Government Has Met the Enemy & It Is Us

Americans are learning to their great surprise that Smokey the Bear has big, sharp teeth.
Formerly warm and cuddly branches of government — the Park Service, Forest Service and other granola–based management teams — have suddenly turned on innocent taxpayers who only wanted to scratch behind their ears.
You’re no doubt familiar with the WWII veterans who removed barriers the US Park Police erected to block the formerly law enforcement–free WWII Monument on the Mall. (Best sign of the Shutdown: “Normandy was closed when we got there, too.”) But that’s only one of many incidents.
The Washington Post interviewed a visitor from San Antonio who “expressed indignation at the petty ways that officials prevented people from enjoying national landmarks.” Her family had no problem looking at the cemetery itself since putting barriers in front of each tombstone was too much for even Smokey Bear. But they were unable to peek inside Arlington House because “they put black plastic in the windows so we couldn’t look in.”

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/58445

Suicide of the Right?

“CONSERVATIVE CRACKUP ON DEBT SHAKEDOWN,” screeched the headline on Huffington Post (October 9, 2013), a statement to which I took great exception. The unfolding disaster on the Hill is not conservative in the least. It seems to be a toxic brew of populism and neo-libertarianism. Or maybe it is just a manifestation of a post-modern death wish, politically speaking, to which even sensible Republicans have succumbed, with the potential of bringing down their party, government, and nation in the hopeless task of blocking Obamacare without actually winning elections.
Would William F. Buckley, Jr., Russell Kirk, Burke, Tocqueville, John Adams, Madison, or Hamilton be a party to this farce? OK, Sam Adams and Jefferson, maybe.
Isn’t there something a bit out of whack when the supposedly “conservative” party indulges in the kinds of escapades usually reserved for community organizers and followers of Saul Alinsky? That said, even Alinsky posited Rule 11, “The price of successful attack is a constructive alternative.” Assuming the Ryan plan is a constructive alternative, and I do, is shutting down Obamacare without winning the White House or at least the Senate, really an option?

http://spectator.org/archives/2013/10/10/suicide-of-the-right 

Is Obama's Shutdown War on Private Business Illegal Racketeering?

Has President Barack Obama violated the Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organizations ("RICO") Act with his hardball tactics over the government shutdown, to extort taxpayer funds?

"We've been told to make life as difficult for people as we can," an angry National Park Service ranger told Washington Times columnist Wesley Pruden.  "It's disgusting"  The park ranger indicated that there is a political motive behind the closure of the open-air memorials. 

The Park Service went out of its way to prevent tourists from taking photographs of Mt. Rushmore, far beyond any legitimate closure.  The Park Service is actively blockading tourists from simply stopping along the public road to take a photograph from afar. 

Government websites cost nothing to leave in place.  Yet the government spent extra money to turn websites off. 

Mt. Vernon is privately funded and operated, on private land, using no federal funds.  Yet the Park Service barricaded a nearby stretch of road where buses turn, to maliciously harass and interfere with the public's use of the 100% privately funded historic plantation.

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/10/is_obamas_shutdown_war_on_private_business_illegal_racketeering.html#ixzz2hJqwJRXa

The Current Federal Debt Ceiling of $16.7 Trillion Plus...

The current national debt ceiling of $16.7 is but a small part of our estimated "total" debt by 2017 of more than $170 trillion, mostly unfunded liabilities, is a consequence of actions taken on the part of our federal government.  Both the republicans and democrats are responsible so it is a bi-partisan problem which can only be resolved on a bi-partisan basis.  Charges and counter-charges of who is responsible is a total waste of time.  Bottom line.  It is time for both parties to STOP spending money we do not have.  That means some hurt will occur but not necessarily for those most in need of assistance.  If this debt is not dealt with everyone will be hurt.  Billions of dollars are wasted every year on frivolous endeavors.  Redundancy in government is rampant.  Government has far over-reached its constitutional boundaries.  Multiple agencies can and should be downsized to make government more efficient and effective.  Some should be eliminated.  These and a multitude of other actions can bring huge savings of taxpayer dollars.  That means favored programs on the part of both parties must either be eliminated or seriously down-sized.  The public must demand it or the ultimate consequence will be the financial ruin of the nation.  Here is a part of what this article says.  "America simply must begin discussing our financial outlook in terms of our cataclysmic unfunded liabilities. Perhaps if the truth were out, it would supply the political motivation needed to inflict radical change upon these nation-destroying benefit programs. During the next few weeks, as you hear politicking about raising the debt ceiling from $16.7 trillion to about $20 trillion, be aware that you are hearing only of 'government-style' accounting, covering only a small fraction of the national debt."   

http://pjmedia.com/blog/debt-limit-huh-unfunded-liabilities-dwarf-16-7-trillion-ceiling/?singlepage=true   

George Burns

How Obamacare's Exchanges Turned Into A 'Third World Experience'

Back in March, at an insurance industry conference in Washington, the problems were apparent. Henry Chao, chief information officer at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, openly fretted that the exchanges wouldn’t be ready by October. “I’m pretty nervous—I don’t know about you,” he told the crowd. “Let’s just make sure it’s not a third-world experience.” At the time, Chao’s comment seemed like an attempt at dark humor. One week into the launch of Obamacare, however, it’s not a joke: it’s literally easier to blog from the Kenyan border than to sign up for insurance on Obamacare’s federal exchange. Why is this happening? Politics. The Obama administration was more afraid of delaying the launch of Obamacare, than they were of botching it.
All you need to know about the rollout of Obamacare’s subsidized insurance exchanges is that, so far, the toughest questions posed to the Obama administration have come from Comedy Central. “We’re going to do a challenge,” Jon Stewart told Kathleen Sebelius on the Daily Show. “I’m going to try and download every movie ever made, and you are going to try and sign up for Obamacare, and we’ll see which happens first.”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2013/10/09/now-we-know-obamacares-exchanges-are-a-third-world-experience/ 

Citizens United Chief: Resentful Obama Wants 'Absolute Power'

David Bossie, chairman of Citizens United — which President Barack Obama has repeatedly blamed for many of Washington's problems — says the commander-in-chief is frustrated because he wants "absolute power."

"He hates Citizens United, he hates our organization, he knows that we are responsible for the House of Representatives' not being under Democratic control, or being one of the groups that helped do that, but, you know, he wants to have full, total control," Bossie told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.

"He wants to have absolute power, and ... he sees the House of Representatives not being under his control, not being ruled by Nancy Pelosi and him, and he resents it. Look what he's doing with the government shutdown right now," Bossie said on Wednesday.

Read Latest Breaking News from Newsmax.com http://www.newsmax.com/NewsmaxTv/Citizens-United-Bossie-Obama/2013/10/09/id/530224#ixzz2hJp0gIdG

The NSA isn't foiling terrorist plots

US officials claim that the government's massive data collection has protected the country from terrorist attacks. After The Guardian's first revelations about the National Security Agency's digital surveillance programs, Senator Dianne Feinstein, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Representative Mike Rogers, head of the House Intelligence Committee, jumped to the NSA's defense by pointing to two terrorist plots supposedly foiled by the organization's digital surveillance programs. Lawyers and policemen involved in these cases disputed these claims, but this did not keep NSA chief Keith Alexander from taking it up a notch by raising the number of foiled attacks to more than 50, and later to 54.

These numbers are crucial for an informed debate about the digital surveillance programs. If the NSA's digital surveillance indeed

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/World/WOR-02-091013.html