Thursday, August 15, 2013

Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, August 15, 2013


Happy mid-August, folks; right now the temp is in the mid-60's - blue skies above!

Things are worse in Egypt...

(The fecklessness of this administration belies belief!)

TAKE... A... FRIGGIN'... SIDE...!!!

TAKE... THE... RIGHT... SIDE...!!!

Apparently President Obama is set to give a press conference this morning; I'll address what he says after he says it.

Anyway... 

(*SIGH*)

9 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/355761/peaceful-brotherhood-protesters-torching-coptic-christian-churches-andrew-c-mccarthy

* THIS IS FROM YESTERDAY...

In the familiar pattern, the Western media are focused on the military raids against Islamic supremacists in Egypt but ignoring the latter’s use of violence and of women and children as human shields. After all, the “protesters” say they are “peaceful.”

When not similarly ignored, Islamic supremacist aggression against Egypt’s Christians — which was a prominent feature of Muslim Brotherhood governance — is disingenuously reported. Take this AFP report of the fact that the Brotherhood and its allies are torching Coptic churches:

The AFP endeavors to exculpate the Islamic supremacists by editorializing, in the report, that these were “reprisal” attacks.

But the Brotherhood was not ousted by the minority Copts.

To be sure, the Copts far prefer to take their chances with a largely secular, technocratic government backed by the armed forces than the rampant persecution they endured while the Brotherhood was running the show. But it is the army, not the Copts, who ejected Morsi.

AFP tries to obscure this by recounting that “the Coptic church backed Morsi’s removal, with Patriarch [i.e. Pope] Tawadros II appearing alongside army chief General Fattah al-Sisi as he announced the military coup.”

As I observed in writing about the coup in the August 5 edition of National Review, however, Pope Tawadros was hardly alone — General Sisi also gathered by his side significant Islamic supremacist leaders: Grand Mufti Ahmed al-Tayeb of al-Azhar University and leaders of the Salafist al-Nour party (in addition to prominent secularists).

The Brotherhood is not “retaliating” against Christians; Islamic supremacists are persecuting Christians . . . which is what they do in Muslim-majority countries.

* SADLY TRUE IN MANY - THOUGH FAR FROM ALL - CASES.

(*SIGH*)

William R. Barker said...

http://www.latimes.com/local/political/la-me-pc-california-illegal-immigration-20130814,0,3629753.story

Twenty-eight of California's congressional representatives are throwing their weight behind state legislation that would make it harder to deport immigrants who are in the country illegally.

* STATE LEGISLATION...??? BUT... BUT... BUT... I THOUGHT THAT THE DEMOCRAT POSITION WAS THAT FEDERAL IMMIGRATION POLICY (NOT FEDERAL LAW... FEDERAL "POLICY" OF THE MOMENT) PREEMINENT?

The representatives -- all Democrats, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco -- sent a letter to Gov. Jerry Brown urging him to sign the bill if it reaches his desk.

(*SMIRK*)

* YEAH, FOLKS... THAT'S WHY I WROTE ABOVE "THE DEM POSITION."

The bill, known as the Trust Act, "establishes a bright line standard between local law enforcement and federal immigration enforcement" and would "continue California's proud tradition of being a leader on smart and sensible policies," the letter says.

* SO... CALIFORNIA CAN BE A LEADER... ARIZONA CAN'T BE... (*PAUSE*)... GOT IT.

The bill (AB 4), authored by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), would limit local law enforcement's role in working with federal authorities to begin deportation proceedings.

* FOLKS... ASIDE FROM THE SHEER HYPOCRISY... THESE POLICIES ARE MASOCHISTIC... SUICIDAL...

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

William R. Barker said...

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/obama_celling_out_UtCvorWrEsMDxEheVWEmKO

* THE HEADLINE:

Obama wants to tack on $5-a-year phone tax to fund high-speed Internet in schools - critics blast 'end run' of Congress and 'endless expansion of program at the expense of rate payers'

That’s one way to “cell” a fee hike.

Unwilling to ask Congress for extra funds to pay for high-speed Internet connections in schools, President Obama is instead looking to tack yet another charge on cellphones through the Federal Communications Commission.

* U*N*C*O*N*S*T*I*T*U*T*I*O*N*A*L

The new program, called ConnectED, would expand an existing school-wiring effort and cost each cellphone user about $5 a year, said White House officials.

In New York City, the ubiquitous mobile devices already carry 10 separate city, state and federal fees and charges — and that doesn’t include sales taxes.

Obama is relying on the fee hike to avoid dealing with a Congress that White House deputy press secretary Josh Earnest yesterday described as “dysfunctional.”

* * U*N*C*O*N*S*T*I*T*U*T*I*O*N*A*L

“You would think that connecting schools to the information superhighway would be a pretty noncontroversial topic,” Earnest told reporters in Martha’s Vineyard, where the first family is on vacation.

“Unfortunately, we haven’t seen a lot of action in Congress, so the president has advocated an administrative, unilateral action to get this done.”

* U*N*C*O*N*S*T*I*T*U*T*I*O*N*A*L

Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) slammed the “endless expansion of the program at the expense of rate payers.”

* DID THEY MENTION THE CONSTITUTION? DID THEY MENTION SEPARATION OF POWERS? DID THEY MENTION CONGRESS (SUPPOSEDLY) CONTROLS THE PURSE STRINGS AND THAT TAXES (WHICH LOGICALLY INCLUDE SURCHARGES AND FEES) MUST BE LEGISLATED AND PUT INTO LAW BY CONGRESS?

* NO... NO THEY DIDN'T, I'LL BET. NO THEY DIDN'T BECAUSE WHAT I JUST DESCRIBED IS A CONSTITUTIONAL RULE OF LAW THAT THIS NATION'S ELECTED OFFICALS HAVEN'T HELD THEMSELVES TO SINCE... WELL... I DON'T KNOW WHEN.

WHILE I WRITE U*N*C*O*N*S*T*I*T*U*T*I*O*N*A*L THE REALITY IS THAT IT'S FAR FROM CERTAIN THE SUPREME COURT WOULD AGREE WITH ME THAT FEES AND SURCHAGES ARE TAXES. (INDEED, I DOUBT THEY WOULD.) BUT THIS DOESN'T MAKE ME WRONG... THIS SIMPLY MAKES THE POINT OF HOW RIGHT I AM WHEN I SAY THAT AMERICA IS NO LONGER A CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC GOVERNED BY THE RULE OF LAW AS CREATED BY OUR ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES IN ACCORD WITH CONSTITUTIONAL PRESCRIPTS.

(*SHRUG*)

The initial White House fact sheet on the program didn’t mention anything about a fee hike, although the Washington Post reported on it.

The fact sheet stated that the program will connect 99% of American schools to the “digital age” and that the president “is calling on the FCC to modernize and leverage the existing E-rate program.”

* FOLKS... IT'S NOT A QUESTION OF WHAT'S "GOOD POLICY" OR NOT. IT'S NOT EVEN A QUESTION OF HOW TO DIRECT RESOURCES. NO! THIS IS A CONSTITUTIONAL QUESTION! TAXES... FEES... SURCHARGES... THE FOUNDERS CLEARLY INTENDED THESE TO THE PEROGATIVE OF CONGRESS AND CONGRESS ALONE IN THE SENSE OF PASSING A LAW AND GETTING IT ENACTED.

The independent FCC currently has only three members, two of whom were appointed by Democrats.

* MY ARGUMENT WOULD BE THE SAME IF IT WERE THREE REPUBLICAN MEMBERS. MERE BUREAUCRATS SHOULDN'T BE ALLOWED TO TAX AMERICANS! CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT NEED TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY - DIRECTLY... THOUGH THE CONSTITUTIONALLY DESIGNATED LEGISLATIVE PROCESS - FOR BURDENING THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WITH TAXES, FEES, AND SURCHARGES.

* FOLKS... CASE LAW TO THE CONTRARY IS JUST... PLAIN... WRONG. JUST... PLAIN... EXTRACONSTITUTIONAL.

William R. Barker said...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/igorgreenwald/2013/01/18/dont-hate-on-al-gore-for-his-big-apple-score/

[Al] Gore has just spent a little over $440,000 to acquire stock worth nearly $30 million as of Thursday’s close. And what did he do for all that money? Attended a board meeting a few times a year for the last decade.

Two weeks after pulling down a reported $100 million from the sale of Current TV to the Qatar-based news network, the man so many love to hate is at it again, this time by exercising options entitling him to buy 59,000 Apple shares for the excellent price of $7.475 each.

Do you think this stinks? Some hereditary politician making out like a real tycoon after rubbing shoulders with the hippie high-tech elites? Realizing more wealth in a single day than the average Chinese assembler of iPhones will earn in 100 lifetimes? Does it make you angry to see this sanctimonious do-gooder get filthy rich?

If so, you’re exactly the person I’m trying to reach.

* FOLKS... I WOULD LIKE YOU TO READ THIS FULL ARTICLE. WHY? BECAUSE IT'S NOT WHAT YOU THINK IT IS! IT'S ACTUALLY A PRO-GORE PIECE!

* HERE'S THE THING, THOUGH... I DON'T BUY IT... I DON'T BUY THE AUTHOR'S CONTENTIONS.

* FOLKS... THE AUTHOR IS WHAT I CALL A FAUX CAPITALIST... A PILOT FISH FOR THE OLIGARCHS.

* FOLKS... NO ONE HAS A CRYSTAL BALL... NO ONE KNOWS WHAT "ALTERNATE AL GORE," SON OF A CARPENTER, PLUMBER, COP, OR COAL MINER WOULD HAVE ACHIEVED. BUT HERE'S WHAT WE DO KNOW: AL GORE, BORN A SENATOR'S SON. AL GORE, BECAME A CONGRESSMAN AND THEN SENATOR REPRESENTING "HIS FATHER'S" STATE. AL GORE, ROSE TO BECOME VICE PRESIDENT AND LATER 2000 DEMOCRAT PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE ALL ON HIS OWN... I'LL GIVE HIM THAT. BUT HIS "BUSINESS" CONNECTIONS? CLEARLY BASED UPON HIS POLITICAL POWER.

* FOLKS... IF YOU READ THE FULL ARTICLE YOU'LL FIND THE AUTHOR POINTING TO GORE HAVING SUPPOSEDLY "INVESTIGATED THE BACKDATING OF EXECUTIVE OPTIONS" AS AN APPLE BOARD MEMBER, WHO KNOWS (BESIDES GORE AND THE INSIDERS) WHAT ACTUALLY WORK GORE PUT IN BESIDES BEING THE TITULAR HEAD OF THE "INVESTIGATION?"

* IN ANY CASE... THE OLIGARCHS... THE POLITICIANS... WEALTH AND POWER SEEM MORE AND MORE NOWADAYS TO FLOW TO WEALTH AND POWER.

William R. Barker said...

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/aug/14/climate-change-obama-epa-plan-action-sans-congress/

EPA chief Gina McCarthy said Wednesday that the Obama administration is finished waiting for Congress to act on climate change and plans to bypass the legislative branch in developing a federal response.

* AGAIN... FOLKS... EXAMPLE AFTER EXAMPLE OF HOW THIS ADMINISTRATION SEES ITSELF AS ABOVE THE LAW... ABOVE THE CONSTITUTION.

Ms. McCarthy, who was confirmed last month as Environmental Protection Agency administrator, cited President Obama’s June 25 speech at Georgetown University, in which he unveiled his Climate Action Plan and vowed to make combating climate change a priority of his second term. Mr. Obama gave “what I really think is a most remarkable speech by a president of the United States,” said Ms. McCarthy in remarks at the University of Colorado Boulder. “Essentially, he said that it is time to act,” she said. “And he said he wasn’t going to wait for Congress, but that he had administrative authorities and that it was time to start utilizing those more effectively and in a more concerted way.”

* BUT HE DOESN'T HAVE ADMINISTRATIVE AUTHORITY.

She insisted that reducing greenhouse-gas emissions could be accomplished without harming economic growth, calling the tension between the two priorities a “false choice.”

* LISTEN... MCCARTHY... YOUR JOB IS TO REGULATE AS THE LAW SEES FIT - NOT AS YOU SEE FIT... AND NOT HOW THE PRESIDENT - ABSENT STATUTE - SEES FIT.

“We’re going to do this year, next year, the following year, until people understand these are not scary things to do, these are actions we can all do, they’re actions that benefit everybody, that will grow the economy, and they’re actions that will protect the health and safety of individuals,” Ms. McCarthy said.

* MCCARTHY SHOULD BE IMPEACHED, CONVICTED, AND THROWN OUT OF OFFICE. FOR WHAT...? FOR EVEN THREATENING TO TAKE UNCONSTITUTIONAL ACTIONS!

The president’s Climate Action Plan has come under criticism from Republicans, led by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who said in June the plan amounted to a “war on coal” and a “war on jobs.” “It’s tantamount to kicking the ladder out from beneath the feet of any Americans struggling in today’s economy,” Mr. McConnell said.

* IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT MCCONNELL SAYS... IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT REPUBLICANS SAY... ALL THAT MATTERS IS WHETHER OBAMA AND THE DEMS CAN GET THEIR LEGISLATION PASSED. IF THEY CAN'T... THEN THEY HAVE NO AUTHORITY TO BYPASS THE CONSTITUTION AND SIMPLY "TAKE" THE AUTHORITY THEY COULDN'T GAIN VIA CONSTITUIONAL PROCESS.

In 2009, Congress rejected a bill to establish a cap-and-trade system designed to discourage greenhouse-gas emissions.

* THERE YA GO! (AND RECALL... DURING 2009... DEMS CONTROLLED BOTH HOUSES OF CONGRESS!)

Mr. Obama’s plan comes after years of criticism from environmentalists who have faulted him for a lack of attention to global warming.

* WHICH CEASED 15 YEARS AGO... (BUT NEVERMIND...)

The plan includes reducing carbon pollution from power plants, accelerating green-energy permitting, and increasing fuel-economy standards.

* OBAMA CAN COME UP WITH ALL THE "PLANS" HIS HEART DESIRES, BUT THE CONSTITUTION DEMANDS THEY PASS BOTH HOUSES OF CONGRESS AND THEN GET SIGNED IN TO LAW!

William R. Barker said...

* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)

http://www.humanevents.com/2013/08/13/post-v-putin-whose-side-are-you-on/

* BY PATRICK J. BUCHANAN

The culture war has gone global - and the divisions are not only between, but within nations.

“Suddenly, homosexuality is against the law,” wailed Jay Leno. “I mean, this seems like Germany. Let’s round up the Jews. Let’s round up the gays. … I mean, it starts like that.”

Leno was speaking of Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Obama eagerly agreed:

“I have no patience for countries that treat gays or lesbians … in ways that intimidate them or are harmful to them. … Nobody is more offended than me by some of the antigay and lesbian legislation that you’ve been seeing in Russia.”

Leno and Obama were referring to a new Russian law prohibiting “homosexual propaganda.”

Moscow is also warning foreigners, including visitors to the winter Olympics in Sochi, that propagandizing for gay rights can get them two weeks in detention - no kiss-ins allowed.

“Medieval,” howled The Washington Post. “Mr. Putin’s war” on gays and lesbians is “part and parcel of his lapse into xenophobia, religious chauvinism and general intolerance.”

* MEDIEVAL...? REALLY...??? I'M 51 AND FOR MOST OF MY LIFE HOMOSEXUALITY WAS LOOKED UPON AS - AT THE VERY LEAST - ABNORMAL... PRACTICED BY "THOSE PEOPLE." CERTAINLY IT'S ONLY BEEN OVER THE PAST FIVE OR TEN YEARS WHERE HOMOSEXUALITY HAS BECOME "HIP" AND EVEN DURING THE '70's, '80's AND 90's IT WASN'T EXACTLY "COOL."

Monday’s New York Times has a front-page story “Gays in Russia Find No Haven, Despite Support From the West” featuring photos of roughed-up protesters.

Our moral and cultural elites have put Putin on notice: Get in step with us on homosexual rights — or we may just boycott your Sochi games.

What this reveals is the distance America has traveled, morally and culturally, in a few short years, and our amnesia about who we Americans once were, and what it is we once believed.

Only yesterday, homosexual sodomy, which Thomas Jefferson said should be treated like rape, was outlawed in many states and same-sex marriage was regarded as an absurdity. Was that America we grew up in really like Nazi Germany?

In the Catholic schools this writer attended, pornography — let alone homosexual propaganda — would get one expelled. Was this really just like Kristallnacht?

As Father Regis Scanlon writes in Crisis Magazine, in 2005, Pope Benedict XVI reiterated Catholic doctrine that homosexuality is a “strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil,” an “objective disorder.” That homosexual acts are unnatural and immoral remains Catholic teaching.

Thus, if we seek to build a Good Society by traditional Catholic and Christian standards, why should not homosexual propaganda be treated the same as racist or anti-Semitic propaganda?

* TO BE CONTINUED...

William R. Barker said...

* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)

When Pope Francis said, “Who am I to judge?” he was saying that a sexual orientation is something over which an individual may have no control, dating to birth or infancy. Hence homosexuals ought not to be condemned, but welcomed into the community. As for homosexual propaganda and acts, that is another matter.

* HATE THE SIN, LOVE THE SINNER. (THAT'S THE CATHOLIC PERSPECTIVE.)

What, one wonders, is the view of those Evangelical Christians who sustain the Republican Party on homosexual propaganda in the public square? Do they agree with the Washington Post? Or do they agree with Putin? [And what of you and I?] We can no longer even agree on what is good and evil.

When the Socialist regime of Francois Hollande enacted a law endorsing same-sex marriage, a million Frenchmen marched in protest in Paris. Is America on Hollande’s side, or the side of the protesters?

When the ultra-Orthodox haredim of Jerusalem denounce the annual gay pride parade in the Holy City, whose side is America on?

The Washington Post weeps for the “young women of the persecuted rock band Pussy Riot,” who engaged in half-naked obscene acts on the high altar of Moscow’s most sacred cathedral. Had these women crayoned swastikas on the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., would the WP have been so sympathetic?

(Putin suggested the ladies try the same stunt in Mecca.)

In our late Mideast wars, America has fought for secularist democracy. Yet Christians have suffered horribly, with the murder of priests, the burning of churches, terrorism and wholesale flight. According to LifeSiteNews, Putin, meeting with Orthodox Christian leaders, urged the world to come together to stop these violent persecutions. “Especially in the Middle East and North Africa … the rights of religious minorities are infringed, especially Christians and Orthodox Christians. … This pressing problem should be a subject of close attention for the entire international community.”

* I'M ON PUTIN'S SIDE. HOW'BOUT YOU?

Urging America and the West to join with Russia in saving Syria’s Christians, Orthodox Patriarch Kirill said their expulsion from Syria would be a “catastrophe” for civilization.

* I AGREE!

Has Obama ever spoken out so forcefully for international action to save Christians?

* NOT THAT I KNOW OF... (ANYONE...???) (INFO WELCOMED!)

Has The New York Times ever exhibited a fraction of the concern for persecuted Christians it daily exhibits for harassed homosexuals?

* I'M GUESS THE AUTHOR HAS ALREADY CHECKED AND FOUND THE ANSWER TO BE "NO."

What did the Washington Post mean by “religious chauvinism?”

* AREN'T RELIGIONS "CHAUVINISTIC" BY NATURE...??? (RHETORICAL QUESTION!)

Putin is trying to re-establish the Orthodox Church as the moral compass of the nation it had been for 1,000 years before Russia fell captive to the atheistic and pagan ideology of Marxism.

* WE'VE TOUCHED ON THIS BEFORE. PUTIN IS A CHRISTIAN.

“The adoption of Christianity,” declared Putin, “became a turning point in the fate of our fatherland, made it an inseparable part of the Christian civilization and helped turn it into one of the largest world powers.”

Anyone ever heard anything like that from the Washington Post, the New York Times or Barack Hussein Obama?

William R. Barker said...

* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)

http://www.mvtimes.com/2013/08/14/south-road-closure-presidentaes-visit-impacts-local-businesses-16887/

On Tuesday morning, during what is usually the busiest week all year for Up-Island Automotive, business was dead.

Patrick Jenkinson, son of owner Walter "Pat" Jenkinson, said he was just heading out to put a sign up on South Road to remind customers the gas station is still open, when The Times called around 9 am.

Mr. Jenkinson said Up-Island Automotive is struggling this week, due to the closure of a portion of South Road, in connection with the arrival of President Barack and Michelle Obama last Saturday. (The Obamas and their two daughters are staying at an estate on Snail Road, just off South Road, during their weeklong vacation.)

* RIDICULOUS. THE ROAD SHOULDN'T BE CLOSED AND THE JENKINSON FAMILY - NEVERMIND LOCALS AND VISITORS - SHOULDN'T HAVE TO PUT UP WITH THIS BULL$HIT.

On Saturday afternoon the Secret Service closed South Road between Meeting House Road and Wooton Bassett Road to all traffic, effective through Sunday. Only abutters and emergency vehicles are allowed to pass security check points.

(South Road is one of three up-Island arteries, in addition to Middle Road and North Road. Vehicle drivers traveling west, or up Island, have the option to detour over the dirt Meeting House Road to Middle Road.)

* ONE... OF... THREE...

* NOT ONE OF 10... NOT ONE OF 20... BUT ONE... OF... THREE...

Although the South Road closure is beyond Up-Island Automotive and other local West Tisbury businesses, it has made a dramatic decrease in their traffic, Mr. Jenkinson said. Electronic signs on Edgartown and State Roads that warn of a detour off South Road have discouraged many drivers from venturing that way at all.

The Obamas' vacation week coincides with events that have become the Island's summertime grand finale, Illumination Night at the Campground and fireworks in Oak Bluffs, and the annual agricultural fair in West Tisbury. For local businesses, it is also one of the most profitable. "We really rely on this third week in August, especially Fair week," Mr. Jenkinson said. "We do as much business in that one week as we do in three weeks in February. But we're way down from what we usually get in sales, more than 15 to 20 percent."

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

* TO BE CONTINUED...

William R. Barker said...

* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)

At Alley's General Store, owned by the Martha's Vineyard Preservation Trust (MVPT), the road closure's impact is evidenced by empty parking spaces, usually a scarce commodity in the summer and especially in mid-August. "Basically, the major East-West corridor on the Island has been turned into a dead end," MVPT executive director Chris Scott told The Times in a phone call Tuesday. "It will be thousands of dollars lost." (He said he checked with Alley's bookkeeper and got revenue figures from the same dates last year for comparison.)

"It's startling, even though it's only been a few days, but it's trending to more of an effect each consecutive day as people get used to the road closure," Mr. Scott said. "I think it will mean at least a 25% reduction in Alley's gross sales this week. And August, for almost all Island businesses, represents a very significant percentage, maybe 33%, of all gross sales annually."

Mr. Scott said he tracks Alley's sales weekly, which until this week were trending upward by about 1.5 percent from last year. "This ought to be our big week," he added. "It's not going to put the store out of business, but it's not helpful. You don't get it back."

In contrast to Alley's, the road closure is a non-issue next door at 7a Foods, owned by Dan Sauer and his wife, Wenonah. Mr. Sauer apologized for not returning a morning call from The Times until late afternoon, explaining that he had been too busy with customers until then. "We haven't felt a noticeable difference," Mr. Sauer said. "We seem to have the same number of people coming into the store, if not more, than last year. We've been going pretty strong so far this week." The "farm to takeout" restaurant serves breakfast and lunch and offers a variety of baked goods, salads, soups, sandwiches, and prepared foods, most of them made from scratch using locally sourced ingredients.

Mr. Jenkinson expressed frustration at how the road closure came about and the lack of recourse. "We found out four days before the President came that we'd be at a dead end," he said, adding that, "None of our local politicians want to hear about it, nor do the local police."

Chilmark Police Chief Brian Cioffi confirmed the Secret Service's security team's plans to close the road on Tuesday, August 6. He told The Times he recommended ways to modify the plan to make it more flexible, but the Secret Service had the last word.

Chilmark selectman Warren Doty expressed his unhappiness about the road closure at a selectmen's meeting that night. The next day, Chilmark executive secretary Tim Carroll posted a notice in the front of town hall advising "anyone aggrieved" by the planned closing to call or email the White House.

* YOU KNOW... TECHNICALLY... ABSENT DECLARING MARTIAL LAW... NEITHER THE SECRET SERVICE NOR THE PRESIDENT HIMSELF HAS AUTHORITY TO DO WHAT THEY'RE DOING ABSENT THE STATE ALLOWING IT. (JUST SAYIN'...)