John "Torture" Yoo gets a job at the Philly Inquirer
By John Amato Wednesday May 13, 2009 9:00amIt's true. John Yoo got a job writing for the Philly Inquirer. One of the men responsible of the rotting of our American morals once again is given a prime time job. It's sickening. The conservative movement is so devoid of thinkers that the traditional media is left to hire moral-less scoundrels that found legal jargon to try and justify torture for Cheney's henchmen.
Will Bunch explains: Inquirer defends the indefensible: A monthly column by torture architect John Yoo
By late last year, the world already knew a great deal about John Yoo, the Philadelphia native and conservative legal scholar whose tenure in the Bush administration as a top Justice Department lawyer lies at the root of the period of greatest peril to the U.S. Constitution in modern memory. It was widely known in 2008, for example, that Yoo had argued for presidential powers far beyond anything either real or implied in the Constitution -- that the commander-in-chief could trample the powers of Congress or a free press in an endless undeclared war, or that the 4th Amendment barring unreasonable search and seizure didn't apply in fighting what Yoo called domestic terrorism.
Most famously, Yoo was known as the author of the infamous "torture memos" that in 2002 and 2003 gave the Bush and Cheney the legal cover to violate the human rights of terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere, based on the now mostly ridiculed claim that international and U.S. laws against such torture practices did not apply. Working closely with Dick Cheney, Cheney's staff and others, Yoo set into motion the brutal actions that left a deep, indelible stain on the American soul.
Yet none of that was enough to prevent my colleagues upstairs at the Philadelphia Inquirer -- with none of the fanfare that might normally accompany such a move -- to sign a contract with Yoo in late 2008 to give him a regular monthly column. The Inquirer thus handed Yoo a loud megaphone on what was once a hallowed piece of real estate in American journalism -- to write on the very subjects that have now led Justice Department investigators to reportedly recommend disbarment proceedings against Yoo and has led international prosecutors as well as millions of politically engaged Americans to consider the Episcopal Academy graduate worthy of charging with war crimes.
It was Yoo's immoral guidance that aided the United States in sanctioning the torture practice known as waterboarding -- used in the Spanish Inquisition, by despots such as Pol Pot and by Chinese Communists in the Korean War to obtain false confessions from Americans -- as well as slamming detainees into walls, part of a harsh interrogation regime that has been linked to the deaths of at least a dozen U.S, detainees and possibly more.
But apparently the Inquirer didn't get the memo on Yoo.
We can do something. If you're up to it, you can write into Philly.com and voice your complaints about the hiring of this man.
And Will Bunch is up for some help too.
People should write the Inquirer -- inquirer.letters@phillynews.com -- or call the newspaper and tell them that torture advocates are not the kind of human beings who belong regularly on a newspaper editorial page, officially sanctioned. Journalists here in Philadelphia or elsewhere who wish to strategize on where to take this next should email me at bunchw@phillynews.com
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And his first column is devoid of any sound opinions other than that President Obama should have not used the word "empathy" when speaking about Supreme Court judges.
Right out of the gate, in the first column in which Yoo is identified as a Philadelphia Inquirer columnist, Yoo displays naked partisan hypocrisy, blasting President Obama for citing empathy as a quality a Supreme Court justice should possess after Yoo himself had praised Clarence Thomas for displaying that very quality.
Yoo then claims Obama is shifting his stance on empathy: "Obama's call for emotive judges contradicts his moderate campaign positions."
Shifting your position with the political winds, as Yoo has done, is one thing. Following such a shift with an attack on someone else for doing exactly what you have just done is taking partisan hackery to another level.
But that's not all! This is John Yoo we're talking about -- one of the villains behind the Bush administration's use of torture and its shameless power-grabs. You think he's going to stop at some hypocritical nonsense about "empathy"? No way.
Yoo went on to argue that Obama should not appoint an "activist" judge, thus mindlessly repeating the stupid talking point every Republican has used to attack every Democratic judicial nominee (actual or potential) since the dawn of time.
But in Yoo's case, the attack is particularly silly. See, right there at the end of Yoo's column, his bio line notes "He has served as a law clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas." And Yoo has lavished praise upon his former boss. And Clarence Thomas is, by one measure, the single most activist member of the Supreme Court.
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His column should be called the Spanish Inquisition.
All these criminals were promised rewards when told to do their criminal acts...
Look a Ted Stevens is rewarded with a full pardon while Prosecutors recommend that Don Siegelman be sentenced to 20 years.
Where is the outrage from the democrats... There NEVER is any...
Well we have great leaders like Pelosi , Reid , Schumer , Feinstein , the blue dog republicans in the House and now we have the members and blue dog republicans in the senate..
Well Emanuel told Obama to move to the center (right) and they have done a very good job of that...
that Adolph Hitler isn't still alive. The Inquirer -- or Fixed News -- could give him a pundit gig.
for the Texas Taliban ...
A nice by-line for him, with an alliterative ring.
that far left media!
Except the corporate-republcan media ,,,, which contains lies , propaganda &&&&&& BS..
How the MSM is liberal again? I'm so fucking sick of the lies.
...tell us how you REALLY feel?
I'm with you man.
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/5/8/pentagon...
...how long it would take for the Justice lawyers who wrote the idiotic opinions to cave on the person who told them what their opinions would be if they were actually prosecuted?
Considering Cheney's vehemence in trying to justify illegal activities, I don't think there is any doubt who gave justice their marching orders.
..that he won't be able to collect unemployment insurance when he's in jail?
May the Inquirer fold with all the other papers....
Not surprisingly, he refers to the community where he's earned a living as a tenured professor as "the People's Republic of Berkeley." Typical reich-wing phraseology, like "godless commie."
He aided and abetted torture -- and murder.
I hope the karmic wheel crushes him into dust.
This guy is so frickin' creepy and crooked I want to smash him myself... no, no... I won't go there... violence begets violence, I know...
I'm so sick and tired, fed-up to the eye-teeth as my Gramps would say, with these crooks, liars, torturers, murderers getting the gold. WTF?!!!!
Yoo on bad law, Yoo on undermining the constitution, Yoo on making the DOJ work against justice.
Of course, the pay on this should also be negative.
Yoo who do the voodoo?
bad juju!
Who's zoomin' Yoo.
Surely they don't think it's going to sell more newspapers.
...and it is sure to lead to a neocon under Cheney's control who has influence at the paper.
the print business is in REAL trouble...when they have to throw money around to attract a minimal talent like Yoo.
I'm so happy that the Reslug party as we know it is dying and rotting.
Wouldn't it be a cruel joke on all of us if the Republican party actually did go the way of the Dodo, and the country was stuck with their appointed Supreme Court Justices for another 20 or 30 years. I doubt appointees by either Bush would have a problem with thinking like Yoo's. I am not predicting this...just a thought.
“He's a Philadelphian, and very knowledgeable about the legal subjects he discusses in his commentaries. Our readers have been able to get directly from Mr. Yoo his thoughts on a number of subjects concerning law and the courts, including measures taken by the White House post-9/11. That has promoted further discourse, which is the objective of newspaper commentary.”--editorial page editor, Harold Jackson
"very knowledgeable about the legal subjects he discusses", is he? it seems more that his talent is in crafting excuses to run around the law. so sure, he is knowledgeable about legal subjects, knowledgeable about skirting and violating them.
the inquirer went belly up a couple of years ago, and despite the craven efforts by the GOP-leaning quasi-ruler of the inquirer it will fail again.
I just received this email from cnn
"Obama orders government lawyers to object to release of additional detainee photos, according to administration official."
I could accept this IFF (if and only if) the photos will be entered into evidence when prosecuting any and all that have enabled TORTURE.
...hear more about this. Personally, I doubt there will ever be any real investigations, let alone prosecutions of these lawless assholes.
Obama is just not going to make it happen and the media is doing their damndest to make it look like there is actually room for debating whether water boarding is torture or not. Legal precedents be damned.
weak
continuing the cover-up helps nothing
It shouldn't be to difficult for any intelligent person to figure out who's calling the shots in big business.
Of course. Plant people that enabled Bush and Cheney in a media outlet where they can spread the propaganda that torture wasn't really that bad. That an illegal war was justified. That the slugs that made these disgusting policies are never prosecuted.
It's called the Big Lie. Tell it often enough and loud enough and the lie becomes the truth.
Now there's a paper that deserves to go broke.
I live in Philly and have subscribed for over 10 years. I'm going to threaten to cancel my subscription and follow through with it, if necesary.
...will follow your lead HP. Is the Inquirer known to lean one way or the other? I don't know anything about the paper; other than their extremely poor judgement in hiring this idiot.
BTW, what's a Husker Princess doing in Philly? Shouldn't you be in Lincoln or some other Nebraska locale?
i posted this in the blog round-up earlier, but i wanted to provide some of the basic info again...
the inquirer went bankrupt a couple of years ago and a group of investors bought the paper, led by brian tierney. more on tierney:
Enter Brian Tierney, a Philly PR and ad maven, a Republican activist, a force in the city's corporate, civic and religious communities, and a sometime Inquirer nemesis. Savvy, dynamic and aggressive, a brawler in a city overflowing with brawlers, Tierney is unabashed in advancing himself and the institutions he represents. In the past he has clashed bruisingly with the Inquirer and its reporters to promote his clients' interests.
At 22, he moved to Washington, D.C., where he worked for the Republican National Committee, and then returned to the Philadelphia region as a Reagan appointee in the U.S. Small Business Administration's public affairs office.
As he built his publicity businesses, Tierney remained active in Republican politics. He has contributed more than $200,000 to state and national campaigns in the last decade, according to the Inquirer. (Tierney says he'll end his political giving in his new role as chief executive of Philadelphia Media Holdings.) He landed a regular spot as the conservative voice on "Inside Story," a weekly public affairs show on WPVI-TV, the local ABC affiliate.
i think there will be some canceled subscriptions, but i'm not sure there will be a lot--as that would require a lot of people to subscribe in the first place.
Samson's post explains the dealio w/ the Inq. My geographic inconsistency can be attibuted to a military upbringing.
I bet one of his first recommendations will be torture for excessive typos.
The thing is, the WSJ, WaPo and NYT already have given more than equal time to war criminals. This is despicable, but in some ways merely the most glaring, shameful example of a long-existing trend of deliberately hiring disingenuous hacks who write poorly in support of horrendous policies. Specifically, major outlets have given torture apologists a platform and not fact-checked them, and have refused even to call torture "torture." What's a bit unusual here is that Yoo is being given a regular gig, and may soon be disbarred, investigated and/or prosecuted.
Next up, Bernie Madoff pens a financial column and (a resurrected) Nixon talks ethics.
the Washinton Post.
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/051209.html
Thanks, Ron, I'm having trouble keeping up with all of them!
President Obama will oppose the release of several dozen photos depicting abuse of detainees held in U.S. military custody abroad, reversing his previous position on the grounds that the pictures could inflame anti-American sentiment and endanger U.S. troops.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/...
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Customer Service Center
The Philadelphia Inquirer
P.O. Box 13942
Philadelphia, PA 19101-3942
Main Switchboard: 215-854-2000
Please help make a difference.
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White House changes mind on not fighting the release of torture pictures.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8048774.stm
over in Afghanistnam.
The only way to lessen the endangerment is to get all of this out in the open and prosecute those that are guilty. Only then can we regain some moral higher ground.
I wonder if Gates is behind this new stance..
Bush couldn't finish.
crap.
Rahm stroking Pelosi's thong?
http://www.whiterabbitcult.com/wp-content/upl...
and then you had to go there.
Is it Friday yet?
apparently I'm wrong.
Wow...that pic is...uh...wow...dunno 'bout yous guys...but that looks like either they're VERY CLOSE FRIENDS....or...Rahm's hittin that.
And Evet...seriously...you been on this site long enough to know how low we can go. }:D>
"oh yeah baby just a little bit lower"
Will someone please drive a (philly cheese) stake into this guy's heart?
lol
It sounds like it's time to call for a boycott of the paper.
Well, this is the same paper that gave Rick Santorum a weekly column. I guess you could write that off since Santorum was a US Senator for Pennsylvania. So I let that slide.
Then came the 2008 presidential election. Even while a few traditionally conservative papers were crossing over and endorsing Barack Obama, the Inquirer couldn't make up its mind. Instead of clearly endorsing one candidate, they essentially endorsed both Obama and McCain. That's right! Their editorial page had two big endorsements: one for Obama--the main endorsement--and then a dissenting endorsement for McCain. I've never seen anything like it!
So I can't say that this Yoo hiring particularly surprises me. I see no reason to read that rag anymore. Their crossword puzzles suck and all the good classified ads are on craigslist: there's nothing left there of any value!
Wait till I read his syndicated column in my hometowns "liberal" newspaper alongside Bill Kristol, George Will, Kathleen Parker, Cal Thomas, Charles Krauthammer, David Brooks, Thomas Sowell, Jonah Goldberg, Ruben Navarette, Robert Novak, etc. You know -LIBERALS- .Not to mention the numerous local conservatives that rant daily on the editorial page of the paper. Yeah my hometown newspaper is so liberal I might someday mistake it for a Nazi publication. (Fuck Godwins Law)
Let's start a boycott of everyone who advertises on the Philidephia Inquirer front page.
I went to the front page and reloaded it a few times, then I noted which companies advertise there and looked up how to contact them:
Ringling Bros. Circus
http://www.ringling.com/ContactUs.aspx
Is supporting torture what makes it the greatest show on Earth?
The Ringling Bros. Circus is held at the Wachovia Center Stadium.
http://www.wachoviacenter.com/siteInfo/Contac...
If you are from Philadelphia, let them know you wont attend anything in their stadium if it means supporting people who advocate torture.
Comcast Cable
http://www.comcast.com/customers/feedback/def...
Is torture comcastic? Then why are they advertising with a paper that thinks that torture policy makers should be rewarded with jobs?
American Heart Association
http://americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?iden...
I'm sure showing how torture makes the heart race will advance their fundraisers among 20% of the population. As for the rest of us...
RCN (a cable company)
http://www.rcn.com/about-rcn/contact-us
These jokers might not care, but it's worth a shot.
Torture of prisoners AND the Constitution. I guess that puts him in the "Style" section.Unless they correctly feature him in the 'Crime" section??
It is "let the brainwashing of Americans begin" time. More apropos, let the brainwashing continue is more like it!
GREAT - Get the Mother F&%#^& out of California, and closer to the future trials in Washington D.C. and the Hague!
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