hogwash

Liberal or conservative, Republican or Democrat, black, brown, or white, when you read the words of the Declaration of Independence, you have to know that days like today are the days that make America the greatest country on Earth.

Being alive today is as revolutionary as being alive the day that shot was heard around the world at Lexington and Concord in 1775; or when Francis Scott Key looked through the smoke to see our flag still waving; or the day when Abraham Lincoln stood at Gettysburg to address the nation over what was at once our greatest tragedy and greatest feat as a country; or the day that Martin Luther King Jr. took a bullet in the hopes that some day his sons and daughters would not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

These are the days that make American special.

Today is not about the impending election of Barack Obama, or even about Barack Obama himself.  Today is about the ideas that Barack Obama represents, the ideas that our founding fathers put forward for future generations to ponder and achieve.  Today is about bringing a decades old cynicism about our American government to a screeching halt, even if for only one evening.

Regardless of what happens over the next four to eight years, today is the proudest day I have ever spent as an American.  Days like today are the ones that children for generations will read about in their classrooms, studying what it means to be an American, and what it means to be a success in the greatest country ever devised by mankind.

Barack Obama brings to light the meaning of the old saying, “The purpose of life is a life of purpose, and real success is not what you achieve, but what you overcome.”  A life of purpose, a life of liberty, and a life in pursuit of happiness….for all.

Today is the day that these words have been the clearest for me:

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.

Proud to be an American,

Karl

For just a moment, forget party loyalties.  Forget that you have always voted Republican.  Forget that you have always voted Democrat.  Take a step back and look at your positions from the outside.  Take note that not any one party has been in possession of the greatest ideas of their time all throughout history.  What has happened instead is that one party capitalizes on whatever is moving our society forward, (or backwards) and if the movement is considered a worthy one by a majority of the population, that is the party that rules until the next great idea comes along.  The fact of the matter is that over the last fifteen to twenty years, both parties have changed, just as they have changed throughout history, and right now, only one party, the Democratic Party, is in possession of the greatest ideas of our time.

How have they changed throughout history?  One example is how the Democratic Party has handled African Americans.  Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independence and James Madison, who is widely considered the father of the Constitution, both formed what would become the Democratic Party.  Both were slave owners.  James Buchanan, a Democrat, was the last President leading up to the Civil War and presided over the country throughout the Dred Scott case.  Along came the creation of the Republican Party and Abraham Lincoln.  They came to free the slaves and a war ensued.  Not just over slavery, but over state rights and federal power.  Of course, the Republican’s won and changed the course of American history forever.

Skipping forward a bit, throughout the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, the Democratic Party was the party of the South, the party of White Supremacist organizations like the Ku Klux Klan.  The Republican Party, similar to how it was later, was about business, and banking, and national security.  In 1929, it came to a head.  The Republican Party had control of the House, the Senate, and the Presidency under Herbert Hoover.  What happened in 1929?  Due to failures in banking and Wall Street, the stock market crashed, forcing the long running Great Depression.  As a result, groups like the KKK lost its stranglehold on the Democratic Party and Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the one party control Democrats took the reins of the country and implemented new and innovative programs to put people back to work and to raise the country out of its financial ashes. 

The irony was that everyone did better; everyone from homeowners, to businesses, to banks.  FDR lead us in to WWII and after passing away during his fourth term in office, passed the torch to Missouri Democrat Harry S. Truman to finish the job.  Then came the baby boom, the civil rights movement, and the anti-war movement, intertwined with the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr., and John F. Kennedy and Republican President Nixon’s Watergate scandal.  All altered the course of American history forever.  During that time, the Democrats became the party of civil rights, and equal rights for all, but also the party of hippie peaceniks, an outdated moniker that it still struggles to shake off to this day.

From 1865 to 1965, the parties traded major aspects of their party platforms and their ideas.  What was once Democratic was now Republican, and vice-versa.  A Lincoln Republican in 1865 would not have recognized his party in 1965.

Skipping forward to today, some of what took place in the sixties still leaves a bad taste in people’s mouths, especially those who identify with the Democratic and Republican parties of 40+ years ago.  However, while many of us believe we haven’t changed, the fact of the matter is, the parties have.  While the Democratic Party is still the party of civil rights and equal rights, it is also the party in possession of the best ideas for our new 21^st century global economy.  The Republican Party is still trying to hang on to the outdated economic and national security ideas of the 1980’s, the party of Reagan, the party of 20^th century economics.

My support of Barack Obama and the Democratic Party in 2008 is not about anything that happened before September 11^th, 2001.  My support for Barack Obama and the Democratic Party in 2008 is about the contrast of the two platforms and the ideas of the parties since September 11, 2001.  Not only is this not the world of our grandparents, these are not the parties of our grandparents.  The world and the times have changed and the challenges that face America in the 21^st century global economy cannot afford the Republican platform and policies of the sixties and eighties. 

I understand that some people just cannot bring themselves to vote for Barack Obama, not just because of the color of his skin and the letters that make up his name, but also because of the myths that make up their beliefs about the Democratic Party.  I am asking you to set those things aside for a moment and to look at the bigger picture.  The bigger picture being that this is a new day that calls for new solutions, and the only party offering new solutions for our economy, our country, and our world is the Democratic Party, the 21^st century Democratic Party.

Don’t just be a part of history, be a part of our future.  Vote Barack Obama on Tuesday, November 4^th.

Wow.  I have never seen Drudge and FoxNews so obviously in the tank.

However, don’t fret.  Obama’s Civilian National Security Force is not some type of facist military force.

It is the Brainchild of the current administration’s Secretary of Defence Robert Gates.

Last fall Gates began giving a series of speeches about the need to create a more modern State Department and a “civilian national security force” that could “deploy teams that combine agricultural specialists and engineers and linguists and cultural specialists who are prepared to go into some of the most dangerous areas alongside the military.”

“If we’ve got a State Department or personnel that have been trained just to be behind walls, and they have not been equipped to get out there alongside our military and engage, then we don’t have the kind of national security apparatus that is needed. That has to be planned for; it has to be paid for. Those personnel have to be trained. And they all have to be integrated.”

So relax everyone.  Drudge has just lost a wheel and is trying to scare everyone with misinformation.