Impotent Hippies Go After a Probable War Criminal

A couple months ago I reported that colleagues of torture-loving professor John Yoo at UC-Berkeley Law School were going after his tenure. The effort didn’t really go anywhere. But now, not content with one effort at sanction that won’t go anywhere, here comes the Berkeley City Council:

Berkeley’s City Council will delve into national policy again next week when it votes whether to demand the United States charge Berkeley resident and former Bush adviser John Yoo with war crimes.

This, of course, will mean nothing. Not a single Justice Department official will be compelled by an affirmative council vote to pursue an indictment of Yoo. Nor will the law school have to do anything. This is a purely impotent measure.

I don’t live in Berkeley — I know all I need to know about it from Jawbreaker songs and back issues of Cometbus — but if I did, I’d probably wonder if the council shouldn’t be trying to improve my trash collection or something instead.

That said, I’m hardly in a position to complain about someone else’s futile criticism. That headline is the closest I’ll ever come to indicting John Yoo for war crimes. So one cheer for you, Berkeley City Council.