(CNN) — How would the likes of Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin feel about the way the United States has turned out 232 years after declaring its independence?

These powerful Senators remain in place to make our Founding Fathers roll in their graves.They focus on promoting misguided paranoia about a war that was really about oil, power, money and a sick religous agenda. The 4th of July should remind Americans about the original intention of our Founding Fathers.

What’s patriotism? Definitions differ

Fourth of July Celebrations Database

Excerpts from:

Declaration of The Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms

July 6, 1775

Honour, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us. We cannot endure the infamy and guilt of resigning succeeding generations to that wretchedness which inevitably awaits them, if we basely entail hereditary bondage upon them.

In our own native land, in defence of the freedom that is our birthright, and which we ever enjoyed till the late violation of it — for the protection of our property, acquired solely by the honest industry of our fore-fathers and ourselves, against violence actually offered, we have taken up arms. We shall lay them down when hostilities shall cease on the part of the aggressors, and all danger of their being renewed shall be removed, and not before.

The White House has demanded that Congress approve a bill strictly with war funding, but the Senate measure also includes a $52 billion, 10-year measure that would pay for higher-education benefits for military veterans, an $11 billion, 13-week extension of unemployment insurance, $1 billion for low-income heating assistance and billions more for Gulf Coast reconstruction. It’s unclear what bill will emerge from the House, but Democratic leaders have conceded that the price tag and domestic add-ons would need to be slashed in order to generate enough support from the conservative wing of their caucus, which is concerned about growing the budget deficit.

Bush said that if Congress does not act promptly, “critical accounts at the Department of Defense will soon run dry.” He added that civilian employees may face “temporary layoffs,” and the Pentagon would be forced to “close down a vital program that is getting potential insurgents off the streets and into jobs.” If the supplemental spending bill is not enacted after July, Bush said, the department would “no longer be able to pay our troops,” including ones in Iraq and Afghanistan.

U.S. President George Bush wants $178 billion more in military spending to help pay for wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. VOA White House Correspondent Scott Stearns reports, opposition Democrats are adding domestic spending to that bill, and Mr. Bush says he will veto it if those programs are not removed.

What it means when the US goes to war

Hat Tip to this article by Chris Hedges - Troops, when they battle insurgent forces, as in Iraq, or Gaza or Vietnam, are placed in “atrocity producing situations”. Being surrounded by a hostile population makes simple acts, such as going to a store to buy a can of soda, dangerous. The fear and stress push troops to view everyone around them as the enemy. The hostility is compounded when the enemy, as in Iraq, is elusive, shadowy and hard to find. The rage soldiers feel after a roadside bomb explodes, killing or maiming their comrades, is one that is easily directed, over time, to innocent civilians who are seen to support the insurgents.

Civilians and combatants, in the eyes of the beleaguered troops, merge into one entity. These civilians, who rarely interact with soldiers or marines, are to most of the occupation troops in Iraq nameless, faceless and easily turned into abstractions of hate. They are dismissed as less than human. It is a short psychological leap, but a massive moral leap. It is a leap from killing - the shooting of someone who has the capacity to do you harm - to murder - the deadly assault against someone who cannot harm you. [See Entire Article]

This is not a game of Chess or Monopoly. This is not a board game with inanimate objects challenging other inanimate objects. Human flesh and human psyche is changed forever by the folly of disconnected leaders. Fairy tales abound warning us, from childhood, about good and evil leaders. Those fairy tales give us heroes who win, after a terrible cost in lives and property. Religions tell similar tales, trying to teach believers about consequences from their actions. The most glaring misinterpretation for some major religions appears to mix up earthly and heavenly rewards and consequences, with terrible results.

Politicians have responsibilities to those who elect them. But, they also have a responsibility to the world around them. Eight years of distortion and extortion have changed the world. The lessons have been tragic and harsh. The final acts of President Bush will determine how hard it will be for the world to recover from all the bad parts of this fairy tale. The only positive side from these years of torment are acute public awareness of the world itself. The Earth is changing under our very feet while global economic and political landscapes shift.

President Bush appears to be plodding along like nothing has changed …

Hat Tip to thedailyhypocrite for their revealing Bush comments.

Myanmar: U.S. seeks India’s help

NEW DELHI: The U.S. has sought India’s good offices to persuade Myanmar to adopt a more liberal approach towards foreign aid for its cyclone-hit people. It also downplayed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s earlier statement blaming increasing consumption in India for the rise in food prices.

Ms. Rice spoke to External Affairs Minister Mukherjee on Friday evening as part of her talks with several world leaders on Lebanon, Zimbabwe and Myanmar. With Mr. Mukherjee she also touched upon the India-U.S. civil nuclear deal but there was no amplification on the issue.

A Foreign Office statement here said, Mr. Mukherjee and Ms. Rice exchanged views on important developments in the region as well as on global issues since they last met in March.

“Part of their discussion was also about the Indian civil nuclear deal but they focused quite a bit on the issue of Burma [Myanmar]. And the message was to urge all the parties to do what they can to reach out and use whatever leverage they have with the t