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*NEA conference call full audio and transcript here** Should the National Endowment for the Arts encourage artists to create art on issues being vehemently debated nationally? That is the question that I set out to discuss a little over three weeks ago when I wrote an article on Big Hollywood entitled The National Endowment for the Art of Persuasion?” The question still requires debate but the facts do not. The NEA and the White House did encourage a handpicked, pro-Obama arts group to address politically controversial issues under contentious national debate. That fact is irrefutable. But some have claimed that...

Watching President Obama apologize last week for America's arrogance - before a French audience that owes its freedom to the sacrifices of Americans - helped convince me that he has a deep-seated antipathy toward American values and traditions. His nomination of former Yale Law School Dean Harold Koh to be the State Department's top lawyer constitutes further evidence of his disdain for American values. This seemingly obscure position in Foggy Bottom's bureaucratic maze is one of the most important in any administration, shaping foreign policy in the courts and playing a critical role in international negotiations and treaties. Let's set...

Get ready to learn the words to "We Are The World" because if President Obama has his way there will be a new world order where the UN and World Courts have have a big say in what happens in the US. Both Susan Rice an Hillary Clinton have a strong alliance with Brookings Institution president Strobe Talbott, a big believer in world government and a trusted contact of the Russian Intelligence service while he was in the Clinton Administration. Don't forget that as a Senator the President supported the pro-UN Global Poverty Act and co-sponsorship of the Jubilee Act...

George Soros, admitted Nazi Collaborator and convicted inside trader is already showing the the influence he will have on an Obama government's foreign policy. Through his foreign policy Think Tank Soros is working with Samantha Power, Zbigniew Brzezinski and Robert Malley to create a "New World Order" that will be anti-US, Pro-terror and Anti-Israel. Soros, who backed Obama during the presidential campaign, is a well-known advocate of a “New World Order” in which the U.S. refuses to act unilaterally in its own interests… In violation of Barack Obama’s promise to run an open and transparent transition to the next administration,...

Global warming hysteria is making front page news over at MSNBC.com. Actually, maybe it is no longer hysteria. Global warming is the new issue of the 21st century, and provides a whole array of ways the governments of the world can steal more money from the sheeple. What a great way to make money to finance their and their friends greed! Activists blast U.S. at climate change talk: Rich countries under fire at U.N. conference for resisting new targets MSNBC.com: Wow! Who is rich here? Last I checked, the "rich" countries are in enormous debt, a financial catastrophe threatening the...

Stephen Hockman QC is proposing a body similar to the International Court of Justice in The Hague to be the supreme legal authority on issues regarding the environment. The first role of the new body would be to enforce international agreements on cutting greenhouse gas emissions set to be agreed next year. But the court would also fine countries or companies that fail to protect endangered species or degrade the natural environment and enforce the "right to a healthy environment". The innovative idea is being presented to an audience of politicians, scientists and public figures for the first time at...

THE HAGUE- The former leader of Bosnia's Muslim army, Rasim Delic, was jailed for three years yesterday by the Hague Tribunal for allowing the torture of Bosnian Serb soldiers by a Mujahideen unit in 1995. By majority decision, Delic, who was the chief of staff of the Bosnian Army in 1995, was found guilty of violating customs and laws of war, when he did nothing to prevent cruel treatment of Serb prisoners by a Mujahideen unit under his command. Judge Bakone Justice Moloto, citing the "appalling brutal" mistreatment meted out by Islamic foreign fighters, said that tribunal judges had decided...

The convergence between Jihadi Khomeinists and Jihadi Salafists seems to be developing as strategists and terrorism analysts are debating the near future of the global jihadi movement. Moving fast to reach out to the Islamist regime in Khartoum, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah organization openly declared its backing of Omar Bashir's government as the latter in turn solidified its alliance with Hezbollah. This development, which surfaced as of the end of July, comes in parallel of an attempt by the Khomeinist-inspired organization to sign a collaboration agreement with Salafist factions in Beirut a few weeks ago. But the Hezbollah-Sudan exchange of declarations...

There are strange happenings in the world of international jurisprudence that do not bode well for the future of free speech. In an unprecedented case, a Jordanian court is prosecuting 12 Europeans in an extraterritorial attempt to silence the debate on radical Islam. The prosecutor general in Amman charged the 12 with blasphemy, demeaning Islam and Muslim feelings, and slandering and insulting the prophet Muhammad in violation of the Jordanian Penal Code. The charges are especially unusual because the alleged violations were not committed on Jordanian soil. Among the defendants is the Danish cartoonist whose alleged crime was to draw...

Election '08: Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden says that, if elected, an Obama administration might pursue criminal charges against the Bush White House. This is how he plans to unite the country?Barack Obama insists he's the one we've been waiting for to bring the country together. Yet, he and Biden are signaling their willingness — or is it their eagerness? — to criminalize political opposition. "We will not be stopped from pursuing any criminal offense that's occurred," Biden said Monday at a Florida campaign stop. "If there has been a basis upon which you can pursue someone for a...

28 August 2008 Belgrade _ The French Foreign Minister says Serbia has a right to seek a world court ruling on the legality of Kosovo’s independence but warned the EU would not fully accept it. In a statement to Serbia’s state news agency Tanjug in Paris, Bernard Kouchner warned that “if eventually the International Court of Justice will consider the case, something I am not certain about, it would have to take into account all relevant elements.� “Do not forget that are international agreements, the United Nations and international community stand (on the issue)… The court will take all of...

Long after the guns fall silent in the Georgia-Russia conflict, the two countries' legal artillery is still likely still be firing away in an attempt to have the each other publicly judged guilty of war crimes, even genocide. On September 8th, the International Court of Justice begins hearings in a case filed by Georgia.The case seeks to halt Russian military action in Georgia, and accuses the Kremlin of conducting a campaign of ethnic cleansing there.Mikheil Saakashvili, the Georgian president, has called the Russian forces in his country "21st century barbarians."Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, has had even harsher words...

An American lawyer has offered to represent Iran in an international lawsuit against Israel and his own government in an effort to stop Washington and Tel Aviv from initiating further sanctions against Tehran. Francis A. Boyle says following Washington's latest ultimatum to Tehran to freeze uranium enrichment within two weeks or face further isolation, Iran needs to act quickly. At weekend talks in Geneva, the United States delivered what it describes as a "clear and simple message" that Iran must choose between cooperation and confrontation. In an e-mail interview with Press TV, Boyle urged Iran to begin drafting lawsuits for...

The secrets of the crushing of Yugoslavia are emerging, telling us more about how the modern world is policed. The former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia in The Hague, Carla Del Ponte, this year published her memoir, The Hunt: Me and War Criminals. Largely ignored in Britain, the book reveals unpalatable truths about the West's intervention in Kosovo, which has echoes in the Caucasus. The tribunal was set up and bankrolled principally by the United States. Del Ponte's role was to investigate the crimes committed as Yugoslavia was dismembered in the 1990s. She insisted that this...

Is the defendant's dock at the International Criminal Court reserved for leaders of small and poor countries that defy the West? Not if Rwanda has its way. It wants to charge some of France's most celebrated leaders of the 1990s as collaborators in genocide. Last week the government of Rwanda issued a damning 500-page report documenting France's participation in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. This marks a remarkable turnaround in the deeply politicized world of human rights reporting. Usually, such reporting takes the form of governments or human rights groups based in the West condemning poor countries for having political or...

PARIS — Georgia has filed a lawsuit against Russia at the International Court of Justice in The Hague for its actions in and around the territory of Georgia from 1991 to 2008, the court said in a statement.

BELGRADE: Former US and French Presidents Bill Clinton and Jacques Chirac “personally” blocked plans to arrest the Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, wanted for a genocide trial over the past 13 years, a former official of the UN war crimes tribunal said in an interview published yesterday. Florence Hartmann, a former spokeswoman of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) prosecutor, said in an interview with the daily Blic that “sometimes the arrest was blocked personally by Chirac, another time it was Clinton.” Karadzic was arrested in July in Belgrade after 13 years on the run. ICTY accused...

The execution of José Ernesto Medellín Rojas by the state of Texas is a violation of international law, said Amnesty International today. "It undermines the authority of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which had ruled in favour of a stay of execution."

HUNTSVILLE — An illegal immigrant from Honduras who claimed his treaty rights were violated when he was arrested for a robbery-murder near Dallas was executed Thursday evening. "God forgive them, receive my spirit," Heliberto Chi said in English. In Spanish, he told a friend watching through a window that he loved him and appreciated his hard work. He appeared to be whispering a prayer in Spanish with a tear at the corner of his right eye as the lethal drugs began to take effect. One of Chi's cousins, who was among the witnesses, sobbed uncontrollably. Two sons of his victims...

An illegal immigrant from Honduras who claimed his treaty rights were violated when he was arrested for a robbery-murder near Dallas lost his appeal ... at the U.S. Supreme Court, clearing the way for his execution. In the second case of its kind this week in Texas, lawyers for condemned killer Heliberto Chi went to the nation's highest court claiming Chi should have been told he could get legal assistance from the Honduran consulate when he was arrested in California and extradited to Texas to face charges for killing his former boss at a men's clothing store during a robbery...

Heliberto Chi, a Honduran native...moved one step closer to execution Wednesday when [Texas"] highest criminal court rejected his bid for a stay. Chi, condemned for killing Armand Paliotta during an after-hours robbery ...will be put to death tonight in Huntsville unless his lawyers can persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to spare his life. Arlington attorney Wes Ball said the odds are against Chi because Ball’s argument is similar to the one the justices rejected Tuesday when they allowed the execution of Mexican national Jose Ernesto Medellin to go forward.

Karadzic demands Holbrooke, Albright appear in court AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic demanded on Wednesday that former U.S. peace mediator Richard Holbrooke and ex-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright appear at the U.N. war crimes tribunal to back his claims of an immunity offer from the United States. Karadzic, who was transferred to the Hague's International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia last week to face war crimes and genocide charges after 11 years on the run, challenged the legality of the case against him, a filing released by the tribunal showed. In the document, Karadzic repeated...

Medellin executed for rape, murder of Houston teens By ALLAN TURNER and ROSANNA RUIZ Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle Aug. 6, 2008, 12:36AM Comments Recommend 1 2 3 Texas Department of Criminal Justice Jose Medellin's case created international controversy when the United Nations' world court determined Texas had violated the killer's rights under the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. Share Print Email Del.icio.usDiggTechnoratiYahoo! BuzzHUNTSVILLE — The state of Texas defied an international court and executed Jose Ernesto Medellin late Tuesday after the U.S. Supreme Court denied a stay of execution for the killer in the 1993 Houston gang rape-murders of...

HOUSTON — In a case that has drawn international attention, Texas executed José E. Medellín on Tuesday night in defiance of an international court ruling and despite pleas from the Bush administration for a new hearing. The execution came just before 10 p.m. Central time, shortly after the United States Supreme Court denied a last request for a reprieve. Protesters for and against the death penalty clamored in the rain outside the Huntsville Unit, about 70 miles north of Houston, where Mr. Medellín was executed by lethal injection. “I’m sorry my actions caused you pain,” he said to the witnesses...

After backing the sovereignty of the state of Texas and rejecting international meddling, the US Supreme Court’s consideration of a last-ditch appeal has put illegal alien rapist/double murderer Jose Medellin’s scheduled execution tonight on hold. Stay tuned for late-breaking developments.

HUNTSVILLE, Texas, Aug. 5 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court considered a last-minute appeal by a Mexican national Tuesday night, temporarily delaying his scheduled execution in Texas. Lawyers for Jose Ernesto Medellin, 33, say that he was denied access to a Mexican consul when he was arrested for participating in the rape and killing of two teenage girls. Medellin's execution was scheduled for 6 p.m. but put on hold when the Supreme Court decided to consider his claim, McClatchy Newspapers reported. A spokeswoman for Gov. Rick Perry said the state was waiting to hear from the court before proceeding with...

WASHINGTON -- Injecting last-minute uncertainty into a case that has garnered international attention, the U.S. Supreme Court considered a late-hour appeal by Texas death row inmate Jose Ernesto Medellin on Tuesday night, disrupting the timetable for his scheduled execution in the 1993 rape and murder of two Houston teenagers.

KIGALI (AFP) — France played an active role in the 1994 Rwanda genocide, a report unveiled Tuesday by the Rwandan government said, naming French political and military officials it says should be prosecuted. The indicting report accused a raft of top French politicians of involvement in the massacres, threatening to further mar relations between the two countries, which severed diplomatic ties in November 2006.

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico — Texas officials cleared the way Monday for the execution of Jose Medellin, one of 51 Mexican nationals on U.S. death row, for his role with five other members of a Houston gang in the 1993 murder and rape of two teenage girls. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday rejected Medellin's request for a reprieve. Medellin, 33, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. CDT today. The decision violates the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, according to the International Court of Justice. President Bush ordered Texas to comply with that decision,...

The United States is fast approaching a showdown over its commitment to the rule of international law as Texas prepares to carry out the scheduled Aug. 5 execution of convicted killer and rapist Jose Medellin. On July 14, the International Court of Justice at The Hague ordered the US government to "take all measures necessary" to prevent the execution of Mr. Medellin and four other Mexican nationals awaiting execution dates on death row in Texas. . . Medellin admitted involvement in the gang rape and murder of two girls. The girls, ages 14 and 16, took a shortcut home through...

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THE HAGUE (AFP) — Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic stood before the UN war crimes court Thursday to face genocide charges, in his first public appearance since his arrest after nearly 13 years on the run. Shorn of the beard and long hair he had used as a disguise until his capture on July 21, Karadzic was again recognisable as the man who became one of the most reviled figures in the Bosnian conflict of the 1990s. Wearing a dark jacket and tie, Karazdic appeared before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to hear the 11...

Serbia's interior minister says officials found copies of Bosnian Serb government documents in the Belgrade apartment where former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic lived prior to his arrest last week. Ivica Dacic said the documents included materials on Bosnian Serb military staff meetings during the conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina in the 1990s. He said officials turned the materials over to Serbia's war crimes court. Meanwhile, court officials say the court has not yet received Karadzic's appeal against a judicial order authorizing his extradition to the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague. Karadzic's lawyer, Svetozar Vujacic says he mailed out...

Fourteen years and numerous judicial reviews have passed since José Medellin was sentenced to die after confessing to the brutal gang rape and murder of two teenage girls in Houston. That's long enough, state officials say. It's time to carry out the sentence. But defense attorneys, and an unusual coalition of federal officials, including no less than the attorney general and secretary of state, say if his Aug. 5 execution is not stayed, so Mr. Medellin's case can be reviewed one more time at the behest of the International Court of Justice, Texas will be rushing to judgment and endangering...

Heritage Lecture #1094 Delivered June 27, 2008The Heritage Foundation founded the Index of Economic Freedom in 1995 as a way for countries to measure progress and compare themselves in what we believe is an essential ingredient of prosperity— namely, economic freedom. The Index is now in its 14th edition, and it is co-published with the Wall Street Journal.[1]Over the years, it has been interesting to see how competitive some countries have become regarding their own scores in the Index. In fact, sometimes gov­ernments actually try to persuade us to give them a better score. We steadfastly refuse to be lobbied...

He told CNN's Wolf Blitzer, "We have various options. The Nuremberg Trials are certainly an example of the kind of tribunal that we could move forward with. I don't think we'd have any difficulty in devising an international -- internationally supported mechanism that would mete out justice. There's no problem there." McCain said it would be a "good thing to reveal to the world the enormity of this guy's crimes, and his intentions, which are still there."

Radovan Karadzic was arrested after information provided to investigators by the Hague's other most wanted man, Ratko Mladic, German intelligence sources have revealed. General Mladic, who was Karadzic's military commander and led Bosnian Serb troops during the massacre at Srebrenica, is one of two Balkans war crimes suspects still on the run. His capture is expected within weeks as his political support network crumbles and the European Union continues to pressure Serbia to hand him over. But according to German intelligence sources, Mladic has been negotiating with those hunting him over the terms of his capture, and "gave information on...

NYALA, Sudan (AFP) - Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir danced before thousands of supporters in Darfur on Wednesday, defying a possible arrest warrant for genocide on a heavily-protected visit to the war-torn area. Travelling by plane and in a convoy of army, police and national security vehicles mounted with guns and backed by air support, Beshir was greeted by thousands of supporters in state capitals El Fasher and Nyala. --snip-- School pupils were recruited for the rally and one government employee told AFP in El Fasher that staff were ordered to a disused land under the sun, where a grinning Beshir...

George Jonas: Beware of political activists in robes Published: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 If we take Radovan Karadzic at his own evaluation as a Serbian patriot, by being available to be captured and handed over to the international tribunals of the new world order, he's rendering his country the only service left for him to render. Had he not gone into hiding in 1995 after being indicted for his role in the infamous Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys, the one-timepresident of Serbian Bosnia couldn't be utilized as a chip in the Faustian bargain with theWest today. But...

A lawyer acting for the former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has said he will fight moves to extradite him to the UN war crimes court at The Hague. Mr Karadzic is wanted on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. He was arrested in Serbia on Monday, and has three days in which to appeal against his transfer to The Hague. The Serbian Foreign Minister, Vuk Jeremic, said the arrest of Mr Karadzic showed his country was firmly committed to European Union membership. The arrest of Mr Karadzic and other indicted war criminals is one of the main conditions...

Despite pleas from the White House and the State Department, as well as an international court order to review their cases, Texas will execute five Mexicans on death row, a spokeswoman for the governor said Thursday. The first of the executions — that of José Ernesto Medellín, 33, convicted in the 1993 rape and murder of two teenage girls here — is scheduled for Aug. 5. The decision by Gov. Rick Perry to allow the executions is the latest twist in a long-running battle between Mexico, which has no death penalty, and the United States over the fate of 51...

Father of victim says U.N. body's order 'don't mean diddly' Texas is refusing to bow to yesterday's World Court order to stay the Aug. 5 lethal injection of convicted rapist-killer and illegal alien Jose Medellin. (snip) Texas Gov. Rick Perry's office rejected Mexico's complaint. "The world court has no standing in Texas, and Texas is not bound by a ruling or edict from a foreign court," Perry spokesman Robert Black said. "It is easy to get caught up in discussions of international law and justice and treaties. It's very important to remember that these individuals are on death row for...

Excerpt - Acting on a claim by Mexico’s government that the U.S. government has not done enough to assure the treaty rights of Mexican nationals facing execution for murders in the U.S., the World Court on Wednesday ordered the U.S. — by a 7-5 vote — to stop five imminent executions in Texas. Leaving it up to the U.S. to choose the way to carry out the order, the international tribunal — formally, the International Court of Justice that sits in The Hague, Netherlands — told the U.S. only to “take all measures necessary to ensure” that Texas does not...

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - The World Court on Wednesday ordered the United States to do everything necessary to ensure five Mexicans on death row are not executed before the court makes a judgment in a dispute between the two countries. One of the five on death row, Jose Medellin, is due to die on August 5 in Texas. In 2004 the World Court found in favor of Mexico and ruled the United States had violated international law by failing to inform 51 Mexicans sentenced to death of their right to consular assistance and ordered the cases should be reviewed.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The World Court said on Friday it will rule next week on a Mexican request that it seek a delay of the imminent U.S. executions of five of its citizens, who Mexico argues were denied consular assistance. One of the five on death row, Jose Medellin, is due to die on August 5 in Texas, prompting Mexico to make its petition last month for urgent action. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) will issue its decision on July 16. The ICJ in The Hague ruled in 2004 that the United States had violated international law by failing...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia said on Thursday the United Nations war crimes tribunal in the Hague was biased and its activities should be phased out as soon as possible. ADVERTISEMENT Russia's Foreign Ministry said the case of Bosnian Muslim wartime commander Naser Oric, whose conviction was overturned by the court, showed the tribunal lacked impartiality. "The tribunal's decision simply confirms the necessity for the immediate realization of the already approved strategy to phase out its activities," the foreign ministry said in a statement. Oric's conviction of failing to stop the murder of Serbs near the enclave of Srebrenica early in...

THE HAGUE - Mexico asked the World Court on Thursday to take urgent steps to stop imminent U.S. executions of five Mexicans on death row who were denied their rights to consular assistance. One of the five, Jose Medellin, is due to die on August 5 in Texas, which is poised to set execution dates for the others. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague ruled in 2004 that the United States had violated international law by failing to inform 51 Mexicans now on death row of their right to consular assistance and said the cases should be...

Mexico, who allows hundred of thousands of its citizens ("immigrants") to illegally cross over into the United States each year, has shown its "compassionate" side. The Mexican government has appealed to the World Court to "take urgent measures" to get the U.S. to stay all executions of Mexicans on Death Row in American jails. Amazingly, President Bush had already agreed with the World Court back in 2004. The court, which resides at the Hague in the Netherlands, ruled that the trials of some 50 Mexicans on Death Row were in violation of the 1963 Vienna Convention. It was then that...

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) -- Mexico appealed to the U.N.'s highest court Thursday to block the executions of Mexicans in the United States, arguing U.S. officials have failed to comply with a judgment ordering a review of their trials. The International Court of Justice said Mexico asked the court for an "interpretation" of an earlier ruling to clarify its meaning when it asked the U.S. to "review and reconsider" the cases of the condemned prisoners. Until that can be done, Mexico said the United States "must take any and all steps necessary" to ensure that none of its citizens is executed,...

So see if you can follow this. George W. Bush, the imperial president of left-wing lampoon, orders his National Security Agency to intercept enemy communications without judicial warrants -- something the courts have repeatedly ruled presidents have inherent authority to do -- and the left decries the purportedly criminal sundering of our Constitution. Yet, the same George W. Bush issues a diktat declaring unto himself the power to rewrite state law and command state judges -- authority no president has ever had in our federalist system of divided powers -- and the left falls silent, and least when its shock...