A Texas State Senate committee passed a castrated version of the anti-TSA groping bil l on Monday (the one that the DOJ threatened the state with a blockade over last month), nullifying it by continuing to allow TSA agents to molest passengers as long as they act with "reasonable suspicion" that the search is necessary. The original bill would have made it a crime for TSA agents to "... touch a person's private areas without probable cause as a condition of travel or as a condition of entry into a public place".
As activist Heather Fazio said, "The simple act of opting out of the body scanners is going to be reasonable suspicion. That is unacceptable."
Some Texas politicians are using this castrated version of the bill to pretend that they're taking on the Federal Government while in reality they are merely putting on a show of rebellion as they capitulate to its demands. Texas Governor Rick Perry tried to avoid reintroducing the bill after it was dropped amid the DOJ threat controversy last month, even incorrectly claiming that the bill didn't have enough support to pass. (This was until after an activist filmed a conversation between himself and Perry in which he reminded the Governor of Senator Patrick, who had read a note days before indicating that there were indeed enough votes in the Texas legislature to back the bill.)
It's rumored that Perry is considering a presidential run. Pretending to stand up to the President by backing a new version of the bill big on talk but lacking teeth may, in theory, give him PR points within the establishment GOP while maintaining the same overbearing federal power his administration would enjoy overseeing if he took Obama's place in 2012. However, with the age of the Internet creating a more politically awakened public, such political tricks no longer work.
Radio host Alex Jones on Monday called for citizens to once again converge on the Texas Capitol in what he calls a "Citizens' Filibuster"-- a grassroots lobbying effort aimed at pressuring lawmakers to save the original legislation before the special session of the legislature ends on Wednesday, asking them to filibuster if necessary.
Videos of the protest have been posted at Infowars.com. They can be viewed HERE.
The White House and the DOJ have everything to lose by threatening Texas, while the state itself has everything to gain by standing up to TSA oppression. If the activists succeed in getting the original version of the bill passed it will dim the illusion of superiority that the Federal Government needs in order to maintain its "Wizard of Oz" like intimidation of states seeking to exert their rights under the 10th Amendment. Texas will go down in history as having fired the first shot in the revolution against the out of control TSA, and Rick Perry will have had nothing to do with the bill's success other than acting as the puppet with the pen who had his arm twisted by Texans sick of bowing to federal terrorism.
