<p> So, Jack White performed &#34;Mother Nature&#39;s Son&#34; at the White House. Not my favorite rendition of it ever–Jack&#39;s voice is great in other contexts, but doesn&#39;t quite work here for me–but still a particularly gutsy move, when you consider who&#39;s in the audience (look to the President&#39;s right at about 1:45):</p> <p> <div style="position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden;"> <iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" loading="eager" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/-BXV1_D5eXA?autoplay=0&amp;controls=1&amp;end=0&amp;loop=0&amp;mute=0&amp;start=0" style="position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; border:0;" title="YouTube video"></iframe> </div> </p>

<p> What better evidence than &#34;<a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gmao3Tg9nvBQeAOMAVzmeZkrmAoAD9E4QD501">Patriot Act renewed</a>&#34;.</p> <p> Parenthetically, you want to know what&#39;s destroying our way of life? It&#39;s not Healthcare Reform, (which would save lives and money and infringe your freedoms not at all), and it&#39;s not the fiscal stimulus (which even Republican economists agree helped keep unemployment from growing and the economy from slowing even more than it has), it&#39;s the continuous encroachment of the <a href="http://epic.org/privacy/terrorism/hr3162.html">law-enforcement elements of our government on our civil liberties under the guise of making us safer</a>. It is the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/23/AR2007082302056.html">intelligence agencies conspiring with communication companies to relieve us of our right to privacy using warrantless surveillance</a> who are <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-9872969-38.html">then let off the hook for breaking the law</a>. It is our <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/118006/Slim-Majority-Wants-Bush-Era-Interrogations-Investigated.aspx">willingness to approve of immoral acts done in our name</a>.</p>

<p> It would be easy for people of a certain mindset to assume, given the last 8 years, that <em>The Daily Show</em> is simply a liberal outlet, happy to roll over and play dead now that there&#39;s a Democrat in the White House.</p> <p> The very evening of the Inauguration, they went to work to dispel that, neatly skewering Obama&#39;s speech and it&#39;s use of language that sounds, in many instances, reminiscent of Bush&#39;s speeches:</p>

<p> Sorry, with all of the &#34;Fear of teh Negro&#34; crap that have been let fly of late, making a Public Enemy reference seems my patriotic duty.</p> <p> I am still hopeful that North Carolina will break for Obama–I don&#39;t want there to be any question that Obama has a mandate to do what needs doing. Every electoral vote will make the message that much less deniable.</p>