Bolton: Obama's UN Address Naive, 'Post-American'

(NEWSER) - The "usual suspects" in the neoconservative camp are apoplectic at President Obama's behavior at the UN, writes Andrew Sullivan. After all, he had the nerve to "engage foreign powers as equals rather than as subordinates." Obama's critics, of course, see America as always in the right—even after the Bush-Cheney years and the corresponding plunge in international stature. "Obama's promise was and is a rebranding of America," says Sullivan. More»

(NEWSER) - Hugo Chavez paid President Obama a high compliment at the UN today, asserting that he doesn't have the same satanic odor as George Bush. "I don't smell sulfur anymore," the Venezuelan leader told the General Assembly. "It's gone. Now it's the smell of something else—it's the smell of hope." A few years ago, Chavez famously took to the UN podium where Bush had spoken and said it smelled of sulfur, suggesting he was the devil, notes the Wall Street Journal. More»

Obama will raise post to Cabinet, appoint anti-genocide crusader

(NEWSER) - Barack Obama will name Susan Rice as his UN ambassador when he unveils his foreign policy team today, the New York Times reports. Rice (no relation to Condoleezza), was an assistant secretary of state under Bill Clinton, but has been an Obama adviser since the beginning. She’s an advocate of using “dramatic action” against genocide, including military force if need be. More»

Russia, China vote against General Assembly resolution

(NEWSER) - The UN General Assembly has voted to support an Arab League call for Syria's Bashar al-Assad to quit as president. The assembly voted 137-12 for the resolution, which isn't legally binding but is a barometer of international opinion, the AP notes. Seventeen countries abstained from voting, while Russia and China voted against the plan. A Russian official called it "unbalanced," saying it "directs all the demands at the government, and says nothing about the opposition." More»

Assad must accept its peace plan, let monitors in

(NEWSER) - The Arab League has given Syria three more days to implement its peace plan, offering to send monitors to the country to ensure the bloodshed has stopped, in what amounts to a temporary reprieve from Saturday’s decision to suspend the country . But Qatar’s foreign minister insisted that sanctions would be imposed if the new deadline wasn’t met. “We should stop wasting time while people are getting killed,” he said, according to the New York Times . More»