How The National Park Service Became Obama's Shutdown 'Shock Troops'
The monuments in Washington, D.C. -- and particularly the World War II memorial -- have become a symbol for the right to decry the government shutdown, even labeling the National Park Service shutdown "shock troops" designed to toss veterans out at will as they approach the memorial.
On Tuesday, Rep. Steve Palazzo (R-MS) reportedly opened the barricade of the World War II Memorial to let a group of veterans in. Rep. Steve King (R-IA) helped by "distract(ing) a police officer" to sneak the veterans in, according to a reporter on the scene. Even outgoing tea partier Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) made an appearance.
"President Obama is so fixated on forcing Obamacare on the American people that he's even willing to deny World War II veterans the right to access the memorial they have earned through their heroic service," Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said in a statement on Wednesday.
Republicans say President Barack Obama has been so obsessed with pushing a governmental shutdown that he's refusing to allow anyone into the national parks and monuments (even though the National Park Service said on Wednesday that veterans would be allowed to visit the World War II memorial).
- more -
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/parks-and-museums
See how that works? All these terrorists have to do is make an accusation that goes unchallenged, and they get people to jump.
This is why no one should let up on these fuckers.
Republican shutdown is not playing well in Peoria. Or Kansas City. Or Sacramento. Or ...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023767797
By Steve Benen
Republican messaging surrounding their decision to shut down the government is a bit of a mess, burdened by an unhealthy amount of cognitive dissonance. The party wants Americans to believe that Democrats should be blamed for the shutdown, and that the shutdown is a conservative triumph that Republicans were right to embrace. The GOP argues that conservatives fought for this shutdown -- and now boast about it -- but really didn't want it...Republicans would have the public believe that the shutdown doesn't much matter, since the federal government is an inherently awful burden that Americans neither wants nor needs. The problem, of course, is that the GOP's shutdown is causing real harm to real people, and every tragic consequence is a reminder, not only of the far-right's party's callous indifference, but of the importance of government itself.
Ned Resnikoff reported yesterday, for example, on several hundred preschool-aged children who can no longer go to a Head Start center in Alabama because its 240 employees have been furloughed without pay.
The Wall Street Journal had a related item on the shutdown's real-world effects:
At the National Institutes of Health, nearly three-quarters of the staff was furloughed. One result: director Francis Collins said about 200 patients who otherwise would be admitted to the NIH Clinical Center into clinical trials each week will be turned away. This includes about 30 children, most of them cancer patients, he said.
Got that? Children with cancer will be turned away from NIH clinical trials. Why? Because House Republicans won't take a center-right budget deal that enjoys bipartisan support.
On Fox News yesterday, a prominent far-right pundit said the shutdown is irrelevant because the "worst thing that happens is some museums close." Another prominent far-right radio host boasted yesterday that the shutdown is "a dream for conservatives."
Yes, for others, it's a nightmare.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/10/02/20785375-the-consequences-of-callousness
= new reply since forum marked as read
and blames Obama, who would have guessed. . .
...on the WWII Memorial being closed:
That area has a large water/pool area that IMO could pose a drowning hazard to unsupervised tourists, especially children or disabled perdons. Wouldn't the federsl government face liability if they hsd NOT blocked entry?
I ask this as the daughter of a WWII vetersn who never got his chance to see his memorial. I am GLAD those veterans went on in... 
It could be something as simple as somebody slipping in with an ice cream cone and dropping it, creating a slip-and-fall hazard.
With the 330 NPS employees staffing the National Mall and memorials furloughed, their safety, maintenance and other responsibilities are not covered. Even the outdoor memorials are not self-operating. It takes the work of dedicated public employees to keep them open. (And my experience with NPS staff at the Mall's memorials is that they are exceptionally dedicated.)
In the case of the WWII Veterans Memorial, NPS is permitting the vet Honor Flight visitors to be there under its existing rules for public political demonstrations (and there are Park Police on duty).
I'm glad they got to go in, too. Hell, I would have removed the barricades for them! 
