This is one good thing I've noticed come from the new administration-a growing number of people who distrust the FedGov and demand freedom. Hooray for secession! Thomas Jefferson would be proud!
http://www.star-telegram.com/804/story/1623872-p2.html
AUSTIN — As head of the Texas Nationalist Movement, Daniel Miller of Nederland believes it’s time for the Lone Star State to sever its bond with the United States and return to the days when Texas was an independent republic.

"Independence. In our lifetime," Miller’s organization proclaims on its Web site.

When Gov. Rick Perry suggested that some Texans might want to secede from the Union because they are fed up with the federal government, the remarks drew nationwide news coverage and became fodder for late-night comedians.

But to Texas separatists like Miller and Republican gubernatorial candidate Larry Kilgore of Mansfield, secession is no laughing matter. Nor is it exclusive to the nation’s second-largest state.

Fanned by angry contempt for Washington, secession movements have sprouted up in perhaps more than a dozen states in recent years. In Vermont, retired economics professor Thomas Naylor leads the Second Vermont Republic, a self-styled citizens network dedicated to extracting the sparsely populated New England state from "the American Empire."

And on the other side of the continent, Northwestern separatists envision a "Republic of Cascadia" carved out of Oregon, Washington and the Canadian province of British Columbia.

While most Americans dismiss the breakaway sentiments, sociologists and political experts say they are part of a larger anti-Washington wave that is rapidly spreading across the country.

Challenging Washington

More commonplace are states’ rights movements to directly challenge federal laws, a citizen revolt that one scholar says is unparalleled in modern times. Among the actions in which states are thumbing their nose at Washington:

■ Montana and Tennessee have enacted legislation declaring that firearms made and kept within those states are beyond the authority of the federal government. Similar versions of the law, known as the Firearms Freedom Act, have been introduced in at least four other states.

■ Arizona lawmakers will let voters decide a proposed state constitutional amendment that would opt the state out of federal healthcare mandates under consideration in Congress. The amendment will be placed on the November 2010 ballot. State Rep. Nancy Barto, R-Phoenix, said five other states considered similar versions of the amendment this year and at least nine others are expected to do so next year.

■ Nearly two dozen states have approved resolutions refusing to participate in the Real ID Act of 2005, which requires that driver’s licenses and state ID cards conform to federal standards. A similar resolution was introduced in the 2009 Texas Legislature but died in committee.

■ A campaign called "Bring the Guard Home" is pushing legislation in 23 states that would empower governors to recall state National Guard units from Iraq on the premise that the federal law authorizing such deployments has expired. "It’s gaining momentum, to say the least," said Jim Draeger, program manager for Peace Action Wisconsin. He said the initiative has a respectable chance of passing the Legislature in his state.

Rising public anger over the way Washington does business has produced a growing outcry for state sovereignty and strict adherence to the 10th Amendment, which says powers not specifically delegated to the federal government by the Constitution belong to the states.

Texas was an epicenter for this year’s "tea party" protests, in which thousands of Americans displayed their contempt for rising taxes and federal intrusion.

'Unprecedented’ defiance

Michael Boldin, founder of the Tenth Amendment Center in Los Angeles, a think tank that monitors states’ rights activity, said defiance of federal policy is "unprecedented" and cuts across the philosophical spectrum, ranging from staunch conservatives to anti-war activists to civil libertarians. Legislatures in 37 states, he said, have introduced state sovereignty resolutions and at least seven have passed.

Perry, who faces a hard-fought Republican primary challenge from U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, has made state sovereignty one of his signature themes. During the 2009 Legislature, he endorsed an unsuccessful resolution supporting the 10th Amendment, asserting that "our federal government has become oppressive in its size, its intrusion into the lives of our citizens, and its interference with the affairs of our state."

After a tea party rally in April, Perry told reporters that secession might be on the minds of some Texans disgusted with the federal government. He later stressed that he wasn’t advocating secession, telling the Star-Telegram, "America is a great country, and Texas wants to stay in that union and help our way out of" the nation’s economic downturn.

But others are advocating secession.

In a poll of 1,209 respondents conducted by Zogby International last year, 22 percent said they believed that "any state or region" has the right to secede and become an independent republic, and 18 percent said they would support a secessionist movement in their state. Conversely, more than 70 percent expressed opposition to secession.

Kirk Sale of Mount Pleasant, S.C., formed the Middlebury Institute in 2004 for the study of "separatism, secession and self-determination." The institute conducted the Third North American Secessionist Convention in New Hampshire in 2008, drawing delegates from about two dozen secessionist organizations in the United States and Canada.

Secessionist organizations are operating at various levels of activity in Texas, Vermont, New Hampshire, Alaska and Hawaii. Breakaway sentiments and anger at Washington also run high within the Southern National Congress, a 14-state organization to "express Southern grievances and promote Southern interests."

Chairman Tom Moore, who lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of southwest Virginia, says the group is "not explicitly a secessionist organization" although "most of our people probably do favor that option."

For many, the mention of secession brings to mind the most turbulent years in American history, when 13 Southern states broke away from the Union in 1860 and ’61, plunging the country into a Civil War that claimed at least 618,000 lives but put an end to slavery. In contrast, modern-day secessionists stress that they advocate a peaceful departure and emphatically dismiss criticism that their organizations embrace racism and white supremacy.

scarily familiar,, and interesting.

I agree, nice read for a load of BS.

Well, at least a big, fat, Civil War would create jobs... anything is better than the current citywide Detroit unemployment rate of 28.9%

http://www.epi.org/analysis_and_opinion/entry/the_role_of_government_in_hard_times/

Hey HB, did anyone ever tell you that ya look like Jesus?

LOL Actually I myself have said that... and when he posts intresting stuff like this thread I always say "Jesus"

Now take into account that there are approximately 307,604,127 people living in the United States (http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html).

Now, even before I show the math results, it is fairly obvious that that does not even begin to represent the peoples real opinion. But here we go anyway.


out of 1,209 which is %3.9 of the American Citizens, 266 Americans, or %22 stated they believe states or regions should have the right to succeed. This equals %8.64 of the actual American population.

217 people, or %7.07 of the American People, say they would support a secessionist movement in their state.

Now, this article does not claim that these .umbers come from one specific state, and in fact suggests several states, so I used the National Census, not he state census. However, even in the tiniest state of the United States, Wyoming, with a population of approximately 532,668 people, these numbers are very small indeed.

So once again, I show you that you can spout off numbers all day long if you like, but in the end, polls mean not a darned thing.

except a civil war would be non-existent if going by popular consensus in the forums here. From what I have seen here most people are dead against draft or conscription, and in the case of a civil war, that is exactly what would happen is everyone of a certain age, men at the least, would be drafted by their state.

I hope those 217 people move out of the country.

The secession and nullification doctrines are well known and have been around for 200+ years. No BS.

Yes. Did you know that the real Jesus (known in his life as Yeshua) was not white? He had dark skin, dark eyes, and spoke Aramaic.

I agree that the sample for the poll was too small. We can say this about all polls, but some people are impressed by polls, so they continue to be done.

Secession will not happen in these here United States, you can bank on it.

I wouldn't bank on anything at this time. There was a time when people believed the government would never start undeclared wars or take over private businesses or regulate interstate commerce or education or medicine. That all changed as each generation grew more and more dependent on the government and the State gave itself more power.

Secession has already happened twice (once from Britain, once from the tyrannical Northern States), so there is no reason to say "it won't happen again". (especially considering the volatile situation the last 20 years of neocons and left liberals have put us in)

If the dollar crashes, all the old rules are gone, and it seems the government is determined to do that with its wars and welfare (corporate and otherwise) and insane debts.

LOL, as I read this I laughed. Sorry.


Went over this before.

People of a state are smart enough to realize that once they succeeded they would be a nation standing alone with no protection and the US could just come in reclaim it by force and all would be for naught.

It is funny though to think about. I will admit.

Read my lips..... It Will Not Happen!!! Nuff said....

is it possible...yes
is it probable...no

my opinion of course. But maybe it would be a wake up call to our government at least

.

Gotta love ya girl ( in a platonic, non lesbian way,,lol)

Are you able to read the future now?