Good for you Lisa. I think the congress and house are only beginning to learn what we abstractors have known for some time now. The ChoicePoint spill is important though as it  draws attention to the haphazard way those who treat the American identity as a commodity treat our security. It also points out that no information is secure when presented over the internet. It doesn't matter if a site is subscription based and password protected.

What you described is not just true in Texas. It is the same everywhere. And the citizens are outraged every time this abuse of the American public record is exposed.

Last week I did a study of a county just 100 miles from here. The county had just gone online. Within a few hours I had collected the personal information of nearly 200 local citizens including their social security numbers, bank account numbers, home addresses, names and dates of birth of their minor children. As if this were not disturbing enough I also found the Social Security numbers and other identifiers of nearly twenty deputy sheriffs, the chief deputy sheriff, the county judge, and a District Judge. But what I found most disturbing was the identity, home address, social security number, driver's license number, home phone number of 3 Pantex employees. Pantex is the only site in the country licensed to dissasemble nuclear weapons. Still not concerned? The same documents revealed the names, ages, and social security numbers of the employees minor children.