THE COALITION
  • Home
  • Past Shows
    • LIVE Broadcast
    • Gina Raimondo Political Hall O' Shame Inductee William Murray Cumberland Mayor 6/9/17
    • Alicia Ann Kelley - Environmental Activist
    • Rob Cote - Activist Extraordinaire
    • Bobby "The Rep" Nardolillo Candidate-US Senate
    • Arvin Vohra LP National Vice Chair 05/19/17
    • Emerge America Political Director A'shanti Gholar
    • Shannah Kurland \\ PrYSM: Community Safety Act
    • The Debate! Jared Moffat Regulate RI vs. MIchael Cerullo RI Center For Freedom & Prosperity
    • FIT: Meg Kerr\\RIPTA Riders-Pawtucket Soup Kitchen
    • Frank Carini -EcoRI.org
    • Attny's McElroy & Elmer: Invenergy!
    • Lynnette Labinger - ACLU / Donna Personeus Thayer St!
    • Jared Moffat Regulate RI
    • Jon Keith - Rhode Island Senate District 27
    • Homeless Bill of Rights Committee September 17, 2016
    • Republicans For Johnson\\\\Weld August 28, 2016
    • Rep Sherry Roberts: Quiet Strength\\Monique Chartier-Freedom & Prosperity\\Daryl Gould LP Candidate GA @ The Superman
    • Analee Berretto: Libertarian Candidate General Assembly Bristol / Portsmouth
    • Charles Wilson - National Association of Black Law Enforcement Officers
    • Linda Lotridge Levin- Rhode Island Press Association
    • Pride Week! Thom Simmons LP Candidate US Congress / Mike Shipley Outright Libertarians
    • New England Livery: Uber & The Sharing Economy / Del BigTree Vaxxed The Movie
    • Alex Merced Libertarian For US Senate New York-Joanne Leppanen RIPAC Cannabis Tax Crisis
    • Steve Kerbel / Gary Johnson Libertarian Candidate
    • Phil West\\Bill Felkner CLEANRI.org The Ethics Bill 5/14/16
    • Darryl Perry: Libertarian Candidate for the Presidency of the United States
    • CoHost Blake Filippi \\Gary Sasse Represents John Kasich \\Joe Trillo Represents Donald Trump
    • John McAfee: Libertarian Warrior / Candidate for The Presidency of the United States
    • Austin Petersen: Libertarian Candidate for POTUS \\\\ Jame Kennedy TransportPVD
    • Prof Steven Forleo Rocks Corporate Academia
    • Blake Filippi Libertarian Lion
    • CLEAN RI Bill Felkner
    • Moira Walsh Candidate District 3/RIPTA Riders/Fung Fiasco!
    • State of Homelessness-Rhode Island
    • Emergency Medical Cannabis Summit!
    • Bob Lafleur: Rhode Island Independent Contractors
    • Bella Robinson-Coyote / Norma Jean Almodovar Sex Worker Rights Activist
    • StopTollsRI.com / Rep Pat Morgan
    • Michael G Riley Explains It All To You-Pension Crisis Redux
    • J. Kennedy/J. Harris The 6/10 Connector: Boulevard of Dreams?
    • Bella Robinson\\Maxine Doogan Decriminalize!
    • Dr. Beshara Doumani - Syria! 12/5/15
    • The Curious Case O' The Dancing Cop Moore v. Stewart: Presiding Judge Ford
    • RIPTA Riders Alliance/James Kennedy
    • Joan Chabot Candidate Senate District 11/Hillary Davis: RI ACLU
    • Jim Vickers-Manchester 65\\ Greenwich Cove Meadery October 24, 2015
    • Jim Vincent Providence NAACP October 10, 2015
    • Providence Apartment Association\\\\Monique Chartier December 3, 2015
    • John Miner Russ Moore Alex Merced August 26, 2015
    • Shannah Kurland September 19, 2015
    • Kate Nagle Michael Riley September 12, 2015
    • Providence Bankruptcy! 9/21/14 Riley/Harrop/Flanders The Experts Weigh In!
    • Bob Healey: The Cool Moose 10/12/14
    • The Coalition Episode 5
    • Podcast
    • The Coalition Condensed
  • Advertise
  • Civil Liberty News!
    • PO Taxpayer
    • Tony Jones
    • David Fisher
    • The Goldwater Institute
  • Fight the Stadium
  • YOU! Need To Join The ACLU
  • About Us
    • Hosts
    • In The News
    • Contact Us
    • Media Partners
    • Sponsors
  • LIVE Broadcast
  • Our Next Show
  • Coalition YouTube Page
  • The Coalition Podcast!

The Coalition 3/29/2015: Carla Howell, Nat'l Policy Director, Libertarian Party

3/27/2015

Comments

 
PictureCarla Howell
The Coalition is proud to announce that the Policy Director for the U.S. Libertarian Party, Carla Howell, will be joining us this Sunday. Carla has a resume worthy of two lifetimes. Before becoming active in politics, she worked in the tech and healthcare industries in engineering, marketing and management. 

Since becoming politically active, she has several ballot initiative campaigns, a run for the Massachusetts Governor's office, and a run against the late Ted Kennedy for U.S. Senate under her belt. In her bid against Kennedy, she garnered the highest vote percentage ever for a Libertarian in a race against a Democrat and a Republican. In 1998, she won the endorsement of the Boston Herald in the race for Massachusetts State Auditor.


Tune in this Sunday at 10 a.m.  for an hour of compelling, issues driven radio on AM 790, or listen live on the web or your smartphone.

Comments

Pipeline Expansion: The Latest Wall Street Scam

3/25/2015

Comments

 
(Editor's note: This submission was made by Peter Nightingale, who appeared on The Coalition on March 22, 2015. It has been edited for grammar and punctuation, AND NOTHING ELSE! #1stAmendment You can follow him on Twitter @Peter_Night)

At the beginning of March, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved Spectra Energy's AIM Project, pipeline expansion that will bring more fracked gas from Pennsylvania to New England. As we discussed on The Coalition, this project and the national energy business plan of which it is part are immediate threats to the communities near the frack jobs, and those near the pipelines and the compressor stations that pump the gas downstream.

Expanding the natural gas infrastructure is likely to accelerate climate change, one of the biggest threats faced by mankind; up there with nuclear holocaust. At best, these kinds of projects will delay getting off fossil fuels. Quite possibly, given that natural gas is a bigger threat to the climate than oil and coal, this energy policy will ruin life on Earth. In a brief for a court case in which teens sued the federal government for not creating a meaningful climate change action plan James Hansen, former head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, wrote:

"...failure to act with all deliberate speed in the face of the clear scientific evidence of the danger functionally becomes a decision to eliminate the option of preserving a habitable climate system."

Instead, the national corporate buiness plan, run out the White House under the guise of dealing with climate change, features the AIM Project and its counterparts that will lock us into decades of increased dependence on fossil fuels.

Why then do we have a national energy policy with natural gas a bridge fuel? Because Wall Street is heavily invested in the shale oil and gas bubble which has been creatively engineered by the usual too-big-too-fail investment banks that own our government. Read Richard Heinberg's Snake Oil about fracking if you want know more about this.

This is how the window dressing works. The White House appoints the commissioners of FERC, the agency that, as we are led to believe, regulates national energy projects. The commission is chaired by Cheryl LaFleur, a former top executive of National Grid — yes that's the company headquartered in Great Britain that was looking for a 24% rate hike of the electricity prices. Given that the Party of Corporate America owns the White House, ss its no surprise that FERC rubber-stamps every industry proposal that comes it way and ignores objections raised by the People.

Cheryl LaFleur at the National Press Club at the end of last January, made it clear where she stands:

"...But our review is project specific and confined to the information in the docket. Speculating about unquantifiable impacts is not part of that process. I think that our nation is going to have to grapple with our acceptance of gas generation and gas pipelines if we expect to achieve our climate and environmental goals." 

FERC does not speculate; indeed the standard response to objections raised against the AIM Project are dealt by "we do not speculate." Never mind that the policy as a whole gambles with the lives of countless millions!

The fake regulation at FERC plays another important role in our political system. It allows our political class to hide behind FERC's supposed technical expertise and its role of gatekeeper of the statutory system that emerged after the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts. We're not supposed to notice that expertise of the undoubtedly competent and well-meaning staff is systematically suppressed and that the statutes have been corrupted by pollitical appointees and lobbyists.

But, hey, don't we have to protect "regular Rhode Islanders" against spikes in the price of natural gas, as Senator Whitehouse argues here? Talk about speculation! Isn't it interesting that these frightful spikes did not occur during last winter? Reuters reports here why this did not happen: you avoid spikes by planning and storage, not by pipeline expansion. Might there be a hidden agenda here? Export perhaps? Don't take my word for it; convince yourself and look at the map shown in Spectra's Atlantic Bridge Project. Hail, Party of Corporate America, those about to go under salute you!

Why are not more people protesting at the FERC hearings or protesting in the streets? Why have most tuned out of these scams? As Mary Wood, who was featured on Bill Moyers' "last" interview, explains in her book Nature's Trust

"Within the statutory system, a mother protesting a toxic facility near her children's school, for example, might find herself having to speak in terms of ARARs, MCLs, NESHAPs, SIPs, MACT, BDCT, and BACT.33 Few incoherencies impede democracy more than the utter lack of accessible language by which citizens can hold their government officials accountable." 

Thousands of acronyms cannot change the fact that little has changed since Adam Smith wrote:

"All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind."

The good news is that the People are fighting back against the corporate take-over of our political system. Project Gutenberg, where you can read Adam Smith's An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations,  is just one tiny example that shows that another world is possible.

Green Power to the People!
Comments

BIPARTISAN MEDICAL MARIJUANA LEGISLATION INTRODUCED TO HOUSE

3/24/2015

Comments

 

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) and Rep. Don Young (R-AK) Submit Companion Bill to CARERS Act to Allow States to Legalize Medical Marijuana

Picture
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today a comprehensive bipartisan medical marijuana legalization bill was introduced to the House of Representatives. The bill serves as a companion to the Compassionate Access, Research Expansion, and Respect States (CARERS) Act, which would allow states to set their own medical marijuana policies without fear of federal prosecution. 

Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ), Rand Paul (R-KY), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) originally introduced the CARERS Act to the Senate earlier this month. Senators Dean Heller (R-NV) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) co-sponsored the bill most recently. Reps. Steve Cohen (D-TN) and Don Young (R-AK) introduced today’s companion bill, which marks yet another significant leap of progress in bipartisan support for compassionate medical marijuana legislation.

“Police have as much business telling patients whether they should use medical marijuana as they do performing eye surgery - and with a similar rate of success,” said Maj. Neill Franklin (Ret.), executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a criminal justice group opposed to the drug war. “When you treat a health problem like a matter for law enforcement, you only endanger the patient, who has no assurance of the quality or purity of what he's consuming and must enter the illegal market to obtain it, and undermine respect for and effectiveness of law enforcement in our society.”

The CARERS Act would foremost allow states to decide their own regulatory policies. It would also reschedule marijuana from the federal scheduling category I to II, which unlike schedule I, recognizes medical efficacy and allows more extensive research for drugs within that schedule, though it is still very restrictive. If passed, the bill would also permit interstate commerce of CBD (cannabidiol) products. CBD is a non-psychoactive seizure suppressant found in marijuana that has shown to be effective in reducing the severity and intensity of seizures, particularly in pediatric epileptic patients.

The bill would also allow banks to work with the legal marijuana industry without fear of prosecution. Currently, state-legal marijuana businesses and any banks that work with them might be charged with violating federal marijuana prohibition laws, and could be accused of laundering money for a criminal organization. The CARERS Act would also allow doctors within the Department of Veterans Affairs network to recommend marijuana to their patients, many of whom suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which many believe can be alleviated by marijuana. Finally, the bill would also expand permissions for marijuana to be researched more thoroughly. What little research has been conducted domestically - and significant anecdotal evidence - both clearly support the efficacy of marijuana as a medicine, but obstacles to research have remained a problem for scientists to accurately measure marijuana’s effectiveness in treating specific conditions in controlled settings. The National Institute on Drug Abuse is the only institution presently permitted to research marijuana.

“No one should ever have to be considered a criminal to get medicine they need,” said Major Franklin. “There are many patients who need medicine who are foregoing their preferred treatment for fear of arrest. This is a public health problem that affects people from across the political spectrum. Prioritizing proper health care for the sick and disabled is not a partisan issue; it’s a question of basic human rights.”

Last year, President Obama signed into law the federal “Cromnibus” spending bill, which includes a provision that prevents the Department of Justice from using its money to create barriers for medical marijuana laws and legally operating dispensaries in those states. Twenty three states and the District of Columbia all have some degree of medical marijuana access, and many more state legislatures are considering such measures as well.

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition is committed to ending decades of failed policy that have fueled dangerous underground markets and gang violence, fostered corruption and racism, and largely ignored the public health crisis of addiction. The drug war has cost more than one trillion dollars and has distracted the penal system’s attention away from far more important crimes.

Comments

The Coalition 3/22/2015: Heroes of Civil Disobedience

3/21/2015

Comments

 
On this weeks show, we will be joined by two of the leaders of the movement protesting the expansion of the SPECTRA/Algonquin pipeline in Rhode Island. 

Nick Katkevich and Peter Nightingale are members of FANG (Fight Against Natural Gas) and NOPE (No Pipeline Expansion). Earlier this year they participated in the march from the Burrillville compression station on the pipeline to the statehouse. Katkevich was arrested at Senator Jack Reed's Rhode Island office during a sit-in to protest the pipeline expansion. Nightingale had the same warm response from the folks at Senator Sheldon Whitehouse's RI office.

Both men participated in the "laugh-in" at a speech by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse at Yale University. The protest was meant to draw attention to the hypocrisy of the so-called "environmental champion" for supporting the pipeline, and the hydrofracked gas that it would carry.
We'll find out what makes them tick, and their take on the future of protest movement this weekend on The Coalition.

Be sure to tune in Sunday at 10 a.m. to AM 790, orlisten live on the web or your smartphone.
Comments

The Coalition 3/15/2015: Phil Eil 

3/14/2015

Comments

 
Picture
This week's show is all about the media. The right to a free press is enshrined in our constitution. Of course, it doesn't get as much attention as the 1st and 2nd Amendments, but  it's vital, nonetheless.

Joining us in the studio will be Phil Eil, former news hound at the now defunct Providence Phoenix. We'll be talking about the role that the free press plays in our country, the decline of the so-called "legacy media", and the influence of social media on modern journalism and journalists.

Tune in to AM 790 this Sunday at 10 a.m. or click here for livestreaming options.


Comments

The Coalition 3/8/2015: Scott Gibbs

3/7/2015

Comments

 
PictureScott Gibbs
On this week's show, we will be talking about the economic climate and the so-called focus on jobs and the economy in the RI legislature.

Joining us will be Scott Gibbs. Scott has a long career in business and economic development, dating back to the early 80's when he served as the Economic Development Coordinator for the town of Chicopee, Mass. He  has accrued degrees in political science, regional planning, and is currently pursuing a PhD in business.

Gibbs was formerly the Vice President of Economic Development with the Northern RI Chamber of Commerce, the president of  the Woonsocket Industrial Development Corp., and currently serves as the president of the Economic Development Foundation of Rhode Island.

Be sure to tune in to AM790, Sunday, March 8 at 10 a.m. for a frank discussion of Rhode  Island's economic woes, and what we need to do to fix them. You can listen live on the web at http://player.listenlive.co/25591 or us the iHeart Radio app on your  smartphone.

Comments

    RSS Feed

    Ebates Coupons and Cash Back

    Archives

    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    December 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013

Picture
Picture
Picture

Picture