Royalty-free

Our annual celebration of U.S. Independence Day is drawing to a close, and by the time most of you read this it will be July 5th, more a celebration of Tylenol and its hangover healing powers, so in these waning hours I just wanted to hum a few bars of:

"God Save the Queen"

Oh God save history
God save your mad parade
Oh Lord God have mercy
All crimes are paid

A mere two hundred and thirty years ago we, the American people, said hell no to kings. We didn't try to build in a figurehead royal family in our new country, the Presidency is not permanently owned by one family, although we all know there are pretenders to those thrones. In fact, since 1908, we don't even dip our flag as we pass an Olympic host country's king during opening or closing ceremonies.

"The Battle of Shepherds Bush"” began almost immediately, when the U.S. delegation noticed that there was no American flag among the national flags decorating the stadium for the opening ceremonies. U.S. flag bearer and discus champion Martin Sheridan responded by refusing to dip the Stars and Stripes when he passed King Edward VII's box in the parade of athletes. "“This flag dips to no earthly king,"” Sheridan said. And it hasn't since.

One of the inspirations for starting this blog is uber-blogger and old school Conservative, Andrew Sullivan. I've agreed with him a lot lately.

Looking ahead over the next weeks and months we'll see a full on battle by the Cheney Administration to try and stonewall, circumvent, or pollute in the public mind the meaning of last week's landmark Supreme Court Hamdam ruling, which said the President can't be the sole policeman, judge and jury in Guantanamo or any other military prison. Andrew, who was born under a monarchy, okay Constitutional Monarchy, has been right on top of ol' King George starting when he realized he was a fool to back this knave on the Iraq War.

From one of many bull's-eye posting, this one late last week:

There is also clear evidence that much of what this president attempted was not simply a good-faith attempt to protect American civilians. It was a deliberate attempt to expand executive authority, promoted by radical theorists of state power, and fomented by a cabal of dead-enders, bent on avenging Nixon. The intent of Rumsfeld, Cheney, Addington, Cambone, Yoo, and the other advocates of an untrammeled executive was the acquisition of unaccountable power. In wartime, such dangerous characters are even more of a threat, because they can use the cover of security to seize new prerogatives.

While this restoration of the Nixonian imperial presidency is undoubtedly a Cheney/Rumsfeld fueled killing spree, El President Bush himself "joshed" about becoming dictator way back as Presidente elect (video):

"If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier - just so long I'm the dictator."
- December 18, 2000

So what would make any informed person think they weren't planning this long before 9/11/2001?

Here's your call to action from July 4, 2006. Think of it as the new Declaration of Independence and we're all Minutemen -- Minutepeople, to be politically correct.

Remember this moment as these oligarchists and their henchmen work tirelessly to subvert this rejection of monarchal powers, this reaffirmation of our people's Constitution.

The Founders knew that democracy could at certain times be seized by tyrannical forces. There's no automatic protection that snaps into place, but there is remedy, over time, if effort -- and outrage -- is applied.

You and I have to remain vigilant, vocal and persuasive. Read the news, talk to friends, even if your too busy to march or write letters, it doesn't hurt to just be on top of it and have an opinion.

This isn't flag burning; it's just the opposite.

This is everything you can do to make sure our flag dips to no earthly king.