Are they isolated in their millionaire conclaves, as Bob Somerby says (dailyhowler.com), or are they just too damn lazy to dig up the truth. After all, it's much easier just to write down what's dictated. Uses fewer brain cells.

Save those brain cells for martinis with the publishers benefiting from Bush's tax cuts.

Why do we try so hard to emulate them? What happened to the "shining city on a hill"? Why do we try to become that which we are fighting?

While we're at it, why did Bush really cut and run when he had Osama bin Laden surrounded?

And why did the Bush Administration allow Osama bin Laden to charter a plane to get his family out of the U.S. in the weeks after 9/11?

And why did Bush sign an executive order taking onto himself all governmental authority in event of a national emergency, said emergency to be determined by Bush himself?

And what cocktail party are our lapdog press too busy attending to pay attention to these questions?

I remember my days demonstrating in the streets, and being called a Communist, and being warned about by those who had come over from Europe and thought we were a reincarnation of the Brown Shirts (or the Communist Youth, or whatever).

I'm afraid those days are behind me, but I can still make my voice heard to my local newspapers, on my blog, and to the Congressional representatives (I started to say my representatives, but they don't represent me) from my state and Congressional district.

I think it would be a good idea to send to the White House (both the President and the Vice-President), to the Extreme Court, and to the Congressman from my district copies of the Constitution with a note attached: "Here's something you seem to have lost sight of. Just a reminder." If they got a large number of these, do you think anyone in the media would pay attention?

Nah.

It's up to Congress now to re-establish the balance and restore our Constitutional rights. But will they?

I printed out three copies of the U. S. Constitution and mailed them to the local offices of the two Senators who are from my state and the Congressman from my district (Repuglicans that they are, I never say anywhere that they represent me). I enclosed a cover letter that said, "Here is something you seem to have forgotten about."

Being from North Carolina, I also reminded them that our state refused to ratify the Constitution until they were assured a Bill of Rights would be attached.

Could we get a movement up to send all our people in Congress copies of the Constitution? Would they get the message?

Another reason for this sycophancy is the fact that the media are owned by Bush-friendly major corporations. So the publishers want to make nice with the owners, and the editors want to make nice with the publishers.

Meanwhile, ambition on the front lines gets slapped down, and mediocrity rewarded. The reporters are ambitious to join the in crowd on Martha's Vineyard, so they make nice with the editors and play stenographer to the White House's drivel.

You had the best title within the words of your post: "Hemingway complex."

These desk jockeys all picture themselves as Ernest Hemingway, carrying out macho activities and writing about them later. Only they leave out the actual carrying out.

They fancy themselves Hemingway-esque he-men, but it is all a pitiful fantasy. Unfortunately, real armed service personnel have to live out their fantasies, real animals have to suffer from global warming while they fantasize being the Great White Hunters.

As I said, pitiful.

The "liberal media" has been a talking (no, actually, screaming) point of the Republican Party since the Nixon era.

Ronald Reagan was effective at playing this card in order to keep them docile. They rolled over and bent themselves all out of shape to prove themselves "fair" so they wouldn't be seen as "liberal" and now it has become a habit, even though the flagellation from the right continues right along regardless.

The habit is reinforced by those who want to succeed in the business. The stenographers of the press don't want to upset their corporate masters.

The reporters report (pun intended) to their editors, publishers, etc., who rub elbows with the big campaign contributors who call the shots for Congress. In fact, the publishers in some cases ARE big campaign contributors. Thus, the lid is on. Any reporter who sticks his neck out gets his head cut off. At least that's the fear. It's common throughout Corporate America. Keep your head down, your derriere covered, and your paycheck full. Thus the will of the publisher is the will of the people, because the publisher is the only people who counts. (Parse the grammar if you will, but it is deliberately written that way.)

It's like Mr. Timberman said: We all know what is what, and what we say is predictable. Bob Somerby in the Daily Howler keeps saying the same things, and Mr. Greenwald here keeps saying the same things about the Inside Beltway world view, because those on the inside of the Beltway keep saying and doing the same things, and the publishers and editors don't stop them. Chris Matthews keeps calling a rotting grapefruit a "Hardball," Gallop refuses to even ask the public about impeachment, and Pelosi and Reid go along to get along (with whom?).

As Mr. Natural said, "'Twas ever thus."

All the rest of us can do is keep on plugging away.

"Oops, there goes another rubber tree plant."

Grace and peace to all.