The House Speaker agrees with Obama that the debt ceiling must be raised. He is wrong. - Reggie
from earlier today
from earlier today
Recent Posts
Monday, July 11, 2011
'The Five' Tackles America’s Debt Problem
Here's a segment from The Five, the show that has replaced Glenn Beck. Will the show last? As Fox News says, 'we report, you decide.'
God is the Only Hope for America
Something is happening. God is moving and calling His people to repent, fast and pray for America.
On August 6th, Governor Rick Perry is asking Americans to gather at Reliant Stadium, in Houston, Texas "for a solemn gathering of prayer and fasting for our country."
Today, I found out that another gathering to fast and pray is planned for Detroit, Michigan, November 11th.
There is a very familiar verse of scripture that says, If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
(2 Chronicles 7:14)
God is calling His people to repent, turn from their wicked ways, pray and seek His face. He's not calling the heathen or unbelievers in this verse. He's calling the believer to repentance!
Is America worth that to us? Are the believers in America ready and willing to humble themselves and repent in order to see the hand of God invade this country and heal our land? If not, why not?
Reggie
07/11/2011
TheCall Detroit 11.11.11
On August 6th, Governor Rick Perry is asking Americans to gather at Reliant Stadium, in Houston, Texas "for a solemn gathering of prayer and fasting for our country."
Today, I found out that another gathering to fast and pray is planned for Detroit, Michigan, November 11th.
There is a very familiar verse of scripture that says, If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
(2 Chronicles 7:14)
God is calling His people to repent, turn from their wicked ways, pray and seek His face. He's not calling the heathen or unbelievers in this verse. He's calling the believer to repentance!
Is America worth that to us? Are the believers in America ready and willing to humble themselves and repent in order to see the hand of God invade this country and heal our land? If not, why not?
Reggie
07/11/2011
TheCall Detroit 11.11.11
'Spine'
This is a pretty good ad from Club for Growth but I have to disagree with their statement at the end. There should be no debt limit increase, whatsoever! Cut spending! Do not raise the debt limit so we can have more debt! Decrease the debt and decrease the debt ceiling. - Reggie
Glenn Beck: "I'm Moving to Dallas, Texas."
We've known for a couple of weeks that Glenn Beck was eying a Westlake manse, but this morning on his radio show he made it official. Let's go to the "fusion of entertainment and enlightenment" hisself for the official what-for:
"I'm moving to Dallas, Texas, and my family is there now, and I will be there shortly. We're keeping our business, Mercury, in New York. Nobody is surprised by this, I'm sure. We have been planning for a long time," Glenn said.
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Republicans are Gutless, Spineless, Cowards
As I have said before, the Republicans in Congress are gutless, spineless, cowards! McConnell told Fox News Sunday this morning, that no one in Congress is talking about not raising the debt ceiling. What?! Does he believe the Obama propaganda about the August 2nd, death to America, deadline? Are the Republicans stupid or are both parties determined to ignore the wishes of the people so they can work together to absolutely destroy our economy, make us all government dependent and control every aspect of our lives? Are they determined to make America the North Korea on the Atlantic?
Where are the statesmen in this country? Where are the Patriots that have the courage to stand up and say, "No more!!" - Reggie
Sarah Palin: 'I Can Win'
This article is 'hot off the presses' and I haven't read it yet so I don't know if it is pro-Palin, anti-Palin or, could it be? - objective! She's on the cover of Newsweek this week and here's the cover story. - Reggie
Sarah Palin hasn’t jumped into the race for the White House (yet), but she believes the prize is there for the taking. In a conversation with Peter J. Boyer, Palin warns Boehner not to raise the debt ceiling, proclaims that Obama is beatable—and says the 2012 field is far from settled.
'I believe that I can win a national election,' Sarah Palin declared one recent evening, sitting in the private dining room of a hotel in rural Iowa. The occasion for her visit to quintessential small-town America was a gathering of the faithful that would have instantaneously erupted into a fervent campaign rally had she but given the word. Instead, it had been another day on the non–campaign trail, this one capped by a sweet victory: she had just attended the premiere of a glowingly positive documentary about her titled The Undefeated.
“The people of America are desperate for positive change, and deserving of positive change, to get us off of this wrong track,” she told me during a conversation that lasted late into the night and, inevitably, kept returning to the subject that has titillated the media and spooked Republican presidential contenders for months: her political intentions. “I’m not so egotistical as to believe that it has to be me, or it can only be me, to turn things around,” she said. “But I do believe that I can win.”
Two years after stepping down as governor of Alaska—not a retreat, she later said of the decision, quoting Korean War general Oliver Smith, but “advancing in another direction”—Palin has proved herself an enduring force capable, with minimal effort, of keeping political professionals and, especially, the press in a state of perpetual imbalance. This derives partly, of course, from her standing as a possible presidential candidate with presumed frontrunner potential, a status she seems inclined to maintain for as long as possible. On the day we met, her daughter Bristol had declared in a television interview that Palin had already made a decision about whether to run for president—an assertion that Palin quickly tried to shoot down. “I think Bristol has made up her mind, and Bristol wants me to run for president,” she said. “But we’re still thinking about it. I’m still thinking about it.”
If Palin doesn’t end up running, the reason will be simple, she said. “Family. If it came down to the family just saying, ‘Please, Mom, don’t do this,’ then that would be the deal-killer for me, because your family’s gotta be in it with you.”
Family has been elemental to Palin’s national political identity from the moment she was introduced as John McCain’s running mate in 2008, accompanied by her outdoorsman husband, Todd, and four of their five children, including their youngest, Trig, who’d been born four months earlier with Down syndrome. The press’s fascination with this picturesque brood quickly turned so darkly speculative that candidate Barack Obama threatened to fire anyone in his campaign found participating in the conjectures.
Yet Palin, who is 47, now hinted that her family would not try to dissuade her from entering the race. “My kids know that life isn’t supposed to be easy, and it’s certainly not fair,” she said. “And they know that, even on their end, they have to make some sacrifices for the greater good.”
Note: Newsweek has rigged their links so I can not send you directly to page 2 of this article. Click the link below, look at the pictures, page down and click Next to continue reading the article.
Read the rest of the article
Read the rest of the article
A History of Presidential Crimes
The Judge provides historical perspective on crimes committed by Presidents past and present.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Selective Shaming
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| Mark Steyn |
Something rather weird happened in London last week. For some time, the Guardian, a liberal, broadsheet, “respectable” newspaper, has been hammering the News of the World, a populist, tabloid, low-life newspaper, over its employees’ penchant for “hacking” the phones of royals and celebrities — Prince Harry and Hugh Grant, for example. This isn’t as forensic as it sounds: Until recently, most British cellphones were sold with the default password set to either 0000 or 1234, and most customers never bothered to change it.
But last Monday it emerged that the News of the World had also hacked into the telephone of a missing schoolgirl subsequently found dead, as well as those of family members of the July 7 Tube bombing victims and of British servicemen killed in Afghanistan. Nobody much cares if the Aussie supermodel Elle Macpherson and other denizens of the demimonde get their voicemails intercepted, but dead schoolgirls and soldiers changed the nature of the story, and events moved swiftly. On Thursday, Rupert Murdoch’s son and heir announced the entire newspaper would be closed down. The whole thing. Gone.
The News of the World wasn’t any old fish-wrap. Founded in 1843, it was by the mid–20th century the most-read newspaper in the English-speaking world, selling 9 million copies a week. Even in today’s emaciated market, every week more than 2.6 million Britons bought News of the Screws (as it was affectionately known). Last Sunday, it was the biggest-selling newspaper in the United Kingdom and Europe. This Sunday, it’s history. To put it in American terms, consider those George Soros–funded websites claiming they pressured Fox into “firing” Glenn Beck. This is the equivalent of pressuring Mr. Murdoch into closing down the entire Fox News network.
I confess to feeling a little queasy at the sight of bien pensant liberal opinion gloating at having deprived 4 million people of their preferred reading matter. If one were so inclined, one might be heartened by the swift responsiveness to pressure of the allegedly all-powerful bogeyman Murdoch. But you can’t help but notice that this supposed public shaming is awfully selective. In the week of the News of the World revelations, it was reported that the Atlanta Public Schools system has spent the last decade systemically cheating on its tests. Not the students, but the superintendent, and the union, and 38 principals, and at least 178 teachers — whoops, pardon me, “educators” — and some 44 of the 56 school districts. Teachers held “changing parties” at their homes at which they sat around with extra supplies of erasers correcting their students’ test answers in order to improve overall scores and qualify for “No Child Left Behind” federal funding that could be sluiced into maintaining their lavish remuneration. Let’s face it, it’s easier than teaching, right?
The APS Human Resources honcho Millicent Few illegally had an early report into test-tampering destroyed. So APS not only got the federal gravy but was also held up to the nation at large as a heartwarming, inspirational example of how large urban school districts can reform themselves and improve educational opportunities for their children. And its fake test scores got its leader, Beverly Hall, garlanded with the National Superintendent of the Year Award, the Administrator of the Year Award, the Distinguished Public Service Award, the Keystone Award for Leadership in Education, the Concerned Black Clergy Education Award, the American Association of School Administrators Effie H. Jones Humanitarian Award, and a zillion other phony-baloney baubles with which the American edu-fraud cartel scratches its own back.
In reality, Beverly Hall’s Atlanta Public Schools system was in the child-abuse business: It violated the education of its students in order to improve its employees’ cozy sinecures. The whole rotten, stinking school system is systemically corrupt from the superintendent down. But what are the chances of APS being closed down? How many of those fraudulent non-teachers will waft on within the system until their lucrative retirements?
The Sugar Daddy Has Run Out of Sugar; Now We Need New Leaders
Sarah Palin has written a post on her Facebook page today describing the answers for America much better than I did in my previous post. I did notice one line in her post that was almost an exact quote of mine. Amazing. She and I must be on the same page although she is much more optimistic about America's future than I am.
Her entire post is below. - Reggie
Barack Obama’s big government policies continue to fail. He should put a link to the national debt clock on his BlackBerry. The gears on that clock have nearly exploded during his administration. Yesterday’s terrible job numbers should not be a surprise because it all goes back to our debt. Our dangerously unsustainable debt is wiping out our jobs, crippling our economic growth, and jeopardizing our position in the global economy as the leader of the free world.
As a governor, I had to deal with facts, even unpleasant ones. I dealt with the world as it is, not as I wished it to be. The “elite” political class in this country with their heads in the sand had better face some unpleasant facts about the world as it is. They’ve run out of money and no amount of accounting gimmicks or happy talk will change this reality. Those of us who live in the real world could see this day coming.
Back in January 2009, as governor of Alaska, I announced: “We also have to be mindful about the effect of the stimulus package on the national debt and the future economic health of the country. We won’t achieve long-term stability if we continue borrowing massive sums from foreign countries and remain dependent on foreign sources of oil and gas.” Then I urged President Obama to veto the stimulus bill because it was loaded with absolutely useless pork and unfunded mandates. Everyone knows my early and vocal opposition to that mother of all unfunded mandates known as Obamacare starting back in August 2009, and many recall my objections to the Federal Reserves’ inflationary games with our currency known as QE2 from November 2010. It’s a matter of public record that I did not go to Harvard Law School, but I can add.
The same “experts” who got us into this mess are now telling us that the only way out of our debt crisis is to “increase revenue,” but not by creating more jobs and therefore a larger tax base; no, they want to “increase revenue” by raising taxes on job creators who are taxed enough already! As Margaret Thatcher said, “The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.” That’s where we are now. Hard working taxpayers have been big government’s Sugar Daddy for far too long, and now we’re out of sugar. We don’t want big government, we can’t afford it, and we are unwilling to pay for it.
This debt ceiling debate is the perfect time to do what must be done. We must cut. Yes, I’m for a balanced budget amendment and for enforceable spending caps. But first and foremost we must cut spending, not “strike a deal” that allows politicians to raise more debt! See, Washington is addicted to OPM – Other People’s Money. And like any junkie, they will lie, steal, and cheat to fund their addiction. We must cut them off and cut government down to size.
To paraphrase Hemingway, people go broke slowly and then all at once. We’ve been slowly going broke for years, but now it’s happening all at once as the world’s capital markets are demanding action from us, yet Obama assumes we'll just go borrow another cup of sugar from some increasingly impatient neighbor. We cannot knock on anyone’s door anymore. And we don’t have any time to wait for Washington to start behaving responsibly. We’ll be Greece before these D.C. politicians’ false promises are over. We must force government to live within its means, just as every business and household does.
We can’t close our $1.5 trillion deficit overnight, but we must get as close as we can as soon as we can. Little nibbles here and there over 10 years (spun to sound like they’re huge budget cuts) aren’t anywhere near enough. I know from experience that cutting government spending isn’t easy. As governor, I made the largest veto cuts in my state’s history, and I didn’t make many friends doing it. But we will never recover, we will never get free of devastating debt, unless we make tough choices now. We don’t hear talk like this from leaders in D.C. or from those running for office because they say what they think we want to hear rather than what must be said.
We are in desperate need of real leadership, but President Obama’s solution to everything is to grow government by borrowing more money, spending more money, printing more money, and taxing our job creators. He once said that he “believes in American Exceptionalism…just as the Greeks believe in Greek Exceptionalism.” Well, the path he has us on will make us just as “exceptional” as Greece – debt crisis, stagnation, permanent high unemployment, and all.
As we approach 2012, there are important lessons we can learn from all of this. First, we should never entrust the White House to a far-left ideologue who has no appreciation or even understanding of the free market and limited government principles that made this country economically strong. Second, the office of the presidency is too important for on-the-job training. It requires a strong chief executive who has been entrusted with real authority in the past and has achieved a proven track record of positive measurable accomplishments. Leaders are expected to give good speeches, but leadership is so much more than oratory. Real leadership requires deeds even more than words. It means taking on the problems no one else wants to tackle. It means providing vision and guidance, inspiring people to action, bringing everyone to the table, and with a servant's heart dedicating oneself to striking agreements that keep faith with our Constitution and with the ordinary citizens who entrusted you with power. It means bucking the status quo, fighting the corrupt powers that be, serving the common good, and leaving the country better than you found it. Most of us don’t see a lot of that real leadership in D.C., and it’s profoundly disappointing.
But let me tell you where real hope lies. It’s not the hopey-changey stuff we heard about in 2008. Real hope comes from realizing how God has blessed our exceptional nation, and then doing something about it. We have been blessed with natural resources, hardworking entrepreneurs, and a Constitution that preserves the greatest form of government ever devised by man. If we develop those natural resources, allow our entrepreneurs to keep and invest more of what they earn, and adhere to the time-tested truths of our Constitution, we will prosper and endure.
But first and foremost we must tackle our debt. We don’t have the luxury of playing politics as usual. We need real leaders who will put aside their own political self-interest to do what is right for the nation. And if they don’t emerge… well, America has a do-over in November 2012.
Boehner abandons efforts to reach comprehensive debt-reduction deal
Don't look now but the Republicans are caving, as usual. It should not be a surprise that the Democrats have had success in destroying our country for over 100 years - the Republicans don't ever try to stop it! The debt ceiling should not be raised, under any circumstances!!! We will not default if it is not raised. The default argument is another Democrat lie. All they do is lie, cheat and steal.
The debt ceiling should be lowered, actually, and the feds should be forced to live within their means as they payoff the largest debt in human history. Where are leaders with common sense and backbone? Are there any in this country anymore or do we only have gutless, spineless cowards who don't care about their country? Unfortunately, I know the answer to that question. Goodbye, America. At least, you lasted a little over 200 years before the politicians succeeded in destroying you. I just hate to watch it happen. - Reggie
House Speaker John A. Boehner abandoned efforts Saturday night to reach a comprehensive debt-reduction deal worth more than $4 trillion in savings, telling President Obama that a midsize package was the only politically possible alternative to avoid a first-ever default on the nation’s mounting national debt.
Boehner (R-Ohio) told Obama — who is hosting a key meeting Sunday evening on the debt issue — that their efforts to “go big,” as the speaker says, were stymied by the toughest issues: taxes and entitlements. Democrats continued to insist on tax reforms that would not pass muster in the conservative-dominated House, and Republicans wanted cuts to programs such as Medicare and Social Security that Obama and Senate Democrats would oppose.
Constitutional Nonsense on Debt
What the 14th Amendment really says about the debt ceiling and debt default
Lo and behold! As we celebrated this Fourth of July amid the debt-ceiling fight, the netroots and progressive pundits suddenly discovered the Constitution’s relevance in fiscal matters. It doesn’t seem like that long ago — because it wasn’t that long ago — that they ridiculed the very idea of constitutional limits on Congress in economic policymaking, and even mocked the GOP’s public reading of the Constitution at the beginning of the current session.
Of the new House rule requiring a statement of the constitutional authority for bills, Ian Millhiser wrote at ThinkProgress that “the constitutional lunatics are now in charge of the GOP’s asylum.” It was completely unnecessary for Congress to cite constitutional justification for its actions, Millhiser proclaimed, because “Article I of the Constitution gives Congress broad authority” and “leaves budgeting decisions almost entirely to the judgment of Congress.”
But now that the GOP Congress is exercising this “broad authority” — or rather, what has always been its basic authority — over the nation’s purse strings to press for spending cuts as a condition of hiking the $14 trillion debt ceiling by another trillion or so, Millhiser, the Huffington Post, and The New Republic have suddenly discovered that in at least this one instance, the Constitution supposedly limits Congress’s economic powers. Section 4 of the 14th Amendment, which states that “the validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law . . . shall not be questioned,” makes the debt ceiling itself unconstitutional, their argument goes. Folks who were railing against the “unitary executive” a few years ago now argue that if Congress doesn’t give Obama what he wants, this section gives him the constitutional authority to issue new debt by himself; otherwise, there would not be enough money to pay the existing debt, and the 14th Amendment does not allow that.
Just a few months after arguing majestically about how the Constitution puts virtually no limits on the “judgment of Congress,” Millhiser now hopes the White House begins “seriously exploring whether the Constitution will save America’s economy from the GOP’s extortionary tactics.” And David Dayen of FireDogLake, who thought it was “silliness” for members of Congress to read the Constitution in its entirety at the start of the session, now thinks it’s okay to read this one little section. He urges Democrats to stop tussling with Republicans over spending and taxes and just go with “a strategy that works: reading the Constitution.”
But this tortured interpretation of the 14th Amendment actually shows why members of Congress — as well as the pundit class — should have participated in the public reading of the entire Constitution earlier this year. If they had done that, they might not have skipped over an essential passage regarding the power to borrow. Article I, Section 8 — the same part of the Constitution that gives Congress the power to tax, appropriate, and “regulate commerce . . . among the states” (long the Left’s justification for any regulation of activity, or in the case of Obamacare, the inactivity of not buying health insurance) — also explicitly states: “The Congress shall have power to . . . borrow money on the credit of the United States.”
The 14th Amendment doesn’t affect this power one bit. It applies only to debt “authorized by law,” and as Catholic University Law School distinguished scholar John S. Baker wrote recently in NRO, “Only Congress — not the president — makes law.”
What it perhaps does do — based on one Supreme Court case — is require the Treasury Department to prioritize payment of existing debt to bondholders over other spending in the event the debt ceiling isn’t raised. So if the government finds itself short on cash, it has to keep paying the bondholders and find the necessary savings in some other part of the budget. This is exactly what conservatives like Sen. Pat Toomey (R., Pa.) have been trying to codify through legislation. As Michael McConnell, the distinguished director of the Stanford Constitutional Law Center, has put it, “the real effect of Section Four of the Fourteenth Amendment is almost the opposite of what hopeful voices in Washington are saying.
Friday, July 8, 2011
Rick Santelli Attacks Gov’t Spending in Latest Battle Cry
Rick Santelli is right - do not raise the debt ceiling! - Reggie
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Senators Rubio and Ayotte on Jobs and the Debt
Update: article is from July 8th
Marco Rubio: New Taxpayers, Not New Taxes
video is from July 6
h/t Marco Rubio
Marco Rubio: New Taxpayers, Not New Taxes
video is from July 6
h/t Marco Rubio
GOP Contender Thaddeus McCotter
This is from Fox & Friends, this morning. McCotter said he was for the auto bailouts. What? - Reggie
American Response to Operation 'Fast and Furious'
from July 5th
Will U.S. officials be held accountable?
Will U.S. officials be held accountable?
Murdoch Investors Take Fright
There is a huge scandal involving Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corp (the parent company of Fox News). Due to the scandal, News Corp's stock has fallen 3.6% ($1.7 bn of its value lost).
I have no idea how or if this will affect Fox News. - Reggie
Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corp, has strongly backed Rebekah Brooks, the executive at the centre of a phone-hacking scandal, even as he denounced the “deplorable and unacceptable” behaviour at the News of the World.
Mr Murdoch’s intervention in the scandal that has outraged the public and rocked the coalition government came as investors took fright at the damage being inflicted on his global media group.
Shares in News Corp fell 3.6 per cent in New York as shareholders feared that the political firestorm could jeopardise the group’s chances of taking full control of its satellite broadcaster, British Sky Broadcasting.
In spite of announcing two enquiries into the affair, David Cameron came under fierce cross-party pressure to freeze the News Corp bid for BSkyB. But officials said the deal was expected to be waved through, possibly while MPs are on their summer holidays.
The government mounted a frantic search for a way to postpone a decision until the furore over phone hacking subsides, but the legal advice was that any long delay could be challenged in the courts.
Islamintern Denounces Islamo-realistic Free Speech in Holland
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| American Thinker |
See update at bottom
The Islamic world has shown again that it cannot tolerate free speech regarding Islam and its prophet. Bat Ye'or has appositely characterized Geert Wilder's recent acquittal as a "Copernican revolution," achieved by a solitary "unarmed man, constantly threatened by death and whose only defense was his courageous and unbending commitment to say the truth."
It is a bitter irony that on the same day Bat Ye'or's essay was published a pathognomonic communiqué was released by foreign ministers of the Islamintern -- the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) -- whose member states were meeting in Astana, Kazakhstan
The communiqué claimed "a number of Dutch politicians" had insulted Islam and its prophet Muhammad, accusing them of the invented "crime" of "Islamophobia."
Turkish OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu issued a separate statement condemning -- and threatening Dutch Parliamentarian Geert Wilders:
Wilders has taken a dangerous path, endangering the peace and harmony of civilizations by spreading hate against Islam and Muslims in his own country as well as in other European countries. Insult to Islam and to the honored Prophet of Islam, Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH), has reached a stage that can no longer be tolerated under any pretext, including freedom of speech.
Demonstrating once again that Wilders is a politician of rare courage, he has now challenged his own Dutch Prime Minister, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs to respond appropriately to the statements of the OIC, and Ihsanoglu:
1) Have you seen the intimidating statement of the OIC Secretary General, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, about me and the OIC report "Fourth OIC observatory report on islamophobia" about statements made by various Dutch politicians?
2) Do you agree that the OIC has vastly overstepped the boundaries with these intimidating statements and do you agree with me that a Dutch politician should have the right to criticise Islam and multiculturalism in a public debate, as was confirmed during my political trial by the court decision of June 23rd?
3) Are you prepared to explain to the OIC member countries that criticism of Islam and freedom of speech are essential in a democratic society under the rule of law? If not, why not?
4) Do you share the opinion that criticism, such as that of an organization like the OIC, is hypocrite and despicable given that the OIC in article 24 of its own Cairo Declaration on Human Rights explicitly states that all rights and freedoms are subject to Islamic Shari'ah law? If not, why not?
5) Are you prepared in the short term to distance yourself publicly in strong wordings of this report and of the intimidating statement of the OIC secretary general? If not, why not?
6) Will you make it clear once and for all to the OIC that the Netherlands will not accept to be lectured by an institution such as the OIC which makes human rights subject to the barbaric Shari'ah, and that we will not allow our fundamental freedoms and our freedom of speech to be restricted? If not, why not?
7) Are you prepared to answer these questions this week
American Crossroads: The Negotiator
Karl Rove and American Crossroads are putting out some great ads. Here's their latest.
ATF Director Melson’s secret Fourth of July fireworks and the post-testimony fallout
This came out this morning, but, in case you haven’t yet caught the summaries on Townhall.com, The Daily Caller or elsewhere, these facts are worth yet another review.
In a secret July 4 testimony before Congressional investigators, Kenneth Melson, acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), revealed important new details of Operation Fast and Furious, the international gunrunning scandal that Obama administration officials still refuse to clear up.
Today, Congressional investigators Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) followed up on that testimony by sending a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder just to let him know what they now know and to censure the Department of Justice for continuing to obstruct investigations into Project Gunwalker.
The key takeaways of the testimony, as relayed in the letter to Holder from Issa and Grassley:
Obama really might have made it worse
The Republican charge is a body shot aimed right at the belly of President Barack Obama’s re-election effort: He made it worse.
No, not that White House efforts at boosting the American economy and creating jobs and “winning the future” were merely inefficient or wasteful, which they certainly were. Even Obama finally seems to understand that. “Shovel-ready was not as shovel-ready as we expected,” he joked lamely at a meeting of his jobs council.
Rather, that the product of all the administration’s stimulating and regulating is an economy that’s in significantly worse competitive and productive shape than when Obama took the oath in January 2009. He was dealt a bad hand, to be sure – and then proceeded to play it badly. At least, that is what Republicans have been saying. “He didn’t cause the recession as we know,” presidential candidate Mitt Romney said in New Hampshire yesterday. “He didn’t make it better, he made things worse.”
Team Obama offers a different narrative, of course. As the president said in his State of the Union address earlier this year, “Two years after the worst recession most of us have ever known, the stock market has come roaring back. Corporate profits are up. The economy is growing again. … These steps we’ve taken over the last two years may have broken the back of this recession.” He somehow failed to insert his usual boilerplate about the economy losing 700,000 jobs a month when he took office.
But Obama is correct, to a degree. The economy is growing (slowly) now and adding jobs (modestly) whereas neither was happening back in early 2009. Of course, economies in recession will eventually recover even without government action. So the question is whether Obamanomics helped, hurt or was inconsequential.
Governor Rick Perry: The Candidate Obama Would Fear the Most
More than any other potential GOP presidential candidate, President Obama fears Texas Gov. Rick Perry. That's because Perry is the only one who can devastate virtually any Obama claim.
Take the whine we hear most often from the President: That President George W. Bush handed him a terrible economic situation. As USA Today reported June 2: "[White House spokesman Jay] Carney noted that when Obama took office on Jan. 20, 2009, he faced the worst economy since the Great Depression. Obama also inherited the biggest budget deficits in history, from a Republican President—George W. Bush—who had come into office with budget surpluses."
A full two and a half years after taking office, Team Obama still blames Bush—for everything except the fall of Adam. Well, there is one other elected chief executive who inherited a Bush economy: Rick Perry, as governor of Texas. And yet I have never once heard Perry whining that the state would be doing so much better if it hadn't been for the policies of his predecessor.
To use a football analogy—I mean, we're talking about Texas—it's not who hands you the football and it's not where the ball is handed to you, it's what you do with the ball after you have it.
Rick Perry took the ball from Bush and scored an economic touchdown for Texas. Obama took the ball from Bush and fumbled it—repeatedly—giving the other team a chance to score a touchdown.
Which brings us to the Obama vs. Perry records on the economy. What has happened to some of the key indicators of economic well-being since Obama has been in charge (roughly January of 2009 to June 2011)?
Obama's Record
Energy: Gasoline was $1.67 a gallon then. It's now $3.79.
Food: Average cost of a gallon of milk was about $2.65. It's about $3.50 today.
Housing: The median cost of a home was $229,600. Today it's $217,900.
Budget deficit: We fell $438 billion short of balancing the federal budget in 2008. We missed it by $1.4 trillion this year—nearly four times higher.
U.S. debt: Total federal debt was $10.7 trillion then. It's $14.5 trillion now—nearly 50% higher.
Unemployment: Then, 7.3% of Americans were unemployed and 9.1% are unemployed today.
To be fair, not everyone has done poorly under Obama. Federal government employees have made out like bandits. Mercatus Center (George Mason University) economist Veronique de Rugy noted last January that "federal employment has grown by 98,000 employees since the start of the recession." And USA Today reported last year: "Federal civil servants earned average pay and benefits of $123,049 in 2009 while private workers made $61,051 in total compensation, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis."
Perry's Record
A recent state-by-state comparison study by the Texas Public Policy Foundation found that Texas had a state tax burden of 8.4%, compared to a U.S. average of 9.7%. And the Texas gross state product grew 94.5% over 10 years, vs. 66.3% for the rest of the country.
Texas far outpaces other states in job creation. Michael Cox and Richard Alm, director and writer-in-residence, respectively, at Southern Methodist University's William J. O'Neil Center for Global Markets and Freedom write: "From January 2000 to June 2010 [Perry's tenure], Texas had a net increase of nearly 1.1 million jobs—more than any other state by far. In fact, Texas' outsized gains eclipsed the total of the next five job-creating states: Florida, Arizona, Virginia, Utah and Washington."
More importantly, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that Texas created 129,000 new jobs in 2009—a recession year. That was more than half of all the jobs created in the country.
The Brookings Institution published a study earlier this year looking at job growth in major cities. Texas had five of the top 10 cities, with Austin leading the country in job growth.
See why Obama is concerned about a Perry bid? Would you want to stand before the public in a presidential debate and defend Obama's record compared with Perry's?
Not being able to defend his own economic record, or attack Perry's, Obama would try to paint Perry in a negative light. That wouldn't be easy. Perry served three terms in the Texas House as a Democrat, and supported Al Gore's 1988 presidential bid. That was when there were still some conservative Democrats. Perry switched to the Republican Party in 1989.
Because Perry is from Texas, Obama would accuse him of being in bed with the oil and gas industry. And yet Perry just signed a law requiring gas drillers to publicize the chemicals they use in "fracking" to extract the gas. As the Wall Street Journal reported on June 20, "Environmental groups said the law doesn't go far enough, but they agreed it was an important step."
Obama would also accuse Perry of being out of touch with most Americans. But Cox and Alm of Southern Methodist University's O'Neil Center found in a different study that "Texas led all other states with a net in-migration of 500,000 people from 2004 to 2008." People are voting with their feet and moving to Texas.
And there is this...
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
The People Speak: U.S. Civics Quiz
Do you wonder why the federal government is running over the Constitution? Watch this video and you will know why. Very sad. - Reggie
England: Islamic extremists want to establish independent states with sharia law
NOTE: I have posted the entire article here instead of posting only part of it and linking to the rest. Due to the layout of the article on The Daily Mail website, it is not possible to find a proper break for the reader to know where to begin reading when they click on 'read the full article.' I am not the author of this article or any part of it, nor do I claim to be. To see the entire article on The Daily Mail, along with photographs, click here.
Medieval 'emirates' would operate outside British rule
Islamic extremists have called on British Muslims to establish three independent states within the UK.
The notorious Muslims Against the Crusades (MAC) group have named Yorkshire towns Bradford and Dewsbury and Tower Hamlets in East London as testbeds for blanket sharia rule.
The medieval 'emirates' would operate entirely outside British law, according to a document on the MAC website.
The MAC group, led by Abu Assadullah, was set up last year and has become notorious because of its violent protests, most provocatively burning poppies during the Remembrance Day silence.
Under the heading 'Muslims should set up Islamic emirates in the UK', MAC says: 'We suggest it is time that areas with large Muslim populations declare an emirate delineating that Muslims trying to live within this area are trying to live by the sharia as much as possible with their own courts and community watch and schools and even self sufficient trade.
'Likely areas for these projects might be Dewsbury or Bradford or Tower Hamlets to begin with.
'In time we can envisage that the whole of the sharia might one day be implemented starting with these enclaves.'
The call is likely to cause anger among moderate Muslims and community leaders in the areas concerned.
Ian Greenwood, leader of Bradford Council, said people would 'not allow extremists to provoke them into violence'.
London 7/7 bomber Mohammad Sidique Khan lived in Dewsbury, which has battled to diffuse extremism in recent years. In 2007, it was alleged that a number of Muslims in Dewsbury were running an illegal Islamic court from a school and similar claims have been made in Tower Hamlets and Bradford.
Tower Hamlets council was last year accused of falling under the control of extremist groups following a documentary by the Daily Telegraph journalist Andrew Gilligan.
The plan is part of the MAC's response to the government's revised Prevent strategy to combat Islamic extremism.
In its document, called Islamic Prevent, the fanatics also call for an end to CCTV cameras in and around mosques.
It says: 'Muslims must get rid of all CCTV cameras from Muslim institutions. Sadly many mosques have today adopted CCTV cameras to spy on Muslims on behalf of the police and local authorities.'
Other inflammatory instructions include demanding the release of all Muslim prisoners, a ban on Muslims joining the police or armed forces and a rejection of British democracy.
The document ends: 'We can conclude that measures by the UK government are nothing more than an attempt by them to strip the Muslim community of their Islamic identity and to integrate them into the non-Islamic way of life.'
The revised Prevent programme, announced last month, is aimed at tackling home-grown terrorism and radicalisation of students.
It demands stricter controls on extremist literature and a more proactive approach by universities to prevent extremism.
Councillor Greenwood added: 'Extremism is less likely to emerge when people get the opportunity to come together.
'Local voluntary, community and faith groups, the council, and other public and private sector partners, all work together in Bradford to strengthen community relations and encourage better understanding and respect between all our communities.
'We believe that this is one of the best ways to build a tolerant society in which extremism plays no part.'
Tower Hamlets and Kirklees Council, the local authority for Dewsbury, refused to comment.
This evil, Sharia law is slowly taking over Europe. Don't be fooled, America, it is coming here. We must demand a return to our Constitution or we will end up with Sharia as the law of the land because our elected "leaders" are too cowardly to stop it! - Reggie
Islamic extremists have called on British Muslims to establish three independent states within the UK.
The notorious Muslims Against the Crusades (MAC) group have named Yorkshire towns Bradford and Dewsbury and Tower Hamlets in East London as testbeds for blanket sharia rule.
The medieval 'emirates' would operate entirely outside British law, according to a document on the MAC website.
 |
Where the group envisages the autonomous areas being set up |
The MAC group, led by Abu Assadullah, was set up last year and has become notorious because of its violent protests, most provocatively burning poppies during the Remembrance Day silence.
Under the heading 'Muslims should set up Islamic emirates in the UK', MAC says: 'We suggest it is time that areas with large Muslim populations declare an emirate delineating that Muslims trying to live within this area are trying to live by the sharia as much as possible with their own courts and community watch and schools and even self sufficient trade.
'Likely areas for these projects might be Dewsbury or Bradford or Tower Hamlets to begin with.
'In time we can envisage that the whole of the sharia might one day be implemented starting with these enclaves.'
The call is likely to cause anger among moderate Muslims and community leaders in the areas concerned.
Ian Greenwood, leader of Bradford Council, said people would 'not allow extremists to provoke them into violence'.
London 7/7 bomber Mohammad Sidique Khan lived in Dewsbury, which has battled to diffuse extremism in recent years. In 2007, it was alleged that a number of Muslims in Dewsbury were running an illegal Islamic court from a school and similar claims have been made in Tower Hamlets and Bradford.
Tower Hamlets council was last year accused of falling under the control of extremist groups following a documentary by the Daily Telegraph journalist Andrew Gilligan.
The plan is part of the MAC's response to the government's revised Prevent strategy to combat Islamic extremism.
In its document, called Islamic Prevent, the fanatics also call for an end to CCTV cameras in and around mosques.
It says: 'Muslims must get rid of all CCTV cameras from Muslim institutions. Sadly many mosques have today adopted CCTV cameras to spy on Muslims on behalf of the police and local authorities.'
Other inflammatory instructions include demanding the release of all Muslim prisoners, a ban on Muslims joining the police or armed forces and a rejection of British democracy.
The document ends: 'We can conclude that measures by the UK government are nothing more than an attempt by them to strip the Muslim community of their Islamic identity and to integrate them into the non-Islamic way of life.'
The revised Prevent programme, announced last month, is aimed at tackling home-grown terrorism and radicalisation of students.
It demands stricter controls on extremist literature and a more proactive approach by universities to prevent extremism.
Councillor Greenwood added: 'Extremism is less likely to emerge when people get the opportunity to come together.
'Local voluntary, community and faith groups, the council, and other public and private sector partners, all work together in Bradford to strengthen community relations and encourage better understanding and respect between all our communities.
'We believe that this is one of the best ways to build a tolerant society in which extremism plays no part.'
Tower Hamlets and Kirklees Council, the local authority for Dewsbury, refused to comment.
Fox Twitter Account Hacked on Independence Day
While most Americans spent their Independence Day barbecuing, enjoying family time, letting off fireworks, apparent Fox News haters hacked into the network’s Twitter account to post this:
And there is this:
A Look at Media Matters' Leadership
Dr. Keith Ablow on Brock's questionable credibility
Juan Williams takes a look at the background of Media Matters' executive vice president
Click here to File an IRS Complaint Against Media Matters
The Staggering Cost of Stimulus
Rush Limbaugh Speaks in Joplin
from July 4, 2011
Rush Limbaugh had a contest asking people to send in reasons their Independence Day celebration should receive a truckload of his new iced tea, Two if by Tea. He received 3,000 entries and Joplin, Missouri was chosen as the winner. Limbaugh decided he would accompany his tea to Joplin for the celebration. The following are his remarks at the Freedom Fest at Landreth Park. - Reggie
The Washington Times: Joplin Missouri with Rush Limbaugh--Independence Day at its best
The Washington Times: Joplin Missouri with Rush Limbaugh--Independence Day at its best
Political Ads
Here are some recent political ads.
National Republican Congressional Committee
Republican National Committee
Rick Santorum
Tim Pawlenty
Mitt Romney
Devoted Volunteers Build Foundation for Palin in Iowa
This is very interesting. - Reggie
PELLA, Iowa -- Last December, Michelle McCormick penned a letter to Sarah Palin, addressed it to her political action committee, and dropped it in the mail.
An unassuming 28-year-old north Texan who works in the oil and gas industry, McCormick had experienced a family crisis similar to the one that had befallen Palin's family when the former Alaska governor's daughter Bristol became pregnant in 2008. McCormick wanted to let Palin know that how the vice presidential candidate handled the situation while in the national spotlight helped guide McCormick through her own family difficulties.
McCormick didn't harbor much hope that she would get a response, but about three weeks later she received a personal reply from Palin.
Six months later, McCormick now spends every weekend (and an increasing number of weekdays) in the nation's first voting state of Iowa attending GOP Central Committee meetings, collecting names of activists in counties across the state, and doing other volunteer organizing in advance of a Palin presidential campaign that she considers inevitable.
"If she was willing to take the time to respond to somebody who is a nobody in Texas, that just shows me what kind of heart she has," McCormick told RCP. "She's a very high-profile individual, and she's got a lot of people making demands on her, and I thought this is someone I really want to help get into the White House."
McCormick is one of the more devoted members of a dedicated nationwide group called Organize4Palin, in which an all-volunteer effort is setting the groundwork for a Palin presidential launch that its members believe is only a matter of time.
Although Organize4Palin purports to have active chapters in over 30 states, the backbone of its operation is in Iowa, where Palin would likely have to win the caucuses in order to remain a viable candidate, if she were to enter the race.
"It's not cheap, but I try to budget and don't go on extra shopping trips, and I don't have cable," said McCormick, who has been staying in inexpensive hotels and supporters' homes during her travels across Iowa since March. "We do have a pretty big caffeine budget."
McCormick said that she is "100 percent" sure Palin will run for president, and is considering moving to Iowa full time while she awaits an announcement. If she does move to the Hawkeye State, McCormick would be following in the footsteps of Peter Singleton, a 58-year-old California lawyer who has been leading the charge in Iowa, where he has made his home for the past eight months.
When Singleton first visited the state in August 2010 -- with a vague notion of planting seeds for Palin ahead of the caucuses that were still a year-and-a-half away -- he was so unfamiliar with the political environment here that he had to Google "election AND Iowa" before plotting his initial moves ahead of the midterms that November. Almost a year later, Singleton is no longer a political novice.
"I've probably met with 1,000 people in this state in one-on-one meetings or a couple people at a time," he said. "The one-on-one meetings and the two- and three-people meetings are the heart and soul of what we're doing, and believe me, the other guys don't do that. They take a radically different approach."
Monday, July 4, 2011
The Great Anniversary Festival
The words that launched this country on its journey to greatness were written by Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, and we can only wonder if, as he scratched his quill pen across a clean sheet of parchment, he knew the extent to which he would be shaping the history of the world.By early June of 1776, the Second Continental Congress had decided that a formal document needed to be created, one that would inform the King, the people of Great Britain, and the governments of the world that the will of the American people was unshakeable and unmistakable: the thirteen American colonies, united, would have nothing less than complete independence from the British crown.
The declaration that Jefferson produced a scant month later shook the foundations of Europe -- and signaled the rise of what would become the greatest nation in history.
Today, as we have on every Fourth of July since 1776, we celebrate that Declaration of Independence and the nation that was born on the day it was affirmed. Of the adoption of the declaration by Congress, John Adams wrote to his wife "I am apt to believe it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the Great Anniversary Festival."
All too often we take for granted the men who signed that parchment, but we should always be mindful that in the eyes of King George and the British Parliament -- rulers of a nation that possessed the most formidable military in the world -- the signers were nothing more than traitors, deserving of nothing less than execution. By his affirmation of the declaration each man knew he might be signing his own death warrant -- so we would do well to remember that our nation was born because men of steel nerves and raw courage willed it to happen.
Ronald Reagan Statue Unveiled in London
It is appropriate this statue of Ronald Reagan was unveiled on July 4th and we must remember...
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.” - Ronald Reagan
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.” - Ronald Reagan
The Blue Angels at Lynchburg Regional Airshow
Since this is a day of celebration, let's go to a U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, The Blue Angels, airshow. These pilots and the Boeing F/A-18 Hornets they fly are spectacular to watch!
It was during their Lynchburg show that they experienced a safety issue so they were grounded after that. Because of that issue, the C.O. voluntarily resigned but they are now back on schedule.
I have had the pleasure of seeing The Blue Angels several times and even though the show is the same every time, it is still exhilarating to see! If you ever get a chance to see these guys perform, don't let it pass you by. It is an experience you will not soon forget.
A friend of mine used to be one of the maintenance crew for the Blues and he has tons of memorabilia from his time there. He gave me a really cool poster and the official patch below. - Reggie
A friend of mine used to be one of the maintenance crew for the Blues and he has tons of memorabilia from his time there. He gave me a really cool poster and the official patch below. - Reggie
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| The Blue Angels patch |
This show is from May 21, 2011
The Declaration of Independence
This video has several professional actors reading the Declaration of Independence. I have also included the text from The National Archives, below, so you may follow along. - Reggie
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.
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 harrass 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 benefits 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 Brittish 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.
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