What kind of schmuck puts barricades around an open-air park

that’s normally open 24/7/365? First class.
Schmucks who want to screw things up as much as possible.
He says they are considering going ahead with the trip even if the government is still on shutdown, but when he called the parks service, he was told they would face arrest. "I said, are you kidding me? You're going to arrest a 90/91-year-old veteran from seeing his memorial? If it wasn't for them it wouldn't be there. She said, 'That's correct sir.'"

When Armstrong asked for her name, he says she did not give it to him and then promptly hung up the phone.



So this is the 'reasonable' people speaking?
Tam's comment on this idiocy: Be very careful what you wish for, hippie. Reaping whirlwinds takes a bigger scythe than the one you bought down at the organic co-op.

Only federal employees classified as “essential” can work during a government shutdown. At EPA, that means just 6.6 percent of its workforce, according to Reuters.

Of the agency’s 16,205 employees, a mere 1,069 will work through the shutdown. That means that taxpayers employ 15,136 people at the EPA who are “non-essential.”