By Mr. Curmudgeon

While we were distracted by President Obama’s domestic transformative changes for America, a little known international project was underway in the nation. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent functionaries around the country to compile information for a report meeting the guidelines of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process of the United Nations Human Rights Commission.

According to the State Department report, “This document gives a partial snapshot of the current human rights situation in the United States, including some of the areas where problems persist in our society.”

This, of course, begs the question: who were the UPR consultants that met with Hillary’s State Department minions? Here’s a partial list:

* Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, host organization…the ACLU
* National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, Urban Justice Center
* American Indian Law Center, Navajo Nation
* NAACP
* American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
* Housing Action Illinois, John Marshal Law School
* Human Rights Watch
* Open Society Institute

In other words, the US is being accused of human rights abuses by every domestic crackpot organization demanding more redistribution of your income or a kinder, gentler approach in dealing with international Islamic jihad. And that’s not all.

According to the State Department report, “A recent Arizona law, S.B. 1070, has generated significant attention and debate at home and around the world. The issue is being addressed in a court action that argues that the federal government has the authority to set and enforce immigration law. That action is ongoing; parts of the law are currently enjoined.”

And so, the Obama administration has presented a report, the first the US has ever submitted to the UN’s Human Rights Commission, admitting to an international human rights violation – the State of Arizona’s attempt to secure its southern border with Mexico.

And who sits on the United Nations Human Rights Commission? Cuba, Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain, Pakistan, Angola and China are but a few. And Obama hopes they are gracious enough to accept his apology on our behalf and his promise to force all fifty US states to live up to the high expectations of Cuba and other UN dictatorial member states.

Now that Obama has recognized the UN as the guarantor of human rights, something no past US president was ever so deranged to do, what will happen should “We the People” violate Cuba or China’s interpretation of human rights?

There are always sanctions and embargos – even military action in extreme cases.

When I was a kid, there was a local restaurant whose owner placed a large billboard facing a busy boulevard. The sign read “Get the US out of the UN.”

When will Republicans get it through their thick skulls that another winning plank for their party is our nation’s withdrawal from the world body?

The left will accuse the GOP of turning the US into a rogue state. The opposite is true. America would assert its independence for a second time in world history by refusing to be subject to an organization comprised of corrupt and evil rogue states.

I have always believed that there is only one act for which the US owes the world a sincere apology – the establishment of the United Nations.

But that’s one apology Obama will never make.

By Mr. Curmudgeon

Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn made a startling announcement: the U.S. Defense Department recently suffered a major cyber attack. “…Code spread undetected on both classified and unclassified systems, establishing what amounted to a digital beachhead from which data could be transferred to servers under foreign control,” Lynn told the New York Times. He refused to say which country’s intelligence agency was behind the attack but gave something of a hint.

According to the Times, “Counterfeit hardware had already been detected in systems that had been procured by the Defense Department, Lynn said – a danger since computer chips can be written with remotely operated ‘kill switches’ and hidden backdoors.”

Buried within the counterfeit hardware are “logic bombs” to cause malfunctions or remotely triggered “kill switches” that simply bring computer systems to a dead halt.

So, let’s see if we can figure out what nation is behind this attack on America. Apple, which has its headquarters in Mountain View, California, has many of the components to its popular consumer electronics – like their iPods and computers – manufactured at a facility near Shenzhen, China. Dell Computer offers next-day factory-direct delivery for its line of computers – direct from Xiamen, China. Toshiba of Japan outsources the making of their fine computers to a factory in Guanghou City, China. Are you starting to get the big picture?

The bipartisan policy of “free trade,” which resulted in the export of America’s industrial base to China has not only killed jobs here at home but poses a military threat as well. Could this be what Richard Nixon had in mind when he opened the way to closer diplomatic ties with the communist giant? Oddly, many Republicans still see Richard Nixon as something of a foreign policy genius. Tell that to the Pentagon’s information technology wonks.

President Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, said one should “never let a crisis go to waste.” Unfortunately, his boss used our current economic crisis to expand government power, worsening the crisis.

Here’s a novel idea. What if we use our current crisis to re-establish a strong national tariff, which will re-establish our industrial base, which will create jobs and manufacture our own products that will enhance rather than threaten our national security?

The term “free trade” is turning into something of an oxymoron, when the nation that has been the primary beneficiary of the policy is at odds with the nation that calls itself the leader of the free.

By Mr. Curmudgeon

Those familiar with history may have thought the Frankish warrior and king, Charles (The Hammer) Martel, saved Christendom and Western Civilization from the invading Muslim hoards at the battle of Tours in AD 732. For centuries, Martel’s victory served as a source of pride considered worthy of passing along to children. That may change. Muslim sensibilities are priority number one in today’s dying Europe.

According to the London Daily Mail, “Schools [in England] are dropping the Holocaust from history lessons to avoid offending Muslim pupils, a Government backed study has revealed. It found some teachers are reluctant to cover the atrocity for fear of upsetting students whose belief include Holocaust denial.”

That being the case, how long before the anti-Semitic “Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” which claims Jews use the blood of children during the Passover Feast, is a required part of school curriculum for Great Britain’s children? After all, the poisonous slander is pervasive throughout the Islamic world – the focus of documentaries and multi-part television programs.

The government report went on to say that some schools avoid teaching the Crusades because “the topic would have challenged what was taught in some local mosques.”

England, which for a time stood alone against Hitler, cowers in the face of Islamic denials of reality to appease 6th Century totalitarian throwbacks.

The great Winston Churchill once said, “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.” In today’s Britain, a dangerous cowardice masquerades as cultural sensitivity.

Churchill also said, “Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities… because it is the quality which guarantees all others.”

And the greatest quality of courage is survival.

By Mr. Curmudgeon

“There is no question that there’s a concerted effort to make this a political issue by some,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of the controversy surrounding the Ground Zero mosque. She then added ominously, “I join those who have called for looking into how is this opposition to the mosque being funded.” Interesting that Madam Speaker isn’t all that interested in who is behind the funding of the mosque at Ground Zero.

Forget for the moment the issue of a triumphal 13-story Islamic monument built to shadow over Ground Zero, the Democratic majority is concerned with all the opposition to their rule in our democratic republic. Leaders such as Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro don’t have such concerns, making all their community organizing simpler and more streamlined.

The debate over the mosque is not a question of totalitarian Islamic ideology at odds with a pluralistic and free society. Its merely “a zoning issue in New York City.” And isn’t that a matter best left to an unelected zoning commission? Nancy didn’t like being confronted by questions concerning zoning. It’s beneath her.

Democrats have had to deal with a lot of uncomfortable questions: at health care town hall meetings and at anti-ObamaCare rallies outside the Capitol Building. Average Americans can’t possibly be that jealous of their liberties, can they? There must be some evil agency working against our betters. Hillary Clinton once called them the “vast right-wing conspiracy.” And every counter revolution has a leader and financiers, don’t they?

The millions of Americans turning out for Tea Party rallies across the country, says Nancy, are nothing but Astroturf – paid agitators like ACORN activists. When reporters ask Nancy uncomfortable questions concerning her Constitutional authority to micromanage our lives, she asks back, “Are you kidding, are you kidding?”

Nancy doesn’t know anybody in San Francisco who disagrees with her.

Opposition to Democratic rule must be the work of racists, right-wing domestic terrorists or wild-eyed crazies, right? And Nancy must save sane San Franciscans, er, Americans from the millions of mentally challenged opponents of America’s transformation into a bankrupt Castroite paradise.

By Mr. Curmudgeon

The Chicago jury in the trial of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was finally able to agree on something: that Blago lied to federal agents about his involvement in political fundraising. The other 23 counts in the indictment are less clear to them. After all, it’s not like they had thousands of hours of taped telephone conversations proving Blago used the power of his executive position to muscle political contributions. Oh, wait…they did.

One such conversation had Blago threatening to stall a state increase in Medicaid reimbursements to an Illinois children’s hospital unless a $50,000 contribution was put in the mail…immediately, if not sooner. That’s a tough call for this Chicago jury. Is it really a bribe if, well, you put the guy receiving it in the executive mansion? Think of all the good he can accomplish with that extorted money. And, they think, “it isn’t my money he’s extorting.”

Before you judge the jury, it’s worth reflecting on their dilemma. Swimming in the shark tank that is Chicago, they have learned from experience that the only way to make it in life is at another’s expense. It’s a kind of political Darwinism. Unlike Darwin’s theory that claims man evolved from the lower primates, in the Chicago version man evolved to spend trillions of tax dollars in a vain attempt to stimulate the American economy. Some of that stimulus money makes its way to labs where lower primates are fed cocaine. It doesn’t need to make sense because it’s not about results. It’s about spreading other’s wealth around.

After all, Al Capone used some of the profits from his criminal enterprise to establish soup kitchens in Depression-era Chicago. Hamas does likewise in the Gaza Strip, because hypocrisy is the compliment evil pays good.

Obama took Capone’s hypocrisy national. There was only one problem: There still exists a kernel of Judeo-Christian morality in the heartland where more evolved creatures are appalled by the kind of organized theft a Chicago jury finds acceptable and every day.

The Blago jury is deadlocked, with the judge likely to declare a mistrial for the remainder of the charges. That deadlock stems from moral confusion. In Chicago, theft is good as long as you get a cut. That’s how it works in political machines that call themselves cities.

By Mr. Curmudgeon

Liberal Democrats are so frightened by the Tea Party onslaught coming from their right, they forget to look left. Sen. Carl Levin had finished delivering an address before the Mecosta County Democratic Party in Detroit, Michigan, when two students approached him and read a long statement accusing the Democratic chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee of – I just love this – “war crimes.” That’s when the young female student, identified as Ahlam Mohsen who attends Michigan State University, hit Levin in the puss with a pie.

News accounts failed to mention what kind of pie.

The pie-throwing stunt is a sign that the ankle-biters on the left are angry Democratic Party leaders are continuing the policies of George W. Bush – from drone attacks to the extension of the Patriot Act. “They didn’t hurt me,” Levin assured the press, “but they hurt their cause even more than their own extreme words had already done.”

How things have changed. The old Bill Ayers left used to build bombs in basements and rob Brinks armored cars. Today’s more effeminate incarnation just fattens the bottom line at Marie Callender’s.

By Mr. Curmudgeon

The poster boy for the Democratic Party’s big-government culture of corruption, Dan Rostenkowski, is dead. His 36-year stint in the House of Representatives (thirteen of which he served as chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee) came to an end when his mail fraud activities landed him in prison. He served 15-months.

Rostenkowski’s Los Angeles Times obituary was touching enough to bring a lump to the throat. “He was indicted in 1994 on 17 counts charging him with a range of offenses from mail and wire fraud to obstruction of justice. Rostenkowski was accused of hiring ghost employees, keeping office slush funds and showering gifts on political supporters and friends – time-honored methods of conducting political business in Chicago.”

While cooling his heals in Wisconsin’s Oxford federal penitentiary, Rostenkowski worked as a landscaper for a well deserved 12 cents an hour. Oxford penitentiary was a home-away-from-home for many a corrupt Chicago politician. According to the Chicago Tribune, “In Oxford, home to fewer than 600, people have grown accustomed to strangers arriving in limousines and fancy cars with Illinois license plates. They are usually weekend visitors to the prison and are allowed to see an inmate up to 35 hours per month.” Local townsfolk refer to the institution as “the university.”

Meanwhile in Washington, embattled Rep. Charlie Rangel (having also served as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee) appears to have filled Rostenkowski’s big corrupt shoes. He stands accused of violating 13 House ethics rules, which may eventually lead to a federal criminal charge of wire fraud – a felony.

“You’re not going to tell me to resign to make you feel comfortable,” thundered Rangel from the House floor. “If I can’t get my dignity back here, then fire your best shot and get rid of me through expulsion.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who prides herself on having drained the Congressional swamp, sheepishly said, “As I have repeatedly stated, the independent, bipartisan ethics committee is the proper arena for ethics matters to be discussed.”

Power corrupts. And absolute power corrupts absolutely. Will the example set by our elected leaders ever teach this country’s sleepy electorate this lesson?

By Mr. Curmudgeon

Desperate times call for desperate measures. And Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is desperate. He needs all the votes Nevadans can give him, and he’s not taking any chances. “I don’t know how anyone of Hispanic heritage could be a Republican,” said Reid in a campaign address, “Okay…do I need to say more?” In the Amos and Andy-Speedy Gonzales world of Jim Crow Democrats like Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, minorities are bought-and-paid-for commodities. And like antebellum Southern house servants, should know their place.

Reid’s views on minorities should come as no surprise. He was only able to bring himself to support candidate Barack Obama because he was “light-skinned…with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.” It’s difficult for Reid to get beyond his fond memories of minstrel shows from a bygone age.

Why would minorities continue to honor Democratic racism and condescension with their votes?

Professional race hustler Rev. Al Sharpton gave an insightful answer to Politco.com. “Senator Reid’s record provides a stark contrast to actions of Republicans to block legislation that would benefit poor and minority communities.” In other words, for communities trapped in the web of federal dependency, biting the hand that feeds you is not a wise move.

Reid and Pelosi would like to expand the weapon of big-government. Financial reform, stimulus and bailouts are geared to increase big-government control over the broader American landscape; doing for it what it has done for the crumbling inner city. The question should be: “Why would any freedom-loving American – rich, poor, Black, Hispanic or White – vote for a political party that holds power by turning large segments of society into desperate, needy and beholding voters?”

By Mr. Curmudgeon

In 1958, the Brussels World’s Fair proclaimed the 1925 silent film “Battleship Potemkin” the greatest film of all time. The Sergei Eisenstein production was a Soviet propaganda film depicting the mutiny of the Potemkin’s crew against their Czarist officers. The films message: “You know a government has problems when its minions can’t be trusted to carry out the fearless leader’s orders.”

In that same spirit, 7,000 members of the National Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Council and affiliated local councils voted no confidence (259-0) in Obama’s new ICE Director John Morton and his assistant Phyllis Coven. A statement from the Council said they felt moved to take the action because the administration “abandoned the Agency’s core mission of enforcing United States immigration laws and providing for public safety, and have instead directed their attention to campaigning for policies and programs related to amnesty.”

The ICE statement served up some harsh words for the new head of ICE’s Office of State and Local Coordination Harold Hurtt. “As a police chief in two different cities with huge illegal alien populations – Phoenix and Houston – Hurtt enforced don’t-ask-don’t-tell immigration measures that prevented officers from inquiring about a suspects legal status in the US.”

At a time when Attorney General Eric “Erkel” Holder is leading Arizona through the legal maze of our court system, to maintain the federal government’s “preeminent authority” on immigration enforcement, his own border enforcers say they’d like a shot at exercising a little of that preeminence…if you don’t mind.

But, like Russia’s old Czars, even a mutiny may not be enough to get Czar Obama’s attention. That will have to wait until 2012.