Decoding the Government Shutdown

Tenderness
And outside experts said that White House officials should have spent more time tending to the computer code and technology of the Web site, rather than recruiting Hollywood celebrities to promote it. (NYT, 10/7/2013)

Ya think?


NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams: Why the Gov't Shutdown is the Fault of Republicans Edition
Here is how corrupt NBC News is: They run a story about how the families of five U.S. servicemen killed in Afghanistan are not going to get their death benefits because of the government shutdown. You - as an astute reader of RedStateVT - immediately say the following: I did not hear anything about five servicemen being killed in action. 

Of course you did not. 

That would have reflected badly on Obama. NBC buried the story of the five brave patriots only until they could exploit it. Namely, the Republicans shut down the government and now the families of these heroes are being punished. 

NBC News long ago ceased being a legitimate news organization. Now they are merely contemptible.  


Moderation in the Extreme
As a moderate House Republican, Representative Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania by definition typically finds himself somewhere near the middle when the majority of his colleagues veer well to the right. (NYT, 10/7/2013)

The New York Times profiles a "moderate" Republican. In a short 27 paragraph article we get the following word count:

Moderate or variation - 6
Centrist or variation - 4
Pragmatist or variation - 2
Realist - 1
Middle - 1

We are still awaiting an article by the Times which talks about a moderate Democrat. 

It won't happen.

Or perhaps Representative Dent is really that moderate Democrat. Witness this from the same article:

"Mr. Dent has proved himself to be more socially liberal than many of his Republican counterparts. He was just one of 15 Republicans in 2010 who voted to repeal the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, and he is a co-sponsor of several acts to prevent bullying and discrimination based on sexual orientation. Earlier this year, he chastised a group of his colleagues for pushing a controversial bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks, saying they should be focusing on more important issues like the economy."


Ridicule
“It’s just ridiculous,” Edward L. McNeil, an official with the local council of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said of the mounting costs. “The only thing that’s getting done is that these people are getting paid big-time while the citizens of Detroit are getting ripped off.” (NYT, 10/7/2013)

The union boss is unhappy with the fees paid to lawyers working on Detroit's bankruptcy. Which - when you think about it - is kind of like that old joke about the kid who kills his parents and then complains to the judge that he is an orphan.