Some people aren't going to like this, but...

If they're going to bleed the Federal government dry and expect the states to take care of themselves, fine. The states can take taxation back. The states tax the citizens, distribute to the Fed as necessary, and handles all the transactions within their own borders.

No more of this trickle down crap. States can budget and allot money as they desire and operate semi-independently of one another. If you don't like the politics--move to another state.

How many states are going to be willing to pitch in for a trumped-up war?

It wouldn't be that bad, really. Require a re-ratification of the U.S. Constitution including all civil rights amendments...hell, add a few if you have to...and let the states more or less govern themselves.

That's what they want, isn't it? Except for one thing...they want to do it and stay in control of the money. All the power, all the money, and none of the responsibility.

What gets me is that a state government is more responsive anyway. It has to be, what with voter initiatives and recall elections (I realize that not all states have these things, but I think they should).

Sure, they can be abused, but I fail to see how it could be any worse than it is right now. At least under this system our men and women wouldn't be dying over there in Iraq. At least the state would have had the capacity to do something about Katrina BEFORE it happened rather than a week after.

Another option, of course, is privatized disaster relief. Wouldn't THAT be fun? Let the corporations take care of it...nevermind that they'd have to act only if there were a profit in it.

A corporation's biggest responsibility is to its shareholders, after all.

I wish I was being sarcastic.

<sigh>

I'll keep on throwing out ideas...see if anything catches. I figure even if this isn't feasible, or desirable, it'll sure toss a monkey wrench into the RW talking points.

And, if not to do that whenever possible, what the hell are we here for?

is a great way to get them where they live. I agree 100% states should allocate their own disaster relief funds if the feds are going to prove to be so inept at it. If red tape is killing people we need to eliminate it.

to the feds if there's anything left (and hopefully there won't be).

It's clear the feds can't function, so why fund them? And I'd like to start by elminating pay for Congress and the President.

I've been an advocate of this solution, for a while -- and I live part-time in two purple states, one that leans red, one that leans blue.

You're right, though -- they want the money, and, therefore, they would never do it. Plus, they're in control of the government, so there's NO WAY that they'd do it. I remember talking about this post-election debacle -- attempting to call them on their bluff.

There are a lot of good things to be said for centralization, but the ONLY problem is that technology has consistently relied on wealth concentration. If you're going to have that much concentrated wealth, you need to have a government big enough to monitor and regulate it, to some extent. That's my only hang-up (I guess, except for the fact that I think there might be more civil wars and border skirmishes). To accept de-centralization, to some extent, you have to accept a little less technological progress -- and this means things that extend our lives. That's a hard one, for me, to swallow.

Other than that, I could raise sheep, spin and knit on a commune, while writing poetry, listening to Stravinsky and watching people's old, home movies on the Super 8, for the rest of my life.
I don't need, nor want the hierarchy -- I just might want a life-saving procedure for my son, or something.

I've developed sort of a parasitic libertarian/communalist philosophy that sort of accepts that people want to "be the sheep," and to refuse to participate in it, myself, and try to keep as much of my focus on the LOCAL world -- while taking part in their life-saving technology. It's truly the only way that I can maintain some sort of egalitarian philosophy. Otherwise, I'd be so fucking frustrated at a middle class who cannot save themselves from bloat and doom and being human capital, I'd explode. I accept that that's their freedom, as equals to me, and I take what I need. "Sort of" egalitarian, anyway....;)

Can you imagine -- if we all started re-focusing on our communities, and what's around us? If the locus of government was at the municipal, county and state level, and people were involved? Fat fucking chance, but it's a nice fantasy. My only hope is that states rights do come to the forefront, and I can move to some kind of left-wing libertarian kind of place. I'm thinking Vermont, or a mass movement of left-libertarians to Washington, to outvote the Armpits of Yakima, or something.

without expecting anything from the federal government. Of course we need to keep paying taxes. Halliburton needs the money. How else did their stock go up from $29.34 a share on September 8, 2004 to today, on September 7, 2005 at $65.19 a share? Damn I wish I had bought a hundred shares a year ago, but like most people I didn't have the $3,000 to do it.

That would fix the bastards.