posted 09-29-2003 04:18 PM            

Mrs. Bush Promotes U.S. as It Rejoins UNESCO in Paris
Mon September 29, 2003 07:44 AM ET
By Randall Mikkelsen
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=JCPDTGMKLS3BMCRBAEKSFFA?type=worldNews&storyID=3523438

PARIS (Reuters) - U.S. first lady Laura Bush, on a mission to mend U.S. ties with the world, received a polite kiss on the hand from Jacques Chirac on Monday before a ceremony readmitting America to a U.N. body it long shunned as hostile.

The French president, unpopular in the United States for his opposition to the Iraq war, kissed her hand as she arrived at his Elysee Palace on a courtesy call.

She was in Paris to attend a rejoining ceremony at UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization from which Ronald Reagan's United States withdrew in 1984, citing bad management and anti-Western bias.

Mrs. Bush's visit comes after Chirac kept up his criticism of President Bush's Iraq policy in a speech to the United Nations in New York last week.

The two leaders failed to bridge differences in a meeting on the sidelines of the U.N. session.

Laura Bush's visit to France and UNESCO aimed to smooth international relations at a time when the United States is keen for foreign troops and money to help control and rebuild Iraq.

Bush announced plans to rejoin UNESCO last year as he sought U.N. backing for his get-tough policy on Iraq, which he failed to get.

In her speech at the ceremony later on Monday, Mrs. Bush was expected to promote children's education. She was also set to preside at the raising of the U.S. flag at UNESCO headquarters.

UNESCO welcomed the return, which is expected to boost the agency's two-year budget to $610 million from $544 million.

"Now the family (of UNESCO) is going to be entire," a UNESCO spokeswoman said.

She said the stated U.S. goal of using its membership to fight "toxic ideologies" fueling terrorism was compatible with UNESCO's goals.

The United States officially rejoins on Wednesday, when it presents membership documents to the British government, a U.S. official said.

Laura Bush arrived in Paris on Sunday and will travel on to Moscow, another critic of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, on Tuesday during a five-day trip to Europe.

In an interview with reporters last week, she said she hoped her visit to France and meeting with Chirac would send a message of friendship despite U.S.-French tensions over Iraq.

"It's important for Americans and for the French to be friends with each other," she said.

posted 09-29-2003 07:27 PM            

UNESCO: Strangle This Monster in Its Crib

Phil Brennan
Wednesday, June 18, 2003
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/6/17/184606.shtml

President Bush cited as his reason for rejoining UNESCO his contention that the organization has reformed. Not according to Texas Congressman Ron Paul, who introduced a resolution expressing the sense of the Congress that the United States should not rejoin UNESCO.

"Those calling for the United States to rejoin UNESCO claim that the organization has undertaken fundamental reforms and therefore the United States should re-join," Paul said.

"It is strange that in the 18 years since the United States left UNESCO, we only started reading about the beginnings of reform in the year 2000," he continued. "Are we to believe that after nearly two decades of no change in UNESCO’s way of mismanaging itself things have changed so much in just two years? Is it worth spending $60 million per year on an organization with such a terrible history of waste, corruption, and anti-Americanism?"

According to Rep. Paul, "even if UNESCO has been 'reforming' its finances over the past two years, its programmatic activities are still enough to cause great concern among those of us who value American sovereignty and honor our Constitution. Consider the following as a partial list of UNESCO’s ongoing highly questionable activities:

* "UNESCO meddles in the education affairs of its member-countries and has sought to construct a U.N.-based school curriculum for American schools.
* "UNESCO has been fully supportive of the United Nations’ Population Fund (UNFPA) in its assistance to China’s brutal coercive population control program.
* "UNESCO has designated 47 U.N. Biosphere Reserves in the United States covering more than 70 million acres, without Congressional consultation.
* "UNESCO effectively bypasses Congressional authority to manage federal lands, by establishing management policies without Congressional consultation or approval."

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Hmmmmm...

posted 10-01-2003 09:30 PM            

Turn up your hearing aids because YOUR SILENCE is deafening.

posted 10-02-2003 06:54 AM            

quote:

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Hmmmmm...

Will the Bill of rights and the Constitutuion be taught in Public schools anymore?

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