When I see George Bush et al wearing a little American flag enamel badge, I can't help but think of the little hammer and sickle badges that Soviet officials used to wear, or the little Swastika pins that Nazi officials that you can set in photographs on Goebbels suit.

Obviously the stars and stripes doesn't stand for the same values as Commies or Nazis, so I'm not making that comparison. 

But there is a slight parallel, namely the need for the rulers to visibly wear their patriotism on their lapel (as if we don't know the President, any President, is patriotic),  and perhaps a more subtle message, emphasizing the state's synonymousness with the badge wearers.

Relentless unquestioning and unquestionable patriotism is a sign of facism.  What did Howard Zinn say about dissent?

Well you don't even need to go quite as far as that, to see a problem with the current situation.

It's like American patriotism has been coopted by Bush and his cronies, and the language has been completed subverted.

Example: They called their law the PATRIOT Act - so that means if you are in favor of civil liberties - in the redefined language, you are unpatriotic.

Did FDR start wearing a US flag lapel badge after Pearl Harbor?

It actually stands for

Uniting and
Strengthening
America by
Providing
Appropriate
Tools
Required to
Intercept and
Obstruct
Terrorism


The acronym from hell.

What the initials stand for are pretty irrelevant. 

Given the acronym is so bad, it's a safe bet, that they thought of the name first, and then reversed looked for an acronym to match.

And why did they choose the name?

Because they want people to think that people who oppose the act are unpatriotic, and that people who favor it are patriotic.

>Given the acronym is so bad, it's a safe bet, that they thought of the name first, and then reversed looked for an acronym to match.
The word is "backronym." And it is pretty common with legislative initiatives.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backronym

>Because they want people to think that people who oppose the act are unpatriotic, and that people who favor it are patriotic.
Correct. The big thing that the republican'ts do is to "control the message." Lakoff calls it "framing."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Lakoff
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2003/10/27_lakoff.shtml
http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/projects/strategic/simple_framing 
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/3/10/233911/553