Your superior correspondents don’t know if Robert D. Batting, the newly elected chairman of the board of the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority, has original notions about mass transit, but he certainly can’t be any worse than the political insiders and relatives of the connected who have been running the bus system into the ground for decades.

Casa Diablo was highly amused by the description in Tuesday’s BeloJo of how Batting was elected board chairman: “[The vote] followed a sometimes-bitter wrangle as [Thomas] Deller, who was ousted from the chairmanship, accused Batting and his allies of ignoring the agency’s by-laws to ram through the vote. Batting and his supporters had put off a vote from April 7, when one of Batting’s supporters, Edward J. Field, couldn’t attend, until yesterday, when Field was present but one of Deller’s supporters, William Kennedy, couldn’t attend.

“That dispute saw Batting’s supporters arguing that the meeting the board held on April 7 was actually its March meeting, because it was postponed from then, and that yesterday’s meeting was the April meet-ing when the board is supposed to elect its officers because it was on the board’s annual meeting schedule.”

Beautiful! The people responsible for the longstanding mishandling of RIPTA have earned their brownie points (as in “You’re doin’ a heck of a job, Brownie”), but little else.

We encourage Mr. Batting and the other Carcieri supporters on the RIPTA board to try a bold move that few, if any, RIPTA board members or top officials have ever done — actually riding the bus more than a few times. Jorge, a dedicated rider who’s been on most of the bus lines in the state, thinks this would be valuable in understanding the strengths and weaknesses of mass transit in the Biggest Little.

P&J have always believed that the Biggest Little, because of its unique geography and scale, could have unparalleled mass transit. One of the key obstacles is the lack of the political/economic will. (The other is our brain-dead American culture, with everybody in their own car, and their own little world of consumerism, but that’s a more intractable problem.) Perhaps the new face of the RIPTA board is one small step toward progress.

A man who was not there
Captain Queeg. General Jack D. Ripper. Colonel Bat Guano. Richard “Tricky Dick” Nixon. How many goofy control freaks can you name?

Add RI National Guard Adjutant General Robert Bray to the list. When the Urinal’s “Political Scene” column found that all record of the controversial secrecy-and-“security”-conscious Bray had been dropped from the Guard’s Web site, they were told, “His personal information was removed from the Web site in order to guard his privacy.” Oh, sure. That will keep those pesky paparazzi from bothering him when he ventures out his front door.

But as we discover, Bray’s photo and biography are still posted on the National Guard Bureau’s Web site, as are all the country’s adjutant generals. Oh my God, General Bray, wait until the National Enquirer and the Drudge Report learn this! What’s the frequency, Kenneth?

Nimbys gone wild
Keep your eyes out for a fast one at the State House, where Senator James Sheehan of North Kingstown is attempting to revoke legislation from the 1980s that created a fishing and public access pier at a wonderful spot at Plum Point in NK, next to the new Jamestown Bridge.

This is a shameless NIMBY number, in which Sheehan seems to be carrying the water of a group of Plum Point toffs who don’t want their views distracted by what they termed, at a public forum, “dirty fishermen.” That’s among the kinder terms being tossed about, as there is an implicit tinge (in shades of yellow and brown, of course) to the push to kill the pier, in addition to elitist attitudes.

This is surprising coming from Sheehan, who prides himself an enviro-friendly solon. The RI Saltwater Anglers Association and Save the Bay (P+J are proud members of both), among others, are strongly against his proposal.

It was Save the Bay that championed the original legislation to create the pier from a section of the old J-Town Bridge (which is still visible), with a structure that would promote enjoyment of the Bay in a prime location, where parents could take their kids fishing, which would be handicapped friendly, and which would provide a beautiful place for a sunset stroll and enjoying the state’s most magnificent resource up close and personal.

But now Sheehan, ostensibly a Save the Bay supporter, wants to undo one of the group’s most successful public initiatives, to serve a handful of people who don’t want that nasty riff-raff spoiling their vista a quarter-mile away.

This is a hummer folks, so have your legislators look out for it and kill it dead, since this wonderful spot will be a long-term resource for families statewide.

What’s in a name?
P+J’s old drinking buddy, Tommy from Queens, notes how appropriate it is in our gambling-obsessed culture that Providence College now has a basketball coach named “Keno” (Davis).

As Tommy suggests, perhaps he’ll hire an assistant, “Perry Mutuel,” or as P+J suggest, “Black Jack” Dealer. And we can be pretty sure that Keno’s new offensive scheme will be promoted as “Power-ball.”

Along the same lines, it’s official! College hoops is a religion in Little Rhody! How else to explain the Urinal’s decision to run the announcement of Keno Davis’s hire as the top front page headline on April 16, taking precedence over the much-acclaimed first visit to the US by Pope Benny XVI? If Joe Ratzinger knew how to recruit a good point guard or a rebounder from the inner city, perhaps he would have made the lead. Plus, adding insult to injury, April 16 was Benny’s birthday.

Sleep tight, Pope John Paulgeorgeandringo.

Zane at Julian’s
Your superior correspondents are truly embarrassed and disappointed that we missed the April 20 opening of some of Zane Claverie’s recent work, at Julian’s on Broadway. The show, including some collage-like pieces of paper or cardboard on reinforced plywood, and an oil on linen piece, is still up and we encourage you to check out what Zane’s up to. Needless to say, you can’t go wrong with the food and drink at the mighty Julian’s. Go. Enjoy.  

Send homeopathic fish sticks and Pulitzer-grade tips to p&j@thephoenix.com .