A White House petition to allow Georgia’s peaceful withdrawal from Union

We’ve entered the period for thoughtful responses to last week’s woodshedding of the Republican party in the presidential sweepstakes.

In the take-my-ball-and-go-home category, we have the news that 20 petitions have been lodged with the White House website, seeking the peaceful withdrawal of certain states from the Union. Georgia, of course, is among them.

Most of them contain the same language:

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…”

The Georgia petition, filed Saturday, currently has 4,067 “signatures.” According to the rules of the “We the People” portion of the White House web site, a petition requires 25,000 signatures to elicit a formal presidential response. For instance, this is how the White House came to release its famous beer recipe.

So how might the White House properly respond to these new secessionists should they get to 25,000? The answer is very clear: Free tickets to Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln,” which opens Friday at a theater near you:

Seriously, it’s the toleration of this kind of foolishness that got the GOP in trouble. And if Republicans are sincere about learning from past mistakes, this seems like a good place – an easy place – to start.

- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider

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182 comments Add your comment

adamreyn

November 13th, 2012
10:53 am

@ Shine…..”How does 4000 people imagine they speak for millions?” That’s how our government operates currently. The large populated cities end up speaking for an entire state in the electoral map. We have a disjointed republic because of it.

The individuals who voted for Barack Obama cast their vote with the Hollywood elite and Larry Flynt of Hustler. Do you really think their motives were for anyone but themselves. If you cast your vote along with the likes of people like this for 2 lawyers………..to steal a line from Big Joe….”Draw your own conclusion.”

Keepin' It Real

November 13th, 2012
10:55 am

@ adamreyn:

Dow Jones closes at 8448.56 01/13/2009 (week before Obama took office). Dow Jones currently at 12,843.50. Your 401k, 501B, IRA, Mutual Funds, etc have completely recovered and grown beyond what they were. THAT IS BETTER. Next question…

Ernest T. Bass

November 13th, 2012
10:55 am

And Republicans wonder why they continue to lose elections…

GoDawgs

November 13th, 2012
10:59 am

Even as much as these people who are wanting to succeed may feel about the federal government. Where would they be without federal funding? What will they do if they were to succeed to come up with there own funding and currency? Most likely beg to come back into the union after realizing there mistake and being broke.

adamreyn

November 13th, 2012
11:00 am

@ Keepin’ It Real………..lol. i asked for facts not Dem talking points. according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics….and backed up by FactCheck…..show there was a net increase of nearly 1.1 million jobs — not a job loss — from January 2001 to January 2009.

It’s true that roughly 8.75 million jobs were lost from January 2008 to February 2010. But about half of those losses occurred during Obama’s presidency. BLS data show that 4.4 million jobs were lost in Bush’s last year in office, and 4.3 million more jobs were lost during Obama’s first 13 months.

adamreyn

November 13th, 2012
11:04 am

please remember that during the last 2 years of Bush’s 2nd term, he had a completely Democrat controlled House and Senate. during the first 2 years of Obama’s presidency, he also had a completely Democrat controlled House and Senate. Also, the Republicans only control the House currently, which means…stop me if you’ve heard this….the Senate (who holds the power of the purse) is controlled by the Democrats.

zgoldatl

November 13th, 2012
11:06 am

Shine- No I didn’t vote more than once but as a citizen of the US (for the time being) , I have the right to sign any petition to the white house that I choose to.
Liberals/progressives are so tolerant until you disagree with them. We want to help the helpless, just don’t care about the lazy anymore.
The 10th Amendment is there for a reason. It is certainly starting to apply.
Lastly there was never a civil War in America (as a civil war implies both sides are seeking total control over the other side), but there was a War for Southern Independence or a War of Northern Aggression. As someone said before Abraham Lincoln was a murdering tyrant who raped and pillaged my non slave holding ancestors. I’m ready to move to any State that is serious about this, because the values of hard work and self reliance are being lost in these United States. I’m 26, this is about what kind of world my kids and grandkids will grow up in and I’m willing to fight for that.

adamreyn

November 13th, 2012
11:06 am

Harry Reid lied to you and you bought it hook, line, and sinker because you wanted to

adamreyn

November 13th, 2012
11:12 am

Also, please remember that at the onset of Bush’s presidency, we were hit at our financial epicenter on 9/11 that changed our economic landscape dramatically.

zgoldatl

November 13th, 2012
11:12 am

American by birth, Georgian by the Grace of God

Wiser than Us All

November 13th, 2012
11:13 am

“The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.”

Thomas Jefferson

Wiser than Us All

November 13th, 2012
11:13 am

“The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.”

Thomas Jefferson

zgoldatl

November 13th, 2012
11:15 am

You’d be surprised at how many moderates, even a couple Obama supporters agree that we are too spread out and divided to keep this union together. It’s not representative of the people. Things are going to get very interesting these next few months and years

adamreyn

November 13th, 2012
11:19 am

What?!? Still no coherent, fact-based responses to my initial questions….Hmmmm.

adamreyn

November 13th, 2012
11:28 am

Facts scatter liberals like roaches when a light is turned

zgoldatl

November 13th, 2012
11:35 am

Texas has already passed the 25,000 signature mark and Louisiana isn’t far off. That ensures the White House will have to respond

adamreyn

November 13th, 2012
11:37 am

Georgia is just under 20,000 and the petition is only 3 days old. You have 1 month to get 25,000. What would the media do if this hit 100,000 or 1,000,000 by 12/10? It’d be interesting to see

Jon Lester

November 13th, 2012
11:51 am

Senor Coughee, maybe we can’t see your email, but the AJC has it on file.

zgoldatl

November 13th, 2012
12:01 pm

If at first you don’t secede, try try again

adamreyn

November 13th, 2012
12:21 pm

Georgia now has just under 21,000 votes on this petition

adamreyn

November 13th, 2012
1:12 pm

over 21,000 now

Big Joe

November 13th, 2012
1:21 pm

adamreyn where was your anger and indignation when this country suffered from eight years of Bush. You were mysteriously silent. Acknowledge your deepest fears: That a black man is the leader of the most powerful nation in the world. Stop the self denial and self delusion.

LwvilleGuy

November 13th, 2012
1:26 pm

I actually encourage the Republicans to keep up the loony behavior. The wackier they get the more unattractive they’ll be come. If anything, amp up the crazy. The Tea Party was fun while it lasted. Can you all come up with something else where you can walk around in period costumes and tea bags on your heads, please?

Oscar Knight

November 13th, 2012
2:11 pm

……Our Nation, Our State, Our County, Our Cities, and Our Neighborhoods has been divided for a very long time….Although this hasn’t been made official yet, it can be seen for ourselves; The Break Offs has already been occurring with areas forming their own Local City Governments.

…….This is probably the only way to Welcome Back Prosperity, Growth, Productivity, Jobs, and The American Dream !!!

Oscar Knight

November 13th, 2012
2:25 pm

…..The United States of America is Narrowing the Dysfunctional Gap; At least some are attempting to do so.

Erica

November 13th, 2012
4:26 pm

Wow I honestly just think this a bunch of bull. We are suppose to be one nation undivided….regardless of all the drama in government. Through the years we’ve survived both good and bad presidents. It’s all about who you perceive is the better candidate. So what Obama won, obviously the ppl chose him. That is the point of an election correct? So that everyone has a free vote and opinion. To those that support being released from the union, what does that say about you? You would rather run when times get hard? How do you figure the new country of Georgia’s rules will be any better? Who here would be a good president of Georgia? Without federal aid taxes would be raised and the larger companies would more than likely leave……so please explain how this is better just because you don’t want to push through 4 more years?

Mildred Harrison

November 13th, 2012
4:36 pm

All I can say is WOW. I’m glad stupidity is not contagious.

adamreyn

November 13th, 2012
5:48 pm

once again Big Joe….you play the race card without answering the question. I was actually a HUGE voice of discontent over Bush’s 2nd term. And it had nothing to do with him being white anymore than my issues with Obama have anything to do with him being black.

adamreyn

November 13th, 2012
5:50 pm

My deepest fears have nothing to do with a man or woman of any race, my deepest fears have to do with a staunch socialist running the country. And you are delusional if you think we are the most powerful nation on the planet at this point in history.

adamreyn

November 13th, 2012
5:53 pm

@ Erica….you’re making a lot of assumptions in your argument. Also, you’re making the same arguments the loyalists made before and after the Boston Tea Party.

Erica

November 13th, 2012
7:00 pm

@adamreyn in all actuality my “assumptions” aren’t assumptions at all. As you can see most of my arguement consisted of question marks, because I honestly would like to understand how this will help people. As you previously stated, I too agree that this does not have to do with race considering I am a black woman who does not support all of Obama’s ideas and choices. I simply want to know how does anyone feel that annexing from America would be a better solution. In my opinion, whether you want to call me a loyalist or not, all I can see would be more heartache. Where would the money come from if you cut off the federal government? My family pays enough in taxes per year equaling almost $80K this year alone; I don’t see that getting any better being annexed. Call me crazy but regardless I’m a proud American, I was one during Clinton, Bush and Obama and I will continue to be, no matter the president.

adamreyn

November 13th, 2012
7:25 pm

how do you like this….Google reports that government monitoring of citizen usage is more this year than at any time in history. Currently, the USA also leads the world in monitoring its citizens. the number of requests made by our government to Google is more than the next 4 countries requests combined.