This week’s Ask The Jersey Girls:  Furtive masturbation, intrusive pets and walks of shame.

Q: Dear Jersey Girls,
I awoke this morning to find my boyfriend, who I’d had sex with mere hours prior, jerking off in bed next to me while I thought he was still sleeping. Why? It had been literally 5 hours since we’d last had sex and he knew I was likely going to have sex with him again in the next 24 hours if not right when we woke up. Am I not enough? Why did he feel the need to do this right next to me? He couldn’t use the bathroom? We’re an extremely sexually active couple, what gives?

A: Oh. My. God. You made your boyfriend wait a whole 5 hours to have sex? You are a terrible girlfriend! (more…)

UPDATE: Footage, courtesy of the Greenwash Gorillas themselves… even as this was a pretty amazing spectacle, the footage kind of makes me want to give Tom a big hug. While I understand the criticisms of Friedman’s work, I wonder if this was an effective way to get the message across, or whether this merely reflects poorly on the University… thoughts? Could the pie-throwers have raised their dissent during the Q&A with as much flair?

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman had just begun his Earth Day lecture at Brown last night, when Molly Little ‘08.5 and a colleague let him know what they thought of his work. The Brown Daily Herald reports:

A female audience member ran on stage last night and threw a green pie at New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman […]. The woman had been sitting in the south side of the auditorium’s front row when she pulled the pie out of a Brown Bookstore plastic bag that had been tucked in a red backpack and leapt out of her seat.

(more…)

This is from the Projo, about Michael Corrente’s attempt to find 10 scripts for 10 movies to be filmed in Rhode Island:

“I’ll make the movie, I promise you. If you send me a script and it’s good and it’s done, I will make that movie for a million dollars. Rhode Island’s a great place to be making movies right now.”

Corrente’s ScareRI is a competition offering unknown screenwriters the chance to pitch him a horror-movie script. Corrente, director of films such as Outside Providence and American Buffalo, created an open call for writers to pitch him their scripts and from those he said he would make 10 feature-length movies, filmed entirely in Rhode Island, with A-list actors as stars. The scripts had to be set in one location, with no more than 10 characters, and could not exceed 90 pages, the equivalent of 90 minutes of screen time.

Are any Dosers participating in this? I’m a bit confused as to exactly what sorts of commitments have been made, and to whom. But it seems like a pretty cool thing, and a nice investment by Corrente in his home town.

Update: Dan Barbarisi sends along some details, via link to his first story on this project.

Singleton’s a smart guy — and so I have to assume that he recognizes the following, pretty obvious points:

His editorial addresses only income taxes, ignoring that the income tax makes up only a portion of the total package of taxes that people pay — In fact, it only funds about 10% of the total revenues of state and local governments in RI.

On the whole, taxes in Rhode Island are regressive, meaning poorer people pay a greater percentage of their income than do wealthier people. The lowest-earning 20% of the population pays 13% of its income in taxes, while the wealthiest 1% pays only 6% of its income in taxes. (There’s more info up on OSA’s site.)

Fair tax structures are progressive, with people paying a higher percentage as income rises. The stats that Singleton cites simply demonstrate that RI’s income tax, when taken alone, is progressive — and this is the point of those who are advocating for the structural reforms that Singleton decries: A shift towards progressive income taxes, and away from regressive property taxes, would yield a reduction in taxes for most Rhode Islanders, even if the same total amount of money were colleceted.

This is part of a broader piece on the RI numbers. Fact number one is a bit of a surprise to me — you’d think that people would tend to come out more in the primaries, in a state where the generals often mean so little.

3 Thing You Didn’t Know About Rhode Island Primaries

1. Historically, voters in Rhode Island do not turn out in great numbers for presidential primaries. In fact, Rhode Island frequently has the nation’s lowest voter turnout rate for primaries, once dipping as low as 4 percent voter participation.

2. Currently, over 50 percent of voters in Rhode Island are registered as “unaffiliated.” They may vote in the party presidential primary of their choosing. However, once they choose, they are considered a member of that party. Residents can “disaffiliate” by filling out a form at their polling location after they vote.

3. To determine the order in which candidates will appear on this year’s presidential primary ballots, Rhode Island Secretary of State Ralph Mollis used a machine borrowed from the Rhode Island Lottery. Much like the daily lottery numbers are chosen, each candidate was assigned a ball, and the order in which these floated to the top decided their place on the ballot. This year’s Democratic ballot will read (in this order): Uncommitted, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Barack Obama. The Republican ballot will be ordered: John McCain, Ron Paul, Hugh Cort, Mitt Romney, Uncommitted, Alan Keyes, Mike Huckabee.

Another bit of momentum in the push for a green economy in Rhode Island. This op-ed by George Nee and Chris Wilhite comes out of a working group of enviro advocates and trades unionists that Sens Miller and Moura, RI Jobs With Justice, and I have been convening:

At the same time, Rhode Island’s excessive dependence on imported energy threatens our environment and our national security. The massive amount of energy that Rhode Island imports creates a drain on our economy. The good news is that environmental challenges like global warming represent the most important economic opportunities of our generation while protecting our coastlines and our beloved Narragansett Bay.

That’s why the Sierra Club Rhode Island Chapter and the Rhode Island AFL-CIO share a vision for Rhode Island’s new energy economy. This new vision is integral to bridging the gap between environmental groups and the labor community in regard to Quonset Point. Now we are joining forces to make Quonset the potential center of the new-energy economy and to reduce our dependence on imported energy in two ways: 1) invest in renewable power; and 2) conserve our energy resources.

In related news, Mike Gravel was found living with several artists in a concrete room underneath the Providence Place Mall.

But seriously:

Republican presidential candidate John McCain will come to Rhode Island Thursday afternoon for a rally in Warwick. He’s the first presidential candidate to do so in the lead-up to the state’s March 4 primary.

McCain is slated to appear at 1:30 p.m. at the Crowne Plaza, said state Rep. Robert Watson, who is chairman of McCain’s campaign in Rhode Island. Watson said the rally is a free-to-the-public, first-come first-serve event.

As most Dosers know, McCain has long been a supporter of War(wick).

This time from Steve Costantino, chairman of the House Finance Committee:

We can also get Rhode Island involved in the growing green economy. Particularly with wind power, Rhode Island has both the natural resources and the existing economic base to become a wind-powered generator of electricity and a wind-power-technology producer. When Portsmouth Abbey installed its new wind tower in 2006, the parts came from Italy, Denmark and South Dakota. What if, as the world turns to increasingly competitive renewable-energy sources, it turned to the Ocean State?

Let’s all just hope that broad support for green jobs in Rhode Island manifests as a focused proposal or two, and does so quickly. But the trajectory is incredibly exciting.

from Chris Barnett @ the Secretary of State’s Office

Today at 5 p.m. in the State Room at the State House, Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis will use a borrowed lottery machine to determine the order in which the Democrat and Republican presidential candidates will appear on the ballot in the state’s March 4 primary. The public is invited.

In a scene familiar to Rhode Islanders who watch the state’s daily lottery numbers selected on television, candidates will be assigned specially calibrated, white plastic balls. A representative from the R.I. Lottery will operate the machine. After each ball floats to the top of the machine, Mollis will announce the name of the candidate.

On the Democratic side, the candidates are Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Hugh Cort, Mike Huckabee, Alan Keyes, John McCain, Ron Paul and Mitt Romney are expected to compete for position on the Republican ballot.

The Secretary of State’s office will also use the lottery machine to determine ballot position for the 184 Rhode Islanders who are competing for the right to attend the Democratic or Republican National Convention as a delegate. (more…)

But I am. Go, Projo, go! Keep hammering away on the urgency of developing a renewables-based economy in Rhode Island. I’m really hopeful about many of the conversations happening at the Assembly this year — please stay tuned, and be on call to nag the hell out of your elected officials.

We have the potential to be a national leader here — push the rest of the country forward, develop a ton of jobs, reduce pollution, and achieve energy independence.

It would be better to at least quickly try out some of these ideas in some of the more obvious places — the state has plenty of unnavigable reefs and shoals for wind turbines, and wave-power generators could go just about anywhere — and then study the results and proceed expeditiously from there. If Rhode Island were to get in on the ground floor of the renewable-energy business, there would be major spin-off opportunities. Who knows? Maybe an Australian firm that wants to sell us wave-energy generators would like to set up a production facility here, say at Quonset, where a wind-turbine maker could join it.

  We should all take a field trip to South Kingstown for a game one of these days.

Jimmy Baron finished with 17 points and Parfait Bitee added 14 points and seven assists to lead Rhode Island past George Washington 81-70 on Wednesday night.

At 7. It won’t be thrilling, and will probably be devoid of substance. But if you’ve got a hankering for pomp, you can come get your fix.

• Saturday the 19th can only mean the 31st Annual Pawtucket Red Sox Hot Stove League Party. 11am-2 pm at McCoy Stadium. Whoop whoop!
• The George Wiley Center is screening the Cynthia McKinney poli-doc American Blackout tonight at 630 at the Bell Street Chapel, and Sunday, Jan. 20th at 2pm at the Mediator Fellowship hall at 55 Rounds Ave. More info here.
• Renowned Liz Lerman Dance Exchange Residency comes to Provi this week. Schedule here.
• Obama Happy Hour(s) at CAV on Wednesday the 23rd, from 5-730pm.
• The Rhode Island Federation of Republican Women is screening HBO doc Hacking Democracy at the Columbus Theater at 7pm on the 24th.
• RI Young Demz and the Dose co-host a State of the Union Party at McFaddens on the 28th. Get prepped.

Notice of two jobs openings just landed in our inbox:

Marriage Equality Rhode Island:

Marriage Equality Rhode Island is currently seeking an entrepreneurial Director of Development and Communications to raise money, develop and manage donor relationships, and direct and implement the organization’s communications strategies and public relations activities.

More at MERI’s website.

Direct Action for Rights and Equality:

DARE is currently seeking a full-time Development/Communications Coordinator to increase the organization’s fundraising capacity.

Contact Sara Mersha at 351-6960 or sara@daretowin.org for more info.

Matt has the info on the mechanisms by which Rhode Island’s delegates to the Democratic Convention will be determined. 40% of the delegates needed to win the Dem nomination aren’t a function of primaries, but are so-called ’super delegates’ — elected officials and party officers and such. It’s a firewall for the party establishment.

In RI and every state, the remainder break down proportionally, based on how many votes candidates receive in the party primaries.

There’s no truer truism. Ian puts RI’s budget woes in context, with some help from the Washington Post:

NEW YORK — Faced with a weak national economy and a worsening housing crisis, a growing number of states are confronted with severe budget deficits, forcing some governors to come up with creative — some say risky — budget gimmicks to find new sources of cash.

At least 13 states — led by California, New York and New Jersey — are facing huge shortfalls for the next fiscal year, and about a dozen others are in serious financial difficulty, according to various budget estimates, reports from the governors, and a survey by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington think tank.