Durbin

From the senate on Thursday:

The Senate rejected 67-28 a plan by Democrat Dick Durbin of Illinois to boost the fuel economy of passenger cars to 40 miles per gallon by 2016, and sport utility vehicles (SUVs) to 27.5 miles per gallon.

Too bad that everyone on the right got their panties in a bunch over Durbin's statements from last week concerning inhumane conditions at Gitmo. I wonder if Durbin's thoughtful fuel economy bill became untouchable based on his "poisonous" remarks, and the majority thus disassociated themselves from the "traitor". You can call me treacherous by association, but I thought Durbin's speech sounded almost quaint. He essentially asked whether anyone could have identified, by description alone, where an incident of torture had taken place and, by implication, whether it possibly could have originated from the U.S. As a rhetorical device, Durbin offered alternate choices of Nazi, Stalinist, and Khmer Rouge torture.

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.

Well, by the process of elimination, the description pointed directly at U.S. origin; historical evidence points to a lack of air conditioning technology in despotic regimes circa 20^th century. Therefore, strike Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot from the possibilities. In this day and age, restricting air conditioning becomes a death sentence only in western cultures.

Does anybody remember the Chicago heat wave of 1995?

Adding insult to injury, Durbin declared the U.S. a breeding ground for other monsters in pushing his energy bill:

Durbin said U.S. automakers fought previous requirements to install seat belts and air bags and said they can make cars more fuel-friendly with existing hybrid technology.

"Detroit is so wedded to the concept of selling these monster SUVs that they won't use the technology that is already there," Durbin said.

Jeez, I hope this doesn't get taken the wrong way.



Update: Past Peak demonstrates how the senate make sausage. They apparently think we can sue other countries over high oil prices to get us out of this mess. Durbin's bill looks absolutely brilliant compared to this nonsense (which got an OK from the senate!).