The American Pundit

If President Obama’s response to the Honduran coup is any indication of his future foreign policy goals, we should all be very concerned. According to Bloomberg, Washington has suspended some of its aide to Honduras following the recent removal of leftist thug Manuel Zelaya from power.

Deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya said he’s plotting his return to the Central American nation and called for “strong” action from the U.S. to help restore him to power.

“Their words are strong,” Zelaya said today during an interview in the lobby of the Sheraton hotel in Panama. “We’re going to see now if their actions are strong.”…

The U.S. has suspended some aid to Honduras while it evaluates whether the removal of Zelaya meets the definition of a military coup under American law.

“We’ve taken some actions to hit the pause button on assistance programs which we would be legally required to terminate” if it is found to have been a military coup, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters today in Washington…

Supreme Court Justice Rosalinda Cruz said in an interview yesterday that the military acted under judicial orders when it deposed Zelaya, rejecting the view of President Barack Obama and other leaders that he was toppled in a coup.

Just to be clear, Zelaya was violating his nation’s constitution at the time of his removal. As the report notes, the military only acted on court order after Zelaya moved forward with an illegal referendum and ignored his nation’s system of checks-and-balances. He was attempting to utilize the military to become president for life, ala his friend Hugo Chavez, at the time.

And yet here we are supporting his return and suspending aide to punish the Honduran officials who dared to protect their nation’s constitution and rule of law. We’re actually punishing Honduras for following its constitution and legally removing Zelaya for breaking the law. Unbelievable.

Remember the days when Congressional Democrats were promising that putting them in power would bring about a new era of honest, open, and ethical government? Yeah, you can pretty much forget about all of that.

Spending by lawmakers on taxpayer-financed trips abroad has risen sharply in recent years, a Wall Street Journal analysis of travel records shows, involving everything from war-zone visits to trips to exotic spots such as the Galápagos Islands.

The spending on overseas travel is up almost tenfold since 1995, and has nearly tripled since 2001, according to the Journal analysis of 60,000 travel records. Hundreds of lawmakers traveled overseas in 2008 at a cost of about $13 million. That’s a 50% jump since Democrats took control of Congress two years ago.

The cost of so-called congressional delegations, known among lawmakers as “codels,” has risen nearly 70% since 2005, when an influence-peddling scandal led to a ban on travel funded by lobbyists, according to the data.

Look, trips to nations such as Afghanistan, Iraq, and other hotspots can be justified. But that’s not where our Congressional leaders went:

Although complete travel records aren’t yet available for 2009, it appears that such costs continue to rise. The Journal analysis shows that the government has picked up the tab for travel to destinations such as Jamaica, the Virgin Islands and Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

Lawmakers frequently bring along spouses on congressional trips. If they take commercial flights, they have to buy tickets for spouses. If they fly on government planes — as they usually do — their spouses can fly free…

In mid-June, Sen. Daniel Inouye (D., Hawaii) led a group of a half-dozen senators and their spouses on a four-day trip to France for the biennial Paris Air Show. An itinerary for the event shows that lawmakers flew on the Air Force’s version of the Boeing 737, which costs $5,700 an hour to operate. They stayed at the Intercontinental Paris Le Grand Hotel, which advertises rooms from $460 a night.

The lawmakers were invited to a dinner party at the U.S. Embassy and had cocktails at a private party at the Eiffel Tower. Mr. Inouye attended a dinner sponsored by the Aerospace Industries Association, a U.S. trade group. Another senator on the trip, Alabama Republican Sen. Richard Shelby, took a cruise on the River Seine with defense-industry executives and elected officials from Alabama, Mississippi and Florida.

So while Americans are losing their jobs, trying to pay their bills, and worry about the massive spending from Washington, our Congressional leaders are taking taxpayer-funded vacations to exotic locales. Craptastic.

Thanks to Ed Morrissey.

Thank God for that Obama stimulus package, huh? We were warned that unemployment could hit 9% if we didn’t pass it immediately and without reading the contents. Now the national unemployment is only, er, 9.5% and growing. *launch confetti cannons*

WASHINGTON – Employers cut a larger-than-expected 467,000 jobs in June and the unemployment rate climbed to a 26-year high of 9.5 percent. Workers also saw weekly wages fall, suggesting Americans will have little appetite to spend and the economy’s road to recovery will be bumpy.

The Labor Department report, released Thursday, showed that even as the recession flashes signs of easing, companies likely will want to keep a lid on costs and be wary of hiring until they feel certain the economy is on solid ground.

You’ll be comforted to know that President Obama is “deeply concerned” that he won’t get re-elected that the unemployment percentage isn’t going down anytime soon, with many economists predicting a double-digit figure by the end of summer. We’ll add this to the other events Obama is “deeply concerned” about, including but not limited to the Iranian election violence, the ongoing missile tests in North Korea, and the coup in Honduras.

June’s payroll reductions were deeper than the 363,000 that economists expected and average weekly earnings dropped to the lowest level in nearly a year.

However, the rise in the unemployment rate from 9.4 percent in May wasn’t as sharp as the expected 9.6 percent. Still, many economists predict the jobless rate will hit 10 percent this year, and keep rising into next year, before falling back.

All told, 14.7 million people were unemployed in June.

The good news is that the chance of amnesty passing this year dwindles as the unemployment figure rises. It’s kind of hard to sell Americans on the idea that million of illegal aliens are doing the jobs Americans won’t when, you know, millions of Americans are looking for jobs.

If laid-off workers who have given up looking for new jobs or have settled for part-time work are included, the unemployment rate would have been 16.5 percent in June, the highest on records dating to 1994.

“We were on the road of things getting less bad in the jobs market, and that has been temporarily waylaid,” said economist Ken Mayland, president of ClearView Economics. “But this doesn’t change my view that the recession will end later this year. We’re probably two months away.”

The Dow Jones is down 177 points as I post this.

The Washington Post has cancelled a service it planned on providing to offer lobbyists face time with Obama Administration officials for a fee. Here’s what the legendary paper would’ve done for the price:

For $25,000 to $250,000, The Washington Post is offering lobbyists and association executives off the record, non-confrontational access to “those powerful few” — Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and the paper’s own reporters and editors.

The astonishing offer is detailed in a flier circulated Wednesday to a health-care lobbyist, who provided it to a reporter because the lobbyist said he feels it’s a conflict for the paper to charge for access to, as the flier says, its “health care reporting and editorial staff.”

The offer—which essentially turns a news organization into a facilitator for private lobbyist-official encounters—is a new sign of the lengths to which news organizations will go to find revenue at a time when most newspapers are struggling for survival.

Just how brazen was this flier in offering the paper’s pimping services?

“Underwriting Opportunity: An evening with the right people can alter the debate,” says the one-page flier. “Underwrite and participate in this intimate and exclusive Washington Post Salon, an off-the-record dinner and discussion at the home of CEO and Publisher Katharine Weymouth … Bring your organization’s CEO or executive director literally to the table. Interact with key Obama Administration and Congressional leaders …

“Spirited? Yes. Confrontational? No. The relaxed setting in the home of Katharine Weymouth assures it.["]

Wow. Spirited and relaxed bought time with high-ranking government officials. Lovely.

Following public and even media pressure, the paper has decided not to go ahead with the program. Apparently the response wasn’t as pleasant as the publisher had hoped, as Weymouth is distancing herself from the flier and idea altogether.

Washington Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth today canceled plans for a series of policy dinners at her home after learning that marketing fliers offered lobbyists access to Obama administration officials, members of Congress and Post journalists in exchange for payments as high as $250,000.

“Absolutely, I’m disappointed,” Weymouth, the chief executive of Washington Post Media, said in an interview. “This should never have happened. The fliers got out and weren’t vetted. They didn’t represent at all what we were attempting to do. We’re not going to do any dinners that would impugn the integrity of the newsroom.”

Moments earlier, Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli said in a separate interview that he was “appalled” by the plan and had insisted before the cancellation that the newsroom would not participate.

“It suggests that access to Washington Post journalists was available for purchase,” Brauchli said. The proposal “promises we would suspend our usual skeptical questioning because it appears to offer, in exchange for sponsorships, the good name of The Washington Post.”

“suggests”? No, it basically comes out and shouts that WaPo journalists were available for purchase.

Via Hot Air.

The Obama Administration continues its reckless policy of supporting a deposed leftist leader with dictatorial visions this evening, suspending military relations with Honduras after the government there removed Manuel Zelaya from power by court order.

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Obama administration said Wednesday it has suspended joint military operations with Honduras to protest a coup that forced President Manuel Zelaya into exile. The U.S. withheld stronger action in hopes of negotiating a peaceful return of the country’s elected leader.

Let’s review the type of man that the Obama Administration seeks to return to power in Honduras, shall we?

Manuel Zelaya is a crony of Venezuelan thug Hugo Chavez, has a radical far-left agenda, and has been accused of permitting the flow of tons of cocaine into his nation illegally. He attempted to hold a referendum removing the term limit for his presidency in the first step towards a Chavez-like scenario which permits a presidency for life. The Supreme Court ruled it illegal, but he pushed forward with it anyway, ordering the military to hand out the ballots. When the armed forces refused to be complicit in the crime, he replaced their chief.

Zelaya was moving forward with an illegal referendum to keep himself in power, ignored his nation’s laws, and wiped his posterior with the Honduran constitution. The Supreme Court ordered him removed from power, the military peacefully carried out the order, and he was replaced with the next civilian constitutionally in line for the presidency.

And yet here President Obama is demanding the return of Zelaya to power, apparently so that he can continue trampling on the constitution, ignoring the system of laws, and holding an illegal referendum. All while the president claims to be standing up for democratic values. Fantastic.

Well, this year certainly hasn’t turned out the way Arlen Specter expected. Today came the latest bad news for the senator, as a prominent Democrat in Pennsylvania jumped into the party’s primary:

A congressman from the Philadelphia suburbs will challenge U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter in the Democratic Senate primary.

In an interview with The Wayne Independent Wednesday morning, U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa.,confirmed his intention to run against Specter, a long-time Republican who switched to the Democratic party earlier this year.

“I am going to get into the race against Arlen Specter … for senator,” said Sestak[.]

Pennsylvania Democrats haven’t forgotten that Specter proudly called himself a Republican and friend of George Bush until it became clear that he would lose his former party’s primary. He still holds several right-wing positions unpopular in the Keystone State, not the least of which is opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act.

Sestak, on the other hand, is a career-long Democrat who opposed the war in Iraq, criticized the Bush Administration, and supported Senator Obama’s run for the presidency. He’s a very active member of Congress and a favorite of high-ranking Congressional Democrats.

If Arlen Specter loses the Democratic primary, his long political career will be over. Pennsylvania electoral law prevents a candidate from losing a party’s primary and then running as an independent. If Sestak is as strong as many expect him to be, Specter is (frankly) screwed.

Via Hot Air.

The Supreme Court’s overturning of lower court judges, including Sonia Sotomayor, has hurt the nominee’s support for confirmation amongst the general public. That’s what a new poll from Rasmussen Reports released today shows.

A heavily publicized U.S. Supreme Court reversal of an appeals court ruling by Judge Sonia Sotomayor has at least temporarily diminished public support for President Obama’s first Supreme Court nominee.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey, conducted on the two nights following the Supreme Court decision, finds that 37% now believe Sotomayor should be confirmed while 39% disagree.

Two weeks ago, the numbers were much brighter for the nominee. At that time, 42% favored confirmation, and 34% were opposed.

Sotomayor has a poor image with both men and women, with both demographics having more people disapproving of her than approving. Even most income brackets find majorities disapproving of her as a court nominee.

Will this hurt her chance of confirmation? I doubt it. Democrats are more interested in appeasing their special interests and repaying victim groups than putting up someone the American public approves of. She’ll still get confirmed, but it may hurt both the Obama Administation and Congressional Democrats politically.

The American private sector alone shed 473,000 jobs during the month of June despite projections of 395,000 jobs by most economists. It was fewer new job loss filings than the month of May, but obviously worse than economists predicted.

While the ADP report for June was not as dire as the initial headlines indicated when taking the May revision into account, “it isn’t good news,” said Briefing.com’s Patrick O’Hare.

“It is a sobering reminder that the labor market is weak and that there is a heightened risk of disappointment in the nonfarm payrolls number that will be reported Thursday,” he said.

The national unemployment rate is now over 9.4% and climbing, with even President Obama predicting double-digit unemployment by the end of the year. Thank God for that stimulus package, huh? Democrats warned us that without it we would’ve seen unemployment approaching 9%. And now, $800 billion later, we’re looking at 10%. Whew.

Glenn Garvin on The Miami Herald has an interesting question for all of these new defenders of democracy in Honduras: Where were you last week when Manuel Zelaya was holding an illegal election and ignoring his country’s constitution?

As has been said on this blog a half-dozen times, Zelaya wasn’t removed by the military because some power-hungry general decided to ditch the democratically-elected leader of the country. The military removed Zelaya on a court order after the deposed leader went ahead with plans for a referendum in violation of a ruling by the Supreme Court. He ignored his country’s laws and democratic system, so he was removed peacefully and the next civilian in line — a member of his own political party — took his place.

And yet we didn’t hear from the White House and its colleagues in the World of Outrage until Honduras actually attempted to defend its democracy and people from a man acting like a dictator. They’ve been outraged by his court-ordered removal and replacement by a citizen, but had nothing to say regarding his blatant violation of the law and system of checks-and-balances.

Garvin writes:

For weeks, Zelaya — an erratic leftist who styles himself after his good pal Hugo Chávez of Venezuela — has been engaged in a naked and illegal power grab, trying to rewrite the Honduran constitution to allow him to run for reelection in November.

First Zelaya scheduled a national vote on a constitutional convention. After the Honduran supreme court ruled that only the country’s congress could call such an election, Zelaya ordered the army to help him stage it anyway. (It would be ”non-binding,” he said.) When the head of the armed forces, acting on orders from the supreme court, refused, Zelaya fired him, then led a mob to break into a military base where the ballots were stored.

His actions have been repudiated by the country’s supreme court, its congress, its attorney-general, its chief human-rights advocate, all its major churches, its main business association, his own political party (which recently began debating an inquiry into Zelaya’s sanity) and most Hondurans: Recent polls have shown his approval rating down below 30 percent.

In fact, about the only people who didn’t condemn Zelaya’s political gangsterism were the foreign leaders and diplomats who now primly lecture Hondurans about the importance of constitutional law. They’re also strangely silent about the vicious stream of threats against Honduras spewing from Chávez since Zelaya was deposed…

The Honduran army clearly did not act on its own when it arrested Zelaya and sent him packing. The supreme court says the generals acted on its orders, and almost every Honduran politician of any note — regardless of party — has voiced approval.

Somehow every flagrant violation of law, not to mention undemocratic move, by Zelaya has been largely ignored by the same international community condemning Honduran officials for protecting their constitution and system of government. They only became interested in defending democracy in the democratic republic when the leftist leader was deposed.

Meanwhile, Venezuelan thug Hugo Chavez is threatening all-out war to place Zelaya back in control of Honduras. As far as I can tell, the United States remains silent about the threat. To be clear: Expressing support for a man acting as a dictator is okay with the Obama Administration, but don’t dare say something too supportive of the protesters seeking fair elections in Iran. That would be seen as meddling.

I couldn’t really give a crap about his political career at this point or whether he even remains in office, but when is enough heart-ache for the wife and kids enough? Now Sanford is talking about other women with which he’s had run-ins and how Maria is his soul-mate.

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford said Tuesday that he “crossed lines” with a handful of women other than his mistress – but never had sex with them.

The governor said he “never crossed the ultimate line” with anyone but Maria Belen Chapur, the Argentine at the center of a scandal that has derailed his once-promising political career.

“This was a whole lot more than a simple affair, this was a love story,” Sanford said. “A forbidden one, a tragic one, but a love story at the end of the day.”

During an emotional interview at his Statehouse office with The Associated Press on Tuesday, Sanford said Chapur is his soul mate but he’s trying to fall back in love with his wife.

He really needs to learn how to shut up. As Allah says, we’re not far from learning what positions the two tried during their escapades. Hasn’t he put his family, and especially his wife, through enough grief?

And speaking of his wife, does this indicate that their marriage is doomed? Exactly how you repair a relationship after one partner has admitted that someone else is his soul-mate isn’t clear to me.

Look on the bright side: He appears to have plenty of experience in foreign affairs.