Scaeagles,
I agree that politicians and politicals commentators who use inflammatory rhetoric are absolutely inappropriate and need to recognize the hurtful nature of their comments.
However, I've got to admit that I'm really surprised by this thread. I felt the original post was a little "bait-y" because of the instigative nature of your language - not usually your style. But I'm equally surprised by all of the responses which try to show how wrong the war is and how Durbin is right.
For the record, here's where I stand on your original post: Durbin was wrong wrong wrong to compare Gitmo to Cambodia and Nazi Germany. That's what I was trying to gently say when I provided a link to the Daily Show.
Unfortunately, the sound-bite nature of our current news media has forced politicians and political commentators to resort to incendiary comparisons to make sure that their point makes it to the evening news - and that applies to Libs and Cons.
I agree with most of the posters here who say that Bush is a liar and that the current war is wrong (illegal? perhaps, but I'm not going to tackle that here). But to compare deadly actions to political rhetoric is really an apples and oranges argument, isn't it?
If you want to start a "disgusting individual" thread for politicos who go overboard with their comments, I'd be delighted to contribute to it. Here's a 'funny' one from Grover Norquist, the head of Americans for Tax Reform (who is also the "reputed architect of President Bush's tax cuts") who uses the Holocaust to make a point about the estate tax:
Quote:
Grover Norquist: Yeah, the good news about the move to abolish the death tax, the tax where they come and look at how much money you've got when you die, how much gold is in your teeth and they want half of it, is that -- you're right, there's an exemption for -- I don't know -- maybe a million dollars now, and it's scheduled to go up a little bit. However, 70 percent of the American people want to abolish that tax. Congress, the House and Senate, have three times voted to abolish it. The president supports abolishing it, so that tax is going to be abolished. I think it speaks very much to the health of the nation that 70-plus percent of Americans want to abolish the death tax, because they see it as fundamentally unjust. The argument that some who played at the politics of hate and envy and class division will say, 'Yes, well, that's only 2 percent,' or as people get richer 5 percent in the near future of Americans likely to have to pay that tax.
I mean, that's the morality of the Holocaust. 'Well, it's only a small percentage,' you know. 'I mean, it's not you, it's somebody else.'
And this country, people who may not make earning a lot of money the centerpiece of their lives, they may have other things to focus on, they just say it's not just. If you've paid taxes on your income once, the government should leave you alone. Shouldn't come back and try and tax you again.
Terry Gross: Excuse me. Excuse me one second. Did you just ...
Grover Norquist: Yeah?
Terry Gross: … compare the estate tax with the Holocaust?
Grover Norquist: No, the morality that says it's OK to do something to do a group because they're a small percentage of the population is the morality that says that the Holocaust is OK because they didn't target everybody, just a small percentage. What are you worried about? It's not you. It's not you. It's them. And arguing that it's OK to loot some group because it's them, or kill some group because it's them and because it's a small number, that has no place in a democratic society that treats people equally. The government's going to do something to or for us, it should treat us all equally. …"
Terry Gross: So you see taxes as being the way they are now terrible discrimination against the wealthy comparable to the kind of discrimination of, say, the Holocaust?
Grover Norquist: Well, what you pick -- you can use different rhetoric or different points for different purposes, and I would argue that those who say, 'Don't let this bother you; I'm only doing it' -- I, the government. The government is only doing it to a small percentage of the population. That is very wrong. And it's immoral. They should treat everybody the same. They shouldn't be shooting anyone, and they shouldn't be taking half of anybody's income or wealth when they die."
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What a disgusting individual.