The Dictator Memos

Yesterday, the Obama administration, to its credit, took steps towards fulfilling an important promise by disclosing -- in response to a long-standing, hard-fought ACLU lawsuit for disclosure -- multiple DOJ documents that contained Bush administration decrees with regard to government power (these are the documents that formed what, literally, was the regime of secret laws under which we were ruled for the last eight years). Unlike the NYT front page which Digby examined yesterday, even a quick review of these newly disclosed documents leaves no doubt about their historical significance. They are the grotesque blueprint for what the U.S. Government became.

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It's somewhat surreal to witness -- now that George Bush is out of office -- the avalanche of establishment media reports suddenly acknowledging today, rather explicitly, how radical and lawless his presidency was, as though we only learned of that this week with the release of these memos.

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Harper's columnist and international human rights lawyer Scott Horton:

We may not have realized it at the time, but in the period from late 2001-January 19, 2009, this country was a dictatorship. The constitutional rights we learned about in high school civics were suspended. That was thanks to secret memos crafted deep inside the Justice Department that effectively trashed the Constitution. What we know now is likely the least of it.

Glenn Greenwald has a thorough account of the situation here, from which that quote is taken.

I wonder what exists that the Obama Administration has not yet revealed. (And is not likely to.)

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.