Fire Fox now. Do not even let her quit

Mayor Jennifer Hosterman can solve the Anne Fox problem but she probably will not because it would infuriate her Sierra Club supporters—one of which is supporting Fox’s call for a referendum on approvals given to Staples Ranch development plans for automotive dealerships, ice skating rink, and an extended care housing development, and, of course, extending Stoneridge Drive to El Charro Road.

Ms. Fox is the chairman of the Pleasanton Planning Commission and her referendum petition is one more example of the socialist left’s jihad to stop all development.

For this insubordination, Ms. Hosterman should fire the oh so green Ms. Fox. She will not because she needs eco-bucks for her next election—either for mayor or for supervisor. We would expect that the council would also take a pass on ridding the commission of a type of eco terrorism---our way or the highway—even though the council needs to establish that the anti-democratic cancer that has grown out of eco-extremism will not be tolerated. This must be done yesterday because there is too much at stake with the Staples Ranch development.

More importantly, the city council must reiterate the limits of its tolerance for radical politics. Counselors must make it absolutely clear that while in service to the city council, commissioners, and committee members who disagree with the council decisions must do so as private citizens. To their credit, during their tenures Ms. Fox and Mr. Arkin have been in the mainstream of Pleasanton politics. Until recently, their radical agenda held sway and they never had to resort to the in-your-face politics that brought them and their sponsors to power more than a dozen years ago. More moderate voices, lead by former counselor and school board member Steve Brozosky, have pushed back at the extremists and they have had to make compromises that the more radical of the clan have had a difficult time swallowing.

Because Ms. Hosterman has failed her last few leadership tests, we suggest that a more reasonable ex-mayor Tom Pico might be the one to bell the Anne Fox cat. He appointed her to the planning commission. Mr. Pico, more than anyone from the left, can pass the 411 on to Ms. Fox without her spiking the messenger tree. Mr. Pico must tell her sorry for her firing (no hard feelings) and more importantly tell her that her proposed referendum will ensure that Pleasanton will be unable to meet its financial obligations after buildout—no trifling matter.

Brian Arkin, former planning commission chairman is a part of the Fox Friends of Pleasanton group. His support of this bring-it-all-down anti-establishment referendum disqualifies him from any further city service—including a seat on the city council.

City Manager Nelson Fiahlo must bear the burden of righting the ship. After all, a run amok city bureaucracy that under Mr. Fiahlo openly encourages eco-extremism and now eco-politics caused the problem in the first place. If Mr. Fiahlo were in tune with Pleasanton’s economic future he would know that Pleasanton without a generous supply of sales tax dollars will be unable to complete its utopian dream of housing and platinum parachutes for city employees and elitist amenities that will be the talk of the socialist west.

News Opinion

 

What a bunch of hypocrites

The left’s new bogeyman is the FOX Television network (ripping Talk Radio has not worked so far). This is Democrat politics at its very best—Karl Rove, Vice President Cheney, and President Bush are a good as gone and pounding them anymore might be perceived as counterproductive to appearing bi-partisan for the upcoming 2008 elections. What a bunch of hypocrite demagogues.

Democrats say that FOX is right wing and as such unfit to broadcast their debates. This is scary. Also scary is that the Black Caucus, FOX’s co-sponsor, will go along to get along.

The scary part is that many people will believe this drivel. However, they will not even consider that ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and PBS could be biased toward the socialist left. Why would they? Elitist news organizations deny any political leanings—and of course do not report media watchdog data that proves media bias—showing a media agenda that matches the Democrat party.

Also scary is that Democrats will not face questioners who could pose questions that do not follow the playbook questions that they received from the Alphabet networks. Frightened of the tough questions? Any fair-minded person who watches Republican presidential candidates on FOX will have to say that the questions were professional and fair and balanced just like their Sunday talking head shows.

Less scary is that a good number of FOX’s viewers, who admittedly are more conservative, might not catch a glimpse of the socialist cast of characters the Democrats are offering up for the presidency. Naw, we take that back.. FOX viewers are more likely than mainstream viewers to switch to another station preferring to keep informed.

Guest Opinion

 

Well, it is Frank Auf der Maur’s city too.

Nancy Allen, chairman of Stop Pleasanton Gridlock, asks in a guest opinion piece in the May 25, 2007 Pleasanton Weekly, “Whose City Council is this, anyway?” when commenting on the approval of the Home Depot development on the corner of Bernal Avenue and Stanley Boulevard.

We say it is Frank Auf der Maur’s city council too. Mr. Auf der Maur owns the property on which Home Depot plans to build its second Pleasanton location. Over the last 15 years many in Pleasanton have forgotten that property owners have rights as well and a right to be fairly heard about their development plans—heard without the red-shirted mob showing up to intimidate them and their supporters.

The property is zoned properly for a Home Depot and the rest of the proposed development. The rest of the discussion is moot.

When the city zoned that property, it anticipated what they would need to provide for the eventual development—roads, water, sewer, gas, and electric utilities. The developer, and ultimately Mr. Auf der Maur, are paying the price for the city’s inability to provide the street network by steep mitigation expenses extorted from them to gain approval. Had the city lived up to its responsibility to provide for free-flowing automobile travel, Mr. Auf der Maur and his development partner would not be forced to spend more than $2 million to rebuild the intersection of Valley and Bernal avenues and Stanley Boulevard.

If the new intersection already existed (as it should have), the traffic excuse Ms. Allen uses in her editorial would have no traction in the discussion. It is the city’s responsibility to provide the road network. Extorting it from a developer, who will ultimately pass it on to his tenants, is certainly one way to fulfill its traffic responsibilities. The unintended consequences are higher prices for goods and services from those development businesses. Therefore, the losers in this process are Pleasanton consumers, Mr. Auf der Maur who had to negotiate the mitigation expense when he negotiated with his development partner on the price of the land. It is also possible that the businesses that move into the center will also lose if income does not sufficiently cover expenses—the largest of which is rent.

Project detractors, including Ms. Allen, must realize that no mater the occupants of the eventual development there would be more traffic and likely as much as Home Depot will develop. Safeway and other grocers were approached for the same property. Grocery deliveries are surely as many as Home Depot deliveries. No one griped about a grocer going into that development. It is likely that Safeway could not sustain the store with anticipated rents. Home Depot apparently can.

National Socialist denies Fascism in letter to Opinion Pleasanton

Your guest opinion which stood up for Tom Tuttle's letters in the Independent, accuses me of being a fascist in response to my suggestion that Tom Tuttle and his friends could be construed as part of the "thug caste" mentioned in the Naomi Wolf's article, "10 Steps To Fascism." If anyone would bother to find out exactly what that word means, you would realize the ridiculousness of me being called a fascist. According to American Heritage Dictionary, a fascist is "a person who advocates or practices fascism." And, fascism is "a philosophy or system of government that advocates or exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with an ideology of belligerent nationalism."
The only part in there that remotely describes me is the possibility of being viewed as belligerent. While belligerence is an attitude, fascist thoughts and behaviors are specifically directed by those ideas, which advocate and support the marriage between big business and government, placing the people and their needs and desires in a subservient role. Fascists are those who advocate this lopsided arrangement because they either believe in the nationalistic nonsense that those in power spout out or they are currently getting something (usually material) from this arrangement.
I am not getting anything from anyone in business or in the government. I'm certainly not nationalistic. So, I don't see how this statement that I am a fascist holds any water, whereas those who showed up to shout down the idea of a discussion of the war in Iraq made it clear that they expect Pleasanton citizens to acquiesce and shut our mouths about this misguided fiasco called the Iraq war (occupation).
Coincidentally, the same day that I read this guest opinion, I was reading a book called "Before and After Hegal." And, in a description of the ideas of Kant and other proponents of critical philosophy and thought, is a quote that I think perfectly describes the dilemma Americans find themselves in. There is a growing lack of interest in the nature of knowledge and mostly, critical thinking, it seems. There has been a growing anti-intellectualism permeating our society. The other day someone I know remarked to a friend of mine who mentioned reading something in a book, "Why would you read a book when you don't have to?" And, the troubling part of this was that he said it in front of one of his children. Americans, at their peril, pride themselves in their ignorance.
Read this quote and I think you'll see what I'm talking about when I criticized Tom Tuttle's remarks. And, how eerily, these 18th century comments rise up like the ghosts of Xmas past, to haunt us as we creep into the 21st century.
"Like Aristotle, who understood human being as the animal that speaks, hence, as a rational animal, Kant stresses rational human capacities. In a celebrated essay published in 1785, Kant understands the Enlightenment as the emergence of human being from a self-imposed minority, or childhood. According to Kant, the conceptual childhood of human being consists in the lack of courage or will to utilize reason, in the failure to think critically and to avoid dogmatism. For Kant, this entire period can be characterized through the motto Dare to Know."
When a human populace in a democracy loses it's will to "dare to know," that populace remains intellectually childish. Only children believe with all their hearts and souls in whatever "grown-ups" tell them is so. I refuse to be forced to remain an intellectual child. And, I will continue my belligerence when I see others suggest that we should all remain intellectually childlike as Americans. To dare to know, to think, to criticize is at the heart of our democracy. To suggest we do otherwise is a worrisome sign that our culture is sliding backwards, functioning in the pre-Enlightment, Dark Ages of humanity. I know this is a place our Founding Fathers were fearful we would one day find ourselves - particularly Benjamin Franklin, who forecasted that he saw it as an inevitable consequence of laziness. So, as I see it, if one cares to be a patriot, it is one's duty to use his/her powers of reasoning to awaken those who are asleep. To save us from traveling further into this darkness, this madness that beckons us to ask nothing, to think nothing, to just "be happy and buy" (from THX-1138). Or, as a friend of mine pointed out, "having to listen to countless conversations about floor tile." Or, as another writer against the Iraq War discussion requests, "Stick only to subjects like traffic." Judy Collins sings, "And, wasn't it a long way down....And, wasn't it a strange way down....” It doesn't have to be this way. We don't have to be this way.

Paulette Kenyon

What? Enough said.

 

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