If I hadn’t already mentioned this before, this may come as a shock to some of you – but yesterday, the United States Senate actually voted to single out Texas to send a message that it better get in line.
You see, the Governor of Texas had the audacity to tell Washington, “no.” No to education funding that came with Washington strings and that would cost Texans more in the long run. No to unemployment insurance funding that would have come with similar strings and cost. And recently, along with other Texas state officials, no to federal government interference with traditional state authority to regulate oil and gas exploration.
Heaven forbid. Because, don’t you know, Washington is the fountain of all wisdom and virtue – and we must jump when Washington says “jump.” But when we don’t… oh, no… when we don’t, the powers that be along the Potomac decide to proceed like this:
1. Play politics with a War supplemental by including $10 billion in education funding in it;
2. Attach a requirement to that education spending that the Governor of Texas, because he has been out of line and not doing what he is told, must certify (unlike any other state) that the $800 million Texas could receive would not replace state funding, and thus would be additional funding;
3. When the education funding is stripped from the supplemental, proceed in a separate measure to pass it – leaving the same onerous, anti-Texas, arrogant, anti-federalism unprincipled power play.
No thank you. This should be just the beginning. States need to start telling Washington “no,” a lot louder and a lot more often.
Below is the offensive language:
(11) ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS FOR THE STATE OF TEXAS.–The following requirements shall apply to the State of Texas:
(A) Notwithstanding paragraph (3)(B), funds used to support elementary and secondary education shall be distributed based on local educational agencies’ relative shares of funds under part A of title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6311 et seq.) for the most recent fiscal year which data are available. Funds distributed pursuant to this paragraph shall be used to supplement and not supplant State formula funding that is distributed on a similar basis to part A of title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6311 et seq.).
(B) The Secretary shall not allocate funds to the State of Texas under paragraph (1) unless the Governor of the State provides an assurance to the Secretary that the State will for fiscal years 2011, 2012, and 2013 maintain State support for elementary and secondary education at a percentage of the total revenues available to the State that is equal to or greater than the percentage provided for such purpose for fiscal year 2011 prior to the enactment of this Act.
(C) Notwithstanding paragraph (8), no distribution shall be made to the State of Texas or local education agencies therein unless the Governor of Texas makes an assurance to the Secretary that the requirements in paragraphs (11)(A) and (11)(B) will be met, notwithstanding the lack of an application from the Governor of Texas.
Aaron Gardner
Moe Lane
Steve Maley
KnightsofMalta
Dan Spencer
Dan McLaughlin
The time has come
romeg Thursday, August 5th at 11:34AM EST (link)To repeal the 17th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
“Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victim may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated, but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” – C. S. Lewis
No
banzaibob (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 11:48AM EST (link)It’s time to secede. I don’t want to be around when DC tells Texans they’ll have to helpbail out California’s public pensions.
Prefiero morir de pie que vivir de rodillas
It’s better to die upon your feet than to live upon your knees!
Emiliano Zapata
You guys tried that once before
Neil Stevens (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 11:50AM EST (link)Don’t make us teach you again.
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“I rejoice that America has resisted.” – William Pitt, the Elder
Texas is one of the few states that could survive on it's own
izoneguy (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 11:54AM EST (link)Without “help” or interference from the feds…..
The rest of the states have a choice. Join us or be swallowed up by
the feds.
The point cannot be made often enough: Modern liberalism, as embodied in the Obama presidency, is the defender of the status quo. And the status quo is a road to economic ruin. Political forces cannot redistribute the wealth that the economic system does not produce.
Heh heh
Neil Stevens (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 11:58AM EST (link)Don’t know how well Texas could hold up after we blockade Galveston.
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Who is we???
izoneguy (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 12:15PM EST (link)I am afraid that Mr. Obama would not enjoy the support of our armed forces in that endevour.
The point cannot be made often enough: Modern liberalism, as embodied in the Obama presidency, is the defender of the status quo. And the status quo is a road to economic ruin. Political forces cannot redistribute the wealth that the economic system does not produce.
Yeah, you all said that last time too
Neil Stevens (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 12:16PM EST (link)It was going to be easy. Over in a month. Those soft Yankees have no chance.
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The "fight" has just begun
izoneguy (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 12:21PM EST (link)The dems will be bitch slapped in Nov.
Obama will continue losing support.
He has nothing and is nothing….
What are the feds going to do? Open the regulations books and tell us what we can’t do? I have lived in Texas 40 years….Obama has no idea what is coming.
The point cannot be made often enough: Modern liberalism, as embodied in the Obama presidency, is the defender of the status quo. And the status quo is a road to economic ruin. Political forces cannot redistribute the wealth that the economic system does not produce.
Without the albatross of slavery, who knows?
RedBeard Thursday, August 5th at 12:32PM EST (link)If not for the immoral “peculiar institution,” there could have been no Emancipation Proclamation, and therefore no reason for Britain to refrain from aiding the Confederacy with the one thing they lacked, material goods. That alone could have turned the tide early on.
And, the Confederacy had superiority in military leaders in the east during the first half of the war, and only lost that edge after Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan were brought east.
Of course, these days it’s rather doubtful that Britain would aid a secessionist move. They’re too busy trying to figure out how to keep their own socialist economy from sinking.
Standard-bearer for grouchy curmudgeonry since, oh, 1975 or so.
Historic Knowledge
blackdog911 Thursday, August 5th at 2:55PM EST (link)To all those who hide behind the issue of slavery.
We are the ONLY country on the face of the earth who has fought a WAR to end slavery. We have decreed cival equality. No one alive today was a slave. It is over. Get over it, and quit hiding behind the word when you have no legit arguments of the topic at hand.
Please explain
RedBeard Thursday, August 5th at 3:16PM EST (link)How am I “hiding” behind the word? Why is my post not “legit?” What do I need to “get over?”
Standard-bearer for grouchy curmudgeonry since, oh, 1975 or so.
May the SOUTH rise again
eburkedisciple Friday, August 6th at 8:39AM EST (link)Fatally wrong on the issue of slavery but completely right on the issue of state’s rights. Like chemotherapy the Civil War may have killed the patient with the disease. Let us hope the SOUTH will rise again – now that we are cancer free. Otherwise, our country will cease to exist as a free beacon of the Founders vision and a noble experiment.
“The American dream is not that every man must be level with every other man. The American dream is that every man must be free to become whatever God intends he should become.” –Ronald Reagan
Not you per say
blackdog911 Tuesday, August 10th at 6:00AM EST (link)It was just a general statement. Not intended or directed at you in particular. It is just an opinion of mine that most people (usually the left) who bring up slavery are hiding behind it. Same as anyone they don’t like…they usually call them a racist. Sorry for the confusion.
Ahem...
sccrenny (Diary) Sunday, August 8th at 10:45AM EST (link)That’s “Y’ALL” to you, neil! Haven’t you heard that war ain’t over yet? (Tongue firmly in cheek.)
When I look at Barack Obama I don’t see black. I don’t see white. I do, however see RED! It’s the same color I see when I look at Pelosi, Reid, ACORN, SEIU…
Precinct Delegate since 2010
Well Galveston as a port isn't the same as is was in the 1860's
Richard Mullins (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 12:18PM EST (link)Now they would have to blockade the Port of Houston in order to do much. Galveston has been since 1910, second fiddle to the PHA(Port of Houston Authority). Also, there quite a few other ports that need to be blocked as well on the Gulf Coast in to make a dent. The State then was quite poor and didn’t have the population to make things work. Now we are a fairly wealthy state with Oil/Gas, BioMedical,Manufacturing and so forth. Texas: Our economy is not based on Cotton and Timber any more.
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Joe Biden is like a Decrepit Park owner with a Meth lab that happens to not only be a dealer but a user.
Let’s Bankrupt the Democratic paty. Make spend all the money to defend thier candidates.
How about this
Neil Stevens (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 12:30PM EST (link)I’m a huge fan of Governor Perry, but if Texas wants war, the whole Gulf would become hostile territory for Texans.
I’d much rather we just win the Congress in 2010 and do something like elect President Perry in 2012.
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Neil, that was the most polite version of . . .
JSobieski (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 12:37PM EST (link)WHAT THE %$%^%$! ARE YOU THINKING that I have seen in a long long time.
To those not convinced of the insanity of such a proposition should consider that the lethality gap between US military equipment and dual-purpose civilian equipment is far greater now than it ever has been in the history of the world.
In 1860, a rifle was a rifle. In 2010, transportation, GPS-weaponry, armor plating, etc. makes for an entirely different playing field unless one is content to use cell phones to blow up innocents.
My rules of the road for primary season.
Rule #1: Vote for YOUR first choice in the primaries
Rule #2: Vote for the R in the general.
Rule #3: Don’t let anyone convince you to violate Rule #1 or Rule #2
Rule #4: When in a center-right argument, reaffirm Rules #1-#3–it will help us all to get along better.
Rule #5: If you are using the language of the left, you probably aren’t furthering conservativism
Rule #6: The priority is issues first, candidates second, and supporters third. Nobody is bigger than the issues. Conversely, if you spend your time focusing on supporters, you are wasting everyone’s time.
STOP THE MADNESS!
A reduction in the rate of spending increases is NOT a cut!
In-state tuition for illegals is NOT amnesty!
Requiring someone to pay their medical bills is NOT an individual mandate!
Reducing tax rates is NOT a tax increase!
Asymetrical warfare has its place when an oppressive government
Achance (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 1:07PM EST (link)controls the armed forces. And cellphone activated bombs could have a chilling effect on the ardor public officials might have for further hope and change.
If it comes to this, and it might, the process would be one of escalation from defiance of some federal power that results in the US attempting on its own to force compliance by arresting state officials or performing the act itself. The key would be having state and local law enforcement resist federal authority and then when it escalates to that level to create mutiny in the National Guard by having them refuse accept federalization or have a state governor refuse to accede to federalization of that state’s Guard. Then the state could attempt to resort to the courts and use that act to rally other states. Any one state, even Texas, would be a sitting duck but a combination is another matter especailly if those states are calling on their citizens in the regular military to resist acting against their home state.
We’ve reached the place where it is worth it to be talking and thinking about how to resist oppressive federal abuses and usurpations by means other than the soapbox and ballot box – and we all know what the third box is.
In Vino Veritas
The most realistic scenario for victory in that situation is the widespread
JSobieski (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 2:26PM EST (link)failure of men and women in the US military to follow orders. That is far more likely in my view than the citizens of Texas getting sufficiently nasty to take on the US military in assymetrical warfare.
The third box is the widespread disregarding of federal law. That would happen long before succession and armed conflict.
I agree that there is a point at which extra-legal means becomes necessary, but I disagree that we are there yet. Besides, we are on the cusp of a big electoral victory, so why switch playing fields now?
My rules of the road for primary season.
Rule #1: Vote for YOUR first choice in the primaries
Rule #2: Vote for the R in the general.
Rule #3: Don’t let anyone convince you to violate Rule #1 or Rule #2
Rule #4: When in a center-right argument, reaffirm Rules #1-#3–it will help us all to get along better.
Rule #5: If you are using the language of the left, you probably aren’t furthering conservativism
Rule #6: The priority is issues first, candidates second, and supporters third. Nobody is bigger than the issues. Conversely, if you spend your time focusing on supporters, you are wasting everyone’s time.
STOP THE MADNESS!
A reduction in the rate of spending increases is NOT a cut!
In-state tuition for illegals is NOT amnesty!
Requiring someone to pay their medical bills is NOT an individual mandate!
Reducing tax rates is NOT a tax increase!
I'm not yet advocating switching playing fields,
Achance (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 2:36PM EST (link)but I am thinking about how to play on another field. I’m not nearly as confident as some that we’re going to have enough of an electoral victory to control one body. I think that Republican “leadership” really doesn’t understand the existential battle that we’re in and is fighting the last war. We’re also riven by internal divisions and those rifts are setting us up to deliver seats to Democrats who should be mouldering in the political graveyard. I’m sorry, but in times like these, I’ll support ANYBODY who’ll vote to organize my caucus and I’ll deal with keeping them on the reservation later when I have to power to do things to or for them.
If we don’t control one body after the ’10 election it is pretty much time to forsake the soapbox and the ballot box and at least make sure you know where the cartridge box is.
In Vino Veritas
Agreed, although I may be more optimistic that you.
JSobieski (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 2:42PM EST (link)There are parts of Michigan that are almost as remote as parts of Alaska. I am fortunate to have some property out in the woods. Asked my dad to stack up on canned foods, fuel, and survival gear. My wife thinks its nuts that my family actually has an evacuation plan for getting up there, but given where my parents were in 1939—its not that surprising.
Michigan is blessed with a lot of fresh water, which almost starts to make up for union zombies bringing this state to the edge of the abyss.
My rules of the road for primary season.
Rule #1: Vote for YOUR first choice in the primaries
Rule #2: Vote for the R in the general.
Rule #3: Don’t let anyone convince you to violate Rule #1 or Rule #2
Rule #4: When in a center-right argument, reaffirm Rules #1-#3–it will help us all to get along better.
Rule #5: If you are using the language of the left, you probably aren’t furthering conservativism
Rule #6: The priority is issues first, candidates second, and supporters third. Nobody is bigger than the issues. Conversely, if you spend your time focusing on supporters, you are wasting everyone’s time.
STOP THE MADNESS!
A reduction in the rate of spending increases is NOT a cut!
In-state tuition for illegals is NOT amnesty!
Requiring someone to pay their medical bills is NOT an individual mandate!
Reducing tax rates is NOT a tax increase!
Works the same here in Texas
Richard Mullins (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 3:24PM EST (link)Put the feds in a battle in the Piney woods of East Texas and it will be a guerrilla warfare. Fighting in the trees isn’t the best for a modern army and neither is the desert of West Texas. This is a hostile land for those that really want to take and securing never happened so good.
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Joe Biden is like a Decrepit Park owner with a Meth lab that happens to not only be a dealer but a user.
Let’s Bankrupt the Democratic paty. Make spend all the money to defend thier candidates.
US wouldn't have to go house by house
Neil Stevens (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 3:27PM EST (link)It wouldn’t serve any purpose.
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Well I don't see a reason to seceed right now
Richard Mullins (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 12:52PM EST (link)because it will take much of the same from Obama in another term and and maybe a sucessor to make us itchy for seccession. Don’t make us use our B52′s against you(also F-16′s ).
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Joe Biden is like a Decrepit Park owner with a Meth lab that happens to not only be a dealer but a user.
Let’s Bankrupt the Democratic paty. Make spend all the money to defend thier candidates.
Seriously, Neil...
erinmist (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 3:19PM EST (link)I know you need to quash silly talk, and radical nonsense about secession and revolution and all that. But play it out, Neil. Red State’s own stated objective is, in part, to increase participation in GOP activities to return the GOP to conservatism from which it has strayed. It exists to elect Republicans, over Democrats, conservatives over liberals, constitutionalists over progressives, though sometimes those goals conflict.
So this is not the place to foment rebellion. I get that. But it’s rather glib on your part to dismiss Texas’ very natural right as a sovereign entity to disband its ties to the Federal government by threatening it with violence should it so choose. And while one might claim to be on the side of Liberty when picking the Union over the seceding Confederate states, one could hardly make such a claim today. Who is the oppressor now? Texas, or the Federal leviathan that threatens its funding for wanting to act in the interests of its citizens? Who here on Red State would actually take up arms to fight Texas and force it to comply with Federal laws everyone here agrees are onerous if not outright unconstitutional? Not I, nor I suspect not Neil.
Regardless, it is the natural order that ALL governments eventually over-reach and fail. And it is hardly silly radical nonsense or over-hyped rhetoric to point that out.
(In fairness to Neil, he did not claim the talk of secession was silly, radical, or over-hyped. He merely suggested we blockade Galveston and start a war — facetiously, I’m hoping.)
While re-fighting the Civil War here is pointless, the bottom line is that the states that make up this Union are in fact sovereign. They did not sign a suicide pact. So notwithstanding Mr. Lincoln’s achievements, secession is still very much a tool in every state’s toolkit when it comes to fighting Federal oppression. Long before that happens, however, I suspect that the 34 states necessary to call a constitutional convention will find reason to do so, and drive a stake in the heart of the federal leviathan. Failing that, however, liberty will out, and there are those who are going to be willing to fight and die for it.
Finally, given this government’s inability to seal a border, I doubt the people of Texas would be much concerned with a “blockade”. Unless of course the Feds also wanted to go to war with Mexico for selling good to the citizens of Texas, so many of whom are Mexican. And who would enforce this blockade? Democrats??? Hell, not only would they not fight, they’d wish Texas and others in fly-over country “good riddance”!
Bottom line, our hope lies not with squashing talk of secession, but by making the threat of a constitutional convention, secession, and any other tools at our disposal, very real and visible weapons against a federal government openly in defiance of Constitutional principles and liberty — whether that government is ruled by Democrats or Republicans. When they understand “enumerated powers” then we can put such talk behind us. Until then, everything’s on the table, and with Texas, Arizona, Virginia, and now Missouri begining to stand up, that show-down is coming sooner rather than later.
The question I have for you Neil, if all these states lose, and the Federal government wins, then what? When voting “Republican” isn’t enough because a judge or a court says we’re wrong, then what? What’s your Plan B?
As I said…play it out. The solutions get unpleasant in a hurry. So yes, vote Republican. If you’re in Chicago, vote Republican often. Hold this new Congress accountable, as it begins to control the Beast. But if this is just about growing the beast slower rather than faster, I assure you there’s gonna be he++ to pay.
Michael Shea
555!
larueladue (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 3:30PM EST (link)Nice post!
erin
Veronica (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 3:57PM EST (link)Re: ” threatening it with violence should it so choose”.. “Who here on Red State would actually take up arms to fight Texas and force it to comply with Federal laws everyone here agrees are onerous if not outright unconstitutional?”
It’s not about “sane” RedStaters taking up arms to force Texas to comply, it’s the hard right who will fight back, amongst us.
You speak about rhetorical “weapons,” but there are countless with far greater ammunition that you don’t even know about, Erin.
Our hope lies with measured responses, which Perry and Abbott is already taking. So your point is pretty moot.
You have to think of all Texans, women and children — and what would happen to this country should we duke it out and “lose” .. not just your fire-brand of patriotic convictions.
Come to think of it, I call BS if you don’t have an “exit strategy.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Pray as if everything depends on God, and work as if everything depends on us. – St. Augustine
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I will -ADD-
Veronica (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 4:03PM EST (link)that you’ve no idea of the capability of local/regional/state law enforcement, nor the tentacle of federalist reach that’s touch them.
You have to trust law enforcement, but at the same time, they’ve a job they want to keep and there’s always a higher authority to which they will answer.
It may not be the Governor’s.
Policing standards and doctrines stretch far above and far wider than the local level.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Pray as if everything depends on God, and work as if everything depends on us. – St. Augustine
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm sorry if I misread you, but you're saying "give up?"
erinmist (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 4:43PM EST (link)I’m sorry…so because we might “lose” then we should just abandon any notion of fighting back as a last resort, because they have more guns, more weapons, more power, and because the Feds send my local constabulary money for new cars, and laptops, and such, even the local government will be against we, The People.
Um…no. (Especially my local police force — they would no more enforce an illegal order from the Feds than fly on the backs of pigs. The ones I know DESPISE this administration).
Aside from how utterly depressing that notion is, I find it eerily similar to the situation faced by THE COLONIES IN 1776. In fact, back then, even the local governments were a part of the of the Crown, and every member of law enforcement, every member of the military, and every member of the government worked for the King. Britain had the biggest, most powerful army and navy on the planet. We were just a bunch of farmers who thought a 25% tax on our morning beverage was good enough to go to war over.
And since 80% of the military would rather walk than help someone like Obama kill American’s because we won’t submit to a judicial or regulatory “boot to the neck”, I doubt we’d find a conflict that lasted more than oh, about the time it takes for 400K service members to resign simultaneously.
Veronica, there IS no exit strategy. Liberty triumphs or it dies. We either win, preferably through the ballot box and by enacting legislative changes that dismantle what this government has become, or failing that, through a constitutional convention that specifically addresses the government’s excesses. Failing even THAT, then yeah, there’s this thing called war. Because like our Founders, most of us would rather die than live under tyranny.
That not patriotic firebranding, that’s the price of freedom, and I didn’t coin the phrase, Patrick Henry did.
There are, we agree, a million peaceful and reasonable steps that can occur between today and some distant conflict. That Texas and Arizona, Virginia, and now Missouri and soon 21 other states are using court challenges shows we still have plenty of peaceful solutions before us. My exit strategy failing all else is the same exit strategy that Washington and the Continental Army had — fight and win, or die trying.
So what’s yours? Acquiescence? Acceptance?
And really — the “women and children” argument? If federal bombs get dropped by an Air Force willing to kill its own citizens, half the pilots doing the bombing are going to be women. So there are no protected classes in a conflict — there certainly weren’t any in 1865 either. When I think of the consequences of “losing” if we “duke it out”, that consequence is tyranny, oppression, confiscation of property, loss of any and every freedom we hold sacred. “Death” is quite preferable, thank you.
In the meantime, vote Republican.
Michael Shea
Death? To you and what minority?
Veronica (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 4:55PM EST (link)There aren’t enough teaparty people to get their own solid right, hardcore conservative candidates elected.
I never said “give up.” I’m telling you to be realistic before you inflame the passions of the stupid, weak and psychotic.
Regardless of whatever you sense (v. what you know) about our military and your local law enforcement, you’ve no realistic assessment of that federalized thread I was talking about.
There are no polls, Erin, only research.
And if you’ve a sampling of the progressive cancer that’s corrupted this society, you’ll begin to get an idea of what’s filtered into law enforcement.
I do not knock any of your historical perspective. It’s admirable — but it’s not pragmatic.
It’s time to dump the rhetoric — we’ve all HEARD it — and begin by demanding talk show punditry to be truthful and realistic with what our chances are.
If the disdain you speak of is true, then come 2010 and 2012, things will happen.
But trying to spark war will do more damage by discouraging votes of the timid and weak.
Federal bombs is hype and BS. You try putting it into a book and it’ll get thrown in a pile of 5,428 others that are saying the same thing.
There’s your support.
Of course I’m voting Republican. There’s no other way.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Pray as if everything depends on God, and work as if everything depends on us. – St. Augustine
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When did it become a minority position to be willing to die for one's country?
erinmist (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 5:43PM EST (link)Surely you did not mean that only Tea Partiers would be willing to die for this country’s freedom??
I’ve a degree in both political science and history from the University of Virginia. I know how one informs the other.
People try to separate history from current events, which is why history keeps repeating itself, as if those lessons are not themselves the very pragmatism we all seek. I also have a military service background. I know FULL well the extent of the Progressive cancer, and the “thread” the Federal government has woven into every facet of state and local authority. I also know personally, members of law enforcement, national intelligence, the FBI, the Secret Service, and a number of active and retired senior military personnel. And to whatever lengths you think the Federal tentacles reach, I assure you, there is not one among them that would raise a finger against an American. On the contrary….
NO ONE was trying to spark a war — or discourage the votes of the “stupid, timid, weak, and psychotic” to use your words (though stupid, weak, timid people tend to be Democrats). Neil mentioned it — facetiously, I’m hoping — when someone mentioned secession. I argue that secession is still on the table. Neil disagrees. My point is simply that at some point in the next 25, 50, or 100 years, there will be some kind of tipping point beyond which people will refuse to go. And my question to him was, if you don’t like secession, what’s your alternative? You seem to think that living under the progressive cancer you so rightfully called it, is preferable to death. I do not. And I CLEARLY said we should do NOTHING to hasten anything, secession or otherwise, until every option afforded to us is exhausted — including something that wasn’t available to those Americans in 1776 — getting a Congress to make the changes necessary.
So we are light years away from when anything we’re discussing here academically — in an extreme, worst-case scenario — would need to be acted upon. But it is interesting to see, even here in Red State, that there are those who may only be willing to take their principles so far, and in the face of “reality”….well, we don’t know, do we?
Michael Shea
Ready, willing and able
eburkedisciple Friday, August 6th at 8:54AM EST (link)…to die for the noble experiment that our Founders started. We must resist Judicial activists who would usurp the authority of the Constitution and the people with everything in us – including blood. This is true of the Executive branch and the legislative branch. Right now, join your local Tea Party and try with your all to prevent bloodshed. But ultimately – give me LIBERTY or give me ….
“The American dream is not that every man must be level with every other man. The American dream is that every man must be free to become whatever God intends he should become.” –Ronald Reagan
Oustanding summary (nt)
Kentucky Scott (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 5:02PM EST (link)5 nt
aesthete (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 6:31PM EST (link)The act of defending any of the cardinal virtues has today all the exhilaration of a vice – G.K. Chesterton
THIS Texas woman will fight to the death to defend her family against tyranny - and I'm not alone
Teresa in Fort Worth, TX (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 5:17PM EST (link)I’ve raised 3 daughters who will do the same. “Live Free or Die” is very real to all of us. And we’re not firebrands by any stretch of the imagination.
Texas’ women and children will do just fine – we can take care of ourselves, thank you very much. I would worry much more about those who think they can somehow defeat us…..
Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy ride…..
Man oh man oh man ErinMist
Dave Poff (haystack) (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 4:21PM EST (link)If I ever meet you in person, the first 6 pack is on me.
Well (expletive removed in deference to the posting guidelines) done!
“It does not take a majority to prevail … but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.”
~Sam Adams
Behaving is a little overrated.
pittbull Friday, August 6th at 3:19PM EST (link)The Alamo still stands as a monument to the Texas spirit. My former employer stated, in November 2008, that Texas should secede from the union. I told him it was a very bad idea. The other states may view that as the act of the rat deserting the sinking ship. United States Government (all 3 branches) need to be made to understand that we fought a bloody war over “taxation without representation” and can do it again if need be. Our military is made up of our fellow Americans, and what chance would government have against the people and their military. I am, to the best of my knowledge, a 6th generation native Texan. I don’t want to have to fight, and I’ve never killed another human in my entire life. I don’t run away either, but I will NOT be subjugated or enslaved. I don’t give in, I don’t give out, and I don’t give up. I don’t back down, I don’t back off, and I don’t back up. I ask for no quarter, and neither do I give it. I swore years ago to uphold, protect, and defend the constitution of the United States against ALL enemies BOTH foreign AND domestic. I meant what I said then, and I mean it now. Let’s ALL remember in November and make our coup as bloodless as possible for everyone’s sake.
Great comment. [nt]
Bill S (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 4:24PM EST (link)“It’s such a fine line between stupid, and clever.” – David St. Hubbins
Bingo.
Repair_Man_Jack (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 4:36PM EST (link)This is America, not Generica – Dammit!! You nailed that one like Harry Reams.
” I side impenitently with the human race against the modern reformer.” – C.S. Lewis
I'm replying to Repair Man Jack but I'm replying
Veronica (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 4:59PM EST (link)to all of you — Bill S, Dave and Erin up there.
You guys have kids?
Age ranges? Toddler, pre-pubescent, teenager, grown and gone?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Pray as if everything depends on God, and work as if everything depends on us. – St. Augustine
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Yes, all of the above
erinmist (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 5:08PM EST (link)I have a three year old little girl, a 5 year old little boy, a 15 year old who wants to join the Army, and a 19 year old daughter.
Your point?
I and every male ancestor going back to 1863 have fought and or served in the military at some point. My father was an Army general. We knew far better than most what the cost and the price of war is. The cost of acquiescing and not fighting is far worse, I assure you.
Michael Shea
I'm waiting.
Veronica (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 5:12PM EST (link)In support of war talk, but are afraid to answer to a woman.
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Pray as if everything depends on God, and work as if everything depends on us. – St. Augustine
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sorry, I was prepping dinner
Veronica (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 6:23PM EST (link)I’ll start by saying thank you for your service, Michael. And for that of your familiy members. Not all of us have been blessed with that sort of history.
I’d also like to reaffirm that this argument, to me, is about using inflamed rhetoric. This is about knowing more about your ‘enemy” than the heavy burdens and taxation we’re experiencing.
As a business owner, I can understand your anger, but I don’t think you consider consider the cost of secession — neither by imagining the complete dissolution of all you’ve worked hard for as CEO of rightPRO, nor by understandinbg what it means to be a Texan.
This is where I reference kooks and the hard right. I don’t know what you’ve experienced in your neck of the woods — or if there are woods where you are — but here in our border state, there are more seroius considerations than talking federal bombs. This is more of a reality for us, than for you.
And for those of us who know what its like to be in close proximity to many, many kooks who are neither well-informed or very stable — you cannot imigine.
I say this to every cushie teapartier who’s never been in close proximity with a nut.
They’re uncontrollable .. and yes, firebranding.
But enough of that sort of BS. You can call me bitch afterward if you want.
But, Michael, if you hate this woman who’s pushing her “point” over the internet, I can tell you now that I wouldn’t want to have you on my 6. I’m just a woman with a keyboard — and you know yourself better than anyone, and you can completely throw my assumptions out the window, but if you can become this inflamed enough to not directly retort my talking points above — and only spout what we’ve all heard about freedom, we’re in trouble.
Now, I know you’ve served — my question is, if you can possess this quality to hate your government, why don’t you despise the jihadists enough to fight the WOT?
These are people who want to KILL you, not take your cash or your company away. Murder you — this is the ultimate theft of freedom.
And at this, I wonder, if 80% of the military is against their Commander in Chief now, why aren’t they “rebelling” now? I call your 400K -man abandonment of the military a crock, because we’re talking about affected men who’ve been in a organization that hardly resembles what your ancestors even remember. We don’t have that same standing army. It’s gone.
There is no way you will get even 70% alignment between you and your “troops” — here you are, disagreeing with a woman who hasn’t even confirmed whether she’s lay her life down for her friend, or not .. and you’ve got your stuffy assumptions about “giver uppers” because they challenge you about the worthiness of your words.
When you’re ready to sacrifice your children – as they are, 3 and 5, by enganging in a civil land war you’re trying to compare to the Civil War, yeah, I can see reason .. a civil war whose outcome you cannot pre-determine with a sound “exit strategy.” When you’re ready to say, yeah, my kids may perish with a bullet to the head because I may be somewhere else defending this area and will not physically be there to assassinate their would-be killers .. when you’re ready to love your countrymen more than you hate your government, yeah, I’ll take your words seroiusly.
If you even *think* you’re there with sacrificing your children to a civil landwar, before you sacrifice mine, I want to know what sacrifices you’ve made in your lifetime to save them from the stealth progressive enemy that stalks them now. I don’t want to hear it — I want to see the results. I also want to know about the quality of your marriage(s), what you’ve sacrificed for it (them), because a man should love no country before his wife and children.
Covenants with God are made with marriages and children, not a country.
So, yeah .. I think about those things when I think about war, now, with my countrymen.
Because we’d need leaders like everyone else.
I don’t want Rushies, I don’t want Hannities — maybe I’d take a Levinian man, because I love him — because they don’t tell us everything, and yes! I’ll say it. They’re concerned about their wealth, have trouble calling the enemy “the enemy” — some are ready to abandon American and move to New Zealand.
Anyone who would even half-heartedly talk secession would abandon America, too, because I know at this point, they’re talking smack to save what’s important to them — usually, it’s not the family.
Words don’t cut it, my friend.
Until then, it’s rehashed rhetoric, worthy of a very, very nice blog. I’d probably be a fan. Maybe not.
I tell you, also — I’m saying this knowing I’m going to make some enemies on Red State — maybe. I hope not.
But if they hate me because of words and a philosophy or just “because,” — over this, of all things, I’m just a woman with a keyboard — I can’t imagine the level of dissention in a civil land war.
It would be chaotic.
And we’re all supposed to be on the same side.
Like I said, we can’t even get our teaparty guys elected. What the hell tells you we can shoot straight?
I’ll take that six pack. I’m off to mourn Kagan’s confirmation.. and I’m not just saying that.
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Pray as if everything depends on God, and work as if everything depends on us. – St. Augustine
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in a nutshell
Veronica (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 6:44PM EST (link)what I’m really trying to say is that we do not have the same caliber of people you talk about in history, Michael.
In this civil war, you could say I mean “men,” but I mean women, too.
Our culture is different that when you read about in the history books.
Which is why I call for a measured response *within* the country, not by seceeding — or with secession as a far-off last resort that’s not even brought up at this point.
Kind of like not talking about our GOP candiate for 2012. (that’s a joke, but a jab at ourselves — why haven’t we found one? what does that say about our unity? and we’re talking secession?)
How would leaving be any different than being committed to voting 3rd party?
Hard right Texans want to vote 3rd party. Most hate Perry and they’re barely getting it the ideas we have to commit to him — for what? he’s doing a great job.
So, coming back around, when I say, don’t talk inflammatory, I’m thining about that immediate impact.
When I speak of all this, take that into consideration. I’ve been talking about my countrymen in my immediate vacinity — I’m talking about my fellow Texans.
Basically, I want the Truth.
Historical words aren’t truth anymore, because we are not that people.
We all don’t even look to the Truth in the Bible like our forefathers did. We’re scattered.
We need a Goldwater. I think this debate is evidence of this, not of my allegiance or your allegiance to the cause or either one of us willing to die for our country.
Go back — never did I say I wouldn’t.
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Pray as if everything depends on God, and work as if everything depends on us. – St. Augustine
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And I Am Replying YOU, Veronica...
Repair_Man_Jack (Diary) Friday, August 6th at 8:51AM EST (link)When, since when, O Holy and Sanctimonious One, did disagreeing with your point of view on a political blog equate to not caring about my own offspring? If you can articulate a half-way intelligent response to that question, I’ll still consider you somewhat better than the idiot feminist left, moundering away int he fever swamps.
” I side impenitently with the human race against the modern reformer.” – C.S. Lewis
I'll say it then
Neil Stevens (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 4:40PM EST (link)This talk of secession is silly and I reject it.
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“I rejoice that America has resisted.” – William Pitt, the Elder
And I'm done
Neil Stevens (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 4:51PM EST (link)I’m not opening this thread again.
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“I rejoice that America has resisted.” – William Pitt, the Elder
At this point yes
Richard Mullins (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 4:57PM EST (link)but one more Obama term and a handpicked successor as president, then it might better to look at seceding. Right now, we need Perry and AG Abbott. seceding needs to be on Texas’ terms.
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Joe Biden is like a Decrepit Park owner with a Meth lab that happens to not only be a dealer but a user.
Let’s Bankrupt the Democratic paty. Make spend all the money to defend thier candidates.
Fine, you reject it. That's ok.
erinmist (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 5:02PM EST (link)But the question still remains….when everything else has gone to hell in a handbasket, and every court has ruled against you, and your state’s sovereignty is worthless, and your constitutional rights are adjudicated away, and you find yourself working not just January through May for Uncle Sam, but rather January through November, then what?
You’ve taken secession off the table, so there’s no place to move to. What exactly is the price you’re willing to pay to live free? It’s all fine and well to go die on foreign soil and fight for “Freedom” against bad guys, but what are you going to do when the bad guy is your own government (and this is a hypothetical…our government is not a “bad guy”. Yet.). It’s an academic exercise, Neil. No wrong answer.
I ask this because if not in your lifetime, but perhaps in the lifetime of your children or grandchildren, they’re going to be asked to pay that price. Here. Inside this country. So think about it…
Among all the alternatives, I’d argue that secession is the LEAST unpleasant, but I’m dying to hear what your choice would be.
Michael Shea
A little history about "state sovereignty," folks:
Achance (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 5:10PM EST (link)Only the original 13 have a clear claim to having become a part of the United States by voluntarily associating with it and agreeing to a limited cession of their sovereignty. Texas has some special and maybe different status having been a free republic that then joined the union. Most of the rest of us live in places that were either subdivisions of the original 13 or outright conquest and chattel of the US.
I think the right of secession by one of the original 13 and perhaps those states formed from subdividing them, e.g., Alabama, Mississippi, those that came from the original Virginia Colony, etc. is very much an open question. The question was answered with shot and steel the last time but it remains an open legal question. That said, the federal judiciary is the arbiter and they are, after all, federal, so the outcome really isn’t in doubt.
What happens if one of the states formed from the Louisiana Purchase, the Mexican Cession, or one of the territories outright conquered or bought secedes? The US granted statehood and the rights appurtaining thereto to all or some part of those territories. If the state secedes, does it get to keep the US’s property, and if not, it ain’t much of a state. I submit that if any of the states formed from the territories secedes, it is still the property of the US, its citizens are still US citizens under the 14th Amendment, and it goes back to being a territory or military district. So, the only thing you get for secession is giving up your right to self-government.
In Vino Veritas
Really it is a dead letter, but not philosophically
kyle8 (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 5:18PM EST (link)Succession is a moot point politically, But philosophically there is, IMO a total right to secede.
There is nothing in either the federalist paper, nor any of the other jurisprudence of the early republic any hint that there did not exist a right to withdraw from the union.
But war and political will established that such a right does not exist. It is as simple as that.
Legally there might remain a right, but the power resides with those who would deny such a right.
“Nothing works like freedom, Nothing succeeds like liberty”
Kyle
The clause invoked by
aesthete (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 7:42PM EST (link)Lincoln was the Articles of Confederation’s Article XIII, which stipulated that the union must be adhered to by the States and that “the Union shall be perpetual”. Interestingly, this “perpetual union” phrase pops up in European contracts as meaning that the states involved would be self-governing and independent, but in a common defense. As an example, France and the Dukedom of Britanny, in their joining in the mid-1500s, were enjoined under such a contract.
The act of defending any of the cardinal virtues has today all the exhilaration of a vice – G.K. Chesterton
Legally, about 19 states
aesthete (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 7:33PM EST (link)could legally claim to have grounds for secession: the original 13 + Texas, and the states that were part of or joined with the original 13 (Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, Vermont, and Maine). If you include territories and their later iterations as states at the time of ratification (Mississippi, Alabama, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin), that number increases to 26 states with legitimate claim to secession. Interestingly, they are mostly progressive states.
The act of defending any of the cardinal virtues has today all the exhilaration of a vice – G.K. Chesterton
55555555555555555.
Erick Erickson (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 6:16PM EST (link)n/t
Who will stand on either hand and keep this bridge with me?Follow @EWErickson
55555555555555555555555+
Danielle Davis (ocleverone) (Diary) Friday, August 6th at 10:00AM EST (link)Great post.
To me, “consensus” seems to be the process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies. So it is something in which no one believes and to which no one objects … There are still people in my party who believe in “consensus” politics. I regard them as Quislings, as traitors … I mean it. — Margaret Thatcher
interesting hill you deem worth dying on, Neil
E Pluribus Unum (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 12:37PM EST (link)People from California got no room to talk about anything, MOST of all self saufficiency.
You guys (since you like this ‘we’ business today) have voted, zoned, and taxed yourselves into a Greece-sized hole that only Texas could bail you out of.
If the price for TX freedom is that we get blockaded, I make that deal in 2 sec. We are both energy and agriculturally big-time self-sufficient. Ditto for technology. And trust me, you blockade, we exocet. It would not stand.
Freedom is worth the cost. Screw your attempts at rationalizing why TX can’t reject tyranny, by replaying the Civil War as if TX is no different from the Confederacy.
Kill the Terrorists
Protect the Borders
Punch the Hippies h/t IMAO
Wouldn't be the first time TX played chicken with the feds.
Steph C (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 1:10PM EST (link)IIRC speed limits were once upon a time a hill for TX to die on… though the state didn’t die, did it?
Also, IIRC, they won that one without secession, didn’t they?
“[I]f the public are bound to yield obedience to laws to which they cannot give their approbation, they are slaves to those who make such laws and enforce them.” –Candidus in the Boston Gazette, 1772
Hillbilly Politics
The blockade would be just the beginning
Neil Stevens (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 1:12PM EST (link)If jackaninnys like banzaibob upthread got their way and Texas started a war, the blockade would be just the beginning.
Texas is a great state, but the US armed forces are ridiculously strong and any war would only last as long as the US RoE made it take.
Heck, for all I know banzaibob is a royal flaming moby trying to distract good Texans from winning elections.
RS contributing editor, technical administrator, and “a hardy variety of crabgrass.”
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“I rejoice that America has resisted.” – William Pitt, the Elder
And don't pin this on me, EPU
Neil Stevens (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 1:13PM EST (link)I’m not the one who started the secession talk.
Talk to banzaibob about what hills he wants Texans to die on.
I just want the Democrats to “die” in November when they get booted out of office.
RS contributing editor, technical administrator, and “a hardy variety of crabgrass.”
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“I rejoice that America has resisted.” – William Pitt, the Elder
I know. What I object to is
E Pluribus Unum (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 2:36PM EST (link)(a) that you want to play out the scenario by re-fighting the Civil War
(b) that you dismiss out of hand the fact that if the pendulum of freedom does not swing back, dramatically and soon, then before you know it, the choice for Americans will be between East Germany-style bondage, and secession.
Winning in 2010 means rather little, the way the executive branch and judiciary are busily shooting down representative governance, right in front of our eyes. They are going to impose Net Neutrality, Card Check, and Cap-n-Screw by bureaucratic fiat. You know this to be true.
I am not a secessionist and I do not advocate it. But in the live-free-or-die scenario, Texas secedes. If it turns into Mosada, well guess what. That’s what live free or die means. In Texas we don’t have to write that on a flag. We get it.
And I’ll tell you something else. That military smearage will not happen. Because (a) the day Texas was to secede, Ok would be 8 seconds behind us, and 10 other states within 2 weeks. That’s not speculation. That is a fact. And (b) Texas would have no interest in declaring war. (c) From field-grade on down, they will not fire ordnance on Texas. Will not. If forced to chose, at least 30% of the military will switch sides, and with them their missiles, jets, tanks, and submarines. 30% more would refuse to fire. That is also not speculation.
And in a fight between Texas-bred US Military vs New York and California-bred US Military…….. well I think you see where that would go.
But let’s say I am wrong about the military side of it. You can occupy Texas. But it will be ungoverned, and will turn into a whole lot bigger mess than Viet nam ever was.
Kill the Terrorists
Protect the Borders
Punch the Hippies h/t IMAO
We Okies would be less than 8 seconds behind you...
larueladue (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 3:23PM EST (link)Especially once we get rid of our democrat governor in November…
Here, here
aesthete (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 7:57PM EST (link)If you leave, feel free to take AZ with you
More seriously, I highly doubt that a Republic of Texas would survive in a conventional war: institutionally, the US military has logistics, supply, planning, air support, joint ops capabilities, and other such necessities of war that could never be matched by Texas, brave as it may be. I’m also dubious on just how many in our Armed Forces would rebel against their chain of command; 99+% of them wouldn’t like it, and our boys aren’t mind-numbed automatons, but the propensity of discipline and chain of command in our armed forces would make it a pretty tough call, regardless. I’d look for lots of servicemen trying to hang up their hats if secession looked imminent, but I doubt that our servicemen would disobey an order from their COs.
However (and I think that you were hinting at this), asymmetrical warfare in Texas, occupation, the potential for mass civil disobedience in the US, low morale, the potential for the reinstated draft, massive amounts of smuggling, and the potential for secession, sabotage, and the crippling economic consequences from the various states would bring the rest of the US and its military to its knees in short order, assuming a mostly defensive war on the part of Texas. Remember that the drafts were mostly an issue in urban locales, and that there’s only so much recruitment potential that a US with low morale would have, especially after the disses that the armed forces have received in progressive states. In short, a war on a prospective Republic of Texas would make OEF and OIF look like picnics, by comparison.
The act of defending any of the cardinal virtues has today all the exhilaration of a vice – G.K. Chesterton
lookit...
vmo335 (Diary) Friday, August 6th at 2:08AM EST (link)the size and number of military installations in texas. Ft. Hood is the largest, and on down the line. I had a discussion with a coworker on seccesion of states, and his opinion was it would only happen if and when the dollar was worthless. Then you would see the state of texas offering the generals /officers payment in gold/silver backed currency. i think seccesionism will happen within the next 2-3 years. if obama is voted out of office and refuses to leave, then it happens in 2012. many of you think this is an academic discussion, but i have had more old salts tell me within the last 2 years, buy guns and ammo early and often, and train yer kids to shoot. and i consider myself firmly in the middle to the bell curve with rightward leanings politically.
amen EPU, now maybe you can help me get the specific info that this column and none of the threads provide and that is
Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary) Friday, August 13th at 12:17AM EST (link)What, specifically do the Dem leaders in Congress SAY that Texas has done and/or said and/or said they WOULD do (if anything) to justify their singling out in the legislation and what has Texas actually DONE, SAID and/or SAID THEY WOULD DO that would “justify” their being singled out?
It seems it must be more than just not participating in the Race to the Top since other states did the same thing?
The vague blog and comments simply don’t provide me with enough info to make a judgment.
Where am I coming from? I favor state/individual defiance of the Fed Govt which is acting like a tyrant and that may include civil disobedience/nullification.
What I want to know is IF Texas actually has broken the law, ie nullified a fed law? Did Texas take money and not spend as required by a statute or not?
This WSJ article suggests that Texas didn’t spend all their stimulus funds. Ok, but that is still too vague.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704164904575421613093659730.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
Can you help? Hogan hasn’t responded and no one else has. I guess others are willing to settle for vagueness and just assume a posture and let flail.
I can’t afford that luxury given the esq. I can’t afford to go off half-cocked and yet I don;t have the time to personally research all issues esp the arcane workings of DC statutes and state compliance.
I used to get the info I needed here in years past. lately it seems, not so much. But i always have from you, when you have been aware and/or able. I saw your name in the thread and gave this a shot. Because this states right movement seems to be what I have been hoping for.
What would really suffice is to have quotes from DEM LEADERS as to what they claim justifies the singling out of Texas.
I haven’t been able to locate same.
Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com, Charlotte Observer and The Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
Neil...
Aaron Gardner (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 1:22PM EST (link)The federal government can’t secure the border with Mexico. What makes you think they could secure the border of Texas?
Yeah, I know, it’s a matter of desire not ability. I still had to say it.
conform and celebrate diversity….or else!!!
“We’d be much better off if We The People had desired small government enough to keep it.” acat
Follow @Aaron_RS
That's easy
Neil Stevens (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 1:23PM EST (link)I have more faith in Marines than I do in the politicians.
RS contributing editor, technical administrator, and “a hardy variety of crabgrass.”
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“I rejoice that America has resisted.” – William Pitt, the Elder
I sort of question that
Richard Mullins (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 2:05PM EST (link)I put more faith in system of Border patrol here before 1924, The Texas Rangers did the border securing then. The last Marine that was on the border got in to trouble by shooting a rancher to death. That was back in the Clinton admin. I don’t have the articles from back then but you look for it, you’ll find it.
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Joe Biden is like a Decrepit Park owner with a Meth lab that happens to not only be a dealer but a user.
Let’s Bankrupt the Democratic paty. Make spend all the money to defend thier candidates.
Well I'm ex-Navy and Marines and I wouldn't fire nor take action against Texas.
Michael Dugas (Diary) Friday, August 6th at 1:55PM EST (link)If the federal government no longer gives credence too nor listens to the grievances of the states and there is no longer a functioning method by which the citizens of those states can seek redress for the abuses of the federal government to them than I would say they are no longer a “free” people but are a ruled people.
I believe that every option, including succession, should be on the table in the fight, and it is a fight, to save the freedoms and liberty of this nation before we do become hopelessly fractured.
The very bedrock of our Representative Democracy is being ripped at by this administration. They are doing everything they can do to break this country and turn its citizenry into needy victims suckling at the federal teat to survive. If this is allowed to happen then the name The United States of America will mean nothing, a piece of history, and there will be no reason to even think of succession as sate borders will be just as meaningless.
Intro to Federalist Papers; section 5;
paragraph 4.
“…dangerous ambition more often lurks behind the specious mask of zeal for the rights of the people than under the zeal for a firm and efficient government.”
Remember: A Citizen on the dole is a Liberal Vote at the Polls.
END ENTITLEMENTS!
Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum !
Absent an actual seizure of Federal govt property (Fort Sumter-like e.g.) I can't see Americans blockading a state for Obama even if he ordered same and
Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary) Friday, August 13th at 12:21AM EST (link)I can’t see that until a nullification movement were way down the road. Individuals committing civil disobedience and states practicing nullification might have to suffer consequences in many ways (as they should until the unjust laws are changed and the authorities relent – after all why would we admire MLK and others that risk jail if they don’t actually risk jail!) but I doubt invasion by federal troops or a blockade would be the form.
Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com, Charlotte Observer and The Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
For most native and long term Texans
texasgalt (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 3:18PM EST (link)we will always think of our state as a republic unto itself.
Texans just don’t cotton to being told by DC how to eat our cabbage. We don’t like a few Roman-like city-states such as NYC, LA and DC dictating how our lives should be arranged. There’s a lot of barbed wire between DC and Dallas.
In Denton, where I live, the elementary school day starts with the U.S. pledge of allegiance followed immediately by the Texas pledge. That’s just the way it is.
We just don’t like to be “told”. We can’t abide it:
Pledge of Texas??
snowshooze (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 8:23PM EST (link)Could you post that?
snowshooze: short & sweet Texas Pledge
texasgalt (Diary) Friday, August 6th at 12:50AM EST (link)Honor the Texas flag; I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible.
Republican Representative Debbie Riddle sponsored a bill that in 2007 added the words “under God” to the pledge.
Border Reconquistas: please note “one and indivisible”.
Yes, but when one eats communal cabbage, i.e. stimulus funds, etc paid out of the general treasury
Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary) Friday, August 13th at 12:29AM EST (link)that all Americans pay for, there may be cotton to lose. I am struggling to decide in my own mind if it isn’t better to simply opt-out of federal programs like unemployment, Medicaid, education rather than take the money and not comply with statutes that mandate how it is spent
or
Take the money, since one’s state’s own taxpayers paid into the general fund, and then defy the feds on specifics and suffer the consequences in that way?
What do you think is the better course and why? Of course the reason we admire the MLK’s and TX Gov’s is that they risk harm to themselves by their actions, so that it would not be heroic for those violating federal law to whine about getting “singled out”. Agreed? We have to be tough and take the consequences until we can take the country back via persuasion at the ballot box over time, much like MLK & Co won over the hearts and minds of America.
Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com, Charlotte Observer and The Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
I know that the States do not NEED Federal Govt.
snowshooze (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 12:20PM EST (link)We need it for what we built it for. National Defense. ( Primarily)
We certainly do not need to hand the Federal Government our credit card as we have done and wind up with our servant becoming our master… as it is.
Without the help of the Federal Government, the ” Welfare States” such as California would be forced to turn only to themselves and this would be self correcting.
I can’t believe there is ANY State which CANNOT stand on it’s own, however as it is, there are several which are not.
” Hey…we’re just the Federal Government, that sounds like an internal problem.”
I never heard that one.
We need a little more ” Tough Love ” around here.
Izone, you are spot on. In or out, now’s the time.
No, they do need the federal government unless
Achance (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 12:34PM EST (link)you’d like to return to the disparity between the states and regions and even within states and regions we had, say, 100 years ago. There’s a good argument that it should go back to that level of federal government, but I don’t think there’d be much public acceptance of the reality as opposed to the abstract idea.
When I was a kid growiing up in rural Georgia in the ’50s, urban, industrialized America was like a foreign country to me – and it was much more prosperous relatively than it had been fifty years earlier because of all the New Deal spending in The South. The world I started grade school in in ’55 had all but ceased to exist by the time I graduated high school in ’67 and most of the change was the result of federal policy and federal spending.
In Vino Veritas
Agreed.
snowshooze (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 1:06PM EST (link)But, there has never been an end to it. Now it’s totally out of control and has been for a long time.
The disparity at this point is nothing by comparison to what it was at that time, but the home improvement loan has got a bit bloated.
Our State, Alaska, is finally on deck. If we would govern carefully, we would be able to stand on our own at this point. But we keep taking that Federal Money, and it burdens all the States collectively, so my point is that when a job is done, it needs to shut down and go away.
Now I can be blasted full of holes all day and even get confused myself, but there are times like Louisiana, where I feel obliged to come a runnin’ to the rescue. But my favorite example State, California…they can rot in their own stew. They do have the resources and manpower to straighten it all out on their own, but their disaster was self inflicted, I hope you can see the point that when pressed, they can utilize their own natural resources and develop their way back to prosperity. With a taste of hard times, by golly they might just try a bit more drilling, mining, maybe quit worrying about the sticklebacks that plagued their irrigation for crying out loud and consider that turning a buck is an honorable endeavor….
Unfortunately, I fear Alaska might go their route with the current trend, I sincerely hope not…
The big federal thing that we can't pay for on our own
Achance (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 2:09PM EST (link)without seriously sacrificing other things is health care under Medicare, Medicare, and Indian Health. Alaska couldn’t afford the utility bills alone on the Native Hospital in Anchorage without sacrifice. That’s why we’ve never really been able to act on the Venetie decision. The USSC said that unless they have tribal land, and only Arctic Village and Metlakatla do, they aren’t federal Indians within the meaning of Indian in the Constitution. But, if they aren’t federal Indians, that makes them Alaska Indians, and we can’t afford them.
People like to bitch about the employee costs in the operating budget, but the real cost centers are Medicare/Medicaid and welfare spending such as AFDC, WIC, etc. – or whatever single mommy programs are called these days. 15 years or more ago when we were first dealing with Welfare to Work under Knowles, the total State and federal benefit available to a single mommy with one kid was equivalent to $34K annual income; you had to be well into the upper clerical or middle technical ranges of State employees to make that much. You should have heard the screams of outrage when we went to centrally managed travel during Murkowski and ended the Friday trips to Anchorage for a welfare dentist appointment on Monday and the First Class tickets because “it was the only seat available” on non-emergency trips. Once the cousin in the welfare office in Bethel wasn’t the one making the travel arrangements, things changed a lot. Better stop before I start sounding bitter and racist.
In Vino Veritas
If Alaska was allowed to drill more, Alaska could pay for all the healthcare of its citizens
JSobieski (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 2:38PM EST (link)Even though Alaska is a net taker of federal monies, if you factor in regulations, particularly environmental regulations, don’t you think the feds are a net drain?
My rules of the road for primary season.
Rule #1: Vote for YOUR first choice in the primaries
Rule #2: Vote for the R in the general.
Rule #3: Don’t let anyone convince you to violate Rule #1 or Rule #2
Rule #4: When in a center-right argument, reaffirm Rules #1-#3–it will help us all to get along better.
Rule #5: If you are using the language of the left, you probably aren’t furthering conservativism
Rule #6: The priority is issues first, candidates second, and supporters third. Nobody is bigger than the issues. Conversely, if you spend your time focusing on supporters, you are wasting everyone’s time.
STOP THE MADNESS!
A reduction in the rate of spending increases is NOT a cut!
In-state tuition for illegals is NOT amnesty!
Requiring someone to pay their medical bills is NOT an individual mandate!
Reducing tax rates is NOT a tax increase!
First, I reject the CW that Alaska is a "net taker"
Achance (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 2:51PM EST (link)of federal monies. The US owns more of “Alaska” than the State of Alaska does and it spends a LOT of money on its own stuff here. The bulwark of US military power in the Arctic and the North Pacific are the huge bases here. Yes, we do derive a benefit from that federal spending here, especially the bars and whorehouses benefit, but they’re not here just to protect Alaska. The 17th USCG District is a major federal entity here and we get a benefit from the goods and services they purchase and they sometimes pick an Alaskan out of the drink but they’re mostly here to protect the Great Circle shipping routes and the World’s largest fishery in the North Pacific, a fishery that is dominated by Lower 48 companies, not Alaskans. And then there is the Alphabet Soup of federal agencies with a huge presence here because they own and control so much land and resource here. I guess I’m glad that the NPS’s law enforcement guys have houses and buy stuff here, but I think we’d probably be a lot better off without all the park land.
And finally, with regard to money in, money out, the largest economic entities in Alaska don’t pay their taxes from an Alaska address; throw in what Exxon, BP, Conoco-Phillips and the other oil companies and service companies pay in taxes on income from their Alaska operations and they math would be a lot different.
In Vino Veritas
I thought you were the person characterizing Alaska as a net taker
JSobieski (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 2:54PM EST (link)in terms of actual cash payments (i.e. excluding the regulatory argument that I made or the property ownership argument that you have made on numerous occasions).
My rules of the road for primary season.
Rule #1: Vote for YOUR first choice in the primaries
Rule #2: Vote for the R in the general.
Rule #3: Don’t let anyone convince you to violate Rule #1 or Rule #2
Rule #4: When in a center-right argument, reaffirm Rules #1-#3–it will help us all to get along better.
Rule #5: If you are using the language of the left, you probably aren’t furthering conservativism
Rule #6: The priority is issues first, candidates second, and supporters third. Nobody is bigger than the issues. Conversely, if you spend your time focusing on supporters, you are wasting everyone’s time.
STOP THE MADNESS!
A reduction in the rate of spending increases is NOT a cut!
In-state tuition for illegals is NOT amnesty!
Requiring someone to pay their medical bills is NOT an individual mandate!
Reducing tax rates is NOT a tax increase!
No, I was just talking about paying for those specific programs
Achance (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 3:02PM EST (link)that are federal mandates or federal responsibilities. If we had to totally pay for them, we’d really have to sacrifice in other areas and the same is true of most if not all other states. That’s why I look askance at all the brave words from Texans; passing on some minor Ed funding is one thing, putting yourself in a position where the Fed could cut off your Medicare/Medicaid funding is quite another and that is exactly where the US would go if a state seriously resisted O-Care.
If we were forced to make the choice, the easiest and cheapest way for us would be to provide our own healthcare just by extending our State employee/retiree health insurance to everyone on the same terms as it is provided to the State’s non-union employees. We could needs test an pay from the general fund as necessary for those who couldn’t afford it on the same terms as employees.
In Vino Veritas
Then states would have to get rid of those programs, and people would have to take care of themselves.
Teresa in Fort Worth, TX (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 5:31PM EST (link)What’s bad about that? There is much to be said for self-sufficiency. The welfare state does NO ONE any good; least of all the recipient. All of these social programs that started way back when are a lot of the problem all these years later……
The Federal government has done a very good job of convincing us that we have to jump through hoops to get OUR money back from them. If they didn’t take it from us by force (through the IRS), they wouldn’t have the power that they now hold……..
Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy ride…..
So, you're willing to let people die because they can't afford healthcare?
Achance (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 5:42PM EST (link)You know as well as I that is the way the issue will be framed.
I’m not defending the federal programs, I’m just explaining the politics and there ain’t a politician in America who’ll cowboy up to this issue.
In Vino Veritas
It's time we quit letting "them" frame the issues. We know that churches and good people will not let anyone truly in need die due to lack of healthcare.
Teresa in Fort Worth, TX (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 6:07PM EST (link)The problem is that there aren’t enough people up in Washington to call Bulls*** on those who resort to those tactics. And that is how we’ve gotten into this whole mess in the first place.
And what we are being told is “health care/ health insurance” is not that at all. Just like Social Security was supposed to be a National Savings program – only all of those folks who were forced to pay into it got a really lousy return on their investment.
Give the control back to the people/states, and the money will be used much more efficiently than it is right now. The folks in Washington are scared to death that the majority of people will one day figure all of this out…..
Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy ride…..
Achance...golly...
snowshooze (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 8:06PM EST (link)Great responses here, I sure didn’t mean to provolk you.
Ok, but there is the gist of it, were we completely responsible for the expenditures our State accepts, we would be a bit more responsible.
The attitude of Federal Funding for projects, is practically a communist ideal. Bethatasitmay… I am a participant in some of these programs. I am an Alaskan Native, and utilize ANS, so I am already on the Communist health care plan. I never took advantage of it until I was 35, but use it as needed now. I see a lot of abuse over there. I do not abuse it personally, but I have used it where necessary, although I went back to my own Dental because I don’t have the lifespan to wait on the government stuff…( Gotta wait a month to schedule an appointment…just the appointment…which is waaaay downstream…months..) So yeah, I am on both sides of that fence, but if the State were forced to shoulder the burden, I am sure the ANS Hospital would not be built of Granite, Stainless Steel, Open Beam Cedar Framing, Copper Roofing and enclosed parking.
Speaking of Parking, when they did the latest UAA parking garage, the cost of the structure divided out by the number of parking spaces was over $50,000.00 per parking place. I nearly had a heart attack.
And look at the new Science Center, with an entire refridgerated environment to study arctic critters from the warmth and safety of the building. This is a huge room…don’t know the acreage of it..
As a General Contractor, I have done a BUNCH of Federal backed jobs and realized the personal benefit.
I always like to say ” Hey, I’ll take my tax break up front…in cash…lol
Really, they are competitive bids, hard fought and sometimes don’t net much of a profit…but that doesn’t prevent my humor from coming out.
My Whole point ( Pretty sure I have driven it nearly into the ground )
Is that if we had to live within our means, we would do so. And do so more responsible knowing well it would come right out of our ass..not someone else’s.
No more $5.00 Insurance company paid for aspirin pills…( I saw just that on the bill when I was hospitalized as a victim of a car wreck, and Q-tips at 50 cents per… )
It is a crime to go on the dole with the Federal Government and push the costs onto the rest of the Union, who in turn borrows it against the future of my soon to at last to come children. It’s like issueing credit cards to all wth a promise of a simple bankruptcy proceeding to clear them all out. And we get to keep the toys. Whaddya gonna do? I need a boat, plane half a dozen rifles and a few ther necissities, I just can’t make do without.
But the Federal Government…( Us, in the collective ) IS NOT off the hook.
It is a broken system. I honestly do not think anybody actually expects anymore to ever pay off the National Debt. We’d rather go to war than pay our bills, and so we shall. Now that is just wrong.
Soooo… I believe Personal Responsibility is paramont.
State responsibility too, it is disingenuious to all the other States to burden them for personal gain. And the Federal government…oh geeze…they are so removed from reality thay there is no responsibility show on their part at all these days. Texas is willing to bite the bullet. I think we all have to.
We are playing numbers games inside a larger ledger. Our gains and losses come at the cost of each others hide. The only way to win is to outspend the others. Divided we stand, united we fall. ha.
The Federal Government has provided a way for our mutual rise to wealth, and our mutual demise. Like the labor unions, it has nearly outlived it’s usefulness, and now has ventured from the asset side of the balance sheet to the liability side.
It’s time to cut the chord or we shall all go to hell as one.
I think we are on the same page…it is that you articulate in different directions.
I don't know nearly as much as you do about the state of Alaska
kyle8 (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 2:59PM EST (link)but I do know that it sends huge amounts of mineral resource dollars to the Federal Government, And that does not count the money received from international fishing rights paid directly to the Fed and not to the Alaska government.
Isn’t the Bearing Strait one of the most fished areas in the world?
“Nothing works like freedom, Nothing succeeds like liberty”
Kyle
What about the potential for tariffs?
aesthete (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 8:04PM EST (link)They’re bad economically speaking, but they can sometimes do wonders for government coffers. Under a hypothetical Republic of AK, would levying tariffs on your fisheries or other industries do anything for revenues?
The act of defending any of the cardinal virtues has today all the exhilaration of a vice – G.K. Chesterton
555 - nt
Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary) Friday, August 13th at 12:30AM EST (link)Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com, Charlotte Observer and The Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
Blockade of Galveston
dlanotte Friday, August 6th at 8:22AM EST (link)Blockade of Galveston by the United States federal forces would be tantamount to war and justification for secession.
I do think that the second Obama oil moratorium, imposed in clear violation of the federal court TRO was like the Feds firing on a state fort
Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary) Friday, August 13th at 12:32AM EST (link)unlike in 1861 when a state fired on a federal court. This time, it is the feds that are the aggressor.
Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com, Charlotte Observer and The Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
Really
banzaibob (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 11:59AM EST (link)I as remember you had population and the resources. Things are about even now with manufacturing in the south and people down here getting really tired of egg sucking yankees looking down their noses at us.
If you yankees don’t want to fight the war on terrorism what makes you think your leaders want to fight us.
Bring it on Yankee.
Prefiero morir de pie que vivir de rodillas
It’s better to die upon your feet than to live upon your knees!
Emiliano Zapata
Isn't Texas the only state that can legally secede?
usadying (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 12:03PM EST (link)I think it’s because it was originally a republic.
No they gave that up
Neil Stevens (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 12:04PM EST (link)Other states were also Republics, but Texas made a special deal in accession.
However Texas lost those rights after Reconstruction I believe.
RS contributing editor, technical administrator, and “a hardy variety of crabgrass.”
Read the RedState Posting Rules
Unlikely Voter: Poll Analysis, Election Projection.
“I rejoice that America has resisted.” – William Pitt, the Elder
Legal secession
izoneguy (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 12:13PM EST (link)What a hoot…..
This Federal government is illegal. It is trampling on our liberties like no other in our history. It is shredding the Constitution before our very eyes.
Legal – illegal —- none of this has any meaning anymore.
The point cannot be made often enough: Modern liberalism, as embodied in the Obama presidency, is the defender of the status quo. And the status quo is a road to economic ruin. Political forces cannot redistribute the wealth that the economic system does not produce.
Teach us what?
texanexpat Friday, August 6th at 9:36AM EST (link)Nell, if you know anything about Texans, you know that we are unteachable. We continue to think (hope?) that the US will abide by the Treaty of Annexation. We continue to expect them to honor their own Constitution. We just never seem to learn.
OK let me try this again, EPU, banzaibob, etc.
Neil Stevens (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 1:20PM EST (link)Get a history book. Look up the last time people talked like this.
Look up how many men had to die.
Don’t do it again. Only a FOOL would want that again.
RS contributing editor, technical administrator, and “a hardy variety of crabgrass.”
Read the RedState Posting Rules
Unlikely Voter: Poll Analysis, Election Projection.
“I rejoice that America has resisted.” – William Pitt, the Elder
I'd happily do it...
congressworksforus (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 4:49PM EST (link)To protect my family. And I don’t live in Texas.
“And if you take my family from me, I have nothing left to live for. Then I become even more dangerous.”
I wish I could remember whose quote that is…
Remember, if the left wins, abortion will not only be legal, it will be mandatory.
Maybe its the Feds that are firing the first shots this time Neil, but hogan, Neil, anyone: Correct me if I'm wrong, but
Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary) Friday, August 6th at 10:35AM EST (link)hasn’t Gov. Perry ALREADY defied the Feds by taking education funds and not complying with all the strings? And if not, i.e. if he didn’t take funds for education or unemployment, then what kind of threat is this law?
One thing this law is, is a partial FORCED SECESSION or separation of Texas from the union, BY THE FEDS! Isn’t it?
Neil, if the Federal Government declares war on Texas, what is it to do?
I feel as if a dictatorship is growing in America, and that before we can fix it via electoral politics, the Left will be firing the first shots.
People are HURTING economically and are losing patience with their own government waging war on their ability to EAT!
Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com, Charlotte Observer and The Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
55555.....Great bit of logic there Mike
Michael Dugas (Diary) Friday, August 6th at 2:07PM EST (link)n/t
Intro to Federalist Papers; section 5;
paragraph 4.
“…dangerous ambition more often lurks behind the specious mask of zeal for the rights of the people than under the zeal for a firm and efficient government.”
Remember: A Citizen on the dole is a Liberal Vote at the Polls.
END ENTITLEMENTS!
Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum !
thx Mike, you made my day, and I increasingly see Nullification as an option
Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary) Saturday, August 7th at 9:57AM EST (link)to try and prevent war. more later in pending column…
Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com, Charlotte Observer and The Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
Yes it is expulsion or a kind of inverse secession
cactusjack Saturday, August 7th at 10:10AM EST (link)if you will. Yes the real issue here is, the feds are trying to make the Governor commit to spending the money the way the feds want it spent at a guaranteed level into the future. Like most governors he can’t do that because of the state constitution, and because school spending is the legislature’s prerogative, not his even if he wwanted. So the feds are saying to a state, get your constitution and your elected legistlators out of the way, we’ll tell you how to spend (your) money.
555 - nt
Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary) Saturday, August 7th at 11:14AM EST (link)Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com, Charlotte Observer and The Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
Stevens, as in Adlai? The commie?
twdavis Friday, August 6th at 8:21AM EST (link)“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants” – Thomas Jefferson
Are you implying that you think the Union will stand up to a Texas seccession? Better get your gun, if you have one (which I doubt). This would be more like a declaration of independence. Recall how that turned out? And really, what’s this “we” and “us” stuff? You and who else, pinhead? Your happy friends in California? Maybe your compadres in NY or Mexico? You don’t really think the US military would follow your buddy, Obama, do you? Let’s put it to the test, shall we?
Step right up, tyrant.
That amendment was never any good (nt)
Neil Stevens (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 11:50AM EST (link)RS contributing editor, technical administrator, and “a hardy variety of crabgrass.”
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Unlikely Voter: Poll Analysis, Election Projection.
“I rejoice that America has resisted.” – William Pitt, the Elder
I've thought that for a long time.
smill1953 Friday, August 6th at 7:37AM EST (link)The Founders had their reasons for having the state legislatures appoint the US senators.
I will go to TX and The Senate Can GO To H---
Repair_Man_Jack (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 11:48AM EST (link)” I side impenitently with the human race against the modern reformer.” – C.S. Lewis
ell
partyof1 Thursday, August 5th at 11:50AM EST (link).
Here here!
stephaniet Thursday, August 5th at 2:02PM EST (link)I’ll go with you.
“*They* say the best weapon is one you never have to fire. I respectfully disagree. I *prefer* the weapon you only have to fire *once*. That’s how Dad did it; that’s how America does it… and it’s worked out pretty well so far.”
A great start, thanks to the Patriots in Texas!
snowshooze (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 11:51AM EST (link)I hope more States line up with them. ( Not much hope for MY State of Alaska )
Palin at first refused the Stimulus monies, but was overruled and we wound up with a pocketful of short term money and a pile of long term obligations.
Perry is doing the right thing. We States cannot continue to subordinate ourselves to the Federal Government.
Perry is a good man, and it looks like he isn’t a bit afraid to start a fight when it is due. ( Lord, please send more…)
I look forward to more. This is the Civil War V 2.0 and we don’t have to fire a single shot. But we do have to stick together and fight.
Just say NO to bad government. Then back it up.
Great post, hogan
So, now is when it starts.
larueladue (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 11:51AM EST (link)I honestly thought that it would take another year or so,,,
Yep
Darin_H (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 11:57AM EST (link)This is just the beginning.
And I would have gone with a different word than no, but it would violate the posting guidelines so I’ll just say “nuts!”
A visionary coward says that anger can be power, as long as there’s a victim on TV – Flat Top, Goo Goo Dolls
First AZ, now TX.
usadying (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 11:59AM EST (link)This is frightening.
This is what happens when we stay home and "send a message" to RiNOs
Neil Stevens (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 12:04PM EST (link)ELECT REPUBLICANS.
RS contributing editor, technical administrator, and “a hardy variety of crabgrass.”
Read the RedState Posting Rules
Unlikely Voter: Poll Analysis, Election Projection.
“I rejoice that America has resisted.” – William Pitt, the Elder
Not only those two.
Steph C (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 12:09PM EST (link)If you think about it, if the Feds can’t get to them one way, as in what is being done to TX and AZ, they will do so in another way.
Every state along the Gulf is a red state from TX to FL. Remember the “moratorium”? If the red states won’t enjoin the Obama agenda, he will try to crush them one way or another.
So much for the “unity” president.
“[I]f the public are bound to yield obedience to laws to which they cannot give their approbation, they are slaves to those who make such laws and enforce them.” –Candidus in the Boston Gazette, 1772
Hillbilly Politics
No, it isn't frightening...it is our responsibility.
snowshooze (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 12:33PM EST (link)And Texas took a bit of a lead here saying they would be self governing and not burden the other States with their business.
Go for it, Texas.
taxpayer1234 (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 12:29PM EST (link)Someone has to show those DC idiots the people are NOT their personal ATMs.
so, they're preparing to de-fund Texas
Veronica (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 12:39PM EST (link)that right?
Because Perry refuses us to submit Texas to unproven, non-research-based curriculum mandated by the federal government fthat bypasses our local school boards who know our parents and kids best?
We can’t tolerate this sort of nonsense for 6 more years.
Obama wants to stick around to complete progressive dependence on the federal government by 2016.
Can you imagine the loss of control we’ll have by then? Raising our children under their mandated progressive curriculum? Under their Edu-Czars? Is Kevn Jennings still around? Have we forgotten about him?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Pray as if everything depends on God, and work as if everything depends on us. – St. Augustine
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The biggest losers will be the liberal colleges
izoneguy (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 12:53PM EST (link)that need those Federal dollars to stay afloat…..
Good riddence…..time to take out the trash…..
Local school tax dollars will stay here and won’t be laundered through the Federal govt. any longer.
Local control means saying screw you Obama….it’s our money to start with, not yours.
The point cannot be made often enough: Modern liberalism, as embodied in the Obama presidency, is the defender of the status quo. And the status quo is a road to economic ruin. Political forces cannot redistribute the wealth that the economic system does not produce.
well, Texas has proven repeatedly
Veronica (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 1:11PM EST (link)that we’ve got our own economy humming along perfectly well.
We’re global, in fact. That’s why Perry makes these trips overseas.
That’s why Formula 1 is coming to Austin.
We repeatedly see it in the papers and periodicals — Texas hsa handled the recession exceedingly well. Google Texas and “business” and “economy” and you’ll see it.
This makes Obama vewy, vewy nervous.
I am not saying this to tout secession. Texas is an example of the free market system and limited federal government intervention.
Obama deplores other states following suit. He wants to drown Texas and flip the demographic. Get all these red states turned blue.
White — you’re a patsy. We know you’re Obama’s drone.
Perry — God bless you, Governor. God bless Gregg Abbott.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Pray as if everything depends on God, and work as if everything depends on us. – St. Augustine
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I say DRILL!
MathMom Thursday, August 5th at 12:45PM EST (link)If Herr Gruppenfuehrer Obama can specifically cut off Texas from funding, I say we ignore his drilling ban and get into deep water and shallow water off the coast of Texas and DRILL!
drilling ban is a distraction
Veronica (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 1:06PM EST (link)from what he’s doing through the EPA down in Texas.
You understand the EPA’s completely taken over air quality in Texas, under this bogus TCEQ “flex permit” problem.
They’ve shut down plants and refineries.
If refineries were functioning Texas, yeah, we’d immediately see the effects of the drilling ban and there’s be a squeaky wheel to oil.
Sneaky bugger. Backdoor, frontdoor, up and through and from behind.
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Pray as if everything depends on God, and work as if everything depends on us. – St. Augustine
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Where's the part that includes an offsetting income tax credit for Texas IRS returns?
bk (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 1:01PM EST (link)Surely since they are always so FAIR they have done this, right?
Yep. Tit for Tat
snowshooze (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 1:11PM EST (link)So just send those Federal Taxes back to Texas…
God bless ‘em
Ok, not entirely, but on the share plan..offsets as you point out.
How does this not violate the equal protection clause?
mc80aea Thursday, August 5th at 1:04PM EST (link)NT
Really it does, and fundamental fairness which is also
cactusjack Thursday, August 5th at 8:42PM EST (link)a Constitutional principle. As has already been posted in this thread, does it matter anymore? Rep Stark said the other day as a matter of fact, the federal government can pretty much do whatever it wants. Just like a sitting Parliament in the UK, with no branches of government or separation of powers to speak of. You missed Re-Education 101, Comrade.
So is Texas gonna sue?
petrarch Friday, August 6th at 11:50AM EST (link)It’s worth a try anyway, if nothing more than for the purpose of grandstanding the issue.
Scragged – Conservative Online Opinion Magazine
Personally,
Veronica (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 1:17PM EST (link)I think this sucessionist* and no-income tax talk is counter-productive.
Measured responses keep us out of the kook-camp that don’t repeal potential voters.
Too many kooks in Texas willing to find fault in Perry for turning in his income taxes and not doing the “suceed already!!” — so they’ll vote 3rd party.
Calming down calms down these kind of hiccups, forces them back in line behind Perry.
Inflammatory speak — doesn’t sound mature, anyway. Speaking maturely also outs the real kooks.
*did I spell it right? I always spell it wrong. Please expect it.
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Pray as if everything depends on God, and work as if everything depends on us. – St. Augustine
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Well I'm not on the Secessionist bandwagon
Richard Mullins (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 1:59PM EST (link)but I’m worried if get another Obama term and a successor to the presidency that is like him, then we can talk about becoming our own country again. Obama is an idiot whose time is coming so I’m not all that worried. Playing with us is going to be a bad thing for this admin and sometimes I don’t think that they know it. BTW, you spelled Secessionist wrong, it’s an e instead of an u. Also, no talk of a new Confederacy, that wasn’t really on Texas’ terms, it worked well for SC and some other states to the east. If we do split, it will be on our own terms.
Richard Phillip Mullins BlogThe Squash Satire SiteNews on Happy Jet Airlines
Rmullins Pics
Rpmullins Twitter
Joe Biden is like a Decrepit Park owner with a Meth lab that happens to not only be a dealer but a user.
Let’s Bankrupt the Democratic paty. Make spend all the money to defend thier candidates.
Hasn't Obama learned yet that you "Don't Mess With Texas"?
Teresa in Fort Worth, TX (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 1:42PM EST (link)I mean, really! We are a proud state and a proud people. We don’t take kindly to someone up in D.C. telling us what we can and cannot do.
The Federal Government has forgotten that THEY work for US. People first, states second. The power has always been in the hands of the people, and they, in turn, give that power to their state. The States, working together, are what gives the Federal Government its power, and if the States so decide, the Feds HAVE NO POWER.
Time for the States to remind the Feds about that……
Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy ride…..
You know what this reminds me of?
stephaniet Thursday, August 5th at 2:09PM EST (link)The school playground bully that sounds all tough, talks trash to everyone, beats people up… until the other kids gang up on him, corner him, and beat the ever-loving snot out of him. Then he’s not so tough anymore.
I don’t worry about Texas. They’re a tough crowd down there. Rich heritage, great love of freedom. If anybody should worry about Texas, it’s D.C., or else they may wake up one day with a giant cowboy boot on their throat… metaphorically speaking.
“*They* say the best weapon is one you never have to fire. I respectfully disagree. I *prefer* the weapon you only have to fire *once*. That’s how Dad did it; that’s how America does it… and it’s worked out pretty well so far.”
mass migration
tngal (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 2:40PM EST (link)TN is attached to TX. Not by land boundaries mind, but rather a transparent umbilical cord. I could see a mass migration of tennesseans moving for lone star were it to become independant. Plus we’re starting to get used to their armadillos the truck drivers keep dropping off on us. Man they are all over the place.
Tngal you are right there really is/was a TN/TX
cactusjack Thursday, August 5th at 8:39PM EST (link)connection. Sam Houston and Davy Crockett were both Tennesseans, Mr Crockett having served in Congress representing your State. He was he was quite lettered and intelligent. Many, many Tennesseans died at the Alamo and their names are in the Alamo chapel today, under a flag of Tennessee.
cactus, that cord is furry and has
tngal (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 8:48PM EST (link)raccoon rings running round it. There will always be a direct connect between these two states because of the Alamo.
The armadillos are not the prettiest critters
cactusjack Thursday, August 5th at 10:43PM EST (link)but keep them. They can be eaten in times of Depression or second term, Deep Recession, under the 0. As was done in the 1930s. Kind of spam on short little legs.
possum on a half shell
tngal (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 10:56PM EST (link)That’s what we call ‘dillos. And since we got possums already, why would we really need something we would have to shell to eat? Unless there are pearls inside. Hey, if you say those armadillos are hoarding pearls I’ll shell ‘em all day long.
If you ever travel through Possum Kingdom, SC
lineholder (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 11:49PM EST (link)make sure you try out the “road kill surprise” or the potted possum.
And yes, there really is a place named Possum Kingdom, SC
sam houston...
vmo335 (Diary) Friday, August 6th at 2:19AM EST (link)was from Rockbridge County, Virginia. part Cherokee too.
Listen up fellow Texans
texasgalt (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 2:44PM EST (link)Stop where you are and look around. Think about how good we have it in Texas. We have a good economy. A lot of people in Texas have done very well and are continuing to do well. You can still bootstrap it here with work and a little luck. So, stop this secession talk. We can beat the bastards at the ballot box.
The election is less than 3 months away. There’s a wave out there. Perry will win again. Republicans will control redistricting and Texas is gaining 3-4 seats due to population growth.
We have the wind at our backs. Use the passion to kick the Donks November 2nd and then we will have a lot more friends to help us roll back the statism and send the Soros puppet back to Chicago.
God Blessed Texas- let’s not piss it away in anger. I’m talking to you – all you Medina people, you Paulbots and all you crackpot militia wannabes.
Quibble. Chicago doesn't want Obama back.
acat (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 2:47PM EST (link)Maybe Hawaii will take him…
Mew
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“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost”. –Tolkein
Hawaii? Nah. How about Indonesia? nt
deano64 (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 3:15PM EST (link)Precinct Committeeman before it was cool.
“The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.”
Alexis De Tocqueville
I wouldn't want him back either
texasgalt (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 4:47PM EST (link)and while I’m thinking about it, the Bama would do himself a favor to cancel his planned trip to Texas. He’s already change the destination city 3 times. Just cancel it Bama. You are radioactive in TX.
Oh come now, don't you want to see what Texas Dems are willing to be seen with Obama? [nt]
acat (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 5:38PM EST (link)——
“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost”. –Tolkein
Well Obama isn't toxic in SJL's district
Richard Mullins (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 8:58PM EST (link)and he helped her win over some better foes in the Democratic primary. I think we need to photochop a picture of Bill White on stage with Barack Obama. On the bottom, put a caption that says, “While he doesn’t want to be with him on fundraiser, he’ll be just like him”. BTW, the sleeping giant of voters(Latino’s) are still sleeping.
Richard Phillip Mullins BlogThe Squash Satire SiteNews on Happy Jet Airlines
Rmullins Pics
Rpmullins Twitter
Joe Biden is like a Decrepit Park owner with a Meth lab that happens to not only be a dealer but a user.
Let’s Bankrupt the Democratic paty. Make spend all the money to defend thier candidates.
If he is popular there, then he would surely
cactusjack Thursday, August 5th at 11:23PM EST (link)be popular in all four Vietnams – “North and South, Side by Side.” We have discriminated against them all, for way too long by not allowing them to vote.
Not too many smart folks in that district
Richard Mullins (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 11:38PM EST (link)Maybe on November 2, they will stop with dealing with all the Gaffe-a-minute congresscritter. I have my doubts though. BTW, is your username is from John Nance Gardner’s nickname? I admire him in many ways even though he was a Democrat in a different time.
Richard Phillip Mullins BlogThe Squash Satire SiteNews on Happy Jet Airlines
Rmullins Pics
Rpmullins Twitter
Joe Biden is like a Decrepit Park owner with a Meth lab that happens to not only be a dealer but a user.
Let’s Bankrupt the Democratic paty. Make spend all the money to defend thier candidates.
SortaKinda on the Cactus Moniker
cactusjack Thursday, August 5th at 11:51PM EST (link)I worked down there in South Texas, Valley to Laredo to Uvalde for a few years and saw a lot of cactus, roadrunners, caracara hawks, etc. It’s a unique & beautiful part of the state and the whole country. And yes for what I have heard CactusJack Garner was a straight shooter and had it out with FDR on more than one occasion on major policy even though part of his team. A model for us all. As for SJL, I had occasion to meet her staff once and they were polite, very district- oriented. That is, they knew people, used first names, gave good service/response on the programs, contacts, etc., to their constituents which is the usual Dem formula for getting (re)elected out of a district even though the candidate him or herself is…less than sterling, or gives daily offense.
No not really interested in seeing Eddie Bernice Johnson
texasgalt (Diary) Friday, August 6th at 12:30AM EST (link)or Sheila Cell-Phone rub elbows with teh One.
He is coming mostly to see if he can flip the TX House just before redistricting. He wants Dems in those 4 new TX seats. Not likely.
Might be fun to see who turns out for this in Austin:
http://www.handsofftexas.com/events/details
President Barack Obama is coming to Texas to raise money in Dallas on Monday, August 9th
izoneguy (Diary) Saturday, August 7th at 10:21AM EST (link)President Barack Obama is coming to Texas to raise money in Dallas on Monday, August 9th. Conservatives are rallying at the same time to show love of freedom and prosperity at a family rally.
Due to the anticipated size of the crowd Monday night, the location of the rally has been moved to Franklin Stadium on Hillcrest Road.
This is a Republican Party event, not a Tea Party event, but all patriots are invited and welcome.
WHEN:
Monday, August 9th, 5:00 p.m.
Rain or shine
WHERE:
Franklin Stadium ***New location
10000 Hillcrest Road
Dallas, Texas
Feel free to bring your lawn chairs, patriotic signs, and family. Speakers will begin at 6:00 p.m. Confirmed speakers so far include:
Mark Davis (Radio Host, WBAP 820)
Pastor Stephen Broden (Candidate for Congress, District 30)
Jonathan Neerman (Chairman, Dallas County Republican Party)
Jason Villalba (President, Dallas Chapter of Republican National Hispanic Association)
Katrina Pierson (Community Organizer)
Hon. Bill Metzger (Small Business Owner, DCCCD Trustee)
The point cannot be made often enough: Modern liberalism, as embodied in the Obama presidency, is the defender of the status quo. And the status quo is a road to economic ruin. Political forces cannot redistribute the wealth that the economic system does not produce.
Couldn't Mark Cuban and Exxon just mail in their Checks? -nt
texasgalt (Diary) Saturday, August 7th at 4:28PM EST (link)Secession? Probably not, but don't take the option off the table
RedBeard Thursday, August 5th at 3:12PM EST (link)“Whether we remain in one confederacy, or form into Atlantic and Mississippi confederacies, I believe not very important to the happiness of either part. Those of the western confederacy will be as much our children & descendants as those of the eastern, and I feel myself as much identified with that country, in future time, as with this; and did I now foresee a separation at some future day, yet I should feel the duty & the desire to promote the western interests as zealously as the eastern, doing all the good for both portions of our future family which should fall within my power.”
–Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Priestley, January 29, 1804
Secession is just an interesting debating point for now. If Congress and the White House want to avoid having the subject get more serious, all they need to do is back off and honor their own sworn loyalty to the Constitution.
Standard-bearer for grouchy curmudgeonry since, oh, 1975 or so.
Secession is an option............
makemyday (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 3:34PM EST (link)But why don’t we band together and just kick Illinois out? They can’t seem to get it right anyway what with their Governors constantly being indicted, the mess in Cook County and god knows what else. Set em’ free, set em adrift or build a wall around them. No good comes from Illinois.
When all else fails…….. Shoot!
“Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.” –American author Mark Twain (1835-1910)
“We should never despair, our Situation before has been unpromising and has changed for the better, so I trust, it will again. If new difficulties arise, we must only put forth new Exertions and proportion our Efforts to the exigency of the times.” –George Washington, letter to Philip Schuyler, 1777
If we could just nullify half the votes in Chicago, it would solve a lot
RedBeard Thursday, August 5th at 3:59PM EST (link)You know, the half made up of dead people.
Standard-bearer for grouchy curmudgeonry since, oh, 1975 or so.
There doesn't have to be any war
renny (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 5:18PM EST (link)There just have to be more states to say, “NO.” Nullification.
AZ already has three chiefs of police who say they have been asking questions on immigration because ICE287[g] permits such activity and will continue regardless of the Bolton ruling. It’s as good as nullification.
TX should encourage its oil refineries to run despite the EPA. The worst little o will do is send in fed. marshals. If he has the guts to do that. Here’s a guy who knows nothing of any kind of conflict except Chicago ward politics.
MO just voted against the ind. mandate in Obamanationcare.
VA has also voted not to implement the new “health care.”
No one has to go to war. And any modern US civil war would not be about slavery, which is a ghost of an image and to keep recalling that canard when NO slavery has existed in this hemisphere since we won the Spn-Am war and liberated all of the slaves kept on Spanish territories is ludicrous. Sherman said, “Slavery is dead. They can’t get their slaves back any more than they can get back their dead grandmothers. It is dead.” And posters should stop bringing it up as any kind of rationale.
The worse problem is since NIXON started revenue sharing and JOHNSON started the grant system, almost all states/counties/towns are infiltrated with fed. monies and all budgets depend on them. Look at NY State, that now thinks it can “balance” its out of whack budget with Medicaid money from DC, plus taxing all clothing purchases, plus raising cig. taxes (AGAIN), etc.
The ultimate corrupter is DC money. Just say, “NO.”
Secession effected, in the 21st Century, will not be about Bullets
cactusjack Thursday, August 5th at 8:31PM EST (link)it will be about dollars. We are having this wretched subject discussion thread in part because of the above headline (which I never thought I’d see directed at any State of the Union, but – there it is!) and in part because of the character of the current administration. The thought of a State having to escape the federal government’s ravages to maintain American freedoms, is so shocking and fiction thriller like it is hard to conceive of and was never even considered by anyone sane through the last 24 Presidents or so – until this one. He and his cabinet are so venal, so corrupt, it would not take a war for a State to be done with them, it would just take a big enough pile of money brought by the representatives of that State to DC for the…negotiations. Allowing in Texas’ case future delivery of oil figured into present value of the cash payment, and an agreement on untangling revenue sharing with federal tax, etc., I must tell you I come to the shocking conclusion, in all sincerity, this current crowd in the WH would seriously look at it – if they could find a way to blame it on Texas for PR purposes for cover . History, security, the Constitution mean less to them than a good $hakedown and they know one when they see it. /no snark/
Dammit, why can't I come up with a clean retort...
snowshooze (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 8:38PM EST (link)Like yours.
Every good joke lives on a good punch line.
As does every good arguement.
Well done.
And I agree, we do not need or want a war, nor do we want any succession…no, we want the Union intact. But we need to shorten the leash on the Federal Government. And shorten the leash from them to the respective States. I don’t wanna pay for a Federal backed study into the quality of horseshit in Georgia any more than they want to pick up the tab for our Iceworm study. The Federal Government stands in the middle and collects from both sides.
Therin lies the problem, mutual irresponsibility, or indepent but divergeing objectives, should be bourne out by those who persue them.
Texas says they will cover their own, and in all fairness, we should follow suit.
Yes I am hoping Perry has done his homework,
cactusjack Thursday, August 5th at 11:11PM EST (link)has a state stash of cash and really can stand a federally funded schooling funds cutoff for awhile at least – if it comes to that. Or however this confrontation is going to play out. I think ErinMist above has the best take on this whole maddening situation, which I read as, try everything else starting at the polls first but still be prepared in every other way down the road. I was just trying to point out it appears with this administration everything is *negotiable* and I mean *everything.* Senate seats, agreements not to nationalize public concerns (BP), high level federal jobs, you name it. Illegality or ethics, *not a problem.* In order to obtain quasi independence or some kind of freedom, I can think of only three States big enough to bring enough cash to swing the deal: CA, TX, AK (because of all the oil there). Maybe FL, NY. NY and CA don’t want to go, they want more fed money for their deficits. And 0 and Rahm wouldn’t mind getting rid of TX it is an obstacle to them.
We could run Texas for 2 years
texasgalt (Diary) Friday, August 6th at 12:57AM EST (link)if we could get into the UT endowment.
Education is funded by localities and states
renny (Diary) Friday, August 6th at 9:55AM EST (link)through real estate and state taxes. Federal contributions to education are less than 10% of total ed. expenses for pub. ed., which is a little above 1/2 $trillion annually.
I think TX could handle that. Cut everything by 10% across the board and eliminate the fed. contribution.
Where the loss would hurt is in Title II, the grant system that provides tons of technical support, like computers.
There will come a day when people will once again discover...
penguin2 (Diary) Thursday, August 5th at 8:26PM EST (link)self-sufficiency. It is the core of the American character and the heart of her people. Once the corruption, deception and Socialism/Communism of the Left, who have tried to take over America, is revealed, there will be an accounting. There may be individuals (urban centers) who remain blind, but when the Federal trough runs dry, and it will, it will be like dominoes.
At least I hope this is so, and would be part of it myself.
Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God. – Benjamin Franklin
When Good stands up to Evil, Evil blinks. – Vassar Bushmills
Conservative Education: Suggested Reading List
Activists Taking Action: Unified Patriots
Yes, there is a reckoning coming
texasgalt (Diary) Friday, August 6th at 1:05AM EST (link)and unfortunately it will, to some degree, fall not just on the unjust but the clueless and naive as well. And woe is to those who live in the urban centers when that day comes.
This article is why I love living here
trutexan Friday, August 6th at 6:17AM EST (link)It embodies the spirit, determination, and well…stubborness of Texans. Imagine the feds trying to take over our natural resources. Really? Well, I’m betting it won’t be the last time. That’s OK. Texans are ready.
Michael Williams for Senate…and then US Secretary of Energy.
I was anti-Obama before it was cool.
I Stand with Perry
candi Friday, August 6th at 7:18AM EST (link)Dag gum it! Looks like I’ll be voting for Perry after all. We don’t want their money. It’s time to take Texas back to the Country of Texas, not the State of Texas.
Perry! You take one gd dime and I will vote against you, I’ll groom many others to vote against you!
You, by gosh, better stick to being a Texan and the rest of the Nation can stand with us or fall under Obama! I simply can not believe we’ve elected a foreigner as president! Nor can I believe that our countrymen have led us down this path. News media needs to be redistributed and the monopoly should be BROKEN!
I stand with Perry in Texas! I stand with Arizona!
Get it together people or we are in for a lot of friggin hard times!
It's Republic of Texas
renny (Diary) Friday, August 6th at 9:46AM EST (link)It has never been State of Texas.
States named in Federal Law
livefreenh Friday, August 6th at 7:56AM EST (link)This strongly implies that there is a conflict in how “equal” the Federal government is being. The larger question is, of course, what business the Federal Government has here in the first place, because there is no Constitutional authority for any of this. Do we fix the symptom, or fix the problem?
Freedom or slavery..
justfedup Friday, August 6th at 9:40AM EST (link)that is basically what it comes down to. If trouble comes, obama & the dems can’t fully count on the military backing them. It’s that little “Oath to the Constitution thing”. They despise our military & the troops know it. Remember that little issue about absentee voting for troops over seas. Remember obama wanting a civilian “police” force that rivals the military. You want to know what obama is, look at his “kinsman” Raila Odinga & what happened in Kenya. Freedom & compromise are not the same. You are not free if the EPA says breathing & farm dust are pollutants. You are not free if you are told what kind of light bulbs or toilets you can use or what you can eat. And you are not free if you cannot worship God in your own way. And now Chris Dodd wants to put you in”dense, government controlled housing”. DC can keep their ill-gotten gains. Pray for the best, prepare for the worst & get to the polls in Nov. As for me I’m in agreement with Col. West, there is no expiration on my Oath. God Bless Sam Colt.
Is there any wonder why the talk of rebellion?
DirtyDave Friday, August 6th at 10:10AM EST (link)The one benefit of all of this is that Obama is almost guaranteeing the defeat of Bill White for governor. Who knows, maybe even Sheila Jackson Lee can be defeated.
Dave LeBlanc
There are no such things as limits to growth, because there are no limits on the human capacity for intelligence, imagination and wonder.
- President Ronald Reagan
And yet, people and businesses are moving to Texas
southcoast Friday, August 6th at 10:32AM EST (link)So, as more people move to Texas and take their wealth there with them, will Texas therefore exercise a similar act of reciprocity where payments to the federal government shall be withheld wherever possible?
The 0bama administration needs to be careful to isolate a big state like Texas which was a republic once already, has natural resources and access to the ocean.
You have to get a grip your head about supporting the GOP
wayneepalmer Friday, August 6th at 11:59AM EST (link)The Republican (leadership) is seriously planning on betraying us after November.
Don’t forget that scum bag Trent Lott talked up dirtying ANY TEA Party people that get elected.
Two words “Lindsey Graham”.
I know people who are WAY high up in the GOP leadership who are already talking about all the wonderful things we can give to Hispanics to fold them into the GOP fold AFTER the GOP goes full-bore on getting Amnesty thru early next year because the business guys want to get any potential Federal action against employing illegals behind them.
I’ve been lectured to repeatedly by people that are as stupid about what Hispanic sympathies will be EVEN AFTER GETTING PAID OFF IN A MYRIAD OF WAYS to the Conservative point of view as were the folks who that Obama would be a centrist.
This idiots have actually convinced themselves that unlimited amnesty will benefit us economically and you have no more chance of changing their minds about this than you can convince Al Gore to be an adman for Hummers.
True peace between two enemies has only ever been acheived when one side has utterly defeated the other…if you doubt this truth visit Nagasaki sometime.
14 Amendment Violated by the Fed
David Swenk Friday, August 6th at 6:30PM EST (link)The state government of Texas as well as any other state who is sick and tired of federal extortion should enact legislation, should the federal govt withhold PUBLIC taxpayer money from states, those states should not be obligated to forward income tax or any other receipts to the IRS. In other words, you dont want to …spend federal tax dolllars in our state, our people under the 14th amendment guaranteeing equal protection are not obligated to pay federal income taxes. What is the President going to do send troops into that state? As if they would listen!
States gave the feds the power
1ofmany Saturday, August 7th at 10:35AM EST (link)60 years ago the common expression was let Uncle Sam do it. The state governments were not doing their job so the people went to the feds. That was just fine with the states and better for the feds. The socialist took that opportunity to take away the states power and responsibilities under the constitution. The feds started in taking over the schools and the states did nothing. The feds took over investigating suspicious fires because gasoline was imported from out of state. Next was the feds en-roached on other of the states responsibilities by “mandating”, up held by the Supreme Court. We gave the feds the power to take over states rights and the socialist took full advantage. With this past presidential election the socialist came to almost full power and they are rushing us to socialism. Should have stopped them at the beginning but now if we don’t our form of government will be history but that history will be taught, if it is, as the worse for government ever known to ever existed.
hogan, Gamecock asks a question re Texas, Gov Perry and Congress singling out Texas
Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary) Monday, August 9th at 2:27PM EST (link)Did Texas/Perry ask for singling out by either
Taking Education funds and spending it in contravention of federal law?
or
Announce that they would spend future education funds in contravention of federal mandates?
If the answer to either is “yes”, then shouldn’t they expect to be singled out? Obviously so.
Now, I favor civil disobedience by individuals and/or nullification acts by states. And given that it is difficult to keep from paying fed taxes given withholding, I can favor taking Fed money and not complying with mandates. Although I think the better practice is to not take the money.
But, as with MLK, when one breaks an unjust law, one is a hero precisely because one will have to SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES, rather than whine when they are “singled out”. Make sense?
Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com, Charlotte Observer and The Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
No, Texas refused to participate in the "Race to the Top" contest -
Teresa in Fort Worth, TX (Diary) Monday, August 9th at 3:02PM EST (link)there were too many strings attached, so they basically said, “Thanks, but no thanks”. If I recall correctly, Texas was the first State to do that; there may have been others that fell in with us later.
But basically, BamBam got REALLY mad, and he’s been gunning for us ever since. So far, we haven’t backed down, and I’m hoping that we don’t EVER back down with this administration. At some point, someone is going to have to explain to the Feds that they get their tax money from companies that are located in various states.
I have a feeling that is what Perry is telling Obama today. Texas currently sends all of her Federal tax dollars to D.C., and if they keep refusing to give us our “fair share” of what we have sent them, then we just might find a way to not send them any more…….
Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy ride…..
Seen it right off too..
snowshooze (Diary) Monday, August 9th at 3:12PM EST (link)Count me out, and I’ll just spend my money elsewhere…
Guaranteed, this is a big fight brewing. Federal Government ain’t a gonna take this laying down. Texas steps out on them and there will be a stampede for the door. Rats jumping from a sinking ship…
This is a clear battle and it will get dirty. The Government is really funny about money.
Palin tried to pass on Stimulus Funds
snowshooze (Diary) Monday, August 9th at 3:20PM EST (link)For the same reason, to many long term obligations that we didn’t want…
But of course there was an uprising to get that easy money, and she was overruled. She never got close to the next argument…hey, how about a bit of that contribution money back…
Our Virginia Governor opted out
Scope (Diary) Monday, August 9th at 3:43PM EST (link)of the “race to the top program” also, and, I believe for the same reasons, too much federal say. Our Attorney General is suing over the Ocare mandate, and he recently was asked for an opinion (in VA, Atty. Gen. opinion is law unless it is overturned by a court) on the immigration issue, and he wrote that law enforcement officers “can” ask the immigration status if reasonable suspicion exists when one is stopped or arrested for another crime. The ACLU (Americas Crazed Legal Umpires) also issued their opinion and advice to law enforcement- don’t pay any attention to the States Attorney General, and don’t enforce the law.
If “race to the top” was the impetus for federal angst, then it appears that Texas is being singled out.
Scope, are you sure?
klondike Tuesday, August 10th at 6:15AM EST (link)According to Republican delegates in Richmond, VA competed for those funds came close but failed. In the end, I think VA is glad about that, but VA didn’t opt out.
klondike- At first our Governor
Scope (Diary) Tuesday, August 10th at 7:29AM EST (link)MCDonnell did go for the money, but, withdrew the application because of the replacement of the Standards of Learning requirement.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/26/AR2010052604480.html
BTW I spoke too soon with Texas only being singled out by the O admin. I just read this morning that Gates has announced the closing of the Joint Forces Command Center in Norfolk, VA. We will lose over 5,000 jobs. More proof that the O has it in for states with R Governors. Also, even though our 2 senators Warner and Webb, both Dems, have toed the line for ole Harry, they have been thrown under the bus. They were both going to be one termers anyway, as VA is turning very very Red.
I posted last night to you, Scope
klondike Tuesday, August 10th at 7:43AM EST (link)about Gates’ decision. Frat boy is targeting VA, much like TX, I think because of Cucinelli. The truly disturbing part is that frat boy is bypassing BRAC and QDE and plans to close the Joint Forces Command within 3-4 months.
I could be wrong about VA, but if I recall correctly, it wasTata who said, Sadly, VA lost the “Race to the Top.” That tells me, VA tried to compete but lost.
I think even the hardcore Republicans in VA are beginning to appreciate Cucinelli’s fighting spirit. McDonnell, only to a point. MUCH better than Creigh Deeds, to be sure.
klondike- I'm sorry, I didn't see your post
Scope (Diary) Tuesday, August 10th at 12:14PM EST (link)from last night, but, I did just read it. Yes, the O, and unfortunately his side kick Gates, will make sure that those Red states are punished, and, whatever collateral damage happens along with, oh well, too bad. The D’s have always cut our military and defense budgets before anything else. I guess now since we have signed on with Interpol, we’re good to go huh.
From my perspective, and most that I know, Cuccinelli was the star on the ticket in the elections here in VA. Bolling, a moderate, was just part of the R sweep. I thought McDonnell could go either way, and, he has from issue to issue. At times I am leary of McDonnell’s small government positions. He does seem to look to the feds a little too much for my liking. It is definately Cooch that is putting us on the map with his battles with the feds, with the EPA, Ocare and immigration. It seems that every ACLU lawyer has moved into the state to fight him.
Gates has already punished Texas and Georgia
theloneranger Wednesday, August 18th at 9:50AM EST (link)…by allowing the F-22 program to end at 187 aircraft. Those planes are built in plants in those two states, and upwards of 90,000 jobs are affected.
“I will not stand by and watch this great country destroy itself under mediocre leadership, that drifts from one crisis to the next, eroding our national will and purpose.” – Ronald Reagan, July 17, 1980.
ok, so you start out with the word "no" and then a comma (I asked more questions than one, you see?)- Are you saying that the ONLY think Texas/Perry
Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary) Wednesday, August 11th at 12:56AM EST (link)has done with respect to education funding is opt out of Race to the Top?
Is that all hogan is referring to with respect to education? There are no links in the blog to what Texas has done in this area.
Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com, Charlotte Observer and The Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
Weighing in - asking a question
theloneranger Wednesday, August 18th at 9:48AM EST (link)Would not “nullification” of federal laws be as effective as secession, without all the heated rhetoric or threat of violence (which, as someone else stated, might not happen due to mass mutiny by our U. S. Armed Forces)? Is that not a more logical avenue to approach? I’m all for defending myself and my loved ones (and my State) if threatened or attacked, but I think more energy should go into telling the Federal government to “go to Blazes” if they attempt such blatant power grabs as the EPA is attempting (and I say “attempt” because, as Yogi Berra once said, “It ain’t over till it’s over”). Let ‘em figure out what to do next. The only way to beat a bully is to hit him back.
“I will not stand by and watch this great country destroy itself under mediocre leadership, that drifts from one crisis to the next, eroding our national will and purpose.” – Ronald Reagan, July 17, 1980.