Using the police to clear out Occupy Oakland was exactly the wrong thing to do. -more-
Police at Oakland's Frank Ogawa Plaza have issued an order to disperse to hundreds of protesters for the third time tonight.
After police deployed tear gas on protesters earlier tonight, temporarily scattering the crowd of "Occupy Oakland" protesters, the group has reconvened at the plaza and officers have started to use rubber bullets on unruly demonstrators.
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Police said at least 75 protesters were arrested when officers wearing riot gear raided the "Occupy Oakland" encampment in Frank Ogawa Plaza early this morning.
Speaking at a news conference at City Hall that began around 9:20 a.m., interim Police Chief Howard Jordan said police are still processing those arrested and that the arrest total will likely increase.
The arrests were mostly for misdemeanor offenses, including unlawful assembly and lodging, Jordan said.
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The National Lawyers Guild San Francisco Bay Area Chapter (NLGSF) calls for the release of approximately 100 people who were arrested this morning in the police raid on Occupy Oakland. The NLGSF has learned that the arrestees are being illegally booked in Alameda County's Glenn Dyer Detention Facility in downtown Oakland and in Santa Rita Jail in Dublin. -more-
My grandparents came from Pennsylvania to live with us when I was little, dazzling us with schtick from their vaudeville days. Our meals became a riot of quick patter and music hall jokes. “The show must go on”, my grandfather used to say, “is what the ringmaster says to the clown with the broken leg.” -more-
While no one’s paying much attention, a substantial part of the last remaining open space in flatlands Berkeley is being reconfigured by the Berkeley Unified School District in collusion with bureaucrats working for the City of Berkeley. There has been almost no meaningful public discussion either of the goals of planned lavish and well-funded building projects or of the schedule for carrying them out. -more-
Here's something which really outrages me, both as an opera lover and as a journalist. Lisa Simeone is the host of the independently produced World of Opera radio series, live broadcasts of opera from around the country which have been distributed by National Public Radio. Evidently, she also took part in an Occupy action somewhere, sometime..
For the sin of having political opinions and acting on them, she (and her program) have been dropped from the NPR lineup, in spite of the fact that the show has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with politics.
And anyway, what if it did? But we won't even bring up that question, because this situation is bad enough. For full details, and to sign a petition to lily-livered NPR, consult the Fairness and Accuracy in Media website.
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I’m almost embarrassed to admit this, but I have a fruit fly problem. It’s recent—within the last month or so—and specific to the kitchen. This is a novel experience. We have Argentine ant invasions now and then, and a resident spider population, but never before fruit flies. So far they have me, as my father would say, buffaloed. -more-
My politics are those of privacy and intellectual obsession. They look to Dante’s immemorial summons voiced by Ulysses: ”We are not formed to live come bruta, but to follow virtue and knowledge wherever these may lead, at whatever personal and social cost.” It may be that such a conviction is in certain regards pathological and self-indulgent . . . at the same time, (it) seems to me to justify man -more-
We just returned from a tour of Central Europe. We visited Warsaw, Krakow, Budapest, Vienna, Bratislava, and Prague. On our drive from Warsaw to Krakow, we stopped at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oswiecim, renamed Auschwitz when the town and the surrounding area were incorporated within the Third Reich. -more-
Programming the Nation opens at the Balboa Theater on October 28.
Jeff Warrick is a genial, affable fellow who looks like he might be a high school football coach but be forewarned: Warrick is a man with an obsession — and a mission. Instead of studying how to score goals against cunning adversaries, Warrick's goal is studying whether advertisers are using hidden, subliminal messages to score in the marketplace. Warrick's game plan is mapped out in a provocative and dazzling new documentary, Programming the Nation. If you have children, you should see this film. If you value democracy, you should see this film and invite your friends and neighbors along for the experience. (You'll have a lot to talk about over coffee afterwards.)
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Berkeley Playhouse, the professional Children’s Musical Theatre at the Julia Morgan on College Ave., opens with ANNIE on October 29. -more-
The City Council and the School District Play Fast and Loose with Public Funds in Berkeley 10-24-2011
Opera Program Canned by NPR Because of Host's Occupy Participation 10-25-2011
New: Hancock Sponsors "Gut-and-Amend" Bills in Sacramento 10-19-2011
Cartoon Page: Odd Bodkins: Jack Dan O'Neill 10-25-2011
Cartoon Page: BOUNCE: By Joseph Young 10-20-2011
Cartoon Page: Odd Bodkins: The Answer Dan O'Neill 10-18-2011
Letters to the Editor 10-25-2011
Press Release: NLG Demands Immediate Release of Occupy Oakland Arrestees Contacts: Rachel Lederman 415-350-6496 Michael Flynn 510-866-4981 Carlos Villarreal 415-377-6961 10-25-2011
The Clown with the Broken Leg By Carol Denney 10-25-2011
Letters 10-22-2011
Possible New Council Chambers By Councilmembers Jesse Arreguin and Kriss Worthington 10-22-2011
Two Haiku for Yemen By Gar Smith 10-22-2011
Letter: Arreguin and Worthington Submit Agenda Item re Council Move to West Campus From Councilmember Jesse Arreguin 10-20-2011
Letters to the Editor 10-19-2011
A Framing Memo for Occupy Wall Street By George Lakoff, Reader Supported News 10-19-2011
Resurrect Berkeley's Rink By Wendy Schlesinger, MJ, CIP 10-18-2011
Using Police In Oakland to Clear Out Occupy Was a Mistake (Commentary) By Don Macleay 10-25-2011
Flash: Protesters Back at Oakland Plaza; Ordered to Disperse for Third Time By ScottMorris/JeffShuttleworth (BCN) 10-25-2011
Police Arrest at Least 75 Protesters During "Occupy Oakland" Raid By Jeff Shuttleworth (BCN) 10-25-2011
Oakland 12th Street BART Re-Opens By Sasha Lekach (BCN) 10-25-2011
Downtown Oakland Workers Asked to Come Late By Sasha Lekach (BCN) 10-25-2011
Oakland Police Shut Down Occupy Oakland By Sasha Lekach (BCN) 10-25-2011
Occupy Berkeley's Growing Tent City Occupied Saturday at Civic Center by Peaceful Bay Area Teachers; But How Long Will Peaceful Vibes Last? by Ted Friedman 10-24-2011
1991 Firestorm Remembered At 20th Anniversary Ceremony By Steven Finacom 10-23-2011
Press Release: Raid on Occupy Oakland "Highly Probable" Tonight From Kevin Seal 10-24-2011
Press Release: Teachers at Berkeley's Realm Charter Schools Join Union From Cathy Campbell 10-24-2011
More Aftershocks Today By Sasha Lekach (Bay City News Service) 10-22-2011
Updated: Second Earthquake Strikes Berkeley Tonight: 3.8 By Bay City News Service 10-20-2011
Updated: Earthquake in Berkeley Now Estimated to be 3.9 Magnitude 10-20-2011
Berkeley City and BUSD Consider Moving Meetings to West Berkeley, Abandoning Old City Hall By Steven Finacom 10-20-2011
New: Occupy Berkeley Deliberates Reviving "How Berkeley Can You Be" Oct. 30; Calls for "Grade-in" and Lawn Watering Saturday--in Lieu of a March by Ted Friedman 10-21-2011
Berkeley City College Student Wins Norman Mailer Writing Award 10-20-2011
Earthquake Advice By Dorothy Snodgrass 10-20-2011
Press Release: Village Movement Takes Root among UC Berkeley’s Dynamic Elders By Yasmin Anwar | UCB Media Relations 10-20-2011
Berkeley City Officials Push UC to Choose West Berkeley for New LBNL Site--
With No Public Review(News Analysis)
By Zelda Bronstein
10-18-2011
Inside "Occupy Berkeley"—A Week in the Life of a Nascent Revolution by Ted Friedman 10-17-2011
The Unfinished Legacy of 2010: How a massive Democratic voter cop-out in last year’s elections put the reactionary right in the driver’s seat (News Analysis) By Frank Viviano (New America Media) 10-18-2011
One Fountain, One Hundred Years: The Circle Has a Centennial Party By Steven Finacom 10-18-2011
Add Your Opinion to the Downtown Berkeley Perceptions Survey By Deborah Badhia, DBA 10-18-2011
Remembering the Firestorm (First Person) By Dorothy Snodgrass 10-18-2011
Wild Neighbors:The Curse of Drosophila By Joe Eaton 10-25-2011
My Commonplace Book (a diary of excerpts copied from printed books, with comments added by the reader.) By Dorothy Bryant 10-25-2011
Eclectic Rant: Visiting Auschwitz By Ralph E. Stone & Judi Iranyi 10-25-2011
The New American Revolution: Occupy Wall Street By Bob Burnett 10-22-2011
On Mental Illness: Children on Medication By Jack Bragen 10-22-2011
My Commonplace Book (a diary of excerpts copied from printed books, with comments added by the reader.) By Dorothy Bryant 10-20-2011
Senior Power… “Always my best day of the week.” Part 1. By Helen Rippier Wheeler 10-20-2011
Warbler Variations and the Origin of a Species By Joe Eaton 10-18-2011
Brain Raves: Exposing The Power of Subliminal Messaging Reviewed by Gar Smith 10-25-2011
No Sugar-Coating for This Realistic ANNIE at Berkeley Playhouse By John A. McMullen II 10-25-2011
Don't Miss This Around Halloween By Dorothy Snodgrass 10-24-2011
Around & About Theater: Central Works Premieres Brian Thorstenson's 'Embassy: A Domestic Diplomatic Comedy' By Ken Bullock 10-20-2011
New: Kronos Quartet Resets the Clock By Lou Fancher 10-19-2011
Around & About Theater, Music--& John Malkovich: The Infernal Comedy, Friday at Zellerbach By Ken Bullock 10-18-2011
Eye From the Aisle: Rep’s HOW to Write a NEW Book for the Bible—too funny, often too tragic to abide By John A. McMullen II 10-18-2011
Press Release: School Violence: Myths and Reality - Rescheduled - A Discussion with Annette Fuentes and Jody Sokolower at the Berkeley Public Library, Tuesday, November 1 at 6 p.m. From the Berkeley Public Library 10-19-2011
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