Free Republic

Last week I wrote a column accusing the president of having a vindictive streak — of deliberately trying to make the lives of average Americans worse just so he could score ideological and political points. We already knew from how he handled the budget sequester that Obama liked this approach. He ordered Cabinet secretaries not to do their jobs — i.e., to manage as best they could under spending restraints — but instead to find ways to make the cuts needlessly painful for innocents caught in the Beltway crossfire. They dusted off the same playbook for the shutdown. As one...

[With video] Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert got into a tense back-and-forth Saturday with Fox New’s Arthel Neville over who is to blame for the partial government shut down and the frightening possibility of a debt-ceiling breach. The Republican Congressman insisted that President Barack Obama and his Democrat allies in the U.S. Senate are responsible for the current mess in the nation’s capital. [SNIIP] The Fox News anchor wasn’t satisfied with Rep. Gohmert’s analysis. “You’re not saying that either, Congressman?” Neville said. “Let’s have some honest talk here.” The Congressman repeated that it’s the Democrats, especially Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid,...

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From TheDC Photodesk: Vets storm WWII memorial, march on White House By Grae Stafford 12:38 PM 10/13/2013 Hundreds of veterans descended on Washington, D.C. on Sunday under overcast skies and light rain to protest the closure of the war memorials during the government shutdown — and tore down the barricades surrounding the memorials to sounds of horns from truckers and cars and the roar of motorcycle engines. They were joined by Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who urged the Democratically-controlled Senate and President Barack Obama to remove the barricades...

The Obama administration’s abject mean spiritedness and cruelty against our World War II veterans attempting to enter their own free open air memorial this week is beyond any words in Webster’s Dictionary! Nothing can describe the affront done to the initial Honor Flight group of 91 vets from Mississippi and their assistants when they met the new word in the urban dictionary, the word now known as “barry-cades!” “Greater Love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his fellow man.” John 15:13 is the guiding principle these brave men now in their 80s and...

At the Million Vet March in DC people have torn down the barricades at the Lincoln Memorial and are carrying them to the White House to Barricade the White House. One man carrying a barricade said,"We are taking these things where they belong." Watch Live on Ustream. http://www.ustream.tv/channel/mlr13

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Hard to believe, butt we’re just one day shy of a full 2 week government shutdown. Combined with the problems we’re experiencing (temporarily) with our Obamacare system, things are getting a little tense around here.With so many of our non-essential personnel on furlough, Lady M is growing a little short with those of us still on the job - which is okay, because we’re used to it. Butt now even “no-drama Obama” is beginning to act out a little.“That Boner, I'll make him an offer he can't refuse.”Not only that, butt I’m working here with a handicap because I left...

You would have had to be under a rock to miss our President stating that recently. He mouthed that repeatedly during the budget debate and the government shutdown. It became his mantra leading up to the impending vote for raising the debt ceiling. The constitutional lawyer was apparently absent the day they taught that we have three co-equal branches of government. More than anything else, Mr. Obama apparently does not understand how the debt ceiling works. President Obama has regularly repeated “I will not negotiate over the full faith and credit of the United States.” Certainly he may mean that,...

In contemplating the bizarre, incompetent, and feckless behavior of House Speaker John Boehner over the years, I am reminded of the signature scene from the 1969 Western comedy Support Your Local Sheriff: In it,the sheriff (James Garner) ridicules dim-witted prisoner Joe Dandy (Bruce Dern), deriding him and maintaining full control even though his jail has no bars. The money scene is from 2:40 through 3:30: The cell on the right is yours. We don't have any bars yet...but we're gonna operate just as if the bars are there...so while you're in this jail, you stay on that side of the...

Soooo I'm searching for info on a Civil War historic site and click on a National Park Service page presented  (high) in the Google results- yet all I get is this: "Because of the Federal Government Shutdown,  all national parks are closed  and the National Park Service webpages are not operating.  For more information, go to www.doi.gov" It costs less somehow to generate/post disingenuous Obama propaganda and close down all their other pages, then? And these messages are putting themselves up? That ain't how it works with my server- Just in case you missed that, a big, black banner promptly...

I am a federal bureaucrat. A professional government employee. And guess what? I’m damn proud of it. It seems that all I hear these days are the once and future leaders of our country tripping over themselves to denigrate the work we do. I’m tired of it, and I’m fed up. I don’t claim to represent anyone other than myself, but I would bet that a fair number of federal employees feel as I do. We are lawyers, doctors, PhD students, economists, writers, electricians, construction workers, security officers and technology specialists. We are not a drain on the national economy;...

Our government is out of control.First, it was the World War II veterans who had to break down barriers to see the open air, un-attended memorial erected in their honor.  A memorial which is on public land but is supported – including the National Park Service fee – with private funds. This week there was more security surrounding this memorial — just to keep elderly veterans out — than there was at our embassy in Benghazi the night it was attacked.And for what? To inflict as much pain as possible through this government shutdown. It’s called Washington Monument Syndrome, and it’s...

Most Americans are aware, on some level, of the Firemen First Principle. Politicians face a shortfall in the budget, and wish to raise taxes, or debt, to cover it, but also must face the wrath of the public. So they pretend to bite the bullet, strategically placing onto the chopping block those parts of the government that the people like best. This “demonstrates” the “need” to raise taxes, increase debt, or otherwise do things voters would rather not do. Firemen go first onto the list, because everyone likes firemen. They risk their lives and help us when we are truly...

WASHINGTON — Wheelchair-bound elderly veterans pushed aside barricades to tour the World War II Memorial Tuesday morning, in defiance of the government shutdown which closed all of the memorials in the nation’s capital. The four bus loads of veterans — visiting from Mississippi as part of a once-in-a-lifetime Honor Flight tour — ignored National Park Police instructions not to enter the site as lawmakers and tourists cheered them on. “We didn’t come this far not to get in,” one veteran proclaimed. The scene was both emotional and comical at once. After it was clear they had lost control of the...

On health care, the president's pile of broken promises keeps getting higher. Consider this gem from Aug. 20, 2009: “Let's be clear about the fact that nobody has proposed anything close to a government takeover of health care.” Well, yes, somebody did. President Obama is now well on his way to orchestrating the federal government's takeover of Americans' health care. Commandeering the resources of major federal departments, particularly the Department of Health and Human Services and the IRS, the administration and its allies in Congress have created numerous federal bureaus, commissions and programs and have issued thousands of pages of...

Rep Randy Neugebauer confronted a park ranger at the WW II Memorial. Anderson takes a look at the video.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Thursday blocked a House bill providing funding to reopen national parks amid the government shutdown, saying he would not allow the GOP to pick and choose from among favored programs and insisting the only way out is to pass all spending at the same time. Republicans tried to get an agreement in the Senate to restore the parks money along with funding for the National Institutes of Health, the military reserves and National Guard, and veterans affairs, but Democrats objected to each of those agreements in turn. [snip] The debate on the Senate floor...

Shutdown overreach: More personnel sent to WWII memorial than Benghazi; Park Service closes park it doesn't run (Video at Link) The National Park Service is sending so many officials out to shut down federal parks from visiting Americans that at this rate it might have to suspend furloughs if the government closure continues. Two examples: -- At the World War II Memorial on The Mall in Washington, where veterans have been staging protests to keep it open...