Opinion in Brief

VCU

Thanksgiving break

The rush to finish the week’s assignments before the university closed Wednesday. The bumper-to-bumper traffic on Interstate 95. Crowds of people on Amtrak, Greyhound and the nation’s airlines. Eating Thanksgiving dinner. Maybe the biggest break we had was relaxing Sunday evening before classes resumed Monday.

Richmond

Intelligence failure

From the “now you tell us” department:
An editorial published in the Nov. 24 issue of the Richmond Times-Dispatch stated “The failure to pass an intelligence reform bill marks a singularly unimpressive way for Republicans to show they are, as they claimed during the recent election campaigns, the party best suited to protect domestic security.”
The Times-Dispatch noted how “a frenzy of arm-twisting and rule-stretching” passed a prescription drug bill so as to “enhance the GOP’s re-election prospects” earlier this year, but that last week “the Republican leadership chose not to” deal with the objections raised by House Republicans that sealed the fate the 9/11 Commission’s recommended intelligence reforms.
The editorial concluded with an observation some of us saw coming long before Nov. 2: “The failure of Republicans to get their act together and serve the nation’s best interests raises the question as to what they wanted to win re-election for.” The question of power for its own sake comes to mind.

Location is everything

Richmond should look to its neighbor to the north when it comes to the value of attracting and keeping good baseball teams in good stadiums to improve the city’s standing and promote urban development.
The Expos turned Nationals are going to Washington, D.C. instead of Portland, Ore. or Northern Virginia because the district offered the most compelling package – say, an urban ballpark with easy access to public transportation – that would satisfy baseball officials.
Of course, Richmond’s interests must be preserved in any relationship with professional baseball, but detractors of the R-Braves’ plans to relocate to Shockoe Bottom seem to underestimate the economic benefits a properly designed stadium can bring to an urban community.

Nation/World

Cold War – part deux

It isn’t quite the nuclear standoff that dominated the politics of the second half of the 20th century, but former KGB operative and Russian President Vladimir Putin seems to be trying to revive the good old days of the Soviet Union by extending Russia’s influence into former Soviet republics like the Ukraine.
Soviet – excuse us – Russian-backed candidate Viktor Yanukovych won presidential elections there amid allegations of Stalin-like manipulation of the election results. While Putin immediately congratulated Yanukovych on his victory, every Western power including the United States denounced the results – in Colin Powell’s words – as “unacceptable.”
President Bush, meanwhile, remained silent as proponents of democracy criticized Putin for winning elections of his own on somewhat questionable grounds. Putin acted to consolidate state control of the media and internal affairs by limiting the power of regional governors and closing down independent news outlets.
With a president who ran for re-election on the premise of pre-emptive action in the name of democracy, the United States’ silence on Russia’s lack thereof is deafening.