What's for Christmas from Bush and Co?

The Bush Administration has proffered it's Christmas gift to the world. So what is it?

The Human Rights Council Working Group of the United Nations has been working on some items to be included in Resolution form to be adopted.

Among these items are:

A right to food. The UN General Assembly adopted language that basically says it would 'consider it intolerable' that more than 6 million children worldwide will die each year from hunger and hunger-related illnesses before their fifth birthday. They also noted that the number of undernourished people has grown to about 923 million people worldwide. At the same time - it is estimated that the planet can produce enough food to feed 12 billion people - approximately double what the current population is.

Another part of this resolution addressed the inequalities in available food and other basics between girls and women and their male counterparts. The resolution calls on member states to take affirmative steps to address these issues of gender inequality and discrimination against women and girls by implementing measures to give equal access to land, water, and income so they can feed themselves and their families.

So...the vote on the right to food was 180 to 1. That's right - every country in the world voted for it except one. Any guesses who that is? Yep. The United States of America.

Apparently Bush and Company think it's perfectly okay for 6 million kids to starve to death every year. They are more interested in spending money on weapons and ridiculous wars. John Bolton told the assembly that

"the attainment of the right to adquate food was a goal that should be realized progressively. In his view, the draft contained inaccurate textual descroptions of underlying rights."

Oh yeah. That is really helpful.

The United States was also the only vote against a resolution for the rights of children.

This Committee also had a number of other interesting proposals, including the use of mercenaries, investigations of deaths under an occupation, international court items and others. The US voted against every single one. They were joined by other countries on most of these others, but the countries are ones like the Congo and Somalia. Good company we're keeping.

So - Bush has thumbed his nose at the world one more time. January 20 cannot come soon enough for me, for this country, and indeed for people everywhere.

To read the working document, go here Human Rights Council Working Group