Texas Governor’s Tea Party Threat Shakes Things Up
The tea party movement had its day and then some on April 15, 2009, as citizens from across the country gathered in large cities and small towns to declare their opposition to excessive taxation from an ever-expanding federal government. In the spirit of the Boston Tea Party of 1773, these gatherings were meant to be a line in the sand, a message for tax and spend Democrats in D.C. to hit the brakes on their agenda. And if that message wasn’t clear enough with the thousands who attended Sean Hannity’s Atlanta tea party or Glenn Beck’s party in San Antonio, it was clear after Texas Governor Rick Perry spoke to a modest gathering of 1500 people outside Austin City Hall.
When Perry addressed those gathered in Austin, he spoke as one of them and mocked the Department of Homeland Security’s warning that tea-party participants could be part of “right-wing extremist radicalization.” Said Perry: “I’m just not real sure you’re a bunch of right-wing extremists. But if you are, we’re with you.” He then told the cheering crowd: “We will not stand our pockets being picked, our children’s future being mortgaged, our rights being taken away.”
Yet as important and poignant as Perry’s words were to those gathered outside City Hall, it’s what he said to reporters afterward that set the blogosphere ablaze: “My hope is that America and Washington in particular pays attention. We’ve got a great union. There’s absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, who knows what may come of that.” While Perry didn’t come right out and use the “s-word” (secede), you can sure bet that’s what he meant, and he made it crystal clear by adding: “Texas is a unique place. When we came into the union in 1845, one of the issues was that we would be able to leave if we decided to do that.”
Yeah baby!!! I’m moving to Texas!!
Why do 1500 reactionary right wing nutjobs (1501 counting Perry) get to decide whether Texas secedes?
I’m sure that the other 23,902,879 Texans are reasonably content living in the United States of America and don’t care very much for the governor’s treasonous language.
Well said. See Vodkapundit’s Department of Corrections post also. “Move along nothing to see here”
Imagine the possibilities. Liberals left speechless as every motivated, hardworking individual splits and leaves them without support. Red states would need no income taxes at all. And 100% employment as the Blue states would have to buy everything from us. And defense? They would have to pay us to come do that for them as well.
They deserve their Blue state paradise. Let them have it.
Pastor of Muppets: What makes you so sure?
This country was formed through secession from an empire – escaping the clutches of a tyrannical central government.
respectfully to “pastor” (#2) – You wrote – “I’m sure that the other 23,902,879 Texans are reasonably content living in the United States of America…” From that, I can only surmise that you are not from Texas.
I’d advise everyone to take any comments by Rick Perry with a grain of salt. The guy is an absolutly shameless self-promoter who’ll say anything to get a headline. Back when he was Texas’ Sec. of Agriculture, I was the editor of an agricultural trade publication. The Texas Ag Dept. sent us at least three press releases a week that had little substance but used his name in nearly every sentence – Rick Perry this…Rick Perry that… ad nauseum. The press releases were useful though, we cut them up and made note pads out of them.
As a citizen of Texas, I hope that Kay Bailey Hutchson, another Republican, send Governor Good Hair Perry packing come next election. He wants to talk all this stuff about right all the while Creationists are coming close to take over the State School Board. Perry has been nothing but George W Bush’s chore boy.
Air2Air,
Working hard reading the news in your office overlooking the factory floor eh? Lazy ingrates, the lot of them!
My only fear is that liberal thought is like an infection, it is a cancerous parasite that cannot survive without its host.
Liberals cannot support themselves without someone elses money and productivity, and would invariably seek invasion, should a division be attempted.
Middleman..
Maybe you should shack up in some nice little repubik state like California, or Washington, where you will be safe and surrounded by other consummers.
Surely you would be more comfortable there, with no threat of mass support for equal time given to scientifically validated science.
YES! Governor Perry made me proud to be a Texan again and again yesterday. We cannot tolerate the federal government’s violations, and thanks to Perry the rest of the nation knows it. We love freedom down here in the Great State.
Looks like Texas will have an influx of new residents very soon. I imagine many will be of the new 9 million new gun owners.
Too bad CA doesn’t have a governor with Perry’s balls.
“8. Middleman:
As a citizen of Texas, I hope that Kay Bailey Hutchson, another Republican, send Governor Good Hair Perry packing come next election. He wants to talk all this stuff about right all the while Creationists are coming close to take over the State School Board. Perry has been nothing but George W Bush’s chore boy.”
We need Hutchson like we need a hole in the head. She was partly responsible for “playing ball” on the Amnesty for illegals issue by voting for cloture. She’s a snake in the grass & conservatives in Texas know it.
Perry is far from perfect but Hutchson is a step back. All she’ll do is grovel at Obama’s feet just like she does now as a Senator.
TO: All
RE: The Fear Will Out
’nuff said.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
P.S. As if those other Texans didn’t elect their own governor.
Oh. Wait….we’ve got The One in the White House…..
Like Perry or not, he was truthful. When The Republic of Texas became a part of the United States, there were many deals made. One of these was to give up HUGE parts of the state and are now New Mexico, Colorado and Oklahoma. This was done to eliminate the debt Texas has with the US. But the part about spinning off to become a separate republic was in there. Signed by reps from The Republic of Texas and reps from the United States. It is a possible event, but not very probable. Makes for a nice reminder or a sharp stick in the eye of Washington.
It was much more than 1500 in Austin. Cities throughout Texas participated, Houston collected 8,500 signatures alone. Even my little birthplace in East Texas had several hundred at the court house. There might have been more, but many Conservatives have jobs and don’t get paid to protest or “organize communities” like liberals.
When you look at the really “blue” states, you see the results of Democrat control and policy – corruption, debt, despair and an ever increasing tax burden. Texans do not want that type of change. We are prosperous because of low taxes and little regulation. I lived in a blue state for a year. I have no interest in seeing that rolled out nationally.
If it takes secession, so be it. But I don’t see it coming to that. Just getting some sanity in Washington by reigning in the Federal government and making them abide by the Constitution should do the trick. The first step is getting folks elected that think the Constitution is the law, not just some helpful suggestions.
I hope Texas doesn’t have an influx. We already took in half of the California scum during the dot.com days.
Benson,
In Science class, science is what should be taught. Also, I’m quite happy where I am. Texas is a nice place to live, but really has the potential to be even better.
JB,
Texans love freedom? Maybe a long time ago. Not as much now. It seems that you can’t take a step or drive in your car without either the cops ticketing you for some crap, or getting a toll road bill. I received a ticket here in Dallas for riding a bicycle without a helmet and I’m in my 30s.
Dear JB, I too am a Texan and I can’t remember the last time a politician made me this proud of my state and the constitution upon which our country rests. Hawkins put it well by pointing out how liberals hate the idea of secession; they fear it because it allows a man like Perry and a state like Texas to tell Washington DC they can push this far but no further.
P. Muppets, et al,
I don’t understand how you can find a few vocal “reactionary right wing nutjobs” in Texas more odious than a few liberal fascists in Washington. The former group is making speeches, while the latter is unilaterally plunging our nation into dependence on the largess of the liberal elite. Whatever your opinion of governor Perry, his loud speeches are far more in line with the framers’ concept of political leadership than our president’s quiet usurpation of powers not ascribed to him by the constitution.
The federal government has seceded itself from fiscal restraint and Constitutional Law. Therefore any state who wishes to leave this arrangement in order to return to Constitutional Law would be completely justified.
We seceded from Great Britain over a 3% tax. The federal government today takes at least ten times that much from the average taxpayer in order to fund unsustainable entitlement programs, pet projects, and contributions to special interests who in turn keep the little tyrants in Washington in power.
I don’t know Rick Perry, and for all I know he’s just puking platitudes, but it’s a discussion that needs to take place.
Why does this scare the liberals so much? Why wouldn’t they be happy to see all the conservatives shipped off somewhere? Finally an end to all their getting in the way of preventing the liberals from promoting their socialist agendas. This would seem to be a euphoric moment for them.
…ah, but wait…if all the productive members of society leave, who will then pay for everything? Now we know why this scares them so much.
I disagree.
But the trolls shouldn’t rejoice, because what I mean is that the Unites States should secede from (any and all forms of) socialism, not from the Union !
It is my opinion that the subversive radicals WANT to fracture the Unity of the Nation in all ways possible: with their marxist lies, along “class” warfare lines; with attacks on the Bill of Rights, along “opinions” lines; with attacks to the rights of the single States, along “red” and “blue” lines.
We must resist their attempts to divide the Nation and we must unify the Nation AGAINST the subversive radicals.
Let’s remember that the subversives are internationalists: America’s strength has always been the ONLY obstacle on the way of the international subversion. And today we must add the islamists to the other totalitarians who work for the end of Freedom. Weakening America is THE strategic goal of the subversives.
Thank you for the opportunity to comment.
#2 P of M:
“I’m sure that the other 23,902,879 Texans are reasonably content living in the United States of America and don’t care very much for the governor’s treasonous language.”
So you’d have no objections to Texans putting it to a plebiscite would you?
And for your information, Governor Perry’s speech isn’t “treasonous”…that’s the problem with liberals, THEIR dissents are sacrosanct exercises of Free Speech, while everyone else’s protests are illegal hate speech.
As I understand it, under the terms secured when it joined the Union, Texas has the power to secede or legally to split itself into 5 separate states.
Your boys the Alleged Hawaiian, Senator Greed and Speaker Pigugly had better pay attention to what is happenning.
These Tea Partiers aren’t paid ACORN professional protesters, dragooned Union rank and filers, or Mommy and Daddy-subsidized snotnosed college punks.
They’re people who took time off from work, or got a sitter to watch the kids to make their voices heard.
Ignore, dismiss, and abuse THAT demographic for much longer, and there won’t be anyone to pay for your college tuition or your welfare check…and then where will you be?
It’s mighty hard to sign onto PJM when you can’t get wireless from that freeway overpass that you’re living under.
If Texas secedes, she will not stand alone.
We shouldn’t all move to Texas; we should all emulate Texas.
Middleman – try to get your head out of the single issue game that is used by polticians to control you and divide the public. Who cares if some schools in the US question the evolution theory while the socialists in both parties take over and cancel the constitution that gives you the right to complain about the ones you socially despise.
Are you equally upset that socialists won’t premit anyone to question their global warming “models” and oppressive solutions? No you are not. So stop playing this hate game and decide if you are for socialism and against the constitution or for the constitution and against socialism. That is the bottom line now. The elite have “progressed” to totally cancel their loyality to the constitution. I am not going there with them because I want the freedom to argue with you about the theory of evolution forevermore! That is what free people do! Do you get it?
Sara123,
I don’t believe in global warming. How do you like that? Don’t care for socialism either. You see, unlike many people on here, I can distinguish that the world is not just black and white, freedom-loving and socialist. It typically is many shades of grey, and I fit into one of those shades.
Don’t Mess With Texas!
For those who think Gov. Perry’s words were treasonous, maybe you should read about The Alamo. (No, not the shameful, P.C. Disney version.)
And also, how about the Battle of San Jacinto, in which Sam Houston and the Texian Army slashed the tyrannical Mexican Army in all of eighteen minutes, with a little more bayonet fun for a couple of more hours. I tell ya, Santa Anna never returned to this state. Those two events alone should be a fair warning to every Leftie out there… and to the Mexican mafias as well.
GO TEXAS!
I can’t imagine anyone in politics being a shameless self promoter like Perry, both Clintons, Obama, Pelosi, Reed, Gingrich, …… Furthermore obnoxious self promotion yields the most dramatic retaliatory results. The Nation hasn’t been this energized in decades. It’s all good. Freedom is a lovely thing.
In case not everybody knows who Rick Perry is let me enlighten you.
He’s the odds on 2012 Presidential nominee of the Republican Party. About six months ago, I was tipped off about this, and Perry’s implied message of succession can be interpreted as a shot across the bow of the Obama administration.
Obama’s attack on the Republican Party, calling the tea bag demonstrations the equivalant of terrorists, is really an attack on the first amendment.
Obama, like a true Leninist or Hitlerite, detests any group or person who voices the slightest disagreement with his spend-like-there’s-no-tomorrow policies. Obama is totally aware that his spending spree, effectively
bankrupting this country’s future, is a tremendous vulnerability that is and will be used against him.
Partly it was intended as a payback to supporters who wanted to be instant zillionaires. Which is the greed component of his administration. But there’s also a power component.
Together, though, they just may prove to be Obama’s downfall. However, Obama’s twisted me is banking on something else to save him, something as insidious is a dirty nuclear device hidden in a suitcase.
Homeland security now won’t even use the term, terrorist. They’ve buried their heads in the sand, making this country vulnerable like it was Sept. 10 to a legitimate terrorist attack.
Now for the eye opener.
Obama hopes a terrorist attack, albeit a small one, will take people’s attention away from all the spending and the tea bag opposition, and will cause the country to rally around him
This line of reasoning is just how deviously sophisticated Obama and his staff of leftist Harvard lawyers really are.
To me, they represent a clear and present danger to the United States of America. This is no longer a matter of me chastising anyone who voted for Obama. It’s now a time when we all have to realize the perpetuation of the U.S. as we know and love it is not Obama’s objective.
The Tea Bag people aren’t the threat to the U.S.
The Texas govenor who implies succession isn’t a threat.
You know what the the most dangerous threat to this country really is. So do I.
newton,
Texas use to be a blue state up until George Bush became governor. The cities are overall blue. Austin is as blue as blue can be. What’s blue can go blue again.
Thank you Governor Perry. You did more in a 2 minute interview to assure me freedom is alive than the entire Republican Party has done in the last 8 years. The option of secession is strong check on the behavior of our reckless federal government.
Middleman – from one gray to another, maybe we can agree that we will live free or die!
Shouldn’t the left-wing extremists welcome Texas seceding and taking all that dirty oil with them?
Rachel Peepers:“Obama hopes a terrorist attack, albeit a small one, will take people’s attention away from all the spending and the tea bag opposition, and will cause the country to rally around him.”
You’re disgusting. If this is what is what the reactionary right actually believes, then you deserve every bit of the ridicule and derision that you get.
Unbelievable. It truly is. Perry, like the opportunist he is, barks a bit and the sheep all go ‘Bah’. Any person with a good parlour trick can be the Republican presidental nominee can’t they? (Charlatan)/Palin 2012. Let me tell you, there are two kisses of death for any presidental nominee. Having the last name Bush, and being the governor of Texas. Forget it.
Rachel you are soooooo right on!
Sara123,
I’m all about Live Free or Die. I’m also about keeping vigilant for the false prophets who seem to scream those words the loudest, yet never seem to want to listen or tolerate anyone else.
Spoken like a true false prophet, Middleman. Just joshing ya, cause I’m free to push a crank’s buttons. : )
Pastor of Muppets – Rachel peepers is no worse than the thousands of lefties that think Bush was behind 9-11. Conspiracy Nut jobs live on both sides. Pot. Kettle. Black. Your side set the rules of engagement. Man-up and accept the consequences.
31. Rachel Peepers: Obama hopes a terrorist attack, albeit a small one, will take people’s attention away from all the spending and the tea bag opposition, and will cause the country to rally around him.
An attack by Islamic radicals won’t help Obama’s goals…but one by some domestic racist SOB would.
The fact that Tea Parties are full of normal, rational people is infuriating and frightening to the Left. They want some excuse to stop this dissent.
Isn’t Texas the state with a budget surplus and the number one creator of new jobs in America? How do they do it? Are unions and trial lawyers banned in Texas?
Yes! Yes, a million times yes. God Bless Rick Perry
Or the Democratic nominee, as recent events have shown.
Other than increasing spending unsustainable levels, driving a partisan wedge ever deeper domestically, and earning mockery from foreign press and foreign leaders alike, Barack Obama’s Presidency is most remarkable for roundly and publicly condemning Bush Administration policies on one day, then turning around and quietly affirming those policies the very next. Even prisoners in Gitmo, isolated as they are, blow off Obama for having Bush’s faults (and none of his virtues).
It seems rather obvious that neither party has a lock on intelligence, and skilled politicians on both sides can (and do) work hot-button issues into a symphony of cheers and howls.
Perry’s rhetoric here, while perhaps needlessly inflammatory in evoking what is in essence an escape clause, at least seems routed in the law and treaties that turn Texas from a Republic to a state.
I would like to know from Obama supporters how they can continue to cheerlead Obama’s continual bashing of the Bush Administration on one hand, while turning a blind eye to his adoption of functionally identical or even more expansive programs.
Frankly, it is quite obvious that Obama is into abusing the trust his constituents, and with the American press fawning over and spinning every deed as a new leg tingle, I understand why he enjoys playing the sadist. What I don’t get is why his supporters act like affirming battered spouses, always hoping that next time he’ll keep his promise not to abuse them again, if they just stay quiet a little longer.
How many more bruises it is going to take, kids, before you finally admit you got rooked by a man who sold you what you wanted to hear, so that he could discard you to be the man we always told you he was?
Texas was rather red in 2008:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/interactives/campaign08/election/uscounties.html
Rachel, I pray to God that there is not an attack of any kind. I still cry like a baby at pictures of the World Trade Centers. But I do fear he’s turning our country into a socialist wussy country! Look at the pirates attacking our ships…they know we have a president who won’t do anything.
As for seceding from the United States, I hope that no states do that, it could get bloody. But individuals standing up to the Federal Government in mass should do it. Most Americans who are political are a peaceful group becuase we truly understand the power of our vote. I do believe we should kick all of the politicians out, get rid of our propaganda media, and start again.
The one area that I’m not nice is with the lazy, life sucking losers who live off of the government. I say survival of the fittest, let the losers starve! (Before I get slammed, these losers I speak of are between the ages of 18 and 65 and are fully capable of working but choose not to)
Texas Pride!! More citizens know what the Texas flag looks like than they do their own state flag. Y’all hurry down now, cause in a couple of years y’all are going to need a visa!
Dumb, dumb, dumb, oh…and dumb.
If Texas thinks patrolling a Southern border is bad…wait until they have a North, East, West AND Southern border.
Oh, and no ICE/FBI/DHS to help….
Where they gonna get the fighter planes for their Air Force? Hope they don’t think the United States military is gonna protect them.
You got your passport’s ready for your trip up to Oklahoma City? No? Well, sorry, folks, we don’t take too kindly to fur’ners up here.
Fools.
I would LOVE to see Texas leave the USA! Where’s the petition to sign???
Actually, didn’t Obama already bring back slavery with his bill reforming the national service corp?
“Why do 1500 reactionary right wing nutjobs (1501 counting Perry) get to decide whether Texas secedes?”
I ask myself the same thing about Obama and his cult deciding what All of America does, muppet-head.
Herb…You are not very far thinking are you? We take the union with us and cut off D.C. They have fail the union. The federal government is here to make commerce, foreign relations and defense a common endeavor. They fail in their obligations… Replace. You are a walking “Moral Hazard.”
Michael O’Brein: ““Why do 1500 reactionary right wing nutjobs (1501 counting Perry) get to decide whether Texas secedes?”
I ask myself the same thing about Obama and his cult deciding what All of America does, muppet-head.”
Because Obama won, that’s why.
Oh! It’s after 1 PM. The leftard nutjobs are finally awake (No jobs, heh). Troll Alert!
Herb, Brett and Mikie O’.
And so did Perry.
Gov. Perry’s allusions to secession were unhelpful at this time. It would have been better if he had said nothing on the subject.
If Texans ever decided to leave the Union it would be because the Union had crashed and burned itself into hopeless poverty and oppression. Texans will not become starving work slaves for the Democrats and Rino’s socialist state and death cult.
Pastor of Puppets writes:
Because Obama won, that’s why.
Bush won too, in 2004, but that didn’t stop all the very, very “progressive” folks from demeaning him at every angle and trying to make him look like a total idiot. No blow was too low in the name of the cause.
You changed the rules of engagement. Were you too stupid to think those rules wouldn’t be used against you and yours as well? Stupid. Very Stupid.
You thought the label ChimpyBushHitler was funny? How does ChimpyObamaCastro strike you? After all, as the “progressives” have always told us, dissent is the highest form of patriotism.
“51. Texas Tom
You are a walking “Moral Hazard.””
You might want to reconsider how you talk to American citizens, Texas Tom. The Independent Republic of Texas doesn’t have a nuclear arsenal, but up here in the USA, we do.
And closed borders, too, with Minutemen patrolling. So don’t think about “immigrating.”
“”"”"”Why do 1500 reactionary right wing nutjobs (1501 counting Perry) get to decide whether Texas secedes?”"”"”"
Well, they don’t, “pastor.”
And why are they “nutjobs?” Also, define “reactionary.”
Talk of secession was popular on the left both times Bush won. It’s just venting, and it ain’t going to happen, OK?
And how is it not OK for people to be distressed by the fact that the federal government is spending as much money as it did in proportion to GDP as in World War II? We’re not in a depression (yet), and we’re fighting relatively minor conflicts and don’t have 1 in every 10 Americans in uniform like we did during the cataclysm of WWII — so why the gigantic budget? Why trillions of dollars in additional deficit above and beyond TARP funds? Some major banks want to hand back the bailout money, which means we don’t need to have as much of a bailout as we thought, but the White House and Treasury refuse to take it back. Is it not OK to be perplexed and disturbed by this? In a country that has historically valued free market principles is it a bad and “nutty” and perhaps subversive thing to NOT want large corporations to be run by the government? Is diversity of opinion NOT OK with you?
Do we get to endure and tolerate massive, well-funded demonstrations by the left, but must be hysterical and insulting about modest, amateur efforts by people who obviously have jobs? Can non-professional, non-activist citizens assemble freely, or does that frighten you?
50. Michael O’Brein wrote:
(Quoting muppet-head) “Why do 1500 reactionary right wing nutjobs (1501 counting Perry) get to decide whether Texas secedes?”
I ask myself the same thing about Obama and his cult deciding what All of America does, muppet-head.
Peter writes: And as I recall, Obama and his cult only number 525. (House and Senate)
59. Herb wrote:
You might want to reconsider how you talk to American citizens, Texas Tom. The Independent Republic of Texas doesn’t have a nuclear arsenal, but up here in the USA, we do.
And closed borders, too, with Minutemen patrolling. So don’t think about “immigrating.”
Peter writes: Herb might want to consider the fact that a good portion of the Minutemen are already in Texas, and would probably be just as happy to keep Herb out.
As for the US having closed borders? HA! I wish! We wouldn’t be having the problems we have in places like New Mexico and Arizona, not to mention in big cities everywhere from Los Angeles to NYC.
42.e
“The fact that Tea Parties are full of normal, rational people is infuriating and frightening to the Left. They want some excuse to stop this dissent.”
Yes. Well put.
You might want to reconsider how you talk to American citizens, Texas Tom. The Independent Republic of Texas doesn’t have a nuclear arsenal, but up here in the USA, we do.
In light of the fact that Texas still produces about 20% of the oil and gas that the US uses (and lets not forget about the refineries as well) I really doubt that an independent Texas would really be in any dire straits. Economic problems? Increase the export tax on petroleum products. If that causes stress to the enlightened citizens of the “blues states” that’s just too bad. Anyone who talks with an accent like Rosie O’Donnell needs to be evicted from the gene pool anyway.
Wow, who woke up the idiots?
Herb, I hate to break it to you but Obama is scared of Fox News and ten pirates in a dingy what would he do to Texas? I bet you that if Texas goes so does more than half of the country! You forget that our military is not for Obama…check the stats from the last election!
I know why the liberals are more afraid of conservatives talking about this than we are of them saying the same, it’s because conservatives are the middle class true Americans who take action and have a can-do attitude. The liberals are laying on their sofa with their hands in their pants!
The country of Texas would terrify Washington. Imagine the refresher course the rest of the states would get in the virtues of hard work without unfair taxation; the reasons the country was born. Without a personal income tax, imagine the funds available for investment in new technologies, charitable causes and schools. We would have accountable, transparent government because we would be just down the street. Public works would be easily managed just as they are today.
It’s staggering to think of the good that traditional American values could do when unshackled from the creeping Socialism that has infected us since WWII. When it gets to the point that Putin has to warn us about becoming Socialist, you wonder just what country it is that you live in.
It may be helpful to remember at this point: the Republic and the State of Union are perpetual… but the government in DC is not.
Also: the U. S. soldier pledges loyalty to the Republic and the Constitution – not to its Commander in Chief.
Secession should appeal to the lefties. Why wouldn’t the Northeast not want to be separate from the unenlightened red states. California could have it’s post-modern utopia uncontaminated by Christians, rednecks and fiscal conservatives. Aren’t the bluesers always complaining how much in taxes they send to the redders?
What’s the downside for the bluesers? Here’s your chance.
The irony here is thick as molasses. For 8 years you people were just jim-dandy about illegal wiretaps on U.S. citizens, sneak and peek searches, feds recording anybody’s library records, no-bid contracts to the same corp. the VP served on the board of immediately prior to election… Not to mention the highest level of deficit spending in history for 6 years in a row – with not ONE. WORD. spoken out in protest.
Because there was an (R) after the president’s name.
For 8 years anyone offering a good-faith argument against a ruinously expensive preemptive war that was botched over and over again for the first 4 years – we were called traitors. And now you’re out of power for 100 days and making allusions to secession, which is just about as traitorous as you can get.
Never mind the fact that we just had an election, and unlike the last 2 terms, this president actually won a majority of the popular vote.
Never mind the fact that if you make under $250,000 a year your taxes just went DOWN.
Never mind the fact that the only tax increase proposed just reset the upper income rate back to where it was in 2000. Or that taxes were higher under Reagan – that socialist bastard.
You lost an election. Deal with it. Convince the electorate that your ideas are better. You just look like clowns running around crying and pulling your hair out that we just elected a fascist – no, wait, socialist – oh what does it matter anyway, they both mean BOO!
The majority of what I see internet conservatives kvetching about these days are a bunch of hypotheticals – it’s as if you enjoy being panicked. It’s been over a year since the Dems were supposed to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine – hasn’t happened. Easily could with the makeup of Congress, but hasn’t. Republican gerrymandering in Texas on an unheard-of scale, however – that’s just democracy in action I guess.
Responsible AMERICANS don’t threaten violent insurrection when their side loses at the polls. You’ll never discuss it publicly, but think to yourselves – what would your reaction have been if Bernie Sanders had openly advocated the secession of Vermont in 2005? If a sizable number of liberal bloggers were getting that radical?
Your partisanship and blind tribalism is threatening the country.
You lost an election. Deal. Grow the f*** up.
A little more Texas history for y’all:
Texas Independence Day April 21
http://www.tamu.edu/ccbn/dewitt/batsanjacinto.htm
WOW~! Being an OLD native Texian, (I’ll turn 70 soon), I surprised it took this long for Texas to come to it’s senses.
We don’t need all them Damn Yankees (I was actually 13 before I learned “damnyankees” was two words),in order to live the good life here.
We have everything we need. Great weather, fertile soil, plenty of resources, a willing to work population, and a LOVE of freedom. We don’t need the Blue states.
We will need to shuck those freeloaders and send them packing to the nearest welfare state up north. I’m sure PA or OR will take those bums and criminals from New Orleans who have been sponging on Texas since Katrina. Time for them to go.
If Rick Perry can pull it off I’d go to my grave a very happy man.
Travers, if just one of your facts or characterizations were right, your argument would make very good sense and be worth supporting.
If I get this wrong, please forgive me. My knowledge of Texas history is weak at best.
-Texas seceded from Mexico to form a republic
-The Republic of Texas joined the United States of America
-The State of Texas seceded from the United States of America
-The Confederate State of Texas rejoined the United States of America
O.K., you can claim that the last one was where Texas might have been unwilling, but since then 2 1/2 Texans became President of The United States (I only count Bush Sr. as half a Texan because he claimed connections to several states). Texas has benefitted from heavy US investment in the military and the space program. I’d say that all in all, Texas hasn’t done too badly since 1865.
But Texas seems to like to secede.
The big problem is that there seems to only be one precedent for seceding from the USA and it isn’t a pretty one.
Oh, are the Dallas Cowboys still called “America’s Team”? That might need some adjustment.
Your partisanship and blind tribalism is threatening the country.
You lost an election. Deal. Grow the f*** up.
No, I’m pretty sure an ill-prepared President with bad ideas is threatening the country.
I’m not convinced the TEA party attendees are only Republicans. I’d always rather my candidate lose an election than worry that I was going to lose my country.
“Travers, if just one of your facts or characterizations were right, your argument would make very good sense and be worth supporting.”
Air2air –
Right. Halliburton did not receive a no-bid contract and years later the military did not disclose numerous cases of huge overbilling and poor services.
The federal gov’t did not grow to its largest size in history each year running under the last Republican administration. And if it had, I’m sure every one of you would be just as rowdy as you are right now.
The one income tax increase announced by Obama went much, much higher than the same 35% that the highest bracket was paying back in 2000.
Obama did not just win the popular vote. Bush did, twice.
There isn’t rampant hyperbole running rampant on right-wing blogs and talk radio, full of crying, hysterical rants about how we’ve got Hitler in the White House now. Because only damn dirty libruls go around calling their president Hitler.
The Fairness Doctrine was reinstated in January and ACORN goons have been going door to door collecting everyone’s guns for months now. All your chicken-little fearmongering turned out to be right.
The greatest attack in history on our nation’s soil did not occur under a Republican government 9 months into its administration.
And sedition is not treason.
The right-wing echo chamber, where down is up, black is white, and truth is a lie.
Gov Perry ,I believe is a real American,not a phoney like most politicians today. Now we can imagine how the south felt before the war of northern agression.
“Why do 1500 reactionary right wing nutjobs (1501 counting Perry) get to decide whether Texas secedes?
I’m sure that the other 23,902,879 Texans are reasonably content living in the United States of America and don’t care very much for the governor’s treasonous language.”
No, actually, texans are texans first. W’ve had a disappointing influx of libs in the last 10 years or so, but they’re always welcome to leave again if they don’t like Texas. Plenty of us were cheering the tea parties who couldn’t actually be there. I think I like Perry!
Yes, I know, libs will say they have the right to be here and be heard. Which of course means we have the right to take over san francisco and be heard, too, right? S if we’d want to go there….
“Texas use to be a blue state up until George Bush became governor. The cities are overall blue. Austin is as blue as blue can be. What’s blue can be blue again”
The entire south used to be blue, and the north was red. The parties have changed, not so much the people voting.
“Unbelievable. It truly is. Obama, like the opportunist he is, barks a bit and the sheep all go ‘Bah’. Any person with a good parlour trick can be the democratic presidental nominee can’t they? ”
Too true, too true!
Responsible AMERICANS don’t threaten violent insurrection when their side loses at the polls.
No. The nasty little bastards promise us they will move to Canada or Europe if Bush wins the election and then they don’t do it.
So–what if a state petitions to leave the union? What is the argument against letting them do so?
i have not been in the USA for years. i left at age 47 after living through what was essentially the destruction of the land of the free in my life time. as we are want to say. i did not leave the USA, the USA left me.
wow, the first hope i have had since leaving. i could return to the sovereign free democratic republic of Texas.
Americans, like frogs in a ever warming pot of water ignore the loss of their freedom. fail to see the secret police, thugs on the border frontiers, compulsory state brainwashing of children, millions and millions of Americans every day stopped and asked, “may we see your papers please”. forced self reporting of every and all your financial information. etc. etc. the question is not why now?. the question is why this has not happened long ago. America left us years ago.
go on texas.
D. Travers you said,
“You lost an election. Deal. Grow the f*** up.”
Is that how we should respond to the supporters of California’s Prop 8?
There isn’t rampant hyperbole running rampant on right-wing blogs and talk radio, full of crying, hysterical rants about how we’ve got Hitler in the White House now. Because only damn dirty libruls go around calling their president Hitler.
Oh please–the Wise and Wonderful started comparing the President (Bush) to Hitler. I don’t think anyone other than the nut fringe ever did anything like this before. And yeah–it was common. Google it. The Wise and Wonderful “progressives” have created a tradition. Now they can deal with it. If you live by the sword then you die by the sword, and ChimpyObamaHitler can’t save you.
69. D. Travers wrote:
The irony here is thick as molasses. For 8 years you people were just jim-dandy about illegal wiretaps on U.S. citizens, sneak and peek searches, feds recording anybody’s library records, no-bid contracts to the same corp. the VP served on the board of immediately prior to election… Not to mention the highest level of deficit spending in history for 6 years in a row – with not ONE. WORD. spoken out in protest.
Peter writes: Lets take this rant one point at a time; ~Illegal wiretaps on US citizens. Please cite ONE instance where a US citizen NOT TALKING TO AN OVERSEAS TERRORIST that has been wiretapped ILLEGALLY. None that I know of, so no point protesting against legal anti-terrorist measures that have kept us safe from attack since 2001.
~Sneak and Peak searches. Please explain what you’re even talking about, aside form typical liberal paranoia, because unless you;re talking about some mall rent-a-cop looking into the woman’s changing room, I know of no such incidents, so again, no point protesting.
~Feds recording library records. Again, liberal paranoia, because it doesn’t happen. Not yet at least. (Wouldn’t put it past The One’s administration.) So again, no protests.
~No bid contracts to the same company. Please name ONE other company that does what Haliburton does. Just one. Maybe NOW you know why only one company reciebed the contracts without a bid? Again, nothing to protest.
~VP serving on a board. So? Obama served on a board. (With unrepentant terrorists, no less) Big deal. No protest.
~Highest deficit spending in 8 years. Topped by triple the deficit spending in LESS THAN 100 DAYS! (Which, by the way, is WHY we’re forming these TEA parties, in case it never occured to you.) PLENTY to protest… NOW!
D. Travers… “Violent insurrection”? What? You’ve definitely been hoodwinked by the MSM bub. You’ve been reeled in hook, line and sinker. You’ve bought into the rhetoric and hopefully you don’t mind us all having a good chuckle at your expense.
Unfortunately we’re stuck with Carter II until 2012 and just FYI….we’re American citizens and have the right to protest an oppressive government and undue taxation. If seeing groups other than liberal lefties is unsettling to you, I’d say grow up bub! The days of Code Pink, ACORN, GreenPeace, PETA and every other loonie left group being the only ones “allowed” to speak out are over.
So, continue your vitriol and spewing the Carter II talking points. You’re not the first troll to stop by and expose their weak underbelly. I always enjoy a good laugh so please, do continue with your “enlightening” us all on how silly and wrong we all are….
TCobb,
Absolutely none. We’ve been hearing “Over, hell!” for so damn long that I would love to see you all finally leave – it’s been 150 years of that nonsense, so go ahead, get cracking. Then you can have zero taxation, no government interference, and zero gun control – kind of like Somalia.
One other irony is that you hold up California as the ultimate expression of what Texas is not and doesn’t ever want to be and psyche yourselves up by saying just how goshdarn awesome the independent country of Texas would be – when the reality is that if California was it’s own sovereign nation, it would have the 7th largest economy in the world. Yes, even with godless San Francisco. Meanwhile you have the highest rate of uninsured children (1 in 5) and among the highest rates in the country of illiteracy, violent crime, and teenage pregnancies. I’d be happy to provide sources for all of that, btw.
My larger point was how petulant and childish it is to start talking about secession only 100 days after your party is VOTED out of power. Do you or do you not believe in democracy?
Don,
Yes, that’s exactly how you should respond to supporters of Prop. 8. Speaking as a supporter myself, I don’t want it decided in the courts. A referendum is a referendum and the people have had their say. I believe they were wrong, but unlike many of you here, I also believe in respecting the will of the majority. Every decade we come closer to a widespread acceptance of gay marriage, and demographics alone are going to decide this soon – this is a non-issue for most people under 30.
See, that’s social change in action. I guess if I was like you I’d be calling for Gavin Newsom to start stockpiling weapons in City Hall.
Change “supporters” to “opponents”
Vince Lombardi said fatigue makes cowards of us all. It also makes me stupid.
“2. Pastor of Muppets:
Why do 1500 reactionary right wing nutjobs (1501 counting Perry) get to decide whether Texas secedes?
I’m sure that the other 23,902,879 Texans are reasonably content living in the United States of America and don’t care very much for the governor’s treasonous language.”
Written like our true teleprompter King Obama would have said it.
What’s more anti-American than wanting to leave the union? When the times get tough, you cut and run? Looks like a typical, weak ploy by the GOP – still pouting over the election.
I spoke to couple of my fellow Texans this afternoon and the consensus seems clear. Perry is a jackass. As for the rest of you, please stay away from Texas. We already have Ron Paul and some of his followers, we don’t need more of the tin foil hat brigade.
D. Travers: “For 8 years you people….”
Excuse me, but who is “you people”? Many of us were against the Patriot Act (Obama voted for it and has not repealed it). Many of us were against the higher debt and higher taxes for the last couple of year (for two of those last couple of years Obama was a Senator in a Democratic Senate). Many of us understood the need for higher spending to protect our nation against terrorist (Obama bows to them and appeases them while apologizing for how horrible ALL Americans are).
You need to wake up!
Gotta love liberals who are completely intolerant of dissent, after 8 years of threatening to do the exact same sort of thing.
Hey D Travers, America is a Republic, not a Democracy, for the exact reasons cited by Perry. Learn the difference before you try and speak with any authority on the subject
Fact: Federal Funding makes up 36% of the Texas state budget
Fact: Texas took an additional 11 billion this year from the stimulus
Fact: Texas is the 8th most dependent state in Federal funds
BIG WURSHINGTON GOVURN’MNT STAY OUT OF UR BUIZNESS! SECEDE SECEDE!
D. Travers says to me:
One other irony is that you hold up California as the ultimate expression of what Texas is not and doesn’t ever want to be and psyche yourselves up by saying just how goshdarn awesome the independent country of Texas would be – when the reality is that if California was it’s own sovereign nation, it would have the 7th largest economy in the world.
D. Travers, I never once mentioned California in any of the comments I’ve made on this thread. Take your meds dude. The thorazine will be good for you. But, since you asked, California seems to be going the route of Cuba–once the richest nation in the Carribean it is now the poorest. Industry and the educated are fleeing California. Its a shining example of what “progressive” policies can do to a prosperous economy.
MIDDLEMAN: Be informed that revenue from Texas
EXCEEDS payments to Texas.
The Republic of Texas would be able to fund itself quite nicely, thank you.
Then there is the little matter of oil and refined products from Texas, etc.
Last but not least, a disproportionate percentage of the Army are T-E-X-A-N-S.
Now Middleman, want to put your money where your mouth is? Didn’t think so.
(Secession is the natural right of all human beings. Since liberals don’t qualify, I reckon that is why they are agin it.)
I’d love to see the US split down the middle with Conservatives on one side and Liberals on the other. Can you imagine what a nation run by Liberals would be like? It would collapse under its own weight. Most businesses would leave, the few who actually pay taxes would flee, crime will run rampant, lawyers will have a field day suing everything that moves. It would be amusing to watch. A Conservative nation on the other hand would be pretty much like what we’ve had most of our history.
Excellent! At least we have a place to escape to when Big Brother’s powers are in full force.
God bless Texas!
I don’t believe we are to the point of leaving the union though things currently don’t look very good. But it is an interesting idea that can be played out to some fun what ifs. What if a state as large as Texas that sits on the Gulf of Mexico and bordered by Mexico and had large amounts of oil left the United States?
The state becomes a freedom paradise, very low taxes,strong border security, reformed education system that actually teaches instead of indoctrinates, libertarian business climate and a strong “national defense”.
How long before Texas has a severe “illegal immigration” problem from the United States and is forced to confiscate most of Northern Mexico to become the United States of Texas. Wouldn’t that be fun!
How long before Obama runs through a string of failed generals starting with Wesley Clark until he finds his Grant? Also, if Texas left the union wouldn’t those people miss out on the newly announced Obama Train System?
Some folk just don’t get the point. It isn’t violent. It isn’t leaving. It is about having the moral and civil fortitude to remove the cancer before the whole body is stricken beyond recovery. Any state that will consider removing the hazardous and destructive influence of D.C. is thinking more clearly than most.
Middleman, you are a slogan puker not a thinker. If your life depended on not owning a luxury and working with the goods and talent God gave you naturally. You will either adapt or die. It’s a matter of real choices not mandatory compliance with the Great and powerful OZbama (curtain? what curtain?). Texas, or any other sensible state does not “need” the federal largesse. We will take advantage as appropriate, and do without as needed. Them’s the facts. Cain’t change real American/Texan “git up an’ go.”
Carbon,
Who said I was addressing only you? Several people here have been demonizing California so I was just introducing a reality check.
Frank:
“Intolerant of dissent” does not equal “Disagrees and not afraid to debate you”. Quit getting your knickers in a twist, no one is suppressing you.
Frank,
I’m very aware that this is a democratic republic. When referring to the practice of voting and elections, what label would you prefer to use? “Democracy” is most commonly used to refer to the practice of voting, we both know it, but you just want to nitpick because you’ve got nothing better to say.
But here you go – this is not a pure democracy, it’s a republic. You’re correct, and you are a rare and special snowflake. Here’s your gold star.
Middleman,
You do mean left of the Middle-man, eh? You try to come across as the wise above-the-fray independent populist, but it is easy to see right through your charade. As for facts, jackass, you are aware that more jobs were created in Texas the past year than in any other state? You are aware that the three states that have embraced the full-on liberal Keynesian agenda are New York, Michigan, and California? Of the four states in the union that are in the “black,” all four have Repub governors and are generally considered conservative states? In fact, I challenge you to call UHaul and get two quotes – one renting any truck from Dallas to Detroit and the other from Detroit to Dallas. The Detroit TO Dallas leg will be much more expensive – I wonder why?
Inquiring minds will note that the State of Montana just passed the Freedom of Firearms Act, which basically wraps up their 2nd,9th, and 10th Amendment rights in one nice little package. The “Cliffnotes” version basically tells DC that Montana will disregard and ignore ANY Federal legislation or mandate to reduce or impede the owning and/or bearing of firearms. Now THIS is change that I can believe in. In fact, I am calling my statehouse tomorrow and demanding that they, too, pass a similar Bill. I recommend anybody reading this do the same. Let’s blow the dust off that good ole’ Constitution and put it to good use!
D Travers,
You are quoting statistics from 2006. Cali has slipped to 11th in the sovereign-GDP ranks. IF they were sovereign, they would fall off the charts mighty quick, as the massive Federal crutch Cali gets would dissappear, and unlike Texas, Cali would be bankrupt in a (pardon the pun) New York minute. As for violent crime, Texas does rank 15th in this category; alas, your precious Cali ranks 11th. You are technically correct on the “uninsured” but the elephant in the room is the much larger Hispanic population in Texas (one-third of counted Texans are Hispanic per the latest census)- normalize this stat and Texas would have a lower rate than even your Utopian California. Likewise your teen preggo stats;likewise the literacy rates. If California had the same percentage of illiterate, uninsured, and mostly illegal aliens as Texas, you’d have unemployment of 30%, riots in the streets; and the only business to stick around would be Mexican grocery stores and knife-sharpening shops.
I predict Texas real estate may increase in value faster than the real estate the other 49.
Dennis Prager wrote a column on Townhall.com several months ago about there being two irreconcilible Americas. I think that is even more the case now that the Great Divider has become president.
You can even see the huge division reading the comments posted on PJs. Call Perry a kook if you wish, but I think secession will be the only peaceful solution in the long term. The Left will never become Right, and the Right will never become Left.
We must start a discussion about how to divide what used to be the USA up into two new countries. I’m not sure if that would be state by state or if it should be done by county. Left the Lefties have their socialist utopia, the rest of us will work hard but live in freedom.
96. Eric. Excellent idea.
The Left spent every day of the last EIGHT YEARS demonizing the President, constructing lurid conspiracy theories, rooting for the defeat of our armed forces and the victory of our bitter enemies, attacking fellow citizens who happened to hold different views, and trashing their country at every opportunity – and now they’re telling the Right to ‘deal’ because ‘we won’?
Guess what? You went beyond the pale and you changed the rules. Now you ‘deal’. The fascist you elected and the scumbags surrounding him are going to be pilloried every single day for as long as he manages to hold office. And if his form in the first 100 days is any indication, there won’t be any shortage of opportunities. Deal.
Don’ttreadonme –
When did I say California was a utopia? Far from it. It just seems to be the one other state that gets vilified the most here so it’s the one I’m using for comparison. As for your stats, you’re basically just agreeing with everything I already said and adding caveats – if you could wave a magic wand and make your illegals disappear, all of the problems in Texas would go with them. But you can’t, and the reality is what it is. You’re responsible for your illegals just as much as California or Arizona or North Dakota is. Uninsured children are uninsured children, homicides are homicides, and Texas is still in the bottom half of the barrel by many criteria.
D. Travers:
TCobb,
Absolutely none. We’ve been hearing “Over, hell!” for so damn long that I would love to see you all finally leave – it’s been 150 years of that nonsense, so go ahead, get cracking. Then you can have zero taxation, no government interference, and zero gun control – kind of like Somalia.
I keep seeing this “Somalia” thing being thrown out there. It’s clearly something the left thinks is some sort of slam dunk argument. Well, we don’t want “Somalia”, we want “Hong Kong”, which, last I checked, had reasonable public services.
http://www.heritage.org/index/ranking.aspx
I think that a splitting of the country along ideological lines would be the greatest thing to happen to the country since WWII. It would be an awesome experiment in comparative political governance. I have no doubt which country would be the more desirable to live in going forward. Heck, we’d have to build a Berlin Wall-style wall to keep the disillusioned hippies out once they’d made their choice.
Let’s face facts. The country as it is now is ungovernable. Obama came into office with very high hopes and has immediately polarized the country again with his insane agenda. If politics is like marriage in that each side has to compromise some things in order to make it work, the country is past the point of compromise. I have zero desire to compromise a single principle and I’m sure people on the left think the same. At least in a marriage, people sometimes stay together for the children. Only, there are no children in this situation, so what’s the point of yelling at each other from across the aisle when the simple solution of peaceful sundering of political obligations exists?
Donttreadonme,
You don’t have to tell me about the difference between Dallas and Detroit. I can look out my office window and see the new Comerica headquarters. I like low taxes, and they certainly entice business, however there are also several other factors at work in order to encourage growth. It’s not because these Republican governors are financial wizards. Austin probably saw more growth than almost any other Texas city, and Austin is considered to be a very liberal by US standards.
Also I do happen to be very middle of the road. Of course a lot of people on here are so far right, everything looks left. Ca cera.
Dave,
The Republic of Texas would be dead on arrival. Apart from what we receive in the budget, some 1.7 trillion is spent by the Fed within Texas. Do you think that would last? Texas has more Corporate HQs than any other state from what I recall. Do you think they’d stay? Of all the military bases here, do you think the US would allow it’s military hardware to be taken by a renegade state?
You folks need to go back to daydreaming about Rock Candy Mountain instead of the Republic of Texas.
Stay away. Our real estate prices are already bad enough. You’ve already ruined much of Austin. You can take Houston though.
This Texas man of seventy-one years moved to Indiana nearly six years ago of necessity, and misses Texas every day of every year. I truly doubt that Texas will leave the U. S. A. but if it does, I will hot-foot it home faster than you can say Obama-Socialist-Communist-Progressive-Nazi-Democrat.
Re 107. Pops
You are so right! The far left and the far right will never learn to get along. It is their stated goal to continue to tear this country down until it becomes a socialist state.
How about all the far lefties all move to their rightful homeland…Europe! Leave the land of the free and home of the brave to us rightwing nutjobs. I am sure that we will survive quite well without the lefties.
Gov Perry for president. Then he can offer the far lefties a free one way ticket to the socialist country of their choice. The ones that want to stay, get a job!
TEA PARTY REPORTING: WHORING OBAMEDIA
The adoring Obamedia is no longer in the tank, they drowned there!
http://greensrealworld.blogspot.com/2009/04/adoring-whoring-obamedia.html
Middleman, Austin isn’t really texas. The beliefs held here don’t hold true for the rest of the state, and “austinites” will gladly brag on this, that they aren’t “red-neck texans”. I do believe corporate headquarters are going to stay, and even relocate to a country with lower corporate and other taxes. Heck, they already do! You seem to think that if we left, it would be violent and that the rest of the former US would refuse to trade with us. Neither is true. ANd no, uninsured children are NOT uninsured children. They are children paying the price for their felon parents illegal actions. The US as a whole can’t insure all the illegals, why on earth would or should we be able to?
“Meanwhile you have the highest rate of uninsured children (1 in 5) and among the highest rates in the country of illiteracy, violent crime, and teenage pregnancies. I’d be happy to provide sources for all of that, btw” Yes yes, all attributable to illegals. Something we would soon take care of if we had free reign to do so.
Veni –
Hong Kong is also -not a democracy-. (Or a republic, for that matter) And I can guarantee you their gun control laws are not less restrictive than ours, along with freedoms of speech, assembly, etc.
There’s more to life than loose regulation and low capital gains taxes.
momof3
“Yes yes, all attributable to illegals”
“ALL” Right. The South has had the lowest levels of educational achievement, income, and life expectancy for generations. You don’t get to put this on your illegals. Besides that, you’re not the only state with a sizable illegal population.
You’re right, Texas should totally secede, simply because they don’t agree with Obama. Remember the last time that happened? Only the Civil War. Only thousands of Americans killed and maimed. You’re a history guy, Hawkins, you should know better than to write crap like this.
I think people are out of their damn minds if they even remotely think this is a good idea. I don’t agree with Obama, but you know what we do in democratic countries?
We vote him out of office. Honestly, articles like this are dangerous.
Mudboss
Hell no. I’m not “far left” but I -am- left, and I’m going to say that I was born HERE, just like you. I’m not from Europe and I’m not moving there anytime soon. What you people don’t realize is that this country does not belong to the right or the left. It has always been a centrist, zigzagging path and it always should be. That doesn’t mean we’re not each going to stake our place and argue for our side.
The philosophy of the right taken to extremes would have huge gaps between rich and poor, no medical care for the poor, no public libraries, no public education – because “government is the problem, not the solution”. The left taken to an extreme would have taxes through the roof, cigarettes and fast food would be illegal, and labor unions would cripple every industry. The point is you take your stand and argue it like an adult – you don’t applaud when Chuck Norris says he wants to run for president of Texas, you don’t keep dipshits like Glenn Beck on the air equating a 3% tax increase on millionares with setting someone on fire.
There’s positive and negative liberty and always has been. This country was founded on individualism as well as civic pride. We empowered the individual and we also collectively put a man on the moon, built the Hoover Dam, and got Social Security for seniors who worked hard all their lives. “Democrat” does not mean someone who wants to just sit on their ass and collect handouts, a common characterization I see here. It means someone who recognizes that I can’t built a bridge by myself, or a school, or a power line. There’s a place and a necessity for everyone to pool their resources, and that means government spending. The right goes off the rails when you get so goddamn absolutist about it – saying the government is always the problem – with that mindset how well do you expect to run it?
I won’t even say I haven’t taken part in the polemics here. But the last thing to remember is that everyone needs to take a deep breath and chill. Talk to a Democrat for once in your life (I’m talking to you right now). Stop with the cartoonish caricatures of your political opponents – they’re just as smart as you are even when they don’t agree. That you can’t handle 100 days of a competing political philosophy to be holding the reins of power without stockpiling guns and generally flipping out says you’re losing perspective. And say what you want about the Bush years, I can’t think of a single Democratic governor who openly talked about secession, the lefty blogs weren’t near-unanimously talking about stockpiling weapons, it wasn’t so bloody apocalyptic. Bush’s failures were deep and numerous and deserving of scorn. And Bush himself did more than Obama has managed in 100 days to commit every evil you are now freaking over. Whether it’s size of the federal government or intrusion of the feds into the public sphere. That you can’t acknowledge that shows you’re all being led like calves through the nose.
That’s all I’m gonna say, if I don’t reply to anything else it’s not because I don’t have an answer. It’s because having a conversation on internet blogs is 100% impossible and a fool’s game to even try. Cheers.
“I can’t think of a single Democratic governor who openly talked about secession.” Uh, all the Confederate governors were Democrats so they did a lot more than talk.
I am proud to be a Texan.
Perry continues to have my vote. At least he is not letting the left wing administration walk all over us.
Texas is a unique place with a unique attitude. I was there for 3 years in the middle ’80s. I always thought the Texas’ litter campaign summed the state up perfectly. No “Give a hoot, don’t pollute.” or “Litter is (unl)awful.” For Texas, It’s a couple of big football players saying, “Don’t Mess With Texas.”
Washington, Don’t Mess With Texas.
D. Travers:
Veni -
Hong Kong is also -not a democracy-. (Or a republic, for that matter) And I can guarantee you their gun control laws are not less restrictive than ours, along with freedoms of speech, assembly, etc.
There’s more to life than loose regulation and low capital gains taxes.
OK, so Hong Kong with a Bill of Rights. Problem solved, now let’s get on with the experiment.
“Stop with the cartoonish caricatures of your politcal opponents” caricatures like the one you just put up?
While the “mainstream media” is smearing Perry for speaking the truth, I am a fan because he just told the federal government to stick it where the sun don’t shine. We need more Perry’s and less timidity. He is an ideal conservative. Could we see a Perry/Palin ticket someday?
F Texas!
P said….
“I’m sure that the other 23,902,879 Texans are reasonably content living in the United States of America and don’t care very much for the governor’s treasonous language.”
I am a Texan and Apache and Cherokee and invite you to get the hell out of Texas, or to never come here. We don’t even need to secede.
All we have to do is remember what Montana and Wyoming did when they verified that a county Sheriff is the highest lawman and that feds need PERMISSION to come into his county and do anything at all. Feds do not trump states rights.
Montana also made a state law that nobody will be registered for gun ownership. TX can do the same.
Wyoming passed a law that any ammo made in Wyoming does NOT require any ID markings. TX can do the same which will bring new business into the state.
Under the 10th amendment and others where states powers were forbidden to the federal level, we can make life quite miserable for the feds. And hopefully, so miserable for the troll leftists that they will run screaming from our state.
This is not just talk. Most Texans are pissed off and deadly serious. Most particularly the cattlemen and growers. We do not need the feds to support ourselves. We do not need the feds for the oil or gas just sitting in the gulf. Nor do we need self-promoter Perry or 2 faced Hutchison.
Perry did do a good thing signing that bill. But at the same time he is trying to build the NAFTA super highway starting in N TX and connect it bit by bit. Nor is he interested in securing our border as he gets too much $$$ from business. It is way past time we elect someone who is NOT a lifetime corrupt politician.
But you, Mr P, need to get out of Dodge and peddle your Marxist ideas to someone who is interested in them.
There does seem to be an attitude that dissent is unpatriotic for conservatives, but it was a virtue for liberals. Why? Is it “Free speech for me, but not for thee” then?
Texas won’t secede. I doubt it will be needed. The Tea Parties have only begun to show the truth underneath all of this. There are still many millions more who support the parties & want the spending to stop. They were just at work. There are more of us than them. Obama won 53% “OF THOSE WHO VOTED in 2008!” He won by only 4 or 5 % “OF THOSE WHO VOTED in 2008!”
Socialism has failed everywhere they ever tried it. It has also led many nations into despotism when their “leaders” (sic) went nuts & were killing their own people. Chavez is already documented as oppressing his own & incarcerating his own. In short, his despotism is underway. In Cuba, the Castro’s have held the Cuban people back for decades. And that health care system…. their numbers are contrived & have never, ever been verified. Health care in Cuba is really a mess “if you ask……. the people!”
Texas will not have to secede. In the end, Americans will dump this socialist crowd & demand a return to the principles of our Constitutional Republic, with no international socialist standards & idiocies!
Hell yes, Texas should secede! We have the largest military base in the world, several SAC bases (with nukes), and can charge what we want for oil to the North. If you think that Texas takes in more money than it spends, then why not be happy to let us go ? Wouldn’t that save you money ? Or perhaps you should read Atlas Shrugged again. The Liberal parasites are terrified of losing their working host because they cannot survive without them. Or as Margeret Thatcher said ” The problem with socialism is that you soon run out of other people’s money to spend.”. If you think Austin is typical Texas, you couldn’t be more wrong- it’s just a good place to store the Liberal pansies until we can ship them to San Francisco where they belong. “Hairspray Boy” Perry just said the only thing that may get him Re-Elected, but hopefully not for President. And yes, he does speak for most of Texans- those of us here legally that is…
If Texas succeeds in seceding, it will NOT be the Republic of Texas:
1. Blue Texas
2. Red Texas
3. Mexican Texas
Over time, it will join the U.S. of México.
Apply this principle to any other State (California, etc.)
Why is New York not talking about seceding . . . ? Are there more diverse patriots there than in Texas?
This whole thing is becoming a huge, hilarious telenovela.
Texas, if you secede, I will rejoin the state of my birth. If you’ll have me. I work hard, pay taxes, can speak without a teleprompter, and have taken a gun safety course.
This was going to happen, someone was going to deal with the Chicago-turned-beltway-boys in a manner they recognize and respect, tough talk and threatened action. Me thinks “Hairspray Boy” brought a gun to a gun fight. I’ll be interested in the “just words” response.
Not sure why everyone is saying that Texas would eventually get sucked into Mexico. The Mexican army couldn’t even handle a rag-tag bunch of Indians in Chiapas. If allowed to set its own immigration policy, I’m sure Texas would remain an independent state for a long time to come. Even leftists who recognized secession for what it is, a thumb in their eye, wouldn’t be so stupid as to try to take it back.
This whole thing is becoming a huge, hilarious telenovela.
All of which could have been avoided if the left had understood constitutional, limited government.
As Caesar said, surveying the bodies of his dead enemies, “They wanted this”. I just hope I live to see the day they get it.
I am a native Texan, and proud of it !!
I have to say that post 69 bothered me, only in terms of the naivity, I am not American, sadly I live in a system that is no longer a democracy and hate every moment of it, my constitution was just taken away from me without anything I could do and the referendum that we were promised was removed by a new name and calling it a treaty rather than a constitution and all those other no votes ignored.
Now what he says seems like common sense, and many of us would sort of say OK we lost an election, but I ask him to think about the DHS report on right wing extremists, which quite frankly tars anyone who is not a Democrat as a potential extremist. I never saw Bush and co do some sort of hatchet job like that to define all likely Democrats as potential Terrorists, if you cannot see the difference then my god there is no hope for you.
Nazi Germany gave the pretence of private owned industry but told them what to do, this is happening now in the UK and the USA.
In Europe they talk about the right wing threat and send journalists to some obscure East German town to show us skinheads and other assorted loons caressing Nazi insigna and talk about the rise of the far right on main new programs. But when 20,000 far left trash Strasbourg in a anti NATO far left demo, days before thousands attacked the G20 in London nothing is said about the left wing extremist threat, and why is that, well the associations that organised the demos in London had 65% of their funding from the UK Government and the EU.
So in answer to your post, there is no irony, Bush and his government respected the constitution of the USA, it appears that Obama and many Democrats do not.
As for me when the Lisbon Treaty is finally made law, then I will not accept it no matter where that takes me…, to you I may be a potential terrorist, but I want my freedom back!
Herb a #48 says:
“Where they gonna get the fighter planes for their Air Force? Hope they don’t think the United States military is gonna protect them.”
We have built (in Fort Worth) every single F-16, F-22 and F-35 in existence! Texas has more defense industry than nearly the rest of the nation combined!
With that said, as a born and raised Texan I know that Perry’s rhetoric isn’t to be taken literally, it was a shot to the idiot neighborhood organizer in the WH and the moonbat liberals are going moonbat crazy over it!! Go Perry! Expect more of the same from Governors and politicians across the land as the nation relizes what a complete moron Obama is. Perry is NOT threatening to leave the nation. He is staging himself to oppose the current amateur in chief.
You blue-staters out there: pay your sucky taxes and sink into the Socialist Mire your Messiah has prepared for you.
Good riddance!
The sooner Texas secedes the better.
Long live the Spirit of Freedom in the Republic of Texas.
Let’s Texas lead the way…whatever it is.
We are very suspicious of this Community Organizer BSer from somewhere. Even many of those who voted on the promise of “change” are now leery of him and have a voter hangover. Because “change” is usually just an empty word.
What values he represents when he bows to that Frankenstein from Saudi Arabia? Why he wants to destroy the department of Homeland Security and brings in that moonbat Janet Napolitano?
134. venividivici:
“Not sure why everyone is saying that Texas would eventually get sucked into Mexico. The Mexican army couldn’t even handle a rag-tag bunch of Indians in Chiapas.”
If there is a secession, the Mexican Texans would be a majority. They would vote, not fight.
Remember The Alamo!
This whole thing is becoming a huge, hilarious telenovela.
I think it’s really funny that many conservatives like to thump their chest and yell “Love it, or Leave it” when it comes to the US, but suddenly now with a Republican like Perry, you’re now all talking secession and backing it up. Hypocrisy at it’s finest. Luckily, only about 18% of the Texas population would actually even buy into that rubbish.
Some patriots you are…
If there is a secession, the Mexican Texans would be a majority. They would vote, not fight.
Yeah, the one problem with that “analysis” is it assumes that Mexican Texans want Texas to be like Mexico. Not really likely.
I still think my original point stands, though. I’m just pointing out a fallacy contained in your post.
Amazing how Perry moves to the right when election time rolls around. He may be marginally better than RINO Kay Bailey.
As an organizer of the Dallas Tax Day Tea Party, we decided to not let any politicians speak to our crowd of over 5,000. The politicians need to hear from us. We call on ALL tea parties to keep politicians away from the microphone. We must elect conservatives in 2010.
Angry White Dude
California the 7th largest economy in the world? Yeah, with a credit-rating that’s now junk-bond status – equal to Louisiana of all places. Oh wait, I think Louisiana has a slightly higher credit rating now! I also think, with the number of people fleeing California (businesses and individuals alike) you’ll have any kind of economy.
Frankly, I think this whole secession question is currently a tempest in a teapot. I was born in Texas and currently live there. I’ve probably spent as much time out of the state as in it during my life – first because of my father’s job then because of mine (including one of the bluest states – New York). I do not want to leave the U.S. – however, I would vote to do it should the federal government continue on this path of ignoring the Constitution and getting involved in things that it should have never subsumed from the states. Get rid of all the Departments that are not specified in the Constitution (Dept of Ed. should go first!) to begin with!
If Texas were to leave the U.S. it would only be because the U.S. we signed onto is gone. And if you’re not aware of it – Texas is not the only state with secession movements.
Oh, and for the person who said Texas only turned red state in 2000 and 2004? Get your facts straight and look back at 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, and 1996. We weren’t too blue those years either.
143. venividivici:
If there is a secession, the Mexican Texans would be a majority. They would vote, not fight.
“Yeah, the one problem with that “analysis” is it assumes that Mexican Texans want Texas to be like Mexico. Not really likely.
I still think my original point stands, though. I’m just pointing out a fallacy contained in your post.”
I agree. I didn’t say the Mexican Texans would necessarily join Mexico, they would stand as the Republic of Mexican Texans. (or not) . . .
This whole thing is becoming a huge, hilarious telenovela.
We agree with every word our Governor Rick Perry spoke here. He has our support, and he had our cheers when we heard his speech.
We are clinging to our bibles in one hand and our guns in the other hand (Obama’s own words here) and Rick Perry has our support.
Do not forget that the majority of Texans were not there for his speech, but the majority agrees with him.
Many of us had to work, we work hard here for our money, but we agree with Governor Perry, and it’s ours and the Federal Government needs to cease and desist..
Governor Rick Perry has our votes in any race he chooses to run, he has our votes here.
We love Governor Rick Perry here, and we don’t need no stinking stimulus..
We do not need any stinking Czar’s in Texas!
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jan/12/obama-climate-czar-has-socialist-ties/
Socialism will never rule Texas, and I know I am not wrong, and I know we are not Socialist here.
“I told the people of my district that I would serve them as faithfully as I had done; but if not … you may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas.” David Stern Crockett
Why do you have to be an Angry White Dude? Why not just be Angry?
#2, thank you SO much for using the word reactionary instead of radical when describin’ us evil right wing nutjobs. We are NOT radical. That’s for the USSR types, like Obama reading Saul Alinsky. We don’t WANT to pull down the edifices of society and build it anew; that’s what radicals do. We want to preserve what’s unique and wonderful about America, so that it doesn’t become just a bigger, fatter and more slothful version of a Euro socialist economy. Having lived in Belgium for several years, trust me when I tell you there is little personal choice, a much lower average lifestyle and very little fun and leisure. Sure, they have good public transport– unless the union is on strike, which happened numerous times over the years I was there. Sure, they have national health care, if you like long waits and little access to the best medicines and technologies, and most important, if you like 50% or greater income tax rates– along with 21% VAT on everything you buy, and a disdain for capitalism so visceral that the state has already instituted laws about when a store can have a sale, how much they can discount their wares and for how long. The state works hard to ensure that no business competes against any other. It’s about fairness. It STIFLES economic risk taking, which is the engine that grows an economy.
Bottom line? People are afraid to quit the jobs they have and try for something new, because they have so few choices in that arena. And while there is a social safety net (a hammock for many who enjoy living at bare sustenance level), falling into it usually means never getting out. And that net is bloody expensive for those who have to pay for it. And all the while the tax burden increases on the productive and the state commits more and more future money to the present, ensuring an economic collapse of its own down the line, and a failure to pay for these social services. This means mobs, riots, violence, shortages, etc, and it’s all coming.
One other thing– a Euro socialist state is a state that does not value its own culture and will not defend it.
Islamic radicals prey on these people like fleas on rats. While we still love and defend America, we won’t let that happen here. But take away that love and instinct to defend it, and it will fall just like France has already fallen.
It is the left who constantly demean and insult the America we strive to defend. The left despises it. The right tries to protect it. The eventual winner of our present internal conflict will have already settled the future of America before we are even through duking it out with each other.
The tea parties are the beginning of our last ditch effort to save America. If this effort fails, prepare to develop a callus on your foreheads, you lefties, whether you like it or not. You will not defend your culture, and the radical Muslims are already well aware of this. Drooling, even.
A republican with both brains and cojones? Quick! Call Meghan McCain and Spector. We must purge this dangerous extremists, lest we offend our corporate donors, and offend the democrats! I’m calling Daddy too! and Vicente. George (new tone) Bush,George Soros,Christopher Buckley.