Beck was broadcasting and advocating wide-spread oppostion to this all yesterday morning.
A United Nations treaty to ban discrimination against people with disabilities went down to defeat in the Senate on Tuesday in a 61-38 vote.We already prohibit discrimination against people with disabilities in the US -- to an extent that's downright ridiculous and serves as a lawsuit generator -- so why do we need to sign on to this?
Supporters of the treaty argued that the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities would simply require the rest of the world to meet the standards that Americans already enjoy under the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act.
Yah, John Kerry was out blathering that if we want to continue to call ourselves "exceptional", the Senate needs to display its "exceptionalism" by ratifying this treaty so we can help impose it on the rest of the world.
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said the U.N. committee recommendations would be nonbinding, prompting Lee to ask, “if this does nothing, then why would we ratify it?”
Kerry countered that the treaty would allow the United States to serve on the committee to advocate for the rights of U.S. veterans and citizens living or traveling abroad.
“I have not said it does nothing,” Kerry said. “I said it does not change U.S. law, that is different from saying it doesn’t do anything. If it didn’t do anything I wouldn’t be here, nor would President Bush have signed it.”
Bush again. Yay.
Meantime, what Kerry doesn't say is that our comporting with treaty conditions would require our registering,
with the UN, all newborns with disabilities.
Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) argued the treaty would infringe on U.S. sovereignty, an argument echoed by other opponents.
“This unelected bureaucratic body would pass recommendations that would be forced upon the United States if we were a signatory,” he said.
Which, to my way of thinking, is exactly the right way to view it. Unlike ....
Republican Sens. Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), John Barrasso (Wyo.), Scott Brown (Mass.), Susan Collins (Maine), Dick Lugar (Ind.), John McCain (Ariz.), Olympia Snowe (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) voted with Democrats in favor of the treaty.
... Democrats and advocates for people with disabilities argued that recommendations from a panel created by the treaty would be advisory only, not binding, and that the treaty did not create any new legal rights in state or federal courts. Democrats brought in several Republican senators, including Dole, a disabled veteran, to help make their case.
Republican opposition was led by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.).
Speaking on the Senate floor Tuesday, Lee said he was concerned that U.N. committee recommendations “often fall well beyond the treaty’s goals.”
Fer crissake! Yeah, sure; an "advisory panel". Unh hunh. And need I mention, we've already been told by numerous entities that despite our not having ratified other UN treaties and resolutions that we are to be held accountable anyway because most of the rest of the world signed on.
I was looking at the Christmas tree this morning, thinking, "shame, our last Christmas tree".
BTW, H/T Drudge, who ran this headline on the piece, "SENATE NEARLY APPROVES UN TREATY GRANTING GLOBAL 'RIGHTS' TO DISABLED... "
A vote 61-38 against is NOT "nearly approves".
