R-ISLANDER

URI ENDS ARTS AND MUSIC PROGRAMS FOR CARCIERI BUDGET

The Projo this A.M. has an article that criticizes, rightfully so, the decision by URI to cut the art galleries and the Great Performances series.  Both are vital to a well rounded undergraduate education...now they've cut sports that undergraduates can really participate in, but not the Big Daddy of the money--users on this campus...Football and Basketball.  I love football, but let's get our priorities straight...keep the art galleries, the great performance series, and those sports that undergraduates can actually expect to join and cut just a small percentage of football and basketball funding to keep them...here's the link to the article critical of URI and its position on the arts, music, and sports.  Actually the Basketball and Football programs should themselves offer up part of their budgets to protect the art galleries and Great Performances.  It would speak well of their concern for the education of undergraduates...How about it guys?????

SEXIST COVERAGE OF HILLARY BY MSNBC, ET AL, IS NAILED BY NYTIMES

NYTimes among others call for a national dialogue over sexism in this country...BRAVO...as a result of the shameful coverage of Hillary Clinton's campaign for president.  MSNBC and Chris Matthews are described as the key players in promoting sexism in the race, and rightfully so....MSNBC and Matthews were just awful...shame...

 

"Nicholas Lemann, dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University, said: “I have not had a lot of regretful conversations with high-ranking media types and political reporters about how unfair their coverage of the Hillary Clinton campaign was.”  MORE>>>>

 

Critics and News Executives Split Over Sexism in Clinton Coverage

 

Angered by what they consider sexist news coverage of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, many women and erstwhile Clinton supporters are proposing boycotts of the cable networks, putting up videos on a “Media Hall of Shame,” starting a national conversation about sexism and pushing Mrs. Clinton’s rival, Senator Barack Obama, to address the matter.

Playing the Race Card and Drawing Attention from Wright

Bill Clinton is being slammed as a racist, by Barack Obama's campaign, as they said in published memos that they would.  And then they wonder why Bill Clinton is angry.  Clinton has done more for the Black community than any other president.  House Whip Clyburn is now saying that Clinton is a racist and that the Clintons are trying to destroy Obama.  Excuse me, Obama is destroying himself.

Clyburn is making his point again today, and in the NYTimes yesterday because tonight Obama's America-hating pastor is coming on PBS at 9 and in the interview with Bill Moyers, claims that Obama's race speech was nothing more than "politics."  Obama doesn't believe what he said according to his pastor.

So, the Obama campaign has to neutralize that, and they think we are all stupid and will be drawn away from Obama not explaining the pastor and anti-America situation that will be all over the news tonight tomorrow and on Sunday and beyond.

Shame on Obama, Shame on Nancy Pelosi, Shame on Rep. Clyburn.  Dragging Bill Clinton down with these false accusations that he is racist!  What he said in SC is NOT by any stretch of the imagination racist.  Imagine how Jesse Jackson feels (he said he had no problem with Clinton's remarks)  when Obama is insulted at being compared to him?  Come on...

If this race baiting on the part of Obama, his team and Rep. Clyburn doesn't STOP, I WILL IN NO WAY VOTE FOR OBAMA.  I won't vote for McCain, obviously, but I will not vote for Obama.  And when Hillary wins, and she will, Obama and his team are giving nasty lines to the Republicans to beat Hillary over the head with during the November general election.

STOP PLAYING THE RACE CARD, OBAMA, please....if you win the nomination, let me vote for you...if you continue this attack on Bill ...I'm sitting out the election...and I will do everything I can to persuade everyone I know to do the same. And that means having your surrogates stop too...you know, the one's like Clyburn that have your campaign's green light.

And why haven't Jack Reed and David Cicilline and Patrick Kennedy and all those other RI super delegates who haven't come out yet or who are supporting Obama COME OUT NOW FOR HILLARY CLINTON like the overwhelming number of Rhode Island voters did in the primary?

AND, MSNBC and Chris Matthews are slamming the Clintons as usual tonight with Clyburn's remarks.  Think old Chris will give the same coverage to the Obama Pastor interview tomorrow or on Monday?  LOL...yeah, right...

Oh, BTW, we all still LOVE Willie Geist in Rhode Island!  All of us being good post-modernists, we love his pieces on popular culture.  Keep them up Willie.  My students love it!

CARCIERI'S MEAN-SPIRITEDNESS DESTROYING RHODE ISLAND

One commentator recently noted of Carcieri's social policies, especially those on immigration, that they are "...scary and it’s dangerous … Any of us who are different should be afraid.”

Charlie Bakst, with his usual frank and good insights, gives note of the mean-spiritedness that seems to be spreading throughout the state of Rhode Island when it comes to immigrants.

I should also give kudos to Bishop Tobin and the other church leaders who are standing up for immigrants in our midst and the traditional American values expressed by Emma Lazarus and cut into the base of the Statue of Liberty on Ellis Island:

“Give me your tired, your poor,/ Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,/ The wretched refuse of your teeming shore./ Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,/ I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

There is a good article on the debate in RI Catholic, the diocese's newspaper.

PROVIDENCE POLICE TO CARCIERI: "STUFF IT!"

When it comes to following Gov. Don Carcieri's recent attack on immigrants in Rhode Island, the Chief of the Providence Police essentially tells the discriminatory Governor to "Stuff It!"  Here is the article from the Boston Globe.  Here is the more detailed article from the Projo this A.M.

Globe:  Carcieri seeks help of religious leaders in immigration furor.

Gender in the professoriate and in politics

This was published today. It is another indication of how women have been treated since the beginning of time. It is why Hillary Clinton is in a fight for the nomination when she is the obviously most qualified of the two candidates. A vote for Hillary is a move to change discrimination against women.

THE DOUBLE HIT ON WOMEN'S SALARIES

"Expanded research study shows how complicated it is to pinpoint the causes of gender gap in professors’ pay — while also documenting that the gap is real and isn’t going away."  MORE>>

OBAMA, WRIGHT AND GAY PEOPLE

The church attended by Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) fought back Sunday against mounting criticism of its pastor, Jeremiah Wright, Jr., accusing the media of character assassination and “crucifixion.”

In a Friday column posted on The Huffington Post, Obama both rejected and condemned Wright's statements.

In the statement released to reporters, the new Pastor, Rev. Otis Moss said called criticism of Wright and the church an “attack on the legacy of the African American Church which led and continues to lead the fight for human rights in America and around the world.”

I'd like to believe that, but unfortunately, the African American Churches have been the most condemning of gay rights in the country and continue to be. Homophobia among African Americans is rampant, and the African American Churches have done very little if anything to change that. Will Obama, so tied to this mentality, work as hard for gay Americans as needs to be done?

Republican Hate Speech...This is Amazingly Hateful

UNLIKE RI, NEW YORK COURT ALLOWS GAY DIVORCE

New York judge allows divorce trial for lesbians married in Canada.  Weeks ago, bowing to pressure, both political and religious I suspect but have no proof for, our judicial leaders said "No" to a same-sex couple's request for divorce.  They were married in Massachusetts.

History will not be good to either Bishop Tobin, Governor Carcieri or the legislators who refuse to allow people to get married because they are of the same sex.  Like slave-holders they will be the shame of Rhode Island and their families in the future, just as the De Wolfe's are the shame of their descendents.

PROJO'S GAY HISTORY SPOTLIGHT

The Providence Journal has a great special report in today's paper on the History of RI's gay community.  Some shameful experiences caused by the "powers that be" including government officials and church leaders, but gays according to the report are becoming more and more mainstream.  Charlie Bakst also has a great pro-gay column.  Can same-sex marriage be far behind?  RI is the only New England state that does not recognize some form of same-sex union, if not marriage. 

William Murphy, Speaker of the Rhode Island House, will come to his democratic senses this year, and introduce and help to pass same-sex marriage for Rhode Island.  He just needs to find the strength to stand up to Bishop Tobin.  LOL.