Author: Dick

Between Ted Poe and a camera is a dangerous place to be.

Over a period of the past four months, I endured what seemed like a nightmare. I was in the hands of a huge and largely incompetent bureaucracy at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs trying to straighten out a financial mess over my bills for copayments. It all started when the VA, without any warning, started taking money out of some checks I was to receive for expense reimbursements connected with training I had in Washington, D.C., for my part-time federal job.

At the time I had written a request to Congressman Ted Poe, my representative in the U.S. House, to see if something could be done to straighten out the mess. About three weeks ago I called his office in Beaumont to see if anything had been done in my case. But alas, the case worker in Poe’s office couldn’t find my request.

I finally got this exasperating situation straightened out to my satisfaction. But it took a lot of yelling and screaming at VA employees who acted as if they had been lobotimzed. And this mess was not solved by the person and his staff who one usually turns to for such problems — my congressman.

Last night and once before, I had seen Poe on Lou Dobb’s CNN show which should be named “Lou Dobbs Hates Those Damned Illegal Immigrants.” Last evening Poe was talking to border patrol officers near El Paso. What’s wrong with that you might ask?

The problem is that El Paso has its own congressman. Poe represents an area in Southeast Texas which includes where I live.

Here is another little matter. On Poe’s Web page I found a list of his committee assignments which are:

House Committee on Foreign Affairs
Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade
Subcommittee on Europe

House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
Subcommittee on Highways and Transit
Subcommittee on Aviation
Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation

Well, I guess border issues are discussed in Foreign Affairs. And the story on Lou Dobbs last evening was on the prospect of Mexican truckers taking the roads in our country so I suppose that falls under Transportation.

But the fact is that Poe was on television discussing illegal aliens because he likes having his face on TV and in the newspaper. It doesn’t hurt, of course, that illegal immigration is a hot-button issue with so much of the country including Poe’s ethnocentric right-wing base.

Poe has always been a publicity hound. He routinely made national news as a criminal court judge in Houston for his self-described “poetic justice” in handing out sentences. For example, he would order a guilty defendant to carry a sign outside a store from which he had stolen.

No doubt exists in my mind that something needs to be done about immigration. I’m not totally sure what the answer might be. But I do wonder if the reason Ted Poe’s staff cannot help out a veteran in distress is that they are too wrapped up in his quest to be a big shot when he is more like what my daddy called “a big shot, dot the ‘o’.”

It is wonderful having my laptop back and operational after some sort of problems with backlighting, or perhaps it had to have its dilithium crystals replaced. Who knows.

Sitting comfortably in Barnes and Noble (and yes, regrettably Starbucks)I am able to check some various sites on the computer that time had kept me from for awhile due to a lack of access to my own computer. No, I’m not talking about those kind of sites. Also, I checked all the links on my blogroll just now to make sure those Web places are still there. Many sites look different since I last saw them. Perhaps I should consider giving EFD a face lift after more than two years (and one hurricane)since I started this darn thing.

It, EFD the blog, is a darn thing. But as I have pointed out on a number of occasions, the blog is an outlet for me to exercise my craft as a writer. Sometimes the pieces fall in place and sometimes not. Even though I have been a)homeless and b)continue to be part-time government employee this year, I still consider my main occupation as being a freelance writer. Perhaps I could have struggled on to get more freelance gigs this year but a number of matters — like not having my own computer working and living in a motel room — have been minor hindrances.

Thus, I plan to seek more work as a writer now that my machine is fired up and actually works as it should. Sometime soon I must breakdown and get a wireless Internet plan, for paying $4 bucks for two hours at B & N or 8 cents a minute at the Internet cafe adds up. But that is another matter for another time.

Meanwhile I will beat the bushes for more work and then perhaps play with a little twine if a few minutes are mine to spare.

Unlike her superior officers, Pfc. Lynndie England was sentenced to prison for abuse at Abu Ghraib prison.

For anyone who knows how the military — and life — works it should be no big surprise to see the only commissioned officer punished in the infamous Abu Ghraib prison scandal received a light tap on the wrist.

Lt. Col. Steven Jordan was acquitted on charges he did not properly train guards at the Iraq prison. He was given a reprimand for a lesser charge of disobeying an order not to talk about the case.

In terms of his career, it’s most likely toast. But had he stood trial on a myriad of other charges of which his subordinates stood and were convicted, his career would not only be toast but he might have jail time as well. But probably not.

It seems that in military justice, the amount of punishment one receives for a crime is in direct proportion to the rank of the individual. As the excellent Robert Sherrill book proclaims: “Military Justice Is To Justice As Military Music Is To Music.” For instance, Lynndie England (above) received three years in prison for conspiracy, maltreatment of subordinates, and indecent acts. Her lover and the purported ring leader of the miscreants at Abu Ghraib, Pvt. Charles Graner, was handed a 10-year sentence in 2005 for conspiracy, dereliction of duty, maltreatment of detainees, assault and committing indecent acts.

I covered Graner’s court martial as a reporter. If the world was fair, everyone from the lowest enlisted person to former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsefeld should have been given prison time for their parts in this disgrace. But who said the Army is fair? And who said life was fair? So there.

Some might see the punishment handed the lower enlisteds in the case such as Graner and England as minimal. I don’t particularly see it that way. I feel like for the circumstances the sentences were just.

But I certainly don’t feel that way about the reprimand given Jordan although the military has always given the enlisted guys the shaft when it came to crime and punishment. Perhaps there have been exceptions such as certain captains of naval vessels being handed more punishment than their subordinates. But then, the hallmark of a ship captain’s responsibility is that he (or she but mostly he)is responsible for all that happens on board.

So have we closed the book on Abu Ghraib? Perhaps so when it comes to meting out punishment for what happened. How badly these cowboys and idiots damaged the reputation of our country by their deeds remains for historical reflection.

This subject line from an e-mail sent from a DR SAMAILLA NUHU:

YOUR URGENT IS HIGLY NEEDED PLEASE.‎

Hey, if your urgent is higly needed I guess it’s needed to quite an extent, which is nice to know, huh?

Unfortunately for the good doctor I have to give my urgents to other matters. So sorry doc.

Why is
this man
smiling?

Despite the clouds of gloom that sometime darken my everyday dog-eat-dog world, times do exist in which the sun is shining and all seems right with the world. That days is here my friends.

If you are one of the regular readers of this blog (Suzie and Sally)then you will know that I have not been in love with Attorney General Alberto “VO-5” Gonzales. When I heard the news this morning that Gonzales is bailing the sinking ship of state, I almost wept with joy.

My annoyance, distaste, disapproval, dislike, pick one, of Gonzales does not just stem from the fact that he is a principal among the bad actors who have managed to dismantle the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. But it is a big reason among others.

Although perhaps not as dangerous to civil liberties but just as unpleasant was how Gonzales presented himself. Certainly the attorney general was not a lovable figure whom you would want to hug or buy a beer. An example is how he sat before congressional hearings earlier this year with, at least what appeared to be, a perpetual smirk on his face while obfuscating until the cows came home. It made him come across like the archetypal weasel lawyer for whom all the lawyer jokes emanate.

However, deeds, or misdeeds, speak louder than looks. We may not know for a very long time or perhaps ever the extent that Gonzales jeopardized civil liberties in this country. Then again it might not be too long. We may be well aware of his damage when the cops come pulling you out of your home without a warrant.

But for now, Rove and Gonzales gone. Let’s party.