Notable Quotables, Part II

Hat tip to Glenn Greenwald.

But where says some is the King of America? I’ll tell you Friend, he reigns above, and doth not make havoc of mankind like the Royal Brute of Britain. Yet that we may not appear to be defective even in earthly honors, let a day be solemnly set apart for proclaiming the charter; let it be brought forth placed on the divine law, the word of God; let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know, that so far as we approve as monarchy, that in America the law is King. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other. -- Thomas Paine

... the very definition of a republic is an empire of laws, and not of men. . . . that form of government which is best contrived to secure an impartial and exact execution of law, is the best of republics. -- John Addams

... No man is above the law and no man is below it; nor do we ask any man's permission when we require him to obey it. Obedience to the law is demanded as a right; not asked as a favor. -- Theodore Roosevelt

Great to see all these hard leftists who hated America and wanted to undermine our government, our country, its principles and who never witnessed or faced any war, any enemy, or any threat to our Constitution.

Forget about all of you who agree with me that torture is a war crime, and that its perpetrators ought to be prosecuted, no matter how high up the chain of command we go. I want to hear clear, cogent arguments about why we ought to ignore this whole sordid business of torture and pretend that nothing happened. And simply saying that a majority of Americans support torture if it keeps us safe doesn't work. I'm sure if you polled Americans about our current laws regarding prisoners, suspects, Miranda rights, searches and seizures, etc., you'd probably find at least a plurality of us support toughening of those laws. But that's totally irrelevant. We have these laws on our books because not having them causes people to make up laws as they go along -- sort of like Bush and Cheney did for eight years. Constitutional democracies can't survive under outlaw justice.