From: "John Beamish" 

I am not.  Though I have visited Cuba twice, I know little of the Cuban legal system.

The point, which keeps getting side-stepped by everyone else is quite
basic: "The White House on Tuesday expressed outrage that Cuba has
been re-elected to the U.N. Human Rights Commission, only three weeks after
rounding up dozens of dissidents and sending them to prison." while,
at the same time, the US imprisons people at a greater rate than any other
country.

From that pair of factual observations, I concluded that Americans have an
unbridled ignorance of what goes on outside their country.  It is beyond
understanding that the country which imprisons people at a greater rate
than any other feels somehow compelled to hector the UNHCHR for admitting a
country which just imprisoned some people for breaking its laws.

From the feedback I am seeing, the Americans in this newsgroup are acutely
embarrassed -- as they should be -- by Fleisher's remarks.


"Paul Ranson"  wrote in message
news:3eb02dd9$1{at}w3.nls.net...
> You appear to be arguing an equivalence between the due process and rule
of
> law in Cuba and the same in the US? And that record of protecting the
human
> rights of its inhabitants qualifies it to promote human rights in the rest
> of the world?
>
> Seems a bizarre line to take.
>
> Paul
>
> "John Beamish"  wrote in message
> news:3eb008f8{at}w3.nls.net...
> > In sequence:
> >
> > (though I must interject with a brief comment)  I notice you are
> interested
> > in the nits and not the general substance:  Ari Fleisher rails against
> Cuba
> > for jailing several dissidents while ignoring the inconvenient fact that
> the
> > US leads the world -- as they do in so many areas -- in the prison
> > population rate.
> >
> > It's hardly a cheap shot, it's a researched (however briefly) reply to
> Tony
> > showing (yet again) that his and Ari Fleisher's knowledge of what
happens
> > outside the US -- somewhat better, it appears, than CNN's -- is myopic
(to
> > say the least).  (You may recall that I posted a cite to a study that
> noted
> > nearly 20% of American males aged 18-24 couldn't find the United States
on
> > an outline map of the world.)
> >
> > The site is http://www.unhchr.ch/ and I did, indeed, leave off
the "er"
on
> > my reference.  Interestingly, if you go to http://www.un.org/english/
and
> > click on "Human Rights" (it's in the middle of the
yellow text at the
> top),
> > you will be taken to http://www.unhchr.ch so you may or may not be
correct
> > that the web site '... seems to use Commission on Human Rights...' but
you
> > didn't give me a url to see the context.  Its home page certainly uses
the
> > phrase I identified.
> >
>

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