College Republicans in California are in a unique position to deliver a meaningful blow to special interests and hypocrites everywhere by praising Governor Schwarzenegger for his fiscal responsibility, even though his intended actions come at our own personal cost. The governor’s proposed budget for 2008-2009 includes an across-the-board 10% cut in spending. This would naturally include a roughly $1 billion cut to higher education.

Students who marched on Sacramento yesterday demanded that higher education be given special treatment over all other state expenditures. I would like to ask protesting students from where they think the extra funds should be extracted. Should the money come from a reduction in the quality or number of teachers for primary education? Perhaps we could stop paying our social workers, or rescind programs aimed at protecting the environment. The causes behind these expenditures have their own special interest groups that will be feeling just as disenfranchised as students once the cuts take effect. To serve all of the special interests would require spending money that simply does not exist unless we want to leave massive debt for future generations of Californians.

As a college student, I regret the real effects that budget-cuts to this University will have on me and my peers. Still, I recognize that subsidized education is a privilege and not a right; it is only available to me at the cost of others. I urge all campus Republicans, along with any other champions of reason, to remind other students that these cuts are the result of fiscal responsibility, not a de-emphasis of the importance of higher education.

Wednesday was the fifth anniversary of the start of the Iraq war. The normal protesters were out to celebrate, with the usual yelling, lewd gestures, and even trying to burn our flags. If they were advocating for peace, they could have started by pacifying themselves.

I missed seeing the fun myself, as today also happened to be the day of my cosmology and high energy astrophysics midterm, the last Physics midterm of my undergraduate education. Luckily, the Patriot’s own News Editor Derek Yee was in attendance as well as Arnaud-Victor Monteux. I am pleased to present Derek’s first hand account of what happened in Berkeley and San Francisco.

Earlier today, the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq, anti-war protesters gathered from across the Bay Area. As they converged on the Marine Recruiting Center on Shattuck, the Berkeley College Republicans took the opportunity to counter-protest. Code Pink and the World Can’t Wait were out in full force. “Soul,” of Berkeley Liberation Radio, a faithful protester, sported a cap with a medical marijuana pin. Though short in stature, she brandished the megaphone and belted out some of Code Pink’s anti-war ditties.

While I was holding an American flag, an elderly woman stuck out her tongue and her middle finger at me. I told her not to “disrespect our country.” She said that she was not American, but of the “universe.” Another protester, claiming to be a Native American, proceeded to call me a racist, and told me to get the f— out of the country.

Later in the afternoon, BCR joined forces with Leigh Wolf and the SFSU’s CRs at the Civic Center protest in front of San Francisco’s City Hall. Three BCR members walked through the center of the protest bearing American flags. One of the peace activists greeted us by attempting to set our flags on fire, and even tried to use her lighter on my friend’s clothing.

The anti-war activists were so dangerous the police asked us to move across the street to a secure place.

On this, the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war, may God’s comfort be with the families of those who have been killed in the conflict. May God’s strength gird those who are fighting for freedom in Iraq. May God Bless America.

Pictures courtesy of Arnaud-Victor Monteux, the Frenchman who loves American more then many Americans.

Joyous news on the latest tree sitter. After a rally and dialogue today “Fresh,” the tree name of the person staying in the tree by Wheeler Hall, finally came down. He cited the successful dialogue among students that occurred on Friday as a reason for him to end the tree sit. The Daily Cal has an article with more details.

I was not around when “Fresh” finally came down, but I was around for the rally and commotion by the tree around noon. A group organized through Facebook, “Students against Hippies in Trees,” circulated papers and online messages encouraging students to show up on Friday and yell their feelings of disgust and disagreement at tree sitter “Fresh.”

When I walked toward the tree around noon, there was a large crowd gathered. One of the supporters of the tree sitter, who I have seen at the trees by the stadium and even at campus events, was selling stones to stone people.

A Conservation with Pro-tree People
As I circled the police perimeter, a gentleman with a hefty beard and two Whole Foods bags asked me what I thought about the tree-sitter. I explained there was no point to him being in the tree. While the tee-sitters by the stadium were protesting the constriction of a gym, this person had no reason to be in the tree. The gentleman said “Fresh” was there to advocate democratizing the Regents, the body which sets the policy of the University of California. He went on to explain how the Regents got their jobs for political favors they did for the governor. Another gentleman, this time an older one, joined in and said how the Regents should be picked by a panel of faculty, students, citizens, and a farmer. I retorted by saying the Regents are appointed by the governor, who is elected by the people of the state.

This illustrates the problem with most protests in Berkeley. Many people show up with their own pet issues to protest. It is hard to figure out the main reason why “Fresh” went into the tree from simply walking by. There were signs, chalking, and small displays decrying the UC’s involvement with nuclear weapons, the $500 million BP deal, the construction of the gym by Memorial Stadium, the housing of Native American remains, democratizing the Regents, and other issues.

One group of people sat down in a circle and started to dialogue about issues, like corporate contracts with the University. Another group of people colassed around a couple of people who were having a heated argument. The anti-tree sitter communicated that many people on campus were against the tree-sitter and wanted him to come down and stop making Berkeley a laughing stock.

I should comment, all the people I talk to, except for the few who spent all their time at the foot of trees with people living in them, think the tree-sitters are stupid and need to come down. However, almost all the people I talk to are Republicans and Rally Committee members.

A tree sitter supporter held up a sign asking, “Does your Grandmother know you are at a hate rally?” The vocal anti-tree sitter responded by asking the person if his Grandmother knew he had no job, sat around all day by a tree, and was a failure.

I am glad the person is out of the tree. All we have to do now is get the rest of the hippies out of all the other trees.

I was just at a rally on Sproul to eliminate the SAT. The rally claimed the SAT was biased and a tool of discrimination to keep low income people and minorities out of college. Organized by BAMN, By Any Means Necessary, it was a standard rally of theirs. All of the usual BAMN suspects were there, like Ronald Cruz who has been around as long as anyone can remember and Yvette Felarca, who graduated two years ago after a ridiculously long time here.

In the words of Ronald Cruz, standardized tests are “degrading and anti-human.” He said they do not measure his leadership, his Filipino heritage, or the struggles he faces as a gay man. What Cruz should know is the SAT does not measure those things for anyone who takes it. No one is awarded an advantage or disadvantage for those factors only how well they can do on the test.

There are two things that mystify me. If BAMN really wants high school students to do well and get into college, why do they hold rallies on a college campus in the middle of the day and encourage high school students to come? Going to a rally in the middle of a school day will not help any student learn any of the subjects necessary to do well in school.

Secondly, why were they chanting in Spanish? With the exception of language classes, all classes at this University are in English. If they want students to get into college and be successful they should be encouraging and using the English language. Yelling “Yes we can” in Spanish is pointless.

BAMN does not have a history of doing what is helpful to anyone but itself. If anyone wants an example of how far BAMN has gone to get what they want, check out what happened three years ago when they took the ASUC to court.

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.

This exciting news from the San Jose Mercury News:

“The numbers of tree-sitters having dwindled to a hard-core few, we had an opportunity to address some safety and sanitary concerns with minimal risk to people,” Mogulof said. Only about three protesters were in the trees when police arrived shortly before 7 a.m.
Mogulof said the arborist also cut the traverse lines - ropes strung between trees that tree-sitters used to move from tree to tree. At least two people have fallen from the lines and been injured since the sit-in began.

The university over the last few months has put up two chain-link fences to prevent people from going in and out of the tree grove but tree sitters have set up an elaborate rope and pulley system to get food, water and other supplies into the grove. Some of those ropes were also taken down.

Items removed and tossed to the ground also included rain tarps and other gear.

Doug Buckwald, who has been involved with the tree sit since it started, said two men climbed into an oak tree and a redwood tree and tossed food, water and other supplies used by tree sitters onto the ground. The tree sitters yelled “extraction, extraction” as the goods fell to the ground at least 40 feet below, Buckwald said.

I am glad the University is taking measures to end the tree sit. Even if no one was pulled out of the trees, every little bit of their stuff that is removed is a step in the right direction.

I hope the hippies will soon leave the trees and this embarrassment will be over.

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.

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…)

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.

As I was walking home from a lab on Brownian motion, I came upon a picket line. At the International House about two dozen people were protesting.

The flier listed the following grievances:

1) Dining workers having their earned retirement credits taken away
2) Custodians being prohibited from speaking Spanish over work radios
3) A worker receiving a veiled threat regarding workers’ immigration status
4) Custodians unfairly investigated for no good reason
5) Custodians denied the right to meet as a Union with management
6) Daily disrespect and inequality

They are asking people to contact I-House Director Martin Brennan. The flier also refers interested parties to call AFSCME Local 3299 for more information.

I don’t know anything else about the situation or conditions that led to the demonstration. Any enlightenment people can impart would be appreciated.

This morning The Oakland Tribune reported a few students were arrested, cited, and released for trespassing at the oak grove by the stadium. From the Tribune:

The 10-month-old oak grove protest at Memorial Stadium briefly intensified Friday as more than 30 students scaled a fence surrounding the grove, and 21 of them were ultimately arrested for trespassing.

This is the first time I have heard about mass citations of students around the oak situation. Earlier it looked like the effort was primarily non-student community members in isolated incidents.

The scene is briefly described:

As a flood of campus police officers responded to the scene, the students danced and held hands.

There is also a quote in support of the oaks:

“For us, it is a sacred place,” said Matthew Taylor, a 33-year-old undergraduate. “We’re willing to be arrested for whatwe [sic] believe in.”

I did a search on Facebook and found a profile for a Matthew Taylor who is 33 and wants to save the oaks. However, the person in the profile is listed as an alum.

I hope next time the police will arrest everyone who is trespassing, especially the people living in the trees.

Today a judge in Alameda County Superior Court ruled the hippies could continue their nine month occupation of the oak trees near Memorial Stadium. The University wanted them removed because of health and safety issues. From the San Francisco Chronicle:

The university asked for the court order Monday when police found several propane tanks in the tree houses. There have also been an increasing number of excrement and urine spills from the tree-sitters’ buckets, UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof said.

If they want to be more in tune with nature, instead of using propane tanks the hippies could use more earthy ways of staying warm and cooking. They should make wood fires.

“We have a long tradition of honoring and protecting free speech on this campus, but we also have to protect the safety of the students, community and the people in the trees,” said Mogulof. “This is becoming a small village, and we’re seeing all the same sanitation and safety issues you see in any small village.”

While it is funny the oaks and associated tree people are now a “small village,” it is also sad. When did it become permissible to trespass and occupy someone else’s property for nine months?

A Solution

If we are going to revert to an older village based system, maybe more people should see and experience this way of life. The hippies want the fence removed so maybe they should get their wish. With the barrier separating the people suddenly gone, things will proceed very quickly. When tens of thousands of football fans are around the stadium on Saturday they can directly interact with the tree people. They can learn about each other’s way of life and values. It would be a great opportunity to experience the differences between the cultures of tree-sitting and football. The hippies will sing combiya and the football fans will chant the classic “Give um the Axe.” However the two sides resolve their differences, it will be without the lawyers and courthouses the modern world has forced upon their natural ways. Isn’t that what everyone wants? A solution where both sides can express their feelings face to face in a natural setting.

Until this dream becomes a reality, the occupation of the oaks by hippie tree-sitters will continue.