http://www.moveoncalifornia.org/letshaveateaparty.html Here's an idea:
Let's have a tea party!
Move On California
organizer Jeff Morrissette
The citizens of California will soon see that all of the talk about secession isn’t so farfetched when it hits them in the pocketbook.
California secession is not just about gay marriage and abortion rights. It’s about preserving our state’s economy. It’s about protecting Californians from red state politicians who want to siphon off our taxes to pay for pork barrel spending projects in their own states.
California already gets less from its federal tax dollars than the rest of the country—about a 77-cent return for every dollar sent to Washington, D.C.
George Bush and his greedy red state friends want even more and they are aiming their vindictiveness directly at the Blue States.
The latest movement afoot is a proposal by conservatives in Congress to eliminate the federal tax deduction for state and local taxes. Although this proposal would pinch taxpayers in many states the hardest hit would be the Blue States carried by John Kerry.
California, with an income tax rate of 9.3%, would suffer the most, followed by New York, with an income tax rate of 6.5%—both BIG blue states. Florida and Texas, with no state income tax, would be affected much less. Are you seeing a pattern here?
The Bush administration is also pushing to close the U.S. Air Force base in El Segundo which would eliminate as many as 5,000 jobs and as much as $10 billion annually from the area economy. And where is the base going? To Colorado or New Mexico, key swing states that the Republicans would love to tie up in 2008.
Then, of course, there was the economic sabotage perpetrated on California by outside political and economic interests during the 2000 and 2001 energy crisis.
And where’s Ahnuld? Why isn’t Gov. Schwarzenegger standing up for California interests? Is Arnold going to draw a line in the sand (or the Sierras) and protect California’s citizens? Or, is he going to pander to the right-wing members of his party in hopes he can change the Constitution and posture himself to run for president?
So if you think that the talk about California seceding from the rest of the country is just a bunch of babble by lunatics on the fringes of California politics, think again.
Do you remember a little thing called The Boston Tea Party? Do you remember the cry, “No taxation without representation?”
Are we just going to sit idly by while our tax dollars fly away to Alabama, Wyoming and Texas? Where are the voices of outrage?
Californians are being taxed more and our interests aren’t being effectively represented in Washington. It may be a little too early for many Californians to jump on the secession bandwagon, but just wait until it hits you in the wallet.