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 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.

Progress Florida's Best of the Blogs for week ending 7-3-09
Note: the Best of the Blogs is featured weekly as part of Progress Florida's popular free Daily Clips service.

On Florida Hometown Democracy, For Four!
By Gimleteye
Eye On Miami
According to The Miami Herald, developer Jorge Perez has whittled down his debt to $1.2 billion from $1.5 billion but has stashed away enough net worth to consider investing in the Miami Dolphins football team.

Progressives Help Bring Substance to St. Pete Mayoral Race
By Ray Seaman
Progress Florida
If you've ever followed a local election, you often know they're fraught with personalities and process stories that turn off voters.

Florida Republicans On Message, Off Truth
By Buck Banks
Pensito Review
The leadership of the Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) is many things (dumber than a sack of hammers comes to mind), but one thing they do know how to do is stay on message.

Hagan pulls a Johnson
By Mariella
Sticks of Fire
County Commissioner Ken Hagan is using the same tactic Buddy Johnson used to get his name out for the next election.

Nice story in the Naples News Thursday about how pleased Southwest Florida legislators are over this year's recent session. 

Good to know they're happy to give themselves a pat on the back for capping the amount Big Tobacco has to set aside for lawsuits; trying to loosen the class size amendment, eliminate public art funding, and open the eastern Gulf up to reckless drilling; and making it even easier for Big Developers to promote sprawl and wreck the environment.  All in all, apparently not a bad session's worth of work. 

Ah, but in comparison to other states, maybe Florida's session wasn't so bad.

"Rep. Matt Hudson, R-Naples, said California and Illinois both started their fiscal years on July 1 without a balanced budget.  Florida did pass its budget, despite the fact that they were hit with a $6 billion deficit at the start of the session."

Yeah, and come to think of it, New York's legislature has grinded to a complete standstill recently.  So Florida's legislature looks pretty good in comparison, right?  Right?

Wrong.

Just because other state legislatures could possibly be more screwed up than Florida's doesn't mean we should all be happy about what we've got.  And what we've got is a legislature beholden to special interests, a governor who's bailing for D.C and selling out the state in the process, and a bunch of really bad new public policies.

So before we go hailing our legislative session as a success simply because it got a budget passed (late, by the way, costing the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of extra dollars), let's stop for a minute and think about what good really was done.

Then it's easy to wonder if what's happening in New York is really such a bad thing after all... 

Whatever the reason, the candidates for mayor engaged in their most substantial conversation about policy yet Tuesday, offering specific solutions to economic and environmental concerns during a debate hosted by local progressive groups. There were still a few silly jokes, some shallow answers. But, for the most part, the candidates offered new insight about how they would lead the city.

    Eleven days later, she bought $1,001 to $15,000 worth of Bank of America stock. It was on the same day that then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson told leading banks that he expected them to accept billions in bailout money to prevent a financial meltdown.

    Brown-Waite, who has since left the committee to join the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, and her spokeswoman would not comment for this article. The precise value of her investments is not publicly known because financial disclosure reports provide only broad ranges, although some members include detailed brokerage reports."

Progress Florida's Best of the Blogs for week ending 6-26-09
Note: the Best of the Blogs is featured weekly as part of Progress Florida's popular free Daily Clips service.

"Cash For Gold": a not-so-quick scan of Florida
By Gimleteye
Eye On Miami
It's been 15 years since I've driven the length of the state at one time.

Campaigning on Marriage Equality
By Ray Seaman
Progress Florida
Jon Corzine is the current Democratic Governor of New Jersey - and he's currently in a very tight race for reelection - so it's truly noteworthy that Corzine is using an issue that just a few years ago was radioactive to Democrats.

Mar-co! Mar-co! Mar-co!
By Brian
Incertus
If I had any confidence at all in the Florida Democratic Party, I would send Marco Rubio a few bucks and really try to help him beat Charlie Crist in the Republican primary, because if this really is indicative of how his mind works, then he ought to be easy pickings come next November.

Clueless Florida Republicans ‘Celebrate’ Juneteenth
By Buck Banks
Pensito Review
The Republican Party of Florida is at it again, showing its stupidity and insensitivity toward African Americans.

What the special interests behind Amendment 4 want is no jobs and no growth.

You can watch video of Governor Corzine campaigning at a gay pride event -- and making it very, very clear he supports marriage equality here. It's pretty clear that Corzine himself -- unprompted -- is the one making marriage an issue. He wants to talk about it. He's not coming up with convoluted excuses, like so many pols do. This is the future. And, more Democratic candidates need to stand up and be upfront about their support for what's right.

Importantly, Corzine isn't just talking about marriage in front of LGBT audiences. As the [Philadelphia] Inquirer piece noted, Corzine made a pro-marriage equality statement in his June 2nd primary night victory speech.

76 percent of respondents said it was either "extremely" or "quite" important to "give people a choice of both a public plan administered by the federal government and a private plan for their health insurance."

The latest links to the information you need to counter right-wing spin...

Obama is not going to tell every company in America how much they can pay people

Bush Mirandized suspects in Afghanistan, too

Obama does not favor single-payer health care

Obama didn't take over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Bush did

A NASA report did not prove that humans didn't cause global warming

Bush's Guantanamo policies did not keep us safe

Obama did not say that he wants the courts to do more redistribution

Obama did not say that the U.S. is a Muslim country

Sheldon Whitehouse, who has seen the information Cheney says should be seen, says the Bush administration claims about waterboarding are completely false

The difference between Republican/Tom DeLay-style small government and Democratic/Obama-style big government is 2%

Links you can use...

Learning from Obama’s Financial Steamroller: How to Raise Money Online

The Advocate's Top 15 Gay(ish) Blogs

How To Tell People They Sound Racist

Blend workshop: how to engage on the topic of race and LGBT civil rights

Media myths and falsehoods about the Supreme Court

Fact-Checking Karl Rove’s Attacks Against The Public Option

Myths and falsehoods surrounding the Sotomayor nomination

Good stuff you all should read from bloggers around the country... (Sorry this one is Open Left heavy, I accidentally left out my Open Left RSS feed the last time I did this round-up)

Open Left: A New Path To Progressive Power

Open Left: Please Play Hardball with Blue Dogs, Too

Progressive Historians: Obama, John Rawls, And A Defense Of The Unreasonable

Open Left: Healthcare Crisis Stifling Rural Independence

Open Left: Bogus Process Arguments

Open Left: The Fear Factor

Open Left: Obama and the Left, Part 432 (and counting)

Open Left: Pew Analysis Mostly Shows Obama Has Been A Successful President So Far

Open Left: Why Not A Progressive Foreign Policy? Part 2: The Whole Enchilada

Open Left: Why Not A Progressive Foreign Policy? Part 1: The Military

Send an e-mail: Ask your senators to support upcoming legislation to guarantee federal workers four weeks of paid parental leave for a new child, as a first step toward universal paid leave. (NOW)

Send an e-mail: Strengthen the clean energy bill (MO)

Send an e-mail: Tell President Obama to urge the Senate to ratify the Law of the Sea (NRDC)

Send an e-mail: Urge Your Representative to Support the American Clean Energy and Security Act (UCS)

Sign the petition: Will Dell & HP help China censor the Dalai Lama? (Credo)