Let’s see…
First there was the “Barrycading” of the WWII Memorial, Vietnam Memorial and Lincoln Memorial, and the not-so barricading of the WWI Memorial. Then there was the not-National Park that was closed by the National Park Service, and the parking lots for Mt. Vernon were closed, even though Mt. Vernon is also not run by the Park Service. Then the National Park Service evicted people from their homes and houseboats on Lake Mead. If that’s not petty enough for you:
The National Park Service placed cones along highway viewing areas outside Mount Rushmore this week, barring visitors from pulling over and taking pictures of the famed monument.
But there’s more! Unknown to me before today, I discovered that the Pentagon spent $5.5 billion in the days leading up to the “government shutdown,” and I was told today by a reliable source that the Marine Air Station in Yuma, Arizona has been “flying every aircraft in its inventory” over the last several days – beginning last Friday. Also apparently the “government shutdown” has caused Catholic priests in military (to) face arrest for celebrating Mass.
And in what is quite possibly the single greatest example of .gov hubris in modern history,
Just before the weekend, the National Park Service informed charter boat captains in Florida that the Florida Bay was “closed” due to the shutdown. Until government funding is restored, the fishing boats are prohibited from taking anglers into 1,100 square-miles of open ocean. Fishing is also prohibited at Biscayne National Park during the shutdown.
Yup. The government is trying to close the ocean.
As one Park Ranger has been quoted:
We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can. It’s disgusting.
This shot pretty much sums up the whole thing for me:
I was blog-surfing tonight, and I visited /var/log/otto as I do about once a week or so. In Otto’s post from Thursday, Fence Sitting is No Longer an Option was this:
This morning on the radio they played clips of Obama and company comparing Republicans and Tea Partiers to terrorists … I was in the car with my wife – who doesn’t actively follow the political scene, but she’s not ignorant either – and after hearing the clips she said, “He’s trying to start a civil war.” And you know, I don’t think she’s wrong. He has to frame it correctly, of course, he can’t look like the bad guy, but he’s got the American media in his pocket, they are his puppets and they do what he says. The international scene is a distraction from what he wants to do- crush the American way and any who would defend it. He doesn’t attack any international crisis with the relish and enthusiasm he attacks and mocks his political enemies. I say Obama, but he has a huge array of like-minded comrades both in and out of government. They are a real and present danger. They want an uprising so they can crush it. I don’t doubt this any longer.
It certainly appears that way. The Media Narrative™ is that hordes of violent, racist TEA Partiers who hate the .gov and have been stockpiling weapons and ammunition are just waiting for the spark that will give rise to anti-government riots.
And Obama has fired up the grinder and is throwing all the sparks he possibly can.
I don’t see another explanation, do you?
Edited to add: Brietbart has a more complete list of closures and other idiocy.
Update, 10/7:
Folks who live in the Great Smoky Mountains have just about reached their breaking point with the federal government.
“It’s almost like they are pushing to see how far they can push before the American people say enough is enough,” said Ed Mitchell, the mayor of Blount County, Tenn.
Almost?
“We were founded on a declaration of independence. And they are about to push the people to the line again.”
Nearly a third of Blount County is inside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. So when the federal government shut down the park, it also shut down one of the area’s chief sources of revenue.
The National Park Service also closed the Foothills Parkway, a major thoroughfare in the county. The closure came without warning and left the local school district scrambling to get children back to their homes.
The children live in the eastern Tennessee community of Top of the World – serviced by School Bus 49. Normally, the bus travels along the Foothills Parkway. Other roads leading to the isolated mountain community are impassible by bus.
“It’s dangerous,” said Nancy Kemp, the spokesperson for Blount County Schools. “It’s very curvy and straight up the mountain. It’s just not a safe route.”
One local resident told Knoxville television station WBIR that the alternative roads are “white knuckle routes.”
“White knuckle”? That’s RACIST!
So much for “Doing it for the CHIIILLLDDDREN! Of course, if a busload of kids dies in a horrible accident, the media will report it as being the fault of House Republicans the TEA Party.
As Instapundit says:
If the press covered Obama the way they’d cover a GOP President who did this kind of thing, he’d be toast. But they don’t, because they’re on his team. Just think of them as Dem operatives with bylines and you won’t go far wrong.
