I don't think those things would be a problem. I do think a simple boycott of business with Texas from the Union would be a big problem. So, if we were to secede, it'd have to be with "permission."
As I said this discussion is completely hypothetical and I don't put it in the realm of possibility that Texas will secede. In regard to something like if slavery were to come back that is hypothetical. Given the 13th and 14th Ammendment it would take seccession for it to. To answer you, Sam Fisher, and Wnes at the sametime. I will say my position is nuanced and depends on the circumstances. As I've stated before I believe in self-determination and abhor war. I don't think secession of Texas is a good thing and I don't think the secession of the Confederacy was a good thing and even without the Civil War would have been a disaster. That said if something like that were to happen again would I think a disastrous war that killed 100's of thousands, decimated a vast part of the country, followed by a bitter occupation is the right thing to do that is a tougher question. Humans are falliable and that goes for countries to that has to be weighed in regard with the idea of democratic self-determination.
Consider the only time we've ever discussed the issue of self-determination it has been about Tibet and that is an area that we have a strong disagreement on.
Most of the NASA scientists aren't Texans and I doubt they would want to be citizens of an independent Texas, especially since all of the launch and landing facilities are in the rest of the US. If Texas seceded we would end up like Khazakstan with the Baikanour Cosmodrome where yes its in Khazakstan but Russia runs it.
Economically speaking I think we'd look a lot like Saudi Arabia or Dubai. Oil money concentrated in the hands of a few obscenely wealthy families and well connected bureaucrats (Ross Sterling, LBJ, Jesse H. Jones and Sam Rayburn come to mind), with an under-educated, impoverished and disenfranchised majority turning to immoderate religious and political beliefs and an almost genetic predisposition to armed rebellion/insurgency. Mix in our ethnic three-way tie, and it's basically West Iraq. Add a dash of pre-existing border tension, and it's almost too apocalyptically fun a scenario to not want to play out. And it'd be much worse if they had to pay back their share of the U.S. Federal debt; I'm guessing our 30+ Congressmen over the last 160 years have finagled more than enough earmarks to make that interesting. Not sure I want two hostile Armies and Navies on the Mexican border or in the Gulf, anyways. Anybody cite Texas v. White yet?
from the Dallas Morning News [rquoter] Texas House votes to slash Gov. Rick Perry's budget AUSTIN — House members virtually wiped out Gov. Rick Perry’s office budget today, to help veterans and the mentally ill. With little debate, the House on a voice vote approved erasing 96 percent of the nearly $24 million budget writers had recommended for Perry’s office operation over the next two years. Some Democrats cast the House’s move as a rebuke of the governor’s recent comments about Texas seceding from the Union. “That’s the headline: Two days after governor says we ought to secede, House zeroes out the governor's budget,” Appropriations Committee Vice Chairman Richard Raymond, D-Laredo, told reporters. However, most Republicans said they went along simply to speed debate of the state budget – a debate that could last into Saturday. “At the end of the day, the governor will be fully funded,” said House GOP Caucus Chairman Larry Taylor, R- Friendswood. Perry spokeswoman Allison Castle said, “I think they’re just playing silly games.” The move was initially confusing because a Republican authored one of two amendments gutting Perry’s budget, not counting the more than a half-billion his office doles out to law enforcement, businesses and filmmakers. It came as the House debated a two year, $178.4 billion budget that includes $11 billion of federal stimulus money but protects a state ‘rainy day fund’ expected to swell in two years to $9.1 billion. The first whack at Perry’s budget was by House Democratic Caucus Chairman Jessica Farrar, D-Houston. She took $4 million for veterans’ programs. Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, noted Farrar had seven different floor amendments that would siphon funds from Perry’s office or the state-federal office in Washington that he controls. King, asked why Republicans didn’t object to zeroing out the GOP governor’s budget, said, “We were just trying to avert any unnecessary gamesmanship.” Taylor said Democrats were “trying to make the other side make bad votes that they can use in the campaign or p.r.” Farrar denied trying to put GOP members on record rejecting money for deserving Texans such as veterans and the needy. “I was looking to do something for people in hard economic times," she said. “I think it’s funny [Republicans] were mentioning gamesmanship because how many times have they put us in this position? ... When they were in the minority, they made us cast a lot of votes that were used against us.” Rep. John Davis, R-Houston, took a bigger bite in Perry's office budget. His proposal would switch $18.7 million from the governor to community mental health “crisis services” that try to keep the mentally ill out of jail and hospital emergency rooms. “I’m not mad at Perry,” Davis said later. “I just need money and this is how the game is played.” Davis said his plan would “fully fund” last session's push to do better by the seriously mentally ill people who he said can live successfully at home, if treated. Rep. Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, the House’s chief budget writer, dodged questions about whether he would defend the reductions of Perry’s office in upcoming budget talks with the Senate. Pitts said the move “doesn’t have anything to do with the mood on the governor.” He cast it as driven by members’ desire to avoid spending “about two hours” talking about Perry’s office. Meanwhile, the Senate squabbled along partisan lines about whether budget writers violated the federal economic recovery law’s intent. All 12 Democrats except Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, a key budget writer, wrote U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan complaining that a couple of billion of stimulus money aimed at education is being held back by Texas budget writers “for use as future property tax cuts that primarily benefit the wealthy.” In a response sent to congressional Democrats from Texas, Perry and the Legislature’s top Republicans, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Speaker Joe Straus, denied any misuse of stimulus funds. The rainy day fund that is being protected, to pay for state needs next session, gets money automatically, they wrote. Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, the Senate’s chief budget writer, dismissed as “a political partisan comment” his Democratic colleagues’ comment about the tax cuts mostly helping the rich. [/rquoter]
Perry spokeswoman Allison Castle said, “I think they’re just playing silly games.” I would laugh out loud, except that the fool's fool of a boss is the Governor of Texas.
From what I've been reading and seeing, Rick Perry's comments about secession are being interpreted by others in other states as Texans wanting to secede. A lot of people seem to be thumbing their noses at the state as a whole...like we are arrogant SOBs and they are like "let them secede...we don't want them". This whole f-ing thing is stupid. I can't stand Rick Perry personally. He reminds me of GWB. I pray to God him and Palin don't make a successful run at the White House in the future. Some analysts are saying this is what his comments are truly all about...getting heard so he can eventually make a run.
This morning from Josh: Cost Conscious With the apparent desire of some Texans to secede from the United States, one cost conscious eBayer has taken it upon themselves to place the state on the auction block and sell it off to the highest bidder as a way of defraying the cost of the bank bailout and possibly some portion of the national debt. The minimum bid for Texas was set at $100,000. But it's already been bid up to over $65 million. --Josh Marshal (bid's up tp $99 million this morning)
That's right all voters in rural areas are dumbasses. You are just as bad as some of the right extremists with their hate of minorities.
Classic intellectual arrogance from the democrats. You just think you're smarter than everybody else. Hate to burst your bubble, brah, but...you aren't.
I did NOT vote for Perry in the last election and I am NOT a fan..But..I've never seen people make such a big stink from a Politician's joking comments..it was obvious he wasn't serious. Geesh.
As opposed to the intellectual superiority of the republicans. How many times did we hear about how stupid the "inner city" people were for "blindly" voting for Obama? How many times do we hear about how people "just have no idea" what they are talking about. That's cute coming from you.
in his defense, given that the republicans haven't articulated a single intelligent critique of obama in the past year, i don't think we can accuse them of being anything resembling intellectual superiority.
From today's Austin American-Statesman editorial: EDITORIAL Don't make Texas come unhinged, too Texas governor Perry trails Hutchison and is desperate to attract votes, but goofy secession talk embarrasses him and the state. Saturday, April 18, 2009 By throwing the red meat of secession to this state's conservative fringe, Gov. Rick Perry made Texas the butt of jokes around the world. Perry says, accurately, that he never suggested that Texas should secede, though he still says it legally could. Which it can't, of course. Americans settled that with an awful, bloody war that ended 144 years ago. The governor probably doesn't really believe that himself, but he loves the attention from the far right wing of the Republican Party. Dressed like one of the characters from the Republic of Texas separatist group, Perry's attendance at the anti-tax tea parties this week was a huge embarrassment for the state. It is hard to take Perry seriously when he struts around in a gimme cap and spouts nonsense in a cynical ploy to attract attention and votes. Texas isn't going to secede — as much as the rest of the country might wish it would — and Perry knows that. But the polls show him trailing U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, his rival for governor in next spring's Republican primary, and he is desperate to gain ground. A Rasmussen Poll this week showed Hutchison with a 67 percent favorable rating to Perry's 55 percent. As long as the governor is playing catch-up to the senator, Texans can expect more of this week's silliness from Perry. What seems so confounding is that by pandering to the right-wing fringe, Perry is surely losing ground with the party mainstream that he will need to win next March. Nationally, as in Texas, the Republican Party seems to have lost its way. Barack Obama's election last fall has unhinged the GOP, and the party is now hostage to conservative talk show hosts who spew hate from the outer limits of political absurdity. It is the Rush Limbaughs of the country who applaud Perry's outlandish palaver and who are driving the GOP into the political wasteland. Republicans and Democrats alike can decry the huge amounts of money rung up by Obama's stimulus package, fret about the debt we are handing our children and worry about taxes. But most don't go around muttering about secession like it's a real possibility. It only makes those who do, including the governor, look ridiculous. The tea parties in Texas and elsewhere were ginned up by Fox News and the rabid talk show hosts. But that doesn't mean there is no legitimacy to the concerns of those who took time out of their lives to protest. Many Americans share some of their concerns. But when that very public conversation drifts into the fantasy of secession, the actual issues are compromised. That's why the sensible leaders in the Republican Party should take control. The country needs two strong political parties to parse the issues of the day, to hammer out the compromises that make us a strong nation. When one party — either one — is captured by a radical fringe, it suffers, and the country is weaker for it. If the national GOP follows Perry down the bizarre path he has taken in his desperate attempt to attract votes, Democrats will be in power for a long time. http://www.statesman.com/opinion/content/editorial/stories/04/18/0418secede_edit.html
