The Political Fish

Earlier this summer, the people of Honduras decided to fight for their own democracy. They had lived under the repressive rule of a dictator, and they desperately wanted to keep what they had.

Manuel Zelaya was clearly in violation of the countries constitution by attempting to institute changes in the law that would allow him more than the one-term limit imposed by the law of the land.

In addition, Article 239 specifically states that any president who so much as proposes the permissibility of reelection “shall cease forthwith” in his duties, and Article 4 provides that any “infraction” of the succession rules constitutes treason. The rules are so tight because these are terribly serious issues for Honduras, which lived under decades of military rule.

In response to Zelaya’s backdoor attempt around this article in the Constitution, the military came in and removed Zelaya with cause. Thats the background of the Honduran story. A lawful removal of the President for attempting to subvert the Honduran democracy. The Honduran government took all the steps necessary to do it the right way. They installed an interim President (Roberto Michelletti) and moved on.

The months since have been a shameful look into the mindset of the current administration. Early on, the administration took an extremely uneducated, dangerous approach to the situation, insisting that Zelaya be reinstated because he was democratically elected. Completely ignored was Zelaya’s actions after being democratically elected.  Obama and Hillary Clinton began taking the wrong-headed approach of aligning themselves with the likes of Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales, Daniel Ortega and Fidel Castro aka the worst of Latin American tyrants. One would remember that Hugo Chavez was brought to power by democratic election, and remains in power today by the same means that Zelaya was attempting to use.  They joined in chorus with these dictators in denouncing Michelletti, stood quietly as the United Nations and other anti-freedom organizations denounced Honduras, and cut off relations with the government of the tiny Central American nation.

In recent weeks, the Obama administration has continued to press forward its anti-democracy agenda in the Western Hemisphere by suspending non-humanitarian aid to the impoverished nation, cutting off most Honduran visas into this country, and stood on the sidelines as they were forced from the United Nations Human Rights Council, by none other than Cuban strongman Fidel Castro. Honduran President Roberto Michelletti stated that he will not be attending the United Nations gathering this week, since he has been unable to get a visa into the United States.  You will notice that the victor in the tainted Iranian election was able to get his visa, despite the obvious election fraud and brutal repression of the Iranian people. Libyan dictator Muamar Quadaffi, fresh off the heros welcome he gave to the Lockerbie bomber was able to get his visa. The other tyrants of the world have received visas and unfettered entrance into this country, yet we refuse to give President Michelletti a way to get to the United Nations General Assembly.

Shameful.

Wait…not done yet.

After meeting last week with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other U.S. officials, Zelaya warned that time was running out and that if a political solution was not found soon, Honduras would fall into anarchy and chaos.

Once again condemning the June 28 coup in which Zelaya was removed from his home at gunpoint by the military and put on a plane to Costa Rica, Washington cut off all non-humanitarian aid last week and said it would not recognize the results of the Nov. 29 elections under the current circumstances.

The governments of Latin America have also stated that they will not recognize the elections, as has Organization of American States Secretary General José Miguel Insulza and other figures in the international community.

Wouldn’t the  upcoming Honduran election be the end of the story? Manuel Zelaya would not be eligible to run for reelection in this race anyhow, so why would the administration not even recognize an election that could put an end to their stupidly crafted policy against freedom and democracy? By the way, that snippet above was from the Havana Times, Castro’s media mouthpiece. Classic.

Wake up America. We are one crisis away from having our own democratically elected lifetime president in Barack Obama. He cannot be stupid enough to not understand what ACTUALLY happened in Honduras. His policy and mindset indicate his willingness to trash constitutional law in favor of power.

On Sunday, I reported on Hillary Clinton’s strong words on the Iranian nuclear situation. The statements she made on Meet the Press reaffirmed my belief that I have been holding in my back pocket since her defeat in the 2008 Democratic primary to current President Barack Obama. I stated that she sounded very presidential with her Iranian nuke rhetoric.

Obama as he was putting together his Cabinet, tapped Hillary to become our current Secretary of State, in what many believed was his strategy of having a “team of rivals”. Hillary has performed her duties at the State Department admirably, basically following the ideology and policy of her boss, and doing as directed in the international arena of diplomacy. Not too many complaints can be had with Hillary at this point, though she has taken an extremely wrong-headed approach to the situation in Honduras. The approach, wrong as it is, is at the behest of her boss, and appears that they are actively working against the rule of Honduran law. We will dig deeper into that issue at another time…

Today in the NY Daily News, they ran a piece by Michael McAuliff postulating the same theories that have swirled in my head now for the better part of seven months. Have we seen the last of Hillary Clinton in the political world? Or is SOS going to be her final position of power?

We remember back during the Dem primary season, that it was reported the Hillary campaign was in massive debt. Federal fundraising records now show that she has turned that debt into more than a million dollars in the black. Also, her Senate campaign committee has a large amount of cash in the bank, to the tune of over 2.1 million dollars. It was also noted in the NY Daily News piece that her campaign website continues to accept donations, for whatever reason that may be…I mean, she did officially come out and say that running again for the presidency was out of the question. Didn’t we hear that a few years back?? Pretty sure we did….

All of that to say this. Hillary has distinguished herself as the muscle of this administration. While Obama keeps his Senate trend of voting “present” on international issues, Hillary is sticking her nose right in the middle of things and putting out strongly worded statements and directives. She is clearly leading the charge in US diplomacy around the world, insulating her boss from having to take a firm stand on anything. This Obama philosophy may turn out to bite him in the rear, as Clinton continues to show a presidential-style leadership from her position at the head of the State Department, combined with already dipping approval ratings of the President could create an unprecedented perfect storm in the 2012 election season.

Enter Bill Clinton into this picture now. For better or worse, he is still in the picture. One thing we know as a fact about Bill Clinton, love him or hate him the man is an absolutely brilliant politician. To think that he is just enjoying retirement and not actively working behind the scenes to propel Hillary back into the presidential discussion to me is naive. The Clinton team in the 90’s era was a brilliant, and deceptive bunch. They could pull one over on everyone, and you would never know how it happened. That is the brilliance of Bill Clinton. He is still very favorably viewed, and you can bet he is licking his chops as he sees the approval of Barack Obama plummeting at President Jimmy Carter-like speed.  His brilliance, combined with Hillary’s ideology and ever expanding resume, and an economy that does not appear to be getting better any time soon, could produce another Clinton run at the Presidency.

I believe it to be true. If the situation is even remotely worse for Obama than it is now, you can mark it down that you saw it here.  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will step down from her post, get out of the limelight, and pounce at the opportunity of the 2012 election. Waiting until 2016 will not work. She will be McCain age by that time. The opportunistic Clinton clan will once again rise into the national discussion.

Hugo Chavez, the radical socialist dictator from Venezuela, is helping to enflame the Honduras situation even more than it already is. The country has been gripped by large protests in favor of and in opposition of the return of deposed President Manuel Zelaya.

Chavez in his typical inflammatory radical way declared with certainty that ex-President Zelaya would be “returning home to Honduras within a few hours”. It should stand as no surprise that the man who has imposed his will upon his own nation, would now be attempting to impose his desire to have Zelaya back in the office of president. The comments are sure to hamper the attempted negotiations in Costa Rica, spearheaded by the Nobel Prize winning Costa Rican President Oscar Arias.

Zelaya had already attempted to return once to Honduras and was turned away at the airport by the military who was blocking  the airport runway. Chavez’ statements appear to be an inflammatory way of declaring his support for Zelaya. Problem is the situation is so tenuous at the moment that unhelpful rhetoric could erupt the situation into violence. Zelaya defiantly has denounced the negotiations in Costa Rica, and a return home prior to these will likely result in his arrest. It is believed that he is in Nicaragua (no doubt glad-handing with fellow socialist Ortega) and will attempt to cross into Honduras from that side.

Its now been two weeks since the Honduran military removed Manuel Zelaya from his palace. Western leaders such as Hugo Chavez, Daniel Ortega, Evo Morales and their dictatorial ilk have repeatedly blasted the legal removal of Zelaya as a “coup”, finding suprise support from their counterpart in Washington DC, President Barack Obama. The American presidents alignment with these men has caused alarm across the blogosphere and across the country. The Political Fish has repeatedly blasted this administrations ignorance on the rule of Honduran law here, here, and here.

After two weeks, some of the GOP have awaken to the reality of the Honduran situation, finally coming forward and taking a position on the issue, and siding with the Honduran governments legal removal. 

“By calling this a coup and by early statements insisting on the reinstatement of Mr Zelaya, the administration now stands with the likes of (Hugo) Chavez, (Evo) Morales and (Daniel) Ortega, and not with the Honduran people,” Republican Connie Mack said during a hearing by a panel of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Zelaya was removed from office for his unconstitutional and illegal attempts to alter the constitution of Honduras for purely selfish reasons,” said Congressman Chris Smith, a Republican from New Jersey. The claim that the events that led to Zelaya’s ouster constituted a coup “melts under any serious scrutiny,” Smith added. “Rather, democracy and the rule of law triumphed over Mr Zelaya’s lawlessness”

In stark contrast, and not the least bit surprising…This from Democrat Eliot Engel, who chairs the House subcommitee on Western Hemisphere affairs:

“our hemisphere cannot tolerate what is essentially a military coup.” Zelaya, he admitted, “needed to listen. He did not,” when the Honduran political establishment expressed its concern over the proposed referendum, which was suspected as an attempt by the beleaguered leader to lift the one-term presidential term limit to seek re-election. But “this is not to say that those who deposed him were angels,” Engel said

As more and more of the Democratic Party and the establishment move towards this unbridled support of Socialist movements, We The People of the United States need to take notice and wonder what the future of this country may look like in ten years.

Miguel Estrada puts the situation in perspective finally.

Something clearly has gone awry with the rule of law in Honduras — but it is not necessarily what you think. Begin with Zelaya’s arrest. The Supreme Court of Honduras, as it turns out, had ordered the military to arrest Zelaya two days earlier. A second order (issued on the same day) authorized the military to enter Zelaya’s home to execute the arrest. These orders were issued at the urgent request of the country’s attorney general. All the relevant legal documents can be accessed (in Spanish) on the Supreme Court’s website. They make for interesting reading.

He goes on:

In addition, Article 239 specifically states that any president who so much as proposes the permissibility of reelection “shall cease forthwith” in his duties, and Article 4 provides that any “infraction” of the succession rules constitutes treason. The rules are so tight because these are terribly serious issues for Honduras, which lived under decades of military rule.

So all of that being said, what is so difficult for the Obama administration to understand? Curiously, the administration to date still supports former President Manuel Zelaya and has pushed to have him brought back into the country, and reinstalled as the president. Obviously, this would be in breach of the Central American nations Constitution. Perhaps bringing him back to the country from exile would be a solution, however that would likely foment unrest in the country as Zelaya supporters would no doubt rally around him. So by any logical estimation, the Honduran government is doing exactly what needs to be done in this situation.

American governmental support of Zelaya, and the lack of support for Honduran law baffles my mind. For one it aligns Obama with the most radical that the western hemisphere has to offer in Chavez, Ortega and their ilk. Secondly, the lack of support for the rule of law should raise a red flag to Americans, as Obama is basically supporting an inside out coup by a sitting president. This should worry Americans about the prospect of Obama’s future plans, if not worry it should at least raise alarm. Our government sits in agreement with the corrupt OAS, Organization of American States, who have condemned unanimously the actions of the Honduran government in their removal of Zelaya. They have suspended the nation as a member of the organization, and have basically cut ties with them, at least on an interim basis. Below is the ludicrous first statement of the OAS resolution against Honduras.

DEEPLY CONCERNED about the worsening of the current political crisis in the Republic of Honduras resulting from the coup d’état against the constitutional government of President José Manuel Zelaya Rosales, as well as his arbitrary detention and expulsion from the country, which produced an unconstitutional alteration of the democratic order

The American government stands in support of this, knowing what the facts are. It should shock the conscience of freedom loving Americans. Even more disturbing is that the OAS released this statement from its office in Washington DC, on July 4th as our nation celebrated its independence from tyranny.

Why? See the story here

This absolutely grinds me, that our current administration is treating this lefty-socialist, who was constitutionally removed by order of the Supreme Court and the Attorney General of Honduras, as some sort of martyr, or deposed victim. Manuel Zelaya shunned the rule of law in Honduras, Manuel Zelaya shunned the ruling of the Constitution. Hans Bader of the Competitive Enterprise Institute nails this on the head. See the whole article here.

Obama is quite wrong to claim that the removal of Zelaya was “illegal.” The Honduran president forfeited his right to rule under Article 239 of the Honduran Constitution, which bans presidents from holding office if they even propose to alter the constitutional term limits for presidents. And the Honduran military, which acted on orders of the Honduran supreme court, expressly had the right to remove the president for seeking to alter the constitutional term limit, under Article 272 of the Honduran Constitution, as even left-leaning commentators have now admitted. The Honduran military’s role in enforcing the court order does not make it a “coup” anymore than federal troops’ role in enforcing the court-ordered integration of the Little Rock public schools in 1957 constituted a military occupation or takeover.

So that all being said, our government has now aligned itself with the likes of Hugo Chavez, Daniel Ortega, and Fidel Castro in condemning the ouster of Manuel Zelaya. Its insanity. President Obama, you must wake up. You are a solid backer of an attempted dictatorial takeover of a poor Central American neighbor. Its government had the wherewithal to remove him and stop the process, and send him into exile. Now we send our Secretary of State to meet with the exiled leader? Its insanity. Have we even yet had any formal contact with the Constitutionally and legally sworn in replacement Roberto Michelletti? The answer is no, we have not.

We are in firm agreement with dictators. The new cabal of Chavez, Castro, Ortega and Obama is forming and it should alarm freedom lovers around the world.

“Taxation without Representation”

One of the many interesting things here in Washington DC, all the license plates in town have it…interesting caveat as we move towards the second major round of teaparties. The American citizens here in DC have no representation in the House, or in the Senate. Taxation without Representation was one of the major grievances of the colonies against the British government. Strikes me as odd in this great town…the silent protest that goes on every day here.

Those who read regularly I am sure have noticed that the Fish has been lacking any recent content. Fear not, I have not abandoned you!! I am however on vacation down here in our nations capitol, taking in the sites and sounds, and celebrating the birth of this great Nation tommorow on the fourth of July.

Tommorow, the Fish will be standing in the shadows of the Capitol building protesting once again a government that has strayed far from the vision of the great patriots that birthed this  nation so many years ago. We will excercise our first ammendment right to peaceably assemble with our grievances. The statement will be a powerful one.

Obviously, there has been alot of news to catch up on. The Honduras situation escalating with President Obama latching on to the ideology of worldwide tyrants. Sarah Palin resigns today, the continuing Iran story (the green revolution  is far from over unlike what you might here from CNN), Helen Thomas slaps down Robert Gibbs (i love this video), health care, cap and trade…ahhh, much to write about.

For now we will celebrate. We will celebrate our independence, we celebrate freedom, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Celebrate America in the best way you know how to this weekend. I will be here in the capital excercising my first ammendment, followed by one serious party on the National mall.

We will see you all next week!!! Happy 4th!!

Check out the updates for the Washington DC teaparty here, or here. If you are in the NOVA, DC, Maryland area, come on out and join us!!

Recently the ‘Fish posted an article about the unrest in Honduras, which received a lot of feedback.

All Honduras needs is to become another so called democracy with an elected lifetime dictator.

I am glad to see that the military of Honduras upheld the law and the consitution of Honduras. Apparently, our military, courts and congress do not have the balls to take their oaths seriously.

Another reader states:

I can not belive how the American news media can be so biased and only interview the people on the side of our former currupt president. Congrtess, The Supreme Court, The Attorney General, The Army, The Church both Catholic and Evangelical, where opposed to his undemocratic pretentions and practices. What happened in Honduras is a protection our our democracy, supported by the majority of the nation. If would had left Zelaya to do what he wanted he would stay in power for the next ten years, privitize major industry and taken this already poor country into ruin.

And another…

I am Honduran and I am appalled to see misinformed the international press is. There are about 100 people infront of congress. Theese people belong to a communist party. THE REST OF THE COUNTRY SUPPORTS THE SO CALLED “COUP”. The military responded to Congress and The Supreme Court’s order to arrest and detain the now expresident Manuel Zelaya, after Nicaraguan and Venezuelan soldiers started coming into the country. No Honduran wants to be a part of Hugo Chavez’s regimen. Please try to be accurate. Honduras is literally under threat of attack by the Venezuelan army. Chavez wants to run Central America. We are small countries AND WE NEED THE WORLD TO BE AWARE OF WHAT REALLY IS HAPPENING.

I found it interesting that all the responses received echoes the same sentiments about Manuel Zelaya. So I decided that I must look deeper into this. And as it turns out, the readers (as usual) are correct in their assessments. Zelaya had allied himself with some of Central America’s most leftist leaders, most notable Hugo Chavez, who was among the first to condemn the removal of President Zelaya. What I find disturbing is the fact that Hillary Clinton came out mere hours after this took place and echoed loudly the sentiments of Mr. Chavez.

What really happened is that Manuel Zelaya had willfully snubbed his nose at the Congress, the Supreme Court and the Attorney General of Honduras, in what appeared to have been an attempt at re-election. He was in fact elected to a non-renewable 4 year term, which is set to expire in 2010.

From an American perspective, it should disturb us all that President Obama, Hillary Clinton and the administration have come out in favor of restoring Mr. Zelaya to the presidency, in spite of the fact that he sought to subvert the Constitution, and ignored the rule of law. The military “coup” as was described by the international media was merely protecting the Constitution, and following the orders of the Honduran power structure. It is appalling from an American perspective to have the Department of State, and the President echoing the voices of the like of Daniel Ortega, Hugo Chavez, and Fidel Castro. The Bolivian and Ecuadorean presidents also concurred, while the rest of the world so far has refused to recognize newly sworn in President Roberto Micheletti.

Hugo Chavez and his deeply leftist socialist regime has vowed to intervene militarily, so we will see what the American president has to say about any of that type of action in the near future.

For now, we should stand for liberty, just as we do in Iran. If that includes removing a president who does not believe in freedom, as Mr. Zelaya was making quite clear…then thats what needs to be done.

Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was kidnapped and forced into exile in Costa Rica this morning. The Honduran military surrounded the presidential palace in Tecigualpa in the early hours, and according to Zelaya, kidnapped him as he was still wearing his pajamas.

Allegedly the Honduran Supreme court had the military take the President after the president defied the courts ruling on holding a referendum to change the constitution. Zelaya had been elected to a non-renewable four year term in office, but planned on asking Honduran citizens to vote to extend his term. The Supreme Court rejected his calls for a referendum, but Zelaya planned on pushing forward in defiance.

Protesters took to the streets in the capital to protest the coup. Hundreds of protesters pelted the soldiers with rocks, and eventually the crowds were dispersed with tear gas.

Update: Apparently Hugo Chavez is threatening military intervention. Reports that the Venezuelan ambassador was taken hostage and later released. We will see where this goes…