The Growing Secession Protest

Before continuing with this discussion let's get a few things clear to ensure we understand a few of my premises.

First, no reasonable person should believe that these petitions for secession being filed at the White House's "We The People" website have any chance of action. They also will get nothing more from the President than some respectful platitudes of how we will "have to work together" (read 'you will have to sacrifice your beliefs in the name of compromise while I won the White House and will compromise by giving up very little') and that it is important that the petitioners' voices are heard (read 'you had your chance to whine now shut the f*** up'). Detractors will pass the movement off as only sour grapes, but there is some importance to these petitions. Blowing it off as sore losers is dangerous.

Second, if a state actually started action to secede then I want to be right there. At this point I believe we are skirting on the verge of "Government becom[ing] destructive" and that the Government cogs have forgotten that it they are "deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed". Pro-expansion of government people have forgotten that the government that provides everything must take it all from others...and eventually the consent of those others, no matter how minority they are, will go away.

Finally, while I hope for a secession movement to actually move forward and do so as peacefully as practical, I am not confident that it will be peaceful. It may even result in another civil war. But freedom is never free and always costs blood to retain. A price, though, that is not too steep for the fruits of freedom itself.

As of yesterday there were seven states that had collected over 25,000 signatures on the online petition at the White House's website. That threshold is what is needed to earn a response from the President.

The petition filed by Texas residents has racked up about 100,000 signatures. Six others from Louisiana, Florida, North Carolina, Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee have collected 30,000.

It is nothing new for people to say they are leaving the country because of how an election goes. Look at the number of Hollywood geniuses who promised they would leave (and sadly never did follow through). The difference here is I believe most of these people are willing to take action as well...or demand action. With Texas amassing over 100,000 signatures already it is a likely possibility that there will be pressure on state legislatures to actually engage in action. The actions may fail to move far at first in the Texas legislature but the pressure will continue. People will dismiss the actions and demonize those engaged in it (look at how respectfully the Tea Party groups are treated even by the media, much less the opposition). There will be hateful speech (un-prosecuted hate speech, by the way) against the secessionists. But with growing and continual pressure (which will get amped up as Obamacare's and other federal impositions effects become more real to the individual) the actions will start getting close to success (close to passage in the legislature, becoming an actual campaign issue for Texas gubernatorial races, etc). And then we can look back at this warning.

That to secure these rights, 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 to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

The "evils" from the federal government are reaching a point of not being sufferable to a large portion of the population. Think about the percentage of Great Britain's population that the Revolutionaries represented compared to the entire United Kingdom. Compare that percentage to what you have as of right now where over 675,000 people have signed secession petitions.

These are all a protest and nothing more at this point. But when the media so dramatically covered the Occupy protests (held by people who claimed they spoke for half of a nation that didn't support them in any manner) some people actually thought the Occupy movement's size warranted attention to their complaints. At best count (which unfortunately comes from Wikipedia, so the validity of the size may be overstated) the movement peaked at 75,311. Even if adding in an extremely generous doubling of the median for the locations reported without a figure (median = 100, no figures for 263 locations) the movement's peak numbers were just over 101,000. And that collection of give-me-everything-without-working-for-it-myself was given credibility based solely on their numbers.

The secession signatories are so far easily over 600% the size of the Occupy protests at it peak. Listen to that group or risk a terrible collision course within the next 10 years.

Heed the warning of the Declaration of Independence quoted above, "...when a long train of abuses and usurpations...it is their duty, to throw off such Government..." And heed this warning from me. Dismiss the secessionists now at your huge peril later. Trample on them too much now and you will hasten the collision course for actions towards secession.

Poll Station Hijinks

Each election cycle there are illegal activities which surround the Black Panthers. It looks like this cycle is no exception.

Court-appointed Republican poll inspectors are being forcibly removed from voting stations in some Philadelphia wards and replaced in some cases by Democratic inspectors and even members of the Black Panthers, according to GOP officials.

...

The Philadelphia GOP is reporting that court appointed Minority (read GOP) Inspectors are being thrown out of polling locations in several Wards.

These Inspectors are election officials - again, court appointed -- and are reportedly being thrown out by the Head Judges of Elections (these Judges are elected Democrats) and being replaced by Democrats.

This has happened at [15] locations...

It seems that a judge has already had to intervene to reinstate 70 election inspectors. I think a wise move would be to have the totals through the time that one side's inspectors were ejected negated. There is no way to know that fraud did not occur.

***** UPDATE *****
So, you walk into the polling station and see a huge mural on the wall of the candidate you disagree with. Would that feel uncomfortable? What is the point of banning campaigning within a certain distance of polling station entrances (a standard practice for good reason) if polling stations can have murals of one of the candidates?

What about a banner hanging inside the polling station?

***** UPDATE 2 *****
You know, it should not be a surprise when fraud is mentioned with regards to Illinois (especially Chicago) politics. In the era of cell phones, Twitter and Facebook at least more of these stories can be surfaced and substantiated.

In Chicago (go figure) an election judge is wearing an Obama cap and it is claimed that he gave an extra ballot to the person in front of the picture taker in the story.

This photo, taken by a voter this morning at the Ward 4, Precinct 37 polling place (1212 South Plymouth Court, Chicago), shows an election judge checking in voters while wearing an Obama hat," a source writes. "Chicago's 4th ward is home to President Barack Obama."

The voter who took the photo says: "Woman in front of me also given an extra ballot."

Second Battleground State To Have Voting Machine Issues

Last week there reports in Florida that voting machines were registering Obama even though people were selecting Romney. Oh, the machines are fine and there is nothing to worry about was the word.

Now same is happening in Ohio.

Joan Stevens was one of several early voters at the polls on Monday. But when Stevens tried to cast her ballot for president, she noticed a problem.

Upon selecting “Mitt Romney” on the electronic touch screen, Barack Obama’s name lit up.

It took Stevens three tries before her selection was accurately recorded.

“You want to vote for who you want to vote for, and when you can’t it’s irritating,” Stevens said.

Stevens said she alerted Jackie Smith, a board of elections member who was present. Smith declined to comment, but Stevens says she mentioned that the machine had been having problems all day.

Something tells me that we may be hearing a lot more of this in more battleground states.

Political Terrorism From Vandalism Strikes Again

And again, more political terrorism and it seems to be a recurring pattern that it is against right-wing people.

William Overbay said someone ignited the flags and signs, which supported Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, that he had lined along his yard. The vandals also painted a sign on his driveway reading "Obama for life," at his DuPont Circle home, Overbay said.
...
Howey-in-the-Hills police say no one left any clues behind to identify themselves. Overbay said as a Vietnam-era veteran, the hard feelings caused by the vandalism run deep.

"To give that many years for my country and to see it desecrated in such a despicable way angers me," Overbay said. "We have freedom of speech and to desecrate any kind of signs is absolutely despicable and a violation of the constitution of the United States."

I agree that it is despicable. It is an attempt at intimidation which is why I believe it is political terrorism.