John Yoo: UC Berkeley Is a "Magnet for Hippies, Protesters and Left-Wing Activists"

[babsbunny]

http://www.truthout.org/031209A

Thursday 12 March 2009

by: Jason Leopold, t r u t h o u t | Perspective

John Yoo doesn't have any regrets about the controversial legal opinions he wrote for the White House - many of which were later withdrawn and repudiated - that gave former President George W. Bush unfettered and unchecked power in the aftermath of 9/11.

In a little known interview with the Orange County Register, published March 3, Yoo said he doesn't "think he would have made the basic decisions differently."

However, he said he would have polished the memos up a bit and spent more time on legal research had he known the memos would be released publicly.

"These memos I wrote were not for public consumption," Yoo told the OC Register. "They lack a certain polish, I think - would have been better to explain government policy rather than try to give unvarnished, straight-talk legal advice. I certainly would have done that differently.

[omega minimo]

1. Yoo is self righteous slimeball with a payoff somewhere for his treason

[Tangerine LaBamba]

2. JASON LEOPOLD????

That fraud is still writing for that idiotic site? Well, it's good to see that journalistic ethics and integrity haven't invaded either truthout or Leopold's brain - what there is of it.

I wouldn't trust anything that guy wrote, including the punctuation.

[uppityperson]

22. Was it 24 hours or 72? My memory of the fine details is fading.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

24. The "details" were memorable,

because they were so patently laughable and false.

It was twenty-four WORKING hours during which Rove was to get his affairs in order before .......... what came next? I believe it was that he would then turn himself in .............. somewhere, for something.

This "deal" came about after the epic "lockdown of Rove's attorney's law firm in downtown DC," which sealed up the place for fifteen hours.

That's FIFTEEN HOURS.

But, Leopold got this scoop. Not a word of it in that liberal Washington Post, for instance. And the people here, I am told, went totally insane when told that none of it could possibly happen. They were quite sure it had happened, because, after all, Jason Leopold said it had.

Let's see. Where's Rove today? In prison, right?

Jason Leopold.

If you want to read something very, very funny, read Leopold's entry at widipedia. Clearly, he wrote it himself. Not a word about his plagiarism, being fired, being shamed, having his book deal called off. Nothing. His entry is glowing.

What a shame that he's even allowed to put words on paper.......................

[uppityperson]

25. Indeed, it was rather too sad, all the way around.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

3. Where has he been for the past 45 years?

It's not exactly breaking news---and it's not a bad thing, either.

[LuckyLib]

10. My reaction exactly. My folks wouldn't let me go there precisely because of "hippies, protesters

and left-wing advocates. And that was the late 60's. In so many ways you're uninformed, Professor Yoo.

[marmar]

4. And at least one war criminal too.....

.... what a mound of hippo dung this man is.

[AndyTiedye]

5. Send Yoo to the Hague, along with Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld

[Ghost Dog]

16. Send him to Berkeley for some lovin' re-education?

:evilgrin:

[Cha]

6. And? That's all good,

yoo.

[drmeow]

7. "he would have polished the memos up a bit"

translation - he would have lied and done a better job at obfuscation.

[Uncle Joe]

8. These memos lack a certain moral, ethical and legal foundation.

You can polish up a turd all you want and it will still be a turd.

[AndyTiedye]

23. Has the California Bar Disbarred Him Yet?

[GreenPartyVoter]

9. Did he write that in 1969??

[DevonRex]

13. LOL! I should have read your post first.

[DemoTex]

15. Too bad Yoo missed the early Beat scene at Berkeley: Snyder, Ginsberg, Kerouac, etc.

Yoo bound and gagged and forced to hear Ginsberg read "Howl" at the Six Gallery in 1955 .. that's a picture to ponder. The Zens, the Beats, and the Hippies didn't fuck Berkeley up, the likes of John Yoo did.


Beats: Ginsberg, Burroughs, and Whalen.

[DevonRex]

11. What the hell decade, century and millennium is this guy living in?

Sounds like my father back in 1968, screeming at Walter Cronkite on the teevee.

[CreekDog]

12. and torturing douchebags

:think:

[damntexdem]

14. Yeah, John, that's why you're in Orange County, not Alameda County.

Orange County is the magnet for liars, crooks, and rightwing felons.

[ljm2002]

17. What self-serving claptrap...

...so what, exactly, is it that brought you to UC Berkeley, Mr. Yoo? Could it be that it is recognized as one of the finest universities in the world? With more Nobel prizes to its credit than any other? Could it be that Boalt Hall is one of the -- if not *the* -- finest law schools in the country?

Not that he has raised the standards any.

As an alumna of UC Berkeley, I have not given them a single cent of my money since this creep became the public face of Boalt Hall.

Get him off your faculty, UCB. You are better than this. He is a war criminal, and the kind of lawyer who spends his time figuring out how to thwart the law that he should be trying to uphold. He has actively undermined the principles upon which our country was founded.

Get rid of him, UCB. Don't try and hide behind tenure. There are "with-cause" reasons that even tenured professors can be fired. War crimes, subversion of the Constitution -- these ought to be good enough. Use them. Oh, and if you can't find a legal reason? Ask Mr. Yoo if he might be able to dream one up -- just tell him it's for some other professor. If he can figure out a way to throw out our First Amendment rights, then this ought to be a piece of cake for him.

[BuyingThyme]

18. I guess when you believe in a unitary executive, you simply don't

expect your Nazi memos to go public. Fuck Yoo.

[Tesha]

19. Sounds like Heaven on Earth! (NT)

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

20. Uh, I think he's confusing UC Berkeley with the city of Berkeley. n/t

[lunatica]

21. The only thing he did wrong was to not 'polish' the memos but...

He probably knew that Bush wouldn't understand anything above a 3rd grade level, so he wrote an 'unpolished' memo to the President of the US of A.

Yeah. I really believe that.

[devilgrrl]

26. Then Hippies, protesters & leftwing activists must be bright because it's hard to get into UCBerkley

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