DeMint: Berkeley No Longer Deserves Federal Money
Written by Sam on February 2nd, 2008DeMint 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.
I fully agree, of course, neither Berkeley or any other city in this country should be receiving taxpayer-funded handouts in the first place, but the People’s Republic of Berkeley would be a great place to start stripping from.
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.
Sounds like a good arrangement to me. Berkeley can’t throw out the recruiting station anyway because it’s a Federal office. They are just grandstanding because the city is full of attention starved misfits from society. That being the case, I can’t imagine there are too many residents actually signing up for the military anyhow, but that’s not the point. Here is the list of government waste they are slated to receive:
— $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.
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“…full of attention starved misfits from society…”
Attention-starved misfits who will get better jobs, earn more money, and live happier lives than you could ever hope to live.
I’m not sure it would be possible to make your jealousy and resentful rage towards more educated and intelligent people more overt than this post — people who attain things that, no matter how hard you work, the ceiling of your intelligence will never allow you to aspire to.
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Once again, Publius brings out the “I’m smarter than you!” card because he can’t have a reasonable debate. Anybody surprised?
But what do I know, I’m just full of resentful rage towards the people of Berkeley. Riiiiight.
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This is not a reasonable topic, so there is nothing to reasonably debate!
Sorry if my post was over the line, but when you insult a whole town full of people that includes my wife, I have a right to be mildly miffed. Hitler used to expurgate entire towns, too.
I’ll also point out that I have never once commented on anyone’s intelligence on this blog without having had someone else insult me (or my wife, in this case) first.
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Clearly there is a difference between liberals and conservatives, given that we see this as a reasonable topic and you don’t. That’s all there’s really is to say about that.
Great, we get the GOP=Hitler meme again, that never gets old!
Quit crying. For someone who dishes it out you sure can’t take it back.
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the GOP again tries to make something out of nothing. the town isn’t attacking the troops, they are not in favor of some of the tactics used by the Marine Corps. Why do republicans hate poor people so much? why do you always plant these booths near inner cities and by colleges where there are poorer or working class students.
have you guys found Osama yet?
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Roger - so evacuating the Marines stating that they are “uninvited and unwelcome intrudesrs” because of a few pinkos sound reasonable? huh? What tactics? You seem to mean that the GOP planted code pink by getting them to stage this? so should all marine recruits be planted next to swank communities?
What am I missing here?
Interesting how you played the “class card” at the end in which income levels have nothing to do with this incident.
Liberals comments like this don’t make sense at all. Period!
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I find the class argument to be senseless since Berkeley is not an area striken by poverty to say the least. I am kind of surprised the military would even try to waste money recruiting in the Berkeley area. I doubt few people are interested in joining the military in the city so if the officials in the city had half a brain they would not be engaging in ideological crusades, but let the free market deal with the recruiting center.
Both sides are pandering to fringes and it makes moderates like me just look at both sides and think they are both out of control and out of touch.
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Ryan - “I doubt few people are interested in joining the military in the city so if the officials in the city had half a brain they would not be engaging in ideological crusades, but let the free market deal with the recruiting center.”
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Do you see the irony in what you just said? Berkeley is the probably the biggest hotbed of Communism in this country. What makes you think they would acknowledge the success of the free market?
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I know Sam. The commies in Berkeley cannot figure out the non-confrontational way of dealing with this situation. They could ease the recruiters out through the free market. Instead they are upholding Marxist doctrine by wanting conflict.
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Sam and Ryan, you guys sound like a lunch counter conversation at Woolworth from 1952. Commies and Marxists? So people who voice their opinions and don’t bend over to your views are enemies of the state? That is why the GOP has failed over and over. What’s next, will you have negroes use separate bathrooms again?
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Dude, the people of Berkeley are the ones making Marines “enemy of the state,” get a grip. The projection is strong in this one!
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Roger… I love how you now brought up the topic of race. Typical of liberal to bring up ideas like class, race, gender, etc… as seen in the Democratic presidential primary. I did not bring up the issue of Marxist thought first, but you did when you talked about class. I think its plausable to argue that you are the closet racist or classist seeing you bring those topics up.
Actually in Berkeley they still talk about Marxist. The rest of the world has given up on it except Berkeley probably.
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I hate to say it, but every time I come back to my GOP roots hoping to find some intelligence, I read posts like these from Ryan and Sam and really feel like these guys are the epitome of stupidity in the Republican party and exactly why its right for the country to be moving towards the center.
Everyone who disagrees is a commie? Or disagrees with Ryan or Bush is a commie? Did you get past the fifth grade?
Can I remind you please that the USA is a Democracy and your comments Ryan sound much more like you are a closet supporter of totalitarianism (thats a commie-type government Ryan) than any Democrat I’ve heard. You point the finger and yet you are the one who resembles USSR type communism the most. If you are really that worried about communism, then can you tell me why most GOP support business with China?
At least Ronald Reagan had major intelligence when he commented on issues 25 years ago, and Reagan disagreed a lot with other GOP people on many issues. Its Ok to disagree Ryan, its not going to send me to hell, and no, I’m not a commie, I’m a business owner.
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Ah, liberal entitlements! How much like the prgrams of Hitler. Take away federal funding from a school that calls the federal troops intruders. Those same intruders that guarantee their right to complain against them. Their rights were not infringed, only their pocketbooks. So why didn’t they maintain their protestations? Seems that their principles aren’t as important as the bottom line.
P.S. The United States is not a democracy, it is a democratic republic.
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i’ll go ahead and say it: republicans, by their policies, actions and words, are definitely of inferior intelligence
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Wow, what a groundbreaking statement!
Looks like Publius has company in his nonsensical Republicans-are-stupid-I’m-so-much-smarter-than-you club.
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Even if there were a slim amount of people that wanted to join the Marines in Berkeley, it is not the community’s involvement that should effect their decision, it is a personal one. In no way should Berkeley be allowed to influence young Americans that want to join the Marines and defend our country, to not join and go back to school and just take their freedom that Marines provide for them.