Hey Boys & Girls...let's all tell UC- Berkeley what we think of Professor John Yoo.
We've seen his "work" at the Department of Justice-- torture memos, the green light for domestic spying-- you name it, John Yoo would crank out an official-looking memorandum which would invariably justify the most ungodly deviations from our constitutional heritage in support of Cheney and Bush's dreary, distorted world view. In the process he has set back America's standing in the civilized world by decades (if not centuries).
His reward?
A cushy tenured position at UC Berkeley's college of law.
http://www.law.berkeley.edu/... /
How about showing some love for the fine folks at UC Berkeley who gave Professor Yoo his nifty golden parachute:
Dr. Robert J. Birgeneau
Office of the Chancellor
200 California Hall # 1500
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720-1500
Phone (510) 642-7464
Fax (510) 643-5499
chancellor@berkeley.edu
My sample letter:
Dear Chancellor Birgeneau:
This past week the worst fears of many Americans were realized with the release of an October 2001 Memorandum written by Professor John Yoo, then an official with the Bush Administration's Department of Justice. As many suspected, it was John Yoo's memorandum which provided military and civilian interrogators with a legal "justification" to utilize torture and water boarding on suspects in military custody. Professor Yoo also opined that the Forth Amendment to the United States Constitution has "no application" to "domestic military" activities, giving a green light for all manner of warrantless domestic surveillance activities. As you know, John Yoo is now a law professor at the Berkeley College of Law.
Other than the sheer embarrassment of hiring a law professor who, it now appears, is ignorant of established standards of constitutional supremacy in our legal system, UC Berkeley now also holds the distinction of providing a prestigious platform for an advocate of legalized torture in interrogations-- an ironic turn of events for a university that once served as a beacon for "free speech".
I know, I know. UC Berkeley prides itself in allowing academic independence among its faculty and Mister Yoo's views, however despicable, are entitled to be heard...blah, blah, blah. As such, I am not requesting that he be removed from your faculty (as defensible as such a move would be).
Instead, I propose the following. John Yoo should retain his professorship at Berkeley, but should forthwith be transferred from the College of Law to the Department of Medieval History, where his views on torture will carry some contemporary acceptance.
S/name