With former Sen., now Heritage Foundation sachem Jim DeMint’s (R) new open letter to the President over the “temporary slowdown in government”, it’s more and more clear how prescient Josh Green’s profile of DeMint really was. Boehner is just the messenger. DeMint is the guy who’s now running Congress.

Dylan Scott on a little-noticed rules change the House GOP made just before the shutdown started that still has Democrats seething.

Perhaps in the tradition of Nate Silver and other anchors dragging down the New York Times, Joe Scarborough says one of the Times public editors told him that Krugman’s column’s is their “biggest nightmare.”

The Republican Party now has the lowest favorability rating recorded by Gallup since the pollster began tracking that number in 1992.

We’re hosting a live chat at TPMPrime (sub. req.) at 4:30 p.m. ET with Anthony Townsend, the author of “SMART CITIES: Big Data, Civic Hackers and the Quest for a New Utopia.” He will be discussing the intersection of politics and technology, and issues related to urban planning, civic engagement, and disaster preparedness. Please join in.

Koch Industries: Don’t blame us for the government shutdown!

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) says that at worst default will be a “managed catastrophe.”

Set aside for the moment the hilarity that Paul Ryan now wants to make entitlement reform the objective of the shutdown/default brinkmanship. Check out how conservatives are reacting to his failure to mention Obamacare in the same Wall Street Journal op-ed.

Man on San Francisco commuter train repeatedly brandishes gun, only to have no one notice because they were all too absorbed in their iPhones. People only noticed when he finally randomly shot and killed a college student on the train.

Craig Smith, CEO of Swiss America, one of those companies that sells gold to morons on conservative media outlets assures Fox News’ Neil Cavuto viewers that debt default should turn out just fine. Watch.