Health Insurance for ALL

This is the time to send your message to your two Senators- Reed & Whitehouse. Sen. Reed has come up with an alternate program which does NOT offer a strong public health insurance option.

Want health insurance costs to go down? The only way this will happen is to control drug costs & take some of the profit out of it, along with better management. It needs to be ready on day one. That's what happened with Medicare & the world did not collapse- quite the contrary.

Do it now! Click here:

http://pol.moveon.org/fax?tg=FSRI_2.FSRI_1&cp_id=967&id=16427-4550874-_w9Dynx&t=4

I've spent a LOT of time looking into healthcare costs over the past few years. Strong public option- end of many of our problems, including economic.

"The Health Care for America Now campaign in Rhode Island released a letter today signed by 40 Rhode Island state legislators to President Obama and Congress urging them to pass comprehensive health care reform within the year. The letter, which has been signed by more than 700 state legislators nationwide, urges congress to pass a bill that controls costs, extends coverage to all Americans, and gives all businesses and individuals the choice of buying into a strong public insurance plan." (letter)

Our local Signers:
Sen. Louis DiPalma, Sen. Charles Levesque, Sen. M. Teresa Paiva Weed, Rep. Amy Rice, Rep. Deborah Ruggiero

Senator Reed Wants Money!

This is the link for Sen. Reed's appropriation requests for 2010. Included are the Middletown Corporate Park improvements for appx. $1.38 million & monies for the new infrared system at First/Atlantic Beaches.

American Sail Training Organ. (Newport) for programs for youth at- risk while out of school: $250,000

City of Newport Incident Command Center: $250,000

URI- a Consortium for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology: $1,250,000. URI seeks funding for a nanotechnology consortium with Brown University.

Salve Regina University: $600,000. Salve requests funding to expand its Blackstone Valley Workforce Training Initiative in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.

Newport Ultraviolet Disinfection System: $1,000,000 for funding an ultraviolet (UV) disinfection system to reduce the bacteria loadings and improve beach water quality at Easton’s Beach.

Great Friends Meeting House Restoration- The Newport Historical Society: $265,000

Middletown Stormwater Infrastructure Improvements: $825,000

Newport Performing Arts Center, Restoration of the 1868 Newport Opera House: $500,000

Martin Luther King Community Center Repairs $180,000, Newport

Newport Cliff Walk Restoration: $3,000,000

Integrated Swimmer Defense Information Technology (ISD IT): $2,100,000 Middletown

Unique Item Identification (UII) Data Management SystemsRequest: $4,500,000, Tracking Solutions, Portsmouth

Common Command and Control Mission System: $2,400,000, Adaptive Methods, Middletown

Submarine Environment for Evaluation and Development (SEED): $4,000,000, Advanced Solutions for Tomorrow (ASFT), Middletown

Ellipsoidal Unmanned Underwater Vehicle: $5,500,000, Alion Science and Technology, Middletown

Improved Submarine Towed Array Systems: $4,100,000, BAE Systems, Middletown

Harbor Shield: $4,000,000, Battelle, Newport, RI

Engineered Biological Detectors for Biological Warfare Request: $1,500,000, BCR Diagnostics, Inc., Jamestown

Undersea Warfare Decision Support System: $2,000,000, DDL OMNI Engineering, Middletown

DoD Impact Aid Funding for Children with Disabilities: $5,000,000, National program used by schools in Newport, Portsmouth, and Middletown

Quiet and Compact Power Conversion and Actuators for Undersea Devices: $1,000,000, Electro Standard Laboratories (ESL), Cranston with work is to be performed at Naval Undersea Warfare Center, Newport

Virtual Maintenance Engineering Platform (VMEP): $1,200,000, General Physics Corporation, Middletown

Marine Personnel Carrier (MPC) Support System: $3,000,000, Group 81, Inc., Newport

Comprehensive Mishap Reduction System (CMR): $5,400,000, McLaughlin Research Corp., Middletown

Weapon Acquisition & Firing System (WAFS): $4,000,000, MIKEL, Middletown

Laser Collective Combat Advanced Training System (LCCATS): $7,000,000, MPRI/L-3, Middletown

Item Name: Reconfigurable Command and Control Center (RCACC): $2,615,000, Paramount Solutions, Newport

Acoustic Countermeasures Technology Transition: $3,000,000, Progeny, Middletown

Feature Based Pattern Recognition for Force Protection: $3,000,000, Prometheus Inc., Newport

Zumwalt Class Destroyer Program (DDG-1000): $Support President’s Budget, Raytheon (3rd ship)

Artificial Intelligence – Based Combat System (AI-BCS) Kernel: $5,000,000, Rite Solutions, Middletown

Narragansett Bay Hydrographic Survey: $4,000,000, SAIC, Newport

Organic Submarine Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance, and Target Demonstration (ISRT OSAID): $5,000,000, Sea Corp, Middletown

There were more referring to the Navy Base & URI, but I weary. Nothing for mental health. Big sigh. Will all of these be granted? No.

Special Elections for US Senators

From Markos at the Daily Kos comes this story about a proposed Constitutional amendment from Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin. Feingold says:

"The controversies surrounding some of the recent gubernatorial appointments to vacant Senate seats make it painfully clear that such appointments are an anachronism that must end. In 1913, the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution gave the citizens of this country the power to finally elect their senators. They should have the same power in the case of unexpected mid term vacancies, so that the Senate is as responsive as possible to the will of the people. I plan to introduce a constitutional amendment this week to require special elections when a Senate seat is vacant, as the Constitution mandates for the House, and as my own state of Wisconsin already requires by statute. As the Chairman of the Constitution Subcommittee, I will hold a hearing on this important topic soon."

As Feingold notes, the Constitution was amended in 1913 to allow direct election of US senators. Before then, senators were elected by state legislatures (the Founders thought of the Senate as representing the states, rather than the people), so it was reasonable for mid-term vacancies to be filled by state governors. Once the decision was made to directly elect senators, it would have been equally reasonable to have vacancies filled by special elections, but the men who drafted the Seventeenth Amendment decided to let the governors keep their appointment power.

I happen to think this is a good idea, and so have the people of thirteen of the states who have already amended their state constitutions to allow for special elections for senatorial vacancies. I'll be contacting Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse and asking them to support Feingold, and if you think this is a good idea, you'll want to do the same.

Sen. Whitehouse Urges Vote for Sen. Reed

Dear Friends,

Please join me in proudly supporting our U.S. Senator, Jack Reed, in the Democratic primary this Tuesday, September 9th.
Make no mistake: Rhode Island is fortunate to have Jack Reed fighting for us in Washington.
Jack has worked to protect health care coverage for Rhode Island children. He's passed landmark legislation that will help build more affordable housing and help more families stay in their homes. And he's supported stronger investments in alternative and renewable fuels, to help bring down prices at the gas pump.
Here in Washington, I've seen first-hand that Jack Reed is among the Senate's most trusted voices on national security -- the authority on the best way to keep our country safe and bring our troops home from Iraq.
In everything he does, Jack Reed puts Rhode Island families first. That's why it's so important that we support him this Tuesday, September 9th.
Polling places in Rhode Island will be open until 9 p.m. on Tuesday. To find your polling place, visit the Rhode Island Voter Information Center. If you need any additional information or would like to sign up to help, contact The Reed Committee at (401) 461-2008 or visit Jack's web site.
Jack Reed has been there for us – now it's our turn to be there for him.
This Tuesday, please cast your vote to keep Jack Reed in the Senate!
Thank you for all you do.
Sheldon
Paid for by Whitehouse for Senate

Sen. Reed on Short List for V.P.

Wouldn't that be something? Sec'y of Defense works, too. Go Jack!

LNG at Weaver's Cover DOA

Many thanks to the former local Democratic chair, the evil Dick Adams for forwarding this to me. Funny, I never receive anything from the current chair. The group now seems to have little interest/savvy in all this crazy Internet stuff. It is noted that our guv originally supported all the local LNG (liquid natural gas) proposals. He should have practiced Sen. Gibbs' sidestepping dance ("sometimes I just can't make up my mind,")

FLASH: Coast Guard Sinks Weaver's Cove LNG
A preliminary assessment by The U.S. Coast Guard released today denies Weaver's Cove Energy's navigation and safety plan, effectively blocking the proposed Liquified Natural Gas terminal proposed for Weaver's Cove in Fall River.
"This is an enormous victory for the Bay Community," declared Save The Bay Excecutive Director Curt Spalding. "Save The Bay strongly urged the Coast Guard to put the interests of the Bay first and it has done so. As we have said from the beginning, Weaver's Cove LNG is not right for the Bay, and we are extremely pleased that the Coast Guard's assessment reached the same conclusion."
Spalding also praised Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed and the Congressional delegations of both Rhode Island and Massachusetts for their leadership in defeating this proposal.
The Coast Guard rejected the developer's plan to use smaller LNG tankers to pass under the Brightman Street Bridge. In a letter to Weaver's Cove Energy CEO Gordon Shearer, Coast Guard Capt. Roy A. Nash, Captain of the Port of Southeastern New England, said that, "The recent submission of vessel transit modeling does not include either Marine Safety International's or the individual marine pilots' conclusion that smaller LNG tankers can be safely navigated through the waterway on a consistent repeatable basis."
Based on his review, Nash wrote, "the waterway may not be suitable for the type and frequency of LNG marine traffic contained in your smaller tanker proposal."