美国有线新闻 CNN 2012-12-14

 Hey, I’m Anderson Cooper. Welcome to the podcast. Claims of American’s given the U.N. power to told you how to raise your kids, but where the evidence. Keep Them Honest. We begin tonight as we do every night Keeping Them Honest. Trying to look for facts, not supporting Democrats¹ or Republicans. You can find that in other cable channels. Our goal is just reporting, finding out facts and the truth. 

 

We did that exactly last week when reporting the story that we’re focusing on again tonight. Again, because the more we look into it, the more we find people in powerful and influential² places saying thing that just don’t square with the facts. It’s about a U.N. treaty that failed to be ratified³ by the Senate. A treaty that was meant to encourage other countries to be more like the U.S. on the issue of equal rights for the disabled. Now if other countries adopted better treatment of their disabled citizens, the idea that disabled Americans who visited or lived in other countries would also benefit. 

 

Hundred and twenty-five countries had ratified the treaty. It was signed by Republican President George Bush, supported by the current president, and has the backing of senators from both sides of the aisle⁴, including John McCain and past Republican leaders like Bob Dole⁵, himself a disabled World War II Veteran. He was wheeled on to the Senate floor, you him there for the vote to see he hoped the treaty ratified. 

 

Well, instead after pressure from special interest groups, 38 Republicans, some of them vowed⁶ to support the treaty, voted no. One of the loudest critics of the legislation was the Home School Legal Defense⁷ Association, the HSLDA. It’s the powerful lobby group around the country whose leader you’re about to meet. Now they have some very strong things to say about the treaty, but the notion was basically this. If it were to pass, they said, the U.N. treaty would somehow let the U.N. mandate⁸ how parents of disabled kids in America cared for their children. Americans, among the center is echoing that center is Mike Lee of Utah. Keeping Them Honest though, when I asked him to specify⁹ how this U.N. influence might manifest itself, last week I asked him this, here‘s the answer he gave. 

 

Can you name any other U.N. treaty that has forced changes in U.S. law?

 

I didn’t come prepared to cite Supreme¹⁰ Court precedent¹¹ on this point but it’s a well known fact…

 

But what you’re saying is hypothetical. You’re saying, you’re using a bunch of hypothetical saying they’re going to, you know, this is going to force abortion¹² rights for people, for disabled people overseas. This is, they’re going to, I mean, some groups are saying children with glasses are going to be taken from their parents. You’re using all these very scary hypothetical. You can’t even cite one case where a U.N. treaty has ever impacted U.S. law?

 

I’m not aware of one person who’s saying that children with glasses are going to be taken away from their parents. The Article 7 concern from the treaty relates to the fact that the best interest of the child standard would be injected into decisions regarding how best to educate and otherwise care for a disabled child. (Again) It’s worked in the United States.

 

You can’t name one U.N. treaty that has ever had an impact on U.S. law?

 

Well, I can’t name one U.S. treaty that has been the deciding factor in a decision. It may well happen. I didn’t come prepared to cite Supreme Court precedent. 

 

Well, about that eye glass claim I mentioned, the head of the HSLDA made it. You’ll hear it for yourself in a moment. It also says the treaty would allow the United Nations to dictate¹³, say, the number of handicapped parking spaces in church parking lots in America and allow U.N. bureaucrats¹⁴ in Geneva to change American laws. The evidence they cite, though, doesn’t stand up to the scrutiny¹⁵, according to former Republicans Attorney General Richard Thornburgh, himself the father of a disabled son.

1 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 influential   

adj.有影响的，有权势的

参考例句：

• He always tries to get in with the most influential people.他总是试图巴结最有影响的人物。
• He is a very influential man in the government.他在政府中是个很有影响的人物。

3 ratified   

v.批准，签认（合约等）( ratify的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The treaty was declared invalid because it had not been ratified. 条约没有得到批准，因此被宣布无效。
• The treaty was ratified by all the member states. 这个条约得到了所有成员国的批准。

4 aisle   

n.（教堂、教室、戏院等里的）过道，通道

参考例句：

• The aisle was crammed with people.过道上挤满了人。
• The girl ushered me along the aisle to my seat.引座小姐带领我沿着通道到我的座位上去。

5 dole   

n.救济，（失业）救济金；vt.（out）发放，发给

参考例句：

• It's not easy living on the dole.靠领取失业救济金生活并不容易。
• Many families are living on the dole since the strike.罢工以来，许多家庭靠失业救济金度日。

6 vowed   

起誓，发誓（vow的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• He vowed quite solemnly that he would carry out his promise. 他非常庄严地发誓要实现他的诺言。
• I vowed to do more of the cooking myself. 我发誓自己要多动手做饭。

7 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

8 mandate   

n.托管地；命令，指示

参考例句：

• The President had a clear mandate to end the war.总统得到明确的授权结束那场战争。
• The General Election gave him no such mandate.大选并未授予他这种权力。

9 specify   

vt.指定，详细说明

参考例句：

• We should specify a time and a place for the meeting.我们应指定会议的时间和地点。
• Please specify what you will do.请你详述一下你将做什么。

10 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

11 precedent   

n.先例，前例；惯例；adj.在前的，在先的

参考例句：

• Is there a precedent for what you want me to do?你要我做的事有前例可援吗？
• This is a wonderful achievement without precedent in Chinese history.这是中国历史上亘古未有的奇绩。

12 abortion   

n.流产，堕胎

参考例句：

• She had an abortion at the women's health clinic.她在妇女保健医院做了流产手术。
• A number of considerations have led her to have a wilful abortion.多种考虑使她执意堕胎。

13 dictate   

v.口授；(使)听写；指令，指示，命令

参考例句：

• It took him a long time to dictate this letter.口述这封信花了他很长时间。
• What right have you to dictate to others?你有什么资格向别人发号施令？

14 bureaucrats   

n.官僚( bureaucrat的名词复数 )；官僚主义；官僚主义者；官僚语言

参考例句：

• That is the fate of the bureaucrats, not the inspiration of statesmen. 那是官僚主义者的命运，而不是政治家的灵感。 来自辞典例句
• Big business and dozens of anonymous bureaucrats have as much power as Japan's top elected leaders. 大企业和许多不知名的官僚同日本选举出来的最高层领导者们的权力一样大。 来自辞典例句

15 scrutiny   

n.详细检查，仔细观察

参考例句：

• His work looks all right,but it will not bear scrutiny.他的工作似乎很好，但是经不起仔细检查。
• Few wives in their forties can weather such a scrutiny.很少年过四十的妻子经得起这么仔细的观察。