What they said.

[digitaldiscipline]

http://jaylake.livejournal.com/2880263.html

This encapsulates, with references, a lot of my problems with political conservatives as currently spouting off in American politics these days.

As is my wont, every Independence Day, I re-read and post the Declaration of Independence. During the Bush administration, the trenchant criticisms of King George rang more true, but these days, it certainly sounds like a search-and-replace with "GOP" is more appropriate. (If any of y'all want to sub in Obama or Democrats, go ahead, it is still, for the moment, a free country, but I'll think you're off-base.)

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

Comments

[smjayman.livejournal.com]

Everybody's guilty. From another journal:

How would you have reacted in 2008 if any Republican ran promising to do the following?

(1) Codify indefinite detention into law;
(2) draw up a secret kill list of people, including American citizens, to assassinate without due process;
(3) proceed with warrantless spying on American citizens;
(4) prosecute Bush-era whistleblowers for violating state secrets;
(5) reinterpret the War Powers Resolution such that entering a war of choice without a Congressional declaration is permissible;
(6) enter and prosecute such a war;
(7) institutionalize naked scanners and intrusive full body pat-downs in major American airports;
(8) oversee a planned expansion of TSA so that its agents are already beginning to patrol American highways, train stations, and bus depots;
(9) wage an undeclared drone war on numerous Muslim countries that delegates to the CIA the final call about some strikes that put civilians in jeopardy;
(10) invoke the state-secrets privilege to dismiss lawsuits brought by civil-liberties organizations on dubious technicalities rather than litigating them on the merits;
(11) preside over federal raids on medical marijuana dispensaries;
(12) attempt to negotiate an extension of American troops in Iraq beyond 2011 (an effort that thankfully failed);
(13) reauthorize the Patriot Act;
(14) and select an economic team mostly made up of former and future financial executives from Wall Street firms that played major roles in the financial crisis.

Politician=lying piece of shit. Trying to differentiate them is simply engaging in somantics.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

I can't deny that I'm very disappointed in a lot of Obama's done; anyone with my flavor of conscience (yeah, I keep it in a shed out back, shuddup) ought to be. I want to pimp-slap everyone involved in every single one of these points; can I borrow your Mechanix for that?

Yet it's still better than the spectre of what four more years of GOP push (and the frankly terrifying thought of Vice President Palin) would have resulted in.

I hold out hope that, in a second term, unfettered by the desire/need to be re-elected, Obama will work harder towards reversing some of this egregious bullshit (I had similar thoughts in the run-up to 2004, with the more nihilistic attitude of "just think what an asshole Dubya is going to be when he doesn't have to worry about alienating people; the backlash will keep the GOP out of office if anyone can remember how much this guy sucks.[1]")


[1] HAHAHAHAHAHAHA RIGHT DOWN THE FUCKING MEMORY HOLE, THANKS FOURTH ESTATE!

[feyrieprincess.livejournal.com]

Awesome. Thank you.