Patterico's Pontifications

3/5/2013

White House: WE MUST CANCEL ALL TOURS BECAUSE OF SEQUESTRATION!!!!!! (Also, We’re Hiring! Apply Within!)

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 6:27 pm

The White House suddenly canceled tours of . . . the White House — blaming (you guessed it) sequestration:

Sorry, Washington-bound spring-breakers. Your White House tours have been canceled.

The Obama administration announced Tuesday that it will cancel all tours starting this weekend, due to sequester cuts. The move prompted swift condemnation from Republican lawmakers, who described the decision as the latest attempt to make the sequester seem worse than it is.

“It’s politically motivated,” Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., told Fox News. “It seems childish — take my ball and go home.”

Are Republicans right? Here’s one hint, from the Washington Times:

The sequester cuts are now officially in place, but many government agencies appear to be hiring freely anyway.

The U.S. Forest Service on Monday posted help-wanted ads for a few good men and women to work as “recreation aides” this summer, the Internal Revenue Service advertised for an office secretary in Maryland, the U.S. Mint wanted 24 people to help press coins, and the Agriculture Department said it needs three “insect production workers” to help grow bollworms in Phoenix.

Monday marked the first regular workday under sequestration, and federal agencies posted more than 400 job ads by 6 p.m.

There are children who will have a once in a lifetime opportunity to see the White House who will be denied that opportunity so Barack Obama can score some cheap political points, in his quest to do Absolutely Nothing about our budget problems other than continually call for more and more and more taxes on the “rich.”

The dishonesty and smug lack of caring is no less infuriating for having become commonplace.

52 Comments

  1. Ding.

    Comment by Patterico (9c670f) — 3/5/2013 @ 6:27 pm

  2. Dare he go golfing?

    Comment by MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 3/5/2013 @ 6:30 pm

  3. And the TSA is spending $1,000 per TSA goon for new uniforms. No word on whether they will include snazzy new leather trenchcoats.

    Comment by SPQR (768505) — 3/5/2013 @ 6:31 pm

  4. SPQR, cut ‘em some slack on the price of the uniforms. Have you priced riding crops lately? Especially when you want them customized with the Obama logo?

    Gotta keep those security lines moving, you know.

    Comment by Steve57 (60a887) — 3/5/2013 @ 6:36 pm

  5. Not to mention the Department of Homeland Security has bought billions of bullets, over 2000 light armored vehicles, and new uniforms at $1000 a person for their uniformed personnel; but money is tight!

    Comment by Douglas K. Davis (de27b4) — 3/5/2013 @ 6:38 pm

  6. 2. Dare he go golfing?

    Comment by MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 3/5/2013 @ 6:30 pm

    http://www.rules.house.gov/amendments/GOHMER_008_xml3513144704474.pdf

    Amendment to H.R. 933

    None of the funds made available by a division of this Act may be used to transport the President to or from a golf course until public tours of the White House resume.

    Comment by Steve57 (60a887) — 3/5/2013 @ 6:40 pm

  7. Can they shut down the Oval Office, too ?!

    Comment by Elephant Stone (9b9972) — 3/5/2013 @ 6:46 pm

  8. Comment by Steve57 (60a887) — 3/5/2013 @ 6:40 pm

    Oh my goodness!!! I’ll have to contribute to that Congressman’s reelection!!

    Comment by MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 3/5/2013 @ 7:06 pm

  9. wikipedia.org: The 1902 mantel was restored [in the White House dining room] during the Kennedy renovation and includes the inscription placed there by Franklin D. Roosevelt, from a letter by John Adams to his wife Abigail written immediately after he first moved into the house in 1800:

    “I pray Heaven to bestow the best of blessings on this House, and all that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof.”

    The inscription on that fireplace mantel is pretty much of a joke in today’s hip world. It should be changed to “Yo, yo, yo. Punks in da house.”

    Comment by Mark (928c12) — 3/5/2013 @ 7:26 pm

  10. http://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/mar/5/email-tells-feds-make-sequester-painful-promised/

    They are intent on making this as painful as possible. Intentionally.

    Comment by JD (b63a52) — 3/5/2013 @ 7:42 pm

  11. http://dailycaller.com/2013/03/04/napolitano-promises-to-release-more-illegals/

    For something that she claimed to not be responsible for, she sure does seem quite enthused on letting illegal aliens loose. Originally she did not know, it was done without her approval, or the White House’s, by a civil servant. Now, she lies about the number released, and enthusiastically promises to keep on doing this.

    Comment by JD (b63a52) — 3/5/2013 @ 7:49 pm

  12. The official emails that reveal the Administration’s secret goals are coming out more quickly than they did in Obama’s first term.

    Comment by DRJ (a83b8b) — 3/5/2013 @ 7:50 pm

  13. On the latest manufactured disaster facing our country, here’s the opening of the most recent column by the great Thomas Sowell:

    “Back in my teaching days, many years ago, one of the things I liked to ask the class to consider was this: Imagine a government agency with only two tasks: (1) building statues of Benedict Arnold and (2) providing life-saving medications to children. If this agency’s budget were cut, what would it do?

    “The answer, of course, is that it would cut back on the medications for children. Why? Because that would be what was most likely to get the budget cuts restored. If they cut back on building statues of Benedict Arnold, people might ask why they were building statues of Benedict Arnold in the first place.

    “The example was deliberately extreme as an illustration. But, in the real world, the same general pattern can be seen in local, state, and national government responses to budget cuts.

    “At the local level, the first response to budget cuts is often to cut the police department and the fire department. There may be all sorts of wasteful boondoggles that could have been cut instead, but that would not produce the public alarm that reducing police protection and fire protection can produce. And public alarm is what can get budget cuts restored.”

    You can read the whole thing at the National Reviuew or Town Hall web site.

    Comment by Whitey Nisson (7bb1d5) — 3/5/2013 @ 7:51 pm

  14. Here’s his website, MD in Philly. Liberals don’t like him at all.

    Comment by DRJ (a83b8b) — 3/5/2013 @ 7:53 pm

  15. I never minded too much how grand our capital’s buildings are. Our congress and president and justices live well indeed, but we’re a rich enough country that these gorgeous buildings are not a serious expense, and because these buildings belong to the people, we can visit them and enjoy the history of the places.

    Obama has the privilege of working and living in the people’s White House. The least he could do is allow citizens to take a look at the east wing.

    Comment by Dustin (73fead) — 3/5/2013 @ 7:54 pm

  16. And the TSA is spending $1,000 per TSA goon for new uniforms. No word on whether they will include snazzy new leather trenchcoats.

    I was hoping for epaulets and gold braid like Spiro Agnew designed for the WH guards.

    Comment by Kevin M (bf8ad7) — 3/5/2013 @ 8:01 pm

  17. I’m expecting Yellowstone and Yosemite to close this summer. And the Smithsonian.

    This is going to backfire. People may be stupid, but they are not that stupid.

    Comment by Kevin M (bf8ad7) — 3/5/2013 @ 8:04 pm

  18. obama is an effing joke he really believes our broke-ass fascist little government is the #1 thing people’s lives revolve around

    it’s very shallow, the knowledge what food stamp has about this country and its people

    Comment by happyfeet (8ce051) — 3/5/2013 @ 8:15 pm

  19. Sorry, Washington-bound spring-breakers.

    The people who’d go to Washington on spring break are too boring to deserve a spring break. Let them stay home and drink, like God intended.

    Comment by Chuck Bartowski (ad7249) — 3/5/2013 @ 8:23 pm

  20. I’m pretty sure no funds are gonna be cut for Public Broadcasting and Planned Parenthood. Because priorities.

    Comment by daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 3/5/2013 @ 8:55 pm

  21. Obama disgusts me. Perry too.

    Comment by JD (b63a52) — 3/5/2013 @ 8:58 pm

  22. “It’s a travesty of a mockery of a sham.”

    Even Woody Allen makes a point as the world turns.

    Comment by Ag80 (b2c81f) — 3/5/2013 @ 8:58 pm

  23. Boy, I’m sure glad my mom and dad took me to see the White House when I was six years old. It was a nice tour. I remember it clearly.

    There wasn’t a petulant president in residence, then, so that helped a lot.

    Comment by elissa (660edb) — 3/5/2013 @ 9:19 pm

  24. Maybe I do have reason to worry:

    http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2013/03/are-there-still-republicans-in-congress.html

    Wonder if the Continuing Ed department in town offers an IED class?

    Extaordinary circumstances can send in the kill drones over American soil per Holder? That’s not good news either.

    Comment by gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 3/5/2013 @ 9:20 pm

  25. obama want you dead you gonna die

    death from the skies

    he don’t give a damn about your citizenship

    he don’t give a damn if you’re an American born and bred

    he will kill you

    simple as that

    nobel peace prize bitches

    Comment by happyfeet (8ce051) — 3/5/2013 @ 9:24 pm

  26. jeez filtrated again i don’t get to make no comments hardly ever it’s no fairs

    a pikachu gotta express

    Comment by happyfeet (8ce051) — 3/5/2013 @ 9:25 pm

  27. 25. I’m routinely having a hard time on the Internets. But then, I frequent some insurgents here and there.

    Comment by gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 3/5/2013 @ 9:38 pm

  28. Hey Pat, question for you, or anybody really. When I refresh the comments it no longer takes me back to the comment I last read. It takes me back to the beginning. It is slightly annoying. Is it the site or is it me?

    Comment by Gazzer (31b548) — 3/5/2013 @ 9:43 pm

  29. when the English are the cowboys I fear for the future of the globe Mr. gary

    but this is where we are

    Comment by happyfeet (8ce051) — 3/5/2013 @ 9:43 pm

  30. Is it true that volunteers guide the White House tours? The White House website says volunteers help manage the White House tour lines, but I’m not sure if the tour guides are volunteers or if there are tour guides.

    Comment by DRJ (a83b8b) — 3/5/2013 @ 9:44 pm

  31. Courtesy of Monty at Ace’s, Mr. Samuelson has been apolitically concise for, it seems, forever.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/robert-samuelson-the-true-national-debt/2013/02/24/1a133c78-7eac-11e2-a350-49866afab584_story.html?wprss=rss_opinions

    Comment by gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 3/5/2013 @ 9:55 pm

  32. I saw the following posted to CBSnews.com under their story about the cancelled tours, and it made me laugh. If it’s juvenile humor, it perfectly fits the tone and tenor of today’s presidency.

    I heard it was because Michelle leaves her dirty underwear laying around all over the white house and the staff was starting to become embarrassed.

    Comment by Mark (928c12) — 3/5/2013 @ 9:58 pm

  33. I love it!!

    When the obamacrats begin to recognize what they’ve done in November maybe we’ll make some progress.

    I just hope the unemployment numbers increase as a result of the o’voters losing their jobs.

    4 more years of this and they may die of starvation. Then we may get some sanity back in elections. If the mexicans don’t get the right to vote in our elections in the meantime.

    Comment by Jim (ba6a58) — 3/5/2013 @ 10:04 pm

  34. 24.

    Maybe I do have reason to worry:

    http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2013/03/are-there-still-republicans-in-congress.html

    Wonder if the Continuing Ed department in town offers an IED class?

    Extaordinary circumstances can send in the kill drones over American soil per Holder? That’s not good news either.

    Comment by gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 3/5/2013 @ 9:20 pm

    We all have reason to worry Mr. gary.

    From the Holder letter:

    As members of this administration have previously indicated, the US government has not carried out drone strikes in the United States and has no intention of doing so.

    First the AG invokes the famed “trust us” clause of the Constitution. Then in the final paragraph:

    The question you have posed is therefore entirely hypothetical, unlikely to occur, and one we hope no president will ever have to confront. It is possible, I suppose, to imagine an extraordinary circumstance in which it would be necessary and appropriate under the Constitution and applicable laws of the United States for the President to authorize the military to use lethal force within the territory of the United States. For example, the president could conceivably have no choice but to authorize the military to use such force if necessary to protect the homeland in the circumstances like a catastrophic attack like the ones suffered on December 7, 1941, and September 11, 2001.

    WTF?!?! where did this apples vs. platypuses comparison come from. Rand Paul didn’t ask if where in the hell the President thought he had gotten the constitutional authority to authorize the use of military force inside of US territory if we came under sustained air assault, whether by the Imperial Japanese Fleet or persons unknown who’ve hijacked commercial aircraft.

    He asked “whether or not the president can kill American citizens through the drone strike program on US soil.” A US citizen literally on US soil, because the drones can only take out a person tooling around on the ground. It can’t take on a carrier airwing or any aircraft for that matter.

    I hope Sen. Paul calls Holder to testify because now I want to find out what in the hell an individual whose best effort apparently to answer a Senator’s written inquiry is the disjointed ramblings of a blithering idiot.

    Comment by Steve57 (60a887) — 3/5/2013 @ 10:15 pm

  35. Although for this administration this is par for the course. I suppose if the Chinese do develop a carrier force and eventually did attack Pearl Harbor, Obama might order a drone strike and then send the FBI in to start an investigation so they could try to make those thousands of Sailors shut out about what a screw up Obama is.

    And good luck with that, by the way.

    Comment by Steve57 (60a887) — 3/5/2013 @ 10:18 pm

  36. what follows is a News Article brought to you by Barack Obama’s Associated Press

    it is not an Opinion Article it is a News Article

    get it straight, losers, and keep it straight

    it might be on the test

    Too much money spent in Iraq for too few results

    Comment by happyfeet (8ce051) — 3/5/2013 @ 10:18 pm

  37. Thanks all, so it’s just me then.

    Comment by Gazzer (31b548) — 3/5/2013 @ 10:24 pm

  38. WOLVERINES!

    Comment by daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 3/5/2013 @ 10:27 pm

  39. 35. Ain’t no one seen the trouble Succubus seein’. Mostly imminently.

    Comment by gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 3/5/2013 @ 10:28 pm

  40. 39. Oh damn, the link, the freakin’ link.

    http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/threat_level_obama_HDvl1E4qyCh2UDwzRm6cSJ/0

    Comment by gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 3/5/2013 @ 10:29 pm

  41. Iraqi Parliament Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, the country’s top Sunni Muslim official, told auditors that the rebuilding efforts “had unfavorable outcomes in general.”

    “You think if you throw money at a problem, you can fix it,” Kurdish government official Qubad Talabani, son of Iraqi president Jalal Talabani, told auditors. “It was just not strategic thinking.”

    Read more: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2013/mar/05/us-us-iraq-funding/#ixzz2MjpeseIZ

    He just described the problem with the entire liberal agenda.

    Osama al-Nujaifi might as well be talking about the stimulus.

    Comment by Steve57 (60a887) — 3/5/2013 @ 10:39 pm

  42. Mr. gary, hate to toot my own horn but I linked & quoted that Ralph Peters article about 7 hours ago on the Hugo Chavez Dead comment thread.

    Not like it can’t be linked enough, though.

    Comment by Steve57 (60a887) — 3/5/2013 @ 10:43 pm

  43. Forget golfing. Lets’s see if Obama goes anywhere during the sequester. How many tours could we give for the price of his trip to Florida, or the girls’ trip to Colorado?

    Comment by MayBee (f32100) — 3/6/2013 @ 12:38 am

  44. Me, I’m too busy being worried about the giant sinkholes coming to get me if Homeland Security is too busy trying on new uniforms and releasing prisoners to do its job to be worried about visiting the Socialist House.

    Comment by daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 3/6/2013 @ 1:00 am

  45. Don’t you love farce?
    My fault, I fear
    I thought you’d want what I want…
    Sorry, my dear
    And where are the clowns
    Send in the clowns
    Don’t bother they’re here

    By Stephen Sondheim
    Love the way Sara Vaughn sings this.

    Comment by mg (31009b) — 3/6/2013 @ 3:25 am

  46. Mr Bartowski wrote:

    Sorry, Washington-bound spring-breakers.

    The people who’d go to Washington on spring break are too boring to deserve a spring break. Let them stay home and drink, like God intended.

    Could be worse: my daughter gets to spend her spring break at Fort Meade. :(

    Comment by The Army daddy Dana (3e4784) — 3/6/2013 @ 5:57 am

  47. Mark wrote:

    I saw the following posted to CBSnews.com under their story about the cancelled tours, and it made me laugh. If it’s juvenile humor, it perfectly fits the tone and tenor of today’s presidency.

    I heard it was because Michelle leaves her dirty underwear laying around all over the white house and the staff was starting to become embarrassed.

    Does this mean the staffer assigned to pick up the First Lady’s thong panties was furloughed?

    Comment by The budget conscious Dana (3e4784) — 3/6/2013 @ 6:01 am

  48. Hey, it’s what the President has wanted all along: no more riff-raff walking around his crib.

    Comment by The Dana who figured it out (3e4784) — 3/6/2013 @ 6:03 am

  49. The White House is not on the tour
    Seems that we are now too poor
    Oh, what the Hell,
    We won’t see Michelle
    Who was never really much of a lure.

    Comment by The Limerick Avenger (3e4784) — 3/6/2013 @ 6:06 am

  50. 41. Sorry, Mr. 57, on weekends I’m a drive-by commenter. Thanks for all you do.

    http://www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/jeb-bush-quietly-lays-campaign-groundwork-through-foundation

    Romany was a savant compared to his book end. Watch suckers, the whole East Coast GOP will get behind the Jebber and the rest of the field will be blackballed.

    Comment by gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 3/6/2013 @ 6:39 am

  51. There are children who will have a once in a lifetime opportunity to see the White House who will be denied that opportunity

    That’s what really galls me! He and She spend millions on their fancy vacations on our dime, and they ruin the vacations of ordinary Americans.

    Comment by Patricia (be0117) — 3/6/2013 @ 8:38 am

  52. Now if he the president would only cut transportation costs for him to get on tele every single day to lie to us, the sequester would be shown to be the best White House plan ever.

    Comment by Fred Beloit (9e81ce) — 3/6/2013 @ 8:44 am

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