Entries by Monique Chartier

Government Using Technology Against Us

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The Myth of Conservative Millennials Coming True

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Chatting with the Po Taxpayer

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Liberal ​Harvey Weinstein Has Actualized Loony Lefties’ Wholesale Fictional Portrait of Right-Leaning Men

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You’ve undoubtedly seen the ​escalatingly disgusting reports about the conduct of movie producer and Miramax co-founder Harvey Weinstein: repeatedly, overtly taking advantage of the power of his position to inflict himself in the most repulsive ways on women, up to and including allegations of rape. (Seth MacFarlane’s insightful allusion to this at the 2013 Oscars is, in retrospect, very telling.)

My principal reaction to these revelations was anger at such a horrible abuse of power: that someone would take advantage, particularly in such a gross personal way, of someone over whom they hold power.

The other thing that struck me, however, is that Weinstein’s revolting behavior is what loonie lefties like to pretend all Republican and right-of-center men have probably done and are most certainly seething to do. (Left-leaning and Democrat men are not automatically cleared of this guilt but they are at least permitted the opportunity to prove themselves innocent.) Now it turns out that it was the liberal darling of a very high profile liberal community who acted out such terrible behavior. He is not the only person to ever do so; far from it. But he also visibly does not fit in the demographic who is purportedly solely guilty of such an attitude and behavior.

On Twitter, someone cautioned me to “tread lightly” on this subject as “there’s plenty of hypocrisy on both side of the aisle”. I am grateful that he did so as it allows me to clarify that this has nothing whatever to do with hypocrisy. It has to do with the wholesale, baseless, obviously absurd defamation of a certain large demographic solely because they hold views on the “wrong” side of the spectrum. The terrible revelations about Harvey Weinstein firmly rebut this absurd attitude and remind us to judge the behavior of individuals, rather than blanket defame entire swaths of the population simply because one disagrees with their views.

Center Blasts Newest Truck Toll Tyranny; RIDOT’s Laughable Denial

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It has come to light that, on August 11, RIDOT *corrected* requested a hearing, scheduled for today, to issue commercial truck route restrictions within the state. The Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity (for whom I am Communications Manager) has just issued a statement strongly condemning this. It says, in part,

Chilling: H5069, Single Payer Healthcare (And the Inconsistencies It Poses)

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In the course of reviewing certain bills filed during this year’s General Assembly session, I clicked on H5069 — and stared in growing horror at all of the red-lining (i.e., everything to be struck from current law). I turned to the succinct description of this bill written by Justin Katz, Research Director for the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity, for the Center’s Freedom Index and the horror did not abate:

Governor’s Priorities? DCYF Hires Down; Administration Hires Up

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The Rhode Island House Oversight Committee is holding a hearing right about now on DCYF and the deaths of children that had been on their radar. The Ocean State Current took a look at staffing trends at DCYF compared to those at the Department of Administration during the last three years.

Huge Generator: RIDOT Recommended The Engineering Firm That Missed Five Bridges

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You may have seen the huge, yellow tarp-covered generator that has been parked on the side of Route 95 north just past Route 4. It’s been the cause of lots of rubber-necking. Then came the news a couple of days ago that it had been pulled over by RIDOT while traveling and ordered not to advance because it is very heavy – 560,000 pounds.

John Tassoni, speaking for the company that is moving the generator, was on the WPRO Morning News with Gene Valicenti this morning. And he shared some eye-opening information about how the generator came to be side-lined.

One Hundred New State Jobs Would Only Perpetuate Failures & Failed Approach

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Both the proven failure of a budget-centric approach and Governor Raimondo’s dismal public policy track record should give the General Assembly real pause when considering her reported request for one hundred new state hires – and other initiatives, past and prospective.

General Assembly Must Step In – Tolls Have Taken A Dangerous Turn

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Below is a statement that StopTollsRI.com (for which I am spokesperson) placed on its Facebook page last night. The R.I. Trucking Association and the American Trucking Association have announced that they would wait until all 30+ toll gantries were installed before they would challenge the legality of truck tolls in court. This alarming development first came to light Thursday night in testimony before House Finance. See Mike Collins’ testimony starting at approximately minute 1:52:40.

Tolls have taken a dangerous turn for Rhode Island residents and taxpayers. It is now imperative that state legislators and General Assembly leadership step in for the good of the state and end the truck toll program.

Booze Confirms: Sales Tax Sauce for Art Is Sauce for Everything Else

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In case you (especially my fellow tea-totallers) hadn’t heard: in 2013, RI removed the sales tax on wine and spirits.

Coincidentally, that was also the year, at the urging of then-Senate President Teresa Paiva-Weed, the state removed the sales tax on art; more specifically, “original and limited edition works of art sold in the State of Rhode Island” were made exempt from state sales tax.

Mandated Paid Sick Leave: Plumbing a Depth Below Fiftieth

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Mandatory paid sick time would only exacerbate Rhode Island’s already heavily damaged business climate and ultimately rebound negatively onto job-seekers and the state’s already shriveled tax base.

Leader Patricia Morgan Files Bill to Repeal (Clearly Unnecessary) Tolls

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On behalf of all Rhode Islanders, thanks to Minority Leader Patricia Morgan for filing a bill to repeal RhodeWorks’ truck (wink) tolls. (See her statement after the jump.)

Governor Gina Raimondo asserted the need for tolls as a financial necessity to repair state bridges which were/are some of the worst in the country but, by golly, we just don’t have the will to find the money in the state budget (even though it’s a MAJOR public safety issue, danger, danger, Will Robinson).

However, the governor has decisively rebutted her own assertions about the fiscal necessity of tolls, as StopTollsRI.com (disclosure: I act as their spokesperson) pointed out in a letter to the Providence Journal on Sunday, by proposing a brand new, $30M/year spending program.

“Free” college tuition is at best nice to have (and it certainly would not solve the state’s employee skills gap, as the governor claims). If there is money in the budget for an expensive nice-to-have item, then it is clear that there is money for a less expensive vital service such as bridge repairs.

Legislators can now vote to repeal tolls, secure in the knowledge that public safety did not necessitate the passage of this highly destructive new revenue stream and confident that the money can be found in the budget to repair the state’s unsafe bridges. The governor has helpfully done this hard work for them.

​A Shameless Plug

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This is a shameless plug. Two, actually. But it’s for two terrific organizations: the Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity and the Gaspee Business Network.

Colorado Confirms: Pot is Not a Revenue Panacea

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Despite the legalization of marijuana in 2014, Colorado’s revenue projections and budget deficit are going the wrong way. Rhode Island leaders and legislators need to take this unwelcome development carefully into account as they consider whether to follow Colorado down the path of legalization.

Breaking – Former RI Supreme Court Justice Flanders Exploring Run for US Senate

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Well, things just heated up in Rhode Island’s 2018 race for US Senate. Kathy Gregg has the scoop in the Providence Journal.

Robert G. Flanders, a former Rhode Island Supreme Court justice, respected Providence trial lawyer and onetime Brown University football star, has taken the first step toward a potential GOP run for the U.S. Senate against two-term Democratic incumbent Sheldon Whitehouse.

This is somewhat out of the blue: rumors where that Justice Flanders was considering, at the urging of RIGOP Chair Brandon Bell, a run for Governor. Justice Flanders isn’t technically announcing his candidacy, as Gregg notes, but rather, he

plans to create an “exploratory committee” to determine whether he will be able to muster the money and support he would need for a potential GOP primary fight and, ultimately, a 2018 run against Whitehouse.

He is certainly clear as to why he sees the need to run, however, as he indicates to Gregg in a statement that includes a nice little zing at the incumbent.

“With the unease and hyper-partisan political environment in Washington,” Flanders said, Rhode Island needs a U.S. senator who “will work across the aisle to unlock innovation and job growth, provide a system of high quality and affordable health care, reform unfair and anti-competitive tax policies, lift regulatory burdens off the backs of small business, promote better education and enhance our security by restoring global confidence in America.”

“In short, we need a climate change in Washington,” he said in a play-on-words on Whitehouse’s signature issue.

If his candidacy is a go, he will first face off in a primary against State Representative Robert A. Nardolillo III (R-Coventry).

Transcripts & A No-Bid Contract: Governor Raimondo Has Politicized RI State Police

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An editorial in Friday’s Providence Journal correctly deplores the awarding, in contravention of state bidding procedures, of a no-bid contract by the Rhode Island State Police. But is there any doubt that Colonel Ann Assumpico did so at the instruction of Governor Gina Raimondo? No, there isn’t, especially in light of the clear ties of the winning firm back to the Governor, who is also known to have aspirations for the national political stage.

Some Badly Needed Perspective for Attorney General Peter Kilmartin

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Let’s clarify some things for Attorney General Peter Kilmartin, shall we, and then explain to him where his political career currently stands.

Withheld FTE’s? Has State of RI Contributed to Delay of DMV Computer?

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Did the State of Rhode Island contribute to the ten year old DMV computer saga by failing to provide adequate manpower for data migration? The Ocean State Current asked some questions – and got answers (of a sort).

Gablinske: Energy Crisis Calls for Realistic Solutions

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A thoughtful, well grounded op-ed by former state rep Doug Gablinske in Thursday’s Providence Journal, who makes the reality case that the electricity to be generated by the proposed Burrillville power plant is very much needed.

Mike Stenhouse on GoLocal LIVE – Gov’s Manufacturing Council

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Thanks to Kate Nagle and GoLocalProv for inviting the Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity’s Mike Stenhouse on their new GoLocal LIVE program yesterday. They discussed, in part, Governor Raimondo’s recently announced manufacturing advisory council, which is comprised of lots of people but not a whole lot of economic diversity.

Meanwhile, congratulations and best wishes to Kate Nagle, Molly O’Brien and GoLocalProv on the launch of their cutting edge new program!

Some Day, My Prince … Er, Cheap, Green Energy Will Come

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You may have been keeping half an eye on the proposed power plant that a firm called Invenergy would like to build in Burrillville. Friday, the Providence Journal reported that

Invenergy has failed to sell the second half of the power output of its proposed fossil fuel-burning power plant in Burrillville to the regional electric grid.

Opponents of the proposed plant understandably view this development as good news. However, it is not a fatal blow for the proposed power plant, as the article notes.

Further along, the article also notes that New England has had 4,200 megawatts of generating capacity taken off line (my observation: this happened in large part due to out-of-control EPA regulations by the Obama administration), and another 6,000 megawatts are at risk of going off line. Accordingly, many of us are concerned about the cost and continued adequate supply of electricity.

Environmentalists believe they have the answer.

But opponents of the plant say that renewable sources can fill in any need for new power in New England.

Yikes. Sorry, no, that is simply not the case.

Line Item Veto – Please Shoot An E-Mail To Your Elected Officials

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The line item veto is one of several good government measures that need to come to Rhode Island. It would impart some – though certainly not excessive – balance between Rhode Island’s executive and legislative branches. (Rhode Island is notorious for a weak executive branch.) Please visit this website to quickly and easily communicate your support to our state elected officials.

More reasons to do so from the blast sent out by Ken Block, who is leading the charge on this, a couple of weeks ago.

The momentum keeps building for getting a line-item veto in RI. 2017 could be the year we get this major reform done – especially if you help.

Governor Raimondo has expressed support for the line-item veto, as has Senate President Paiva-Weed. Pressure, created by people like you sending emails like the one I am asking you to send below, is 100% responsible for putting Rhode Island on the cusp of a major government reform.

Let’s get the job done!

In less than 60 seconds, you can send an email to our elected leaders asking them to give voters a chance to say YES to the line-item veto on the 2018 ballot.

In less than 60 seconds, you can add to the pressure which will certainly yield what we all want – a better functioning government.

No More Blind Eye – General Assembly Must End Corporate Welfare Scam

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In light of GoLocalProv’s blockbuster expose Friday that the Wexford job creation claim is off by nine hundred, the General Assembly needs to immediately defund all corporate welfare – and request that the Governor claw back much if not all of the taxpayer subsidies currently earmarked for Wexford.

Rhode Island “Company of the Year” (and State Ward) Already Has a Broken Turbine

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Much to the detriment of the state’s rate payers, Deepwater Wind began generating electricity on December 12. Less than three weeks later, one of its five turbines broke (oopsie). As though wind energy isn’t already expensive enough, now we have to add the cost of making repairs thirteen miles out on the ocean. (‘Cause the cost of water and seawater-related repairs is always very reasonable, right, boat owners …?)

It probably was not a coincidence that the company made this embarrassing admission on a day – the Friday before Christmas – sure to glean the absolute minimum amount of public attention.

New York State Cuts 2017 Renewable Energy Target by 94%

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The big dirty little secret about renewable energy is that it is very expensive. Pointing to the “extraordinarily poor value” of return BY THE EPA’S OWN STANDARD in carbon footprint reduction, the Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity earlier this year called on the State of Rhode Island to significantly roll back renewable energy mandates.

Fast forward to last week. The Empire Center for Public Policy’s Kenneth Girardin alertly spotted that the State of New York has done almost exactly that for 2017.

The state Public Service Commission has quietly reduced the amount of renewable energy that utilities will have to purchase next year by 94 percent, according to PSC documents.

Kudos to New York for quietly modifying their mandate to conform with reality, even if it’s just for one year. For the sake of their already over-burdened ratepayers who have no obligation to fund pointless, feel-good, very expensive energy sources, Rhode Island and all other states need to follow suit, and not just for one year.

Raimondo Hands Out Obscene Amount of Corporate Welfare To Get I-195 “Win”

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There is something very wrong that the State of Rhode Island has to actually pay someone an eye-popping $6,400,000 per acre in order to get prime land in the capital city developed.

Raimondo Admin’s Dodgy Non-Response to ProJo’s APRA Request

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So as you probably know, Rhode Island’s new computer system (UHIP) for qualifying applicants and disbursing social program benefits is a mess. The problems have been well publicized to the point of infamy: a backlog of applications; benefit payments delayed; nursing homes (who have no easy way to stop their expenses) wracking up serious amounts of uncompensated care; even a security “glitch” that could have exposed the personal information of 200-1,000 customers.

It has gotten to the point that the feds were compelled to step in again – this time, breathing fire.

The agency continued to warn that the DHS could soon lose federal funding for administrative costs because of the system’s “failure to meet FNS statutory and regulatory requirements.”

And a Rhode Island House committee held its second hearing into the matter on Monday.

The question is, who is responsible for all of this? Was this a failure by the vendor setting up the new system, Deloitte Consulting? Or did the Raimondo administration force a transition to the new system from the old too quickly? (This, in fact, was a blunt warning by the feds to the Raimondo administration in early September.) If so, why?

In order to shed some light on the matter, the Providence Journal’s ace reporter Kathy Gregg sent the Raimondo administration an APRA request on September 7 for

all correspondence between the state and the company that designed it: Deloitte Consulting.

We pause here to go back, review and note that the subject of Gregg’s request was “correspondence”.

Gregg reports in yesterday’s Providence Journal that six weeks later – on the night before Thanksgiving, to be precise – the Raimondo administration gave her a thumb drive that purported to respond to the request. It contained only reports from Deloitte – and those only through September 6. Critically, the thumb drive contained no correspondence whatsoever between the Raimondo administration and Deloitte.

To reiterate: Gregg asked for correspondence. What she got was reports. (In the same way, Gregg might ask a Raimondo-operated fruit stand for a bag of oranges and receive, instead, a small bag of turnips.)

This non-responsive response by the Raimondo administration would appear to conform to neither the letter nor the spirit of Rhode Island’s APRA law. Nor is it the action of a Governor who, in an interview with Rhode Island Public Radio thirteen months ago, claimed to be “deeply committed to transparency”.

I asked the CEO of the Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity (full disclosure: I work with the Center), Mike Stenhouse, if he had a reaction to this. He responded,

A curious, honest, and relentless free-press is vital to preserving democracy in our free society and in holding elected officials accountable to the people. In this case, the administration’s pitiful non-response certainly makes it appear as if they have something to hide.

When a reporter like Kathy Gregg asks questions, she isn’t just asking for herself and her newspaper, she makes the request on behalf of all Rhode Islanders. Something went wrong with the launch of a major new state computer system – a system, remember, that has come in at over triple the originally budgeted cost. We are all minimally owed answers about the why and how of all of this. It is time to move from the dodgy non-responses to the straight answers and transparency to which the Governor herself has indicated that she is “deeply committed”.

CVS Layoffs – Political Policy AGAIN Comes Home to Roost in RI

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[The Gaspee Business Network just issued the following statement/exhortation.]

We are incredibly sad to announce that amid the long standing depressed job market in Rhode Island as well as the worst business climate in the nation, hundreds of moms and dads, struggling young adults, and professionals were laid off today at the CVS corporate office in Woonsocket. The members of the GBN family wish to extend our deepest condolences to those who must now find some means of making ends meet right before the holidays amid one of the worst economies in the country.

The people to blame for these layoffs are the politicians that have run Rhode Island into the ground for decades.

Nothing will change until each and every career politician is removed from office on Smith Hill.

These government bureaucrats have made the cost to employ the hard working men and women in Rhode Island so expensive, companies have no choice but to outsource their labor to other countries.

Take-Aways from the Blockbuster Curt Schilling Interview?

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Rhode Islanders for the first time this morning started getting some straight answers about the 38 Studios debacle that put us all on the hook for $89,000,000 as 38 Studios founder and CEO Curt Schilling broke his silence for three riveting hours on the John Depetro Show on WPRO.

So many interesting items came out of the interview. Two of the bigger ones – but by no means the only big ones – for me are:

1.) Gordon Fox crony Michael Corso played a huge role in putting the deal together and acted as traffic cop for the lucrative contracts that arose from the company coming to Rhode Island. Were all of his actions legal? And were the Rhode Island State Police permitted to conduct an adequate investigation of this question? Or was it … um, shepherded by the Attorney General so as to narrow its scope?

2.) Rhode Island and Providence have some of the most onerous building and fire code requirements in the country. Yet the newly built-out 38 Studios headquarters NEVER OBTAINED A CERTIFICATE OF OCCUPANCY because at least in part, Schilling said, he signed autographs for people. (Editorial comment: We pass highly intrusive laws and they don’t get enforced??? ARGH!!!)

Ahem. What were your take-aways?

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