Celebrate Independence Day with Tea Party Patriots - Page 2 - Big Big Forums

Jolie Rouge · 07-06-2009, 12:24 AM

Independence Day: America turns 233
By Michelle Malkin • July 4, 2009 01:10 AM

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/07/04...-233/#comments

How are you celebrating America’s 233 years of freedom? Do this first: Thank all our troops on the front lines and all our veterans who have served and sacrificed for that freedom.

The Christian Science Monitor’s Patrick Jonsson has a good recap and overview of Tea Party gatherings across the country. http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0703/p02s25-usgn.html

Tea Party Patriots organizers write:

Quote:

Independence Day is upon us, and the Tea Party Patriots have over 600 events planned all across the nation! From events expecting thousands of people, like Tulare, California, and Dallas, Texas, to small town parades across the nation, the Tea Party Patriots will be out in force celebrating the birth of the greatest nation on earth.

From Ketchikan, Alaska, to Fishkill, New York; from Chattanooga, Tennessee to Sioux Falls, South Dakota; from Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi to Kihei, Hawaii, and hundreds of other locations spanning every great state of this nation, we will be out in force at Fourth of July parades, tea parties, and fireworks displays. From the country fair, to mega celebrations in the cities, the Tea Party Patriots will be present.

Jolie Rouge · 07-06-2009, 12:45 AM

1776: A letter from husband to wife
By Michelle Malkin • July 3, 2009 11:28 AM

On this day 233 years ago, John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail on the declaration of independence of the United States of America:

Quote:

I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.

You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. — I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. — Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.

:

:

Read the entire exchange here. http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams...760703jasecond

I started watching the History Channels American Revolution last night and it is amazing the parallels in history we face today against our own bloated and despotic Government run by arrogant clueless bureaucrats thinking that they are a new class of royalty. For those of us attending the Tea Parties throughout this nation remember to avoid any “imperial entanglements” by playing nice with the local authorities.

May God continue to bless this country as he watches over our troops risking their lives on foreign soil protecting those of us at home while setting other people free of the despotic tyranny of the Taliban!

It’s remarkable how over 230 years has passed and yet many parallels exist in today’s society as did back then. Do you fight for freedom, or do you submit and conform?

Do you hold together as a country, or do you allow a few weak-kneed individuals to hinder your defense and prosperity?

What would John Adams, Sam Adams, Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson think of Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Frank and Dodd? (I think I know…)

Nevertheless, happy Independence Day to all. May we manage to stay free and strong in this dangerous world.

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Strike of the Sword
By Michelle Malkin • July 3, 2009 01:42 PM

Keep our Marines in your prayers as head off for the holiday weekend. Freedom is not free. Via AHN, the latest on the surge in Afghanistan: http://www.allheadlinenews.com/artic...%20Afghanistan

Quote:

One American Marine has been killed as U.S. and Afghan forces on Friday continued their massive offensive deeper into Helmand River valley. The assault, the first major Afghan operation by the Obama administration, is part of an overall effort to secure militant strongholds ahead of Afghanistan’s national elections next month.

Nearly 4,000 Marines and about 600 Afghan soldiers are expanding their sweep of southern Afghanistan, securing the Garmsir, Nawa, and Rig districts.

One Marine has died in action and several others wounded in the offensive. No civilian casualties have been reported, according to the Pentagon, and U.S. and Afghan forces have refrained from using artillery and other indirect fire weapons. No air strikes were conducted, but the 82nd Airborne Division Combat Brigade provided aviation support.

Called Operation Khanjar or Strike of the Sword, the operation was launched on Thursday, two days after American forces withdrew from the cities of Iraq, and less than two months before Afghanistan’s Aug. 20 presidential elections.

Similar NATO operations are underway in other parts of Helmand and Kandahar, such as the British led Operation Panchai Palang launched last week.

Over 90 percent of Afghanistan’s opium is harvested in Helmand, where militants support their activities from one of the world’s largest poppy fields. Most of the crop is made into black tar opium and then smuggled out of the country to be processed into heroin. The province’s opium economy constitute half of miltant funding, according to the Pentagon.

“Where we go we will stay, and where we stay, we will hold, build and work toward transition of all security responsibilities to Afghan forces,” Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson, commanding general of Marine Expeditionary Brigade-Afghanistan, said in a statement. “The Taliban offer no future, no hope, and we will work to provide immediate security gains to the local citizens of the Helmand River Valley.”

***

Related reporting from Matt Sanchez in Afghanistan: In a Class By Themselves: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2009/07/02/class/

Quote:

It’s hard to imagine what Americans back home are willing to risk their lives for, but here in Afghanistan no imagination is needed.

‘Incorruptible’ Commandos Sign of Hope for Afghanistan’s Future http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,529966,00.html

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Thank you, Aaron: A U.S. soldier’s sacrifice on Independence Day
By Michelle Malkin • July 5, 2009 02:12 AM

David M. Masters passed along devastating news on Twitter this evening that his son, Aaron, was one of two American soldiers killed by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan today. http://northshorejournal.org/aaron-f...an-july-4-2009

His message:

America’s North Shore Journal has more details and notes:
http://northshorejournal.org/aaron-f...an-july-4-2009

Quote:

The official announcement has not yet been released. It appears that Aaron was one of the two soldiers killed in a large Taliban attack on a base in Paktika. That is just a “maybe” until DoD releases the info. They hold it back a couple of days so that the families can all be notified.

NYT has background on the attack. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/wo...?_r=1&ref=asia

Aaron’s MySpace page is here. http://www.myspace.com/36667217

His brothers and sisters are grieving, too.
http://www.ghonline.com/masters/

David M. Masters asked the Twittersphere to remember his son on this hallowed day: http://twitter.com/davidmmasters/status/2474654318

The hashtag #thankyouaaron has been the #1 trending topic all night.
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23thankyouaaron

We will not forget your son, Mr. Masters.

From the Founding Fathers to our defenders on the front lines, the lesson resounds: Freedom is not free.

Thank you, Aaron.

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/07/05...ependence-day/

Jolie Rouge · 07-06-2009, 12:53 AM

As a public service reminder of the reason for the season, I’m reprinting the Declaration of Independence in its entirety. The transcription comes via the National Archives (thank goodness, Sandy Berger hasn’t swiped it yet!)
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/cha...ranscript.html

Quote:

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 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 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 Brittish 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.

Jolie Rouge · 07-06-2009, 07:06 PM

From the very beginning of the Tea Party movement, I’ve reported that activists have directed their disgust at both parties over fiscal recklessness.
It’s an inconvenient truth the Tea Party-bashers would rather ignore. http://michellemalkin.com/2009/04/18...ty-protesters/

The anger at Republicans who voted for TARP hasn’t gone away. And Texas Sen. John Cornyn was vividly reminded of that as he spoke at the Austin Tea Party this weekend.

Accountability: http://www.statesman.com/blogs/conte...ol_tea_pa.html

Quote:

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn drew boos from a crowd outside the Texas Capitol this afternoon as he spoke at a “tea party” rally organized by the Texas office of Americans for Prosperity.

Cornyn was booed at the start and close of his remarks, which assailed actions in Washington; there were no boos while he awarded a Purple Heart to a Copperas Cove resident injured in Iraq in 2006.

“You’re the problem,” a crowd member hollered.

Another crowd member yelled that Cornyn voted for the initial federal bailout of Wall Street approved by Congress last year, the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Here’s the vid. Watch it all the way through: http://michellemalkin.com/2009/07/06...ets-an-earful/

More from Texas blogger Robbie Cooper: http://michellemalkin.com/2009/07/06...ets-an-earful/

Quote:

Cornyn (I like the guy, actually. Voted for him. Supported for him. But not again. I’m not voting for a single incumbent) kept talking about the bad things being done by “Washington”. But he never acknowledged that he is part of Washington. But, then again, he didn’t really need to. The crowd’s booing and jeering were evidence that they got it.

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Cornyn is why so many conservatives are frustrated and angry. We have almost no one to represent us which means we have almost no voice in Washington. These Tea Parties are our voice and that’s why the MSM is afraid to cover them. Every party gets a little bigger as people realize that they are not alone and comes out to add to the cries for representation.

Having this RINO tell us about the bad things happening in Washington is like Bill Ayers warning us that Obama is a communist.

I was there, and watched Cornyn. And we all knew he was just wearing the cowboy hat to try to show us he was one of us. Riiiight. One thing’s for sure. If he has a trace of sense, he’ll LISTEN to what we had to say to him Saturday, and realize that we are about to vote him OUT if he doesn’t shape up.

I brought a couple of liberal friends with me to the rally, and they got to see that I had been telling the truth; the tea party movement really is about both sides being thoroughly disgusted and angry at Washington. They were pleased to see Republicans ripping one of their own a new one, but they saw that both sides were united this time. One of them told me it was very educational to see it in person, and not just what CNN tells us.

I mentioned at one point that “it doesn’t look like he’s gonna get rehired.” And my friend said, “well, the job interview’s sure not going well, is it?”

It was a good rally.

Unfortunately the people who were screaming out in patriotic dissent will be labeled “hate mongers” spewing “hate speech”.

I would have love to have been there.

freeby4me · 07-06-2009, 07:32 PM

In our local parade the Republicans had a "Tea" party float, it had a tea pot that said "Taxed Enough Already" and "We're Tea'd Off", I think it won 3rd place.

janelle · 07-06-2009, 08:41 PM

LOL, looks like every politician will need to take a soldier with them each time they make a speech. When the yelling gets too loud just introduce the soldier to make them stop.

SurferGirl · 07-06-2009, 09:47 PM

I'm so proud of all the Americans that are taking a stand to make their voice heard. In so many ways the tea parties stand for our freedom.