He's a peach, isn't he?

John Yoo is a busy man these days, what with his course load of classes to teach at Cal, writing for the Philadelphia Inquirer, not being in prison, and providing tenuous legal justification for crimes and massive ethical breaches the whole world 'round. It must be exhausting.

But we're not here to talk about what lack of prosecution from the Justice Department is allowing John Yoo to do now, we're here to talk about what John Yoo did. Classic Yoo. Just the greatest hits. You know, stuff that makes internal watchdog's and review panels at the Justice Department conclude that he committed "intentional professional misconduct" and should be referred to their state bar organizations for disciplinary proceedings, at the least.

The chief author of the Bush administration's "torture memo" told Justice Department investigators that the president's war-making authority was so broad that he had the constitutional power to order a village to be "massacred," according to a report released Friday night by the Office of Professional Responsibility.
...
"What about ordering a village of resistants to be massacred? ... Is that a power that the president could legally—"

"Yeah," Yoo replied, according to a partial transcript included in the report. "Although, let me say this: So, certainly, that would fall within the commander-in-chief's power over tactical decisions."

"To order a village of civilians to be [exterminated]?" the OPR investigator asked again.

"Sure," said Yoo.

Classy. Yoo also advocated, along with David Addington, that the President is a God-King with no restraints on his power and the ability to override and invalidate laws. I don't think they used those exact terms though. There's also the reveal that people in the Bush JD were so worried about prosecutions, you know, for the stuff they all say is totally legal, that John Ashcroft wanted to issue "advance pardons" for people who participated in torture. Apparently they couldn't find any shady legal precedent for that and it was scrapped.

So a round of applause for the great human being and wonderful addition to the legal and war-making history of this country, John Yoo. He apparently sleeps soundly at night. I don't think you realize how incredibly difficult that is.

Oh, I forgot the best part of this story: senior JD lawyer David Margolis has overruled the OPR findings that Yoo, among others, should be trussed up in a burlap sack and beaten with sticks... or professionally reprimanded. One of those. So nothing will end up happening to Yoo. See! Justice does work!