June 29, 2010

White House Kicks Off "Everyone is a Czar" Program

WASHINGTON, DC -- The President's staff kicked off the new "Everyone is Czar" program this week at a White House Rose Garden celebration.  "We're telling everyone without a job to come here to Washington and become a Czar," said the program's coordinator, Michelle Slushy.

The initiative is targeted at people that have run out of unemployment benefits, which staffers say initially made the program difficult to run.  "The administration has wanted this program from day one.  Unfortunately, we were originally in conflict with the unemployment program. Every time we'd try to start the 'Everyone is a Czar' program, they'd extend the amount of time someone can receive unemployment benefits. Someone getting paid to do nothing is not going to be interested in the possibility of having to work, even if they do get a prestigious title like 'Czar'," the staffer noted, with a laugh.

"So we decided to coordinate with them - make lemons out of lemonade. You can stay on unemployment for 18 months, then - as a reward - you have the option to roll over into a Czar job. We choose what you are Czar of from the dictionary, starting with Aardvark. We are currently interviewing for Carp Czar."

June 22, 2010

Supreme Court Rules Against Aiding Terrorists

WASHINGTON, DC -- "This is an outrage. They have undermined my freedom to support murderers and thugs. Next, they'll rule you aren't allowed to send money and gifts to convicted felons in prison," says Patricia McFlem-Sahid incredulously, as she shakes her tiny fists.

She is the wife of Assan Sahid, who is being held in a Federal Penitentiary on weapons charges related to an attempt to murder bartenders at Martha's Vineyard in late 2008. Mrs. McFlem-Sahid was reacting to the Supreme Court decision this week that prevents US Citizens from providing material support to terrorists and terrorist organizations.  "They threw the book at my husband and locked him up for life without parole, and I now can't even send money to his family and business partners in Gaza."

A spokesperson for the Obama administration admitted that they see this decision as a setback to their policy of peaceful cohabitation with terrorists, and are considering ways to make the best of a bad situation. An unnamed aid stated "One way being considered is to take a long, hard look at the list of terrorist organizations. We've been making the case that these Tea Party folks and other rabid right-wingers should be on the list since 'Big B' took office. By the same token, some groups on the list should probably be taken off - peaceful but misunderstood organizations like The Al-Shazam Jew-killers Brigade, for instance. Their humanitarian wing teaches young Syrians how to play bingo - what could more peaceful than that?"

June 4, 2010

Congress Mulls Mandating More Private Company Hiring


WASHINGTON, DC -- As the US Labor Department released payroll figures today showing payrolls up 431,000 in May, the revelation that 95% of these were temporary census workers has caused Congress to consider ways to help the private sector "catch up" on the significant hiring and spending that the Government has been doing.  The front runner is a bill from Senator Joe Skwerly (D-NY) which would make all privately-held companies hire 7% more employees before November of this year.

Mr. Skwerly noted at a press conference "We've tried everything else we could think of to 'prime the pump' on private industry hiring. More regulations, more taxes, more government debt, more oversight - nothing seems to be working. At this point, we're done messing around - we'll just make it law.  Problem solved."

Many in Congress and the press applauded Mr. Skwerly's "strong and effective" approach to the problem and it is rumored he may seek the Democratic Presidential nomination in 2012 as "a man who can get things done."  The John Maynard Keynes Economics Chair at Columbia University, Dr. Martin Dunse, noted "If I were advising the President, I'd suggest a two-pronged approach: hire more census workers - since anyone hired at least 1 hour per month counts as a new hire - and push for implementation of Senator Skwerly's brilliant and far-sighted plan."

June 2, 2010

Victims of English Gunman to be Charged With Ammo Possession

CUMBRIA, ENGLAND -- Wounded survivors of a gunman in Southern England will be formally charged with firearm violations for possessing ammunition.  "Evidence that these people possess banned ammunition is being removed from many of their bodies as we speak," said the Assistant to the Deputy Chief Constable, Ian Wright.  The gunman apparently killed himself after the crimes and "will therefore not be charged with various firearm and ammunition possession charges," he continued "but we're fairly certain he broke a lot of laws and would have been in big trouble."

Gun control experts at the non-partisan think-thank Ban Firearms Now (BFN) were quick to note how well the laws worked in England and lamented that the US still "clings" to gun ownership, despite multiple high-profile shootings.  "The UK banned private gun ownership for all law-abiding citizens after just two high profile shootings in a 10 year time span that claimed a total of 32 lives.  Where is it written that we can't do the same here in the US?  If you look only at the number of celebrities we've lost from gun violence over the years, it adds up to more than 32."

The gun control debate in the US is similar to the debate in England over the banning of passenger flights after the Lockerbie airline bombing in 1988 killed 270 people.  Conservatives pushed for the punishment of terrorists and terrorism, but many others thought it better to ban commercial flying instead.  Historian Ian Parker at the University of Cambridge has studied the issue and noted "The proposed ban on flying for the general public did not pass that year, but the bill is still under consideration, 20 years later.  This issue opens up again every time there is a tragedy in the air - we can point to that and say 'If we had only banned flying, this would not have happened.'  It makes sense to me, but I suppose we need to keep educating people."