Set opacity of background image without affecting child elements

Question

Is it possible to set the opacity of a background image without affecting the opacity of child elements?

Example

All links in the footer need a custom bull

Answer 1

I found a pretty good and simple tutorial about this issue. I think it works great (and though it supports IE, I just tell my clients to use other browsers):

CSS background transparency without affecting child elements, through RGBa and filters

From there you can add gradient support, etc.