Do you believe that being groped without probable cause is what Americans should have to endure in order to board a plane, enter a government building, or a senior prom? Apparently Speaker of the House Joe Straus has no problem with us and our children being groped.
If you have a different point of view on this issue, as do most people in Texas who supported Governor Rick Perry adding this bill to the special session, then you need to help get him voted out.
This man clearly stands against the people's Fourth Amendment rights to be free from search and seizure without probable cause. In refusing to put this bill on the floor during the special session, he called it, “The bill, without some serious revisions, appears to me to be nothing more than an ill-advised publicity stunt, unenforceable…[and] misdirected at uniform security personnel.”
Of course when it was brought to the floor during the regular session it passed unanimously but when it got to the Senate, and Senator Dan Patrick had accumulated 30 out of 31 votes for it (with the naysayer apparently being Senator Bob Deuell), it was killed off by Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst who cowed to the threats of Obama's DOJ. They had threatened to make Texas a no-fly zone.
When we look for where blame should go for this debacle and the continuation of groping at the airports in Texas, we need not stop at Straus. The people of Texas spoke out strongly and clearly at the beginning of the session telling their representatives to vote against Straus, knowing that he would not do the job the people of Texas wanted. This incident proves the people were right, and all but 15 representatives are responsible for his being the Speaker of the House and thereby having the power to keep this bill, and most of the illegal alien bills, off the floor of the House.
If you want Texas to stand strong and fight for the people in the future, the first step is to vote out every member of the House that voted for Straus in the first place.
And remember these words of David Simpson as you look toward the next election, “The Speaker unilaterally halted a bill supported by a majority of Texans, coauthored by 111 members of the House, approved by a majority of the Senate, vetted by Attorney General Greg Abbott, requested by Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst, and called by Governor Rick Perry. Speaker Straus claimed that ‘[t]he bill…appears to me to be nothing more than an ill-advised publicity stunt.’ I’m curious whether the Speaker thinks that the Bill of Rights is a publicity stunt? Did the framers of the Constitution of the State of Texas and the Constitution of the United States write in protections against unreasonable search and seizure in order to be cute?”
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