Moe Lane

The temptation to snark, here, could be overwhelming.  The temptation to snark here, in fact, is almost overwhelming.  Matt Yglesias, on the personal roadblocks placed on him starting a new business in (Democratic party-dominated) DC:

But then it turned out I needed to go to a third office, the Rental Accommodations Division of the Department of Housing and Community Development. It closes at 3:30 in the afternoon and required a 15-minute walk through a sketchy neighborhood. So the next morning I went down to that Rental Accommodations office to file a paper claiming exemption from D.C.’s rent control law.

Ye gods and little fishes.

So, Wednesday – while campaigning in Illinois, although I understand that we’re supposed to pretend that Obama isn’t actually campaigning, for some bizarre reason – the President of the United States faced with a technical question (the effects of new EPA’s soil and dust regulations on Illinois farmers) by a technical expert (an Illinois farmer).  Despite the fact that the technical question is in fact supposedly within Barack Obama’s level of expertise, the President decided instead to make slight fun of the probably-not-voting-for-him-anyway technical expert by chiding him about believing rumors and suggesting that the technical expert call the Department of Agriculture.

Well.  There was a Politico reporter who actually decided to see what would happen if s/he did precisely that.  So s/he did.  As near as I can tell, the original inquiry about “information related to the effects of noise and dust pollution rules on Illinois farmers” turned into a two day affair involving at least ten phone calls, seven separate, discrete offices (almost all of which also included internal phone tag), and at least twelve individuals.  And as for the final answer?  This is what they sent (yes, sent, via safely distancing email):

“Secretary Vilsack continues to work closely with members of the Cabinet to help them engage with the agricultural community to ensure that we are separating fact from fiction on regulations because the administration is committed to providing greater certainty for farmers and ranchers. Because the question that was posed did not fall within USDA jurisdiction, it does not provide a fair representation of USDA’s robust efforts to get the right information to our producers throughout the country.”

Shorter USDA: “I dunno. Call the President.” (more…)

“…that someone could accidentally stick their head into?”

(h/T: Meryl Yourish) This was an actual quote, supposedly, in relation to the delayed certification of a vacuum chamber by a bureaucrat. Also requiring resolution was where the vacuum would end up going if the chamber was suddenly vented and whether there were any additional safeguards to keep people from accidentally letting the vacuum out besides the need to exert fifty tons of force in order to open the door. This was all necessary because vacuum was defined as an “asphyxiant…” yes, laugh at the silly bureaucrats. The scientists can’t, though: it took them three weeks to find somebody to overrule the certification process, and the bureaucrats were apparently touchy on the subject for some time afterward.

Please contemplate this story the next time that the topic of how to implement increased regulation comes up in conversation. Because those are the details that the devil likes to be in.

Moe Lane

PS: I’m not really being dour about this. Just mildly tired.

Crossposted to RedState.