Non-Federally Funded Parks Shut Down? Why?

Obviously, the Obama administration is trying to inflict maximum pain on the American people in order to get their way.
Let's be honest, there's really no other explanation for them closing popular parks that receive NO government funding.

Shutdown Theater
NPS Orders Closure of Park that Receives No Federal Funding

The National Park Service has ordered the closure of a Virginia park that sits on federal land, even though the government provides no resources for its maintenance or operation.

The Claude Moore Colonial Farm announced on Wednesday that NPS has ordered it to suspend operations until Congress agrees to a deal to fund the federal government.

According to Anna Eberly, managing director of the farm, NPS sent law enforcement agents to the park on Tuesday evening to remove staff and volunteers from the property.

“You do have to wonder about the wisdom of an organization that would use staff they don’t have the money to pay to evict visitors from a park site that operates without costing them any money,” she said.

The park withstood prior government shutdowns, noting in a news release that the farm will be closed to the public for the first time in 40 years.

“In previous budget dramas, the Farm has always been exempted since the NPS provides no staff or resources to operate the Farm,” Eberly explained in an emailed statement.

“In all the years I have worked with the National Park Service … I have never worked with a more arrogant, arbitrary and vindictive group representing the NPS,” Eberly said.

The farm is an historical reenactment site, which “authentically portrays the life of an 18th Century American family building a life on the nearer edges of civilized society,” according to its website.

Farm staff repeatedly asked the NPS to allow the farm to remain open. “Every appeal our Board of Directors made to the NPS administration was denied,” Eberly said.

She called the decision “utter crap.”

“We have operated the Farm successfully for 32 years after the NPS cut the Farm from its budget in 1980 and are fully staffed and prepared to open today. But there are barricades at the Pavilions and entrance to the Farm,” Eberly explained.

Previous federal funding battles have threatened the farm’s operations. A group of citizens in 1980 formed the Friends of Turkey Run Farm, established a $500,000 endowment for the farm, and negotiated a 30-year no-fee lease.

According to Eberly’s statement, farm staff have been in contact with Reps. Frank Wolf (R., Va.) and Jim Moran (D., Va.) in an attempt to reverse NPS’ decision. Neither congressman returned a request for comment.

News of the farm closure comes as controversy rages over the closure of the World War II memorial on the National Mall.

WWII veterans in Washington as part of the Honor Flight Network stormed the memorial on Tuesday, defying NPS, which insisted that the memorial was legally closed.

More Honor Flight veterans showed up on Wednesday, flanked by members of Congress from both parties. Republican members blamed Democrats for the memorial’s closure, and vice versa.

Some speculated that the decision to close the memorial was part of a concerted effort by the administration to play up the consequences of the shutdown in an effort to convince congressional Republicans to agree to a funding bill without preconditions.

That tactic is known as the Washington Monument Strategy, in reference to efforts by Nixon administration officials to inflate the consequences of budget cuts at the time.

freebeacon.com...

reply to post by IAMTAT

Yup, it totally makes sense to take down the library of congress' website too. I wouldn't be surprised if they try to burn it to the ground, enemies of information that they are.

reply to post by IAMTAT


Welcome to Chicago, Boys!! Now pay your "Protection" fees !!!

The King is unhappy and ain't no one gonna be happy again until the King has a smile again. I think that's the new reality. If Obama isn't a happy little camper? The nation will suffer for it.

We elected a 2yr old in a man's body. Tantrums and logic that just brings brain freeze sometimes.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Rabbit, I do believe this runs much, much deeper than just one man.

I laughed when they made such a fuss over closing Glacier Natl park on the news. Hello, Glacier Natl always shuts down this time of year due to the big snow fall that starts each time this year. Some of these closings have become petty. The most recent, the fuss over WWII vets entering the memorial. They should get to see their own memorial on these honor flights.

Wrabbit2000
The King is unhappy and ain't no one gonna be happy again until the King has a smile again. I think that's the new reality. If Obama isn't a happy little camper? The nation will suffer for it.

We elected a 2yr old in a man's body. Tantrums and logic that just brings brain freeze sometimes.

I think he should just take Michelle and the kids and go to Hawaii. It's not like we'd miss much with him away.

reply to post by Taissa


It should be about time for another vacation, shoudn't it? It's been at least a month or 6 weeks since he last took one, I'm sure of it.

You're right. That's what it is... He's around too much. Time for another ..fact finding trip.. or whatever it is they call 100 million dollar vacation extravaganzas across Africa and such. Quite the King, indeed.

I'd suggest Australia..but he seems to have a personal distaste for all things remotely British. Hmm.... So many little personal issues, this one has.

reply to post by IAMTAT


While im not a fan of the Examiner... I think they may have gotten this one right...

Government 'shutdown' invoked to barricade and close private tourist attraction

As part of the so-called “government shutdown” (which actually has not shut down most of the government — 80 percent of federal workers are still working), the Obama administration is shutting down tourist attractions even when doing so costs the government more money than leaving them open.

The government rented costly barricades to keep people out of open-air outdoor monuments that don’t need to be manned, and are typically open even when unstaffed (like the World War II Memorial). And it has sent Park Police to drive people out of privately-run tourist attractions on public land, like the Claude Moore Colonial Farm, endangering tourism-related jobs in the process.

The federal government’s barricading and forced closure of private-funded and operated Claude Moore Colonial Farm is not saving the government a penny, notes PJ Media’s Bryan Preston. He quotes from an email sent by the Farm’s Managing Director, Anna Eberly:



“
“For the first time in 40 years, the National Park Service (NPS) has finally succeeded in closing the Farm down to the public. In previous budget dramas, the Farm has always been exempted since the NPS provides no staff or resources to operate the Farm.”
“
The Claude Moore Colonial Farm, Eberly says, has thrived even as the federal government has treated it with “benign neglect” for decades. That benign neglect would serve it better than the barricades now surrounding it.
“
Eberly writes that the NPS has already gone out of its way to disrupt an event at the farm: “The first casualty of this arbitrary action was the McLean Chamber of Commerce who were having a large annual event at the Pavilion on Tuesday evening. The NPS sent the Park Police over to remove the Pavilion’s staff and Chamber volunteers from the property while they were trying to set up for their event. Fortunately, the Chamber has friends and they were able to move to another location and salvage what was left of their party. You do have to wonder about the wisdom of an organization that would use staff they don’t have the money to pay to evict visitors from a park site that operates without costing them any money.”

Click link above for remainder of the article.

If this is indeed the case then I think there should be some backlash..... Against the government stooges who seem to think Government is one big game..

They need to be reminded they took an oath of office, not an oath of party.

What was the budget last time, did it over-run?, how much will it take to run things till the next budget vote?, will there be enough?, was there money left to run things during this shutdown from the previous budget?, if so, what became of it?.

Is there still other stuff going on in the world?, or did the whole world shut down?....

This is all bull-crap and means nothing, the only reason it's such a hot button issue is the MSM is non-stop blabbering about it 24/7.

Perfect time for something to happen that can be blamed on the supposed shut-down and point fingers.

Our entire existence has become nothing more than a never ending episode of Jerry Springer.

Congressman beats other congressman over head with folding chair....

Spectator pushes the off-switch, goes back to having a life while he still can while saving electricity to stay closer to the negative side of bottom line of his budget.

Meaningless.

jennybee35
reply to post by IAMTAT

 

Welcome to Chicago, Boys!! Now pay your "Protection" fees !!!

Thanks alot I just managed to spray coffee all over my computer's screen through my nostrils....

I really hate these immature DC &%^$%#^ we have in all of the offices, but there is something I find mildly entertaining about the pretty much the entire country slowly turning against them.

reply to post by MyHappyDogShiner

Our entire existence has become nothing more than a never ending episode of Jerry Springer.

Now bite your tongue and write an apology to Jerry! (waves furry paw for emphasis!)

Jerry Springer was at least funny, even in a pathetic sort of 'Someone pays him to do this?!' kinda of way.

I can't recall the last time something out of Washington made me smile or laugh.....except news that Bush had finally left the building and was on his way into retirement. Err..that happiness was sure short lived though, huh?

Shark_Feeder
I really hate these immature DC &%^$%#^ we have in all of the offices, but there is something I find mildly entertaining about the pretty much the entire country slowly turning against them.

Legislative and Executive Branches...

They have Ethics that would raise eyebrows in the Court of Caligula...

I think the American people should take up a collection so we can buy a small island in the Pacific ocean. We can then move Congress / President / Supreme Court to that Island. Then we can form a new government..

The old government will be treated like the family member who created his own business who has since ran it into the ground. The kids take over and that relative still comes into work, however what he does doesn't affect the company.. He just gets the illusion that it does and we all move on with life.

jennybee35
reply to post by IAMTAT

 

Welcome to Chicago, Boys!! Now pay your "Protection" fees !!!

That's an interesting observation, but I think this is more of a playground bully/lunch money scenario since no one is acting like an adult here.

Xcathdra

Legislative and Executive Branches...

They have Ethics that would raise eyebrows in the Court of Caligula...

I think the American people should take up a collection so we can buy a small island in the Pacific ocean. We can then move Congress / President / Supreme Court to that Island. Then we can form a new government..

The old government will be treated like the family member who created his own business who has since ran it into the ground. The kids take over and that relative still comes into work, however what he does doesn't affect the company.. He just gets the illusion that it does and we all move on with life.

Sounds like what Taiwan became? So I hope you are trying to do a communistic take over...

This is just standard frost bitten reactions.

This is what happens when we get a bunch of jealous lamb killers in high positions.

They actually view WW2 veterans as a *threat* ????

The Administration is in a complete frenzy right now.

Obama is losing his mind.

I just hope they don't get any silly *martially minded* ideas.

Jealous lamb killers do stupid things.

Awww, poor tourists. They can't get up into the Statue of Liberty. It's a tragedy, considering there's nothing else to do in New York City.

Awww, poor RV vacationers, Bill and Thelma and their little hotdog 'Mel'; barred from Yosemite and the Grand Canyon and the Grand Tetons. I don't suppose there's anywhere else they could go, like oh, the Rockies which last I looked, haven't been closed. I hear New Mexico is nice this time of year.

This is all political theater, mixed with 'Obama was promised his legacy, and it's health insurance, dammit' and Boehner being an ass and all the other asses being asses, and crap, we're REALLY running out of money and the rest of the world is getting kinda tired of our loans and our not-so Triple A bonds and our bombs.... and health insurance is SOCIALISM and we can't have THAT, even though tomorrow when you cut yourself with that kitchen knife, you're gonna be damn glad someone trained for years and was sitting around an emergency room waiting for you to show up, and every day millions of people with no money and no insurance show up expecting to be stitched up too, and some of them were in car accidents and shot on the streets of Detroit... all of whom get treated, whether the money is there or not. Because otherwise, it's even more of a mess and at some point, the mess will be your mess.

If you don't like Obamacare for whatever reason, especially since it hasn't been instituted yet, then start studying medicine and books like 'how to do surgery on yourself' because what we have now is an unsustainable mess. Take it from someone who used to be on the frontlines of the bloodletting.

We, American citizens, are being punished for not towing the line. They will continue to cut off privileges, whether federally funded or not, until we submit and step in line.

"Non-essentials" = privileges, even if those 'privileges' are free or privately funded. If we keep it up, they will place security officers and barricades around Chunky-Cheese, Disneyland, Six Flags, and the like.

We'll have to take our kids' birthday parties under-ground!

reply to post by IAMTAT


Its not just the Obama admin,

there has been 17 government shutdowns in the modern era, its Scare tactics.

Oh you don't like paying taxes? Well how about if we take away all your toys? Now do you like Taxes and Big government?

Its a play for more power, and its both sides doing to get it, don't be fooled by the political theater of it all.

reply to post by benrl

Oh course, the problem is that the Titanic they are playing the games on, really does have a gaping hole down the side of the hull and it really is taking on water fast.

Meanwhile, the buffoons are on the deck, beating each other with deck chairs and arguing over who was wrong in counting for life boats.

It's a long swim....