The New American articles from July 2008

The New American archives from July 2008

"Abuses" are not torture.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the editor)
July 7, 2008... I am disappointed in you for publishing the article "Top-level Torture" (June 9 issue) by Becky Akers. I'm labeling it intentionally misleading, unless you can clarify questions found in the article. Torture is generally described as the...

Good call.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the editor)
July 7, 2008... In the Inside Track of THE NEW AMERICAN dated January 8, 2007, I read how government-issued nickel and copper coinage was costing too much to mint. The article informed us that the penalty for melting down the pennies and nickels would result...

Socialist Christians.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the editor)
July 7, 2008... As a Baptist pastor, I am impressed with Gene Papke's comments to the editor in the March 17 issue of TNA, in which he says the tax rebate violates Scripture because it taxes our descendants. As a Bible-believing Christian, Papke can look at...

Different coverage please.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the editor)
July 7, 2008... For the issue entitled "Presidential Frontrunners" (May 26 issue): the introduction page by the editor would have been better suited to comment on just how the Council on Foreign Relations managed to put McLame (McCain) in the front position....

Indiana Jones film offers rare negative portrayal of Soviets.(Inside Track)(Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull )(Movie review)(Brief article)
July 7, 2008... Nostalgia for previous Indiana Jones productions guaranteed that the fourth film in this series would be a box-office success. Starring an aging Harrison Ford, the two-hour, action-packed Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull...

Ron Paul ends his campaign for president, starts a new venture.(Inside Track)(Brief article)
July 7, 2008... With a letter sent to supporters on June 12, and with a speech delivered at a rally coinciding with the Texas GOP convention in Houston that same day, Congressman Ron Paul ended his campaign for the presidential nomination of the Republican...

Senate climate change bill crashes.(Inside Track)
July 7, 2008... On Monday, June 2, the U.S. Senate began deliberating on the Climate Security Act (S. 3036), in what many hoped would mark the start of a historic debate. But progress was thwarted by partisan bickering over judicial nominations and by...

Top Iranian's explanation for high oil prices.(Inside Track)(Brief article)
July 7, 2008... If even a stopped clock can tell the right time twice a day, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the leader of the world's fourth-largest oil exporter, just might have given the world a rational partial explanation for high oil prices...

Oops! California Democrat leaks desire to nationalize oil.(Inside Track)(Maxine Waters)(Brief article)
July 7, 2008... During a recent hearing of the House Judiciary Committee dealing with rising oil prices, John Hofmeister, the president of Shell Oil, testified: "I can guarantee to the American people, because of the inaction of the United States Congress,...

Gingrich issues curious comments about terror attacks.(Inside Track)(Newt Gingrich)(Brief article)
July 7, 2008... On tour promoting Days of Infamy, a new novel about World War II he coauthored with history professor William Forstchen, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich responded during a Q&A session at a New York bookstore with an unusual, even...

Bilderberger Confab in United States goes unreported ... again.(Inside Track)
July 7, 2008... The ultra-elite Bilderberg Group held its annual secret meeting at the sealed-off Westfields Marriott Hotel in Chantilly, Virginia, near Washington, D.C., June 5-8. Attendees at Bilderberger gatherings comprise the A-list of global power...

Bush, Bilderbergers push EU membership for Turkey.(Inside Track)(Brief article)
July 7, 2008... The increasing presence of representatives from Turkey--both corporate executives and government officials--at the annual Bilderberg conferences has coincided with stepped-up pressure from the White House, the State Department, and the...

California speeds toward same-sex "marriages".(QuickQuotes)(Brief article)
July 7, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "This is another 4-to-3 vote for legal chaos." Requests from two conservative groups and from attorneys general in 10 states wanted California authorities to bar same-sex ceremonies until the results of a ballot...

Clean up your language says famous author.(QuickQuotes)(David McCullongh)(Brief article)
July 7, 2008... "Please, please do what you can to cure the verbal virus that seems increasingly rampant among your generation. Just imagine if in his inaugural address John F. Kennedy had said, 'Ask not what your country can, you know, do for you, but what...

L.A. school department wants no criticism of affirmative action.(QuickQuotes)(Los Angeles)(Brief article)
July 7, 2008... "I suspect that Bookends, and by extension the L.A. United School District, simply doesn't like the book's message about the destructive nature of affirmative action." Author Tony Robles authored the politically incorrect Joey Gonzalez,...

Media world will miss Tim Russert.(QuickQuotes)(Brief article)
July 7, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "An election without Russert will be like Oz without the Wizard." Former GOP media adviser Mark McKinnon said what many others felt about the recently deceased NBC star.

Healthcare for illegal immigrants costing billions.(QuickQuotes)(Brief article)
July 7, 2008... "Thanks to the federal government's lax border enforcement, more than 12 million illegal aliens residing in the U.S. are bankrupting our hospitals." As chairman of the Washington Legal Foundation, Daniel Popeo noted that 15 hospitals in...

Like everyone, restaurant owners are hurting because of rising costs.(QuickQuotes)(Brief article)
July 7, 2008... "A 30-pound sack office has risen steadily this year to $43 from $22, while a 15-pound bag of flour has gone to $22 from $8 and a 4.6-gallon container of canola oil is up to $34 from $18 or less." The owner of a restaurant in New York City,...

Negotiations about a U.S.-Iraq security pact at a standstill.(QuickQuotes)(Brief article)
July 7, 2008... "The Iraqi demands are unacceptable to the Americans, and the American demands are unacceptable to the Iraqis, and the result is that we have reached an impasse." Immunity from prosecution for American civilian contractors is only one...

Why so high? Multiple factors are driving up the price of fuel, including inflation of the dollar by the Federal Reserve and overdependence on foreign oil. All of these factors must be addressed in order to find a long-term solution.(GASOLINE)(Cover story)
July 7, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In early March a sign in front of a Citgo station read Regular/Unleaded: $3.19 per gallon, and I told my companion, "That's absurd! Why would anyone buy gas there?" We'd just left a "cut-rate" station where it cost...

A tale of two reactors: the different destinies of two almost-twin nuclear reactors provide a forecast of our country's energy prospects if we don't heed the futures they foreshadow.(ENERGY)(Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant and Millstone 1 Nuclear Reactor)
July 7, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A nuclear power plant is arguably the most extraordinary product of engineering and scientific know-how in the history of mankind. Once every 18 months or so, a truckload of metal is delivered to the nuclear plant....

Shooting the messenger: seven years after 9/11, top Republicans and Democrats continue to block FBI whistle-blower Sibel Edmonds' revelations of high-level spies in the federal government.(TERRORISM)
July 7, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] For six years, Sibel Edmonds has been carrying out an heroic crusade to protect her adopted country from national security threats within the top levels of the American government. Hired as an FBI translator in the...

Did we get lied into war? Did the Bush administration use deliberate deception to bring America into war with Iraq? The Senate Intelligence Committee's June 2008 report may get us closer to the truth.(TERRORISM)(George W. Bush)
July 7, 2008... On June 5, the Senate Intelligence Committee, concluding five years of investigations (and partisan disagreements), released its report about whether the Bush administration had based its decision to attack Iraq on valid intelligence estimates...

Opposing Mugabe: the socialist rule of Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe has destroyed the economy of this once-prosperous African nation. Despite calls for "freedom," Mugabe is having none of it.(ZIMBABWE)
July 7, 2008... Morgan Tsvangirai may be the luckiest man in Africa. He has been for many years the most prominent foe of Zimbabwe's brutal dictator Robert Mugabe, and in spite of three assassination attempts, numerous arrests, and at least one savage beating...

Summoning superdelegates: the importance of superdelegates in this presidential election has been repeatedly referenced. Learn who these superdelegates are and how they are chosen.(ELECTIONS)
July 7, 2008... Before Sen. Barack Obama secured enough delegates to assure his nomination for president, it appeared that the contest between Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton, the early favorite of the Democratic party establishment, might be decided by the...

WWII's forgotten: Serbian heroes: Gregory Freeman's superb book, The Forgotten 500, recounts the story of the American and Allied airmen rescued by Serbian General Draza Mihailovich and his heroic fighters.(The Forgotten 500: The Untold Story of the Men Who Risked All for the Greatest Rescue Mission of World War II)(Book review)
July 7, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Forgotten 500: The Untold Story of the Men Who Risked All for the Greatest Rescue Mission of World War H, by Gregory A. Freeman, New York: The New American Library, 2007, 313 pages, hardcover, $23.95. Since...

An inspiring story of life.(THE GOODNESS OF AMERICA)
July 7, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Over a dozen years ago, doctors told the then-pregnant Stacey Santonastasso that her unborn child was afflicted with Hanhart syndrome type II, a rare condition that would result, they said, in her child being...

Doctor rescues teen.(THE GOODNESS OF AMERICA)(Dr. Bernard Boka)
July 7, 2008... In late April the Mississippi River off the town of Vidalia, Louisiana, was running very high and fast. It would crest at a near-record 57 feet that day. Defying the raging waters--and common sense--two teenage boys, an unidentified...

Teens helping the needy.(THE GOODNESS OF AMERICA)(Urban Roots)(Brief article)
July 7, 2008... During the past year, a program called Urban Roots, a branch of Youth Launch--a non-profit youth organization--has been transporting youth volunteers by bus to a farm in East Austin, Texas. Twice a week, more than a dozen East Austin high...

That significant, sensational signing: the signers of the Declaration of Independence knew that they might pay a price--yet they signed anyway. Over time, their sacrifices may have been exaggerated, but their true stories are fascinating enough without embellishment.(HISTORY--PAST AND PERSPECTIVE)
July 7, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] You might think that defying a powerful government, convening an illegal Congress, and signing one of liberty's most lyrical documents would be exciting enough for anyone. But no. Over the decades, folks have...

Warming legislation would chill economy.(Correction, Please!)
July 7, 2008... ITEM: The New York Times reported on June 2: "Some of the most powerful corporate leaders in America have been meeting regularly with leading environmental groups in a conference room in downtown Washington for over two years to work on...

New ways in Olde Town.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(Brief article)
July 7, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] As of early March, eight homes in the Olde Town neighborhood of Augusta, Georgia, had been burglarized over the span of a few months, but on March 6, Tim Asmann ensured that the frequency of break-ins in the area...

Upscale meets the hood.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(Brief article)
July 7, 2008... Upscale Boca Raton, Florida, is not where one would expect a gun battle to occur in broad daylight, yet that is what happened on May 7 at about 12:30 in the afternoon at the Town Square plaza. A jeweler, Leon Rozio, and his partner were...

Unexpected protection.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(Brief article)
July 7, 2008... At Sinkers Wine and Spirits in Inglewood, Tennessee, none of the store workers were prepared to fend off armed robbers, but one of their customers suffered no such impairment. When Devin Hogan of Memphis and an accomplice entered the liquor...

Criminal career cut short.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(Merterries Burton)(Brief article)
July 7, 2008... Merterries Burton "was a student at... an alternative school for middle and high school students with discipline problems," reported the Atlanta Journal Constitution, and in April had been charged with burglary. On May 9, a Friday afternoon,...

No more weapons.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(Brief article)
July 7, 2008... Tomohiro Kato, a 25-year-old Japanese man, rammed a rented truck into a crowd in a Tokyo shopping district on May 8 and then exited the truck and stabbed the fallen and any passersby. He "stabbed 17 people; seven of them died," reported AE In...

Irish voters say "No" to EU Treaty.(THE LAST WORD)(European Union's Lisbon Treaty)
July 7, 2008... Unlike the other 26 EU countries, a requirement in their national constitution gave Irish voters the opportunity to register their opinion of the EU's Lisbon Treaty. In each of the other states that make up the EU, parliaments have been making...

Gingrich staff responds.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the editor)
July 21, 2008... In the July 7 Inside Track item "Gingrich Issues Curious Comments About Terrorist Attacks," the author obtusely distorts Gingrich's statements, making it seem as if he wished for another terrorist attack. The accusation is absurd. Gingrich...

Nuclear-powered carriers.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the editor)
July 21, 2008... In the June 9 issue of TNA, I read with interest the article "Coal in Your Cars' Tank" on making gasoline and diesel fuel from nuclear-powered coal-to-liquid technology. In that article is a caption about the safety of nuclear power that...

Fact checking.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the editor)
July 21, 2008... I refer to the article "Top-level Torture" in the June 9 issue by Becky Akers. She writes that waterboarding was "beloved" by the Nazis and the Khmer Rouge. I don't know what the Khmer Rouge did, but I have never heard of nor have I seen...

Mugabe maintains stranglehold on Zimbabwe.(Inside Track)(Robert Mugabe)(Brief article)
July 21, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] On June 22, Zimbabwean opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew from his race to unseat dictator Robert Mugabe, who has terrorized Zimbabwe for more than two decades. After winning a narrow first electoral...

Warrantless-search legislation moves forward.(Inside Track)
July 21, 2008... The bill amending the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) would allow the government to engage in massive collection of American citizens' communications without a search warrant, clearly in violation of the Fourth Amendment, is moving...

Global-warming doomsayer wants to try oil company execs.(Inside Track)(Brief article)
July 21, 2008... James Hansen, an atmospheric scientist and the director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, has long been the most prominent scientific advocate of the catastrophic global-warming theory. However, on June 23, Dr. Hansen took an...

Supreme Court decision on Guantanamo detainees.(Inside Track)(Brief article)
July 21, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court, on June 12, struck down major portions of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA), which created military tribunals to hear the cases of suspected terrorists detained by...

Supreme Court rules against D.C. gun-control law.(Inside Track)
July 21, 2008... On June 26, by handing down a 5-4 decision in the case of District of Columbia v. Heller, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which had struck down provisions of the District's...

Oklahoma House affirms sovereignty over state powers.(Inside Track)(Brief article)
July 21, 2008... On March 13 the Oklahoma House passed House Joint Resolution 1089, sponsored by Rep. Charles Key and Sen. Randy Brogdon, "claiming sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over certain powers," by an...

Kissinger's Russian relationship should concern Congress.(Inside Track)(Henry Kissinger)
July 21, 2008... Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was in Moscow on June 17 to meet with newly installed Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, making Kissinger the first American to have an audience with Vladimir Putin's protege and personally selected...

Homeland Security is helping states to implement real ID.(Inside Track)(Brief article)
July 21, 2008... In the face of a widespread rebellion among the states against the unfunded Real ID mandate, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on June 20 demonstration grant awards totaling nearly $80 million to assist states in...

Evangelical leader disturbed by Obama's patriotic and religious attitudes.(QuickQuotes)(James Dobson, Barack Obama)(Brief article)
July 21, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "I think he's deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own world view, his own theology. [He also offers] a fruitcake interpretation of the Constitution and the lowest common...

Candidate angry about failed immigration policies.(QuickQuotes)(Chuck Baldwin)(Brief article)
July 21, 2008... "America's back is breaking from the burden of immigration policies that demand taxpayers pay to educate, incarcerate, medicate and house those who have broken into our country." Constitution Party presidential candidate Chuck Baldwin plans...

Awaiting trial, congressman expects God to help him.(QuickQuotes)(illiam Jefferson)(Brief article)
July 21, 2008... "My family and I have sworn a great oath to trust God and to fight on to vindicate our good name. This we will do." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Having pleaded not guilty to charges of soliciting millions in bribes, and after investigators...

California furniture maker displays catchy slogan.(QuickQuotes)
July 21, 2008... "Made in Chino, not China!" A factory owner in Chino, California, does not want anyone to think his community is part of China.

Talk host/lawyer condemns U.S. action in Iraq.(QuickQuotes)(Debbie Schlussel )(Brief article)
July 21, 2008... "By invading Iraq and handing it over to Shiites, Bush completed the mission that neither Khomeini nor Ahmadinejad ever could.... He ignited a Shiite revival--an extremist revival throughout not just the Middle East, but throughout the world....

He'll risk getting shot to get cheaper gasoline in Mexico.(QuickQuotes)(George Terrazas)(Brief article)
July 21, 2008... "I don't feel comfortable here, but I can't even fill the tank on the U.S. side." Mugged at gunpoint several months ago in Ciudad Juarez, George Terrazas nevertheless still travels across the border from his home in El Paso to purchase...

Former House speaker a big McCain fan.(QuickQuotes)(Newt Gingrich, John MacCain)(Brief article)
July 21, 2008... "No reasonable conservative is going to vote for anyone except McCain." Scoffing at the Ron Paul movement and dismissing the candidacies of Libertarian Bob Barr and Constitution Party candidate Chuck Baldwin, Newt Gingrich continued to...

NAFTA gets strong backing from GOP presidential candidate.(QuickQuotes)(North American Free Trade Agreement, Grand Old Party)(Brief article)
July 21, 2008... "For all the successes of NAFTA, we have to defend it without equivocation in political debate." Speaking in Canada, John McCain received a round of applause for his defense of the agreement that has been gently criticized by Barack Obama...

Apples to oranges? How the front-running candidates compare when the rhetoric is peeled away: a comparison between Barack Obama and John McCain may seem like comparing apples to oranges, but there is more to these candidates than meets the eye.(EXECUTIVE BRANCH)(Cover story)
July 21, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Every four years, the American presidential electoral burlesque gets underway with a flock of candidates vying to be anointed the Democratic or Republican standard-bearer, all the way to the Oval Office. Every one of...

When torture becomes standard: Standard Operating Procedure exposes the military's use of torture by quoting verbatim from prison personnel stationed at Abu Ghraib.
July 21, 2008... Standard Operating Procedure, by Philip Gourevitch and Errol Morris, New York: The Penguin Press, 2008, 286 pages, hardcover, $25.95. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "You had stress positions," recalls one of the soldiers guarding the...

The freedom index: a congressional scorecard based on the U.S. constitution.(CONGRESS)
July 21, 2008... Our third look at the 110th Congress shows how every representative and senator voted on key issues, such as economic stimulus, oil, the federal budget, mortgage relief and global warming. House Vote Descriptions 21 Head Start. The...

Tragic tornado brings out best in boy scouts.(THE GOODNESS OF AMERICA)
July 21, 2008... It was about 6:35 in the evening on June 11. Ninety-three Boy Scouts, aged 13 to 17, along with 25 scouting staff members, were gathered to attend a weeklong leadership training camp at the 1,800-acre Little Sioux Scout Ranch in the Loess Hills...

The bravest of the brave: the quintessential American hero is the member of the U.S. armed forces who holds the Medal of Honor. They may not all be well known, but they are all the bravest of the brave.(HISTORY--AMERICAN SPIRIT)
July 21, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] We are the land of the free for one reason and one reason only--because we are the home of the brave. --Peter Collier author, Medal of Honor Bravery. Courage. Gallantry. Intrepidity. Valor. These words have a...

Scrap metal.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(Brief article)
July 21, 2008... Machine shop owner Joseph Lord of Vienna, Maine, had $3,000 worth of scrap metal stolen from his shop on the weekend of June 1. In discovering his loss, it immediately occurred to Lord that the thieves would likely be back because they hadn't...

One out of two.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(Brief article)
July 21, 2008... On the night of May 20 at about 11:00, Quentin Durisseau of Missouri City, Texas, was watching TV when two men kicked in the rear door of the house. Durisseau retrieved a gun and exchanged shots with the intruders. He was uninjured, but one of...

Spoiling for a fight.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(Brief article)
July 21, 2008... Police officers in Brookings, Oregon, were answering a call about a fight in progress at a McDonald's parking lot when they received a second call saying that one of the fight's participants had drawn a gun. When police arrived on the scene,...

Homemade but deadly.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(Brief article)
July 21, 2008... A blackjack, or a sap, can be generally described as a leather pouch filled with lead shot at the end of a length of coiled spring and used as a short club. Blackjacks became notorious in the hands of police officers before widespread adherence...

Percolating problems.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(Brief article)
July 21, 2008... Joseph Murphy McRae got himself killed when he and his buddy Jeffrey Liles tried to ram a van through the front door of a coffee shop in Mount Gilead, North Carolina, so that they could burglarize it. According to wxiil2.com, "That's when...

Bush keeps executive padlock on OCS drilling.(Correction, Please!)(Outer Continental Shelf)
July 21, 2008... ITEM: In his widely reported energy policy speech on June 18, President Bush bitterly castigated congressional Democrats for obstructing domestic energy development. The president noted that he "has repeatedly called on Congress to expand...

Superhighway fight not over yet.(THE LAST WORD)
July 21, 2008... It was a full year ago when the New York Times carried a small 220-word article claiming that rumors about construction of a massive new highway system from Mexico through the United States into Canada were the product of "urban legend." But...