The Plug Nickel Times is proud to bring you website links to select opinion articles that you may not find through your local media. All links are offsite unless otherwise noted - followed links should open in another browser window. Links can become dated or otherwise fail to function, for this reason we quote the actual headline of an article. This may allow you to find an alternate copy of the article through a news index or search engine. Some sites we link to may require a registration process to view an article - this website may be useful to you in those instances. Comments, corrections and submissions are welcome - an email link is at the bottom of the page.
May 16-31, 2005
May 27, 2005
The Neocons' Second Front by Anne Williamson
"Bolton and Wolfowitz are part of the Bush administration's initial redeployment of neo-con assets in the building of the American empire's second front. John Bolton is being put in place to militarize the UN. As for Paul Wolfowitz, he is not leaving the Pentagon so much as he is bringing the Pentagon to the World Bank."
Fear: The Foundation of Every Government's Power by Robert Higgs
Conservative Euphemisms for State Aggression by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.
"Reading his essay, you find a long string of euphemisms for state intervention. We are in the end talking about groups supporting the only thing that the state does: namely roughing people up through violence and threats of violence. That’s what every line of every regulation comes down to. That’s the meaning of every tax. That the whole upshot of every tariff, expenditure, prohibition, and bomb. It all amounts to increased use of violence in society. Strip away the banners, songs, uniforms, and speeches: that’s all that the state really is.
The reason people don’t want to say that, however, is that it sounds rather unseemly and ugly to admit that one wants to expand the sphere of coercion and aggression in society. No one wants to be known as an advocate of using violence. And so a major art of statecraft is to come up with other words for state action besides the ones that actually describe what the state does."
Mainstream Media vs. Upstream Media by Gary North
A Week of Bush Is Like A Year of Clinton by Anthony Gregory
May 22, 2005
The lies that led to war by Prof. Juan Cole
"When Newsweek's source admitted that he had misidentified the government document in which he had seen an account of Quran desecration at Guantánamo prison, Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita exploded, 'People are dead because of what this son of a bitch said. How could he be credible now?'
Di Rita could have said the same things about his bosses in the Bush administration.
Tens of thousands of people are dead in Iraq, including more than 1,600 U.S. soldiers and Marines, because of false allegations made by President George W. Bush and Di Rita's more immediate boss, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, about Saddam Hussein's nonexistent weapons of mass destruction and equally imaginary active nuclear weapons program. Bush, Rumsfeld, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice repeatedly made unfounded allegations that led to the continuing disaster in Iraq, much of which is now an economic and military no man's land beset by bombings, assassinations, kidnappings and political gridlock."
Coming Home: An Iraq Correspondent Living in Two Worlds by Dahr Jamail
"It isn't an accident that, after 11 weeks, only as I'm leaving again, do I find myself able to write about what it was like to come home -- back to the United States after my latest several month stint in Iraq. Only now, with the U.S. growing ever smaller in my rearview mirror, with the strange distance that closeness to Iraq brings, do I find the needed space in which the words begin to flow."
Recommended
Is the CIA Behind the Iraqi "Insurgents"--and Global Terrorism? by Frank Morales
"The requirement of an ever-escalating level of social violence to meet the political and economic needs of the insatiable 'anti-terrorist complex' is the essence of the new US militarism.
What is now openly billed as 'permanent war' ultimately serves the geo-political ends of social control in the interests of US corporate domination, much as the anti-communist crusade of the now-exhausted Cold War did."
What the HELL is Wrong with James Sensenbrenner? by Sunni Maravillosa
(Sunni's latest Salon is now available, too)
Spy vs. Spy by Bill Piper
"Sensenbrenner, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee Chairman, has introduced legislation that would essentially draft every American into the war on drugs. H.R. 1528, cynically named 'Safe Access to Drug Treatment and Child Protection Act,' would compel people to spy on their family members and neighbors, and even go undercover and wear a wire if needed. If a person resisted, he or she would face mandatory incarceration."
Socialism and Empire, Not Immigration, Are Destroying America by Jacob G. Hornberger
Heil the Red Vanguard! by Daniel McAdams
"At an address to the Vanguard of the Demintern, the International Republican Institute, George W. Bush announced a bold new initiative to expropriate another $100 million (out of a total of $1.3 billion to 'promote democracy') from the American taxpayer for a for a new 'Conflict Response Fund' to help consolidate the people power revolutions. This funding request will include $24 million to create an 'Active Response Corps' of U.S. foreign and civil service officers to deploy quickly to crisis situations as 'civilian first responders.'"
In Defense of Rednecks by Fred Reed
(I didn't hear anyone asking for help - and if that ain't country...)
May 18, 2005
A Tale of Two Stories by Jim Lobe
Seymour Hersh: Iraq "Moving Towards Open Civil War"
An interview with Amy Goodman for Democracy Now
The Plot to Make the Patriot Act Even Worse by Dave Lindorff
"In a stunning slap at the democratic legislative process, the Senate Intelligence Committee, headed by Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kansas), has suddenly and quietly scheduled a closed-door session for this Thursday to mark up its version of a renewed USA Patriot Act..."
Battlespace America by Peter Byrne
"In 2002, the Defense Department updated its Unified Command Plan, which made the already blurry lines between civilian and military even less legible. Since then, all over America, law enforcement and intelligence agencies have been making information about the public available to a Pentagon power center most people have never heard about: U.S. Northern Command, or NORTHCOM, located at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs. Hidden deep inside Cheyenne Mountain, more than 100 intelligence analysts sift through streams of data collected by federal agents and local law enforcers--continually updating a virtual picture of what the command calls the North American 'battlespace,' which includes the United States, Canada, and Mexico, as well as 500 miles out to sea."
Uzbekistan's Nightmare: Made in Washington by Justin Raimondo
"Why our government stands by Karimov - even as he massacres his own people."
U.S. Caught Up Short by Uzbekistan Violence by Jim Lobe
Democracy in Action
US/Uzbekistan relations
Galloway vs. The US Senate (Transcript of Statement)
George Galloway, Respect MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, delivered this statement to US Senators today who have accused him of corruption.
Gagged, but Still Going Strong by Sibel Edmonds
"The attorney general cites two reasons to justify the unconstitutional, panic-driven assault on me. Reason one: to protect certain diplomatic relations - not named since our officials are obviously ashamed to admit to these relations. Reason two: to protect certain U.S. business interests. Let's take each one and dissect it (I have given up on our mass media to do that for us!). Since when is the Department of Justice in the business of protecting U.S. diplomatic relations? They appear to be acting as a mouthpiece for the State Department. Now that's one entity that has strong reasons to cover up what will end up being considered a mammoth blunder. It is the American people and their outrage they must be worried about; they wouldn't want to have a few of their top officials held criminally liable; would they?
As for reason two, I can assure you that the U.S. foreign business relations they may be referring to are not among those that benefit the majority of the American people. But the American people's security and best interests are being sacrificed for a handful of military-industrial entities and their lobbying arms. And since when are nuclear black market activities considered legitimate business, one may wonder?"
A Police State? by Ron Beatty
"One of the hallmarks of a police state is a restriction on travel. You know you live in a police state when you can't travel without some form of government restriction. Many of us have made that 'our line in the sand', the event that will trigger us to active resistance of governmental policies.
It is my opinion that the backers of those in power in Washington right now, those who are actually pulling the strings, so to speak, know this, and are attempting to camouflage their attempts to actually institute travel restrictions. Can I prove it? Nope. What I can do is point to some disturbing events, trends and facts, and leave you to see if it leads you to the same conclusion I've reached."
When It Is Time to Hang the Christians... by Doug Newman
"Lenin once remarked that, 'When it is time to hang the capitalists, they will sell us the rope.' Westerners, he maintained, were so naïve about his intentions that they would provide him the means to destroy them.
Some latter day Lenin, scheming to usher in a one-world government, must, at this point, be thinking that, 'When it is time to hang the Christians, they will sell us the rope.' Too many American Christians in the year 2005 say nothing and do nothing while their government rages out of control domestically and surrenders our sovereignty to the New World Order."
An Empire of Halfwits by Bill Bonner
The Sky Is Falling! by Becky Akers
"I'm trying to picture John Wayne fleeing the Capitol like Henny Penny because a small plane has been sighted 15 miles away."
Cartoon Libertarians by Garry Reed
"Now consider this: On May 12, 2005, I finger-tapped 'libertarian' into Google on my Dell. The result was 'about 4,330,000' hits.
So bring on the ridiculing! And don't worry about the people who believe the cartoon libertarian definitions. They'll typically believe anything. Tell them that government welfare programs are charity and they'll nod, agree, and go on with their lives. Tell them it's smart to surrender freedom for security and they'll nod, agree, and go on with their lives. Tell them there's a really big difference between Republicans and Democrats and they'll nod, agree, and go on with their lives."
Neocon "Newsweek" Outrage a Riot by Mike Tennant
Thoughts On Poverty by Fred Reed
"The reality is that the wherewithal of a cultivated life of leisure, if only in tea shirts and jeans, is within the reach of almost all of the 'poor.' If I had to live in really cheap welfarish quarters in Washington, DC, which I know well, on food stamps and a bit of cash welfare, what would I do?"
