If, as the old saw goes, personnel is policy…then it is clear that the Obama machine (campaign and labor) has decided that its primary Hispanic outreach target is Central Florida.  Accordingly, they have dispatched their best general to the field.

On Monday, José Delgado (Washington D.C. correspondent for El Nuevo Día) published a piece which featured the Democrat Hispanic outreach key players in Central Florida (Google-translated version here).  I was familiar with some of the names cited (such as Franceschini, who has been active for years, and Acevedo, who is the public face of the Hispanic campaign in the I-4 corridor)…but one name, in particular, was not at all known to me (my translation):

“This is where the battle royal will be fought”, said labor leader José La Luz, whom the AFL-CIO has assigned to work on voter mobilization in Central Florida.

Since the name didn’t ring a bell, I started digging.  It turns out that La Luz is not only a labor legend, but a “proud socialist” with a track record and radical pedigree going all the way back to the ’70s.  Had he shifted to academia, as did many of the radicals of that time period, he’d undoubtedly be one of those “silver ponytails” that Andrew Breitbart alluded to at CPAC.  Instead, he stayed in the field and became a master organizer.

La Luz got his start as a member of the now-defunct Puerto Rican Socialist Party (which had extensive ties to the Castro regime, according to Congressional testimony), and was active in that party’s Connecticut branch.  By 1976, he rose to become a part of the PSP’s Central Committee, and attended the National Hard Times Conference (under the auspices of Prairie Fire and the Weather Underground).  Shortly thereafter, La Luz left the PSP and joined the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee, where he became Chairman of its Hispanic Commission, prior to the merger that led to the formation of the Democratic Socialists of America.  After spending most of the ’90s in Chicago, La Luz officially retured to Puerto Rico as Executive Director of the local AFSCME branch, and successfully oversaw the multi-union organization of 150,000 government workers, and their (successful) campaign for collective bargaining rights.

Fast forward to 2007, and we begin to see how La Luz’ unique experience and skill sets come into play over the course of the past and current election cycles.  Shortly after that particular speech, La Luz (who was, at the time, director of the AFSCME Leadership Academy) became chairman of Latinos For Obama.  As such, La Luz worked in Colorado and New Mexico, driving registration, educating, and mobilizing voters until Election Day.  A month and half before the 2008 general election, he had this to say to People’s World Weekly:

“We are showing how the companies and outfits that exploit Latino workers are the people behind McCain,” said Laluz. Between now and Nov. 4, Laluz said the Obama campaign is registering voters in New Mexico and Colorado and developing lists of tens of thousands of Latino supporters for Obama. “Those lists will constitute the people we bring out on Election Day,” he said.

By now we know that the strategy clearly worked, given that Obama gained 67% of the Latino vote in 2008.  This strategy focused specifically on racial and economic grievances.

La Luz has remained active in the DSA, serving as vice-chair as recently as 2009, and adressing the DSA conventionin 2011 (watch the whole thing if you can spare the time, but if not, then definitely go to 24:11).  In particular, the calls for a tax increase pledge, and the Occupy Spring Offensive bring special insight into what we can expect to see in Central Florida.

If you read through the Nuevo Día piece, you’ll see that La Luz is savvy enough to recognize that the immigration argument might not play as well in Central Florida, but the other elements of the strategy would.

Given the importance of the Hispanic vote along the I-4 corridor, and its national repercussions (let there be no doubt that FL-9 is now the Mother Of All Bellwethers), there was always an expectation that the Institutional Left would go all out.  We also know that the muscle is never far from the smiling face, and the iron is fist never far from the velvet glove.

It is clear that Central Florida’s hispanic battleground (the most important in the nation) is a must-win for the regime, and it has sent its best general to the field.

Stuff just got real.

A Spanish-language version of this post is available at El Tercer Riel (The Third Rail).

Since 2007, the Cuban government has prohibited reporting by foreign correspondents from the Chicago Tribune, the BBC and El Universal in México.

This year, the Communist regime has denounced the Wall Street Journal, removed CNN En Español from hotel cable service, and accused Reuters of arranging meeting between spies in the island.

In addition to pulling Vicent’s creds, this week Cuba denied Agence France Press’ correspondent, Juan Castro Olivera, a visa,

Authorities have been especially sensitive about stories on Orlando Zapata Tamayo, a political prisoner who died in 2009 after a hunger strike, and Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia, a dissident who died after an alleged police beating in May, said the journalists.

Foreign journalists in Havana have reported virtually nothing on the recent spate of complaints by dissidents in eastern Cuba of violent crackdowns by pro-government mobs and security agents against opposition activists.

CPI officials also have tightened some of the regulations on correspondents, such as those governing the purchases of cars and equipment such as air conditioners, according to the journalists, who all requested anonymity to avoid government retaliations.

The Communist regime knows all these news agencies are on Fidel’s death watch. The agencies want to have a correspondent on the island when Fidel’s death is finally announced. Denying an entry visa is a gesture, but revoking Vicent’s creds after twenty years telegraphs the message “You better toe the line, or you’ll miss out on The Big Story.”

Related:
The reforms of the Castro dictatorship in numbers: 243 & 2,221 & 1,091

Cross-posted at Fausta’s blog.

Well, he got there, dressed like the natives, kissed up to the Castro brothers, called on Fidel, his “old friend”,

asked the US to release five convicts,

Bypassing ancillary issues such as the lack of freedom on the island and the enslavement of 11-million Cubans, Carter instead demanded that the U.S. release the Cuban 5. Those are the same five convicted Cuban spies who are serving prison time for espionage and the murder of four innocent American pilots who were shot down over international waters by Castro MiGs.

met with Yoani Sanchez, her husband, Claudia Cadelo and Laritza Diversent, and Alan Gross remains in jail

when the 86-year-old ex-president flew off in the afternoon without Alan Gross on board, it dashed the hopes of Washington officials and relatives who had hoped Carter would be able to bring the Maryland native home.

The Obama administration missed the opportunity months ago when it eased restrictions on Cuba without demanding Gross’s released.

As Instapundit puts it,

And we probably have decades of similar stuff to look forward to once Barack Obama is an ex-president.

Indeed.

Cross-posted at Fausta’s blog

In an economic environment where the dictatorship fired from state jobs between 500,000 to 1,300,000 people, the island is broke. The fired workers supposedly will be allowed to become self-employed in 178 trades (strictly defined in a “Draft Guidelines for Economic and Social Policy” issued by the dictatorship), even when currently there is no private sector in Cuba, and whatever private sector there may trie to exist, will do so at the whims of the dictatorship.

The Communist regime currently is being propped up by Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez. Chavez in turn has become a de-facto dictator and must spend lavishly in his own country in order to keep himself in power. Were Chavez to reduce his aid to Cuba,

Cuban social services, the flagships of the Revolution, cannot be sustained under the current economic model and can only remain if all the reforms recommended by President Raúl Castro are enforced.

What this amounts to is to prolong the Cuban Communist dictatorship to live for yet another day.

What did the US get in exchange? Nothing.

The Cuban government has been holding US citizen Alan P. Gross prisoner for since December 2009 without charge on suspicion of spying. Gross has now been formally charged with spying

Prosecutors are charging a jailed American contractor with “acts against the integrity and independence” of Cuba and requesting a 20-year jail term, state news media reported Friday, dimming hopes the 60-year-old Maryland native would be allowed to go home soon.

According to the AP article,

Gross was working for a firm contracted by the U.S. Agency for International Development when he was arrested Dec. 3, 2009, and sent to Havana’s high-security Villa Marista prison. The project Gross worked with was part of a $40 million-a-year USAID program to promote democracy and political change on the island.

U.S. officials have defended the program and said they will never give up pushing for democracy and openness in Cuba. Detractors of the Cuba project have criticized it as ineffective and counterproductive.

While Gross claims to have been working with the 1,500-strong Jewish community, the leaders of the island’s two main Jewish groups have told The Associated Press they had nothing to do with him.

Juan Tamayo, writing at the Miami Herald (via Babalu) reports

Then on Friday, Gross’ Washington lawyer, Peter J. Kahn, issued a surprisingly affirmative reaction to the Cuban announcement, saying that “after 14 months in a Cuban prison without charge, the fact that Alan Gross’ case is now moving forward is a positive development.

“We respectfully urge the Cuban authorities to free Alan immediately for time served,” Kahn added, without making any mention of the 20-year sentence.

Rather than seek Gross’s release and the freedom of Cuban political prisoners as a condition to the easing of travel and money restrictions, the Obama administration granted huge concessions for nothing.

Now Gross is still in prison, will be undergoing trial and may spend the rest of his life (he’s 61 years old) in a Cuban jail.

Smart diplomacy? Thanks for nothing!

Cross-posted at Fausta’s blog

NOTE: This post has been promoted to the front page of Hot Air and comments are now closed.

Apparently, Mary Anastasia O’Grady’s critique of Ray Suarez’ PBS piece on Castro’s health care system stung him not only a bit, but a lot. In a rambling and disjointed rebuttal on the PBS News Hour website, Suarez attempted to defend his Castro propaganda-laden report by citing instances where opposing views were presented, but the rebuttal quickly degenerated into a personal attack on O’Grady.

Suarez claims that

Cuba has, for a country of its income, very high life expectancy. Cuba has, for a country of its income, low infant mortality. Cuba has, for a country of its income, low rates of infectious disease.

Yet Suarez forgets to mention that the statistics for any of these are provided by the Cuban government, the same government that has refused access to any independent outside organization to examine the statistics, the criteria for the data, or how the statistics are gathered. Suarez can’t seem to realize that any statistics put out by a totalitarian regime in a closed society are to be questioned.

Additionally, Suarez ignored the medical apartheid system itself.

Suarez says that “Ms. O’Grady has not gotten that memo,” which brings up the cables.

What cables?

Ah, the Wikileaks cable:
Cables spotlight health woes in Cuba
A U.S. diplomatic cable from Havana in 2008 noted the problems in Cuba’s public health system.

The U.S. cable is not an in-depth assessment of Cuba’s health system. Rather, it’s a string of anecdotes gathered by the FSHP from Cubans such as “manicurists, masseuses, hair stylists, chauffeurs, musicians, artists, yoga teachers, tailors, as well as HIV/AIDS and cancer patients, physicians, and foreign medical students.”

At one OB-Gyn hospital, the dispatch reported, the staff “used a primitive manual vacuum to aspirate” the womb of a Cuban woman who had a miscarriage “without any anesthesia or pain medicine. She was offered no . . . follow up appointments.”

A 6-year old boy with bone cancer could only be visited at a hospital by his parents for “limited hours,” the cable added.

Cancer patients receiving chemotherapy or radiation get “little in the way of symptom or side-effects care . . . that is critically important in being able to continue treatments, let alone provide comfort to an already emotionally distraught victim,” the dispatch noted.

“Cancer patients are not provided with, nor can they find locally, simple medications such as Aspirin, Tylenol, skin lotions, vitamins, etc.,” it added.

HIV-positive Cubans have only one facility, the Instituto Pedro Kouri in Havana, that can provide specialty care and medications, the cable noted. Because of transportation problems and costs, some patients from the provinces may be seen only once per year.

Kouri institute patients can wait months for an appointment, “but can often move ahead in line by offering a gift,” the dispatch added. “We are told five Cuban convertible pesos (approximately USD 5.40) can get one an x-ray.”

Although the practice was reportedly discontinued, some HIV-positive patients had the letters “SIDA” (AIDS) stamped on their national ID cards, making it hard for them to find good jobs or pursue university studies, according to the cable.

The cable acknowledged that medical institutions reserved for Cuba’s ruling elites and foreigners who pay in hard currencies “are hygienically qualified, and have a wide array of diagnostic equipment with a full complement of laboratories, well-stocked pharmacies, and private patient suites with cable television and bathrooms.”

Hospitals and clinics used by average Cubans don’t come close, the dispatch added, providing details on the FSHP’s visits to four Havana hospitals:

At the Hermanos Ameijeiras Hospital, part of which is reserved for foreign patients and was featured in the Michael Moore documentary Sicko, a “gift” of about $22 to the hospital administrator helps average Cubans obtain better treatment there. The exterior of the Ramon Gonzalez Coro OB-Gyn hospital was “dilapidated and crumbling” and its Newborn Intensive Care Unit was “using a very old infant `Bird’ respirator/ventilator — the model used in the U.S. in the 1970s.”

During a visit to the Calixto Garcia Hospital, which serves only Cubans, the U.S. nurse “was struck by the shabbiness of the facility . . .and the lack of everything (medical supplies, privacy, professional care staff). To the FSHP it was reminiscent of a scene from some of the poorest countries in the world.”

At the Salvador Allende Hospital, the emergency room appeared “very orderly, clean and organized.” But the rest of the facility was “in shambles” and guards by the entrance “smelled of alcohol.”

Of course Suarez will probably dismiss this as “anecdotal”. Since he was not free to visit any clinics/hospitals/facilities on this own while in Cuba, he ought, however, to spend some time looking at first-hand evidence and eyewitness accounts by people who are in Cuba.

Prior post here and at the Green Room.

Cross-posted at Fausta’s blog.

“Homes are investigated, water quality checked, electrical plugs checked.”

Back in 2007 I was posting about ¡Salud!, a propaganda film about Cuban healthcare that was featured at the Princeton Public Library. The film shows the medics going through a patient’s home, including rifling through furniture drawers, checking for liquor, drugs, and tobacco.

Pause for a moment and ponder whether Americans would be better off being forced to endure an investigation of their home, in exchange for a house call from a medic/doctor who’s getting paid $200 month by the government. Even then the truth evaded Suarez,

As to doctors checking on water quality and electricity outlets, the PBS reporter might be surprised to learn that most Cuban homes have no running water or power on a regular basis. This is true even in the capital. In 2006, Mr. Botín says, a government minister admitted that 75.5% of the water pipes in Havana were “unusable” and “recognized that 60% of pumped water was lost before it made it to consumers.” To “fix” the problem, the city began providing water in each neighborhood only on certain days. Havana water is also notoriously contaminated. Foreigners drink only the bottled stuff, which Cubans can’t afford. In the rest of the country the quality and quantity of the water supply is even less reliable.

Go read the rest of O’Grady’s article, and keep in mind that your taxpayer dollars pay for PBS.

Cross-posted at Fausta’s blog

Obama administration readies indefinite detention order for Guantanamo detainees

The Obama administration is preparing an executive order that would formalize indefinite detention without trial for some detainees at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but allow those detainees and their lawyers to challenge the basis for continued incarceration, U.S. officials said.

The administration has long signaled that the use of prolonged detention, preferably at a facility in the United States, was one element of its plan to close Guantanamo. An interagency task force found that 48 of the 174 detainees remaining at the facility would have to be held in what the administration calls prolonged detention.

However, almost every part of the administration’s plan to close Guantanamo is on hold, and it could be crippled this week if Congress bans the transfer of detainees to the United States for trial and sets up steep hurdles to the repatriation or resettlement in third countries of other detainees.

Going through the details of this plan, a shorter translation might be, “We still oppose the policies of George W. Bush regarding indefinite detention without trial for any suspect, so we’re going to handle every aspect of the situation differently unless we can’t.”

The major changes seem to be:

1. We’re not going to call it indefinite detention anymore. We’ll call it prolonged detention, even if that means, prolonged until you reach room temperature.

2. Unlike Bush, we’re going to let the prisoners challenge their detention. Of course, they’ll be challenging it in Gitmo without an actual lawyer and it won’t change anything, but they can challenge it, dagnabit!

3. We will move vigorously toward relocating the prisoners, either to the United States or some other country, and closing the facility in Cuba… unless Congress says we can’t, in which case we’ll leave it open.

This is shaping up to be yet another case where President Obama’s campaign trail promises of righting the perceived wrongs of the previous administration have slowly morphed into doing precisely what George W. Bush was doing. And once again it’s not sitting well with his base.

“Indefinite detention without charge or trial is wrong, whether it comes from Congress or the president’s pen,” said Laura W. Murphy, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Washington legislative office. “Our Constitution requires that we charge and prosecute people who are accused of crimes. You cannot sell an indefinite detention scheme by attaching a few due-process baubles and expect that to restore the rule of law. That is bad for America and is not the form of justice we want other nations to emulate.”

After the rather disastrous results of our last attempt at trying a terror suspect in the United States, patience seems to be wearing thin on all fronts and Obama has caught wind of it. It looks like we’ll be getting pretty much the exact same policy we’ve had for roughly the last decade, except with a few hopeful looking talking points festooning it for the holidays. The only remaining question is how Team Obama will spin this one as a win in the media.

The United States and Europe stepped up pressure on Honduras’ de facto government on Tuesday as deposed President Manuel Zelaya and his supporters called on Washington to pave the way for his return….

The U.S. government threw its weight behind Arias’ proposal that Zelaya, who was toppled in a June 28 coup, be reinstated to set up a coalition government.

“We’re in constant contact with a number of countries in the hemisphere regarding the situation in Honduras, and we believe the Arias mediation is the right way to go, and the time is now to … resolve this issue,” State Department deputy spokesman Robert A. Wood told reporters.

“We think that this is the best (way) … to restore the constitutional order in the country, and we want to see that happen now,” he said.

Do not argue with us, do not question us; you’ll do what you’re told to do — and be quick about it!

Submitted for your approval, our previous profferings on Big Lizards:

• Piddling Away Greatness, also cross-posted in Hot Air’s rogues’ gallery
• The Curious Case of Tegucigalpa’s Traveling Traitor
• Reuters Still Stuck on “Coup”-pid

Why the hysterical haste and high-pressure tactics? Because, just like the radical legislation, the One knows that Mr. Time is not his friend: The more time passes, the more opposition grows among Republicans and even moderate Democrats.

Republicans are finally fighting back hard against the unprecedented kow-towing to America’s enemies in Central and South America. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC, 100%) has exercised his authority under Senate rules to put the kibosh on two confirmation hearings, at least for a week or so. And he and other Republicans are demanding the administration explain why we’re siding with Venezuela’s Oogo Chavez, Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega, and los bros Castro (two Stalinists and a fascist)… and why we’re lining up against the rule of law in Honduras:

Conservative Senator Jim DeMint, who has expressed concern over Washington’s call for ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya to be reinstated, invoked his right to ask the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to postpone voting to confirm Arturo Valenzuela, currently a professor at Georgetown University, to be assistant secretary of state.

DeMint also asked for a delay in confirming Thomas Shannon as U.S. ambassador to Brazil. Shannon currently holds the assistant secretary’s post.

(The definitive analysis so far of the legality of the Honduran supreme court’s removal of Zelaya is by Miguel Estrada, in an opinion piece published in the Los Angeles Times, of all places.)

But back to the first story. Reuters completely accepts Zelaya’s own narrative of what happened, of course; that’s to be expected. Then they roll out a new supporter of Zelaya, besides those leftist regimes already outed (Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica): Now Brazil joins the chorus of yapping Yorkies who insist that Zelaya be reinstated, so he’ll have a legitimate shot at perverting the constitution with an illegal “referendum,” stage-managed by Venezuela, making Zelaya in effect President for Life… just like his pals Oogo, Raul, and Fidel.

(On a complete unrelated note, Brazil’s President Lula da Silva, a former union organizer, is a founding member of the Workers’ Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores, PT), whose main objectives are workers’ rights and land redistribution. According to da Silva’s Wikipedia entry, the Workers’ Party “was formed as a loose confederacy of trade unionists, grassroots activists, left Catholics, left-center social democrats and small Trotskyist groupings.” Da Silva still maintains a close friendship with Oogo Chavez.)

See? International support for Zelaya has expanded far beyond just a couple of socialist-headed, U.S.-hating, Latin American countries — Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua — plus the socialist-headed, U.S.-hating Organization of American States and the socialist-headed, U.S.-hating United Nations General Assembly; it now includes two more socialist-headed, U.S.-hating, Latin American countries: Costa Rica and Brazil.

It should be clear why the Obamacle chose up sides so rapidly; it was a no-brainer!

Here’s the punchline… a perfect demonstration of how, no matter how tightly a lie is nailed across the doors and windows, truth will nevertheless find a crack and leak out:

Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim called U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week to complain that talks were dragging on too long and that Zelaya should be reinstated without conditions, a Brazilian diplomat said.

“The negotiations must not reward a coup, which could in turn encourage other coups,” the diplomat said on condition of anonymity.

Hear, hear!

Come to think of it, using the tendentious redefinition of “coup d’état” that Zelaya, Castro & Castro, Chavez, Ortega, and Barack H. Obama use — i.e., “legally removing a leftist president from office for attempting to seize dictatorial powers” — perhaps the fear of “other coups” is precisely what so very much worries our own “Zelaya,” currently sitting in la Casa Blanca and openly speculating about repealing the 22nd Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Cross-posted on Big Lizards…

1. The ouster of former Honduran President (and now accused traitor) Manuel Zelaya was perfectly legal (and a darned good idea), not only in accord with the Honduran constitution, but also at the express direction of the Supreme Court of Honduras;
2. The arrest of Zelaya by the military was also properly carried out under both an arrest warrant and a search warrant issued by the Supreme Court;
3. That the replacement of Zelaya with Roberto Micheletti (as acting president until the November elections) was also completely legitimate: Vice President Elvin Ernesto Santos Ordóñez had already resigned (to run next November for president); the newly-minted “Vice President Commissioner” (Arístides Mejía Carranza) — a position that had never before existed — was not in the line of succession; and that left Micheletti, as President of the National Congress, next at bat;
4. And that this ouster satisfies no element of the basic definition of a “coup d’état.” It was in fact what we would call an impeachment and conviction under the rules established by the Honduran constitution.

On point 4, as Estrada — who himself immigrated here from Honduras at age seventeen — sums up:

As noted, Article 239 states clearly that one who behaves as Zelaya did in attempting to change presidential succession ceases immediately to be president. If there were any doubt on that score, the Congress removed it by convening immediately after Zelaya’s arrest, condemning his illegal conduct and overwhelmingly voting (122 to 6) to remove him from office. The Congress is led by Zelaya’s own Liberal Party (although it is true that Zelaya and his party have grown apart as he has moved left). Because Zelaya’s vice president had earlier quit to run in the November elections, the next person in the line of succession was Micheletti, the Liberal leader of Congress. He was named to complete the remaining months of Zelaya’s term.

It cannot be right to call this a “coup.” Micheletti was lawfully made president by the country’s elected Congress. The president is a civilian. The Honduran Congress and courts continue to function as before. The armed forces are under civilian control. The elections scheduled for November are still scheduled for November. Indeed, after reviewing the Constitution and consulting with the Supreme Court, the Congress and the electoral tribunal, respected Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga recently stated that the only possible conclusion is that Zelaya had lawfully been ousted under Article 239 before he was arrested, and that democracy in Honduras continues fully to operate in accordance with law. All Honduran bishops joined Rodriguez in this pronouncement.

But Estrada leaves us with one very curious mystery worthy of Perry Mason: Why was accused traitor Zelaya sent into immediate exile in Costa Rica instead of being prosecuted?

(In an amusing synchronicity, Sen. — yecch — Al Franken, D-MN, not yet rated — the Clown Prince of Recount Crime — quizzed self-described Perry Mason fan Judge Sonia Sotomayor, asking which one case did Perry lose? She could not answer… but astonishingly, neither could Franken! One would think, while preparing his climactic question, that he would have sense enough to find the answer himself, even if he had to restort to Google — as I did. The answer, discovered in about a second with one query, is “the Case of the Deadly Verdict,” season 7, episode 4, first aired October 17th, 1963. Oh, and in case your jaw is still hanging open, worry not… the case is reversed at the end when the real murder is caught.)

Before we get too deep into the Honduran jungle — excuse me, “rainforest” — our previous offering on the Zelaya impeachment was Piddling Away Greatness, also cross-posted here in Hot Air’s rogues’ gallery.

Here’s how Estrada describes the case (the Honduran case, I mean, not the Deadly Verdict):

It would seem from this that Zelaya’s arrest by the military was legal, and rather well justified to boot. But, unfortunately, the tale did not end there. Rather than taking Zelaya to jail and then to court to face charges, the military shipped him off to Costa Rica. No one has yet explained persuasively why summarily sending Zelaya into exile in this manner was legal, and it most likely wasn’t….

True, Zelaya should not have been arbitrarily exiled from his homeland. That, however, does not mean he must be reinstalled as president of Honduras. It merely makes him an indicted private citizen with a meritorious immigration beef against his country.

I believe I have found the key to the mystery (with apologies to nineteenth-century French occultist Éliphas Lévi, who of course wrote La Clef des Grands Mystères, the Key to the Mysteries — which has nothing whatsoever to do with this post.) My key to the present mystery is contained in the two sentences I highlighted in blue above: Micheletti (and a plurality of the National Congress) share membership in Zelaya’s Liberal Party.

And it’s a fairly thin plurality at that: 62 Liberal Party seats to 55 National Party seats (out of a total of 128 congressmen). This is almost an exact reversal from the previous election in 2001, when the Liberals had 55 seats to the National’s 61. And of course, the next election is just around the corner, less than 20 weeks away, on November 29th.

It seems to me a no-brainer that the removal of Zelaya from office, his replacement with another president (of the same party), and arrest, all for the crimes of treason and abuse of authority, stands a good chance of tainting his political party in the elections a few weeks hence, no matter what else may happen. Even though the party moved swiftly to remove Zelaya once he began angling to make himself “president for life,” like his buddy Oogo Chavez in Venezuela, the reality is that some percent of marginal Liberal voters will switch to the rival (and more conservative, and very much more pro-American) National Party.

A swing of just 3% – 4% from Liberal to National could easily mean a swing of four seats, giving the National Party a plurality of 59-58. A swing of six seats — which often happens when the previous election was close — would put them nearly back where they were in 2001, with the National Party up 61 to 56.

Even worse for the Liberals, in the last election, Zelaya only beat National Party nominee Porfirio Lobo Sosa by 49.9 to 46.2 (3.7%). Again, a tiny switch of less than 2% from Liberal to National would give Honduras a new presidential party.

At the moment, the National Party has a (very narrow) working majority, being allied with other parties; but the Liberals control the presidency. If, as I suspect, the Zelaya scandal throws a cocked hat into the electoral ring, the Liberals could find themselves in the position the American Democrats were in 2001 or the Republicans are today: Exiled from all banches of national government.

So how does this explain the mysterious exiling of Zelaya? Fairly well, I believe: The only chance the Liberals have is to bury the Zelaya scandal in a shallow grave; so the very last thing they would want is an actual court trial, for heaven’s sake.

With Zelaya in exile, and if Micheletti can possibly persuade him to shut his pie hole and stop making trouble, maybe things would quiet down, giving Liberals a chance to get beyond that whole “treason” flap. Perhaps the Liberals could even play off Micheletti’s few months of incumbency to persuade voters at least to let them retain the presidency, even if their functioning deficit in the National Congress gets worse. With divided government, there is always hope one can get one’s way at least some of the time.

So it again seems obvious which party benefits from hustling Zelaya off to neutral Costa Rica… at least until after the election.

But a vital question remains unanswered: Who actually ordered Zelaya sent away? The military arrested him under Supreme Court orders, but they would need separate, explicit orders to exile him. I can’t find a precise enough timetable to see whether the exile was ordered before or after Michelitti was declared acting president.

If after, then the exile was probably ordered by Michelitti himself, under his acting presidential authority. But if before, then it would have to have been ordered by the Congress, since nobody else is left: I can’t see the Supreme Court going to such great lengths to follow the law — and then issuing such a flagrantly illegal order. If Michelitti is the culprit, then all the legal blame for exile rests on the Liberal Party; but if it’s Congress, then the Nationalists must also share that blame.

It would be very illuminating to find out; alack, the elite media are too busy obsessing about the Honduran “coup d’état” of a “democratically elected president” to trouble to find out such basic facts as who actually ordered Zelaya’s exile.

But in either case, if Zelaya is actually brought back to Honduras before November, and his crimes fully aired just before the elections, that will almost certainly provoke a long string of pointed questions about the complicity of other members of the Liberal Party in those felonies — and their participation in and support for the machinations of Oogo Chavez and Los Bros Castro. Not to overlook the “secondary allies” of Zelaya, including Iran and their pet terrorist group, Hezbollah, who have been very active in Latin America in recent years (with Oogo’s aid, comfort, and complicity).

If all the poison that lurks in the Honduran mud hatches out, as Robert Graves might put it, then almost certainly, the Liberal Party, the “presidential party, will get re-tagged as the “treason party.” This could cause a much more significant vote shift, and might give the National Party not only the presidency but even an absolute majority in Congress.

Why didn’t Miguel Estrada mention this possibility? I’m sure he closely follows the politics of the country in which he was born and raised. I can only conclude that, in true judicially conservative fashion, he chose to decide the case on the narrowest possible grounds. And speculating as to why Zelaya was sent into exile was not essential to finding that the removal, replacement, and arrest (though not the exile) of Manuel Zelaya was entirely legal — which was the only case he was interested in making.

Cross-posted on Big Lizards…

The arrest of a former US State Department official and his wife on charges of spying for Fidel since 1981 certainly is going to improve relations between that fun-loving Castro and the White House.  I’d hold off on booking that date night in Havana for now, Mr. President…

The arrest of retired US State Department official Kendall Myers as a Cuban spy. was the culmination of a long FBI investigation and the end of a lucrative second job for the former State Department official.

Myers had been under investigation for three years, since before he retired in 2007.

The criminal complaint filed prior to the arrest can be found here.

From 1981 until 2007 Myers and his wife had been allegedly providing classified diplomatic and intelligence information to the Cuban DGI, Cuba’s intelligence arm. The couple entered a plea of “not guilty” Friday, in US District Court, on the charge of  conspiracy to act as illegal agents and to communicate classified information to the Cuban government. Each is also charged with acting as an illegal agent of the Cuban government and with wire fraud. They are being held in jail until a detention hearing scheduled for Wednesday.

The Castro government, of course, called the arrests and the charges ridiculous.

As much as Cuba would be a wonderful tourist stop…off the beaten track, exclusive…a lot nicer than a quick trip to New York City for dinner and a show…

This surely cannot smooth the way toward Obama’s stated goal of recognition of Cuba and removal of the embargo.  This sort of thing certainly does not lend to easing tensions.

In April,  the Obama Administration took steps to relax the trade embargo imposed on the island nation in 1962.  The Organization of American States (OAS) has recently reinstalled Cuba as a member…will Cuba be allowed to open up a military office at OAS Headquarters, just one block from the White House?

Will Cuban military officers, thanks to that recently renewed membership in the OAS now be trained at the “Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation [formerly known as the School of the Americas] and be given coveted slots to send their best young men and women to West Point?

How will this arrest derail Obama’s “let’s be friends effort” and how will Congress react?

And will this impact the sale of Che t-shirts on college campuses all across America?

So important to Cuba’s intelligence efforts were the Myer’s that in 1995, Fidel Castro paid a personal visit to the couple while they were “vacationing” in Cuba, after having entered Cuba from Mexico under false identification.

Yes, boys and girls, there are nations out there who are trying to harm us.  And talking nice and making public speeches about American injustices and such does not diminish that.  While Castro publicly welcomed the Obama Administration’s move to normalize relations, this past April, at the same time Castro was well-briefed as to the Myer’s activities.

So, Mr. President…might want to put off the trip planning for this one.

Maybe Disney World?   Seems apt.

Thank goodness for Vice President Joe Biden. In one of the few amusing parts of the Wanda Sykes comedy routine at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, she said: “God forbid that Joe Biden falls into the hands of terrorists….We’re done. Oh, they won’t even have to torture him. All they have to do is go, ‘How’s it going, Joe?’”
[...]
So will Obama fulfill his vow – announced amid great fanfare in an executive order on day two of his presidency – to close the facility by January 2010? “I think so,” Biden responded, according to Newsweek’s Holly Bailey.
[...]
Biden continued: “But, look, what the president said is that this is going to be hard. It’s like opening Pandora’s Box. We don’t know what’s inside the box.”

He also said that “to the best of my knowledge” the number of prisoners “who are a real danger who are not able to returned or tried” has “not been established” by the Obama administration.

So he basically just confirmed his predecessor Dick Cheney’s analysis that the decision was taken “with little deliberation, and no plan”.

“We don’t know what’s inside the box”? It sounds like closing Gitmo is going to be a spinoff of that old Adam and Eve joke where Adam says, “Stand back, I don’t know how big this is gonna get.”

But thanks nonetheless for confirming the opinion of Dick Cheney, Mr. Biden.

So what do we do with the terrorists if Gitmo is in fact closed? How about we lock them in Katie’s Restaurant… there’s nobody in there anymore except the spirit of Joe Biden’s fantasy camp antecdotes eating breakfast every morning.

Alright, enough political talk. It’s going to be a warm and sunny weekend. Stand up, Chuck… we’re outta here: