Before I launch into today’s post, I’ll be one of the many to point out that Iran pledged to release the British hostages today. It’s good news in that the hostages will come back, of course, though I do find it very interesting that Iran is calling it a “gift”. I’m about 100% certain that we will be seeing much more of this in the future. The only question will become whether Iran continues to kidnap British sailors or if they dare to kidnap American troops, and if they do the latter, what will happen?

Today’s post is inspired about an article on Alternet, titled Will Vermont Secede from the Union?:

The winds of secession are blowing in the Green Mountain State.

Vermont was once an independent republic, and it can be one again. We think the time to make that happen is now. Over the past 50 years, the U.S. government has grown too big, too corrupt and too aggressive toward the world, toward its own citizens and toward local democratic institutions. It has abandoned the democratic vision of its founders and eroded Americans’ fundamental freedoms.

Vermont did not join the Union to become part of an empire.

Some of us therefore seek permission to leave.

Vermont isn’t the only strain with strong(er than usual, anyways) anti-federalist leanings; Nevada has a tradition over the past 30 years or so of being the genesis of various movements fighting against increased Federal rule, including the Sagebrush Rebellion and the Jarbidge Shovel Brigade. There’s also a fair amount of resistance in Nevada to the Yucca Mountain Project, which will almost certainly bring a cask a week through the second-largest metropolitan area in Nevada (that’s code for “Reno”).

The problem here, of course, is the broad interpretation of the Commerce Clause. However, the Supreme Court is the one responsible for this broad interpretation and has only recently begun to rescind some of its farther reaching verdicts, which means that, in order to revive state’s rights, some discipline will need to be held in the other two branches of government. This is actually good because, from where I’m sitting, the Legislative and Executive branches shouldn’t be pushing the envelope as far as the Judicial branch will allow anyways.

So, what would I like to see in support of state’s rights?

1. The removal of clauses to funding of federal projects that are only peripherally related to the project at hand (think tying federal highway funding to legal drinking ages and BACs, for example).
2. Removing unfunded mandates.
3. Removing the BLM and handing the land held by the BLM to the states. If land needs to be protected, then it either needs to be a National Park or it can be managed by the states.

I could come up with more, and I probably will, but I think this is a decent start.

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