is not Times story or a Peter Jennings/PBS type story. Look to Norman Coleman’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, the House Committee on Government Operations, the Wall Street Journal and Claudia Rossett.

What drove the Clinton/Monica/Whitewater story for months and months was alternate press coverage and revelations.

Realities:

No one who ever read a good mystery believed Kojo Annan only got $ 180,000. This is peanuts.

Last night on Fox, I heard that Benon Sevan’s attorneys’ fees were paid for by the UN. Somehow there is a conflict of interest there.

How much and how were they retained and, most importantly, why did the UN cough up for Benan’s defense when he was the face of wrong doing?

The only hammers we can swing are financial pressure and noncompliance. Both have limits. The UN wants our money, but can get money from other nations, ironically, money those nations may have received from us through global trade. Noncompliance provides our enemies internal and external with propaganda ammunition.

This is a throughly discredited idea for anyone who wants to look at the past 100 years of history. In the US, Johnson’s Great Society increased the transfer of wealth and only entrenched the poor and heightened the victimization business. Europe is buckling under the weight of its social spending and aging population. The Soviet Union failed. Do we need to go on?

Kofi should be fired. The US should withhold all funds until we get the required reforms or junk the whole thing all together.

And soooooo sexy…

The National Model United Nations conference (NMUN) is the worldÔøΩs largest university-level simulation of the United Nations. NMUN annually educates more than 3,200 students (50% from outside the United States) about the United Nations and other contemporary international issues

I made a quick scan of Don Kofi’s introductory letter and that of the NMUN Secretary General. Not the slightest hint that the UN needs to concern itself with institutional corruption or even ineffectiveness. Nope, instead we get mindless platitudes like:

The theme for the 2005 NMUN conference is simple but profound. In the words of A.J. Muste: “There is no way to peace. Peace is the way.”

With all due respect to Ms. Rachel Holmes, Secretary-General of the 2005 NMUN (no doubt she’s a fine young woman) the above message is not simple, it is simplistic. It is not profound, it is utterly meaningless and disposable.

I scanned the extensive 2005 NMUN program’s committee topics and program schedule and did not spot a single item that indicated there might be even the shallowest discussion of dealing with UN’s internal problems. I suppose I can hope that this is a matter of not wishing to publicly air one’s dirty laundry and such topic will be be discretely discussed during the 4 days of activities. It’s not silly of me to hope for such a thing, is it?

Tantalizing. Yep it is that.

But, this also strikes me as though we might be delving into the realm of “real” journalism here.

You know, investigating issues and reporting original stuff. Are Blogs allowed to do that?

Amazing to me Kofi has lasted this long. Won’t somebody take him by the scruff of the neck and put him out?

My Dad’s Secretary General of the U.N. and all I got was a lousy 300 grand!