On Tea Party Day, Texas Governor Reserves The Right To Secede

AUSTIN, Texas — "Texas Gov. Rick Perry fired up an anti-tax "tea party" Wednesday with his stance against the federal government and for states' rights as some in his U.S. flag-waving audience shouted, "Secede!"

An animated Perry told the crowd at Austin City Hall — one of three tea parties he was attending across the state — that officials in Washington have abandoned the country's founding principles of limited government. He said the federal government is strangling Americans with taxation, spending and debt.

Perry repeated his running theme that Texas' economy is in relatively good shape compared with other states and with the "federal budget mess." Many in the crowd held signs deriding President Barack Obama and the $786 billion federal economic stimulus package.

Perry called his supporters patriots. Later, answering news reporters' questions, Perry suggested Texans might at some point get so fed up they would want to secede from the union, though he said he sees no reason why Texas should do that.

"There's a lot of different scenarios," Perry said. "We've got a great union. There's absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, you know, who knows what might come out of that. But Texas is a very unique place, and we're a pretty independent lot to boot."

He said when Texas entered the union in 1845 it was with the understanding it could pull out. However, according to the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, Texas negotiated the power to divide into four additional states at some point if it wanted to but not the right to secede.

Whoa boy! I guess if the LIBRARY says that secession is out of the question then Texans should stop dead in their tracks and get back to bowing and scraping like most of the country.

After all, losing that library card is simply too horrible to even imagine.

And not for nothing, but exactly how many northerners could be counted on heading south with kit, kaboodle, and bad intentions THIS time around?

Can you even begin to imagine the likes of the Brady Bunchers packing into Prius's and towing trailers containing their protest signs as they march to face Texans and those that'd fight WITH Texans?