As this subject is discussed, the thoughts that disturb me most are those, hours ago, of cestmoi. An earlier rightie propagandist, back in the dark days of Reagan, famously argued that a TV was just a "toaster with pictures." No toaster ever sent a country into a pointless and disastrous war. The media, grown great and waxing all-powerful during the glory days of 2002-2003, eagerly, fawningly, and nauseatingly, pressed a stressed and ill-informed populace into a war without end. Not just without end, but even a price, financially and morally. No ramifications for the future, no mention of the cost, and no doubts were allowed into the equation.

Now, hopefully for the better but perhaps for nothing, an absurdly inadequate measure of hand-wringing, tempered of course by yet again more "balance" from the culpable, has crept into our pathetically crippled discourse. Do the dead, measuring in the thousands, see this as an improvement? Do the "architects," who have never suffered, and in most cases profited obscenely, give a flying f*ck? I doubt it.

My only hope, as has been articulated much more eloquently and emphatically by Glenn and many posters today, is that the credibility of these shills is toast, and the idea that the media merely exist to spout the nonsense du jour of the government, can now be put to rest.

We are indeed victims of treason... at the hands of not just the Bushies, as is self evident, but the media conglomerates that, in the process of "doing their job," made this utterly predictable debacle palatable.

I think that an essential part of Rovian politics, vividly on display here, is to deliberately choose policies and methods guaranteed to be disastrous and offensive, but most important, calculated to cause anger in one's political enemies. Then any and all critics can be dismissed as "haters."

It's actually a neat trick, and has worked disturbingly well until recently. Of course they lie when the truth would sound better; anyone who dares to say so must have, yeah, Bush Derangement Syndrome. Uncomfortable with torture? You must be some left-wing whacko. Opposed the war from the start? Ah, another hippie peacenik.

Every policy, thus, has the ad hominem pushback built right in, and the worse it turns out, the better this tactic works, because then, more people they constantly disparage as "haters" really do hate them, and they can put the cherry of sympathy atop the bullsh*t sundae.

Nice work if you can get it... turning unspeakable behavior into an asset.

What McCain's flip flop shows is that authoritarianism has been marketed so well, and embraced so warmly by the 30 percenters, that it's the new litmus test for the presidency. Just as Romney drew howls of praise with his promise to "double" Guantanamo, now it seems as though the Republican base has become its own Id.

Expect McCain to start waxing lyrical about, say, summary executions and pan-Arab genocide next..... It's giving the people what they want.

Lovely people that they are.

I have to add to what Reilly and others have said about this, including Bob Altemeyer and John Dean. Yes, the conservatives have discovered that crazy people are their base, and as such have profited politically quite a bit. Crazy people are notoriously difficult to dissuade from their obsessions, lack critical thinking ability, and, best of all, scare normal people into tiptoeing around them.

Admittedly, such folks comprise a small minority of actual Americans, but are absurdly over-represented in the M$M. Honestly, what would any honest psychologist say about Bill Kristol, Tom Friedman, et al? Not to mention Bush Rove, and Condi....

Translated from the psychobabble, it would be, "Dese people crazy!."

And so are those who love them.

I think this election will eventually be a competition between the sane and the McInsane.

Reilly...

I have a couple of ideas about that already. (h/t Kitt) Email me at my sig at gmail...

So far, I've yet to get the old coot just right, but since it's my job now for several months, I'm all over it.

T

Savage being at the NYT is an extremely promising development, particularly given that so many other papers run their stories, and networks use their front page for rip 'n read. The disastrous results of this phenomenon, i.e., Judy Miller, Michael Gordon, Adam Nagourney et al, are still with us, and perhaps the NYT has figured this out. This article, and its placement, bode well for the possibility that presidential power, and its discontents, may finally get a fair hearing in the MSM, which has so far been shamefully silent or even supportive of the administrations bizarre "theories."

Best of all, this marks the first time I can think of that any mainstream outlet has punctured the media-conjured "maverick" image our doddering and deranged Republican nominee.

Congratulations, Glenn.... How does it feel to be "fit to print?"

Bahhummingbug... The party's at my house. You're late.

Jim... I confess that I'm enjoying a Full Sail LTD at the moment; it's tasty and $5.88 at the store downstairs. Don't tell.

Bah, where is this location of which you speak? None of the names ring a bell. It's a cold and dreary night on Park Ave. tonight. There's a mountain out there I haven't seen for days, amid the cold, rainy, gloom. Travel sounds good right now, and I'm going to LA Thursday, for that reason.

Kitt... All the Full Sails you can drink for LSD or mushrooms, or, better yet, somesuch.

Pedinska...

Wish I were there, I bet you're even more fun, two pom-tinis to the wind. Full Sail, whose products turn out to be quite effective, I might add, is a fairly reputable brewer of fine beers, based in Hood River, Oregon, where a certain presidential candidate went windsurfing, to his considerable political detriment. I've lost track of how many of these I've "sampled."