The New American articles from August 2007

The New American archives from August 2007

Nuclear energy set to takeoff.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the editor)
August 6, 2007... As a supervisor working at a U.S. nuclear plant, I read your articles on nuclear power plants in THE NEW AMERICAN April 30 issue with great interest. While the articles have some good information, they seem to be somewhat dated in two aspects....

Helping to cure the "anti-nuke virus.".(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the editor)
August 6, 2007... Your April 30 article "Another Look at Nuclear Energy" was right on the money. An article like this goes a long way toward ending the nuclear hysteria caused by the mass brainwashing that was done to our young people through our government...

The obscurity of the obvious.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the editor)
August 6, 2007... In your "Correction Please!" column in the April 2 issue, you talk about the federal government compelling employers to provide various benefits--namely paid sick days--to their employees. The Constitution is still the supreme law of the...

Senate holds hearings on Border Agents Ramos and Compean.(INSIDE TRACK)
August 6, 2007... "As we meet today, two veteran border patrol agents languish in their 180th day of solitary confinement," said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.). "These men for five and ten years, respectively, put their lives at risk doing what is arguably one...

Repackaging North Korea.(INSIDE TRACK)(Brief article)
August 6, 2007... The U.S. government has long officially designated North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism. North Korea is also one of only three regimes George W. Bush had specifically referred to as being part of an "axis of evil" in his State of the...

Immigration amnesty: it's not over until it's over.(INSIDE TRACK)
August 6, 2007... "I think the immigration issue is off the front burner. I lost, the other side won, it is over." That was Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in an interview with ThePolitico.com on July 16. McCain has been the leading Republican in the Senate pushing...

Punishing people who have a viewpoint.(INSIDE TRACK)(Roman-Catholic Bishop Andre-Mutien Leonard)(Brief article)
August 6, 2007... The Roman-Catholic bishop of Namur, Andre-Mutien Leonard, has been charged under Belgium's Anti-discrimination Act--which is similar to many U.S. hate-crimes laws--for supposedly calling homosexuals "abnormal." Bishop Leonard, in a press...

Global Warming Swindle filmmaker responds to critics.(INSIDE TRACK)(Martin Durkin )(Brief article)
August 6, 2007... British documentary filmmaker Martin Durkin has taken his share of heat for producing a film, entitled The Great Global Warming Swindle, that calls into question the conventional wisdom on global warming. Aired first on British television, the...

The FBI's department of precrime.(INSIDE TRACK)(precognition of crime)
August 6, 2007... In the short story Minority Report, the late science fiction master Philip K. Dick described a future police division called "Precrime" that sought to discover and arrest criminals before they committed an actual crime. Dick's Precrime unit...

Freedom loses a champion.(INSIDE TRACK)(Hans F. Sennholz)(Obituary)
August 6, 2007... On June 23, Hans F. Sennholz, one of the most important free-market economists of the last 50 years, passed away. Given the time and place of his birth and early life, it seems that Sennholz was destined to become a dedicated supporter of...

Troop "withdrawal" measure faulty.(INSIDE TRACK)(American troops in Iraq)
August 6, 2007... There is no question that the Senate debate on whether or not to withdraw our troops from Iraq has been contentious. It is not every day, of course, when senators argue an issue in an around-the-clock session, as occurred on July 17-18, prior...

Republican senators seek new war authorization.(QuickQuotes)(Brief article)
August 6, 2007... "Many of the conditions and motivations that existed when we authorized force almost five years ago no longer exist or are irrelevant to our current situation." On July 13, Senator Richard Lugar (R-Ind., quoted above), along with Senator...

Sen. Elizabeth Dole calls for Iraq withdrawal.(QuickQuotes)(Brief article)
August 6, 2007... "Simply put, our troops have been doing a great job, but the Iraqi government has not. Our commitment in Iraq is not indefinite, nor should the Iraqi government perceive it to be. It is my firm hope and belief that we can start bringing our...

350-year-old fishing industry is threatened by excessive government.(QuickQuotes)(Brief article)
August 6, 2007... "There is no next generation. These limits are killing off a way of life that has been in our families for centuries, but now our children can see the government won't let us make a living, so it all ends here." Brad Loewen, a fisherman on...

He's a congressman, but he's also a pro-life medical doctor.(QuickQuotes)(Ron Paul)(Brief article)
August 6, 2007... "Under our law now, I can get paid for killing a child a minute before its birth, and go to prison for doing it a minute after its birth." GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul (R-Texas)points to the bitter irony of current U.S. abortion law...

Where there's a will, there's a way.(QuickQuotes)(Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff)(Brief article)
August 6, 2007... "We don't really have the ability to enforce the law with respect to illegal work in this country in a way that's truly effective." Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff blamed illegal immigration on Congress for its failure to...

The late great USA: a warning.(QuickQuotes)(book)(Brief article)
August 6, 2007... "A North American Union would not just be the end of America as we know it, but the beginning of an EU-like nightmare--a bureaucratic coup d'etat foisted upon millions of Americans without their knowledge or consent." Jerome Corsi, in his...

Supreme common sense.(QuickQuotes)(Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr.)(Brief article)
August 6, 2007... "The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race." In explaining the Supreme Court's June 28, 5-4 decision to require public schools to ignore race, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr....

Rethinking green: there are legitimate environmental problems. These problems do not measure up to the end-of-the-world scary scenarios we hear so much about with global warming, but they are real, immediate problems that need attention.(ENVIRONMENT)(Cover story)
August 6, 2007... They don't get public attention like the Grand Canyon. Unlike Yosemite, their vistas are not depicted in the ethereal black and white of photographs by Ansel Adams. Unlike Yellowstone, they aren't in a vast national park. Despite this, they...

Nurturing nature: federal agencies' track records show that the best way to conserve our natural resources and protect the environment is to deal with problems at the local and state levels.(Environmental Protection Agency)(Cover story)
August 6, 2007... Air pollution. Water pollution. Soil pollution. Noise pollution. Pesticides. Toxins. Chemical residues. Thankfully, we have the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to protect us against these dangers. Right? Without the EPA regulators...

The specter of inflation: entitlement programs have created huge debts, and one Federal Reserve official thinks that the government's answer to the problem could send the economy into a tailspin.(ECONOMY)
August 6, 2007... At a conference on April 16, Richard Fisher, president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, warned that the U.S. economy could be facing trouble in the future. "According to official government reports," cautioned...

Remembering victims with honor: two memorials--one in Lithuania and one in the United States--bear witness to the victims of communist atrocities, but the honor shown in Lithuania seems more sincere.(EUROPE)
August 6, 2007... The Vilnius TV Tower is an imposing structure. At more than 1,000 feet tall, it is the tallest building in Lithuania and the one reference point one can see from any place in Vilnius, the capital city. Like Seattle's Space Needle (but 400 feet...

Has the court moved right? The mainstream media are quick to proclaim that the Supreme Court is moving radically to the right, but a closer look reveals that the court has quite a way to go before it can be considered truly conservative.(George Detweiler)
August 6, 2007... On July 11, shortly after submitting this article, Mr. George Detweiler unexpectedly passed away at his home in Twin Falls, Idaho. George was a great friend and patriot who, in addition to writing articles for THE NEW AMERICAN in defense of...

Michigan girl saves siblings.(THE GOODNESS OF AMERICA)(Nicole Gorski)(Brief article)
August 6, 2007... Nicole Gorski, who is 16, was home with her younger brothers, six-year-old Ryan and four-year-old Andrew, in Chesterfield Township, Michigan, on March 28. Nicole's mother had left her in charge while she was at work. It was a chilly day,...

New Hampshire police officer honored for rescue.(THE GOODNESS OF AMERICA)(Brief article)
August 6, 2007... Last November 16, Justin Contreras, 18, of Nashua, New Hampshire, was driving west on Route 111 with passengers Joseph Hall, 18, of Nashua, and Cassie Tallant, 15, of Hudson, when his car crossed over the highway's centerline and struck a...

Students helping students.(THE GOODNESS OF AMERICA)(Brief article)
August 6, 2007... A group of eighth-graders in a life-skills class at George Washington Middle School in Wayne, New Jersey, volunteered to devote recess time to work with autistic students during the last school term. The dozen or so volunteers, who are...

Maintenance taken to a higher level.(Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s David Speheger )(Brief article)
August 6, 2007... Around 2 a.m. on May 23, David Speheger was on duty as maintenance supervisor at a Wal-Mart in Bluffton, Indiana, when a woman ran into the store screaming that her boyfriend had been badly injured. Speheger's coworkers called 911, and he ran...

The old Wagoner: Daniel Morgan, a rugged frontiersman who earned the nickname "the Old Wagoner" while working as a teamster, helped turn the tide in America's War for Independence.(HISTORY-STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM)(Biography)
August 6, 2007... The haughty young British officer unsheathed his sword with one practiced, fluid motion and swung the flat against the face of the huge, powerfully built young man standing in front of him with his fists dug into his hips. The officer had...

Michael Moore's sick prescription.(Correction, Please!)(health care systems)
August 6, 2007... ITEM: Clarence Page, in his syndicated column in the Dallas Morning News on July 2, praises Michael Moore's movie Sicko, which indicts healthcare in the United States and promotes universal healthcare systems found in other countries--blaming...

Despotic duo.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(assault and robbery incident)(Brief article)
August 6, 2007... Two 20-year-olds, Luke Irons and his girlfriend Chrisanthe Apergis, decided to rob elderly victims. They picked the elderly so that they could safely commit strong-arm robbery. The couple began their predations on Saturday, March 10 at...

Award winning.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(Maurice Henderson)(Brief article)
August 6, 2007... Forty-four-year-old Maurice Henderson was given an online "Darwin Award"--an award given to people who display such idiotic behavior that they end up getting killed, removing themselves from the gene pool--after he was shot and killed while...

Euthanized dogs.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(pit bulls)(Brief article)
August 6, 2007... On October 8, 2006 at about 2:30 a.m., Norman Borden and a friend were walking Borden's four pit bulls near West Palm Beach, Florida, when 20-year-old Juan Mendez and 19-year-old Christopher Araujo began a verbal altercation with Borden. The...

A side note.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(robbery incident)(Brief article)
August 6, 2007... Chris Chappel entered a Wachovia Bank in Bessemer, Alabama, at about 9 a.m. on May 14--into the midst of a lethal armed robbery. The robber, William Merriweather, Jr., walked into the bank, demanded money, and almost immediately began firing at...

Listen to Vladimir Bukovsky.(THE LAST WORD)
August 6, 2007... After enduring 12 years in the prisons, labor camps, and psychiatric institutions of the former Soviet Union, Vladimir Bukovsky was expelled to the West in 1976. Settling in England, he launched his decades-long criticism of Soviet rule. More...

No just war.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)
August 20, 2007... I take exception to Ray Miller of Rio Frio, Texas, in his letter to the editor regarding the "just war" with Iraq (May 14, 2007 issue). Though I am not completely satisfied with your magazine's view on this matter, I do take exception to Mr....

Program to identify illegals.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(illegal immigrants)(Brief article)
August 20, 2007... Regarding the article "Oklahoma Takes a Stand on Illegal Immigration," in the May 14 issue, all employers, including government agencies, can use the free, federal, online Basic Pilot Program to verify the eligibility of persons to work in this...

Corrections.(Correction notice)
August 20, 2007... CORRECTIONS: In "Warrior and Gentleman's Gentleman" in our July 23 issue, we mistakenly published a photo of General Winfield Scott Hancock intending to show General Winfield Scott. In the same article, we inadvertently stated that Robert E....

U.S. nuclear energy use set to expand.(Inside Track)
August 20, 2007... No new nuclear power plant has been licensed in the United States in the last 30 years, but, quietly, that is set to change according to Government Executive.com. In a piece on the challenges facing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC),...

Westinghouse transferring nuclear technology to China.(Inside Track)(Westinghouse Electric Company LLC)(Brief article)
August 20, 2007... Westinghouse signed deals in Beijing on July 24 to build four nuclear plants in China and to transfer the actual technology so that China can develop its own nuclear industry. China now has 11 operating nuclear power plants, but the technology...

Internationalist journal sees the public turn against globalization.(Inside Track)(Foreign Affairs)(Brief article)
August 20, 2007... Something extraordinary has happened in the rarefied world of the influential Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). Foreign Affairs, a CFR journal, recently published a very revealing article, "A New Deal for Globalization," in its July/August...

Where's the Fence? (Build it and they won't come).(Inside Track)(Mexico border)
August 20, 2007... Last year, responding to pressure from angry constituents over our continued open border with Mexico, Congress okayed funding for constructing hundreds of miles of fence along the border. The Bush administration, however, has dawdled and...

Another border patrol agent who was prosecuted for doing his job.(Inside Track)(Robert Rhodes)(Brief article)
August 20, 2007... Another case has recently come to light involving the malicious prosecution of a Customs and Border Patrol agent with eerie parallels to the Compean and Ramos case. Former Border Patrol officer Robert Rhodes is suing the U.S. Department of...

Tackling illegal immigration on their own.(Inside Track)(Georgia)(Brief article)
August 20, 2007... When Congress failed to act, frustrated communities and states tackled the immigration issue themselves. While the Senate was still deadlocked in debate over its latest immigration legislation, Georgia had already pushed through legislation of...

In an important vote, the House voted to limit SPP funding.(Inside Track)(United States Congress, Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America)(Brief article)
August 20, 2007... There's been a growing buzz this year over the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) of North America and how it's being used as a steppingstone to a North American Union (NAU). As reported in previous issues of THE NEW AMERICAN, 18 state...

Chipping people.(Inside Track)(radio frequency identification tags)(Brief article)
August 20, 2007... Last month the Associated Press reported that two employees of "CityWatcher.com, a provider of surveillance equipment,... had glass-encapsulated microchips with miniature antennas embedded in their forearms" to protect secure data. Company...

Hazelton Mayor will appeal all the way to the supreme court.(Quick Quotes)(Louis J. Barletta)(Brief article)
August 20, 2007... "I will not sit back because the federal government has refused to do its job." After a single federal judge declared unconstitutional the city's ordinances barring illegal immigrants from working or renting homes in his community,...

Agriculture Department sends over one billion dollars to dead farmers.(Quick Quotes)(Iowa Senator Charles Grassley)(Brief article)
August 20, 2007... "It's unconscionable that the Department of Agriculture would think a dead person was actively engaged in the business of farming." More than 170,000 deceased persons received farm subsidies over the past seven years, a revelation that...

Obama applauds federal court's Hazelton decision after dignifying La Raza.(Quick Quotes)(Barack Obama)(Brief article)
August 20, 2007... "The anti-immigrant law passed by Mayor Barletta was unconstitutional and unworkable--and it underscores the need for comprehensive immigration reform so local communities do not continue to take matters into their own hands." Presidential...

Fred Thompson is another CFR member who misappropriates the "conservative" label.(Quick Quotes)(Council on Foreign Relations)(Brief article)
August 20, 2007... "There are several conservatives over the years who have been members of the Council on Foreign Relations. I try to learn as much as I can from all viewpoints." Former Senator Fred Thompson defended his membership in the globalist-minded...

Cost of Iraq War soaring.(Quick Quotes)(Laurence M. Vance on war spending)(Brief article)
August 20, 2007... "What has cost the U.S. taxpayers almost half a trillion dollars, and now costs $275 million every day, $11 million each hour? If you answered, 'The war in Iraq,' you are right. What was supposed to be a cakewalk costing about $50 billion has...

Republicans are backing away from Bush & want a new approach in Iraq.(Quick Quotes)(Brief article)
August 20, 2007... "Settling Sunni-Shiite rivalries over who occupies what street in Baghdad is not in the vital interests of the United States." New Mexico's Heather Wilson is among a growing number of Republican congressmen who are asking President Bush to...

Honor roll of history's quotable quotes.(Quick Quotes)(Brief article)
August 20, 2007... "So long as our numbers were not large and we did not differ in any important respects from our neighbors, our system of government worked well.... But ever since we ventured beyond our native soil, crossed the water, set foot on many islands...

The new Chinese take-out: with Chinese imports increasingly made up of foodstuffs, vitamins, and medicine that are proving to be dangerous, America needs to take stock of the situation.
August 20, 2007... Lucia Cruz, a 74-year-old Panamanian grandmother, and at least 365 of her countrymen died last year from ingesting tainted medicine. Somehow a deadly chemical had found its way into cough syrup produced in a government laboratory. What...

Trans Texas Corridor road race: Texans have persuaded their lawmakers to pass legislation hobbling the Trans Texas Corridor, and they are racing to build more support before the next legislative session.(NAFTA SUPERHIGHWAY)
August 20, 2007... Current reports about the Texas Department of Transportation's response to a mandated construction moratorium on the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC) are alarming and confusing. But this is sure: the Texas Department of Transportation isn't going...

The "hydrogen economy": many environmentalists are pushing hydrogen fuel as an energy source because of hydrogen's abundance. But though hydrogen is abundant, it is also mainly impractical.(ENERGY)
August 20, 2007... Water, water, every where, And all the boards did shrink; Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink.--Samuel Taylor Coleridge The Rime of the Ancient Mariner The "hydrogen economy" is a Green dream. Environmentalists looking for...

From Rhodesia to Zimbabwe: political elites from the United States and Britain were instrumental in installing dictator Robert Mugabe as the head of Rhodesia's government, resulting in appalling blow back.(AFRICA)
August 20, 2007... At the inaugural ceremony, Prime Minister Mugabe's call for reconciliation between blacks and whites came as a welcome surprise to those who had for years dismissed him as "a Marxist-terrorist trying to gain power through the barrel of a gun."...

Saving babies, one at a time: pro-life pregnancy resource centers across this country are using the latest technology in the struggle to save babies.(CULTURE WAR)
August 20, 2007... An unmarried couple in their late teens received a "positive" result on an over-the-counter pregnancy test. Feeling overwhelmed and frightened about the future, instead of seeking counsel from family members or friends, they called a local...

Neighbors rescue fire victims.(THE GOODNESS OF AMERICA)(Jesse Rodriguez and Hector Bulido)(Brief article)
August 20, 2007... On the morning of June 21, Marcus and Rita Benavidez of Houston, Texas, were in their small, single-room apartment made from a converted garage when a fire quickly broke out. The couple was trapped by the smoke and flames. Fortunately, a...

Overwhelmed by kindness.(THE GOODNESS OF AMERICA)(Jeff Bodenschatz)
August 20, 2007... When Jeff Bodenschatz was diagnosed with cancer five years ago, the Lake Township, Ohio, resident was determined to live as normal a life as possible. Mr. Bodenschatz, who is married and the father of three boys, continued his job with an...

Survey measures goodness in America.(THE GOODNESS OF AMERICA)(Gimundo.com)(Brief article)
August 20, 2007... During the month of June Gimundo, an online "good news" newsletter, conducted a survey to determine how often Americans were recipients of good deeds. Forty-one percent of respondents reported that they were given comfort in a time of...

Dauntless high flyer: Charles Lindbergh campaigned to keep the United States out of war as leader of the America First Committee, then placed himself in harm's way when we did go to war.(HISTORY--STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM)
August 20, 2007... Four years ago, Canadian immigrant and neoconservative scribe David Frum, who coined the term "Axis of Evil" as a speechwriter for President George W. Bush, accused conservatives who opposed the Iraq War of disloyalty to the United States. His...

Credibility.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(robbery incident in Youngstown, Ohio)
August 20, 2007... After a June 11 altercation in a Youngstown, Ohio, home left the homeowner with stab wounds and an alleged intruder with a gunshot wound, police indicated that the homeowner and the alleged intruder gave very different accounts of the events....

It's the pits.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(pit bull attack)
August 20, 2007... At about 7:45 a.m. on June 22, Payton Newell, a 12-year-old girl from Roswell, Georgia, was walking her family's pit bull when it broke away from her and attacked a 69-year-old woman named Lan Khanh Trinh. The dog knocked Trinh down and...

Don't hate the messenger.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(gun violence incident)(Brief article)
August 20, 2007... It's easy to generate revulsion, disdain, and even hate for people associated with unpleasant incidents in life, but one man, Douglas Greenwich, learned the hard way not to let loathing guide his actions. At about 4:30 p.m. on June 20,...

Does the second amendment apply to D.C.?(Correction, Please!)(gun control law)
August 20, 2007... ITEM: "Plagued by high homicide rates," said the Associated Press on July 16, "officials in the U.S. capital said Monday they will petition the Supreme Court as they seek to defend Washington's 30-year-old ban on most handguns." The...

Slouching inspectors, hidden dragon.(THE LAST WORD)(chinese commodities)
August 20, 2007... In less than a decade, China has captured 90 percent of the U.S. market for vitamin C, driving almost everyone else out of business. Chinese pharmaceutical companies also have taken over much of the world market.... According to an industry,...