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Posts Tagged ‘Rice’

US Wins a Seat on the UN Human Rights Council

Posted in 51 Percent, Feminism, I Own My Vote, just say no deal, PUMA PAC, The New Agenda, tagged , , , on May 13, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Associated Press reports that the United States won her first seat on the UN Human Rights Council yesterday HERE. As you may remember, the USA was required to produce a pledge to the Council, which the ACLU felt left several human rights points obscure. The Pledge can be found in the linked ACLU page on the recent blog HERE.

In case you forgot the history of the Council, Wiki has a brief chronology HERE.

When SOS Hillary Rodham Clinton announced the US intent to seek a seat in March of this year, it reversed a Bush policy decision to shun the Council over membership of other nations who were considered to be repressive.  However, as she and US Ambassador Susan Rice have noted, the decision is part of “new era of engagement”.

The whole thing gets back to whether it’s better to work in the system in hopes of changing it, or outside of it.  Israel, one of the nations who, along with the US, first opposed the Council’s formation, continues to object to participation. 

Even so, the Council is purely advisory to the UN and has no authority to initiate actions on it’s own.

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Our Bid for the UN Human Right’s Council

Posted in 51 Percent, I Own My Vote, just say no deal, Politics, PUMA PAC, The New Agenda, tagged , , , , , , , , , on April 29, 2009| 3 Comments »

Do we have a disconnect?

At the end of March, SOS Hillary Rodham Clinton and UN Ambassador Susan Rice announced to the United Nations that the US would seek a seat on the UN’s Human Right’s Council. Candidates to the Council will be chosen May 12th. As part of the process, candidates are required to produce a pledge. That pledge has now been published and is available to the public by following the links HERE.

The ACLU has evaluated the pledge HERE, and has determined that several points have been left obscure. Key among these is a lack of discussion on: fair trial standards, torture and detention, and government official accountability.

While the above points of contention, and another HERE, are much on our mind, it remains to be seen how they will affect our bid to UN’s Human Rights Council.  In any event, it’s clear that the Obama administration has set upon a position. If we want to fix our recent past, it does not appear that it will be through the pronouncements of the  executive or legislative branch of government.

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Obama’s National Security Team

Posted in Feminism, Politics, PUMA PAC, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on December 1, 2008| Leave a Comment »

So Politico says it’s official!

[It’s official: President-elect Barack Obama has rolled out his national security team:  Senator Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State, Defense Secretary Robert Gates to remain, Eric Holder for Attorney General, Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano for Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Susan Rice for Ambassador to the UN and General Jim Jones, USMC (Ret) for National Security Adviser.]

Katalusis has all the good links HERE.

Susan Rice’s position, as Ambassador to the UN is to be re-elevated to Cabinet Level, as it was under Clinton. This is a great thing in terms of our message to the world. Now, if we can just send our dues to help it function? We have used dues payment as political leverage; threatening to “keep our marbles”.  We still owe the UN a big chunk of money, and we better do something about it soon. The UN needs money to send it’s blueberries around the world and feed the kids.

Guess the new Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is the one to talk to about that!

I Own My Vote, PUMA, The Denver Group, Just Say No Deal

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