Will America Break Up?

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White House responds to Texas secession petition, Texas doesn't have right to leave the US

Published January 14, 2013
Associated Press



EL PASO, Texas – Bad news for thousands of people who wanted to see Texas secede: The state is still in the U.S.

The White House has responded to a petition asking that Texas be allowed to break away from the country, saying the Founding Fathers who created the nation "did not provide a right to walk away from it."

More than 125,000 people signed the petition, which was created a few days after President Barack Obama won re-election. The White House has promised to respond to any petition that gets more than 25,000 signatures within 30 days.

Jon Carson, director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, issued a response quoting Abraham Lincoln's first inaugural address and a Supreme Court opinion after the Civil War. It said America was created as a "perpetual union," but one that allows people with different beliefs to debate the issues.

"Democracy can be noisy and controversial," Carson said. "Free and open debate is what makes this country work ... But as much as we value a healthy debate, we don't let that debate tear us apart."

The petition was created Micah Hurd, a Texas National Guardsman and an engineering student at the University of Texas in Arlington. He couldn't be reached for comment Monday.

In asking that Texas be allowed to leave the country, the petition cited the "economic difficulties stemming from the federal government's neglect to reform domestic and foreign spending." It argued that given the size of Texas' economy and because the state has a balanced budget, it would be "practically feasible for Texas to withdraw from the union."

The petition also said the federal government didn't share the same values held by the Founding Fathers.

But Carson argued that the writers of the U.S. Constitution addressed the need for policy change through elections, not secession.

The petition's success brought overnight fame for Hurd, though briefly got him in trouble. In December, a regiment commander at the Texas National Guard sent an email to his subordinates, including Hurd, saying "any mention of secession better happen on a civilian venue."

"It's only talk, and rather ignorant talk at that," the commander wrote. "If you've already done something to call attention to yourself or our regiment in this matter, make it go away."

But a few days later, a National Guard spokeswoman said Hurd had done nothing wrong and that "the email asking him not to talk about it" shouldn't have been sent.

A telephone listing for Hurd couldn't be found Monday by The Associated Press. His father, who has spoken on behalf of his son in the past, didn't immediately return a phone message.

[Ryan Ruck]

White House responds to Texas secession petition, Texas doesn't have right to leave the US

The White House has responded to a petition asking that Texas be allowed to break away from the country, saying the Founding Fathers who created the nation "did not provide a right to walk away from it."

Ummm, what?

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

Doesn't look to me like they were all that specific about those "political bands".

Well, I guess no one can say Texas didn't ask nicely.

[American Patriot]

I think the petitions are actually rather hilarious.

The White House is not the final arbiter of this. The State of Texas is.

Now... I think something like 200k signed it, right? There's about 25 million there. So, that's enough in my opinion to go to the Legislature of Texas and ask them to create a statement to seceed.... and then have the public vote on it.

If that passes, the WH has nothing to do with it....

[Ryan Ruck]

Bingo...

[Ryan Ruck]

Something Funny Happened On The Way To Tyranny

December 31, 2012

I dropped my car off this morning at my mechanic’s, as the clutch appeared to be on its last legs. Being a beautiful morning in the mid-40s, I decided to walk home, and soak in some of the small-town downtown ambiance along the way. The sleepy antique stores were not seeing much business, and I nodded to the painting crew who was outlining the wooden window frames of the bakery in brilliant blue paint as I passed by.

Most of the downtown shops, in fact, weren’t doing much business except the two gun stores. I’d been in one several days ago to pick a .22LR for an article I’d be writing for Shooting Illustrated, and decided to stop in at the other to see what the current political environment had left behind.

There were no less than six clerks working feverishly with the dozen or so customers, so I simply stepped to the side and walked the aisles. The cases of ammunition that typically lined the far wall were picked to pieces. There was a 100-round case of .50 BMG, and cases of European shotshells suitable for small game. The .223 Remington, 5.56 NATO, 7.62×39, 7.62 NATO, and 7.62x54R had sold out long ago, along with the bulk 9mm, .40 S&W, and .45 ACP.

A few pump shotguns remained along with a smattering of deer rifles, single-shots, and longer double-barreled shotguns suitable only for trap or skeet. Even the semi-automatic .22LR rifles like Ruger 10/22s were gone, along with all but one BX-25 magazine.

The customers in the shop were picking through what remained; lever-action rifles, oddball shotguns, and the smattering of name-brand centerfire pistols. One man was attempting to trade in an antique double-barrel shotgun for something more current.

I did speak to one harried clerk, briefly.

They didn’t know when they’d be getting anything back in stock, from magazines to rifles to pistols. Manufacturers were running full-bore, but couldn’t come close to keeping up with market demand. It wasn’t just the AR-15s, the AK-pattern rifles, the M1As, and the FALs that were sold out. It really hit me when I realized that the World War-era M1 Garands , M1 carbines, and Enfield .303s were gone, along with every last shell. Ubiquitous Mosin-Nagants—of which every gun store always seems to have 10-20—were gone. So was their ammo. Only a dust free space marked their passing. I’ve never seen anything like it.

Every weapon of military utility designed within the past 100+ years was gone. This isn’t a society stocking up on certain guns because they fear they may be banned. This is a society preparing for war.

I wonder if this is what it felt like during the time of the Powder Alarm, and fear politicians both sides of the aisle are no more speaking the same language as most Americans as Gage was unable to think like the Colonials. There is an earnestness now on both sides, and a great chance for unintended consequences.

Tread carefully.

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Breaking news: Texas lawmakers to introduce law threatening felony arrest of any feds who attempt to enforce Obama's gun control orders

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

by Mike Adams



(NaturalNews) Texas state Rep. Steve Toth has just announced his intention to introduce a "Firearms Protection Act" into law which would make it a felony crime for anyone, including federal agents, to enforce Obama's anticipated gun control executive orders, including orders that attempt to limit the size of gun magazines.

"The Firearms Protection Act bill would make any federal law banning semi-automatic firearms or limiting the size of gun magazines unenforceable within the state's boundaries. Anyone trying to enforce a federal gun ban could face felony charges under the proposal," reads Steve Toth's website announcement.

"We can no longer depend on the Federal Government and this Administration to uphold a Constitution that they no longer believe in. The liberties of the People of Texas and the sovereignty of our State are too important to just let the Federal Government take them away. The overreach of the federal administrations executive orders that are do not align with the Constitution, are not very popular here in Texas."

Confirmed: Huge outpouring of support

I spoke with Rep. Toth's chief of staff Amy Lane this morning and confirmed the bill is being drafted by attorneys and that final language is expected by next Tuesday. The bill is roughly similar to the Firearms Protection Act that has already been introduced in Wyoming, and it would bar the state of Texas from using financial or personnel resources to engage in any sort of gun confiscation activity. It would furthermore make it a felony crime for any federal officer or employee to infringe on the constitutionally-protected gun rights of law-abiding Texas citizens.

The response to Rep. Toth's announcement has been gigantic. "We've been flooded with phone calls," Amy told me a few minutes ago. "We're even getting many calls from New Yorkers who are saying they're ready to leave the state and come to Texas."

President Obama is expect to announce 19 executive orders as early as tomorrow that would bypass Congress and impose unconstitutional and illegal restrictions on gun magazine capacity, the sales of rifles and much more. Resistance against Obama's gun grabbing schemes is growing by the day, all across America. Nowhere is this resistance more determined and vocal than in Texas, where the vast majority of citizens own and cherish their firearms for self defense, farming and ranching, and defense against tyranny.

Rep. Steve Toth is scheduled to join me LIVE on the Alex Jones Show this coming Friday at 12:30 central standard time, for a phone interview. He may also appear as early as tomorrow with Alex. Visit www.********.com to listen in.

ACTION items:

1) If you live in Wyoming or Texas, immediately call your state representatives and tell them you absolutely support the Firearms Protection Act. Urge them to vote for it.

2) If you live in another state, immediately call your state representatives and urge them to introduce your own Firearms Protection Act to counter the out-of-control federal government and its illegal executive orders that violate the United States Constitution.

To find the appropriate phone numbers, just search online for "(Your state) legislature phone numbers" and you should be able to locate the lists.

This is a time when all freedom-loving Americans must stand together against federal tyranny and NULLIFY unconstitutional executive orders and legislative errors that threaten the law-abiding citizens of this great nation.

It is time to say NO! to Obama, NO! to Cuomo, NO! to gun grabbers and NO! to Washington D.C.

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Texas Volunteers - Defense Group (Comal Co. Fire Team)



About

We are a group of concerned citizens, assembled for the protection of family, home and community. We are NOT anti-government and we strongly support our local law enforcement officers as well as the great state of Texas.



Mission

Our mission is simple... We have joined together to ensure the protection of our families, Homes and our community.

Description

We are the New Braunfels Chapter of the Texas Volunteers Defense Group, former fire team of Texas State Militia. We are actively seeking deeply patriotic Texas citizens of any race, age and gender in the New Braunfels and Comal County areas. If you have a strong patriotic belief, a desire to protect and prepare your Family and your community against any threat, natural or man made, foreign or domestic, then you are who we are looking for!

General Information

Texas Volunteers are highly encouraged to live exemplary lives as and obey the laws of the State of Texas.

A member will be discharged for advocating any illegal activity, advocating first strike military action of any kind, a call to arms without Command Staff approval, violating any of the rules set forth in the bylaws and treating a Texas citizen with disrespect, threatening remarks, intimid...See More

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January 15, 2013 · 10:15 am
The Revolution Is At Our Door



As the American experiment with liberty collapses into tyranny, a very real bloodbath stands in wait

The American War of Independence and the French Revolution. Two revolutions against state authority and tyranny. Two completely different outcomes.

Why?

In attempting to answer the question of where his native nation of France went wrong, Alexis DeToqueville summed up in Democracy in America, that America’s greatness could be found in our churches, and that the day America ceased to be good (and moral), she would cease to be great. He was stating what John Adams himself had declared when he wrote: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the governance of any other (people)”.

It is not lost on any right-thinking American that our nation has ceased to be a moral or religious nation and has ceased to be good. MarxoFascists and Leftists have been busy redefining morality and what is good for the better part of five decades, and their cultural revolution has paved the way for their hoped-for Marxist revolution against Capitalism and individual liberty. Running on the induced self-loathing of America that has been soaked into the minds of public school and college students since the 1960′s, the culture war has been lost to Leftists. Coupled with a complete brainwashing of Communist/Socialist propaganda by Leftist Teachers and their Communist Unions being taught as the only true morality and fairness, Obama’s army of disgruntled welfare class dependents and media stooges, are openly calling for the deaths of Americans they hate.

At the other end of the spectrum, lovers of our liberty and Constitution see this as a direct threat to freedom. The actions of the Obama regime and Democrat MarxoFascists in Congress; the impending nullification of the Second Amendment is spurning the exponentially accelerated talk of revolution against the counter-revolutionaries of the Obama-Left.

War it appears, is on our doorstep.

Revolution may sound romantic – but it is anything but. It often descends into a bloodbath of horrors and terror that end up being waged by those not grounded in religious principles. It would do us all well to read the following essay by Daniel Greenfield and contemplate what is being stoked among us, and is standing upon our doorsteps.

And This Is Revolution

Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog

There are a few things worth knowing about revolutions. Most people don’t participate in them, even if the history books often make it seem otherwise. Revolutions are thought up by small groups of people who then make it everyone’s business. Or alternately they don’t. And those are the revolutions that never happen.



Most people, at any given time and place, are dissatisfied with the government and believe, rightly, that whoever is in charge is guilty of stealing from them, oppressing them and making it impossible for them to live their lives in peace. And they also believe that things are not likely to get any better. Hope is a vanishing emotion that dissipates easily in the drudgery of ordinary everyday work. It may be taken out for a spin on historical occasions, but then it goes back into the barn where it sits for a while gathering dust until it is needed again.

There are however some known crossroads of revolution. A successful revolution usually doesn’t happen among the thoroughly repressed. Those people tend to lack the motivation and skills to face down a modern army. When the peasants revolt, they can often be tricked into going home with some false promises and free beer. It worked more often with the serfs in European history than you would think. It’s the middle class that you really have to watch out for.

People are not at their most dangerous when they’re eating bread crusts and hoping that they won’t die tomorrow. By then they’re often broken, perhaps not individually, but as a society. It wasn’t the people on the collective farms who challenged Soviet tanks in Moscow. Nor was it the Chinese farmers, now being bulldozed off their land, sometimes literally, who stood up to the tanks in Tienanmen Square.

The most dangerous people are the ones who have tasted enough freedom and prosperity to want to keep it. They don’t think their leaders are godlike and they have enough education and competence to think the heretical thought that just about anybody could do the same job as the king, the emperor, the czar or the president. They have experience enough upward mobility to understand that a man’s place in the world isn’t fixed. It can and should be changed. And that is what distinguishes them from the serf. That is what makes them so dangerous.

Authority works best when it isn’t challenged. Ceremony, whether it is that of an emperor or any lesser rank, invests authority with mystical force. Peer pressure and social conformity employ horizontal pressures to keep everyone in their place. Secret police and ranks of informers allow the regime to project an illusion of omnipotent force that seems to be everywhere at once. Reigns of terror create examples to intimidate anyone who might think of challenging the regime.

Revolutions strip away these illusions. The secret police run for cover or comically march out with clubs and guns against mobs, and get beaten to a pulp. The neighbor who rats on everyone sits home and stews in front of the television. And then the regime has no choice but to call on the army and hope that it still retains enough control over the officers and that the officers still have enough control over their men to do the bloody work of winning a civil war.

The army test is the acid test of a regime because it exposes the actual level of power of the regime, which relies entirely on its officer corps and its grunts to be willing to shoot people in the street. In Russia, the army proved unwilling to kill a bunch of civilians to protect a coup by their own superiors leading to the end of the Soviet Union and the fall of Communism.

After generations of worldwide terror, the great red beast was reduced to relying on the willingness of a handful of Russian kids in tanks to run over protesters. The kids, who had grown up on Western rock and roll, listening to old men preach about a coming revolution that was already older than the oldest man they had ever seen, while the echoes of capitalist dreams leaked through the Iron Curtain, chose to sit this one out. And Communism died in the streets of Moscow.

But where the Soviet Union fell, the Chinese Communist Party succeeded because they had men who were willing to run over other men with tanks. After all the great debates and posturing, the fate of hundreds of millions of people came down to the same things that all revolutions come down to, not cogent arguments or complex theories, but the willingness of some men to kill other men for a cause.

Communism also died in China. It had to. But the leadership class remained in power and their princes made it into a hereditary dynasty. In Iran, protests were pitted against the guns of the Revolutionary Guard. The regime won, but at the cost of shifting power to the Revolutionary Guard. In Syria, each side escalated, found foreign backers and is fighting a war in which the most ruthless bastards are winning. That is how the Communists ended up winning in Russia, but not after a long bout of murderous warfare in which all sides did horrible things and painted the land red. Any Russian naval officers with a sense of history watching the whole thing happen from a portside cafe are probably remembering how the same thing went down in the land of red snow.



It’s the aspiring middle class that begins revolutions, but when they turn bloody enough, then they usually aren’t the ones who inherit them. An ascending middle class begins revolutions to protect its privileges, only to see those revolutions hijacked by the fanatics, who to be fair, often began them, the lawyers who want to be executioners, the demagogues who fail at everything but street corner tirades and the psychopaths who drift in and then take over.

The American Revolution avoided being overtaken by these types of lunatics, though at times it was a closer thing than anyone realizes. If history had gone a little differently, Aaron Burr could very well have been our Robespierre. And General Lafayette could have been France’s George Washington. Instead the American Revolution stayed in the hands of the people who wanted peace and prosperity, rather than radical social change, and France descended into blood and chaos at the hands of those who thought that revolution was worthless unless it allowed them to completely transform society.

The other kind of revolution, the Bastille kind, has managed to catch up with us. A vast territory and technological revolutions held it at bay for the longest time, but it was the aspiring middle class that eventually allowed itself to be seduced into mortgaging its political power, national integrity and economic freedom to gain an illusory peace and security in the form of a powerful government. And if there to be another revolution against it, it will once again come from the ranks of the middle class.

The American middle class can feel itself sinking. Its prosperity has been stagnating and the jobs are drying up. The educational revolution isn’t doing what it was supposed to, for most, instead it saddled much of the country with even more debt. Debt is the watchword of the present, as it was of France before the Revolution. Everything is in debt and mortgaged to the hilt for everything else. International financial systems have made it possible to spread the pain and bury it in complicated financial transactions and speculation, but that just means the debt is bigger and badder than ever.

The pre-revolutionary middle class can choose between two sets of villains, big government and big business. Both are big, and thus meet the criteria for being worth revolting against, but the choice of villains often comes down to a choice of professions.

The college student who owes insane amounts of money to a complex network of financial institutions for a degree of dubious worth and a credit card whose interest rates are more complicated than the subject she was studying, is likely to sympathize with Occupy Wall Street’s bank baiting. The small businessman who feels like he spends all day filling out forms in order to get other forms to fill out, while seeking his profits being sucked up by the government and its institutions, feels a tug toward the Tea Party.

It’s the anarchist who is closest to the mark when he notes that there really isn’t that much of a distinction between the two. The government bails out the banks with bad money and the banks bail out the government with fake money. Governments and corporations, are run by the same people with the same phony mantra of social justice, that really means showy philanthropy and profitable regs. But then the cynics usually tend to be closer to the mark because faults are easy to find.

The American middle class is caught between two rebellions. One by an urban middle class elite that would like a more closed and regulated society and another by a rural middle class that would like a more open and less regulated society, with the suburbs split in the middle.

Having the cities is not absolutely mandatory for a revolution. The modern American city is a drain that produces very little except bureaucracy and culture. And while the power of those two should not be underestimated, if every major American city were to vanish tomorrow, some of the sciences would be hard hit and the bureaucracy would become decentralized, but most other things would continue on as before.

During the American Revolution holding on to the cities proved next to impossible, because of British naval power and the large concentrations of Loyalists. Even during the Civil War, most Northern cities leaned rather close to the anti-war side. Urban Democrats may lionize Lincoln now, but many of them thought of him, the way that their descendants thought of George W. Bush, as a war criminal with the brain of a monkey who was obsessed with oppressing the common man. Even some liberal Republicans thought of him that way.

But underestimating culture is dangerous. The sort of culture that we have is mostly worthless, but that doesn’t make it any less effective. There is a great distance between Beethoven’s Eroica and Katy Perry singing for Obama, but unlike Beethoven, few modern liberal writers and artists would have the integrity to rip up the title page on learning that their messiah had feet of muck. The Soviet Union fell in part because it lost that sense of cultural momentum, clinging to the Western Canon, while being overwhelmed by the pop trash that now rules Russia. And though it may be trash, cultural innovation creates a sense that we are moving forward. Those on the side of the newest trend seem like they have the answers to the future. Those who aren’t, end up looking like Brezhnev.

Revolutions can be won without that cultural momentum, but it’s harder than ever because culture carries with it that tang of prosperity, that sense that the good times are out there for those who want them. And revolutions tend to fall on the side of prosperity, on the side of an aspiring middle class looking to the future. Culture can be beaten, but it is best beaten with culture. Successful revolutions make their ideas compelling and appealing, not just in words, but in attitudes, in music, in literature and in art. France had Marat and America had the Death of Jane McCrea.

A revolution is part anger and outrage.

It is that sense that you are being unfairly treated and that the life you had or could have had is slipping away from you. It is that breath of freedom that you once took and the belief that life on the other side of the wall must be better. It is a narrative, a story that rejects the authority of those in power on moral grounds and on practical ones.



Revolution works best when the authorities are weakened by a transition period, when they were once oppressive, but have been liberalizing, or where they are asserting a new level of authority that the people are not used to. It is in these transition points that revolutions are most effective because the authorities are not ready to cope with them and the people are made bold and desperate by the uncertainty.

Revolutions are not easy, until they begin rolling, and then it seems in retrospect as if they were always inevitable, the way that big things are. It is that explosion of kinetic energy born out of the potential energy of large numbers of people discovering their strength that fills the air with energy. That ionization is what most people associate with freedom, with the inevitable collapse of an old order and the rise of a new order.

At first a few people begin to push against the wall, and then more and more, their numbers growing as wall-pushing suddenly becomes the thing to do, and suddenly the sober men and women who never held with it, who put their faith in protests and petitions, join in. The wall shakes and then it falls.

This is revolution.

[American Patriot]

We're headed for a serious Constitutional Crisis.....

Thursday, 17 January 2013 18:30 Rand Paul's Bill to Nullify “King” Obama's Gun Control Executive Orders

Written by William F. Jasper Tweet

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Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) announced on Wednesday that he will introduce legislation next week to “nullify” unconstitutional executive orders that President Obama has said he will issue to implement new national gun controls.
Appearing on the Fox network with Sean Hannity, Paul pointed out that several of the president’s executive orders “appear as if he’s writing new law,” which would be an executive trespass on the legislative powers of Congress and a violation of the Constitution’s separation of powers. “I’m afraid that President Obama may have this ‘king complex’ sort of developing, and we’re going to make sure it doesn’t happen,” he told Hannity.
Supporters of Obama’s push to restrict private ownership of firearms are hoping to exploit the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting tragedy to eviscerate the Second Amendment.
The New American contacted Sen. Paul’s office today to obtain details of his legislative proposal, which was not yet available on his website. Both Sen. Paul and his media spokesman were out of the office, so the only particulars of his "Separation of Powers Restoration and Second Amendment Protection of 2013" to be found at this time is a one-page summary draft plan that has appeared on the website Talking Points Memo.
“We only have descriptions of the executive actions, yet many could be construed to describe an attempt by the executive to make laws in violation of the Article 1, Sec. 8 of the Constitution and the 2nd Amendment,” reads the one-page summary.
“Congress has enumerated powers in the Constitution," it continues, "and any executive order by President Obama infringing on the Second Amendment rights of all Americans would be declared ‘null and void.’”
Paul's plan also contemplates using Congress' power of the purse strings to withhold funding from any attempt to implement unconstitutional executive order attacks on the 2nd Amendment.
Sen. Kaine: "Nullification is a code word"
The Left began responding immediately to Paul’s proposal with the usual scorn for any efforts aimed at reining in an out-of-control federal government. Joan Walsh at Salon.com reflexively offered the “Progressive” view that Sen. Paul’s effort is really nothing except thinly disguised “racist” state’s rights rhetoric.
Sen. Tim Kaine implied the same in an exchange with Soledad O’Brien on CNN:
Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) adds his voice to the gun control debate, lends support for President Obama’s executive actions and comments on Senator Rand Paul’s desire to nullify the President’s orders.
Sen. Kaine says, “Nullification is a code word.”
CNN’s Soledad O’Brien asks, “For what?”
Sen. Kaine responds, “It’s a states right argument that gets used in times of great controversy. The President is acting by executive power that is legally conferred on him. And as you pointed out, you went over these executive orders. They’re basic, common sense things.”
When O’Brien asks him to clarify his ‘code word’ statement, Sen. Kaine answers, “We’ll see what it is. But the notion that we’re going to nullify a presidential action when the President is acting pursuant to law, you know, that’s just kind of this anti-government rhetoric that I’m surprised to hear somebody in government using."
Paul believes that there will be a severe political backlash for many members of Congress if they fail to oppose President Obama on this fundamental issue. “I think there are a few Democrats that will worry about going home to West Virginia or other states like that and voting for a ban on guns,” Paul said. “So, I think there is a good chance we can stop his legislative action. I’m concerned he will try to do the regulatory fiat, what he can’t pass through legislation.”

[Phil Fiord]

Yeah, Kaine won a seat as a Senator for my state last election. He used to be our governor and did a poor job at it. It took McDonnell to take over and fix the state and we are in the black again. The only reason Kaine won was the transplant folks who either work for gov'ment or are on the public dole, yes, libs.

[American Patriot]

remember not all folks who work for the government are "on the dole". A lot of people DO have jobs that are important to defense. In my opinion anything NOT related to the direct defense of the country of direct support of those people is extraneous.

There needs to be about 50% less government people at EVERY installation though. And there needs to be a 100% less in the DHS, TSA, Dep of Ed, EPA - and I'm sure I can think of some others if I put my mind to it. There are something like 400 "agencies" in the US government. MOST of them need to GO

[Phil Fiord]

I was making a separation between those working in government and those who live here because its way too easy to get funds for EBT and housing and its a fairly good place with a decent economy, not unlike how it used to be. So imagine getting all those funds for nothing and living where its safer and malls and stores still do good sales.

I will add, that in your reply you mention the reduction of many Gov workers and I agree completely. Its not a popular idea here understandably.

[American Patriot]

I've always felt it was BS they keep hiring so many. A few years ago they CUT a bunch of workers. Kept the managers (all contractors) and then added government people to make up for the number of people they cut out of the contractors.

The thing is, fire one manager and you can put four or five guys who can do IT stuff.

Now they are making it impossible for people to get hired.

A job listing will come out for a sysadmin and it will list "Bachelor's degree, 5 years experience, Sec+, A+, Network+"

Now, tell me what IDIOT is going to go spend that kind of money to get "certified" BEFORE he or she has a job?

[Phil Fiord]

Perhaps this is why we get so many people coming in on work visas that are for services they are unique to provide. They come from countries that school them and then come here.

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Top Aide: Obama Seeks To Split Republican Party Into Warring Factions Before 2014 Midterm Elections…



Divide and conquer.

Via Daily Caller:

President Barack Obama’s top political aide used an Inauguration Day interview to sketch out a provocative political strategy intended to split the Republican Party in time to impact the 2014 midterm elections.

“The barrier to progress here in many respects, whether it is deficits, measures to help economy, immigration, gun safety legislation … is [that] there are factions here in Congress, Republicans in Congress, who are out of the mainstream,” White House advisor David Plouffe said on CNN’s “State of the Union with Candy Crowley.”

“We need more Republicans in Congress to think like Republicans in the country who are seeking compromise, seeking balance,” he claimed.Keep reading…

ZIP | January 21, 2013 9:26 am

[American Patriot]

I don't think there will BE a Republican Party by 2014. It is already divided into the Tea party and 12 separate factions there.

All they need to do is throw out the bullshit, concentrate, and fuck Obama......

[Phil Fiord]

There will be backlash in 2014. Against those on both sides that failed us all.

[Phil Fiord]

I do not know if I mentioned this yet, but a few weeks ago a man I know who is a client, said to me, something about 'Your President'. I was genuinely aghast. I said, "He is not my President. I did not vote for him either time and can give a pass to those who did first time, but not this time."

[Ryan Ruck]

That a group of sheriffs even has to author a letter like this tells you how far down this road we are...

Utah Sheriffs Warn Obama Of Deadly War Over Guns

January 20 2013

In the most strident warning over gun control to President Obama yet, the Utah Sheriffs' Association is pledging to go to war over any administration plan to take guns away, even if it means losing their lives.

Calling the Second Amendment a sacred right of citizens to protect themselves from "tyrannical subjugation," the association state elected sheriffs said in a new letter, "we are prepared to trade our lives for the preservation of its traditional interpretation."

Theirs is the first meaningful proof that some in law enforcement and the military are preparing to fight federal forces if the president wins his goal of sweeping gun control.

In a direct warning to Obama, the FBI and other agencies, the sheriffs wrote: "Make no mistake, as the duly-elected sheriffs our our respective counties, we will enforce the rights guaranteed to our citizens by the Constitution. No federal official will be permitted to descend upon our constituents and take from them what the Bill of Rights--in particular Amendment II--has given them."

While he wants an assault weapons ban and limits on ammo magazines, the president has not yet suggested he wants to confiscate guns.

The association revealed their concerns in a letter to the president just made public. It was sent on January 17. It opens by decrying the recent shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

But the group argued that guns are simply "instruments," and that they are needed by law-abiding citizens to sometimes subdue killers. "The citizenry must continue its ability to keep and bear arms, including arms that adequately protect them from all types of illegality," said the letter.

Several groups have argued that assault weapons and high-capacity magazines are needed for self defense.

The association also called on Obama to push his efforts through Congress, not executive orders with no debate. "Please remember that the Founders of this great nation created the Constitution, and its accompanying Bill of Rights, an effort to protect citizens from all forms of tyrannical subjugation."

This doesn't include the SLC sheriff who is not part of the Association but is 28/29 of sheriffs in Utah.

[Ryan Ruck]

Also, ones from the Fresno County, CA sheriff and Linn County, OR sheriff: