Archive | Uncategorized RSS feed for this section
Article

FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL: PLANET RECOMMENDS VOTING DOWN PROPOSED CHARTER REVISION … plus … WARD 6 DEBATE SLATED FOR OCT. 23, KROL vs. NICHOLS (uh, maybe) …KROL ACCEPTS WITHOUT CONDITIONS, BUT NICHOLS IS PLAYING HARD TO GET

By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, OCT. 10, 2013) — The campaign trail is funny. It can bring out the best in some, the worst in others. It rarely performs in neutral. In Pittsfield, there is what one may term a “sleepy” ballot. The mayor’s “race” features — though trust […]

Read More
Article

WHAT’S IN A NAME, PT. II: WHILE THE GOVERNMENT CRUMBLES, PRESIDENT ‘O’ WEIGHS IN ON THE ‘REDSKINS’ MATTER … plus … BIANCHI’s DUBIOUS LISTING OF GOALS ON CITY WEBSITE AN EXERCISE IN NADA, BESIDES LIKELY BEING ILLEGAL

By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY, OCT. 9, 2013) — With the government in shutdown mode and a debt-ceiling confrontation looming, it’s heartening to see our great commander-in-chief taking on a vital issue, one on which the fate of the republic swings in the balance. THE PLANET here speaks of […]

Read More
Article

YOU THINK THE GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN IS BAD? WAIT TILL YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENS IF THE U.S. DEFAULTS ON ITS DEBT OBLIGATIONS (COULD HAPPEN ON OCT. 17)

By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY, OCT. 8, 2013) — The so-called shutdown of the U.S. government has a week or more under its belt, and no one’s noticing. That’s because the government is so lousy at what it’s supposed to be doing (provide for the national defense and […]

Read More
Article

WHAT WAS ONCE A GAME HAS DESCENDED INTO A MONEY-GRUBBING FARCE, BUT HIRSUTE SOX HELP RESTORE SOME LOST PERSPECTIVE

By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary _____________________________________________ CATCH THE PLANET TODAY, ON PCTV, LIVE, ON “GOOD MORNING, PITTSFIELD” WITH GUEST HOST JIM CAMPAGNA     ——————————– (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY, OCT. 7, 2013) — It was just another boring day in Major League Baseball this past weekend: there were the playoffs, which have become […]

Read More
Article

QUICK HITS AND HOT LIX: MAYOR PHOTO-OP STRIKES AGAIN … ‘DAN VALENTI’ CHALLENGES A RUNNING-SCARED BIANCHI TO DEBATES … WHAT DO WOMEN WANT? … ANOTHER BIG POLITICAL ‘OCTOBER SURPRISE’ COMING … NEW GRAFFITI TARGET ‘INFINITE DANCE’ DUE IN COMMON … SCHOOLS REPORT GREAT ‘PROGRESS’ (YEAH, RIGHT) … plus … GET WELL SOON, JONATHAN LEVINE

By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, FRIDAY, OCT. 4, 2013) — Time once again, boys and girls, for THE PLANET‘s famous Quick Hits and Hot Lix, wherein we feature a blitzkrieg of topics and commentaries. MAYOR PHOTO-OP STRIKES AGAIN — The Boring Broadsheet yesterday “treated” readers to a photograph of […]

Read More
Article

OCTOBERFEST, A TIME WHEN BIANCHI TELLS US ALL IS WELL BECAUSE ALL IS POLITICS … A TIME FOR CIRCUSES, CAKES, AND OTHER HOKUM … HOW LONG, THOUGH, WILL ‘WE THE PEOPLE’ WAIT BEFORE OVERTuNING THE TABLES?

By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY, OCT. 2, 2013) — Just as THE PLANET predicted some time ago, we are seeing October in its fullest splendor. It’s been a great year for apples, foliage, and the hot air and cliched verbiage of politics. Politics, politics, all is politics. Let’s […]

Read More
Article

LOTHROP, MAZZEO SHARE THOUGHTS ON RACE FOR ‘THE SECOND ELECTION,’ WHICH WILL BE FOR THE COUNCIL PRESIDENCY … LOTS AT STAKE

By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY, SEPT. 30, 2013) — In our previous installment, THE PLANET presented some thoughts on the two elections coming up in Pittsfield. The first will be for ward, at-large, and corner offices. The second will be for council president. Obviously, both hold critical importance […]

Read More
Article

THE TALE OF TWO COUNCIL ELECTIONS, WITH THE SECOND ONE BEING THE MOST DESPERATE … plus … BIANCHI AD PERFECTLY SUMS UP HIS THE BIG ZERO HE’S PUT ON THE BOARD IN TWO YEARS AS THE GREATEST MAYORAL FLOP IN CITY HISTORY

By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, FRIDAY, SEPT. 27, 2013) — There will be two elections this year for the city council. In the first, voters from the electorate will select seven ward councilors and four at-large. In the second, the newly formed city council will elect a council president. […]

Read More
Article

WITH 88% OR SO OF THE ELECTORATE NOT BOTHERING, AT WHAT POINT DOES THE WORD ‘DEMOCRACY’ BECOME A SHAM? … HAVE WE REACHED THAT POINT?

By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THURSDAY, SEPT. 26, 2013) — The preliminary election on Tuesday had to be the snooziest, not snazziest, in recent history. THE PLANET isn’t saying that action at the polls was slow, but it’s the first time in memory that the city gave out toothpicks […]

Read More
Article

FINALLY: A POPE WHO “GETS” IT

BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 25. 2013) — Finally, a pope who “gets” it. “Gets” what? He gets that it isn’t 1958 any longer and that “good” Catholics don’t expect or want the prelates to tell them what to do or to do their thinking for them. […]

Read More
Article

ALLEGED ‘ELECTION’ TODAY WON’T TOP 10% TURNOUT … PLANET ENDORSES YON, IVES in WARD 1; WELLS, LATURA in WARD 3 … CREW AS VARSITY SPORT HASN’T YET BEEN SENT TO WATERY GRAVE, THOUGH IT SHOULD BE … plus … JIVE, PITTSFIELD’S NEW SUPER, WANTS TO RESTORE UNNECESSARY ADMINISTRATIVE POSITION (TAXPAYERS, ASSUME THE POSiTioN)

By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY, SEPT. 24, 2013) — Today, there is, allegedly, and election. It doesn’t look like an election, hasn’t sounded like and election, and hasn’t walked or talked like an election, but rumor has it: It is an “election.” Maybe it’s a duck. There were […]

Read More
Article

YET ANOTHER DOLLAR STORE WILL BE ADDED TO PITTSFIELD’s DYING ECONOMY … plus … ‘WALK A MILE IN HER SHOES’ LACKS SOLE; EVENT HAS BECOME RATHER WORN AT THE HEELS

By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY, SEPT. 23, 2013) — We got a dollar if you got a dime. That seems to be the bargain offered to the Pittsfield economy by the deterministic, often harsh etiquette of the marketplace. When markets rule, cities like Pittsfield — with its politics […]

Read More
Article

CAMPAIGN FINANCE BUGABOOS BUG BIANCHI, MAZZEO … MAYOR NOTIFIED ON APRIL 3, 2013 OF LAW BREAKING BUT KEEPS PUBLIC DOCUMENT HIDDEN UNTIL NOW … PLANET’S INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING UNCOVERS ABUSE

By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, FRIDAY, SEPT. 20, 2013) — Campaign finance law has its many arcane nooks and crannies, its nuances and subtleties. It’s surprising that there are not more campaign finance violations that actually occur.  That being said, many more occur than are reported, and there is […]

Read More
Article

WHAT’S IN A NAME? ASK SPORTS ILLUSTRATED ABOUT ITS PC-STANCE ON ‘REDSKINS’ … plus SCHOOL UNIFORMS IS AN IDEA WHO TIME IS LONG OVERDUE IN THE PITTSFIELD PUBLIC SCHOOLS

By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2013) — If we may step back from the boiling cauldron of local politics for a moment, near simmering in some aspects that THE PLANET shall be revealing in the near future, we have to ask, with Will Shakespeare and Gertrude […]

Read More
Article

SIGNS OF THE TIME … or … PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION (SIGN QUE NON)

By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 18, 2013) — Dan Valenti, the non-candidate for mayor of Pittsfield, is not running a write-in campaign. Therefore, when you don’t write him in, the spelling is “Dan Valenti.” That’s “Dan Valenti.” Got that? D-a-n- V-a-l-e-n-t-i. With Mayor Dan Bianchi running unopposed […]

Read More
Article

MAYOR’s CONSENT DECREE REOPENER REQUEST GOES BEFORE THE COUNCIL TONIGHT … COUNCIL SHOULD APPROVE THIS MOVE … MEASURE WOULD HELP REMEDIATION AT SILVER LAKE … IN PRACTICAL TERMS, IS THAT THE BEST PITTSFIELD CAN HOPE FOR, OR IS ANOTHER FORM OF RE-OPENER IN ORDER? WHY NOT GO AFTER HILL 78?

By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY, SEPT. 17, 2013) — At tonight’s city council meeting, our Right Honorable Good Friends shall hear about amendments to the GE Consent Agreement (GECA) being proposed by Pittsfield Mayor Dan Bianchi. THE PLANET supports this initiative, which would transfer property around Silver Lake […]

Read More