I regret having not blogged more extensively on the topic of Honduras, although I and some commenters have brought it up a few times. The long story short can be read in several places to which I’ve already linked (specifically, here and here), but in sum, the legal and democratic institutions of the tiny Central American country upheld the rule of law earlier this summer by ousting their president when he was in direct and incontrovertible violation of their constitution.

Then the Obama Administration and its State Department, naturally, ‘effed it up by supporting the ousted Zelaya and demanding his return to power without even the slightest hint of irony (having only a week or two earlier claimed the moral high ground for not “meddling” in Iran). Obama went so far as to even suspend military activities with Honduras and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton revoked visas for some Honduran officials.

What’s left to do? Why how about a complete termination of all non-emergency aid to the mouse that had the temerity to roar in order to keep its democracy?

Check out this nonsensical passage from the State Department’s statement:

Restoration of the terminated assistance will be predicated upon a return to democratic, constitutional governance in Honduras.

Huh? An exercise of “democratic, constitutional governance” is exactly what the Congress and Supreme Court of Honduras was doing, you morons! How about if Honduras has an election in November (You know, the one that’s scheduled for then, and has been all along…the one Zelaya was trying to hijack?) and we can all move on and wash our hands of all this. No need to do something stupid and amateurish that might diplomatically paint the US into a corner, right?

Oh, wait. From the same press release:

[November's upcoming elections in Honduras] must be undertaken in a free, fair and transparent manner. It must also be free of taint and open to all Hondurans to exercise their democratic franchise. At this moment, we would not be able to support the outcome of the scheduled elections.

WTF? So the story goes that in order for Honduras to demonstrate to Hillary Clinton and that international wizard Barack Obama that they are committed to “democratic, constitutional governance”, Hondurans will have to restore a criminal to their presidency and allow him to run the nation’s upcoming presidential election.

Would be kinda nice if someone asked the Secretary what the hell she (and her boss) is thinking.

Or at least what are Bill’s thoughts?

-Nick (ColoradoPatriot, from HQ)

Please note that if I had written or said something similar about a nation’s governor or, God forbid, the Supreme Leader Obama, I’d be getting a visit today by Gestapo Janet’s thugs from DHS.  John Kerry ‘jokes’ about Sanford/Palin. (h/t – The Corner)

The Bay State senator was telling a group of business and civic leaders in town at his invitation about the “bizarre’’ tale of how South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford had “disappeared for four days’’ and claimed to be hiking along the Appalachian Trail, but no one was really certain of his whereabouts.

“Too bad,’’ Kerry said, “if a governor had to go missing it couldn’t have been the governor of Alaska. You know, Sarah Palin.’’

The Democratic-centric crowd laughed.

Ha, ha, ha.  Oh, that’s so funny.  I’m buckling over with haughty laugher.  How original, too – a Democrat demeaning a woman.  And he is such a moron, he had to remind people that he was talking about Palin.  Or maybe that says more about Democrats in Massachusetts?

Thank God this man will never be President.  Although you may have heard that he served in Vietnam.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

BARNEY FRANK COMES OUT AGAINST “rewarding incompetence.”

Last week, Michael Ledeen compared the President to one of the worst presidents of the twentieth century, Jimmy Carter. But, as I read Amity Shlaes’s The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression, it seems he has more in common with another failure of the previous century, Herbert Hoover.

Like that hapless (as least as president) Republican, this ambitious Democrat has great faith in the power of the state to fix the economy.

Writing about Hoover in his pre-presidential days, Shlaes observes that Hoover “feared criticism . . . he encountered it so infrequently. Luck and talent had done their work, and he began to feel his greatness was unlimited.” Kind of sounds like his twenty-first century successor.

But, the similarity doesn’t end there; Hoover “disdained laissez-faire economics.” Indeed his presidential predecessor Calvin Coolidge didn’t much care for the incredibly intelligent Iowan:

Where the president [in 1927] eschewed technology, Hoover was always playing with it. Coolidge also hated Hoover’s tendency to react to news with grand-intrusive plans. Could not Hoover see where some of his rescues led?

From this introduction to Hoover and our forty-day experience with President Obama, it seems the two presidents share what Victor Davis Hanson describes as the liberal philosophy:

The liberal philosophy maintains that government, better than thousands of informed and self-interested individuals, can direct and guide our lives and national purpose. It has more confidence in the tenured bureaucrat than it does the small businessman, whose unpredictability and autonomy prove too disruptive to the common vision.

And we all know the results of Hoover’s trust in bureaucrats.

Oh wait, we have THREE brewing this week…. I forgot.

BREAKING:  Charges Against Stanford a Long Time Coming, Offshore Banking Experts Say – ABC News

Offshore banking experts say that the fraud charges this week against accused financial scammer R. Allen Stanford have been a long time coming.

“There’s no surprise at all,” said Washington lawyer and IRS consultant Jack Blum. “This man has been on law enforcement’s radar screen for the better part of 10 years.”

<….>

The federal investigation, however, did not stop Stanford from using corporate money to become a big man at last year’s Democratic convention in Denver.

A video posted on the firm’s web-site shows Stanford, now sought by U.S. Marshals, being hugged by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and praised by former President Bill Clinton for helping to finance a convention-related forum and party put on by the National Democratic Institute.

“I would like to thank the Stanford Financial Group for helping to underwrite this,” Clinton said to the crowd at the event.

Can we all just universally agree that Nancy Pelosi is a lying rhymes-with-witch at this point?  “Culture of corruption” my ass.   She’s the Queen Bee!  [UPDATE:  More on Stanford and Democrats’ drug money. – h/t Instapundit.)

Item number TWO:

There’s a potentially big story brewing on Capitol Hill…  Apparently 104 members of Congress of both parties — 42 Republicans and 62 Democrats — secured earmarks for a lobbying firm linked to Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) in a single bill. The earmarks were inserted in a bill Murtha controlled as the defense appropriations subcommittee chairman.

The firm’s executives and clients are among Murtha’s biggest sources of campaign contributions.

Oh and who could forget Blago – The Illinois STD.  You know, the gift that keeps on giving.   Burris still hasn’t gotten his penicillin yet…

This is getting out of control.  Is this the HopeandChange that Chairman Obama promised?

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

. . . would be to, without fanfare, retire from Congress, move to Miami Beach and keep away from all microphones, refraining from making any further public comment.

Not content to limit the salaries of financial institution executives receiving federal bailout money, that self-important House Financial Services Committee Chairman with an incapacity to admit mistakes now seeks to extend those salary curbs. So, even if you don’t take federal money, if ol’ Barney had his way, the feds could dictate your salary:

Congress will consider legislation to extend some of the curbs on executive pay that now apply only to those banks receiving federal assistance, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank said.

. . . .

He said the compensation restrictions would apply to all financial institutions and might be extended to include all U.S. companies.

(H/t: The Corner via Instapundit).

Barney Frank, the most prominent openly gay person in American politics today, is becoming an embarrassment.  He favored rolling the dice with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, obstructing efforts to reform these two government-sponsored enterprises even as evidence of their financial woes became increasingly manifest.

Look, Mr. Frank, you’ve had more than a hand in the financial mess.  And you continue to promote schemes which would only serve to limit our freedom and hinder further economic growth.  You can’t admit your mistakes.

So, please, for the sake of America and for the sake of gay people, just leave.  We don’t want people to think that you speak for gay people;  you refuse to take responsiblity for your actions and attempt to further socialize our economy.

UPDATE:  As per comment #2, please note that I struck I word in the first full paragraph after the block quote.  Reader GUS, with inflammatory language expressing his outrage, ask if Barney said anything “about Jamie Gorelick making over $20 million from Fannie Mae.”  If he didn’t, it’s a sure sign of his hypocrisy.

With Tom Daschle and Nancy Killefer withdrawing their nominations yesterday because they were too important of Americans to pay their taxes…. the time is NOW for Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to step down.

The rationale is that “only Geithner” can somehow stop the slide into the Second Great Depression, so he is too invaluable to lose over some pesky tax thing.  Really?  Well just about a year ago was when we first started hearing about how the 2nd Depression was looming and Hank Paulson seemed to handle the job quite well — even if you disagree with the policies and speed in which he acted.   Hey, how about Larry Summers?  He’d be fine, if you have to put up with a Democrat manipulating economic policy.

My point — NO ONE is indispensible.  That’s how the private sector operates — for good or bad.  Just what gives the folks in Washington the idea that they are above the law or above accountability?   Secretary Geithner is a cancer on the Obama Presidency.

Geithner’s tax crimes are worse than anything that any member of the Bush Administration did while in office, including Scooter Libby.  No, I’m not defending lying under oath.  But I am asking for some relative comparison here.  Geithner broke the law and has never answered for it.  And HE is our Treasury Secretary?

Disgusting.

I’m calling my US Senator and the White House today.  Geithner must go.  President Obama is a complete hypocrite if he allows Geithner to remain in office.

[Ed. Note -- This rant was inspired by the excellent argument laid out yesterday by Larry Kudlow at The Corner; he being my "personal economic guru hero"... if there is such a title.]

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

UPDATE (from Dan): While I pretty much agree with Bruce, I should just say for the record that I don’t think Nancy Killefer should have stepped down due to her tax problem. As I wrote in my post on the revelation of her late tax deliquancy, she “resolved” it “before Obama tapped her.” Neither Daschle nor Geithner addressed their problems until after they had been tapped for positions in the president’s cabinet.

Appearing on Face the Nation on CBS this weekend, Vice President Joe Biden “explained that before he agreed to become Obama’s running mate, he said, ‘I don’t want to be on the ticket unless you are hiring me on for my judgment.’”

I would question the judgment of anyone who hired Joe Biden for his judgment.  I thought Obama had picked the then-Delaware Senator to make himself looking sober and seasoned by comparison.

(H/t:  Glenn.)

In an excellent post on those intellectuals who ape Jimmy Carter in favoring more Israeli concessions as a solution to the crisis in Gaza, Jonathan Tobin finds them blind to reality:

Matthew Yglesias . . . takes up the familiar theme that the outline of a peace settlement is well known (back to Taba) and that all it will take to get back there is “ruffling” some Israeli feathers and giving Israel some of the “tough love” that Jimmy Carter dished out.

Missing from this analysis is, as usual, any connection with the reality of the other side of the equation: the Palestinians who stand by Hamas and their terror campaign. This blind faith in the peace process is almost religious in nature. All objective facts that might disprove its thesis are ignored.

if we continue to follow the peace process these intellectuals so consistently and assiduously espouse, we’ll only see, to borrow one of their favorite expressions, an ever-increasing “cycle of violence.”

Emphasis added.

UPDATE:  In another post, Tobin continues his excellent critique of the blame-Israel-first crowd of intellectuals: “. . . long before 1967 and ever since, ‘Palestinian self-determination’ has been defined solely by the urge to extinguish Israel’s existence.“  Read the whole thing.

I finally had the chance to watch the HBO Miniseries John Adams which I bought on DVD several months ago.  As I watched the episode when John Adams (Paul Giamatti) began service as the nation’s first Vice President, it struck me that Joe Biden would be our next Vice President.

From a great, but flawed man to the master of the gaffe.

When not thinking of how the Delaware Democrat has been so spectucularly wrong about nearly every foreign policy issue during his six terms in the Senate, I was impressed with the performances in the mini-series.  I only regret that the filmmakers did not choose to explore the real depth of the friendship between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.

They all but left it out of the scenes set in Philadelphia during the Second Continental Congress.  There, the two very different men forged a bond which would last until Adams’ term as president, reviving only in a correpondence after the Virginian left the White House.

During the 1976 campaign, Jimmy Carter became renowned for all the promises he made.  Likely aware of this when he conceded defeat four years later he began by acknowledging the one promise he did keep, that he wouldn’t lie to the American people.

Well, it seems yet another Democratic candidate for president has made a similar raft of promises.  Jack Tapper lists those he made just yesterday in Sarasota, Florida (via Instapundit).

Carter didn’t keep most of his promises.

In 1976, however, as the untested Georgian made his pitch to the American people, voters had no way of knowing that.  Carter appeared on the scenes as a contrast to Richard Nixon, the memory of whose duplicity was still fresh in Americans’ minds.  The Democrat who had never worked in Washington, appeared honest and trustworthy.  People thought they could take him at his word.

In contrast to Carter, even accepting the Democratic nomination for President, Obama had already begun breaking his promises.  If he can’t keep a promise he made about the way he was going to campaign, how can we trust him to keep the promises he has made about how he’s going to run the country?

Instead of admitting his own responsibility in the current financial mess, Barney Frank does what he and Democratic partisans always do when their records are called into question: attack conservatives.  It’s not the same blame he attempted to ladle out when Bill O’Reilly pressed him.  Now the Massachusetts Congressman is accusing conservatives of racism:

U.S. Rep. Barney Frank claims conservatives are trying to partly blame the nation’s economic woes on black people.

“This is an effort I believe to appeal to a kind of anger in people,” Frank, a Newton Democrat who chairs the House Financial Services Committee, today told a Boston foreclosure-prevention forum.

Frank charged that conservatives aim to shift blame for the market meltdown away from Wall Street and toward minority-lending laws like the federal Community Reinvestment Act.

Um, Barney, if you bothered to read the conservative stuff, you’d find they’re looking at more than just the Community Reinvestment Act. It’s not they, but you who are trying to shift the blame.

What is it with liberals? Instead of taking responsibility for their own messes (or, in the case, their own involvement in a mess which had many authors) and blame others.

Unable to acknowledge conservative arguments, Barney Frank has decided that Republicans harbor racist sentiments.  I guess he just borrowed a page from the liberal playbook.

He’d rather level false and absurd charges against conservatives than accept his responsibility. Once again, let me repeat, in the interest of recovering from this financial mess with plunging further into recession, Barney Frank should resign from the House Financial Services Committee.

Ed Morrissey who alerted me to Barney’s latest comment provides a nice summary of the conservative view of the mortgage meltdown which I provide below the jump (H/t JammieWearingFool): (more…)

Explaining to Charlie Rose why we’re in the financial mess we’re in, Democratic Congressman Barney Frank, Chairman of the House Financial Services Commitee, said there was a “lack of appropriate regulation.”  Interesting that this man who decries an absence of private sector regulation was so loath to regulate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored enterprises at the center of this mess:

His record is close to perfect as a stalwart opponent of reforming the two companies, going back more than a decade. The first concerted push to rein in Fan and Fred in Congress came as far back as 1992, and Mr. Frank was right there, standing athwart. But things really picked up this decade, and Barney was there at every turn

Hmmm. .. going back to 1992? Wasn’t Barney then partnered to a man who worked at Fannie Mae?

Interesting that a man who blames the crisis on a paucity of regulation of the private sector has a long record of opposing regulation of the public sector.  Shouldn’t government institutions be subject to greater scrutiny given that they don’t face the same market-place risks as does private ones?

Do you think those media guardians ever willing to expose the supposed hypocrisy of gay Republicans will look into the hypocrisy of this gay Democrat?

I wouldn’t bet on it.

UPDATE:  Seems Frank finally got the message that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac needed additional oversight.  Last year, he sponsored H.R. 1427 which would have strengthened oversight of the GSEs. It passed the House, but died in Chris Dodd’s Senate Banking Committee. So, if he finally found it necessary to regulate the GSEs, long after Republicans had been pushing for such reform, why did he blame an absence of private sector regulation? (Via Instapundit.)

His own legislation shows he understood the necessity of additional oversight of government-sponsored institutions. Guess it’s just too hard for a liberal Democrat to let go of his faith in government interference in the free market.

Spend just 10 minutes and learn a lot about why we are facing a $700 BILLION financial crisis.

Spend 10 minutes and learn how the same Democrats in Congress who caused this mess, also got massive campaign contributions from the greedy investment houses and lenders.

Spend 10 minutes and learn that these same Democrats are still kowtowing to their Wall Street donors and left-wing groups during this financial crisis.  We expect the people who caused this mess to FIX IT??

Ask yourselves why Chris Dodd & Barney Frank are SO EAGER to pass the Paulson package so we can “move on” to other subjects.   Don’t look behind the curtain, says Barney, just do what I say.

Ask yourselves which political party, over the past 10 days, has stood up for Main Street and which one has had to stand up for Wall Street due to the political support they rely on.

Spend 10 minutes watching this before you decide who to vote for this November. (h/t – Ace of Spades)

[RELATED STORY: Bailout Mess: And You Wonder Why I'm Not A Democrat? - Kevin at Citizen Crain]

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

UPDATE (from Dan);  As that video above no longer works, please check this one out:

If this doesn’t turn the stomach of every voter in America that hasn’t yet been brainwashed by The One or intimidated by the Obama Goons, nothing will.

Soldier’s Family Told Obama Not to Wear Son’s Bracelet – Gateway Pundit

Barack Obama played the “me too” game during the Friday debates on September 26 after Senator John McCain mentioned that he was wearing a bracelet with the name of Cpl. Matthew Stanley, a resident of New Hampshire and a soldier that lost his life in Iraq in 2006. Obama said that he too had a bracelet. After fumbling and straining to remember the name, he revealed that his had the name of Sergeant Ryan David Jopek of Merrill, Wisconsin.

Shockingly, however, Madison resident Brian Jopek, the father of Ryan Jopek, the young soldier who tragically lost his life to a roadside bomb in 2006, recently said on a Wisconsin Public Radio show that his family had asked Barack Obama to stop wearing the bracelet with his son’s name on it. Yet Obama continues to do so despite the wishes of the family.

How dare Senator Obama use the name of a dead Army soldier, whose name he can’t remember, as a sheer political stunt.  And against the wishes of Sgt. Jopek’s family, nonetheless.  

Senator McCain wears his bracelet in kinship and shared sacrifice with the family of Cpl. Matthew Stanley.

Senator Obama wears his bracelet in an arrogant defiance of what America stands for.  To Obama, the bracelet is yet another prop for his campaign, like the American flag he once did not wear on his lapel.

He makes me sick.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Organizers of the Democratic National Convention announced on Tuesday that former Georgia Governor James Earl Carter, Jr., also known “Jimmy,” with a long anti-Israel record since his forced retirement twenty-eight years ago, will address the gathering next Monday, August 25.

Carter, who served one term as president from 1977-1981 before being defeated in landslide in the 1980 election, carrying only six states, has, since that defeat, blamed Israel for most of the problems in the conflict the Jewish State faces with the Palestinian Arabs.  Earlier this year, despite objections by his own nation’s State Department, the disgraced former president met with Khaled Meshal, a leader of the Hamas organization, in Syria.

The State Department has designated Hamas a terrorist organization.

He called Israeli treatment of the Palestinians,  ”one of the greatest human rights crimes on earth,” yet did not offer any such hyperbolic language to condemn the Palestinian authority which tacitly condones suicide bombings.  Indeed, the governing party of that authority, Fatah, is linked to a terrorist organization, the Al Asqa brigades.

Carter even ignored Israel’s right to defend its borders when it, in 2006, responded to attacks from the terrorist organization, Hezbollah, based in Lebanon, across Israel’s northern border.

If presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama wishes to assure voters of his commitment to the Jewish State, he will remove this anti-Israel speaker from the program of its party’s convention.

UPDATE:  Here’s a reason why Carter’s presence should trouble Obama: Obama’s Numbers With Jewish Voters Drop Below McGovern’s.

UP-UPDATE: In a must-read piece on Pajamas, Phyllis Chesler has more on the Democrats’ choice of this anti-Israel politician to speak on the opening night of their convention.

Americans for Prosperity were there and confronted the liberal hypocrisy.  Or is it the Hypocrite Liberals?

We’re back from Al Gore’s big global warming speech, and boy did we have a great time! We had a dedicated band of taxpayer advocates out in force, pointing out the high economic cost of global warming alarmism – starting with $8 a gallon gasoline.

Of course, we saw plenty of hypocrisy — especially the fact that Gore didn’t ride his bike or take public transporation to the event.  He didn’t even take his Prius! Instead, he brought a fleet of two Lincoln Town Cars and a Chevy Suburban SUV!  Even worse, the driver of the Town Car that eventually whisked away Gore’s wife and daughter left the engine idling and the AC cranking for 20 minutes before they finally left!

Hey, if you think the car-idling is the best part of the video — WRONG!   The AFP folks peacefully confront Gore supporters and his limo driver and — well, you HAVE to watch it! I LOVE the woman who thinks a taxi cab is “public transportation”! ROFLMAO!!!

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Hmmm, it took reading on Instapundit that it was US Senator Charles Schumer (DEMOCRAT-NY) whose latest reckless behavior two weeks ago (added to zillions of other examples before), caused the bank run at IndyMac which resulted in the Federal Government taking it over.   Funny how the MSM isn’t mentioning it at all in their saturated IndyMac coverage over the weekend.

So in addition to sparking fear among IndyMac customers, Senator Schumer has cost you and me (taxpayers) potentially billions of dollars from our pockets.

Way to go, jackass!  (Hey, it IS the Democrat Party mascot; Schumer is just representing it well.)

If the IndyMac panic sparks other bank runs, perhaps Schumer will be responsible for millions of other Americans panicking and sparking the return of Hoovervilles SchumerVilles.

(Photo courtesy of BusinessWeek.com)

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

I just got this high-larious email from the Re-Elect Kucinich for Congress Committee.  (How the frick did I get on THAT list?)

Anyway, enjoy this laugh….

Impeachment on the House floor TODAY

Dear Friends,

Congressman Dennis Kucinich will present a single Article of Impeachment to the House of Representatives sometime between 3:30 pm and 4:00 pm (EDT) today, Thursday, July 10th.

A press conference will be held today at the Cannon HOB Terrace at 2pm (EDT)
 
Sessions of the House of Representatives are broadcast live on C-SPAN (check your local cable listings for channel) and streamed live via the Internet (www.cspan.org).
 
The article of Impeachment will deal directly with President Bush fraudulently obtaining support for an attack on Iraq by creating a false case for war. Full details of the Article of Impeachment will be available after they are read on the floor of the House by Congressman Kucinich.
 
Please spread the word and continue to circulate the online petition that Congressman Kucinich will personally present to members of Congress.

Now, despite what you might think I would say — I HEARTILY support Impeachment proceedings.   PLEASE, (not my) Speaker Pelosi… PLEASE listen to Dennis and begin hearings immediately!

Why, you may ask?  Well, I see only two possible outcomes:

1 – Dick Cheney becomes President

2 – Evidence will be presented on the record in hearings that the mainstream media can’t ignore.  The American public will finally hear the FACTS about the Bush Administration and the FACTS about the outstanding service of the US military that the MSM hasn’t reported since 2003.

Bring it on, baby.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

At the recent African Union summit in Egypt, member nations failed to condemn Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s President-for-Life, for stealing the election from opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai. The union did pass a resolution “calling for him to negotiate with” the man who bested him in the initial balloting on March 29.

Some say Tsvangirai would have won that election outright, thus not requiring a subsequent runoff; a delay in releasing the final results (showing him winning a plurality, but not with the necessary majority) led many to believe that Mugabe’s government tinkered with the returns.

Because “of violence against his supporters,” Tsvangirai withdrew from the June 27 run-off, allowing Mugabe to win reelection unopposed. Reading that “monitors and much of world opinion” condemned that election “as violent and unfair,” I wondered if Jimmy Carter were one of their number as ever since the American people voted him out of office, he has made it his business to supervise elections around the world. Carter always seems to find them fair even when others find fraud, particularly in elections which keep anti-American leaders as happened in Venezuela four year ago.

The Carter Center did issue a release on May 23 faulting Zimbabwean authorities for preventing the “Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), a legally established and widely respected citizen rights group” to observe the elections and make sure they comply with the “country’s electoral laws, code of conduct, and international principles for election observation.”

But, Jimmy didn’t make much of an effort to send a team down there. Nor did the former Democratic president raise much of a ruckus when the Zimbabwean government refused to accept observers from his center, the European Union (EU) or from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Parliamentary Forum.

(more…)