Monday's the big day!

For Kofi Annan's bodacious United Nations reform proposal, that is. And his toadies are out circulating drafts to the media. A few of the highlights:

LA Times:

Secretary-General Kofi Annan will propose restructuring a U.N. human rights panel, ask for a swift decision to expand the Security Council and request sweeping changes designed to prevent new scandals in a report Monday to the General Assembly on reforming the beleaguered United Nations.

The blueprint for reform, according to a draft copy obtained by The Times, also proposes ways to keep the U.N. the primary setting for global security decisions and the key player in international development issues.

And keep the UN gravy train on the tracks. But scandal prevention intiatives are way cool!

Annan has framed the plan as providing a historic opportunity to reinvent the U.N. to better meet the challenges of a changing world. But the plan is also seen here as a last-gasp bid to restore the organization's relevance at a time when both he and it are under heavy fire.

Last gasp and then bury it.

Many of the ideas in the document have been floated in recent months by special panels on U.N. reform and global development that Annan commissioned. But fierce reactions from some governments led Annan to temper a proposed definition of terrorism, stop short of requiring criteria for membership on the human rights panel and caused him to refrain from choosing between two options to expand the Security Council, U.N. officials said.

Er, what exactly are the big reforms? Sounds like a typical UN deal - all chaff and no wheat. There's a bulletized list of the "initiatives" at the end of the article for our edification. Keep it handy if you have trouble sleeping.

WaPo:

Secretary General Kofi Annan on Monday will propose establishing new rules for the use of military force, adopting a tough anti-terrorism treaty that would punish suicide bombers, and overhauling the United Nation's discredited human rights commission, according to a confidential draft of a report on U.N. reform.

Punishing suicide bombers? And Kofi is going to to have the thugocracies lay down rules for the United States on the use of military force? I can hardly wait.

Annan cast his report as an attempt to reconcile the security interests of wealthy countries, which want the world body to focus on combating terrorism and stemming weapons proliferation, and poor nations, which are more concerned with the consequences of poverty and disease. He noted that a catastrophic terrorist act in a major Western city could cripple the economies of poor nations on the other side of the world while an outbreak of disease in a poor region could spread to the developed world.

Wait for it.

Annan said that wealthy countries must dramatically increase development aid and debt relief to poor countries that govern responsibly.

Let's just say the UN definition of "govern responsibly" is a tad flexible, but they have a firm grasp on the concept of cash.

UK Telegraph:

The security of America and other wealthy countries will for the first time be declared a key priority for the United Nations under reforms designed to restore confidence in the crisis-ridden international body.

You mean it wasn't before?

Chidyan Siku, Zimbabwe's ambassador to the UN, gave the proposals a cool reception. "My feeling, and the feeling of colleagues from developing countries, is that the Secretariat is trying to please America by slanting towards the strategic agenda of the North. That will not find favour with us," he said.

Gosh, months pass without my caring what the thugs ruling Zimbabwe want.

So there it is. Better get out the hip boots for the PR campaign - it's going to be deep. Which makes me even more glad that John Bolton is going to be the new United Nations ambassador from the USA.