‘Human rights’ in America

Previous U.S. administrations have tended to give a cold shoulder to the U.N. Human Rights Council, which usually includes as member states such paragons of virtue as Angola, Communist China, Cuba, Libya, Pakistan and Uganda.

But the Obama administration decided to take a different approach. On Friday, Hillary Clinton's State Department submitted a 29-page report on the United States to the council.

And it's a doozy.

The report notes that although the United States now has an African-American president and women and Hispanics have achieved greater progress, large segments of American society suffer from unfair policies and practices.

High unemployment rates, hate crime, poverty, poor housing, lack of access to health care and discriminatory hiring practices are among the challenges the report identifies as affecting blacks, Latinos, Muslims, South Asians, American Indians and gays and lesbians in America, according to Mrs. Clinton's State Department.

Really? Compared to China -- where Tibetan nuns regularly die in captivity and executions of political dissidents are hurried up so their organs can be harvested -- blacks, Muslims and Asian-Americans are far more likely to die outside an American emergency room because they're refused treatment based on their race or religion?

Yes, economic conditions on America's Indian reservations are often still lamentable -- though surely we need not weep for the Mohegan Pequots -- but poor Americans are regularly made to live in dirt-floored shacks with no indoor plumbing simply because of their race or sexual preferences? Gays and lesbians who are open about their sexuality fare worse here in the states than in, say, Nigeria or Arabia?

In 2010? Who'd have thunk it?

The report even apologizes for Arizona's new state law attempting to enforce America's immigration law, already one of the most permissive in the world.

This administration has spent nearly two years apologizing for America. This report is just more of the same drivel.

What on Earth is the purpose of delivering such a "we sure stink" critique to the cynical dashiki-clad kleptocrats of the United Nations? Does Mr. Obama think he can dig up some more Democratic votes this election cycle in Djibouti and Burkina Faso?