Tech

Russia (and Berkeley) want to honor Wikileaks. I don't.

This whole Berkeley/Russia/Wikileaks thing came to my attention last week, when I was asked to appear on Russian state television.

Written by David Gewirtz, Senior Contributing Editor Dec. 13, 2010 at 11:10 p.m. PT

My mom always used to tell me that when one door closes, another opens. In this case, I'm pretty sure the door that represents my chances for being elected to the Berkeley City Council is closing, so we'll have to see what opens up.

See, here's the thing. The Berkeley City Council, as a body, is nuts. Always has been. Probably always will be. I can say this both because I used to go to grad school and work in Berkeley, and because their actions support the label.

The City of Berkeley thinks it's a sovereign nation.

It's not, of course, but that's never stopped Berkeley.

In 2009, Berkeley agreed to the United Nation's international human rights treaties, despite the fact that the UN doesn't recognize Berkeley as, well, anything. On the same night, Berkeley also agreed to raise parking fees, but they tend to do that pretty much all the time.

In the late 1980s, the Berkeley City Council declared Berkeley a nuclear free zone (despite the fact that one of the nation's most powerful physics laboratories is based in Berkeley). Berkeley also banned its city-owned vehicles from refilling at most of the city's own gas stations (apparently, the city council didn't like the oil companies).

The Berkeley City Council also has a history of supporting illegal activities aimed against the United States. In 2003, the Berkeley City Council unanimously passed a resolution in support of the Cuban Five -- five Cuban nationals convicted of espionage activities against the United States.

Perhaps most egregious and offensive of all was the Berkeley City Council's action in 2008, declaring the United States Marine recruiting station persona non grata in the City of Berkeley and stating that it considered any Marines in the city "unwanted intruders." Seriously.

All this would lead you to believe that, wrong-headed as they may be, the Berkeley City Council wants to be all sugar and spice and everything nice. You might believe they stand up for human rights, and their hearts are in the right place. But you'd be wrong.

They're all for meddling in international issues, but when it comes to their own residents, they're actually pretty heartless.

According to the Bay View Newspaper, "On July 15, 2009 the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty listed Berkeley as the 10th meanest city across the nation for the homeless to reside in."

Even as far back as 1998, the Berkeley City Council had it in for its residents. In an attempt to fight public nudity (a real problem), "On Tuesday, June 9, 1998, the Berkeley City Council will consider eliminating the right to trial by jury and a repeal of the city's obligation to respect constitutional rights."

So, the Berkeley City Council hates Marines, supports espionage against the United States, thinks it's its own nation state, doesn't like gas stations, hates its own homeless, and tried to repeal constitutional rights.

In this climate, is it any wonder that the Berkeley City Council is trying to pass a resolution to honor alleged Wikileaks traitor Bradley Manning as a hero?

Is it any wonder that Russian state television loves this idea?

Russian President Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev is apparently having a ball with the Wikileaks controversy and decided to stick his own two cents into the discussion. Last week, he suggested that Wikileaks' Julian Assange be honored with a Nobel Peace Prize.

Of course, if Assange had leaked documents of concern to the Russian Federation, Medvedev would have probably simply tried to "disappear" the sucker, but since Assange has become America's problem, Crazy Ivan is laughing himself silly.

This whole Berkeley/Russia/Wikileaks thing came to my attention last week, when I was asked to appear on Russian state television, Russia Today, to debate a very nice but very delusional man from Berkeley about the whole Wikileaks/Manning thing.

I was curious, so I agreed to go on the air.

What fascinated and disturbed me was just how large the anti-American television operation is that Russia operates from within the United States. They have a fully-working television studio in Washington, along with satellite studios in various major cities.

Even more disturbing, Russia Today has Americans, former network news anchors, anchoring the English-language programs being broadcast in over 100 countries spread over five continents via cable, satellite, and online streaming free from the RT website -- and even YouTube.

In any case, you can watch me defend America's position in the YouTube clip at the top of this article. You can also watch Berkeley's Courage to Resist Project Director Jeff Paterson side with Medvedev in his desire to nominate the traitor Manning as a hero in Berkeley's eyes.

Ah, Berkeley. No American city is more conflicted.

It receives a tremendous amount of money from the U.S. government for all the University of California research resources, a metric ton of tax dollars from American citizens, and still, Berkeley so very much wants to bite the hand that feeds it.

I do miss Berkeley for the food. But I don't miss the twisted, nasty, oppressive, fake-liberalism-bordering-on-commie-worship attitude that has consistently come out of the city's governing wackjobs for all these many years.

Oh, well. I guess I'll never sit on the Berkeley City Council. That sits just fine with me.

Russia (and Berkeley) want to honor Wikileaks. I don't.

Related

7 reasons I use Copilot instead of ChatGPT

Facebook's Meta AI is lying when it says you can disable it - but here's what you can do

The work laptop I recommend to most people is not made by Apple or Lenovo