The New American articles from January 2007

The New American archives from January 2007

Innocent to suffer.(Letter to the editor)
January 8, 2007... President George Walker Bush got his wish. The War Commissions Act of 2006 was signed into law October 17, 2006 ("Are YOU the Enemy?," October 30 issue). Barring the Patriot Act, the Congress has never passed a bill that has so eroded our...

Libertarians for freedom.(Letter to the editor)
January 8, 2007... My Christmas wish this year is that people stop typing the word libertarian without first doing a modicum of research on what libertarianism means and how it relates specifically to the issue about which they're writing, or maybe even ask a...

Thankful for Ira Hayes.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the editor)
January 8, 2007... I remember the great pride I had as a boy, and still have, for Ira Hayes, American hero. Thank you very much for the excellent article, "Flying False Flags," November 27, contrasting the patriotism and heroism of Ira Hayes and many others who...

Truth in history.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the editor)
January 8, 2007... Recently, as a speaker at my son Douglas Phillips' "History of the World Conference," I reviewed the lives of 10 men who became president of the United States without having first been elected to that office. One of those whom I studied was...

Climate-change skeptics get hearing.(Inside Track)(Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works )
January 8, 2007... At a hearing chaired by Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) on December 6, the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works heard testimony from climate scientists on the subject of global warming. The hearing, which according to Senator Inhofe...

U.S. Mint bans melting nickels and pennies.(Inside Track)
January 8, 2007... Inflation has diminished the purchasing power of our money to such an extent that nickels and pennies are now worth more melted down than their face value. The metal in a nickel costs the U.S. Mint 6.99 cents and the metal in a penny costs the...

San Francisco supervisors attack religious freedom.(Catholic Church's opposition on homosexual adoption)(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... Back in March 2006, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution stating that the Catholic Church's opposition to homosexual adoption does "violence" to children. It further declared that this particular teaching of...

"Dr. Death" granted parole but asks for even earlier release.(Dr. Jack Kevorkian)(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... Dr. Jack Kevorkian, who has served a little over eight years of his 10-to-25-year sentence for second-degree murder, will be released on parole on June 1, 2007, according to Michigan prison authorities. However, the 78-year-old "mercy-killing"...

Congress did not authorize NSA's warrantless surveillance program.(National Security Agency)(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... During the last Congress the Bush administration pushed for congressional authorization for the warrantless electronic surveillance program it had secretly implemented through the National Security Agency. The Republican-led House dutifully...

Ban Ki-moon takes over as UN Secretary-General.(United Nations General Assembly)(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... In October, the 192-member UN General Assembly named South Korea's Ban Ki-moon to succeed retiring UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who is required to leave after 10 years at the helm of the world body. Ban left his post as foreign minister of...

Pinochet's grandson punished for eulogy remarks.(Augusto Pinochet Molina)(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... Captain Augusto Pinochet Molina, the grandson of former Chilean President Augusto Pinochet, was discharged from the army on December 13, in retaliation for remarks he'd made at his grandfather's funeral the previous day. In a eulogy the younger...

David Duke attends Iran's holocaust conference.(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... David Duke, former Grand Dragon of the KKK, former Louisiana state representative, and former candidate for Louisiana governor and president of the United States, has found new and more responsive constituencies. For the past few years, he has...

Russian leaders pledge help in finding cause of Litvinenko's sudden death.(Alexander Litvinenko's death investigations)(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... "The Russian authorities at the highest level have formally said that they will provide full cooperation. I am skeptical." Before he died, Russian government critic Alexander Litvinenko accused President Vladimir Putin of involvement in his...

Didn't President Bush call Islam "a religion of peace"?(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... "[Violators] will definitely be beheaded according to Islamic law." As the chairman of the Islamic court in Bulo Burto, Somalia, Sheik Hussein Barre Rage announced a penalty for residents who do not pray five times a day in accordance with a...

Britain's Prince Charles wants to protect the planet.(environmentalism)(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... "Wherever possible, we will be making less use of helicopters and chartered planes and rely more on car journeys, scheduled flights, and trains." A veteran champion of quirky environmentalism, Prince Charles wants to reduce his "carbon...

No one blamed for covering up Foley scandal.(Mark Foley)(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... "It is unfathomable that the ethics committee has held no member or staff member individually accountable for the manner in which the Foley scandal was handled in the House." When no discipline was handed out to many members of Congress who...

Labor officials seek to overturn Amish traditions.(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... "Our biggest teaching comes from our walk, not just our word. Our children need to be with us." Amish fathers have been told by New York state labor officials that the sect's practice of having 14- to 17-year-old sons working alongside their...

He's determined to force his global-warming theory on the public.(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... "I think we need a 'carbon freeze' and I intend to launch an ongoing campaign of mass persuasion at the beginning of 2007." Former Senator Al Gore wants business, government, and the public to use less energy as a way to combat what he...

Political commentator no fan of Baker-Hamilton report.(Quick Quotes)
January 8, 2007... "The Baker Commission report is not designed to save Iraq. It is designed to save the Establishment." Interviewed by NBC, Pat Buchanan provided a perspective unheard elsewhere about the Iraq Study Group's report to President Bush.

Honor roll of history's quotable quotes.(Quick Quotes)(John Heisman)(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... "It is a prolate spheroid in which the outer leather casing is drawn tightly over a somewhat smaller rubber tubing. Better to have died as a small boy than to fumble this football." He coached at the high school and college level for 36...

Fractured healthcare: Americans are told that we need "universal healthcare," but that would be disastrous. Reforming health insurance, however, would begin to resolve our medical problems.(HEALTHCARE)(Cover story)
January 8, 2007... With the party of HillaryCare in the ascendancy, the drive toward "universal healthcare" in America may succeed, after more than a half century of effort. This time, we are told, it's "not socialized medicine"; it's "equitable healthcare" or...

Influenza and its enemies: government badly wants Americans to line up for annual flu shots, but though highly touted, there are indications the vaccines may not be as effective as advertised.(HEALTHCARE)(Cover story)
January 8, 2007... According to the Centers for Disease Control, the flu sickens over 200,000 people each year and kills 36,000 more. To fight this menace and to raise awareness about the availability of the flu vaccine, the Department of Health and Human...

Crime wave: as an illegal-alien crime wave overtakes America, government officials do nothing because they either support open borders or fear to anger the Hispanic community.(IMMIGRATION)
January 8, 2007... On June 5, nine-year-old Jordin Paulder, a towheaded boy with "chubby cheeks," as the newspapers described him, was playing in the parking lot of the Chastain Apartments in Sandy Springs, Georgia, part of metro Atlanta. Jordin saw a car go by...

Oh, blue Hampshire! New Hampshire will be, as usual, the site of the first presidential primary in 2008. Is it significant that in the elections of this past November, Democrats ruled in this Republican stronghold?(POLITICS)
January 8, 2007... In a last look at last November's election results, we caution readers that each area of the country has its own voting idiosyncrasies, its own reason for voting for a specific candidate or political party. Generally speaking, in voting out the...

Lost and found city: the rediscovery of a lost city in Wales reminds us that self-reliance and perseverance are keys to success.(ARCHAELOGY)
January 8, 2007... It's not every day that evidence of the existence of a "lost city" falls in one's lap. But that is exactly what seems to have happened to one man in Wales. Stuart Wilson, a toll collector who trained as an archeologist while an undergraduate at...

Apocalypto: Mel Gibson's new movie depicts pre-Christian civilization in Central America. But is it accurate?(CULTURE WAR)(Movie review)
January 8, 2007... Here's a thought: instead of rehashing Mel Gibson's Jew-bashing rants when L.A. cops got him on a DUI in July, let's stick to his movie. Apocalypto brings out what's unique and gripping in Gibson as a director. --Rolling Stone It's...

Daring rescue from Idaho River.
January 8, 2007... On Sunday, November 26, Sarah Cox, her husband Dick Knapp, and her friend Kathl Whitacre went kayaking on the Payette River in Idaho. They expected the trip to be a leisurely two hours. But as the trio neared an area known as the "Go Left...

Church members give generously to family.(New Birth Baptist Church donates to Henry Matthews)(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... Henry Matthews works full-time as a paraprofessional with disabled students at Jose de Diego Middle School in Wynwood, Florida. However, his $12,500-a-year salary places his family's standard of living far below the poverty line. After...

Mother sending Silly String to Iraq.(THE GOODNESS OF AMERICA)(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... Marcelle Shriver of Stratford, New Jersey, a Philadelphia suburb, is the mother of 28-year-old Army Specialist Todd Shriver, a soldier stationed in Iraq. In October, during a telephone call home to his mother, Todd explained that in the...

The coolidge presidency: historians have rated Calvin Coolidge poorly among our nation's chief executives for being a "do-nothing president," but he should be rated highly for the very same reason.(HISTORY--AMERICAN SPIRIT)
January 8, 2007... Most Americans reserve their greatest praise for past presidents who were noted for their activity while in office. Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt immediately come to mind--the former for his aggressive extra-executive actions in...

Robbery gone right ... at the bait shop.(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... The burglar alarm on the bait shop of 75-year-old Catherine Tate of Geneva County, Alabama, went off at about 11 p.m. on August 23. The one-armed woman grabbed her pistol and investigated. She found a man trying to break into her shop. He...

... In a house.(burglary)(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... A mother-and-son burglary team "were apparently prowling around [a] neighborhood looking for a house to break into," reported the LA Daily News, when they chose the house of a Canyon Country, California, woman. While Cynthia Brandon, the mom,...

... In a parking lot.(handguns)(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... In Wichita Falls, Texas, on the night of September 19, a patron at the Homewood Suites hotel went to her van to get her sinus medication. There she was approached by a man who asked her, "Do you have anything good in that van?" reported the...

... In a pawnshop.(robbery)(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... In Natchez, Mississippi, on November 6, three men attempted to rob the Old South Pawn Shop. One man, Clifton Jackson, held a pistol in each hand. The three men yelled at the employees and told the workers to give them money. Jackson began...

... In a coin store.(robbery)(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... At about 10:30 a.m., a man carrying a black bag entered a coin and comics shop in Roselle, Illinois. The man spoke cordially to shop owner Glen Soustek for several minutes. Then he pulled a "handgun out of the bag and jumped over the counter,"...

... At car places.(robbery)(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... Police are investigating two suspects, Larry Dunbar, Jr. and his brother-in-law John Williams, Jr., for attempted armed robbery. They became suspects after they were found bleeding on August 28 at about 3 p.m., approximately 15 minutes after...

The ills of fixing drug prices.(Correction, Please!)
January 8, 2007... ITEM: Writing in the Philadelphia Inquirer for December 6, Karen Davenport railed that Congress has "left Medicare without the power to do much about high or unfair drug prices." Davenport, the head of health policy for the Center for American...

Passing of President Pinochet.(Augusto Pinochet)
January 8, 2007... "Gen. Augusto Pinochet, who terrorized his opponents for 17 years after taking power in a bloody coup, died Sunday." So began the December 10 dispatch from Santiago, Chile, by Associated Press correspondent Eduardo Gallardo, a dispatch that was...

"Staying the course" a giant failure.(Letter to the editor)
January 22, 2007... Having just returned from spending two years in Baghdad as an International Police Advisor, I can attest to the fact that the Iraqi security forces are not ready to assume the enormous task of self-sufficiency and protection of the Iraqi...

God's role in human affairs.(Letter to the editor)
January 22, 2007... The power and integrity of THE NEW AMERICAN is rooted not only in its superb research but also in its Biblical perspective, its understanding of God's role in human affairs. R. Cort Kirkwood's November 27 article "ER Overload" presents a...

Saddam hanged for crimes committed while backed by United States.(Inside Track)
January 22, 2007... The media has widely reported the fact that Saddam Hussein's December 30 execution had been ordered as punishment for the killings of 148 men and boys in the northern town of Dujail in 1982. Less reported is the fact that Saddam enjoyed a...

The lies that led to Iraq.(Inside Track)(Iraq War)
January 22, 2007... In a report that garnered little if any attention in the United States, in mid-December the Independent, a London newspaper, reported that the British government's (and hence, the U.S. government's) case for war in Iraq was based on lies....

Securing a pardon for secure borders.(Inside Track)(Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos)
January 22, 2007... "Everybody realizes that President Bush has some kind of commitment to an open-border policy with Mexico," exclaimed Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) at a press conference held at the steps of the Old Orange County Courthouse in Santa...

Bush administration approves of UN status for homosexual groups.(Inside Track)(Brief article)
January 22, 2007... The UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) has granted official status to three European homosexual organizations. After initially objecting to awarding this coveted status to such groups, the Bush administration's representative went along...

Iran challenges U.S. dollar hegemony.(Inside Track)(Brief article)
January 22, 2007... Iran announced last month it is implementing policies designed to end its dependence on the U.S. dollar. The central bank of Iran has been ordered to convert dollars to euros. Overseas assets denominated in dollars will be transformed to euros...

Basque terrorists bomb Madrid Airport during Christmas rush.(Inside Track)(Brief article)
January 22, 2007... An explosion at the new Terminal 4 parking garage of the Madrid Airport on December 30 is being attributed to the Basque terrorist group ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, Basque for "Basque Homeland and Freedom"). The bomb, a stolen van reported to...

Congressional inquiry into 1995 Oklahoma City bombing fizzles.(Inside Track)
January 22, 2007... Alter nearly two years of "investigation," a congressional inquiry into the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City has delivered a frustratingly inconclusive report that raises more questions than it answers. ...

Rep. Ellison becomes first Muslim U.S. congressman.(Keith Ellison)(Brief article)
January 22, 2007... On January 4, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) became the first Muslim U.S. congressman. After the official oath of office with the other representatives in the House chamber, he used the Koran, the holy book of Islam, in an individual ceremonial...

Comptroller general's bleak report largely ignored.(Treasury Department and Office of Management and Budget reports)(Brief article)
January 22, 2007... A reading of the December 15, 2006 report issued by the Treasury Department and the Office of Management and Budget forces the following conclusion: the United States is insolvent and there is no way for the nation's bills to be paid with...

Venezuelan voting machine firm leaves U.S. market.(Smartmatic)(Brief article)
January 22, 2007... In the aftermath of last fall's disclosures that electronic voting machines can easily be adjusted to rig an election, a new concern has been raised about their use. Smartmatic, a Venezuelan company that makes electronic voting machines widely...

Former President Ford disagreed with invasion of Iraq.(QuickQuotes)
January 22, 2007... "Rumsfeld and Cheney and the president made a big mistake in justifying going into the war in Iraq." In tapes made more than two years ago but kept private until his death at his request, Gerald Ford told Washington Post reporter Bob...

Primitive Indian in Brazil shuns wealth, teaches a lesson.(QuickQuotes)
January 22, 2007... "I used to think that money was good and that I wanted to be rich, but now I don't. A little bit might be good, but a lot is not. It only brings problems and suffering, when what we really want is tranquility." The area in which Pio...

Nevada town enacts measure to combat illegal immigration.(Brief article)
January 22, 2007... "These people are breaking the law and they should be prosecuted somehow." Pahrump, Nevada, town board member Michael Miraglia is pleased with passage of the measure he proposed that outlaws giving town benefits to "undocumented foreign...

Comedian targets the president--again!(QuickQuotes)(Jay Leno on George W. Bush)(Brief article)
January 22, 2007... "President Bush has received a copy of the 96-page Iraq Study Group report. When they gave it to him, President Bush said, 'Don't tell me how it ends.' They said, 'Uh, it doesn't.'" In his role as the host of television's Tonight Show, Jay...

Americans spend countless hours in front of computers and television.(Brief article)
January 22, 2007... "The news [in this report] means that America is making a smooth transition from couch potato to mouse potato. Put another way, I suspect the only exercise Americans are getting is walking between their TVs and their computers." Data in...

Former Secretary of State skeptical about increasing U.S. troop strength in Iraq.(Colin Powell)(Brief article)
January 22, 2007... "I am not persuaded that another surge of troops into Baghdad for the purpose of suppression of this communitarian violence, this civil war, will work." Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who also served as chairman of the military's...

Former general motors manager not surprised at Toyota's success.(Dick Lynch)(Brief article)
January 22, 2007... "We figured we were going to have a problem. We taught them how to beat us." Recalling that he often gave plant tours to Japanese executives, retired G.M. plant manager Dick Lynch early expected that Toyota would become a threat to his...

Some things never change.(H.L. Mencken)(Brief article)
January 22, 2007... "The whole aim of politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." H.L. Mencken, 1920

Putin's Russia: the return of the iron fist.(RUSSIA)(Cover story)
January 22, 2007... "KGB influence 'soars under Putin,'" blared the headline of a BBC online article for December 13, 2006. The following day, a similar headline echoed a similarly alarming story at the website of Der Spiegel, one of Germany's largest news...

Putin, poison, and murder: the recent murder-by-poison of Russian KGB/FSB defector Alexander Litvinenko is a potent warning about the dangers of our new security "partnership" with Putin's Russia.(RUSSIA)
January 22, 2007... As Alexander Litvinenko lay dying under tight police protection at London's University College hospital, he pointed an accusing finger at the man he believed responsible for ordering his assassination: Russian President Vladimir Putin. The...

Putin's new Soviet economy: after a decade of "market reform," the Russian economy under the presidency of ex-KGB chief Vladimir Putin appears to be returning to its Soviet roots.(RUSSIA)(Industry overview)
January 22, 2007... It's not exactly a tourist Mecca on par with the likes of Vail, Colorado, or California's wine country or the Grand Canyon, but nevertheless, word is getting out about the little Siberian village of Listvyan. The tiny village sits on the shores...

Silent suffering in Russia: as Russian companies were privatized, usually given to "former communists" who stripped them of valuables, the bulk of Russians received merely empty promises.
January 22, 2007... "People in Russia were conditioned to worry about family problems and the global situation, particularly the struggle for peace, but not about crime, accidents, or the struggle to make a living," reported David Satter, a correspondent who...

Business vs. government: in his book The Big Ripoff, Timothy Carney blows away the deception that Big Business and the government are adversaries and that the government defends the average citizen.(The Big Ripoff: How Big Business and Big Government Steal Your Money)(Book review)
January 22, 2007... The Big Ripoff: How Big Business and Big Government Steal Your Money, by Timothy P. Carney, Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2006, 285 pages, hardcover, $24.95. (For ordering information, see the ad on the inside back cover.) ...

The true spirit of giving.(THE GOODNESS OF AMERICA)(fundraising for Hudon family)
January 22, 2007... Like many others, Nathan Burditt, a senior at Memorial High School in Manchester, New Hampshire, got swept up in the shopping frenzy last November. He waited 34 hours outside a Target store in suburban Hooksett to be among the first to buy a...

Community helps victim.(THE GOODNESS OF AMERICA)(Farm Service Agency's workers donate for Kerry Capps)(Brief article)
January 22, 2007... On a night in December 2005, Kerry Capps was driving to her grandparents' house in Fernley, Nevada, when her truck rolled over. The accident broke her neck and left her a paraplegic. Mrs. Capps spent nine months in hospitals recovering from her...

School for home-schoolers.(THE GOODNESS OF AMERICA)(Catherine Milstead)(Brief article)
January 22, 2007... It may sound like an oxymoron to have a school for home-schoolers, but an Eldersburg, Maryland, home-schooling mother has started just such an institution. Catherine Milstead, a mother of five, enrolled her oldest daughter in an ecumenical...

Neoconservatism's deadly influence: a look at the roots of neoconservatism and the reasons why this deadly movement must be rejected in favor of the true conservatism as envisioned by our Founders.(HISTORY--PAST AND PERSPECTIVE)
January 22, 2007... A neoconservative is a liberal who has been mugged by reality. --Irving Kristol The above definition has joyfully and repeatedly been cited by many defenders of neoconservatism. They consider their branch of political thought a benign...

Something fishy.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(robbery)(Brief article)
January 22, 2007... "A 71-year-old fish seller about to deposit nearly $30,000 from his business was jumped yesterday outside a Prince's Bay bank by... three bandits, who fled for their lives with half his cash as he fired several shots at them," reported the...

Stopped dead.(firearms for safety)(Brief article)
January 22, 2007... There is no question about it: 40-year-old Raymond Gabaldon was a criminal. According to the Albuquerque Tribune, he'd previously been arrested for "burglary, robbery, auto theft, aggravated burglary, weapons, drugs," followed subsequently by...

Really wrong house.(firearms for safety)(Brief article)
January 22, 2007... A Cloverdale, California, couple "were awakened by a man jumping up and down on the hood of their car shortly before 3 a.m.," reported MercuryNews.com. The husband, Gerald Steckmyer, yelled to the man and told him to stop. "The suspect then got...

Protecting an investment.(firearms for safety)(Brief article)
January 22, 2007... On December 27 just after two a.m., Jim Maples woke up to the sound of breaking glass in the grocery store he owns. He has slept in an apartment in the back of the store since he bought the place in July because, as he told the Bristol Herald...

Bird's-eye view.(criminal attempt)(Brief article)
January 22, 2007... An unidentified man was working on the air-conditioning system of CiCi's Pizza in Athens, Georgia, on December 19 when he "saw someone trying to break into cars," reported the Athens Banner-Herald. When the suspicious individual in the parking...

Saving what you sweat for.(firearms for safety)(Brief article)
January 22, 2007... "You have to work too hard out here for somebody to come in off the street and try to take what a man's got," said Tony Draughon, who runs a small store in Fayetteville, North Carolina, to WRAL.com. When two robbers wearing red bandanas...

Global-warming alarmists try to freeze out skeptics.
January 22, 2007... ITEM: In the Boston Globe for December 21, 2006, U.S. Representative Marry Meehan (D-Mass.) and Paul Epstein, associate director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School, wrote a piece called "Making Noise...

"Normalizing" premarital sex.
January 22, 2007... A new study conducted by Lawrence Finer, research director at the Guttmacher Institute, claims that 95 percent of Americans have had premarital sex, and that this rate extends even to women born in the 1940s. The report, entitled Trends in...