Old Fashioned Patriot

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

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.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — 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. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

Good ol' signing statements in which Bush states his intention to ignore all or part of the law.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

Many governors wanted to call their State National Guard to help with various natural disasters.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

The "Help America Vote Act" has introduced unreliable Black Box voting nearly everywhere.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

Remember the Medicare Drug bill 2 am signing?

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

It turns out Bush's invasion of Iraq has boosted Al Qaeda's recruiting.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

Denial of green cards, denial of visas and now fingerprinting tourists have not helped our image in the world.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

Cheney's Iraq oil plans that he shared with oil executives are off limits to people footing the bill. Bush giving Scooter a get out of jail free card only helped cover up his crimes that made our country less safe.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

The Bush Junta fired several US Attorneys for doing their job.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

Homeland Security seems to be mostly engaged in depriving travelers of bottles of water.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He uses the military to prop up the crowd size at his speeches.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He said he would defer to the Generals about the Iraq occupation.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

Illegal wiretapping and FISA. Need I say more?

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

Quartering of troops was the King's way of ekeing additional taxes from the Colonists. Bush instead borrows hundreds of billions of dollars every year in addition to the military budget.

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

How many soldiers have been released for murdering kids in Iraq?

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

More and more people every year are boycotting American goods because of Bush's torture polciies.

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

Every public service funding he cuts is expected to be paid for by "private donations"

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

The Supreme Court has slapped him silly and yet he still ignores them.

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

Extraordinary rendition.

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

Free speech zones, illegal wiretapping, waterboarding and were never hallmarks of America before the Bush junta assumed power.

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

Habeas corpus, free speech and presumption of innocence until proven guilty are fondly missed.

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

Bush says he doesn't need the Senate to ratify his treaty with Iraq.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

"You are either for us or against us."

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

Katrina and the Midwest - you're doing a heckuva job, Bushie.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

Blackwater is the new Hessian Army.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

Suicide rates among veterans and those trapped in Bush's quagmire are quite high.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

America always seems to fear those non-whites. It used to Indians now it is Muslims.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

We are just a "focus group" apparently.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

Instead of the British we did try to talk sense into Reid and Pelosi in not siding with the war criminal.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

The good old days. When Congress had a spine.