Obama Tries to Shut WWII Vets Out of WWII Memorial, Fails
The order to barricade the memorial came from the White House (specifically, OMB).
With the help of GOP lawmakers, they barged in anyway. Good for them.
Meanwhile, the tactic I proposed here Monday night — fund those programs that are very popular and should be funded — is working beautifully . . . at least as a political matter. As JD noted earlier, it resulted in a CNN reporter asking Harry Reid the standard “why are you so heartless” question: namely, if Republicans will fund the NIH, making clinical trials for cancer patients possible, why won’t you pass that bill?
And the answer is, Harry Reid wants to hold those cancer patients hostage to his view that every last piece of the federal government must be funded, or NOTHING gets funded.
Now who’s being extremist? Now who is being heartless?
Meanwhile, the L.A. Times and every other media outlet portrays this as a problem caused by Republicans. It’s so predictable it’s hardly worth the effort to point it out.
What makes this different, though, is that as Republicans continue to pass targeted funding bills, it will become harder and harder for Harry Reid and Barack Obama to explain why this popular program or that one is not getting funded.
Why do Harry Reid and Barack Obama hate cancer patients? Their fate should not be treated as a political football. That they insist on doing so is disgusting though not surprising.
Dong.
The Dana trying to get in comment #1 (af9ec3) — 10/2/2013 @ 6:28 pmWe’ll allow it this time, Dana.
SPQR (768505) — 10/2/2013 @ 6:30 pmThe sun rose this morning, Autumn cool to start by up to 80º F by mid-afternoon. The deer were grazing and the birds were singing. Why, it’s almost as though the federal government isn’t needed for most things.
The Dana trying to get in a substantive comment (af9ec3) — 10/2/2013 @ 6:31 pmThe Man Who Was Going To Stop the Oceans From Rising can’t even keep the Grand Canyon open.
Elephant Stone (6a6f37) — 10/2/2013 @ 6:45 pmMr Stone wrote:
Ding! We have a winner!
The appreciative Dana (af9ec3) — 10/2/2013 @ 6:48 pmAnd it’s my new blog tagline!
The blogger Dana (af9ec3) — 10/2/2013 @ 6:49 pmHe is the extremist prick they were waiting for, Stones…
Colonel Haiku (08d79d) — 10/2/2013 @ 7:03 pmMeanwhile, the L.A. Times and every other media outlet…
Shorter: PRAVDA
Kevin M (bf8ad7) — 10/2/2013 @ 8:15 pmYou know, I looked through the online version of the Times and I couldn’t find anywhere they even mentioned the vets. After all, they’re enemies of the revolution!
Patricia (be0117) — 10/2/2013 @ 8:24 pmSo, Obama is out to punish people for thwarting him, starting with those rat-bastard WW2 vets.
Kevin M (bf8ad7) — 10/2/2013 @ 9:59 pmmeanwhile lots of new shows are premiering on broadcast network television this week it’s very very exciting
everything’s moving right along
there was a taping tonight of “undateable” which is a midseason replacement it will be on NBC
it’s a sitcom about losers what are on the obamacare and the hilarious adventures they have trying to find anyone who will love them or even just take them seriously as sentient individuals
I haven’t seen any episodes yet but I heard in the pilot they spend a lot of time making vine videos of themselves showing off various infections they picked up at their doctor’s office
funny stuff!
Kaley Cuoco guest stars
happyfeet (c60db2) — 10/2/2013 @ 10:02 pm9. Comment by Patricia (be0117) — 10/2/2013 @ 8:24 pm [PDT = 11:24PM EDT]
You know, I looked through the online version of the Times and I couldn’t find anywhere they even mentioned the vets.
I found this.
http://www.nytimes.com/news/fiscal-crisis/2013/10/02/world-war-ii-memorial-will-stay-open-to-veterans/?_r=0
Sammy Finkelman (ae5747) — 10/2/2013 @ 11:03 pmThat NYT article is rank propaganda. Nowhere does it mention that Obama denied the veterans access. Nowhere does it mention that this is an open memorial and shutting it down is more cost intensive than doing nothing. Nowhere is it mentioned that the memorial is open at night with no staff (indeed, night time is the most beautiful time to visit several of the memorials, if you have a group you can go with).
Nowhere is it mentioned that the democrats weaponized our public memorial (paid for privately!) to make the government ‘shutdown’ seem worse. The government is simply praised, and at the end the RNC dismissed as though they had attempted to politicize this.
Ugh x 50.
Dustin (303dca) — 10/2/2013 @ 11:10 pmIt seems like hey reversed themselves four hours before Patterico posted this. But veyr quietly.
They didn’t want to alert anyone who didn’t already know that this happened in the first place.
And it was portrayed as being consistent with what they had said already.
So the news spread slowly.
It took 8 hours to hit the New York Times, and the chances of it being mentioned were greatly enhanced by the fact this was a reversal.
Sammy Finkelman (ae5747) — 10/2/2013 @ 11:12 pm13. Comment by Dustin (303dca) — 10/2/2013 @ 11:10 pm
That NYT article is rank propaganda. Nowhere does it mention that Obama denied the veterans access.
You have to read it very carefully, but it does say they were denied access (although it’s portrayed as an independnet decision by the Park Service and not attributed at all to Obama, which to be fair, they don’t know for a fact that it is the case.)
Paragraphs 5 and 6 go:
Sammy Finkelman (ae5747) — 10/2/2013 @ 11:19 pmNowhere does it mention that this is an open memorial and shutting it down is more cost intensive than doing nothing.
Right. You’d have to know something about the way it is set up.
Many parks are open also, and you need gates to close them. Is this ever “closed” at night?
Nowhere is it mentioned that the memorial is open at night with no staff (indeed, night time is the most beautiful time to visit several of the memorials, if you have a group you can go with).
See, I didn’t know. In New York City we have parks that “close at dusk”
Nobody keeps anyone out, but in principle, and in some places and times in reality, you could get a ticket for being in there. Or even arrested, if you have no ID.
So, this is always open ordinarily.
Nowhere is it mentioned that the democrats weaponized our public memorial (paid for privately!) to make the government ‘shutdown’ seem worse.
The mere fact that this is usually open would tell you that. Paid for privately only means
that it’s construction was paid for privately.
The government is simply praised, and at the end the RNC dismissed as though they had attempted to politicize this.
Because it comes out like their announcement was something to be expected. Almost. There is the paragraph that goes:
So that hints there is a bigger story here.
And there is the fact that a story only ran after the reversal.
Sammy Finkelman (ae5747) — 10/2/2013 @ 11:26 pmThe New York Times did have an earlier sory:
http://www.nytimes.com/news/fiscal-crisis/2013/10/01/after-being-denied-access-veterans-group-allowed-to-tour-memorial/#more-396
Now all this – both stories – are just online, not in the printed paper.
Sammy Finkelman (ae5747) — 10/2/2013 @ 11:33 pmActually, the private donations were many millions more than the cost of the beautiful memorial, and these funds are an endowment for the memorial’s upkeep. So the park police (under orders from the administration) were stealing something from America when they confiscated this memorial.
Maybe part of the reason I have been so dejected about politics lately is that I’ve had far more exposure to the liberal media (CNN and papers like the NYT) for the past 8 months or so, and less time to insulate myself in the bubble of blogs I like (which I always tried to resist, but human nature is what it is).
I find the propaganda out there to be powerful and serious in its efforts to rob us of awareness.
Anyway, back to what I was saying, these memorials are open 24/7 unless it’s something like the Washington monument that you actually enter. When I worked in DC I would drive my car around and visit them all the time at night, usually with friends (seems safer, but I never really felt unsafe). The WWII memorial was awesome, even though it’s simple. The FDR and Korean War ones nearby were also great at night.
Anyway, I agree with Sammy that the NYT was free to finally tell the readers about this after the administration backed off and reversed their decision with the ‘free speech’ exemption the park police came up with. Damn smart move on their part. Had a WWII vet died while trying to access this memorial it would have been on like donkey kong.
Dustin (303dca) — 10/2/2013 @ 11:36 pmThe WWII Memorial needs a lot of OPENING UP and/or SHUTTING DOWN. I mean, it’s a granite and marble Memorial, and it is….errrrrrrr, ummmmmmm, Let me be CLEAR…..errrrr, it just STANDS THERE. Shutting it DOWN, infers that is is OPENED UP!!
GUS (70b624) — 10/2/2013 @ 11:43 pmObama is a fuktard.
Anyway, I agree with Sammy that the NYT was free to finally tell the readers about this after the administration backed off and reversed their decision with the ‘free speech’ exemption the park police came up with.
That initially was, or seemed to be, a catch-22, because a group of over 20 people needed a permit and they weren’t issuing permits.
The New York Times it trns out actually did have a story the day before online, but it treated this as a natural result of the fact that “the Park Service shut national parks to visitors” – which was maybe what the Park Service was saying, but it wasn’t true, since this is not something that was kept “open” and “closed”. You’d never know from the first story, or the second one, that there never were any gates there until the shutdown.
Sammy Finkelman (ae5747) — 10/2/2013 @ 11:47 pmI think Obama issued instructions to all agencies, or to people in the White House: find things whose elimination would inconveience and annoy people, but not actually hurt anyone – that’s the goldilocks situation – for him –
and them stop them from continuing, and say it is because of the government shutdown.
Even though to find such things and stop them, you havr to really go looking for them.
The Army Navy football game is another thing like that.
Sammy Finkelman (ae5747) — 10/2/2013 @ 11:52 pmIf they have an endowment, then anything they spend on it is not affected by the shutdown.
That raises the thought: Did they use any of the endowment money to put up the barricades?
Sammy Finkelman (ae5747) — 10/2/2013 @ 11:56 pmObama actually thinks that he IS smarter than everyone else, and that he CAN fool all the people, all the time. What a petty little man.
Kevin M (bf8ad7) — 10/3/2013 @ 12:01 amI happened to see some MSM news last night, nothing about the WWII Memorial or Harry Reid’s performance.
And I think the NYT coverage was more damage control than news.
I am reading for the first time the book by CS Lewis That Hideous Strength. A main part of it is manipulation of events and the news coverage of them by the “progressives”.
MD in Philly (f9371b) — 10/3/2013 @ 4:26 amAnybody want to bet this was totally unnecessary?
http://nypost.com/2013/10/02/govt-shutdown-spreads-to-beaches-of-normandy/
How is it possible to shut down a cemetary?
Steve57 (234b9e) — 10/3/2013 @ 4:56 amNow, Barack Obama is just being an a**whole.
No, you can’t go visit your grandfather.
Steve57 (234b9e) — 10/3/2013 @ 4:58 amYou could take care of the grave if the government would let you. Like you put flowers on it on Memorial Day.
But no. It won’t let you. Because Barack Obama is throwing a fit.
Steve57 (234b9e) — 10/3/2013 @ 5:00 amIt’s probably a deal they worked out with Hollandaise;
http://therightscoop.com/sarah-palin-my-call-for-civil-disobedience-around-the-barrycades/#disqus_thread
narciso (3fec35) — 10/3/2013 @ 5:20 amNormandy makes sense. Without full strength around the clock security patrols, the French will be using it for rendezvous.
nk (dbc370) — 10/3/2013 @ 5:24 amIs anybody else noting the irony of the one group of people who can’t govern 9000 dead people throwing a tantrum because somebody’s interfering with their push to take charge of the health care of 100s of millions of live people.
I mean, who shuts down cemetaries? All across the world, you’ve got cemetaries that never shut down. Except if you put the USG in charge. They can’t figure it out.
Steve57 (234b9e) — 10/3/2013 @ 5:43 am“We’re open!”
According to Drudge the feds are trying to shut down Mount Vernon. I don’t normally believe a lot of the stuff they report, so I went to the site.
http://www.mountvernon.org/
Since they can’t close down private property, they’re closing parking lots near Mount Vernon.
Thanks, Barack Obama, for figuring you can show me by deciding I don’t know how to work a parking lot without a fed to tell me what to do.
You know what happens when the gub’mint is defunded? The parking lots keep pretty much working on their own.
But now through the miracle of the government shutdown we learn the government does indeed know how to enforce borders. At the cemeteries of Normandy or the parking lots near Mount Vernon.
Steve57 (234b9e) — 10/3/2013 @ 5:55 amThe Dems are upset with this Republican strategy of slowly reviewing and selecting individual things to fund because they know that an all or nothing approach to funding is the only way they can hide all of the non-essential budget items and bureaucracy and the massive waste of taxpayer money.
Colonel Haiku (0dcd9c) — 10/3/2013 @ 5:56 amWhat’s amazing, coronello, is that now everybody has figured out the “Washington monument” gambit they think it will still work.
Steve57 (234b9e) — 10/3/2013 @ 6:01 amWell they ‘control the vertical and the horizontal’ Steve, but as they say, ypu ‘can’t stop the signal’
narciso (3fec35) — 10/3/2013 @ 6:04 amYeah, but the signal I’m getting is that the people who think they can prevent access to wide open spaces are demanding to be put in charge of my access to health care. Or else.
I don’t see this as a selling point.
Steve57 (234b9e) — 10/3/2013 @ 6:08 amEven my fiswhrap is noticing;
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/health/2013/10/another-day-more-delay-appears-likely-for-obamacare-exchanges.html
narciso (3fec35) — 10/3/2013 @ 6:10 amSteve – triathlon scheduled for this weekend cancelled. The race organizer would have used a section of the lake .6 miles out and about 30 yards wide, as well as the parking lot. It would have been a revenue generator for the park. Too late to get a refund on entry fees or hotel rooms.
JD (8fd354) — 10/3/2013 @ 6:29 amthat sucks
EPWJ (6140f6) — 10/3/2013 @ 6:37 amThe government is spending more money now that it’s shut down on closing stuff than it would make if it was up and running and keeping things open.
Steve57 (234b9e) — 10/3/2013 @ 6:42 amhttp://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Famous-City-Tavern-Closed-by-Government-Shutdown-226198441.html
I’m at a loss for words. We’ve definitely moved into “the beatings will continue until morale improves” territory.
Somehow, the fact the GOP won’t fund Obamacare means the bartenders and wait staff at a Philly tavern can’t earn their tips.
Steve57 (234b9e) — 10/3/2013 @ 6:50 amHow does proving he’s an a**whole make Obama’s case that he should be in charge of the database with the details about my sex life?
Democrats, weigh in.
Steve57 (234b9e) — 10/3/2013 @ 6:52 amActually, from the World War II Memorial web site, you can see that they have 15 million in a trust fund that could be used to run it. But how much money do they need to run it? It’s not staffed and is usually open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It surely must be less expensive to leave it open than to close it and hire guards to prevent people from entering the memorial.
http://www.wwiimemorial.com/default.asp?page=funding.asp&subpage=intro
Tanny O'Haley (6c44a8) — 10/3/2013 @ 7:10 amMitt Romney is a Morman. He doesn’t drink.
Even he could figure out a way to keep a revolutionary war era tavern open. But not Barack Obama.
Steve57 (234b9e) — 10/3/2013 @ 7:18 amThis episode with the WWII memorial pretty much nails it on the head — if there was any doubt in the first place — that the scroungy person who is the current president has been blatantly manipulating and politicizing access to the public for tours of the White House.
He has been shown to be a shameless, blatantly dishonest, vindictive individual on so many occasions. That we Americans put him into the presidency not once but twice doesn’t reflect well on us. It illustrates a susceptibility to the kind of amorality and corruption that can forever infect a society. So it’s no longer a case of being glib or sarcastic to say that we’ve taken a huge step forward (or downward) on the pathway to becoming one of those nations that is always wobbly or mediocre like a Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela, France or Greece.
I’ve seen it said that great nations have a shelf life of around 200 years. Not sure how accurate that is, but witnessing the US at this time in its history (give or take a good chunk of more than 30 years since 1976) makes me think there’s something to that.
Mark (58ea35) — 10/3/2013 @ 7:20 am43. Comment by Steve57 (234b9e) — 10/3/2013 @ 7:18 am
Mitt Romney is a Morman. He doesn’t drink.
Even he could figure out a way to keep a revolutionary war era tavern open. But not Barack Obama.
What Barack Obama had to figure out was a way to get some things closed.
Sammy Finkelman (a1e8fb) — 10/3/2013 @ 8:14 amComment by Mark (58ea35) — 10/3/2013 @ 7:20 am
That we Americans put him into the presidency not once but twice doesn’t reflect well on us.
Two of the people it doesn’t reflect well on are John McCain and Mitt Romney. Especially Mitt Romney. Mitt Romney did win the first debate, which was on economics, niot that what he said was so right but that what Obama said was so wrong, but otherwise he wasn’t able to handle him.
John McCain also did not understand his own health care plan and was not able to tear apart an Obama comment about it in a debate between them that was as wrong as Gerald Ford’s claim about Poland.
Sammy Finkelman (a1e8fb) — 10/3/2013 @ 8:19 amI heard about the closing of City Tavern, which is a shame as it is a great place,
MD in Philly (f9371b) — 10/3/2013 @ 8:24 amand I assume it pays for itself.
Not sure how the Fed park system fits in.
I see the rebuilding was commissioned by Congress in 1948 as part of the Independence Hall/Historical Philadelphia designation.
Still, assuming the issue is funding, one would think that things that pay for themselves would not be closed.
MD in Philly (f9371b) — 10/3/2013 @ 8:29 amTrue.
But what I’m pointing out is the bizarre nature of what Barack Obama thinks other Americans to believe to be normal.
He thinks he can shut down a tavern that has been a going concern since the 18th century, and everyone who can’t figure out how do you not keep a bar open in Philadelphia will understand he’s got to shut it for budgetary reasons.
I wouldn’t do it. You’ve got to have a mercenary soul to operate a liquor store on the outskirts of an Indian reservation. If I had such a mercenary soul I’d already be doing it.
But if Barack Obama told me I couldn’t, no how no way make money doing it I’d look at him like he had three heads.
Steve57 (234b9e) — 10/3/2013 @ 8:34 amI intended to say you’ve got to have a mercenary soul to make a living preying on other people’s vulnerabilities.
And since the Ogalala Lakota of Pine Ridge in South Dakota sued liquor purveyors in Nebraska for facilitating alcoholism on their reservation I’m not stereotyping. Just mentioning an actual issue.
Steve57 (234b9e) — 10/3/2013 @ 8:49 amComment by Steve57 (234b9e) — 10/3/2013 @ 8:34 am
He thinks he can shut down a tavern that has been a going concern since the 18th century, and everyone who can’t figure out how do you not keep a bar open in Philadelphia will understand he’s got to shut it for budgetary reasons.
Not budgetary reasons, in the sense of there not being enough money, but legal reasons, because the Republicans refused to pass a bill unless he would agree to dismantle or suspend his favorote piece of legislation. He’s not claiming anything other than legal reasons for shutting things down.
Now the thing is, though, that may very well not be true – he doesn’t need for the Republicans to pass a “clean” continuing resolution, or for any kind of continuing resolution to pass Congress, in orde3r to nt close this – it may not have to draw on federal appropriations to keep going. But of course the people who will write about this have no idea how it’s financed.
Sammy Finkelman (a1e8fb) — 10/3/2013 @ 8:57 amComment by MD in Philly (f9371b) — 10/3/2013 @ 8:29 am
Still, assuming the issue is funding, one would think that things that pay for themselves would not be closed.
Sometimes, even often, they don’t get to keep the money they make, but they must turn over all their – what – profits, I suppose, not daily cash! – to the Treasury, and they get to spend only the specific amount appropriated for them.
It would be unworkable if all money they received went inbto accounts they could not access or use, and they instead could spen only a fixed amount. It would very easy to operate it at a loss, sell below cost, so they probably do retain the money for some time and can use it for expenses, at least supplies, if not salaries..
Sammy Finkelman (a1e8fb) — 10/3/2013 @ 9:01 amI mean, who shuts down cemetaries? All across the world, you’ve got cemetaries that never shut down. Except if you put the USG in charge. They can’t figure it out.
Comment by Steve57 (234b9e) — 10/3/2013 @ 5:43 am
If the Federal Government was put in charge of the Sahara Desert, it would soon announce that there was a shortage of sand.
askeptic (b8ab92) — 10/3/2013 @ 9:11 amSammy, I meant the LA Times.
There you go, dear, go prove me wrong.
(That will keep him busy.)
Patricia (be0117) — 10/3/2013 @ 6:55 pmI don’t have free access to the LA Times, although I probably could search for free, especially through Google.
Sometimes, though, if there is large amount of material, things will be there somewhere. You’d be surprised maybe what you could find. If not strong references to something, clues.
Sammy Finkelman (cb6d12) — 10/4/2013 @ 3:49 am