Moving Day

I have been thinking about moving this blog to a different provider for sometime. At this point, the other Political Granny site is up and running, posts have been transferred from this site over to the new, and I am ready to make the move. It is like moving from one home to another in a way.

I still have some tweaking I want to do to the other site, so it may mysteriously change before your eyes as I rearrange the furniture and make it more to my liking as time goes by.

So, the new site is also Political Granny, please update your links. I’d dearly love to see you over there. Both of you.

Happy 234th Birthday, America

As we celebrate this day, let us not forget the over 200,000 men and women in uniform spread across the globe who defend us each and every day. Lets say a prayer for them and their fallen comrades. Lets us do whatever we can for those who return wounded in body and soul. Let us not forget the families of those who gave (and will give) the ultimate sacrifice for their country and for us.

As we celebrate this day, let us be thankful for those brave men and women of 234 years ago who laid everything on the line to fight tyranny and gain our freedom as a nation and people. That small, rag-tag army fought the most advanced, sophisticated army in the world at that time. The odds were stacked against them. King George was not worried. He was certain that his forces would soon bring the rebels to justice and the colonies back in line. He was wrong.

There is something about American’s that makes us hate tyranny. There is a spark in our souls that loves freedom more than life itself. We understand at a deep level that life without freedom is no life at all.

As we celebrate this day, the anniversary of our birth as a nation, it is easy to get caught up in the festivities of the day and forget the trials and tribulations our Founders faced as they forged a nation from raw steel. We were an unruly bunch then just as we are today. A People made up of different backgrounds and beliefs who’s common thread was love of God and Country.

There are those today who would remove all references to God (or any Higher Power) from our history. If you take time to read about the Revolutionary War years and the years thereafter as the Founders struggled to come up with a new system of government, you will see Divine Intervention at work. No matter what god you believe in, if any, you have to recognize that something supernatural assisted us.

Today, 234 years later, the push is on the remove all acknowledgment of God (by any name) in our founding and rise to superiority. There are those who would have us turn as a nation from belief in a higher power to belief in governmental power. They would reduce us from a nation of doers to a nation of people awaiting the next government handout. They are chipping away at our nation, slowly but surely, chipping away the fabric that makes us who we are.

My answer to them on this day is to place the text of the Declaration of Independence here. Please read it again. Read it slow. Savor each word and make them your own. This was a declaration of war against oppression. It should be emblazoned on each and every American heart.

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.

The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated:

Column 1
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George Walton

Column 2
North Carolina:
William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton

Column 3
Massachusetts:
John Hancock
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

Column 4
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

Column 5
New York:
William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
John Hart
Abraham Clark

Column 6
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple
Massachusetts:
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 Hampshire:
Matthew Thornton

Attack On Free Speech

Watch what the other hand is doing, folks. While scenes of oil soaked birds and other wildlife and live shots of the gusher beneath the Gulf fill our television screens the Obama crowd is plotting to shut us down.

A controversial bill is being quickly moved though the Senate that will give President Obama the ability to close the internet for 30 days or more, whenever HE decides there is a “threat” to national security. The bill is loosely worded and does not specify criteria the president should use in determining just what such a threat might be.

Prison Planet reports:

The Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act, which is being pushed hard by Senator Joe Lieberman, would hand absolute power to the federal government to close down networks, and block incoming Internet traffic from certain countries under a declared national emergency.

Despite the Center for Democracy and Technology and 23 other privacy and technology organizations sending letters to Lieberman and other backers of the bill expressing concerns that the legislation could be used to stifle free speech, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee passed in the bill in advance of a vote on the Senate floor.

In response to widespread criticism of the bill, language was added that would force the government to seek congressional approval to extend emergency measures beyond 120 days. Still, this would hand Obama the authority to shut down the Internet on a whim without Congressional oversight or approval for a period of no less than four months.

The Senators pushing the bill rejected the claim that the bill was a ‘kill switch’ for the Internet, not by denying that Obama would be given the authority to shut down the Internet as part of this legislation, but by arguing that he already had the power to do so.

President Obama has been systematically hijacking our business and banking system since taking office. The mainstream media is in his pocket (and the pocket of any other politician they like). As a result many of us rely on internet sources to learn what is really happening. Citizen reporters, bloggers and film makers keep us up to date on news that the mainstream media filters and withholds.

The President already has far reaching powers that allow him to do whatever is necessary in a real emergency.

This bill makes it extremely possible for this or future presidents to close the entire internet system or parts of it based on his own interpretation of a “cyber emergency”. That could very well be sources of information revealing corruption in the administration, scandal that would cause an negative impact among voters, or simple a crack down on free speech in general.

Don’t believe me?  The Prison Planet also has this tidbit of interesting information.

Fears that the legislation is aimed at bringing the Internet under the regulatory power of the U.S. government in an offensive against free speech were heightened further on Sunday, when Lieberman revealed that the plan was to mimic China’s policies of policing the web with censorship and coercion.

“Right now China, the government, can disconnect parts of its Internet in case of war and we need to have that here too,” Lieberman told CNN’s Candy Crowley.

We should be like China? Please tell me I’m dreaming!

What can we do? Well, we can call and raise hell to our nonresponsive Senators. Of course, that may not work. they don’t seem to care what we want.

Secondly, any Patriots and Patriot groups should be considering and implementing backup communication plans in the event the President decides to shut down our primary means of communication. He would dearly love us to sit down and shut up. We can not do that, no matter what the cost.

We will resort to smoke signals if necessary. Of course, then the EPA will probably be after us too.

With the Stroke of His Pen

Obama is considering signing an executive order to grant amnesty to all illegal's already in the United States.

I’m not an extremely educated person, but doesn’t that go against the Constitution? Isn’t that a way to circumvent the Congress and have the executive branch making law?

He wouldn’t dare do that. Would he? Sure he would. He desperately needs the 15 to 20 million new voters before the 2012 election. Voters who “owe” him something. Voters he can depend on to do his bidding.

I think he will do it when he feels the time is right. Maybe this year, but surely before the 2012 elections, in time to get all the illegal’s on the voting rolls. Look at all the other things he has done that no other AMERICAN president would do:

• Nationalize a car manufacturer
• Fire the CEO of a private company
• Nationalize a bank
• Nationalize the entire health care system against 60 or 70% of the American people’s wishes

I also wouldn’t be surprised to learn that he has an executive order declaring martial law somewhere on his desk. Waiting for the time to be right. Waiting for the opportunity to declare an “emergency”; cancel elections, and become our “president-for-life”.

He wouldn’t dare, you say? Watch him. You’ll see.

Much Ado About Nothing

After reading the article in Rolling Stone about General McChrystal, I am at a total loss as to what the media frenzy is about. Very few quotes are directly attributed to the General and those are not at all derogatory to the President. In fact, most quotes are from un-named staff members.

I read the article slowly, I took my time and looked for the comments the media had led me to believe were there. I found nothing of the sort.

Is this a diversionary tactic to take our minds off the oil spill, the economy, illegal immigration, more job killing legislation and many other possible events that are much more important? Probably.

Or maybe Obama just got tired of McChrystal and wants him replaced?

The end result of reading the article is that General McChrystal is being thrown under the bus. I just don’t know why.

Nothing New Here.

Obama’s speech last night was over 50 days too late. I saw no brilliant leadership, no stepping up to the plate. All I saw was a third-rate politician using a disaster he has basically ignored to push his political agenda.

Thumbs down, Obama. I expected better, even from you.

I Couldn’t Have Said It Better

Please hop over and read this article in the American Thinker….Stuart Schwartz has hit the nail on the head. Read it here.