Fausta’s Blog

Via Memeorandum, an article in the Guardian’s “ethical living” category:

Costa Rica is world’s greenest, happiest country
Latin American nation tops index ranking countries by ecological footprint and happiness of their citizens

Costa Rica is indeed a lovely place, even when Mel Zelaya wasn’t all that happy about being sent there, so I was curious about the rest of the top-10 countries, which are rated

The HPI measures how much of the Earth’s resources nations use and how long and happy a life their citizens enjoy as a result. First calculated in 2006, the second edition adds data on almost all the world’s countries and now covers 99% of the world’s population.

NEF says the HPI is a much better way of looking the success of countries than through standard measures of economic growth. The HPI shows, for example, that fast-growing economies such as the US, China and India were all greener and happier 20 years ago than they are today.

“The HPI suggests that the path we have been following is, without exception, unable to deliver all three goals: high life satisfaction, high life expectancy and ‘one-planet living’,” says Saamah Abdallah, NEF researcher and the report’s lead author. “Instead we need a new development model that delivers good lives that don’t cost the Earth for all.”

Looking at the list, here are the top-15:

1. Costa Rica
2. Dominican Republic
3. Jamaica
4. Guatemala
5. Vietnam
6. Colombia
7. Cuba
8. El Salvador
9. Brazil
10. Honduras
11. Nicaragua
12. Egypt
13. Saudi Arabia
14. Phillipines
15. Argentina

Contrast that with the Freedom Index:

1. Hong Kong
2. Singapore
3. Australia
4. Ireland
5. New Zealand
6. United States
7. Canada
8. Denmark
9. Switzerland
10. United Kingdom
11. Chile
12. Netherlands
13. Estonia
14. Iceland
15. Luxenburg

Not much in common between those two, but I assure you I would rather live here than in, say, Saudi Arabia. How politically-incorrect of me.

Cuba is #177 in the Freedom Index, third from the bottom, just slightly ahead of Zimbabwe and North Korea.  To understand why, check out The Cuba Archive and then check out Yoani Sanchez’s post at Generation Y.

It’s not going to be happy reading.

Fron Libertad Digital: HONDURAS RENUNCIA A SU PRESENCIA EN EL ORGANISMO
“En la OEA ya no existe espacio para los estados que aman su libertad” (brief translation: If you used this translation please credit me and link to this post)

The Micheletti administration renounced the OAS charter “effective immediately”, following José Miguel Insulza’s visit.

Vice-chancellor Marta Lorena Alvarado read the letter addressed to Insulza, which stated the government’s decision “the OAS believes that it no longer has room for Honduras, for the states that love their freedom and defend their sovereignty,” … “in spite of Honduras having taken part in the inter-American systen since its first stages in 1889.”

Video in Spanish here.

Another video from CNN International, with Alvarado reading the letter of resignation,

She read, “The Honduran government repudiates the pretension to impose unilateral measures against it,” and denounced the OAS’s “tolerance and silence” about threats of “use of force” coming from OAS member states (namely, Venezuela) against Honduras.

The Miami Herald,

Hours later, acting President Roberto Micheletti and vice chancellor Martha Lorena de Casco announced Honduras planned to withdraw from the region’s key diplomatic organization. The move preempts an OAS General Assembly meeting scheduled for Saturday, where Honduras was widely expected to be suspended from the group for overthrowing a democratically elected leader.

The OAS “tried to impose unilateral solutions. The government of Honduras repudiates such attempts to impose unilateral solutions and reaffirms its sovereignty,” de Casco said in a nationwide address. “The OAS is a political organizatioon, not a court of law. … There is no institutional crisis here.”

She ended her brief statement by invoking article 143 of the OAS charter — without elaborating what that article says. The OAS clause she cited calls for member nation to withdraw from the OAS after submitting a written complaint.

The Honduran Supreme Court rejected the OAS’s demand to reinstate the ousted President, Manuel Zelaya:

OAS chief Jose Miguel Insulza was told the court’s position was “irreversible” when he met its president for two hours in the capital Tegulcigalpa.

By now even the BBC is saying

The new leadership enjoys the support of a substantial proportion of the population and says it stands for democracy, our correspondent reports.

It suggests that Mr Zelaya had despotic ambitions, and therefore the extreme action of removing him from power was justified.

More details on this AP report (via GoV, report also at the Wall Street Journal, emphasis added):

Jose Miguel Insulza, who heads the Organization of American States, flew to Honduras in an attempt to persuade the forces that ousted Zelaya to take him back in the face of overwhelming international condemnation and economic sanctions.

He met for two hours with Jorge Rivera, president of the Supreme Court that authorized the military to seize Zelaya on Sunday and fly him into exile.

“Insulza asked Honduras to reinstate Zelaya, but the president of the court categorically answered that there is an arrest warrant for him,” said court spokesman Danilo Izaguirre. “Now the OAS has to decide what it will do.”
…
Insulza also was meeting with leaders of Congress, “basically to clarify exactly what our position is.”
…
Micheletti asked Nobel Peace laureate Rigoberta Menchu to help mediate the conflict, and she arrived in Tegucigalpa on Friday.

On his part, Insulza said the Honduran crisis will last a long time.

The photo shows Insulza in Tegucigalpa meeting with diplomats of the G-16 countries. The Panamanian government agreed to mediate today’s OAS meeting.

Hugo Chávez halts oil shipments to Honduras
The measure seeks to put pressure on the Honduras government to reinstate Manuel Zelaya, an ally of Chávez, as Honduras President. Zelaya was ousted in an army coup on June 28. In addition, Chávez admitted that he’s directly interfering in Honduran affairs,

Hugo Chávez said that he supports the return of deposed President Zelaya to Honduras by means of “a set of actions,” including contacts with military officers. Zelaya could return home “by land, air or water,” said Chávez in an address on Thursday in a state-run TV station, AFP reported.

“Zelaya will return to Honduras. It may be by land air or water. Nobody knows,” Chávez said, while he talked by phone with Venezuela’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Nicolás Maduro, who is accompanying the ousted Honduras president.

“We are supporting his return to Honduras and we are planning several actions. (We are) contacting social leaders that are heading the resistance movements. We have contacted military leaders who disagree with what is happening in their country,” Chávez said.

At the blogs:
Blogger Hunter Smith is now reporting from Honduras. Here are his first impressions (h/t Legal Insurrection).

Government Removes Zelaya’s Perks

Aside from canceling all of Zelaya’s government backed credit cards (before which, he had spent 80,000 dollars in less than five days), terminated also was the leasing of 50 luxury vehicles and 61 cellular phones with a credit of over 47,500 lempiras, and over 100 bank accounts, all backed by Honduran government funds.

The chancellor of Honduras confirmed that Mel Zelaya ordered the withdrawal of 40 million lempiras from the Central Bank of Honduras.

When the investigations were made at the presidential house, black garbage bags filled with thousands and thousands of dollars were found, as well as in almost every drawer.

Investigations documented over 600 million lempiras worth of expenditures that Zelaya had spent on his quest to hold the “opinion poll” to allow the fourth vote.

Witnessing Hope appeals for prayer and fasting for Honduras

Jason Poblete: Hondurans Seek Independence from Cuba-Venezuelan Meddling, Obama Officials Should Listen

Unless a resolution can be found for this matter consistent with Honduran law, it will be the Obama Administration that will set back the growth of Honduran democracy. It is seems to have an extreme obsession for meddling in the domestic affairs of a sovereign state through international organizations such as the OAS. In the process, it is making things easier for the enemies of freedom to further weaken rule of law and democratic institutions throughout the hemisphere.

This July 4, Stand for the Unalienable Rights of the Hondurans

Chavez Chess.
Post edited to add Miami Herald & blog items omitted

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
Read the rest of this entry »

Thank you to the Watchers Council for honoring my post in their Fourth of July selection.

Palin to Quit as Alaska Governor, Won’t Seek Re-Election

Sarah Palin said Friday that she won’t run for a second term as governor of Alaska and will transfer her responsibilities to the state’s lieutenant governor.

Here is her statement:

“I am determined to take the right path for Alaska even though it is not the easiest path,” said Governor Palin after the announcement. “Once I decided not to run for re-election, I also felt that to embrace the conventional ‘Lame Duck’ status in this particular climate would just be another dose of ‘politics as usual,’ something I campaigned against and will always oppose. It is my duty to always protect our great state. With that in mind, my family and I determined that it is best to make a difference this summer, and I am willing to change things, so that this administration, with its positive agenda, its accomplishments, and its successful road to an incredible future, can continue without interruption and with great administrative and legislative success. I look forward to helping others – to fight for our state and our country, and campaign for those who believe in smaller government, free enterprise, strong national security, support for our troops, and energy independence.”

Look, I sure hope she has a huge ace up her sleeve because from here it sure looks like a Perot-like maneuver. In Jonah Goldberg’s words, “You’re blowing it”.

Her political career is not going to recover from this.

The Anchoress basically agrees.

Gateway Pundit has the video:

UPDATE
Instapundit mini-roundup.

Liberals never learn, do they? Doug has the back story on that.

Francis is heartbroken but takes no prisoners.

GM Roper ponders Palin derangement syndrome.

Ace:

It’s over. You can’t resign from a governorship and then run for higher office. Barring some strong reason, like needing treatment for cancer.

A contrarian view: No, Of Course Palin’s Political Career Isn’t Over

The other day I was at the hairdresser’s and started reading TIME Magazine. The content was awful enough I dropped it and picked up a bridal magazine instead, which considering I have no one involved in wedding preparations and find the subject insipid, is a lot to say. Since I had not brought a book with me the other choice was to sit there under the hair dryer staring at space.

Reason is 100% on the money when they said, You Know The Real Reason Why Time Mag Is Going Down the Drain? The Content!

Reason asks,

In any case, what can Obama learn from FDR? Plenty. Especially what not to do during an economic downturn. Just watch below.

Earlier today:

Demonstrators clashed with police and the army in Honduras (link in Spanish), and the country (as I posted yesterday) has suspended Constitutional protections on freedom of assembly during the curfew. Noticias 24 (see prior link for photos) also reports that Congress authorized detaining people for more than 24 hours. A member of the opposition party Unificación Democrática (UD) claims there have been 700 detentions, of which 20 are still under arrest. According to La Prensa, the curfew was scheduled to end tonight at 5AM. If any of the readers in Honduras can verify, please enter links in the comments section.

In today’s WSJ, Honduras Takes Control of Some Media

The country’s Channel 36, run by a close associate of expelled Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, was shut down following Mr. Zelaya’s ouster and remained off the air this week, with only a blank signal showing up on Honduran televisions.

Channel 8, a state-owned network that had also supported Mr. Zelaya, went off the air on Sunday and then returned with a new cast of anchors, largely delivering news friendly to the government’s interim president, Roberto Micheletti.

Radio Globo, a network that spent much energy criticizing Mr. Micheletti before he took power, remains under military guard, according to its owner, Alejandro Villatoro. When it broadcast the first Honduran interview with Mr. Zelaya Wednesday from exile, in which he was addressed as “Mr. President,” soldiers turned off the station’s transmitter, Mr. Villatoro said.

Other outlets less closely allied with Mr. Zelaya said they had no complaints.
…
The shutdown of Channel 36, for example, has left some newsmen ambivalent, because of what they see as the station’s commitment to attacking Mr. Zelaya’s adversaries when he was in power. Channel 36 owner Edras Lopez, was a close supporter of Mr. Zelaya and last year took aim at Mr. Micheletti, accusing him in a series of commercials of bribery and corruption, according to members of the Honduran media and congressmen. Mr. Lopez could not be reached for comment.

The WSJ quotes Reporters Without Borders

Reporters Without Borders, an advocacy group for press freedom based in France, said Wednesday that some stations “have resumed broadcasting but their coverage of the coup is either closely controlled or nonexistent.” It also said international news outlets including U.S.-based CNN and Venezuela’s Telesur — which is run by the government of Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez and strongly supports Mr. Zelaya — were no longer available on TV stations and could only be seen on the Internet.

If any of my readers in Honduras can verify that CNN is no longer available on cable I would be much obliged.
UPDATE
In the comments section, La Gringa:

I have watched CNN 18-20 hours a day HERE IN HONDURAS since 7:30 am Sunday morning when I woke up.

(end update)

In yesterday’s ‘Aló Presidente Hugo Chávez used his typical alarmistic rethoric by warning Honduras that “a bloodbath is about to happen” (video in Spanish, via commenter Spartan)

Of course Chávez didn’t miss the opportunity to blame the USA for everything while calling the US government’s reaction “weak.”

Carlos Alberto Montaner, writing at the WaPo blog, confirms that the US had “tried very hard to keep Honduras’s Congress from ousting President Manuel Zelaya” and sheltered Zelaya’s son last Sunday. Montaner is worried about a bloodbath, too, and suggests,

The solution is to move forward with the general elections planned for November. It’s a solution within everyone’s reach: the candidates are already there, freely elected in open primaries, and both enjoy much popularity. Why plunge this society irresponsibly into a maelstrom of violence? Once the new government is selected, a government that enjoys the legitimacy generated by a democratic process, the Honduran people can push this lamentable episode into the past.

Micheletti has gone on the record saying that he would be willing to hold elections ahead of schedule if that would ease the standoff. As of the writing of this post Insulza is scheduled to arrive in Honduras today

The LA Times also says

After Zelaya was seized, his wife, Xiomara Castro, and their youngest son took refuge at the home of the U.S. ambassador, where they remain. The U.S. Embassy has a no-contact policy with the Micheletti faction.

This article from El Salvador.com states that Xiomara Castro de Zelaya had said that she had been with her mother and doesn’t mention anything about the US Embassy.

Libertad Digital has in PDF form the Honduran Supreme Court’s Timeline of Events also available at their official website, the Honduran Supreme Court Arrest Warrant against Manuel Zelaya ordering the Armed Forces to capture Zelaya on Sunday June 26 for “acting against the government, treason, abuse of authority and usurpation of power,” and the Honduran Attorney General’s arrest warrant against Zelaya dated Saturday June 25 (all in Spanish, of course).

Opinion at Counterterrorism Blog: Honduras and the Bolivarian Revolution.

Updates later today.

I changed the title of the post after reconsidering

10:45AM
Miami Herald: Top Honduran military lawyer: We broke the law

In an interview with The Miami Herald and El Salvador’s elfaro.net, army attorney Col. Herberth Bayardo Inestroza acknowledged that top military brass made the call to forcibly remove Zelaya — and they circumvented laws when they did it.

It was the first time any participant in Sunday’s overthrow admitted committing an offense and the first time a Honduran authority revealed who made the decision that has been denounced worldwide.

”We know there was a crime there,” said Inestroza, the top legal advisor for the Honduran armed forces. “In the moment that we took him out of the country, in the way that he was taken out, there is a crime. Because of the circumstances of the moment this crime occurred, there is going to be a justification and cause for acquittal that will protect us.”

6PM
La Gringa comments,

Our constitutional rights have not been revoked. We simply have a curfew which is only necessary because of the violence and vandalism being committed by pro-Zelaya protesters, assisted by thugs being imported from Nicaragua and Venezuela. Just last night they bombed a KFC in Tegucigalpa.

According to independent public polls, anywhere from 87 to 92% of the population are in favor of continuing the curfew.

Read also her post on the demonstrations.

Via Anchor Rising, Zero Sheep examines the Constitution.

A few headlines for this Thursday afternoon:

OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza was planning to travel to Honduras on Friday, but says “we’re not going to negotiate”, and warned about sanctions.

El Salvador has reopened its border with Honduras.

The Honduran government has issued arrest warrants on Mel Zelaya and requested that Interpol arrest Zelaya. He is charged with treason, usurping power, abuse of authority, corruption and 14 other crimes.

Mel Zelaya is in Panama, where he attended the presidential inauguration yesterday.

Gateway Pundit: Honduran Democracy Protesters Bash Obama & CNN

My latest post, Taliban Purchasing Their Future Jihadis, is up at RightPundits. Please read it and leave a comment if you may.

The Washington Madam is a newspaper:

Washington Post sells access, $25,000+

For $25,000 to $250,000, The Washington Post has offered lobbyists and association executives off-the-record, nonconfrontational access to “those powerful few”: Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and — at first — even the paper’s own reporters and editors.

Words fail me, but No Sheeples has a few choice comments on the presstitutes.

UPDATE
James Joyner was wondering,

There are two obvious stories here. First, the Post is going down a very steep, slippery slope to losing all journalistic credibility. Second, the Post’s management seems to think that they have senior White House staff at their beck and call. If there’s merit to this, it may be a bigger story than the first.

As it turns out, Howard Kurtz anwered the first question: Post Publisher Cancels Plans for Off-the-Record ‘Salons’.

For now, the second issue, whether the Post’s management “seems to think that they have senior White House staff at their beck and call” can only be surmised, considering that the “off-the-record dinner and discussion” were to take place at the home of CEO and Publisher Katharine Weymouth.

But then,
Was anyone really surprised?