Kofi, KOS, and Jack Layton Heaven

49 Replies to “Kofi, KOS, and Jack Layton Heaven”

1. KATE, YOU ARE BANG ON !! ” UN to TRANSFORM the world into a Socialist Utopian Paradise”. If anyone has any doubts, they will certainly be convinced by just googling MAURICE STRONG. The same Mo “e-speed” Strong.

2. What we are seeing is a direct confrontation between the UN and the US. But don’t think of the UN as a body of independent states that debate issues. Think of the UN as a nation. Think of the General Assembly and the Council simply as the ‘houses’ of the government. The fact that the members of these ‘houses’ are unelected is irrelevant. Think of the UN as a nation. A nation that encompasses the world.
   The UN sees itself as The World Superpower. That’s why it wants its own army. Can you imagine – the UN with its own army? With decision-making about this army carried out by the unelected representatives of unelected dictatorships around the world?
   The UN is engaged in a fight with a legitimate nation, the US. It wants to retain all decision-making about world events within its control. Even those events that affect sovereign nations.
   The leftist mentality is anti-individual, and by extension, against sovereign nations. The left, operating within some perversion of thought which I can’t pretend to understand, rejects thought. The left allocates thought-process, i.e, decision-making, only to a Superior Body. This can be the bureaucracy, Gaia, god(s), the Union Committee, etc.
   I remain puzzled why they reject decision-making by corporations and accept that of union leaders.
   I remain puzzled why they reject decision-making by individuals and accept that of peer-pressured groups.
   But, there are two ‘collective power agendas’ at work in the world now. One, is Islamic fascism, which is a collectivist ideology, which rejects reason, rejects individual thought, rejects freedom of speech and dissent. The left supports this.
   The other collective power agenda is the UN, which is also firmly collectivist, strongly undemocratic, rejects reason, individual thought, freedom of speech and dissent.
   We have one main hope in the world – the US. How long can freedom, as expressed in the US, which was born in freedom of the individual, hold out against these two destructive forces/

3. There IS hope against the UN dogma. Canadians turfed Paul Martin, didn’t they ? Even though he had the MSM propaganda machine behind him. I believe his rantings about the Hoax called Kyoto was a major factor in the “crown of a man’s” downfall. And remenber the time line, MO Strong > UN > Rio > Kyoto > PM > Crash. Given a chance, neutral MSM, Canadians are the best Hoax busters in the world !!

4. Sorry, B. Hoax. I strongly doubt that Canadians are ‘the best hoax busters in the world’. The very phrase, ‘Canadians are the best in the world’ is part of the socialist group-think mentality which locks dissent out, defining it as ‘un-Canadian’.
   Remember, the Liberals got over 100 seats; that reveals how strongly Canadians approve of group-think. Most Canadians remain firmly anti-American, pro-UN, pro-Kyoto, pro-gun registry, pro public health. Even when the FACTS reveal the shallowness of these conclusions.
   And I’d bet that the majority figure that the UN getting its own army would be just great.

5. ET, does the fact that there is not one iota of evidence for any of the hogwash you allege bother you?

6. ET. I disagree MOST Canadians are not anti U.S.,however, they may be anti-Bush which is not too disimilar of how American feel about him given the latest polls. However I agree with just about everthing else you say. Most Canadians are sheep and use the MSM without question to get their news. They have defenitley bought into the global warming hoax, the “saintly” U.N. gangsters and the fear mongering over medicare. Why else would we have stood for the slimy liberals for so long.

7. Okay, I’ll try this again since the spam filter blocked me out of the open thread.
   Bill Whittle is back.
   http://www.ejectejecteject.com/archives/000132.html
   This time he uses a navigation/map metaphor that is just so—-practical! You’ll understand when you read it.
   money quote: “…we will never be so full of arrogance and blinded by pride that we dare confront a place where our map does not match the coastline, and proclaim that the coastline must be wrong.”
   In other words, it’s Leftists that keep saying: “NO! damn you! what I believe is right, REALITY is wrong.”

8. The following non-facts are deadicated to: Comrade/Tovarisch agitfact. Da. …-
   Using Racism Is A Time-Honored Kremlin Tool
   rferl.org ^ | June 19, 2006 | Victor Yasmann
   PRAGUE, June 19, 2006 (RFE/RL) — In the last half year, Russia has experienced an explosion of hate crimes. Some observers believe the Kremlin is using the rising tide of xenophobia as a weapon against its political rivals. If so, it’s not a new strategy. The KGB often manipulated the threat of fascism and anti-Semitism to compromise political opponents of the Soviet Union.
   One of the most memorable cases was the KGB’s Gray Wolves operation in the 1960s and 1970s. The goal of the operation was to prevent Baltic emigre and Jewish communities, who supported dissidents in the Soviet Union, from uniting against the Soviet regime. To do so, the KGB, via contacts inside the Baltic communities, disseminated documents related to the deportation of the Baltic population during the occupation of those regions by the Red Army in 1939. The documents came from the archives of the KGB’s secret-police predecessor, the NKVD. In the documents, the KGB emphasized the Jewish names among the NKVD officers who took part in the deportations in order to stir up anti-Semitic sentiments.
   At the same time, KGB “helpers” within Jewish communities in the West disseminated Nazi documents from archives captured by the Soviet Army that contained the names of Baltic collaborators who had taken part in the Holocaust.
   However, along with authentic documents, the KGB also included forged files with the names of Baltic anticommunist activists it wanted to compromise. more …-
   http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1651958/posts

9. Okay, I’ll try this again since the spam filter blocked me out of the open thread.
   Bill Whittle is back.
   http://www.ejectejecteject.com/archives/000132.html
   This time he uses a navigation/map metaphor that is just so—-practical! You’ll understand when you read it.
   money quote: “…we will never be so full of arrogance and blinded by pride that we dare confront a place where our map does not match the coastline, and proclaim that the coastline must be wrong.”
   In other words, it’s Leftists that keep saying: “NO! damn you! what I believe is right, REALITY is wrong.”

10. I don’t believe in conspiracy theories and I do believe in groupthink. The socialist movement we’re discussing here is an example of groupthink. A large network of people without a central command/control or written plan, but a wide general consensus and support for each others’ objectives which conform to the vision they see as ideal.
    As for the ideal of a UN army- please. Can you imagine the incompetence a UN army would run with? Can you imagine military campaign by consensus? Can you imagine a UN army facing off against a US one?
    Unfortunately, the only thing I can see a UN army being good at- victorious at- is oppressing civilians. But that would end up being the whole point, right?

11. perhaps conservatives resent being lumped together as sharing one like mind on all issues. it is possible, afterall, to be fiscally conservative yet still support gay marriage. one might champion the free market in business yet still believe in universal healthcare.a person might be a devout christian yet still support a woman’s right to choose. the variety of positions is endless. by the same token, it’s unreasonable to suggest that the “left” has a unified postion on all issues. one might believe that some unions wield too much power yet still believe in the overall benefits of unionism for workers. some left of centre types may support canada’s role in afghanistan yet still oppose the war in iraq. many may despise george bush and his government without being anti-american. increasing the contrast of a black and white image causes the picture to lose the midtones, the midtones are where the details lie. it’s in the middle where we can see the most.

12. It’s facinating how right-wingers KNOW what the left is thinking. It’s astonishing that left wingers, a disparate group including “celebrity blowhards, academics, the MSM, politicians, unionists, UN bureaucrats, and of course New Media like KOS” are ALL THINKING THE SAME THING.
    Paranoia: 1. A psychotic disorder characterized by delusions of persecution with or without grandeur, often strenuously defended with apparent logic and reason.
    2. Extreme, irrational distrust of others.
    Sounds like most right wingers to me.

13. Iberia’s role model:
    Case Study: Koba the Dread: Laughter and the Twenty Million (Martin Amis).
    More?
    Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin: Soviet Leader
    Stalin’s paranoia during the last years of his life led to increased repression and persecution of his closest collaborators, reminiscent of the purges of …
    http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0861298.html – 23k –

14. Davidson: I consider myself a conservative with moderate social views and agree with you that the world is not a world of black and white but many shades of gray. However, the left has moved further left over the past few decades and abandoned the middle ground. The left has abandoned principals in favor of consenus opnion of the MSM and will be lost in the wilderness until they begin to stand on real principals. Until then the middle will be occupied by the mainstream conservative of today.

15. Davidson: I consider myself a conservative with moderate social views and agree with you that the world is not a world of black and white but many shades of gray. However, the left has moved further left over the past few decades and abandoned the middle ground. The left has abandoned principals in favor of consenus opinion of the slutty MSM. The middle is now the domain of what are now considered mainstream conservatives.

16. iberia – the reason ‘we’ know what the left is thinking, is because they, over and over and over, inform us of what they are thinking. Books, opinion pieces in newspapers, on the radio, the tv, blogs. Over and over and over.
    agitfact – prove your point, or it remains yours alone.
    albertaman – yes, I obviously agree with the mindset of ‘most Canadians’; they are still heavily left. As for being anti-American means equating with anti-Bush, I’m not sure if this is valid. Remember, Bush was elected by Americans, and with a far greater percentage than any Canadian PM. His current unpopularity in the polls is more due to the MSM and other, internal US issues (Mexico etc).
    I still think that Canadians remain anti-American. When one reads the junk written into newspapers etc about the softwood lumber, with writers calling the Americans ‘thieves’ etc; reads the other junk about passports and so on..I don’t think it’s simply anti-Bush. After all, a key platform of the Liberals has always been that it insisted on defining a Canadian, not only by superficial emotive propaganda (tolerant, kind, peaceful) but as ‘not-American’.
    I don’t think that disappears in a few months.
    Note how the MSM press reports Harper, not only as ‘Bush-lite’ but as ‘American’.
    I only hope that Canadians will free themselves from this propaganda and be able to start to define themselves, rather than submit to what Squealer the Pig-Liberal tells them.
    bc monkey- that’s a great description of a UN army. It would oppress civilians. But, note how the UN is thereby moving out of its original definition of the world – as made up of sovereign states. It now rejects sovereignty, insisting that no war is legal until it says so; and this army it is planning, is not an army of a sovereign state. So, what is the agenda?
    davidson – when one talks about a ‘left’ position, one talks about a statistical average. You are talking about individual cases which are statistically irrelevant. The point is – what’s the majority opinon (left, right, etc) on a particular issue? The majority, which is usually the statistical average, is the definition of the left group-think.

17. No, the “current” anti-Americanism has simply found useful vehicles in GWB and Iraq:
    http://tinyurl.com/r5lxc
    Anti-Americanism’s Deep Roots
    The Current Wave of Hostility Will Ebb. But This Is About More Than the Iraq War.
    Excerpt:
    “The Iraq war has also made anti-Americanism respectable again, as it was during the Cold War but had not been since the demise of the Soviet Union. People who a decade ago would not have been granted a platform to spout the kind of arguments I heard on this panel are now given star treatment in the Western and global media. Such people were always there, but no one was listening to them. Today they dominate the airwaves, and this in turn is helping produce an increasingly hostile global public opinion, as evidenced in a recent Pew poll.”

18. Iberia
    Left Wing: A person who feels great debt to his fellow man. Debt which THEY created and want to pay off with YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY!

19. Because, like Dracula, we never put the final stake threw the left’s heart….
    http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2006/06/political-correctness-revenge-of.html(scroll way down)
    “I have heard people who have grown up in former Communist countries say that we in the West are at least as brainwashed by Multiculturalism and Political Correctness as they ever were with Communism, perhaps more so. Even in the heyday of the East Bloc, there were active dissident groups in these countries. The scary thing is, I sometimes believe they are right.”
    “But how is that possible? Don’t we have free speech here? And we have no Gulag?”
    “The simple fact is that we never won the Cold War as decisively as we should have. Yes, the Berlin Wall fell, and the Soviet Union collapsed. This removed the military threat to the West, and the most hardcore, economic Marxism suffered a blow as a credible alternative. However, one of the really big mistakes we made after the Cold War ended was to declare that Socialism was now dead, and thus no longer anything to worry about. Here we are, nearly a generation later, discovering that Marxist rhetoric and thinking have penetrated every single stratum of our society, from the Universities to the media. Islamic terrorism is explained as caused by “poverty, oppression and marginalization,” a classic, Marxist interpretation.”
    ……..and the only way to do that is for us to confront and expose the left at every turn and force them into public debate. They would lose badly in an open marketplace of ideas. They hide in the shadows using subterfuge as much as possible in advancing their hidden agendas. An example, most Americans haven’t a clue as to who is really funding anti-war and anti-free market demonstrations. It’s not grassroots when you follow the money. By every economic and social metric, Communism failed. And yet, we can’t even have an open debate on that fact on our campuses.

20. Iberia: It is not the right that wanted take long guns out of the hands of law abiding citizens.
    It not the conservatives that said people cannot be trusted and will spend their day care money on “beer and popcorn”. It is not the conservatives that say you cannot be trusted to do the right thing your money so we will take half of it from you and give it to those who have not earned it.
    Communism, National Socialist Party,
    Eugenics of Tommy Douglas need we say more…….

21. COME ON, COME ON !! Get back to KATE’S topic header, THE UNITED NATIONS and it’s push for world dominant Socialism.

22. B.Hoax: Your are right. I bit at a damned troll.

23. The Office of the Mysteries
    How big is the UN? Physically, anyhow. The question arises because of a media advisory from U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK) indicating he’s concerned about the proposed renovation costs to the UN headquarters under its Capital Master Plan. …
    Enter: Donald Trump:
    wretchard said…
    beefstu,
    Trump’s statement is a good catch. I like the part where he went to see Kofi Annan, convinced he could save them a bundle. That there was no way they could spent so much money on what is, by NYC standards, a medium-sized building. Then the conversation with the UN project “expert” called Conners, who knew absolutely nada about nothing.
    When I went to see the administration, and when I went to see Kofi Annan, I was actually quite excited. Because I thought that I could save this country, this world, everybody, including myself, a lot of money, just by sitting down and having a meeting. Unfortunately, as our great Senator to my right said, There was just no response. They didn’t really care. It got a lot of press. I walked into the room, and I sat down. I felt like a head of state. I was sitting with Kofi Annan, and a door opened, and there were literally hundreds of reporters taking my picture. I said, “What are we doing? I just want to tell you, I can build a building a lot cheaper.” And that was the end of it.
    I wrote letters, and you have copies of the letters. I wrote letters after the meeting. I thought the meeting went amazingly well. I was expecting a call the following day from…whether it’s Kofi Annan or his people. At that time, it was a man named Conners. I met with Mr. Conners. Mr. Conners didn’t know the first thing about what he was doing. He didn’t know whether or not the curtain wall was going to be new, old, and didn’t even know what a curtain wall was. I said, “What are you going to be doing with the curtain wall?”
    He said, “What is a curtain wall?” Now, he was in charge of the project. The curtain wall is the skin of the building.
    I said, “Will it be new or old?”
    He said, “I don’t know.”
    I said, “Are you using New York Steam? Or are you using a new boiler system?”
    He said, “I don’t know what New York Steam is.”

24. Socialism is bourgois communism, so it’s just a bit thicker gruel.

25. Kate wrote: I have yet to read any clear articulation of what that might be
    Just visit the headquarter’s website, at http://www.newamericancentury.org
    Here in Canada there is a less formal statement, but it seems to have a great deal of overlap. A desire to lead the world, spreading economic prosperity via WTO, stamping out non-democratic nations, etc…
    These are the sort of specific principles that I have in mind when I think of neocons and their agenda.

26. Hating Bush by the pathetic likes of the world’s sniveling socialist girlie boys and their ilk, need we name them, isn’t a surprise. While the rest of spineless empty suits grovel their way toward everlasting dhimmitude in Europe and at the UN, here’s a man that drew a line in the sand following 9/11, so rare in today’s testosterone suspect pc world.
    When I review the list of who hates Bush, it’s a comfort and the reason I voted for him. He’s not perfect, folks. I understand that. But, Clinton?, Kerry?…..please!
    Oh, and the “cowboy” smear that permeates the little girlie boy MSM, my experience with ranchers/cowboys is that they are pretty smart having to be environmentalists, run efficient small businesses, trade futures with skill, understand principles of veternary medicine and genetics, and generally have an honesty based on a man’s reputation which counts for everything.

27. From what I understand of the term neo-conservative, it has little to do with true “conservative” ideals but has more to do with the systematic proliferation of democracy across and into the disparate and dictatorial nations throughout the globe.
    You have many strains of differenct conservative ideologies that runs like a river through and around neo-con theory, with perpetual internal conflicts pervading on the borders.
    There are the fundamentalist right, the red tories, pure Milton Freidman market capitalists and even those who have only patriotism compelling them to any political stance right of center.
    I have friends that fall into each of the above categories.
    Yet, for some reason, the “LEFT” is stereotyped and grouped into one all consuming blackhole of hatred, paranoia and distrust by many individuals.
    The point being: I’m not entirely sure how categorically correct it is to label the UN as a “LEFTIST” organization. I do understand some of the points being made here, but think that the fallacy of typology is forged in the crucible of our burning need to “label” something, so that we can make it tangible, and thus cast an ideological net around it in order to convert, spoonfeed-educate, or manipulate the masses… which are typically not very bright.
    Marxism is understood as a general policital theory due to the very fact that it was outlined quite simply and graphically by Karlo and his manifestonians. Thus it can be attacked on the grounds of its own self proclaimed typology.
    Socialism, and more aptly the mongrel that is liberalism, is much more advanced and complicated than the Marxist theory (dare I say perverted and perhaps opportunistic?)from which it evolved. It is not specifically outlined in proclamational grandeur as the Marxist construct of communism.
    Yet many seek to “manifestize” the liberal movement from an exogenous base… the need to define it in order to attack it is a fundamental lever for energies used to upset it.
    When you bring the gravity of global dynamics into the mix, unfortunately the black and the white drains into a incomprehensible muck of grey.
    My worthless 2 cents…
    Cheers!
    Leto

28. Hi Penny!
    Let’s not get carried away with a stereotypical defense of the brilliance of the cowboy/rancher type as a foundational defense of George Bush… I agree that like any demographic cohort, the qualities that you evidence are easily found in the population. But I know personally of many who are dumber than a sack of potatoes. That being said, I know of many bureaucrats that are equally as stupid (not to mention some very confused and hyper intelligent academic colleagues of mine that have no hope of ever effecting their brilliance into a plane of reality where it may be practically applied).
    lol!!
    Don’t lump all Canadians into raving Bush haters. Most of the time, we’re just confused as to the daily agenda and can’t see the forest for the trees. If it were not for Pax Americana, we Canadians would be too concerned with defending ourselves to go out into the world as “peacekeepers”. (think about that!! lol)
    It’s insane to think that the UN with its many stakeholders, ideologies and agendas can do anything more efficacious than keep itself from shaking apart at any moment. My God! For those of you who watch too much Star Trek: The Federation is based on UTOPIAN FICTION.
    (by the way, my 2 cents is Canadian, and thus only 1.8 cents American… grant me the exchange rate at least here!!)
    : )
    Cheers!
    Leto

29. Leto- despite your aversion to definitions, you are defining, for example, neo-conservativism in a particular mode, as well as Canadians and so on.
    I’m not aware that the neo-con agenda is the transformation of the world’s dictatorships into democracies. I’m aware that the US agenda is to move the ME from tribalism into democracy, to stop Islamic fascism, but, I’m not aware of any other global agendas.
    As far as the UN is concerned, I feel that it has a ‘left perspective’, in that its focus is on the primacy of the bureaucracy in decision-making, rather than the electorate. And, its focus is on group cohesion rather than individual freedoms. Furthermore, their focus is on social engineering strategies to achieve its utopian ideals. All of these tactics – a bureaucracy as a decision-maker, group cohesion and social engineering for a utopian model – are doomed to fail. (Read Popper’s Open Society and his outline of the problems of ‘historicism’).
    The UN reminds me of the Pigs in Orwell’s Animal Farm. They want to run the humans (US?) out of the farm, and take over; they assert that they’ll do a better job and everything and everyone will be ‘more equal’. Hah.

30. “stamping out non-democratic nations”
    Ted, Ted, Ted, sweetie, that isn’t going to work. Nice try, though, at crafting some lame personal editorial without substance or analysis.
    Ted, after all of the discussion regarding the weasely dishonesty of the disingenuous left, their innate shallowness, you walk into it with that little lefty spoiler. Perfect timing.

31. Louise Arbour? Heard her name before somewheres.
    She was born in 1947; apparently without arms; the report says she is now armed and ready to handle all challenges … blah, blah, bleck. …-
    UN body to handle challenges of our time
    The new UN Human Rights Council, of which SA is a member, meets for the first time today, writes Louise Arbour, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
    June 19, 2006 Edition 1
    Today, armed with a powerful new mandate, members of the new Human Rights Council take their seats, embarking on a major enterprise aimed at strengthening the United Nations human rights system and equipping it to respond better to the challenges of our time. The council represents a defining moment for the organisation’s work for “the protection of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all”.
    http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3298484

32. Penny, your words are pure poetry. When I read them, I am reminded of a Southern Bell, in her Sunday best. I am humbled by your kind words.
    Warmly,

33. A quiz to determine your political persuasion. It’s geared towards Americans but fun for everyone:
    http://www.csmonitor.com/specials/neocon/quiz/neoconQuiz.html

34. Were any of those ‘United Nations’ reps ELECTED by the citizens of the countries they represent? Or- were they mere APPOINTED, (because they knew the right people)………

35. The Utter Dysfunction of the United Nations
    It will take five minutes to read this and another five minutes to take action, proposed below. Please don’t ignore this, and please send it to friends and family. Your action could literally change the world.
    Recently Mark Malloch Brown, deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, said that “Middle America” did not know how the US is constructively engaged with the UN because of UN detractors and too much unchecked UN-bashing and stereotyping over too many years. Friends, the UN deserves to be bashed and bashed hard.
    Please allow us to give you a glimpse into how the United Nations is run:
    Hirings and promotions routinely violate UN rules (and are illegal under most national laws) and revolve around patronage and whom one knows rather than professional qualifications. Poorly performing managers are simply moved into different management slots while others are placed in senior positions solely because of their nationality, or because of favors owed to them by their supervisors or colleagues.
    Salaries for UN employees are free of taxes and come with six weeks vacation, 11 holidays, 10 sick days that are often used as vacation, plus 4 weeks of “home leave”, rental and housing grants to supplement an already generous salary (we all make an average of $7,000-$10,000 a month tax free), a pension at 8% of salary times years of service that can be cashed out tax free at any time, and educational subsidies for children of UN employees. Many also participate in an “alternative work schedule” in which they get every other Friday off. But don’t even try to apply. Your application will not be acknowledged nor will you ever get invited for a job interview. You must know someone to work at the UN (or worse, sleep with them).
    Several of us have advanced degrees in management and have been trained to manage large public organizations, yet we are blocked from advancing by bureaucrats in their 50s with no management training, education, or experience – only sitting in their chairs because they are friends with someone in a higher position. We threaten them because they know they are there based only on their connections.
    And there is a profound lack of accountability within the UN regarding budget and resource allocation, resulting in loss of millions upon millions each year through skimming, graft and corruption. Simple procurement that would normally take five minutes using modern technology systems takes 2-3 months in the UN. And many United Nations Development Program country offices pay “local experts” outrageously high sums of money for products of dubious quality. Such contracts would never be made by other international aid agencies such as USAID that have much stronger internal controls and oversight.
    We are all familiar with outrageous examples of scandals within the UN system, and yet time and again the scandal is covered up. In fact, a recent article on internal management in the Financial Times cited a UN-commissioned report released in 1994 that was remarkably damning and yet, as the article noted, nothing has changed which has led to this present crisis of credibility at the UN.
    Despite its dysfunction, if the UN were actually making a difference, many would mutter to themselves but the UN deserves its strongest bashing because of its profound inability to respond to genocide, war, famine, natural disasters, and corruption.
    Kofi Annan, current head of the United Nations who ironically lives in a mansion in New York worth about $10 million, was head of peacekeeping operations in 1994 in Rwanda when 800,000 people died. In 2004, he said “I believed at that time that I was doing my best” despite the fact that he held back UN troops from intervening to settle the conflict and declined to provide more logistic and material support to stop the slaughter.
    And don’t forget that ten years ago thousands of Bosnian Muslims were murdered by the Serb militias who were in a UN protected “safe haven” with hundreds of UN soldiers assigned to defend them. Yet the UN stood by while the entire adult and teenage male population was systematically butchered.
    Kofi Annan was unable to stop mismanagement of the Oil-for-Food Program that allowed Saddam Hussein’s regime to embezzle $4.4 billion through pricing irregularities and an additional $5.7 billion through illegal oil smuggling. And for several years Kofi’s son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna (while not even working there!), which won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil for Food program.
    Kofi Annan protected Ruud Lubbers, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, against a report that found him guilty of sexual harassment by declaring him innocent. This created a global protest against Annan, resulting in Lubbers being eventually forced to resign, not because of his own egregious actions, but because he was starting to adversely impact Annan’s public image. By the way, Annan’s image is propped up around the world thanks to an $85 million dollar annual “communications” budget. What other modern corporation has two directors of communication like the UN doe – one for the UN “Secretariat” and one for the Secretary General.
    Kofi Annan accepted a $500,000 prize from the ruler of Dubai, courtesy of a judges’ panel full of U.N. cronies, one member of which Annan then appointed to a high U.N. job! By the way, Annan was advised to take the prize money by Malloch Brown who rents a home in Westchester County from his friend George Soros for $12,000 a month with a $287,087 annual salary.
    Kofi Annan remains in power despite continuing sexual abuse scandals by UN peacekeepers. A 2005 internal UN investigation found that sexual abuse and forced pregnancies has been reported in at least five countries where UN peacekeepers have been deployed including the Congo, Haiti, Burundi, Cote d’Ivoire, and Liberia.
    And Kofi Annan remains in power while genocide continues in Darfur, while Zimbabwe tailspins into despotism, while up to a third of the population of some African countries will die from AIDS, while government corruption keeps the poorest countries in starkest poverty, and while the U.N. Human Rights Council includes repressive non-democratic states such as Cuba, China, Russia, and Saudi Arabia.
    Kofi Annan and Mark Malloch Brown arrogantly ignore the fact that the quality of life of several of us has come close to being destroyed because of the mismanagement, abuse, fraud and corruption.
    Most who work for the UN are so used to its dysfunctionality that they have NO idea how sick the organization is or they are unwilling to come forward because UN labor laws and protections are abysmal. Coming forward to a kangaroo court will only result in firing or worse. Please refer to the recent report prepared by UK Barrister and Human Rights QC Geoffrey Robertson on behalf of UN Staff, which highlights the gross deficiencies of worker protections at the UN at http://www.iowatch.org – and read about so many more abuses at http://www.iowatch.org.
    Adding insult to injury, the newly created OIOS (the new “independent” internal oversight panel established to “reform” the UN) has been strong-armed by Malloch Brown and is not independent because its meager budget comes directly from the UN, equal to about one-half of Annan’s annual PR budget! Thus all are dissuaded from within the UN from coming forward.
    And what really happened at UNDP, the organization that Malloch Brown used to “lead”? Why would Malloch Brown leave his influential post as head of UNDP to spend a year defending the scandals swirling around Kofi Annan and then announce that he would resign when Kofi leaves at the end of this year? Because he royally mismanaged UNDP. Everyone at UNDP knows this but is too scared to share the details of what happened for fear of retaliation by Brown. But ask UNDP Country Directors and UNDP Practice Managers what happened under King Mark’s reign and you will get a completely different picture of his mismanagement skills and bombastic ways.
    Another example, in order to uphold their political neutrality, UN employees are expressly barred from political participation and yet UNDP employee Justin Leites was allowed to campaign for U.S. Presidential candidate John Kerry – with MMB’s approval!
    As the walls literally crumble down around them, those who work for the UN and citizens who believe in the founding principles of the UN have no understanding how bad it really is. Unfortunately, we encourage young people who are seeking a career in international affairs to avoid the United Nations at all costs. We wish there would come a day when we would no longer make this recommendation.
    Of course the senior leadership of the UN try to hide the profound problems of the UN but shame on them for saying that Americans don’t know or understand how the US is engaged with the UN. If you and everyone in Middle America truly understood what ails the UN, the US, which funds $3.3 billion annually or 22% of the entire UN budget, would shut off the money spigot yesterday.
    And remember – the talk of “reforming the UN” has gone on for over a DECADE. In sum, the UN should be shuttered, allowing a brand new organization to emerge because the current UN is broken beyond repair.
    Not much has changed since the UN was founded 60 years ago. The UN could have done much, much better in making the word a better place.
    Make no mistake. This is about the future of YOUR world – a world of some 191 countries desperate for a better life for all their citizens. Don’t let self-interested, incompetent middle-aged bureaucrat hacks – most raised and educated under dictatorships – determine the future of OUR world.
    Please contact your two Senators and your representative to the House of Representatives by clicking here: http://www.house.gov/writerep/. Ask your Senators and Congressman to stop discussing “reform” of the UN. Ask your Senators and Congressman to create a NEW organization that can lead the world well into the 21st Century.
    This is NOT a Democrats vs. Republicans debate. All Democrats and all Republicans should be able to easily agree that if deep, deep reform is not possible, the UN should be closed and a new organization should be created to truly make the world a better place.
    This is a non-partisan issue! Please share this with family and friends and post it on your favorite blogs.
    For more information, please contact Edward Patrick Flaherty at info@iowatch.org who represents UN employees including our views here.
    Written by a concerned group of current and former UN employees.

36. Pull the financial plug….without the bills being paid for by democratic nations there would be no UN.
    Pull the plug and let the parasites scramble for the cracks in the wall.

37. It is humourous to see Penny deride the Left as being ‘girlie’ when her country is run(deep into debt and military quagmire) by a whole bunch of girlie men chickenhawks(who just happen to be conservatives). Notice how easy it is for chickenhawks to send men in to harms way(not their men/women mind you).
    Notice how upset conservatives are by democracy. The UN is set up to run by majority votes or 2/3 votes but because they can’t get their way most of the time they pout and whine about how corrupt it is. Maybe, just maybe, it was corrupt when the USA got its way most of the time. Yeah, yeah, the oil for food scandal. I know. Notice how the companies that profited where all security council nations, including the USA. Big coincidence there.
    While Bush is the worst president in history he is merely the latest example of America’s problem.
    If you believe America has been chosen by Providence to be a beacon and example to the world of moral superiority and righteousness then you are part of the problem too.
    Oddly, it all started with Canada, before we were officially a country. The War of 1812. America invaded thinking they would be greeted as liberators. Wrong. Too bad they have no historical memory because they have just repeated the same mistake in Iraq.
    There have been many instances in between too.
    America attacked Mexico(yeah both neighbours). It was a crass landgrab. Along the way there have been many others; Cuba in 1898 and 1959,Vietnam(went in on a lie), Grenada(went in on a lie),Panama(again, a lie), Kuwait(UN approval). Question. Where was the UN when America invaded those other countries? On it goes, the secret bombing of Cambodia, Iran-Contra illegal run right out of the White House.
    Shall we talk about the CIA coups, government destabilizings, rendition?
    Americans are not well informed by their MSM about what their government does in their name. These are not Left wing debacles but Right wing imperialism mostly to protect business.
    There are books written on all these subjects and more. But I doubt anyone on the Right is really interested. Not really. I know why too. Its the power of the MSM media you complain so much about. This stuff gets really short play. If the Left controlled everything you would see a different picture much closer to the truth about what the American government and business do together, as in, teamwork, under the guise of national security, in the people’s name.

38. ET: Thanks for your feedback M8!
    ET Said:
    “Leto- despite your aversion to definitions, you are defining, for example, neo-conservativism in a particular mode, as well as Canadians and so on.”
    Why do you have this less than subtle fascination with inference? (Everyone around here just loves to translate what people write into their own contextual/subjective understandings!!)
    lol!
    NP with that, its a free world.
    All I set out to do was point out that today’s “right” is made up of a latticework of many different ideologies, much like the “left”. Sometimes these ideologies are so far apart, that it’s really hard to classify what is really “left” and what is “right”. I think its just a typology addiction that we just can’t shake, irregardless of the political viscissitudes and evolution of the entire political spectrum over the last few decades.
    I should also have pointed out that my elaboration on Neo-conservatism was based mainly upon work published on US neo-con movement of the last decade. They too have evolved and changed over time. You said it yourself:
    ET said:
    “I’m aware that the US agenda is to move the ME from tribalism into democracy, to stop Islamic fascism, but, I’m not aware of any other global agendas.”
    Everything the US does has global ramifications. Iraq is but a small piece of a larger puzzle. Read Sam Huntington’s “Class of Civilizations”. In it he purports that the “west” in terms of a civilization has been on the decline since the 20th century. Neo-cons understand that other civilizations around the world are growing in strength, and that only through the proliferation of western values through democracy, can the western civilization be preserved.
    I’m not saying this is right or wrong, I’m just pointing it out for what it is.
    BTW, I don’t understand how I defined Canadians in any way except to say that “we aren’t all Bush haters and that I believe that the majority of them are confused….
    I can say for certain without afixing any defintions that most of us Canucks are a little sad tonight after the Oilers lost to the Carolina Hurricanes…
    : (
    Cheers all!
    Leto

39. steve d.:
    How can anyone send “their men/women” into harms way? This arguement has always seemed thin to me. I have children, and although I’m probably too old to serve (as much as I’d like to), when my kids are old enough to decide for themselves, I’d would have no legal control over their actions.
    If any of my children wanted to serve our country, I know that I would be extremely proud of them. Of course I would be worried, but that would be my own selfish needs and not under my control.
    Is this ever getting old… It’s really amazing how arrogant some people are. Everybody’s a Solomon these days.
    Steve

40. A Steve
    I think the actual wars worth fighting are few and far between. The last war worth fighting was WW2. So you see, Canada mostly, has got it right. This time they didn’t but we don’t know how and what America used as leverage to get us to go. It must have been compelling because the government knew the majority of Canadians didn’t agree with it. That is why it was not trumpeted and made out to be a big thing but rather it was just sort of matter-of-fact. It will become increasingly unpopular and the troops will be brought home. Afghanistan was in the middle of a civil war. The Americans interrupted it. It will carry on when we leave. Meanwhile, NATO forces will bleed, as will the Afghans, but that’s not anything new.

41. steve d.:
    You seem to have a lot of information that I’m lacking.
    Assumptions:
    i)”we don’t know how and what America used as leverage to get us to go.”
    ii)”the government knew the majority of Canadians didn’t agree with it.”
    iii)”It will become increasingly unpopular and the troops will be brought home.”
    I would agree with you on the “few and far between” point, although, the world has become a lot smaller recently and the things that we could turn a blind eye towards are being thrust upon us.
    Would you allow your’ neighbour to bury his wife up to her t*ts and throw “just the right sized” rocks at her until she suffered enough and then died? I don’t think you would.
    These are the new realities. We either deal with them and try to make things better for our enlightened little world or we let the gangrene spread. I prefer the former.
    Steve

42. I did not vote for Canada’s UN representative or Kofi Annan, and until I get that opportunity the UN can take a hike.

43. Explain the logic behind the selection of the members on the UN’s human rights commission or security council – then argue whether the UN is relevant or needed.
    I’d argue that it’s a destructive and corrupt organisation. Very much like the Liberals in Canada.

44. A Steve
    A few years ago we had a large biker gang problem in eastern Canada. Did we ban bikes? Did we ban bikers? Did we even ban biker gangs? No. Arguably these gangs were destroying thousands of lives through their dissemination of drugs and pornography throughout the country. Banning all things biker would still have been seen as overkill,paranoid and a large impingement on our freedoms.
    In response to an American terrorist attack we changed our laws, sent troops to Afghanistan and watched until five years later, after some wrongful arrests, finally we find 17 possible terrorists. I don’t think we are in danger of being swallowed whole by an enemy any time soon. We need to remain vigilant but realistically so. We don’t need over reaction, or paranoia, or scapegoating, or the punishing of any minorities just because a few impressionable young people get talked into hate.

45. steve d,
    How can you compare biker gangs with murderous Islamites?
    Where is the logic?
    Bikers make illegal money mainly through the distribution of drugs. Their purpose is profit and turf. They war against each other, but rarely kill civilians.
    Islamites on the other hand want to kill everybody. Wholesale slaughter. As many as possible. For example, the planned NY subway system massacre was called off because there wouldn’t be a high enough body count.
    Why should we “remain vigilant?” What right do these murderous thugs have in coming into our country and threatening innocent civilians with death? Why should we even have to spend the billions on security against these ‘people’, when it’s cheaper to deport every single Muslim and let them sort their own out.
    This is why it’s vital to our future that your ilk is marginalized and kept out of any critical decision making.

46. The former USSR was suppost to be a socialist utopia and its nightmare instead and there are still some dumb mushheads who call CUBA paridise that becuase CASTRO gives them rose colored glasses when they enter and becuase that idiot JIMMY CARTER is a big time castro bootlicker

47. Irwin Daisy
    Its people like you that are dangerous. You allow your government to spend hundreds of billions of dollars while the home front is left exposed and left to rot. Witness Katrina mess and 37 million poor, 30 million working poor, 40 million without health care, etc. The homefront is going to hell in a handbasket while the military is pissing-off 1.3 muslims and spending your childrens future. All for what? Five years later nothing has been solved a great many believe things are worse than ever. No security in Iraq or Afghanistan after all this time.
    How you can think you are even vaguely moving in the right direction is beyond me.
    Spurwing plover
    The soviet union was an authoritarian oligarchy, it never was socialist. It had some socialist elements as does Canada and the USA, but it never was socialist or communist.
    The key is not to swallow drivel. Politicians will say anything. If its politically cool to say you are socialist or conservative then thats what they say they are. It doesn’t mean their actions will be so.

48. Some day we’ll have to say sorry to the Muslim people the same as we’ve done to the Chinese and Japanese. It’s too bad most of us won’t be around to see it. It’ll take 50 or 60 years. This is the age paranoia. We hate brown people whatever their shade. The games people play. You ever notice how America picks on countries that are at a disadvantage. Never Russia or China it might get it’s right wing Christian ass kicked. Too bad Americans can’t get their collective Crap together. They are an ignorant country. It’s too bad for the masses.

49. I don’t think Canadians are anti-American – they are rightfully anti-Bush and his administration and policies.
    Oh my, having a social conscience is all of a sudden “communist” – huh? Is McCarthyism coming to Canada? Conservative paranoia is coming your way – watch out!
    I think of Hurricane Katrina – and rest my case about social values.
    If anything is close to communism – it’s NDP. In fact, some of the NDP MP’s were former card carrying communists.
    I can’t help but try to imagine Jack Layton, for example, at a G8 Conference – out in a tie-dye shirt protesting with the other activists while other G8 leaders are conducting their talks and meetings – now wouldn’t that be just wonderful for Canada.
    Originally, Liberal was the balance between capitalism and a much need “social conscience” and hopefully they return to that policy.