It is the United States that has recognized the wrong side. Zelaya broke the Honduran Constitution by trying to become a President for life a la Chavez and Castro and all the other Communists that do the same thing. Upon legal process, the President was removed and the Speaker of their House, Mr. Michelletti was sworn in and is their legal President. Presidents Reagan and Both Bushes would have recognized the new government instantly as proper allies of the US. But nooooo…Obama stays with the dictator and deserves to be treated as one himself.

DeMint wants to be the next William Walker.

You are wrong.

The effort of Pres Zelaya to get a vote by the people as opposed to military force? not worthy of comment.

Even your very dubious assessment misses the point. DeMint has no business in Honduras.

Arrest him as he gets off the flight back to the US…that would stop this nonsense of Rethug Freelance Foreign Policy!

Don’t you mean that he should be arrested at gunpoint (preferably while he’s in pajamas) and exiled?

Attorney General Holder should make an example of DeMint. Arrest him, jail him without access to counsel, treat him as an enemy combatant, send him to GITMO, declare his seat vacant and set a new election, seize his home(s) and business, throw his family on the street, and send his pets to the SPCA.

Seriously, we need to get serious with these GOPs or they will not stop their foolishness. Can you imagine the outrage if Bush was subjected to this kind of disrespect?

WE’RE AT WAR, people! This Senator is defying our President abroad IN A TIME OF WAR.

SENATORS
HOME
NOW!

Are you out of your mind? Look at the pattern of treason.

I’m hoping the Justice Dept. is looking into this.

Very good, Mac.

Kudos to John Kerry for stopping DeMint’s trip, and what’s up with Carl Levin and the Pentagon letting it happen under the Armed Services Committee banner? More proof that Obama needs GOP votes to pursue his wasteful “Af/Pak” adventure? I hope not.

Also, Inhofe’s overseas environmental treason planned for later this year should be stopped:

Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) has announced to National Review that he will be personally leading a “truth squad” to the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference, where he will make it clear to international leaders not to believe that the United States will pass legislation to deal with the issue.

“Now, I want to make sure that those attending the Copenhagen conference know what is really happening in the United States Senate,” said Inhofe. “Some people, like Senator Barbara Boxer, will tell the conference, with Waxman-Markey having passed in the House, that they can anticipate that some kind of bill will pass EPW.”

Is it something about South Carolina?

Hi pups.

Whether or not the coup has a legal leg to stand on under Honduran law is utterly irrelevant to DeMint’s actions. The official foreign policy of the US is to oppose the coup and the people who seized power. Senators are not entitled to their own foreign policy. DeMint’s actions appear to constitute a prima facie violation of the Logan Act, which was designed specifically to prevent Americans from doing what DeMint is doing (Senator Logan, in 1798, sought to engage the Bonapartist government of France in diplomatic overtures against President John Adam’s foreign policy). DeMint should be arrested on his return.

Apparently, according to the NYT, Zelaya would not have been the beneficiary of the new law; in other words, he would not have extended his own term, but the terms of any future president. Someone needs to check this out before flying off the handle.

By the way, De Mint is simply following the longstanding traditions of The Family, who entered many separate negotiations with governments disapproved by the USA, as long as they were dictatorial and ’strongarm’ in nature. This is in line with their belief that Jesus only supports those who are powerful. Check it out, too, with Jeff Sharlet’s invaluable book on The Family, with which De Mint is apparently affiliated as is McConnell, Coburn, Ensign and all that crowd. (Reagan, too.)

All these people who talk about how Zelaya violated the Constitution-that’s all well and good but the problem is, you don’t just declare a President in violation of the law and then kidnap him in his jammies and skirt him off to another country. Here is what would have prevented all of this: He should had charges brought against him and then adversarial legal proceedings should have begun- it’s kinda what democracies do.

The idea that someone alleged to have violated the Constitution (or any other law for that matter) can just summarily be removed at gun-point without the opportunity to present evidence in a formal legal proceeding, is pretty astonishing if one is also going to claim to be a real democracy.

The fact that Zelaya may be an a**hole or corrupt or best buddies with Chavez has nothing to do with the anything although I’ve noticed the pro-coup folks can’t even get a sentence out without bringing up Chavez, which tells you a little something about the strength of their legal arguments that they have to pull out that gem in desperation.

This is also about the business elite being pissed off that Zelaya was undermining their efforts.

Ask yourself this- if Micheletti were the one with leftist policies, do you think DeMint and the others would be so hell-bent on defending him? Please.

Oh, btw, are our tax dollars being used to underwrite DeMint’s treason? Because I want my money back!

Hey, But Careful, we the people from TX should not throw stones.;))

Wasn’t DeMint specifically told by the State Department not to go, as part of the Kerry prohibition on his trip? How, then, can he justify going?

Perp walk at National Airport!

Six House members on Friday sent a letter to the president of the Honduran Congress warning that the Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and his travel delegation to Honduras do not represent the views of the White House or Congress, but are mere members of the “minority party.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/s…..z0Sv1qwBTB

It should be noted that Lanny Davis was one of the first jerks to appeal to the US Congress on behalf of the coup perpetrators. Obama and Hillary sat on the fence for a while. At first, the US leaned toward support of the coup.

Evidently, the Obama admin was conflicted about Multinational Corporations and their relationship with Zelaya (a perceived leftist) vs the coup leaders (right-wing corporate, anti-labor goons) and Zelaya’s perceived goodwill with our arch enemy (an enemy because he is a populist) Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.

Also, of course, was the real fear that the Republicans and their media arm (the entire MSM, except for Rachel, Ed and Keith) would trounce on Obama for supporting Chavez vis a vis his association with Zelaya.

This is the button that Demint and other assholes want to push.

Link

it still doesn’t matter. Even if Zelaya was absolutely in the wrong and Micheletti is a legal replacement, it still should not excuse DeMint’s actions. US law does not, insofar as my understanding of it goes, allow a senator to engage in private diplomacy in direct contradiction of the State Dept, even if that senator was morally correct to do so (which I very much doubt in DeMint’s case). What is actually going on in Honduras has nothing to do with DeMint’s apparent crime. This has nothing to do with Honduras and everything to do with Fifth Columnists thumbing their noses at the rule of law in this country. And if we are commtted to the rule of law, we would see him prosecuted.

I can’t remember where I read that this self-appointed “delegation” is back.

From the Hill:

http://thehill.com/homenews/se…..o-honduras

I’m a big Hillary fan but am really disappointed with how Hillary and Obama have sat back and allowed the Coup govt to continue to feast off US funds (we could freeze bank accounts very easily) by only stopping a tiny portion of US funding to the Honduran govt and by refusing to label it a military coup. Also, until about last week, the State Dept wouldn’t hardly acknowledge the human rights violations against pro-Zelaya protesters. And of course, Micheletti’s media crackdown is rather undemocratic, but you won’t hear the far right blogs or the GOP blowhards talking too much about that.

Of course, with our history of sketchy (ie illegal) involvement in Latin America, we hardly should be wagging our finger at anyone. That said, if we allow the coup govt to continue to stall until their elections in the hopes that Zelaya still won’t have any formal recognition, we will effectively be sending a message to Latin America that if you don’t like your President, just remove them and the US will offer only token, lukewarm support for true democracy.

Also from the Hill:

UPDATED 10:45 A.M.

The minority leader’s office confirmed that he approved the trip in his capacity as leader.

It remains unclear what government entity approved funding and transportation for the trip.

I thought it was DOD.

Reading the comments @ http://thehill.com/homenews/se…..o-honduras – aren’t very surprising. Disgusting yes.

That’s what Rachel reported, DOD/Armed Services Committee.

One more example of spineless Democrats. We have a majority elected legislature and a Democrat President. What are they waiting on. Who is running this government. No one in the Administration has the balls to do anything. Thought the last eight years were bad. Just more bullshit.

Really nice book salon, Teddy.

And Reid allows this klown to place a hold on appointments for State?&$#!

TBogg is upstairs!
The Sure Thing

What could possibly make me believe that DeMint’s little stunt will go unpunished? Sadly, this is yet another example of IOKIYAR.

Bott,

Iran Contra: Reagan & Bush 41 SOLD US WEAPONS to rebels so those rebels would OVERTHROW – pull a coup d’etat – on democratically elected leaders of other countries.

Iran – Saddam gassed the Kurds while Reagan was President … Reagan did not invade Iraq after Saddam gassed the Kurds. Bush 41 did not invade Iraq after Saddam invaded Kuwait … Clinton did not invade Iraq for either the gassing of the Kurds that happened under Reagan’s watch NOR for invading Kuwait which happened under Bush 41’s watch.

W Bush 43 – used military force to overthrow the leader of a country that had NEVER attacked America – using W as your star … well … let’s just say – who cares WHAT the war criminal W Bush would be doing in Honduras.

President Obama is the President of this country … The republicans are intent to undermine President Obama even if it means going to meet with a man who illegally used the military to pull off a coup d’etat.

DeMint is a fool and is pushing the envelop to divide this country. DeMint is Anti-American and Unpatriotic – as are ALL of the Drooling Rightwingers.

Is Holder going to prosecute on the Logan Act, or are we still looking forward rather than looking back????

The Logan Act
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan_Act

That is why we have the Logan Act. The only thing missing is an attorney general and President with the balls to enforce it. This is not in the past. It is happening in the present. If they fail to act then the Repubs will know that they have liscense to do whatever they damn well please.

Why does the minority leader get to send anyone on his own? He isn’t in charge of anyone but his own side of the house (and not much of that, without the approval of the Lords High Mucketymucks, Beck, Dobbs, and Hannity).

The opposition had legal means within their country to hold him accountable. There is no way that you can oust a duly elected government and pretend that your hunta is the real democratic force. To have the military take over and run the government is to take the democratic progress in Latin America, of the last 25 years, and put it all at risk. Just because you disagree with an elected official does not make him undemocratic. The hunta does not become democratic because you favor their policies. They are still a military hunta. They are still a military dictatorship. What they have done goes way more against the Honduran constitution than anything the duly elected President proposed. Facts do not change because you call the hunta democratic.

DeMint wouldn’t attempt anything like this if he believed for even a fraction of a second that there would be any reprecussion or blowback from the Democrats.

Interesting. It’s never been enforced.

There must be another law!

I’m sure the minority has a sweet budget. As we’d want the dems to have when the repubs are in charge.

Frankly, there’s little precedence for DeMint’s actions. He really did the exact same thing Logan did with the strongman of a French coup d’etat. Very few US politicians have tried anything like this since than. What the C-Streeters and other rethugs are doing now is really Fifth Column stuff – pushing the limits of civil discourse, the rule of law and states’ rights in a manner virtually unprecedented since the early Republic before the 1860s. Even the Know Nothings and McCarthy did nothing like this. We’re kind of on new ground, in my opinion. We are no longer dealing with a loyal opposition.

Spencer Ackerman is upstairs!
Intelligence Shortfalls And The Waziristan Offensive

Honduras has a per capita GDP of 4,400. Any Honduran posting on the internet is a beneficiary of the kind of privilege that most all Hondurans will never know. Their commentary should be read according to their privileges.

According to our friends in the “intelligence community” over at the CIA:

Honduras, the second poorest country in Central America, has an extraordinarily unequal distribution of income and high unemployment.

Senators don’t get their own foreign policy, the law is quite clear, the Republicans are just being hypocritical again, and Obama is too chickenshit to lay down the law.

…Obama is too chickenshit to lay down the law…

That would be their dream scenario. Obama needs to keep his mouth shut about this and other legal issues, particularly because every time he jumps on one of these, he steps in that chickenshit.

Please make an effort to make your stupidity a little less open. What Zelaya, and Chavez and Morales before him did, is to change the terms of the constitution by way of a plebesite, meaning by a popular vote. In the case of Zelaya that plebesite was stifled because it would lead to majoirty rule.

The option to amend the Constitution is open to every form of free government, including that of the US. In this country it has been done over 20 times. The reason these people want to change their constitution is improve it, for instance: granting the franchise to the huge indigenous population, allowing for unionization and rights to work, and if the people decide to prolong the term of the President in office.

Some one as stupid as yourself would of course not know that the US until FDR’s 4th term in office, when Republicans set a limit of 2 terms, the President could be elected as many as the people chose. Only a complete moron would cite Reagan and Bush in the same breath with “freedom” in Central America. Nearly every country in Latin America has elected a leftist government and they have adopted freely elected revisions of their constitutions, in repudiation of the regimes backed by the US. In many cases these countries are carrying out trials of murders carried out by military juntas imposed by the likes of Reagan and the first Bush.

The US under Reagan has been the only country in history to have been found guilty of unprovoked acts of war by the World Criminal Court in the Hague for it’s unlawful embargo of Nicaragua.

Please don’t expose you stupidity so openly. Keep in mind that in the US people are not eleted by popular vote and it was the scurrilous GWB that was selected by a right wing Supreme Court after having stopped the electoral process and after having lost the popular vote. Of course his 8 years of usurped power led to the worst presdency in history and left the country in the ruinous state it is in.

It is fools like you that make it so easy for this country to be ridiculed and hated worldwide. It may be that this image of the US as fomenting war and uprooting freedom in other countries could have led to the withholding of Chicago from hosting the World Games. In any case it certainly didn’t help.

DeMint has clearly violated the Logan Act. Arrest his sorry ass. He has blatantly thumbed his nose at the law and gone way over the top in terms of violating the “partisanship stops at the water’s edge” protocol, especially in a time of war. The Republicans have NO standards and no sense of decency or patriotism. They are a bunch of petty, opportunistic toddlers looking simply to cause trouble. The only way to curb their unconcern for anything other than their own party is to hold them accountable for their actions.

DeMint in handcuffs might just get their attention.

South Carolina wants to secede from the United States — let em’. They apparently are still not settled with the outcome of the Civil War, the 13th Amendment, or who exactly sets foreign policy. Of course, they would get a bill for all the US infrastructure there, and all citizens of the state would be stripped of US citizenship. They could have their own money, which is in line with optimal currency area theory. Not only will it be fun to see how long Charlotte remains a banking hub, but US taxpayers will get great savings by losing this deadbeat state.

DeMint’s opposition to Obama’s domestic policy is simply part of how government works.

Even DeMint’s desire to see Obama fail can be construed as opposition to Obama’s domestic policy plan although clearly it goes beyond policy to Obama’s success in other ways.

But DeMint’s trip to Hondouras to encourage the government formed by a coup of a democratically elected leader CONTRARY to official US foriegn policy, which the executive branch is solely authorized to conduct under he Constitution is CLEARLY SEDITION and TREASON.

DeMint should be impeached because he is acting in an official capacity contrary to the official interests and US foriegn policies of the US Government.

Why would he do this? It is an outrageous affront to the President’s authority and a violation of the Logan Act.

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

Open Ltr.

Your opposition to Obama’s domestic policy is simply part of how our government works.

Your desire to see Obama fail can be construed as the same, opposition to the President’s domestic policy, although clearly it goes beyond that and beyond loyal opposition. In fact, in your case, it is disloyal opposition. You would be lying if you denied it.

You don’t get to choose the President, we the people do. And foriegn policy is the President’s authority to exercise, not the Senator from South Carolina. Your choice to act disloyally to President is a crime against the United States known as treason.

Your trip to Honduras to encourage the government formed by a coup of a democratically elected leader CONTRARY to official US foriegn policy, is treason and a Logan Act violation.

You should be impeached because you have acted in an official capacity contrary to your authority and contrary to US foriegn policy. You should be arrested and charged, and impeached on the weekends so that your crimes do not impact the important work of the US Government.

Beyond the crime, your actions are an outrageous affront to the President’s authority.

Between you, Rep. Joe Wilson (who can’t keep a civil tongue) and Gov Sanford (who can’t keep it in his trousers), South Carolina’s elected officials have become little more than the butt of a joke.

Glad to see so much understanding of the purely seditious nature of DeMint’s action against his own country’s interests. Of course, the coup in Honduras was conducted because the right wing militarist government knew the popular vote would allow more power in the hands of the people. The corporatists internationally join to keep public interests from being served, even though those policies have proved economically disastrous through the entire world. Rational action doesn’t fit in with their ideology.

Not only will it be fun to see how long Charlotte remains a banking hub, …

Uh, since Charlotte is in NORTH Carolina, it would most likely not be affected all that much if SOUTH Carolina were to secede once again.

I seriously don’t see the problem with secession. Giving Texas back to Mexico would significantly raise average living standards in two countries at once. Letting South Carolina go off to be a swampy backwards theocracy would give our Worst and Dimmest a place to go if they don’t like living in the 21st century. And think of all the money we’d save!

. . . Please make an effort to make your stupidity a little less open. . . .
Please don’t expose you stupidity so openly. . . .

It is fools like you that make it so easy for this country to be ridiculed and hated worldwide.

Please limit your topic to issues and not personal attacks. My reading is that Zelaya was wrong, Honduras reacted. Obama is not following the Honduran Constitution and is wrong. DeMint is violating the Logan act (but is correct in supporting the Honduran Congress and Supreme Court).

DeMint is acting contrary to our constitution, to deny a legally elected government to Honduras. Zelaya proposed to put to a vote more power for the people of Honduras. A military coup is not constitutional, and is not the proper way to correct any action by a legally, constitutionally, elected president. Illegally, the present military regime brought unconstitutional officers to office rather than give the voters a voice. Obviously, they know that they are not the choice of the voters. Honduras was not the reacting entity, but an illegal military regime that the entire world that is in favor of democracy and legality rejects.

Please note the response from the troll that is saying you should limit your attack to non-personal terms;
It is fools like you that make it so easy for this country to be ridiculed and hated worldwide.

As usual, wingnuts have problems with the link between words and meaning.

I am sorry all if you did not attack Peolsi for donning a head scarf to visit Syria, and bad mouth Bush’s policy there, or various Dem senators visiting Saddam, then pulling out the Logan act is a bit of Hypocricy now.

Btw our officials telling another country’s Supreme court how to interpret thier own constitution is a bit of hubris. Dealing with a person in power who has violently defied other court orders is tough question.

Censor?

Fox “News”
ANTI 911 TRUTH
All Israeli all the time
Neocon News Network

William J Fallon UNREST
Complete Corruption in effect
The “Federal” Reserve is flush with cash
All MSM Propagandists singing the same song

Ventura Sheehan Perot Paul Nader McKinney Kucinich Kaptur Gravel Gonzalez Clemente Choate Carter Baldwin Anderson

Grayson too?

how Pelosi’s scarf was different from Laura’s scarf escapes me, it is a gesture of respect to follow local customs when visiting.

Being the loyal opposition without fighting U.S. interests and policies seems also to escape the ability of the right wing to discern – which is no doubt why extremists gravitate to the right wing.

Oops. Great point!

The Honduran government has seen several constitutions over the years.

That said, Zelaya was ousted in a coup. Arguing against this fact is like saying the coup wasn’t “rape-rape.”

What Zelaya did was essentially attempt to gauge public opinion with a non-binding poll to see if there was support for a referendum to then call for an amendment to the Honduran “constitution” — which should be championed as beholding to the spirit of democracy.

There was nothing illegal about what he did. He exposed a loophole in their “constitution” and acted in accordance within the parameters.

The current illegitimate Honduran government over-reacted and seized power to the disapproval of the world community.

This is like John McCain saying, “we’re all Georgians today.” Uh, no, we are not.

Republicans don’t do foreign policy. Never have.

When Mark Kirk(R-IL) goes to China and encourages the Chinese government to initiate a run on American credit by saying “Obama’s budget numbers are not to be believed,” who’s he representing?

We’ve got Eric Cantor traveling to Israel to undermine U.S. policy on Israeli settlements with Mike Huckabee doing the same.

Lindsey Graham, along with many republicans, are still parroting neocon rhetoric openly calling for a policy of preemptive war on Iran– directly undermining our policy of diplomacy. Incidentally, a nuclear country can not threaten a non-nuclear country. It’s a violation of international laws and treatise.

Republicans are acting in direct defiance of domestic and international laws and policies.

With representatives like these, who needs terrorists?

Very much appreciated detail, sadly much too nuanced for the right wing to research, learn, and act upon. This country badly needs the public to learn the lesson of the previous, worst, administration, and look for its facts on the internet. The media simply is not up to the job of digging out the facts, and representing them, while truth is continually denied – and fictions are presented as valid – by the wingers.

Would you consider presenting this excellent post in a diary for FDL?

Yes, MrBrink, we’d love a diary on this! Just click the “Post Diary” button in the sidebar on this page to get started. Let me know if you have any questions.