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Vandalism or Terrorism?

2/17/2015

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It's hard to put in words how utterly disgusted I am by the recent desecration of the Islamic School in West Warwick. Beyond the fact that acts of this nature are anathema to the principles on which this country was founded, they are frighteningly similar to events leading up to the Holocaust. If you can stomach it, Bob Plain over at RIFuture has some pictures that show the extent of the damage and of the hate.

During Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Germany, as he ramped up the antisemitic rhetoric, it was not uncommon for Jewish families to have their homes vandalized with the words, Juden (Jew)  and Schwein (Pig). These acts of vandalism escalated to arsons, murders, and the eventual systematic killing of 6 million innocent Jews.

While disgusting, I am not really surprised by this act of cowardly intolerance and hate. One only has to read the comments section of the  Providence Journal's story on the incident - then imagine the ones they DIDN'T publish - or log in to one's facebook page to understand the levels of Islamphobia, ignorance, and unfounded hatred in our so-called civilization. Even more infuriatingly, these armchair patriots wrap their lizard-brained beliefs in the American flag and top them off with a Bible, which anyone who considers themselves an American and/or a Christian should find repugnant. 

Plain also reports that security footage from the school shows what appears to be at least one adult male involved in the incident, which blows the conventional wisdom of The Punk Teenagers Theory. I don't want to say that this terrible crime would have been somehow more forgivable if perpetrated by juveniles but at least with teenagers, there's time for intervention and education. It's pretty difficult to get an adult to change a closely held belief; especially one that would drive him or her to vandalize a school and slur 1.6 billion people around the world based on the actions of an extremely small minority. Likening all Muslims to terrorists is no different than calling all Catholics pedophiles or abortion clinic bombers.

Come to think  of it, imagine if this had happened at one of Rhode Island's  many Catholic schools. The uproar from the talk radio noisemongers would  be truly deafening? Their stridency  knows no bounds when they perceive a slight to THEIR religious freedom, but it's crickets when someone else's freedom to worship is threatened. We have a word for that: hypocrisy.

This type of speech not only precedes acts like we've seen at the Islamic School in West Warwick, it also plants the seeds of genocide in the minds of the mentally weak and pliable. As long as people continue to use their right to free speech to propagate such vitriol and impotent rage through social media, I'll  continue to use mine to speak out against it. 

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Mattiello opens the trough

2/8/2015

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Last weekend, our esteemed "papah of rekkid" The Providence Journal printed an article by Jennnifer Bogdan and Katherine Gregg on some pretty outrageous campaign spending by House Speaker Nicholas "Paulie Walnuts" Mattiello. Admittedly, there are very few restrictions on what a candidate or elected official can and cannot spend campaign funds on. Like many Rhode Island laws, the language in our campaign finance regulations is vague, broad, and open to a multitude of interpretations. You can read the laughably short rules and regulations here.

The article focuses on 2014 food and beverage spending by 'Speakah' Mattiello, and some pretty significant expenditures are outlined, including:

Two fundraisers at the Providence Marriott totaling $18,842

One fundraiser at Tommy's pizza in Cranston for $2,770

Eighteen 'Rep meetings' at the Capital Grille totaling $7,911 and,

Nine more 'Rep meetings' at Capriccio totaling $8,231
 Mattiello responds to Bogdan's inquiries with:
It is tradition that the speaker thanks the members of each committee for their hard work and long hours by taking them out for appreciation dinners — not at the taxpayer expense. 
Maybe I'm off-base here, but aren't his campaign contributors taxpayers?

Unsurprisingly, the devil  is in the details. While the ProJo reports these expenditures in toto,  when you dive into Mattiello's quarter-by-quarter spending by date, the numbers get even uglier.  I've chosen a few of his food and beverage expenditures to  illustrate my point.

On December 12, 2014, Mattiello's campaign reports an expenditure of $75 at Capriccio in Providence for one of these 'Rep meetings.' For those of you who haven't  been to Capriccio, I can tell you that $75 will get you dinner for one, including tip. Was this a 'Rep meeting' or just Mattiello's way of charging his high-end dinner to the campaign account?

On November 18, 2014, $57.67 was spent on another 'Rep  meeting' at posh downcity eatery McCormick & Schmick. As with Capriccio, it's hard to imagine that 60 bucks will get more than one person fed at M&S.

On November 10, 2014, his campaign lists an expenditure of $36.61 at Bistro 22 in Cranston. It's not hard to imagine that one person can spend 36 bucks on a decent dinner. Two glasses of wine and a steak gets you there pretty quickly.

In addition to the over $18,000 spent on two fundraisers at the Providence Marriott, on Nov. 20 and 28 of 2014, Mattiello  charged $31.73 and $30.92, respectively, for food and beverages at the hotel. Again, not a stretch to think that these expenditures were less of a meeting with colleagues, and more of an "I'm hungry."

These are just a few examples of questionable expenditures by Mattiello. Other 'grey spending' include costs of picture framing on more than 1 occasion, "xmas gifts for office staff" originating from Alex and Ani (Total: $359.52), and $10,000 for  a 'holiday party.' If you dig back into his historical campaign spending record, you  will find MANY more instances of this type of expenditure. I barely got through 2014 filings before I was disgusted enough to write this blog  post!

More disturbingly, Mattiello intimates in the article that, "This is no different than what is done in the business world. I also host small lunch and dinner meetings with my members in settings that provide an opportunity to collaborate informally to help us achieve consensus and better serve the public." Collaborating informally out of the public eye to "build consensus"  flies in the face of transparency and accountability.

According to campaign finance rules, a candidate has several options concerning campaign funds after the campaign is over, one of which is to return contributions to the donor.

If I were Mattiello, I'd put some serious thought into that option, because the people that supported his campaign this time around may not want to offer their monetary support in the next election.
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Testify!

2/6/2015

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There are a lot of radio talk shows in RI, but not many of the hosts are willing to put their proverbial money where their mouths are. Not so on The Coalition.

This week, I offered testimony to the RI House Judiciary Committee on the draconian "highway blocking" bill sponsored by former police officer (no surprise),  black man (surprise), and current state Rep. Raymond Hull. You can read my take on the bill, and GoLocalProv.com columnist Russ Moore's support for the bill here.
Super huge thanks to Steve Ahlquist and Bob Plain at RIFuture for picking up CapitolTV's slack on this one.
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    Dave Fisher

    I am the burr under your saddle. I am the rock in your shoe. I am the limb that appears out of nowhere while you're walking in the woods that you almost walk into and take your eye out. I will afflict the comfortable, comfort the afflicted, and offend those I find offensive. Nothing is true. Everything is permitted.

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