Europe: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Luxemgourg, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom, Andorra, France, Italy, Liechtenstein, Malta, Monaco, Portugal, San Marino, Spain, Switzerland, Vatican City, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Macedonia, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Romania.
Asia: Bahrain, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuiwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Georgia, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Kyrgystan, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam.
Oceania: New Zealand, Papua, New Guinea, Solomon Islands.
North and Central America: Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama.
The Caribbean: Bahamas, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica.
South America: Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Suriname, Uraguay.
Africa: Djibouti, Eritea, Kenya, Seychelles, Tunisia, Benin, Burkina, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea- Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Burundi, Cameroon, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Rwanda, Uganda, Botswana, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Swaziland, Zimbabwe.
The above is for those who think Texas is too small to be an independent republic or too small to make it on her own. God Bless Texas!
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Will Austin Become "Liberty Central?"
Will Texas become "Liberty Central" or "Little Washington?"
by Russell D. Longcore
The Texas Nationalist Movement is working hard to sell secession to its fellow Texans. And some state here in the not good ol’ US is eventually going to succeed at seceding. But there are a lot of very complicated issues facing any state that will have to be settled in advance.
Texas has as good a chance at secession success as any...maybe even better. They have a long tradition of independence, having fought for that independence from Mexico in 1836. But in reality, Texas was only a nation for nine years! They lost their minds in 1845 and assumed their place in American statehood. They’ve been a subservient state for 164 years. But at least they WERE a nation before becoming a state. Everyone makes mistakes. Forgive them.
So Texas could have the chance of becoming a new nation. But will Austin, the state capitol, become a beacon of liberty for the rest of the world, or simply a smaller version of Washington DC?
24.6 million people live in Texas. Let’s estimate that half are registered voters. If the Nationalists can get a referendum for secession on a state-wide ballot someday, then about 6.2 million Texans will have to vote "Yes" for secession. That’s a pretty tall order. Not impossible, but daunting.
But that’s when the work begins.
The leaders of New Texas will need a brain trust of legal minds, economists and policy strategists that can assist them as they take their first steps into a very new world. I recommend to those New Texas leaders that they put The Mises Institute on their speed dial. The Mises Institute is a liberty-promoting, free market think tank in Auburn, Alabama. The faculty and staff are the most cutting-edge thinkers on earth today.
Listed below are just 20 of the issues that Texans would have to settle in order to build a new nation.
1. A formal Declaration of Independence and Secession would have to be written and ratified, likely by the legislature and signed by the Governor. A date for presenting that document to someone like the sitting US President would have to be chosen.
2. The actual form of the new government must be chosen. Will it be a Constitutional Republic...a Parliament...what? Remember that this is a new constitution for a single nation, not a confederacy of nations. The new constitution doesn’t need to be articles of confederation, but should be more like the Virginia Constitution of 1776 or the Swiss canton system.
3. Will all the existing politicians in Texas have to stand for election in the new government? The present legislators in Austin may be infected with statism and opponents of sovereignty. I nominate Ron Paul as the first President of New Texas.
4. Monetary policy is the keystone of the new nation. All commerce, and the very existence of New Texas hangs on this one issue. But if Texas decides to adopt any monetary policy other than 100% gold dollar, it will have swallowed the poison pill of Keynesianism before its life even begins. No government in the history of mankind has devalued its money and survived. Not One.
4. Courts system – Will the new Texas begin with a clean slate, or will it adopt the corrupt American court precedents existing today? You can predict that entrenched interests in the legal system will attempt to tie up the secession in court forever. Where will Texas find judges that are pro-secession? Will Texans allow themselves to be drawn into Federal legal battles when the US should have no jurisdiction in secession?
5. What method of tax collection will the new nation choose? Any income tax will likely foment yet another revolution.
6. There are a lot of Federal lands and military bases in Texas. Will the new nation buy them from Washington or simply confiscate them? And why should the New Texas national government presume that it should own the former Federal lands and bases? Should they not be sold to private parties?
7. The new Texas will have to create an immigration policy. Not only is there the existing problem with the Texas/Mexican border, but hundreds of thousands of Americans will want to relocate to Texas to take part in the birth of the new nation.
8. Millions of Texans presently receive Social Security benefits of some sort. What will happen to their benefits after secession? Will Washington cut them off in retaliation? Will Texas assume that obligation?
9. Privatization of state services – will Texas try to set up new bureaucracies to deliver mail, collect the taxes, etc? The free market always performs better than government, and no compelling reason can be made for government service.
9. Law Enforcement is already entrenched in every niche and corner of Texas. Will the new Texas continue with the failed War on Drugs, or recognize that drugs are morally equal to alcohol and lift its prohibition?
10. What will the New Texas do about a military? Will it embrace a national militia like Switzerland, or establish Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines?
11. Foreign policy issues will involve border states and other sovereign nations. Will New Texas make the same foreign policy blunders that Washington loves to make?
12. Will New Texas assume the liability of a Medicare/Medicaid system?
13. Will New Texas protect religious liberty and eschew religious subsidy? After all, there is no practical reason that religious organizations and churches should enjoy tax-free status at the expense of the rest of the population. This issue will be decided as New Texas forms tax policy.
14. Insurance makes the world go around. New Texas will need the wisdom of Solomon in its Department of Insurance to properly regulate insurance companies.
15. Securities law must be enacted. But copying the corrupt FTC and SEC won’t work.
16. How many of the existing US Cabinet offices will find a place in the New Texas government? New Texas would probably run fine without most of the unconstitutional bureaucracies operating in Washington today. Copying Washington won’t work.
17. Texas is a microcosm of all the environmental issues facing America today. The "greenies" will fight hard to continue some of the dumb environmental laws in New Texas. They have money and they are patient.
18. New Texas will have to make an early decision on public education. Will New Texas continue the failed policies of the federal Department of Education and the deathgrip of the teacher’s unions?
19. Texas has great colleges and universities. What will happen to them when Federal money dries up? More importantly, will Texas football teams be thrown out of American football conferences and the BCS? God help us.
20. New Texas will need an intelligent Energy policy which embraces nuclear energy, oil and gas, and alternative sources. Texas must throw off the American regulations that prohibit new nuclear power plants. 100% of the electricity for New Texas should come from nuclear power.
New Texas has the real chance to become the freest place on earth. But it won’t achieve that status if it simply becomes Washington West. The reason for secession is Washington and statism. The men and women crafting a New Texas must keep their vision of liberty in our lifetimes always before them as they do their holy work.
DumpDC...Six Letters That Can Change History.
Texas can be "Liberty Central", Texas can be the leader of a new freedom in the Americas. What would it mean for the United States when Texas becomes independent again? It would mean that other states in the union would leave or that the U.S. would return to the federalism that was intended from the start and return power back to the states where it is supposed to be. Russell poses a lot of legitimate questions about Texas secession. Breaking away from an empire and going on your own is a difficult process and it would behoove the Texas Nationalist Movement to study the transition that the Eastern European states went through with the Soviet empire. But the most important thing at this stage is win the hearts of the Texas people for nothing can happen until that is done first. God Bless Texas!
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Secession Movement Moves Beyond Texas
Secession Movement Moves Well Beyond Texas
By Anna M. Tinsley
AUSTIN, Texas — As head of the Texas Nationalist Movement, Daniel Miller of Nederland believes it's time for the Lone Star State to sever its bond with the United States and return to the days when Texas was an independent republic."Independence. In our lifetime," Miller's organization proclaims on its Web site.When Texas Gov. Rick Perry suggested that some Texans might want to secede from the Union because they are fed up with the federal government, the remarks drew nationwide news coverage and became fodder for late-night comedians.
But to Texas separatists like Miller and Republican gubernatorial candidate Larry Kilgore of Mansfield, secession is no laughing matter. Nor is it exclusive to the nation's second-largest state. Fanned by angry contempt for Washington, secession movements have sprouted up in perhaps more than a dozen states in recent years. In Vermont, retired economics professor Thomas Naylor leads the Second Vermont Republic, a self-styled citizens network dedicated to extracting the sparsely populated New England state from "the American Empire."
And on the other side of the continent, Northwestern separatists envision a "Republic of Cascadia" carved out of Oregon, Washington and the Canadian province of British Columbia.While most Americans dismiss the breakaway sentiments, sociologists and political experts say they are part of a larger anti-Washington wave that is rapidly spreading across the country. More commonplace are states' rights movements to directly challenge federal laws, a citizen revolt that one scholar says is unparalleled in modern times. Among the actions in which states are thumbing their nose at Washington: Montana and Tennessee have enacted legislation declaring that firearms made and kept within those states are beyond the authority of the federal government. Similar versions of the law, known as the Firearms Freedom Act, have been introduced in at least four other states. Arizona lawmakers will let voters decide a proposed state constitutional amendment that would opt the state out of federal health care mandates under consideration in Congress.
The amendment will be placed on the November 2010 ballot. Republican state Rep. Nancy Barto said five other states considered similar versions of the amendment this year and at least nine others are expected to do so next year. Nearly two dozen states have approved resolutions refusing to participate in the Real ID Act of 2005, which requires that driver's licenses and state ID cards conform to federal standards. A campaign called "Bring the Guard Home" is pushing legislation in 23 states that would empower governors to recall state National Guard units from Iraq on the premise that the federal law authorizing such deployments has expired. "It's gaining momentum, to say the least," said Jim Draeger, program manager for Peace Action Wisconsin. He said the initiative has a respectable chance of passing the Legislature in his state.
Rising public anger over the way Washington does business has produced a growing outcry for state sovereignty and strict adherence to the 10th Amendment, which says powers not specifically delegated to the federal government by the Constitution belong to the states.Texas was an epicenter for this year's "tea party" protests, in which thousands of Americans displayed their contempt for rising taxes and federal intrusion.Michael Boldin, founder of the Tenth Amendment Center in Los Angeles, a think tank that monitors states' rights activity, said defiance of federal policy is "unprecedented" and cuts across the philosophical spectrum, ranging from staunch conservatives to anti-war activists to civil libertarians. Legislatures in 37 states, he said, have introduced state sovereignty resolutions and at least seven have passed.
Perry, who faces a hard-fought Republican primary challenge from U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, has made state sovereignty one of his signature themes. During the 2009 Legislature, he endorsed an unsuccessful resolution supporting the 10th Amendment, asserting that "our federal government has become oppressive in its size, its intrusion into the lives of our citizens, and its interference with the affairs of our state."After a tea party rally in April, Perry told reporters that secession might be on the minds of some Texans disgusted with the federal government.
He later stressed that he wasn't advocating secession, telling the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, "America is a great country, and Texas wants to stay in that union and help our way out of "the nation's economic downturn. But others are advocating secession. In a poll of 1,209 respondents conducted by Zogby International last year, 22 percent said they believed that "any state or region" has the right to secede and become an independent republic, and 18 percent said they would support a secessionist movement in their state. Conversely, more than 70 percent expressed opposition to secession. Kirk Sale of Mount Pleasant, S.C., formed the Middlebury Institute in 2004 for the study of "separatism, secession and self-determination." The institute conducted the Third North American Secessionist Convention in New Hampshire in 2008, drawing delegates from about two dozen secessionist organizations in the United States and Canada.
Secessionist organizations are operating at various levels of activity in Texas, Vermont, New Hampshire, Alaska and Hawaii. Breakaway sentiments and anger at Washington also run high within the Southern National Congress, a 14-state organization to "express Southern grievances and promote Southern interests." Chairman Tom Moore, who lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of southwest Virginia, says the group is "not explicitly a secessionist organization," although "most of our people probably do favor that option."
For many, the mention of secession brings to mind the most turbulent years in American history, when 13 Southern states broke away from the Union in 1860 and '61, plunging the country into a Civil War that claimed at least 618,000 lives but put an end to slavery. In contrast, modern-day secessionists stress that they advocate a peaceful departure and emphatically dismiss criticism that their organizations embrace racism and white supremacy. "We maintain an open-door policy," said Miller, who began forming the Texas Nationalist Movement early in the decade from the remnants of an earlier Texas independence movement. "If you're about freedom, individual freedom, and liberty, and Texas independence, we call you brother or sister." Miller says the group includes Hispanics, African-Americans, women, lifelong Democrats and union members.
"We don't argue race; we don't argue Democrat or Republican," he said. The movement also "predates Obama," he said, pointing out that his organization started well before the president took office in January. Miller, 35, said his involvement comes from a deep-rooted civic responsibility that began when he would accompany his father, a union ironworker, on the picket line.
When Miller was 18, he made an unsuccessful run for mayor of White Oak, a small community outside Longview in East Texas. His call for Texas independence, he said, stems from a belief that Washington's failures are dragging down the Lone Star State. Texas, which outpaces most other states in mineral wealth, agriculture, technology and other sectors, would be far better off as a separate country, he said."We currently have one of the strongest economies in the world," said Miller, a Web-based radio entrepreneur who lives in deep Southeast Texas.
"We've got everything we need to be, not just a viable nation, but a thriving, prosperous nation, except for one thing, independence from the United States." Larry Kilgore, a telecommunications consultant in Mansfield, has made secession a high-profile theme of his Republican campaign for governor. Though overshadowed by the two dominant Republicans in the race, Perry and Hutchison, Kilgore believes his candidacy is stoking interest in secession, and vice versa. He said he gets at least a half-dozen calls and 15 e-mails each day on the issue, in addition to "all kinds of Facebook hits."
"A lot of people have given up on the federal government," Kilgore said. If he becomes governor, he said, he would call a constitutional convention to create a nation of Texas, with voters asked to approve a constitutional amendment to cement the process. Texas emissaries would negotiate with Washington for separation, he said, predicting that the United States and Texas could "still be friends after we split."
I was the head of the Christian Falangist Party of America for over 23 years, I disbanned that organization earlier this year and began looking into the Texas Independence Movement and I liked what I saw. I am a political animal, I love the South but I especially love Texas and nothing on God's green earth excites me more than the thought of a second Texas Republic. Texas is where the South ends and the West begins, it is a unique place that blends Southern, Hispanic, and Cowboy cultures together. There is no place on earth like Texas and I want to be a part of making history and to help make the Republic of Texas a reality. That is why on September 9th of this year I joined the Texas Nationalist Movement. I do not hate the United States and I would love to see our Texas Republic and the U.S.A. be friends and trading partners of course after we leave the union that friendship will depend entirely on Washington City. God Bless Texas!
By Anna M. Tinsley
AUSTIN, Texas — As head of the Texas Nationalist Movement, Daniel Miller of Nederland believes it's time for the Lone Star State to sever its bond with the United States and return to the days when Texas was an independent republic."Independence. In our lifetime," Miller's organization proclaims on its Web site.When Texas Gov. Rick Perry suggested that some Texans might want to secede from the Union because they are fed up with the federal government, the remarks drew nationwide news coverage and became fodder for late-night comedians.
But to Texas separatists like Miller and Republican gubernatorial candidate Larry Kilgore of Mansfield, secession is no laughing matter. Nor is it exclusive to the nation's second-largest state. Fanned by angry contempt for Washington, secession movements have sprouted up in perhaps more than a dozen states in recent years. In Vermont, retired economics professor Thomas Naylor leads the Second Vermont Republic, a self-styled citizens network dedicated to extracting the sparsely populated New England state from "the American Empire."
And on the other side of the continent, Northwestern separatists envision a "Republic of Cascadia" carved out of Oregon, Washington and the Canadian province of British Columbia.While most Americans dismiss the breakaway sentiments, sociologists and political experts say they are part of a larger anti-Washington wave that is rapidly spreading across the country. More commonplace are states' rights movements to directly challenge federal laws, a citizen revolt that one scholar says is unparalleled in modern times. Among the actions in which states are thumbing their nose at Washington: Montana and Tennessee have enacted legislation declaring that firearms made and kept within those states are beyond the authority of the federal government. Similar versions of the law, known as the Firearms Freedom Act, have been introduced in at least four other states. Arizona lawmakers will let voters decide a proposed state constitutional amendment that would opt the state out of federal health care mandates under consideration in Congress.
The amendment will be placed on the November 2010 ballot. Republican state Rep. Nancy Barto said five other states considered similar versions of the amendment this year and at least nine others are expected to do so next year. Nearly two dozen states have approved resolutions refusing to participate in the Real ID Act of 2005, which requires that driver's licenses and state ID cards conform to federal standards. A campaign called "Bring the Guard Home" is pushing legislation in 23 states that would empower governors to recall state National Guard units from Iraq on the premise that the federal law authorizing such deployments has expired. "It's gaining momentum, to say the least," said Jim Draeger, program manager for Peace Action Wisconsin. He said the initiative has a respectable chance of passing the Legislature in his state.
Rising public anger over the way Washington does business has produced a growing outcry for state sovereignty and strict adherence to the 10th Amendment, which says powers not specifically delegated to the federal government by the Constitution belong to the states.Texas was an epicenter for this year's "tea party" protests, in which thousands of Americans displayed their contempt for rising taxes and federal intrusion.Michael Boldin, founder of the Tenth Amendment Center in Los Angeles, a think tank that monitors states' rights activity, said defiance of federal policy is "unprecedented" and cuts across the philosophical spectrum, ranging from staunch conservatives to anti-war activists to civil libertarians. Legislatures in 37 states, he said, have introduced state sovereignty resolutions and at least seven have passed.
Perry, who faces a hard-fought Republican primary challenge from U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, has made state sovereignty one of his signature themes. During the 2009 Legislature, he endorsed an unsuccessful resolution supporting the 10th Amendment, asserting that "our federal government has become oppressive in its size, its intrusion into the lives of our citizens, and its interference with the affairs of our state."After a tea party rally in April, Perry told reporters that secession might be on the minds of some Texans disgusted with the federal government.
He later stressed that he wasn't advocating secession, telling the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, "America is a great country, and Texas wants to stay in that union and help our way out of "the nation's economic downturn. But others are advocating secession. In a poll of 1,209 respondents conducted by Zogby International last year, 22 percent said they believed that "any state or region" has the right to secede and become an independent republic, and 18 percent said they would support a secessionist movement in their state. Conversely, more than 70 percent expressed opposition to secession. Kirk Sale of Mount Pleasant, S.C., formed the Middlebury Institute in 2004 for the study of "separatism, secession and self-determination." The institute conducted the Third North American Secessionist Convention in New Hampshire in 2008, drawing delegates from about two dozen secessionist organizations in the United States and Canada.
Secessionist organizations are operating at various levels of activity in Texas, Vermont, New Hampshire, Alaska and Hawaii. Breakaway sentiments and anger at Washington also run high within the Southern National Congress, a 14-state organization to "express Southern grievances and promote Southern interests." Chairman Tom Moore, who lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of southwest Virginia, says the group is "not explicitly a secessionist organization," although "most of our people probably do favor that option."
For many, the mention of secession brings to mind the most turbulent years in American history, when 13 Southern states broke away from the Union in 1860 and '61, plunging the country into a Civil War that claimed at least 618,000 lives but put an end to slavery. In contrast, modern-day secessionists stress that they advocate a peaceful departure and emphatically dismiss criticism that their organizations embrace racism and white supremacy. "We maintain an open-door policy," said Miller, who began forming the Texas Nationalist Movement early in the decade from the remnants of an earlier Texas independence movement. "If you're about freedom, individual freedom, and liberty, and Texas independence, we call you brother or sister." Miller says the group includes Hispanics, African-Americans, women, lifelong Democrats and union members.
"We don't argue race; we don't argue Democrat or Republican," he said. The movement also "predates Obama," he said, pointing out that his organization started well before the president took office in January. Miller, 35, said his involvement comes from a deep-rooted civic responsibility that began when he would accompany his father, a union ironworker, on the picket line.
When Miller was 18, he made an unsuccessful run for mayor of White Oak, a small community outside Longview in East Texas. His call for Texas independence, he said, stems from a belief that Washington's failures are dragging down the Lone Star State. Texas, which outpaces most other states in mineral wealth, agriculture, technology and other sectors, would be far better off as a separate country, he said."We currently have one of the strongest economies in the world," said Miller, a Web-based radio entrepreneur who lives in deep Southeast Texas.
"We've got everything we need to be, not just a viable nation, but a thriving, prosperous nation, except for one thing, independence from the United States." Larry Kilgore, a telecommunications consultant in Mansfield, has made secession a high-profile theme of his Republican campaign for governor. Though overshadowed by the two dominant Republicans in the race, Perry and Hutchison, Kilgore believes his candidacy is stoking interest in secession, and vice versa. He said he gets at least a half-dozen calls and 15 e-mails each day on the issue, in addition to "all kinds of Facebook hits."
"A lot of people have given up on the federal government," Kilgore said. If he becomes governor, he said, he would call a constitutional convention to create a nation of Texas, with voters asked to approve a constitutional amendment to cement the process. Texas emissaries would negotiate with Washington for separation, he said, predicting that the United States and Texas could "still be friends after we split."
I was the head of the Christian Falangist Party of America for over 23 years, I disbanned that organization earlier this year and began looking into the Texas Independence Movement and I liked what I saw. I am a political animal, I love the South but I especially love Texas and nothing on God's green earth excites me more than the thought of a second Texas Republic. Texas is where the South ends and the West begins, it is a unique place that blends Southern, Hispanic, and Cowboy cultures together. There is no place on earth like Texas and I want to be a part of making history and to help make the Republic of Texas a reality. That is why on September 9th of this year I joined the Texas Nationalist Movement. I do not hate the United States and I would love to see our Texas Republic and the U.S.A. be friends and trading partners of course after we leave the union that friendship will depend entirely on Washington City. God Bless Texas!
Texas Is Big
Texas is larger than any country in Europe
Texas: 268,601 square miles
Ukraine: 233,090 square miles
France: 210,026 square miles
Spain: 208,000 square miles
Sweden: 173,732 square miles
Norway: 148,746 square miles
Germay: 137,847 square miles
Finland: 131,000 square miles
Poland: 120,728 square miles
Italy: 116,345 square miles
Great Britain: 80,823 square miles
Austria: 38,000 square miles
Portugal: 35,672 square miles
Ireland: 32,599 square miles
Switzerland: 15,940 square miles
Denmark: 16,621 square miles
Netherlands: 13,084 square miles
Belgium: 11,787 square miles
Texas: 268,601 square miles
Ukraine: 233,090 square miles
France: 210,026 square miles
Spain: 208,000 square miles
Sweden: 173,732 square miles
Norway: 148,746 square miles
Germay: 137,847 square miles
Finland: 131,000 square miles
Poland: 120,728 square miles
Italy: 116,345 square miles
Great Britain: 80,823 square miles
Austria: 38,000 square miles
Portugal: 35,672 square miles
Ireland: 32,599 square miles
Switzerland: 15,940 square miles
Denmark: 16,621 square miles
Netherlands: 13,084 square miles
Belgium: 11,787 square miles
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