...that he thinks sex is better with the lights off.

If you don't stop this instant, Mr. Oldsmobile, I may die of cynical cackling before I've had my second cup of coffee. You remind me why I love New York, and New Yorkers. Long may you wave....

swallowed, *by* a criminal hemmed in by police...

As Sen. Bullworth put it (Bullworth, 1998)

"[W]hite people got more in common with colored people than they do with rich people"

Indeed. Rich neocon Libby and rich "liberal" Cohen have much more in common with each other than they do with you and me. The law is not for them or their exhalted class. It is for the rest of us meth-using, bankrupcy law abusing unwashed masses. The sooner we understand this, the better of we will be.

Kitt,

You're absolutely right that:

it (sic) you were to watch a film of a train wreck (slowed way down so you could closely observe the unfolding in detail upon detail) you would see that there is a pattern that takes place.

The distinction I was implying was that between structure (how something is put together, how it is structured) and pattern (a more generalized term, as in crash pattern).

Still, there is even a further state, in which the patterns interfere with one another to create a state in which the patterns are no longer discernable at all. Such cases can still be described in terms of jumbled patterns, but an almost infinite number of different combinations are all equally good (or bad) fits, and thus none of them has any real claim at providing any insight.

This is the end state of total entropy toward which our current political system aspires on the "liberal" side represented by Lights Out. It is only on the Rovian side of things that the lies are careful put together like model airplanes, so that everything fits just so.

As a therapist who has worked extensively in the fields of both domestic violence and sexual offenses, I am amazed at the parallel dysfunction we are witnessing at the highest level of government. Both types of criminal behavior are based on an abuse of power, and family members are easily bamboozled into keeping quiet, "keeping the lights off," due to having been brainwashed that the offender is really "a good guy." The abuser's denial spreads to the family, who then unknowingly become enablers, and even cheerleaders for further crimes.

Our country and our constitution are being raped and pillaged by the powerful, and the MSM have been there all along, cheering them on. What a disgraceful turnaround for the WaPo of my youth, that insisted on overturning every rock and turning on every light to expose the abuses of power of the Nixon Administration.

Thank you Glenn, for not only flipping on the switch, but for blaring spotlights on this despicable and degrading group of abusers and enablers.

Glenn,

The worldview of the media elite that you continue to highlight and critique with an appropriate amount of frustration betrays a set of ideas that can be traced back to, at least in modern American media, Walter Lippmann's writing in the early part of the 20th century. Lippmann, who remains influential in the teaching of both political science and journalism to this day, was highly suspicious of democratic ideals and possibilities and argued forcefully that the American public at large was simply incapable of participating meaningfully in the political process or the public sphere. According to his understanding of the world, most Americans were too blinkered by "local opinions" and stereotypes to be trusted to engage with the making of public policy. Lippmann's solution was a reliance on the creation of a "governing class" elite, a coterie of supposed experts, that would explain the world to both policymakers and the unwashed masses. The public at large would simply receive a sanitized, easily processed version of reality around which public opinion would coalesce (the manufacturing of consent that Noam Chomsky wrote about in the 1980s).

I can only imagine that Lippmann would heartily agree with the Richard Cohens of the world that the realities of our current government policies and policymakers are best left in the dark, with the lights safely off (for our own protection, of course). Cohen, Lippmann, and those who share their distrust and disdain for the majority of the American people truly believe they are charged with both governing as they see fit and controlling the levers of public perception so that those of us who are too simplistic and preoccupied don't have to get involved. Once you understand that this is the predominant outlook of a substantial portion of the establishment media and the politicians and government officials they protect and enable, it's easy to understand why the prosecution and conviction of someone like Scooter Libby sets off such tremors of self-righteous indignation and fury. It also goes a long way towards explaining why they resent and feel personally attacked anytime someone from outside their bubble of privilege challenges the wisdom that they dispense from on high. They write the script and block the scenes. The rest of us, as Lippmann once wrote, are just the theatergoers who have walked into the play in the middle of the third act. For this reason, it offends their sense of order to have one of the stage managers led away in handcuffs or to have to answer to the criticisms screamed by the rabble in the cheap seats.

Well done, Glenn. You just made my morning with this bit of comedy. Of course, it's probably not hard when they hand it to you on a silver platter like this.

Slideguy:

All you need to know about Cohen is....

...that he thinks sex is better with the lights off.

Candle light is for sissies!

And splendor in the grass?

Unthinkable!

Like... like... like... Iraq without WMDs!

I used to wonder how little grey-haired Grannies could sit on their chairs on the Place de la Concorde knitting in what must have been a bloody smelly place, arriving early to get a good seat, to watch the heads roll.

I hate to admit it but every day that goes by makes understanding how such grisly scenes could take place easier and sometimes limpid. It looks as though there comes a day when you don't forgive anymore, when you could just knit away with a heart of stone.

If only they would stop this insanity before we all turn to stone.