Get Smart: Texas is determined to get Phil Smart, Libertarian candidate for 22nd State Senate

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You Blog because you are crying to be heard; You are here because what is happening today makes you cry.

Phil Smart is a Certified Public Accountant who runs his own business in a small town in Texas in the Dallas area. He runs his business out of his home, which is out in the country, allowing him the freedom he wants to indulge in his hobbies. In his hours away from the computer and pencil and paper Phil likes to restore old cars, his pride and joy is a Capri from the 60s but he also is proud of owning one of only seven Edsels still in existence.

Phil Smart loves animals and has for years rescued abandoned dogs and cats, feeding them himself and finding loving homes for them. Several years ago his home was ransacked and two of his cats who were declawed escaped. They were killed. Mr. Smart found their bodies when he returned home. Smart's home had been invaded by the police while he was incarcerated on yet another traffic violation. The authorities found nothing illegal but left the Smart home a shambles. They began characterizing Philip Smart as a terrorist.

Smart graduated from Southern Methodist University in Dallas with degrees in business and psychology, going on to get another degree that allowed him to practice his profession. Phil is a quiet kind of guy except when he attends debates and forums. He started getting interested in politics several years ago and then two years ago decided to run for County Commissioner as a Libertarian.

He was arrested three weeks before that election and not released until after the vote was in. This election season Phil is running for State Senate, again as a Libertarian. The timing for his arrest is similar this time, a strange and unaccountable coincidence.

His interest in politics caused Phil to ask questions for those in charge of the local government. Speaking up is evidently something that upsets the local establishment. Along with asking questions at forums Phil posts signs and bumper stickers declaring his love for freedom and Libertarianism. This tendency to ask questions of persons in positions of authority is, according to his girl friend, Donna Watson, the reason Philip Smart has been arrested six times in the last two years. Donna is a financial counselor at an Oncology facility in a town nearby.

On the first occasion Philip was upset that his bank would not give him cash for his CD. All the rest of the times the cause of his trips to the local jail have been traffic issues. On one of these occasions a female officer stopped him on his motorcycle, demanding his license. She then searched his motorcycle over his objections, also neglecting to note this on her report. But the motorcycle bears her fingerprints.

On this last occasion Philip was stopped for bringing his car to a stop six inches over the line at the stop sign. The arresting officer, a Sargent Rogers, then insisted on searching Smart's car, finding the daytimer that holds his medications. Since he had failed to carry these in the bottles that had the prescriptions included he was arrested. The next day Donna offered to bring down the prescriptions. She was told not to bother. Ms. Watson was told by Lisa Moon, the officer staffing the desk, that it is illegal to carry prescription drugs unless they are in bottles that have the prescribing physician, the pharmacy, and the name of the patient.

Philip Smart has been incarcerated in the Ellis County Correctional Facility located at Wayne McCollum Detention Center, 300 South Jackson, Waxahachie, Texas 75165. He has no blanket and so at nights he is cold. You can write to him care of the above facility in Cell Block S – C.

While you would think that given his good character and the nature of the charges he would be placed with other nonviolent offenders. But instead he is incarcerated with hardened criminals. On at least one of these occasions he was placed in solitary confinement, lights on 24 hours a day for two weeks.

Philip Smart is suffering from the lack of the prescription drugs he needs to survive. His mother, Jesse Smart works at Sak's; His father, Dr. Don Smart, is an Ophthalmologist. No one knows what to tell Phil's 16 year old son, who is asking what happened to his Dad.

Phil Smart lives on a cul de sac street. Last year his beloved dog, Puppy, a Shelty-mix, turned up dead on his lawn, the victim of a hit and run. The neighbors were shocked and believe that Puppy's death was caused by Smart's political activism, the activism that so upsets the powers that be in Ellis County.

Far from being a threat to society Phil attends a tiny local church when he does not attend his girl friend's church. Certainly Phil did not expect that running for office as a Libertarian would prove to be so hazardous to his health. But Donna received a call from a consulting psychiatrist who was allowed to view Philip Smart remotely from his office in Galveston, Texas. The doctor was worried. Philip Smart's physical condition had deteriorating rapidly and he was shaky and disoriented from cold and the lack of his prescriptions. Those concerns evidently forced those in charge to ensure that neglecting to carry his prescription bottles with him did not become a death sentence. His mother received a call on October 25^th , demanding she bring down a list of those prescriptions. Today, by indirect report, we have learned that Mr. Smart's condition has improved.

Evidently Texas has different rules than other places in America – or, as some have come to fear, Texas and Homeland Security may be about to declare Mr. Philip Smart, a quiet CPA, a threat to National Security. If that is the case and with Habeas Corpus extinguished Philip Smart may be up for an extended vacation in one of the Homeland Prison Facilities in Texas that are even less attractive that the Ellis County Jail.

In America today there are evidently no rules we recognize. Having canceled the 4th Amendment this government appears ready to view all of us as terrorists. Make sure you carry your prescription bottles with you at all times - and begin working to restore the 4th Amendment. We have never needed it more.