Ed Morrissey, on why they’re incompetent amateurs:
The White House decided to pursue the time-tested “Washington Monument strategy” of inconveniencing tourists for political gain, and promptly ended up with egg on their faces. One of those monuments turned out to be the World War II Memorial on the Mall in Washington, which has no turnstiles or special admission access; it’s open 24 hours a day simply by walking into it.
The first day of the shutdown, though, the National Parks Service tried closing the memorial down to a group of World War II veterans who had traveled to Washington to see it, claiming that the shutdown cut off access to it. Rep. Steven Palazzo (R-MS), who accompanied the veterans, asked the White House to back off, only to get the brush-off himself. Instead, Palazzo took down the barricade himself to give the veterans access to the memorial honoring their own service in a park that is open to everyone anyway.
Did the White House learn a lesson from this PR debacle? Apparently not. As Elizabeth Scalia points out, the President could have met veterans at the memorial the next day to express his appreciation for their service and toured the memorial with them. That would have given Obama some much-needed positive coverage and an opportunity to pressure Republicans into retreat without having to enter negotiations himself.
Instead, the National Parks Service spent Day 2 of its supposed shutdown by hoisting more barricades with forklifts to surround the memorial before more octogenarian and nonagenarian veterans could arrive. That took seven NPS security personnel, which Washington Examiner reporter Charlie Spiering noted was two more people than the Obama administration committed to security for the consulate in Benghazi a year ago.
Instead of a photo op for President Obama, GOP Reps. Michele Bachmann and John Carter arrived on the scene to breach the barricades yet again. NPS at first tried claiming to CNN that they couldn’t spare anyone to react in case CPR was needed, but the widespread images of the bulldozer, barricades, and security personnel hanging signs on them finally forced NPS to invite other members of the Greatest Generation to visit the memorial to their dedication and service.
Idiots.
1. barrycade:
1. A barrier (usually temporary) that exists for no reason.
2. A barrier erected for political reasons.
“Dude, Obama barrycaded the park.”
“Hey, let’s put up some barrycades to keep those World War II veterans away from the open-air World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., in order to try and score some cheap political points.”
Last I heard the NPS is letting the veterans in, but keeping everyone else out.
Equal protection under the law seems difficult for this Administration to comprehend. It’s as if they really wanted to form a society built upon the establishment of various classes determining various privileges.
Hypocrite, from Greek hypokrites “stage actor, pretender, dissembler”. An appropriate description for a party that claims to favor a classless society while giving numerous advantages to favored groups.
Just a general comment: just because your boss is ordering you to be a dick doesn’t mean you’re not being a dick. Don’t be a dick.
Ya know what Australians do when they’re ordered to do something on the job that they think is wrong?
“Gee, I suddenly feel a flu coming on. I think I’ll be taking a sick day.”
Don’t be a pawn.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics websites states that it will not be updating during the shutdown, the information that was already there remains available though, and that makes sense. But many Interior Dept bureaus have all disabled their websites entirely or at least significantly degraded them. That doesn’t make any sense at all to me.
All National Park Service website pages are now redirected to a generic shutdown page.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Land Managment, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, Office of Surface Mining, and Fish and Wildlife Service sites all redirect to the Department of Interior front page.
The Bureau of Reclamation and United State Geological Survey sites both look like something from the 1990’s. I guess they can only pay for html but no images, css, or javascript. Weird.
Indeed, it’s obvious that the differences in how the shutdown is manifested at various agencies is entirely due to political actions by those in leadership positions at those agencies. Most importantly, these folks are intentionally trying to make the shutdown hurt the American public as much as possible in order to score political points.
Hmm it seems you have been promoted without the appropriate fanfare. Congratulations.
Once again, I was unable to post due to the quantity of links, so I emailed Rand, and he posted it for me. Unlike previous times, he was able to post it with my name, but the “post author” tag apparently remains.
“Most importantly, these folks are intentionally trying to make the shutdown hurt the American public as much as possible in order to score political points.”
Imagine…the government actually trying to cause pain for it’s constitutents in order to get them to behave in a certain way.
the government actually trying to cause pain for it’s constitutents in order to get them to behave in a certain way.
History is full of oppressive governments. What’s surprising is how many people think this is a good thing.
I think you guys have it all wrong. Obama said, “The American people are not pawns in some political game.” Obama would not act contrary to his spoken statements. He has too much integrity for that. And we know this is true because of the watchdog media who would surely call him out if he was indeed using the American people as pawns.