Friday, February 01, 2008
Not me!
More on that Berkeley-defunding-thingie:
In an effort to retain their funding, the campus plans to contact DeMint and inform him that the city and the campus are separate institutions, as well as tell him about the campus's ROTC program, said UC Berkeley spokesperson Marie Felde.
"We are hopeful that when he has the facts he will rethink his position," she said. Hey, it wasn't us. It's them, over there! Take their funding! We love the military!
Councilmember Gordon Wozniak, who voted against the resolutions, said he was unhappy with DeMint's decision.
"These are good projects, they should be judged on their merit and not whether you agree with Berkeley politics or not," he said. It's a tough position to hold, though, for the city of Berkeley, when folks say things like this:
Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates, who voted for the resolutions against the center, said that the council supports the troops, but said that they hope to see the war end as soon as possible.
"The recruiting center is a symbol for the war and it provides (protestors) a convenient place to express their opposition against a war that they believe is illegal and immoral," Bates said. "I think it was unfortunate that the Marines chose to place a recruiting center in Berkeley. It's like poking us with a stick." If the city is going to punish the recruiting center based on a national policy, they're not really able to complain that city projects shouldn't be punished for city policy. Obviously, this isn't Wozniak's fault, but he's being undercut pretty badly by his colleagues.
As I said before, nothing is going to come out of this but positive publicity for the Republican party, but that may be more painful for city residents than losing the money would've been.
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