... letter from a friend, and he makes a good point


GUEST POST


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The U.S.S.R. had the Committee for State Security...
We have the Department of Homeland Security:

One federal agency that became involved early on [in the hunt for the
missing Texas Democrats] was the Air and Marine Interdiction and
Coordination Center, based in Riverside, Calif. -- which now falls
under the auspices of the Homeland Security Department.

The agency received a call to locate a specific Piper turboprop
aircraft. It was determined that the plane belonged to former House
Speaker Pete Laney, D-Hale Center.

The location of Laney's plane proved to be a key piece of information
because, [House Speaker Tom] Craddick said, it's how he determined that
the Democrats were in Ardmore.

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/5858118.htm

Since it's only the beginning right now, the abuse was only minor -- it
appears that the AMICC only provided some information to a caller about
the plane, and was not actually used to provide the law enforcement of
Texas law. Needless to say, though, this was clearly a partisan use of
an overly powerful police organ of the Federal government. I thought
Republicans were for smaller government?

I see bad things arising. Please, for the sake of democracy, help
ensure that there is an election in 2004, that it is fair, and that the
bad guys (who think they're oh-so-good) are shown that they don't
actually have the mandate they acted they had. For the sake of the
nation and the world.


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