Tuesday, July 04, 2006
Declaring our Independence from King George
This letter-writer, Beth Quinn, uses the language of the Declaration of Independence to illustrate the eerie similarities between the colonists' rebellion against the monarchy on July 4, 1776 and the current-day monarchical rule of our own King George:
King George of America, This Letter is For You
When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands that connected them with another, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
The history of the present King George of America 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 about the excesses of King George of America be submitted to a candid world:
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. By use of a device called the "signing statement," he has placed himself above more than 750 laws enacted since he became king, including the anti-torture law passed by Congress to correct a most grievous wrong.
He has appointed Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices and, in so doing, he has created a Supreme Court to be an arm of his government absent the usual and customary checks and balances.
The Supreme Court of his Land has removed the protections of the Fourth Amendment by allowing unlawful police searches of our homes, all evidence thus obtained to be used against us in a Court of Law.
He has affected to render the Military independent and superior to Civil power, thereby creating a netherworld of despair at Gitmo, in which prisoners are held without charges, isolated from their families, deprived of a trial by jury, and subject to abuses against humanity.
He has abrogated the Citizens' right to privacy by ordering Officials of the Crown [the NSA] to monitor our phones, track our e-mail, demand to know our reading habits and examine our banking records.
He has censured and attempted to silence the Free Press for revealing his excesses, such as those enumerated above.
He has plundered the nation's land and air and picked the pockets of the Common Man, even as he has filled the royal coffers and called for Legislation to protect the riches of the Upper Classes.
He has desecrated our Constitution's Bill of Rights - our most sacred freedoms - by attempting to subvert that document's purpose and instead use it to limit rights through amendments that would ban marriage for certain of our Citizens and to criminalize certain expressions of Free Speech.
He has cut off the Good Will extended us in all parts of the world.
We, therefore, the citizens of these United States, do solemnly publish and declare that we wish to be free and independent of this monarchy.
King George of America, This Letter is For You
Monday, July 03, 2006
Bush Declares Independence...from the Constitution
From "The Scoop" (Independent News):
The colonists did not just write these words [of the Declaration of Independence]. They also fought and died for them. The 4,435 who died to rid America of a King George are now in fact required – as a matter of patriotic duty – to have died in vain.
In vain their deaths to free us of a unitary executive.
In vain their deaths to establish freedom of assembly.
In vain their deaths to separate church and state.
In vain their deaths to create freedom of speech.
In vain their deaths in the cause of freedom from unreasonable search and seizure.
In vain their blood spilled in rivers to establish the right to freedom from cruel and unusual punishment.
In vain their ultimate sacrifices to create a representative democracy based on checks and balances.
In vain the heartache of their families suffered in the name of an end to empire.
All in vain, all unsupported. Welcome to the world of free speech zones, detention without charge, no access to a court of law, no prohibition on torture. Welcome to the end of the veto and the birth of the signing statement. Welcome to an executive branch that neither obeys Congress nor so much as informs Congress of its actions. Welcome to wars of aggression for a theocratic plutocracy. Welcome back, King George.
Scoop: On the 4th, Read the Declaration of Impeachment
The colonists did not just write these words [of the Declaration of Independence]. They also fought and died for them. The 4,435 who died to rid America of a King George are now in fact required – as a matter of patriotic duty – to have died in vain.
In vain their deaths to free us of a unitary executive.
In vain their deaths to establish freedom of assembly.
In vain their deaths to separate church and state.
In vain their deaths to create freedom of speech.
In vain their deaths in the cause of freedom from unreasonable search and seizure.
In vain their blood spilled in rivers to establish the right to freedom from cruel and unusual punishment.
In vain their ultimate sacrifices to create a representative democracy based on checks and balances.
In vain the heartache of their families suffered in the name of an end to empire.
All in vain, all unsupported. Welcome to the world of free speech zones, detention without charge, no access to a court of law, no prohibition on torture. Welcome to the end of the veto and the birth of the signing statement. Welcome to an executive branch that neither obeys Congress nor so much as informs Congress of its actions. Welcome to wars of aggression for a theocratic plutocracy. Welcome back, King George.
Scoop: On the 4th, Read the Declaration of Impeachment
