This site went live with its first bit of homeland stupidity on Saturday, November 6, 2004. On that day I posted about the treasurer of the Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania being arrested for tax evasion and the CIA’s new executive director.

Here’s a retrospective of some of the best posts of the first year, and a peek at the year ahead. (Hint: Hold down the Shift key when clicking links, to open them in a new window. That way you can easily come back.)

This . . . is America.

Terrorism

In my first post on terrorism, on December 5, 2004, I highlighted a Pentagon report that undermined many of the Bush administration’s claims about the war on terrorism. “If I came into your house with 50 of my friends, held a party and then moved into the spare bedroom without so much as asking if you cared, you might be a little upset. What the U.S. has done goes far beyond that,” I said.

And that’s why, according to the Pentagon report, “American direct intervention in the Muslim world has paradoxically elevated the stature of, and support for, radical Islamists, while diminishing support for the United States to single digits in some Arab societies.”

On April 12, 2005, I told you about Wenhao Zhao, of Australia, who was unfortunate enough to be standing near the Capitol building with his luggage and mistaken for a terrorist. Police blew up his luggage and he was deported. But that pales in comparison to what happened to Jean Charles de Menezes in London on July 22. Read the Jean Charles de Menezes series. Spans July 24, 2005 to September 29, 2005 in six posts. See also License to kill: Police shoot people in America all the time, and hardly anyone bats an eye.

Since September 11, 2001, many people have argued that America must give up the liberty which makes this country worth living in, in order to be “safe” from terrorists. This is patently false, and I spend much of my time showing this stupidity for what it is. There are so many of these that choosing among them is difficult, but some of the most telling are: State Department can’t prevent terrorists from getting passports, because the government’s watchlists suck; We are no safer now, in which I tell the real solution to terrorism, the solution which may never be implemented; the soldiers on their way to Iraq who boarded planes with their rifles, but weren’t allowed to carry on nose hair clippers; and the Bush administration overstating the number of terrorism investigations to make it look like there was a lot of terrorist activity when there wasn’t.

Eminent Domain

On June 23, 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court, in one of its largest mistakes ever, decided that the power of eminent domain allows a government to take property from one individual and give it to another for economic development. This set off a backlash among the American public, and lawmakers, which continues today. Read the eminent domain series. Spans April 17, 2005 to November 4, 2005 in nine posts.

2004 Election

One of the major items covered here has been the 2004 election, and the irregularities found therein. I won’t speculate on whether the outcome would have been different had the election been fair and nobody disenfranchised, but I will say that questions still remain about the 2004 election, and in the near future I’ll have even more new news on this. Read the 2004 Election series. Spans November 7, 2004 to September 19, 2005 in 13 posts.

Hurricane Katrina

The most devastating natural disaster in American history killed over 1,000 people, displaced over 1,000,000 people, and caused damage to thousands of square miles of the American South, much of which has yet to be cleaned up. The government’s response to the disaster, at all levels, merely made things worse. And there’s more yet to come, as this story is ongoing. Read the Hurricane Katrina series. Spans August 28, 2005 to November 3, 2005 in 37 posts. See also the Hurricane Katrina series at Phone Watch. Spans August 27, 2005 to November 10, 2005 in 19 posts.

Civil Liberties

In 2005 we saw more attacks on civil rights, coming from both Democrats and Republicans, than ever before. Though that seems to be true of any year, the drive of politicians to strip Americans of their rights and bring them under complete control of the state has only intensified after September 11, 2001. Much of this drive is intermingled with the so-called war on terror, which I’ve covered above, and is not so much a war on terror as a war of terror. The career politicians in Washington want you to be afraid. You’re much easier to mislead and control when you’re afraid.

I’m here to cast light in the dark places, to show their activities for what they are, and to poke fun at them. You can’t be afraid of something if it’s funny, or stupid.

Read about the Real ID Act, which is now law, passed under the guise of anti-terror and anti-illegal immigration, but does nothing for either. It will quadruple the cost of your driver license, though, and make you much easier to track in government databases.

President Bush created a new layer of government bureaucracy whose express purpose is to spy on American citizens more effectively. His Department of Justice is knowingly spreading disinformation to the public. “We have always been at war with Eastasia,” reads the DOJ’s Web site.

And not only is the administration detaining “terrorists,” or whoever they have in Guantánamo Bay, they’re even detaining Americans who have done nothing wrong. (After a lot of bad publicity, he was eventually released.) Today I heard that the Senate wants to prohibit aliens from exercising the right of habeas corpus, so that’s a story I will be following closely here.

Protecting Freedom

“We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home,” said Ed Murrow. The Communist threat was everywhere, and Joe McCarthy was determined to rid America of Communism — by any means necessary. In a time when television was new, Murrow used it to show McCarthy for what he truly was: a grade A, first class, un-American asshole.

In this time, when the Internet is (fairly) new, and terrorism is the new Communism, Murrow’s words are as true as ever. Our elected government officials took oaths to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, and virtually every one of them has violated that oath in some way or another. Find me one who hasn’t, and I’ll be pleasantly surprised.

The Year Ahead

Coming in 2006, I expect to see many more attempts to strip Americans of their privacy and other human rights in the name of fighting terrorism. I expect many more details about the 9/11 attacks to emerge. I expect to see another attempt at a terrorist attack on U.S. soil. I expect the government to reorganize its bureaucracy again in response to “problems” “discovered” during its response to Hurricane Katrina. And I expect the Democrats will take control of both houses of Congress this time next year, which means the stupidity I post about after that is going to take a somewhat different tone.

A wise man once said that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance. I’ve been watching for a year, and I’ll continue watching, reporting what I see, and sometimes advising a course of action. But the action you take is up to you. The decline of the United States can’t be reversed without your help. Send this to everyone you know, keep reading, and when appropriate, take action.

Good night, and good luck.