Gov. Rick Perry: Texas Could Secede, Leave Union

Source: The Huffington Post

AUSTIN, Texas -- Texas Gov. Rick Perry fired up an anti-tax "tea party" Wednesday with his stance against the federal government and for states' rights as some in his U.S. flag-waving audience shouted, "Secede!"

An animated Perry told the crowd at Austin City Hall -- one of three tea parties he was attending across the state -- that officials in Washington have abandoned the country's founding principles of limited government. He said the federal government is strangling Americans with taxation, spending and debt.

Perry repeated his running theme that Texas' economy is in relatively good shape compared with other states and with the "federal budget mess." Many in the crowd held signs deriding President Barack Obama and the $786 billion federal economic stimulus package.

Perry called his supporters patriots. Later, answering news reporters' questions, Perry suggested Texans might at some point get so fed up they would want to secede from the union, though he said he sees no reason why Texas should do that.



Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/15/gov-rick-perry...

And take Mississippi and Alabama with you.

Mississippi, now...that's a different story.

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I've always considered Texas home, even tho as an army brat I lived all over...I'm currently in the DFW area...I think your sentiment captures/sums up the wierdness that is Texas perfectly!

and some are smart enough to get the joke.

And remember-don't mess with Texas and don't put your hand in the crazy.

Thanks for the laugh.

He said a North Carolina Senator said it?

They don't have the guts.

How long before Texas is reunited with Mexico?

You know, the one in which the governor's husband is linked. If Alaska ever became independent of the the USA, how long would it take Russia to reclaim it? Same goes with Texas & Mexico. Do these people ever think before they speak?

....including pretty much all the petroleum producing areas and national parks. They can have a great deal of fun building their new economy on fishing.

Used to live in Austin, there aren't that many of that stripe local.

Obama hasn't been in power for 100 days YET! And they are going absolutely nuts. Completely nuts. This is pure insanity.

................Had to come and take some of my Kalifornia medication to chill. I live in a Ar town of approx 12K people and if this was any indication of things to come, think Germany 1933.

Or a progressive understanding?

from Anne Richards and running up a 7 billion debt? Why didn't all those "fiscal conservatives" notice that right in our own state? Could have saved the country trillions and thousands of lives, here and abroad...

nt

That might be even more beneficial to the US than throwing the Gang Of Perverts out of office

How about we split off the parts of Texas we don't want?

Texas can, by a vote of their legislature can separate into up to 5 states. That means the people of Texas could go from 2 senators to 10. Most of which would be repub.

They should approve only and only if the state splits into 2 states with the preferable state remaining in the union and the other being annexed to Mexico.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Annexation

This is based on the wording of the joint resolution to annex Texas:

New States of convenient size not exceeding four in number, in addition to said State of Texas and having sufficient population, may, hereafter by the consent of said State, be formed out of the territory thereof, which shall be entitled to admission under the provisions of the Federal Constitution.

Does this mean TEXAS can do so in its own, or can the Federal Government do so with the Consent of Texas? Texas did agree to its present Western Borders at the time of Annexation (Under the Texas Republic, Texas claimed as its Western Border the Rio Grand, which flows from Colorado through present day New Mexico before arriving at El Paso) but no States have been SOLELY formed out of the old Texas Republic. Interesting Question, but it is time for me to go to bed.

Section 3. New states may be admitted by the Congress into this union; but no new states shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other state; nor any state be formed by the junction of two or more states, or parts of states, without the consent of the legislatures of the states concerned as well as of the Congress.

The confusion comes form the terms of the Act, Four ADDITIONAL states could be made out of Texas, total five.

The Issue becomes what areas go with what new State. If you divide Texas into Five states, one has to have the Rio Grand Valley, and that is a heavy Democratic Area (i.e. it will go Democratic). If you make the upper panhandle of Texas its own states, that would be Solid GOP. In effect those two areas offset each other.

That leaves the three population areas (Houston, Dallas/Ft Worth and San Antonio) the center of the remaining three states. Depending on where you put Austin can be a big difference (Austin with San Antonio could produce two Democrats, San Antonio is NOT that strongly FOP, but if you put Austin with Dallas, the much larger GOP vote in West of Dallas will offset the Democrats in Austin). Houston and East Texas is the big question. This is the most "Southern" area of Texas, and like the rest of the South still elects Democrats to local office, while voting GOP on the National and State Level. Right now East Texas votes GOP, but it also votes its pocketbook and if that means Democratic it will go Democratic way before Dallas and Dallas will go Democratic way before the areas to its west. You could end up with 8 Democratic Senators and 2 GOPS, just by keeping San Antonio and the Rio Grand as one State. Dallas and Austin as the Second, and Houston and East Texas as the Fourth. All COULD go Democratic, leaving Amarillo and West Texas to the GOP.

2004 map of Texas:
http://www.uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/img.php?year=200...

2008 Map:
http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/img.php?year=2008&st...

http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS /

Notice the Rio Grand valley is Solidly Democratic, but East Texas is blue (But the Blue is solid when you come to Dallas/Ft Worth and further west and the northern Panhandle).

Functional problems with breaking up Texas. State lines in the US rarely follow functional lines, the main reason is the lines were drawn for administrative ease NOT function and since the United States IS a united country not a problem. Functions that the states can NOT perform is done by the Federal Government, but function is HOW states SHOULD be formed, they are more effective if the form of the State follows geography of the area.

Texas is between two Rivers Systems, the Rio Grand to its south (and to a limited degree to its West), and the Mississippi River and the Red River that Flows into it. Any good division of Texas follows these two rivers and separates them from the rest of the State. The Rio Grand to the south (including all rivers that flows into the Rio Grand) and the Red River to the north including any rivers that flows into it. Those should be the first two states (And both new states would be better off if they also had the other side of each river in that new State, but need the Co-operation of Mexico and Oklahoma, co-operation that is unlikely).

The third state centers around Houston and its port. It is an alternative shipping port from New Orleans from anything coming down the Mississippi and thus looks to the Mississippi as its most important geographic feature (and that river is not even close to Texas let alone Houston). The fourth is Amarillo and the Northern Panhandle, it really does NOT belong with the Rest of Texas, and it really does not belong to any other state either. Leave it be on its own. That whatever is between these four other areas to remain as "Texas".

Don't forget that about half of the people in Texas now are democrats.
Texas will be BLUE in the 2012 election.

I sure hope so. These tea-baggings are starting to make me a little nervous. I have started to look for counter-protests. Then things would get interesting!

Can we send them money....can we do ANYTHING to help them along the road outa this poor beleaguered country?????? Ms Bigmack

You seem not to be aware that millions of good people live in "the Bible Belt" -- and millions of idiots live outside of the Bible Belt.

and it caused the Civil War.

was made by Lincoln. He should have let the South secede.

It's not too late

Health care, wages, standard of living, GNP, etc.

They would be near the top at high school dropout rates, teenage pregnancies, STDs, pollution, etc.

Good riddance.

They should have gone 9 or 10 years ago!

Keep in mind, that as many annoying Texans as there are, there are also many left wingers who would be hung if Texas actually did this. Would you abandon the likes of Molly Ivins and Jim Hightower to these folks?, or for that matter Austin?

Hightower and Steve Earle and the Austin Lounge Lizards and Joe Ely and Mike Papantonio and Bill Moyers and anyone else who wants to be part of BLUE-S-A would be welcome.

Molly Ivin's troubles are over, and Austin is a provinicial racist shithole of green boosterism, and petty bourgeois localism.

Hightower's on his own.

Define petty Bourgeois, or do you mean the classical petit bourgeois?
Second, did you ever consider that while people up North are sitting comfortably, many of us in the South are fighting?
Last, did you ever consider that up north has plenty of GOP? I grew up in New Jersey, I KNOW they do.

Got shot down hitting on some pretty sorority girl at a shot bar or something?
Get over yourself. Austin is a wonderful city.

Very true!

we fought this war already. They lost.

No president is going to allow them to just seize infrastructure vital top the rest of the country.

Hell, sometimes I'd like to see the US break up into a bunch of smaller regional states (this seems to be a frequent wet dream of the anarchic "STATES' RIGHTS DURRRH!!!" crowd) just so that I could laugh at how much the citizens of Jesusland would suffer under their wonderful new 'dream governments.'

Stupid bastard.

we're still waiting for alot of that. The Gov. has been all hat no cattle there. The debris field from Ike is still there and not all the bodies have been found. It has been like trying to start fires here without matches .But then we saw what happened to NOLA and once again we got the government aid we have come to expect-nada. I get more support from my three year old bra!

It was 2 years and a threatened law suit before our local school district could recoup the money we had to spend to feed, cloth, educate and provide special services as needed for the children of Louisiana that we took in after Katrina. HISD came very close to going from an A+ to bankruptcy before the government owned up to it's responsibility.

Yeah-thanks for nothing. If we actually seceded-at least we would know what to expect rather than get worked up over nothing.

This secession really gathered steam during the oil embargo in the 70's when folks in the NE were really rude to folks in Texas-demanding our petroleum and natural gas for a fraction of it's true worth because the Arabs had turned off the spigot. They then turned around and insulted us as bubbas, yokels and red necks. Yeah-we read the papers.

That's when we started adding up how much of our money, resources, etc went to DC and, in proportion to our size and population-how little we got back. And when Detroit and the auto industry jobs dried up-Northerners came down here to work because there were no jobs up there. And they still made fun of Texans and Texas-but this time to our face. Well, that's when most Texans here said enough is enough.

You either like Texas or you don't. And that is ok, you are entitled to your opinion. Opinions are like ass holes-I have one too. But that doesn't give you, me, or anyone else the right to insult someone that has a different opinion.

I am a Democrat, but I consider myself a native Texan first and foremost. And if this is the kind of welcome a fellow Democrat from Texas gets-well folks can just kiss my rosy red ass. I chew up and spit out more neocon in a week than most Dems handle in a year-hell you have to be tough to be a Democrat here. So you might want to think twice before labeling us as stupid bastards. I promise you, if you were in a foxhole-you'd want a Texan at your back.

Thank God I live in wide open spaces where I can dream big and live large. And if you fall flat-you can always get back up, dust your self off and try it again.

If this was led by Perry who actually refused a stimulus from Washington.

Because they lost the last time they tried that

I dare him to do it!

Oy vey, I can't believe this f'in moron is the governor of my state.
Ann Richards must be rolling over in her grave.

Folks, please remember, Governor Dumber-Than-A-Post couldn't even win a majority of the vote last election, he's desperate.

While Texas is crazy and all-too-frequently dumber than a bag of bricks, Texas still isn't as conservative as people think.

And if Ann Richards si rolling over in her grave, then Molly Ivins must be dancing in hers. Say what you want about Rick Perry, but he's always good for a laugh.

Thanks to Tom DeLay (R - Scumbucket)

It's going to take forever for us to get ungerrymandered, but we are working hard on it!

And weren't there some legal cases pending on that ... long ago, I guess?

Guess how they voted on whether TX was violating the Voting Rights Act? One guess on how this SC voted & I bet you guess right.

We can't redistrict until we get a majority back, and we can't get a majority back until we redistrict.

We are gaining, however.

We will beat those rat bastards, even with one arm tied behind our back.

Everyone of you and Fox Noise can be your officail News agency

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsaTElBljOE

This means you Glen Beck, Neil Cavuto, Sean Hannity and of Courrse Bush Bingbong.

snowed by criminal leadership--!!!

You know----the Texans who are neither corrupt nor have been "snowed by criminal leadership."

Don't bother giving it another try, OK? No sense in wasting time.....

along with our like-minded senators Cornyn and Hutchinson. Ugggg....

when will he call for the Texas version of Kristall Nacht?

Perry talks shit about the federal government until he has to ask for aid for Texas.

Good-Hair Perry should shut the hell up..

FUCK YOU RICK PERRY

Not only embarrasses but makes me physically ill.

I would so like to live in a country that doesn't have Texas sittin' on it's ass like Limbaugh's boil on the good nature of our fine country. Secede, fuckface, please!!!!???!!

Would they make Dubya their little dictator?

for federal assistance with the Mexican Drug cartels...go and secede...the drug cartels will be licking their chops...along with Chavez etc....idiot

or do... I don't care.

Ta ta!

I wish that Molly Ivins was still with us. She would have had a field day with this one.

Governor Goodhair only won because three candidates split the votes and he came out on top. Our election rules stink.

Not all Texans are wack jobs wearing big hats. In 2008, my county was blue. That's Harris County in Houston. BOO-YA!

by Steve Benen over at Washington Monthly:




http://www.washingtonmonthly.com /

You talk a good game there, Gov. Ya ready to back it up, or is this just posturing? By the way, how did secession work the last time y'all tried it? How'd that little move pay off for you?

Your neighbors in Arkansas will miss you--for a little while. Stay in touch!

I offered to give it back to Mexico if they would take the bush's with it...and they turned it down!! Don't blame them!

How does the Republic of Texas defend its southern border? How does the Soveriegn State of Alaska keep Russia out of its oil fields?

They don't think about these things.

How many Texans are going to want to learn Spanish?

Can we keep the People's Republic of Austin, though?

We're going to miss you.

But if Texas really did secede, I wouldn't exactly bother renewing my passport to go visit. "Adios" as the Tejanos say.

This County won't survive with out S.S., It's the main payroll in the County. Hospitals and Nursing Homes will have to close.

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Pretty soon you'll be seeing him at
the door waving duelling pistols at
the gubment.

See ya.

(Ha! No room in subject line for "n/t")

and take the right-wing assholes with you!

Let's not wait for Texas to secede. Let's close all of their military bases and government offices and turn that state over to Mexico.

went first.

First you have to pay us for any oil or other resources that are still left in your state as that is a natural resource of the United States of America that we will not give up even if we would rather not need it. All military and government equipment will be returned and any government buildings must be paid for before secession will be allowed. While we're at it you must reimburse us for any federally built roads, dams, parks, etc. All money owed the federal government or those representing the federal government must be paid in full. Do not expect the USA military to protect you your on your own so try not to piss off those Mexican drug lords. Since you don't want to be part of the USA your borders will be closed.

Texas tried once, and all it got was a smaller population. Me thinks the second time isn't the charm.

from sneaking into the US?

does not mean that DU should be so cruel to all the lovely citizens who live there. Ann Richards and LBJ and Molly Ivins come immediately to my mind as exceptional citizens who contributed to our nation, who would be appalled at the disparagement of their home state in this DU segment. And leave Alabama and Mississippi out of this too. Those of you who live in perfect states with perfect statesmen in charge are the only ones who are allowed to cast stones at the rest of us. Have y'all any idea how many of us in the South are working to change the environment? As a Kentuckian, I am upset to be bundled into a package with a looney tune like Rick Perry.

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Don't let the door hit you on the way out!

I can't believe I have seen so many NUTS here on DU and over on Huffington Post today that are bashing ALL Texans.
Don't ya'll realize that Texas is turning BLUE?
Dont ya'll realize that the majority of people in Austin, Dallas, Houston and many other large and small cities voted more for Obama than McCain?
I am very upset that because of what Perry said that they world rest of the nation is throwing their hate at all of Texas.

Rush lives in New York and most people don't like what he says ... should we throw New York out of the union???

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Leaves a "bitter... dirty... taste in the mouth.

Good riddance you twisted sorry fucks.

Do it! Leave our Union now!

But we get to keep Austin.

The people on this thread are acting no better than Fox News did when they were trying to hold Obama responsible for what Rev. Wright said. Now ya'll are trying to hold ALL people of Texas responsible for what Perry said.

Perry does not talk for all Texans, especially for the 100,000s of us that are democrats.

I agree with you: this thread is full of Dumb Posts of The Day re. the good state of Texas.

I'm quite sure that we are talking about the Governor of Texas here.

If Texans don't agree - they can remove him. I don't see them doing that.

Texas doesn't have a runoff and if Kinky had let his ego step aside we would have a democratic governor right now.

to bash the South.....on and on and on and on