Shutdown 2013 Update No. 7

Civil War? Anyone?

I certainly hope not! And it won't be me who starts the shooting. Lincoln, after all, let all the allegedly seceding states go peaceably in seizing federal property until South Carolina actually fired on Fort Sumter. The confederate rebels blamed Lincoln, of course, because they thought they had every right to destroy the federal Union and argued that Lincoln provoked violence by calling up troops to defend the United States. South Carolina's firing on Fort Sumter was "justified" because Lincoln attempted to resupply the Fort ignoring South Carolina's claim to it.

We will let our "erring sisters" go in peace to a point. I'm sure the "exempt" Park Rangers left behind to secure the Parks for safety and protection will not fight it out when the County Sheriffs show up to re-open the National Parks. But, by what authority?

Southern Utah counties have called a state of emergency because of the economic effects of the closure of the National Parks (Zion, Bryce, Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Lake Powell - and that's just the big ones.) The Governor of Utah has "offered" (threatened) to take over the National Parks during the shutdown. People are shouting, "Open the PARKS!" Many promote the simple notion of, "Hey, why not? States have parks. They should be running them anyway, states rights and all, ya know."

Don't even get me started. But I do throw this challenge out there for Utah Governor Herbert, friend of the highway contractors, along with all the county commissioners and sheriffs, it is:

Show me any state or federal authority, any authorization or law on the books anywhere to allow you to run the National Parks that belong to every citizen of our Constitutional Union as part of We the People!

You can't do it! There is no legal or Constitutional basis!

I'll give you ours: U.S. Constitution, Art. I, sec. 8, clause 17. Look it up. Read the whole thing sometime. And there is the whole body of federal law established by Congress without any successful Constitutional challenge for the basic premise of National Parks and Monuments.

That won't stop the bircher/skousenite/glennbeckers from arguing all their inanities. They used to be such a small fraction of the body politic. Now they control the Utah legislature and the Governor's office. And Utah is not the only state. And of course there is that minority of the majority in one chamber of the US Congress that provoked a partial government shutdown and threatens default on US obligations for reasons that seem to be changing day to day. Obamacare? Keystone Pipeline? Deficit? Debt? There is one overriding reason that seems always present, that is to invalidate the President of the United States and everything he does so that they can ensure he is a failure - sort of like the election of Abraham Lincoln provoked the South.

Fort Sumter National Monument - closed.
I wanted to find a really cool, public domain pic from the NPS. But their .gov website seems to be down!
Had to go to Wikipedia for this. "No irony here! Nothing to see! Move on, People!"

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 Update No. 8