A footnote to history

I just read this post at Kevin Drum's blog at the Washington Monthly:

BALI BUFFOONERY....I realize that diplomacy and sausage making aren't always pretty, but the latest "compromise" at the Bali climate talks is about as ridiculous as anything I've seen in a long time:

Talks had been deadlocked all week by U.S. insistence on the removal of a passage in the document's preamble mandating that industrialized countries reduce their emissions 25% to 40% below 1990 levels by 2020.

....A compromise proposed by Indonesian Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar makes the controversial targets footnotes to the preamble, a move that seems to have satisfied both sides.

"This is a compromise. We can live with this," said German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel.

The U.S. also seemed pleased. "We can live with the preamble," said chief U.S. negotiator Harlan Watson.

... Why not just put the numbers in hexadecimal and then rejoice at all the progress we've made?

So, I guess when it comes to enforcing the document, the Bush administration will say that the footnotes aren't actually part of the document because Bush never reads footnotes. Of course, the latter part of the statement is almost certainly true. In fact, it's doubtful that he ever reads anything except, perhaps, My Pet Goat.