No. By: Mark W Adams

In case I wasn't clear in my last post why I included Nancy Pelosi as a symbol of the Versailles Courtiers whose very existence is like an infection on the body politic -- or more precisely a boil on the anal pore that is Washington DC, I can only explain in Blogtopian parlance . . .

What Bill in Portland Maine said . . .

Retroactive immunity for the telcos? "No." War funding for anything other than the redeployment of our troops out of Iraq? "No." Continuing to deny Habeas Corpus rights? "No." Illegal wiretapping? "No, no, no."

And how about doing something about all those witnesses---like Karl Rove and Harriet Miers---who gave you the middle finger by not showing up for congressional hearings?

But no.

It's as simple as that Nancy. Or weren't you paying attention when that other Nancy from the southern part of your State was saying, "Just Say No!"?

Quit apologizing for doing nothing and start making sure the folks in the Palace on the Potomac do no more. You might even want to beginning rolling back the crap the Courtiers have been getting away with for the last seven years. Quit being Gutless and Gullible.

One more thing for the sake of clarity. There no doubt is a certain utility in having a comedian like Stephen Colbert on Meet The Press. (And that comedian actually in performance mode, unlike Bill Cosby's unwatchable appearance the week before.) It brings the young-un's in.

More on the flip.

For the first time across the nation as whole new batch of teenagers watched at least part of MTP for the first time, ever. That's a good thing. The way Colbert and Jon Stewart make current events appealing to young and old alike beats the crap out of the traditionally lame way kids are "taught" about what's happening in their world today.

However, it's still a sad commentary that we must resort to pure entertainment to reach the otherwise blithely uninformed -- and Meet The Press, even on good days, is nothing more than an piece of entertainment served up for mass consumption.

And that is, and always has been, why the tax-cutting theme the GOP owns outright gets everybody's attention. For so many, seeing a few dollars more or less on their paystub is the one and only piece of "news" they absorb and understand on a weekly basis. Everything else is someone else's problem -- just more bread and circuses -- taxes touch them directly, even if that deduction box never really changed. The very idea, the promise of it going down is delightful, and all they remember.

In fact, the constant drone of incompetence and over reach by the conservatives displayed as entertainment on the T.V. simply reinforces the general population's disdain for the Federal Government and adds to the resentment of that deduction box on their pay check feeding this beast. The media play of faux balance also reinforces this narrative -- they all do it, so let's go with the guys who say they hate government too. No surprise there that the government haters suck at governing.

Sadly, the Fourth Estate, their quest for access and fear of being considered biased driving their insipid consistency of presenting "both" sides of an issue no mater how absurd one side's views may be, has completely lost touch with the very nature of their power they scrupulously attempt to disguise.

What the media absolutely fails to do is simply say no. So fearful of being banished from Versailles, they don't say "No" when Ann Coulter's publicist calls to book an interview. They don't say, "No" when they get a juicy titbit from an administration official who demands that they can only use the information if it is sourced anonymously, or even deliberately misleading the public the media exists to inform -- like when Libby insisted he be referred to as a "former Hill staffer."

The corporate megaphones have lost track of the fact the politicians need them more than they need the politicians. Who cares if FOX gets the scoop on everyone else in the Versailles Press if they start demanding some accountability in our public officials. FOX will get the "exclusives" anyway, and everyone else will wink and nod and understand that Petreaus spending an hour on FOX is acceptable propaganda, that Cheney only appearing on Limbaugh is acceptable propaganda, and competing for these kinds of "scoops" is a fool's errand.

If CNN and NBC/MSNBC and the NY Times and Washington Post and Disney and Viacom and the LA Times all collectively start saying, "No, Mr. Rove" we will not refrain from reporting your words as Your Words when you want to spin us and provide "background."

What are the big media outlets afraid of? That they'll lose out on that exclusive sit-down with Commander Guy? FOX will be getting those exclusives whether you play ball or not. Grow. A. Pair. These guys need the media to give the illusion of legitimacy to their destruction of everything we as Americans should hold dear. If Mr. 24% can only reach the cult watching Bill O'Reilly, his minions will come back with their hat in their hand, begging for advise on what they need to do to get in the media's good graces.

It seems that today, at least in Washington, you CAN play ALL the Courtiers for suckers ALL THE TIME. One simple word ends the charade.