Wall Street Journal — New Honduras Leader Faces Backlash From Coup
Reporting from Tegucigalpa, writers Paul Kiernan and David Luhnow look at the devolving situation in Central America. The Journal got an interview with interim president Roberto Micheletti, who said that despite pressure from President Barack Obama, Venezuelan leader Hugo Chvez and the nine other socialist regimes in Latin America, his government can hold on until regular elections are held this fall. Micheletti – who was the Honduran equivalent of the speaker of the house – was pleading with Obama to support the new government.
The ousted president, Manuel Zelaya, is heading to the United Nations today before he says he will make his return to Honduras on Thursday. Zelaya was marched out of the country after ignoring a supreme court ruling forbidding him to hold a special election to extend his power beyond his constitutionally mandated term limit that comes in January. The court ordered the military to prevent the vote, which led to a showdown with Zeleya and his eventual ouster.
While president Obama has reacted much faster to the situation in Honduras than he did to the one in Iran, his critics say it shows even worse judgment. Obama being slow to scold the mullahs of Tehran but quick to denounce the overthrow of a would-be strongman in Tegucigalpa. As Charles Krauthammer said on Fox News Special Report — “when you’re on the same side as Hugo Chavez, you’ve got a problem.”
With Chavez, the Castro brothers, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and others turning up the heat in advance of Thursday’s showdown, Obama is looking to keep the rapport he has already built with them and excercise the demons of past American interventions in Latin America by siding with the leftist in the Honduran dispute. But the interim president there and many here (perhaps including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton) think Obama is choosing the wrong horse.
“Mr. Micheletti called for ‘understanding’ from other nations, especially the U.S. ‘If [the U.S.] does not recognize us, it would be condemning to failure the aspirations of Hondurans,’ he said. Comparing Mr. Zelaya to former U.S. President Richard Nixon, he added, ‘At least Mr. Nixon had the courage to resign after breaking the law.’”
New York Times — U.S. Withdrawal From Iraqi Cities Marked by Holiday
Today, a pregnant pause in Iraq as American forces – 120,000 strong – are vanished from the country’s streets. Today is the start of the practice withdrawal from Iraq, as set by the Bush and Maliki governments last year. The troops are still there, but the Iraqis are running their own affairs with the help of a few thousand U.S. advisors.
Writer Alissa Rubin paints the new national Iraqi independence holiday as something of a sham, celebrated by the military, police and government but not the regular Iraqi. But Rubin mostly seemed peeved that she was refused entry to a parade for lacking the proper credentials. Ending sectarian violence, rolling back the terrorists and reopening the nation’s oil fields to exploration and investment is fine, but don’t keep out the New York Times.
“The military parade in the Green Zone on Tuesday at the official monument to the unknown solider was attended primarily by Iraqi media and dignitaries. The public could not reach it because of the extensive security precautions restricting access to the Green Zone. Several American news organizations were also barred, including two television news networks and The New York Times, on the grounds that they did not have the appropriate badges. This seemed in part intended to signal that the Iraqi authorities were in charge. In the past most checkpoints were manned jointly by Iraqis and Americans and if someone was missing the correct badge, an exception could be made.”
Financial Times — Deficit forces California to issue IOUs
California is officially out of money and credit and will be paying contractors and federal obligations with promissory notes. The state constitution mandates real dollars for education and bond repayment, but with a $24 billion shortfall in its $143 billion budget, the IOUs will only expand – including to state welfare and disability payments.
In a bid to restore some of his luster in the eyes of California voters, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has threatened to blockade any solution to the deficit that involves a tax increase. Voters – who already pay 11 percent in state and local taxes in addition to their federal burdens — slammed the door on tax increases in a referendum this spring.
Now labor unions will march on Sacramento demanding that the governor sign a tax increase passed by the Democratic legislature with the help of some Republicans. But Writer Matthew Garrahan explains that Schwarzenegger says its time to fix the recurring problem for good and that he will only accept massive cuts.
The state’s economy is already in collapse and with worse depredations expected after the fiscal year ends Wednesday, the standoff threatens to speed the flight of capital from the no-longer Golden State and heightens the possibility of the first federal bailout of a state.
“Mr. Schwarzenegger said he would veto any bills that raised taxes without reforming the state’s government. ‘I will veto any majority vote tax increase bill that punishes taxpayers for Sacramento’s failure to live within its means,’ he said. ‘The legislature will have a difficult time explaining to Californians why they are running floor drills the day before our budget deadline. We do not have time for any more floor drills or partial solutions. It’s time for the legislature to send me a budget that solves our entire deficit without raising taxes.’”
Washington Post — Despite Majority, Obama to Be Tested
On Monday, president Obama was heralding new federal restrictions on light bulbs and promising to make the changes to dimmer bulbs at the White House first. It was an unfortunate choice for a way to try to keep the momentum going from the hard-fought win in the House Friday on a deeply compromised and unpopular global warming bill.
But with the new Democratic majority built by former Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman Rahm Emanuel that includes many more conservative Democrats from red states, the legislation may represent the small beer the White House will be serving.
Writers Dan Balz and Shailagh Murray look ahead to the battles for climate in the Senate and in both houses on universal health care and see something of a bloodbath with more Frankenstein legislation staggering forward.
On Monday, for example, the White House hinted more strongly than ever that taxing the health insurance benefits of workers – a point of denunciation and derision for candidate Obama – would be an acceptable part of a plan – including a refusal to stand by the president’s pledge to not raise taxes on the middle class. That pleases those worried about the $10 trillion national debt but infuriates labor groups, despite a promise to exempt workers in collective bargaining agreements for the first several years.
But the aftertaste of the climate bill – agreed by most to be doomed in the Senate — may make the medicine of a compromise health care plan even less appealing – especially since Obama oversold the deal.
“House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) enlisted two senior committee members to help assemble the House energy bill: liberal Rep. Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts and conservative Rep. Rick Boucher, from coal-producing southwestern Virginia. The authors’ bottom line was a cap that would gradually reduce greenhouse gas emissions, ultimately achieving 80 percent reductions from 1990 levels by 2050. Everything else was negotiable. When Obama entered the fray on May 5, summoning all 36 committee Democrats to the White House, he didn’t make a single demand. Rather, participants say, he pointed to a portrait of Abraham Lincoln and said, ‘He had a chance to affect history. You, too, have a chance to affect history.’”
New York Times — Supreme Court Finds Bias Against White Firefighters
As Examiner colleague Susan Ferrechio pointed out the decision by the Supreme Court that just because no black firefighters passed a promotion exam doesn’t prove the test is racist has added some heat to the pending confirmation hearings for Judge Sonia Sotomayor. It was her decision the court was reversing and her brand of retributive equality that was in question.
Writer Adam Liptak explains what the broader consequences of the landmark decision may be.
It means for public and private sector employers that the complexions of employees hired or promoted will no longer be sufficient evidence of bias – as in the case of the white firefighters whose promotions were revoked because no black members of the department passed the promotion exam.
“In her statement from the bench, Justice [Ruth Bader] Ginsburg said the firefighters who sued ‘understandably attract the court’s empathy.’ (In her written dissent, she said the plaintiffs ‘attract this court’s sympathy.’)
Justice Alito… said that was not enough.
‘Sympathy’ is not what petitioners have a right to demand,’ Justice Alito wrote. ‘What they have a right to demand is evenhanded enforcement of the law — of Title VII’s prohibition against discrimination based on race. And that is what, until today’s decision, has been denied them.’”
