Sen. Whitehouse Continues Pasta Dinners Here

July 1 at 6 pm

Health Care Community Dinner - The Portuguese American Vasco de Gama Hall, 15 Fenner Ave., Newport, RI
Please bring your family and friends for a free macaroni and meatball community dinner on Wednesday, July 1 at 6 p.m. in Newport to share your personal story about the crisis in our health care system - and your ideas about how to fix it.

Click here to let them know you'll be there. I'll be there. So come already!

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

Sen. Whitehouse Fights Torture

I make mistakes- lots of them. But sometimes, sometimes, I get things right. Working on Sen. Whitehouse's campaign was one of them. I got all my family involved & anyone else that I could persuade. I can't always keep up with everything on the nat'l scene, so it's nice to know that our Sen. not only can but does.

Sen. Whitehouse is one of the hardest working elected officials on any level. And he lives right here in Newport! Are we lucky or what?

He's been in the forefront working on health care, education, states' attorneys, and other timely topics. I catch little Rhody's Senator on various news channels all the time. What a guy!

So what is your opinion on America's recent foray into torture? It makes me ashamed. And it doesn't work to boot. Gee, the Catholic Church has plenty to say about "gays." The silence now is defeaning.

I'm proud of all the people I met who were working there right alongside me. These good folks did the hard grunt work here- ringing doorbells, making phone calls, filing out those darn forms for the data base, etc., etc. It was one huckuva campaign that made it to the forefront of the nat'l scene. It will be a LONG time before you see that again in R.I. Talk about making a difference!!! We did!!!

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 Speaks Out on Oil this A.M.

The Senate Judicial Committee is holding a hearing today, "Exploring the Skyrocketing Price of Oil." Sen. Patrick Leahy is the Chair with Sen. Kennedy also holding membership on this group. The big five oil company CEO's will be testifying. From Squawk on theStreet this a.m.:

Sen. Whitehouse:

"The average R.Islander is spending $2000 more spent in gasoline now." He is in favor of a "windfalls tax on the largest profits in the history of the universe." "....we can't drill out way out." "Their recent profits $116 billion is twice size annual transportation budget."
We need to become "an oil independent economy." "We need to make sure there is adequate investment in new technologies." "We have an important way to make sure they are investing in our interest."

Tex. Sen. Cornyn (R) stated that an oil-free economy is a "fairytale in the near future." "We need a transition." Oil companies operate not [in the] national interest, [but] interest of shareholders." He referred any more regs (inc. winfall profits tax) to "commandeering the oil industry."

Whitehouse stated that it wasn't pure oil costs, but rampant speculation driving prices up. He states that a "green economy beckons" and that it is of "urgent nation importance to work towards this."

Formerly, for every dollar invest in r&d, oil companies receive $3.00 off their taxes. Is this still the case? There is no video yet available & my quotes are incomplete as I can only type so fast, but I got the gist. Sen. Whitehouse engaged in long answers & was frequently spoken over by the hosts. Senator, smile more & remember KISS!

When video is here.

Whitehouse Holiday Party

From the Whitehouse for Senate organization comes notice of a holiday reception being thrown for Senator Sheldon Whitehouse's supporters. The festivities are due to take place on Sunday, December 16 from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Federal Reserve, 60 Dorrance St. (the intersection of Dorrance and Westminster) in downtown Providence. The organizers will be accepting donations of canned goods for the RI Community Food Bank at the event. If you're interested in going, you can RSVP to esullivan@whitehouseforsenate.com.