political_talk

Thomas Jefferson on the Role of the Judiciary

From a letter to Monsieur A. Coray, Oct 31, 1823, by Thomas Jefferson:

At the establishment of our constitutions, the judiciary bodies were supposed to be the most helpless and harmless members of the government. Experience, however, soon showed in what way they were to become the most dangerous; that the insufficiency of the means provided for their removal gave them a freehold and irresponsibility in office; that their decisions, seeming to concern individual suitors only, pass silent and unheeded by the public at large; that these decisions, nevertheless, become law by precedent, sapping, by little and little, the foundations of the constitution, and working its change by construction, before any one has perceived that that invisible and helpless worm has been busily employed in consuming its substance. In truth, man is not made to be trusted for life, if secured against all liability to account.

---

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons - Painting of Thomas Jefferson in 1805 by Rembrandt Peale

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR: They will not be judged by the color.....

From Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I have a dream" speech, delivered on August 28, 1963, to a crowd of 200,000 civil rights supporters on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington.

The quote featured here was not a part of Dr. King's prepared remarks. It was extemporaneous, delivered by Dr. King after the African-American gospel singer Mahalia Jackson called out to Dr. King from the crowd, shouting "Tell them about the dream, Martin!".

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Democrat, 1929-1968

---

Source: Wikipedia

LYNDON B. JOHNSON: SPEECH TO CONGRESS INTRODUCING THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965

President Lyndon B. Johnson's Message to the Congress The American Promise

March 15, 1965

Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, Members of the Congress:

I speak tonight for the dignity of man and the destiny of democracy.

I urge every member of both parties, Americans of all religions and of all colors, from every section of this country, to join me in that cause.

There, long-suffering men and women peacefully protested the denial of their rights as Americans. Many were brutally assaulted. One good man, a man of God, was killed.

There is no cause for pride in what has happened in Selma. There is no cause for self-satisfaction in the long denial of equal rights of millions of Americans. But there is cause for hope and for faith in our democracy in what is happening here tonight.

For the cries of pain and the hymns and protests of oppressed people have summoned into convocation all the majesty of this great Government--the Government of the greatest Nation on earth.

Thomas Jefferson Quotation on a Free Press

Thomas Jefferson | Democratic-Republican Party¹

The basis of our government being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.

¹The Democratic-Republican Party was the dominant political party in the United States from 1800-1824; it then split in to two factions, one of which became the modern day Democratic Party.

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons,
Quotation: Letter to Colonel Edward Carrington (16 January 1787) Lipscomb & Bergh ed. 6:57

Thomas Jefferson Quotation on Freedom of the Press

Thomas Jefferson | Democratic-Republican Party¹

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

¹The Democratic-Republican Party was the dominant political party in the United States from 1800-1824; it then split in to two factions, one of which became the modern day Democratic Party.

Quotation: Letter to Dr. James Currie (28 January 1786) Lipscomb & Bergh 18:ii

Thomas Jefferson Quotation on Judicial Review

Thomas Jefferson | Democrat-Republican Party¹

Jefferson strongly opposed judicial review, and in a letter to William Jarvis in 1820, he had this to say:

 To consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions [is] a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy. Our judges are as honest as other men and not more so. They have with others the same passions for party, for power, and the privilege of their corps. Their maxim is boni judicis est ampliare jurisdictionem [good justice is broad jurisdiction], and their power the more dangerous as they are in office for life and not responsible, as the other functionaries are, to the elective control. The Constitution has erected no such single tribunal, knowing that to whatever hands confided, with the corruptions of time and party, its members would become despots. It has more wisely made all the departments co-equal and co-sovereign within themselves.

¹The Democratic-Republican Party was the dominant political party in the United States from 1800-1824; it then split in to two factions, one of which became the modern day Democratic Party.

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons, Jefferson on Mount Rushmore
Quotation: Letter to William C. Jarvis, 1820

Wally Herger Calls Self-Described "Right Wing Terrorist" a "Great American"

 
Congressman Wally Herger | Republican - CA

At a town hall meeting on August 18 in Redding, California , Rep. Walter William Herger, Jr., speaking of healthcare reform and President Obama, intimated that the President, and/or his policies, are a threat to Democracy. [where was this loser when Bush 43 threw the Constitution in the toilet?]

 Our democracy has never been threatened as much as it is today.

And in another example of the craziness promoted by the far right, including people such as Wally Herger, at the same town hall, and in response to a man who said “I am a proud right wing terrorist.”, Herger had this to say:

 Amen, God bless you. There is a great American.

Your tax dollars at work.

Source: Mt. Shasta News
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

TRANSCRIPT: SARAH PALIN FAREWELL TO ALASKA SPEECH JULY 26 - 2009

Sarah Palin (R) resigns as the Governor of Alaska after serving for less than half her term.

 Click to watch the video.

What an absolutely beautiful day it is, and it is my honor to speak to all Alaskans, to our Alaskan family this last time as your governor. And it is always great to be in Fairbanks. The rugged rugged hardy people that live up here and some of the most patriotic people whom you will ever know live here, and one thing that you are known for is your steadfast support of our military community up here and I thank you for that and thank you United States military for protecting the greatest nation on Earth. Together we stand.

And getting up here I say it is the best road trip in America soaring through nature's finest show. Denali, the great one, soaring under the midnight sun. And then the extremes. In the winter time it's the frozen road that is competing with the view of ice fogged frigid beauty, the cold though, doesn't it split the Cheechakos from the Sourdoughs? And then in the summertime such extreme summertime about a hundred and fifty degrees hotter than just some months ago, than just some months from now, with fireweed blooming along the frost heaves and merciless rivers that are rushing and carving and reminding us that here, Mother Nature wins. It is as throughout all Alaska that big wild good life teeming along the road that is north to the future. That is what we get to see every day. Now what the rest of America gets to see along with us is in this last frontier there is hope and opportunity and there is country pride.

VIDEO: SARAH PALIN FAREWELL TO ALASKA SPEECH JULY 26 - 2009

Sarah Palin (R) resigns as the Governor of Alaska after serving for less than half her term.

Click to read the full transcript of Palin's Farewell Speech.