The New American articles from June 2006

The New American archives from June 2006

Injustice.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the editor)
June 12, 2006... In your May 1 "QuickQuotes," Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's comment in which she advocates the notion that the U.S. Constitution is open to interpretation is part of the influence that brought us to the advanced stage of chaos in this...

Moderating message.(Letter to the editor)
June 12, 2006... A story has been told that George Washington, during the cold and bitter winter of 1777, while in his quarters at Valley Forge, had a vision. It prophesied three great historic events: the War for Independence, the War Between the States, and...

Correction.(Correction notice)
June 12, 2006... In "Holding Congress Accountable" (May 15 issue), we erroneously showed current Reps. Mack (R-Fla.), Jones (R-N.C.), Duncan (R-Tenn.), and Ford (D-Tenn.) voting on the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act. In all four cases, the 1986 votes...

UN gun grab: it's back.(meetings of United Nation)(Brief article)
June 12, 2006... "We must not relax our efforts to combat the scourge of illicit small arms and light weapons, which continue to kill, maim and displace scores of thousands of innocent people every year." So declared UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on July 11,...

Revelations from Saddam's inner circle.(Saddam Hussein)(Brief article)
June 12, 2006... Following the fall of Baghdad in April 2003, the U.S. Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM) commissioned a detailed study of primary source accounts--both printed documents and accounts from captured senior Iraqi leaders--of Saddam's regime. A useful...

Dollar death watch continues.(against euros)(Brief article)
June 12, 2006... With the U.S. National Debt over $8 trillion, and our trade deficit exceeding $742 billion (more than 7 percent of our Gross National Product), central bankers "from Stockholm to Abu Dhabi [are] seeking shelter from the falling dollar,"...

Mexico's immigration double standard.
June 12, 2006... "If Arnold Schwarzenegger had migrated to Mexico instead of the United States, he couldn't be a governor. If Argentina native Sergio Villanueva, firefighter hero of the Sept. 11 attacks, had moved to Tecate instead of New York, he wouldn't have...

Italian election stolen by communists?(Giorgio Napolitano presidents election)
June 12, 2006... Giorgio Napolitano, usually described as a "former communist," was elected by the Italian parliament on May 10 to serve as Italy's president, the first communist to win the largely ceremonial post. The first and most important act that he...

Mexico protests border fence, threatens lawsuits over National Guard.(Brief article)
June 12, 2006... Mexico's foreign minister, Luis Ernesto Derbez, has been decrying and denouncing proposals by the U.S. government to enforce our border, which is annually violated by millions of people--both Mexicans and other nationalities--using his country...

Redistribution of wealth--or of workers.(Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on illegal immigrants in mexico)(Brief article)
June 12, 2006... During a May 16 campaign rally in Guamuchil, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the socialist candidate for the presidency of Mexico, denounced incumbent Vicente Fox for acting as a "puppet, a plaything of foreign governments." In the same populist...

Bible and Ten Commandments okay in Georgia.(Sonny Perdue)(Brief article)
June 12, 2006... On April 20, Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue signed one bill that permits the state's high schools to offer elective courses on the Bible and another that allows display of the Ten Commandments at courthouses. Local school districts will decide...

A harsh indictment of the Bush administration.(Mel Gibson views on presidents administration)(Brief article)
June 12, 2006... "The fear mongering we depict in the film reminds me of President Bush and his guys." While busily producing Apocalypto, his new film about the collapse of Mexico's barbaric Mayan civilization, film star Mel Gibson claims to have gained...

Spanish-language National Anthem irks many.(Quick Quotes)(Brief article)
June 12, 2006... "Would the French accept people singing La Marseillaise in English as a sign of French patriotism? Of course not." An outspoken proponent of tighter immigration controls, Center for Immigration Studies leader Mark Krikorian was not alone in...

Smiling by day, terrorizing by night.(government supports Taliban and Al Qaeda)(Brief article)
June 12, 2006... "During the day, the people, the police and the army are with the government, but during the night, the people, the police and the army are all with the Taliban and Al Qaeda." Newly installed as one of Afghanistan's provincial governors,...

Corruption rife in Mexico.(political corruptions rate high in mexico)(Brief article)
June 12, 2006... "It takes 58 days to open a business in Mexico in large measure because of the number of palms that must be greased. For this reason, Transparency International has ranked Mexico--along with Ghana, Panama, Peru, and Turkey--among the 65th to...

Border patrollers angered at arrest and release policy.(Illegal immigrants cases)(Brief article)
June 12, 2006... "[They are merely] notices to disappear." Illegal immigrants who are arrested, given a notice to appear for a deportation hearing, and then released, never show up for their hearing, prompting the U.S. Border Patrol agents to label the...

Saudi official maintains there's plenty of oil.(United States)(Brief article)
June 12, 2006... "There are enough supplies today to meet world demand. In fact, there is an excess supply. For the last two or three years, we've been trying to sell some of our oil on the market, without any customers." Claiming that geopolitical...

Middle class fleeing chaos in Iraq.(Brief article)
June 12, 2006... "I have no government. I have no protection from the government. Anyone can come to my house, take me, kill me and throw me in the trash." One of many persons needed by Iraq if the country is to recover from the war, Monkath Abdul Razzaq...

Honor roll of history's quotable quotes.(Quick Quotes)
June 12, 2006... "The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." Greek philosopher Plato (429-347 B.C.)

Lights, camera--activism! Set to debut in theaters in July, the documentary America: From Freedom to Fascism recounts how our governmental is abandoning the constitutional framework of liberty.(Aaron Russo)(Cover story)
June 12, 2006... Twelve-year-old Ricky Miller wasn't expecting anything dramatic when he answered the door one Saturday morning. His father Scotty Miller had just gotten into the shower. His sister Jennifer was just waking up from a slumber party with some...

Freedom filmmaker: after decades in the music and motion picture industry, Aaron Russo found his calling as a full-time activist for freedom.(Biography)
June 12, 2006... One of Aaron Russo's "few regrets" in life, he confided during a lengthy interview with THE NEW AMERICAN, was his impetuous decision not to pursue a career in Major League Baseball. "I was drafted by the Yankees right out of high school,"...

Overrun with new "citizens": if the Bush-Kennedy immigration plan in the Senate is enacted, the United States could be flooded with more than 200 million new legal immigrants in the next 20 years!
June 12, 2006... The first part of President Bush's televised May 15 immigration speech was carefully crafted to appease his conservative base, which he has alienated with his open-borders policies. Hence, the address was front-loaded with references to...

Looking for help on the border: those who claim that the federal government lacks the resources to secure our borders should consider the enormous human and economic resources allocated elsewhere.
June 12, 2006... "First, the United States must secure its borders," declared President Bush, in his May 15 televised address to the nation on immigration. He continued: "This is a basic responsibility of a sovereign nation. It is also an urgent requirement of...

Endangering the Minutemen: credible reports indicate that the U.S. government is spying on border volunteers such as the Minutemen, and passing the intelligence on to the Mexican government.
June 12, 2006... "While Minuteman civilian patrols are keeping an eye out for illegal border crossers," reported the Ontario, California-based Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, "the U.S. Border Patrol is keeping an eye out for Minutemen--and telling the Mexican...

Selling his brand of salvation: the novel The Da Vinci Code not only attacks the basic tenets of Christianity but promotes a religious outlook based on free sex.(DA VINCI CODE)
June 12, 2006... Before Dan Brown penned his fictional work, The Da Vinci Code, most of the world was happily ignorant of his existence. Having written other books few people had read or even heard of, he hit upon the idea that has made him a phenomenally...

The lessons of ancient Rome: in The Rise and Fall of the Roman Republic, author Steve Bonta examines the lessons of the growth and decline of the Roman state in the centuries before the empire.(Book review)
June 12, 2006... The Rise and Fall of the Roman Republic: Lessons for Modern America, by Steve Bonta, Ph.D., Appleton, Wisconsin: The John Birch Society, 2006, 137 pages, paperback. For ordering information, see the ad on the inside front cover. In many...

Heroics in Hawaii.(Larry Cummin bravery)(Brief article)
June 12, 2006... Last January, Petty Officer First Class Larry Cummins noticed a white Cadillac submerged in the waters of Honolulu's Ala Wai canal. Cummins described his first reaction to KHNL News in Honolulu: "We saw stuff floating and we saw some bubbles...

Another hero in Illinois.(Anthony Blaskoski bravery)(Brief article)
June 12, 2006... On March 2, 2005, Anthony Blaskoski of Kane County, Illinois, saw flames coming from his neighbors' house and rushed over. With no concern for his own safety, Blaskoski prepared to run inside the burning, smoke-filled home of William and Kim...

Police officer honored for finding child.(Mike Hall)(Brief article)
June 12, 2006... Lake Worth, Florida, Police Sergeant Mike Hall was honored in the nation's capital on May 10 for a rescue he made in Palm Beach County, Florida, last year. In May 2005, Palm Beach County residents were shocked to learn that a little...

Surfers attempt rescue.(Carnegie Hero Fund Commission feliciates Jack Timothy Dicus, and Christopher White)(Brief article)
June 12, 2006... A Destin, Florida, surfer, Jack Timothy Dicus, and Christopher White, a vacationer who also is a Carrollton, Georgia, volunteer firefighter, were also among the recent group of people honored by the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission. According...

What makes a nation? Nations are not simply political communities contained within geographical borders. They are expressions of a shared culture, language, and political principle, that unite citizens in a common bond.
June 12, 2006... The de facto obliteration of our southern border, facilitated largely by cheap-labor advocates, global elites, and vote-seeking politicians, raises many questions about the concept of nationhood. Americans are waking up to the unpleasant fact...

On foot.(robbert at Billy Tessner residence)(Brief article)
June 12, 2006... Billy Tessner of Blacksburg, South Carolina, was called by his alarm company on Good Friday at about 4 a.m. to report that his business' alarm had been activated. He arrived at his business, Tessner's Garage, in time to see two people...

Surprises.(crimes against James Crouch by teenagers)(Brief article)
June 12, 2006... Police were astounded when a security guard at the Eastern Government Center, which houses the branches of county government for Henrico County, Virginia, was ambushed by attackers wielding a baseball bat on April 20. Police were surprised...

Ready the second time.(robbery)(Brief article)
June 12, 2006... At 2 a.m. on Saturday, April 22, several armed robbers entered a home in Katy, Texas, tied up a teenage girl and her boyfriend, and then tried to make off with a safe. The robbers were interrupted by the arrival of the homeowner, and so the...

Something even dumber.(Richard Mills)(Brief article)
June 12, 2006... An optimistic view of felons, one held tightly by gun-control groups, sees felons as something akin to wayward children: the felons, like children, have poor impulse control, and so to stop them from behaving badly, one need only strictly...

Needs specificity.(homicides kill themselves while fleeing away)(Brief article)
June 12, 2006... On Sunday, March 25, Kansas City police were called to the scene of an afternoon home invasion. During a preliminary investigation, a homeowner said that two men in their 20s kicked in his front door, and that he got into a gunfight with the...

Death tax isn't dead.(Correction notice)
June 12, 2006... ITEM: The Christian Science Monitor for May 1, 2006, reported: Tax disputes don't often turn so clearly into moral issues. Usually, legislators make tax choices along the lines of Jean Baptiste Colbert, a 17th-century...

President assumes arbitrary power.(George W. Bush )
June 12, 2006... The U.S. Constitution, that dusty old document many have heard of but don't know much about, creates three separate branches of government and establishes the powers each shall have. The legislative branch, the most important, is granted the...

The Bill of Rights: First ten amendments to the constitution.
June 26, 2006... Article I. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the...

Ethnic social clubs.(Letter to the editor)
June 26, 2006... In "The Story of Immigration in America" (February 20 issue), author Michael E. Telzrow referenced the social clubs formed by the legal immigrants in America's past. As a second-generation American-born member of a German immigrant family, I...

Apathetic Americans.(Letter to the editor)
June 26, 2006... In William Jasper's "Last Word" article in the April 17 issue of TNA, I sensed that even the John Birch Society is realizing that we are nearing the end of our Republic as we know it. Mr. Jasper's statement that if Bush and Congress allow...

Kissinger's betrayal.(Henry Kissinger )(Brief article)
June 26, 2006... "If we can live with a communist government in China, we ought to be able to accept it in Indochina." Thus spoke Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to Communist Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai during 1972 negotiations to end the Vietnam War. ...

"Knife control" in England.(usage of firearms)(Brief article)
June 26, 2006... Once renowned as the mother of parliaments and birthplace of the Anglo-Saxon tradition of liberty under law, England has degenerated into a dismal socialist wasteland where law-abiding citizens are imprisoned for using firearms to defend their...

Mexico's Vicente Fox stumps for Senate bill and hemispheric merger.(Brief article)
June 26, 2006... On May 25, hours after the U.S. Senate approved an immigration bill that may eventually provide citizenship to more than 12 million illegal aliens, Mexican President Vicente Fox told the California legislature that such a "monumental step...

Texas launches virtual border patrol with video surveillance.(Brief article)
June 26, 2006... Responding to mounting political pressure to deal with the federal government's failure to enforce our border, Texas Governor Rick Perry has announced that his state is installing hundreds of hidden cameras along the border with Mexico and...

At long last--tax relief!(telephones taxation relief)(Brief article)
June 26, 2006... It took 108 years, five appeals-court rulings, and roughly a decade of congressional protests, but on May 26 outgoing U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow announced that the federal government will finally permit the 1898 telephone tax to expire....

Upcoming Mexican election.(Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador)(Brief article)
June 26, 2006... Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the former mayor of Mexico City and until recently the odds-on favorite to win Mexico's July 2 presidential election, promises to cut government spending while launching new welfare and public works programs to aid...

Pork barrel legislation roundly criticized.(Congressman Jeff Flake)(Brief article)
June 26, 2006... "Over the last decade, we have simply gone hog wild with earmarks. We are out of control. I am frustrated. So are taxpayers." Earmarking, the practice of adding pet spending projects to spending bills, continues to grow, prompting...

He isn't confused about what to call illegal immigrants.(Brief article)
June 26, 2006... "Calling these people 'undocumented workers' is like calling bank robbers 'informal withdrawal agents.'" William and Mary College professor George Grayson injected humor into the discussion when he offered his opinion about the numerous...

What about terrorists entering the United States?(QuickQuotes)(Brief article)
June 26, 2006... "Clintons and Bushes may squabble over budget details, but both dynasties agree that it is our sublime mission to fight terrorism in Iraq while allowing the terrorists to cross our southern border with impunity." Writing in Chronicles,...

New fed chief admits error.(Ben Bernanke comments on stock market)(Brief article)
June 26, 2006... "Senator, that episode you refer to was a lapse of judgment on my part. In the future, my communications with the public and with the market will be entirely through regular and formal channels." Chided by Senator Jim Bunning (R-Ky.), Federal...

Congress inundated with complaints in the form of bricks.(Brief article)
June 26, 2006... "Given the approval ratings of Congress these days, I guess we should all be grateful that the bricks are coming through the mail, not the window." The flood of disapproval about the way Congress is handling the immigration crisis has...

California politician declines to meet President Fox.(Chuck DeVore)(Brief article)
June 26, 2006... "I do not at all appreciate a foreign head of state telling my nation how to deal with its own sovereignty and the issue of immigration." Refusing to attend a speech given by Mexico's President Fox, Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, a Republican...

Alaskan oil treasure remains off-limits.(Brief article)
June 26, 2006... "We need to develop energy here at home. We can't say no to everything." After a House vote of 225-201 to approve issuing oil drilling leases for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge's 11-16 billion barrels of oil, a somber Representative...

Behind the high price of gas: so that Americans have access to reliable, affordable gas and oil, American oil companies need to develop domestic sources of supply, but the government won't let them.(ENERGY)(Cover story)
June 26, 2006... Whenever gasoline prices increase significantly in a relatively short period of time and news media report concurrently that the profits of oil companies are also rising, one can predict, almost like clockwork, widespread public outrage. Cries...

An expert look at the energy "crisis": an accomplished scientist share his perspective on America's supposed energy crisis and what can be done to remedy the situation.(Cover story)
June 26, 2006... Dr. Arthur B. Robinson is a biochemist who conducts research on protein chemistry, nutrition, and predictive and preventive medicine. Dr. Robinson is a former faculty member of the University of California at San Diego, and was president and...

House vs. Senate: battle royal: the Bush-Kennedy guest-worker/amnesty locomotive is headed for a "brick wall"; liberal immigration advocates wilt as public outrage grows.(IMMIGRATION)
June 26, 2006... The battle for immigration reform and border security has now shifted from the congressional cloak rooms to the congressional districts, and from Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., to Main Street, U.S.A. The Senate's passage, on May...

How they voted: key votes on border security and guest-worker/amnesty.(CONGRESS)
June 26, 2006... This index shows how every current member of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate voted on the 1986 amnesty law, and on the border security and guest-worker/amnesty legislation now before Congress. A "Y" indicates that a congressman...

Dishonesty in high places: tough talk in President Bush's televised speech pressing for passage of a "guest worker" bill was meant to soothe conservatives' ruffled feathers, but it lacked credibility.(George W. Bush)
June 26, 2006... President Bush finally got the message--or so he would want everyone to believe. After huge demonstrations full of illegal immigrants and their supporters clogged the streets in numerous American cities, previously uninvolved Americans started...

The surveillance state unveiled: President Bush and adherents to his viewpoint have defended the idea that the government has a right to wiretap, but their assertions do not stand up to scrutiny.(George W. Bush)
June 26, 2006... President Bush has inaugurated the largest surveillance state in human history, ordering the NSA to wiretap millions of Americans' telephone calls and e-mails abroad (according to the New York Times) and collecting the telephone records of as...

Destruction of the oyster industry: though there are an estimated five billion Eastern oysters in U.S. waters, the National Marine Fisheries Service is considering listing them "endangered.".(Endangered Species Act of 1973)
June 26, 2006... Oyster growers on the East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico must contend annually with high oyster mortality rates from recurring epizootics (animal-related epidemics). To reduce the recurrence and impact of epizootics, oyster growers must remove...

Assault on the electoral college: a plan to give the presidency to the candidate with the most nationwide votes would make less-populous states irrelevant in presidential elections.
June 26, 2006... Assaults on the electoral college are nothing new. The left seems to keep a calendar which schedules dates for periodic attacks on the Constitution's system for electing the president and the vice president. February 23 was such a date. A press...

Kindness leads to saving life.(Enrique Ontiveros saves live of Doris Brouwenstyn )(Brief article)
June 26, 2006... When Doris Brouwenstyn of DeMotte, Indiana, went home after a week-long stay in the hospital for treatment of an illness, she received an unexpected visitor. Enrique Ontiveros, a fifth-grader at Kankakee Valley Intermediate School, stopped by...

Special-needs student saves boy.(Ian Madsen bravery)(Brief article)
June 26, 2006... Ian Madsen, a special-needs student at Milbank High School in Milbank, South Dakota, was in the neighboring city of Aberdeen on May 13, competing in a bowling tournament. Following the tournament, Ian and friends went swimming in a hotel pool....

Citizen helps rescue child from fire in Miami.(David Williams)(Brief article)
June 26, 2006... On the evening of May 15, David Williams was in his mother's apartment when he heard screams coming from the street. A crowd of excited people had gathered, yelling and pointing to smoke pouring out from second-story windows of the building...

Brave teen fights off pit bull.(Thomas Moehler saves Marky Stanfield from a pit bull)(Brief article)
June 26, 2006... Thomas "T.J." Moehler, a 16-year-old junior at Central Regional High School in Bayville, New Jersey, was in his home on April 29, 2005, when he heard a ruckus outside. The noise turned out to be coming from 10-year-old Marky Stanfield, a...

They said it couldn't be done ... Over and over experts in industry and science have argued that further achievement was impossible or that the end was near.
June 26, 2006... According to energy pessimists, we have reached the age of "peak oil" when production has reached and surpassed its peak. The implication is that supplies will contract--a truly frightening prospect in an era of increasing demand for energy....

Bashing with a bike.(Javaris Granger bravery on his home attack)
June 26, 2006... On Saturday, May 20, 15-year-old Javaris Granger was asleep at home in Hollywood, Florida, one of 12 relatives in the house, one boy with 11 females. At 3:30 a.m., he awoke to his mother's screaming. His mother, Maxine Chandler, was...

Pistol party.(John Harris on exchange of gunfire in a local liquor store)(Brief article)
June 26, 2006... Police Detective John Harris, of the Southfield, Michigan, police department, said of an exchange of gunfire in a local liquor store, "Everybody was pretty excited, so maybe their marksmanship wasn't that good." He made that comment when...

Not quite home alone.(Timothy Page and Robert Outlaw)(Brief article)
June 26, 2006... Two roommates in Hampton, Virginia, got a nasty surprise on February 21 when two strangers burst into their residence, holding guns and demanding money. The robbers, Demarcus Wade and Clifton Jordon, entered the house and immediately confronted...

Marines don't quit.(Austin Kilcoyne)(Brief article)
June 26, 2006... Austin Kilcoyne is a 78-year-old ex-Marine, a gun collector, and a disabled former firefighter. Because his house had been robbed of money and guns last December, he kept a pistol hidden in his house. At about 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, May 23,...

Aid and comfort to communist China.(Correction notice)
June 26, 2006... ITEM: A "cooperative venture in space" between China and the United States "could offer the two countries a way to ease tensions," reported the Houston Chronicle on May 7. "As part of his overture, Bush promised [Chinese President Hu Jintao]...

Inflation ruins everything.(Barry Bonds' achievements)
June 26, 2006... Despite our desire to celebrate even the most trivial achievements, and a 24-hour electronic news apparatus with an omnivorous appetite, Barry Bonds' 715th home run was greeted with something very close to embarrassed silence. There seemed to...