If they're the Augean stables, then call me Alpheus!

I can't believe I missed this last week, but just in case you happened to miss it, too, here's a Denver Post op-ed by a justice department attorney on the crimes of the Bush administration.

In the course of its tenure since the Sept. 11 attacks, the Bush administration has turned the entire government (and the DOJ in particular) into a veritable Augean stable on issues such as civil rights, civil liberties, international law and basic human rights, as well as criminal prosecution and federal employment and contracting practices. It has systematically undermined the rule of law in the name of fighting terrorism, and it has sought to insulate its actions from legislative or judicial scrutiny and accountability by invoking national security at every turn, engaging in persistent fearmongering, routinely impugning the integrity and/or patriotism of its critics, and protecting its own lawbreakers. This is neither normal government conduct nor "politics as usual," but a national disgrace of a magnitude unseen since the days of Watergate - which, in fact, I believe it eclipses.

Spend some time savoring the comments, too. There are a few goofballs on there, but a surprisingly small number of Bush defenders-- and those that there are offer up only feeble rebuttals.