George III vs. George W.

George III vs. George W.

If you’re like most Americans, you probably haven’t read the
Declaration of Independence
in a while, if ever, so you may have forgotten that it includes a
whole laundry list of complaints about king George III of England. It
might be worth rereading some of them:

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

Signing statements
which allow Bush to ignore over 750 laws if he wants to.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

While president Bush himself has not been indicted for obstruction of
justice, Scooter Libby, former chief of staff of vice-president
Cheney,
has been.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

George Bush has
appointed
far-right wing judges both times that there has been a vacancy in the
Supreme Court. He also nominated Harriet Miers, whose primary
qualification appeared to be her loyalty to Bush.

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

USA-PATRIOT Act
Department of Homeland Security

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:

Unitary executive

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

Yaser Esam Hamdi
and
Jose Padilla,
US citizens detained for years without being charged and without
access to a lawyer.

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

Extraordinary rendition
CIA secret prisons

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:

The Bush administration has
claimed that US law does not apply to detainees in Guantanamo

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

Unitary executive.

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

George Bush
ignored
the destruction of New Orleans by hurricane Katrina, posing for
photo-ops and sharing cake with John McCain after being
notified of the levee breech.

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.

Abu Ghraib

In case anyone lost the thread, the founders of this country thought
that these offenses were worth starting a revolution (or, from
England’s point of view, a civil war). What does it take to get an
indictment? Quartering troops in civilians’ homes?

(Note: Veterans for Peace
have made this comparison
before. I rediscovered it independently.)