[VIDEO] Obama Leaves Out ‘God’ From 4th of July Weekly Address

As Obama’s term as President is slowly nearing its end, more and more of who the man is, and what he truly stands for, is beginning to seep out.

For instance, President Obama released his 4th of July weekly address for 2015 with one key ingredient missing: God.

Unlike his weekly addresses during the previous two years, where the President concluded his speeches with “God Bless You All” (2014) and “So, God bless You All. And may God bless The United States of America” (2013), Obama left out any mention of God in his recent address. Instead, this year, he chose to end his speech with a very politically correct, “Thanks, everybody. From my family to yours, have a safe and happy Fourth of July.”

Here’s the transcript:

“Remarks of President Barack Obama

Weekly Address

The White House

July 4, 2015

Happy Fourth of July, everybody. Like many of you, Michelle, Sasha, Malia, and I are going to spend the day outdoors, grilling burgers and dogs, and watching the fireworks with our family and friends. It’s also Malia’s birthday, which always makes the Fourth extra fun for us.

As always, we’ve invited some very special guests to our backyard barbecue – several hundred members of our military and their families. On this most American of holidays, we remember that all who serve here at home and overseas, represent what today is all about. And we remember that their families serve, too. We are so grateful for their service and for their sacrifice.

We remember as well that this is the day when, 239 years ago, our founding patriots declared our independence, proclaiming that all of us are created equal, endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights including the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

A couple of centuries later, we have made ourselves into a big, bold, dynamic, and diverse country. We are of all races, we come from all places, we practice all faiths, and believe in all sorts of different ideas. But our allegiance to this declaration – this idea – is the creed that binds us together. It’s what, out of many, makes us one.

And it’s been the work of each successive generation to keep this founding creed safe by making sure its words apply to every single American. Folks have fought, marched, protested, even died for that endeavor, proving that as Americans, our destiny is not written for us, but by us.

We honor those heroes today. We honor everyone who continually strives to make this country a better, stronger, more inclusive, and more hopeful place. We, the people, pledge to make their task our own – to secure the promise of our founding words for our own children, and our children’s children.

And finally, what better weekend than this to cheer on Team USA – good luck to the U.S. Women’s National Team in the World Cup Final!

Thanks, everybody. From my family to yours, have a safe and happy Fourth of July.”

Via: Gateway Pundit

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The wrinkle in the Affordable Care Act decision

“What chumps!”

— Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., June 29, 2015

Roberts’s intellectual complexity does not prevent him from expressing himself pithily, as he did with those words when dissenting in a case from Arizona. Joined by Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr., Roberts’s dissent should somewhat mollify conservatives who are dismayed about his interpretive ingenuity four days earlier in writing the opinion that saved the Affordable Care Act. Furthermore, they, including this columnist, may have missed a wrinkle in Roberts’s ACA opinion that will serve conservatives’ long-term interests.

To end gerrymanders, Arizona voters, by referendum, amended the state’s constitution to strip the legislature of its control of redistricting. They created an Independent Redistricting Commission (IRC) on which no member of the legislature may serve.

However, the U.S. Constitution’s elections clause says, “The times, places and manner of holding elections for senators and representatives, shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof.” When Arizona’s legislature sued, the IRC’s implausible response was: The Constitution’s Framers did not use the word “legislature” as it was then and still is used, to denote the representative bodies that make states’ laws. Rather, the IRC said the Framers used “legislature” eccentrically, to mean any process, such as a referendum, that creates any entity, such as the IRC, that produces binding edicts.

Implausibility is not an insurmountable barrier to persuading a Supreme Court majority, and last week five justices accepted the IRC’s argument. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, joined by Anthony M. Kennedy, Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, said: There is “no suggestion” that when the Framers stipulated that the manner of a state’s elections should be determined by “the legislature thereof” the Framers necessarily meant “the state’s representative body.”

This detonated Roberts, who began his dissent by saying: The reformers who waged “an arduous, decades-long campaign” to achieve ratification in 1913 of the 17th Amendment establishing popular election of U.S. senators could have saved themselves the trouble. They could have adopted what Roberts calls the “magic trick” the majority performed regarding Arizona. What chumps the reformers were for not simply asserting this: Sure, the Framers stipulated that two senators from each state were to be chosen “by the legislature thereof,” but the Framers really meant “by the people.”

Via: Washington Post

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[VIDEO] Trump Hits Back at Rivals on Immigration: 'No One Else Knows Where to Begin'

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump Saturday slammed fellow challengers Sen. Marco Rubio and former Gov. Jeb Bush for their attacks on his statements about illegal immigration — charging that both Florida politicians are soft on the issue.

"I am very proud to be fighting for a strong and secure border," the billionaire businessman told Newsmax in a statement. "This is a very important issue, which all the other candidates would have ignored had I not started this important discussion.

"I will fix the border. No one else knows where to begin," Trump said.

In New Hampshire, Bush said that he was "absolutely" offended personally by Trump's comments in his June 16 campaign announcement. Bush's wife, Columba, is from Mexico.

"I don’t think he represents the Republican Party, and his views are way out of the mainstream of what Republicans think," Bush after attending to Independence Day parades in the state, The Washington Post reports. "No one suggests that we shouldn’t control our borders — everybody has a belief that we should control our borders.

"But to make these extraordinarily ugly kind of comments is not reflective of the Republican Party. Trump is wrong on this.

"He’s doing this to inflame and to incite and to get to draw attention, which just seems to be the organization principle of his campaign," Bush added. "It doesn’t represent the Republican Party or its values."

Trump snapped back Saturday, saying that "Jeb Bush once again proves that he is out of touch with the American people.

"Just like the simple question asked of Jeb on Iraq, where it took him five days and multiple answers to get it right, he doesn’t understand anything about the border or border security.

"In fact, Jeb believes illegal immigrants who break our laws when they cross our border come 'out of love,'" Trump said.

He was referring to Bush's waffling in March over whether he would not have ordered the Baghdad invasion in 2003 — after days of avoiding the question and being attacked by rivals — and his comments in an interview the month before on immigration.

Trump, too, accused Bush of trying to inflame tensions among Hispanics.

"As everybody knows, I never said that all Mexicans crossing the border are rapists. Jeb is mischaracterizing my statements only to inflame."

The developer referenced Wednesday's shooting of a 23-year-old San Francisco woman by an illegal immigrant, Francisco Sanchez, 45, who has seven felony convictions and has been deported five times.

"As seen with the tragic and unnecessary death of Kathryn Steinle this past week in San Francisco at the hands of an illegal immigrant who was previously deported five times, our unsecured border is a national security threat," Trump said.

"Jeb will never be able to secure our border, negotiate good trade deals, strengthen our military or care for our veterans.

"The biggest difference between Jeb and me on the border is that I believe in securing our border by building a wall, which will protect our safety, economy and national security.

"This is a vital step in making America great again."

Earlier Saturday, Trump blasted both Rubio and former New York Gov. George Pataki for their attacks earlier in the week.

Rubio said in a statement Friday that "Trump’s comments are not just offensive and inaccurate, but also divisive. Our next president needs to be someone who brings Americans together — not someone who continues to divide.

"Our broken immigration system is something that needs to be solved, and comments like this move us further from — not closer to — a solution," the first-term senator added. "We need leaders who offer serious solutions to secure our border and fix our broken immigration system."

Pataki wrote a letter to all the Republican presidential candidates this week calling on them to speak out against Trump and his remarks.

"I know Pataki well," Trump told Fox News on Saturday. "He was a terrible governor of New York. Terrible.

"If he would have run again, he wouldn't have gotten anything," he added. "He was a failed governor.

"And, you know, as far as Rubio, he is very weak on immigration — and he I have been saying that for some time," Trump said.

He praised another candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz — who vowed in a "Meet the Press" interview to be aired Sunday that he was not going to participate in "Republican-on-Republican violence" — saying that he respected the Texas senator.

Trump's comments have also been attacked by former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said in New Hampshire Saturday that the remarks reflected poorly on the Republican Party.

"I think he made a severe error in saying what he did about Mexican-Americans, and it's unfortunate," Romney told CNN during one of the holiday parades.

When asked whether more GOP candidates should call out Trump, Romney responded: "I think a number of them have."

Via: Newsmax

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SSA Can’t Collect Overpayments Without Wasting Money

The Social Security Administration (SSA) spends more money than it collects when trying to recover payments to individuals who received benefits for which they were not eligible.

According to the Office of Inspector General (OIG), the SSA issued $128.3 million in “low-dollar” overpayments between 2008 and 2013, and then spent $323 million to collect them. The agency ultimately recovered only $109.4 million.

“This resulted in SSA spending over $213.6 million more than it collected,” the OIG said, in an audit released Wednesday.

The OIG defines an overpayment as “benefit payments greater than the amount to which individuals are entitled.”

The overpayments were distributed through the SSA’s Retirement and Survivors Insurance (RSI), Disability Insurance (DI), and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs. The SSA issued approximately $16.8 billion in disability insurance overpayments alone in the past decade.

“Generally, SSA attempted to collect overpayments regardless of the amount,” the OIG said. “In some cases, the value of the overpayment was less than what SSA spent to collect the overpayment. Therefore, for some overpayments, collection was not always cost-beneficial.”

A “low-dollar” overpayment is less than or equal to the agency’s average cost to retrieve an overpayment.

It cost the SSA an average $164.11 to collect each RSI overpayment, $268.32 for each disability insurance overpayment, and $56.63 for each SSI overpayment in 2013, according to the agency’s Cost Analysis System (CAS).

However, the OIG found errors within the accounting system. The CAS was not able to take into account SSI overpayments that took more than one step to recover. Some overpayments can take as many as five actions by the agency in order to get the money back, costing $283.15 for a single overpayment.

“Therefore, it is not possible to determine how much the average cost to collect an SSI overpayment in CAS is understated when multiple actions are required to collect an SSI overpayment,” the OIG said.

“The time and effort involved to identify an overpayment can vary greatly. Several factors affect how long it can take to identify the correct overpayment amount, such as the reason for the overpayment, how long the overpayment spanned, and whether there are auxiliary beneficiaries eligible on the record that may be affected,” they said.

The audit suggested the SSA could potentially have saved up to $3.2 billion if it was able to divert the millions it spent collecting low-dollar overpayments elsewhere, the OIG said.

The agency uses full medical Continuing Disability Reviews (CDRs) to determine if beneficiaries are in fact still disabled and eligible to receive benefits. By putting the $323 million into processing additional CDRs, the SSA could have reduced its backlog of 1.3 million beneficiaries awaiting reviews in 2013. Each review has a return on investment of $10 for the agency.

“However, the Budget Control Act of 2011 capped the amount of additional new budget authority SSA could use for CDRs and SSI redeterminations for FYs 2012 through 2021,” the OIG said. “Therefore, SSA had limited authority to use these resources for other workloads.”

Via: WFB

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[VIDEO] Fox Panelist Rips Trump: ‘Negotiate with Mexico? He Can’t Even Negotiate with Macy’s!’

Donald Trump‘s presidential campaign has given conservatives and Republicans lots of mixed feelings. But Fox’s Eric Bolling, at least, continues to be one of Trump’s biggest cable news defenders. On today’s Cashin’ In

Panelist Jonathan Hoenig, however, wasn’t quite on board. He told Bolling, “He’s not just a fool, but he’s a fraud… Negotiate with Mexico? He can’t even negotiate with Macy’s!”

And quite frankly, Bolling was the only one really defending Trump. Wayne Rogers said “if Trump can’t survive in the free market, that’s his problem,” while Michelle Fields said she’s not a Trump fan and that NBC probably did the right thing (even if they hypocritically embrace Al Sharpton and Brian Williams).

 

Bolling still defended Trump, arguing that he’s bringing “fresh new ideas” and is someone willing to stand up for America. Rogers pointed out that there are other candidates who fit that description already, while Hoenig made it abundantly clear he just really doesn’t like Trump.

Presidents, he said, don’t make over-the-top threats and don’t “alienate America’s major corporations.” Hoenig pointed out how Trump used to be a Democrat, and when Bolling talked about getting someone with a different kind of track record in the White House, Hoenig said, “Trump’s got a record of bankruptcy.”

Via: Mediaite

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L.A. Is Not Designed to Work

The City of Los Angeles is a sprawling enterprise with 32,000 employees and an annual budget of $8.6 billion. But according to Rick Cole, the City’s former Deputy Mayor for Budget and Innovation, “LA is not designed to work.”

Our City’s operations are relatively simple compared to Los Angeles County and other large cities such as New York and Chicago.  City Hall is not responsible for education, healthcare and hospitals, social services and welfare, and criminal justice and jails, all open ended services that are burdened by rivers of red ink, adverse court decisions, and controversial political and social issues that do not have simple solutions.

City Hall is responsible for every day services such as public safety (police and fire); our streets and sidewalks; our parks and libraries; and trash collection, wastewater, sewers, and stormwater.  It is also responsible for planning, zoning, building and safety, and the enforcement of the related rules and regulations.

But Angelenos are not happy campers.

Our streets are a mess, but there is no well thought out plan to repair and maintain our roadways.  Our sidewalks are subject to a $1.4 billion consent decree, but residential sidewalks are last in line to receive funds.  Recreation and Parks’ programs for our youth and seniors have been eviscerated while its putrid public restrooms are a constant source of ridicule.  And our neighborhoods are under siege by real estate developers and traffic congestion.

The City’s finances are also in shambles.  This year, the budget was balanced by diverting $150 million from the Reserve Fund despite the fact that revenues increased by $150 million more than projected.  The City has long term obligations of over $25 billion for its unfunded pension liabilities, deferred maintenance on its infrastructure, and existing long term debt.  But there is no long term plan to balance the budget, fund our pension plans, and repair our streets and sidewalks.

Underlying the chaos at City Hall is the reality that it is impossible to hold any of our elected officials accountable for the failure of City Hall to balance its books and provide adequate services to its constituents.  According to the well respected and occasionally controversial Cole (photo right), the City charter was designed to prevent corruption and the abuse of power.  But today, this has resulted in an inefficient government because we are unable to hold our individual elected officials accountable for their collective failures.

Unfortunately, our City is dominated by special interests, whether they are the campaign funding union leaders that represent our City’s workers or the generous real estate developers who have complete disregard for our residential neighborhoods.

If Los Angeles wants to be a “world class” city, it cannot continue with the status quo.  It cannot continue to kick the budget can down the road and ignore the Structural Deficit, inefficient operations, our infrastructure, and the underfunded pension plans.  It can no longer afford to thumb its nose at investors and employers if it wants its economy to flourish through the creation of good jobs.  It can no longer allow unfettered development that impinges on our quality of life.

Change and reform that are designed to make our City work are politically risky with the real possibility of failure.  It may also alienate the special interests who finance political campaigns.  But this is the challenge that our leaders must face if they want to win the hearts, minds, and wallets of the voters.

Is Back to Basics Mayor Eric Garcetti willing to be that leader?

 Originally posted on CityWatch LA.

Via: California Political Review

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TANCREDO: INDEPENDENCE DAY, TIME TO THINK RADICAL THOUGHTS

Independence Day is traditionally a time for celebration, relaxation and gratitude for the liberties declared to be universal rights on July 4, 1776. Maybe it’s time to also remember — and celebrate — that while our liberties and our independence may have been declared in 1776, they were secured for posterity by the blood of patriots, not the pens and inkblots of judges and politicians.

As a poet of the ’60s once said, the times they are a-changing. Indeed.

It is not a happy thought, but when in the course of human events, dependence not independence becomes the defining feature of our national character, maybe our Independence Day celebrations and speeches should take note of this “transformative” turning point—and make plans accordingly.

Shall we celebrate that we are not yet as corrupt as Greece? That we have not yet repudiated our national debts? Or should we put down the bottle and admit how fast we are approaching that day of reckoning?

Can anyone remember a week that has seen so many disappointments, betrayals and storm warnings as the one we have lived through since the Supreme Court’s shameless abandonment of the Constitution on June 26? We got more than revitalized Obamacare on that day, we got a cold shower: it is now impossible to ignore the naked truth that our elites are laughing at the idea of “limited government.”

True, there have been other decisions of the nation’s top court that have disappointed, even shocked conservatives. But has there ever been a ruling that said in giant letters written across the marquee in Times Square, “the Constitution be damned, separation of powers be damned, we will help Congress write laws we like and reject laws we don’t like.”

On Independence Day 2015, conservatives and patriots need to understand what has happened. By edict signed by our new lawgiver– the Chief Justice of the United States, John Roberts, an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush– the Founders’ principal legacy, the idea of a written Constitution, is now officially dead. The letter of the law is meaningless – and thus no longer a restraint on government — when replaced by the good intentions of our elite rulers.

Thomas Jefferson’s proposition that rights precede government and to protect these rights, governments are instituted among men—that proposition is now discarded in the dustbin of history. The Bill of Rights? Freedom of religion and free speech will mean what enlightened judges want them to mean.

The Republican Party’s white flag of surrender, deployed so often and so readily on Supreme Court nominees and Cabinet appointments, has become the Constitution’s white burial shroud.

Our Founders were not naïve simpletons. They understood that human freedom is a fragile thing, that “eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” The Founders understood, with Benjamin Franklin, that “you have a Republic, madam, if you can keep it.” Have we?

Via: Breitbart

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Feds Get Serious Over Computer Hacking: Charges Pending In OPM Baseball Team’s Data Breach

Federal investigators are recommending charges against at least one St. Louis Cardinals employee for allegedly intruding on a rival baseball team’s database, a report says.

 

The investigation accuses one or more Cardinals employees of accessing a Houston Astros database tracking player development, according to CNN.

 

It is also probing whether senior Cardinals management was aware of the spying.

Federal investigators are recommending charges against at least one St. Louis Cardinals employee for allegedly intruding on a rival baseball team’s database, a report says.

 

The investigation accuses one or more Cardinals employees of accessing a Houston Astros database tracking player development, according to CNN.

 

It is also probing whether senior Cardinals management was aware of the spying.

CNN said one or more Cardinals front-office staffers might have violated federal law by accessing the Astros’ database, known as Ground Control.

 

The potential breach came after former Cardinals employee Jeff Luhnow left to be Houston’s general manager.

 

The investigation accuses the Cardinals of then unfairly prying into the Astros’ database amid concerns Luhnow had taken the Cardinals’ proprietary information to his new employer.

 

Luhnow has told investigators the Astros generated their own database system independently of his previous work in St. Louis.

 

Friday’s report follows the Cardinals’ announcement earlier this week that it had fired Chris Correa, the team’s director of scouting.

 

Correa was one of the investigation’s targets, CNN reported.

 

Cardinals General Manager John Mozeliak refused comment on his former employee’s release Thursday.

 

“I can confirm he was on administrative leave and was terminated yesterday,” he said Friday.

 

“I think, at this time, it’s just best to understand that it’s an open investigation and any other comments are not in anybody’s best interest,” Mozeliak added.

 

CNN said the FBI’s Houston office has completed its inquiry and is now awaiting action from the U.S. Attorney’s office.

 

The FBI’s Houston branch declined additional insight on its efforts.

 

“The FBI aggressively investigates all potential threats to public and private sector systems,” said FBI spokeswoman Shauna Dunlap.

 

“Once our investigations are complete, we pursue all appropriate avenues to hold accountable those who pose a threat in cyberspace,” she added.

Via: The Hill

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[COMMENTARY]'All Men...Are Endowed by Their Creator With Certain Unalienable Rights'

[Editor's Note: With these words--239 years ago--our Founding Fathers declared the independence of the United States of America.]

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.

Via: CNS News

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Dinesh D’Souza: My Rap Sheet Is Nothing Compared To The Clintons’

Conservative author and filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza remarked on the Hellish nature of a potential Hillary Clinton presidency and said his own criminal rap sheet is nothing compared to the one compiled by Bill and Hillary Clinton.

In a candid interview in the New York Times magazine July 2, D’Souza talks at length about his experience in the American penal system, from which he was recently released after serving time for a campaign finance violation. (RELATED: My Interview With D’Souza After He Was Charged).

“If you put my rap sheet alongside the Clinton rap sheet, I think that would be almost a prima facie case that they have gotten away with far more than I have. My crime consisted of giving away too much money. I didn’t benefit from it in any way,” D’Souza said.

“When I think of a Hillary administration, I’m reminded of the sign on the outer gates of hell [in Dante’s ‘Inferno’]: ‘Abandon all hope, ye who enter here,'” D’Souza said.

D’Souza would know about Hell, having served eight months in a California confinement center after being prosecuted by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, a top candidate to become attorney general in a Hillary Clinton administration.

“I thought of myself as an anthropologist with a rare opportunity to, you might say, study the natives,” D’Souza said of his fellow prisoners.

“They all acknowledged their guilt but argued that they were the small fry. They believe that the real criminals are not only part of the system, they are running the system, and, in fact, that they are the system and that, at its highest level, America is a crime syndicate,” D’Souza added.

Via: Daily Caller

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REBUILDING AMERICAN CIVIC TRADITIONS ON THE 4TH OF JULY

Americans celebrate the 4th of July with fireworks, barbecues, picnics and all other kinds of enjoyable festivities. It’s wonderful that we live in a free country and are able to enjoy the fruits of our prosperity and freedom. However, merely wearing red,white, and blue, shirts with bald eagles on them, and other patriotic symbols is only a superficial way to celebrate America’s hard-fought for independence.

On top of the enjoyable celebrations of America’s birth, some time should be dedicated each Independence Day to recognizing and coming to a better understanding of the noble traditions that we have inherited from the founders. The sacred torch of liberty is a precious gift that has been passed down by generations of Americans, it is our duty to keep it alive and pass it on to the next.

On July 5, 1926, the 150th anniversary of the birth of our country, President Calvin Coolidge delivered an address at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Coolidge spoke about the causes of the Revolution and the curtailment of rights that occurred at the hands of the British government. He explained how in separating from the British, America created a new government, with new principles; a far more profound act than than simply creating a new country out of the ashes of the old.

“It was not because it was proposed to establish a new nation, but because it was proposed to establish a nation on new principles, that July 4, 1776, has come to be regarded as one of the greatest days in history,” Coolidge said. He described the origins of American institutions as grounded in Western philosophy and in the American colonial experience. He spoke about how the timeless truths and rights “endowed by our creator,” articulated so eloquently in the Declaration, became cemented by the wise construction of the Constitution.

Coolidge said that the Constitution was created, “to establish a free government, which must not be permitted to degenerate into the unrestrained authority of a mere majority or the unbridled weight of a mere influential few,” he continued. “They undertook to balance these interests against each other and provide the three separate independent branches, the executive, the legislative, and the judicial departments of the Government, with checks against each other in order that neither one might encroach upon the other. These are our guarantees of liberty.”

Finally, Coolidge stressed how America must not fall into the trap of pure materialism, how the grand Declaration came from the “influence of a great spiritual development.”

Coolidge concluded:

No other theory is adequate to explain or comprehend the Declaration of Independence. It is the product of the spiritual insight of the people. We live in an age of science and of abounding accumulation of material things. These did not create our Declaration. Our Declaration created them. The things of the spirit come first. Unless we cling to that, all our material prosperity, overwhelming though it may appear, will turn to a barren scepter in our grasp.If we are to maintain the great heritage which has been bequeathed to us, we must be like-minded as the fathers who created it. We must not sink into a pagan materialism. We must cultivate the reverence which they had for the things that are holy. We must follow the spiritual and moral leadership which they showed. We must keep replenished, that they may glow with a more compelling flame, the altar fires before which they worshiped.

Many Americans may have lost sight of the timeless truths and great principles that Coolidge described, but those who still believe that the American heritage of liberty should endure and be passed on must create conventions to keep their country’s founding ideals alive in the modern era.

Radio host Dennis Prager has written about how “America Needs a July Fourth Seder.” Much like how Jews pass down their religion and history through annual reflection and discussion during Passover, Americans who believe in the country created by the founders should read foundational texts to their friends and family while discussing the ideas that made it exceptional. Even a brief, 10-minute exercise looking back on where we came from as a people prevents the pure trivialization of an extraordinarily important holiday.

But there are other ways of honoring America on the 4th as well. I personally make a pilgrimage to George Washington’s home at Mount Vernon to place flowers by the Father of Our Country’s grave. Every year, I reflect on Washington’s virtue and fundamental belief in the cause of the Revolution; I find that my annual tradition deepens my appreciation of the man and the founding generation’s greatness, and enhances the meaning of the holiday for me.

Historian Richard Brookhiser wrote in Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington, “When Washington lived he had the ability to give strength to debaters and to dying men. His life still has the power to inspire anyone who studies it.” In dark times, such as the circumstances American find themselves in today, it is a comfort and inspiration to reflect on the life of a man who endured through some of the darkest in our country’s history and triumphed.

American civic institutions, cultural heritage, and principles are under attack. If they continue to muddle in perpetual decline, and if we fail to pass them on to the next generation, then a more secure border, temporary policy victories, and better elected representatives will amount to very little. The American republic was built on principles and ideas, not ethnicity, and it will not survive unless there are future generations ready to forcefully articulate what those ideas are and what the purpose is of our grand experiment in liberty. That is why on the anniversary of American independence, it is so important to spend some time reminding ourselves of the great task before us: to honor, preserve, and perpetuate the great American tradition.

Via: Breitbart

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John Adams Wanted Independence Day On July 2, Not July 4

Founding Father John Adams thought that America’s independence day celebration should be on July 2, not July 4. July 2, 1776 was day the Continental Congress voted for independence. (Karsun Designs Photography/Flickr)

As the Founding Fathers established the United States of America, they had their eyes on the future and they knew they were making history. But not everyone had the same opinion of the timeline of that history.

Most thought the big day was July 4, when then Continental Congress approved the text of the Declaration of Independence and sent it to the printer. But John Adams believed July 2, 1776, was the really the big day.

In one of the two letters he wrote to his wife Abigail from Philadelphia on July 3, 1776, John Adams said: “I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival.”

July 2 was the day the Continental Congress voted for independence. It approved a resolution that said: “these united Colonies, are, and of right ought to be free and independent States, and as such, they have, and of Right ought to have, full Power to make War, conclude Peace, establish Commerce, and to do all the other Acts and Things, which other States may rightfully do.”

On the day they took that vote, John wrote to Abigail: “It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by Solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”

That is, of course, exactly what happens now on the Fourth of July, not the second.

John Adams, who was right about so much, was also right about the way we would celebrate independence. Just not the date.

Via: WBUR-Boston

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[VIDEO] Get in the July 4th Spirit with This Epic Independence Day Speech

While you gear up for July 4th, remember what this holiday is all about: patriotism, independence from Great Britain and kicking some alien butt. 

Or at least that's the lesson we got from 1996's Independence Day, which features one of the most inspirational speeches of all time. 

"We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore," President Thomas J. Whitmore (Bill Pullman) tells a crowd of soldiers preparing to launch a worldwide attack against intergalactic intruders. 

"We will be united in our common interests. Perhaps it's fate that today is the 4th of July and you will once again be fighting for our freedom – not from tyranny, oppression or persecution – but from annihilation." 

"We're fighting for our right to live, to exist," he continues. "And should we win the day, the 4th of July will no longer be known as an American holiday but as the day when the world declared in one voice: 'We will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on! We're going to survive! Today we celebrate our Independence Day!' 

Via: People Magazine

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