What Better Way To Capture The Essence of the Day

...no country can be well governed unless its citizens as a body keep religiously before their minds that they are the guardians of the law and that the law officers are only the machinery for its execution, nothing more.

Mark Twain, The Gilded Age

Ahhh ... July 4th ... The jingoist of holidays!

March in a parade of flags ... Wave a flag ... Oou-and-Ahh over firework displays of flags ...

Have Flag/Am Patriotic

Well, we don't need to discourse on what a flag is (Barry Crimmins has a "Holiday Salute" today).

Or, that, while everyone has unfurled their flags over the past seven years, the Bush Grindhouse has waived goodbye to the rule of law, and our civil liberties

Jane Hamsher, over on Firedoglake, has a good civic exercise, very much in the spirit of the above-mentioned Twain quote, you can engage in today;

"But Christy was dogged, and thanks to her efforts (and those of our fabulous readers) we now have almost 40 events set up across the country where you can join together with fellow like-minded FISA buffs and tell your member of Congress in person exactly what you think of the upcoming capitulation they plan."

SAMPLE QUESTIONS

* The Senate will soon be considering immunity for companies that helped President Bush illegally spy on Americans. Do you think the President should be able to collude with corporations to cover-up his crimes—does our constitution allow the president to be above the law?

* Will you join Senators Feingold and Dodd in standing up for our constitution by filibustering any legislation that lets president Bush and the phone companies off the hook for wiretapping American citizens without a warrant?

* Alternative phrasing of the second bullet: We need you to show backbone and not help Bush's cover-up. If these lawsuits get thrown out of court, Americans may never know how far Bush went in breaking the law by spying on innocent Americans. Will you join Senator Russ Feingold's filibuster of any bill that gives retroactive immunity to phone companies that helped Bush break the law and spy on Americans?

Check out Jane's FISA: Whip It Good!

Now, with or without a flag in your hand, how much more can you be a good American patriot, then by holding your elected representative accountable for the welfare of our country?

Bonus Bonus

Eddie Izzard - Do you have a flag?