Waiting For Canoa To the Editor, Now I know why whoever writes The Skinny never puts their name by their work. Admitting to rumors, pseudo-reporting and zero accountability have been a trademark of this piece that passes for information each week. It's very easy to pick on "mainstream media" and politicians because everyone does. Your constant bickering about Tony Davis, Canoa Ranch and Raul Grijalva brought this to my attention. First of all, Davis puts his name on the story (he's supposed to, as all real journalists do). I admit I prefer another style of reporting, but I've learned more about Canoa Ranch from Davis than by waiting to see if The Weekly deems this story progressive enough to warrant attention. Speaking of Canoa Ranch, isn't this one of the biggest rezoning issues to come before the Board in years? Where's the watchful eye of The Skinny? Still championing dead incorporation causes? Or is The Weekly ignoring Canoa Ranch simply because Raul Grijalva is its strongest opponent? And speaking of Raul, does he not belong with your idea of environmentalists (Rich Genser, Sharon Bronson, Molly McKasson), or should he stay in the urban areas like a good little Mexican elected official ought to? Or maybe the TCE clinic doesn't count because it's not as cute as the pygmy owl? You should know. You're the one with the highlighted campaign reports. Why don't you go a little further and find out how many times he voted for or against any of these developers who gave him money, and while you're at it, do the same for all other elected officials, including Sharon Bronson and Molly McKasson? Oh, I get it. Rumors, no accountability, and biased gossiping rule the day. --Claudia Duarte To the Editor, Advocacy journalism is great, but the Tucson Weekly is acting like a school of gutshot barracudas. First Emil Franzi practically gets down on his knees to suck Republican Ray Carroll's cleats. Guys, I was about to puke if I heard the epithet Sugar Ray one more time. Franzi's drooling assured Carroll, a second-rate hustler if I ever saw one, that he had the liberals securely in his pocket so he was free to sell out to developers, which he proceeded to do by bailing on a crucial vote. Hey, guys, Carroll came to politics from the real-estate biz. I'm sure you family dudes don't smoke reefer anymore, so there's no excuse for short-term memory loss. A recent Skinny item, which I suspect was penned by Chris Limberis, went beyond mere fumbling. Attacking reporter Tony Davis of the Star, the first bona fide reporter to cover sprawl for one of the two admittedly feeble dailies in Tucson, is the ultimate in stupidity, especially when the attack was so transparently ad hominem. Gee, maybe Limberis can make Davis look bad and then Limberis can get his old job back covering county politics. That would be a disaster for Tucson, since Davis is an award-winning investigative reporter who actually brings ethics and energy to his work, and Limberis always struck me as a burned-out hack who didn't give a shit about good government. This could be why Limberis went on to work for Sharon Bronson, who recently came out of the closet: She's Ed Moore in drag. Neither Limberis nor The Weekly is asking Bronson why she's voting against her own reforms and considers the Don Diamond developer-backed Sonoran Institute "an environmental group." Bronson is either hopelessly provincial or crooked or both. She's certainly blowing the first opportunity for real reform in Tucson in 20 years and nary a peep is coming from The Weekly. Like I said, advocacy journalism is great. But which side are you on? --Paul Austen Editor's note: It was burned-out hack Limberis, not gutshot barracuda Emil Franzi, who covered second-rate hustler Ray Carroll's Board of Supes campaign. Memento Mori To the Editor, Regarding Jeff Smith's "Wreck on the Highway" (September 24): Smith complains about some unlucky soul who got killed and stopped traffic for an hour and questions why we don't just send someone in after dark to clean it up, and let all of the people on the road just go already. After all, he doesn't know this guy. I question my time wasted reading about this, too. After all, Smith is wasting his time and money and space to write this as well, and then I am also wasting my time reading about it. It's ironic to me that, in this same space, Smith has, more than once, eulogized his own friends who have recently and not-so-recently passed away. Why were they worth it? They didn't mean anything to me. Instead of a waste of time, Smith felt it was worth the time and space to eulogize, in print, these friends. Well, it turns out that they were interesting people and it was interesting reading about them. But this isn't just because Smith knew them. If that was one of his friends on the highway, he would not have written this column in this way. So why does he write it about the guy he didn't know who died on the highway and kept him from getting to dinner at Flagstaff? What he could have done, and should have done instead, is gone to find out who the guy was, how he lived, and what he did. Maybe he was a great man too, just like Smith's passed friends. Maybe he impacted his life by what he did. No matter whether he did or not. At least it may just be an interesting story. Make us readers really know the unlucky guy who held Smith up from dinner by dying, and let's see if it really was worth it, as he doubts. --Mark Noethen Hunger Dogs To the Editor, Regarding "Anatomy of a Blunder" (October 8): First, I am not pro-mugging. I have been battered, and what those two perpetrators did to Vince was wrong. It is also wrong to withhold food from the starving. With even cursory training in critical thinking, one can easily conclude that these young men are victims as well. Secondly, nowhere in the article is there any mention of why homeless people, youth in particular, are becoming more aggressive. It seems that the needle-in-the-haystack reporter who doesn't lick the boots of the goose-stepping capitalist has gone the way of the hula-hoop. (But then, if he didn't, he'd be out of a job.) Common sense tells us that hungry people are going to do things that they would not do if they weren't hungry; this incident should come as no surprise. People should take consequences for their actions, but our socio-economic system should as well. And when it doesn't, all of us, like Vince, pay the price. --Name withheld by request We Want Letters! Thrilled by our brilliant insights? Sick of our mean-spirited attacks? Need to make something perfectly clear? Write: tucsonweekly@tucsonweekly.com

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