Category Archives: Politics: US

This email is making the rounds. Original source unknown (to me anyway):

this morning I was awoken by my alarm clock powered by electricity generated by the public power monopoly regulated by the US department of energy. I then took a shower in the clean water provided by the municipal water utility. After that, I turned on the TV to one of the FCC regulated channels to see what the national weather service of the national oceanographic and atmospheric administration determined the weather was going to be like using satellites designed, built, and launched by the national aeronautics and space administration. I watched this while eating my breakfast of US department of agriculture inspected food and taking the drugs which have been determined as safe by the food and drug administration.

At the appropriate time as regulated by the US congress and kept accurate by the national institute of standards and technology and the US naval observatory, I get into my national highway traffic safety administration approved automobile and set out to work on the roads build by the local, state, and federal departments of transportation, possibly stopping to purchase additional fuel of a quality level determined by the environmental protection agency, using legal tender issed by the federal reserve bank. On the way out the door I deposit any mail I have to be sent out via the US postal service and drop the kids off at the public school.

After spending another day not being maimed or killed at work thanks to the workplace regulations imposed by the department of labor and the occupational safety and health administration, enjoying another two meals which again do not kill me because of the USDA, I drive my NHTSA car back home on the DOT roads, to ny house which has not burned down in my absence because of the state and local building codes and fire marshal's inspection, and which has not been plundered of all it's valuables thanks to the local police department.

I then log on to the internet which was developed by the defense advanced research projects administration and post on freerepublic.com and fox news forums about how SOCIALISM in medicine is BAD because the government can't do anything right

Bingo.

Update: Kevin Drum reminds us that for really infuriating customer service you have to be a budget-minded consumer dealing with a large faceless profit-minded corporation.

This was a classy move by the President — Obama visits White House press room on birthday:

On the day he turned 48, President Barack Obama decided to splash a little celebration on someone with whom he shares the birthday: legendary White House correspondent Helen Thomas, now a columnist with Hearst Newspapers. She turned 89 on Tuesday.

Helen Thomas is not, based on my one short conversation with her, a deep thinker. But for two generations she has had her eye on the essentials and remains as tenacious as any of the best reporters of yore. And she calls them as she sees them — no fakery.

This video Auto-Tune the News uses great technical trickery to take a TV feed and turn the speakers into singing self-parodies. The content feels a little heavy-handed, even if most of the targets are deserving, but I'm wowed by the make-'em-sing technique.

Spotted via Jazz From Hell who says,

Right after I first posted about them, The Gregory Brothers are back with “Auto-Tune the News” No. 6, featuring my favorite insane elected official, Rep. Michelle Bachman (R-MN). And here's a recent interview with Michael Gregory of this very inventive and destined-to-be-legendary band of brothers.

Statistical Proof that You Hate Freedom: Daily Kos has a textbook takedown of a hack study purporting to show a correlation between the lack of freedom in a US state (measured, it turns out, according to a somewhat peculiar metric) and the propensity to vote for Democrats.