Obama shuts down private businesses

[Forever_frost]

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/10/03/3668028/shutdown-day-3-food-distributor.html

Harriette Wilson-Greene stood on the ramp of an enormous warehouse filled with food Thursday, overseeing Rafik Tillman as he tossed box after heavy box filled with turkey, chicken and ham into the back of an overloaded Chevy Tahoe.

The food, as it has been for the past five years, was headed to the Omega Power and Place Ministry in Liberty City, where 160 needy families each week depend on it.

Wilson-Greene, Omega’s pastor, hopes — even prays — that Thursday’s haul won’t be the last for a while.

The food supplied to her from Feeding South Florida in Pembroke Pines was the last shipment to the non-profit from the U.S. Department of Agriculture until the partial federal government shutdown ends.

“Oh, my God,” exclaimed the pastor. “We’re faithful providers. Send out the call, we need more of everything.”

Feeding South Florida is just one of 202 food banks in the country hit hard by the Washington, D.C., stalemate. With 47 employees, it’s the largest of nine in Florida, responsible for 30 percent of statewide distribution.

The agency distributes 35 million pounds of food a year from its 70,000-square-foot warehouse, everything from bananas and pears, to turkeys and hams, to soups and nuts, even baby formula. The USDA funding accounts for more than one-third of Feeding South Florida’s supply chain. On Thursday, its six open loading bays were filled with volunteers heaving food into U-Hauls and other trucks.

The distribution center’s 325 partner agencies supply food to 949,910 people.

“They sent us an email saying we can’t order anything else. So once we distribute this, that’s it,” says Sari Vatske, the distributor’s vice president of programs and initiatives. “We need Publix, Target, Walmart and Winn-Dixie to step up. We’ll need to double efforts on food drives and fundraisers.”

[line-em-up]

“We need Publix, Target, Walmart and Winn-Dixie to step up. We’ll need to double efforts on food drives and fundraisers.”

This is what we need. Less dependency on the govt and more emphasis on helping our fellow man.

[Forever_frost]

Obama closes the ocean.
“Just before the weekend, the National Park Service informed charter boat captains in Florida that the Florida Bay was “closed” due to the shutdown. Until government funding is restored, the fishing boats are prohibited from taking anglers into 1,100 square-miles of open ocean.”

http://www.ihatethemedia.com/obama-closes-the-ocean

[Trip McNeely]

This is good for the people. Then they can realize that shit can happen, and happen BETTER without the Govmt running it. Privatization is where it's at, always has been.

[Forever_frost]

http://dailycaller.com/2013/10/04/priests-threatened-with-arrest-if-they-minister-to-military-during-shutdown/

In a stunning development, some military priests are facing arrest if they celebrate mass or practice their faith on military bases during the federal government shutdown.

“With the government shutdown, many [government service] and contract priests who minister to Catholics on military bases worldwide are not permitted to work – not even to volunteer,” wrote John Schlageter, the general counsel for the Archdiocese for the Military Services USA, in an op-ed this week. “During the shutdown, it is illegal for them to minister on base and they risk being arrested if they attempt to do so.”

According to its website, the Archdiocese for the Military Services “provides the Catholic Church’s full range of pastoral ministries and spiritual services to those in the United States Armed Forces.”

In his piece, Schlageter worries about this restriction as Sunday nears. “If the government shutdown continues through the weekend, there will be no Catholic priest to celebrate Mass this Sunday in the chapels at some U.S. military installations where non-active-duty priests serve as government contractors,” he wrote.

Because of the lack of active-duty Catholic chaplains, the military relies on hiring civilian priests to serve as government service and contract ministers. Those civilian priests are not allowed on the bases during a shutdown, Schlageter wrote.

One Republican lawmaker on the House Intelligence Committee told The Daily Caller on Friday that this “crosses a constitutional line.”

“The constitutional rights of those who put their lives on the line for this nation do not end with a government slowdown,” Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo, a graduate of West Point and an Army veteran, said in a Friday statement. ”It is completely irresponsible for the president to turn his back on every American’s First Amendment rights by furloughing military contract clergy.”

Added Pompeo: “The President’s strategy during the slowdown, just as during the sequestration, is to create as much pain as possible. However, this action crosses a constitutional line of obstructing every U.S. service member’s ability to practice his or her religion.”

UPDATE: A number of politicians have weighed in on the matter after this story was published:

The House will vote tomorrow morning to affirm the right of all military chaplains to conduct services during the shutdown.
— Eric Cantor (@GOPLeader) October 5, 2013
These priests have 1st Amendment right to practice faith. Hope POTUS takes possible criminal penalties off the table http://t.co/aMqy2zhZgn
— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) October 4, 2013