A great Forbes article: privatize our parks

NPS WWII Memorial ClosedFrom Forbes.com:

The National Park Service’s Behavior Has Been Shocking, And It Should Be Privatized

By Paul Kengor

The behavior of the National Park Service during President Obama’s shutdown campaign has been shocking. As has been widely reported, Park Service employees have been told to make life as uncomfortable as possible for people, and have flourished in that endeavor. They have acted unprofessionally as a partisan and ideological arm of the White House and its campaign.

Quite correct, as I wrote here and here and here.

If you’re not familiar with what I’m talking about, then just click Google GOOG +0.55% and start searching. There are unfortunate first-person accounts everywhere. Among the worst examples was a case innocently covered by a small Massachusetts newspaper that reported on a group of tourists traveling to Yellowstone National Park. The tourists, by no means a bunch of Tea Partiers, described the Park Service as “Gestapo”-like in its tactics.

Some people disagree with that term.  I, myself, as a cop, do not.  When you behave like a police thug, you will be perceived as a police thug.  Let me be blunt: Park Rangers are not cops.  They do not handle 40 calls for service in a shift.  They do not have to be beholden to the CAD, to the surrounding units, to people who are fighting every day, every shift, every hour, and you are expected to solve it all.

To continue:

That, of course, is an exaggeration. But the mere fact that a group of apolitical citizens would invoke such hyperbole to describe how they were treated really says something.

And that is a heart-slicing point.  But accurate.  When you lock people up in a hotel, when that occurs, you’re a thug.

As the Weekly Standard wrote:

“People first noticed what the NPS was up to when the World War II Memorial on the National Mall was “closed.” Just to be clear, the memorial is an open plaza. There is nothing to operate. Sometimes there might be a ranger standing around. But he’s not collecting tickets or opening gates. Putting up barricades and posting guards to “close” the World War II Memorial takes more resources and manpower than “keeping it open.”

And that is the point precisely.

The Obama Administration went clearly and overtly OUT of its way in order to frustrate and anger and inconvenience American Taxpayers who have a right to see and visit the venues their dollars BOUGHT.

And a great point of the article:

The beauty of privatizing management rather than ownership is that ownership is permanent but management is not. This means that if one management group doesn’t perform up to expectations, a new one can be hired. The hiring process should always be regularly competitively contracted. This “competitive bidding” process keeps the current management group on its toes and accountable. If it performs badly, it can be fired and replaced—unlike the current group of government employees running the National Park Service, which is a protected class with a monopoly on its service.

But the final paragraph is the most proper and poignant:

This thought will anger NPS employees. Well, for that, they can thank White House schemers for overplaying their heavy hand and unwittingly shedding ominous light on the abusive possibilities of this agency. That’s not a sentiment that the president and allies intended to foster when they began agitating and orchestrating their shutdown campaign. Rather than convincing us of the alleged evils of congressional Republicans, they’ve unveiled the roguish tendencies of some federal employees who blindly follow orders. Let’s respond by taking power away from those employees, so this cannot happen again. Easily maneuvered into providing propaganda for a president or party, these NPS workers have proven themselves unworthy of the mission entrusted to them. They are the embodiment of the dangers of unaccountable, big government.

Consequences, ladies and gentlemen.  Consequences.

BZ

 

 

House GOP Blinks: Will Lift Debt AND Reopen Government

Invertebrate GOPFrom Breitbart.com:

11 Oct 2013, 8:52 AM PDT 4158 post a comment

House Republicans have sent the White House a revised proposal to lift the debt ceiling for six weeks, as well as reopen government through December 15th, which was their original spending proposal before the partial shutdown. The revised GOP plan reflects the demands Obama made in a meeting with House GOP Leaders on Thursday. It also reflects the unwillingness of the DC GOP to face a fiscal showdown with Democrats.

No more words need be related from the article.  That says it all.

Just now, from AP.org:

Accelerated efforts, no agreement on shutdown/debt

WASHINGTON (AP) — With time running short, President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner accelerated efforts Friday to prevent the U.S. Treasury from default and end a partial government shutdown that stretched into an 11th day. The latest impacts: New aircraft grounded, military chaplains silenced and a crab harvest jeopardized in the Bering Sea.

After four years of trillion-dollar deficits, the 2013 federal budget shortfall is expected to register below $700 billion, but Republicans say more cuts are essential. At the same time, the nation’s debt is rising inexorably — the reason for the effort to raise borrowing limit to cover it. The debt was $10.6 trillion when Obama took office during the worst recession in decades, and has grown by $6.1 trillion in the years since.

What is it that I’ve said many times?  The best predictor of future performance is past behavior?

BZ

P.S.
Quote for the week: “Liberals want the government to be your mommy. Conservatives want government to be your daddy. Libertarians want it to treat you like an adult.”

 

 

Finally: some Americans fight park closures

Joshua Tree Natl Park Shut Down 10-13From the WashingtonTimes.com:

We’re not gonna take it! Americans use 1st Amendment to storm shutdown barriers

By Stephen Dinan

Taking their lead from the veterans who first pushed through the barricades to visit the World War II Memorial, Americans nationwide are defying the federal government shutdown, tossing aside traffic cones and toppling wooden fences to get to national parks and other federal lands that the administration has deemed out of bounds.

As the shutdown hits the middle of its second week, civil disobedience has become a sensation. Some proudly post online photos of themselves overcoming the government’s obstacles, and others use more subtle ways to make their point.

Oddly enough, the same thing I said I would have done this past Monday:

Now here is what BZ would, of course, do: drive over some cones, pull out his camera, a tripod, a video cam, a table, a chair, sit down and have lunch at my leisure.  When finished, I would also leisurely take any number of photographs to my satisfaction.  Then, just prior to leaving, I would merely “displace” said blocking cones to an unknown point down an adjacent steep hill.  Mission accomplished.

To continue from the article:

The owner of the Pisgah Inn along the Blue Ridge Parkway, who last week announced that he was defying the park service’s shutdown order, said it was a matter of principle.

“If not now, when? If not me, who?” Bruce O’Connell told The Washington Times.

It’s nice to see that a smattering of Americans still have balls.

BZ

 

National Park Service blocks drivers from pulling over to view Mt Rushmore

Mt Rushmore ShutdownIs this — again — not the most insane thing you’ve heard or read?  Just when you think that the Obama Administration cannot get more nakedly craven, cowardly and puerile — they do.  They have topped themselves today with their newest spoiled-child tantrum.  More sphincter-dribble from the US Spite House.

From the SiouxFallsBusinessJournal.com:

Barring visitors from view an unexpected effect of shutdown

Blocking access to trails and programs at South Dakota’s most popular attraction was one thing, but state officials didn’t expect Congress’ budget stalemate to shut down a view of Mount Rushmore.

The National Park Service placed cones along highway viewing areas outside Mount Rushmore this week, barring visitors from pulling over and taking pictures of the famed monument.

Now here is what BZ would, of course, do: drive over some cones, pull out his camera, a tripod, a video cam, a table, a chair, sit down and have lunch at my leisure.  When finished, I would also leisurely take any number of photographs to my satisfaction.  Then, just prior to leaving, I would merely “displace” said blocking cones to an unknown point down an adjacent steep hill.  Mission accomplished.

The cones first went up Oct. 1, said Dusty Johnson, Gov. Dennis Daugaard’s chief of staff. The state asked that they be taken down, and federal officials did so with some of them. The state was told the cones were a safety precaution to help channel cars into viewing areas rather than to bar their entrance.“I think reasonable people can disagree about that,” Johnson said.

They certainly can.  I believe, as a Political Beastie and beholden to the federal government nipple, Governor Johnson is being quite tactically correct and extremely kind.  There was one purpose, and one purpose only to the blocking off of vehicle pullouts: to punish Americans, to inconvenience them, to anger them, to frustrate them.

I’ll wager that more of YOUR tax dollars were spent to block and shut down various parks and attractions than required to simply operate them on a normal basis.

While I’m at it, I simply canNOT pass up a graphic I discovered here.

Mt Rushmore Obaka BlockageBZ

P.S.
This is Kabuki Theater.  This is Theater of the Absurd.

And: why is it ONLY the pro-America venues that are finding themselves closed?

Kabuki Theatre