Biscet 'o8

Beginning of the End for the Wet Foot/ Dry Foot Policy?

Well maybe, but not the way you may prefer.

On Wednesday 101 Haitian Migrants who fled troubled and impoverished Haiti, landed on a South Florida beach. They were quickly rounded up and taken into custody. The immigrants had been at sea for nearly three weeks in a small dilapidated boat that was reportedly un-seaworthy and overloaded. One passenger died.

Immigration authorities will process the migrants and likely repatriate them back to Haiti.

According to the Sun Sentinel, this isn’t sitting well with Haitian community activists who claim that Cubans are given preferential treatment under the wet foot/ dry foot policy in which if a Cuban caught at sea he is a migrant who is sent back to Cuba, and if he makes it to land, he magically becomes a refugee protected under the Cuban adjustment act and is granted political asylum.

Creole radio host Yeye Boul was less diplomatic, taking direct aim at the so-called wet foot-dry foot policy that fast-tracks Cubans to a green card application if they set foot on U.S. soil. He said it's unfair to give special treatment to one group of refugees because they come from a communist island, then turn away Haitians who endure deep economic hardship and rampant violence.

Will these protests bring about the inclusion of Haitian under the wet foot/dry foot policy? Not a chance. What it might eventually do, however, is end the dry foot part of the wet/foot dry foot equation so that the US’s immigration policy brings equal misery to all those seeking freedom and opportunity be they Cuban, Haitian, or Dominican.

The Sun Sentinel, always quick to jump on the anti-Cuban exile bandwagon, of course conveniently fails to set the record straight and doesn’t mention the that Cuba has been suffering under a totalitarian communist dictatorship for 48years and that everyone in Cuba is politically persecuted and oppressed.

Haiti, on the other hand, has had multiple elections, UN interventions, government restorations and US marine invasions during the same time period and nothing has changed. Haitians citizens can get on a plane or boat and go anywhere, if they have the money. If Haitian leaders want to help Haitians, they should concentrate their efforts on rebuilding Haiti and leave Cubans out of it.

Had Cuba had the same international help, there would now be Americans trying to move Cuba from the US.

What are Cuban American leaders doing about it?:

The Cuban-American Brothers to the Rescue group, along with the Haitian Women of Miami grass-roots organization, will offer a Mass in support of the Haitians in Miami on Sunday, followed by a blank cannon blast to "awaken our community."

Blank my ass. That's a fully loaded cannon shot aimed right at every raft or craft trying to reach freedom.

Political correctness in South Florida is a one way road leading away from the exile community and we're helping them built it.

¿ Por Que No?

Why Not?

Men without hope, resigned to despair and oppression, do not make revolutions. It is when expectation replaces submission, when despair is touched with the awareness of possibility, that the forces of human desire and the passion for justice are unloosed.

There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?

RFK

Dr. Elias Biscet for President of Cuba 2008

The Church of Mother Earth

Back on March 10, when the phrase “carbon footprint” was flying around faster than W was flying in and out of Latin American capitals with Chavez hissing behind him like a deranged Bolivarian venomous serpent, I marveled that the left was more interested in denouncing Bush than in embracing a milestone ethanol deal with Lula. The protesting against the US-Brazilian pact reminded me of a quote I had read from Czech President Vaclav Klaus :

"Environmentalism should belong in the social sciences," much like the idea of communism or other "-isms" such as feminism, Klaus said, adding that environmentalism is a religion" that seeks to reorganize the world order as well as social behavior and value systems worldwide.

In light of yesterday’s “editorial” by Castro, it is becoming increasingly obvious that “environmentalism” is the new “ism” whose purpose is to suppress individual freedom and institute a collective world-wide tyranny in the name of Mother Earth.

A New Religion:

The new high priests of the Church of Mother Earth, like Castro, wrap their sermons in euphemistic “for the common good” platitudes. They offer no real solutions other than return to the simpler times of communal living. And yet, you never see any of them joining the ranks of the Amish. In the new religion of environmentalism, the rugged individualism and the independent freedom of that uniquely American world-view are considered the new Satan. And the church’s vision of hell is a global warmed planet with rising seas and failing crops caused by the greed of the consumer economies of the west, especially America.

They preach a hell on Earth. Castro the high priest, has already created one.

The cardinal sins of the new religion are individual freedom, free markets, solutions and progress. Salvation lies in collective misery, hopelessness and despair. No wonder leftists view Cuba as a paradise!

If the Church of Mother Earth really believed what it preaches, it would be happy that the US is looking towards renewable and more Earth-friendly energy solutions. But no, they denounce those efforts. These efforts by the US, will keep Americans leading free and productive lives and that is progress. It would also free the US from the oil-based tyranny of the Iranians, Venezuelans, Saudis and Russians. Where would the money come then to fund all the enemies of civilization?

Make no mistake, the goal of the Church of Mother Earth, is not to save the planet, but to destroy the West, freedom and progress and set up earthly “paradises” like the one in Cuba.

End of an Error

After Fidel recuperates enough from his "state secret" illness, He discovers his reign of terror is about to end...............

¿ Elecciones?
¿Que Elecciones?
¿A que Comemierda se le ocurrió hablar de elecciones?

Carlos on Ernesto

There's ignorance. There's arrogance and there's complicity.

Carlos Santana, who has made a career out of looking like a human gargajo and shamelessly "sampling" riffs and rhythms from other artists and who was only able to resurrect his carreer after appearing as a guest artist with a bunch of other musical acts on his own CD, is perhaps more ignorant than most, either because of genetic shortcomings or chemical ingestion. Who knows, who cares.

From his "apology" after donning a shirt with Gevara's infamous likeness during an Academy Awards program we know his ignorance is fueled with arrogance. So arrogant, that his "apology" was a shameful exercise in self indulgent dismissiveness towards the people he offended. The kind of statement, that coming from a better bred person would be snobbish , but coming from someone who fell into a small fortune with a little talent and a lot of luck is shameful.

The image was not intended to project a single note of the hatred, anger or revolutionary ruthlessness displayed when Che Guevara was a revolutionary leader in Cuba. It was worn to honor the soulful young man portrayed in the movie, who awoke to the struggle of the disenfranchised and who had a profound political epiphany during a journey across South America. The image was not meant to be an endorsement about a man who helped to establish the Castro dictatorship in Cuba.

Now, the image on Santana's shirt was the now famous Korda image of Guevara wearing a members only - like effeminate jacket. The image was later cropped and mass-marketed. The picture was taken in 1960, well after Guevara had " helped to establish the Castro dictatorship in Cuba." and butchered hundreds of Cubans at la Cabana. So to say that the shirt was worn to "honor the soulful young man portrayed in the movie" is a condescending and bogus insult to the intelligence of the Cuban-American community. Had he wanted to honor the "young" Guevara post ephinany and pre-revolutionary butchery, he could have had a shirt made with the appropriate Guevara. Not that Santana' s excuse of giving Guevara a split personality makes any logical since in the first place.

Original Uncropped Korda picture shows Guevara in a "Michael Jackson Thriller Era " sissy jacket

Obviously, Santana, knows exactly what he's doing. Through his willful ignorance he arrogantly chose to be complicit in the suffering of the Cuban people.

Ese cuento que se hagan a otro.

Why any Cuban would want to associate or collaborate with such a gargajo, is beyond me. You should avoid stepping on such slime lest you ruin your shoes.

.

If you feel the same way, here's a link to a petition to let the Estefans know how you feel.

Hope on the Horizon

What Geniuses!

You don't have to be a genius to know its not cool to invite Satana to play on your record.

Remind Gloria Here

Tremendo Arroz con Cuervo!

New Suckers Wanted

Pedro Alvarez, director of Cuba's food import company, Alimport said :

that if the embargo were lifted, U.S.-Cuba trade in goods and services -- including tourism -- could swell to $21 billion in the first five years.

WOW! $21Billion!

Sounds enticing doesn't it?

But wait, we're talking trade here not, investments, so really no wealth is being created in Cuba to pay for all these goods and services. They are just offering the US a piece of the already existing pie.

These goods and services must be coming from some place else now.

Let's see what Mr Alvarez's thoughts, err I mean Castro's thoughts are on this, since independent thought is outside revolutionary bounds....

He said U.S. powdered milk and other perishables had spoiled on ships in Cuban ports because American authorities held up cash payments sent from the island.

Cash.

The problem is that if they didn't have to pay cash, then they would buy way more stuff from us.

They need credit....

A credit card, guaranteed by the American taxpayer.

We'll buy $21 Billion in stuff from you and we'll gladly pay you tuesday.

¿ Pa’ Tras Ni Pa' Cojer Impulso?

¿ Pa’ Tras Ni Pa' Cojer Impulso?

The slogan used by the “revolution” to let everyone know there was no turning back, ever.

It was repeated constantly and used ad nauseum on TV, schools, work, rallies, you name it.

Cubans, used to the empty slogans and false promises of La Cosa Nostra-Castro, wish this is one promise the regime would have kept.

Now the people in Cuba are being threatened with going back. Of getting back something they thought they would never have to deal with again. A nightmare they thought had ended 7 months ago:




A “B” horror movie for sure.

Rations Courtesy of Uncle Sam

According to this, the meager rations that Cubans can buy with pesos under the rationing card system of enslavement comes from Cuba's number one food trading partner, the US.

Its main exports to Cuba include chicken, wheat, corn, rice and soybeans -much of it doled out to Cubans on the government ration.

Doled out?!? No, In Cuba you have to pay the slave master for your meager rations from your $12 from your month salary. Ration means that you can only buy a limited amount because there is a limited supply. Not that you are "given" anything. The only thing the Castro regime gives for free is misery and repression.



Apparently, the US exports are also used for the tourist industry since the article claims that Cuba also imports:

brand-name cola, mayonnaise, hot sauce and candy bars, as well as dairy cows.

things definitely not on the "libreta".


Some "embargo"!

Biscet 'o8

Cuba is at an important historical crossroad. The Cuban people must choose which path to take. The time is now.

Cuba will be holding an "election" to decide on a National Assembly which will in turn elect a new "President" in 2008.

The members of the National Assembly of People's Power can chart a new path to freedom and democracy in 2008 by refusing to vote for the establishment candidates.

There is an alternative. The World will listen and support you.

"There is only one way to accomplish a just political balance: by fully implementing man's dignity to oppose evil."

Visit http://biscetforpresident.blogspot.com/

Swedish Row

Next time you see me tooling around la Saguesera in my S-40 Viking mobile, don't any of you Miami Mafia Made Men tell me to " take my tax-hiking, government-expanding, latte-drinking, sushi-eating, Volvo-driving, New York Times-reading, Hollywood-loving, left-wing freak show back to Broward, where it belongs," or we are going to have words.





What's there not to like about the Swedes?

There's Swedish Fish, Volvos, Saabs, Ikea and Her...

..and what was my point....?.... Oh yeah ... and this

The Swedes, who are apearently not all too pleased with Cuba's attempt to derail the so-called U.N. Human Rights Council by stripping it of its independent investigative powers, pointed out the Castro regime's atrocious human rights record. That prompted

The Cuban representative Juan Antonio Fernandez Palacios accused Sweden of
hypocrisy and said that the "not-so-glorious days of Swedish imperialism filled
their neighboring countries with blood and pain".

Bwahahaha That's like saying "Oh yeah!, Well Eric the Red was worse than Fidel, so shut up!"

Gorki for President

From Penultimos Dias comes this great idea. Since they're having "elections" in Cuba next year........

GORKI FOR PRESIDENT '08

Campaign Video Here

Some Cubans

Some Cubans don't need Santana to be on their records.

Some Cubans seek out ways to Help the cause, not make excuses.

Some Cubans try to help their brethren unjustly jailed by an illegitimate and repressive regime, not be politically correct.

Some Cubans mean it when they shout "Hasta Cuando" when they sing of Mi Tierra.

Some Cubans re-mix their one of their hits for Primavera Negra TV, rather and speak in retreaded cliches.

Reinery Diaz, Rey El Vikingo, is one of those Cubans.

http://tvprimaveranegra.blogspot.com/2007/03/hasta-cuando-salsa.html

http://www.reyelvikingo.com/

http://myspace.com/reyelvikingo

A big Thanks to Rey El Vikingo for his help during the Primavera Negra Commemoration

To Che Or Not To Che?

Tomb of the Unknown Che in Santa Clara, Cuba

The controversy over revolutionary fraud and t-shirt icon, Ernesto Guevara, continues.

It seems that yet another ex-CIA agent Cuban Exile, (I have to admit a little jealousy here since it seems I’m the only Cuban exile never to have been a CIA agent), has come forward to claim that the body buried in Guevara’s grave is not Guevara’s.

The exile, Gustavo Villoldo says he secretly buried the body Guevara’s body along with two fellow rebels in 1967.

When the body which the Cuba regime claims to be Guevara was found, it was in a common grave with 6 other rebels.

"We buried three men that night -- Che and two of his fellow rebels,'' Villoldo said. ``Thirty years later, they start digging and find seven men buried? Dead bodies don't reproduce, they don't multiply.''

According to the Miami Herald, “unclassified CIA documents and Che biographies confirm Villoldo's involvement in the case.”

Villoldo says that he has a lock of the argentine’s hair which could be used to prove whether the body buried in “The Tomb of the Unknown Che” is Guevara or not. In order for DNA tests to be conducted, the Cuban regime would have to agree to an exhumation.

Even if Guevara’s family wanted to have the matter cleared up, and agreed to the exhumation, it would never happen because the revolution even owns your corpse and would never agree to exhuming the body because it would prove the theory that “finding” Guevara’s body and burying it with revolutionary fanfare in the land of his crimes against humanity was a Castroite propaganda event.

Not that it matters. To true revolutionaries, if Fidel says Guevara is buried in that grave, he is. The truth and scientific evidence are just things that a true revolutionary must overcome to remain a member of the Cult of the Absurd that is Castrism.

Villoldo, now 71 and retired says he wants Guevara’s family to know coordinates of Guevara’s real resting place.

“I will give them the coordinates, but only to them, not Castro,'' he said. ``It's only right, I think.''

Touché

Actually, he should go to Bolivia and exhume Guevara’s body himself and bring it to Miami, prove that it is him and bury it in a conveniently located spot where we could all go piss on the bastard’s grave.

Some people are just too classy.

Classy Che Barber/Burrier / CIA agent /Exile/ Retired Farmer Villoldo

Home By The Sea

Creeping up the blind side,

shinning up the wall

stealing thru the dark of night

Climbing thru a window,

stepping to the floor

checking to the left and the right

Picking up the pieces,

putting them away

something doesn't feel quite right

Help me someone,

let me out of here

then out of the dark was suddenly heard

welcome to the Home by the Sea

Coming out the woodwork,

thru the open door

pushing from above and below

shadows without substance,

in the shape of men

round and down and sideways they goad

rift without direction,

eyes that hold despair

then as one they sign and they moan

Help us someone,

let us out of here

living here so long undisturbed

dreaming of the time we were free

so many years ago

before the time when we first heard

welcome to the Home by the Sea

Sit down Sit down
as we relive out lives in what we tell you

Images of sorrow,

pictures of delight

things that go to make up a life

endless days of summer longer nights of gloom

waiting for the morning light

scenes of unimportance

like photos in a frame

things that go to make up a life

Help us someone,

let us out of here

living here so long undisturbed

dreaming of the time we were free

so many years ago

before the time when we first heard

welcome to the Home by the Sea

Sit down Sit down

as we relive out lives in what we tell you

let us relive out lives in what we tell you

Sit down sit down

cos you won't get away

so with us you will stay

for the rest of your days.

So sit down

As we relive out lives in what we tell you

Let us relive out lives in what we tell you

Trouble in Paradise?

When the Castro organized crime family seized control of Cuba, one of the first things it did was drive away the tourists.

After it bankrupted the old USSR in the late 80’s –early 90’s, it was forced to find new victims to fleece and swindle. So they re-introduced the tourism industry via joint ventures with foreign companies and set up a separate society especially for tourists.

These willing victims became the Spanish, French, German, English, Canadian tourists among others.

Now, even these victims are starting to stay away.

In the first 2 months of 2007 tourism to the Island Prison is down 9.73% over last year.

In February, tourism from Spain had the largest drop at 45%. Germany followed with a 20% drop, Italy with 17%, France with 15% and the UK with a little over 4%. (according to EFE.com)

This unprecedented drop in tourism has forced the Cuban government to predict that the Cuban “economy” will only grow at 10% down 2.5% from last year.

They did not have any statistics or predictions on the Cuban “economy’s” largest sector, the black market.

The excuses ..err.. I mean reasons for the decline in visits to the quaint little island prison….You guessed it , the US “embargo” and global warming.

The Crumbling City

Havana is crumbling.

The beautiful colonial city is succumbing to the salty Caribbean air and 48 years of neglect.

You wouldn’t know it by reading this piece of propagandist fantasy disguised as journalism in the Miami Herald, (of all places):

Tourism is restoring the buildings of Old Havana

The unique part of Cuba's plan has been its strategy of restoring old hotels,
restaurants and buildings to attract tourists and then using tourism revenue to fund more restoration, along with social programs and housing renovation, one of Cuba's most pressing problems.

So check this out:

The unique part of Cuba’s “restoration” project is to attract tourism and then reinvest some of the profits back into the tourism business. How is that unique or creative? Why, because the Government is restoring its own property? That's what all property owners do.

What’s unique about Havana’s shameful neglect and decline is that it was caused by the same inefficient system that is now trying to “restore” it. Cuba’s communist government, when it confiscated all private property, became the only landlord on the island.

As the sole landlord, it did not upkeep and maintain any of its buildings and basically became the world’s biggest slumlord, forcing its tenants, the Cuban population, to live in subhuman conditions, filth and squalor.

And then to add insult to injury, it forces the tenants to work as indentured servants where their wages are taxed at about 96% in order to provide funds to restore the tourist venues that they aren’t allowed to enjoy. (but they get free healthcare and indoctrination)

Unique indeed.

The author even goes as far as to blame the pre-Castro rich for Havana’s destruction:

But Old Havana -- the city's district next to its port -- began a long decline as the rich built mansions on the city's outskirts and new business districts cropped up.

Restoration efforts date back to the 1930s, but the work was poorly funded. Even after Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution, Cuba's focus was on developing agriculture and raising living standards for the rural poor. Old Havana continued to deteriorate, despite the efforts of the Office of the Havana Historian.

I emphasized that. Did you get that?

Even after Saint Fidel came, who like some Bizarro World Saint Patrick, brought the snakes back into the island from the sea, the city continued to deteriorate. Really? Buildings did not crumble to the ground in the 50’s when they were only 450 years old. If you stop maintaining your 450 yr old buildings…Surprise! Some don’t make it to 500!

Oh and just as an aside…. That focus “on developing agriculture and raising living standards for the rural poor” that kindda crumbled too. Fidel is also like a King Midas from the Bizarro World, everything he touches, crumbles.

Suspended Animation

In two words, Thomas Shannon, the assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere summed up Cuba’s past 48 years when he said in an interview yesterday that Cuba remained in "suspended animation".

As Castro prepares for his upcoming 2008 presidential campaign, the US Government, whose, intelligence chief, John Negroponte, assured us late last year that Castro wasn’t long for this world, is now telling us that he is still the “controlling political presence” in Cuba.

State of suspended animation indeed.

Suspended Human Rights...
Suspended Elections...
Suspended Salaries...
Suspended Food...
Suspended Lives...

BUT NEVER, EVER THE HOPES AND DREAMS OF THE CUBAN PEOPLE.

Absurd News

The latest and greatest "news" about Fidel Castro is that he is set to return to power by next month.

Evo Morales, Bolivian president, hinted that he expected Castro to make his triumphant return on April 28 to commemorate the third anniversary of the alternative trade bloc known as the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas.

Last week, Ricardo Alarcon, said that Fidel Castro is in such great shape that he would nominate him again from president in the 2008 elections.

Elections…..

My Gusano mind gets pictures ... of Cuban “elections”

Can you imagine … Castro running for president?

What would a Castro campaign be like?

Carrying the corpse around in a wheelbarrow to give inaudible four minute speeches in his now trademark Adidas suit?

A “camello” tour of the country?

Would he ask people to give him four more decades to fix the food, housing, transportation and economic problems of the island?

Give me another 40 years to get the country back to the way it was 48 years ago;Vote for me!

I brought you food rationing, repression and apartheid!

Only in a country with such an absurd system of government could an 80 year old on death’s door be “elected” president.

And even more absurd for the press to report these ridiculous statements as if they were “news” without pointing out their obvious absurdity.

Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid

Whenever allegations are made against the malicious actions of Cuba’s communist regime, the Heralds are always quick to find someone in the long a queue of experts to enlighten and rebuff those of us who have experienced the regime’s nefarious deeds firsthand.

Recently a FAR defector, Roberto Ortega, has claimed that Cuba is weaponizing biological agents at secret facilities.

Never mind, that Ortega names names, places and times; those are just eyewitness, first-hand accounts. Never mind that Cuba is the Hemisphere’s only military dictatorship. Never mind that Cuba has spread instability and revolution throughout the world. Never mind that the Cuban regime trains and abets terrorists. Those are mere facts, folks. You know, the kind of things that are stand up in court.

Experts don’t need no stinking facts. Not when there’s conjecture. Not when you can put two and two together and get zero.

According to Phil Peters in the Nuevo Herald, we should not worry about Cuba’s WMD threat because:

The US government doesn’t seem worried about the Cuban WMD program.

Besides, US intelligence was wrong about Iraq’s WMD program.

So the same intelligence geniuses that thought the Iraqui WMD’s were a slam dunk, aren’t concerned about Cuba’s WMD program. Let’s see, if A=B, and B=C, then A=…holy crap! Go get some duct tape and sheet plastic! Because logic dictates they’re wrong.

Another reason not to worry is because Cuba didn’t make it to the “Axis of Evil”. Based, of course, on the afore-mentioned intelligence geniuses, If a=b, and…never mind …unless you’re a Cuba expert, you get it by now.

According to Peters, yet another reason not to worry is because Ana Montes said so. Since the US government hasn’t publicly refuted any of Cuban spy Ana Montes’ Cuban threat assessments, she must have been telling the truth about Havana while spying for them. Stay with the expert here, it’s tricky…if A≠B and B≠C, then A ………….is a sieve that doesn't hold any water.

There’s also the wet/foot dry/foot policy, where wet footed “migrants” turn into dry footed “refugees” once they make it to land. Peters argues that if Cuba were actually a threat the US,the US would not give Cubans special privileges that it doesn’t give other immigrants trying to sneak into the US. I agree with Peters on this one. Never, ever, would Border Patrol Agents in , lets say, the southern border with Mexico be allowed to water cannon, pepper spray and shoot machine guns at immigrants like it is customarily done in the waters of the Land of the Free and the Home of Brave.

The last reason why we shouldn’t worry about the Cuban biological weapon threat is too good of a sarcastic and cynical dig at Bush’s foreign policy to refute:

No negotiations. In return for a promise to cap its nuclear program, North Korea will receive fuel oil and direct talks with Washington that could lead to normalized relations. Similarly, Iran has been offered rewards for ending its nuclear ambitions. In the Cuban case, the administration seeks no talks and does not pursue Ortega's recommendation that international inspectors go to Cuba. Apparently, the administration sees nothing to talk about.

That’s funny.

But all these allegations about Cuban WMD's starting surfacing out after the North Korean Deal. Like Cuban blogger Killcastro pointed out, maybe Raul is setting the stage for negotiations.....


Folks, I ain’t no "expert", but I do know the Castro regime has no bounds and no respect for human life. They have the capability, technology and the will to manufacture and weaponize biological weapons. They will do whatever it takes. This is the same crowd that was willing to sacrifice all of Cuba in a nuclear confrontation. I know that was back before many of you were born, but, remember, things in Cuba haven't changed much since 1962. They are committed and they play for keeps. And that is always something to worry about.

Cuba Ruffles Feathers at UN "Human Rights" Council Henhouse

This interesting article from New Zeland:

Cuba rattles powers of UN rights body

With this this gem of a paragraph:

Cuba is leading a bid by a number of countries to strip the Human Rights Council of its power to investigate and condemn violations, a move some activists warn could jeopardise the whole UN's credibility.

That’s hysterical. Didn’t the “activists” realize that giving Cuba a seat on the UN’s Human Rights Council took all credibility away from the council in the first place? Actually it’s Pathetic. It’s like saying that having unprotected sex with a pregnant woman might make her “pregnanter”.

Since the Cuban Fox is already guarding the UN’s Human Rights Henhouse, it is leading the raid into the henhouse to silence the UN cackling Hens by getting rid of 13 special “rapporteurs” that probe Human Rights abuses.

Cuba doesn’t want to allow “rapporteur” to report on Cuba’s Human Rights issues, instead:

Cuba and its allies argue that countries should submit their own reports on their domestic records and that there is no need for intrusive rapporteurs.

Pretzel Logic Boy, Felipe Perez Roque, Cuban Foreign Minister, doesn’t want to hear any confrontational cackling:

"The perpetuation of country-specific mandates, imposed by force and blackmail,
would maintain the spiralling confrontation that did away with the authority and
credibility of the defunct Commission on Human Rights,"

Cuba continues to lose European support for its regime:

The European Union (EU) says that it is fighting to preserve the special procedures, as well as the forum's ability to adopt resolutions condemning countries for the worst violations.

As Prague continues its crusade to hold the Cuban regime accountable for its human rights abuses and lack of democracy at the EU’s Parliament, the whining from Havana gets more shrill and desperate with almost daily attacks on the Czechs in Granma.

And Spain sits quietly by the sidelines urging more "constructive dialogue" which by the way, has had less effect than the so called "embargo" while it sticks it to the Spanish taxpayer.

LLevatela Viento de Agua..........

Forgotten Spring?

Is it me or is the MSM going out of its way to ignore the commemoration of “Black Spring”?

People in Paris and Prague demonstrated for the release of Cuba’s prisoners of conscience. In Havana, there were Italian tourists, one of them a EU Parliament Member, Marco Cappato, protesting with the Ladies in white……………and ………silence.

But Spanish director Pedro Almadovar did protest for the closing of a Cuban prison saying it “is a disgrace for civilisation” He was referring to the facility where terrorists are being held in Guantanamo, not Kilo 8. That was everywhere.

And......The Miami Herald, who didn’t see fit to carry the AP’s article about The Ladies in White’s protest on Saturday, did see it fit to carry a story about hitchicking in Cuba.

Because we learn from the story that even though transportation on the island is chaotic and non-existant, the benevolent socialist government forces government vehicles to pick up hitchhickers:

“On the capital's outskirts, government inspectors wave down government vehicles. Those with empty seats must take hitchhikers, a law that results in 68 million free rides a year, according to the Communist Party newspaper Granma.”

It’s not just the government that does it. The socialist worker in solidarity with his fellow worker considers it a civic duty to pick up hitchhickers:

Most drivers believe it's their civic duty to give free rides, but sometimes a hitchhiker will hop in uninvited. Janeth González, 20, who climbed into a car stopped at a light, told the stranger at the wheel that she was headed to her home in downtown Havana. No big deal -- ''Even the police do it,'' she said.

If only we can learn form those unselfish and carbon-neutral example of egalitarian bliss!

Playing Ostrich

Today, on the 4th anniversary of Cuba’s Black Spring, I expected to be able to post several articles from the American press commemorating the unjust and arbitrary incarceration of 20 of their brother journalist in Cuba by Castro’s totalitarian repression machine.

Not that I have any illusions that the American press gives a fig about the plight of journalists in Cuba, they’re more concerned about their infatuation with socialism and command economies.

But being a self absorbed and self centered bunch, I believed that they would have some coverage of the solemn anniversary just so they could remind us how brave , indispensable and important they like to believe journalists are.

But as of 10:00 this morning, all I found was an AP article, from yesterday afternoon, in Seattle Post-Intelligencer. And this after doing a few news searches using different keywords and names. A similar article was posted in “The Nuevo Herald” in Spanish.

The American press has decided to stick their head in the sand, to be kind, play ostrich and ignore the anniversary.

In South Florida were there are over 800,000 Cuban-Americans, the three major English newspapers have decided not to mention the milestone.(at least in their online editions) Not even print the AP piece.

The Sun Sentinel, whose parent company, The Tribune Co., just had their ace journalist Gray Marx, in Cuba expelled for telling a truth or two, closed it’s Cuban Notebook this week saying it would return on April 1st.

This is what was not worth carrying in the local papers of Cubandom:

Gathering at dawn for a 12-hour protest, the women erected metal bars under a staircase and stood in the fake prison cell one at a time in half-hour shifts. They sipped coffee and chatted quietly while going without food. On the opposite wall, they hung a Cuban flag scrawled with the names of their jailed loved ones.

They did this even after being warned not to:

She said Communist Party officials and others have visited leading activists in recent days, attempting to dissuade them from holding public acts to mark the anniversary of the crackdown."They told us the country was living through difficult moments and that we shouldn't upset public order because the people could attack us," she said.

That’s courage. Most people would have just closed their notebook and stuck their head in the sand.

PRIMAVERANEGRA TV

Successful Cuban Tourism Exhibit

Cuba's Official Propaganda Agency, Prensa Latina, reports that its new campaign to attract European tourists to the island prison got off to a great start with the successful introduction of it's new slogan:"Viva Cuba".

In attendance at the Cuban Booth at the 32nd Annual International Tourism fair in Paris were Cuban Ambassador Rogelio Sanchez Levis and Cuban Tourism Ministry delegate Carmen Casal.

According to the official report, "Visitors and tour operators went to the Cuban pavilion and enjoyed Cuban typical drinks and the good music during the inauguration."

Casals added that "the stand (was) quite visited and that Cuba has reached positive results in other editions."

We at La Contra Revolucion could not be happier with all the traffic at the Cuban booth since some 30 Reporters Without Borders activists unveiled their new slogan for Cuba: "Viva Cuba Libre" by demonstrating "in front of Cuba’s stand at the tourism fair in Paris, unfurling banners, putting up posters and demanding the release of the 25 journalists detained in Cuba. Wearing black T-shirts with the words “Cuba = prison,” they covered the stand with adhesive black stripes symbolising the bars of a prison. "

Successful indeed!

NUMB

Today I'm Cuban - Irish.

Cubish, if you will.

And I present to you a song that's near and dear to my heart. It is a song from The Ambassadors of IRISHNESS: U2.

What can I say...it reminds me of a little Island, no, not Irie, another Island where I used to live.

Don’t move
Don’t talk out of time
Don’t think
Don’t worry
Everything’s just fine
Just fine

Don’t grab
Don’t clutch
Don’t hope for too much
Don’t breath
Don’t achieve
Or grieve without leave
Don’t check
Just balance on the fence
Don’t answer
Don’t ask
Don’t try and make sense
Don’t whisper
Don’t talk
Don’t run if you can walk
Don’t cheat
Compete
Don’t miss the one beat
Don’t travel by train
Don’t eat
Don’t spill
Don’t piss in the drain
Don’t make a will
Don’t fill out any forms
Don’t compensate
Don’t cower
Don’t crawl
Don’t come around late
Don’t hover at the gate
Don’t take it on board
Don’t fall on your sword
Just play another chord
If you feel you’re getting bored

I feel numb
(Gimme some more)
Don't be unhappy
Don't be unkind
(Gimme some more of that stuff)

It's not that hard
I feel numb
Just try and unwind
(Gimme some more
Too much is not enough)
I feel numb
(Gimme some more)
Don’t change your brand
Don’t listen to the band
Gimme what I don’t get
Don’t gape
Don’t ape
Don’t change your shape

I feel numb
(Gimme some more)
Have another grape
(Too much is not enough )
I feel numb
(Gimme some more
A piece of me
Gimme some more
Gimme some more of that stuff)
A piece of me
Yeah, yeah

I feel numb
Don’t plead
Don’t bridle
I feel numb
Don’t shackle
Don’t grind
Don’t curve
Don’t swerve
I feel numb
Don’t lie
Die
Serve

I feel numb
Don’t theorize
Realise
Polarise
Chance
Dance
Dismiss
Apologise

I feel numb
I feel numb
Don’t spy
Don’t lie
Don’t try
I feel numb

Imply
Detain
Explain
Start again

I feel numb

I feel numb

I feel numb
Don’t triumph
Don’t coax
Don’t cling
Don’t hoax
I feel numb
Don’t freak
Peak
Don’t leak
Don’t speak
I feel numb

I feel numb
I feel numb
Don’t project
Don’t connect
Protect
Don’t expect
Suggest

I feel numb
Don’t project
Don’t connect
Protect
Don’t expect
Suggest
I feel numb

(Gimme some more)
Don’t struggle
Don’t jerk
Don’t collar
Don’t work
(Gimme some more of that stuff, )
love
Don’t wish
Don’t fish
I feel numb
Don’t teach
Don’t reach
(Gimme some more
Too much is not enough)
I feel numb
(Gimme some more)

Don’t borrow
Don’t break
Don’t fence
Don’t steal
(Gimme what I don’t take )
Don’t pass
Don’t press
I feel numb
Don’t try
Don’t feel

(Gimme some more)
I feel numb
Don’t touch
Don’t dive
Don’t suffer
Don’t rhyme
Don’t fantasize
Don’t rise
Don’t lie

I feel numb
Don’t project
Don’t connect
Protect
I feel numb
Don’t expect
Suggest
I feel numb
Don’t project
Don’t connect
Protect
I feel numb
Don’t expect
Suggest
I feel numb
I feel numb

Wonder Why?

RSF Commemorates "Black Spring"

Reporters Without Borders continues its tireless fight to call attention to the repression and brutality of the hard-line communist regime in Havana.

Cuba has the highest number of reporters imprisoned, per capita. Some 25 languish in Castro's gulags just for trying to tell a story. Many,20 to be exact, where rounded up between March 18, 2003 and March 21, 2003; what we now call "Black Spring" and solemnly commemorate this weekend.

Spring just as sombre for independent press four years after Black Spring crackdown

Four years after the March 2003 crackdown, Cuba still has 270 prisoners of conscience including 25 journalists, which makes the island the world’s second biggest prisoner for the press after China, Reporters Without Borders said today, after staging a protest at Cuba’s stand in the international tourism fair in Paris.

Some 30 Reporters Without Borders activists demonstrated today in front of Cuba’s stand at the tourism fair in Paris, unfurling banners, putting up posters and demanding the release of the 25 journalists detained in Cuba. Wearing black T-shirts with the words “Cuba = prison,” they covered the stand with adhesive black stripes symbolising the bars of a prison. Reporters Without Borders also demonstrated in front of the Tunisian and Egyptian stands.

Unfortunately, as RSF, reminds us, Cuba's "Black Spring" has been a perpetual one. Even journalists that are not jailed are not safe from the regime's viciousness and vindictiveness. Their brutal attempts to silence the voice of the Cuban people knows no bounds. Repression and brutality rule.

Whether or not they are imprisoned, Cuba’s independent journalists have been having a particularly trying March. Twenty of them, who have been held ever since the March 2003 “Black Spring” and who are serving jail terms ranging from 14 to 27 years, continue to be mistreated by their guards and their health has suffered.

Examples of the horrific treatment that Cuban independent journalist must endure here

Ricardo Alarcon is having homo-erotic fantasies about his master again. Yesterday he stated that Fidel is in "perfect shape" and that he would dominate...I mean "nominate him" for "president" in Cuba's parrot parliament.

But hmmmm.... Today we find out that Florida's governor, Charlie Crist, got a security
briefing

detailing the state's plans when Cuban leader Fidel Castro dies. It was delivered in person by Maj. Gen. Douglas Burnett, adjutant general of the Florida National Guard, who on his way in, quipped he had asked military chaplains to work on two prayers - no hurricanes and to "keep Castro alive a little longer."

Say what?!? alive a little longer?

Now this is where it gets good:

Crist, it turns out, was not supposed to be in Tallahassee today. He was supposed to be in Sanibel, (I wish I was in Sanibel), giving a "keynote" address on homeland secutrity which was cancelled because he had to deal "with another homeland security matter."

The other security matter was the briefing from Gen. Burnett. HMMMM????

When asked about Gov. Crist's briefing from Gen. Burnett, Carter Johnson, deputy director of legislative affairs for the Department of Military Affairs said "There's always new developments. He's getting better intel than there was three weeks ago,"

Pal Carajo.

What was THAT all about?

The 1.4 Billion Dollar Man UPDATED

Last year when Forbes magazine estimated Fidel Castro’s net worth to be $900,000,000, the tyrant bust a gut, claiming he had no personal possessions; kind of like a Franciscan that had taken a vow of poverty. He might have taken a vow of poverty, a vow to keep the Cuban people in poverty and misery.

One ex-Cuban official, Jesús Marzo Fernández, on local Mega TV’s Polos Opuestos, claims that when Forbes compiled the list, it was too conservative in its calculations.

Marzo, who has testified before congress on the matter told Maria Elvira Salazar, that he estimates Castro to be worth more like $1,400,000,000.

According to Marzo, the wealth is accumulated by skimming from the myriad of “state-owned” companies that are run by Cuban officials.

Nuevo Accion has the list of what all the top criminals are worth here

Now, this is just the cash that he's been able to syphon away. The list doesn't include the wealth stolen from its rightful owners or the real-state value of the lands also stolen by the "robolucion"

Since some where having problems finding the list at Nuevo Accion, I copied it for your reading displeasure:

Raúl Castro Ruz – $400,000,000 Chairman del Grupo de Administración Empresarial (GAESA).

Ramiro Váldes Menéndez - 100,000,000. Comandante de la Revolución , Presidente de Electrónica
COPEXTEL y actualmente nombrado Ministro de Comunicaciones y Cibernética

The $50,000,000 Club:

Vilma Espin, Presidenta de la Federación de Mujeres Cubanas (FMC); Raul’s wife and Cuba’s unoffical “First Lady”
Orlando Rodriguez Romay, ex - Ministro del Instituto Nacional de la Pesca;
Osmany Cienfuegos Gorriarán, ex - Ministro del Turismo, del Ministerio de la onstrucción.

The $20,000,000 Club:

Familiares de José Abrantes Fernández, ex – Ministro del Interior;
Abraham Caciques, Presidente-Fundador de Cubanacán, S. A.;
José Luis Padrón, Presidente del CIMEX (ex – coronel y Ayudante personal de José Abrantes);
Marcos Portal, ex – Ministro de la Industria Básica (casado con una hija de Raúl Castro);
Julio Casas Regueiro, General de División /Vice – Ministro Primero del Ministerio de las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias (F.A.R.);
Eusebio Leal Spengler, Director de HABAGUANEX (empresa turística) y Director del Casco Histórico;
Guillermo García Frías, Comándate de la Revolución y Director de Flora y Fauna;
Abelardo Colome Ibarra, General de Ejercito y Ministro del Interior.

The $10,000,000 Club:

Eduardo Bencomo Zurdo, Presidente del Banco Financiero Internacional;
Emilio Aragonés Navarro, Coordinador del M-26-7, ex – Ministro de la Pesca, ex – Embajador en Argentina y ex – Presidente del Banco Financiero Internacional;
Roberto Robaina, ex – Ministro de Relaciones Exteriores – y su esposa Marilena García, ex – Directora
de Relaciones Internacionales de Corporación Rumbos,
Ricardo Cabrisas Ruiz, ex – Ministro de Comercio Exterior.
Familiares de Manuel “Barba Roja” Pineiro, ex – Vice – Ministro del Interior;
Familiares de Aldo Santamaría Cuadrado, ex – Vice – Ministro de la Marina de Guerra;
Ramón Díaz Vallina, Vice – Ministro de Salud Publica;
Orlando Perez Rodriguez, ex – Presidente del Banco Nacional de Cuba y Financiero del CIMEX;
Hector Rodriguez Llompart, ex Ministro-Presidente del Comité Estatal de Colaboración Economica (C.E.C.E.);
Alicia Alonso, Directora del Ballet Nacional de Cuba;
Miguel Brugueras del Valle, ex – Embajador de Cuba en Panama;
Silvio Rodriguez Domínguez, Canto-autor;

Armando Hart Davalos, ex – Ministro de Cultura;
Alfredo Guevara Valdes, ex – Presidente del ICAIC (Instituto Cubano de Arte e Industria Cinematografica);
Lucindo Del Rosal, - principal negociante en Venta de Armas (yerno de Ramiro Valdes);
Rogelio Acevedo, Presidente del Instituto Internacionl de Aeronáutica Civil (IIAC);

Diocles Torralba, ex – Ministro de Transporte;
Juan Almeida Bosque, Comandante de la Revolución, recibió un aporte directamente del
Comandante en Jefe de 10 MILLONES DE DOLARES;
Jesús Perez Otán, Ministro de la Industria Ligera;
Ulises Rosales delToro, Ministro de la Industria Azucarera.

The 5,000,000 Club:

Francisco Portela, Director de CUBATABACO;
Javier Ardizones, ex – Embajador en Italia y ex Presidente de Turística Gran Caribe;
Ramón Cuenca, Representante de la ANDRE, firma suiza;
Ramón Martínez Noa, Negociador de Equipos y Materiales;
Jorge Lezcano Pérez, Embajador en Brasil;
Carlos Pérez, ex – Ministro de la Agricultura y Director del Grupo Nacional de Cítricos;
Tomas Benítez Martínez, General de Brigada, ex – Director de Turística Gaviota y Director de
CUBAPETROLEO (CUPET);
Fernando Fernández Cossio, ex – Embajador en México y Presidente del Grupo Hotelero Horizontes;
Enrique Luzón Battle, General de Brigada, ex – Ministro de Transporte;
Gumersindo González, ex – Vice – Ministro de Transporte y Director del Banco para el Financiamiento del Turismo (FINTUR);
Silvino Colas Sánchez, General de Brigada, ex – Ministro de Comunicaciones;
Juan José Vega, Presidente de CUBANACAN;
Conrado Martínez Corona, Presidente del Poder Popular de Ciudad de la Habana;
Pablo Milanes, Canto-autor;

Raúl Fraga, (sobrino de Fidel Castro);

Manuel Vila Sosa, Presidente de Rumbos, S. A., ex – Ministro de Comercio Interior;
Alberto Cárdenas, ex – Vice – Presidente de CUBANACAN y sociedad con el panameño Víctor Arraz;
José Ramón Fernández, Vice – Presidente del Consejo de Ministros;
Francisco J. Soberon, Presidente del Banco Central de Cuba

y otros cientos de beneficiarios, de los cuales no tenemos todavía la información.

B A N C A R R O T A

Un corto mensaje al Presidente de la Republica Bolivariana Socialista de Venezuela:

Distinguido Hugo Chávez:

Una Palabra:

B A N C A R R O T A

Pregúntele a la antigua Unión de Repúblicas Socialistas Soviéticas que quiere decir eso.

Cuba's tourism trade cooling off

Alguien tiene que pagar la cuenta.

Pig

This pig has two Cuban connections. He currently resides on the island, courtesy of Uncle Sam.


The other is more disturbing.

pig

"I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew, Daniel Pearl, in the city of Karachi, Pakistan. For those who would like to confirm, there are pictures of me on the Internet holding his head,"




Daniel Pearl (l) was married to Marianne Pearl (r) who was 7 months pregnat when he was murdered by the pig above.


Marianne's mother is Cuban. She married a Marianne's Dutch father and left Cuba in 1965. Marianne was raised in Paris.

She returned to Cuba in June of 2006 and wrote on article on The Ladies in White for Glamour magazine.

El Museo del Resolver

Cuando se caiga Fidel…….bueno ya se cayó y se reventó y sigue la tragedia…

Empiezo de nuevo:

Cuando Cuba sea libre, Libre con L mayúscula, tenemos que construir un Museo. Un tributo al cubano.

El Museo del Resolver.

En este Museo se exhibirían todos los inventos habidos y por haber que el cubano ha tenido que inventar, para poder sobrevivir, resolver.

Inventos mecánicos, culinarios y hasta gramáticos.





Un testimonio a un pueblo que mientras más tratan de romperle el espíritu, mas rebelde es.

Un pueblo que mientras más le quitan, más crea e inventa.

Un pueblo que mientras mas mentiras le dicen, mas busca la verdad, hasta que un día hasta la misma libertad se resolverá.

Oil Wars.....

A short , short time from now.......
In an ocean close by.......

Oil Wars.......

Yesterday, the Senators in league with the Sith introduced a bill allowing the Federation to help what's left of the empire drill for Dillithium Crystals...wait wrong sci-fi movie...i mean oil in Cuban waters.

Today we learn from the Sun Sentinel, that freshman Jedi, Mel Martinez, exiled from the Cuban Sith by the emperor, has introduced a competing legislation to punish those that do business with the Sith........

WASHINGTON – Sen. Mel Martinez introduced a bill Wednesday that would punish
foreign companies and investors who help Cuba drill for oil and natural gas near the shores of Key West.

Martinez, a Republican, and Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democrat, are trying to fend off another bill also introduced Wednesday that would allow oil rigs as close as 45 miles from the Florida coast and ease the U.S. embargo so that American companies can drill in Cuban waters

``This bill sends a clear message that any attempt to develop Cuba's oil exploration
program will be met with strong sanctions,'' Martinez said. ``Supporting the Castro regime in the development of its petroleum is detrimental to U.S. policy and our national security.''

Set you light sabers on stun.....

Slick ?

Florida lawmakers are against a proposed bill that could allow energy firms to drill close to Florida's coast and duck the Cuba embargo.

WASHINGTON --Florida's two senators expressed alarm Tuesday over a proposal they said would put oil rigs just 45 miles from the Florida coast -- and skirt the embargo against Cuba by allowing U.S. firms to explore for oil and gas in Cuban waters.

Plans to introduce Senate legislation today come as gasoline prices are rising and just months after Florida lawmakers labored to keep oil exploration as far as 325 miles from the Florida coast.

That's classic.

"Protect our coasts at all costs." "No drilling." " Never." " Ever." " The environment comes first. Always."

"What's that you say?"

"We can help the Castro government and chip at the embargo at the same time?"

"Lets Drill!" " What are we waiting for?"

"Let's Drill those Cubans!"

.... or is a case of Ecoterroristic blackmail?

"Give us money to drill or we'll do it ourselves with our crack team of oil spillers err drillers"

Blogger's Blues

You get up early. It's now pitch black at 5:45. The dogs look puzzled and yawn as they wag their tails. At least somebody is happy to see you.

The news services all have the usual crap. Castro the "Comeback Kid". Maybe he''ll join Bill Clinton and Bush 41 in raising money for some yet to happen catastrophe? Then there's the mandatory daily dose of Cuban-Exile name calling and blaming from some Podunk foreign policy whiz living in a landlocked State. It's like a daily dose of "Aceite De Higado De Bacalao"; it's supposed to make you strong but it takes like , well you know.....There's also some story about the regime commemorating the failed assault on Cuba's Presidential Palace 50 years ago yesterday and how in typical Stalinist fashion history has been rewritten to protect the guilty and yet the names remain the same. Nothing exciting to report. You face a glowing LCD as empty as your head.

So anyway.., you stumble into the bathroom to tell your wife about how you have nothing to post on the blog. "Sho Don't", she says through a mouth full of "super whitening Crest". (she's talented).

But... there's like 50 people who expect SOMETHING.

And so you pack up the laptop and head to the office in your 1985 RX-7 ,(if it starts), all the way thinking, obsessing about what to post.

And then you realize that if nothing exciting is happening in Cuba, as inconvenient as that may be for you, imagine what it means to those 11 million people stuck in a stagnant cesspool of misery, hopelessness and corruption. another day of the same.

and you go out and look some more only you're not looking for excitement or Earth shattering news, just a little hope.

Cuba's Repressive Wave

Cubans in the island, especially dissidents, are in the grip of an unprecedented wave of repression.

The acts of repudiation, jailings and harassments have all increased.

Guillermo Fariñas was beaten, not by “civilians”, but by government security agents.

Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas’ organization, Movimiento Cristiano Liberación, has been warned to cease and desist its pro “Proyecto Varela” activities or else.

The internet connections at the US Interests Section, which the internal dissidence uses to connect with the “real” world, are sporadic at best, supposedly as a result of Ramiro Valdes’ “colt taming” activities. The information Minister also has his cyber warriors out there cancelling dissident’s e-mail accounts.
The regime has mounted search and destroy missions on TV antennas and satellite dishes to further isolate the Cuban population.

In a few weeks, April 1, new workplace regulations go into effect. The regulations are aimed at increasing productivity and reducing graft in Cuba’s notoriously inefficient command economy.

Raul Castro continues to make the rounds to Cuban military installations and presiding over military exercises, pictures of which are obediently broadcast on state TV, to make sure that the populace is aware of the military’s preparedness, loyalty and deadly force which can be unleashed at a second’s notice to brutally crush any rebellion or protest. The Cuban army has been at a state of readiness since Cuban dictator, Fidel Castro, fell ill. The military exercises are code-named “Operation Caguairán”.


Meanwhile, with the fourth anniversary of the “Black Spring” coming up, the Ladies in White have asked the UN’s Council on Human Rights to intervene in the release of the 59 ,out of the original 75, political prisoners that were incarcerated on trumped – up charges back in 2003 that are still being detained.

No doubt their plea will fall on deaf ears since Cuba along with China, two of the worse Human Rights violating countries on the planet, have seats on the “Council”. How absurd.

As a matter of fact, Felipe Perez Roque, the Cuban Foreign Minister, is in Europe to attend the Council’s annual session.

Stupid Is as Stupid Says

Felipe Gump

Normally, I don’t bother reading Prensa Latina’s poorly translated lies.

But while looking at an article where Perez Roque claimed his Master was doing much better, I spotted this little headline:

Cuba Defends Art of Thinking

You cannot make this stuff up.

I just had to look, having read the book

These guys would be funny if they hadn’t ruined a country and subjected its people to 48 years of misery and captivity.

Cuba Defends Art of Thinking (as long as you think what they tell you to think)(thinking like a communist is an learned art form because it requires for the thinker to suspend reality ,go against all the laws of nature into the absurd realm of egalitarian collectivism (slavery))

Paris, Mar 12 (Prensa Latina) Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque assured on Monday that southern countries are victims of an absurd and cruel international order that impedes development, peace and progress. (yes, Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia and now Ecuador)

Perez Roque talked today on behalf of the Non-Aligned Countries Movement (NAM), currently presided over by Cuba, at the UN Education, Science and Culture Organization (UNESCO) in Paris.

In his speech, the Cuban official made a call to "work together" against privatization of intellectual production,(notice they don’t use the word property as in intellectual property because that would be admitting that there is such a thing as property) "turning knowledge into an instrument to perpetuate inequality." (yes, knowledge is bad. The truth is bad. Everybody must be kept equally in the dark, and fed propaganda so they’re equally ignorant, those with knowledge of the truth get locked up)


"Value has become alternative, and banality and trade have become normal. The art of thinking has become dissident while mediocrity rules," he said.( If that doesn’t describe Cuba, I don’t know what does: “Thinking has become dissident while mediocrity rules”. Well now that I think about it, mediocrity doesn’t rule, utter incompetence does.)

The island s minister referred that "to replace citizens with consumers is an operation implemented to establish the world order of dominant powers," which threaten survival of our species, exhausting natural resources, polluting, deforesting and making impossible life on the planet. (No, you need to replace citizens with slaves,to be kept starving for food an knowledge. Giving the slaves no homes, transportation is good for the planet)

That includes encouraging insatiable consumption of a ruling class in a world with 852 million starving people, two billion without electricity and over two million people who have never talked on a telephone, stated the official. (11 million of which are in Cuba)

He said that Europe, United States and Japan generate over 80 percent of all scientific publications and more than 90 percent of patents and 72 percent of international scientists live and work in industrialized countries. (admitting the free market system works?)

He also mentioned "brain drain," explaining how from Latin America and the Caribbean, there are 1.2 million professionals working in United States and other developed countries, stated the minister. (oh, he’s against immigration? How about the brain drain in Cuba that ships its medical professionals to work as indentured servants in other countries)

He expressed his conviction that it is possible to dedicate scientific advances to
fighting diseases and underdevelopment and "not to conceive increasingly more
sophisticated and lethal systems of armaments." (like his buddies Iran, No. Korea, Venezuela, China…?, how many miracle drugs did any of these countries create ?....)

Cuban Doctor Defection Plan, Success or Failure?

Like everything else, it depends on how you define Success

More on the Cuban Doctor defections from the Miami Herald.

The Miami Herald has a different take on the Doctor defection program than I do. They consider the program a success since it has enticed hundreds of Cuban doctors “serving” in third world countries to apply for US entry.

Since some of these Doctors have risked their lives to defect and are still stuck in “limbo”, I won’t consider the program a real success until the process has been further fast tracked and the doctors are safely within US borders.

But any efforts made by any government to help fellow Cubans who are serving as indentured servants is greatly appreciated.

U.S. program for defecting Cuban doctors a success

Hundreds of Cuban doctors and other medical personnel who defected in third countries - - and one magician -- have applied for fast-track U.S. entry under a special program launched six months ago, U.S. officials say.

More than 100 already have arrived in the United States under the program, and hundreds more are hiding in places like Bolivia and Venezuela, awaiting U.S.background checks to ensure they are medical professionals and not rights abusers or Cuban government agents.

Something to be proud of: (definitely not a failure)

South Florida's Cuban American community has been pitching in to help the defectors with guidance and some financial assistance while they await the U.S. entry permits.

One group of Cuban doctors in the United States, created two years ago to help their brethren on the island, has been expanding its program to help doctors who defect third countries and want to enter the United States.

Doctors who defect often wait in safe houses in places like Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Argentina. They receive a small stipend for expenses and relatives in Miami usually pay for their air fare to the United States.

Article Here

Solidaridad sin Fronteras (Solidarity without Borders) website:

BarrioAfuera.com.

A Candadian story about Gusanos.

Here are some excerpts

No name-calling on this one.

In America now

In Cuba, they are disparagingly known as gusanos -- worms -- who crawled away from their homeland. Fidel Castro has repeatedly tried to depict the nearly 20% ofCubans who have fled since he came to power as despicable scum whose departurehas only improved the quality of Cuban life.

Almost half a century later, the presence of Cuban exiles permeates the area. Miami's exiles make up the most successful Hispanic community in the United States, and their economic power is evident everywhere. Their city serves both as the "Capital of the Caribbean" and a gateway to Latin America.

The city's Cubans have become a dominant force in Florida politics. Ever since the debacle of the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion -- which many believe failed because president John F. Kennedy refused at the last minute to provide the invaders with air support -- they have overwhelmingly voted Republican and sidedwith the anti-communist right.

In the 2000 U.S. presidential elections, 250,000 Cuban-American voters in southern Florida supported George W. Bush, guaranteeing him the presidency in a
crucial swing state he won by only 537 votes.

Having transformed Miami and south Florida, successful young Cuban-American exiles are now eager to share their skills to nudge Cuba forward. They no longer regard the island as a long-lost homeland, but see it more as a personal challenge and a business opportunity.

Promises or Pandering?

"I look forward to the day when the stain of Castro is finally washed from the soil of Cuba,"

Romney courts South Florida voters

Carbon Footprint or Communist Fingerprint?

Speaking at the Cato Institute, a public policy think-tank, President Vaclav Klaus said that environmentalists who clamor for policy change to combat global warming "only pretend" to be promoting environmental protection, and are actually being driven by a political agenda.

"Environmentalism should belong in the social sciences," much like the idea of communism or other "-isms" such as feminism, Klaus said, adding that environmentalism is a religion" that seeks to reorganize the world order as well as social behavior and value systems worldwide.

While this may sound like the some more Cuban Exile Hard-Line Paranoia consider this:

At a mega fuel depot for tanker trucks, President Bush heralded a new ethanol agreement with Brazil Friday as way to boost alternative fuels production across the Americas.

But Bush and Silva said increasing alternative fuel use will lead to more jobs, a cleaner environment and greater independence from the whims of the oil market. In
Brazil, nearly eight in 10 new cars already run on fuel made from sugar cane.

"`It makes sense for us to collaborate for the sake of mankind," Bush said at Silva's side, after touring the depot. "We see the bright and real potential for our citizens being able to use alternative sources of energy that will promote the common good."

BUT.............

Demonstrators upset with Bush's visit here worry that the president and his biofuels buddy, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, really have visions of an OPEC- like cartel on ethanol.

Bush Hails Biofuels Pact in Brazil

Does that sound like enviromentalism or anti-Americanism and Free-Markets?

Hmmmmmmmmmm?

Wet Doctor/ Dry Doctor

Jorge Toledo, a Cuban physician, and his wife, Leticia Viamonte, an ophthalmologist,

are among the Cuban doctors stuck in Colombia.(Fernando Vergara / Associated Press)

The LA times (via the Sun Sentinel) sheds light on the Cuban Doctor’s Asylum program fiasco via the Sun Sentinel.

While we applaud the administration’s attempt to free the Cuban Missionary Doctors from their indentured servitude, but we condemn the lack of an effective plan to live up to the promise of asylum made by last summer’s invitation.

What seems to be the root of the problem , according to local sources, is that the Cuban doctor’s program are very popular in the host countries. In the host countries doctors and other health care professionals who have invested a lot of time and money in an education, don’t want to practice in impoverished, remote and or dangerous areas and since the host countries have at least some vestiges of human rights, the native doctors cannot be forced to work there. Cuban doctors, like all Cubans are slaves to the Cuban regime so they are sent to do the work that natives wont do. Providing Havana with hard currency and propaganda. The American diplomats stationed in embassies in the host countries don’t want to starin relation with the hosts government so they are “reluctant” “hesitant” and “less than cooperative in Cuban Doctors asylum cases.


U.S. leaves Cuban physicians in limbo

BARRANQUILLA, COLOMBIA — Family practitioner Alberto Hernandez suffers anxiety attacks. Dentist Norah Garcia is prone to bouts of uncontrollable sobbing.
General practitioner Cesar Fernandez, 31, has high blood pressure.

They are among the tens of thousands of doctors, nurses, surgeons and dentists
dispatched from their Cuban homeland as medical missionaries to some of the world's poorest countries, in the process earning hard currency for the communist regime. But instead of providing much-needed healthcare, they have been caught up in a wider struggle between leftist Latin American leaders and the Bush aministration.

Last summer, the administration announced that any Cuban medical professional sent abroad was eligible for political asylum. Frustrated with their efforts in a program that took them to Venezuela's barrios, or hoping to start a new life in the United States, dozens of Cuban healthcare professionals sneaked across the Colombian border.

Now they're holed up in Colombia, unable to work, while U.S. authorities mull
whether to accept them as political refugees.

Rest Here

Really, Really Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

Fast in support of all political prisoners.

Operation Vigilant Sentry Update

Hay que reirse.....

The 85 agencies participating in "Operation Vigilant Sentry" designed to stop a mass migration out of Cuba.........mmmm failed to stop 41 Cuban Refugees from reaching the Florida shore:

A law-enforcement exercise to prepare for a possible mass migration as that could occur following a Cuban leadership change coincided Thursday with the arrival of real migrants.

The 41 immigrants arrived at Miami Beach and Haulover Beach in Miami-Dade County and were taken into custody by authorities not involved in the simulation, officials said. It was not clear if the migrants were Cuban.

Article Here

HAHAHA.

All those agencies and all those resources all that taxpayer money to guard against an imaginary hoard of invading freedom-seeking Cubans and 41 real refugees still got through. Not imaginary refugees. What a joke!

To make it even funnier Part of Haulover Beach is designated as a nude beach (mostly gay). Can you imagine getting of a boat and landing on a nude beach? Welcome to America!

There must be some kind of way out of here
Said the joker to the thief

Too much confusion
I can't get no relief

Business men, they Drink my wine

Oh, and the plowmen dig my EARTH
None of them along the line

Know what any of it's worth

No reason to get excited
The thief he kindly spoke
There aren't many here among us
That feel that life is but a joke (ha, ha, ha...)

But you and I we've been through that, oh
And this is not our fate
So let us not talk falsely now
The hour is getting late

And All Along the Watchtower

Princes kept their view

While all the women, all the women, all the women, came and they went
Barefoot servants, too

Outside in the cold distance
A wild cat did growl, la la la
Two riders were approaching
The wind began to howl
Yeah...

All Along the Watchtower
The princes kept their view, oh
While all the women came and they went
Barefoot servants, too
Outside in the cold distance
A wild cat did growl, la la la
Two riders were approaching
The wind begins to... howl.
The money safe
The thief he take
The money safe
The thief he take
No reason to get excited

Imagine

U.S. halts imaginary Cubans in security drill

Two thousand imaginary Cuban migrants set sail toward Florida during a massive two-day U.S. training exercise but were intercepted by federal, state and local agents armed with teamwork and acronyms.

"Operation Vigilant Sentry," the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's plan to halt a mass migration from the Caribbean, was put to the test by 325 agents from 85 law enforcement agencies during the exercise that ends on Thursday.

No word on whether the "imaginary Cubans" were sprayed with imaginary pepper spray, imaginary water cannons, or imaginary bullets in order to halt them as it's commonly done to "real Cubans" trying to escape the 48 year old disaster of a revolution.

There was also no mention if the "imaginary Cubans" were sent back to the imaginary totalitarian communist regime that they were trying to escape. But both these exercises happen everyday. Cubans are sent back to the Caribbean concentration camp and the ones that repatriate them like to pretend that the totalitarian government anmd misery that they send them back to is imaginary and just a figment of its victim's imagination and hyperbole.

Operation Vigilant Sentry Under Way -- UPDATED

Today more than 50 different Local, State, and Federal agencies are taking part in a drill ominously called Operation Vigilant Sentry.

It is a drill not designed to keep the Muhamed Atta’s of this world from reaching our shores, but the Elian Gonzalezes.

This is not that the first time that we see taxpayer money squandered through misplaced priorities. Back in 2,000 while Atta and his terrorist cell were busy planning the 9/11 attacks, the number one priority of the then Attorney General and of the INS was not to protect America from dangerous enemies, but to ship Elian back to Castro’s totalitarian concentration camp.

From Today’s Washington Times’ online edition:

U.S. prepares for thousands to flee Cuba

Fearing a potential mass exodus of Cubans when Fidel Castro dies, dozens of federal, state and local agencies, along with the military, will participate in a massive two-day training exercise beginning today to hone migrant-interdiction skills.

The exercise will also test readiness to intercept vessels heading to Cuba. Some Cuban exile groups in South Florida have made clear their desire to set sail for Havana once they receive proof of Mr. Castro's demise.


Though Coast Guard officials would not specify just how many ships, aircraft and people would participate, they did acknowledge it as the most extensive preparation yet for such a mass-migration scenario.

"By interdicting people at sea, it's putting out the message that it's not safe to travel here that way," said Coast Guard Petty Officer Jennifer Johnson.

This or none of the articles that have been written about this operation have put a price tag on what the exercise is costing the American taxpayer.

Whatever the cost, it seems that it’s worth it . No price is seems to be too high to pay to prevent another Mariel and to keep Cubans from being free.

Then there’s is this:

This week's exercise comes weeks after Congress approved an $18 million Pentagon plan to prepare U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to accommodate migrants intercepted at sea

Call me a crazy Gusano, but this is all very silly.

There isn’t going to be a mass escape from the island prison unless Raul, the acting warden, allows it. The last two times that Cubans were allowed to take to the sea in mass quantities the Cuban regime allowed it by not machine gunning the escapees as is their usual practice.

All that needs to be done is to tell Raul that if he allows a mass migration ,which is what’s causing the Cubanophobic mass hysteria here in South Florida, that it will be considered an act of war and that instead of a mass migration towards US shores there will be a mass invasion of marines towards Cuban shores. Period. Raul will tuck his tail between his legs and go suck down a bottle or two of Absolut.

More Here

UPDATE:

From the Palm Beach Post (thanks to MsB):

Guard Rear Admiral David Kunkel, head of the Homeland Security Task Force
Southeast, said more than 300 government employees from some 50 agencies would participate in Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe counties over two
days.

"This exercise focuses on a mass migration from Cuba," said Rear Admiral Kunkel. "It could be from somewhere else in the Caribbean..but we certainly recognize that Cuba is an area where we must be prepared."

By midmorning, authorities across South Florida had reported 155 people coming ashore and another 2,000 had been pulled off boats and crowded onto Coast Guard vessels, which reported a combined capacity of 12,150.

As with any good exercise, authorities were tormented by rumors; one had a refugee coming ashore in Marathon, infected with the deadly Ebola virus. All that was enough for Palm Beach County to declare a state of emergency.

Laugh some more Here

..........and Here

W Talks Cuba

President W was asked about his up coming trip to Latin America.

According to Reuters, W had nothing too new to say about Cuba.

Castro's fate will be decided "by the Almighty," Bush said on Tuesday.

"I don't know how long he's going to live but nevertheless I do believe that the system of government that he's imposed upon the people ought not to live if that's what the people decide," he told reporters representing the countries he will visit.

Bush took a dim view of the possibility of Raul Castro taking over permanently.

"What I hope happens is that we together insist that transition doesn't mean transition from one figure to another, but transition means from one type of government to a different type of government, based upon the will of the people," he said.

The Cuban regime , however seems nervous about the EU adopting a common position on Cuba which is being pushed by our friends the Czhecs.

If the US is able to align Argentina, Canada, Brazil, Colombia and others including Chile to reject the transition once Fidel dies and insist on Democratic reforms, things could get pretty ugly, pretty fast for Raul.


Article Here

Will Coincidences Ever Cease?

And, in another mind boggling coincidence, comes this stirring tribute to Cuba's tourist wonders and asks the self indulgent question:

Why should the rest of the U.S. be held hostage to electoral politics in Florida that prevent most Americans from seeing Cuba?

As if there was no right or wrong, no just and unjust.

The answer to that question, by the way, is eloquently offered here in this brilliant Post by Babalu contributor Henry Gomez.

A Taste:

Imagine white beaches and soothing tropical breezes. Fine hotels, beautiful beaux-arts architecture and salsa music in every cafe and restaurant. Friendly people, heady cigars, classic automobiles and the lingering spirit of gangsters who ran casinos in the 1950s.

This is Cuba. Long rumored to possess the best beaches in the Americas, this Caribbean island draws tens of thousands of tourists each year. They windsurf off beaches, hike in topical forests and bike along rough but scenic country roads. The island boasts sprawling resorts, festive restaurants and a vibrant nightlife.

Only 90 miles from Florida, Cuba was once a Mecca for American tourists, but today only a handful of Americans join the throngs that arrive from Asia, the European Union and Latin America.

I'm not arguing about Cuba being a paradise , that it is, but I do find it interesting how all these articles coincidently appear on the heels of proposed legislation in the Senate that will remove travel barriers to Cuba.

I know it's just a huge coincidence, but more suspicious minds might interpret this as a coordinated effort by Castro's appologists to allow their commie buddies to rake in some quick cash by faning the flames that hope to consume the barriers to travel to the island.

Funny how all of the travel advocates fail to mention that Cubans are not allowed to travel or vacation abroad. Hell, they can't even enjoy the tourist attractions that is their birthright. Maybe that's what this ilk finds so attractive bout Cuba in the first place.

Article Here

The New Becomes Old

Yuriorkis Gamboa

Three Cuban boxing champions who defected while training in Venezuela for the upcomming Pan-American Games promised to unite Cubans on both sides of the Florida Straights by becoming world champions in their respective weights classes.

“We have a commitment with the people of Miami and the people of Cuba, it’s true — to become world champions,” the flyweight Yan Barthelemy said in Spanish during the group’s first official news conference since arriving in the United States on Friday.

If it were that easy.

The first of several bouts should take place in South Florida on April 13.

Guevara's "New Man" continues to take every opportunity to become a CUBAN.

Can I Have A Cigar With That Whine?

On Friday, It appeared that the regime was instructing is propagandists, apologist and lobbyist to go forth and preach free travel.

The crystal ball at the Contra Revolución’s Headquarters was showing murky images of a campaign to call for an end of travel restrictions by US citizens to Cuba to coincide with a bill introduced in the US Senate for that purpose.

Sunday, Cuba’s Cigar Festival ended and the Sun Sentinel joined in the media blitz (sort of) for unrestricted travel to by relating the compelling story of some poor, over-privileged stogie suckers who feel that it is a gross and unfair violation of their freedom not to be able to travel to Cuba and smoke a good Cuban whenever the mood hits them.

"I hope the Americans open up to Cuba," said Singh, a regular at the annual cigar festival. "I think over a period of time they will open up."

"We come legally through a group, but we can't bring any cigars back," one man said, declining to elaborate. "You don't want to jeopardize the people that sponsored us."

"Take it down," another said of the U.S. embargo. "It doesn't matter if it has worked or not. It's mean-spirited and petty."

"The embargo is ineffective because Europe and Canada are pouring billions into here," another American chimed in.

These quotes pretty much speak for themselves. Hopefully these constitutionalists don’t live in NYC where in a tidal wave of political correctness smoking has been virtually outlawed.

Ray Sanchez, doing his best to get kicked out of the Survivor Island, ends the article this way:

The festival included bus trips to one of the island's main tobacco-growing regions in the western province of Pinar del Rio. Jesus Menendez, 39 and a father of two, has been working in one of the plantations for four years. When asked how much he earned, his boss, standing nearby, quickly interrupted. "Nine hundred pesos," the boss said, or about $40, almost four times the salary for most state workers.

"Nine hundred pesos," Menendez repeated. "But I can't wait until the end of the month to get paid. I ask for an advance every couple of days. Times are tough." Asked if he ever smoked a Habanos, Menendez smiled. "Never tasted one. I can't. That's for the people over there," he said, pointing to the foreigners taking the tour.

Interesting how these American defenders of rule of law and constitutionality who illegally travel to Cuba, do not give a rat’s ass about the rights of the Cubans who, as slaves captive in an island plantation, labor to make sure that foreigners have a fresh, aromatic Habanero to suck on that they themselves can never hope to smoke because of Cuba's inmoral apartheid system.

What would Freud say?

Article Here

Rafts of Mass Hysteria

Here in South Florida Cubanophobia continues to grip the population.

Lurking in the warm Caribbean waters is the scariest threat known to man.

Weapons of Mass Destruction?

No!

Cuban Refugees. (that’s right REFUGEES, not Migrants. Regardless of what Mr. “depends on the what definition of is is” says.)



But have no fear, White people . Your government is making sure that you are protected from freedom seeking Balseros.

Joint drill set to prepare for exodus from Caribbean

In a Hysterical development, South Florida authorities are now saying that they’re not holding the drill to prevent a mass exedous from Cuba, but from anywhere in the Caribbean. I guess they read their own words and realized the racial bias and paranoia. (not that it matters when it comes to Cuban refugees)

"The timing of this year's exercise in no way reflects concern over recent events in Cuba," Coast Guard officials said in a press release. "In fact the mass migration plan does not focus on any single country; rather it addresses mass migration from any Caribbean nation."

The drill will involve 50 government agencies and will take emergency crews through a myriad of scenarios, including medical evacuations and interdictions. It will also train crews on how to process an influx of people and to deter them from coming in the first place.Federal Homeland Security officials and Florida emergency management authorities will join local police and health officials, Warr said.

Jaime Suchlickii, director of the Institute for Cuban and Cuban American Studies at the University of Miami, kindda blew their racist raft out of the water by pointing out that:

there are only enough boats in Cuba to bring 25,000 to 30,000 people to Florida.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Vamos a Cuba? Update

On Feb 06, 2007. several articles , op-eds and editorials were published nationwide calling for the end of the "embargo".

I know you paranoid , extremist Miami Mafia types that read this blog probably think that it was a coordinated effort by Castro sympathising apologists triggered by orders from Havana. But, it was just a coincidence.

Today we learn a bill was introduced to lift all travel restrictions to the quaint little tropical paradise:


Enzi introduces Cuba travel bill
By Gazette News ServicesWASHINGTON -

Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., is co-sponsoring a bill that would remove all restrictions for Americans traveling to Cuba.Nine other senators are co-sponsoring the Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act."If we want to give the Cuban people a taste of the real America, we need to allow Americans to go there and share it," Enzi said in a release."Unilateral sanctions stop not just the flow of goods, but the flow of ideas - ideas of freedom and democracy are the keys to positive change in any nation."

The bill's other sponsors are Sens. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D.; Max Baucus, D-Mont.; Larry Craig, R-Idaho; Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.; Tom Harkin, D-Iowa; Chuck Hagel, R-Neb.; Russell Feingold, D-Wis.; Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.; and Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M.

Coincidentally, this op-ed travel piece hits the news wires.

I wonder if we're in store for any more coincidences in the next couple of days?

Update:Wow! what a coincidence! (via Child of The Revolution)

In the latest MiMegasite.com poll, nearly 100 planners weighed in on whether they'd consider Cuba as a possible meeting destination if the U.S. travel ban was lifted by Congress. And the results were a bit surprising:

When asked if they would consider Cuba for a meeting in the first year that the ban was lifted, beyond the first year the ban was lifted, or not at all, fully 41 percent said not at all. This compares to 24 percent who said that they would consider Cuba in the first year the ban was lifted, and another 34 percent who said they would wait at least a year before considering Cuba.

Que Casualida, Caballero

AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH ELSA MOREJÓN WIFE OF PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE, DR. OSCAR E. BISCET GONZALEZ AT 12:OONoon time

Reduce your "Carbon Footprint" eat Veggies

Carbon Footprint of a Cheeseburger

America's love of burgers contributes approximately 941 to 1023 pounds (that's 428-465 kg) of greenhouse gas per person, per year -- the rough equivalent of the annual carbon output from 7,500-15,000 SUVs if the 300 million US citizens hit the 3 burgers/week average

And then there were two.....

Last year some Cuban refugees managed to reach the US. They landed on part of the old 7-Mile bridge in the keys. The Coast Guard decided that since the old bridge was not connected to the mainland the refugees did not cualify for "dry -foot" status and shiped them back to Castro's tropical concentration camp.

Since then a judge ruled that the Coast Guard's wet foot theory didn't hold any water and that the refugees did in fact reach the US. Too late for the refugees.

Of the 15 involved in the illegal deportation, 13 have braved the Florida Straights again in search for freedom.

Two remain on the island. One hoping to leave Cuba through a visa, the other is incarcerated.

The Sun-Sentinel has the story Here.

The Tribune Company has pleasently surprised me. I had expexted the Sun Sentinel to start giving us a steady diet of candy - coated fluff pieces from Cuba. But, even after having lost one of its fine reporters, Gary Marx, for telling the truth, Ray Sánchez continues to give us the facts.

hmmmm. humble pie tastes so bitter.....