Things are not always as they seem

When I first heard of the Honduran military's disposition of Honduras' President Manuel Zelaya, I assumed it was a typical, Third World-style coup d'etat and that the reaction of President Obama and the OAS calling for immediate reinstatement of President Zelaya was the right and proper response. However, after having researched the chain of events behind the removal of Zelaya, it is obvious that the Honduran governmental institutions and civil society were actually defending the Honduran constitution from the hatchet-work of Zelaya.

Many Americans do not realize that in Latin American countries, the military is the national police force. U.S. law does not allow the military to enforce laws. This is why we have civilian organizations like the Coast Guard and the FBI. Whereas the FBI in the U.S. would arrest officials accused of a crime, the military performs those actions in South America. If it was the military acting under its own initiative in disposing the President, then that is obviously unconstitutional. But the Supreme Court of Honduras and the Congress both approved this action and followed Honduran constitutional procedures in appointing a presidential successor.

The Obama Administration needs to wake up and begin to defend principled positions on the world stage. Dialogue with tin-pot dictators is fine, but actively supporting their positions only serves to degrade our own moral authority. As we have said on this blog in the past in the context of the excesses of the Bush Administration, constitutional fidelity is more than just blindly following your leaders, even if those leaders were duly elected. Extra-constitutional maneuvering can never be allowed to stand, especially on the part of a President, who is charged to faithfully execute the duly-enacted laws.

UPDATE 10/12/2009: Negotiations on Honduras Continue

Our Brothers' Keepers

Once, during a discussion about abortion, I made the argument that if we allow the government to tell citizens that they can not abort a pregnancy, philosophically it was similar to allowing the government the power to tell citizens that they must abort a pregnancy. Needless to say, that discussion did not resolve the issue; we'll probably eradicate world hunger or achieve world peace first.

In reexamining this argument, I wondered how easy it would be to reword a given prohibition to reverse the wording while keeping the dictate intact. For instance if we passed a law stating "No citizen shall be allowed to abort a pregnancy"; assume for the sake of argument that we've already agreed on the definition of the term abortion. The exact procedures are moot because we want to focus on the wording of the prohibition and not on the technicalities of the definitions or shades of grey. Picking abortion is done solely to start with an issue that is easily construed in terms of black and white.

If the law says, "You shall not abort" it could just as easily have been written as "You shall carry to term regardless". So even though the wording only states an action which can not be taken, it implicitly mandates the opposite action.

China already condones abortion through euphemistically named "One Child" policy. While China does not officially force abortions, there continue to be reports nonetheless. "You shall have up to one child" turns into "You shall not have more than one child".

Using another example, capital punishment, we could conceive of a law which says, "Thou Shall Not Kill" it implicitly demands "Thou Shall Protect Life". A capital punishment law which allows the State to kill someone could state "Causing the death of a person (through means described as "In the first degree") is punishable by death" is effectively saying, "The State shall kill those who commit first degree murder." If we really believe in the principle of "Thou shall not kill" then capital punishment must by necessity claim an exception in the definition of what the term 'kill' means. Killing usually means ending a living persons life. Allowing the State the power to define exceptions makes the commandment not to kill into a morally relative value "Thou shall not kill... unless the State says it's ok" which could include self-defense, war, defense of others, or the state ordering the killing of a citizen which it feels is deserving of the ultimate punishment. One counter argument has been "they don't deserve to live" or "they lost their right to life when they took another's". If I don't deserve to live, then I deserve to die. If a State uses it's sovereign power to execute someone unjustly, upon whose soul does the responsibility for a wrongful death rest? Since a State does not have a soul in and of itself, then evil done by the State must then be shared by the people of that State, unless it can be determined to have a singular responsible ruler, a 'Unitary Executive' if you will. If the State can not be held responsible for it's own moral failings, then that leaves the people who actually carry out the misdeeds. The hooded executioner,for example, who either cares not about such metaphysical questions or uses their faith in the infallibility of their leaders judgement as a shield against the possibility of personal guilt.


"Thou shall not covet" (stealing is illegal) becomes "Thou shall be content with what you have and your opportunities to change what you have." (No short-cuts to wealth, only follow the culturally acceptable avenues." Of course I'm paraphrasing here but I'm wandering through examples, trying them on for size to see whether there is an example which disproves the idea.

Summary: You must do X is equivalent to You shall not do non-X, or You must not do X becomes You must do non-X.

In programming-speak, (X == true) is the same as (X != false) .

Bush's Final Report Card

Bush Wins and Losses

Stem Cell Research - L
Intelligence plane over China incident - W
9/11 - W
Afganistan - W
WMD - L
Iraq - L
The Surge - W
Mission Accomplished banner - L
Plamegate - L
No pardon for 'Scooter' Libby - W
Abu Graib(sp) - L
Guantanamo Bay - L
Torture/waterboarding - L
Supreme Court Nominees - no decision
Katrina - L
Head of FEMA nomination - L
Stimulus package 1 - L
Stimulus package 2 - L
SEC oversight - L
Financial industry oversight - L
Darth Chaney - L
unitary executive theory - L
VP part of the legislative branch - L
Politization of science policy - L
Firing of 8 Federal Procecutors - L
Keeping Rumsfeld too long - L
'Axis of Evil' - L
North Korea - W
Iran - L
Canning Kyoto - no decision
“Enhanced interrogation of terrorists.” - L
Rebuilding presidential authority - L
Mid-east policy - L
No Child Left Behind - L
Medicare prescription drug benefits - L
Better relations with east Asian democracies - W
Compasionate Conservatism - L
Global Gag Rule - L
Terri Shiavo - L
Extraordinary Renditions - L
Relations with Russia - L
Relations with Europe - L
Relations with South America - L
Genocide in Africa - L

I'll add more to this as I think of them.

What does the "Rule of Law" mean?

People who defend the President in cases like this need to be aware that 1) it's dangerous for the Executive to be empowered to skirt existing laws, and 2) It is the Juciary's job to decide what is or is not legal. Letting the Justice department decide whether or not to investigate its own actions allows the Executive branch be judge, jury, and executioner which leads to an abuse of power and the persecution of those who stand in the way, which is a lesson Mr. Tamm is learning first hand.

The Administration and the GOP like to harangue the public with calls for "The Rule of Law" but the case of Mr. Tamm shows that what they really mean is, "The Rule of Law (but only the ones we like)". How else can you explain Bush's proclivity for signing statements? Their stance on torture? Their willingness to hold Bosnian's when the Bosnian Supreme Court and head procecutor agree that there is no evidence against them?