Cone Heads

Recent events in the Garden State have illustrated a serious medical condition affecting the journalism community, one we have witnessed among journalists before. A conniption is a rare psychological disorder, one apparently generated by actions performed by a certain class of people.

Those people - called Republicans (ree-pub-lick-ens) - trigger a psychosis that leads to enraged self-righteousness, angst, and gnashing of teeth among most practicing journalists. We have seen this behavior before; for eight solid years the journalism community suffered an outbreak as a triggering agent occupied the White House, and former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin seems to be another hot agent. Ditto Ted Cruz and Mike Lee, who managed to aggravate this condition. The latest outbreak is the direct result of actions taken by the administration of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who has managed to generate a sizable conniption among the infected journalists (meaning, well, just about all of them.) One wonders if the CDC should be called. These sorts of conniptions are rarely triggered by the actions of Democrats. There is, apparently, some immunity to Democratic environmental factors. We must examine this more closely to diagnose the problem and better treat it. Barrycades, drones, and Christie Cones - or as MSNBC's Melissa Harris Perry might sing "one of these things is not like the others".

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During the government shutdown (precipitated by one Mr. Barack Hussein Obama but blamed by the media on the GOP) the National Parks Service was ordered to shut down the national parks. This was, ostensibly, because funds were not available but considerable amounts of money were expended to guarantee these parks would not be enjoyed. Signs were purchased telling the public that the parks were closed because of the shutdown, and barricades were placed around open monuments (such as the WWII Memorial). Park Rangers were ordered to harass anyone trying to get inside. In fact, park police stopped a man from voluntarily cutting the grass at the Lincoln Memorial. And they weren't fooling around with trespassers. According to NPR:

"But at national parks, national monuments, national recreation areas, national historic sites and other Park Service areas, no entry is permitted during the shutdown. "The park is closed, and we're enforcing the boundaries," says Aly Batrus, chief of interpretation at Zion National Park in Utah. "You can get a ticket just for being in the park recreating when you're not supposed to be." Trespassing in a national park carries a maximum fine of $500 and up to six months in jail, according to the Criminal Resource Manual issued to U.S. attorneys.

The Park Service barricaded the WWII Memorial, and it has been confirmed that the order came from the Office of Management and Budget, a White House agency. Also, officials said that they were told to make life as miserable as possible for the citizenry. Christie's people closed off lanes of the George Washington Bridge, a key artery between Jersey and New York .(a kindness, if you ask me.) In both instances barricades were used - Obama used metal ones while Christie used cones.

How did the media react in these separate instances? According to Newsbusters;

"Anchor Brian Williams tied the story to the GOP as a whole: "Because of a sudden and enormous traffic backup on that bridge this past September, a scandal has now erupted around the Governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, a man a lot of Republicans regard as a consensus candidate for the party nomination in 2016." ABC's Jim Avila emphasized the nastiness behind the move on Wednesday's World News: "Today, a series of e-mails and text messages reveals that Fort Lee's pain was deliberately engineered in a fit of political retribution by members of Governor Chris Christie's office, who triggered this mess with one short order to the agency that runs the George Washington Bridge." Yet they were strangely silent, even amused at Mr. Obama's Barry-cades. And while Christie condemned the actions of his staff, Mr. Obama defended his own policies of pain for political payback: When CBS reporter Mark Knoller asked President Barack Obama why he refused to "go along" with any of the House bills to fund programs like Head Start or veterans benefits during the government shutdown, the commander-in-chief was blunt in his response. He said if the Republican's aren't feeling any "political heat" then "nothing happens." Here's Knoller's full question: "While you're waiting for the shutdown to end, why is it that you can't go along with any of the bills the House is passing? Funding the FDA and FEMA — where you were yesterday — and veterans benefits and Head Start. You have to be tempted to kind of get funding to those programs you support." Obama admitted that he is "tempted" to support the bills, because "you'd like to think you could solve at least some of the problems if you couldn't solve all of it." That's what Republicans claim they are trying to do with the appropriations bills to restore funding to various affected programs. "But here's the problem. What you've seen are bills that come up wherever Republicans are feeling political pressure, they put a bill forward. And if there's no political heat, if there's no television story on it, then nothing happens," Obama said ."If we do some sort of shotgun approach like that, then you'll have some programs that are highly visible get funded and re-opened, like national monuments, but things that don't get a lot of attention, like those SBA loans not being funded."

So Mr. Obama admits he wanted to hurt the American People to pressure the GOP.

This policy not only hurt tourists, but did terrible damage to businesses and communities that brought in tourist dollars. In fact, it decimated communities across the country. And this pain-for-politics policy of Mr. Obama did not stop at National Parks. It cut off funding for children's cancer research. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid dismissed this with a healthy dose of "let them eat cake";

"But Reid was challenged at a Democratic press conference by CNN's Dana Bash about why the Senate wouldn't consider the NIH bill. "If you can help one child who has cancer, why wouldn't you do it?" she asked. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., quietly asked, "Why pit one against the other?" And Reid immediately chimed in: "Why would we want to do that? I have 1,100 people at Nellis Air Force base that are sitting home. They have a few problems of their own."

Reid has been the champion of the Administration in the Senate. Strangely, the Administration found White House chefs to be an absolutely critical function of government. So children can die as long as Mr. Obama gets to eat well... The Administration shut down private roads, tried to close the privately funded Mt. Vernon, strangled a number of private businesses that made their living from the Parks (like tour guides on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon) and generally did their level best to hurt the American People, knowing that the media's strange conniption disorder would not bother them. Private e-mails show thus far no connection between Gov. Christie and this "stupid" political payback, and the Governor fired the parties responsible. Nobody has been so much as reprimanded in the Obama Administration. This is just one example of the utter hypocrisy of the media where Democrats and Republicans are concerned. The media yawned at dead Mexican citizens and Fast and Furious. They yawned at Obama's usurpation of the War Powers Act in Libya. They yawned at the death of Americans at Benghazi, and Mr. Obama's blatant lies about it. They yawned at the IRS bullying Democrat's political opponents. They yawned at the NSA domestic spying. They yawned at the willful lie that "if you like your doctor you can keep him". They yawned at drones killing American citizens. They yawned at sky-high unemployment without an end in sight. They have covered Conegate over the IRS abuse scandal at a rate of 17 to 1. On Face the Nation this Sunday (January 12) the Democratic head of the New Jersey Assembly's transportation committee Thomas Wisniewski called Gov. Christie's denial of knowledge of the events "not credible" and called for his impeachment.

"I don't think it's credible for Governor to have his chief of staff, his communication director, his deputy chief of staff, his chief counsel all involved in email communications on the day this took place and the days after, talking not only about the problems that were created in Fort Lee, but also talking about how to spin it to the press,"

The moderator and panel on Face the Nation yawned once again. Strange; the media never promoted this idea in regards to Mr. Obama, whose Secretary of State, Ambassador to the U.N. (and later National Security Advisor), Vice President, and Director of Central intelligence, Secretary of Defense, Spokesman, all flagrantly lied to mislead the public on the roll terrorism - and what the Administration knew and failed to do - played in the Benghazi attack, where a number of Americans died waiting for help that never came. It is now known that the White House was watching the whole attack in real time, and gave orders to stand down when troops at the scene asked for permission to rescue the besieged Consulate staff. A few cones on a bridge seems to be worse than burning American buildings and dying Ambassadors.

So, what is so interesting about the Christie scandal? The Face the Nation panel claimed it is that Christie's inner circle could become high officials in his administration should he become President; they could become Secretary of State, U.N. Ambassador, Director of Central Intelligence, etc. You know; they might LIE to you! Give a Republican a minor scandal involving traffic jams and the gates of Hell will soon open. Perhaps Harry Reid was right in not wanting to fund children's cancer research; perhaps that money would be better spent on research to cure Media Conniption Syndrome; there seem to be many more poor souls suffering from this terrible malady, and its impact on society seems far greater. The problem is, anyone seeking treatment would be trapped in perpetuity on the sign-up page at Healthcare.gov.