why did he speak without going on the record btw?

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"The captain has turned off the `No Dubbing' sign. You are free to speak any language you choose."

Probably because he's a state dept official, so while he may relate their thinking on the issue it not a good idea to speak for the President - thats Gibbs job.

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Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.

Guess who?

Except it wasn't a military coup. I don't know where you got this from but it is utterly and totally wrong. They may have gone about it in the wrong way but they had both parts of the government in agreement to oust him. So basically the legality of his removal is only a technicality at the worst of it.

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A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
- George Bernard Shaw

The politician who took over, notice I didn't say general, was also from Zelayas party, not the opposition party, but Obama had to get tough on someone after he sat out the Iranian thing for over a week, so here we are, he finds himself with the back stops of Hugo and Fidel......those 2 stalwarts of democracy.

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"The captain has turned off the `No Dubbing' sign. You are free to speak any language you choose."

Why is it any of our business in the first place?

Matt

Then Congress should have censured him. The Honduran constitution doesn't contain any provisions for impeachment, which is a problem, but kicking the man out was not the way to resolve the dispute.

I repeat, in a democracy, bad leaders are voted out. Not removed extralegally.

A strongly worded letter?

And that would accomplish what exactly? The man already showed he wasn't interested in what the Constitution said.

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January 21, 2013: The End of an ERROR.

"Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become more corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters."
"When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic."
"The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself."
---Benjamin Franklin

I'm aware. To go by opinion polls, most Hondurans felt the same way, and they almost certainly would have voted his referendum down.

Do you really suggest that illegally removing him from office was the best course of action here?

I'm suggesting that it's the only way to prevent an unconstitutional referendum.

And in this particular case, I can't imagine a smoother way it could end.

__________________
January 21, 2013: The End of an ERROR.

"Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become more corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters."
"When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic."
"The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself."
---Benjamin Franklin

Well...if what you say is true (I haven't checked it myself) and there is no provision to impeach the prez then about anyway they do it is legit. I mean...you can't honestly say that since there wasn't a provision than they have to keep him no matter what.

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A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
- George Bernard Shaw

You don't believe the cure was worse than the disease in this case?

If the referendum had gone ahead, Zelaya would almost certainly have lost. If, by some miracle, he managed to win, the Supreme Court would have been legally entitled to strike down the result. Either way, he'd have lost whatever legitimacy he still had left and have been out of office by the end of the year.

That's not an ideal solution, but I think that certainly would have been smoother than removing a democratically elected leader in a region where democracy's still consolidating itself, provoking regional ostracism, and possibly ratcheting up regional military tensions.

As I said above, it's almost a given that Zelaya would have lost the referendum, and even had he won, the Supreme Court could have struck down the result on the grounds that it was unconstitutionally called. As far as provisions for impeachment go, Congress could potentially amend the constitution to include one, and had the referendum gone ahead, it's not unreasonable to suggest that they would have done just that.

As to your claim that 'anyway they do it is legit', that's simply not accurate. The Honduran military's top lawyer acknowledged that what they did was illegal, but that breaking the law was preferable to the alternative.

Zelaya rallied a mob to illegally take ballots printed in Venezuela from the dock and distribute them, a job legally left to the military.

No, I don't think it would have ended peacefully.

__________________
January 21, 2013: The End of an ERROR.

"Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become more corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters."
"When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic."
"The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself."
---Benjamin Franklin

Ridiculous. The military are running the show in Honduras, as they have acted independently to start this situation.

Technicalities count just as much.

__________________
Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.

Guess who?

Yeah yeah, just forget the all the others providing back stops in the OAS and the rest of the world eh?

Just focus on Chavez and Fidel, just to paint Obama in a bad light.

Why do you need to do this? Time for a little honesty.

__________________
Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.

Guess who?

It isnt US democracy.

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"To take from one, because it is thought his own industry and that of his father has acquired too much, in order to spare to others who (or whose fathers) have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, "to guarantee to everyone a free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it."

-Thomas Jefferson