Opinion

This space doesn’t usually take requests, but when my 94-year-old mother calls up and insists, it’s hard to say no. What she wanted when she called last week is not hard to come up with, after all: a forthright denunciation of the Obama administration’s apparent plan to let the torturers and their instigators off the hook. Thinking people everywhere (I’m one of them) have rushed to their keyboards to do their best to make sure the current government doesn’t get away with letting their predecessors get off scot free. MoveOn is on their case to make sure they don’t forget. -more-

SATIRE -more-

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the complete text of the city manager's letter to the City Council regarding the San Francisco Chronicle's article about the Climate Action Plan. -more-

As I read the letters criticizing Russ Tilleman’s alternative idea to BRT, it occurs to me that, whether his idea is good or feasible or not, the notion of making it difficult to drive on Telegraph is precisely what BRT advocates are fighting for. It may be helpful to discuss this from a strategic point of view because this is, in its distilled form, the primary bone of contention. And make no mistake, the operative word here is “hamper,” not “calm” as AC Transit language implies, for there is nothing calm about traffic that is hampered. -more-

EDITOR’S NOTE: These letters were received before the April 22 City Council meeting. City Manager Phil Kamlarz’s response to the San Francisco Chronicle article about the Climate Action Plan is posted on our website, www.berkeleydailyplanet.com. -more-

Measure G is a plan to fail. According to the latest climate science, its goal of an 80 percent greenhouse gas emission (GGE) cut by 2050 will be much too little and far too late. Berkeley City Council and the Energy Commission should act immediately to order a comprehensive reassessment of the targets. -more-

As a recent Berkeley High School graduate and grateful alum of one of Berkeley High’s “small school” programs (CAS), I feel obliged to clarify a few points of recent controversy. -more-