The DOJ wrote dubious memos!??!!!

The Washington Post is shocked to learn that the Bush administration was willing to scrap the Constitution to advance its illegal policy goals.

Imagine a place where soldiers are entitled to burst through doors without warrants and citizens can be locked away without trial. Imagine that the leader of this place has the power to silence dissenters and the press and has the right to keep duly elected legislators from having a voice in these matters. Imagine further that he can unilaterally rip up and disregard any treaty he dislikes and that he has been told he is on solid legal ground by a hand-picked circle of advisers.

This is not some lawless Third World country or dusty fictional outback from a sci-fi movie but the United States of America, as described in a series of newly released Justice Department memos from the early years of the Bush administration.

Yep. Now imagine a place where the capital city's major newspaper excuses or endorses similar policies and shuns anybody with the audacity to sound the alarm criminalize policy differences. Imagine that this newspaper is aware that the government had concocted dubious secret legal justifications for their crimes, but enables its leaders until they're out of power. Imagine further that, when the new government releases those secret opinions, the paper's editors express outrage and disappointment about the lawlessness.

This is not some sorry Banana Republic or dusty fictional outback from a sci-fi movie but the United States of America.