The New American articles from December 2006

The New American archives from December 2006

Sovereignty-destroying agenda.(Letter to the editor)
December 11, 2006... On the subject of the article by Dennis Behreandt in the October 2 issue, "Creating the North American Union," CNN commentator Lou Dobbs is quoted as saying that the Bush administration's open-borders policy and its decision to ignore the...

PNAC's plans.(Letter to the editor)
December 11, 2006... John F. McManus' article "Debunking Bush's Reason for War" in the October 16 issue was right on, except for a very important part that he left out about PNAC (The Project for The New American Century) and their September 2000 document...

Unconstitutional delegation of authority.(Letter to the editor)
December 11, 2006... In "Idaho's Elk Ranch Tragedy," (THE NEW AMERICAN, November 13), the new Governor Risch, in classical tyrannical fashion, ordered the destruction of private property--Rammell's elk--said elk having to date no sign of disease whatsoever and...

Poisoned KGB defector exposed Russia's backing of al-Qaeda.(Inside Track)(Alexander Litvinenko)(Brief article)
December 11, 2006... Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko is in critical condition at London's University College Hospital, where he is under police protection. Scotland Yard is investigating the case as a suspected "deliberate poisoning." The BBC reported on...

New line of litigation?(Inside Track)(Brief article)
December 11, 2006... Schools across the nation have banned see-saws; handstands; "chasing games," such as touch football and tag; dodgeball; monkey bars; slides; and swings. The cause behind the bans is litigation--the fear of being sued. As a result, countless...

Bush backs APEC.(Inside Track)(Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation)(Brief article)
December 11, 2006... On his way to attend the 18th annual Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum in Vietnam, President Bush acknowledged in Singapore on November 16: "Recently, some APEC members have advanced the idea of a free trade agreement for the...

Standing by their statistics.(Inside Track)
December 11, 2006... A November 15 article in the Los Angeles Times reported on a Rand Corporation study claiming that "healthcare for illegal immigrants between the ages of 18 and 64 cost American taxpayers $1.1 billion in 2000--or about $11 per household."...

Did the White House throw the elections?(Inside Track)
December 11, 2006... Weeks before the mid-term election, it was becoming obvious that Republicans were in danger of losing control of both houses of Congress, and that the war in Iraq was the leading cause of voter disaffection. President Bush repeatedly stated...

Sandinista leader Ortega wins election, asks IMF for aid.(Inside Track)
December 11, 2006... Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega, who presided over Nicaragua's bloody communist dictatorship in the 1980s, is back as president-elect, scheduled to take over the reins of government in January. Ortega won the country's November 5 presidential...

EU pushes for Internet control.(European Union)(Brief article)
December 11, 2006... The cornerstone of the European Union's audiovisual policy is the "Television Without Frontiers" directive. Initiated in 1989, it is subject to amendment and involves various phases. It was updated in 1997 and is due for updating again in 2006....

Milton Friedman, RIP.(Obituary)(Brief article)
December 11, 2006... Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman died on November 16. A giant in his field who wielded enormous influence, his name will likely be mentioned alongside Adam Smith, Ludwig von Mises, Murray Rothbard, and F.A. Hayek. Like them,...

Illinois Congressman alters plans after democratic victories.(QuickQuotes)(Jesse Jackson)(Brief article)
December 11, 2006... "I am excited, eager and downright giddy about the prospects in Washington." Once considering a run for mayor of Chicago, Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. has decided to stay at his post in Washington.

GOP-favoring newspaper slams GOP.(Republican Party, UnionLeader )(Brief article)
December 11, 2006... "Republican leaders forgot that their party wins when it stands for limited government competently administered. It loses when it stands for anything less. This year it stood for just about everything else." The post-election Manchester (N.H.)...

He succeeded in taking conservatives away from their roots.(QuickQuotes)(Brief article)
December 11, 2006... "The conservative movement is in a sense inanimate compared to 20 or 30 years ago." It was William F. Buckley, Jr. who steered conservatives into the socialism and internationalism of neo-conservatism, and it is Buckley who now poses as...

Dramatic rise in pork-barrel spending (now called earmarking).(Brief article)
December 11, 2006... "In 1994 there were 1,500 such projects stuffed into Democratic spending bills, and Republicans called this a fiscal disgrace. This year Republicans approved closer to 15,000 earmarks at a cost of more than $10 billion." Explaining that...

Federal obstruction causes natural gas shortage.(QuickQuotes)(Brief article)
December 11, 2006... "The natural gas crisis is self-inflicted, caused by 25-year-old policies that drive up demand while restricting access to American energy supplies. We are the only industrialized nation that puts our energy supplies off-limits in the this...

Angry parent targets school deficiencies, fights back.(QuickQuotes)(Brief article)
December 11, 2006... "When my oldest child, an A+ stellar student, was in sixth grade, I realized he had no idea at all how to do long division. So I went to school and talked to the teacher who said, 'We don't teach long division; it stifles their creativity.'"...

No shortage whatsoever of energy supplies.(QuickQuotes)(Brief article)
December 11, 2006... "The Outer Continental Shelf has enough natural gas to heat 100 million homes for 60 years, and enough oil to drive 85 million cars for 35 years." A report from the Consumer Alliance for Energy Security mentioned only this one repository...

He doesn't expect much from democrats.(QuickQuotes)(Brief article)
December 11, 2006... "Well, now it's the Dems' turn to have Iraq blow up in their face. They can't fix it. They can't fix anything. They can't even shut Kerry up." Comedian Stephen Colbert sounded off after the November 7 election results became known.

China's new fortune: China seems to be rewriting the laws of economics--a totalitarian country with strict government controls that is out-producing capitalist countries--but really it's no miracle.(CHINA TRADE)(Cover story)
December 11, 2006... The view from the Gerald Desmond Bridge is breathtaking. Maybe not as breathtaking in the scenic sense as, say, the views from the rim of the Grand Canyon, Yosemite's El Capitan, or San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. But breathtaking in the...

Has China really gone capitalist? America's academic business, and government elites insist that China is changing, but the evidence shows that China's communist leadership remains in total control.(CHINA TRADE)
December 11, 2006... "Despite the ruling party's name, China is no longer a communist country." So declares Scott Kennedy, assistant professor of East Asian languages and professor of political science at the Indiana University Bloomington campus. Prof. Kennedy's...

Lifeblood from the ocean floor: the lame-duck Congress has the opportunity to tackle U.S. dependence on foreign oil and save hundreds of billions of dollars and millions of jobs with a deep-ocean drilling bill.(ENERGY)
December 11, 2006... Energy dependence has always been an Achilles' heel for Fidel Castro's decrepit communist regime. From 1959 to 1991, Castro relied on his Soviet sponsors for subsidized oil supplies. More recently, he has been forced to turn to Comrade Hugo...

X-RAY analysis foreign aid: foreign aid is usually given only a skin-deep examination by the citizens who pay for it. Now peer into the guts of the system to see what you're paying for.(GLOBAL TAXATION)
December 11, 2006... "If something sounds too good to be true, then it probably is!" This bit of motherly wisdom--used to avoid being defrauded by the unscrupulous--has many, many applications, not the least of which is to stop conniving, or completely uninformed,...

Con-con agenda out in the open: single-issue constitutional conventions have been repeatedly proposed as the answer to solve federal failings. Now convention proponents are issuing calls for wholesale remaking of the Constitution.(CONSTITUTION CORNER)
December 11, 2006... The United States has not had a constitutional convention since 1787, when the Founding Fathers decided to replace the Articles of Confederation, the then-existing constitution, with the Constitution we have today. In the past 219 years, our...

Stalking the beast: with The Beast on the East River, author Nathan Tabor unmasks the United Nations, its criminal behavior, and its globalist designs.(Book review)
December 11, 2006... The Beast on the East River, by Nathan Tabor, Nashville, Tennessee: Nelson Current, 2006, 261 pages, hardcover, $24.99. Order from American Opinion Book Services by calling 1-800-342-6491 or online at www.aobs-store.com. For most...

Andrew Johnson, unreconstructed: President Andrew Johnson steadfastly upheld the Constitution and the rule of law as he opposed those who sought to rule the defeated Confederate states with an iron fist.(HISTORY--STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM)
December 11, 2006... Win or lose, successful in worldly terms or not, American heroes have stood for constitutional principles advocated by our Founding Fathers in every social and political battle since our nation's birth. But if such men and women still appear in...

Community supports wounded airman.(THE GOODNESS OF AMERICA)(Brandon Byers )(Brief article)
December 11, 2006... Air Force Airman First Class Brandon Byers was wounded in Iraq on October 16 when his patrol unit was hit with an improvised explosive device. Byers was immediately airlifted to a military trauma center in Kuwait, where he underwent emergency...

Sewing for charity at 95.(Frances Ratke)(Brief article)
December 11, 2006... Frances Ratke of Elgin, Illinois, celebrated her 95th birthday in October, but she is still busy using her talents to help those less fortunate than herself. Most days, Ratke crochets and hand sews toy animals, such as dogs, monkeys, mice, and...

Neighbors help neighbors.(THE GOODNESS OF AMERICA)(Brief article)
December 11, 2006... Vincent Altamuro is a resident of Holiday City Carefree in Berkeley Township, New Jersey, which bills itself as "an active young senior community." When the retired college professor, who did his doctoral work in engineering at New York...

Student makes "good choice".(THE GOODNESS OF AMERICA)(Brief article)
December 11, 2006... Michael Kochinsky started the fourth grade at Tamarac Elementary School in Tamarac, Florida, earlier this year. When walking down a hallway with a friend one day, Michael spotted a plastic bag with money in it on the floor. Resisting the...

Dangerous object.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(guns for security)(Brief article)
December 11, 2006... Harold Murphy, a 73-year-old ex-Navy man from Orlando, Florida, heard his doorbell ring, followed by knocking, on October 26. He expected those at the door to try breaking in, and so he got ready. In relating his story to WFTV.com, he said, "I...

Timing is everything.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(guns for security)(Brief article)
December 11, 2006... A caretaker for a piece of property in Vallejo, California, William Paul, arrived at the property with his friend Roger on October 27. As they pulled up, a young woman got out of a parked SUV and began screaming for help. Paul grabbed a shotgun...

And baby makes three.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(guns for security)(Brief article)
December 11, 2006... Grandma Janis Butler had her hands full at work on October 30: she was pressing clothes at Paulos Cleaners in Augusta, Georgia, while simultaneously holding and trying to calm "her 13-month-old grandbaby," reported WRDW.com. That's when a...

Keeping your cool.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(monitoring career criminals)(Brief article)
December 11, 2006... The house was near a busy street in Reno, Nevada; the dog was barking loudly; it was the middle of the day. Jeffrey Johannessen got up from a nap and saw a man, later identified as career-felon Ernest Carpenter, prying at a window, unfazed by...

Wrong way to get a piece of the pie.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(guns for security)(Brief article)
December 11, 2006... An unidentified woman and a man identified only as Michael left Mama Gina's Restaurant in Albany, Georgia, on September 13. In a back parking lot, they were accosted by two armed men. A bystander, identified only as Marcus, saw the robbery,...

How to hurt the poor.(Correction, Please!)(minimum wage)
December 11, 2006... ITEM: In its post-election coverage, the Washington Post for November 9 reported." "Democrats wasted no time yesterday proclaiming a new era in Washington, pledging to put middle-class economic issues at the top of their agenda." For example,...

New rascals for old.(Democratic Party)
December 11, 2006... When the new Democrat-controlled House and Senate convene in January, will the American people get the change in direction they voted for? And if they do get a change, will it be the kind of change they want? Though the election outcome...

Perfect case for the ICC.(Letter to the editor)
December 25, 2006... The International Criminal Court (Insider Report, October 16) is looking for the perfect case. The perfect case would be the one that would convince the American public that the United States should join the ICC. We are actually one of a...

We get a highway instead of a fence.(Letter to the editor)
December 25, 2006... To facilitate the invasion of the United States by illegal aliens and the massive importation of Chinese imports, President Bush is intent on building a NAFTA superhighway from Mexico to Canada with links to the East and West Coasts of the...

Newt Gingrich tries to scare Americans silent.(Inside Track)(Brief article)
December 25, 2006... Newt Gingrich, the man who gave us NAFTA, now proposes to turn the United States into a police state. In a speech at a banquet convened to honor those who stand up for free speech and the First Amendment, Gingrich, who is mulling a run for the...

The new Fascism.(Inside Track)
December 25, 2006... In a ruling in April, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld rules that will require privately owned companies, when involved in federal litigation, to produce "electronically stored information" as part of the discovery process, when evidence is shared...

Bush-Putin pact paves way for Russia's membership in WTO.(Inside Track)(George Bush - Vladimir Putin)(Brief article)
December 25, 2006... U.S. investment in Russia is on the rise and can be expected to increase, thanks to an agreement signed last month in Hanoi, Vietnam, by President George Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Bush, in Hanoi for the Asia-Pacific Economic...

Soros urges "step by step" implementation of EU Constitution.(George Sorts)(Brief article)
December 25, 2006... Acknowledging that many Europeans have become wary of the proposed EU Constitution and its aim to confirm the destruction of sovereignty for their countries, billionaire George Sorts told the European Policy Center in Brussels that efforts to...

Fewer hurricanes than expected in 2006.(Inside Track)(Brief article)
December 25, 2006... With global warming on the rampage, 2006 was supposed to be another year of brutal, killer hurricanes. As 2006 got started, the popular and usually sober weather forecasting service Accu-Weather predicted 15 to 17 named storms and said that the...

Swearing his oath on the Koran: first Muslim elected to Congress.(Inside Track)(Brief article)
December 25, 2006... Keith Ellison (aka Keith Hakim, Keith X Ellison, Keith Ellison-Muhammed) is the first Muslim to be elected to the U.S. Congress. Controversy has now erupted over whether he will be sworn into office with his hand upon the Koran, the holy book...

American farmers move to Brazil.(Inside Track)
December 25, 2006... Though the United States has a rich agricultural and rural heritage, few people these days dream of becoming farmers. The cost of good farmland is prohibitively expensive and the return on the investment of labor and capital in farming...

Litvinenko murder: UK police trying to investigate in Russia.(Inside Track)(Alexander Litvinenko)(Brief article)
December 25, 2006... British police investigators from Scotland Yard have been in Russia attempting to interview witnesses and suspects in the case of Alexander Litvinenko, who died in a British hospital on November 23 from radiation poisoning caused by polonium...

Comedian aims a barb at California's governor.(QuickQuotes)(Brief article)
December 25, 2006... "After winning reelection, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger made a quick visit to Mexico [to] thank everybody who voted for him." The inference by Conan O'Brien that Mexicans voted for Schwarzenegger was offered as a joke, but...

Iraqi leaders have fled their war-torn country.(QuickQuotes)(Brief article)
December 25, 2006... "The intelligentsia have been beaten down, murdered, or fled." Visiting professor Abdul Sattar Jawad of Duke University left his native Iraq a year ago and is only one of many professors, doctors, lawyers, engineers, and other...

Senator stands firm against claims about global warming.(QuickQuotes)(Brief article)
December 25, 2006... "Trying to prove manmade global warming by comparing the well-known fact that today's temperatures are warmer than during the Little Ice Age is akin to comparing summer to winter to show a catastrophic temperature trend." As outgoing...

Support grows for English as official language.(QuickQuotes)(Brief article)
December 25, 2006... "The voters in Arizona are sick and tired of the federal government doing nothing on immigration." Arizona State Representative Kyrsten Sinema explained why voters in her state approved a constitutional amendment making English Arizona's...

Disappointed democrat blames racism after being denied post.(QuickQuotes)(Brief article)
December 25, 2006... "Sorry, haters, God is not finished with me yet." After being impeached by the House and removed from his post as a federal judge in 1989, Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.) won election to the House in 1992 but was just passed over for a...

Cost rises for "Twelve Days of Christmas" items.(QuickQuotes)(Brief article)
December 25, 2006... "Prices for the partridge, two turtle doves, three French hens, six geese and seven swans didn't change, but higher wages made lords-a-leaping, ladies dancing, and pipers piping costlier." According to USA Today, whose report didn't mention...

Federal agency points to possibility of fraud in computer voting.(QuickQuotes)(Brief article)
December 25, 2006... "A single programmer could 'rig' a major election." A report compiled by the National Institute of Standards and Technology earned praise from critics of electronic voting.

Vietnamese anti-communist continues to oppose takeover of his country.(Ly Tong)(Brief article)
December 25, 2006... "I have a duty to liberate my country. The only thing that matters is that the Communists still control my country." After he commandeered a plane in Thailand six years ago, flew it to Hanoi, and dropped leaflets over the city calling for a...

The willingness to give: in an age of pessimism, we need to be reminded that America is still largely free and good--and is still a shining city on a hill, a light to all nations.(AMERICA)(Cover story)
December 25, 2006... It seems as if the world has been turned upside down, that modern societies are competing to see who can jettison thousands of years of civilization the quickest. Using evolutionary theory for comparison, it seems as if culture, in America and...

Providing affordable healthcare: realizing that bureaucratic paperwork was unnecessarily causing burgeoning healthcare costs and poorer healthcare overall, these doctors decided to do something about it.(HEALTHCARE)
December 25, 2006... This political season saw nearly every candidate for office including a platform plank to "provide affordable healthcare." And as usual, with a few exceptions for promoters of Health Savings Accounts, there was much rhetoric about how the...

Pressing for the Truth on 9/11: 9/11 Press for Truth effectively presents some of the most glaring discrepancies, lies, and coverups concerning the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil.(ON THE HOME FRONT)
December 25, 2006... Henry Kissinger "nearly fell off the couch." He spilled his coffee on himself. He was visibly shaken. The next day he announced that he was stepping down as chairman of the 9/11 Commission, the post to which President Bush had named him a...

Christmas vs. holiday: how did America, a nominally Christian nation, get to the point that a cheerful "Merry Christmas" is seen as intolerant and our gifts are placed under "holiday trees"?(CULTURE WAR)
December 25, 2006... "The President and Mrs. Reagan extend to you their best wishes for a joyous Christmas and a peaceful New Year." In 1982, that was the message appearing on President Reagan's Christmas card to thousands of GOP faithful. In 1983, the "greeting"...

Faith-based films: on the heels of huge box office takes for Christian-themed movies, an abundance of films are appearing containing Christian content, but will they be any good?
December 25, 2006... Hollywood has been abuzz lately with the big news that more faith-based movies like The Passion of The Christ and Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe are on the way, but the reaction so far has been rather mixed. Fox...

World War II vet connects with students.(THE GOODNESS OF AMERICA)(Frank Parrotta )
December 25, 2006... Frank Parrotta is an 82-year-old veteran of World War II, but you won't find him resting on his laurels taking it easy in front of the television every day. Mr. Parrotta retired from the catering business in 1986, but kept busy traveling with...

Teenagers honored for good deeds.(THE GOODNESS OF AMERICA)
December 25, 2006... On November 5, the Creative Living Counseling Center in Allendale, New Jersey, recognized 16 teenagers from Bergen and Passaic counties for their service to others. "There are lots of students who are doing great things for others, so we...

Field of dreams becoming a reality.(THE GOODNESS OF AMERICA)(Brief article)
December 25, 2006... Four years ago, members of the Monroe [Washington] Miracle League, a baseball group for children with disabilities, decided to build a ball field on a city-owned parcel of land. Their most formidable challenge, however, was to raise the...

By the Grace of God: as the nation spiraled through rancor and discord to the Civil War, Americans both North and South experienced a miraculous and unprecedented revival of religious devotion.(HISTORY--FAITH IN ACTION)
December 25, 2006... "Christmas! Christmas! resounded through the camp this morning, the young artilleryman wrote in his diary, a smile on his face as he thought back upon the happiness of the day. Stifling a cough for he had come down with a terrible cold, he...

Test driving a jail cell.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(Brief article)
December 25, 2006... At his auto dealership in Powell, Tennessee, Greg "Lumpy" Lambert had alarm bells ringing in his head on November 11 after a 19-year-old customer test drove a 2005 Ford Focus and then offered to buy the car for cash" without any haggling or...

Carrying lead.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(Brief article)
December 25, 2006... Roy and Wanda Taylor of Dandridge, Tennessee, are a retired couple who used to operate a convenience store. Owing to health problems, Wanda is on oxygen. On November 13 at about 1 p.m., a man and a woman wearing masks barged into their home to...

Afternoon crime time.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(Brief article)
December 25, 2006... On the afternoon of November 12, a 69-year-old South Daytona restaurateur Ralph Arruzza was walking from Long Doggers, his restaurant, to his truck behind the business. He happened to notice two men walking down the street. He saw one of the...

Neighbor trouble.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(Brief article)
December 25, 2006... The Fourth Ward of Houston, Texas, is a redevelopment area where new homes are built and then sold inexpensively to people who agree to live in them for 10 years. On November 12 at 6:45 p.m., an unidentified townhome owner was working in his...

Little rats trapped.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(Brief article)
December 25, 2006... Tennessee state senator Tim Burchett was sick and tired of being repeatedly victimized by burglaries. Three motorcycles and a security camera had been stolen from a warehouse he owns, and so he staked out the place, waiting for the thieves to...

Taking aim at the second amendment--again.
December 25, 2006... ITEM: The New Bedford Standard-Times reported on November 21: "New Bedford Mayor Scott W. Lang told state lawmakers yesterday that if they want to get serious about gun violence, they need to approve tougher laws and come up with more money....

What is your ATS score?(THE LAST WORD)(Automated Targeting System)
December 25, 2006... If you think that the "big three" credit bureaus, Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax, know far more about you than you care for, and you worry about your personal privacy, well, hold on to your hat? What is your ATS score? In case you...