-
USPS: Radical Surgery Needed
May 17, 2013 | 19 comments
-
No Fisker for Your Garage
April 22, 2013 | 50 comments
-
A Breakthrough in Ukraine?
April 17, 2013 | 7 comments
-
Thatcher Passes
April 8, 2013 | 8 comments
-
Moving Ukraine’s Democracy Forward
March 13, 2013 | 8 comments
The Hell-Hole Spectator
Occupiers for Obama
The only Occupy camp that hasn’t been cleared is in Washington, D.C. Why is that not surprising?
In most cities where they had been camping, the “Occupy” people have drifted away, no longer welcome to create tent cities — even in New York, where it all started, or in Oakland, where well-organized anarchists (not an oxymoron in this case) led militant assaults on the port. The one big exception is Washington, D.C., where assorted leftists, layabouts, and Generation Y’ers (as is Y work? and Y take responsibility for my actions?) have been allowed to live non-stop in downtown’s McPherson Square for three months.
Until the “Occupy” people came along, the square was dominated by Civil War General James McPherson’s equestrian statue (and his ever-present pigeons). It has long been a popular pedestrian shortcut from “I” to “K” Street and its benches were frequently used on warm days for resting or reading.
Washington’s mayor says his public health inspectors have reported the tent camp is infested with rats and has the potential for communicable diseases, hypothermia, and food-born ailments. So why hasn’t he shut down the camp? It is the one city in the land where the city government does not control the situation. The National Park Service overseas McPherson Square. The NPS has been oh, so tolerant of the campers despite the fact there is a clear federal regulation prohibiting sleeping in such public places.
To justify their inaction, National Park officials claim that the camp is a “round-the-clock demonstration vigil” and the tents are “temporary structures” and thus elements of free speech.
Yes, but the NPS regulation say that “temporary structures” may not be used for sleeping (the Supreme Court in 1984 ruled that a regulation preventing sleeping in a public park did not violate the First Amendment).
Mayor Vincent Gray has written to the NPS to alleviate the health hazard by clearing the park. (Neighboring stores, restaurants, and many citizens have been complaining.) The NPS hasn’t yet replied, though its spokesperson says it is “reviewing” the matter.
The ever-cautious National Park Service must begin the review by finding an employee who knows how to read. Then he or she must read the regulation, digest its significance, then discuss it with superiors. Who would they be? The Superintendent of the NPS reports to the Secretary of the Interior. The Secretary of the Interior reports to, now let’s see — why, it’s the President of the United States!
Early in the New York “Occupy” effort, Mr. Obama had kind words for the Occupiers. He shrewdly deduced that even if there weren’t many voters among the noisy campers many other left-liberal types would sympathize with them and Obama’s quasi-endorsement would help him sharpen his class warfare campaign message. Day after day the campers obliged. Finally, the stench, noise, public defecation, drug-dealing, rape, and assault were too much, and police moved in and cleared out the camp. Other cities followed suit, but not Washington.
The volume of criticism in Washington is growing daily. Of course the White House is a bystander, as one of its spokesmen recently claimed, with a straight face, that “operational decisions have been and continue to be made” by Interior and NPS officials.
Another “of course” is that this violation of a federal regulation and the resulting public health and public nuisance would not have been tolerated more than briefly unless tacit approval of a hands-off approach had not been made by the White House. Up until now, at least, it has served the Obama campaign’s political purposes.
Just Tuesday this week, the “Occupy” people obtained a permit for an anti-Congress rally of 10,000 people on west side of the U.S. Capitol. Only a few hundred showed up to wave anti-capitalist signs and shout slogans.
Congress is not idle in all this. The indefatigable Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has called a hearing for next Tuesday to determine who is responsible for the decision to allow the “Occupy” people to camp indefinitely in McPherson Square. The double-talk from NPS officials and other administration operatives should be entertaining, if not satisfying.
About the Author
Peter Hannaford was closely associated for a number of years with the late President Reagan, beginning in the California Governor’s office. His latest book is Presidential Retreats.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (53) | Leave a comment
More Articles by Peter Hannaford
More Articles From The Hell-Hole Spectator
http://spectator.org/archives/2012/01/20/occupiers-for-obama
Follow us:
ADVERTISEMENT
SPONSORED LINKS
FLASHBACK TO: 1995
-
Pope Culture
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
-
Why the GOP Does Not, Like, Totally Suck
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
-
Dames at Sea
-
In the Absence of Guns
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
-
The Metaphysical Martini
-
Counting the Costs of Clintonism
The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
-
Chuck McHagel
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
-
The Legacy of Old John and Mother Fresh-Roasted
-
It’s the Best Time of the Year
The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
-
The Bush Crack-Up
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?
Clip of the Day
ADVERTISEMENT
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 1.20.12 @ 6:37AM
Obama needs to keep an army of shiftless unemployed losers, dope smokers and potential rabble rousers at hand just in case he needs to create an artificial crisis.
This group of anarchists would come in handy if he falls behind in the polls or needs to take another 10 million dollar vacation at taxpayer expense.
It would also distract from another Solyndra 500 million wasted scandal.
In short, the Occupy Camp is full of useful idiots.
Stalin would be proud of them.
SaraB| 1.20.12 @ 7:41AM
Good point...I remember they were available in the middle of the night to cheer their dear leader at the White House gates when he single handedly offed Osama bin Laden.
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 1.20.12 @ 8:58AM
The best part of it is Obama and his con artists around him don't even have to pay these dopes minimum wage.
Alan Brooks| 1.20.12 @ 1:09PM
I hope OWS disrupts the Repuglican Cornvention in Florida to put you on notice that McDoleBushes aren't good enough anymore.
Please, no reminders of '68; we all recall the result-- however IMO anything is better than another McMoleDush administration.
Pete| 1.20.12 @ 2:32PM
I can see where Obama identifies with these people. They are the crack-heads from which he has come.
Alan Brooks| 1.20.12 @ 3:11PM
White families today are the most splintered.
Now for another lecture on
"Lib'ralism, Ted Kennedy And..."
Skippy| 1.20.12 @ 4:08PM
"White families today are the most splintered."
That's because there are no more black families left.
Only bitches, hos, homeboys and Uncle Toms.
Thanks to Democrats.
Alan Brooks| 1.20.12 @ 9:13PM
UncleTom:
spelled H-e-r-m-a-n C-a-i-n
Andrew B| 1.20.12 @ 6:53AM
I served as a National Park Ranger back in the late 1980s. Back then, I was charged with enforcing even the smallest regulations. Not only could you not camp in our park (Valley Forge National Historical Park), but there were areas where it was forbidden to even set up a picnic blanket for a quick al fresco lunch.
Back then, of course, America was still a country of laws. Glad I'm not the one who has to explain this particular loophole to Mr. Issa.
Alan Brooks| 1.20.12 @ 1:12PM
"Back then, of course, America was still a country of laws"
The '80s? the decade crime escalated? the decade of crack dealers everywhere?
Alan Brooks| 1.20.12 @ 1:13PM
.. you take sentimentality a bit too far for your own good.
Andrew B| 1.20.12 @ 4:26PM
I did not say that America was nirvana, I merely asserted that we once had laws one was obliged to follow. A nation is either a nation of laws or a nation of men. We were a nation of laws--imperfectly followed though they were. We are now a nation of men.
Alan Brooks| 1.20.12 @ 9:15PM
Only perhaps in the 1950s was America a nation of laws, yet even in the '50s we had Vito Genovese and those SORT of people.
Pete| 1.20.12 @ 2:34PM
And Obama was one of them. I understand Punahou was his territory.
Alan Brooks| 1.20.12 @ 3:14PM
Obama's IQ is 20 points above your's, and his wife is probably better looking than your wife- unless you happen to be a Log Cabin Republican.
Skippy| 1.20.12 @ 4:09PM
IQ is no indication of wisdom.
As a Mensan like yourself proves.
Alan Brooks| 1.20.12 @ 9:23PM
'Menstrual'?
don't know what you are getting at.
irish19| 1.20.12 @ 11:18PM
And the proof of that would be where exactly?
Nemo| 1.21.12 @ 3:55AM
His wife is glorious if you like Steatopygia
Dick Nome| 1.22.12 @ 9:06AM
How do you know what his IQ is?? We don't know aything about Obama. Just because it is estimated by you to be 20 points higher than your 20 doesn't mean t6he rest of us are as stupid and cynical as you are. Too bad life sucks so badly for you. TS
c.j. acworth| 1.20.12 @ 7:03AM
Let 'em stay and stink up the place. They will be a great symbol for this entire sorry administration as the election nears, and Obama can have his own words of support thrown back at him.
Pecos Pete| 1.20.12 @ 9:09AM
Agreed. Let them stink up DC, the more the merrier.
VonMisesJr| 1.20.12 @ 11:14AM
Just think, a few years ago and Barry Obama might have been leading the chants with his ACORN bullhorn.
Pete| 1.20.12 @ 2:33PM
And he gets all the dope he can handle.
Brian Mc| 1.20.12 @ 7:49AM
I find myself pondering the tone of the debate if the discussion were related to the Tea Party. Of course, this could not happen since the people involved with the Tea Party rallies pick up after themselves and then go home. And speaking of tone; compare what occurred in Madison last summer with what transpired at the "Restoring Honor" rally the previous summer on the Mall.
I would use the alien's speech over pictures showing the damage caused by his subjects in ads running up to this year's election to boldly point out what we get from his brand of hope and change. It would be quite some wake-up call.
Or, two still shots: one from the aftermath of the alien's inauguration with the title "Hope and Change in Action", and then one of the Mall after Glenn's rally with the title "Restoring Honor". Side by side they would prove beyond a doubt who is truly concerned with the direction of this Republic and who is not.
Mike Hawk| 1.20.12 @ 8:25AM
There have been Occupiers in DC since 2006 and more in 2008-09. They are called Liberal Democrats and most of them are in Congress. The overflow are in McPherson Square.
Sam Deakins| 1.20.12 @ 8:28AM
"Washington's mayor says his public health inspectors have reported the tent camp is infested with rats and has the potential for communicable diseases, hypothermia, and food-born ailments. So why hasn't he shut down the camp? " Why? Because it also describes about 70% of DC.
albert constantine jr.| 1.20.12 @ 8:53AM
It seems the National Park Service responds with great alacrity whenever there is a spontaneous patriotic display outside the Lincoln or Jefferson Memorial, or other locations in their D.C. jurisdiction, to ensure all were complying with their regulations. Perhaps if a couple of Tea Partiers started belting out "God Bless America" in front of General McPherson's statue, the rangers would show up to do their duty.
Bill| 1.20.12 @ 9:34AM
One of the factors that the NPS is considering is the expense of a lawsuit over the alleged First Amendment rights issue (a bogus issue if I ever heard one); is there a lawsuit over any of the cities that cleared the Occupy infestation out? If so, does anyone know the status of it?
Redstateboy| 1.20.12 @ 10:29AM
wow... 3 great posts! c.j., Brian and Mike! I like c.j.'s suggestion... let em' stay so the whole country can see what a bunch of scumbags support the scumbag in the WH. and Brian's right.. let the comparison and contrast between the Flea Party and the Tea Party shine and Mike's comment - great sarcastic humor!
Now y'all have to google the youtube of the Leftist rally last summer in Wash. DC.. it's filmed with the cover of a choir singing the Communist anthem displaying all the trash, tables filled with books and pamphlets of communist literature - it was unbelievable.
Redstateboy| 1.20.12 @ 10:35AM
and where are the usual leftists who post here to offer a defense of the Flea Party?
Teaghan| 1.20.12 @ 11:26AM
"Occupoopers"
oldfart| 1.20.12 @ 12:46PM
Well when the dopers choke on their own vomit, several more women are raped and a baby is left behind to freeze to death then perhaps the lame stream media will be unable to ignore these people.
Crawler| 1.20.12 @ 1:41PM
If George Washington was still around to witness these sleazy and disgusting O'lemming ne'er-do-wells living like swine in a city that bears his namesake, he would immediately demand that his name be disassociated with that cesspool calling itself the Capital of America...
Redstateboy| 1.20.12 @ 3:23PM
He would've also called out the Militia with bayonets.
Dick Nome| 1.22.12 @ 8:56AM
Pleaes don't insult sine. They are cleaner than the Occupiers.
Dick Nome| 1.22.12 @ 9:19AM
...swine...
Oldefarte| 1.20.12 @ 2:15PM
The greatest/largest/most prominent example of OWS is within the oval office and residential quarters of the White House at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave [and the encampment of same will last until November of this year]!!!!!!!!
sotto voce| 1.20.12 @ 4:50PM
And to think, those ungrateful Occupoop DC protesters show their thanks for the President's support by tossing smoke bombs over the White House fence! Well, OWS are his peeps and since he's such a smart man he should know better than to expect civility.
hardcard| 1.20.12 @ 5:01PM
National Park Service Police , aren't they the agency that handled the investigation of the Vince Foster homicide ?
oldfart| 1.20.12 @ 5:22PM
"homicide" It was obviously (choke choke) a suicide!!!!
Oldefarte| 1.21.12 @ 1:29PM
Can you imagine one killing themself over HER????????
mary| 1.20.12 @ 7:19PM
The OWS folks should be protesting the goings on in the White House per the Ulsterman Report where the so called White House Insider is claiming that a prominent Dem Senator has some info that could destroy his Presidency and to shut the Senator up some strange things have been going on that may be connected to White House including the mysterious death of a key aide, stolen campaign funds, ethics investigations: Below is a comment from said site speculating who the Senator might be: January 20, 2012 at 10:13 pm Guess what? A brand new ethics violation story was put down on Senator Feinstein within days of Kam K found dead. Unbelievable how the timings all comes together. Where is OWS and the media on this? Nobody cares?
POST American| 1.20.12 @ 10:11PM
--------------------FINAL WORD------------------------
--Putting aside the Soros/Rothchild FAKE OP
controlled opposition for a moment--
"USURY ---is----DEVIANT economy."
Hard to get around that one ---ain't it?
McGee| 1.21.12 @ 3:50AM
This proves Obama is of low intelligence - the longer these Flea Party troops are camped put, the more the image of his administration suffers. The fact your correspondent Alan Brooks admines his IQ is the final nail in the coffin of any serious estimate of him. He has no real political cunning, only a sort of thin glibness, as evidenced by the fact that the positive achievements of his administration are less than Zero (He has not gained the US the support of a single Somali goat-herd). He is not an African-American, but an African African and he is Africanising Americam politics with a peculiar mixture of corruption, leader-worship, political favouritism and economic wrecking. Leave the Flea Party there. They are an advertisement for what he is.
Mike| 1.21.12 @ 10:59PM
"... violation of a federal regulation and the resulting public health and public nuisance ..."
This also is an apt description of Obama, so why would anyone expect Obama to come down on his kindrid spirits. The only thing keeping Obama from joining the unwashed Occupiers is an election.
Bob| 1.22.12 @ 8:40PM
Well, well, well, the National Park Service. The same people who were responsible for the investigation of Vince Foster's death. Foster's body was taken to the Ft. Marcy Park expressly to allow the President to control the entire farce that followed. Obama and Clinton have a lot in common. Both are intensely brazen crooks who will run the pay for play, rope a dope until they are stopped or die.
alabama yankee| 1.22.12 @ 9:20PM
"... until they are stopped or die"
Multiple choice! Now THAT'S democracy in action.
POST American| 1.22.12 @ 10:54PM
----------------------FINAL WORD----------------------
"USURY -----is----- deviant economy."
ALLLL ye need to know. . .
Jason Yungbluth | 1.23.12 @ 12:57AM
Occupy Rochester (NY) is also going strong. Somehow, sleeping in the snow in a foot-deep layer of our own feces still seems preferable to a night spent indoors watching Real Houswives while writing out a check for Newt's SuperPAC. http://www.whatisdeepfried.com.....ear-atlas/
Bill| 1.23.12 @ 9:19AM
Why is that?
Jason Yungbluth | 1.23.12 @ 11:48AM
I guess that's the kind of opposition your candidates inspire. See you this Spring!
POST American| 1.23.12 @ 11:01PM
------------------BOTTOMLESS LINE------------------
---USURY ---is--- DEVIANT economy.
It's the very Law of Moses.
CHECK IT OUT-----------------------------FAST!