Semper Fi Act

You might have heard about Berkeley's City Council's recent vote to tell the Marines to close their recruiting station in the city. With this vote, they told the Marines that their recruiting office is not welcome in their city, and if recruiters choose to stay, they do so as an uninvited and unwelcome intruders.

In response to this, I will be introducing the "Semper Fi Act" in the House of Representatives. This act rescinds all of the funding contained in the FY 2008 Omnibus Appropriations Act for the City of Berkeley, CA and transfers those funds to the Marines for recruiting.

During the meeting, the City Council also voted to give protest group Code Pink a parking space in front of the recruiting office once a week for six months and a free sound permit for protesting once a week. According to the City Council agenda, they "Encourage all people to avoid cooperation with the Marine Corps recruiting station, and applaud residents and organizations such as Code Pink, that may volunteer to impede, passively or actively, by nonviolent means, the work of any military recruiting office located in the City of Berkeley."

The Marine Corps has been protecting Americans and our freedoms for 233 years. Americans understand and appreciate that. You don't have to join the Marine Corps, or even like it, but you should at the very least let the Marines do their job and respect them for it.

The action by the Berkeley City Council indicates that they have a disdain for and do not appreciate Marines for what they do and have done for this country, our democracy, and our freedoms. If they have so little respect and understanding of that, there is no reason for the rest of us, outside the city of Berkeley, to subsidize their actions with our taxpayer funds.

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U.S. Senator David Vitter

Defending those who Defend

You may have read recently about the vote by the City Council of Berkeley, California, to cast out Marine Corps recruiters from their downtown office – saying the Marines were “uninvited and unwelcome intruders.” To add further insult, Berkeley officials also voted to give the radical, leftist, anti-war protest group Code Pink space outside the recruitment office and actually urged them to “impede, passively or actively” the work of Marine Corps recruiters.

Millions of Americans have served honorably in our armed forces; the City Council of Berkeley has no right to decide that other, young Americans should not be afforded the opportunity to do so themselves. It is one thing to exercise your right to disagree with the policies of your government; it is another entirely to insult our men and women in uniform and actively campaign to disrupt their recruiting processes while encouraging radical groups to do the same.

Last week, I joined a group of senators in introducing the Semper Fi Act of 2008. The bill would rescind more than $2 million in earmarks for Berkeley, California, in the 2008 Omnibus Appropriations Bill, and transfer the funds to the Marine Corps. One of those earmarks provides $243,000 in taxpayer dollars for the organization Chez Panisse to create gourmet organic school lunches in the Berkeley School District. Another earmark would spend $975,000 in federal taxpayer dollars for the University of California in Berkeley Matsui Center for Politics and Public Service, to create a new endowment and catalogue the papers of Congressman Robert Matsui. U.C. Berkeley already has a $3.5 billion endowment.

The City Council of Berkeley went far beyond expressing their opinions; instead, they chose to disrupt military recruiters from doing their jobs. And the actions of the City Council of Berkeley are in stark contrast to the beliefs of the vast majority of Americans who recognize and honor the service and sacrifice of our U.S. Marines. In these times, when our Armed Forces need all the funding – and more – that we can offer them, Berkeley institutions happily accept government funding for their own special programs, and then disparage one of our most honorable and venerated institutions. This is simply unacceptable, and these funds could be better utilized by the Marine Corps.

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The petition

We, the undersigned condemn the Berkeley City Council’s treasonous attack on US Marine Recruiters stationed in their city. We ask that Congress cut off funds from any and all municipal entity within the confines of the city of Berkeley, California, until such time as the city council withdraws it’s action.

The City Council has voted to tell the Marines their downtown recruiting station is not welcome and “if recruiters choose to stay, they do so as uninvited and unwelcome guests.”

The measure passed last week by a vote of 8-1.

The council also voted to explore enforcing a city anti-discrimination law, focusing on the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

In a separate item, the council voted, also 8-1, to give the Marxist protest group Code Pink a parking space in front of the recruiting office once a week for six months and a free sound permit for protesting once a week.

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/cutoffberkeleynow

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