(Via Dan Collins of POWIP) Senator Jim DeMint (R, SC) is back from Honduras - despite the best efforts of the Democrats to stop him from going - and he’s unkind about what has been pretty obviously an attempt by the American government to admit that we made a mistake and picked the wrong side of the Honduras issue:

[American policy re: the Zelaya ouster] was set in a snap decision the day Mr. Zelaya was removed from office, without a full assessment of either the facts or reliable legal analysis of the constitutional provisions at issue. Three months later, it remains in force, despite mounting evidence of its moral and legal incoherence.

[snip]

In a day packed with meetings, we met only one person in Honduras who opposed Mr. Zelaya’s ouster, who wishes his return, and who mystifyingly rejects the legitimacy of the November elections: U.S. Ambassador Hugo Llorens.

When I asked Ambassador Llorens why the U.S. government insists on labeling what appears to the entire country to be the constitutional removal of Mr. Zelaya a “coup,” he urged me to read the legal opinion drafted by the State Department’s top lawyer, Harold Koh. As it happens, I have asked to see Mr. Koh’s report before and since my trip, but all requests to publicly disclose it have been denied.

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From the diaries, by Erick.

If you are judged by the enemies you accumulate, Honduras is one of the better republics around — all the local tinpot Marxist despots in the region, one that would like to be (Ortega), and the cherry on top : the world’s lone Superpower, led by a radical Marxist sympathizer who has already acted against Honduras and signaled that the world should do likewise.

Purely on the basis of its all-star collection of enemies, I declare Honduras, interim President Roberto Micheletti, the Supreme Court, and the Congress:
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(Via Jen Rubin) Let’s review (I almost did this using an extended metaphor of a fencing match, but I didn’t want actual fencers wincing):

• Sen. John Kerry is the Democratic point man in Foreign Relations for this administration’s messed-up Honduras policy.  He is, in fact, the Foreign Relations chair… which tells you how seriously the Democrats take this committee (i.e., they don’t).
• Sen. Jim DeMint is the Republican determined to wreck Sen. Kerry’s day - both on this administration’s messed-up Honduras policy, and on general principles.
• This administration has a messed-up Honduras policy.
• DeMint therefore slaps a couple of Senatorial holds on some State Department appointments until the administration stops messing up on Honduras policy.
• Kerry responds by denying DeMint the plane that he’d need to go down to Honduras and see for himself how messed up our Honduras policy is.  This is one of those steps that prudent Senate chairs usually don’t take, because it makes it easier for it to happen again, and nobody controls Congress forever.
• DeMint talks to Senate Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell.
• McConnell talks to the Pentagon.
• The Pentagon is, of course, filled with people who didn’t come back from Vietnam and promptly announce that we were worse than the Mongol Horde.  Which is to say, people not like Kerry.
• The Pentagon gives Kerry the Hawaiian good-luck symbol, and DeMint a plane.  DeMint may now go to Honduras and see how messed up our policy is down there.
• DeMint then links this mess to the State Department.
• The State Department promptly disavows themselves of this mess.
• So: Kerry establishes a precedent, doesn’t accomplish his goal of keeping our messed-up Honduras policy off the radar, and doesn’t even get the State Department backing him up.  For a Democrat, that takes skill.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what one motivated Senator can do to mess up another Senator’s day.

Moe Lane

PS: Bear this in mind when the reconciliation question comes up regarding the Democrats’ messed-up health care rationing bill.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

Promoted from the diaries by Erick

From the lips of Obama at the United Freak Show last week:

No one nation can or should try to dominate another nation. No world order that elevates one nation or group of people over another will succeed.
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[snip]
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There are basic principles that are universal; there are certain truths which are self-evident — and the United States of America will never waver in our efforts to stand up for the right of people everywhere to determine their own destiny.

OK then, big boy. How about let’s start with Honduras? How about you butt the heck out of Honduras, seeing as how the smart people conclude you are wrong about the recent so-called ‘coup’?

This week we find that the Congressional Research Service (CRS) states that Honduras acted within their laws in deposing Chavez-buddy, would-be dictator Manuel Zelaya.

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(H/T: AoSHQ) Not to mention Brazil’s public and increasingly outrageous assistance to Zelaya. So it’s going to have to stop:

Honduras is accusing Brazil’s government of instigating an insurrection within its borders, and gave the Brazilian Embassy 10 days to decide the status of ousted Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya, who has taken refuge there.

[snip]

The statement said Honduras would be forced to take measures against Brazil if Brazil did not define its position on Zelaya. It did not specify what those measures would be.

Well, according to Zelaya himself it’ll mean more hallucinogenic Jewish gas - no, really: that’s what he thinks - although it’d more likely that the Hondurans will just PNGing the entire Brazilian embassy and refusing to credential more until Zelaya is either in a Honduran jail, or is both de jure and de facto out of Honduran territory.  Given the general lack of a popular uprising to ‘rescue’ the ousted former president from his durance vile, that would be a reasonably face-saving way to end the confrontation.

Mind you, the way that this administration seems determined to play Ugly American, we might not be so lucky.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

(Via @jeffemanuel) One wonders whether something got lost in translation.

They’re torturing me, Honduras’ Zelaya claims

Honduras’ fallen leader told The Miami Herald he is being subjected to mind-altering gas and radiation — and that `Israeli mercenaries’ are planning to assassinate him.

TEGUCIGALPA — It’s been 89 days since Manuel Zelaya was booted from power. He’s sleeping on chairs, and he claims his throat is sore from toxic gases and “Israeli mercenaries” are torturing him with high-frequency radiation.

On the other hand, when it comes to this sort of thing eventually somebody decides to blame it all on the Jews.  Apparently, in this case Zeleya’s got “Israeli mercenaries” going after him with sonic weapons and radiation!  Spying on him with rays!  Can somebody explain why we’re backing this lunatic, again?  Oh, right: because the administration got caught unprepared by events, went off half-cocked, and guessed wrong: and God forbid that this administration ever admit that it’s capable of error.

I swear, it’s like the President is deliberately trying to be a caricature of all the Left-wing fantasies about President Bush.

Moe Lane

PS: Ed Morrissey has an extremely apt song in mind.

*Sarcasm. At least on my part.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

[UPDATE 6:30 EDT : the government has imposed a curfew from 4pm today till 6am tomorrow]

Multiple sources (Reuters) (AP) report that ousted and exiled former president Manuel Zelaya is back in Honduras, hidden for the moment in somebody’s embassy and therefore out of the reach of authorities, who have promised to arrest him and try him for treason if he re-appears on sovereign Honduran soil.

By the way, when you hear the name Manuel Zelaya, you should think pal and disciple of Venezuelan thug dictator Hugo Chavez.

Zelaya was ousted in what has widely been reported in the American press as a “coup” on June 28. The United Nations, the Obama administration, the OAS and other dubious characters like Hugo Chavez have roundly condemned the constitutional government in Honduras and have worked diligently to bring pressure to bear to reverse events in Honduras. The Reuters link above includes the assertion that “Soldiers toppled Zelaya”.

The truth is quite the opposite. Honduran officials acted perfectly according to their own constitution and within their authority in removing from office a president who was attempting to install himself as the permanent ruler similarly to how Hugo Chavez did in Venezuela. Take your time reading the sources. The facts of the matter are widely available, yet the Obama administration has led the way in applying pressure to Honduras, invoking economic sanctions and going so far as to revoke the visas of most high Honduran officials in order to block their attendance at this month’s United Nations General Assembly. You don’t want to know who all *did* make the cut and will attend. OK, yes you do: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Raul Castro, Hugo Chavez, and Muammar Gaddafi.

So far today:

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Which is, of course, much different than being ‘a victim of a coup.’ After carefully and reasonably setting out the chain of events of the Honduran non-coup (something, I am forced to note, that this slapdash administration we have running foreign affairs neglected to do before reflexively supporting Zelaya*), Estrada finishes up:

It cannot be right to call this a “coup.” Micheletti was lawfully made president by the country’s elected Congress. The president is a civilian. The Honduran Congress and courts continue to function as before. The armed forces are under civilian control. The elections scheduled for November are still scheduled for November. Indeed, after reviewing the Constitution and consulting with the Supreme Court, the Congress and the electoral tribunal, respected Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga recently stated that the only possible conclusion is that Zelaya had lawfully been ousted under Article 239 before he was arrested, and that democracy in Honduras continues fully to operate in accordance with law. All Honduran bishops joined Rodriguez in this pronouncement.

True, Zelaya should not have been arbitrarily exiled from his homeland. That, however, does not mean he must be reinstalled as president of Honduras. It merely makes him an indicted private citizen with a meritorious immigration beef against his country.

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The Obama foreign policy is increasingly becoming a disaster.

In today’s episode, Barack Obama admits that the ousted President of Honduras “has strongly opposed American policies,” but should be reinstalled as President despite the democratic institutions of Honduras ousting him pursuant to the terms of the Honduran constitution.

Why?

Because he was democratically elected.

Nevermind that Zelaya wants to stay President via undemocratic means. Don’t look behind that curtain.

This is foreign policy by farce.

“America supports now the restoration of the democratically-elected President of Honduras, even though he has strongly opposed American policies,” the president told graduate students at the commencement ceremony of Moscow’s New Economic School. “We do so not because we agree with him. We do so because we respect the universal principle that people should choose their own leaders, whether they are leaders we agree with or not. “

How exactly is this consistent with Iran? Oh wait, he’s fine with the nutcase there too who rigged the election to stay in power.

Let’s add superficial to farcical and we have Obama’s foreign policy operation. And you know, let me be honest with you, I can’t imagine even Hillary Clinton going along with all of this by choice.

Mr. President, you’ve made quite a thing of late of running around the world “apologizing” for one perceived past sin of America after another.

But it does no credit to a man - nor to his native manliness - to continually apologize for things in which he was not involved.

It’s long past time for you and your Administration to own up to any spur-of-the-moment misunderstandings, and correct what was done wrong.

In 1989, it would have been unfathomable for any American in a position of political leadership to call for the reinstatement in power in Romania of the dreadful Nikolai Ceausescu (and his equally-dreadful wife Elena).

You need to face up to the situation in Honduras - right now - and not inflict that sort of travesty on the Honduran people.

More below the fold.

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I write a weekly newspaper column in Middle Georgia that typically deals with local issues. This week, however, I thought it necessary to write about Honduras.

Ignoring the constitution, President Manuel Zelaya, a man less popular in Honduras than George Bush was when he left office in this country, ordered a “non-binding” referendum be put to the voters on extending his stay in office.

Glenn Garvin wrote in the Miami Herald, “After the Honduran supreme court ruled that only the country’s congress could call such an election, Zelaya ordered the army to help him stage it anyway. … When the head of the armed forces, acting on orders from the supreme court, refused, Zelaya fired him, then led a mob to break into a military base where the ballots were stored.”

The Honduran Supreme Court, congress, attorney general and members of Zelaya’s cabinet opposed his move as unconstitutional. The supreme court ordered the military to remove Zelaya from office. Honduras has no impeachment process as we know it.

. . . .

Now Roberto Micheletti, a member of Zelaya’s own political party, is president of Honduras. Despite protests from Zelaya’s supporters, the nation’s trade unions, business groups, Catholic Church, and most citizens supported Zelaya’s ouster — no one wanted a tyrant, let alone one propped up by drug lords and marxist thugs like Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro.

Nonetheless, Barack Obama declared the Honduran government’s actions a coup — never mind the government was preserving its democracy instead of overthrowing it. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, “The action taken against Honduran President Mel Zelaya violates the precepts of the Inter-American Democratic Charter, and thus should be condemned by all.” She called on Hondurans to uphold their constitutional processes, the very thing they were doing by ousting Zelaya.

On June 4, Barack Obama said from Egypt, “No system of government can or should be imposed on one nation by any other.” Two weeks ago, regarding the popular uprising in Iran, he said, “How that plays out over the next several days and several weeks is something ultimately for the Iranian people to decide.” As with his campaign promises, our president quickly forgets his own words.

For perspective, Obama more quickly condemned President Zelaya’s ouster by a democratic government than he condemned Iran for gunning down its citizens who had taken to the streets to demand freedom. Obama needed public pressure to even discuss Iran. Sadly, our president needs public pressure to align his moral compass toward freedom.

You can read the whole thing here.

The only sad thing is that the paper took out my Jimmy Carter crack. One of the sentences in the column is:

Presidents in Latin American countries, like herpes, have a habit of never going away.

Originally, it noted that “like herpes and Jimmy Carter” Latin American presidents have a habit of not going away.

The people of Honduras have struggled too long to have their hard-won democracy stolen from them by a Chavez-style dictator. The Honduran Congress, the Honduran Supreme Court, and the Honduran military have acted in accordance to the Honduran constitution and the rule of law.

For weeks leading to his arrest, Zelaya flouted the constitutional authority of the Honduran Congress and Supreme Court, and claimed for himself extra-constitutional control of his nation’s military and political institutions. Every institution from the Electoral Tribunal to the Supreme Court ruled that his actions were unjustified and illegal. Zelaya’s open defiance of democratic norms has set Honduras on a path toward violence, instability, and tyranny.

I am hopeful that as President Obama grows in office, he will eventually turn away from despots like Ahmadinejad, Chavez, Castro, and Zelaya, and give the United States’ full-throated support to the people of any country who are fighting for the same values we cherish and defend in America. The people fighting for freedom around the world, in Iran and Honduras, should never have to wonder which side America will choose between freedom and tyranny.

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Call the members of the House and Senate foreign relations committees. Urge that they support Roberto Micheletti and the actions of the Honduran Supreme Court and Congress.

Go here to find the phone numbers.

Note: you’ll only see your Congressman or Senator IF they serve on the relevant committees.

Former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, in defiance of the Honduran Supreme Court and Congress, attempted to hold an unconstitutional referendum to set himself up as President for life.

His move was backed by Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, and Barack Obama.

The democratic institutions of Honduras ordered the Honduran military to arrest Zelaya and named Robert Micheletti as President of Honduras.

Zelaya tried to make himself a dictator. Barack Obama has sided with American enemies against the lawfully elected government of Honduras.

Call the members of the House and Senate foreign relations committees. Urge that they support Roberto Micheletti and the actions of the Honduran Supreme Court and Congress.

Before you go to bed tonight, you absolutely must read this.

And if you are just checking in in the morning and have not read it, you absolutely must read this.

Then, after you have read it AND ONLY AFTER YOU HAVE READ IT, go here.

Matthew Cunningham, over at Red County, has a post worth reading about Barack Obama’s disastrous foreign policy.

We need to pay attention to Obama’s foreign policy. It is shaping up to be fatal to American interests.

He has given only tepid support to democratic protestors in Iran — and only after much needling and pushing by Republicans.

He has burned bridges with the French, something no one thought possible.

He has insulted the British and refuses to embrace the idea of it being our strongest alliance.

He refuses to take on the North Koreans despite their intentions to launch a missile toward Hawaii.

And now Barack Obama is standing with Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, and a host of communist regimes and sympathizers in Central and South America on the issue of Honduras.

To recap: The Honduran President decided, like Hugo Chavez, to have an “election” in order to keep himself in office longer than the law allowed.

The Honduran Constitution requires that Presidents serve one term. Given Latin American history, it is a good thing. The Constitution also requires that referenda be approved by the Honduran Congress.

The President of Honduras decided to have a referendum on giving him more time in office, which the Congress blocked. He went ahead anyway. The Honduran Supreme Court told him to stop. He ignored them.

So the Congress and the Supreme Court ordered the military to remove the President of Honduras. It was no coup. It was an attempt by two co-equal branches of government from preventing the third co-equal branch from becoming a dictator.

Nonetheless, Barack Obama sees it differently. He is supporting the democratically ousted President of Honduras. He joins Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro.

Meanwhile, people are still dying on the streets of Iran.

(Background here.)

They had a court order.  Fausta updated:

1:50PM
Indeed, Honduras’ La Prensa states that (My translation: If you use this, please credit me and link to this post)

An official statement of the Supreme Court of Justice explained that the Armed Forces acted under lawful grounds when detaining the President of the Republic, and by decommissioning the materials to be used on the illegal poll which aimed to bring forth Executive Power against a judicial order.Other sources verified that the president of the Congress, Roberto Micheletti, will assume the presidency of the republic in a few hours.
…
Honduran president Manuel Zelaya was detained this morning by the military in compliance with an order of the courts of law.

Meanwhile, the foreign policy experts over at State and the White House* have gone into, bluntly, full Ugly American mode: they’re currently declining to recognize the right of the Hondurans to remove their own head of state on constitutional grounds. Apparently, when it’s a choice between a chief executive on the one hand and said chief executive’s country’s judiciary, legislature, military, and own political party on the other… well, it all apparently depends on what Hugo Chavez thinks.

Let’s just hope that they don’t ask Chavez what he thinks about the Jews.

Moe Lane

PS: Let me expand on that just a little.  I don’t think that this administration is slavishly following Chavez’s lead: I think that they care so little about South American affairs that accommodating their stance to that of a darling of the radical Left seems to them to be a no-brainer.  If the White House is worried about getting the answer to this wrong, it’s not immediately obvious.

*H/T: Gateway Pundit, Hot Air.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

Via Fausta’s Blog:

Soldiers arrest Honduran president: AP+

MECIXO CITY, June 28 (AP) - (Kyodo)—Soldiers on Sunday arrested the Honduran president and took him to an air force base just before voting was to begin on a disputed constitutional election, according to the Associated Press.

President Manuel Zelaya’s private secretary told the AP that Zelaya was arrested and brought to a base on the outskirts of the capital, Tegucigalpa.

[snip]

Zelaya had pledged to go forward with a referendum on constitutional reform despite the opposition of the Supreme Court, the military, Congress and members of his own party.

Fausta has background here: if you don’t have time to read it, note that proto-dictator Hugo Chavez (and whoever’s channeling Fidel Castro this week) is spitting nails on this. Given that, as the Wall Street Journal notes, this entire thing got started over President Zelaya’s attempt to set up a referendum* in opposition to pretty much the opposition of the rest of the Honduran government, civilian and military… well.  A man is known by his friends, and I wish I knew what the equivalent Spanish idiom is.

Moe Lane

*One that would allow him to run for re-election.  The Honduras Constitution forbids that; given of what I know of South American history, this isn’t exactly surprising.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.