I’d like to say that I was surprised to read that the genocidal regime of Sudan is being elected to the Human Rights Council at the United Nations, but I can’t.  The U.N. has long been a debate club for dictators and murdering kleptocrats, and my shocked face is starting to cramp up after years of watching its shenanigans.  Honestly, the election of any bad actor to a place of power and prestige at the U.N. fails to surprise me anymore.

But really, what’s next?  If you’re going to put a government whose leader has been indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity on the U.N. board that looks after human rights, where do you draw the line?

• Is Jerry Sandusky going to be given a high level position at UNICEF?
• Is the Lord’s Resistance Army going to be given a place at the table on the commission that is looking into the problem of child soldiers?
• Are the geniuses at the U.N going to put Bill Clinton and Larry Flint on a woman’s rights committee?
• Maybe Paul Helmke could be a voting member of the committee trying to draft the next small arms treaty?
• How about we get Michael Vick on the job to advise the animal welfare working group?
• You know, Ben Bernanke would make a perfect chairman for the fiscal reform commission.

If any of these questions offended you or you think I’m using hyperbole, congratulations, you’re doing it right.  All of these are indeed ridiculous and a bit offensive, but so is putting a dictator, who used gangs of men to ethnically cleanse his country through rape and murder, on a human rights commission.

Honestly, if the African states want to get one of their own on the human rights commission, then couldn’t they have come up with a better candidate?  Is there no regime on the entire continent with a decent human rights record, or at least doesn’t have its dictator up on warrants from the I.C.C?