The United Nations Human Rights Council

"The United Nations Human Rights Council, a conclave of 47 nations that includes such notorious human rights violators as China, Cuba, Libya and Saudi Arabia, met in Geneva on Friday, to question the United States about its human rights failings. It heard, among other things, that the U.S. discriminates against Muslims, that its police are barbaric and that it has been holding political prisoners behind bars for years. Russia urged the U.S. to abolish the death penalty. Cuba and Iran called on Washington to close Guantanamo prison and investigate alleged torture by its troops abroad. Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, told the U.S. it must better promote religious tolerance. Mexico complained that racial profiling had become a common practice in some U.S. states.  Some of these allegations, and many more, come from Americans themselves — especially from a stridently critical network of U.S. organizations whose input dominates the U.N. digest of submissions from 'civil society' that are part of the council’s background reading."  George Russell Published November 05, 2010 | FoxNews.com. 
Here is a little reported event or discussed event.  Anyone can (and does) criticize the US, about anything they wish.  And those of us who love this nation realize it has it flaws.  We should be constantly mindful of the faults of this nation and ever vigilant to correct them.   But going hat in hand before one of the most corrupt political organizations that ever existed and defending ourselves from insane, hypocritical charges is so grating that it is almost physically revolting.  Does it make any kind of sense to defend ourselves from charges of secret prisons or torture from the Cubans or the Iranians?  Do we want to take law and order tips from Mexico; or learn about religious tolerance from the government of Indonesia? 
The absurdity of this Kafkaesque world is simply too bizarre for rationalization.  But there is a reason.  But the State Department which is sending a high level delegation to participate in this US bashing feast has a reason.  But according to the U.S. State Department, which led a delegation of high-level American diplomats and government officials to Geneva, the Periodic Review is a major opportunity for Washington to lead the rest of the world by example.
“Our taking the process seriously contributes to the universality” of the human rights process, one State Department official told Fox News. “It’s an important opportunity for us to showcase our willingness to expose ourselves in a transparent way” to human rights criticism.
“For us, upholding the process is very important.”
The same official, however, declared that the “most important” part of the process is “the dialogue with our own citizens.” 
Why would the current administration sully the honor and prestige of this great nation in order to achieve a “dialogue with our own citizens”?    When is out government ever going to figure it out that participating in charades like this, does nothing to set an example for the many rogue nations around the world? I think the current US administration is trying to make some kind of point about how everyone is the same.  But apparently, they are unaware of  the vast differences between legitimacy of the US government and the legitimacy of most the other world governments.  "Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed" according to the Declaration of Independence.  This is a major premise of the US government and the Western democracies, not the rest of the world and certainly not the corrupt UN. 

WikiLeaks and Anti-US propaganda

I am so tired of hearing about Wikileaks, the Whistle-Blower site.  It is just not true.   The definition of a “whistle blower: an informant who exposes wrongdoing within an organization in the hope of stopping it".   Obviously. “WikiLeaks” is not inside any organization. More importantly, to print classified documents is not the same as exposing wrongdoing, unless of course you are believe everything the US does is wrong.

There is no "smoking gun" here.  Is it not obvious that war zone intelligence is full of unsubstantiated reports, rumors and just plain lies?  Particularly in a conflict like Iraq where just a few years ago the opinion makers were calling this conflict a civil war.  In a place where there are few uniformed combatants, every prinsoner can claim to be an innocent civilian.  In a conflict, rife with infiltrators, spies  and shifting alliances, every casualty  or alleged casualty was murderously gunned down from a now now vanished helicopter. Considering that this region of the world has a history of hundreds of years of tribal, ethnic, religious and territorial conflicts and these conflicts have been filled with brutality, murder, rape and torture; then the charge that these practices are continuing is hardly a revelation.  

What is ridiculous is to pretend that the publishing of classified documents is somehow a noble gesture, performed to expose and end the evil practices of the US. Instead, let's be honest about this site and call it what it is, “Wikileaks – ant-US propaganda site”.

 

 

 

At the Ft. Hood Memorial Service... The Crotch Salute Returns

          Here is the  President of the United States.  At a memorial for those killed at Ft Hood.  I know it would be too much to ask him to salute or hold his hand over his heart: but could he have the decency, to at least stand up straight with his hands at his side, instead of this crotch cradle prose.  It is amazing that this man will bow and scrape in the presents of any foreign dictator or psycho "President for Life" around the world.   But when it comes to honoring the men and women who were killed in the line of duty.  Well we get the bored waiter pose.  This transcends political affiliation, citizens of this country no matter what their party, should be highly offended by this behavior.

FOXNews.com - NASA Chief: Next Frontier Better Relations With Muslim World

This would be hilarious if it was not so ludicrous.


FOXNews.com - NASA Chief: Next Frontier Better Relations With Muslim World

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a recent interview that his "foremost" mission as the head of America's space exploration agency is to improve relations with the Muslim world.

Though international diplomacy would seem well outside NASA's orbit, Boldin said in an interview with Al Jazeera that strengthening those ties was among the top tasks President Obama assigned him. He said better interaction with the Muslim world would ultimately advance space travel.

"When I became the NASA administrator -- or before I became the NASA administrator -- he charged me with three things. One was he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math, he wanted me to expand our international relationships, and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science ... and math and engineering," Bolden said in the interview.

The NASA administrator was in the Middle East last month marking the one-year anniversary since Obama delivered an address to Muslim nations in Cairo. Bolden spoke in June at the American University in Cairo -- in his interview with Al Jazeera, he described space travel as an international collaboration of which Muslim nations must be a part.

"It is a matter of trying to reach out and get the best of all worlds, if you will, and there is much to be gained by drawing in the contributions that are possible from the Muslim (nations)," he said. He held up the International Space Station as a model, praising the contributions there from the Russians and the Chinese.

However, Bolden denied the suggestion that he was on a diplomatic mission -- in a distinctly non-diplomatic role.

"Not at all. It's not a diplomatic anything," he said.

He said the United States is not going to travel beyond low-Earth orbit on its own and that no country is going to make it to Mars without international help.

Bolden has faced criticism this year for overseeing the cancellation of the agency's Constellation program, which was building new rockets and spaceships capable of returning astronauts to the moon. Stressing the importance of international cooperation in future missions, Bolden told Al Jazeera that the moon, Mars and asteroids are still planned destinations for NASA.

Dow Repeats Great Depression Pattern: Charts - CNBC

For all my chartist friends, this is an alarming trend.


Dow Repeats Great Depression Pattern: Charts - CNBC

Dow Repeats Great Depression Pattern: Charts

• July 5, 2010 CNBC
  

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is repeating a pattern that appeared just before markets fell during the Great Depression, Daryl Guppy, CEO at Guppytraders.com, told CNBC Monday.

“Those who don’t remember history are doomed to repeat it…there was a head and shoulders pattern that developed before the Depression in 1929, then with the recovery in 1930 we had another head and shoulders pattern that preceded a fall in the market, and in the current Dow situation we see an exact repeat of that environment,” Guppy said.

The Dow retreated 457.33 points, or 4.5 percent last week, to close at 9,686 Friday. Guppy said a Dow fall below 9,800 confirmed the head and shoulders pattern.

The Shanghai Composite is seeing a very rapid collapse, falling below 2,500, which suggests the major fall in the Dow, he added.

In the European markets, Guppy says Frankfurt's Dax is witnessing a different pattern to London's FTSE.

Guppy uses the broad trading band as measurement- giving the Dax a downsize target of 1,500. The same head and shoulders pattern seen in the Dow can also being seen in the FTSE, he added.

© 2010 CNBC.com

Propose this song by Frank Loesse as the official song of the current administration

Sung while gazing in the mirror:

"Now, there you are
Yes, there's that face
That face that somehow I trust
It may embarrass you to hear me say it
But say it I must
Say it I must!

You have the cool, clear eyes
Of a seeker of wisdom and truth
Yet there's that upturned chin
And the grin of impetuous youth
Oh, I Believe In You
I Believe In You…"

Paul H. Rubin: Why Is the Gulf Cleanup So Slow? - WSJ.com

Paul H. Rubin: Why Is the Gulf Cleanup So Slow? - WSJ.com

From the Wall Street Journal July 2. 2010 by Paul H. Rubin

By PAUL H. RUBIN

Destin, Fla.

As the oil spill continues and the cleanup lags, we must begin to ask difficult and uncomfortable questions. There does not seem to be much that anyone can do to stop the spill except dig a relief well, not due until August. But the cleanup is a different story. The press and Internet are full of straightforward suggestions for easy ways of improving the cleanup, but the federal government is resisting these remedies.

First, the Environmental Protection Agency can relax restrictions on the amount of oil in discharged water, currently limited to 15 parts per million. In normal times, this rule sensibly controls the amount of pollution that can be added to relatively clean ocean water. But this is not a normal time.

Various skimmers and tankers (some of them very large) are available that could eliminate most of the oil from seawater, discharging the mostly clean water while storing the oil onboard. While this would clean vast amounts of water efficiently, the EPA is unwilling to grant a temporary waiver of its regulations.

Next, the Obama administration can waive the Jones Act, which restricts foreign ships from operating in U.S. coastal waters. Many foreign countries (such as the Netherlands and Belgium) have ships and technologies that would greatly advance the cleanup. So far, the U.S. has refused to waive the restrictions of this law and allow these ships to participate in the effort.

The combination of these two regulations is delaying and may even prevent the world's largest skimmer, the Taiwanese owned "A Whale," from deploying. This 10-story high ship can remove almost as much oil in a day as has been removed in total—roughly 500,000 barrels of oily water per day. The tanker is steaming towards the Gulf, hoping it will receive Coast Guard and EPA approval before it arrives.

In addition, the federal government can free American-based skimmers. Of the 2,000 skimmers in the U.S. (not subject to the Jones Act or other restrictions), only 400 have been sent to the Gulf. Federal barriers have kept the others on stations elsewhere in case of other oil spills, despite the magnitude of the current crisis. The Coast Guard and the EPA issued a joint temporary rule suspending the regulation on June 29—more than 70 days after the spill.

The Obama administration can also permit more state and local initiatives. The media endlessly report stories of county and state officials applying federal permits to perform various actions, such as building sand berms around the Louisiana coast. In some cases, they were forbidden from acting. In others there have been extensive delays in obtaining permission.

As the government fails to implement such simple and straightforward remedies, one must ask why.

One possibility is sheer incompetence. Many critics of the president are fond of pointing out that he had no administrative or executive experience before taking office. But the government is full of competent people, and the military and Coast Guard can accomplish an assigned mission. In any case, several remedies require nothing more than getting out of the way.

Another possibility is that the administration places a higher priority on interests other than the fate of the Gulf, such as placating organized labor, which vigorously defends the Jones Act.

Finally there is the most pessimistic explanation—that the oil spill may be viewed as an opportunity, the way White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said back in February 2009, "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste." Many administration supporters are opposed to offshore oil drilling and are already employing the spill as a tool for achieving other goals. The websites of the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace, for example, all feature the oil spill as an argument for forbidding any further offshore drilling or for any use of fossil fuels at all. None mention the Jones Act.

To these organizations and perhaps to some in the administration, the oil spill may be a strategic justification in a larger battle. President Obama has already tried to severely limit drilling in the Gulf, using his Oval Office address on June 16 to demand that we "embrace a clean energy future." In the meantime, how about a cleaner Gulf?

Mr. Rubin, a professor of economics at Emory University, held several senior positions in the federal government in the 1980s. Since 1991 he has spent his summers on the Gulf.