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Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Arcade Classic Meets the Straight-Talk Express

posted by on June 24 at 12:40 PM

You’re tooling around on Facebook, you’ve exhausted every other possible diversion for the day, and deep down, you wish you could join John McCain in his quest to end the practice of government-subsidized earmarks. This train of thought might have led to frustration and sadness, if not complete existential despair, if not for…
Pork Invaders!

porkinvaders.jpg

The premise of Pork Invaders is much like the premise of Space Invaders, only instead of aliens, you’re blasting tiny pigs meant to represent wasteful government subsidies. And the little laser that blasts the aliens nows says ‘Veto.’ Also, the extra lives are represented by John McCain’s somewhat draconian-looking campaign logo.

The reward for beating the level is a small tutorial on John McCain’s record on government spending versus Barack Obama’s. A minor spoiler: McCain believes his record is better, which is why his picture is smiling and Obama’s is locked in a kind of grimace—probably as he contemplates all the government tax dollars he’s wasted.

In the end, the message becomes muddled: Slowly but surely, the pork closes in on you, and the Straight-Talk Laser Express becomes overwhelmed by the sheer weight and speed of government waste—you can almost picture a pixelated Sen. Robert Byrd dancing on its ashes as he builds another highway in his own honor. It’s kind of a downer, but then again, so is a great deal of John McCain’s run for the presidency.

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