November 28, 2005 journal, money system is designed, Vermont secession is possible. "Insiders have access to huge sums of federal dollars and other resources third-parties usually do not have. Even when the latter do have money it helps but little; Ross Perot's billions were unable to win him a single-electoral vote in 1992. The fact that many liber-tarians reject the idea of a financial power elite as "conspiracy theory" is automatically working against them. In this case, what about being done with it and seceding from the union? Before we dismiss this idea, we should observe that if the Declaration of Indepe-ndence-by its own statement a secession document-was valid then, the idea of organizing

and departing from tyrannical governments is valid now. Succession deserves more than a passing glance these days, especially since just the weekend before last, a number of Ver-monters convened to approve separation from the United States. The group called the second Vermont Republic (SVR) did not meet in the back room of a restaurant but in the gold doomed capitol in Montpelier resulting in national attention. The SVR argument: the Washington government has lost its moral authority, is unsustainable and unfixable. It is too late to work within the system, as Clara Wolf says above. But let's not shoot those bastards. Let us separate peacefully, taking Vermont back from big government, big business and the money system. We heard succession stirring in various places back in the 1990's. The League of the South, of course, has satellite organizations throughout South.

But the idea has also been floated in Texas, Arizona, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Michigan, Hawaii, Alaska, and doubtless elsewhere. This phenomenon of worldwide Quebec has long wanted to separate from Canada. The Kurds wanted freedom from Iraq, and still

do. Chechnya wants independence from Russia. Tibetans wants out of communist China. Following nine11, the idea receded into the background, at least a year, but in the wake of an increasingly out of control B-us-h administration, having possibly lied his way into an unconstitutional war and itching to declare martial law in the homeland, secession talk has resurfaced. One of the goals of Christian Exodus, which convened here in Greenville last month, is to congregate a sufficient number of Christians in South Carolina to change the political climate and, if necessary, separate from Washington D.C.'s grasping paws. Secessionists have to think through what a visible separation would involve, though. It will not happen by meeting in the dark room of Prime Sirloin; it can only be carried forth via a strategy aimed at capturing state government. Thomas Naylor of SVR, was able to convene his group in the Vermont capital, and thus gain the most credibility any secession movement has yet achieved. I spoke with Mr. Naylor about the SVR strategy, he told me his meeting had been approved by the Vermont Speaker of the House and the Sergeant at Arms; several legislators and a likely candidate for governor appeared. James Howard coaster Kunstler (author of The Long Emergency, about Peek Oil and the end of Amer-ican Suburbia) gave the keynote address. The group but forth a Vermont Independence Resolution, but is not to a point of acting to secede from the U.S. yet; this would involve signing an official declaration of independence, presenting it to Washington and in other major capitols around the world attempting to gain recognition abroad. Huge hurdles would remain to be cleared. Any state separating from the US would have to survive with no federal dollars at all-for education, roads, or anything else. Of course, to secessionists, this would be a good thing, but would ordinary people do of? I'm not asking whether fed-eral dollars for these things are constitutional, of course not. But the fact remains: many at the state level have grown dependent on these dollars”. Continued-By Steven Yates.