(CNSNews.com) – With little fanfare, a U.N. body has given Iran seats on several entities, including one dealing with women’s empowerment, another with children, a third with narcotics and a fourth with crime prevention and criminal justice.
From January 1 next year, Iran will be a member of the executive board of the U.N. Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (U.N. Women), the executive board of the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, and Commission on Narcotic Drugs.
U.S. taxpayers account for 22 percent of the U.N.’s regular operating budget, plus millions of additional dollars to individual U.N. agencies. The State Department’s fiscal year 2016 request includes $7.7 million for U.N. Women and $132 million for UNICEF.
The decisions were made between Wednesday and Friday last week, at sessions of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), a 54-member U.N. organ that coordinates socio-economic and related affairs.
Iran each time was on a “closed slate” of candidates put forward by its regional group, Asia. The contentious U.N. practice, which entails submitting the same number of candidates as there are vacancies available, effectively rules out any contest.
Closed slates have enabled repressive regimes to take up leadership posts across the U.N. system. Unless objections are raised, there is no actual vote, and the regionally-endorsed candidates are instead given the nod “by...
Author’s Note: I only listed the lies that Hillary Clinton has told that came immediately to mind. I expect I forgot to mention some and as her campaign rolls out she will surely tell additional lies, so if anyone reading this remembers any that I haven’t listed or becomes aware of any new ones she tells please be sure to add them to the list of Hillary’s Lies.
- My husband is not a sexual predator.
- Bill and I have a normal marriage, and any assertions that by defending him against allegations of aberrant sexual behavior I enable him to continue to prey upon vulnerable women are false.
- Paula Jones, Gennifer Flowers, Juanita Broaddrick, Kathleen Willey and all the others who have claimed to have had sex, been sexually harassed, assaulted or raped by Bill Clinton are just white trash publicity seekers.
- Bill did not have sex with Monica Lewinsky; allegations that he did are part of a vast right wing conspiracy.
- I was shocked to discover that Bill had had sex with Monica Lewinsky, but I forgave him because I love him and he had never done anything like that before and he hasn’t since.
- I do not have a vicious temper and reports that my ripping into Vince Foster on the morning he committed suicide may have driven him over the edge are unfounded.
- I never have had temper tantrums or exhibited violent behavior like throwing ashtrays or lamps when I found out about something I didn’t like or couldn’t get my own way.
- Reports that I told White House staff and Secret Service agents to step into a closet or hide behind a curtain because I didn’t want to have to see them when I walked down the halls are simply stories made up by an unscrupulous reporter
- Had Hillary Care been implemented it would have provided high quality affordable health care to all Americans while preserving their freedom to choose their doctors and their plans.
- I had no idea where the Rose Law firm billing records were.
- The Whitewater land deal was totally above board and there was nothing illegal or even unethical about it.
- When I said I came under sniper fire when I landed in Sarajevo I wasn’t lying.
- As Secretary of State, the ruling junta in Myanmar did not play me for a fool by pretending to embrace democratic reforms; that they slipped back into authoritarianism the minute I normalized relations and lifted sanctions is just a coincidence.
- ... LOTS More...
The Russian president has repealed the ban prohibiting the delivery of S-300 missile air defense systems to Iran, according to the Kremlin's press service. The ban was introduced by former President Dmitry Medvedev in 2010.
“[The presidential] decree lifts the ban on transit through Russian territory, including airlift, and the export from the Russian Federation to the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also the transfer to the Islamic Republic of Iran outside the territory of the Russian Federation, both by sea and by air, of air defense missile systems S-300,” says the information note accompanying the document, RIA Novosti reported.
The decree enters into force upon the president’s signature.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov commented on the decision, saying that Moscow’s voluntary embargo on S-300 deliveries was no longer necessary, due to the...
More Amazing Animated Gifs HEREAnimated Gif Collection #2 HERE
No one can deny that Barack Obama is a highly skilled politician,
at least by the measure of election outcomes. His record is undefeated, save for an ill-advised 2000 primary challenge to an entrenched incumbent congressman. His 2008 presidential victory, after a fraction of a term in the U.S. Senate, was especially dazzling. It disproved those who said that Hillary Clinton was invincible, that a left-wing Democrat couldn't win, and that America wasn't ready for a black president.
No one can deny that Lance Armstrong and Mark McGwire were highly skilled athletes. But their accomplishments are forever tainted by their use of banned performance-enhancing drugs. The use of the Internal Revenue Service's coercive power to suppress dissent against Obama is the political equivalent of steroids. The history books should record Obama's re-election with an asterisk to indicate that it was achieved with the help of illicit means.
The Weekly Standard notes that NBC's Lisa Myers "reported this morning that the IRS deliberately chose not to reveal that it had wrongly targeted conservative groups until after the 2012 presidential election":
The IRS commissioner "has known for at least a year that this was going on," said Myers, "and that this had happened. And did he share any of that information with the White House? But even more importantly, Congress is going to ask him, why did you mislead us for an entire year? Members of Congress were saying conservatives are being targeted. What's going on here? The IRS denied it. Then when--after these officials are briefed by the [inspector general] that this is going on, they don't disclose it. In fact, the commissioner sent a letter to Congress in September on this subject and did not reveal this. Imagine if we--if you can--what would have happened if this fact came out in September 2012, in the middle of a presidential election? The terrain would have looked very different."
One thing we have learned from the IRS scandal is that sports journalists are morally superior to political journalists. Whereas the former understand that cheating is an assault on the basic integrity of the sport, the latter all too often treat it as if it were just...
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released its monthly data showing national use of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps. The data show that usage has topped 46 million Americans for 40 consecutive months. Dependency on SNAP has risen sharply under the Obama administration, with no end in sight.
The data for the latest month available, December 2014, shows a total of 46,252,064 Americans dependent on SNAP. This continues a disturbing trend, with dependency topping 46 million since September 2011. It should be noted that while the White House says the recession ended in 2009, a record number of Americans are seeking financial assistance in the form of SNAP benefits.
If the standard unemployment rate has dropped to 5.5 percent and the economy is “recovering,” why are so many Americans more dependent on help from the government? The answer lies in the workforce participation rate and also in the lack of work requirements for...
