Cross-posted at
Attytood:
Everything changed on April 22, 2002. It was on that date -- which will live in infamy -- that we learned that 41,739 innocent Americans had been slaughtered during 2001, all at the violent hands of motorists behind a steering wheel. They were everyday Americans -- secretaries and firefighters, even children -- and now they were dead.
The stats of 4/22 were a grim wake-up call for the United States. Before that fateful morning, we all thought we were safe and secure on the nation's highways, protected by the barrier of steel that surrounded us on all four sides. But we were wrong. Even that same day, the pundits and the politicians knew that things would never be the same.
"The pictures of SUVs sliding into Suburus, gasoline burning, huge Hummers collapsing have filled us with disbelief, terrible sadness and a quiet, unyielding anger," President Bush said from the Oval Office. "These acts of mass carnage were intended to frighten our drivers into reverse," he said. "But they have failed. "
In the end, this is what the unfortunate events of 4/22 will be best remembered for. It was the day that George W. Bush launched the War on Motorism.
April 30, 2002: A somber President Bush appears before a joint session of Congress and a nation still mourning its 41,739 dead. "Safety and carnage are at war," he declares. "The advance of human freedom, the great achievement of our time and the great hope of every time, now depends on us. Our nation, this generation, will lift the dark threat of vehicular collision from our people and our future. "
May 7, 2003: Wearing a hard-hat, President Bush appears before emergency workers on New York's Queens Boulevard, known as "the Boulevard of Death." Standing in from of the charred wreckage of a 1998 Camry, he grabs a bullhorn and shouts: "I can hear you..the rest of the world hears you. And the people who rear-ended this Toyota will be hearing all of us soon!"
Later that day, in response to a reporter's question, Bush says that he plans to capture Lee Iacocca, the supposed mastermind behind the automobiles that caused deadly fatality stats of 4/22, "dead or alive" -- although nothing ever comes of this vow. And he added that foreign automakers "now have a decision to make. You are either with us, or with the motorists."
June 7, 2002: By a 98-1 vote, the U.S. Senate give final passage to the USA DRIVER Act of 2002. Its provisions include the expansion of "sneak-and-peek," allowing police officer to pull cars over and search them for potential safety defects virtually at will. The government was also granted new powers to search Google mapping records, as well as AAA trip maps, in order to determine the potential routes that would-be lethal motorists might take. The measure also gives the government unprecedented powers to randomly check the odometers and tire pressure of those deemed at risk to be involved in motorist activities, as well as whether they are wearing seatbelts or have consumed an alcoholic beverage with the last 48 hours. Agents can seize repair records without a warrant.
DRIVER is an acronym for Deny Ruination In Vehicles -- Eliminate Risk!
Sept. 11, 2002: In spite of the vast powers granted to the White House under the USA DRIVER ACT, Bush signs an executive order allowing the National Transportation Safety Board to further spy on and even follow potential motorists -- identified by a powerful computer that "mines data" on driving records -- without obtaining a warrant.
When the details are released, Bush defends the unprecendented move, saying he will continue it ""for so long as the nation faces the continuing threat of an four-wheeled enemy that wants to kill American citizens." One of those allegedly spied on is an Iranian-American doctor in the South with a dubious ticket for an illegal left turn.
Jan. 21, 2003: Bush announces that he is creating a new Cabinet-level agency, the Department of Driveland Security. The plan, which is later approved by Congress, combines 17 different agencies that deal with some aspect of motorism -- even though some, like Immigration and Naturalization, are a poor fit.
The plan creates a Transportation Security Agency, or TSA, that establishes checkpoints at tens of thousands of bars and restaurants across the U.S., pulling out patrons at random -- even 4-year-old boys and grandmothers -- to give them breathylizer tests before they board an auto.
March 17, 2003: After weeks of warning the world community that Japan is the source of the largest number of cars involved in U.S. fatalities, the U.S. launches a massive "shock and awe" bombing campaign against that nation's auto industry, destroying several large Honda and Toyota plants and killing as many as 30,000 civilians.
Bush tells the nation that the war is necessary because Japan is harboring WMDs -- weapons of moving destruction. "We don't want the smoking gun to be an exploding fuel tank," Bush foreign policy advisor Condoleeza Rice says.
Off the record, some Democratic lawmakers grumble that the sneak attack on Japan had harmed America's image in the world, that instead of a lethal war that a more effective approach to preventing auto deaths might be measures like side air-bags and stricter licensing. Bush aides brush off the complaints, scoffing that some wanted to continue to treat deadly motorism as "a law enforcement problem."
July 17, 2005. The Washington Post reveals that under Bush, the CIA has been operating a network of so-called "black driving academies" in Eastern Europe, where penalties for reckless driving are much stricter than those permitted under the U.S. Constitution. A legal justification for torturing these wayward drivers is crafted by White House aide John Yoo.
Scores of drivers are "rendered" overseas after accumulating 12 or more points on their license, even though the CIA later acknowledges some were merely the victims of bureaucratic snafus.
December 29, 2005: After more than three years of the War on Motorism, officials acknowledge that the number of motorist "incidents" around the world has not fallen but increased. Juan Cole, professor of history at the University of Michigan, says that "the problem with the Bush doctrine is that it assemes a finite number of motorists. But the truth is, everytime we take unsafe motorists off the road, new ones are being created."
"The 'war on motorism' is not about stopping you from being afraid behind the wheel, it's about making you afraid behind the wheel," said linguistics professor George Lakoff. He adds "...motorists are actual people, and relatively small numbers of individuals, considering the size of our country's roads and other countries' roads. It's not a nation-state problem. War is a nation-state problem."
But Bush would not relent in the face of his critics. He said: ''After 4/22, I told the American people I would do everything in my power to protect the country, within the law, and that's exactly how I conduct my presidency."