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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums"A Global Empire And A Creepy Police State Was Exactly What We Had In Mind," By Thomas Jefferson
WEDNESDAY, JULY 4, 2012
"A Global Empire And A Creepy Police State Was Exactly What We Had In Mind," By Thomas Jefferson
It's been 236 years. Along with the other framers, I just wanted to say: Well done. You guys nailed it.
Back when we presented our little list of complaints to the British Empire, we had a vision of the kind of country we'd like to create. Unalienable rights. Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Governments deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. It was pretty wild, radical stuff back then. But we never imagined how perfectly you folks would bring it off!
Hundreds of military installations all over the world. A network of spies almost completely beyond democratic control. A Defense Department that spends billions in black budget programs to fund armies of secret soldiers. And of course, a horde of blue-shirted thugs harassing disabled people, old people, breast cancer survivors, and a seven year-old girl with cerebral palsy. Wow. Just... wow. That's exactly what we all were thinking about, way back when.
When we complained about George III's standing armies and his attempts "to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power," what we really meant was we wanted to create our own force and scatter it throughout 130 countries. You people must have read our goddamn minds!
And when we griped about the king "imposing taxes on us without our Consent" to pay for his foreign military interventions, we never could have come up with the solution you devised. The idea of racking up trillion dollar deficits - essentially a Stamp Act every year on the nations' kids. It's simple. It's elegant. And it fixes itself. I mean, by the time they get old enough to vote, they'll be so far into the hole they'll just have to choose more of the same (until something Truly Bad happens, but let's not be negative about it). Way to go, America.
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the rest of the snark:
http://www.paulbibeau.blogspot.com/2012/07/global-empire-and-creepy-police-state.html
DCKit
(18,541 posts)4th law of robotics
(6,801 posts)I can tell because I have seen a few in my day.
eppur_se_muova
(36,281 posts)Reminds me of 'refudiated'.
GoneOffShore
(17,340 posts)Unfortunately true.
dtom67
(634 posts)We should put this on a headstone and present it to Dick Cheney....
L0oniX
(31,493 posts)99Forever
(14,524 posts)Yet, here we are.
colsohlibgal
(5,275 posts)Quite depressing. Now we're in an age where Obama is at best a moderate dem and at worst a moderate republican...and the far right brands him a Marxist Socialist. Bizarroland 2012.
The lunacy of the ridiculously bloated defense budget and the no new tax mantra really hits home with the fallout from the Derecho (Friday's massive wind storm), with all the power outages because we still use 19th century telegraph technology for power transmission, lines on poles up in the air.......and because of the remarkable heat wave gripping the land, global warming calling.