While observing the Fourth of July, Americans would do well to reflect on the fundamental principles of this country as found, for instance, in our Declaration of Independence. The true patriot is the American who is not content merely to celebrate the ideals of the Founders but who struggles to defend those ideals today.

Admit it. We don’t have a lot to brag about today.

It is time, it is long past time, to get over the American superiority complex.

It is time, it is long past time, to put patriotism back on the shelf — out of the reach of children and madmen.

While a cowardly congress avoids prosecuting George W. Bush for using the constitution as toilet paper and getting us into war by twisting facts even more than his syntax, more serious problems await their failure to act as representatives of the American people.

Our political paparazzi spread stories of Ahmadinejad and Iran that are almost that blatantly idiotic. As madmen press for us to murder more people in their quest for a divinity that will leave them chosen survivors of a nuclear holocaust, our corporate congress acts as willing servant. It is only aroused to action when Zionists snap their fingers, or when neocons wave a flag.

The frequency of Obama's Right turns seem to increase in direct proportion to the nearness of the general election. "Surely no one with a brain any longer believes that Obama is a closet progressive, or even a genuine liberal." The question is, How many progressives will put their votes and resources to honorable use?