What will YOU be doing during the shutdown?

Sitting and wondering why you Americans don't use the copious amounts of lampposts round Congress to hang the fuckers from and watch them swing in the autumn breeze, to be honest. No country should be subject to the whims of such a small bunch of dickheads.

Because we actually stopped giving a shit quite a ways back (early-to-mid 90s, by my estimate) when we won the Cold War, but couldn't shake the notion of the zero sum game and started eating each other as a result. Politics turned into Monty Python's "argument clinic" sketch in the early 2000s, and I (for one) have been on complete burnout on the topic since W's second term.

Not that any of it matters anyway, since public policy is blown about by the arbitrary whims of America's Game-Breaking Bug, the Supreme Court. Why care about what Congress does when their job is to send the Court "for your consideration" ads?

edited 4th Oct '13 3:31:57 AM by edgewalker22

^ And here people hold the 90s up as a paragon of how to do proper politics. The 90s sucked politically. Bad legislation from both sides, a lying wretch of a President (though far more honest about anything than Obama has ever demonstrated), and a smug sense of blindness towards anyone and everyone not a lobbyist, activist or politician.

Whenever you get a good leader, they get shot. Lincoln, Roosevelt and Kennedy - presidential trifecta (even if Roosevelt didn't die directly from the shot)

I reckon Obama's better than Dick Romney, but what do I know. I live in a place where a woman-hating bigoted politician who's been working since the 70's is allowed to hijack the country's public media and become prime minister. I could be just as stupid as everyone else and never even know.

edited 4th Oct '13 8:05:36 AM by MrMallard

Is you Australian? Because that description sure as hell sounds like that Conservative prick, Tony Abbott.

Similar in species to CMD over here.

edit. derp on me. Didn't read the title. OOPS

edited 4th Oct '13 9:02:52 AM by TamH70

I know it's Yack Fest, but let's not have a complaint fest here.

A system of early elections or dissolution of the legislature by the voters might be nice, but it's infeasible for our federal congress since lower house is elected for only 2 years anyway, and upper house election is rotated at 1/3 of the senate at a time.

@Mallard: The President Roosevelt that got shot isn't the President Roosevelt who died in office. FDR died in office, Teddy Roosevelt got shot and basically didn't notice. Teddy Roosevelt, alone among men, was not gay for Big Boss- Big Boss was gay for Teddy Roosevelt.

@Major Tom: I'd argue that the 90s were the last time the system actually worked, all though less in a my country 'tis of thee sort of way and more in a just as planned sort of way- with Congress and the President bickering, backbiting, and doing everything they could to undermine each other, they proceeded to not screw up the economic boom that was going on the time. The branches were so busy checking and balancing each other that Washington spent six years on a catty lunch break. Here, we have a more vitriolic version of the same deadlock going on, only in the context of the government spiraling towards complete financial ruin and unable to act.

One wonders what the Founders would have made of this, though I don't think their times contained the economic tools required to sink us this deep in the red- they may never have imagined a point where the government could rack up enough debt to basically warrant foreclose on the country itself.

So yeah. Our big win in the last 20 years was that time we managed to NOT snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Yay us?

edited 4th Oct '13 2:24:25 PM by edgewalker22

@Mallard: As long as you didn't vote for the bastard, you're not stupid.

I guess I'll be doing things as I normally do. This will mean I'll keep an close eye on the news a bit more though.

I'm going to steal the Declaration of Independence.

Nah, pretty much carry on as usual and hope everything gets back to normal soon before people I care about end up losing their benefits and such.

I'll be sitting, wondering what the heck is going on over there.

alright it's time to do what I've always wanted to do

pee on Lincoln

^ The street? Homeless people do that all the time.

no

the big statue of him sitting all high and mighty

makes me sick that he gets to do that and not go to the restroom once in his life

edited 7th Oct '13 9:01:33 AM by PeiraIssaNoid

Sit at home playing video games and looking for a job.

Move to South America. From Michigan. By bicycle. With only a backpack full of equipment and $100 in cash.

Mr Thompson, please stop shooting your typewriter.

Would Canada be more favorable? It's a lot closer...

Closer? Much. More favorable? No. I want to travel. I want a change of scenery. I want to avoid the snow. I want to catch large fish.

edited 7th Oct '13 3:59:54 PM by MrSparky

^ You'll find that in Georgia. Or Texas. Or just about anywhere along the Gulf Coast.

edited 7th Oct '13 8:12:37 PM by MajorTom

The CDC recommends a half dozen vaccinations. According to NOAA I can ride a pocket of relatively warm nights if I leave first thing Friday or Saturday. That means I need to schedule an appointment with my doctor today and get my pricks and papers by Friday at the latest. I don't rush like that. I'm waiting until spring. Maybe by then I'll be sure of my destination.

edited 9th Oct '13 11:48:48 AM by MrSparky

Enjoy the few months before next elections.

I am going to sit here and laugh.

And then I will cry when the Americans reach the debt ceiling. Because it means that the already fragile recover of the UK economy will become a ... unrecovery.

I heard a report of the imf saying that the shutdown could screw the world economicly. Should I be worried?

Simooo - Depending on what your employer decides to do, it could do, but for most people directly, no. Yes, a slowdown is a slowdown, but unless your employer is directly affected by government activity other than the loss of custom from US government employees, it's something that most can just blow over.