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Therefore I wonder if Perry is kept in office so no one more powerful takes control. The guy makes speeches that throw red meat to conservatives, but I can’t (for the life of me) see what else he does (or has done).

He tried to push through the biggest land grab in the history of Texas, even when it was a part of Mexico, through his transportation corridor. That's pretty significant.

Oh, and under Rick Perry, the Texas Department of State Health Services along with Texas A&M has decided it has the right to hold onto the blood and DNA samples of over 4 million babies born in Texas since 2002. The blood samples used to be destroyed after the standard tests for certain fatal diseases, but no more. Even if the parents of the children ask that the samples be destroyed, the state can hold onto the samples and data from the samples as long as it's for research purposes, thanks to our idiotic legislators and a law that protects the state of Texas from having to reveal what's being done with the samples and the information.

Part 1 of an investigative report about it. Part 2 will be up tonight, where they interview Florence Shapiro, the idiot who introduced the legislation with all of the loopholes that protect the state.

The report mentions that while Obama was a Senator, he introduced national legislation for a national DNA database.

Thank God for those 5 families that decided to challenge the state and assert their Constitutional rights - I pray their lawsuit wins. My daughters are going to be going over the paperwork from the birth of their children to see what they can do about it.

.It sickens me to think the state has the right to hold onto their blood and DNA samples. I could believe this kind of crap in California or New York or Florida or Massachusetts, but in Texas???!!!!!

How could the state decide in 2002 that it has the right to hold onto the blood and DNA of newborns? How could the state decide it has the right to keep the samples and information against the wishes of the parents? Have they no respect for privacy or the Constitution?