John Cole in the Strata-Sphere

Taking a flight here and reading the referenced Viking pundit here and of course picking a good John Cole post here I think a very important point got missed.

#1) was the analogy accurate? Do repressive regime's do this kind of behavior. No they do worse, and they do much worse and Dick Durbin when confronted said as much. So Dick made an analogy for the express purpose of getting a rise out of people. Dick was building on the assault on Alberto Gonzales and the administrations policies on interrogation. He was retreading the "gulag of our time" crack of Amnesty International. He was doing this to appeal to the far left wing base to get them primed for dumping more money. So he used the troops as a prop to say "that bush is turning our troops into the SS and only you can stop him." it was political calculus pure and simple.
#2) Was it torture: This statement, while not directly put out there by Durbin was implied. Now the memo itself according to sources on Fox news only covered the incident of shackling the prisoner for 24 hours ( which was a clear violation of protocol) the email included raw data based on what the prisoner said. So Dick was using raw data because it was the most inflammatory, and as such many things were presented as "torture" that simply are not so. The Hottest day at gitmo is still cooler then the hottest day in their home counties. The AC on max is still warmer then the coldest day in their home countries. I don't think that passes a reasonable standard for torture. And frankly much of the stuff Durbin mentioned doesn't. Durbin purposefully choose the most inflamatory source possible, with things that no reasonable person would consider torture. Thus he purposefully attacked the techniques used by our troops from a source that was not the end product of the investigation to get a direct moment of shock. He did so refrencing very few behaviors that reasonably fit the definition of torture.
#3) He has -to date- refused to acknowledge his analogy was wrong. He has apologised if you took it wrong, and now if you were offended by it. But an analogy that was inaccurate, and purposefully offensive he considers acceptable. He even reworded his comments once saying the same words in a slightly different way that still remains the same basic commentary thus he was trying to shift his words around to confuse the audience. He was saying "I'm a senator D*** it and i Know better then you"
#4) The only time he made anything close to a real apology was when the 800 pound gorilla of the Illinois Democratic party (the Mayor of Chicago) told him he was out of line. So based on #3 and #4 he sincerely believes his choice was acceptable (which is bad) or worse he see's his analogy as accurate ( which is abject and total ignorance)

So either Dick Durbin is a man so ignorant that he believes the interrogation methods at Gitmo really are like a repressive regime, and made a fake apology because he feared for his job. Or he made a politically calculated Jab to the MoveOn.org/DU/Daily Kos crowd to get them out with their check books only he for some reason felt no one would mind his invoking Hitler, Stalin, or Pol Pot which also shows an ignorance that may be tolerable in the most deranged members of the House Caucus (like the lunatic from georgia who says "the jews" conspired to get her out of congress) or a random blogger but not from the #2 democrat in the senate.. and i question if it is even justifiable in a US Senator.

But Like John Ashcroft who once said the trial by jury system was "wrongheaded" the Senate is willing to tolerate abject stupidity and blind ignorance in members of their country club. People like Joe Biden who couldn't make it as a proffessor in a community college because of his plagerism is a senior member of the democratic leadership in the senate.Robert Byrd a member of the KKK for many years, and who worked on their advertising and promotions campaign after that is given a pass. Tom Coburn who once said "if two women go to the bathroom togther, they'll come back lesbians." Much as the Nobel Peace prize has been falling into the hands of people who are terrorists or who actively promote lunatic conspiracy theories in the senior body of our legislature Dick Durbin is proof of the lowered expectations we hold our elected leaders in.

And just as the media allowed in more and more tolerant attitudes towards sex, language and violence in until we saw Janet Jacksons nipple so to will our government continue to be a product of GigO ( Garbage in/Garbage out) until we finally hit bottom. Until our government shows itself to be so metaphysically ignorant and worthless that we finally stop electing utter moonbats (of the right or the left persuasion) into places of power.

Because if Dick Durbin's comments aren't bottom then not on;y can't I imagine what the bottom will be like... I am not sure i want to