Did Raúl Blink?

Once he realized the world was watching with eyes wide open, (with incredulousness and after a 12 hour wait), at Gorki’s “dangerousness” trial, Raúl decided to change the charges to the American equivalent of disturbing the peace and fined the rocker $28 bucks...blink.

This, of course, was an attempt to by the Cuban regime at damage control. They didn’t want to look foolish for prosecuting a punk rocker for being dangerous especially since the whole world knew that Gorki had been singled out for special attention because of his raunchy anti-Castro lyrics. Had they gone ahead with the original charge, they would have gotten lots of international press which is bad for business.

All the pressure helped get Gorki sprung and grow his international celebrity, thus providing some insurance from future repression, and thwart the regimes plans for silencing Gorki for now, but they’ll keep trying. He’s not going to change his ways.

All the regime can say now to save face is that the “mafia” was lying about the “dangerousness” charge and that they had never intended to charge Gorki with anything but what they convicted him of. Whatever.

The important thing is that Raúl was forced to blink and his forced blink kept Gorki from being transferred to a smaller cell.

But Gorki, like his 11 million compatriots, is not free. He cannot leave the country, for example, and perform in Miami or NYC. He cannot sign a record deal with the company of his choosing or receive royalties from his songs, but at least he’s not in a small barred cell. He’s in the open air portion of prison Havana on the west end side of the greater Cuban penitentiary.

Raul's Self Fulfilling Prophesy

She’s 89 pounds soaking wet, Yoani Sanchez is.

But she’s a giant.

Today we learned that Yoani joined the rest of the Porno Para Ricardo band members and some friends at a concert in Havana to protest and demand the release of jailed punk rocker Gorki Aguila.

Their plans to protest at the concert were published all over the internet by CB and the Cuban Underground to encourage other Cubnas to join in. So Yoani knew beforehand that taking part in the pro-Gorki protest would be met with the regime’s usual intolerant and brutal response. And still she went. The young mother and wife who already risks so much by serving as a voice to the millions of her generation that have been condemned to perpetual silence by the regime and its accomplices abroad. But still she went. She was assaulted and shaken up in the ensuing regime-lead violence, but not silenced.

She’s the most dangerous woman in Cuba because millions eagerly await the words and thoughts that are too infrequently published on her blog, Generation Y. And the whole world is awaiting her next post on the Gorki experience. She is outside the Playa Municipal court with Gorki’s family, friends, band mates and lawyer…waiting for the “trial” to begin.

Yoani never ceases to amaze and humble me.

And speaking of “dangerousness” …

The regime, frozen in fear, finally decided to make a move against Gorki when it thought that the world wasn’t paying attention and charged him with “dangerousness”.

This was their attempt to silence his dissent, to pull him from the limelight and hush his voice, to make him a non-person who is not even worth the trouble of a real trial-or its Cuban facsimile. Of course, since his only crime has been to tell the truth, the regime couldn’t put him on trial and embarrass itself in the eyes of the world by trying a punk rocker for being anti-establishment and poking fun at the system and the authority figures. I mean, that’s what punk rockers do.

So they pretend he’s a danger, a potential criminal and they sentence him in a venue where no evidence has to be presented because it’s a totally subjective and arbitrary “opinion” of the authorities whether one is a potential criminal or not or whether one is a danger to society or not. The evidence is an opinion and only one opinion counts in Cuba.

But jailing someone for “dangerousness” is even more absurd in the eyes of free 21st century societies than trying him for making fun of the Castro brothers. It makes headlines, especially since Gorki has loudmouthed friends and fans in the Americas and in Europe.

Gorki is not afraid to go to jail. He once said that everyone in Cuba is in jail and that the only difference is the size of the jail cell. He’s been moved to a smaller cell; that is all.

Ironically, though, the regime’s charge of “dangerousness” has become a self fulfilling prophesy. By cowardly jailing him for “potential crimes” against the revolution, they have turned an innocuous, brash and vulgar rocker into a world-wide cause célèbre- a symbol. Gorki has become the symbol of his generation’s struggle to have their frustrations heard and addressed and the absurd Alice in Wonderland like kangaroo court where Gorki’s human rights are being violated as I write this, has been turned into the symbol of the intolerant and brutal revolution that represses and violates human rights.

Gorki has never, ever, been free since he was born into a revolution that rejected his uniqueness and creativity, just as he rejected its conformity and dogma. The regime has reduced the size of his cell, yes, but the “redecoration” has come at a steep price. The Castros have shown that they exert total control and can do whatever they want to whomever they want-just in case anybody thought things, they were a changin’. Gorki’s cell is now smaller, he can’t play with his band or phone his friends abroad, but he has become an international symbol for the plight of all Cubans. Now he is truly “dangerous.”

Free Gorki!

One of the bravest people I have ever seen is Gorki. It takes incredible courage to stand up to the Castro regime with nothing but your music and your convictions and Gorki has , defiantly and with his head held up.

He has fought communism with his profanity laced righteous rage against the regime.

His lyrics fuel non conformity with the collective and are in turn fueled by the individual genius-something that strikes at the very heart of the beast.

His profane poetry has parodied the faithful castrator with porno-phallic imagery and ridiculed his classless society without class.

He has made us smile and admire him and now its time for us to stand up and fight for him.

Gorki needs two things:

1.International Awareness to let the regime know that leaving him in jail is bad for business.

2.Legal representation with Cuban lawyers that know how to manipulate the system to their advantage.

He has not been charged with any real crime. He has been charged with "dangerousness." A social nuisance that will eventually commit a crime. This "non-crime" results when the neighbor snitches single you out for antisocial behavior.

He will most likely get a four year sentence at a municipal trial. A smart lawyer with experience could get the sentence reduced, but it is crucial he's represented by someone who knows how to manipulate the system and garner a lot of attention so that it can be appealed at the provincial level.

Camilo Loret de Mola from Penultimos Dias was on TV today explaining the dangerousness charge and how important it is for Gorki to get help NOW!

Charlie Bravo is setting up a defense fund to help his band mates and his family get a lawyer HERE.

BUCL is coming together to continue the press blitz to get awareness for Gorki. You can help do that HERE

Thug Solidarity

Not to kick a dead horse, but … I told you so...

In my last post, I made the case that Angel Valodia Matos’ shameful act of kicking the Twaekondo referee that disqualified him was symptomatic of the society that Fidel Castro has built and has had total control of for the last 50 years.

A friend who read the post, told me I went too far in laying the blame for the athlete’s actions just as squarely on Fidel’s feet as Angel Valodia Matos laid his foot on the face of the unsuspecting referee.

My friend’s underlying sentiment is, of course, that we Cuban exiles like to blame Fidel for everything.

I told my friend that Valodia Matos and his coach did exactly what the regime, Fidel, expected them to do. Like I wrote in my post, “Fidel would be proud.”

AND proud he is.

Reflecting in his blog Today, Castro justified Valodia Matos’ actions. Valodia Matos, the Cuban delegation and ultimately Castro, were the victims here, you see. Kicking the referee in the head was a heroic act by a proud and defiant revolutionary who was provoked by the injustices perpetrated on Cuban athletes by the decadent capitalist elements that have polluted Olympic ideals with the almighty dollar and the Miami Mafia who have somehow “managed to thwart the rules of the Olympic Committee.”

The outrage was such that it prompted Fidel to write yet another rant reflection:

...Perhaps it would not have decided to write something on the subject so quickly had the incident with the Cuban taekwondo athlete, Angel Valodia Matos, not taken place…Astonished by a decision that seemed totally unjust to him, he protested and kicked the referee. Since they had had tried to bribe his own trainer, he was predisposed and indignant. He could not contain himself. The athlete was used to bravely facing the injuries that usually are frequent in taekwondo. The referee suspended the match when he was ahead three to two…

El compañero Fidel goes on (…and on, and on…) to offer the disgraced taekwondo athlete and his coach the country’s gratitude for showing the world the true face of Fidel’s revolution…(I’d like to add my eternal thanks as well, Angelito):

For our taekwondo athlete and his trainer, our total solidarity

Now, perhaps my friend and others who might have taken my last post as an exercise in anti-Castro exile histrionics will understand why I said that the unfortunate incident is symptomatic of the society that Fidel has built.

In praising and glorifying Valodia Mato’s despicable behavior, Fidel and the regime are teaching all Cuban children that aggression and violence are acceptable reactions when things don’t go their way-just like Che and Fidel would.

Unfortunately for the regime, bringing children up to kick authority figures in the head when they are disciplined for violating the rules can be a dangerous two-edged sword...

Revolutionary Sportsmanship

Score another one for Castro’s “new man-athlete”.

A Cuban Taekwondo team member, Angel Valodia Matos, was disqualified during a bronze medal match for taking too much injury time. And in perhaps the worst display of sportsmanship ever at the Olympics, the Cuban “Angel” attacked the referee, kicking him “square in the face.”

Now, there are sore losers everywhere and I know that everything that’s wrong in Cuban society can’t be blamed on Castro’s blessed revolution, but I contend that this disgusting display of violence and unsportsmanlike conduct is symptomatic of the society engineered by Fidel Castro.

In Cuba’s police state, might makes right and those with the guns make the rules. The ruling class, artists, athletes and other privileged citizens don’t have to abide by same rules that the rest of the population has to.

Cuban children are taught to idolize violent thugs like the Castro brothers and Che Guevara; men who solved everything with violence and force, never with statesmanship and compassion.

The sports programs are part and parcel of the regime’s political and repressive apparatus. Loyalty to Fidel is as important to advance in an athletic career as is athletic ability. Part of being like Che and the way to show loyalty to Fidel’s regime is to be intolerant and aggressive to those that stand in the revolution’s way.

The taekwondo referee stood in the way of the revolution’s Olympic medal glory and paid with a few stitches on his lips and a pounding headache.

Cuban teams, coaches and “fans” have a history of belligerent and violent behavior abroad especially when faced with protesting free Cubans. The free world has a habit of accepting the brutish and uncivilized behavior by restricting those who challenge the revolution at international sports venues.

This time, the revolution showed its ugly and unsportsmanlike face to a world-wide audience in a way that would make its leader proud. Fidel has always brutally kicked and pushed any obstacle that stood in the way of his objectives and then belligerently and loudly blamed the victims of his actions.

Just to make sure that Fidel would be proud of his revolutionary fervor, the Cuban Taekwondo coach, Leudis Gonzalez, refused to apologize and remained defiant, basically saying that the referee, Chakir Chelbat, deserved the kick in the head:

"He was too strict," Leudis Gonzalez said, referring to the decision to disqualify Matos. Afterward, he charged the match was fixed, accusing the Kazakhs of offering him money.

WTF? Yes, the World Taekwondo Federation, secretary general Yang Jin-suk later said:

"This is an insult to the Olympic vision, an insult to the spirit of taekwondo and, in my opinion, an insult to mankind,"

But, just par for the course of Castro’s revolution.

Obama bin Biden

The first promise of the Obama bin Biden campaign has already been broken. Just like my heart.

Like an idiot I signed up on the Obama website so I would find out immidiately who Barry O. had chosen as a running mate via text message ...

Lies...

It was all over the place and I never got a text message.

Obama bin Biden o8.

Thanks guys.

Probecita La Chinita.

Parece de que les cogieron la mentira a los chinos comunistas.

La chinita, He Kevin, la que le gano la medalla de oro a la rusa-americana, Nastia Liukin, parece que es menor de edad para competir en la competencia de gimnásticas de las Olimpiadas en Beijing.

Hoy en días, es muy difícil cambiar la historia como están acostumbrados los comunistas. Resulta que un experto en computadoras americano, usando una computadora hecha en la China probablemente, ha descubierto documentos que señalan que el gobierno chino oficialmente le agrego edad a la chinita para que pudiera competir.

¡Que cosa! Comunistas mintiendo.

El comité internacional olímpico, que se estaba haciendo el de la vista achinada, no le ha quedado mas remedio que investigar el escándalo por las pruebas de que se han descubierto.

Pero a este gusano le da lastima con la chinita.

Esta niña no es mas que una esclavita del sistema comunista que no tiene voz para defenderse o derechos para imponerse contra el parido comunista chino.

Y cuando se compruebe de que su edad fue falsificada, el partido comunista no tendrá mas remedio de volver a cambiar la historia y culpar a alguien por haber cambiado la edad de He para “salvar cara.” O culpan a un entrenador del equipo gimnástico o los padres de la niña. Pero a alguien hay que echarle el muerto y la chinita, caerá en desgracia y su carrera como atleta terminara antes de empezar.

Where Pigs Fly...

The Cuban revolution has always been about a pig.

They have managed to get a pig and put some lipstick on it and say “look no one has ever been able to put lipstick on pig before!”

And their leftist friends abroad have admired and praised the make up and even marveled at the flying pig even though they know damn well the pig is only flying in the face of all that is good and decent.

It’s as amazing as it is incomprehensible.

Today I came across a headline:

“Cuba, needing more food, opens fields to entrepreneurs”

At first, I thought that it had to do with allowing foreign companies to come in and set up farming interests. But no, astoundingly, they were referring to Raul’s recent edict of allowing Cuban farmers to farm some more government land.

So basically they took the pig that is sharecropping and put the entrepreneurial lipstick on it to make the pig attractive.

In another example, this one getting a lot of press since it was published in the Miami Herald:

Cuba reaps goodwill from doctor diplomacy

… Meet the Cuban doctor, the most widely deployed and effective ideological and diplomatic weapon in the almost 50 years since Fidel Castro seized control of the island. And, in the past few years, the most profitable export of the country's economy…

… The strategic deployment of doctors to the world's toughest places has garnered Cuba praise and much goodwill. As Feinsilver notes in her book, that goodwill has contributed to the island's election to leadership positions in many international organizations from the late 1970s to the present, including the Non-Aligned Movement and the United Nations Security Council…

Now, clearly Cuba is exploiting its citizens by selling them as indentured servants at best or commodities at worst, to score propaganda points and make the pig look good. But rather than say “Cuba reaps profits off slave doctor labor”, they choose to call the indentured servitude of the Cuban doctors abroad as “diplomacy” when it’s clear that they understand that the regime’s motivation is profits and propaganda

Jokers To The Right ...

Now that Russian Emperor Putin has decided to recapture Russia’s old Soviet Glory, it has become clear that the cold war is back on.

President Bush is often ridiculed for saying that he looked into Vlad’s eyes, getting a “good sense of his soul.” Bush never said what he saw in that dark abyss, apparently isn’t wasn’t all puppies and pan cakes.

He promptly went on to push for further NATO expansion into former Warsaw Pact territory in Eastern Europe.

Even before Russia’s “humanitarian incursion” into Georgia, the Ruskies started making noises about turning Cuba into a Russian client state, once again.

In this Chicago Tribune op-ed, Dennis Byrne jokingly suggest that the US counter the Russian’s Georgian land grab with a land grab of our own-Cuba:

Russian boss-man Vladimir Putin probably figured he scored a big one for his reawakening empire by barging into the pro-Western, democratic nation of Georgia.

Fine, if that's how Putin Bonaparte wants to play it, we'll take . . . hmmmm . . . Cuba. We'll roll right in, just like the Russian tanks and fleet rolled into Georgia, and say, "Hello, Fidel. Good-bye Fidel."

Wishful thinking, but it will never happen. Americans, you see, worry about what the Russians and the rest of the world think of them and long ago when Khrushchev looked into the soul of a young American President, he saw weakness which resulted in an assurance that the US would never depose Fidel. And so it goes.

Interestingly, Byrne, who sounds like a conservative or neo-conservative at the very least, wades into leftist territory and manages to get a dig in on the Cuban exile community:

Who has a greater interest in securing the liberties of the Cuban people than the tens of thousands of Cubans living in America whose gifts of billions to relatives back home is what has kept Castro's pathetic communist utopia going?

Ouch! Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right…only It's so hard to keep a smile on my face.

For What It's Worth

Way back in the day, in 1968, wedged between the Summer of Love and Woodstock, there was the summer of protests. In Chicago, the anti-war, anti-establishment, anti-everything except sex, drugs and rock and roll Hippies had their heyday protesting at the Democratic National Convention. There were riots, fights, arrests, (mostly for procession), and bra-burnings. It was profound.

.

Now pushing 60, the “me” generation radicals are anxious to relive their glory days by protesting against the Iraq War at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

One of the many protest groups promising to rain on Barry’s parade is actually called Re-Create ‘68.

Ironically, they will essentially be protesting Barack Obama’s coronation which ostensibly represents a generational power shift from the Baby Boomer’s whining to the exasperated (from listening to the boomer’s whining) tweeners and Gen X’ers. Obama managed to eek out a victory over Baby Boomer Hillary Clinton by riding a wave of support from exasperated young people who were probably sick and tired of hearing their parents tell them about how they changed the world by growing their hair, wearing bell bottoms, “experimenting” with drugs, self absorption and whining.

The perpetually disenchanted, acid popping boomers eventually whined their way into positions of power, finding a home in McGovern’s democratic party and taking it over. There, as Prozac popping politicians they continued their crusade against their parent’s America, their cumbaya-ing, self congratulatory pats in the back, and perpetual whining without ever offering any concrete practical solutions to the problems that they themselves created when they demanded change.

Now that another generation is the change we’ve been waiting for, the die hard 60’s radicals are fighting to maintain the status quo and are boarding their time machines, Volkswagen Microbuses, and heading to Denver to whine about … Viet Nam Iraq. But…you better stop, hey what’s that sound?

There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware
I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind
I think it's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
What a field-day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly say, hooray for our side
It's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid
You step out of line,
the man come and take you away
Stop, now, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, children, what's that sound Everybody look what's going down

It’s the sound of a jail cell. This ain’t your daddy’s ’68 or his ‘68 DNC convention. So, for What It’s Worth, activist groups are complaining that the "heat" in the city of Denver has built a “secret jail” – like camp x-ray in Guantanamo which they are calling "Gitmo on the Platte". More like a time out room, really, for infantile radical wannabes.

El Combinado De Denver

Protesting in the US is easy. So easy, in fact, that even the clueless can do it successfully. The radical's concern:

Protest groups questioned whether the makeshift facility would be suitable for inhabitation after years as a storage facility.

Now I'm beginning to understand why these so called radicals wail about "gitmo" but remain silent about the greater jail that is the rest of the island of Cuba. They only want to conduct safe, comfortable and convenient protest where "the man" can guarantee air conditioning, private bathrooms and cable. These guys couldn't hold a candle to Antunez or Darsi Ferrer.

Defectors and Traitors

When one decides to leave a totalitarian regime, one “defects” which is an antiseptic modern euphemism for escaping.

Cuban athletes that escape Fidel Castro’s stable of athletes are said to be “defecting.”

As an aside, it’s interesting how there have been no defections of Cuban athletes in the Totalitarian Olympics in Beijing……..I wonder why…….

When athletes in any other country decide to live and work in another country, they just move. When Cuban athletes decide to do the same, it’s an international incident.

The United States is home to athletes from a host of countries and when international competitions come around no-one bats an eyelash when these athletes choose to represent their native countries. Many Olympians from other countries live and train right here in South Florida, for example.

Cuban athletes who decide to leave Cuba and purse happiness somewhere else are labeled traitors to their country and, more importantly, to the revolution that has given them everything. They are not allowed to represent their country ever again though many would probably like to. They are stripped of their citizenship and birthright.

The rest of the world shrugs this violation of human rights off as the eccentricity of Cuba’s fiery benevolent dictator for life, Fidel. Crazy Cuban quaintness.

In the rest of the world it’s a totally different story.

In these 2008 Totalitarian Olympics we are even being treated to an American athlete, Becky Hammon, who did not make the US women’s Olympic Basketball team and was offered Russian citizenship so that she can play on the Russian squad.

Becky and the Reds

Hammon’s questionable decision to turn her back on her country so that she could fulfill her life-long dream of being an Olympian has not made many headlines. Everyone just shrugs it off as if it was no big deal. And I have yet to see Dubya writing a reflection denouncing her as a traitor and chastising the Imperialist Putin for luring her away with his Petro-Rubbles and Stolichnaya Elit Vodka.

Here in America, many people actually defend her asinine and selfish choice. And while other folks like me bid her good riddance and hope they tear up her passport and put her on the terror-watch list, the vast majority couldn’t care less.

As a matter of fact, Jim Lampley interviewed the newly naturalized Russian lass today and very diplomatically asked her if she felt a tug of her heartstrings when the American delegation marched into the “Bird’s Nest” in Beijing. She said no and deflected the question by saying that she did feel a little jealousy because Team USA's outfits “were so cool.”

Now I can see why Ms. Hammon made the decision to represent the country that pioneered a political system that is responsible for the deaths of 100 Million souls, and as evidenced by recent events seems to be flirting with the notion reclaiming its former “glory,” and justifies it as merely a “once in a lifetime opportunity.” Pure shallowness.

Lies and Revised History

In case you didn’t read it all over the internet, today is Fidel Castro’s birthday.

It says everywhere he’s turning 82. That’s the official party line, the official lie.

That Fidel was born a bastard on August 13, there is no doubt. The year he was born and thus his real age, is another story.

One would be right in arguing that the year of his birth is irrelevant since it would not bring back the thousands of dead or erase the suffering that the birth of this bastard son of a wealthy Spanish plantation owner and his underage cook has caused. But, there’s no point in blindly repeating another of Castro’s lies and there is a point in highlighting how just about everything in the Cuban revolution is a myth including its leader’s age.

Early last year, Dr. Mario Beira, a Cuban-American psychoanalyst and childhood friend shared his extensive research on the circumstances of Castro’s birth with me and convinced me that Fidel was really born in 1927, not 1926 as he claims. That would make him 81 today, not 82 as is being reported.

Last year, on Castro’s birthday, the University of Miami's Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies’ Brian Latell tried to set the record straight and referenced Dr. Beira’s work as to when Castro acquired his new “birthday.”

In this short excerpt from Dr. Beira’s work, we find that not only did Fidel have many birth certificates, but also different names.

… Fidel’s birth was not registered or recorded in any legal document until January 19 of 1935, when the child was baptized, at the age of seven and a half, in the city of Santiago de Cuba. His baptism certificate records his name then as Fidel Hipolito Ruz Gonzalez. As Furitati reports, Fidel was not allowed to receive the paternal surname (Castro) as his parents had not yet legally married (pg 48).

According to Furiati, three birth certificates were subsequently created for the boy. The first, in 1938, registers his name as Fidel Casiano Ruz Gonzalez, that is to say, with Casiano, rather than Hipolito, as his middle name. The next certificate – redacted on May 10th of 1941, when Fidel was a teenager – reveals Castro receiving for the first time the name by which he is known today: Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz. [i]

Fidel Hipolito Casiano Ruz Gonzalez Alejandro Castro Ruz who as we all know was born on the 13, (26÷2), goes on to build a whole revolutionary mythology around the number 26, He started to plan the revolution on the 52 year (26x2) And started it on the 26th of July when he was 26 years old.

Of course, once Fidel took control, he had the power to go back and rewrite the historical records to support whatever personal myth he wanted to create for himself, including re-writting biographies.

Fidel Hipolito Casiano Ruz Gonzalez Alejandro Castro Ruz’s own recreated history may absolve him and cover up his tracks, but the truth will come to light and convict him.

Throwing The Baby Out With The Raft Water

I don’t know where the Miami Herald finds them, but they do.

The latest Cuban columnist, rhymes with communist, to get my attention is Myriam Marquez who is now making the case for the land of the free and the home of the brave to return EVERY Cuban who tries to escape the island back to Fidel & Raul.

Frankly, I’m having trouble following her logic. First she argues that the “real” refugees were those who came in the 60’s and in the 90’s like her cousins. Those who pay to escape are not worthy of political asylum because…I’m not sure. You escape a concentration camp and a life of slavery anyway you can.

Apparently, this Cubanita’s, rhymes with….oh never mind!, sensitivities where hurt when some recently exiled Cubans broke the law by committing Medicare-aid fraud and took their ill gotten gains back to Fidel rather than go to jail here.

Because of these bad mangoes, all Cubans that risk the shark infested Florida straights should be sent back because there’s a one in a million chance that they could possibly, maybe... do something that might embarrass the columnist in front of her otherwise open-minded Anglo friends. Pre-emptive deportations. Our version of the Cuban regime’s “peligrosidad” laws.

Ms. Marquez’s logic is that if the United States would take over all of the jailer’s responsibilities for the regime by returning every refugee that is either intercepted at sea or caught in Hialeah and ostensibly make all Cubans illegal aliens, that this would put pressure on the Cuban regime and force Cubans to revolt in helpless desperation. Cubans would stop escaping because they would know that they would be illegals in the US. (that's worked wonders with Haitians and Mexicans, by the way) and would be forced to jump in front of Castro's bullets instead of into a raft or awaiting smuggler's boat. In other words, the US government should help the Castro regime oppress Cubans in order to encourage the Cubans to help themselves be free. Got that?

If Ms. Marquez cares so much about safeguarding the Cuban Adjustment Act, she should argue that the “wet foot” policy instituted by the Clinton administration be scrapped because that rule is in direct conflict with the spirit and the letter of the Cuban Adjustment Act. Abolishing the “wet foot” provision would also do away with the arbitrariness of the wet foot/dry foot policy that she complains about. No wet foot, no problem. This would also put pressure on the Castro regime because a mass exodus would ensue and something would have to be done –quickly. I can make a dumb argument as well as anybody.(It’s a gift).

But it doesn’t seem that my solution would sit to well with Ms. Marquez who’s main motivation seems to be the fear of letting more Cubans in-darker, faster talking, shifty eyed ones with funny names that start with a "Y"-not like her cousins. After all, they’re just “potential” law breaking criminals. They used to say the same things about the Irish and the Italians, only it wasn’t the Irish and the Italians saying it about their own. Then again, they didn’t have the Miami Herald back then to scour the United States and look under every rock to find one that would be willing to denigrate their own in print, for money and condescending acceptance.

Ms. Marquez ends her piece with a warning:

U.S. benevolence has its limits.

Hmmm...

I wonder if that’s the same benevolent US that considered Cuba a fruit that was ripe for the picking and picked a war with Spain in order to annex Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines? Or the same benevolent US that shoved the Platt Amendment down our Cuban throats? Or the same benevolent US that ensured that Castro would take over by refusing to sell arms to Batista and by telling him that they would not longer support his government or that of "his" newly elected president? Or the same benevolent US that left 1,500 men to die on the beaches of the Bay of Pigs by reneging on the promised air cover? Or the same benevolent US that cut a deal with the USSR that sealed our future as an enslaved satellite of the USSR by agreeing not to invade Castro’s Cuba or allow any exiles to the same? Or the same benevolent US that due to all of the above, took responsibility and drafted The Cuban Adjustment Act as a way to remedy its foreign policy mistakes and bring some relief to its victims, only to later cut another deal with Castro and institute the wet foot/dry foot policy?

That benevolent US? ... Please!

The Beijing Goose-Step

I really had no intention of watching the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Olympic, but we had company and one of the guests wanted to see the propaganda festivities and so the TV went on.

The first thing I saw was a bunch of goose-stepping Chinese soldiers hoisting up the communist flag. It wasn’t bad enough that I had to watch the world pay respect to a symbol of oppression, torture and death, but they were goose-stepping! Goose-stepping. Bad guys goose-step. It’s the international equivalent of a black hat in an old western. The good guys never goose-step.

And then, the propaganda started. It was all about China and its historic struggle to achieve its destiny as a world power.

The main "theme" was Harmony. It’s China’s chief dictator, Hu’s, vision for society. Bob Costas who proved last night he would have no problems working for Cuba’s state owned television, (we already knew Matt Lauer has what it takes from his Today Show coverage in Havana), kept telling us about First Party Secretary Hu’s vision of a “harmonious society.” A “harmonious society” in totalitarian China, of course, means doing what you are told and asking no questions. Kindda like a Harmonious Classroom.

At one point, they had something like 2,000 synchronized drummers, dressed eerily similar to Cuban Pioneros de la Revolucion, pounding what sounded like a war march. One of the hosts mentioned that the drummers had been told to smile lest they intimidate the western audience. Smiling drumming red demons. To me it was like a vision of an Orwellian totalitarian hell with the masses working as one to achieve a common goal. Of course if anyone had acted as an individual and banged a different tune, disharmony would have resulted and the common goal not achieved. Take note. Apunten…(fuego).

In another incredible display of collective artistic accomplishment they had these box like things that moved around as if they were connected. It was cool. Ultimately it “spelled” the symbol “harmony”. Then people jumped out of the boxes, like strippers from a cake-or prisoners from a cell. They practiced 4 months, 8 hours a day, sometimes more, to get it right. This kind of spectacle will never be duplicated unless the Olympics are held in a place where they have an unlimited amount of people that can be forced to do this. Maybe they were forced to live in the boxes for 4 months. Who knows, it’s not like they have rights or they have laws in China to prevent these kinds of things.

We were told by NBC that China had opened its doors to the world in 1978, while they were retracing China’s historical progress, communist countries always have a historical progress, not historical events. That’s because they’re stuck on stupid, Marx, and believe in societal evolution, that is men, evolve, (are forced), to go from being individuals into communal citizens. Anyway, they totally skipped Mao’s Cultural Revolution in the history lesson. Or maybe NBC went to commercial….

At this point, Costas reminded us how much China had changed since then and how it had decided to allow individuals to seek their own futures…or something like that..(I’m looking for the quote). As I was screaming, I was asked by my life partner to either shut up or leave the room because I was “being political”. Truth is political, Chinese Communist propaganda piped into your living room in HD Peacock living color and read by in English by an American isn’t. Time for ANOTHER beer.

Sadly, I came back to witness the Olympic flag being carried and hoisted up by some more goose-stepping Red Army soldiers. I left on my own account this time. “Red Army” I kept saying…as I left to get yet another beer.

I sat to watch the lighting of the torch. Four years ago, in Athens, a guy that went to my High School, a Hiller, brought in the torch into the stadium. This time it was someone I share another bond with, communism. The lighting of the torch was like as always, spectacular.

And then, we all cheered our countries of origin. As usual, when I saw the Cuban flag,(or was it the Puerto Rican flag-there's always a momentary pause- Oh wait, it couldn't have been the Puerto Rican Flag, they practically cut PR out of the parade to go to commercial-bastards), well, I got that bittersweet feeling I get when I see a Cuban team at an international sports competition-wanting to root for the flag but not the regime. And I imagined the males on the Cuban team hitting on the French, Italian and Australian women and I cheered then on...

Sergeant Clueless

If you could meet any person dead or alive, who would you meet?

Jesus? Buddha? Mohamed? Moses?

Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot?

Personally, I’d like to meet Jesus and clarify a few things.

Well, one of our Olympic athletes, US Army sergeant Dremiel Byers who’s a member of America’s Greco-Roman wrestling team says his choice would be Fidel. (!?!?)

Of course he must have a really good reason for his choice, no?

"I don't know, it just seems like he'd be interesting," Byers said when pressed.

Perhaps realizing that his choice was somewhat odd, he dug a deeper trench in an effort to justify it:

"I think I wanted to meet Castro to see if I could talk him into letting me get one of those hats from him,'' Byers said at a press conference.

Byers called Castro a "great guy.''

That’s nice.

What defines a “great guy” in Byers’ view:

"He's a strong person, strong willed, what have you,'' Byers said. "I heard a story when I was in Cuba that one of their athletes got a medal and he got to have dinner with Castro. They were sitting at the table and (Castro) said, 'Champion, huh?' Then he reached into his wallet and pulled out a dollar and hands it to the guy... I was like, 'What did you do?' And he said, 'I acted like it was the best dollar I ever got.'''

Byers should enjoy his stay at the Olympic Concentration Camp err I mean Village in Beijing, there’s lots of “great guys” or what have you, over there in China.

And maybe when he comes back, the President can invite him to the white house and slip him a greenback for his efforts and we’ll see how he likes being humiliated by his commander in chief.

Air Obama

I'm having difficulty gauging this Senator Obama comment:

"We could save all the oil that they're talking about getting off drilling, if everybody was just inflating their tires,"

OK. Last month I got new tires. Right now they are exactly 32 PSI- the same as they were last month.

Hmmm...and yet I'm still spending $40 plus dollars every time I fill my Tc.

Maybe now that the energy crisis and dependence on foreign oil have been solved because the Senator has the World's largest proven reserves of arrogant hot air, when I go to gas up tomorrow, it will run me $25 like it did last year.



No. I don't think so.

But watch what happens to oil prices the minute that the first drill hits the Alaskan soil or sand on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. It's called supply and demand.

I already lived in a country where what determined the economic value of goods was the collective effort and good camaraderie, (emphasis on comrade) that citizens put into things and not market factors like supply and demand. Che Guevara economics.

I'm really not interested in how much oil we can theoretically save if everybody decides to cooperate and inflate their tires in a show of collective unity. No, I'm interested in how much money I can actually save with lower gas prices. Lower Prices I can live with, not empty theories I can believe in-that's my motto. Here's another one:

"We are the Lower Gas Prices We've Been Waiting For"

Now, if my car only ran on platitudes, We'd be in business.

Is that’s the best you can do? …. Please! UPDATED:Egg on Gusano Face

UPDATE:

Ok, So I'm paranoid.... the reason so many Cuban-American sites were not were working was not because of regime hi-jinks, but because of Microsoft lo-tech.

Most of us Cuban American bloggers use sitemeter to track visits and they updated their scripts yesterday without taking into account a bug in Microsoft EI 7.0.

Ramiro wasn't the culprit, it was that other unscrupulous capitalist, Bill Gates. The world doesn't revolve around the Cuban blogosphere! Leason Learned.

Thanks to the reader that took time out to alert me.

Use Firefox, folks.




If your Internet Explorer will not open this blog, download Mozilla Firefox and you can get in that way.

Cuban state security was bored tonight so they blocked access to many Cuban-American blogs through MS Iternet Explorer.

Poor kids. They have to do what they’re told or else…..

The sad part is that with their computer knowledge, these kids would be making a decent living anywhere else in the world, but they're stuck in Cuba being paid slave wages by Ramiro Valdes and forced to do his bidding.



Parece que a los niños de Ramiro los tienen perdiendo el tiempo jugando a hackers esta noche…

Muchachos…yo entiendo que ustedes tienen que hacer los que les ordenen.

Pero con tanto talento deben de dejársela a Ramiro en la mano y cruzar el charco. Por lo menos aquí pagan buen dinero, no la miseria que le pagan a ustedes.

Ustedes saben que los queremos y se les espera con los brazos abiertos siempre.

¡Viva Cuba Libre!