IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
(a snippet from) The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of AmericaWe 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.
Check out the commentary following this grand document, presented in its entirety, over at Simply Left Behind. Amen. Couldn’t have said it better myself.
Ohhh, rebuttal time for this writer:\”For too long, we\’ve let the right speak for the nation\”Oh, you\’ve \”let\” us? I thought it was because we keep kicking the crap out of you at election time.\”We must fight the good fight against tyranny here.\”I thought that\’s what we were doing in Iraq. Oh, you must mean the tyranny of that fascist dictator George W. – who harbors WMDs and lies about them, won\’t allow freedom to practice one\’s choice of religion and regularly assassinates anyone who disagrees with him. Oh wait…wrong brutal fascist dictator. We already deposed that one.\”We have the challenge of occupying two nations while baiting two others to war with us\”Oh now, this is just craziness. *We\’re* the ones doing the baiting? Did we taunt North Korea into launching test missiles? Did we bait Iran into ignoring nuclear disarmament talks? Is this writer off his medication or has he been watching too much CNN?\”…a weakened economy, a weakened military, and a weakened people is a recipe for invasion and overthrow. Just ask Saddam Hussein.\”I would, but he\’s busy licking his wounds from the ass-kicking he received from our \”weakened\” military.Dr. Sanity (http://drsanity.blogspot.com/2005/11/in-denial.html) says it best: Certainly denial can be used by anyone; and both sides of the political spectrum engage in it– Democrats or Republicans; Left or Right. But the most recent example, and the one with the most serious implications is the continued denial of reality on the part of Democrats and the Left regarding Iraq.The examples of their unwillingness to face reality are everywhere. They pretend they didn\’t vote for military action. They distort what was actually said and even when confronted with audiotapes and transcripts of what was said; they continue to deny that they meant any such thing. When confronted with what Bush or Cheney actually said about the reasons for going to war; they will insistently adhere to an interpretation that fits their template.Their denial is complete on this issue. It is simply not possible for them to admit that Bush was correct and they were wrong. This is unacceptable knowledge. Bush must be wrong, and America must fail for them to maintain not only their self-esteem, but also their worldview.For some, it is so much better to believe in the fantasy of control (get rid of Bush and it will all go away–just like a bad dream!)One of the most amusing aspects of the denial of the Islamofascist threat, is how eager those who deny its reality are ready to embrace the fantasy that somehow Christianity is the real threat. Witness all those who claim that Bush is imminently going to impose a Christian theocracy here; the complete hysteria over Christian \”symbols\” and the denial of a Judeo-Christian heritage. This is the same kind of psychological displacement that can be seen in the phenomenon of Bush Derangement Syndrome. If Bush is the cause of all the evil in the world, these same people see Christianity (or Judaism–any religion but Islam) as the greatest threat to the utopia in their mind.\”What\’s so sad to me is that a lot of Democrats don\’t seem to realize that we have a common enemy here – and it\’s not George W. Bush. All this talk about banding together and fighting the good fight is pointless if you\’re targetting the wrong enemy.My $.02 worth, because North Korea really pissed me off yesterday and I felt like making a big stink!:-)
Should I cut and paste your rebuttal to him on his blog?
\”George W. – who harbors WMDs and lies about them, won\’t allow freedom to practice one\’s choice of religion and regularly assassinates anyone who disagrees with him.\”He doesn\’t harbor them unless you count the warheads that the US still has…or the bombs that we dropped in those airstrikes…He does lie about them. He lies about a lot of things.He thankfully has not gotten to the point that he can disallow freedom of religion and have a method to enforce it, but you\’d better believe if he had a way we\’d be One Nation Under the CHRISTIAN God faster than you can say praise Allah.He doesn\’t assassinate people literally…but what happens to those folks in his inner circle that make mistakes and don\’t follow his plan? They find new jobs. Interesting.You know you aren\’t going to change my mind here. I am a democrat. I believe that George W is a fratboy that doesn\’t have any business leading our country…nor does he know what he\’s doing. I believe that we unfortunately deserve the opinion that the a large part of the \”civilized\” world has of us right now. I believe that we as a nation have a responsibility to take care of our own and to take care of those coming to our country for a better life. I believe that we need to strengthen our social programs domestically before we try to impose them elsewhere. I believe that our military needs to come home.
I think let is a good term. Dem\’s have always been \”Big Tent\” people. There\’s always room for more, even if you don\’t agree with us. All we ask is that you don\’t go hating on us. So there are 2 options, we can recognize we\’re all in the same tent, or we can have 2 tents.Secondly, Amy, I don\’t call stealing elections \”kicking the crap.\” But maybe you are like my friend, Jeremy. When Dem\’s were in power, he was a dem. Now he is a GOP. Don\’t feel bad, everyone like a winner.But back to your little verbal hissy fit…Don\’t think that GOP\’s leaders assasinate? How did Pinoche get in office? Oh, that\’s right the GOP Pres gave the go ahead to take the democratically electioned leader out. How did Charles Taylor get in power? once again, a GOP leader (Mr. Hollywood, to be exact) gave the go ahead to execute a democratically elected leader. Don\’t throw stones in glass how\’s, friend.Did we taunt N. Korea? You bet we did. We had a great policy going under our Boy Bill (who cares who blew him off, N. Korea couldn\’t blow us up!), and now we offered Iran the exact same package N. Korea wanted. If you knew N. Korea has nothing to bargain with (no economy since the only thing they have to export is weapons…to terrorists by the way). Who cut them off? Oh yeah, a GOP Pres. I\’d say that while we didn\’t poke them in the eye, we\’ve been baiting them ever since the end of Korean \’police action\’.Noticed you didn\’t say anything about a weakened economy? What have you had to give up in order to fill up your gas tank? As Lou Dobbs, easily the most conservative guy on CNN, say: why is it that middle class wages are stagnant? How come 1 incomce can\’t support a middle class family? How come we work longer than folks in Europe and make less? I\’d say we have a weakened economy.I weakened military, I don\’t know much about that. I do think Rumsfeld is still pushing a new ideology diametrically opposed to the Powell Doctrine (clear goals, overwhelming force). We have not clear goals and we don\’t have enough troops in Iraq nor do we have enough airpower in Afghanistan. And since everyone is talking about the Korean penninsula, we only have 50k troops there.As far as talking about any faith as a threat, let us remember that the terrorists are the wing-nuts of Islam. Neither should we forget we have nuts, too… Jim Jones, Bob Jones, Benny Hinn, David Koresh, David Dukes, any Klan member… all of those folk are/ were good Christians. Again, stones and glass houses?Oh, and lets check out definitions of fascism- Fascism is a radical totalitarian political philosophy that combines elements of corporatism, authoritarianism, extreme nationalism, militarism, anti-rationalism, anti-anarchism, anti-communism and anti-liberalism.Hmm. totalitarian? What was Delay\’s Pac… something about a permanent republican majority?coporatism? who writes our laws? That\’s right lobbyist paid for by corporations.authoritarianism? \”I\’m the decider\”nationalism? Attempted flag-burning amendment. Check.Do we have a common enemy? Yes.Militarism? War and swelling defense budget. Check.Anti-rationalism. uh….. Has anyone checked 1600 Penn Ave?Anti-anarchism. Patriot Act.Anti-communism and antii-liberalism. Platforms in the GOP.So if anyone is a fascist, guess it takes one to know one, hehe.Lastly, yes we have a common enemy. Fear. Fear of anything that is different, fear of what might could happen, fear of whatever Rove wants us to be afraid of so that his favored-ones can win elections.That doesn\’t mean bury our head in the sand. We must confront people would wish the US harm and have the capacity to do so. Lastly, you know me, I\’m a liberal. But I don\’t think Geo W is a bad guy. I think that he\’s well intentioned, he\’s jsut pulled between the hawks and the fiscal conservtives in his own party. He seems like someone who hates conflict, so he\’s trying to make the people that advise him happy. Also, he like things to be easiloy digestable. I reckon if I was in his shoes, I\’d do the same thing. Anyway, he constructs very complex issues (immigration, terrorism, global politics) into simple forms.So give Ol\’ George a little break. I mean he\’s out in two years (Hillary \’08. The bitch is back and she\’s gove shove her broomstick… well I better stop). Also he\’s knows he\’s going to lose his majority in at least one of the houses of congress. Why do you think they are talking about line-item veto. This happens every time the opposing party is about to take over in Congress.Lastly (I promise), let us remember what they fought for in the war of independence… freedoms (life, liberty, persuit of happiness). This was later articulated in the Bill of Rights. Thpse freedoms includes freedom of thought. Mine, yours, anyones. Especially the opinions we dislike. Cause if we only permit opinions we like to be freely articulated, that\’s not freedom. That\’s fascism.