Last time around hardly anyone read this, and because I think that it is really important, I've reposted it. Also, to give it a better effect of comparison to the actual Declaration of Independence, I've italicized only the words that I changed. As a first year law student, I have the privilege of instruction in the area of Constitutional Law. Our first assignment was to read the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution...and boy was I shocked when I did. Upon reading the Declaration, which is, in my humble opinion, one of the greatest documents ever drafted, I was dismayed to find how similar the colonists' grievances against King George III were to our own grievances against President George Bush II. With my appologies to Jefferson, I have modified his Declaration to match our current political reality. It is outlined in full, after the flip. For comparison, visit Here for the actual text. BTW, all strange capitalization was left intact. For the purpose of maintaining continuity between the documents, there are a few stretches. The words I changed are in italics.
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 (and women!) 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 our citizens; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the current President of the United States 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, and anyone else who might hear them:
He has refused his Assent to Laws (including provisions of our own constitution), the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his citizens to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, and has attempted to unilaterally nullify laws passed through the issuance of signing statements that assert his authority to ignore them.
Through his minions, he has disenfranchised the votes of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right to vote for someone other than a Republican, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
Through his rubberstamp congress, he has called together hearings 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.
Though he has denounced them publicly, through his acolytes, he has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States by Latinos and Muslims; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for maintaining accepted 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 new office of homeland security which has swelled our budget beyond its means, failed to secure our homeland against threats foreign and hurricane, spied on his political opponents in contravention of federal law, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has destroyed our time of peace by instigating a war of choice that has cost thousands of lives and billions of dollars from the treasury.
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 (See revocation of Habeas Corpus.)
For destroying our relations with all parts of the world.
For imposing Tax breaks for his campaign contributors at the expense of everyone else in the United States.
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury (See Gitmo.)
For transporting innocent Americans beyond Seas to be tortured in foreign countries for pretended offences, in contravention of the Geneva convention, International law, and U.S. Federal law. (See Abu Ghraib, Secret CIA prisons in foreign countries, extraordinary rendition.)
For taking away our freedoms enshrined in the U.S. constitution, damaging our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments (See Unitary Executive.)
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us, if he decree us to be terrorists.
He has plundered our treasury, ravaged our environment, burnt our national forests, and destroyed the lives of our people (See everything Bush has done since taking office.)
He is at this time transporting large Armies of mostly young American kids to their deaths, and has announced that he wants to send even more.
He has constrained his fellow Republicans taken Captive on the floor of congress to bear rhetorical Arms against their Country and its laws, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by the hands of his minions.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us by attempting to divide us by Race, Religion, Color, and Creed.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms...peaceful assembly, voting, and letters. Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A President, 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 Republican 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 Kosgress 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 this nation, solemnly publish and declare, That these United States are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent from the reign of George W Bush, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to him and his administration, and that all political connection between them 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.