I am stunned at how even the WSJ is referring to this as a "coup". The LA Times, for example, calls it a coup and then mentions 2/3 of the way down the page that it's backed by Honduras' Supreme Court and constitution. I really can't figure out what they think is the difference between Ahmadinejad and Zelaya. Ahmadinejad is a "right-wing extremist" and Zelaya is left-wing? Illegitimate is illegitimate - doesn't matter where in the political spectrum you are.
I shot off a very terse letter to the editor of the WSJ calling them an erstwhile mouthpiece for Hugo Chavez, and saying thank GOODNESS for Mary Anastasia O'Grady being there to be a lone voice of reason in all this. The first time, to my knowledge, the military has ever done the right thing in the history of Latin America, and the U.S. and all its various fishwraps don't have the sense to mark the occasion. Just when I thought I couldn't have any less respect for the press than I already did, I find out how much worse things can really get.
Congratulations, America! You now find yourselves on the same page as Hugo Chavez, Mugabe, Castro and Ahmadinejad. You are now in support of leftists, tyrants and dictators. Just six months ago, America would lend its (albeit rhetorical) support to anyone seeking liberty without hesitation. When in 2002 Chavez just barely survived a coup d’etat, then President Bush spoke out in support of the opposition. It earned him endless ridicule, as he knew it would; but he did it anyway.
Today, the word “coup” trumps “Constitution”. This speaks to the mindset of our current commander-in-chief, who appears to be in awe of tyrants the world over. I’m sure he is taking careful notes to know just how to counter push-back when the time comes for him to extend his own term(s) in office. Will our own constitutional checks and balances remain viable? I doubt it. Should he succeed (as seems likely) in packing the courts with cronies, eroding the power of Congress, starving the military and criminalizing dissent, he is certain to prevail. As long as the press continues to carry his water directly to and from White House, the national narrative is Obama's – and none dare call it treason.
I went for a walk this morning on the grounds of the Theosophical Society here in Chennai. I was overwhelmed by the strange beauty of this ancient land. There was bamboo, cactus, bougainvillea; banyan, peepal trees and magnolia; coconut and date palms; and much that I couldn’t identify. There were crows, ravens and mynah birds; water buffalo, Brahma bulls pulling carts. I even saw a warthog crashing through the underbrush trying to get a better look at me.
I suddenly realized that I was looking for a country to call home. My own country is gone. I no longer feel comfortable in calling myself an ‘American’. I can feel only pity for a people - burdened by faux guilt and blinded by celebrity worship - who have allowed themselves and future generations to be enslaved by unfathomable debt while, at the same time, steadily slipping the constraints of principle and thinking it is freedom.
P.S. Welcome back, Lou!
Peter -
Thanks for noticing I was gone. Actually, I was never really gone, just hadn't gotten steamed enough to post anything lately.
I can relate to that feeling of being without a country. I use anger at those who would destroy America as my homing device to come back and fight for it. Hope you do too!
We got crows and ravens a-plenty here in L.A. For warthogs crushing through the underbrush to get a better look at us, we have to settle for homeless people living in the trees along the railroad tracks, but we manage.
Chavez shouldn't be interfering in another nations affairs. He can't manage his own country and he can't keep his mouth shut, either. This should be strongly condemned by all... especially Venezuelan officials and peoples. They might be wise to, you know, look at the situation.
From Jack Kelly, some excerpts:
Push came to shove on Sunday (6/18). The army, acting on a warrant issued by the supreme court, arrested Mr. Zelaya and sent him into exile (in his pajamas, to Costa Rica). This was described as a "coup" by the news media, and was denounced by, among others, Hugo Chavez, who threatened military action to restore Mr. Zelaya to power, and the Obama administration.
Mr. Zelaya, with Venezuelan help, was trying to execute a coup against the Honduran constitution than to accuse the military — which was acting on orders from the supreme court and with the support of the legislature (124 of 128 deputies in the unicameral congress endorsed Mr. Zelaya's removal Sunday afternoon) — of having done so.
Daniel Lopez Carballo, a retired Honduran general, told CNN that if the military hadn't acted, Mr. Chavez, the Venezuelan dictator, would have been running Honduras by proxy.
Typically in a coup, the military seizes control of the government. But the military quickly surrendered power to an acting president — from Mr. Zelaya's own party — chosen by the national congress.
Mary O'Grady from Wall Street Journal
Hugo Chávez's coalition-building efforts suffered a setback yesterday when the Honduran military sent its president packing for abusing the nation's constitution.
It seems that President Mel Zelaya miscalculated when he tried to emulate the success of his good friend Hugo in reshaping the Honduran Constitution to his liking.
But Honduras is not out of the Venezuelan woods yet. Yesterday the Central American country was being pressured to restore the authoritarian Mr. Zelaya by the likes of Fidel Castro, Daniel Ortega, Hillary Clinton and, of course, Hugo himself. The Organization of American States, having ignored Mr. Zelaya's abuses, also wants him back in power. It will be a miracle if Honduran patriots can hold their ground.
Associated Press That Mr. Zelaya acted as if he were above the law, there is no doubt. While Honduran law allows for a constitutional rewrite, the power to open that door does not lie with the president. A constituent assembly can only be called through a national referendum approved by its Congress.
But Mr. Zelaya declared the vote on his own and had Mr. Chávez ship him the necessary ballots from Venezuela. The Supreme Court ruled his referendum unconstitutional, and it instructed the military not to carry out the logistics of the vote as it normally would do.
The top military commander, Gen. Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, told the president that he would have to comply. Mr. Zelaya promptly fired him. The Supreme Court ordered him reinstated. Mr. Zelaya refused.
Calculating that some critical mass of Hondurans would take his side, the president decided he would run the referendum himself. So on Thursday he led a mob that broke into the military installation where the ballots from Venezuela were being stored and then had his supporters distribute them in defiance of the Supreme Court's order.
The attorney general had already made clear that the referendum was illegal, and he further announced that he would prosecute anyone involved in carrying it out. Yesterday, Mr. Zelaya was arrested by the military and is now in exile in Costa Rica.
It remains to be seen what Mr. Zelaya's next move will be. It's not surprising that chavistas throughout the region are claiming that he was victim of a military coup. They want to hide the fact that the military was acting on a court order to defend the rule of law and the constitution, and that the Congress asserted itself for that purpose, too.
Mrs. Clinton has piled on as well. Yesterday she accused Honduras of violating "the precepts of the Interamerican Democratic Charter" and said it "should be condemned by all." Fidel Castro did just that. Mr. Chávez pledged to overthrow the new government.
Honduras is fighting back by strictly following the constitution. The Honduran Congress met in emergency session yesterday and designated its president as the interim executive as stipulated in Honduran law. It also said that presidential elections set for November will go forward. The Supreme Court later said that the military acted on its orders. It also said that when Mr. Zelaya realized that he was going to be prosecuted for his illegal behavior, he agreed to an offer to resign in exchange for safe passage out of the country. Mr. Zelaya denies it.
Many Hondurans are going to be celebrating Mr. Zelaya's foreign excursion. Street protests against his heavy-handed tactics had already begun last week. On Friday a large number of military reservists took their turn. "We won't go backwards," one sign said. "We want to live in peace, freedom and development."
Besides opposition from the Congress, the Supreme Court, the electoral tribunal and the attorney general, the president had also become persona non grata with the Catholic Church and numerous evangelical church leaders. On Thursday evening his own party in Congress sponsored a resolution to investigate whether he is mentally unfit to remain in office.
For Hondurans who still remember military dictatorship, Mr. Zelaya also has another strike against him: He keeps rotten company. Earlier this month he hosted an OAS general assembly and led the effort, along side OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza, to bring Cuba back into the supposedly democratic organization.
The OAS response is no surprise. Former Argentine Ambassador to the U.N. Emilio Cárdenas told me on Saturday that he was concerned that "the OAS under Insulza has not taken seriously the so-called 'democratic charter.' It seems to believe that only military 'coups' can challenge democracy. The truth is that democracy can be challenged from within, as the experiences of Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and now Honduras, prove." A less-kind interpretation of Mr. Insulza's judgment is that he doesn't mind the Chávez-style coup.
The struggle against chavismo has never been about left-right politics. It is about defending the independence of institutions that keep presidents from becoming dictators. This crisis clearly delineates the problem. In failing to come to the aid of checks and balances, Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Insulza expose their true colors.
Write to O'Grady@wsj.com
BO and his co-clowns were not very shrewd in this situation. A much better political and practical reaction would be the ill-applied one when the Tehran protests began: " We are watching closely and reviewing the legal basis of Z's removal. For now we call for calm blah blah etc."
Keep you options open rather than rushing to ingratiate yourself to Hugo! this portrays a completely amateur foreign policy capability in this administration. BO is in some lib/utopian fantasy cooked up in a classroom and soaked in a coffee house. No real world, historical analysis. This is like a group of toddlers playing with bottles of nitroglycerin.
Amateur hour at the White House. Shades of things to come? People everywhere love freedom, and not oppression. Speak no evil, see no evil and hear no evil occupy this white house when it comes to tyrants.
great post!! if any of your readers are interested in quality ARCH SUPPORTS just click the highlighted links.
(1)
I am stunned at how even the WSJ is referring to this as a "coup". The LA Times, for example, calls it a coup and then mentions 2/3 of the way down the page that it's backed by Honduras' Supreme Court and constitution. I really can't figure out what they think is the difference between Ahmadinejad and Zelaya. Ahmadinejad is a "right-wing extremist" and Zelaya is left-wing? Illegitimate is illegitimate - doesn't matter where in the political spectrum you are.
I shot off a very terse letter to the editor of the WSJ calling them an erstwhile mouthpiece for Hugo Chavez, and saying thank GOODNESS for Mary Anastasia O'Grady being there to be a lone voice of reason in all this. The first time, to my knowledge, the military has ever done the right thing in the history of Latin America, and the U.S. and all its various fishwraps don't have the sense to mark the occasion. Just when I thought I couldn't have any less respect for the press than I already did, I find out how much worse things can really get.
Congratulations, America! You now find yourselves on the same page as Hugo Chavez, Mugabe, Castro and Ahmadinejad. You are now in support of leftists, tyrants and dictators. Just six months ago, America would lend its (albeit rhetorical) support to anyone seeking liberty without hesitation. When in 2002 Chavez just barely survived a coup d’etat, then President Bush spoke out in support of the opposition. It earned him endless ridicule, as he knew it would; but he did it anyway.
Today, the word “coup” trumps “Constitution”. This speaks to the mindset of our current commander-in-chief, who appears to be in awe of tyrants the world over. I’m sure he is taking careful notes to know just how to counter push-back when the time comes for him to extend his own term(s) in office. Will our own constitutional checks and balances remain viable? I doubt it. Should he succeed (as seems likely) in packing the courts with cronies, eroding the power of Congress, starving the military and criminalizing dissent, he is certain to prevail. As long as the press continues to carry his water directly to and from White House, the national narrative is Obama's – and none dare call it treason.
I went for a walk this morning on the grounds of the Theosophical Society here in Chennai. I was overwhelmed by the strange beauty of this ancient land. There was bamboo, cactus, bougainvillea; banyan, peepal trees and magnolia; coconut and date palms; and much that I couldn’t identify. There were crows, ravens and mynah birds; water buffalo, Brahma bulls pulling carts. I even saw a warthog crashing through the underbrush trying to get a better look at me.
I suddenly realized that I was looking for a country to call home. My own country is gone. I no longer feel comfortable in calling myself an ‘American’. I can feel only pity for a people - burdened by faux guilt and blinded by celebrity worship - who have allowed themselves and future generations to be enslaved by unfathomable debt while, at the same time, steadily slipping the constraints of principle and thinking it is freedom.
P.S. Welcome back, Lou!
Peter -
Thanks for noticing I was gone. Actually, I was never really gone, just hadn't gotten steamed enough to post anything lately.
I can relate to that feeling of being without a country. I use anger at those who would destroy America as my homing device to come back and fight for it. Hope you do too!
We got crows and ravens a-plenty here in L.A. For warthogs crushing through the underbrush to get a better look at us, we have to settle for homeless people living in the trees along the railroad tracks, but we manage.
Chavez shouldn't be interfering in another nations affairs. He can't manage his own country and he can't keep his mouth shut, either. This should be strongly condemned by all... especially Venezuelan officials and peoples. They might be wise to, you know, look at the situation.
From Jack Kelly, some excerpts:
Push came to shove on Sunday (6/18). The army, acting on a warrant issued by the supreme court, arrested Mr. Zelaya and sent him into exile (in his pajamas, to Costa Rica). This was described as a "coup" by the news media, and was denounced by, among others, Hugo Chavez, who threatened military action to restore Mr. Zelaya to power, and the Obama administration.
Mr. Zelaya, with Venezuelan help, was trying to execute a coup against the Honduran constitution than to accuse the military — which was acting on orders from the supreme court and with the support of the legislature (124 of 128 deputies in the unicameral congress endorsed Mr. Zelaya's removal Sunday afternoon) — of having done so.
Daniel Lopez Carballo, a retired Honduran general, told CNN that if the military hadn't acted, Mr. Chavez, the Venezuelan dictator, would have been running Honduras by proxy.
Typically in a coup, the military seizes control of the government. But the military quickly surrendered power to an acting president — from Mr. Zelaya's own party — chosen by the national congress.
Mary O'Grady from Wall Street Journal
Hugo Chávez's coalition-building efforts suffered a setback yesterday when the Honduran military sent its president packing for abusing the nation's constitution.
It seems that President Mel Zelaya miscalculated when he tried to emulate the success of his good friend Hugo in reshaping the Honduran Constitution to his liking.
But Honduras is not out of the Venezuelan woods yet. Yesterday the Central American country was being pressured to restore the authoritarian Mr. Zelaya by the likes of Fidel Castro, Daniel Ortega, Hillary Clinton and, of course, Hugo himself. The Organization of American States, having ignored Mr. Zelaya's abuses, also wants him back in power. It will be a miracle if Honduran patriots can hold their ground.
Associated Press
That Mr. Zelaya acted as if he were above the law, there is no doubt. While Honduran law allows for a constitutional rewrite, the power to open that door does not lie with the president. A constituent assembly can only be called through a national referendum approved by its Congress.
But Mr. Zelaya declared the vote on his own and had Mr. Chávez ship him the necessary ballots from Venezuela. The Supreme Court ruled his referendum unconstitutional, and it instructed the military not to carry out the logistics of the vote as it normally would do.
The top military commander, Gen. Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, told the president that he would have to comply. Mr. Zelaya promptly fired him. The Supreme Court ordered him reinstated. Mr. Zelaya refused.
Calculating that some critical mass of Hondurans would take his side, the president decided he would run the referendum himself. So on Thursday he led a mob that broke into the military installation where the ballots from Venezuela were being stored and then had his supporters distribute them in defiance of the Supreme Court's order.
The attorney general had already made clear that the referendum was illegal, and he further announced that he would prosecute anyone involved in carrying it out. Yesterday, Mr. Zelaya was arrested by the military and is now in exile in Costa Rica.
It remains to be seen what Mr. Zelaya's next move will be. It's not surprising that chavistas throughout the region are claiming that he was victim of a military coup. They want to hide the fact that the military was acting on a court order to defend the rule of law and the constitution, and that the Congress asserted itself for that purpose, too.
Mrs. Clinton has piled on as well. Yesterday she accused Honduras of violating "the precepts of the Interamerican Democratic Charter" and said it "should be condemned by all." Fidel Castro did just that. Mr. Chávez pledged to overthrow the new government.
Honduras is fighting back by strictly following the constitution. The Honduran Congress met in emergency session yesterday and designated its president as the interim executive as stipulated in Honduran law. It also said that presidential elections set for November will go forward. The Supreme Court later said that the military acted on its orders. It also said that when Mr. Zelaya realized that he was going to be prosecuted for his illegal behavior, he agreed to an offer to resign in exchange for safe passage out of the country. Mr. Zelaya denies it.
Many Hondurans are going to be celebrating Mr. Zelaya's foreign excursion. Street protests against his heavy-handed tactics had already begun last week. On Friday a large number of military reservists took their turn. "We won't go backwards," one sign said. "We want to live in peace, freedom and development."
Besides opposition from the Congress, the Supreme Court, the electoral tribunal and the attorney general, the president had also become persona non grata with the Catholic Church and numerous evangelical church leaders. On Thursday evening his own party in Congress sponsored a resolution to investigate whether he is mentally unfit to remain in office.
For Hondurans who still remember military dictatorship, Mr. Zelaya also has another strike against him: He keeps rotten company. Earlier this month he hosted an OAS general assembly and led the effort, along side OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza, to bring Cuba back into the supposedly democratic organization.
The OAS response is no surprise. Former Argentine Ambassador to the U.N. Emilio Cárdenas told me on Saturday that he was concerned that "the OAS under Insulza has not taken seriously the so-called 'democratic charter.' It seems to believe that only military 'coups' can challenge democracy. The truth is that democracy can be challenged from within, as the experiences of Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and now Honduras, prove." A less-kind interpretation of Mr. Insulza's judgment is that he doesn't mind the Chávez-style coup.
The struggle against chavismo has never been about left-right politics. It is about defending the independence of institutions that keep presidents from becoming dictators. This crisis clearly delineates the problem. In failing to come to the aid of checks and balances, Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Insulza expose their true colors.
Write to O'Grady@wsj.com
BO and his co-clowns were not very shrewd in this situation. A much better political and practical reaction would be the ill-applied one when the Tehran protests began: " We are watching closely and reviewing the legal basis of Z's removal. For now we call for calm blah blah etc."
Keep you options open rather than rushing to ingratiate yourself to Hugo! this portrays a completely amateur foreign policy capability in this administration. BO is in some lib/utopian fantasy cooked up in a classroom and soaked in a coffee house. No real world, historical analysis. This is like a group of toddlers playing with bottles of nitroglycerin.
Amateur hour at the White House. Shades of things to come? People everywhere love freedom, and not oppression. Speak no evil, see no evil and hear no evil occupy this white house when it comes to tyrants.
great post!! if any of your readers are interested in quality ARCH SUPPORTS just click the highlighted links.