U.S. Senator Wants to Revoke Funding From City of Berkeley, Calif., for Vote to

[Soldier4Christ]

U.S. Senator Wants to Revoke Funding From City of Berkeley, Calif., for Vote to Boot Marines

U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., says the City of Berkeley, Calif., no longer deserves federal money.

DeMint was angered after learning that the Berkeley City Council voted this week to tell the U.S. Marine Corps to remove its recruiting station from the city's downtown.

"This is a slap in the face to all brave service men and women and their families," DeMint said in a prepared statement. "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."

"If the city can’t show respect for the Marines that have fought, bled and died for their freedom, Berkeley should not be receiving special taxpayer-funded handouts," he added.

In the meantime, a senior Marine official tells FOX News that the Marine office in Berkeley isn't going anywhere.

"We understand things are different there, but some people just don't get it. This is a part of the military machine that gives them the right to do what they do, but what they are doing is extreme," the official said.

DeMint said he will draft legislation to rescind any earmarks dedicated for the City of Berkeley in the recently passed appropriations bill — which his office tallied to value about $2.1 million. He said that any money taken back would be transferred to the Marines.

DeMint's office provided a preliminary list of items that would be subject to his proposal:

— $975,000 for the University of California at Berkeley, for the Matsui Center for Politics and Public Service, which may include establishing an endowment, and for cataloguing the papers of Congressman Robert Matsui.

— $750,000 for the Berkeley/Albana ferry service.

— $243,000 for the Chez Panisse Foundation, for a school lunch initiative to integrate lessons about wellness, sustainability and nutrition into the academic curriculum.

— $94,000 for a Berkeley public safety interoperability program.

— $87,000 for the Berkeley Unified School District, nutrition education program.

The Marine official, speaking with FOX News on Friday, said Marine Commandant Gen. James Conway scoffed at the news, but there are no plans for to protest the City Council's decisions. There are definitely no plans to move the recruiting station either.

"To actually put something into law that encourages the disruption of a federal office is ridiculous. They are not going to kick a federal office out of its rightful place there, and this is not going to discourage those young patriots who want to be Marines," the official said.

The Berkeley City Council this week 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," according to The Associated Press.

The council also voted to explore whether a city anti-discrimination law applies to the Marines, with a focus on the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy that prevents open homosexuality in the military.

The council also voted to give the antiwar group Code Pink a parking space in front of the recruiting office once a week for six months, as well as a protest permit.

The Marine recruiting office in Berkeley has been open for about one year, but has been the subject of recent protests by Code Pink members.

[Soldier4Christ]

Another democratic anti-American city government. It sounds to me like the are trying to secede from the U.S. and as such they don't deserve any federal or state funds that they have been getting.

[HisDaughter]

"This is a slap in the face to all brave service men and women and their families," DeMint said in a prepared statement. "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."

I think I'm in love. 

[Soldier4Christ]

DeMint for president?

[HisDaughter]

DeMint for president?

Suits me.  I just want someone in there that is going to do more than just give lip service.  I want the job done and the only way to do it is to oust everyone in there right now.  I did like the comment by Romney, something to the effect; that you can't just put the same folks back in Washington only to sit in different seats!

[Soldier4Christ]

Unfortunately putting Romney in there would be just the same.

[Soldier4Christ]

An email forwarded from Senator Jim DeMint (modified to remove links that violate forum rules):

Dear Fellow Conservative,

The City Council of Berkeley last week voted to ask the U.S. Marine Corps to vacate their recruiting office in town, and that if they chose to stay they did so as "uninvited and unwelcome intruders." Berkeley also voted to give the radical liberal group Code Pink a parking space to protest the Marine Corps and urged them to "impede, passively or actively" the work of Marine Corps recruiters.

During debate of the resolution, one council member called the Marines "the President's own gangsters" and "trained killers." Another said the Marines had given the country "horrible karma" and said they had a history of "death and destruction." In a document drafted to support the resolution against the Marines, the council stated: "Military recruiters are sales people known to lie to and seduce minors and young adults into contracting themselves into military service with false promises regarding jobs, job training, education and other benefits."

I do not believe a city that has turned its back on our country's finest deserves $2 million worth of pork-barrel projects. This week I introduced the Semper Fi Act of 2008. The bill would rescind over $2 million in hidden earmarks for Berkeley, California in the 2008 Omnibus Appropriations bill, and transfer the funds to the Marine Corps But I need your help.

I'm currently working with MoveAmericaFoward.org to petition members of Congress to support the Semper Fi Act of 2008. Here are five ways you can help:

    * Sign the petition at MoveAmericaForward.org
    * Tell five people to tell five people about the situation in Berkeley, CA
    * Call the Berkeley County Council Members and tell them to support the troops

Meanwhile, the Marines will continue to bring peace, security, and freedom to the citizens of Berkeley, whether they like it or not. There is a well known slogan outside the Marine Air Base in Beaufort, SC warning passersby of the jets' loud noises. The slogan says, "The noise you hear is the sound of freedom."

The irony is the Marines are glad to do it and that is why most Americans are so proud of them. The Marines risk so much fighting for us, now it's time us to fight for them.

Sincerely,

Senator Jim DeMint

P.S. We can strengthen America. Change begins with you, so please get involved today and sign the petition.

[Brother Jerry]

Think it would be too late to get a Huckabee/DeMint ticket going?

[Soldier4Christ]

From what I've seen of DeMint's stance on religion, abortion, gay marriage and now this I think that would be an excellent idea.

[curious]

It's about TIME someone think about doing that to Berkeley !!!



                                   Yours in Yeshua,
                                   Curious

[Soldier4Christ]

Mayor kicks Marines out of Toledo
Frighten people: 'He did not want them practicing and drilling in a highly visible area'

1-24th Marines were scheduled for weekend urban warfare training in downtown Toledo, when Carty gave them the boot

Mayor Carty Finkbeiner on Friday ordered some 200 members of Company A, 1st Battalion, 24th Marines from Grand Rapids, Michigan, out of Toledo just before the unit was supposed to start a weekend of urban warfare training downtown.

The mayor’s spokesperson, Brian Schwartz said, “the mayor asked them to leave because they frighten people. He did not want them practicing and drilling in a highly visible area."

Toledo police said they knew about the training and had approved the unit’s use of the Madison Building and the Promenade Park area. The training was scheduled to start Friday afternoon and last until Sunday. Police said the unit’s presence would have a minimal impact on the city. Police issued a press release earlier in the week saying the Marines would be wearing green camouflage uniforms, operate military vehicles, carry rifles, perform foot patrols,and fire blank ammunition during the exercise.

Schwartz said there was a breakdown in communication between police and the Finkbeiner administration that led to the mayor’s action.

“The Marines drilled here three times during the Ford administration and once under the Finkbeiner administration. After the last visit, the mayor told then police chief Jack Smith, that he did not want the marines back. Smith failed to inform the current police administration of the mayor’s feelings,” Schwartz said.

NBC24 spoke to Jack Smith who recalled that after the Marines last visit, he and the mayor had a heated exchange about  the training.

“He told me he did not want them, as he put it, 'playing war in Toledo,'" Smith recalled. "I told him, as a former Marine, that  if one young Marine’s life is saved because of training he or she received in Toledo, Ohio, then it was worth the inconvenience.”

Smith said if the mayor objected, then he should have been the one to convey those feelings to police. Smith took his run-in with the mayor as an objection to that last visit and not future training in Toledo. As a result, the Toledo police went ahead, granting approval to the 1-24th Marines to conduct the routine exercise. The police notified members of the Finkbeiner administration who were not aware that the mayor objected to units training in Toledo.

When the mayor found out, he sent a member of his staff to tell Marines they could not conduct urban operations in Toledo. The unit was notified about 3:30 p.m. after an advance team arrived in Toledo.   Five buses carrying some 200 Marines traveled four hours from Grand Rapids, only to find out the training had been shot down.

The unit briefly stopped at a another 1-24th Marine base in Perrysburg Township, then returned back to Grand Rapids where training was expected to be held this weekend. A spokesperson for the Marines said they were disappointed by the mayor’s decision especially after the city had been so helpful in the past.

Finkbeiner held a news conference Saturday night to address the growing controversy. Finkbeiner says bad planning and communication breakdowns led to his decision to bar a Marine Corps unit from training in downtown Toledo. Finkbeiner spent much of the twenty minute news conference explaining what he didn't know, and when he didn't know it.

“I don't know when we were first asked,” he says, “were we asked Tuesday or Wednesday of this week?”

Finkbeiner says regardless of when the Marines made their request to train downtown, it wasn’t a good idea. He cited public safety as the main reason the unit, from Grand Rapids, Michigan, couldn't train downtown.

“You want to talk about a potential for panic?” Finkbeiner asked, “ten to fourteen thousand people hearing rapid gunfire going off as they're going out of offices at four thirty, quarter to five in the afternoon?”

He says the Marines' plan wasn't well thought-out, but he offered to have them train at Jones Jr. High School or the Northtown Mall.

“I would have been happy to point out a number of potential sites in our city that would accommodate the same purpose,” he says.

In published reports, the Marines say they were not aware of such an offer. Finkbeiner says his office will investigate where the communication breakdown happened. The mayor wouldn't say whether he would allow the unit to plan any more training maneuvers downtown.

He says abandoned buildings like Jones Jr. High or the mall would have to suffice, if they want to train in Toledo. Otherwise, he suggests they take a cue from Hollywood, and build their own training campus where they can conduct their exercises away from the general public.

[Shammu]

In Berkeley, CA they are so pro gay that they don't want the recruiters there because of the military "Don't ask don't tell" policy.

I think this is a bad trend getting started. There are too many liberals in powerful places. These towns should have to get their own military force in place. Why should they be protected by the very servicemen and women they are kicking out of their towns??

Both of these towns should be a shamed of themselves.

[Soldier4Christ]

Not only is Berkeley pro-gay but even more so than that they are anti-war. They are convinced that there is no good reason to go to war nor to defend ourselves with any sort of force. They think that they can reason their way around any enemy. Actually what they are is like sheep that just lays down and lets the wolf overcome them while all their bleating does nothing to even slow the wolf down. In fact their bleating encourages the wolf to be more persistent.

[Brother Jerry]

what they are is like sheep that just lays down and lets the wolf overcome them while all their bleating does nothing to even slow the wolf down. In fact their bleating encourages the wolf to be more persistent.

We all need our sacrificial lambs to let the rest of the heard get away

[Soldier4Christ]

We all need our sacrificial lambs to let the rest of the heard get away

Yeah, maybe we need to move them and their peace signs out to the front lines so our Soldiers can back off from there. It might save the lives of a few Soldiers?

Naw, they would just be in the way and get more of our Soldiers killed that were trying to save them.