Good for DeMint.
http://capitalismcenter.org/Advocacy/Marine_Petition/default.htm
A Petition in Support of the U.S. Marine Corps
Against the 29 January 2008 Resolutions of the Berkeley City Council
Note: The purpose of this petition is to condemn the resolutions of the City Council of Berkeley, California which declare that United States Marine Corps recruiters are “uninvited and unwelcome intruders” within Berkeley city limits and applauds those who choose to “impede” the Marines in their recruiting mission.
By signing this petition, you pledge not to conduct any business within the Berkeley city limits or patronize any company which has its headquarters within Berkeley. Furthermore, you signal your desire that the U.S. Congress and the California State Legislature suspend all federal and state payments that support any activity conducted by the Berkeley City Council until such time as the Council chooses to rescind its anti-Marine resolutions.
Additionally, this is an ad-hoc petition; signing this petition will not not (and should not) be construed as supporting any other cause or organization (including the Center for the Advancement of Capitalism, the owner of the petition’s host website, www.capitalismcenter.org).
TO THE CITY COUNCIL OF BERKELEY CALIFORNIA:
In resolutions passed January 29, 2008, the City Council of Berkeley has declared that United States Marine Corps recruiters are “uninvited and unwelcome intruders” within city limits and applauds those who choose to “impede” the Marines in their recruiting mission. The justification presented by the Council for these obnoxious and misdirected resolutions is that the Council objects to the Marines’ role in Iraq, the laws forbidding open homosexuals from serving in the armed forces, and with the entirety of American history on the grounds that the United States has allegedly launched a series of “illegal, immoral and unprovoked wars of aggression.”
Article I, Section VII of the Federal Constitution empowers the Congress with the responsibility to raise and support armies, while Article II, Section II empowers the President with the role of Commander-in-Chief. In contrast to these decision-makers, the role of the members of the Marine Corps is to prepare for and wage war as authorized by the Constitutional process. Unlike the President, the Congress, or the Berkeley City Council, the Marines are not a policy-making body.
For the Berkeley City Council to blame the Marines for the laws passed by Congress, or to condemn them because their members fight in a war that some choose to oppose is a grave miscarriage of justice. It implies that the Marines can choose which laws they follow, or which wars they fight in. It implies that the Marines are not beholden to the very Constitution that they swore to defend.
Furthermore, the Berkeley City Council’s desire to prevent the Marines from speaking to young people about their mission within Berkeley’s city limits while simultaneously giving anti-Marine protesters preferential treatment implies that the City Council is comfortable with its youth receiving information from only one side of the debate. This position insults both the Marines, many of whom are veterans of the current war and are able to provide a perspective interested people should be free to hear, and Berkeley’s youth, who are apparently judged by the City Council to be too incompetent to form their own intelligent opinion about the armed forces and the responsibilities, risks and rewards that go with military service.
As American citizens and veterans of all branches of the armed services, we voice our steadfast opposition to the Berkeley City Council’s despicable actions. In protest, we announce that we refuse to conduct any business within the Berkeley city limits, or patronize any company which has its headquarters within Berkeley. We call upon the U.S. Congress and the California State Legislature to suspend all federal and state payments that go to support any activity conducted by the Berkeley City Council until such time as the Council chooses to rescind its anti-Marine resolutions.
The Berkeley City Council has taken a position that puts them outside the constitutional union. They have targeted the innocent and have actively worked to keep their citizens ignorant of viewpoints that they have every right to hear. Until such time as the Berkeley City Council elects to restrain itself to its proper role, we choose not to deal with Berkeley’s citizens or support their lives in any way.
Signed,
I seriously doubt that The Marine Corps are recruiting good men from that liberal hellhole anyway!
The Marines need men who can dress themselves by the age of 18, not the girly men available from the gay bay!
Just my 2 cents!
Now, it may be that these earmarks should be deleted entirely, but that it a different debate. The university should not be penalized for the actions of the city.
City of Berkeley Emails to write to
City of Berkeley
Mayor Bates _mayor@ci.berkeley.ca.us_ (mailto:mayor@ci.berkeley.ca.us)
City Council Members
Linda Maio District 1 _lmaio@ci.berkeley.ca.us_
(mailto:lmaio@ci.berkeley.ca.us)
Darryl Moore District 2 _dmoore@ci.berkeley.ca.us_
(mailto:dmoore@ci.berkeley.ca.us)
Maxwell Anderson District 3 _manderson@ci.berkeley.ca.us_
(mailto:manderson@ci.berkeley.ca.us)
Dona Spring District 4 _spring@ci.berkeley.ca.us_
(mailto:spring@ci.berkeley.ca.us)
Laurie Capitelli District 5 _lcapitelli@ci.berkeley.ca.us_
(mailto:lcapitelli@ci.berkeley.ca.us)
Betty Olds District 6 _olds@ci.berkeley.ca.us_
(mailto:olds@ci.berkeley.ca.us)
Kriss Worthington District 7 _kworthington@ci.berkeley.ca.us_
(mailto:kworthington@ci.berkeley.ca.us)
Gordon Wozniak District 8 _GWozniak@ci.berkeley.ca.us_
(mailto:GWozniak@ci.berkeley.ca.us)
City of Berkeley Website Feedback _webmaster@ci.berkeley.ca.us_
(mailto:webmaster@ci.berkeley.ca.us)