Pepe Lobo won by a landslide, and I'm pretty sure the mayors of La Lima and Villenueva held on to their seats, which helps me out a lot.

 

Micheletti conceded to let Zelaya sit in the Presidential seat IF the Congress and Supreme Court allowed it.  He pointed out that he was an appointed place holder and had no power to make such a decision and he is right.  The US has accepted the election results ( I think Mexico has as well) and has pressured most of central America and the Caribbean to do the same.  S. America staunchly refuses as does the rest of the world.

 

So, the US is sitting on $30 million in aid and loans to Honduras but may wait until after the Jan 17 inauguration to release them.  The rest of the world, including the un, wb, imf, mightly eu concensus, asia, etc. refuse to acknowledge the results and are sitting on much of Honduras' cash as well as hundreds of millions in aid, loans, grants, etc.

 

From what I understand, Nan, the US has yet to acknowledge the Honduran elections.  The OAS will almost certainly follow if it does.  The question is now if Obama can swallow his pride, admit that he had no business screwing around with Zelaya in the first place, and let it go.

 

If that does happen (and I imagine some sort of non-apology apology is in the works), the EU, IMF et al will likely follow our lead.  They have nothing to gain and a lot to lose by not recognizing the Honduran elections.

If that does happen (and I imagine some sort of non-apology apology is in the works), the EU, IMF et al will likely follow our lead.  They have nothing to gain and a lot to lose by not recognizing the Honduran elections.

According to the WSJ, the US already has validated the elections (it didn't hurt that Pepe Lobo was from the right wing party).  The OAS is split down the middle, the SA faction is led by Venezuela and Brazil.  Brazil is giving shelter to Zelaya and is also the new residence of the former mayor of San Pedro Sula, who, in the late hours as Zelaya was being shipped to Costa Rica, signed a no-bid contract to a large waste management company and blew town with a few million USD from the San Pedro Sula treasury.

 

The EU, IMF, WB, Arab League, ASEAN, AU, etc refuse to accept Lobo's election (with >> 2 million turning out to vote) and are sitting on hundreds of million of USD in loans, aid and access to Honduras' own bank accounts.  Most of Tegu and SPS civil servants are working for nearly nothing and SPS is operating on the good will of materials providers.

 

So much for your foolish right wingy christian analysis.

I just checked WaPo and the US has indeed recognized the election.  However, the BBC and the Times of London (the report I was going on) had not mentioned it, only that the US was "disappointed" the Hondurans hadn't let Zelaya back into office.  There was nothing in those articles suggesting that the US had recognized the election, but apparently we indeed have. 

 

As far as the other things go regarding the IMF et al, I have no reason to doubt you on that, though given that it's coming from someone who thinks all corporation CEOs should be put to death, you can understand my reasoning for questioning your post. 

 

And naturally you can't resist a dig at me being conservative and Christian.  Wow.  Do you wake up every morning, look at the ceiling and say, "How can I be a complete asshole today?"  Besides, you should know that we Christians dig persecution, so keep it up.

Everyone loves a dictator because it reduces the number of people you deal with, and corporations are often run like dictatorships under the typical type A CEO.    This is the same global community that whole heartedly handed Brazil the Olympics after China.

Brazil, a country whose major cities experience 1 out of 5 murders committed by a cop.

I was a little confused by Nan's gratuitious swipe at Christianity as well.  Christianity has absolutely nothing to do with the topic, so his comment was obviously nothing more than a hateful, bigoted sneer intended to offend Christians.  A couple of weeks ago it might have had the intended effect, but after Nan's post on another thread regarding "Sumeritan Laws" (sic)  I can only smile whenever he attempts to denigrate Christianity.  His "Sumeritan" (sic) post exposed him as a complete and total fraud when it comes to commenting on religion.  At the very least he is completely ignorant of the Bible and what it teaches.  I don't know what happened to Nan to make him hate Christianity so much, but whatever it was it obviously isn't based upon his knowledge of the religion itself.  I still smile whenever I think about the post he typed.  I was genuinely embarassed for him. 

 

Moving along........  I had not heard about the most recent vote in Honduras.  I work afternoons so I usually miss the evening news, but it doesn't surprise me that the mainstream media has made little of the story since it appears to be another foreign policy defeat for Obama.  It looks like Obama hitched his horse to the wrong wagon when he supported Zelaya, but if the media ignores the story I guess it's like the proverbial tree in the woods that falls with nobody around to hear it. 

 

To all of those that still claim that Zelaya was ousted in a coup, I would like to present the following scenario:  In 2008 President G.W. Bush decides to run for a third term.  Impossible, say his critics, since the U.S. Constitution limits Presidents to only two terms.  Undeterred, Bush announces that he is going to organize a national referendum of the American people to see if they are in favor of overturning the two term limit.  The US Congress, including the Republican party, repudiates Bush, telling him that his referendum has no Constitutional basis and that there is no provision for overturning term limits.  Even the Supreme Court gets in on the game and issues a ruling affirming the Constitutional term limits.  Bush ignores the ruling and pushes ahead with the referendum.  At this point most Liberals would sneer that Bush wouldn't have stood a chance, but let's throw in a few extra factors.  First of all, Bush makes sure that only his loyal operatives are in charge of running the referendum and counting the votes.  As Commander in Chief, he brings in the military to guard the polling places and guarantee order (intimidation at the polls would be incidental).  Secondly, he directs the FBI to investigate the leading Democratic candidates.  Barack Obama's candidacy is plagued by suspicions that he may not have been born in the United States, and a lot of information is "leaked" to the media that Obama may in fact be a Muslim.  Hillary Clinton is indicted on Federal charges related to the Whitewater scandal and Vince Foster's suicide.  The charges will go nowhere, but it will end her campaign.  John Edwards' campaign will be derailed by accusations of marital infidelity. 

 

The Democrats would be screaming bloody murder.  They would be declaring Bush's actions as unconstitutional, and they would be absolutely correct.  But what would be the remedy?  The Supreme Court has no enforcement arm, and there have been past Presidents that have ignored Supreme Court rulings that did not go in their favor.  Theoretically the police could arrest the President if he committed a crime, but Constitutional Ammendments are restrictions on the role of government, not Federal law, so I doubt you can make a case the FBI could arrest the President in this case.  That only leaves the military. 

 

This was the scenario that Honduras faced, and this is the remedy they chose.  Critics of Zelaya's removal may call it a coup, but to those that support the action of the Honduran military it is considered an act that enforced the Constitution and rule of law.  On a side note, I doubt that Zelaya would have enjoyed the same level of international support had he been a right winger, but that's beside the point.  As it stands this issue has been resolved that people that matter, the Hondurans, and the rest of the world should let it go. 

@ Smitty,

 

Odd how you naturally paint a scenario involving Obama.  And how typical that you believe that Christianity is soooo much better than  other religions.  I wonder how the Jews feel about Christians over the centuries....

 

As for corporate boards not firing execs based on performance, those golden parachutes act as a great deterrent.  Corporate execs do act just like the Kim family of NK.  Plunder and pillage the company's/country's wealth for self enrichment and promotion, painting a picture of the CEO/Dear Leader as not just the leader but the heart and soul, inseparable as teeth and gums.  It is not the CEO that is flawed, but the lesser beings in the lower executive offices, middle management and production who are incapable of carrying out the vision. And when the company eventually crumbles under the weight of failed and bad deals and grossly misguided moves for short term gains (that conveniently only favor the CEO and the rest of the C suite), all suffer unemployment, vanished retirement savings and investments EXCEPT the person most responsible for those deals.

Wow, Nan.  Did your girlfriend break up with you and run off with a Chinese Wal-Mart exec who also went to an evangelical church? That is the only reason I can think of for your unreasoning, irrational, and frankly batshit ravings lately.

 

I don't whine about persecution and never have.  I whine about holier-than-thou jerks who say they're always right and refuse to even consider that they might be wrong. 

 

But hey, if it gets you through the day to whine and moan about how evil Christian Wal-Mart greeters are ruining the world, and how we should tear down all corporations and religions and replace it with an indefinable something (which sounds remarkably like something Mao would write, actually)...then feel free.  In the Bible it is written that we Christians are to feel blessed when some moron beats up on us for our beliefs, so have at it, Caligula.