The “Fourth of July”, for most people, means Firecrackers, Barbecue, and Beer. There’s nothing wrong with those things, and we plan to enjoy them along with the rest of the country. But I hope you will take just a few minutes out of your day to read the document that we’re celebrating today, and reflect on what it meant for the men who signed it, and what it means to Americans today. It’s one of the most important documents in all human history, and as an American you should be proud of it.

Have a fantastic Independence Day. God Bless America.

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 Tyranny 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 complete 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 Connexions 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 Connexion 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 Honour.

John Hancock.
GEORGIA, Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, Geo. Walton.
NORTH-CAROLINA, Wm. Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn.
SOUTH-CAROLINA, Edward Rutledge, Thos Heyward, junr. Thomas Lynch, junr. Arthur Middleton.
MARYLAND, Samuel Chase, Wm. Paca, Thos. Stone, Charles Carroll, of Carrollton.
VIRGINIA, George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Ths. Jefferson, Benja. Harrison, Thos. Nelson, jr. Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton.
PENNSYLVANIA, Robt. Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benja. Franklin, John Morton, Geo. Clymer, Jas. Smith, Geo. Taylor, James Wilson, Geo. Ross.
DELAWARE, Caesar Rodney, Geo. Read.
NEW-YORK, Wm. Floyd, Phil. Livingston, Frank Lewis, Lewis Morris.
NEW-JERSEY, Richd. Stockton, Jno. Witherspoon, Fras. Hopkinson, John Hart, Abra. Clark.
NEW-HAMPSHIRE, Josiah Bartlett, Wm. Whipple, Matthew Thornton.
MASSACHUSETTS-BAY, Saml. Adams, John Adams, Robt. Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry.
RHODE-ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE, &c. Step. Hopkins, William Ellery.
CONNECTICUT, Roger Sherman, Saml. Huntington, Wm. Williams, Oliver Wolcott.

IN CONGRESS, JANUARY 18, 1777.

ORDERED,
THAT an authenticated Copy of the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCY, with the Names of the MEMBERS of CONGRESS, subscribing the same, be sent to each of the UNITED STATES, and that they be desired to have the same put on RECORD.
By Order of CONGRESS,
JOHN HANCOCK, President.

Sarah says she’s done:

I actually held off on commenting on this because I wanted to think about it and hear a couple different perspectives on it. My initial thoughts were concerning her money troubles stemming from the ethics complaints. I also thought she might be planning a run for the Senate.

Stephen Green at Vodkapundit sums his thoughts up:

I can describe this move in three words: Stupid, stupid, stupid. And the reason doesn’t matter.

Joy McCann says:

…to the unending distress of the militant left, she is not the idiot that Katie Couric attempted to make her into, so there likely is some reason Palin wanted to “bury” this news, or at least keep the political paparazzi at bay for a little while.

Dan Riehl offers his two cents:

My take – she’s not done and will look to go national in some way setting up for a possible 2012 run.

Jon Henke at The Next Right:

Her Presidential prospects are done, and it’s hard to see how Republicans will still consider her a potential leader of the movement.

But perhaps that’s best.

Curt at Flopping Aces:

Not sure I get it. She could be planning to spend 2010 campaigning for true conservatives for 2010, forcing the party back to its roots and then onto 2012. Or she could be tired of the lawsuits and crap she takes from the media and the left.

Confused.

The Troglopundit:

Not having read any other commentary yet, I’m unsure what the conservative marching orders are. So I’m gonna wing it. If she’s doing this in order to free herself for more national travel – for a presidential run – then she’s making a mistake.

John Hawkins at Right Wing News, writing on his first day of “vacation”:

She may intend to run for President in 2012 and feels like it’s to her advantage to resign now. It will mean no more phony ethics complaints. She’ll be able to raise money and campaign for Republican candidates without having it used against her as governor as well. On the downside, it would hurt her in her weakest area: experience.

Little Green Footballs:

Hmm. This is a pretty standard way to downplay something and keep it out of the news cycle as much as possible— release it late Friday on a long weekend.

Betsy Newmark at Betsy’s Page:

I’m deeply sorry that she and her family have undergone this battering in the public eye, but I’m not going to miss her. And I’m certainly not going to miss all the ugly Palin jokes on late night TV and the internet. This has not been a pretty chapter in the annals of American politics. I can’t help wondering what the contrafactual path would have been for Palin if McCain hadn’t picked her and she’d still been that promising-sounding governor that conservative writers, but no one else, were beginning to take notice of. Unfortunately, we can’t put that toothpaste back in the tube.

The Conservative Political Report:

Here is another take, maybe she has just had enough of the BS. If that is the case I can’t actually blame her for stepping down. Either way good luck to the Governor in all her endeavors.

McQ at Q and O:

My guess? She’s been tired of the moonbat attacks for a while, and the final straw was the McCain bunch. She’s most likely figured that in today’s poisonous political atmosphere, national exposure and national office just aren’t worth the price.

Jim Geraghty at The Corner:

If Sarah Palin wishes to someday be President of the United States, then she had to serve at least one full term in statewide office. (Yes, Obama had been in the Senate for about two years before running for president, but he had a lot of stars align for him at the right moment. Beyond that, at some point, “but Obama did it that way” isn’t a persuasive argument.)

The Anchoress:

I’m thinking…an ambitious woman like Palin would not do something so seemingly reckless and yes, career-damaging, unless politics is no longer an issue for her.

It’s wrong to speculate, but Palin is forcing speculation.

The American Pundit:

She will be absolutely slammed from all sides during any run for failing to fulfill her obligation to the citizens of Alaska. She abandons her elected post once something better opens up for her personal advancement? Like I said, not the best imagery.

Ace of Spades:

And that is that.

It’s over. You can’t resign from a governorship and then run for higher office. Barring some strong reason, like needing treatment for cancer.

Kathryn Jean Lopez at The Corner:

If she is stepping down because of what politics has done to her family, because of something in her family life she doesn’t want to see as David Letterman fodder, because it’s impossible to be governor, a star, and a mom to an infant . . . this is good. It demonstrates good judgment and priorities.

American Power:

The conservative base will be looking for the most genuine conservative around, and Palin’s youthful vigor, and canny ability to raise the passions of the conservative stalwarts, may be too much for even the most well-organized primary challenger that year. All of this depends on Palin indeed taking the time to polish her resume and skills. Being out of office, and free from the endless attacks – what Palin called “the politics of personal destruction” – may well be an asset in launching a presidential bid from the outside.

Allahpundit at Hot Air:

The most charitable possibility is that she’s so eager to run for president that she can’t be bothered with the governorship anymore, and even that possibility ain’t too charitable. This has taken an ominous turn.

Nice Deb:

It doesn’t seem like a great political move, to me. Why so fast?

I think she was just worn down…sick of having a target on her back. She can go out now, and start earning some money to pay for her legal bills.

Personally, I think that last one is the winner. The Palin’s were taking a financial beating from all the ethics charges filed against them. Now, they can start raking in the cash from the speaker’s circuit. Who needs the abuse from that job when you can start building massive bank giving speeches?

And as for the idea this is the end of her political career, I find that a bit over the top and reactionary. If this woman spends the next few years traveling the country giving speeches, either for cash or in support of conservative candidates, she can reach a lot of people.

This isn’t the last we have heard from Sarah Palin.

I hope that’s it. Whatever it is, I wish the best to Gov. Palin and her family. None of them deserved the treatment they received from the left and the media.

Today I interview Jim Hoft, the Gateway Pundit. Go to RFC Radio to listen now. I mean it, right now.

Or, you can listen by starting the widget in the sidebar. Either way is cool with me.

Today’s blog of the day is Kathy Shaidle’s five feet of fury. Go over and give her some traffic. Subscribe to her blog and follow her on Twitter. Also be sure to listen to her interview on Bloglines today at 5 pm EST on RFC Radio. It’s a very good talk about the writing industry.

The Republicans have a new anti-cap and tax ad out, describing what will happen to American taxpayers’ energy bills:

What’s great about this is the use of Democrats in the video, especially Obama saying that energy prices will “necessarily skyrocket.”

Hat Tip: Gateway Pundit

The website of the day is Midnight Blue. Go over and visit Skye, sign up for her RSS feed and follow her on Twitter. He also has a Facebook page and you can look at her photos on Flickr. And let’s not forget her YouTube page.

Whew! Busy lady!

Today I interview Skye from Midnight Blue and other various blogs, including Flopping Aces.

Skye and I talked about the need for not only bloggers, but citizen journalists. Yes, there is a difference. Listen and find out what I mean.

The show will be on RFC Radio today at 5 pm Eastern.

I went to a tax town hall meeting with Congressman Sam Graves on Monday evening. It was held on the Missouri Western State University, and even though I am more of a Bearcat, I went anyway because I wanted to hear what Sam had to say.

I was very happy I went. Rep. Graves voted against the cap and trade bill. He voted against the stimulus bill. He said during the question and answer period that he supported the FairTax. He is a co-sponsor of the bill, after all.

Sam came across as a fiscal conservative and said exactly what other Republicans need to be saying. I have his portion of the town hall below for you to listen to, and I recommend it. Sam has some great insights on how the House works.

For the record, I recorded this on my iPhone, using the iTalk app from Griffin. I was sitting under a speaker and I had to boost the audio a little using Audacity.

I still think it sounds pretty good for recording it on a phone.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. During the questions from the audience portion, I asked the second question. It was on getting the Republican party to come together on the FairTax. I thought his answer was decent.

 

 Rep. Sam Graves Speaking at the Tax Town Hall in St. Joseph, Missouri: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

When there were questions about the election results in Iran, Obama had nothing to say. When there were protests, he was mum. When they were shooting their people in the streets, he didn’t want to be seen as meddling.

But when Israel wants to build settlements, he has no problem voicing his opinion.

And when Honduras fights against a leftist leader who wanted to lead longer than was legal, he calls it illegal.

So, why is it meddling to support freedom in Iran? It’s like “The Princess Bride,” really.

Obama: “I don’t want to meddle.”

Iranian Protestor: “You keep using that word. I do not think you know what it means.”

It would be funnier if it wasn’t true.

Go visit Velvet Hammer over at Ironic Surrealism v3.0. Subscribe to her blog while you are there. Then come back here and subscribe to mine.

Oh yeah, follow her on Twitter too. And me.