United Nations

NRO:

How about Rick Santorum for the UN job? Yeah, there'd probably be a confirmation fight. And he may want to take a breather after 16 years in elected office. But it's worth thinking over.

Hell - how about Katherine Harris, George "Macaca" Allen or even Tom Delay?

(H/T Andrew Sullivan)

Reuters is reporting this on the news of Bolton's resignation:

"Despite the support of a strong bipartisan majority of senators, Ambassador Bolton's confirmation was blocked by a Democrat filibuster, and this is a clear example of the breakdown in the Senate confirmation process," [Dana] Perino said.

Now at last check, the Bolton nomination was till in committee. Perhaps President Bush should make sure his spokespeople are better informed on the operation of our democracy. Filibusters don't occur in committee and the actual hold up was the opposition by one Lincoln Chaffee, a Republican. So this is how the White house is planning on reaching out to Democrats? I certainly hope they take note of this.

The right-wing blogosphere is in meltdown over the loss of their beloved John Bolton.

Redstate:

The good news just keeps on coming these days. John Bolton has tendered his resignation, and President Bush has "reluctantly" accepted it. I admit to a little frustraton with Mr. Bush on this; while I know confirming Mr. Bolton in a Democrat-controlled senate was an uphill battle, the President had signalled that he was ready to fight for his man. And I for one would be willing to fight along side him. The conflict could have been an opportunity to ask senators exactly what they were voting against when they opposed Mr. Bolton. Support for Israel? Intervention in Darfur? Reform at the UN?

Malkin:

Very depressing news this Monday morning. We are losing a staunch, devoted defender of America's interests at the U.N.

Reacting to the news, Eleanor Clift chuckled on Fox News that Bush is just "recognizing reality."

If the White House thinks throwing in the towel and throwing Bolton overboard will appease the Dems or the U.N., it doesn't know what reality is.

More to come as I find them. This is just a sample of the wingnuts feeling that democracy means their way or no way. Maybe we can keep Democrats in control and then they will have to either realize democracy is about sharing ideas and working out the best of both worlds, or just leave. America spoke last month and said that their extremist ideals are not what America is about.

TPMmuckraker:

Ah, the Man with the Iron Mustache is leaving the international arena -- but not before attempting a thoroughly embarrassing and wholly unsympathetic maneuver.

Less than two weeks before the White House announced his resignation, Ambassador John Bolton's U.N. mission blocked an effort to celebrate the end of slavery in our hemisphere.

I thought Bush wanted to celebrate freedom? Instead he has proved that he hates it. Shocking? Nahhhhh. I am sure Bush and Bolton would love nothing more than to legalize slavery so that their corporate buddies could save even more money. That is compassionate conservatism in action!

CNN has just reported that Bush accepted the resignation of John Bolton at the end of the year (when his recess appointment expires). That means the next ambassador to the U.N. will have to face a Democratic confirmation. I wonder if the Republicans will try to filibuster.

Condi is out doing the tough talk on North Korea, but is she making promises she can't keep?

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reassured Japan on Wednesday that Washington would stand by a commitment to protect its Asian ally, trying to temper concerns of an Asian nuclear arms race after North Korea's atomic test.

"The United States has the will and the capability to meet the full range, and I underscore full range, of its deterrent and security commitments to Japan," Rice told a news conference in Tokyo, the first stop on a quick tour of North Asia.

The United States is worried Japan and South Korea might embark on an Asian arms race in response to North Korea building up a nuclear arsenal -- a concern Vice President Dick Cheney warned of two years ago.

"That is why it is extremely important to go out and reaffirm, and reaffirm strongly U.S. defense commitments to Japan and to South Korea," Rice told reporters traveling with her.

Wow I wish I lived in her America where we had an abundance of military forces. The America I live in can't even spare some extra helicopters to help fight in Afghanistan (you know - that little war involving the people who actually attacked us). Tomorrow she is going to South Korea to give basically the same speech. So now we are going to protect all of Asia? Hell we can't even keep our troops safe in Baghdad or protect our own people from Mother Nature. I am sure the leaders of Japan and South Korea know this and will let what Condi says go in one ear and out the other also.

Chavez: U.S. Detained Foreign Minister

President Hugo Chavez said his foreign minister was detained by U.S. authorities at a New York airport Saturday for more than hour as he tried to return to the South American country.

Chavez told Venezuela's state TV broadcaster that U.S. officials alleged that Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro had links to a failed coup that Chavez led in Venezuela in 1992.

"They have held him accusing him of participating in terrorist acts here," Chavez said in Venezuela. "He didn't even participate in that patriotic rebellion."

Think I'm joking? Remember James Moore, the author of Bush's Brain. Funny how he writes Bush's Brain then ends up on the no-fly list.

They say history repeats itself. Well with Bush, that repetition comes in only 3 years

U.N. inspectors have protested to the U.S. government and a Congressional committee about a report on Iran's nuclear work, calling parts of it "outrageous and dishonest," according to a letter obtained by Reuters.

The letter recalled clashes between the IAEA and the Bush administration before the 2003 Iraq war over findings cited by Washington about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction that proved false, and underlined continued tensions over Iran's dossier.

Sent to the head of the House of Representatives' Select Committee on Intelligence by a senior aide to International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei, the letter said an August 23 committee report contained serious distortions of IAEA findings on Iran's activity.

The letter said the errors suggested Iran's nuclear fuel program was much more advanced than a series of IAEA reports and Washington's own intelligence assessments have determined.

It said the report falsely described Iran to have enriched uranium at its pilot centrifuge plant to weapons-grade level in April, whereas IAEA inspectors had made clear Iran had enriched only to a low level usable for nuclear power reactor fuel.

It isn't disturbing that Bush would choose to lie about Iran-  after all, what can we actually expect from our President? What is absolutley absurd is the fact that we are doing this again, when our level of trust received from the rest of the world is dismal at best. We lied going into Iraq. Us on the left knows that and the rest of the world knows that. Still Bush flat out lies to the American people and the world and gets to keep his job. So how does he repay us? He tries to lie us into war again.

After all the 9/11 look backs this week, I have been stuck with one thought in my mind. If we had another 9/11 style attack, would we get a world supporting us like we did in 2001? I want to say yes, but my heart and mind tell me no. I feel we would end up getting a world giving us the proverbial "I told you so".

I just read the following headline and rolled my eyes:

Bush wants UN resolution on Lebanon conflict fast

We are almost a month into this conflict and now Bush wants a resolution "fast". What about our veto at the U.N. last month or our constant screwing around with the resolution so it says what the U.S. and Israel wants it to say? This resolution is sugar coated to appeal to Israel, yet not give anything to Lebanon.

President George W. Bush resisted a demand by Lebanon on Monday that Israeli troops immediately withdraw from southern Lebanon, saying it could create a vacuum and allow Hizbollah guerrillas to rearm.

Bush told reporters he wanted a U.N. Security Council resolution as quickly as possible calling for a cessation to hostilities in the nearly month-long conflict between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas.

But he did not welcome a Lebanese demand that Israeli forces withdraw immediately from southern Lebanon.

"Whatever happens in the U.N., we must not create a vacuum into which Hizbollah and its sponsors are able to move more weapons," Bush said.

At a news conference with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at his ranch, Bush also said he believed an international force to be created by a second U.N. resolution should patrol the Syrian border and stop the re-arming of Hizbollah.

Washington wants this resolution in days, not weeks.

Get that? We want it in "days, not weeks". We wait until weeks to try that. We are being lead by the worst foreign policy in our nation's history and it is no wonder why our country is less safe today then it was 6 years ago.

The U.N. Security Council finally has passed a resolution on Iran's nuclear ambitions:

The U.N. Security Council passed a weakened resolution Monday giving Iran until Aug. 31 to suspend uranium enrichment or face the threat of economic and diplomatic sanctions.

Because of Russian and Chinese demands, the text is weaker than earlier drafts, which would have made the threat of sanctions immediate. The draft now essentially requires the council to hold more discussions before it considers sanctions.

The draft passed by a vote of 14-1. Qatar, which represents Arab states on the council, cast the lone dissenting vote.

It will be interesting to hear Iran's response now.

Looks like we are taking an interest in the problems along the West Bank:

The United States cast the first U.N. Security Council veto in nearly two years Thursday, blocking an Arab-backed resolution that would have demanded Israel halt its military offensive in the Gaza Strip.

The draft, sponsored by Qatar, accused Israel of a "disproportionate use of force" that endangered Palestinian civilians, and it demanded Israel withdraw its troops from Gaza.

I wonder how our buddies in Qatar feel about our veto. This could very well make extinct any bit of support we had left in the Arab world.

Looks like we are taking an interest in the problems along the West Bank:

The United States cast the first U.N. Security Council veto in nearly two years Thursday, blocking an Arab-backed resolution that would have demanded Israel halt its military offensive in the Gaza Strip.

The draft, sponsored by Qatar, accused Israel of a "disproportionate use of force" that endangered Palestinian civilians, and it demanded Israel withdraw its troops from Gaza.

I wonder how our buddies in Qatar feel about our veto. This could very well make extinct any bit of support we had left in the Arab world.

This is the mess in Iraq that the Democrats, especially Jack Murtha, have been warning about:

Iraq will ask the United Nations to end immunity from local law for U.S. troops, the government said on Monday, as the U.S. military named five soldiers charged in a rape-murder case that has outraged Iraqis.

In an interview a week after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki demanded a review of foreign troops' immunity, Human Rights Minister Wigdan Michael said work on it was now under way and a request could be ready by next month to go to the U.N. Security Council, under whose mandate U.S.-led forces operate in Iraq.

"We're very serious about this," she said, adding a lack of enforcement of U.S. military law in the past had encouraged soldiers to commit crimes against Iraqi civilians.

"We formed a committee last week to prepare reports and put it before the cabinet in three weeks. After that, Maliki will present it to the Security Council. We will ask them to lift the immunity," Michael said.

I am sure the White House and pundit spin is already in full gear to try and downplay this as an "act of appeasement by the new government for their people", or some other typical bullshit. The fact lies in this article with this line: "adding a lack of enforcement of U.S. military law in the past had encouraged soldiers to commit crimes against Iraqi civilians. ".

Now we get to see what kind of battle this turns into in New York. The only option is for the U.S. to allow this. Failure to do so will prove 100% that we are an occupying force. So does Bush have the balls to stand behind his platform and trust the Iraqi's to deal with these soldiers, or will he prove the left has been right all along? That question is what turns this into a bombshell for the administration, and one that can easily backfire on them. We got check - can we get checkmate?

North Korea has test fired a seventh missile and the Security Council is now getting ready for an emergency session regarding the tensions:

The UN Security Council will hold an emergency session Wednesday morning to discuss at Japan's request North Korea's missile tests, officials said.

Outraged over the pre-dawn test-firing of six missiles by its isolated, communist neighbor, Japan has urged the UN Security Council to take up the matter and has also warned that it might impose economic sanctions of its own.

The Security Council is expected to meet at 10 a.m. (1400 GMT) to take up the matter, according to a spokesman for the French mission to the United Nations.

Japan is expected to present a resolution protesting North Korea's missile tests, according to another UN diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity.

What exactly happens in the Security Council today is dependent upon China. If China feels embarassed about North Korea's actions then a threat of sanctions could come out of it, however if they don't then we might be limited to a somewhat mild statement of disagreement.

Now this is really interesting:

The United States strongly criticized the No. 2 United Nations official on Wednesday for a speech he gave that accused the U.S. government of leaving Americans in the dark about the world body's good works.

U.S. Ambassador John Bolton called Tuesday's speech by Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown a "very, very grave mistake" that could undermine Secretary-General Kofi Annan's efforts to push through an ambitious reform agenda at the world organization.

He demanded that Annan repudiate the rare public criticism by a U.N. official, and even suggested that the fate of the organization itself might be at stake.

Kofi is standing by his man and the speech he made, which is really the interesting part:

"You have to engage to help make this institution a better institution," Malloch Brown told reporters. "And you need to engage, if I dare say so, with your own public opinion to explain better why the U.N. matters to American interests."

In the speech, Malloch Brown said the United States relies on the United Nations as a diplomatic tool but doesn't defend it against criticism at home. That policy of "stealth diplomacy" is unsustainable, he said.

While praising Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her predecessors, Malloch Brown lamented that the good works of the U.N. are ignored. "Much of the public discourse that reaches the U.S. heartland has been largely abandoned to its loudest detractors such as Rush Limbaugh and Fox News."

"The U.N.'s role is in effect a secret in Middle America even as it is highlighted in the Middle East and other parts of the world," Malloch Brown said.

DAMN the truth does hurt. I say that because what Brown said was exactly that - the truth. Right wingers like Limbaugh and FOX constantly badger the U.N. and lobby for it's demise. Of course when the U.N. speaks out against FOX, the White House's news station, of course their puppet Bolton is going to get pissed.