The New American articles from July 2003

The New American archives from July 2003

Shedding light on Edison. (Letters to the Editor).(Letter to the Editor)
July 14, 2003... Regarding your article on Thomas Edison (June 30th issue), "The Man Who Lit Up the World" was Nicola Tesla, not Edison. And because of Tesla's more Christian character, Tesla deserves an article in THE NEW AMERICAN more than Edison. Edison...

The founders and the fed. (Letters to the Editor).(Letter to the Editor)
July 14, 2003... In "Deflating the Deflation Myth" (June 30th issue) you left out the most important point: There is no authorization for a Federal Reserve Board in the Constitution. Article 1, Section 8 authorizes Congress "To coin Money, regulate the Value...

Restorationist Rebellion. (Letters to the Editor).(Letter to the Editor)
July 14, 2003... I would like to comment regarding "The Restorationist Rebellion" by Georgia Hamann (June 2nd issue). I was born in 1942 during WWII, and I grew up during the Korean War. Early on I learned to become self-reliant, spending a great deal of time...

What was Martha's Crime? (Insider Report).
July 14, 2003... "Martha Stewart is being prosecuted not for who she is, but because of what she did," insisted federal prosecutor James B. Comey, unveiling the federal indictment against the high-profile entrepreneur. Stewart is accused of securities fraud for...

WMDs in California? (Insider Report).(Brief Article)
July 14, 2003... Bush administration officials and loyalists continually remind us that Iraq is roughly the size of California. Supposedly this accounts for our inability to find Saddam's much-discussed weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), which, according to...

Bill Clinton as NATO chief? (Insider Report).(Brief Article)
July 14, 2003... "One of Norway's most highly profiled and right-wing politicians, Carl I. Hagen, is urging the nomination of former U.S. President Bill Clinton as new NATO boss," reported Norway's Aftenposten on June 17th. Hagen, head of Norway's Progress...

Homosexual "marriage" in Canada. (Insider Report).(Brief Article)
July 14, 2003... On June 17th, "The Canadian cabinet approved a new national policy... to open marriage to gay couples, paving the way for Canada to become the third country to allow same-sex unions," reported the New York Times. This decision came a week...

Reconsidering Roe. (Insider Report).(Brief Article)
July 14, 2003... Thirty years ago, Norma McCorvey, as "Jane Roe," served as plaintiff in the case Roe v. Wade. The Supreme Court's decision in that case mowed down all existing state laws protecting unborn human beings from abortion. On June 17th, McCorvey --...

Condemnation for EU constitution. (Insider Report).(Brief Article)
July 14, 2003... Poland's president, "former" Communist Aleksander Kwasniewski, "denounced the 'Godless' tone of the European constitution [on June 3rd], calling it shameful to highlight the pet ideologies of the Left but omit any mention of Europe's Christian...

Trotsky's Ghost in the White House? (Insider Report).
July 14, 2003... For several years, various publications and commentators (including THE NEW AMERICAN) have noted the rise of a faction called "neoconservatives," whose most prominent spokesmen and theoreticians are disciples of Soviet founding father Leon...

Is congress AWOL? (Cover Story: Congress).(Cover Story)
July 14, 2003... While the Bush administration has aggressively strengthened the Executive Branch -- even to the detriment of liberty -- Congress has meekly surrendered its constitutional powers. The Roman Republic produced no greater statesman than Cicero....

Peace sells--but who's buying? Rather than becoming more deeply immersed in the Middle East morass, the U.S. should disengage--in the interest of peace. (Middle East).
July 14, 2003... "The Holy Land must be shared between the state of Palestine and the State of Israel living in peace with each other," declared President Bush during the June 3rd Israeli-Palestinian summit in Aqaba, Jordan. Called to endorse a "Road Map" for...

The four a.m. knock: the deepening Iraqi occupation follows a familiar terrorist script that uses American troops to carry out a mission that will only create more anti-American hatred. (Iraq).
July 14, 2003... The invasion of Iraq put an end to Saddam Hussein's dictatorship, which was symbolized by the dreaded "four a.m. knock on the door." Why, then, are Iraqis -- the supposed beneficiaries of liberation -- still facing that proverbial police state...

The conservative index: our first look at the 108th Congress shows how every member of the House and Senate voted on key issues, including abortion, the debt limit increase, and tax reductions. (Congress).(Illustration)
July 14, 2003... House Vote Descriptions 1 Fiscal 2003 Omnibus Appropriations. The final version (conference report) of House Joint Resolution 2 would provide $397 billion in fiscal 2003 for all Cabinet departments and government agencies covered in 11...

River rescue. (The Goodness of America).
July 14, 2003... Wisconsin resident Pedro Cruz has broken his back twice. For about a year he has used an electric wheelchair to get around. He and wife Karin Mendez-Cruz regularly walk their large dogs, preferring to do so alone to avoid frightening other...

Teens track carjacker. (The Goodness of America).(Brief Article)
July 14, 2003... Roy Madrill, 17, and Chris Martinez, 16, attend Pima Prevention High School in Tucson, Arizona. They also work as mentors at a youth drug-prevention program in downtown Tucson. On May 3rd, while on their way to work, they stopped to get gas...

Good scout. (The Goodness of America).(Honor Medal with Crossed Palms )
July 14, 2003... The Honor Medal with Crossed Palms is Scouting's highest award for heroism. The latest youth to receive it is 17-year-old Kurt Pfeifer of Baldwin, Missouri. On the morning of March 2,2002, Kurt, along with his parents, began a trip to see...

Outfoxing the British: Francis "Swamp Fox" Marion used ingenuity and unorthodox tactics to play a significant role in the War for Independence. (History--Struggle for Freedom).
July 14, 2003... General Francis Marion's heart must have sunk as he halted his men at the edge of the pine barrens around Fort Watson, South Carolina, on April 16, 1781. Situated on a 30- to 40-foot-high ancient Santee Indian mound, the fort was surrounded by...

Robbery foiled. (Exercising the Right).( Citizens on Patrol Program)
July 14, 2003... Harold McKinney of Northside, Ohio, is one of more than 500 citizens involved in Cincinnati's Citizens on Patrol Program. COPP members, armed with police radios and cell phones, assist police by walking the streets of 21 neighborhoods,...

Parolee loses dispute. (Exercising the Right).(Brief Article)
July 14, 2003... Shortly after 4 a.m. on May 19th, Jason Valdez, 28, arrived at a home in Ogden, Utah, to retrieve some of his belongings from the couple living there. The couple, not identified in press accounts, were storing a car and sundry other items for...

Gun shop targeted. (Exercising the Right).(Brief Article)
July 14, 2003... John Wolfram, 54, owns Mailorder Gun Connection in Meritt Island, Florida. Shortly before 4 a.m. on May 23rd, his store's alarm sounded and Wolfram rushed to the shop. When he arrived, he found the door open and an air conditioning unit lying...

Correction Please!(Hillary Clinton's book 'Living History' )
July 14, 2003... ITEM: NBC's Katie Couric praised Hillary Clinton's book Living History as a "very candid" memoir. The June 4th Today show relayed without skepticism Mrs. Clinton's claims of ignorance about Mr. Clinton's philandering. "Hillary's heartache,"...

A "hole in the constitution"? (The Last Word).(Continuity of Government Commission proprosal)
July 14, 2003... Now comes a commission of the great and the good with a proposed constitutional reform to save us in our hour of need. At a June 4th Washington, D.C., press conference, the Continuity of Government Commission (CGC) darkly warned that a...

Keeping scouting morally straight.(Letters to the Editor)(Letter to the Editor)
July 28, 2003... Regarding "Emptying the Cradle of Liberty" by Hans Zeiger in your June 30th issue, I agree with Hans but he needed to clarify the statement, "Local parents must withdraw their children from their troops [in Philadelphia's Cradle of Liberty Boy...

Photo-op Patriotism.(Letters to the Editor)(Letter to the Editor)
July 28, 2003... Your June 2nd article "Photo-op Patriotism" mentioned Bill Clinton's "notorious 'victory walk'" through the bowels of the Staples Center during the 2000 Democratic Convention. In a rare lapse, THE NEW AMERICAN failed to mention that Clinton...

John Wayne on McCarthy.(Letters to the Editor)(Letter to the Editor)
July 28, 2003... Your recent article about the late Senator Joseph McCarthy ("McCarthy Targeted--Again," June 16th issue) brought to mind a story told to me by the late John Wayne that I would like to put on the record. Around the early part of 1964 John...

Potter-mania's dark side.(Insider Report)(Harry Potter)(Brief Article)
July 28, 2003... Has the Harry Potter hoopla helped popularize witchcraft? THE NEW AMERICAN, along with several Christian and conservative groups, has pointed out that Potter author J.K. Rowling saturates her children's fantasy books with occult imagery. Yet...

Daddy dearest.(Insider Report)(James Watson on abortion)(Brief Article)
July 28, 2003... In an essay published by the May 1973 issue of the AMA Prism, James Watson --the man who cracked the genetic code--argued on behalf of murdering, on eugenicist grounds, infants born with birth defects. "If a child were not declared alive until...

Toward a World Central Bank.(Insider Report)(global currency)
July 28, 2003... The 10th Santa Colomba Conference, held in that Italian city in late June, examined the question: "Does the Global Economy Need a Global Currency?" According to former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, the answer is a resounding "Yes"--a...

Outsourcing--a case study.(Insider Report)(offshore labor)(Brief Article)
July 28, 2003... Greenville, South Carolina-based Kemet Corporation, which manufactures electrical parts for computers and cell phones, announced plans on July 2nd to cut 650 jobs "as it relocates several plants to cheaper manufacturing facilities in China and...

Bush-era regulatory orgy.(Insider Report)(George W. Bush)(Brief Article)
July 28, 2003... "The Bush administration, philosophically wedded to the idea of smaller government, issued a record-high number of pages of new federal regulations last year," reported the July 8th Washington Post. Citing a new report issued by the Cato...

Bush's transformation of the GOP.(Insider Report)(George W. Bush transforms Republican Party)
July 28, 2003... "A systematic effort by President Bush to enlist members of his party's conservative wing in the White House, and to champion touchstone conservative issues, has produced a unified base for him from this sometimes wayward faction of the...

"Unborn mothers" on the horizon?(Insider Report)(test-tube babies)(Brief Article)
July 28, 2003... "A quarter of a century ago the first test-tube baby, Louise Brown, was born," noted the London Independent on July 1st. "Now scientists have raised another startling prospect--'unborn mothers.'" "Scientists announced [on June 30th] that...

The genius of Nikola Tesla.(The Right Perspective)(Biography)
July 28, 2003... Just as we acknowledge the greatness of Thomas Edison ("The Man Who Lit Up the World" by William Hoar, in THE NEW AMERICAN'S June 30th issue), we must also acknowledge the genius of Nikola Tesla. As Margaret Cheney and Robert Uth write in...

Reigning Supreme: the Supreme Court decision striking down state anti-sodomy laws seriously escalates the culture war--and grievously undermines our constitutional order.(Federalism)
July 28, 2003... Justice Antonin Scalia was devastatingly blunt in his dissenting opinion in the Supreme Court's June 26th decision Lawrence v. Texas. "It is clear... that the Court has taken sides in the culture war, departing from its role of assuring, as...

Courting immorality: contrary to the Supreme Court's revolutionary claim in Lawrence v. Texas, state governments have a compelling interest to protect against threats to public morality.(Morality)
July 28, 2003... Has the U.S. Supreme Court struck a mighty blow for liberty and constitutional enrichment with its ruling in Lawrence v. Texas? One might suppose so, to judge from the bipartisan voices praising the High Court's June 26th opinion. ...

Reining in the Court: the Constitution offers Congress powerful means to deal with an increasingly lawless judiciary.(Solution)
July 28, 2003... How should we deal with a renegade federal court? This question has been asked by constitutionalists with increasing frequency in recent years, as outrageous judicial rulings accumulate. Last year, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled...

Shouldn't be a federal case: affirmative action, like myriad other topics including anti-sodomy laws, should not be a subject for the federal courts to decide.(Affirmative Action)
July 28, 2003... The Supreme Court on June 23rd upheld 5-4 the University of Michigan's affirmative action policy for its law school. That policy seeks an enrollment of a "critical mass" of minority students. In light of that decision, we are reprinting below...

Bring on the peacekeepers? By planning a global peacekeeping army, the Bush administration stays on course for a UN-dominated world.(Iraq)(George W. Bush)
July 28, 2003... To judge from the media's reaction, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's June 26th speech calling for a U.S.-led world peacekeeping army represented an abrupt change of policy for Washington. Addressing a group of defense contractors, Rumsfeld...

Bordering on insanity: Bush Republicans and Clinton Democrats are united in supporting immigration policies giving thugs and terrorists easy access into America.(Immigration)(George W. Bush, Bill Clinton)
July 28, 2003... Rookie police officer Tony Zeppetella was making a routine traffic stop in Oceanside, California, on June 13th. According to court reports, Officer Zeppetella was walking back toward his patrol car when the driver of the vehicle he had stopped...

Pistol-packing preacher.(Making A Difference)(Kenneth Blanchard)
July 28, 2003... Kenneth Blanchard of Prince George's County, Maryland, is known as the "Pistol Packing Preacher," the title of a motivational compact disc he produced primarily for black and Hispanic audiences. He is, according to Maryland writer James L....

Commencement victory.(Making A Difference)(Rachel Honer wins free speech case)
July 28, 2003... Rachel Honer, 18, recently graduated from Winneconne High School in Winneconne, Wisconsin. Anxious to participate in the June 8th commencement, she asked Principal Jim Smasal a few weeks in advance if she could sing during the ceremony. Smasal...

Manifest destiny: many 19th-century Americans believed their young nation was destined to extend the benefits of freedom and opportunity across the continent--from sea to shining sea.(History--Struggle For Freedom)
July 28, 2003... It was in 1845 that a New York editor spoke for the nation by coining the phrase Manifest Destiny. According to editor John L. O'Sullivan, it was "our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development...

Disabled, not disarmed.(Exercising The Right)(self-defense)(Brief Article)
July 28, 2003... At around 12:30 p.m. on June 2nd, a 64-year-old retired paramedic was at home in Tacoma, Washington, when he heard someone kick in the back door. The homeowner, who was bedridden due to a disability, armed himself with a handgun and called 911....

Equalizer.(Exercising The Right)(Charlotte Johnson shoots stalker)(Brief Article)
July 28, 2003... On June 2nd, Charlotte Johnson of Muncie, Indiana, filed a police report claiming that a former boyfriend, Tommy Page, had been stalking her. Two days later, at about 9:15 p.m., Page rang the doorbell at Johnson's home. When she answered, and...

Neighborhood feud.(Exercising The Right)(justifiable homicide)
July 28, 2003... Robert Danjanic of Yakima County, Washington, suffered a head injury from a fall a few years ago and was plagued thereafter with sundry psychiatric problems. In 2001, for instance, he barricaded himself in his home after allegedly striking his...

Still doing his job.(Exercising The Right)(Robert Strickland)(Brief Article)
July 28, 2003... Michigan resident Robert Strickland, 57, joined the Detroit Police Department in 1967 and retired on disability as a sergeant in 1986. At 12:50 a.m. on June 5th, while walking toward a lounge on the city's east side, he was approached by...

More entitlements.(Correction, Please!)(drug benefits for seniors)
July 28, 2003... ITEM: Reporter Campbell Brown, on NBC's Today show for June 11th, played down the size of a new entitlement being debated in Congress, extolling: "New hope for the 40 million seniors on Medicare. Next week the Senate is expected to pass a...

Celebrating treason.(Correction, Please!)(Julius and Ethel Rosenberg)(Brief Article)
July 28, 2003... ITEM: On the 50th anniversary of the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, reported the Associated Press on June 17th, "[Pete] Seeger, Susan Sarandon, Harry Belafonte and other show business activists will appear at a benefit for the...

The price of peacekeeping.(Correction, Please!)(peacekeeping in Iraq)
July 28, 2003... ITEM: "Bush administration officials," reported the June 22nd Washington Post, "after months of diplomatic effort, proudly discussed their expectation that more than 40 countries will combine to send at least 20,000 troops to help U.S. forces...

Targeting scouts, then your church.(The Last Word)(Boy Scouts of America policy on gays)
July 28, 2003... First the good news. On June 9th, the board of directors of Philadelphia's local Cradle of Liberty Boy Scout Council announced that it was reversing the new policy it had adopted in May of accepting homosexuals as members and leaders. This new...