Today's as good as any to start the clock

I'm no expert on the revolutionary French Republican Calendar, but we need such an expert now, so that we may properly record Day One of our extended, anarchic catastrophe:

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) on Wednesday called for Republicans to be ready to shut down the government to gain spending cuts in exchange for raising the nation’s debt-limit.

And they're off! To arms! To arms!