Year: 2010

Finally, someone has their head on straight about Michael Steele and the G.O.P.

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Hear Hear:

The part about which Steele was obviously right is that Afghanistan is dangerous territory for powerful nations. A decade of Soviet occupation and a century of British oversight could not make a real country out of Afghanistan.

Steele is technically wrong that everyone who has ever tried a land war in Afghanistan over 1,000 years of history has failed. Beating the Afgans is easy – they’ve been taking beatings since Alexander showed up 2,300 years ago – but no one has succeeded in occupying them. But we still get Steele’s point.

The Afghan hawks of the Republican Party are calling for Steele to step down. They are of an opinion that America must do anything necessary to build a real nation in Afghanistan and, presumably, Pakistan in order to prevent terrorists from having safe havens.

Certainly politicizing a war to that degree that Steele did is a distasteful thing. Explaining to candidates how to use Obama’s failing war strategy to win races is as ugly as it was when Democrats exploited American losses in Iraq as part of their 2004 and 2006 election strategies.

But that’s not why Bill Kristol and Liz Cheney are calling for Steele’s head. They want him out because they understand that Obama’s mishandling of Afghanistan may turn Republicans away from the Wilsonian nation building of the second Bush term and put them on the path of the quasi-isolationism of their political forefathers.

Steele should go. His statements are yet more proof that he misunderstands the job of Republican National Committee chairman.

But he shouldn’t be sacked for having a dissenting view of the Afghan war. He should go because he expressed any view at all.

via Fire Michael Steele, but do it for the right reasons | Washington Examiner.

Amen and Amen.

Norman Rockwell, A Coward?

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That is what some idiot over at the Washington post is saying: (H/T HotAir Headlines)

This Fourth of July, let’s celebrate courage. It took courage to split from England, courage to risk democracy and still more courage to dream up a constitution to preserve it.

Courage has been the signature virtue of almost every great American: Emily Dickinson was brave to warp grammar, Louis Armstrong was brave to blow jazz and Jackson Pollock was brave to paint splats.

Norman Rockwell is often championed as the great painter of American virtues. Yet the one virtue most nearly absent from his work is courage. He doesn’t challenge any of us, or himself, to think new thoughts or try new acts or look with fresh eyes. From the docile realism of his style to the received ideas of his subjects, Rockwell reliably keeps us right in the middle of our comfort zone.

That’s what made him one of the most important painters in U.S. history, and the most popular. He had almost preternatural social intuitions, along with brilliant skills as a visual salesman. Over his seven-decade career, that coupling let him figure out what middle-class white Americans most wanted to feel about themselves, then sell it back to them in paint. (He started working as an illustrator at 16, in 1910. He died, still in the saddle at 84, in 1978.)

You could say that Rockwell painted the backdrop against which American courage has had to play out.

A new show of 57 Rockwells, borrowed from the collections of Hollywood celebrities Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, opened Friday at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. It includes oil paintings and drawings, and every one of them is a perfect depiction of what we’ve been taught to think of as true Rockwellian America.

There’s the small-town runaway, and the cop who takes him out for a malt before returning him home. Aw, shucks.

There are the three old biddies gossiping, imagined as so ancient and gnarled that Rockwell had to use a man in drag to model them. What a hoot!

There’s the remote blonde in her convertible being joshed by a couple of truckers. Jeez, lady, wontcha give those guys a wink?

In ads and magazine covers, on calendars and Green Stamps books — on any surface that took ink, for any client who could afford his fees — Rockwell sold us the vision of America as a place where troubles are never more than “scrapes” and flaws are always “foibles.”

Rockwell remains resolutely, immovably on the mild side even when he goes “serious,” as in his famous “Four Freedoms” series from 1942. (The conservative critic Dave Hickey, otherwise a Rockwell booster, has said that “when he’s doing ideas, he’s really awful.”) Rockwell’s vision of “Freedom of Speech,” included in the Smithsonian’s show, doesn’t invoke a communist printing his pamphlets or an atheist on a soapbox. It gives us a town hall meeting of almost interchangeable New Englanders, no doubt agreeing to disagree about something as divisive as the rates for those new parking meters. For this, the Founders risked powder and ball?

Of course, Rockwell’s true achievement wasn’t in his trepidatious, homogenized vision of the country. That existed already. (The Saturday Evening Post, for instance, for which Rockwell painted 323 covers, forbade him to depict blacks except in subservient roles. Toward the end of his career, Rockwell got Look magazine to publish a few heroic scenes from the civil rights movement — at just the moment when such subjects had moved into the mainstream of American thought.) Rockwell’s great accomplishment lay in selling us this tepid vision of ourselves as one we simply had to buy into, on a communal scale.

[…]

Rockwell’s greatest sin as an artist is simple: His is an art of unending cliché. The reason we so easily “recognize ourselves” in his paintings is because they reflect the standard image we already know. His stories resonate so strongly because they are the stories we’ve told ourselves a thousand times.

Those stories couldn’t have been otherwise. To sell the publications and goods his pictures were in aid of, Rockwell’s images needed to be grasped and digested in seconds — and, unlike really notable art, they reliably achieved such fast-food effects.

His young women are always “spunky” or “hotties.” Young girls are “impish” or “pure.” Husbands are “harried” and Grandpa is “kindly.” And young boys — as the art history scholar Eric Segal has pointed out — are either good and scrappy, busy roughhousing at the rural swimming hole, or urban and effeminate and overcivilized, in need of a good, toughening hazing.

Segal is part of a Rockwell reassessment that began around the time of the artist’s last Washington retrospective, held at the Corcoran Gallery of Art just 10 years ago. If the experts haven’t found new reasons to like him, they’ve found new ways to look at his achievement. Literary scholar Richard Halpern has suggested that Rockwell’s vision of America is aware of its own gaps, making his paintings “not so much innocent as . . . about the way we manufacture innocence.” The eminent art historian Alan Wallach has dared to see Rockwell’s “capitalist realism” as deeply ideological, along the lines of socialist realism.

Most reactions to Rockwell, however, continue to be decidedly simpler. Steven Spielberg has said, “I look back at these paintings as America the way it could have been, the way someday it may again be.” He and others have bought Rockwell’s bill of goods. But what these speakers, and these pictures, fail to grasp is that the special, courageous greatness of the nation lies in its definitive refusal of any single “American way.”

America isn’t about Rockwell’s one-note image of it — or anyone else’s. This country is about a game-changing guarantee that equal room will be made for Latino socialists, disgruntled lesbian spinsters, foul-mouthed Jewish comics and even, dare I say it, for metrosexual half-Canadian art critics with a fondness for offal, spinets and kilts.

I don’t want to live by the clichés of a wan, Rockwellian America, and I don’t admire pictures that suggest that all of us should. But I see why we need to look into how, in a world full of threats, so many of us have been soothed by their vision.

Obviously this elitist twit has not seen this:

The Problem We All Live With by Norman Rockwell for Look Magazine

Or this:

Norman Rockwell, Murder in Mississippi, April 6-13, 1965

Painting intended as the final illustration for Look story, “Southern Justice” by Charles Morgan, Jr., June 29, 1965. Unpublished, Oil on canvas. Norman Rockwell Museum Collection)

Norman Rockwell - New Kids in the Neighborhood

Norman Rockwell - Everyman

Now, can someone tell me just what the hell was wrong with Norman Rockwell?

Living proof that socialist Liberals are classless assholes.

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I present to you… Matthew Rothschild. That last name ought to make the tin foil hat crowd do back flips:

It’s July 4th, my least favorite holiday.

And I’m not referring to the bugs, or the crowds, or the traffic on the highways.

I’m talking about the mindless patriotic bubble bath we’re all supposed to soak in all weekend long.

Well, not me.

My heart does not beat faster at the strains of the Star Spangled Banner, much less at the sight of F-16s flying overhead to kick off the show.

You see, I don’t believe in patriotism.

You can call me unpatriotic if you’d like, but really I’m anti-patriotic.

I’ve been studying fascism lately, and there is one inescapable fact about it:

Nationalism is the egg that hatches fascism.

And patriotism is but the father of nationalism.

Patriotism is not something to play with. It’s highly toxic. When ingested, it corrodes the rational faculties.

It gulls people into believing their leaders.

It masks those who benefit most from state policy.

And it destroys the ability of people to get together, within the United States and across boundaries, to take on those with the most power: the multinational corporation.

Plus, it’s a war toy, wheeled out whenever a leader needs to improve his ratings by attacking some other country—often after invoking God’s name, too.

It’s been so since the Spanish-American War and World War I and right up through the Iraq War and the Afghanistan War.

American patriotism has also gotten in the way of solving global warming. Many in the United States, which consumes 25 percent of the world’s resources but has just 4 percent of the world’s population, believe we have the God-given right to use up all the resources we can. And there is an all-too-common attitude that we don’t need to listen to any other countries, or the U.N., or obey any international agreements because we’re Americans, and we’re better than everybody else.

We’ve got to get over patriotism, and we’ve got to cure the American superiority complex.

So celebrate the 4th if you like.

But as for me, between God, country, and apple pie, I’ll take the apple pie.

via Why I Don’t Celebrate July 4 | The Progressive.

Well Matt, there’s always Iran, Venezuela  or even North Korea. You’d fit right in there! 🙄

Others: Weasel Zippers, Moonbattery, NewsBusters.org and ImmigrationProf Blog

Of Course: Dem Bloggers play race card on unemployment

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Man, pick a day to sleep in after the Holiday weekend and all sorts of stupid breaks out. Must have been too much Holiday for these idiot liberals. Because most of them are talking out of their rear-ends!

I will forewarn you; this is going to be a very long posting….

First up, we have Paul Krugman, who is once again, talking out his rear end about unemployment:

Wait: there’s more. One main reason there aren’t enough jobs right now is weak consumer demand. Helping the unemployed, by putting money in the pockets of people who badly need it, helps support consumer spending. That’s why the Congressional Budget Office rates aid to the unemployed as a highly cost-effective form of economic stimulus. And unlike, say, large infrastructure projects, aid to the unemployed creates jobs quickly — while allowing that aid to lapse, which is what is happening right now, is a recipe for even weaker job growth, not in the distant future but over the next few months.

In reality, here is the reason why passing unemployment benefits, is just wrong:

  • States provide unemployment insurance (UI) benefits to involuntarily unemployed workers. UI benefits typically replace 35–40 percent of a worker’s weekly income.
  • States normally provide UI benefits for up to 26 weeks. Workers in states with high unemployment rates may collect extended benefits for an additional 13 weeks for a total of 39 weeks. The federal government and the states normally split the cost of these extended benefits.
  • Congress has modified the UI program so that workers in states with high unemployment now qualify for a maximum of 99 weeks of UI benefits—almost two years. Congress increased extended unemployment insurance benefits to 46 weeks and now covers the full cost of providing them. Congress also created the Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) program, which provides benefits for an additional 34 weeks in all states. Workers in states with unemployment above 6 percent qualify for an additional 13 weeks of UI benefits, and workers in states with unemployment above 8.5 percent qualify for an additional six weeks of benefits on top of that.
  • Under current law, the EUC program expires on February 28, 2010, and benefits will continue to be paid until July 31. Workers who lose their jobs after February 28 will not qualify for the 53 weeks of EUC benefits. The full federal funding of the extended benefits program also expires on February 28. Congress will probably vote on continuing these programs before this happens.

Higher Unemployment

  • By reducing the need to look for new work, extended UI benefits cause unemployed workers to take longer to find new work. Heritage Foundation macroeconomic modeling shows that the previous extension of UI benefits from 26 to 46 weeks increased the unemployment rate by 0.22 percentage points.[1]

Subsidizes and Extends Unemployment

  • The consequences of extended unemployment benefits are some of the most conclusively established results in labor economic research. Extending either the amount or the duration of UI benefits increases the length of time that workers remain unemployed.[2] UI benefits subsidize unemployment. They reduce the need to search for new work and to make difficult choices—such as moving or switching industries—to begin a new job.
  • Roughly one-third of workers receiving UI benefits find work immediately once their benefits expire. This happens both when unemployment is high and when unemployment is low.[3]
  • Economic research shows that each 13 week extension of UI benefits increases the average length of time workers receiving benefits stay unemployed by approximately two weeks.[4]

Reduces Other Income

  • Families respond to unemployment benefits by reducing other income. Wives’ earnings fall by between 36 and 73 cents for each dollar of UI benefits married men receive.[5]

Ineffective Stimulus

  • Extended UI benefits are frequently claimed to provide significant economic stimulus. The studies that come to this conclusion ignore the effect of UI benefits in raising unemployment and incorrectly assume that unemployed households spend every dollar of UI benefits they receive. Empirical studies contradict both of these assumptions.
  • Heritage Foundation macroeconomic modeling accounting for both these factors show that for each dollar spent extending UI benefits to 46 weeks, GDP expands in the first year by just $0.17. Almost any other use of resources would provide a greater short-term boost to the economy.[6]

Negligible Wage Effects

  • Some analysts suggest that extended UI benefits should enable workers to find better jobs and increase their wages when they return to work.
  • Other analysts suggest that workers’ skills deteriorate when they are unemployed and, by encouraging longer unemployment, extended benefits will reduce workers’ wages.
  • Economic research finds neither effect—extended benefits do not increase or decrease unemployed workers wages when they find new jobs.


Read More …

Late Night at the PB Pub presents: Johnny Cash

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A fitting tune for this fine Holiday, some of you might think this is campy, lame or silly. Let me be clear. I could honestly give a damn….:

Gang of weirdos

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Usual Gang of Weirdos. - From left to right. My Cousins Scott, James, and Gary Allan and my Dad.

What a bunch of weirdos….. Scary part is, I’m related to them weirdos! 😯

They had just returned from a fishing trip. Which is most likely why they all looked like death warmed over. 😉 😀 😛

Quote of the Day

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The great difference between our western Christian world and the atheistic Communist world is not political, gentlemen, it is moral. For instance, the Marxian idea of confiscating the land and factories and running the entire economy as a single enterprise is momentous. Likewise, Lenin’s invention of the one-party police state as a way to make Marx’s idea work is hardly less momentous.

Stalin’s resolute putting across of these two ideas, of course, did much to divide the world. With only these differences, however, the east and the west could most certainly still live in peace.

The real, basic difference, however, lies in the religion of immoralism . . . invented by Marx, preached feverishly by Lenin, and carried to unimaginable extremes by Stalin. This religion of immoralism, if the Red half of the world triumphs—and well it may, gentlemen—this religion of immoralism will more deeply wound and damage mankind than any conceivable economic or political system.

Karl Marx dismissed God as a hoax, and Lenin and Stalin have added in clear-cut, unmistakable language their resolve that no nation, no people who believe in a god, can exist side by side with their communistic state.

Karl Marx, for example, expelled people from his Communist Party for mentioning such things as love, justice, humanity or morality. He called this “soulful ravings” and “sloppy sentimentality.” . . .

Today we are engaged in a final, all-out battle between communistic atheism and Christianity. The modern champions of communism have selected this as the time, and ladies and gentlemen, the chips are down—they are truly down.

Lest there be any doubt that the time has been chosen, let us go directly to the leader of communism today—Joseph Stalin. Here is what he said—not back in 1928, not before the war, not during the war—but 2 years after the last war was ended: “To think that the Communist revolution can be carried out peacefully, within the framework of a Christian democracy, means one has either gone out of one’s mind and lost all normal understanding, or has grossly and openly repudiated the Communist revolution.” . . .

Ladies and gentlemen, can there be anyone tonight who is so blind as to say that the war is not on? Can there by anyone who fails to realize that the Communist world has said the time is now? . . . that this is the time for the show-down between the democratic Christian world and the communistic atheistic world?

Unless we face this fact, we shall pay the price that must be paid by those who wait too long.

A New Decleration of Independence?

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This is by Warner Todd Hudson over at Stop the ACLU:

A New Declaration of Independence

When in the Course of human events it again becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with a failed authority 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 as well as our original, properly constituted laws entitle us, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that we 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 shown 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 we the people; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to repair to their former Systems of Government. The history of the present President, his Congress, and our recalcitrant federal government 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.

It has abused its role over the law and instituted fiat rules that are detrimental to the common good — welfare, cap and trade, oppressive taxes, onerous regulation on business are recent examples.

It has forbidden governors of states to pass laws useful to local needs and has interfered in state business.

It has refused the right of local government to govern at home and has as a matter of course caused local legislators to carelessly assume they have no power.

It has defacto dissolved the authority of state governments so that the representatives of the people constantly defer to rule from Washington.

It has refused to secure the borders so that all manner of foreigners of the lowest station might flood these shores without hesitation while refusing to allow those foreigners with useful skills and education to enter and apply for citizenship.

It has allowed capricious courts to usurp proper legislative duties and to rule from the bench.

It has seated judges with no opposition or investigation and has not required judicial candidates to express an interest in the true meaning of the law of the land.

It has erected a multitude of new regulatory offices few of which have any basis in the Constitution and has as a form of graft filled them with friends, lobbyists, and placemen.

It has refused to properly fund our armies in times of peace without including graft and monies unconnected to the needs of our armed forces.

It has therefore interfered with the military stopping it from operating at peak efficiency.

It has conspired with powers outside our duly constituted authority to take away our constitutional rights, to subvert our national laws, and has given assent to forces such as the UN to rule us from afar without accountability. These outside forces are hateful of our system and desire it’s end. Therefore we accuse our government of attacking us from inside.

For positing that UN forces are superior in authority to our own:

For signing treaties inimical to our national interests:

For cutting off free trade with worthy countries such as Colombia, yet opening trade with evil countries such as China:

For imposing taxes on us without our consent:

For depriving us of our constitutional rights of property, life, and self-protection at every opportunity:

For creating rules that encroach on freedom of religion:

For increasing the size of government to never before seen size and power in a manner against our founding principles and for purposefully creating chaos in business, banking, and every other area of the private sector with never ending regulations that strangle, confuse, and stifle American growth:

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

And for corrupting our legislatures with federal largess and assuming unto the federal government all powers to rule from Washington D.C.

It has abdicated its Constitutional role and essentially come to see the people as an enemy and waged philosophical war against us.

It has plundered our businesses with overweening regulations, capriciously outlawed entire fields of business, and burdened the lives of the people with oppressive taxes.

It has created an army of police, taxmen and regulators to fan out across the land to assault and imprison our citizens, to confiscate lands to federal ownership and to lay waste the economy and bring our people into a form of dependency akin to slavery.

It has often sent our armed forces to foreign nations without a proper mission, held back necessary funding, and burdened it with untenable “rules of engagement” which has limited our troop’s ability to fight to win, and has allowed barbarous enemies to gain the upper hand on the battle field.

It has attempted to separate the citizenry into warring factions yet has allowed our enemy to easily enter the country and perpetrate a merciless Muslim warfare which is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, religions and American institutions and intends enslavement of us all.

In every stage of these violations millions of citizens have gathered in the streets to protest these government outrages yet no heed has been paid to the agony of the people in its hallowed halls.

Nor have we been heard by our Democrat brethren. We have warned them of the destruction of the American rule of law, yet they are uninterested in this plight. We have appealed to their love of country and we have reminded them of the glorious history of our great nation to no avail. They have turned a deaf ear to Constitutionality, a cold shoulder to our American character, and our law and we find their sympathies lie with Europeans instead of their fellow Americans. We must, therefore, consider them enemies of our national interests, safety, health, and welfare.

We, therefore, the representatives of the American tradition and character assemble as citizens proud of our history and institutions, and in the tradition of our national power being held in the hands of the people, assert our loyalty to our true American system. We hold this government to be illegitimate by its usurpation of power and its obviation of our laws. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence that has been rejected by our enemies, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

WOW! 😯

A Special Independence Message from Ronald Wilson Reagan

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These words may be a bit dated. But in this day of war against Jihadists who want to destroy our way of life; against socialists who want to change our very nation, from one of a free people, to one of a socialist nation — where no one is free. The words in this speech should resonate with every American.

The true meaning of July 4 – Independence Day

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Anything other than that… is just straight up history revisionism:

The Declaration of Independence

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.

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

Quote of the Day

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“RNC Chairman Michael Steele’s comments about the war in Afghanistan were deeply disappointing and wrong. The chairman of the Republican party must be unwavering in his support for American victory in the war on terror — a victory that cannot be accomplished if we do not prevail in Afghanistan. I endorse fully Bill Kristol’s letter to Chairman Steele. It is time for Chairman Steele to step down.”

In case you are still on the fence politically…

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This comes via Wizbang, which got it from Bookworm Room:

Ouch: New York man blows off arm with party fireworks

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This is why it pays to be careful around fireworks:

ISLIP TERRACE, N.Y. (AP) — Police say a man lighting fireworks has blown off his arm at a party on New York’s Long Island.

Suffolk County police say the 36-year-old man’s friends and relatives retrieved his severed left arm and packed it into a cooler after the blast Saturday. Police say doctors at a hospital are trying to reattach the limb.

Police believe the man leaned over a mortar tube containing fireworks to ignite it outside a home in Islip (EYE’-slip) Terrace around 5:45 p.m. He apparently didn’t or couldn’t get out of the way before the explosive went off.

An update on his condition wasn’t immediately available.

via Police: NY man blows off arm with party fireworks | The Daily Caller

I have not said it here; and now I will. Please, to all my readers — Please, during this Independence Day; please use caution around fireworks. Especially if you have been drinking and more especially if you have children around.

Don’t risk your life or your kid’s lives. Play it safe and smart.

That is all…

Why Christians do stupid stuff like this?

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Un-farking-believable

This comes from Bill Quick and with a big hat tip to NiceDoggie.net….

As you know, Christopher Hitchens has been diagnosed with cancer. Well, Pat Archbold over at the National Catholic Register wrote a very nice piece about Hitchens and basically said that he was praying for his recovery. Well, some idiotic religious twit made this comment:

So, someone who has been spewing hatred of our Lord now has esophageal cancer.

I think He is clearly at work here. Let us pray ever more strongly that he repents, that he feels the love that He provides for him for the rest of his earthly life, and that he enters into the promised resurrection of the dead. Perhaps he will even intercede for us.

Oy Vey, where does one start here? This is one of the biggest reasons why I keep Christianity and religion in general at arms length; where it belongs. 😡

Go Figure: Ron Paul supports Michael Steele

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Shocker? Perhaps Not: (H/T to the Daily Paul)

Ron Paul and Michael Steele - Two Brothers from a Different Mother?

LAKE JACKSON, Texas–(EON: Enhanced Online News)–Congressman Ron Paul today issued the following statement on Michael Steele’s recent comments that Afghanistan is a war of President Obama’s choosing:

“The American people are sick and tired spending hundreds of billions of dollars a year, draining our economy and straining our military. Michael Steele has it right and Republicans should stick by him.”

“I would like to congratulate Michael Steele for his leadership on one of the most important issues of today. He is absolutely right: Afghanistan is now Obama’s war. During the 2008 campaign, Obama was out in front in insisting that more troops be sent to Afghanistan. Obama called for expanding the war even as he pretended to be a peace candidate.

“Michael Steele should not resign. Smart policies make smart politics. He is guiding the party in the right direction and we are on the verge of victory this fall. Chairman Steele should not back off. He is giving the country, especially young people, hope as he speaks truth about this war.

“I have to ask myself, what is the agenda of the harsh critics demanding this resignation? Why do they support Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama’s war?

via Ron Paul Congratulates Michael Steele | EON: Enhanced Online News.

Big shocker there…. NOT!

These two ought to run together….on a Democratic Party ticket!

Fox News resident Republican water-carrier gets dumped by a radio station.. in UTAH

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Could not have happened to a better guy, if you ask me.

Sean Hannity - Republican Water Carrier

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) – KSL Radio announced that they will no longer air Sean Hannity’s syndicated national talk show.

The last KSL broadcast of the Sean Hannity show will air on October 1, 2010.

The announcement comes after speculation that Hannity’s on-air style was not in line with Deseret Media Company’s mission statement that calls for civility and other ethical stances.

Deseret Media Companies (DMC) is a for-profit arm of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and manages KSL radio and other media outlets.

The DMC “Mission Statement” calls for the dissemination of “light and knowledge” along with the promotion of “integrity, civility, morality, and respect for all people.”

via Utah radio station dumps Sean Hannity – ABC 4.com – Salt Lake City, Utah News.

Could not have happened to a better person, if you ask me. Although, I do not dislike Hannity for the same reasons that most liberals dislike him. The Liberals hate him because he is a Conservative period. I dislike him because he carries water for the Republican Party. Hannity also like to repeat old dead crap that is well beyond its expiration date. His Fox News Channel show is a perfect example of that.

My biggest issue is his silly ego. I mean, Christians are supposed to be about humility, right? Ever watch his show, Hannity’s America? I mean, how narcissistic is it, to have a show, with your last name and America in it? Not to mention the fact that he literally lied his way in the broadcast business. I can stomach Bill O’Reilly; but this guy? He is just a bit too much. Hannity, in my opinion, is just a long list of “Johnny Comes Lately’s” in the Conservative talk radio world. There is a bunch more. I’m sure you can figure out who I mean.

In short; I do not like this douche nozzle one bit, and I will not cry one tear when his time in the spotlight is over.

Horrible News: UN says at least 220 dead in oil explosion in Congo

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This is just damned awful:

SANGE, Congo – A tanker truck hauling fuel on a rural eastern Congo highway overturned, gushing oil and exploding in a massive fireball that killed at least 220 bystanders, including many who had been watching the World Cup in flimsy roadside shacks, officials and witnesses said Saturday.

Among the dead were 61 children and 36 women, the Red Cross said. Also killed were villagers who had descended on the truck to siphon fuel illegally from the wreckage, apparently unaware of the danger, the U.N. said.

U.N. peacekeepers rushed to evacuate more than 200 wounded from the scene by helicopter and ambulance, while Red Cross teams carried the charred bodies from the scene in body bags and buried them in two mass graves a few miles (kilometers) away.

The truck overturned as it was trying to pass a minibus late Friday near the village of Sange, around 20 miles (30 kilometers) north of Uvira, a town on the northern tip of Lake Tanganyika near the Burundi border, said Mana Lungwe, manager of the Congolese oil company that owns the truck. The vehicle began gushing oil, then burst into flames an hour later, he said.

Lungwe said the driver was injured in the accident and taken to a local clinic before the blast occurred. Sange is located between Uvira and the Congolese provincial capital, Bukavu, further to the north.

via Congo: UN says at least 220 dead in oil explosion – Yahoo! News.

This is just awful news; I would never make stupid jokes about it either. My thoughts and Prayer are with the victims; and yes, damn it they were victims of this most awful accident.

But yet, assholes like Steve Gilbert write idiotic tripe like this:

Because of their ‘addiction to oil.’

[…]

Is this really a time for levity?

[….]

Which sounds like the domicile of Mr. Obama’s brother.

[…]

Just wait until all of our cars run on safe electricity — and pixie dust.

Mocking people’s deaths, and mocking blacks in Congo! How farking quaint! HAW HAW HAW! 🙄

If this is what the Republicans mean by reaching more people; they’re screwed. Not only was this not funny, it is highly offensive and quite stupid. Freedom of Speech? Oh Sure, fine. The SAME damned freedom of speech that Steve Gilbert is given, is also given to me to slam dunk the farking bastard and say that he ought to be frog marched into the damn street and shot in the damned head for making jokes like that! So there, there’s MY first amendment right! Damned idiot.

The sick part is; this is ANN COULTER’s friend. She makes friends with idiots like this? Egad. 😯 🙄 Now I know I don’t want anything to do with that idiotic shrieking harpy.

No Wonder Ace hates Steve Gilbert with a passion

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I cannot believe he would post stupid stuff like this….

What an asshole! 😡

Background on Gilbert and Ace

I mean, that’s just straight up farking wrong. I’m sorry. But it is.

I am checking to see if sweetness and light is in my blogroll, if it is, it’s gone. Screw that idiot, he will get no more traffic from me.