Buffalo River Closure???

[okieboater]

Once again,
the republicans have successfully managed to snatch defeat from a sure victory
had they just shut up and let the opposition party and president fall on their swords implementing Obama care.

Obama was in trouble with his handling of Syria and gas attacks, the republicans tossed him
a life line by this sure to fail government shut down.

Will they ever learn?

I am with Mgood, this has been a fun but useless discussion, I am out of this thread.

[Yarbrough]

Let it flow like a lazy river that doesn't want to submit to the sea. What we have here is a civil discussion of differing opinions. Nobody has been rude or called anybody stupid because they don't see it exactly the same way. The park is still shut down and when and why is still ongoing. What purpose would be served by killing it? What we need is more boaters to chime in, in my humble opinion.

[Prairie Tater]

Is "Buffalo River Closure???" not a pertinent topic for this forum? I feel there is not a better place to discuss and debate the closure of this beautiful freeflowing stream than on the ACC MB. And it is all political, so naturally, folks are gonna' want to discuss how they feel what's going on in D.C.

My feeling right now is that once Obamacare is fully implemented, there is no stopping it. It will become another moneypit for our monstrous out-of-control government to abuse. I compare "waiting to see if it dies on its own" to driving your car into a concrete wall to see if the airbags work!

OK I'm Done.

Terry P.

[prophet]

This thread has hopelessly spiraled into the black hole that is message-board-partisan-arguing.

I blame the lack of NASA funding

[Canoe_Codger]

This thread has hopelessly spiraled into the black hole that is message-board-partisan-arguing.

I blame the lack of NASA funding

They could always take the money from their glow-ball warming promotion fund.

[prophet]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Jd-iaYLO1A

[Canoe_Codger]

Debate by video? Not a real good idea, IMHO.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfl55GgHr5E" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I am hearing of a lot of people whose plans are being cancelled because they don't comply with ACA regulations. And doctors who are being dropped by insurors as service providers. In a few instances, major insurors are withdrawing from entire states.

As ar as the House video above, this exactly mirrors the tactic being used currently in the Senate whereby the Majority leader refuses to allow any house bills to be discussed or voted on by Senate membership. He will not allow them to be presented to the floor for discussion and consideration, amendment and return to the House for Bicameral resolution. Which is a defining and essential feature of our houses of Congress.

[prophet]

CC- so you would rather re-debate and piecemeal the govt back together rather than a single vote covering everything? that doesn't seem very efficient. I'm afraid re-opening the Buffalo might not come up for years, if it would even pass in today's political climate, and I have a trip planned soon. this thread has inspired me to use the abandoned world of Rush this year

[hollohead]

Seems some feel that having both sides of a debate proffered is being mean, as if a citizens role is just to shut up. It's good to see there are smart, informed people who disagree.

[Canoe_Codger]

CC- so you would rather re-debate and piecemeal the govt back together rather than a single vote covering everything? that doesn't seem very efficient. I'm afraid re-opening the Buffalo might not come up for years, if it would even pass in today's political climate, and I have a trip planned soon. this thread has inspired me to use the abandoned world of Rush this year

As I have mentioned, the House passed and forewarded the bill to fully fund NPS before the "shutdown" deadline was reached. "Piecemeal", in other words one expendature at a time, is exactly how spending bills are intended to be written, considered and passed. I see nothing wrong with that. And evidently neither do the Senate and White House when it agrees with their agenda (or when the political heat from citizens gets too hot). Military funding bill?

Eventually the budget CR impass will be over and parks will be allowed to reopen, all employees who have been kept on to keep people out receiving their full pay, overtime pay and benefits. And furloughed employees brought back with full vacation pay. Sequester cuts though, the brainchild of Lew and the White House, are likely to remain for some time. Carry a groover to the river if you go. Doubtfull that funds will be there to allow toilets to be opened. And I have seen park employees (elsewhere) state that they were ordered to remove handles from water spigots in the parks, so plan on taking plenty of fresh water for drinking and cooking. I like the Ozarka one gallon jugs of spring water myself. They are durable and good tasting, and easy to stow in my canoe.

I would like to hear more from folks who have visited the BNR, at least the edges of it. I know the concessionaires are unable to comment much due to the threat of losing their permits. And the local news that I have been able to access from the area has been sparse at best. Has Cheri given interviews? Or many locals? Chambers or even State politicians? Word from the various State agencies who promote tourism? I would think some of them would be getting vocal by now on the effect on State tourism.

[Canoe_Codger]

By the way, my one week old granddaughter Kali Rae says "Smile guys!"



She is the youngest of seven.

Michael

[Canoe_Codger]

Smiling yet? Good!

Now we know that it is a maxim of law that we are each expected to know and comply with the law once it is published in the CFR. Have you read it yet?


You can see why all of the Senators and Representatives who have been asked either get huffy and say that it isn't their job to read it, or just refuse to answer and turn and walk away when asked. These are the regulations written by the various administration agencies to implement the PPACA law. There is one thousand words of regluation for every one word of the actual law.

Now, the launch on October 1st was a fiasco. Mostly for programming code errors, "glitches" they were called at first. It still is hardly running right. Selebus attended an Obamacare signup gala with a group of navigators and it was a bust because not even they could access the website. Calling the help line was fruitless because the helpers there could not access it either. And then there is the hub where all of this information on every person who does succeed in entering it to shop prices is stored. One insurer was sent a list of thousands of social security numbers. Oops! And no attention has been paid to the security of the hub against hackers. John McAffee and other security programmers are yelling and swinging lanterns from the bell towers over this one. One programmer said (fecitiously I hope) that if he had turned out such a product on a 500 million dollar contract after four years of development, he would be looking for a place to hide. Or shoot himself.

And then we get to the part that is the most immediate concern. Scammers who are building phoney websites to bilk people of their identification and financial information to drain their bank accounts. Several states have already found and shut down a few such websites. FCC is supposed to be at the forefront of the war on online scammers but... they shut down their website on Oct. 1st (or 2nd, I forget). So the private non-profit BBB is the next stop. And then state attorney generals, state and local police departments. In otherwords, scammers can set up a website for $100 overnight, get the info they need, sell that info on and be gone before the next sun sets.

The Star Tribune writes:

“A MNsure employee accidentally sent an e-mail file to an Apple Valley insurance broker’s office on Thursday that contained Social Security numbers, names, business addresses and other identifying information on more than 2,400 insurance agents.

“An official at MNsure, the state’s new online health insurance exchange, acknowledged it had mishandled private data. A MNsure security manager called the broker, Jim Koester, and walked him and his assistant through a process of deleting the file from their computer hard drives.

“Koester said he willingly complied, but was unnerved.

“‘The more I thought about it, the more troubled I was,’ he said. ‘What if this had fallen into the wrong hands? It’s scary. If this is happening now, how can clients of MNsure be confident their data is safe?’”

As I previously mentioned I believe, the private subcontractor "navigators" hired are required to have 20 hours of training and most have not had background security checks. At least two of the major companies providing navigators are under investigation for fraud in other programs.

So these are some of the many reasons the House is trying to get the individual mandate delayed for one year, the same as has been done by the President for the employer mandate. Not an unreasonable request considering how problematic it promises to be. Now, out of curiosity... have any of you signed up? If you are keeping your current health insurance, have you received notices of rate increases or increases in deductables?

[hollohead]

I hear you CC, but the law was never intended to be anything but a stepping stone to a single payer system, all just a smokescreen. I am a small bussiness owner with 12 employees, anyone ever dealt with the IRS? It is beyond comprehension, they treat you like a criminal, and use mobster tactics. Welcome to your new health care. Just please open the Buffalo River.

[prophet]

anyone else hear that after 3 strikes of tax penalties you go straight to the death panel?

[Canoe_Codger]

No, but the The 900-member Coalition of National Park Service Retirees has crunched the numbers on the major National Park closeures.

The group compared current numbers and revenues with those from a year ago, and here’s what they found:

The parks were down by 715,000 visitors daily, and they lost $76 million in visitor spending per day. They also figured that $450,000 in revenue was lost each day that would go directly to the National Park Service, such as entrance and campground fees or boat rentals.

Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona was affected the most, losing 120,000 visitors in the first 10 days of the shutdown, which translates to almost $12 million in revenue.

“These figures are mind-boggling and they only begin to capture the full economic shock of locking up the crown jewels of America - our national parks,” observes Maureen Finnerty, president of the group and former superintendent of Everglades and Olympic national parks.

Wait, there’s more:

Everglades National Park (Florida) - 25,083 lost visitors in first 10 days, $3,857,534 lost visitor dollars in first 10 days.

Gettysburg National Military Park (Pennsylvania) - 27,397 lost visitors in first 10 days, $1,796,712 lost visitor dollars in first 10 days.

Glacier National Park (Montana) - 60,273 lost visitors in first 10 days, $3,076,712 lost visitor dollars in first 10 days.

Grand Canyon National Park (Arizona) - 120,000 lost visitors in first 10 days, $11,750,684 lost visitor dollars in first 10 days.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park (North Carolina and Tennessee) - 257,534 lost visitors in first 10 days, $23,123,287 lost visitor dollars in first 10 days.

Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho) - 98,630 lost visitors in first 10 days, $9,452,054 lost visitor dollars in first 10 days.

Yosemite National Park (California) - 106,849 lost visitors in first 10 days, $10,021,917 lost visitor dollars in first 10 days.


Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/wat ... z2hnc96qTd" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Make no mistake. This was a Conscious decision passed down from the White House to the Department Of Interior to the National Park Service. And they were ordered to carry out the closeures in a way that stretches the credibility to even the most ardent supporters of PPACA, the NPS and the President. They closed or attempted to close parks and properties they did not even fund or control. And expended more funds closing veterans memorials than it cost to keep them open and fully staffed. No administration in history, save that which ordered the attack on the Bonus Marchers, has purposely acted in such a disgraceful way toward our veterans.

I spent quite a bit of time yesterday doing web searches to find stories connected to the BNR closeure. I found nothing other than a few early news stories which appeared once and faded from view. Searching the outfitters websites, none of them even mention the closing in passing other than the page BOC put up offering alternative activities in the area. One would think that this would be a big, ongoing story to be covered by Little Rock media, or at least by media local to BNR where dollars are being lost by the closing. But I find nothing, partisan or non-partisan.

Here is an example, a website built, maintained and promoted by the State to attract Arkansans, nationwide and worldwide visitors to BNR. Not one mention of the fact that it has been gated and that people face fines and/or arrest for visiting.

http://www.arkansas.com/outdoors/canoei ... river.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

And here is the latest story I have found exploring the impact on local busineses and communities.

http://www.ozarksfirst.com/story/buffal ... -2XwQXHm1w" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;