Will America Break Up?

[American Patriot]

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/pet...-them/ZbMjcwPf

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/pet...erica/dmQl1bXL


One of these wants citizenship stripped, another wants them deported....

[American Patriot]

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petitions

[American Patriot]

Upset, some want states to secede from union

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1 hour ago • BY JEFF WILSON, THE SOUTHERN
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Some people are so upset with government they’re signing online petitions for their states to secede from the United States of America.
A section of the White House website allows users to submit or sign petitions about policy changes. A petition must reach 25,000 signatures in 30 days for the administration to respond. For a petition to become publicly searchable, it must receive 150 signatures.
Users must register, which includes entering a valid email address and ZIP code.
As of Tuesday afternoon, there were secession petitions listed for about half the states in the union.
A handful of states have surpassed the 25,000-signature threshold. Texas leads the way, with nearly 90,000 signatures.
There is a petition for Illinois with about 2,400 signatures as of 9:30 p.m. Tuesday.
David Yepsen, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at SIU, said he thinks the petitions are just another way for frustrated Americans to voice their displeasure with the election.
“I think it’s just one more piece of evidence to show just how angry people are,” he said.
Once a petition reaches the signature goal, it is reviewed by policy experts, and the White House later presents a response on the website.
Yepsen said he doesn’t expect the White House to put a lot of time and effort into a response.
“I doubt the White House will treat it as a serious policy matter,” he said.
While news of the petitions have created a buzz on social media and garnered some national news coverage, Yepsen said the long-term ramifications will most likely be minimal.
“This will have no legal impact. I think people know that,” Yepsen said.
jeff.wilson@thesouthern.com
618-351-5080

[American Patriot]

And this is what the news paper in Philly thinks...

Disgruntled voters petition White House for their states to secede from the Union

Edward Colimore, Inquirer Staff Writer

Posted: Wednesday, November 14, 2012, 6:16 AM
The petitions on the White House website won't be granted. They're the aftereffects of a heated presidential election season, folks simply blowing off steam, historians and scholars say.



Hundreds of thousands of Americans unhappy with the result of last week's voting have signed petitions on behalf of at least 35 states, including Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.


What do they want?


For the Obama administration to "peacefully grant" the states permission to "withdraw from the United States of America" and create new governments.
Secession.


"We did fight a Civil War over this issue," said Perry Dane, a professor at the Rutgers School of Law in Camden who clerked at the U.S. Supreme Court. "The White House will respond and will say as considerately as it can that secession is off the table.


"You win some, you lose some," he said.


The petitions, located on the White House's "We the People" website (https://petitions.whitehouse.gov), are "very likely an expression of alienation and frustration," said Randall Miller, a professor of history at St. Joseph's University. "People question the legitimacy of the election and it's their way of saying, 'I'm taking myself out of this.' "


By late Tuesday, a total of more than 13,000 people had signed two petitions seeking nation status for Pennsylvania, where Obama defeated Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney by a 52-47 percentage ratio. For the more Democratic-leaning New Jersey, nearly 11,000 had signed a similar petition. At least 5,400 others had signed one for Delaware, where Obama also was the victor. The number of signatures had doubled, even tripled, since the beginning of the week.


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Texas and Louisiana - where Romney won - had about 82,000 and 30,000 signatures, respectively. Petitions that attract 25,000 signatures in 30 days will receive a "response" from the White House, the website says.






On the flip side, there are petitions on the White House site that call for the Obama administration to deport or exile everyone who has signed a secession petition.

One asks the administration to permit the left-leaning city of Austin to secede from Texas but remain part of the United States.


"The Internet allows you to find like-minded people. And in this faceless anonymity, you can egg each other on," said Andrew Shankman, an associate professor of history at Rutgers-Camden. "It doesn't take much to sign a petition."


The secession petitions are "not a serious political proposal," he said. "This is the last expression of rage because [the petitioners] didn't get what they wanted on Election Day. They're sounding off."


The "We the People" website allows citizens to create and sign petitions. They provide first names but not the last, just initials.


Many - like one created by Karen G. of Hazleton, Pa., and another by Joe. R. of Sewell - quote from the Declaration of Independence: "When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands . . . "


Others, such as a petition seeking Oregon's secession, take another tack: "The people of Oregon would like the chance to vote on leaving the Union immediately. The Federal Government has imposed policies on Oregon that are not in Oregon's best interests, and we as citizens would respectively [sic] and peaceably separate ourselves from a tyrannical Government. . . . "


The White House lacks constitutional authority to let states secede, but that hasn't stopped disgruntled voters.
The issue of secession was not confined to the Civil War. New Jersey grappled with it about 40 years ago, when the southern part of the state attempted to split from the north.


"There was a big movement, with petitions drawn," said Paul Schopp, a historian who lives in Riverton. "The south was upset that most of the tax dollars were going to the north."


The postelection petitions are "an effort by average citizens to exercise their constitutional rights," he said. "It's a peaceful form of redress."
Other countries have faced similar issues. A referendum will be held in 2014 to determine whether the people of Scotland wish to withdraw from the United Kingdom, Dane said. Quebec has occasionally sought to secede from Canada and the country's Supreme Court has said that's not out of the question.
In Texas, Republican Gov. Rick Perry, who often has expressed frustration with the federal government, did not endorse the secession petitions and has said he did not want the Lone Star State to break away.


"The Civil War showed once and for all and forever that secession is illegal," said Andy Waskie, a Temple University professor, historian, and author. "The combat, effusion of blood, and sacrifice ended that question."

Citizens "have to seek other means of redressing their grievances," he said. "The Union is permanent."

[American Patriot]

Virginians Start Secession Petition, McLean Residents Sign On

Virginia joins Texas, other states in creating a petition to secede from the United States. At least two McLean residents have signed it.

• By Mary Ann Barton
• Email the author
• 5:59 am

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In a move that seems to take the idea of red states and blue states one step further, residents unhappy with the results of the presidential election last week are signing petitions to secede from the union.
As of Tuesday, more than 2,000 Virginians were behind a petition (created on Sunday) to secede, including at least two signatures from McLean. "Connor R." from McLean was the 2,243th signature on the petition. "John M." from McLean signed on Tuesday, too, as the 1,200th signature. You can see all the signatures on the White House Web site.
If seceding from the union sounds like something that happened during the Civil War era, you're correct: Virginia seceded from the union April 17, 1861, after the Nov. 6, 1860 election of another president, Abraham Lincoln.
Find out how McLean and Great Falls precincts voted last week in the presidential election.
Virginia isn't alone. Residents in at least 30 states have started petitions to secede or break away from the United States. Texas, Louisiana and Florida have apparently gained the most signatures. The petitions reportedly need at least 25,000 signatures before they will be recognized by the president. Texas and Louisiana reportedly have more than that. No word from the White House.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry, an early GOP candidate for president, weighed in on the controversy Tuesday. "Gov. [Rick] Perry believes in the greatness of our Union and nothing should be done to change it," his press secretary Catherine Frazier wrote in a statement to the Dallas Morning News. "But he also shares the frustrations many Americans have with our federal government."
The Virginia petition reads as follows:
WE PETITION THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO:
Peacefully grant the State of Virginia to withdraw from the United States of America and create its own NEW government.
As the founding fathers of the United States of America made clear in the Declaration of Independence in 1776:
"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."
"...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 abolish it, and institute new Government..."
What do you think about some Virginians signing on to the idea of seceding from the union? Is it an overreaction to the results of last week's presidential election results? Weigh in.

[American Patriot]

Posted: 5:50 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2012

Is it 1861 all over again? Thousands call for Georgia to secede.

By Katie Leslie
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution


Following President Barack Obama’s re-election, residents of more than 30 states have signed petitions asking to secede from the union.
Georgia, with one notable secession under its belt, is among them.


By Tuesday evening, the Georgia petition online at whitehouse.gov was approaching the 25,000 signatures needed to prompt an official White House response. The petition asks that the onetime 13th colony be allowed to create its “own new government.”


As the online movement grows, so do theories about the motives of its backers. Is the political disaffection that prompted thousands to take to their keyboards tinged with racial animosity?


Not so, said Danny Dukes, a Canton-area consultant who this year made a failed run for chairman of the Cherokee County School Board. He signed the petition to express dissatisfaction with Obama’s policies, not appearance, he said.


“It’s like the Boston Tea Party sending a message saying, ‘We’re fed up with the way things are.’ We want progress and direction and leadership and don’t agree with the route things are taking,” he said.


“The racial issue has been checked at the doorstep for a long time,” he said. “In my mind, it’s not an issue.”


Tyrone Brooks, president of the Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials, sees it otherwise. “It’s nothing but race,” he said. “Some people are upset at the fact that we have an African American president. People forget about the fact that half of him is white.”


Because the signatures are not vetted and are generally just a person’s first name and last initial, tracking down supporters can be as difficult as the act of secession itself. It’s not even clear how many of the people who signed the document actually live in Georgia.


Further confusing things, the website shows at least two separate petitions requesting that Georgia be allowed to hand over its Union membership.


A tweeted request from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for Georgians willing to discuss the phenomenon — with full names attached — drew no one who had signed the petitions. But many responded with emails expressing skepticism, if not disgust.


“Words cannot express how utterly ignorant and ugly this seems to me,” wrote Betsy Dunbar, of Lilburn.


“…I do enjoy seeing the secessionists’ viewpoints if only for the schadenfreude,” wrote Paul Hoover, of Buckhead, employing a German word for reveling in the troubles of others. “Can you imagine Georgia without federal oversight? Shudder…”


Popular conservative writer Erick Erickson also took to Twitter to address the movement: “Dear people who want to secede, as we say in Georgia, ‘Delta is ready when you are.’”


Dexter Porter, of Lithonia, filed his own petition on whitehouse.gov requesting that the government dismiss any secession proposals.


“I think maybe some of them have a valid point about the overreaching of the federal government’s powers into the state … but I think a lot of it is sour grapes from the election,” he said. “They’re not patriots. Patriots don’t run. Cowards run.”


Gov. Nathan Deal’s office declined a request for comment on the secession petitions.


Mercer University economist Roger Tutterow, like many experts called for this story, greeted news of the petition with disbelief. Even if the state had a plausible legal path to secession, he noted, it’s mind-boggling to imagine how it would function.


Fundamental activities of the federal government would have to be replicated at the local level, he said, starting with national defense, the most pure example of a “public good.”


“Even for those of us who believe that the government closest to the people governs best, it’s hard to take this as a serious proposal, to even think about what the implications would be,” he said.


Daniel Franklin, an associate professor of political science at Georgia State University, noted that even though tens of thousands of people have signed the petition, millions more Georgians (and Americans) have not.


“It may show there’s a fringe in Georgia politics, but it doesn’t represent Georgia tradition, which in fact was never for secession,” he said.


The Georgia Secession Convention of 1861 was created only after secession was rejected by the state’s voters in an 1860 election, he said. Leaving the Union was never part of a broad popular movement.


Bill Nigut, Southeast Regional Director of the Anti-Defamation League, is loath to attribute the movement to racial motives without further evidence, but he called it “absurd” and “deeply divisive.”


“I don’t think there’s any question that the election generated some of the most heated emotions, pro-Obama and pro-Romney, that we’ve seen in any election in my memory,” he said. “I do recognize that there are a lot of people out there who are having a very hard time, given the passions generated, in accepting the fact that their side lost.”


Franklin advises those dissatisfied with the election results to take heart: There’s always another one.


“As long as there is a chance to win through playing the electoral game, I think calls for revolution are a little premature,” he said.


If Georgia’s petition signatures climb into the millions, he said, the state may have a problem.


“But I don’t think the Union is going to let them go,” he said. “It would be a shame to fight that one again.”

[American Patriot]

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...om-US_12983467

States file petition to secede from US

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

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THOUSANDS of Americans in over 30 of the 50 contiguous states have signed petitions, seeking permission to secede from the United States.

The petitions, hosted on the White House's We the People website, read "We petition the Obama Administration to peacefully grant the State... to withdraw from the United States of America and create its own NEW government".

States represented up to 4:00 pm yesterday, included Arizona, Arkansas, Oklahoma, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Nevada, Missouri, Tennessee, Michigan, New York, Colorado, Oregon, New Jersey, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Indiana, Mississippi, Kentucky, Florida, Alabama, Texas, Louisiana, Rhode Island, Utah, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Wyoming, and Delaware.

In the case of Oregon, the wording of its petition was "Allow Oregon to vote on and leave the Union peacefully and remain an ally to the Nation". Further, Alaska is requesting a "free and open election to decide whether or not it should secede", while Austin in Texas, is seeking to "withdraw from the State of Texas and remain part of the United States".

We the People, according to the website, gives all Americans a way to engage their government on the issues that matter to them. It allows users to browse open petitions and add their signature, or to start new petitions.

"If a petition meets the signature threshold, it will be reviewed by the administration and we will issue a response," the website said.

The goal is for each state to reach 25,000 signatures by December 11, 2012. So far Texas has 79,445; Georgia, for which two identical petitions are being signed, has 22,528 and 9,987; Louisiana has 29,782; Tennessee, 21, 174; Alabama, 21,972; and North Carolina has 20,739.

The bulk of the petitions were created on Sunday, November 11 and Monday November 12, respectively five and six days following the November 6 election which secured a second term for President Barack Obama.

Counter to the appeals for secession are two calls for those who signed such petitions to be stripped of their citizenship and deported or exiled. Together, they have over 8,000 signatures.

Some of the other petitions on the site are "to officially recognise American Sign Language as a community language and a language of instruction in schools" (5,588), "come clean about the radical Islamist terrorist attack and murder of four Americans in Benghazi" (11,564), repeal Obamacare (307) and "recount the election", which has 41,774 signatures.

Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...#ixzz2CCr0nMnG

[American Patriot]

Texas Secession Petition Racks Up More Than 80,000 Signatures, Qualifies For White House Response

By Dominique Mosbergen Posted: 11/13/2012 6:42 pm EST Updated: 11/13/2012 6:54 pm EST












A petition for Texas secession has qualified to receive a White House response.


As of Tuesday evening, the petition -- which asks for the peaceful withdrawal of the state of Texas from the union -- had racked up more than 81,000 signatures. (Only 25,000 are needed to elicit an official response from the Obama administration.)


According to Politico, the leader of the Texas secession movement said the president's reelection last week was a “catalyzing moment for his organization’s efforts to quit the United States."


“I am completely aware that Election Day was a catalyzing moment, but I do not believe that the underpinnings of this are solely about Barack Obama,” Daniel Miller, president of the Texas Nationalist Movement told the political news website. “This cake has been baking for a long time -- it’s the Obama administration that put the candles on the cake and lit it for us.”


The Texas petition reads:

Given that the state of Texas maintains a balanced budget and is the 15th largest economy in the world, it is practically feasible for Texas to withdraw from the union, and to do so would protect it's citizens' standard of living and re-secure their rights and liberties in accordance with the original ideas and beliefs of our founding fathers which are no longer being reflected by the federal government.

The support for the petition has surged in the last couple of days despite Texas Gov. Rick Perry's calls to support the union.


On Monday, The Huffington Post reported that the governor's press secretary, Catherine Frazier, said that Perry "believes in the greatness of our Union and nothing should be done to change it." Frazier added, however, that the governor "also shares the frustrations many Americans have with our federal government."



The Lone Star State is not exactly alone in its sentiments.


As an earlier Huffington Post report notes, residents in more than 40 states have filed secession petitions to the Obama administration's "We the People" program, which is featured on the White House website, in the last few days.


Though none has come even close to Texas' number, many petitions -- including those of Georgia, Florida, Alabama and Tennessee -- have attracted more than 20,000 supporters. Louisiana's petition has garnered more than 30,000 signatures.


“As the economy worsened, people began to ask, ‘What if? Why do we need the middle man? Do we believe that we should have more layers of government than we absolutely need? Could Texas govern itself?’ I think really that self-determination is kind of the underpinning to all of this -- the ability to provide Texas solutions to Texas problems,” Miller told Politico of the state's aspirations for independence.


Miller has not been the only vocal and visible proponent of a Texas secession. Last week, Peter Morrison, a Texas GOP official, called for an "amicable divorce" from the United States.


"Why should Vermont and Texas live under the same government?" Morrison, a treasurer of the Hardin County Republican Party, wrote in a post-election edition of his Tea Party newsletter. "Let each go her own way."


Morrison went on to express exasperation at the "maggots" who backed Obama, specifically accusing non-white voters of voting for the president on an "ethnic basis."


Despite the loud calls for Texas independence, however, the Daily Caller notes that not all Texans are too keen to secede from the U.S.


On Monday, “Caleb M” from Austin, Texas, launched a "We the People" petition of his own, asking the Obama administration to peacefully grant the city of Austin permission to "withdraw from the state of Texas" and to remain part of the United States.


The petition has about 1,400 signatures so far.


As Robert Wilonsky at The Dallas Morning News noted on Monday, however, it seems that no matter how much support Texas' secession petition gets, the state's bid for independence is likely not on the cards.

[American Patriot]

Morrison went on to express exasperation at the "maggots" who backed Obama, specifically accusing non-white voters of voting for the president on an "ethnic basis."

Looks to me like others have taken up the call of "Maggots" as have I... /chuckles

[American Patriot]

DOH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Look out, the Secret Service will invade!

Secessionists challenge federal government by printing own currency

• Politics
• June 18, 2010
• By: Brett Stevens

Although we have for many years been part of the United States, many in Texas want us to secede. They cite a number of benefits, including being independent from a government that represents the coasts better than the middle of the the country. They point out that Texas, as a smaller nation, would be more flexible and less burdened with bureaucracy.


The part of this movement with the most activity calls itself The Republic of Texas, and they have just minted their first currency. This is one of the most plausible steps toward secession, which is a gradual disentanglement of legal and social systems from those of the host country.
Sold as a medallion, the new currency is pure silver at one Troy ounce with a Lone Star on the front. The back features an image of the Alamo, commemorating one of the great victories of the original struggle for Texas independence.


Although the Republic of Texas stops short of calling this medallion "money," it does contain a currency value -- "fifty" -- on it and on their web site, they say "These silver medallions will also enhance barter exchange between Texians because it retains a high intrinsic value, unlike paper currencies around the world."


They're selling the medallion for $35 + $10 shipping, and it should be interesting to see what kind of interest this gets from our federal government. Hopefully not another Waco.

[American Patriot]

carried at http://www.drudgereport.com/

White House ‘secede’ petitions reach 675,000 signatures, 50-state participation

2:01 AM 11/14/2012














David Martosko
Executive Editor

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• Secession, y’all: Why Texas can pull it off

Less than a week after a New Orleans suburbanite petitioned the White House to allow Louisiana to secede from the United States, petitions from seven states have collected enough signatures to trigger a promised review from the Obama administration.


By 6:00 a.m. EST Wednesday, more than 675,000 digital signatures appeared on 69 separate secession petitions covering all 50 states, according to a Daily Caller analysis of requests lodged with the White House’s “We the People” online petition system.



A petition from Vermont, where talk of secession is a regular feature of political life, was the final entry.


Petitions from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas residents have accrued at least 25,000 signatures, the number the Obama administration says it will reward with a staff review of online proposals. (RELATED: Will Texas secede? Petition triggers White House review)



The Texas petition leads all others by a wide margin. Shortly before 9:00 a.m. EST Wednesday, it had attracted 94,700 signatures. But a spokesperson for Gov. Rick Perry said Tuesday afternoon that he does not support the idea of his state striking out on its own.


“Gov. Perry believes in the greatness of our Union and nothing should be done to change it. But he also shares the frustrations many Americans have with our federal government,” according to a statement from the governor’s office.


A backlash Monday night saw requests filed with the White House to strip citizenship rights from Americans who signed petitions to help states secede. (RELATED: Anti-secession forces fight back with White House deportation petitions)



And in a similar nose-thumbing aimed at Texas’ conservative majority, progressives from the liberal state capital of Austin responded Monday with a petition to secede from their state if Texas as a whole should decide to leave the Union.


Late Tuesday a second group of Texans, this one from Houston, lodged their own White House petition. Secession-minded Texans, they wrote, “are mentally deficient and [we] do not want them representing us. We would like more education in our state to eradicate their disease.”


Houstonian “Kimberly F” — The White House does not provide last names — submitted the petition. She told TheDC in an email that ”[w]e need both sides presented, or we all look like a bunch of fools.”


A group from El Paso, too, wants no part of an independent Texas. “Allow the city of El Paso to secede from the state of Texas,” their petition reads. “El Paso is tired of being a second class city within Texas.”


But smaller petitions like theirs are a political side show of a political side show. One effort, aimed at Missourians, called for a nationwide catered pizza party to celebrate when the Show Me State left the U.S. (RELATED: Pizza party! White House petition silliness gets cheesy)
States whose active petitions have not yet reached the 25,000 signature threshold include Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.


Fourteen states are represented by at least two competing petitions. The extra efforts from two states — Missouri and South Carolina — would add enough petitions to warrant reviews by the Obama administration if they were combined into petitions launched earlier.


Other states with multiple efforts include Alaska, California, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin.
The White House provides a 30-day window of time for petitions to reach 25,000 signatures.


Web surfers must register their names online with the White House before launching or signing a petition, but it’s not clear if the 675,000 signatures represent the same number of individuals, since the website permits signers to add their names to multiple petitions.


Individual petition signers, however, may only add their names once to any proposal.


The Daily Caller emailed White House deputy press secretary Joshua Earnest for comment, asking if the Obama administration was taking the grassroots effort seriously.
“Does the President see this as a bunch of Gov. Romney’s supporters blowing off steam after the election?” TheDC asked. “As an earnest show of disaffection with the direction of the country? As something else?”


Earnest did not respond.


The most recent petition to attract at least 150 signatures — the threshold required before the White House adds a petition to its searchable database — suggests a way out, even if a state or two were to take the secession talk seriously.


A Darlington, South Carolina man proposed Tuesday that the Obama administration ”allow the states that have asked to secede to do so and form their own NEW nation together.”


That effort only has 24,000 more signatures to collect before it could find its way into the West Wing.
Numbers in this article were updated after publication.
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Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/11/14/wh...#ixzz2CCvDOLWI

[American Patriot]

Texas News

Secessionist says Texas independence 'inevitable'

[IMG]http://media.khou.com/images/469*264/1113_secession_meet05.jpg[/IMG] Credit: WFAA
"Enough is enough," said Cary Wise of the Texas Nationalist Movement at a meeting in Frisco Tuesday night. He said Texas independence is "inevitable."




by TERESA WOODARD
WFAA
Posted on November 13, 2012 at 11:20 PM






FRISCO — A movement to make Texas its own nation has been organized for about a decade-and-a-half, but it's never seen thus much interest.


The Texas Nationalist Movement usually gets about 100,000 hits on its website in a month. Since the election one week ago, Membership Director Cary Wise said the site has seen five times that number.


"Right now we are finding the founding fathers and mothers of a new Republic of Texas," Wise told a packed house in Frisco Tuesday night.


It was to have been the introductory meeting of Wise's new Collin County chapter. He expected a handful — and got a room full. About 70 people attended the meeting.
Wise said the election and the petition filed on the White House website are stirring up unprecedented interest in secession.


Amy Robison lives in Dallas, was born in Dallas, and splits her time between Texas and New Mexico, where her husband is a surgeon.


"I'd be happy to move his practice here if Texas seceded," she said. "This is real. As we all grew up as little American children, we were taught Texas was capable of seceding. We all kept that in the back of our minds that if we ever needed to escape, this is where we'd come."


There was serious discussion at Wise's meeting about how to make it happen.


People asked about creating a Texas military, a monetary system, and whether Social Security benefits would still be received.


"We're not gonna start a revolution; we're not gonna go shoot anybody," Wise said. "We're gonna politically and peacefully, through the pressure of the sovereign people of the State of Texas, we will change this. People ask if Texas independence will really happen. Folks, it is inevitable."


E-mail twoodard@wfaa.com

[American Patriot]

Secession Petitions: What They Mean In The Context Of History

Posted on: 5:23 pm, November 13, 2012, by David Kumbroch, updated on: 07:31pm, November 13, 2012



(WHNT) – Recently a slew of petitions popped up on a government-run website asking for individual states to secede from the US.


The petitions range from hundreds to thousands of signatures.


Though practically, the numbers aren’t that important.


Athens State University History Professor Dr. Sean Busick explains, “Certainly right now the talk of secession truly isn’t feasible. At least, I perceive it to be a protest.”
But internet secessionists are just the latest breed in a long line of American secessionist movements.


Dr. Busick notes the movements aren’t that uncommon, “Countless small ones. A handful of big ones though. You can make the case that the American Revolution was a secessionist movement.”


That’s right; the country was born out of its own type of secession.
And it didn’t stop there.


Dr. Busick explains, “The first major secessionist movement after that though would have been in New England, which probably surprises a lot of people, because everybody naturally associates secession with the south.”


He’s referring to the Hartford Convention, which pushed for secession around the War of 1812.
Then of course we saw the secession that led to the Civil War.


Athens State History Professor Sean Busick says history shows the similarity between the two is simple, and it very well could extend to today’s movements as well.
Dr. Busick says, “It’s perceived as a remedy for people who consider themselves outsiders.”


He adds during the Hartford Convention, northerners felt southerners would forever dominate American politics, and leading up to the Civil War, southerners felt their interests similarly suppressed.


So maybe what we draw from this group of internet secessionists is that there’s a sense of gloom going forward.


If it fits the historical pattern of secession, maybe it isn’t just anger that certain values didn’t triumph at the ballot box, but instead fear that those values won’t get their proper due going forward.


As for the secession petitions though, Dr. Busick argues, “I think this is largely symbolic. If you’re serious about the secession, you don’t ask the federal government’s permission.”

[American Patriot]

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November 14, 2012
3 Myths About Secession
Posted by Ryan W. McMaken on November 14, 2012 12:18 AM

I have no illusions about this latest secession petition phenomenon. Nothing will directly come of this, and the people who are behind it are mostly people who would be singing "God Bless America" at the tops of their lungs had Mitt Romney been elected. On the other hand, it sure has a lot of people talking about secession, which shows that the idea of it remains an important part of the American political consciousness.

But, in response, most of the comments coming from political hacks display a deep, deep ignorance of the history of secession and the Constitutional realities behind it.

In response, I thought I'd list some retorts to the basic myths which most of the anti-secession screeds are intent on perpetuating.

1. The Constitution does not prohibit secession. The legal argument boils down to this: 1. The Constitution does not mention secession. In any way. 2. The Tenth Amendment says: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." Now I don't have a Ph.D. in logic, but even I can figure out that if something is not mentioned, then, according to the 10th Amendment, it isn't prohibited to the states. In fact, it is the opposite of prohibited. Now I know that the Supreme Court says no secession allowed, which means the federal government has declared that you can't escape the federal government. Gee, that's no shocker. So, sure, if you believe that the federal government should be the last word on what the federal government can and cannot do, then that's fine. Just don't pretend that we have constitutional government. If the federal government gets to decide what the Constitution says, then the Constitution is nothing more than a suggestion box for the feds.

2. The Civil War did not "settle" the issue. Well, it settled the issue in the way that I settled the matter of ownership of that Steve Garvey baseball card when I beat up that other kid and took it. (OK, that never happened, but you get my point.) Secession was never settled beyond the federal government's assertion that it has the right to kill people who try to exercise their rights protected by the Tenth Amendment.

3. Secession is treason/unAmerican/craaaazy/for slavers only. Prior to the confederacy, there were some slaveowners who got together and seceded from their government. They were called Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. If you're opposed to the secession of 1776, then that's fine, you might be consistent on this issue, but if you're one of these right-wing pundits who thinks the Declaration of Independence should be read aloud every July 4, and then says that secession is nutso, you might try actually reading that document you profess to love.

The Declaration makes a simple argument:
1. Humans have rights from the Creator
2. Governments exist to secure those rights (a debatable assertion but we'll roll with it.)
3. When the government fails to secure those rights, we can ditch it and start our own government.

That's pretty much all it says. If you thought that was true in 1776, when tax rates were 1% and there was no such thing as a the EPA or the FBI or the IRS, why is it not true now? Because we're so much more free now? And, no, the Declaration did not say that the government is free to violate rights as long as people get to vote on it.

The Declaration establishes that there's no such thing as treason, and a free government requires the assumption of just secession. Lysander Spooner explains (in No Treason #1):

Thus the whole Revolution [of 1775–1783] turned upon, asserted, and, in theory, established, the right of each and every man, at his discretion, to release himself from the support of the government under which he had lived. And this principle was asserted, not as a right peculiar to themselves, or to that time, or as applicable only to the government then existing; but as a universal right of all men, at all times, and under all circumstances.

[Ryan Ruck]

Since then, residents from the following states have added their own secession petitions: New Hampshire, Illinois, Idaho, Rhode Island, Virginia, Wisconsin, Alaska, Utah, Wyoming, California, Delaware, Nevada, Kansas, Ohio, South Dakota, West Virginia, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Oklahoma, Arkansas, South Carolina, Georgia, Missouri, Tennessee, Michigan, New York, Colorado, Oregon, New Jersey, North Dakota, Montana, Indiana, Mississippi, Kentucky, Florida, North Carolina, Alabama and Texas.

Um, no. I hate to break it to you all but you are the problem (Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Florida you all are on probation) and you get to sleep in your bed now that you've made it.

Unless this is some attempt to get away from those evil racist rednecks in flyover country...

[Malsua]

My county went 60% Romney. What about yours?

""Why do you see the speck in your brother's eye but fail to notice the beam in your own eye?"



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SUMMARY REPORT SUSSEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY
Unofficial Results RUN DATE:11/06/12
GENERAL ELECTION RUN TIME:09:54 PM NOVEMBER 6, 2012

VOTES PERCENT PRECINCTS COUNTED (OF 122). . . . . 122 100.00 REGISTERED VOTERS - TOTAL . . . . . 100,152 BALLOTS CAST - TOTAL. . . . . . . 62,110 VOTER TURNOUT - TOTAL . . . . . . 62.02
PRESIDENT VOTE FOR 1
Romney & Ryan (REP) . . . . . . . 37,215 60.09
Obama & Biden (DEM) . . . . . . . 23,406 37.79
Johnson & Gray (LIB). . . . . . . 679 1.10
Boss & Pasternak (NSA) . . . . . . 24 .04 Lindsay & Osorio (SAL) . . . . . . 7 .01 Anderson & Rodriguez (NJJ). . . . . 60 .10 Stein & Honkala (GRN) . . . . . . 222 .36 Harris & DeLuca (SWP) . . . . . . 18 .03 Miller & Bertram (ATP) . . . . . . 26 .04 Goode & Clymer (CON). . . . . . . 47 .08 WRITE-IN. . . . . . . . . . . 233 .38 U.S. SENATE VOTE FOR 1 Joe Kyrillos (REP) . . . . . . . 35,099 58.14 Robert Menendez (DEM) . . . . . . 22,618 37.47 Gwen Diakos (JSI). . . . . . . . 996 1.65 Eugene Martin LaVergne . . . . . . 47 .08 Ken Wolski (GRN) . . . . . . . . 592 .98 J. David Dranikoff (TIC) . . . . . 199 .33 Gregory Pason (SPU) . . . . . . . 66 .11 Daryl Mikell Brooks (RFN) . . . . . 33 .05 Inder "Andy" Soni (AMF). . . . . . 75 .12 Robert "Turk" Turkavage (RFI). . . . 105 .17 Kenneth R. Kaplan (LIB). . . . . . 468 .78 WRITE-IN. . . . . . . . . . . 68 .11 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 5TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT VOTE FOR 1 Scott Garrett (REP) . . . . . . . 26,756 67.06 Adam Gussen (DEM). . . . . . . . 11,433 28.65 Patricia Alessandrini (GRN) . . . . 1,656 4.15 WRITE-IN. . . . . . . . . . . 54 .14 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 11TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT VOTE FOR 1 Rodney P. Frelinghuysen (REP). . . . 13,471 67.16 John Arvanites (DEM). . . . . . . 5,894 29.38 Barry Berlin (OCG) . . . . . . . 659 3.29 WRITE-IN. . . . . . . . . . . 34 .17 FREEHOLDER VOTE FOR 2 Dennis J. Mudrick (REP). . . . . . 32,825 32.68 Gail Phoebus (REP) . . . . . . . 31,063 30.93 Susan M. Williams (DEM). . . . . . 19,878 19.79 James C. Tighe (DEM). . . . . . . 16,421 16.35 WRITE-IN. . . . . . . . . . . 242 .24 ANDOVER BORO COUNCIL 3YR VOTE FOR 2 Mel Dennison (REP) . . . . . . . 170 45.58 Robert L. Smith (REP) . . . . . . 182 48.79 No Nomination Made . . . . . . . 0 No Nomination Made . . . . . . . 0 WRITE-IN. . . . . . . . . . . 21 5.63

[American Patriot]

El Paso County 2012 Election Results

• Race Quicklinks:
• President,
• U.S. House,
• State Senate,
• State House,
• Supreme Court,
• Appeals Court,
• UniversityRegents,
• District Attorney

All vote results are El Paso county's particular votes. If a winner was declared on the overall race, that winner is marked here. That winner may not correspond with how El Paso voted. Below each race's totals is a link to full results for that race.

President elections that take place in El Paso County

President, county election returns

Mitt Romney (GOP)	59.4%	(163,819)
Barack Obama (Dem)	38.0%	(104,989)
Gary Johnson (Lib)	1.4%	(3,920)
Virgil Goode (AmC)	0.2%	(764)
Jill Stein (Grn)	0.2%	(731)
Roseanne Barr (PFP)	0.2%	(618)
Jill Reed (Una)	0.1%	(289)
Rocky Anderson (JP)	0.0%	(144)
Tom Hoefling (AmP)	0.0%	(94)
Sheila Tittle (WTP)	0.0%	(88)
Gloria La Riva (PSL)	0.0%	(31)
Tom Stevens (Obj)	0.0%	(30)
Stewart Alexander (SPU)	0.0%	(28)
Merlin Miller (ATP)	0.0%	(23)
James Harris (SWP)	0.0%	(19)
Jerry White (SEP)	0.0%	(17)

[American Patriot]

The rest of the elections here in my county were GOP... I think with one exception, and I am not sure if anyone else was running against the person, but I find no results for him (and I know I voted for the guy).

[Malsua]

My point was, my county, a very red county, is probably among those that would happily secede. It's the humps in Newark, Trenton and Camden on government handouts that out vote the rest of us.

[American Patriot]

Yeah, that's my point too.

We out number Denver County now (first time since the state became a state) - since about 2010 or so (census).

We would do it. Denver Co. won't... and it's not just that county but several others. What got me was the counties I THOUGHT would go to Obama, DID NOT (including Denver co, and two others which I predicted would be strong for Obama.

Which makes me wonder precisely HOW he took Colorado.....