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PRUNING THE POLITICAL LANDSCAPE 5-29-95 through Sunday June 4th, C. Denney
Well B-TV tried to sneak one through this week, its replays of the latest City Council meeting were curiously edited to eliminate all public comment and start up later in the meeting at the lovely slide show on the new "Arts District." B-TV Channel 25 Chair of the Board Nancy Bickel, asked about the clear excision of the community from what is ironically called "Berkeley Community Media" offered the explanation that the subtraction of public comment was probably the work of "some volunteer." We don't think so, Nancy, but we're glad you had the grace to exhibit concern since right now what ought to be a public access station appears to be more of a private access station, but then thanks to the alert listeners at Free Radio Director John Luvander received a few phone calls about the matter and we all have our fingers crossed that it won't happen again.....
...word is the police are continuing the crackdown on poor people by the use of the more traditional tools, illegal searches and up on the Northside of Shattuck there was a squad car a few days ago making it its business to run continual computer checks on anybody panhandling. One victim "just thought he was being friendly" when he asked her name, so keep in mind, folks, if a cop tries to engage you in "friendly" conversation it is best to say nothing at all unless you are under arrest, in which case tell them only your name, your birthdate, and your address if you have one. Don't say anything else, and the latest COPWATCH Report has a dandy primer on your legal rights, a must-read for anybody forced to inhabit the police state we call home.
.....speaking of which this week your down and dirty political landscape gardener finally got a reply from Linda Maio, ostensibly in response to my request that she add her voice to those protesting the selective enforcement of 3262 but in reality designed to scold me for mischaracterizing her support of an appeal of Measure O as based solely on the fact that, according to Maio and the city attorney, it wouldn't cost much! Pardon me, Ms. Maio, but a tape of the broadcast in question proves you did say exactly that. I do deeply apologise, however, for not including your second reason for supporting the Measure O (or anti-panhandling) appeal, that being your concern about "the needed daytime centers that also require the support of the merchant community." I should indeed have included this second ridiculous rationale in my commentary because, Linda, it proves that political expedience rather than constitutional concerns guided your thinking...it doesn't take a rocket scientist, as they say, to figure out that the downtown merchants are not your constituents. Your constituents live at the other end of town and voted overwhelmingly against Measure O, Ms. Maio, and you're supposed to be representing them. Even Dona Spring, who represents the powerful downtown business district, managed to find the backbone to vote against the appeal, so you have no excuse in my book for going on KPFA and telling people to rally round values and your candidacy if the best you can do is sell out the civil rights and the poor. Speaking of which, how much are the taxpayers of Berkeley spending to fight the ACLU's suit against the City of Berkeley in court? Ask Linda Maio! Call 644-6359 and ask Linda Maio to find out....after all, since she supports the Measure O appeal she ought to have a clear line to the goddess of open government herself, City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque who distinguished herself this week by claiming to a Berkeley Voice reporter that the Measure O defeat at the hands of Judge Claudia Wilken had influenced the decision to quit enforcing 3262 12.1, the selectively enforced sidewalk ordinance. (Buzzzer sound......) Not true. All the citations given out in 1995 were given out after that court decision, and the real credit goes to a handful of erstwhile civil rights watchers including but not limited to Robert Norse, Ray Reece, Osha Neumann and Brian Caulfield, the brave Berkeley Voice reporter who broke the story.
Speaking of freeing the airwaves, KQED-TV will start running 30-second commercials whoops! KQED President Mary Bitterman prefers the term "expanded underwriting credits" as early as July...meaning that anybody, not just straight underwriters, can buy time on so-called public television....
....In other news...congratulations to Richard List, AKA Blossom on his marriage June 3rd to his television at the Good Guys tv cathedral on Shattuck in a beautiful ceremony featuring selections from the TV Guide....also we at free radio salute comrade Bill Duggan holding down the free radio fort in Arizona while that state follows Alabama's lead in instituting chain gangs, yes, you heard right, Arizona, like Alabama, is now using chain gangs to keep the highways fit and trim....Arizona boasts some very strange laws among them a law making it against the law to slander agricultural products, and they've also passed some kind of measure promoting CFC production.......
...which brings me to my final comment. My favorite story of the whole week is the two yellow-shafted flickers at Cape Canaveral who single-beakedly grounded the space shuttle Discovery by pecking so many holes in the foam insulation covering the fuel tanks that NASA had to haul them in for repair and postpone the launch slated for this Thursday! Talk about monkey-wrenching! Scientists speculate the paranormal pecking is courtship behavior but its a little late in the season for honeymooning so who knows, this could be an editorial comment on the space program and its attendant ozone depletion from representatives from the avian kingdom....we plan to interview some yellow-shafted flickers soon and find out for ourselves and we will keep you posted...that's your political landscape gardeners report from Laura Drawbridge at 104.1.