Yoo vs Barr: Executive Power During a Global War on Terrorism

[dar482]

You guys are going too far on Yoo. He had a minuscule role in the Bush administration. They wanted someone to help justify questionable things they wanted to get done and Yoo tried his best to find those answers.

In the end, he is a Constitutional scholar. At worst, he has some far right views on the Constitution. Blame the administration, not him.

[danmanjones]

john yoo is a disgusting war criminal who should be hung just like his nazi predecessors.

[im4wur2]

If John Yoo is such a constitutional scholar, how is it that when he wrote his opinion for the Bush administration he couldn't find any precedent for waterboarding prisoners? (cont)

[im4wur2]

(cont) Instead of citing any of these examples, Yoo dredged up references from a medicare statute to declare in one of his torture memos that: "These statutes suggest that to constitute torture 'severe pain' must rise to a similarly high level -- the level that would ordinarily be associated with a physical condition or injury sufficiently serious that it would result in death, organ failure, or serious impairment of body functions." (cont)

[im4wur2]

As Cheney reveals here: "Dick Cheney on ABC This Week pt 3" - ( watch?v=wfGErHzfsuw ) Yoo gave the Bush administration the legal cover they asked for, regardless of legal precedent.

[Causa10bserver]

It's always a pleasure to hear from Bob Barr.

[dlucas90]

Separation of powers is critical to not ending up as a dictatorship. The biggest problem with executive power is that the very people who most need to be investigated are in control of the investigations. For example, allowing the Bush administration to be solely in charge of the 911 commission investigation is inherently flawed. It is like letting a sheriff investigate a murder when the murder victim is the sheriff's dead wife in the sheriffs house.

[777CARL777]

John Yoo has brought his communist ideals from Vietnam where the dear leader is always right & if Bush wanted to torture children in front of their parents, well that's okay because dear leader Bush is never wrong...........FUCK THAT!!!!! JOHN YOO SHOULD GO RIGHT TO FUCKING JAIL!!!!!!

[eirefrance]

Vietnam? Dear Leader? There are so many facts wrong with your posting.

[777CARL777]

Yeah, he's from S. Korea but that doesn't change how a foreigner from a fucked up country was brought in to okay torture. Do you approve of torturing children in front of their parents to obtain false confessions for phony terror alerts used for political gain?

[eirefrance]

No, of course not, Yoo played a very significant part in another shameful moment in this country's history. But his Korean heritage isn't part of that any more than anything "foreigner" is what okayed torture. What okayed torture was the legal wranglings and extralegal behavior of numerous American individuals working within the native US legal and justice system, of which Yoo is the prominent figure but thats all.

[777CARL777]

Well argued & your point is well taken. The checks & balances that would usually have rejected what Yoo & his OLC office approved were MIA & President Obama is making a terrible mistake in not prosecuting Yoo, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, & everybody else who allowed the U.S. to become torturers & war-criminals. In a way, Obama is guilty for his inaction & I consider him an accomplice after the fact!!

[Robfenix]

Yeah, I agree. We should rely on the political process to punish all crimes. I murdered my wife, but I think that it is important for me to have discretion in this snesitive area of marital affairs. It was necessary for Roosevelt and Lincoln to have discretion in the area of marital affairs. Therefore, unless Congress censures me, I think I should not be prosecuted for breaking a statute.

[Robfenix]

screw this guy and his French cuffs.

[newengland72]

* French Cuffs are pure class.

[tricklessmagic]

Yoo moron LMAO. these guys actually think they can re-write history.

[screwopenborders]

The political process doesn't work if the congress goes along with bullshit legistation that the president signs off on. The snake way of passing bills under other bills and trying to hide them has got to go and is indeed against the will of the people. also when they are in a hurry to pass bills that leads to tyranny. if people aren't patient they can fuck off to another country.

[wrongheadedfool]

Too bad Bob Barr voted for the Patriot Act... I mean it's great that he realizes now it was bad, but I'd rather have a representative who understood that from the get-go.

[Mastikator]

@wrongheadedfool Yeah the libertarian party is kind of a joke, from a libertarian perspective.

[screwopenborders]

yeah I'm surpirsed people don't see through the obvious trick of bombarding legislation into one document to make it more complicated and peer pressure played a roll in it. bunch of cowards and idiots went for the propaganda tool "if you don't vote for the patriot act, you aren't a patriot" and other obvious rhetoric. the other thing I think is that they didn't care if people lost their rights.

[im4wur2]

Well said! - Furthermore: "To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." - Theodore Roosevelt (1918)

[purplecharger88]

Go get him Bob!

[ls1z28chris]

I have to reiterate again that if the Bush administration had its way, habeas corpus would have been suspended for American citizens simply by labeling them "enemy combatants."

While what Yoo says in sound bytes seems initially compelling, looking at the philosophy he defends will quickly make one realize that he is an enemy of the state. That seems to be Barr's point.

So I'll jump on the bandwagon here: fuck Yoo!

[TheMethodSocratic]

@ls1z28chris Can you explain why the Bush administration couldn't "have its way?" They had 8 years and plenty of opportunities to do that, so what went wrong?

[ls1z28chris]

@TheMethodSocratic

In the specific case to which I refer, Rumsfeld v. Padilla, the checks and balances worked. The judicial branch stopped the executive from exceeding the mandate of the Constitution.

[rtpricetag]

@ls1z28chris Lincoln during civil war had no legal quorum in Congress and began 'extra-legal' war powers to keep gov in operation. After the war with full Constitutional Congress terminated this unconstitutional War Powers.

FD Roosevelt at beginning of WWII rw-initiated this illegal power, every President since then inheritated, used, but did not terminate the War Power. This has made our Executive Office into a 'dictatorship', beginning known and secret wars, building Empire for an Empire-few.

[MsAlleykat27]

john i remember yoo get it hahahaha lol ;)

[MrConundrum2020]

yay john yoo

[artformeandyou]

Go John Yoo!

[Steadno]

yoo is a dirtbag

[return135]

Screw you Yoo!