Some days, well…most days, I long for the day when I can tell someone that I live in some other state other then this Socialist haven called California. I guess I can be thankful I no longer live in the worst of the worst, the Bay Area:
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 anti-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 would 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.”
Maybe this would of worked on the dummies:
Sen. DeMint began to draft some legislation that will cut over 2 million dollars in earmarks to this city which I hope beyond hope he will be successful in enacting. The city of Berkeley has the right to act like jackasses. But in so doing they have NO right to our taxpayer dollars to fund their morally corrupt city.
Meanwhile Code Pink is starting a petition, which I have no doubt will be successful, that calls for recruitment centers to be subjected to a public hearing before opening. What else is subjected to this kind of hearing? Porn shops.
Sigh….
I heard a caller to a radio show this afternoon, I think it was the O’Reilly show with someone subbing for him, in which he offered to pay for all those kids who had decided to sign up in local Arizona towns shipped to Berkeley to actually sign the papers.
We need more ideas like that. But in the meantime make a call, send a fax, or send an email to voice your displeasure with these idiots:
CONTACTS
Mayor – Tom Bates
2180 Milvia Street, Berkeley, CA 94704
Email: mayor@ci.berkeley.ca.us
TEL: (510) 981-7100
FAX: (510) 981-7199
TDD: (510) 981-6903
Office Hours: Mon-Fri 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
====================
CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS
====================
Linda Maio
Phone: (510) 981-7110
FAX: (510) 981-7111
Email: lmaio@ci.berkeley.ca.us
Darryl Moore
Phone: (510) 981-7120
Email: dmoore@ci.berkeley.ca.us
Maxwell Anderson
Phone: (510) 981-7130
Email: manderson@ci.berkeley.ca.us
Dona Spring
Phone: (510) 981-7140
Email: spring@ci.berkeley.ca.us
Laurie Capitelli
Phone: (510) 981-7150
Email: lcapitelli@ci.berkeley.ca.us
Betty Olds
Phone: (510) 981-7160
Email: olds@ci.berkeley.ca.us
Kriss Worthington
Phone: (510) 981-7170
Email: kworthington@ci.berkeley.ca.us
Gordon Wozniak
Phone: (510) 981-7180
Email: GWozniak@ci.berkeley.ca.us
City Auditor
Ann Marie
TEL: (510) 981-6750, TDD: (510) 981-6903
Office Hours: Mon-Fri, 8am-5pm
Email: auditor@ci.berkeley.ca.us
UPDATE
A petition has been started, check it out here and sign up. Full text:
To: The City Council, Mayor and City Manager of Berkeley, California
We, the undersigned, do register our complete outrage with the City of Berkeley for the recent resolutions that criticized our Marines, as part of an effort to harass the Marine Recruiting Center and chase all vestiges of the United States military outside of the city of Berkeley, California.
We take particular umbrage with the instructions given to the City Manager of Berkeley to tell the United States Marines that they are, “uninvited and unwelcome intruders.”
It is shameful for you to attack our military men and women who nobly and bravely serve this nation to protect our security and defend our freedoms and liberties. Those liberties include the right to Freedom of Speech, which you seem to believe should not be afforded to the members of the United States Marine Corps and service personnel in other branches of the Armed Forces.
I call upon you to immediately revoke the resolutions passed that defamed and insulted our U.S. Marines and issue a public apology to this nation, and in particular, the honorable and heroic men and women of the United States military.
See author page