform as props? Check! Inferring that Lincoln Chafee is some sort of rabid right winger? Check! Chic anti-corporate rhetoric? Check! Senate election as referendum on Iraq? Check! Most absurdly, one Whitehouse spot filmed at the Warwick Mall makes the patently absurd claim that Chafee "owes George Bush too much".

Speaking as a rabid right winger, I can put the fears of Rhode Island's voters to rest - Lincoln Chafee is no right winger. In fact, most of the state's Republicans are going to swallow their bile before voting for him in November. The same pro-choice, pro-gay marriage Lincoln Chafee that voted against the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and the same Chafee that announced he voted against Dubya in 2004, is a rabid, doctrinaire right winger? Nobody in Rhode Island is stupid enough to believe that, and I don't even think Whitehouse actually believes that gibberish.

Part of the problem Whitehouse is going to face is that while Rhode Island tilts Democratic at the polls, the majority of Rhode Island's Democratic voters are solidly centrist, and have demonstrated a willingness to vote Republican (Chafee and Donald Carcieri, for example). Whitehouse's blindingly shrill tone will not help him capture the undecided middle.

Chafee, for his part, has courted the undecided voters by going mellow where Whitehouse has gone shrill, saying that he's "right here in the middle - with you". He's also hit back at Whitehouse with a savage attack on Whitehouse's record as Attorney General, inferring that Whitehouse lacks the ethics and backbone to serve. Ouch. It's only going to get nastier from here on in, and I haven't even begun talking about the race for Governor yet.

Finally, lest I forget, Dictators of the World has been updated as well. Go on and get your tyrant on.

Life!

2006-10-12T04:31:00.000-04:00

It's official - Esteban Carpio has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the 2005 murder of Detective James Allen. On one level, I have to hand it to Esteban: he fought tooth and nail to get off the hook: mounting an insanity defense, claiming (perhaps somewhat credibly) that he was deliberately beaten to a pulp by The Man, and letting public advocacy groups paint him as the real victim.

After his conviction in June, Carpio was finally sentenced on Tuesday to two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, one for the murder of James Allen, and the second for "discharging a firearm while comitting a violent crime". As a cherry on the proverbial sundae, Carpio earned another 20 years for stabbing an 84 year old woman in the back - the crime that brought him before Detective Allen in the first place.

Esteban Carpio is not lucky in very many senses of the word, but he certainly is lucky that he comitted his crimes in Rhode Island, a state without a death penalty. Had Esteban Carpio been convicted in Delaware, Florida, or Texas, he'd be dead before his 40th birthday.

New photos: Burrillville

2006-10-10T03:48:00.000-04:00

It's fall in New England, and more than dead leaves, October signals the beginning of apple picking season. The Hobo Law Student and I travelled to the far northwest reaches of Rhode Island, to Burrillville, to get them while they're fresh. Naturally, I've created a photoset on Flickr to document the experience.

Presuming that everyone who stuck around to trade barbs in the What Cheer? thread is still around, where should I go next for pictures of the Ocean State? So far, my most glaring omissions are Woonsocket, Cranston, Johnston and Hopkinton, but I'm open to any sensible suggestions.

Lucky #7

2006-09-28T20:03:00.000-04:00

Rhode Island isn't famous for very much, but the Ocean State certainly has developed a notoriety for attaching a bizarre premium on low numbered license plates.

How much would you pay for the number 7? $500? $1,000? Well, a man in Lincoln has forked over $25,000 for the rights to lucky #7. Aside from the money, all he had to do next was wait 20 years, and wait for former Governor Bruce Sundlun's wife to get tired of it. Politics, intrigue and high stakes - the Providence Journal (registration required) has the only-in-Rhode-Island story right here.

Chafee to voters: "don't box me in"

2006-09-27T05:13:00.001-04:00

Fresh from his defeat of Steve Laffey, our incumbent Senator Lincoln Chafee is now starting to grasp that he's actually going to have to fight tooth and nail to defeat Democratic rival Sheldon Whitehouse and retain his Senate seat. While Chafee's status as Washington's top RINO hurt him with Republican primary voters, he's banking on using it as an asset against Whitehouse.

This is a predictable, if still shrewd, move, by Chafee to finally account for his tendency to talk and vote like a Senate Democrat when courting Democrat leaning voters at home, with the logic being 'I'm essentially a Democrat, and an incumbent to boot.'

Chafee's first campaign ads have been launched, and he's attempting to go straight down the middle of the road:

I was attacked by the right for being too liberal; now I'm being attacked by the left for being too conservative. That puts me in the middle, where I've always been, with you.

The Providence Journal (registration required) details how Chafee's neither-fish-nor-foul is attempting to throw a wrench into the attempts by Whitehouse's campaign to portray him as some sort of fire breathing right wing monster. This, of course, is gibberish. Sheldon Whitehouse wouldn't know a right winger if one came into his house and shat in his merlot. As a bonafide right winger, I can tell you that other right wingers here in Rhode Island and across America regard Lincoln Chafee as something of a leper. Granted, he's a leper that can help prevent Harry Reid from becoming Senate majority leader, but a leper all the same.

Nolo contendere

2006-09-21T00:19:00.000-04:00

Brothers Michael and Jeffrey Derderian, owners of The Station nightclub have pled no contest to 100 counts of involuntary manslaughter for their role in the 2003 fire that killed 100 of their patrons. The Providence Journal has the full story here.

Laffey run down by RINO

2006-09-13T00:43:00.000-04:00

It's all over. Steve Laffey (pictured above at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Warwick) has conceded defeat to incumbent Lincoln Chafee in yesterday's Republican primary elections, with Chafee winning 54.2% to 45.7%

The rest of the election results revealed few surprises. Governor Donald Carcieri (who ran unopposed in the Republican primary) will be running for re-election against his enormously large foreheaded Lieutenant Governor Charlie Fogarty (who also ran unopposed in the Democratic primary).

In the race for the House, Patches Kennedy ran unopposed on the Democratic ticket in District 1, and District 2 Democratic incumbent Jim Langevin crushed plucky Jennifer Lawless.

Best of all Carl Sheeler finished with less than 8% of the vote in the Democratic Senate race, behind Sheldon Whitehouse (who won a monstrous 81.6% of the vote) and Christopher F. Young (10.4%). That the DailyKos styled progressive candidate, Sheeler, finished behind Young, a candidate who made no effort to advertise - or even create a webpage for his campaign - adds a delicious touch of schadenfreude, especially after his bizarre comments on this blog.

So what's next? I hold my nose and vote for Chafee when I have to choose between him and Sheldon Whitehouse, but hold my head up high voting to re-elect Governor Carcieri and Providence Mayor David Cicilline.

So how did I do scorecard wise? Just terrible, thanks. Steve Laffey, Kernan King and Dave Talan all lost. Carcieri won the Republican nomination, but only because he ran unopposed.

UPDATE: The national press has gone home after Laffey conceded, and can safely go back to ignoring Rhode Island until Chafee's make-or-break stand on election day (or until we have another lethal nightclub fire, whichever comes first).

UPDATE II: Though it has nothing to do with Rhode Island, the Dictators of the World blog has been updated.

Hot, fresh exit polling - right here

2006-09-12T09:30:00.000-04:00

Though nobody's asking, I'm just narcissistic enough to tell the entire world how I voted in today's Republican primaries:

Senate: Steve Laffey
Governor: Donald "Don" Carcieri
Lt. Governor: Kernan King
Mayor: Dave Talan

Bear in mind that it's only the primaries. In the (unfortunately likely) event that Lincoln Chafee beats Steve Laffey, I'll swallow my bile and vote for Chafee before voting for the abhorrent Sheldon Whitehouse. Similarly, Dave Talan's odds of becoming mayor of Providence are roughly equivalent to my chances of becoming Miss Venezuela. In fact, David Cicilline will likely be the second Democrat I've ever voted for. Who was the first, you ask ... ?

Primary elections held today

2006-09-12T03:40:00.000-04:00

Today is the big day, when primary voters in Rhode Island will go to the polls to nominate candidates to appear on the ballot come election day. On the federal level are nominations in the races for the US Senate seat currently held by RINO Lincoln Chafee, the first district Congressional seat currently occupied by Patrick "Patches" Kennedy, and the second district Congressional seat currently held by Democrat James Langevin, and on the state level, the offices of Secretary of State and Lieutenant Governor, as well as a host of local races.

So who am I, a registered Republican, voting for in the state's biggest race? This is, apparently, the million dollar question, and judging by the contents of my mailbox over the past month, I'm one of the most sought after voters in the entire state. However, anyone who's read my blog at all already knows who I'm voting for: it's going to be Steve Laffey all the way.

I can't wait until the dust settles from this one.

Woman jumps from Jamestown bridge

2006-09-04T03:06:00.000-04:00

The Providence Journal (registration required) is reporting that a 37 year old North Kingstown woman killed herself by jumping off the Jamestown-Verrazano bridge. The woman survived the jump from the bridge and was pulled out of the water, and was coherent enough to answer questions en route to the hospital before dying that afternoon of her injuries. The story can be read in its entirety here.

What cheer?

2006-08-30T00:58:00.000-04:00

My apologies for the lack of updates, folks. I've spent most of the last week putting the finishing touches on a home built PC. Why didn't anyone tell me these new dual core Pentium 4 processors get so hot? I found myself having gone to somewhat extreme lengths to bring temperatures down to an acceptable level. Memo to everyone: factory heatsinks and heatsink fans are garbage.

On the serious tip, a friend told me about the sad and outrageous case of Anthony Maini of Johnston, who was arraigned on Friday on one count of second degree child molestation, after which, he took his own life on Sunday. What the news accounts apparently fail to mention is that the charges had been dropped after the police determined that the victim fabricated the accusation.

When, exactly, did child molestation start carrying a heavier social stigma than murder? If someone had accused him of murder, society could live with it, but the stigma attached to the mere accusation proved to be a fate worse than death, even when he knew he was innocent. Words fail to convey the tragedy that's taken place here.

Brothel owner busted in Providence

2006-08-18T02:06:00.000-04:00

A 51 year old Korean woman was arrested in downtown Providence as federal agents moved in to shut down a human trafficking ring on the east coast. Kyong Polachek (aka "Big Sister MaekDo") who runs the Down Town Spa in Downcity, stands accused of holding a woman against her will to work as a prostitute.

While human trafficking and immigration charges may apply, the authorities have no basis for another charge: prostitution. In Rhode Island, prostitution is legal so long as it occurs indoors (streetwalkers and johns doing business outdoors are routinely busted).

Club for Growth endorses Laffey

2006-08-17T01:48:00.000-04:00

Lincoln Chafee must have seen this coming: the ultra-conservative Club for Growth has announced that they have endorsed Steve Laffey for US Senate. Of course, organizations like the Club for Growth don't have very much political influence in Rhode Island, but for registered Republicans, the endorsement goes a long way towards establishing Laffey's bonafides as a fiscal conservative.

The Club president, Rhode Island native Pat Toomey, is aware of the risks of having Laffey win the primary only to get clobbered by a Democrat in a heavily Democratic state like Rhode Island, saying:

"First, it wouldn't be much of a loss if a new Democrat senator were elected, as he would vote much the same as Chafee does now. Second, it is unlikely this loss would result in tipping control of the Senate back to the Democrats -- though that, too, can't be ruled out. If Republicans lose so many seats that the Rhode Island race is crucial, Chafee would probably lose, too."

That's something something I, and most other Rhode Island Republicans, have been saying for months now. Even if Laffey were nominated and lost to Sheldon Whitehouse, the difference between Whitehouse and Chafee's voting records in the senate would be more or less the same. Unlike Connecticut's Joe Lieberman who actually voted with the Democratic party line on nearly everything but the Iraq war, Chafee's a bonafide RINO who would be running as a Democrat if he had any connections in Rhode Island's powerful party apparatus.

幸せ終戦記念日

2006-08-14T09:25:00.000-04:00

For those who cannot read Japanese, Rhode Island celebrates Victory over Japan Day today, the second Monday of August. While the real 61st anniversary of what in Japan is called "memorial day for the end of the war" is tomorrow, Rhode Island remains the last state in the union to commemorate the end of the second world war.

The famous kiss pictured above has Rhode Island ties too, as the Naval War College has identified the sailor in the picture as none other than Newport's own George Mendonça. I do hope everyone takes time during the day to remember just how momentous an occasion our victory over the imperial Japanese war machine truly was, and at what terrible cost it was won.

Roger Wheeler Beach

2006-08-14T02:16:00.000-04:00

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.

New photos: Block Island and Narragansett

2006-08-08T01:59:00.000-04:00

I have returned from a Saturday excursion to Block Island with fresh photos on Flickr, both of lovely New Shoreham on the island and of Point Judith in Narragansett. The weather was perfect, as the heat wave broke but the water was warm enough to stay in all day long. Quite possibly the beach day of the year.

Summer

2006-08-03T01:25:00.000-04:00

It's ridiculously hot. It's got nothing specifically to do with Rhode Island, of course, but there are occasionally people (mostly from the south) who think New England is a frozen wasteland year round.

It's not.

Chafee and Laffey to go mano a mano

2006-08-01T22:27:00.000-04:00

Lincoln Chafee and primary challenger Steve Laffey have agreed to a series of four debates before the September 12th Republican senate primary. The Providence Journal has the times and dates here.

I suppose there should be, at least in theory, a series of debates on the Democratic side, but why bother? Sheldon Whitehouse is going to crush his bolshevik primary opponent Carl Sheeler so badly that televised debates would simply clutter up the earth's electromagnetic spectrum. That one is in the bag, folks.

Ridiculous puff piece

2006-07-31T03:26:00.000-04:00

Today's Providence Journal (registration, as always, tediously required) features an absolutely nauseating puff piece about a 99 year old man who loves Patches Kennedy called, appropriately enough, "Love Stories". I know it was a slow news weekend, and that Rhode Island is a deep blue state, but this article appears to be little more than an unpaid political advertisement for our cretinous junior congressman. On the other hand, I was surprised to find this cogent editorial analyzing the orgy of greed surrounding the lead paint lawsuits in Rhode Island. To wit:

Advocates of suing paint makers now hope to get their hooks into the companies over the legacy of lead paint. The companies stopped selling the product for home use half a century ago -- well before the federal government banned it -- and the statute of limitations has long expired under product-liability laws. Such laws protect companies (which, remember, are people, not an alien species) from being destroyed by actions they took in the distant past, when knowledge of products' dangers and public willingness to accept risk were much different from now.

Speaking of unpaid advertisements, I have updated the Dictators of the World blog after over a month of silence. July is a month for vacations, after all ...

New photos of Rhode Island

2006-07-30T09:39:00.000-04:00

I have finally taken some new pictures, this time, from Scarborough beach in Narragansett. As always, I have put them up on Flickr for viewing.

The trip down route 4 was pleasant enough, until suddenly, at the Route 1 intersection, senator Lincoln Chafee and a group of his supporters were out waving "KEEP CHAFEE" signs. A pretty shrewd move, though - on a Saturday in July, there are tens of thousands of people headed south on 4, so he got some decent exposure. I still expressed my displeasure with a hand gesture.

Brotherhood, episode 3

2006-07-27T01:49:00.000-04:00

I have no idea why I keep watching Brotherhood. The first two episodes suggest that the entire series is going to be little more than a knock off of The Sopranos with bad, fake New England accents and a Providence setting. Did the third episode change anything?

No, not really, although the third episode wasn't quite as tedious as the first two. Set against the background a city garbage strike, the third episode of Brotherhood explores the real life interplay of politics in Rhode Island with regards to the balance of power between state and city leaders, and the unions and organized crime.

As in real life, the series' protagonist, Tommy Caffee, is paid less than poverty line wages for his job as a state representative since Rhode Island does not have a full time legislature, and supplements his income as a real estate developer.

So when one of Tommy the private citizen's sales to an out of state client is in put in jeopardy by the mountains of trash on the streets of Providence, Tommy the politician looks for a way to help resolve the strike. While enterprising private garbage removers are kicked around by thugs acting on behalf of an organized crime syndicate, Tommy Caffee attempts to jiggle the levers of power, lobbying the mayor of Providence, the mob boss who controls the union, and one of Rhode Island's congressmen to help end the strike, and salvage his real estate deal. In the meantime, the people of Providence put up with mountains of rotting garbage and the millions of rats that feast on it. As noted earlier, Brotherhood gets points for accurately depicting the way the politics in Rhode Island actually work behind the scenes.

If any of this sounds familiar, it's because Providence was paralyzed by a garbage strike during the Cianci administration, but the real life strike was much more entertaining than the one on television. When you think about it, there's really no excuse for fiction being less entertaining than the truth, now is there?

In the meantime, there is a subplot with Tommy's unfaithful wife (played by Annabeth Gish sporting a godwaful fake Boston accent) , and a surprisingly lifeless subplot where Tommy's gangster brother, Mike, tries to recruit a gang of aging hoodlums so he can revive the career so rudely interrupted by a stint in the ACI. Perhaps The Sopranos has satisfied America's appetite for crime dramas, but blame the producers and writers of Brotherhood for making their own depiction of the New England underworld so leaden and lifeless. I know I do.

Jim Langevin and other nuisances

2006-07-24T04:22:00.000-04:00

It appears that my incumbent Congressman, Democrat James Langevin (pictured above) will be running for re-election without a Republican opponent. This marks the first time in the last 149 years that there has been no Republican candidate for congress in the second congressional district. I'm not even going to pretend to be outraged - Langevin is completely unbeatable here. Unlike his cretinous colleague from the first congressional district, James Langevin keeps a low profile in both his professional and private life, and barring any drunk driving or date rape scandals, will be re-elected by comfortable margin just as long as he remains an incumbent and a Democrat. This seat is his for nearly as long as he chooses to hold it.

Lest I get started on the dismal state of politics on Rhode Island, it's time to focus on another irritating pest, only this one is responsible for the closure of beaches in Westerly and Charlestown this past weekend: the loathesome Portuguese Man o' War. This aquatic nuisance managed to sting two small children, forcing the closure of both public and private beaches throughout Westerly and Charlestown. The Providence Journal (registration required) has the story here.

Commonly mistaken for a jellyfish, the Portuguese Man o' War is actually a colony of invertebrates known as a siphonophore. Did you know that? I certainly didn't. Whatever it is, it's a completely detestable animal, and the invetebrates that it's composed of should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.

Also sprach Sheeler

2006-07-20T05:19:00.000-04:00

Apparently, my humble blog has, inexplicably, attracted the attention of the future Senator representing the state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations!

Ok, so I lied. But I seem to have attracted Carl Sheeler's attention. Sheeler, or some kind member of his campaign staff, has taken the time to follow up to my post on the Chafee/Laffey race for the Republican nomination. What's more, they did so at 4:11 in the morning which is, frankly, a bit odd. I mentioned Sheeler and his primary opponent Sheldon Whitehouse only in passing when I mentioned that I will stoop so low as to vote for Lincoln Chafee if and or when he beats Steve Laffe y for the Republican nomination as to avoid voting for Whitehouse or Sheeler. Here's what the candidate (or his staff) had to say in response to my post:

Sheldon has a primary and his numbers are not nearly as strong as reported. There are a dozen Democratic primaries in Providence ward seats with most have Latino challengers. Latinos and minorities account for 17% of the state population and are concentrated in the city and surrounding areas.

Sheldon does not poll well with minorities.

Okay, I'll bite. What makes one an imbecile by your account?

So why did Carl Sheeler look for his name on my blog and post a response? I have no idea. Perhaps he's bought into the myth that this is the year political bloggers tip the scales. Ask Howard Dean how that went, Carl. An endorsement from DailyKos or the Huffington Post is completely worthless, because both of them will nominate any candidate they presume to be either furthest left of center, or most vocally opposed to their "enemies" on the right. If you want endorsements from Kos or Arianna Huffington, don't waste your breath: you've already got them by default. If you're looking for a Rhode Island blog to endorse you or post fund raising links, you've obviously come to the wrong place here.

As for his comment, I'd like to start by informing Mr. Sheeler that I live on Federal Hill in Providence (not West Greenwich), and I already knew that "latinos and minorities account for 17% of the state population and are concentrated in the city and surrounding areas" because my neighborhood, and surrounding neighborhoods, are largely black and latino. This is obviously in sharp contrast to rural West Greenwich.

Sadly, it's my duty to inform Carl Sheeler that I haven't posted anything about the Democratic primary race itself, much less how Sheeler and Whitehouse poll with Latino voters in Providence. Where he imagines he saw, or read, anything about that on my blog is a complete mystery to me. My own interest in the Democratic primary has been tempered by the fact that I'm a registered Republican, and I won't be voting in the Democratic primary. How well you or Sheldon Whitehouse do among minority voters doesn't make a thimbleful of difference to me or how I'm going to vote. So do I have any comment on your race for senate? And why do I believe that you, my friend, are an imbecile?

Personally, if Sheldon Whitehouse doesn't beat you by at least 15 points, it'll only be because he's either broke or engaged in some scandal so horrendous that it will actually make the news, a la Matt Brown's funding fiascoes. He's got name recognition, he's got the money, he's got you pretty much where he wants you, Carl.

Secondly, as much as it might astonish Carl, I supported the war in Iraq in 2003, and I still support it now. I would also support an invasion of North Korea, Syria, Zimbabwe, and a long list of politically repressive dicatorships where the human rights of its captive citizens are completely worthless, because I believe that the strong and free have an obligation to those held in thrall by tyrants. My feelings on this matter are especially strong when they have the entire world guessing whether or not they have, or are close to having, weapons of mass destruction. I believe in using military might to defeat tyrants, as much for Saddam as for Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. That George Bush took the enormous political risk to overthrow Saddam says something impressive to me about his character.

That Carl Sheeler would appear to want to withdraw and flee Iraq at any cost says something depressing to me about his character, and is my primary evidence in my characterization of him as an imbecile. What's more, putting "Bu$h" on a billboard removed any doubt that he's an imbecile. A juvenile style is a reflection of a juvenile mind. I don't take people who write "AmeriKKKa" seriously, so why should I take you seriously, Carl? Even some of my friends who are Democrats wince when they see that, as well they should. It's one thing to read DailyKos, Carl - it's another thing to mirror your style after it.

Now that Carl has come and gone, who can I expect to see comments from next? I'm hoping for Steve Laffey, but I'd settle for Sheldon Whitehouse now. Maybe he'd at least read one of my posts thoroughly before posting on it?

Pointless update: I left a comment for Sheeler at his blog directing him to the response he claimed to have wanted, but he has not deigned to publish it. In fact, none of the posts on his blogs appear to have comments. Is that really a smart decision for someone attempting to hop on the blogger bandwagon?

Mr. Potato Head plates are back!

2006-07-17T01:31:00.000-04:00

Rhode Island native Mr. Potato Head is back - on Rhode Island license plates. For a $40 fee, drivers in Rhode Island can replace their current Rhode Island license plates with Mr. Potatohead plates to help benefit the Rhode Island Community Food Bank. The PDF order form can be found right here.

On a related note, I'm having way, way too much fun with the DMV's vanity license plate generator (found here). I tried "QUAHOG", but alas, it was unavailable. "CRN VIC" appears to be available, though.

Brotherhood, episode deux

2006-07-17T00:31:00.000-04:00

Episode II of Showtime's series "Brotherhood" was on last night, and despite my misgivings about the plot, characters and acting. Why? The scenery, naturally.

In the second episode, some mention is finally made of actual ethnic groups that really do live in Rhode Island when the lead character Tommy Caffee visits a Portuguese festival, and in a nod to actual Rhode Island politics, bribes a Portuguese state senator. Bonus points are awarded for calling Portugal a "poor man's Spain", although this probably won't go over well with actual Portuguese in Rhode Island. I also found myself recognizing locations in Valley and Manton in a driving scene, and as before, plenty of side streets in my own neighborhood, Federal Hill, most of which looks every bit as terrible as it does in real life, something I'm completely in favor of.

As noted before, there are barely enough Irish in Providence to fill the Green Bar (as seen in the show), much less provide the muscle for an Irish crime syndicate. Out in Los Angeles, "New England" is more or less synonymous with "Boston", which also accounts for the bad Boston accents on the show. I don't know whether to blame the "dialogue coach" or the actors. Take your pick.

At this rate, I'm not sure I'll stick around for episode III, but if I have nothing else to do at 10:00 PM next Sunday ....

The Biggest Little Taxes in America

2006-07-14T01:59:00.000-04:00

Way back during the Dukakis years, The Commonwealth of Massachusetts earned the unfortunate nickname of "Taxachusetts" in honor of having one of the highest tax burdens in the nation. Oh, how times have changed. Nowadays, Massachusetts is ranked #32 in the nation, while Little Rhody has climed all the way up to #4. Don't worry - with a little effort, we can beat Maine, New York and Hawaii to earn our rightful place at the top.

Now, CNN Money has made clear to the nation what everyone in Rhode Island knows: that it costs an arm and a leg to drive or smoke in the Ocean State. As someone who drives a car with a V8 engine, that 30 cents per gallon state tax is a killer, but it's nowhere near as shocking as a whopping $2.46 per pack cigarette tax. I can scarcely believe anyone would be stupid enough to buy cigarrettes in Rhode Island at that price, but there you have it.

What can I say? Such is the price we pay for living the good life in Rhode Island.

Flushed

2006-07-13T09:03:00.000-04:00

One of Rhode Island's most infamous mobsters has been taken out of the loansharking game - for now.

65 year old Anthony "The Saint" St. Laurent of Johnston, a notorious loanshark affiliated with the sad remnants of the Providence based la cosa nostra franchise, entered a plea bargain yesterday on charges that he attempted to extort $200,000 from two men in Massachusetts. An unnamed state police source is also claiming that St. Laurent offered to pay someone $20,000 to have a man who defaulted on his payments murdered. So what's the twist?

St. Laurent is 65 years old, but elderly mafiosi are nothing new. What's remarkable about St. Laurent is the claim by his lawyer (John F. Cicilline) that his client requires new fewer than 40 (yes, forty) enemas a day - a medical condition that accounts for his predictable alternate nickname: "Public Enema #1".

What could possibly account for a need to constantly flush out your colon? Does he eat 8 pounds of peanut butter and brick chocolate per day? Did he last eat fiber during the Nixon administration? His lawyer won't comment, but it's fairly obvious that the claim is intended to try to wrangle out a house arrest sentence for his odious client instead of having him put behind bars. Apparently, a Patriarca capo named Bobby DeLuca fingered The Saint as both an FBI and Rhode Island State Police snitch back in 2001, so it is, perhaps, understandable that he wishes to stay away from dangerous convicts, but really: if a capo named someone as a snitch 5 years ago, why is he still alive today? Ray Patriarca Sr. would never have stood for it. I suppose all of America's traditional institutions are in a similar state of decline. Sic gloria transit and all that.

I don't think the judge will buy the defendant's claim of requiring such intensive anal irrigation, and while The Saint is frail and in ill health, he has little to look forward to beyond dying in jail sans, of course, his 40 daily colon blastings.

Laffey blasted by NRSC

2006-07-11T05:37:00.000-04:00

The National Republican Senatorial Committee ("NRSC") has blasted Cranston Mayor (and Republican US Senate candidate) Steve Laffey for allegedly misusing public funds in Cranston to promote his run for the US Senate. The NSRC, who have endorsed incumbent Senator Lincoln Chafee in the upcoming Republican primary, allege that Laffey inserted campaign advertisements in Cranston tax bills as a form of franking. The Providence Journal (registration required) goes over the accusation, and Laffey's denial of wrongdoing, here.

Ironically, I just received a very similar sort of mass mailing from Lincoln Chafee's office, with the Senator attaching what could, or could not, be construed as statements promoting Lincoln Chafee's leadership, concern and vision for Rhode Island in a mass mailing about water quality. I've since thrown the damned thing away.

Laffey's in a tough spot here. In a state where registered Republicans are few and far between, he's won the hearts of the party faithful, but lags far behind in funds and name recognition. Additionally, the national party apparatchiks have already decided to endorse Lincoln Chafee, astonishingly, with nearly no reservations. I've received no fewer than five mass mailings from the Chafee campaign, to one one from Steve Laffey.

I've gone over this before, but I'm dismayed that the national GOP machinery is promoting a RINO hack like Chafee at the expense of someone with actual conservative bonafides like Laffey in order to keep Chafee's senate seat Republican. A Democrat like Joe Lieberman would preferable, to me, over a Republican like Chafee, but I'll vote for Chafee if it means keeping imbeciles like Sheldon Whitehouse or Carl Sheeler away from Washington.

Blue Shutters beach

2006-07-11T02:26:00.000-04:00

I know - I was just in Charlestown in May, but it's July, and a man's thoughts turn towards going to Blue Shutters beach for sun and surf. Well, surf anyway, since it was mostly overcast, but a good time was had all the same.

So what does a Rhode Island beach look like when it's packed for the summer? As always, I've got the photos on Flickr to show you.

"Brotherhood"

2006-07-10T00:28:00.000-04:00

Tonight was the premiere of Showtime's new series "Brotherhood". Shot entirely in Rhode Island, the series is loosely based on the real life Bros. Bulger (politician Billy and gangster Whitey) in Massachusetts. So how was it?

The premise of the show is this: Tommy Caffee is a state representative (and budget committee chairman) from a Providence neighborhood known in the show only as "the Hill". His brother, Michael, is a mobster who has returned after seven years on the lam. Tommy peddles influence and state contracts in the State House, while Tommy deals dirty deeds done dirt cheap.

When Michael returns, the Rhode Island state police and FBI want to know what's going on, and whether or not Tommy has any knowledge of his brother's criminal activities. Meanwhile, Tommy's feeling the heat in the press from his close ties to corrupt union officials, and there's a murder making his life difficult. The plot and action don't stray far from The Sopranos, even if the quality of scriptwriting does.

Brotherhood spends a lot of time trying to establish Rhode Island bonafides, but there are problems. The two biggest are:

1: As usual, Hollywood has a hard time with New England accents. With the exception of Fionulla Flanagan (who plays the family matriarch), the "Rhode Island accents" are the usual Hollywood misappropriation of the Boston accent. You can learn more about what an actual Rhode Island accent sounds like here.

2: The Caffees are more Irish than the actual Irish themselves, and the fictional neighborhood of "The Hill" (filmed in the neighborhood where I actually live - Federal Hill) is presented as an Irish, working class neighborhood. As it actually happens, Providence does not have a strong Irish heritage, and no predominantly Irish neighborhoods. Federal Hill is famous for once being Little Italy, and the headquarters of the New England branch of La Cosa Nostra, and nowadays, is home largely to Guatemalans, Dominicans, and upwardly mobile gay professionals. If the show's creators had made the show's characters Italian or Portuguese, it certainly would have made the show more accurately reflect Providence's demographics. Then again, if the family were Italian, the perception of this show being a cheap copy of The Sopranos would be just that much more accurate.

What does the show get right?

First of all, the show correctly (however unfortunately) gets the feel of politics in Rhode Island right. Though Tommy Caffee is a relatively big fish in a small pond, and because his committee deals with state contracts, he's constantly in demand. Furthermore, the show correctly details the horribly incestuous relations between the state, big labor, and organized crime - a relationship that has earned Rhode Island a reputation for having the most crooked politics in America.

Secondly, the show is filmed entirely on location in Providence, much of it near where I live. I found myself able to identify nearly every place on the screen, from Symposium Books downtown, to the Green Bar overlooking routes 6 and 10 on Westminster St., to Olneyville New York system, the show gets the look of Providence exactly right.

Will I be watching it again? I don't know. I already like The Sopranos, so it's hard to get too excited about the plot and script, both of which try to hard to emulate The Sopranos. Will the locale be enough to hold my attention for long? I suppose I'll watch the second episode and go on from there.

Back from vacation

2006-07-07T01:24:00.000-04:00

I'm back from lovely, crime-free Delaware, and ready to resume taking photos of Rhode Island. There would appear to be lovely beach weather for this weekend - perhaps Block Island or Little Compton are in order? I'll see. Either way, I've gone too long without new pictures of the Ocean State.

On a different note, I haven't seen it yet, but my girlfriend analyzes what Showtime's new series (and Bulger Brothers allegory) "Brotherhood" gets wrong about Rhode Island here. All I can say so far is that the shots of downtown look pretty nice on their webpage. Those so inclined can take a video tour of Providence from the site as well. Sweet!

Guilty!

2006-07-04T01:13:00.000-04:00

Rhode Island's biggest trial has ended with a guilty verdict. Esteban Carpio (pictured above in white plastic face mask) was found guilty of killing Providence Police detective James Allen, and convicted on the charge of "first degree murder of a police officer in the lawful performance of duty" in Providence last week. Carpio, who had attempted an insanity defense, is due to be sentenced this month.

The Providence Journal has the story here.

Off on vacation

2006-06-23T03:22:00.000-04:00

I'm off to Delaware for a week's vacation!

Why are you going to Delaware for a vacation?

Oh, you know, nice beaches, small crowds.

Isn't the idea of vacationing in Delaware a cheap throwaway joke from "The Simpsons"?

Not really. It's a lovely place.

I thought you loved Rhode Island?

I do!

Doesn't Rhode Island have nice beaches?

Well, yes, yes it does.

So why aren't you spending your vacation in Rhode Island?

Uhm ...

I thought so.

Cry havoc, and unleash the pigs of pork

2006-06-18T18:11:00.000-04:00

This isn't about actual pig products, but about who's bringing home the bacon to Rhode Island. Incumbent Republican Senator Lincoln Chafee (pictured above) has found himself having to defend his vote on an appropriations bill that helped finance, among other things, a controversial and ruiniously expensive bridge in Alaska in order to secure a $16,000,000 grant to build a new federal building in downtown Providence.

Chafee's primary opponent, Cranston mayor Steve Laffey, is raking Chafee over the coals, while Chafee has counterattacked, alleging that Laffey lobbied him to secure $167,000 from the federal budget to repair city hall in Cranston.

Will voters punish Chafee for bringing home the bacon? Will Laffey rue asking Chafee for dough? The Providence Journal (registration, as always, required) has the story here.

Royal wrist slapping

2006-06-14T01:08:00.000-04:00

It's a done deal. Patrick "Patches" Kennedy was slapped on the wrist today after pleading guilty to driving under the influence of prescription drugs in a Washington, DC courtroom. In exchange for the guilty plea, the court agreed to drop the other charges facing our nitwit Congressman after his well publicized car crash in Washington, DC last month. Having avoided a jury trial by pleading guilty, Kennedy's sentence breaks down as so:

10 day suspended jail sentence
1 year's probation
$300 fine - suspended
50 hours of community service for the Boys & Girls Club in DC
$350 donation to the aforementioned club's "victims compensation fund"
random urine screenings
mandatory weekly Alcoholics Anonymous meetings
monthly "addiction sessions" at the National Navy Medical Center

Obviously, I had a different punishment in mind, but I'm never consulted on these things.

All of this sounds very daunting, but it isn't. Congressman Kennedy, who was alleged to have been seen drinking at a bar shortly before his crash, was further alleged by police to have exerted political pressure at the scene to avoid being arrested on a much more serious charge - driving under the influence of alcohol, and avoided being subjected to a potentially politically lethal breathalyzer test.

Having once worked with a guy who did a few years of hard time in a notorious Massachusetts correctional facility after a drunk driving conviction, Patches once again leveraged his "royal family" name into getting off nearly scot-free on a crime that would send lesser men to the clink. Having escaped charges of drunk driving and obstruction of justice, it's apparently just another day in the office for Patches Kennedy. The Providence Journal (registration required) has all the gory details here.

New photos? Yes indeed.

2006-06-11T17:04:00.000-04:00

Granted, Saturday was rained out, but I managed to take a few pictures around the common in Little Compton before heading back home.

Today, things cleared up dramatically so Nora suggested taking photos from Prospect park in Providence. I couldn't say no to such a good idea. I can't even explain why I've waited so long to miss an opportunity to take photos of the city from the best viewpoint available! The photos from the terrace on Prospect park can be found right here.

The hood gets soaked

2006-06-07T19:07:00.000-04:00

The photo's courtesy of the Providence Journal's "7 to 7" blog, taken right down the street ( between Atwells Avenue and Delaine Street) from my house in the Valley neighborhood. The rain has subsided, and the mighty raging Woonasquatucket has settled down ... for now.

Depraved criminal junkie on the prowl!

2006-06-06T09:19:00.000-04:00

Lock up the booze, women and Oxycontin, and whatever you do, hide the keys to the Mustang convertible: Patches Kennedy has deemed himself ready to leave his pricey detoxification suite at the Mayo Clinic and rejoin society. I can hear the price of car insurance policy's collision coverage going up already.

While the DC police investigate whether or not Kennedy pressured the cops into dropping a drunk driving charge, I invite you to read the most asinine analysis of Kennedy's "problem" right here.

Rain, rain, go the hell away.

2006-06-05T03:19:00.000-04:00

Due to really horrid weather - once again! - I don't have any new pictures of Rhode Island this weekend. I know I hope this doesn't happen again next weekend, when I hope to take pictures in a town I haven't photographed yet. I think Woonsocket might be in the cards, but if it's really nice out, perhaps a trip to South Kingstown is in order? I'll wait and see.

In other news, tomorrow marks the beginning of the trial of Esteban Carpio (pictured above), who made history last May by allegedly (that's the key word - allegedly) shooting Providence police detective James Allen before jumping through a plate glass window three stories up and fleeing from police. Carpio is expected to plead not guilty by reason of insanity. The Providence Journal (registration required - as always) has more on the story right here.