澳彩开奖

Possibly coming to a city near you: A citizens鈥� seminar on how to weaken the 鈥渦nited鈥� in United States by canceling federal laws that states don鈥檛 like.

The traveling conference, called 鈥淣ullify Now!鈥� pushes nullification, the notion that a state has the right to invalidate and disregard any federal law. The concept relies on a spurious interpretation of the Tenth Amendment, which reserves to the states and the people any power not explicitly given to the federal government. Nullifiers ignore a long history of Supreme Court rulings defining federal authority.

is nothing new. Battles over states鈥� abilities to reject federal government initiatives go back to the founding of the country. During the 1950s, Southerners revived the idea as a way to reject the federal government鈥檚 efforts at desegregation.

Today鈥檚 nullifiers seem to decry just about everything the federal government does.

With the help of this growing antigovernment movement, nullification has gained traction lately. State lawmakers have introduced, but not passed, numerous bills to nullify federal initiatives like gun regulations and the new health care reform act. Some have sought to deny the authority of federal agents to act in state jurisdictions. Arizona鈥檚 senate even passed a bill earlier this year that would create a legislative committee to 鈥渞ecommend, propose and call for a vote by simple majority to nullify in its entirety a specific federal law or regulation that is outside the scope of the powers delegated by the People to the federal government in the United States Constitution.鈥�

The Nullify Now! road show stopped in Austin, Texas, on April 16. The lead national sponsor is a group called the Foundation for a Free Society. Executive Director Jason Rink, in a video on the group鈥檚 website, describes the federal government as the primary threat to liberty. He compares the present-day nullification movement with the American colonists who overthrew British rule in 1776 鈥� thus equating the federal government with that of King George III.

鈥淲hat happened that the protector of the liberties of man has turned and begun to hack away at the roots and branches of the tree of liberty?鈥� Rink says. 鈥淕overnment itself has become the enemy of liberty over time.鈥�

The other driving force behind the movement is the Tenth Amendment Center (TAC), a clearinghouse of nullification efforts founded and headed by Michael Boldin. The next conference is planned for May 28 in Los Angeles, though Boldin said in Austin he needed donations to make that happen.

Nullification Now鈥檚 conferences are headlined by prominent figures in the antigovernment 鈥淧atriot鈥� movement, which has been in the last two years. Patriots generally define themselves as opposed to the 鈥淣ew World Order,鈥� engage in groundless conspiracy theorizing about the government, or adhere to extreme antigovernment doctrines. The Austin conference featured several prominent Patriot group leaders, including the CEO of the , which once argued that President Dwight D. Eisenhower was a communist, and the head of , a relatively new group that encourages police officers and soldiers to disobey orders they think may be unconstitutional.

Here are some highlights from the conference鈥檚 speakers:

• Steve Baysinger, Texas coordinator of the Tenth Amendment Center, told the audience: 鈥淭exas sovereignty is under attack.鈥� He implored them to 鈥渆ngage the enemies of the Republic.鈥�

• , founder and former executive director of the Liberty Restoration Project, railed against so-called 鈥渇usion centers鈥� 鈥� terrorism response centers developed after the 9/11 attacks that are meant to help the FBI, CIA and other federal law enforcement services sift through domestic intelligence. For many nullification extremists, fear of terrorism has been eclipsed by fear of an overreaching government. The Department of Homeland Security, Bleish exclaimed, 鈥渘eeds to be nullified.鈥� (Bleish was by the 澳彩开奖 in 2010 as a leader in the revitalized Patriot movement).

• , president of the Texas National Movement, generated thunderous applause when he told the audience: 鈥淲e are secessionists. The fire of the federal government seeks to consume you!鈥� He was previously with the Republic of Texas, listed for years by the 澳彩开奖 as an anti-government militia group. In his book Line in the Sand, Miller wrote, 鈥淭he Federal Government is the stereotypical bully in every sense of the word. It bullies those it considers its own people. If they step out of line it uses threats, picks us off one at a time to make examples to the rest that they had better not stand up or else.鈥� Interestingly, Miller thinks nullification isn鈥檛 a radical-enough strategy. Secession, he writes, 鈥淚s a total solution for a big problem.鈥�

• Republican Texas state Rep. David Simpson, who has introduced legislation making airport security pat-downs and body scanners illegal, stated that America has a runaway government and that 鈥渨e鈥檝e settled for it and we鈥檝e gone to sleep.鈥�

• , founder of , told the group that a 鈥渃itizens鈥� posse鈥� formed as a militia 鈥渋s necessary to secure a free state.鈥� Oath Keepers is made up mostly of active-duty and retired law enforcement and military personnel who have pledged to disobey any order they believe conflicts with the Constitution, as a means of counteracting government repression and tyranny.

• Jack Blood, an Austin-based talk show host, said of Oath Keepers, 鈥淚f we get cops and military on our side, we鈥檒l make a lot of people nervous.鈥�

• Art Thompson, chief executive officer of the ultra-right-wing John Birch Society, blessed this movement as the only nullification effort that 鈥渄idn鈥檛 have a hidden agenda.鈥� He also said, 鈥淢ost Southerners were not pro-slavery.鈥� The John Birch Society denounced the civil rights movement in the 1960s as a communist creation and believes a cabal of bankers and internationalists is plotting to absorb the United States into a global 鈥淣ew World Order鈥� under the United Nations.

• Debra Medina, a pro-nullification candidate for Texas governor in 2010, endorsed a proposed Texas law 鈥渕aking it a crime for any official, agent, or employee of the United States, or an employee of any corporation, to enforce any part of the [federal] health care act in Texas, and imposes fines of up to $5,000 and/or five years in prison for anyone convicted of doing so.鈥� If the feds try to enforce the health care bill in Texas, Medina promised, 鈥淲e鈥檒l lock you up!鈥� During her 2010 campaign, she said of secession, 鈥淲e are aware that stepping off into secession may in fact be a bloody war. 鈥� We understand that the tree of liberty is occasionally watered with the blood of tyrants and patriots.鈥�

• Thomas E. Woods, a former member of the neo-Confederate hate group and the author of Nullification: How to Resist Tyranny in the 21st Century, asserted that the states created the federal government and that 鈥渢he people are sovereign.鈥� He supports an end to the Federal Reserve System. 鈥淚t is beneath the dignity of a free people to keep on believing this stuff,鈥� he said.