Secession in Texas? Update: Examiner.com Reports
Bob Campbell at AmericanGrandJury.org recently posted the following from Gerry Donaldson, constitutional activist and central Texas director for ResistNet.com, who has apparently garnered 1 million signatures for a petition to be sent to authorities in Texas essentially demanding sovereignty or secession:
Gerry Donaldson has invited you to the event ‘Sovereignty or Secession Rally’ on Draw A Line In The Sand!
Time: August 29, 2009 from 11am to 12:30pm
Location: South Capital Steps in Austin, TX
Organized By: Gerry DonaldsonEvent Description:
Texans will converge on Austin to deliver a petition to Restore America by Demanding our Sovereignty or we will be forced to call a vote for Secession.This is straight out of the Declaration of Independence and our right to “alter or abolish” our government if it has, “after a long train of abuses” refused to protect the rights of the people.
At present, the Texas Nationalist Movement has a petition with 1 Million signatures directly calling for a vote of secession.
We are calling for an orderly process that will allow our federal government to fall back in line with the Constitution. We are reclaiming our states rights and our individual rights.
With 37 states moving for Sovereignty in resolutions, we are just stepping this up from a weak request to a demand that we be returned our rights.
So far 12 states are mirroring our “Sovereignty or Secession” movement.
We must stand up and be counted or we will find ourselves in another government. Either we restore America, we will live in a Marxist dictatorship, or we will secede and start over again.
Go to ** www.drawaline.org ** for more information and to sign the petition. We need to push this massively or there will be a vote for secession immediately! [emphases original]
According to Mr. Donaldson’s site, he claims to have the support of numerous State legislators:
Throughout the 37 States with Sovereignty Resolutions (signed or not), We The People hereby give our government the option to either restore our Individual and State Sovereignty (alter), to nullify ALL Federal legislation that is unconstitutional, and restore our God-given, unalienable rights, or we will be forced to exercise the right our Founders set down in the Declaration of Independence and abolish our government (secede) and start a new government that will adhere to our contract with government that we call a Constitution.
This is not and should not be a violent confrontation. Violence is not condoned by anyone involved. However, we are exercising our rights and our duty to compel the restoration of our sovereignty and rights (alter our government) or it will leave us with no choice but secession.
Here in Austin, Texas, we’ll be holding a Town Hall/Rally and delivering the petition and signatures you find here to Governor Perry’s office. We also have the support of Rep. Leo Berman, Rep. Brandon Creighton, and all the 99 representatives who supported Rep. Creighton’s Sovereignty Bill, HCR 50, and those supporting Rep. Berman’s House Bill 1863 that nullifies all Federal legislation that does not have explicit authorization within the U.S. Constitution. We’ll also be demanding the dismantling of all State agencies that have been created to support unconstitutionally authorized Federal agencies. We will demand that all support of illegal aliens be stopped in Texas and that the Governor deploy our National Guard and other volunteer citizens along our southern border to stem the tide of illegal immigration.
The actual event has seen a few last-minute modifications and will now be 11 AM -12:30 PM. The reason for this change is that MoveOn.org decided to schedule 2 separate events on the SAME DAY to push Obamacare! Seems a little “convenient” that they would try to block out a big portion of the day on the SAME DAY we are telling the federal government that we want to ROLL BACK our government to its originally intended, limited role; doesn’t it? We are obviously a real threat to the Marxist agenda that MoveOn.org and Obama’s administration is trying to shove down our throats.
When we deliver this petition to Governor Perry, we will also have copies of this petition and demand delivered to every county courthouse and County Sheriff throughout the State of Texas, effectively putting our local public servants on notice that they will be held accountable to the letter of their Oath of Office.
It should also be noted that Mr. Donaldson is a part of the Texas effort promoting the citizen grand jury concept, whereby private individuals have been gathering together to cull and aggregate evidence to potentially form presentments that can then be forwarded to authorities as a means of bringing official attention to injustices. Much more information on this seldom-used grassroots concept can be found at AmericanGrandJury.org.
According to Mr. Donaldson’s blog, the French press and the Lincoln County Examiner out of Lincoln, Nebraska are intrigued enough by the above announcement to say they’re showing up for it:
Ok folks, if you haven’t made your plans to attend the rally this Saturday, YOU NEED TO!
In addition to this rally and our counter protest against MoveOn.org, we have a lot of attention brewing!
I had calls from a French TV reporter working for the press agency CAPA (www.capatv.com there’s an English version if you want to surf it). He works for a program called “L’effet papillon” (the butterfly effect) on Canal+ (one of the main TV chanels in France). He is flying into this rally with to film this event as it is getting attention in Europe!
I also had a request from the Lincoln County Examiner, a major newspaper in Lincoln, Nebraska, and they want coverage of this event!
As I’ve mentioned before, this will be THE TEA PARTY of 2009! We will be Drawing a Line in the Sand here in Texas and the nation and the world is watching this one.
In addition to chartered buses coming in from around the state, we have RV’rs heading in to bring more crowds (see previous posting).
There is, no doubt, a chord that has been struck in this nation concerning Mr. Obama. His ideas are considered nothing short of being anti-American (which most tea party and town hall protestors would call “socialism,” “Marxism,” “collectivism,” and, really, “statism”); this is precisely why you can kick the “astroturf” out the door and you will always find grassroots uprisings around the country (so much so that many Dem federal lawmakers have cancelled their town halls or held them at the last minute or in private locations).
Some dissenting commenters on my site would immediately bristle at the idea of anything that is not conservative as being anti-American; under normal circumstances, I would immediately come to at least partial rhetorical aid and say that someone is not stating something correctly. Unfortunately, at this stage of our country’s history, this is no longer the case.
I think State soveriegnty is absolutely important in our federalistic system of governance — our constitutional republic. Fundamentally, the Constitution demands it, and I think that’s precisely the point of the above. In other words, here’s the key concept:
Dear politicians, why won’t you realize that you took an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States? We really don’t like it when you lie to us by saying that you’ll uphold it, but in the next minute, you deliberately undermine it by not constricting the federal behemoth to the shackles that were set forth by the founding fathers. While we agree that the Constitution doesn’t spell out how to deal with every given situation, it is respect for the States and, ultimately, the individual that we demand. And, yes, we’re going to actually take a stand and start doing something about it, considering you won’t get off your asses and properly represent us.
Do I think that secession is wise? No, and this is why I would be torn if I were to have been born in the 1840s (or thereabouts) and, if the opportunity were available, to have had to make the decision of whether to fight for the Union or the Confederacy. Why? Because I’m a staunch States’ rights supporter (clearly my site bears this out), but I simultaneously believe that it takes all the States to make a “more perfect” Union. I would have hoped that, if I were to have been around more than 160 years ago, I would have helped to lead the push towards a strong but limited — shackled — federal government that fully respected States’ rights. Then again, in hindsight, that would have been to no avail.
I hope that the talk of secession stays just that — rhetoric. I also hope that such a threat by enough citizens would be enough to begin reasserting the balance of power between the States and the federal government.
We have a Bill of Rights in the Constitution for a reason. They all go together and they need to be properly used: to protect the life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness of the individual. Again, that’s really what this is all about.
It really is no wonder that strict constitutionalists are considered other than normal; if we really restricted the federal government to the confines of the Constitution, it would likely be less than one-third the size that it is now. Obviously, that’s a real threat to those who subscribe to the statist mentality.
Go, Texas, for being one of a number of States willing to seriously consider sovereignty.
Sunday, August 30 Update: Robert Moon of the Examiner.com site reported the following:
Thousands of Texans poured into the capitol and other major cities across the state on Saturday to demand that their elected officials immediately deliver an ultimatum to Washington: “sovereignty or secession.”
With the federal government rampantly violating their 10th Amendment rights like never before, refusing to defend their borders, and bankrupting this country with backwards leftist insanity, many Texans feel they need to draw a line in the sand.
Armed with a statewide petition to that effect, they called on their leaders to follow through on state sovereignty legislation passed earlier this year by sweeping margins. Overwhelmingly, the response from state officials has been supportive.
They have the backing of Texas Representatives Brandon Creighton, who drafted their 10th Amendment legislation (HCR 50), Leo Berman, who drafted a similar states’ rights bill to protect gun rights (HB 1863), and 97 others who voted to confront non-stop federal intrusions. They also have the support of Governor Rick Perry, who signed HCR 50 into law in May.
Two gubernatorial candidates in the upcoming election, Debra Medina and Larry Kilgore, spoke at the event, along with a slew of other candidates for the Texas legislature.
With so much of the state government cohesive with the concerns of its constituents, it seems there is adequate vigilance against Obama’s ongoing war on the Constitution and no immediate need to push for full-blown secession. But there is a growing sense that Texas teeters on the edge.
From an embedded link in the above update, the TenthAmendmentCenter.com provides the following video regarding the background on this story:
-Phil
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Photo courtesy The American Prospect
I hope your event was a great success. I live too far to go and am far too old and poor but I was with you all in spirit..I so want out of here, where obama has so much control over our lives. Now he wants the internet, the radio stations, squelch free speech however he can. I knew he was trouble but I never knew he could turn our wonderful country into Argentina so quickly.
ReapTheWhirlWind,
The situation has been decades in the making; it is therefore nothing new. After all, when a given election cycle effectively splits the balance of power nearly 50/50, what else does that tell you?
However, here’s another key undercurrent in all of this. Self-proclaimed conservatives, independents and even some Democrats are seriously beginning to question the federal government. When I say “seriously beginning to question,” I don’t mean to say that it’s only just now starting, but that they are beginning to come out of the proverbial wood-work and make their voices known.
This kind of reminds me what happened in the late 60s in this country. I think that there’s the potential for yet another political seismic shift with the electorate coming down the pike. Fortunately, our form of government allows this to occur without bloodshed necessary, and that’s always a good thing.
-Phil
All you have to do is read a dozen of these types of blogs to understand why soverignty/secession talk will become more the rule than the exception. The country is polarized beyond fixing. Something has to give. There are two perspectives in operation here that are irreconcilable. If this was a marriage, can anyone truly doubt that we would be in divorce court?
Let the socialists have their own place to be and live how they want….let the rest of us have ours as well. We should do this before the bloodshed starts, as it is bound to. Last I heard, enough weapons and ammo had been bought in the last few months to outfit the armies of both India and China around here….think that’s a frigging coincidence??????
Sherry:
That’s what the coverage would seem to indicate:
http://www.texasobserver.org/blog/?p=1369
The most interesting quotation of the day came from Larry Kilgore in his speech to the crowd. I am certain that the “patriots” among you will love this one:
“We hate the United States!”
Go figure.
This admitted doper, law breaker, phony has no proper credentials and is not a loyal American. Here is a list to jogg your memory.
http://www.jumpingmustangs.com/charlie6571/charlieindex.html
Barack Obama is less of a person than an image — a brand
Savior or Saboteur? Obama in a Realistic Light
Joe Crews and Harvey Wysong Bio
By Joe Crews and Harvey Wysong Wednesday, July 8, 2009
“It is a great pity when the one who should be the head figure is a mere figure head.”
– Charles H. Spurgeon
Barack Obama is less of a person than an image— a brand. People see whatever they want as they do on a Rorschach test. But does anyone really know him?
In fact, he is:
An empty suit.
A man with no birth certificate.
A man who was deserted in childhood by his biological father.
A man whose birth records, both in the United States and Kenya, are sealed by government order.
A man whose childhood mentor, Frank Marshall Davis, spied on U.S. military installations in Hawaii for the Soviet Union, edited a communist newspaper, authored pornographic novels, and wrote poetry in praise of Joseph Stalin.
A man mentored by and still supported by radical Muslims.
A man who promised transparency in government, but has spent over a million dollars in legal fees hiding information that would determine his eligibility to be President.
A former drug user.
A man whose academic records are sealed from kindergarten through law school.
A man who arrived in New York in June of 1981 without enough money to get a hotel room, but one month later flew to Indonesia andPakistan.
Why did he go?
Who paid his expenses?
A man who traveled to Pakistan when it was illegal for U.S. citizens to do so. So what country’s passport did he use?
A man whose Law School Admission Test scores and grades at Columbia University are known to have been mediocre, but was admitted to Harvard Law School through the intervention of a Saudi named Khalid al-Mansour.
A law review editor who never published an article in any law review.
A lawyer with no significant accomplishments in the law and no reputation in the legal community.
A former State and U.S. Senator, who never authored a piece of legislation.
A disciple of the Marxist Saul Alinsky.
A product of the Chicago political machine—the most corrupt political organization in America.
A man who selects Marxists, corrupt politicians, and criminals as his close political associates and personal friends.
A man whose presidential candidacy was endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America, the Socialist International, and the Workers International League.
A man lauded for the literary brilliance of two memoirs, both of which were ghostwritten by others.
A so-called Christian who says that knowing when life human begins is “above his pay-grade,” but somehow knows that abortion is permissible at any stage.
A man who thinks “waterboarding” is immoral, but that partial-birth abortion is moral.
A man who publicly laments slavery in America—which was abolished 150 years ago—but praises Islam, which still practices both slavery and the sexual mutilation of young girls.
A man who speaks endlessly about helping the less fortunate, but gives almost none of his sizeable income to charity—not even to his half-brother, who is living in squalor in Kenya.
A man who had the most left-wing voting record in the United State Senate, but was predicted by the press to “govern from the middle.”
A man who has never created a job, met a payroll, or even operated a lemonade stand, but wants to tell Detroit how to make cars.
A President who has never before served as an executive in either the private or the public sector.
A Commander-in-Chief who doesn’t know how to shoot a rifle, throw a hand-grenade, drive a tank, fly a plane, or con a ship.
A Commander-in-Chief who has publicly divulged some of our nation’s most important intelligence secrets.
A man who has been put in charge of the largest economic engine that ever existed, but has never invested in the stock market and admits total ignorance of it.
A President who says that science will guide his administration, but has no education in the sciences.
A man who is proficient in reading what is written for him on a teleprompter, but jerks and stammers his way through any off-the-cuff speaking.
A man whose health records are sealed from childhood to the present day.
A man whose educational records are sealed from childhood through law school.
A man who spent 20 years in a church whose pastor espouses Marxist Liberation Theology, anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Semitism, but claims he never heard his pastor utter anti-American, and anti-Semitic statements.
A man who added more to the National Debt in 100 days than all other Presidents did in the past 220 years, yet feels qualified to lecture Americans about “fiscal responsibility”.
A man who publicly expressed disdain for the U.S. Constitution on a Chicago radio station because it limited the government’s ability to “redistribute wealth.”
The first American President to bow before a foreign head of state—a Muslim dictator.
A man who sits and listens submissively while his country is castigated by Daniel Ortega—a Communist thug whose own daughter accused him of raping her.
A narcissist who gave the Queen of England a present from the United States –an iPod containing recordings of his own speeches.
A so-called Christian who officially declared “Pride Month” for a lifestyle that the Bible calls an abomination.
A man who wanted Americans to ignore his Muslim name during his election campaign, yet boasts of his Muslim name when he travels to Muslim countries.
A man who can name hundreds of America’s shortcomings, yet none of its great accomplishments.
A President who claims the moral high ground by closing Gitmo yet supports the transfer of terror suspects to countries where horrific torture is certain.
A President who scoffed at being called a socialist yet acted to nationalize the auto industry, the banking industry, and the insurance industry . . . and now seeks to nationalize the healthcare industry.
A President who violates private property rights, the sanctity of contracts, and the rule of law—three essential principles that go back over a thousand years in the Common Law tradition.
A man who promised 95% of all Americans a tax cut, but is increasing taxes on 100% of the population through inflation—the cruelest tax of all.
A lawyer who represented ACORN—an organization now indicted in several states for voter fraud—whose stated goal is to get as many people on welfare as possible in order to destroy our financial system.
A President who cheated GM’s bondholders by giving their property to the UAW in a political payoff.
An American President who frequently criticizes his own country when speaking in foreign countries, but never praises America’s generosity, goodness or greatness.
A President whose Secretary of the Treasury cheated on his taxes—as did several other appointees and advisors.
A President who, despite the current federal debt of 100 trillion dollars, wants to add the greatest debt ever by nationalizing healthcare.
A President who scoffs at being called a socialist, yet has appointed 28 “Czars” to circumvent constitutional government, including:
A “Science Czar” who has advocated compulsory abortions for American women and the “surrender of sovereignty” to a “comprehensive Planetary Regime.”
A self-professed communist as his “Green Jobs Czar”.
A “Pay Czar” to regulate the pay of corporate executives.
A President who swore an oath to “preserve, protect and defend the constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic,” yet has nominated a domestic enemy of the Constitution to the Supreme Court.
A President whose Homeland Security Chief classified pro-lifers, veterans, and supporters of traditional marriage as terrorists.
A President who stood silent while the Iranian government hacked unarmed protestors to death with axes, because it was an internal matter, but freely offers his opinions about the internal affairs of Israel and Honduras.
A President who decreed that true acts of terrorism must now be described as “man-made disasters.”
A President who cracks hurtful jokes about Special Olympians.
A President who refused to intercept or inspect a North Korean ship virtually certain to be carrying Weapons of Mass Destruction toBurma.
A President who wants to cancel all missile defenses while rogue nations are developing long-range ballistic missiles.
An American President who blames the violence in Mexico on America.
A Commander in Chief who claims to have been unaware that Air Force One was taken on a terrifying, low-level photo-op over Manhattan.
A President who berates American CEO’s for flying in private planes at private expense on company business, but whose wife spends hundreds of thousands tax payer dollars flying to Paris for a shopping spree.
A President who promised a transparent administration, but requires all questions be screened before “impromptu” appearances.
A man who freely admitted that his energy policies are designed to bankrupt the American coal industry.
A President who has presided over the loss of 14.7 million jobs and whose “energy policy” will cause the loss of another 1 million jobs.
A President whose “energy policy” will increase the average American’s utility bills by over $2,000 a year in the middle of the Great Recession.
A man about whom liberal journalist Tom Brokaw said, “There’s a lot about him we don’t know.” . . .just one week before the election.
The vast majority of Americans do not know who he is, but someone surely does. Someone paid for his travel expenses to Pakistan and Indonesia. Someone engineered legal challenges to all of his election opponents for the State Senate and had them disqualified. Someone straightened and leveled his path to the U.S. Senate when a Democrat Judge made public the child custody records of his Republican opponent. When he was a candidate for the U.S. Senate, someone arranged for him to speak at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. Someone saw to it that all of his records were sealed, both at home and abroad. Someone assembled the massive organization for his run for the Presidency. Someone knows all about him.
Who?
Someone reported on another blog that only about 200 people showed up in Austin, Tx. today. Anyone else heard any other reports?
Not a very big turnout for a million people to have signed a petition.
Sue,
I think I’ve said this many times before (apparently there are a number of “brick wall” commenters on my site, and it’s really becoming rather aggravating to me right about now):
If you don’t like what I put on my site, go elsewhere.
Really, it’s that simple.
-Phil
Sue,
I think you have already quite clearly made your intentions known through your portfolio of commentary here. I think I have quite clearly made it known that I do not appreciate the tone and condescension of your commentary and, hence, your welcome on my site is wearing thin.
-Phil
“The difference here is that some of us believe that there is at least one constitutional issue at stake with this Administration. Obviously, you disagree with at least one of those sentiments — especially RE: eligibility — and guess what? That’s fine by me, but it’s not fine by you.”
Actually, Phil, it is fine with me that you question President Obama’s eligibility. Not a problem in the least. My problem is that much of what is published and discussed has nothing to do with eligibility whatsoever.
Phil,
“Per my most recent comment to you, this is precisely the attitude that you simply need to stop — unless you want banned from this site.”
If you will go back and check comments, you will clearly see that Pat Smith made a insulting remark to me, not the other way around. I simply replied. If someone repeats something you say, don’t you want it to be accurate? yes/no?
Phil, “BINGO!”…,
Even though mine is a bodaciously kewl blog, it is but one of a multitude on the blogosphere. I’m not sure how my opinion would be accepted by the WSJ, though my site has been linked numerous times at WND.
-Phil