I wish I could get paid to write columns that are mostly made of quotes from someone else. I love Thomas Jefferson too!

That column was served up with a big bowl of pho ni tin.

Bill Kristol: not just a bastard, but a lazy bastard too.

I don’t believe Billy has the attention span to listen to the Declaration. he probably wandered off to torture kittens or pour oil in the ocean.

Well, I’ve now read my first entire Bloody Bill column. Oh, I’ve read the bits and pieces that tbogg serves up, but I never clicked those links until today. My reaction?

He don’t rite real good. I’m not even sure what the point of that little essay was.

Bloody Bill’s closing statement:

Shortly after writing the letter to Weightman, Jefferson died at home in Monticello. On that very same day — the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the declaration, July 4, 1826 — in Quincy, Mass., Jefferson’s fellow drafter and signer John Adams also died. Yet as Adams reportedly said on his death bed, “Thomas Jefferson survives.”

Thanks, Bill. I saw the “John Adams” HBO special, too. Here’s an idea for you and your fellow picnic buddies. Each of you in the circle take a turn reading your draft deferrment medical reports. I’m sure all the people that gave their lives for our country would appreciate that. Afterwards you can get back to eating your barbecued puppies and kittens.

Oh no, we’re going to hear every arch-conservative put on their Constitution hat this weekend and pretend that their repeated support of a unitary executive doesn’t violently shake the foundation of this country and the spirit of Jefferson and Adams.

How fitting that they choose to read the Declaration as a bland symbolic act at their picnic. The image of Kristol being moved, possibly to tears, by a recitation of that quaint document, is too surreal. For my July 4th, I’ll watch some fireworks, hang out with friends, and just be content that the degrees of seperation between myself and Kristol’s ilk likely exceeds the number of stars on our beautiful flag.

And how’s this for comparison (from the Kristol article)…

“May it be to the world, what I believe it will be, (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all,) the signal of arousing men to burst the chains, under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings & security of self-government.”

One of Kristol’s heroes, over 175 years later:

““The game of bait-and-switch that today’s opinion plays upon the Nation’s Commander in Chief will make the war harder on us. It will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed.”

“The Nation will live to regret what the Court has done today.”

Which type of discourse does Kristol prefer in espousing his principles for his country?

Kristol is so puffed up with himself that he fails to notice the irony that those words he quotes so sanctimoniously have all been directly contradicted by the Republicans as Kristol himself cheered them on.

White is black, up is down, etc. Being a neocon means never having to accept or acknowledge reality.

“…It’s a longer document than one thinks; the charges against the king take quite a while to get through.”

Yeah, listening to those pesky charges probably start to get a little uncomfortable when one begins to realize how many apply to our own little George III.

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 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:

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.

Suck. On. That.