A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary
Move The UN: “The US House has decided to reduce and withold (House Backs Withholding Dues to Spur U.N. Changes By Mike Allen and Colum Lynch, Washington Post Staff Writers, Saturday, June 18, 2005) its funding till the UN is reformed. And today’s headline in the BBC News website is US opposes UN Council reform plan. US is calling for just 2 new permanent seats, one being Japan, but with no veto powers. The G4 proposal put forward by Brazil, Germany, India and Japan, which is to add the G4 proposers with 2 additional members from the African continent, is what the US is rejecting!! Hypocrisy is at its height here.”
Moderate Voice: “It sounds like John Bolton is indeed destined to be a recess appointment after all. What continues to be fascinating is this implicit argument that John Bolton is the ONLY PERSON in the GOP who can fill that slot and achieve the administration’s goals. In the huge pool of GOP talent – diplomats, law professors, political scientists, and businessmen – only John Bolton will do? Even though some in the GOP itself don’t want John Bolton, it MUST be John Bolton?”
Outside the Beltway: “Embattled UN Ambassador nominee John Bolton may take a recess appointment after all…. Unless the White House calculates that there is no getting around acrimony over the Supreme Court nomination(s), stoking the flames over what will, in the long run, be an insignificant appointment makes little sense. The Supreme Court picks the president makes may serve a quarter century or more; his UN Ambassador will be forgotten before his successor finishes his oath.”
Washington Note: “Officials in the White House, the State Department and in the Senate close to the Senate-White House fight over Bolton’s nomination to serve as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations report to TWN that they were caught off guard by the Washington Post article by Charles Babington and Dafna Linzer suggesting both that Bolton would accept a recess appointment — and that if the Senate failed to confirm him the President would give Bolton such an appointment. Most officials on the Democratic side of the equation think that not only Bolton’s confirmation — but his actual nomination — are dead. Republican voices close to this battle think that Bolton’s nomination is withering badly and in critical condition, barely surviving on life support.”
Textually: “The United Nations is working toward a world agreement on the scrapping of metal-intensive mobile phones that could impact the cost of making them, reports Reuters: “The U.N., the scrap industry and mobile phone makers and operators, such as Nokia and Vodafone, are working together as part of the U.N. Basel Convention on the control and disposal of waste. It could expand agreements already in place in Europe, North America and Japan in the lead up to a key conference in Africa next year.”
Unpaid Punditry Corps: “Easy question, should President Bush recess appoint John Bolton as the Ambassador to the United Nations? It would be an appointment good through the end of 2006. In the past I have been pretty clear that I believe John Bolton is the right guy at the right time. Personally, I would love to see this happen, the Senate has stalled on this long enough.”