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On this Fourth of July, Thomas Jefferson is weeping
Fox News ^ | July 4,2013 | Judge Andrew P. Napolitano

Posted on 07/05/2013 7:08:44 PM PDT by Hojczyk

That is at least the theory of the Declaration of Independence, and that is the basis for our 237-year-old American experiment in limited government, and it is the system to which everyone who works for the government today pledges fidelity.

Regrettably, today we have the opposite of what the Framers gave us. Today we have a government that alone decides how much wealth we can retain, how much free expression we can exercise, how much privacy we can enjoy. And since the Fourth of July 2012, freedom has been diminished.

In the past year, all branches of the federal government have combined to diminish personal freedoms, in obvious and in subtle ways.

In the case of privacy, we now know that the federal government has the ability to read all of our texts and emails and listen to all of our telephone calls -- mobile and landline -- and can do so without complying with the Constitution’s requirements for a search warrant.

We now know that President Obama authorized this, federal judges signed off on this, and select members of Congress knew of this, but all were sworn to secrecy, and so none could discuss it. And we only learned of this because a young former spy risked his life, liberty and property to reveal it.

In the past year, Obama admitted that he ordered the CIA in Virginia to use a drone to kill two Americans in Yemen, one of whom was a 16-year-old boy. He did so because the boy’s father, who was with him at the time of the murders, was encouraging militants to wage war against the U.S.

He wasn’t waging war, according to the president; he was encouraging it.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government
KEYWORDS:

1 posted on 07/05/2013 7:08:44 PM PDT by Hojczyk
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To: Hojczyk

0verthrow 0bama and his vigilante Tsars and Departments of Oppression.


2 posted on 07/05/2013 7:10:41 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: Hojczyk

Tom would be very concerned about a special tree that appears quite dehydrated, leaves curling, and in desperate need of watering...


3 posted on 07/05/2013 7:12:34 PM PDT by C210N (When people fear government there is tyranny; when government fears people there is liberty)
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To: Paladin2

If you think this is just about 0bama, you are part of the problem.


4 posted on 07/05/2013 7:15:18 PM PDT by Forgotten Amendments (I remember when a President having an "enemies list" was a scandal. Now, they have a kill list.)
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To: C210N

Tom would have called up George, John, Ben and a few other patriots to exact a good old fashioned hanging of the tyrants that are now destroying what they fought so damn hard for.


5 posted on 07/05/2013 7:17:07 PM PDT by unixfox (Abolish Slavery, Repeal The 16th Amendment!)
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To: Forgotten Amendments
"We now know that President Obama authorized this, federal judges signed off on this, and select members of Congress knew of this,"

There's no doubt it takes a village of idiots to achieve such a "mess">

6 posted on 07/05/2013 7:19:35 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: Hojczyk

Sorry Judge - even a lot of FReepers disagree with natural law and areas of one’s life that are outside the jurisdiction of government.


7 posted on 07/05/2013 7:19:38 PM PDT by andyk (I have sworn...eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.)
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To: Forgotten Amendments

You are right, FA

This is not about Obama, per se. This is not a Democrat vs. Republican issue; it is not liberal vs. conservative.

ALL of us are in the gunsights of a national government that has run amok.

Those who trade a little liberty for security get neither.


8 posted on 07/05/2013 7:29:51 PM PDT by Walrus (America died on November 6, 2012 --- RIP)
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To: Hojczyk

It was difficult to celebrate America this year... well, since Obama’s elections. I don’t see a whole lot of my country anymore. Not in daily life. I see it more when I go to parades and county fairs, the more America-loving people go to those, but there is a severe division in this country, and in all true honesty, I want the America had before. I will take all things the liberals are “embarrassed” about in this country, pool it together, and make a whole new country, I would carve it out, and they can live in their “liberal-land.” A lot of people say, “why don’t we just fight for the country we have.” Well, sure, I would like that, but what do you do with all the liberals? Where do they go when you’re done with the revolution? They’ll scramble back to the shadows and start all over again, their patience is infinite.

And what does anyone mean by “fight” anymore? The quagmire of red tape, double speak and obfuscation in the halls of Washington? You’ll never get anywhere, the rules have been changed and set in concrete, and even if you chip away at the foundation they’re setting for their new socialist utopia, they’ll set the concrete in a new place they you’ll have to start hard chipping at all over again, and those whom you think will help you will only stab you in the back, or even help the socialists pour the cement.

Or, as I would prefer pick up weapons and face them in a true revolution?

I don’t know anymore. I just don’t know. I want to fight, I have the fire, but I just don’t know how any more. I’m tired of the slow and useless, pointless, dragged-out-to-death way via endless campaigns, hopefully get your candidate in, and then when they get in, you expect them to follow through on their promises, then they compromise, and even when you try to “hold their feet to the fire,” they still fail you, again and again...

Okay, my vent is done. I haven’t been feeling fairly patriotic this Independence Day. Sorry.


9 posted on 07/05/2013 7:49:49 PM PDT by Thorliveshere (Tais deau sá taghdedaul!)
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To: Hojczyk
That is at least the theory of the Declaration of Independence, and that is the basis for our 237-year-old American experiment in limited government, and it is the system to which everyone who works for the government today pledges fidelity.

Well, I dunno. The first thing I notice is that a big chunk of time has passed since the bicentennial, which occurred well into my adult life.

Things have changed since then, but I would have to think that Jefferson would be amazed that his conception of government had survived so well in the popular mind, even if the practice of government had strayed so far from it, which he might have expected.

Anyway, here's to Jefferson, and may Liberty never die.

10 posted on 07/05/2013 8:00:36 PM PDT by dr_lew
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To: Hojczyk

“The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground.” - Thomas Jefferson.

My guess is Jefferson would have been amazed the American experiment lasted as long as it did. He understood the nature of tyranny and mankind.


11 posted on 07/05/2013 8:05:55 PM PDT by I still care (I miss my friends, bagels, and the NYC skyline - but not the taxes. I love the South.)
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To: Hojczyk

If Washington was in his grave, he would be spinning.


12 posted on 07/05/2013 8:11:53 PM PDT by Shadowstrike (Be polite, Be professional, but have a plan to kill everyone you meet.)
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To: Hojczyk

Our founding fathers gave us a brilliant piece of work to guarantee we were a country with eternal freedom and prosperity as god intended... politicians since then have changed it into a living breathing document and now 237 years later, the future of our country is in doubt and beginning a death spiral and circumstances are not all that unlike what our founding fathers left to go build something better.


13 posted on 07/05/2013 9:11:44 PM PDT by AzNASCARfan
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To: Hojczyk

14 posted on 07/05/2013 9:14:44 PM PDT by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: Hojczyk

Perhaps it is time to recall what Jefferson said -borrowing from a Preacher/sermon popular at that time—of the Tree of Liberty needing to be refreshed from time to time with the blood of Patriots and Tyrants?


15 posted on 07/06/2013 5:31:39 AM PDT by StonyBurk (ring)
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To: Hojczyk
One of Judge Napolitano's mis-statements:

By acknowledging that our rights are inalienable, Jefferson’s words and the first federal statute recognize that our rights come from our humanity -- from within us -- and not from the government.

Our rights come from God.

Can't you say it, Judge?

16 posted on 07/06/2013 5:45:30 AM PDT by Peter W. Kessler
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