Opinion

“Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” How often in the reign of the current mayor will we find the opportunity to use that now-hackneyed quote from Lord Acton? Tomorrow’s Berkeley City Council agenda offers yet another one. It contains not one but at least two naked power grabs by Mayor Bates, aided and abetted by the so-called ‘moderate’ councilmembers and the sycophantic faction of ex-progressives who have joined them to create the new conservative majority on the city council. (Style note: when both “so-called” and single quotes are used, it means we think the word ‘moderate’ lost all meaning in Berkeley politics years ago, as did ‘progressive’.) -more-

Why shouldn’t public universities welcome big grants from big corporations? After all, times are tough, and they need all the money they can get to keep tuition costs down, right? Well, maybe, but let’s take a look at the real costs of inviting the fox to sleep over in the henhouse. -more-

FUELS RUSH IN -more-

Those who object to a new ferry terminal along the Albany or North Berkeley shoreline can relax. After last Thursday’s scoping session conducted by the Water Transit Authority, it appears that the two northern locations are likely to be ranked a distant third and fourth behind the other two candidate sites in the Berkeley Marina. The northern sites are Buchanan Street (really closer to Fleming Point next to the race racetrack’s underutilized north parking lot) and Gilman (really a little to the north of Gilman, across from the stables area). -more-

Sustainable Berkeley formed last year to help foster collaborations towards a more sustainable future across sectors in Berkeley. It offers a rare glimmer of hope that people from business, government, universities, and the community can work together towards common goals in spite of the many divisions, which continually prevent the success of such efforts. -more-

NORTH SHATTUCK PLAZA -more-

Let us first set aside the potential ad hominem attacks against BP Amoco PLC. So what if it is the corporation that pleaded with Washington and London to remove the democratically elected prime minister of Iran from office which resulted in a violent coup d’etat in 1953 because of concerns over control of Iran’s oil resources? So what if it is the corporation that deliberately failed to adequately maintain its Alaskan pipeline so it could drive up the price of oil, and which, upon discovering the whistle blower, hired a CIA operative to break into the employee’s office? So what if it is the corporation who, along with oil giants ExxonMobil and Shell, heavily influenced the new Iraq Oil and Gas Law which would give Big Oil a 75 percent concession to Iraq’s oil resources in a so-called “Production Sharing Agreement”? Yes, let us put BP’s past (as well as its recent past) behind us and look towards the future of renewable energy so that, in the words of Berkeley National Laboratory’s Steve Chu, we can “help save the world.” -more-

I write in response to J. Douglas Allen-Taylor’s recent column about the infamous slur word that is America’s pride and joy. The ignoble word that bigoted, racist, vulgar, people will continue to use. They use it in secret and public to try and make inferior a certain group of American and world citizens. -more-