It’s funny that the last election focused so heavily on left-wing radicals since there hasn’t been any kind of left-wing radical activity in almost 50 years. I rarely hear anything about right-wing radicals despite the fact that they must outnumber the left-wing variety 1000 to 1 at this point. Wasn’t it a right-wing radical who caused the Oklahoma City Bombing? Now Homeland Security says white power militias are swelling in ranks thanks to the economic recession coupled by a black president. Gov. Rick Perry has affirmed Texas’ right to succession. (Too bad he doesn’t realize he’s playing right into Chuck Norris’ hands.)
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/apr/14/federal-agency-warns-of-radicals-on-right/
http://governor.state.tx.us/news/press-release/12227/
And here’s an article about how Obama has basically chosen no one but Goldman Sachs big shots to head up the economic crisis.
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/21218
I admire any state or individual demanding their rights under the constitution. As Obama (and Bush) taxes and print money, they use it to bribe support from bankrupt states. Federal government has 3 roles
(1) national defense (not offense)
(2) justice system
(3) currency system so we can trade
they are destroying #3 above.
States or the private sector should handle everything else. This would make Washington a small city again.
Hey KEVIN:
Texas is a land of personal liberty.
You goverment dependents or power grabbers do not get that. Wealth is created by the market economy. The market economy has been here since man inhabited the earth. Liberals and socialists like you wrape the wealth. In USSR the only thriving economy was underground. The socialist economy went broke.
Texas has greater natural resources than almost any state. If they were a country they would have a trade surplus. They pay in 10 times as much Federal Tax as they ever see back in services. You socialists need Texas or you will be even more broke!!
To all U.S. traitors: BRING IT ON!
Look, I know most of the nutjobs writing are crazy Constitutional Fundamentalists who think these tea parties and birther movements mean something, but I’m sorry to say you make up only a tiny fraction of the far right. The majority of you guys are just racists and conspiracy theorists who would fall away as soon as it meant any kind of real work. And as for you, would you really drop out of school or quit your job in order to dedicate the kind of time it usually takes to start a revolution?? If John Wilbert dropped out, where would he learn how to spell “rape”?
Of course, I say “usually” because we all know that if Washington wanted to re-conquer you like the “Tyrannical Nation” you think it is, then all it would have to do is send a few missiles over and that would be that. What? Were you expecting them to send men by horseback like last time? Sorry, the world has changed in the past 150 years. But really, all the U.S. would have to do is put some sanctions on Texas and people would start changing their minds really quickly.
I don’t think any of you guys really understand why nation-states secede in the first place. A lot of times it’s because of cultural and racial differences like in the case of the Kurds trying to secede from Turkey, but in the case of the American Revolution and the Civil War, it really just came down to money. However, the cultural differences between states is almost non-existent and despite the mess the Bush Administration has put this economy through by refusing to update necessary regulation laws while simultaneously failing to uphold the ones on the books, we still have an ever-increasing standard of living. The stimulus package brought the Dow back and the health reform has been so diluted that even adding a government program as competition is too much (apparently, it is both so bad it will bankrupt the state yet so good it will cause private insurers to go under). If Texas didn’t want any money spent on the financial crisis, it should have abstained it’s electoral college vote. If McCain had won, he’d be spending a lot of money on this problem also, but you wouldn’t be getting near the numbers of people conspiring to overthrow him. So really, the only thing that is left is localized egotism (a small minority who believe Texas could kick all the other states’ asses combined) and racist hatred of Obama (the vast majority who attempt to hide their racism behind this birth certificate nonsense despite the fact that Obama was born in America and McCain was born in Panama).
Anyone still interested in secession, put your money where your mouth is! Take up arms! Let’s see how far you get!!
“Please, if it is within your divine power, make it so that Glenn Beck and Chuck Norris go to Texas and secede. It would be the best thing ever, except for the people who live in Austin. I like Austin, but let’s face it. Anywhere you live you’re subjected to risks. California has earthquakes. New Orleans has floods. Minnesota has dicksicles* in March. And Texas carries with it the constant possibility that Chuck Norris may ride in at any moment, Glenn Beck hugging him from behind (hopefully on a horse or motorcycle, but you never know) and decide that Texas will be a sovereign nation, implementing all the totally awesome and sane ideas for government you’d expect from Chuck Norris and Glenn Beck.”
http://www.youaredumb.net/node/1267
5 Cobra Commander Terror Plots That Might Actually Work
“#4: Cobra Commander attempts to take over Alaska; not through force of arms, but by using a little-known loophole in William Seward’s original treaty that gives legal ownership of the state to whoever has possession of the state seal–presumably rechristening it as Cobralaska and making it the first step in eventual world domination. This, as you might imagine, is a fairly stupid plan.
“The idea of a babbling laughingstock wrestling power away from the U.S. Government using an obscure and possibly fictitious clause in a state document might’ve seemed like a stretch in the 80s, but that’s pretty much exactly what Texas Governor Rick Perry was doing when he started advocating secession based on something he essentially made up. Once again, Cobra Commander was decades ahead of his time.”
http://www.cracked.com/article_17666_5-cobra-commander-terror-plots-that-might-actually-work.html
(Not only that, but the Palins were a part of an Alaskan Separtist movement. Had McCain won and then died, Texas probably wouldn’t be the only state pandering to the far-right secessionist crowd.)
I cannot see any disadvantages of leaving the union. The Fed cannot make us stay. Even if they have the “legal” right. What can they do? Invade us? You can’t make a person love you, and you can’t make them stay.
If we were a nation, we would print our own money. Start from sratch. Hopefully do a better job. Bet California wishes they could print their own money. Oh wait they did, Vouchers.
First and foremost we need term limits for our representatives. That would probably fix our US congress too. The job was not intended to be a career with special perks.
I do understand why Americans are not outraged at the waste and corruption of our politicians. Where’s the media?? Special interest rule in congress and now the Whitehouse.
I say straighten up or get fired or let us leave the union.
watch canada
“Wealth is created by the market economy.”
Wrong. Wealth is created by work. I will agree that markets encourage work. I will agree we need competition. But that’s as far as I’ll go. Value is created by work. There is no free lunch.
Hello, I just joined and I am going to catch up by reading for a while. I hope I can join in soon.
The so called civil war was Lincoln’s war waged against secession. Lincoln and his party were for an all powerful central gov. just like Hamilton and Clay. Read the 1860 Republican Party’s agenda. Before the war states both north and south used nullification and the the threat of secession in response to unfair federal tariffs/taxes. Those powers were left to the states by by the revolution generation, who seceded from England, as the states way of limiting the central government.
By defeating the south Lincoln didn’t destroy the principles of nullification and secession or the idea of the consent of the governed. But he did intimidate those priciples for the next 140 years with the threat of violence to those who want to use those principles to descent from the central government. So effective was the brutality of the war against secession only now are these principles beginning to stir in a small way in a few states.
Read the history between 1800 and 1860 and you’ll find several actual nullifications and also secession threats mainly from northern states! New York City even threatened to secede from the United States AND New York state over free trade issues and become a city state.
At the start of the war most people accepted secession as a state right. Why do you think Lincoln locked up 30,000 northern dissenters, ordered the US Postal Service not to mail newspapers whose editors came out against him, Suspended Habeaus Corpus, ordered the Maryland State legislature locked up and issued a warrant for the arrest of Supreme Court Justice Taney????
Because they opposed his war against secession. He repeatedly violated the Consitution and individual rights by using violence on northerners to force the north into waging war against secession.
Who was seceding? The southern Democrates. Who wanted big central government and federal land give aways? The Republican Party. Who was decenting and punished for it in the North? The northern Democrates.
The so called Civil War was actually a war between those two political parties. Once the Republicans won control of the central gov. the southern Democrats then powerless and at the mercy of Republican tarriffs and land give aways seceded.
Why didn’t the Republicans just let them leave? Because the South was rich in natural resources and exports. They were also the biggest market for Northern finance and manufactured goods. The South paid 70% of all import tarriffs. Import tarriffs made up 90% of the federal governments revenue….Do you get it???
Good points both pro and con have been made here but you need to dig deeper and learn for yourself how we’ve reached this point in our history. Most of what you’ve been taught about Lincoln, the Civil War and the South’s Lost Cause is fantasy – from both sides. Go look at the real documents. Read about what actually happened and the reasons given by those who acted. Read European newspaper accounts and analysis from the 1850s and 1860s. Then do your own reasoning.
YOU PECKER-HEADS do not understand – Texas does not want to leave the US – the US is leaving us. I am with AZ 100% in trying to gain control of what is happing. If you’al wish to be governed by Chicago pimps, whores, and drug dealers – that’s your choice.
Long live The Republic of Texas – Let’s roll.
Bud
With fed. employees gone, we could crack down on welfare leeches, secure the border…maybe we could even get the stinkin’ republicans to respect our liberty.
It is unfortunate that extremes of actions are necessary to pull the dynamic of any misdirected energy back toward “sane”. That time is now. With all sorts of “politically correct” non-sense abounding, we, as Texans, have become mired in the stupid, egg-headed logic of Washington. It may be time to consider the possible option of going our on way. It is certain THE REPUBLIC OF TEXAS could do no worse than the policies about to engulf us. I shall regret finding, and cleaning my guns but I do not see many options.
Marion H. Smith
Here’s an option: move out into the woods and become a survivalist so that when civilization collapses and everyone dies from the massive Socialist government takeover, you can laugh at us and tell your hunting dog that you told us so.
My hunting dog is a blue heeler (dingo)and trained very well in survival. I have been through several survival training programs from desert (Arabia), North Sea, tropical (Thailand), and Rocky Mts. I fear for those that can not get by without their game boys, x boxes, and cell phones. We have a whole generation of men that can not change a tire and many can not even swim or shoot straight. We are going to have a hugh economic crash and every governing body from the school board to the federal government are populated by miss fits that could not find a ball between any ten of them.
If only a group of patriots with balls could get together and throw out those miss fits (people who can’t can’t shoot straight?) and take over the school boards so that they could teach people that it takes survivalists with tropical survival training and abnormal amounts of testosterone to stop a hugh grant economic crash.
All this is to say that the spirit of Texas independance and self-reliance is being subverted into a state of lost confidence and loss of ability to lead during hard times. The really bad times are coming and if the rest of the US has no interest in dealing with the effects beforehand, states like TX and AZ must go it alone. The storms Rita and Ike are examples of drawing on skills that are not known by many people. Many of us were nothing less than “Urban Survivalist” with no electricy for several weeks and no running water, sewer, or police protection. With the guns to stop looters, tractors and chain saws to clear the way for the “first responders”, and dogs to watch our backs, we got through. Those on the border are doing what they can and are getting roughed up by the press. If TX teases to leave the union, it’s intent will be to get some sort of attention to the problem.
Yeah, power went out at my place for a couple of weeks when Gustav hit Baton Rouge. In that sense, I was a survivalist for a while too until I remembered that I had family and friends that did have power and went there. But I’m sure doing something like that would have only slowed you down and made you weak. Whatever does not kill you makes you stronger!
You are right about one thing. Those thinking of revolution certainly are busy on the border:
http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/some-neighborhood-watch-fordes-minut
As the inflationary spiral starts to tighten up on available family economies, I am afraid that social disorder/anarchy will become common. The pain of unemployment, poor health coverage, class and educational differences, race, and just about anything else you can name will fracture like Old Aunt Hatties vase. And just as during the local storms, most often the first ones out of town are those that were elected to “be there”. I am glad I have no responsibility left in this world – It is easier to “hunker down” by yourself.
Actually, inflation means prices are going up, not down. An “inflation spiral” happens when high living costs cause demand for higher wages, bringing production costs up, which in turn increases prices, bringing about an even larger demand for higher wages. That would be really good for us right now because we’re currently in a deflation spiral.
I realize the evils of inflation are what’s popular with Conservatives right now, but it doesn’t really make any sense to be worried about both inflation and a sudden collapse in the market because those two things are contradictory. Just like believing the financial crisis was just an “ant” that Obama’s trying to nuke while at the same time hording gold and planting “freedom gardens”: It’s either one or the other.
Yeah, your analysis is correct and we are in the deflationary stage at this moment. It is a very good time to buy expensive/big ticket items that you RELLY need for the future. If you have cash, it is a buyers market.The problem is just now starting to shift the other way. The inflationary influences will start to impact as Obama allows the printing of funny money to cover the various budget overruns in his programs. It is simply impossible to run the presses 24/7 without each dollar printed, driving down the value of each dollar in circulation. If all the economic problems could be solved by such economic policy, anyone could do it. The problem will arise when those families living from ck to ck find that “there is too much month for the money”. In my situation, it is going to be interesting to watch.
Well actually… I don’t think we’re going to hit inflation any time soon. At first I also thought that inflation must become a problem, but I don’t think so anymore.
But as to the “printing of funny money”, you mean TARP, I think. Which started with Bush. And even though some on the right hate it (although not as much as they hate Obama), it was the correct move. The truth is Obama isn’t that different from Bush and the reason is Obama is pretty much stuck in the same position Bush was: bail out the banks (i.e. housing market) or watch the economy completely crash. Yeah, the economy is in a bad situation, the question is how fast you want accelerate to zero.
Magically, after the 8k incentive to buy a house dried up, housing prices started to go down again. Well duh! Years of deregulation require SOMEONE to pay the piper. Either you pop the bubble or you inflate the economy so the bubble can stand on its own. And it’s just softer to try to inflate your way out of the problem rather than let people lose everything. Basically what is going to happen is all the housing prices will hover around the same low prices, while money gets valued less and less until the economy catches up with the bubble. Even the now deflated bubble is bigger than it should be.
But I still don’t see inflation hitting yet, because unfortunately even with the Fed’s increased balance sheet we can’t keep up with all the false value that was created in the system. We still need time for the true value in the system to get settled.
And other countries still buy into our economy. Why? Because they know that despite what’s going on the American GDP will still come out on top.
Another fine observation Angelo but my views are nither GOP or Dem. I actually think nothing less than the launching of a third party is in order. I do not think Joe Blow will trust either existing party due to really poor management of both parties. I really hope your observations on the future of our economics holds true – I made a potfull on the market today. The funny money I eluded to actually has yet to be printed – not TARP. It will be from the “print orders” being executed as we chat. I still fear inflation as it is much harder to reign in than the corrections required to stop deflation. In any event, macroeconomics is very much like flying a helicopter – you must be making corrections long before needed and not so fast as to overcontrol.
When the Fed decides to increase its balance sheet, it really doesn’t matter if they actually print the money or not. It can be lent to the banks at any rate, which is usually how it gets into the system AFAIK. At least I think TARP will dwarf any actual printing by a long shot.
I think the 3rd party idea has been tried so many times and has only been successful in the case of the Republicans. I think that both parties are in such control right now, that only direct application by the people can help. For example I think if anything has a good chance to work then this will: http://www.fixcongressfirst.org/
So maybe that’s like making a 3rd party without calling it a party, or organizing it like parties are now. (But maybe that’s what we need anyway.)
I just feel that both parties are so tainted and corrupt that a complete sweeping is required. I remember 20 yrs ago (or so) I was very sure the GOP was going to use control of the house, senate, pres., supreme court, etc. to do good things – didn’t happen. They took absolute power and just screwed it away.
Generally speaking, economic Darwinism is the only way to cull what needs to go. I watched Iococa (?) drive our auto industry over a clift. We got a good spanking by Japan – maybe needed. We do not need any more TOO BIG TO FAIL protection. (Not sure what this means?)LOL
I really find your rant on the Texas Sucession movement both amusing, and typical of the socialist left. Your two faced, hypocritical approch reminds me why I`d vote for just about ANYONE besides a Democrate. During the Election the libturds railed on about minority rights, and womens rights, lets not forget gay rights. Hell your party even demands we give rights to those that have no legal right to be in this Country, BUT the second a group begins a discussion about leaving a Country that has perverted the basic fundimentals upon which it was founded, and RECLAIMING their status as an independent republic, Suddenly you feel justified in Childish name calling, and threats. What about THEIR rights, or is it that their rights don`t matter because they don`t agree with you? I thouht the Dems. were so caught up in Rights, that they would whole heartedly support something like this. Besides, It`s no secret an overwelming majority of the pro-secessionist are Conservative Republicans, Here`s your chance to purge the New Peoples Republic of America of these Horrible,greedy people without so much as a single shot. Which brings up another point. It`s only you, and your ilk that have proposed violence. The petition requests a peaceful Sucession. But should texas be attacked I think you may be suprised by the number of determined and dedicated people that would be willing to fight for THEIR rights. While the Blue socialist states would be more concerned with where they can find the best Medical Marijuana, and what new Govt. subsidized programs they can come up with. I`ll agree, it`s a sad day when Americans feel the necessity to turn their backs on their Country, but I`ll also support their RIGHT to be free to decide for themselves how they want to live. To do anything less would be UnAmerican.
Actually, I would love to see Texas secede and enact every Conservative agenda to its hearts desire because its absolute failure might possibly be the only thing that could convince Conservatives of how wrong they are. But first, they would have to return all the federal money they took to pay 97% of its fiscal shortfall in 2010. What? You thought that evil Socialism was taking money from the red states and giving it to the blue states? Well, sorry, but the redistribution that Conservatives continuously whine about mostly comes from (mostly Democratic) young people, (mostly Democratic) big cities, and blue states and goes to (mostly Republican) old people, (mostly Republican) small towns, and the fiscally- and educationally-impoverished red states. The seven states that amassed more than 25,000 secession signatures (which is nothing, really) took more than 23% of all federal revenue allotted to the states that year.
And no duh the “majority” of secessionists are Republicans. The only reason you crybabies are whining about it is because your guy lost the election. I’m sure it was very upsetting to you because Fox News had convinced you Romney was going to win. But they also convinced you that we were going to be seeing super-inflation during the worst deflationary spiral we’ve had since the Great Depression, didn’t they? But that’s just it: the whole cause of your desire to secede is based entirely on a fantasy world driven by propaganda. I’m sure it would also surprise you to learn that in the last four years, both taxes and the deficit has been down, not up, and for the first time in 40 years, the government sector of the American economy has shrunk during the first three years of a presidential administration.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/oct/05/mitt-romney/mitt-romney-says-barack-obama-has-doubled-deficit/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/barack-obama-worst-socialist-ever/2012/05/07/gIQAbp9t7T_blog.html
All this talk about how Obama has somehow made fundamental changes to the economic structure of the country is nonsense. From the 40s to the 70s, the tax rate averaged about 90% and a third of all labor was unionized. Shipping and rails were all heavily regulated and it was a crime to own gold. There is no serious argument that we are living in a less financially open society than the generation that preceded us. The country has been moving to the right fiscally since the Reagan revolution and Obama has not changed that. Keynesian economics has been accepted since the 30s and even Reagan was a “New Deal Republican,” yet there wasn’t even a “New New Deal,” because the past 50 years have shown only Republicans are allowed massive deficit spending.
But apart from all that, secession is just a pipe dream. I don’t care how many of your nutjob friends are claiming they would give their lives to free Texas from Obama’s tyranny, I doubt they’d even give up missing their favorite television show for one day to attend a meeting. And you could multiply your signatures by 100, that still wouldn’t mean the federal armed forces in the state would even think of breaking rank. And even if the armed forces in Texas were as separated from reality as you are, this idea of “peaceful secession” is about as realistic as David Duke’s fantasy of Israel being peacefully dismantled. It’s all just moon base talk. The only reason I’m wasting time addressing it is because its absurdity helps prove how unhinged the right-wing masses have become thanks to 50-year-old Red Scare tactics. But hey, no one will stop you from taking a pill and going to see Red Dawn. Dare to dream.