Wednesday - September 13, 2006

Joke Du Jour

Did you hear the one about ....

French Tanks Give Teeth To Peacekeepers
_{9/12/2006, 2:19 p.m. ET}

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — Thirteen French tanks, the most powerful armor ever deployed by a U.N. peacekeeping force, rolled ashore Tuesday, beefing up a mission aimed at helping cement an uneasy cease-fire in Lebanon.

But some European officials are concerned international peacekeepers will be at best ineffective and at worst humiliated if hostilities flare between Hezbollah fighters and Israeli troops.

Scores of blue-helmeted French troops transferred the Leclerc tanks, AUF-1 artillery cannons, two high-tech Cobra radar trucks, and dozens of armored vehicles and transport trucks from a cargo ship in Beirut’s port. The port reopened Friday after a nearly two-month Israeli blockade.

- More Fwench humor here ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 09/13/2006 at 12:45 AM   
Filed Under: • Humor • United-Nations •  
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   Wednesday - August 30, 2006

Our Feature Presentation

Good evening, Ladies and Germs! Welcome to the Skipper Theatre and our feature presentation for today’s matinee. Today we bring you a rock ‘em, sock ‘em, rip-roaring comedy that’ll leave you rolling in the aisles. Today’s feature is entitled “The Three Stooges In Lebanon” and features our favorite slapstick bozos in a wild comedy full of their usual hilarious antics and pratfalls. So settle back with your popcorn, root beer and Raisenets and enjoy the show ...

Moe is in Jerusalem giving the Jews a hard time and blaming them for everything that has gone wrong since the beginning of time.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Tuesday that Israel was responsible for most of the violations of the UN-brokered cease-fire that ended the 34-day conflict between Israel and Hezbollah two weeks ago.

Annan said he would ask Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in talks on Wednesday to lift Israel’s air and sea blockade of Lebanon, imposed at the start of the war nearly seven weeks ago.

Speaking after a meeting with Defense Minister Amir Peretz in Jerusalem, Annan appealed for all sides to work together to ensure the peace holds and “not risk another explosion in six years or 20 years.”

- HAARETZ (Israel) - August 30, 2006

Larry is in Beirut preaching to Hezbollah in hopes of convincing them to let his people go free. Hallelujah!

US civil rights leader Jesse Jackson met with exiled Hamas leaders to try to mediate an exchange of prisoners between the Palestinian group and Israel, a high-level Hamas member said.

“Reverend Jackson had a good and useful meeting yesterday evening with Khaled Meshaal,” Hamas politburo member Mohammed Nazzal said. “Hamas is open to discussing all details, but we insist that any exchange of prisoners must be simultaneous, which is the main sticking point,” Mr Nazzal said.

Rev Jackson, who is not an official US government representative on his trip, is hoping to use respect he has gained in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East to succeed where others have failed.

- The Australian - August 29, 2006

Curly Joe is in Damascus stirring up trouble and sucking up to any dictator he can find. Oh, a wise guy? Whoop-whoop-whoop!

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Tuesday that his government is united with Syria in strong opposition to the U.S. government’s “imperialistic” aggression in the Middle East.

“We are here in Damascus to call for peace,” Chavez told Venezuela’s state television by phone shortly after arriving in Syria late Tuesday. “These two countries are strongly united against the imperialistic aggression and hegemonic pretensions of the U.S. empire.”

Chavez was scheduled to meet Assad on Wednesday, the Venezuelan president’s office said in a statement. Officials of both governments will sign a document opposing Washington’s “aggression” in the Middle East, Chavez said.

- Washington Post - August 30, 2006

Posted by The Skipper     on 08/30/2006 at 03:00 AM   
Filed Under: • Middle-East • Satire • Stoopid-People • United-Nations •  
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   Tuesday - August 22, 2006

UN Wussies Tossed Aside

I found this via LGF this morning. There is really nothing surprising about this story. Hezbollah decided to test the new UN forces in Lebanon and blew right by them. The UN forces cheerfully obliged by getting out of the way. But never fear, the last line of this story below is really encouraging ...

Hizbollah Pushes Past Guards In Show Of Force
(TELEGRAPH-UK) NAQOURA, Lebanon - 08/21/2006

Hizbollah mourners on a funeral parade shoved aside anti-tank barriers at a United Nations base in Lebanon yesterday in a demonstration of their new political strength. The party had been told it would be allowed to bury three “martyrs” at the Naqoura town cemetery inside the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) compound, but only if there was no flag-waving or political sloganising.

When the chanting procession, several hundred strong, reached the gates, it found the way barred by cruci-form steel tank traps. Mourners argued with the French guards, but failed to gain entry. A mob of young men then dragged the barriers away and the UN opened the gates. “They will eat us alive,” said a middle-aged official as the throng surged in.

A column of black-shirted men carried the three coffins to the graveyard. They waved yellow Hizbollah banners and portraits of the movement’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and yelled anti-Israeli and anti-American doggerel.

Among the mourners was Naqoura’s mayor, Hussein Darwish, a 59-year-old former teacher. “Israel is allowed to carry on raiding our country without Unifil doing anything,” he said, referring to an abortive raid by Israeli commandos in the Bekaa valley the previous day. “Why do they try to stop us burying our dead the way we wish?” The angry scenes were seen as a troubling portent of what may happen when a boosted UN force begins deploying to police the delicate, week-old ceasefire.

“Until now we’ve had good relations, but I don’t know what will happen after this,” said Mr Darwish. “Every-one is waiting.” Others among the mourners complained that when they sought shelter at the base during the bombardments of the month-long conflict, they were placed in open ground without bedding or water. Unifil’s hitherto easy dealings with the locals are partly due to its initial mandate, which only required it to observe and report. The new force will be expected to fill the space left by the departing Israelis and Hizbollah fighters, and police the border area, although its rules of engagement have not been finalised.

Its activities will inevitably bring it into close contact with Hizbollah, which has moved fast to consolidate its political grip on the region. Nowhere in the border area yesterday was there any sign of the Lebanese Army. It has been warned by Israel that it will not be allowed to deploy close to the frontier before the arrival of international troops. There was little sign yesterday that the security vacuum would be filled soon.

UN officials are desperate to get a vanguard force of 3,500 on the ground within a fortnight. But Israel is opposing the use of troops from some of the Muslim countries with which it does not have diplomatic ties but have offered to supply soldiers. By last night, Unifil’s standing force of 2,000 had been supplemented only by the arrival of 49 French military engineers.

Posted by The Skipper     on 08/22/2006 at 10:30 AM   
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   Friday - August 18, 2006

Frogs On A Plane

3,500 Troops Pledged For Expanded UN Lebanon Force
_{(IRISH EXAMINER) - August 18, 2006}

The United Nations has received pledges of 3,500 troops for an expanded peacekeeping force in Lebanon, but it is unclear whether the soldiers represent the right mix of countries and units that could deploy quickly. Bangladesh made the largest offer of up to 2,000 troops, but France offered just 200 new troops, a disappointment to some who expected more from the country likely to lead the force.

Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown told a meeting of nearly 50 potential troop-contributing countries that at least 3,500 new troops were needed in south Lebanon within 10 days to expand the 2,000-strong UN force trying to help maintain an uneasy truce between Israel and Hezbollah militants.

Before the meeting, French President Jacques Chirac announced that France would immediately double its 200-strong contingent already in the UN force to 400. Chirac also told UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in a phone call that France was prepared to command the strengthened force until February, and was also prepared to keep 1,700 troops mobilised in the region. “Well, we were disappointed, yes,” Malloch Brown said of the French announcement, adding that he feared it would “cast a shadow” over the meeting but other countries came forward.

Britain’s UN Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry announced a “quite substantial” maritime and aviation commitment of six Jaguar aircraft, two AWACS surveillance planes, and one naval frigate. Britain also offered one of its bases in Cyprus at Akrotiri as a staging point, he said.

Germany’s UN Ambassador Thomas Matussek said he offered “a rather substantive maritime component which is so encompassing that it could patrol and secure the whole of the Lebanese coast to make sure that weapons or other related materials don’t get into Lebanon”. Germany also offered customs agents, police and border protection agents to patrol the Syrian border, he said.

The United States is providing planning and logistical support and has experts at UN headquarters determining what is needed, said US deputy ambassador Alejandro Wolff.

Denmark pledged two ships for maritime patrol and many other countries said they would study the operational plans for the force and the draft rules of engagement before making any decisions.

- More Frog FUBAR here ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 08/18/2006 at 10:34 AM   
Filed Under: • EUro-peons • Terrorists • United-Nations •  
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   Thursday - August 17, 2006

Who’s On First?

Posted by The Skipper     on 08/17/2006 at 12:49 PM   
Filed Under: • Middle-East • United-Nations •  
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   Wednesday - August 16, 2006

Constructive Ambiguity?

Question: what do you get when you combine the United Nations, French troops, angry Hezbollah terrorists and even angrier Israeli army troops?

Answer: I don’t know but it promises to be more hilarious than a barrel of drunk monkeys going over a waterfall singing “Le Marseilles” out of tune.

Evidently the French are confused about what constitutes “hotile activites” ... which is not surprising, considering the military history of the Frogs. Throw the UN into the mix and you have the blind leading the blind .. in the middle of a hornet’s nest.

I have my popcorn all ready for this show. The Frogs are going to maintain peace with the backing of the UN and neither has a clue about how to do it? Bwah-hah-hah-hah-hah-ha-ha-ha-ha .... oh, stop it - you’re killing me ....

U.N. Troops’ Mandate Not All That Clear
_{BEIRUT (AP) - August 16, 2006, 3:02 PM EDT}

The U.N. peace troops shipping out soon to south Lebanon may find their first skirmish will be over words—like “hostile activities” and “all necessary action.”

The cease-fire resolution that diplomats produced in New York’s air-conditioned backrooms last week equips the new truce force with an uncertain mandate, one that could confuse as much as calm the situation once they hit the ground in Lebanon’s smoldering summer hills, peacekeeping veterans say.

“They call it `constructive ambiguity,’” one ex-U.N. official, Timur Goksel, said disparagingly of vague passages in Resolution 1701. Another said French commanders, expected to lead the mission, had better nail down detailed, approved rules for action before the mission.

“This, to me, looks like it will be a rough one,” added Ian Johnstone. “My advice to the French is to work this out carefully.”

The Security Council resolution halted a monthlong conflict in which Israel tried and failed to neutralize Hezbollah via air and ground attacks on Lebanon, and the Shiite Muslim militia poured thousands of rockets onto Israeli targets.

The council called for Hezbollah to cease attacks and Israel to cease “offensive military operations,” and for Lebanese army units and the U.N. force to deploy in the south, as Israeli troops withdraw. The 18-mile-deep southern zone is supposed to then be free of armed Hezbollah fighters.

The first fresh peacekeepers may arrive within two weeks under the new mandate, reinforcing UNIFIL, the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, U.N. officials say. Full deployment of up to 15,000 U.N. “blue helmets” may take months.

French and other envoys, meanwhile, are returning to those U.N. backrooms to talk over Resolution 1701’s real meaning. “It’s time for a robust force, but they have to negotiate every aspect of that mandate, including when to use force and when not to use force,” said Sir Brian Urquhart, former chief of U.N. peacekeeping.

Questions focus on a paragraph deep in the lengthy document, in which the council authorizes the strengthened U.N. force “to take all necessary action” to, among other things, ensure no “hostile activities” take place in its zone, and to “protect civilians.”

“What constitutes `hostile activities’?” asked Tufts University’s Johnstone, a one-time U.N. peacekeeping official who edits an annual journal on peace operations.

“One can imagine all the situations where one side takes action and that’s interpreted as hostile by the other, and UNIFIL will have to decide.”

- More Frog Fears from AP ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 08/16/2006 at 03:44 PM   
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   Friday - July 28, 2006

Through The Looking Glass

“Storm Tracking Map”
<sub>-by-
UNIFIL

(Click image for larger version 1024x807 in popup window)</sub>

In the 28 years since 1978, the UNIFIL “peacekeeping” force deployed in Southern Lebanon has managed to maintain approximately zero amount of peace. The only good thing they accomplished was to draw a pretty map. Now you can use this treasured artifact as your very own Storm Tracking Map. Now you can follow the action when the Lamestream Media talks about “Bint Jubayl” and “Haddatha”, names that would tax anyone’s brain. Click on the image above to get your very own king-size (1024x807) tracking map. Now you can know precisely where everything is ... except UNIFIL. They departed Lebanon today. Adios.

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/28/2006 at 02:34 PM   
Filed Under: • Art-Photography • United-Nations •  
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Keep The Penny

(USA TODAY) - July 11, 2006 - Because of the soaring price of zinc, it now costs nearly a penny-and-a-half to produce a penny. If the U.S. Mint were a for-profit business, the next step would be pretty automatic — it would shut down penny production or quickly reduce the penny’s cost by changing its content. The Mint, however, has the luxury of considering what is best for the country as a whole in making such a momentous decision.

What is in the interest of the nation? It should discontinue minting the dear old penny.

In fact, economists of all political stripes have concluded it’s time to get rid of the penny even if the Mint could make it at zero cost. On the left, Princeton’s Paul Krugman puts it this way in the introductory textbook he co-authored, Economics: With average wages now at $17 per hour, a penny is “equivalent to just over two seconds of work — and so it’s not worth the opportunity cost of the time it takes to worry about a penny more or less.” The rising value of our time “has turned a penny from a useful coin into a nuisance.”

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/28/2006 at 12:34 AM   
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   Tuesday - July 25, 2006

Pounding Sand

Tough Noogies, Kofi! Git yer impotent parasites outta there. Israel has had enough of your crap. Call us back in a few weeks after Hezbullah has been reduceed to smoldering ruins. That is all ...

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the strike on a clearly marked U.N. border outpost was “apparently deliberate” and demanded Israel investigate. A bomb dropped by an Israel warplane scored a direct hit on the post in the town of Khiyam, near the eastern sector of the border, U.N. officials said.

The victims were from Austria, Canada, China and Finland, U.N. and Lebanese military officials said. It was not immediately known which two were confirmed dead.

Daniel Ayalon, Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., called Annan’s reaction “deplorable.” He said the observers were caught in crossfire between Hezbollah and Israel. If Israel is found to be responsible for the deaths, it was not deliberate, he said.

“To level this accusation that it was deliberate is just outrageous and shocking and I hope he will apologize,” Ayalon told CNN.

- More horsefeathers at CNN ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/25/2006 at 08:52 PM   
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Confirm Bolton!

His nomination as US Ambassador to the United Nations is coming up again this week and it’s time for the Democratic obstructionists and Republican RINO’s to shut up and confirm John Bolton. This partisan nonsense has gone on quite long enough.

John Bolton has done an admirable job during his tenure under an interim appointment. The spoiled brats on the Left and in the Democratic Party had their fun. Now it’s time to let the grownups get on with business. John Bolton gets my vote. Write or e-mail your Senator today and tell him or her to confirm John Bolton. We need a strong hand in the United Nations snake pit now more than ever.

Confirm John Bolton Now
_{July 20, 2006}

Sen. George Voinovich’s (R.-Ohio) idiotic reasoning that he will now support John Bolton as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations gives Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R.-Tenn.) a perfect opening to bring up Bolton’s nomination for a confirmation vote.

When President Bush gave Bolton a recess appointment last August, Bolton was coming off a bruising fight in the Senate. Voinovich had surprised Republican colleagues on the Foreign Relations Committee by announcing his reluctance to support Bolton, handing Democrats the momentum they desired to stall the nomination.

Democrat obstructionists succeeded when a cloture vote on Bolton failed. Fortunately, Bush chose to bypass the Senate and appointed Bolton as UN ambassador anyway through a recess appointment. At the same time, Bush renominated Bolton, leaving it up to the Senate to act. For nearly a year, Bolton has waited to be confirmed for the job permanently.

In that time, Bolton has demonstrated his ability to be an effective UN ambassador, championing the much-needed message of reform. He brought a fresh perspective to the United Nations, and the criticism voiced by Voinovich and Democrats—that he didn’t play well with others—has proven to be moot.

Bolton has taken a lead on human rights issues, starting with the structure of the new Human Rights Council. He correctly held the United States out of the new council after U.S. proposals were rejected.

Bolton also deserves credit for his efforts to change the way the UN spends money. Despite resistance from less-developed countries that seek to control the process, the United States must continue pushing for management and personnel reform. Bolton is right to criticize the countries resisting change. As the oil-for-food scandal made apparent, reform is needed.

Bolton also has been a steady force in condemning terrorists and their sympathizers as crises have emerged in North Korea, Iran and Israel. He has done a good job articulating the U.S. position on these rogue regimes.

- More on the story at Human Events Online...

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/25/2006 at 08:21 AM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • United-Nations •  
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   Monday - July 24, 2006

UN: Useless Nuts

UNIFL: United Nations Interim Forces Lebanon - since 1978 the UN has had a “force” of 2,000 so-called “peacekeepers” in southern Lebanon. If you are ever asked to describe something that is utterly useless, ineffective and totally impotent feel free to use this as an example. The United Nations is nothing but a 60-year-long running joke but the only people laughing are the “diplomats” from all of the Third World pestholes who enjoy harassing the major powers.

What has UNIFL accomplished since 1978? Give me one example to justify the existence of this force and I’ll shut up and sit down. You can’t, can you? Then why do we continue to support this organization of useless weasels? So we can have some dipshit “Humanitarian Chief” issue a “strong reprimand”? Turn out the lights, send them home and raze the building to the ground. Now!

_{Randy Bish - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review}

U.N. Humanitarian Chief Condemns Destruction Of Beirut
_{(SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS) - Sunday, Jul. 23, 2006}

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Israeli bombing in Lebanon on Sunday killed at least six civilians and three Hezbollah fighters, and Hezbollah fired rockets that killed two people in the Israeli city of Haifa. In Beirut, U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland toured bombed-out areas of the Lebanese capital and called Israel’s destruction in the city “a violation of humanitarian law.” He said he saw “destruction, block after block, and mostly in residential areas.”

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice left Washington on Sunday for a brief visit to Israel, and then planned to go to the Palestinian headquarters in the West Bank and an international conference on the conflict in Rome. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy were in Israel on Sunday seeking an end of the fighting.

There was little optimism, however, that the two-week war in Lebanon would stop soon. The war has made even factions in Lebanon that don’t support Hezbollah increasingly angry at Israel. Israeli officials, meanwhile, indicated that they might accept a multinational peacekeeping force in Lebanon eventually, but that for now the fight would continue. The Israeli military seeks to cripple Hezbollah’s militia so that it can no longer fire rockets from Lebanon into Israel.

Yossi Alpher, an Israeli expert on strategic issues, said he sees little in the current debate suggesting the war will end soon. “This is taking longer than the original estimates, but the ground war could go on for quite some time,” he said. “There will come a time when air and ground forces are creating less and less success, and then we’ll start to hear serious talk about a cease-fire.”

When that time comes, both Defense Minister Amir Peretz and Livni, the foreign minister, said that they would be willing to see a multinational force enter southern Lebanon to maintain a safe buffer. ”Our past experience with the U.N. was disappointing,” Livni said. Israel’s government would prefer NATO forces this time, she said.

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/24/2006 at 05:53 AM   
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   Tuesday - July 18, 2006

Meanwhile …

These are not the warships you’re looking for. Move along. Nothing to see here.

So says the US Navy. Of course the visit was planned months in advance. The logistics of deploying this much hardware requires that much lead time. It is convenient though ... and somewhat comforting to know that the carrier group is on hand in case Kim Jung Mentally Ill decides to get uppity - especially after the recent bottle rockets the NoKos fired off.

Which brings me to the crux of the matter ... if we’re constantly being tasked to be the world’s policeman then why in hell are we paying dues to the United Notions. They ought to be paying us for this crap! Instead, they make us pay more than any other country, squat on prime real estate in New York and give us a hard time.

It’s time to tell Kofi And Gang to “pony up for protection” ... and sit down and STFU when we bust the bad guys for them. Send them a bill for Saddam’s capture - which they approved. A few trillion dollars ought to do it ...

U.S. Warship in S.Korea
Amid Missile Issue
—SEOUL, South Korea (AP)
July 18, 2006, 4:21 AM EDT

The aircraft carrier USS Enterprise arrived in South Korea Tuesday for a routine port call, officials said, amid heightened tensions in the region over North Korea’s missile launches.

The group led by the nuclear-powered carrier USS Enterprise, and including a guided missile cruiser, attack submarine and other ships, arrived for a previously planned port call at the southeastern city of Pusan, the U.S. Navy said in a statement.

“The Norfolk, Virginia-based carrier’s deployment to the Western Pacific was planned months in advance and is not in response to any current or recent events,” the statement said. U.S. military officials would not say how long the naval strike group would be in Pusan, but local media said it would stay for four days.

The communist North fired seven missiles earlier this month, including one believed capable of reaching the U.S. The missiles plunged into the sea east of the Korean Peninsula without causing any known damage or injuries, but prompted strong international condemnation. It wasn’t clear how long the vessel will stay at the port.

It is the first time in 17 years for the Norfolk, Virginia-based Enterprise to travel to Pacific waters. The carrier’s deployment to the Asia-Pacific region is “part of a regular rotation of vessels in support of U.S. commitments to around the world,” the Navy said.

About 29,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea, which remains technically at war with the communist North since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty.

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/18/2006 at 09:52 AM   
Filed Under: • North-Korea • United-Nations •  
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   Wednesday - July 12, 2006

Strongly Deplore

Protesting Missile Tests

A South Korean protester burns a picture of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and North’s flags during an anti-North Korea rally in Seoul, on July 5.

North Korea test-launched six missiles including a long-range Taepodong in an early morning barrage, defying stern international warnings of retaliation and prompting concerns that it could follow with more tests. (AP/ Lee Jin-man)

China, Russia Float Own Plan on N. Korea
—_{UNITED NATIONS (AP) - July 12, 2006, 1:57 PM EDT}

China and Russia introduced a resolution Wednesday deploring North Korea’s missile tests but dropping language from a rival proposal that could have led to military action against Pyongyang. The draft, obtained by The Associated Press, “strongly deplores” North Korea’s missile tests last week and urges Pyongyang to re-establish a moratorium on such launches.

It requests—but does not demand—that all U.N. members “exercise vigilance in preventing supply of items, materials, goods and technologies that could contribute” to North Korea’s missile program. The resolution also calls on member nations “not to procure missiles or missile-related items” or technology from the North.

Chinese Ambassador Wang Guangya said he had been instructed to veto a much- stronger Japanese resolution, which is supported by the United States, Britain, France and four other countries. Wang previously said Beijing objected to three key elements in the Japanese draft: the determination that the missile tests threatened international peace and security; authorizing action under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which can be enforced militarily; and mandatory sanctions aimed at curbing North Korea’s missile and nuclear programs.

The Chinese-Russian draft resolution drops those three elements, which Japan and the United States consider crucial. Japanese Ambassador Kenzo Oshima and U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said they were still prepared to put their resolution to a vote—even with the prospect of a Chinese veto. Oshima called the Chinese-Russian draft “a move in the right direction” but said “a quick glance shows that there are very serious gaps on very important issues.”

“I think it will be very difficult for us to accept that as it is,” Oshima said. Bolton also cited “deficiencies,” notably the Chinese-Russian draft’s elimination of the reference to the tests as a threat to international peace and its use of the weaker word “calls” rather than “decides” in the Japanese text.

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/12/2006 at 02:41 PM   
Filed Under: • Stoopid-People • United-Nations •  
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   Tuesday - July 11, 2006

Useless Numbnuts

Someone please tell me exactly what the UN has done for anything or anyone in the last sixty years that couldn’t have been accomplished just as easily with normal diplomacy between countries. The building on Turtle Bay in New York is a money pit and a snake pit, all rolled into one. The sooner the US gets out of the UN and kicks the buggers out of the country, the better off we’ll be.

_{Michael Ramirez - Investors Business Daily}

UN Delays Vote On Possible North Korea Sanctions
—_{(CBC NEWS - AP) - Mon, 10 Jul 2006 18:52:08 EDT}

The UN Security Council’s five permanent members and Japan agreed Monday to postpone a vote on possible sanctions against North Korea for its missile test that rattled the region last week. Jean-Marc de La Sabliere, France’s ambassador to the UN and the current council president, said there would be no vote Monday. Wang Guangya, China’s UN ambassador, said council members have agreed to continue discussions on the Tokyo-sponsored resolution.

Guangya told reporters after a meeting with envoys from Russia, the United States, Britain, France and Japan that the resolution would have to be altered for the council to approve it. “If they wish to have a resolution, they should have a modified one, not this one,” he said. China’s consideration of any resolution was considered significant, since Wang had been pressing for a weaker Security Council statement, which would not be legally binding.

U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said Washington would look at any Chinese suggestions for changes, and the council would re-evaluate “on a daily basis” whether to proceed with a vote. The Kyodo News agency, citing unidentified Japanese officials, reported that Japan and the United States were seeking a renewed moratorium by North Korea on missile testing, and its unconditional return to six-party talks on its nuclear program, in exchange for withholding sanctions.

- More bilgewater from the UN here ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/11/2006 at 09:18 AM   
Filed Under: • United-Nations •  
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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

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It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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