Opinion

Like every other Left-of-David-Brooks opinion writer in the country, I’m longing to lay into television journalism in general, ABC’s in particular, and especially George Stephanopoulos and Charles Gibson for the travesty of an interview show that was wrongly labelled as a presidential primary debate last week. -more-

Today is the 38th anniversary of the first Earth Day, a media event created in the United States with the sponsorship of a senator, Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin. In other countries around the world, Earth Days coincide with the vernal equinox, around March 20, but in this country it’s been April 22 since it started. (The DAR once spread the scurrilous rumor that the date was chosen because April 22, 1969, was the centennial of Lenin’s birth.) -more-

ALTERNATIVE TO BRT -more-

Posted Mon., April 28 -more-

With respect to the North Shattuck Plaza, a proposal which recently resurfaced in the city’s Master Pedestrian Plan, and whose “comment period” has recently ended, I write concerning both the issue and the process. To the issue of the plaza as proposed I stand opposed. The process to which I refer is that of government imposition of such plans (to which I stand opposed) without the active and informed participation in their formulation by those who will be effected by them. A “comment period” does not constitute participation. -more-

Posted Mon., April 28—Over the past week top Pentagon officials have upped the Bush regime’s verbal attacks against Iran in what may be a prelude to actual military attacks. -more-

Posted Mon., April 28—From the beginning, the idea of converting an industrial property in the middle of our manufacturing district to recreational fields and a skate park, was pure folly. -more-

Laurie Capitelli begins his April 18 Daily Planet commentary standing at Vine looking south “down a vibrant Shattuck Avenue thronging with pedestrians…spilling out across traffic to claim and use the grass median strip.” What he does not say, is that this thronging mass of pedestrians does not continue down Shattuck Avenue or continue into the real downtown of Berkeley. -more-

The Daily Planet had a headline article regarding concrete cracking at the skate park. Mixed in with this was my name, as well as eight-year-old comments about environmental issues from someone on the Disability Commission. There is no connection here. -more-

The city is considering placing a bond measure on the ballot to rebuild our public pools. Pools built nearly half a century ago, in cooperation between the Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) and the city, have reached their life expectancy. Crumbling infrastructure makes these pools increasingly expensive to maintain and keep viable financially and operationally. As a result, two of the three outdoor neighborhood public pools in Berkeley are closed most of the year, with West Campus pool closed even on summer weekends. Only King pool serves its North Berkeley neighborhood year around. Additionally, the city’s Warm Water Pool, housed in Berkeley Highs Old Gym, must be relocated and rebuilt. Now is the time to look at alternative scenarios. Now is the time to explore facilities that can support existing programs and act as a springboard to launch new, exciting, aquatic programs. -more-

Remember Joseph Heller’s Catch 22? “All the enlisted men and officers on combat duty had to sign a loyalty oath to get their maps from the intelligence tent, a second loyalty oath to receive their parachutes from the parachute tent, a third loyalty oath, etc.…Every time they turned around there was another loyalty oath to be signed…To anyone who questioned the effectiveness of loyalty oaths, [Captain Black] replied that people who were loyal would not mind signing all the loyalty oaths they had to. To anyone who questioned the effectiveness of the loyalty oaths, he said people who really owed allegiance to their country would be proud to pledge it as often as required.…The more loyalty oaths a person signed, the more loyal he was.” -more-

City officials are considering a panoply of new tax measures for the November 2008 ballot. The measures under discussion include the following projects, either separately or bundled in some fashion: public safety-police; public safety-fire; public safety-youth violence prevention; watershed management; warm water pool; (the forgoing are referred to herein as “the city measures”); and a very big general parks and recreation measure, including all pools, several playing fields, a new skate park, and more. Additionally, the library and BUSD are each very interested in substantial capital improvement measures ($25 million for the library), but appear to have made a deal to hold off until the city gets a first crack at the voters this coming November. Note that there will also likely be some regional and state revenue measures, as well as some potential changes (to extract more dollars) in the way that the State of California taxes property owners. -more-

In the printed edition of “Fight Against Moth Spray Gains Boots on the Ground” by Judith Scherr on April 8, the event our collective organized for Thursday, April 10, from 7-9 p.m. at the Berkeley Ecology Center was mistakenly credited to Pesticide Action Network (PAN). We are not affiliated with them, nor do we wish to be confused with them, because our organizations have very different approaches to anti-pesticide action. We advocate no compromise about chemical substances that harm human and environmental health, while they refuse to take a complete no toxics stand. -more-

Barack Obama’s political faux pas at the Marin county fundraiser is certainly something he could have done without, especially in light of the fact that his poll numbers were beginning to look good in Pennsylvania against his opponent. We don’t know if he was being candid or he merely misspoke. But whatever his intention was, this is exactly the sort of ammunition you don’t want to provide your opponents in this age of information where news propagates like wildfire click by click. Even though if you read his statement in full and not out of context, the last sentence of that statement doesn’t sound as bad as his opponents may like the voters to realize. But for McCain and Hillary to call him elitist is not only laughable but just plain disingenuous. -more-

Beware: The United States Department of Agriculture plans to drop bombs of pesticides over the Bay Area this summer. We can thank a former UC Berkeley professor for that. -more-

In 1903, Wisconsin’s “Fighting” Bob La Follette organized the first primaries in the U.S. La Follette hated boss-controlled conventions. The aim of the primaries, he once said, is to remove the nomination from the hands of professionals. -more-

THE MAYOR’S -more-

Most of us hold an unshakable belief that an informed citizenry is the very heart of democracy. Motivated by this belief, our citizens group is drafting a Sunshine Ordinance intended to make the workings of our local government transparent. Similar ordinances have already been adopted by several Bay Area cities, but the effort has been repeatedly delayed here. Who in Berkeley could possibly oppose this idea? Not surprisingly, officials who benefit from keeping the public ill-informed have for years resisted shedding light on City business. Now, however, these sunshine-obstructionists, led by Mayor Bates, have sprung into action; they are promoting a weak, so-called “Sunshine Ordinance” in an effort to preempt our proposal. -more-

Chelsea Clinton recently forwarded me an article by New York feminist Robin Morgan in support of her mother’s candidacy. Though Chelsea and I have never met, I somehow ended up on one of her thousands of listserves. Morgan’s piece listed contemptible misogynistic behaviors practiced in various locations around the world and in different periods of history. By way of somewhat questionable logic, she bundled them all together as proof that Hillary is the best candidate, and angrily denouncing naysayers, fired it off. -more-

Dear Christopher Edley Jr., Dean of UC Berkeley Law School: -more-

House Democrats’ decision to delay consideration of the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement until the next administration represents a move to protect the rights of the Colombian indigenous communities and U.S. national security interests. The decision comes after President Bush sent the controversial trade agreement to the House, which under presidential “fast track authority” requires an up or down legislative vote after ninety days. “Free trade” has most recently been a thorny topic, especially among Democrats, with Hillary Rodham Clinton’s recent dismissal of a top advisor, Mark Penn, for his work on the Colombia deal. Although the White House claims that the trade pact will “enhance national security” by “strengthening a key democratic ally” in the region and “bring economic gains to both sides,” the reality of the situation is quite another matter. -more-