Iternet Marti

INTERNET MARTI

From Radio Marti---

The US ambassador to the OAS, John Maisto called the latest report to the Interamerican Commission of Human Rights on the human rights violations committed by Cuba’s communist regime “forceful”.

Maisto, also said that the serious report, also signaled countries other than Cuba.

He praised the objectivity and the credibility of the OAS panelists.

In Cuba’s case, he pointed to the lack of free and just elections that impede the political participation of the Cuban people, a right that is consecrated in the American declaration of rights and duties.

Maisto told Radio Marti that it was dealing with a pretty strong declaration that also highlighted the seriousness and the objectivity of the regional body.

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Estados Unidos ante la Organización de Estados Americanos, OEA, John Maisto, calificó de contundente el último informe de la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos sobre las violaciones perpetradas por el régimen comunista de Cuba.

Maisto dijo también que es muy serio el informe que, además de Cuba, trata sobre otros países.

También destacó la objetividad y la credibilidad del grupo de juristas de la OEA.

En el caso de Cuba, la comisión señaló que la falta de elecciones libres y justas vulnera la participación política de los cubanos, un poder consagrado en la declaración americana de derechos y deberes del hombre.

Maisto le dijo a Radio Martí que se trata de una declaración bastante contundente, que además destaca la seriedad y la objetividad del organismo regional.

Oiga a Radio Marti

Vea a TV Marti

New Wave Communism Swim Agaisnt the Current

Via Cubanology:

Adio Clip from Brasil

Where Does The Money Go?

Bloomberg has an article today that analyzes the Cuban economy and details how it is being propped up by Hugo Chavez. Although 80% of Venezuelans live in poverty, Chavez continues to squander Venezuela’s vast oil wealth on an anti-American crusade that’s meant to spread Castrism throughout Latin America.

These are prosperous times for the economy of the Republic of Cuba, and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez does indeed have a lot to do with it. Gross domestic product grew at 12 percent last year, according to Cuba's Economy and Planning Ministry, the fastest rate since President Fidel Castro took power in 1959 and turned the island into a communist state.

The Article by Guillermo Parra-Bernal delves into different sectors of the Cuban Economy:

Booming Tourism
The government says foreign investment was up 39 percent in 2005. Officials say
tourism is booming: A record 2.5 million visitors will fly into Cuba in 2006 from Europe and from other Latin American nations

Chavez's Project
Under an October 2000 accord engineered by Chavez, Venezuela, the world's fifth-biggest petroleum exporter, agreed to sell up to 100,000 barrels of oil a day to Cuba at a discount of as much as 40 percent. Some $5 billion worth of oil has been delivered since 2003. Jose Toro Hardy, a former board member of state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) and a critic of Chavez's oil policies, says Cuba has been reselling oil it doesn't immediately need at market prices to bolster its budget.

Spreading the Revolution
The flood of new money pouring into Havana has allowed Castro to revive his effort to spread his revolution -- and his anti-Yanqui ideology -- to the rest of Latin America and to Africa. Cuba, a nation of 11.3 million people, claims to have stationed thousands of doctors, nurses, engineers and social workers in 68 developing ountries.

Whole article here

Give Me Chads Anytime! UPDATED

Remember the 2000 elections here in Florida with the hanging chads and the pregnant chads? Well, give me that system of voting anytime.

Back in 2004 Hugo Chavez had a recall election in which electronic voting machines were used. It is widely believed that these voting machines were rigged by Cuban computer programmers. These allegations along with the names of the two head programmers come from within the Castro regime.

And now comes this from the New York Times:

The federal government is investigating the takeover last year of a leading American manufacturer of electronic voting systems by a small software company that has been linked to the leftist Venezuelan government of President Hugo Chávez.

The inquiry is focusing on the Venezuelan owners of the software company, the Smartmatic Corporation, and is trying to determine whether the government in Caracas has any control or influence over the firm’s operations, government officials and others familiar with the investigation said.

Needless to say, this is of tremendous importance and urgency. The integrity of American elections cannot be compromised in this manner.

Escalofriante

UPDATE :

In an article in Today's Sun Sentinel the Company in question denies ties to Hugo Chavez, BUT the company, Sequioa, admits that its software partner, Smartmatic, based In Boca Raton, is owned by three Venezuelans:

According to Smartmatic, the company is owned primarily by three individuals and
their families: Antonio Mugica, a dual-Spanish-Venezuelan national who is the chief executive officer (78.8 percent); Alfredo Anzola (3.9 percent); and Roger Pinate (8.5 percent). Investor Jorge Massa as well as Smartmatic employees and other friends own the remainder.

Fiends?!? What Friends?!? Yikes!

Like Orlando said: We may go vote next tuesday and wind up with Hugo Chavez as a U.S. Senator, altough he'd probably wind up voting with the Republicans since he's not Left -Wing enough for the Democrats.

UPDATE:

O.K. , Here's more evidence for the paranoid:

Aleksander Boyd fills us in on the Nefarious Voting Machine plot at VCRISIS.

Now, I'm kind of toungue and Cheeking this, but think about it: Given the United State's Electoral Vote System, you only need to fix the major population centers in a few key states to electronically garner enough electoral votes to win in a relatively close election.

Cuba's Dissident Movement

Italian freedom fighter Stefania continues her crusade to enlighten the world about Cuba's dissident movement. The tireles activist's latest article in town Hall tries to shift the focus from the ailing Cuban dictator to the democratization efforts taking place .

Cuba's Dissident Movement Grows Stronger as Castro
Weakens
By Stefania Lapenna
Sunday, October 29,
2006

Despite the official claims from the communist regime in Cuba that the tyrant Fidel Castro is recovering, and could soon return to power, the reality on the ground is that he has terminal cancer, as a TIME article wrote quoting US intelligence officials, and will never see his throne again.

However, when it comes to Cuba, most of the media's focus has been on Castro's illness and his brother's handling of power. Very little attention, if any, is put on the unprecedented activities being carried out by the internal opposition.

The Assembly to Promote the Civil Society is a coalition of 365 political parties, movements and independent libraries. Its leader is the 60-year-old independent economist Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello. The majority of the opposition groups in the island are members of or support
the Assembly. Unlike more soft coalitions such as the Oswaldo Paya's Varela Project, which demand reforms to the constitution of the communist regime, the groups belonging to the Assembly look for democratic regime change. They don't believe in the possibility of any democratic change coming from the Cuban rulers.

Read the rest here.

If you get a chance while you are at Townhall, drop Stefenia a line and thank her for her hard work towards Cuba's freedom.

El Cero a la Izquierda

Ex-Dictador/Actual Cero a la Izquierda Fidel Castro Ruz

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Como han cambiado las cosas en la isla.

Desde 1959, el tirano que secuestro a Cuba ha jugado un juego con EEUU y los amantes a la libertad en cual el siempre perecía hacer la mejor jugada. Siempre saliéndose con las suyas, siempre ganándoles.

Su gran talento parecía ser el de irritar a los americanos con sus absurdas aventuras y campañas dentro y fuera de la isla y así manteniendo a los lideres americanos a la defensiva, reaccionando. También se deleitaba en halar los hilos del exilio, manipulándonos como marionetas.

Después de pasarse tres largos meses anunciándole al mundo que a la revolución cubana no le hace falta la presencia de Fidel para seguir adelante, en cuanto empiezan a surgir rumores que el ex líder esta moribundo o muerto, lo sacan. El “Cero a la Izquierda” de Cuba, el ex – gobernante, maquillado y enmorfinado, de mascota entrenada haciendo humillantes trucos en la televisión como un chimpancés amaestrado, vestido en un traje deportista de Adidas. ¿Y, por que? Para comprobarle al la Mafia de Miami que el “Cero a la Izquierda” esta vivito y coleando aunque es tan irrelevante como un cero al izquierda.

Reaccionado, a la defensiva.

Como han cambiado las cosas en la isla.

It's Alive! It's Alive! It's Castrostein

He walks, He Talks. He's Alive. Ex-Cuban dictator and current cancer victim, Fidel Castro Ruz, was shown on Cuban state TV on Saturday reassuring Cuban citizens of his continued breathing and taunting his very succesful ex-slaves in exile.

Reuters was not clear how the video of the now irrelevant, newspaper reading Fidel got on Cuban state TV or if the bearded old guy on TV was actually Castro, since they have had recent difficulties in verifying images.

Since suffering an undisclosed ailment at an undisclosed location Castro underwent an operation in an undisclosed Havana hospital with an undisclosed prognosis. The Cuban government now headed by his brother ReCastro has repeadtedly stated that the Cuban revolution does not need Fidel in order to continue and that they can finish destroying the once beautiful Pearl of the Antilles and beat its people into submission without him.

Thank God he's still alive. There's still hope somebody will put a bullet in him so he can die the kind of death he deserves.

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban television showed images on Saturday of convalescing leader Fidel Castro walking and reading the day's newspapers.

Castro, defying enemies whom he said had declared him dead, said he was following government policy discussions and using the telephone as he recovers from emergency surgery in late July. They were the first images of Castro released in six weeks.

UPDATE: ABAJO FIDEL HAS THE VIDEO HERE!

Exporting Cuban Slavery

The Cuban regime has found a new way to profit from the exploitation of the workers held captive in their “Workers Paradise”. Cuba’s program of indentured servitude where medical professionals are sent abroad to work in exchange for hard currency or goods is apparently more widespread than we had imagined.

The Miami Herald has reports that the Cuban government had contracted with a Curacao drydock ship repair company to supply laborers to repair ships. A civil suit has been filed on behalf of three Cubans who managed to escape their indentured servitude.

The Highlights:

• According to the suit, the men often worked 112 hours a week.
  

• Their wage amounted to 3 ½ cents an hour
  

• ''They always told us if we didn't work, they'd throw us out of the country, fire us and send us to jail,'' Rodríguez one of the plaintiffs said. ``Really, we were slaves. We didn't have a voice or a vote.''
  

The Cubans were also tortured:

• On time off, Rodríguez said, they were forced to watch videos of political speeches, marches and the Cuban government Mesa Redonda -- Round Table -- TV news shows.

The Cuban government had a joint venture with Curacao Drydock, who are of course, shocked and appalled at the allegations and are “investigating” while at the same time trying to get the suit dismissed because of lack of jurisdiction.

There is, of course, little difference between the indentured servitude that these 3 Cubans endured in Curacao and the captivity endured by all Cubans living on the island. The Cuban government, the only employer, pays meager wages to all workers and allows them to buy meager rations from the government, the only supplier. The only real difference is that the abuse and exploitation of these 3 Cubans occurred outside of the island.

The whole sad tale here. Frances Robles of the Miami Herald/Nuevo Herald continues to impress with her bi-lingual by-lines on Cuban issues

Reuters Fooled by MapQuest

Notice that Santiago de Cuba is NOT in the "Cone of Truth"

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Are they handing out degrees in Journalism in WalMart these days? What Gives?

I come across an article in the Washington Times from Reuters . The reporter, gleefully, describes how TV Marti has failed again in Broadcasting some “reality TV” to the captives in Cuba.

It seems that ReCastro and his goon Valdez have foiled the nefarious efforts of the Empire , ruled by the Devil himself, to broadcast game 3 of The World Series to baseball loving Cubans.

Here’s an excerpt:

an informal survey of Cubans who tried to watch the shows that included baseball's championship series.

"A friend told me they were going to broadcast the World Series, so I got together some people to watch and all we saw was static," Eduardo, a 33-year-old eastern Santiago resident who does odd jobs for a living, said on Friday.

"I went next door where there is a better television and looked until 11 p.m. On Channel 20 it seemed like some signal was trying to get through, but it was jammed," Havana resident Eddi Machin said.

My head is about to explode upon reading this. Now, imagine you’re a Cuban in Havana who hopes to watch a major league World Series game for the first time in your life. Imagine some American comes over to take an “informal” survey and asks you if you were able to receive the illegal broadcast. What in God’s name are you going to say? If you say the reception was great, the next day they come with a sledgehammer and smash you and your TV to smithereens. Are these guys serious? How about doing some informal research to find out what they do to Cubans caught watching foreign propaganda?

I was so out of my mind, I didn’t even catch it till I was downloading the article: They did part their informal survey in Santiago. As in Oriente. Eastern Cuba. Again, a little informal research like looking at a map would have yielded the revelation that TV Marti’s new plane is targeting Western Cuba, Where Havana is, not Oriente which is in the Eastern tip of the Island.

You can’t make this up this is in the article:

The leased G1 twin turboprop, based in Key West, Florida, and loaded with millions of dollars worth of new equipment, was to be airborne between 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. every night except Sunday in yet another attempt to bypass government jamming, especially in western Cuba, TV Marti officials said.

In some of the area that TV Marti is targeting, they couldn’t block the signal, so they cut the power. No juice. No TV. No TV Marti. No World Series. No Survey. Brutal but effective like everything they do.

You know, a good angle for this story would have been to focus on the fact that even after 47 years of being shut out from the outside world, the Cuban populace still yearns for contact with its neighbors, especially its neighbor to the north with which they still share some common ground: love of baseball.

A better angle would have been to report that even with the information blockade that the Cuban people must endure 24/7, news that Radio Marti was planning to air game 3 of the fall classic still mamaged to reach the Cuban people somehow.

But no, we are treated to Bush , the Devil, is wasting tax payer money to placate the Cuban reactionary right-wing nut jobs in Miami better known as the Miami Mafia.

Someday, like a famous Cuban used to say, "you have a lot of splaining to do", MSM.

Another Cuban in the House

Albio Sires
-----

Come January 2007, regardless of which party controls the house, there will be another Cuban in congress.

Cuban born Albio Sires, 55, of West New York, will win the seat vacated by Robert Menendez. Sires will actually be there in November when congress returns, since he won a bid to fill the rest of Bob Menendez’s term

Sires, is a Cuban immigrant with staunch anti-Castro credentials and although he’s a Democrat , he will be sure to vote with the republican MAJORITY, yes that’s a prediction, in the next congress

Read more about Mr.Sires Here:

From Cuba to Congress, Sires ready for House challenge

Posada Carriles Circus is Coming to Town

Now that the Exile has set up a committee to free Oscar Posada Carriles, the MSM, doing the Anti-American bidding of the tyrant in Havana and his trained stooge in Caracas, will begin its full court press to inform the American masses about how grampa over here is the biggest most cold hearted evil terrorist to ever work for the CIA.

Two thoughts:

1)If the rest of the CIA had half the convictions and internal fortitide that this guy has , there would not have been a 9-11.

2)It is Castro and Chavez, two guys that hate your country, your kids and your pets just because they are American, that have started a propaganda campaing to extradite this man. I can understand ignoring these two bumbs when they insult America, but not when you listen to them when they try to manipulate the system. America should never let its enemies dictate its actions. There is no moral equivalent between the USA and the tinhorn tyrants that hate it.

And, by the way, Posada-Carriles was twice acquitted of planning the bombing of the Cuban plane in Venezuela back when Venezuela had a more legitimate court system than the Chavista kangaroo court system that has been set up by the Hugo Chavez regime. As a Nation of laws, we cannot allow an individual to be sent back to a hostile government to be tried a third time for the same thing. There is no new evidence agaisnt this man, only a new court, rigged to convict.

From La Nueva Cuba:

Posada Carriles is a victim of anti-democratic political interest forces that attempt to coerce the US government. The prosecutor’s arguments in keeping him detained represent an abuse of power, coupled with the apathy or lack of knowledge of a large segment of the international press that ignores many details of his background.

Maintaining Posada Carriles incarcerated is an injustice, for Posada has no felony charges against him in the United States and was twice absolved of alleged terrorism in Venezuela by both civilian and military tribunals. In spite of being twice acquitted in Venezuela, he was unjustly incarcerated in that country for nine years due to political pressure.

In the United States, the only charge against Posada is that of illegal entry, something he had to do to protect his life as he has been a target of several assassination attempts by Castro’s intelligence officers.

Being the US a nation of laws, the prosecutor’s position is not justified in delaying justice in the case of Posada Carriles. Late justice can become injustice.

Reporters Without Borders Award

------

The secretary General of Reporters Without Borders, Robert Menard, was presented with the Fourth Antonio Asencio prize for journalism by King Juan Carlos of Spain.

At the awards ceremony, Wednesday night, Menard took up the plight of 24 journalists jailed in Cuba. He praised Spain for denouncing the murders of journalists in Colombia and Mexico, but complained that Spain has remained complacent with the repressive Cuban dictatorship.

Spain is one of Cuba’s most important trade partners and tens of thousands of Spaniards vacation on the Island every year. Spain’s Hotel Melia owns 23 resorts on the island nation. Cuba also is in default of $816Million in debt to the Spaniards

Reporters Without Borders has been working for 20 years for freedom of the press and human rights world-wide. According to the watch dog agency, there are 130 journalists jailed throughout the world with 24 imprisoned by the communist regime in Cuba.

Reporters Without Borders recently named Cuba the 4^th worst offender in curtailing freedom of the press and was behind an investigative reporting exposé on Cuban controls on the internet.

ReCastro Recants and Cracks Down

A Cuban Bakery Handing Out Bread will have New Regulations in January

(pic form Prof DeLaCova's LatinAmerican Studies.com)

------

While making noises about restructuring the socialist economy, ReCastro has decided that the problem with Cuba’s moribund economy lies with the workers who, forced into a Les Miserables like reality, must pilfer whatever they can, to feed their families.

The official Organ of the Cuban Communist Party, Granma, announced that new regulations meant to stop the bleeding form the corruption in the Cuban economy will go into effect in January at all worksites. In the meantime, all work centers, which are owned by the Orwellian state, are supposed to develop procedures and protocols to safeguard the workplace.

“Workers are expected to adhere to their work schedules, stay at their posts and protect the infrastructure. They will be prohibited from receiving any kind of personal benefit or retribution in exchange for information or solving an issue”
Non-compliance will mean that the worker will be subject “severe measures”.
The workers will also be held accountable for not reporting any co-workers that are contributing to the demise of the socialist paradise’s economy.

On the surface, this may sound reasonable and not much different than the rules, regulations and code of ethics that are followed by all workers in the States.

In Cuba however, this is absurd. The corruption in Cuba is an official corruption. Everybody is in on it. It is the way of life and its people participate in order to survive. The solution of course, lies with allowing the Cuban people to have meaningful jobs where they can make a living and lead normal productive lives. That, of course, is impossible in Cuba. Not because of the workers , but because of the system.

The system in Cuba is designed to keep everybody worrying where their next meal is going to come form. This is not by accident, It is by design. People who have to struggle to survive on a daily basis don’t have the time or energy to plot against the tyrants in a meaningful way.

Totalitarian regimes have no middle class, only dirt poor captives on meager rations. That is the way they stay omnipotent.

On the bright side, Cuba’s lack of progress or rather its degress, has garnered it a coveted distinction. Cuba is the only country in the world to achieve sustainable development, said the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in its 2006 Living Planet report, recently presented in Beijing, China.

“Cuba has reached a good level of development according to United Nations' criteria, thanks to its high literacy level and a very high life expectancy, while the ecological footprint is not large since it is a country with low energy consumption,"

So in order to garner accolades from the WWF, you have to keep the country half starved , ride around in horse-drawn buggies and don’t invest any capital into your infrastructure for 50 years.

aing sori con esquiusmi

para los 4 gatos que visitan este blog para morirse de la risa de lo mal que yo escibo:

el blogger se jodio, no se puede hacer na. asi que "aing sori con esquiusmi"

Cuba Ranks 4th in Press Freedom Index

Reporters Without Borders has come out with its Worldwide Press Freedom Index for 2006.

Cuba ranks 4^th, from the bottom. Fourth worse. 165^th out of 168. Only North Korea, Turkmenistan and Eritrea are worse.

Cuba earns this distinction because of its tireless fight against dissent and criticism and because of its Orwellian “official” media that defines truth, reality and the world to the captive Cubans.

In an separate article in the Voice of America, the Cuban journalistic restraints are explored further:

John Virtue is the Director of the International Media Center at Florida International University in Miamihe says:

"We work with independent journalists in Cuba," he said. "There are about 100 of them who file on a regular basis from Cuba. Very few of them are able to use the Internet. There's just a handful, two or three have Internet accounts. But most of the articles they file they have to do so by telephone and somebody takes dictation in Miami."

Virtue said several independent Cuban journalists his center secretly trained are now in prison for practicing their profession. He recalls the crackdown by Cuban authorities three years ago.

"The Cuban government arrested 75 dissidents. It did that on March the 18, 2003. And of those, 27 were journalists," he added. "And 24 journalists still remain in prison, serving sentences of up to 28 years. And the charges are more or less charges of treason for having cooperated with a foreign government."

Reporters without Borders says you can get a 20-year prison sentence in Cuba for writing articles for foreign websites and a five-year sentence just for connecting with the Internet in an illegal manner. John Virtue says the surveillance by state security is intense.

The propaganda that is force-fed to the captive Cubans 24/7 doesn’t convince anybody of anything. The only real weapon the totalitarian regime has against the truth is their brutal oppression because they cannot compete with ideas. Their ideas are as empty as Cuba’s coffers and the Cuban people’s cupboards.

Harlem Night(mare)s

As you probably know an “artist” named Daniel Edwards whose claims to fame include an obscene sculpture of Brittney Spears giving birth and another of Suri Cruise’s baby poop, has outdone himself and made a “dying Castro” sculpture. The huge bust of the tyrant will unveiled within eyeshot of the Apostle’s statue at central park.

Links:

Babalu

Killcastro

Cuban American Pundits

Inspiration comes from Harlem “perhaps the only community in the U.S. that proclaims an admiration for Castro - the Central Park unveiling of his portrait is an attempt to bring Harlem's adoration for Castro to the rest of the world"

Meanwhile back in the real world, “a broadcast that brings together Afro-Cubans and Afro-American civil rights leaders together for the first time to discuss the plight of Afro-Cubans in Cuba” will air on Radio Marti next Monday night.

Dr. James Meredith known as the first African-American student at The University of Mississippi will take part in the show.

Miami’s CBS4 reports that Mr. Meredith had this to say. "The Cuban blacks are probably as bad off as any blacks that there are in the whole world," said Meredith. "That's why I say that the improvement of the conditions for blacks in Cuba will result in the improvement for blacks in all of Latin America." Here’s a link to the report including a video in case you doubt my words.

Some of Cuba’s most important dissidents happen to be of African descent. Among them are Oscar Biscet, Darsi Ferrer and Guillermo Fariñas. Blacks in Cuba have complained about the lack of support offered them by their African-American counterparts who tend to dislike Cuban-Americans and admire the dying tyrant in Havana. Meredith blames this notion on a lack of communication between and among the various black communities.

UPDATE: if your're looking for the latest on this saga click here

Resolviendo con Wilma

Hace un año hoy, Wilma me llevo tres tejas. Vaya, no mes las llevo, me las aflojo.Sin electricidad, sin gasolina, sin agua. Viviendo como en la Habana pero con comida, libertad y esperanza.

Wilma fue una jodienda pero lo que mas recuerdo de esos días es a un muchacho llamado Raúl.

Raúl, un cubano recién llegado, se apareció como a los cuatro días dando vuelta en una camioneta con su padre pues estaban arreglando techos. Me dijo que teníamos un montón de tejas flojas y me dio un precio. Les dije que si.

Cuando la gente del barrio vieron a los cubanos encaramados en el techo, empezaron a contratarlos porque había una gran escasez de “rooferos”.

Lo que mas cómico de Raúl y su familia es que me confesaron que ellos en si, no arreglaban techos, pero hacían hasta rayo encendido. Así es que me “resolvieron” el techo. Tenían a un amigo que si arreglaba tejas, y por un celular se comunicaban con el amigo quien le baba instrucciones y ellos así iban resolviendo.

En los días, semanas y meses después de Wilma, era imposible conseguir tejas pero no para ellos, que por resolver, consiguieron lo inconseguible en la republica de Hialeah.

Y cuando vino el tipo del seguro y vio el trabajo que hicieron Raúl y su familia quedo impresionado. Si le hubiéramos hecho el cuento , talvez se hubiera caído del techo.

Raúl y su Familia arreglaron casi todos los techos de mis vecinos. Y esos techos, que veo todos los idas, son un monumento a Raúl , los miles como el, mi pueblo, que hacen hasta rayo encendido, consiguen lo inconseguible y resuelven.

Mas de Raúl y su historia otro día.

Hang In There, Joe

Still no word form Yuliet. No one knows where she is.

From the Pittsburgh Tribune

Star-crossed couple still separated

By Justin Vellucci
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, October 24, 2006


A Bethel Park man met with FBI agents Monday to discuss his thwarted plans to reunite with his Cuban wife. Joseph Papp, 31, said he wired two people a total of $6,600 to safely and legally usher his wife, Yuliet Rodriguez Jimenez, into the United States this fall. The money changed hands, but Rodriguez, 29, who hid in Venezuela after an attempt in the summer to meet Papp in Europe, never appeared.

"What I wanted to do was bring her to me, safe at my side, by any means necessary," said Papp, who, like Rodriguez, is a competitive cyclist. "I'm just interested in finding my wife."

Now, he waits.

Tyrants Make Strange Cellmates

From Gusano's old stomping grounds in the Swamps of Jersey we get the following heart warming story of two sets of exiles coming together to fight tyranny.

Unlikely alliance forged in N.J.
Monday, October 23,
2006

By ELIZABETH LLORENTE
STAFF WRITER


Like many in his native Venezuela, Hector Contreras of Fort Lee saw Cuban leader Fidel Castro as a romantic figure – a Robin Hood in military fatigues who wanted to take from Cuba's privileged and give to its poor.

They admired Castro for condemning the United States as a meddler in Latin American affairs, a global bully that looked down upon its neighbors to the south.

But now, Contreras and many other Venezuelans are denouncing Castro with a disdain that perhaps is second only to that of Cuban exiles.

"He's nothing but a dictator," Contreras said. "His grand promises were only propaganda. He's caused a lot of suffering in Cuba, and he has achieved no real improvement for the
country."

And so, Venezuelan and Cuban immigrants have formed an alliance that was unthinkable just a few years ago.

The catalyst was leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a Castro protege who Venezuelans
fear is going to turn Venezuela -- with its long-standing democracy and U.S. ties -- into another Cuba. They fear that Chavez is stripping away freedoms by cracking down on dissenters and media outlets that criticize his policies and actions.

The similarities between Chavez's restrictions on civil liberties and the erosion of rights in the Castro regime have bred a political and social affinity among Venezuelan and Cuban immigrants. Venezuelans attend anti-Castro rallies in significant numbers, and Cuban exiles abound at anti-Chavez demonstrations. Cuban exile organizations have allowed Venezuelan groups to operate out of their offices, many of which now display Venezuelan flags and other symbols of the South American nation on their walls.

And just as Castro has mentored Chavez, Cuban exiles are showing Venezuelans how to become a potent lobbying group in the United States. They are introducing Venezuelans to their many friends in the U.S. Congress and the media. They are also helping anti-Chavez groups in Venezuela by providing funding, political campaign advice and firsthand stories to the media about oppression in Cuba and the ineptitude of the Castro regime.

Read the rest here.

Important Things

From Reuters:

Cuba ponders how to fix socialist economy

From Gusano:

Free Market Sytem, Human rights, Free Elections.

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba has begun debating how to correct rampant theft and inefficiency in state-run services, from pouring beer to shining shoes, that could signal a step toward economic reform under acting President Raul Castro.

In a scathing three-part series on graft in shops and bars entitled The Big Old Swindle, the Communist Youth newspaper Juventud Rebelde said on Sunday a team of university experts will investigate ways to improve services.

"The important thing, to me,
is that they are asking the questions. "Why doesn't it work?" a European diplomat posted to Havana said.

"My doubt is whether they are brave enough to start asking themselves questions without trying to confine the answers to Marxist philosophy," he said

The important thing to me is that the people in Cuba are enslaved by speudo-socialist thugs who have kept their people on the verge of starvation for 47 years. They prop up a system that doesn't work because it is designed not work. The system is designed to corrupt the morals of the individual and the family. The system is designed toterrorize its citizens into submission. The important thing is to bring about change, freedom and food to these captive people.

Dollar Si, Yankee No.

Para conmemorar el 40 aniversario de la marca Cohíba, la tiranía a confeccionado una caja de tabaco hecha a mano por Norma Fernández, la torcedera de la factoría Cohíba del Laguito en la Habana.

La pobre Norma enrollo 4,000 tabacos ella solita. Cada “Behike” cuesta $400 y solamente se venden en cajas de 40. Cada caja es un humidor especial, vendiéndose por $18,860. Así es que el humidor especial cuesta $2,860.

¿Cuanto le pagarían a Norma?

What Media Bias? The Story of Two Headlines

The Sun-Sentinel, not to subtly, shows its bias towards the Democrats. This is nothing new and is to be expected from the MSM , but what is comically surprising is that they placed the two headlines in such close proximity on their digital edition and it stands out all too clearly:

.....

For the benefit of those that don't have super-human eyesight and can't see the screen Capture above here are the headlines:

GOP's Crist a moderate who tries to be a `populist' as he is backed by wealthy

......

Davis earned reputation as a Democrat who can work with both sides of debate

......

If you can't see the bias in the two headlines, I'm sorry , but you're beyond help. If you can, enjoy the chuckle.

Heroe de la Contra Revolución

Hay muchos héroes de la Contra Revolución, cada uno haciendo lo puede por la patria.

Siempre, cuando veo que un cubano se supera en el mundo, es una pequeña desquita al tirano y me agrada. Otro Contra Revolucionario.

Es una demostración más que los problemas ecómicos y sociales que existen en Cuba son la responsabilidad del régimen castrista-totalitario y no del pueblo.

Aquí tenemos otro ejemplo de un cubano más, que se ha esmerado en su profesión y siempre ha hecho ese poquitico más para ayudar al mundo a destapar la mentira castrista.

Carlos Eire, profesor de Yale, no se quedo ahí. Escribió un libro sobre su niñez en Cuba y su triste exilio, sin sus padres, bajo el programa “Pedro Pan.” Eire dice que se sintió inspirado a escribir su libro “Waiting for Show in Havana” por el caso del balserito Elian, otro pequeño héroe de la Contra Revolución.

El profesor Eire también nos comprobó el prejuicio ante-cubano-americano que existe en El New York Times al hacer publico una serie de correspondencias con ese periódico izquierdista que solicitaba un editorial de Eire criticando al exilio por celebrar en las calles de Miami que el tirano haya dejado el poder el pasado 31 de Julio. Las interesentes revelaciones vía Babalu, mas héroes, aquí.

Este fin de semana el profesor Eire viajo a SaltT Lake City, Utah para participar en festival de libros donde dará una conferencia sobre las creyencias de los españoles del siglo dieciséis hacia la muerte. El reportaje en ingles aquí. Critica de su libro auto biográfico Aquí

Joe's Saga

Empesamos otra semana en el exilio con la esperanza de que el cambio viene pronto para la patria.

Pero existe en mi una gran tristeza por un caso que esta dando vueltas en mi cabeza desde la semana pasada. Es el caso de Joe Papp y su esposa Yuliet Rodríguez, ciclista cubana.

La historia de amor de estos muchachos deberia de aver sido la de un romance como el de las películas pero se ha convertido en una verdadera pesadilla.

Nuestro amigo Joe , desesperado, no ha oido de su esposa que, según el, habia de ser deportada de Venezuela hacia Cuba el pasado Miercoles.

Para los que no estan familiarizados de el saga de esta pareja aquí estan dos links de blogs que estan tratando de ayudar.

Babalu

Killcastro

Con el favor y ayuda de Dios espero algun dia ver la película de este romance en un cine y llorar de alegria cuando se termine.

Controlled Surfing

This is the third in a series of posts outlining the Orwellian reality forced upon Cubans. Information is Power. Ignorance is Control. The Country that is always boasting about its World Class Educational system's, real goal is to keep its people ignorant.

In today’s Miami Herald Frances Robles sheds some light on the bandwidth challenged Island’s Web Surfing dilema. It seems that a French Journalist decided to conduct an investigative report and test the censorship of the Cuban access to the Web and found that

Internet cafes at hotels and the post office allowed mostly unfettered access to websites, even those considered ''subversive.'' But prices were excessive and security warnings popped up when the names of well-known Cuban dissidents appeared on the screen.

''But when when I opened an e-mail that had the names of dissidents on it, this pop-up warning came on saying the program would switch off in a few seconds,'' she added. ``I thought, `No way!'

``It was like a spy movie.''

Not like a spy movie more like an Orwellian nightmare, actually.

Internet cafes are run and supplied by the government, obviously, so unless you get a computer with software on the black market and are able to pirate an internet connection, you have to use their machines which run a word recognition program that shuts down the computer for ``national security reasons.''

''I have never heard of that anywhere in the world,'' said Julien Pain, head of Reporters Without Borders' Internet Freedom program. ``I don't even know how they do that. They scare people off the Web.''

The Regime exists to scare its people. Its sole purpose is to control. Everything revolves around that premise. I don’t understand how this comes as a shock to University educated professional journalists, but I’m glad that they’re getting the word out, anyway.

Again, we support an American Government Funded program to spread truth to the Island. “Internet Marti”. The Internet Marti program should also include the distribution of older, recycled PC’s to the Cuban people. We need to allow unfettered access to the Web, to truth and real information. Information is Power.

Internet Marti

Now, how good can a modern education be when there’s no access to the internet? American children begin searching on line for information by the 4^th grade and in some schools even sooner. By the time American children reach high school they have access to the collective knowledge of mankind with the click of a mouse. Granted that most prefer to go on my space, download games and music and cruise for sexually explicit material, but hey it’s a free country and the internet is instant freedom.

Which brings me, as most things do inevitably do, to a captive island in the caribbean. According to Reuters, Reporters Without Borders,(RSF), accused Cuba of preventing its citizens from connecting to the World-Wide Web. RSF claims that less than 2 % of Cubans connect to the Internet and when they do, they do so at closely monitored Internet acces points.

With less than 2 percent of the population online, Cuba is one of the world's most backward countries as regards Internet usage," RSF said.

"This is quite surprising in a country that boasts one of the highest levels of education in the world," it added.

The Cuban government, of course, blames the US embargo for its internet censoring claiming that it has to limit internet use due to limited bandwidth available because

“U.S. economic sanctions that bar Cuba from hooking up to submarine fiber optic cables and force the country to use costly satellite communications for Internet traffic.”

I sympathize with the Cuban regime on this. I understand their download plight and feel their bandwidth pain. That is why I propose that the US put aside its political grudge and help the Cuban people by aiding them in getting online. I propose “Internet-Marti” where the island is blanketed with free satellite communications from coast to coast to relieve the Cuban Government’s bandwidth problems and get all the Cuban people online so they can join the 21^st century.

Berracos (Udated)

Buscando noticias sobre la isla, me encuentro con un artículo en el Miami New Times tirándoles a los cubanos. El socio que escribió la critica de una producción de la obra basada en la novela de Ray Bradbury Fahrenheit 451 en vez de criticar la obra, crítica a los cubanos.

Su punto de vista es de que en una ciudad “en que no denunciar a Castro en cada esquina es tan malo como decir que Gloria Estefan no sabe cantar”, la producción de la obra esta bien oportuna. Los mismos cubanos que no comprenden que su lugar es cortar los céspedes y limpiar casa como buenos inmigrantes, usan su influencia política y económica para defenderse y eso le molesta un tal Dan Renzi.

Estos anglos, y consta que yo soy mas anglo que ellos y ahí lo dejo, le tienen tirria y envidia a los cubanos. Siendo un discípulo de Freud, mi conclusión es que debe ser un complejo sexual. O estos anglos están cortos de herramientas o no se pueden ligar a una jeva Cubana.

El socio dice que “Fahrenheit 451” como “1984” y “A Brave New World” nos muestran un futuro “donde el poder gobernante lo infiltra todo, hasta los mismos pensamientos que tenemos, diciéndonos lo que hacer vía televisores gigantescos en nuestros hogares”. En el futuro de “Fahrenheit 451” los bomberos les pagan no para apagar fuegos sino para quemar libros como parte de una campana para controlar a la población.

Supuestamente, los Cubanos en Miami son como los bomberos tratando de controlar la sociedad porque no quieren dejar que los niños Americanos sean sometidos a la mentiras contenidas en un tal libro llamado “Vamos a Cuba” que están tratando de sacar del sistema escolar publico de Miami-Dade County.

Los muy berracos “anglos” no se dan cuenta que todo lo que estamos tratando de hacer es darle una educación en la verdad y la libertad. Nosotros que hemos vivido y sentido el futuro de “1984” en nuestros pellejos, que hemos tenido la desgracia de vivir en un sistema totalitario tan absurdo como el mundo Orwellianoy que desafortunadamente no necesitamos de leer un libro para conocer el mundo de Fahrenheit 451, solamente queremos proteger a este país del mismo destino.

Berracos

Aqui encontraran heroes como los intelectuales de Fahrenheit 451, lo unico que estos no son ficticios, son hereoes verdaderos viviendo en un mundo fictico y paralelo a solo noventa millas de los berracos.

The Dog days of Fall

You gotta love these guys over at the Herald. It’s been my theory all along that their primary problem with us Cubans is that we don’t act the way they expect immigrants to act.

They want to be proud pet owners. They want their little dogs to obey , do tricks, beg, roll over and play dead. Those pesky Chihuahuas! Hitting us in the nose with a rolled up, poor exuse for a newspaper hasn't worked.

So now they found themselves a new pet, a lapdog, Chihuahua like, and they’re going to train us to do an immigrant trick. They will teach us by example. Ruff!

In a Miami Herald Opinion Piece:

Why fix Fidel, anyway? The GOP has successfully pimped the Cuban vote for years. The Castro regime's survival actually guarantees the automatic delivery -- year in and year out -- of the bulk of a crucial ethnic vote in a crucial electoral state. The issue for the party is not fixing Fidel at all, but rather how to make up for his absence. He will be missed.

There are several reasons -- none of them Cuba -- why I will vote Democratic this time again. The mess in Iraq, the degradation of our civil liberties and our natural environment and, worse, a sinking feeling that the current administration is inept and, consequently, adrift. Most galling of all is what my formerly esteemed GOP has become: an electioneering machine that has turned Jesus into a mascot and pretends to be franchised by God while doing the ungodly.

This guy was given some bad Purina Chow by his owners. Or maybe his flea collar is on too tight.

Yes, no American president has done anything about Cuba because Kennedy, a Democrat, promised not to.

Some of us would love to vote Democratic again , but there a bunch of Cuban-American hating ñangaras in the party, Rangel, Serrano, two Jesse Jacksons, Sharpton, etc, etc, ad nauseum.

And talk about pimping, at least the Republicans are willing to put Cubans up in positions of leadership. The Socialist, err the Democrats, only begrudgingly appointed Menendez to a Senate seat which in NJ’s crooked political Democratic machine politics pecking order should have been his when Lautenberg was tapped to run for Torricelli’s seat after he stepped down. The real pimps come to South Florida every 2 years wear a guayabera drink a café and then spend the next two years attacking us.

And another thing: Elian. While Muhammad Atta and his murderous accomplices visas expired, Clinton’s INS number one priority was to rescue Elian from a life of freedom and send him back to Castoworld. That’s the guys I want in charge alright. The blame America First Team!

Disclousre: Gusano is a registered Democrat, Zorro is an Independent.

Los Aseres

Según Prensa la Latina, vocera y cuentista de cuentos de Ada del régimen Castrista, Hoy en las Naciones Unidas, Cuba apoyo la implementación completa de La Declaración de derechos de los Pueblos Indígenas de la ONU. La declaración servirá coma un guía para las demandas que tienen estas comunidades desde sus conquistas.

La declaración de la ONU, que fue acordada después de extensivas negociaciones en Ginebra queda para ser adoptada por la Asamblea General de la ONU y ha sido muy anticipada por los pueblos indígenas así como la comunidad universal pro derechos humanos. Articulo Aquí

Curiosamente, se reporta que hoy, en el barrio Habanero de Marianao, se observaron torvas de individuos vestidos solamente con taparrabos, plumas en la cabeza y llevando rústicos tira flechas por las calles. Un intrépido periodista Sueco logro entrevistar a los individuos que estaban curiosamente cubiertos con una pintura que parecía betún. Según el periodista Sueco, los hombres afirman pertenecer a una tribu indígena de la Habana, los ”Aseres”.

El periodista Sueco informa de que los “Aseres” esperan con anticipación la implementación de la Declaración de Derechos de los Pueblos Indígenas pues la declaración les dara el derecho de participar en un antiguo rito indígena con orígenes ante de la conquista en el cual los “Aseres” navegaban hacia el Norte en rusticas embarcaciones para encontrase con la tribu hermana norteña llamada los “Yuma” para tener una alegre reunión.

Según el periodista, los “Aseres” declararon que antes de la conquista Española sus tierras ancestrales
constaban de los territorios que hoy se conocen como los cayos y se extendían hasta el actual South Beach y bajo el plan de la ONU los indígenas deben ser compensados por la deuda histórica debido al pueblo por haberles robados sus tierras.

Nanopost

And from the Cuba’s official press and propaganda agency , Prensa Latina, we learn that today starts the 27^th Latin American Chemistry Congress in Havana, Cuba.

The conference features a lecture from Nobel price winning Florida State University, (my Florida Tax Dollars at work.), professor Harry Kroto on “Architecture in Nanometric Dimensions”. The latest , greatest and hottest thing in scientific circles these days is nanotechnology .Cutting edge Cuba, is of course, way ahead of the nanotechnology curve, having pioneered the nanostate, nanorepression and nanonarcissism in the years since the nanotyrant took over and developed the na, “no hay na” society.

The conference, which runs until October 20^th, will be attended by over 800 attendees form 55 nations and various world-wide terrorist organizations, will include workshops on teaching chemistry, natural products, environment, industrial chemistry, biochemistry, molecular biology and biomaterials.

Absent from the agenda, however, are any conferences, workshops or symposiums targeted to help the needs of the average Cuban since the Cuban government’s priorities are in presenting a façade of technological advancement and progress rather than dealing with feeding, clothing and housing its enslaved populous.

Most advantageous would be that the conference come up with a method for the Cuban people to nanofabricate some toilet paper. Because after 47 years of revolutionizing chemistry, biology and physics, the Cuban government is still unable to provide its citizens with toilet paper.

Article Here

Journalistic Repression

News Flash: for those who have just been thawed out after a 50 year cryogenic slumber, we have an official US government paper on journalistic repression in Cuba.

The US government may want to send a few of its keystone cops err i mean, crack agents down to South Florida to see how journalists here in the free country are harrassed and maligned from afar by a newspaper who seems to have a nefarious relationship with the press repressive tyranical regime in Havana.

Excerpt:

Washington -- Despite the temporary transfer of governmental power in Cuba on July 31, the Cuban dictatorship continues to subject independent journalists in the Caribbean nation to "constant harassment," says a human rights official for the Organization of American States (OAS).

In an October 12 quarterly report on the state of freedom of expression in the Americas, the OAS official, Ignacio Álvarez, reiterated his concern over the situation of journalists in Cuba who have been imprisoned or face other forms of repression from the Cuban dictatorship. (See related article.)

... and This:

Álvarez, the OAS "special rapporteur" for freedom of expression in the Americas, said that from the most recent period reported -- July 1 to September 30 -- independent journalists in Cuba were "arbitrarily and repeatedly imprisoned, and were physically attacked and threatened by agents" of the Cuban government

Absent from the abhorent treatment of these freedom fighting heroes was "canine metaphor" namecalling, character assassination and unemployment, which is what the Havana regime reserves for its most vociferous journalistic critics working in the free market press abroad, through its accomplices in "The Miami Herald" and others.

Here's what you already know

Sorry, Chavez, no seat for you.

It seems that all the "Bush is the Devil" rehtoric as well as all the petro dollars that our bolivarian despot in training has been throwing around lately were just another waste of Venezuelan resources as Venezuela was soundly defeated for an open rotating seat at the UN Security Council in favor of US friendlier Guatemala in the first round of balloting. This comes a shock since in the international and national press were touting Chavez as a lock to be successful in his bid after his anti Bush tirade at the UN last month was recieved by spirited applause and compliments.

Lets hope Guatemala is successful in its bid.

This defeat is another in a recent string of international setbacks for Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez who is trying to position himself as the leader of anti-Americanism worldwide.

Recently, Chavez backed candicates in several countries have been deafeted, (Mexico,Peru), or forced into unprecedented run-offs ,(Brazil, Ecuador), in close elections. Even in Venezuela where Chavez expected to cruise to re-election, the united oposition has been making up ground and has put him on the defensive.

Chavez will have to do without the consolation and strategic advice of his friend, the moribund tyrant of Havana, who as we know, is knocking on Hell's gate.

UPDATE: Guatemala did not win the seat, unfortunately, but after 10 rounds of voting Venezuela was 33 votes behind Guatemala. This is due in large part to John Bolton and his tireless bulldog attitude in fighting for his country and democracy worldwide.

Damas de Blanco

Por vía de EFE nos viene la buena noticia que las Damas de Blanco han sido premiadas una ve más por su coraje y en luchar contra el tirano y por los derechos humanos en Cuba:

Damas de Blanco recibirán premio en EEUU

EFE
LA HABANA

El movimiento cubano de las Damas de Blanco recibirá el próximo lunes 16 en Nueva York el Premio de Derechos Humanos 2006, pero ninguna representante del grupo asistirá a la ceremonia, confirmó ayer una de sus integrantes.

El galardón de la organización Human Rights First será recogido en nombre del grupo por Yolanda Huerga, esposa de Manuel Vázquez Portal, uno de los 75 disidentes encarcelados en la primavera del 2003 en Cuba y uno de los 15 liberados con licencia extrapenal, quien reside en EEUU.

Pero, por supuesto será imposible que las Dama asistan a recibir su premio:

Miriam Leiva, una de las fundadoras de las Damas de Blanco, dijo a Efe que ella y Laura Pollán están invitadas a recoger el premio en representación del grupo por la directora ejecutiva de Human Rights First, Maureen Byrnes.

''Los trámites son muy prolongados'', dijo Leiva, fundadora del grupo y esposa de Oscar Espinosa Chepe, también del Grupo de los 75 y con licencia extra-penal.

Integrantes del grupo asisten a misa los domingos en la iglesia de Santa Rita, en La Habana y a la salida realizan una caminata por el paseo central de la quinta avenida de la barriada de Miramar. También se reúnen para hacer jornadas de oraciones y lecturas literarias.

Human Rights First, con sede en EEUU, indicó que concedió el premio a las Damas de Blanco para ``reconocer su dedicación al progreso de los derechos humanos en Cuba, su coraje y determinación, sus esfuerzos incansables por la libertad de las actividades proderechos humanos y democracia, y de los que han sido injustamente encarcelados, muchos de ellos sus esposos y parientes''.

Vamos a ver si la prensa estadounidense, que le encanta impresionar a los avestruces, saca la cabeza de la arena y empieza a contar el cuento de estas increíbles patriotas cubanas.

Léase aquí

Sun Sentinel Editorial

Since the election is only four weeks away, now is the Sun-Sentinel’s turn to use Cubans to bash Bush’s Foreign Policy. Nothing like stirring up the Liberal pro-Castro, anti -Cuban-American segment of South Florida to go vote agaisnt their two enemies.

Here’s the gist of the editorial:

As the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported last month, most of the $80 million the Bush administration and Congress have earmarked for dissidents on the island will be used to pay expenses -- from phone bills to staff salaries -- at go-between organizations in the United States. It now also turns out that some funds for Radio Martí, the U.S. government's broadcasting station, have been used to pay some U.S. journalists to appear on the station.

These revelations should prompt a re-examination of U.S. Cuba policy, especially because aid to Cuban dissidents is politically sold as just that -- a helping hand to people involved in a peaceful effort to bring democracy to their country. It's also wrong for the government to be paying, and journalists to be accepting, payment for appearing on state-sponsored broadcasts. Doing so compromises any journalist's claim to objectivity and independence.

Their problem really is that the Bush Government is spending money on Cuban American and Cuban – American issues. Therefore, there must be some nefarious, right wing and politically incorrect pro American conspiracy afoot. Please!

We don’t really think that $80 million is enough. Its chump change given the task at hand. Unfortunately, you can’t throw money out of a plane and hopes it lands in the right hands. In order for the funds to get into the right hands, some administrative expense must be incurred. They can either be folks already geared for that or it can be a new government agency. The folks at the Sun Sentinel would die if they actually knew the real amount that the US is spending on dissidents in Cuba or the amount the CIA spends on informants and other human assets on the island. Good thing its classified.

Again we have to hear the same tired tune that The Herald was playing about the journalistic objectivity and ethics of the TV/Radio Marti contributors. The editors at the Sun Sentinel must not be aware that it is the government’s policy that they MUST pay for contributors on their network. Otherwise, they get accused of coercing professionals into forced labor. The US government’s policy of paying a nominal stipend to contributors is actually a sound policy.

And…why is it that beaming the truth to captive people is not considered working towards democracy? Let’s ask these somewhat arrogant yet near sighted “professional journalists” what the most important aspect of our democracy is and they will probably scream out that it’s the free press. And we would have to agree.

We do find some common ground with The Sentinel in that we agree that more dollars need to reach the hands of the dissidents. More dollars must be earmarked specifically for that purpose now the that conduits to distribute these funds are funded and stablished.

Tough this article doesn’t go out to maliciously ruin people’s reputation like the Miami Herald did, it has the same anti Cuban-American tone.

The Sun Sentinel is going to try a lot harder to get that coveted news bureau in Havana. But hey, I hear that Oscar Corral may be looking for another job real soon.

Cuban Buckeye

El cachorro de un Padre cubano esta requetebien criado.

Anthony González es un wide reciever de los Ohio State Buckeyes que actualmente están clasificados come el mejor team de fútbol americano colegial.

González, hijo de un emigrante cubano y una americana de descendencia alemana dice que esta muy orgulloso de su descendencia cubana.

Su abuelo paterno cuando vivía en Cuba era un profesor que fue maestro de Vilma Espin, la esposa de ReCastro. También lucho para derribar el régimen de Batista, participando en el ataque al palacio presidencial de Batista dramatizado en la película “The Lost City” de Andres García.

González dice que se mantiene pendiente en los acontecimientos en la isla porque anhela el fin de la tiranía castrista para que su anciana abuela pueda visitar a Cuba una vez más. Amen

El articulo en ingles aquí.

Mi Receta

Mi receta:

Yo no se que ven en mi cara mis amistades que diariamente vienen a mi a quejarse. Yo trato de ser un buen cristiano, de veras. Pero, hay veces que pienso que no puedo aguantar más.

Las quejas: No me gusta ni trabajo. Que cara esta la gasolina. Que gorda estoy. Que malo esta mi carro..blah, blah blah.

Yo me acuerdo cuando era un muchacho y nos estábamos comiendo un cable en Cuba que uno ni se atrevía quejarse. Y después, cuando llegamos Al Norte, cada vez que empezaba a dar una quejita por que fulanito tenia esto y menganito tenia lo otro y nosotros no, que me daban un grito o un cocotaso y me recordaban que todos mis primos en Cuba no tenían nada. Ni un chicharo.

Hoy me estaba diciendo una amiga de lo duro que era su vida y que aburrida estaba, etc., etc.. Y no se por que, se me fue, se me salio. Le dije : lo que necesitas es pacerte un par de semanas en Cuba y enseguida se te quita esa come meirderia.

Cruel, pero verdad, coño. Aquí a el que no le guste su vida es libre para cambiarla. No hay nadie que te lo prohíba. No hay un gobierno que esta diseñado para joderte la vida, como en Cuba.

Y cuando le estoy echando mi descarga a la amiga, y ella muerta de la risa, por cierto. Se me ocurre que la mayoria de los “problemas” que tenemos los que vivimos en EE.UU. es por la abundancia. Mi amiga, la del Lexus la de la casa en la comunidad amurallada, se “cree” que tiene problemas.

Así que estoy pensando en hacer un centro de cura-neurosis. Por una suma exorbitante, “curare” las neurosis de los estadouinidenses sometiéndoles a una terapia tiránica totalitaria intensa.

Estaba pensando en comprar un hotel bien viejo, casi al borde de que condenen, cercar el alrededor, cortar el agua, la electricidad, y las comunicaciones. Los trabajadores entonces, le venderían poca comida a los “pacientes”, racionada, por su puesto. La seguridad seria brutal. Golpes e insultos para todos. No papel higiénico. No pasta de diente. Un solo canal diciendo mentiras 24 horas al día. Un solo periódico también diciendo mentira. Y para irse, hay que escaparse.

Después de un par de semanas en mi centro de terapia, saldrían con tremenda apreciación a la libertad y le darían gracias a Dios todos los días como hago yo.

De que No Van, No Van

In another example of the colossal failure of the Cuba de-evolution, we know learn that Cuba is looking for foreign investors to help it revive its once mighty industry. Cuban sugar used to be King. The cash crop as well as a source of National Pride. Not Now.
According to a an article in The Washington Times By Carmen Gentile The Cuban regime is dreaming of “restarting” its sugar industry.

The island is producing a fraction of the sugar it did just 30 years ago. During the 1970s, Cuba was producing about 8 million tons of sugar a year. The Caribbean nation will likely produce just 1.3 million tons of sugar this growing season, according to forecasts.

The factors contributing to the decline in production are incompetancy and the proven failure of Marxism and its penchant for nationalizing industries and running them into the ground with capricious beuracracies run by political cronies and aparatiks rather than experts.

Cuba is looking to get into the alternative fuels business by producing Ethanol.

In order to get its sugar industry back on track, Cuba will need an estimated $4.4 billion in capital. The problem for the regime is that there is no capital in socialist workers paradises like Cuba, only misery which can’t be used as collateral. So, they are forced to look for outside investors. Now call me crazy, but, isn’t that what the Castro’s Utopia was supposed to eradicate?

The only real solution to jumpstarting Cuba's ethanol ambitions, some analysts say, would be an end to President Fidel Castro's 47-year regime coupled with the cessation of the U.S. embargo. By that study's calculations, sugar would become Cuba's No. 1 source of revenue once production levels return to 1970s levels -- far surpassing the $2 billion Cuba now earns from tourism

Hey, I’m an analyst, honest. I have another solution: Get rid of the terror twins in Havana and the “emgargo” goes with them. It’s a win-win for everybody.

I'm tired of our women having to have to sell themselves to foreigners. I'm tired of our children being used as slave labor. I'm tired of our men being beaten and languishing in jails. This analyst says that the only real solution to Cuba's problem is getting rid of Castrism and thus the embargo.

Read it Here

Crossing the Hard Line

As we reported yesterday, El Foro Patriotico Cubano y la Asamblea para la Sociedad Civil Martha Beatriz Roque’s organization in Cuba , signed a document to work together to achieve a free Cuba.

The Miami Herald’s headline:

DEMOCRACY IN CUBA
Cuban exiles, dissidents sign plan
Hard-line Cuban exile organizations worked with dissident groups in Cuba to implement a democracy action plan.

Hard Line? So I read further . The “hard line” refers to those exile groups that refuse to negotiate with the current tyrannical regime in Cuba. I thought they were referring to Alpha 66, Omega 7 and Commandoes F-4.

The Five Point Plan:

• Freedom for all political prisoners and an end to harassment of all kinds to internal
opposition.

• Installment of a transition government that establishes democracy in Cuba, that respects human rights and offers the following freedoms: economic, press, religion, to associate, to assemble and to protest peacefully.

• Establishment of a constituent assembly that provides a new constitution submitted to a popular vote.

• Recognition of political parties and multiparty elections.

• Reestablishment of the rule of law, making sure that ``every Cuban is protected
from whimsical decisions that could lead to social discontent"


English Article Here

Notice the Nuevo Herald Article bt the same reporter doesn’t have the “linea dura” qualifier in the headline.

Spanish Here

A Different Approach , The Chech's in the Mail

Czech-Cuba trade increases despite diplomatic tension

As most Cuban-Americans know, the formerly communist Czech Republic has been at odds with the Communist Cuban regime because of the political pressure it has exerted on the Cuban government to move towards a democratic model and to observe human rights.

Rather than cut its economic ties to Cuba, dpa, the Grman Pres Agency reports that, the Czech Republic has increased its exports to Cuba by 57% last year.

The Chech Republic exports motorcycle parts milk products, beer and power-plant supplies to Cuba in exchange for rum and cigars.

Article Here

Here we go Again?

UPDATE: 4 dead, just heard on the Radio that the plane was registered to a Yankee Pitcher?!?! Cory Lidle who was supposed to be piloting it.

Small Aircraft Crashes Into NYC High-Rise
Wednesday, October 11, 2006

NEW YORK — A small aircraft crashed into a high-rise on the Upper East Side, raining down debris on Manhattan and unleashing what witnesses reported was a gigantic fireball, police said.
The aircraft struck the 20th floor of a building on East 72nd Street, said Fire Department spokeswoman Emily Rahimi. Witnesses said the crash caused a loud noise, and burning and falling debris was seen. Flames were seen shooting out of the windows.

Fox news is reporting 2 are dead. People are trapped on the 39-40th floors

The address of the building is 524 E. 72nd Street — a 50-story condominium tower built in 1986 and located nearby Sotheby's Auction House. It has 183 apartments, many of which sell for more than $1 million.

PLAN PARA RESTABLECER LA DEMOCRACIA EN CUBA

De la Nueva Cuba:

La verdad es que Marta Beatriz Roque es una leona.

El Foro Patriótico Cubano y la Asamblea para desarrollar la sociedad civil en Cuba han presentado a legisladores estadounidenses un plan para restablecer la democracia en Cuba. El proyecto contempla la instauración de un Gobierno de transición, la convocatoria a elecciones pluripartidistas, la libertad incondicional de los presos políticos y el fin del "hostigamiento de todo tipo a la oposición interna". Los grupos de exiliados piden, además, el establecimiento de una Asamblea o Congreso constituyente que permita promulgar una nueva Constitución tras celebrar un referéndum popular.

Click Aqui

View from a different window

Those of us who have been personally affected by the tyrant of Havana will always find it difficult to look at the effect his regime has had on the world and how the world sees Cuba objectively.

Most outsiders that talk to Cubans seem to walk away thinking we're obssessed, dillusional paranaoid and extreme as they change the subject and give you "the smile".

I found an article on Mercopress Alan Stoga, president of Zemi Communications, that gives an interesting perspective on the tyrant.

An excerpt:

Fidel's real significance is that he put Cuba, a speck of a country with no natural resources, onto the global geopolitical map and kept it there for five decades with nothing more than the strength of his own will. No one else has accomplished anything remotely similar in the modern era.

It does not matter if Raul Castro holds onto power, is succeeded by a junta or even — eventually — by a democratically elected government. Cuba's significance in global and regional politics will die with Fidel.

"A speck of a country": ouch!

"nothing more than the strength of his own will"--and all that he stole form the Cuban people and multinational corporations and the bizillion dollars the soviets and others dumped into their communist beachhead?

Well , no, this guy isn't really auditioning for a job at the Herald. He's historically challanged but makes some interesting geopolitical observations.

Helms Burton Task Force

MIAMI -- The Bush administration announced the formation of a new law enforcement task force that will finally start putting some teeth into enforcing the violations of trade and travel s imposed by the U.S. on Cuba. The task force plans on prosecuting violators that do business with Cuba in violation of regulations that govern commercial business, money laundering and illegal travel.

The associated press theorizes that the revived efforts to enforce existing US laws are merely a way for the Bush administration to buy the Cuban-American vote:

“it also comes about a month before U.S. elections where Cuban-American voters in South Florida _ most of them fervently anti-Castro _ form an important Republican Party constituency.”

The Miami Herald hasn’t weighed in on this “controversy” yet, but my guess is that in keeping with its tradition of ethical journalistic practices and canine “metaphors” that it will say that the republican party is either throwing those yappy Chihuahuas a bone to keep them quiet or throwing those rabid right wing dogs some raw meat.

I would suggest to the GOP, that if they wanted to buy the Cuban American vote, that they get rid of the wet/dry foot policy, or better yet SEND A MARINE EXPEDITIONARY FORCE INTO HAVANA! But I digress.

U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta is quoted as saying that this time ``we intend to enforce these laws aggressively.'' And ``The purpose of the sanctions is to isolate the Castro regime economically and deprive the Castro regime of the U.S. dollars it so desperately seeks ''

The task force consists of an amalgamation of agents from the FBI, Treasury, Homeland Security and Commerce Departments. It was not clear if ALPHA 66 or the Commandos F-4 were providing any logistics.

The Helms-Burton Law dictates that the sanctions on Cuba have to stay in place until multiparty Cuban elections are planned, political prisoners are released and both Castro brothers are out of power or Hell freezes over, whichever comes first.

10 de Octubre

Hoy, 10 de octubre de 2006 se conmemora El Grito de Yara, El empezar de la guerra de independencia cubana.

Hoy, 10 de octubre de 2006, la Asociación de Veteranos Cubanos-Americanos llaman a los miembros de las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias a “propiciar un cambio total en Cuba, dándole la oportunidad al pueblo a que pueda elegir su propio destino mediante elecciones libres y multipartidistas, supervisadas por organismos internacionales”

Esta no es la primera llamada a los militares profesionales en Cuba para que hagan lo que es mejor por La Patria y por el pueblo cubano. Hasta funcionarios de EE.UU. han hecho la misma llamada y han reiterado que los Miembros de las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias Cubanas son reconocidos como profesionales disciplinados que deben proteger al pueblo cubano.

Sin las fuerzas armadas, la tiranía cubana no puede hacer su voluntad y mantener al pueblo cubano sumiso y cautivó. Así es, que me uno a esta llamada a los miembros de las Fuerzas Revolucionarias Cubanas para que cumplan su deber de honor a La Patria. También llamo a los militares profesionales a que se acuerden de que su primer beber es el de proteger al pueblo cubano y a La Patria.

El futuro de La Patria esta en las manos de las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Cuba no en la elite tiranía. Usen su poder para un nuevo amanecer.

¡Que Viva Cuba Libre!

Via La Nueva Cuba :

Nosotros, los directores y miembros de la Asociación de Veteranos Cubano-Americanos (CAVA), ex-miembros de las Fuerzas Armadas de los Estados Unidos, queremos dirigirnos a ustedes, miembros de las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Cuba (FAR), y del Ministerio del Interior (MININT) conscientes de que estamos viviendo un momento histórico para nuestro pueblo, del que tanto ustedes como nosotros formamos parte.

Han pasado ya mas de quince años del derrumbe del comunismo en la ex-Unión Soviética y en los
países de la Europa Oriental, provocado por el fracaso de una doctrina por la cual dieron su vida tantos cubanos que fueron a morir a tierras extrañas, sin obtener nada como recompensa por sus sacrificios. Ni uno solo de esos pueblos ha optado por reinstaurar un sistema que solo les trajo miseria y opresión.

Sin embargo, continúan siendo ustedes el principal soporte de un régimen compuesto por una elite que pretende ignorar las lecciones de la historia y perpetuarse en el poder a costa de los continuados sufrimientos de nuestro pueblo, victima, a pesar de la propaganda del régimen que pretende
demostrar lo contrario, de la escasez de alimentos, de viviendas y de tratamiento medico adecuado, además de negárseles las libertades mas fundamentales garantizadas por la Declaración Universal de los Derechos Humanos de las Naciones Unidas, de la cual Cuba es signataria.

Queremos también recordarles que son ustedes los que tienen que encarar la triste realidad de que los extranjeros tengan mas derechos en Cuba que los propios cubanos, teniendo prioridad en la imentación, el transporte, las playas, y el disfrute de todas las otras ventajas que nuestro país les brinda y que sin
embargo, tanto a ustedes como a sus familias se les niega. Ustedes, que fueron al África supuestamente a defender el derecho de los africanos a librarse del ignominioso sistema de "apartheid" y el traerle la libertad a esos pueblos, Como pueden sin embargo apoyar la discriminación y la falta de libertades de su propio pueblo ?

La elite que los manipula para defender sus prebendas les habla del futuro, y ese futuro nunca llego, viviendo ustedes ahora el resultado de la política de un régimen parasitario y corrupto, que ha
destruido nuestra economía, y lo que es peor, nuestros valores morales y éticos.

Hermanos oficiales, clases y soldados de las FAR y del MININT: este es un momento histórico para propiciar un cambio total en Cuba, dándole la oportunidad al pueblo a que pueda elegir su propio destino mediante elecciones libres y multipartidistas, supervisadas por organismos internacionales.

Ustedes, debido a la preparación y disciplina, constituyen probablemente el sector que mas se beneficie de una economía de mercado, que les permita participar en la economía del país, no solamente para el beneficio de unos pocos como ocurre ahora, sino para llevar el bienestar a sus padres, sus esposas y a sus hijos.

La hora de las decisiones ha llegado, y las decisiones son bien simples:

O continúan apoyando a un sistema corrupto que esta en sus etapas finales y que se enfrenta a los legítimos deseos del cubano "de a pie", o se convierten en el elemento del cambio que exige nuestro pueblo, y que se puede resumir en una palabra: Libertad.

Que sus hijos no tengan algún día a mirarles a los ojos y culparlos de sus penurias. Hermanos, no mas promesas vacías...El futuro es ahora.

No vamos a osar el decirles como o cuando deben actuar, ya que cada uno de ustedes tiene que tomar esa decisión de carácter personal. Lo que si queremos decirles es que pueden contar con el apoyo de nuestra organización en el momento en que acepten la premisa, de que las Fuerzas Armadas
de la Republica de Cuba deben su lealtad a su pueblo, y no a un grupo de hombres, y puedan solicitar nuestra ayuda desinteresada.

La Patria les reclama su actuación.

Que Dios los ilumine para que tomen la decisión correcta.

Por la Junta de Directores y los miembros de la Asociación de Veteranos Cubano-Americanos (CAVA),


Rafael
G. Crespo

Presidente

Real Americans

From The Miami Herald:

ALASKA
Some Alaskans prefer cold to Chávez's oil

Many Alaskans have refused free heating oil from the Venezuelan government as a sign of their patriotism.

In Alaska's native villages, the punishing winter cold is already coming through the walls of the
lightly insulated plywood homes, many villagers are desperately poor, and heating-oil prices are among the nation's highest.

And yet a few villages are refusing free heating oil from Venezuela, on the patriotic principle that no foreigner has the right to call their president ``the devil.''

and this gem of a quote:

Dimitri Philemonof, president and chief executive of the association, said accepting the aid would be ''compromising ourselves.'' ''I think we have some duty to our country, and I think it's loyalty,'' he said.

Article Here

Hatuey would be proud.

Castro's Anti-Semitism Cover-up

Things are status quo on the lwestern front as the left looks the other way on Castro's anti-semetic ways, but Myles Cantor at Front Page Magazine.com blows Castro's cover in two articles. Wether you are a Jewban or a friend of Israel, these exposes are a must read:

The Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Cuban Shame

It is proper to condemn anti-Zionism in countries like Venezuela that support Iran’s neo-Nazi regime. It is also very strange that the Wiesenthal Center has been conspicuously silent about Latin America’s most anti-Zionist country that praises Hezbollah and Iran: Cuba.

Perhaps ignorance explains the Wiesenthal Center’s silence, though the Castro regime has flagrantly demonized Israel for decades and supported its enemies. One would think an organization that monitors Latin America might have noticed this.

http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=23744

The New California?

It seems that Cuban-born Australian journalist, writer, blogger and freedom fighter Luis M. Garcia has his work cut out for him down under. The South Australian teacher's union journal believes that the Cuban education model would be an appropriate model for Australia to follow. Crikey!

According to The Australian, the AEU journal praised the class sizes, the free education and the well trained teachers of Cuba's educational system as well as raving about the 100% literacy rate.

Apparently, the Miami Mafia is also well known in Australia because Dan Murphy the journal’s editor has this to say :

"It (the article) doesn't shirk away from other issues like requiring teachers to reinforce communist values. But it's not a piece of propaganda out of Miami; it overs other facts you don't strictly get."

According to the Australian, Murphy’s research into the Cuban educational system consisted of a meeting Gilda Chacon, a trade union official from the Cuban Federation of Workers. She visited Adelaide in July a guest of the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union where Murphy was previously employed. But its not a piece of propaganda out of Havana.

In a letter to the editor in the same journal a gentleman by the name of Craig Greer had this to say:

"If Cuba is a dictatorship, then I'm ready to be dictated to."

The Australian, in an effort to inject some journalistic sanity in the article interviewed fellow blogger Luis M. Garcia for the article. He added the following:

Cuba's education system was "heavily politicised" and not an example Australia should follow.

"The purpose of education (in Cuba) is not just to teach how to read and write and understand complex issues but essentially it has become a defender of the Castro regime,"

The Australian Pioneers?...I hope not!

Article Here
Garcia’s Highly Recommended Blog Here

Am sorry con esquiusmi

Después de la puercada de Tom Fiedler en llamarnos “Chihuahuas”, Yo como muchos Cubanos le mande un correo electrónico a la compañía McClatchy.

Hoy recibí una contesta como estoy seguro que también recibió todo el que respondió al llamado de nuestro honor a pedir por la cabeza de Fiedler.

La carta es un “am sorry con esquiusmi”.

La carta empieza asi:

As the new owners of The Miami Herald, we want to join in the apologies that have been extended for mistakes and missteps there, and to ask you to give us the time and opportunity to show what our ownership will mean.

Vaya, tirándole el muerto a Knight Ridder el Viejo dueño del Herald.

En si, no es nada que trae mucha esperanza de que al fin el Herald empiece a respetar a nuestra comunidad.

Pero, añadiendo la carta a lo que escribió Pablo Alfonso en el nuevo Herald:

“en horas de la tarde del viernes el presidente y editor de Miami Herald Media Company, David Landsberg, nos recibió en su despacho para conversar del tema. Asistimos el colega Wilfredo Cancio y yo. Estaban presentes en la conversación Vanaver y Beatty.

Aceptamos el compromiso de estos ejecutivos, su palabra de honor, de que en los días por venir esas necesarias aclaraciones serían claramente establecidas. Nos pidieron unas semanas, un voto de confianza.”

Pueda ser que MaClatchy tenga toda la intención de empezar a arreglar el daño que El Herald le hizo a los periodistas Cubanos y al exilio. Vamos también a ver si aclara por que Corral publico el absurdo y calumnioso articulo en primer lugar.

Veremos…….

From USA Today:

Fidel Castro 'is not dying,' brother says

HAVANA (AP) — According to the AP, Raul Castro, acting Cuban “President”, says that his brother, Fidel Castro, Cuban Tyrant and colossal failure, is not dying, but recovering from an illness.

The AP quotes Raul Castro as saying: "He is not dying like some of the press in Miami is saying. "He is constantly getting better."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-10-08-cuba-castro_x.htm

Raul made his remarks at the closing of the Children’s Congress for Pioneers of the Revolution or the CastroYugend.

With the careless joy and optimism typically expressed by school children worldwide the Pioneers issued the following statement:

"To Bush and his followers, we say stop being foolish, and that they are truly a bunch of cockroaches," "Don't mess with us, because the pioneers are also ready to defend the Revolution."

How sweet!

Anyway, I don’t know what “Miami Press” Raul Castro reads, unless he’s going over to Babalu which is a blog published out of Miami by an architect. The “Miami Press” that I read (as I hold my nose) spends most of its time attacking the “cockroaches”. Only here, in the United States, people are much too sophisticated to resort to entomological name-calling to insult their ideological opponents like an immature ten-year old member of the Pioneers for the Revolution would. The Miami Press prefers canine “metaphors” to make its point. Cubans here are called rabid dogs and Chihuahuas.(hyenas and jackals may follow in subsequent editorials)

The only “press” report that has suggested that the tyrant is on his last legs, (as an aside, Cubans would say: en sus ultimas afietadas or last shaves, but that wouldn’t apply to the tyrant because he has a beard-just digressing), came from Time. They reported he may have terminal cancer and thus would not return to power. Way to go out on a limb there!

Interestingly, Raul Castro, (ok, I hate having to type his whole name out so, henceforth, Raul Castro is ReCastro) does not deny the report that Castro has cancer. ReCastro merely denies that he is dying. That, in Cuban Newspeak, means that the tyrant does indeed have cancer, but that his death is not imminent. ReCastro doesn’t deny the other important part of the story either. According to the Time piece, Castro would not return to power because of his illness. ReCastro can only say that the tyrant has a phone next to his bed and that he uses it more and more each day. That’s a telling statement. Again, in totalitarian Cuban Newspeak, that means the gig is up for the tyrant.

Noticia Urgente

La revista semanal estadounidense Time reporta de que según oficiales del gobierno de EE.UU. El dictador cubano Fidel Castro Ruz, 80, sufre de un cáncer terminal y de que no volverá al poder.

En otras noticias, la revista semanal Newsweek ha declarado de que se ha descubierto un mar entre España y África. Fuentes en ambas costas informan de que puede ser el mítico Mar Mediterráneo.

Update: Raul Castro, Fidel Castro's brother and annointed heir to run the Cuban Plantation/Concentration Camp is reported as saying that his brother is not dying.

In related news: Val Prieto at the Babalu blog tramautized a bunch of his readers on Friday by stating the obvious. Mr. Prieto callously posted that the Cuban Tyrant might be dying. The news upset some of Castro's more enlightened and sensitive Cuban-American fans who staged a weekend long whine-and-sobathon over at Babalu. ...moron this later.....

Update:whine-and-sobathon still going on.

Stealth Cessnas Evade Cuban Defenses

A $78,000 Cessna 172 was stolen from an airport in Marathon, FL (that’s in the Florida Keys).

Now, this plane turned up a few days (Friday) later in Veradera, Cuba (no clue where this is and I'm too lazy to open up google earth)after having landed there with "mechanical problems".

But, the following Wednesday the Cuban government said that there was nothing wrong with the plane. The plane was allegedly stolen (hey, innocent until proven guilty unless you’re last name is posada) by some dude named Randall Franklin who calls himself Feil, but everyone knows him as Randy.

Now I’m just wondering. Was that a stealth Cessna? Didn’t the crack Aerofueurza Rebelde or whatever goofy but very official sounding name they call themselves notice that a plane straight out of the belly of the Empire ruled by the Devil Himself was landing in their country?!?

What kind of totalitarians are these? Totallycluelessterians? This is really getting bizarre. Go fast boats pick up escaping Cubans at will, Cessnas land in Veradera. Next thing you know, people are gonna catch on that they’re clueless and start ignoring them. Take to streets and demand toilet paper.

Yes, toilet paper. There is no toilet paper in Cuba. After 47 years of promises and programs and mobilizations and trainings and demonstrations and 7 hour speeches, there still isn’t any toilet paper!

Maybe the Cessna pilot was in reality a CIA mercenary toilet paper smuggler who was on a secret mission to corrupt the Cuban youth with some decadent toilet paper?

Update: El Zorro informs me that toilet paper is available "sometimes" but that it is one ply.

Prejuicios

¡Hay La Vida!

Cuando me mude para el sur de la Florida después de titubear en el frió norteño por mas de 30 anos, (coño, me cago en su madre, ¿como se pone una puñetera “ñ” sin tener que insertar un símbolo?), me encontré con El Nuevo Heráld. Sin leerlo me reí de ese periódico. En mi arrogancia de cubano americanizado solamente pensé que este “periodiquito” no era más que una pobre imitación del Heráld. Y nunca lo abrí. Para un refugiado sofisticado que hablaba el ingles mejor que la mayoría de los americanos, pensé que seria perder el tiempo en obtener las mismas noticias mal trasladadas.

Cuando empecé a escribir en este blog y especialmente cuando paso lo que paso en El Heráld/Nuevo Heráld., me encontré pasando mas tiempo visitando y refiriéndome a la edición electrónica del Nuevo Heráld. Y me he dado cuenta que me cague fuera del tibor con esta publicación. El Nuevo Heráld. No es como el Heráld., es mucho mejor. Los reportajes, los periodistas son tremendos. Son del calibre de los reportajes que acostumbro de leer en El Wall Street Journal, no el Heráld. o El Sentinnel.

Así que es con cierto orgullo que le digo adiós a mis prejuicios y arrogancia contra la prensa que se publica en español

Aqui no pasa Na

La postura del régimen es “Aquí no ha pasado nada” un Bluff

Después que la administración de George Bush publicó el Plan de acción post Castro, sacaron al viejo del poder para comprobarles a los yanquis y a la Mafia de Miami de que en Cuba manda Castro aunque Castro no este mandando.

Si los estadounidenses no hubiesen anunciado tal plan, es probable de que el régimen Cubano nunca hubiese anunciado la enfermedad del tirano. La sucesión tiránica en Cuba fue solamente una reacción a la acción Americana. Un movimiento de fichas. ¿Pero, de quien es tablero?

La actual tiranía que gobierna, solamente son ladrones sin vergüenza. Todos se jiné terrean por el dollar. Por favor, pónganse a pensar. Si una lancha rápida puede ir a Cuba a recoger a gente que pagan por escaparse, quiere decir que las defensas guarda costa ya no sirven o que alguien se vendió.

Si un militar se vende para dejar a los cubanos que escapen, quiere decir que también se le venden a la CIA. La CIA tiene mucho dinero a su disposición. El hombre nuevo guevarista es materialista y oportunista y tiene su precio. Estas lanchas rápidas que sacan a cubanos de Cuba, también llevan un cargo a Cuba.

El plan post Castro de Bush se pondrá en efecto tras la muerte del tirano. Por eso es se han dado un golpe de estado profiláctico, pero les sigue el pánico de lo que va a pasar cuando Castro estire la pata. Vamos a ver que ficha mueven los dueños del tablero.

Communist Morons in Moron

Imagine if you will being stuck in Moron .Imagine being held prisoner there with virtually no hope of getting out. Imagine having a child with diabetes and not being able to get the insulin your child needs to LIVE because the Moron who runs your country doesn't care about its people. Imgine the Moron that runs your country stealing all of the Country's GNP and investing only a meager portion back into the country. And, Imagine, the majority of what he puts back into the national coffers going to repress you. Imagine that all the stores and all the pharmacies in Moron are all owned by the same Moron. Imagine, then, that when you complain about the Moron who is responsible for your misery, that you get thrown in jail by the Moron police and fined 400pesos. Imagine that 400 pesos is probably 40 month's worth of wages paid to you by the same Moron .
A bad Twightlight Zone episode? No, thats the nightmare that is life in Cuba.

Imagine , then, that after having gone through this misery an scapee from this Cuban nightmare goes abroad and tries to tell the people he meets about the Moron that runs Cuba, and the other Morons abroad say "but the Cubans have free aducation and Healthcare." that's the Twightlight Zone

FROM CUBA

Mother arrested after complaining at pharmacy

MORON, Cuba - October 4 (Tico Morales, APLA / www.cubanet.org) - María Rosales was arrested, held for 24 hours, and fined 400 pesos after protesting at a pharmacy that couldn't supply the insulin her 6-year-old daughter needs to treat her diabetes.

Rosales went to the pharmacy assigned to her in the town of Peonía, near Moron, at eight o-clock in the morning on Monday, with a doctor's prescription. Pharmacy personnel told her they didn't have any insulin, and referred her to another pharmacy.

Rosales went to the second pharmacy and waited her turn in line. When pharmacy employees informed her that they had run out of insulin, Rosales broke down crying, protesting the lack of medicines and blaming the government for the problem.

Pharmacy administrators called police, who took Rosales to a Morón police station, fined her 400 pesos for disorderly conduct and held her until the next day.

Meantime, her husband Evaristo, seeing she didn't come home with the medicine, took the girl to the hospital, where doctors attended to her.

No GAS for YOU , One Month

The gas nazi has a new friend. His new friend is nuclear threat nazi. So poor little dictator has been nazi gets pushed aside. Ouch!

According to Reuters, PDVSA which is Chavez's oil company is not exporting any unleaded gasoline to Cuba in October. Now, that's bad news for the typical Cuban household who usually have a half-ton pick-up truck for the husband and an Expedition or Suburban for the wife. Oh wait that's the Miami-Mafia. Sorry, I get them confused. They're both so chihuahua like I can't tell them apart.

Anyway, the stoppage has been confirmed by ship brokers in the United States which is currently under the Satanic rule of the Devil himself.

But here's the wierd part . The ship brokers and traders where surprised becasue PDVSA had just made a deal to deliver a 38,000 tonne tanker to IRAN late in October in an oil-for-equipment barter deal. I wonder if Kojo Anan gets a cut. Wait that was oil for food.

"The whole scenario doesn't make a lot of sense," said a trader in the United States. "Venezuela usually prioritizes Cuba above the rest."

I know this sounds like I'm making the Bolivarian President of Venezuela sound like a greedy, traitor for giving Fidel's gas to Wassishisnameimajad or that I'm trying to drive a wedge between the lovebirds.I know it sounds like some more Radio Marti Chihuahua Bark, but it aint.

Check it out for yourself

We Report....You err Make Up Your Own Mind

There's this:

Havana, October 5 (Prensa Latina)
Cuba, the tourist destination annually chosen by millions of people in the world, is not an option at present for US citizens thanks to Washington´s obsessive hostility against the Caribbean island.......The White House alleges the security of the US people as pretext, while Cuba asserts that the truth is the long-dreamed of desire, including of prior US administrations, supported by anti-Cuban groups: submission and annexation

BUT ....There's this:

A nine-year-old Vernon, B.C., girl who has allegedly been forced to stay behind in Cuba after her mother got in trouble with the law may not be able to get much help from Foreign Affairs. Dunia Garcia, 25, a Cuban-born permanent resident of Canada, says her daughter, Amanda, was notallowed to return home with her after an August visit to Cuba. Yesterday, Catherine Gagnaire, a spokeswoman for Foreign Affairs, declined to say what role the government is playing in getting the girl home. Ms. Gagnaire said Canada has little influence on cases involving citizens of Cuba. Cuba does not recognize dual citizenship and anyone born in Cuba is considered a Cuban citizen while in Cuba. Ms. Garcia said Amanda is "doing fine" and staying with relatives in Havana. Ms. Garcia was charged with assault after an incident with a police officer. After being released, officials ordered her daughter to stay behind to ensure the mother would return to the country to deal with the charge.

WE REPORT. YOU DE...ERR... MAKE UP YOUR OWN MIND

Metaphorically, A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Happy Birthday, Friend

Today is Vaclav Havel's birthday. Growing up, I heard his name and was in awe of his courage and convictions. Someday Cuba will be free. Someday there will be a huge debt to repay to this incredible friend and freedom fighter. He and many of his countrymen have gone out of their way to fight for our captive brethern in Cuba. QUE VIVA HAVEL!

[05.10.2006] - Current Affairs - Linda Mastalir

Articulating a vision: Vaclav Havel at 70

Vaclav Havel, one of contemporary central Europe's best-known intellectuals is 70 years old. He was born on October 5th, 1936. A week of honours and celebrations in Prague will continue in the Slovak capital, Bratislava, on Friday, and in November all of Vaclav Havel's plays will be staged in New York City.

Vaclav Havel needs no introduction: he has been a key figure in the history of central Europe since the mid-1960s—as a playwright, a member of the Czechoslovak democratic opposition, and eventually as President of an independent Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic. On the occasion of Vaclav Havel's 70th birthday, I spoke to Paul Wilson, his English-language translator and friend. On the phone from Heathcote, Ontario, Paul Wilson reflects on Vaclav Havel as a writer and politician:

"Havel's real strengths to my mind are his abilities as a writer and a speaker and a thinker. He certainly exercised these to the full as President, in writing his own speeches and in trying to create—through his speeches—a kind of coherent vision of what he wanted Czech society to be and how he wanted it to evolve, where he saw that its strengths were, and where he saw its weaknesses. I think that to the extent that his ambition was to articulate that vision, he was successful. I mean, there's no way that you can ignore his thinking on these points: it's there for all to see, it's on the record. He's written books about it, like Summer Meditations, his speeches have all been published, he gave his fireside chats every weekend from Lany, and he was constantly articulating what he thought about things. He has this phrase that he uses over and over again, which is "it's my job to say over and over again, what I think." And so he carried that role as an articulator into his position as President, and I think that you can say that he successfully articulated [his ideas].

Havel as President...it was a figurehead position, but because of who he was he had more influence than a normal figurehead would have, and there are certain gears that mesh. I mean, he appoints the prime minister, and he appoints the rectors of universities, and he appoints constitutional court judges and so on. So there is real power there, but I don't think that he had the power that he would have liked to have politically, to put his ideas into practice."

The front cover of this week's Respekt journal has the title 'The man who gave us back our history.' That is, Vaclav Havel who gave Czechs back their history. How do you react to this?

"[Laughs] Well, first of all it's a very grabby title. I don't know what they mean by it, but I suppose there's a certain truth in it. I don't think that Havel himself would ever claim to have been the sole restorer of history to the country, but I think that he represents a certain continuity with the old democratic capitalism that existed in the First Republic, just through his family connections. One of the remarkable things about Havel's thinking to me anyway, is that although he's never actually as an adult experienced anything like a democracy until he was in a position to help create it, his instincts are absolutely right. I mean his instincts about the electoral system are right, his instincts about what a democracy is and the interplay between a vibrant independent society and the political structures that rule it are absolutely spot-on. So that in a sense, you could say that by articulating his own vision, he was actually reconnecting with the past, but also trying to give Czech society a vision of where he thought they should be going."

Since retiring from the Czech Presidency in early 2003, Vaclav Havel has found a role for himself consistent with who he was already in the 1960s: a human rights activist. Cuba has been a particular focus of Havel's, and Paul Wilson talks about why that is, and what Vaclav Havel's connection is to the island state so far away from the Czech Republic:

"A lot of Cuban dissidents who have managed to get out of the country have beaten a path to Havel's door and talked to him directly. Havel has been very active in supporting a public discussion about the future of Cuba, and if I can just be a little historical here, it goes back to something he told the American Congress in his first speech to them in February 1990. This was that at some point, the experience that we've had in eastern Europe under communism is not just something that we can forget, and we hope that some day we'll be able to give other countries the benefit of our experience with communism.

I think that in the case of Cuba—and Havel has other interests in other difficult states like Belarus, and Burma, and North Korea, and so on—but in the case of Cuba specifically, he and many other Czechs are trying to somehow articulate the experience that they have had. Not only living under communism which gives them an automatic sympathy with the Cuban people, but also to try to figure out what it is in their experience of transitioning, if you like, from communism to democracy, that might be useful for the Cubans because it will inevitably be a choice that they'll have to face. Castro will die at some point. Havel's message to the people in Miami was 'you've got to listen to the dissidents on the island,' but his message more recently has been that the time to start thinking about the transition is now, and when it does start to happen, it'll happen so fast that the more preparation you can make now, the better."

Whatever subject he chooses to tackle, whether democratic transitions in far-away lands or the need for constitutional reform at home in the Czech Republic, Vaclav Havel still speaks clearly, with authority, and people listen to him as they have for decades.

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Source: Czech Radio 7, Radio Prague
URL: http://www.radio.cz/en/article/83883
© Copyright 1996, 2006 Radio Prague

All rights reserved.

Bombs Away!

Holy crap. Maybe they should declare him an enemy combatant and send him to Guantanamo. This way he'll be in Cuba like Castro wants, yet he'll be living way better than he ever will in a US prison.

What is the US government thinking here? This guy is an ex-CIA, ex-military American Hero. He has been tried twice for the plane bombing and acquitted twice. They had him in jail so they could try him a third time, so the CIA sprung him. He did his time for his other transgressions. It would be un-American to send Mr Posada to a third trial ...triple jeopardy.

EL PASO, Texas (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department filed objections on Thursday to a U.S. court's proposal to free an anti-Castro militant accused of bombing a Cuban airliner in 1976, killing 73 people.

The U.S. government had until Thursday to respond to Magistrate Norbert Garney's finding last month that Luis Posada Carriles, 79, a naturalized Venezuelan originally from Cuba, must be freed because the United States has not labeled him a terrorist and has not been able to find a friendly country to take him.

Posada, detained by U.S. immigration since 2005 for illegally crossing the border into Texas from Mexico, has become a political hot potato for the Bush Administration because Cuba and Venezuela have declared Posada a terrorist.

Dog Days

Tom Fiedler just declared war. Let's unleash the Hounds of War on him.

go to Babalu

Please e-mail MacClatchy

Pong Cartoon Shamelessly lifted from Ya No Mas!

More on Herald Watch

As yesterday's Miami Herald events unfolded it was clear the downturn in circulation, principled public outcry and pressure ultimately led to action. Lame "procedure" excuses don't cut it. Everybody knows that Corral's article was bad journalism in the worst way. It targeted a few individuals and assassinated their reputations.

El Nuevo Herald, continously published editorials, articles and letters about the controversy while The Miami Herald did not.

The Herald Watch, was singled out today in El Nuevo Herald for its hard work in spreading the word in English since The Miami Herald did not.

As we commented yesterday on this blog, Henry Gomez, deserves kudos and accolades for his blooging efforts. If you go to war , you want the conductor at your side. AND he is.

an excerpt:

Todos debemos sentirnos satisfechos de la manera en que los cubanos y
estadounidenses de origen cubano tomaron el espacio virtual en busca de
transparencia de parte del Herald, que terminó con la invitación a los
periodistas de reintegrarse a sus puestos de trabajo. El público de Miami se expresó con una civilidad ejemplar que permitió el debate no sólo sobre la injusta acusación, sino sobre la ética periodística, el doble estándar con el que se trata a los periodistas hispanos y el reclamo de responsabilidad pública que los lectores tienen derecho a hacer a los periódicos

and this:

Apoyo a Periodistas es especialmente importante porque es la primera vez que los periodistas del Herald opinaron públicamente sobre la empresa. Las firmas de unas dos decenas de empleados de El Nuevo Herald, alrededor de un tercio del periódico, aparecieron en la página junto a las de figuras internacionales cubanas y no cubanas, en apoyo a los periodistas de Miami. Mientras que Herald Watch, de Henry Louis Gómez, ofreció al público de habla inglesa las opiniones publicadas originalmente en español que no aparecían en The Miami Herald.

The whole article here.

Outsourcing IT, Insourcing Repression

Ramiro Valdez is readying the troops for the next war. The information war. The cyber war. They are disguising their cyber war training and operations as outsourcing for Canadian companies. What better cover can you have to wage a cyberwar on the US and the Cuban Exile community than by contracting with English Speaking companies to provide "software adaptation and localization services" to Latin America?

Valdez is getting his troops trained in the lastest Western technologies on the Canadian dime.

As an added bonus Valdez can use the Canadian equipment to tighten the noose of repression on the Cuban captives even tighter

This from the propaganist Prensa Latina:

Cuba, Hot Destination for IT Outsourcing

Toronto, Oct 3 (Prensa Latina) The IT revolution taking place in Cuba is positioning the country as an attractive outsourcing option for Canadian companies, and a gateway to the Latin American market, according to website OffshoringTimes.com.

Cuba has proved masterful in reinventing its economic priorities in troubled times, said the Canadian online news service on Tuesday.

Since 1991, Cuba´s information technology sector has been developing at warp speed and now consists of about 45,000 highly skilled workers, 38 per cent of whom have specialized degrees.

More than 85 per cent of the country´s IT industry is concentrated in technical services and software development, highlighted OffshoringTimes.

"We´ve been investing in this sector for the last 14 years and we now have highly skilled IT workers at every level," says Luis Marin, general manager of Avante, the marketing arm of Cubas Ministry of Information Technology and Communications. "IT doesn´t require a lot of investment . . . except in human resources."

Canada is Cuba´s third-largest trading partner and fourth-largest foreign investor, with more than $750-million tied up in the island nation, according to Canadian sources.

Cuba is particularly interested in joint ventures that will enhance the local infrastructure, while transferring skills to citizens. It wants to attract Western partners who can teach more about the standards and demands of the international market.

Cubas Centresoft Corp. and Cimex Corp., for example, have partnered with Sentai Software Corp. of Edmonton and Indcom Trading Co. of Orleans, Ont., to create an international software consortium called CubaSoft Solutions Inc.

CubaSoft is recruiting Cuban IT talent to work on projects for the Canadian companies and is also developing domestic IT projects.

"IT is among the main investment opportunities in Cuba for Canadian companies right now," says Raciel Proenza, economic counsellor with the Cuban embassy in Ottawa. "Its a high-priority sector because it also contributes to the development of our country."

Cuba is also poised to become a gateway to the lucrative Latin American market by providing software adaptation and localization services, offering the added benefit of regional economic associations within the Caribbean and Latin American economies.

"Latin America is starting to roll and they won´t be far behind in technology down the road," the Canadian insider says. "Cuba offers a front row seat to one of the worlds fastest emerging markets, just a three-hour flight from Canada."

As the fifth-largest buyer of Canadian goods in Latin America, Cubas IT revolution is two-way. The country is also moving at a rapid pace to develop its own infrastructure, concentrating on networking all of its science and technology institutions the way the University of Havana has been.

The project eventually will link more than 6,000 primary and middle school libraries, 300 university libraries and more than 200 scientific institutions. Those numbers represent a significant opportunity for Canadian companies, based on Cubas inability to buy U.S. goods and services.

"Its a huge undertaking that will require hardware, software and everything in between," says Eduardo Orozco, director-general of the Institute for Scientific and Technological Information. "Canadian companies with good products at attractive price points have an excellent opportunity."

ef

PL-187

So our little friend Oscar Corral has something to say about Cubans.

This is hysterical. This poor exuse for a Cuban can only talk about Cubans as if they were a subject to be studied and polled, since he doesn't know what a Cuban would think or say.

Why does he still have a job?

PUBLIC OPINION
Miami Cubans: Fidel era over

A poll of Cuban exiles and Cuban Americans shows optimism about a transition to democracy on the communist island and an openness to U.S. negotiations with a new Cuban government.
BY OSCAR CORRALocorral@MiamiHerald.com

An overwhelming majority of Cuban Americans and Cuban exiles think that an ailing Fidel Castro will never return to power and that a transition could take hold within four years, according to a new poll examining the attitudes of South Florida's Cuban community.

Those are among several findings in a poll of 600 Cuban and Cuban American adults in Miami-Dade and Broward counties conducted Sept. 14-20 by Bendixen & Associates. The poll has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.

Seventy-four percent of Cuban Americans believe Fidel Castro is terminally ill, and 14 percent think he will recover from illness but never return to power.

With Cuba's Defense Minister Raúl Castro now in charge of the communist island, 55 percent of Cubans surveyed think a ''major transition towards democracy'' is a major probability, and 30 percent believe it's a minor probability.

''Fidel Castro is politically dead, and for all intents and purposes a relic for the history books,'' said Fernand Amandi, executive vice president of Bendixen & Associates.

The Herald Continues its Anti-Cuban Crusade

The Herald fires another Cuban rather than admit its mistakes. It's really getting old with these Castroites.

I hope that the Herald writers who where so graciously given ''amnesty'' (emphasis not mine!) (I'm surprised they didn't use"pardon" since they have already been treated as criminals) by the newspaper turn around and tell the Herald to shove it.

Where is the letter taking back tthe damage done to the reputations of the other journalists? That damage can't be repaired.

This isn't over. Do not buy the Herald. Do not Subcribe to it. Do not Advertise on The Herald. Urge all your friends and family to do the same.

I hope The Herald gets its bureau in Havana soon, they have worked hard for it, they deserve it. They have proven their proficiency at doing the tyrant's bidding and licking his totalitarian boots.

UPDATE: More on this in the Conductor's Herald Watch Blog. The conductor should be congratulated, exhaulted and commended for putting the pressure on these phonies. Once again...the power of the New Media. GO HENRY!

Herald publisher will resignThe publisher of The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald will step down today and reverse recent firings of writers at El Nuevo Herald.

BY MARTIN MERZERmmerzer@MiamiHerald.com

Jesús Díaz Jr. will resign today as president of the Miami Herald Media Co. and publisher of The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald.

The action comes amid a widening controversy over payments accepted by some El Nuevo Herald journalists for participating in U.S.-government broadcasts on Radio Martí and TV Martí.

The move, which ends a challenging and sometimes tumultuous 14 months as head of one of South Florida's most visible and influential institutions, is effective immediately. David Landsberg, who served as general manager, takes over today as company president and publisher of both newspapers.

In a letter to readers, Díaz said the company is reversing course and will grant ''amnesty'' to two El Nuevo Herald reporters and a freelance contributor who were dismissed Sept. 7 when The Miami Herald reported that they received payments under contracts with Radio Martí and TV Martí.

rest of the BS here

Diaz's Letter to the readers is here

CastroJugend

From Prensa Latina:


Cuban Children´s Congress Preps

Havana, Oct 1 (Prensa Latina) Cuban children are working today on the preparation of their organization´s Congress in which, no matter their age, they could talk about serious question related to the present and future education.

Almost 1000 children delegates will attend the IV Congress of the Pioneers Organization Jose Marti (OPJM) in session at the Convention Palace from Saturday, October 7 through 9.

They represent over one million 400 thousands members of this important Cuban student"s organization, according to Juventud Rebelde newspaper.

The Congress will work in five commissions: Elementary Education, Higher Education, Vocational Training, Organization and Culture, Sports and Recreation.

Children from other provinces will attend this national meeting and develop an intense program of recreational and cultural activities.

ef abo apf PL-30

Yes, the children of Cuba, that egalitarian socialist paradise, will get together and "talk about serious question related to the present and future education." whatever that means. It would be great if with great revolutionary zeal they demanded an education instead of the obnoxious indoctrination and brainwashing they have to endure everyday.

The exploitation of these children, designed to create the communist ideal of a new man with no moral compass but the state, should be condemmed by the UN as child abuse and child labor.

Another example of how by creating the Pioneros modeled after the Nazi's Hitlerjugend,the tyrant of Havana used Adolf Hitler as a role model.

Trendy Totalitarians

Hey, I'm checking out all the fine work being done by the anti-tyrant bloggers this morning and i'm discerning a pattern emerging:

Raul decrees That the CTC must lead the fight agaisnt corruption and names Salvador Valdés Mesa as its new head.

Juventud Rebelde publishes an investigative reporting piece..(I know try not to laugh ..maybe Corrales took a few days off and went down to moonlight for Juventud Rebelde)..about how half the state owned businesses (all) cheat their customers.

Ya No Mas! posts that the regime is fining those citizens that because of poor hygene are aiding the spread of Aedes Aegyti, the mosquito that spreads Dengue Fever.


So now it's the Cuban people that are to blame for the failures of the Cuban government to run its business and provide adequate social services.

They must be punished and further repressed for allowing the government to fail them.

The Devil Wants to Take Him Home

Let's hope this is true. Wether you like W or not, he does what he says he's gonna do. Maybe the Venezuelan people will send Hugo Packing on Dec. 3 and his Cuban friends will give him a job spraying mosquitoes in the Cienaga de Zapata.

Chavez Says He Has White House Informant

Venezuela Leader Chavez Says White House Informant
Has Warned Him About Plots Against Him
By CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER
The Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela President Hugo Chavez said Sunday he has received warnings from within the White House that the Bush administration is plotting to assassinate him or topple his left-leaning government.

Citing what he said were warnings from an alleged White House informant, Chavez told thousands of supporters at a campaign rally that President Bush has ordered him to be killed before he leaves office in 2008.

Bush "has said that before he goes, Hugo Chavez shouldn't be the president of Venezuela," Chavez told the crowd. "The president of the United States has said it, especially in recent days. What he doesn't know is that I have friends in the White House."

Full Article Here