The Long Version

Retired broadcast journalist. Blogging helps scratch the itch. Recovering exRepublican – Sober and still Conservative.

Posts Tagged ‘National Park Service

The Day the Public Realized its Government was Playing Them

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The government shut down is a week old.  What?  You didn’t notice?

In all seriousness, 15% of the government is shut down. What company is so lean that if they shut down 15% they go into massive chaos? Look at this list of a few things that have been inexplicably impacted by the shutdown and tell me who’s inflicting pain on the American people and who’s negotiating.

  • “Treatments for children suffering from cancer. The Republicans have agreed to a compromise by funding the part of the government, including the National Institute of Health, which offers children with cancer last‑chance experimental treatment… The NIH was told by the President, ‘You can’t start any new testing of anything.’ As soon as the Republicans found out about it, they said, ‘Not a problem. Let’s make sure that we fund the NIH. We’ll pass a special bill to fund the NIH so we can save children,’” Glenn explained. “If that’s what you really picked out of the 100% of the pie, you only need to shut down 15%, if that’s what you pick, we’ll fund that. So [Republicans] said, ‘We’ll pass it.” The President said he will veto it if it gets to his desk. That’s the compromise.”
  • “World War II Memorial is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It doesn’t have a staff to it. It is maintained with private financing, built by private financing, maintained with private financing. The White House knew in advance that these flights come in all the time… And so what do they do? They put a chain‑link fence around the World War II Memorial… You have your National Park Service coming out and saying, ‘We were told to inflict as much pain as possible,’” Glenn explained. “Then when the GOP finds out about it, the congressmen remove the barricades. When one of the park rangers says, ‘Hey, you can’t do that’ and starts yelling at the people in the wheelchairs, what happens? The president raises the stakes and then says, ‘I’m going to put guards around that memorial.’ So he’s spending money. Does that seem reasonable to you? By the way, the GOP has offered to cover any costs to keep the memorial open for the greatest generation.”
  • “Then there’s the furloughed military chaplains. The military chaplains are not allowed to work for free. They have all said, ‘We will celebrate mass. We will do our services. We will do baptisms for free.’ They have been told they will be punished if they do it,” Glenn explained. “So you have a baby to be baptized; the military priest cannot baptize your child or he’ll go to jail. He can’t celebrate mass anywhere for free or he will go to jail. Does this sound reasonable to you at all?”
  • “In the Florida Keys small businesses, hunters, and commercial fishermen can no longer practice their trade,” he said. “They have tried to close down the ocean. The Feds are saying, ‘You can’t do any fishing on the ocean.’ Does this seem reasonable to you?”
  • “The American Forces Network, AFN, these are the people that carry shows like mine, they carry shows like… 50% of the shows have to be liberal. But they also not just broadcast the news and talk,” Glenn said. “They also bring our Armed Forces all of the sporting events, all the football games and everything else. The golf course at Camp David is deemed essential, but AFN carrying the football games, carrying them, carrying them. Not doing them. Carrying them… By the way, Camp David, the golf course and Camp David is open.”
  • “The D‑day Memorial. The GOP has offered to compromise and fund all of the National Parks,” Glenn explained. “The President has said he will veto any compromise on legislation. So the D‑day Memorial in Normandy has now been barricaded.”
  • “Mount Vernon, George Washington’s home, is privately funded. The Feds blocked the visitors from entering the parking area because the National Park Service maintains the lot… No federal money is used to operate any of these parks. In fact, the federal government makes money through the operation of these parks,” Glenn said. “He had them all closed down and so the 400 to 500 private employees have been furloughed. And by the way, they don’t get any of their money back. They’re just destroyed. Because, I forgot to tell you: The GOP and the Democrats did get together in some emergency legislation. They don’t give a crap about the 400 to 500 employees that are privately. But those government workers, they raced to make sure they knew, ‘Oh, don’t worry. You’ll get your money.’”
  • “A self‑sustaining colonial farm that hasn’t received a dime of government money since 1980 has been closed for the first time in 40 years. The National Park Service has succeeded in closing the farm to the public. In the previous budget dramas, the farm has always been exempted because the government pays nothing, provides no staff, nor do they provide any resources to operate the farm,” he explained. “The President has closed the Vietnam Memorial. The GOP passed the compromised legislation that would fund the memorial, keep it open to the public, but the president said he would veto it.”
  • “The operator of a 51‑room inn located on U.S. Government‑owned land in North Carolina abandoned his defiant stance on Thursday to keep his property open despite being ordered to shut down as part of the federal government shutdown. October is this inn’s prime season,” Glenn said. “The GOP has offered a compromise to open this particular park, but the President said no to that compromise. So here is a private individual that will lose out on the money that he makes in his prime season. State troopers, by the way, have blocked the customers have entering the parking lot. How much are they spending on the state troopers? Again, Park Service ranger said, ‘We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can.’”
  • “The President has forced residents out of their private homes – the government shutdown being felt close to home for some locals. They say they’re being forced out of their private homes on Lake Mead because they sit on federal land,” Glenn said. “Acadia Park, Maine, ‘We’ve been training at two years at Crossfit for this hike, no kidding.’ She said the shutdown now is going to keep everybody off of Acadia Park.”
  • “A historic restaurant opened during the last shutdown, forced to close. An iconic Philadelphia restaurant been forced to close its doors and turned away book parties because of the government shutdown,” he said. “That is a private restaurant. They won’t get any money back.”
  • “There’s a road that goes through a Colorado park,” Glenn said. “The forest service announced the Pitkin County commissioners to order that Maroon Creek Road be shut down at the height of the tourist season, ahead of what is supposed to be one of the busiest weekends of the fall. The road is to be closed at T Lazy 7 Ranch pending the resolution of the shutdown.”
  • “And here’s my favorite. We joked about this. They actually did it. They are now blocking access to trails, roads, and programs at South Dakota’s most popular attraction,” Glenn explained. “The National Park Service has now placed cones along the highway outside of Mount Rushmore this weekend, barring visitors from stopping and looking at the mountain. You cannot stop on the road. And they have officers there to ticket you if you do.”
  • “The U.S. Department of Agriculture has gone turned off its entire website in response to the government shutdown, leaving farmers, reporters, and others with no way to access any of the agency’s information online,” Glenn said. “The USDA’s total website goes far beyond response of other federal agencies. Seems to be part of an effort to make people feel the effects of the shutdown. Thursday morning calls to the USDA’s press office seeking an explanation were not answered.”
  • “The President has closed the Military Commissary. Military members and veterans and families who shop at the local tax‑free store were shocked to discover that the store’s doors had been locked. They have closed the PX. This is where you go and you shop if you’re a military family. This is at Andrews Air Force base. They have shut the commissary and they have shut the PX,” Glenn said. “So you can’t go buy any groceries, you can’t go buy any clothes, any medicine. You can’t go buy meat, nothing.”

Now get this, while the American people are feeling the stress and strain of the closing of privately funded businesses, monuments, and memorials around the country, the President can still get in 18 anytime he wants.

Conservative radio and TV show host Glenn Beck had even stronger words for the president’s cam-pain against the American people.  Beck said, “…the President’s golf course remains open. But he said that’s because the golf course is paid for by private funds. Wait a minute. So is the World War II Memorial. So is the farm. So is the restaurant. So is the damn road that you just put cones on.  This is a strike and a slap across the face. This, I’m warning you, America, this is the sign of a dictator. He is slapping you across the face and saying, ‘You will behave. You will do what I tell you to do or I will punish you.’ If your friends don’t wake up and see the nonsense and see what they are in store for, when you’re spending money to put cones on the highway so people can’t stop and even see Mount Rushmore, we get everything we deserve. And we are about to get a lot.”

Thanks to GlennBeck.com and TheBlaze.com

 

The Party of NO

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Words mean things but actions confirm them.

If you’ve read or watched any news at all over the past 4 days you’re aware of the government shutdown. You may even be aware of the reason for the shutdown. But are you aware of what’s actually being shutdown? Furthermore, are you aware of what appears to be a campaign by the federal government to shut down things that are not even funded by the federal government?

That last question is the one I want to focus on. The answer to that question exposes what I believe is motivating the Liberal Progressives in DC including our President to make the shutdown as painful as possible for as long as possible.

The reasoning for such motivation? Their understanding of the media, their control of the mainstream channels, and knowing the media will run with their narrative. A narrative that says it’s all Republican’s fault and the result of the Tea Party take-over of that party.

The hope is a majority of Americans will buy into that premise and turn against the Tea Party.

Ironically a similar strategy was implemented with the sequester, which by all measures didn’t work. The sequester, it turns out, wasn’t the apocalypse Liberals told us it would be.

But back to the desire by some in our federal government to inflict pain and frustration to get their way.

World War II Govnt ShutdownTake for example the more publicized World War II memorial which was barricaded on Tuesday to keep people from walking through the open air monument. Why?

The Atlantic’s Garance Franke-Ruta points to a theory for why the WWII memorial, along with every other open-air monument in Washington’s Mall, has been closed to the public:

It’s called Washington Monument Syndrome. Here’s Wikipedia’s definition:

The Washington Monument syndrome, also known as the Mount Rushmore Syndrome, or the firemen first principle, is a political tactic used in the United States by government agencies when faced with budget cuts or a government shutdown. The tactic entails cutting the most visible or appreciated service provided by the government, from popular services such as national parks and libraries to valued public employees such as teachers and firefighters…. The name derives from the National Park Service’s alleged habit of saying that any cuts would lead to an immediate closure of the wildly popular Washington Monument. [Wikipedia]

Political brinksmanship. Period.

I’m still waiting for the names of whoever gave the order to barricade the memorial knowing daily tours of the last remaining WWII vets would be coming to THEIR memorial and knowing the pain not being able to enter it would bring. All to muster political leverage against their conservative opponents.

Next there’s Wisconsin. The National Parks Service told Wisconsin to shut down its state parks even though they were not directly funded by the federal government.

Why?

Mount Vernon BarricadesThe National Park Service erected barricades to shut down parking lots surrounding Mount Vernon despite the fact that the tourist destination is privately owned and has been for 150 years, another example of how the feds are deliberately worsening the government shut down.

To make a point and make the shutdown bigger and more painful.

These actions speak loud and clear to the political games being played by an administration that cares more about its power and control over everything in this country than it does the general welfare of the people who live in it.

To be sure both parties in the two-party system share the blame for this shutdown, but while the Liberal side is using brinksmanship and propaganda to forward a political goal, their conservative counterparts are passing bills to fund as much of the government as they can hoping to bring the naysayers to the negotiation table for a serious discussion about the Affordable Care Act.

So far Harry Reid has pretty much given the finger to anyone who even mentions Obamacare and our president has made it clear he lives in a no negotiation zone.

Link the actions with the words and see who the real obstructionists and party of NO is right now.

The Party of NO - Democrats

 

Written by DCL

October 4, 2013 at 6:10 pm