Posted on 09/29/2009 9:45:27 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
Berkeley would become the first city in the United States to independently try to comply with U.N. treaties on torture, civil rights and racial discrimination, if the City Council passes a measure on the issue tonight.
The measure would require the city to file biennial reports to the United Nations on how - or whether - the city meets international human rights standards. In Berkeley, that could include its record on homelessness, the achievement gap among different racial groups at Berkeley High and the presence of John Yoo, a UC Berkeley School of Law professor and Berkeley resident who authored the Bush administration's justification for torture.
"It's critical that cities and counties, not just nations, make these reports to the U.N.," said Ann Fagan Ginger, head of the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute in Berkeley. "To relate directly to the U.N. is the closest way we have of supporting the rights spelled out in these treaties."
Unpaid law students at Ginger's institute and volunteers on the city's Peace and Justice Commission would compile most of the city data for the United Nations. City staff would chip in if more work is needed, according to the city manager.
Berkeley would be the first city in the country, and possibly the world, to submit its compliance records to the United Nations, said Yves Sorokobi, a U.N. spokesman in New York.
"We welcome citizen participation in trying to uphold these treaties, but in general they are directed toward countries," he said. Berkeley "has taken the lead here."
That's not surprising. Berkeley has long conducted its own foreign policy, occasionally at odds with the U.S. State Department.
Some on the City Council said they're not sure Berkeley needs to comply with treaties to which the United States has already agreed.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
It is BerZerkeley.
Really now. And are they going to call in the UN to help them with their crime and illegals problem?
Considering the idiocy of their lib-arts departments, would not classes given by those turkeys be considered torture?
Like the UN gives a red rats patoot what Berkely does.
Nutbags the whole lot.
That would be unconstitutional, since no state (and by extension, city) can sign a treaty with a foreign power.
An area of the country I wish would go ahead and fall into the ocean..........forever.
Even if it is half in jest, it may set a very bad precedent.
What part of Article I, Section 10 does Berkley find so hard to understand? “No State shall, without the Consent of Congress...enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power...”
If Berkeley is entering into treaties with the UN, can other states opt out of treaties the US enters into? I’m looking at you Texas.
Best to simply ignore them like a simple minded relative.......
HA!
Send the blue helmets in to Berkley. Of course, Woopi will define the actions later as not “rape -rape”.
At least they agreed to not use the word “torture”.
Ha!
Isn’t that special?
OH, good question. Berkeley heads probably never thought of unintended consequences.
My suggestion, the city of Berkeley secedes from the Union (good riddance) (/s)
“Berkeley heads probably never thought of unintended consequences.”
Of course not. Leftards never do.
Criminals would have a field day there..get to jail, whine to the UN about ‘torture” and get 3 meals/day. Those idiots deserve whatever crap they get.
Acting outside the Constitution would be grounds for arrest......just saying.
I assume all the pot holes are filled in Berkeley?....
“Berkeley has long conducted its own foreign policy”....
What a joke!....
So if this is passed, is this considered secession? And if so, is the Federal Goverment and/or California no longer at all responsible for Berkeley?
No, it's just illegal.
Is a frontal lobotomy a requirement to hold office in Berkley?
These folks are just plain NUTS!
I propose a resolution whereby everybody secedes from Berkely. Why not just condemn the whole the whole city as a toxic waste dump?
Isn’t that unconstitutional?
I thought only the fed had the power to sign international treaties, etc.
As Berkeley goes...
so goes Portland.
I think they should move to Russia. They would be more welcome there. In fact; I think all the communists here should move to a communist country and live in it to see how it really is.
Funny how none of these people ever actually live in one of those countries. They just make little trips knowing they will be coming back to freedom.
Berkeley is an attention whore of a city.
Now, secession is difficult to justify constitutionally (there was some unpleasantness over just that issue a while back, as I recall), but what about expulsion? Can the rest of the country constitutionally revoke the status of an area as part of the United States if it continually demonstrates hatred and animosity toward the Constitution and American society?
I seem to recall that the US Constitution prohibits states and presumably cities from making treaties.
The mere existence of the cty council and mayor of this city constitutes torture.
Yes, Berkeley has been concerned about the whole world, instead of its own cracked sidewalks, for some time.
When I was at Berkeley, in the 1980s, the city declared itself a “nuclear-free” zone. This was highly ironic, as Berkeley had a small nuclear reactor within its city limits, on the UC Berkeley campus. This made the city much more “nuclear” than all of its neighbors put together. The city did not have any power to shut down the reactor since it was under State authority. So there it was.
But, hey, other than that, Berkeley was nuclear-free. And nobody seemed to notice anything funny about this.
No really! What is in the water up there?
Pouring Berkley graduates out into the general population if torture to the rest of us.
If you accept the Confederate disunion theory that any state can unilaterally decide to withdraw from the Union then the converse must also be true -- that the rest of the Union can unilaterally expel a given state from the Union.
Personally, I think neither are in the spirit or letter of the Constitutional compact.
Why not pick up the entire city and move it to international waters to avoid contaminating the mainland?
The 9th Circuit ignores The Constitution so much they would have no clue about how to intervene.
Don’t you wish that you could be THAT special, too?
TREASON - This word imports a betraying, treachery, or breach of allegiance.
The Constitution of the United States, Art. III, defines treason against the United States to consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid or comfort. This offence is punished with death. By the same article of the Constitution, no person shall be convicted of treason, unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.
Isn’t it treason if they place the U.N. over the Constitution of the U.S.?
Yes, but with pot.
They'll get what they ask for!
Yeah. They might actually be pitched in jail for the sin of making so much money, and also not being able to keep their mouths shut.
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