Happy Birthday

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 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 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 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 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; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations 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.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
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 Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring 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 into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
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.
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 endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

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.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish 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 Congress, 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 these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; 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 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.


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The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated:

Column 1
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George Walton

Column 2
North Carolina:
William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton

Column 3
Massachusetts:
John Hancock
Maryland:
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton

Column 4
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Franklin
John Morton
George Clymer
James Smith
George Taylor
James Wilson
George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney
George Read
Thomas McKean

Column 5
New York:
William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
John Hart
Abraham Clark

Column 6
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple
Massachusetts:
Samuel Adams
John Adams
Robert Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins
William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
William Williams
Oliver Wolcott
New Hampshire:
Matthew Thornton

Marine's and their Weapons

The Marine Corps is looking to upgrade 200,000+M16A4s and 80,000 M4s. What is interesting about this is it will bring these up to a standard that many civilian users already have. Adjustable butt stocks, better scope mounts, and free floated barrels are pretty much standard on even middle of the road civilian AR15s. What amazes me is there are still senior Marines in the fleet that actually do not want some of the upgrades because you cannot use the weapon as a club or the two man buddy lift over a wall. Maybe they should us empirical data and actually survey combat vets and ask them how many people have been butt stroked in the head in the last 10 years. Give the Marine as good a weapon as you can and stop worrying about the irrelevant stuff.

As for the new M27 IAR it looks like the Corps is trying to go back to the old Browning Automatic Rifle principle. I am taking a wait and see approach but I cannot for the the life of me figure how they are going to do fire and maneuver with this thing. Maneuver yes but all they did was add another M16 to the fire team and take out a weapon the M249 saw that is capable of sustained fire. Anyway here are some pictures of the weapon in Afghanistan.

Lebanon

A terrorist group has taken over a country. Hezbollah has gained control the cabinet and with 16 of 30 seats. I hope that the US government cuts off all aid to Lebanon as we do not need to be arming a terrorist organization. The mullahs in Iran must be dancing in the streets today (well if it were allowed) now they will not need to smuggle weapons into Lebanon. They can do it officially as weapons sales to a friendly government. This will make interception of these shipments much more difficult politically.

No good is going to come from this.

Navy Crosses Awarded

Day by day, the legend of the Battle of Ganjgal grows.

The Sept. 8, 2009, clash between at least 50 heavily armed insurgents and the Marine trainers and Afghan forces they surprised in Kunar province, Afghanistan, already has led to three Marines and a Navy corpsman posthumously receiving the Bronze Star with V.

Two Marines were awarded the Navy Cross and another awaits a Medal of Honor investigation for this action.

Despite being under fire from a well entrenched enemy the patrol did not receive fire support or reinforcements and had to extract themselves. An investigation conducted by Army Col. Richard Hooker and Marine Col. James Werth, it determined that “negligent” leadership by three officers at nearby Forward Operating Base Joyce contributed “directly to the loss of life which ensued.” They refused direct calls for help from U.S. forces on the ground and failed to notify higher commands that they had troops in contact with enemy, the investigation found.

The officers were members of Task Force Chosin, a unit comprising soldiers from 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, out of Fort Drum, N.Y. In February, Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said Army officials told him that two of the three officers ultimately received reprimands, a likely career killer.

This is the second large case of negligent leadership shown by Army officers as the troops in Wanat were also not supported or supplied properly which also led to a large loss of life. Risk averse officers who are to worried about not making waves are letting our soldiers and Marines die. This is what happens when you try to make warfighters into policemen.

Iran

While the world has been watching the Arab Spring, the NATO bombings of Libya, and the atrocities of Syria against its own population (with Iranian and Hezbollah help). Iran has been has been up to its usual of Jihad against the West, their Sunni neighbors (except the Taliban which it is arming just like they did Iraqi resistance), and its own people.

In Bahrain it appears that Iran encouraged and helped that countries Shia rise up against their current Sunni King. This uprising was brutally put down by members of the Gulf Cooperation Council led by Saudi Arabian troops. There is really two pieces of this one the encroachment of Iran further toward the Sunni heartland something that the Saudis will not tolerate and the fact that Bahrain allowed foreign troops in to kill its own population. In addition the world was quiet about the whole affair with oil being the price that it is. The issue over who is going to be the protector of the Arabs now that Egypt may or may not have the strong anti-Iran policy it once did.

Iran not ones to pass up killing US troops on the cheap are continuing to arm the Taliban something that was noted as far back as 2006. The Iranians also made it a policy to arm the Shiite groups in Iraq as well notably Sadr. Our friends in the UK are also making the case of Iranian involvement in Afghanistan it would appear the the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps which is the organization involved the most in spreading the Iranian jihad is behind arming the Taliban.

There is further Iranian involvement in South American not only in Venezuela but now in Bolivia.
Bolivia’s ongoing relations with Iran are being scrutinized by the foreign community. Israeli sources have documented deposits of uranium in Bolivia and have speculated that this is another reason for the growing ties between the two countries. Vahidi is one of the main promoters of Iran’s nuclear program as well as a strong proponent of the development of vectorial nuclear arms systems. Considering this, it is extremely dangerous that Vahidi has offered military support to Bolivia.

On the subject of nuclear weapons anyone that has doubts about the Iranian program should just re-bury their heads in the sand. It appears Iran wants a nuclear weapon by next year. Obviously years of talks have done nothing and that stronger measures maybe necessary to at least help the Iranian people get rid of the Mullahs.

The US has not had a consistant Iran policy since the overthrow of the Shah. This has to end no matter what party is in the White House. Strong steps must be utilized to help Iranian resistance and if need be force used to slow down or stop the Iranian nuclear weapons program.

Mad

I normally take the side of police in such matters until the police decide to criminally cover up an illegal shooting. A former Marine Jose Guerena gets gunned down by police in his own home and the police try to cover it up. I do not want to make political hash out of this (some have already started) but a severe injustice was done by a political Sheriff and what appears to be an incompetent SWAT unit. This young man did exactly what I would do if my wife was screaming someone was breaking into our home. I would have done grabbed my AR15 and waited. While I do not know the home defense laws in AZ, where I live you can start blasting if you can clearly explain a threat. Seeing armed men in my house is a threat I would have started shooting. This young man as NOW admitted by police had the fire discipline not to fire probably when he recognized they were police. Do you know how they responded by firing 71 rounds 71! at one man hitting him 60 and then let him bleed out for over an hour before letting paramedics onto the scene. I am not just mad because this young man was a Marine I am mad because of the incompetence of this Sheriff and his SWAT team. The Sheriff and every member of that SWAT team should be in prison in shackles and every day be made to apologize to this young mans widow and child. Now the wife rightfully so has hired a of lawyer and I hope they bankrupt Pima County, AZ.

Thankfully in this case the Marine Corps gave this young man the full military funeral that he deserved. His home country killed him when two tours in Iraq did not.

Fresh attack in Pakistan

Since the killing of bin Laden a couple of weeks ago the Taliban and AQ have been swearing their revenge. It has started off a little pitiful to be hones a couple of attacks on soft Pakistani targets and attempt on some US diplomatic personnel. These have caused only civilian Pakistani deaths and have not produced the Western or even Pakistani security service deaths they have to be striving for. However today terrorists (Taliban) are in the midst of an attack on a Pakistani Navy base in Karachi . Update from Pakistani news, 2 P3 patrol planes has been destroyed along with four Pakistani Naval personnel and a Ranger killed so far with the attack still ongoing....