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Hugo Chavez Approves
Do you get this?
Here's the headline to this story:
Chavez welcomes US decision to cut aid to Honduras
What role does Chavez have in the internal affairs of Honduras or regarding the foreign policy of the US?
Here's the "article":
CARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is welcoming the United States' decision to cut millions of dollars in aid to Honduras.
Chavez says "it's about time" Washington took action against the government that has been in charge in Honduras since a June 28 coup ousted his ally, President Manuel Zelaya.
U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly announced the decision to cut more than $31 million in non-humanitarian assistance on Thursday.
Kelly added that the U.S. would not recognize the results of Honduras' upcoming presidential elections under current conditions.
Chavez told Venezuelan state television by phone from Iran on Friday that he hopes the U.S. will make good on its decision.
Please reread that last sentence: "Chavez told Venezuelan state television by phone from Iran on Friday that he hopes the U.S. will make good on its decision."
If you wrote for AP could you have written this "article" without throwing a fit? Chavez (Who is this guy, other than a clownish Marxist dictator? Why his opinion, and not Michael Moore's, or George Soros's?) told Venezuelan state television (not just school children) from Iran (you know, that tiny Spanish-speaking Andean neighbor of his in Latin America?) that he hopes the US will make good on its decision.
Can you imagine the press running an article in 1939 saying that Hitler, speaking from Moscow, approves of FDR's decision not to allow increased immigration of Jews from Europe and hopes that FDR keeps his promise to turn back refugees? Without comment? With a straight face?
And of course, what exactly are these "circumstances" under which the US State department has announced before the fact that it will not recognize the results of the Honduran election? Leftist demagogue Manuel Zelaya was limited by the Honduran constitution to one term. He was also forbidden by that constitution, crafted to prevent a return to strongman rule, from seeking to overturn the constitutional term limit. Zelaya broke the law, and his tenure of office was forfeit ipso facto.
Zelaya was removed from office by the Honduran Supreme Court, and this with the approval of the Honduran congress. He tried to have the military back him, but was arrested and exiled. He was replaced by a moderate from his own party and who is not running as a candidate in November. Theree was no coup. No unelected military officer took power. The Honduran army has remained subordinate to the civilian governmemnt. Still, Zelaya has tried to use force to return to the country and with the support of Hugo Chavez has led and incited violent demonstrations to return from office.
Hello!
Chavez, speaking from Iran, where it is alleged that his own troops were imported to help put down anti-Ahmedinejad demonstrators, is supporting this would-be-dictator both morally and materially. We do not object to this. Our State Department has said that it will not respect the results of the coming Honduran elections. Free elections. Elections that would have been held anyway unless Zelaya had suspended them illegally. In which he could not legally have run or legally won. We are declaring in advance that becuase Honduras will not accept Zelaya's attempted coup we will not recognize the results of a future free election.
In Britain, they call the party out of power the loyal opposition. The parliamentary tradition, of which our two-party system is a continuation, provides a civilized nation with an alternative to unending civil war. The opposition is loyal because it accepts the validity of elections and does not consider force an appropriate means of addressing grievances.
There is a point at which the opposition stops being loyal. Legitimate elections require that we follow the election law in place when the election is held. Not new law created by nine Democratic state court justices after an election is contested. What is the future of close elections in this nation? What does the election by litigation of Al Franken in a liberal state court forebode? Well, we know one thing.
Hugo Chavez will approve.
(Edited by Ted Keer on 9/05, 8:59pm)
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