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Go Home John Yoo is Surrounded by Communists!

THE PLANK DECEMBER 29, 2009

John Yoo is Surrounded by Communists!

BY SEYWARD DARBY

I see various groups are protesting a decision by a California government lawyer to teach a course with you that starts on Jan. 12, claiming he is legitimizing your unethical behavior.
At Berkeley, protesting is an everyday activity. I am used to it. I remind myself of West Berlin--West Berlin surrounded by East Germany during the Cold War.

Are you saying the citizens of Berkeley are Communists, reminiscent of those on the dark side of the Iron Curtain?
There are probably more Communists in Berkeley than any other town in America, but I think of them more as lovers of Birkenstocks than Marx.

Rife with other outrageous gems, The New York Times Magazine's Q&A with the author of the torture memos is worth a full read. 

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16 comments

I own Birkenstocks, so does that make me a Communist? It sounds like he's saying these people are Communists who know nothing about Marx, so are they really Communists or just misguided kids and acid casualties left over from the 60s? And was protesting really a daily activity in West Berlin/ East Germany? More flawless logic from Mr. Torture. Why doesn't this clown go teach at Pepperdine or James Mason, where he would be surrounded by more like-minded people? It doesn't take a lot of insight to predict that he wouldn't feel comfortable at Berkeley. But then again, insight and logic are not this guy's strengths.

- csmiller

December 29, 2009 at 2:58pm

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John Yoo probably doesn't remember this, but protesting was not permitted in East Berlin or the rest of East Germany -- unlike West Berlin, which was full of long-haired peacenik types from the 1960s right through the fall of the Berlin Wall (the fact that there was no conscription in West Berlin, unlike the rest of West Germany, helped immensely). If he really wanted to live in a straight-laced society, East Germany was the place for him.

- wildboy

December 29, 2009 at 3:00pm

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Csmiller, I think you mean "James Madison" in place of "James Mason" -- although the irony of a conservative institution named after an actor who first portrayed Humbert Humbert on film is just too tantalizing.

- wildboy

December 29, 2009 at 3:04pm

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OOps - you're right. I'm an idiot. Sorry - I was fulminating a tad too much for my mind to work correctly.

- csmiller

December 29, 2009 at 3:22pm

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Actually, I think you mean George Mason U. in northern VA, which is a conservative law school.

- butchie b

December 29, 2009 at 3:34pm

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John Yoo obviousy doesn't hang out in Berkely much - the 60's stereotype is long gone and has been for 20 years. It's a bunch of moneyed up guys in BMW's. He is such a total idiot, I cannot imagine how he teaches anything.

- WandreyCer

December 29, 2009 at 3:38pm

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He should teach at our Governor-elect's alma mater - Regent University. Where ideology trumps scholarship. I like the Berlin analogy, think of how Cold War history could have been written: The John Yoo Airlift "Ich bin ein Yoo-er" "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that Yoo"

- dubyadoubte

December 29, 2009 at 3:43pm

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I suspect Yoo was making a joke about the "communists" in Berkley. He's not my favorite lawyer, but I respect his unwillingness to use his parents to make him appear more human (and appealing); he claimed in the interview he isn't familiar with his parents' work (they are psychiatrists). Or he is deranged, thanks to his parents' inability to share even their life's work with their son.

- raylward

December 29, 2009 at 4:46pm

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butchie b is correct. Damn I'm whiffing today.

- csmiller

December 29, 2009 at 10:57pm

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Berkeley protestors of late, like protestors at other UC schools, are primarily pissed because California has awakened from Pat Brown's silly dream, improbably realized thanks to bagfuls of long-gone defense industry bucks, in which money would be no object to a qualified Californian receiving a UC education. Now the school sets aside far more spaces for full tuition-paying foreigners from exotic vacation spots like Iowa or New York while raising fees to in-state students again and again and again. Not sure how this makes the kids communists. Cheapskates, maybe. You get your occasional Edward Abbey worshipper treesitting or trying to liberate a lab full of rats but they're few and far between and about as closely related to the university as Yoo is to the United States Constitution. Berkeley and environs still has its share of decent hookers although that old hot tub place has long since closed down, along with the Berkeley Barb, which was the grandfather of today's Craigslist liaisons. Pity. But the Greek Theatre is still going strong; I saw Petty there a while ago. Even the losers get lucky some times. Meanwhile, like Jill said, it's too pricey for proles to live near campus. They've even tried to clean up Telegraph Avenue by busting truant teens for random malingering, which cramps the retailers' style. Cal's a fine school, unless you like your student bodies mostly white and rich. I'm too old for student bodies anymore but I imagine the canoodling that goes on thereabouts these days involves ice cream of every flavor--french vanilla, chocolate, coffee, carmel, et al. Maybe the new stadium will allow them to recruit enough studs to beat USC for once. (A buddy of mine, Cal alum, of one of the aforementioned brown demos, recently had a ball heckling former Stanford student Tiger Woods at the Big Game. Tiger was announced and the Bear fans chanted "Drop out! Drop out!" [he never graduated]; his zipper was caught in the downright position shortly thereafter--coincidence?) Long story short: Yoo is trippin.

- williamyard

December 29, 2009 at 11:04pm

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Oh, and I own two pairs of Birkies: a grungy pair for squashing spiders around the house, and a dress pair for formal occasions like midnight runs to the Safeway bakery. From each, according to his ability and what not.

- williamyard

December 29, 2009 at 11:10pm

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I think he means Marxists. That I can believe. Once a Marxist...

- Tgossard

December 30, 2009 at 2:51pm

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Yoo says he never met George Bush. I think he did, but the conversation, if revealed, would undermine Yoo's theories of executive power: Yoo: "I am Yoo." Bush: "I am you?" Yoo: "No, I am Yoo." Bush: "You are me?" Yoo: "I am Yoo!" [Pause, as Bush squints and looks into Yoo's eyes.] Bush: "Stop saying that. Make him stop saying that."

- jhildner1

December 30, 2009 at 2:51pm

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Hildner, that's damned funny. Nice going!

- butchie b

December 30, 2009 at 3:32pm

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEMQjHRmI54

- basman

December 31, 2009 at 2:43pm

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i.e There is substantially more to the man than evident by those prone all too easily to dismissing him because they disagree with him or his political associations as exemplifed by this self refuting foolishness, which rises to the level of staggering irony when its source is considered: "...He is such a total idiot, I cannot imagine how he teaches anything...." What does the mouther of this imbecility know that his tenure granters don't?

- basman

January 1, 2010 at 2:58pm

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