No Joy This Fourth Of July

[chefmike]

While I'm not going so far as skipping my July 4th BBQ(the ribs are smoking as I type this), I share this fellow veteran's sentiments about recent events...

No Joy This Fourth Of July
Bob Geiger

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." ~ Declaration of Independence

I've always enjoyed the Fourth of July.

It's summer, it's a festive holiday about celebration -- not mourning or remembrance -- and, as a military Veteran, it has been a time to feel good about whatever miniscule role I've played in maintaining our country's strength and freedom.

But I'm going to skip the barbeques and just go to work today. I do this because the state of my country under the reign of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and their entire cabal of crooks and non-patriots, leaves me with a feeling so hollow and barren that I simply cannot use drinking a beer, eating a hot dog or watching fireworks as a soothing balm.

With Bush's effective pardon of Scooter Libby on Monday, he has once again acted on behalf of the American people with no regard for what the people actually want. Poll after poll has shown that Americans still cling to a belief in equal justice under the law and that letting Libby off the hook on perjury and obstruction of justice charges in the outing of a covert CIA agent is horribly wrong. But that doesn't stop Bush from doing whatever he damn well pleases to help his cronies and appease his political benefactors.

The overwhelming majority of the country now also knows the truth of the Iraq occupation and made clear in the last election what is expected of our leaders in ending that disaster. The American people know that the White House cooked the intelligence books to make a bogus case for war against a country that posed no threat whatsoever to the United States and by far most Americans want us out of Iraq as soon as possible.

It was the same thing with the way most of us feel about the promise held in the science of stem cell research and the huge nationwide support for raising the federal minimum wage, which have both been fought tooth and nail by Bush and the Republican party.

No matter how we the people want to be governed or how we decide we want our country to look, Bush sticks stubbornly to what he wants, to what he mandates and what he decides in his delusional world of absolute power and authority over all he surveys.

It's a bitter irony that what we celebrate today is deliverance from just such an absolute power and authority in the form of King George III, about whom the Founding Fathers railed in the majority of the Declaration of Independence and from whom they declared our freedom. We broke away from the colonial rule of a tyrant and, in the preamble to this sacred document, we stated that our leaders are ultimately governed by those for which government is created and that those elected president get "their just powers from the consent of the governed."


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 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.

We declared our break from a monarch, an absolute ruler, in 1776 when the 13 colonies risked it all to repudiate that form of government and to say that the leader of what would become the new United States of America should listen to the will of the people and not the other way around.

One has to wonder what Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Hancock and the other Founding Fathers would think of where we're at, 231 years later, if they could see the vision of Democracy they cherished so soiled and the 43rd president known not at all for his wisdom and entirely for his outrageous abuse of power.

George W. Bush has taken our country and made us despised throughout the world, ruined our global reputation in a way that may take a generation to salvage and made us far less safe in a dangerous world. Indeed, he has used our nation's wealth and power to make the world a more dangerous place.

His administration has also found a way to diminish a great holiday like our Independence Day, to make us feel less like proudly waving our flag and to even cause many like me, who have worn our country's uniform, to wonder what the hell it was for.

And, for that, every American who voted for Bush, should take time this July Fourth to perform a truly patriotic act and be profoundly ashamed.

I've got your joy right here, swinging. Is this another one of your cries for dick? Post this shit in the P & R where it belongs and we have trained specialists ready to handle your stupidity. We've got decent folks on this side of the board. Don't go loitering and give the place "Atmosphere".

[TrueBeauty TS]

Amen, Chef.

I fly the flag today not because of what our country is today, but what we once were and what we once stood for.


Hopefully, what we can stand for again once we are done with King George and these dark times.




.

What's with all you fucking whiners. "What we once were?"

If you think this place stinks, go fly a flag in London for the love of God. We don't need any torch carriers telling us we suck. America is pretty much the best thing on this planet and how do you like that?

[TrueBeauty TS]

What's with all you fucking whiners. "What we once were?"

If you think this place stinks, go fly a flag in London for the love of God. We don't need any torch carriers telling us we suck. America is pretty much the best thing on this planet and how do you like that?

You are an idiot. A dictators dream. A TRUE Patriot is ever vigilant of their own government. A TRUE Patriot demands accountability of their own government.

Idiots like you think that being a good American means to sit back and swallow whatever crap your government tells you, no questions asked.

How do you like that?



.

What's with all you fucking whiners. "What we once were?"

If you think this place stinks, go fly a flag in London for the love of God. We don't need any torch carriers telling us we suck. America is pretty much the best thing on this planet and how do you like that?

You are an idiot. A dictators dream. A TRUE Patriot is ever vigilant of their own government. A TRUE Patriot demands accountability of their own government.

Idiots like you think that being a good American means to sit back and swallow whatever crap your government tells you, no questions asked.

How do you like that?



.

You're wrong and weak on crime.


A true patriot doesn't fucking torch carry. A true patriot says "I'm gonna do something other than rub my thighs together and whine about the old days".

You have a couple of real options for change. Get the fuck out of the country or come up with better ideas. Until then, stop your bitching.

[TrueBeauty TS]

You have a couple of real options for change. Get the fuck out of the country or come up with better ideas.

Yeah, that sounds like something you'd do. Cut & run. No thanks.
I'll stay here and continue to try to make my country a better place.

Maybe you should try that?



.

You have a couple of real options for change. Get the fuck out of the country or come up with better ideas.

Yeah, that sounds like something you'd do. Cut & run. No thanks.
I'll stay here and continue to try to make my country a better place.

And how you gonna do that? Whining on message boards on the internets? LMAO

[TrueBeauty TS]

And how you gonna do that? Whining on message boards on the internets? LMAO

No, by being politically active. You ever think of that?


Or are you too busy drinking your Kool-Aid?

And how you gonna do that? Whining on message boards on the internets? LMAO

No, by being politically active.

Oh. You're one of them type. LOL. I love making you people cry in November.