[QUOTE="gameguy6700"] First of all, "state" is another word for "nation" or "country". And, yes, the states in the USA are not soverign, hence the reason I said the USA is the EU taken to an extreme. All the EU has to do to become a soverign nation is to create a federal constitution, which there has been talk of in the past but that got shot down rather quickly since most european countries aren't thrilled about the idea of giving up their soverignity. Furthermore, just remind you two about history, the states in the US (at least the original 13) were, for a very short period of time, seperate soverign entities. Georgia, New York, Maine, all those states were at one time, on paper, seperate nations. This is also why we had the Civil War. Some states felt that they had the right to withdraw themselves from the union while the federal government felt that they didn't.
LJS9502_basic
In the US...states did not denote nations or countries....so that analogy fails. Ah dude...just to remind you the states were under the control of the UK until they announced independence and ratified a constitution creating states. They didn't exist as states prior.
Yes, they do. And just to remind you, the states didn't instantly ratify the federal charter the second they gained independence from the UK, hence they were on their own for a period of time. Most of them did it in a matter of months, which is why I said a very short time. On paper they were seperate states.
Anyway, the states in everyday life are treated as merely different places to live. However, they are still seperate governments, with the only thing differing them from real countries so to speak is that they're not soverign. However they still have a lot of jurisdiction, such as laws and regulations, local taxation, how to allocate funds, etc., and for awhile they even had their own currency (a task that was later, after much controversy, relegated only to the federal government). The USA is one country, however keep in mind that it is, on paper, a legal union of seperate states under a federal government. To drive this point home, let me give you the definition of "Federal":
- Of, relating to, or being a form of government in which a union of states recognizes the sovereignty of a central authority while retaining certain residual powers of government.
- Of or constituting a form of government in which sovereign power is divided between a central authority and a number of constituent political units.
- Of or relating to the central government of a federation as distinct from the governments of its member units.
- Favorable to or advocating federation: The senator's federal leanings were well known.
- Relating to or formed by a treaty or compact between constituent political units.
This is why the US is littered with language like "state's rights", "federal government", "one nation...indivisible", and "union". 
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