The Spin

Here is the spin out of DC on Honduras:

A win in Honduras
How the Obama administration outmaneuvered Hugo Chávez

Huh?
I have to say my neck hurts. And my head hurts too much to take this apart, but if you’ve been following the story, you’ll see what I mean.

The beauty of the U.S.-brokered deal is that it is founded on democratic process — the very thing the Chavistas want to destroy. The Honduran Congress will vote on whether to restore Mr. Zelaya to office for the three months remaining in his term. Mr. Zelaya says he has the votes to return as president, but if he does, he will head a “government of reconciliation,” and the armed forces will report to the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, a presidential election previously scheduled for Nov. 29 will go forward with international support and regional recognition for the winner. Neither of the two leading presidential candidates supports Mr. Zelaya or his agenda, which means that Honduras’s democracy should be preserved, and Mr. Chávez’s attempted coup rebuffed.

Somehow, by ignoring the democratic process that occurred in June and re-playing it now plus adding the part with the “govt of reconciliation” which is not in the constitution, the Obama administration has shown Chavez what for.
(ps the military reporting to the Supreme Court of rather the Election commission is standard operating procedure for each Honduran election and had already occurred a few days ago. Clever Micheletti let the US govt think it was something he was “agreeing to”. ….can no one in our govt comprehend another country’s laws? or maybe they just don’t understand Spanish.?)

In another clever little twist, while Micheletti has agreed that Congress can determine whether Zelaya can return to power, Congress isn’t in session until AFTER the election, thus assuring that there is someone else in succession rather than Zelaya. Zelaya, should he win congressional approval would have a hard time convincing the international community that he deserves more time in office if someone else is an actual winner of an actual election there.

That makes me laugh.

Back to the first story, written I am certain by the White House and not by the stated author, it notes how with the US being so involved in this latest resolution – thank God we were there – (yes, that sarcasm is dripping, not leaking) – we will need to stay involved to insist that the OAS involve itself in other coups, such as the Nicaraguan situation which we basically ignored until in this particular story….

Here is another Washington Post story with the truth of the situation accidently added in to their last 2 paragraphs.

Some analysts feared that, without a solution, some countries in the hemisphere would recognize the government that emerged from the November election, while others would balk.

“You had a situation there tending toward a rather dramatic divide that would get worse as time went on. The U.S. would be caught in a difficult spot on that,” said Alec Watson, a former U.S. diplomat who works at Hills & Co., a consulting firm.

CYA in capital letters.

LaGringa, who should be followed regularly, is noting that Congress is talking about starting up a session on Monday.

Honduras (you knew I had to blog on this today)

Let’s start with the news.

Michelleti and Zelaya have come up with an agreement that is satisfying to the international community. I don’t know the little details, but the big one is that Zelaya gets to come back if approved by Congress with the prior approval of the Supreme Court. (after which, assuming he’s approved, there would be some sort of power sharing until the winner of the election on November 29 takes over)

Here is the NYTimes story lede by a reporter in Mexico City. (Do they have no one in Honduras??)

A lingering political crisis in Honduras seemed to be nearing an end on Friday after the de facto government agreed to a deal that would allow Manuel Zelaya, the deposed president, to return to office.

Apparently this reporter didn’t get the crib notes. Or rather, she wanted that lede because the 2nd paragraph mentions the roll of Congress….”paving the way” for Zelaya’s return.

Hillary Clinton hurt herself while twisting around to pat herself on the back.

“I cannot think of another example of a country in Latin America that, having suffered a rupture of its democratic and constitutional order, overcame such a crisis through negotiation and dialogue,” Mrs. Clinton said Friday in Islamabad, where she has been meeting with Pakistani officials.

…..

“We were very clearly on the side of the restoration of the constitutional order, and that includes the elections,” Mrs. Clinton said in Islamabad.

Mr. Micheletti appeared to have been persuaded that the warnings were serious.

Dear reporter, there has always been constitutional order in Honduras. The US government is insisting it go away!!!

“The accord allows a vote in Congress on Zelaya’s possible restitution with the prior approval of the Supreme Court,” Mr. Micheletti said in televised comments late Thursday. “This is a significant concession on the part of our government.”

“We are satisfied,” Mr. Zelaya said, according to Reuters. “We are optimistic that my reinstatement is imminent.”

It just so happens that Congress AND the Supreme Court are the folks who ousted Mr. Zelaya oh reporter with no actual knowledge of the situation. The ONLY reason they will reinstate Mr. Zelaya is because of the strong arm tactics taken by our own Mr. Shannon.

From LaGringa.

supposedly Thomas Shannon has been pressuring the congressmen to vote for the restoration of Zelay or else! The exact words were that “Shannon scared the living hell out of everyone here including Micheletti.” Yeah, remember the press conference? “We’re just here to help. We aren’t going to intervene. We’ll respect any decision that the Hondurans make.” Yeah, right. Now they are even threatening elected Honduran officials that they won’t recognize elections unless they vote yes. I’m sure there must be economic threats as well.

Dear Congress/Supreme Court of Honduras….I don’t know what you’re being threatened with, but there are a lot of people on your side here. It hasn’t been major news, but our election on Tuesday is going to prove that our uninformed left has no business being in charge. I suspect that may help the media concentrate on more than just what they are being spoon fed by this administration.

According to Mr. Micheletti, the accord reached late Thursday would establish a unity government and a verification commission to ensure that its conditions are carried out. It would also create a truth commission to investigate the events of the past few months.

The agreement also reportedly asks the international community to recognize the results of the elections and to lift any sanctions that were imposed after the coup.

That was a smart move Mr. President. You obviously care about your country more than power. You have my admiration.

ps from the Washington Post you have another reporter with no understanding of the actual situation.

The key to the deal, Clinton said, was Micheletti’s agreement that Zelaya, who was forced from office in June, would be reinstated before the elections that are scheduled for Nov 29. It remained unclear whether Zelaya would exercise full presidential powers under the agreement. Clinton said the scope of his authority would be determined by the Honduran Congress.

Zelaya is not to be immediately reinstated.

I hate hate hate the Obama apology tours, but Obama owes these people a huge apology for his/our involvement in the affairs of their administration.

LaGringa has suggested a way to help.
Offer to be an election judge.

In other international affairs, Hillary – the person who I HAD been thinking would have at least have been better than Obama if only because she’s so despised maybe she couldn’t get as much done – let Pakistan know that she thinks they’re not doing enough about al-Qaeda.

“Al-Qaeda has had safe haven in Pakistan since 2002,” she said. “I find it hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where they are and couldn’t get them if they really wanted to.”

I do hope she at least mentioned all the dead people that Pakistan has had to deal with since we chased the Taliban and al-Qaeda INTO their country!!!! [link is to the latest car bomb that killed over 100 people there just 2 days ago]

Ruh Roh

The Germans are awaiting leadership out of Obama concerning Afghanistan.

But why should countries like Germany and France believe the verbose promises of a president who is not even sending a clear message at home, even though he has a majority in both houses of Congress?

There is no doubt that hardly a day passes in Europe without criticism of US policy. This has become a trans-Atlantic ritual. But despite this ritual, Europeans are still looking for one thing from the White House: leadership.

We’re waiting, Mr. President.

I don’t care what they want, but thought I’d include the “changing attitudes” overseas here since it was such a big damn deal during the election.

I am loving Honduras

My source [LaGringa of course] in Tegucigalpa tells me that Hillary’s message to Micheletti was “Restore Zelaya or else!” Micheletti is nothing if not consistent. His response was “No”.

Then Micheletti said, “loan us some plane radar so we can find those Venezuelan drug traffickers and Hillary said “No”.”

Funny how everyone wants “flexibility” but all that comes to mean is we want you to reinstate Zelaya.

In further news, even Honduran, Zelaya backing radio is sick and tired of US intervention in their affairs and is suggesting that the upcoming election is the answer.

If you read through LaGringa’s first link you’ll also find that Canada, Panama, Colombia and Costa Rica (yes Arias’ Costa Rica) all are making plans to accept whoever wins the election in Honduras.

Also in the link is a link to a letter by 16 US Congress people to Obama suggesting that the US has huge influence over Honduras and really needs to put the hammer down because Zelaya is “open to dialogue” unlike the “coup leaders” (Huh??) and this administration is sending out mixed messages and in the meantime people are “suffering”.

This whole freaking suffering affair is because the US administration was unwilling to back the rule of law of Honduras!!!! Maxine Waters is a signer of the letter if that gives you any indication of how well thought out the thing is.

Per LaGringa:

How is it that US diplomacy went so wrong that they have made enemies of both sides of Honduran issue?

Butt out! Let Honduras solve its own problem.

Yeah.

Afghanistan

I don’t have strong opinions on this other than that the decision really should not be a political one where “the right” pressures Obama to stay in just to “be strong”.

Would there be consequences for leaving? Yes.
Are there consequences for staying? Yes

Should he make the decision faster than he has? Yes please.

Ralph Peters has a strong opinion. We don’t belong there. It’s worth a read.

Cool!

“I CAN kill you with my Brain”
The Phantom Self. Just in time for Halloween.

Apparently you can imagine yourself doing impossible biometrics with your phantom limbs.

Honduras

LaGringa notes the Nicaraguan elections and how they relate to Honduras. (the Wall Street Journal also covered this)

Bottom line: Nicaragua had a farcical election to allow Noriega extra term(s) in office. No one (OAS, or US) said much. Honduras did what it takes to avoid such a fate and the big boys are condemning them to bullying.
Chavez continues to work to get all of Latin America fitted to his back pocket.

LaGringa has the line of the day:

Is the second poorest country in the hemisphere the only one with the huevos to stand up to Chavismo?

Yes ma’am, it appears this is true.

Obama sees diplomacy as solving everything. Nicaragua was a place where the US military was used to fight communism. We have a history of involvement. Obama is treating them nicely because he doesn’t want to go back to those days. In Honduras we don’t have such a history and knee jerk liberalism says to support the populist. There is no fear of Hondurans needing any US military involvement so Obama is safe to stick to his ridiculous guns here.

Environmental Rescuers are the biggest Believers

Yes – those who work tirelessly to tell you how to live seem to be the biggest believers in the “God made us in his image” than even the most radical Christians I know.

“Give up meat to save the planet!” “Give up children to save the planet!” “Give up pets to save the planet!“

Um – isn’t it true that I am an animal. Just an animal. My job is to eat, reproduce, enjoy my life and drop dead. Just like all the other animals out there. We humans find our niche, work very very hard to expand our populations and go on. Just like all the other animals.

Sure you can say that as a species we have to give up all these activities so that we can expand our populations. But as individuals our job is to reproduce and eat whatever we can find. It’s just natural. It’s not special. It’s not God given dominion. It’s being a part of the world.

Apparently, however, God gave us the ability to reason further meaning we want to save the planet. In that vein, I’d suggest we all give up everything. No more dryers, or air conditioners. No more hair coloring or vehicles. No more medications or doctoring. No more relying on farmers for food or truckers for manufactured goods.

If you can tell me what I “should” give up, then I get to tell you what you “should” give up. Right?
Giving up meat may help, but so would giving up everything, living in a dirt hut and skipping school. Why are your ideas better than mine?

Honduras

It looks like people are getting their backs up again in Honduras. Not good. (via, LaGringa, again!)

Today in a telephone interview with Radio Globo, Zelaya was confident that he will be reinstated, though he declined to give details. He announced that the dialogue was concluded, not suspended. He confirmed that the world will not recognize elections and that Honduras is without an ambassador or consul in the world. [google translation]

I’ll be waiting for an announcement from the US State Department or OAS tomorrow. It’s not looking good.

The US Housing Crisis

Of all the items in the world that the United Nations can spend it’s time on, it’s decided to investigate US housing or lack thereof.

At a town hall meeting last night in Morningside Heights, residents wept and shouted at Ms. Rolnik. They complained about deteriorating public housing, the lack of housing subsidies for AIDS patients, landlord harassment and many other issues, large and small.

She told them: “I am representing the right of adequate housing as a human right.”

One advocate and resident of public housing, Agnes Rivera, wept after telling Ms. Rolnik that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg “doesn’t care about the poor.” Rob Robinson from Picture the Homeless, a local advocacy group, embraced Ms. Rivera and gazed toward the special rapporteur. Later, Ms. Rolnik hugged a resident herself. [thereby proving how much she cares]

Once Ms Rolnik discovers that housing is too expensive in NY for normal people to live what happens?

After that, “We send off letters to governments to ask, ‘Is this true? What’s going on?’ and to please intervene,” she said.

I wonder if she realizes that here in the US of A a person can move to another area if they want less expensive housing. ie NY, NY average rent is $2,959, but Binghamton, NY is $1024.

The unemployment rate in NY, NY is 10.3% while in Binghamton it’s 8.4%….

Maybe the UN could investigate other refugees than people in the US complaining that there is “stigma” associated with public housing.
And what about this woman who for 20 years has had a landlord who has been “trying to push her out” and yes she “has no one to help” her???!!! 20 freaking years? Maybe that poor landlord needs his/her own human rights help.

Across the United States, residents may tell her the same stories as those of New Yorkers — of mortgage scams, too many luxury condos and the stigma associated with public housing.

“We have no one to help us,” said Delores Earley, 73, who said her landlord has been trying to push her out of her Harlem rent-stabilized apartment for 20 years. “Somebody has got to know.”