The Free State of Arizona?

[KamaAina]

That's how fed up some Arizona Dems are.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110302/ts_yblog_thelookout/frustrated-by-rightward-drift-some-arizona-dems-push-secession

Paul Eckerstrom, the former Democratic party chairman of Pima County, has formed a political committee, Start Our State, to look into making Pima the 51st U.S. state.

Start Our State says its mission is "to establish a new state in Southern Arizona free of the un-American, unconstitutional machinations of the Arizona legislature and to restore our region's credibility as a place welcoming to others, open to commerce, and friendly to its neighbors."

Eckerstrom told MSNBC yesterday that he and others in his party are acting out of their exasperation with a series of rightward moves by the state--a tough anti-immigration bill, cuts to education approved by Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, and efforts by some lawmakers to "nullify" federal laws. Cuts to critical health care programs and loose gun laws have also helped give the state a reputation lately as a bastion of staunch conservatism, Eckerstrom explained....

But that isn't stopping Eckerstrom from mulling names for his new state. He said he'd received several suggestions, including Baja Arizona, South Arizona, and Gadsden. That's a reference to the Gadsden Purchase of southern Arizona from Mexico, in 1854.

:wow:

Note: the story contains two glaring errors: Maricopa County, not Pima, is the state's largest (by far), and it is a "neighboring county" only in desert areas well west of the major cities.

[HereSince1628]

1. To my knowledge only California and Texas

were admitted to the union with the possibility of being further subdivided into additional states.

I don't think that a county, even if it has a population of 180,000 can declare itself a territory and then petition for admission to the union. I think this was an issue in the State of Franklin (eastern Tennessee) but I could be wrong.

[KamaAina]

2. California was, too?

I'd heard about Texas, but not us. That could come in handy next time the SoCal smog-suckers make another grab for our water. :-)

[HereSince1628]

3. Ok, My memory isn't what it once was, but I believe yes, that's true

and that there have been several attempts to form "North California"

[shraby]

4. Upper Michigan has been trying to become a separate

state for many years now and hasn't been able to. Mostly because tax dollars makes their way to Lansing and never get back above the Midland line...which is about midway up lower Michigan. If Michigan can't do it, no state will be able to.

[Me.]

5. This Has Been Talked About In NYC For Years

[bobbolink]

6. I've been watching these kinds of things with interest.

I have thought for a long time that there would be some real benefits to dividing this country in half and letting the REAL progressives and liberals and socialists run one half, and the teabaggers run the other half.

In rwenty years, the teabaggers would be begging to be immigrants!

[KamaAina]

7. Or they'd just sneak in illegally

:P

[bobbolink]

8. Ohhh, that is just naughty!

:rofl: