Staff writer Tom Mooney has a great story on the front page of today’s Providence Journal about democratic Congressional District 1 candidate David Segal and his grass roots campaign. The piece includes a nice profile of a recent and ardent supporter, Lisa Beade, and her efforts to spread the word and get his name out there.

. . . in July, Beade attended a candidates’ night at a local library, sponsored by the state chapter of the Progressive Democrats of America. Segal, whose verbal delivery is more akin to policy wonk than impassioned orator, was, nevertheless, “so impressive, so articulate,” she said.

“He goes after what he believes is right no matter who is behind it.”

Amen to that. (And somebody get some lawn signs to this gal, asap!) Dave has been working long days, meeting and listening to voters from Woonsocket to Newport, and sharing his vision of the future.

Special Video Feature After the Jump. Dave has just received an unusual endorsement from Tom, a.k.a. The Fake David Segal. Tom is the handsome actor hired by the Bill Lynch campaign to portray David in a televised Lynch ad, and Tom wants everyone to know — he supports Dave Segal for Congress!

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The ‘Race to the Top’ $75 million jackpot was announced on Tuesday to great fanfare. The Channel 10 graphics department (read: intern) helped illustrate just how urgently these funds are needed.

Their motto, “Honest, Fair, Everywhere”. Accurate? Not so much. For a few days now abc6 has been opening its “Shark Watch” segments with footage of an enormous orca, or killer whale, snagging a seal. (This is clearly seen when viewed on television.) Why not just show that footage of the crocodile pulling the wildebeest into the river while you’re at it? What a bunch of dummies. Either no one noticed, or no one cared.

This may not be science. When the Providence Journal announced its new feature PolitiFact Rhode Island I thought some fact-checking in this election year might make the candidates more ‘careful’. But I also thought the analysis would involve checking the accuracy of the statistical citations they used to underpin their positions. Instead, the Journal has taken to parsing commonly understood words and phrases, a squishy exercise that does not lend itself to accurate ‘Truth-o-Meter’ readings. The subject in today’s paper is State Rep. David Segal (and candidate for U.S. CD1) and his assertion that he sponsored a bill to crack down on the banks. (Before you read the PolitiFact piece — ask yourself what you think a politician means when he says he ’sponsored’ a bill.) For Dave’s response go to Rhode Island’s Future where Brian Hull also takes issue with this semantic nitpicking.

Look: I like the ProJo. I agree with many (not all) of the editorials and like most (not all) of the writers. I’d love to see more ProJo writers cover local stories, as they’re good at what they do. It’s a decent publication. But it’s driving me nuts.

We recently received a “guess what!” postcard from the ProJo, informing us that we’d be receiving the “ProJo Express.” There was no phone number/email address to opt out of this.

Now, every Thursday, unseen carriers toss a copy of this 8-page redux into local driveways and walkways. Except for a couple “the beat” items for the upcoming weekend, the Express consists of recycles of random entertainment/real estate/sports stories from earlier in the week. For fun, the Express contains random surprises folded inside. Last Thursday it was a leftover copy of a Sunday Parade magazine. Today it was flyers for CVS and Cardi’s.

The Express could be a nice way to give non-subscribers a taste, showcasing a little local flavor without outside syndication. But let’s be straight: not everyone needs or wants this. I feel for the ProJo, which is likely trying innovative new ideas to increase circulation. But it appears the spouse and I are among the minority who will pick up and recycle the plastic bag and its contents. Take a look at how our immediate neighbors are enjoying their ProJo Express:
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The Phoenix has just released its annual list of the 100 Unsexiest Men of the year, and while the list is mostly made up of people who are unquestionably unsexy (The Pope, Jay Leno, the toad from Owl City) there are a few surprises on there.

Like Aziz Ansari, 25-year old actor/comedian who plays Tom on Parks and Recreation.  He’s on the list, higher than both Justin Bieber and Steven Tyler, but his entry oddly doesn’t mention that he’s a regular on one of my favorite television programs.  It just talks about the mixtape he made with the guy from TV On The Radio.  Oh, yeah, and then it makes fun of him for having Indian parents.  Calling him “Slumdog Chamillionaire,” they go on to say that he looks like “Apu’s Vampire Weekend-loving nephew.”

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In an insane clusterf**k, the Arbiter Of Truth is asking the City of Providence to pony up $1.2 million/year to rent office space out of its downtown headquarters.

•Providence Journal Company: 75 Fountain St., a five-story 194,915 square foot building completed in 1934 that is the current headquarters of the newspaper. Asking $9.75 million for purchase or lease of $1.17 million a year with rents increasing by 10 percent every five years.

Or to put it another way, the paper of record in Providence is now bidding on city contracts.  Expect Belo to spin off a car-towing service to stave off the next round of lay-offs.

I’m not all political like some of you Dose folks, so I’ve only just discovered PolitiFact, a project of the St. Petersburg Times that fact-checks statements by the White House, Congress, lobbyists and interest groups.

While others have listed the years’s top music albums or best-selling books, PolitiFact polled the top eight lies told by politicians in ‘09.

Beating out Glenn Beck’s assertion that President Obama’s science czar proposed forcing abortions and putting sterilants in the drinking water to control population, Sarah Palin took top slot with her statements that the government would set up “death panel” boards to determine whether seniors and the disabled were worthy of care:

“The Democrats promise that a government health care system will reduce the cost of health care, but as the economist Thomas Sowell has pointed out, government health care will not reduce the cost; it will simply refuse to pay the cost. And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s ‘death panel’ so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their ‘level of productivity in society,’ whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.”

The other runners-up include Barack Obama, Joe Wilson, Joe Biden, and birther Orly Taitz.

Now I’m curious what a Rhode Island liar poll would look like…

“Reading words” is his entire job description, but listening to Channel 10’s Dan Jaehnig mangle the English language is becoming almost unbearable. On today’s noon broadcast, following the egregious ‘First Birthdays’ feature, he asked that viewers making submissions tell him how to ‘pronounciate’ the name.  I used to find him entertaining (my favorite so far is ‘lemur’ . . . rhymes with Mario Lemieux) but there are impressionable children watching during the day. Maybe his intern could coach him before airtime.

(Poor Kelly Bates. Her I like.)

Sordid? Really? I think the the headline writer for The Providence Journal needs to get a grip, or start reading the articles. This AP story appeared on the front page of today’s edition; perhaps ProJo management is trying to goose circulation with show biz scandals. So here is what the ensuing “sordid” story basically boils down to — “Unmarried entertainer has consensual sex with unmarried 34-year-old woman”. Why don’t we save these hyperbolic headlines for, oh say, married elected officials who go toe-tapping for men in airport bathroom stalls. And if it was the blackmail that was sordid, then the picture should not have been of Letterman. (Complete disclosure: I am the hugest David Letterman fan ever.)

The Providence Journal’s 7 to 7 News Blog just launched a new feature at some point within the last two hours.  In addition to printing the addresses of where newsworthy events took place, they have now also started providing maps.  That means that with just one click you can find out where three people got mugged in Silver Lake, where to find drugs and guns in Smith Hill, and where six teens in North Providence were caught having something called a “drinking party.”

Theoretically there could be some advantages to this.  Indicating what corner somebody was mugged on might lead future passers-by to be more alert, for instance, and people who don’t know where Mirabar is might want to know how to find the animal fundraiser that City Council president John Lombardi is hosting tomorrow night.

But let’s be realistic.  This could also lead to lots of crazy people doing crazy things.  Because, you know, there are a lot of crazy people out there, and many of them are just looking for ways to get even crazier.  Like, stalkery vigilante crap.  And, okay, maybe this might not bother me so much if the Journal didn’t publish the entire educational backgrounds of some victims while others, those that work for the ProJo, don’t have their addresses published at all.  And I also unerstand the importance of bulking up online content to provide things you might not get in the newspapers.  But providing Google Maps–most of which have street views showing what the house looks like–veers uncomfortably close to privacy invasion, particularly in cases where the home owners might have nothing to do with the news.

While vetoing the marijuana-dispensary legislation, Republican Governor Don Carcieri expressed concern that it “…will no doubt result in increased usage, and will negatively impact the children of Rhode Island.” (The Senate and House both voted today to override the veto. Under the law, the Rhode Island Department of Health will license a non-profit compassion center to grow and distribute medical marijuana for licensed patients.)

The Saturday Providence Journal placed Katherine Gregg’s front page story of Carcieri’s veto right above another piece (also by Gregg)  — “‘Voluntary’ consultant to get $370,000″ — exposing the fee obtained by the Boston consulting firm The Lucas Group for its supposedly pro bono efforts in securing the federal Medicaid waiver. The Lucas partnership has connections (surprise, surprise) to a  newly confirmed executive appointee, Gary Alexander, new chief of health and human services. This reporting by Gregg has kicked off calls by Lt. Governor Roberts and Attorney General Lynch for an investigation into what was essentially a no-bid no-contract, and should serve to remind us all why we need a real newspaper in this town. [Today's ProJo]

Hey Governor, you know what might negatively impact the children of Rhode Island? Giving away the store to your ‘volunteer’ friends while cutting social programs.

OMG. If you are not following the post-election events in Iran, start. If you are not following the way that Iranians are using Twitter to respond to the recent election, start doing it right now.

I’ve always had my questions about the utility of web-based media (because I think it sometimes gives idiots the tools to spread opinion as fact. Like, um, any local blog.) But young Iranians are using more democratized internet tools to build a more democratized state. This thing in Iran is something to witness. And it is best witnessed on Twitter.

The mini-blogging site has become so critical to events in Iran, the company postponed a scheduled maintenance this evening to tomorrow afternoon (at around 1:30am Tehran time.)

More after the jump, with good links… more »

Only two days left to vote in Rhode Island Monthly’s Best of Rhode Island poll, the filling-out of which just reminded me that a) I know nothing about Newport, b) I know nothing about the East Bay, c) I really wish I were in Cumberland at the Ice Cream Machine right now, and d) I don’t know where to go for a good pedicure, though heaven only knows how much I probably need one with all the impending summer flip-floppery.  Feel free to stick our name in the “Best Blog” box, though you should know I politely voted instead for our neighbors to the south.  (I was actually very Cranston-heavy with my voting, erasing my SoundSession vote in favor of Gaspee Days in the ‘best festival’ category.)

Glenn Beck’s star is really rising.  And Buchanan in the third clip, oh man…

Congratulations to Providence Monthly who will be celebrating their 150th issue this week. Complete disclosure — occasional Daily Dose “contributor” and malcontent, John Taraborelli, is a PM honcho. Although, to be honest, the only contribution I can remember him making was over a year ago when he declared himself the Dose ombudsman and proceeded to pound us all into the dust. But he sure shows up to all the parties. Providence Monthly is throwing its own shindig this week (hot hors d’oeuvres I hope I hope) where they will presumably unveil their new full-color redesign complete with new logo. It’s a great little publication and they should all be proud of it. Well done.