Nuggets

::: UN Report A 'Moral Indictment' Of The US
When asked why the US continues to be a signatory to international human rights treaties if it has no intention of taking seriously its obligations under those treaties, Lisa Crooms, Constitutional and international law professor at the Howard University School of Law, opined that the US wishes to 'maintain some semblance of being a human rights protector.'

"The political cost of opting out would be too great. It is easier to claim to be bound and not really be bound," she added.

::: Since 2000, about 40,000 troops from all branches of the military have deserted, the Pentagon says. More than half served in the Army. But the Army says numbers have decreased each year since the United States began its war on terror in Afghanistan.

::: The World's Worst Internet Laws Sneaking Through the Senate
The treaty requires that the U.S. government help enforce other countries' "cybercrime" laws - even if the act being prosecuted is not illegal in the United States. That means that countries that have laws limiting free speech on the Net could oblige the F.B.I. to uncover the identities of anonymous U.S. critics, or monitor their communications on behalf of foreign governments. American ISPs would be obliged to obey other jurisdiction's requests to log their users’ behavior without due process, or compensation. And I'll bet the "Cybercrime" treaty doesn't even mention the Phishing attacks jamming up our mailboxes right now.

::: A Nato-led force would be in Israel's interests, but not Lebanon's
So, how come George Bush and Lord Blair of Kut al-Amara - after their inevitable disasters in Afghanistan and Iraq - believe that a Nato-led force is going to survive on the south Lebanese border? The Israelis would obviously enjoy watching its deployment - it will be time for the West to take the casualties - but Hizbollah is likely to view its arrival as a proxy Israeli army. It is, after all, supposed to be a "buffer" force to protect Israel - not, as the Lebanese have quickly noted, to protect Lebanon - and the last Nato army that came to this country was literally blasted out of its mission by suicide bombers. -- How many kids - including our own - will wind up dying in this situation, if it happens?