Lou Dobbs and U.S. Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas.
Two peas in a right-wing pod.
My mind is turning over at the moment the thought of whether I should unsubscribe to e-mail from the person who “represents” me in the U.S. House. That would be Ted Poe from the Houston area. I use the quotation marks because Poe represents me in Congress only by virtue of the fact he was elected — with no help from me — and that his being in the House is a matter of Constitutional fact. However, in the use of the word “represent” in which one speaks on my behalf, Poe certainly does not fill that bill.
Nonetheless, I continue to receive e-mail from him because I want to see what kind of claptrap he is up to and to take the opportunity to criticize him for his shortcomings. After all he does “represent” me in Congress.
Poe notes with pride in his message that he has been anointed as “Deputy Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee Crime Subcommittee.” That means he is the number two Republican member of the subcommittee which he says handles most legislation on border security and victims’ rights. The border, of course, is a big thing with Poe. The former judge who came up with all kinds of ways in sentencing criminals which would get his name in the media was one of the cheerleaders for having the two convicted border patrol agents released from prison. GW Bush commuted those criminals’ sentences before he left office Tuesday. Strike one blow for law and order!
During his campaign to free border agent-convicted criminals Ramos and Compean, Poe spent an inordinate amount of time on right-wing talk shows such as that of CNN’s Lou Dobbs and any other nut job Poe could get his mug on. It’s so nice to know Poe can represent the people of El Paso, almost 800 miles away from his own district, so well while his own constituents need assistance for little things like FEMA housing and help with veterans benefits.
Poe also predicts the end of mankind as we know it if President Obama goes ahead with his plans to close the detention facility for suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay. The last president and his evil puppet-master Dick Cheney had that facility used because it wasn’t on U.S. soil, thus thinking we wouldn’t have to give prisoners such niceties as human rights, we could torture them and we could ensure they have fair trials in which they would end up guilty and executed. Here is what Poe says about Gitmo:
“I have toured prisons all around the world and I have personally visited the Guantanamo Bay facility. I can assure you this facility is more than acceptable to house terrorist suspects. In my opinion, it is far too nice for the ‘worst-of-the-worst’.”
What kind of facility would you suggest for terror suspects Judge? Should they be hung outside in frozen weather on meat hooks? Should they be beaten every day? Should they be put in a dingy little room 24/7 and be forced to listen to recordings of your speeches?
Poe has introduced legislation which would prevent suspected terrorists from being imprisoned in the U.S. Hmmm. It seemed U.S. federal prisons were good enough to hold the likes of domestic terrorist monsters such as Timothy McVeigh and Ted Kaczynski as well as Islamist terrorist Omar Abdel-Rahman, the so-called “Blind Sheikh who was convicted of the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993.
I would be willing to bet given the political climate right now that Poe’s “big time” stature as being a 2nd-in-command on the minority side on a congressional subcommittee might not be enough to guarantee passage of such a bill with a predominantly Democratic House, Senate and not to mention a Democratic president who has a mandate to shut down the Gitmo prison. I could be wrong though.
In the meantime, I guess I will humor Poe by continue receiving his e-mails until they just get too damn silly for me to read without upchucking.