I Love A Parade

FOCUS William Rivers Pitt: The Example
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/070406Z.shtml
"Lionizing a Founding Father on the Fourth of July is a simple task, to be sure, but Benjamin Franklin turns this process on its ear. He represents all we can be and all we should be, and likewise represents all we no longer seem to be or care to be today. He is worthy of admiration, which is easy, and worthy of emulation, which is not," writes William Rivers Pitt.


George Beres Alarms Fit the 4th of July
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/070406A.shtml
"What does Daniel Ellsberg have to do with Paul Revere," asks George Beres. "The 4th of July holiday reminds that both took personal risks by sounding the alarm about problems with the country's rulers. Like Paul Revere of the original 4th of July, what they reveal and what they urge is in response to malfeasance in government. Citizens must know the truth if they are to act against lies that increasingly keep them captive. That alert once came from Paul Revere. His modern incarnation is Daniel Ellsberg. We must listen - and act."


_True patriots are apostate and infidel!_
Since it is the Fourth of July, it seems only right to post something from the Revolution. Our reading for the day is the Age of Reason, by that fierce freethinking firebrand, Thomas Paine. All national institutions of churches,...
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Jimmy Carter We Need Fewer Secrets
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/070406D.shtml
"The US Freedom of Information Act turns 40 tomorrow, the day we celebrate our independence. But this anniversary will not be a day of celebration for the right to information in our country," writes Jimmy Carter. "Our government leaders have become increasingly obsessed with secrecy. Obstructionist policies and deficient practices have ensured that many important public documents and official actions remain hidden from our view. The events in our nation today - war, civil rights violations, spiraling energy costs, campaign finance and lobbyist scandals - dictate the growing need and citizens' desire for access to public documents."


_Fourth of July thoughts_
This article originally appeared on July 4, 2005. Back in May, I was in Bethesda at a meeting. Because of my interest in World War II history and because I hadn't been to Washington since its completion, I was very...
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_One last Fourth of July thought: Are we a "Christian" nation?_
Besides our current President, the other factor that has done perhaps the most to drive me from the Republican Party over the last decade has been its falling under the sway of Christian fundamentalists who want to impose their view...
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_Grand Rounds on the Fourth of July_
A special Fourth of July edition of Grand Rounds has been posted at RangelMD. This time around, given the holiday, Dr. Rangel has arranged the posts as a theme, namely a focus on the problems in the U.S. health care...
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E.J. Dionne Jr. A Dissident's Holiday
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/070406F.shtml
"The patriotism of the conservative goes unquestioned. But the progressive and the
reformer have a problem with what passes for unadulterated patriotism. By nature, the reformer is bound to insist that the country, however glorious, is not a perfect place, that it is capable of doing wrong as well as right. Most reformers guard their patriotic credentials by moving quickly to the next logical step: that the true genius of America has always been its capacity for self-correction. I'd assert that this is a better argument for patriotism than any effort to pretend that the Almighty has marked us as the world's first flawless nation," writes E.J. Dionne Jr.


Anti-War Protesters Begin July 4 Fast
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0704-01.htm

National Organization For Women: Food for Thought: On Fourth of July, National Organization for Women Fasts for Peace
http://www.commondreams.org/news2006/0704-02.htm

FOCUS Cindy Sheehan: Bombs Bursting in Air
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/070406Y.shtml
"The star-spangled banner does not fill me with pride: it fills me with shame, and that flag symbolizes sorrow and corruption to me right now," writes Cindy Sheehan. "The flag represents so much lying, fixed elections, profiting by the war machine, high gas prices, spying on Americans, rapid erosion of our freedoms while BushCo literally gets away with murder, torture and extreme rendition, contaminating the world with depleted uranium, and illegal and immoral wars that are responsible for killing so many. A symbol that used to represent hope to so many around the world now fills so many with disgust."

Chip Ward Fireworks Deferred: Divine Strake, Hellish Repercussions
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/070406G.shtml
"Shock and awe is coming home," writes Chip Ward. "The Bush administration is planning to conduct future preemptive wars with 'mini-nukes' and, to that end, wants to set off a nuclear-sized explosion at the government's Nevada Test Site. Those unfamiliar with the nightmarish ambitions and skewed reasoning of the nation's wannabe nuclear-warriors may find Divine Strake unfathomable. Sadly, the inhabitants of America's original Ground Zero - where our nuclear and chemical weapons were honed during the Cold War - know that thinking all too well. It's a
dirty shame..."

and ....

http://thegreenbelt.blogspot.com/2006/07/liberty-desecrated.html

Happy 4th

I hope your day is better then it is here. We are getting rained on and there is talk of severe thunderstorms this afternoon with winds up to 50mph and 3/4 inch sized hail. With the bad weather it is a good time to reflect upon our nation - where it was and where it is. [...]

The Declaration of Independence
The Constitution of the United States of America
The Bill of Rights