Shutting Down the Ocean

Just when you thought the government shut down could not get any more bizarre, now the Obama administration is shutting down the ocean! You can't make this stuff up!!!

The Miami Herald reports:

Charter guides received a message from the National Park Service this week informing them that they are not permitted to take clients fishing in Florida Bay until the feds get back to work. That means that more than 1,100 square miles of prime fishing is off limits between the southern tip of the mainland to the Keys until further notice.

The closing affects not only fishing guides, but anyone with a license to conduct business in the park, including tour operators and paddling guides — anyone with a Commercial Use Authorization permit, said Dan Kimball, superintendent of Everglades and Dry Tortugas national parks.

Biscayne National Park is also off limits. Enforcement rangers will be on duty, Kimball said.

Capt. Mike Makowski, owner of Blackfoot Charters in Key Largo, estimates this eliminates 60 percent to 70 percent of his hunting grounds.

"This is going to put a lot of guys together in a small area close to the park," Makowski said. "It's going to be even worse on the weekend when we're going to have to compete with the recreational anglers."

Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/10/03/3668028_p2/shutdown-day-3-food-distributor.html#storylink=cpy

Also see: http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/Government-Shutdown-Also-Shuts-Down-Florida-Keys-Waters-226585501.html

Mike Flynn writes:

Until government funding is restored, the fishing boats are prohibited from taking anglers into 1,100 square-miles of open ocean. Fishing is also prohibited at Biscayne National Park during the shutdown. The Park Service will also have rangers on duty to police the ban... of access to an ocean. The government will probably use more personnel and spend more resources to attempt to close the ocean, than it would in its normal course of business.

This is governing by temper-tantrum. It is on par with the government's ham-fisted attempts to close the DC WWII Memorial, an open-air public monument that is normally accessible 24 hours a day. By accessible I mean, you walk up to it. When you have finished reflecting, you then walk away from it.

At least that Memorial is an actual structure, with some kind of perimeter that can be fenced off. Florida Bay is the ocean. How, pray tell, do you "close" 1,100 square miles of ocean? Why would one even need to do so?

Source: http://nation.foxnews.com/2013/10/05/nps-rangers-patrol-newest-'government-shutdown'-closure-ocean

Earlier this week an anonymous Park Service ranger said, "We've been told to make life as difficult for people as we can. It's disgusting."

The Obama administration is counting on the fact that low information voters will blame the GOP for the government shut down when in fact the blame actually lies at the feet of Harry Reid and the Dems.

Thomas Sowell nailed it in his article "Who Shut Down the Government?" He wrote:

Even when it comes to something as basic, and apparently as simple and straightforward, as the question of who shut down the federal government, there are diametrically opposite answers, depending on whether you talk to Democrats or to Republicans.

There is really nothing complicated about the facts. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted all the money required to keep all government activities going -- except for ObamaCare.

This is not a matter of opinion. You can check the Congressional Record.

As for the House of Representatives' right to grant or withhold money, that is not a matter of opinion either. You can check the Constitution of the United States. All spending bills must originate in the House of Representatives, which means that Congressmen there have a right to decide whether or not they want to spend money on a particular government activity.

Whether ObamaCare is good, bad or indifferent is a matter of opinion. But it is a matter of fact that members of the House of Representatives have a right to make spending decisions based on their opinion.

ObamaCare is indeed "the law of the land," as its supporters keep saying, and the Supreme Court has upheld its Constitutionality.

But the whole point of having a division of powers within the federal government is that each branch can decide independently what it wants to do or not do, regardless of what the other branches do, when exercising the powers specifically granted to that branch by the Constitution.

The hundreds of thousands of government workers who have been laid off are not idle because the House of Representatives did not vote enough money to pay their salaries or the other expenses of their agencies -- unless they are in an agency that would administer ObamaCare.

Since we cannot read minds, we cannot say who -- if anybody -- "wants to shut down the government." But we do know who had the option to keep the government running and chose not to. The money voted by the House of Representatives covered everything that the government does, except for ObamaCare.

The Senate chose not to vote to authorize that money to be spent, because it did not include money for ObamaCare. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says that he wants a "clean" bill from the House of Representatives, and some in the media keep repeating the word "clean" like a mantra. But what is unclean about not giving Harry Reid everything he wants?

If Senator Reid and President Obama refuse to accept the money required to run the government, because it leaves out the money they want to run ObamaCare, that is their right. But that is also their responsibility.

Source: http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2013/10/04/who-shut-down-the-government-n1716292

Centuries ago, King Canute commanded the ocean tide to stop. In doing so, he was actually demonstrating to his subjects the limits of royal power. In contrast, President Obama actually believes he has the power to control the oceans — or at least the power to control U.S. citizens' access to the oceans.

Enough is enough!