Saturday noon to 3pm, WLS AM 890 in Chicago, streaming audio available.
She's a hoot.
Posted on 06/17/2005 6:15:57 AM PDT by robowombat
Durbin is a Dick.
As I travel this great nation, I see your point just about everywhere... I always pictured Oregon as a liberal state and have discovered an identical situation as Illinois.
Not counting Eugene and Portland, Oregon is strongly conservative...
I've been hunting for a transcript of what Durbin actually said June 14. Specifically, I want to know what this FBI agent's email said. All I know is what I've read and seen on TV, and that is Durbin's assertion that if he didn't tell me otherwise I'd think it was Nazis, Pol Pot, gulag being described. I want to know what the email actually said to determine if I would, in fact, think Nazis, Pol Pot, gulag or if Durbin is wrong there, too.
Can you get that transcript on my desk by the time I get back from the torture chamber?
Durbin
Leahy
Polsli
Reid
Clintons
Carter
Kennedys
Kerry
Specter
Dean
Should I continue?
"On one occasion, the air conditioning had been turned down so far and the temperature was so cold in the room, that the barefooted detainee was shaking with cold. ..... On another occasion, the [air conditioner] had been turned off, making the temperature in the unventilated room well over 100 degrees. The detainee was almost unconscious on the floor, with a pile of hair next to him. He had apparently been literally pulling his hair out throughout the night. On another occasion, not only was the temperature unbearably hot, but extremely loud rap music was being played in the room, and had been since the day before, with the detainee chained hand and foot in the fetal position on the tile floor. 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. Sadly, that is not the case. This was the action of Americans in the treatment of their prisoners. (2005; Supporting the Troops) "
There was a recall being led against McCain before 2000.
I'm not certain if Illinois can conduct a recall, but apparently Arizona has it in their books.
Correction-before 9-11-01 when it was abandoned given the occurence of the terrorist attacks.
So Durbin thinks rap music is torture? I wonder what his supporters in Chicago think of that remark?
From Aljazeer.Net
US senator stands by Nazi remark
Thursday 16 June 2005, 21:38 Makka Time, 18:38 GMT
The US holds about 520 detainees at Guantanamo Bay
Related:
Cheney defends Guantanamo prison
US lawmakers split over Camp Delta
Guantanamo closure not ruled out
US rejects calls to shut Guantanamo
US senator: Shut down Guantanamo
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A US senator has refused to apologise for comparing the actions of US soldiers at Guantanamo Bay to those of Nazis, while others have decried or defended the mandate and method used to hold prisoners there.
US Senator Dick Durbin on Wednesday refused to apologise for comments he made on the Senate floor referring to Nazis, Soviet gulags and a "mad regime" like Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.
Illinois Republican party chairman Andy McKenna had demanded he apologise.
"Senator Durbin's comments come as a great disservice to our military personnel in Guantanamo," he said.
"They are also a great disservice to all US soldiers and veterans who have fought, and continue to fight, to overcome evil regimes and spread democracy around the world."
Durbin did not plan to apologise for the comments, spokesman Joe Shoemaker said.
"This administration should apologise to the American people for abandoning the Geneva Conventions and authorising torture techniques that put our troops at risk and make Americans less secure," Durbin had said in a statement on Wednesday evening.
Attack
During a speech on Tuesday, Durbin, the Senate's number two Democrat, quoted from an FBI agent's report describing detainees at the naval base in Cuba as being chained to the floor without food or water in extreme temperatures.
"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"
US Senator Dick Durbin
"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."
Durbin is not alone in his criticism.
Human-rights groups have long accused the administration of unjustly detaining suspects at the prison camp. Amnesty International last month called the detention centre the "gulag of our times".
Rebuttal
President George Bush and other administration officials, however, have strongly resisted such comparisons and questioned Amnesty's objectivity.
"It's difficult to explain to a mom and dad who's lost their son or daughter how you can have someone in Guantanamo Bay, release them and then they kill your son and daughter"
Alberto Gonzales,
US attorney-general
"I take strong exception to any characterisations that try to
diminish what our military is doing and the standards and values that they adhere to," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.
The Bush administration calls the Guantanamo prisoners enemy combatants who are entitled to fewer legal protections than those afforded to prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions.
Defence
According to US Attorney-General Alberto Gonzales on Wednesday, the US government often considers whether it would be better to stop detaining prisoners at Guantanamo.
Gonzales (L) has defended the
right to hold enemy combatants
"That's a question that is evaluated, I would say, quite often," he said in Sheffield, England, where he will attend a meeting of G8 interior ministers on Thursday and Friday.
On Wednesday, he had said "there will of course be an end", but did not specify when.
He also pointed out that about a dozen of those who had been released had returned to fight against the US.
"It's difficult to explain to a mom and dad who's lost their son or daughter how you can have someone in Guantanamo Bay, release them and then they kill your son and daughter," he said.
Since the camp was set up after the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US, 167 detainees have been freed and 67 others released to the custody of their home governments.
About 520 detainees from about 40 countries remain at Guantanamo. Only 12 have been handed over to military commissions for investigation of possible war crimes and four have been charged.
Debate
In a three-hour hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, legal experts from the US military and the Justice Department said the US had a right under the Geneva Conventions to hold enemy combatants.
But committee chairman Senator Arlen Specter suggested lawmakers would have to clarify what he called a "crazy quilt" of laws and regulations governing the detentions.
Some lawmakers want the facility closed, saying it has become a liability that inflames Muslims against the United States.
"Guantanamo is an international embarrassment to our nation, to our ideals and it remains a festering threat to our security," Senator Patrick Leahy, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said.
Survey
A Pew Research Centre poll, taken over the weekend, indicated most Americans agree that reports of abuse at Guantanamo are isolated incidents, and 39% think the news media is paying too much attention to the issue.
The poll found a sharp partisan divide on the issue - Democrats believing the abuses to be systemic and Republicans saying they were isolated incidents.
His supporters in Chicago, as well as in the rest of Illinois, are not known for their ability to think. Even the ones that aren't buried yet.
Hi Teri. I am not surprised that you wrote this. Those of us in Illinois who know this guy's true colors are not surprised. His modis operendi has always been to jump in with some half @ss press conference to voice an opinion that will keep his name in the paper.
I don't recall one piece of legislation, one non-partisan remark, one thing in general that's he does as an initiative on his own.
He is the worst Senator from Illinois that I can remember in my lifetime. He couldn't carry the shoes of a Senator Dirkson or of others in his party.
How in the hell did we elect this man?
I've called in a couple times...(like this morning on Don and Roma regarding the movie Cinderella Man.) Keep up the great show...!!!
Doctor Nick
That's a retorical question obviously.
dick cheney's answer to the democrats was to give halliburton a contract to build another facility at gitmo!
go cheney!
Here's your transcript from Durbin (click "printer friendly" to see all of the transcript at once):
RENEWABLE FUEL STANDARD -- (Senate - June 14, 2005) Durbin initial remarks
GUANTANAMO -- (Senate - June 16, 2005) Durbin's cover up including what the FBI agent supposedly said
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