Caption: South African Junior Rangers with their mentor Fran Manella, US National Park Service Director
Posted on 09/11/2007 12:24:17 PM PDT by TheThinker
(CBS) When a big story like the terrorism hearings comes along, it consumes Washington. Other good stories get pushed aside and forgotten. Well, here is one of those lesser stories that should not be pushed aside because it is just so outrageous. The U.S. Park Service, the agency that guards our national monuments and takes care of our national parks, has come up with an idea to save money.
The agency brass asked park superintendents to draft plans to close the parks on national holidays.
Yes, you heard right close the parks on days when people are off work and have an opportunity to use them.
But that's just the stupid part. Here's the outrageous part. It turns out that one reason the Park Service is short of money is that Park Service officials have been doing a lot of traveling. They spent $44 million on official travel at home and abroad just last year. And that includes stops in such exotic locales as China, South America, France and Italy. Park Director Fran Manella was hauled before Congressman Charles Taylor and Norm Dick's House committee last week and ordered to cut the travel and keep the parks open. She promised to comply. From now on, she said, no more overseas trips.
Well, that is a start, but it is just the latest chapter in a tale of Park Service mismanagement in which multimillion-dollar projects have been launched without congressional approval and authorization and the Park Service police chief was fired for revealing she didn't have enough police officers to guard the national monuments. So I have another travel tip. Give the Park Service brass their walking papers. They shouldn't be out of work long. They can hire out as clowns.
For those who want to sign a petition to change the plans for the United 93 Memorial before it becomes a Muslim monument, here is the link:
http://www.petitiononline.com/NOCRSCNT/petition.html
I thought she was also an incompetent hack, put into that position solely due to her gender and politics.
When I worked for the Federal Government travel was just another perk that was taken for granted by not just the high level bureaucrats but by even the lowliest secretary. They would find feeble excuses to go to this convention or that seminar for the weekend. One manager spent months hitting the tourist sites in Australia and his secretary took months filling out his travel voucher.
Federal departments control their budget by limiting travel at the end of the fiscal year so that their spending exactly matches the allocated funds.
Why does a U.S. Park official have to go overseas for anything?...........We ought to let the parks management and maintenance bet let out on contracts for the private sector.........like HALLIBURTON................
Why not close them on weekends too? Save even more money that way!
They're keeping the US citizen public safe. The parks and national forests now belong to Mexican Drug Cartels. Stay out or die is what our sheriffs tell us.
Photos here:
http://towncriernews.blogspot.com/2006/09/mexican-border-has-moved-800-miles.html
IIRC, some environMENTAL group wanted all the parks and federal lands to be closed permanently to all public access, except them of course...............
Closing on weekends and all summer would save even more.
must be a good gubmint union they’re in there.
It’s not that I don’t think that the Park Service screws up (they do), but I just can’t believe that the $44 million for travel is a legit number. Considering that it is from CBS News, I don’t believe it.
I’m guessing that the $44 million travel includes flying in fire fighters, planes, and helicopters to fight forest fires.
Those expenses would be covered by the US Forest Service, not the US Park Service.
Caption: South African Junior Rangers with their mentor Fran Manella, US National Park Service Director
What would happen to all the lost income from RV and travel trailer sales. These are some of the few remaining truly made in America artifacts left in our great country, even though some of them are not built all that well anymore.
Shut down all the weekend boating as well so the Boating Industry of America would go into ruins as well. Why do people need to fish, we have fish markets with plenty of imported fish. Might as well just destroy all the fishing tackle industry as well as the hunting industry while their at it. That would solve the gun problem in America real quick if any excuse to own a gun was eliminated.
The Parks could generate plenty of money if they were privately operated and improved to handle the huge crowds that visit them each year and especially on the holidays. This government waste system of using the budget money all up before the end of the year or lose it, must go. This whole Government budget system stinks to high hell when greedy incompetent people get involved in it. The time to fire government workers and replace them with honest loyal Ammericans who know how to budget money is long past due.
Why not just make VIDEO GAMES for all the PARKS and RECREATION so people would no longer get off their couches and ruin the American Wilderness. With HDTV the scenic veiws and experiences could be just as good and realistic as being out in the real thing. Roasting your marshmellows over a gas log fire in the fireplace would replace sitting around a smokey campfire.
Maybe these Park Idiots are smarter than we give them CREDIT?
I was kidding but agree with you that the parks should be privately operated.
1. Put an end of all foreign travel — funnel that money back into the staff and park services that are really needed. 2. Stop adjusting policies and assignments in order to favor selected park administrators. 3. Commit all parks to be open, safe and secure on all national holidays. 4. Petition government to provide the monies needed to fully maintain and operate our national parks in the manner that citizens deserve!
Important ping. Please sign on.
I signed the petition, but there’s no button for “submit.” There’s one for “review your signature” and one for “review other signatures without signing,” but none for “submit.” And on the “review your signature” site, there’s still no “submit” button. What am I doing wrong?
Apparently we signed it back in Nov. 2005# 257.
Thanks for posting it.
[Mr] T
Thanks Albion signed and sent a message.
[Mrs T]
I know that the US Forest Service (FS) has the smokejumpers or firefighters, but who pays if their services are needed in a National Park?
Wouldn’t the Park Service pay the costs associated with them if they are brought in to fight a fire in a National Park?
Federal agencies billing other agencies or departments is not an uncommon thing in the government.
I know someone who works for USDA, but his expertise was loaned to NOAA with logistics support for his research provided by USAF. USAF was simply supplying airplanes and pilots to carry airborne experiments. AF billed NOAA for the expense associated with the AF flying the other agency’s experiment. USDA billed NOAA for borrowing its employee.
Similarly, USDA friend worked with NASA in cooperative venture to get agricultural data from NASA satellites. I’m pretty sure that USDA paid NASA for NASA’s part in getting the data.
I believe I already signed that petition, but I encourage others to sign on and stop that crescent-shaped obscenity.
Glad to sign it...it is a travesty.
Simple change to a heart or any other shape is easy!
For those who want to sign a petition to change the plans for the United 93 Memorial before it becomes a Muslim monument, here is the link: http://www.petitiononline.com/NOCRSCNT/petition.html
Important ping. Please sign on.
This short article from last year supports your contention about unsafe parks -
The US Senate is considering legislation that would allow the American serf to legally carry concealed arms in the federal socialist national parks.
This sensible idea is being met with bleats from castrated sheep infesting the eastern big cities.
The purse-carrying metrosexuals at the New York Times, for one, insisted that bearing arms is only allowed for the national guard. The typical New York eco-fascist snob expects individuals to lie down before the sacred grizzly, offer their worthless body to the big city eco-fascist god Gaia and die.
Disregarding the silly prattle from the wimps, we know that concealed carry is a sure-fire way to protect yourself from national park predators, both the four and two-legged kinds.
Many national parks, especially those in the southwest, are roads for criminals who smuggle drugs and illegal aliens. Crime like robbery and rape is also increasing in our national parks. Concealed carry would place scumbags on notice that their next intended victim might ventilate them.
Besides, there aren’t enough rangers to protect everyone and never will be. Nor should we need to check our civil right to bear arms at the park’s gate. And we certainly aren’t meant to be dinner for a grizzly.
Here are the 10 most dangerous parks:
1. Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Arizona
2. Amistad National Recreation Area, Texas
3. Big Bend National Park, Texas
4. Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Nevada/Arizona
5. Coronado National Memorial Arizona
6. Biscayne National Park, Florida
7. Shenandoah National Park, Virginia
8. Delaware Water Gap, New Jersey/Pennsylvania
9. Edison National Historic Site, New Jersey
10. Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
Source: U.S. Park Rangers Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police
Your list is probably right on. I might add, my neighborhood, which is where the photos in the article I posted were taken.
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