Travis County Commssioners Court
January 21, 2003
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Item 3
Next is number 3, receive presentation on "save the bill of rights" campaign from alex jones, president, texans for liberty. This is specially posted for a 10-minute presentation. Good morning.
>> good morning, court. I really appreciate the judge taking the time out and -- in putting this here on the agenda so that we can discuss it. And I gave you a brief synopsis last year of the resolution itself. I have prepared five folders that we will deliver to your office later this afternoon, new york times stories, inside magazine articles from the left and the right, both criticizing the patriot act. And also a list of the cities that have passed similar resolutions or that are passing. You can also visit the aclu's national website, they also have different state websites that are covering it. We need to save the bill of rights and the constitution and that's not going to happen at this junkture at the federal government level. It needs to come from the states, the counties, the cities. And it is the counties and cities that have stepped up to the plate and that are passing these resolutions. And there are -- there are about 8 different key subsections to the u.s.a. Patriot act. And one of them is section 802. We have all heard about how the federal government has been arresting american citizens and then not releasing their names and in some cases now for over a year. And holding them in military detention camps. In north carolina and alabama and off the coast in a naval brig vessel. The numbers are quite high, no one knows the exact number but they are in the hundreds. There has now been a federal ruling by federal judge that they can grab citizens and designate them as enemy combatants and it has been decried across the board by constitutional scholars, law professors, that this is something straight out of russia or straight out of facist germany. It gives a new definition for domestic terrorism in the patriot act, it says that, you know, all of the classic things, kidnapping, murder to influence the government and to scare the people, which is definitely, I would agree, the court would agree is terrorism. It then amends it with a new section, in section a, and says that any action that endangers human life that's a violation of any federal or state law. Now, this is why many cities have passed a resolution saying that they are not going along with the patriot act. Because that's a misdemeanor. If you -- if you are suspected of committing any misdemeanor action, you can be grabbed secretly in a-- in a soviet style snatch and grab operation, thrown in a white van, you disappear and the government doesn't even have to tell anyone that they did it. And if your neighbor sees you being grabbed, they can tell you under section 213, in the sneak and peek provision as it's called, not to tell anyone what you saw. So I mean this thing is -- is textbook tyranny in the word of congressman Ron paul, a republican, democrats have said similar things in the packet that I have prepared I have those news articles and their quotes, underlined for you, this is not a hard resolution for the court to pass. If you will simply spend 30 minutes going over the packets from respected news agencies and then go to the subsections of the bill that I have pointed out for you, 8 of the 116 subsections, where it -- 1,116 subsections, put things into your house without a warrant, not tell anyone that we were there, if you catch us doing it, you can't ever tell anyone that we were there. Section 215 says they can go into libraries, book stores, take the reading list, spy on everyone and then order the librarians or private book company, book store owners or employees, they can't ever item anyone. Now, a lot of counties and cities are passing our consider passage of this. It's now in the hundreds. Some cities, though, are aggressively using it and enjoying it. They are now arresting people for petty charges, in some cases that wouldn't even bring any real jail time, and up in -- in lansing, michigan, people are now disappearing into the city jail. Also, a lot of different state governments, florida is considering it, so is alaska, using some of the anti-terrorist provisions, kind of taking the lead of washington to make all of their proceedings secret and to make their votes secret. Now certainly if politicians are corrupt, that would be -- don't want their constituents to know what they are doing, that's something that is very alluring. But I believe this court, evidenced by the fact that you have allowed me to bring forward this information in your busy schedule, does believe in the bill of rights, the constitution, I'm begging you for your children, for my children, for the future of this country, with the holiday that we had just yesterday, it's all about standing up for freedom. Standing up for liberty. To please just go over the packet that I will be delivering to you later this afternoon and to look at these subsections for yourself. Ask yourself, is this something that I want to go along with or do I as a county commissioner want to try to pass a resolution simply stating we still believe in the bill of rights, constitution, it still stands here in Travis County. You have welcome, you have experts on the law in your staff that I'm sure could do a better job than I have done on this resolution. If they have any problems with it, rewrite it, change it, specifically list some of the subsections. Or you tell me some of your problems, I talk to commissioner daugherty on Friday. I can go in and change it for you. Let's just address those eight subsections, I mean read those eight subsections, take you 20, 30 minutes, decide: is this what we want for our children? Is this what we want for Travis County? It is such an important message. Several other cities and counties in Texas have now passed it or are considering passing of similar resolutions. It is so vitally important that we do this. Because congress, congress and i've interviewed several congressmen, a democrat and a republican on the radio show, they have said on the record in the new york times, other publication, you are going to get all of those articles, that we weren't even allowed to read this. Two hours before its pathsage, back in October -- passage, back in October 27th, 2001, dick cheney was on the phone, called hundreds of members of the house, all of the members of the senate and said, we want you to pass this. And if you don't pass this, when there's a terrorist attack, we are going to say that it's your fault that this happened. Now, this is incredible. That in -- that in and of itself was terror rising members of -- terrorizing members of congress. Some members said they were angry they were being bullied on a host of economic and other issues. So it's very important to stay -- the resolution says that the county will resist terrorism, will investigate terrorism, will fight against terrorism. But that the patriot act itself has nothing to do with terrorism. It just evicerates the bill of rights and constitution across the board, destroys at least six of the 10 amendments and that america won't even be america anymore if we do not preserve these. It's a very popular resolution with the left and the right. It's something that's very important to pass and congress was not even allowed to read this. It was delivered to committee chairmen two hours before its passage. It was passed in the middle of the night, signed the next week by george bush, there is no way anyone could read 1,016 sections in two hours and members of congress said that the committee chairman would not even allow them to look at it. This is totally unamerican. This is something that we would see in north korea or china or russia during the 1980's. I would just again ask this court to please investigate this, look at the sections and tell me if you have any things that you would like added or things that you would like changed or if you would like to write your own resolution, just a simple resolution, maybe links the 10 bill of rights, saying these are still enforced in Travis County. And that would be so important, because again america won't be america unless we have these basic rights. And we have got to defend liberty, we have got to take action. It is our responsibility. It is your responsibility to investigate this and to do a better job than congress has done. You have already done a better job than congress has done by allowing me during this hearing to bring this information forward and your already cursory investigation of the patriot act and homeland security. Because the patriot act is the laws, homeland security is the reorganization, that's a whole nother ball of wax of the federal government. It's so important to investigate this. And lastly, if the court has any questions I would be happy to try to answer them or any concerns, there's hundreds of provisions to homeland security. Well, homeland security gives blanket liability protection to all drug makers. On vaccines. Not just small pox. Which many cities are now refusing to give to their employees because the epidemiologists are saying this small pox inknack inknock consolidation are -- vaccines are saying they are not going to give this to our people. It's just amazing. Another section of homeland security says that federal employees cannot complain about government corruption? It says that government employees have no more whistle blower protection. You can't complain about sexual harassment, you can't complain about embezzlement. You can't report anything to the news. It makes the entire government secret under the national security act of 1947. It is a recipe for corruption and now it's attempting with federal funding to come in and take over the counties. I want to ensure that this county, Travis County, with all of its fine history, does not become a puppet of the federal government. Again, thank you for listening to me. Do you have any questions or comments?
>> questions?
>> I look forward to reading it.
>> well, I will again --
>> > thanks for putting it together. I will give you some feedback after I read it.
>> thank you. Just a final question here then, I will deliver this information to the court this afternoon. When can -- who should I speak with at a later date or how can I answer any questions so that we can address this either, say, we -- the court either says we support the patriot act homeland security and what it's doing or we support part of it but we don't support these parts or can we get a basic resolution saying the bill of rights is still in effect in Travis County? I think that's something your staff can draft quickly. I mean, I'm not tom person that has a resolution. There are at least 10 other resolutions that have been passed in other cities, 10 different variants of -- what can we do on this? How can we get something passed here so that the people in Travis County know that they still live in a free country, at least in Travis County? Judge?
>> judge, I wanted to -- to hold the commissioners court -- to poll the commissioners court after I read it, we've all read it, let him know how we feel collectively if that's something that you would like to do. I would be the point person on that.
>> okay.
>> I think this is something we all agree on, is at least a bill of rights affirmation of some type, it's so important, it's historical, and I'm losing sleep over this thing because i've read the patriot act. I imagine a lot of you already know something about it because you watch the news and many of you have law degrees and -- please, please, I know in the past i've been very aggressive in defense of liberty, I feel like my rights, my family's rights have been threatened. I requested my listeners do this, that didn't happen. I would also ask you to not just look at the messenger, but also just at the message, regardless of party lines to get some type of resolution passed. I really do genuinely thank Margaret Gomez and gerald daugherty and judge Biscoe and Karen Sonleitner and Ron Davis, everyone here for hearing this vital information. Again you have already done much more, had much more debate than the congress ever did about the patriot act. Thank you.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
Last Modified: Wednesday, April 2, 2003 10:25 AM