I was rendered speechless – no mere feat, as anyone who knows me personally will attest (and thus I have to give credit to Mom where it’s due…) – but upon coming to my senses, I explained to my mother that most of what I read to her was taken directly from out own Declaration of Independence.  I suddenly realized two truths: 1) my absent-mindedness may be genetic, and 2) yet again, Mom was right.

Granted, the words that I wrote in this draft were a clear indictment, claiming that this mindset of expansive government had plagued generation upon generation of free men in America, from the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and it threatens to undermine freedom for generations to come. The key phrases that I quoted – words that have echoed across the globe and throughout the pages of history – directly linked the sentiments of the Independence movement in 1776 to my concerns about how the federal government has continued to expand in its own power and diminish the power of the individual.

One such phrase, my favorite 45 of the nearly 1300 words in the Declaration of Independence – “…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” – is the primary basis for the established government in America. If and when the government threatens the rights of its citizens, it is the right, perhaps even the responsibility of the citizenry to shake loose the shackles of oppressive government and form a new government in its stead, based in their common principles and with the hope that it will not follow the same path.

Such was the hope of our founding fathers who, were they here today, seeing the power we have given the Federal government, would more than likely be of the opinion that a healthy revolution is in order. These great men would see hear of our military bases on foreign soil, our trade deficit and our national debt and shudder.  They would learn about the Federal Reserve system or the recent cap-and-trade bill and lament our short-sightedness. The thought of the abuses and implications of the PATRIOT act or FISA would ultimately cross the line between their quiet dissent and their open defiance.  Two-hundred-thirty-three years ago, our Founding Fathers stood outside of the Pennsylvania State House and declared themselves free men, risking their lives and the security of their countrymen in defiance of a government that would infringe upon that freedom.

Perhaps, on the anniversary of their defiant act, we, as citizens, as free men, should consider the implications of our government’s growth, and come to understand the danger that our liberty is in.  Perhaps it is time to write to our representatives in government and remind them of the roots of our Republic and how far we’ve strayed from them.  Perhaps it is time to exercise our rights through activism and time to speak out against the expansion of power and undermining of our freedom.

I wish a Happy Independence Day to our friends, our supporters, and our Nation, and thank you all for your continued support of We The People Politics.

The cap-and-trade energy bill is a plan in which the government will sell or auction permits to release emissions into the atmosphere. It works on theory, but who is going to pay for that extra amount of money it costs to buy the permit that will, likely, not cost $10,000 like other licenses? The consumer. So, in theory, while President Obama said that there wouldn’t be a tax increase on the middle class, in actuality, the consumer will have to pay more money for goods, such as electricity.

So, what do we do?

Instead of the government giving permission to release emissions, have the government give a tax cut to companies that make the initiative to go green. The revolution is going on. People want a more “green” country. However, people don’t want to pay more in bills when the economy is already kicking them in the butt. To really promote the going green and trying to make the environment more healthy, companies can’t be charged more money because the consumer will then suffer and We the People are already tired enough of paying huge bills.

I’ve had the privilege of talking to numerous different business people, but one in particular stuck in mind. He moved to Singapore because it was just easier. He could own his company and not pay a ridiculous amount of money in corporate taxes. A lot of companies are doing this because they can still technically feed off of the American consumer, but not pay the ridiculous taxes to the American government. So, what we have here is a case of screwing the American people and screwing the American people.

By cutting a company’s taxes when they reduce their emissions, it’ll give a company motivation to invest in new technologies. They don’t want to pay taxes and if they can find a new way, a healthier way, to produce their product, it’ll obviously give motivation to do so. By reducing the taxes for these companies, the consumer won’t have to suffer. Sure, the government will suffer, but they get so much money anyways, maybe it’d force them to tie a leash around their spending.

I’m a firm proponent in cutting carbon dioxide emissions. The environment is hurting because of it and I don’t believe that everything that is going on is just another “cycle.” It is a cycle, but one that humanity has helped along and made more severe. However, while I am a firm proponent in cutting carbon dioxide emissions, there needs to be a way to do it without charging the American companies and the American consumers. By lowering taxes for the companies if they take an effort in cutting their emissions, they’ll more likely invest in newer technologies. By investing in new technologies, it might create an even greater cut in carbon emissions.

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We’re talking the ability to type a quick message and within ten minutes, thousands and thousands of people know what the plan is. Seven hours ago, he tweeted, “Please come to Baharestan Sq. in Tehran tomorrow at 4pm #IranElection.” Now, people can quickly spread to all their friends that there is a meeting at Baharestan Square in Tehran tomorrow at 4pm. What better way to persuade people to join a protest than the ability to post information as easy as 1-2-3-140?

It’s not just twitter, though. On Twitter, people can post quick little blurbs about what’s going on. On Flickr, an image of the Basij beating protesters with clubs could get around the web within the hour. On Facebook and myspace, people can network together and exchange information about when and where to meet. All of these free sites have created the chance for the average person to quickly and easily post information to better make their argument heard. Even I have been able to participate in a small revolution just like the Iranians have. For me, my outlet is this very website, WeThePeoplePolitics.com. My writing here, my average person’s opinion has become so much more.

The day of it taking weeks and months to prepare a revolution is over. With all of these different web 2.0 publications (Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, Myspace, StumbleUpon, Digg, blogs, and so many others), someone like Mousavi is able to get his message out to followers much easier. It’s because of this ease that sites like these are blocked in authoritative countries. China blocked twitter and flickr during the Tiananmen Square anniversary as a way of preventing negative talks about the government. Iran has tried to block Twitter, but there is technology available (actually from a Chinese company) that allows people to squeeze through the web blocks. No authoratative government wants negative information about them to be passed with such ease.

Fortunately for the people of Iran, freedom will reign. So long as the people of Iran want that freedom, there is nothing that the rulers can do. Ayatollah Khamenei may say that protesting is illegal, but the age of the tweet has made it impossible to stop. One hundred and forty characters later and all of Mousavi’s followers know where to meet. A revolution and protest can grow one tweet at a time. The next thing you know, there are thousands of people protesting. The internet has taken over.

Neda’s only crime was that of standing against what she believed, understandably, to be a corrupt system and an invalid election.  Iran is a republic, and like the United States, it’s citizens are ultimately guided by the theory of a social contract and the consequences of a breach thereof: when a government becomes tyrannical, it is not the right, but rather the responsibility of the citizen to overthrow said government and, as the saying goes, “provide new guards for their future security.”

Iran is currently the only nation in the region that has had a successful people’s rebellion (1979), but has shown it’s capacity for tyranny in both it’s oppression of members of the Bahá’í faith, the 1998 systematic killings of dissident writers and intellectuals, continued censorship and abuses by the Islamic Revolutionary Court and the current injustices on those who oppose Ahmadinejad’s allegedly fixed election. 

Frankly, the current regime in Iran has gone too far, and brave people like Neda are inspiring others to fight back – and just as they had years before, they can win.  The people of Iran can no longer allow themselves to be bullied by their oppressive government, and they will not because of the thousands of voices, inspired by one – Neda – that cannot be silenced by tyranny.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, stated today that the election results were legitimate, and that further defiance of the government would lead to further violence, effectively threatening dissenters with continued oppression and murder.  It is my hope that the Iranian people, supported by the citizens of the free world, issue this response: “For Neda, our Voice, we will not be silent.”

Follow Sean J. Palmer on Twitter at http://twitter.com/sjpalmer17

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It’s about time the right resources are sent to the area. President Obama made it clear when he was running for office and after he won the election that the war in Afghanistan was going to be a top issue and today, with the Senate approve for General McChrystal to go to Afghanistan, things are going to finally get done.

There was nothing wrong with General McKiernan other than the fact he was a little too conventional for a counterinsurgency such as the one taking place in Afghanistan. Had we been at war with Russia, China, North Korea, or one of those countries, he would have been appropriate; however, there is a need for an out-of-the-box thinker and that was where General McChrystal came into play.

I wrote back in January when President Obama first assumed office that the plan to destroy the Taliban required taking out the poppy fields as well as preventing the Taliban from going back and forth between Afghanistan and Pakistan. That’s important obviously. However, what McChrystal needs to do is more than just destroy the Taliban. It is important that while he is there, that he guarantee that someone doesn’t just come along to replace the Taliban once they are defeated.

To do this, President Obama has given McChrystal a lot of leeway with who joins his staff. He is going to be handpicking four hundred officers and soldiers to be a part of the team that leads this war. It is going to be important that the team works well together because McChrystal’s plan is, as he said in a briefing, to use classic counterinsurgency techniques and focus on population protection. It’s about time. Maybe he won’t use airstrikes like previous officers did.

I’m no military man; however, I know enough about the military to understand the importance of the Special Forces in operations like this. Sometimes, it’s not a thousand soldiers that do the most damage, but one hundred elite soldiers that can hold a place effectively. With his background in Special Forces, it can only be imagined that he will step up and get the job done.

My only concern is his belief that torture is acceptable. Whether that is still his opinion or not, though, is up for debate. Regardless of that, tonight he was confirmed as the next General in Afghanistan. He has already left to prepare his job. A lot of good can come from having this General in Afghanistan. Maybe we can finally end the war there and focus on more pressing issues.

According to reports by the CIA as well as Colin Powell, the primary reason that detainees were tortured was to find a link between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. By finding this link, the United States would have a justification to go to war with Iraq. In his book, Inside the Jihad, Omar Nasiri (not his real name) mentions the fact that when any of the group was captured, they were supposed to give information linking Iraq to al-Qaeda.

The United States was duped. These are the possible course of actions that occurred. A terrorist was captured and he said, “Oh, oh, oh, al-Qaeda is linked to Saddam Hussein.” Our friends Dick Cheney, President Bush, Donny Rumsfeld and that motley crew saw a chance to go to war against an enemy that had been a pest for so long.

However, it took more than just that. So, they started torturing. With the Americans afraid of being attacked again, the Bush administration used the notion of torture as a way of “protecting Americans from future attack.” In fact, some reports say, the cause was to get a justification for war.

Now, the above account is obviously dramatized. However, what was our previous administration thinking? Did they honestly think that the United States could handle two wars at once, especially when the first one had just started a year and a half earlier? Why did they need to get involved in a second war?

If torture was used to protect American lives (which is rubbish), that’s mildly acceptable. However, to use torture to find a linkage between Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden is absolutely atrocious and those involved deserve to be punished. I understand President Bush was our President, but if he deceived the Americans, even he should go to jail for it.

However, if there is one person in that group that I’d really love to see in jail, it’s our poor-shot ex VP, Dick Cheney. The man who created the fourth branch of the government and has continuously come out against President Obama really needs to get the heck out. He should be punished the most. However, my arguments on Dick Cheney can be saved for an entirely different article.

Now, I can tell you that I was not very excited about a possible McCain Presidency. Apparently nobody else was either. However, I supported him because I knew that the Democrats were going to have significant majorities in Congress. Recently, I have been thinking about the things the Republican Party has been trying in an attempt to take back power in Washington. I had a crazy thought, I’m not sure that is what I want to happen.

While I am a conservative, I really don’t wish for huge majorities in Congress along with the Presidency for the Republicans. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Having both houses of Congress along with the White House is as close to absolute power as we can get in the U.S. and I would mostly prefer it just didn’t stay that way for too long on either side.

I can be honest, the Republicans didn’t do that great of a job when they had control of everything for the first half of this decade. Now, they didn’t do nearly as bad as many liberals or the media would say, but they didn’t do a great job. They spent way too much money, they grew government too much, and they took away liberties from the American people.

The Democrats now have much bigger majorities than the Republicans did along with the White House. So far, I haven’t really liked what I’ve seen. We have a budget deficit of about 1.8 trillion dollars projected. That is unbelievable to me, and it will only cause problems in the future. That number is not even taking into account the upcoming fiasco of trying to fix health care. The costs are projected at 1.2 trillion, and they only budgeted about 600 billion. The money is going to have to come from somewhere.

Anyways, the point is neither side really does that great a job when they have unchecked power. Thankfully though, it usually doesn’t last for long. I think the country in general is mostly center, and we swing back and forth from one side to the other. One party can’t hold everything for too long, because it causes us to swing too far from center. Clinton had Congress for two years, and then they passed the assault weapons ban and the people said c-ya to the Democrat Congress. Bush had it for a little longer, but the Senate was basically a tie for his second term and the Democrats took back control for the last 2 years of his term.

I think what I really want is for a slight conservative majority in Congress, and a slightly left of center President or vice versa. This is the point where we actually might get some people working together for the good of the country. Each side has good ideas and bad ideas, but when one party gets to implement all of their ideas, we miss out on the good stuff from one party and we get all the bad stuff from the other. If we have a balanced Congress with a middle of the road President, most of the stupid ideas will get thrown out. This is good for me as a conservative, because all I really want Washington to do is to defend us and build some roads and bridges. After that, they can just stay out of my way.

Derek Clark blogs about conservative politics at Geek Politics. You can also follow him on Twitter @clarky07.

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In an effort to try and pull younger people to the GOP side, he said that “gay marriage is a burden on small businesses.”

This is absolutely, positively ridiculous. He’s singling out homosexual marriages as a burden to small businesses in America. I’ve heard this argument before, but it doesn’t make sense. Marriage as a whole is a burden to small businesses in America. Businesses have to pay for all the health care, dental, eye care, and other things for the employee as well as for the spouse. However, to suggest that homosexual marriage alone is the only burden to businesses is atrocious.

Heterosexual marriages are a burden to businesses as well! If you consider the population, heterosexual marriages are more of a burden than homosexual marriages. How does this make sense then?

It’s a covert attempt at denouncing the idea of gay marriage. However, that argument is very simple. Religiously, gay marriage may not be right, but the United States is not a religious country. There is a separation of church and state and therefore, no constitutional reason that gay marriage should be banned.

If a business is going to offer coverage for spouses, then it is important to take the rights of every American into consideration. This plan to suggest that if homosexual marriages are allowed would result in the destruction of the America small business is another example of the GOP’s fear tactics. They’ve realized that more people are beginning to warm to the idea of gay marriage in the county so they say that it is dangerous to the economy to allow gay marriage.

These are the United States of America and there are certain rights that the Republican Party would love to encroach on. Gay marriage may not see eye-to-eye with a religious institution’s beliefs; however, the USA is not affiliated with any single church. As long as marriage is not just religious, but also financial and legal, no religion can demand their belief be the true one.

Michael Steele’s attempt to scare people into joining the GOP just demonstrates how weak the GOP is becoming. These are people’s rights. A person has the right to love whoever they please and marry whoever they please. It may not agree with a church, but it is a right. As long as marriage is not just religious, it is unconstitutional to deny an American their right. Michael Steele is demonstrating time and time again how much of a failure as a RNC Chief he really is.

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Why do people not care? What’s so difficult to learn a little about what’s going on?

People are lazy. It’s so easy to say things like, “ignorance is bliss” or any of those numerous anecdotes because then someone doesn’t need to go in and learn anything. It’s easy not to follow politics because if they’re not following, they don’t need to do their part to make a change. The reason that politicians are as crooked and corrupt as they are is because no one holds them accountable. The reason no one holds them accountable is because of their own apathy towards politics.

We live in a  Democratic country. We have two parties (should have more) that always win (I wish a third would) and the reason for this is because it is easy to just vote Democrat or Republican. Rather than doing research in a third party candidate who might be exactly what someone wants, it is easy to just vote one of the two big parties. The only work required is the few months before the election where each voter sits down and really figures out what is and is not important.

It’s about time this political apathy disappear.

Americans need to take greater pride in what their country does. It is not just President Obama and Congress that are behind the things that happen; if the country does it, the world sees it as an American thing. Torture happened under President Bush. That must mean that Americans like torture. It is important that political apathy stops and that people start to care about the policies that are passed. I’m not suggesting people should spend hours a day reading the news, but be informed. Know that there are options to dealing with the pirates other than just using the military. Know that the money we send in for taxes can be used for something other than a ridiculous amount of government spending.

As long as people are politically apathetic, there is going to be no real change. Caring about politics can’t just happen for those few months after the conventions and before the election. It has to be a year round thing. Learn what you can about the activities of America. Only by knowing what’s going on can, come election time, a person better determine who is right for the job and who is wrong. Get rid of the political apathy.

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Proboscidean fever, from the Latin “proboscis,” affects nearly 55 million people nationally, including such high-profile citizens as Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and former president George W. Bush.  The symptoms of this terrible illness, which is typically transmitted through radio waves and vindictiveness, include a detached sense of reality surrounded by violent mood swings.  These mood swings are typically provoked by discussions of social programs, distribution of wealth and any discontent about American imperialism.  While this disease is typically not fatal, it is said that William F. Buckley, founder of “The National Review,” suffered with this ailment since his days at Yale, and ultimately succumbed to it. This fever is a hybrid fever, stemming from a mixture of dogmatic religious fervor, denial of civil liberties and, of course, elephant flu.

Asinian equine fever, however, affects 72 million Americans and can be seen as the more current and devastating of the two diseases.  It is believed that this illness is borne by donkeys and socialists, and is transmittable by reading The New York Times and filing income tax forms. This illness typically affects the socially and economically disadvantaged, but has been shown to affect the affluent as well, particularly those in Massachusetts and California, including actors Sean Penn and Ben Affleck, linguist Noam Chomsky, and political leaders Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama.  This fever is known for striking without warning, most recently in the case of Sen. Arlen Specter, who, sadly, had just recently shaken off his case of proboscidean fever.  Asinian equine fever is marked by a strong distaste for free markets, a penchant for raising taxes, and a broad delusion of idealism that affects basic decision-making.

Should you find someone affected by these illnesses, do not panic.  These diseases, while harmful, are completely curable with consistent cognitive treatment. Some physicians and scholars note that drinking Purell seems to disinfect the affected persons, while others claim that a simple solution of Pop Rocks and cola will get the job done.  Calmly explain to these individuals the importance of free markets and personal liberty, and make sure to take into consideration their mental state before passing judgment on their irrational statements.  If you would like material to present to your affected loved ones, please contact the Libertarian Party at 2600 Virginia Avenue NW, Suite 200, Washington, D.C. 20037 or the Ludwig von Mises Institute at 518 West Magnolia Avenue · Auburn, Alabama 36832-4528.