The United States is currently in the embarrassing position of refusing to recognize the government of Honduras which is supported by virtually all elements of civil society there and whose legal basis is supported by a report from the Law Library of Congress. Two excellent opinion articles in the Wall Street Journal describe the situation and point to a good exit strategy for the United States. One is by longtime Democratic strategist Lanny Davis and the other is by South Carolina Republican Jim DeMint. The solution is for the United States to recognize the elections scheduled for November 29. As both Davis and DeMint point out, there is no reason to doubt that these will be fair elections, in accordance with the constitution and laws of Honduras and will produce a new president who can be inaugurated on schedule next January. Yet the U.S. has been indicating that it will not recognize the elections.
This is folly. Not many foreign policy problems come with a convenient exit date. This one does. The snap judgment of the White House and/or State Department that the ouster of President Manuel Zelaya was a "coup" was clearly a mistake. The military was not defying the orders of civilian authorities, but carrying them out (although there's a strong argument it should not have expelled Zelaya from the country). The Law Library of Congress report supports this position. The U.S. ambassador in Honduras told Senator DeMint that there is a report from State Department Legal Adviser taking the contrary position, but the administration will not make that public. But whatever the legalities, the November 29 elections are a way out. They will make moot the issue of whether Zelaya was legally ousted and whether the interim president Roberto Micheletti was legally installed. I fail to understand why it is in the interest of the U.S. government or in the interest of democracy in Honduras not to recognize the November 29 election.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2009 00:00 ||
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#4
I'll take it a step further. I find this whole episode one of the most disturbing aspects of the Obama presidency so far. It is no less than an open display of support for tyranny over democracy, for thugocracy over the rule of law.
If this is what we can expect from the leader of the Free World we're screwed.
#5
The new President's first act should be to close the Brazilian embassy and eject their diplomats for cause, arrest Mel for crimes against the people, and boot the US Air Force from their base for assisting the whole mess.
#7
A primary tenet of realpolitik is stability must be maintained. Doesn't matter if the government you wish to deal with is a dictatorship murdering its citizens. Instability is a no-no and the diplomatic process is paramount.
In this case it's realpolitik, mixed with a bias toward for leftist regimes.
#8
"In this case it's realpolitik, mixed with a bias toward forlove of leftist regimes."
Fixed that for ya', Pappy.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/12/2009 22:22 Comments ||
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#9
"hey! he's the murdering genocidal communist progressive idiot that we know! The alternative could be democratic conservative pro-American worse!!11!1
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/12/2009 22:26 Comments ||
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#1
When I read this earlier, my reaction was that I could write a similar article about how the Euro or Yen or even the Yuan was reaching a breaking point.
There is no good safe currency right now. They all have their risks.
According to various distinguished sources including the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in Basel, Switzerland -- the central bankers' bank -- the amount of outstanding derivatives worldwide as of December 2007 crossed USD 1.144 Quadrillion, ie, USD 1,144 Trillion. The main categories of the USD 1.144 Quadrillion derivatives market were the following:
1. Listed credit derivatives stood at USD 548 trillion;
2. The Over-The-Counter (OTC) derivatives stood in notional or face value at USD 596 trillion and included:
a. Interest Rate Derivatives at about USD 393+ trillion;
b. Credit Default Swaps at about USD 58+ trillion;
c. Foreign Exchange Derivatives at about USD 56+ trillion;
d. Commodity Derivatives at about USD 9 trillion;
e. Equity Linked Derivatives at about USD 8.5 trillion; and
f. Unallocated Derivatives at about USD 71+ trillion.
#1
No Problem add four or five zeros to each county's paper money the "problwm" goes away.
After all Zimbabwe showed us all how it is done in these last few years.
Mr. Gienther are you listening - Rantburg to the rescue.
Posted by: Large Uniter8538 ||
10/12/2009 0:16 Comments ||
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#2
county's could be country's or if you are "progressive" let the counties of a country start printing money, problem goes away sooner.
Sorry I quoted a well known personality known as "Barney" when I wrote "problwm", I meant problem, Barney is no way quoted in the article and he should not recieve credit for the aforementioned solution.
Regards Large Uniter8538
Posted by: Large Uniter8538 ||
10/12/2009 0:22 Comments ||
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#3
It means we owe more than half of what we work for just for our debt.
It means your credit rating has just been reduced in not so many legal terms.
Shows you and me and all the way out - Demand this from the Government !
Regards Large Uniter8538
Posted by: Large Uniter8538 ||
10/12/2009 1:12 Comments ||
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#5
Listed derivatives aren't a real problem, because there is always n parties with equal and opposite obligations.
The real risk is in lending against collateral, including real estate. Real estate prices returning to 10 or 12 years ago would wipe out every bank in the world.
#8
From the beginning all the crisis has really been about the derivatives bubble.
I have been talking with bright pebbles about it for most of the decade....
The only sensible solution was not taken.
That would have been to recognize that players were gambling (that's what derivatives are) with money that didn't exist. Therefore the simple solution would have been to say all derivative transactions are NULL AND VOID and the debts didn't exist.
If houses of finance and such tumbled in the process so be it..
Its logical.
If I go to Vegas and gamble millions I don't have and loose... everybody knows very bad and painful things will happen to me and mine....
Why should it be different for the derivative market players?
Going back to the Vegas analogy. I loose millions to the mob in Vegas BUT DEMAND that society pay them for me or I will hold my breath until I turn blue. Then the retarded society pays!
#9
Also leverage in general. Derivatives are an extreme for of leveraging, but look at the 200-400X leveraging in the currency speculation markets, the equities bought on borrowed money. It all boils down to our Moneyed Masters gambling with borrowed money, where they can reap many times the rewards and expecting the taxpayers to bail them out when they crash. No borrowed money means losses than can be covered out of their hides.
Posted by: ed ||
10/12/2009 10:13 Comments ||
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#10
Why should it be different for the derivative market players?
Because most gamblers don't allocate a good share of their money [and potential bet winnings] on owning and operating politicians.
#12
3dc, Agreed the problem was gambling with other people's money on derivatives especially. My point was that derivatives per se aren't the real problem. The problem is gambling with money that isn't yours to lose.
But in a leveraged economy, everyone who borrows to buy some kind of asset is gambling with other people's money to some extent. This includes people who bought a bigger, more expensive house than they really needed because that was the way to increase their future capital gain. Incidentally, almost everyone I know.
Which is why I maintain the deleveraging of economies has a long and painful way to go.
Andrew Malcom, "Top of the Ticket" @ LAT It's a parody...we hope...
It's been quite a two successful weeks for President Obama.
First, he saved Illinois and federal taxpayers countless millions of rescue dollars by helping to lose Chicago's bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics in the very first round of voting.
Then, even as he slept on the 289th day of his first term's 1,461 days, Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The Democrat president said he was humbled by his selection and millions agreed the ex-state senator should be.
Especially since 1) the peace prize recipient is overseeing the prosecution of two wars at the moment while contemplating a recommended escalation, and 2) the Nobel nominations were due by Feb. 1, the 12th day of the new Obama administration. By which time the new president had barely promised to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility within one year, an absolute deadline now absolutely hopeless....
The premature prize to Obama for global lifetime achievement before he's eligible for AARP membership has prompted a flurry of satirical speculation about what other awards are likely to honor the 47-year-old father of two in coming days.
He's already got two real Grammys for being a good talker of recorded books. And some jokers on Twitter have started petitions to get Obama into the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame as well as this year's Heisman Trophy.
The Motor Trend award* is certain for the presidential owner of a Ford that'll be perpetually parked in Chicago for at least three more years now, while its owner rides around in heavily-armed Secret Service Suburbans.
An Academy Award Oscar from Obama-loving Hollywood seems a gimme next year for best screenplay of a movie yet to be made of a life yet to be lived.
A 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Obama's as-yet unwritten memoirs of the first 19% of his first term in office can be expected. (Do you think it'll make Oprah's recommended list?) But that Obama volume faces stiff commercial competition from Sarah Palin's finished book about her own incomplete first term.
A Tony for the Broadway production of the nonexistent musical of the unwritten memoir of Obama's incomplete first year.
And, naturally, an Emmy for the Animal Planet channel's mini-series documenting the months-long political decision-making about acceptance of a purebred dog from a Texas breeder over a Cinderella tale of some lost, caged canine plucked from a local shelter.
The award possibilities are multitudinous in today's perpetual presidential campaigns. An Espy for the first presidential three-pointer during a female-free White House basketball game.
The NASCAR points race is still close enough for an arranged Obama win. But the Cy Young Award would be another reach since he only threw one pitch all season, at the All-Star Game....
Posted by: Mike ||
10/12/2009 10:20 ||
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#3
It's a shame that Norton had no heirs of the body.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
10/12/2009 14:00 Comments ||
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#4
I'd forgotten about old Norton the First. We learned about him and his 'reign' when I was a kid growing up in SF area (luckily parents moved to the mid-west soon after).
And he probably wasn't the first 'crank' (and won't be the last) from San Francisco, either.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
10/12/2009 14:04 Comments ||
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#5
I heard that the Pope just named five new saints. Surprisingly none of them were Barack Obama.
#6
"September 17, 1859 Joshua A. Norton, who lost his money in an attempt to corner the rice market, today declared himself Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico.
December 2, 1859 Norton I dismissed Gov. Wise of Virginia for hanging John Brown and appointed John C. Breckenridge of Kentucky to replace him.
February 1, 1860 Decree from Norton I ordered representatives of the different states to assemble at Platts Music Hall to change laws to ameloriate the evils under which the country was laboring.
July 16, 1860 Decree from Norton I dissolved the United States of America.
October 1, 1860 Decree from Norton I barred Congress from meeting in Washington, D.C."
Except for the dates, the beard, and the funny hat, sounds like Bambi (or what he would like to do). >:-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/12/2009 20:10 Comments ||
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The overall level of violence in the country continues to decline, despite the occasional terrorist bombing. This has led to continued economic growth, and more Iraqis are using their freedom of movement, and action, to protest government incompetence. The inept performance of elected and appointed officials is more stark in Iraq, where economic freedom has created many spectacularly successful entrepreneurs, and a growing middle class. Thus it is obvious that Iraqis can get things done, and more Iraqis are openly upset at the poor performance of their elected officials. People are also very unhappy about the ability of criminal gangs to kidnap and rob the newly affluent. While the very rich can hire security guards, the middle class is dependent on the police and other security forces. It is believed that the cops are paid off by criminal gangs, and the population is not happy with this.
The government is certainly inept in the way it handles money. With the collapse of oil prices in the last year, officials were slow to adapt. Now there are shortages everywhere in the government, especially in the security forces. This is having an impact on how effective the police are, and how safe the citizens are. Iraqis are fed up with this sort of thing, but slow to realize that it takes a country full of responsible people to create a responsible society.
Iraqis are confused about the sudden surge of terror bombings in western Anbar province. Long an al Qaeda stronghold, over the last two years, the locals have turned, often violently, against the terrorists. The new violence is believed to be partly political, as new parties use violence to make incumbent politicians look bad. People believe that because politics has always been pretty dirty in this part of the country.
October 7, 2009: The roundup of terrorists in and around Mosul has now grabbed over 200 suspects. The Iraqis used the American technique of quickly exploiting information (documents, computer files) from one arrest, so more, and more, could be made. This disrupted the security and communications of the terrorist networks in the north, and the police are doing some major damage to the many small groups that have made the violence possible.
October 3, 2009: In Mosul, police and soldiers have arrested some 150 terrorism suspects over the last week. This operation was the result of improved intelligence operations, a process that has been underway for the past year. The terrorists are sustained by a network of financiers and specialists, and police have been attacking, and infiltrating those networks for several years now.
#1
I call this progress, Thanks George for all you have done.
Thanks go out to the Coalition Forces for the real sacrifices they have made to make this happen.
I for one will never forget you.
Thank you all - Large Uniter8538
Posted by: Large Uniter8538 ||
10/12/2009 0:28 Comments ||
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#2
Thats 125% opposite a "failed War". They have awakened to the simplistics of self empowerment. They will not be willing to lose that for a LOOOONG time.
#3
Just remember the Democrats were going to raise their tails and bug-out, run, hide, momma save me flee. And they are the same people they were yesterday, only now its today.
Suave kaput and now we have Obama who is a "mouth"( doesnt he give pretty speeches?) and nothing more. Even the French thinks he's weak.
I ADMIRED Dick Cheney, but then that's just me.
If you take 100 Americans only six of them will fight, the rest will vote for some squeegie... heroes like Kerry "reporting for duty". Yeah, that good ol' Democratic Party leadership.
If you lose a war you dont get a second chance.
There isnt any "nice " way to do a war. There was nothing "wrong" with Rumsfeld except he wasnt Harry Reid and Bawney Frank.
The United States is betraying its soldiers and Marines just like they did to the brave men who served in VietNam a generation ago. Obama wouldnt fight if you raped his kids. He's a kiss ass.
Why should we care what the EUroweenies think...they wont fight. They cant even breed.
Lets tell everybody we are "sorry". Lets let the Nobel people spit on us and pin a "Peace Prize" on our Donkey butts.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Andrew Malcom, "Top of the Ticket" @ LAT
