For those of you unaware, there was a military coup in Honduras that ousted President Zelaya and installed Roberto Micheletti as the new leader. As I understand it, this is the first Latin American coup since the Cold War. The thing that’s interesting to me, however, is that the U.S. has been supporting the ousted President Zelaya, revoking four diplomatic visas used by members of the new government, cutting military aid and refusing to recognize the new government. But why? As I’ve been reading it, the ouster of Zelaya was ordered by the country’s Supreme Court because Zelaya was abusing his authority, seeking to increase his authority (I guess George W. was a better diplomat that I thought – he was apparently exporting his sense of entitlement and his willingness to abuse his power) and trying to circumvent the country’s Constitution in order to allow himself to run for another term, while the country’s Constitution only allows one four-year term. (more…)

Just when I thought politics couldn’t be any more corrupt than in Massachusetts (with the obvious assumption that Washington D.C. is the true front-runner when it comes to embedded corruption), along comes Jersey to share try and take the crown (and we haven’t even started in on Illinois yet). With a bunch of politicians, religious leaders and a organ-brokering scandal, they’re building a pretty good case!

I like to think I’m not stupid. I know there’s no way to fully protect a public building from determined attackers. Still, I’d like to think that GAO efforts to smuggle legitimate bomb components would be caught by security at these public buildings. I mean, they do have X-Ray machines and metal detectors. And it’s not like the GAO was being super-sneaky by using common, everyday items that security might see all the time. And I quote: “The (improvised explosive device) was made up of two parts — a liquid explosive and a low-yield detonator — and included a variety of materials not typically brought into a federal facility by an employee or the public.” Don’t worry, the plainclothes GAO investigators only managed a measly 100% success rate: 10 buildings in 4 cities all successfully penetrated and real bomb components, albeit inert, smuggled in ready to recreate an Oklahoma City or original WTC attack. Feel safe now? And people wonder why I feel safer protecting myself as opposed to letting some state of federal hack do the work. At least I’m paying attention and have a vested interest in my own safety. Oh, and in case you don’t read the entire article, you have got to ready this one paragraph:

The GAO also released a photograph of a guard asleep at his post and detailed an instance in which a woman placed an infant in a carrier on an X-ray machine while retrieving identification. Because the guard was not paying attention and the machine’s safety features had been disabled, the infant was sent through the X-ray machine, according to the report.

Otherwise, we should just cry ourselves to sleep every night. California’s state government is acting more insane than usual with it’s budget crisis and the fact that they have to now issue IOU’s and Massachusetts is just as insane as usual (but at least they’re passing some kind of ethics reform, which has led to mass resignations as the hacks and thieves grandfather their pension benefits…and of course there’s yet another Speaker of the House under indictment), but that’s just par for the course. How about New York’s government? If you want to read a story that will convince you that all politicians are nothing more than overgrown 6-year-olds in their own playground, make sure you read all about the deadlock in New York’s state Senate. It hurts my brain.