Friday Anti-War Song

“My Hero, Mr. President — Paula Cole

Yea, Yea
Yea, Yea, Yea

Well hello there, blue blooded boy
Your bed is lined with dollars
I bet you’re cumming oil

I love the way you take control and push the world around
United Nations- Ha,ha
No one can keep you down

Daddy’s little helper, silver foot in your mouth
Policeman of the world gonna start another war
Connecticut yankee in a cowboy hat
You’re my hero, Mr. president

Remember the elections for the presidency
No matter the call of the majority
Your cousin married Fox TV, he declared you were the one
Your brother came through with his promise he’d get Florida

(chorus)

Now what you gonna do about our economy
You spend three trillion dollars in a heartbeat
Now what about us folks who live hand to mouth
We can’t afford our lives, and we’re working three jobs

(chorus)

Now don’t you want your grand children to see the colorado river?
You’re kissing so much corporate ass that
You’re selling away our future

We can all wear our geo-thermal suits and toast to you ‘W’

Now wiping out the terrorists, that’s fine by me
But please don’t erode our civil liberties
The America we fight for and hold so dear
Includes a woman’s right to choose
Freedom of religion, freedom of assembly
And free speech like the song I’m singing here

(chorus)

Daddy’s little helper, silver spoon in your mouth
The Policeman of the world gonna kick Hussein’s butt
Connecticut yankee in a cowboy hat
You’re my hero, Mr. President
You’re my hero, Mr. President
You’re our Nero, Mr. President
Mmmhmm

A Golden Calf Would’ve Been Cheaper

 

Oh, for the love of you-know-who!

The Tennessee Guerrilla Women rightfully call her the “Giant Green Church Lady of Memphis.”

Well, here she is, the seven story green monstrosity, disrobed for all the world to see. And she’s even made it into the New York Times. Wielding a giant cross, a tablet of Ten Commandments, and “Jehovah” etched on her crown, she is the Bible Belt’s very own copycat Statue of Liberty.

[snip]

Religion is big business in America, so the Christian Lady Liberty’s price tag of $260,000 is a pittance. What’s a quarter of a million dollars when your mission is to transform an icon of democracy into a symbol of theocracy?

You just have to wonder how something like this came to be built. Now, while the Church of the Graven Image does spend money helping out the less fortunate in many ways, paying electric bills and whatnot for the the disadvantaged, you just have to wonder what in the world possessed them (no pun intended).

Did the committee on Throwing Money Away for the ONE TRUE™ God go through something like this:

Committee Chair: We’ve been tasked with finding a way to show the godless heathens the right way. Anyone got any ideas?

Committee Member #1: What about building a shelter for the many homeless in our city?

Committee Member #2: What about creating a program to tend to disadvantaged youth, those in danger of joining gangs, using drugs/alcohol, etc.? We can provide them a safe place to go, where they can learn about God and his love, and we can have a positive impact at an early age.

Committee Member #4: What about building a family center? We could provide early intervention to parents and children. Help them get a good start on building a strong, loving families. Nutritional advice, budget and debt counseling, anger management and conflict resolution programs?

Committee Chair to CM #4: Look, you aren’t allowed to make good points. You’re a woman, and we got stuck with you because the board said we had to have a woman on the committee. They didn’t say anything about letting you speak.

Why don’t you be a good girl and let the men talk while you get us coffee ? Maybe make some sandwiches or something.

CM #4 takes coffee orders and leaves room.

CM #3: What’s with you saps always wanting to give away more and more of our money to the poor? Praise Jesus, but we’ve already got a bowling alley! What more do they need?

CM #1: You know what we really need? We need something that shows the whole country what we believe in – and what they should believe in too.

We need to show all those godless heathen liberals out there that we worship the ONE TRUE™ God, and that the ONE TRUE™ God’s believers – like George W Bush (Praise his name!) – want to make sure they understand that religious freedom means one thing: they do what we tell them!

Tolerance and diversity is an abomination!

CM #2: We should build a statue to God!

CM #3: Great idea – but what kind of statue? You know creativity and critical thinking aren’t part of our dogma! That’s the power of the dark ones!
Committee Chair: Let’s brainstorm – I’ll say a word, you tell me the first thing you think of, then someone else tells us the first thing they think of when they hear your word. Maybe we’ll get an idea that isn’t creative and original. America?

CM #2: Freedom!

CM #1: Freedom….Liberty!

All: Liberty!! The Statue of Liberty!

CM #4 returns with coffees.

CM #3: We’ll steal that French guy’s design, only give her a cross instead of a torch.

Committee Chair: That’s great! We’ll build a giant replica of the Statue of Liberty – only we’ll do it right and build her the way she should have been!

CM #4: Wouldn’t a statue be considered a graven image? Wouldn’t we be encouraging worship of a statue instead of the ONE TRUE™ God?

Committee Chair: HARLOT!

CM #1: BLASPHEMER!

CM #2: WITCH!

CM #3: JEZEBEL!!

All: STONE HER!

*shrug* Maybe it didn’t happen quite like that….

Maybe they decided to put Committee Member #4 through a “float test” instead. You know – like the good Christians did in Salem.

From whence we came – July 4, 1776

The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies
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 [George III] 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 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 and 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 the 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.

230 years later

 

Welcome to the United States. A country whose leading elite of the time (many of them liberal intellectuals) decided to protest against the puppet government installed by Great Britain and who led their fellow patriots in acts of terrorism against British troops and loyalists prior to the declaration of hostilities and the formation of the Continental Army.

From The American War of Independence: The Rebels and the Redcoats: (BBC)

By Richard Holmes

The War of Independence plays such an important part in American popular ideology that references to it are especially prone to exaggeration and oversimplification. And two uncomfortable truths about it – the fact that it was a civil war (perhaps 100,000 loyalists fled abroad at its end), and that it was also a world war (the Americans could scarcely have won without French help) – are often forgotten.

[snip]

The descent into armed conflict between patriot (anti-British) and loyalist (pro-British) sympathisers was gradual. Events like the Boston ‘Massacre’ of 1770, when British troops fired on a mob that had attacked a British sentry outside Boston’s State House, and the Boston ‘tea-party’ of 1773, when British-taxed tea was thrown into the harbour, marked the downward steps. Less obvious was the take-over of the colonial militias – which had initially been formed to provide local defence against the French and the Native Americans – by officers in sympathy the the American patrios/rebels, rather than by those in sympathy with pro-British loyalists/Tories.

From The American Revolution:

The war was on in earnest. Some delegates had come to the Congress already committed to declaring the colonies independent of Great Britain, but even many stalwart upholders of the colonial cause were not ready to take such a step. The lines were being more clearly drawn between the pro-British Loyalists and colonial revolutionists. The time was one of indecision, and the division of the people was symbolized by the split between Benjamin Franklin and his Loyalist son, William Franklin.

Loyalists were numerous and included small farmers as well as large landowners, royal officeholders, and members of the professions; they were to be found in varying strength in every colony. A large part of the population was more or less neutral, swaying to this side or that or else remaining inert in the struggle, which was to some extent a civil war. So it was to remain to the end.

Civil government and administration had fallen apart and had to be patched together locally. In some places the result was bloody strife, as in the partisan raids in the Carolinas and Georgia and the Mohawk valley massacre in New York. Elsewhere hostility did not produce open struggles .

From the Washington State University website on the American Revolution:

The [Boston] Massacre and its fallout, however, did not significantly influence British policy. In 1773, the British Parliament legislated a tax on tea imports by the East India Company. This legislation, surprisingly, also lowered the cost of tea so that the Americans actually were paying less for the imports. Nonetheless, on December 16, 1773, a shipment of Bohea tea was tossed into Boston Harbor by a gang of colonists dressed as Indians. This event, known as the Boston Tea Party, was really only one among many acts of sabotage that colonists, Bostonians in particular, had been engaging in since 1770. It was this event, however, which inspired the British government to take action.

Oh, the irony….

T. Jefferson vs. G. Bush II

While King George IV and his minions are busy telling us that everything they do is just perfectly fine, and in accordance with Constitutional provisions…blah, blah, blah… I thought I’d compare their theories of government with those of the guy who actually wrote the Constitution.

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“The most effectual engines for [pacifying a nation] are the public papers… [A despotic] government always [keeps] a kind of standing army of newswriters who, without any regard to truth or to what should be like truth, [invent] and put into the papers whatever might serve the ministers. This suffices with the mass of the people who have no means of distinguishing the false from the true paragraphs of a newspaper.”

–Thomas Jefferson to G. K. van Hogendorp, Oct. 13, 1785

From the Independent Online (UK):

May 29, 2006

Federal authorities are actively investigating dozens of American television stations for broadcasting items produced by the Bush administration and major corporations, and passing them off as normal news. Some of the fake news segments talked up success in the war in Iraq, or promoted the companies’ products.

Investigators from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are seeking information about stations across the country after a report produced by a campaign group detailed the extraordinary extent of the use of such items. […]

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“The President is bound to stop at the limits prescribed by our Constitution and law to the authorities in his hands, [and this] would apply in an occasion of peace as well as war.

–Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1806.

From McClatchy Washington Bureau:

Jan. 06, 2006

President Bush agreed with great fanfare last month to accept a ban on torture, but he later quietly reserved the right to ignore it, even as he signed it into law.

Acting from the seclusion of his Texas ranch at the start of New Year’s weekend, Bush said he would interpret the new law in keeping with his expansive view of presidential power. He did it by issuing a bill-signing statement – a little-noticed device that has become a favorite tool of presidential power in the Bush White House.

In fact, Bush has used signing statements to reject, revise or put his spin on more than 500 legislative provisions. Experts say he has been far more aggressive than any previous president in using the statements to claim sweeping executive power – and not just on national security issues.

[snip]

The White House says its authority stems from the Constitution, but dissenters say that view ignores the Constitution’s careful balance of powers between branches of government. […]

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“I said to [President Washington] that if the equilibrium of the three great bodies, Legislative, Executive and Judiciary, could be preserved, if the Legislature could be kept independent, I should never fear the result of such a government; but that I could not but be uneasy when I saw that the Executive had swallowed up the Legislative branch.”

–Thomas Jefferson: The Anas, 1792

From the Associated Press:

June 27, 2006

The White House on Tuesday defended President Bush’s frequent use of special statements that claim authority to limit the effects of bills he signs, saying the statements help him uphold the Constitution and defend national security
[snip]

It’s a challenge to the plain language of the Constitution,” said Arlen Specter, a Republican whose Senate Judiciary Committee opened hearings on the issue. “There is a sense that the president has taken signing statements far beyond the customary purview.”

[snip]

“Even if there is modest increase, let me just suggest that it be viewed in light of current events and Congress’ response to those events,” said lawyer Michelle Boardman. “The significance of legislation affecting national security has increased markedly since Sept. 11.”

[snip]

Specter and his allies maintain that Bush is trying an end-run around the veto process. In his presidency’s sixth year, Bush has yet to issue a single veto, which could be overridden with a two-thirds majority in each house.

“The president is not required to,” Boardman said.

“Of course he’s not if he signs the bill,” Specter snapped back.

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“Mankind soon learn to make interested uses of every right and power which they possess or may assume. The public money and public liberty, intended to have been deposited with three branches of magistracy but found inadvertently to be in the hands of one only, will soon be discovered to be sources of wealth and dominion to those who hold them; distinguished, too, by this tempting circumstance: that they are the instrument as well as the object of acquisition. With money we will get men, said Caesar, and with men we will get money.”

–Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia Q.XIII, 1782.

Excerpts from: The State-by-State GOP Scandal Scorecard at the Wayne Madsen Report:

US Sen. Ted Stevens (AK) – Recipient of contributions from Abramoff

Sen. Jon Kyl (AZ) – Recipient of contributions from Abramoff-connected Indian casino interests

US Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (CA) – Probed for bribery regarding financial ties with and favors for defense firm MZM. Pleaded guilty to tax evasion, conspiracy, Nov. 28, 2005.

Jack Abramoff, GOP lobbyist

Michael Scanlon, former chief of staff to Tom DeLay – Being probed for involvement in Indian casino scandal with Abramoff, Kidan, and DeLay. Indicted Nov. 18, 2005 for conspiracy to defraud Indian tribes. Pleaded guilty Nov. 21.

Tony Rudy, former aide to Tom DeLay

Mitchell Wade, former President of MZM – Pleaded guilty on Feb. 24, 06 to contract fraud and bribery involving GOP Reps. Duke Cunningham, Virgil Goode, and Katherine Harris and Defense Department contracts. Agrees to cooperate with prosecutors.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert (IL) – Probed for accepting money from Turkey. Also investigated for receiving money from Abramoff.

US Rep. Dan Burton (IN) – Recipient of contributions from Abramoff

US Rep. Candice Miller (MI) – Investigated by House Ethics Committee for accepting campaign contributions in return for her yes vote on the 2004 Medicare bill.

US Rep. Roy Blunt, House Majority Leader (MO) – Investigated for trading illegal PAC money with DeLay through Blunt’s Rely on Your Beliefs Fund. Received Indian casino money from tribes represented by Abramoff.

US Sen. Trent Lott (MS) – Received funds from casino Indian tribes represented by Abramoff

Sen. Elizabeth Dole (NC) – Recipient of campaign funds from Mitchell Wade, MZM

US Rep. Bob Ney (OH) – Being probed for involvement with Abramoff, Kidan, and DeLay, Indian casino money laundering. Recipient of contributions from Abramoff and Kidan. Indictment may be imminent. Recipient of campaign funds from Mitchell Wade (MZM).

US Sen. Bill Frist (TN) – Under Securities and Exchange Commission investigation for insider trading on his Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) stock

US Rep. Tom DeLay, [former] House Majority Leader (TX) – Probed for campaign finance fraud, ties to Abramoff/Kidan, Saipan sweat shops. Grand Jury, Travis County prosecutor, and House Ethics Committee probing DeLay. Indicted by Travis County District Attorney for 1 count of criminal conspiracy and 2 counts of money laundering. Arrested and booked at Harris County jail October 20, 2005. Recipient of contributions from Abramoff. Conspiracy to commit money laundering and money laundering charges still stand after Texas Judge dropped the one count of criminal conspiracy on December 5, 2005.

US Rep. Sam Johnson (TX) – Misused his House Ways and Means Committee position to get the non-profit Texans for Public Justice audited by the IRS in retaliation for their investigation of Tom DeLay‘s TRMPAC and ARMPAC illegal corporate donations.

BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!! (so many, many, many more)

Go to Wayne’s site (link above) and check out the whole list. It’s mind-boggling.

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“Unless the mass retains sufficient control over those entrusted with the powers of their government, these will be perverted to their own oppression, and to the perpetuation of wealth and power in the individuals and their families selected for the trust.”

–Thomas Jefferson to M. van der Kemp, 1812

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** Jefferson quotes from: http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations

Freedom of the Press vs. Wingnuts ‘R’ Us

“No experiment can be more interesting than that we are now trying, and which we trust will end in establishing the fact, that man may be governed by reason and truth. Our first object should therefore be, to leave open to him all the avenues to truth. The most effectual hitherto found, is the freedom of the press. It is, therefore, the first shut up by those who fear the investigation of their actions.” –Thomas Jefferson to John Tyler, 1804

We rabid lambs of the blogosphere are really getting tired of listening to wingnuts pretend they’re the appointed ethical guardians of America.

Only they stand between us and those four flag-burning “hippies” of last year – and the three from the year before. Only they stand between us and gay people being treated like human beings. Only they stand between us and a crazed liberal media that wants to act like a free press instead of writing only what the Administration wants written. (Gregg’s stenography is tough to learn after all…)

Only they can save us from those damned photographers who would show pictures of the driveway, flag, and trees (not to mention the birdhouse security camera) of Rummy’s vacation retreat in St. Michaels, MD.

The fact that nearly every sentient being already knew Rummy had a vacation spot there doesn’t matter to them. That a great many of us have even seen photos of it before now – since it has some historical significance – doesn’t matter to them.

But, some idiot feels a need to post the private address and phone number of the photographer who took it – and encouraging his idiot packmates to “tell her what a great photographer she is” and later updates his post with directions to her home!

The underlying threat in those two acts cannot be ignored. (You can go to the General for more; I won’t link directly to the idiot involved.)

I believed it was wrong when that self-hating anchor baby, Michele Malkin published private contact information, and I believed it was wrong when AnchorBaby’s own private information was published. I also believed it was wrong that private information about Thersites and NYMary was published, as well as that of other bloggers in the last few weeks.

I believe it’s wrong that a photographer – who was (most likely) handed an assignment by her editor – should be threatened and intimidated for snapping a picture that was no doubt approved by the Secret Service before publication.

For the idiots on the right who don’t understand the difference between Donald Rumsfeld and Linda Spiller, I’ll repeat those two words for you: Secret Service.

Donald Rumsfeld is surrounded by the most well-armed, best-trained protection agency in the world.

Linda Spillers? I’m guessing she’s got three locks…maybe a doorman? I don’t know if she has a house, an apartment or what. I don’t want or need to know. By now, she’s either moved to an undisclosed location, or she’s hired a private security firm to protect her from the lunatics who will no doubt be thirsting for her blood.

What these crazed BushBots miss is that it was a travel piece! Nothing more than a fluffy, written version of “Lifestyles of the Rich and inFamous.”

Naturally, though, the wingers treat it with the same hysterical whining that accompanied the revelation that the Bush mis-Administration is spying on the bank accounts of Americans in the hopes of finding some terrorists. Purposely missing the point in order to whip up hysteria among the base.

Apparently, only the brain-dead followers of Georgie didn’t know that the mis-Administration has been tracing financial transactions since Sept. 11th. Only the koolaid-crazed sheeple want to give up every civil liberty ensured by our Constitution as long as someone – anyone – promises to protect them from the boogeyman.

Just wait till Bushie tells them that – to protect America from those terrorists – they’ll have to give up yet another freedom…and turn in their guns to the local ATF office! *snort* Let’s see who’s for doing whatever Prezzie wants whenever he wants no matter how many laws and Constitutional guarantees he breaks after that decree is issued!

Let’s get real for a minute. Would these same twits sit by complacent as little sheepies, so very accepting of the government’s position on the free press, or anything else – to the point of releasing personal information and threating a photographer -if it was a Democrat sitting in the Oval Office and issuing these same edicts?

“Rights?! We don’t need no stinkin’ rights!”

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More at Unclaimed Territory and Firedoglake.