'something's in the works'

[Lanya]

Old-line Republican warns 'something's in the works' to trigger a police state
Muriel Kane
Published: Thursday July 19, 2007    
   
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Thom Hartmann began his program on Thursday by reading from a new Executive Order which allows the government to seize the assets of anyone who interferes with its Iraq policies.

He then introduced old-line conservative Paul Craig Roberts -- a former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under Reagan who has recently become known for his strong opposition to the Bush administration and the Iraq War -- by quoting the "strong words" which open Roberts' latest column: "Unless Congress immediately impeaches Bush and Cheney, a year from now the US could be a dictatorial police state at war with Iran."

"I don't actually think they're very strong," said Roberts of his words. "I get a lot of flak that they're understated and the situation is worse than I say. ... When Bush exercises this authority [under the new Executive Order] ... there's no check to it. It doesn't have to be ratified by Congress. The people who bear the brunt of these dictatorial police state actions have no recourse to the judiciary. So it really is a form of total, absolute, one-man rule. ... The American people don't really understand the danger that they face."

Roberts said that because of Bush's unpopularity, the Republicans face a total wipeout in 2008, and this may be why "the Democrats have not brought a halt to Bush's follies or the war, because they expect his unpopular policies to provide them with a landslide victory in next year's election."

However, Roberts emphasized, "the problem with this reasoning is that it assumes that Cheney and Rove and the Republicans are ignorant of these facts, or it assumes that they are content for the Republican Party to be destroyed after Bush has his fling." Roberts believes instead that Cheney and Rove intend to use a renewal of the War on Terror to rally the American people around the Republican Party. "Something's in the works," he said, adding that the Executive Orders need to create a police state are already in place.

"The administration figures themselves and prominent Republican propagandists ... are preparing us for another 9/11 event or series of events," Roberts continued. "Chertoff has predicted them. ... The National Intelligence Estimate is saying that al Qaeda has regrouped. ... You have to count on the fact that if al Qaeda's not going to do it, it's going to be orchestrated. ... The Republicans are praying for another 9/11."

Hartmann asked what we as the people can do if impeachment isn't about to happen. "If enough people were suspicious and alert, it would be harder for the administration to get away with it," Roberts replied. However, he added, "I don't think these wake-up calls are likely to be effective," pointing out the dominance of the mainstream media.

"Americans think their danger is terrorists," said Roberts. "They don't understand the terrorists cannot take away habeas corpus, the Bill of Rights, the Constitution. ... The terrorists are not anything like the threat that we face to the Bill of Rights and the Constitution from our own government in the name of fighting terrorism. Americans just aren't able to perceive that."

Roberts pointed out that it's old-line Republicans like himself, former Reagan associate deputy attorney general Bruce Fein, and Pat Buchanan who are the diehards in warning of the danger. "It's so obvious to people like us who have long been associated in the corridors of power," he said. "There's no belief in the people or anything like that. They have agendas. The people are in the way. The Constitution is in the way. ... Americans need to comprehend and look at how ruthless Cheney is. ... A person like that would do anything."

Roberts final suggestion was that, in the absence of a massive popular outcry, "the only constraints on what's going to happen will come from the federal bureaucracy and perhaps the military. They may have had enough. They may not go along with it."

The full audio of Thom Hartmann's interview with Paul Craig Roberts can be found here.

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Oldline_Republican_warns_somethings_in_works_0719.html

[Michael Tee]

The only way they could pull off something like that would be a bigger 9-11.  But if that's really where they're headed, they'd never leave the next 9-11 to chance.  They'd have to cause it to happen themselves because they couldn't trust al Qaeda to do it right. 

Personally, I don't think any of 'em have got the balls.  I think the country is headed straight to fascism alright,  but it won't be anything overt and dramatic - - it'll just be an ongoing series of little encroachments, a gradual hardening of the mind-control through an ever-consolidating MSM and the slow strangulation death of "the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party."  It'll be a very sophisticated and a very smooth form of fascism.

[yellow_crane]

The only way they could pull off something like that would be a bigger 9-11.  But if that's really where they're headed, they'd never leave the next 9-11 to chance.  They'd have to cause it to happen themselves because they couldn't trust al Qaeda to do it right. 

Personally, I don't think any of 'em have got the balls.  I think the country is headed straight to fascism alright,  but it won't be anything overt and dramatic - - it'll just be an ongoing series of little encroachments, a gradual hardening of the mind-control through an ever-consolidating MSM and the slow strangulation death of "the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party."  It'll be a very sophisticated and a very smooth form of fascism.

Your prediction that it won't be anything overt and dramatic is relative.

A huge factor in the argument of that issue is the position they find themselves in now, after their long efforts, which by any sane and level conclusion reflects that they have lost all but the meagerest credibility. 

This leads to desperation.

I have remarked often how very strange it is that, no matter how much they are set back, the Neocons seem to be operating with little concern for any criticism.  They remain arrogant.  There is more to that observation that just whining about arrogance.   What is more is some basis for them believing that they are invulnerable.

From where the sun now stands, I state that a terrorist movie ruse is coming.

DC is so thick with the stench of suspicion that many pundits are "laughingly" painting scenarios that Cheney, during his day of presidential assumption  tommorow, is going to slam the hammer on freedom by declaring some sort of martial law.

I do not think Cheney will coup the country while asshole gets his asshole reamed, and neither do the pundits, but still they joke about it.  That means they are saying something, then backing off with humor as hepmate.

The article is right--there is evidence that they are setting the stage as we speak.

My prediction is that they will pull something that is geared not only to impress upon America that it needs the Neocons to protect them from terrorism, but also concurrently there will be more Presidential edicts assuming oppresive measures to control dissent.

[yellow_crane]

. . . a new Executive Order which allows the government to seize the assets of anyone who interferes with its Iraq policies.

"Americans think their danger is terrorists," said Roberts. "They don't understand the terrorists cannot take away habeas corpus, the Bill of Rights, the Constitution. ... The terrorists are not anything like the threat that we face to the Bill of Rights and the Constitution from our own government in the name of fighting terrorism. Americans just aren't able to perceive that."





Let us hope that they are hip enough to realize that when the gears are activated to obliterate dissent by means of force (enforcement of what's already in place, folks), the turning wheels of an active coup are no longer deniable.

[Religious Dick]

The only way they could pull off something like that would be a bigger 9-11.  But if that's really where they're headed, they'd never leave the next 9-11 to chance.  They'd have to cause it to happen themselves because they couldn't trust al Qaeda to do it right. 

Personally, I don't think any of 'em have got the balls.  I think the country is headed straight to fascism alright,  but it won't be anything overt and dramatic - - it'll just be an ongoing series of little encroachments, a gradual hardening of the mind-control through an ever-consolidating MSM and the slow strangulation death of "the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party."  It'll be a very sophisticated and a very smooth form of fascism.

You might be on to something.

Although I certainly wouldn't look to the  "the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party" as any antidote to fascism. The only objection I have to "slow strangulation" is the "slow" part...

[BT]

Methinks none of you read the executive order even though Lanya posted a link to it.

Maybe Plane is right. Doesn't matter what Bush says, it matters more what others say Bush said.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/07/20070717-3.html

[Michael Tee]

<<A huge factor in the argument of that issue is the position they find themselves in now, after their long efforts, which by any sane and level conclusion reflects that they have lost all but the meagerest credibility.

<<This leads to desperation.>>

I think, with all due respect, that you have underestimated the inroads these people have made into the Democratic Party.  Lieberman is just the visible leading edge, but Pelosi and Reed aren't all that far behind.  They've been virtually co-opted by the War Party and just go through meaningless "anti-war" charades to maintain some kind of anti-Bush "alternative" that is really no alternative at all.

Why would the war-lovers be "desperate" when the voters' alternative to the Shrub is Hillary or at worst Obama, the white man's black man?  It's a lot more insidious than you think, Crane.  They can have fascism AND a "two party" "democracy" to boot.  They already do.