Also, about last night....I did indeed watch the interview that torture-enabler, Inquirer op-ed columnist and Episcopal Academy alum John Yoo did with Jon Stewart on "The Daily Show." And...it was what it was, which was an interview of a highly intelligent, unflappable and affable man who did some very, very bad things.
An interview conducted not by a prosecutor, or a congressional investigator, the kind of people who should be asking questions of the former Bush administration official who wrote the memos authorizing torture at
But by a comedian.
Jon Stewart -- who used to act occasionally -- decided to play the role of Everyman, wide-eyed and dumbfound by Yoo's torture explanations as well as his broader argument that the powers of the president are almost limitless during wartime, which -- since advocates insist that the "war on terror" is essentially endless and limitless itself -- all but turns an American commander-in-chief into a dictator. At one point, a baffled Stewart blurted out: "This doesn't make any sense to me."
Understandable. Yoo's interview was laced with misleading statements or half-truths -- even even revived the old "No. 3 in al-Qaeda" trope at one point. He insisted he was merely trying to find how far
As noted by American Prospect's Adam Serwer:
Stewart allowed Yoo to claim the U.S. had never really considered what is and isn't torture, despite the fact that the U.S. statute against torture was very clearly violated by Yoo's recommendations and that waterboarding had been prosecuted as a crime as recently as 1983.
Stewart never confronted Yoo on the question of how the torture regime, reverse engineered from training meant to help soldiers resist torture, could possibly not be torture. Stewart never even contested the idea that torture was effective, despite the high-profile declaration of FBI Interrogator Ali Soufan that he personally extracted all of the useful information from [Abu] Zubayda prior to his being tortured.
Why didn't Stewart nail him on these statements?! Maybe, um, because he's a comedian -- one that people admire because he has a sense of moral outrage in addition to a sense of humor, but a comedian nonetheless. Stewart was able to "compel" Yoo to testify in the court of public opinion because Yoo needed the Daily Show to help sell his new book. Of course, there's plenty of folks who could compel Yoo to testify in a real court or investigate hearing. But this is
Call it the new American exceptionalism. As Glenn Greenwald and others have noted, other nations around the world are going through exhaustive investigations of what went wrong during the decade of the 2000s in
The selling of John Yoo is made even more frustrating by the fact that in his case, there actually is the potential for some measure of accountability. More than a year ago, in the waning days of the Bush administration, the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility wrapped up a report that is said to be quite damning toward Yoo and a colleague -- reportedly accusing the lawyers of "sloppy legal analysis, misjudgments and possible political interference" and recommending them for possible disbarment. Amazingly, the report has been kept under wraps by an Obama administration that seems no more motivated to hold torture criminals accountable than the administration that committed the crimes.
In a perfect world, there would be criminal investigations and charges against Yoo and the others behind the Bush torture regime. At the very least, the Justice report on Yoo must be released and disbarment proceedings must begin. Because the idea that America can handle one of the worst stains on our nation's legacy through a late-night comedy show is the biggest joke of all.
I though Stewart did a nice job of exposing how vapid Yoo's arguments were. The best part was when Yoo said that clearly presidents had overreached in the past, but that it wasn't possible that Bush overreached in this case - because, uh, he said so. That said, it would be nice to see what would happen if Yoo were to have to defend his inane analysis against legal experts.— Talking point sleuth- Maybe people who don't think that Yoo was exposed should watch the extended interview - not the edited version. http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-january-7-2010/daily-show--exclusive---john-yoo-extended-interview-pt--1— Talking point sleuth
TPS learned a new word that describes himself. Vapid! Good for you. Now go back to the basement. I hear your mother calling. Don't forget to take your meds.— georgel- That was funny, George. And so original. I've never seen anyone use the basement/mother/meds jokes before. Well, except for just about every freakin' thread on every freakin' blog in the freakin' blogosphere. At least if all you got is ad homenem insults, you could maybe come up with something even the slightest bit original?— Talking point sleuth
- If we are going to carry this "let's investigate past administrations on torture allegations" thing then let's do it. Let's do it, you left wing, self righteous, blame America first, Obama sycophants. Let's put Bush behind bars for trying to save American lives. Then let's put Clinton behind bars for authorizing rendition cause he didn't have the guts to do the waterboarding himself (or how about purgery, Miss Lewinski?), then we can posthumously charge Truman and FDR for war crimes ranging from genocide (only two nukes ever used in combat) to inumerable civil and human rights violations associated with the internment of thousands of US citizens of Japanese descent. While we're at it let's review Democrat voting records on the abolition of slavery and rights for recently freed slaves after the Civil War. You self righteous nincompoops wanna take it back that far? Let's do it. Hell yeah, let's do it. I am through letting you know nothings hijack the political discourse in this country as if from some position of moral superiority. Let's dig up all the bones and see who comes out ahead. Miss Kopechne, Miss Monroe, would you care to cast your votes first?— pjsz1261
- Nice job TPS, I also thought Stewart did a good job exposing Yoo considering that he is a political comedian. He constantly reminds people that he is a comedian and that people who use him as their only source of news shouldn`t do so. Also, the man does have a time limit. He couldn`t ask Yoo every question he wanted to.— FaithInMcNabb
- "Inquirer op-ed columnist ...John Yoo".- are you jealous Will becasue all you have is a cut-n-paste blog on the off shift?— AngryWhiteMale
- 59% want the panty bomber waterboarded. One of the questions I wanted candidates to be asked directly was "would you have authorized waterboarding Khalid Shiekh Muhammad. It's one thing to make legalistic, in a vacuum arguments from the safety of your basemeent, it's quite another to be sworn to uphold the safety of the American people. I think the American public deserved to have their candidates on the record for that one.— tr88
- I'm for the prosecution of FDR for imprisoning 125,000 American Citizens during WW II. We should remove all of his statues and change the name of every government facility named after the greatest Democratic President. Of course I understand and agree with why he did it, but it is yet another example of democrats being hypocrites.— tr88
- So why is it that the only voice requesting accountability of everyone is a comedian on a narrowly focused cable channel? Where is the press? Why, as pointed out in another post Will, is the mainstream media only outraged about McGwire's lies? So allow me to make an introduction, Pot meet Kettle....
- Because they would have their heads handed to them. Left wingers would much rather whine about it than to have the debate because they know how weak it makes them look.— tr88
- President Obama now holds all of the cards. He and his staff have access to everything. Why do you think he hasn't done anything substantive or moved very slowly on all of these issues of supposed "crimes" and "incompetence" like Iraq, Guantanamo, Torture, Bin Laden and related issues? Could it be perhaps that now he has the real story from where he sits, he knows that Bush was right, but can't say so? Perhaps?— Mirror
In 2012, Obama doesn't want the Romney administration to put him in jail for the politically corrupt trilion dollar "stimulus package" payoffs of 2009, 2010, and 2011.— Mr. Smith- tr88, are you off the meds? FDR was right to inter thousands of US citizens for some vague threat? Wow, guess you don't care much about unchecked power. FDR also helped usher along the welfare state.— RG
- Will, why do you use false emphasis (i.e.,underscoring) so much in your columns? I was always told by my writing professors that it should be only sparingly used, as overuse actually signifies or admits that the prose is weak without it.— pj katauskas
Will Bunch, a senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News, blogs about his obsessions, including national and local politics and world affairs, the media, pop music, the Philadelphia Phillies, soccer and other sports, not necessarily in that order.
E-mail Will by clicking here.
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