Among the indictments of King George in the Declaration of Independence:

• 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 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.

• He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

• 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:

• For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

• For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

• For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

• He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

• He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

• 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. 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.

...and a happy Fourth to you too Mr. Neal. A sweeping indictment of our most noble leader. But if the, many, shoes fit...

Hey, if you're going to wind up on a "watch" list because you're publishing radical separatist tracts, I'm going to be there too.

Happy Fourth of July from Roane County, where our local volunteer fire department is selling fireworks in front of WalMart as a fund raiser.

Huzzah!

Is that a torch Lady Liberty is holding, or is she giving us the finger for failing to remove the Bushists from office?

Liberty and justice for all.