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30 Jun 2004
THE TOAST OF THE TOWN
The Man in the Yellow Cab: Sam Sloan
By DAN ACKMAN
Next time you take a taxi, check the driver's name, and if, by
chance, it's Sam Sloan, ask for a long ride - to Kennedy Airport or to
Rockaway and back - even if you had intended to go just up the street.
If Mr. Sloan is at the wheel, you'll want to extend the trip so the
driver might tell you about his life.
Maybe Mr. Sloan will tell you about the time he was in prison in
Afghanistan - or Virginia. Maybe he'll tell you about the time he - a
non-lawyer - argued a case on his own behalf in the United States
Supreme Court, and won. Or maybe you can ask Mr. Sloan about his days
palling around the city with a fellow teenage chess player named Bobby
Fischer. Or perhaps he'll tell you about his current project, a run
for the U.S. Congress in Brooklyn.
Right now,though,there is substantial doubt as to whether this ride
will ever happen. It's not because Mr. Sloan, 58, has no such stories
to tell; it's because he has been unable to secure a hack license from
the New York Taxi and Limousine Commission. For more than two years
Mr. Sloan has been locked in what he calls a "death struggle" with the
TLC. Right now, it seems no more likely than he'll win it than he'll
be elected to Congress. But he's trying.
Mr. Sloan is a Don Quixote-esque battler against the multiple
slights and myriad injustices that he says have been perpetrated
against him over the years. In the course of discussing his battles,
Mr. Sloan alludes to past wars, such as the time he argued in the U.S.
Supreme Court in a case having to do with Mr. Sloan's career on Wall
Street. Somewhere in there he mentions that he dabbles in 15
languages, wrote the dictionary for a Pakistani dialect, can program a
computer, and is a tournament-level chess player.
None of these activities have been very lucrative of late,so
Mr.Sloan, gray and bedraggled, still wants to revive the taxi driver's
license he held a few years earlier. Informed he was too late to
renew, Mr. Sloan took the taxi driver's course and passed the test.
But the commission refused to issue a license, insisting that Mr.
Sloan had unsettled violations on his record. Mr. Sloan tried every
which way to appeal, claiming that the summons in question was never
issued, at least not to him.
He proved his point - a minor victory that sustains him. Still, "as
surely as the night follows the day, petitioner's attempts to resume
his career as a taxi driver met with difficulty after difficulty,"
wrote Justice Diane Lebedeff in a February 27, 2002, ruling in Mr.
Sloan's favor. As the Byzantine legal process continued, Mr. Sloan's
standing with the TLC just kept getting worse.But with two years of
his life invested in the struggle, Mr. Sloan refuses to give in. The
case is currently on appeal, but Mr. Sloan hasn't pressed
it,distracted as he is by his political ambitions.
Today he is a candidate for Congress in the 10th Congressional
District of Brooklyn, which includes Bedford-Stuyvesant, Canarsie, and
East New York. He thought he had a spot on the Republican ticket,
though party leaders think otherwise and insist he won't get the
nomination. If he doesn't get it, he'll run as a Libertarian. (He ran
as a Libertarian before in a race for the state assembly and lost by
just 2,000 votes, which sounds great until you realize the winner got
2,010 votes, the turnout being quite low for a special election.) In
the general election, his opponent will be Edolphus Towns, a veteran
Democrat, who in 2002 won 98% of the vote.
Mr.Sloan admits he's a long shot.But says he can win if, as he
expects, the Kerry campaign implodes and President Bush sweeps to a
landslide victory, even in Brooklyn. Plus he is counting on dominating
the Muslim vote. Meanwhile, Mr. Sloan ekes out a living selling movie
stills on e-Bay and teaching chess. He remains a known figure in the
chess world and several times has stood for election to the board of
the U.S. Chess Federation. He lost.
Mr. Sloan was born and raised in Virginia. He attended college at
Berkeley starting in 1962, majoring in mathematics. Though involved in
campus politics - Mr. Sloan was president of the Campus Sexual Rights
Forum - he was working for a semester in New York when the Free Speech
Movement was at its zenith. Mr. Sloan returned to the city in 1967 and
found his way into a job on Wall Street. In 1970, he started his own
one-man broker-dealer.
Within a year or so, a Securities and Exchange Commission inspector
asked to examine his customer records. Mr. Sloan told the man, " don't
have any customer records; I have no customers." That inspector left,
but others followed in his wake. By 1975, a federal judge found him
guilty of mostly technical SEC rules. Though Mr. Sloan now says,
"Really none of them were actually violations," he was ordered out of
the securities business.
On his way out, though, Mr. Sloan exacted a measure of revenge. He
sued the SEC over it policy of suspending the trading of penny stocks
- the same stocks Mr. Sloan traded - over and over.The case wound up
in the United States Supreme Court, Mr. Sloan arguing on his own
behalf. Arguing the other side was the SEC's young general counsel,
Harvey Pitt. By the time the high court decided the case, Mr. Sloan
was in jail in Afghanistan.
After his foray in the high court, Mr. Sloan decided to travel
east. He bought a used Volkswagen in Germany, drove across Europe,
through Turkey and Iran, and into Afghanistan, having become
fascinated by its culture.This was 1978, and few in the West knew that
Afghanistan was in the beginning of a revolution. After driving around
for a few weeks, on June 3, 1978, he was arrested. "I had no idea why
I was in jail," he says. He soon figured out, however, that the
Afghans thought he was a spy, which Mr. Sloan vehemently denies. "To
me the whole idea was preposterous, the idea that I was a spy driving
around in a Volkswagen Beatle."
Convinced that his jailers were planning to shoot him, Mr. Sloan
decided to escape. He did, choosing a Thursday evening for his getaway
because the underpaid and ill-trained guards tended to leave work
early for the Muslim Sabbath. He made his way via a camel trail in the
desert to a road, where he boarded the first of several buses, ending
up in Kabul. He found his way to the U.S. Embassy, whose officers were
oblivious to the revolution in the countryside, he says. They were,
however,able to tell him the outcome of his Supreme Court case. Mr.
Sloan had won 9-0.
On his way out of Afghanistan, Mr. Sloan was jailed briefly again.
A CIA agent bailed him out, and eventually his car and even most of
the $2,000 in cash he had when he was arrested the first time was
returned to him. The agent was Warren Marik, who in the 1990s led CIA
operations in Iraq.
On the way out of Afghanistan, Mr. Sloan sojourned in Chitral,
Pakistan, in the same wild territory where some believe Osama bin
Laden is still hiding. His stay there led to Mr. Sloan's second
marriage to a girl named Honzagool and to the third of his eight
children, Shamena, who was born in October 1981, back in New York.
Until recently, Shamena was a United States Marine. During the Iraq
invasion she was stationed at an air base in Kuwait.
What happened to Shamena in the interim is a wild story involving
custody fights in the Bronx, alleged kidnapping, Jerry Falwell's
church in Virginia, and international intrigue. It all, in a
roundabout way, led him back to East New York, N.Y., where Mr. Sloan
lives with his wife Kayo, whom he met in Japan, and his 2-year-old
daughter. If you want the details, you could be in for very a long
ride.
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On 10-Jul-2004, sloan@ishipress.com (Sam Sloan) wrote:
30 Jun 2004
THE TOAST OF THE TOWN
The Man in the Yellow Cab: Sam Sloan
By DAN ACKMAN
Next time you take a taxi, check the driver's name, and if, by
chance, it's Sam Sloan, ask for a long ride - to Kennedy Airport or to
Rockaway and back - even if you had intended to go just up the street.
If Mr. Sloan is at the wheel, you'll want to extend the trip so the
driver might tell you about his life.
Keep the faith, Sam. Hope you can work out your problems with the Republican
Party. I hope your wish of a Kerry implosion doesn't come about, but I wish
you well in your own campaign.
Eric
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"Johnny Bravo"
What do you think smells worse
Bush's alcoholic breath.
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"Johnny Bravo"
Bush's alcoholic breath.
Wow.....really reaching for insults now.
Try again, Einstein.
Regards,
Matt
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Cool article, Sam! - Greg Wren
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Sam Sloan wrote:
30 Jun 2004
THE TOAST OF THE TOWN
The Man in the Yellow Cab: Sam Sloan
I was really impressed with your idea of
a waterless urinal,
http://www.sloanvalve.com/waterfreeindex.htm
I'm sure it will save lots of water.
Will the disposible cartridges cause
pollution in landfills?
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I have made it to the official NYS candidate's list.
Take a look at page 6 of
http://vote.nyc.ny.us/pdf/documents/boe/2004PrimaryElection/CandidacyList.pdf
However, I am by no means on the ballot. Both the Republican Party and
the Independence Party have filed objections to my petitions and I do
not know whether I will be able to survive the challenges.
Sam Sloan
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I have made it to the official NYS candidate's list.
Take a look at page 6 of
http://vote.nyc.ny.us/pdf/documents/boe/2004PrimaryElection/CandidacyList.pdf
However, I am by no means on the ballot.
That's a relief.
Both the Republican Party and
the Independence Party have filed objections to my petitions
Imagine that.
and I do
not know whether I will be able to survive the challenges.
Sam Sloan
I'm sure you won't. Thankfully.
MN
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peeance.freeance@bayofgoats.org wrote in message news:<10f0nkcfd4v7ncd@corp.supernews.com>...
On 10-Jul-2004, sloan@ishipress.com (Sam Sloan) wrote:
Keep the faith, Sam. Hope you can work out your problems with the Republican
Party. I hope your wish of a Kerry implosion doesn't come about, but I wish
you well in your own campaign.
Eric
Sam is predicting a Kerry implosion? Sam is a pretty smart guy then.
Hillary's look at Teresa the other night is evidence.
If Kerry gets in the White House - the Clintons are finished - end of
story. Hillary will be a junior Senator from NY until she is old
pantsuit wearer.
Mrs. Heinz-Kerry has a trust fund worth $1 to 3.8 billion. The exact
number is unknown because Heinz-Kerry refuses to release the records.
If Kerry wins, Mrs. Heinz-Kerry will push the clintons out. A few
billion and the presidency make Mrs. Kerry a HUGE threat for the
Clintons.
There is a NO way the Clintons are gonna let this guy win. Hillary
has the instincts of a fellow Chicagoian - Al Capone. Billionairess
Heinz-Kerry is also to see how Clinton hardball is played.
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francishals@yahoo.co.nz (Bobby Fischler) wrote in message news:<ae681794.0407291047.6f127140@posting.google.com>...
Sam is predicting a Kerry implosion? Sam is a pretty smart guy then.
Hillary's look at Teresa the other night is evidence.
It's amazing what you Clinton-haters can read into a blank Clinton
look. The extreme example came when Bill gave a blank look while
giving a deposition: a look which told the House managers that he
fully understood every nuance of the legal manuvering which was taking
place off-camera. Later on, he claimed to be bfalled, but the video
proved that he was not at all baffled. Supposedly...
If Kerry gets in the White House - the Clintons are finished - end of
story. Hillary will be a junior Senator from NY until she is old
pantsuit wearer.
Is that so terrible? Is that such a dreadful fate? Many Senators
have had interesting and rewarding careers without ever being elected
President. I am sure Hillary could do the same, in the event that she
never gets elected President.
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On 29 Jul 2004 11:47:40 -0700, francishals@yahoo.co.nz
(Bobby Fischler) wrote:
peeance.freeance@bayofgoats.org wrote in message news:<10f0nkcfd4v7ncd@corp.supernews.com>...
Sam is predicting a Kerry implosion? Sam is a pretty smart guy then.
Hillary's look at Teresa the other night is evidence.
If Kerry gets in the White House - the Clintons are finished - end of
story. Hillary will be a junior Senator from NY until she is old
pantsuit wearer.
Mrs. Heinz-Kerry has a trust fund worth $1 to 3.8 billion. The exact
number is unknown because Heinz-Kerry refuses to release the records.
If Kerry wins, Mrs. Heinz-Kerry will push the clintons out. A few
billion and the presidency make Mrs. Kerry a HUGE threat for the
Clintons.
There is a NO way the Clintons are gonna let this guy win. Hillary
has the instincts of a fellow Chicagoian - Al Capone. Billionairess
Heinz-Kerry is also to see how Clinton hardball is played.
What a stupid vision... You should know that the
Democratic Party doesn't work the way the
"compassionate" conservative party works, we
don't throw people out because we're jealous of their
power, position or for the competition they might
provide. We certainly don't exclude people simply
because they have different views, unlike the
GOP, we respect the rights of others to differ and we
don't automatically consider that to be disloyal,
which is how you wound up with Bush as your leader,
not enough serious attention to the dissenting views.
Meanwhile, the evidence that Bush has done a terrible
wrong, is piling higher and higher! As it grows it
takes on a life of it's own and becomes ever less
ignorable! Too bad that to be compassionate you have
to be liberal! Too bad that to be conservative means
that you can't be liberal! Too bad you guys were
unable to figure that out for yourselves!
Well, the convention closed without giving you the
pain of having to remember "Freedom Fries", right?
You remember, the bitterness towards France, simply
because they refused to go along and imagine the
imaginary wmd? And, of course, we were "Un american"
to even imagine that Bush didn't have the best
intelligence, right? We weren't supposed to speak out
against a President trying to protect us from the
threat of "imminent attack", right?
I can easily imagine Bush needing some
psychopharmalogical help during this campaign, seeing
all that he needs to forget that went wrong! I mean,
if he's really a "Compassionate Conservative", then
he's really got to be grieving all those thousands of
American deaths he needlessly caused, simply because
he had this hunch that he couldn't wait for the
inspectors to finish their work. I mean, there weren't
any wmd's to begin with, so where could the "imminent
threat of attack", have come from? Certainly not from
the CIA, whose intell, even as flawed as it was, never
called on the President to take any action, let alone
emergency action.
So the question will become one of "where did these
ideas of danger come from?", and the answer will be
from the fevered minds of the BushCo!
Good luck with your spin! But don't get too dizzy!
Obwon
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