BULLETIN - AT 6:08 P.M. ET:  The United States, to its credit, will boycott the upcoming "Durban II" conference in Geneva:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration will ''with regret'' boycott a U.N. conference on racism next week over objectionable language in the meeting's final document that could single out Israel for criticism and restrict free speech, the State Department said Saturday.

The decision follows weeks of furious internal debate and will likely please Israel and Jewish groups that lobbied against U.S. participation. But the move upset human rights advocates and some in the African-American community who hoped that President Barack Obama, the nation's first black president, would send an official delegation.

The administration had wanted to attend the April 20-25 meeting in Geneva, although it warned in late February it would not go unless significant changes were made to the draft text.

COMMENT:  Applause, applause.  The conference is a farce.  It has nothing to do with fighting racism.  It's dominated by some of the world's worst gangster regimes.  The president of Iran, that great fighter for freedom, will address the meeting when it opens Monday.

There will of course be the usual charges that this decision was "dictated" by the Israel lobby.  Well, cheers for the Israel lobby.  People have a right to petition the government, and they're certainly correct on this one.  Our participation would have been an embarrassment.  You may recall that the Bush administration walked out of "Durban I" in 2001, a conference that degenerated into an anti-freedom, anti-West, and anti-Semitic rant. 

Naturally, the usual suspects are appalled by this courageous move.  Marxist Congresswoman Barbara Lee, commissar of the Congressional Black Caucus, and the most left-leaning member of Congress, has registered her deep pain.  Human Rights Watch, which is nothing of the kind, is also anguished beyond words. 

The AP story identifies "human rights advocates" as upset by the decision.  The phrase is corrupt, and reflects lazy, biased journalism.  Many of these "human rights advocates" never met a dictatorship they didn't like. 

Maybe some of the Obamans are learning about the real world and the way it works.  We give credit where it's due.  Good decision.  We hope many other nations will follow.  Let's see if Obama has coattails on this one.

April 18, 2009