The New American articles from August 2004

The New American archives from August 2004

"Whom do we elect?".(Letter to the Editor)
August 9, 2004... The points raised by Gary Benoit in his perspicacious essay "Whom Do We Elect?" (July 12 issue) were well taken. It is only through the House of Representatives that we can get back to some semblance of constitutional government. GEORGE B....

Bilderbergers give John Edwards the nod?(Inside Report)(50th annual Bilderberg Conference)
August 9, 2004... On July 11, the New York Times, arguably the principal print organ of the Establishment Power Elite, noted that John Edwards' viability as a vice presidential candidate may have received a significant boost after he gave a speech on the U.S....

Kerry's CFR advisers.(Inside Report)(Code of Federal Regulations )(Brief Article)
August 9, 2004... On July 14 the Washington Post reported on Senator John Kerry's growing number of advisers on issues such as the economy, health care, and domestic and foreign financial pulley. What the Post did not report, but what will be of little surprise...

John Kerry's self-contradictory statements on abortion.(Inside Report)(Brief Article)
August 9, 2004... Presidential candidate John Kerry turned a few heads on July 4, when he told the Dubuque, Iowa Telegraph Herald the following: "I oppose abortion, personally. I don't like abortion. I believe life does begin at conception.... I can't take my...

Administration arm-twisting saves patriot provision.(Inside Report)
August 9, 2004... On July 8, the House of Representatives considered an amendment authored by Representative Bernie Sanders (Independent-Vt.), and co-sponsored by Reps. Ron Paul (R-Texas) and Butch Otter (R-Idaho), eliminating Section 215 of the Patriot Act....

Toward a "chipped" population.(Inside Report)(Brief Article)
August 9, 2004... Mexican attorney general Rafael Macedo announced that he and several of his staff have been "fitted with chips which will give them exclusive and secure access to a national, computerized database for crime investigators," reported CNN on July...

Hong Kong demonstrations protest Communist rule.(Inside Report)
August 9, 2004... One year after massive demonstrations forced Beijing to back down on imposing harsh "anti-subversion" legislation, Hong Kong demonstrators again took to the streets on July 1 to protest Beijing's heavy-handed rule. Despite sweltering...

Hands-on despotism in Iraq.(Inside Report)
August 9, 2004... In the build-up to the December 1989 invasion of Panama, reports circulated in the American media that then-Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega killed several of his political enemies himself, personally dispatching each victim with a bullet to...

UN vs. Bobby Fischer.(Insider Report)(United Nations)(Brief Article)
August 9, 2004... Bobby Fischer is, in all likelihood, the finest chess player in history. More than three decades ago he became a national hero when he defeated Soviet chess virtuoso Boris Spassky in a series of matches in Reykjavik, becoming the only American...

Latest vote to defund U.S. participation in the UN.(Insider Report)(United Nations)(United States)(Brief Article)
August 9, 2004... On July 7, the House of Representatives rejected, by an 83 to 335 vote, House Amendment 648, a measure sponsored by Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas)"to prohibit use of funds to pay any United States contribution to the United Nations or any affiliated...

More duplicity from ADL's Foxman.(Insider Report)(Anti-Defamation League)(Brief Article)
August 9, 2004... During a July 15 on-line chat hosted by Israel's Haaretz newspaper, Abraham Foxman, chief of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, defended his organization's defamatory campaign against Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ--a...

"Water is for fighting": federal agencies allied with enviro-activists have declared war on farmers and ranchers in the Western states, forcing residents of the Klamath Basin to fight for their way of life.(War on the East)(Cover Story)
August 9, 2004... Menacing storm clouds have been hovering over the Upper Klamath Basin on the Oregon-California border for the past three years. Unfortunately, they are not the kind of clouds that bring rain, which would be most welcome in this beautiful, but...

Eco-feudalism in the Adirondacks: the ability of Adirondack residents to use their own property is at the whim of an appointed commission entirely unaccountable to the people.(War on the East)(Cover Story)
August 9, 2004... In August 1978, 19-year-old Tim Jones bought an acre of land near the Raquette River in New York's Adirondack Park. Four previous generations of Tim's family had owned property along River Road in Altamont, and in August 1991 Tim obtained a...

Scorched earth: another season of catastrophic wildfires caused by government policies and activist obstruction tactics threatens the environment and people.(Environmental Extremism)
August 9, 2004... The 2004 forest-fire season could set new records for destruction. By the first week of July, hundreds of thousands of acres in the Western states and Alaska were already ablaze. By mid-July, thousands of people were fleeing their homes in...

How to protect marriage: the threat of redefining marriage to include same-sex unions stems from activist judges, not state or federal constitutions. Thus the proper solution must be to limit the courts.(Marriage)
August 9, 2004... Popular mythology holds that the only way to curtail the reckless adventurism of the Supreme Court and the rest of the federal judiciary is to amend the Constitution to undo bad decisions and to prevent the courts from making new ones. The myth...

Good neighbors.(The Goodness Of America)
August 9, 2004... On the morning of April 18, Charlie Pagel of South St. Paul, Minnesota, began changing the shock absorbers on his mid-size SUV. He had safely worked on cars at home on numerous other occasions, and as he jacked up the vehicle and wriggled...

Braving the inferno.(The Goodness of America)
August 9, 2004... Shortly after noon on September 1, 2002, Mrs. Sigrid Szymczak-Hopson, 70, was at her cabin in the San Gabriel Canyon of California's Angeles National Forest when a forest fire ignited about three miles distant and began moving toward the cabin....

The man behind Amazing Grace: John Newton, who was once an atheist and slave trader, became a Christian minister and abolitionist. His testimony of that transformation is now a world-famous hymn.(History--Faith In Action)(Biography)
August 9, 2004... "The storms of life" is a common metaphor, but for a young English atheist and slave merchant named John Newton, it was a literal description. The ship he was traveling on--the Greyhound--was off the coast of Newfoundland. It was March 9, 1748....

Son protects mom.(Exercising The Right: "... the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.")(Brief Article)
August 9, 2004... A mother and her son are the co-owners of a convenience store in Colton, California. They were both working in the store on the morning of May 24 when three men wearing hoods entered the business. One jumped over the counter, pointed a hand gun...

Toy gun vs. real gun.(Exercising The Right: "... the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.")(Brief Article)
August 9, 2004... Abdrab Ashishi of West Chester, Ohio, was working at his Shop Rite convenience store in Avondale on the evening of May 27 when a man wearing a ski mask and black leather gloves entered the store. The masked man, David Billups, was also carrying...

Brothers busted.(Exercising The Right: "... the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.")(Brief Article)
August 9, 2004... At about 12:45 p.m. on April 27, a resident of Phoenix, Arizona, heard a living room window shatter, then saw an arm reach through the opening. Two brothers, later identified as Ronald and Rudy Freese, were attempting to break into the...

Treacherous trio.(Exercising The Right: "... the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.")(Brief Article)
August 9, 2004... In the late afternoon of May 26, Richard Frazier received a visit by a female acquaintance, Angel Raymer, at his home in Nashville, Tennessee. Raymer left shortly before 6 p.m. and walked to a car where two men, Thurman Dillon and Jason Lynn,...

Following a burglar's trail.(Exercising The Right: "... the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.")(Brief Article)
August 9, 2004... Shortly after 3 a.m. on April 27, David Moore arrived at his home in Shreveport, Louisiana, to find a burglar rummaging through his belongings. It appeared to Moore that the thief, later identified as Ronald Reeder, was primarily interested in...

And not a shot was fired.(Exercising The Right: "... the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.")(Brief Article)
August 9, 2004... Shortly before 3 a.m. on May 9, two men armed with a handgun and wooden clubs kicked in the front door of a home in Monongalia County, West Virginia. The intruders, Jonathan Lowe and Robert Thrasher, then broke into a locked bedroom and...

More gasoline taxes.(Between The Lines)
August 9, 2004... ITEM: "After paying $2 for a gallon of gas, what's another 2 cents?" asked the Marion (Ohio) Star on June 29. "The state gasoline tax increases by 2 cents a gallon Thursday, part of a three-year plan to pump millions of dollars into road...

Kerry's Race-baiting.(Between The Lines)
August 9, 2004... ITEM: "Speaking to the African Methodist Episcopal Church world conference in Indianapolis" Democratic' presidential candidate John Kerry, "called for 'a new era of responsibility' that asks as much of government as it does of citizens.......

The Constitution: use it or lose it.(The Last Word)
August 9, 2004... Not being a devotee of late-night television, I had to be told by an acquaintance about a very insightful remark uttered by comedian Jay Leno. During the customary monologue at the start of his nightly show, Leno pointed to our nation's leaders...

Supporting our troops.(Letters To The Editor)(Letter to the Editor)
August 23, 2004... I thoroughly disagree with your position on supporting our troops, now that they're there and committed in Iraq, for the following reasons: * It runs completely counter to the mindlessness you're trying to overcome via education,...

Inflation.(Letters To The Editor)(Letter to the Editor)
August 23, 2004... Thank you so much for the article "Is Inflation Back?" (June 28 issue) by John F. McManus. Inflation is a "process," wrote John Maynard Keynes in 1920. "which not one man in a million is able to diagnose." Keynes also made us aware of the...

Use impeachment power.(Letters To The Editor)(Letter to the Editor)
August 23, 2004... Regarding the article "How to Protect Marriage" (August 9 issue), I've changed my mind about the limitation of the jurisdiction of the federal courts. If this procedure were to become common, Congress could attach a provision to any bill making...

Busy "lame-duck" session expected.
August 23, 2004... Congress left a cluttered legislative docket when it adjourned for summer vacation in late July. When they return for a brief pre-election session in September, congressmen will face more than a dozen appropriations bills, tax measures, and...

South Carolina rescinds its Con-Con Applications.(Insider Report)(Brief Article)
August 23, 2004... Effective July 16, South Carolina became the third state this year to erase its applications for a constitutional convention. (See "Virginia Withdraws Con-Con Application" in our April 5 issue and "Georgia Withdraws Con-Con Applications" in our...

Criminal t-shirts?(Kerry supporter in republican convention forced out)
August 23, 2004... Jayson Nelson, a construction worker who also serves as a supervisor in Wisconsin's Outagamie County, "was forced to leave President Bush's campaign rally [in Green Bay] because he was wearing a T-shirt endorsing Democrat John Kerry for...

"Free Speech" cage.(Democratic National Convention )(Brief Article)
August 23, 2004... Inside Boston's Fleet Center, Democrat Party delegates approved the 2004 party platform "in a hasty procedure and a largely empty Democratic National Convention hall," reported a July 27 AP dispatch. "Is there any discussion?" asked the...

IRS seeks expansion of telephone tax.(Internal Revenue Service)(Brief Article)
August 23, 2004... On July 2, the IRS published a public notice in the Federal Register announcing plans to expand the telephone tax "to reflect changes in technology." "Although the notice does not mention Net phone services, industry advocates warned it could...

Presidential pandering.(president Bush prescribes tax benefits for African Americans as allurement )
August 23, 2004... Not to be outdone by his opponent (see "Kerry's Race-baiting" in our August 9 issue), President Bush asked during his July 23 address to the National Urban League Conference in Detroit: "Does the Democrat Party take African American voters for...

Toward a cashless society.(Insider Report)(Brief Article)
August 23, 2004... In Looking Backward, his 1888 sci-fi novel-cum-utopian manifesto, socialist Edward Bellamy foretold the advent of "credit cards" and the advent of a cashless society by the year 2000. By the turn of the century, major strides had been taken in...

Bosnia: one-stop terrorist shop.(Brief Article)
August 23, 2004... "American military intelligence and the CIA have deployed hundreds of officers in Bosnia to track suspected Islamic militants amid concern that the country has become a refuge, recruiting ground and cash conduit for international terrorism,"...

UN, NATO permitted Kosovo rampage.(united nations)(North Atlantic Treaty Organization)
August 23, 2004... In Serbia's Kosovo province last March, 19 people were killed, 4,100 were left homeless, and at least 550 homes and 27 Orthodox Christian churches were set to the torch as a result of riots stoked by the terrorist Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA)....

Gun confiscation in Iraq.(Insider Report)(Brief Article)
August 23, 2004... As U.S. troops in Baghdad began to enforce a new "no-smoking" policy at hospitals, Army spokesman Capt. John Margolis explained to the press that the smoking ban was an example of freedom at work: "This is freedom and freedom can mean different...

Planting "lily pads" in the "gap".(American military deployment strategy)(Brief Article)
August 23, 2004... In his influential tome The Pentagon's New Map, Defense Department Futurist Thomas P.M. Barnett divides the globe between the "Functioning Core"--nations plugged into the emerging "global governance" network--and the "Non-integrating...

Getting the facts straight: a growing number of people have been led to believe that an airliner did not hit the Pentagon on 9/11. However, in this case the "official version" of events is irrefutable.(Fact vs. Fiction)(Cover Story)
August 23, 2004... Father Stephen McGraw had taken a wrong turn on his way to Arlington National Cemetery the morning of September 11, 2001. After taking the Pentagon exit onto Washington Boulevard, Fr. McGraw found himself mired in traffic, stewing impatiently...

Conspiracy realities: the Internet and talk radio abound with ridiculous rumors and falsehoods dealing with conspiracy. Yet, there are many examples of the real thing.(Fact vs. Fiction)(Cover Story)
August 23, 2004... According to New Age guru and spiritualist David Icke, our world is run by (and has been for thousands of years) a secret society of extra-terrestrial reptilians known as the Anunnaki. Mr. Icke, a former national spokesman for Britain's radical...

Forging bogus ties: the Bush administration committed our nation to war despite being informed by U.S. intelligence agencies that no working relationship existed between Iraq and al-Qaeda.(Iraq War)
August 23, 2004... "We've learned that Iraq has trained al-Qaeda members in bomb-making and poisons and deadly gases.... Iraq could decide on any given day to provide a biological or chemical weapon to a terrorist group or individual terrorists," President Bush...

National "indoctrination" association: year after year, one of our nation's most powerful labor unions continues to slip its leftist agenda past an ever-gullible public--and impressionable young students.(Education)
August 23, 2004... Over the weekend of July 4, the National Education Association (NEA) held its annual convention, called the Representative Assembly (RA). It received--not surprisingly--little news coverage. Given the ultra-radical agenda of the NEA, the media...

Mobile home hero.(John Shelby,an unlikely hero saves life by fighting with fire)(Brief Article)
August 23, 2004... On July 13, 2002, Daniel McConville of Dunsmuir, California, was in his mobile home when a fire ignited in the kitchen. Driving by at the time, John Shelby of Millville noticed smoke and stopped to investigate. Peering through a window and...

Crowning success.(about Miss Utah 2004, Amy Davis )(Brief Article)
August 23, 2004... On June 26 in Salt Lake City, Utah, Amy Davis of Bountiful was crowned Miss Utah 2004 and will go on to the Miss America Pageant in Atlantic City in September. Davis chose brain injury awareness as her platform topic, understandably, since...

Locks of love.(charitable group provides hair for the bald)
August 23, 2004... On June 21, the Seattle Times reported the plight of 11-year-old Dominic Bizak of Kent, Washington. Dominic endured 20 months of teasing (and occasionally being mistaken for a girl) after deciding to let his hair grow to a length suitable for...

Pool poise.(act of heroism by a 10 year old kid)(Brief Article)
August 23, 2004... Ten-year-old Shannette Grant of Coral Springs, Florida, was hailed as a hero in late May after the quick-thinking fourth-grader helped save a man from drowning in the swimming pool of the apartment complex where she lives. The youngster had...

Godly mountain man: like all fur trappers of the early 1800s, Jedediah Smith wore buckskin and carried a rifle. But, unlike many others, he also carried a Bible and exhibited a deep love for God.(History--Faith In Action)
August 23, 2004... In the early 1800s, it was commonly opined that "God stayed on his own side of the Missouri River." St. Louis was the last outpost of civilization, and west of that area was considered to be a wilderness of heathen savagery. This point was...

The apartment.(burglary cases)(Brief Article)
August 23, 2004... On the evening of May 15, Fitchburg, Massachusetts, city councilor Matthew Straight and friend Darren Bessette heard loud banging noises coming from an apartment on the third floor of a three-unit apartment building owned by Straight's sister....

Viper's nest.(two girls survive deadly vipers on a hillside in Montana)(Brief Article)
August 23, 2004... On July 6, two Loveland, Colorado, girls on vacation in Montana climbed a hillside in the Paradise Valley area of Livingston to improve cell phone reception so they could call friends. "We were just going up for a hike, and my dog sniffed out a...

Teamwork.(bank robber nabbed in Maryland)(Brief Article)
August 23, 2004... On July 1 at a bank in Eldersburg, Maryland, off-duty Baltimore County police officer Hugh Engle was conducting personal business when a teller noticed that a man wearing a mask and carrying a bag had entered the bank. Alerted by the teller,...

Wrong victim.(robbery prevented)(Brief Article)
August 23, 2004... At around 3 p.m. on June 29, a retired Orange County, California, sheriff's deputy (whose name was withheld for his protection) and his wife were in the parking lot of an Anaheim shopping center when an armed man approached. The experienced...

Stop sign.(would be carjacker dies of gunshot and crash)(Brief Article)
August 23, 2004... At about 4 .m. on June 20, Brian Dean was filling tip at a gas station in DeKalb County, Georgia, when he was approached and threatened with a gun by would be carjacker Banarrek Von Clayton. Rather than meekly submit, Dean pulled a gun of his...

Hard lesson.(teenaged intruder nabbed)(Brief Article)
August 23, 2004... Lisa Hansen Jives near the oily limits of Spokane, Washington. When she awoke on the morning of July 8, she heard someone rummaging through her house. After the intruder tried, unsuccessfully, to open her locked bedroom door, she grabbed her...

Behind the smoke screen.(Between The Lines)
August 23, 2004... ITEM: The San Jose Mercury News for July 19 editorialized that a compromise tobacco bill on Capitol Hill was probably the best legislation capable of passage. "So a deal in the Senate that is a hold-your-nose compromise for foes of smoking--and...

An appetite for power.(Between The Lines)
August 23, 2004... ITEM: The Los Angeles Times for July 16 reported: "Federal officials... announced a new policy on obesity that could make weight-loss treatments eligible for Medicare coverage. 'Obesity is a critical public health problem in our country that...

Welcome back, McCotter.(Lane McCotter)
August 23, 2004... Defying repeated orders from his guards, the inmate--a mentally ill 29-year-old man--refused to remove the pillowcase he'd placed on his head. As punishment he was strapped, naked, to a metal restraining chair for 16 hours. Scores of other...