The New American articles from January 2008

The New American archives from January 2008

Protecting terrorists with legislation.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the editor)
January 7, 2008... It occurred to me while reading "Restoring Rights" in the November 12 issue that TNA and the far left make strange bedfellows. TNA obviously supports this new piece of legislation, yet unless I am misreading the bill draft, it appears to...

Changing beliefs can prove difficult.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the editor)
January 7, 2008... In THE NEW AMERICAN'S October 28 issue, TNA commented about the increasing neo-conservative calls to attack Iran: "Although the initial selling point to the party faithful is that Iran's WMD capabilities must be taken out because of the...

Huckabee's elite backers.(Inside Track)(Mike Huckabee )
January 7, 2008... The much-touted "Huckabee Surge" in November-December opinion polls has been attributed by the major media pundits to the former Arkansas governor's performances in the televised GOP candidate debates and the recent discovery of him by...

Putin will change titles but still hold the reins of Kremlin power.(Inside Track)(Vladimir Putin)(Brief article)
January 7, 2008... On December 10, Russian President Vladimir Putin named his 42-year-old Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to be his preferred successor in the 2008 presidential elections. That would seem to mean a virtual lock on the Kremlin's top political...

Paul campaign raises $6 million in 24 hours.(Inside Track)( Ron Paul )(Brief article)
January 7, 2008... The presidential campaign of Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) raised a record-setting $6 million on December 16. A report in USA Today noted that this will practically guarantee that Paul will "outraise his rivals for the Republican nomination in the...

Pope Benedict XVI on global warming.(Inside Track)
January 7, 2008... In remarks to be made in his annual message for World Peace Day on January 1, Pope Benedict XVI, according to London's Daily Mail, suggests "that fears over man-made emissions melting the ice caps and causing a wave of unprecedented disasters...

The Bali road map.(Inside Track)(Brief article)
January 7, 2008... Delegates to the UN climate conference on the tropical Indonesian island of Bali reached an agreement on a "road map" for replacing the failed and expiring Kyoto Accord with a new agreement by 2009--but not before the lead UN official at the...

The passing of John Noble, Soviet Gulag survivor.(Inside Track)(Obituary)(Brief article)
January 7, 2008... John H. Noble, an American who wrote about his nine-and-a-half-year imprisonment in the notorious Soviet Gulag in his 1958 book, I Was A Slave In Russia, died on November 10 in Dresden, Germany, at the age of 84. Noble's story was his...

Corruption carries on.(Inside Track)(Brief article)
January 7, 2008... Transparency International, the global coalition against corruption, reported in its "Global Corruption Barometer 2007" that the "general public continues to view parliaments and political parties as the institutions most tainted by corruption...

Bipartisan criticism of CIA/Justice department coverup.(Inside Track)(Central Intelligence Agency)(Brief article)
January 7, 2008... Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.), the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said on December 16 that Congress would subpoena witnesses and demand documents as part of its investigation of the CIA's destruction of videotapes...

Famed author outraged about waterboarding.(Quick Quotes)( Stephen King )(Brief article)
January 7, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "Someone in the Bush family should actually be waterboarded so they could report on it to George.... I suggested Jenna be waterboarded and then she could talk about whether or not she thought it was torture." ...

Plummeting value of the dollar impacts Americans abroad.(Quick Quotes)(Brief article)
January 7, 2008... "We figured out that with the increasingly weakening dollar, he is making less than he was making 20 years ago." The wife of an American working for a U.S. bank in London, Karla Keating realized after the couple relocated to London that the...

Generating electricity with nuclear power getting a boost.(Quick Quotes)(Brief article)
January 7, 2008... "A nuclear renaissance is now gearing up everywhere in the world. It is occurring parallel to an enormous expansion in energy consumption." A former American diplomat, John B. Ritch is the director general of the London-based World Nuclear...

Group cites repeal of prohibition in efforts to shrink bureaucracy.(Quick Quotes)(Brief article)
January 7, 2008... "Repeal Day isn't just about the right to drink. We're using this day to remind people that anytime the government acts, it denies citizens a choice.... We believe that individuals, not the government, should decide what is best for...

Senate filibuster rule will remain in force.(Quick Quotes)(Brief article)
January 7, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "I think we can stipulate once again for the umpteenth time that matters that have any level of controversy about them in the Senate will require 60 votes." Senate Minority Leader Miteh MeConnell (R-Ky.) thought...

Theft and corruption dominate Iraq.(Quick Quotes)(Adel Adel al-Subihawi )(Brief article)
January 7, 2008... "Everyone is stealing from the state. It's a very large meal and everyone wants to eat." In order to survive, many Iraqis have taken to thievery, bribery, and other forms of lawlessness, prompting Shiite leader Adel Adel al-Subihawi to...

Controversial broadcaster back on the air.(Quick Quotes)(Brief article)
January 7, 2008... "Dick Cheney is still a war criminal. Hillary is still Satan. And I'm back on the air." Eight months after being fired for gravely insulting Rutgers University women basketball players, Don Imus resumed his acerbic broadcasting at a new...

Chinopoly: in a game of political stratagem, China is using Western capital and know-how to further empower and enrich Communist Party members, but its commitment to communism may bring its downfall.(CHINA)(Viewpoint essay)
January 7, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "China will be the world's next great nation," declared investment and commodities guru Jim Rogers in his 2004 bestseller, Hot Commodities. The 20th century, he noted, "was the American century. The twenty-first will...

China's bid to buy the West: backed by huge foreign-exchange reserves, an investment fund operated by the Beijing government plans to buy Western companies, essentially nationalizing Western industry.(CHINA)(Cover story)
January 7, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Rio Tinto is one of the largest, Western-based, multinational companies few people have ever heard of. Despite its relative anonymity, the company is nonetheless one of the most successful mining companies in the...

Energy for America: we can achieve energy independence for the 21st century without destroying the environment. There's no need to deindustrialize or sacrifice our standard of living.(ENERGY)(Viewpoint essay)(Table)
January 7, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The single most important human component in the preservation of the Earth's environment is energy. Industrial conversion of energy into forms that are useful for human activities is the most important aspect of...

An Oklahoman for America: Oklahoma State Senator Randy Brogdon responds to questions about the NAFTA Superhighway, illegal immigration, and more.(INTERVIEW)(North American Free Trade Agreement)(Interview)
January 7, 2008... Senator Randy Brogdon serves Oklahoma's 34th district covering Owasso, Collinsville, and Catoosa in northeastern Oklahoma. He lives in Owasso. After 30 years in the heating/ air conditioning business, and two years in the Oklahoma State Senate,...

Stalking the truth in the hunting debate: in the Politically Incorrect Guide to Hunting, we learn that "no hunting" means unnecessary, wholesale suffering.(Book review)
January 7, 2008... I have to admit that the Politically Incorrect Guide to Hunting is the only book in the Politically Incorrect series that I've read. I was fairly impressed--enough to predict that if every high-school kid in America read this book, anti-hunting...

Global-warming: myths exposed: in the documentary film The Great Global Warming 5windle, now on DVD, filmmaker Martin Durkin pokes holes in the idea that human activity causes global warming.
January 7, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Don't look now, but it's the end of the world. That's the message out of the UN climate meeting in Bali held the week of December 9. Bali makes the perfect backdrop for global-warming propaganda--being but six...

Hunters share game.(THE GOODNESS OF AMERICA)(Brief article)
January 7, 2008... Many hunters love the sport that allows them to get out in the great outdoors, enjoy the fresh air, and match their wits against prey that is often very sly. And it also allows them to supplement their family's food budget. But now a new...

Community helps mother.(THE GOODNESS OF AMERICA)(Karen Champagne )
January 7, 2008... Karen Champagne of Fairfield, Maine, and her nine children have gone through a very difficult time of their lives. Four years ago, Champagne's husband took his own life after a lengthy battle with mental illness. As one might imagine, the...

How China became communist: to understand why Mao triumphed, it is necessary to look beyond the battlefields in China to the fateful decisions emanating from Yalta and Washington.(HISTORY--PAST AND PERSPECTIVE)
January 7, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The People's Republic of China has become a formidable player on the world stage. It threatens the United States both economically and militarily. Its economic clout, and how that clout was acquired despite the fact...

Vicious and rabid.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(Brief article)
January 7, 2008... On June 15, an 87-year-old Holly, Colorado, resident named Elie Rushton "was sitting on her deck, enjoying the sunshine when [a] coyote attacked," reported wstm. com. The coyote ran across the yard, up the stairs, and jumped on Elie, biting her...

He ignored the money.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(Brief article)
January 7, 2008... An unidentified man who reeked of alcohol entered Joe's Cleaners in Dallas, Texas, on October 8, stayed briefly, and then exited. A few minutes later, he came back with a gun. Joe Baggett, the owner, backed away from the register and told the...

Assuring his own arrest.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(Brief article)
January 7, 2008... Eighteen-year-old Brandon Stewart participated in an armed robbery with his two pals, Sergio Vann and Detavias Davis. They tried to steal a laptop computer from an on-duty security guard at a strip mall in Dallas. The security guard,...

A touch of poetic justice.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(Brief article)
January 7, 2008... When Adrian and Tiffany McKinnon returned to their Montgomery, Alabama, house on October 16 after a week away, they discovered that they had been robbed--not just of valuables, but of almost everything they owned that had any monetary value....

Blind confidence.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(Brief article)
January 7, 2008... Twenty-eight-year-old Cevaughn Curtis, Jr. told police after his arrest that he went to 75-year-old Arthur Williams' house not to rob him but to buy beer--at 3 a.m. According to police, Curtis went to Williams' house, "knocked on the door, and...

Inside job.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(Brief article)
January 7, 2008... An unidentified 84-year-old Houston, Texas, woman shot an intruder in her home on October 26. The intruder had seen her husband leave the premises, and so he thought the house was empty. She heard him enter and then shot him with her pistol,...

Subsidizing moonshine.(Correction, Please!)(Viewpoint essay)
January 7, 2008... ITEM: The Associated Press reported on December 6 that "House Democratic leaders are optimistic that they can pass an energy bill that would repeal billions of dollars in oil industry tax breaks and for the first time in decades require a major...

A primer about the Fed.(THE LAST WORD)(United States. Federal Reserve Board)(Viewpoint essay)
January 7, 2008... The Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) announced on December 11 its decision to lower interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point. Some financial analysts applauded; others complained that the cut was too small. ...

Wants more documentation.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the editor)
January 21, 2008... For a long time my husband and I have enjoyed reading THE NEW AMERICAN and learning about issues that no other media covers. It is a great magazine. However, one oversight undercuts 95 percent of the effectiveness in spreading the...

Terrorist was left loose to give cause for war.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the editor)
January 21, 2008... Your recent article about the strange dealings of our government with a top al-Qaeda operative, Ali Mohamed, may be better understood in a historical light of the casus belli. The Latin term, meaning a cause (or excuse) for war, has been...

The meaning of Iowa.(Inside Track)(Brief article)
January 21, 2008... It has been said that the only "polls" that count are those that take place on election day. As we go to press, the first such poll results are now known for the nation's first presidential caucus in Iowa. On the Republican side of the...

Bill to extend FISA surveillance powers stalls in senate.(Inside Track)(Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act)(Brief article)
January 21, 2008... A bill that the Bush administration is lobbying Congress to pass in support of the "war on terrorism" has stalled in the Senate. The legislation would permanently extend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 so that the government...

FBI aims for world's largest biometrics database.(Inside Track)(Federal Bureau of Investigation)(Brief article)
January 21, 2008... The FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services Division, which is located in Clarksburg, West Virginia, has launched a $1 billion effort to build the world's largest computer database of people's physical characteristics, termed "biometrics."...

Pakistan in chaos following Bhutto's assassination.(Inside Track)(Benazir Bhutto )
January 21, 2008... Following the brutal assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on December 27, the nuclear-armed nation nominally led by U.S.-supported strongman Pervez Musharraf descended into violence and chaos. Bhutto, who had returned...

Many illegal immigrants are "self-deporting".(Inside Track)(Brief article)
January 21, 2008... An increasing number of illegal immigrants have begun leaving the United States voluntarily and returning to their native countries. A December 24 Reuters news service report on this topic featured interviews with several illegal immigrants...

Wisconsin measure would prevent "emergency" gun confiscation.(Inside Track)(Brief article)
January 21, 2008... On November 15, 2007, a public heating was held in Wisconsin for a measure sponsored by Republican State Representative Scott Gunderson that would prevent state and local law enforcement officials from confiscating guns and ammunition from...

Bush signs stringent energy bill.(Inside Track)(George W. Bush)(Brief article)
January 21, 2008... President Bush signed H.R. 6, the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, into law on December 19, ushering in the next era of government regulation of our nation's energy marketplace. Notable provisions of the new law include: *...

Six years and counting with no global warming.(Inside Track)(Brief article)
January 21, 2008... You wouldn't know it from the dramatic, tearful pronouncements of doom that emanated from the UN's recently concluded climate summit in Bali. Nor would Al Gore be likely to let on. But the really, really inconvenient truth is that, for six...

Huckabee claims heaven is behind his boost in the polls.(QuickQuotes)( Mike Huckabee )(Brief article)
January 21, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "There is only one explanation for it, and it's not a human one. It's the same power that helped a little boy with two fishes and five loaves feed a crowd of 5,000 people.... And I'm not being facetious." Speaking at...

Pulling out of race, he claims success for his anti-illegal immigration stand.(QuickQuotes)(Tom Tancredo )(Brief article)
January 21, 2008... "All I've heard is people trying to out-Tancredo Tancredo." As he announced his withdrawal from the nomination process, Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo said he had accomplished making the illegal immigration problem a major campaign issue. He...

Al-Qaeda's media campaigns continue to impress.(QuickQuotes)(Brief article)
January 21, 2008... "I think their media capability is as sophisticated as ever. It shows how this group with seventh-century ideology is exploiting 21st-century media capabilities." Al-Qaeda's media arm known as Al-Sahab has issued an invitation for others...

Colorado moves against electronic voting machines.(QuickQuotes)(Brief article)
January 21, 2008... "The bell has been rung on the problems of electronic voting machines." When thousands of Colorado's electronic voting machines were decertified because of untrustworthiness by the state's secretary of state, Senate Majority Leader Ken Gordon,...

Creation institute given permission to operate online in Texas.(QuickQuotes)(Brief article)
January 21, 2008... "The harmful consequences of evolutionary thinking on families and society (abortion, promiscuity, drug abuse, homosexuality and many others) are evident all around us" State of Texas education authorities have granted permission for the...

Laotians who allied with U.S. forces are still hunted by the communist government.(QuickQuotes)(Xang Yang)(Brief article)
January 21, 2008... "If I surrender, I will be punished. They will never forgive me. I cannot live outside the jungle because I am a former American soldier." Claiming to have been attacked twice during 2007 by the Laotian Army, Xang Yang and a small group of...

Senator asks a very good question.(QuickQuotes)(Claire McCaskill)(Brief article)
January 21, 2008... "Why is it that hundreds of bar owners can be sanctioned in Missouri for letting somebody with a fake ID have a beer, but we can't manage to sanction hundreds of employers for letting people use fake identities to obtain a job?" Missouri's...

What congress can do for this American: one of the best-kept secrets of our constitutional system, it seems, is that Congress can effectively nullify Roe v. Wade--and other judicial abuses--through legislation.(RIGHT TO LIFE)(Viewpoint essay)
January 21, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The right to life. The Ten Commandments. Prayer in schools. Flag desecration. Same-sex marriage. As the federal courts consider cases that involve the most deep-seated convictions of Americans and issues upon...

Growing debate over abortifacients: abortifacients, drugs or agents that cause an abortion, are commonly sold to women who think they are getting substances that prevent conception altogether.(RIGHT TO LIFE)
January 21, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Generally speaking, the average American, whether pro-life or pro-abortion, is aware that the number of abortions committed in this country is in the millions. Both the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the Alan...

Two who survived: both Tim Tebow and Gianna Jessen escaped the death sentence of abortion and now inspire others by their full, active lives.(RIGHT TO LIFE)(Biography)
January 21, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] At the Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square, a cluster of reporters and photographers watch a large screen. ESPN is broadcasting, live, the Heisman Memorial Trophy presentation at the nearby Nokia Theater, and the press...

Looking for a better life.(THE RIGHT PERSPECTIVE)
January 21, 2008... Many of us have heard the often-repeated phrase, "They are just looking for a better life," referring to the illegal aliens flooding into the United States. That may be true for some--we don't know--but for some it is absolutely false. Case in...

The subprime crisis: the U.S. government has announced that it will aid Americans affected by the subprime mortgage debacle, but the "aid" will merely delay and worsen the consequences.(ECONOMY)(Viewpoint essay)
January 21, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Back before the dawn of the new millennium, years of rampant money creation on the part of the Federal Reserve combined with paranoia over the supposedly insolvable Y2K bug to create the perfect economic storm. As...

Like sheep led to the slaughter: Judge Andrew Napolitano's latest work, A Nation of Sheep, summarizes the relentless abuse of God-given natural rights tolerated by fearful and apathetic Americans.(Book review)
January 21, 2008... A Nation of Sheep, Andrew P. Napolitano, Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2007, 240 pages, hardcover, $22.95. (To order online, go to aobs-store.com, then click on "new products.") No one has distilled the proper relationship between man and...

Courageous rescue in Utah.(THE GOODNESS OF AMERICA)
January 21, 2008... One morning last November, Bob and Ann Turner left their home in Ogden, Utah, with their four-year-old granddaughter, Meleah, on a trip to purchase coal near the town of Huntington, two and a half hours southward. After topping off their...

Turkey project takes off.(THE GOODNESS OF AMERICA)
January 21, 2008... Back in 1997, Dottie Ogden of River Edge, New Jersey, used a coupon to get a free frozen turkey from her local supermarket. She was then surprised to discover that her purchase qualified her for a second tree turkey. After discussing the...

Serious about silly string.(THE GOODNESS OF AMERICA)(Brief article)
January 21, 2008... Last year, Marcelle Shriver, who lives in a New Jersey suburb across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, received a strange request from her son, who was stationed in Ramadi, Iraq. He and his fellow soldiers were in desperate need of Silly...

Before Roe v. Wade: attitudes against abortion developed slowly in America, but by 1900, every state in the Union had anti-abortion laws. it took a liberal onslaught (and Roe v. Wade) to reverse this.(HISTORY--PAST AND PERSPECTIVE)(Viewpoint essay)
January 21, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Pro-abortion forces typically exaggerate the number of abortions performed prior to legalization and paint a dreadful historical picture where millions of desperate women met their demise at the hands of quack...

He was warned to stop.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(Brief article)
January 21, 2008... At 11:45 p.m. on September 17, Salem, Oregon, resident Yev Gerasimenko, holding his four-day-old baby in one arm, answered a knock at the door. Outside were two men, asking for a person whom Gerasimenko had never heard of. He quickly closed the...

Killing with no remorse.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(Brief article)
January 21, 2008... According to the Detroit News, "On September 21, Taylor resident Amanda Brown was sitting in a truck in a parking lot in Hamtramck when a man walked up and shot her in the head. The carjacker pulled Brown from the truck and drove away, only to...

Stopped a little too late.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)
January 21, 2008... On November 15 at a little after 6:00 a.m., a Pulaski County, Missouri. deputy was racing to the aid of a couple who had just tackled and apprehended a 15-year-old boy armed with a baseball bat who had broken into their mobile home. As the...

No fear of police.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(Brief article)
January 21, 2008... An unidentified Troy, Michigan, man "had just gotten into his car after a dinner out with friends" in Detroit, reported the Detroit Free Press, when four men walked up to his car. They intended to carjack him. One of the four, 18-year-old...

Early riser.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(Brief article)
January 21, 2008... A Fort Bend County, Texas, man who rises early went to feed his cats on October 11, and he saw that a side door to his garage was open. He called the police, but even as he did, he saw two men near his garage. One was acting as a lookout while...

Putin is Time Magazine's person of the year.(correction, Please!)(Vladimir Putin)
January 21, 2008... ITEM: Time magazine for December 20, 2007 announced its selection of Russia's head oligarch, President Vladimir Putin, as its "Person of the Year" for 2007. In "Choosing Order Before Freedom," an article explaining Time's choice penned by...

Crash goes the "consensus".(THE LAST WORD)
January 21, 2008... The year 2007 will go down as the "Year of Fear," in which a mob of militant enviro-activists, UN bureaucrats, prattling politicians, and Hollywood leftists largely succeeded in creating a climate of hysteria over climate change. The hysteria...