Monday, June 29, 2009

Maricela gave me little bit more today.

First off, while she is fully in support of Zeleya's removal, she feels that moving him to Costa Rica was not the right call. After reading a bit more, I agree as well. Calling it a coup is more plausible if you remove the leader from the country. Arresting him and calling for impeachment hearings would have led to less condemnation and possibly fewer protestors.

Here's a good article discussing the US take on it. To sum up, basically the US is treading lightly. While they condemn the tactics of taking down Zeleya, they're not insisting upon his reinstatement. Which is in line with policies of previous administrations.

Maricela also wanted me to post this video:

I don't agree with what Krauthammer is saying here, mainly because he uses a Hitler comparison, and I feel that it is a little overblown in this situation. He kind of throws out all the "scary" left wing names -- Chavez, Ortega. It's like a who's who of Latin American leftists.

Zeleya is asking the UN for help in getting himself reinstated.

It seems apparent that no one likes how this was done, like Maricela said, but no one has a problem with the reasoning behind it. The American government, the OAS (Organization of American States), and leaders worldwide seem to be avoiding talking about the reasons behind the arrest.

I will probably keep posting about this every day except when I go to Canada this weekend, because I think it's an important news story that I don't want to see get lost.

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In non-Honduras news, I finish my last day at my store tomorrow. After I come back from Canada, I'll be in Colonie Center for the summer and most of the fall. It'll be a+++ good times. I'm gonna miss the hell out of my girls though

Theresa will be here tomorrow and Wednesday. She leaves me for Japan on July 25 -- she's going to be a JET!

I know there was something else I wanted to talk about, but I can't remember it now. Oh well!

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Honduras "Coup"

As a Latin American historian, I kinda find this Honduras coup fascinating. One of my friends on Facebook, born and raised in Honduras, wrote as her status about 20 minutes ago:

Para todos aquellos que condenaron el golpe de estado en Honduras: INFORMENSE señores, solo los que estamos aqui adentro sabemos lo que de verdad sucede...si prefieren, veanlo asi...NO fue golpe de estado...simplemente se despidió a un empleado incompetente!!!!...lo unico ilegal aqui es lo que queria hacer Mel por medio de una farsa populachera para perpetuarse en el poder.

Basically, she says (if I'm translating this correctly -- feel free to correct me!) basically, thi wasn't really a bad thing to get rid of this guy. In her current status update, she says to google La Masacre en los Horcones. (this is the only English source that was easily readable I could find, which should tell you something about how much Americans care or know about Honduras). What's interesting about this, for the tl;dr crowd is that this massacre took place on the land owned by Mel Zelaya, who is the father of today's deposed president -- Manuel Zelaya.

As befitting a friend of Chávez, Zelaya is of course claiming the US is involved in this coup. Were this a year ago, I'd probably agree. If this was the 1980s, you betcha. But thankfully Henry Kissenger is nowhere near this White House.

For now, Roberto Micheletti is the interim president of Honduras. Micheletti was the leader of Congress.

To sum up: Honduras underwent a coup d'état because Zeleya, the President wanted to overturn the law that bars him from running for President again. The same thing happened in Venezuela a couple of years ago but Hugo Chávez overcame it. Zeleya is currently in Costa Rica, since the military arrested him at his house and threw him on a plane to get him out of the country.

Maricela, my friend whose status messages are quoted above, posted the following in English:
To all my friends in the international community, I ASK FOR YOUR SUPPORT...We, the people of Honduras are voicing our opinions so that the world can understand that we are standing up for our democracy through the destitution of a person who has abused our nation's constitutions in many different ways, we oppose Zelaya's restitution and ask that you also help us voice our opinions and send positive thoughts our way

This link also explains in a bit more detail just what Zeleya has done in Honduras, which makes it less of a coup and more of an impeachment.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

MULLIGAN~!~

State Senate continues to be a bunch of big babies.

You know, I'm one of the biggest NYS apologists you'll find, but goddamn, they're trying my patience. We need to just up and start over. Empty the Senate, run new elections, and not allow any of these jackoffs to run again. I'm sorry, but this whole thing is ridiculous. And of course it is the city senators fucking everything up. Every day I hear someone else say how much they want to leave New York, or how much they hate it here. And sometimes I feel the same way. I love New York. I love how diverse a state it is, and I think there is a lot of potential in New York. Especially after the elections last year shook everything up in the Assembly and the Senate. But to cause such gridlock and make the state the laughingstock of the states, well good lord. Even I can't find a way to support that.

In other news, my life is a giant mess right now, and I just want to curl into my bed and never get out of it again. I have 9 days left before I transfer to the other store. ALso, Canada, which always makes me feel better. I also would like a mulligan on today.

Again, NCIS is super addictive. I pop in a disk to watch ONE episode and I end up watching the entire disk. This is a bad idea if you start it at 2am.

Tonight I'm going to watch just one episode but that's because the season finale of Life after People is on at 2am. It aired at 10, but I had to work and didn't get home til 10:30. I missed having cable.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

metal fonts are the best

The things we learn from asking google. Or in this case wiki answers.

In other news, I booked a hostel for my stay in Ottawa. This will be from Jul 2- Jul 5, the 4th being spent with Mlle Julie and her veddink! So excited! Another awesome thing is that I will be staying at the Jail Hostel in Ottawa. Dave pointed me to it, and I have to say I'm incredibly excited. Not only is it an actual JAIL converted into beds, it's also allegedly haunted. By the ghost of Patrick Whalen. Uh, guys, he assassinated Thomas D'Arcy McGee, which is kind of a BIG DEAL in Canadian history. And that's where I lost half of you. Anyway, I just wanted to gush on that.

Also, I finished watching S1 of NCIS, which if you don't watch you should. This show is hilarious and entertaining. And it has forensics and it has crime and it sometimes has hot men in uniform. Uh yeah.

Also also, I set up the wireless network for my house today all by myself. It was actually surprisingly easy and I only wanted to toss the laptop out the window once. And in one final note, I would just like to say that this storm is so badass that it set off a car alarm.