[robowombat]

I can only describe this as a true curiousity piece. Kilpatrick Sale, who started off as a member of the SDS and flirted with the Weatherman faction began his book publishing career with a very long instant history of the SDS. Over the years and in the course of things writing a curious fictionalnalized biography of Columbus that indited the Europeans for everything from gennocide to low mopery in the Western Hempisphere he has arrived in Vermont as the founder and directorof The Middlebury Institute for “the study of separatism, secession, and self-determination.” If nothing it it demonstrates the strange alliance emerging among some parts of the right and the anti-organizational left.

Somewhere John C Calhoun is laughing.

[orionblamblam]

I would wholeheartedly support the secession of San Francisco (The Bay Area Nation) from the US. I would also love to see Illinois secede from Chicago.

[sergeantdave]

Holding a referendum forcing Detroit to secede from Michigan would be fine with me. The city could hook up with Moose Factory, Ontario.

[TexasTransplant]

Texas doesn't need Permission!

TT

[conservative physics]

There is no need for a ton of states to succeed from the union.

Under our constitution the states can call a constitutional convention anytime they wish to amend the constitution, a simple majority of states (26) could fix everything the courts have messed up in one fail swoop.

[Non-Sequitur]

I can only describe this as a true curiousity piece. Kilpatrick Sale, who started off as a member of the SDS and flirted with the Weatherman faction began his book publishing career with a very long instant history of the SDS.

I think his acid just kicked in again.

[MACVSOG68]

Sales' credibility fails and his agenda shows with statements like

And yet, it is hard to believe that Washington would actually command its troops to mow down Los Angelenos and San Franciscans the way they do the civilians of Fallujah and Najaf,

The Constitution begins "We the people...", not "We the states..." Lincoln was right. Case closed!

[Lancer_N3502A]

bump for later.

[CertainInalienableRights]

I'd have to say that I suspect the author falls into the general category of a "leftist".

Ironic, then, that the very advocates of federal power over every aspect of our collective lives for the last 50-75 years, and who have vociferously resisted any attempt to turn back that tide, now decide that the monster they have created might not be a good idea.

[Lester Moore]

And yet, it is hard to believe that Washington would actually command its troops to mow down Los Angelenos and San Franciscans the way they do the civilians of Fallujah and Najaf,

Was this author born when the Branch Davidians were machine gunned by attacking BATF on the ground and strafed by BATF in Helicopters and the gassed by FBI and Army Delta Force soldiers, then after the women and children were blinded and disabled by the tear gas the FBI/Delta Force soldiers used the tanks to cave in the exits and passageways of the building, then after the gas filled building erupted into flames, the women and children escaping the flames in the back of the building, out of sight of the media, were machine gunned down by Army Delta Force soldiers?

What doubt is there? None.

We know that the central government would order federal forces to slaughter U.S. citizens because we've seen them do it.

[Dont Mention the War]

Somewhere John C Calhoun is laughing.

So am I. Thank you for posting this.

In addition to being strange, the author is just plain wrong. The U.S. military "wouldn't mow down San Franciscans"? Oh yes it would, and there would be milllions openly volunteering to join the armed forces to help cut down any such "secession". What Sale seems to forget is that even such ultra-liberal bastions as San Francisco have population that are roughly 25% Republican, give or take. None of those people would ever want to secede, and unless such a movement was essentially unanimous in any given area, the local government would have no moral standing to attempt to do so. That other 25% would have the right to compel their nation to come to save their freedom and soverignty from the tyranny of the majority, and we as Americans would have the unquestionable responsibility to save those people's right to live as Americans under an American flag. The Constitution's pretty clear about this.

[TBP]

WEll, he does have a point.

[webheart]

Do you wonder whether this guy is a liberal or a conservative?

it is hard to believe that Washington would actually command its troops to mow down Los Angelenos and San Franciscans the way they do the civilians of Fallujah and Najaf,

What a #4c%1ng loser. Our troops do not mow down civilians anywhere, no matter how much such action would be justified. The author gives away his intentions fairly quickly. I stopped reading at this point, and I don't care what he has to say.

[TBP]

Sale says some crazy things about WMDS, the economy, foreing policy, and other matters, but as far as the legality of secession, he hits the nail on the head.

Secession should be a last resort, but when the constitutional limits have totally disasppeared and every other means has been tried, secession is the states' trump card. By quashing it, Lincoln essentially empowered the Federal government to exercise absolute power.

[hinckley buzzard]

it is hard to believe that Washington would actually command its troops to mow down Los Angelenos and San Franciscans the way they do the civilians of Fallujah and Najaf,

Leftwing nutcase alert.