From The New Republic:

 Geneva, Switzerland

Libya was chosen in 2007 to chair the preparatory committee for the UN Durban Review Conference–notwithstanding the irony of an egregious human-rights violator chairing a human rights conference. For the past three days, the committee has been holding sessions to finalize the conference’s draft statement, upon which many countries will base their decision whether to attend the conference this week. On Friday, the last day, NGOs were given 30 minutes to weigh in. 

Amidst the anti-Israel rants from all the usual NGOs, Libyan ambassador Najjat Al-Hajjaji (who was chairing the meeting) gave the floor to UN Watch, an organization affiliated with the American Jewish Committee that "monitors the performance of the United Nations by the yardstick of its own Charter." But sitting in their chair was not Hillel Neuer, the group’s executive director and usual mouthpiece, but Ashraf El Hagog, the Palestinian doctor who was falsely accused of and sentenced to death for infecting hundreds of Libyan children with HIV (along with five Bulgarian nurses). El Hagog and the nurses were held in Libya on death row for nine years, mistreated and tortured, until their release was negotiated by France last year. 

"Madame Chairman," El Hagog began, staring steely eyed at the Libyan ambassador. "I don’t know if you recognize me. I am the Palestinian medical intern who was scapegoated by your country, Libya, in the HIV case in the Benghazi hospital, together with the five Bulgarian nurses."

Al-Hajjaji immediately started banging her gavel. "Stop… stop…. I ask you to stop," she yelled, first looking miffed, then exasperated. "You are, you are not addressing the agenda item… I will allow you to resume only if you address the agenda item we are discussing." The room immediately fell silent.

El Hagog, being coached by Neuer sitting next to him, tried to introduce some amendments to the statement "based on my own suffering," and was again interrupted by Al-Hajjaji banging her gavel. But he continued recounting the story of his torture, then said, "All of this, which lasted for nearly a decade, was for only one reason: because the Libyan government was looking to scapegoat foreigners. Madame Chair, if that is not discrimination, then what is?" After listing the amendments, he concluded: "Madame Chair, Libya told this conference that it practices no inequality or discrimination. But then how do you account for what was done to me, to my colleagues, and to my family…?" (Click here for a full transcript of his testimony.)

At this point, Hajjaji recognized a point of order from … the Libyan delegation, who said that El Hagog was not speaking on the correct agenda item. Hajjaji used the objection as an excuse to move on to the next speaker. 

 He concedes on the lesser things in order to seem ‘fair’  in his judgment, so that he can implement far more devastating policies when the big issues arise. 

Examples:

Yes, shoot the pirates – but  do not even acknowledge that Islamic terrorism is a threat. 

Announce, with regret, that the US will not send a delegation to the ‘Durban II’ conference (which advocates extreme racism against the Jews in the name of anti-racism) – but insist on a ‘two-state solution’ to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, based on the Saudi plan which would ensure the annihilation of the State of Israel.  

AP reports:

The Obama administration will boycott "with regret" a U.N. conference on racism next week over objectionable language in the meeting’s final document that could single out Israel for criticism and restrict free speech, the State Department said Saturday.

The decision follows weeks of furious internal debate and will likely please Israel and Jewish groups that lobbied against U.S. participation. But the move upset human rights advocates and some in the African-American community who had hoped that President Barack Obama, the nation’s first black president, would send an official delegation.

 By permission of our reader Janus, at secularconservative.net, a picture of the Houston tea party. We specially like the banner against Socialism. 

 … of Islam? Well, that’s the reference but …  Obama has five pillars on which to rebuild the US economy. 

In yet another ‘major speech’ – he likes to make them as often as possible among flags and cameras, becoming ever more like all the other dear leaders of the peoples who have centrally-planned economies –  he declared yesterday (in small but central part): 

We must build our house upon a rock.  We must lay a new foundation for growth and prosperity – a foundation that will move us from an era of borrow and spend to one where we save and invest; where we consume less at home and send more exports abroad.

It’s a foundation built upon five pillars that will grow our economy and make this new century another American century:  new rules for Wall Street that will reward drive and innovation; new investments in education that will make our workforce more skilled and competitive; new investments in renewable energy and technology that will create new jobs and industries; new investments in health care that will cut costs for families and businesses; and new savings in our federal budget that will bring down the debt for future generations.  That is the new foundation we must build.  That must be our future – and my Administration’s policies are designed to achieve that future. 

So the First Pillar is a continuing interference in, and tighter control of the economy by the federal government 

The Second Pillar is reinforced leftist indoctrination in the schools under stricter federal government authority 

The Third Pillar is the provision of insecure and very expensive energy, its uses ever more regulated by the government so that lives become poorer and harder

The Fourth Pillar is the establishment of nationalized healthcare, being a huge extension of the welfare state and the augmentation of  governmental power of decision over the life and death of every individual  

The Fifth Pillar is a fantasy, a pretense, a fairy story that future federal budgets will get smaller and the monstrous deficits  will be ‘halved’ in a blink of the dear leader’s eye.  

Rather than risk the resentment of horrid little tyrannies, the US State Department will go on funding the development of Iran’s nuclear warfare capability!

Terry Jeffrey’s column about it (read it all here) begins with this startling  revelation:   

American taxpayers not only helped fund Iran’s nuclear program over the past decade, according to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office, but the State Department now "strongly opposes" diminishing the flow of U.S. money to the international agency that funneled the aid to Iran because the department fears – among other things – that doing so would "anger states in the developing world."

 An absurd report has been issued by the Department of Homeland Security, according to which we conservatives are more dangerous than Islamic terrorists. Michelle Malkin comments

What and who exactly are President Obama’s homeland security officials afraid of these days? If you are a member of an active conservative group that opposes abortion, favors strict immigration         enforcement, lobbies to protect Second Amendment rights, protests big government, advocates federalism or represents veterans who believe in any of the above, the answer is: You. 

Department of Homeland Security Sec. Janet Napolitano has turned her attention away from acts of Islamic jihad on American soil (which she now refers to as "man-caused disasters"). Instead, her department is sounding the alarm over an unquantified "resurgence" in "right-wing extremism activity." On April 7, DHS sent a nine-page warning memo to law enforcement offices across the country titled "Right-wing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment."

The report includes a sweeping definition of the threat:

"Right-wing extremism in the United States can be broadly divided into those groups, movements and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration."

You cannot ignore the context or the timing of this DHS report. It’s no small coincidence that Napolitano’s agency disseminated the assessment just a week before the nationwide April 15 Tax Day Tea Party protests. The grassroots events organized by fiscal conservatives, independents, Libertarians and, yes, even some Blue Dog Democrats were fueled by the "current economic and political climate" of bipartisan profligate spending and endless taxpayer-funded bailouts. The growing success of the loose-knit movement has invited scorn, ridicule and fear-mongering from Obama’s supporters. Liberal bloggers have likened the Tea Party movement to neo-Nazis, militias and even Weather Underground terrorists… The Obama DHS report is an overarching indictment of conservatives. "Right-wing extremist chatter on the Internet continues to focus on the economy, the perceived loss of U.S. jobs in the manufacturing and construction sectors, and home foreclosures," the assessment warns… 

The report relies on the work of the left-leaning Southern Poverty Law Center to stir anxiety over "disgruntled military veterans" – a citation that gives us valuable insight into how DHS will define "hate-oriented" groups. The SPLC, you see, has designated the venerable American Legion a "hate group" for its stance on immigration enforcement. The report offers zero data, but states with an almost resentful attitude toward protected free speech: "Debates over appropriate immigration levels and enforcement policy generally fall within the realm of protected political speech under the First Amendment, but in some cases, anti-immigration or strident pro-enforcement fervor has been directed against specific groups and has the potential to turn violent."

"Potential to turn violent"? So did the hysterical fervor whipped up by Capitol Hill over the AIG bonuses, which prompted ugly death threats from across the country. No mention here, though. Not "right wing" enough. Nor will you see Obama DHS warnings to police and sheriff’s departments about … the mob activists of ACORN who have committed burglary, stormed corporate executives’ homes and vowed to conduct "civil disobedience" by "any means necessary" in response to the "current economic and political climate."

If you can redefine dissenting opinion as "hate," you can brand your political opponents as "extremists" – and you can marginalize electoral threats. "Antigovernment"? "Pro-enforcement"? "Disgruntled"? Feeling taxed enough already and "recruiting" and "radicalizing" your friends and neighbors through "chatter on the Internet"?

We are all right-wing extremists now. Welcome to the club.

 The most cheering story that has come out of poor old Britain for a very long time – read more about it here:

LONDON – The British Intelligence agency MI5 used a range of astonishing new weapons in its all-out war against al-Qaida in the north of England, a campaign that succeeded in defusing an alleged terror plot, according to a report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.

The Security Service operation – personally directed by its 50-year-old head, Jonathan Evans, from its newly opened regional headquarters in northwest England – tested for the first time a range of unusual weapons created by its A4 surveillance division.

Some women as old as 70 reportedly wore cameras in their hair, and young mothers with babies had recording equipment in prams.

Both groups underwent a crash course before they became members of the long investigation into the largest campaign plotted by al-Qaida since the London bombings…

(Lucky grannies to have enough hair!)

 From the Drudge Report, this encouraging news:

WAKE UP CALL: TEXAS GOV. BACK RESOLUTION AFFIRMING SOVEREIGNTY
Tue Apr 14 2009 08:44:54 ET

AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry joined state Rep. Brandon Creighton and sponsors of House Concurrent Resolution (HCR) 50 in support of states’ rights under the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 

“I believe that our federal government has become oppressive in its size, its intrusion into the lives of our citizens, and its interference with the affairs of our state,” Gov. Perry said. “That is why I am here today to express my unwavering support for efforts all across our country to reaffirm the states’ rights affirmed by the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. I believe that returning to the letter and spirit of the U.S. Constitution and its essential 10th Amendment will free our state from undue regulations, and ultimately strengthen our Union.” 

Perry continued: "Millions of Texans are tired of Washington, DC trying to come down here to tell us how to run Texas." 

A number of recent federal proposals are not within the scope of the federal government’s constitutionally designated powers and impede the states’ right to govern themselves. HCR 50 affirms that Texas claims sovereignty under the 10th Amendment over all powers not otherwise granted to the federal government. 

It also designates that all compulsory federal legislation that requires states to comply under threat of civil or criminal penalties, or that requires states to pass legislation or lose federal funding, be prohibited or repealed.

An act of terrorism by Muslim university students, that would have killed and maimed many in the UK this Easter, has fortunately been prevented by timely detection and arrests.  

Michael Burleigh comments in the Mail (read the whole column here):  

The fact is that universities are one of the bastions of multiculturalism in Britain – and although the Government knows that this discredited policy has been disastrous for this country, it is still too nervous of the Left to abandon one of their holy grails.

Multiculturalism ostensibly celebrates individual ethnic ‘identities’ but it has been given such emphasis that each minority identity – ‘Black’, ‘Muslim’ or any other – is all too often encouraged to air a sense of grievance and victimhood, while the majority population are cast in the role of oppressors.

And for years now, terrorist recruiting sergeants – aided and abetted by a greedy liberal lawyers’ racket which encourages people to emphasise their rights rather than their duties and obligations as citizens – have exploited the multicultural havens of universities to persuade those who do feel victimised by society to try to get their own back with bombs and violence.

But if the universities are now one of the main breeding grounds of Islamist terrorism, the terrorists targets are not so rarefied… The 12 men arrested in the North-West on Wednesday … may have been plotting a mass casualty attack on nightclubs frequented by footballers this Easter weekend.

It is time now for us all to ask how long the Government is going to tolerate universities as breeding grounds for the terrorists who seek to kill innocent Britons during the most solemn holiday in the Christian calendar [or at any other time – JB].

There is only one way to tackle this deeply and dangerously ingrained problem: The Government should urgently and unequivocally abandon the multicultural creed that has allowed extremists to flourish in this country.

Sure it should. But it’s almost certainly too late. The ideology of Islam is wholly incompatible with the values of the West, but the immigrant Muslim population of Britain and Western Europe is growing while the indigenous populations are dying out.  It will not be long before Europe is an Islamic continent. 

One thing that could be done before it is too late (but will not be done of course) is – bring the European leftist ideologues, Arab-loving romantics, and Islam-besotted idiots (like Prince Charles) who actively or by sentimental encouragement opened the doors of Europe to the Muslims, to trial for treason. 

O, but – I nearly forgot – British judges are among the most guilty. 

 The San Francisco Chronicle reports: 

Rep. Barbara Lee of Oakland, who led a historic trip of members of Congress to Cuba this week, met with Fidel Castro at his home and says the former Cuban president sees President Obama as "a good person and good for America."

Does it make all Americans feel proud?