{"id":37927,"date":"2013-08-21T07:00:22","date_gmt":"2013-08-21T12:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=37927"},"modified":"2013-08-20T16:09:38","modified_gmt":"2013-08-20T21:09:38","slug":"whose-time-has-come","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=37927","title":{"rendered":"Whose Time Has Come"},"content":{"rendered":"

Freedom-loving, energy-rich Northern Colorado is drawing closer to seceding from the rest of the Democrat-addled state<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe concerns of rural Coloradans have been ignored for years,\u201d William Garcia, chairman of the Weld County Commissioners, said in a statement. \u201cThe last session was the straw that broke the camel\u2019s back for many people. They want change. They want to be heard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three other rural counties \u2014 Cheyenne, Sedgwick and Yuma \u2014 also plan to place the 51st state referendum on the fall ballot. At least three more counties plan to consider the proposal this week at their commission meetings, said Jeffrey Hare, spokesman for the 51st State Initiative.<\/p>\n

Known for its agriculture and oil and gas production, Weld is the largest of the Colorado counties exploring a break with the state after the legislature\u2019s sharp turn to the left with bills restricting access to firearms and doubling the state\u2019s renewable-energy mandate for rural areas.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I pondered this in Minnesota; a similar movement would be less a matter of the productive parts of the state “seceding” from Minnesota than of kicking Hennepin, Ramsey, Dakota, Anoka and Saint Louis Counties, and the Iron Range, out of the state.\u00a0 And I suspect that’s a little constitutionally dodgier…<\/p>\n

Forming a state isn\u2019t easy: Even if the ballot measures pass, the Colorado state legislature would be required to amend the constitution to configure the state\u2019s borders and refer a request for a new state to Congress.<\/p>\n

Approving a 51st state would require a majority vote of both houses of Congress, although the Constitution doesn\u2019t require the signature of the president, Mr. Hare said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In other words, it won’t happen until the GOP controls both chambers (if then, given the performance of the Boehner caucus).\u00a0 With any Democrat majorities at all, the idea would be dead in the water.\u00a0 Can you\u00a0 imagine what’d happen if Democrat parts of states didn’t have GOP regions to pay their bills for them?<\/p>\n

\u201cAgain, folks say this can never happen. However, we are starting to hear from disenfranchised groups all over the country,\u201d said a post on the 51st State Initiative\u2019s website. \u201cWe are truly a divided nation. It is possible, if not likely, that we may not be the only group requesting from Congress the formation of a new state.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Freedom-loving, energy-rich Northern Colorado is drawing closer to seceding from the rest of the Democrat-addled state: \u201cThe concerns of rural Coloradans have been ignored for years,\u201d William Garcia, chairman of the Weld County Commissioners, said in a statement. \u201cThe last session was the straw that broke the camel\u2019s back for many people. They want change. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liberty","category-liberal-tyranny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37927"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37931,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37927\/revisions\/37931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}