Department of Irony

Sorry for the no-post weekend. Had a lot of stuff to do, and was also interested in watching and reading everyone else out there. This morning, though, I caught a few minutes of NPR : Morning Edition on the way into work. Juan Williams was playing batting practice pitcher to Donald Evans, Secretary of Commerce.

Evans did his best to turn chicken-shit into chicken salad in the course of a ten minute interview. Funny how easy that is to do with a compliant interviewer. Juan served up meatball after meatball, and Evans took mighty swings. To the casual listener, it had all the fill-me-up of a giant sized bucket of french fries. Too bad Evans' assertions: tax cuts create jobs, things are looking up, etc. etc., were NEVER challanged.

The secretary chanted what I'm sure will be the Bush mantra regarding the outsourcing of jobs--it sounds a lot like the mantra regarding "collatoral damage" on the war front: a most insincere expression of regret, followed by an assertion that 'we must maintain the course' regarding free-trade and globalization. That's easy for a person with Evans' net worth to believe in, but explain that to someone who's been out of work for a couple of years. It's hard to pay bills on the basis of empty promises.

The final irony in the piece was what folks in the "non-commercial" radio call the "granter" spot, that is, the commercial. It was for Keene's Worldwide Outsourcing. Working with the government to outsource IT positions. No lie.