The man that Barack Obama insists the Hondurans should restore to power now claims that Israelis are torturing him with mind rays and toxic gases while holding out in the Brazilian embassy in Tegulcigalpa.  Manuel Zelaya, removed from office by order of the Honduran parliament and Supreme Court but still recognized as president by the Obama administration, says the current interim government has hired Israeli mercenaries, who beam radiation at his head from outside the embassy:

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.

So this is the calm, rational leadership that Barack Obama envisions for Honduras!  Obama much prefers a president given to tinfoil-hat conspiracy theories and knee-jerk anti-Semitism.  At least this makes sense of the Van Jones appointment.

I’ve contacted the White House for comment.  If and when I get a response, I will add it as an update to this post.  In the meantime, regarding Obama’s curious attachment to Zelaya, I can only offer this refrain from one of my favorite poems, “Pig’s Song”:

It was early last September
As near as I can remember
While strolling down a lane in tipsy pride
Not a word did I utter
As I lay down in the gutter
When this pig came up and lay there by my side

Not a soul was I disturbing
As I lay there by the curbing
When this high toned lady come
And I heard her say,
“You can tell a man who boozes
By the company he chooses” …

So the pig got up and slowly walked away.