First, and foremost, I request this diary be recommended so it survives a day or two in the recommended section. I could care less that this diary is recommended because I wrote it. I give permission to steal my diary, if necessary, by a more prominent Kos writer, if that is what is needed to bring attention to this.

I have never in my 50 years of life been more frightened then I am now. I have seen the arrogance of this White House and the massive damage done to our country. But the Katrina-size storm clouds are gathering folks. If we do not wake up now and flood Congress to impeach the President and Vice President, one year from now, Daily Kos may be banned and Markos himself may be disappeared, in a federal prison somewhere.

Even as I write these words I feel like a wild-eyed nutcase. If it were not for the OH SO REAL danger this country faces in the next 15 months or so as the people in power see their own doom and are determined to prevent their expulsion from power by suspending next year's elections and declaring martial law WHEN the next 9/11 comes or events that can be construed as a national emergency to "justify" such actions, I would be holding my tongue and crossing my fingers.

I know that the readers on Daily Kos are all too aware of the evil intent of the Bush regime, but I fear even they, even you, are not alarmed enough. I fear you, like me until now, are hoping we can get through the next 15 months or so and throw the bums out in the 2008 election and hope that we avoid war with Iran and another 9/11.

If we cross our fingers hard enough and hold our breath (and close our eyes, and tap our ruby slippers together) maybe we'll wake up to a beautiful new dawn January 20, 2009. Maybe even Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny will help elect a Democratic White House and stronger Democratic Congress.

What will it take to wake US up, let alone the average out-of-touch-with-reality American? What will it take? I thought about martial law the other day and I never thought I would actually hope illegal militias in the United States would be our final hope against a real dictatorship - that Americans will rise up with arms against a dictatorial government.

But I fear even that hope is farfetched. Remember 9/11? Remember how most Americans were rah-rah patriotic (including me) and flying flags everywhere and supporting the President at 90% approval (including me)? Now I don't know how and if we will have a disaster equal in casualties to 9/11 or worse, but even a series of London type bombings killing "only" a few dozen Americans may be all that is needed to institute martial law and cause most Americans, in fear, to rally around a President who warned them Al Quada was after us and that he will protect us with extraordinary means. He will say "these measures" are now needed to ensure no further attacks are done.

And maybe Washington can help precipitate a 9/11 by attacking Iran and causing groups like Hezbollah to launch attacks on American soil - the President then carries out his many executive orders and in effect suspends all Constitutional rights and effects martial law.

This is deadly serious folks. This is not just another diary. We ignore this threat at our own peril. I would suggest even I in writing articles like this and the many writers at Daily Kos are personally at risk of being arrested in a future dictatorial United States. The government will use these writings as an excuse to put us away.

Is that what you want? Do we just lie down and accept our fate? That our precious Constitutional democracy is on its deathbed? Are my writings the writings of a mad man, a silly alarmist? Do I over blow the danger? Is Paul Craig Roberts, a man who has been in the halls of power, a mad man?

I say WAKE UP Daily Kos!! If the people at Daily Kos cannot take this seriously and try and do something about it, then the United States, as a free country IS doomed. Enjoy your freedom to read and write at such sites as Daily Kos, because that freedom will be taken away WHEN Bush declares martial law.

What can we do, you ask? Good question. I myself feel helpless. I write my Congress people (the few possibly sympathetic, like Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio) and realize the Senator himself will never read my letter.

That is why I write this article on Daily Kos. I hope enough people will read this and be agitated enough to really raise this issue NON-STOP. We need to write articles daily on this danger. I know members of Congress read Daily Kos. I know there is a Daily Kos convention coming up with people like Senator Clinton coming.

Yes, we need to convince Nancy Pelosi and John Conyers to put impeachment back on the table, because I am 100% convinced that is our only remedy left. The Republican Congress impeached Bill Clinton on much less significant issues then we can bring against Bush and Cheney.

Politicians like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and others need to be prepared for their own "Boris Yeltsin" moment when they may need to "stand on the tanks" and defy a dictatorial government. I hope we can remove these tyrants from office before that reality comes, but if we keep holding our breath and hoping we can make it to January 2009 before such events occur, we may wake up one morning, like the people of the Soviet Union did in 1991, and find tanks in the streets of Washington surrounding the White House and Pentagon and they wage war on their own citizens in the form of martial law and as we see many members of Congress under arrest as subversives.

Is this an Orwellian dream, a fantasy, a movie thriller? Or is this a cold-blooded real probability? Do we want to wait and see?

I pray we do not.

UPDATE:

I truly appreciate those who have "suggested" this article is nothing more then tin-foil alarmism that gives DailyKos a bad reputation. My hope remains that is TRUE.

But I will emphasize that this article was not written because I raised the alarm, but because a former Reagan official raised the alarm, and he raised in it no uncertain terms. Now, if someone can present evidence why Paul Craig Roberts is not credible, other then his former disparaging of Democrats (my, he was a partisan, imagine that) and if someone can specifically show why his arguments are ridiculous, that will give me and others some peace of mind.

I will also say this article was written in the context of what this White House has already done - from illegal wiretapping, torture, renditions, lying about reasons for war, arresting and jailing people without trial or attorneys, suspending Habeas Corpus, signing statements ignoring laws at will, declaring executive priviledge on EVERYTHING, refusing to audit handling of classified data, politicizing the Justice Department, etc, etc.

Obviously some of those things are worse then others, but when a President tries and take away our MOST basic right to Habeas Corpus, the non-alarmists better wake up.

TODAY, July 21

Good day all. Keep your ears peeled during the time Richard Cheney is Acting President of the United States today. Ordinarily such an event would be a ho-hum event, but in today's world, maybe not so much. Hopefully being President for only a couple of hours will limit any damage Cheney can cause. Of course, Cheney is already the defacto President anyway. (For those who do not know, Bush will be sedated today for a colonoscopy and will transfer the powers of the presidency to Cheney while he is sedated)