JUSTICE BUILDING BLOG

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Wednesday, July 04, 2007

WORDS TO LIVE BY




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 harass 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 benefit 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 British 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.

John Hancock

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

When in the Course of legal events it becomes necessary for one attorney (THE Q) to dissolve the political bands which have connected him with another and to assume among the powers of the court, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle him as Q,

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that not all lawyers are created equal, that the Q is endowed by the Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of acquittals at trials.

That to secure these rights, trials are conducted at the courthouse where the Q always wins.

— John Q Hancock

Anonymous said...

You got cha hunchback of Notre Dame. But you also got your quarterback and half back of Notre Dame. What? You going to tell me that you never pondered those coincidences?

Bobby Bacala

CAPTAIN JUSTICE said...

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

Congrats to Judge Federico Moreno on his becoming the Chief Judge of the USDC for the SD of Florida - a well deserved honor.

CAPTAIN OUT ...........

Anonymous said...

Captain thats old news like your age..

Anonymous said...

God bless our country.

Not perfect but, freedom has a price.

America the beautiful.

Anonymous said...

Romney: Hypocrite

Anonymous said...

When will Miami-Dade be investigated? I mean, Chief Judge Farina is doing much worse as well as his clan. Let's focus on the real corrupt bunch and not pist only on Broward.

Anonymous said...

Captian should loose his status as a guest blogger.

Anonymous said...

Horace, that's still the best read in the world...

Fake Peter Adrien said...

The Declaration of Independence brings to mind a question. In the last line the signators state:

"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."

WHERE ARE ALL THE STATESMEN (PERSONS) WHO ARE WILLING TO RISK ALL FOR THE GREATER GOOD? Why are all of those in decision making postions (as our dear President calls them "deciders") more interested in doing what will allow them to keep their jobs rather than what is right? Why are they more concerned with the few and not the many? Why doesn't anybody stand up and say: "This may not be the best thing for my party or my small constituency, but it is the right thing for our country."?

The people who wrote and executed this document are to us larger than life. What was so special about them? They saw beyond themselves, beyond the moment and beyond history. They seized a moment in time to do someting unheard of and radical.

To be sure they had self interests, but they risked everything for a greater purpose and their collective genius then and 14 years later, still endures.

It is time for our leaders to stand up and risk it all for what is right. It is time to stand up, as a Gene McCarthy, a George McGovern, a Martin Luther King and others have, knowing they were right, but also knowing the political and personal consequences.

WHERE ARE OUR HEROES??

Anonymous said...

Politicians and judges ought to read the Declaration of Independence every Monday morning before they start work.

Anonymous said...

Farina is not famous for helping criminal defense attorneys but, it is not fair to even put him in the same sentence with Ross from northland....

Anonymous said...

Joe Farina is a crook!

He should be ashamed of his tenure.

It is my understanding that his days as Judge are numbered as the little people he has piss-on (Bailiffs) are getting a rather formidable opponent to run against him.

God Speed!

Anonymous said...

OH MY GOD! Did a bailiff just post the most ridiculous post of ALL time? I am laughing my ass off. This will keep me in stitches all weekend long. Who the F*** does this bailiff think he is? First of all, this guy can't spell and second, he should ask Juan D'Arce what happens when someone gets too big for his britches.

I guess it would go something like this:

DUMB ASS BAILIFF: Judge, a powerful and highly influential group of bailiffs has decided that YOU are going to be the next chief judge. What do you think?

DUMB ASS JUDGE: But Joe has done a great job and we all like him!

DUMB ASS BAILIFF: No you don't.

DUMB ASS JUDGE: Oh, you're right. Okay, but how am I going to get enough votes?

DUMB ASS BAILIFF: Not a problem. We will just have all the bailiffs tell their judges to vote for you! See how insanely easy?

DUMB ASS JUDGE: Brilliant! I guess I never thought of it because I am a dumb ass judge and you are so smart.

CK

Fake Peter Adrien said...

To 11:35 p.m.

What planet are you on? You are defintely a few bricks shy of a load. Joe Farina is what keeps this Circuit from utter collapse.

A "crook". How so? You may not like every decision he makes, I certainly have not, but there is a reason why he is one of the most respected judges and perpetually the leader of all the Chief Judges in this state. This is a man who could have moved on to the 3rd DCA almost any time he wanted, but has not. I would give that one a rest.

batman said...

I got it. I figured it out. OMG I know who the mystery candidate for Chief Judge is going to be. It was so simple. It was there, right before my eyes all along. How could I overlooked it? Of course it would take a "dumb-ass judge" to run against Joe. Any fool would know that it was none other than:

Peter (now everyone will respect me!) Adrien. Not the only, but clearly the most, "dumb-ass judge" in the circuit.

Anonymous said...

That John Hancock sure hates George Bush!