Light shining on U.N. failure

When President Bush told the United Nations General Assembly this week “the American people are disappointed by the failures of the Human Rights Council,” his words could not have been more timely or deserved. He pointed out “This body has been silent on repression by regimes from Havana to Caracas to Pyongyang and Tehran — while focusing its criticism excessively on Israel.” On Friday, the Council piled the dung heap higher. It wrapped up another session in Geneva by adopting two more resolutions against Israel and no resolutions critical of the human-rights record of any of the other 191 U.N. member states.

This brings the total of anti-Israel resolutions and decisions adopted by the “Human Rights” Council — in only the first 15 months of its operation — to 14. Another four very weak decisions and resolutions have been applied to Sudan. And the Council finally decided to hold a special session of the Council on Myanmar. So adding up the highly selective concerns of the U.N.’s lead human-rights agency: 74 percent of the Council’s moves against individual states have been directed at Israel, 21 percent at Sudan, 5 percent at Myanmar, and the rest of the world has been given a free pass.

More here.

No Crocs with socks, George

Laura, you need to step in here.

African Failure

I read this morning that villagers in Zimbabwe are becoming sufficiently desperate for food in that country ruled by a despotic Robert Mugabe that they are rapidly eradicating wild animals in former private game ranches and preserves. Thus elephants, giraffes, leopards and other wild animals have been killed to an extent where it is now estimated that a full 60% of the country's entire wildlife population has been slaughtered for food.
The country reached this sorry state because the white land owners who knew how to use the land productively have been evicted and anti-market practices have been instituted which, of course, has its greatest effect on the blacks in that country. The world sits and watches this to no effect. The U.N. and a majority of Africa's leaders are particularly pathetic. When it became time for Africa to name a chair of the U.N.'s sustainable economic development commission, it turned to Zimbabwe for its representative. This is probably appropriate for a U.N. commission since Zimbabwe has no development at all, much less any which is sustainable.

Bush Advice to Dems

This story will be interesting to follow. If the top dems are listening to Bush about the world situation--especially in Iraq, they have two choices, it seems to me. First, they can attempt to minimize it or even deny it. Second, they can either acknowledge it or attempt to ignore it. If the net-nuts and others on the loony left latch onto the story, however, neither Hillary nor any of the others will be spared the wrath of the left.

Contrary Indicators

Those of us who spend our days managing stocks and watching the stock market know that certain individuals and companies and politicians are what we call contrary indicators. For example, if someone like Jim Cramer who has a program on CNBC says the market has bottomed and will go up from here, the odds are he is completely wrong and you should act "contrarially". Once he says you should buy a stock, you can bet (and many of us do) that it has had its run and should be sold. These individuals are invaluable. The same thing is true for politicians. There are some who are so completely inept and have such a perfect history of being wrong that it is almost uncanny. In that vein, I give the following as something to be looking for in the Middle East:

Former President Jimmy Carter said Wednesday that it was almost inconceivable that Iran would "commit suicide" by launching missiles at Israel.

Speaking at Emory University, Carter, who brokered the 1979 Camp David peace accord between Israel and Egypt, said Israel's superior military power and distance from Iran likely are enough to discourage an actual attack.

"Iran is quite distant from Israel," said Carter, 83. "I think it would be almost inconceivable that Iran would commit suicide by launching one or two missiles of any kind against the nation of Israel."

Mystery strike revealed?

Israel has clamped a tight lid of military censorship over its air raid against Syria, but US officials tell CBS News the strike destroyed a building Israeli intelligence believed housed nuclear equipment.

The strike was launched on September 6th, three days after a North Korean ship docked at a Syrian port. US officials say the arrival of that ship triggered the strike against the building, which had been under surveillance by an Israeli satellite sent into orbit last June.

US officials "say they do not know for sure what was in the building, but they agree with the Israelis, there are signs Syria is trying to acquire a nuclear capability."

Yes, honey it is kinda sad.

The raid

BestView has been on vacation and now is the time to catch up on what seems to be a story being eclipsed by the latest O.J. travails. On September 6, Israel made an air raid on something in Syria. The nature of the event remains a mystery which is evidently unusual in the mid-east. The theories about what happened are fascinating. One holds the raid was a practice run for a coming attack on Iran nuclear facilities. Another claims the North Koreans moved some nuclear material/equipment to Syria to prevent its analysis by the U.S inspection in North Korea and the raid took it out. A less exciting theory holds that Iran sent some conventional weapons to Syria for delivery to Hezbollah and these were the target.
This air action is not as compelling to news outfits as criminal charges against O.J. but that may change in the near future.

Marching Orders

Osama is not happy with the dems since they haven't shut down the war being waged against al Qaeda. I suspect we should look for a better effort by Hillary's colleagues in Congress. At least we should have some apology that they haven't been more effective followed by a promise to do better in the days ahead.

More than I wanted to know

I presume Barack Obama's wife intends to humanize her husband with the following comments, but.....

Referring to their daughters, Mrs. Obama says: “We have this ritual in the morning. They come in my bed, and Dad isn’t there — because he’s too snore-y and stinky, they don’t want to ever get into bed with him. But we cuddle up and we talk about everything from what is a period to the big topic of when we get a dog: what kind?”

Political Islam

Here is a really well done essay on how the politics in Iraq is almost certainly doomed to undermine our military and pacification efforts over there. The author is an Iraqi who seems to have a great understanding of the problems in his country. Here is a sample from his recent post, but read the whole thing.

Islamists have failed to offer a chance for a better life whether when they were in the opposition or when they got to rule the country. I think that's why they try to sell the idea of death instead of life; they failed to offer a better life so they picked up the slogan of death and "martyrdom" to promise a better life, but in an imaginary heaven; not in real life.

Hillary Care

Two Ontario patients who had brain tumors removed in the United States because they say they couldn't get quick treatment are suing the provincial government over what they claim are unjustly long wait times for medical care.

Lindsay McCreith, 66, of Newmarket and Shona Holmes, 43, of Waterdown filed a joint statement of claim yesterday against the province of Ontario. Both say their health suffered because they are denied the right to access care outside of Ontario's "government-run monopolistic" health-care system. They want to be able to buy private health insurance.

Ontario's "monopoly" over essential health services and its delay in providing the services have left both patients to "endure significant financial, emotional and physical hardship to access such services in the United States," states the claim .

If liberals like Hillary get their way, these Canadians will have no where to go for timely medical treatments and neither will you.

What it takes to be a liberal

1. You have to be against capital punishment, but support abortion on demand.
2. You have to believe that businesses create oppression and governments create prosperity.
3. You have to believe that guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens are more of a threat than nuclear weapons technology in the hands of Iran or Chinese and North Korean communists.
4. You have to believe that there was no art before federal funding.
5. You have to believe that global temperatures are less affected by cyclical changes in the earth's climate and more affected by soccer moms driving SUV'S.
6. You have to believe that gender roles are artificial, but being homosexual is natural.
7. You have to believe that the AIDS virus is spread by a lack of federal funding.
8. You have to believe that the same teacher who can't teach 4th-graders how to read is somehow qualified to teach those same kids about sex.
9. You have to believe that hunters don't care about nature, but PETA activists do.
10. You have to believe that self-esteem is more important than actually doing something to earn it.
11. You have to believe the NRA is bad because it supports certain parts of the Constitution, while the ACLU is good because it supports certain parts of the Constitution.
12. You have to believe that taxes are too low, but ATM fees are too high.
13. You have to believe that Margaret Sanger and Gloria Steinem are more important to American history than Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, or Abraham Lincoln.
14. You have to believe that standardized tests are racist, but racial quotas and set-asides are not.
15. You have to believe that the only reason socialism hasn't worked anywhere it's been tried is because the right people haven't been in charge.
16. You have to believe that homosexual parades displaying drag queens and transvestites should be constitutionally protected, and manger scenes at Christmas should be illegal.
17. You have to believe that this message is a part of a vast, right-wing conspiracy.

Stolen from Blonde Sagacity

Be very afraid

The following is from John Edwards, but it is typical liberal thinking and I wonder how many want to live in a society like this where the government tells you you have to go to a doctor and not only that, you have to have certain procedures (mammograms). Just amazing. I will watch to see if any of the other dems disagree with him. The problem is nobody will challenge them on it.

Edwards said on Sunday that his universal health care proposal would require that Americans go to the doctor for preventive care.

"It requires that everybody be covered. It requires that everybody get preventive care," he told a crowd sitting in lawn chairs in front of the Cedar County Courthouse. "If you are going to be in the system, you can't choose not to go to the doctor for 20 years. You have to go in and be checked and make sure that you are OK."

He noted, for example, that women would be required to have regular mammograms in an effort to find and treat "the first trace of problem." Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, announced earlier this year that her breast cancer had returned and spread.

Edwards said his mandatory health care plan would cover preventive, chronic and long-term health care. The plan would include mental health care as well as dental and vision coverage for all Americans.

"The whole idea is a continuum of care, basically from birth to death," he said.