Call me a paranoid. Call me a prophet. Call me concerned. 

With every passing month, a new headline tells of another bold step, another push back against the federal government by people who seemed just fine with its course of action over the previous decade.

Chisel away at civil rights with the Patriot Act? That's cool. Farm out military duties with corporate welfare for Blackwater and Halliburton? Hunky-dory. Destabilize the economic foundation? Sure thing. 

Put a black man in charge? Hold up there, pardner!   

The increasingly ridiculous Tea Party folks are mounting another obstacle by talking of assembling their own militia...and all with the blessing of their red state legislators. Oklahoma politicos and rabid right wingers are citing the new health insurance reform as transgressions of state sovereignty and feel the solution is armed groups of resistors. 

They hope the supporting legislation makes it onto the Sooner State's books this year.

"Is it scary? It sure is," Tea Party leader Al Gerhart of Oklahoma City told the AP. "But when do the states stop rolling over for the federal government?" Gerhart leads the Oklahoma Constitutional Alliance, an umbrella group of Tea Party factions. 

Lawsuits and state legislation aren't enough to voice their suddenly found disgust at the reach of federal government. They want to take up arms and feel the right to do so is guaranteed in the Constitution. 

"The Second Amendment deals directly with the right of an individual to keep and bear arms to protect themselves from an overreaching federal government," State Sen. Randy Brogdon (R-Owasso) said. 

The vehemence of last year's Tea Party protests picked up over the summer when racially tinged signs and slogans made their way into protests, followed by rancorous behavior at town halls and the increasing presence of firearms at events, including some featuring Pres. Obama. 

Within the last months, near violence erupted at Capitol Hill during proceedings for the recent health insurance act which included racial epithets and spittle hurled at Democratic Congressmen. The incivility was egged on by Republicans on Capitol property who visibly whipped the Tea Partiers into greater frenzy.

Last April, I made comments about the unease caused by the undercurrent I sensed beneath the local Tea Party gathering, things that specifically reminded me of the anti-federal sentiment with a historic foothold in the region. I told others of my worries and was told that I was going overboard. But everything that has happened in the last year, the slow ramp-up to worsening chasms in the nation, has surprised me none.

This latest development is par for the course and adds to my anxiety. As sure as I know this month is filled with official wistfulness for the Confederacy across the South – as it has been for a good while now – I know that this idea from Oklahoma is finding receptive ears throughout the same region. If the Okies are doing it today, the land of King Cotton will be soon to follow. 

Go ahead and dismiss them. Settle in for another round of "Dancing with American Idol" or whatever keeps the masses anesthetized while these "patriots" buy up ammunition and stockpile fertilizer.

Because these folks ain't just whistlin' "Dixie"...they're determined to recreate it.