Berkeley To The Marines : Stay Out

Not all, but there is always projects on the table and next time around when Berkeley steps up to the trough perhaps congress won't be so generous

 

Back in the 80s the feds threatened to cut highway funding in any state that didn't raise its drinking age to 21. They can also cut federal funds to universities for various and assorted reasons. Cutting funds to one city the size of Berkeley would certainly be possible.

 

There are already other cities in California that are cutting out official travel to
Berkeley .

 

Don't approve of what the City Council did. It's liberal foofdom.

That said . . . if you find yourself on the side of Jim DeMint on most issues, you
probably need a sustained introspective timeout.

 

They don't want recruiters there.

While I do not agree and feel that it should be in violation of something or other, I don't see what the big deal is. How is it different than not wanting strip clubs in town? How is it different than not allowing bars in town?

I don't like when towns prohibit those businesses but that seems to be legal. So, why the big deal with the business of recruitment?

 

A three-week old story that was resolved a few nights later.

In a 7-to-2 vote, the council said it would no longer send a letter to the local Marine Corps Recruiting Station and Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Conway saying recruiters aren't welcome in Berkeley.

Instead, the city is now simply stating it's opposed to the war and the billions spent on it. However, "we recognize the recruiter's right to locate in our city and the right of others to protest or support their presence," the council said.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/02/13/berkeley.marines/

 

Imagine, Berkeley oppposing a government entity. :shock:

And, one of Boom's clumsier attempts at raising hackles.

 

Is the city going to continue to provide free downtown parking to the protesters like they were before?

 

This is 1968 all over again. They're even recycling the slogans:

"Join the Marines. Travel to Exotic Lands. Meet Exciting and Unusual People -- And Kill Them."

 

You're equating the Marines with strip clubs and bars?

 

:
Yes. That is exactly what I wrote. The marines, as in the boots on the ground in Iraq, Afghanistan and countless other locations, are the same as strip clubs and bars.

I did not write recruiters at all. I did not imply the business of recruitment at all. I meant the soldiers themselves.

 

Right but those are block grants to the individual states, which is how local programs that use federal money are usually organized, with the state then allocating the money to local entities. I've heard of plenty of those programs which placed contingencies on a state's entitlement to federal money. But I can't say I've ever heard of the feds trying to cut off just one town.