excuse me i'm a shut-in; what's going on.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_shutdown
The Republican and Democratic parties are squabbling over a spending bill, and because of this funding is slowly being lost. Tomorrow, if they don't resolve this, the contingency plan will be launched, and the non-vital employees of the federal government will be temporarily fired, per se. After this is all over, people will go back to work.
I'm guessing this is why the flag is half-cast?