Law and Software

Randy Newman’s “satirical” new song “I’m Dreaming” puts race front and center in the upcoming election. He almost makes an empathic argument. He makes the ironic case for the cracker voter, and he does it so well that the target of his derision will likely not even notice, and will be humming the tune on his way to the ballot box.

Go watch and listen. And then come back to set the record straight on all those dead presidents, with the Pussy Riot Gangnam Style Player virtual mashup of the Newman video and a historical tour-de-force sung by Jonathon Coulton.

I love synchronicity. How come Coulton sings about Taft when Newman does too? How come the line “Hoover screwed the pooch in the great Depression” fits so well? Also Andrew Johnson+Richard Nixon and impeachment, Hayes and Reconstruction, Roosevelt and the Nazis, Garfield’s eclipse/assassination…

Apologies to President Carter who slipped into the song. Alive and well and doing just fine.

Here’s another one. Also doing just fine. No-one is safe.