Posted on 10/15/2013 12:53:40 PM PDT by Kaslin
President Obama thinks he can prevail in the government shutdown fight by deliberately making life as difficult as possible for the maximum number of ordinary Americans.
We’ve seen this before. After suffering a defeat on the sequester, he made himself a laughingstock (as illustrated by these cartoons) with his Chicken-Little warnings that a tiny bit of fiscal restraint would grind government to a halt.
But his sequester hysterics are trivial compared to what the Obama Administration is doing today with the National Park Service.
Here are some unbelievable excerpts from Mark Steyn’s funny yet horrifyingNational Review column.
…the one place where a full-scale shutdown is being enforced is in America’s alleged “National Park Service,” a term of art that covers everything from canyons and glaciers to war memorials and historic taverns. The NPS has spent the last two weeks behaving as the paramilitary wing of the DNC, expending more resources in trying to close down open-air, unfenced areas than it would normally do in keeping them open. It began with the war memorials on the National Mall — that’s to say, stone monuments on pieces of grass under blue sky.
But it gets worse.
Not content with that, the NPS shock troops then moved on to insisting that privately run sites such as the Claude Moore Colonial Farm and privately owned sites such as Mount Vernon were also required to shut. When the Pisgah Inn on the Blue Ridge Parkway declined to comply with the government’s order to close (an entirely illegal order, by the way), the “shut down” Park Service sent armed agents and vehicles to blockade the hotel’s driveway.
Think that’s bad? Read on.
..in South Dakota, having closed Mount Rushmore the NPS storm troopers additionally attempted to close the view of Mount Rushmore — that’s to say a stretch of the highway, where the shoulder widens and you can pull over and admire the stony visages of America’s presidents.
What happened in Yellowstone, though, is surreal. Like something from Cambodia during the Pol Pot years.
But perhaps the most extraordinary story to emerge from the NPS is that of the tour group of foreign seniors whose bus was trapped in Yellowstone Park on the day the shutdown began. They were pulled over photographing a herd of bison when an armed ranger informed them, with the insouciant ad-hoc unilateral lawmaking to which the armed bureaucrat is distressingly prone, that taking photographs counts as illegal “recreation.” “Sir, you are recreating,” the ranger informed the tour guide. And we can’t have that, can we? They were ordered back to the Old Faithful Inn, next to the geyser of the same name, but forbidden to leave said inn to look at said geyser. Armed rangers were posted at the doors, and, just in case one of the wily Japanese or Aussies managed to outwit his captors by escaping through one of the inn’s air ducts and down to the geyser, a fleet of NPS SUVs showed up every hour and a half throughout the day, ten minutes before Old Faithful was due to blow, to surround the geyser and additionally ensure that any of America’s foreign visitors trying to photograph the impressive natural phenomenon from a second-floor hotel window would still wind up with a picture full of government officials. The following morning the bus made the two-and-a-half-hour journey to the park boundary but was prevented from using any of the bathrooms en route, including at a private dude ranch whose owner was threatened with the loss of his license if he allowed any tourist to use the facilities.
No bathroom stops?!? Has the bureaucracy really become this punitive and vindictive? Sounds like the Park Service has the same training program as the IRS.
I wonder if the “you-are-recreating” ranger is related to Mr. Norlander?
Ironically, American citizens now have less rights to “public land” than English peasants in 1217.
…in actual monarchies the king takes a more generous view of “public lands.” Two years after Magna Carta, in 1217, King Henry III signed the Charter of the Forest, which despite various amendments and replacement statutes remained in force in Britain for some three-quarters of a millennium, until the early Seventies. If Magna Carta is a landmark in its concept of individual rights, the Forest Charter played an equivalent role in advancing the concept of the commons, the public space. Repealing various restrictions by his predecessors, Henry III opened the royal forests to the freemen of England, granted extensive grazing and hunting rights, and eliminated the somewhat severe penalty of death for taking the king’s venison. The NPS have not yet fried anyone for taking King Barack’s deer, but it is somewhat sobering to reflect that an English peasant enjoyed more freedom on the sovereign’s land in the 13th century than a freeborn American does on “the people’s land” in the 21st century.
Yet all this abuse serves no purpose for open-air parks and monuments.
The geyser stasi of the National Park Service have in effect repealed the Charter of the Forest. President Obama and his enforcers have the same concept of the royal forest that King John did. The government does not own this land; the Park Service are merely the janitorial staff of “we the people” (to revive an obsolescent concept). No harm will befall the rocks and rivers by posting a sign at the entrance saying “No park ranger on duty during government shutdown. Proceed beyond this point at your own risk.” And, at the urban monuments, you don’t even need that: It is disturbing that minor state officials even presume to have the right to prevent the citizenry walking past the Vietnam Wall.
So what’s the bottom line?
The National Park Service should be out of the business of urban landmarks, and the vast majority of our “national” parks should be returned to the states.
Amen.
In my libertarian fantasy world, I have a list of priorities. I start with big things like entitlement reform and flat tax.
Then I move to medium goals like shutting down the department of agricultureand getting out of NATO.
At the bottom of my list are things like ending the drug war. It used to be that getting rid of national parks was in this category.
But the bureaucrats at the NPS have behaved so despicably that this is now much higher on my list of priorities. Simply stated, they’ve earned our disdain.
Let’s close with some amusing cartoons on this topic.
This Nate Beeler gem may be my favorite from today’s collection.
Michael Ramirez unveils a monument to arrogance.
Chip Bok shows who’s the real ideologue.
Last but not least, Glenn McCoy captures the President’s petulance.
P.S. Other examples of government shutdown humor can be enjoyed by clicking here, here, here, here, and here.
P.P.S. Excerpts from some of my other favorite Mark Steyn columns can be read here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Wouldn’t that be nice —
Absolutely...And the entire DC 10 mile square is the People’s Square...
Not the Huckster from Kenya.
It’s time we have a national conversation about the size of government and the plethora of alphabet agencies. Sell the government’s land and pay down the debt. Start drilling for oil.
End the EPA, Department of Energy...all letter agencies. Clean house at the FBI, CIA, NSA and get rid of ATF, DEA, etc.
No kidding! Especially their Head Little Eichmann!
http://www.redstate.com/2013/10/08/the-little-eichmanns-of-the-government-shutdown/
I have a real problem with the idea of the Federal Government owning land in the first place. If this is a government of the people, by the people, for the people, how can a federated government tell us we cannot use that land?
Wait until Obamacare hits full stride. The next shutdown someone will be in surgery and the surgeon will be forced to walk out mid-operation...
They’ve clearly forgotten they work for us, and the land they “manage” belongs to us.
The land and the administrators should be divided up and ownership transferred to the states. If the states want to pay these guys’ salaries, its their call.
The same should apply to BLM.
Fish and Wildlife, shut them down. Let the individual states worry about their own fish and wildlife.
I would be very happy if during the current budget dust-up the Park Service was de-funded for the duration. We could take up the question of their continued existence in 2014 or 2015, but for the time being, the budget remains at zero. “Non-essential” services and personnel.
Park operations should be contracted to private entities, the lands on a long term lease. They would be more efficient and take billions of dollars of operating costs off of FedGov.
I wonder if they will be out in force the next few months to stop hunters access to national forests.
Good idea.
Park Service should be UNARMED and part of the Department of the Interior. Zero out its budget. Reduce its staff to a few dozen in each state.
No more smokey the bear hats, either.
Sen. Rand Paul put forth a budget plan that would have reduced the size of the federal gov’t to 16.4% of GDP and which initially included reducing federal management of the national parks. Empowering the states to run these facilities now shows the wisdom of his idea.
Maybe issue them janitorial uniforms just to make the point crystal clear.
The central socialist government should own no land!
All so-called federal parks should be turned over to the states in which they’re located.
This is my firm belief.
Wonder what this civil servant salary is?
Why...?
I suppose that Virginia and Maryland could shut down the roads bringing food to DC.
The NPS generates a surplus. With some cutbacks, it could probably run on the funds it generates itself.
Americans should make the Park Service PAY for their NAZIesque defense of Obama’s brutal shut-down policies.
BOYCOTT all national parks and monuments run by the US Parks Service.
Do THAT for a few months and all the bastards will be on unemployment - exactly what they deserve.
It wouldn’t be a bad idea if We, The People did.
All of them, including the vast majority that are furloughed and have nothing to do with the barrycades?
You should dig out your history book and read it.
The US Government owned all the land west of the Mississippi. It purchased the land with real money. Subsequently by various programs established by the congress it gave or granted or ceded land to the public.
The government holdings today are what was in effect left over.
In Article 1 along towards the end:
To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings;
And To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.
I would support a constitutional amendment to strip formerly national parks and wilderness areas from the federal government and to transfer them to the state within which the reside. The national parts within the district of columbia would be transfered to the DC city government. National parks that extend over state boundaries (such as Yellowstone) would be transferred to a multi state compact with two management officials appointed by each affected state.
Sell all federal employees as slaves.
*Someone*, someplace, may have some use for them.
I can’t speak for all but every National Park Service employee that I have encountered could be a poster child for the eco-nazi tree huggers.
I have a pass to all national parks and monuments that permits free entry in any vehicle
The crap on this thread ( not you) is getting very deep
PURCHASED. Quite a few national parks were simply created by dictat and the land essentially seized.
Drivel......
How many parks and monuments have you visited in the last year?
If you don’t go anyway your boycott won’t matter
You heard that Smokey the Bear was a spouse abuser, right?
Every time Cindy Bear got hot, he beat her with a shovel.
It got really grisly the last time, she was bearly alive.
If he hadn’t pawsed fur a honey ale, why ....
What did the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coastguard do to make you want to sell them as slaves?
Not quite true, to my limited understanding.
The Mexican cession was purchased at the end of the Mexican American war, and that was paid for with real money, but it was transferred with property rights in place. The large rancheros of California were not purchased from the US government, but rather became US territory already owned.
Much the same is also true of land purchased by the Louisana Purchase in 1803 or the Gasden Purchase after the Mexican Cession. Where property was subject to preexisting claim to be privately owned (different from claims by indigineous peoples) that property was not transferred to the federal government on the way to the current owners.
The land for the Blue Ridge Parkway was seized by the government from the poor “hillbillies” who lived there. It is actually a quite sad story.
Because the hats are “authority.”
They don’t deserve any.
Shutting down the road would be an act of force.
Generally, aside from self defense, such an act of force would be restricted to the government.
How much did your pass cost? Is it an annual fee?
They’re federal employees?
Obviously only those who passed Obama’s “litmus” test.
Actually, the hats are hats.
Any NPS employees that do have authority derive it from their badge and gun, not their hat. All the rest of them that wear that hat (guides, etc) have no authority at all to begin with.
There will come a time (if we continue the path O is taking us) that the ruling class will have our national parks to themselves. We will not be allowed. Maybe our coastlines too.
Yes. I am 100% certain that NPS personnel will remain employed whether or not there are visitors to our National Parks.
Of course, that IS part of the problem.
What we need to do is make the rats pay for this in 2014 and 2016
Don't tell me you suppose that every member of the armed forces, every NPS forest-fire-fighter, every border-patrol agent, and every meat-inspector have passed an Obama litmus test.
PS - Four
(or maybe five - if National Forests count)
Since you’re listing military as feds, no - only the military has had an Obama litmus test. And all of the passers there should indeed be sold as slaves.
They like slaves in Saudi Arabia. Maybe they can sell enough to pay off the tarp-robbery.
The only way the gov’t can have any money to buy anything is by taking the citizens’ money. Everything the gov’t “owns” belong to its citizens.
Unfortunately too many in this country don’t seem to get that.
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