My heart goes out to those like mdperson and Gindog and their families. They get caught up in a mess that was none of their doing, and suffer the most because of partisan politics. I was just surfing the internet reading about the shutdown and saw a photo of a guy standing in front of the capitol in D.C. that said something like "Congress, do your job so I can do mine!" Obviously, a federal employee who got swept up in this mess. I bet our politicians continue to receive their paychecks, oblivious to what missing a regular weekly paycheck does to the working class! I say vote'em all out of office and the sooner the better! When's the next election?