Nowhere is safe from Obama’s hissy fit
(USA Today) At a spot 5,000 feet above sea level and 20 miles from the nearest town, an innkeeper decided Friday to defy the federal government and reopen his lodge.
That stand lasted about two hours as National Park Service rangers blocked the entrances to the privately run Pisgah Inn on the Blue Ridge Parkway after owner Bruce O’Connell decided to reopen his dining room, gift shop and country store at noon Friday for lunch. The federal government had forced the inn, in a leased building on federal land, to shut down at 6 p.m. ET Thursday at the height of fall foliage — and tourism — season.
The inn has been leasing the land and building from Los Federales since 1919. O’Connell and has family have owned the business for the last 35 years. The feds essentially do nothing to maintain the building and property.
A handful of guests had lunch before Park Service patrol cars blocked the driveways, turning on their orange flashing lights. Rangers turned customers away, saying the government was closed.
The rangers stayed all through the night and into Saturday to make sure that Everyone Else feels the Obama decreed pain. The Blue Ridge Parkway itself isn’t closed. Los Federales make money off the lease of the land. They don’t lose money. Yet, according to Parkway Chief Ranger Steve Stinnett, they were directed by Washington to block the business.
The White House is on federal land, too. Shut it down, and evict the squatters.
[…] are going out of their way, using taxpayer resources and funds to plant all of these blockades. They shut down a privately operated hotel and restaurant that leases from them, so they’re losing money while putting people out of work. I almost hope they keep this up […]
They really have no right to do that. Is not the owner of the inn paying rent to use the land? If it’s a lease, there’s a contract involved. This could be illegal.
The farm is fighting back. They are taking legal action against the NPS as they claim their lease does not allow for the NPS to shut them down. Other entities are doing the same thing because the government seems to be violating lease terms. (No one can find anything that allows the government to close privately owned businesses on leased land.)
There is also the point that under the Anti Deficiency Act, the government is prohibiting from creating new expenditures. That may include the erecting of barricades.
This is going to get very interesting.
Could this also be a “taking”? By blocking off of the access road, they are in effect seizing said property. There is a clause in EPA and the Endangered Species Act that states if the feds’ actions amount to preventing an owner from using their property, then in effect the USA has seized the property without due cause. FEDS have lost alot of cases because of that.
SUE the pants off the FEDS.
And yeah, evict the squatters of the white house. should they ever return from their vacations.