more on Homeland Security Department Used to Track TexasDemocratic Legislators

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Mary Shaw <mary.shaw () cs cmu edu>
Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 22:13:32 -0400
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] Homeland Security Department Used to Track TexasDemocratic
Legislators

Dave,

The online version of the article you sent has a link to an article in the
Ft Worth Start-Telegram, http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/5858118.htm.

The CommonDreams.org article didn't make it clear that rules of the
legislature apparently give the state cops the authority to round up
legislators if they are needed to make a quorum.  Bringing in federal
agencies still crosses the line, and the in-state tactics are questionable.
But the (partisan) reporting in the CommonDreams article leaves the reader
with the impression that it was over the line to be looking for the
legislators at all.

Mary



      Posted on Wed, May. 14, 2003

      Eyes of Texas, U.S. on truant legislators
      By Jay Root
      Star-Telegram Austin Bureau


                  STAR-TELEGRAM/RODGER MALLISON
                  Reps. Al Edwards of Houston, Helen Giddings of DeSoto and
Sylvester Turner of Houston talk with reporters in Austin. The three
Democratic representatives returned to the House on Tuesday.

      Wives have been watched. A former House speaker's plane was tracked.
Federal officials have been asked to intervene. Even the El Paso Police
Department has gotten involved.

      The hunt for Democrats on the lam from the Texas Legislature has
involved virtually every level of government, ranging from a house call by
local cops to monitoring conducted -- apparently unwittingly -- by a
California-based agency that normally is involved in the fight against
terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.

      By Tuesday night, only one House member, Rep. Helen Giddings,
D-DeSoto, had been apprehended.

      State Rep. Craig Eiland, D-Galveston, said he believes that the
dragnet went overboard when a Texas Ranger tried to find him Monday night at
the neonatal unit of the Galveston hospital where his newborn twins are
recovering -- in intensive care. Eiland said he called the agent on his
cellphone and told him that DPS agents had already found him in Ardmore,
Okla. -- where he and most of his fellow boycotters are in self-imposed
exile.

      "It's unnecessary, bordering on harassment," Eiland said. "Let the
good guys go back to catching the bad guys and let the politicians deal with
each other."

      The Texas Department of Public Safety says it's just doing its job:
trying to haul in more than 50 Democrats who skipped town to block a
controversial vote on redistricting.

      Although their tactic isn't a crime, state law enforcement officers
have the authority to arrest members of the Legislature and deliver them to
the Capitol to achieve the necessary quorum. At least three divisions of the
DPS -- state troopers, Texas Rangers and the Special Crimes unit -- are on
the case.




[[[snip]]]


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