Yesterday President Stompy Feet posed for his latest national portrait.   Today the park service admits they were told to inflict the maximum public pain during the government shutdown.  Also today, the Border Patrol reveals they have been told to “Stand Down” and ignore border crossings.
All of this why?
Because the actual truth is people are awakening to the reality that most of the federal government is *non essential*; and, quite frankly, we can just do without them.  THAT is the real risk to sellers of BIG government.   It’s the same visible reality that stemmed from the ‘sequester cuts’ which, despite all the protestations to the contrary, really don’t have impact.   That’s the real issue.
(Via WeaselZippers)  We have already seen, in multiple cases, a clear effort by the Obama administration to use the National Park Service to inflict public pain.

Looks like it takes more workers to keep memorial closed than to open it. RT @gretawire: The gate at WW2 Memorial pic.twitter.com/PemjoTUR5d

— Byron York (@ByronYork) October 4, 2013

From the effort to block off Mount Vernon, which is run by private funds, to actually spending more money and manpower to shut off open air memorials, the administration has made it clear the effort in shutting these things down is not about saving money, but about using these actions to make a political point.
A senior administration official actually fluffed off the shutdown, noting that “they were winning” so they didn’t care about the shutdown (or who it might hurt).
Now the Washington Times is actually reporting an angry park ranger says park rangers were specifically told to “make life as difficult for people as we can”.
How much lower can the Obama pettiness go?  (link)