Why are the WW2 vets angry at the Obama Admin?

[laklak]

It's an open air memorial. Obama made the call to rope off a fucking open air memorial and post guards there. What next? Shut down the D.C. sidewalks? What a fucking wanker.

[Ian]

Obama ordered it, eh? No shit.

[Kristie]

Obama ordered it, eh? No shit.

Yeah, cause he's mean to old people.

[pErvinalia]

I think he maintains plausible deniability through the use of chemtrails. The chemtrails changed the brain chemistry of select local officials who went there and roped it off. Then the chemtrails blow away in the wind, and Obama Stalin gets away scott free again!

[Ian]

Closing off monuments and museums is standard operating procedure, same as it was in '95. I kinda doubt Obama personally directed guards (if there actually were any - the reporting I've seen only mentions fencing put in place) to keep people away. My office set out its operating procedures in the event of shutdown weeks ago and implemented them step by step on Tuesday morning. Park Police SOP would have included putting up fencing on Tuesday.

Even Fox News isn't talking about this crap as far I can find - possibly because if this was a "stunt" it was only on the part of the few Congressmen who coincidentally happened to show up and help the vets go in, as they knew it would've been cordoned off. But the few teabaggers here are happy to disregard Occam's Razor and assume the President sneakily directed the closure of the WWII Memorial in the hopes that the media would latch onto a story about how people can't go there, nevermind the zillion other stories that were guaranteed to come up in the event of a shutdown.

Speaking of Fox News, they and other conservative sites keep calling this a slimdown rather than a shutdown. First, that kinda proves which side is on the defensive here. And second, it's wild hyperbole. It's a slimdown the same way showing up at your supermarket on a crowded Sunday afternoon and finding only one cashier working is a slimdown of their operations. Yes, the store is technically still operating...

[laklak]

It's the job of the executive branch to determine what "non-essential" bits to shut down, Obama is the Chief Executive, therefore it's his order. The buck stops with him. Well, it does when he realizes there's a buck in motion, which is something he's not particularly good at. Yeah, you're right, I take it back. He doesn't have a fucking clue, which is par for the course. I'm sure he'll find out about it when he reads the paper tomorrow, unless he's too busy packing for his next "working vacation". He got a stash for that sort of thing.

[Ian]

Don't tell me you're one of those guys who believes he takes too many vacations? He has taken squat compared to his predecessor: roughly 1/4 as much at the 4.5 year point, in fact. I honestly wish he'd take more.

[piscator]

It's an open air memorial. Obama made the call to rope off a fucking open air memorial and post guards there. What next? Shut down the D.C. sidewalks? What a fucking wanker.

That's SOP. Lake Powell is closed.
Same deal back in '95. I had a permit to hunt on a NWR, and got turned back. My ass was chapped.

[laklak]

Sure, he should take LOTS more vacations. How about a 3 year one? Poor lad, having to deal with all that Presidential stuff all the time, you'd almost think he wanted the job. What's a hundred million or so as long as the kiddies get to see some African wildlife, anyway? And I'm absolutely certain that Michelle only orders off the low end of the room service menu when she rents our an entire luxury hotel for her mates. And I absolutely support her keeping on her personal assistants, they're truly essential. She's got so much to do, what with working out all those school lunch menus.

[Ian]

I'm sure you said exactly the same stuff about George and Laura, right? Probably four times as much, right?

[laklak]

GW? Can't say I was much of a fan. Liked him better than Obama, but that's like saying I like cholera more than tetanus.

[Seth]

Link?

I saw a news story about a bunch of WWII vets, mostly in wheelchairs, refusing to stay out of the WWII Memorial despite it being roped off for the shutdown. They were there to visit the memorial and didn't give a whit about the shutdown, so they went in anyway.

Fucking A right they did! Escorted by several Republican congresspersons. One of them cut the yellow police tape and the other opened the barrier and politely told the NPS fuzz to go fuck themselves, and let the entire group of about 80 WWII veterans, who were flown there by an organization called Honor Flight that has hundreds of the remaining WWII veterans scheduled to visit their memorial on the National Mall, which is fucking NOT going to be closed by that fuckwad Obama out of spite, which is EXACTLY what he, personally, did when informed of the veterans visit, if the People have anything to say about it.

The NPS cops decided that it wasn't going to look good for them to be hauling 80 year old WWII veterans in wheelchairs off to jail just for visiting a PUBLIC memorial dedicated to their courage and honor on a PUBLIC open-space mall filled with PUBLIC memorials and monuments, NONE of which has ever been blockaded off during a "shutdown." The National Mall belongs to the People, and the Supreme Court has said that it is the quintessential First Amendment protected public forum for citizens to use to petition redress of grievances.

Fucking Obama CANNOT close it, it's not his to close, and I'm advocating a mass march on Washington to retake the National Mall for the People. Let the fucking park police try to arrest a million people going to enjoy THEIR park.

Assholes.

More importantly, Obama spent federal money (and continues to spend it) illegally by maintaining the blockade of the National Mall. It is hardly an "essential service" to keep paying overtime for extra park cops to try to fuck over citizens. Guess what? It's a FELONY to spend government money without an appropriation.

This means that if you want to go to your local National Park and walk right through the gate and enjoy YOUR land, since it's not a "life or safety" issue (but merely an administrative preference) the Park Police have no authority to prevent you from doing so in a peaceable fashion.

Time for some civil disobedience to show Obama that he's overstepped his authority egregiously and we're not going to take it any more. I think he's royally fucked the democrats for the mid-term elections by being petty and mean. Even citizens who happen to be democrat-inclined are pissed off by what Obama did to the veterans, and is threatening to do to the future pre-arranged visits from Honor Flight honorees.

[Ian]

Wrong on all counts, as usual.

[Seth]

It's an open air memorial. Obama made the call to rope off a fucking open air memorial and post guards there. What next? Shut down the D.C. sidewalks? What a fucking wanker.

Yes, they want to close down the STREETS through the National Mall too.

Not fucking going to stand!

[Ian]

RUMINT rampant. There were no guards, and the fencing was nothing more than Park Police SOP. If you want to gripe about a stunt, gripe about those congresspeople who decided to show up. Grandstanding twats.

The stress of this getting to you? The GOP is losing this thing big time. This is the fight the teabaggers have been waiting for for four years, and it may well be the beginning of their demise.