McGin- Two of the main ideals that influenced the Founding Fathers were the Natural Rights Theory and Classical Republicanism. The former proposed that governments were founded for the purpose of protecting individual rights; the latter maintained that governments exist for the common good. James Madison was largely responsible for the synthesis of these two concepts into one system: basically, he said that people working for their own self interest (individual) could simultaneously benefit society (common good). Much of our Constitution consists of compromises between the individual and society, as do many of the controversial issues and decisions of our own day. America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter, and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. ~Abraham Lincoln Putting aside all the fancy words and academic doubletalk, the basic reason for having a military is to do two jobs —to kill people and to destroy.~General Thomas S. Power In war, truth is the first casualty.~Aeschylus The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.~Albert Einstein A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny. The next war … may well bury Western civilization forever. Anyone who has proclaimed violence his method inexorably must choose lying as his principle.~Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn War means blind obedience, unthinking stupidity, brutish callousness, wanton destruction, and irresponsible murder.~Alexander Berkman All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it.~Alexis de Tocqueville Since the end of the World War II, the United States has fought three “small” wars…we lost all three of them and for the same reason—hubris.~Andrew Greely A great war leaves a country with three armies: an army of cripples, an army of mourners, and an army of thieves.~Anonymous (German) Because I do it with one small ship, I am called a terrorist. You do it with a whole fleet and are called an emperor.~A pirate, from St. Augustine’s “City of God” No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots.~Barbara Ehrenreich What the people want is very simple - they want an America as good as its promise. ~Barbara Jordan Those who give up essential liberties for temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.~Benjamin Franklin A highwayman is as much a robber when he plunders in a gang as when single; and a nation that makes an unjust war is only a great gang.~Benjamin Franklin War should be made a crime, and those who instigate it should be punished as criminals.~Charles Evans Hughes The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principles on which it was founded.~Charles-Louis De Secondat War in the end is always about betrayal, betrayal of the young by the old, of soldiers by politicians, and of idealists by cynics.~Chris Hedges We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative. There is no glory in battle worth the blood it costs. Together we must learn how to compose difference, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose. We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.~Dwight D. Eisenhower Preventive war was an invention of Hitler. Frankly, I would not even listen to anyone seriously that came and talked about such a thing. When people speak to you about a preventive war, you tell them to go and fight it. After my experience, I have come to hate war. War settles nothing. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower I think that people want peace so much that one of these days government had better get out of their way and let them have it.We may never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower The tragedy of modern war is that the youg men die fighting each other—-instead of their real enemies back home in the capitals. ~Ed Abbey Our “neoconservatives” are neither new nor conservative, but old as Babylon and evil as Hell. ~Edward Abbey Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army. ~Edward Everett We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it. ~Edward R. Murrow History is replete with examples of empires mounting impressive military campaigns on the cusp of their impending economic collapse. ~Eric Alterman No war by any nation in any age has ever been declared by the people. ~Eugene Debs The evils of government are directly proportional to the tolerance of the people. ~Frank Kent In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.~Franklin Delano Roosevelt Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.~Franklin D. Roosevelt The life of the nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous. ~Frederick Douglass If my soldiers were to begin to think, not one of them would remain in the army. ~Frederick the Great Wars are the hobbies of half-informed children who have somehow come into possession of the levers of power.~Fred Reed The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.~Friedrich Nietzsche Our country is now geared to an arms economy bred in an artificually induced psychosis of war hysteria and an incessant propaganda of fear. ~General Douglas MacArthur Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear - kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor - with the cry of grave national emergency. ~General Douglas MacArthur Always there has been some terrible evil at home or some monstrous foreign power that was going to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it. ~General Douglas MacArthur I believe that the entire effort of modern society should be concentrated on the endeavor to outlaw war as a method of the solution of problems between nations. ~General Douglas MacArthur Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. ~General Omar N. Bradley We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living.~General Omar N. Bradley War: A wretched debasement of all the pretenses of civilization.~General Omar N. Bradley War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. ..I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. ~General Smedley Butler

McGin-Klein-“…to provide support for a welfare state.” The GOP has created the REAL WELFARE state. Borrowing from China to support its corporate welfare and cronyism; to finance hundreds of billions in no big contracts to Halliburton/oil companies/mercenaries like Blackwater, piling the debt on the poor and middle-class in regressive taxes, cutting schools, public services and things that improve the country to instead ruin it by the stated NeoCon policy of endless war as an organizing principle. Here’s how the budget is apportioned, PROVIDING for the war profitters welfare state and NOT PROMOTING The GENERAL WELFARE: http://www.truemajorityaction.org/oreos/ Here’s Veterans for Peace protesting Dick {never fought in one just likes to start wars} Cheney at West Point for his assertion that we will have ‘war for our lifetimes.’ It isn’t enough that he’s already bankrupt the US economically and morally.. The only side that’s won his phony war is Halliburton (and him as the largest stockholder) et al. Not to mention his letting the oil companies write our energy policy with him behind closed doors….and gee what a surprise. $4 a gal gas so people are trying to figure out do they pay for medicine, food or gas to get to work……while his and Bushes oil buds make the biggest profits in history over the dead bodies of over a million people. Yeah that’s some welfare state.