Yesterday in his WorldNetDaily.com column I May Run for President of Texas Chuck Norris alluded to thousands of cell groups meeting this Friday to take the country back. The meetings are organized under Glenn Beck’s You Are Not Alone campaign as a new movement called: We Surround Them. Details about the movement will be unveiled on Fox News Channel this Friday during Beck’s program at 5 p.m. EST. According to the group’s website the organizing principle is 9/12, i.e. after 9/11 all things changed. The organizers apparently consider the election of Barack Obama another 9/11: “We are faced with yet another attack on our freedoms. This one doesn't come in the form of airplanes, but is an assault on our core freedoms, principles and values. Our Constitution hangs by a thread, our economy has been sold, our rights trampled, our future compromised.” The site is run by “Debra” who prefers to remain anonymous. In the 9/12 vein Beck lists 9 principles and 12 values; only those who agree with 7 of the 9 are eligible for membership.

The United States came justthisclose to an irreversible militarist coup, and leading the charge at every step of the way was Dick Cheney. I think virtually everyone outside the 30% GOP base, at least by 2006 or so, sensed there was something deeply wrong with the guy and/or in how he operated. Gellman, who (along with Washington Post co-writer Jo Becker) won a Pulitzer Prize for this reporting, nails it. In so doing, he provides an object lesson for how Obama and future presidents might want to treat the Constitution, the separation-of-powers tradition, the rule of law, transparency in governing, etc. If you haven't read "Angler," do so: It's extraordinary history and a great read. But be prepared: Cheney's actions are worse, more wide-ranging and more scary that you might even have imagined.