Cruz, Palin join protesters at WWII Memorial

From USAToday.com:

WASHINGTON (AP) — A crowd converged on the World War II Memorial on the National Mall, pushing through barriers Sunday morning to protest the memorial’s closing under the government shutdown.

Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas were among those who gathered Sunday morning, along with former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, according to WTOP radio. Cruz said President Obama is using veterans as pawns in the shutdown.

“Tear down these walls,” the crowd chanted. Protesters also sang God Bless America and other patriotic songs as they entered the memorial plaza.

[Video deleted due to BZ‘s Abrasion Factor: “I couldn’t shut off auto-play.”]

Jeff Thompkins of New York told WRC-TV he was there because people fight and died for the freedom to visit public spaces and to protest.

“Our constitutional rights are being taken away,” Thompkins said. “People made the ultimate sacrifice, and they should be open to the public, open to everyone to come down here and see this. This is ridiculous. This is not just and not fair. It’s just not fair.”

Further, from Breitbart.com:

Veterans Remove Barricades from Memorials and Bring Them to WH

On Sunday, protesting the barricades placed at memorials around Washington D.C. by the vindictive Obama administration, veterans removed the barricades and proceeded to take them to the White House. Multiple people tweeted photos of the barricades being removed and taken for presidential inspection.

To me, it’s not the White House any more; it’s the Spite House.

From TheBlaze.com:

‘We Are Marching to the White House’: ‘Million Vet March’ Descends on Washington, Barricades Torn Down

And, courtesy of the NPS: they brought their finest armored vehicle for the horribly unctuous and rioting Conservative crowds tearing apart memorials and defecating on cop cars and overturning parked vehicles and lighting trash on fire and burning buildings.

Park Shutdown, NPS Broughts Its Best Armored VehicleOh.  Wait.  Sorry.  That was Occupy Wall Street.  My apologies.  Got the two crowds confused for a moment.

But in any event, had the government wanted to plow into crowds of non-violent protesters, it certainly could have.  That’s the point.  They were ready, by God.

Want to see what’s really happening?  How about this:

Parks Shutdown Cruz & PalinTed Cruz and Sarah Palin dare to pay homage to the American flag.

Parks Shutdown Hiker“Trail closed.”  Yeah.  I bet it was a piece of cake to drag that sign up there.

Parks Shutdown, Shoo Shoo and Go the Fuck Away the Ranger SaysNPS guard spreads his arms not in embracement, but in a “get the hell out, yes, all of you” type of gesture seen recently in DC.  Sorry, not a real cop.

Yes, those heinous and riotous Conservative coneheads, daring to raise a voice up and generally spoiling things for Leftists and the Obama Administration.

Damn them.

BZ

 

 

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