The Brief: Top Texas News for Nov. 20, 2012
The Big Conversation:
The latest Texas secession talk may be nothing more than political fodder, but at least one of the state's politicians is taking it seriously.
U.S. Rep. Ron Paul on Monday wrote on his congressional website that while he thought the recent online petition to let Texas withdraw from the U.S. wouldn't gain much traction, the concept of secession warrants a national discussion.
"Secession is a deeply American principle," he wrote. "This country was born through secession. Some felt it was treasonous to secede from England, but those 'traitors' became our country’s greatest ...
Comments (28)
Barbry Allen via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Says the man who hates government yet taked Social Security.
Ed Rankin via Texas Tribune on Facebook
the states need to call a constitutional convention and reconstitute the federal government. the exsting government has been hijacked by transnational banks and corporations who do not represent the best interesst of america or americans.
Jake Thomas via Texas Tribune on Facebook
@Barby, and yet he still pays into it more than he gets out. Never took a congressional pension and returned it to the treasury. Why should we love Government? The same people who brought you Japanese internment camps, the patriot act, and so on.
Karen Spivey-Cummings via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Ron Paul is an idiot.
Karen Spivey-Cummings via Texas Tribune on Facebook
States do NOT have the right to secede. Even crazy Scalia says they don't.
Greg Pulte via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Secession and revolution are not mutually exclusive.
Hollis Morton via Texas Tribune on Facebook
The Federal Government should take a look at the corrupt judicial system in Texas, from judges beating their children on You Tube, the felony theft of the elderly and swindling funding from schoolchildren as courtroom documents prove. http://hm21.wordpress.com
Jill Meredith Bergene via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Oh, Ron, anyone who signed the abysmally misogynist Personhood Amendment has seceded from being relevant.
Cyn Huddleston via Texas Tribune on Facebook
And nearly 200 years later, the country was nearly undone and a generation of soldiers was lost in the bloodiest war we have seen.
Nigel Richardson via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Begone, Ron, you've amused us long enough.
Jill Meredith Bergene via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Jake Thomas....you'd be up shit creek without a paddle if it weren't for government....schools, roads, firefighters, national parks, OSHA, etc. Arrogance is not intelligence.
Ron Waters via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Straining to be relevant.
Cliff McSparran via Texas Tribune on Facebook
And Congressman Paul could be the leader of this new fantasy land. It could be called DSA .... the "Disunited States of America." Problem is, he woud have zero power since Libertarians don't believe in government. Ron Paul with no power sounds good to me.
Luisa Inez Newton via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Our first patriots were also primarily intellectuals and scholars, not ignorant types who believed in "creationism" and obsessions with guns
Candyce Byrne via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Jake Thomas, we should love government to hold it close and make it accountable. We should love government because our founders' radical idea was a government that served the people and was of the people. It has never truly reached its potential, and it never will unless we love it.
Enedelia Obregon via Texas Tribune on Facebook
So how far do we go? Will we become like the Balkans? Secede until we're a multitude of city-states?
Susie Martinez-Dominguez via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Atlantic Ocean vs. .....
Justin Williams via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Ron Paul should sit down shut up and read Thomas Jefferson's first ingural and Lincoln's Gettysburg.
Rudy Gonzales
Ron Paul's views on secession prove how far out-of-touch his skewed views are with reality. Sadly many follow this man's skewed notions of government. Texas and Texans must be very cautious in their future elections to excise those who use the (R) when in fact they are crimson(T). The Republican party suffered a huge loss from those who espoused fringe movements and issues contrary to the norm and degraded women, people of color, immigrants from all walks and the everyday Social Programs used to assist the elderly and those most needy. TEA-Republican tactics show their intentions to force their agenda onto the president and continue their confrontational attitude and issues onto the president. The latent bigotry and prejudice has seeped into their everyday actions and words. The people see what they stand for and how they go about trying to get their way at all costs. If they continue to push their skewed views and alienate the people, they will become a pariah to the Republican party. Lincoln and Reagan are turning in their graves over the recent thumping they received at the hands of Obama.
Neil Moyer via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Dope, go to Gobi desert...
Michelle Michon via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Ron Paul is a crazy man. Happy to see him retire.
Gregg Ramshaw via Texas Tribune on Facebook
He took "Bruno" seriously, too. That says it all.
Jake Thomas via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Oh, boy I've got a lot to cover... Karen said near the top "States do NOT have the right to secede. Even crazy Scalia says they don't" Scalia references the Pledge, citing: "One nation, indivisible" How many of you know who wrote the pledge? Francis Bellamy, a Socialist. We all know how much they love states rights IE, Hitler and Mussolini.
Tell me this: when the Federal Government has vastly overstepped its boundaries out of the constraints of the Constitution, what are the States to do other than Nullification? Just lie over and take it? Some of you would say yes, since the Federal Government's authority is above that of the States. You would correct if that power was in the Constitution. It is not.
I have no problem with Government when it fills its role that the people consented and agreed too in the Constitution. When it overstepps its boundries, it is the duty of the people who consented to be governed to hold the government accountable for its unconstitutional acts.
Where would we be if it weren't for the Government to give us Schools, and OSHA?!! The US spends more money on school than every other nation in the world, yet the quality of education hasn't gone up.
Oh and I'm very glad you brought up OSHA. The Free Maret was already bringing down workplace deaths way before OSHA was ever started. Here's a graph showing exactly what OSHA has done. (Scroll down just a bit to see the graph) http://www.cato.org/pubs/handbook/hb106/hb106-34.pdf
Reguarding Seccesion. The States absolutly have the right to secede. When you read the Constitution it refers to the "United States" in the Plural. New England States in the early 1800's drew up Resolutions to secede reguarding a dispute with the Federal governement. (Look up Hartford Resolutions) No one questioned thier ability to secede. Not the other States, and certainly not the Federal Government.
Justin Brought up Lincoln's Gettysburg address and Thomas Jefferson's Inagural address?? Have you read Jefferson address at all?? You would hear him talk about Keeping Federal power in its rightful place and respecting states rights! Now to Lincoln. In his Address he speaks about the Declaration Of Independance (A seccessionist document) to justify Unionism (the opposite of Seccesion)
Sergio Hernandez De Santos via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Hitler & Mussolini socialists? Dude c'mon you can do better than that, oh you been on a construction site? If it wasn't for OSHA's fines companies would cut corners left and right, believe me I don't think the stiffs from the Cato instute pour concrete for a living
Jane Lampton via Texas Tribune on Facebook
We just happen to be at the battlefield Antietam today and I would say both sides paid a heavy price for succession. Succession was bloody and a killer.
Karen Spivey-Cummings via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Jake, google SCOTUS decision. States do NOT have the right to secede. If you actually respect the Constitution, you would realize this. Francis Bellamy was a Christian socialist, Baptist minister. Socialism in America is not a bad as the right wing nuts try to claim. Most people seem to consider socialism harmless, and often beneficial (for example, when your house is on fire). You seem to confuse the Constitution with the Articles of Confederation.
Jake Thomas via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Karen, I've read the Constitution front to back. Tell me where in the Constitution states are prohibited from Seceding? No where.
The SCOTUS rarely ever rules on the side of the Constitution. IE: ACA, Dred Scott, Patriot Act. Need I go on?
"Most people consider socialism harmless" Yes, just ask the Russians.
Voluntary Socialism is fine in my book, but coercive Socialism is wrong.
To Sergio both Socialism and Fascism completely disregarded States rights Hitler was a Fascist and Mao was a Communist and wanted national solutions to everything.
Cato released that article to prove that OSHA hasn't really done anything that the market was already doing and just showing their ineffectiveness. My father worked construction the men from
Sergio Hernandez De Santos via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Exactly! Sr Jake
Socialism and fascism are two very different things don't mix em up, doesn't make you look good, and it is because of OSHA's fines the industry caught up and not the other way around, BTW I see OSHA people all the time and the know ther stuff, we aren't in the 90cs,and lastly there ain't a lot to do in Parker Co right?
Oh and lastly because the South doesn't like the prez are they gonna cry secession, children grow up!