Planet Valenti

By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, FRIDAY, OCT. 11, 2013) — Debating debates is not for debate. There is, in fact, no debating the following facts: a.) The West Side Steering Committee has in the past hosted debates, and it considered doing so for the Ward 6 contest between John […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]