Prescient Jefferson seemed to be reviewing the Bush administraton in his writing completed in 1776:
1. He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
Wire taps, anyone?
2. 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.
Montanans will soon find they cannot board a plane with their state-issued i.d.s.
3. He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.
The shocking practices of the "Office of Citizenship" obstruct naturalization in new and creative ways.
4. He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
No, you cannot take that water bottle onto an airplane, and I have a badge to prove it.
5. He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.
Remember the uniformed soldiers with machine guns at the airports?
6. He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.
Geneva Convention, Schmeva Convention.
7. For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury.
US Citizens held without charge as enemy combatants.
8. For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:
Guantanamo?
9. For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments
No Child Left Behind may be the most dramatic example of infringement on states rights in the history of the nation.
10. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
Not to mention allowing snowmobiles in our national parks.
A few more nuggets of wisdom from the third president:
I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be.
Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.
All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.
