Honduras 09: "An election that met international standards of fairness and transparency"

"This shows that given the opportunity to express themselves, the Honduran people have viewed the election as an important part of the solution to the political crisis in their country."

Ian Kelly, Department Spokesman for U.S. Department of State November 29, 2009

"We see this election as a very important step forward for Honduras, and I would like to commend the Honduran people for an election that met international standards of fairness and transparency despite some incidents that were reported here and there."

Arturo Valenzuela, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs. November 30, 2009*

"[The Honduran people] clearly signaled their desire to move forward with new leadership through their robust participation in Sunday’s elections."

Arturo Valenzuela, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs December 3, 2009

Honduras: An election validated by blood and repression - The Real News Network

* During the briefing on the Honduran election Valenzuela recognised the coup as a 'coup' rather than using weasel words, such as 'not legal'.  This is not significant.

Valenzuela was asked, "Will the United States recognize the new government if the Honduran congress fails to vote to reinstate Zelaya on December 2nd?"

To which he responded, "I would prefer not to deal with hypotheticals on this." Which of course meant 'No'.

Valenzuela was asked, "Is there any chance that the U.S. will not recognize the results of this election?"

To which he responded, "I don’t want to get into hypotheticals." Which also meant 'No'.

Valenzuela was also asked, "So is it not a legitimate concern that by recognizing the election, you could be encouraging further coups?"

To which he responded, "No"

Honduras Election and Aftermath

3772744335_a9a4e95e72_b, originally uploaded by HablaHonduras.

Compare and contrast:

Ian Kelly Department Spokesman for U.S. Department of State

We commend the Honduran people for peacefully exercising their democratic right to select their leaders in an electoral process that began over a year ago, well before the June 28 coup d'etat. Turnout appears to have exceeded that of the last presidential election. This shows that given the opportunity to express themselves, the Honduran people have viewed the election as an important part of the solution to the political crisis in their country.

We look forward to continuing to work with all Hondurans and encourage others in the Americas to follow the lead of the Honduran people in helping advance national reconciliation and the implementation of the Tegucigalpa-San Jose Accord. Significant work remains to be done to restore democratic and constitutional order in Honduras, but today the Honduran people took a necessary and important step forward.

Lisa Sullivan, Human Rights Observer for School of Americas Watch - Electoral observer as part of the Quixote Center Accompaniment Delegation

In the days prior to the elections we scattered to different cities, towns and villages, meeting with fishermen, farmers, maquila workers, labor leaders, teachers and lawyers, as well as those who were jailed for carrying spray paint, hospitalized for being shot in the head by the military, and detained for reporting on the repression. [...]

As elections were in full swing in the morning, our delegate and nurse practitioner, Silvia Metzler visited Angel Salgado and Maria Elena Hernandez who were languishing in the intensive care unit of the Hospital Escuela in Tegucigalpa . Both had been shot in the head at one of the many military checkpoints, no questions asked. Doctors give Angel a zero possibility of survival and he leaves behind a 6 year old son. Maria Elena has a better chance of recovery, but it will be a long road. She was selling snacks on the side of the road to support her teenage children when caught by military bullet.

Quixote Honduran Elections Delegation's blog (+ images)

A peaceful march of over 500 people was just culminating at the Central Park of San Pedro Sula when a large armoured tank with high pressure water cannons mounted on the top pulled up at the rear of the march - along with a large truck full of military troops. The 500 peaceful, unarmed protesters turned around to face the tank and troops - and in unison, they sat down in the middle of the street. The truck retreated 2 blocks.  The soldiers got off the truck, and began to put on gas masks.  Everything went silent - and suddenly the crowd was attacked with water cannons and gas.  People are fleeing. There are wounded and detained.

The official US position shares little in common with reality. Unfortunately, the situation is much more like the picture Eva Golinger paints.

The true divides in Latin America - between justice and injustice, democracy and dictatorship, human rights and corporate rights, people's power and imperial domination - have never been more visible than today.  [...] The handshakes, smiles, gifts and promises of "no intervention" and "a new era" made by President Obama himself to leaders of Latin American nations last Spring at the Summit of the Americas meeting in Trinidad have unraveled and turned into cynical gestures of hypocrisy.  [...]

Washington stands alone, with its right-wing puppet states in Colombia, Panamá, Perú, Costa Rica and Israel, as the only nations to have publicly indicated recognition of the electoral process in Honduras and the future regime. A high-level State Department official cynically declared to the Washington Post, "What are we going to do, sit for four years and just condemn the coup?" Well, Washington has sat for 50 years and refused to recognize the Cuban government. But that's because the Cuban government is not convenient for Washington. The Honduran dictatorship is.

A few links about nothing in particular

Sorry about the lack of blog posts of late, but isn’t Alienated Left coming along?  Go have a good look around.  I hope to be back blogging soon.  In the meantime, I have a a few links that I'd like to share.

The Billion-Pound-O-Gram helps but billion pound figures into perspective.

Northern Heckler takes the Conservative's inheritance tax policy and a misleading article to task. The Mirror also had an interesting angle on inheritance tax (it might not be the best writing, but the point is valid). Via Phil BC via northbriton45.

Tabloid Watch notes what that few have reported.

How Belle de Jour's secret ally Googlewhacked the press Via bloggerheads via McGuireDavid

Michael Moore had this to say about healthcare reform (I might blog on this in the future, he's quite right in my opinion).

Bensix looks at The Government’s Uneasy Relationship With Evidence

A look at Italian Law.

I'm linking to several Angry Mob pages for no other reason than search engine optimisation. Angry Mob is on the first page of google for various searches, and this is my contribution to keeping the site where it belongs:
Amanda Platell: Racist and Clueless, James Slack: Please Kill Yourself, Liz Jones is Considerably Richer than You, Daily Mail and Rape, Jan Moir: I'm thinking she's a piece of shit, and, Paul Dacre Must Die.

Via Jamie Sport - "There's literally no way our awesome cross-platform twitter news ad campaign will go wrong. Yeah!"

And that's about it link-wise for now (well, I wouldn't want you getting link-fatigue).  For those of you that are so inclined, you can follow me on Twitter.

China, Rare Earth Metals & The Emergence of a New Global Power.

When the Afghan war began, and the Russian involvement in the "Stans", it became common to talk about Central Asia being the "New Great Game" for the warring superpowers. But the real new Great Game is being played in the swamps of the Niger Delta, on the borders of Colombia-Venezuela, in the metal mines of the DRC [Democratic Republic of the Congo] and now in the rare earth mines of the world.

If you think this sounds like part of a conspiracy theory, think again. These are the words of Newsnight’s economics editor, Paul Mason.  "97% of the specialist metals that are crucial to green technology are currently mined in China".  They are used in rechargeable batteries that are used to store power from renewable energy sources and for use in electric cars, etc.  They are also used in certain missile guidance systems (so, it's swings and roundabouts, I guess).

For a better explanation of why rare earth metals are important watch Paul Mason's Newsnight report, his blog provides an account of the U.S. a Japanese role.

Quilliam Foundation & Craig Murray

Craig Murray is facing legal difficulties regarding some posts on his blog.  As a gesture of solidarity, I'm linking to disruptive.org for mirrors of the offending blog posts and Smog's blog for screenshots.