For ten years, King George and his Parliament have gulled, cullied, and diddled these colonies with their illegal taxes!

President Bush spent the July 4th holiday as he's come to spend pretty much every holiday these days: giving a purely political speech to a captive audience of servicemen.

At first it bugged me just a bit. There are holidays where we honor the service of those in uniform and they are called Memorial Day and Veteran's Day. Those days celebrate the courage and sacrifice of those that have fought and died in the service of their country.

But on the Fourth of July we celebrate something different: freedom's spirit. As trite and cliche as that might sound.

I have a relative who partner's at a big Seattle law firm help with some legal stuff several years ago. After explaining the situtation he said "No problem. I'll just write them a 'fuck you' letter." I asked him what that meant. He said it's a little term he had made up for the initial letter he sends out explaining why they better straighten up or there will be consequences. It's a swift kick to the nuts in written form.

I would say that the Declaration of Independence is the ULTIMATE fuck you letter, written by men with balls of steel. Men willing to tell the most powerful man in the world to shove it. Men willing to put their lives on the line for their beliefs because their beliefs were just that damn important. Men that had much more than physical courage.

I know it's just fancy but I can't help but think how much better off we would be if President Bush and his followers were to have spent Indpendence Day re-reading the Declaration of Independence (not to mention the Constitution) and really, truly trying to understand it. How much better would that have served America than one more empty speech in front of an audience that either claps and cheers or they spend time in the brig?