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.
September 16-30, 2004
September 30, 2004
Chronicle of a Quagmire Foretold By Chris Floyd
"The public record, available to anyone who wants the truth, is undeniable: the war was waged on false pretenses and the war leaders knew it. They knew it would bring unimaginable death and suffering to multitudes of innocent people in Iraq and to thousands of their own soldiers and civilians as well. They knew it would lead to more terrorism, more chaos, more insecurity in the world."
A funny thing happened on the way to 'The Truth' by Karl W. B. Schwarz
"More importantly, what Sibel Edmonds found was not from counter-terrorism sources. It was from ongoing FBI investigations of Americans and foreign nationals involved in drug trafficking, money laundering and apparently pre-9-11 activities and financing of that attack."
September 29, 2004
U.S. Pull-Out from Iraq in 2005 by Gary North
Is Justice Being Delayed by Bush Administration Politics? by Juan Cole
"Several high-profile FBI investigations, in which substantial progress have been made, may well have been put on hold by the Bush administration for political reasons. That is, it has been alleged to me that the White House may have leaned on the FBI-- not to drop the investigations but to postpone some key arrests until after the November elections."
Government Approved - Journalism in the age of terror by Maya Schenwar
"Throughout the role play, journalists were encouraged to call on experts, to think critically about when to release information to the public, and to ask who, what, when, where-everything but why. The role of the press, said moderator John McWethy of ABC News, is to accurately report information as government officials release it. In other words, in a state of emergency, the media morph into a PR department for Washington. Each speaker emphasized that business, government and the media all must learn how to function in crisis mode. And in crisis mode, baby, we're all in the system together. Take, for instance, Ridge's assessment of the DHS's color-coded terror alert plan: 'It's a' signal, like a traffic light is a signal, that we expect a certain conduct from you.'"
Protection from Protectionism by Chris Basten
"As an anarchist, my opinion doesn’t count for much of anything but a scoff from the mainstream. Anarchy has such a negative connotation that it really isn’t worth mentioning. That’s why libertarianism seemed to come about. It’s a toned-down kissing cousin of anarchy that tries to stop the bleeding with a band-aid of big promises about smaller government. I find it ironic that libertarianism resorts to less government force to try and stop more government force."
Conspiracy and other theories by Michael Hasty
"But the great irony in the media's rejection of "conspiracy theory" is that the metanarrative requires mainstream news consumers to subscribe to a far less credible "coincidence theory." By this theory, it is nothing more than "coincidence" that the membership of a neoconservative think tank, whose ambitions for a global American empire depend on public opinion being swayed by "a new Pearl Harbor," stole their way into power and occupy key positions in the Bush regime."
September 28, 2004
An Open Letter to Most Americans - You've Lost Your Alibi! by Omar Barghouti
"In all likelihood, you shall stand guilty of renewing the mandate of Bush and his militant regime, effectively allowing them to continue battering, pillaging, ruining, dividing and hating the world, while erasing whatever is left of your civil and economic rights on their way. You've chosen that path, no question about it. But then again, you did not have much of a choice, really, given that other plastic, spineless, lobby-corrupted and just mildly less immoral candidate. No one envies you for such a choice between a witless yet ruthless emperor and a clinically confused emperor-to-be."
Is It Time for War Zealots to Send Their Kids to Iraq? by Maureen Farrell
"Though the consequences of ignoring the truth are now painfully evident, to most ardent warmongers, our 3,000 dead entitle us to goose-step into whatever mess the President pursues. Bush is right. Everyone else is wrong. End of story."
A Post-Modern Nimrod by Joseph R. Stromberg
Comments on The Pentagon’s New Map: War and Peace in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas P. M. Barnett.
September 27, 2004
Saddam Hussein has more chance than Bush of ending war in Iraq!
"Freedom is not 'on the march' in Iraq as Bush claims, the world is not becoming safer from terrorists and America is in more danger now than at any time in its history."
Pelosi Derails CIA Plan to Buy Iraq Elections by Juan Cole
A leak inquiry goes awry
"In an ominous development for press freedom and government accountability, a federal judge has ordered a New York Times reporter, Judith Miller, to testify before a grand jury investigating the case and to describe any conversations she had with 'a specified executive branch official.' The subpoena was upheld even though neither Miller nor The Times had any involvement in the matter at hand - the public naming of an undercover agent. The decision also takes the absolutist position that there is no protection whatsoever for journalists who are called to appear before grand juries."
September 26, 2004
The Orwellian US by Gail Jarvis
"Of course, if the state had attempted to implement a totalitarian society overnight, angry citizens might have prevented it. But the state cautiously enacts its takeovers incrementally, so as to not arouse the public. Also, it is able to persuade people that the agenda it is pursuing is for their own good or for the betterment of society."
September 24, 2004
Liar, Liar... by Riverbend
"I can't seem to decide what is worse- when Bush speaks in the name of Iraqi people, or when Allawi does. Yesterday's speech was particularly embarrassing. He stood there groveling in front of the congress- thanking them for the war, the occupation and the thousands of Iraqi lives lost... and he did it all on behalf of the Iraqi people."
Human dignity, Crazy Mike and Indian country By Jim Lobe
"Based on reports by a UN team, the Washington-based Crimes of War Project, and the office of the Afghan Armed Forces attorney general, the Times described how US Special Forces at one FOB in southeastern Afghanistan last year beat and tortured eight Afghan soldiers over no less than 17 days, until one of their victims, 18-year-old Jamal Naseer, died."
Thou Dost Protest Too Much by Jonathan M. Katz
"On Friday, the antiwar-T-shirt-clad mother of a slain soldier was pulled out of a Laura Bush speech in New Jersey and threatened with arrest. A West Virginia couple was detained by the Secret Service for wearing anti-Bush T-shirts at a July 4 rally - they filed a lawsuit last week - and AIDS activists were removed and kept away from reporters at a Sept. 9 presidential event in Pennsylvania. Most notably, some 1,800 protesters, monitors, and passersby were jailed in indiscriminate raids during the Republican Convention in New York, while several hecklers were dragged off the Madison Square Garden convention floor. All were arrested or threatened with arrest, and hundreds expect to stand trial. And that's why Bursey's is not the story of an isolated troublemaker, but a harbinger of what protesters might expect in the future."
Those Pesky "Assault" Weapons by Carl F. Worden
"That was the whole reason for protecting Americans' rights to keep and bear arms. The Framers knew that it would be a standing army or even the police, who would impose illegal laws and sanctions of an unconstitutional government on the people, so they wanted to make sure the people had an efficient way of dealing with such atrocities if the unthinkable were to happen."
September 23, 2004
The Left's Favorite President by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.
"It has never been more essential for the true partisans of liberty to reject statism in all its forms and packages, whether offered by the current threat (the right) or by the emerging threat (the left). There is only one path to peace and prosperity, and it cuts straight through today’s left and right."
The American Gulag by Thomas J. DiLorenzo
"Thus, in Lincoln’s opinion anyone who did not openly and publicly support his administration and its policies was a traitor, susceptible to being prosecuted as such, and hanged if found guilty. What could possibly be more tyrannical than punishing silence as a crime with a death sentence? Could Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, or Alexander Hamilton have ever even entertained such thoughts?"
I ran across something amusing tonight as I was reading articles. Ed Henry presented this article to Etherzone:
SEIG HIEL - BLAST FROM THE PAST
At least two other websites pointed to Ed's article by links or reprint. Well, here's the kicker - this is the article by Harry Browne that Ed directly referenced:
Goebbels Rallies the People
The short of it is this - Ed attributes the speech to Goebbels in his article. Harry Browne states directly in his piece that "the speech I quoted above didn't come from Joseph Goebbels. It was delivered by an American - Senator Zell Miller at the Republican convention last week. I had to change only a few words in order to disguise the source.". Way to go, Ed - in your enthisiasm to crank out 500-750 words, you've perpetuated disinformation that may haunt the www for decades!
September 21, 2004
If America were Iraq, What would it be Like? by Juan Cole
"What would America look like if it were in Iraq's current situation? The population of the US is over 11 times that of Iraq, so a lot of statistics would have to be multiplied by that number. Thus, violence killed 300 Iraqis last week, the equivalent proportionately of 3,300 Americans. What if 3,300 Americans had died in car bombings, grenade and rocket attacks, machine gun spray, and aerial bombardment in the last week?"
Are We in Saidad or Baghgon? by Tom Engelhardt
"It always comes back to the present - which is unsurprising, since it's the only place we ever actually are. From the Pentagon's point of view, of course, the problems of the present very distinctly involve overstretched American troops, often Reserves or National Guards, in body armor and Kevlar helmets, sweating hard in sweltering heat as they walk or ride through Iraq's "three-dimensional urban environments," many of them undoubtedly wishing like the dickens that there were a few "force multipliers" available to multiply them homewards."
Baghdad Year Zero by Naomi Klein
"Pillaging Iraq in pursuit of a neocon utopia"
Bush Taunts Kerry by Juan Cole
"I have a sinking feeling that the American public may like Bush's cynical misuse of Wilsonian idealism precisely because it covers the embarrassment of their having gone to war, killed perhaps 25,000 people, and made a perfect mess of the Persian Gulf region, all out of a kind of paranoia fed by dirty tricks and bad intelligence."
Q & A with Libertarian presidential candidate Michael Badnarik
Indict the War Party by Justin Raimondo
Your Media is Killing You by William Rivers Pitt
"Sports is, of course, the champion distraction. Listen to any sports talk radio show; if the American people could rattle off housing or budget statistics, if they could quote from memory the casualty statistics from Operation Iraqi Freedom, the way they can tell you in half a second how many doubles Manny Ramirez hit in his rookie season, half-bright loafers like George W. Bush would never have a prayer in American politics."
September 19, 2004
The Real Meaning of Security by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.
"Iraq too demonstrates a lesson concerning public and private security. When it is politically feasible, the big mucks in Iraq choose to use private security firms to protect themselves. This was the major undertaking of its mercenaries when the US civilian government was running matters. How ironic that even the state chooses private contractors when it can. When it seeks genuine security, it too buys it on the free market."
Anarchist? What's That? by Fred Woodworth
"Actually, if the Anarchist really were a bomber, he wouldn't be worth worrying about, since the amount of damage he could do would at best be small. What makes him dangerous is that he is a man who could at any moment stumble onto the magic words that would snap the populace out of its hypnosis and make it shake off the endless dream of red tape, laws, and force at every turn."
Earlier today I was looking for another essay written by F. Woodworth and ran across the essay above and thought it might be of some interest. Fwiw- though I can't find a date to this essay, I'd guess it dates to the early 80's.
Seymour Hersh's Alternative History of Bush's War by Mary Jacoby
"Wouldn't it be great if the reality was that they were lying about WMD, and they really didn't believe that democracy would come when they invaded Iraq, and you could go to war with 5,000 troops, a few special forces, a few bombs and a lot of American flags, and Iraq would fold, Saddam would be driven out, a new Baath Party would emerge that's moderate? Democracy would flow like water out of a fountain. These guys believe it. They believe WMD. There's no fallback with these guys. These guys are utopians. They're like Trotskyites. They believe in permanent revolution. They really believe. They believe that they could go in with few forces. They believed that once they went in it would happen quick. Iran would get the message. What they call occupied Lebanon would get the lesson. Even the Saudis would change."
Self-Healing by Butler Shaffer
"All of politics is grounded in fantasies, wishful thinking, and the fears not only of others, but of self-responsibility. As such, lying is as essential to the state as it is to carnival side-show hucksters. Politicians will always promise benefits for which the recipient need not pay, as well as an unending list of dangers from which people need the protection of the state."
The Duende: Theory and Divertissement by Federico Garcia Lorca
"The great artists of southern Spain, both gypsies and flamenco, whether singing or dancing or playing their instruments, know that no emotion is possible without the mediation of the Duende. They may hoodwink the people, they may give the illusion of duende without really having it, just as writers and painters and literary fashion-mongers without duende cheat you daily; but it needs only a little care and the will to resist one's own indifference, to discover the imposture and put it and its crude artifice to flight."
September 18, 2004
From Bad to Worse in Iraq by Jim Lobe
"The growing media chorus of despair actually began just one week ago, a few days after the brilliantly staged Republican convention in New York City had ended, when the U.S. military death toll in Iraq since last year's invasion topped the 1,000 mark, and the New York Times published a front-page article entitled 'U.S. Conceding Rebels Control Regions of Iraq.'"
The Bush Administration and Force by Tom Engelhardt and Noam Chomsky
"Bush assured Americans that 'The world is safer today because, in Iraq, our coalition ended a regime that cultivated ties to terror while it built weapons of mass destruction.' The president's handlers know that every word is false, but they also know that lies can become Truth, if repeated insistently enough."
September 17, 2004
Sir Isaac Newton and the Coming Invasion of Iran by Mike Rogers
September 16, 2004
When the Rabbits Get a Gun by William Rivers Pitt
"Bin Laden was at the center of one of the most important events of the 20th century: The fall of the Soviet Union. Political pundits like to credit Reagan and the senior Bush for the collapse of that regime, but out in front of them, in the mountains of Afghanistan, was Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, the sharp end of our sword, who did their job very well."
Far graver than Vietnam by Sidney Blumenthal
CIA'S 'ANONYMOUS' IGNITES A BOMBSHELL by Eric Margolis
An unsavory character on Bush team by James O. Goldsborough
"A center of ethical controversy as long as he has been in Washington - twice in the 1980s over perceived conflicts of interest with Israel - Perle has survived because of powerful patrons like Kissinger and Black,"
Wilson, Churchill, Roosevelt and Bush: The Banality of Betrayal by Morgan Reynolds
'God Wills It!' by Uri Avnery
