Catherine Moy: Berkeley Buckling After Attack on Marines

Move America Forward ^ | Thursday, April 03, 2008 | Catherine Moy

[Syncro]

Thursday, April 03, 2008

Posted By:
Catherine Moy
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Berkeley Buckling After Attack on Marines

The Berkeley City Council supports this type of confrontation

The San Francisco Chronicle today wrote a story about the financial hardships Berkeley has suffered since it called the Marines “unwelcome” and “uninvited.” The pushback from (Move America Forward and other pro-troops groups is having the desired effect: Groups are canceling trips to Berkeley; hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent on police overtime; businesses have left; outsiders will no longer do business in Berkeley.

The Chronicle reports: 

Berkeley is finding that having its own foreign policy isn’t cheap. The city’s recent dustup with the U.S. Marine Corps has so far cost the city more than $200,000, while businesses say they’ve been slammed by related protests. . . .

But some business owners, residents and officials say the Marines dispute, which brought international headlines and boycotts, is a perfect illustration of why Berkeley should spend less money on foreign policy and more on filling potholes.
City Councilman Gordon Wozniak put forth a plan last week to make the commissions more accountable. The plan, approved by the City Council, requires the commissions to post their full reports on the city’s Web site, to be more diligent about posting their agendas and minutes and to pass along more background information to the City Council, especially on controversial items.
“I think it’s out of hand,” Wozniak said of Berkeley’s commissions, most of which meet monthly and have two or three subcommittees that also meet regularly. “When we spend a lot of time debating things like the Marines issue, we’re not spending time on the serious problems in this city, like fire station closures. It’s easier to tackle international issues than deal with messy local problems.”

The council approved the item with little fanfare, but pro-military groups seized on the issue, calling the council’s move treasonous and demanding an apology. The council rescinded the resolution on Feb. 13, but protests on each side have cost the city about $208,000 in police overtime, city officials say.
Additional costs include city staff time to handle permits, the media, security and the thousands of e-mails that have intermittently crashed the city’s computer server. In addition, businesses around the recruiting station have been hurt by the protests, and at least four hotels and a handful of restaurants have reported cancellations as a result of the boycott.

And businesses are victims of the idiocy by the City Council:

“The city is raising business fees and parking meter rates at the same time they’re spending all this money on international issues and handling protests. It doesn’t make sense, in these difficult economic times,” said Ted Garrett, director of the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce. “We’re very concerned about the effect this is having on business.”
An Oregon Ducks football fan club and a Lafayette golf club are among the groups that have canceled junkets to Berkeley this fall, Wozniak said. A San Diego resort developer said he canceled three contracts with Berkeley suppliers and has persuaded other businesses to follow suit.

We at Move America Forward love free enterprise. But we will stand against any city that makes policies attacking our military. So here are a couple important safety tips for Berkeley:

And all the City Council has to do to reverse its bad fortune is to:
1. Rescind its resolutions giving special favor to the radical group, Code Pink. The city gave the anti-war agitators free permits and a free designated parking space in front of the Marine’s recruiting office so the group can harass the Marines and try to run them out of town.
2. Make a formal apology to the Marines for its anti-American attacks on the military.

Until then, Move America Forward will continue its pushback against Berkeley, its allies Code Pink, World Can’t Wait and all anarchist America-haters, and enemies of the state.

And to the Americans who are giving Berkeley hell: Thank You!! You are patriots and you are making a difference! 

[Syncro]

An Oregon Ducks football fan club and a Lafayette golf club are among the groups that have canceled junkets to Berkeley this fall, Wozniak said. A San Diego resort developer said he canceled three contracts with Berkeley suppliers and has persuaded other businesses to follow suit.

[Syncro]

More about Berkeley

[Enterprise]

Hey Bezerkley - fix the potholes and quit smoking the pot ya morons.

[vpintheak]

Couldn’t have happended to a nicer bunch of leftists.

[Leo Carpathian]

Way to go!
Time to stand up to morons!

[Judith Anne]

So, Berkeley is closing firehouses, and not fixing their potholes, but feels that the Marines shouldn't be there.

Fine. I'll never go to Berkeley. And they shouldn't be getting any federal funds, either. I don't want my tax dollars going to ANYbody who wants the Marines to leave town and who encourages Code Pink.

[goldstategop]

Nothing better than to see leftists lose dollars because of their contempt and disdain for our military. Berkeley is learning that has real world consequences.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[A_Former_Democrat]

Indeed it is, as leftists are incapable of self-support.

[penelopesire]

Way to go MAF!!

[navyguy]

Berkeley should be walled off and sold to North Korea for a dollar.

[RandallFlagg]

Berkeley made their choice. Now they’re going to have to live with it.

[Syncro]

Naw, it's part of my country.

We'll just let them continue to self-destruct with their self-rightous City Council, Mayor and Chamber of Commerce.

The more they spin the situation and pat each other on the back with their vacuous platitudes, the ditzier they become and the more money they lose.

Even though the CofC tried to say some positive things, they got tripped up in their own PC words.

[ConfidentConservative]

I love the Ducks! Go Ducks!

Berkeley deserves the bed it has made.

[Purrcival]

Speaking truth to morons, maybe?

[dk88]

Go DUCKS

[SmithL]

Here's a thread about the Chronicle story: Calls renewed to fix Berkeley's citizen boards

[Syncro]

I found this on Melanie Morgan's website, from the end of last month:

Overtime Costs Berkeley, Boycott Hurts Bottom Line

Written by Melanie Morgan   

Saturday, 29 March 2008

Digital Journal and its amazing writer Susan Duclos is reporting on financial woes for the city of Berkeley due to protests, backlash and overtime costs.

(Susan Duclos, Digital Journal, via google) 

Read the latest here.

Oops!

I don't know how I missed this one, but the launch of the new website to Boycott Berkeley www.BrigadeAmerica.com  is featured in the Washington Times.

One of our (former) top spooks at the CIA is pitching in to help punish the Berkeley City Council for calling our Marines 'unwelcome and unvited intruders.'

And now back to Susan Duclos, also known as 'Spree' at her own website called "WakeUpAmerica." Susan has more here on MAF's Monday march to US Attorney's office with demands to investigate and prosecute civil rights violations in Berkeley, Ca. on February 12th.

Here's the beginning of Susan Duclos' report:

Saturday, March 29, 2008

The Financial Cost to Berkeley California For Their Anti-Military Stance

[Update] 4/3/08- Another business leaves Berkeley.

Berkeley California has been the subject of news for months since the City Council of Berkeley issued a resolution calling the Marines "uninvited and unwelcome intruders." They later rescinded that resolution, but what has it cost them?

*snip*

"We feel it's important to have some measure of presence at any type of protest or demonstration," Kusmiss said, adding that the department is worried about the "comingling" of CodePink with the groups the World Can't Wait and the ANSWER Coalition, which police say, unlike CodePink, chain themselves to buildings and purposely antagonize police officers.

Code Pink vows to continue their protests every week until the Marine recruitment center leaves town, as stated by the co-founder of Code Pink, Medea Benjamin, who says, "If people are concerned they should put pressure on the (recruiting center) landlord to break the lease. The recruiters are the ones who should have never come in to Berkeley. If whomever in the city wants to stop the protests, they should encourage the recruiters to leave. Democracy comes at a price."

Benjamin is correct about the price and it does not stop with the financial strain on the city of Berkeley for police over time.

Several good links in this post

[Syncro]

Great, thanks SmithL

[SmithL]

For a while, the Chamber of Commerce was saying all the right things about supporting the Marines, and I was sympathetic. Then they made up with Mayor Bates, and I just don’t care what happens to anybody that keeps electing these anti-Americans to speak for them.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Berkeley CA should be federally de-funded

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