A Blog Called Hope

McCain Can Try to Reinvent Himself, But Rhode Islanders Aren’t Buying It

This morning, John McCain launches his effort to reinvent himself for the general election with a week of speeches. After running as a so-called “maverick” and “outsider” in his failed 2000 campaign, John McCain cast aside his principles and morphed into a Bush Republican for this year’s primaries. Now, after embracing the President’s budget-busting tax cuts for the wealthy, abandoning his own immigration reform plan to cozy up to the right wing of his party, and turning his back on the campaign finance and lobbying reforms he once championed, McCain is trying to reinvent himself yet again.

But John McCain has already shown how out of touch he is with the problems Rhode Island families face. He has adopted President Bush’s failed health care plan, and marched in lockstep with President Bush’s failed Iraq strategy that over 4,000 brave troops have lost their lives for, twelve of them from Rhode Island. He has supported President Bush’s plan to privatize Social Security, and refused to offer a plan to help homeowners struggling to confront the mortgage crisis, including the growing number of families in Rhode Island who are delinquent on their mortgages.

“John McCain can try to reinvent himself, but Rhode Island’s voters aren’t buying it,” said RI Democratic Party Chairman Bill Lynch. “The fact is, McCain is out of touch with the challenges facing Rhode Island’s families and won’t provide the leadership we need to end the war in Iraq, help working families gain access to health care, and fix the economy. And while we honor McCain’s service to our country, nothing can change the fact that he offers a third term of George W. Bush, and that’s the last thing Rhode Islanders want.”

Excellent news for Coventry! Allco Renewable Energy, of New York, has chosen Coventry as a location for a 90-acre, 8-megawatt solar farm. The exact location is the former Picillo pig farm, 8-acres of which was declared to be so polluted that is was a Superfund site in the 1980s.

The agreement with the town gives Allco a 50-year lease to use the site. Allco has agreed to pay the town $200,000 a year or 4 percent of the electricity sales, whichever is greater, with future increases corresponding to the rise of inflation.

The project will be paid for completely by Allco, without the town incurring any financial liability. The project, however, is contingent on passage of the Renewable Energy Sources Act, a proposal submitted by Rep. Ray Sullivan (D-Coventry). The legislation, dubbed “feed-in tariff,” would require National Grid to purchase renewable energy from Rhode Island producers (i.e. Allco). The rate will be set by the Public Utility Commission.

The important issue is that developing a clean solar farm is a step in the right direction to alleviate Rhode Island’s dependence on fossil fuels for energy production. Since 2000 the country has seen the price of oil skyrocket from about $25 per barrel to over $100 per barrel. And while oil is only a small part of the energy production pie (coal and natural gas), the rise in oil prices is indicative to the general trend of higher energy prices.

With renewable energy, the cost won’t go up. Rhode Islanders don’t have to worry about another war in the Middle East, increased consumption by China, India, or Russia, or diminishing global supplies. If anything, the more development of renewable technology will only bring the cost of production down.

Of course not everyone is happy. Rep. Nick Gorham (R-Coventry) isn’t happy. He thinks building a solar farm is dumb because Rhode Island isn’t the best spot in the country to produce solar energy.

So, the choice before everyone is as follows: develop renewable energy in the state, provide green-collar jobs for the construction and maintenance of the solar farm, and produce enough clean, pollution-free energy to supply a small town, OR do nothing, keep doing things they way everyone’s been doing it and hope that the world doesn’t fall apart.

Frank Caprio has an exciting announcement for every Rhode Islander. The state is holding over $124 million in unclaimed property, and some of it could be yours.

In order to protect consumers, RI State law requires businesses to turn over inactive financial accounts to the Office of the General Treasurer. Currently, we are holding more than $124 million in unclaimed property. Some of this money could belong to you! Many people do not realize they have unclaimed property. To make it easy for you to determine whether or not you may have unclaimed property click here to search our unclaimed property database. You can also view a tutorial on How to Search the Unclaimed Property Database.

He also offers a warning about “heirfinder” organizations which bilk people out of a portion of their money for doing a 20 second internet search. You can do the search for free all by yourself by going to the Office of the General Treasurer’s website.

Eight-term General Assemblyman Roger A. Picard (District 51 – Woonsocket) won Tuesday’s special primary election.

Picard received 873 votes. Rosina L. Hunt, of Woonsocket, received 345 votes and Thomas J. Scully, of Cumberland, received 332 votes, according to unofficial results from the Cumberland town clerk, Sandra Giovanelli.

Since he’s running unopposed for the April 22 general election, it’s likely he’ll win that too.  His House seat will remain vacant until the November election.

Check out this new web ad from The Democratic Party

Third Bush Term on the Economy…

McCain’s Short-Term Solution For the Economy? Tax Cuts for the Wealthy in Two Years, Of Course. When asked what efforts who have a short-term impact on the economy, McCain responded “In the shorter term, if you somehow told American businesses and families, ‘Look, you’re not going to experience a tax increase in 2010,’ I think that’s a pretty good short-term measure. And as far as confidence is concerned, I think if you say, ‘Congress is going to cut corporate taxes right away,’ if you say that you’ve got a plan to eliminate the AMT, I think some of those are kind of short-term measures right now.” [Wall Street Journal, 3/3/08]

Republicans Postponing Consideration of Housing Bill So McCain Doesn’t Have to Make a Hard Vote. “Consideration of the mortgage package was delayed earlier in the week when a debate over the Iraq War lasted longer than expected. At the time, Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., maintained that Republicans were intentionally delaying consideration of the mortgage package so that Arizona Sen. John McCain — the presumptive GOP presidential nominee — would not have to cast a vote on the bill before the March 4 Ohio primary.” [Congressional Quarterly Today, 2/27/2008]

Third Bush Term on Iraq…

McCain Would Spend ‘a Hundred Years’ or a ‘Million Years’ in Iraq. McCain interrupted a voter during a town hall meeting in New Hampshire telling him we could spend “maybe a hundred” years in Iraq and “that would be fine with me.” After the town hall meeting, he told a reporter “that U.S. troops could be in Iraq for ‘a thousand years’ or ‘a million years,’ as far as he was concerned.” [McCain Derry, NH town hall meeting , 1/3/08; motherjones.com , 1/3/08]

McCain Consistently on Bush Talking Points on Iraq. In 2003, McCain echoed Bush’s rosy predictions by claiming that the end was “very much in sight” in Iraq. In 2005, McCain backed Bush, arguing that another year would prove “stay the course” was working. [The Hill, 12/8/05; ABC News, Good Morning America, 4/9/03] In 2006, McCain argued that Iraqwas “on the right track” even as it slipped further toward civil war. [MSNBC, Imus in the Morning, 3/1/06] As of late, McCain’s campaign insists, “terrorists are on the run,” even while half of Afghanistan appears to have fallen back under the control of the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden remains at large. [johnmccain.com, press release, 12/17/07; Time, 12/8/07; Investor's Business Daily, 12/14/07]

Third Bush Term on Health Care…

John McCain Does Not Have a Plan For the Uninsured. According to the Wall Street Journal, McCain’s plan does not focus on “reducing the ranks of the uninsured,” of which there are about 47 million, or one in seven Americans. [Wall Street Journal, 10/11/07]

McCain Opposed Reauthorizing SCHIP and Providing Insurance For Millions of Uninsured Children. McCain voted against reauthorizing the State Children’s Health Insurance Program for five years, expanding the program by $35.2 billion. [Senate Vote #307, 8/2/07]

Third Bush Term on Social Security…

2008: McCain “Totally In Favor” of Bush Social Security Plan.  “I’m totally in favor of personal savings accounts and I think they are an important opportunity for young workers. I campaigned in support of President Bush’s proposal and I campaigned with him, and I did town hall meetings with him.” [Wall Street Journal, 3/3/08]

2005: McCain Campaigned for Bush Social Security Plan.  “McCain has been especially supportive of his onetime rival, appearing with Bush at three events over the past two days in trying to prod Democrats into negotiations to include private accounts in a plan to revamp Social Security.” [Washington Post, 3/23/05]