For those of you far away from Berkeley who have not heard, this week is spring break. I have been enjoying the land of Orange County.

In case you missed any news this weekend:

Over 400 motorcyclists drove into Berkeley to support the military and the Marine recruiting center. Insidebayarea.com has the story.

Also, the San Francisco Chronicle ran a story about College Republican support for McCain. The story quotes the Patriot’s own Rohit Joy.

Since school is on break and I am away from Berkeley, my material for posts has dwindled. To give you some entertainment, I am going to post some items that I thought were interesting but for one reason or another never made it to this blog.

On Monday classes and the utter madness of the ASUC elections will start.

The East Bay Express has the story from today:

Cody’s Books is moving late next month to downtown Berkeley, where it will occupy the Shattuck Avenue/Allston Way corner formerly occupied by the Eddie Bauer store.

One wonders, what business changes will they be making?

“We are going to divest ourselves of the things that aren’t doing that great in the retail book world these days — computer books, for one. The something-for-everyone model is dead and gone,” she says. So the staff will, instead, “curate the sections that we feel the strongest about: history, politics, current affairs, and literature.” Cody’s will continue to carry children’s books, young adult literature, travel books, cookbooks, reference titles, and more, along with a new “Green World, Green Living” section.

The green world and green living section has to be a success. However the business climate in Berkeley has been brutal to Cody’s in the last few years. They closed their flagship store on Telegraph in 2006 and are being pushed out of their established Fourth Street location by higher rents. Combined with the recent closure of their short lived San Francisco store, things are not looking good for Cody’s.

There was a Barnes and Noble several blocks down Shattuck that closed last summer. While they were not as close to downtown as Cody’s will be, they had parking which is quite scarce. It would be nice if Cody’s could be prosperous, but I am not very optimistic.

Recently the Berkeley College Republicans and the staff of the California Patriot have been holding demonstrations next to the Marine recruiting center on Shattuck.

Since Code Pink is out in force on Wednesdays with the help of their free parking spot, BCR members have been meeting downtown to support the Marines and their presence in Berkeley.

It is a fun atmosphere, with singing of God Bless America and the Marines’ Hymn along with various chants. Our side would chant “Hell no, the Marines won’t go,” while the other side (with their megaphone) would say things like “1, 2, 3, 4, we don’t want this stinking war, 2, 3, 4, 5 bring our soldiers home alive.” Sometimes the pro-Marine people even outnumber the crazies of Code Pink.

Even if there is rain, we will be out there to support the Marines. Stop by and show your support tomorrow at noon or any other Wednesday. There will be a few flags and signs, but bring any you might have.

Security and crowd control around the Berkeley City Council meeting on Tuesday required spending $93,000. From the San Francisco Chronicle’s report:

About 140 Berkeley police officers worked at the protest, which drew more than 2,000 demonstrators from around the country, said Mary Kay Clunies-Ross, public information officer. There were four arrests, all misdemeanors.

The protest was over the City Council’s Jan. 29 statement that the Marines, who have a recruitment center downtown, are “unwelcome intruders.” After 3 1/2 hours of public comment and debate, the council voted early Wednesday to back down from the statement.

This money could have gone toward education or any number of services people say needs funding more then the military. Instead it was squandered as a result of a political statement the City Council backed down from. It also infuriated countless people and gave others a free parking space.

The City Council knew when it passed the original statement last month it would cause a stir. They are no strangers to political controversy and should have been very careful to articulate their stance of support the troops and stop the war, if that is what they wanted to say in the first place. Instead, the City Council opted to call the Marine recruiters “unwelcome intruders” and start a storm of public protest. I wonder, what is the next great piece of legislation to come out of Berkeley’s Peace and Justice Commission?

Tuesday should have been called “How un-Berkeley can you be?” day. Thanks to Move America Forward, Berkeley Civic Center Plaza was filled with normal, decent patriot Americans. Led by KSFO talk-radio host Melanie Morgan, members of Move America Forward rallied in support of the besieged Marine recruiting center. Combat vets, families with sons and daughters serving in Iraq, and members of the Berkeley College Republicans were on the scene to face off against Code Pinko, truant Berkeley High School brats, and a slew of Berkeley regulars who have never seen an American flag that wasn’t on fire. Take a look:

Pro-troop demonstrators line MLK.

A message to the Berkeley City Council:

The opposition- students from Berkeley High School. I asked many of them if they could name at least one country that neighbored Iraq, and none of them could. They could, however, recite the evidence that suggested 9/11 was an inside job.

And check out this video of the BHS students providing the most articulate defense of their anti-war stance.
Still not convinced? Well how about story time, or a game of duck-duck-goose for peace!

Berkeley Police in riot gear hold back the anti-war crowd. The word “pig” was thrown around so many times, I had to grab a ham sandwich after the rally.

Members of Code Pink finally decide to become Human Shields in the middle of Martin Luther King Boulevard.

This was the most inspiring scene of the day. The Veterans suspended their heated exchanges with Code Pink to salute the flag as the National Anthem was played over the loudspeaker. Meanwhile, the Berkeley High students continued to curse America over the crescendo of the Star Spangled Banner.

And our flag was still there…

This article from the SF NBC website which made The Drudge Report details Berkeley standing down from its measure to ban the Marines.

A choice bit from the article:

“Subtly stated in the resolution is perhaps an impugning of the soldiers fighting for us in Iraq and other places,” Berkeley City Councilman Laurie Capitelli. “And that was never the intention but that really needs to be cleared up. As I walked to my car that night I realized I regretted it and I had made a mistake.”

The institution that called the Marines “uninvited and unwelcome intruders” claims this was PERHAPS a subtle impugning. It wasn’t perhaps or subtle, and it was greater than impugnment. It was pretty heinous. Now that the city is threatened with the loss of 2.3 million in federal revenue it is backing off, and who knows if it learned a lesson or not.

Here’s another one:

“Sen. Barbara Boxer and Rep. Barbara Lee said they plan to fight the Republican bill”

Good luck with that, ladies! I’d love to see that day on the House/Senate floor. Also, Wozniak, one of the original dissenters, made a comment that was meant to be an olive branch but does nothing to hide Berkeley’s other forms of crazy:

“Berkeley is supposed to celebrate diversity and free speech and we welcome homeless people here. We welcome illegal immigrants. We give them sanctuary. We should welcome the Marines. I mean they’re basically dedicating their lives to protect their country.”

I’m sure February will provide the community of crazies and those who live with them a wholly new outrage to keep our spirits up. This is one thing that Berkeley has done for me–I won’t expect that anything will ever be strange again.

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

“As the right-wing blogosphere railed and a U.S. senator vowed financial retaliation against the Berkeley City Council for its effort to boot the Marine Corps out of town, three war protesters ratcheted up pressure from the left by chaining themselves Friday to the front door of the downtown Marine recruiting office.

The demonstrators snapped their locks shut at 7 a.m. and spent the next 7 1/2 hours blocking the door, waving and chanting as hundreds of cars driving by honked in support. Finally, at 2:30 p.m., police snipped the chains and arrested them.

Two of the three were cited for blocking a business and released, and the third was booked into jail on an unrelated traffic warrant, police said”

Oh boy. These guys have the works: orange prison suits, chains, the usual cadre of anti-Bush/anti-war/abu ghraib signs, etc. The most delicious part is how the right-wingers here on the interweb are supposedly the ones going ballistic, not those restricting the movement of others. I am not surprised that Berkeley is the first city to do this. Some of the reaction came from Republican Senator Jim DeMint, who is working on a counter-measure:

“Conservative bloggers and Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., also believe more articulation is necessary - from the opposite side of the political spectrum.

DeMint began drafting legislation Friday to cut $2.1 million in federal funding to Berkeley in a current congressional budget bill and transfer the money to the Marine Corps. The funding would include $750,000 for prospective ferry service, $87,000 for the Berkeley Unified School District nutrition education fund and $243,000 for the Chez Panisse Foundation, which promotes nutritional awareness in school lunch programs.

“The First Amendment gives the city of Berkeley the right to be idiotic, but from now on they should do it with their own money,” DeMint said in a statement.” Any thoughts on this?

The “ballistic” right wing response is apparently innapropriate, according to Council Member Donna Spring, who said “I guess they’ve never heard of free speech,” in response to those who left her critical phone messages. So her right to speak should be defended but not those who disagree? GatewayPundit is another “ballistic” blogger.

Cal even got a mention in a message from Melanie Morgan: “we have been contacted by Marine groups across Northern California, Cal Berkeley Young Republicans, SF State Young Republicans and a tsunami of e-mails in support”.

The action is going down Tuesday Feb 12th, when folks will be marching on the next Berkeley City Council meeting. Come along if you wanna see something fun.

From The Daily Cal’s website:

“In response to a Marine Corps recruiting office established in Berkeley last year, local activists are trying to make it more difficult for future recruiting centers to open in the city.”

This is how they intend to make it more difficult:

“If passed by a majority of Berkeley voters, a proposed initiative would require military recruiting offices and private military companies in Berkeley to first acquire a special use permit.

To obtain this permit, a business must hold public hearings and a public comment period.

If the initiative passes, recruitment offices could not be opened within 600 feet of residential districts, public parks, public health clinics, public libraries, schools or churches.”

Also, military recruitment offices have been compared to “pornographic stores“:

“In the same way that many communities limit the location of pornographic stores, that’s the same way we feel about the military recruiting stations,” said PhoeBe sorgen, an initiative proponent and a member of the city’s Peace and Justice Commission. “Teenagers that really want to find them will be able to seek them out and find them, but we don’t want them in our face.”

For those of you who aren’t acquainted with the non-residential areas of Berkeley, this process would make getting a recruitment office nearly impossible. First, the proposed recruitment office would have to have a special permit that they’d have to obtain through the “public hearing and public comment” process, which means entangling themselves in Berkeley’s sizeable and slugglish bureaucratic net. If they were successful, the 600 foot regulation basically covers anything they could be next to. The assumption that they have to be far away from public entities like schools, parks, and clinics indicates that the city still believes recruiters are “preying” on poor, weak, minority citizens. However, churches? Those aren’t “public” in the same way the other institutions are, and shouldn’t be put in that category (the whole church and state thing).

My elementary analysis: This is the “nice” way of banning military recruitment without actually doing it. I hope the public outcry is loud. But what am I saying, this is Berkeley.

update: welcome, Michelle Malkin readers. Come make yourselves at home!

Here’s my photo-update from the Wednesday event. It got some coverage on Drudge report, Instapundit, Michelle Malkin’s blog, as well as others.

Here is Melanie Morgan and another woman singing patriotic songs.

(more…)

An anti-CodePink rally in favor of the troops took place today on Shattuck. It was promoted by Melanie Morgan and had a fairly large turnout, including Republican Women’s Federated groups, Move America Forward, vets, and current military members and their families. It got some coverage here, as well as here. I was also in attendance, and will have some photos of both sides up for you soon.

In the funny bin this morning, KCBS 740 is reporting an effort to recall Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates will start today.

Opponents of the mayor claim he is too close to developers and his alma mater, Cal Berkeley, and is only trying to get tough on the homeless in order to satisfy business interests. The petition drive is being headed by Zachary Running Wolf, a former mayoral candidate and an organizer of the Berkeley tree sitters, the group protesting the university’s plan to cut down an oak grove to make way for a new athletic training center.

If you want to know how close Bates is to the University, look at how many times the City of Berkeley has sued or threatened to sue UC Berkeley under his watch. Add in the election next year where the mayor will be voted on and the trees that will be killed to make the paper for the petitions and this is ridiculous.

I also think Zachary Running Wolf has less then selfless intentions. Just recently I heard Running Wolf refer to himself as “the next mayor of Berkeley.”

This article came in from the San Francisco Chronicle less then an hour ago:

A UC Berkeley campus police van was torched overnight in an incident that authorities said could be linked to the ongoing dispute involving tree-sitters at the Memorial Stadium oak grove.

The van was discovered with burn marks and other damage at abut 6 a.m. today, police said. It was parked on Barrows Lane off Bancroft Way near the campus police station, according to authorities.

Update: I took this picture of the van on my way to class.

I thought the days of burning cars were over, but not so in Berkeley. Details are still developing.

This morning an article in the Bay Area Reporter disclosed city council member Kriss Worthington’s future plans for elected office.

Berkeley City Council member Kriss Worthington will launch a bid for an East Bay Assembly seat next week. The openly gay Worthington told the Bay Area Reporter that he would officially announce his campaign for the 14th District Assembly seat Monday, September 24.

The average Berkeley political figure is very liberal and Worthington is no exception. However, he has a record of helping students, which makes him one of the better local elected officials in my view. The current holder of the 14th Assembly seat Loni Hancock is being termed out.

One of my friends is considering a run for the Assembly seat on the Republican side. While I hope he wins, his chances are very, very, very bad.

Yesterday UC Berkeley released a survey of its economic impact on Berkeley and the surrounding area.

From an ABC 7 KGO TV report:

The university calculates it infuses close to three-quarters of a billion dollars a year into the local economy.

$31 million is spent in Berkeley on goods and services.
$314 million in salaries are paid to Berkeley residents.
$117 million is allocated to capital projects, and $282 million in student spending.

They have a video if you want to see what Berkeley looks like on TV. There is also an interview with a Berkeley resident who said there were more important things than money, like values. Unfortunately, the report does not uncover what Berkeley values the University is corrupting.

From the Berkeley Newscenter:

As the largest employer in the city of Berkeley, as well as in the East Bay counties of Alameda and Contra Costa, the campus employs more people than the next nine largest employers in the city combined, providing jobs to 24,700 staff, including 9,700 students who work on campus.

I wish I could work out practical teleportation in one of my Physics classes. I would teleport the entire University to a different city. Then as the City of Berkeley fades into obscurity and loses the hundreds of millions of dollars dumped into its economy it can realize the error of its ways. Until that happens, I have to live here to attend the best public university in the country.