Nothing against New Hampshire, but it seems to me there is a better choice for a Free State. Having lived most of my life in Texas and New Mexico (on a windy day I can spit across the border even now), I think Texas makes more sense.
1. NASA is just south of Houston , Texas We will control the space industry.
2. We refine over 85% of the gasoline in the US.
3. Defense Industry - we have over 65% of it. The term " Don' t mess with Texas ," will take on a whole new meaning.
4. Oil - we can supply all the oil that the Republic of Texas will need for the next 300 years, no need to buy Arab oil. Yankee states? Sorry about that.
5. Natural Gas - again we have all we need and it's too bad about those Northern States. Al Gore will have to figure out a way to keep them warm. ...
6. Computer Industry - we currently lead the nation in producing computer chips and communications- - small companies like Texas Instruments, Dell Computer, EDS, Raytheon, National Semiconductor, Motorola, Intel , AMD, Atmel , Applied Materials, Dallas Semiconductor, Delphi, Nortel, Alcatel, etc, etc. The list goes on and on.
7. Medical Care - We have the largest research centers for cancer research, the best burn centers and the top trauma units in the world , as well as other large health centers. Dallas has some of the best hospitals in the United States.
8. We have enough colleges to keep us going : University of Texas , Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Rice, SMU, University of Houston , Baylor, UNT ( University of North Texas ), Texas Women 's University , etc. Ivy grows better in the South anyway.
9. We have a ready supply of workers. We could just open the border when we need some more.
10. We have essential control of the plastics industry.
11. In case of a foreign invasion, we have the Texas National Guard and the Texas Air National Guard . We don' t have an Army, but since every body down here has at least six rifles and a pile of ammo, we can raise an Army in 24 hours if we need one. If the situation really gets bad, we can always call the Department of Public Safety and ask them to send over Chuck Norris and a couple of Texas Rangers.
12. We are totally self- sufficient in beef, poultry, hogs, and most types of grain, fruit and vegetables , and let's not forget seafood from the Gulf.
Of course, we wouldn't have President Obama, but Ron Paul is a Texan, and most of us would prefer him anyhow (we're sending that carpetbagger Bush back to Connecticut). The only thing we wouldn't have is mountains and snow skiing. I never understood snow skiing myself, as it seems all it is good for is getting rid of excess politicians, but there is a simple solution. We will just annex New Mexico. Ya'll would never miss it, and half of Texas spends weekends at our casinos and summers in our mountains, so it is a perfect fit.
Now to the rest of the United States under President Obama : Since you won' t have the refineries to get gas for your cars, only President Obama will be able to drive around in his big 9 mpg SUV. The rest of the United States will have to walk or ride bikes .
You won't have any natural gas to heat your homes , but since Mr.Obama has predicted global warming, you will not need the gas as long as you survive the 2000 years it will take to get enough heat from Global Warming.
Best part about it - winters are so much nicer here.