UPDATE: Allahpundit has must see clips of this fiasco! Read this and then visit Hot Air
Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates offered Friday to help the U.S. Marines leave town by negotiating an end to the lease for their recruiting station, even as he backpedaled on a City Council resolution declaring the Corps “uninvited and unwelcome intruders” in the city.
In the face of an onslaught of pro-military criticism from around the country, Bates, a retired Army captain, also issued a statement that said the City Council’s resolution Tuesday night “did not adequately differentiate our respect and support for those serving in the armed forces and our opposition to the Iraq war policy.” He said he would ask the council to modify the resolution at its next meeting, scheduled for Feb. 12.
A Marines spokeswoman said Friday that the Corps has no intention of abandoning its space at 64 Shattuck Square that has been the subject of protests for months.
Question for you: Where is the Governor?
As promised to SFL, here is another more news outlet picking this up: San Francisco Chronicle,
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Thank-you Michelle for posting this.
A local activist group drew a crowd of 50 onlookers yesterday when they staged a mock debate against a military recruiting office in Downtown Berkeley.
Although conservative radio talk show host Melanie Morgan was originally scheduled to participate, she was ultimately replaced by a member of activist group Code Pink pretending to espouse conservative views.
Issues ranged from the congressional race between Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan to the military presence in Berkeley.
“We are the defenders of democracy, the upholders of the Constitution,” said Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Code Pink. “If it weren’t for people like the people in Berkeley, standing up for what they believe, we’d be living under Hitler.”
Not that it is of any use at this point:
The vote to award the Code Pink parking spot was 8-1, and the condemnation resolution was 6-3. On Thursday, the polarized emotions that went into those votes had not abated.
“I’m ashamed of my vote,” said Councilwoman Betty Olds, who helped approve the parking spot but not the condemnation. “The protesters should have free speech – this is where Free Speech was born, after all – but to tell the Marines they are not welcome is shameful. If I had to do it again, I wouldn’t even go for the parking spot.”
U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., says the City of Berkeley, Calif., no longer deserves federal money:
DeMint said he will draft legislation to rescind any earmarks dedicated for the City of Berkeley in the recently passed appropriations bill ” which his office tallied to value about $2.1 million. He said that any money taken back would be transferred to the Marines.
DeMint’s office provided a preliminary list of items that would be subject to his proposal:
” $975,000 for the University of California at Berkeley, for the Matsui Center for Politics and Public Service, which may include establishing an endowment, and for cataloguing the papers of Congressman Robert Matsui.
” $750,000 for the Berkeley/Albana ferry service.
” $243,000 for the Chez Panisse Foundation, for a school lunch initiative to integrate lessons about wellness, sustainability and nutrition into the academic curriculum.
” $94,000 for a Berkeley public safety interoperability program.
” $87,000 for the Berkeley Unified School District, nutrition education program.
Bingo! Rich people don’t sit around counting their money in big piles on the floor of their living room, then locking it up in a safe and hoarding it. The money is invested, creating jobs, opportunity, growth and progress for all of us. They take risks by investing, typically with no guarantee of any return at all. Those risks ceate new companies, new technology, and bring prosperity to our nation.
The welfare recipients, on the other hand, conusme resources, and other than injecting consumer spending into the economy, produce nothing but waste. They create no wealth, generate no new opportunity, advance no technology.
They do offer one thing: votes for politicians who pander to them.
So if you asked me, I’d say it is better to have more rich people than poor people.
Now the subject of rich Democrats…there is an area of special hypokkkrisy. The same blowhards babbling about taxing the rich, demagogueing and grandstanding to try to make themselves look better to the sheeple and babbling idiots, know very well that their fortunes are safely protected by trusts and an army of professional accountants and lawyers who do nothing but make sure their tax liability is minmized.
If the Kennedy fortune was subject to the inheritance taxes they want to keep imposed on the rest of us there would be no Kennedy fortune. The damned hypokkkrites know that.
“As for the antebellum south (that’s pre-civil war for the historically challenged), it was almost entirely DEMOCRAT. The Republican party was the one that freed the slaves. They also put the first black man in the Senate and in Congess. That was until the KKK started terrorizing the black communities to suppress the black vote until the white southern Dems pass the Jom Crowe laws that would keep the blacks from voting for decades.”
“I have yet to hear SFL comment on this bit of historical fact.”
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Yes, yes, yes…because it’s old news that is irrelevant to the present.
Contrary to conservative opinion, it’s actually not a secret waiting to be revealed to the masses about the Republicans being the party that freed the slaves, yada-yada.
What you fail to understand, I suppose, is how that party has, over the years, degraded its value to the political needs of african-americans.
This undeniable fact is demonstrated by the huge numbers of blacks who repeatedly and overwhelmingly vote Democratic.
And that’s why your talk about what Democrats were like 140 years ago is irellevant.
Predictibly, you’ll blame your failure on unprovable and silly allegations of “keeping blacks on the plantation” or something like that.
“But I could argue that pre-war South was a socially conservative (resistant to change) based society that ended up losing to the liberal (open to change) ideals of the North.”
“You could:but you’d absolutely be wrong.”
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Hmmm. I see, Ted.
So you would argue that the institution of Slavery in the south was a socially LIBERAL practice, and that the North, while advocating freedom for blacks was, in fact, resisting change like social conservatism often does?
Very strange, indeed.
“Predictibly, you’ll blame your failure on unprovable and silly allegations of “keeping blacks on the plantation”or something like that.”
In fact that is exactly how the Democrites did/do it.
“I’m no way tarred…”
HitLiary Klinton, using her phony black accent, pandering to a group of sheeple.
SFL is again ignoring facts to worship at his Liberal Delusions.
It may be old news but it is absolutely revelant. As a matter of fact Republicans actually have a better voting record for the civil rights of blacks.
As for your statement of proof being that blacks vote democrat is hogwash. They vote democrat because in many cases they believe they will be getting free money. That is not a prejudicial statement either as I know of several pockets of inner city blacks both in Baltimore and Washington who don’t work, won’t work and abuse the welfare system. I have no reason not to assume it’s not happening in other major cities either and that is where the dems pick up the majority of the black vote.
SFL cant think becuase their minds been numbed with LSD=:)