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By David Swanson
Early one mornin' the sun was shinin', Prisoners layin' in bed Wond'rin' when the guards would come And kick them in the head. The folks who wrote the torture memos Sure did have it rough. They never got enough exercise. The new condo wasn't big enough. One victim standin' at the side of his cell Blood dripping on his shoes Admitted Iraq had WMDs Lord knows that made the news but was it true, Tangled up in Yoo.
Yoo was married to his belief That nobody could force A president to obey the law And wartime only made that worse. Yoo drove that point as far as he could And overruled the rest Of the lawyers who gave into him All agreeing it was best. He turned around to look upon The damage he had done I heard him whisper over his shoulder, "They'll lock me up some day on the avenue," Tangled up in Yoo.
Yoo had a job training fascist youth Writing up a book for a spell. But he never did like it all that much And one day the ax just fell. So he drifted round to campuses Wherever they would let him speak About presidents crushing testicles And disinheriting the meek. But all the while he was alone The past was close behind, Yoo broke a lot of statutes, Prison never escaped his mind, and he just knew, Tangled up in Yoo.
Yoo was talkin' in a corporate place And I stopped in to hear. I just kept lookin' at the side of his face In the spotlight so clear. And later on as the crowd thinned out I started calling John Yoo's name, I handcuffed him to the back of his chair Said to him, "Does it feel the same?" Yoo muttered somethin' underneath his breath, I read him his Miranda rights. I must admit I felt a little uneasy When he admitted it was the right thing to do. Tangled up in Yoo.
Yoo left a bundle of memos behind, legalizing crimes. "I thought you'd never come for me," he said "And it really blew my mind." Then he opened up a book of laws And handed it to me Written by all kinds of people Over two or three centuries. And every one of them words rang true And glowed like burnin' coal Pourin' off of every page Like it was written purely so we'd indict Yoo, Nothing else to do.
Yoo authorized aggressive war and lawless imprisonment, warrantless spying and torture techniques, That was the way Yoo went. Then he started into peddling lies And something inside of him died. He had to sell his heart and bones And Yoo froze up inside. And when finally the bottom fell out Yoo became withdrawn, The only thing he knew how to do Was to sing his lying song, like a bird that flew, Tangled up in Yoo.
So now Yoo's goin' to be tried, The law got to him somehow. All the people he used to know They're co-conspirators now. Some are ex vice presidents. Some lead glamorous lives. Don't know how it all got started, I don't know what they're gonna tell their wives. But me, I'm still on the road Tryin' to make a point. Yoo always did feel the same, He just saw it from a different point of view, Tangled up in Yoo.
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