Buried Again

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While the papers salivate overTortureGate, we seem to be forgetting about two other important things: The Oil for Food scandal and that $700 million Bush illegally diverted from the Afghanistan effort to the Iraq effort.

I hate to be the guy who cries "conspiracy!" whenever something isn't getting the attention it deserves, but I'd like to remind everyone that we're talking about 1) The biggest financial scandal in the history of the world, and 2) A flagrantly illegal action taken by our president.

Remember what happened the last time a president illegally diverted funds to a military effort? It was called "The Iran-Contra Affair" and it dominated headlines for months. Sometimes, I wonder to myself what it's going to take for the American people to really start demanding accountability. Even the national mood on TortureGate seems to be "Big deal, Saddam did worse."

One thing that I think would help would be if the press stopped burying UNSCAM stories on page A34 and if they would point out the constitutionality (or lack thereof) of a president taking funds earmarked for one military effort and spending it on another.

Alternatives to the U.N.

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Although news about the oil-for-food scandal continues to get buried in the newspapers, don't let that fool you. We still need a credible organization that can facilitate multi-lateral action on critical world issues. On top of the biggest financial scandal in history, in which world government officials and the UN itself profited directly from monies that were supposed to go to the Iraqi people for food and medicine, the UN elects Sudan to another 3-year term on the UN Human Rights Commission, despite the ethnic cleansing going on there.

While the U.S. has lost a good deal of credibility in the wake of torture allegations, Sudan's re-election is a much larger blow to the credibility of the UN. I say let's get rid of this bogus organization, stop funding it, and replace it with an alternative. There's been quite a bit reported lately about Bush's interest in creating an organization comprising the world's democracies. Here's a December editorial that sums it up nicely. Not that I believe that democracy is necessarily the common factor under which a new multi-national organization needs to unite, but it's the best idea I've seen yet.