If His Goal Was To Piss Us Off...MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

Soviet style tactics
Petulant Children Acting Out
Using Park Police To Intimidate Citizens
The Gestapo, the SS, the Stasi and the KGB have brothers-in-arms right here in good old Amerika.

Advance Editorial From Our Forthcoming 10/21-10/28 Issue

Oct 21, 2013, Vol. 19, No. 07 • By JONATHAN V. LAST

We are a nation that has a government—not the other way around.”
—Ronald Reagan

The conduct of the National Park Service over the last week might be the biggest scandal of the Obama administration. This is an expansive claim, of course. Benghazi, Fast and Furious, the IRS, the NSA, the HHS mandate​—​this is an administration that has not lacked for appalling abuses of power. And we still have three years to go.

Even so, consider the actions of the National Park Service since the government shutdown began. People first noticed what the NPS was up to when the World War II Memorial on the National Mall was “closed.” Just to be clear, the memorial is an open plaza. There is nothing to operate. Sometimes there might be a ranger standing around. But he’s not collecting tickets or opening gates. Putting up barricades and posting guards to “close” the World War II Memorial takes more resources and manpower than “keeping it open.”

The closure of the World War II Memorial was just the start of the Park Service’s partisan assault on the citizenry. There’s a cute little historic site just outside of the capital in McLean, Virginia, called the Claude Moore Colonial Farm. They do historical reenactments, and once upon a time the National Park Service helped run the place. But in 1980, the NPS cut the farm out of its budget. A group of private citizens set up an endowment to take care of the farm’s expenses. Ever since, the site has operated independently through a combination of private donations and volunteer workers.

The Park Service told Claude Moore Colonial Farm to shut down.

The farm’s administrators appealed this directive​—​they explained that the Park Service doesn’t actually do anything for the historic site. The folks at the NPS were unmoved. And so, last week, the National Park Service found the scratch to send officers to the park to forcibly remove both volunteer workers and visitors.

Think about that for a minute. The Park Service, which is supposed to serve the public by administering parks, is now in the business of forcing parks they don’t administer to close. As Homer Simpson famously asked, did we lose a war?

We’re not done yet. The parking lot at Mount Vernon was closed by the NPS, too, even though the Park Service does not own Mount Vernon; it just controls access to the parking lots from the George Washington Parkway. At the Vietnam Memorial​—​which is just a wall you walk past​—​the NPS called in police to block access. But the pièce de résistance occurred in South Dakota. The Park Service wasn’t content just to close Mount Rushmore. No, they went the extra mile and put out orange cones to block the little scenic overlook areas on the roads near Mount Rushmore. You know, just to make sure no taxpayers could catch a glimpse of it.

It’s one thing for politicians to play shutdown theater. It’s another thing entirely for a civil bureaucracy entrusted with the privilege of caring for our national heritage to wage war against the citizenry on behalf of a political party.

This is how deep the politicization of Barack Obama’s administration goes. The Park Service falls under the Department of the Interior, and its director is a political appointee. Historically, the directorship has been nonpartisan and the service has functioned as a civil, not a political, unit. Before the current director, Jonathan Jarvis, was nominated by President Obama, he’d spent 30 years as a civil servant. But he has taken to his political duties with all the fervor of a third-tier hack from the DNC, marrying the disinterested contempt of a meter maid with the zeal of an ambitious party apparatchik.

It’s worth recalling that the Park Service has always been deeply ambivalent about the public which they’re charged with serving. In a 2005 Weekly Standard piece about the NPS’s plan to reconfigure the National Mall, Andrew Ferguson reported:

The Park Service’s ultimate desire was made public, indiscreetly, by John Parsons, associate regional park director for the mall. In 2000 Parsons told the Washington Post he hoped that eventually all unauthorized traffic, whether by foot or private car, would be moved off the mall. Visitors could park in distant satellite lots and be bused to nodal points, where they would be watered and fed, allowed to tour a monument, and then reboard a bus and head for another monument. “Just like at Disneyland,” Parsons told the Post. “Nobody drives through Disneyland. They’re not allowed. And we’ve got the better theme park.

Yes, yes. They must protect America’s treasures from the ugly Americans. No surprise then that one park ranger explained to the Washington Times last week, “We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can.”

“To make life as difficult for people as we can”​—​that would be an apt motto for the Obama worldview. And now even the misanthropes at the National Park Service have been yoked to his project. This is the clearest example yet of how the president understands the relationship between his government and the citizenry.

Lt Col Allen West USA Retired Weighs In On Marines

From one who is more than qualified to comment on behavior while downrange, Lt Col Allen West, in an email to The Weekly Standard says:


'Shut Your Mouth, War Is Hell'
Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.), a former Army lieutenant colonel, sends THE WEEKLY STANDARD an email commenting on the Marines' video, and has given us permission to publish it.


“I have sat back and assessed the incident with the video of our Marines urinating on Taliban corpses. I do not recall any self-righteous indignation when our Delta snipers Shugart and Gordon had their bodies dragged through Mogadishu. Neither do I recall media outrage and condemnation of our Blackwater security contractors being killed, their bodies burned, and hung from a bridge in Fallujah.


“All these over-emotional pundits and armchair quarterbacks need to chill. Does anyone remember the two Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division who were beheaded and gutted in Iraq?


“The Marines were wrong. Give them a maximum punishment under field grade level Article 15 (non-judicial punishment), place a General Officer level letter of reprimand in their personnel file, and have them in full dress uniform stand before their Battalion, each personally apologize to God, Country, and Corps videotaped and conclude by singing the full US Marine Corps Hymn without a teleprompter.


“As for everyone else, unless you have been shot at by the Taliban, shut your mouth, war is hell.”

Dana Loesch at Big Journalism has the cajones to say what needs to be said.

Time For A New RNC Chairman

I wanted Ken Blackwell running this machine. I still do. Whatever, Steele has to go.

Conservative commentator William Kristol immediately called for Steele to resign.

“At a time when Gen. [David] Petraeus has just taken over command, when Republicans in Congress are pushing for a clean war funding resolution, when Republicans around the country are doing their best to rally their fellow citizens behind the mission, your comment is more than an embarrassment. It’s an affront, both to the honor of the Republican Party and to the commitment of the soldiers fighting to accomplish the mission they’ve been asked to take on by our elected leaders,” he writes in a post at The Weekly Standard.

Steele released a statement in which he walked back his comments and voices support for the war.

“There is no question that America must win the war on terror,” he said. “During the 2008 Presidential campaign, Barack Obama made clear his belief that we should not fight in Iraq, but instead concentrate on Afghanistan. Now, as President, he has indeed shifted his focus to this region. That means this is his strategy. And, for the sake of the security of the free world, our country must give our troops the support necessary to win this war.”

The RNC staff sought to tamp down the controversy—ill-timed ahead of the July 4 holiday—by circulating a memo to reporters highlighting the chairman’s support of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The memo is title: “RNC Chairman Michael Steele Has Been A Consistent, Vocal Supporter Of The Wars In Afghanistan And Iraq.”

It may not be enough to appease conservatives, many of whom are already tired of Steele’s lengthy record of verbal gaffes and fund-raising controversies since he took over the party committee in January 2009.

“The war in Afghanistan is not a war of Barack Obama’s choosing. It is a war of Al Qaeda and the Taliban’s choosing. We responded. Michael Steele must resign. He has lost all moral authority to lead the GOP,” Erick Erickson of RedState.com, a popular conservative blog, wrote this afternoon.

If This Doesn't Get People Motivated...

We may as well pack it in and start singing Kumbiyah...they'll be coming for the Krispy Kremes, soon.

You can have my White Castle slider when you pry it from my cold dead hands.


White Castle Exec: Obamacare Provision Would Cut Our Income in Half

BY Jeffrey H. Anderson

Forget about open-heart surgery or cutting-edge cancer treatments. Under Obamacare, you might have a hard time finding a hamburger. A statement released by White Castle, the Ohio-based burger chain, highlights how damaging Obamacare would be to small businesses and to Americans' job prospects.

White Castle reports that a single provision of Obamacare would cut its net income in half -- and then some. Jamie Richardson, a White Castle executive, says, "We’ve been working on this internally from a number of different perspectives. One [provision] that has [us] the most concerned is the $3,000 penalty that kicks in when an employee’s portion of a premium exceeds 9.5% of Household Income."

Richardson elaborates, "In present form, this provision alone would lead to approximate increased costs equal to over 55% of what we earn annually in net income (based on [our] past 4-year average). Effectively cutting our net income in half would have [a] devastating impact on the business -- cutting future expansion and more job creation at least in half. Sadly, it makes it difficult to justify growing where jobs are needed most -- in lower income areas." And that's all from just a single provision in a 2,700-page act.

The Obama administration's economic policy seems to involve dividing businesses into two categories: too big to fail, and too little to matter.

No wonder Ohioans support repeal of Obamacare by 19 percentage points (57 to 38 percent).

The Hammer Drops on Frank Rich

Media Pretty Darn Chill About Arizona Law Protesters' Tone, Violence

BY Mary Katharine Ham

You know, it's really a shame Frank Rich's deadline came up before the May Day riots in Santa Cruz and elsewhere this weekend, because I'm sure he's very anxious to tell all of us what that "rage" is really all about.

I'm sure if he'd been able to, he would have pointed out the "goons" who spray-painted and smashed private businesses while they ransacked Main St. while actually carrying torches.

I'm sure he'd lament how as the week "dragged on," foes of Arizona's immigration law reached such depths that the FBI had to be called in to help as this violent pestilence spread from California all the way to Asheville, N.C.

He'd no doubt seethe righteously at the nasty signs and racially tinged language of protesters and militaristic chants and songs about the "mother country" and "father country."

He'd sound the alarm when counter-protesters were attacked for simply voicing their views.
Perhaps he'd find it curious that "a mob fond of likening [opposition] to Hitler knows so little about history that it doesn’t recognize its own small-scale mimicry of Kristallnacht." (Which, I hasten to add, is not to say that I find mere broken glass to be "mimicry of Kristallnacht," but Rich has told us that's his standard.)

Maybe next week. It's important for him to keep us safe from "extremist elements and their enablers."

Catching Up With The Hammer

The Daily Grind

BY Mary Katharine Ham

The guy who wrote the Arizona law explains what's in it.

I have no doubt his tremendous charisma will overcome this obstacle.

The SWAT team has the Tea Partiers under control, everyone.

Virginia man forced to get new vanity plate after CAIR deems the one honoring his favorite NASCAR drivers coded hate.

Navy to the Gulf oil spill.

If anything ever begged for Photoshopping, this is it.

The regressive anti-smoking lobby hates poor people.

The Boy Scouts now offer a gamer badge.

“In other words, raising taxes on the rich or corporations, closing tax loopholes, eliminating wasteful or low-priority programs, and prohibiting earmarks simply won’t be enough.’’

Speaking of Clowns (algore)

The Hammer caught this yesterday:

If I Could Live Like the Environmentalists...
Raiders of the lost self-awareness.

BY Mary Katharine Ham

Harrison Ford owns seven airplanes, but only flies "one at a time." For environmentalist critics who say this is a contradiction, he has this message:
"I’ll start walking everywhere when they start walking everywhere.”
Ed Begley's coming for him! But really slowly, on a bicycle, so he doesn't have that much to worry about.

And, Al Gore has found the perfect perch from which to monitor sea levels and preach to the rest of us about the importance of living a life of modest consumption.
Former Vice President Al Gore and his wife, Tipper, have added a Montecito-area property to their real estate holdings, reports the Montecito Journal.

The couple spent $8,875,000 on an ocean-view villa on 1.5 acres with a swimming pool, spa and fountains, a real estate source familiar with the deal confirms. The Italian-style house has six fireplaces, five bedrooms and nine bathrooms.

Three of the bathrooms are undoubtedly for storing carbon credits, though. Yep, I'm still feeling just fine about my $50 electric bill and my once-monthly Honda fill-up.
H/t Perfunction.

They're Finally Getting It

Cornyn: Crist v. Rubio Primary Has Been "A Learning Experience"

BY John McCormack

National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman John Cornyn said this morning that the Florida Republican primary between Marco Rubio and Charlie Crist has been "a learning experience" for him.

Cornyn told reporters at a breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor that he first tried to recruit Jeb Bush to run for Senate. When Bush declined, Cornyn looked for the next most popular Republican (Crist) in the state to run. The lesson he's learned from the NRSC's endorsement of Crist?

"In this political environment," Cornyn said, "it's not necessarily helpful for candidates running in the states to have the national party chairman" endorse them.

"More than any time than I've seen in the recent past," Cornyn added, "instead of a Contract for America [voters] want a Contract from America."

Cornyn said that voters don't want to "have their choices made" for them by the political elite. They want those in Washington to hear their voices.

Cornyn will request that Crist return the money donated to him by Cornyn's PAC if Crist follows through on his switch to independent today.

The VAT in the News

H/T The Hammer. Thank you MK for assembling this.

Newsweek: Why Are All these Crazy Wingers Talking About a VAT?

Mary Katharine Ham

No one's seriously talking about a VAT, nutters.

White House advisor Paul Volcker called the idea "not as toxic" as it's been in the past.
Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf said he's fielding "a lot of questions" about it from members of Congress.

White House economic advisor Austan Goolsbee did not avail himself of the opportunity to rule out a VAT on "Morning Joe," despite the fact that Mark Halperin gave him six tries at it.

The head of the White House's debt commission said the magnitude of the problem (made more magnitudinous by Obamacare) requires that everything, including a VAT, be on the table.

Obama himself did not rule it out, calling it a "novel" idea for America that has "worked for some countries."

Conclusion: This is all probably just a clever fund-raising ploy for conservative organizations. Dang, that Frank Luntz is good.

A Twofer From The Hammer

Remember...
9:40 AM, Apr 28, 2010 ·
BY Mary Katharine Ham
...when Nazi symbolism, vandalism, nasty signs, misspelled signs, violence, and arrests at protests (even without proof) would have deligitimized an entire movement and caused months of media coverage about the threat to the Republic posed by such barbarians? These are different times, now.


The Daily Grind
9:09 AM, Apr 28, 2010 ·
BY Mary Katharine Ham

The Arizona numbers: "Seventy-seven percent (77%) of Republicans support the law along with 62% of voters not affiliated with either major party. Democratic voters are evenly divided on the measure."

Drones to the border?

Steny Hoyer: Ok, time for y'all to suck it up and pay higher taxes to deal with the deficit.

Breaking: New poll finds Americans in anti-incumbent mood.

Casual observers may have been startled to hear a United States senator -- complete with silver comb-over and half-glasses perched on the end of his nose -- repeatedly say "shi- -y deal." Levin was just so excited, he was like a pig in, well, you know. In fact, Congress peddles shameful "deals" involving amounts of money so obscene, they would make a member of the Goldman Sachs compensation board blush.

Time for another "Obama is so clever that even when he faces clear, devastating legislative defeats, he's really winning" story.

Both sides hating on the deficit commission. Obama really does bring people together.

Video: Orszag helpfully explains how rationing will work.

The Daily Grind

The Daily Grind

BY Mary Katharine Ham

Tom Tancredo thinks Arizona law goes too far.

Time: You know who's having an awesome year? Obama.

Bronx soda buy-back flops: A dumpster labeled "soda toilet" contained very few deposits; only a couple of children surrendered containers of Tropical Fantasy and other sugar-sweetened juices. Those drinks joined a lone bottle of soda -- ironically, a Sprite Zero, which wouldn't be subject to the tax at all.

We need a guide: Is this righteous vandalism and Nazi imagery? I haven't seen much on the news about it.

Bob McDonnell isn't still talking about "inherited" problems, and he's only 100 days in: "We rejected that massive tax hike and balanced the budget through the implementation of tough but necessary spending reductions."

In related news, how much does the Washington Post hate Bob McDonnell?

"Those in the upper income strata [$200K/$250K and more] in each of these 15 [top earning professions] account for only about 1.3% of all income producers but will account for 40.5% of all those who will be burdened by the 'tax on the wealthy.'"

Tea Party bombing plot disrupted...oh, wait...I mean environmentalist bombing plot.

"What kind of U.N. environmental ambassador builds a 20,000 square-foot home with a six-car garage, an elevator and a lagoon?"

See every painting in the Museum of Modern Art in just two minutes, if you're into that kinda thing.

Live-blogging the Goldman Sachs hearing at WSJ.

Happy Hour Links From Last Night

Happy Hour Links

BY John McCormack

Chris Matthews says conservative campaign against Charlie Crist is "Stalin-esque."

Scott Brown says Obama's planning on bringing up immigration bill next month.

Jim DeMint backs Marlin Stutzman in Indiana Senate race.

John McCain wouldn't support an independent Crist run.

Republican Kelly Ayotte up by 7 in New Hampshire Senate race.

Democratic Senate primary fight heats up in Pennsylvania.

Congress won't take up D.C. voting rights this year.

Daily Grind from The Hammer

The Daily Grind
7:50 AM, Apr 20, 2010 ·
BY Mary Katharine Ham

Brussels: Vacations are a human right.

Most transparent administration ever has sit-down with press about the fact that it's not letting them cover anything.

Ha, Barbara Boxer to supporters: "Get excited," like the Tea Partiers!

Obama gets testy with Don't Ask, Don't Tell hecklers. Where's that famous left-wing civility?

Janine Turner, proud conservative.

When Bill Clinton was warning that we have to be careful with words that might incite violence, he should have directed some of his lecture to his wife's donor list.

DOJ abandons attempt to read Yahoo! e-mails without a warrant.

Well, it is certainly a change.

Eugene Robinson: The unprecedented distrust in the federal government is a moral victory for... Obama!

Pay Attention To the VAT Link

The Daily Grind

BY Mary Katharine Ham

In defense of the Americanization of the British election.

Leave "Top Gear" alone!

Gregg: "It's really disingenuous for some people to pursue regulatory reform based off this one instance," he said on MSNBC. "This is a single event, we don't even know what the outcome will be."

"Mostly white" newspapers smear "mostly white" Tea Parties.

A Washington Post columnist comes to the Tea Party: "Nevertheless, on the whole, they struck me as passionate conservatives dedicated to working within the system rather than dangerous militia types or a revival of the Ku Klux Klan."

Robert Samuelson: "The implicit, though often unstated, message is that a VAT could raise so much money it could eliminate future deficits by itself. This reasoning, if embraced, would create staggering tax burdens and exempt us from a debate we desperately need."

Wall Street questions the timing.

Crist pulls anti-Rubio TV ads.

Doctors: Yep, we don't understand Obamacare either.

Boxer Race Switched from Likely Democratic to Leans Democratic

Boxer Race Switched from Likely Democratic to Leans Democratic

Mary Katharine Ham

The Republican primary is June 8.
The Weekly Standard's preview of the Boxer race is here.
Update: Daniel Halper points out Real Clear Politics calls California a Toss Up.

The Daily Grind

The Daily Grind

BY Mary Katharine Ham

Third party candidate can't even save Reid, says new poll.

Reid advisers relying on the "none of the above vote."

SNL appears to have simply taken a Palin-bashing brainstorming session and turned it into a skit without editing. What will they have left for next year?

New York's hipsters too cool for the census. Apparently, right-wing paranoia's reach wider than ever expected.

A progressive light astutely pegs the reason for the pro-Israel stance of most southern Republicans: "They’re infatuated with the Israeli army. Why? Because the Israeli army kills Muslims."

Palin to Rubio: "Call me!"

Courage to acknowledge the entitlement crisis: Synthetic indignation being the first refuge of political featherweights, Crist's campaign announced that he believes Rubio's suggestions are "cruel, unusual and unfair to seniors living on a fixed income." They are indeed unusual, because flinching from the facts of the coming entitlements crisis is the default position of all but a responsible few, such as Wisconsin's Rep. Paul Ryan, who has endorsed Rubio.

The 'stache is back, and John Stossel was just ahead of his time.

Romney wins SRLC straw poll?

The health-care fight in Massachusetts heats up. Get excited for our own version.

Most transparent administration ever: President Barack Obama was overheard Sunday telling Pakistan's Prime Minister about the kerfuffle he caused a day earlier when he breached protocol and left the White House without members of the press in tow."Apparently I caused quite a problem," Obama told Yusuf Raza Gilani, noting that the media was unhappy about missing the trip to one of his daughter's soccer games.

The Daily Grind

The Daily Grind

Mary Katharine Ham

"Basically, they’re going to try to make the election a referendum on that “Miss Me Yet?” billboard."

Is Larry Summers on his way out?

AJC: Oh yeah, there are minority Tea Party members, by the way.

"Global war on terror" becomes "countering violent extremism."

Volcker: The VAT tax cometh.

Regulators, dismount! "A federal appeals court has issued a definitive smackdown to the Federal Communications Commission's plans to regulate Internet service providers."

Michelle Obama's dad, upon meeting Barack: "She'll eat him alive."

What could go wrong? "They're saying, 'Where do we get the free Obama care, and how do I sign up for that?'"

Trouble in paradise for Dems.

Megan McArdle: No, we can't start bailing out states.

The New Republic moves behind a pay wall today.

'Collateral Murder' in Baghdad Anything But

'Collateral Murder' in Baghdad Anything But

Blackfive has more on this video and some insight.

Military.com has an article as well

Posted using ShareThis

Happy Hour Links

Happy Hour Links

Just so you know, my hood and robe is at the cleaners.

Posted using ShareThis

Don't Worry About the Census; ACS Is the Real Kommisar

The Orwellian American Community Survey
Overreach
BY Daniel Freedman

The American Community Survey wasn't around when Ronald Reagan declared that the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: "I'm from the government and I'm here to help." If it was, he'd probably agree that having a government representative knock on your door, try to threaten their way into your home, and demand that you give them very personal information is far more terrifying.

The ACS is an extension of the U.S. Census that all households receive. While the U.S. Census form contains 10 questions and is sent out every 10 years, the ACS form contains 48 questions and is sent to 250,000 households each month on a rolling basis.

The ACS itself is a lesson in government overreach. Article 1 of the Constitution allows for a census every 10 years so that seating in Congress is proportional to state populations. Lawmakers gave the Commerce Department the power to ask more questions, and it took the power and ran, and ran, with it -- ending up asking questions unrelated to districting. (ACS answers, according to its website, are to help "manage or evaluate federal and state government programs" -- not to help with congressional seating.)

What's especially problematic about the ACS are the answers it demands from citizens. The least threatening of them are just strange -- such as asking whether your home has a flush toilet and whether "there is a business (such as a store or barber shop) or a medical practice" on your property. Then there are the financial questions. The ACS asks everything from your sources of income (in dollar amounts) to how much you spend on gas, electricity, and water. The IRS just asks what you earn; the Commerce Department wants to know how you spend your money as well.

Even more invasive are the personal questions. The questionnaire asks how many people live with you and their relationship to you, along with their names, ages, gender, and race. Most creepy of all are the questions about your daily routine. The ACS wants to know where you work, what time you leave for work, how you get to work, how long it takes you to get to work, and how many people travel with you.

/snip

A few weeks after sending in the form, a representative of the ACS left a note at my apartment asking me to contact her. When I did, she said she'd like to come to my apartment to go through the questions. I replied that I'd already filled out the form, and if they'd lost it, it was their duty to find it. I also didn't want a stranger entering my home and asking personal questions (and ones that I'd already answered), I told her.

The ACS representative ignored my comments and later turned up twice unannounced at my apartment, demanding entry, and warning me of the fines I would face if I didn't cooperate. I cited the Fourth Amendment ("The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches..."), and reiterated what I told her on the phone. After that, on March 14, I sent a letter of complaint to her regional director.

My saga ended on March 23 when an ACS program supervisor investigated my case and discovered my form had in fact been received on February 8, only it was sitting on the side and never processed. She thanked me for writing in to complain -- she said it was my letter that prompted the search for my form -- and said she would investigate the harassment I received.

My experience exposes that a basic problem with the government having the kind of detailed information the ACS asks is not only from some rogue bureaucrat abusing it, but from an incompetent one losing or misplacing it. U.S. Census Bureau workers have even in the past accidentally published people's personal information on public websites.

But the bigger problem with the ACS is the underlying government mentality it exposes. From the Commerce Department thinking it can demand any personal information it wants, to a government representative thinking she can threaten her way into a private home to get those answers -- what today's government and its workers have forgotten is that government is accountable to the people, not the reverse. It is "government of the people, by the people, for the people," in Abraham Lincoln's immortal words. But in today's America, the servants are increasingly acting like the masters.