Last week the United States Senate rejected two proposed amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2007. The first called for the withdrawal and redeployment of United States Armed Forces from Iraq within a year. Garnering only 13 votes, 12 Democrats and the one independent, the amendment failed.

An alternative amendment calling for troop withdrawals to begin by the end of the year, without setting a deadline for complete withdrawal was also defeated by the republican majority 60 to 39. Simply said, the US Senate has once again endorsed the Bush policy of unlimited occupation of Iraq, the continued manipulation of Iraqi sovereignty, and fiscal collapse of the Federal government.

Pity the soldiers fighting for Bush style hegemony. Pity the families losing their fathers sons, mother, daughters, sisters and brothers in the name of American fossil fuel consumption. And pity the rest of us for allowing it to continue.

Meanwhile, as the Senate was voting to continue using young Californians as cannon fodder in the Middle East, Congress was voting to give themselves a hefty pay raise, $3,333 a year to be exact. Not only did Brian Bilbray vote to give himself a raise within 24 hours of being sworn into office, he also voted in favor of H R 5576, A.K.A the T-Thud appropriations bill, and against amendments that would have prohibited individual members of congress from granting special favor to pet projects during budgetary considerations, AKA earmarking.

Simply said, Bilbray voted pro-political profiteering, pro-pork, and pro-patronage right out of the gate. An unconservative conservative, Bilbray voted with the majority to spend money, cut taxes, and increase the federal deficit. How lucky are we?

Said simpler, the federal government is little more than a warmongering ATM for those with access and power.

We the people of California deserve better.

Having pondered the implications of the last election I can no longer see any reason why the State of California should remain a part of the united federation of states currently referring to itself as the United States of America. Never a representational democracy, the façade has crumbled leaving only the reality easily described as the corporate state of America.

Thinking secession, I immediately go to the declaration of independence and the words "Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, …"

If the majority of Californians choose not to vote in support of a system they deem corrupt, and thereby destructive, why not secede from a federal system that no longer represents them, nor protects their unalienable rights. Ask yourself, who benefits more from their association, California or the Federal government?

In a world where government and business are conjoined at the wallet, does it make sense to remain in a corporate relationship based on parasitic servitude, and teetering on verge of economic collapse? Of course it doesn't. Could California prosper without a federal monkey on it's back? Absolutely!

California has enough financial worries to en-debt several generations, the last thing it needs is to be anchored to a government collapsing under it's own weight and mountains of corruption centuries deep.

The declaration begins with a simply understanding; "When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."

California has never needed the federal government to survive; the opposite could not be said of the federal government. With one of the world's largest economies, California rivals most nations, and with out the federal monkey on it's back it would even rival its parasitic parent.

Californians are ill served by federal governance. Out of touch and out of step with the rest of the world the United States of America, is now a liability to Californians, their quality of life, and future sustainability.

The time for separation is long past. What California needs now is an amicable divorce, with limited visitation rights.

Free California!