Saturday, July 02, 2005



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...
Life, Liberty, Property.

The Federalist Patriot Founders' Quote Daily:

"A just security to property is not afforded by that government,under which unequal taxes oppress one species of property and reward another species." -- James Madison

Brian Williams "Clarifies".

NBC Nightly News anchorcritter and famous GQ coverboy Brian Williams has been roasted for his recent outrageous comments about how the modern world may view our Founding Fathers through the lens of recent history:

Many Americans woke up to a curious story this morning: several of the former Iran Hostages have decided there is a strong resemblance between Iran's new president and one of their captors more than 25 years ago. The White House and most official branches of government are ducking any substantive comment on this story, and photo analysis is going on at this and other news organizations. It is a story that will be at or near the top of our broadcast and certainly made for a robust debate in our afternoon editorial meeting, when several of us
raised the point (I'll leave it to others to decide germaneness) that several U.S. presidents were at minimum revolutionaries, and probably were considered terrorists of their time by the Crown in England.

BlogWorld immediately dumped a bucket of chum on Brian's head for these comments. And for good reason: Washington, the Adams Brothers, and Jefferson very likely did not regard England as an infidel nation whose inhabitants required annihilation. Dead Drifts greatly doubts these men would have celebrated the detonation of a keg filled with black powder and horseshoe nails in a crowded Philadelphia market. But fear not, Mr. Williams has now provided further clarification for his Deep Thoughts:

And on this busy day I'm compelled to throw in a personal note of my own...it's about a question I asked Andrea Mitchell on Nightly News last night. Coming out of the story alleging that Iran's President-elect may have been among those who kept 52 Americans hostage for 444 days in Tehran, I asked Andrea the following question:

"What would it all matter if proven true? Someone brought up today: The first several U.S. presidents were certainly revolutionaries... and might have been called "terrorists" at the time by the BRITISH CROWN, after all..."


Today, apparently, on some radio talk shows and blogs, my
friends in the media have accused me of labeling George Washington a terrorist. They apparently missed my point: That the BRITISH CROWN might have viewed American revolutionaries that way.My question — and specifically the line, "what would it all matter..." was meant to address the popular support within Iran for those who acted against the U.S. and are now in positions of power. Those of you who are regular readers of our blog know we spoke about this very issue
yesterday in our afternoon editorial meeting.

All I ask is that people re-read what was said on the air. I've talked
to several viewers today, and one conversation I actually enjoyed was with a woman from Virginia, who said, "These days, you just can't use the word TERRORIST for anything but a TERRORIST." And I take this nice woman's point about the power of words in our current climate.

While I insist that a re-reading of my question will prove that in no
way was I calling the framers "terrorists" (for starters, the word did not exist 229 years ago), I regret that anyone thought that after a life spent reading and loving American history, I had suddenly changed my mind about the founders of our nation.


Bri, you still miss the point: neither did the word exist nor would the notion have existed with Loyalists or the Crown that their American bretheren were madmen killing for the sake of killing. Traitors, to be sure, but not terrorists as we understand what this word connotes. So your comments were just...well, stupid. (stupid: lacking intelligence or reason; a word that did exist 229 years ago).