Funny how the folks in the room didn't get it while I was rolling around on the floor in stitches. Ah, irony, a wonderful weapon when it's not pointed at you. Right Main Stream Media? I am your intended audience and you've been blowing it with me for years now. No, I imagine there were few of you heros in the room who thought Mr. Colbert's routine was even slightly amusing. Helen Thomas seemed to find it amusing. Of course, she seems to be missing the same sheeple gene the rest of you appear to have inherited. I'm curious, does it at all concern any of you that while the majority of you were aghast with righteous indignation at Mr. Colbert's pointed barbs aimed in your direction, that the audience you seek to serve was howling not only in laughter but in agreement?

We've been watching your pathetic, sycopanthic kow-towing for years now, wondering "where did all the good times go and will they ever be back?" Unfortunately, it took some very public missteps by the administration during hurricane Katrina to wake you all up. Yes, you finally started asking some questions. But too little too late. This unexposed, uninformed, and arrogant president has made a mess of things while the "CLOSED" sign was up on investigative journalism. A poorly informed America re-elected a poorly prepared Commander in Chief. You can and should take most of the blame. Guess that's really not so funny after all, is it?

In Colbert, Bush faced what he was able to avoid throughout the whole of his re-election campaign; a man who was willing to openly confront him. If the Democrats take Congress back this year, Stephen Colbert, the man who said all of the things the left's "leaders" have been too cowardly to say in public for years, will loom large in the verdict of historians.

A hundred years from now, Colbert's routine will be a staple of the videos produced for high school history classes, and he will rank with Thomas Nast as one of the great American political satirists. At its best, satire is a rapier through the heart of our established conventions and accepted points of view. Satire is nimble, and deadly, in a way that makes the lists of talking points drawn up by the likes of Karl Rove or James Carville look foolish and pointless. Satire is a fickle weapon, but in the hands of a master it renders the traditional political dialogue, with all of its carefully rehersed rhetorical tricks, hollow and meaningless.

The news media did not respond to Colbert's performance (perhaps the greatest piece of performance art of all time) because traditional journalism simply lacks the language to make any meaningful contribution or addition to Colbert's devastating critique. Only the most conservative media outlets tried to respond to Colbert...indeed, how could they not without giving the impression of total surrender...and their clumsy and hackneyed attempts to discredit him only made more evident what everyone who saw Colbert's performance knew already: there is no answer, and there is no defense.

I note that the President has not been seen in public for over a week now. No doubt it will take another for him to wipe all of the egg off of his face.

Bush and his handlers claim to be able to make their own 'reality', and they've been largely enabled in this fantasy by a compliant, corporate sponsored media. Well Stephen Colbert just took a huge bite out of their facade. Let's hope the house of cards comes tumbling down soon, so that the American public can see what lies below the surface.

That was a genuinely insightful article. I can't believe the LA Times kicked Robert Scherer out. A real loss. (They also lost me as a reader.)

>Is it my imagination, or did C-span mute the audio volume of the audience >laughter, giving it the effect that Colbert was roundly disapproved of and his >comments falling on deaf ears?

The one I heard on Google tonight seemed significantly louder than the one on freevideoblog or whatever.

>Reminds me of a similar microphone 'malfunction' wrt the so-called 'dean >scream'.

>Further, did anyone notice that the camera failed to show both Bush's faces

>several times after a barbed comment? This is in stark contrast to the >camerawork on celebrity roasts, where every dig warrants a quick take of the >roastee's reaction.

I saw an ABC version which showed neither Bush nor audience until the Audition bit; then it showed Bush's reaction and the audio of the audition.

>I wonder if a non-C-span version is available for comparison on both counts?

8<------------------->8

>We all know it's a fascist regime and we shake our heads and mumble to each >other like good little germans.

8<------------------->8

Well, there were a million people rather dissatisfied with their fate at the boots of this system last week, and they were in the streets participating in a movement--with a little flavor of the 60's.

It seemed to concern those in power.

One big problem is so many were waving the amerikan flag, which flies over restrictions on freedoms here for almost all, and rules over carnage and misery worldwide. It would be bad to not win as many as possible now to effective mass action to end this administration.

Check out The World Can't Wait! Drive Out the Bush Regime! @

www.worldcantwait.net

Daily they feature another important reason to Drive Them Out!

Recently was news of a push by Christian Theocrats to restrict availability of Birth Control--including one already implemented.

I had to look up Colbert's speech on the internet, because the mainstream media never showed it---that in itself should be a clue as to how close he cut to the bone.

The straight media loved showing the Bush imitator buffooning the Buffoon In Chief, because it showed what a swell guy Bush really is, able to laugh at himself. Until, that is, someone actually lampooned him with a sharp enough scalpel.

Let Bush and the press fume, let the mindless consumers of Fox News be bewildered. Colbert has opened up an entirely new front in the culture wars. Truthiness on one side and Ironic Truth-telling on the other. That's a culture war the talking heads don't want to wax pundential on. It just too dangerous for the State for for the State-cntrolled media.