Just For Spite

Because of the government shutdown (of 17% of the government), the National Park Service has closed all national parks and monuments.

A lot of that is understandable. It takes a lot of park rangers to keep Yellowstone and Sequoia operating. But what's their excuse for blocking public highways to keep people from seeing things from miles away, and for ordering privately owned businesses closed, and for throwing people out of their own privately owned homes? And why are they using more personnel to close the World War II Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, the Vietnam War Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Jefferson Memorial than to keep them open?

With all this, and the testimony of those taking the orders, it appears the orders came from the very top, from

It's just for spite — just because he's angry everyone wouldn't just give him everything he wants. And some of the elements of this spitefest combine both the spite and the narcissistic self-centeredness of our Dear Leader.

Because of all this, most of the country feels this way:

And why is that? It's because of a very simple truth.

Obama — Just Plain Mean

President Thin-Skin (Barack Obama) is now looking just plain mean. The whole concept of a government shutdown — or a partial government shutdown (of 17% of the government, like this one — is saving money. But Obama is spending extra money in attempts to close off open air monuments, like the World War II and Korean War memorials, the Lincoln Memorial, the Iwo Jima Memorial, the Vietnam War Memorial, and Mount Rushmore. He even has his people trying to block off public highways to prevent people from being able to see these monuments from afar. And now it's reported that he explicitly wants to make life as difficult as possible for the public, apparently because he things the Republicans will be blamed for his actions.

None of these were closed during previous government shutdowns. Nor were the military academies' sports teams threatened with game forfeitures in previous shutdowns, but Obama tried to do that this time until he was blocked by his Defense Secretary who allowed the games to proceed.

It's even worse than that. Now Catholic chaplains have been threatened with arrest if they minister to military personnel now that such ministry is more necessary. At this point it's not clear if that applies to military chaplains as well as contract priests (because there aren't enough active duty Catholic chaplains to serve the Catholics in the military). And, of course, that's despite the fact that the military furloughs shouldn't have happened in the first place.

And that's not the worst of it. Obama has endangered the nation's security by furloughing 70% of our intelligence analysts, while pulling people off furlough to close the open air memorials (like the World War II and Korean War and Lincoln memorials). And he's had people thrown out of their own homes that are on leased federal land.

He's even shut down the military commissaries (a non-appropriatged funds activity unaffected by appropriations & continuing resolutions) while keeping his golf courses open. But at least Camp David is fully staffed, so President Obama can have all his creature comforts.

Looks to me like these images are appropriate.

Obama on Negotiating With Republicans

President Barack Obama says he will be happy to negotiate with the House Republicans, but "not with a gun held to the country's head."

Of course, before the shutdown (of 17% of the government), President Obama said — repeatedly — that he would not negotiate.

So President Obama's statement is clearly false. This makes it look like President Obama will say anything he thinks he can get people to believe, regardless of whether it's true.

And, in other words, what Obama is saying is "Give me everything I want, and then I'll negotiate." But what will there be to negotiate about after the Republicans give Obama everything he wants?