Pettiness

World War II veterans had to storm the gates, so to speak, to get to the World War II Memorial in DC today.  Why are there barricades, anyway?  Why were there security guards to keep them away?  Unless that memorial has changed since I went there, it's a series if walls and fountains out in the open.

In other shutdown news, military academy athletic competitions will be cancelled:

Saturday's Commander-in-Chief Trophy showdown between Air Force and Navy could be canceled due to the current shutdown of the United States government.

The Department of Defense announced Tuesday that it has suspended all intercollegiate athletic competitions at the service academies, meaning no practices for the football teams at Army, Navy and Air Force. The shutdown also has an impact on the sports information department, and all media availability scheduled for Tuesday has been canceled.

These are too similar to cancelling White House tours "due to the sequester".   Several words come to mind:  spiteful, mean-spirited, petty, vindictive, imperial....

Update, 10/3/13:  Turns out that the WWII Memorial is still out in the open.  Someone had to give instructions for someone else to set up barricades to keep people away from it.   What kind of small person thinks that way?  I think the adjectives I listed a couple of lines up hold especially true now.

What's next, are they going to put a tarp over the Statue of Liberty so that no one can see her?

Let's remember, the president is the Chief Executive.  Every federal agency and department answers to him.  In other words, whether something stays open or gets closed is 100% his responsibility and 0% Congress' responsibility.  I understand if you're going to lay off park rangers and have to close Yellowstone--it's silly, and it's totally just theater, but I understand how to play the game.  But making a decision to barricade the WWII Memorial so a bunch of 90-year-old survivors can't visit it?  Or blocking access to trailheads that cost nothing to keep open?  Or so many of the other stories that have come out today wherein the objective seems to be nothing more than hurting the public just because he can?

I especially like this line: “Remember: The people telling you a government shutdown is a disaster are the same ones who told you 3 weeks ago that we had to invade Syria.”

And you liberals held him up as some sort of Lightgiver or the Second Coming.  Rubes.

Update #2, 10/3/13:  This should be interesting:

Government watchdog Judicial Watch has filed a Freedom of Information Act request to get to the bottom of the National Park Service’s actions at the World War II Memorial in Washington this week. The NPS has barricaded the memorial and on Tuesday tried to prevent veterans from visiting the memorial, which has no amenities and is normally open to the public at all times.