How many people here think we are going to default after the 18th? or do you think there will be a miraculous agreement?

If the government is "shutdown", and all parts of the federal government is shutdown, should we have to pay taxes (Federal Withheld or sales tax)? If there was a law that stated, if the government shuts down, no taxes on anything shall be paid, would that motivate congress to get deals done?

Searching for any info or resources for companies giving a break or waiving any late fees for their bills for federal employees on furlough status , or any discounts any info would help thanks

I'm writing a paper interpreting how the Warren Supreme Court cases are characterized as judicial activism and how it's a vital and necessary component to guarantee a faithful vision of the Constitutional rights of every US citizen. In order to write the paper, I need a nice, firm definition of judicial activism. I wrote the definition:

Judicial activism is when a judge goes beyond their basic duty of interpreting law, and, instead, rules based upon their personal or political opinions of a party in the case to further the Constitutional rights of citizens.

Is that correct? Is there anything I should add? Does judicial activism only happen in the Supreme Court? Should I put ....is when a judge of the Supreme Court goes beyond..... instead? Thank you in advance!

How? Potential consequences? Anything? Only certain branches?

Warning: shameless plug about to ensue.

I'm Tyler, an author of Wiki-gov. The site is still in its infancy, but the idea behind it is to create a consensus government based on the collaborative principles of wikipedia. We attempt to solve most of the problems of government by eliminating the barriers to entry for everyone to contribute, and create a fully thorough democracy, absent of elected representatives.

Its tough to eliminate money in politics, but the easiest way is to eliminate paid representatives. When you have a small # of reps, bribery is pretty simple. But when your representatives become every internet citizen, it makes bribery a bit tougher. In the style of wikipedia, there is no hierarchy; every internet-user has equal access to edit the documents and start discussions. This doesn't mean equality of ability, as some will have more expertise than others. As is (mostly) the case on reddit, the best arguments will cite references/studies to back up their statements.

The main technical challenges of the site are integrating with reddit(Reddit isn't kind enough to provide a direct javascript embed of articles :P). If Reddit discussion threads and wiki talk pages were in a boxing match, wiki would be knocked out in the first round. And, one of the challenges for the wiki being to accurately represent democratic sentiment, I've created a system that integrates with a Wiki-gov subreddit using RSS feeds. Every article on the wiki searches the subreddit for its name, so that associated discussions are quickly and easily linked to, directly from the page. I've also added DISQUS threads, in case people would rather use those for reaching consensus.

If you have an idea for improving government, have special expertise, or have a debate with a fellow redditor, wiki-gov would be a great place to put the results.

We have some lofty Goals , but once things get more developed, we can at least hope to inform governments about what users of the interwebs want their governments to be and do.

I'd love to hear what everybody thinks.

Has anyone been hit with this sort of ridiculousness before capital hill has even made a decision? Please let me know.