Category Archives: Media Criticism

Media Criticism, Political Commentary

Congress And Obama

12 Comments

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.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary

Moron Hunting

53 Comments

John Kass says that the president should mount a hunting expedition:

Pettinato said the 91 veterans enjoyed the WWII Memorial but were told they wouldn’t be able to visit the Korean or Vietnam war memorials.

The whole thing is idiotic, or moronic. If you’ve ever been to Washington and toured the WWII Memorial, or the Vietnam Memorial, you know why.

They’re made of stone. They’re out in the open. These are our secular holy places, commemorating our fathers and grandfathers who died so Americans can scream like cats about who spends what.

You can see the memorials during the day or at night. I’ve been to both when there were no guards present, just soldiers or the families of soldiers.

There was no reason to set up even minor blockades this week, except to play the political blame game. And it hurt the president.

Good. Of course, with this administration, for moron hunters, it’s a target-rich environment. Starting from the top.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Social Commentary

Shutdown Fascism Wins In The Smokies

8 Comments

A first-hand report from Bob Zimmerman:

…we still plan to hike in Great Smoky National Park, but we have chosen a trail where we can park outside the park on private land and then hike into the park. We intend to defy any ranger we meet who tries to stop us, but by not putting a vehicle in a vulnerable position under their control, we give them less power over us in such circumstances.

Finally, I want to make one more point. This is the United States of America, supposedly “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” Yet, in my essay above I describe how American citizens are either hiding from or protecting themselves from agents of our government, even though they have done nothing wrong. When I was growing up such behavior was unthinkable. Not only was no one afraid of the federal government, if a federal agent or federal elected official tried to impose such restrictions on Americans they knew they would be in big trouble, almost instantly. Thus, they were very careful to respect the rights of the citizens, and such oppressive behavior was rare.

Today, however, such behavior is becoming common. And it carries no bad consequences for the government and officials who do it. One would think this was the Soviet Union, not America.

People have to understand that they have elected people who don’t like America. They want to “fundamentally transform it.” And we’ve been letting them.

More at The American Thinker.

[Update a few minutes later]

Scott Walker is pushing back against this fascist idiocy.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary

Voting Against Veterans

94 Comments

Here’s a list of all the Democrats who did that yesterday. And then there’s the idiotic shutdown theater at the Veterans’ Memorial. What kind of moron would spend time and effort to barricade something that’s been open since it opened because the government was “shut down”? Stephen Fleming has been live tweeting it, as the vets take their memorial back. As Dan Collins tweets, apparently the Park Police are Obama’s Revolutionary Guard. If only they had tanks to mow down those recalcitrant geezers. Dana Loesch is calling them #BarryCades.

[Update a few minutes later]

Twitchy has a roundup, with a nice pics of the veterans’ trophy.

[Update a while later]

Here’s a story:

“It just goes to show you why we won World War II,” says Honor Flight of Northwest Ohio President Lee Armstrong.

Many elderly veterans, some in wheelchairs, broke through the barriers set up around the memorial, as police, park service employees, and tourists looked on. “The Germans and the Japanese couldn’t contain us. They weren’t going to let barriers contain them today. They wanted to see their memorial,” says Armstrong.

Appalling. And stupid.

[Update a while later]

Judicial Watch has filed a FOIA request to see who ordered this stupidity. I’d be unshocked if it came from the White House, but they’ll just hide the records.

And as I tweeted a few minutes ago:

[Update a couple minutes later]

Confirmed: it was the White House’s idea. But that lying cretin Harry Reid is blaming the Republicans.

[Update a couple minutes later]

Unbelievable. The government is actually spending money to rent #barrycades.

Business, Economics, Health, Media Criticism, Philosophy, Political Commentary

The Case Against Hope For ObamaCare

4 Comments

I agree with James Taranto:

We resent being told how to feel, and we hope ObamaCare fails, spectacularly and quickly.

We hope it fails spectacularly because that would provide an emotionally satisfying dramatic conclusion. If Barack Obama is forced to spend, say, the last two years of his presidency contending with the undeniable failure of his signature initiative, that would be a fitting punishment for the hubris of his first two years, especially since the imposition of ObamaCare on an unwilling country was the main consequence of his hubris.

We hope it fails quickly for an additional reason: to minimize the damage. Imagine if the Post had written a similar editorial in 1917, after the Russian Revolution, titled “Everyone Should Hope Communism Works.” That would have seemed equally high-minded: If communism didn’t work, tens of millions of people would be made miserable.

Which, of course, is precisely what happened over the next 70-plus years. The Post might respond that that’s an argument against communism rather than an argument against hoping communism works. But when you put it that way, it’s not such a clear distinction, is it? The communist revolution would not have succeeded absent a critical mass of people hopeful communism would work. Nor would it have endured as long as it did if no one had an emotional interest in its perpetuation.

Unfortunately, many still have that emotional interest.

Media Criticism, Popular Culture, Social Commentary

A Lileks Metaphor

5 Comments

The man is amazing:

The tree looks, well, truncated, but unbowed. That’ll end soon, and there will be a brand new hole in the sky where once there were leaves. The Triangle had two old elms; the first fell a few years ago, and a spindly newcomer fills the spot now. It will grow quickly, and the replacement for the old tree will lag behind. The newcomer will be felled forty years hence, the replacement twenty years after that. It’s like a two-stroke engine, pistons rising and falling, the great chug of time pushing the earth around the star.

What a writer.