The United Nations is preparing to debate a third set of sanctions against Iran in response to Tehran’s continuing refusal to suspend uranium enrichment. So how have the first two sets of sanctions worked in stopping Iran?

Not so well, apparently.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday that it was “too late” to stop Iran’s nuclear program and warned the U.S. and its allies not to push for new U.N. sanctions, comparing his country to a lion sitting quietly in a corner.

“We advise them not to play with the lion’s tail,” Ahmadinejad said, drawing applause from a room of reporters, Iranian officials and foreign dignitaries at a Tehran news conference.

“It is too late to stop the progress of Iran,” Ahmadinejad said. “Iran has passed the point where they wanted Iran to stop.”

But never fear… I’m sure the terror-sponsoring leader of the universe only wants this stuff for peaceful purposes, right?

Wrong.

“With God’s help, the countdown button for the destruction of the Zionist regime has been pushed by the hands of the children of Lebanon and Palestine,” Ahmadinejad said in a speech.

“By God’s will, we will witness the destruction of [Israel] in the near future,” he said. He did not elaborate.

Careful, Mahmoud… that kind of talk is sure to start the ball rolling on a fourth strongly worded letter from the U.N.

I think they’re just re-using old templates by now. Here comes another strongly worded letter from the U.N.

The U.N. Security Council unanimously voted Saturday to impose additional sanctions against Iran for its refusal to stop enriching uranium _ a move intended to show Tehran that defiance will leave it increasingly isolated.

This should definitely do the trick.

Iran immediately rejected the sanctions and said it had no intention of suspending its enrichment program, prompting the United States to warn of even tougher penalties.

…or not.

Let me get this straight. The U.N. is warning a country that wants to be all alone in ruling the world that it’s actions will leave it isolated? Was this supposed to scare them or encourage them?

And these latest proposed sanctions ban Iran from exporting weapons, but doesn’t ban them from importing weapons.

That ought to finally do the trick.

What would we do without them?

Iran shrugs off U.N. nuclear pressure

VIENNA, Austria - Iran on Thursday shrugged off the latest punitive U.N. action — suspension of nearly two dozen nuclear aid programs — and showed no signs it was cowed by the possibility of even tougher penalties in the form of new Security Council sanctions. […]there is little evidence the sanctions are working…

It’s time we stop messing around and high time we start including some mean-looking emoticons in the next strongly-worded letter.

How about:

I could totally be Secretary General…

Here comes another strongly worded letter from the United Nations.

World powers to work on new U.N. resolution on Iran

LONDON (Reuters) - World powers agreed on Monday to work on a new U.N. Security Council resolution to put pressure on Iran over its nuclear program but remained committed to seeking a negotiated solution, British officials said.

I just don’t understand their rush to strongly worded letters. I mean, why not try a couple of love letters or a poem or two first? What’s with all this stronly-worded-letter-mongering? No more strongly-worded-letters-for-oil! Men lied, trees died!

What if… I mean, what if, the Bush administration is so fascist that they go it alone and write a letter unilaterally?

…and in cursive!

End times, man, end times.

Well this should come as no surprise.

The U.N.’s nuclear watchdog said on Thursday Iran had failed to meet a February 21 deadline to suspend uranium enrichment, exposing Tehran to possible new sanctions over fears it hopes to produce an atomic bomb.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said in a report Iran had installed two cascades, or networks, of 164 centrifuges in its underground Natanz enrichment plant with another two cascades close to completion.

This represented efforts to expand research-level enrichment of nuclear fuel into “industrial scale” production.

Now it’s time to unleash the full force of… another strongly worded letter!

And this time, we mean it… maybe.

The United Nations has issued a strongly worded letter on global warming. And when the United Nations issues strongly worded messages, people listen! If we don’t act now, we could possibly face further strongly worded messages from the organization.

The timing is almost perfect. A new Democrat majority in Congress and Al Gore being nominated by liberals in Hollywood for an Oscar and socialists in Norway for a Nobel Prize. And the report would almost appear to be a page out of the Democrat’s playbook: complain, whine and rant, but offer no solutions…

The panel’s bleak 21-page report (PDF), released officially in Paris, was aimed at laying out the how, what and why of global warming, but not to offer remedies.

But there’s just one problem for the Sky-is-Falling-Liberals. While the report makes the not-completely-confident claim that global warming is “very likely” man-made, it also says this:

A United Nations report issued today by the world’s top climate scientists said global warning was “very likely” man-made and would bring higher temperatures and a steady rise in sea levels for centuries to come regardless of how much the world slows or reduces its greenhouse gas emissions.

So basically, global warming is here to stay (as if it were some sort of cyclical environmental phenomenon) and it’s going to happen whether we conserve or not.

Now back to your regularly scheduled Happy Meals, SUVs and hairsprays.

It looks like Kofi Annan is throwing his hat in the ring for the 2008 Democrat nomination. At least he sounds like a Democrat today…

In a farewell speech on U.S. soil today, retiring United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan plans to deliver a tough critique of President Bush’s policies. He will accuse the administration of trying to secure the United States from terrorism in part by dominating other nations through force, committing what he termed human rights abuses and taking military action without broad international support.

Conveniently missing from Annan’s farewell speech is the Oil-for-Food scandal, U.N. members abusing children, anti-Israel policies and the organization’s inaction on genocide.

Kofi has about as much credibility here as Jimmy Carter advising on policy towards Iran or Michael Moore offering dieting tips.

Do you know how to tell when Democrats are lying? Their lips move.

Biden said Monday that it is “unfortunate” the White House continues to blame Democrats for Bolton’s inability to win confirmation.

Now let’s go back to June, 2005 and see why Bolton wasn’t able win confirmation… or even get an up or down vote at all:

Republicans failed for the second time Monday to move the Senate toward a vote on President Bush’s nomination of John R. Bolton to be ambassador to the United Nations.

The motion to close off debate on the controversial nomination fell six votes short of the three-fifths majority of 60 required for cloture. The vote was 54-38 — largely along party lines.

An attempt by the Senate’s Republican majority to cut off debate failed in May when most of the 44 Democrats refused to join the 55 Republicans and move toward a final vote.
…
Democrats said they would continue to block Bolton’s nomination until the White House produces records of communications intercepts he sought from the National Security Agency.

Yep, the Democrats were filibustering the nomination. And just who was the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, the committee in charge of recommending Bolton’s nomination to the full Senate, for an up or down vote on confirmation?

Why, Joe Biden, of course.

Rumors are swirling that Bolton may be out as U.N. ambassador shortly. Remember his was a recess appointment. If he doesn’t step down before January, he’ll be out shortly thereafter anyway. Stay tuned…

Combined with the Gates’ nomination - this may be signaling a new direction in foreign policy relating to Iran.

UPDATE:
Ok, I was flat out wrong on this one.

Everyone’s reacting to the “one-man Axis of Crazy” Hugo Chavez temper tantrum at the U.N. today. In his speech, he called President Bush the devil, promoted the ridiculous Noam Chomsky and called for the U.N. to move its headquarters out of the U.S.

Though, I will have to agree with his last point. But why stop there? Instead of just getting the U.N. out of the U.S., why not just get the U.S. out of the U.N.?

But the Chavez tirade should come as no surprise. It’s just a repeat of his speech last November at the U.N.

The speech by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in United Nations General Assembly on Thursday turned into an anti-American show.

Chavez, who defined the US as a “terrorist state” in his speech, said Washington does not respect the UN General Assembly resolutions and asked the organization, therefore, to leave this country.

As Michelle points out:

The applause from the UN assembly. Prolonged clapping.

And in 2005…

At the end, Chavez’s remarks got the loudest applause of the summit.

The U.N. stopped being relevant a long time ago. This is just icing on the cake.