With the growth of the State sovereignty movement, my presentation of information in the right panel has grown longer and longer and longer... and much more unwieldy. To ensure the information is both accurate and maintainable, I have moved the data to a file (called ssr.htm) in the Ohio Republic documentation site. In that file, I have provided the latest status of all the resolutions and links to both the text and the history.
A link will be maintained at the top of this blog, giving the date the information was last updated. I hope this will prove to be of better service to you.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Further evidence that reports of the GOP's demise are not premature
The CNN Political Tickler reports that South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham got into a bout with hecklers at that State's Republican Convention Saturday. It seems that he wants a "big tent" party that "can compete in Connecticut and Pennsylvania" as well as in South Carolina. He then asserted that Ron Paul is not the leader of the party.
The lines are clearly drawn. Sen. Graham's thoroughly discredited neoconservativism or Ron Paul's politics of R[3VOL]UTION. It appears that the neocons are dominant in South Carolina.
The Republican Party, as I have observed, is dying rapidly, or as one commenter to the above post put it, "The GOP is circling the drain."
Virtual buckeye to James at the Ohio Freedom Alliance.
The lines are clearly drawn. Sen. Graham's thoroughly discredited neoconservativism or Ron Paul's politics of R[3VOL]UTION. It appears that the neocons are dominant in South Carolina.
The Republican Party, as I have observed, is dying rapidly, or as one commenter to the above post put it, "The GOP is circling the drain."
Virtual buckeye to James at the Ohio Freedom Alliance.
"Secession is in the water"
... said New York State Senator Andrew Lanza of a bill he has introduced to separate Staten Island from New York City. The same article from silive.com discusses another proposal to make Long Island into a separate State (another idea that has been around for years) and makes a passing reference to a bill in Georgia in favor of secession.
I knew that the State sovereignty resolution SR 632 had passed the Georgia Senate April 1, but I had not read it closely. The resolution as presented in the link is wordy and dense (aggravated by the lack of breaks between paragraphs). However, it is the first resolution passed by a House of a State legislature to contain New Hampshire's secession trigger. This is a noteworthy milestone in American secessionism that should have attracted more notice at the time. Of course, the Atlanta media were not overly enamored with it, as shown in this column by Jay Bookman for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
As Mr. Bookman noted, even in Georgia's most conservative counties, two-thirds of the Republicans are still opposed to secession; so the resolution's timing is probably premature. Still, when we consider the state of the discussion as recently as January, secessionism has come a long way in a very short time.
And we have this declaration from Dan Weintraub in Vermont Commons, "It is time for Vermont to secede." Last October, Mr. Weintraub wrote a piece in Vermont Commons suggesting the idea half tongue-in-cheek. In today's post, he repents for not being more serious. His arguments echo those that have appeared in this space on many occasions, focusing primarily on the economic and environmental unsustainability of the Empire as it currently exists.
Preach on, brother! At this rate, the July 4 State sovereignty rally in Columbus just might find some participants pressing for independence.
Virtual buckeye to Gabe McGranahan for the piece from silive.com .
I knew that the State sovereignty resolution SR 632 had passed the Georgia Senate April 1, but I had not read it closely. The resolution as presented in the link is wordy and dense (aggravated by the lack of breaks between paragraphs). However, it is the first resolution passed by a House of a State legislature to contain New Hampshire's secession trigger. This is a noteworthy milestone in American secessionism that should have attracted more notice at the time. Of course, the Atlanta media were not overly enamored with it, as shown in this column by Jay Bookman for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
As Mr. Bookman noted, even in Georgia's most conservative counties, two-thirds of the Republicans are still opposed to secession; so the resolution's timing is probably premature. Still, when we consider the state of the discussion as recently as January, secessionism has come a long way in a very short time.
And we have this declaration from Dan Weintraub in Vermont Commons, "It is time for Vermont to secede." Last October, Mr. Weintraub wrote a piece in Vermont Commons suggesting the idea half tongue-in-cheek. In today's post, he repents for not being more serious. His arguments echo those that have appeared in this space on many occasions, focusing primarily on the economic and environmental unsustainability of the Empire as it currently exists.
"Why secession? Simply put, because our nation can never recover from the decades of corruption and duplicity and greed that have led us to this abyss lest our leaders attempt to do so through means that are anathema to the righteous moral and ethical lives, hearts and minds of the citizens of Vermont. Our leaders will do anything to save the system. And we can no longer be party to such actions. It is time for us to leave...
"A nation borne of the dreams of Enlightenment righteousness has fallen prey to the greed and corruption and theft of the robber barons and Wall Street moguls. And it has gone on for so long, and the nation has incurred such massive amounts of DEBT, that no medicine can cure the disease. On every level, "large" has failed. Small communities--if prepared and coordinated---will be able to construct social, political and economic systems that will allow these communities to exist at a comfortable "subsistence" level."
Preach on, brother! At this rate, the July 4 State sovereignty rally in Columbus just might find some participants pressing for independence.
Virtual buckeye to Gabe McGranahan for the piece from silive.com .
Monday, May 18, 2009
Prize spurs officials to collaborate
Here's some good news from Northeastern Ohio, as reported by Patrick O'Donnell at The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer:
An non-profit organization known as The Fund for Our Economic Future has posted $300,000 in prize money, to be paid for the best ideas to cut costs and improve services by sharing projects with neighboring cities. The 44 proposals come in various sizes, from the very small to the very large. The public will vote for the winners in a July vote.
All entries must involve cooperation between at least two government agencies to save money or improve services, with the prize being used to implement (not just research) the project.
Examples of proposals include joint equipment purchases, teleconferencing, building new facilities (such as parking and maintenance garages and a recreation center), and combining fire services (such as dispatch and arson investigation).
Brad Whitehead, president of the Fund, said that "many of the proposals may seem simple and obvious, but that's part of the point." Mr. Whitehead "hopes governments will find ways to follow even the proposals that do not win. 'The beauty of this thing is how much of it makes sense,' he said. 'It's all just logical stuff to do.'"
Ohio's tradition of practical innovation at work in the governmental sector! I hope this initiative proves to be wildly successful and spreads to the rest of the State! The other nice thing about it is that it promotes networking, a much more efficient alternative to the consolidation too often advocated for cost savings (for example, by Ohio columnist Thomas Suddes).
An non-profit organization known as The Fund for Our Economic Future has posted $300,000 in prize money, to be paid for the best ideas to cut costs and improve services by sharing projects with neighboring cities. The 44 proposals come in various sizes, from the very small to the very large. The public will vote for the winners in a July vote.
All entries must involve cooperation between at least two government agencies to save money or improve services, with the prize being used to implement (not just research) the project.
Examples of proposals include joint equipment purchases, teleconferencing, building new facilities (such as parking and maintenance garages and a recreation center), and combining fire services (such as dispatch and arson investigation).
Brad Whitehead, president of the Fund, said that "many of the proposals may seem simple and obvious, but that's part of the point." Mr. Whitehead "hopes governments will find ways to follow even the proposals that do not win. 'The beauty of this thing is how much of it makes sense,' he said. 'It's all just logical stuff to do.'"
Ohio's tradition of practical innovation at work in the governmental sector! I hope this initiative proves to be wildly successful and spreads to the rest of the State! The other nice thing about it is that it promotes networking, a much more efficient alternative to the consolidation too often advocated for cost savings (for example, by Ohio columnist Thomas Suddes).
You are brilliant, and the earth is hiring
Following is a commencement address by Paul Hawken to the graduating class of the University of Portland, reprinted in full from http://www.culturechange.org/. It needs no comment from me.
When I was invited to give this speech, I was asked if I could give a simple short talk that was “direct, naked, taut, honest, passionate, lean, shivering, startling, and graceful.” Boy, no pressure there.
But let’s begin with the startling part. Hey, Class of 2009: you are going to have to figure out what it means to be a human being on earth at a time when every living system is declining, and the rate of decline is accelerating. Kind of a mind-boggling situation... but not one peer-reviewed paper published in the last thirty years can refute that statement. Basically, the earth needs a new operating system, you are the programmers, and we need it within a few decades.
This planet came with a set of operating instructions, but we seem to have misplaced them. Important rules like don’t poison the water, soil, or air, and don’t let the earth get overcrowded, and don’t touch the thermostat have been broken. Buckminster Fuller said that spaceship earth was so ingeniously designed that no one has a clue that we are on one, flying through the universe at a million miles per hour, with no need for seatbelts, lots of room in coach, and really good food, but all that is changing.
There is invisible writing on the back of the diploma you will receive, and in case you didn’t bring lemon juice to decode it, I can tell you what it says: YOU ARE BRILLIANT, AND THE EARTH IS HIRING. The earth couldn’t afford to send any recruiters or limos to your school. It sent you rain, sunsets, ripe cherries, night blooming jasmine, and that unbelievably cute person you are dating. Take the hint. And here’s the deal: Forget that this task of planet-saving is not possible in the time required. Don’t be put off by people who know what is not possible. Do what needs to be done, and check to see if it was impossible only after you are done.
When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world. The poet Adrienne Rich wrote, “So much has been destroyed I have cast my lot with those who, age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world.” There could be no better description. Humanity is coalescing. It is reconstituting the world, and the action is taking place in schoolrooms, farms, jungles, villages, campuses, companies, refuge camps, deserts, fisheries, and slums.
You join a multitude of caring people. No one knows how many groups and organizations are working on the most salient issues of our day: climate change, poverty, deforestation, peace, water, hunger, conservation, human rights, and more. This is the largest movement the world has ever seen. Rather than control, it seeks connection. Rather than dominance, it strives to disperse concentrations of power. Like Mercy Corps, it works behind the scenes and gets the job done. Large as it is, no one knows the true size of this movement. It provides hope, support, and meaning to billions of people in the world. Its clout resides in idea, not in force. It is made up of teachers, children, peasants, businesspeople, rappers, organic farmers, nuns, artists, government workers, fisherfolk, engineers, students, incorrigible writers, weeping Muslims, concerned mothers, poets, doctors without borders, grieving Christians, street musicians, the President of the United States of America, and as the writer David James Duncan would say, the Creator, the One who loves us all in such a huge way.
There is a rabbinical teaching that says if the world is ending and the Messiah arrives, first plant a tree, and then see if the story is true. Inspiration is not garnered from the litanies of what may befall us; it resides in humanity’s willingness to restore, redress, reform, rebuild, recover, reimagine, and reconsider. “One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice,” is Mary Oliver’s description of moving away from the profane toward a deep sense of connectedness to the living world.
Millions of people are working on behalf of strangers, even if the evening news is usually about the death of strangers. This kindness of strangers has religious, even mythic origins, and very specific eighteenth-century roots. Abolitionists were the first people to create a national and global movement to defend the rights of those they did not know. Until that time, no group had filed a grievance except on behalf of itself. The founders of this movement were largely unknown Granville Clark, Thomas Clarkson, Josiah Wedgwood and their goal was ridiculous on the face of it: at that time three out of four people in the world were enslaved. Enslaving each other was what human beings had done for ages. And the abolitionist movement was greeted with incredulity. Conservative spokesmen ridiculed the abolitionists as liberals, progressives, do-gooders, meddlers, and activists. They were told they would ruin the economy and drive England into poverty. But for the first time in history a group of people organized themselves to help people they would never know, from whom they would never receive direct or indirect benefit.. And today tens of millions of people do this every day. It is called the world of non-profits, civil society, schools, social entrepreneurship, and non-governmental organizations, of companies who place social and environmental justice at the top of their strategic goals. The scope and scale of this effort is unparalleled in history.
The living world is not “out there” somewhere, but in your heart. What do we know about life? In the words of biologist Janine Benyus, life creates the conditions that are conducive to life. I can think of no better motto for a future economy. We have tens of thousands of abandoned homes without people and tens of thousands of abandoned people without homes. We have failed bankers advising failed regulators on how to save failed assets. Think about this: we are the only species on this planet without full employment. Brilliant. We have an economy that tells us that it is cheaper to destroy earth in real time than to renew, restore, and sustain it. You can print money to bail out a bank but you can’t print life to bail out a planet. At present we are stealing the future, selling it in the present, and calling it gross domestic product. We can just as easily have an economy that is based on healing the future instead of stealing it. We can either create assets for the future or take the assets of the future. One is called restoration and the other exploitation. And whenever we exploit the earth we exploit people and cause untold suffering. Working for the earth is not a way to get rich, it is a way to be rich.
The first living cell came into being nearly 40 million centuries ago, and its direct descendants are in all of our bloodstreams. Literally you are breathing molecules this very second that were inhaled by Moses, Mother Teresa, and Bono. We are vastly interconnected. Our fates are inseparable. We are here because the dream of every cell is to become two cells. In each of you are one quadrillion cells, 90 percent of which are not human cells. Your body is a community, and without those other microorganisms you would perish in hours. Each human cell has 400 billion molecules conducting millions of processes between trillions of atoms. The total cellular activity in one human body is staggering: one septillion actions at any one moment, a one with twenty-four zeros after it. In a millisecond, our body has undergone ten times more processes than there are stars in the universe exactly what Charles Darwin foretold when he said science would discover that each living creature was a “little universe, formed of a host of self-propagating organisms, inconceivably minute and as numerous as the stars of heaven.”
So I have two questions for you all: First, can you feel your body? Stop for a moment. Feel your body. One septillion activities going on simultaneously, and your body does this so well you are free to ignore it, and wonder instead when this speech will end. Second question: who is in charge of your body? Who is managing those molecules? Hopefully not a political party. Life is creating the conditions that are conducive to life inside you, just as in all of nature. What I want you to imagine is that collectively humanity is evincing a deep innate wisdom in coming together to heal the wounds and insults of the past.
Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every thousand years. No one would sleep that night, of course. The world would become religious overnight. We would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God. Instead the stars come out every night, and we watch television.
This extraordinary time when we are globally aware of each other and the multiple dangers that threaten civilization has never happened, not in a thousand years, not in ten thousand years. Each of us is as complex and beautiful as all the stars in the universe. We have done great things and we have gone way off course in terms of honoring creation. You are graduating to the most amazing, challenging, stupefying challenge ever bequested to any generation. The generations before you failed. They didn’t stay up all night. They got distracted and lost sight of the fact that life is a miracle every moment of your existence. Nature beckons you to be on her side. You couldn’t ask for a better boss. The most unrealistic person in the world is the cynic, not the dreamer. Hopefulness only makes sense when it doesn’t make sense to be hopeful. This is your century. Take it and run as if your life depends on it.
Paul Hawken (http://www.paulhawken.com/) is a renowned entrepreneur, visionary environmental activist, and author of many books, most recently Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming. He was presented with an honorary doctorate of humane letters by University president Father Bill Beauchamp, C.S.C., in May, when he delivered this superb speech. Our thanks especially to Erica Linson for her help making that moment possible.
Virtual buckeye to Carolyn Baker ("Truth to Power") at Vermont Commons.
When I was invited to give this speech, I was asked if I could give a simple short talk that was “direct, naked, taut, honest, passionate, lean, shivering, startling, and graceful.” Boy, no pressure there.
But let’s begin with the startling part. Hey, Class of 2009: you are going to have to figure out what it means to be a human being on earth at a time when every living system is declining, and the rate of decline is accelerating. Kind of a mind-boggling situation... but not one peer-reviewed paper published in the last thirty years can refute that statement. Basically, the earth needs a new operating system, you are the programmers, and we need it within a few decades.
This planet came with a set of operating instructions, but we seem to have misplaced them. Important rules like don’t poison the water, soil, or air, and don’t let the earth get overcrowded, and don’t touch the thermostat have been broken. Buckminster Fuller said that spaceship earth was so ingeniously designed that no one has a clue that we are on one, flying through the universe at a million miles per hour, with no need for seatbelts, lots of room in coach, and really good food, but all that is changing.
There is invisible writing on the back of the diploma you will receive, and in case you didn’t bring lemon juice to decode it, I can tell you what it says: YOU ARE BRILLIANT, AND THE EARTH IS HIRING. The earth couldn’t afford to send any recruiters or limos to your school. It sent you rain, sunsets, ripe cherries, night blooming jasmine, and that unbelievably cute person you are dating. Take the hint. And here’s the deal: Forget that this task of planet-saving is not possible in the time required. Don’t be put off by people who know what is not possible. Do what needs to be done, and check to see if it was impossible only after you are done.
When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world. The poet Adrienne Rich wrote, “So much has been destroyed I have cast my lot with those who, age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world.” There could be no better description. Humanity is coalescing. It is reconstituting the world, and the action is taking place in schoolrooms, farms, jungles, villages, campuses, companies, refuge camps, deserts, fisheries, and slums.
You join a multitude of caring people. No one knows how many groups and organizations are working on the most salient issues of our day: climate change, poverty, deforestation, peace, water, hunger, conservation, human rights, and more. This is the largest movement the world has ever seen. Rather than control, it seeks connection. Rather than dominance, it strives to disperse concentrations of power. Like Mercy Corps, it works behind the scenes and gets the job done. Large as it is, no one knows the true size of this movement. It provides hope, support, and meaning to billions of people in the world. Its clout resides in idea, not in force. It is made up of teachers, children, peasants, businesspeople, rappers, organic farmers, nuns, artists, government workers, fisherfolk, engineers, students, incorrigible writers, weeping Muslims, concerned mothers, poets, doctors without borders, grieving Christians, street musicians, the President of the United States of America, and as the writer David James Duncan would say, the Creator, the One who loves us all in such a huge way.
There is a rabbinical teaching that says if the world is ending and the Messiah arrives, first plant a tree, and then see if the story is true. Inspiration is not garnered from the litanies of what may befall us; it resides in humanity’s willingness to restore, redress, reform, rebuild, recover, reimagine, and reconsider. “One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice,” is Mary Oliver’s description of moving away from the profane toward a deep sense of connectedness to the living world.
Millions of people are working on behalf of strangers, even if the evening news is usually about the death of strangers. This kindness of strangers has religious, even mythic origins, and very specific eighteenth-century roots. Abolitionists were the first people to create a national and global movement to defend the rights of those they did not know. Until that time, no group had filed a grievance except on behalf of itself. The founders of this movement were largely unknown Granville Clark, Thomas Clarkson, Josiah Wedgwood and their goal was ridiculous on the face of it: at that time three out of four people in the world were enslaved. Enslaving each other was what human beings had done for ages. And the abolitionist movement was greeted with incredulity. Conservative spokesmen ridiculed the abolitionists as liberals, progressives, do-gooders, meddlers, and activists. They were told they would ruin the economy and drive England into poverty. But for the first time in history a group of people organized themselves to help people they would never know, from whom they would never receive direct or indirect benefit.. And today tens of millions of people do this every day. It is called the world of non-profits, civil society, schools, social entrepreneurship, and non-governmental organizations, of companies who place social and environmental justice at the top of their strategic goals. The scope and scale of this effort is unparalleled in history.
The living world is not “out there” somewhere, but in your heart. What do we know about life? In the words of biologist Janine Benyus, life creates the conditions that are conducive to life. I can think of no better motto for a future economy. We have tens of thousands of abandoned homes without people and tens of thousands of abandoned people without homes. We have failed bankers advising failed regulators on how to save failed assets. Think about this: we are the only species on this planet without full employment. Brilliant. We have an economy that tells us that it is cheaper to destroy earth in real time than to renew, restore, and sustain it. You can print money to bail out a bank but you can’t print life to bail out a planet. At present we are stealing the future, selling it in the present, and calling it gross domestic product. We can just as easily have an economy that is based on healing the future instead of stealing it. We can either create assets for the future or take the assets of the future. One is called restoration and the other exploitation. And whenever we exploit the earth we exploit people and cause untold suffering. Working for the earth is not a way to get rich, it is a way to be rich.
The first living cell came into being nearly 40 million centuries ago, and its direct descendants are in all of our bloodstreams. Literally you are breathing molecules this very second that were inhaled by Moses, Mother Teresa, and Bono. We are vastly interconnected. Our fates are inseparable. We are here because the dream of every cell is to become two cells. In each of you are one quadrillion cells, 90 percent of which are not human cells. Your body is a community, and without those other microorganisms you would perish in hours. Each human cell has 400 billion molecules conducting millions of processes between trillions of atoms. The total cellular activity in one human body is staggering: one septillion actions at any one moment, a one with twenty-four zeros after it. In a millisecond, our body has undergone ten times more processes than there are stars in the universe exactly what Charles Darwin foretold when he said science would discover that each living creature was a “little universe, formed of a host of self-propagating organisms, inconceivably minute and as numerous as the stars of heaven.”
So I have two questions for you all: First, can you feel your body? Stop for a moment. Feel your body. One septillion activities going on simultaneously, and your body does this so well you are free to ignore it, and wonder instead when this speech will end. Second question: who is in charge of your body? Who is managing those molecules? Hopefully not a political party. Life is creating the conditions that are conducive to life inside you, just as in all of nature. What I want you to imagine is that collectively humanity is evincing a deep innate wisdom in coming together to heal the wounds and insults of the past.
Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every thousand years. No one would sleep that night, of course. The world would become religious overnight. We would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God. Instead the stars come out every night, and we watch television.
This extraordinary time when we are globally aware of each other and the multiple dangers that threaten civilization has never happened, not in a thousand years, not in ten thousand years. Each of us is as complex and beautiful as all the stars in the universe. We have done great things and we have gone way off course in terms of honoring creation. You are graduating to the most amazing, challenging, stupefying challenge ever bequested to any generation. The generations before you failed. They didn’t stay up all night. They got distracted and lost sight of the fact that life is a miracle every moment of your existence. Nature beckons you to be on her side. You couldn’t ask for a better boss. The most unrealistic person in the world is the cynic, not the dreamer. Hopefulness only makes sense when it doesn’t make sense to be hopeful. This is your century. Take it and run as if your life depends on it.
Paul Hawken (http://www.paulhawken.com/) is a renowned entrepreneur, visionary environmental activist, and author of many books, most recently Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming. He was presented with an honorary doctorate of humane letters by University president Father Bill Beauchamp, C.S.C., in May, when he delivered this superb speech. Our thanks especially to Erica Linson for her help making that moment possible.
Virtual buckeye to Carolyn Baker ("Truth to Power") at Vermont Commons.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Getting down to the brass knuckles
Why do some elected officials at the State level feel threatened by the Tenth Amendment and the State sovereignty movement? John Bowman at LewRockwell.com has some interesting thoughts based on a little-known sixteenth-century French philosopher, Étienne de la Boétie. In la Boétie's book The Politics of Obedience, he explains why ordinary people accept servitude:
Mr. Bowman applies this withdrawal of support to the growth of the State sovereignty movement. He asks the same question we have stated in this space many times, "Do the [people] not realize that they are merely recovering a portion of their own property, and that these federal funds could not be given them without having first been taken from them?"
The national solution to this problem would be to get Congress to end the Federal Reserve, the Infernal Revenue Service, and repealed the Sixteenth Amendment -- but we might as well expect to see pigs fly (outside of a monument in Cincinnati). The easier solution is secession. Once a State refused to allow the Feds to collect their taxes at the expense of its people and businesses, other States would have to follow suit, if for no other reason than that failure to do so would spark an exodus to the "free" State.
The State sovereignty resolutions are a license from the State legislatures to themselves to resist Federal authority where it is not Constitutionally warranted. Failure to assert our own sovereignty, then, is an admission that we prefer servitude to freedom.
Virtual buckeye to Gabe McGranahan, a leading State sovereignty activist in Ohio.
"The fundamental political question is why do people obey a government. The answer is that they tend to enslave themselves, to let themselves be governed by tyrants. Freedom from servitude comes not from violent action, but from the refusal to serve. Tyrants fall when the people withdraw their support."
Mr. Bowman applies this withdrawal of support to the growth of the State sovereignty movement. He asks the same question we have stated in this space many times, "Do the [people] not realize that they are merely recovering a portion of their own property, and that these federal funds could not be given them without having first been taken from them?"
The national solution to this problem would be to get Congress to end the Federal Reserve, the Infernal Revenue Service, and repealed the Sixteenth Amendment -- but we might as well expect to see pigs fly (outside of a monument in Cincinnati). The easier solution is secession. Once a State refused to allow the Feds to collect their taxes at the expense of its people and businesses, other States would have to follow suit, if for no other reason than that failure to do so would spark an exodus to the "free" State.
The State sovereignty resolutions are a license from the State legislatures to themselves to resist Federal authority where it is not Constitutionally warranted. Failure to assert our own sovereignty, then, is an admission that we prefer servitude to freedom.
Virtual buckeye to Gabe McGranahan, a leading State sovereignty activist in Ohio.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Ohio House committee holds first hearing on HCR 11
The Ohio House State Government Committee held its first hearing on the Ohio State sovereignty resolution (HCR 11) Wednesday afternoon. By custom, the first hearing is usually reserved for testimony from the cosponsors. HCR 11's cosponsors, Reps. Kris Jordan (R-Delaware) and Jarrod Martin (R-Beavercreek) gave testimony in support of the resolution.
Rep. Martin discussed the Constitutional basis for the Tenth Amendment, and cited the No Child Left Behind Act, REAL ID, and a proposed transfer of terrorists from Guantánamo to Ohio as examples of how the Federal government has ignored the Tenth Amendment. He emphasized the non-partisan, non-secessionist nature of the resolution. Kris Jordan followed by noting that 35 other states have done the same, and by discussing a quotation of Thomas Jefferson, "When the people fear the government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty."
Rep. Matt Lundy (D-Avon Lake) asked both Representatives how Ohioans fear the Federal government, how liberties have been chipped away. The essence of Rep. Martin's answer was that Americans are fearful due to economic concerns, and that rights have been chipped away by Federal planning.
Rep. Lundy asked what Ohioans should do. Rep. Jordan answered that we should support HCR 11 and other language in support of sovereignty, then adopt State policies that implement these.
Rep. Lundy noted that Texas had put in stronger language -- why did we leave the secessionist language out? If there is greater Federal intervention, would Rep. Martin entertain the idea of secession? Rep. Martin's reply: "People aren't carrying pitchforks -- that kind of talk takes us out of serious debate, and we need serious debate on this issue."
Then Rep. Dale Mallory (D-Cincinnati), noting that Reps. Jordan and Martin had appealed so much to history, asked who George Washington's troops were fighting when they crossed the Delaware. The answer was that both Representatives were educated in the public schools and did not know the answer. (It was a trick question: the Hessians, British allies, were across the river).
It is hard to tell whether the testimony had any influence on the Democratic majority on the committee. On the one hand, the questions were more neutral than I expected. I thought that Rep. Lundy's question on secession was an effective ploy, brilliantly countered by Rep. Martin.
It will take considerable pressure by supporters of HCR 11, particularly in the districts held by the Democratic members, to secure a second hearing. Supporters (regardless of district) need to flood the Committee members with e-mails, letters, and phone calls in support of the resolution! Here is contact information for the House State Government Committee.
Rep. Martin discussed the Constitutional basis for the Tenth Amendment, and cited the No Child Left Behind Act, REAL ID, and a proposed transfer of terrorists from Guantánamo to Ohio as examples of how the Federal government has ignored the Tenth Amendment. He emphasized the non-partisan, non-secessionist nature of the resolution. Kris Jordan followed by noting that 35 other states have done the same, and by discussing a quotation of Thomas Jefferson, "When the people fear the government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty."
Rep. Matt Lundy (D-Avon Lake) asked both Representatives how Ohioans fear the Federal government, how liberties have been chipped away. The essence of Rep. Martin's answer was that Americans are fearful due to economic concerns, and that rights have been chipped away by Federal planning.
Rep. Lundy asked what Ohioans should do. Rep. Jordan answered that we should support HCR 11 and other language in support of sovereignty, then adopt State policies that implement these.
Rep. Lundy noted that Texas had put in stronger language -- why did we leave the secessionist language out? If there is greater Federal intervention, would Rep. Martin entertain the idea of secession? Rep. Martin's reply: "People aren't carrying pitchforks -- that kind of talk takes us out of serious debate, and we need serious debate on this issue."
Then Rep. Dale Mallory (D-Cincinnati), noting that Reps. Jordan and Martin had appealed so much to history, asked who George Washington's troops were fighting when they crossed the Delaware. The answer was that both Representatives were educated in the public schools and did not know the answer. (It was a trick question: the Hessians, British allies, were across the river).
It is hard to tell whether the testimony had any influence on the Democratic majority on the committee. On the one hand, the questions were more neutral than I expected. I thought that Rep. Lundy's question on secession was an effective ploy, brilliantly countered by Rep. Martin.
It will take considerable pressure by supporters of HCR 11, particularly in the districts held by the Democratic members, to secure a second hearing. Supporters (regardless of district) need to flood the Committee members with e-mails, letters, and phone calls in support of the resolution! Here is contact information for the House State Government Committee.
Republicans in the wilderness: Is there a way out?
Ed Gamble's cartoon published today in the Columbus Dispatch and other newspapers (no link available) neatly summarizes the problem with the Republican Party. It depicts the GOP elephant in the wilderness getting conflicting exit instructions from RNC Chairman Michael Steele and Rush Limbaugh. No one questions that the Republican Party is in the wilderness. My question is, is it worth the effort to get the Republican Party out?
The Republicans sold themselves out to the military-industrial complex when they bought into neoconservative big government at the Federal level. Their traditional principles, known as paleoconservatism, held for smaller Federal government, balanced budgets, and maximum personal and economic freedom. Today's Republican Party can claim none of these.
Face it, Republicans. There is no credibility left. America needs new political movements that people can buy into. Let's give the GOP a decent burial and go on.
The Republicans sold themselves out to the military-industrial complex when they bought into neoconservative big government at the Federal level. Their traditional principles, known as paleoconservatism, held for smaller Federal government, balanced budgets, and maximum personal and economic freedom. Today's Republican Party can claim none of these.
Face it, Republicans. There is no credibility left. America needs new political movements that people can buy into. Let's give the GOP a decent burial and go on.
Friday, May 8, 2009
It's official now -- the Ohio Senate resolution is SCR 13
The State Sovereignty resolution was officially introduced in the Ohio Senate yesterday, and has been assigned the number SCR 13. I think 13 is going to be our lucky number...! Write to your State Senator and urge him or her to support SCR 13!
Oklahoma, corrected
A commenter to my post May 6 pointed out that that Oklahoma's HCR 1028 has only passed the House, and has not been enacted, as I reported. The resolution has passed its first hearing in the Senate, where approval is expected -- but has not yet occurred.
I have corrected the data in the right panel accordingly.
I have corrected the data in the right panel accordingly.
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