Opinion

Monday morning’s e-mail brought a dispatch from the lively Op-Ed News website, the first to report, as far as we know, that Assemblymember Paul Koretz has just introduced in the California Legislature a resolution to impeach not only the despised Dubya but also the odious Dick Cheney. He has submitted it as amendments to his prior Assembly Joint Resolution No. 39. They reference Section 603 of Jefferson’s Manual of the Rules of the United States House of Representatives, which allows federal impeachment proceedings to be initiated by joint resolution of a state legislature. A similar resolution is already underway in Illinois, and proponents have high hopes that it will be passed. -more-

A little bird dropped off at the Daily Planet office a document entitled “Survey on Economic Development in Berkeley—Preliminary Materials,” dated April 9. It is described as “proposed categories and question [sic] for an economic development survey,” to be converted by a professional survey company into the appropriate format to reach 400 potential Berkeley voters. It purports to be an attempt “to discover how Berkeley residents feel about a variety of public policy challenges confronting the city in spring, 2006.” -more-

STRAWBERRY CREEK -more-

Much has been written in these pages about the prospect of a regulation baseball diamond for the Berkeley High baseball team. Reams of articles and opinions have been written as a matter of fact. Others have been written as a matter of fancy. Few articles or commentaries have, however, addressed the perspective of what results from not building such a field. What happens, of course, is that things stay the way they are. With San Pablo Park being the practice and game field for the team. So what’s that like? -more-

On April 25 the Berkeley City Council will vote to consider a comprehensive Alcoholic Beverage Sales Commercial Activities Regulation plan. One aspect of this proposal is mandatory Responsible Beverage Service training (RBS) for licensees, managers, servers and clerks prior to selling alcoholic beverages. -more-

Graham called me a hypocrite for urging Berkeley’s City Council and Peace and Justice Commission (P&J) to pass anti-Palestinian resolutions, when I derided the same bodies for passing a pro-Palestinian resolution. I never said, nor did mean, any such thing. I do not believe that Berkeley city government has any constructive role to play in the locally divisive issue of the Palestine/Israel conflict. I merely said that Berkeley’s Palestinian supporters like Graham, should have a good heart-to-heart with their Palestinian friends and let them know that their election of Hamas won’t wash even here in Berkeley. If Graham and her buddies want to stand by Hamas, fine. At least I tried to talk some sense into them. -more-

OREGON STEET -more-

My limited experience in Oakland is that police officers are mismanaged and poorly trained. The problems of mismanagement and lack of accountability affecting officers extends well beyond their ranks and into city, county and state government. It’s not ex citing, but fostering basic, functioning systems is what is needed for our schools, police, transit, DMV among other services. -more-

Since taking office, the Bush administration has waged what amounts to a war on science. On issues ranging from climate change to contraception to AIDS prevention, policies based on sound science have routinely been cast aside in favor of policies that fa vor the economic interests of corporate contributors or the ideology of right wing supporters. -more-