This blog was recently received from a fellow researcher from the USA. [One would likely find similar info regarding the Government of Canada Inc. - I haven't taken the time to check that out.] Quote:
OOPS! “Government of the United States” listed on Dunn & Bradstreet as a Private Corporation.
The Manta.com website
www.manta.com
You might be surprised
The Manta.com website includes a database of over 63 million U.S. and foreign companies. That database info is provided by Dunn & Bradstreet (D&B). Manta.com will provide preliminary information on each of these millions of companies for free. If you want more “in-depth” info, there’s a fee.
But since this article is about “funny” stuff, and paying fees isn’t fun, let’s run a few free searches and see what we can find. You might be surprised.
For example, if you type “Government of the United States” into the Manta.com search engine, you’ll be whisked to a list of “7,666 matching US companies”.
The first “company” on the list is:
“Government of the United States (US Government) HQ
The u.s. Capitol Washington DC” The “HQ” stands for “headquarters”.
If you scroll down the list of other companies below the “Government of the United States,” you’ll find “branches” like “Executive Office of the United States Government” (6 entries), “United States Department of the Air Force (US Government),” “The Navy United States Department of (US Government Naval Reserves),” and “United States Court of Appeals For The 11th Circuit United States Courthouse”. Apparently, the Navy, Air Force and Courts are “companies”. That’s kinda “funny,” doncha think?
If you click on the “Government of the United States HQ” link, you’ll see another website page with some fairly detailed—and possibly bewildering—information. For example, you’ll see that this “Government of the United States” has its address at:
“the u.s. capitol
“Washington, DC 20515-0001” Its phone number is “(202) 224-3121”. Business Hours are “24/7”. You can click the “map” link and see a graphic indicating that this “Government” is located on “Capitol Hill” (same place as Congress) in Washington DC. None of that seems particularly surprising (other than the idea that our “Government” might be a “company” and/or a conglomerate of “companies”).
But the Manta.com report does begin to seem a little strange under the heading
“About Government Of The United States” where we read:
“government, owner archbishop deric r. mccloud of basilica shrine michigan and 4th ne street washington,dc”. [My note: See Wikipedia on 'Basilica Shrine'.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_of_the_National_Shrine_of_the_Immaculate_Conception
Continuing quote:
Say whut? Does that abbreviated text really indicate that the owner of the “Government Of The United States” is an archbishop named Deric R. McCloud? Q: Who could be dumb enough to think (or even mistakenly write) that the “Government of the United States” was owned by an archbishop?
A: Apparently, Dunn & Bradstreet was dumb enough.
And just in case you think we can’t be talking about the “Government of the United States,” take a gander at the “Additional Information” heading and you’ll read (
as of August 6th, A.D. 2010):
“all recipients [sic] of federal funds that have any kind of criminal case or felony federal, state, local or served time in prison federal, state, benefits terminate 7/26/10 by Barack Obama administration.”