Tick tock tick tock

Sitting here with a virtual bowl of popcorn waiting for the Federal Government to shut down. From FOX News:

Government Shutdown Not So Shutdowny After All
Should Congress fail to reach a budget and non-essential federal workers are forced to stay home as a much ballyhooed federal government shutdown goes into effect at midnight Saturday -- don't tell the Obama administration, which apparently sees nearly everyone as essential.

Yes, museums and national parks will shutter. Yes, about 800,000 people will be on the standby list, unable to use government-provided BlackBerries and cell phones.

But the cherry blossoms will still bloom and the annual festival in the nation's capital will go on.

And lots of places will keep the lights burning.

Aside from Congress, which has to keep operating in order to find an end to a would-be shutdown, the Defense Department said about 400,000 of 800,000 personnel will show up to work Monday in the event of a shutdown, and all uniformed military will report for duty.

About 23,000 people work in the Pentagon every day, 17,000 of whom civilians. A little over half of those civilians are expected to be exempted and show up for work.

On Friday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid warned in an afternoon news conference that "intelligence would be significantly harmed" in the event of a shutdown, and "we have obligations for allies around the world and we wouldn't be able to meet those allegations in many instances."

But at the State Department -- where just Friday Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, "Human rights is a priority 365 days a year" -- officials announced it will keep operating through a shutdown.

The Supreme Court announced it is keeping its doors open next week though no cases are scheduled. Tourists can go through the building and justices will be able to handle emergency matters as normal. They are scheduled to meet next Friday to discuss whether to grant Virginia's expedited appeal request on the health care law as well as other issues.

The District Court in Washington, D.C., said it will remain open, running off of non-annual funding. Ironically, so did the bankruptcy court in the Southern District of New York.

This will be interesting to see if it keeps on for a few weeks. The agencies that will be hardest hit are those ones that have little or no real use. A lot of the Three--Letter--Agencies; Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Energy, Department of Labor, Department of Education... These were started recently and have grown into mammoth bureaucracies with little or no results to show. Once people see that life goes on without these groups, maybe some effective budgeting can be done...