GOP keeps flip-flopping on 'states rights'.

Don't let the Republicans lie to you. They don't believe in "states' rights" any more than anybody else. In fact, current GOP activity most definitely PROVES they don't want matters in the hands of the individual states.

Just this week, the GOP and Bush signed a federal law that allowed the federal courts to decide the Shiavo case (the Florida woman who's a vegetable surviving on a feeding tube). I don't care about the facts of the case, or which side should win. The issue here is entirely about whether the GOP believes that the states should have final authority.

Obviously, they don't. Otherwise, the GOP would let the state courts' decision(s) stand. Some 19 Florida judges have ruled on this matter, and they have exhausted the legal decision-making process. They came to a final decision about a week ago. (They ultimately ruled that the husband, not the parents, has final say.) But what did the GOP--who PRETEND they want limited federal government--do? Ran straight to the federal legislature to write a law giving federal jurisdiction on this case. So much for state authority.

But that's not all. The GOP recently shifted power away from the states regarding class action lawsuits. Hoping their bought-and-paid-for federal courts (indirectly, through elections) would help them avoid being held accountable, the corporations got the GOP to write a new law letting them avoid state courts in these issues. Again, so much for state authority.

And look at the gay marriage issue. Marriage is a state matter, as delineated in the 10th amendment. But since some states were allowing gays to marry, the GOP last year passed a federal law stipulating that marriage must be heterosexuals-only. So much for the states' rights to define marriage for themselves. (Ironically, the one law that actually gave power to the states over gay marriage was a Clinton law saying that a state did not have to recognize a marriage from another state.)

And where did ol' Dubya run when the 2000 Florida election was contested? Al Gore went to the Florida state courts. Bush ran straight for the federal courts--to adjudicate a wholly in-state election. Hmmm. I'm not saying the Democrats are champions of states rights. But most definitely the GOP aren't EITHER. So don't ever believe the Republican arguments for limited government or power to the states. It's a load of horse hooey. Because every time THEY lose at the state level, they run immediately to the federal level for a new law.

All their rhetoric about states rights is nothing but marketing to a false image in the minds of rednecks. If the South ever truly rises again, it's more likely that the FIRST blow struck in favor of federal supremacy won't be from a Democrat, it will be from a Republican.