According to the Los Angeles Times, “After Backlash, Berkeley Welcomes Marines ^[1],” and according to the Associated Press, “Berkeley Eases Anti-Marines Stance ^[2].” Nothing could be further from the truth. The San Jose Mercury News got it right: “Berkeley Council Becomes Home to Intolerance ^[3].” In order to arrive at their misleading headlines, here are just some of ^[4] the facts ^[5] the AP and LAT left out of their stories:

1. The Berkeley City Council passed a resolution applauding residents and organizations that “volunteer to impede, passively or actively, by nonviolent means, the work of any military recruiting office located in the City of Berkeley.”
2. The official council vote not to apologize to Marines was loudly applauded by Code Pink activists at the meeting.
3. Anti-war protesters burned an American flag outside the city council meeting.
4. The council changed none of its actual anti-Marine policies, including free parking for Code Pink in front of the Marine recruiting station.

Berkeley has the First Amendment right to pass all the resolutions it wants, but the city council does not have a right to federally funded gourmet lunches. Enter Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and his bill stripping Berkeley of more than $2 million in earmarks ^[6], including $243,000 for gourmet French restaurant Chez Panisse ^[7] to create gourmet lunches for the Berkeley Unified School District. Pro-pork legislators are so scared of DeMint’s bill they have placed a secret hold on it ^[8] in the Senate.

The fight over Berkeley’s fight to preserve its earmarks comes at a time when the pork-barrel spending issue is really starting to resonate. There are heroes and villains in both parties on the issue.

The Washington Post ^[9] reports that John McCain has refrained from all pork-barrel spending while Hillary Clinton won $340 million for her home state and Barack Obama brought home $91 million in federal tax payer dollars.

In the House, the Los Angeles Times ^[10] reports that despite a federal investigation, Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.) was among the top lawmakers securing money for special projects in this year’s spending bills. Meanwhile, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) recently announced that he would request no earmarks this year and called the process “out of control.” Unfortunately, the majority leadership in the House does not agree with Waxman and “have sent tens of millions of dollars to freshman lawmakers’ districts in hope of protecting the party’s new found majority come November. ^[11]”

Quick Hits:

• The Iraqi parliament passed three key measures ^[12] yesterday that “have the potential to spur reconciliation between Sunnis and Shiites and set the country on the road to a more representative government, starting with new provincial elections. ^[13]“
• Texas lawmakers impressed with the success of Oklahoma laws cracking down on illegal immigration ^[14] are promising to enact legislation to mirror the Sooners.
• A federal judge tossed out a lawsuit that accused a Boeing Co. subsidiary of illegally helping the CIA secretly fly terrorism suspects to overseas prisons. The judge found that national security could be jeopardized if the lawsuit was allowed to go forward ^[15].
• Georgia lawmakers are considering legislation that would allow the state to seize cars ^[16]owned by illegal immigrants.
• USA Today ^[17] found that the cost of government benefits for seniors soared to a record $27,289 per senior in 2007, a 24% increase above the inflation rate since 2000. For the first time, health care and nursing homes cost the government more than Social Security payments for seniors age 65 and older.