In addition to dancing with Karl Rove, TV newsguy David "Stretch" Gregory invited Homeland Security Director and general GOP goombah Michael Chertoff to his child's birthday party (Skeletor at a children's party? Spooky.).

If journalists fulfilled their true democratic function (i.e. exposing lies, corruption, incompetence, etc.), politicians and political hacks would flee their presence and do everything possible to avoid social interactions just in case something unflattering accidentally slipped out.

Instead, our "big name" press corps has become shameless, willingly credulous, courtiers. The sad thing is they don't seem to even realize it -- hence Gregory's umbrage at Scott McClellan's charge of press credulity.

Of course Republicans lie.

They can't run on their record (unnecessary war, economic ruin).

They can't run on their true economic agenda (only appeals to 1% of the population).

Lies are all they've got.

Luckily for the Republicans, our M$M is much too "polite" to report on the GOP's longstanding strategy of political deception.

America has forgotten the horrors we unleashed on Latin America (not to mention SE Asia) in the name of anti-Communism. Our collective amnesia has begotten more abject human misery in Iraq and now threatens even more carnage in Iran.

If there was any justice, Henry Kissinger would be rotting-away in a cell in the Hague for crimes against humanity instead of being celebrated as an "elder statesman" on American TV chat shows.

Here in Houston, Comcast (who actually managed to make Time Warner look good by comparison after Comcast's recent takeover of Houston's cable monopoly) quickly moved liberal-leaning MSNBC to the premium tier from its longstanding position on the basic cable lineup.

Fox News and CNN are still available on Houston's "basic cable."

Coincidence? Unlikely. Regulators, start your hearings.

The truly alarming thing is that for the M$M and for far too many voters, it's still business as usual. There's no outrage at the rape of our Constitution, the hijacking of our democracy or the sovietization of our corporate media.

I'm sure we will see the same familiar "independent retired military analysts" explaining everything on TV as the bombs are dropping on Iran.

It's the utter incoherence of the Bush regime's Iraq "policy" that is responsible for the chaos described in the article.

Decapitate the Sunni government, install a Shiite government, then begin arming Sunni militias (and pay them to stop shooting at us) that will immediately take up armed resistance against the Shiite government the moment American troops withdraw.

And to rationalize the easily predicted failure to establish a harmonious Jeffersonian democracy in Iraq? Blame Iran.

Democrats must act NOW to prevent the lunatics in the Bush regime from further compounding the disaster they have created by attacking Iran.

Ask the McCain Magic 8 Ball a question. Don't like the answer? Ask again, give the McCain Magic 8 Ball a shake, and get a different answer. Repeat until a satisfactory answer is given.

Let's get this straight: Conservatives advocate a federal government so weak it can't assess taxes (Norquist), and a president so strong he can literally order your child's testicles crushed to force your compliance (Yoo).

That type of incoherence is the antithesis of orderly, legal governance -- which explains why the United States is a dictatorship in all but name today.

McCain needs to have his nose rubbed in this fact at every opportunity and forced to defend how just 19 kooks with boxcutters and an audacious plan got us into this disgraceful state.

If there's a single thread running through the ongoing scandal of our press' abdication of its role as watchdog, it's the misplaced rejection of the national interest in favor of a misperceived economic self-interest.

At the reporter lever, they were afraid to challenge the powerful because they thought they would lose "access" to the lying, disinforming sources they thought were advancing their careers. At the editorial level, they were similarly afraid of losing "access," as well as facing heat from advertisers and competitors for lack of "patriotism."

We can now see where these collective acts of economic self-interest and cowardice have brought us. To paraphrase Glenn:

How would real patriots have acted?

Fully integrated individuals will feel guilt and remorse for the harm they have done to others -- which is probably McClellan's motivation for coming clean.

McClellan, who was never an artful liar, should consider himself lucky. The short tenure within the toxic environment of the Bush regime appears to be killing his successor, Tony Snow.

However, opportunistic sociopaths like Ari Fleischer and Dana Perino seem to be unaffected by lying for a living -- at least to date.

Maybe someday Phil Gramm will be compelled to explain how he entered Congress as a poor college professor, yet retired from Congress as a multi-millionaire.

Gramm's egregious corruption makes him a living, breathing argument for a Constitutional Amendment mandating government financing of federal election campaigns.

That McCain would willingly associate with such sleaze speaks volumes about his commitment to "reform."

Dharma Initiative? They obviously had loads of cash.

Allen's response illustrates the real Bush Derangement Syndrome (not the imaginary projected type cited by the sufferers of the syndrome).

Our corporate media continues to "play dumb." As an institution, it is still abdicating its vital function in a democracy: keeping citizens informed.

By acting as stenographers and refusing to remember the Bush regime's previous lies, the corporate media is not only complicit in the Iraq disaster, it is foolishly assisting in an impending catastrophe in Iran.

Based on their pathetic defense of their coverage of the Iraq war, it's apparent that they have learned nothing.