100,000 march for more aggressive action on global warming

By GottaLaff

(Via)

Now this is how you do a protest. Tea Partiers, eat your hearts out:

Police and organizers estimated that between 60,000 and 100,000 people showed up to protest the U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen Saturday, demanding more aggressive action on global warming. The demonstrations were mostly peaceful, except for some radical groups whose spontaneous protests led to 900 arrests. The chief coordinator for Danish police said, [...] Most demonstrators were looking to speed up action to stop climate change, but various social and political causes were represented, from vegetarianism to the Iranian opposition, and of course, the ubiquitous Free Tibet folks.

And that's the way it is.

Iran approves building 10 enrichment sites

By GottaLaff

Thumb your Iranian nose much?

The Iranian government approved a plan Sunday to build 10 new uranium enrichment facilities, a dramatic expansion in defiance of U.N. demands it halt the program.

The decision comes only two days after the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency censured Iran, demanding it immediately stop building a newly revealed enrichment facility near the holy city of Qom and freeze all uranium enrichment activities. [...]

[T]he announcement is likely to stoke already high tensions between Iran and the West over its controversial nuclear activities.

Nothing like escalating tensions to start our Sunday off right, huh?

Mike Huckabee's "Elvis moment": U.N. = ACORN

By GottaLaff

HuckaMouth is teetering dangerously over the proverbial deep end. He attended the “How To Take Back America” conference, but it seems he should have gone to the "How To Take Back His Sanity" conference. Apparently, it was sold out.

A few excerpts, via Dave Weigel:

Former Gov. Mike Huckabee [...] said that he’d “nearly had an Elvis moment” watching this week’s United Nations general assembly sessions and spoke about pulling out of the world organization altogether.

“ It’s time to get a jackhammer and to simply chip off that part of New York City and let it float into the East River, never to be seen again!” [...] That remark got him a standing ovation [...]

Sound familiar?

John Bolton declared in 1994, ''If the U.N. secretary building in New York lost 10 stories, it wouldn't make a bit of difference."

HuckaWTF then encouraged de-funding the U.N.:

“It’s time to say enough of the American taxpayer’s dollar being spent on something that may have been a noble idea, but has become a disgrace!"

Exclamation point!

But wait! There's more! And that "more" is awfully reminiscent of my last post entitled, "The Republican War against ACORN" (title via Jason Leopold). Imagine that. Talking points much?

"It has become the international equivalent of ACORN and it’s time to say enough!"

Land sakes, if that ain't the gosh-durndest insult a Rushpublic could dangle out there, then I don't know what is.

And finally, he got so wee-wee'd up that he offered up the U.N. (the parts that won't be jackhammered off, I guess) to those responsible for, you know, attacking us. Why does he hate America?

“Let’s end the diplomatic excesses that these people enjoy [...] Let any country that is willing to spend the money that the United States is hosting–let them have it. Give it to the Saudis and let these diplomats suck the sand out of the Saudi desert for a few summers and see if that’s where they’d like to go, and make their ridiculous speeches.”

Talk about sucking, um, sand...

My, my, is that any way for a non-ordained Southern Baptist minister to talk? Maybe that's what a diet of fried squirrel does to a guy.

Khadafy’s interpreter: "I just can’t take it any more"

By GottaLaff

UPDATE: This post now cross-posted at Alan Colmes' site, Liberaland.

Yesterday I posted a Shallow Thought that snarked about Tag Team Interpreters. Seems I wasn't far off. You know what they say: There are no jokes.

It's from the New York Post, so take it for what it's worth, but I'm inclined to go with this one:

After struggling to turn Khadafy’s insane ramblings at the UN into English for 75 minutes, the Libyan dictator’s personal interpreter got lost in translation.

"I just can’t take it any more," Khadafy’s interpreter shouted into the live microphone – in Arabic.

At that point, the U.N.’s Arabic section chief, Rasha Ajalyaqeen, took over and translated the final 20 minutes of the speech.

"His interpreter just collapsed – this is the first time I have seen this in 25 years," another U.N. Arabic interpreter told The Post.

It takes a particular kind of talent to have that effect on your own guy. Whaddya think, does Khadafy make it into Guinness?

Breaking with protocol, Khadafy brought his own interpreters from Tripoli for Wednesday’s speech rather than use one of the 25 Arabic translators supplied by the United Nations, staff interpreters said.

Maybe the interpreter should have gone through some kind of endurance training. Or maybe he caught sight of his boss's hair and faked it just to have an excuse to leave the room.

Those who have translated for Khadafy in the past said they could empathize with his interpretator’s exasperation. [...]

"He’s not exactly the most lucid speaker," another Arabic interpreter said. "It’s not just that what he’s saying is illogical, but the way he’s saying it is bizarre. However, I think I could have made him sound a lot better."

By comparison, even Sarah Palin could make him sound better.

"Sometimes he mumbles, sometimes he talks to himself," he said.’

I take it back. Sarah could benefit from a session or two with him. She's just. That. Bad. At least Moammar's outfits keep us interested.

Ajalyaqeen, who had to rescue the bealegured interpreter, was given the day off yesterday.

"Ten minutes with Khadafy earns you a lot of annual leave," one interpreter said.

And an hour and a half earns you a gold medal.

Shallow Thoughts: Moammar Khaddafy edition

By GottaLaff

Today's Shallow Thought:

I swear I saw Khaddafy's interpreters playing tag team. They get exhausted after 5 minutes, and another runs in to relieve him.

That was today's Shallow Thought. Thank you for wading in.

Rumsfeld to 'face difficulties' over Gitmo: UN expert

By GottaLaff

How'd I miss this one?

Former US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld could soon be in trouble for the role he played in human rights abuses committed in the Guantanamo prison, a United Nations expert said Wednesday.

"In a year or two, his responsibilities will be established. Wherever he goes, he will face difficulties," Leandro Despouy, who is Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, told journalists in Geneva.

Nothing earth-shattering here, but always makes for enjoyable reading.

H/t: BuzzFlash

U.N. Official: Obama's Decision Not to Prosecute Torture Violates International Law

By GottaLaff

If it isn't one thing, it's another:

President Barack Obama's decision not to prosecute CIA operatives who used questionable interrogation practices violates international law, the U.N.'s top torture investigator said Saturday. [...]

In a brief telephone interview with The Associated Press, Manfred Nowak, an Austrian who serves as a U.N. special rapporteur in Geneva, said the United States had committed itself under the U.N. Convention against Torture to make torture a crime and to prosecute those suspected of engaging in it.

"They are party to the convention and the convention is very, very clear," Nowak said when asked to confirm comments contained in an interview he gave Austria's Der Standard newspaper. "The fact that you carried out an order doesn't relieve you of your responsibility," he said, adding it could be a mitigating factor.

Nowak, who said he would soon travel to Washington for meetings with officials, also called for a comprehensive independent investigation into the matter and added it was important to compensate the victims.

"Now we need to know all the facts -- not just bits and pieces," Nowak said. "First you need the truth and then you need justice."

One way or another, there will be repercussions for BushCo's war crimes. Will Nowak's statements be enough to get the ball rolling?

U.S. to join UN Human Rights Council

By GottaLaff

Oh that whacky, nutty, zany ObamAdministration. Those crazy Anti-Bushies are... are... well... the Anti-Bushiest:

The Obama administration has decided to join the United Nations Human Rights Council, reversing the Bush administration’s decision to shun the body because of its refusal to criticize flagrant abuses of human rights.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice announced the decision Tuesday in a statement that said the U.S. goal was to make the council more effective.

“Human rights are an essential part of American foreign policy,” said Clinton, who was criticized for playing down human rights concerns with China during her first trip abroad after taking office.

What? Human rights are a good thing? Who knew?

“The U.S. is seeking election to the Council because we believe that working from within, we can make the council a more effective forum to promote and protect human rights. We hope to work in partnership with many countries to achieve a more effective Council,” said Rice. [...]

The move, which has long been sought by human rights groups, is part of the new administration’s policy of seeking engagement abroad, he said. The U.S. is expected to win a seat.

Now really. What kind of insensitive, self-destructive, power-hungry, unAmerican, odious nutcase wouldn't care about stuff like that?

Did Saddam Hussein Bug Dan Rather Before the Iraq War?

By GottaLaff

Saddam Hussein really bugged us for a long time, didn't he? What a pain he was. He was an especially irritating source of buggage for Dan Rather... but not the kind you might think:

It was probably the most important interview before the Iraq war: Dan Rather vs. Saddam Hussein. But we learn in the new book Hide and Seek: The Search for Truth in Iraq by Charles Duelfer, longtime United Nations and CIA weapons inspector, that Saddam likely got a peek at Rather's questions. [...]

Rather told reporters that his preinvasion quiz was so important that he practiced his questions before a mirror in his Rasheed Hotel room. But Duelfer notes that Saddam had the city so heavily wired for surveillance that his posse probably heard every question. "It is simply surprising," Duelfer tells Whispers, "that someone as worldly as Dan Rather would not assume his room was bugged in one of the most security-conscious regimes on the planet."

Didn't Rather learn anything from all those James Bond movies?

VIDEO-- U.N. official: Enough evidence to prosecute Rumsfeld for war crimes

By GottaLaff


This video is from CNN's Newsroom, broadcast Jan. 26, 2009.

Monday, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak told CNN's Rick Sanchez that the US has an "obligation" to investigate whether Bush administration officials ordered torture, adding that he believes that there is already enough evidence to prosecute former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

Original (videoless) post here.

U.N. special rapporteur on torture calls on U.S. to prosecute Bush and Rumsfeld

By GottaLaff

Ohpleaseohpleaseohplease:

In remarks that aired on German television last night, Manfred Nowak, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, urged the U.S. to pursue former President George W. Bush and defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld on charges that they authorized torture and other harsh interrogation techniques:

“Judicially speaking, the United States has a clear obligation” to bring proceedings against Bush and Rumsfeld. […] He noted Washington had ratified the UN convention on torture which required “all means, particularly penal law” to be used to bring proceedings against those violating it.

“We have all these documents that are now publicly available that prove that these methods of interrogation were intentionally ordered by Rumsfeld,” against detainees at the US prison facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Nowak said.

Jonathan Turley has called for justice. Keith Olbermann has. Nancy Pelosi has. We have. The nation is practically begging for it. Bush did not issue pre-emptive pardons, so the door is wide open.

Not to mention, setting a terrible precedent by letting the Bush crime family skate at the expense of our democracy would be a real crime in and of itself.

Susan Rice Headed to United Nations

By GottaLaff

Obama's been a busy president-elect:

ABC News has learned that Dr. Susan Rice has emerged as the leading candidate to be President-elect Obama's nominee as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.

"Dr. Rice, a member of President Bill Clinton's National Security Council and a former Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, was involved in President-elect Obama's campaign as a senior foreign policy adviser."

Paraguay President turned down IWRC* Palin photo op

By GottaLaff

IWRC* has been rejected:

Apparently not everyone wants to have their photograph taken with Sarah Palin.

Paraguay President Fernando Lugo, while attending both the UN General Assembly meetings and the Clinton Global Initiative, shared with friends over dinner some of the other meetings he had been having in New York.

After enumerating the various heads of state he'd met with, the room went silent and then laughed a bit when he confided that he was approached about meeting with GOP Vice Presidential candidate and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

President Lugo said he turned the meeting down.

Why, he must be a terrorist! Who would be so bold as to decline a face-to-face with that paragon of foreign policy, Lady IWRC Louise Palin?

The 57-year-old left-leaning former Catholic bishop known locally as "bishop of the poor," was elected to office in April. His swearing in marked the first time in Paraguay's history since the country gained independence that an opposition party turned over power peacefully to a candidate elected from the other party.

Lugo has also refused his presidential salary, saying it "belongs to more humble people." He joined the priesthood in 1977 and was ordained a bishop in 1994 before resigning in 2006 to run for office.

I'm sure if she stands close enough to a map of Paraguay, she can claim expertise.

*"In What Respect, Charlie?"

IWRC* Palin's Big U.N. Photo Op: Media Blackout Excuse Edition

By GottaLaff

--PHOTO WOULD GO HERE--

I will not include the Big Major Photo-Op photo. That would be hypocritical of me, although I could come up with a metaphor instead.

Nah.

This entire IWRC* Photo Op Moment is so laughable that my sides hurt and my eyes are watering. Oh wait. No. That was from the IWRC* campaign's rationalization at the end of this piece.

I'm not exactly sure why we needed to know what IWRC did with her legs:

As the pool entered, the Afghan president appeared to be telling Palin about his young son, who was born in January 2007.

Palin, her legs crossed and at one point patting her heart, was leaning in eagerly and smiling. Karzai, wearing his traditional clothes but without his trademark karakul hat, was also grinning while discussing the child. His remarks were mostly unintelligible as the noise from the clicking cameras drowned them out.

“What is his name?,” Palin asked.

“Mirwais,” Karzai responded. “Mirwais, which means, ‘The Light of the House.’”

“Oh nice,” Palin responded.

“He is the only one we have,” remarked Karzai.

After 29 seconds observing the meeting, CNN and other photographers covering the meeting were escorted out of the room.

Later, McCain-Palin press representatives chalked up the restrictions to a “mix-up, a miscommunication among staff.” The full pool — a print and wires reporter, along with a television producer — was then allowed in to observe Palin’s meeting with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe for 15-20 seconds.

If 29 seconds/20 seconds is what the IWRC team is telling us she's worth, that's quite an admission.

*"In What Respect, Charlie?"

IWRC* Palin's Big U.N. Photo Op

By GottaLaff

UPDATE on this post about IWRC* Palin's Big Day-- Just now on MSNBC, per David Gregory:

It's nothing but a photo op. They don't want to take the questions because they don't want the candidate to be seen as not answering them.

Then he backpedaled a little, but not too effectively.

Reporter:

She's attending Foreign Policy School this week.

Then she backpedaled a little, but not too effectively.

*"In What Respect, Charlie?"

Palin press may boycott UN conference

By GottaLaff

And speaking of no access to IWRC* Palin, check out this little gem:

Journalists, displeased with Sarah Palin’s efforts to restrict their access to her, are threatening not to cover her events surrounding the United Nations conference here unless they're allowed more access.

The unfolding boycott is the latest development in a rocky relationship between Palin’s handlers and the press, in which the campaign has sought to tightly control her interactions with the media.

The campaign had originally indicated that the print reporters following her campaign would be among the small group of journalists allowed to attend the so-called “pool sprays” before Palin’s meetings with dignitaries on the sidelines of the U.N. meetings.

The sprays are basically glorified photo opportunities during which journalists can snap photos and film footage and – if they’re lucky – shout a question or two at Palin and her company before she adjourns for private meetings. [...]

But the imbroglio began developing Tuesday morning when Palin’s handlers informed the small print press contingent covering her campaign that the print reporter designated to cover the events, Elizabeth Holmes of the Wall Street Journal, would not be allowed to cover the sprays.

The campaign’s reasoning was that there were not going to be questions or statements at the sprays, so they were only appropriate for photographers and cameramen.

The campaign also at first moved to bar CNN, the television network designated for pool duty, from sending its editorial producer – basically a hybrid print/video journalist – though the campaign budged when the network threatened to withhold its cameras as well.

Oh-h-h-h, early-in-the-day suh-nap!

*In What Respect, Charlie?

Sarah Louise Palin adds singer Bono to her foreign policy resume

By GottaLaff

I guess this means "In What Respect, Charlie" Palin (IWRC Palin) can add rock stardom to her resume, too. This just gets better and better:

Palin will meet with the presidents of Iraq, Pakistan, Georgia and the Ukraine, as well as singer and activist Bono during her three-day trip to New York, the McCain campaign announced Sunday.

Palin will meet Wednesday with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvilli and Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko together, according to campaign officials. She will then meet with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari before hosting Bono, the lead singer of U2. Later in the day, she will meet with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The campaign had previously announced meetings set for Tuesday in New York, including Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Columbian President Alvaro Uribe.

What is this, foreign policy training or a reception line?

If it's Tuesday, this must be Karzai.

And please, for those of us who can't grasp the nexus between foreign policy experience and handshakes, someone explain how meet-'n'-greets contribute to her resume?

Sarah Louise Palin's foreign policy experience: Visiting the U.N.

By GottaLaff

I once worked with the very British Lynn Redgrave, so I can say without hesitation that I have more foreign policy experience than Sarah Louise does. She's taking a Big Trip to the U.N. to meet Very Important People and observe and stuff:

She'll be meeting with Henry Kissinger, the former Secretary of State and Nobel Peace Prize winner; President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia; and Hamid Karzai, the president of Afghanistan, according to a campaign official.

Tuesday's trip gives Palin a quick taste of foreign policy before her one-and-only debate Oct. 2nd with Sen. Joseph Biden, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. [...]

At the U.N. headquarters, Palin will be able to see world leaders address the 192 member states. Among them are President Bush, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.

Those are mighty impressive credentials you got there, Sarah. Now you can say you've met with world leaders without the usual lying.

But psst! Be very, very careful. If anyone asks you how long you met with any of them, or the substance of your dinky little encounters, you're right back to square one.