The New American articles from March 2006

The New American archives from March 2006

Likes wiretapping.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the Editor)
March 6, 2006... I support the wiretapping of calls to and from the USA for the purpose of uncovering possible terrorists links ("Using a Shotgun to Hunt Mosquitoes," February 6). On that terrible September 11, there were two score and more individuals...

Science and religion.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the Editor)
March 6, 2006... "The Search for Truth" (December 26), Dennis Behreandt's excellent article about cosmogenesis and theology, can be supplemented with data from other areas of scientific research. I refer to studies about the power of prayer and meditation, the...

Playing God.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the Editor)
March 6, 2006... I believe part of the answer as to why there's unwarranted attention for the lackluster embryonic stem-cell research (as evidenced by the media attention given Mr. Hwang Soosuk, the South Korean veterinarian who allegedly cloned an embryo but...

Brazil going nuclear.(planning of a uranium plant)
March 6, 2006... "While the world community scrutinizes Iran's nuclear plans, Latin America's biggest country is weeks away from taking a controversial step and firing up the region's first major uranium enrichment plant," reported a February 10 Knight Ridder...

Bait and switch on immigration policy.(INSIDER REPORT)
March 6, 2006... According to the Center for Immigration Studies, there are now 11 million illegal immigrants in our country, an estimate many consider to be extremely low. That being the case, it is somewhat ironic (though not funny) that corporate farmers in...

TIA, the undead.(Total Information Awareness, an antiterrorism measure)(Brief article)
March 6, 2006... "Some antiterror efforts die--others just change names," observed the February 9 Christian Science Monitor. Among them is the Total Information Awareness (TIA) initiative, which was discontinued amid concerns that its data-mining programs would...

WMD pipeline from Iraq to Syria?(weapons of mass destruction transferred to Syria from Iraq according to Georges Hormuz Sada)
March 6, 2006... Georges Hormuz Sada, a former high-ranking official in Saddam Hussein's Iraqi air force, claims that "Iraq moved weapons of mass destruction into Syria before the war by loading the weapons into civilian aircraft in which the passenger seats...

Administration to prosecute whistle-blowers.(using illegal warrantless wiretaps)(Brief article)
March 6, 2006... From the "intelligence failures" of 9/11 and the Iraq war, to the criminal exposure of CIA operative Valerie Plame, to the use of illegal warrantless wiretaps, the Bush administration has zealously obstructed efforts to conduct full and honest...

Conservatism and the Bush bunch.(Bob Ban against the use of warrantless wiretaps in criminal investigation)
March 6, 2006... Bob Ban', a former Republican congressman from Georgia who served as one of the House impeachment managers during Bill Clinton's impeachment trial in the Senate, has become an outspoken critic of the Bush administration's "Homeland Security"...

Castro and Chavez love the UN's UNESCO.(Fidel Castro)(Hugo Chavez)(United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization )
March 6, 2006... In 1994, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) acted on a suggestion given by Cuban dictator Fidel Castro that it confer an award in the name of Jose Marti, Cuba's national hero who died in 1895 during...

We have your children....(Freehold Borough School District installed security system for inspecting parents)(Brief article)
March 6, 2006... With the aid of a $369,000 federal grant by way of the National Institute for Justice, New Jersey's Freehold Borough School District has installed the Teacher-Parent Authorization Security System (T-PASS), which requires a parent or other...

But what if they decide to abandon the dollar?(Quick Quotes)(Brief article)
March 6, 2006... "As long as foreigners are willing to put their capital in the United States, we can sustain a trade deficit of 6 percent or more." After hearing about our nation's record trade deficit of $726 billion in 2005, Philip A. Swagel, a neo-con...

Brain power and common sense aren't always found together.(Quick Quotes)(Brief article)
March 6, 2006... "You've got to remember that common sense is not factored into the intelligence quotient." The leader of a search-and-rescue team on California's Mount Wilson, Greg Gabriel, was a bit disdainful of the mental acumen of 24 stranded California...

Brain power and common sense aren't always found together. <I>Geologists present award to global warming foe.(journalism award)(Brief article)
March 6, 2006... "It is fiction. But it has the absolute ring of truth." Communications director for the American Association of Petroleum Geologists Larry Nation announced the organization's annual journalism award would go to Michael Crichton, the science...

Attorney General Dodges Tough Questions.(frustrated Senator Patrick Leahy )(Brief article)
March 6, 2006... "You haven't answered my question." After repeatedly asking Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez whether President Bush's office authorized the opening of the American people's first-class mail, a frustrated Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) expressed...

Movie watchdog says decent films are financial successes.(Quick Quotes)(Brief article)
March 6, 2006... "Every year, our financial analysis proves that good guys always finish first. Movies with traditional Judeo-Christian values and heroic virtues always do best at the box office." Pointing to data compiled by Nielsen EDI, Dr. Ted Baehr of the...

They don't follow their laws either.(Communist Party considered unfavorable)(Brief article)
March 6, 2006... "This is an intolerable step that has absolutely no basis in law and is in fact completely illegal." Because the influential weekly Bing Dian published views the Communist Party considered unfavorable, authorities shut the newspaper down, a...

Worries about warrantless searches grow louder.(Brief article)
March 6, 2006... "Some liberals think of gun owners as terrorists." During a discussion about combating terrorism with warrantless searches, Gun Owners of America leader Larry Pratt worried that merely owning a gun could merit being searched.

President's new budget attacked.(budget)(Brief article)
March 6, 2006... "This budget is just detached from reality. The debt is exploding and the President isn't facing up to it." Mr. Bush's $2.7 trillion budget drew a sharp rebuke from Senator Kent Conrad (D-N.D.).

Is Iran next? The Bush administration's crusade to "democratize" the Middle East is zeroing in on Iran's nuclear ambitions. The result could be devastating--but the worst need not happen.(IRAN)
March 6, 2006... As the current crisis with Iran unfolds, discussion of a possible war is tinted with a sense of deja vu and burdened with a feeling of inevitability. Once again, the Bush administration issues grim warnings about the prospect of "weapons of...

End of the petro-dollar? Is Tehran about to deploy an economic weapon potentially more deadly than a nuclear bomb?(IRAN)(Cover Story)
March 6, 2006... If Iran is years away from developing a nuclear weapon, why is Washington girding for war within a matter of months, or weeks? Some economic analysts believe that the real weapon of mass destruction Tehran is preparing to deploy is not a...

The UN and Iran: here we go again! An influential U.S. senator has urged the UN Security Council to impose strict sanctions on Iran. As in Iraq, if the UN acts, Americans will pay the freight in blood and money.(IRAN)
March 6, 2006... A January 30 report posted on channelnewsasia.com was headlined "US and EU try to convince Russia on Iranian nuclear programme." The report stated: "The United States sought to convince Russia and China to back UN action [against Iran]."...

Mohammed's Looney Toons: the recent cartoon controversy illuminates Muslim intolerance for debate and the danger of a growing Islamic population in the West.(EUROPE)
March 6, 2006... Flemming Rose, an editor at Jyllands-Posten, a Danish newspaper, sure can pick a fight. Rose is the man who published the dirty dozen cartoons of Mohammed, one of them featuring his turban shaped like a bomb, that sent Muslims everywhere into...

Marching with nature's best: March of the Penguins is a family-friendly movie that instills a sense of awe at the resilience shown by emperor penguins as they procreate despite mother nature's harshest whims.
March 6, 2006... In the creation of the penguin we catch a special glimpse of God's sense of beauty, order, and humor. And in March of the Penguins we are treated to an absolutely captivating, astonishingly beautiful view of one of nature's (until now) secret...

U.S. Armed Forces place home-schoolers on equal footing.(EDUCATION REPORT)(Brief article)
March 6, 2006... As of January 2006, home-schoolers will find it easier and more rewarding to join our nation's military forces. They are now considered "preferred enlistees," and are on an equal footing with other top recruits. Prior to 1998,...

HSLDA gets family out of hot water.(Home School Legal Defense Association)(Brief article)
March 6, 2006... Texas is famous for its barbecue, but the Rivera family didn't enjoy being grilled for an hour in an El Paso courtroom, defending their right to home-school their daughter. They began home-schooling in 2001, after their daughter was beaten by...

Designing an intelligent curriculum.(EDUCATION REPORT)
March 6, 2006... In the last 30 years, there has been a steady stream of legal actions and proposed legislation in states--including Michigan, Indiana, Colorado, Missouri, Kansas, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, Montana, New York, Pennsylvania, South...

Insight into America's Uncivil War: a textbook about the Civil War's causes, conflicts, and long-term consequences is critiqued and found to be thoroughly engaging, eye-opening, and eye-catching.(Book review)
March 6, 2006... The War Between the States: America's Uncivil War, by John J. Dwyer, et al., Denton, Texas: Bluebonnet Press, 2005, 682 pages, hardcover. (For ordering information, see the ad on page 2.) The War Between the States by John J. Dwyer, et al.,...

Helping Iraqi children.(Gary Sinise and Laura Hillenbrand)
March 6, 2006... Regular viewers of the weekly crime drama CSI: NY are familiar with actor Gary Sinise, who is also well-known for the role he played as Lt. Dan Taylor in the film Forrest Gump. Sinise is less well-known for his role in co-founding--along with...

Principal tackles intruder.(Shannon Allen )(John Zermeno )(Brief article)
March 6, 2006... Shannon Allen is the principal of Rayburn Elementary School in San Antonio, Texas. Recently, the educator was forced to rely more on the skills she polished as a high school athlete than those mastered in her college education coursework. ...

Holdup produces a hero.(Rufus Lynch succeded to catch the robber)(Brief article)
March 6, 2006... On January 13, Rufus Lynch walked into a Domino's Pizza store in South Fulton County, Georgia, to order a pizza and was turned into a hero. And not the kind of hero--or "sub"--usually sold by pizzerias, either. On the night of "the...

The Peshtigo fire: in 1871, a firestorm struck northeastern Wisconsin, killing more than 1,700 people. With courage and confidence, the survivors forged a new future among the ruins.(HISTORY--AMERICAN SPIRIT)
March 6, 2006... There came upon us... a wave of living fire, completely enveloping us in its embrace. --Phineas Eames, a survivor On the night of October 8, 1871, the same date as the Great Chicago Fire, several destructive fires struck Wisconsin's...

Stupid is, as stupid does.(Alfonso Camillo was arrested)(Brief article)
March 6, 2006... On October 13, Alfonso Camillo was arrested in Dinuba, California, when he returned to the scene of an earlier crime. Two days previous, police were called to the scene of a burglary. At the scene, they found that a thief had stolen three...

Printed transgression.(Mike Hargreaves a gun collector arrested, when his collection was stolen )
March 6, 2006... The January 7 issue of the Toronto Star (Canada) paints a bleak picture of guns and crime in Canada--where guns are already regulated tightly--vilifying guns and gun owners. The Star's main article on this subject was about Mike...

Whoops, wrong house.(Jeffrey Poland caught the unidentified burglar )(Brief article)
March 6, 2006... On November 16, a burglar in Salt Lake City, Utah, likely thought he was going to make a quick score and then exit in a new set of wheels, but an armed homeowner disrupted his plans. The unidentified burglar, who was jacked up on heroin,...

Little cause to attack.(Dean Brooks shot Steve Salcido for not giving cigarette)(Brief article)
March 6, 2006... On November 27, Dean Brooks shot Steve Salcido on the streets of San Diego. The fight began when Salcido asked Brooks for a cigarette and was refused. Salcido then "pulled out a folding knife and confronted Brooks again," reported the...

Foreign aid: giving until it hurts.(Correction, Please!)
March 6, 2006... ITEM: The Washington Post for January 31 reported: "After getting off to a painfully slow start, President Bush's signature foreign aid program is poised to begin ramping up the amount of money it spends on development projects in poor...

Liberal tendencies: a tongue-in-cheek look at the logic of liberal positions and the manipulations of liberal passions.(HUMOR)
March 6, 2006... "I hate my job!" wailed my friend Forrest for about the thousandth time in 20 minutes while we were celebrating last New Year's Eve. "I'm sick of working at the mercantile exchange--an hour train ride there in the morning, an hour train ride...

Why punish Lindh--but not Fonda?(John Walker Lindh)(Jane Fonda )
March 6, 2006... A small item in a newspaper caught my attention a few weeks back. It reported that the father of the man who became known as "the American Taliban" asked President Bush to grant clemency to his son. The request got Frank Lindh nowhere, and his...

Unwise strategy.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the editor)
March 20, 2006... I think that you are unwittingly playing into the hands of the neo-conservatives who are trying to convince the American public that unconstitutional abuses of power are actually good. Please let me explain. In the article "Anti-war Stance Is...

Waging war.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the editor)
March 20, 2006... I couldn't agree more with your December 26, 2005 article "The Padilla Shuffle" by William Norman Grigg. He correctly points out, among other things, that during the Clinton presidency, despite the fact that the State Department had...

Begs to differ.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the editor)
March 20, 2006... Regarding Robert J. Kendra's letter to the editor in the January 23 issue entitled "Motive for War," I first of all question tagging the private automobile as "hedonistic" rather than the necessity that it is, and I sense that Mr. Kendra has...

Roe to go?(laws for abortion)
March 20, 2006... "In my opinion, it is the time for this South Dakota Legislature to deal with this issue and protect the rights and lives of unborn children," stated Democratic State Senator Julie Bartling, a cosponsor of legislation that would ban nearly all...

Petty theft, inflation, and the cost of living.(INSIDER REPORT)
March 20, 2006... In January, construction workers at Leon Sheffield Elementary School in Decatur, Alabama, were stunned to discover that someone had made off with about 60 feet of copper tubing, leaving the school flooded. A few weeks earlier, heavy rains had...

The impending implosion of Pakistan.(predicting giving help for terrorism)(Brief article)
March 20, 2006... Like several other Muslim nations, Pakistan has been convulsed with rioting in recent weeks, much of it supposedly triggered by the publication of cartoons lampooning the Prophet Mohammed. William Lind, director of the Center for Cultural...

OU football stadium bombing update.(University of Oklahoma )
March 20, 2006... When University of Oklahoma (OU) student Joel Henry Hinrichs III blew himself up on October 1, 2005, the FBI and OU officials held a hurried press conference to assure the public that the incident was merely a tragic suicide by an emotionally...

Another port deal: Mexico, China, Wal-Mart.(Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. partnered with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. for expansion of Mexican port)(Brief article)
March 20, 2006... The Hong Kong-based shipping company Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. and retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc. are partners in a new $300 million expansion of Mexico's Pacific port of Lazaro Cardenas, according to a February 12 report from Reuters news...

Abramoff's Russia connections probed.(Jack Abramoff's scandals with Russia)(Brief article)
March 20, 2006... "The federal investigation into the lobbying activities of Jack Abramoff has broadened to examine his dealings with the Russian government and a pair of high-profile Russian energy company executives," reported the February 23 Boston Globe. A...

Rupert Murdoch's growing porn empire.(Fox News Network L.L.C's license for pornography channels)(Brief article)
March 20, 2006... Australian-born media mogul Rupert Murdoch (Council on Foreign Relations), whose international holdings include the supposedly conservative FOX News channel, "has been secretly building a stable of wholly-owned pornographic channels for his...

Danish official refuses to apologize for cartoons.(QuickQuotes)(Quotation)(Brief article)
March 20, 2006... "First, you cannot apologize for something you have not done. Second, nothing illegal has been done because no one has been found guilty by a court." Denmark Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller responded to urgings that the Danish government...

Austria jails a holocaust doubter.(David Irving)(Brief article)
March 20, 2006... "I made a mistake when I said there were no gas chambers at Auschwitz. In no way did I deny the killings of millions of people by the Nazis." British historian and author David Irving received a three-year jail sentence after a trial by an...

Another World Trade Organization ruling against the U.S.(QuickQuotes)(Brief article)
March 20, 2006... "The E.U. will not accept a system of tax benefits which give U.S. exporters, including Boeing, an unfair advantage against their European counterparts." European Union senior trade official Peter Mandelson was pleased when the WTO agreed...

Incisive commentary from a comedian.(Jay Leno )(Brief article)
March 20, 2006... "The Pentagon announced plans to build new long-range weapons as a deterrent to China. Unfortunately, we don't have any factories left in this country so the weapons will be built in China." Late-night TV host Jay Leno occasionally makes...

Parliament member fears Australia on the way to becoming Muslim dominated.(QuickQuotes)(Brief article)
March 20, 2006... "I didn't believe him at the time, but when you actually look at the birthrates and when you look at the fact that we are aborting ourselves almost out of existence by 100,000 abortions every year... you multiply that by 50 years, that's five...

New fed chief very trustful of China.(Ben Bernanke)(Brief article)
March 20, 2006... "I don't think that the Chinese ownership of U.S. assets is so large as to put our country at risk economically. It would be very much against their interests to [dump U.S. debt holdings]." Although new Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke...

Greenspan's obfuscation not missed.(Ben Bernanke was appreciated by Scott Garrett for his simple speech)(Brief article)
March 20, 2006... "We can actually understand your answers." Recalling the frustrations regularly occasioned by the previous Fed chairman's linguistic circumlocutions, Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.) congratulated new Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke for speaking...

A broken man after 17 years in Chinese prison.(Yu Xiyue )(Brief article)
March 20, 2006... "He no longer recognizes me, [had] a totally dull look in his eyes, and kept repeating words over and over as if he were chanting a mantra." The brother of recently released Chinese journalist Yu Dongyue, Yu Xiyue recounted the incident...

Sink the Dubai ports deal! Our ports are gateways to America, and it does not make sense to put them under the control of a foreign power--particularly an Islamic regime tied to al-Qaeda.(Dubai Ports World)(Cover story)
March 20, 2006... Like most Americans, President Bush knew nothing, if you believe his tubdrummers, about the infamous plan to cede control of six major American seaports to the United Arab Emirates. Technically, a company called Dubai Ports World (DPW) will run...

Terror in America, made in China: while U.S. corporate elites export technology to Communist China's cyberpolice, the U.S. government allows China to export brutal repression to our shores.(TERRORISM)
March 20, 2006... Executives of America's leading Internet companies were looking decidedly uncomfortable and sounding pathetic as they faced a well-deserved grilling from congressmen and human rights activists. The interrogators and witnesses wanted the titans...

Latino immigration reformers: ignoring conventional wisdom, Americans of Hispanic descent are at the forefront in the battle against illegal immigration.(IMMIGRATION)
March 20, 2006... Lupe Moreno and Angie Morfin Vargas grew up the daughters of a bracero. Their father was one of the five million temporary contract guest workers who crossed the U.S./Mexican border between 1942 and 1964 to work in America's agricultural...

Spending away our future: despite modest cuts in some government programs, the Bush administration's proposed budget for 2007 will continue to add to an exploding national debt.(BUSH BUDGET)
March 20, 2006... The Bush administration on February 6 released its $2.77 trillion 2007 fiscal year budget proposal to Capitol Hill, where it generated the predictable caterwauling from Democrats and some moderate Republican lawmakers who dismissed it as...

Huge win for property owners: unbeknownst even to most legal experts, Wayne Hage has scored a major victory (in Hage v. United States) for ranchers, farmers, and all property owners.(Wayne Hage)(Interview)
March 20, 2006... In the May 20, 2002 issue of THE NEW AMERICAN, this magazine reported on one of the most high-profile takings cases to go before the courts in recent years. The United States, through its Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Department of...

Child abusers exposed.(Jack Wiley)
March 20, 2006... A Decatur, Georgia, woman named Tracie Dean stopped at a service station in the town of Evergreen, Alabama, in January. While there, she had an uneasy feeling about a man she noticed who was accompanied by a little girl. Something did not feel...

Kidnapper foiled.(Monique Williams helped to find out the kidnapper)(Brief article)
March 20, 2006... Last August, Monique Williams of Syracuse, New York, was driving down a city street when she saw a young girl get into a car with a male driver. Because the man had obviously been following the girl in his car, Williams immediately became...

Modest rescuer honored.(Elnora Denmark )(Brief article)
March 20, 2006... On New Year's Day 2004, Elnora Denmark was working as a caretaker for retired surgeon L.S. Thompson, Jr. in Dallas when a very unlikely event occurred: a small plane crashed into Thompson's garage, igniting a fire that spread to the house. ...

An honest look at Abe: Abraham Lincoln is usually regarded as a saintly figure, but a detailed book about Lincoln shows that much of what historians say about him is pure fiction.(Book review)
March 20, 2006... The Real Lincoln, by Thomas J. DiLorenzo, New York: Three Rivers Press, 2002, 361 pages, paperback (2003 ed.). (For ordering information, see the ad on page 38.) Have you read Thomas DiLorenzo's landmark book The Real Lincoln: A New Look...

Scholar, soldier, statesman: if James Madison represents the cool, contemplative head of the early republic's body politic, then Alexander Hamilton is undoubtedly its passionate, fiercely palpitating heart.(HISTORY: GREATNESS OF THE FOUNDERS)(Biography)
March 20, 2006... Alexander Hamilton was born in 1757 on the British West Indian island of Nevis into a familial situation that was something less than ideal. His mother, Rachel Lavien, was a French Huguenot. The daughter of a successful physician, she was...

Handy enough for the job.(Damian Powell tackled with robbers)(Brief article)
March 20, 2006... Damian Powell was going to a Raleigh, North Carolina, apartment when two teenage males demanded money. One of the young men produced a gun, but the gun didn't get the reaction he sought. Powell dislodged the gun from the youth's grip, and...

Refuge in a gun.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(Brief article)
March 20, 2006... After hearing glass breaking in her house at 6:00 a.m., a Milwaukee, Wisconsin, woman called the police, armed herself, and investigated. The unidentified woman, upon hearing the glass break, retrieved the gun she had purchased the...

Hard-earned lesson.(burglary attempt in Clean As A Whistle )(Brief article)
March 20, 2006... When a burglar struck the Clean As A Whistle clothing store for the second time in one day, the store's owner was ready and waiting. David Anderson went to his Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, store after a 1:20 a.m. break-in in order to secure it,...

Close was good enough.(Richard Mwanzi guilty of stealing guns)(Brief article)
March 20, 2006... A New York City man found out that it's hard to deny culpability in a burglary when bullet holes inflicted by the burglary victim still mar your car. The first clue that police had that Richard Mwanzi was guilty of stealing 21 guns from a...

Not again.(Jacksie Mae King's house was about to be roobed by Larry Tillman)(Brief article)
March 20, 2006... A robber attempted to break into an 87-year-old woman's house in East St. Louis, Illinois, on February 7, but failed. At about 2:00 a.m., Jacksie Mae King woke up when she heard someone trying to break into her home. She grabbed the pistol...

Windfall profits for the government.(Correction, Please!)
March 20, 2006... ITEM: Exxon Mobil posted record profits for any U.S. company, reported a wire-service account in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer for January 31. The "oil industry's stellar results renewed talk among some politicians for a windfall profit tax...

Loopy liberal lawsuits: a look at some possible upcoming litigation sparked by the fact that the government is being pressured to list polar bears as an endangered species because of global warming.(HUMOR)
March 20, 2006... "Jocko! Jocko!" Marie yelled to her husband. "This came in the mail! This came in the mail!" Marie waved a sheaf of papers as she scurried to the house, holding mail in one hand and 13-month-old Charlie in the other. "It says that we're going...

"Tough love"--or torture?(Martin Lee Anderson died in a boot camp)
March 20, 2006... Martin Lee Anderson was sent to a "boot camp" for delinquents in Bay County, Florida, on January 5 for violating the terms of his probation. The slender, rangy 14-year-old collapsed during the camp's introductory calisthenics program. Evacuated...