Berkeley out of US!
All yours, al-Qaeda. SF Chron:
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.”
Hmmm. No Marine Corps comment. Jarheads pst and present invited to weigh in below.
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.
I wonder where the California delegation is on this.
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.”
OK, there’s a railing right-wing blogger, as promised. But still no Marine Corps comment.
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.”
I guess she never heard of trespassing, obstructing public ways, and national security. Whatever.
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.
Check it out. Only 16 graphs 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.
Hang on, we do have a rights infringement after all.
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.”
I’d just like to state, as a native of Berkeley, California … al-Qaeda, you can have it.
Topics: law & order, military, moronocy
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 12:30 pm on Saturday, February 2, 2008
19 Responses to “Berkeley out of US!”
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February 2nd, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Why would anyone in his right mind pick a fight with the USMC?
February 2nd, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Gee, I hope my suggestion will post…and/or remain…but can understand why, it wouldn’t…:).
At my own abode on this thing that al-Gor invented…The subject of what to do with San Francisco came up, or was posted by one of the nasty boys or girls, that habit my house of infamy.
It was suggested, that since San Fran is a lovely city, while a great majority, if not all of its citizenry were not….Leave the city intact…and rid it of the morally detestable/ hateful people.
A few methods were discussed…I shant go further…even if THIS survives.
If it doesn’t, as said…completely “understand”…Jules…:).
February 2nd, 2008 at 2:29 pm
OH, the same for Berkley Pit.
February 2nd, 2008 at 2:31 pm
These mental midgets pick on the Marines because they know the Marines are gentlemen who will not harm a citizen. Not one of them would have the nerve to do it if they thought someone was actually going to fight them. They’re beneath contempt.
February 2nd, 2008 at 3:19 pm
“OH, the same for Berkley Pit.”
What do you have against the Berkley Pit.
http://explorer.altopix.com/map/v5ovvo/Berkeley_Pit_copper_mine.htm
Granted it’s not a garden spot but somehow I don’t think Butte residents would be so contemptible as the city of Berkley harpies.
Obviously I’m having fun here with the pit reference above. The pit is actually Lake Berkley now for those who care.
February 2nd, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Nuke Berzerkeley…
February 2nd, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Ahhh I see Tralfaz, Ummm, as I noted just now, I spelled the Cal. Berkeley, the incorrect way.
No intention , in any way, did I mean to besmirch the lovely, intelligent and gracious residents of Butte, MT…:).
Snooper…Actually some one did mention those things that could make something glow (it may have even been me, I know,I know…I don’t look the type).
The name neutron was bandied about. Leaving the cities of B-e-r-k-e-l-e-y and San Francisco in great shape, just scrubbing the garbage that lives in them.
February 2nd, 2008 at 5:39 pm
“I’d just like to state, as a native of Berkeley, California … al-Qaeda, you can have it.”
As another native of Berkeley, I’ll second that motion.
February 2nd, 2008 at 6:23 pm
El Cid: Ha! No offense I’m sure….just don’t defeat one of local sports teams of the lovely and intelligent residence of Butte - they’ll stone your bus or worse. This is their way of congratulating you on game well played. And for the record I am not now, nor never have I been a resident of Butte or Silverbow County, MT
Back to the topic at hand.
Why is it that the left gets a pass to abridge the rights of people they oppose politically? They shout down speakers, impose speech codes, block or prevent recruiting stations, funnel student money to leftist organizations and speakers and so on. They’re not anti-war, they have been fighting a war against the foundations of the country for decades.
February 2nd, 2008 at 6:55 pm
Tralfaz
Why is it that the left gets a pass to abridge the rights of people they oppose politically?
Ummm, because it isn’t open season on them….YET.
February 2nd, 2008 at 9:46 pm
Berzerkley’s style is more like the guys who practice “scrotum inflation” and proudly ride their bicycles…naked…down Telegraph Avenue.
Code Pinkers have been regularly stripping off their shirts on the streets of Berzerkley to where the city council would do anything to just get them to stop.
Sorry, just the way things is.
February 2nd, 2008 at 10:31 pm
I propose that the United States apply all its resources and technology to relocate the entire community of Berkeley (along with it’s moonbat residents) from within the borders of the United States to another nation with closer ideological beliefs, such as North Korea or Iran.
The resulting hole can be used as a water reservoir for the region, with secondary recreational and environmental benefits.
February 2nd, 2008 at 11:19 pm
RebeccaH:
Exactly. The Marines have bigger fish to fry than to try to match wits with the half-wit protesters. My cousin was a Marine - they straightened him out good.
On the other hand, 20 or 30 hardcore DIs (from Camp Pendelton or Parris Island) screaming at these weenies as if they were recruits who just got off the bus from the airport would be well worth the price of entertainment. How fast do you think a Code Pinker would run down the Berkeley streets, with DIs screaming, “I FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHT TO PROTEST, SO SHUT YOUR FREAKING POGEY BAIT MOUTH AND DISAPPEAR!”?
Just a thought.
February 3rd, 2008 at 12:20 am
If these protesters faced any real consequences for their actions, they wouldn’t have the guts to do it.
On the plus side, at least all the traitors are located in one area. All you need is a nice big fence.
February 3rd, 2008 at 12:46 am
“$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.”
What a scam that is. That ought to be stopped right now anyway, marines or no marines.
As far as I can tell, the Chez Panisse Foundation is just the privately owned Chez Panisse restaraunt in Berkeley, and the only real service they provide is growing a garden at Martin Luther King Intermediate School and teaching the kids there how to grow stuff and eat it. That, and providing some administrative services to the school district’s lunch program, who apparently are incapable of doing it themselves.
Well, screw that. I don’t want the feds to pay $330,000 to “promote nutritional awareness” in one school district in California that only has 10,000 kids. And why should people in New Hampshire have to pay a privately owned restaraunt to grow a school garden in Berkeley, anyway?
This is bullshit. It’s just a way for Berkeley leftys to steal money and pass it off to their friends, like Alice Waters, the left wing loon who runs Chez Panisse.
February 3rd, 2008 at 1:02 am
“The funding would include $750,000 for prospective ferry service”
Same thing. Why should people in Michigan have to chip in to build a ferry that runs between San Francisco and Berkeley?
If people in Berkeley want to build a ferry…let them pay for it.
February 3rd, 2008 at 11:22 am
Charming pictures from Berzerkley.
Oddly enough, all the protesters have their clothes on.
http://www.zombietime.com/berkeley_marine_corps_2-1-2008/
February 3rd, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Oh, thank God for that, tanstaafl.
February 3rd, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Well, yes, some of those “breasts not bombs” pictures make you think bombs aren’t half bad.