James T. Kirk, used Twitter to give a thumbs down to the video, which reportedly cost $60,000

[itsrobert]

http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-william-shatner-blasts-irs-for-star-trek-parody-video-20130326,0,7286092.story

"Star Trek" star William Shatner was not amused by a video parody of the television show that Internal Revenue Service workers produced at public expense.

The actor, who appeared in the 1960s series as Captain James T. Kirk, used Twitter to give a thumbs down to the video, which reportedly cost $60,000.

"So I watched that IRS video. I am appalled at the utter waste of US tax dollars," Shatner wrote to his more than 1 million Twitter followers.

The Internal Revenue Service has apologized for spending taxpayer revenue on the six-minute video, which is attracting wide attention on the Internet.

IRS workers portrayed characters from the television series and vowed “to boldly go where no governmental employee has gone before.”

[napkinz]

1. is it on YouTube?

Any way you can post the video so we can see?

(Or can we just try a Vulcan Mind Meld on an IRS employee to see it?)

[Poll_Blind]

2. Here ya go!

[itsrobert]

3. Go to GOOGLE and do a search at warp speed

I just went back and time and posted this link...

[Poll_Blind]

4. Well, after watching the first few minutes- I'm with KIRK on this one. nt

PB

[Recursion]

5. I've been involved with video production for Federal departments: it's a no-win situation

Make a video with low production values and everybody says "why are you making such a bad video?"

Make a video with high production values and everybody says "why are you spending so much money?"

There's actually more video and film shot in DC every year than LA; this is a huge video town. Agencies use videos for training and outreach. Some of them are going to suck.

[Poll_Blind]

6. I think the actual beef with the video was NOT the production values but...

...that it had no relevance as training material.

PB

[Recursion]

8. Meh. Don't go over your per diem; make sure to watch social networks for tips, etc.

I've seen much dumber videos than that, sadly...

[greatlaurel]

9. Typical right wing anti government propaganda

Find some obscure program and make a big stink about it being a big waste of tax dollars to justify slashing all government services. This is perfect timing to attack the IRS since it is tax season. People are primed to hate the IRS due to taxes being due soon.

The IRS has always been extremely helpful when I have contacted them about tax issues. Two years in a row the people in the capital gains department saved me thousands of dollars in taxes by explaining the capital gains rules to me. They were very patient and they also explained to me step by step in how to handle my tax form when reporting the income.

There are thousands of these type of videos done every year in both public and private organizations. How much money do the corporations spend on this stuff and nobody says a peep even though it is our money they spend by passing on these costs onto the cost of the products. Do any of the big pharma corps do any video training? I get even less to say on the price of my drugs than I do on my taxes. Where is the congressional outrage for that sort of thing?

I saw a video done by a republican agency director that probably cost about $60,000 to make for the employee recognition day. Of course, it was all about pumping up his ego and nothing about recognizing any employees. None of the democratic directors ever wasted money like that guy did.

[AsahinaKimi]

7. Retweeted Shatner on twitter..

I absolutely agree, plus.. it was a horrible thing to look at.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

10. I was wondering if any of the crew would comment. Glad the verdict

came directly from the Captain himself.

On a side note, isn't this the best-looking 82 year-old man you've ever seen?



Live long(er) and prosper, Bill.

[talkingmime]

11. Well personally I thought it was really funny, if for nothing else the stupidity.

And hey, it serves an opportunity to note that at $60,000 for the entire thing, the IRS spent $10,000/minute to make that.

Let's put that in SERIOUS perspective in a time where the GOP is whining about spending but won't raise taxes a dime on the top 1%...

people making just $1b/year make
$19,230,769 per week,
$3,846,154 per day (based on a 5-day work week - lets give them two days off)
$480,769/hr (based on 8 hour days - little of that is real work, just investment income),
$8,012.82 per minute and
$133.55 per second, ONE SECOND for about half what a minimim wage worker makes in 8 hours.

So to put it perspective, that video cost 7.49 hours of a work $8,012.82/hr for someone making just $1b/yr, and they're nothing in income compared to the top 1%. Lets see. At the federal minimum wage of $7.25/hr, that same 7.49 hours would net $54.30 - 0.006779% of the billionaire's rate. And all of these numbers are BEFORE taxes. Yet people still think the rich can't pay a little more in taxes?

Lets round up to eight hours (to add in for coffee breaks). The $1b "worker" would get 66,313 times more for the same day as the minimum wage worker. So for each minimum wage employee, the IRS could have made that movie every single day for each of them and still had a surplus. Or they could have used 8,276 minimum wage employees to pay for the same thing at one hour each.

Besides, it mostly slamming the teabaggers and I found that funny. The acting sucked, but it was funny. I appreciate Shatner's concern here, but I think it's a little misplaced and it was basically OUR message!

Is there something about a comma in a number that makes people glaze over?