Travis GOP overwhelmingly passes resolution against TSA naked body scanners

I was impressed to see our Travis County GOP Executive Committee, at the 17-Jan-2011 meeting quickly and easily pass a strong resolution against TSA's new "naked body scanner" machines, with have questionable health safety and unreasonable invasion of privacy for air travelers.

The resolution follows:
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Whereas the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) has expressed an intention to deploy full body scanners at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (ABIA) that will use millimeter-wave radiation sometime in 2011,

Whereas the TSA has not published any of the technical specifications, details on the scanners’ operation and construction, nor any other data that is necessary to conclude an independent review of the health safety of these devices,

Whereas notable authorities, including the Los Alamos Center for Nonlinear Studies have reported that millimeter-wave (also known as TeraHertz) radiation unzips DNA molecules, which causes problems with gene expression and DNA self-repair and adversely impacts human health,

Whereas nations like Israel with outstanding security records have rejected x-ray machines as ineffective and the wrong approach to preventing terrorism and as "one more obsolete technology that does not provide any more security" in the words of Israeli security expert Rafi Sela,

Whereas the Allied Pilots Association  and TSA employees  have formally objected to the use of these full body scanners,

Whereas the use of these scanners to generate and store a naked image of your body represents an unwarranted search under the 4th Amendment that violates every U.S. citizen’s right to be secure in their person,

Whereas the Austin Airport Advisory Commission unanimously passed a resolution opposing the introduction of full body scanners and  aggressive “pat downs” by TSA at ABIA,

Be it resolved that as the operating authority controlling ABIA and permitting the TSA to provide security services there, the City of Austin should take necessary steps to prevent the installation of these scanners at the airport.

SREC Meeting Resolutions from Dec 2010

SREC RESOLUTION

ON

TEXAS SENATE ROSEBUSH-BLOCKER RULE

Whereas, Republican voters worked very hard over many years to win a majority in the Texas Senate,

Whereas, Republican voters are frustrated that Democrats, who are in the minority, can block critical conservative legislation with just 11 votes,

Whereas, the Republican Party of Texas 2010 Party Platform says on page six, “Rosebush–Blocker Rule – We oppose the Rosebush-Blocker Rule in the Texas Senate”, which is the will of the grassroots Republicans as embodied by 2010 State Republican Party Convention,

Be it resolved, that the SREC strongly urges that the Texas Senate take whatever steps are necessary to pass conservative legislation over the opposition of the Democrat minority, including consideration of discontinuing the use of the Rosebush-Blocker bill/rule, if necessary; and

Be it resolved, that if outright elimination of the Rosebush-Blocker bill/rule does not appear to be able to be passed by the Texas Senate in its initial caucuses and meetings, that the SREC strongly urges that the Texas Senate, at the very least, change the Rosebush-Blocker bill/rule by reducing the 2/3rds requirement to 60%, which is an equivalent percentage to the 60% cloture rule in the United States Senate,

Be it further resolved, that this resolution be immediately forwarded to all Texas State Senators, and that RPT HQ’s disseminate it via e-mail and the RPT website,

Be it further resolved, that the SREC encourages all Texas Republicans to contact their state senator to urge them to end or at least, modify this rule as described above, so the will of the majority can finally be represented in the Texas Senate.

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Adopted by the SREC, December 4, 2010

(NOTE:  SREC SD-14 reps  Davida Stike and Don Zimmerman both voted for the resolution)

Note: this language is the exact same language as was passed near-unanimously by the 2008 & 2006 SREC at its December 2008 & 2006 meetings, with simple update for 2010.

Tx GOP gains seats, new Chairman Steve Munisteri eliminates debt, and the news is...

The major media is many things, but at the top of the list, quite predictable!  We could predict that all the major papers would endorse Bill White, while the voters endorsed Rick Perry, and it happened.

At the December (2010) State Republican Executive Committee meetings, one of the items in our folder was a "Press Packet".  What do you expect the press would be talking about in the wake of the Texas shellacking of Democrat state house candidates?  Well, they were talking about a spirited debate between two of my fellow SREC members regarding the Republican Speaker (of the House) race, and almost miraculously, they managed to conjure up a spirit of anti-semitism, which was immediately embraced by our more radical Democrat blogger friends:

SREC member wants to oust Speaker Joe Straus because he’s Jewish, doesn’t hate gays enough

Posted on 06 Dec 2010 at 5:09pm

So here's my take.  As a new SREC member (who started in June, 2010), I'm still idealistic about representing SD-14 constituents, as opposed to airing my own opinions, and fortuitously my opinions have lined up nicely with my constituents' demands (so far, those I've heard from want a more conservative speaker, and not Straus).  There was some debate at the last Travis Executive Committee meeting regarding asking our outstanding chairman, Dr. Rosemary Edwards, to sign a letter asking for a more conservative speaker, on behalf of the Travis GOP, but there was a clear consensus for her to do so - and she did.

But what's the real story here?  In my view, the real news - which the media still can't bring themselves to accept - is that the Tea Party pushed the GOP to big gains, and we're going to have a great 2011 session no matter who the Texas Speaker is!

Oh yeah, and there's that incredible accomplishment of the new Texas GOP, under Chairman Steve Munisteri's leadership, eliminating a huge debt AND contributing campaign resources to GOP victories, in just months after Steve took over as Chair.  That, in fact, is real news.  But it's so good for the GOP, can the major media stomach it?  We'll see.  Isn't it great that our political activism, and successes, exist in comfortable independence from a biased media?