VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – President Barack Obama promised Pope Benedict on Friday that he would do everything possible to reduce the number of abortions in the United States, the Vatican said. more…..

A friend of mine summed it up best:

“I’m thinking lying directly to the face of the Pope pretty much guarantees you express line privileges to hell.

Does this shit stain think he can spin things and “nuance” things when he’s talking to God?  Or does he think he’s just bullshitting with an equal?

I kept imagining Robert Calvert’s “Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters” album when reading that article.

And a lyric from an old Residents song:
Quick, Brain
Drain the main
Ship’s a’goin’ down.”

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-Cnation

FAIR Legislative Update – July 06, 2009

My Interests | All > Interests: Legislative Update – Return to Top – Legislative Update Add to My Interests

New FAIR Report Shows Reducing Immigration Would Lower Carbon Emissions A new report released last week by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) shows that immigration-fueled population growth has been the single largest contributing factor to the increase in U.S. energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions over the past 35 years. Authored by FAIR’s Director of Special Projects Jack Martin, the report comes just days after the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. (See FAIR’s Press Release, July 1, 2009). According to the report (entitled Immigration, Energy, and the Environment), Americans actually achieved more than a nine percent reduction in per capita energy consumption between 1973 and 2007. During that same time period, however, the U.S. population increased nearly 70 percent, with more than 31 percent of that increase directly attributable to legal immigration alone. (In addition, the report notes that “the share of population growth attributable to immigration is still higher when illegal immigration and the children born to the immigrants after their arrival are included.”) This population increase led to a 33 percent increase in American energy consumption from 1973 to 2007 — an increase that can be attributed primarily to U.S. population growth over that period. The House of Representatives recently passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, legislation more commonly referred to as “Cap-and-Trade.” The bill seeks to, among other things, “cap and reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” a move that supporters of the legislation suggest would help fight global climate change. However, the bill fails to address the principle cause of the problem it is seeking to solve: immigration generated population growth. (H.R. 2454). According to Immigration, Energy, and the Environment, “Any effort by the United States to reduce greenhouse gas emissions must take population growth into account.” The report goes on to point out that the central component of an energy policy that deals with population growth “must include an effective and enforceable immigration policy that curbs immigration levels to the point that it is no longer driving U.S. population growth.” Senate to Consider Homeland Security Spending Bill Later this week, the U.S. Senate will debate the Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 Homeland Security spending bill. This legislation sets spending levels for a wide range of departments and programs that deal with immigration enforcement, including Customs and Border Protection (CBP); Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE); and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). (S.1298, June 18, 2009). As currently constituted, the bill would provide $10.1 billion for CBP, a $347 million funding increase from FY2009. This total includes: $800 million for Southwest border investments under the Border Security Fencing, Infrastructure, and Technology (BSFIT) account, a $25 million increase from FY2009. (Senate Appropriations Committee Summary, June 18, 2009). The mission of the BSFIT account is to fund “the technology and tactical infrastructure solutions to achieve effective control of the U.S. borders and coastlines.” (House Report 111-157). $40 million in BSFIT funding for Northern border security technology, equal to the FY2009 spending level. $3.5 billion to fund 20,019 Border Patrol agents. Of these, 17,000 will be based on the Southwest border. $145 million for the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI), a program that seeks to enhance border security through the standardization of travel documentation. (Senate Appropriations Committee Summary, June 18, 2009; For more on WHTI, see FAIR’s Legislative Update, June 1, 2009). ICE would receive $5.445 billion under the bill, an increase of $455.9 million from FY2009. This funding includes: $1 billion “to identify dangerous criminal aliens and prioritize these individuals for removal once an immigration judge orders them deported.” (Senate Appropriations Committee Summary, June 18, 2009). $196 million for Secure Communities, a program that seeks to identify and deport illegal aliens booked into local jails. (Id.; For more on Secure Communities, see FAIR’s Legislative Update, May 26, 2009). $139 million for worksite enforcement investigations, including funding designated for the hiring of “100 special agents to perform audits of employers.” (Senate Appropriations Committee Summary, June 18, 2009). The bill allocates $136 million for USCIS, a $34 million increase from FY2009. This total includes: $5 million to facilitate the naturalization of immigrants serving in the U.S. armed services. $118.5 million for E-Verify, the online, electronically operated system that allows employers to quickly and easily verify that their new hires are legally authorized to work in the U.S. The bill would extend E-Verify for three years. (Id.; For more on E-Verify, see FAIR’s E-Verify Backgrounder). The House version of the legislation contains only a two year E-Verify extension. (See FAIR’s Legislative Update, June 29, 2009). Senators will have the opportunity to offer amendments to alter the bill once floor debate begins. Once the Senate passes the bill, the bill will go to a House-Senate conference to resolve any differences between the House and Senate versions of the legislation. States, Employers Advance with E-Verify While Feds Continue to Obstruct Program While states and employers steadily increase their use of E-Verify — the federal program that allows employers to verify the work eligibility of their new hires — the Obama Administration and congressional leadership appear to be undermining the popular and effective program. Last week, Mississippi continued to expand its own use of E-Verify as part of a gradual phase-in of mandatory statewide E-Verify usage. The Mississippi Employment Protection Act, which became law in March 2008, set a three-year timetable for mandatory E-Verify usage for all employers. On July 1, 2008, the law required all Mississippi state agencies and subdivisions and all employers with 250 or more employees to begin using E-Verify. On July 1, 2009, the law required all employers with 100 or more employees to begin using E-Verify. Employers with 30 or more employees will be required to use E-Verify as of July 1, 2010, and all employers regardless of size will be required to use E-Verify as of July 1, 2011. (Mississippi Legislature, 2008 Regular Session; Ogletree Deakins, April 4, 2008 and FYIScreening.com, June 25, 2009). Meanwhile, South Carolina continued with its own expansion of mandatory in-state E-Verify usage. July 1, 2009 was the deadline for expansion of mandatory E-Verify usage to all South Carolina employers with 100 or more employees under the South Carolina Illegal Immigration Reform Act of 2008. The newest group of employers joins all state agencies and subdivisions and employers with 500 or more employees, all of whom were made subject to the law beginning in January 2009. In addition to its employment verification requirements, the South Carolina Illegal Immigration Reform Act also provided rules for employer treatment of discovered illegal alien employees and penalties for businesses that fail to comply with the new law. The law will ultimately require all in-state employers to use E-Verify as of July 1, 2010. (FYIScreening.com, June 25, 2009; and The Island Packet, July 1, 2009). As states like Mississippi and South Carolina expand their E-Verify usage — and employers continue to sign up for the federal verification program in record numbers (USA Today, June 24, 2009) — the White House and the House and Senate majorities have ignored the growing demand for E-Verify. Congress has even seemed at times to be attacking the effective verification program by discouraging employers from using it and blocking its long-term extension. The Obama Administration recently initiated a fourth delay of the Department of Defense rule that would have required most federal contractors to screen all new hires and most employees working on federal contracts with E-Verify. In addition, Democratic House and Senate leadership have opposed attempts by some members of Congress to reauthorize E-Verify in recent months. House leaders recently went so far as to block debate and votes on several proposed E-Verify amendments during a recent House Rules Committee hearing and have repeatedly rejected several other E-Verify amendments outright at recent House Appropriations Committee hearings. (For a detailed review of recent E-Verify’s legislative history, see FAIR’s Legislative Updates for June 8, 2009; June 15, 2009; June 22, 2009; and June 29, 2009). Congressional resistance to E-Verify, however, is not sitting well with an increasing number of members of Congress, including some so-called Blue Dog Democrats. The Blue Dogs have recently become vocal about their dissatisfaction with their own party’s lack of leadership on the issue, and have urged the Obama Administration to fully implement the E-Verify federal contractor rule. (Salt Lake Tribune, June 23, 2009; KCPW, June 24, 2009; and TheSpectrum.com, June 24, 2009).

I posted last night about the counter-protests that were being organized for today, July 9th, against moveon.org’s pro-socialized healthcare rallys that were being held at senator’s offices throughout the country. I’m happy to report that at Kay Hagan’s office here in Raleigh, the turnout for our side was great.

I got there late – got stuck on a job and couldn’t get away until well after the rally’s noon start time – and showed up with sign in hand just as it was breaking up. There were still enough of us there though that people were driving by and honking/shouting in support of our side though, so I made sure to walk around with my sign displayed for a few more minutes before heading back to work.

From what I saw, we had the moveon peole outnumbered. A man I spoke with said there had been maybe 30 pro-socialized medicine demonstrators, and several more than that on our side. However, another conservative attendee reports that that we had the moveon demonstrators outnumbered 4-to-1.

Whatever the actual numbers, everyone seemto agree that there were more of us than them. That’s significant for a couple of reasons:

• This was the middle of a work day with very short notice
• We were coming out against a very well funded, well organized and generally well-oiled machine in moveon
• Raleigh is a college town and has a growing liberal population

As good as the turnout was, I’m under no illusion that we actually accomplished anything today with Hagan. She has at least partially caved to moveon’s threats of airing attack ads if she didn’t come out in support of a ‘public option”, but I still have been unable to find a definitive statement from her one way or the other. When in doubt, continue to hammer away. If you’re a North Carolina resident, keep the pressure on Senator Hagan right up until the vote is closed.

Here is a list of Dem senators who, as of July 8th, still did not support the ‘public option’. I’ve lifted this list from talkingpointsmemo.com and added the D.C. phone numbers and web links to each senator’s individual website (click on the name). Each and every one of these senators needs to hear from us. Let them know that you do not support the public option:

Strongly Opposed (2)

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Both Lieberman and Landrieu have specifically opposed a public option.

Opposed (9)

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On The Fence (9)

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Recent converts (2)

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Pressure, pressure, pressure! Don’t let up, we can win this.

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-Cnation

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee has decided to delay further work on the Cap and Trade bill until September. While this is good news, we need to keep calling, faxing and emailing our senators – perhaps even moresow now – until we actually witness the stake being driven through the heart of the cap-and-tax beast.

More from Michelle Malkin and the Washington Post

h/t Michelle Malkin

-Cnation

Tomorrow, July 9th 2009, the far-left moveon.org will be dispatching activists to approximately 150 senate offices throught the country to rally in support of national healthcare and the ‘public option’. Additionally, they will be conducting a telephone ‘blitz’ of these same senators.

From the Moveon.org website:

Public Option Now! Health Care Rally

“The fight over health care reform is reaching a critical moment. The heart of President Obama’s plan — a strong public health insurance option — is under attack. MoveOn members are organizing Public Option Now! Health Care rallies on July 9th to send a strong message to the Senate: Health care reform must include a strong public health insurance option.”

What MoveOn isn’t telling you:

On June 15th, the Congressional Budget Office released its projections of what just ONE section of the Kennedy healthcare proposal would cost: 1 TRILLION dollars from 2010 to 2019, and this is without the cost of a government-run insurance plan (the ‘public option’) figured in.

From the CBO’s letter to Senator Kennedy (all emphasis mine):

The attached table summarizes our preliminary assessment of the proposal’s budgetary effects and its likely impact on insurance coverage. According to that assessment, enacting the proposal would result in a net increase in federal budget deficits of about $1.0 trillion over the 2010–2019 period. Once the proposal was fully implemented, about 39 million individuals would obtain coverage through the new insurance exchanges. At the same time, the number of people who had coverage through an employer would decline by about 15 million (or roughly 10 percent), and coverage from other sources would fall by about 8 million, so the net decrease in the number of people uninsured would be about 16 million.

So, according to the CBO;

• By 2019, 39 million people would be covered by the government plan
• In the same time frame, approximately 23 million people would lose their current insurance coverage from employer or other private sources
• When all is said and done, only 16 million people would have benefited from the new healthcare reform.

In fact, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) just today, in a moment of unintentinal candor, admitted ““If every member pledged to not vote for it if they hadn’t read it in its entirety, I think we would have very few votes,”.  cnsnews.com hotair.com

What you can do:

Attend A Counter-Protest Rally

Conservative counter-protest rallys are being organized as I write this. These counter-rallys will be held Thursday July 9th at the same time and locations as the moveon rallys. Please try to at least make an appearance; I know most of us have day jobs, but the moveon rallys appear to all be scheduled during lunchtime hours, making them easily doable for most of us. It is important that we make a big a showing as possible. Bring a sign if at all possible.

Click here and input your ZIP code to find out where the moveon people will be holding their rallys. That is where you need to go. Also, if there’s a conservative or TEA party group active in your area, check their website – chances are they’re already organizing.

Call and Fax Your Senator

If you cannot make it – and even if you can – the other thing that needs to be done are phone calls to your senator’s offices to counter the moveon ‘blitz’, to let them know you do not support national healthcare or the ‘public option’, and that you expect them to vote it down.

Every senator has a Washington, DC office – that’s the one to call first – but make sure to call their local offices as well. When something big s going on, the DC phone lines will often be jammed.

A full list of senators searchable by name, state, or (and this is handy) when they’re up for reelection is here. Clicking on your senator’s name will take you directly to their website where you can find the phone and fax numbers of all their offices.

I can’t overstate the importance of these phone calls. Our Senators do pay attention to the calls that come in so that they may gauge how much support they have on a given issue. You won’t speak directly with your senator (you’ll get a staffer) , but your opposition will be noted.

If you’ve never called a government representative before, it’s really no big deal. It can seem intimidating at first, but remember that not only are they just people, but they work for us. Click here for some excellent tips on how to effectively communicate with your Senator. I have excerpted the relevant ‘telephone calls’ section below:

Telephone Calls
Unless you have established a working relationship with a legislator or one of their staff members, telephone calls are best limited to times when a bill is coming up for a vote and you want to urge the legislator to vote for or against it. If you have established a working relationship with the legislator or one of their staff members, then call them to discuss it. But, keep in mind you may not be able to talk with the legislator personally. When in Washington elected officials have hectic schedules and a good part of their day is spent in committee meetings or on the floor of the House or Senate.

Instead of calling your legislators’ Washington office consider calling a local district office instead. For one, it’s less expensive than a long distance call to Washington and, two, district offices tend not to get swamped with phone calls as do Capitol offices.

If this is your first call to a congressional office, you’ll talk with a staff member. The first thing you need to do is state your and name and the fact that you are a constituent of the legislator. Then briefly state the nature of your call, i.e., urging the legislator to support or oppose a particular piece of legislation:

“Hello, my name is Sally Smith and I am a constituent of (name of senator or representative). I am calling today to urge them to support/oppose HR 1234. Thank you.”

These types of calls are very important to legislators and the vast majority of offices keep track of these calls.

I’ll be attending the counter-protest in Raleigh at Senator Kay Hagan’s office.

Stay safe, give ‘em hell, and take no shit from anyone. This is our country.

-Cnation

Know thine enemy – a piece of advice we’d better get familiar with.

In the National Review today, David Kahane lays it out: You cannot beat an enemy that you both underestimate and fail to understand. The enemy in this case is the liberal left. I’m not talking about the moderate democrat next door who, however misguided they may have been when they thought it would be cool to plant an “Obama” sign in their front yard, really doesn’t support the social and financial destruction of their country after all. No, I’m talking about the welfare state-expanding, America-hating, wealth-redistributing, open borders-advocating, constitution shredding, lying, thieving ‘win at all costs’ far-left liberal of the type that now owns congress, the justice department, homeland security, the senate, and the white house, as well as the majority of print and televised media.

These people and their supporters/enablers are the enemy.

This is an enemy who’s well-versed in the art of fighting dirty – who in fact knows no other way to fight. This is an enemy without honor, morals, or integrity, and to whom no rules apply except for one: Win. Period.

Obama. Holder. Emanuel. Pelosi. Reid. Sanders. Napolitano. Every single member of the despicable congressional black caucus. Sonia Sotomayor (who I swear to you I’ve tried to like, but whose true colors – no pun intended – are now undeniable.). In the media, we have Olbermann, Krugman, Sanchez, Matthews (Mr. Tingle-up-the-leg), Dowd….every last one of them, shameless to the core, and completely unafraid to do or say whatever needs to be done or said to advance their ideological agenda – truth, sovereignty, general welfare or national security be damned.

On the subject of truth, here’s some right now: when Obama was saying ‘Yes We Can”, he was not talking to those of us who love our country and believe in the constitution.

The following NRO article, a small portion of which I’ve excerpted below, deals with exactly the subject I’ve been giving a great deal of thought to lately:

Yes, my friends, it’s once again time to quote Sean Connery’s famous speech from The Untouchables, written by David Mamet — the lecture the veteran Chicago cop gives a wet-behind-the-ears Eliot Ness (Kevin Costner, back when he was a movie star) while they sit in a church pew. “You want to get Capone? Here’s how you get him: he pulls a knife, you pull a gun, he sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That’s the Chicago way!” If you just think of us — liberal Democrats — as Capone you’ll begin to understand what we’re up to. And we just put one of yours in the morgue.

I don’t know why I’m telling you this, but maybe now you’re beginning to understand the high-stakes game we’re playing here. This ain’t John McCain’s logrolling senatorial club any more. This is a deadly serious attempt to realize the vision of the 1960s and to fundamentally transform the United States of America. This is the fusion of Communist dogma, high ideals, gangster tactics, and a stunning amount of self-loathing. For the first time in history, the patrician class is deliberately selling its own country down the river just to prove a point: that, yes, we can! This country stinks and we won’t be happy until we’ve forced you to admit it.

In other words, stop thinking of the Democratic Party as merely a political party, because it’s much more than that. We’re not just the party of slavery, segregation, secularism, and sedition. Not just the party of Aaron Burr, Boss Tweed, Richard J. Croker, Bull Connor, Chris Dodd, Richard Daley, Bill Ayers, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, and Emperor Barack Hussein Obama II. Not just the party of Kendall “Agent 202” Myers, the State Department official recruited as a Cuban spy along with his wife during the Carter administration. Rather, think of the Democratic Party as what it really is: a criminal organization masquerading as a political party.

Read the whole thing here

-Cnation

Alexander Bolton: Centrists threaten Obama’s agenda
Half a dozen members of the Senate Democratic Conference pose the biggest threat to President Obama’s agenda, giving Senate Republicans a fighting chance to block the administration’s major expansions of government. GOP leaders have begun reaching out to these centrists, hoping they will buck their party on Obama’s two biggest initiatives: healthcare reform and climate change legislation. Now that Democrats control 60 votes, Republicans must peel off a few members of the majority to stage a filibuster. more…..

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Michelle Malkin: Back to business: Stop the cap-and-tax bill
We celebrated our freedoms this Independence Day. Now, it’s time to fight for them. Hope you are feeling energized. There is much work to be done.On the front-burner: Defeating the cap-and-tax bill.The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee begins hearings on Tuesday. Spruiell and Williamson have an excellent rundown of Waxman-Markey’s garden of piggish delights. The unions get a cap-and-pay-off. Heritage must-read research and analysis here.

Which senators to target? Here: more…..

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Victor Davis Hanson: Only Room for One Obama?
I got a lot of flak the last year for writing two or three columns suggesting the Europeans and other Leftists abroad might be careful about what they wish for in Obama: he might well leap-frog over them, leaving them all with the world they used to fantasize about, while in reality they profited from the world they demonized. (As I wrote, a keen Frenchman whispered to me at a reception “There is room for only one to play Obama-and we are already Obama.”)

Comrade Hugo: Consider: the U.S. reacted quickly and meddled unambiguously in condemning the Honduran arrest of President Zelaya. It mattered little that for the first time in memory we Americans now were on the side of autocrats like Castro, Chavez, Morales, and Ortega in showing revolutionary solidarity with Zelaya ( and of course the UN as well).

We cared little that both the Honduran Supreme Court and Parliament had acted lawfully in ordering their President’s removal on grounds that he had acted unconstitutionally, in bold, unlawful efforts to obtain a third presidential term through a likely rigged plebiscite.

(It would be analogous to an Obama or Bush demanding a third term, illegally acquiring ballots to force a plebiscite, ignoring a Congressional conviction of impeachment, and a Supreme Court edict of unconstitutionality, only to be arrested by the Joint Chiefs and escorted out of the country). more…..

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Jim Geraghty: Barack Obama Is a Big Fat Liar
Flip-flops are nothing new in politics, but every once in a while, a president breaks a promise or an important pledge on such an epic level that it defines him, at least in part: “Read my lips: No new taxes.” “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.” “We did not — repeat — did not trade weapons or anything else for hostages — nor will we.”Even “I will never lie to you.

Barack Obama’s sudden about-face on taxing employer-provided health insurance deserves to rank among these classics. Not because it’s as laughable as Bill Clinton’s, or as emphatic as George H. W. Bush’s, but because it takes a certain moral venality to casually adopt, as president, a position that was a dominant theme of your argument for why your opponent should not be president.

Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign spent $44 million on 16 different television ads hammering John McCain on this idea, according to research by Evan L. Tracey, founder and president of Campaign Media Analysis Group, a TNS Media Intelligence company. more…..

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Jed Babbin: Obama’s Disamerica
One faux-conservative I know is lauding Barack Obama as the second coming of Ronald Reagan. He’s comprehensively wrong because Obama is Reagan’s polar opposite in all but political talent. Nevertheless, our 44th president is clearly a student of the 40th.

Reagan said, “The nearest thing to eternal life we will ever see on this earth is a government program.”  Like a dead Caesar deified by the Roman Senate, a government program achieves a sort of political immortality as soon as its beneficiaries are established and begin to reward their congressional protectors.

Since his inauguration, Obama’s spending spree has taken us to the point that, as the president said, we’ve run out of money.  But it’s a mistake for conservatives to focus only on the spending.  Obama’s actions are growing government power so quickly and in so many ways that their combined effect cannot yet be measured. more…..

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Paul L.Williams, Phd: OBAMA’S CENSUS WILL FOREVER CHANGE THE COURSE AND COMPLEXION OF MODERN AMERICA
The Big Fix – Part Three : RIGGED, ILLEGAL, RACIAL, and INTRUSIVE
Strike One: In violation of Article 1, Section 2, of the U.S. Constitution, President Barack Obama has assumed complete control of the 2010 Census. This Article, which concerns the legislative rather than executive branch of government, stipulates that the“enumeration” be conducted by a commerce official under the supervision of the Senate and the House of Representations. It reads:

Representation and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers … . The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and
within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they (the House of Representatives and the Senate) shall by Law direct.

When the Oval Office side-stepped this stipulation, Senator Judd Greg, who was then Mr. Obama’s choice as Secretary of Commerce, announced his withdrawal from consideration.

“This was simply a bridge too far for me,” Mr. Greg said. more…..

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-Cnation

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 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 benefit 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 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 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.

— John Hancock

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

From CNN: GOP says even bloodhounds can’t find stimulus jobs
On the day the June jobs report showed the U.S. labor market shedding 467,000 jobs, House Republicans released a tongue-in-cheek Web video featuring a bloodhound named “Ellie Mae” sniffing out stimulus jobs:

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-Cnation