(no subject)

[wshaffer]

Okay, last night when I was catching up on the shutdown news, I joked to myself that all we needed to complete the perfect storm of American politics would be a mass shooting in the Capitol.

I don't think this qualifies as a mass shooting, because all that's been confirmed so far is that shots were fired and a police officer was injured. But I'm just going to stop joking about the political situation now.

Comments

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I can't decide if this will make Congress start taking things seriously and stop posturing or if it will make the posturing worse.

I hope that the pundits loudly point out, though, that the injured Park Police officer was wounded while working for free to protect congresspeople who are still being paid.

[wshaffer.livejournal.com]

I don't suppose we'll really know whether the posturing gets worse or better until we find out more details of what really happened. Then it depends on whether it fits neatly into one of the categories of predefined spin.

Are they really not paying the police right now? I'd have thought that was an essential government function.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

NOBODY is getting a paycheck. Essential personnel have to show up for work anyway and work for free in the hopes of getting back pay... someday. Nonessential personnel are to stay home, and tea partiers are already making snotty noises about why should *they* be reimbursed; they're not working.

[wshaffer.livejournal.com]

...And just when I thought the tea partiers couldn't get any more contemptible...

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Because we all just woke up and decided not to go to work for funsies.