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TechnoratiBerkeley is hunkering down for what is expected to be its largest and most raucous protest in years as hundreds of demonstrators from near and far pour into town for Tuesday night's City Council showdown over a Marine Corps recruiting station downtown.
Protesters from all sides of the debate over the Iraq war - from the anti-war Code Pink to groups supporting the troops and the war - have promised to spend the day in front of old City Hall, drumming, singing, chanting and exchanging barbs with bullhorns.
"Nothing has really gotten the press or the world's attention about war protests like this has," said Lisa Rubens, historian at the Regional Oral History Office at UC Berkeley's Bancroft Library. "There's been this wonderfully out-of-proportion, knee-jerk response. It's clever, inflammatory and symbolic."
The council, at the request of members Betty Olds and Laurie Capitelli, is scheduled to decide tonight whether to revoke a letter it approved two weeks ago telling the Marines they are "unwelcome intruders" and should leave their post, which is one block from the UC Berkeley campus.
Some groups protesting the council's earlier action want it to go further - by apologizing to the Marines and revoking permits to allow Code Pink a parking space outside the recruiting station on Shattuck Square and the use of a bullhorn at its weekly protests there.
Anticipating big and rowdy crowds, the city is advising staff members who work at Maudelle Shirek City Hall to leave by 3 p.m. and keep public meetings to a minimum. The city also is setting up barricades so staff can get in and out of the building safely and is beefing up police, fire and paramedic services throughout the day.
Code Pink activists got an early start on the demonstration by camping out Monday night on the lawn at City Hall. About 60 activists, including a few of the tree-sitters from UC Berkeley's Oak Grove, danced, sang, listened to jazz and drank carrot juice as they pitched their tents for the night.
"This is a great gift to us to be able to ignite a national debate," said Medea Benjamin, Code Pink spokeswoman. "We're drawing a line in the sand on Shattuck Avenue and saying the war stops here."
Berkeley has hosted big and rowdy war protests for decades, but today's activities are the first anyone can remember that are drawing demonstrators from multiple and extreme sides of an issue. Code Pink, which once organized a breast-feeding playgroup at the Marines station, will share the City Hall lawn with AM radio hosts, the American Legion and outraged veterans from across the nation.
"It's an indication that the '60s are not completely dead in Berkeley," said Charles Wollenberg, chair of social sciences at Berkeley City College and author of "Berkeley: A City in History." "The tragedy is that the issue of the war seems to have gotten lost. The issue instead has become Berkeley itself, and I don't think that's what the City Council had in mind."
Councilwoman Linda Maio, who led the charge to tell the Marines they weren't welcome in town, agreed.
"We did not expect it to explode like this," she said, adding that the council received more than 24,000 e-mails on the topic. "But we'll take the heat and the attacks. Even though we're under a lot of pressure, I think it's fair to say this war is a misuse of our young people. And we'll stand up for that."
This is hardly the first time Berkeleyans have taken on the U.S. military.
A similar protest occurred in 1959, when UC Berkeley students protested the mandatory ROTC classes on campus. As a result of the demonstrations, the military classes were no longer required for all male students. The victory emboldened students to conduct one of the nation's first Vietnam War teach-ins, and by the late 1960s Berkeley had become a center of campus anti-war activism.
One regular at Berkeley demonstrations who will be noticeably absent from today's rallies is Country Joe McDonald, a Navy veteran and Vietnam-era peace activist famous for singing his "I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag" at Woodstock in 1969. He says he will sit this one out.
The issue has very little to do with the Marines and a lot to do with political grandstanding and NIMBYism, McDonald said.
"The council said the Marines can't recruit here, they should recruit somewhere else," he said. "And if there's a problem, we still want you to help us. It's astounding. It allows everyone to make fun of Berkeley again."
He said protesters on both sides are driven by "civilian guilt."
"Most people yell and scream about this issue because they're trying to show how patriotic they are," he said. "At this rate, Berkeley's going to be a damn noisy place."
Council to meet on Marines letter
The Berkeley City Council meets at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Maudelle Shirek City Hall, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Berkeley. An overflow crowd is expected for discussion of the Marines recruiting center, which is expected to begin about 9 p.m. For those who don't get inside, the city will broadcast audio from the meeting from loudspeakers outside City Hall. See the agenda at links.sfgate.com/ZCJX.
E-mail Carolyn Jones at carolynjones@sfchronicle.com.
© 2008 The San Francisco Chronicle
57 Comments so far
Show AllThe richfilth are fragile skin and bones just like the rest of us. It won't take a trebuchet. They are going to die just like we all are going to die. Once you are born, you can rest assured, you will eventually die (although you might come back again and your spirit lives on, but these are different topics altogether...). It seems to me that there are very few (if any) amongst the richfilth and/or mega-powerful who will die with dignity. Their life of greed and domination precludes it.
I'm not surprised by the Berkeley city council decision. These days it seems everything is a calculation and on an individual level there is precious little to be gained by sticking your neck out, and resolute conviction seems to be most endangered. I guess the mindless "sick-em dogs" created the fear as they are wont to do. All the while, nothing changes, and just now america seems to be chock full of sick-em dogs who have somehow risen into positions of leadership or are waiting for someone to tell them what to do (this sure speaks to this country's character...).
Its a good thing some stronger forces are coming into play (seems that way to me). My hope (naive as it may be) rests on these forces triggering humanity's better spirit to emerge. Either that will happen or.....well, you fill in the blank. The ideas are out there. What is lacking is the collective will.
I'm not from the 60's generation but my views are largely shaped by that tumultuous time. I appreciate and honor those here who have held onto their convictions for a better future.
Peace or "peece" if you prefer,
Ken
Jim Glover February 13th, 2008 10:22 am
Sorry for the delay, you wrote,
"Lucky, I am glad you got it off your chest.
I see all your anger was at DD because he thinks Obama will be much better for the world than McCain."
Not true Jim. I challenge frere DD because he is putting out "Democrats Save You" political pabulum - and I put forth the Issues that Mr. Smiley will NEVER touch and DD comes back with DNC pabulum that falls apart like a cheap kleenix. These are the same Dims, who will "flip" and then later tell you why Super Delegates were right to select HRC for the good of the Party, will continue making excuses for Traitorous behavior - while the MONSTERS DESTROY OUR LIVES – by design.
The problem is there won't be much to choose between BO & JMc. Same WAR, same fraudulent GWOT & WOD, same National Security Police State, same financial Masters, same CLASS WAR against working people, same same same - and either will stand with a thumb in their mouths while they watch this country collapse into a Depression worse than anything seen in '29 (and the Richfilth are already "Selling Short" and getting out of the $$) And you can forget health care except for the plan that will impoverish you most easily and enrich MASTER.
Remember, after the $40-60mn in bribes paid to the Dims & Repugs – there is no Chapter 7. So if you fall, and tens of millions will, indentured servitude awaits. I expect that shortly, inside a rider to an appropriations bill passed at 3am on a Sunday morning, you will read the words, "As proud Citizens of America we know that you can inherit Wealth. Now you can inherit Debt." Permanent indentured servitude.
That's how America started and that's how she dies. We get to become Property. No Oligarchy has ever needed a middle class in order for them to Rule, in fact the Middle Class, like all employees, are ENEMY #1. Richfilth have also never needed a consumer economy, global or otherwise. All they need are slaves and Hegemony.
And the Overseers will say NOTHING. Because transferring the wealth of America into the hands of the RICHFILTH - is JOB #1 for every Overseer on Master's Plantation. The second job is to keep you in your place, e.g. no education, no health care, no retirement, no home, no future, no LIFE. Life is only for RICHFILTH. Says so in the constitution. We spell that word with a small "c" because there is so little of it left. Trust me on this, they haven't touched any of the parts that cover the primacy of Property over Humans. That will remain rock solid until there is nothing in this country but smoking rubble. Property over Humans.
Jim, you also wrote:
Lucky, you should show some commitment. "Been there done that" and your tone is cynical and you might tell us something you are doing for the changes you want.
Jim, in an open forum I am informing you. I put my responses out there like everybody. Don't like it? Disagree? Get specific. We thrash it out. That's called a discussion. Half-truths got no legs. I never called him names. I said his dogs wouldn't hunt, and they don't and I told him why. I hold my curses for the people who do the actual killing.
Cynical? Committed? How many bullet holes you got in your body? I am informed and I am still here and many who fought in the battles we saw are not. They were executed in their beds at 3am and the room was hosed with automatic weapons fire and then our Secret Police planted the necessary weapons for the 'News'. They had bombs planted in their car by Pacific Lumber thugs specifically trained by FBI goons. They were falsely imprisoned with planted evidence, cooked evidence, or by the State deliberately withholding exculpatory evidence. Or they were merely hounded into silence and suicide - while America turned its face away and sneered. First came COINTELPRO. Then came Raygun. And now we're here. A country without economic or social justice movements, without leaders, or significance. NONE. What's Paul Wellstone doing these days? Hmmn? Still causing serious shit storms for the Richfilth? Dead? He's DEAD? Gee. That's awful. Accident heh? So many 'accidents' in America.
Jim, I am still ALIVE. That is my Victory and Illusions will not save any of us now.
For the future, what do I want? What changes? That's EASY BUT nobody will do a damn thing and they will kill you for trying:
Get rid of the RICHFILTH Oligarchy.
Two ways to do that: A) Cut off their Heads and redistribute their wealth; or B) Restore the Roosevelt Legacy of taxation - 90% on earned income over $6mn (adj from '30's), 53% on unearned/capital gains; 50+% tax on Mega-Estates - you know the names. The same applies to restoration of Glass-Steagal, Wagner Act, and the return of the remaining Federal Agencies to fulfill their original mandate instead of being a revolving door for the industries they are supposed to regulate.
How's that? Sound nice? Maybe after that who knows? Single payer medicare for all? Bring unionized middle class mfg back on shore? Full free Public Education from K->University FOR LIFE.
Won't do it. Absolutely refuse to do it. Refused in '64. America refuses to this day. The changes require us to make a place for everyone at the table and to reject war and conquest as a way of life. Exclusion and War are the foundation for Richfilth hegemony. That's where Master hires half the poor to kill the other half, "Here kid, I got a JOB for you." You couldn't get 30% of the CD people to vote for restoration of the Roosevelt Legacy, let alone anything else. It's like the Bill of Rights. Everybody LOVES IT, and you couldn't get it passed any time in the last 60 years. America believes in White Male Supremacy, Gender Slavery, Human slavery, Massive child abuse, Constant War, and Genocide. Will and can debate anyone of those from now until the Empire craters and you will not 'win'. Our shared history, not me, will defeat your argument.
It's a Perfect Storm Jim. America has had its martyrs for 100 years and more. Martyrs: killed, jailed, destroyed for the crime of leading or supporting movements for economic and social justice. Their "successors" talk on Corporate Radio for 6 and 7 figure incomes and Shill tinsel products and tell you to vote Dim. Master plays for keeps and doesn't cavil at anything. He covers all his bases.
Jim, not enough hungry people to shut this sucker down and by the time that happens, nobody's going be to writing threads on CD, they're going to be fighting Blackwater tanks for control of their City or hiding in the rubble. Who knows, in the absence of petroleum and electricity people may re-discover the trebuchet for use against walled estates and gated communities, if they can find any wood. With no food and no electricity there will be a lot of empty refrigerators to fling against the walls of exclusion. We may simply be too large a country to have a Representative Democracy.
Peace.
I sure am disappointed in the cowardice of the city council in backing down from their admirable stance. Why would ANYONE be a pro-military demonstrator? What the hell is wrong with you people? "Oh we love war... all the killing and death and destruction. Makes us feel all warm inside"... Just goes to show WHY progressives and people with a sense of decency are losing to the rabid right... cuz we're all PUSSIES! Try to do something good and just... and the right unleashes the hounds and we go running with our tails between our legs. Idiots! We're all doomed to failure and the impending fascism because we're all too scared to make a stand.
FYI--
Berkeley will not send Marines "unwelcome intruders" letter
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/13/BAM9V1H00.DT...
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.
We don't need recruiters. Just draft every moron in the USA who sports a red-white and blue 'support the troops' ribbon on their vehicle. If there are too many conscriptions to fit into Iraq, why just start a war with China and/or Russia and send those brave bastards over there. Let 'em fight a real war.
And again we see people caving in to all that is wrong. This machine is unstoppable as long as so many groups of people constantly cave in to what they know to be wrong. Berkeley needs to shutup now and start ROTC programs in their high schools. Bunch of weak kneed cowards.
It seems as if Berkley may back down.
Lord Trigo,
Man, c'mon... Do you know how recruiters get their quotas and paychecks? They are salesmen. They sell the Armed Services. That is their job. They do it well.
The few. The proud. The Amway.
(S)He's the Universal Soldier
And he really is to blame
His orders come from far away no more
They come from here, and you, and me
And brothers, can't you see?
This is not the way we put an end to war.
-- Buffy Ste. Marie
So...the black hole of "support the troops" claims another victim.
Just from a logical point of view, how is it "supporting the troops" to welcome lying thugs coming into town to recruit the young, disadvantaged, and ignorant for endless wars that you oppose?
Or is it a matter of giving in to intimidation by stupid senators who want to get even rather than to legislate?
A step back for every step forward will get you nowhere.
I wish though... I know it's a futile thought, that the flamboyant props were left out of it, like pink crowns and such. I think for every reference to childhood that is added and publicized, another number of people don't take the issue and the people protesting it, seriously.
Lucky, I am glad you got it off your chest.
I see all your anger was at DD because he thinks Obama will be much better for the world than McCain.
David, have more faith in your candidate than you are showing.
Berkeley is Berkeley and Obama as well as lucky knows that .
If Berkeley being itself will stop Obama than he doesn't stand a chance to do what he says like end the War and the mindset that got us here does he?
Lucky, you should show some commitment. "Been there done that" and your tone is cynical and you might tell us something you are doing for the changes you want.
If there was a war and nobody showed up to fight the war, you wouldn't have a war, would you ?
Go Codepink!
yungturk39 says "This has got to be one of the DUMBEST causes ever championed by Berkeley liberals"
Why do you think that? As long as the recruiters are there they will be able to speak (lie) at schools, spread propoganda around your city, tempt your poor with big money payoff to "sign up". They will ship your young people off to a war crime and cut the mothers a check when they don't come back. They know that young people make the most bad choices because they don't have the life experience yet to have learned. As long as they are there you will have your young men and women making mistakes. Mistakes that can cost them their lives.
I think that trying to run the recruiting office out of Berkely,might be fighting the wrong battle,in the struggle against the Bush War Machine. After all it isn't the military that we are against,just the misuse of it
This has got to be one of the DUMBEST causes ever championed by Berkeley liberals.
Why bother closing the Marine recruiters down? Let them waste their time and money scrounging around an unsympathetic community in that vain effort to find those "few good men".
Hell...they should invite as many Marine recruiters as they can, if they're really against this war! Any recruiter wasting his or her time in Berkeley is one recruiter less who could be sent elsewhere, potentially be suckering some chump to fight in these ridiculous wars. They should offer to make the recruiting station even bigger!
I wish more people would protest. Maybe some of those families pushed out of their homes and jobs because of our "war" economy, would like to camp in the mall in DC.
It looks like they caved. This is a dominant theme in modern day democratic party politics and it looks like these idiots we elected to office are following in the footsteps of their slimebag mentors, the democratic party. Im gonna work extra-hard to make sure betty olds and master bates get thrown out on their asses.
So I guess we have to live with another recruiting station for armed thugs in our neighbourhood. Do these f_c_heads realize theyve just signed the death warrant of some more Iraqis ?
The berkeley city council and the marines definitely share one thing in common with our political parties and the right-wing nutjobs - cowardice.
As luckylefty pointed out a little over passionately, this is the same stuff that didn't really work in these "the '60s" that the author is careful to tag the story to.
Will it work now? I kinda doubt it, seems like it'll mostly just piss people off, and let others get their rocks off, but whatever.
I think Battleboro (is it Vermont?) is a bit better example of Local Action, both on the "Indictment of Dick and Georgie" or the "taser review".
They seem to be working more within the "framework" of City Government, while this seems more like a CodePink thing with the Berkeley City Council in the mix just for "Natural '60s Flavoring".
To me, that's not really going local. The telling quote is the one from Ms. Benjamin about the "gift" to "us" of the "national debate".
I think when people truly focus on the Local they will be shocked to find genuine Democratic Principles of Government sitting there waiting for us, patiently, like the nice ladies at the Public Library.
When one comes to the realization that one has not merely the power to face down the "pigs" in the "street" but also the much greater power to decide the Hiring Profile and the Rulebook for the city job that "pig" holds, (often directly through Referendum) it is quite, well, empowering.
Remember that because of the U.S.'s originally decentralized Constitution, you don't really live in the Heirarchy of State Power that we are conditioned to think of: National, State, Local.
Its more like a card game where the Trump Suite changes hand by hand, staying Local for most of the points, but more often than not its National for the Winning Hand.
But even this National Trump Card is checked by local Power in the form of electoral districts.
Your Congressional Representitive can affect your life more than the president and there's hundreds of them and they change every two years.
If we hadn't let our Congresspeople go so fricking Politico in recent years we might not be in this Illegal War.
Pay attention to who speaks for you in Congress and Run for State Rep. and take over your city council, that's my advice.
All this stuff needs to happen yesterday, we need to get all this Stuff sorted and out of the way. Life should be filled with revelry and song, and growth and learning. Living the way we do now, with this level of technological know-how, scientific understanding, and cultural communication is just Stupid and Wrong.
Code pink's a good group of People, but I'm starting to think there are just too many bullhorns in the World.
Take a walk and look around you, that is where you Live,
-matti
I used to live in Berkeley, and am heartened the City Council's effort to rid my old town of the war machine. May other municipalities across this country declare themselves zones of peace and put a stop to military recruitment of our young, the most vulnerable members of our society.
A Vietnam War vet.
Sniff..sniff...smells like martial law coming.
I just got back from Berkeley City Hall and there are more stormtroopers there just now (its 10pm) than protesters !! Its simply amazing how much money we have to throw at these pigs.
Three exits up the freeway in the city of Richmond and down in Oakland gang wars are basically killing off all teenagers, the inner cities are so starved for funds they have given up on police protection of any sort and programs to get the kids off the street dont exist and yet we have enough money to hire an entire battalion of police officers and humvees !!
I did speak with some of the 'marines' and as expected its a futile endeavour. They insist on calling Obama by his middle name (Hussain) for some reason ! I suppose by bringing attention to his islamic name we would all run directly into the waiting arms of the marines. These 'marines' definitely had the air of hardened criminals who somehow escaped from san quentin.
You have to admit that the US is overly militarized. Everything is about war, being proud that someone killed someone so you can be free, or honoring those who kill people so you can be free. We hear this stuff over and over again.
As a former Army Officer, I wish people would stop glorifying our troops as heroes. They are doing a job they volunteered to do for money, for lack of a job, for an education, for fun or for misguided nationalism. None were drafted. They are well enough equipped that their casualty rate is better than many blue collar workers'. All this hero stuff does is feed the dogs of war. If anyone is a hero here, it is Code Pink for trying to save young soldiers and Iraqis from our war profiteering chickenhawks.
"Make fun of Berkeley"? Don't be so sensitive, Country Joe. I won't be making fun of Berkeley. Will you? Good for Berkeley taking the lead against these vultures. Too bad every community won't do the same.
Do you really think, Joe, that city council members think recruiting is OK elsewhere? Don't be ridiculous. They can't, however, pass resolutions in other communities. They have their own to look after, which is the right thing to do.
Joe, you say, "And if there's a problem, we still want you (the Marines) to help us." What are you talking about?
The worst thing about this war is how Bush and Cheney and the cynical chickenhawks are letting other people's children and the patriotic adults in the reserves kill and die for nothing. Absolutely nothing except maybe "first dibs" on Iraqi oil. You can't blame the recruiters. They are doing their jobs. You can't blame the kids. They don't understand its a war of aggression. They just want to serve their country.
Its OK for Berkeley to take a stand though. It gets our attention. It reminds us we have become citizens of an empire that uses wars of aggression as policy instruments, and maybe some of these kids will have a second thought about what serving their country means today.
Colin Powell should be brave and tell the kids how he was used so that they would be used. Bush and Cheney should burn in hell.
DD, you wrote:
"The "list" you asked for is the veto power, the agencies, law enforcement, the Supreme Court and other judges, the bully pulpit, our "face" to the world and foreign affairs, tax & budget, education, health care, entitlement philosophy—and other things."
You're going to have to take that weak assed shit somewhere else. Your dogs won't hunt. Your dogs just laid down for Impunity for the War Criminals - AGAIN.
Veto? Don't need no Veto. He's gonna be a UNITARY PRESIDENT – he can just write Signing Statements.
Then come all the agencies and secret police/law enforcement that HE CAN NOW "LEGALLY" USE AGAINST HIS POLITICAL ENEMIES – WITH TOTAL IMPUNITY.
The Supreme Court? Dims have laid down for every monster that has ever been proposed for our Nuremberg Judges. What's he gonna give us, a kinder gentler Roberts, Scalia?
You're the Dim shill here, telling people how THEY GOT NO CHOICE – GOT TO VOTE DIM - which Supremes did BO vote for? Or was that "before his time"? Who are his Judges? Hmmnn?
Oh that's right, he can't tell until after you vote for him. He cannot tell you ANYTHING about what he wants until "after you elect me". It's a surprise. Well, we've been there, done that, got the T-Shirt and wore it out. I remember a "Secret Plan to End The War" - twice. BS Baby.
Bully Pulpit my ass. You just smile and tell everyone how we all walk into the glorious future together as FREEEEEENDSS. Lyin' crap. He is FOR THE EMPIRE. That makes him a stooge for Wall Street and the Richfilth of America.
Tax & Budget – That's right. He and the filth that he runs with RAN UP THE BIGGEST DEBTS IN OUR HISTORY – and now Mr. Smiley is going to make sure – YOU PAY THE BILL.
And other things…..WHAT OTHER THINGS? Barbeques on the White House Lawn? Mandatory healthcare premiums whether you can afford them or not? How the about the death of Medicare? The last Dim ANNIHALTED the social safety net - more Repug than the Repugs. How about Privatising Social Security - as a "necessary" condition for our economic "recovery".
BULLSHIT.
DD, I don't know how old you are or where you been or what you've done – you are spouting the same lying Democratic BS they've been putting out for 35 years as they gave this country to the RICHFILTH by the train car load. They are still being paid by the same people and it isn't us.
That's why whichever ANIMAL is elected POTUS – they will stand with their thumb in their mouths and DO NOTHING while this country sinks into an abyss from which it will not emerge for 100 years, if ever.
Begin practicing the phrase, "The Former United States of America." Coming sooner than anyone befuddled by elections can imagine.
Oh, and yes, lest anyone forget 93% of those who actually vote do so because: The candidate has a nice smile; The candidate looks STRONG & FORCEFUL yet sensitive and compassionate; The candidate has a nice butt; The candidate has a nice voice that I could listen to all day; The candidate looks like someone "who will get the job done".
And you wonder why this country is going to burn to the ground? Oh vote Dim. Definitely vote Dim. Fill both houses and the WH with Dims – I want to see your face after you despair of your false hopes and fantasies. Then maybe, just maybe we might actually get something done. Maybe. Not likely.
BuBye.
Pieces of 8.
@ Walter Haan February 12th, 2008 5:17 pm
"I'll bet if Berkeley were under attack by a foreign invader, the people
of Berkeley would be singing a different tune: The Marine Hymn.
Excerpted from http://war-books.blogspot.com"
Walter, You should know that US military does not need to recruit more
in order to defend this country. If we include expendiature for Iraq
and Afghanistan, the U.S. now spends well over the amount of military
expendiature of the entire rest of the world combined. Can you remember
your politicians complaining that China was turning into a military
state because the Chinese military budget was too
big at 1/20th of the size of that of the USA.
That is how overblown the US military is. It no longer has anything to
do with defence but everything to do with world domination. Defending
against a foreign invader - bullshit! If the USA needed a military like
that, then we all personally need a convoy of tanks just in order to walk
to the supermarket.
without a co
Walter Haan:
Basically, what you're doing is punishing Berkeley for trying, in their own small way, to actually do something about the problem. No troops = much harder to continue the occupation.
And right about now, I'm more concerned about us all being invaded by Blackwater or those troops brainwashed by fundamentalism to support Bush, than any foreigners invading the US.
I think I'll go email them my support.
Get one thing straight folks! The military no longer calls them recruiting centers, they are called CAREER CENTERS with large illuminated signs out front that look more like a retail business than a government office.
On another note, I can't imagine where they found this Nancy Mancias from Code Pink pictured in the article. She looks like she's been on cough medicine or something stronger for a good long time.
I agree w/ RT Drury above. That the military has such a hard time filling its quotas says something about the mission itself. I heard on the radio recently that recruits are being offered as much as $40K to enlist, but it's held back 'til the indefinite length of service has been completed. It looks more and more like we have a mercenary force and, if so, they deserve the treatment they get.
Hey, here's a good one. The city of Berkeley, California wants to kick the Marine recruiting station out of the city.
Good luck with that.
The city's mayor said the vote by the city council represented his constituents longstanding, vocal distaste for current military activity. Well, many of us (not enough in my mind) are upset about our lying leaders getting us into Iraq illegally, but that is not the fault of individual Marines or soldiers. It is the fault of the American public for not forcing the House of Representatives to impeach Bush and Cheney for their crimes. It is the fault of the American people for not forcing our government to pull out of Iraq...now. We have had plenty of opportunities to initiate the impeachments, the last being Representative Dennis Kucinich's bill in November 2007 to impeach the vice president. It was thrown into the House judiciary committee to rot.
Meanwhile, the city of Berkeley blames the Marines for current military activity! Come on! Grow some balls in Berkeley. You want to do something? Lead all Americans to put the blame where it belongs: on Bush and Cheney. Not on our fighting men and women.
I'll bet if Berkeley were under attack by a foreign invader, the people of Berkeley would be singing a different tune: The Marine Hymn. Excerpted from http://war-books.blogspot.com
Lord trigo:
You missed the most important point. This war is illegal, the actions of the military are illegal, every single soldier has the DUTY, according to the law, to refuse to serve. Therefore, enlisting under present conditions is unlawful. The government is unlawful and exists only because the democrats don't believe in the law. Anybody who enlists under present circumstances is a criminal,not according to me, but according to the law. The oath is to defend the constitution, not the government. Enlisting is helping the government to continue violating the constitution. That is immoral and illegal.
Rufo: I would not be outraged if anti-abortion protesters used civil disobedience to make their point. I would admire them for their convictions while opposing them just the same. It is not enough to just complain, you gotta put some money where your mouth is. Thank you bERKLEY AND WE NEED MORE, MUCH MORE PROTESTING.
I am so proud of the people of Berkeley for standing up to the recruiters. I've been against the war since before it began and any efforts to save the lives of people here AND there is a good one, in my book. Our kids are being lied to by the military, they are being denied the benefits they were promised when they signed up (GI Bill, anyone? Health and mental-health care?), and the efforts to force soldiers to redeploy and re-enlist are all examples of the culture of lies that this Administration has pushed throughout their time in office. I can't wait to see the bums thrown out, and to get out of Iraq!
Unless Berkeley seceded from the U.S., or the Marines were incorporated into the Chinese armed forces, calling them "intruders" seems a bit of a stretch. Something the peace movement needs to realize is that our fellow citizens who are signing up for the military almost certainly know that they're going to be sent to Iraq or Afghanistan and apparently don't have a problem with it. That's the advantage of a volunteer military - no resentful, unwilling conscripts to sabotage the system from within, like during the Vietnam War. I'm all in favor of young people knowing the full truth about military service, but there's always going to be sincere, honorable people who want to serve anyway. Criticizing them merely for enlisting achieves little other than alienating the large segment of the nation's citizens who see nothing wrong with military service. The right wing has gotten enough mileage out of the "hippies spitting on returning vets" mythology.
who cares if some bloodthirty kids voluntarily sign up to go murder women and children in Iraq? It gets those psychos out of the USA and may even take their genes out of the genepool
When there is a just cause for use of the US military, it need not market itself. It is the need for military recruitment/marketing campaigns that indicates that the cause is unjust. The only legitimate military action is in support of an enlightened public will. The recruitment campaign indicates that there is something beyond the campaign itself that has to be dealt with. That is, the capitalist/elitist network that is trying to abuse the US military to advance its exploitive, destructive imperialist agenda.
luckylefty,
The "list" you asked for is the veto power, the agencies, law enforcement, the Supreme Court and other judges, the bully pulpit, our "face" to the world and foreign affairs, tax & budget, education, health care, entitlement philosophy---and other things. With McCain you lose them all. With Obama, you don't. To paraphrase the old Clinton campaign. It's the policy,
(stupid).
If every double-bottomed, wide-mouth young man, and woman for that matter, who attended last summer's College Republican convention enlisted in the Marine Corps, it won't have to set up a recruiting office in downtown Berkeley.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFGit_tZDqs
Hi Rufo, I'm with you half-way on that one.
It was not only a mistake but it was wrong to do the parking space thing for the reasons you express. But I think there is a part here you miss.
We didn't get this Country by having informed arguments with the 'stakeholders' having a voice in the discussion and reaching a negotiated agreement that met the needs of all the parties. We wanted. We went. We killed. We took. That's how we do business here.
You take every "advantage" you can get and you ANNIHILATE your opposition. Eradicate them. Crush their bones and salt the earth. That's how we do business here.
Our values are always imposed at the business end of a mini-gun. It's our history.
So Code Pink took every advantage they could to skewer their "enemy"? No surprises. The Far-Right is much better at it than the Lefties. Mostly the Lefties are unwilling to kill for their goals. That places them at a marked disadvantage in the Power Game.
Rufo, unless your "free choice" is backed up by heavy armaments or economic power, you don't have any. Just ask Eric Prince when he drives down your street in an M80 Tank.
If you wish to tell me that we are "A Nation of Laws", then you've never been on the "wrong side" of an issue in America. You may have all the Justice you can impose with a gun (any form of gross coercion) or buy with gold.
But you know this.
Peece.
I disagree with the Berkeley City Council's actions to provide Code Pink with a special parking space and noise (bullhorn) permit, although I am a Code Pink member, a supporter of World Without War, UFPJ, etc., etc. How would we feel if the City Council had given the same parking space and support to Operation Rescue outside a Planned Parenthood clinic? We would be the first to be screaming about it. By injecting themselves into this issue and taking sides, they have opened the door to demands from other groups for the same treatment. Additionally, if anti-choice protesters chained themselves to the doors of a women's health clinic, we would be outraged that they are preventing women from exercising their free choice to enter the clinic. Although I don't want anyone to enlist in the military, and I hate what we have done to Iraq and Afghanistan, I believe people have the right to enter and conduct business in any building and we, on the left or right, don't have the right to stop them, so long as it is legitimate business. I think we need to be very careful here. I don't object to the City Council issuing resolutions or statements, but I do object to their giving preferential treatment to any group, and I object to any group preventing me or anyone else from exercising our free choice.
Obama = Oreo. Black on the outside, white on the inside. "Oh, please don't hurt my candidate. My candidate will SAVE US FROM A FATE WORSE THAN DEATH!!!" Yeah, he's going to Wall Street and "beg for mercy". Like DK did for his Political Masters at the '04 DNC, when BO get's to Wall Street he's going down on all fours, and he will swallow (HRC was 'turned out' 40 years ago).
Go ahead DD, vote early vote often (they don't count them the first time).
In fact DD, I want you to FILL both Houses and the White House with your fucking Dim animals. THEN, if we're still alive, and IF there is still an Internet in Nov of '09 I want you back here to report on all the wonderful things your candidate DIDN'T DO.
It will be the same list that people are making here today that NONE of the candidates will EVER do....
Just like you CANNOT make a list of specific things that your BRIGHT SMILING HERO will do. NOTHING! Just pablum and rosy glowing sweet NOTHING! Trust me baby, I luvya to death, vote for me...
So after a year into the worst economic crash in this country's history I want you back here to tell us all why "YOUR FUCKING GUYS DID NOTHING".
Hope is the food of the hopeless. It has no nutritional value and is no substitute for a PLAN.
Peece.
I support Berkeley all the way and I don't mean their football team! Berkeley stood up to the military when most of the country is too afraid to.
What Country Joe said really broke my heart. Maybe the decades of protest have worn him out. Maybe he's been threatened (I wouldn't be surprised). And I am proud to be a "NIABY" (Not in ANYONE'S Backyard). Don't you know by now that what happens in one city or town will happen everywhere? The Nazis are here to punish Berkeley as an example to others. I can't stress enough the significance of what's going on there right now.
As a woman of Country Joe's generation, I am proud of this new generation of peace activists. I wish you well.
Author quotes a Berkeley professor: "The tragedy is that the issue of the war seems to have gotten lost. The issue instead has become Berkeley itself, and I don't think that's what the City Council had in mind."
Perhaps they didn't, but it WAS entirely predictable.
Let's just hope this whole thing doesn't hurt Obama too badly, since an Obama presidency could actually bring policy benefits to America that Berkeley can only debate (while attracting attacks from gung-ho critics.)
Iraq wants the marines out, Okinawa wants the marines out (again after another rape of a 14-year old last week), Afghanistan wants the marines out, Toledo, Ohio wants the marines out and now Berkeley wants the marines out. Even tiny Hong Kong has denied port access by US naval vessels into her port. What part of this pattern does the military industrial complex refuse to understand?
A Marines recruiting office one block from the university campus is nothing.
Every high school campus in this country is inundated with military recruiters.
Thanks to the No Child Left Behind act, high schools are required to allow recruiter onto campus as often as they want or run the risk of loosing federal funding. At my local high school recruiter are on campus an average of once a week. Parents should be outraged. Yet very little outcry is witnessed.
~Peace
It's 2008 and we are still arguing about a country that cannot exist without White Male Supremacy, Human Slavery, Gender Slavery, Constant War, and Genocide. I feel like f**king Rip Van Winkle, except I never got to sleep.
Re-read Joe MacDonald's comment about Nimbyism, "The council said the Marines can't recruit here, they should recruit somewhere else," he said. "And if there's a problem, we still want you to help us."
Says it all.
But do embarrass the military and our war criminals, by all means. It will be as effective as it was 40 years ago, which is to say, not at all. Judging by our experience then, America should be in Iraq for at least 7 more years with all the concomittant screams, agony, blood and death and that's without counting the other wars we will make in the meantime.
And no, Janice, the protests didn't stop or even slow the War in '68. I was there. The protests continued until 15.6 minutes after the draft ended in '73, then the entire anti-war protest movement died, disappeared like it had never been. Of course by '73 this was a different country. Thanks to J Edgar and COINTELPRO most of the leaders of anti-war or economic/social justice movements were executed, falsely imprisoned, or hounded into silence and suicide.
Your country our history, written in the blood of our victims and the dissidents who failed to move our slave empire from its 4000 year roots as a genocidal monster.
Everybody gets to live through a period of history in a particular place from a particular perspective. Howja like the movie so far? They told you this was a gore-fest didn't they? They didn't tell you this was a slasher movie and at the end you get eaten by feral dogs on two legs? They didn't tell you? Sorry, no refunds.
Peece.
Keep the war creeps out of the temple. That's what Jesus would do.
Go Berkeley!
Get the pro war protesters to sign up for duty.
The sad part is that only Berkeley has the guts to take a stand. I stand with them before they come to take away my kids to war, or yours.
It will take local politics to end the Iraq War. Washington no longer represents the interests of the people but instead only Corporations and especially Military Industrial Corporations. If Berkeley shows strength and upholds the restriction on Marine Corps recruiting it will highlight a profound victory. Other communities will follow their example and a thousand candles of peace will be lighted. Locals (1), Military Industries/Washington (0). :-)
I don't care for the false dichotomy created by this line from the above article: "Protesters from all sides of the debate over the Iraq war - from the anti-war Code Pink to groups supporting the troops and the war..."
This text suggests that supporting the troops and supporting the war are synonymous. Nothing could be further from the truth. I'm so tired of this idea that anyone who is against the war is not supporting the troops. If anything, being against the war is the best way to support the troops. Being against the war goes hand-n-hand with being against "the machine".
Speaking of the machine, here is an old Berkeley Quote (thanks to someone else whose name I can't remember who posted this quote on CD a few weeks ago):
"There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part; you can't even passively take part, and you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!" — Mario Savio, Berkeley Free Speech Movement
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Savio
I'd go one step further and say this: Let the machine "eat up" those few who think they pull the strings and then let it be no more.
I'm so tired of "the machine". We need some better humanity.
Peace,
Ken
Go, Berkeley!! I only wish we could pull something like this off city-wide here in Seattle!
9 pm??