Woo Yoo

There is a very interesting article, Yoo: President Can Slaughter Village, But Not Force Disclosure Of Political Donations, posted at TPM Muckraker.

Torture advocate John Yoo thinks that the President of the United States has the executive power to order a village of civilians slaughtered. But force federal contractors to disclose their political donations? That's a bridge too far.

In an editorial former Bush-era Justice Department official Yoo and David Marston wrote for the Wall Street Journal, the authors argued that the "only purpose" of an executive order being considered by President Barack Obama to require companies seeking federal contracts to disclose political contributions "is to dangle the specter of retaliation...and harassment."

If a small businesswoman wants to sell paper clips to the Defense Department, Mr. Obama would force her to reveal contributions to groups such as Planned Parenthood or the National Rifle Association. These donations are obviously irrelevant to whether she made the most reliable bid at the lowest price.

While the editorial says that the order "represents the latest salvo in the Obama administration's war on the First Amendment rights of its political opponents," there's no word from Yoo on whether the President has the executive power to torture executives to force them to disclose their political donations.

Not featured in the snippet featured on TPM Muckraker is Yoo's own acknowledgement that disclosure ONLY would kick in for those contributions of $5,000 or more. Obviously, Yoo thinks that small businesses that simply are fighting to survive in this dreadful economy have secret stashes of $5,000 and more that they utilize to impact the political process!

Of course, Yoo doesn't really give a flip about small business woman and men; this is about shielding big corporate persons from not being able to impact and influence the political process in secret.