Note: I started this post this morning and was unable to finish it due to time constraints. Since this morning, the column under discussion appears to have been removed by NewsMax. Indeed, if one goes to his NewsMax page the column is not listed abd the most recent one being from 9/21. Media Matters has archived a copy of the column here [PDF].
John L. Perry writes for NewsMax: Obama Risks a Domestic Military ‘Intervention’ (note: link now just goes to NewsMax main page):
There is a remote, although gaining, possibility America’s military will intervene as a last resort to resolve the “Obama problem.” Don’t dismiss it as unrealistic.
Let me state that thankfully our military is sufficient professional and fully subordinate to elected civilian authority that, in fact, this is unrealistic. Beyond that, despite Perry’s Dictatorship for Dummies logic, protecting and defending the constitution requires respecting the duly elected president.
At any rate, he goes on to list a series of “issues” that he seems to think that, if viewed “through military eyes” might cause them to oust the constitutionally elected President of the United States. The list ranges from specific issues like the missile defense decision to vague statements/unfounded assertions like “They can see that Americans are increasingly alarmed that this nation, under President Barack Obama, may not even be recognizable as America by the 2024 election, in which he will surely seek continuation in office.”
After the list he writes:
Imagine a bloodless coup to restore and defend the Constitution through an interim administration that would do the serious business of governing and defending the nation. Skilled, military-trained, nation-builders would replace accountability-challenged, radical-left commissars. Having bonded with his twin teleprompters, the president would be detailed for ceremonial speech-making.
Military intervention is what Obama’s exponentially accelerating agenda for “fundamental change” toward a Marxist state is inviting upon America. A coup is not an ideal option, but Obama’s radical ideal is not acceptable or reversible.
This is pretty remarkable stuff, even for NewsMax. It is worth commenting upon only because there are people out there who read and buy into this kind of nonsense. The piece is also less some warning of a possible future than it is Perry’s own fantasies written down. Whether he believe all of this business about Marxism, Obama seeking to stay in office beyond 2024, and the virtues of military governance or whether he simply is seeking attention as a poor man’s Glenn Beck is anybody’s guess.
Update/Correction: I must confess that I was thinking 2024 in my head when I read 2024 in Perry’s piece. The overall kookiness of it all put me in the mind of the typical claims made by fringe types about presidents wanting to overstay their terms. Still, Perry’s assertions about 2024 are, in and of themselves, remarkable, insofar as claims about American not even being recognizable by then and/or the notion that a president seeking re-election is a coup-worthy offense are both absurd.
Such fantasies about the healing power of a military to sweep into government and “fix” things have been harbored in many lands across time and are not the kind of things that citizens of a real democracy ought to consider an option.
Further, I am weary of the ahistorical and/or inaccurate assertions about Marxism, communism, fascism, et al. that so many current critics of the president keep flinging about. Criticize all you want, but at least get your terms correct! As Matt Welch at Reason notes:
Anyone who thinks we are headed for a Marxist state either A) hasn’t ever lived in one, B) hasn’t bothered with the hard work of separating hyperbole from fact, or C) both. Far too many people making limited-government criticisms of Obama cry wolf about Soviet communism without having a clue of what they’re talking about. It’s not a recipe for persuasion, IMO.
Indeed.
The column lists Perry as follows: “John L. Perry, a prize-winning newspaper editor and writer who served on White House staffs of two presidents, is a regular columnist for Newsmax.com.” Those administrations were, according to his bio page, LBJ and Jimmy Carter.
Via the LAT: Honduran official may reinstate civil liberties
Faced with a barrage of criticism abroad and, more importantly, from allies at home, the de facto president of Honduras, Roberto Micheletti, appeared to retreat Monday from his decision to suspend crucial civil liberties.
Micheletti said he would consult with the Supreme Court and other institutions and hoped to repeal the decree “at the most opportune moment.” He apologized to the Honduran people but again blamed President Manuel Zelaya, the man he ousted in a coup in June, for making drastic measures necessary.
The emergency decree, issued only a day earlier, bans public gatherings, restricts the press and makes it easier for the army to arrest people.
While it is good that pressure may cause a reversal on these moves, it is noteworthy that the decree was issued in the first place. To wit: the defenders of the coup have constantly tried to cast it as some sort of pro-democracy move. And yet, the Micheletti government hasn’t exactly covered itself in democratic glory since it took power.
And yes, I recognize that Zelaya’s appearance at the Brazilian embassy has sparked a crisis, however I would make two points. First, the Micheletti government has been abusing things like press rights and the right to assemble well before Zelaya’s return. Second, the quality of a regime (like a person) is revealed by the way it deals with a crisis.
“Don’t like him at all,” he said, “I think he wants to create a socialist country. The people he associates with are very Left-wing. One is registered as a Communist.
“Obama is following Marxist theory. He’s taken over the banks and the car industry. He wants the country to fail.”
I noted this story last night, glanced at it, and decided to ignore it, but then I noted it was hanging around this morning on Memeorandum, so looked at some of what others were blogging about it. My favorite was Ann Althouse:
No one in the 60s, when he was popular in some quarters, would have cared what Andy Williams thought about politics. I can’t imagine why anyone cares now. Really, that linked story looked like it belonged in The Onion.
That pretty much sums it up. And yet, the story is at the top of Memeorandum at the moment.
I have thus far avoided commenting on the murder of census worker Bill Sparkman, because we simply do not have all the facts yet. The lack of sufficient facts has not stopped many others from engaging in quite a bit of wild speculation—and it is one such incidence of wild speculation that draws my attention for this post.
Writing for World Net Daily Roger Hedgecock (talk radio host, sometimes Rush Limbaugh guest host, and former mayor of San Diego), spins a pretty wild theory: Dead Census worker: Victim of open borders?
Hedgecock’s reasoning (so to speak)? Well it goes something like this: lots of national forest land in California has been known to be used to cultivate drugs. Some of that drug cultivation has been linked to Mexican drug gangs. Ergo, Sparkman’s death in Kentucky on national park land might be linked to illegal immigration!
Our open border with Mexico has been changing American society in a number of unpleasant ways. These fires, these destroyed national forest lands, and maybe even Bill Sparkman’s death, may just be the latest way.
Really? He is going to try and link Sparkman’s murder to our border policy. Really?
To deviate from discussions of elections and the like, I note with puzzlement a post by Anne Applebaum at WaPo’s PostPartisan concerning the arrest of Roman Polanski in Switzerland: The Outrageous Arrest of Roman Polanski.
I am at a loss at to a) why the arrest was “outrageous” (indeed, the most outrageous part of the Polanski story is that he has managed to escape justice to this point, after all, as Kate Harding points out at Salon, Reminder: Roman Polanski raped a child), and b) why his personal history with the holocaust is at all relevant (what, if one’s mother died at Auschwitz, that mitigates child rape? Really?).
Applebaum not only applies odd logic (to be kind) and poor reasoning, she also fails to disclose her own conflict of interest in this story (i.e., that her husband is a member of the Polish government who is advocating on Polanski’s behalf). See Patterico for more on that.
I would also recommend Scott Lemieux’s post on this subject.
Via CNN: ICE reports record cash seizures in Mexico, Colombia.
U.S. officials working with authorities in Mexico and Colombia have seized about $41 million in cash hidden in shipping containers, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency announced Monday.
The U.S. agency, commonly called ICE, says the seizures were made September 9-18. It called them the largest bulk cash container seizures in Colombia and the largest for the agency since its inception.
Of course, I have commented on “record seizures” before (such as here).
The preliminary results from Colombia show Rafael Pardo winning the PL primary and Gustavo Petro winning for the PDA. Via El Tiempo, Petro empieza a distanciarse de Gaviria en el Polo; Rafael Pardo virtual ganador en Partido Liberal:
Pardo suma 76.030 votos, Alfonso Gómez Méndez 39.041, Aníbal Gaviria 32.067, Héctor Helí 15.909, Cecilia López 15.904, Alfonso López 10.954 e Iván Marulanda 5.905.
En el Polo, Petro tiene 54.181, Carlos Gaviria 49.430 votos, votos en blanco 4.240 y Édison Lucio Torres 1.688.
In a correction to my post on Colombia’s primaries, the Conservative Party is hedging its bets in regards to a presidential candidate as they have postponed their primary until March 14th (the same day as congressional elections).
Via El Tiempo: Conservadores aplazan consulta para 14 de marzo de 2024 y le abren la puerta a Noemí Sanín.
It would appear that they are planning a “just in case”process in case that Uribe can’t run for some reason.
The PC’s web site has Noemí Sanín’s announcement of her pre-candidate status from the 24th of this month here: NOEMÍ PRECANDIDATA CONSERVADORA A LA PRESIDENCIA
Sanín is added to a list of candidate who were originally set to run today.
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