The Park Police, Part Deux: Hot Cops

The Eagle-Tribune in New Hampshire reported on a local resident who went through something of an ordeal while visiting Yellowstone National park. I’ll let them tell it, just so you don’t think I’m making it up:

Vaillancourt was one of thousands of people who found themselves in a national park as the federal government shutdown went into effect on Oct. 1. For many hours her tour group, which included senior citizen visitors from Japan, Australia, Canada and the United States, were locked in a Yellowstone National Park hotel under armed guard.

The tourists were treated harshly by armed park employees, she said, so much so that some of the foreign tourists with limited English skills thought they were under arrest.

When finally allowed to leave, the bus was not allowed to halt at all along the 2.5-hour trip out of the park, not even to stop at private bathrooms that were open along the route. . . .

Rangers systematically sent visitors out of the park, though some groups that had hotel reservations — such as Vaillancourt’s — were allowed to stay for two days. Those two days started out on a sour note, she said.

The bus stopped along a road when a large herd of bison passed nearby, and seniors filed out to take photos. Almost immediately, an armed ranger came by and ordered them to get back in, saying they couldn’t “recreate.” The tour guide, who had paid a $300 fee the day before to bring the group into the park, argued that the seniors weren’t “recreating,” just taking photos.

Via: Weekly Standard

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The end of civil service?

Over 140 years ago, the federal government began its reform of the bureaucracy to the civil-service system, a process which took decades to complete.  Its pinnacle of reform came in 1939 when Congress passed the Hatch Act, which barred federal employees from conducting political activity on taxpayer time and government property.  As government expanded rapidly from that point, though, the federal bureaucracy developed its own interests in policy, and this year we have reaped the results.  In my column for The Fiscal Times, I write that the IRS scandal and the National Parks Service antics during the shutdown show that the civil-service ideal is dead — especially in this administration:

In May, the Inspector General for the IRS found that the agency had targeted groups applying for tax-exempt status on the basis of their political beliefs, especially those groups that referenced the Tea Party. Those target lists continued to be used as IRS officials such as Commissioner Douglas Shulman testified to Congress that the agency conducted no such targeting.

Nor was that that the only way in which the IRS scrutinized President Obama’s opposition.  USA Today reported three weeks ago that the IRS specifically targeted groups that had “anti-Obama rhetoric” in their literature.

In one case, with an application from the Patriots of Charleston, the IRS flagged “negative Obama commentary” on their website as a reason to hold up approval for their tax-exempt application.  For the Tea Party of North Idaho, “significant inflammatory language, highly emotional language” was enough to start peppering the group with demands to release information on their donors and the companies owned by those donors.  …

Unknown at the time but reported this week, the National Parks Service chased down a group of senior citizens at Yellowstone National Park when the shutdown commenced on October 1^st.  After informing the busload of tourists, some of whom were tourists from other countries, that the park was no longer accessible, the rangers locked them into a closed hotel for several hours with armed guards posted at the exits.  When finally allowed to get back on the bus and leave Yellowstone, rangers stopped the tourists from pausing to take pictures, chasing after them for “recreating.”

That arguably constitutes kidnapping or false arrest, especially conducted under color of authority for no other reason than to score political points in the shutdown.  One of the tourists called it “Gestapo tactics,” and an NPS ranger anonymously confirmed this as a deliberate strategy by NPS.  “We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can,” the anonymous ranger told The Washington Times. “It’s disgusting.”

It certainly is, and it’s part of a disturbing pattern emerging in the second term of Barack Obama.

That last incident in particular goes far beyond the already-objectionable “Washington Monument strategy” of extorting operating funds out of Congress.  It speaks to two related developments in American governance — the expansion of power in the federal government, and the arbitrary manner in which it gets applied. That may be called many things, but it’s neither “civil” nor “service.”

Via: Hot Air

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Rep. Steve King: Obama a 'Spiteful' President

Rep. Steve King Thursday called Barack Obama a "spiteful" president and accused him of using the government sequester and shutdown to hurt Americans.

"This is a spiteful president . . . The American people need to understand that," the Iowa Republican told CNN. "Trying to run a government with a spiteful president, that locks our veterans out of the World War II Memorial — there's never been a barricade around there before." 

"This is a president that is not trying to do, with the tools he's got, the best that can be done for the American people," King added.

The president has so far refused to negotiate with Republicans over the a temporary spending measure tied to defunding Obamacare and the debt limit, and King wondered if a meeting scheduled Thursday between the White House and Republicans would be fruitful.

"He will be sitting down a second time, in the last week or so, talking to Republican leadership and a select team of Republican negotiators. We don't know if they'll negotiate it," King said.

King said he's "serious about entitlement spending," and added he supports a long-term approach through a balanced-budget amendment.

"I'd rather have a balanced-budget amendment, as a condition to raise the debt ceiling. If we could get that done, the states would ratify, and we could fix this problem for all time. We should talk about being on point how we solve the problem for the long-term," he said.

Via: Newsmax

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Los Angeles Police Dogs Only Bit Blacks And Latinos In The First Six Months Of 2013

A new report on the Los Angeles Sheriff Department Canine Special Detail finds that the number of minority individuals bitten by police dogs has dramatically increased between 2004 to 2012. In a department already plagued by accusations of racial targeting, 100 percent of dog bite victims in the first six months of 2013 were blacks and Latinos.

In the past nine years, the minority-heavy, urban areas of Century, City of Industry, Compton, Lakewood, and South LA/Lennox, experienced more dog bites than 21 other agencies or stations combined.

One of the more troubling aspects of the report found that police canines cause injuries at far higher rates than other weapons, such as batons, tear gas, and guns. The pressure from a dog bite is equivalent to “a car tire running over a body part,” as one federal judge put it.

Dog bites are not the only police tactic blacks and Latinos in Los Angeles have to fear. The LASD has racked up a lengthy racial profiling record. TheDepartment of Justice found that the LASD systematically singles out blacks and Latinos for stops, seizures, and excessive force at higher rates than other races.

LASD officers regularly target immigrants without legal authority. A class-action lawsuit against the department charged the LASD was holding thousands of immigrants in jail cells for longer than the legal maximum of 48 hours. Detained immigrants were also not allowed to post bail even after a court allowed it. In 2011, the sheriff’s department illegally detained nearly 20,000 people on immigration holds for an average of three weeks longer than inmates without immigration holds.

Via: Think Progress

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Data show China passing US as biggest oil importer

Play Video

China, the world's biggest oil importer

Thursday, 10 Oct 2013 | 2:00 PM ET

CNBC's Sharon Epperson discusses China as the leading oil importer.

China has achieved another world-beating status its leaders don't want: Biggest oil importer.

China passed the United States in September as the world's biggest net oil importer, driven by faster economic growth and strong auto sales, according to U.S. government data released this week.

STR | AFP | Getty Images

Trucks arrive with containers to be loaded on to a ship at the Qingdao port, in northeastern China's Shandong province.

Chinese oil consumption outstripped production by 6.3 million barrels per day, which indicates the country had to import that much to fill the gap, the Energy Information Administration said this week.

(Read more: Drillers, traders left in the lurch by DC shutdown)

"China's steady growth in oil demand has led it to become the world's largest net oil importer, exceeding the United States in September 2013,'" the agency said in a report. "EIA forecasts this trend to continue through 2014."

Via: CNBC

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JERRY BROWN'S MIRACLE: HE MADE CALIFORNIA TAXES WORSE

Gov. Jerry Brown has been signing a slew of bills designed to make Democrats happy--not just in California but nationwide. From protecting illegal aliens from deportations for minor crimes, to allowing non-physicians to perform abortions, he has checked every box on the blue social agenda. (He did veto a bill that would have let non-citizens serve on juries, but many reluctant jurors might describe that as doing them a favor.)

At the same time, however, news about California's economy remains alarming. On Wednesday, the non-profit Tax Foundation ranked California 48th out of the 50 states (again) in its "business tax climate"--the worst west of the Mississippi River, and ahead of only New Jersey and New York. Like other low achievers, California has "complex, non-neutral taxes with comparatively high rates," according to the foundation report.

That is the real news being drowned out by liberal applause. Democrats tell themselves that Brown has done more than enough to turn the state around, having balanced the budget by raising taxes and shifting funds over from the state's underperforming carbon auctions. But the reality is that the state's economy continues to be hollowed out by the liberal gentry's utopianism, the public unions' greed and the underclass's needs.

Via: Breitbart

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HYSTERICAL: FUNNY OR DIE SAYS OBAMACARE SITE A SNAP TO SURF

Funny or Die finally found something comical to say during its Obamacare propaganda videos, but it's not the kind of laughter the humor destination had in mind.

The site's second video hawking the unpopular, buggy legislation features a "man on the street" style interview with Olivia Wilde and site regular Billy Eichner. He tells her a series of statements, and she must say if they are applicable to Obamacare or not.

If not, she is told to say, "shut up!"

The ensuing statements trot out Obamacare talking points which may or may not prove verifiable, but one particular item we already know is laughably false.

"You can sign up for health care online in 10 minutes," the man tells Wilde.

"Obamacare!" she cries with excitement.

Even the mainstream media, wholly invested in Obamacare's success, has admitted the legislation's web site is a nightmare. Somehow, the bubble in which the folks at Funny or Die dwell is so thick it hasn't allowed the countless tales of web site crashes to sneak in.

Via: Breitbart

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