Internet Scofflaw

This is so sadly plausible, it took me a while to realize it was fiction.

This time Irish voters did as they were told. Sigh. Background here.

This is utterly shameful. An entire continent has given up their sovereignty, and in only one country did the public even get a chance to vote on it. That allowed the rest of Europe to put enormous pressure on Ireland as the sole holdout, threatening them with isolation if they dared obstruct integration again. Suffering greatly from the recession, the Irish public decided they didn’t dare.

(Via the Corner.)

The London Times reports:

Barack Obama has at last granted Gordon Brown a formal one-to-one meeting as the two men try to play down reports of a rift in their relations.

The Prime Minister will be given his meeting at 4pm today (9pm BST) following the G20 summit in Pittsburgh. . .

The two men put on a show of friendship for the cameras in New York yesterday as part of the damage limitation exercise after the White House described reports of a snub as “totally absurd”. . .

Neither side denied, however, that British officials made repeated efforts to secure a formal meeting before Mr Brown arrived in the United States this week, nor that Mr Obama and the Prime Minister had held a private conversation in a UN kitchen.

The British PM shouldn’t have to plead for a meeting with the president. Was the president “too tired” again?

POSTSCRIPT: More on the 15-minute kitchen meeting that wasn’t at all a snub here.

Michael Ledeen comments:

Obama, Sarkozy, and Brown are shocked. Except that they aren’t. They’ve known about it for years. They only told us about it when the Iranians, having discovered that we knew what they were up to in Qom, told the IAEA. So what’s all the faux garment rending and chest pounding about?

Once the Iranians confessed, the West had a choice: Either we knew or we didn’t. If we didn’t, our intelligence agencies were even more incompetent than we thought. If we did, somebody might ask why we were pretending there was hope that the Iranian regime might eventually cooperate.

In other words, they knew things were much worse than they were saying, and in order to avoid embarrassing questions, Western leaders feigned outrage and promised — yet again — to be tough. . .

Meanwhile, the president’s diplomatic ire is not aimed at Iran, a tyrannical enemy. He’s focused on Israel and Honduras. Two democratic allies.

The Miami Herald reports:

It’s been 89 days since Manuel Zelaya was booted from power. He’s sleeping on chairs, and he claims his throat is sore from toxic gases and “Israeli mercenaries” are torturing him with high-frequency radiation.

“We are being threatened with death,” he said in an interview with The Miami Herald, adding that mercenaries were likely to storm the embassy where he has been holed up since Monday and assassinate him. . .

Zelaya was deposed at gunpoint on June 28 and slipped back into his country on Monday, just two days before he was scheduled to speak before the United Nations. He sought refuge at the Brazilian Embassy, where Zelaya said he is being subjected to toxic gases and radiation that alter his physical and mental state.

(Via Hot Air.)

This is the guy that the Obama administration thinks should be running Honduras.

A new report by the Congressional Research Service Law Library of Congress confirms that there was no coup in Honduras, just a constitutional transfer of power:

“The Supreme Court of Honduras has constitutional and statutory authority to hear cases against the President of the Republic and many other high officers of the State, to adjudicate and enforce judgments, and to request the assistance of the public forces to enforce its rulings.”

—Congressional Research Service, August 2009

Ever since Manuel Zelaya was removed from the Honduran presidency by that country’s Supreme Court and Congress on June 28 for violations of the constitution, the Obama administration has insisted, without any legal basis, that the incident amounts to a “coup d’état” and must be reversed. President Obama has dealt harshly with Honduras, and Americans have been asked to trust their president’s proclamations.

Now a report filed at the Library of Congress by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) provides what the administration has not offered, a serious legal review of the facts. “Available sources indicate that the judicial and legislative branches applied constitutional and statutory law in the case against President Zelaya in a manner that was judged by the Honduran authorities from both branches of the government to be in accordance with the Honduran legal system,” writes CRS senior foreign law specialist Norma C. Gutierrez in her report.

(Via Volokh.)

The United States, for some unfathomable reason, is trying to end the constitutional order in Honduras, not save it.

UPDATE: The report is here. It was actually done by the Law Library of Congress, not the CRS, which is a different branch of the Library of Congress. (Via Volokh.)

Nations whose leaders can get a US visa:

• Iran
• Libya
• Burma
• just about any other dictatorship, junta, or kleptocracy

Nations whose leaders cannot get a US visa:

• Honduras

I’m seeing a distinct lack of principle here.

(Via Hot Air.)

In a recent interview, Former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski shows some of the wisdom that helped make the Carter administration such a smashing success. He pronounces that if Israel decides to take out Iran’s nuclear weapons program, the United States should shoot down their planes:

Q: How aggressive can Obama be in insisting to the Israelis that a military strike might be in America’s worst interest?

Brzezinski: We are not exactly impotent little babies. They have to fly over our airspace in Iraq. Are we just going to sit there and watch?

Q: What if they fly over anyway?

B: Well, we have to be serious about denying them that right. That means a denial where you aren’t just saying it. If they fly over, you go up and confront them. They have the choice of turning back or not. No one wishes for this but it could be a Liberty in reverse.

ASIDE: Brzezinski refers to the USS Liberty incident during the 1967 Six-day War in which Israeli jets attacked a US Navy ship, causing major damage and 34 deaths. The ensuing investigation found that the incident was a tragic mistake, and Israel paid millions in restitution. Nevertheless, some (apparently including Brzezinski) believe that Israel attacked the ship deliberately.

Fortunately, I can’t see the president giving such an order. Not only would such an attack be catastrophic to US-Israel relations (already severely damaged by the president), it would make President Obama a hostage to fortune. Anything that Iran would do with its nuclear weapons would be Obama’s inescapable, personal responsibility.

POSTSCRIPT: As horrifying as it may be, Brzezinski’s proposal is moderate compared to that of Obama foreign-policy adviser Samantha Power, who has called for the US to invade Israel and impose a settlement between Israel and the Palestinians.

(Via the Weekly Standard.)

Iran has brutally suppressed anti-government rallies, but the protesters have found a way to adapt. They turn out for officially sanctioned rallies (mostly anti-Israel) and turn them into opposition rallies. (Via Hot Air.)

Another totalitarian regime rich in gas and oil wants to develop nuclear energy for no clear reason. As with Iran, Russia is helping them.

But don’t suggest that Hugo Chavez is looking to build nuclear weapons. That would be alarmist.

(Via Power Line.)

I’m not sure if this constitutes news any more, but Venezuela is continuing to tighten its suppression of the media. Some lowlights:

On August 1st, 34 radio stations were taken off the air for allegedly failing to submit the proper paperwork to the broadcasting regulator. In all, more than half the country’s 656 privately owned radio stations face fines and possible closure on this ground. Their owners say they have tried for years to update their paperwork, with no response from the authorities.

and:

The attorney-general, Luisa Ortega, unveiled a draft law against “media crimes” which proposes jail terms of up to four years for vaguely worded offences such as “prejudicing state security” or the “mental health” of the public. Not just reporters and media owners, but anyone expressing himself in the media (or failing to report news the authorities consider essential) may face prosecution. The right to free speech must be “regulated”, Ms Ortega said.

is pretty much a complete disaster:

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made it clear Thursday that Moscow wouldn’t back any new rounds of tough sanctions against Iran in the United Nations Security Council, and he dismissed a U.S. timetable for securing progress from Iran on ending its nuclear-fuel program.

Mr. Lavrov’s comments in Moscow led U.S. officials to acknowledge that new U.N. sanctions against Iran were now unlikely in the near term — endangering a major element of President Barack Obama’s high-profile strategy for diplomacy in the Middle East. “We’re pretty disappointed with the Russian position so far,” a senior U.S. official said.

The development also appeared a blow to hopes that the Obama administration’s “reset” of relations with Russia would lead to Moscow supporting a top U.S. foreign-policy priority.

(Via the Corner.)

There are real reasons why Russia is hostile to the west; it’s not just a personality conflict with President Bush that a new administration can “reset”. The sooner President Obama understands this, the sooner we’ll stop making asses of ourselves.

The London Times reports:

France and Israel have led the charge against [IAEA head] Dr ElBaradei, saying that his latest report on Iran’s nuclear programme omitted evidence that the agency had been given about an alleged covert weaponisation plan.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said that the report did not reflect all that the agency knew about Iran’s “efforts to continue to pursue its military programme”.

France went farther, alleging the existence of an unpublished annexe that addresses the evidence that Iran may be building an atom bomb.

Bernard Kouchner, the French Foreign Minister, said that France had attended a technical briefing that covered the material, so was surprised to find it missing from the report.

“In the annexes there are specifically elements which enable us to ask about the reality of an atomic bomb,” he said “There are issues of warheads, of transport.”

The published section of the report focused more on the positive, noting that Iran had slowed its production of enriched uranium and had agreed to closer monitoring of its plant.

(Via Hot Air.)

Secretary Clinton acknowledges there was no coup in Honduras, but she’s pressing ahead with sanctions anyway:

Clinton made the decision [to cut off aid] even though she did not determine that Zelaya’s ouster met the U.S. legal definition of a military coup d’etat. . . Clinton did not make that finding because Zelaya’s ouster involved “the participation of both the legislative and judicial branches of government as well as the military,” [State Department spokesman Ian] Kelly said.

(Via Power Line.)

Absolutely incredible.

(Previous post.)

IBD points out that the United States is virtually alone in continuing to pressure Honduras:

[The United States] thinks it’s part of a group: “This is a regional and international effort,” a senior administration official told IBD Thursday. “We’ve talked to the Europeans . . . so if anything, we’ll be redoubling efforts moving forward on this. And no, we’re not isolated at all.”

But as Honduras remains firm, the rest of the world, sees this and has started to restore normal ties. If this continues, the U.S. will be left holding the bag as the world’s bad cop bully.

Even Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, by whose influence Zelaya tried to make himself dictator, announced on Sept. 1 that he’d given up hope Zelaya would ever return to office. “Regardless of whether Zelaya returns or not . . . Honduras will keep up the fight,” Chavez said. The Venezuelan strongman can read the obvious: game over.

Meanwhile, the European Union announced it wouldn’t initiate trade sanctions on Honduras as it had threatened earlier. It knew the deal and knew its interests.

Thursday, the International Monetary Fund announced it would extend a $150 million loan to Honduras, a sharp shift from the lending cutoff announced by the World Bank after the June 28 ouster of Zelaya. Again, game over, back to business.

The Organization of American States, which egged on Zelaya’s illegal referendum and helped create the crisis, announced it would now focus on avoiding future “coups” — something that, if they were serious, would mean challenging dictators in democracy’s clothing, an unlikely thing. But they, too, are moving on.

(Previous post.) (Via Instapundit.)

Dammit:

The Obama administration on Thursday cut all non-humanitarian aid to Honduras over the ouster of President Manuel Zelaya, making permanent a temporary suspension of U.S. aid imposed after he was deposed in June.

The State Department made the announcement as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was meeting with Zelaya. Spokesman Ian Kelly did not say how much assistance would be cut but officials have said previously that more than $200 million is at stake. Kelly said it affected “a broad range of assistance to the government of Honduras.”

“The Secretary of State has made the decision, consistent with U.S. legislation, recognizing the need for strong measures in light of the continued resistance to the adoption of the San Jose Accord by the de facto regime and continuing failure to restore democratic, constitutional rule to Honduras,” Kelly said in a statement.

(Via the Corner.)

I’ve written enough on this in the past, so I won’t comment further on how appalling this is, except to say this: Isn’t it a bit much to call it the “San Jose Accord”? Usually an accord is an agreement between the interested parties. This is not an accord, it’s a proposal that was agreed on by one interested party and rejected by the other.

Raul Castro’s prescription for Cuba’s economic woes: more central control. Yeah, that’ll help.

The New York Times reports:

Despite repeated denials by President Hugo Chávez, Venezuelan officials have continued to assist commanders of Colombia’s largest rebel group, helping them arrange weapons deals in Venezuela and even obtain identity cards to move with ease on Venezuelan soil, according to computer material captured from the rebels in recent months and under review by Western intelligence agencies.

The materials point to detailed collaborations between the guerrillas and high-ranking military and intelligence officials in Mr. Chávez’s government as recently as several weeks ago, countering the president’s frequent statements that his administration does not assist the rebels. “We do not protect them,” he said in late July. . .

The newest communications, circulated among the seven members of the FARC’s secretariat, suggest that little has changed with Venezuela’s assistance since [Colombia’s raid on a FARC base in Ecuador]. The New York Times obtained a copy of the computer material from an intelligence agency that is analyzing it.

One message from Iván Márquez, a rebel commander thought to operate largely from Venezuelan territory, describes the FARC’s plan to buy surface-to-air missiles, sniper rifles and radios in Venezuela last year.

It is not clear whether the arms Mr. Márquez refers to ended up in FARC hands. But he wrote that the effort was facilitated by Gen. Henry Rangel Silva, the director of Venezuela’s police intelligence agency until his removal last month, and by Ramón Rodríguez Chacín, a former Venezuelan interior minister who served as Mr. Chávez’s official emissary to the FARC in negotiations to free hostages last year.

The Washington Times reports:

The interim president of Honduras has offered the man he replaced after a June coup the chance to return to the country on the condition that both renounce claims to the presidency, a negotiator said Thursday.

Arturo Corrales, a member of a three-man Honduran panel seeking an end to the standoff, told The Washington Times that Roberto Micheletti was willing to make the concessions to restore peace and prosperity to Honduras following the coup against Manuel Zelaya. . .

Mr. Corrales, who was appointed by Mr. Micheletti, has shuttled between Honduras and the United States for the last few weeks. He told The Times that under the new proposal:

• Both Mr. Micheletti and Mr. Zelaya would resign.
• The next in line under the constitution would become interim president.
• New elections would be scheduled and monitored by independent foreign observers.
• Mr. Zelaya may return as a private citizen.
• Mr. Micheletti will support a decision by the Honduran congress to grant “political amnesty [not involving common crimes] to all parties relating to events of June 28.”

This deal makes sense for Honduras, since it preserves its constitution. But I assume Zelaya, Chavez, and Castro will not be interested, since there’s no way this proposal results in the establishment of a socialist dictatorship.

(Via Hot Air.)

The Obama administration is snubbing the Polish remembrance of the start of World War 2. Once again, the world is seeing how we treat our closest friends.

Reports that the State Department was coming to its senses regarding Honduras were premature. Our appalling State Department is retaliating against Honduras for its refusal to set aside its constitution and re-install Manuel Zelaya as president:

The OAS Foreign Ministers mission is in Honduras seeking support for the San Jose Accord, which would restore the democratic and constitutional order and resolve the political crisis in Honduras. In support of this mission and as a consequence of the de facto regime’s reluctance to sign the San Jose Accord, the U.S. Department of State is conducting a full review of our visa policy in Honduras. As part of that review, we are suspending non-emergency, non-immigrant visa services in the consular section of our embassy in Honduras, effective August 26. We firmly believe a negotiated solution is the appropriate way forward and the San Jose Accord is the best solution.

Idiots. The only crisis in Honduras is the one we are instigating. The world is re-learning the lesson it learned so clearly during the Carter administration: America will treat its enemies better than its friends.

(Via Hot Air.)

Hugo Chavez’s growing police state has taken another step by passing a law that requires that all education in Venezuela be conducted in accordance with “Bolivarian” socialist doctrine. Journalists protesting the legislation were beaten by pro-government thugs. As usual:

The government condemned the violence and ordered an investigation. No arrests have been made.

(Via Power Line.)

This is welcome news, if true:

In a welcome about-face, the State Department told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Richard Lugar, R-Ind., in a letter Tuesday that the U.S. would no longer threaten sanctions on Honduras for ousting its president, Mel Zelaya, last June 28.

Nor will it insist on Zelaya’s return to power. As it turns out, the U.S. Senate can’t find any legal reason why the Honduran Supreme Court’s refusal to let Zelaya stay in office beyond the time allowed by Honduran law constitutes a “military coup.”

(Via Instapundit.)

I hope it’s true.  On the other hand, just today President Obama was continuing to blather about returning Zelaya to power.

AP reports:

President Hugo Chavez told his military to be prepared for a possible confrontation with Colombia, warning that Bogota’s plans to increase the U.S. military presence at its bases poses a threat to Venezuela. . .

“The threat against us is growing,” Chavez said Sunday. “I call on the people and the armed forces, let’s go, ready for combat!”

The former paratroop commander said Colombian soldiers were recently spotted crossing the porous 1,400-mile border that separates the two countries and suggested that Colombia may have been trying to provoke Venezuela’s military.

“They crossed the Orinoco River in a boat and entered Venezuelan territory,” Chavez said. “When our troops arrived, they’d already left.”

Colombia denies the allegation. In contrast, Colombia acknowledged it openly when they raided a FARC base inside Ecuador last year.

Maybe.

The Obama administration says that Ahmadinejad is the “elected leader” of Iran.

UPDATE: A partial walkback:

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs on Wednesday said he had misspoken in calling Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Iran’s elected leader and that Washington will let the Iranian people decide whether Iran’s election was fair. . .

“He’s been inaugurated. That’s a fact. Whether any election was fair, obviously the Iranian people still have questions about that, and we’ll let them decide about that.”

(Via the Corner.)

Better, but it’s still pretty disgraceful to pretend that there’s some question about whether the vote was fair.

POSTSCRIPT: It’s a pity that the administration won’t let the Honduran people decide for themselves who their president is. But Honduras doesn’t have the privileges that come with being an enemy of America.

Hugo Chavez is trying to distance himself from an incident in which supporters attacked the headquarters of Globovision, Venezuela’s sole remaining opposition station:

President Hugo Chavez on Tuesday condemned an attack on an opposition-aligned TV station that he has threatened with closure, announcing that one of his radical supporters was detained for allegedly taking part in the assault. . .

He said Lina Ron, leader of a far-left party that supports the government’s socialist policies, was arrested over the attack. He said Ron and those who accompanied her “must face the force of the law.”

On Monday, government supporters riding motorcycles and waving the flags of Ron’s party tossed tear gas canisters at Globovision, the country’s last over-the-air television station that is a strong critic of Chavez. Globovision broadcast video of the incident, allegedly showing Ron among the attackers.

Chavez has recognized Ron as an ally, but he has also criticized her in the past for going too far.

Words are cheap. We’ll see if Ron faces any real consequences. I’d be surprised if she even sees the inside of a courtroom.

In any case, Chavez hardly needs the help of his mob for this. He’s close to wrapping things up using official coercion:

The attack came as tensions are rising between Venezuela’s government and private media.

Globovision is facing multiple investigations that could lead to its closure. Broadcast regulators, meanwhile, announced Friday that they were shutting down at least 32 radio stations. More than 200 other stations are also under investigation.

Meanwhile, in Ecuador, president and Chavez-wannabe Rafael Correa is continuing to follow in his mentor’s footsteps:

President Rafael Correa of Ecuador, a close Chavez ally, announced Monday that “many” radio and TV frequencies in his country would revert to the state over what he called irregularities in their licenses. He gave no specifics.

The Economist reports that the cooperation between FARC and Ecuador’s socialist government runs both ways:

SPEAKING earlier this month Ecuador’s foreign minister, Fander Falconí, observed that his country’s relations with Colombia had never been as bad. They just got worse: a video leaked to the Associated Press and published on July 17th showed the military commander of the FARC, Colombia’s biggest guerrilla group, saying that his organisation gave “aid in dollars” in 2006 for the election campaign of Rafael Correa, Ecuador’s president and had reached “agreements” with Ecuadorean officials.

There is no evidence that Mr Correa himself knew about any FARC donation, and he denies that any existed. Ecuador’s electoral commission approved his campaign’s accounts. Mr Correa was quick to claim the video was a “fabrication”. But that is implausible. The FARC commander, Jorge Briceño, is well-known. Colombian police found the video, which shows him reading a letter to a group of guerrillas last year, on the computer of a FARC organiser arrested in Bogotá in May. His remarks referred to the damage done by the leaking of guerrilla “secrets” contained in e-mails found on computer equipment belonging to Raúl Reyes, a senior FARC leader killed when Colombian forces bombed and raided his camp just across the border in Ecuador in March last year.

So says a chief advisor to Mahmoud Abbas:

Senior Palestinian Authority official Mohammed Dahlan told PA TV last week that deceased former leader Yasser Arafat had managed to fool the world with his public condemnations of anti-Israel terrorism.

Dahlan said the international community demanded that Arafat condemn terrorism against Israel in order to win land concessions from the Jewish state, so he did just that. But behind the scenes, Dahlan said Arafat continued backing the use of terrorist violence against Israelis, a fact that Western leaders only acknowledged toward the end of Arafat’s life.

“Arafat would condemn [terror] operations by day while at night he would do honorable things,” said Dahlan, who today serves as top advisor to Arafat’s successor, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

(Via the Corner.)

This comes as no real surprise to anyone who paid attention to Arafat’s Arabic-language speeches, or to his actions. But it is unusual to see a top Palestinian official overtly boasting of how they pulled the wool over the world’s eyes.

The number of Venezuelan media outlets not controlled by Hugo Chavez’s government is already dwindling, but the few that remain are still too independent. So Venezuela is considering abolishing the last vestiges of its free press:

A tough new media law, under which journalists could be imprisoned for publishing “harmful” material, has been proposed in Venezuela.

Journalists could face up to four years in prison for publishing material deemed to harm state stability.

Public prosecutor Luisa Ortega Diaz, who proposed the changes, said it was necessary to “regulate the freedom of expression” without “harming it”.

Oh, they’re not going to harm freedom of expression? That’s a relief.

(Via the Corner.) (Previous post.)

Power Line writes:

A friend called to my attention the home page of the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem, which is devoid of any material pertaining to Jews or Israelis. Every item visible on the page is about Palestinians.

A fair reflection, I think, of where this administration’s sympathies lie and how it sees Jerusalem.

Surely an exaggeration, right? I had to see for myself.

No exaggeration. On the web page of the US consulate in Israel’s capital there are seventeen featured items. Of those, twelve relate to the Palestinian Authority or to Palestinians, one advertises two Fulbright fellowship programs (one for Palestinians and one for Arabs), one relates to the “peace process,” and the other three relate to the United States. Not one relates to Israel or Israelis.

UPDATE (8/6): It’s not just the web site. It seems that the Jerusalem consulate is essentially the embassy to Palestine, as a matter of official policy:

Claudia Rosett has since asked a few questions and was told by a press officer at the Consulate that it is “100 percent independent” of the embassy in Tel Aviv, reporting not to the U.S. Ambassador in Israel but directly to the Secretary of State in Washington.

We have promised for years that we would move our embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, but we have never gotten around to it, for fear of offending the Palestinians. At the same time, we’ve built an embassy to the Palestinians in that very city. Doesn’t that send a clear message?

Hillary Clinton apparently hasn’t learned yet that words are important on the international stage:

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said this week a nuclear Iran could be contained by a U.S. “defense umbrella,” setting off tremors in the Middle East.

Since making the remark on a television chat show in Thailand, Clinton has backpedaled, saying she was only restating existing policy and not referring to any sort of formal guarantees of protection under an American “nuclear umbrella.”

And when Israeli officials raised alarms that she seemed to suggest the U.S. was resigned to a nuclear-armed Iran, Clinton and senior State Department officials hastily insisted such a prospect was still unacceptable and that no policy had changed.

Extending the “nuclear umbrella” is serious business, and shouldn’t be thrown around as small talk. It’s a pity the president chose his Secretary of State for political considerations, rather than foreign policy competence.

Another innovation from the Islamic Republic of Iran:

He said he had been a highly regarded member of the force, and had so “impressed my superiors” that, at 18, “I was given the ‘honor’ to temporarily marry young girls before they were sentenced to death.”

In the Islamic Republic it is illegal to execute a young woman, regardless of her crime, if she is a virgin, he explained. Therefore a “wedding” ceremony is conducted the night before the execution: The young girl is forced to have sexual intercourse with a prison guard – essentially raped by her “husband.”

“I regret that, even though the marriages were legal,” he said.

Why the regret, if the marriages were “legal?”

“Because,” he went on, “I could tell that the girls were more afraid of their ‘wedding’ night than of the execution that awaited them in the morning. And they would always fight back, so we would have to put sleeping pills in their food. By morning the girls would have an empty expression; it seemed like they were ready or wanted to die.

“I remember hearing them cry and scream after [the rape] was over,” he said. “I will never forget how this one girl clawed at her own face and neck with her finger nails afterwards. She had deep scratches all over her.”

(Via the Corner.)

Since these are the same monsters that execute rape victims for adultery, I guess we can’t be too surprised by this.

The illegal Honduran referendum to allow presidential re-election never took place, but investigators searching the presidential palace after Manuel Zelaya’s ouster have found what would have been its official results. Unsurprisingly, the referendum passed by a wide margin, at least in the one polling place that is being reported. This is popping up in multiple press outlets now, so the story sounds legit.

One common argument among those who would like to see the would-be tyrant restored to office is that he is unpopular, so restoring him to power would be temporary and not make much difference. That argument is inoperative now; Zelaya’s preparations for election fraud make his unpopularity moot. (Setting aside the fact that Zelaya cannot constitutionally be restored to office.)

(Via Instapundit.) (Previous post.)

Hugo Chavez is working hard to shut down the last remaining opposition media:

TO CRITICS who call him an autocrat, Venezuela’s leftist president, Hugo Chávez, responds by pointing to a largely uncensored opposition media. Yet it is an argument that is wearing thin. Mr Chávez recently vowed to curb what he sees as the excesses of Globovisión, a 24-hour news channel that is his main bugbear. Closing it down may be the only way to do so.

Globovisión is the last remaining national channel that is critical of the government. It was one of four such channels that during Venezuela’s political conflict of 2002-04, to varying degrees, egged on an opposition that was determined to oust Mr Chávez. Two have since capitulated, firing controversial talk-show hosts and adjusting their news coverage. In 2007 the government’s broadcasting regulator refused to renew the licence of the fourth—Radio Caracas Televisión, which is now subscription-only. . .

The president recently ordered mayors and state governors to provide him with a “map of the media war”, showing which regional outlets are “in the hands of the oligarchy”. Last month he instructed not just his ministers but also several nominally autonomous state bodies to move against Globovisión. Within days, the channel and its main owner faced a legal assault.

Once again, Hugo Chavez’s support for democracy is decidedly fair-weathered:

[Antonio Ledezma] is the opposition mayor of Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, who was elected by a landslide in November 2008. Yet after his victory, President Hugo Chávez effectively ignored the election results by creating a position of ”super-mayor” of Caracas, appointing a loyalist to the new job and stripping Ledezma of his offices and the bulk of his budget. . .

When he took office Dec. 7, Ledezma found out that most of his office’s funds had been transferred to other government agencies. Then, on Dec. 29, government-backed mobs started occupying various city offices. On Jan. 17, a pro-Chávez mob took over the Caracas City Hall, including the mayor’s offices.

Shortly thereafter, the Chávez-run Congress created the job of Caracas ”head of government,” and Chávez appointed a non-elected loyalist to the new position. . .

Strangled for cash, Ledezma soon found himself unable to pay city employees’ salaries. When his bids to recover his city budget were rejected by Chávez-controlled courts, he walked into the OAS offices in Caracas on July 3, and started a hunger strike.

Ledezma demanded among other things that OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza meet with a delegation of Venezuelan opposition mayors and governors. In addition to Ledezma, the opposition governors of the states of Zulia (Venezuela’s main oil center), Miranda and Tachira, among others, have been stripped of their jurisdiction over seaports, airports and highways, which are their main sources of funding.

The Economist reviews a new book on the Venezuelan coup of 2002:

ON APRIL 11th 2002 nearly a million people marched on the presidential palace in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, to demand the ousting of Hugo Chávez, the elected president whom they accused of undermining democracy and causing the creeping “Cubanisation” of the country. As they neared the palace, violence broke out. . .

As Brian Nelson, who teaches at Miami University, writes in this superbly researched account, the short-lived coup “would become one of the most important, yet most misunderstood, events in recent history.” It severely damaged the democratic credentials of the Venezuelan opposition, while Mr Chávez successfully portrayed himself as the innocent victim of an American-inspired conspiracy to overthrow violently an elected government. . .

So what really happened in April 2002? . . . Chávez’s brief ouster was “not a coup in the classic sense”, nor a premeditated conspiracy, and he exonerates the United States of direct involvement. He finds that the National Guard and chavista gunmen started the shooting, and were responsible for most of the bloodshed, though some victims may have been killed when the Caracas police, loyal to an opposition mayor, returned fire.

When Mr Chávez ordered the army to suppress the demonstration, his top generals refused. They rightly argued that the order was unconstitutional. When the television images showed the chavistas shedding blood, the president quickly found himself friendless. Though he did not sign a written resignation, he did agree to step down in return for safe passage to Cuba. But the generals failed to broker a constitutional transition. As they dithered, Mr Carmona stepped opportunistically into the power vacuum, staging “a coup within a popular uprising”. The army swiftly withdrew its support from the appalling Mr Carmona, making Mr Chávez’s return inevitable.

Within days his government began “a multi-million dollar campaign to rewrite the history of the coup”. According to Mr Nelson, it destroyed evidence of the killings, blocked all attempts at police and judicial investigation, and swiftly shut down hearings by the chavista-controlled National Assembly. It offered money and benefits to those willing to say they or their relatives had been shot by the opposition, writes Mr Nelson, and harassed those who truthfully claimed the opposite.

Ed Morrissey thinks that Democrats are starting to back away from Zelaya. I hope so. Honduras could use some good news.

Morrissey thinks, and I agree, that the Obama administration just didn’t bother to gets the facts straight before it condemned the “coup”. Now, Obama being Obama, he cannot admit he was wrong.

Miguel Estrada has the best summary of the Honduras situation I’ve seen yet. The only important thing he fails to note is that the Honduran constitution explicitly gives the supreme court the authority to use the army to carry out its rulings.

(Via the Corner.) (Previous post.)

Hamas starts enforcing sharia in Gaza. Directly that is; in the past it has simply stood by while thugs did the enforcing.

The London Times reports:

The head of Mossad, Israel’s overseas intelligence service, has assured Benjamin Netanyahu, its prime minister, that Saudi Arabia would turn a blind eye to Israeli jets flying over the kingdom during any future raid on Iran’s nuclear sites.

Earlier this year Meir Dagan, Mossad’s director since 2002, held secret talks with Saudi officials to discuss the possibility. . .

“The Saudis have tacitly agreed to the Israeli air force flying through their airspace on a mission which is supposed to be in the common interests of both Israel and Saudi Arabia,” a diplomatic source said last week.

Although the countries have no formal diplomatic relations, an Israeli defence source confirmed that Mossad maintained “working relations” with the Saudis.

(Via Instapundit.)

A major development in Iran:

The most important group of religious leaders in Iran called the disputed presidential election and the new government illegitimate on Saturday, an act of defiance against the country’s supreme leader and the most public sign of a major split in the country’s clerical establishment.

A statement by the group, the Association of Researchers and Teachers of Qum, represents a significant, if so far symbolic, setback for the government and especially the authority of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose word is supposed to be final. The government has tried to paint the opposition and its top presidential candidate, Mir Hussein Moussavi, as criminals and traitors, a strategy that now becomes more difficult — if not impossible.

(Via the Corner.)

Iran has been trying to paint the opposition as part of conspiracy driven by foreigners, and even extracted some forced confessions to that effect. This will make that effort even less plausible.

Iran continues to try to change the subject from its rigged election to sinister outside influence:

A senior Iranian cleric said Friday that the British Embassy employees arrested in Tehran in recent days would be put on trial on unspecified charges of acting against Iran’s national security, a move immediately denounced by members of the European Union.

Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, head of the conservative Guardian Council, said in a Friday prayer sermon that the employees, all of them Iranian nationals, would “definitely be tried.” They are accused of taking part in or promoting weeks of unrest after the June 12 presidential election, which was marred by allegations of massive vote-rigging.

(Via LGF.)

Octavio Sánchez, formerly Honduran minister of culture, explains what the Honduran constitution actually says about Zelaya:

Under our Constitution, what happened in Honduras this past Sunday? Soldiers arrested and sent out of the country a Honduran citizen who, the day before, through his own actions had stripped himself of the presidency.

These are the facts: On June 26, President Zelaya issued a decree ordering all government employees to take part in the “Public Opinion Poll to convene a National Constitutional Assembly.” In doing so, Zelaya triggered a constitutional provision that automatically removed him from office.

Constitutional assemblies are convened to write new constitutions. When Zelaya published that decree to initiate an “opinion poll” about the possibility of convening a national assembly, he contravened the unchangeable articles of the Constitution that deal with the prohibition of reelecting a president and of extending his term. His actions showed intent.

Our Constitution takes such intent seriously. According to Article 239: “No citizen who has already served as head of the Executive Branch can be President or Vice-President. Whoever violates this law or proposes its reform [emphasis added], as well as those that support such violation directly or indirectly, will immediately cease in their functions and will be unable to hold any public office for a period of 10 years.”

Notice that the article speaks about intent and that it also says “immediately” – as in “instant,” as in “no trial required,” as in “no impeachment needed.”

Continuismo – the tendency of heads of state to extend their rule indefinitely – has been the lifeblood of Latin America’s authoritarian tradition. The Constitution’s provision of instant sanction might sound draconian, but every Latin American democrat knows how much of a threat to our fragile democracies continuismo presents. In Latin America, chiefs of state have often been above the law. The instant sanction of the supreme law has successfully prevented the possibility of a new Honduran continuismo.

(Via Power Line.)

I’ve looked up article 239 on-line and this is accurate. As it is undisputed that Zelaya did indeed propose to change the law to allow himself a second term, this resolves the question conclusively.

UPDATE: In case one had any lingering questions about whether the army’s action was legal, it turns out that article 313 of the Honduran constitution empowers the supreme court to use the military to carry out its rulings. So that’s that. (Via Instapundit.)

(Previous post.)

Rosalinda Cruz, a justice of the Honduran supreme court, says that the army acted on a legal arrest warrant:

“The only thing the armed forces did was carry out an arrest order,” Cruz, 55, said in a telephone interview from the capital, Tegucigalpa. “There’s no doubt he was preparing his own coup by conspiring to shut down the congress and courts.”

Cruz said the court issued a sealed arrest order for Zelaya on June 26, charging him with treason and abuse of power, among other offenses. . .

The arrest order she cited, approved unanimously by the court’s 15 justices, was released this afternoon along with documents pertaining to a secret investigation that went on for weeks under the high court’s supervision.

(Via Legal Insurrection, via Instapundit.)

We really shouldn’t be calling this a coup any more. Beyond the fact that Honduras doesn’t have our Posse Comitatus act, what exactly is our complaint now?

(Previous post.)

The Daily Mail reports:

In the latest development, images have emerged of suspicious ballot papers which appear to show the re-elected president’s name written in the same handwriting on many sheets.

Some have also claimed that the papers were suspiciously crisp and unfolded.

The images were shown as part of footage of a recount, broadcast on Iranian state television to supposedly assuage concern over the results.

(Via Instapundit.)

Oops. When you’re producing a video to show fair vote-counting, you need to film while you’re counting the real ballots.

Iran is now claiming that the murder of Neda Soltan was staged. No surprise, since Ahmadinejad had already announced what the outcome of the “investigation” would be, but it’s still disgusting.

(Previous post.)

Despite international pressure, Honduras refuses to return would-be-dictator Manuel Zelaya to power:

Honduras’ interim leader warned that the only way his predecessor will return to office is through a foreign invasion, setting up a dramatic showdown with the ousted president who is preparing to come home accompanied by world leaders.

(Via Hot Air.)

Also, there’s this additional wrinkle:

His foreign minister, Enrique Ortez, threw a wild card onto the table, telling CNN en Espanol that Zelaya had been letting drug traffickers ship U.S.-bound cocaine from Venezuela through Honduras. Ortez said the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration was aware of Zelaya’s ties to organized crime.

DEA spokesman Rusty Payne could neither confirm nor deny a DEA investigation.

UPDATE: The Wall Street Journal reviews what Zelaya was up to. Bottom line, democratic institutions in Latin America are not so strong that they need not be defended. (Via Instapundit.)

(Previous post.)

Iran has begun executing dissidents. Also, they’re putting female militia on the streets to help break up protests. Their job is to beat women so that male militia don’t have to do it.

(Via Hot Air.)

Manuel Zelaya, the former president of Honduras, was overwhelmingly removed from office by the Honduran Congress, in accordance with its constitution. So why is the US saying that Zelaya is still the legitimate president?

UPDATE: How often do you see National Review, Investor’s Business Daily, and The New Republic agree on something? The Washington Post is more muddled, but still recognizes the basic truth. (They say it would be best if Zelaya temporarily resumes his post, and presumably is then re-deposed.) The New York Times says nothing, which I interpret to mean they weren’t able to come up with an argument defending the president.

(Previous post.)

AP reports:

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asked Iran’s cleric-controlled judiciary on Monday to investigate the killing of Neda Agha Soltan, who became an icon of Iran’s ragtag opposition after gruesome video of her bleeding to death on a Tehran street was circulated worldwide.

Ahmadinejad’s Web site said Soltan was slain by “unknown agents and in a suspicious” way, convincing him that “enemies of the nation” were responsible.

The regime has implicated protesters and even foreign intelligence agents in Soltan’s death. But an Iranian doctor who said he tried to save her told the BBC last week she apparently was shot by a member of the volunteer Basij militia.

It was good of Ahmadinejad to say what the outcome of the investigation should be. It avoids confusion that way.

The big news of the last day is the military coup in Honduras that is now starting to look like not so much of a coup after all. It has now been confirmed that in deposing the president, the military acted under direction from the Honduran supreme court, with support from the Honduran Congress. (Via Moe Lane, via Instapundit.)

Manuel Zelaya, the deposed president, instigated the crisis by proceeding with public referendum on constitutional amendment that had been ruled illegal by the supreme court. (The Honduran constitution does not provide for amendment by public referendum.) He had also flouted several other laws in his effort to carry out the referendum. Zeyala, an ally of Hugo Chavez, was seeking to lift presidential term limits so that he could remain in office.

I have no idea whether the Honduran constitution provides for the procedure that was used to remove Zelaya. In the abstract, however, it’s surely appropriate for two of the three branches of government to act to together to depose an executive that is flouting the law. It sounds to me as though the military backed the right side. In America, if a president were impeached and refused to leave office (not a perfect parallel, I realize), the military would support the Constitution, not the president.

It’s very unfortunate that President Obama and Secretary Clinton jumped in with both feet to condemn this action. I wonder if they simply didn’t get their facts straight before proclaiming their condemnation, or whether they really think that Zelaya is in the right. The contrast with the administration’s days of silence on Iran is particularly striking. These people really have no idea what they’re doing.

UPDATE: Fixed an important typo. Oops.

UPDATE: A good summary at the Wall Street Journal.

AP reports:

The pro-government Basij militia has held back its full fury during this week’s street demonstrations. But witnesses say the force has unleashed its violence in shadowy nighttime raids, attacking suspected opposition sympathizers with axes, daggers, sticks and other crude weapons.

At least once, the militiamen opened fire on a crowd of strone-throwing protesters. State media said seven were killed.

If supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei authorizes a crackdown on protesters calling for a new presidential election, as he warned on Friday, the Basij will almost certainly be out in force.

After President Obama’s bizarrely over-cautious remarks on Iran’s stolen election, one thing is now clear. Not only is force off-the-table for dealing with Iran, strong words are also off-the-table. So what’s left?

Joe Biden was right about one thing; Barack Obama is being tested, and it’s not apparent he’s handling it right.

The latest evidence that Iran’s election was fake, if we needed any more (Sullivan’s graph being pretty conclusive):

Speed of Iran vote count called suspicious

CAIRO (AP) — How do you count almost 40 million handwritten paper ballots in a matter of hours and declare a winner? That’s a key question in Iran’s disputed presidential election. International polling experts and Iran analysts said the speed of the vote count, coupled with a lack of detailed election data normally released by officials, was fueling suspicion around President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s landslide victory.

(Via Instapundit.) (Previous post.)

This chart, due to Andrew Sullivan, makes it clear that the election results are a fiction. This kind of uniformity could never happen in reality.

(Via Gary’s Choices, via the Corner.) (Previous post.)

UPDATE: Leaked election results, if accurate, show Ahmadinejad came in third. (Via Instapundit.)

It’s chaos in Tehran. (Via the Corner.)

Michael Ledeen has often said that what Iran needs most is some western encouragement for its liberal dissidents. If there ever were a time for that, it’s now.

(Previous post.)

Fox News reports:

The four of the Chinese Muslims, or Uighurs, released to Bermuda from the Guantanamo Bay prison told FOX News that they are innocent, glad to be free and hold no grudges against the United States for their captivity. . .

The four, who range from 31 to 38 years old, also said they think life under oppressive rule in China, where they face persecution, is worse than life at Guantanamo.

Opinion polls before the Iranian election gave Mir Hussein Moussavi a clear lead over incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, putting Ahmadinejad on the defensive and fueling speculation that Moussavi might win outright in the first round. But, when they conducted the election, Ahmadinejad won in the first round, by an astounding 30 points. Moussavi even lost in his own home town.

Iranian polling is hardly reliable. If Ahmedinejad had squeeked by, no one could have said for certain that the election was a fraud. So why give him such an implausible margin of victory?

In truth, this matters only as a signal. The Iranian president has only the power that is permitted him by the mullahs and the “supreme guide.” A reformer (if indeed Moussavi is one, which is hardly clear) as president could not have undermined the mullahs’ agenda in any meaningful way. I think the mullahs are sending a signal that they like the job Ahmadinejad is doing and they don’t care what their people or the world think.

(Via Instapundit, and Instapundit.)

UPDATE: Daniel Pipes makes the case that this is actually for the best:

While my heart goes out to the many Iranians who desperately want the vile Ahmadinejad out of power, my head tells me it’s best that he remain in office. When Mohammed Khatami was president, his sweet words lulled many people into complacency, even as the nuclear weapons program developed on his watch. If the patterns remain unchanged, better to have a bellicose, apocalyptic, in-your-face Ahmadinejad who scares the world than a sweet-talking Mousavi who again lulls it to sleep, even as thousands of centrifuges whir away.

(Via the Corner.)

UPDATE: Rich Lowry coins a useful phrase to describe what we’ve seen: the mullahs over-stole the election. Sounds about right.

Also Max Boot agrees with Pipes. (Via Instapundit.)

The Economist reports:

THE death of Benno Ohnesorg stirred a whole movement of left-wing protest and violence. On June 2nd 1967 the newly wed student of literature joined a protest in West Berlin against the visiting shah of Iran. As he watched a commotion in the courtyard of a house into which police had chased some demonstrators, he was shot in the back of the head by a policeman, Karl-Heinz Kurras, who claimed he had been threatened by knife-wielding protesters.

This was a turning-point. In the eyes of many young Germans the state had unmasked itself as evil. Many joined what would become the 1968 student movement; some took up arms. “This fascist state wants to kill us all,” said Gudrun Ensslin, who went on to become a leader of the Red Army Faction terrorist group and died in prison in 1977.

Had she lived, she would be stunned to learn that Mr Kurras, now 81, had been a long-time agent of East Germany’s secret police, the Stasi. Historians trawling through the Stasi’s archives stumbled across 17 volumes chronicling Mr Kurras’s secret career.

I won’t shed a tear for the likes of Ensslin, who co-founded the Baader-Meinhof Gang (or Red Army Faction), Europe’s most infamous terrorist group. If one responds to the killing of an innocent by killing a lot more innocents, one had the makings of a terrorist all along. If not for this, something else would have have pushed her to become a terrorist.

But this is interesting, because this incident is a big part of the founding mythology of the Red Army Faction and other communist or anarchist groups. One, the June 2 Movement, is even named after it. This revelation puts that mythology in a substantially different light.

This concluding bit is odd, though:

The unmasking of Mr Kurras does not entitle Germans to pin the blame for Ohnesorg’s killing on East Germany. But it does remind them that the Stasi was at the heart of the regime’s nastiness.

It doesn’t? Why on earth not? It’s certainly in the nature of the Economist to try to be measured about everything, but come on. If the killing was done by a Stasi agent, it seems reasonable, even necessary, to pin it on the Stasi. If the Economist is saying that West Germany somehow facilitated the killing, they really ought to say how.

March 14 coalition wins, Hezbollah loses.  (Via Instapundit.)

The London Times reports:

An Egyptian cabinet minister who offered to burn Hebrew books last year entered the final straight as favorite for leadership of UNESCO Friday in the face of fierce opposition from Jewish groups and intellectuals in Europe.

Farouk Hosni, 71, an artist who has served as Culture Minister for 21 years, apologized this week for his book-burning call and is still deemed front-runner among seven contenders for the post of director-general of the Paris-based United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

A book burner as the UN chief for education, science, and culture. That seems about right.

The Economist reports:

HIS government espouses “21st-century socialism” and claims to stand for the working class. Yet Hugo Chávez, Venezuela’s president, has never been a fan of his country’s trade unions. He portrays them as corrupt vestiges of a capitalist past and of the previous political order. Ever since he was first elected, in 1998, he has sought ways to bring them to heel. Having first tried and failed to take over the main trade-union confederation, he encouraged a pro-government rival. Now he wants to bypass the unions altogether, by establishing in their place “workers’ councils” that amount to branches of the ruling Unified Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).

A bill in the government-controlled National Assembly would eliminate collective bargaining and give powers in labour matters to the new councils. “The government’s policy is the total elimination of the union movement,” says Orlando Chirino, a former chavista who is one of the architects of the Labour Solidarity Movement, a new group which embraces unions from both sides of the country’s political divide and which defends union autonomy.

If this is surprising, you’re looking at Hugo Chavez the wrong way. Chavez is a totalitarian.  He wants all power to rest with the government, under his control.  Whatever he might feign to the people, his mission is not to serve the working class; his mission is to amass power for himself.  Labor unions represent a power base distinct from his own, so he must destroy them.

It’s a classic Venezuelan story: the state oil company stops paying oil contractors, so the oil contractors stop operating their facilities, so the government steps in to seize the contractors and their assets.  It seems that the usual process for Chavez to confiscate private property was too time consuming, so he instituted a new process whereby he can confiscate property instantly.

I hope Chavez is happy with the oil facilities he has, because he’s ensuring that he’ll never have any more.

AP reports:

Congressional investigators say some foreign intelligence analysts believe U.S. intelligence is underestimating Iran’s progress toward designing a nuclear warhead before Tehran halted its program in 2003.

The foreign analysts believe that Iran ended its work because it had made sufficient progress, not because of international pressure, as the 2007 U.S. national intelligence assessment concluded.

The report by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee did not identify its sources, referring only to “intelligence analysts and nuclear experts working for foreign governments.” It says some research was conducted in Israel, which has been publicly critical of the 2007 U.S. assessment.

The foreign analysts believe “intelligence indicates Iran had produced a suitable design, manufactured some components and conducted enough successful explosives tests to put the project on the shelf until it manufactured the fissile material required for several weapons,” the report says.

Clearly this is just more warmongering from the neocons, like, er, John Kerry.

Fox News reports:

North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il has begun shifting power away from the communist party apparatus and strengthened the authority of his country’s military, veteran watchers of the Stalinist regime have told FOX News.

The 67-year-old Kim, who appeared frail but engaged at a gathering of the Supreme People’s Assembly in Pyongyang on April 9, has wielded ultimate power in his country since 1994, but is now said to be making his first serious moves to establish a clear line of succession. The April gathering was his first public appearance before a large audience since the stroke he is believed to have suffered last August.

The Economist reports that Hugo Chavez is out of money for the social spending that props up his government.  Viva la revolution!

The UN racism meeting will be boycotted (so far) by the United States, Canada, Australia, Germany, Sweden, Italy, Holland, Israel, and New Zealand.  That’s more than I would have dared hope.  (Mostly via LGF.)

AFP reports:

China’s official media and outspoken bloggers on Friday protested over a German advert promoting the use of condoms which shows revolutionary leader Mao Zedong as a sperm cell alongside Adolf Hitler and Osama bin Laden.

The Communist Party’s People’s Daily devoted a page to the storm, quoting internet commentaries which called for the makers of the advert to apologise to China.

(Via the Corner.)

Presumably, they are offended by the comparison of Mao — a truly accomplished mass murderer with 77 million murders to his name — with someone like Hitler (whose 21 million murders leave him a distant third place) or bin Laden (who hasn’t even come close to notching his first million, if not for lack of trying).  I’m sure they feel that only Stalin (43 million murders) would be a worthy comparison.

POSTSCRIPT: For the record, I think the ad is in very poor taste, but certainly not because of any unfairness to history’s worst murderer.

Hugo Chavez’s political rivals continue to be arrested on trumped-up charges.  The Economist reports the latest arrests under the heading “Venezuela’s endangered democracy.”  Isn’t that a strange heading?  Hasn’t Venezuela’s democracy been endangered since Chavez was given the power to rule by decree in 2000?

The only real limit to Chavez’s power has been the prospect that some day he might be forced from office.  Now that presidential term limits has been revoked and his rivals are all being taken out of circulation, that prospect is all but gone.  Democracy endangered?  It’s over.  It will take a revolution or a coup to oust him now.

The Washington Post reports:

Russia may have to borrow money from international markets next year for the first time in a decade, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said Tuesday, as the government seeks to conserve cash amid a severe recession.

Russia last turned to foreign lenders in 2000. Since then, it had stashed windfall oil profits — helped by a surge in commodity prices — into a reserve fund and accumulated the third-largest foreign currency reserves in the world.

When oil prices were sky-high, Russia thought it could afford to invade neighboring Georgia.  Now they’ve blown their wad and oil prices are back to normal, plus they’ve made themselves a pariah to foreign investors to boot.  It couldn’t happen to a nicer tyrant.

The Washington Post reports:

President Evo Morales ended a five-day hunger strike after Bolivia’s congress broke a deadlock, approving a law that lets him run for reelection in December.

Sigh.

Debtors’ prison and forced labor in Dubai.  (Via Asymmetrical Information, via Instapundit.)

60 Minutes’ piece on Ahmad Batebi is worth watching.  Batebi is the Iranian dissident who was arrested and tortured for nine years after his picture appeared on the cover of the Economist.

An Iranian news agency has leaked the censorship rules for the upcoming election.  There’s a lot of them.

At the NATO meeting in Strasbourg, President Obama made a failed plea for more troops for Afghanistan.  NATO leaders agreed to send a small number of temporary, non-combat troops, but little else.

ASIDE: The number even of those varied curiously, from several hundred (the London Times), to five thousand (CNN).  The Washington Post called it 3,000, and the New York Times called it “up to 5,000”.

The UK was the only one to offer substantial help (at least in the London Times’s telling).  Once again, the US-UK alliance seems to be the only one capable of accomplishing anything.  Two thoughts occur:

First, Operation Iraqi Freedom was derided as illegitimate because it consisted largely of the US and UK (and Spain, Australia, Poland, Denmark, and the Kurds).  Will President Obama’s campaign to stabilize Afghanistan be similarly seen as illegitimate?  (I hope not. Consistency can be overrated.)

Second, how stupid is it to drop the special relationship with Britain, as some seem determined to do?  I’m not aware that the White House has even repudiated the statement.

(Previous post.)