Image by keso

The Washington Post published an article this morning, which reveals that Major Nidal. M. Hasan had tried to get the message through to his superiors that Muslims serving in the US would have moral conflicts. He suggested that, as conscientious objectors, Muslims should not be required to be deployed to fight against other Muslims. But they didn’t listen.

Neither did the Washington Post. Instead of analyzing Hasan’s suggestion, the article speaks of “threats within the ranks”, a much more fearful mental image. The Post paints a picture of a dangerous and imbalanced individual who instead of lecturing on “medical” topics, lectured on “suicide bombers and threats the military”. But wait, he is a psychiatrist! He is a doctor, of course, but his concern is mental health. But the stereotype of the soldier is a mindless hero, who cannot have a conscience it seems.

But manufacturing fear sells news, and money is the god of the world. When people are afraid, they buy things. The media live on gossip and war, because they fatten their wallets. When greedy news corporations, who sadly are the conscience of a nation, polarize everyone, create fear, and refuse to see the full spectrum of colors, what can we expect? The truth shining out? I’m afraid not. We see news anchors and their slaves, the politicians, paying homage to the gods of money and political correctness, distorting the truth, creating shame and suffering for millions of people. Think of what Honduras is going through because of the dishonesty of Telesur and CNN.

But, why am I defending Hasan? He became a murderer. I’m defending him because I think there is a deeper point here. Yes he deserves to pay for his crime; but can he expect a fair trial?. By painting posterized, don’t-make-me-think stereotypes, the media are wasting the moment for the US to reflect on a very important and complex issue.

The US is undergoing an identity crisis, but that is an opportunity for it to shine. But in order to shine, it needs to understand the truth. Who are United States? What should be the role of the military? How does Islam fit in? What is Islam, really?  What is the war on terror really about? Israel? Oil? The weapons cartels? Religion? Truth?

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Why can’t we get straight news? The White House aides, according to this LA Times article, are leaning heavily on Democratic party political experts to snub Fox News, in an apparent effort to push the news source even further away from them. Any one-sided news source is worthy of suspicion in my opinion, but to actually force a medium to be more biased by refusing to talk? How far from Obama’s campaign promises can they go?

In contrast, they praise CNN, which with its one-sided coverage of the Honduran crisis, created most of the isolation and worked hard to paint the image of the military coup that wasn’t. Anita Dunn is quoted as saying of Fox: “Let’s not pretend they’re a news network the way CNN is.”

I prefer neither. I would prefer both to be committed to unbiased truth.

If the Times article is true, it is a sign that Obama needs someone to whisper over his shoulder, as once was done for Roman generals: “Remember thou art mortal”. When a leader is surrounded by lackeys and sycophants, expect evil ahead. Look at what happened to Bush before September 11 and Iraq, people were afraid to tell him the truth.  Observe the crowd of worshippers the paranoia of Hugo Chavez have done to him.

By alienating oneself from criticism, one only makes the fall harder. The truth will set us free. Obama’s downfall would be his pride, as with all people of power. Power is intoxicating; a heavy dose of humility is necessary, if one is not to make oneself a fool. He started out by putting people around him who didn’t necesarily agree with him. He needs to do that again, before he becomes polarized, and destroys further his potential as a leader.

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Here is today’s Department of State press breifing, you may read a transcript here. Mr. Kelly was beset by mostly Zelaya supporters.

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José Manuel Zelaya Rosales, Image by El Proceso Digital

As he threatened in the past few days, because he was not restored to power, Manuel Zelaya is not participating in the unity government prescribed by the Tegucigalpa/San José accord. (For brevity, let’s call it the T/SJ accord). Micheletti has plowed forward with the unity government anyway, saying it represents a “broad political and ideological spectrum” of people. Expect trouble ahead.

The question is “now what?”. The US has stated that it will recognize whatever decision congress takes according to the T/SJ accord, but Congress hasn’t even voted yet, and has refused to speed up its vote, which in my opinion is unwise and counterproductive. But, the congressional deputies are much more worried about their reelection, in which they are counting on votes from the “resistance” and what I call the “pro-constitution” sides. Were Zelaya to be restored, the pro-constitution camp wouldn’t reelect them. If Zelaya weren’t restored, the resistance would boycott the election.

This is very foolish, not making a choice is already a choice, which is essentially the same as not restoring Zelaya. They should forget about the resistance vote from the outset and get done with it. In the time created by their selfish fears, Zelaya can open Pandora’s box and gleefully watch the T/SJ accord, and possibly the nation, go up in flames.

Zelaya insists that he should have been restored to power before the unity government was set up, and that Micheletti should not be leading it at all. He has called the T/SJ accord a “failure”, and a great portion of the media has parroted that line without any context whatsoever. Read this tiny Reuters article for instance; I complained to the editors about it. It fails to mention that Zelaya is refusing to participate in the unity government, much less why. I am not surprised, as this is exactly what I’ve come to expect from Reuters. Sadly it has millions of readers under-informed if not outright misled. The BBC article on the same topic, even though it says the same thing, fleshes out its report with both sides of the issue.

Blogger, the Caracas Gringo wrote a very complete analysis of the situation, from the perspective of a US citizen living in Venezuela. As he said “it still ain’t over ’til it’s over”.

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In a Radio Globo broadcast, Manuel Zelaya has called all those who have “given even their blood for democracy” to return to the streets to protest that he has not been restored to office. He claims that the Tegucigalpa/San Jose Accord was just a formality for his restitution, and calls the people not to let “congress be the reason the accord is not kept”. According to the Geneva convention, this statement should require the Brazilian embassy to expel Zelaya, which they won’t.

A friend of mine in Honduras has told me that there is a possibility of a curfew tonight, which is the way Micheletti separated the law abiding citizens from the disobedient. If the curfew and the protests go forward, expect violence and wounded. Zelaya has consistently called the people to violence, leading to deaths, which are conveniently blamed on the interim government.

The election by Congress should go forward as soon as possible, because this will give Zelaya no excuse for continued violence, and probably spell doom to his possibility of reinstatement. The major player in the field, the United States, has already said that it will recognize the elections, no matter what the Honduran Congress should decide. But the president of the Congress says that although he will not “delay” the vote, he will not give a date for it either. I think he doesn’t trust Zelaya to keep out of the electoral process, but the problem is getting out of control again, with an angry Zelaya instigating the people.

Meanwhile, with Zelaya’s public statements, it is clear that he does not mean to abide by the agreement anyway, which might already make the agreement void.

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The Honduran Congress is currently in recess because of the November elections, since most lawmakers are in full campaign for their reelection. The media have reported the president of Congress saying that there is no deadline for the vote. Sounds like the Congress is trying to at least wait until after the election before tackling Zelaya’s restitution, which makes it very unlikely in my opinion, that it will ever take place.

This is a dangerous game. Insulza is already angry at this, according to a report La Gringa published in her blog. But the United States has said that it will recognize the elections in Honduras no matter what the Honduran Congress should decide. It appears Micheletti has the upper hand, and the US is happy with that. Chávez’s silence in very curious.

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This is an excerpt from an interview made public by ¡OYE HONDURAS!, an extremely leftist and biased blog.  I have repeatedly tried to leave comments there only to have them snubbed time after time, even when I wasn’t opposing their views. I keep reading it, because it help me understand what the other side are thinking.

Today it paid off, since I had wondered what Pepe Lobo’s position was in the whole ordeal. Thomas A. Shannon has made Lobo’s position clear; read the following:

OPERATOR: The next question comes from Mary Beth Sheridan. Your line is open.

QUESTION: Hi, Tom. Thanks for taking these questions. Congress obviously stripped President Zelaya of his power, so why is there any thought that it might restore him the presidency?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: Because of the political dynamic inside of the country.

MR. RESTREPO: Right.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SHANNON: First, because – although the congress did do what you suggested, there was a dissident component of the congress that did not participate in it. That dissident component is still there. There is a liberal party that is fractured inside that congress which is competing for elections and is looking for a way to repair that fracture and to present a more united front in the elections. And there is a national party which does not want to be tagged one way or another in regard to Mr. Zelaya’s future, and therefore is insisting that it’s up to the liberal party to make a decision before it defines itself.

In other words, Lobo is letting the Liberal party decide what will be done, and is willing to sell the Constitution if it will guarantee his victory in the November 29 elections. I come from the Nationalist tradition, but his behavior strikes me as cowardly. Where is his conviction? He should take a page from Micheletti’s book. It’s too bad that Micheletti is now constitutionally barred from running for president. I would vote for him.

You may read the rest of the interview here.

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I never bought the iPhone, even after years of drooling over it. I am almost perfectly satisfied with an iPod Touch, because I am no fan of TelMex’s high prices for their 3G network.

These costumes are a step above the average iPhone/iPod costume, because they actually show images of what’s going on in their screens. I can’t imagine how heavy or expensive they must be, carrying a huge flat-screen monitor inside.

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Readers lavished praise on Wall Street Journal reporter Ms. Anastasia O’Grady for her latest analysis of the current situation in Honduras. I must add mine.

Ms. O’Grady, if you had been silent, the media would have been in the hands of the masters of misinformation. You forced everyone to examine both sides of the issue. In my case, to know that a serious publication had a reporter who saw things so clearly and truthfully was my almost my only hope during the whole crisis. Thank you.

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Not that I want to belittle the political crisis, but the last time we went to the World Cup, Honduras had just emerged from dictatorship with a brand new constitution. This time we are emerging from the greatest threat to that constitution in its history…with another reason to celebrate too.

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