Senator Jim DeMint, one of the GOP's finest to ever crawl from underneath a rock in South Carolina, wants to punish Berkeley, CA, for its efforts to kick out Marine Corps recruiters by making sure the needy kids in that town go hungry. DeMint wants to take away federal dollars going to nutrition education programs at the Berkeley public schools and give the money to the Marines. Our question is what will the Marines do with a bunch of underfed recruits from California? OK, we know the money DeMint wants to take doesn't go to providing food for kids, but it sounds better to say he wants to starve kids than he wants to keep them ignorant about what they eat. A little poetic license, if you will. Oh, and can someone please explain DeMinted's comment about it being a "slap in face" to servicemen and their families.

Conservative bloggers and Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., also believe more articulation is necessary - from the opposite side of the political spectrum.

DeMint began drafting legislation Friday to cut $2.1 million in federal funding to Berkeley in a current congressional budget bill and transfer the money to the Marine Corps. The funding would include $750,000 for prospective ferry service, $87,000 for the Berkeley Unified School District nutrition education fund and $243,000 for the Chez Panisse Foundation, which promotes nutritional awareness in school lunch programs.

“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,” DeMint said in a statement.

He called the council’s vote “a slap in the face to all brave servicemen and women and their families.”

Conservative blogs blasted the council and Berkeley in general all day with comments such as one on “Gathering of Eagles”: “These cretins disgust me.”

Members of the council who voted to condemn the Marine Corps station were unbowed.

“I guess they’ve never heard of free speech,” Councilwoman Dona Spring said. “I’ve had a lot of nasty phone messages today, threatening me with things like saying, ‘I’ll take you out.’ But they can go ahead. I don’t feel scared.”