Channeling Nancy Reagan

Just say “NO.”

NO to the gulags, NO to the empericism, NO to the crime spree, NO to the Orwellian pap of the day — we’ve been holding a moral discussion with Beavis and Butthead for too damned long!

Here are headlines of the day — did you ever think, in your wildest dreams, our nation would come to this?

Bush to Congress: We can’t be charged

Bush overreaches on executive privilege, says US agency

General To Congress: Don’t Expect Iraq Judgment Until November

Pentagon Thursday: Hillary Reinforces “Enemy Propaganda”

Clinton: Pentagon Charges “Outrageous And Dangerous”

Bush: No Deal On Children’s Health Plan
President Says He Objects On Philosophical Grounds

Judge Dismisses Plame Civil Suit Against Cheney, Rove, And Libby

FEMA Suppressed Health Warnings For Katrina Victims And Workers

Don’t you think the adults of the world should step up now? I’d guess that will have to be you and me — nobody else seems to be throwing an e-brake. We do have those working within the system — Edwards and Obama keep the populist conversation going, Hil not so much but she’s relying on her big numbers to win the day; me, I think she’s a Margaret Thatcher look-alike. But if the system is broken, and it is … brutally … then it will require those who think outside the box to make a stand for sanity.

If you hope against hope it will work itself out, I offer you two reads today that should get your attention, projections of what appears to be in the works if we continue to doze. Common sense, I’d say, and certainly not news to us — but perhaps to others; pass this along! The Neptunian smoke is beginning to blow away, now, and more of us are seeing clearly — but the delusion of these last years, peeling itself away, has to extend to the bigger picture and the inner core … a coup on the American public; a government no longer of, for or by the people. And likely to get worse before it gets better. When was the last time you remember a dictator being willing to surrender power to the next guy?

The sputter of wingnuts, you say? Nope — I’d feel less threatened if it were wingnuts. The bits below were offered by credible government types. Paul Craig Roberts, of course, was a former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under Reagan — and Dan Simpson, Yale-educated associate editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, is not only a past Ambassador to the Congo, 95-98, but was Deputy Commandant for International Affairs, US Army War College (1993-94).

Just say “NO!” Scream it from the top of your lungs, and do it marching through the streets … before that’s the only option left to us. The wingnuts make plenty of time to do what they think needs doing, while the “responsible adults” are busy being … well … responsible; they assume others are too, their government included. And that may be the most damaging Neptunian delusion of them all.

We only have one option, now, and it begins with an “i” — even Nancy Pelosi has uttered it, lately. But that’s another post.

Jude

Old-line Republican warns ’something’s in the works’ to trigger a police state
Muriel Kane, Raw Story
Thursday July 19, 2007

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.

US Ambassador: “Concern that United States 2008 elections will be postponed”
by lambert, Correntwire citing the Toledo Blade
Wed, 2007-07-18

So! The DFH types like us aren’t the only ones to think this way. Former US Ambassador Dan Simpson writes for the Toledo Blade:

I thought that by now the White House would have decided that the strains of the job on his health were too much for Mr. Cheney to continue as vice president, that he would then have stepped down for valid health reasons, and the Republicans would have plugged into the position a viable 2008 presidential candidate.

I can think of several reasons why they didn’t do that (I will give them credit for enough intelligence to at least realize they had a problem). First, Mr. Bush felt he couldn’t live without Mr. Cheney around. Second - and I suspect this is probably the truth of the matter - Mr. Cheney didn’t want to step down and Mr. Bush decided in the end that he didn’t care what happened to the Republican Party after he was out of the White House.

There is also the late-at-night, eerie concern that Mr. Bush has in his head some sort of scenario where, for reasons of national security - real or drummed up - the 2008 elections will have to be postponed and he will get to stay on.

My suspicions have at their base the feeling I have that, given their operating style now, this bunch will not leave the White House easily in 2009.

Nice to see this mainstreamed at last.

Because when the going gets tough, the tough get foily. ++

“So keep fightin’ for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don’t you forget to have fun doin’ it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin’ ass and celebratin’ the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was.”
~ Molly Ivins, 1944 - 2007

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

Add comment July 20th, 2007