Best way to get fired

Spend lunch hour flipping through the Best of the Bay.

I was only halfway through your 30th-anniversary Best, when I looked up at the clock and realized that my lunch hour had turned into my "lunch hours." Once back at work (late), my head was full of good food and music. Can't wait to try new Bests and revisit old Bests with all of my new free time.

Peggy O'Brien
Pacifica

The best Green strategy

Would that Jeff Hoffman had examined recent electoral history to demonstrate the fallacy of his claim that running progressives to threaten liberals and Democrats will elicit progressive policy shifts [Opinion, 8/4/04]. Whether it was Ralph Nader for president in 1996 or Green Dan Hamburg for governor in 1998, neither campaign successfully applied progressive pressure to the policies of Democrats Gray Davis and Bill Clinton. Indeed, each governed further to the right after a progressive challenge.

In the stolen election of 2000, not only did Nader's challenge not push Gore or Bush to the left, Senate Democrats were issued marching orders to ignore the Congressional Black Caucus's challenge of racist electoral fraud in Florida. When Davis was up for reelection and then recall, Peter Camejo's Green campaign had no tangible impact on the policies of either Davis or Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The world does not begin and end with the 2004 presidential election. The only way to build a base that can effectively challenge the duopoly is by doing the long, slow, and hard work of growing the grassroots from bottom up nationwide – not trying to reform a corporate national Democratic Party. One way of doing this is to use the 2004 campaign as a chance for Green party building and organizing. Simply put, we have no reasonable expectation to impact the presidential race materially, and that is the basis of the Cobb "safe-state" strategy, which has Greens in swing states deciding the intensity of the campaign there.

Marc Salomon
San Francisco

Stopping cruelty to geese

An ad in your paper last week claimed that Senator Burton's bill to ban the cruel force-feeding of birds to make foie gras would instead have the opposite of its intended effect. The ad complained that the bill has a phaseout period during which force-feeding would continue to be permitted and litigation to end it would not be given effect.

My organization is currently engaged in litigation to stop this horrendous practice. Our lawsuit would be eliminated by the phaseout period, but we still recognize that the proposed legislation is the way to go. Litigation is unpredictable and unreliable, and appeals take years. Furthermore, it is entirely likely that a favorable decision in our lawsuit would also include a phaseout period, as has been the case in other countries.

Anyone who believes Sonoma Foie Gras's claims that they will be able to "prove that ducks do not suffer" during the phaseout period is ignoring the awful truth that these birds' livers are expanded 8 to 12 times their natural size, and there is no way to do this humanely. It is crucial that everyone who wants to see this horrific practice stopped write to their assemblymembers and Governor Schwarzenegger urging that the bill, S.B. 1520, which the Senate already passed, become law.

For more information on the Animal Protection and Rescue League's animal cruelty investigation into the foie gras industry and other ways you can help, please go to www.stopforcefeeding.com.

Bryan Pease, Codirector
Animal Protection and Rescue League
San Diego

Is Fox fair?

This paper noted with concern how little coverage the TV networks are giving to this year's political conventions. Fortunately, all the cable news channels offer more complete coverage, right?

Actually, a new study from watch group Media Matters for America finds Fox News covered the Democratic convention far less than CNN or MSNBC.

We'll have to see whether Fox treats the Republican convention similarly. Either way, those of us seeking complete and unbiased coverage of the election will have to change the channel on Fox.

Joyce Calagos
San Francisco

For the record

In the "Too Few Voices" sidebar to the media consolidation story "Invasion of the Media Snatchers" (7/14/04), Allison Raaum should have been credited as a researcher, not Alison Hathaway.

In the July 28 Best of the Bay issue, in the Nightlife and Entertainment section, we neglected to mention the entity that resurrected and promotes Sushi Sunday, Audio Box Studios. For more information about the event, go to www.audioboxstudios.com/events.html.

In the same issue and section, we misrepresented the affiliation of the radio show Minds over Matter, which was created and is produced and broadcast exclusively by KALW, 91.7 FM.

In "Regime Change" (8/4/04) we mixed up the two Colorado congressional races. Mike Miles and Ken Salazar ran against each other Aug. 10 for the Democratic nomination to the U.S. Senate, while Democrat John Salazar (Ken's brother) is running for the District Three seat in the House.