Where's SFC Wallace? I want to hear his explanation for this: is it simply that they know it's never going to happen, so Republicans are indulging in a pipe dream or are they really that dumb?

Republicans hate America for our freedom.

Maybe they will throw away their flag pins in protest?

Sounds about right.

The platitudinous Daughters of the Confederacy mythology created to enable avoidance of the ugly truth that the South sent 1/5 of its military age white men to the grave in defense of evil is alive and well. In this version of history, the War of Northern Agression wasn't about slavery at all but, instead, was all about "states' rights." And somehow, the inextricable--and formerly quite bluntly acknowledged--linkage between the states rights ideology and the preservation of a poitical, social and economic system based on racism--was magically washed away.

I grew up with that perverse revisionism in Kentucky, a state that didn't even secede, and found it even more entrenched among whites when I moved here in the 80s. The logical conclusion of that view is that secession would have been a blessing and everyone would have been better off. Freed of yankee interference, the South would have gotten around to a-freein' them slaves eventually--notwithstanding the fact that the Confederate constitution forbade emancipation or amendments enabling emancipation. And naturally, certainty of a successor system of control and oppression that would have made apartheid look liberal is, again, washed away from this alternate history, as well.

Hey, it must be all be true: Hank Williams, Jr. wrote a bombastic song about it.

But it bears repeating--the fact that these views are now most common among the members of the Party of Lincoln, the majority of whom can't even see the irony, is the most amazing part of it.

Aside from the hilarity that has ensued since Governor Perry got the ridiculous ball rolling, I think there's actually an interesting contrast here. When Bush was installed in office, and again when he was elected, liberals all over the place where threatening to move to Canada. Probably some of the made good on the threat, but the rest of us calmed down and lived with the knowledge that we weren't in the majority.

Conservatives, faced with the same situation, don't threaten to move anywhere, but instead to start a new country, taking part of what is all of ours with them.

It really does give a nice indication of where their heads our. Liberals realize it's not exclusively "our" country and that if we don't like it, our choice is to leave. Conservatives believe that America is theirs and theirs alone.

As Faulkner said-- in the South the past isn't dead, it isn't even the past. These people still think the civil war was a glorious battle. (And don't point out to them that most of their glorious southern manhood paid some poor kid to take their place.) But if they all secede-- and please please do-- remember when you go you will lose all federal bennies. Which means your vast number of waster citizens won't get any public assistance from the feds. So no social security, no social security disability, no federal welfare of any kind which would include medicare, no NIH grants for Baylor or MD Anderson, or any federal money of any kind for any educational institute, no fed backed student loans, no fed money for any hospitals of any kind, no money for roads or bridges or plants, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. Oh and you won't have any congressman or senators in any governmental body so no more of this kind of nonsense and being dragged down by y'all. So please please hurry up and go. And if you can't tell I had to live in the South for a while and you don't even want to ask how bad that was or what I saw happen to people down there.

As Georgia journalist Jay Bookman recounts on his blog, earlier this year the Georgia State Senate passed the Republican-sponsored Senate Resolution 632 stating, among other things, that the only crimes the federal government could prosecute are treason, piracy, and slavery. "Therefore, all acts of Congress which assume to create, define or punish [other] crimes … are altogether void, and of no force." The resolution also endorsed the theory of "nullification," the legal concept which holds that states can ignore Federal laws they assert exceed those granted under the Constitution. The theory of nullification helped precipitate the Civil War and a century later was used to justify resistance to the civil rights initiatives of the 50s and 60s. Finally, the resolution states that if Congress, the president or federal courts take any action that exceeds their constitutional powers, the Constitution is rendered null and void and the United States of America is officially disbanded. In other words, if Congress enacts any sort of ban regarding assault weapons, the United States no longer exists.

Bookman mentions that the list of GOP sponsors included Republican Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers, Senate President Pro Tem Tommie Williams, Transportation Committee Chairman Jeff Mullis, and Chief Deputy Whip John Wiles. Given those A-list Georgia Republicans, I have no doubt that secession is favored by at the minimum 1/3 of Georgia Republicans.

I wonder if the neoliberal Rethugs in secessionist Georgia would sign a free-trade agreement with the US.

Now, fully 144 years after the end of the Civil War, it seems that about the same percentage of people down in Georgia are traitors as they had back in the old days. What a surprise! Remember, many (including Ulysses S. Grant) never thought the majority of whites in the south were for secession. A vocal and wealthy minority controlled the politics of the south and it was them and their very poor judgment that brought on the civil war and the need to crush the traitors. Indeed, many large portions of the southern states held out against the traitors and were loyal. North Georgia was a stronghold for patriots for example. Part of me wishes they would try it again so we can whack them again for old times' sake.

While it is admirable, I guess, that only 1/3 of the GOP in Georgia wants to secede from the nation, this whole secession thing is a really interesting phenomenon. First of all, many, many Democrats were very unhappy with eight years of George Bush, but I did not hear California or New York or Massachusetts talk about secession. Had they done so, they would have been immediately branded as "traitors." Such conversation, however, is apparently quite acceptable in the red states though. The other disturbing thing to me is who this talk is directed at, our first African American President. One can't help thinking that there are a significant number of people who can't get past President Obama's race, and they are hiding that fact behind a series of explanations that "seem" more acceptable.

Since they hate America so much they could get rid of all their US flags, thus saving lots of money to finance the invasion of Somalia. This failed state is about the right size and is on the east coast of Africa (so the sun would come up in the right place). Then they could move Georgia lock stock and barrel to their new independent nation state, renamed New Confedery. In addition, with unlimited gun ownership rights, clearing out all the pirates would be fun and good target practice. Finally they would establish a focused immigration policy to admit only the most radical wingnuts from other US locales who are suffering under the yoke of democracy.

Oh, that's rich. The area of the United States that is the largest recipient of federal welfare dollars and that receives federal funds for reconstruction after the yearly hurricane suddenly doesn't need the rest of the country nor its tax dollars?

1/3 is hardly a majority, but hypothetically I'd give Georgia and any other southern state a week after secession before they start drinking and dialing. "I was just thinking that maybe we could get back together?"