Lawmakers want Nevada to be sovereign state
By Matt Woolbright, AP
CARSON CITY — Two state senators and a dozen other Nevadans urged a Senate committee Tuesday to tell the federal government that “enough is enough” and declare Nevada a sovereign state, recognizing federal jurisdiction only in areas specified in the U.S. Constitution.
Sen. James Settelmeyer, R-Minden, presented the resolution to claim sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment, which says powers in the Constitution that are not specifically reserved for the federal government are reserved for the states.
“This resolution seeks to protect the citizens of the Silver State from an overreaching federal government,” Settelmeyer told members of the Senate Committee on Legislative Operations and Elections.
Nevada state Sen. James Settelmeyer
Senate Joint Resolution 3 proposes Nevada claim sovereignty as a state and order a cease-and-desist for all federal mandates deemed beyond those enumerated in the Constitution.
Settelmeyer provided examples of the federal government deeming 2,500 acres in Douglas County a flood plain, even though there is no record of flooding in the area, and changing arsenic regulations for water. Those changes put an economic strain on the affected locals, Settelmeyer said.
“I feel our federal government has overstepped and is trampling over our state rights — ours and every other state’s,” said Carol Howell of the Carson City Republican Central Committee.
Any future attempts by the federal government that are outside its enumerated powers would be prohibited, as would threatening civil or criminal action for failing to enact one of the non-enumerated mandates. It’s a practice that one Nevadan said has become too common.
“We need to tell the federal government we’re not accepting blackmail,” Richard Brengman said at the meeting. “Nevada needs to be represented by Nevadans, not the federal government.”
Sen. Mark Manendo, D-Las Vegas, told the Associated Press later in the day that there is an argument that states should be independent from the federal government. But he quickly added some forget the good parts of an involved federal government.
“States do receive a lot of assistance from the federal government,” Manendo said. “Whether you agree or disagree, we do get highway money, we do get federal money for different things.”
He added he is undecided on the resolution, but said it does have merit.
“There are pros and cons to it because states do have some benefit from the federal government,” Manendo said. “I certainly wish Nevada owned more of its own territory here.”
Others sought to ensure that the resolution also rejects the United Nations’ Agenda 21, a 300-page proposal suggesting a roadmap for the world in the 21st Century. Opponents fear, if implemented, Agenda 21 will remove individual freedoms and usher in a one-world government.
Jim Sallee urged the committee to serve as a line of defense against any sort of encroachment on personal freedoms by the federal government.
“We are looking for you to stand between them and us, and defend the Constitution of the United States,” Sallee told committee members via a video feed from Las Vegas.
If passed, the resolution would be sent to the president, vice president, leaders of both houses of Congress and members of the Nevada delegation to be entered into Congressional Record.
“I think we need to remind them,” Settelmeyer said of the federal government and states’ rights. “I feel they’ve forgotten the meaning of the Tenth Amendment.”
These wingnuts want their sovereignty? They come in last or near last in every important category, 85%+ of the land is owned by the federal government, and their economic engine (gaming) is shriveling on the vine (48 states with some form of legalized gaming and online gaming growing). Those are a couple of REAL smart fella’s that just don’t realize they are nothing without the federal government.
Sounds like some big kid (Texas?) telling his little brother to try this with mom and dad to see what happens.
Would that mean no Federal taxes?
Would it mean no Social Security taxes? Or would it mean no Federal funding and no Social Security for any of Nevada’s retired? REAL smart feller’s these guys is. :)Enough IS enough. What a bunch of pandering morons! “If we do this crazy sh*t, we can get maybe five to ten percent more votes!” Don’t believe for a second this could ever happen. If it does, please watch the movie “Idiocracy”. That will be next.
“Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”
– Robert J. Hanlon
Go ahead and try. See how it works out for you.
I am not surprised and I am glad I left.
The article says…
‘recognizing federal jurisdiction only in areas specified in the U.S. Constitution’.
People who value freedom and Love their Country would find this a very reasonable position.
As represented here by the comments above, South Lake Tahoe’s population is the problem with South Lake Tahoe.
The Senator’s comment with respect to highway funds misleads. Federal Highway funds are derived from taxes you and I pay at the pump. The Federal government, after taking out money to pay their costs, then decides how much to give back to each State. It is State money, filtered by the Feds which results in less money to the State.
Granted it is part of the Federal Governments role in assuring that States work together through interstate commerce which is the reason for the Federal Interstate Highway system but it could be managed differently which would result in each State receiving it’s proportional share of highway funds rather than what someone in Wash. DC thinks each State should have.
Digital Content(PubworksTV-Joestirumup-Business is Hurting et al),
Some people leave Lake Tahoe of their own free will, others are run out of town because of their complete personal and business failures that they blame on those nasty California liberals and terrible people on South Shore instead of themselves and they carry that hate wherever they go. That’s pitiful.
Digital Content,
Them dang liberals and their pot smokin, gay lovin, gun hatin ways is gonna ruin Merica fer the rest a us!
Them an them gol durn imgrants. They should all go back to where their from! Ronnie Regan woulda fixed it all iffin he hadn’t a rode off inta the sunset too soon. George Bush just didn’t have a nough time neither or he coulda bombed them Godless towel heads back to the dark ages too! YEEE HAA! (HUGE SARCASM SIGN)
More flat Earth thinking from the Right.
Nevada is another state that receives more than they give to the Federal government, like Texas. Ever other comment is right on the money, excepting DC, of course. Yet another sore loser, IMHO.
As Liberals continue to destroy the country with their hateful and divisive rhetoric more and more people will stand up against the tyranny of the leftists.
It does not matter how nasty and hateful the leftist get. The name calling, personal attacks, the lies… in the big picture they do not matter. They are the only tactics the left has.
Freedom loving people will ignore the hate of liberals and continue to rise up for truth and freedom.
There is a good reason to have all states secede – wipe out the corrupt Federal Government – and then rebuild the US by reuniting the states. It’s akin to a bankruptcy. Look the U.S. can not sustain the dept and our Congress has less than 20% approval rating (80% of the people disapprove). Alex Jone’s talks about it below:
Radio host Alex Jones today called for a second American Revolution led by states who would secede from the federal government and reconstitute the Republic under the terms of the Declaration of Independence, bill of rights and constitution.
The call for Americans to rally behind a restoration of the Republic and the bill of rights comes on the back of a burgeoning secessionist movement that has swept the country with residents from all 50 states submitting petitions to the White House calling for states to withdraw from the union and form their own independent governments. The petitions have received a combined number of signatures totaling over a million.
During his nationwide broadcast today, Jones laid out the battle plan for secession, emphasizing that states must first secede from the federal government, which has gone rogue, and then use the terms of the Declaration of Independence to restore the Republic, not create a new country.
Jones stressed that he was calling for a cultural restoration in the spirit of the bill of rights – a newly unified America under the Constitution – and not a violent overthrow, noting that it was the states that created the Constitution and the federal government in the first place.
Jones noted that the only course to restoring liberty was clear – “To follow the founding document of the Republic, the Declaration of Independence, wherein it is clearly stated that it is the right and the duty of the American people, when their government becomes destructive and tyrannical, to abolish and reconstitute it in a form that protects our liberties.”
http://youtu.be/m-ReWpcNpb4
Interesting comment on the Social Security issue.
I believe most California Government Employee’s Do not pay into social Security. The State does not have to pay into Social security for its employee’s. Rather they fund a State Pension system.
FYI, in principle I agree with the measure. As I listen to my newly installed 1,200$ Water Filter system gurgling under my sink. WHAT A WASTE of time and money
Firebreaker: I love how people who have never really accomplished anything or have no experience in managing large projects suggest something so inane as having all states succeed as a solution to anything other then chaos.
If you had even a tiny, tiny inkling how commerce, interstate commerce, how companies operate, infrastructure, military, etc. you would have simply laughed at Jones as being a total nutjob.
I suggest you pull out a copy of a project management software (Microsoft Project could work or try Primavera it is more powerful) and see just how you would manage the million or more (and that mind you is not an exaggeration) moving parts where you did not throw this country and the world into economic and social chaos.
Neither you nor Jones apparently have any real experience generating systems to do something complicated and then spending large amounts of time to try and break it so that you expose flaws.
Realistically you would need an army of individuals and probably a decade or more of planning and it would probably still fall into chaos.
Rick
Ty,
If you currently are in litigation with any governmental agency I would advise against quoting Alex Jones or Glenn Beck or any of the other lunatic fringe nutbars on this public forum. It makes it real easy to dismiss any claims you may have that come from incidents that actually occurred in the reality based community.