Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Obama Enlists UN Support in War on Arizona

Nile Gardiner at the Telegraph wrote:

There can be few sights more humiliating for the American people than that of a US president kowtowing to a foreign leader or to supranational institutions. Continental Europeans are used to this sort of thing after decades of dominance by unelected bureaucrats in Brussels, and have grudgingly accepted over time the gradual and undemocratic erosion of their freedoms. But most Americans fiercely defend their national sovereignty, and find the idea of giving international organisations a say over their laws and lives completely unacceptable.

The Obama administration however has submitted a report to the UN Commissioner on Human Rights, South African judge Navanethem Pillay, which makes direct reference to a popular Arizona immigration law aimed at tackling illegal immigration, which is fiercely opposed by the White House, and is the subject of legal action by the Justice Department.

The highly controversial reference to the Arizona law serves only one purpose – to gain UN and international support for the Obama administration’s position in the face of mounting opposition from Arizona legislators and a majority of the American people. A recent Rasmussen poll showed 61 percent of Americans backing Arizona-style laws for their own states, and just 28 percent supporting a Justice Department challenge .

By doing so, Obama officials undoubtedly hope to stir up international condemnation of the Arizona policy in advance of the UN General Assembly meetings in September, which they believe will increase pressure on Arizona to back down. It is a highly cynical move that speaks volumes about the Obama team’s willingness to undercut American sovereignty and popular will on the world stage.

It is important to note that the Obama administration’s report to the United Nations will go before the UN Human Rights Council, which includes in its current membership some of the world’s worst human rights abusers. The likes of China, Cuba, Libya, Russia, and Saudi Arabia, will have a right to pass judgment over the Arizona immigration law, a humiliation for a great superpower before some of the most brutal regimes on the face of the earth.

Christopher Johnson at Midwest Conservative Journal wrote:

In the meantime, the Justice Department continues to harass Arizona.

So it is a violation of “human rights” to insist that the federal government do its job. Democrats? If you want a reason why you’re currently in freefall, this is as good a reason as I can possibly provide you.

Spin this any way you like. But the fact of the matter is that the leader of your party doesn’t much like the country he leads. He and his administration are only too happy to kowtow to the “international community” at the expense of people with whom he shares a nationality and who only ask that the government secure the national borders, something that it is the responsibility of all governments to do.

Read it all here.

No comments: