Photo Credit: Jay Paul
'Toon by F. T. Rea
Since 1985, in various formats, SLANT -- an independent voice based in the heart of Richmond, Virginia -- has offered its readers original commentary on politics and popular culture. Warning: Occasionally, that means wiseass cartoons and satirical content. Naturally, all rights are reserved.
Friday, September 05, 2003
Thursday, September 04, 2003
Court Acts to Block New FCC Rules
In yet another stunning blow to the Bush administration, in what seems to be a cascade of bad news in the last couple of weeks, the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (in Philadelphia) granted a stay, preventing the controversial new FCC rules regarding ownership from taking effect today.
“‘…Given the magnitude of this matter, and the public's interest in reaching the proper resolution, a stay is warranted pending thorough and efficient judicial review,’ the three-page judicial order stated, issued five hours after a hearing.”
Read the story on Reuters.
“‘…Given the magnitude of this matter, and the public's interest in reaching the proper resolution, a stay is warranted pending thorough and efficient judicial review,’ the three-page judicial order stated, issued five hours after a hearing.”
Read the story on Reuters.
Wednesday, September 03, 2003
Middle East Scorecard
Maureen Dowd’s scorecard tells a grim story:
“…The neocons wanted to marginalize the wimpy U.N. by barreling past it into Iraq. Now the Bush administration is crawling back to the U.N., but other nations are suspicious of U.S. security and politics in Iraq.”
It all makes us wonder, what has the Bush administration done that could be called a success? To read Dowd’s latest click here.
“…The neocons wanted to marginalize the wimpy U.N. by barreling past it into Iraq. Now the Bush administration is crawling back to the U.N., but other nations are suspicious of U.S. security and politics in Iraq.”
It all makes us wonder, what has the Bush administration done that could be called a success? To read Dowd’s latest click here.
Monday, September 01, 2003
Who’s Sorry Now?
Writing for the New York Times, Maureen Dowd offers her take on the squabbling inside the Bush administration, over who's to blame for the mess and what to do next:
“…American foreign policy has been guided by the vice president's gloomy theories that fear and force are the best motivators in the world, that war is man's natural state and that the last great superpower has sovereign authority to do as it pleases without much consultation with subjects or other nations. We can now see the disturbing results of all the decisions Mr. Cheney made in secret meetings.”
Click here for a few laughs at the expense of Cheney, Rove, Wolfowitz of Arabia, etc..
“…American foreign policy has been guided by the vice president's gloomy theories that fear and force are the best motivators in the world, that war is man's natural state and that the last great superpower has sovereign authority to do as it pleases without much consultation with subjects or other nations. We can now see the disturbing results of all the decisions Mr. Cheney made in secret meetings.”
Click here for a few laughs at the expense of Cheney, Rove, Wolfowitz of Arabia, etc..
Sunday, August 31, 2003
Tony Blair's Watergate?
For the Guardian Unlimited, Tom Bower writes about fallen spin-master Alastair Campbell’s startling resignation and the churning troubles for Prime Minister Blair that may be close to spinning out of control:
“…Just 24 hours after Tony Blair emphasized his loyalty to Alastair Campbell, his closest adviser has resigned. The echoes of Watergate are deafening.”
To read more about the unraveling story at No. 10, click here.
“…Just 24 hours after Tony Blair emphasized his loyalty to Alastair Campbell, his closest adviser has resigned. The echoes of Watergate are deafening.”
To read more about the unraveling story at No. 10, click here.
Bality, a Richmond Artist to Note
Andras Bality’s studio is in the Fan District and he studied at VCU, so it’s fair to call him a Fan District artist.
Bality’s paintings are the work of an artist who has hit his stride, with the particular style he has developed. It’s a pleasant task studying his canvasses, considering the choices he must have made to depict a scene. Many of the compositions seem to be suggesting a gray sort of day, a lighting situation in which color trumps shadow.
Bality’s work challenges the viewer, without shouting at him. While it’s consistently tasteful and easy to like, he is still experimenting. There's a playful sense to his art that's subtle, like a fleeting eye-twinkle.
Here’s a link to a Bality painting of a Fan District scene:
And, here’s the link to Bality’s web site (there are miniatures of several more paintings there.
Bality’s paintings are the work of an artist who has hit his stride, with the particular style he has developed. It’s a pleasant task studying his canvasses, considering the choices he must have made to depict a scene. Many of the compositions seem to be suggesting a gray sort of day, a lighting situation in which color trumps shadow.
Bality’s work challenges the viewer, without shouting at him. While it’s consistently tasteful and easy to like, he is still experimenting. There's a playful sense to his art that's subtle, like a fleeting eye-twinkle.
Here’s a link to a Bality painting of a Fan District scene:
And, here’s the link to Bality’s web site (there are miniatures of several more paintings there.
Saturday, August 30, 2003
Blair's Chief Spin Doc Quits
Wondering what to make of the sudden resignation of Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s communications chief? Is this just an English thing, political infighting? Or is Campbell’s departure really the first to fall in a line of dominos that leads from 10 Downing Street – spanning the Atlantic Ocean – all the way to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?
Read all about it, courtesy of BBC News:
"A press chief like no other?"
"Pundits divided over Campbell"
Read all about it, courtesy of BBC News:
"A press chief like no other?"
"Pundits divided over Campbell"
Friday, August 29, 2003
Fistfuls of Dollars
Is Dubya’s squint-eyed imitation of Clint Eastwood wearing a little thin for you yet? Only months into a war our wannabe bad-ass cowboy president says will take years and, already, it’s looking like a bigger disaster than many of his policy's harshest critics warned would be the case, before the invasion.
How bad does it have to get before his busy apologists run out of whatever it is they're using for fuel?
For the New York Times Paul Krugman takes an unflinching look at where we stand in Iraq: “…the costs of a ‘bring 'em on’ foreign policy are now looming large indeed. The direct military cost of the occupation is $4 billion a month, and there's no end in sight. But that's only part of the bill.”
Krugman’s analysis is penetrating. Click here to read it.
How bad does it have to get before his busy apologists run out of whatever it is they're using for fuel?
For the New York Times Paul Krugman takes an unflinching look at where we stand in Iraq: “…the costs of a ‘bring 'em on’ foreign policy are now looming large indeed. The direct military cost of the occupation is $4 billion a month, and there's no end in sight. But that's only part of the bill.”
Krugman’s analysis is penetrating. Click here to read it.
Thursday, August 28, 2003
Progress vs. Power
On November 4 Richmonders will have the opportunity to vote, yes or no, on a city charter change calling for the election of a mayor by a citywide vote. The Wilder-Bliley Commission collected enough signatures on petitions to get the proposal on the ballot.
Currently, the nine members of City Council select the mayor from their own ranks. Under the Wilder-Bliley proposal, the mayor would be selected directly by the voters, every four years.
The City of Richmond needs this change. Read about why and the peculiar path that has led us to this point in a piece penned by F. T. Rea for STYLE Weekly.
Here’s a little teaser blurb: “In spite of how it might seem to a viewer after watching City Council meetings on television, personalities are not really what’s most wrong at City Hall. No. Cobbled together by conflicting moves made in 1948 and 1977, it’s plainly the system that’s twisted. This is a problem that is limiting our city’s potential all over town. For good reason, citizens of all backgrounds in Richmond have lost faith in their local government.”
Currently, the nine members of City Council select the mayor from their own ranks. Under the Wilder-Bliley proposal, the mayor would be selected directly by the voters, every four years.
The City of Richmond needs this change. Read about why and the peculiar path that has led us to this point in a piece penned by F. T. Rea for STYLE Weekly.
Here’s a little teaser blurb: “In spite of how it might seem to a viewer after watching City Council meetings on television, personalities are not really what’s most wrong at City Hall. No. Cobbled together by conflicting moves made in 1948 and 1977, it’s plainly the system that’s twisted. This is a problem that is limiting our city’s potential all over town. For good reason, citizens of all backgrounds in Richmond have lost faith in their local government.”
Wednesday, August 27, 2003
The Jihad All-Stars
Maureen Dowd dissects the Bush plan, or lack thereof, for fighting terrorism in Iraq:
“…We don't know exactly which of our ghostly Arab enemies are which, how many there are, who's plotting with whom, what weapons they have, how they're getting into Iraq, where they're hiding, or who's financing and organizing them.”
Read Dowd’s piece, The Jihad All-Stars, in the New York Times.
“…We don't know exactly which of our ghostly Arab enemies are which, how many there are, who's plotting with whom, what weapons they have, how they're getting into Iraq, where they're hiding, or who's financing and organizing them.”
Read Dowd’s piece, The Jihad All-Stars, in the New York Times.
The Wal-Marting of America
The term Wal-Marting is making its way into the vernacular of the day. On the surface the term refers unsympathetically to the boring, cookie cutter sameness that national chain stores have brought to our way of life. But that sense of what the likes of Wal-Mart and McDonalds have done to promote what amounts to utter conformity looks at the phenomenon from the outside in.
How about what Wal-Marting might mean from the inside out?
As we approach Labor Day take a look at Harold Meyerson’s examination of the effect Wal-Mart is having on the American labor force. Here's a sample blurb:
“…Controlling as it does so much of the low-end retail market, Wal-Mart has, with great success, pressured suppliers to cut their labor costs. No other American company has done as much to destroy what's left of the U.S. clothing and textile industry or been so loyal a friend to the dankest sweatshops of the developing world.”
Read the article in the Washington Post.
How about what Wal-Marting might mean from the inside out?
As we approach Labor Day take a look at Harold Meyerson’s examination of the effect Wal-Mart is having on the American labor force. Here's a sample blurb:
“…Controlling as it does so much of the low-end retail market, Wal-Mart has, with great success, pressured suppliers to cut their labor costs. No other American company has done as much to destroy what's left of the U.S. clothing and textile industry or been so loyal a friend to the dankest sweatshops of the developing world.”
Read the article in the Washington Post.
Monday, August 25, 2003
The Snipe Hunt in Iraq Continues
Scott Ritter, a former United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq, writes about the baffling methodology that has been/is being used to find the infamous WMD presence President Bush said was the most pressing reason for launching his go-it-alone war to liberate the suffering people of Iraq: “Some 1,500 American investigators are scouring the Iraqi countryside for evidence of weapons of mass destruction that has so far eluded them…”.
After reading Ritter’s OpEd piece in the New York Times we are left to wonder -- what was/is really going on with the so-called search for WMDs?
Regarding such brutal futility, as appears to be in the air in Iraq, perhaps Marvin Gaye put it best in his classic 1971 anti-war song: “What’s Going On?”
After reading Ritter’s OpEd piece in the New York Times we are left to wonder -- what was/is really going on with the so-called search for WMDs?
Regarding such brutal futility, as appears to be in the air in Iraq, perhaps Marvin Gaye put it best in his classic 1971 anti-war song: “What’s Going On?”
Sunday, August 24, 2003
Three Trains Crossing
On a pretty summer Sunday take a break from the noisy news of the day to click on this link to view a colorized (circa 1940’s) shot of what was billed as, “the only point in the world where three trunk line trains may cross each other at the same time, and over their separate tracks.”
Depicted in a wonderful old postcard, one this scribbler remembers seeing as a child, is a scene of three trains, on three different levels, passing over the same point in Shockoe Bottom. To see more of these charming postcards visit the VCU Special Collection of vintage postcards.
Depicted in a wonderful old postcard, one this scribbler remembers seeing as a child, is a scene of three trains, on three different levels, passing over the same point in Shockoe Bottom. To see more of these charming postcards visit the VCU Special Collection of vintage postcards.
Saturday, August 23, 2003
Anti-Occupation Rally
For information about the rally to protest the American occupation of Iraq, being staged in Richmond’s Monroe Park on Sunday, August 24, at 4:30 p.m., visit the Richmond Independent Media Center.
Is Kerry the Donkey With the Best Legs?
Candidate Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) profiled by washingtonpost.com
Searching for Needles of Truth in Haystacks of Sham
Which is the Bush administration more interested in -- finding out how 9/11 was accomplished by its perpetrators and allowed for by our government, or in covering its own ass?
Gail Sheehy writes: “…So afraid is the Bush administration of what could be revealed by inquiries into its failures to protect Americans from terrorist attack, it is unabashedly using Kremlin tactics to muzzle members of Congress and thwart the current federal commission investigating the failures of Sept. 11.”
That excerpt is from Sheehy’s eye-opening account of the efforts of four dauntless 9/11 widows to find the truth, the whole truth, about what killed their husbands. The story of the complex shell game that is being used to deny those women the facts, and thus keep us all in the dark, is both bewildering and chilling. Read it in the New York Observer.
Gail Sheehy writes: “…So afraid is the Bush administration of what could be revealed by inquiries into its failures to protect Americans from terrorist attack, it is unabashedly using Kremlin tactics to muzzle members of Congress and thwart the current federal commission investigating the failures of Sept. 11.”
That excerpt is from Sheehy’s eye-opening account of the efforts of four dauntless 9/11 widows to find the truth, the whole truth, about what killed their husbands. The story of the complex shell game that is being used to deny those women the facts, and thus keep us all in the dark, is both bewildering and chilling. Read it in the New York Observer.
Friday, August 22, 2003
Fox Denied; Franken Unrepentant
Today Fox News struck out with its absurd attempt to block sales of comedian/political commentator Al Franken’s new headline-making book, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right.
Newsday reports: “’There are hard cases and there are easy cases,’ U.S. District Judge Denny Chin told Fox's lawyers Friday. ‘This is an easy case in my view and wholly without merit, both factually and legally.'”
Afterwards, claiming the publicity had increased demand for his book, Franken said, "I'd like to thank Fox's lawyers for filing one of the stupidest briefs I've ever seen in my life."
Read the fair and balanced Newsday.com piece.
Newsday reports: “’There are hard cases and there are easy cases,’ U.S. District Judge Denny Chin told Fox's lawyers Friday. ‘This is an easy case in my view and wholly without merit, both factually and legally.'”
Afterwards, claiming the publicity had increased demand for his book, Franken said, "I'd like to thank Fox's lawyers for filing one of the stupidest briefs I've ever seen in my life."
Read the fair and balanced Newsday.com piece.
Bringing It On
In “Behind the Failure” E. J. Dionne, Jr. writes about the Bush administration’s utter misunderstanding of the reality on the ground in Iraq before it launched its go-it-alone war, and the rash statements that have flowed from that mistake.
“...consider our president's statement on July 2 in response to a question about attackers targeting our troops. ‘Bring 'em on,’ our president declared. ‘We've got the force necessary to deal with the security situation.’ Mr. President, they're bringing it on.”
Read the article in the Washington Post.
“...consider our president's statement on July 2 in response to a question about attackers targeting our troops. ‘Bring 'em on,’ our president declared. ‘We've got the force necessary to deal with the security situation.’ Mr. President, they're bringing it on.”
Read the article in the Washington Post.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)