Countdown's WTF Moment: Texas Secession (VIDEO)

In tonight's installment of Countdown's "WTF Moment," Olbermann takes a realistic look at what would happen if Texas actually followed through on Governor Rick Perry's threat to secede if the federal government doesn't leave Texas alone. Well, between skyrocketing taxes, loss of military protection, sports teams crumbling, massive debt burdens, and the coming political crisis in 2020 (when the projected population of Texas will be 45 percent Hispanic and 38 percent Anglo, and the Hispanics win a ballot initiative to have the new republic join Mexico), the picture doesn't look good.

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Comments

[FrankenPC]

Brilliant analysis. Not even an option.

[lighthorse]

It blows my mind to here people talk about the government giving to the state. The Government has nothing to give that it hasn't first taken away. We support the Government, it does not support us.

[Rangergirl]

Keith's WFT momment was right on...

[foreffectivegovernment]

Please keep on believing what the whiners tell you and stay away from Texas. We absorbed the dredges from Louisiana and still have faired better than the Progressive Northeastern states in spite of them. Read this and weep! This explains exactly why Texans don't want to be part of the mess that used to be "The greatest Country in the World".

http://www.star-telegram.com/804/story/1380964.html

Excerpts from the above article:
“Across the nation, unemployment is sky-high, the housing market is sucking wind and recessionary fears have frozen Americans in place.”
“Just don’t tell that to a stream of new residents who are "voting with their feet" that Texas is the safest place to ride out the storm and the place to be when the economy recovers.”
"If you had to ride out this downturn, there is no better place than Texas. The declines here have been nothing compared to other states," said Richard Froeshle, deputy director of Texas Workforce Commission.
“Relocation surveys show that Texas remains a top destination for people leaving other states. Its automobile registrations continue to climb, and the Texas housing market has avoided the double-digit declines other fast-growing states have seen. While the unemployment rate has risen in Texas, it’s nowhere near as high as most of the country, underscoring the state’s economic resiliency even as the downturn deals out its lumps.”

[Rosewren]

Please explain then why 46% of your children and elderly live in poverty in your state. According to the following demographics from

http://www.statehealthfacts.org/comparemaptable.jsp?ind=16&cat=1

Texas ranks No. 2 in the nation for children living in poverty, only Mississippi beats them out of first place with a whopping 37%.

[Texan4life]

I couldn't agree more with you on that topic. I live in Texas, but my worry is what would happen if Texas falls into Mexican control, and how Texas would manage being independent after it begged to be annexed in the 1800's.

[Artos]

If the U.S. is no longer the "Greatest Country" in the world, we only have one or two of your own to thank for it, Bush and Rove to name just those two for starters. For your information the only reason people are moving to Texas at all is because Texas consists of so much useless land that it's dirt cheap still as compared to a lot of other states and that's probably the primary reason, The second reason is that because you have so much poverty there the prices are still relatively low too. As for oil, Texas apparently always gets favored nation status since most of the Greedy oil Barons make their headquarters there. I do know what I'm talking about because I lived in Texas a long time as a kid before I had the good sense to leave.

[Queenie Beanie]

Regarding the argument that Texas originally belonged to the Indians, not the Mexicans, many people who live in Mexico today are indigenous, despite aggressive efforts to get rid of them, beginning with Hernán Cortés. One of Mexico's presidents, Benito Juárez, was a full-blooded Zapotec Indian and is considered to be a hero by many Mexicans, although some in the PAN political party are trying to diminish his stature. Most Mexicans can trace some or all of their roots to the people who, to our knowledge, first inhabited Mesoamérica and areas far to the north. The roots of the word "Mexico" are indigenous languages.

It is funny how differently history is perceived depending on which side of the border you are on.

[Artos]

What ever, Mexicans didn't exist until Spain coined the name. Before that "Mexicans" were indians or indigenous people as you call them with names of their own. Not Mexicans.

[Uptrodden]

In this new Principalia of Enronia every new borns' brain will be implanted with a chip that repeats the phrase "Remember to vote for Tom Delay"

[ronspri]

I think this may be Keiths best ever. He puts on display my main problem with the rightists. They have no analytical thinking skills. None..zilc­h....zeros­..They are soap opera writers of drama...clowns at a circus.

[truebluetexan]

This native of the Lone Star State is sick and tired of her Governor making half-baked statements that leave the American Public (and the rest of the world) with the impression that we Texans are nothing more than a bunch of frustrated Redneck Yeehaws incapable of even a single intelligent thought.
For now, all I can do is hope with each new day that this humiliation we thoughtful residents suffer at the hands of our unfit leader will end in the next Gubenatorial election. I am Texan to the core, and I love my home, but I will never understand why Texans keep electing leaders in this State who lack the ability to appear rational.
Every time I think we've put the whole "Secession" incident behind us, yet another video, comment, joke, or blog appears to remind me that yes, Governor Rick Perry stood before the national media and introduced the mind-numbing idea that Texas secede from the United States. I guess I should be thankful that he wasn't brandishing six-guns and sporting a ten-gallon hat when he said it.
God bless Texas......we need all the help we can get!

[MajorKong]

I give Texas a lot of grief but you guys really do deserve better than Rick Perry down there.

[Texan4life]

I strongly disagree at the comment that we are quote, "I will never understand why Texans keep electing leaders in this State who lack the ability to appear rational." I believe that gov. Rick Perry is a very good governer for the State of Texas. Do I support succeding if it hurts Texas, no, but I do back up our governer. And I have reason enough to want Texas to secced, "OBAMA". The government needs to bud out of trying to control everything. They say they arn't, but they are clearly abusing there power and need to leave Texas alone.

[CitizenIndie]

Can they please leave already or vote Perry out?
I'm tired of hearing this guy. Texas in number #3 on the welfare rolls as well as LEADING the country in FEMA funds.
Good luck getting that oil out during Hurricane Whatever or Forest Fire #9798756551.
Dust bowl, hail bowl, tornado bowl, fire bowl, hurricane bowl, dirt bowl, snake bowl, scorpion bowl, heat bowl.
What's good about Texas other than Bush hides out there?

[texasteph12570]

heres to you big city dwelling slugs with your egotistic ideals and your self centered culture, for ruining the usa with your tolerance of mediocrity and promotion of the welfare state. its obvious that you lack the basic sense to take care of yourselves and as such you are entirely dependent upon the government for your every need. since this is your limited frame of reference i forgive you your ignorance of truth but i cannot abide a fool with a loose lips when it comes to our fine state/republic. we in the greatest state of texas firmly believe in self determination, within the confines of faith, respect, and perseverance. you see here in texas we work for what we have and do like to accept handouts as they weaken a persons resolve. you with your public transit, and your municipal services departments have no understanding of our lives here, so we would advise you to limits your opinions to that which you are knowledgeable about. texas is also #3 in total taxes paid in to the federal govt. and unlike the other top two we only get 14cents on the dollar returned to our state. d/a's like you are why we seek our own destiny, and as for whats good in texas, you and your ilk are not here, thank god.

[imfedup]

Very stream-of-­consciousn­ess, Steph. Here in the upper 49 we believe in punctuation and capitalization. D/a's indeed.

[FierceInvalid]

haha so wait you're telling me there aren't big cities, municipal services departments, welfare, or public transportation systems in Texas? Wow it's obvious that your complete lack of awareness about what's going on outside the insano bubble you live in makes you fairly likely to do and say ridiculous things. PLEASE SECEED! It is hilarious to me that you can say, in the same breath, how self-centered we "big city dwelling slugs" while promoting a philosophy that is PROUDLY self-centered. A political philosophy of "self-dete­rmination" is just another way of pretending you live on your own little island and that your actions and opinions don't affect the lives of the people around you. Go check out the ghetto in Houston and tell yourself that the people living there have the same ability to "self-determine" as the oil exec's kid living in River Oaks. Actually, just go ahead and secede. We need to raise the average American IQ somehow...

[Artos]

I know all about your self determination. How do you explain so much poverty and cities in disrepair? How do you explain your existence at all since it was with the help of numerous Americans from other states who came there and fought for you guys to even be a state. Your first citizens didn't just grow out of the ground and exist, they were Americans first. You and yours are nothing but furriners, got that . So back off dude.

[Texan4life]

I love that you showed up those Northern Yankee jackasses by showin what Texas really is about. I totally agree and you and me are true Texans. And exactly, Texas does do a great part in the Taxes and barely gets it back. Long live Texas and people like you and me!!!

[Texan4life]

This comment obviously shows that you lack knowledge in this situation and that you need to do a little more research until you comment something that makes you sound retarded. And the reason Texas is number third on the welfare list is because of MOSTLY Mexicans who come to Texas and are lazy. Check your facts bud. And President Bush rocks!

[drjoann]

Down thread, it was posted that 17 of the poorest counties in the US are in TX. (I did point out that this is only 7% of TX counties with about 5% of the state population). To which cbat replied:

"They continue to vote republican despite being poor, uneducated and poor healthcare because they are idiots. Fear and hatred work good on these type of people, I know I am from Texas. Show me a man who votes against his own interest and I will show you a fool."

You may be from Texas, but you need to do some research before you bad-mouth your fellow Texans. Of those 17 poorest counties in TX, 15 of them went for Obama. They may be poor and uneducated, but they are hardly idiots since they actually did vote for their own interests and fear and hatred did not work good [sic] on them.

[Artos]

Yes your right and the reason that they are so poor is because Texas like so many states in the South hate Unions. They were brainwashed into resenting Unions because Plantation owners didn't want them and didn't like the po' white trash to have a voice against them. So Southerners like to promote this stupid idea of a "Right to Work" States. That is why Southerners are in the main proud owners of so much Poverty and will remain so. But hell if the guy next door can't hold his own well hell let em rot eh, That's the grand Philosophy of those that have. A Survival of the Fittest mentality. I liken the South as being like Sparta, Love war and let the weak die in gulleys.

[Bobonze]

Olbermann made a brief mention of the "sovereign nation" of Texas (and variations of Texania).

What Olbermann failed to mention was that, if Texas does become a sovereign nation, can the U.S.A. treat them as a a sovereign nation? A la Iraq? We can invade the country of "Texacania" so we can spread "Democracy"?

Now that would be a hoot!

Yeeeehaaawww!

[fiorastar]

They should welcome it, right? After all, most of the people who believed it was the right thing to do to Iraq came from--or at least pretended they came from--Texas.

[BLinCincinnati]

Even the phony "spreading Democracy" story works to cover up the real reason... the oil. Texas has lots of oil. ;)

[Artos]

Invading Texas would be like invading Iraq, an expensive quagmire, over what a desert, and on top of which we'd end up getting Bush back. Who in hell wants that.

[landoffools]

Hey Ricky !

Ya gonna take Piyush Jindal with you ?

Please !

[EconPadawan]

If Texas secedes can the DNC hold a secret meeting to rename it for them?

[seted]

Lets hear for the new nation of Redneckistan!

[mandennis]

good!!! and what Russia did to Georgia will also happen to Redneckistan, err, I mean Texas. and Perry will be caught in an underground bunker thick beard and all. Hmmm, there was another guy like this in Iraq. I wonder.

[Schvenzlerman]

It was abhorrently racist for Olbermann to state that Texan Hispanics would by default want Texas to join Mexico. He knows nothing about them. Probably has never even been to Texas.

Why would Benman joke that Texas might cut taxes to zero? The state already has no income tax.

Why would anyone think ill of a state's wish to secede? That is precisely how the U.S. was born. Why would Olbermann joke about the U.S. sending in troops to kill Texans were their state to secede? Wasn't he railing against (Bush) war at every opportunity? What a hypocrite.

[LeftCoastLarry]

Boy, you sure must have worked hard to make up that list.
Quite a creative work of art.

[cbat]

Look I was born and raised in Texas, and I think republicans and right wingnuts talks of secede is just talk, but if they want to leave, go, please go. We democrats, independents and liberals will hold down the fort, stay part of the US and get control of the Texas government.

Olberman was trying to make a point, a point which surely went over your head.

[ChelseaC]

cbat,
well said.

[Texan4life]

You can have your opinion. But my opinion is that you DEMOCRATS are people who ruin America. OBAMA, example A. You can keep your little gay and girly political ways, but we true Texans who are Republicans, will shut you down.

[THORGODOFTHUNDER]

Schvenzlerman, you certainly don't understand irony and sarcasm. Get an education, dude.

[MrWampler]

Texas has 8.25% sales tax and property taxes that tripled under Bush. I guess these don't count as "taxes" for you, though.

[metalhead556]

Why would anyone think ill of secessionists? Because it wasnt all that long ago that the Conservatives where masquerading as patriots, TRUE AMERICANS and now look...nothing but bluster about secession.

You want hypocritical? Take a quick gander at the people who pretend to be true, loyal Americans but turn right around and talk about secession for quick, cheap political points.

Obama should call Perry's bluff...Go ahead, leave the union and see how well off Texas is...the majority of the rest of the nation has long since gotten sick of the Texan attitude, your nothing but America's Quebec.

[Senzasord]

Let's cede Texas to Somalia. They have no government, so Texans of the right wing will feel right at home. Oh by the way all federal installations like the Johnson Space center, and all military bases will be closed down and removed. Then we will see how much Texas no longer gets back for their federal tax dollar.