The Obama Administration has decided to block access to public memorials on the National Mall as a result of the government shutdown. Just like its decision to end White House tours when the sequester cuts took effect, there is no rational reason for this.
The Park Police, nominally in charge of monitoring these spaces, isn't even effected by the shutdown. Shutting off access to these sites is gratuitous and petulant.
New wave of WWII veterans move barricades to access DC memorial
Shutdown overreach: More guards at WWII memorial than Benghazi; Park Service closes park which it doesn't even run
REQUEST DENIED...
I am deeply ashamed of, and offended by the entire
Obama Administration.
This memorial is an open air park, employees are not
even necessary. All this was done to
incite people into being annoyed by the shutdown, but this could backfire and I
sure hope it does.
http://www.wnd.com/2013/10/obamas-barrycades-cant-stop-wwii-vets/
Why is the Government Shutdown Affecting the WWII
Memorial When it Was Built & Is Maintained Using Primarily Private Funds?
Who could have guessed that the turning point in the great "shutdown" battle would come at the World War II memorial in Washington, DC... and who could have guessed Barack Obama would be foolish, arrogant, and tone-deaf enough to pit himself against the war heroes of the Greatest Generation? Whatever else you can say about him, he and his political team aren't usually this blind.
ReplyDeleteThe memorial in question is an open-air structure that is normally open 24 hours a day, even though rangers are only on-site during limited hours. On direct orders from the White House Office of Management and Budget, extra manpower was brought in to close the memorial off from the public as part of Shutdown Theater.
The war heroes who came via Honor Flight to see the memorial built in their honor did not enjoy this theatrical performance one little bit. Two days in a row, they stormed the barricades - with help from Republican members of Congress - and had their tour. After the second defeat for Barack Obama, the Park Service relented and announced that the memorial would be open for "First Amendment activities," which means... well, who knows what that means to this out-of-control government. The "freedom of religion" part of that Amendment isn't looking too healthy these days, thanks to ObamaCare.
Shutdown Theater, like its unlovely and unsuccessful Sequester Theater predecessor, is designed to make the shutdown hurt. It's a war declared by a pampered ruling class against the unruly public. It's a huge breakthrough in government reform: the first time we've been able to get Democrats to admit that so much of the gigantic federal government they worship is "non-essential." This White House thinks the people assigned to keep elderly veterans away from their memorial were essential.