The New American articles from April 2004

The New American archives from April 2004

WMD Charade.(Letters To The Editor)(Letter to the Editor)
April 5, 2004... Though I appreciate and understand your concern and efforts to shine light on the obvious deception of the Bush administration regarding WMDs, I have been bothered by this charade from its inception. The whole idea of a UN weapons inspection...

Are we ceasing to be a nation?(Letters To The Editor)(Letter to the Editor)
April 5, 2004... The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2003 have heightened America's awareness of border security. Illegal immigration is a serious problem, but one that can be solved if our elected officials take appropriate steps to stop the invading force...

"Mountain" of space fraud.(Letters To The Editor)(Letter to the Editor)
April 5, 2004... In support of Steve Bonta's point about the wastefulness of the space program in the Last Word column of the February 9 issue: * These huge expenditures are obviously part of the plan to bankrupt the country by throwing money down a...

Jackson and key.(Letters To The Editor)(Letter to the Editor)
April 5, 2004... The splendid article by Jodie Gilmore ("The Star-Spangled Banner," March 8, 2004 issue) left out a most important fact in the life of Francis Scott Key. During the battle between President Andrew Jackson and the Bank of the United States,...

Corrections.(Correction Notice)
April 5, 2004... The article "Reality Isn't Optional" in our March 22 issue incorrectly stated that Jessica Lynch's father is "an Army doctor presently stationed in Iraq." That description applies to the father of female college place-kicker Katie Hnida. ...

"Special skills draft" in the offing?(Insider Report)(Brief Article)
April 5, 2004... "The government is taking the first steps toward a targeted military draft of Americans with special skills in computers and foreign languages," reported the March 13 San Francisco Chronicle. "The Selective Service System [SSS] has begun the...

Political correctness at the Los Angeles times.(Insider Report)
April 5, 2004... In February Los Angeles Times music critic Mark Swed filed a review of the Los Angeles Opera's production of "Die Frau Ohne Schatten." As published in the paper's February 24 edition, Swed opined that "Richard Strauss' epic opera 'Die Frau...

Virginia withdraws con-con application.(Insider Report)(Brief Article)
April 5, 2004... Virginia has joined the ranks of states that have withdrawn their applications to Congress calling for a constitutional convention (con-con). The measure originated in the state's House of Delegates, passing with widespread support, 82-10....

Coerced contraceptive coverage.(Insider Report)
April 5, 2004... The California Supreme Court ruled on March 1 that Catholic Charities must provide its employees contraceptive coverage in its health-care plan even though the Catholic Church is opposed to contraception. The New York Times noted that "the...

Your papers, please.(Insider Report)
April 5, 2004... On May 21,2002, Larry Hiibel was standing next to his pickup truck near Winnemucca, Nevada, when he was approached by a police officer who demanded to see some identification. After Hiibel, exercising the "right to remain silent," simply...

It's the economy ...(Insider Report)
April 5, 2004... N. Gregory Mankiw, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, created a world of grief for congressional Republicans when he insisted that the accelerated "offshoring" of jobs from the U.S. is "the latest manifestation of the...

Defending the "empire".(Insider Report)
April 5, 2004... "Are there limits to American might?" asked Washington political analyst David Wood in the March 14 Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Patriot News. "If so, are we reaching them?" Simultaneous major conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have taken a severe...

Stealth invasion: working through its consulates in the United States, the Mexican government is waging a war of subversion against our nation--with the silent complicity of Washington.(Sovereignty)
April 5, 2004... "It breaks my heart to see what's happening here," lamented 47-year-old Utah native Alex Segura to THE NEW AMERICAN. For more than 10 years, Segura resided in California, watching in disbelief as large portions of that state were effectively...

A NAFTA/FTAA rogues' gallery: a behind-the-scenes look at some of the key globalist architects and apparatchiks responsible for launching and promoting NAFTA, FTAA and other "free trade" traps.(FTAA)
April 5, 2004... The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect on January 1, 1994, amid great hoopla and promises that it would bring a continuous wave of progress and prosperity to all three nations involved: Mexico, Canada and the United...

Orchestrated outrage: it is the fabricated furor over Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ, not the film itself, that threatens to undermine relations between American Christians and Jews.(Culture War)
April 5, 2004... "For almost 2,000 years in Western civilization, four words legitimized, rationalized, and fueled anti-Semitism: 'The Jews killed Christ,'" claimed Abraham Foxman, head of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), in a February 6 speech in Palm Beach...

Will Mass. remove the judges? The best way to protect marriage in Massachusetts is not to amend a constitution that does not authorize same-sex "marriage," but to remove the judges who subvert the constitution.(Culture War)
April 5, 2004... Massachusetts residents have organized a new drive under the banner of the "Article 8 Alliance" to undo the state Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) November 2003 ruling for homosexual "marriage." The new Article 8 Alliance strategy would dust off a...

Nichols & the OKC Bombing.(Ahead Of The Curve)
April 5, 2004... ITEM: In the March 1, 2004 UK-based Independent, in an article entitled "Death-penalty trial for Oklahoma bomb accomplice could backfire on FBI," British columnist Andrew Gumbel wrote: "[A] flurry of new evidence promises to demonstrate quite...

Heroic self-sacrifice.(The Goodness Of America)
April 5, 2004... Pursuant to legislation approved by Congress and signed by President Bush last year, Salt Lake City's VA hospital was renamed the George E. Wahlen Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center during a brief ceremony on January 8. How Wahlen...

Love story legacy.(The Goodness Of America)(Obituary)
April 5, 2004... On January 23, George Limpert of St. Louis, Missouri, died at age 102 of complications from pneumonia. He and Mrs. Limpert, 100, celebrated their 82nd wedding anniversary on September 9 last year. Their life together has left a lasting legacy...

Miracle at sea: during World War II, flying ace Edward Rickenbacker and his crewmates crashed at sea. Their belief in God strengthened them to survive, and Providence rewarded their faith.(History--Faith In Action)
April 5, 2004... "We'll try the box procedure first," the pilot told the old ace. They were lost in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The B-17D "Flying Fortress" had by that point obviously overflown its intended destination, Canton Island, a tiny eight-by-ten...

Mom-and-pop store saved.(Exercising The Right)
April 5, 2004... On January 22, television station KYW in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, reported that "a North Philadelphia store owner has shot and killed a man he says shot a store employee during all armed robbery attempt." According to police, "the suspect...

Homeowner chases thief.(Exercising The Right)
April 5, 2004... On December 9, 2003, Mr. and Mrs. Jorge Portillo, their two daughters, and a few other family members (including Mr. Portillo's father) gathered together at the Portillo home in west Phoenix, Arizona, to hang Christmas lights. Shortly after...

"Just our womenfolk".(Exercising The Right)
April 5, 2004... At around 9 p.m. on February 6, Rancho Cordova, California, resident Carolyn Lisle and three friends were watching television in the living room of Lisle's home. When they heard strange noises near her sliding glass door, a male guest went to...

Clerk thwarts robbery.(Exercising The Right)
April 5, 2004... Shortly before 2 p.m. on November 14, 2003, two armed men entered Compadres Market in Gait, California, and announced a robbery. But before clerk Jose Antonio Gutierrez could comply with their demands, one of the thugs shot him in the back....

Building more problems.(Between The Lines)
April 5, 2004... ITEM: City governments are finding it harder to help lower-income families buy a "starter house," reported the Press-Enterprise (Corona, California). "The 'American Dream' in its most basic form includes home ownership for many. But rising...

Highways paved with pork.(Between The Lines)
April 5, 2004... ITEM: The "funding impasse" over federal transportation legislation "may imperil byways," said the Salt Lake Tribune for March 2. "Although President Bush signed a short-term extension of federal transportation funding..., the House and Senate...

Mayhem in Madrid: Cui Bono?(The Last Word)
April 5, 2004... "The appalling thing," remarked Lord Acton of the French Revolution, "is not the tumult, but the design. Through all the fire and smoke we perceive the evidence of calculating organization. The managers remain studiously concealed and masked;...

The realities of "equality".(Letters to the Editor)(Letter to the Editor)
April 19, 2004... Regarding William Norman Grigg's column "Reality Isn't Optional" (March 22, 2004 issue), he didn't explain why women aren't suited for combat. At a given weight, women have about a third less upper body strength than men. In hand-to-hand...

Runaway debt.(Letters to the Editor)(Letter to the Editor)
April 19, 2004... Your article "Who's the Biggest Spender?" (March 22, 2004 issue) was right on the money. It shows a steady increase in our runaway national debt, and the only certain prediction I can make is more of the same at an accelerating rate, no matter...

The ADL's anti-semitism.(Letters to the Editor)(Letter to the Editor)
April 19, 2004... The article "The Passion and the Fury" by William F. Jasper (March 22, 2004 issue) was a pleasure to read; as were the comments of Don Feder and Rabbi Lapin, with which I totally agree. As an Orthodox Jew, I can truthfully state that I...

God, man & ownership.(Letters to the Editor)(Letter to the Editor)
April 19, 2004... Concerning the letter to the editor comment made in the March 22, 2004 issue, that "our lives and bodies belong to ourselves, not to... 'the State,'" I offer this viewpoint: Our lives and bodies belong neither to ourselves nor to the State....

9-11: we knew.(Insider Report)
April 19, 2004... For nearly two years, THE NEW AMERICAN has pointed out that Washington had detailed, specific advance warnings of the 9-11 attack--warnings that, if acted on, would have prevented the tragedy. (See our cover stories "Did We Know What Was...

Re-Sovietizing Russia.(Insider Report)
April 19, 2004... During a 1991 visit to the KGB's Lubyanka Square headquarters in Moscow, writes Eric Margolis of the Toronto Sun, "I sat at the desk on which the mass murderers of the Soviet secret police--Yagoda, Yezhov, Beria--wrote orders sending over 20...

Blair and the EU.(Insider Report)(Tony Blair)(Brief Article)
April 19, 2004... "Tony Blair today vowed to push the controversial EU constitution--and set himself up for a bitter election battle over Europe's powers," reported the March 26 London Evening Standard. "Mr. Blair's uncompromising stance emerged after EU...

U.S. in Iraq to stay.(Insider Report)(Brief Article)
April 19, 2004... "With fewer than 100 days to go before Iraq resumes its sovereignty, American officials say they believe they have found a legal basis for American troops to continue their military control over the security situation in Iraq," reported the...

Slavery reparations... to whom?(Insider Report)
April 19, 2004... "North African pirates abducted and enslaved more than 1 million Europeans between 1530 and 1780 in a series of raids which depopulated coastal towns from Sicily to Cornwall," observed the March 11 London Guardian. The paper was summarizing the...

GOP: back to its roots?(Insider Report)
April 19, 2004... Amid burgeoning federal deficits and the accelerating expansion of government, many conservative Republicans doubtless are asking themselves: What on earth is wrong with the GOP? According to Robert Ekelund and Mark Thornton of the Mises...

Massachusetts: land of the pretenders.(Insider Report)
April 19, 2004... The leaders of the leftist-controlled Massachusetts Senate had the final laugh on March 29. That was when the state constitutional convention approved a constitutional amendment that would: 1) define marriage as a union between one man and one...

Law of the Sea Treaty on hold--for now.(Insider Report)
April 19, 2004... In late February, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee quietly approved the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (also called the Law of the Sea Treaty, or LOST), which surrenders control over the world's oceans and the wealth therein to UN...

UN exploits Rwanda Genocide.(Insider Report, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan opens special UN Memorial Conference on Rwanda Genocide of 1994)
April 19, 2004... "The international community is guilty of sins of omission," insisted UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on March 25 as he opened a UN "Memorial Conference on the Rwanda Genocide." Annan was head of UN peacekeeping operations in 1994, when the...

Utah's loose Cannon.(Insider Report)
April 19, 2004... Rep. Chris Cannon (R-Utah), who represents what may be the most Republican district in the nation, has emerged as a feckless apologist for the Bush administration's open borders agenda. He volubly supports the proposed Bush amnesty for illegal...

UN wants the internet.(Insider Report, conference on internet accessibility)(Brief Article)
April 19, 2004... March 25 was a busy day for Kofi Annan. In addition to his speech at the Rwanda memorial conference, the secretary-general made another address to a UN summit addressing the so-called "digital divide." Criticizing the current, largely informal...

He didn't say "immediate threat"?(Stranger Than Fiction, quote from US Sec. of Defense Donald Rumsfeld)
April 19, 2004... "Well, you're the--you and a few other critics are the only people I've heard use the phrase 'immediate threat.' I didn't. The president didn't. And it's become kind of folklore that that's--that's what's happened." --Secretary of Defense...

The FTAA will duplicate the EU.(Stranger Than Fiction, brief quote from L. Ronald Scheman on Free Trade Agreement of the Americas)(Brief Article)
April 19, 2004... "The new requirement of an FTAA will demand a new framework for hemispheric cooperation similar to that in Europe during the early years of the European Community...." L. Ronald Scheman Greater America: A New Partnership for the Americas...

The definition of outsourcing.(Stranger Than Fiction; brief quote from Gregory Mankiw, Chmn. of Pres. Bush's Council of Economic Ministers)(Brief Article)
April 19, 2004... "Outsourcing is just a new way of doing international trade." Gregory Mankiw Chairman of the Bush administration's Council of Economic Ministers

Super bowl honesty.(Stranger Than Fiction, brief quote from Senator John Edwards)(Brief Article)
April 19, 2004... "At some point, you have to stop being a politician and tell the truth. I'm for Carolina." --Senator John Edwards responding to Boston TV reporter Andy Hiller's question

Bush kowtowing to Beijing.(Stranger Than Fiction; brief quotes from US Pres. George W. Bush and Chinese Foreign Minister Liu Jianchao)(Brief Article)
April 19, 2004... "The comments and actions made by the leader of Taiwan indicate that he may be willing to make decisions unilaterally to change the status quo, which we oppose." --President Bush during the December 2003 visit to Washington of China's...

Any idea what caused it?(Stranger Than Fiction)
April 19, 2004... "U.S. employment is at least four million short of where it should be. Imports and outsourcing didn't cause that shortfall...." --Paul Krugman New York Times, February 27, 2004

A "shining example" of infanticide?(Stranger Than Fiction)
April 19, 2004... "I am moved that you have chosen to honor me this evening. Above all, I want to pay tribute to the International Women's Health Coalition for the work it is doing around the globe.... You are a shining example." --UN Secretary-General Kofi...

No child left unbrainwashed: despite the political backlash from several states, the federal government continues to push its nationalized education agenda.(Education)(Cover Story)
April 19, 2004... Federal aid to education is comparable to currying water in a leaky bucket from your own reservoir to a big central well. What is left of the water is poured into the well, and then those in charge apportion you some water in that same leaky...

Encore--The Ready to Teach Act.(Education)
April 19, 2004... Not content with reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act via the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLBA), the Bush Administration is now pushing a reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA). As part of this effort, the House...

The assault on marriage: the God-ordained institution of marriage is a fundamental pillar of ordered liberty and civilization. Will the Lavender Lobby be allowed to destroy it?(Culture War)
April 19, 2004... When the American War for Independence came to an end at Yorktown, the British, stunned at their defeat, stacked arms while a band played "The World Turned Upside Down." At the time, the musical selection must have seemed particularly apt....

Playing chicken with the constitution: the NRA's Wayne LaPierre proposes using the threat of a constitutional convention to pressure Congress to repeal the anti-free speech provisions in the McCain-Feingold law.(Constitution)
April 19, 2004... The clear language of the Constitution is often violated and circumvented by elected and appointed officials entrusted to honor and defend it. However, so long as the Constitution is kept intact as the highest law of the land, there is still...

UN oil-for-food program: scams R us: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and his son Kojo are at the center of an enormous scandal involving Saddam Hussein's $100 billion oil-for-food program.(United Nations)
April 19, 2004... The June 30 deadline is rapidly approaching. On that date, the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority will relinquish control of Iraq to the United Nations. Of course, tens of thousands of U.S. troops will remain in place to assist the global...

The Kosovo catastrophe.(Ahead Of The Curve)
April 19, 2004... ITEM: "NATO secretary-general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has accused Kosovo Albanians of orchestrating violence against minority Serbs which drove thousands front their homes last week," reported the French AFP news service on March 23. The...

Thief meets her match.(The Goodness Of America)
April 19, 2004... The Pro-Cleaners & Rental dry cleaning establishment in Spanish Fork, Utah, had already been robbed numerous times this year when, shortly before 10 a.m. on March 9, another miscreant struck the beleaguered business. This time it was a...

Neighborly help.(The Goodness Of America)
April 19, 2004... One day before Christmas last year, Christina Norvell of Wilmington, North Carolina, received a phone call from neighbor Thomas Cambron, who informed her that an unoccupied gray Honda was idling in front of her home. When Norvell...

Teen rescues teens.(The Goodness Of America)
April 19, 2004... On March 27, 2002, girlfriends Hayden Strickland and Jennifer Jackson, both 14, were wading in the Gulf of Mexico near Panama City Beach, Florida, when an undertow kept them from returning to the beach. Another member of their group,...

Gratitude.(The Goodness Of America)
April 19, 2004... Susan Hafter, town clerk of Malone, New York, recently received an envelope with a Colorado postmark that contained a $100 check and a note. Hafter initially wondered, "What in the world it this?" But the note, which she thought "was so sweet,"...

Freedom trek: fleeing the Soviet Gulag, Slavomir Rawicz and six comrades--armed with almost nothing except an insatiable hunger for freedom--crossed an entire continent on foot.(History--Struggle For Freedom)
April 19, 2004... One hundred and seventy million people, observes Dr. R.J. Rummel, were murdered by governments during the first eight decades of the 20th century. In his book Death by Government, Rummel writes: "The souls of this monstrous pile of dead have...

The Fed exists to inflate.(Between The Lines)
April 19, 2004... ITEM: The Dow Jones Newswire for March 17, headlined "February's Consumer Prices Show Tame Inflation," reported: "The growth of" U.S. consumer prices slowed last month as prices of energy and housing moderated, suggesting the global economic...

CAFE Dives up costs.(Between The Lines)
April 19, 2004... ITEM: The San Francisco Chronicle for March 10 quotes Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) on federal efforts to improve automobile fuel efficiency: "I support updating CAFE (corporate average fuel economy) standards to 36 miles per gallon by 2015," he...

Bungled burglary.(Exercising the right: "... the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.")
April 19, 2004... About a decade ago, Bee Her, a Hmong refugee, opened the Long Chang Market in Sacramento, California. His store sells such items as rice, canned goods and videos primarily to a Hmong, Mien and Laotian clientele. In recent months, the store has...

Defending their homes.(Exercising the right: "... the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.")
April 19, 2004... On February 12, a grand jury in Prince George's County, Maryland, declined to indict two Free State homeowners who had recently used firearms in self-defense. At about 9 a.m. on January 21, Marcos Miranda, 24, broke a window in the garage...

Pit bull attacks owner.(Exercising the right: "... the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.")
April 19, 2004... On the afternoon of October 19, 2003, Terry Ayala of San Antonio, Texas, was awakened from her Sunday afternoon nap by loud barking. Peering through a bedroom window, she saw next-door neighbor Malko Oswald, 48, on the ground with his pet pit...

Litigious burglar.(Exercising the right: "... the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.")
April 19, 2004... Louis Steponaitis, 55, of Torrington. Connecticut, is a retired teacher who has for many years bought, renovated and rented buildings to run-down areas of nearby Waterbury. In December 1998, burglars broke into a house Steponaitis was...

The Clarke revelations.(The Last Word)
April 19, 2004... Few had heard the name Richard A. Clarke before his March 21 interview on Sixty Minutes, where he answered questions about his book, Against All Enemies, and defended its indictment of the Bush administration. That television appearance and the...