You are using the term “banality of evil” entire incorrectly.

Abu Ghraib was an example of the banality of evil: very ordinary people unthinkingly “doing their jobs” and in the process unthinkingly going along with and committing all sorts of atrocities.

Yoo knew what he was writing; there was nothing unthinking or everyday about it. Indeed, his whole argument hinges on the thought of the extraordinary and exceptional nature of wartime situations which he thinks requires exceptional (meaning extra-legal) powers.

That said, there certainly is something banal about Yoo given how derivative his thinking is. There’s nothing at all in Yoo that he didn’t crib directly from Hamilton (see the Pacificus letters) or Schmitt (or at least crib from the small group of unitary executive legal scholars who crib everything they write from Hamilton or Schmitt).

Anyway, a rule of thumb: The term banality of evil does not apply to the Yoos of the world; it applies to those who thoughtlessly execute what the Yoos of the world think.

(Jed Clampett)

The little Eichmans??

“The Audacity of Evil”

Sounds like 09’s gonna be a busy year at the Hague.

No matter how much the president’s advisors may rationalize in order to reach their predetermined conclusion, NO ONE is above the law.

(Jed Clampett)

Perhaps it’s a sense of entitlement, arrogance and supremacy rather than audacity. You have to realize that by the time they have reached those levels of power, the players have already learned that there is no real consequences for their transgressions, by the time they get to the seat of power they consider themselves above the law and do little to cover up their wrongdoing, failure to prosecute is merely a failure to investigate properly.
What is scary about this administration is that unlike the fascist of europe, who kept detailed records and documentation of their transgressions, this administration covers their tracks as much as possible in every instance(it implies premeditation)… even so far as ignoring the law of presidential communications and opennes of government records.
The fact that the american people refuse to recognize when they are being blatantly lied to; their intelligence abused, and demand resignation or impeachment is a very bad omen for the rest of the world.
On the bright side, the NSA has all those transmission and much more in it’s storehouse of information it gleaned from tapping into the main communications trunks of the telecom companies… Quest excluded of course, they understood the law and refused to break that law regardless of how much money was waved in front of them. All that is required is for a president to use his power as the top law enforcement officer to make the NSA use that information to prosecute the bad players in our society… particularly those with the ability to affect millions of people with the stroke of a pen.

Well said, Jed.

Sure this may be the end of the Republic as we know it, but it is pure Hollywood gold.

For instance, I’m kicking around a script idea that goes like this:

The Founding Fathers draft a Constitution that creates a President who, 200+ years in the future, come back to destroy the very Constitution that created him.

Cool, huh?

Jed,
Very unsettling. It reminded me of some sick pact with the devil. I didn’t want to stay on that site too long. I had the eerie feeling that my presence there didn’t go unnoticed. And, you are right. That’d be a good place to start.

Torture and lack of due process are unAmerican, this administration is one of the worst. Others were inept and corupt this one is both and a little totalaterian with the denial of rights and torture.

(Jed Clampett)

In a country where supposeddly the rule of law defines who we are and what we stand for, When the administration stands above the law, flaunts rules and regulations, lies repeatedly about the state of the nation and has proven himself to not have the best interest of the people in mind the people must do whatever is necessary to remove such an administration from power. Otherwise, it loses it’s moral compass and it’s reason for being. It can no longer exist as defined and must mutate into that which it is, a totalitarian, despotic regime.