Home » The shutdown shuffle: the press, the public, and the president

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The shutdown shuffle: the press, the public, and the president — 49 Comments

  1. This IS political theater. The National Seashore – Sandy Hook – “closed” some of its parking lots. Parking lots that are normally “open” all winter. There are never (even in the summer season) lifeguards, the refreshment stands are already closed for the season, the restrooms are locked (okay, they do need to be cleaned, so close them).

    BUT, setting up barricades to block people from parking? WTF?

    Political theater! pure and simple.

  2. Over the past month of conflict, Obama’s ratings have been going up. He’s sticking it to the man in the view of the low information voter.

  3. The only way for the GOP to fight this is to counter with its own narrative. And it’s got to be a simple one with wide appeal — like the president is the guy in charge and the one who should be spearheading negotiations.

    But they’ve got to stick with it, hit it hard, and not be diverted into discussions that distract from it. Some party discipline would help.

  4. Theater of the absurd. Like today’s events in which NPS service employees are called in from furlough to erect barriers around the WWII memorial, that is normally unstaffed. Got to keep those WWII patriots from visiting the now guarded memorial.

    As was mentioned in another thread, just when you’ve think the left cannot get any worse they stoop even lower. Evil truly knows no bounds.

  5. physicsguy:

    The GOP has offered to pay for keeping the WWII memorial open.

    Wonder how much play that will get. Answer: very little, and if it does get some it will only be to say something like, “They’ll pay for war memorials but not for starving/sick children.”

  6. A former insider at the World Bank, ex-Senior Counsel Karen Hudes, says the global financial system is dominated by a small group of corrupt, power-hungry figures centered around the privately owned U.S. Federal Reserve.

    The network has seized control of the media to cover up its crimes, too, she explained. In an interview with The New American, Hudes said that when she tried to blow the whistle on multiple problems at the World Bank, she was fired for her efforts. Now, along with a network of fellow whistleblowers, Hudes is determined to expose and end the corruption. And she is confident of success.

    Citing an explosive 2011 Swiss study published in the PLOS ONE journal on the “network of global corporate control,” Hudes pointed out that a small group of entities – mostly financial institutions and especially central banks – exert a massive amount of influence over the international economy from behind the scenes.

    “What is really going on is that the world’s resources are being dominated by this group,” she explained, adding that the “corrupt power grabbers” have managed to dominate the media as well. “They’re being allowed to do it.”

    on another note.
    terrorists have attacked the russian embassy in libya

    neo. i just sent you a fisked article that is a letter from one of the greenpeace pirates the russians are holding.

    she is finding out that the jail system has barely changed from my grandfathers time… among lots of other things!!

    its a GREAT (but sad when you realize) article as to the way that useful idiots think, and how they think the good way they have it, is global, and so they do not realize how good they have it.

    note that she is not going to find a easy way out

    her people dont want her to come out and tell the others what things are like and so on.

    she is still asleep..
    so if she is allowed to write, i wonder when she will wake up to the reality she is in, and how her ideas were so naive.

    Faiza: “The uncertainty is driving me crazy” (A letter by a Greenpeace activist arrested in Russia)

    she goes on how they broke the rules, how they lie, and she has no idea the “report” they want her to sign is her confession. she better hope she does not get into general population and see the criminal underclass who run that more brutally than any american prison.

    the fisking, sadly, neo can only read…
    as the topic is not here, and it would be too long

    The next day, Thursday 26/9 was a very heavy day. We were again transported in busses, but this time in a dark, locked up metal cage, where just one person could fit, like animals get transported, to the FSB office.

    my comment: for a western person who thinks they are smart, you hve not realized that without a constitution, you ARE an animal and are subjected to the other animals. After all, its animal farm… I wonder if they will have photos of when she finds out she has to serve 5 years or so before she gets to leave — then the horror when she sees what prisons are like outside the evil usa

    so right now. you all can read and watch how another person ends up like that book i recommended.

    if you read this and a few others, you would be amazed at how her plight is the same, except that she is not in love, and she wont lose her Arcady…

    freda utley, the dreams we lost…

    Freda Utley
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freda_Utley
    was an English scholar, political activist and best-selling author. After visiting the Soviet Union in 1927 as a trade union activist, she joined the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1928. Later, married and living in Moscow, she quickly became disillusioned with communism. When her Russian husband, Arcadi Berdichevsky, was arrested in 1936, she escaped to England with her young son. In 1939 they moved to the United States where she became a leading anti-Communist author and activist
    Freda Utley’s father was involved with George Bernard Shaw, the Fabian Society and labor struggles before becoming an attorney, journalist and businessman. He was introduced to Freda Utley’s mother by Edward Aveling, Karl Marx’s translator and longtime partner of his daughter Eleanor. In her memoirs, Utley describes her early influences as “liberal, socialist and free-thinking, strongly colored by the poetry of revolt and liberty and legends, stories and romances of heroism and adventure.”

    from 1900s to 2013 – not much has changed.
    and its sad no one remembers her much

    but now we have the new recycled version…

    though its hard to compare given the incurious natures

  7. About how much play it will get, here’s an example at Politico.com, which, unfortunately, builds on Rand Paul mouthing off in exactly the wrong way:

    Sen. Rand Paul blasted the federal government for trying to block World War II vets from visiting their memorial, saying “some idiot in government sent goons out there to set up barricades.”

    Great. He not only gave the MSM the “goons” sound-bite, but failed to pin it directly on Obama, as the executive who makes these decisions.

  8. The GOP will pay Democrats for war memorials funded by private citizens and which only requires Democrat activists and/or union members to maintain?

    What kind of mafia esque extortion racket is this again?

  9. I knew that Obama hadn’t met with McConnell after his election, but I didn’t remember that it was for 18 months. This bit of the Fred Barnes piece should be cited everytime Obama tries to play the reasonable leader. Most people believe that he has tried to work with Congress and don’t realize what an arrogant a**hole he is, to say nothing of his political incompetence. Of course, it’s not surprising that Obama wouldn’t want to display his ignorance of the nuts and bolts of his grand schemes to the Republican leaders. I’m still waiting for him to be asked wheter he read the Obamacare law and regulations.

  10. Considering all of direct and indirect White House ties to the MSM, is their coverage any surprise?

    Notice, too, that Obama hasn’t shut down the in-house propaganda machine, NPR and PBS, despite insisting on self-funded things like the Air Force-Navy football game, the WWII monument and the Claude Moore Colonial Farm.

  11. Obama deliberately barricaded the WWII Memorial because he knew the Vets were coming from Mississippi to see THEIR memorial He did not build it. Their sacrifice built it. Obama is a mean and petty dictator and he loves to cause hurt.
    Thank God that George Bush’s name is on that Memorial having been the President when it was completed. I would throw up if Barry’s name had been inscribed on it. Although, he would only approve of a muslim monument. By the way, Barry asked for and got a second USPS Muslim stamp for the holiday season. I would walk a letter to California before i would buy that stamp.

  12. Is it theatre? (British spelling, yeah?)

    Yes and no. (Remember that recent answer?)

    Yes, in that until the members are changed, deception is the rule.

    No, in that theatre as well as substance is leading to misery. So, at this point, what difference does it make?

    And no, also, in that Democrat theatre is all substance of Obama’s hate for America as Kit describes. To the extent that Obama is “strongly supported” it is in only the shared programming of hate America.

    Kind of the opposite of “radio America” is Obama’s America.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_America_(United_States)

    May the fleas of Obama’s fathers Kenyan camel infest and consume Obama’s false legacy.

    (Not as good as “disgustingly divisive Alynskyite excuse,” but one has to propagandize as best they can!)

  13. Obama gameplan: the public must suffer!
    Disgraceful CNN report that food inspectors off the job with the implication that people will die. Not essential?
    Shameful barriers placed around the *open* WW 2 Memorial.

    And the real kicker: Navy v. Air Force cancelled even though Navy athletics not taxpayer funded!

    Disgraceful, but expected from this crowd.

  14. One has to wonder why the low information voter is even paying attention when nothing they rely on is affected by the “shutdown”. They’re not veterans visiting parks or worrying much about the army-navy game.
    My guess is the comedy channel is the only place they’ve heard it discussed, and when it’s over, It will be forgotten just as quickly as it entered their mostly empty heads.

  15. I agree with Spengler: furthering Obama’s dictatorship offers our only hope for salvation through an eventual mass uprising. The US population is not yet as dominated by order-obeying citizens as was 1930s Germany.

    Which means saying not just no, but hell no, to the Christies, the McCains, the Romneys and Ryans.

  16. To quote Kit:

    Obama deliberately barricaded the WWII Memorial because he knew the Vets were coming from Mississippi to see THEIR memorial He did not build it. Their sacrifice built it. Obama is a mean and petty dictator and he loves to cause hurt.

    It is despicable, rancid, over the top petulance by a president.

    I wonder what people will think when the Federal Government starts stealing money directly out of taxpayers’ bank accounts and calling it a tax after the fact.
    The practice started in Cyprus and is now spreading to Italy, Poland, New Zealand and Canada.
    You just know it is going to happen here in the U.S.
    Or what used to be the U.S.

  17. Don Carlos:

    I couldn’t disagree more.

    We’ve discussed this over and over, so no need to go into it in detail, but to allow evil to flourish in hopes that people will finally see it more clearly for what it is and stop it is very dangerous, playing with fire, and a poor bet as well. By that time it is usually not stoppable.

  18. Basing one’s support on the involvement of the low-information voter is laughable. They only receive info in two ways: either over time through cultural osmosis or by being directly affected.
    There hasn’t been enough time elapsed for the former, and there haven’t been enough effects for the latter which is why Obama has to manufacture them.

  19. The capitalization of SHUTDOWN and CLOSED on the signs lays bare the administration’s intent to hype this thing.

  20. Cultural contradictions of Obamism:

    feminists: where the feminists are anything but feminine.

    socialist: where the socialists are anything but social.

    gays: where the gays are anything but gay.

    community organizers: where the organizing is for anything but community.

    health care: where the care is for anything but health.

    welfare services: where the service is for anything but welfare.

    planned parenthood: where the planning is for anything but creating parents.

    racial healing: where the race gets anything but healing.

    empowerment: where the empowered is anyone but the government.

    social justice: where justice is for anyone except is the individual.

    sexual revolution: where the sex is anything but degrading.

    power to the people: where the people get anything but power.

    affirmative action: where the action is negative.

    Not left, not right, but forward: where there’s any direction but forward.

    No labels: where you only have identity behind a label.

    It’s the economy: where the economy is only important in a Republican administration.

    bipartisan support: where both parties support the Democrats.

    gun violence: where guns commit violence.

    . . .

  21. Charles C. W. Cooke:

    America, we are told, is in the grim midst of an unrivaled constitutional crisis that is being perpetrated in anger by “racist,” “bomb-throwing” “anarchists” whose “endgame” and ultimate fantasy is the shutting down of government – not, of course, because the co-equal branches of the American polity cannot come to a budget agreement, but because a vocal “extreme” minority, that has magically managed to transmute itself into a majority of the House and 46 percent of the Senate, does not believe in having a government at all.

    We are not only being demonized, we are being systematically dehumanized. Anybody who doesn’t realize that the end game for Obama and the Left is the elimination of the opposition is living in a dream world. Anyone who thinks that it can’t happen here is woefully ignorant of history.

    Suppose there was a massive terrorist attack right now, and Obama goes on national TV and excoriates Republicans, conservatives, and Tea Partiers for crippling the government and allowing the terrorists to get through. You think that wouldn’t resonate with low information voters? You think that wouldn’t build support for taking action against such unpatriotic “wreckers” and “saboteurs”?

    The Low Information Voter is Obama’s most important and dependable base. That cohort has been created by our leftist-infested educational system, and is incessantly propagandized by the leftist-infested media.

  22. To add to my previous comment, people with a sixth-grade education in 1940 had more common sense and life experience than many of today’s college graduates.

  23. There are 2m federal workers. 800,000 have been deemed “non-essential”.

    What am I missing here?

  24. The gov thinks that if it kicks out all the sheep into the un-sheltered wilderness, that the fear will make them grateful for becoming livestock again. That works well for herds, but for humans you first need to make them into something like a pig. Which is what they think of you.

  25. I am a pig, for sure, but of my own making. I’m just thinking of the fifth column possibilities here.

  26. There are really no words fit to print that can express the disgust I have for the way Obama behaves- he is the most despicable, petty, arrogant human being I believe I’ve ever had the misfortune to tolerate.
    He is the epitome of irresponsibility, lacks any sense of humility or honor, and has no love of this country or anyone but himself.
    But I am more dispirited and disgusted with the people who voted for him, who defend him, and who are unable to put aside their own immediate interests, whether it be “free” health care, a phone, or some other benefit they feel entitled to grab at the expense of others. These are common traits they share with Obama – a sense of entitlement and selfishness that was not common until the last 20 or so years. I am not that old- mid 50s – but was raised with the phrase “nobody owes you anything” drilled into my head. And Nobody does, or and ever did,
    The typical Obama supporter, and Obama himself have a completely different upbringing. That can only last a few generations. No culture with such an attitude will remain prosperous. Obama and his followers have no interest in that value or understanding of it- Obama’s whole life has been based on a sense of entitlement and it has been indulged at every point along the way. I can only look with contempt at people who support him, because they are just like him.

  27. The latest from the man himself:

    During the course of my presidency, I have bent over backwards to work with the Republican party and have purposely kept my rhetoric down. I think I’m pretty well known for being a calm guy. Sometimes people think I’m too calm. And am I exasperated? Absolutely I’m exasperated because this is entirely unnecessary.

    I’m at a loss for words.

  28. Ann,
    As I said, the Fred Barnes quote about him not even meeting with McConnell till 18 months after his inauguration needs to be put out there. Obama is truly a sociopath. And besides that , he is ignorant and lazy.

  29. Given the provision in the health care law that lets them make civic generals who in an emergency have general rank over actual military, might make this shut down real interesting.

    i was hoping that someone would pay attention and “get” the implications of what “may” happen as they are contriving things by ordering things shut with the intent to make the shut down “felt” even if the things they shut down are not even part of it!!!

    they love word games and all that symbolism and cargo cult pomp. its a constant.

    when they say “we are making history”
    they mean “we are making history (up)”

    when they say they want peace, not war
    you define peace as the absence of war
    they define peace as war until the absence of opposition which then results in “peace” (of the dictatorship) – so war is peace

    PROGRESSIVE
    PROmote regGRESSIVE (policies)

    Military equipment continues to creep into the hands of municipal police forces
    http://www.salon.com/2013/09/30/militarization_creep_texas_cops_get_army_tanks/

    Nine-Week Army Program Provides Civilian Police Force Training
    http://www.policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm?fuseaction=display_arch&article_id=2249&issue_id=112010

    the interesting catch is that the posse comitatus act was amended to allow the prsident to use the us military against the citizens, in 2008, it was then removed, though the rand corporation and others ignore that.

    On September 26, 2006, President Bush urged Congress to consider revising federal laws so that U.S. armed forces could restore public order and enforce laws in the aftermath of a natural disaster, terrorist attack or incident, or other condition.

    These changes were included in the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007 (H.R. 5122), which was signed into law on October 17, 2006.
    In 2008, these changes in the Insurrection Act of 1807 were repealed in their entirety, reverting to the previous wording of the Insurrection Act[7] that in its original form was written to limit Presidential power as much as possible in the event of insurrection, rebellion, or lawlessness.

    then:
    In 2011, U.S. President Barack Obama signed National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 into law. Section 1031, clause “b”, article 2 defines a ‘covered person’, i.e., someone possibly subject to martial law, as the following: “A person who was a part of or substantially supported al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners, including any person who has committed a belligerent act or has directly supported such hostilities in aid of such enemy forces.”

    then
    Under 18 U.S.C. § 831, the Attorney General may request that the Secretary of Defense provide emergency assistance if civilian law enforcement is inadequate to address certain types of threats involving the release of nuclear materials, such as potential use of a nuclear or radiological weapon. Such assistance may be by any personnel under the authority of the Department of Defense, provided such assistance does not adversely affect U.S. military preparedness. The only exemption is nuclear materials.

    then
    Patient Protection Affordable Care Act,
    SEC. 5210. ESTABLISHING A READY RESERVE CORPS.

    Commissioned officers of the Ready Reserve Corps shall be appointed by the President and commissioned officers of the Regular Corps shall be appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate.

    ASSIMILATING RESERVE CORP OFFICERS INTO THE REGULAR CORPS.–Effective on the date of enactment of the Affordable Health Choices Act, all individuals classified as officers in the Reserve Corps under this section (as such section existed on the day before the date of enactment of such Act) and serving on active duty shall be deemed to be commissioned officers of the Regular Corps.

    lets see if the lights come on.

    How would you replace the officers of the regular corps who swore to uphold the constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic with new officers that do not have that?

    in the immortal words of the teacher in ferris beuler:
    anyone? anyone?

  30. ignore: Under 18 U.S.C. § 831
    all the other games are not needed if one was to use that. my error, sorry.

  31. Obama is absolutely destroying the GOP right now. The average low information voter HATES the military and any low-IQ person dumb enough to get tricked into becoming a soldier, past or present. To see these old white farts barricaded from a concrete memorial is what dreams are made of for 51% of the population. Obama doesn’t need to do this, but he’s going out of his way to advertise that “government is closed” and he’s humiliating as many gun-owning old white folk as he can.

  32. Best article so far: http://spectator.org/archives/2013/10/03/the-clash-of-the-crusades

    Anyone who thinks they are going to negotiate or back down is sadly wrong.

    You may as well ask one of the Generals of the First Crusade leading an Army across Europe would he please turn around.

    They are into Total Victory, and so should we be. You cannot compromise or play nice with these people. They (rightly) see that for what it is – fear and surrender. And every time they accept our surrender. The mushy Rs won’t be saved any more than anyone else.

    It does not look good for America.

  33. On republican rabbits:

    http://spectator.org/archives/2013/10/03/the-clash-of-the-crusades/

    Excerpts:

    The Obama-left wing crusade is dedicated to controlling the lives of 300 million Americans. . .

    Obamacare agents of control will be left-wing “navigators” – from the SEIU to ACORN to Planned Parenthood.

    Reagan in the 1980s was all too familiar with conservatives who ran at the drop of a liberal hat. Reagan’s scornful term for these conservatives was “rabbits.”

    These people are engaged in what passes for an Establishment crusade – acceptance of the status quo on the premise of realism and victory. This devotion to the purity of moderation has lost again and again and again and again.

  34. Commissioned officers of the Public Health Service and of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration can be militarized by the President of the United States. Statutory authorization to militarize the Public Health Service is under Title 42 U.S.C. (Based on rank, commissioned officers of the Public Health Service (USPHS) and NOAA can be classified as Category III, IV, and V under the Geneva Convention).

    US officer ranks
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:US_officer_ranks

    if you look, the ranks are equivalent all the way up to admiral, and the only way to get higher is during war time.

    there is NO RANK below ensign. so ALL regular troops rank lower. the grade exists, but never implemented.

    The United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps (PHSCC) is the federal uniformed service of the United States Public Health Service (PHS) and is one of the seven uniformed services of the United States.

    Officers of the PHS are classified as noncombatants, unless directed to serve as part of the armed forces by the President or detailed to a service branch of the armed forces.[6] Members of the PHSCC wear the same uniforms as the United States Navy with special corps insignia, and hold ranks equivalent to those of naval officers. Officers of the PHSCC receive their commissions through the PHSCC’s direct commissioning program.

    As with its parent division, the PHS, the PHSCC is under the direction of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. The PHSCC is led by the Surgeon General who holds grade of vice admiral.[7] The Surgeon General reports directly to the Assistant Secretary for Health who may hold the rank of admiral if he or she is a serving member of the PHSCC

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Public_Health_Service_Commissioned_Corps#Commissioned_officer_ranks

  35. Great info, Art. And couple with Obama’s degradation of the military by appointing Muslim loving generals and top brass, it’s not beyond the pale to see the signs of a plan of dictatorship.

  36. of course, non combatants that can be turned into them in an order, would need to be supplied. problem is that if they are not supplied previously, the supply change would be noticable. no?

    Ms. Napolitano said her department has purchased about 150 million rounds of ammunition a year since 2009, with about 70 million of those going to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the agency that includes the U.S. Border Patrol.

    The U.S. Border Patrol is under fire for allegedly ordering its elite, SWAT-style units to use non-lethal bean bag ammunition before responding with deadly force — even against suspects armed with high-powered semi-automatic and automatic weapons like AK-47s

    Dr. Howard K. Koh serves as the 14th Assistant Secretary for Health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), after being nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2009.

    Admiral Koh… as he is known in other circles… 🙂

    which i guess would make Regina M. Benjamin vice admiral at a moments notice. here is a photo of her in uniform. http://www.womenshealthconference.net/files/image/speakers/Regina-M-Benjamin.jpg
    [great cv!!]

    its not so much what is there, its so much as to why is such possible.

    to go back to obama

    “apple had a glitch and they fixed it”

    well, actually they didnt have a glitch, what they had was a long series of weird moves that then allowed someone to access the camera.

    rather than leave that long series of archaic moves and menu changes, they removed such.

    its like making a desk, and having to install a button that destroys the world, and rather than not have such a thing, it just sits there as everyone says to be careful no one would ever press it.

    i would rather have such a thing disconnected
    because such a thing then becomes a focal point of those who want to act or do something.

    just as the missing scale in smogs armor allowed bilbo to kill the dragon. just as the air vent (in space?) allowed the death star to be destroyed. just as a tunnel under a city wall, caused the only fortress to never fall – to then fall. etc…

  37. Yahoo peddles the “glitches due to volume” meme. But is anyone buying it? Here’s a commentor’s reaction:

    It was really inspiring to see Barack and his family being the first to sign up on National TV!And all of Congress following in line so they could set the example for the rest of us. Kind of like his daughters going to public school and the family going on vacation every sixty days.

    Lead by example and others will follow…..There is such a disconnect with what Socialists preach and what they practice. Nine out of Ten Communist leaders may agree.

  38. I’m relatively satisfied with how things are going.

    The one thing people in the US needed first to fight the Left was hate, or some equally strong emotion, to motivate them.

    And it seems it is not here, for the most part.

    Without strong emotions, wars cannot be won. While emotion in and of itself is no valid strategy, it is the prerequisite to victory.

    Strategy never intended to get rid of or destroy emotion, but control it in terms of logistics and personnel. Propaganda strategy thus takes care of human motivation, the same way logistics takes care of human appetites.

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