"AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry today joined state Rep. Brandon Creighton and sponsors of House Concurrent Resolution (HCR) 50 in support of states’ rights under the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
“I believe 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,” Gov. Perry said. “That is why I am here today to express my unwavering support for efforts all across our country to reaffirm the states’ rights affirmed by the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. I believe that returning to the letter and spirit of the U.S. Constitution and its essential 10th Amendment will free our state from undue regulations, and ultimately strengthen our Union.”
My rightwing neighbors are all atwitter about this, but I don’t really understand what it means and/or what it is all about. What is the purpose and implication(s) of this activity? It seems on the surface to me to be a Palin/Bachmann-esque something-or-other. Any one know about this?
It means that Perry has a tough primary fight for the GOP nomination for Governor coming up, and so he’s passing some meaningless legislation to spruce up his right-wing bonifieds.
The actual effect of the legislation is that Texas will send a letter to Obama, Reid Pelosi and the Texas congressional delegation saying that Texas is soverign, which I suspect will be read and then thrown out (or in Pelosi’s office, recycled) by some low level interns.
Actually as can be seen by Denver’s lack of enforcement of Federal marijuana laws, the executive branch has a great deal of power in terms of how it relates to Federal authority as the Feds require state level enforcement for their mandates to have teeth.
Though on the other hand Obama has backed off on Federal attempts to enforce those laws such as in California when the state clearly wants Pot normalization but the Fed is opposed to it.
This sort of thing is important most specifically as it relates to drug laws, which is where it plays out most significantly in the public eye, but it will probably relate to a whole lot of other things.
Gov. Goodhair isn’t my favorite politician, but he sure got this one right.
What it means is that the federal government is acting in violation of the Constitution (even more so than normal) and the states are getting fed up with it. We’re tired of socialism being rammed down our throats.
Yeah, the Republicans sure jumped all over excessive federal power-grabbing over the last 8 years, didn’t they? Why, i’m sure i recall you leaping in to defend California’s medical marijuana laws against the Bush/Ashcroft/Gonzalez Justice Department.
Oh, what? That never happened? Color me surprised.
Well I mean this trend of legislatures passing resolutions like this aren’t that new. You’re acting like ‘suddenly’ conservatives started bitching about states rights because of Obama, that’s nonsense. Maybe that particular one started in February but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t in the works, that people weren’t talking about it and trying to put it together before then. Even if it did it doesn’t recognize that other states passed similar resolutions over the past year that clearly couldn’t have been JUST a reaction to Obama. Such as the similar resolution passed in New Hampshire.
Perry has been playing to the cheap seats (Texas Secessionists, etc.) for some time–because of his fear of Kay Bailey Hutchison. He “won” with 39% of the vote last time.
I’ll proudly vote for the Democratic candidate; we had a Democratic governor not so long ago. But I’d far prefer a Governor Hutchison over another term for Governor Good Hair. At least she’s always run as a Republican. Perry was a Democrat until he decided to switch.
The difference being that New Hampshire opposition to federal government power has been, over the years, far more consistent and far less hypocritical than Texan opposition. At least the opponents of federal power in New Hampshire generally have the integrity to maintain the same position no matter who happens to be in the White House, rather than falling over themselves to kiss the ass of powergrubbing Republicans in Washington, and then crying “socialism” when Democrats exercise pretty much the same sorts of federal power…
I feel that this is a small price for conservatives to pay in order to improve America’s favorability rating with the French.
Do you realize that the percentage of Français holding a positive opinion of us has jumped by 33% (from 42% to 75%) in just the past year?
That’s a HUGE win for the country, at very little cost to your average American.
Heh, Texas has always been one of those states that people think of when they think of people bucking trends against the Federal government. This seems more like hyperbole on your part than a serious criticism of Texas. A lot of people in Texas fucking HATE Bush, like LOATHE him. The idea that Texas falls all over itself over a Republican President is umm…well…I think you just made that shit up. Squink Why is positive French opinion in any way desirable? Why does it matter at all?