"Something is in the works, staged or authentic, and these executive orders are implemented to create a dictatorial police state...This administration will orchestrate another 9/11 event if it doesn't happen on its own."

Indulge me for a minute. When I heard that, I stopped what I was doing and listened. The above quote is slightly paraphrased, but I rushed to transcribe it nearly word for word as he said it on the Thom Hartmann show yesterday. Who, you might be asking, would make such dramatic statements?

Paul Craig Roberts, an economist, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration , the "Father of Reaganomics", and former editor and columnist for the Wall Street Journal and Business Week.

He is one of an increasing number of former White House officials from the Reagan administration who want Bush impeached. And he will never again vote Republican.

Roberts: "Do you really think the neocons will sit back as the Republicans self-destruct over Bush's ego-fling? No. Republicans know they'll go down in 2008, and they've even said that they are 'praying for another 9/11 event'."

He went on to say how the Democrats figure that a lot of this stuff will blow over after the election, one reason they're not willing to impeach. In the meantime, he says, there will likely be a real or manufactured catastrophe during which Darth and Co. will somehow re-consolidate their power and, unless the public catches on in a huge way prior to this, there will be absolute rule.

Unless the military says they have had enough.

All of this was his response to this: Executive Order: Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq (see my post of July 18).

Does this sound like someone who is prone to panic? Not to me. That's why I decided to bring it up to all of you. Could this happen? What do you think?

And wow, who'd have thought that Bruce Fein, John Dean, Paul Craig Roberts and I would have something in common?

One more quote:

"There is nothing wrong with America that can't be fixed by what is right with America."
--Bill Clinton.

ADDENDUM: Paul Krugman: "Yet Mr. Bush keeps doing damage because many people who understand how his folly is endangering the nation’s security still refuse, out of political caution and careerism, to do anything about it." This refers to the Iraq fiasco, but the quote applies.

ADDENDUM #2: From Raw Story, some direct quotes.