Out With A Whimper: Berkeley Snivels While America Sinks

San Francisco Chronicle:

Berkeley Backs Down:

After a day of enraged confrontation outside Berkeley City Hall between anti-war and pro-military [sic] demonstrators, the City Council backed down early Wednesday from its controversial decision to tell the U.S. Marines they are "unwelcome intruders" for operating a downtown recruiting center.

Council members conceded [sic] that they had erred [sic] in passing a resolution Jan. 29 that condemned the Marines - rather than the war in Iraq - and some council members added that they felt they owed U.S. troops an apology as well the many Berkeley residents who were ashamed and offended by their position.

"To err is human but to really screw up it takes the Berkeley City Council," said council member Gordon Wozniak. "We failed [sic] our city. We embarrassed [sic] our city."

You're damned right, Gordon!

You failed your city by backing down.

You embarrassed your city by abandoning the truth: the truth about this war, the truth about this country, and the truth about the recruiters who lie to our kids in order suck them into this mass madness we call "bringing democracy to the world".

You have failed and embarrassed your city by bowing to evil, and you yourself have become criminally complicit in crimes against humanity.

As for the "Berkeley residents who were ashamed and offended", they bloody well should be!

... not by the actions of their city council, but by their own murderous ignorance!!

In the end, however, the council voted against issuing a public apology for its January action.

In other words, the unwelcome intruders can remain, but we won't apologize for calling them unwelcome intruders.

If this is the best America can do, it's over.

Actually, it was over a long time ago.

We lost.

A Short Discourse On Military Recruiting And Freedom Of Speech

If recruiters tell your kids packs of clever lies to get them to sign up for some kill-or-be-killed, that's their right.

It's too bad for the kids, of course, but if they're lucky they won't be killed; they will simply be brainwashed and dehumanized, forced to commit the most heinous acts imaginable, and then sent home to live the rest of their lives with post-traumatic stress.

But what happens to your kids is no concern of the recruiters. They don't care. They don't have to care. They're simply exercising their freedom of speech.

But if a city council passes a resolution condemning those recruiters for the lies they tell and the lives they ruin, that's not freedom of speech at all; it's treasonous. It's despicable. And it deserves to be punished.

So if lawmakers in state and national capitals choose to retaliate against the city for trying to protect its young people, that's their right; they're only exercising their power of the purse.

If they want to deprive the kids in that city of funding for their lunches, that's their right. And if they want to deprive that city's policemen of funding for their equipment, that's their right, too.

These are not only their rights but also their duties. After all, they must do what they were elected to do -- even if it means getting your kids killed in pursuit of global empire.

So let the little bastards starve! Let the cops call for their backup with tin cans and string!

But let us never disrupt the greatest killing machine ever built.

San Jose Mercury News:

A pre-dawn confrontation broke out this morning in Berkeley between peaceniks and pro military groups, more than 12 hours before the City Council [meets to consider rescinding] its statement telling the U.S. Marines they're unwelcome [...]

Sacramento-based Move America Forward and a handful of other pro-military organizations are set to have several hundred protesters in front of council chambers starting at 5 a.m. [...]

Move America Forward is already unhappy with what council members are not planning to do - rescinding four other items the council passed that are seen as a swipe at the Marines. Those items asked the city attorney to investigate whether the Marines are violating city law prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation; urged people to 'impede' the recruiting work of the Marines in Berkeley; and gave Code Pink a free parking space and sound permit to protest once a week in front of the recruiting station.

The proposal by council members Betty Olds and Laurie Capitelli to rescind the item sending the Marines a letter asking them to leave is No. 25 of 28 items on tonight's agenda, and could come up for debate near midnight. What's more, pro-military supporters will have to sit through another item likely to make them seethe: urging Canada to provide sanctuary for U.S. military war resisters. [...]

"This violent reaction of the pro-war forces shows how threatened they are by a small group of people working against recruitment," [Code Pink activist Zanne] Joi said. "They claim the Marines fought for our freedom of speech, and how dare we use our freedom of speech against them."

CNN:

The pro-military demonstrators were met by anti-war protesters who had camped out overnight, setting the stage for a dramatic showdown late in the day when the City Council is to discuss whether to revoke its previous vote.

"Their treasonous action, especially at this time of war right now, is not acceptable," said Mary Pearson, a spokeswoman for the group Move America Forward.

"It's very, very important for everyone to stand united ... to give our Marines and all of our military the greatest respect and honor that they deserve."

Before the sun was even up, about 300 demonstrators -- both pro-military and anti-war -- were already standing toe-to-toe in downtown. Many traded jeers and sneers.

"Code Pink doesn't stand for us," one sign said, held by a man in military fatigues. Signs held by anti-war activists read, "End the War" and "Bring the troops home now."

The City Council is to meet at 7 p.m. PT on whether to take back its previous measure urging the Marine recruiters to leave town.

Anti-War On The Left Coast: Berkeley vs. Military Recruiters

The California city of Berkeley has been giving military recruiters a hard time, as CNN reports:

City Council approved a measure last week urging the Marine recruiters to leave their downtown office.

"If recruiters choose to stay, they do so as uninvited and unwelcome intruders," the item says.

It goes on to say the council applauds residents and organizations that "volunteer to impede, passively or actively, by nonviolent means, the work of any military recruiting office located in the City of Berkeley."

How about that?

And do you want to know why?

Berkeley's declaration, which was introduced by the city's Peace and Justice Commission, accuses the United States of having a history of "launching illegal, immoral and unprovoked wars of aggression and the Bush administration launched the most recent of those wars in Iraq and is threatening the possibility of war in Iran."

It adds, "Military recruiters are salespeople 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."

In the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave, you have to be pretty damned Brave to act as if you're Free enough to do something like this, and the chickenhawks in congress are having none of it.

In Washington, a group of Republican lawmakers have introduced the Semper Fi Act of 2008 -- named after the Marine motto -- to rescind more than $2 million of funds for Berkeley and transfer it to the Marine Corps.

"Like most Americans, I really get disturbed when taxpayer money goes to institutions which proceed to take votes, make policy or make statements that really denigrate the military," said Sen. David Vitter, R-Louisiana, a co-sponsor of the bill.

He told CNN he believes the bill will pass. "I think it's going to have significant support."

The bill's co-sponsor, Sen. Jim DeMint, R-South Carolina, said in a written statement, "Berkeley needs to learn that their actions have consequences."

Consequences. As if the actions of the American military haven't had any serious consequences. As if cutting off funds -- taxes paid by the working people of the country, money headed back to some of those same people -- is an appropriate reaction when people express their beliefs; as if they are not entitled to those beliefs; as if they are not entitled to express them.

Really Disturbed. As if nobody gets disturbed when hundreds of thousands of times more taxpayer money goes to hired killers who roam the world on behalf of ... oh, why bother? They're fighting for our freedom, remember?

... in their imagination!

The reaction of the GOP lawmakers is telling; it says that in their opinion, the function of American cities is to deliver their young people into the maw of the great beast; to offer them up for murder and sacrifice; to swallow every bit of heinous propaganda whole; to be subservient to Empire; and to enjoy it.