Now there’s a swine flu outbreak, and Governor Perry has called on the federal government to help him respond to it. This, naturally, has the same people on the left who tried to brand him as a secessionist calling him a hypocrite for turning to the federal government for help.

Which is all just obfuscation.

People who desire a return to this country’s federalist roots understand that there are some things the federal government is supposed to do and some things the federal government is not supposed to do. People such as Governor Perry (and myself, because I feel as he does on this issue) don’t want to abolish the federal government altogether. There are certain things the federal government is supposed to do. Our founding fathers recognized this too, which is why they created the federal government and tasked it with certain powers per the Constitution.

And one of the things the federal government is supposed to be involved in is responding to national emergencies. This includes international disease epidemics that cross not only state boarders but international boarders as well.

Believing that the federal government should allow states to decide issues such as gay marriage, abortion, gun control, commerce issues and the like for themselves does not necessarily mean believing that the federal government has a role in responding to an international health threat such as swine flu.

But, once again, obfuscating Perry’s position on these issues (and by extension the positions of the state’s rights movement in general) is much easier than having an honest, logical, straight-forward debate about the issue.

leneeg Says:

I am truly sorry that the swine flu has reared its ugly head again, since it was suppressed by vaccinations back about 1974. AS for Texas Governor Perry, it’s kharma or kizmit for you to beg for assistance from the feds after you so rudely decried to cecede from the union. It may be time for republicans to rethink their temper tantrum strategies and switch gears and steer a littl more towards a progressive thought process.

As far as I know, Texas is still in the Union. To deny them the assistance required to protect American Citizens is ludicrous. As far as temper tantrums go, the liberals have been throwing them for the past 8 years and continue to this day.

I can see the Progressive thought process on this site through the previous posts on this topic. Thanks but no thanks. Go read post # 1 through # 150 or so. Are you proud of the Progressive thought process as it is expressed on this topic and on this site, Leneeg?

rightwing-leftwing Says:

The trick in NOT to ban anything but tax the crap out of it. Stupid people will get their “vices” whether legal or not so, might as well turn the “vices” into a revenue source.

For once we agree on something. Legalize everything and tax the hell out of it.

People are going to do what they are going to do.

Try a little sarcasm rightwing. Tax everything. That will solve the problems. Go for it.

The trick in NOT to ban anything but tax the crap out of it. Stupid people will get their “vices” whether legal or not so, might as well turn the “vices” into a revenue source.

Johnsnottoodistracted Says:

What do you know. Now they have found another method to distract everyone and help the friend of the medical industry. Remember antrax and how many billions were spent and more billions wasted.
Swine flu is not new. Check it out gang. Try google if you are a novice.
What we need to look at is: how many people die daily from tobacco and tobacco related diseases? And what % of the intire health care industry is involved with tobacco and tobacco related illness/disease/etc.
Not trying to bang up smoking, only want everyone to see what the media can do when they put it in full speed ahead.

Lets deny those people the treatment they need to save them from the Swine Flu and then ban tobacco products and make it another illegal black market product to be smuggled into the country. Lets also try the ban on Alcohol again while we’re at it.

OBTW, Tobacco taxes pay for SCHIP. You do know what SCHIP is, right?

Pretty myopic post John.

Oh my. As abjectly stupid as you are did you really question someone else’s intelligence? Dude you are a MORON. Did you really need to add clueless on top of that?

I assure you, Doodlebug Shayne, down here in TX we are telling our governor ust what we think and his crackpot statement shows how scared he is. He is saying that kind of BS to raise money from the wingnuts, the folks that are freaked because President Obama’s middle name is Hussein.

Perry is way worried about Kay Bailey Hutchinson on the right and Bill White, a Democrat and the mayor of Houston on the left. Perry needs the money because he’s afraid he’s going to get whipped, he needs an island. I’m betting he will get whipped and not have the money for his island.

You don’t have to go to a tea party down here to tell a teabagger that they got a tax break. Texas is a target rich environment with folks who listen to too much Rush. I do engage people every day to expose them to a different viewpoint. I even change some minds [and votes]. As KingKranky said, we are 3 seats from having the house down here. The republicans themselves got rid of Tom Craddick, the republican speaker of the house who is a Tom Delay clone.

I am a 60 year old unreconstructed starry eyed, draft resisting, civil rights, peace and justice professional artist. I’m not mad at anybody about it, I don’t think it does any good at changing anyone’s mind. If I am going to spend time on something, I want a good shot at getting the result I want. Yelling and screaming at me never changed my mind, it only convinced me that an idiot was yelling at me.

We had GW as president for eight years. Did that mean that the entire country was guilty of the same things some of the posters are throwing at Texas? The whole nation got ripped off. That doesn’t make us stupid unless we keep letting them do it to us. We can get mad and stop them from doing what they have been doing. That’s what being mad is good for, stopping injustice, but once it’s stopped, I don’t think we should let them be our teachers and do to them what they did to us.

There are consequences and they must be paid. That’s justice. Retribution just takes energy away from what we need to get done. If we don’t pay attention, the right will just wait until our internecine bickering wears us out and they rip us off again.

If I were from the dark side, I would love looking at liberal blogs where lots of liberals were arguing with each other. One of our strengths is that we have loads of new ideas. It is also one of our weaknesses because we tend to be monogamous when it comes to our own families of ideas. We are coming from scarcity. We live like we can only get one thing done at a time.

We love our pet issue above all others. Some of us think civil rights should be the party focus, others say the environment, or health care , or family planning, etc. Each of us has affinity for different issues and and thinks it is the most important. So nothing gets done. If we would work together out of commitment to our community, we would already have most if not all of what we want.

Things are getting better, even though in any given moment it can look like things suck but there were still “coloreds only” signs all over America 50 years ago, I remember them. Thank god we have progressed past that. The pendulum swung the other way for 30 years and now it’s coming our way. If we are smart, we won’t abuse our power like the republicans did [and the Dems did before them] and we can get loads of stuff done.
BL

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat/430261?rel=hp_picks

Oh and thanks for the CONCERN.

Read the post, it doesn’t suggest any kind of sympathy with white supremacists, quite the opposite actually.

And I’ll plagiarize my own reply from that link to post here.

I can certainly understand the cries of “let ‘em secede”.

But, as a lib myself, and as someone who’s lived in Texas-El Paso, the red-headed stepchild part of the state-the vast majority of my life, this talk by Gov. Perry, and his fellow knuckledragger Chuck Norris, of secession riles me up no end.

I had to live under Bush Jr calling the shots for 14 years, 6 as Gov, 8 as President, and while I called him every name possible, including “traitor” and “bin Laden appeaser”, not once did I ever write, or say, that because of two stolen Presidential elections, the Bush Jr Administration had to be overthrown.

I wanted them impeached and charged with crimes, revenge done through the legal system instead of an armed mob.

I could barely bring myself to vote for Obama-the FISA hypocrisy, especially dealing with retroactive legal immunity for telecoms and internet providers who spied on their own customers without a warrant-and I’m getting angrier by the day with his justifications of keeping/expanding the worst of Bush Jr’s Constitution-raping policies.

But I have no time with the slugs who want to overthrow the Obama Administration, or secede, after less than three months in office, I kept in my pants-politically speaking-during the Bush Jr years, so these blithering rightwing Obama bashers need to do the same.

Understand, Perry’s BS about secession isn’t backed by even a bare majority of Texans, but instead is approved of by about 18% of those polled.

El Paso is probably the bluest part of Texas, the GOP will never hold a majority of the elected spots here, so if Texas were to ever actually secede, then El Paso would, in turn, secede from Texas as well.

Something else to consider here.

Our House of Reps has 150 members, and the Dems are within three seats of taking the majority in this chamber.

The secession-supporting slugs can take a hike to friendlier environs, say, North Korea, a place where, since no criticism of Dear Leader is allowed, the riled up fringe of the GOP’s base would feel right at home.