It might not be in the same league as Qaddafi warning about fish flu, but the debate that just happened in the General Assembly over whether to let Madagascar coup leader and African pariah Andry Rajoelina speak could have been a parody ofhow these things work.

Assembly President Ali Treki rambled for a while and read from a ruling by the U.N. legal counsel and seemed pretty confused about how to interpret it. "The secretariat has given me a lot of paper," he said. Eventually Treki reached the conclusion that Rajoelina should be allowed to speak, though not as a head of state.

The delegate from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the most outspoken opponent of Rajoelina's presence, called for a vote. The motion to let Rajoelina speak was overwhelmingly voted down, but not everyone quite understood how it was being phrased.

The delegate from Jamaica may have had the line of the day when he said, "I'm not sure what we just voted for and I'm very confused." After a second vote and some more confusion, Treki finally announced that Rajoelina would not be allowed to speak. 

It's not easy being a coup leader these days.