There are a few items of interest in the news today that we’d suggest taking a look at.
First up, former UN Ambassador John Bolton takes a look at “universal jurisdiction” and the way it is being used/abused by human rights activists to bring charges against legitimate actions by freely elected governments.
It is no accident that arrest warrants never seem to be issued for the likes of Kim Jong Il or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, since the real targets of universal jurisdiction these days are Western nations. Ultimately, what it targets is the very ideas of sovereign accountability and political independence. These goals largely motivated the 1998 Rome Statute that created the International Criminal Court, itself a step toward constraining states’ abilities to police their own affairs, and an institution that the Obama administration yearns to join.
Transferring accountability for decisions from democratic politics to the criminal justice system understandably intimidates policy makers from making perfectly justifiable choices, such as defending against terrorist threats. Moreover, “command responsibility” has been transmogrified from liability for failing to stop known criminal activity, to liability when officials “should have known” their subordinates were committing crimes.
Most of the news out of DC today concerns lots and lots of money – Your money, my money, our money, your neighbors money. The House approved a $1.1 trillion spending bill without any GOP votes. It’s not clear whether the Senate will have the 60 votes necessary to shove the massive spending bill through the chamber.
The 1,088-page, $1.1 trillion measure would provide $447 billion in operating budgets for 10 Cabinet departments, awarding increases averaging almost 10 percent. On top of that comes more than $600 billion in payments for federal benefit programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.
The 221-202 vote to approve the House-Senate compromise bill sends it to the Senate, which immediately voted 56-43 to begin debate. That tally could mean trouble for the bill since it is less than the 60 votes needed to break a GOP filibuster.
In addition, after promising that we wouldn’t lose money as a result of the bailouts, the Treasury is now telling us we’ll need to spend more money to be able to stop spending money, and, oh yeah, we probably won’t get al that money back after all.
Flash forward to the latest cacophony from “spoken word” Grammy winner President Obama and his Lefty Health Club Band’s radical “concept” album, A Health Dirge Night; examine a few select tracks; and, recognize the reprised promotional chicanery.
The album opens with the derivative 8-track era chestnut, With A Little Help from the Feds. Here, President Obama’s Lefty Health Club Band warbles that a radical bill must pass – now! – because our broken health care system is in crisis. Why? Because they said so. Yet, while concerned with rising costs, the vast majority of Americans believe our health care system is good or excellent, and they are satisfied with their current plans. Why then did Obama’s band try to rush release a radical bill before the public could hear how it impacts their current health care plans?
