Where Marines Are Called ‘Intruders’ and Recruiting Office Is Unwelcome

The devoted terrorist sympathizers at the New York Times seem proud of what Berkeley is doing.

BERKELEY, Calif. — On Tuesday night, the nine members of the Berkeley City Council are expected to do something they, or the Marines, for that matter, very rarely do: retreat in the face of fierce opposition.

“The staff are supposed to be there to protect us from our stupidity,” said Councilwoman Betty Olds, who is 87, as feisty as a cornered rattlesnake and a leader of the retrenchment. “And they didn’t do any better than we did.”

For weeks, the Council has been at the heart of a mess related to its proclamation that the Marines — them that stormed the beaches of Iwo Jima — were not welcome to run their three-person recruiting office downtown.

The Council, with its staff’s concurrence, apparently, also set aside a parking spot one day a week in front of the office for Code Pink, an antiwar group that aims to disrupt the recruiters and, like all Californians, loves a good parking spot.

The parking and the proclamation, which called the Marines “uninvited and unwelcome intruders,” sparked an angry response in the form of hundreds of telephone calls, thousands of e-mail messages and countless hours of “How dare they!” on the radio and elsewhere.

Let’s see an an explanation somewhere of what Code Pink is, what United for Peace and Justice is, and that Cindy Sheehan has marched with and ‘protested’ with these extremists. There is, however, no mention of any of that in this article.

Typical of the outrage was a posting on Monday on Townhall.com, a conservative Web site, that decried “patchouli-smelling Berkeley hippies” and “radical antimilitary haters.”

“Groups like Code Pink and the Berkeley City Council don’t care about freedom,” a poster, Sgt. Seth Conner, blogged. “They only care about saddling another generation — my generation — with their hippie-loving propaganda.”

It seems to me that the New York Times should speak for itself where ‘propaganda’ is concerned…

The shock and awe extended to Washington and Sacramento, where Republican elected officials proposed withholding millions in state and federal money for Berkeley for programs like school lunches and transportation.

Right. And now Berkeley is a ‘victim’…! Nobody has a right to taxpayer funded gourmet lunches OR transportation.

So it is that on Tuesday, amid the glare of television cameras and protesters on both sides, the Council is scheduled to consider another resolution that affirms its opposition to the Iraq war but also expresses support for the “men and women who voluntarily serve this country.”

Mayor Tom Bates, who was in the Army and seems slightly bewildered by the backlash, said the resolution would be “a substitute for what we’ve had out there.”

“Actually I wouldn’t even call it a substitute,” Mr. Bates said a moment later. “I think it’s just a restating of our policy.”

Mayor Tom Bates, who was in the Army - has been wearing a pink beret when he’s joined Code Pink in their protest of the military recruiting office. If he’s bewildered about the backlash, he’s been living in Bezerkely for too long and he’s not all that bright, either.

The proclamation, drafted by Ms. Olds and another Council member, Laurie Capitelli, will also back off a request to the city manager to send a letter to the Marine Corps commandant with the “uninvited and unwelcome” language.

In another concession, Mr. Bates said other groups would be invited to apply for parking spots for their protests. “If someone wants a Monday or a Tuesday,” he said, “they would be entitled to get it.” None of which is likely to appease critics.

“It would be astonishing if they did something meaningful like apologize, not only to the military, or the Marines, but to the families of service members,” said Melanie Morgan, host of a conservative talk show and leader of Move America Forward, which backs troops. “They are finding out that the rest of America doesn’t go along with their kooky politics.”

Ms. Morgan said her supporters would protest on Tuesday at City Hall with a poster board depicting a marine with his mouth taped shut.

Rewording the language that was drawn up by the Peace and Justice Commission - named after United for Peace and Justice - is hardly a ‘concession’.

If they are ‘invited to apply’, then why are ridiculous rules applied to MAF that aren’t applied to Code Pink????

What is required of MAF that is not required of Code PINK?

-sign language intrepreters for hearing impaired

-shut down the sound system at 5:00 when the rally is scheduled to begin

-and many other ridiculous “rules”.

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Right Truth, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, A Newt One, Dumb Ox Daily News, Conservative Cat, Right Voices, Adeline and Hazel, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.