bamage’s comment was not as OT as one might think. If the DoJ can make arguments like the following without pushback from citizens and the MSM, there is a clear indication that Authoritarianism is still in ascendance in the USA., the very same authoritarianism that is rank in the Republican Party under [Bush]-Rove-and-the-Cheney-Gang

And I emphatically agree with JLKinStLouis

In any event, the conclusion is the same. They are not to be believed. But we ignore their disordered thinking at our peril.

bamage quoted in the article [emphasis added]:

In an 18-page brief, the [DoJ] rejected the argument that the immunity provison is an unconstitutional delegation of legislative authority.

"Congress' authority to GRANT discretion to the executive branch, already broad in the context of domestic affairs, is even broader where, as here, the GRANT of POWER relates to the EXECUTIVE’S AUTHORITY over national security or foreign affairs," Justice Department lawyers wrote. "(The certification provision) concerns the disposition of lawsuits that seek disclosure of alleged intelligence activities by the United States. It thus concerns an area in which the executive has constitutional authority to protect and control classified information and to safeguard national security."

The USA is still in the clutches of Authoritarianism.

The following quotes are from John W. Dean at http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20070905.html

”[…] empirical testing revealed "that authoritarians are frequently enemies of freedom, antidemocratic, anti-equality, highly prejudiced, mean-spirited, power hungry, Machiavellian, and amoral." To be clear, these are not assessments that Altemeyer makes himself about these people; rather, this is how those he has tested reveal themselves to be, when being anonymously examined.

There are Followers:

”[…] both men and women who test high as right-wing authoritarians, often evidence: highly religious, moderate to little education, trust untrustworthy authorities, prejudiced (particularly against homosexuals, women, and followers of religions other than their own), mean-spirited, narrow-minded, intolerant, bullying, zealous, dogmatic, uncritical toward their chosen authority, hypocritical, inconsistent and contradictory, prone to panic easily, highly self-righteous, moralistic, strict disciplinarian, severely punitive, demands loyalty and returns it, little self-awareness, usually politically and economically conservative/Republican. […]”

And there are Leaders

Again, I have prepared a listing of the traits revealed in the testing of these remarkably manipulative and cunning personalities, who are typically men: dominating, opposes equality, desirous of personal power, amoral, intimidating and bullying, faintly hedonistic, vengeful, pitiless, exploitive, manipulative, dishonest, cheats to win, highly prejudiced (racist, sexist, homophobic), mean-spirited, militant, nationalistic, tells others what they want to hear, takes advantage of "suckers," specializes in creating false images to sell self, may or may not be religious, usually politically and economically conservative/Republican.

And there are Double Highs

”[…] (I will not deal, here, with another group which I address in Conservatives Without Conscience at some length: the groups of those who uniquely test high for all these traits - both those of a leader and those of a follower. This happens with a small number of social dominators when given both tests. Seeing themselves as running the world, they respond as high as followers do on certain traits, because they want people to follow them. These so-called "double highs" are people I labeled as "conservatives without conscience," but they are beyond this summary.)

Authoritarianism in America

As one sifts through the conservative philosophy of the religious right and of the neo-conservatives, the Maistrean philosophy is conspicuously present. [...] the authoritarian conservative wants an all-powerful chief executive who runs a mighty military that implements his will.

”The authoritarianism of the contemporary Republican Party has had a dire impact on all three branches of the federal government.

Watergate and Iran-Contra:

Nixon was an authoritarian president. So was Reagan. Indeed, it was during the Reagan years that conservatives made a complete change in their thinking about the American presidency. This change -- not coincidentally, I believe -- occurred as authoritarian conservatives began to dominate the GOP.

And they don’t CARE what the peasants think of their performance:

”[…] authoritarians do not want Americans to love or even necessarily like their president; indeed, they believe a president must be doing something wrong if they do. […] What is important, in their eyes, is simply that these leaders and their compliant followers are doing things the way they believe they must be done, and enforcing their will upon any who dare to dissent or disagree. […]”

Bob Altemeyer said, with regard to Tom Delay, and his clear distortion of reality in regard to himself:

Why has he let himself be so easily discredited in this and the other cases? I think it's because he knows his audience, which will be mainly authoritarian followers, who would never doubt what he says, nor check his stories against other accounts. Studies show that authoritarian leaders can say almost anything, and their followers will believe them.

What Bob Altemeyer has to say about current legislators and legislatures:

From chapter 6: [pg.13] “In many states [Legislatures] the Double Highs and their minions appear to have formed the majority, and as we noted in Ch. 5, have sometimes set about reducing the opposition to permanent impotence through unprecedented levels of gerrymandering, not to mention voter fraud.”

[Pg.203] Because they harbor so many authoritarian sentiments, Republican legislators naturally differed from Democrats overall on the matters above. But the differences were sharpest when you compared high RWA versus low RWA lawmakers, whatever their party affiliation. Many high RWA Democrats, and some low RWA Republicans appeared in these samples. The problem, as I see it, does not arise from Republicans per se but from the right-wing authoritarians on both sides of the aisle.

http://members.shaw.ca/jeanaltemeyer/drbob/

In my opinion, the same could be said about the MSM. And I agree with Frankly0, organizations like Move-On are now part of the problem.