Well, gee, come to think about it, maybe all the mortified media and political lords are right - not that Colbert wasn't funny, because he obviously was. But by their disapprobation of Colbert's "j'accuse", the elite, the right, the rich, and the powerful (see below 1-5%) have unknowingly confirmed their culpability. True to form, they've tried to use the red herring form of argument. For this debate, they get an "F". Colbert was indeed funny. It's the tragic implications of his material that anger them-- not so much the messenger as the message.

A war based on lies to the public and the attendant loss of life, profiteering by American corporations; (including that of our elected representatives) torture; strategic military failures; the disapprobation of the world; the reverberating impact of higher fuel prices on the economy -- they're right, after all. None of this is funny stuff.

Higher interest rates on student loans, lower taxes for the top 1-5% of Americans, the impact of rising interest rates, rising debt, rising health care, and rising fuel prices on the ever falling personal economy of everyday Americans and their children, the loss of jobs, outsourcing -- well, okay, not funny.

The failure of our government to fulfill its sworn obligation to the people, a failure manifest in its response to Hurricane Katrina, the ongoing deprivation of those who survived and the abnegation of responsibility by this administration -- not funny.

A president who lies in order to engage his troops in war has committed an impeachable offense. A president who conducts himself like a small boy, performing at the age of sixty in military garb that he refused when he was twenty, who sacrifices his nation's children like an army of toy soldiers, who plays with the nation's economy as if it were Monopoly; the abject corruption of our elected officials, the demise of our democratic form of governance, our loss of privacy and freedom of speech, the failure to protect and promote human rights, both our own and those of the world, the abdication of a free and responsible press; make no mistake, this is tragedy it its truest classical form.

Most everyday Americans would agree - the content of Colbert's monologue wasn't entertainment, but how could it have been? Colbert played by the rules that this very administration established. You could almost say that he was spending his "political capital". Or maybe he just went "nucular." But it's obvious-- for the very first time, Power saw its own reflection in the mirror of "truthiness", and, like all bested bullies, it decided it didn't want to play.

why and how could it be that stephen colbert could have any doubts about his performance that night? i've watched it already 5 or 6 times on video and each time i laugh harder and am more amazed. has anybody ever been able to develop a schtick like his - one that has the power to criticize so mercilessly and intelligently, at point blank range, without being so boringly indignant and over earnest that it turns everybody off? this routine of his is pure genius. it is the most effective and subversive political satire ever invented.

there are three great milestone moments in history, in my opinion, since organized crime took over washington after 9-11.

the first: opening night of fahrenheit 911 in new york city. the lines that wrapped around the block; the 24 hour round the clock viewings; the electricity inside the theater - it was like being at a rock concert. when i wasn't laughing so hard that i couldn't breathe, i was questioning whether or not i was dreaming.

what an extraordinary moment in history that was. there had been a collective, national psychic progression for 3 years and this film tapped into it's core and broke every supposed taboo - every obstacle of official censorship and self censorship. it was an explosion of light. a cathartic release from history itself. it was also an act of heroism, which is to say, real heroism - the kind you find in myths and novels and dream about as a kid - not the fake heroism that is peddled to us by the mass media every day.

the second great moment: patrick fitzgerald's first major press conference. after watching powerlessly for years as the corruption and treason reached unprecedented levels in washington, after watching congress, our primary safe guard against these kinds of abuses, fullly submit to them, after watching the opposition party cravenly collapse, the press collude, and - in the end - the entire country get deceived into an evil, amoral pointless war - one being fought at the triple behest of a foreign power, a network of domestic oil interests, and a machiavellian chief political advisor... after watching all of these abominations unfold it took, once again, a single uncorruptable individual to rise up and capture the country's moral imagination. everybody who watched the press conference that day, where patrick fitzgerald announced the charges against lewis libby, remembers the effect it had. it would have been no more transformative had moses himself stepped in front of the camera with two stone tablets. millions of people - including some of the sleaziest television "journalists" in the country - walked away from that transmission with the same overwhelming respect and awe for fitzgerald. it was an historical catharsis. a collective, moral turning point.

and now, the third milestone moment: stephen colbert's performance at the white house correspondance dinner. to get so close to these people and to be so direct. every word so mercilessly crafted for maximum pointedness. every facial gesture and tic so well thought through and timed. it is a masterpiece of wit and discipline. to not back down. to look right into the oncoming freight train. how many comedians would have gotten up there and been chilled by their proximity to power? how many would have made them laugh without getting too close to the tender spots in the room? what's remarkable about this performance is that it is funny at the same time that it sticks in - and twists - the knife. if they weren't laughing hard enough in the room - so what? screw them. they are part of the problem, mr. colbert. how can you expect them to love you fully when you are holding a mirror up to their twisted, venal souls? what's amazing is that they loved you at all. that's were your genius comes in. as in the case of your magnificent, climactic aside:

"mr president, i have nothing but contempt for these people".

that single, razor-sharp remark got at the heart of the entire problem in the country right now - the deceipt of the administration (in relation to the press) as well as the complicity of the press (in relation to the adminstratrion). you skewered everybody in the room with this solitary, economical punch line - while at the same time revealing, tucked away inside all those many layers of irony, your own true feelings. and ours.