I watched CSPAN's coverage of the Resistance Patriot's/Freedom Works rally in Washington, D.C. this weekend and was flabbergasted by the mass miss-appropriation of the vocabulary and imagery of the American revolutionary war.
In an atmosphere akin to a Promise Keepers rally, or fundamentalist tent revivals common in the South, the speakers and the crowd bemoaned the Federal government's wasteful spending, violations of the constitution, and the 'Threats Against Freedom!'
I asked myself, where were the Resistance Patriots and Freedom Workers for the last eight years?
It's time for a quick refresher course for our fellow Americans, who, as Gore Vidal so aptly called it, live in the "United States of Amnesia." (Refresher on the flip).
I. Spending and BIG Government
- From fiscal year 2001 through July 2008, Congress provided more than $800 billion to the Department of Defense (DOD) for the Global War on Terrorism. This figure includes appropriations for domestic and overseas military operations in support of the Global War on Terrorism, such as Operation Noble Eagle, Operation Enduring Freedom, and Operation Iraqi Freedom, as well as stabilization and reconstruction appropriations for Iraq and Afghanistan. (SECURING, STABILIZING, AND REBUILDING IRAQ - GAO Report GAO-08-1021T)
- In October 29, 2001, by Presidential Directive, George W. Bush creates the Homeland Security Council. The Department of Homeland Security was established on November 25, 2002, by the Homeland Security Act of 2002. It was intended to consolidate U.S. executive branch organizations related to "homeland security" into a single Cabinet agency. The creation of DHS constituted the biggest government reorganization in American history, and the most substantial reorganization of federal agencies since the National Security Act of 1947, which placed the different military departments under a secretary of defense and created the National Security Council and Central Intelligence Agency. DHS also constitutes the most diverse merger of federal functions and responsibilities, incorporating 22 government agencies into a single organization.
- On October 3, 2008, President Bush signed into law the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 ("EESA"), a/k/a TARP, a measure principally designed to allow the U.S. Treasury and other government agencies to take action to restore liquidity and stability to the U.S. financial system. The passage of EESA was initially prompted by a proposal that U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson submitted to Congress seeking permission to create a program under which the Treasury would purchase up to $700 billion of troubled assets that are currently weighing down the balance sheets of U.S. financial institutions.
- It is estimated that the Total cost of the Iraq war will exceed $3 Trillion dollars.
II. The Constitution and the Rule of Law
- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales denies that habeus corpus is guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution.
- On Wednesday, March 10, 2004, Alberto Gonzales and Andrew Card go to the bedside of a sedated John Ashcroft to circumvent then-acting Attorney General James Comey.
- Alberto Gonzales testifies to the Senate Judiciary Committee on his hospital visit to see a sedated John Ashcroft.
- The USA PATRIOT Act, commonly known as the "Patriot Act", is a statute enacted by the United States Government that President George W. Bush signed into law on October 26, 2001. The contrived acronym stands for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 (Public Law Pub.L. 107-56).
- Three weeks after 9/11, President Bush bypasses privacy laws and issues an executive order—the NSA no longer needs to obtain warrants to eavesdrop inside America.
- The Torture Memos: An 18-page memo [PDF], dated August 1, 2002, from Jay Bybee, Assistant Attorney General, OLC, to John A. Rizzo, General Counsel CIA; A 46-page memo [PDF], dated May 10, 2005, from Steven Bradbury, Acting Assistant Attorney General, OLC, to John A. Rizzo, General Counsel CIA; A 20-page memo [PDF], dated May 10, 2005, from Steven Bradbury, Acting Assistant Attorney General, OLC, to John A. Rizzo, General Counsel CIA; A 40-page memo [PDF], dated May 30, 2005, from Steven Bradbury, Acting Assistant Attorney General, OLC, to John A. Rizzo, General Counsel CIA.