Transnationalism v. The Constitution
According to cnsnews.com:
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Thursday that the State Department is soliciting comments from citizens, advocacy groups and other non-governmental organizations on the human rights record of the United States.
(snip)
Clinton said the U.S. is now gathering facts on its own record because – as a member of the U.N. Human Rights Council – it is participating in the UNHRC’s “universal periodic review” process.
One troubling aspect of this plan is that it will gather “human rights complaints” from apparently any source, including the “social justice” crowd, and then pass this national internal assessment to the U.N. From the link:
The U.S. State Department Web site says the collection of complaints about human rights abuses in the United States is part of its goal of “transparency” in the UPR process. “In the pursuit of a transparent and effective UPR process, the Department of State is encouraging the American public, including non-governmental organizations and civil society more broadly to provide input regarding human rights in the United States directly to the Department of State,”
For obvious reasons, there are concerns about the “fair and balanced” nature of the information that will be collected:
Austin Ruse, president of a United Nations watchdog organization, the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, said the State Department’s process for preparing its report to the UNHRC may not be objective.
“It will give pretty left-wing groups a forum for criticizing the U.S.,” Ruse told CNSNews.com. That internal criticism will then end up at the U.N. Human Rights Council. “This is a two-step process,” Ruse said. “The second step is another opportunity for the U.S. to come under fire, this time by the United Nations.” (snip)
Ruse said it remains to be seen if the report provided to the United Nations by the State Department will include the human rights concerns of all Americans. “I would hope that on their listening tour, the State Department will listen to social conservatives about the rights of the unborn child being violated,” Ruse said. “We shall see if the State Department is interested in the proper understanding of human rights.”
But the larger concern is not our reputation in the international community, but rather the effort of the “transnationalists” among the liberal left to submit the United Stated to International Law and courts. Many of the liberals in Obama’s administration (past and present) favor transnationalism and “application of United Nations protocols and international law over the Constitution, such as Harold Koh, Hillary Clinton, Rahm Emanuel, and Cass Sunstein, as well as Judicial appointment Sonia Sotomayor.
But www.npr.org goes so far as to ponder if Attorney General Eric Holder is looking to use the international courts to prosecute Bush Administration officials to uphold Obama’s campaign promise without actually having to get his hands dirty:
Put it all together and it’s really not that hard to figure out what is going on here.
Transnationalists from outside and, now, inside our government have been ardent supporters of prosecutions against American officials who designed and carried out the Bush counterterrorism policies that kept this country safe after 9/11. The U.N.’s top torture monitor is demanding legal action, almost certainly as a prelude to calling for action by an international tribunal such as the ICC if the Justice Department fails to indict. Meantime, law-enforcement authorities in Spain and elsewhere are weighing charges against the same U.S. officials, spurred on by the CCR and human-rights groups that now have friends in high American places. In foreign and international courts, the terrorist-friendly legal standards preferred by Europe and the U.N. would make convictions easier to obtain and civil suits easier to win.
Obama and Holder were principal advocates for a “reckoning” against Bush officials during the 2008 campaign. They realize, though, that their administration would be mortally wounded if the DOJ were actually to file formal charges. This week’s announcement of an investigation against the CIA provoked howls, but that’s nothing compared to the public reaction indictments would cause.
Nevertheless, Obama and Holder are under intense pressure from the hard Left, to which they made reckless promises, and from the international community they embrace.
The way out of this dilemma is clear. Though it won’t file indictments against the CIA agents and Bush officials it is probing, the Justice Department will continue conducting investigations and releasing reports containing new disclosures of information. The churn of new disclosures will be used by lawyers for the detainees to continue pressing the U.N. and the Europeans to file charges.
(snip)
The Left will get its reckoning. Obama and Holder will be able to take credit with their supporters for making it happen. But because the administration’s allies in the antiwar bar and the international Left will do the dirty work of getting charges filed, the American media will help Obama avoid domestic political accountability.
Whether or not they are right in their assessment of Holder’s intentions, or even if this is just pursuing the transnationalism dream of the liberal left, NPR’s final conclusion is right on:
Meanwhile, Americans who sought to protect our nation from barbarians will be harassed and framed as war criminals. And protecting the United States will have become an actionable violation of international law.
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excellent thread, TLS.
the ending comment is worth repeating (and so I shall):
protecting the United States will have become an actionable violation of international law.
the only saving grace is the vast difference between TELLING the American people they are governed by International Laws…and ENFORCING those “Laws”
The phrase: “You’ll get my guns when you pry them from cold dead fingers” comes to mind. Easily one of the first “Laws” the international community will pass will be one stripping Americans of their 2nd Amendment rights. An interesting though pointless exercise on their part. The actual confiscation of American’s guns would entail a lot more troops than the international community could muster!
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Am I mistaken? I thought Obama continued many of the war policies of President Bush. Including bombing in Afghanistan that has killed many innocent women and children.
I would think that he would face the same international prosecution if Holder presses Europe to go over President Bush.
Personally I think Obama would be safer in Europe than in the US the way he’s going.
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Thanks, JR. International law is a wet dream of the liberal left because it reflects more of their social justice view and in their opinion, a way to finally thrump the Constitution.
There are many other troubling aspect of the idea of international law that just won’t fit in one thread. For instance, ParentalRight.org is fighting hard to add a Constitutional Amendment that would ban the U.S. from applying internationl laws on children in this country because it takes away the rights of the parents and gives all rights to the child. You can read about that here:
http://www.parentalrights.org/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC=%7B2B53865E-A8C1-4FE6-AF67-08789FBE3C0A%7D
Hillary Clinton is a big fan of CDC rights for children.
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More from parentalrights.org on children and guns:
http://www.parentalrights.org/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={96190840-EC3B-4A5E-80EE-9719625B62A5}
However, a second theme is quickly found in virtually all UN pronouncements about child soldiers and weapons. UN child’s rights advocates believe, teach, and promote the idea that all private gun-ownership is dangerous for children, and that children have the right to grow up in a community that is free from all guns.
“If the United States ratifies the UN Convention we will be willing parties in a regime that obligates us to disarm our citizens, keep guns from children, and indoctrinate American children to believe in the utopia of world disarmament.”
As the campaign to seek ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child intensifies, it is important for all Americans to understand the application of this children’s rights treaty to the issue of private gun ownership by American citizens.
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TLS – nice piece.
First, Holder and “zero” better watch their back when it comes to the CIA. To throw some people to the wolves is not threatening them but putting them and their family at great risk of harm. And these people are not the type of people you want to do that to. Accidents do happen and these people are experts at doing it with many years of experience. Plus they must remember, one day Holder and “zero” will be out of office and at risk of investigations and prosecution.
Second, as far as the UN and wanting to impose certain constraints on my God given rights – GAME ON.
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I am becoming alarmed because with greater frequency we hear that there is an international or foreign precedent regarding womething that occurs in the U.S. We are under the juristdiction of U.S. and state laws and the U.S. Constitution. We are not subject to “international law,” the laws of foreign countries or treaties that we have not entered into.
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Second, as far as the UN and wanting to impose certain constraints on my God given rights – GAME ON.
I think you speak for the majority of American, but I don’t know that we are paying attention to the big picture of where the left is trying to lead us. As BC said, it just trickles through one little drip at a time. That’s why I thought these events were important when it came up yesterday, because it is painting a much bigger picture.
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TLS – I have seen this going on since the early 1970’s when I was a youth and first started paying attention. Some of what Glenn Beck has recently said, I knew of back in the mid to late 1970’s.
Read about Fabian socialism, their symbol in London is a tortoise, slowly but surely. This has been their agenda since the late 1800’s, early 1900’s. They are getting impatient, if they had only waited another 30 years, they would have won.
Years ago (not that long ago) if you believed what Glenn Beck has said recently, you belonged to the tin foil hat brigade. Yet Glenn has shown through documentation that it is real. From the historians he has on, they have said it is there in history IF you look. Most people don’t know their own history. As Rush has said many times, “history begins with the day you are born”.
If the good Lord does not come first, the time is coming for a reset.
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gnqanq: “If the good Lord does not come first, the time is coming for a reset.”
As little as 14 months ago I would have called such talk “Alarmist” or even “Extremist”.
Now I call such talk: “Insightful”.
14 months FROM now I may be looking back on it and calling it “Prescient”. Damn.
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UTTERLY Off Topic…sorry. But funny!
“Academy Award Winning Movie Trailer” hattip HotAir Enjoy!
a trifle long…but when they get to the captioning of who’s who it’s worth the time!
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Justrand
That movie excerpt is a total head spinner!
TLS
A great but rather unnerving post. I find with theis administration there is no time to breathe. Safety, peace, consensus is just not in the transcript of Obama’s world. It’s been an unending push, on the part of his visionary minions, to push and transform this nation accoeding to their own whims, having nothing to do with the people’s wishes.
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I guess we still have a chance…….
http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/2010/03/breaking-dems-dont-have-votes-for-health-care-suicide-pact/
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Thanks, Bruce!
Keep praying!
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It’s been an unending push, on the part of his visionary minions, to push and transform this nation according to their own whims, having nothing to do with the people’s wishes. -Jan
Or the Constitution.