Storming The Collapsing Barricades

by JASmius

Some stories are just naturally suited to be partnered up.

In Shutdowngeddon news, the Obama Regime went the extra obnoxious mile in pettily inflicting as much inconvenience and extended-middle-finger-ism as it possibly could in shutting down the about-to-be-opened World War II memorial in Washington, D.C.:

Palazzo, a Gulf War Marine veteran who has participated in all five of the Honor Flights, blames the White House for making it harder on veterans and playing politics. “At first I thought it was a huge bureaucratic oversight,” Palazzo told the Daily Caller, “but having talked with the officials I can’t help but think this was politically motivated. Honor Flights, which bring WWII veterans to the nation’s memorials, are planned a year in advance and cost anywhere between $80,000 to $100,000. How low can you get with playing politics over our nation’s veterans?”

In a statement, Palazzo noted that he is introducing legislation to ensure that all Honor Flights are granted access this week. “This is an open-air memorial that the public has 24/7 access to under normal circumstances — even when Park Service personnel aren’t present,” Palazzo said in the statement. “It actually requires more effort and expense to shut out these veterans from their Memorial than it would to simply let them through. My office has been in touch with NPS officials and the administration to try to resolve this issue.” [emphasis added]

  And World War II veterans were having none of it:

Several members of Congress on Tuesday morning cut police tape and removed concrete barricades set up by the U.S. National Park Service to allow 91 World War II veterans, arriving from Mississippi on Honor Flights, to visit their memorial on the Mall.

The federal memorial had been closed amid the government shutdown but lawmakers were having nothing of it, said former Michigan Representative Pete Hoekstra, who was there along with an empowered group of passersby who chanted, "Let them in, let them in," and applauded as the barriers were removed.

Hoekstra said to their credit, security did not intervene as many veterans in wheelchairs made what will likely be their final and only trip to see a memorial honoring their service.

Or, IOW, the only way to make the visual of barring WWII vets from visiting their own memorial worse would have been the footage of their being shoved into paddy wagons and taken away in handcuffs.  I'm mildly surprised the USNPS didn't do it anyway at the White House's direct order.

Among those members of Congress on hand to help the vets get in were Democratic Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa [!] and Republican Representatives Bill Huizenga of Michigan, Louie Gohmert of Texas, Steve King of Iowa, and Representative Steven Palazzo of Mississippi, who organized the intervention and had circulated a friendly memo to his colleagues asking them to come out to prevent a blockage to make sure the vets' trip was not in vain, the Mississippi Press reports.

"I was told their leadership told them not to do it," Hoekstra told Newsmax by phone of the effort. "It would step on their messaging. But that's the bigger lesson for today. Just go out and do the right thing. And this was the right thing to do."...

 Watching the vets enter was "emotional," he said.

"This memorial took too long to build," Hoekstra added. "But this is one of those days that makes you feel good. Heaven knows politicians get enough blame these days, but these folks had the courage to come down here, challenge the establishment and get it resolved."

I bet Senator Harkin has some serious 'splainin' to do in Dirty Harry's office long about now.

To adequately convey just how petty and vindictive this stunt was, we turn to Ace:

[L]et us note once again how contrived it is to shut down entryways to a wide open space out in the middle of a park.

This is not a building, like a museum, that has doors and staffers and guides. This is [bleep]ing scenery.

And yet the erected artificial barriers to block people from walking through outdoor scenery.

Voila! Now we can pretend a memorial standing unsupervised out in the open is a "National Park" or "Open Air Museum" and close it to pedestrian traffic (and people can in fact just walk through this thing in their normal transversing of the city)....

There are no "schedule hours" for scenery. The monument does not close on weekends, or at night.

Because it's scenery.

It is a feature of the landscape.

And yet these See You Next Tuesdays attempted to create a fake "entryway" into a landscape feature so they could block it off and say "the Building is closed."

And then they doubled down.

....at extra cost to the taxpayers.

And all for the sake of this:




Remember when Michelle Obama said, "For the first time in my life, I'm proud of my country"?  I guess now we know what she meant.