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 Opinion
The Twain Award Goes to an Illinois Idiot By Carl Langley web posted November 30, 2009 GUEST COLUMN – Each time some liberal speaks I recall the sage wit of master American storyteller Mark Twain. It was Twain who warned, “It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.” The newest holder of the Twain award is Illinois U.S. Sen. Richard (Dustbin) Durbin, a rather muddled soul who once remarked on the floor of the Senate that American soldiers were murderers. Dustbin never apologized, and he shamed himself with that outlandish accusation. He is that ignorant, in my opinion. Sadly, only Fox News reported his slander against our service members. That sin aside, Durbin has strayed even farther off the competency reservation when it comes to military matters. He now wants the U. S. government to bring Muslim militants at the Guantanamo Bay confinement center to a small town in his home state. The town is the home of a virtually empty state prison, which is largely unoccupied due to state judges, parole boards and psychiatrists releasing inmates to save money. The community’s residents, by a sizeable margin, want to keep the jail empty. The thought of turning in for the night while a couple hundred Muslim fanatics just down the road are being tucked in by prison guards can lead to a lot of tossing and turning. Despite the citizens’ protests, Durbin’s outrageous jobs creation proposal is fed by other thoughts, and they don’t have a thing to do with fishing for work places or national security. They center on his desire to build up his credentials for re-election, and a key step would be to bring jobs to the prison. Never mind that the jobs would not create state or federal revenues but would be another drag on the taxpayers, in Durbin’s world all that matters is getting the jail up and running at full speed. In remarks heard recently on various news outlets, Durbin, an intellectual midget turned into a giant by the Chicago mob bosses, proclaimed that Illinois would benefit greatly by turning the prison into a holding facility for Muslim terrorists. His rationale is strictly economical and focuses solely on his own job security, and if you think otherwise I can arrange for you to pick up a couple of hundred acres cheap, only a short distance down the road from the empty prison. I have a cousin living in Illinois and she is not leading the cheers for jail revival. Durbin, while pitching for votes before TV cameras, said converting the jail into a federal prison would create 1,800 “good paying jobs with a full package of benefits.” He, of course, has the backing of big labor on this one, along with those in Illinois who benefit from selling goods and services to prison systems. But he never mentions that the entire budget for this jail would be funded by taxpayers, most of whom are out of jobs and looking for work. Have you ever heard of a jail making money and paying taxes, especially a jail with a staff of 1,800 and all receiving a “full benefits package.” Durbin’s remarks about American troops murdering and jailing Muslim terrorists are the kinds of words that stamp him for what he is: a witless politician interested only in his own re-election. But they also are the words that bring joy to the hearts of liberals anxious to mollify Muslims, union bosses looking for dues deposits and bureaucrats determined to grow the government payrolls. Durbin did not comment about the aftermath of turning the empty jail into a federal facility. But he should have added the caveat that once the last Muslim served out his time Illinois would still have a federal jail, the taxpayers still would have to bear the burden and the only winners will be the radicals. If the federal government succeeds in picking up this jail, I hope Illinois would never take it back. No state can match the federal government in providing top-of-the-chart pay packages, not to mention funding daily jail operations, a medical clinic, a kitchen and canteen services, recreation and exercise areas, a law library and field trips for prison psychologists who see a day in the country as a wonder cure for the deranged inmate. I have long felt that while Illinois voters may be ignorant of the political trickery used in their state, they are not stupid and most don’t like the thought of the federal government trashing their neighborhood with terrorist riff-raff. I wish Illinois taxpayers would inform Dustbin and his colleagues that federal prison facilities already have plenty of space and the terrorists can be parceled out among them. Send a few here, send a few there, send a few over there, send a few anywhere. Meanwhile, keep Guantanamo open. It’s already being run by a paid military so why add to the cost? Keeping the rabble in Cuba not only would save money but would prevent the more deranged among this murderous cabal from getting together in a stateside location to plot more mischief. It can be hard to sleep if this crowd is huddled up just down the road, plotting breakouts. For those possessing a full range of thinking ability, including those doubly armed with common sense, we should regard it highly doubtful that Durbin cares one whit about the consequences of his action. He wants to win a Freedom Medal for creating jobs, no matter the cost. It’s no skin off his back, as the old saying goes. Durbin has never worried about tax burdens in the past, so why should he worry about tax burdens now? Or public safety? Or anything else dealing with Islamic terror? Liberals wonder why the average American despises Durbin and those like him. I would get into this one, but the reasons are too numerous to mention in the time and space alloted. © Copyright 2009
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