Obama on the wrong side yet again!

[busyb555]

Sunday, September 06, 2009
Wrong to cut off aid to Honduras
From the National Center for Public Policy Research:


Obama Administration Wrong to Cut Off Aid to Honduras

by David Ridenour


The Senate recently confirmed Sonia Sotomayor as the 111th Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, but it needn’t have bothered. The Obama Administration apparently believes Supreme Courts can be ignored.

Following the removal of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya from office, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was quick to condemn the move, saying it could create a “terrible precedent.”

What terrible precedent did she think might be established? A Latin American country actually following its constitution?

Despite what you may have heard from Secretary Clinton or read in the press, there was no coup d’etat in Honduras. Manuel Zelaya, a Hugo Chavez wannabe, was legally removed from office for violating his country’s constitution to extend his power.

Zelaya had proposed a national referendum to amend Honduran constitution to permit him to serve an unlimited number of terms – much as Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez proposed in 2007. But unlike Venezuela, the chief executive in Honduras is constitutionally-barred from proposing such a referendum.

Zelaya was legally removed from office in a 15-0 decision by the Honduran Supreme Court for violating Article 239 of the Constitution which states: “No citizen that has already served as head of the Executive Branch can be President or Vice President. Whoever violates this law or proposes its reform…will immediately cease in their functions and will be unable to hold any public office for a period of 10 years.” Significantly, nine of the Supreme Court Justices are members of Zelaya’s party.

To the Court’s credit, its initial response to Zelaya’s referendum was very restrained. Rather than ordering his immediate removal from office, it ruled his referendum unconstitutional and ordered the military – which normally carries out balloting logistics – to refrain from distributing ballots.

But Zelaya decided to go ahead with it anyway. When his country’s top military leader, General Vasquez Velasquez, refused to violate the Court’s order, Zelaya fired him. When the Court ordered him reinstated, Zelaya refused.

Zelaya and a group of his supporters then broke into a military facility where the referendum ballots were stored, stole them and began distributing them in violation of the Court’s directive. The ballots, not surprisingly, we manufactured in Venezuela.

Zelaya shouldn’t have just been removed from office, he should have been imprisoned.

Yet, the U.S. has condemned Honduras, rescinded aid to the country and cut off an unspecified number of visas sought by Hondurans desiring to visit the United States – an unfortunate consequence of a President and Secretary of State completely out of their depth.

The Hondurans can be forgiven if they’re just a little bit protective of their Constitution. At the time Honduras adopted its current constitution in 1982, it had already gone through 15 constitutions since gaining independence from Spain – a new one, on average, every 10 years.

Previous constitutions proved ineffective in restraining executive power and led to a succession of authoritarian military regimes. This is why the current constitution requires the removal of any president who proposes extending his term.

One can’t argue with the results. President Zelaya’s election marked the seventh consecutive democratic election in Honduras, the most in its history. By removing him, Honduras was simply acting to prevent that streak from ending.

By denouncing rather than praising Honduras’ defense of its democracy, and by cutting off all aid to the Honduran government, the Obama Administration has sent the wrong message to Hondurans who have paid an enormous price for it.

It sent the wrong message to Hugo Chavez and other regional despots who now must question America’s commitment to defending democracy.

And it sent the wrong message to Americans concerned about Obama’s commitment to democratic values in the wake of “Fishygate” and the intimidation of critics of the President at town hall meetings by his union supporters.

If Barack Obama continues to put his ideology before freedom, he may fall to a kind of coup himself – something the rest of us like to call “elections.”


David A. Ridenour is vice president of the Washington, D.C.-based National Center for Public Policy Research.

[markwjam]

sorry, for all the reasoned sounding rhetoric, this was an out-and-out military coup, a return to the brutal regimes of the 50s through 80s in Central America...most of which the USA supported materially, including helping train death squads and torture details...certain American corporations loved these regimes (you've heard the term 'banana republic', yes?), as they let them do as they pleased , as long as they bought off small oligarchies, while keeping most of the people of Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and often Panama and Mexico, miserable...
if the US is condemning the coup in Honduras, then for once we are on the side of human rights, instead of on the side of might makes right..
Mark B.

Sunday, September 06, 2009
Wrong to cut off aid to Honduras
From the National Center for Public Policy Research:


Obama Administration Wrong to Cut Off Aid to Honduras

by David Ridenour


The Senate recently confirmed Sonia Sotomayor as the 111th Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, but it needn’t have bothered. The Obama Administration apparently believes Supreme Courts can be ignored.

Following the removal of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya from office, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was quick to condemn the move, saying it could create a “terrible precedent.”

What terrible precedent did she think might be established? A Latin American country actually following its constitution?

Despite what you may have heard from Secretary Clinton or read in the press, there was no coup d’etat in Honduras. Manuel Zelaya, a Hugo Chavez wannabe, was legally removed from office for violating his country’s constitution to extend his power.....

[Neshamah]

The United States government has no more business meddling in South America than it does in Iraq. Even if we act competently (and Obama comes the closest of any U.S. President in at least a century) we are still bound to make more enemies than friends. Citizens of foreign countries do not see the U.S. supporting the lesser evil, they only see the United States supporting evil.

~ Jessica

[Tars]

Interesting background on the "National Center for Public Policy Research"

Wikipedia

Also associated with (former member of the board) Jack Abramoff and Exxon/Mobile.

[Tars]

And it sent the wrong message to Americans concerned about Obama’s commitment to democratic values in the wake of “Fishygate” and the intimidation of critics of the President at town hall meetings by his union supporters.

If Barack Obama continues to put his ideology before freedom, he may fall to a kind of coup himself – something the rest of us like to call “elections.

I received a couple of private mails regarding this opinion piece, one seems to be in favor of the article, one against. I have to admit, that I haven't paid much attention to Honduran politics lately, having more than enough on my plate trying to decipher U.S. internal politics.

My reaction to the piece was to pretty much reject it out of hand though, because of its stilted and highly partisan portrayal of President Obama. "Ideology before freedom" - see bush administration. "Fishygate"? What the heck's that? "Intimidation of critics of the President"? That one evoked a guffaw. Who's using the intimidation tactics? Probably the same people who came up with the term fishygate.

Last - conservatives shouldn't even lecture anyone about meddling in Central American politics.