Tag Archives: Yoo

Navy wants immunity for its alibis

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There are apparently five navy servicemen who say they can exonerate the Navy Seals accused of beating Iraqi suspect Ahmed Hashim Abed in 2004. But they won’t testify unless granted immunity from prosecution. Say what? Their alibi is illegal? I’ll confess to writing John Yoo’s torture memo if I can be indemnified from responsibility. Wait, Yoo and his lawless wild bunch were let off the hook. And the civil case against Guantanamo for its detainees suicided in interrogation was dismissed. US law down the rabbit hole. Off with their heads — except Americans!

Did you know John Yoo is not in jail?

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john-woo-daily-showThis is the kind of civility that I just can’t stomach. Berkeley Law Professor John Yoo, author of the Torture Memos which Bushco’s blimpnecks took for their greenlight to water-board, was a guest yesterday on the Daily Show. Short of Jon Stewart orchestrating a citizen’s arrest, or reality television setting Gitmo alumni upon Woo like bears on honey, I don’t want to see the John Yoo walking free.

I could see that Stewart had planned some zingers which Yoo was able to dodge, and afterward Stewart behaved like Hannibal Lecter had just passed through, but on the whole I think hosting criminals like Yoo is ill advised. For one, you have to shake his hand. Then of course the nature of television entertainment –unless you are Mike Wallace who’s just strode into the mark’s office– has you trying to make light of the interview, the whole of which has been choreographed for laughs. Worst of all I believe, are the too-many times a host finds himself asking the audience to give it up for the guest.

When Stewart first announced the night’s guest was to be John Yoo, the audience appropriately enough did not cheer. Of course when it came time for the cretin’s entrance, the applause was obligatory. And so it followed, each subsequent punctuation. How else are the audience members supposed to show their enthusiasm? It’s true, their energy is critical to the stage energy.

Stephen Colbert solves the applaud-the-bad-guy paradox by taking a victory lap himself when the audience applauds the introduction of the guest. But usually Colbert’s show specializes in leftist guests with whom the audience is sympathetic, so the maneuver is more for bringing the studio audience unto Colbert’s role-playing for the Right. Integral to his act is an audience that mimics O’Reilly-Limbaugh ditto-heads. A veritable right wing audience could never be brought to even show civility to a guest they’re told is hostile.

And I guess I long for a little more of that genuine sentiment. It began for me when I saw Sarah Palin treated with effusive cordiality on Saturday Night Live. Again the audience was expected to applaud Palin, if in fact they were really just excited to see her roasted.

John Yoo and ilk, the whole Bush troops, must be prosecuted and jailed. That they walk about at large, free to second guess President Obama’s terrorism strategies are nothing to laugh at. I’ll cop to being humorless on this point.

NOTES:
Excerpt, March 13, 2002 Memorandum

“… neither the GPW (Third Geneva Convention) nor the Torture Convention restrict the President’s legal authority to transfer prisoners captured in the Afghanistan conflict to third countries. Although the GPW places conditions on the transfer of POWs, neither al-Qaeda nor Taliban prisoners are legally entitled to POW status, and hence there are no GPW conditions placed on their transfer. While the Torture Convention arguably might govern transfer of these prisoners, it does not apply extraterritorially.”

Excerpt, August 1, 2002 Memo

“Under international law, therefore, the United States thus is bound only by the text of the Torture Conventions as modified by the first Bush administration’s understanding.”

Barack Obama is trying to keep Donald Rumsfeld from being sued for torture!

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‘Padilla’ filed a 43-page civil lawsuit in federal court in Charleston against several U.S. officials, including former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, his deputy Paul Wolfowitz, and former Attorney General John Ashcroft, seeking a declaration that was done to him, including torture, isolation, and denial of the procedural protections in the Bill of Rights, was illegal and unconstitutional.

Padilla has filed a similar case in San Francisco against Yoo, who authored or co-authored some of the infamous torture memos. At a hearing today in Charleston, Barack Obama’s Justice Department will ask a federal magistrate to dismiss Padilla’s case against Rumsfeld and others. Next week, it is expected to do the same in the case against Yoo.’ See Obama’s Defense of Rumsfeld and Yoo by Jacob G. Hornberger.

Two better Vice-Presidential choices- Rosa Clemente and Matt Gonzalez

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You don’t have to choose between a crazy fundamentalist Right Wing woman, Sarah Palin, or a slimy used car selling crook and Zionist, Joseph Biden. Check out two much better and quite different VP possibilities, Rosa Clemente and Matt Gonzalez…

Compare Rosa Clemente Green Party VP candidate speaks at Convention to Sarah Palin. What woman from ‘the common people’ do you prefer here? And compare Matt Gonzalez Ralph Nader’s running mate 2008 He was born in McAllen, Texas. Yoo-Hoo! Compare him to that dry drunk ‘Texan’ we now have in the White House screwing up the world! Yes, and compare Matt to slime ball Joe? Who do you really want in office?

Yoo who?

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The Bush Administration, after years of lying, has finally admitted that it is using torture on POWs. This it is doing after all those years of MIA/ POW campaigning against Vietnam, who were supposedly holding in secret some of our noble US soldiers in hidden camps, way years after the war. That campaign by the Right Wing- Love our Troops crowd- was ludicrous, of course, since there never were any missing GIs left behind.

But now that they have winked and us and admitted what liars they are, the Bush Administration has set us up a fall guy by the name of John Yoo to take the heat over torture. What a crock of shit! We know that all of you in the Bush Administration, plus hundreds upon hundreds of top Democrats,too, were all involved in approving torture use on the prisoners held by US military forces. Who is this Yoo you want us to go after? He is a nobody. Here is what the LA Times has to say about the issue- Which came first: memos or torture?

Why should John Yoo be taking the blame for people like Dick Cheney and Dubya? He is not even a Donald Rumsfield, or Condy Rice, not to mention all the generals who are in charge of the actual ongoing abuse of these many times innocent men and even children. Yoo, in short, is a yodel.

But behind all this game playing are the Democrats. Yoo is a play target for these DP politicians so complicit with carrying out the policies and activities of the Republican Party. Shame on you Democrats, for letting the Republicans get away with using torture on people, as you idly sat by and pretended to be mildly opposed to what they were doing. You are liars, too, and on a scale equal to the Republicans. Until we get rid of both you squads of creeps, this country is going nowhere good but fast.

From Dallas to Dubai, Oh Why?

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How was it that my former employer, Halliburton, has floated from Dallas to Houston to now, Dubai? JR, where are you? You left the ranch!

Youngsters might not have ever seen the US’s favorite soap opera of all time, ‘Dallas’, where JR Ewing was owner of Ewing Oil? For years fans made pilgrimage’s to the ranch, Southfork (read South forked tongue), where JR reigned supreme in this sappy TeleFantasy. JR is now our vice presdent (in real life) and his company is called Halliburton, a major source of corruption throughout the world as well as in the White House.

When Dick Cheney was getting his start, it consisted of buying up Dresser Industries in Dallas, where I worked as a production machinist way back in the early ’80s. The company made oil field equipment and used a lot of asbestos in its production. Cheney gobbled up the company for Halliburton at cut rate prices, thinking for sure that his high connections would get the company off very easy from all the workers and their families suing the outfit for exposing them to this deadly substance. He was right, the injured workers had to settle for pennies as they begin to die off. Halliburton had filed for bankruptcy!

As we all well know, this evil company headed by Satan (Dick Cheney) has risen from Hell to infect the world once again with its sin. Most notably in Iraq, where it has taken the US tax payer to the cleaners, as literally billions have disappeared under its watch. Might there be liability of some form ahead? Plus, the company has ripped off various cleanup funds for hurricane hit areas, most notably Katrina, but also including other storms. Halliburton is corruption personified.

But wait! This All American company has just relocated to Dubai, one of the 9 emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates. You might think this all logical, as so the company maintians due to Dubai being the center of the world’s major oil producing region? But only about 7% of the economic activity of Dubai is related to oil. The main source of income is from tourism! Yes, tourism.

I know, I know. You are probably sick of visitng Disneyland and Las Vegas, and have suggested to yoour husband or wife or Significant Other,

‘Hey, why don’t we vacation in Dubai this year?’

And they might have whined n response. ‘Dubai?’

Yes, Dubai. Let us tell you why, Dubai!

You see, Dubai is about 1 million population, making it 1/3 of the population of the UAE’s 9 emirates. But there are 3 times more men than women living there. What gives? And who are these folk?

Well, only less than 20% of them have citizenship. Huh? Well, basically Dubai’s small citizenry live in a gated community like those gated communities found in upper class enclaves in Dallas and Houston. The 80% plus of other residents are ‘servants’. Or to be more exact, many of them are basically slaves. It’s kind of like Texas, but even more Texas than the original.

Dick Cheney and his cohorts at Halliburton will feel just fine there. English is the language of the schools, and also the language of business. It’s a dictatorship, theocracy, and a Kingdom. Plus, the banking laws are just right! What liability?

But most of all, it is the sex capital of the region! Non citizen ‘guest workers’ automatically have their passports confiscated by the police upon entering The Emirate. That includes female ‘guest workers’ especially. That’s what makes tourism supreem in Dubai! ‘Businessmen’ come from worldwide for Dubai’s beaches and its uh?, nightlife. Got the picture?

Check out this documentary on Dubai’s trade in slave flesh. Made by concerned Armenians, no less.
‘Desert Nights‘. It is 45 minutes long, more or less, and gets more interesting as it goes. Perhaps you wanted to visit Bangcock? But why not follow the Halliburton executive crowd and get to know the slaves of Dubai instead?

Crappuccino

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pictureWhat’s a coffee-free coffee? Does it say on the bottle it’s a “Crappuccino?” What is that? It’s not a milk-frapped espresso. Is it a strawberry milkshake? Is it a smoothie? A Yoo-Hoo? A DQ Freeze? Maybe it’s Pepto-ccino.
 
When Starbucks begins to sell burgers like Dairy Queen too, and when their customers begin avoiding Mad Cow foods, Starbucks can sell hamburger buns without the hamburgers [burger-free hamburgers] and call them crapwiches!