Claudia Rosett @ PajamasMedia.com
Move fast, or you might miss the witching hour (I’ll try to post a link to the archive later). The United Nations is right now — as I write it is just after 10 PM Eastern Time, on Thursday night — outdoing even the 111th U.S. Congress for shoveling controversial items through at the last minute, when all those nice American taxpayers who do so much to fund this show are tucked up at home, the night before Christmas eve, trying to simultaneously reduce their carbon emissions per dictates of the UNFCCC $ Co., and keep warm in this notably cold early winter. It’s a moving target, but coming up for a vote on the General Assembly floor are provisions for Durban III to be held next September in New York – yet another reprise of the anti-semitic jamborees held in 2001 in Durban, South Africa, and 2009 in Geneva (starring Mahmoud Ahmadinejad). There are sundry other items for the UN’s ever-ballooning budget — Matthew Russell Lee of Inner-City Press has more here. But if you catch this in time and want to look in on the festivities for yourself, here’s a link to the currently live webcast of the UN General Assembly floor (click on channel three) … slowly filling up as I write.
Brace yourself — it looks like they may soon resume what is loosely known as “debate.” Will the U.S. speak out boldly against Durban III? — an initiative pushed by the Organization of the Islamic Conference, with Yemen in the lead? Will Iran offer up a sample of why it is indecent to dignify the Tehran regime with access to this chamber? Here they are, folks, still milling around as I post this — a window on how the world’s leading multilateral body does business. One more time, that link to the currently live webcast. Looks like official business may resume about 10:45 PM… but caveat on that, even with a Swiss official presiding over the General Assembly this year, punctuality is not the UN’s strong suit. However, there are times that even the chaos can be interesting.
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