March 19, 2007

bill-o_torture.jpg O'Reilly always likes to think he's smarter than most people, but in this instant---he punks himself and looks more pathetic than ever. Sunsara Taylor of "The World Can't Wait," was on to talk about ending the Iraq war...It seems she has a better grasp on the administration than he does.

icon Download icon Download Could S. Taylor be any clearer on Yoo than she was? Bill completely misses the boat. Later in the show he brings on his pesky duo to analyze her.....

O'Reilly: Do you think it's responsible and patriotic for someone to come on national TV and accuse the US government of mashing a baby's testicles. Do you think that's patriotic?

Powers: I , I don't do that....

Bill kept harping on that visual because he thought he was criticizing Sunsara, but it's a sad fact that O'Reilly has no clue what one of Bush's major dudes--John Yoo---believes and openly talked about in a public discussion on torture. It was sickening. Here's audio of Yoo just for O'Reilly that I posted back on 12/29/05.

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If O'Reilly thinks it's unpatriotic to even discuss that it might have happened----what does he think about the people crafting the torture guidelines for the US government?

Cassel: If the president deems that he’s got to torture somebody, including by crushing the testicles of the person’s child, there is no law that can stop him?

Yoo: No treaty

Cassel: Also no law by Congress — that is what you wrote in the August 2002 memo…

Yoo: I think it depends on why the President thinks he needs to do that.

As Arthur states very clearly in his excellent piece on torture: ”..it’s hardly surprising, because of the kind of men who were central to the administration’s original decision to embrace torture as a legitimate weapon in its intentionally impossible-to-define “War on Terror. One of those men was John Yoo.”

Yoo actually fielded the question like someone asked him what flavor of ice cream he prefers. I was so stunned listening to his response to the question, (much in the same manner Jeffrey Dahmer might respond to an interviewer) I had to ask around to see if this was a valid Q&A.

Andrew Sullivan was equally shocked at this exchange. “Just keep slicing the salami until you’re torturing innocent children. And we deposed Saddam for what again?” (Here also)

ReddHedd analyses Yoo for us:

“Yoo defends his legal interpretations by saying you can’t judge him or his scholarship based on the results of his legal advice, but merely on the validity of his legal interpretation of black letter law. Unfortunately for Mr. Yoo, he fails on multiple counts. Not the least of which because he failed to follow the cardinal rule of lawyering: present all sides of the issue, not just the ones your client wants to hear — because it is the bad news that can be the most important thing in decision-making in any enterprise….read on

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