The dueling White House petitions may have just jumped the shark.
“Caleb M” from Austin, Texas — the White House doesn’t divulge last names — has launched a petition with the Obama administration to sever ties between Texas and its liberal-leaning capital city if the state were permitted to secede from the United States.
A petition launched Friday by an Arlington, Texas man called on the White House to “[p]eacefully grant the State of Texas to withdraw from the United States of America and create its own NEW government.” (RELATED: Will Texas secede? Petition triggers White House review)
The new petition, created in the same White House “We the People” online system, seeks permission for “the city of Austin Texas to withdraw from the state of Texas & remain part of the United States.”
“Austin Texas continues to suffer difficulties stemming from the lack of civil, religious, and political freedoms imposed upon the city by less liberally minded Texans,” according to the new petition.
“It is entirely feasible for Austin to operate as its own state, within the United States, in the event that Texas is successful in the current bid to secede.”
The original Texas petitioner noted that the state “maintains a balanced budget and is the 15th largest economy in the world,” and called it “practically feasible for Texas to withdraw from the union.”
Gov. Rick Perry said Tuesday that he does not support an effort to secede from the United States.
The Austin petition had one additional request: “We would also like to annex Dublin Texas, Lockhart Texas, & Shiner Texas.”
None of those three towns is anywhere near Austin; combining them into a state would create a Hawaii-like chain of municipalities in a sea of Texas.
The Austin secession petition has attracted about 750 votes.
“We the People” hosts at least 66 separate petitions asking the federal government to allow 49 states to secede, all of them launched since Election Day. Vermont remains the sole holdout.
On Monday night a pair of petitions surfaced asking the Obama administration to void the citizenship of those petitions’ signers and deport them. (RELATED: Anti-secession forces fight back with White House deportation petitions)
So far, none of the petitions’ authors has publicly stepped forward.