Posted by Tina
A 30 year old sandcastle contest held every year at San Francisco’s Ocean Beach has been shut down as part of the administration’s spiteful “make them pay” campaign. It’s pretty disgraceful when a sitting President stoops so low as to kick sand in a kids play day at the beach. The beach, part of Golden Gate National Recreation Area, has no lifeguards, no rangers, requires no funds for day-to-day operations, and is permanently open to the public. The nonprofit Leap event organizers explained: “We were told that we could be fined for trespassing and that our permit was no longer valid. We were also told that our event could be shut down by park rangers or by San Francisco police.”
And according to PJ Media, citing other sources, “This comes on the heels of the announcement earlier today that the Cliff House restaurant, which overlooks the beach where the contest is held, was also ordered to be closed indefinitely.”
I asked myself today, “What would President Bush have done in a similar situation?” In my opinion Bush worked for the people and would have done whatever he could to make sure it didn’t adversely affect the citizens of the country, businesses, our veterans, or children, for heaven’s sake! I can recall not a single instance of barriers being place in open air events (which cost money, by the way), vacationers being marched out of our parks, or children’s events being halted.
The President is a spiteful man and his presidency reflect it.
Short History of Debt Ceiling/Governmetn Shutdowns, by Barry Ritholtz makes for interesting casual reading.
Will you stop it. Like Ebenezer Obama is hunkered down in the Oval Office: “Hah! Take that, little children.”
It makes you look so … irrational. I don’t even believe that you believe it. Why do you post it?
What is disgusting is when a speaker of the house is drunk by 5Pm every day according to his own party/ There is a clean CR in the house. Democratic process is to vote on it. But no! that would be democracy!
Billionaires want to shut down the gov. takeover in progress.
I don’t have time to read just everything, but some leftie dropped a remark yesterday: that he’d take Boehner drunk over Ted Cruz sober anyday, and I wondered what that was about.
I did think that Boehner’s response to the Obama press conference was … not quite all there.
But you can feel for the guy. I think we’re watching the end of his speakership, among other things.
Libby I have to believe now that you think it’s smart or wise for the President to be playing these petty, spiteful, political games. If so, you are as slimy as he.
The President has discretion to choose what gets a green light and what gets a nasty letter in the mail from the park authorities. He gets to decide. That’s why the immigration protest on the Mall happened during the same week that old timers in wheel chairs were kicked out of the war memorial.
That’s why when the new AP poll showed his approval had slipped to 37% s and Republicans were working on another bill to fund the soldier death benefit he got his stuff together.
I suggest you stop pretending and…pull your head out and/or admit the man is not the guy you thought he was.
dbueno please go read a civics book! The House is a co-equal branch of government.
The founders created representative government…a republic, not a democracy…so that no single leader would have absolute power and so that laws would be difficult to pass and fund. We have this balance of power to protect the people from tyrants and despots.
Got any proof of those specious accusations?
These things have to close. It is wrong to pick and choose the few things that stay open. If the Republicans are going to have this fight, then lets have it once and for all. Stop with the defunding Obamacare and lets defund the Afghanistan war, defund the DHS, defund the NSA. Those three things would save billions. And lets stop with all of the foreign aid. It looks like we are finally going to stop funding the extremists in Egypt. About time.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/09/us-suspends-egypt-aid_n_4073118.html
Next up Israel and go right down the line.
How nice that conservatives have finally realized the value of government-funded services.
Chris let’s both go to extremes…it’s nice to discover that liberals want all wealth and power invested in their chosen “One” and complete destruction of the private sector and our freedoms.
Tina: “Got any proof of those specious accusations?”
You have absolutely no sense of irony or shame, do you?
Hey people do you all realize we got the government to do the will of the people today. All of DC is scrambling to restore the death benefits because of the outcry from so many across the country for the wrong that was done to the families of those that died in the service of their country.
It sure feels good to have our representatives realize they are there to serve us and we are their employers, they are not ours.
Every day more individuals are standing up to this paper tiger and they are backing down. From Inn keepers, to restaurant owners are showing up to work defying the guards and reclaiming their right to their property. We need to keep the heat on and if the lame stream media won’t cover what’s happening the social media is a great tool and contacting Congress until the phones melt works too.
Since the Obamas are living in the WH on government property they too should be forced to move out just like the old couple at Lake Mead. Obama has no more right to be on government property than anyone else.
Just saw this report showing all 50 states are as conservative today as they were 50 years ago and ALL are becoming even more conservative. It’s interesting to see how our government has changed so much toward the liberal/progressive style of governance while the people have not. How can that be if our government is supposed to be reflective of the voters?
The charts are most interesting especially California, of course.
——-
Surprise Analysis: All 50 States Are Actually Shifting Toward Conservatism?
The American public is apparently as conservative today as it has been in 50 years, according to Cornell political scientist Peter Enns, citing both his own work and work done by Vanderbilt professor Larry M. Bartels.
In fact, based on the joint efforts of Enns and Julianna Koch, all 50 states have experienced a shift towards conservatism.
This revelation starts with Bartels.
See, Bartels examines James Stimson’s measure of public support for various government programs (it spans from 1950 to 2012). Taking it a step further, Koch and Enns measured policy moods for each state from the 1950s to 2010.
“The figure below presents one illustration of this pattern. Here we compare the policy mood in each state in the early 1960s (hollow dots) and in the early 2000s (solid dots),” Enns writes, explaining their findings.
“Higher values indicate a more conservative policy mood. In each instance, the solid dot is to the right of the hollow dot, suggesting that the public’s policy mood has moved in a conservative direction in every state. Furthermore, most of these increases are statistically significant,” he adds.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/10/09/surprise-analysis-all-50-states-are-actually-shifting-toward-conservatism/
The president playing games? really? Look I am fighting him on the TPP.
Tea party wanted a shutdown. Sent a ransom note making demands.
It is amazing these guys make a move then blame the president, Where is the pride?
There is a clean CR bill on the house floor passed by the Senate including Ted Cruz it got 100 votes, The speaker of the House refuses to bring it to a vote. they have the votes to pass it but he is refusing trying to change those votes.
There is absolutely no one to blame but the Speaker of the House John Boehner is is afraid of being Primaried by the Koch bullies. Well He will loose in the end anyway.
2014 Americans will not make the mistake of 2010
The Tea Party is a group of citizens placing the only pressure on government to be more fiscally responsible and to take another look at a bad law passed by corrupt means that will not deliver as promised and they are the bad guys?
What a strange world.
When did going to the beach or walking in a park or camping become a “government funded service”? Or how about walking past and looking at the Liberty Bell? Why put tarps up?
The president was saying in effect, you can’t look at your monuments unless you put pressure on the republicans so I can win.
Toby…as you and I both know tarps and barriers are up to anger the people so that when Democrats yammer about bad Republicans shutting down government (a lie) the people will, indeed, blame the Republicans.
Democrats can choose to negotiate at any time. they choose to play petty games instead.
I don’t think I am speaking just for myself when I say that if a republican was in office and pulled this garbage we all would be on the same side here. Isn’t this stuff what liberals always protested? This would have been a stinking hippy’s or hippies(sp?) wet dream! I smell sellouts and they are not just on our side.
The GOP just got an email from me that I am sure they wont read or care about but I am done with our weak-ass party leadership.
“The president was saying in effect, you can’t look at your monuments unless you put pressure on the republicans so I can win.”
You guys are just … delusional. The president hasn’t pad-locked the check book, Congress has.
The following is a wrap up to a long article that gives background and history on previous government shutdowns and explains how the President has wide discretion about what gets funded during a shutdown.
Capital Gains and Games:
Except for one thing; Obama has chosen to be vindictive and petty.
Stories in the news all add up to a giant fail: children, suffering from cancer being denied early trial treatments; old war veterans in wheel chairs being denied access to the WWII memorial; vacationers thrown out of Yellowstone; little kiddies blocked from a sandcastle event; WWII Memorial Cemetery’s closed in Europe closed. He just looks like a big fat uncaring jerk.
The reality may be that he just left decisions up to others and if that’s the case he deserves the rotten press.
More at McClatchy:
Harry Reid, Mr. No, is a snippity old fa#t filled with resentment that the House went to Republicans. His refusal to work with the House has a lot to do with this mess…just can’t accept the loss poor boob.
Delusional … and absurd.
“That makes it very hard for Congress to look good with a majority of voters.”
Why would the Executive want to do that, in the circumstances? The Congress has made it’s bed, and now it can just lie in it … that bed wherein it proposes to fund the NIH, but not WIC. No, I’m sorry that is not democracy. That is thuggery. And they can take the consequences.
Toby: “When did going to the beach or walking in a park or camping become a “government funded service”?”
Um, since forever? Seriously, how freaking uninformed do you have to be to even ask such a question? You’ve spent the last several years railing against “big government,” and you don’t even realize that so many of the activities you enjoy are funded by said government. Sad to say, I don’t think this uninformed attitude is uncommon for members of the Tea Party.
Tina: “Chris let’s both go to extremes…it’s nice to discover that liberals want all wealth and power invested in their chosen “One” and complete destruction of the private sector and our freedoms.”
A swing and a miss. My comment was pointing out the irony of you complaining that Obama is choosing not to give you government-funded services, including government-funded healthcare (such as the NIH). Your comment just invents a strawman that has no basis in reality.
“when Democrats yammer about bad Republicans shutting down government (a lie) the people will, indeed, blame the Republicans.”
As Libby said, this is downright delusional. The radical wing of the Republicans were CHEERING for a government shutdown not two weeks ago. Democrats and mainstream Republicans were warning against it. Your memory cannot possibly be that short. You are being intentionally deceptive, and it seems you are even managing to deceive yourself.
You are getting very good at the latter, but unfortunately for you, you are not very good at the former.
“Democrats can choose to negotiate at any time. they choose to play petty games instead.”
But as I’ve told you, Democrats already DID negotiate by accepting lower spending limits. Republicans offered NOTHING in return except for more demands. They demanded concessions from the other side while offering no concessions of their own. That is the opposite of negotiating.
Remember, all Democrats are asking for is a clean CR–no add-ons, no special pet causes, no hobby horses, just funding for the laws already on the books. It is Republicans who are making demands and who chose that taking a symbolic stand against a law that has been upheld by all three branches of government, that was passed after years of debate and negotiations, and that was a major issue in the campaign resulting in the re-election of President Obama, was worth shutting down the government, even though they were warned by more sensible heads–including John Beohner before he caved in to the radicals–that doing so would cause a lot of harm to a lot of people.
THAT is petty. And what’s even pettier is trying to pretend away your responsibility in all this, and acting as if everyone in the reality-based community is somehow wrong not to indulge in your little persecution fantasy narrative that insists everyone would understand that Democrats were at fault for the shutdown if not for the Biased Liberal Media (TM). There are countless videos, news articles and memos available that document the effort Republicans put into making this shutdown a reality. Would you like me to show them to you?
“that bed wherein it proposes to fund the NIH, but not WIC.”
LIAR!
Get people back to work and there will be plenty available for the needy.
Welfare spending is up by 32% from 2008 levels. Over half of the infants in America now depend on WIC…that’s a disgraceful measure of Obama’s lousy economy…
…and the negative fallout from the feminist movement that helped to replace fathers with government programs.
Hillary would be a disaster for the nation’s children and families.
Tina: “LIAR!”
You’ve literally resorted to angrily shouting nonsense. Libby’s statement was entirely true. WIC funding has been drastically cut due to the Republican-caused shutdown. Republicans have voted to restore funding to the NIH (government-funded healthcare) but not WIC. How the hell is Libby a “LIAR!” for pointing out that fact?
Do you really not know the difference between lies and the truth? You seem to think that a “lie” is any statement which you don’t like or which makes you look bad.
You then go into a rant against the very existence of WIC, managing to somehow squeeze anti-Obama, anti-feminist and anti-Hilary sentiment into just a few short meaningless phrases, as if your brain is no longer capable of forming anything but uncritical soundbites.
Once again you deny your responsibility in a cut to crucial government services, then go on to imply it doesn’t even matter because said services shouldn’t exist in the first place. You cannot have it both ways. You cannot simultaneously complain and rejoice about the shutdown. Well, you can, but not without looking like a total idiot.
Chris, it makes me sad that you have turned your life, your well being over to the government.
Chris “Libby’s statement was entirely true.”
No, it was not!
Republicans in the House passed a bill that funded all of government, including WIC.
They did not fund the ACA. There was good reason for taking this approach in our checks and balances form of government. The ACA is not only unpopular but incredibly dysfunctional. The President has changed the law without going through the Congress awarding big business a year’s waiver that individuals don’t get. Based on the dysfunction and breach of law as written it is reasonable, indeed Republicans are obliged, to make this exception in the budget and make the ACA a point of discussion and negotiations in the budget crisis talks with Democrats.
Democrats in the Senate could have chosen to be responsible and adult, they could have put the interest of the people above their party’s ambitions and agreed to negotiate. They probably could have easily gotten the Republicans to agree to a delay in implementation for a year. They refused in a most despicable fashion. Harry Reid and a parade of Democrats took to the microphones to begin a Saul Alinsky, Rule #12 smear campaign. Reid called Tea Party Republicans anarchists. Others called Republicans jihadists, arsonists, etc. The President, through his spokesman, used imagery to call Republicans terrorists:
The President then personally announced that he would not negotiate with Republicans.
If Democrats refuse to engage in the legislative process, or even in discussions, if all they are willing to do is play political games and stoop to labeling fellow elected officials names there is little Republicans can do to move the ball forward per our legislative process.
If you can watch this circus and still think it is Republicans that have interrupted WIC funding then there is nothing more to say to you. But please don’t come here and pretend that you are open and reasonable and not just part of this Democrat smear machine.
As for the rest of what you have said the statistics are that under Obama’s leadership the numbers of people needing WIC and other government services has grown by leaps and bounds. Under liberal policies and attitudes for decades instead of living lives of dignity, working and providing for themselves, people have not been lifted out of poverty. Democrats don’t mind that this is happening in h less take care of themselves. They put the programs, and party politics ahead of the people…they rely on this dependency as a permanent voting block. They don’t mind that kids are graduating and can’t read much less care for themselves. Democrats like Libby, represent the radical element of the party that thinks people are stupid and government through central planning is the answer. Her whining about a lack of funding game to lobby for ever bigger government and Democrat power.
The budget for WIC has increased…Republicans participated in passing budget that increased funding for WIC. If you can’t see that there is nothing more to say.
Chris Republicans are not cruel and heartless. Republicans are also not reckless and irresponsible with taxpayer dollars. Republicans are interested in securing a stable future with opportunities for young people. Republicans are interested in writing law that would encourage people to better their own lives. A successful program should be measured by the numbers of people who no longer need help!
Democrats have used these issues only for political advantage. Any discussions about the un-sustainability of government programs, and how they are creating massive debt, always degrade into the smear routine with Republicans portrayed as heartless beasts. This is not only despicable on a human, personal level it erodes the legislative process reducing it to mafia style tyranny.
This is no way to lead or legislate; it does not serve the people.
So yes, what Libby says is a lie and yes, I am angry. You should be too.
Interesting about how Obama’s blatant and obvious make it hurt policy gets so much denial.