Tom,

I saw your cousin in action last night. I hope he wins; cette femme est très chaude!

Yes, the ICC is a joke, and it illustrates many of the problems inherent in worldwide bureaucracies such as the UN. While from an ideal perspective the concept has some merit, there is no way to ensure accountability or even a semblance of neutrality within the system. The sad spectacle of the US state department sucking up to Cameroon trying to get authorization to enforce 12 years of resolutions against Iraq is a glimpse of what we'd be dealing with in legal matters if we bought into the ICC.

Any democratic or federal system has limits in both size and scope. While the US is a large democracy, it is not particularly balkanized internally, so things go relatively smoothly. If you applied the same federal system to the entire world, it would implode almost instantly due to the vast cultural differences and vastly different intentions of the member states. More democracy in this world is a good idea. Bigger democracy is not.