Jane 10/01/2013
More power to these guys. On Tuesday, as the government shutdown, WWII veterans stormed past security guards as the crossed into the memorial…they weren’t going to let a shutdown deter them.
As bagpipers playing “Amazing Grace,” nearly 200 veterans from Mississippi and Iowa swept past barricades and security guards at the World War II Memorial in Washington in order to keep a commitment to visit the site, which was closed today due to the partial government shutdown. The veterans, in their 80s and 90s, were accompanied by Rep. Steven Palazzo, R-Miss., a former Marine who earlier vowed not to let the National Park Police keep them from a planned visit to the open-air monument.
“For some reason, I just feel like royalty,” Jim Ferencak, a Navy and Air Force veteran told GulfLive.com at the event.
Some veterans on hand wiped away tears when they saw a crowd waving the American flag as they came out of their bus.
“These men and women didn’t cower to the Japanese and Germans,” Palazzo said. “I don’t think they’re about to let a few National Park Police stand in their way.”
Palazzo and other members of congress moved the barricades at the memorial and police did not try to stop the veterans’ access.
The veterans are traveling as part of Honor Flight
, a program that enables World War II veterans to partake in an expense-paid trip to view the memorial. Tuesday’s trip is the second-to-last flight, with the last scheduled for November. But prior to their arrival early Tuesday, there was fear that the government shutdown and federal worker furloughs would mean no access to the monuments on the National Mall.
Some of the heroes who came were in wheel chairs.
Palazzo noted his grandfather, Manuel McCarty, served in World War II at Guadalcanal and Okinawa. Palazzo was 7 years old when his grandfather died and said he sees his grandfather in these veterans.
“I only have a couple of memories of my grandfather,” said Palazzo, who has taken part of Honor Flights before. “But each time I see these men, I envision how he’d be.”
They’re so cute. 🙂 I love and thank them for their service.
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Veteran Armstrong: Told He’d Face Arrest:
But for a group of World War II vets visiting the national memorial in Washington D.C., an all expense paid trip which is called an “Honor Flight,” the shutdown was not stopping them from seeing the tribute that was inspired by them.
“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.
Honor Flight of Northwest Ohio has a trip scheduled to depart from Toledo next Wednesday, October 9.
“We will make the call this Friday to determine if the flight is still a go, or if we will have to re-schedule,” Armstrong explains.
He says they are considering going ahead with the trip even if the government is still on shutdown, but when he called the parks service, he was told they would face arrest.
Armstrong says, “I said, are you kidding me? You’re going to arrest a 90/91-year-old veteran from seeing his memorial? If it wasn’t for them it wouldn’t be there. She said, ‘That’s correct sir.'”
When he asked for her name, he says she did not give it to him and then promptly hung up the phone…
Full report: http://www.northwestohio.com/news/story.aspx?id=953619
Someone needs to remind those in this administration that it’s our land, our parks, and our veterans.
The government shut-down is constitutional therefore legal and has been down many times in the past. The majority of the American people don’t want his ObamaCare which isn’t about Care, rather a stealth ObamaTax. And it’s not a Government Shutdown, it’s a Government Showdown, which I fully support, and permitted under the Constitution. The ‘Framers” were foresighted and afforded Congress, who represents the people, to use the purse strings when there’s a president taking the law into his own hands. We no longer have the Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare which went before the Supreme Court, because Obama has added many changes since then, which of course is totally illegal. The guy in the WH is dangerous and needs to be curbed, and the only way possible is via the Constitution, which he all to frequently ignores.
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Why was the World War II Memorial barricaded?
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill do not seem any closer to an agreement that would end the government shutdown.
On Tuesday, when veterans came to the World War II Memorial only to discover it had been barricaded because of the shutdown, they moved the blockade, then continued on to pay their respects.
But the memorial is a federal site in a public space. According to the National World War II Memorial website, “The memorial is operated by the National Park Service and is open to visitors 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
Why was there a need for barricades in the first place?
“Park Service did not want to barricade these, but unfortunately we have been directed, because of the lack of appropriations, to close all facilities and grounds,” said National Mall and Memorial parks spokeswoman Carol Johnson.
“I know that this is an open-air memorial, but we have people on staff who are CPR trained, (and) we want to make sure that we have maintenance crew to take care of any problems. What we’re trying to do is protect this resource for future generations,” said Johnson.
http://thelead.blogs.cnn.com/2013/10/01/why-was-the-world-war-ii-memorial-barricaded/
Why? Because Barack Hussein Obama is a vindictive little man.
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Government shutdown led to Clinton-Lewinsky meeting in 1995
Since the government shutdown began, we’ve seen the National Park Service do a few eyebrow-raising things. It’s attempted to close a World War II memorial and even parking lots for a privately funded historical site, along with other questionable actions.
Now the NPS says it’s been forced to close…scenic overlooks.
In other words, if you feel the nudge to stop on the George Washington Parkway and pull into one of those small cutouts with a handful of spaces so you can admire the natural beauty around you and rest for a spell, you’re out of luck.
Here’s the NPS justification:
But as PJ Media points out, “it does cost money — pay, fuel, the cost of the obstacles — to send National Park Service personnel out” to block off spots like scenic overlooks.
“It’s a cheap way to deal with the situation,” an angry Park Service ranger in D.C. tells the Washington Times. “We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can. It’s disgusting.”
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Here’s a report on the closure from WJLA-TV:
People aren’t “obeying” Obama’s orders. lol..
Some have pointed out that these kinds of reactions are meant to punish citizens and turn public opinion against the GOP for the federal government shutdown. Glenn Beck has told his audience as much.
“They are teaching you a lesson,” Beck noted Thursday on TheBlaze TV, adding that the government preventing veterans from accessing their memorial – paid for by taxpayers and private citizens – also reflects a “you didn’t build that” mentality.
“This is beyond not wise. You don’t do that unless you’re building a thugocracy,” Beck said. “You come in with your stormtroopers and you say ‘shut it down,’ and you have to. They don’t care if they bully vets, shut down parks that don’t need to be shut down — they are showing you they’re in control.”
Signs everywhere and nobody following his vindictive dictates.
They’re ignoring or removing his signs and going about their usual day.
Alternate signage.
We’ve had 17/18 shutdowns in history but n0 president closed our memorials or parks.
And it’s taking even more Park Police to keep them closed which demonstrates that he’s a mean little man.
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Park Service ranger: “We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can. It’s disgusting.”
I missed this nugget from Wesley Pruden yesterday, but I think it’s actually better for a Friday afternoon to sort of sum up the week.
When and how did the National Park Service become “the shock troops of the punitive bureaucracy”?
The Park Service appears to be closing streets on mere whim and caprice. The rangers even closed the parking lot at Mount Vernon, where the plantation home of George Washington is a favorite tourist destination. That was after they barred the new World War II Memorial on the Mall to veterans of World War II. But the government does not own Mount Vernon; it is privately owned by the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association. The ladies bought it years ago to preserve it as a national memorial. The feds closed access to the parking lots this week, even though the lots are jointly owned with the Mount Vernon ladies. The rangers are from the government, and they’re only here to help.
“It’s a cheap way to deal with the situation,” an angry Park Service ranger in Washington says of the harassment. “We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can. It’s disgusting.”
Sad to say, but there’s precedent here. The extent of the barricade mentality may have deepened over time, with some memorials being shuttered now that stayed open in ’95, but the NPS has apparently always been a lead actor in shutdown-theater pageantry. Andrew Stiles interviewed former Bush Interior Secretary Gale Norton about it, and she said it’s nothing new:
“The National Parks Service has a long history of dramatizing budget issues by inconveniencing the public,” she says. ”They often choose the most dramatic type of action in order to get their message across. It’s something I had to guard against when I was secretary — not letting them play budget games.“
NPS has engaged in such behavior for decades, Nortons says, recalling at least one occasion during the Reagan administraiton, in which she worked as an attorney for the parks service, when NPS decided to close Skyline Drive, a scenic highway running through Shenandoah National Park, in order to make a statement during an appropriations fight on Capitol Hill…
“Given the fact that they have closed so much, and acted so broadly, I imagine that decision was made at the highest levels of park service leadership, in cooperation with department leadership and the White House,” she says.
Note the point about budget games. Darrell Issa sent a letter to the director of the NPS yesterday demanding to know why open-air memorials have been closed and noting that the tactic seems oddly similar to other inexplicable closures back in March, when NPS was grumpy about its budget being cut due to sequestration. Quote: “Specifically, the Committee received information that proposed budget adjustments submitted by an NPS official in the field to deal with sequestration impacts were rejected by NPS superiors in favor of cuts that would be more visible and disruptive.” Hearings are presumably on the way, as only a really thorough public shaming is apt to make them think twice about this in the future. I wonder who the Lois Lerner of the NPS will turn out to be. Fair warning to whoever that person is: You’re looking at some hard time involving months of paid vacation and a luxe government pension, pardner.
9:10 AM – 4 Oct 2013 Via John McCormack, here was what the World War II Memorial looked like this morning. They’ve actually wired the barricades together to make it marginally harder for people to get in. The fences/barricades were not wired shut when I was here on Tuesday.
Exit quotation from Tom Hanks, commenting on the Honor Flight vets who insisted on entry earlier this week: “Good for the veterans. Good, go see it. We should all have access to them all the time.””
The King is pissed.
Video: Man of the people decides to go for a sandwich
posted at 5:21 pm on October 4, 2013
To cleanse the palate. In case you were wondering whether shutting veterans out of war memorials, shrugging off kids with cancer, and chortling that Democrats don’t care when the shutdown ends has O a tiny bit worried about coming off as a callous jackhole, the answer is yes. His job approval in Gallup today is a lean, mean 41/52. Time for a quickie publicity stunt with blue-collar Uncle Joe to show Americans that he’s still One Of Us.
And speaking of callous jackholes, he’s not the only one who’s suddenly worried about public perceptions:
To cleanse the palate. In case you were wondering whether shutting veterans out of war memorials, shrugging off kids with cancer, and chortling that Democrats don’t care when the shutdown ends has O a tiny bit worried about coming off as a callous jackhole, the answer is yes. His job approval in Gallup today is a lean, mean 41/52. Time for a quickie publicity stunt with blue-collar Uncle Joe to show Americans that he’s still One Of Us.
Exit question: Think the GOP alone will bear the brunt of a shutdown-driven collapse in economic confidence? I know two guys who disagree. [mediachecker->VIDEO follows depicting the jackhole and his lackey. See Video at site.]
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‘BREAKING’: Obama took a walk and CNBC was totally on it [pic]
http://twitchy.com/2013/10/04/breaking-obama-took-a-walk-and-cnbc-was-totally-on-it-pic/
http://washingtonexaminer.com/white-house-asking-for-sad-shutdown-stories/article/2536836
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Pisgah Inn Owner: National Park Service[the cops] are ‘Out There with Lights Flashing Right Now’
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/10/04/Exclusive-Pisgah-Inn-NPS
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Flashback: Sen. Obama ‘assaults constitutional structure’ with 2006 debt ceiling vote [Bush]:
President Obama is adamant:
On the eve of another fiscal showdown with congressional Republicans, President Obama is outright refusing to negotiate over an increase to the nation’s debt limit, saying doing so would alter “the constitutional structure of this government entirely.” “What I haven’t been willing to negotiate, and I will not negotiate, is on the debt ceiling,” Obama told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in an exclusive interview on This Week. “If we continue to set a precedent in which a president … is in a situation in which each time the United States is called upon to pay its bills, the other party can simply sit there and say, ‘Well, we’re not going to put — pay the bills unless you give us … what we want,’ that changes the constitutional structure of this government entirely,” Obama said…Obama says he is drawing a line in the sand.
His word “audacity” comes to mind – but that was then…
Bottomline: Obama’ approval rating is down from a low 43% to 41% . The government shutdown involves 37% – some of which are [per Harry Reid] non-essential workers yet now essential since Obama wants to hear their sad stories for propaganda purposes. Priests are threatened with arrest if they celebrate Mass. The little Sisters of the Poor (came to the USA in 1835) may have to leave the USA due to Obamacare – since they’re Pro-Life – he’s been anti-Catholic since he came into office. On top of that he’s shutting down private business’. The objective is obvious – punish the people in order to “win” – what a pathetic individual.
Many of us wish the government would shutdown, so they’d stop the borrowing and work on a budget, like thee and me. Government shouldn’t have debt, for example, they want to open another department then look at which one they can shutdown…We need to get back to our freedoms with principals using the Constitution, instead of living in a forcibly controlled lockdown country, hungry for war, and interfering in other sovereign nations.
Update: Michelle Obama wants everyone to know she won’t be tweeting because of the shutdown. Meanwhile their Chefs, Airforce One, Golf Course, Secret Service remain open…
mediachecker 