Same time, next year

That's a wrap for this year's "Day of Shame" blogging, commemorating the fourth anniversary of Colin Powell's February 5, 2003 UN presentation — and the media's outrageous approval for it.

To simplify reading this first year's remembrances and commentary, here are the posts in chronological order:

• An American Tragedy (intro)
• Something is rotten in the state (a Shakespearean tragedy)
• Print the legend (the media meltdown)
• Three little letters (why ask why?)
• The devils want to wear my red shoes (wondering how Powell spends the Day of Shame)
• Dirty deeds done expensively (summing up the war's costs)

Of course, the echoes of what happened that day are with us all year 'round. They continue to define the conduct of the administration and the media.

Perhaps this issue, noted by Gilbert Cranberg, is the most curiously and dangerously under-explored:

The fundamental question: Why did the press as a whole fail to question sufficiently the administration’s case for war?

Do come back y'all for next year's Fabulous Fifth-anniversary Fibtacular.

By then, we may have a whole new set of stories about how hyped and falsified evidence plus media incuriosity says "bring it on" to apocalyptic mayhem.

Peace out, my friends, peace out.