In one of his better Afterburner installments, this week Bill Whittle delves into the #SpiteHouse phenomenon and the clear directive by the Obama administration to those federal workers not furloughed by the government shutdown to “make it hurt.”

It’s a must-see, but then we’ve got some thoughts below…

Lest you believe that Whittle’s characterization of the president as despising the American people is overheated, let’s consider this business of denying the military death benefits to the families of soldiers killed in Afghanistan which cropped up this week.

The excuse made for the decision to deny those benefits was that the Pay Our Military Act, which was unanimously passed in the House and Senate and signed by the president, was “vague” in its wording and didn’t offer a clear directive that those death benefits were included.

Which is ridiculous to the point of catatonic idiocy, and an excuse which reveals exactly how much contempt Obama’s Defense Department actually has for its soldiers.

Ask yourself this question – who would have objected had the Pay Our Military Act been interpreted to direct the payment of those benefits? Who would have filed suit? Who would have sent a letter calling those payments illegal?

The answer is obvious. No one.

Yesterday’s congressional hearings on that issue made clear that Obama’s minions were attempting to disguise that contempt as bureaucratic incompetence. Nobody bought it. It’s clear what happened, and the American people are outraged. The president just signed a bill to reinstate those death benefits, after his media stooge Jay Carney threatened he wouldn’t yesterday.

Sure, the GOP has taken a beating with this shutdown. But so have the Democrats. And so has Obama.

But regardless of what the polls say this morning, or three days from now, we know a lot more about the man who holds the most powerful position in the free world as a result of this shutdown than we did before. And what we know is horrifying.