Texas Congressman Randy Neugebauer (R) berates Park Ranger for not letting people into the WWII memorial.
“The Park Service should be ashamed of themselves”
Really?
Is there more to this? Can this guy be that clueless? If he is, I really hope this goes viral. Guy needs to loose his job and fast.
Not only will he probably not lose his job over this, his actions only make him more electable in district, with probably more money in his campaign chest.
I hope that somehow the pubs will finally kick themselves so hard in the balls that they have to reinvent their party. Voting and politics would be more interesting if one actually had a choice.
God, Republican politicians really fucking suck. I can’t get over what a bunch of jokes they are. Have they always been this way? I know there are Democrat clowns but seriously…
It was the Park Rangers who chose to put up the barriers to close off the open air monuments from the public. These weren’t indoor exibits. Someone had to physically put up metal barriers and lock them. Just as someone had to unlock the barriers and let the various veterans groups and tourists walk closer to the monuments.
Meugebauer will probably be re-elected by his constituants.
Do you the park rangers erected barriers on their own volition because they’re just that plain evil and shameful? Or do you think it could actually be a part of a wider policy to prevent access to public grounds when there is lack of staff to provide a basic level of service that people expect when they’re doing the touristy thing. I can just hear Grandpa complaining about the toilets being locked up…the garbage cans overflowing…the lack of concessions…the lack of CPR when he falls down from a heart attack…and then the politicians will have a field day about how Obama hates war veterans.
Government isn’t just the pointy-headed bureaucrats, red tape, and taxes. It’s also the “good” stuff that we all enjoy. If the Republicans want to play political theater and sacrifice the well-being of the American public in the process, then everyone–including WWII veterans–need to be put up on the altar. Don’t single out a certain group in your constituency so they’ll vote for you come election time. If kids can die of cancer over this nonsense, then the vets can wait a couple of weeks to see a monument that’s not going anywhere anytime soon. A government shut down means exactly that. Not “let’s keep up appearances so no one will hate us”. Otherwise, this shitty tactic will be a yearly occurence.
I did like the furloughed worker in biking gear who jumped to the defense of the parks worker.
What Congress would like us to believe is that while they might be partially responsible for shutting down the government (theirs is the noble, self-sacrificing part), it’s that demon Obama and his minions who are responsible for making the shutdown so mean. They’re just trying to negotiate, but he’s denying care to kids with cancer, barring members of The Greatest Generation from their own memorials, and ordering the National Guard to stomp on every kitten they see.
If they just keep saying it, it will become true, right?
Someone in the park service decided, or was ordered, to spend the manhours and money, during a gov shutdown, to put up metal barriers around various open air monuments. That particular park ranger was “just following orders”. The park ranger will probably keep her job. The “decision-maker” who closed the open air memorials may be looking for work when another administration takes over.
Neugebauer was there to see that at least one monument remained open to the public. Neugebauer will probably get re-elected.
Congress creates legislation and appropiates money. Congress is currently involved in “the legislative process”, such as it is, and maybe they can find a working solution. We all have three (3) elected representatives in Congress, one (1) Congressman and two (2) Senators. It’s up to each of us to decide if our current elected representates are doing the job that we elected them to do. We do have the option of electing someone else who, hopefully, will do a better job in the future.
Why wouldn’t Neugebauer’s constituents (not someone outside of his district) re-elect him?
Perhaps they’ll now realize he’s a fucking asshole? He’s part of the party that shut down the government because it wants to nullify the 2012 election and now because someone who’s easy to stand up for is inconvenienced, he throws a fucking hissy fit and berates someone who just followed orders. I might have some respect for the guy if he would go to a meals on wheels or head start program that got shut down but to play for the cameras for the Holy Veterans just makes him an asshole.
If they don’t have the manpower to watch over the sites and prevent vandalism, littering, etc… then the only solution is to shut the place down. WWII memorial or not, without people there to protect it (i.e. lots more manhours and money than having a volunteer spend the morning putting up barriers), then some visitor’s going to take a chisel to it & bring a souvenir back home. Or maybe spray-paint a swastika over it, who knows ?
That’s why they pay park service in the first place : to protect the parks, savvy ?
Because he’s a grandstanding, photo-op hounding jackass who’s either deliberately trying to mislead them or so complete a muppet he wouldn’t know of the fact above ?
You should really read this post.
We’ve got the government we deserve.
In normal times, it’s open 24/7, and staffed 14 hours a day. So there’s already 10 hours a day for chiseling & painting swastikas.
According to a Parks official I heard in a story on NPR on Wednesday, there are staff there; even if you don’t see them.
Is there any cite for this? I’ve found several references along the lines of “Memorial is staffed between the hours of 9:30 am and 8 pm” and “Staff are on site from 9:30 am to 11:30 pm” - but nothing that can be called definitive. I can’t find any reference to 24/7 staffing.
Yet if a large open-air memorial is normally lightly (or possibly un-) staffed many hours a day, it doesn’t seem wildly unreasonable to argue it should not be barricaded. Googling produces some claims that this sort of thing was not done during previous govt. shutdowns (though again this seem less than proven).
By contrast, it does seem unreasonable to berate a Park Service employee who is no doubt just carrying out orders.
Well, funding bills originate in the House. That doesn’t mean the Senate has to go along with everything, but when you say you don’t negotiate, period, I think there’s blame to go all the way around. If it were me, I think a reasonable compromise would be allow the bill to go through with the caveat that all exemptions to the Affordable healthcare act are revoked. If it is as good as the Democrats say, then everyone should benefit. If its as bad as the republicans say, We’ll have a Republican House and Senate in 15.
Well, as a Democrat, I’d like to thank you, a Republican, for your suggestion of how we should compromise.
Now, as a Democrat, I’d like to suggest how the Republicans compromise: either let it go for an up or down vote in front of the whole body, as has been done for over 200 years on funding bills, or complete shutdown. And then we will have a Democratic House and/or Senate (and/or) President after the Nov 2014 election. In the meantime, no giving in to the drunken morons.
And at this time, Congress has chosen to appropriate no money to the task of keeping national monuments open.
So do tell me who ought to be ashamed of themselves again.
I expect there’s a skeleton security crew at night. Possibly even a lone, doofy patrolman. I also expect there to not be very many nighttime visitors requiring supervision, and each of them to stick out like a sore thumb.
Besides, it’s not all chisels and happy little swastikas - without any staff to pick up the trash, clean the loos and so on the memorial would soon look like Woodstock three days later. Not very dignified, is it ?
It’s absolutely true : the memorial wasn’t closed to the public during previous shutdowns. It’s also a petty propaganda lie : it didn’t *exist *during previous shutdowns (the memorial was opened in 2004).
Well, I did say I heard it on an NPR story on Wednesday. But I’ll take two minutes and find it for you.