In South Dakota, the federal government blockaded portions of a state highway during a devastating early season blizzard near Mt. Rushmore to prevent sightseers from snapping a picture of the storm-obscured landmark.
Priests have been threatened with arrest for, well, doing what priests do for parishioners on military bases.
Private businesses have been ordered closed down.
“Gestapo-like” rangers ordered tourists in Yellowstone, who had paid their admission, to get back on their bus and go to their hotel, where armed officers guarded the doors.
There even was an attempt to close an ocean.
This all would be preparation for a massive terror threat endangering millions?
Or maybe for a natural disaster?
Nope.
All because the White House disagreed with Republicans over funding for a portion of the federal government.
The egregious federal government actions during the partial government shutdown, triggered when President Obama refused to even talk with Republicans about their compromise budget offers, have left Americans shaking their heads, from veterans at a World War II memorial in Washington that is open to the air but “barrycaded” by the Obama administration, to those wondering how a government could close an ocean.
One National Park Service worker quoted by the Washington Times said the orders from the Obama administration were to punish Americans.
“We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can. It’s disgusting,” he said.
WND columnist Gina Loudon already has listed the “top 10 most insane moments” of the Obama-Reid shutdown.
They included:
1) “Not only did Obama include the National Institute of Health’s experimental treatments for children with terminal cancer in the shutdown, he has threatened to veto funding that Republicans have offered to reinstate. And all along we thought it was Republicans who wanted children to die.”
2) “Military suicides are at an all-time high. Obama’s answer to that? Remove their chaplains! The chaplains know the importance of their work for our service members during this tumultuous time in the throes of the Navy Yard shootings, Benghazi and the rest of it, so they offered their services for free. Obama’s response? He said chaplains can be arrested if they voluntarily serve our military.”
3) “The Library of Congress website was shut down until Oct. 4. Loc.gov was redirected to a notice that it was no longer available due to the shutdown. On Friday, one of the essential bureaucrats in Washington discovered that leaving the website up actually costs nothing. At last glance, the LOC website is back up and running. In related news, the FCC social media team announced they will not be tweeting due to the shutdown. What will we do without tweets from the FCC?”
4) “National Park Service employees descended onto the home of George Washington at Mt. Vernon to erect barricades after the government was shut down. But, just as Washington ran the British out of Boston after they barricaded the city, the staff at the estate turned the government employees away and removed the barricades. Mt. Vernon has been privately funded for 150 years, and the government had absolutely no authority to shut it down.”
5) “Although no funding exists to keep the World War II memorial open, somehow, funding was found to erect a barricade. Each day, as veterans in their eighties and nineties break through the barricades at the memorial like they did at Omaha Beach, federal employees are paid to come reconstruct them.”
6) “Just as Hitler posted troops at Normandy to keep the allied forces out, President Obama is now turning away those who wish to pay their respects at the Normandy American Cemetery. More than 9,000 patriots who gave their lives were laid to rest at the D-Day Memorial, and respecting their service and sacrifice is not allowed during the shutdown, thanks to the Barack Obama and Harry Reid.
7) “The Armed Forces Network will not be broadcasting sports programming to our troops overseas. While our troops on the front line in the war on terror will have their MLB and NFL games blacked out, you can bet that President Obama will still be watching Sports Center in the White House every night as he is known to do.”
8) “Although an automated camera has been posting pictures of Old Faithful’s eruptions on the web around the clock for years, it has been shut off. Teams of rangers have been busy erecting and maintaining barricades around Yellowstone National Park and running off anyone trying to enjoy the natural beauty of the park, but they took a break from all of that work to pull the plug on the geyser’s webcams.”
9) “We know the president’s priorities, and golf is at the top of that list. Golf courses at military installations remain open and funded while grocery stores at those sites are shut down.”
10) “WJLA is reporting that scenic overlooks next to roadways have been barricaded and signs have been erected telling passersby that they are closed due to the shutdown. These areas where tourists may stop to enjoy a scenic view of the nation’s capital cost nothing to keep open, but the Obama administration is trying to create a scenic view of its own – a city that he has shut down and seeks to blame Republicans.”
But there are so many other examples.
Katie Pavlich at Townhall reported the National Park Service blocked the road leading to “the sacred ground near Shanksville, Pa., where 9/11 Flight 93 crashed 12 years ago
“The petty and ghoulish Spite House strikes again,” she wrote. “Barrycades blocking WWII vets from their memorial, denying death benefits to military families and now this. The Flight 93 National Memorial is an open field for crying out loud.”
Loudon noted that Jeff Reed of American Family Radio put it like this: ‘The sad reality is … Obama sent more guards to keep WWII vets from entering their memorial than he sent to Benghazi.”
Here’s a representative list of the management of the federal government:
- The general counsel for the Archdiocese for the Military Services USA said that contract priests who minister to Catholics on military bases are not permitted even to volunteer. “They risk being arrested if they attempt to do so.”
- Officials barricaded the open-air points from which to view the Lincoln Memorial and watched as a defiant visitor or two simply walked on up. Said John Ervin of Hermann, Mo.: “We should be allowed to see all these things … our national treasures, our national monuments.”
- About that ocean:It was the National Park Service that told charter boat captains in Florida that Florida Bay was now closed down. The Obama administration actually prohibited fishing boats from taking anglers into 1,100 square miles of open ocean.
- Two senior citizens who live in their private home on Lake Mead were ordered out. A park ranger told Joyce and Ralph Spencer, 77 and 80, they had 24 hours to vacate. Their home is privately owned but is inside federal land.
- Federal officials ordered the Pisgah Inn on the Blue Ridge Parkway, a private business enterprise, to close down. The owner make headlines by defying the orders. “I’m questioning their authority to shut me,” said Bruce O’Connell.
- But a variety of other private marinas, restaurants and inns linked to federal attractions all were ordered closed, throwing thousands out of work.
- About Mt. Rushmore, Jim Hagen, secretary of the South Dakota Department of Tourism, said: “They won’t even let you pull off on the side of the road. I just don’t know what they’re trying to accomplish.”
- Authorities used “Gestapo tactics” on senior citizens visiting Yellowstone National Park, locking them inside their hotel under “armed guard” during the Obama administration’s government shutdown, according to a guide. Officials even refused to allow the tourists to stop for bathroom breaks during the two-and-a-half hour drive out of the park, he said. Guide Gordon Hodgson said a ranger approached him while he was providing a tour to visitors and allowed them to stop and take photographs. “She told me you need to return to your hotel and stay there. This is just Gestapo tactics. We paid a lot to get in. All these people wanted to do was take some pictures.”
- CBS in Philadelphia reported a marathoner, John Bell, 56, was ticketed for running in Valley Forge National Historical Park.
- A dog therapy program, which arranges for dogs to visit patients in hospitals, including children with cancer, was suspended by the Clinical Center at the National Institutes of Health.
- NBC reported the federal government is withholding a $100,000 payment to the families of five soldiers killed over the weekend in fighting in Afghanistan.
- Grocery stores on Army bases were closed, preventing families from shopping for food.
- Barricades were erected so that people could not access beaches along the East Coast.
There were some things considered essential, however:
But the Amber Alert website was closed.