Obama has finally said that the coup is not legal and that Zelaya is still president, according to CNN.  But if his other rhetoric is any indication, he probably doesn’t really mean it.  CNN ends its report with an offical stating that you can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube and there might be a ‘peaceful transition process’, whatever that is.

The military has abducted and manhandled other officals, and one at least has been shot.  If they’ve shot the others, they will be more reluctant to back down.  But so far, Latin America is putting significant pressure on Obama.  If they can reverse the coup, it will indicate an historic change in the relations of the Americas.

By Folktruther, June 29 at 10:07 pm #

You would think that there would be non-US sources in Hunduras that could provide a non-imperialist opinon.

Fuck opinions - don’t you want the facts?
And what is a “non-imperialist opinion”?

Both Latin America and Europe condemned the coup.  Obama HASN’T, despite what the pseudo-Progressive medea says; he merely expressed his ‘concern.’  In the Venzuela coup, the Venzuela army intervened, but in Honduras, it appears to be more under the American thumb. 

If it is allowed to stand, then the US is back to restorting to the military to maintain Freedom&Democracy; in Latin America.  IF it is overturned, then it is another defeat for US imperialism.  Since events in Honduras has been blacked out, and it is not known how militantly the Honduras people have responded, it is hard to know what the outcome will be.

You would think that there would be non-US sources in Hunduras that could provide a non-imperialist opinon.

By Mayponce, June 29 at 8:17 pm #

Perhaps if this were Iran the media might actually cover this and we might get some feigned outrage by nafesh and his ilk.

Feigned? You don’t know me.
Tell you what, Mayponce, why don’t you go organize the workers of the world to unite and rout the capitalists. That seems to be the fairy tale you are living in.

Perhaps if this were Iran the media might actually cover this and we might get some feigned outrage by nafesh and his ilk.

The fact that the US is not complicit in this coupe is unbelievable. If nothing else the US could put a stop to it with a few phone calls, but you won’t see that happening, because US “Free-trade” must rule out over quaint notions like democracy.

By Virginia777, June 29 at 7:04 pm #

to Folktruther:

“Pseudo-Progressive”? “supports the military”? Give me a break! that is inaccurate, for one. Its a forum, Folktruther, where you can say (and read) the truth, uncensored.

Damn, Folktruther, you’ve really done it this time. You know even the dimmest of your colleagues here can smell the bullshit. When Virginia777 starts calling you out on your daily gobbledygook.

So how’s your “truth system” project going? Do you even know what you have proposed?

I can’t wait to read the New Yorker’s “Honduras Coup” edition,

to compliment this week’s “Iran Elections” edition (with its 4 articles and cover art).

Apparently a difference between the current and former POTUS is Obama’s awareness that there is a Southern Hemisphere. During the last Regime many nations were able to achieve self-determinism thanks largely to American neglect. After Bolivians elected a genuine leader, Washington woke up and saw a continent threatening to revive socialism all on their own.

Now the window of opportunity for Latin Americans to achieve true democracy is closing as American media crow about a “rogue president” (no, not Obama) attempting to rewrite dictatorship into the Constitution (again, not Obama).

I guess the corporatists feared bananas going over $1/pound? Or more accurately, their expenses increasing to the benefit of (gasp!) workers. Honduras was invaded at the turn of last century by U.S. Marines on behalf of the U.S. Fruit Company. Apparently history has turned full cycle. What a shame for the people who undoubtedly hoped that they would be left in peace to attend to their affairs. They probably believed the nice words spoken by Hypocrite Obama.

to Folktruther:

I really do not appreciate this kind of Truthdig-bashing:

“And pseudo-Progessive Truthdig more frankly supports the military and exults that the military booted the democactically elected president out of the country”

“Pseudo-Progressive”? “supports the military”? Give me a break! that is inaccurate, for one. Its a forum, Folktruther, where you can say (and read) the truth, uncensored.

In this day and age, with the Media in the mess it is in (how much have we heard about this Military Coup in Honduras?) that counts for so much.

Obama has invented a new truth tactic for this kind of violence.  IMplausable deniability.  He can’t expect Latin America to believe he did not back the coup, but he can perhaps keep Obama cheerleaders in line due to his proclaimed support for Freedom&Democracy;.  I wonder how effectie it will be.

Another good reason to have a militia over an army.

I know, Xntrk!!

there is nothing!

Like many others here, I have been monitoring the Latin American news for information about this coup. Certainly, I am not reading the MSM for information: They make it sound like a picnic by happy boy scouts!

What a disaster this is, and it points to new adventures by the US and CIA in the other democracies in South America. One of the Honduran Ministers was assassinated. I didn’t catch the name in my memory bank, but this is NOT a peaceful take over.

According to http//www.upsidedownworld.org government supporters are in streets, and being met with teargas and other violence by the military. It is so frustrating to be unable to do anything more than wring ones hands and read the news. Man, this country! Two steps forward, and three back. I guess this answers any lingering questions about Obama’s South American policy and being one of equals and blah, blah, blah.

Thank you, Folktruther. I saw the L.A. Times try to cast doubt on Zelaya in their headline.

No way is this TRUE attack on Democracy going to get the press the largely manufactured one in Iran has.

By Folktruther, June 29 at 3:31 pm #

Since the American truth system lies routinely to the American people, it is necessary for the population to develop our own truth system.

And???

What is that “truth system”?

Describe it, or at least make a realistic proposal for what such a “system” is - is it a new medium of communication? If so, whose message will it convey, and who decides what that message will be?

And who is “the population”? Is it that same US population you routinely dismiss as ignorant sheep?

What are you babbling on about?

By Folktruther, June 29 at 3:31 pm #

...pseudo-Progessive Truthdig…

So what media outlet is ‘progressive’ enough for you?

Good post, Virgina.  Notice the difference between Bush and Obama in these coups. Bush immediately supported the coup against Chavez in Venzueala, arousing opposition in all of Latin America, including in the Venzueala military.

In this Honduras coup, a long time US client-state, Obama pretends to be for Democratic norms and the rule of law while supporting the kidnapping of the democratically elected president and the ambassaodors of a number of Latin American countries.

It is his trademark apporach, say one thing in public while doing the opposite in practice. This pretense being necessary to try to deceive Latin America, and the Honduras population,  that he was against the coup.  In reality it could nto have occured without US consent.

All the American mass media know this.  But the pseudo-Progressive media such as the NYTImes maintains the pretense that the US was against the coup and was trying to stop it.  And pseudo-Progessive Truthdig more frankly supports the military and exults that the military booted the democactically elected president out of the country.

Honduras is a small banana republic of eight million people which has traditionally been under the US thumb and kept poverty stricken, in common with other countries of Latin america. The president was trying to move Hondorous away from the neoliberal policies of the US.  The US organs in Honduras are now claiming he was a dictator and the coup “restored Democracy.”

This kind of Democracy will occur in the US, either under Obama or his successors. Ande the US media will support it, just as they support and sanitize the coup in Honduras.  Just as they portray a landslide election in Iran as a “Stolen Election.”

These Big Lies of the American media are necessary to sanitize the lawlessness, brutality, and violence of the American power system as it appoaches the end of its life cycle, when its economic and political systems are increasingly obsolete.  Since the American truth system lies routinely to the American people, it is necessary for the population to develop our own truth system.  Otherwise the American people will not understand how a US coup in Honduras effects them.

By Mayponce, June 29 at 2:12 pm #

The fact that anyone could believe this to be true points out the dangers of Americans educating themselves via AM radio….the horror, the horror.

Likewise, the comically-named Democracy Now (read: ‘we’ll cherry-pick whose liberty and rights we will promote’), IndyMedia, Pacifica Radio, The Nation, Alternet, Huffington Post, Counterpunch, blah blah blah

from Eva Golinger, from Honduras:

UPDATE: 12: 18pm - Dan Restrepo, Presidential Advisor to President Obama for Latin American Affairs, is currently on CNN en Español. He has just stated that Obama’s government is communicating with the coup forces in Honduras, trying to “feel out” the situation. He also responded to the reporter’s question regarding whether Washington would recognize a government in Honduras other than President Zelaya’s elected government, by saying that the Obama Administration “is waiting to see how things play out” and so long as democratic norms are respected, will work with all sectors. This is a confirmation practically of support for the coup leaders. Restrepo also inferred that other countries are interfering in Honduras’ international affairs, obviously referring to Venezuela and other ALBA nations who have condemned the coup with firm statements earlier this morning.

UPDATE: 12pm noon – The Organization of American States is meeting in an emergency session in Washington concerning the situation in Honduras and the kidnapping of Honduras’ president. Venezuelan Ambassador to the OAS, Roy Chaderton, just announced that the ambassadors of Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua in Honduras have just been kidnapped along with Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas, and are being beaten by Honduran military forces.

President Obama has made a statement regarding his “concern” for the situation in Honduras and a call to all political leaders and parties to “respect democratic norms”. However, this statement is NOT a clear condemnation of the coup d’etat that has taken place during the early morning hours on Sunday. Nor did Obama indicate, as other countries have done, that Washington would not recognize any other government in Honduras other than the elected government of Manual Zelaya.

Opposition forces in Honduras, led by a US-funded NGO Grupo Paz y Democracia, have stated via CNN that a coup has not ocurred, but rather a “transition” to democracy. Martha Diaz, coordinator of the NGO, which receives USAID funding, has just declared minutes ago on CNN that “civil society” does not support President Zelaya nor his “illegal quest” to hold a non-binding referendum on a potential future constitutional reform. She justified his kidnapping, beating and removal from power as a “democratic transition”. Again, this is eerily reminiscent of the coup d’etat in Venezuela in April 2002, when so-called “civil society” along with dissident military forces kidnapped President Chávez and installed a “transition government”. The goups involved also received funding from the U.S. government, primarily via the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and later from USAID as well.

CNN en Español, Telesur, and other international television stations reporting on the situation in Honduras have been removed from the airways in the Central American nation. The whereabouts of the Foreign Minister and the ambassadors of Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua are still unknown.  OAS General Secretary Jose Miguel Insulze has announced he will travel immediately to Honduras to investigate the situation. President Chávez of Venezuela has also announced an emergency meeting of ALBA nations in Managua, Nicaragua, as soon as this evening.

Jason! said—“your last option is a bit delusional. obama is pro jihad fool. he has no love for the jews.”

Dude, are you for real? Do any of your opinions have any basis in fact, or do you simply swallow anything that drops out of Rush Speedball’s asshole?

The fact that anyone could believe this to be true points out the dangers of Americans educating themselves via AM radio….the horror, the horror.

oh good

By Virginia777, June 29 at 1:15 pm #

to nefesh:

“I am proud to be a Zionist”

That just about say it all, thank you for your honesty, nefesh

First the insult….
===================

(what does your name mean, if you don’t mind saying?)

...and now a creepily polite request for information?

Look it up yourself - AIPAC doesn’t pay me enough to do basic research for tin-foil-hat wingnuts like you.

[fwd: thank to radical librarian Dana Lubow for this clarification, which she mailed to President Obama. Obama, like Bush, seems to have some trouble grasping the concept.]
http://www.auburn.edu/~johnspm/gloss/coup_d_etat

Coup d’etat
A quick and decisive extra-legal seizure of governmental power by a relatively small but highly organized group of political or military leaders, typically by means of the unexpected arrest or assassination of the incumbent chief executive and his principal supporters within the government. For the coup to be successful, the rank and file of the police and military have to be willing to take orders from the new government leaders once the coup is accomplished, so typically the organizers of successful coups have previously recruited important military and police commanders to their cause prior to going ahead with it. Most frequently, coups are initiated and led by high-ranking military officers. They are most apt to be successful in countries where both the general population’s and the government bureaucracy’s ideological dedication to upholding established constitutional procedures is relatively weak and consequently there is little danger of massive civilian resistance or non-cooperation by the rank and file of soldiers and other government employees.

—

to nefesh:

“I am proud to be a Zionist”

That just about say it all, thank you for your honesty, nefesh

(what does your name mean, if you don’t mind saying?)

What an embarrassing piece of “journalism” this is.

By Jason!!, June 29 at 8:22 am #

I like how nefesh makes a racist comment then calles you a bigot.

Its very telling about the quality and type of people behind this site.

Jason - when I wrote this to Virginia777 below:

“So who do you think owns the majority share of Obama, Inc. - corporate America or the Zionists?”

it was a pointedly sarcastic remark, expecting Virginia777 to launch into a typical Truthdig ‘blame-it-all-on-Zionists’ rant. I am proud to be a Zionist and so are my kids, and I find it fascinating how the regulars here have decided that Zionists are their Boogeymen [and women, and children ]. I believe their flavor of anti-Zionism is akin to a religious cult - their reasoning (and that’s a stretch) is based on faith and fantasy. If you read my other posts you will quickly find that you and I are not so different in outlook.

I like how nefesh makes a racist comment then calles you a bigot.

Its very telling about the quality and type of people behind this site.

fail.

By Folktruther, June 28 at 11:18 pm #

Nefesh, you strike me as the kind of person who salivates at the sight of blood.

Only at yours and likeminded bigots.

You guys are right.

And Obama did not “comdem” the military coup, he merely suggested that “everyone obey the law”.

This guy was trained at the School of the Amercas…Vasquez

Military Coup in Honduras
Read updates from the Narco News Bulletin here: http://narconews.com

A military coup has taken place in Honduras on Sunday, June 28, led by School of the Americas (SOA) graduate Romeo Vasquez. Members of the Honduran military surrounded the presidential palace and forced the democratically elected president, Manuel Zelaya, into custody. He was immediately flown to Costa Rica.

The Honduran state television was taken off the air. The electricity supply to the capital Tegucigalpa, as well telephone and cellphone lines were cut. The people of Honduras are going into the streets. Labor unions are planning for a general strike. From Costa Rica, President Zelaya has called for a non-violent response from the people of Honduras, and for international solidarity for the Honduran democracy.

http://www.soaw.org/

The article:
http://www.soaw.org/presente/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=217&Itemid=74

On Friday, the Organization of American States (OAS), convened a special meeting to discuss the crisis in Honduras, later issuing a statement condeming the threats to democracy and authorizing a convoy of representatives to travel to OAS to investigate further. Nevertheless, on Friday, Assistant Secretary of State of the United States, Phillip J. Crowley, refused to clarify the U.S. government’s position in reference to the potential coup against President Zelaya, and instead issued a more ambiguous statement that implied Washington’s support for the opposition to the Honduran president. While most other Latin American governments had clearly indicated their adamant condemnation of the coup plans underway in Honduras and their solid support for Honduras’ constitutionally elected president, Manual Zelaya, the U.S. spokesman stated the following,  “We are concerned about the breakdown in the political dialogue among Honduran politicians over the proposed June 28 poll on constitutional reform. We urge all sides to seek a consensual democratic resolution in the current political impasse that adheres to the Honduran constitution and to Honduran laws consistent with the principles of the Inter-American Democratic Charter.”

As of 10:30am, Sunday morning, no further statements have been issued by the Washington concerning ....Another major source of funding in Honduras is USAID, providing over US$ 50 millon annually for “democracy promotion” programs, which generally supports NGOs and political parties favorable to U.S. interests, as has been the case in Venezuela, Bolivia and other nations in the region. The Pentagon also maintains a military base in Honduras in Soto Cano, equipped with approximately 500 troops and numerous air force combat planes and helicopters….

Foreign Minister Rodas has stated that she has repeatedly tried to make contact with the U.S. Ambassador in Honduras, Hugo Llorens, who has not responded to any of her calls thus far. The modus operandi of the coup makes clear that Washington is involved. Neither the Honduran military, which is majority trained by U.S. forces, nor the political and economic elite, would act to oust a democratically elected president without the backing and support of the U.S. government. President Zelaya has increasingly come under attack by the conservative forces in Honduras for his growing relationship with the ALBA countries, and particularly Venezuela and President Chávez. Many believe the coup has been executed as a method of ensuring Honduras does not continue to unify with the more leftist and socialist countries in Latin America.”

Wheres the “outrage”, ‘Merka?

What color will this (US)“revolution” be?

Notice the glee in the Truthdig article when a US trained general ousts a democratically elected president.  And it pretends to be a Progressive newsletter.  It was horrified at the “Stolen Election” in Iran.  Almost all of US media is like this, including the pseudo-Progressives.  All in favor of American syle Freedom&Democracy;.

Nefesh, you strike me as the kind of person who salivates at the sight of blood.  On the other hand, I think that you are right, that majority control of Obama, Inc. is owned by the US ruling class.  Not the Zionists.

“So who do you think owns the majority share of Obama, Inc. - corporate America or the Zionists?”

A. Anyone who has money.

your last option is a bit delusional. obama is pro jihad fool. he has no love for the jews.

The heading for this article is incredibly misleading. Zelaya was not seeking reelection, he was simply putting forward a kind of survey vote to see if the population would support holding a vote for a new constitution (the current one was written in 1982, under the supervision of Reagan and designed to benefit the nation’s tiny, wealthy elite). Hugo Chavez never threatened to invade. He warned there could be military action if Venezuelan embassy staff were attacked or harmed, as indeed the Ambassador momentarily was when troops roughed her up along with the ambassadors from Cuba and Nicaragua before letting them go.

By Virginia777, June 28 at 6:32 pm #

Eva Gollinger says, “Obama has not acknowledged that there was a coup de etat in Honduras, nor has he called for the return of President Zelaya, but rather has “condemned” the “situation”

So who do you think owns the majority share of Obama, Inc. - corporate America or the Zionists?

Now will the MSM follow this?

For images of “tens of thousands” of Hondurans facing off against the military in the streets of the major cities of Honduras, go to this site:
http://cantv.radiomundial.com.ve/yvke/index.php

Eva Gollinger says, “Obama has not acknowledged that there was a coup de etat in Honduras, nor has he called for the return of President Zelaya, but rather has “condemned” the “situation”