Reign of Pain Update - "No Recreating!" - "It Hurts Me Too"

Without much preamble, the shlowdown at  in Washington continues, with people being allowed to visit the monuments only in designated "First Amendment" areas, with guards to make sure people don't step beyond their government approved boundaries and "recreate!"

My wife and I were in DC from Minneapolis [yesterday], and we thought we would see what this shutdown is all about. At the Lincoln Memorial I talked a couple from California into walking past the ridiculous barriers where the signs state that the monument is closed aside from “First Amendment activities.”

As I approached the top of the steps, one of the three (!) guards told me to leave. I mentioned the First Amendment exception, and that freedom of assembly seems to be part of that. He advised me that the area to assemble is only down below the monument, not at the monument itself. Somehow I missed that exception to that particular amendment. So I proceeded to read the First Amendment, loudly, for the audience below.

At the Vietnam Memorial two park ranger goons stood at the entrance to the wall, near the requisite barricades. The intention clearly was to intimidate people from entering the memorial area. Fortunately, many people simply ignored Barry’s Brownshirts and walked down to the wall. My wife Thuy, who was born in Vietnam, accompanied me.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reopens federal lands minutes before North Dakota to file federal suit

This is a pretty good example of how the federal government went out of its way to make life difficult by shutting federal lands it never did anything to staff full time in the first place.

Here is the announcement from the Governor of North Dakota (h/t @CamEdwards):

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has agreed to reopen more than 288,000 acres of wildlife lands in North Dakota that have been closed to public access since the federal government shutdown began on October 1.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Director Dan Ashe announced the reopening of Wildlife Service lands nationwide late today after he was informed of North Dakota’s intent to file a complaint in U.S. District Court. The complaint, already completed and within minutes of being filed, requested a federal judge require the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reopen more than 288,000 acres of wildlife lands closed to hunters and other public uses.

Pretty good evidence that the land didn't need to be closed for the shutdown in the first place.

An American Bison expresses his opinion of the shutdown, courtesy of my friends at the  DaleyGator.  Apparently he misses goring tourists:



Funding was so tight at the Independence Hall monument in Philadelphia, that they had to hire union thugs to prevent people from seeing it:



The caretakers at Arlington National Cemetery managed to find enough spare change to clean up the mementos that family members left at grave sites:

Headstones have been stripped of photos, drawings and poignant notes, in particular those in Section 60, home to the graves of more than 800 service members killed while doing their duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.

An Arlington spokesman said they were responding to complaints that the cemetery was looking too disorderly, and said the section needed to follow the same rules as the rest of the site.

Loved ones often left flowers, small stones and shells from favorite places and prized cigars. These have all now been swept away – some items saved to be returned to families, and some not.

 It's important to look neat for the photo-ops.  That's thinking big.

And from the Woodsterman:

Go see the rest

Now, a word or two from Eric Clapton: