wobblypops

City of Berkeley you are an unwanted city

Carolyn Hileman

http://thevoice.name/?p=6346

The city of Berkeley has told the United States Marines they are unwanted invaders and as such it is my contention that they have also told the rest of America that if we still believe in them we are not welcome either, I consider this action to be a Secession of their rights to any federal funds from the United States and ask you my fellow citizens to rise up in defense of the few the brave the Marines call 1-866-340-9281 and demand that the city of Berkeley receive no more federal tax dollars.





If it is true and it must be so that cities and states cannot decide who can come and go in their cities including illegal immigrants then It must be true that this city cannot legally expel the Marines and that Code pinks actions are discriminatory and harassment at it highest form. If American cities are considered being inhumane by simply requiring employers to check social security numbers then surely “is not welcome in the city, and if recruiters choose to stay, they do so as uninvited and unwelcome intruders.” Is past inhumane and should not be allowed to stand. Our tax dollars go to this city in ways such as road construction and such and I am willing to bet the university gets our tax dollars as well. I say no more!! Call your senators and email them and tell them not one more penny of our tax dollars is to go to that city… City of Berkeley you are an unwanted city.


The Voice
http://thevoiceblog.thevoice.name/

Jolie Rouge

Facing off over Marine Corps
3 war opponents chain selves to door of recruiting station, and right-wing blogosphere goes ballistic
Steve Rubenstein,Kevin Fagan, Chronicle Staff Writers
Saturday, February 2, 2008



As the right-wing blogosphere railed and a U.S. senator vowed financial retaliation against the Berkeley City Council for its effort to boot the Marine Corps out of town, three war protesters ratcheted up pressure from the left by chaining themselves Friday to the front door of the downtown Marine recruiting office.

The demonstrators snapped their locks shut at 7 a.m. and spent the next 7 1/2 hours blocking the door, waving and chanting as hundreds of cars driving by honked in support. Finally, at 2:30 p.m., police snipped the chains and arrested them.

Two of the three were cited for blocking a business and released, and the third was booked into jail on an unrelated traffic warrant, police said.

The demonstrators promptly said they will keep protesting outside the recruiting station at 64 Shattuck Square until the Marines leave Berkeley - which is what the City Council advised the service to do in a vote Tuesday night that called the Marines "unwelcome intruders."

The council also voted to allow members of Code Pink, the protest group that helped organize Friday's blockade, to park at a designated space in front of the recruiting office every Wednesday afternoon and operate a loudspeaker.

The council's action apparently made Berkeley the first city in the nation to call for the ouster of a military recruiting station from its borders. "We made really great statements by blocking the door," said one of the three blockaders, 64-year-old Mary Ann Thomas of Oakland. "It's time we became more articulate about what we're doing."

Conservative bloggers and Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., also believe more articulation is necessary - from the opposite side of the political spectrum.

DeMint began drafting legislation Friday to cut $2.1 million in federal funding to Berkeley in a current congressional budget bill and transfer the money to the Marine Corps. The funding would include $750,000 for prospective ferry service, $87,000 for the Berkeley Unified School District nutrition education fund and $243,000 for the Chez Panisse Foundation, which promotes nutritional awareness in school lunch programs.

"The First Amendment gives the city of Berkeley the right to be idiotic, but from now on they should do it with their own money," DeMint said in a statement.

He called the council's vote "a slap in the face to all brave servicemen and women and their families."

Conservative blogs blasted the council and Berkeley in general all day with comments such as one on "Gathering of Eagles": "These cretins disgust me."

Members of the council who voted to condemn the Marine Corps station were unbowed. "I guess they've never heard of free speech," Councilwoman Dona Spring said. "I've had a lot of nasty phone messages today, threatening me with things like saying, 'I'll take you out.' But they can go ahead. I don't feel scared."

Code Pink said it has begun to circulate a petition calling for a Berkeley ballot measure that would make it more difficult to open and operate recruiting stations. The measure would be modeled after anti-pornography laws, organizers said, mandating that - like porn shops - new recruiting offices be subject to public hearings before they would be allowed to locate near homes or schools.

The Marines, meanwhile, were not ready to back down.

"It's just another protest," said Marine Corps Capt. Richard Lund, head of the recruiting office.

As he spoke in the early afternoon, with the protesters still chained to his door, a small band of demonstrators on the sidewalk shouted at passing cars and students at Shattuck Square: "Marines out of Berkeley! Marines out of Iraq!"

Heated words were exchanged whenever people tried to enter or leave the office, but the protest was peaceful.

"You guys are just cannon fodder!" the chained protesters shouted at three teenage boys who walked past the office and said they wanted to go inside. "They want to train you to kill babies!"

The teenagers turned around and left.

At one point, UC Berkeley student Kyrolos El Giheny walked up to the front door and tried to go inside to talk to Lund about a possible Marine career. He was unable to get past the chained protesters.

"They told me, 'No business as usual today,' " El Giheny said. "It's kind of nutty. It's really an infringement on my rights."

Make yourself heard
To contact members of the Berkeley City Council:
www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil
(510) 981-6900

To contact Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., who wants to pull federal funding from Berkeley:
demint.senate.gov/public
(202) 224-6121

To contact Code Pink:
http://www.codepink4peace.org/articl...st=type&type=3
(415) 575-5555

To contact the Marine Corps headquarters in Virginia:
http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn20...epage?readform
(703) 614-1492

E-mail the writers at srubenstein@sfchronicle.com and kfagan@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page B - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl.../BALTUQKOE.DTL


I love how the SF Chronicle characterizes bloggers as “ballistic,” and not these nutballs trying to drive the Marines out of Berzerkeley. Why did it take seven and a half hours to arrest them? Should have been seven and a half minutes. Unhinged Liberals doing what they do best, acting like spoiled, petulant children.

Would they be defending as "Free Speech" if a group of protestors behaved the same way in front of a Planned Parenthood Clinic ??


The mayor wants to evacuate the Marines and is casting the city as the victim: http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingn...nclick_check=1

You reap what you sow.

__________________
Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

gmyers

I think the people that oppose the war go about it the wrong way. Don't get nasty to the military people go to Washington and protest there against the people that make the decisions to go to war or the ones that can stop the war. They're the oines that can get something done. Not the Army, Navy, Marines or Air Force personnel. They deserve respect.

Jolie Rouge

This is a good example of "opposing the war, but supporting the troops".

Thank you.

__________________
Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

Vee030473

You so right but it is easier for those kind of people to do how they do it.
My husband's recruiting office as well as the other military branches recruiting offices had the RAGING GRANNIES at his office once. It was good for a laugh. Most of those old birds didnt even have their facts straight.

__________________
A dog is not almost human , I know of no greater insult to a canine than to describe it as such.

wobblypops

Who the hell does she think gave them free speech? They should have used the chain morons as target practice.

Jolie Rouge

Move America Forward and GOP Sen. Jim DeMint have tirelessly taken up the cause. Check out his website http://www.jimdemint.com He sums up the outrage well:

If you haven’t watched the video of the Berkeley City Council meeting, you need to see it.

Go here : http://berkeley.granicus.com/MediaPl...publish_id=444

You can hear Berzerkeley City Council members and Mayor Tom Bates inveighing that “Marines are the President’s own gangsters… they are trained killers.” Another councilmember by phone then says that the Marines are known for “death and destruction…and maiming” and they give America “horrible karma.” At around 1:08-ish into the video, Councilman Gordon Wozniak provides the only sane moment in opposing Code Pink’s special privileges. His statement runs about four minutes. Make sure to watch the whole thing.










So I did a little more digging on the Chez Panisse Foundation and the school lunch initiative (SLI).
The SLI is a four-year program; one year has been completed. 327 students in four schools have participated in the initiative. It has yielded many valuable insights including:
(1) Students in schools with salad bars eat more vegetables.
(2) Food must be presented in an appealing fashion for children to want to eat it.
(3) Students who have been participated in gardening classes have a better understanding of which foods are healthy and which are not.
(4) If you pay for “gardening” and “cooking” teachers, you will have more “gardening” and “cooking” classes available.

And yes, the menus include sushi, foccacia, tofu, etc.

Now, I’m sure that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of other examples in that monstrous bill, but you know what? I think that this is as good a place as any to start, so kudos to Senator DeMint!

26/262

__________________
Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

Jolie Rouge

Berkeley Vs. America, Again
Wednesday, February 6, 2008

The troop-bashers in Berkeley are at it once more. But this time, the rest of America lashed back. Message to the Left Coast: It's not the 1960s anymore.

On Jan. 29, the Berkeley city council passed several measures targeting the lone Marine recruitment office in town. The anti-war harridans at Code Pink have been picketing the center for months. Last fall, they defaced the building by slapping a sign that read "assasination" (sic) in the military office window. Instead of rising to defend the recruiters' property rights, the city council and mayor voted to sabotage them further. They granted Code Pink special parking privileges directly in front of the Marines' workplace to facilitate their protests -- and also offered them a free sound permit for six months.

A Cuban-American wears a t-shirt depicting revolutionary icon Ernesto 'Che' Guevara as he waits for Code Pink, an anti-war organization, who were holding a protest against Cuban activist Luis Posada Carriles in Miami's Littlle Havana January 12, 2008. Code Pink, Women for Peace, launched a campaign asking the FBI to add the name of Posada Carriles to its most wanted criminals and terrorists list. REUTERS/Carlos Barria (UNITED STATES) In the home of the free speech movement, the peace and love mob abused the power of government to help drive the Marines out of the city. They proceeded with zoning changes to treat recruiting centers like porn shops. They encouraged residents to continue to impede the recruiters' work. Never mind federal law making it a crime to willfully obstruct the recruiting or enlistment service of the United States. If that weren't blood-boiling enough, the Berkeleyites put the troops under further siege by voting to send a letter to the U.S. Marine Corps calling them "uninvited and unwelcome intruders."

Video of the council meeting showed city officials trashing the Marines as "the president's own gangsters" and "trained killers" who are known for "death and destruction and maiming." One of the council members complained that our men and women in uniform were responsible for "horrible karma." Mayor Tom Bates offered to "help" the Marines evacuate.

But, of course, they continue to argue shamelessly that they're not against the troops. Just against President Bush's policies.

Only one council member, Gordon Wozniak, opposed the Code Pink measure -- pointing out that the council was bending the rules, intentionally setting up a confrontation between the group and the recruitment office, and "showing favoritism." He was outnumbered, 8-to-1. Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin and her minions gloated over the vote and turned up at the recruitment center to rub salt in the wound: "We are the defenders of democracy, the upholders of the Constitution. If it weren't for people like the people in Berkeley, standing up for what they believe, we'd be living under Hitler."

Her thugs defaced the recruitment center again -- this time with a banner of bloody handprints stretched across the window as recruiters tried to do their jobs.

In another decade, Berkeley would have gotten away with this intolerant, illiberal, un-American power trip. But in the age of the Internet, talk radio and YouTube, word of the siege at Berkeley spread like lightning. And citizens across the country weren't willing to look the other way. The San Francisco-based Move America Forward, led by talk show host/conservative activist Melanie Morgan, launched an online petition protesting the city council measures. Republican Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina moved to strip Berkeley of pork barrel spending worth $2 million.

The American Legion mobilized as well. National Commander Marty Conatser lambasted the votes: "The American Legion not only strongly condemns this action by the City Council but also believes that a sincere apology is in order to all Marines, past and present. What these recruiters do is essential to our national security. Without recruiters we have no military. And I don't think we can count on the flower children from Berkeley to protect this nation when it comes under attack. They have to remember that Marines are not the enemy; the terrorists are."

After feeling the heat, not just from veterans, military families and troop supporters outside of Berkeley but also from their own embarrassed citizens, the council is waving a partial white flag: Two council members will move to rescind the obnoxious letter and Code Pink privileges next week. It seems a little light bulb went off in Councilwoman Betty Olds' head: "I think we shouldn't be seen across the country as hating the Marines."

Too late. The city's "horrible karma" is on full display. Sit back and watch Berkeley be Berkeley? No more.



http://www.townhall.com/columnists/M...america,_again

Even the San Francisco Chronicle editorial board is castigating the fools in Berkeley: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl.../EDP8URR5V.DTL

__________________
Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

Jolie Rouge

Semper Fi, Berkeley
by Sen. Jim DeMint
02/06/2008

When you mention "Berkeley, California" to most conservatives, they picture a leftist community of graying hippies, radicals, and protesters. Activities in the last few weeks have only reinforced this image.

The City Council of Berkeley last week voted to ask the U.S. Marine Corps to vacate their recruiting office in town, and that if they chose to stay they did so as "uninvited and unwelcome intruders."

During debate of the resolution, one council member called the Marines "the President's own gangsters" and "trained killers." Another said the Marines had given the country "horrible karma" and said they had a history of "death and destruction." In a document drafted to support the resolution against the Marines, the council stated: "Military recruiters are sales people known to lie to and seduce minors and young adults into contracting themselves into military service with false promises regarding jobs, job training, education and other benefits."

After voting to insult the men and women who fight and bleed for their freedom, the City Council cast another ridiculous vote in favor of giving the radical protest group Code Pink a parking space directly in front of the Marine Corps recruiting station. They also voted to give Code Pink a sound permit for protests in front of the Marine Corps building. The City Council stated in the resolution that they "encourage all people to avoid cooperation with the Marine Corps recruiting station" and to "applaud" Code Pink for working to "impede, passively or actively" the work of the Marines Corps in Berkeley.

Code Pink is a fringe organization that distinguishes itself by attacking American policy, while defending dictator Hugo Chavez. The group is so disrespectful that they have no problems demonstrating in front of wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Medical Center with signs reading "Maimed for a lie."

The council's resolution sparked an escalation of anti-Marine protests. Code Pink organizer Zanne Joy points to the City Council as justification for the escalation. She said that "anything legal is justified if it succeeds in persuading the Marine Corps to move its recruiting station out of Berkeley." According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Code Pink protesters have been heard shouting at young men who are trying to enter the recruiting station, "You guys are just cannon fodder!" and "They want to train you to kill babies!"

It is sad to see a city like Berkeley moving so far left. Thanks to its elected leadership
the city in which, as a young naval officer, the legendary World War II Pacific Theater Commander, Fleet Adm. Chester W. Nimitz established the Naval ROTC in the fall of 1926 is now sadly a shell of its former self.

This is disappointing, but in a republican form of government, it must be up to local voters to change their leadership.

However, this particular case became the business of all Americans when they insulted our troops while coming to the federal government asking for special taxpayer-funded handouts. Over $2 million was secretly tucked away for Berkeley earmarks in the 2008 Omnibus Appropriations bill, projects that were never voted on or debated.

I do not believe a city that has turned its back on our country's finest deserves $2 million worth of pork-barrel projects. So, I will introduce legislation to revoke the funding.

Included in the $2 million worth of pork are some particularly wasteful projects.

One earmark provides gourmet organic lunches to schools in the Berkeley School District. While our Marines are making due with MREs of Sloppy Joe and Chili with Beans, the organization Chez Panisse is getting federal tax dollars to design meals that promote "environmental harmony." Chez Panisse's menu features "Comté cheese soufflé with mâche salad," "Meyer lemon éclairs with huckleberry coulis" and "Chicory salad with creamy anchovy vinaigrette and olive toast."

Are we to understand that the city that has been home to many of the country's most rich and famous cannot afford to pay for its own designer school lunches?

Another $975,000 earmark is for the Matsui Center for Politics and Public Service at U.C. Berkeley, which may include cataloging the papers of Congressman Robert Matsui. Is it really necessary to tax the paychecks of Marines so we can earmark nearly $1 million for a school that is already sitting on a $3.5 billion endowment?

Let me be clear, my bill does does not cut off all federal funds to the city of Berkeley, though I am sure most Americans would feel that is justified. My bill merely rescinds wasteful earmarks. Berkeley is free to compete with other towns and cities across America for merit-based federal grants.

Actions have consequences. When the Berkeley City Council decided to insult the Marines in a time of war, it was a $2 million decision. Especially in a time of war, we cannot just allow cities to play insulting games at our troops' expense while continuing to shower them with congressional favors.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=24832

__________________
Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

gmyers

I guess Berkeley is getting a little of that karma they talked about themselves now

YNKYH8R

I thought you said this wasn't possible?

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ARMPIT