Tyrant in the White House

Hilzoy calls it exactly right. George W. Bush is now officially a tyrant. This is not hyperbole. This is textbook definition:

ty·rant (tī'rənt) Pronunciation Key n.

1. An absolute ruler who governs without restrictions.

From the Washington Post:

The attorney general yesterday rejected growing congressional calls for a criminal investigation of the CIA's use of simulated drownings to extract information from its detainees, as Vice President Cheney called it a "good thing" that the CIA was able to learn what it did from those subjected to the practice.

The remarks reflected a renewed effort by the Bush administration to defend its past approval of the interrogation tactic known as waterboarding, which some lawmakers, human rights experts and international lawyers have described as illegal torture.

Testifying before the House Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey said Justice Department lawyers concluded that the CIA's use of waterboarding in 2002 and 2003 was legal, and therefore the department cannot investigate whether a crime had occurred.

"That would mean that the same department that authorized the program would now consider prosecuting somebody who followed that advice," he said.

Let me reframe that for you. George Bush asked his Department of Justice simply to declare that waterboarding detainees (as well as listening in on your telephone conversations without a warrant) was "legal," effectively giving him and his underlings a "get out of jail free" card should Congress ever try to get the Department of Justice to investigate whether the law was broken. In a nutshell, the Bush administration has twisted their influence over the DOJ such that anything they declare "legal" is for all intents and purposes, by decree, legal. In other countries we call this "tyranny." In fact, we call it tyranny here as well.

From Hilzoy's post on Obsidian Wings:

This means that if the Justice Department were sufficiently corrupt or compliant -- and does anyone want to argue that it wasn't, under Alberto Gonzales? -- the administration could do whatever it wanted without worrying its little head about the law. David Kurtz at TPM:

"We have now the Attorney General of the United States telling Congress that it's not against the law for the President to violate the law if his own Department of Justice says it's not. (...)

President Bush has now laid down his most aggressive challenge to the very constitutional authority of Congress. It is a naked assertion of executive power. The founders would have called it tyrannical. His cards are now all on the table. This is no bluff."

He adds a note from one of his readers:

"It's not just that the Attorney General's position is that a DOJ Order makes the subject activity legal but that, as [Congressman] Nadler brought out, there is now no recourse to a judicial test, either criminal (through refusal to prosecute) or civil (through the state secrets privilege based solely on a DOJ affidavit). The DOJ is entitled to take whatever position it wants, however self-serving and unitary, but now there is no avenue for judicial review and so that is the end of the story."

You can watch the exchange between Nadler and Mukasey below. It's crystal clear that Nadler is right. There is now officially no restriction on Bush's power:

I've already written my Senator, the shameful Mr. Schumer, and let him know that I hold him personally responsible for this outrage. His support of Mukasey's nomination has brought undeniable tyranny to the United States of America.

Even more shameful, and undoubtedly the mastermind behind this trampling on the Constitution, the dark lord himself, Dick Cheney, is now free to brag about his administration's inhumanity:

Vice President Dick Cheney on Thursday vigorously defended the use of harsh interrogation techniques on a few suspected terrorists, saying that the methods made up “a tougher program, for tougher customers” and might have averted another attack on the United States.[...] The vice president asserted that the techniques used by the C.I.A. were safe and professional...

Oh, how reassuring. We're professional torturers. Can we join the International Association of Nations that Torture People now? Maybe we can team up with Uzbekistan and North Korea at the next IANTP bowling tournament.

These people are criminal and twisted. Get them out of office and then haul their sorry asses into court!