All I can say I have not read anything in this thread. . .. . Well except the description of the pie as it looked really tasty. .. . . . I did enjoy the pictures.

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2013/10/02/shutdown-national-park-service-closes-self-sustaining-colonial-farm-it-hasnt-supported-since-1980/

Glad they're not being vindictive or anything.

Id only want the after prom part of the date with her. Needs less make up tho. Not bad for a white chic. Lol

http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/Thousands-of-Sikorsky-Employees-Furloughed-226206061.html

Awesome. 2,200 people laid off and 5,000 maybe all together. Good job.

Isn't there a difference between laid off and furloughed though?

fritzsch wrote: Isn't there a difference between laid off and furloughed though?

a furlough is a temporary lay off. That's it.. When work is low in my shop I offer temporary voluntary furlough's... Which then allows people to collect unemployment.

I thought they passed a bill not allowing unemployment when furloughed? Or is that just gvnt jobs?

Jaxmadine wrote: I thought they passed a bill not allowing unemployment when furloughed? Or is that just gvnt jobs?

Unknown. But I know you can get it in ct.

From http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-10-03/government-shutdown-36-facts-which-prove-almost-everything-still-running

ZeroHedge said: Submitted by Michael Snyder of The Economic Collapse blog, All of this whining and crying about a "government shutdown" is a total joke. You see, there really is very little reason why this "government shutdown" cannot continue indefinitely because almost everything is still running. 63 percent of all federal workers are still working, and 85 percent of all government activities are still being funded during this "shutdown". Yes, the Obama administration has been making a big show of taking down government websites and blocking off the World War II Memorial, but overall business in Washington D.C. is being conducted pretty much as usual. It turns out that the definition of "essential personnel" has expanded so much over the years that almost everyone is considered "essential" at this point. In fact, this shutdown is such a non-event that even referring to it as a "partial government shutdown" would really be overstating what is actually happening. The following are 36 facts which prove that almost everything is still running during this government shutdown... #1 According to U.S. Senator Rand Paul, 85 percent of all government activities are actually being funded during this "government shutdown". #2 Approximately 1,350,000 "essential" federal employees will continue to work during this "government shutdown". #3 Overall, 63 percent of the federal workforce will continue to work during this "government shutdown". #4 The U.S. Postal Service will continue to deliver our mail. #5 U.S. military personnel will remain on duty and will continue to get paid. #6 Social Security recipients will continue to get their benefits. #7 Medicare recipients will continue to get their benefits. #8 Medicaid recipients will continue to get their benefits. #9 Food stamp recipients will continue to get their benefits. #10 Those on unemployment will continue to get their benefits. #11 Federal retirees will continue to get their pensions. #12 The federal school lunch program has enough money to go through at least the end of this month. #13 Public schools all over the country will continue to stay open. #14 Almost all federal law enforcement officials will continue working. #15 The Federal Reserve will remain "completely functional". #16 The Supreme Court will continue to operate normally and federal courts have enough money to keep going for at least two weeks. #17 TSA employees will continue to molest travelers at our airports. #18 Air traffic controllers will continue to monitor traffic at our airports. #19 Hopelessly outmanned border patrol agents will continue to try to stem the tide of illegal immigration. #20 Visas and passports will continue to be issued by the State Department. #21 The Veterans Administration will continue to offer substandard medical services, and it will be able to continue processing benefit payments at least for now. #22 The Obama administration apparently has plenty of money to spend on closing open-air memorials that are usually open to the public 24 hours a day. #23 The Department of Defense announced the awarding of 94 new contracts worth a combined total of more than 5 billion dollars on September 30th - the day right before the "government shutdown". #24 The "government shutdown" has not prevented the new two billion dollar NSA spy center from opening up. #25 Federal prisons will continue to operate normally. #26 Amtrak trains will continue to run. #27 The Patent and Trademark Office will be open. #28 The Consumer Product Safety Commission will continue to issue product recalls if the products "create an immediate threat to the safety of human life". #29 The National Weather Service and the National Hurricane Center will continue to track weather patterns. #30 If the federal government needs to respond to a natural disaster, this "shutdown" will not affect that. #31 NASA will continue to support the Mars Rover and the two American astronauts up on the International Space Station. #32 All city employees of the D.C. government have been deemed "essential" and will continue to go to work. #33 Even though the Obamacare exchanges are not working properly, people will still be able to access them. #34 The IRS will continue to collect taxes, but it will be suspending punitive audits of conservative organizations. #35 Barack Obama will continue to get paid for the full duration of this "shutdown". #36 The U.S. Congress will continue to get paid for the full duration of this "shutdown". Of course not everything is operating normally during this government shutdown. Government parks are closed. The EPA and the Department of Energy have almost totally closed up shop. But overall, most Americans are not going to notice much of a difference. And perhaps now is a good time for the American people to evaluate whether or not they actually need a gigantic federal government that wastes enormous mountains of our money. For example, our federal government recently spent $98,670 to construct a single outhouse in Alaska. That is more than a lot of Americans pay for their entire houses. For many more examples like this, please see my previous article entitled "The Waste List: 66 Crazy Ways That The U.S. Government Is Wasting Your Hard-Earned Money". It is about time that Washington D.C. started experiencing some of the "belt-tightening" that the rest of the country has been going through. For far too long, the fatcats in D.C. have been living in an alternate reality where they have been able to live the high life at our expense. A recent blog post by Daniel Greenfield discussed how this shutdown is going to affect the alternate reality that the Obamas have been living in... The government shutdown has forced Obama to make do with only a quarter of his 1,701 person staff. That would leave 436 “vital” employees. The 90 people who look after his living quarters would be slashed to 15 to “provide minimum maintenance and support”. Buckingham Palace, which is twelve times the size of the White House and has its own clockmaker, only has an 800 person staff. King Harald V of Norway and his court make do with 152 staffers. King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden gets by with 203. On Twitter, Michelle Obama announced that she is unable to Tweet on her own without the aid of all of her sixteen assistants; many of whom take home six figure salaries. There are more directors, associate directors and deputy associate directors on Michelle Obama’s staff than there were in George Washington’s entire administration. Presidents have fought wars and made peace, explored and annexed vast territories and built a nation out of a handful of colonies with fewer senior staffers than are needed to handle Michelle Obama’s Twitter account. Oh the humanity! Will Michelle Obama ever tweet again? And how will the White House continue to function without at least one projectionist on duty at the White House 24 hours a day? No wonder Barack Obama is so upset about this shutdown. In the end, this shutdown could turn out to be very good for America. We have a government that is wildly out of control and that desperately needs to be reigned in. During the Obama administration, federal debt held by the public has risen by 90 percent, and overall federal government spending has risen by a whopping 317 percent since 1990. So is it really a bad thing that the federal government has been forced to cut back for a little while? Our politicians can whine and cry all they want. They won't be getting any sympathy from me.

Please define "Public Lands". . Does the Government own them or the people ?

In reply to TRoglodyte: If the government is shutdown then I claim them for my own. Shall we meet in the field of battle to quarrel over them?

Mexico would activate their Militia.

I think this is the best thing since sliced bread and beer in a can Driving to and from work has been a breeze the last few days. Can we keep this up for a few more years?

In the meantime, a Tea Party Republican berated a Park Services employee for closing a park...that he helped close...

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/10/03/228771578/sharp-words-over-shutdown-when-lawmaker-visits-wwii-memorial

My Parents leave for Oahu on Sunday. They have wanted to go see Pearlt HArbor and all the other WWII sites for decades. They finally saved and are going for their 40th wedding anniversary. Only to find that 80% of the stuff they want to do is closed because of a bunch of asshats in Washington.

Awesome.

Bobzilla wrote: My Parents leave for Oahu on Sunday. They have wanted to go see Pearlt HArbor and all the other WWII sites for decades. They finally saved and are going for their 40th wedding anniversary. Only to find that 80% of the stuff they want to do is closed because of a bunch of asshats in Washington. Awesome.

They aren't the only ones having their dream vacations ruined by this stupidity. There was a story on the news about a bunch of people camping out waiting for the Grand Canyon to open. One guy had saved for 18 years to afford the trip.

..and this is how it goes when the pride of Royalty runs counter to the real lives of the peasants. Royalty wins.

Seriously though, they are making a big show of closing this stuff to inconvienence the American public. Why? Because 90% of the population would not notice a difference with the "shtudown" in place and would quickly wonder "why did we need that again?" Once that happens, they lose all power they had on getting ACA funded.

The reps in the house have sent over partial budgets to keep essential items and parks open. The same way it's been done for decades. My Reid has decided to pull the old "All or nothing" game and reject it without a vote.

IMO, pass the necessary E36 M3, then hash out the stupid E36 M3 afterwards..... you know, the way we've always done it.

Once again Bobzilla has it figured out. 8)

The reason there are more people on site to keep people out of places like the wwII memorial and Lincoln monument than there is any other day of the year is to inconvenience people as much as possible so they can lay blame to the other side of the aisle. In previous shutdowns the monuments and historic sites were not closed

Not sure if anyone noticed but they shut down the nps websites too, which takes more effort than, say, just not updating them. In other parts of the country unsupervised public national forest shooting ranges have been closed. Why? They had to pay someone to go out and chain the place up and out up a sign. Otherwise people might not realize that they exist at the wheat of the government.

Someone posted on another forum yesterday "when the king is angry at the lords he punishes the serfs, so that there is no support when the lords wish to rise up against the king".

I paraphrased it but that was the gist.

Interesting tidbit here.

A hurricane is bearing down on Louisiana. Meteorologists and other folks who work on that sort of thing are currently not being paid and furloughed. It's the same with FEMA folks who would normally work during such a crisis.

Parks and such are one thing. FEMA and weather forecasts that can affect whether people live or die is another.

Hurricane Brews, Meteorologists Stranded

Also, keep in mind. Boehner could've ended this days ago.

Congress: Boehner could get a majority of GOPers for a clean CR

In reply to Bobzilla:

Bob, is your dad a vet? If he is, just tell him to ask nicely to people around the military base. I'd be surprised if they didn't find a motorlaunch to run them out to the memorial. Otherwise, walk past the barriers.....berkeley em.

Nope. He has been blind in his left eye since he was a kid. He tried to volunteer and couldn't, but could have still been drafted.

Ended days ago? It could have ended 4 berkeleying YEARS ago. That's how long they've had to put together a berkeleying budget. If I refused to do my job for 4 DAYS I'd have been booted. 4 years is completely un-berkeleying-acceptible.

Xceler8x wrote: Interesting tidbit A hurricane is bearing down on Louisiana. Meteorologists and other folks who work on that sort of thing are currently not being paid and furloughed. It's the same with FEMA folks who would normally work during such a crisis. Parks and such are one thing. FEMA and weather forecasts that can affect whether people live or die is another. Hurricane Brews, Meteorologists Stranded Also, keep in mind. Boehner could've ended this days ago. Congress: Boehner could get a majority of GOPers for a clean CR

I don't know which of these to believe.....normally I'll go against the daily beast....

29 The National Weather Service and the National Hurricane Center will continue to track weather patterns. #30 If the federal government needs to respond to a natural disaster, this "shutdown" will not affect that.

Honestly, what can we do? Hey, we're being berkeleyed. They decided to berkeley with each other by berkeleying off while they're berkeleying us.

Not trolling. I'm largely ignorant when it comes to politics since any time I pay any attention to what is happening I wind up in a frothing impotent rage.

What can we do?

In reply to The_Jed:

Next to nothing, neither side will listen to us.

On topic, so did I get this right(I haven't been paying that close of attention)......But they attempted to send a bill through that was without any "defunding of the affordable care act" but only had the provision that ALL previously exempted persons be required to conform to the law without exemptions and that still was shot down?

If that was true, I seriously think its time to take the country back over.