I mentioned earlier how half the writing is done by the targets. Sometimes they do all of writing by themselves!!! Look at this from the Wall Street Journal:

The Treatment of Bush Has Been a Disgrace

What must our enemies be thinking?

By JEFFREY SCOTT SHAPIRO

Earlier this year, 12,000 people in San Francisco signed a petition in support of a proposition on a local ballot to rename an Oceanside sewage plant after George W. Bush. The proposition is only one example of the classless disrespect many Americans have shown the president.

And there is more insane sycophantic dribble in the article. It could be lifted from the WSJ and re printed in The Onion and no one would know the difference.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122584386627599251.html

Then if you want a classic piece of visual satire how about the cover of The Weekly Standard:

http://www.weeklystandard.com/

Someone ought to tell these guys that they are not meant to satirize themselves, times are hard and there are people out there trying earn enough to put food on their kids feet doing just this thing.

I looked at the above material, shook my head and just said, "Colbert forgive them, for they know not what they do."

"Given their angst and frustration, it is no surprise that liberals have been enjoying the loudest (and last?) laughs during our current, pioneering age of dark, ironic humor"

Didn't Graydon Carter, the cofounder of snideliness bible Spy magazine, already declare irony dead once after 9/11? And while it floundered, the public seemed that much more receptive to propaganda while its BS detectors were set on hibernate.

Ironically (what else?) irony came to our psychological aid in getting us through the Rove era. No one can't predict exactly when and how it will aid us once again in bullshit detecting or psychic survival amidst propagandistic brainwashing, but it will. (My guess is that it'll involve something like greenwashing nuclear power)

Democrats weren't exactly saviors themselves in the last eight years, and they've got plenty of BS up their sleeves they'd like to sell us. Irony and Dark Humor are the spawn of cynicism and they're cultural zombies that won't stay dead, and they'll rise up and bang on the door with sticks and make us laugh and look at what we're being sold with disbelief.

Cynicism is out of step with the cultural moment right now, and rightly so. Cynicism can poison and breed apathy. But when it comes to BS detection, it's awfully useful. We'll need it again, possibly even sooner than we think. Although the industry bubble has burst, the satiroindustrial complex will be around a long time.