The "tea party" movement is back. According to FOX Nation:

"American citizens outraged by President Obama and the actions of Congress have set their sights on a new target — the so-called mainstream media — with tea-party protests now set to boil in front of more than 30 press offices across the U.S…"

Which begs the question: where were the "tea baggers" during the 8-years preceding the election of Barack Obama?

Former president George Bush actively engaged in the the wilful destruction of our Constitution. His subversive conduct included — but was not limited to;

trying to suspend the constitutional Writ of Habeas Corpus;

ramming the totalitarian U.S.A. Patriot Act through Congress;

violating and subverting the Posse Comitatus Act;

encouraging unlawful and unreasonable searches and seizures;

reinstitution of the infamous "Cointelpro" Program, a sophisticated vigilante operation run by the FBI aimed to at preventing the exercise of First Amendment rights of speech and association;

and instituting the totalitarian Total Information Awareness Program, a government project intended to illegally gather as much information as possible about U.S. citizens, including Internet activity, credit card purchase histories, airline ticket purchases, car rentals, medical records, educational transcripts, driver's licenses, utility bills, tax returns, and any other available data.

Former president Bush's attacks on our libertarian heritage are an irrefutable fact. And it's also an irrefutable fact that the "Tea Party Movement" didn't exist during his presidency. That's because the majority of the movement's followers — these so called "patriots" — are the same people who gave their unquestioning support to "their president" while he wiped his ass with our Constitution. For "you folks in Rio Linda" that would be George Walker Bush.

Walter F. Wouk for the Thomas Paine Project