Stewart v. Yoo. enlightening interview, demonstrating perhaps the perils of demonizing one's political opponents, and then finding out your adversaries are in fact, sober, thoughtful, honorable men and women, who are grappling with extraordinarily difficult questions, at a time of great peril for the country. <table style='font:11px arial; color:#333; background-color:#f5f5f5' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' width='360' height='353'><tbody><tr style='background-color:#e5e5e5' valign='middle'><td style='padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;'><a target='_blank' style='color:#333; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com'>The Daily Show With Jon Stewart</a></td><td style='padding:2px 5px 0px 5px; text-align:right; font-weight:bold;'>Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c</td></tr><tr style='height:14px;' valign='middle'><td style='padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;' colspan='2'<a target='_blank' style='color:#333; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-january-7-2010/daily-show--exclusive---john-yoo-extended-interview-pt--1'>Daily Show: Exclusive - John Yoo Extended Interview Pt. 1<a></td></tr><tr style='height:14px; background-color:#353535' valign='middle'><td colspan='2' style='padding:2px 5px 0px 5px; width:360px; overflow:hidden; text-align:right'><a target='_blank' style='color:#96deff; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/'>www.thedailyshow.com</a></td></tr><tr valign='middle'><td style='padding:0px;' colspan='2'><embed style='display:block' src='http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:260701' width='360' height='301' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' wmode='window' allowFullscreen='true' flashvars='autoPlay=false' allowscriptaccess='always' allownetworking='all' bgcolor='#000000'></embed></td></tr><tr style='height:18px;' valign='middle'><td style='padding:0px;' colspan='2'><table style='margin:0px; text-align:center' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' width='100%' height='100%'><tr valign='middle'><td style='padding:3px; width:33%;'><a target='_blank' style='font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes'>Daily Show<br/> Full Episodes</a></td><td style='padding:3px; width:33%;'><a target='_blank' style='font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;' href='http://www.indecisionforever.com'>Political Humor</a></td><td style='padding:3px; width:33%;'><a target='_blank' style='font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/videos/tag/health'>Health Care Crisis</a></td></tr></table></td></tr></tbody></table>
All that interview did was make me understand clearly just how appalling John Yoo is. And why lawyers like him are despicable people.
It was a time of peril for the country. It wasn't a time of "great" peril for the country. And watching the interview doesn't change the horrible rotten things he tried to justify. He acted contrary to American interests and principles, and deserves any dislike he receives from his actions. I watched the interview. And his rationalizations and actions are far more dangerous to our nation than Al-Qaeda ever was.
Of course he could be a sober and thoughtful man. That doesn't mean he also wasn't willing to sell out Constitutional principles to become a 'yes' man. From the very interview you show points out that he was a rather low level figure who out of aspiration or even honest belief, willingly justified bending the law to suit the Executive branch's purpose.
he answered (W) because he was asked, and as the interview makes clear, the question at issue hadn't been addressed previously.
here's part two of the interview: <table style='font:11px arial; color:#333; background-color:#f5f5f5' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' width='360' height='353'><tbody><tr style='background-color:#e5e5e5' valign='middle'><td style='padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;'><a target='_blank' style='color:#333; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com'>The Daily Show With Jon Stewart</a></td><td style='padding:2px 5px 0px 5px; text-align:right; font-weight:bold;'>Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c</td></tr><tr style='height:14px;' valign='middle'><td style='padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;' colspan='2'<a target='_blank' style='color:#333; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-january-7-2010/exclusive---john-yoo-extended-interview-pt--2'>Exclusive - John Yoo Extended Interview Pt. 2<a></td></tr><tr style='height:14px; background-color:#353535' valign='middle'><td colspan='2' style='padding:2px 5px 0px 5px; width:360px; overflow:hidden; text-align:right'><a target='_blank' style='color:#96deff; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/'>www.thedailyshow.com</a></td></tr><tr valign='middle'><td style='padding:0px;' colspan='2'><embed style='display:block' src='http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:260702' width='360' height='301' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' wmode='window' allowFullscreen='true' flashvars='autoPlay=false' allowscriptaccess='always' allownetworking='all' bgcolor='#000000'></embed></td></tr><tr style='height:18px;' valign='middle'><td style='padding:0px;' colspan='2'><table style='margin:0px; text-align:center' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' width='100%' height='100%'><tr valign='middle'><td style='padding:3px; width:33%;'><a target='_blank' style='font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes'>Daily Show<br/> Full Episodes</a></td><td style='padding:3px; width:33%;'><a target='_blank' style='font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;' href='http://www.indecisionforever.com'>Political Humor</a></td><td style='padding:3px; width:33%;'><a target='_blank' style='font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/videos/tag/health'>Health Care Crisis</a></td></tr></table></td></tr></tbody></table>
I thought it was a good interview even if I think Yoo handed Cheney a loaded gun. The terrorball segment before it was great. It's still ironic to have Conservatives make the argument to trust that the Government will hopefully make "good decisions" through vague Constituional interpretations and loopholes even though a casual observer would view the acts in itself as destroying the spirit of the rule of law. Ayn Rand's exhumed corpse is displeased.
Did he ever say, "while this might be technically legal, it is certainly immoral and outside of the standards of the United States of America" ? Because, that's what separates humans beings from lawyers. I vas jus followink orders
and part three. <table style='font:11px arial; color:#333; background-color:#f5f5f5' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' width='360' height='353'><tbody><tr style='background-color:#e5e5e5' valign='middle'><td style='padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;'><a target='_blank' style='color:#333; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com'>The Daily Show With Jon Stewart</a></td><td style='padding:2px 5px 0px 5px; text-align:right; font-weight:bold;'>Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c</td></tr><tr style='height:14px;' valign='middle'><td style='padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;' colspan='2'<a target='_blank' style='color:#333; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-january-7-2010/exclusive---john-yoo-extended-interview-pt--3'>Exclusive - John Yoo Extended Interview Pt. 3<a></td></tr><tr style='height:14px; background-color:#353535' valign='middle'><td colspan='2' style='padding:2px 5px 0px 5px; width:360px; overflow:hidden; text-align:right'><a target='_blank' style='color:#96deff; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/'>www.thedailyshow.com</a></td></tr><tr valign='middle'><td style='padding:0px;' colspan='2'><embed style='display:block' src='http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:260703' width='360' height='301' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' wmode='window' allowFullscreen='true' flashvars='autoPlay=false' allowscriptaccess='always' allownetworking='all' bgcolor='#000000'></embed></td></tr><tr style='height:18px;' valign='middle'><td style='padding:0px;' colspan='2'><table style='margin:0px; text-align:center' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' width='100%' height='100%'><tr valign='middle'><td style='padding:3px; width:33%;'><a target='_blank' style='font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes'>Daily Show<br/> Full Episodes</a></td><td style='padding:3px; width:33%;'><a target='_blank' style='font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;' href='http://www.indecisionforever.com'>Political Humor</a></td><td style='padding:3px; width:33%;'><a target='_blank' style='font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/videos/tag/health'>Health Care Crisis</a></td></tr></table></td></tr></tbody></table> JS' comments at the end really go to the heart of the matter, but of course, his statements over the past 9 years belie his kinder, gentler words in this instance.
Why then was a relatively lower level attorney asked to draft such a controversial interpretation? From what I recall many other WH lawyers didn't agree with that interpretation and weren't willing to back it so Addington got Yoo to draft it. If I recall correctly Yoo was nicknamed "Dr. Yes" by many in the Admin. for his willingness to go along with what was asked. As for whether the question hadn't been addressed previously treaty law has been addressed quite a bit going all the way back to the Treaty with Britian that ended the Revolutionary War.
everyone but the most partisan supporters recognize that the bush white house authorized torture. yoo was simply the guy who came up w/ the legal justification for their illegal actions. b.s. loopholes that would allow them to toss the geneva convention and the war crimes act of 1996 (passed by a republican congress) down the toilet. the white house asked yoo to come up w/ a new definition of torture. thats basically all they did - change the definition of torture to be anything short of organ failure or death. this is a clear violation of u.s. law and the geneva convention and no amount of spin can change that. yoo is so full of it on that interview and that is what stewart was bewildered by. basso or anyone else who actually thinks stewart found yoo to be "sober, thoughtful or honorable" either didnt watch the interview or has very poor perception skills. yoo's actions resulted in the deaths of detainees, which according to the war crimes act of 1996 make him eligible for prison or the death penalty. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Yoo#War_crimes_accusations On December 1, 2005, Yoo appeared in a debate in Chicago with University of Notre Dame law professor Doug Cassel. During the debate Cassel asked Yoo, "If the President deems that he's got to torture somebody, including by crushing the testicles of the person's child, there is no law that can stop him?", to which Yoo replied "No treaty." Cassel followed up with "Also no law by Congress — that is what you wrote in the August 2002 memo...", to which Yoo replied "I think it depends on why the President thinks he needs to do that." [52][53] Retired Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, General Colin Powell's former chief of staff (in both the Persian Gulf War and while Powell was Secretary of State in the Bush Administration), has stated the following regarding Yoo: "Haynes, Feith, Yoo, Bybee, Gonzales and — at the apex — Addington, should never travel outside the US, except perhaps to Saudi Arabia and Israel. They broke the law; they violated their professional ethical code. In the future, some government may build the case necessary to prosecute them in a foreign court, or in an international court."[83]
I have watched the videos and he doesn't address why a he specifically was asked to draft the memos. As for regarding treaty law and executive power he pretty much contradicts himself by showing how these issues had been hashed in out in previous admins. That is far different than saying that these issues had never been addressed when clearly they have. For that matter Jon Stewart points out that these were very problematic examples. While I'm at it I will point out that his example of the the Emancipation Proclamaition as an expansion of presidental powers against Congress or the courts is mistaken as while neither Congress or the USSC had ruled slavery illegal at that time the Emancipation Proclamaition was only applied to the states in rebellion under the justification of depriving them of material support. It took the 13th Ammendment to abolish slavery that was passed according to the Constitution. I will also point out that Yoo's statements in this interview contradict his own previous statements regarding Presidential power. He argues that this power in the time of war is meant to be restrained when the very interpretation that he advocated of a Unitary Executive is one of unrestrained power. I will give credit that he does come out as thoughtful but this interview strikes me more as his thoughtfulness is in looking back in hindsight and realizing that what he was pushing is very very problematic. Also his thoughtfulness and what he describes of his book sounds more like trying to shore up his own reputation by reinterpretting what he did.
he addresses the question of "why him" specifically- it's the first question JS asks. basically, he was one of the few people in the justice dept at that time that had a national security background. and you're conflating the expansion of presidential powers in time of war generally with the specific question that Yoo was asked to address. as JS says, i'm not a constitutional scholar, so i'm not going to try and paraphrase, or interpret, what Yoo said- it's right there in the videos. the more general point however is they were trying to find the most effective, and in this case, most expeditious, manner of protecting the american people, and remain w/in the boundary of the law. you can argue whether or not they got it right (the country seems fairly evenly split on that point) but the caricature of Bush/Cheney/Ashcroft/Yoo as evel warmongers looking to trample on the rights of americans, is just that, a caricature.
the whole point is that they had yoo change the law. under the geneva convention and the 1996 war crimes act what the bush administration did constitutes torture, plain and simple.
Actually the country isn't evenly split. Nothing Yoo said changes the perception of Cheney, Yoo et al. trampling the constitution wasn't changed by anything Yoo said in the interview. I'm not sure what you were watching.
That's what I got out of the interview too, and I think Yoo would agree with you. I believe argument is that the executive branch has the power to go beyond the law when needed, and makes strong arguments for why the executive branch has this power, and that it has exercised this power in good and bad ways in previous eras. I thought Yoo was sober and thoughtful... don't know about honorable, but that's not his point. He's making a legal argument because that was his job. Whether it is an effective strategy or ethical goes beyond what he was asked to do.
And here I was thinking he was yet another Bush administration hack simply trying to sell his book. A jumped up pseudo intellectual prick more than willing to sell out his country for his boss, now pimping for his wallet.
