The New American articles from February 2008

The New American archives from February 2008

Waterboarding washout.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the editor)
February 4, 2008... In the December 24 issue of THE NEW AMERICAN ("Torturing the Definition of Torture"), you call waterboarding a form of drowning, and in a previous issue you said it brought a subject close to drowning and then the victim is revived. You could...

Energy article additions.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the editor)
February 4, 2008... The article "Energy for America" (January 7 issue) contains two problems. First, you don't address the fact that while states might vie for one of the 50 clusters of 10 new 1.2 GW nuclear power plants that you advocate to solve the United...

No to planned parenthood.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the editor)
February 4, 2008... Whenever I hear something through mainstream media, I find myself reading your articles for more in-depth reporting, beyond what's being spun on the nightly news. Your writers really get beyond the emotional hype and into the facts, finances,...

Iranians taunt the U.S. Navy.(Inside Track)
February 4, 2008... On January 6, as three U.S. warships were passing through the Strait of Hormuz, a group of five Iranian speedboats approached and harassed the ships in what U.S. officials and the media quickly termed a "provocative" act. According to Agence...

Carrier battle group in naval standoff with China.(Inside Track)(Brief article)
February 4, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] While the U.S. Navy's encounter with five small Iranian boats in the Strait of Hormuz on January 6 resulted in widespread media coverage and aggressive posturing from the Bush administration, a much more serious...

Whistle-blower exposes nuclear smuggling ring.(Inside Track)(Sibel Edmonds)(Brief article)
February 4, 2008... Sibel Edmonds, a former paid Turkish language translator for the FBI, has just gone public with a tale of an international nuclear smuggling ring that has been operating successfully inside the United States. Edmonds gave her information in a...

Bush administration weighs in on second amendment.(Inside Track)(Brief article)
February 4, 2008... In March 2007, the U.S. Court of Appeals found by a 2-1 vote that the District of Columbia's ban on handguns in homes is unconstitutional after correctly interpreting the Second Amendment as conveying an individual right to firearms ownership....

Homeland security dictates driver's license requirements.(Inside Track)(Brief article)
February 4, 2008... Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced on January 11 that states that have begun the process of making their driver's licenses "Real D-compliant" by May will be able to apply for a waiver that will give them until May 2011 to...

Anna Schwartz--"blame the Fed".(Inside Track)(Brief article)
February 4, 2008... "There never would have been a sub-prime mortgage crisis if the Fed had been alert. This is something Alan Greenspan must answer for," said Dr. Anna Schwartz in an interview with British journalist Ambrose Evans-Pritchard that appeared in the...

Under Arafat's gaze.(Inside Track)( Yasser Arafat)
February 4, 2008... President Bush's eight-day Middle East tour in January included a three-day visit to Israel and the PLO-controlled West Bank, currently under the government of PLO-Fatah chief Mahmoud Abbas. During his various press conferences and appearances...

Catholic and Muslim leaders agree to meet.(Quick Quotes)(Brief article)
February 4, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "The meeting with a delegation of some of the 138 Muslims, planned for Rome next spring, is in a certain sense historic." After Pope Benedict XVI angered many Muslims with a September 2006 speech in Germany, a...

Top Russian scientist disputes claims about global warming.(Quick Quotes)(Oleg Sorokhtin)(Brief article)
February 4, 2008... "Stock up on fur coats and felt boots. The latest data... say that earth has passed the peak of its warmer period, and a fairly cold spell will set in quite soon, by 2012." A fellow of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences and the senior...

Jesse Jackson's son chides his dad about Obama.(Quick Quotes)(Jesse Jackson, Jr. )(Brief article)
February 4, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "You're wrong on Obama, Dad." After the senior Jackson accused Democratic Party candidates of ignoring the plight of Blacks, Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr., a co-chairman of the Obama campaign, responded with an...

Iraqi clerics call for cease-fire.(Quick Quotes)(Abdul Hadi al-Mohammadawi )(Brief article)
February 4, 2008... "We think that the best way to solve existing problems and provide all with the chance to reach the shores of peace is a comprehensive dialog, instead of acts of violence." A senior aide to radical Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr, Abdul Hadi...

Al-Qaeda leader sends a stern message about Israel.(Quick Quotes)(Brief article)
February 4, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "We intend to liberate Palestine, the whole of Palestine from the [Jordan] river to the sea." In an audiotape released on December 29, Osama bin Laden urged Iraq's Sunnis not to fight against al-Qaeda, and he...

Fired for not registering for the draft, he sues.(Quick Quotes)(Michael Elgin)(Brief article)
February 4, 2008... "It labels women as second-class, and it imposes a burden and a penalty on men that it doesn't impose on women." Now 42 years old and an employee of the IRS for the past 18 years, Michael Elgin lost his job when his employer discovered he had...

Chief justice wants a pay raise for himself and other judges.(Quick Quotes)(John G. Roberts)(Brief article)
February 4, 2008... "I simply ask once again for a moment's reflection on how America would look in the absence of a skilled and independent judiciary." Claiming that many judges have been leaving the bench because they can earn more in law practice, Chief Justice...

Reining in spending: this nation is headed toward economic collapse if Washington's spendathon continues unabated. But the good news is we can do something about it.(ECONOMY)(Cover story)
February 4, 2008... "Slowly but surely the overall analysts' consensus is shifting towards a high likelihood of a US recession in 2008," reported Nouriel Roubini's Global EconoMonitor (RGE Monitor) on December 19. To be sure, there are still die-hard bulls like...

Monetary mayhem: the world's central bankers are creating currency and "out of thin air" at an astounding rate. The consequences will be devastating.(ECONOMY)(Viewpoint essay)
February 4, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Gold fever is back, with futures surging to an all-time high above $880 an ounce on January 8, after enjoying a run-up in 2007 of nearly 32 percent against the dollar. Gold for February delivery hit $880.30 an ounce...

Parting with Pakistan: our "valuable ally" Pakistan is perhaps the greatest proliferator of nuclear technology. By continuing to give Pakistan foreign aid, we boost its nuclear capability.(PAKISTAN)(Viewpoint essay)
February 4, 2008... Whatever Pakistan's founder Muhammed Ali-Jinnah may have envisioned for the future of his country, it certainly was not this. A proverbial land of contrasts, Pakistan boasts some of the world's loftiest mountains as well as vast stretches of...

Health threat from EU and UN: an oddly named UN bureaucracy is the driving force behind a larger European and American effort to take away our liberty to use dietary supplements in effective doses.(HEALTH)(Viewpoint essay)
February 4, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In the endless war between liberty and government regulation, we have an opportunity to win an important battle, one that will promote the health of Americans. This one is over the freedom to choose one's diet and...

Day of reckoning: American elder statesman Pat Buchanan warns in his new book that America faces an uncertain future unless we take action soon to protect the country.(Book review)
February 4, 2008... Day of Reckoning: How Hubris, Ideology, and Greed Are Tearing America Apart, by Patrick Buchanan, New York: Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press, 2007, 294 pages, hardcover, $25.95. (The book will be available on or about January 25 from...

Adopting an Iraqi boy.(THE GOODNESS OF AMERICA)(Ala'a Eddeen)
February 4, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Back in September 2003, Captain Scott Southworth, a National Guard officer from New Lisbon, Wisconsin, was midway through a 13-month deployment in Iraq. While visiting the Mother Teresa Orphanage in Baghdad that day,...

Heroism loves company.(THE GOODNESS OF AMERICA)(Brief article)
February 4, 2008... The September 25, 2007 Milwaukee Journal published a story entitled: "Commendation Medal for valor, for a daring rescue on a Baghdad street." The article related the bravery of three members of the Wisconsin National Guard 32nd Military Police...

Young hunters program.(THE GOODNESS OF AMERICA)(Brief article)
February 4, 2008... Several programs started by the Pennsylvania Game Commission to encourage hunting among young teens and children have paid unexpected dividends. The Keystone State has a special six-day junior hunting season permitting youngsters ages 12...

What happened to our money? If you think it's not worth what it used to be, you're right. And if you think you've been robbed by inflation created by the Fed, you're right again.(HISTORY: PAST AND PERSPECTIVE)(Viewpoint essay)
February 4, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The year 1968 should be remembered as the year when the term "Federal Reserve Note" became the exclusive heading on all U.S. paper currency. From the creation of the Fed in 1913 until that fateful year, Federal...

Stalking people as prey leads to fatal results.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)
February 4, 2008... Ryan Bergner, 41, "was pronounced dead from gunshot wounds to his abdomen shortly after 10:30 p.m. at [an Indiana] hospital" on November 12, reported NBC5.com. According to the account of the incident from the 51-year-old Hessville woman who...

Robber knew he'd had it after victim hit the mark.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(Brief article)
February 4, 2008... On November 26 a man wearing camouflage and a mask entered Christopher Trinh's convenience store and fired a shot into the ceiling. Trinh gave the man the money from the cash register, though he had quick access to a gun. But when the robber...

Grandma spooks team of two burglars.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(Brief article)
February 4, 2008... On November 23, a 63-year-old Carthage, Missouri, woman was home with a grandchild eating lunch when they noticed a strange woman "walking around the house in a suspicious manner," reported the Joplin Globe. "The woman [signaled] to a male...

Messing with the mortgage market.(correction, Please!)(Viewpoint essay)
February 4, 2008... ITEM: "More steps by Congress and the Bush administration are likely needed to stabilize the imploding U.S. housing market, a senior White House official said on Tuesday, as more signs of distress appear," reported Reuters on January 2, 2008....

The surge of John McCain.(THE LAST WORD)
February 4, 2008... One of the most surprising developments in the unsettled GOP presidential race, which has featured three different winners in the first three major contests, is the sudden rise of Senator John McCain. Not long ago McCain's presidential bid was...

Thinking about abortion.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the editor)
February 18, 2008... On this 35th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision ("What Congress Can Do for This American," January 21 issue), I would like to share my views on the issue of abortion. Life begins at the point of conception. No one can deny that after...

French fears.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the editor)
February 18, 2008... I happened across your magazine at my dentist's office and was mostly impressed with its contents. However, in the October 29 "Quick Quotes" section, there was this declaration: "The French don't consider nuclear waste a problem." If you look...

Good onboard surveillance.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the editor)
February 18, 2008... Your surveillance issue of THE NEW AMERICAN of Oct. 29, 2007, lists the "OnStar" option on General Motors vehicles as a U.S. government invasion of personal privacy. I'm divided 50/50 on this issue after listening to an OnStar representative...

Correction.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Correction notice)
February 18, 2008... CORRECTION: Regarding a caption in our February 4 article "What Happened to Our Money?," Richard Nixon was not president when the U.S. Treasury stopped redeeming silver certificates for silver coinage on June 24, 1968. He was elected in 1968,...

Hundreds of thousands march for life.(Inside Track)(Brief article)
February 18, 2008... You wouldn't know it from reading the major newspapers or watching the evening news, but hundreds of thousands of Americans turned out in Washington, D.C., and dozens of other venues across the country for the annual March for Life to protest...

State Department censors truth about North Korea.(Inside Track)(Brief article)
February 18, 2008... Jay Lefkowitz, the U.S. special envoy for human rights in North Korea, is in hot water for saying what just about everyone recognizes to be true: Communist North Korea is playing us for suckers. In a January 17 address to the American...

IMF head reverses course, calls for global spendathon.(Inside Track)(International Monetary Fund)(Brief article)
February 18, 2008... The head of the International Monetary Fund told central bankers, commercial bankers, business titans, finance ministers, and economists at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that the world needs massive deficit spending,...

Bush administration seeks more aggressive policy in Central Asia.(Inside Track)
February 18, 2008... While the Bush administration has been prosecuting an unwise and unjustified war of regime change in Iraq, over the past few years early military successes against al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan have stumbled. Opening a...

Our "moderate" PLO ally honors murderous terror chief.(Inside Track)(Palestine Liberation Organization)(Brief article)
February 18, 2008... George Habash, founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), one of the most radical and violent terrorist groups ever, died on January 26, at the age of 82. PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas, the supposedly moderate president of...

The GOP and the war.(Inside Track)
February 18, 2008... During the last congressional elections in 2006, the Republican Party lost majority control of both houses of Congress largely because the American people have become increasingly upset with our continued involvement in Iraq and associate the...

Paul and Huckabee on abortion.(Inside Track)
February 18, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Congressman Ron Paul was the only presidential candidate to speak at the March for Life in Washington, D.C., on January 22, the 35th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion on demand. But on the...

Huckabee backs away from national smoking ban.(Inside Track)
February 18, 2008... Former governor Mike Huckabee's support for imposing a nationwide ban against smoking in public places has symbolized the extent to which he is willing to use the power of the federal government to impose his beliefs on the nation, without...

Beijing fails to stop world tour of Chinese performers.(Inside Track)
February 18, 2008... For the fourth year in a row, embassy and consulate officials from the People's Republic of China have sent intimidating letters to local and state elected officials and business leaders in the United States and other countries in an attempt to...

Montana leads resistance to real ID.(Inside Track)
February 18, 2008... On January 18, Democrat Montana governor Brian Schweitzer sent a letter to the governors of Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Maine, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Arizona, Hawaii, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota,...

Former Homeland Security leader believes waterboarding is torture.(Quick Quotes)(Tom Ridge)(Brief article)
February 18, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "And I believe, unlike others in the administration, that waterboarding was, is, and will always be torture. That's a simple statement." Secretary of the Homeland Security Department from 2003 until 2005, Tom Ridge...

Americans living longer than ever.(Quick Quotes)(Brief article)
February 18, 2008... "Consider this: Hallmark Sold 85,000 Happy 100th Birthday! Cards Last Year." In an advertisement inviting readers to purchase its retirement plans, Allstate Insurance Company dramatically noted that Americans are living much longer than in past...

Telephone prefix reminds many of the devil.(Quick Quotes)(Brief article)
February 18, 2008... "It's been a black eye for our town, a stigma." Mayor Scott Walker of Reeves, Louisiana, was pleased to announce that the 666 phone prefix used in his community will be changed at the request of area residents.

Global warming bypasses Baghdad.(Quick Quotes)(Brief article)
February 18, 2008... "For the first time in my life, I saw a snow-rain falling in Baghdad. Snow falling in Baghdad in such a magnificent scene was beyond my imagination." The early January Iraq cold snap produced snow that fascinated 63-year-old Mohammed Abdul...

Being unusually tall has its drawbacks.(Quick Quotes)(Brief article)
February 18, 2008... "I don't hate it, but there are times I wish I weren't so tall." A junior at the University of North Carolina-Asheville, basketball player Kenny George is 7 feet 7 inches tall, weighs 360 pounds, wears size 26 shoes, and can put the ball in...

Michigan leads the nation in unemployment.(Quick Quotes)(Brief article)
February 18, 2008... "The problem here, like all over this state, is that the auto industry is going in the toilet. You didn't realize what boat you were in until you had 25 years in. And then there was nothing you could do." A retiree from the auto industry after...

Abortion not just a woman's issue.(Quick Quotes)(Brief article)
February 18, 2008... "How can I miss something I never even held? I couldn't get the thought out of my head about what I had lost." A member of a growing group of men whose partners aborted their children, 36-year-old Jason Baier addressed 150 mostly male...

Iraq Defense minister expects need for U.S. help until at least 2018.(Quick Quotes)(Brief article)
February 18, 2008... "In regard to the borders, regarding protection from any external threat, our calculation appears that we are not going to be able to answer any external threat until 2018 to 2020." While visiting the United States, where he met with...

Nuclear waste: not a problem: unbeknownst to most people, the bulk of nuclear waste is recyclable, and the remainder can be safely stored and presents little danger to anyone.(ENERGY)(Table)
February 18, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Yes nuclear energy is clean, but the waste is a problem. The life of the waste is 100,000 years no matter what you hear. The canisters that will hold this waste will disintegrate in 1,000 years or less, or so they...

Analyzing science: global-warming: professor Arthur Robinson, who with other professors analyzed hundreds of peer-reviewed studies on global warming, explains how the facts are being manipulated.(GLOBAL WARMING)(Interview)
February 18, 2008... Interview of Dr. Arthur Robinson Dr. Arthur Robinson is a professor of chemistry and is cofounder of the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, which was created in 1980 to conduct basic and applied research in subjects applicable to...

Climate-change dissenters: excerpts from a recent Senate report and from elsewhere reveal that hundreds of scientists question the idea that humans cause global warming.(GLOBAL WARMING)
February 18, 2008... For the internationalist and environmentalist crowd, global warming is no longer about science. Instead, it is about consensus. The United Nations, through its Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), argues that the world's scientists...

Flat tire? keep rolling with Amerityre: exhibiting the ingenuity and diligence that characterize the American spirit of free enterprise, a small company is poised to revolutionize the automobile tire industry.(ENTREPRENEURSHIP)
February 18, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Inventiveness, hard work, and perseverance have long characterized America's spirit of free enterprise. Charles Goodyear endured years of hardship--even a stint in debtors' prison--trying to find a process that would...

Cooling the climate debate: in his new book, Bjorn Lomborg, the "skeptical environmentalist," demolishes the global-warming lobby's mythology and shows that efforts to curb carbon emissions are dangerously off-base.(Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming)(Book review)
February 18, 2008... Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming, by Bjorn Loreborg, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007. 253 pages, hardcover, $21.00. Danish statistician Bjorn Lomborg made few friends among his fellow environmentalists when...

Family saves grandmother.(THE GOODNESS OF AMERICA)(Brief article)
February 18, 2008... Last July 31, Loft Laughlin lost consciousness while swimming in the family pool in Murphysboro, Illinois. Doctors would later conclude that she'd had a mild stroke. Fortunately, Lori's nine-year-old grandson, Shane, and six-year-old...

Postal carrier aids hit-and-run victim.(THE GOODNESS OF AMERICA)(Brief article)
February 18, 2008... One afternoon last October in King City, California, acting postal supervisor Lily Rangel was in a shopping center parking lot when she heard a distinct thump. She turned to see a child run over by a large green pickup truck. Rangel ran...

Seven-year-old helps children's hospital.(THE GOODNESS OF AMERICA)(Jack Witherspoon )
February 18, 2008... Five years ago, Jack Witherspoon was diagnosed with Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia when he was two years old. The boy from Torrance, California, has been undergoing treatment, on and off, ever since. It is an exhausting regimen that would drain...

Climatic golden age: the weather was warmer than today prior to the advent of the "Little Ice Age" around 1300 A.D., and agriculture and commerce benefited.(HISTORY--PAST AND PERSPECTIVE)
February 18, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] During the late 10th century, Eirik the Red killed a man named Thorgest during an argument about a shovel on a hardscrabble island off the coast of Iceland. It was not the first time that the temperamental Viking had...

Turn in the reporting tide.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)
February 18, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Veteran broadcast journalist Rebecca Aguilar was indefinitely suspended in October from Fox affiliate KDFW in Dallas for her questioning of 70-year-old James Walton in connection with a pair of shootings. On...

Preparation helps.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(Brief article)
February 18, 2008... Despite issuing a slew of threats on several Internet forums about impending violence against Christians and a repeat of the Columbine massacre, the FBI was apparently not notified that a rage-filled would-be killer was gearing up in the Denver...

Thief runs to the cops.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(Brief article)
February 18, 2008... An unidentified man in Houston had the temerity to snatch a purse from Sandra Hulsey in the parking lot of a Home Depot on November 1 while her husband, Norman, was only steps away on the other side of the couple's pickup truck. Yet only...

Crafting Alibis for Comrade Kim.(Correction, Please!)
February 18, 2008... ITEM: The New York Times for January 19, 2008, reported: "A debate is under way within the Bush administration over how long it can exercise patience with North Korea without jeopardizing the fulfillment of a nuclear agreement that President...

Ignoring the laws of economics.(THE LAST WORD)
February 18, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] If there is anyone unaware that our nation is mired in an economic slowdown, it would be quite surprising. The dollar's value is shrinking; government's cost is rising; and "somebody ought to do something" is the cry...