31 August 2007

Let's Get Ready to Rumor........

OK it's Friday in south Florida and my mother hasn't called me....

What's wrong?

Oh and an Update on the Raul Castro rumors:

According to Aldo Rosado-Tuero, (Friday Edition of Nuevo Accion) the rumors going around the island that Raul Castro had twice tried to pull a "Batista" and flee the island but was prevented from doing so by the military were spread by anti-Raul factions within the regime.

And that a Purge is in the works' with possible jail cells in the future of some high -ups in the regime, before the tyrants death is announced.

30 August 2007

O Raul, Raul, Wherefore Art Though, Raul?

International man of mystery and political pragmatism, Raul Castro, has not been seen since July.

Being a natuturally suspicious and cynical soul, I presumed that Raul was curled up in a corner of his office in a drunken stupor, checking real estate adds for despot-friendly spots around the world or packing his bags to pull a "Batista".

BUT...

They found them. According to this article -en Espanol-Mr. Castro was spending some quality time in Italy where he toured a golf course and supposedly spent some quality time with his Sicilian relatives.

Maybe I wasn't so far off the mark after all maybe he was doing all of the above.

Hmmmmmmm..........

Wonder what a Villa goes for in Palermo these days?

Need To Know

I was hitting all the Cuba-related blogs last night-rumor mongering- when I realized from the Spanish blogs that a controversy between the MSM and the blogosphere has been brewing. The "Official" news sources are chastising the irresponsibility of blogs for spreading rumors the Castro is Dead rumor. Like those rumors weren't already spreading like wildfire all throughout South Florida. Puhlleez! My mom in Century Village heard the rumor before I read it over at Babalu.

Ernesto from Penultimos Dias appeared as a guest on "A Mano Limpia" standing up for the bloggers where he brought up good points about the usefulness of blogs.

None of the Cuban Americans bloggers are in the business of starting rumors. The reason that the rumors circulate around Cuba issues is because there is no free press in Cuba. People have a natural tendency to know the truth and what is going on around them, so in the absence of a free informative media, as is the case, in Cuba, and "information black market" has formed called Radio Bemba.

On the subject of Castro's death, the regime deems Castro's health a state secret which means it is treason, and a death sentence, to divulge any information on the condition of the tyrant. So, of course, all posts and news are going to be from anonymous sources, what do they expect bloggers to do name names so their friends and relatives can receive a lead pill courtesy of Raul? Hardly.

So what are Cuba bloggers supposed to do when someone they trust calls them with some information from Cuba? Sit on it? Help Castro, Inc. by not divulging its secrets? If Killcastro gets some information from his economist sources about some upcoming economic changes , do you want CB to post it ASAP? Or would you prefer to read it in Granma after it has been wrapped in Cuban Newspeak? If Val gets a call from a friend in government giving him a heads up about police being put on alert-do you want to know?

The rumors of last week, when you analyze them and put them all together all corroborate the "La Reforma" piece that originally reported that Castro is in dire straights physically, if not dead after undergoing yet another surgical procedure.

What do they expect bloggers to do? Wait until Oscar Corral and Ana Menendez publish it? Maybe they want us to all get our Cuba information from Prensa Latina like the AP and Reuters do. Or maybe they want bloggers to interview retired and repented ex-Castro communists like they do.

I don't think so.

29 August 2007

From Castro’s Hospital - CIMEQ

According to Camilo Lopez of the Blog Estancia Cubana the source of the current Castro Deathwatch Originates in Cuba, but not from the regime, but from CIMEQ where Castro is supposedly being treated.

Camilo is an exiled Cuban doctor (and a hell of a blogger). He spent a couple of years at the CIMEQ and he got an e-mail from a source.

According to my source, as trustworthy as can be imagined, on August 12 Fidel Castro had a serious relapse in his health. A fecal peritonitis secondary to a free perforation cased him to be taken to the operating room for the sixth or seventh time since the transfer of powers. An immediate cardiovascular resuscitation was performed on him, a great amount of fluid was administered to him and from the surgical point of view an exhaustive washing of the abdominal cavity was done and drainages were placed in him.

Camilo’s sources Fidel may be alive but with “no garantees”
Camilo's post in Spanish Here

No Questions Asked

This gets complicated

The Ghost Writer’s Ghost Writer endorses “Clinton-Obama ‘08”

I get the mental image of a bearded crypt-keeper guy with a No. 2 pencil and legal size yellow notepad.



Since the Havana regime hasn’t officially addressed the rumors of Fidel Castro’s reported relapse, we have to assume that the dictator is bed-ridden at second best (first best would be embalmed)- or hooked up to a ventilator after undergoing a tracheotomy at worst.

So it stands to reason that a Ghost Writer penned Castro’s latest and most entertaining missive form Cuba’s Reflecting Cadaver.

Reuters tells us that Castro has “endorsed” the Presidential ticket of Clinton-Obama ’08 in a reflection published just yesterday. No doubts. No speculation. No questions asked.

Castro also bad-mouthed every American president since 1960 except Carter, his favorite.

This is getting ridiculous.

These guys “le están corriendo tremenda maquinita” al free international press. They must be rolling on the floor, dying from laughing so hard that the news services actually print the stuff they’re writing.

So now they’re starting to push, pa joder, like any Cuban would.

Soon we’ll probably see a “Fidel” penned refletion on UFO’s or the Chupacabra OR ELVIS….and they’ll still print it and attributed to Castro, no questions asked.

28 August 2007

Sorry, Promised Land is Closed

Nervous Floridians are bracing for a Category 5.

A Category 5 Mass Migration.

Apparently, there are two words that strike panic into the hearts of Floridians:

Andrew and Mariel.

But have no fear, the genius in chief can't protect you from a Hurricane-um-Katrina-but he can certainly protect you from the hoards of Cubans, up to 500,000, that are expected to take to seas once Castro is cremated. No need to hide your daughters..why there's Operation Vigilant Sentry .

Of course, there aren't enough boats in Cuba to bring that many Cubans over, so the Miami Mafia would have to take to the sea to go pick up their enslaved brethren. So basically Operation Vigilant Sentry is going to be the worst case of racial profiling in recent US history - a selective martial law that only applies to Cuban Americans.

Roads and Marinas will be shut. The teargas will be taken out of storage (remember Elian), and we will all be herded to the Orange Bowl as a consolation price.

Actually, maybe all these Friday rumors are part of Vigilant Sentry- a weapon of mass diversion. The plan might be to start Castro is Dead rumors every other day or so, so that when the real announcement is made, everybody will have Castro Death Rumor Overload and not believe it.

So the Promise Land is closed. Walled off and moated. That leaves no other choice than to build a better promised land 90 miles south.

27 August 2007

Rumor-Ama (Updated)

OK!

This is getting outta hand.

Now there's even rumors going around about Raul!

When was the last time Raul was seen in public?

Update:

I did not mean to be cryptic or coy.

Now that there's a published article quoting a state department spokesman, I can expand on certain things that can shed some light on the Rumor-Ama about Fidel Castro's death without betraying a trust.
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Gonzo Gallegos, a State Department spokesman had this to say when asked about the Castro Death Rumors:
"I would say that the Cuban government has always been very good at stirring the nest whenever they felt the need to,"
"I can't say whether or not this is them or something else that is happening,"
"All I was saying was that the Cuban government takes the opportunity when it sees fit to take care of itself."

Either the Castro death rumors were started by the Cuban government or they weren't.

If they weren't, then there's probably some basis to them as they haven't been denied.

If they were, then there has to a reason. They have too much at stake to start a Castro is dead rumor just for craps and giggles, folks.

Though they would love to make fools out of the Miami Mafia (some would argue we do a good enough job without their help), Castro death rumors put a lot of pressure on the regime. Everybody's digging, everybody's asking, everybody's shining a spotlight on them. That's exactly what they don't need or want. They, like rats, prefer the shadows.

So if they started the rumor, it's because they needed to. To misdirect. To create an illusion-a smokescreen to cover something up.

There's rumors of arrests of MINIT officers, of high level meetings in Havana and in the provinces. There's a discipline crackdown for officials. There's rumors of Castro family members silenced, of nomenklatura preparing for "plan B"-exile.

The regime is in crisis mode for some reason. These reasons have to do with Raul a 76 year old heavy drinker and his ability to lead and hold on to power. That is all that matters POWER. When they had to make a fool out of Fidel by dressing him in a tracksuit and force him to performed like a trained senile chimp for the cameras , they did. When they had to trot him out to prove he could still hold a conversation they had him do an "interview".
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So now if Raul is in the corner of his office curled up in a fetal position in his favorite high heels and with a bottle of Absolut permanently attached to his lips in a drunken stupor and a near cirrhotic coma or whatever the hell else is going on, what's to stop them form saying the old man is dead. At this point, what difference does it make?
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It's all about holding on to power and all sorts of deals are being made and fates are being sealed while everybody worries about who said what when and where.
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Slick.

26 August 2007

Castro Life Watch

The rumor that Fidel Castro actually survived last week is starting to grow legs even after Hugo Chavez's "premature eulogication" yesterday.

He even managed to pen a historical essay from his deathbed!

Interestingly, the rumors coming out of Havana are saying that Castro, though moribund, is still with the living.

According to Killcastro's sources "in theater", "Castro is on an off a ventilator to breath -and a tracheotomy was practiced on him. He's still alive, but in real bad shape."

Interestingly, the sources here in the states, especially those in government and law enforcement, all point to a dead tyrant.

One guy said he had called his old colleagues in Cuba to pump them for information about Castro, and they told him that they're getting all their information from Miami.

So we're still on Castro Death Watch or Life Watch depending on where your sources are.

But tomorrow is another day ...

25 August 2007

Speaking of Rumors....

… and speaking of rumors, there’s one I heard that Raul doesn’t like Hugo Chavez commenting on what is considered a Cuban State Secret, Fidel Castro’s health, and has asked him to stop. Raul and Chavez are also rumored not like each other very much.

But Hugo has a tough time keeping those big lips of his shut.

After yesterday's Castro Death Rumorama, someone asked Chavez about the rumors and he denied them, according to headline:

Venezuela's Chavez denies rumors of Fidel Castro's death

But did he?

Here’s what motormouth Chavez said:

"Those who want him to die will be frustrated, because Fidel Castro will never die,"

"(Castro)will always live among the people that fight for a better destiny. He will always live in the people of Cuba, of Venezuela, and of America."

I’m sorry, but I’ve been to a lot of funerals and that’s exactly the kind of crap they say about the dead guy.

Rather than deny as the headline says, it kind of confirms the rumors.

Interestingly, Penultino Dias has the full quote of Chavez’s “denial” in Spanish where Chavez (roughly translated) says:

Why should I clear up rumors and more rumors that every once in a while say that Fidel has died for those who want him to die, will stay frustrated, because Fidel Castro will never die


That sounds more like Chavez trying to avoid answering the question than a denying any rumors. But Chavez , in all his brilliance, manages to give up the ghost, so to speak.

New Castro "Rumors"

After a tense night of phone calls, text messaging, TV news monitoring , blog reading, beer drinking and one Telemarketing phone call, I passed out in sheer exhaustion thinking that we had been fooled again.

But I now have digital cable with video on demand and 60 channels of commercial free music for just $2.99 extra a month-That’s Comcastic!- so it wasn’t a total waste of a day. I even asked the telemarketer if she had heard any Castro rumors -just as payment for interrupting my Antonio’s extra cheese pizza experience and she said that her sister’s friend’s husband who’s in “Lawr-Enforcement” had been put on alert just in case “those Cubans” got “outta hand” . OK enough of my personal life I’m starting to sound like “la cocinera.”

So, anyway I’m out like a light..and the phone rings.

I’m so out of it, I don’t even know who it is.

The guy says: “So did you hear the rumor?”

“YES!” I say

“you Believe it?”

“YES!” I say

“Really?”

“YES!” I say

“But, You told me he was dead. We were at the club dancing and someone said that there was a rumor he was still alive” He says

“All sources pretty much confirm that he’s either dead or dying …..preparations are being made….blah,blah,blah” I say

“YES! But they have started a new rumor now they’re saying He’s alive”“that’s the new rumor” “the new disinformation” “they can’t deny a true rumor with facts..they can’t produce a walking-talking Castro..so they got to start a new rumor..see?!?” He yells.

“But the US gov’t says he’s still alive” I counter

“Oh and like they’re gonna tell the whole world what they know!” “So every Cuban in la saguesera and Hialeah gets on a boat to go get Tia Cuca and cousin Yusmeni” “where you asleep?”

YES! I say

“pffft!” “Call me tomorrow if you hear anything””bye”

“bye,Dad” I say

24 August 2007

Friday Castro Death Watch Intermission

All indications are that something is happening in Cuba.

Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, keeps telling me that an announcement about Castro's death is imminent.

Frankly, it doesn't make sense to me that they would make the announcement today sine it would give Miami three nights and two days to celebrate before they could put together a memorial service on Monday in Havana. All the images you would see would be of gleeful Cuban-Americans happy that Castro is finally out of their lives and extending love, hope and solidarity to those on the island. Not what the regime wants. The celebration and the ensuing maritime blockade of South Florida would make the funeral seem anti-climatic.

A Friday announcement would also give the Cubans in Cuba a chance to stir the pot for a whole weekend and who knows they may have and incident on their hands.

It would make more sense for a Sunday night or Monday announcement.

SO....

We interrupt this Death Watch ...

Usually, on Fridays, I post some song lyrics from a song that reminds me of Cuba. You know, from the soundtrack of my life.

This Friday is one of those "Blah" days and I didn't feel much like.....

... Wait! There's a song for just that occasion ...

Sunshine

Sunshine go away today,
I don't feel much like dancin'
Some man's gone,
he's tried to run my life
Don't know what he's askin'

He tells me I'd better get in line
Can't hear what he's sayin'
When I grow up,
I'm gonna make it mine
These ain't dues I been payin'

How much does it cost?
I'll buy it.
The time is all we've lost.
I'll try it.
He can't even run his own life,
I'll be damned if he'll run mine

Sunshine
Sunshine go away today,
I don't feel much like dancin'
Some man's gone,
he's tried to run my life
Don't know what he's askin'
Working starts to make me wonder where
fruits of what I do are going
He says in love and war all is fair
He's got cards he ain't showin'

How much does it cost?
I'll buy it.
The time is all we've lost.
I'll try it.
He can't even run his own life,
I'll be damned if he'll run mine

Sunshine
Sunshine come on back another day
I promise you I'll be singin'
This old world she's gonna turn around
brand new bells'
will be ringin'

The Strongest Substance on Earth

You know…

I was talking with a friend of mine..who said “Well, I guess the rumors of Castro’s death have been proven wrong-since he wrote another reflection today”

Stupid me. What was I thinking!?!? It was in Granma so it must be true…..

It’s funny, granted pathetic funny, that the press will publish the lies printed by a state owned propaganda tool as fact and treat what is published by a member in good standing of the World’s free press as “rumors”.

Fidel Castro is known habitual and pathological liar. Granma exists solely to spread Fidel and his regime’s lies and propaganda.(and to provide the toilet paper that the hapless revolution can’t supply to its citizens)

My mother, with Granma in hand, looked at me once and said “The paper that they use to make this newspaper is the strongest substance on Earth because it can hold all the crap they throw on it”

My mom the filosofa. ( as opposed to my dad the Fill-a-Sofa).

And still the silence coming out of Havana is deafening.

23 August 2007

Losing It?

Everyone keeps saying that the transition from Fidel to Raul has gone off smoothly and without a hitch-thwarting the best laid plans of the US and the Cuban-American Exile community.

That may be. So far it has been a “stable” year with no mass exodus, round-ups or bloodshed. When it comes to the revolution success has always had a very low bar.

But this is only a façade.

Raul isn’t as entrenched in power as they would have you think.

And who is ruining the transition?

Non other than the man who has ruined everything else: Fidel.

He has even been a failure at dying.

He has clung on to life for so long that the changes people expected to occur when he was no longer in the picture, haven’t begun to materialize creating an atmosphere of more desperation, anxiety and pressure-probably ruining his designated dictator brother’s chances of running the island successfully once he finally dies

The Cuban nomenklatura realize this and they are all busy devising exit strategies, Plan B’s. Even as Che’s daughter gets Argentinian citizenship, some in the Castro clan are scrambling to get Spanish citizenship.

The “state secret” illness of Fidel, isn’t a state secret any more. Mexican newspaper reporters report on his medical condition with impunity and the regime doesn’t deny it. Because it can’t-since the source for the reports are high placed officials and Castro family members. They can’t even kick the reporter out, as much as they would love to, because then she would be free to spill the beans on all she knows. The leakage of information was so widespread that they had to cancel all the reporters Yahoo and Google accounts and confine them to Ramiro’s intranet.

But the rumors are flying even faster and more furious.

Last Friday, when Castro almost died from yet another surgical procedure, the media attention shifted to the real base of Cuban power- a restaurant in Little Havana. How pathetic.

Yesterday, Raul came out with a new “discipline regimen” designed to fight corruption. Cubans know that corruption in Cuba is inherent in the regime and this is just another crackdown designed to buy some time from the disaffected Cubans by pretending to do something. And it’s probably the just beginning of a Stalinist purge. Talk about re-arranging the chairs on the deck of the Titanic!

A Suitcase for Obama?

Now that the Cuban Communist regime has “endorsed” Barak Obama as their candidate for President of the USA , does that mean that Chavez is going to send him a suitcase full of cash to help him beat right winger Hillary Clinton in the Democratic Primaries?

22 August 2007

Silence II



Give... me... release
Witness me,
I am outside
Give me peace

Heaven holds a sense of wonder
And I wanted to... believe that
I'd get caught up,
When the rage in me subsides

Passion, choke the flower...
'til she... cries no more
Possessing all... the beauty
Hungry still, for more

Heaven holds a sense of wonder...
And I wanted to... believe that
I'd get caught up
When the rage in me, subsides

In this white wave,
I am sinking...
In this silence...
In this white wave,
In this silence,
I believe...

I can't... help this longing
Comfort... me.
I... can't... hold it all in...
If... you... won't let me

Heaven holds a sense of wonder...
And I wanted to... believe that
I'd get caught up,
When the rage in me subsides

In this white wave,
I am sinking,
In this silence...
In this white wave,
In this silence
I believe...

I have seen you,
In this white wave,
You are silent
You are breathin'...
In this white wave
I am free...

21 August 2007

Silence

It’s been a week since news of Fidel Castro’s new health crisis hit the wires.

Last Tuesday La Reforma first published the news that Castro needed more surgical procedures to try to prevent a bout of “fatal septicemia”. The news also claimed that Castro had lost a lot of weight and did no longer want to walk or receive visitors.

The regime’s response: Silence.

The correspondent’s name is Yolanda Martinez. And she’s still in Havana. Still reporting.

Would a regime that kicks foreign reporters out for reporting news unfavorable to the Cuban government allow Martinez to stay in Cuba if she was merely reporting on rumors? If she didn’t have the evidence to back up her claims?

Well, yes, they would-in a heartbeat. But then again, if they put her on the first plane out of Havana, she would be free to spill the beans on all she knows and on who her sources were. Capice?

That could make some high-ups in the Cuban nomenklatura a little red faced - maybe even some with a very famous last name that starts with a “C”.

19 August 2007

Is Fidel Castro Dead?

No. He's Alive!

Well, According to Hugo Chavez.


OH Darn.

Cuba's official spokeperson, Hugo Chavez, is denying rumors of his idol and mentor's demise:

"On the Internet rumors are circulating that Fidel Castro has died," Chavez said during his weekly Sunday broadcast. "Fidel is producing, he is writing."

(Ya think Hugo reads Perez Hilton????????)
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Of course Chavez has also told us in the past that Fidel was "almost jogging" and wandering around the countryside at night when the Bearded Bastard practically had one foot on board the River Styx Ferry.
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But hey, this is Chavez we're talking about. He also believes that he's a TV star, that he can sing and in something called XXI Century Socialism which is basically him giving Cuba 100,000 barrels of oil a day.


Update:

Hugo is also working on a comedy routine about building artificial islands and killing Yanquis.

Castro Death Watch

Day 17,761

As we wait for THE announcement …

I recommend reading a short article in Spanish.

Last year, congressmen Flake and DelaHunt commissioned a GOA audit of USAID and its distribution of aid to dissidents in Cuba.

At the time, Flake and DelaHunt were involved in their Quijote-Quest to fight the Helms-Burton windmill.

The easiest way to attack the windmills is to attack the perceived windmill keepers, the Miami Mafia, which was done ad-nauseum with the publicizing of certain odd items that were bought with federal funds and sent to the dissidents in Cuba by exile organizations run by the Miami Mafiosi.

Among the infamous items were Nintendo Gameboys.

The recipient of one of the Gameboys was the son of dissident Manuel Vázquez Portal, (r)who was a victim of the “Black Spring” roundup.

Vázquez Portal wrote about his son’s gift Gameboy in “El Nuevo Herald” in a poignant prose that so touched my cynical, sarcastic heart that I felt compelled to crudely translate his essay into English and post it on La Contra Revolución.

This morning I came across Amor a primera visa, also by Manuel Vázquez Portal in “El Nuevo Herald”

There’s no way I could do this short essay justice by translating it. I’m going to paste the whole thing here so that its always available:

Amor a primera visa
MANUEL VAZQUEZ PORTAL

Hablaré de inmigrantes. Sin convenios de estados. Sin balsas. Sin muros fronterizos. Sin pies secos. Mojados. Sin coyotes. Desiertos. Sin tremolinas étnicas. Un ridículo viaje al corazón. Una muchacha triste. Un joven olvidado. Una novela rosa.

Nereida. Partida sin retorno. Y el alma regresando a cada instante.

Hierba en la mirada. Arpa en las caderas. Desde el alto andamio de sus tacones resplandece en la acera. Y no parece caminar. Ingrávida, más bien, danza en la tarde. Exhibe el hipnotismo que provoca a su paso. No escucha los piropos del joven que golosea su andar en las calles del barrio. Sabe que su presencia siembra en los ojos masculinos un hechizo inquietante. Va insensible y fugaz. Incitadora. Esquiva. Está acostumbrada a las palabras más dulces, a las bromas más sorpresivas, a las procacidades dichas como en azoro. Pero pasa intocada. Misteriosa. Distante. Deja en los varones una sensación de bismo, de pérdida, de ave que se va.

De niña le dijeron que era bella. Que había nacido para dislocar las primaveras. Ensombrecer las rosas. Amansar huracanes. Que en su pelo ensortijado se atascarían todos los azares del amor, los trucos de la dicha. Que haría enmudecer los pájaros, detenerse el aire, temblar las estrellas. Creció viendo lidiar a los muchachos por un suspiro suyo, una mirada leve, una sonrisa apenas.
Llegó virgen al tronco de un naranjo en flor, al relente estival del pasto en la mañana, al canto del sinsonte en los breñales. No importa si en Ceballos. Veguita. Jagüey Grande. Isla de Pinos. El campo se extendía fragante desde su escuela, lejos de la mirada del padre, del consejo certero de mamá, hasta el final del cielo.

Un joven profesor de oscuros logaritmos le rogó sus ardores. No sabe si cedió por curiosa o pragmática. El profe no era feo. La recia matemática, difícil. Descubrió los ardores de sus vísceras. Conoció los fuegos que le nacían. Supo la magia de las arañas de sus uñas. Comprendió los efectos de la tibieza de sus labios. No aprendió de ecuaciones, cálculos ni teoremas, pero trajo a sus padres el ansiado diploma de trazos impecables.

Su cuerpo fue su espada desde entonces. Jineteó cautelosa sobre el cerril caballo de la oportunidad. Las torres de sus piernas arribaron invictas a la tarde del prodigio. Ella no sabía de temblores en las rodillas, sequedad en los labios, mudez en la garganta, sobresalto en el pecho. Le hablaban del amor, pero siempre era un brindis que hacían por sus ojos. Eran otros los trémulos. Los mudos. Los con el pecho en vilo. Ella pasó sin sustos, agonías, torpes desasosiegos. Era el brillo y la fuga, la joya inconquistada.

El triunfo vino en alas. Español tropeloso. Lisonjas en divisas. Devoción repentina por la nieve, los vestidos oscuros, los sombreros. París sería una fiesta, sin conocer a Hemingway. El Tajo, visto desde una terraza del amurallado Toledo, una postal, sin que en ninguna aburrida lección escuchara de El Greco.

Se fugó la Nereida del Mar de las Lentejas. Quizás, de la Isla del Chícharo. Tal vez, del Desierto del Sueño. Quién sabe si del Iglú de la Idea. Iba muerta de amor, temblorosa, inaugural, según cuenta su madre. Llegan cartas heladas, noticias de los mirlos, historias de tritones, fotos resplandecientes. Ella está sobre un puente, las manos enguantadas. El manso sobretodo le cae pesadamente hasta los pies con botas. No se parece a ella. Es quizás ella misma, pero el sueño hecho añicos. Mira quién sabe a dónde. Piensa quién sabe qué. Añora quién sabe cuánto y un señor que la abraza, finas gafas de fúlgida montura, tabaco de ocasión, satisfecha barriga de cazador contento, se parece a su abuelo.

Dicen que muy feliz. Pero en sus ojos, los ojos que tenían todo el sol del Caribe, hay un naranjo muerto, no sé si de Ceballos, Veguita o Jagüey Grande. Un joven profesor que se quedó atrapado en la gris ecuación de los discursos improbables, las promesas inciertas, las brújulas erráticas pasa por sus pupilas con un axioma tan simple como un beso de amor, y no logra entender la absurda matemática que la llevó tan lejos de sus brazos.


18 August 2007

Castro Death Watch

Day 17,760.

So you wanna know what’s going on in Havana?

Welcome to the club.

Something is definitely up.

Though now that Perez Hilton has says it, it must be true. The Bearded Bastard is no more.

In Havana, foreign correspondents continue to speculate that either Fidel’s death is imminent or he’s already dead.

It was widely rumored in Miami that the regime was going to either confirm or deny the rumors yesterday, and it never took place.

This prompted Miami police to prepare for celebrations which was seen by some as part of Ramiro Valdez’s misinformation campaign.

Everybody is talking about the choice of programming on State TV and State Radio.

Meanwhile Category 4 Dean is headed right for Jamaica which will affect the southern coast of Cuba tomorrow afternoon.

I’m watching to see how Havana prepares for Dean’s graze. If authorities start to mobilize to “prepare” for Dean in Havana which is on the north coast, it may be a smokescreen to put their forces in place before they make the announcement

17 August 2007

Lonestar



Lonestar where are you out tonight?
This feeling I'm trying to fight
It's dark and I think that I would give anything
For you to shine down on me

How far you are I just don't know
The distance I'm willing to go
I pick up a stone that I cast to the sky
Hoping for some kind of sign



16 August 2007

The Rumor Mill Grinds On...(Update)

The rumors of Fidel's imminent trip to Hades are hot and heavy again.
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This time around, though, the rumors are coming from the free-press rather than from the Cuban Radio Bemba.
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The Paz Digital is reporting that Fidel is either dead or close to death, being kept alive artificially until the sucession team-Raul-feels is the opportune time to unplug him and announce his death.
According to their sources four Cuban Military officers have been detained for delving into and finding out about Cuba’s “state secret” state of health. They say a comandante with the name of Chourio was one of those arrested.
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In Cuba, there’s rumors and there’s official rumors. We’ll see.

UPDATE:

CB over at Killcastro is of the opinion that this is indeed an "official rumor" or desinformacion as he calls it.

15 August 2007

It's a Cuba Thing

A little more Cubanophobia from the Sunshine State:

The Florida House Speaker, Marco Rubio, removed assemblyman Bob Allen from the Energy Committee, which he had chaired, and the Environment and Natural Resources Council saying his fellow Republican can no longer effectively represent his constituents while he faces a prostitution charge.

Allen, R-Merritt Island, was charged with misdemeanor solicitation for prostitution after allegedly offering an undercover officer $20 to perform oral sex July 11 at a Titusville park, police said.


An audiotape indicates he told Titusville Assistant Police Chief John Lau that he felt intimidated by a "stocky black guy" in the park's restroom and thought the man, an undercover officer, and other "stocky black guys" were going to rob him.



The NAACP is asking Allen to explain.

Not satisfied with his recent indiscretions, Allen had this to say about Rubio's actions:

In Cuba, that’s where you are charged by police, wrapped up and sent off as guilty without a trial,”

“That’s a Cuba thing, something Fidel Castro does.”



It's a Redneck thing...I guess

Tic, Toc, Tic......

More speculation in Spanish on Cuba's Cadaver -in- Chief and the world's longest recuperation from cutie Maria Elvira Salazar's Polos Opuestos.

13 August 2007

Once a Liar.....(UPDATED)


There seems to be no question about the parents or the circumtances surrounding the birth of Fidel Castro Ruz, the bastard son of Ángel Castro y Argiz and Lina Ruz.

The exact date, however, is another story.

My childhood friend, Mario, called me today and reminded me that today is really Fidel's 80th birthday and not his 81st as is reported everywhere.

Mario, now a Miami psychologist, directed me to the Latell report where Brian Latell details all the biographical evidence that points to the fact that Castro has always lied about his actual birth date.


None among the few of us who knew better were inclined to spoil all the fun. Fidel had not in fact turned eighty last year. On August 13, 2006 he marked his seventy-ninth birthday. His actual eightieth is now upon him.


That he has been lying about his age through most of his adult life has been known outside of Cuba to some of his biographers and other astute students of his life. Yet, despite the overwhelming evidence that he was born on August 13, 1927 in Biran, Oriente province, he has clung to the birth date, exactly one year earlier in 1926, that is inscribed in his birth certificate.
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But why would Castro add a year to his age?

According to Mario via Latell here's the reason:

Recently I have been persuaded by Mario L. Beira, a Miami psychologist and astute student of Fidel Castro, that the date change occurred in January, 1935 when the seven and a half year old Fidel was first baptized. He was a student at LaSalle, the Christian Brothers school in Santiago he attended before moving on to the Jesuit Dolores school. Dr. Beira concludes, I believe accurately, that this baptismal certificate, with the 1926 date, is the first official document that records Fidel’s age. It may have simply been a clerical error, or more likely orchestrated to make it possible for Fidel to skip a grade at La Salle. It was not long after the baptism that he advanced from the third to the fifth grade, which required that he be ten years of age.

So in a few days, Fidel Castro finally and truly will become on octogenarian. Perhaps this is the time for him --in one of his reflections?-- to finally admit the truth.

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Don't hold your breath, Mr. Latell. Castro is a pathological liar , you know, the type that believes his own delusional lies.

Dr. Beira is writing a book in English that attempts to psycho-analyse Castro. "Fidel Castro Ruz: Hacia una interpretacion psicoanalitica" , is a detailed summary in Spanish which will appear as a 114 page introduction to a diary written by Julia Miranda entitled "Diario para Uchiram".
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The Summary which I was priviledged enough to have read last fall in manuscript form reads like a mystery novel and its unlike any psychology book I've ever read.

More on Dr. Beira's book soon ...
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UPDATE:
More on the Castro birthday lie in today's Miami Herald

“New Woman” Hedges Her Bets

Well, well well…..

I have been hearing for months from several people that the nomenklatura Cubana, including the Castro family, is preparing a plan “B” just in case things don’t go according to plan “A”.

It has been rumored that even the Castro I clan is looking for land in the Chilean-Argentine border and that the Castro II clan is scattered all over Spain.

Now we learn that Celia Guevara, Che’s 44 year old “daughter of the revolution” and one of Cuba’s “new women” is hedging on the future of the Fidel-less revolution by acquiring Argentine citizenship.

How’s that for a vote of confidence? The “come candela” Fidelista daughter of Che is planning her and her progeny’s escape from a post Fidel Cuba.

The darker the future looks for these folks, the brighter it looks for Cuba.

Look Who's Having A Birthday

Well, today is the bearded bastard's 81st birthday.

81 years ago he was born out of wedlock as a result of his father's philandering with the family cook.

While the bastard was in his teens, the bastard's father went on to make an "honest" woman out his mother, Lina.

The bastard went on to live up to his pedigree.

05 August 2007

What Boobs!

I think I've been a Gusano since birth.

While growing up in Cuba, it seemed to me, even as a child, that communism, seemed to attract the worst and the dullest in my neighborhood.

Surprisingly, some in my family were fervent Castristas..hmmm....

Later on, I realized that this is because they market their hate to one of the lowest common denominator in humans-material envy.

Egalitarianism may sound great to a boob who never had anything and doesn't have either the ambition or the discipline to do what you must do in society to acquire things. People like that love the idea that they're going to take stuff from the haves even if they don't necessarily redistribute it to the have nots.
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But that only works until the original stuff runs out because now you have a society run by slackers for slackers.

More marketing is needed.

So they start with the schemes and the lies and the empty promises.

The that runs out and they start with propaganda in pictures and slogans AND T-SHIRTS.

And so what this Corona inspired diatribe about?

Che T -Shirts . I despise the image of that boob especially when they adorn the boobs who worship him without even knowing who he was.

All I want to do when I see these boobs wearing a shirt with Che on it ..is violently rip it off them and expose them for the boobs that they are!



I know what you're all thinking, but you're wrong. This picture is just here to proove that these boobs can't even get the quote right.
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He said "Hasta la victoria siempre", not "para siempre".
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What Boobs!

03 August 2007

Castro’s Chattel



I guess it’s now official. Cubans are Castro’s chattel.

Whether it’s a balsero “repatriated” back to Cuba, or a Doctor indentured to work in Bolivia, or a ship worker forced to work in Curacao or Elian Gonzalez abducted the day before Easter or Yuliet Rodriguez, married to an American, abducted in Venezuela and sent back to Cuba or Guillermo Rigondeaux, two-time bantamweight Olympic champion, or welterweight world champion Erislandy Lara it doesn’t matter. If you’re a Cuban you’re Castro’s property.

Emperor Castro-the Caesar of the Caribbean and everyone "Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s” lest they infuriate the old Adidas Tracksuit wearing emperor.

Incredible.

Update:

And if you sit and think about it, you may come to the same bitter conclusion that I came to last night when I wrote this. At the time I was actually too embarrassed to write down my thoughts.

Cubans born before the revolution became slaves on January 1, 1959 and those that were born after that day were born into slavery. Some of us escaped some of us were allowed to leave, bartered off for some benefit to the slave master.

That is a hard realization and it may not be true ,but it’s the way I felt last night after discussing the Cuban boxer case with a friend..

The reason I did not write down about my feelings is that I did not want to give the Bastard Castro that much power over my existence, but at least in my case, it is the truth. But I’m free now and it’s the duty of all free Cubans to raise the awareness of the enslavement of our people.

My friend tells me illegals get deported all the time. But that’s not the case when a government throws all its weight and power to retrieve one of their citizens who they feel belongs to them.

I don’t see he Mexican government sending agents to retrieve their citizens or the Mexican president writing in a newspaper calling Mexican immigrants traitors for leaving Mexico, for example.

This kind of absurdity only happens with Cuba now, and nobody bats an eyelash. It’s just accepted as normal.

02 August 2007

Fantomas - Apuntando

En La Isla Del Encanto ...

"Left" Fielder Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo

La Lucha por La Leche

The newspapers and wires are quoting the latest blog entry by Cuban Dictator Emeritus, Chief Blogger and Revolution Mascot, Fidel Castro, as saying how that the revolution had “marched” on without him. Of course in my mind that brought visions of an Adidas Tracksuit Clad Cadaver watching his people all goose-step off a cliff while he “reflects”. But, I’m biased that way.

The newspapers all contained snippets of his “Eternal Flame” Post so I went to the Granma –en Ingles-site to actually read the whole thing.(a huge sacrifice I know, but sacrifice it's what its all about-more on that later)

In the post, the blogger, speaking like the ghost of a recently passed soul that has been to his own funeral and watched his loved ones go on without him and follow the instructions on his will,reflects on power-the one thing he loved above all else. Interestingly, he seems to say that he never had real power, real power must be destructive and able to “threaten everyone”.

In this “proclamation” he also says American calls for a “democratic Cuba” are “foul and insane” “as though leaders here put themselves forth and elect themselves without having to pass through that inflexible filter embodied by the overwhelming majority of an educated and cultivated people who must support them at gunpoint.” (ok. I added the at gunpoint part) Well yeah! That is exactly what happens in a one-party system. Just the fact that a leader rules by “proclamation” is pretty suspect that very little democracy is taking place.

So anyway, what really jumped at me form this post is the verbs (and a couple of adverbs just for fun):

struggle relentlessly
struggle
to work untiringly
fought and sacrificed
struggle

This is Fidel’s philosophy. His Utopia is a society where everyone has to struggle relentlessly, to work untiringly, to fight, to sacrifice-for what? Oh I forgot, Raul has promised MILK. Fifty Years of struggle to keep people busy. No rewards just constant struggle and sacrifice. The Regime’s sole purpose is to make people as miserable as possible by creating “struggles” and obstacles to keep people from reflecting.

That’s why, while the rest of society tries to march forward unto prosperity and happiness, with a few exceptions, of course, Cuba continues its struggle to march against history and human nature and goose-step backwards to a time where rulers ruled by "proclamations".