Goodbye For Now, Giant Panda Cam

Good morning. How is your government shutdown going? Over here we’ve got a lovely Google doodle commemorating the 123rd anniversary of the opening of Yosemite Park, where visitors are being asked to leave “immediately,” Instagram pages are dropping off the face of the planet, the Smithsonian is closed, and perhaps most tragically of all, the Giant Panda cam is down. Both the Washington Post and the New York Times have helpful rundowns of how the shutdown will affect specific government employees for now: NASA TV employees, for example, are furloughed, while International Space Station employees are still at work.

“Because we’re right, simply because we’re right,” Iowa representative Steven King said last night, by way of explaining the House Republicans’ actions. New York’s Daily News led with “house of turds” — not the most clever play on a title in the tabloid’s history, but it seems a rather accurate insult this morning.

Obamacare enrollment, meanwhile, is open. Are you signing up?