This needs to be reposted from to time so we don't forget. Read it and remember! I've bolded important clauses.

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Declaration of Independence
[Adopted in Congress 4 July 1776]

The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to [b]dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another[/b], 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 [b]they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights[/b], that [b]among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness[/b]. [b]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[/b], 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 [b]that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than  to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed[/b].  [b]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[/b], 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.     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.

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.

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.

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; [b]whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise[/b]; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

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 has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing 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.

[b]He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.[/b]
[i]My note:sounds like our federal government to day![/i]

[b]He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies[/b] without the consent of our legislature.

He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.    

[b]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:[/b]
[i]My note: describes the UN, NATO, NAFTA, ICC, and any number of other treaties we have unconstitutional agreed to.[/i]

[b]For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:[/b]

For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:     [b]For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:[/b]
[i]My note: Sounds like embargoes and other protectionist schemes our government has enacted[/i]

For imposing taxes on us without our consent:

[b]For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:[/b]
[i]My note: like a lot of our laws do, like suppression of jury nullification and many of the gun laws[/i]

[b]For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:[/b]
[i]My note: this is what the ICC will do if enacted. Image possessing an assault weapon that the UN's disapproves of.[/i]

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:

[b]For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:[/b]
[i]My note: This has been happening since the War for Southern Independence. Examples: gun laws, Labor laws, environmental laws, education laws, etc, etc[/i]

    [b]For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.[/b]
[i]My note: while our legislatures may not be suspended, this sounds a lot of what Congress is going to[/i]

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and [b]waging war against us.[/b]
[i]My note: Think Ruby Ridge and Waco[/i]

[b]He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.[/b]
[i]My note: Again, think Ruby Ridge and Waco[/i]

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 totaly unworth the head of a civilized nation.

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.

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.

[b]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.[/b] 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. [b]We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an  unwarrantable jurisdiction over us.[/b] We have reminded them of the  circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. [b]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[/b]. 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.

[b]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 [i]free and independent states[/i]; [/b] 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. [b]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.[/b]

Thanks libertyof76.



not anti-government, but anit-corrupt government lib

Libertyof76, I would think that if the Declaration of Independence really meant that much to you, you'd have at least learned to spell it correctly by now.  So much for a college education, eh?  Check the title, pal.

Hey, wait a minute. I should have read this thing before.

If ALL men are created equal and ALL men are endowed by their Creator with unalienable rights, then we ALL must have the same rights, right?

Am I wrong to assume the Bill of Rights is intended to highlight some of those rights? Since rights are endowed by our Creator, the U.S. government can only recognize rights, not issue them out.

Then how come Ashcroft says the Bill of Rights only covers American Citizens?

I guess Jefferson and them guys were just talking a lot of shit; this "Declaration" thing was just a meaningless propaganda tool they cynically used to make their cause sound just. We can ignore what it says now and still be good Americans.

Your posting of this kind of libertarian propaganda will only result in the republican candidate losing the next presidential election.

Sorry.

I was talking about libertyof76, but if you agree with that document you are part of the problem also.

is the sarcasm really necessary here?

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everyone is born with "natural" rights. the BOR is intended as rules for the government to follow/respect. a foreign national (non-citizen)is born with these rights regardless of their country of origin. "natural" rights can be taken away if abused (felon), so they are not "permanent".

i might get flamed for the above, but thats ok. any may feel free to try to persuade me into thinking that rights are government granted privlages.

military tibunal for osama supporting lib

It isn't sarcasm, but cynicism. Give it until the 2008 election and it will be reality, unless things change drastically.

fuzzbean, i read your post several times and can only think of this to say:
the govt does not issue out rights, it is charged with protecting rights that allready exist.  for example, the first words of the first amendment to the us const. reads as follows:  congress shall make no law...

now, please do not take offence when i say that i think your conclusion is wrong, its merely the way that i interpret our system of govt and the reality of the bill of rights.

I had an oppurtunity to see the actual Declaration of Independence in the National Archieves in July '99.  They govt is rebuilding the display case that is taking 3 years to complete better protect the document because it is faded big time.  The fading was caused by bright television lights according to the guide their. I can barely make out John Hancocks huge signature.