For many of the protest groups recently active on and around campus, it's time to see the writing on the wall. The chances for these demonstrations to succeed are slim, to say the least. The UC regents will not budge on the BP deal. The new athletic center will be built. And the Marines are not retreating from Berkeley.

In response to the Marine protest, Move America Forward, a conservative activist group, ran television ads lambasting Berkeley by name. Is this what Mayor Bates and Code Pink wanted? Probably not, but their stubbornness have cast shame upon themselves and, by extension, our city and university.