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Mark Steyn: Durbin slanders his own country
Chicago Sun Times ^ | June 19, 2005 | MARK STEYN

Posted on 06/19/2005 2:37:10 AM PDT by mal

Throughout the last campaign season, senior Democrats had a standard line in their speeches, usually delivered with righteous anger, about how "nobody has a right to question my patriotism!" Given that nobody was questioning their patriotism, it seemed an odd thing to harp on about. But, aware of their touchiness on the subject, I hasten to add that in what follows I am not questioning Dick Durbin's patriotism, at least not for the first couple of paragraphs. Instead, I'll begin by questioning his sanity.

Last Tuesday, Senator Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, quoted a report of U.S. "atrocities" at Guantanamo and then added:

"If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime -- Pol Pot or others -- that had no concern for human beings."

Er, well, your average low-wattage senator might. But I wouldn't. The "atrocities" he enumerated -- "Not only was the temperature unbearably hot, but extremely loud rap music was being played in the room" -- are not characteristic of the Nazis, the Soviets or Pol Pot, and, at the end, the body count in Gitmo was a lot lower. That's to say, it was zero, which would have been counted a poor day's work in Auschwitz or Siberia or the killing fields of Cambodia.

(Excerpt) Read more at suntimes.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: cheesefacedcoward; durbin; slander; steyn
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To: Pokey78

Thanks.


41 posted on 06/19/2005 6:50:38 AM PDT by COUNTrecount
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To: Bahbah

Lots that happened in Durban at this conference has been forgotten, since it took place only ten days before September 11th. It was the usual bash-Western-Civ-and-the-Israelis hate-fest, blaming us for all the ills of the world. The Administration didn't pay it much heed, sending only an assistant-under-deputy-Secretary-of-State as representative.


42 posted on 06/19/2005 6:51:05 AM PDT by Rummyfan
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To: Rummyfan
The Administration didn't pay it much heed, sending only an assistant-under-deputy-Secretary-of-State as representative.

I do remember that. I thought it was a very good move. I also recall some reporting about the lavish displays of food while just a short distance away there was a poverty stricken settlement of South Africans.

43 posted on 06/19/2005 6:54:54 AM PDT by Bahbah (Something wicked this way comes)
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To: Bahbah

If you can dig it up, our man Steyn wrote a very good piece appraisng the Durban conference.


44 posted on 06/19/2005 6:58:02 AM PDT by Rummyfan
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To: Pokey78; All
The comparison is deranged, and deeply insulting not just to the U.S. military but to the millions of relatives of those dead Russians, Jews and Cambodians, who, unlike Durbin, know what real atrocities are. Had Durbin said, "Why, these atrocities are so terrible you would almost believe it was an account of the activities of my distinguished colleague Robert C. Byrd's fellow Klansmen," that would have been a little closer to the ballpark but still way out.

Absolutely devastating. If only there was a Senator with the moral courage to stand up on the Senate floor and state this for the record...

45 posted on 06/19/2005 7:00:35 AM PDT by tarheelswamprat (This tagline space for rent - cheap!)
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To: mal

I want the son-of-b*tch arrested. YESTERDAY!


46 posted on 06/19/2005 7:00:54 AM PDT by DCPatriot
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To: mal
More evidence of the truth of President George Washington's warning over 200 years ago about the potentially severe consequences of what he described as "the spirit of Party."

What the Democratic Partisans are doing during this critical time of war against extremist terrorists is consistent with President George Washington's Farewell admonition regarding what he identified as the danger of the "spirit of Party."

Hear this small excerpt from that dire warning:

". . .the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it."

"It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions."

Such actions by Democrats are either uninformed or deliberately intended to damage the American President's effort to contain and wage a dangerous war against tyranny; and to do so, they are willing to give aid and comfort to the enemies of their own children and granchildren.

Do these partisans have a plan whereby they can stave off or defeat the worldwide terrorists who are bent on destroying them and their country? Or, are they simply motivated by a dangerous brand of the "spirit of Party" which can inflame passions in America and worldwide for the sole purpose of heaping criticism on the winner of the elections of 2000 and 2004?

If American citizens allow such partisan behaviors to go unchallenged with fact and historical perspective, then we must conclude that the decades-long failure to teach and learn the Founders' principles, and the means by which they can be subverted, has succeeded!

47 posted on 06/19/2005 7:02:44 AM PDT by loveliberty2
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To: edskid

I wish some military veteran would beat the crap out of him so that he looks like the whistleblower at Los Alamos.


48 posted on 06/19/2005 7:04:52 AM PDT by DCPatriot
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To: wingman1
Osama Obama the white man passing as a black man.

BTW the way he is an up and comer in the daley crime machine who will make his bones after he becomes the senior center from illinois.

49 posted on 06/19/2005 7:07:17 AM PDT by dts32041 (Robin Hood, stealing from the government and giving back to tax payer. Where is he today?)
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To: martin_fierro
Or East St. louis, dustbin's home town.
50 posted on 06/19/2005 7:08:20 AM PDT by dts32041 (Robin Hood, stealing from the government and giving back to tax payer. Where is he today?)
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To: Pokey78
the senator from al-Inois is now a big hero/i>

Perhaps the best Steyn line ever!

51 posted on 06/19/2005 7:10:02 AM PDT by Colonel_Flagg (Ah, spring. Such as it is.)
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To: Rummyfan

I think FR should a pet project of getting Durbin slammed out of office..We smashed Dan Rather to pieces..I believe this sould be our next big project..I've been writing my emails here but I dont feel emails are enoughg..Suggestions ?


52 posted on 06/19/2005 7:13:25 AM PDT by hineybona
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To: tarheelswamprat

Useless , the lot of them..including the Republicans..
Doesn't ANY of them have the balls to stand up and say what needs to be said to this backstabber Durbin?


53 posted on 06/19/2005 7:16:46 AM PDT by hineybona
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To: Pokey78

Thanks, Pokey.


54 posted on 06/19/2005 7:19:37 AM PDT by Dog Gone
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To: baseballmom
Remember our war criminal presidents, Johnson and Nixon

I'm a 'Nam vet and I remember all of it. However, Johnson was hardly ever, if at all, described as a war criminal, especially by the pinko-commie press. That was always reserved for Nixon.

The worst LBJ got while in office were taunts from the cowardly, anti-war scum in the streets, "Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?"

If you've ever seen "Fog of War" you've heard LBJ lie, cheat and steal America BACK into Vietnam.
55 posted on 06/19/2005 7:23:40 AM PDT by oh8eleven (RVN '67-'68)
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To: savedbygrace
"Mark Steyn is one of the greatest wordsmiths of our time."

Roger that. This is another in a long line of masterpieces from the least appreciated, and most prolific, columnist writing today. Not only is Steyn wickedly accurate in his satire and prose, his insight gets to the bottom line with laser beam precision:

" This isn't a Republican vs Democrat thing; it's about senior Democrats who are so over-invested in their hatred of a passing administration that they've signed on to the nuttiest slurs of the lunatic fringe. "

Aren't there any Dems out there with the courage to shout out that the emporer has no clothes or have they all drunk the kool-aid of paradise?

56 posted on 06/19/2005 7:25:41 AM PDT by joebuck
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To: mal
Made a little uncomfortable????? He should be made to step down from all committees he serves on, and there are many where this intellectually challenged senator is not needed. Trent Lott was pillared and pushed aside for making a far lesser remark than this stupid if not treasonous remark, it is being used by our enemies to harm America and Americans, giving aid and comfort to the enemy.

DUMP DURBIN!

The Democratic Party should come to its collective feet in outrage over the Durbin Manifesto but they aren’t and won’t.

57 posted on 06/19/2005 7:33:32 AM PDT by yoe
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To: yoe

Ok so what can we do then ?..Freepers need to make concrete steps to take care of Durbin..It'streason in my beek..Besides emails what else can we do ? We took down Dan Rather we can handle Durbin as well.


58 posted on 06/19/2005 7:38:05 AM PDT by hineybona
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To: Malesherbes; NavVet

<< It's unbelievable to me that the [Criminal aliens and other dead people] of Illinois send such a man to the Senate. >>

And that Hawaiian carpet-bagger, barak something or other.

And then there's the swimmer .....


59 posted on 06/19/2005 7:43:29 AM PDT by Brian Allen (I fly and need therefore envy no Earth Person! -- Per Ardua ad Astra!)
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To: Valin

pong


60 posted on 06/19/2005 7:54:48 AM PDT by nuconvert (No More Axis of Evil by Christmas ! TLR) [there's a lot of bad people in the pistachio business])
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