Since Berkeley, California has it's own foreign policy, let's put measures on the ballots in other states to expel the People's Republic from the US! Fair's fair.
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – The municipal council in the liberal California city of Berkeley plans to give voters a say on a measure calling for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, the mayor said on Wednesday.
A number of local governments across the United States have pressed resolutions urging impeachment, but the Berkeley city council's goal is to be the first to put the issue directly to voters, Mayor Tom Bates said in an interview.
"This is basically giving the people a chance to talk, to join the debate," Bates said. "The issues go way beyond impeaching the president. They go to safeguarding the Constitution. This administration has run roughshod over the Constitution."
Cheered on by globe-trotting Iraq war protester Cindy Sheehan, who has moved to Berkeley, the council voted unanimously Tuesday night to have the city attorney review the measure to place it on the November ballot.
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Berkeley resident Albert Sukoff said he was not surprised by the council's decision.
"I think they overextend themselves and get into things that aren't their business," said Sukoff. "Berkeley has always had a foreign policy, the national one notwithstanding."
Frankly, Berkeley would be better off attending it's own problems instead of pushing empty gestures into the ballot. I've always thought all these gesture referendums were about the silliest waste of time and effort possible. But "activists" love doing stuff like this because it generates media attention. I think they miss the point that it doesn't necessarily mean that they are getting favorable attention.
Amen! I vote in favor of their removal.
The only thing I can say in Berkeley’s defense is they are practicing something woefully lacking in this nation’s society: civics. Too bad they are doing so in an entirely wrong manner. I have actually been considering trying to revive civics through the blogosphere…sort of a carnival of civics. I expect a large number of bloggers would be willing to climb aboard, but I’ve yet to contact anyone or make any suggestions as to a format, etc.
I lived in Berkeley in the late 70′s. They’re all nuts. Never live in the vicinity of a University of California campus, and I’m an alumni. Avoid them like the plague. Don’t even visit, it’s not worth all the heartburn. (Merced might still be sane, I don’t know, I haven’t been there since UC started building a new campus.) Anywhere else in the Golden State is usually pretty much OK, and some of the less populated locals are superb, close to the ocean is always a big plus. There is no life East of Lincoln Blvd.
Graduated from Berkeley High School in 1975 myself. Ah, the smell of tear gas in the air… it was a difficult time for me. Even though I was young, I knew I was hearing only one side of the Vietnam War from my teachers and peers at Berkeley High. Two years ago, I took one of my daughters to the Vietnam Memorial in Angel Fire, New Mexico. She was in high school at the time and it was a real eye-opener for her. She said to me afterward, “Wow, I didn’t know this side of it.”
After high school I stayed in the Bay Area 27 years but stopped going into Berkeley in 1982. The incident that sealed the Berkeley boycott for me occurred in a movie theater on University Avenue. There was a scene in the movie where a woman was struck in the face by her husband. A woman in the audience stood up and shouted “Leave her alone!” Civics indeed.
Yes, I think Ms. Sheehan has found a good home.
Obviously the woman had a really strong grip on reality…..
A better home for Ms. Sheehan would be Iran.