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No cut tag, here. I will put both GWB and WJC, the two most recent heads of the White House, against the standards of the Declaration here.
I will be skipping some points where it is not relevent to the Presidency for either man. I have read the document several times just this past Sunday, and while I think it's good reading I think it's a good idea to keep to the relevent parts.
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds 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 to 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.
No comments up to this point. I just like the preamble.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
With the economy the way it is currently, the percent of people employed who are of employable age at its lowest in a very long time, and some freedoms curtailed in the name of safety - generally, I will note, ineffective safety measures taken that only have the effect of harassing citizens - GWB is definitely leading the way in suffering for the average person in the US. Not, it should be said, to the degree people were put out back in the 1770s.
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.
Refusing to pass laws in the interest of the public good - laws that are to the benefit of the public at large. It could be said both GWB and WJC have done so, but GWB seems to have done so more often in the past three and a half years than WJC did in eight. GWB is also specifically trying to kill gay civil marriage at the Federal level, despite his oft-touted concern for State rights. I consider civil marriage a 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.
GWB and his administration have specifically told GOP leadership in both the House and Senate to kill certain bills, or to make sure certain riders were put in, and none of them can be said to be to the benefit of the common man. He's also taken more vacation time than any other modern President. If I took that much vacation time in a year I'd be fired in about four months.
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.
I note that the GWB White House has opposed extending unemployment benefits in a period of high and prolonged unemployment, while saying that tax cuts for the rich are important and vital for the economic health of the rich. If more money is good for the rich, should it not be at least as needful as the less rich?
Also, most anybody who has given the GWB administration news contrary to what they want to hear has been sacked, no matter how sound their information.
three points skipped
He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.
GWB's administration has made it tougher for people from certain countries to either visit or become naturalized citizens. I am happy for those who manage to become citizens; I grieve for their fellows who want the same right but are peremptorily refused. He has, however, made some traffic from Mexico easier.
WJC did make it more difficult to develop land, in the name of preservation.
He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.
GWB has specifically attempted to make certain laws rarely touch the Judiciary, such as the very-misnomered U.S.A.P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act; and has tried to curtail the Judiciary's ability to adjudge the law in US-administered space.
He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
GWB has done his level best to ensure that all judges appointed on his watch follow a particular ideological code. Their ability with the law is irrelevent, as are the times they are unfair and inconsistent with proper practice of law, so long as they follow GWB's agenda.
He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
WJC created AmeriCorps, which has kept a very low profile in its stated goal of helping out poor areas in the USA.
GWB has created the Office of Homeland Security. Many law enforcement agencies have sent out squads to specifically harass and intimidate citizens in the USA since the attack in September 2001.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.
This is either true or untrue for both men. I think it is untrue; but I note that GWB is making the force far harder to leave.
He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.
GWB has sought to keep the military independent of and superior to civil power. He has sought to make the military subject only to the Executive, by making them only subject to Executive justice and not Judiciary.
two points skipped
For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:
GWB has sought to provide immunity to officers of the law and members of the Executive branch who break the law, up to and including murder of people who were in their care and custody. This primarily applies to Iraqis arrested without just cause and held without due process, but also applies to US citizens he has deprived of their rights by calling them 'enemy combatants'.
For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:
GWB has unilaterally broken many treaties and this has affected our status and our ability to trade. He has, however, been more than willing to let us trade products that have not been properly tested for safety.
For imposing taxes on us without our consent:
Both have had a large amount of consent from the governed; I note that some of the richest have done their level best to avoid paying any taxes by using corporate tax havens while at the same time maintaining their 'support' for the USA. This has happened on both watches.
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:
GWB has done his level best to attempt to deny the rights of trial by jury to a couple of US citizens. While this is hardly a majority, it was unheard of under WJC; these current cases have been test cases in order to deprive more citizens of right to trial by jury.
For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:
GWB's people have handed detainees over to foreign powers for questioning. There was a Canadian citizen...
one point skipped
For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:
Did I mention GWB broke treaties? Treaties are among the most valuable laws of the land.
three points skipped
He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totaly unworth the head of a civilized nation.
We currently have tens of thousands of mercenary fighters in Iraq, paid for by the US Government, not beholden to US Military Code of Justice, and who have at their worst shown a shocking disregard for liberty and justice. Remember, much of the current Iraqi prison abuse scandal had to do with contractors overseeing torture in the name of the US. This is GWB's responsibility.
The rest skipped
Yanno, William Jefferson Clinton didn't do anywhere *near* as much stuff that would have riled the founders as George Walker Bush has.
I will be skipping some points where it is not relevent to the Presidency for either man. I have read the document several times just this past Sunday, and while I think it's good reading I think it's a good idea to keep to the relevent parts.
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds 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 to 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.
No comments up to this point. I just like the preamble.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
With the economy the way it is currently, the percent of people employed who are of employable age at its lowest in a very long time, and some freedoms curtailed in the name of safety - generally, I will note, ineffective safety measures taken that only have the effect of harassing citizens - GWB is definitely leading the way in suffering for the average person in the US. Not, it should be said, to the degree people were put out back in the 1770s.
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.
Refusing to pass laws in the interest of the public good - laws that are to the benefit of the public at large. It could be said both GWB and WJC have done so, but GWB seems to have done so more often in the past three and a half years than WJC did in eight. GWB is also specifically trying to kill gay civil marriage at the Federal level, despite his oft-touted concern for State rights. I consider civil marriage a 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.
GWB and his administration have specifically told GOP leadership in both the House and Senate to kill certain bills, or to make sure certain riders were put in, and none of them can be said to be to the benefit of the common man. He's also taken more vacation time than any other modern President. If I took that much vacation time in a year I'd be fired in about four months.
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.
I note that the GWB White House has opposed extending unemployment benefits in a period of high and prolonged unemployment, while saying that tax cuts for the rich are important and vital for the economic health of the rich. If more money is good for the rich, should it not be at least as needful as the less rich?
Also, most anybody who has given the GWB administration news contrary to what they want to hear has been sacked, no matter how sound their information.
three points skipped
He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.
GWB's administration has made it tougher for people from certain countries to either visit or become naturalized citizens. I am happy for those who manage to become citizens; I grieve for their fellows who want the same right but are peremptorily refused. He has, however, made some traffic from Mexico easier.
WJC did make it more difficult to develop land, in the name of preservation.
He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.
GWB has specifically attempted to make certain laws rarely touch the Judiciary, such as the very-misnomered U.S.A.P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act; and has tried to curtail the Judiciary's ability to adjudge the law in US-administered space.
He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
GWB has done his level best to ensure that all judges appointed on his watch follow a particular ideological code. Their ability with the law is irrelevent, as are the times they are unfair and inconsistent with proper practice of law, so long as they follow GWB's agenda.
He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
WJC created AmeriCorps, which has kept a very low profile in its stated goal of helping out poor areas in the USA.
GWB has created the Office of Homeland Security. Many law enforcement agencies have sent out squads to specifically harass and intimidate citizens in the USA since the attack in September 2001.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.
This is either true or untrue for both men. I think it is untrue; but I note that GWB is making the force far harder to leave.
He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.
GWB has sought to keep the military independent of and superior to civil power. He has sought to make the military subject only to the Executive, by making them only subject to Executive justice and not Judiciary.
two points skipped
For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:
GWB has sought to provide immunity to officers of the law and members of the Executive branch who break the law, up to and including murder of people who were in their care and custody. This primarily applies to Iraqis arrested without just cause and held without due process, but also applies to US citizens he has deprived of their rights by calling them 'enemy combatants'.
For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:
GWB has unilaterally broken many treaties and this has affected our status and our ability to trade. He has, however, been more than willing to let us trade products that have not been properly tested for safety.
For imposing taxes on us without our consent:
Both have had a large amount of consent from the governed; I note that some of the richest have done their level best to avoid paying any taxes by using corporate tax havens while at the same time maintaining their 'support' for the USA. This has happened on both watches.
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:
GWB has done his level best to attempt to deny the rights of trial by jury to a couple of US citizens. While this is hardly a majority, it was unheard of under WJC; these current cases have been test cases in order to deprive more citizens of right to trial by jury.
For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:
GWB's people have handed detainees over to foreign powers for questioning. There was a Canadian citizen...
one point skipped
For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:
Did I mention GWB broke treaties? Treaties are among the most valuable laws of the land.
three points skipped
He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totaly unworth the head of a civilized nation.
We currently have tens of thousands of mercenary fighters in Iraq, paid for by the US Government, not beholden to US Military Code of Justice, and who have at their worst shown a shocking disregard for liberty and justice. Remember, much of the current Iraqi prison abuse scandal had to do with contractors overseeing torture in the name of the US. This is GWB's responsibility.
The rest skipped
Yanno, William Jefferson Clinton didn't do anywhere *near* as much stuff that would have riled the founders as George Walker Bush has.
