National Park Service Gone Wild; Fed-up Vacationers Fight Back

Rosslyn Smith  "Top of the World is a residential development around Lake in the Sky in Blount County, Tennessee.  It borders Smoky Mountain National Park.  Foothills Parkway, a national scenic parkway managed by the National Park Service, is the only major road  to the development.  There are school children in this development.  As part of the shutdown, Bambi's Brownshirts have barricaded Foothills Parkway, effectively stranding this community and its children.  
....
"Can you imagine the outrage among the media/government complex if this had happened under a Republican President or a Republican governor.  They'd be accused of being anti-public education and child endangerment."  Read More

National parks invaded by fearless family vacationers

"It turns out families on vacation are enjoying America’s national parks even without the government’s blessing. Families are throwing orange cones aside at Mount Rushmore, ignoring barricades at Zion National Park and taking grinning selfies next to signs in the Badlands announcing the National Park Service facility is closed. ...determined dads driving straight over traffic cones or throwing them aside to clear the way for the family vacations they’ve been planning long before a government shutdown was announced."

 

Defying government shutdown, national park visitors play ‘catch me if you can’  “We’ve gone from ‘this land is your land, this land is my land,’ to the government saying this land is its land,” writes University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynolds in an e-mail. “President Obama said that government is just a word for the things we do together. Apparently that includes kicking WWII veterans off their memorial.” 

UPDATE: How's this for pure arrogance? Obama demands Boehner stop the shutdown.

 

The leaks of thousands of files by CIA spy Edward Snowden have caused “enormous damage” and handed terrorists the “gift” to attack the UK “at will”.

Some call Snowden a hero : “Snowden did what he did because he recognised the NSA’s surveillance programs for what they are: dangerous, unconstitutional activity. This wholesale invasion of Americans’ and foreign citizens’ privacy does not contribute to our security; it puts in danger the very liberties we’re trying to protect.”

But others see the damage Snowden has done to our security and the help he has given to those who want to kill us by the millions:
UK Telegraph  "It is feared around Whitehall that the revelations have resulted in a “guidebook for terrorists” while there is frustration that the American is being heralded as some kind of heroic whistleblower. 

"Sources find it incomprehensible that exposing spy agency techniques for tracking terrorists has been argued to be in the public interest."....

Dershowitz: Ted Cruz one of Harvard Law’s smartest students

Daily Caller  "Famed Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz ranks Sen. Ted Cruz among the school’s smartest students, adding that the Canada-born Texan can run for president in 2016.
Cruz was a “terrific student,” Dershowitz told The Daily Caller. “He was always very active in class, presenting a libertarian point of view. He didn’t strike me as a social conservative, more of a libertarian.”
“He had brilliant insights and he was clearly among the top students, as revealed by his class responses,” Dershowitz added.
Ouch! This one hurts:
"Dershowitz also gave a high estimate of Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren — who has decidedly different political views than Cruz." And remember Warren's claim that she is, well, a redskin and thereby rating two notches above Cruz's Hispanicness.

....Cruz “wa s an outstanding student in my class,” Dershowitz said. “Without a doubt he is among the smartest students I’ve ever had… I’ve had great students but he has to be at the top of anyone’s short list, in terms of raw brain power.”

The father of Ted Cruz gives this stirring speech that gives us the perspective of someone who has seen this country from a socialist country.

 Hat tip to Don Standlee, Arlington, TX

The Roots of the Government Shutdown and International Consequences

STRATFOR  "In general, Stratfor deals with U.S. domestic politics only to the extent that it affects international affairs. Certainly, this topic has been argued and analyzed extensively. Nevertheless, the shutdown of the American government is a topic that must be understood from our point of view, because it raises the issue of whether the leading global power is involved in a political crisis so profound that it is both losing its internal cohesion and the capacity to govern. If that were so, it would mean the United States would not be able to act in global affairs, and that in turn would mean that the international system would undergo a profound change."   Emphasis added,TD
....
Mr. Friedman sums up the issue with this pessimistic conclusion:
"Each faction is deeply committed to its beliefs, and feels it would be corrupt to abandon them. Even if it means closing the government, even if it means defaulting on debt, ideology is a demanding mistress who permits no other lovers. Anyone who reads this will recognize his enemy at work. I, however, am holding everyone responsible, from left to right -- and especially the indifferent center. I hold myself accountable as well: I have no idea what I could do to help change matters, but I am sure there is something."
Full article.

George Friedman is the Chairman of Stratfor, a company he founded in 1996 that is now a leader in the field of global intelligence. Friedman guides Stratfor’s strategic vision and oversees the development and training of the company’s intelligence unit.