White House wants suit against Yoo dismiss

[waterscalm]

Bush and Cheney must be so happy!!

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/12/07/MN061AVC89.DTL


White House wants suit against Yoo dismiss

The Obama administration has asked an appeals court to dismiss a lawsuit accusing former Bush administration attorney John Yoo of authorizing the torture of a terrorism suspect, saying federal law does not allow damage claims against lawyers who advise the president on national security issues.

Such lawsuits ask courts to second-guess presidential decisions and pose "the risk of deterring full and frank advice regarding the military's detention and treatment of those determined to be enemies during an armed conflict," Justice Department lawyers said Thursday in arguments to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

Other sanctions are available for government lawyers who commit misconduct, the department said. It noted that its Office of Professional Responsibility has been investigating Yoo's advice to former President George W. Bush since 2004 and has the power to recommend professional discipline or even criminal prosecution.

The office has not made its conclusions public. However, The Chronicle and other media reported in May that the office will recommend that Yoo be referred to the bar association for possible discipline, but that he not be prosecuted.

Yoo, a UC Berkeley law professor, worked for the Justice Department from 2001 to 2003. He was the author of a 2002 memo that said rough treatment of captives amounts to torture only if it causes the same level of pain as "organ failure, impairment of bodily function or even death." The memo also said the president may have the power to authorize torture of enemy combatants. <snip>

[willing dwarf]

1. Check your hopes at the door

I would like to say that I can't believe this -- Yoo should be tried. We should have a Truth Commission to learn about all the ways our (supposed) government failed us during the Bush years. Instead we are seeing that the abrogation of justice will go on unchecked. Why? Are the Obama people afraid that if they hold people like Yoo accountable for their illegal actions that someday they too will be put on trial for the missteps and misdeeds of their administration? Is Obama a coward or is he just towing the institutional line about the privilege of high office? Well fuck that!

I am bitterly disappointed. The notion that anyone put Obama's face on a poster with the word HOPE now feels like a cruel slap in the face.

I'm done with hope.

[waterscalm]

2. My bucket of Hope is leaking each day..........

:(

[Kolesar]

3. No, it's explained in the second paragraph of the sfgate article

...and it's nothing like your speculation: Are the Obama people afraid that if they hold people like Yoo accountable for their illegal actions that someday they too will be put on trial for the missteps and misdeeds of their administration? Is Obama a coward or is he just towing (sic) the institutional line about the privilege of high office?

[willing dwarf]

4. My Cynicism: What it says and what it means are different things

I've seen too much. I watched it too often. Perhaps it is the wound of having lived openly and full heartedly. Having hoped and trusted and seen those hopes and that trust dashed on the rocks of arrogance, greed and convenience, now it becomes necessary to not hope. To expect nothing.

The second paragraph gives a reason for Yoo not being tried, but the Obama who ran for the office would have said that that's a reason sure, but the plumb line of justice would necessitate the speedy trial of Yoo.

Over and over Obama capitulates. What there was of clear unequivocal integrity seems to have disappeared behind the veil of high office. He's gone.

[Kolesar]

5. the sadness

I don't know how you can go on, day to day.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

6. A great Kos diary on this topic

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/12/10/812675/-On-eve-of-receiving-Nobel,-Obamas-DOJ-files-amicus-brief-upending-Nuremberg-Protocols.-
On eve of receiving Nobel, Obama's DOJ files amicus brief upending Nuremberg Protocols.
by ImpeachKingBushII Thu Dec 10, 2009 at 02:35:43 AM PST

****************************************************************************************

tick tick tick tick - that's the clock winding down on my remaining time as a Democrat.

[Doctor_J]

7. Raise your hand if you won't be giving time or money to the Dems

next year

:hi:

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. Oh, I thought they were talking about the chocolate milk drink.

[tomm2thumbs]

9. do you have a lawyer for that joke?

<grin>