Earlier this year, the Obama Administration trumpeted the recently passed United Nations regular budget as a triumph of fiscal discipline. To some degree, it is justified in that claim. The initial appropriations for the 2012–2013 budget (at $5.15 billion) are $263 million lower than the final expenditures for the 2010–2011 budget, and nearly $44 million lower than the 2012–2013 budget originally proposed by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. This is only the third time since 1960 that the initial U.N. regular budget appropriation was lower than the final appropriation for the previous …
Internal ethnic strife, a deep-rooted but often overlooked challenge facing newly independent South Sudan, has recently emerged as a threat to the country’s stability. Last month, the South Sudanese army and United Nations reinforcements were sent to the town of Pibor in Jonglei state to prevent attacks by members of the Lou Nuer ethnic group against the Murle clan. In the past few months, over a thousand people have died and tens of thousands have been displaced in clashes that started last summer, as cattle raids prompted violence that quickly …
As the Universal Declaration of Human Rights celebrated a birthday this month, it is worth noting how this document—noble in its original intentions—is often reinterpreted by advocates of a host of issues, resulting in a laundry list of new rights claims and corresponding government responsibilities thrust upon the 193 U.N. member states. Two prime examples of this misuse concern the rights to life and religious liberty, natural rights often sacrificed to any number of social causes. With regard to abortion, the right to life promised to “everyone” in the Universal …
Catching you up on clips, commentary and news of the day. Sign up for the daily email update from Scribe. Ambrose: Federal law will get you even if you watch out – Jay Ambrose, Scripps Howard News Service Issa: Postal Service Must Cut Workers – Newsmax Wires Russia Pledges to Resist Western-Led Regime Change After Syria Veto in UN – Henry Meyer, Bloomberg Lure overseas cash back into the US – Scot Lehigh, Boston Globe The ‘magic button’ of economics doesn’t work – Jay Bookman, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Palestinian Authority …
Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton and former Defense Department official Dan Blumenthal have written an interesting and timely op-ed about China and the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST). In “Time to Kill the Law of the Sea Treaty—Again,” the authors describe the duplicitous double game that China plays in the South China Sea by manipulating the provisions of LOST. China—which is a member of LOST—is interpreting the treaty’s provision on the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in a manner that prohibits lawful military surveillance activities conducted …
Catching you up on clips, commentary and news of the day. Sign up for the daily email update from Scribe Blind to the mullah’s missile menace – Peter Brookes, The New York Post Herman Cain Takes On Morgan Freeman For Calling Tea Party Racist – Noel Sheppard, NewsBusters Obama Lies about the ‘Do-Nothing Congress’ – Deroy Murdock, National Review Online Obama’s Ill-advised NCLB Waivers – Lindsey Burke, National Review Online Congress makes no progress on keeping government afloat – Richard Simon, Los Angeles Times Christine Lagarde: IMF may need billions …
Catching you up on clips, commentary and news of the day. Sign up for the daily email update from Scribe The Great $16 Muffin Myth – Kevin Drum, Mother Jones Global Meltdown: Investors Are Dumping Nearly Everything – Patti Domm, CNBC US walks out as Iran delivers anti-US speech – Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press Boehner: ‘There’s no threat of a government shutdown’ – Nicholas Ballasy, The Daily Caller Bill Clinton: Obama’s Approach to the Deficit is ‘A Little Confusing’ – Real Clear Politics Census: Recession takes big toll on …
Five years ago, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez woke up the somnolent delegates to the United Nations General Assembly with his rude and undiplomatic President George W Bush is the Devil speech. This week, when the General Assembly meets in New York City and the focus falls upon President Obama and other world leaders, Chavez will be absent. He is forced to skip the U.N. event in order to undergo a fourth round of cancer chemotherapy in Havana. His presence will not be missed. At the General Assembly, world leaders hope to …
It’s Round 2 in President Obama’s effort to get the U.S. Senate to agree to ratification of a major international treaty. Late last year, the President successfully pressed the Senate to ratify the New START treaty with Russia, which dealt with nuclear weapons. Now, it’s ramping up pressure on another treaty, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Back in May, then-Deputy Secretary of State Jim Steinberg said the Obama Administration and Senator John Kerry (D–MA) were working to secure the necessary number of Senate votes …
There’s a reason a large portion of the world’s poor are women. In underdeveloped nations, women lack the skills or opportunity to change their environments, leaving them in a losing cycle of economic helplessness. In Rwanda, more than one-third of households are run by women, and 80 percent of those are impoverished widows. In Kosovo, 62.8 percent of women are unemployed, which often leads to human trafficking. In Sudan, a large majority of women are illiterate, and one in six dies in childbirth, according to Women for Women International.
