US News
Bush calls on UN to expand freedom
Sep 25, 2007, 15:24 GMT
US President George W Bush EPA/JULIAN ABRAM WAINWRIGHT
New York - US President George W Bush on Tuesday urged the United Nations to confront despotic governments and announced the United States will enact more sanctions on Myanmar in response to the ruling military junta's crackdown against democratic activists.
Bush singled out Belarus, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Syria and Zimbabwe as countries the international community must pressure to force the governments to introduce more freedom.
'The mission of the United Nations requires liberating people from tyranny and violence,' Bush said during the opening of the UN General Assembly in New York.
Bush called on countries to do more to help the people of Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon and support their effort to build democratic governments. He urged all nations to combat terrorism to defeat its 'dark ideology.'
'All civilized nations must work together to stop them by sharing intelligence about their networks, and choking off their finances, and bringing to justice their operatives,' Bush said.
Despite the great deal of international interest in Iraq, Bush made little mention of the conflict that has defined his administration as it heads into its final year in January.
Instead he focused on the importance of promoting freedom and liberty that the war in Iraq has come to symbolize for him and his effort to bring change to the Middle East. He also discussed the need to address poverty and diseases like malaria and HIV/AIDS.
Bush also criticized the world body's Human Rights Council for failing to speak out against violations in the world, ranging from Cuba to Venezuela and North Korea and Iran, while turning its attention 'excessively on Israel.'
'The American people are disappointed by the failures of the Human Rights Council,' Bush said.
The United Nations created the Human Rights Council in March 2006 to replace the dysfunctional Commission on Human Rights. Washington opposed the move, saying the reforms did not go far enough to prevent some of the world's worst violators of human rights from gaining membership.
Bush said the latest sanctions on Myanmar will consists of travel bans and the freezing of assets of the junta's members, a group that has subjected the country to a '19-year reign of fear.' The Bush administration has previously imposed sanctions on the South Asian country, also known as Burma, because of widespread repression and harsh treatment of democratic activists.
'The ruling junta remains unyielding, yet the people's desire for freedom is unmistakable,' he said.
Bush's announcement came as up to 100,000 protestors took to the streets in cities throughout Myanmar on Monday in some of the largest demonstrations in years, even though the regime banned the events.
The world also needed to do more the pressure the repressive regime of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe, Bush said.
The United Nations also had to promote free speech in Cuba as the rule 'cruel dictator' Fidel Castro nears an end, Bush said. Castro has been ill for more than a year and has handed power to his brother, Raul, on an interim basis.
The United Nations must live up to its agreement to deploy a peacekeeping force to Sudan's Darfur region, where people continue losing their lives to genocide, Bush said.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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Older Talkback
page: 1
no plan. Go get'em George.
ruler of the world!
...he read the UN declaration back to them, piece..by...piece. You can't imagine how the words must have stung. You can't imagine how far they have digressed. What a tragedy.
God, I love clarity.
Seems to be a reasonable request.
our lord and savior
No mention of Iraq? Good speech writer - can B really read!
Yeah. Good point Goerge. So let us set the example by starting from home
I could have swore heard him say it, at least twice, and I only watched 3 minutes of it!
Too bad this lame duck has no credibility at the UN or anywhere else, except maybe Crawford. It is to late to learn how to tell the truth.
Why is he reciting the U.N.'s own policies back to them, and what does he think is going to happen as a result? Headlines? Applause? Giuliani does it with 9/11, as well. It's a paucity of new ideas, and a rehash of what WAS, instead of looking forward. It's an appeal to his base, who love hearing this kind of pap, and forgive the ineptitude that accompanies it.
Why wasn't the President asking the U.N. to take a stand AGAINST TERRORISM at the end of 2001? Why is the President just noticing the problem in Myanmar now?
Those who cannot do, yak.
The latest from Bush:
'Bush confident al-Maliki can make progress in Iraq'
news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/news/article_1359655.php/Bush_co nfident_al-Maliki_can_make_progress_in_Iraq
Based on WHAT?
This egomaniac really believes that what he says makes a difference. The U.N. will now snap to attention, and do his bidding.
Listen to ex-President Fox of Mexico, a Bush 'ally'
politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/09/17/former-mexico-pres-calls-bush- cockiest-guy-ive-ever-met/
WASHINGTON (CNN) – The two leaders shared a border for six years, but former Mexico President Vicente Fox gives a tough assessment on President Bush in a new book out next month, according to U.S. News and World Report.
In 'Revolution of Hope,' set to hit book stores October 4, Fox calls Bush 'the cockiest guy I have ever met in my life,' and is sharply critical of the president's Iraq policy and his immigration stance, according to the magazine.
Though he describes warm relations with Bush, Fox in the book also calls the president's Spanish skills 'grade-school' level and says, 'I can't honestly say that I had ever seen George W. Bush getting to the White House.'
Yes indeed, Donald Trump, himself a disgrace, is right! The USA should fight its own government. What I fail to understand is that most Americans have still not understood that Cheney is one of the worst (war) criminals the world has ever produced. That man should be in jail...for the rest of his life, with his corrupt cronies in & out of the government. It is said in many books that 'Americans are the scum of all populations'. Bush and Cheney have definitely proved it.
Paul, please enlighten us all and advise which books reference 'Americans as the scum'? If that were true then I guess the US wouldn't have an immigration problem would we?
Hmmm???
Can somebody tell Bush that his whole hypocritical speech is just perceived as the usual brainwash .The reality of US politics was just another lame attempt at world domination,trying to discredit the UN and taking over it's role ,asking the rest of the world to bend over .Success guaranteed in Granada,the biggest military conquest until now.I guess only thje most frustrated mental impaired fringe of the population is still proud of him.
The UN needs no one to help them discredit themselves. The body has become next to useless and an engine for the extreemists. Bush is right, face it. No one has any better (or even an alternative) plan to try and attack the foundation of the extreemists.
The UN has soooo much credibiity now, with human rights abusers on human rights committees, rampant corruption, etc. that I'm just appalled at the nerve of Ol GW to dress them down!
'Though he describes warm relations with Bush, Fox in the book also calls the president's Spanish skills 'grade-school' level and says, 'I can't honestly say that I had ever seen George W. Bush getting to the White House.'
I wouldn't want Fox making odds for me, eh?
RE: 'I wouldn't want Fox making odds for me, eh?'
=================
He overestimated the intellect of the GOP voters. Many world leaders have deprecated Bush's abilities, while underestimating his raw stubbornness despite the facts. Cheney is the brain in this equation.
Gates' new request for $190 billion for the wars will be interesting to watch. The Democrats cound not effectively defund the war, since the GOP could have made their own funding resolutions, and nothing would have been accomplished except a public 'food fight' and the usual GOP name calling.
The worst Presidential mismatch was Bush vs. Putin, as we can judge today from Russia's resurgence thanks to oil revenue, and a President who really knows how to run a dictatorship. Putin will run again as President in 2012, and is busy stacking the deck with sycophants to make that happen.
The real tragedy of the past 7 years (soon to be 8) will be America's loss of prestige and influence, and it's a result of Bush's policies and persona. Hard to make a case with continuing high poll negatives, and an endless war sucking up money like the Dyson vacuum cleaner.
The next news will be our economic slowdown, with housing prices and higher mortgage interest rates a dominant factor in reducing public spending, as well as the end of the boom from cash from refi's. Bush takes credit for the economy, but it was really Greenspan's low interest rates, as well as cashouts from refi's, that put big spending money in the public's pockets, and enabled business to borrow cheaply to modernize and expand. Those days are largely over. Bush's vision of endless tax cuts in the face of endless deficits never made sense; but it did buy votes. Whether the public will ever be willing to accept the fact that they (or their children) will actually have to PAY for something is unknown.
www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aYDf3FLKGnH0&refer=home
Sept. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Orders for American-made goods such as jetliners, automobiles and telephone network switches fell in August by the most in seven months, raising concern that businesses are losing confidence in the economy. Demand for durable goods, those made to last at least several years, fell a greater-than-forecast 4.9 percent, the Commerce Department said today in Washington. Excluding transportation equipment, orders declined 1.8 percent.
The report suggests that business investment, which economists predicted would cushion the expansion from a slowdown in consumer spending, may instead weaken. That would endanger the 2.2 percent growth rate that forecasters anticipate for the U.S. in the final three months of the year.
The pro-growth republicans are no longer in control of the congress. The lack of confidence is now showing up in the economy. Investors, smelling uncertainty, are boarding up the walls.
In business, we call that an indicator of confidence.
The anti-growth democrats, who can't seem to get one single vote done on this war, are supposedly in charge. The markets, raging under republican leadership, the kind of leadership that can actually pass something, is now gone.
While the republicans were there, we had record employment, record tax receipts, low inflation hand record household income. Stocks went though the ceiling.
Now, who knows. A pity there is no leadership within Congress.
Bush bent Libya to heel on their nuke program, got N. Korea to the table after Clintons disastrous treaty that enabled their nuke program, got Irans attention and has the rest of these petty strongmen crying for liberals to come back into office.
El Jeffe' Fox resides over the most disgraceful government in the western hemisphere, a wealthy nation that keeps it's citizens in poverty. The idea of him criticizing Bush is almost laughable. If you look up 'corrupt: in the Mexican dictionary, his picture should be there.
As for our 'prestige' I have, in 35 years, never seemed to see anything that this so-called 'prestige' bought us.
Prestige is the word used for sycophantic liberals who are fooled by foreign leaders into thinking they will 'like' the USA if we bend to their will. Carter was the gold standard, cow towing to the world while Iran rubbed his face in the dirt for 444 days. Take that prestige and try to buy a cup of coffee with it.
'respect is the coin of the realm' - Madelene Albright
And you do not have to be liked to get respect.
RE THE NONSENSICAL: 'The pro-growth republicans are no longer in control of the congress. The lack of confidence is now showing up in the economy. Investors, smelling uncertainty, are boarding up the walls.'
==============
www.forbes.com/markets/equities/2007/09/26/durables-manufacturing-augus t-markets-econ-cx_er_0926markets11.html
'It's official, America's factories are sputtering in the wake of the global credit crisis.
On Thursday, the Commerce Department said orders for big-ticket items plunged 4.9% in August, to a seasonally adjusted rate of $219.5 billion-- the sharpest fall since January. The figure was far worse than economists' prediction of a 3.1% drop. However, August's downturn appears less vicious when transportation is stripped out. Excluding transportation, orders edged down a more modest 1.8%. Similarly, August's orders for nondefense capital goods excluding aircraft, a proxy for capital spending, slipped 0.7%, after rising 0.9% in July. These figures indicate that the credit crunch has weakened capital spending but not crippled it.'
---------------
The housing problems even predate the change in leadership, and credit problems dominate. Look at the price of homebuilder stocks. Like any change in the economy, this one has been coming since the subprime lender mess, and hikes in interest rates and the increasing cost of imports, as well as higher gas prices, as well as tighter credit, are causing contractions. The slowdown is exactly what the GOP does NOT want, going into an election - so the dumb excuses are coming.
The public does not spend based on Congress, and business invests to make a profit; not on what Congress' viewpoint is. Interest rates, and the perception of public spending, are what matters. Capital goods spending has been the strong factor, and that investment is largely made already. The dollar has fallen sharply, making our exports more attractive, and at the same time increasing the cost of imports, including autos. That has not helped GM or Ford to increase market share in the same proportion. The GM problems are going to trickle down to the suppliers, and THEIR suppliers.
Aside from a change in Fed rates which basically caused stock prices to firm up, Congress has done nothing substantive either pro- or anti- business for a long time, and you cannot spend 'intentions'. This is another example of the pro-Bush bullcrap, where 'talk' is valued more than 'achievement'; Iraq being an outstanding example of this photo-op Presidency.
Gates' request coming for $180 billion for 'wars', far exceeding his own estimate earlier, is also a drag on the economy, as well as adding to the gloom of investors. Iraq is a money pit, taking funds away from infrastructure, investment, and education, as well as Government-funded R&D that we vitally need.
Only a simpleton or a propagandist thinks that some GOP incumbent seeking re-election and sounding 'pro-growth' has anything to do with it. Bush's tax cuts have crippled us in terms of the deficit, and GDP growth and accompanying revenue will NOT offset the revenue losses, proportionally. The weasker the economy, the more the lost revenue hurts. The idea of tax cuts concurrent with rising military costs (and the costs yet to be realized such as rising costs of care for veterans) is a disservice to the taxpayers, who will end up paying for this, while the uppermost brackets realized the benefits of the Bush tax cuts far more than the middle class ever did.
www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7008638562
Washington, DC (AHN) - According to the Commerce Department demand for big-ticket manufactured goods took a nose-dive in August; the figure is the lowest is seven months.
With orders for jetliners, automobiles, and communications gear with the label 'made in U.S.A' plummeting last month, there is heightening concern that businesses may be losing confidence in the U.S. Economy.
The sentiment that a slowdown in housing and turmoil in financial markets is spreading to the wider economy seems to be prevailing among traders and investors as they weigh the risks of a full-blown recession, say analysts. The August numbers from the Commerce Department's report follow significant gains in orders for July, suggesting that corporations are viewing dimmer growth prospects due to the knock-on effect on financial markets from the meltdown in sub-prime lending.
(The ones who ARE making out are in the defense-related industries, and the consulting and contracting business.)
money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/newstex/AFX-0013-19845568.htm
WASHINGTON (AP) - Defense stocks on Wednesday hit new highs ahead of Defense Secretary Robert Gates' visit to Capitol Hill to request roughly $45 billion in additional funding to cover military costs in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2008.
Although the anticipated request for more funding does not come as a surprise to Wall Street, the Pentagon's message nevertheless reinforces the idea that defense spending will remain high in the near-term, said Myles Walton, a CIBC World Market Corp. analyst.
www.cbpp.org/4-14-04tax-sum.htm
(from 2004, and it's gotten worse, since war costs are increasing, as is the expected duration)
The Bush tax cuts have contributed to revenues dropping in 2004 to the lowest level as a share of the economy since 1950, and have been a major contributor to the dramatic shift from large projected budget surpluses to projected deficits as far as the eye can see.
The tax cuts have conferred the most benefits, by far, on the highest-income households — those least in need of additional resources — at a time when income already is exceptionally concentrated at the top of the income spectrum.
The design of these tax cuts was ill-conceived, resulting in significantly less economic stimulus than could have been accomplished for the same budgetary cost. In part because the tax cuts were not as effective as alternative measures would have been, job creation during this recovery has been notably worse than in any other recovery since the end of World War II.
If the Administration’s latest tax proposals — which would make permanent most of the tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003 and establish new tax cuts on top of that — are enacted, the long-term results are likely to be even more troubling. Over the next 10 years, total tax-cut costs will equal $3.9 trillion, reaching nearly $600 billion or 3.3 percent of the economy in 2014 alone. (These calculations include the effects of the higher interest payments caused by the tax cuts.) The resulting higher deficits will slow future economic growth, saddle future generations with sizable interest payments, and leave the nation ill-prepared not only for the retirement of baby boomers but also for responding to potential future crises — from security matters to natural or environmental disasters — the particulars of which are unknown today.
Bush had record job creation so I think your learned analysis is just slightly full of crap!
Growth is at record levels over the last 5 years. How anyone can construe a failure in growth is just more crap! Growth has curtailed since the democrats came to power in congress.
Your revenue numbers hinge on the fact that the revenues are based on current numbers, a number, also another Bush record, stays the same! These numbers are the RESULT of the tax cuts. In fact it's soo good, Chuck Rangel is now proposing tax cuts!
Bush had specific proposals for fixing social security and they were ignored, so he is not to blame for any shortfalls in the future. Privatization makes sense for anyone who can use a calculator.
SP4...because the growth you speak about is just like everything else you speak about---an gross stretch of the truth. Why do you think all of the financial underpinning of this bloated economy is failing??? Who ever thought Bear Stearns would have problems to the point they have. Morgan Stanley, the same, etc. etc. etc., one right after the other.
Someone on yourside that was minipulating the economy with smoke and mirrors dropped the mirror. In the next year things will only get worse as the fed will try and prop it up with interest rate cuts to help support GWB's failed economy, just like everything else he did on his own the economy is failing.
And by the way replaceing a $25 an hour job with a $7 an hour job is not growing the economy---less tax base---less support for the local economy---I know you are not that stupid to believe this smoke screen---or maybe you are?
He is a looser, and you are a looser for not being able to see that.
The total tax cuts for period 2001-2003 was $119 billion. 2001-2005 was $431 billion. This is a PITTANCE compared to the total economy, or to mortgage refi's. Check the chart link below on tax cuts from CTJ. The top 5 percent for 2001-2003 received $57 billion, nearly HALF of the entire tax cut!!!
Greenspan cut rates sharply (not quickly enough), and THAT's when the growth began (chart link below on rates). Companies found bargain rates for borrowing and for issuing debt. The public found the opportunity to refinance, and unlike a meager tax cut that dribbles its way to your pocket, the cash from a refi is both LARGE and IMMEDIATE. That got plowed back in part to home improvement and purchases of appliances. People also were able to move to larger houses (with a larger mortgage), which prompted more purchases.
Between Jan 2001 and June 2003, mortgage rates dropped by 20 percent. Refi loans increased from approx. 2.5 million in 2000 to 15 million in 2003. Tax cuts went largely to the wealthiest, who already had ample means to spend.
Prime rate recent history:
www.moneycafe.com/library/prime.htm
(Note the cut in 2001 from 9.50% to 5%)
Here's a detailed chart of the tax cuts over the same period:
www.ctj.org/html/gwb0602.htm
Mortgage experts estimate that approximately $1.5 trillion worth of adjustable mortgages will reset by the end of 2007. Forecasts call for $600 billion to $700 billion of those loans to be refinanced into new loans, including fixed-rate mortgages. Does that top the tax cuts for the middle class? (omit the top 10 percent of earners when calculating).
As the Fed stated, part of that benefit came in 2001-2002, before the tax cuts:
www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/bulletin/2002/1202lead.pdf
Here's a link dating back from the Fed to July 2000, when Clinton was President:
www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/bulletin/2000/0700lead.pdf
In a March 2007 article in The New Statesman titled 'Iraq: the Hidden Cost of the War,' Andrew Stephen quotes two economists who predict that several decades of care for the wounded veterans of the Iraq war will amount to $2.5 trillion, a figure the author says the Pentagon is trying to suppress.
Linda Bilmes, a Harvard professor and an economist who served in the Clinton administration, and Professor Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate economist from Columbia University, say Stephen has 'established not only that the number of wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan is far higher than the Pentagon has been saying, but that looking after them alone could cost present and future U.S. taxpayers a sum they estimate to be $536 billion.'
www.ctj.org/html/gwb0602.htm
Total 2001-2005 = $431 billion
Total 2006-2010 = $891 billion
Total 10 Years = $1.323 billion
For top FIVE percent:
Total 2001-2005 = $133 billion
Total 2006-2010 = $456 billion
Total 10 Years = $587 billion
Mortgage experts estimate that approximately $1.5 trillion worth of adjustable mortgages will reset by the end of 2007.
www.freddiemac.com/news/archives/rates/2006/1Qupb06.html
'Home equity extraction is expected to fall in 2006 from the very high levels we saw in 2005. In 2005, the volume totaled $244 billion. We estimate that $170 billion in home equity will be converted into cash from the refinancing of first-lien, prime, conventional mortgages in 2006.'
www.frbsf.org/publications/economics/letter/2003/el2003-29.html
'Quantifying the extent of mortgage refinancing and the uses of cash-outs is difficult due to the limited amount of information on what households have done with their gains from refinancing. An important glimpse at the economic impact of refinancing can be found in research by Canner, Dynan, and Passmore (2002). Using survey data, the authors estimate that U.S. homeowners saved an annual $4.7 billion in mortgage payments (net of increases in loan principal) through refinancing and $131 billion in cash-out refinancing in 2001 and early 2002. The majority of the funds raised through cash-outs was used for home improvements, consumption expenditures, and the restructuring of existing household debt. The authors estimate that cash-out refinancing could have added as much as one-half percent to aggregate personal consumption expenditures in 2001.'
Miracles do not exist of course and so the enormous state deficit will have to be paid at some stage in the future .Knowing the republicans it is highly unlikely this will ever happen during the Bush administration .The next president will be left with the very heavy burden of finding sources of revenue to fill the hole that is created by the White House and the Pentagon .I'm speaking trillions of dollars here ,a sum so gigantic that it escapes the comprehension of the average Joe and thus looses all perception of being a reality .You can add to that the legacy of failing to take any kind of measure worth citing concerning the urgent problem of global warming,the consequences of which are so menacing that not only the future of the US-economy is at stake but the sheer survival of large portions of it's inhabitants,not even to mention the future welfare of the population itself .No doubt in a few years fossilized neocon circles will blame your next democratic president for that ,conveniently omitting to say thet the future is prepared today.
You know Tonny, the european press has been saying no one wants to adopt Belgium because of the stifling debt. What do you think
Why is it you never comment on Belgian politics Tonny, besides the fact that they will bore a person to death?
As for the good ol USA, everyone is concerned about the deficit until they want their child insurance bill, or defense bill or bridge bill.
Congress appropriates money. They can deal with this anytime they want. So far, they just greenlighted another 190 billion for the war and it looks like the 35 billion for kiddie care.
Thats really holding the line, eh? Sure glad those fiscally conservative dems are in charge. Heck, those darned republicans might get what they want!
The article was about expanding freedom. Where is the rest of the world when Mynammar's citizens needs them? Only Bush stood in the UN and read the declaration.
SP4...now that you have stated the obvious, tell us (old intelligent one) how people are protected by sanctions? Where is the rela protection, stuck in Iraq? GWB is a joke, has no credibility and no one is listening to him, and no one is afraid of him!
You've got that right!
SP4 - glad to see you now like the UN. This is what you said a few days ago - 'The UN has soooo much credibiity now, with human rights abusers on human rights committees, rampant corruption, etc.' !!
Andrew...that is just our resident old man SP4 living in the past, never has anything new, just Clinton this, Clinton that and follows the neo-con playbook---lie and when that doesn't work lie again, and when that doesn't work tell a real big lie, etc, etc.
The American Republic can solve this conflict!
Here's Bush, picking up his mop and bucket and ACTING!
Action folks is the coin of the realm!
Go to the UN an remind them what they STARTED the institution for!
Then, put sanctions on Mynammar to pressure that government.
This is pure Bush:
Get out the shovel and remove the dung of a dangerous, totalitarian world, after 8 years of do nothing, let-osami-pass, N. Korea coddling, Saddam ass kissing, desk diddling, all talk no action, monkey boy Clinton. Hell, they're probably getting CAMPAIGN DONATIONS from some of them!
Jack(off) and his pivot boys above refuse to acknowledge that his girl Hillary and her husband in name only, are on their second scandal in 4 weeks. Fortunately, they have a liberal press to cover them, right Jack(off)?
Say hello to Mr. Hsu, Jack!
Again with the Hilllary crap, SP4. This shows your attention span is lacking (just like you telling the truth) and you are obsessed with Hillary. You must really like her a lot to keep putting her name in print and acting like you hate her.....kind of childish for such an old senile neo-con.
...that still doesn't make me wrong, does it.
SP4...the only time you say anything wrong, that is a lie, is when your mouth is moving. You are just like Rush and the other boys, 90% lies mixed in with 10% facts and stir the pot.
page: 1
SP4: GoodSep 25th, 2007 - 16:11:17
He fed the UN declaration back to them in an enema. Go get em George!
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