- "Our liberty depends on freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost."--Thomas Jefferson

- "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."--Benjamin Franklin

- "A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouths of labor the bread it has earned, this is the sum of good
government."--Thomas Jefferson

- "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."--The Friends Of Voltaire, 1906

- "There is no such thing as a moral or immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all."--Oscar Wilde

- "The Greatest evils inflicted by man over the face of the Earth are wrought not by the self-seekers, the pleasure lovers, or the merely amoral, but by the fervent devotees of ethical principles."--Robert M. MacIver

- "Laws that prevent the choosing of sin also prevent the choosing of virtue."--Daniel B. Klein

- "Liberty is the only thing you can't have unless you give it to others."--William Allan White

- "The sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self protection."--John Stuart Mill

Furthermore, every US President, Attorney General, FBI Director, and other government employees whose job is to enforce the law is sworn to an oath to defend the Constitution. Therefore, any government representative or employee who enacts laws or imposes punishments upon people for their speech is violating their solemn oath of office. For example:

- "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United
States."--George W. Bush, Jr., President of the United States

- "I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and
faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God."--Robert Mueller, Director of the FBI

Lastly, the purpose of the jury trial system is not merely to judge those accused of crimes, but also to judge the law itself. The jury trial system exists to empower the people to enforce the onstitution
upon the government, in the same way that the jury trial system exists to empower the government to enforce the law upon the people. Again, I stand in good company in my awareness of the true function of the jury trial process:

- "The jury has a right to judge both the law as well as the facts in controversy."--John Jay, 1789, first Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court.

- "If a juror feels that the statute involved in any criminal case being tried is unfair, or that it infringes upon the defendant's natural, inalienable, or Constitutional rights, then it is his duty to affirm that the offending statute is really no law at all and that the violation of it is no crime at all--for no one is bound to obey an unjust law...the law itself is on trial, quite as much as the cause which is to be decided."--Harlan F. Stone, former Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court.

- "I consider trial by jury as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution."--Thomas Jefferson.

- "It is not only the juror's right, but his duty, in that case, to find the verdict according to his own best understanding, judgment, and conscience, though in direct opposition to the direction of the court."--John Adams, 1771.

For more information of freedom of speech, see:

American Civil Liberties Union--http://www.aclu.org/
CATO Institute--http://www.cato.org/
Electronic Frontier Foundation--http://www.eff.org/
Fully Informed Juries Association--http://www.fija.org/
iFeminists--http://www.ifeminists.net/
Institute for Justice--http://www.ij.org/
The Independent Institute--http://www.independent.org/

Four independent journalist take pictures in Iraq

UNEMBEDDED

Our soldiers massacre a family (children included)

If they can't take the heat, tell em to GET OUT OF THE KITCHEN!

A MyDD rant worth reading

Go and read it!

On the march

It can't happen here? It already has!

Another one speaks

Thank you joe, for your courage and your service!

Cover of The Economist march 2006

We are all doomed!

Promises we need to make;

I think that the democratic party needs to focus on the following, promising that if they get elected, true campain finance reform WILL happen, promising that if they get elected, single payer national health insurance (that means 100% of the population) WILL happen, and promise that social security will be ensured for all, forever. Fixing the messes that the repugs have created, massive debits, reduced social spending, and, of course the mess in Iraq would be nice also, but that will just take common sense governing, something that is missing in Washington right now.

The wages of sin!

Well, here it is in simple terms. Once abortion is illegal we will have to take the next step.
Since having an abortion is a decision made by the woman ahead of time, then we have to figure that the abortion was premeditated. And since the fetus is considered to be a person, then we have to charge the mother/not to with premeditated murder. Of course the penalty for that would be execution , yes? Texas is going to have a ball! Going back to public executions would be nice, give us all a chance to see the wages of sin.