Following the cut is a letter I wrote in response this
Keith Olbermann article.
I like your stuff, but your last blog entry falls into a common fallacy, that of false moral equivalency. You say Sen. Durbin with Karl Rove as both being over-exuberant in their language and act as if their acts were the same. Durban stated that chaining people to the floor in the fetal position until they were shaking with the cold and covered with their own urine and feces was a scene that would not be out of place in a totalitarian state. He was not quoting Chomsky or some other dismissible looney, but an FBI agent's report. Do you disagree that the scene described is objectionable, or do you consider the FBI to be in the pocket of the looney left?
Rove, on the other hand, implied that liberals were rooting for the defeat of the United States and by extension the death of American soldiers. Since my godson is on the ground in Afghanistan and I consider myself a good liberal, you will forgive me if I don't comment on the veracity or mendacity of that statement. I doubt I could do so without lowering myself to the level that you find objectionable.
The two situations are not comparable in any way. You fell into the trap where we are no longer talking about whether torture is occurring to people in U.S. custody, but the words used to describe the torture. To quote Israeli historian Avi Schlaim, "The issue is not whether or not we are the same as the Nazis, the issue is that we are not different enough."
I do agree with your call for knee-jerk nazi-namers to resign. However, your list though is pathetically short. Here are a few names to add...
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Questions_of_hypocrisy_in_Republican_attacks_on_senator_who_raised_Naz
is_in_Guantanamo_c_0620.html