Quote for the Day

"The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite." -- James Madison

Obama's Safe Schools Czar

Kevin Jennings was teaching high school in 1988 when a gay student confessed an involvement with an older man. Rather than reporting it, he told the boy, "I hope you know how to use a condom." [link]

Wonder when more people will start to question the ability of Obama and his administration to vet the people that it puts into places of power and influence? When you start to look at the issues that have come to light over the history and beliefs of many of them you begin to wonder if the administration is really this inept, or for what purpose are these types of people being placed in the positions they are in.

Quote for the Day

"The only freedom deserving the name, is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it. Each is the proper guardian of his own health, whether bodily, or mental and spiritual. Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each other to live as seems good to themselves, than by compelling each to live as seems good to the rest." -- John Stuart Mill

Empire State Building "Celebrates" China's Revolution

Last night on September 30th the Empire State Building in New York City decked itself out in red and yellow lights as celebration to the 60th anniversary of China's revolution. How fitting that a building constructed during the Great Depression to highlight the perseverance of the American people now celebrates this anniversary. Here is a brief list of some of the things that this revolution has accomplished:

• In the years following the communist takeover of China-- known as the Yan’an Rectification Movement-- thousands of intellectuals and others who might derail the indoctrination of the populace with Marxist and Leninist principles were killed.
• This campaign was followed by the Zhen Fan and Shu Fan which targeted former Chinese Nationalist officials and employees of Western corporations, business owners, landowners, and intellectuals. An estimated three to five million people were killed, and another 1.5 million were sent to labor camps.
• Various campaigns and movements kept targeting intellectuals and other enemies of the state. But try as hard as they might, the secret police and communist officials couldn’t kill as many Chinese as efficiently as the widespread famine triggered by the Great Leap Forward --Chairman Mao’s attempts to impose collectivism on China’s peasant farmers -- which resulted in between 20 and 43 million people starving to death (Mao himself always seemed very well-fed).
• Mao’s subsequent economic and social engineering programs were also dismal failures and fearing that capitalist sentiment was stealthily creeping into the hearts and minds of the people, he launched the Cultural Revolution and went after his enemies and those pesky intellectuals with a vengeance. With the educated being specifically targeted, schools and universities were shuttered and students from urban areas were forcibly relocated to the remote countryside. Illiteracy rates soared, ancient Chinese artifacts and monuments were destroyed as a symbolic break with “the old ways of thinking” and traditional customs and religious ceremonies were systematically stamped out. As many as 36 million people were persecuted; of these up to 1.5 million were killed and an equal number maimed. [link]
  

Quote for the Day

"There are certain things that are true no matter how much someone may deny them. In the economic realm, for instance, you cannot legislate the poor into independence by legislating the wealthy out of it. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. Government cannot give to people what it does not first take away from people. And that which one man received without working for, another man must work for without receiving." -- Kenneth W. Sollitt

So Much For Transparency!

...Barack Obama's new standards of openness in the federal government have not trickled down to some of its agencies, where officials have used special statutes inserted into bills to skirt the Freedom of Information Act, open government advocates said Wednesday. [link]

By now you wouldn't even expect coverage like this. Hasn't anyone learned yet that this man cannot tell the truth, especially as it concerns anything he said in his campaign. Obama is a smoke and mirrors politician.

To Resume Shortly

Have finally got things moved and ground broken for the new house. My normal blog postings will resume shortly.

Prostitutes, Pimps, and Tax Dollars

Even in the midst of my moving I had to take a time out to post this one. This has to be something out of a Charlie Rangel dream:

"Officials with the controversial community organizing group ACORN were secretly videotaped offering to assist two individuals posing as a pimp and a prostitute, encouraging them to lie to the Internal Revenue Service and providing guidance on how to claim underage girls from South America as dependents." [link]

Talk about being at a loss for words...

Busy, Busy, Busy

Sorry for the abrupt cessation of blog posting everyone. I have just recently sold my current residence and am in the process of moving out. May be a few more days or a week or longer before I get back to regular postings.

Quote for the Day

"People who relieve others of their money with guns are called robbers. It does not alter the immorality of the act when the income transfer is carried out by government." -- Cal Thomas

What Were They Thinking?

You have to read this story. Seems that over the break House leadership decided to switch the type of music constituents here if/when they were placed on hold. It had always been patriotic songs, but offices were given a "choice" of smooth jazz or no music at all. [full story]

Needless to say the decision has been reversed.

The Power Grab Continues: Control of the Internet

"...allow the president to "declare a cybersecurity emergency and order the limitation or shutdown of Internet traffic to and from any compromised federal government or United States critical infrastructure information system or network...But the bill is unclear about how broad the president's power is. And what's more troubling to some is the application of emergency responses used in other situations to an area that has never faced that kind of security test." [link]

I find it troubling that this type of legislation is floating around. It is just as troubling the vague language used. For example "critical infrastructure information system or network", couldn't that just as easily be read as "internet". Especially if you look at the internet as a tool for banking, purchasing, trading stocks, etc... Also, how many ISP providers are the local and/or regional telephone companies? Wouldn't the government consider those "critical infrastructure"? ISP service through satellite or cable providers "critical infrastructure" by saying these mediums need to be able to function in order to broadcast "news and information" in case of an actual emergency?

The case could very easily be made that this authority would indeed allow the president to order the shut down of the internet. Should we even consider the words of the new FCC czar, Mark Lloyd, "It should be clear by now that my focus here is not freedom of speech or the press,” he said. “This freedom is all too often an exaggeration. At the very least, blind references to freedom of speech or the press serve as a distraction from the critical examination of other communications policies.” [link]

I will let you draw your own conclusions.

Quote for the Day

"The first goal and primary function of the U.S. public school is not to educate good people, but good citizens. It is the function which we call - in enemy nations - ‘state indoctrination'." --Jonathan Kozol

Indoctrinate Early!

This one leaves me speechless. [link] Just wonder what he will be talking about. Better be prepared to deprogram your young ones when they get home from school on this day. Here is the link for the activities for grades 7-12.

Really Now?

The antics in the MSM continue to get weirder and crazier each and every day. Somehow we have ended up with both God and the Messiah on earth at the same time as two separate entities.

Quote for the Day

"So what's the difference between republican and democratic forms of government? John Adams captured the essence of the difference when he said, 'You have rights antecedent to all earthly governments; rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws; rights derived from the Great Legislator of the Universe.' Nothing in our Constitution suggests that government is a grantor of rights. Instead, government is a protector of rights." -- Walter Williams

"It Can't Happen Here!" (Part 3, Human Guinea Pigs)

In this continuation of "It Can't Happen Here!" We will look at how agencies inside the U.S. Government over a period of 4 decades lured low-income black males with the promise of "free health care", free meals, and burial insurance, into participating in a study that costs lives and actually withheld viable treatment for their condition.

In 1932 a study was begun to study syphilis in black males. This study would eventually be known as the infamous Tuskegee syphilis experiment. [1] [2] The claimed intention of the study was to justify treatment programs for blacks with the disease. The study consisted of 600 black males, 399 with syphilis and 201 that did not have the disease.

In 1947 penicillin became the go to treatment for syphilis and treating this disease. However the participants in the Tuskegee study were not allowed to seek treatment elsewhere, nor were any of them even given penicillin. The disease was allowed to run its course. It was not until 1968 that ethical concerns were voiced by those within the study, in 1969 the CDC reaffirms the need for the study and even gains the support of the AMA and NMA. In 1972 the study was shut down, and Congress begins hearings the following year.

By the end of the study in 1972, only 74 of the test subjects were alive. 28 of the original 399 men had died of syphilis, 100 were dead of related complications, 40 of their wives had been infected, and 19 of their children had been born with congenital syphilis.

A quote from one of the doctors involved in the study, "The men's status did not warrant ethical debate. They were subjects, not patients; clinical material, not sick people." --Dr. John Heller.

Dr. Heller would also say, "For the most part, doctors and civil servants simply did their jobs. Some merely followed orders, others worked for the glory of science."

So ends part three of "It Can't Happen Here!"

Sources for post: http://www.cdc.gov/tuskegee/timeline.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskegee_Study_of_Untreated_Syphilis_in_the_Negro_Male

Quote for the Day

"It is inevitable, that eventually the people will demand absolute security from the state... And absolute security is absolute slavery." -- Taylor Caldwell

"It Can't Happen Here!" (Part 2, Forced Internment)

Yesterday we looked at MKULTRA and Operation Paperclip, both of which were clandestine programs/experiments that were carried out on American civilians. Unfortunately these were not the first or the last examples of a the U.S. Government overstepping its bounds.

Today we are going to look at Franklin D. Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066. Executive Order 9066 was issued February 19, 1945 and eventually led to the internment of those with “foreign enemy ancestry”. This eventually lead to the internment of more than 120,00 Japanese of which roughly two thirds were American citizens. 11,000 Germans, and 3,000 Italians, along with some Jewish refugees fleeing from Europe.

Not only did this order lead to the internment of these people but many more were forced to relocate from their homes to other areas of the country. Mind you that none of these people at the time were ever proven to be a threat to the nation or the government. Amazingly this order was not rescinded until 1976.

So far we have seen how government entities and agencies have experimented on civilians, and forced civilians into internment camps. All along violating rights guaranteed to be protected by the Constitution of the United States. So tell me again how “It can't happen here!”

More sources: http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist9/evacorder.html

http://home.comcast.net/~chtongyu/internment/camps.html

http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/89manzanar/89manzanar.htm

Quote for the Day

"The sole purpose of our Constitution is to define the limited role of government in order to guarantee individual rights." – Tom DeWeese

Examples for Those That Claim "It Can't Happen Here!" (Part 1)

There is a deep rift in American society today, there are those that lean toward more government control and regulations and there are those that are strictly opposed to handing over more power and control to the government. Those that are for more government oversight are of the opinion that the government is the only entity with the funding and the know how to get certain things done. On the other side are the fears that giving too much power to the government could lead to very bad things. I, as you well know, am one of those that is strictly opposed to handing the government any more power. In fact I am of the opinion that the government needs quite a bit of its powers stripped from it, it has already overreached what was limited to it via the Constitution.

Myself and others like me are constantly told that we have nothing to worry about. That the United States Government truly has our best interest at heart and would do nothing to harm the people of this great nation. We are told that at times decisions must be made and sometimes this means a number of people feel the brunt of this decision. Sometimes as with many tough decisions this might be the case. But what I am about to discuss and show you are true cases of things the government has done that would seem like something out of the darkest fiction.

MKULTRA, might be the first time many of you have heard of this. But it was a clandestine program ran by the CIA in the 1960's. It was a mind control and chemical interrogation experiment that started out by CIA agents slipping LSD and other drugs and chemicals into each others drinks unawares. However, it eventually spiraled into tests on unknowing and unwitting citizens of the United States. Yes, you read that correct, an entity of the federal government drugged American citizens without them knowing. With at least two known deaths. [source]

But that is only the beginning, MKULTRA was actually a spin off of a program known as Operation Paperclip. Operation Paperclip was a program to recruit former Nazi scientists, many of whom had studied torture and brainwashing and had even been identified and prosecuted during the Nuremberg Trials.

Read up on those items and realize that everything mentioned so far is FACT. It is not fallacy, conjecture, paranoia, etc... Each and every one of the things I have mentioned are well documented and admitted to by the U.S. Government.

As a side note. There is a considerable amount of credible circumstantial evidence that Theodore Kaczynski (The Unabomber) participated in MKULTRA experiments at Harvard University. [source]

So don't bother telling me that "It can't happen here!" It already has and could again without eternal vigilance.

This is just part one in a multi-part look at atrocities carried out by the U.S. Government on its own citizens. Check back for part two which will be posted in the very near future.

Quote for the Day

"Do not trust governments more than governments trust their own people." -- Andrei Sakharov

Court Orders Christian Child Into Government Education

"A 10-year-old homeschool girl described as "well liked, social and interactive with her peers, academically promising and intellectually at or superior to grade level" has been told by a New Hampshire court official to attend a government school because she was too "vigorous" in defense of her Christian faith.

The decision from Marital Master Michael Garner reasoned that the girl's "vigorous defense of her religious beliefs to [her] counselor suggests strongly that she has not had the opportunity to seriously consider any other point of view." [link]

We as a nation cannot afford to go down this road. Let's step back for a moment and see what this could lead to. Notice that this is not a judge or a jury that has made this decision (it would still be wrong regardless) but a "court official". What types of power are being handed over to bureaucrats in this country. How many have stopped to ask this question?

Another way of looking at this is what if in a different area a "court official" rules that a public school educated child that was too "vigorous" in her defense of liberalism, environmentalism, collectivism, etc... and must be home schooled to allow her the opportunity to consider other points of view. What types of howls of rage and protest would this order bring?

Quote for the Day

"I want to die in my sleep like my grandfather...Not screaming and yelling like the passengers in his car." --Will Shriner


For some reason I read this and thought of Ted.

Better Do A Doubletake

"Waak told the Denver Post that the vandalism, allegedly carried out by a former Democratic canvasser and who left behind an anti-health care reformer poster, was "an effort on the other side to stir up hate." After learning about alleged vandal's political past, Waak told the newspaper that "there is a lot of rhetoric out there from both sides of the spectrum." [link]

Notice how instead of offering an apology for a false allegation the tone changes. What type of reaction would Waak have had had the alleged perpetrator belonged to something other than the Democratic party?

Quote for the Day

"Preserving the Constitution, fighting off the nibblers and chippers, even nibblers and chippers with good intentions, was once regarded by conservatives as the first duty of the citizen. It still is." – Wesley Pruden

And They Claim They Can Reform Health Care Efficiently and Affordably!

"Letters were sent to 1,864 veterans about disability benefits for those with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, and a "small number" have contacted the VA indicating they received the letters in error, VA spokeswoman Katie Roberts said Monday night.

However, the National Gulf War Resource Center said Reid was among at least 1,200 veterans who received the letter, even though they hadn't been diagnosed with the illness. Veterans were initially suspicious, but still went through the pain not knowing whether they had the degenerative disease, which typically kills people within five years." [link]

Besides bloating itself on tax dollars of hard working people, and producing a red tape driven efficient at being inefficient bureaucracy, can anyone name anything that any government has been able to do cheaper and more efficiently than the private sector?

Debacles such as the one mentioned seem to pop up everyday with government run anything. Google medicare/medicaid problems, along with social security. And they now want us to trust them to "improve" health care and coverage. I for one don't buy it!

Quote for the Day

"No better friend. No worse enemy." -- US Marines

A True Oath Keeper!

I do not know if this fine Marine veteran is a member of the Oath Keepers or not. But he certainly has the same ideals and sentiments. America needs more like this one!

Quote for the Day

"Arguing that the words of the Constitution have no fixed meaning is tantamount to arguing that we have no Constitution; a Constitution serves no purpose if the branches of government it is supposed to limit can define their own powers." --W. James Antle III

"Your Papers, Please!"

Sadly we may not really be that far off from hearing something like this. Often much derided and maligned in American society was the way other nations treated their citizens in relations to identification. Now the time might be upon us, where we have to do the same.

Read full story here: "Your Paper, Please!"

Liberals: Are They Above the Law?

"A cancer-stricken Sen. Edward M. Kennedy has written a poignant letter to Massachusetts leaders asking that they change state law to allow a speedy replacement of him in Congress...The letter acknowledges the state changed its succession law in 2004 to require a special election within five months to fill any vacancy. At the time, legislative Democrats -- with a wide majority in both chambers -- were concerned because then-Republican Gov. Mitt Romney had the power to directly fill any vacancy created as Democratic Sen. John Kerry ran for president." [link]

It would seem that when there might have been a chance someone other than an ultra-lib progressive could have taken a seat long held by Kennedy the Dem's used their might to effectively keep Romney from appointing anyone. Now that a Dem is in the governors seat there is now concern for a speedy replacement? The hypocrisy on the left truly knows no bounds.

Don't misunderstand me, Republicans have done the same types of things before and it is wrong on either side and very hypocritical. Our public servants need to quit focusing so much on power grabbing and more on representing the people they are supposed to be helping.

No Wonder...

"...I've never been to one where a politician addressed people by a number and not their name. And yet that is exactly what Specter did. People had to take a number if they wanted to ask a question. When their turn was up, he called out the number instead of recognizing them by name...In Pennsylvania alone, the average resident pays more than $10,000 each year in federal, state and local taxes combined, according to the Tax Foundation. What are taxpayers getting for their investment in return? If they were in Lebanon this past week, it would have earned them the privilege of being recognized by their senator as a number, instead of their name." [link]

Yet these same politicians act shocked, and mortified when they are greeted with anything other than with fawning admiration and open checkbooks and wallets. When you can't treat your fellow man with respect and dignity, what do you expect in return?

Quote for the Day

"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once." -- David Hume

What They Really Think!

"The Speaker of the House called you “un-American,” Harry Reid called you an “evil-monger,” and the President of the United States, well he’d just like you to “shut-up” [link]

America's political elite are truly out of touch with average American's. They have shielded themselves from the people they are "supposed" to represent that they no longer live in actual reality. They live instead in "D.C. Land".

So Much for Representative Government

"I will vote adamantly against the interests of my district if I actually think what I'm doing is going to help them....I will vote against their opinion if I actually believe it will help them," Massa said. [link]

Talk about a slimy worm! This one let's the cat out of the bag in a big way doesn't he. Effectively he is saying "I do not care what you choose and want, you don't know what is good for you. I am from the government and I know what is in your best interest." Idiots like this need to be voted out of office and then derided and ridiculed until ran out of town.

Quote for the Day

"One of these days you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children, and our children's children, what it once was like in America when men were free." --Ronald Reagan 1961 speaking out against government run health care.

From John Holdren: Obama's "Science Czar"

"Holdren wrote that "it has been concluded that compulsory population-control laws, even including laws requiring compulsory abortion, could be sustained under the existing Constitution if the population crisis became sufficiently severe to endanger the society." In a future society, "It would even be possible to require pregnant single women to marry or have abortions, perhaps as an alternative to placement for adoption, depending on the society," Holdren and his co-authors wrote." [link]

I can't really comment much on this as I am speechless. We truly have a bunch of kooks "running" the country right now. You can read some more about Holdren and his writings here. I would advice more people to do more research on each of Obama's "Czars" as well. It doesn't take much searching to find out about them, and who they have ties to. It is truly scary!

Quote for the Day

"You can lead a fool to wisdom, you cannot make him think." -- Jeff Cooper

Really Want Government Controlled Health Care?

Let's just look at some facts, figures, and stats about cancer in regards to socialized medicine as opposed to what we have in the United States (for now anyway).

"Breast cancer kills 25 percent of its American victims. In Great Britain, the Vatican of single-payer medicine, breast cancer extinguishes 46 percent of its targets.

Prostate cancer is fatal to 19 percent of its American patients. The National Center for Policy Analysis reports that it kills 57 percent of Britons it strikes." [link]

You should read the rest of the article they also compare other health conditions as well. Now just today this comes out:

"Improvements in cancer screening and better treatments have resulted in steady declines in cancer death rates over the past three decades, U.S. researchers said on Thursday." [link]

Looks like an absolutely no-brainer to me, but then again we are dealing with congress aren't we?

Quote for the Day

"The budget should be balanced, the treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance." Cicero 55 BC

Another Obama Plant

Thanks to the folks over at www.ar15.com for this jewel. Just click on the link and read all about Obama's latest plant.

State Motto's of Original 13 Colonies

Massachusetts: By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty (Ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem)

The state motto of Rhode Island: "Hope"

Connecticut: "He who is transplanted still sustains" (Qui transtulit sustinet)

New Hampshire: Live free or die

New York: Excelsior (Ever Upward)

Delaware: "Liberty and Independence"

New Jersey: "Liberty and Prosperity"

Pennsylvania: "Virtue, Liberty, and Independence"

Virginia: "Thus Always to Tyrants" (Sic Semper Tyrannis)

Maryland: "Fatti maschil, Parole femine" (loosely translated as Manly deeds, Womanly words)

North Carolina: No original state motto the only one the the original 13 colonies without one.

South Carolina: While I breathe, I hope (Dum Spiro Spero)

Georgia: Wisdom, Justice, and Moderation

Bold words from bold men during the times that America won its independence. What words would be picked now? The words used then were not used lightly, they meant something and still should. The American people need to start understanding and living up to the legacy that brave men fought for and we should all start honoring that legacy.

Hurray?

It's here, it's finally here. Oh well not really anything to get excited about unless your a statist.

"In 2009, Cost of Government Day falls on August 12. That means, working people must toil 224 days out of the year just to meet all costs imposed by government. In other words, the cost of government consumes 61.34 percent of national income." [link]

Nothing quite like actually seeing how much of your hard earned money the government actually takes by force to make you nauseous is there?

I Hate to Revert to Childishness...Liar, Liar Pants, On Fire

"At a health care town hall today, President Barack Obama told a New Hampshire audience that he has never claimed to be an advocate of a single-payer health care system...But in August of last year, Obama touted single-payer systems as a promising solution to the ailing health care system...“If I were designing a system from scratch, I would probably go ahead with a single-payer system,” said then-Senator Obama." [link]

It is what it is. He might be the biggest liar ever to hold office as president.

Quote for the Day

"No clause in the Constitution could by any rule of construction be conceived to gibe to congress a power to disarm the people." --William Rawle, A View of the Constitution (1829)

Quote for the Day

“A free man must not be told how to think, either by the government or by social activists. He may certainly be shown the right way, but he must not accept being forced into it.” --Col. Jeff Cooper

They Don't Like the Shoe on the Other Foot

"These groups are using scare tactics and spreading smears about the President's plan for reform, trying to incite constituents into lashing out at their representatives and disrupting their events. A couple of months ago, I was interrupted by a group of socialists who shouted me down on a university campus. Two people were arrested. It wasn’t the first time I’ve been shouted down by socialists. So, I find it humorous that socialists are now demanding that public discourse take the form of polite tearoom chatter. You never seemed concerned with these tactics until you seized control of the government. I guess you could call your detractors “community disorganizers.” Welcome to the world of political hard ball." [link]

Just goes to show that they cannot stand the tactics that they have used for so long to be turned against them. They act like they never expected it to happen and gauging so far by the reactions they didn't expect this type of backlash. It only goes to show how truly out of touch they are with the people they are supposed to be representing.

Change will have to come that is obvious. The question is from what corner will change come from. Will the people become lackadaisical again and let pork projects for their area persuade their voting? Or will this finally be the wake up call that enough is enough! The people need to take their country back and not be lured by promises of easy money and jobs that could vanish overnight. This country truly does need an infrastructure overhaul, but not in the form of roads and public works. This country needs solid industry, "affordable health care" (not universal, if you want it fine, if not that's your choice), a stable currency, and less corruption in government. These would cure the ails this country has.

Quote for the Day

“One cannot legislate the maniacs off the street... these maniacs can only be shut down by an armed citizenry. Indeed bad things can happen in nations where the citizenry is armed, but not as bad as those which seem to be threatening our disarmed citizenry in this country at this time.” --Col. Jeff Cooper

Not Only is He a Liar But Now Possibly a Criminal

"The White House strategy of turning supporters into snitches when they see "fishy" information about the health care debate may run afoul of the law, legal experts say." [link]

For goodness sakes. Say it ain't so. A Chicago politician doing something illegal because it would benefit his agenda. Must be made up by the "astroturf" conservative movement.

Quote for the Day

"There are many things the government can't do, many good purposes it must renounce. It must leave them to the enterprise of others. It cannot feed the people. It cannot enrich the people. It cannot teach the people. It cannot convert the people." --Lord Acton

Guns ALLOWED in School!

"The superintendent of the isolated Harrold Independent School District, about 30 miles northwest of here, made history last August when he and his school board decided to allow select teachers and staff members at the 110-student school to carry guns on campus..."

When a London reporter asked Thweatt to explain why so many kooks go into schools looking for a body count, Thweatt said he couldn’t explain such a devolution of society, but he did know a simple way to stop it — the same solution he chose for Harrold ISD.

“Good guys with guns — good,” he said. “Bad guys with guns — bad.” [link]

Hallelujah! Logic wins and...surprise, not one single "wild west, blood in the streets" style shooting, or any other shooting, or even a brandishing of a weapon has taken place. I can't speak for the students and/or teachers that attend/work there, but I bet there is a feeling of security that is missing in a vast majority of school district or individual schools across the nation.

Words Truly Can Haunt You

"I need you to go out and talk to your friends and talk to your neighbors. I want you to talk to them whether they are independent or whether they are Republican. I want you to argue with them and get in their face," he said. (Said by Barack Hussein Obama in September of '08) [link] Go to this link and read the story lots of good lies in there from the liar-in-chief.

Evidently honest, hard working Americans are not allowed to "argue with them and get in their face" when it comes to the massive spending that liberal congresscritter's are forcing on this nation. In those instances it is a vast conservative conspiracy which has been plotted by insurers, lobbyists, and Republican Party activists. What are our elected representatives afraid of? Why are so many of them canceling "town hall" meetings? Isn't this the type of activities that liberals love and chomp at the bit in order to attend? Yet when the tables are flipped and the sheople realize the wolf is guarding them and they decide to offer a bit of resistance the wolf will tuck tail and run.

But Their "Better" Than the Rest of Us!

"Guns, bullets, handcuffs and police uniforms are on the streets after being stolen from an Orlando police officer." [link]

But aren't they supposed to be responsible enough to be allowed to have firearms to protect the rest of "us" when we aren't supposed to?

Quote for the Day

"The great man does not think beforehand of his words that they may be sincere, nor of his actions that they may be resolute -- he simply speaks and does what is right." -- Menciu

Obama Demands the Masses Receive His Healthcare!

"...Obama vowed on Wednesday to get a reform bill through Congress this year even without Republicans on board."

"I promise you, we will pass reform by the end of this year because the American people need it," Obama said in Wakarusa, Indiana, where he traveled to tout his economic initiatives. "We're going to have to make it happen." [link]

That last statement scares the hell out of me. Sounds like he is willing to ramrod this down the peoples throats even though a growing number of democrat "citizens" are against this legislation. Isn't this the type of thinking that tyrants and dictators since time immemorial have had. "I will get it done, because I want it!"

More on Obamacare and Pelosi

"No worries for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco. On Tuesday, she ditched the town-hall concept in favor of a friendlier closed-to-the-public "roundtable" with health care professionals and consumers at San Francisco General Hospital.

At a news conference afterward, Pelosi proclaimed that "health care is a right, not a privilege." [link]

I guess Pelosi decided she didn't really want her actual constituents opinions on nationalized medicine. It is also good to see she does not really understand what a right is either.

Quote for the Day

"A militia when properly formed are in fact the people themselves and include all men capable of bearing arms. To preserve liberty it is essential that the whole body of people always possess arms and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them." — Richard Henry Lee

Prime 2A Justification

"A DeKalb County schoolteacher carjacked early Sunday scored a measure of revenge against his attackers...Harper ran inside and grabbed his .380 pistol.

“I was waiting for them,” he said. Harper estimates he fired two to three bullets, which might have contributed to the driver crashing the van less than a block away. A small amount of blood was found inside the vehicle." [link]

Very simply bad guy commits crime, bad guy gets immediate consequences via a law abiding armed citizen.

They Can't Deal With Old Cars, But Let's Hand Health Care Over to Them

"They told me that the car qualified when they made the deal,” said French, a fact that a Greenway salesman, Kevin Marleton, confirmed...The complicated and ever-changing nature of the CARS program makes it difficult to determine if a dealership is even allowed to ask for a vehicle to be returned." [link]

The government can't even get things straight on this, they keep changing the regulations on nearly a daily basis. Wasn't this supposed to be a very simple program with little red tape. Now imagine if you will on a grander scale every man, woman, and child, legally or illegally in the United States were to have government controlled health care...

Quote for the Day

"Good intentions will always be pleaded for any assumption of power. The Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters." — Thomas Jefferson

Almost Funny (Notice the Dates and Times of Headlines)

Obama priorities won't burden middle class: Summers

Sun Aug 2, 2009 11:06am EDT [link]

Obama officials eye more jobless aid, weigh taxes

Sun Aug 2, 2009 5:36pm EDT [link]

Obama officials: Taxes may rise to pay health care

August 3, 2009 - 7:35am [link]

Talk about a complete reversal in headlines and statements by the Obama administration. Funny that an administration that can't get its acts and lies together within a 24 hour time frame wants to take over health care for all.

More Lies and Theft (SHOUT THEM DOWN)

"President Obama may have to break his campaign pledge and raise taxes on middle-class Americans to pay for public health care and the growing deficit, an eventuality that administration officials touched lightly on Sunday as they promoted an economy emerging from recession.

With an expected deficit next year of $1.8 trillion, and spending still being planned for a $1 trillion, 10-year health care reform, officials say something will have to be done to prevent further erosion of the economy." [link]

Did anyone really think that with the massive government spending he could keep a promise to not raise taxes? I am sure that there were millions that actually believed this? For some reason there seem to be millions of people in this country that believe you can get something for nothing. Wait a minute, in this country you actually can. You don't have to work, the government will take care of you. Just go down to the food stamp and welfare office. Don't mind that you really can work you're just too lazy to. That is your "right" not to work. Remember it is a free country after all.

First and foremost this is a relatively "easy" problem to fix. Men and women are doing it across the nation as we speak. As times get tougher, you quit spending as much as you used to (SHOCKER). The average American understands this and most do so without having to be told to. But the government has yet to understand this very simple concept.

Secondly something has to be done about the perceived "rights of entitlement". I have spoken briefly about this before, and have briefly discussed a fix for this as well in that short piece.

Lastly the government (elected officials) truly need to understand their place and their true duty. It is not that hard to pick up a small pocket Constitution, read it and understand it in roughly an hours time. In fact just to give an example of how much the government has overstepped its bounds do this small experiment. Go to a local bookstore and find a small pocket Constitution that includes the text of the Declaration of Independence. Two documents that our country was founded upon and set out how and what a government is allowed and is not allowed to do to the people. Now take that pocket Constitution and set it next to a recent copy of the U.S. tax code...enough said.

How do we put these elected officials in their place. SHOUT THEM DOWN! Go to your local fiscal court meetings, your congresscritters "town hall forums" and take along a copy of the Declaration and the Constitution. When they say anything contradictory to or in direct violation of the Constitution SHOUT THEM DOWN! Let them know that enough is enough. Demand they show you in the Constitution what clause gives them the authority to take your hard earned money. Demand they show you the clause that gives them the authority to make sweeping changes via procedural measures instead of voting on bills. SHOUT THEM DOWN! When they are looking after their own best interests and not the best interests of freedom and liberty. SHOUT THEM DOWN! When they refuse to listen to you, because in all reality we are their bosses not the other way around. They are put there to serve us and to protect the Constitution.

On Liberty Pt. 4 (What is a Right)

We are hearing a lot these days about rights. But what exactly is a right? In order to enjoy freedoms and liberties afforded by the Constitution of the United States one first needs to learn a little bit about the rights protected by the document. Moreover, one also needs to understand what exactly a right in and of itself is.

A right is very simply something "God given", "endowed at birth", "self evident", etc... However this has been mirked up for several generations now until the common layperson has no idea what a right is. If they did we would not have a multitude talking about the right to health care, the right to affordable housing, etc...

In simpler terms a right is something each and every human being is endowed with, upon being born, that does not require anything from anyone else. Namely the right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness so long as I do not infringe on anyone else's right to seek and/or do the same.

In order to understand this better, ask yourself, "Can my belief in this "right" and my attaining it be done in such a manner so as not one other single person on earth has to give up something in order for me to gain said right?" If your answer is yes, I can gain this without any single person having to lose something then what you are seeking is a right. Anything else is something gained by force and/or coercion on some level or another.

Quote for the Day

"And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms...The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." — Thomas Jefferson

Quote for the Day

"To take from one, because it is thought his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, the guarantee to everyone the free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it." -- Thomas Jefferson

What We Get for 700+ Billion Dollars

"How much are politicians straining to convince people that the government is stimulating the economy? In Oregon, where lawmakers are spending $176 million to supplement the federal stimulus, Democrats are taking credit for a remarkable feat: creating 3,236 new jobs in the program's first three months.

But those jobs lasted on average only 35 hours..." [link]

Money well spent don't you think?

Hope and change, I hope everyone wants some change now.

The Bill of No Rights

While perusing the internet after a rather sleepless night I ran across this gem and thought I would share it with my readers. It could probably also be titled "Rational Thinking and Common Sense."

"We, the sensible people of the United States, in an attempt to help everyone get along, restore some semblance of justice, avoid any more riots, keep our nation safe, promote positive behavior and secure the blessings of debt-free liberty to ourselves and our great-great-great grandchildren, hereby try one more time to ordain and establish some common sense guidelines for the terminally whiny, guilt-ridden delusional and other liberal, commie, pinko bedwetters.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that a whole lot of people were confused by the Bill of Rights and are so dim that they require a Bill of No Rights.

ARTICLE I: You do not have the right to a new car, big screen TV or any other form of wealth. More power to you if you can legally acquire them, but no one is guaranteeing anything.

ARTICLE II: You do not have the right to never be offended. This country is based on freedom, and that means freedom for everyone - not just you! You may leave the room, turn the channel, express a different opinion, etc., but the World is full of idiots, and probably always will be." [link]

You can follow the link for the rest.

New York Patriot Refuses to Surrender His Rifle

"This is the last legal gun that you can have without registration in New York," Littlejohn said. "And yet Mayor Bloomberg is driven crazy by my flintlock gun - the one that won the American Revolution.

A police source says the war could end peacefully if Littlejohn applied for a permit with the NYPD handgun license division.

Littlejohn would rather fight. The Brooklynite says he's willing to sue for his rifle rights." [link]

I can't figure out if it is hilarious that these crackpots in New York are going after this man and his rifle, and that he could end it peacefully by registering with the "NYPD handgun licensing division". Or so outright infuriating that these people are so terrified of individual rights that they act this irrationally.

Quote for the Day

"Governments derive... 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. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, (absolute power or influence of any kind) it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security." -- US Declaration of Independence

Out of Touch With Reality

"I thought this was like a frequent-flier program," Sen. Kent Conrad, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said of the special benefits. "I thought nothing of it." [link]

Let us just assume for a moment that Congressman Conrad speaks the truth. These words would have been spoken right in the middle of the housing bubble burst. How often does he think people go out an buy new homes. Quite a bit evidently if he makes comments like that above. And he is supposed to represent the people of his state with a warped sense of reality like that?

Now lets assume that he lied. He knew he was getting the good deal because of his clout as a senator and there was a little quid-pro-quo going on. Then he either acted illegally and/or unethically and does not deserve to represent the good people of North Dakota.

Quote for the Day

"A government can be compared to our lungs. Our lungs are best when we don't realize they are helping us breathe. It is when we are constantly aware of our lungs that we know they have come down with an illness." -- Lao-Tzu

Health Care Reform and Freedoms Lost

Pretty straight forward loss of personal choices and decisions. I will just mention the 5 you can go to the link to read more in detail.

"1. Freedom to choose what's in your plan.
2. Freedom to be rewarded for healthy living, or pay your real costs.
3. Freedom to choose high-deductible coverage.
4. Freedom to keep your existing plan.
5. Freedom to choose your doctors."

Read in more detail here.

Now what you can do about it is put pressure on your congressman to not vote for this plan. Or any plan even remotely like it.

Back From Vacation

Just wanted to update that we are back. Minus some minor car trouble everything went well. Will start posting again tomorrow or later tonight possibly.

Vacation

Well, I will be going on a family vacation for just a shade over a week. I will continue with this blog when I return.

Option, What Option?

"Congress: It didn't take long to run into an "uh-oh" moment when reading the House's "health care for all Americans" bill. Right there on Page 16 is a provision making individual private medical insurance illegal." [link]

Yep, that's right, its go with the government or not much of anything. Guess Obama will try to "Rahm" this thru as well.

Quote for the Day

"Ted Kennedy's car has killed more people than my guns have." --Seen on a bumper sticker

Thoughts on Health Care

"President Obama and his political team -- starring David Axelrod, Rahm Emmanuel, and Robert Gibbs -- will begin a full court press with the American public today to sell their $1 trillion dollar plan..." [link]

Can we just WHOA UP! just a bit right here. $1 trillion dollars? And remember this is just an estimate. Just like Obama and teams estimate that the porkulus would keep unemployment at 8.5% or below. The government itself is broke, people are losing their jobs at an alarming rate, prices on goods are going up, where do they think they will get this money?

Oh right tax the rich. I will say I am far from rich, and I do not want to take from others. I opt out of insurance at my job because of the cost. However I am covered due to my wife's insurance plan, I wonder if I am one of the "estimated" 46 million Americans without health insurance?

If Obama and team can show me a health care package that reduces price, does not tax the people, does not diminish the care one can receive, and still allows for being able to see a doctor in a timely manner (unlike other nations with socialized medicine where you take a number and wait several months to see a doctor) then I might think differently about this sweeping overhaul. Until then I will not be for "socialized medicine."

Nationlized Healthcare in a Nutshell

Could Someone Explain This?

The House Democrats Health Plan. I can't make heads or tails of it, and I have a college degree.

Quote for the Day

"They have rights who dare maintain them." – James Russell Lowell

A Czar Quits

"The peculiar timing of Steven Rattner's departure as White House car czar has raised questions about the course of an investigation that has scrutinized his possible dealings with the New York state pension fund." [link]

The outright lunacy of these czar posts sort of tickle me anyway. Well except for the fact that they are one of the largest powergrabs in the history of the world and the vast majority of people are standing by and watching it happen. Some "true journalists" not the authorized journalists, need to start digging into the past of all of Obama's appointed czars and see what they can come up with.

Quote for the Day

"…so long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men." -- Voltarine de Cleyre

Here a Czar, There a Czar, Everywhere You Look a Czar!

As the number of so-called "czars" keeps piling up, it's raising serious questions about how powerful these White House insiders are..."It underscores the inefficiency of government that you keep ... having people, hoping that maybe they will get something done that the massive government bureaucracy cannot," he said...Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., likens these officials to part of a parallel government, "one that is outside of the Constitution and the authority of Congress." [link]

I would like to bring these czar's to everyone's attention. America needs to keep a close eye on these czars. Especially since they do cross over cabinet boundaries, have sweeping influence and power, and do not have to be vetted, or approved by Congress.

Gun Show Problem

Yep it happened again. Went to a local gun show with some goodies to try and sell. Did not sell one single thing, but did end up a gun lighter traded two for one. Anytime I go with the intention of trying to sell or get rid of it never seems to work out that way. Maybe I should go with the mindset that I gonna buy the crap out of everything, then again if I went with that mindset I might end up broke and bankrupt.

Ah well, it seems to "work" for Congress.

Quote for the Day

"The mere wealth of America is not what engenders love of country. In fact, the least affluent areas are probably the most patriotic." – Mona Charen


Sort of makes you wonder who or what areas Justice Ginsburg was talking about again doesn't it?

A Supreme Court Judge Said What?!

"Q: Are you talking about the distances women have to travel because in parts of the country, abortion is essentially unavailable, because there are so few doctors and clinics that do the procedure? And also, the lack of Medicaid for abortions for poor women?
JUSTICE GINSBURG: Yes, the ruling about that surprised me. [Harris v. McRae — in 1980 the court upheld the Hyde Amendment, which forbids the use of Medicaid for abortions.] Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of..." [link]

Yes, I had to read that several times to make sure that I was in fact reading it correctly. We just had a sitting supreme court judge say that there was concern about population growth and in particular in certain populations! Wonder what populations she was referring to?

It is exactly this type of lunatic thinking that the 2nd amendment was intended to protect all citizens of the United States against.

Here is a link to the official 1970 census report. You may extrapolate your own data and draw your own conclusions.

Going Down the Drain

In one of the ultimate leftist states we now have this news: "Of course, it is not clear how attractive a piece of California’s debt would be to investors. On Monday, Fitch Ratings downgraded California’s long-term bond rating to BBB from A-, only two notches from junk-bond status, citing the state’s continuing budget drama." [link]

Seems like the ultra-liberal state of California is getting a dose of reality and liberal programs can do in the long run.

July 7th's GRE Column

Here it is, if your a pro-rights type person you may want to make sure you're sitting before you read it.

Quote for the Day

"...most folks are not willing to admit that danger might be lurking. Instead, when faced with a potential threat (or even a real one right now!) their mind makes-up a rational reason for the situation, which does not include the possibility of danger!" -- Greg Mactye

Highway Robbery aka Taxes

"The Republican governor will delay $63 million worth of sales tax refunds for capital equipment purchases starting in January 2011. Businesses will wait an extra three months for their cash as part of Pawlenty's plan to balance the state budget using executive powers." [link]

The key phrase above is "for their cash" which rightfully denotes that the money belongs to them not to the government. Yet the government in this case is going to use private money to fix its problems. But in reality this is exactly what governments due on a consistent basis, they cause a problem then they use the taxpayer money to attempt to fix a problem that would not have existed in the first place had the government left things alone.

Government in the long run amounts to highway robbery and those in the right positions benefit from those whose industry they rely upon to support themselves

"The U.S. Federal Reserve, facing growing pressure as it tries to heal the ailing economy, dodged a bullet on Monday when the U.S. Senate cast aside a new effort to increase scrutiny of the central bank.

On procedural grounds, the Senate blocked a bid to permit the U.S. comptroller general, who heads the investigative arm of Congress known as the Government Accountability Office, to audit the Federal Reserve system and issue a report... Democrats who control the Senate blocked the South Carolina Republican's amendment on the grounds that it violated rules prohibiting legislation attached to spending bills." [link]

It's funny (not really) how both sides only use the rules and laws when it benefits them at that time. It also frustrates me that Congress "gave away" its Constitutional authority to coin the money, yet then has no form of oversight or monitoring in place, and for the most part does not seem to care.

Private banks must be audited per government regulations, but I keep forgetting the government bank does not have to follow the rules that everyone else does somehow they are "above the law".

Todays GRE Column

There for a while I was in the habit of linking to this from my blog. I apologize for not doing it more often, I will try to keep it up daily.

Once Again, So Much For Transparency!

"White House Won’t Reveal How Much Michelle Obama’s European Vacation Cost Taxpayers" [link]

Sometimes a headline is enough and nothing else really needs to be said.

Birds of a Feather...

"The so-called 'military coup' in Honduras was a successful effort by Honduran patriots to preserve their constitutional system of government from an international alliance of communists and socialists backed by Iran," Kincaid wrote in a column published at aim.org.

"I continue to receive messages from Honduran citizens upset at the international media for their distorted coverage of the situation in the Central American country. The people support the ouster of Manuel 'Mel' Zelaya, who is considered a puppet of Venezuelan Communist ruler Hugo Chavez. They are mystified that an American president would want to return this Chavez puppet to power in Honduras," Kincaid continued." [link]

They shouldn't be surprised Chavez said himself that Obama was more of a leftist than he was. The shame is there were millions of people that thought communism was dead when the Berlin Wall came tumbling down, and the old U.S.S.R. imploded on itself from its own weight. Guess we are in the next phase of the Marxist Experiment.

Quote for the Day

"Contemporary scholars have little explored the preconditions of genocide. Still less have they asked whether a society's weapons policy might be one of the institutional arrangements that contributes to the probability of its government engaging in some of the more extreme varieties of outrage. Though it is a long step between being disarmed and being murdered—one does not usually lead to the other— it is nevertheless an arresting reality that not one of the principal genocides of the twentieth century, and there have been dozens, has been inflicted on a population that was armed." — Daniel D. Polsby

Why Not Celebrate?

I posted earlier today a full text of the Declaration of Independence, that for so many years our country celebrated, and the celebration was well deserved. In these days is there really that much reason for celebration? Granted, we are one of the freest nations on earth, but is that enough, and does it coincide with the founders ideas? I say no, it is not enough and it does not correlate with the founders ideas. Here are some direct quotes from the Declaration with comments on how they are now being violated today. Ask yourself if we really have come that far from the tyranny the colonies were under and if you should really be celebrating today?

"He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good." Has anyone see Obama's official birth certificate yet? Not his certificate of live birth that Hawaii handed out left and right to foreigners on a consistent basis.

"He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people." No dissolution as of yet, but how many "executive orders" circumvent the way something is supposed to become a law?

"He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance." How many Czars do we have now?

"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:" How many people are protesting any new form of taxation, yet "Cap-and-Trade" and "Health Care Reform" are still in the works.

That should give you a brief idea that what the colonies saw as tyranny still exists. I wrote several months ago on this exact topic, but I used different parts of the Declaration of Independence at that time, if you want to see more you can read: "Has the Time Come?"

No, I will not be celebrating, unless you count fireworks that come out of a metal cylinder whose inside diameter is anything from .17 to .50.

Declaration of Independence

Amazing that 233 years have went by and this is now largely ignored. Here is the full text, and I believe it should be spread to as many people as possible. The reasons the colonies broke from Britain are happening again, read it carefully and watch what is going on around you and in your government. Now without further ado:

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

hen 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

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

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

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

— John Hancock

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton