If like me - its been a long time since you actually read the entirety of the Declaration of Independence (if ever you read it completely-- or since High School perhaps?) I thought I'd offer it up for a refresher.
It is really a most interesting bill of particulars against Mad King George III detailing those things that brought our founders to the point where they were prepared to risk life and livelihood in revolt.
Be sure to read past the first couple of paragraphs to see if some of the charges against that Mad George don't sound a bit famliar to you.... (my comments follow in parentheses and italicized)
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In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776
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 to 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 shown 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. (in our day, first and foremost the president has trampled international laws: of war and since; he has violated the constitution through "signing statements" attempting to usurpthe powers of congress to legislate and the judiciary to determine the constitutionality of laws; he has illegally spied on his own citizenry -- there is an endless list in this categoryl)
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. (I cast my mind to natural disasters like Katrina and Rita and our citizens in the Gulf Region and the struggle the governors of those states to get help in that period and since; the inability of local governors to have their sons and daughters of the national guard returned to them for local duty - or their equipment and vehicles)
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. (vetoing stem cell legislation comes to mind)
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. (Bush has repeatedly waited to make controversial appointments during legislative recesses, most memorably, John Bolton a man most unfit to take the position of Ambassador to the U.N.)
He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. (to be fair, there's not been much "manly firmness" to be found in our congress has there?)
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 meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. (Let's not even look at Florida in 2000... But consider that he colluded with fellow Texan Tom Delay and other state party officials to harrass the Texas legislature and ultimately the judiciary to influence the redrawing of election districts in ways more favorable to the Republican party)
He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands. (He is unable to address immigration in a coherent or competent way - period.)
He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers. (one need only consider the "military commissions" formulated to by-pass the normal channels of both military and civilian justice and the notions of equal justice under the law)
He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. (Three names: Miers (well okay - even Republicans couldn't stomach that choice, but she remains an "advisor") -, Alito? Roberts? There are a multitude of other judicial appointments - but one should be noted: Judge Walton, the judge that sentenced Scooter Libby a a few weeks ago to 30 months in prison. He is a Bush appointee to the federal bench. How insulting is it that he appoints a guy then overrules his judgment?)
He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance. (Easy one: Can you say Department of Homeland Security? U.S. Patriot Act?)
He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature. (Not quite "among us" but we have had Blackwater contractors stationed in New Oreans and "standing armies" created out of our National Guard.)
He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power. (Worse - he put guys like Rumsfeld in charge and decimated the army.)
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: (Suspension of the Writ of Habeus Corpus - nothing could be more foreign to our laws)
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: (well, okay, he's stationed large bodies of armed troops against our will OVERSEAS)
For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states: (Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, acts of utter brutality in Afghanistan and Iraq including the murder of civilians, women and children)
For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world: (Protective tariffs against Canadian lumber, European steel other bad trade policies and the age old "embargo" of Cuba)
For imposing taxes on us without our consent: (Imposing monstrous debt on us without our consent)
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury: (Military Commissions and many other "anti-terror" laws that usurp all notions of constitutional due process)
For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses: ("Rendition" to other countries for torture; secret CIA prisons in Europe)
For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring 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 in these colonies: (Iraq, Guantanamo; continued support for Israeli occupation of parts Palestine)
For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments: (Executive Orders; Administrative Rule Making run amok; "Signing Statements; politicized Attorney Generals... I could go on.")
For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. (Recent decrees that the Vice President (and then the President's) office were not subject to the rules made by the President's office itself and that the Vice President's office is not part of the executive branch).
He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us. (Waging the "Global War on Terror against any and all deemed to be a "combatant" - citizen or not. Illegal domestic spying; over-policing and abuse at events such as the Democratic and Republican National conventions, illegal monitoring of peace marches)
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. (again, Katrina; ignoring and falsifying the science of global warming)
He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy of the head of a civilized nation. (Hallisburton, Blackwater and dozens of other contractors and paid merceneries)
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. (retaining soldiers in combat theatres beyond their normal tours, extending and returning them repeatedly, failing to care for our war wounded at veteran's hospitals; ignoring the fallen by not recognizing publicly their sacrifice; accepting for military duty individuals not otherwise appropriate - criminals, those not completing high school, drug addicted and at the same time scorning the patriotism and courage of America's gay and lesbian individuals wish to serve)
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is 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 attention 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. 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 the 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 levey 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.
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Its time isn't it? To rise up against the government which derives its sovereignty from "We the People." To bring down this tyrant and re-form our government and re-instill the principals of liberty, (equal) justice and the pursuit of happiness that are the bedrock of this nation. We have a mechanism that does not require the arms we are free to bear - its called iimpeachment and I'm ready.