Posted on 03/03/2004 5:59:11 PM PST by RickofEssex
Uprising Against U.N. Grows in States and Congress
WASHINGTON – Threats to U.S. security and sovereignty in recent years have spawned a widening grassroots movement to get the United States out of the United Nations and the United Nations out of the United States. The effort has gained a political respectability it did not always enjoy. A “people’s rebellion” against internationalist elites is coming straight from Heartland America.
Once relegated to the outer fringes of the conservative movement, skepticism of and hostility to the U.N. in recent years are the result of several factors, not the least of which is concern for safety in an increasingly dangerous world.
The war against terror in general, and against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in particular, have caused debate over America’s once assumed right to defend itself without seeking “permission” from the so-called “international community.”
President Bush has been ridiculed in the halls of the United Nations for taking seriously his No. 1 constitutional duty: to protect Americans from harm. Sept. 11 was the wake-up call that brought Americans face to face with the prospect of personal danger. They do not take kindly to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and others who challenge our right to self-defense.
Legislatures in some of the same Rocky Mountain states that rebelled against the excesses of the elitist “environmental” movement a quarter of a century ago are now leading the anti-U.N. charge.
The Utah House of Representatives last month approved a resolution urging Congress to withdraw the U.S. from the United Nations.
The measure had been proposed a year ago, but was put on hold while President Bush was unsuccessfully seeking U.N. backing for an invasion of Iraq.
Now in 2004, the Utah House voted 42-33 in favor of “freeing the nation from a large financial burden and retaining the nation’s sovereignty to decide what is best for the nation and determine what steps it considers appropriate as the leader of the free world in full control of its armed forces and destiny.”
The measure has divided the top leadership of the Republican majority in the Utah House.
House Speaker Marty Stephens, who is also a gubernatorial candidate in the Beehive State, voted with the majority, reflecting a popular concern among some conservatives over such issues as “world government” and a global tax.
On the other hand, House Majority Leader Greg Curtis voted against the measure, saying, “I don’t want it to be said, ‘Well, he must not be a conservative, he must not be a true Republican if he doesn’t support this.'”
That Curtis would be defensive about his GOP credentials because of this issue reflects the political reality that the world organization’s approval among the general public, particularly among Republican voters in the 2000 “red states,” has taken a dive in recent years.
The tarnished reputation of the U.N. persists despite the left-tilting establishment’s best efforts to define the issue as something that is “settled” and beyond the boundaries of reasonable debate. But the ranks of the skeptics are growing. Similar anti-U.N. efforts are under way in the legislatures of neighboring states Idaho and Arizona.
On Jan. 17, the chief congressional proponent of the anti-U.N. effort, Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, visited Salt Lake City to outline his case for America’s sovereign right to assert its best interests over whatever objections United Nations might have.
Gains in Congress
Last year, Paul’s campaign to free the U.S. of U.N. constraints made a significant leap forward in Congress, though it still lost by a comfortable margin.
In contrast to previous up or down votes on the issue that netted fewer than 40 supporters, a recorded vote on this issue on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives on July 22, 2003 garnered 145 votes: 141 Republicans and four Democrats.
Rep. Paul sees that as progress. The final vote against the proposal was 279-145. But just as the left has attained ultimate victories by revisiting its issues year after year, so too does the Texas lawmaker intend to apply the same strategy here.
Paul's spokesman Jeff Deist told NewsMax.com that timing was of the utmost significance in this latest vote. The proposal picked up support because of resentment over the anti-U.S. rhetoric in the U.N. General Assembly, which intensified with the run-up to the war with Iraq. Also, unlike previous measures, this vote, on an amendment to an appropriations bill, merely called on the U.S. to cease all funding for the United Nations. It stopped short of calling for outright withdrawal. The idea is to advance the cause in steps.
Included among those favoring Paul's amendment were such heavy hitters as House Majority leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas; House International Relations Committee Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill.; and Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif., best known for his bipartisan probe several years ago of communist China's espionage in the U.S.
The resentment against the United Nations did not develop in this country overnight. It has been building up for years. NewsMax has been following that every step of the way. We’ll take a closer look next in our second of two installments.
Membership in the UN is never "settled". It is a voluntary association that can be unilaterally severed anytime a member nation feels the organization is not worth a fart in a typhoon.
We should; cease funding the UN, apply the full force of law to their "diplomats'" arrogance (they may have immunity, but their illegally parked vehicles do not), and serve notice we are restoring U.S. sovereignty over they property they occupy.
Let the UN set up in subsahara Africa or France. It has long since ceased being a forum for reasoned discourse among civilized nations.
It was good that he went to the U.N. first - it exposed the U.N. as a bunch of globalist, money-grubbing hand-wringers with a love for dictatorship regimes.
Since the U.N. treaty was not ratified by the U.S. Senate, the President can simply issue an executive order stating that the U.S. will cease operations and pull out in 60 days.
In Madison, WI, vehicles parked in city towaway zones would not be impounded unless the owner had outstanding tickets; they'd instead be moved somewhere so as to be parked legally.
Even if NYC couldn't collect any tickets from diplomats or impound their vehicles, what about simply having their tow people provide a friendly service to the diplomats by relocating their vehicles so as to be legally parked?
NYC might not get any direct revenue from such towing, but I'm sure there are some people who would be more than happy to have diplomats' cars towed into their neighborhoods. And I think diplomats would pretty quickly decide that they really didn't want to get their cars towed there.
I like this plan!
Sounds about right to me!
What a splendid idea!
John Kerry’s Treaty - Outsourcing sovereignty
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar brought the treaty to a unanimous favorable vote and promises to try to get the Senate to act on it "as soon as possible."That is precisely what Sen. Lugar is trying to do. He has: prevented critics from testifying before his own committee; kept other committees from being briefed on the treaty; and is seeking to get it to the Senate floor before effective opposition can be organized and expressed.
U.S. adherence to this treaty would entail history's biggest and most unwarranted voluntary transfer of wealth and surrender of sovereignty.
These include the power to: regulate seven-tenths of the world's surface area, levy international taxes, impose production quotas (for deep-sea mining, oil production, etc.), govern ocean research and exploration, and create a multinational court to render and enforce its judgments.
The treaty effectively prohibits two functions vital to American security: collecting intelligence in, and submerged transit of, territorial waters.
Man, that's just brilliant!! I wish I had thought of it.
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