Obama iPhone Cover-up and Other Insensitive Tackiness

Are you an Obama supporter feeling just a wee bit uncomfy for continuing to own the symbol of Chinese wage slave labor? Well, you can rest easy, because his operatives have come up with the perfect solution: you can now cover up your iPhone of Shame with a trendy case. And it's made in the USA! It gets rid your guilt, and pumps up "An America Built to Last" faux-populism at the same time. And it costs a coincidental $40! What a perfect way to blow the extra amount they claim you'll be taking home in your paycheck now that Congress has passed the FICA Holiday extension bill. That is, if you have a job that pays at least $50,000. Of course, if you don't earn at least $50,000, you can't very well afford an iPhone either. As an indigent middle class refugee, you're not in their target group.

Cover Up the Abuse of Chinese Sweatshops

Now that horrible working conditions in Apple factories have been exposed for the whole world to see, people are actually starting to make noise about boycotting iPhones and iPads and other electronics. I saw one woman on TV last week talking about how she hopes Apple will improve the lives of the worker bees before the next edition of the iPhone comes out, or else she will feel great angst when she is forced to go out and buy the latest model. 

There are some pundits who actually believe that without Apple and its Foxconn subcontractor, the factory workers would be dead anyway. There is no shortage of eager applicants lining up at Apple factories in the company city of Zhenzhou, they say. And polling reveals that if you happen to own an iPhone, you are less concerned than non-owners about where these products are made. So go ahead, feel better about yourself, and support your corporate Democrat at the same time.

In keeping with the propaganda that everyone aspires to the American Dream of material riches, and that prosperity is just around the corner, the Obama campaign is also rolling out St. Patrick's Day shirts just in time for the March 17th holiday. O'Bama has a tiny trace of Irish blood, milked to the hilt during a 2009 visit to his ancestral home town, where he famously quaffed a Guinness. So who knows? Maybe the Luck of the Irish can magically transport you over the rainbow to the pot of gold. Just fork over $30 now, to help the champion of Wall Street the working man get re-elected!

Uh-oh. There is just a wee problem with this design. The symbol of the Irish is not the four leaf clover. It's the shamrock, which only has three leaves, to represent the Holy Trinity. Calling Cardinal Timothy Dolan of St. Patrick's Cathedral! (He is already mad at Obama over the contraceptive kerfuffle,) And Christopher Cahill of the Irish Historical Society tells the New York Times that the tee shirt represents a major gaffe and is downright abnormal. The Obama Campaign, while promising to investigate the error, instead wasted no time adding four leaf clover O'Bama pint glasses to its catalogue of kitsch. Sure, and they really care.

New York Times commenters of Irish descent are not amused at all. "The beer mug is a ethnic slur that wouldn't happen to any other group without a huge fuss," writes Emily Kelly of New York. "I'm Irish, Catholic and offended by President Obama. Let him know it's not ok! Stand up and be counted now and on election day."

And John O' of Westchester chimed in: "St. Patrick's Day is rapidly becoming an occasion to besmirch the Irish; last year Mayor Mike's comment regarding boisterous parade marchers and now the President using a weed as a symbol to reflect his Irish-ness. However, there is no greater insult than the use of St. Paddy's or St. Pat's to refer to the great day. If the President would champion a law making it a federal crime to use any reference other than St. Patrick's Day, perhaps he won't have to take back all the shirts and glasses."

Never mind. Here are a couple of better selections. The first manages to offend everybody, and the second inadvertently tells the truth: