Opinion

Editorials

Editorial: Bashing the Poor is Back in Style

By Becky O’Malley
Friday September 28, 2007

On Wednesday I had a rare opportunity to sit in a chair at an undisclosed location in the country for a couple of hours. I took along the New Yorker which had just arrived in my mailbox and my reading glasses, as well as some binoculars in case any birds showed up. -more-


Editorial: MoveOn Not as Clever as They Thought

By Becky O’Malley
Tuesday September 25, 2007

There’s been a completely unnecessary uproar over MoveOn’s ad about General Petraeus. It almost makes one wonder if there isn’t some Cointelpro-like infiltration going on in the anti-war movement, except that I know that people like us can always manage to shoot ourselves in the foot with no help from anyone. What’s unnecessary about it? -more-


Public Comment

Letters to the Editor

Friday September 28, 2007

CHRIS KAVANAGH’S OAKLAND LANDLORD -more-


Commentary: An Analysis of Bus Rapid Transit

By Wolfgang Homburger
Friday September 28, 2007

Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) has been argued and debated ever since AC Transit unveiled a proposal for a BRT project between Berkeley, Oakland and San Leandro. The subject has polarized the community into pro-BRT and anti-BRT factions—and, of course, those who have never heard of it. It is therefore timely to provide some guidance on how to analyze this proposal—and others like it. -more-


Letters to the Editor

Tuesday September 25, 2007

CORRECTION -more-


Commentary: Guardian Sounds Alarm on ‘Housing Psychosis’

By Zelda Bronstein
Tuesday September 25, 2007

I stopped reading the Bay Guardian after the paper endorsed Tom Bates in Berkeley’s 2006 mayoral election. I’d thought the Guardian stood for neighborhood integrity, affordable housing and democratic governance. Also, for in-depth, pre-endorsement research of political candidates. But its editors embraced Bates—the big developers’ back-room buddy—without bothering to send me so much as an e-mail about my own candidacy. That experience made me wonder how much I should trust the Guardian, especially when it ventures outside San Francisco. -more-


Commentary: Global Warming And Berkeley

By Edna Spector
Tuesday September 25, 2007

Friends! The hour of judgment is at hand for our planet. Doom is knocking on our door in the form of catastrophic climate change. Global warming not only threatens our so-called way of life, it threatens the very existence of the planet itself! Here in Berkeley, we must do more than our fair share to offset this crisis. Why more than our fair share? Quite simply because other communities cannot be relied on to do even their meager fair share in cutting back on carbon emissions. We must make up for what others fail to do on a global scale through our own heroic self-sacrifice. We cannot afford to wait until 2050 to meet our modest carbon emission reduction goals. Many of us who passed this measure will not even be alive then to implement it. By 2050 it will have been too late for this planet I fear, possibly far too late for all of the extinct species whose blood will be on our hands. This is no time for buying absolution through carbon credits or for half-assed symbolic measures which mostly have a feel good significance. -more-


Commentary: Searching for a Cure for Spinal Injuries

By John Smith
Tuesday September 25, 2007

The recent spinal cord injury to Kevin Everett, a special teams player for the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League, highlights the frustrations felt by thousands of families across the United States. Everett’s prognosis continues to improve due to extraordinary emergency care delivered immediately after his accident. And, though he does not know it yet, his fan base grew considerably at the moment he was stilled upon colliding with his opponent. Large portions of the spinal injured community now follow his recovery. Their discontent stems from the reminders of neglect shown to the legacy of another high profile injured individual. -more-


Commentary: Anger and Football Hysteria, Part 2

By Doug Buckwald
Tuesday September 25, 2007

It was with some sadness that I read the recent contributions of Jeff Ogar and Matthew Shoemaker in the letters to the editor section of the Daily Planet. They both provided true-life examples that serve to underscore the concerns I expressed in my Sept. 14 commentary, “Anger and Football Hysteria.” Each man seems to be convinced of two things: First, that I am a bad person, not just someone with views different from their own; and second, that I simply could not love trees and also support the Cal Bears football team. -more-