Friday, October 16, 2009

Flying Down To Tegucigalpa

As Barack Obama befriends banana republics by the bunch while turning the United States into the Chiquita Banana of banana republics, a small Republican Congressional delegation flew down to Honduras to see for themselves what was really going on.

The delegation was headed by Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina. For the record, they brought along a couple of law school professors of international law and constitutional law. Not surprisingly, their findings don't look anything like the putsch that Obama and his merry band of leftists would have Americans believe.

To start with, the delegation found that government and the private sector were just humming along with none of the signs of a military coup that Obama's left guard has been foisting off on Americans and the sycophantic mainstream media. Unlike the completely democratic Venezuela which enforces peace, love, and brotherhood in Caracas by maintaining large military encampments in full sight of the capital and close to the remaining newspaper offices, there is no strong military presence in or around Tegucigalpa. Well, there is one exception. The reserve troops maintained around the Brazilian embassy to keep power-hungry former president Manuel Zelaya from sallying forth to stir up civil unrest.

Even former Zelaya supporters freely admit that there has been no repression, that civil order is taking care of itself without any need for military or police enforcement, and though they didn't much like their candidate being summarily removed from office and spirited out of Honduras, they realize there are strong legal and constitutional reasons for the Honduran Supreme Court and the Honduran Congress to have done so.

Another false Obama tale is that it was a military coup. There have been plenty of those in Central and South America over the years, and since Obama is a complete ignoramus about foreign affairs, he just jumped right on the bandwagon of ignorance. Zelaya attempted to overthrow the Honduran constitution in order to become president for life like his good friend Hugo Chavez. Because there have been so many "peaceful" coups like that in that part of the world, the Honduran constitution is extremely tough on sitting presidents attempting to hang on to power. It forbids any sitting president from proposing, supporting, encouraging, or in any other manner publicly attempting to change the constitutional term of office of president while holding that office. The enabling legislation is draconian. Once sufficient evidence has been produced that the president has broken that rule, the president is subject to immediate removal from office (and in a less clear provision, to be ordered out of the country if there is sufficient evidence to prove that the president would attempt to challenge his removal).

Zelaya refused to leave office after the finding of the Supreme Court and the censure of the Honduran Congress and there is some evidence he was preparing to mobilize troops to back him. That produced his expulsion. He was escorted to the airport and put on a plane by the military, under orders from the Supreme Court and the Congress. To a simpleton like Barack Obama, that makes it a "military coup." He doesn't understand the U. S. Constitution so how can we expect him to understand the constitution of Honduras? So exactly who would our prissy president have expected to remove a potential dictator from Honduras, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence?

Honduras, a solid constitutional republic, has shaken off its mini-crisis and moved on. If it weren't for the ignorant interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign nation abiding by the rule of law, this whole incident would have been a mere blip on the radar screen. But three socialist presidents have managed to turn the facts and the law upside down--Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Lula da Silva of Brazil, and Barack Obama of Chicago. The elections that will occur in due course and in proper constitutional form on November 29 were scheduled over a year ago, and the candidates named at that time. If this was a military coup, isn't it a bit odd that the interim president, chosen as provided by the constitution, is not on the ballot and has no intention of running for the office again? Even Zelaya's vice-president and personal friend, who is the proper nominee of Zelaya's party, has stated very clearly that he believes the elections will be fair and untainted by any hint of military interference.

The opinion of Harold Koh, Obama's man in the Justice Department, is supposed to demonstrate that Zelaya's ouster was illegal. But Justice and the Obamists claim it is an internal memo, not subject to public review. Aw, c'mon you damned fools, are we really supposed to believe that? Meanwhile, the senior analyst at the Law Library of Congress has declared the ouster to be fully legal and constitutional. And unlike Barack Obama's invisible legal treatises from Harvard and Koh's alleged opinion, the Congressional analysis is not only public, but published and available on the internet Opinion of Law Library of Congress. Even James Kirchik, the legal writer for the liberal Democratic magazine The New Republic, wrote an article on October 3 declaring that the Obama administration had acted hastily, precipitously, and foolishly. He described Obama's policy as "a mistake in search of a rationale."

Obama and his two socialist ally presidents know that if they fail to blow up the November elections with their dishonest and dangerous position on Zelaya, the whole issue will die a natural death with the installation of the newly-elected president. Zelaya will simply have no legal or constitutional claim on the office since his term would have expired after the November elections anyway.

So as Senator DeMint concludes, the only figure of any standing whatsoever in Honduras who sides with Zelaya is American Ambassador Hugo Llorens. When DeMint asked how he could take a postition contrary to every lawyer, politician and judge in Honduras, Lloren referred the Senator to the legal opinion of Koh--you know, the one nobody is allowed to see outside of Obama's inner circle.

18 comments:

Writer X said...

Obama/Gibbs have been predictably quiet on this issue during his recent press conferences and, not surprisingly, the MSM doesn't seem to want to tackle it either. I wonder if Hillary will be heading down to Honduras anytime soon with her tail between her legs, carrying a "reset" button. I'm glad the Hondurans had the courage to fight this. The situation in Honduras highlights just one more example of who our President really is.

StanH said...

Wow, Lawhawk! It’s amazing that we’ve allowed devout Marxist to gain the reins of power in the USA. It sounds to me that Honduras is handling their internal affairs, well and proper. I hope that this country handles it’s constitutional responsibility in 2012, and sends our Barry home, wherever that is. With this administration expect them to side counter to any normal American beliefs, then we wont be disappointed.

PS: Lawhawk! I know this is not about Honduras, but with the smelt fish and so many tens of thousands of people affected. What about the 10th Amendment. What would happen if CA just opened the water to the San Wakeen Valley. It sounds like the Barry is trying to turn CA into a third world cesspool, like Rhodesia the former bread basket of Africa to modern Zimbabwe the basket case of Africa. I heard the Rhodesia/Zimbabwe analogy on “The Boortz Show” yesterday, it seems apt for CA?

Game Master Rob Adams said...

Writer X - One thing's for sure about Hillary. Her reset button won't say "That was easy!"

Unknown said...

WriterX: Part of Obama's decision-making process (if you can call it that) is "who's putting the most pressure on me?" Right now, Chavez is busy consorting with Iran, da Silva is busy trying to explain hyperinflation to his Congress, and Americans have been surprisingly supportive of Honduras considering most didn't even know where it was just a few months ago. The likelihood is that he'll try one more time to broker a "peace" compromise, and when that fails, Zelaya will find himself under the bus reserved for people foolish enough to take Obama at his word.

Unknown said...

StanH: I don't think comrade Obama even considers whether an action is constitutional or not. And remember how long it took the Supreme Court to undo Roosevelt's unconstitutional National Recovery Administration and Agricultural Adjustment Administration. Obama just comes up with some wild socialist scheme then leaves it to others to figure out how to pretend it's constitutional.

There is a provision in the California Constitution which has a trigger that allows the governor to declare the environmental issue subordinate to the emergency. Ahnuld telephoned in his "appearance" at a rally of farmers and residents pleading for his help a couple months ago. He told the crowds how much he sympathized with their plight and he would do everything to help them. Shortly afterwards, a reporter asked him why he didn't exercise the emergency option. Ahnuld actually said "it's not time yet." He's Obama with a German accent.

The Federal EPA has supremacy (don't ask my opinion of that), but California's EPA is even worse, so it would require bold action by the governor. Not gonna happen. As a lawyer, I would never say this. But as a 60s activist, I think it would be just a fine idea to break into the facilities surrounding the valves and pumps, and open 'em up. They can't even kick students out of state university offices occupied by them for the leftist cause of the day. How are they going to kick out a huge group of angry farmers and farm workers determined to save their jobs, their families. the breadbasket of the world, and the economy of California?

Arizona, Idaho and Wyoming citizens (sometimes with the support of local government)have each had at least one confrontation with the feds and won, usually over closing off logging roads which merely pass over federal property. It's amazing how effective a large bulldozer and a determined citizenry can be.

Unknown said...

ArmChairGeneral: Given the sleaziness and back-stabbing inherent in Obama's personality and throughout his administration, he may send Hillary in to demand Zelaya's return to power, then pull the rug out from under her by declaring that she has misrepresented the president's position. Then he could throw her under the bus once and for all. Two birds with one stone: Deflect the criticism of his support for dictators and wannabe dictators, and eliminate a dangerous political rival.

HamiltonsGhost said...

The one time Obama shoots from the hip, and he gets it completely wrong. Then he refuses to admit he's wrong. Then he orders his press secretary to lie about it. And now he's hoping the whole thing will just go away (which it will if he keeps his nose out of it). That's what Democrats call "leadership."

Unknown said...

HamiltonsGhost: Think of the parallel with Iran. In Honduras, Obama saw a friend of Chavez caught in self-created political chicanery, and rushed to his defense. In Iran, in the wake of a clearly rigged election and massive street demonstrations by opponents of the madman president of Iran, Obama talked, deliberated, waffled, held meetings, and did absolutely nothing. The man is beneath contempt.

StanH said...

Lawhawk! I think it would be wonderful if the hard working citizens of the San Wakeen Valley took matters into their own hands. I think the outpouring of support would be massive. We haven’t made a suicide pact with Washington when your very life is in jeopardy because of a stupid fish, sheesh!

Unknown said...

StanH: Although I am an officer of the court and a believer in the rule of law, some acts are so egregious that civil disobedience becomes the only recourse. The civil rights movement of the 60s was nothing more than massive civil disobedience which resulted in massive changes in the law. With so many lives and families at stake, I'm beginning to feel those stirrings again. This is no longer a matter of simple economics, but a matter of overwhelming danger to the republic and to the entire concept that human life has greater value than a useless, stinking fish.

I'm not yet ready to advocate civil disobedience, but frankly I would support it enthusiastically if the farmers and wounded families took matters into their own hands. And as Lincoln and Justice Jackson both said, "the Constitution is not a suicide pact." There are still legal and Constitutional routes to pursue, but time is running short, and the civil authorities better get their priorities straight very soon or face open rebellion.

StanH said...

I look at it as an unjust command in the military, you are not obliged to follow that order. In this case with that damn fish it’s simply unjust or stupid if you will, human beings are being decimated because of environmentalism and some dum-koff’s over active imagination at the Sierra Club. We are a country of laws, and this is what makes us great, but, this is right out of Saul Alinsky’s, “Rules for Radicals,” to paraphrase “use their own rules against them.” We must get sanity back into the decision process in this country, screw the fish!

FB Hink said...

To get back to Honduras, there has been no other foreign policy debacle that has angered me more than the obamanistas’ (I termed that a while back because his group has always seemed a little Banana Republic-ish to begin with) approach to Honduras. Since the peak of Marxism in the Latin American and Caribbean region in the 80’s, most of the nations were growing into strong democracies until Chavez came along and destabilized the region again. Even if our policy toward Honduras was a simple misunderstanding – yeah, fat chance – the obamanistas will more than likely destroy many of these democracies and be responsible for the enslavement of millions. He probably won the Nobel Peace Prize as a reward for his promotion of progressive socialism in the third world. Sickening.

Unknown said...

StanH: That would make a great marching slogan. Screw the fish!

These enviro-freaks have affected the economy, rational development, and people's lives negatively for years. But this is an entirely different thing. The scale is so huge, so many lives are affected, and the economic damage is nearly incalculable. And it's all completely unforgivable. Even eco-scientists have stated that the Delta smelt has zero effect either way on the ecology. The time for talk is nearly over, the time for serious action is quickly approaching.

Unknown said...

FB Hink: All his other forays have been outside of the western hemisphere. This is his first attempt to turn the Monroe Doctrine on its head and turn Lincoln's words into "government of the oligarchs, by the oligarchs and for the oligarchs." Hondurans and the Honduran government have been very pro-American. That's why Obama wants to turn the country over to Chavez and Zelaya. The last thing on earth Obama wants is a successful, peaceful, constitutional republic which is pro-American. We need to oppress Honduras so Obama can add them to the list of people to apologize to.

AndrewPrice said...

Lawhawk, I think it's funny that a small delegation of Republicans have done more to fix this issue than the entire State Department!

Now let's see if they can solve the whole issue.

Unknown said...

Andrew: I'm beginning to think that one dead Republican could make better choices than the entire Obama State Department.

I just saw that Zelaya gave the Honduran government a two day deadline to put him back in office. What's supposed to happen after the deadline expires is unknown at this time.

Tennessee Jed said...

I think it was Winston Groom who coined the term "stupid is as stupid does," which can easily be modified to "marxist is as marxist does." All of this reminds me of how amazing the English language can be.

Most of us who are educated may not have completely known for certain, but at least were highly suspect of where Obama comes from ideologically speaking. No wonder he went to such pains to supress his early history. We have essentially allowed the S.D.S. to grab the reins of power in this country. And yet, as the actions make this more and more obvious, professional spinmeisters are able to deny it with a (mostly) straight face.

Unknown said...

Tennessee: Agreed. But have you noticed that the "straight-faced" Obama supporters are hard-pressed to suppress the little beads of sweat that are starting to pop out occasionally? It's hard to tell if their pants are on fire, but their noses are also starting to grow visibly.

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