D-Fence.

Raúl is out of change. Literally and figuratively.

Desperate Cubans waited with their still empty glasses of milk to see if their new leader would offer up a timetable to make good on the promised “structural changes” which he announced in his now famous glass of milk speech a year ago.

But no, Raúl did not announce any change or make any other assurances to the Cuban people other than warn them that things are going to change from bad to worse. Like with all thugs, warnings are really promises.

More sacrifice, more struggle, more of the same. Not a warning put a promise.

Like the much ridiculed exiles across the straights in Miami, Raúl looked back to the good ol’ hey days of the Cuban republic when sugar was king and Fidel wasn’t and reminisced about the day his brother started the bleeding and then promised more blood.

Raúl “warned:”

''We shall continue paying special attention to defense, regardless of the results of the next presidential elections in the United States,'' Raúl said.

Defense.

Raúl, of course, means defense of the revolution, of the status quo, of his regime.
And who exactly does he have to defend the revolution from?

Jamaica? The Dominican Republic? The Cayman Islands?

Those bitter exiles in Miami clinging to their nostalgia of Batista’s Cuba? Hardly, the United States government makes dam sure that will never happen.

The US-The Empire just 90 miles due North? If the US was serious about getting rid of the Castro Nostra, they would be gone in about 12 hours and they know it.

The real enemies of the so called Cuban revolution are its victims-the Cuban people. It is the Cuban people that Raúl was warning in his speech.

He wanted to assure them that his priorities have not changed. His number one priority is to stay in power come what may even if it’s the audacious Barry O.

The real estate market in South Florida is tanking, foreclosures are sky high, gasoline prices are in the stratosphere and the dollar doesn’t go as far as it used to, all of which is cutting into the regime’s remittance business.

Times are tough. It’s going to cost more to arm and train the regime’s goon squads. The price of surveillance equipment is going up. Ramiro needs cash to subdue the “wild colt” that is the internet. The Cuban armed forces need upgrades to defend the regime against the dangerous Ladies in White, the FLAMUR women, kids wearing “cambio” bracelets, assorted writers and poets and the 98 pound blogger Yoani Sanchez. Repression can’t be done on the cheap, you know.

Therefore, Cubans will have to be a little hungrier and a little more miserable so that Raúl can continue to defend them against freedom, happiness and prosperity.

Scary "Barry O."

On July 2nd, Barry O. gave his “Call To Service” speech.

I was taking a few days off for a little R,R&D around that time, so I didn’t pay too much attention because frankly, I would have expected nothing more from Barry O. than something along the lines of “ask not what your country can do for us, but what you can do for me.”

To my jaw dropping dismay, today, by coincidence I find out that Barry O. really laid out his socialist agenda for America in a sugar coated version of Stalinism a la John Lennon’s sugar coating of Marx’s communist manifesto in the song “Imagine.”

I read in passing that Senator Obama had issued a call for a “civilian security force” in the July 2nd speech. That phrase made the hair in the back of my neck stand up since I grew up being accosted by a “civilian security force” called the CDR, (committee for the defense of the revolution), in Cuba.

So I looked up the transcript of the speech and I read it, and re-read it and I could not find the quote which I had thought I had read. And, unfortunately, I could not remember where I had read it.

But I kept googling and I found this link Obama's 'Big Brother' vanishes from speech

Wow. What "Big Brother" idea did Barry O put forth that his campaign was so afraid that they omitted it from the transcript?

Here it is:

Democrat Sen. Barack Obama's stunning assertion in a recent speech that the U.S. needs a "civilian national security force" that would be as powerful, strong and well-funded as the half-trillion dollar Army, Marines, Navy and Air Force is not included in published transcripts of his prepared remarks.

Actual Transcript:

"We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded."

VIDEO:

Basically, what Obama is talking about is creating a Committee for the Defense of Liberal Ideology and Political correctness funded by a half trillion taxpayer dollars.

National Security for this crowd is not about stopping terrorists from killing our children. National Security means to teach our children to understand the terrorists and their motivations so that our children can learn how to live their lives submissively so as not to offend the sensitivities of the very sensitive America haters.

Their version of National Security is to force you to act for the common good of society and not in your own best interest. Since this goes against human nature, the half trillion dollar “Civilian National Security Force” will have to force Americans to change their nature and create a new citizen that is self sacrificing and collective in nature-an ant-like new man, like Che's and Fidel's new man.

This concept is eerily similar to the Castroite CDR block snitch network that I grew up with only better funded and more ideologically pure. Next thing you know Barry O. will set up “field schools” where middle school children will have to go on month long stays to cultivate the bio fuels that will replace gasoline...

So when I'm President, I will set a goal for all American middle and high school students to perform 50 hours of service a year, and for all college students to perform 100 hours of service a year. This means that by the time you graduate college, you'll have done 17 weeks of service

No wonder Fidel calls him the more "advanced" presidential candidate.

.

Be afraid, be very afraid. No, on second thought get angry.

.

Offers That Could And Couldn't Be Refused

I keep getting alerts for two books about Cuba that must have just been published.

I’m weak. I clicked.

Apparently one is a novel about some Americans that were living the high life in the United Fruit Company’s “colonial” Cuba . Yes, before WalMart and Haliburton, there was the United Fruit Co. It all came to end when the Castro mob muscled the Americans out.

The other is about how the Cosa Nostra lost Cuba to the Castro Nostra. A turf war between mobs, basically. Only the Castro mob had and Army with planes and tanks and everything- no match for mafiosos with tommy guns, ‘45’s and shark skin suits.

These books are really, really, really, according to the reviews, good because they explain the historical events and the social injustices that fermented and justified the rise to power of Castro & co. Those other books written by Castro’s victims show the misery and pain that Cubans have had to endure since then, but lack the nuanced historical perspective that explain what led the young revolutionary to destroy a country in order to save it from itself. In other words, the heroics. Here we are fifty years and counting and we’re still trying to rationalize and justify the evil that befell Cuba.

I get the Mafia thing every so often… “Didn’t you see The Godfather II?”

Aside from the fact that it’s asinine to get your history from Hollywood movies, it’s even more stupid, naive and offensive to justify the thousands of deaths and the many years of oppression inflicted by the Castro mob because at least they got rid of Mayer Lansky.

Back during Prohibition, gangsters ran the big cities like Chicago and New York-Didn’t you see The Untouchables and The Godfather?

A mobster named Bugsy Siegel built Las Vegas… “Didn’t you see Bugsy?”

Jeez, maybe they should have declared martial law, suspended habeas corpus, rationed food and closed the borders for fifty years to eradicate the mob. It sounds, by some of the comments I get, that some Americans would have agreed with those courses of action. After all, it worked in Cuba and they make it sound like Castro’s actions were partly justified because there was gasp! Organized crime involvement in the casinos!

Then there’s the whole Cuba as colony of America and its corporations idea. Certainly America because of its wealth and proximity to Cuba, had a lot of influence on the island. But the American companies did employ Cubans directly and because of the free market, whose basic laws of Supply and Demand where the same as they are now even in the fifties, were forced to pay a fair wage and abide to Cuban law. Any unfair business practices would have been subject to those laws. And any employees of the large American corporations in Cuba were free to find another employer. They didn’t steal land, they had to buy it, you could refuse their offers. If the “Anglos” barricaded themselves in company enclaves where they didn’t have to deal with the local Cuban, perhaps that was more due to their prejudices and fears than to a way of life. All other immigrants in Cuba, and there were MILLIONS, became Cubans. They chose to segregate themselves and mimic the plantation lifestyle of old Dixie as was their right and choice in a relatively free Cuba.

Those days stand in stark contrast to Cuba under Castro where workers are only allowed to work for one employer who sets prices, wages and controls everything in society. A Cuba where there are no more immigrants, but one that lost over 10% of its population. A Cuba where foreign companies cannot pay the Cuban worker directly, but must pay the Castros who in turn make the Cubans and offer they can’t refuse.

I don’t see how getting rid of a rich, foreign aristocracy and a few thousand, rich powerful and influential families justifies enslaving a whole population, destroying the whole middle class by making everyone equally poor and destitute and ruled by one super rich, super powerful family and its minions.

cha-ching…..

The “Land Reform” articles continue.

My head hurts.

More land is being made available for farming.

Really?

What exactly did Raúl do to make this land “available”?

Did he grow the island?

Did he fill in a bay or two on the Cuban coastline and reclaim the ocean for farming? (Barry O.: take note)

The land has always been available for farming. It’s been sitting there going to waste because the regime, which up to now centrally planned and managed the agricultural programs failed, either by design or by default, to effectively manage the land.

This is yet another white flag of surrender-an admittance by the regime that another one of its policies, another one of their internationally accepted myths – the sustainable, eco friendly Cuban agriculture model- is nothing more than a failure wrapped in a veneer of lies and propaganda.

But now, raising food prices-slumping dollar-are cutting in the regime’s profits so they are forced to make a policy u-turn and with the help of the international press making it sound like another of Raúl’s, “reforms.” (by the way, have you noticed how Raúl’s “changes” have now turned to “reforms”?)

Please!

So far the regime is going to allow the Cuban guajiros to buy farming supplies from the regime…cha-ching….. They are going to allow the farmers the privilege of working harder so that they can produce more and the regime can import less…cha-ching…The farmers will have to clear the fallow land of the thorny Marabu to make it productive again, saving the regime the time, money and effort of having to do it themselves…cha-ching…The guajiros will then have to sell their produce to the regime at a price set by the regime…cha-ching…cha-ching…AND then the guajiros are going to pay taxes on the extra income that they make…cha-ching…

The Cuban guajiros may not be the most sophisticated people on the planet, but do have common sense, an uncommon sense of self reliance and pride. They are nobody's fools, especially Raúl’s.

Common Communist Miscommunications

I have to admit that I didn’t pay too much attention to the daily communist indoctrination while I was being rewarded with my free “education” in Fidel’s schools growing up.

But I did get the gist of it. The people this, and the people that. Everything was owned by the people, (el pueblo), and for the people. I remember being confused because “el pueblo” owned everything, but nobody had anything. Pueblo is one of those rare words in Spanish that can mean two things: the people and a town so in my 6 year old mind, I figured that there was a town, (pueblo), somewhere that owned everything and I wanted to go there. Badly.

My father set me straight like only a Cuban father would. He told me not to be an idiot-Castro owned everything. They didn’t teach “Building your child’s Self Esteem 101 at Cuban father school, but Lesson learned: People means Fidel. Substitute Fidel for people and you had the truth. It worked for other countries as well like Mao’s Republic of China.

Anyway, what reminded me of my first grade communist epiphany was an article in the AP, Associated Parrots, informing the world that Raúl Castro was allowing the people to farm some government land.

HAVANA (AP) — Communist officials decreed Friday that private farmers and cooperatives can use up to 100 acres (40 hectares) of idle government land, as president Raul Castro works to revive Cuba's floundering agricultural sector.

Government land? Hold the new cell phone…..

The people own the land. That was the point of that blessed “reforma agraria” that they wouldn’t stop telling us about in school. It was all about Fidel taking the land away from the rich exploiters of the people and giving it to the people.

I was confused yet again.

I was going to call the old man, but I didn’t want to get called an idiot. Besides, there’s a whole bunch of people waiting in line to call me an idiot these days without me having to go looking for it. So, I kept reading….

Ownership will stay with the state. Private farmers can get concessions of up to 10 years, renewable for another 10. Cooperatives and companies can have renewable 25-year terms. And all will have to pay taxes for the lands, though the decree gave no details

It certainly sounds like the land is owned by the “state”. So I guess that in Cuba’s communism, property isn’t really owned in common by the people, it’s owned by the state-the regime as I call them. Another epiphany. They had lied to me about common ownership in communism.

But the same general principle I learned in first grade still applies. All you have to do is substitute Castro with the “state” and it works.

Castro is the state and he owns everything.

All Over But The Crying?

Wow! Did you hear that splash?

Was that a Chinese or Brazilian drill exploring for $135 a barrel crude in the Cuban waters off the Florida coast? (Heaven knows it’s not Exxon-Mobil or Shell exploring the American waters, Congress forbid!).

Was it the just re-established US 4th Fleet hitting the waters?

Was it the much publicized and promised 500,000 refugee “mass exodus” out of Cuba all jumping off the Malecon simultaneously?

Was it The Miami Herald finally buckling under the weight of its own biases and sinking into Biscayne Bay?

Maybe it was just me getting out of my $400 a month habit, (my car), and sticking my leg-ankle deep-in a puddle.

No, I think it was the embargo, now slowly sinking into the Florida Straights. Glug, glug…

The Bush administration has declared open season on sanctions. First, the deal with North Korea, now the talks with Iran. The “Axis of Evil” demolished as quickly as it was constructed-by the same crew, even.

I can’t even begin to guess what this strategery is all about…

Maybe Dubya is trying out a new psy-ops operation to bring down the price of crude futures by easing tensions with Iran.

Maybe it’s an election year Morrisian triangulation strategery to help the Republicans keep the White House by “out-diplomatizing” the newly American flag lapel wearing “Barry O” and appeasing and pleasing every tyrant on the face of the ever warming planet and thus neutralizing the “not talking to your enemies” gripe that seems to strike a chord with so many of the “turn the other cheekers” in the American electorate. (try turning the other cheek on a rattle snake and see what happens)

Who knows? All I can do is shake my head in disgust and take another sip of my ice cold, All-American Budweiser. Not!

What I do know is that all these events will make it almost impossible for Washington to continue the silent treatment that it has given to the tyranny 90 miles due south of US1’s mile maker 1.

The Bush administration has decided to “negotiate” with the two remaining rogue nations on the “Axis of Evil”. Both are America hating, nuclear proliferating, terrorist financing, immoral tyrannies that haven’t made any real concessions to be allowed the right to join civilized and law abiding nations at a negotiating table. After all, I haven’t seen any reports of North Koreans being allowed to own computers or cell phones. Nor has the theocracy ruling Iran announced that it will provide free sex change operations to transgendered jihadists.

And so, what is Dubya planning on saying when the Castro fan club in Congress starts to pressure his administration to negotiate with Raúl and bring down the economic sanctions? What convincing logical reason can one come up with to justify negotiations, concessions and relations with Pyongyang and Tehran and not Havana?

As I sit here sipping on my InBev,(a company that also brews Bucanero beer in Cuba, by the way), brewed beer, I can’t think of a single solitary one.

So, I raise my bottle to toast the memory of my beloved embargo and say “This Bud was for you”

Raúl's U-Turn

For FIFTY long and painful years Cubans, lead by Fidel & Co., have traveled on a long, lonely and bumpy road where they have had to sacrifice their freedom and comfort supposedly to reach egalitarianism.

Now, those of us who where on that little red bus and have experienced the proletariat road trip in Cuba, know that Fidel’s shining path to egalitarianism was nothing but an excuse to starve and oppress the people into submission, but the reasons given for the misery, struggles and oppression was always reaching the Marxist Shangri-La of an egalitarian classless society.

Marxism is a materialistic vision of reality where classes struggle for limited resources. Only when no one owns anything can they own the same and be equal since Marxism measures man by what he owns rather than by what he is.

The regime had already been making noises that the orthodox Marxist, (and Fidel’s) path to equality was “inconvenient”, but in a speech to the Cuban “parliament” on Friday, Raúl himself came right out and said so:

Socialism means social justice and equality but equality of rights and opportunities, not salaries. Equality does not mean egalitarianism.

That’s interesting.

Basically, what little brother is telling the Cuban people, in his own pragmatic and sardonic way, is that the road they’ve been forced to travel on for the last FIFTY years was going the wrong way because the navigator was holding the map upside down.

Ooops! We’re Lost. The directions were wrong…make a U-turn!

Not only does Raúl say that egalitarianism is the wrong destination, he says that it is another form of exploitation:

This is, in the end, another form of exploitation, that of the exploitation of the responsible worker by the one who is not, or even worse, by the slothful.

So, let’s see: Egalitarianism was a destination imposed on the Cuban people by the revolution. So I guess is he saying that the revolution has been exploiting the Cuban people by leading down the wrong path. I mean Raúl didn’t just drop from outer space and find Cuba on its dismal Soviet-style command economy highway, he drove the bus and made the Cuban people get on –high jacked- AT GUNPOINT!

But now, he’s says the bridge is out and that the little red bus is heading towards the precipice and since it is a Marxist bus it’s difficult to steer and the brakes aren’t that good. All he can do is to tell the hostages to tighten their safety belts and hold on because he’s driving and he’s making a U-Turn.


So now that the bus has made a U-Turn, will Raúl “social justice and equality but equality of rights and opportunities” Castro lead the bus towards Democracy? Not likely. In the same speech, the new bus driver said as much in the same speech:

I reiterate that we will never make even the smallest decision as a result of pressure or extortion, whatever the source: whether a powerful country or an entire continent.

That’s his response to the EU’s decision to lift their symbolic sanctions on the regime and review the Cuban bus’ progress a year from now.

My guess is that the new direction will be to a new Putin style military dictatorship where the Red Mob runs everything with Raúl as the “capo de tutti capi” and all his made men live in luxury. Kindda like now-except the inequalities between citizens have now been officially legitimized.

The 4th.

My favorite holiday, really.

When I tell people that, I get a look. Well, I get lots of looks when I talk, but I really get a LOOK when I say that-followed by the inevitable why?

And I tell them, that if it weren’t for the 4th of July, we might not have any of the other great Holidays.

I’m not trying to be a super American or more patriotic than though.

You see, the circumstances of my childhood left me with some perspectives that really compel me to love and appreciate freedom.

When I was growing up in Cuba, one year, Fidel decided to outlaw Christmas. Just like that. Because he felt like it.

We instead got to celebrate July 26th. Because he felt like it.

On the 4th, we celebrate that all men are created equal and are endowed with their creator with certain unalienable rights and that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

And that is worth celebrating. Take it from somebody who once wasn’t allowed to pursue any of these-even when the pursuit was as simple and innocuous as dangling a few treasured glass Christmas ornaments on an old metal and plastic Christmas tree.

Today, I will pursue happiness and celebrate these Red White and Blue ideals. One song, one plunge in the pool, one corn on the cob, one veggie burger, one beer and one fire cracker at a time – always keeping in mind another place, about 250 miles due South where another Red White and Blue flag waves and where happiness can only be pursued illegally.

And it will begin with this…



Happy 4th!

I’ve been taking some vacation time so I apologize for the infrequent posts.

Since my last post, our Compañero Fidel has penned a few more reflections.

He has now become a true blogger since his reflections appear only on the oxymoronically named Cubadebate. That means that Fidel pens his ideas, many of them dissenting from his little half brother’s policies, for the benefit of foreigners and free Cubans who live abroad since the overwhelming majority of Cubans have no access to the internet. Hmmm…..

Have the Fidelistas lost the power struggle that was not taking place within the Cuban Communist Party?

Who knows? Maybe Raúl is preparing the battle field for the looming wave of repression or for the return of Chairman Fidel, (what outfit would he wear? surely not the olive green commander in chief coustume...surely not the Adidas warm up...),to the Plaza Civica’s reviewing stand and podium to review the July 26 festivities.

Dissident Blogger Fidel

Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez gets more press than Fidel these days.

On Newspapers, Internet Sites, Blogs, TV, Radio, everywhere you go- it’s Yoani says this and Yoani says that. Yoani, Yoani, Yoani…

All the attention given to Yoani must have made a certain dictator, currently out on FMLA, green with envy-or is green from liver failure? No Matter.

The former darling of the international press was being ignored, so even he jumped on the Yoani bandwagon in hopes of regaining some of his lost notoriety. He decided to attack Yoani and managed to make Yoani even more famous even as he made himself more infamous.

Compañero Fidel’s approach to blogging had been to comment on international affairs and world events from his own unique perspective on the pages of his newspapers, Granma and Juventud Rebelde. His sermonic rants not only attacked the hegemony of individual freedom and choice originating in the “Empire” directly due North, but exalted the virtues of the collective misery he brought to Cuba and fought so hard to keep in place. Fidel, no fool, ignored the calls from his little half brother Raul to debate and come up with possible solutions to Cuba’s collective mess published in the same pages. The obvious solution, was, is and always will be not for up for discussion.

Maybe, rather than read the foreign press looking for blogging material, Fidel decided to read his own propaganda sheet, the one he force-feeds to the "masses." In it he found that concessions had been made, deals reached, egalitarianism breached, Fidelismo challenged.

And so Fidel, in the ultimate “if you can’t beat them, join them” move seems to have become, like Yoani, a dissident blogger.

He has taken his act to the internet-where the regular Juan Q. Publico on the Cuban street can’t read his musings-and has started to critisize his brother’s policies.

His first dissenting blog entry on Cubadebate was to trash the European Union for its hypocrital symbolic sanction lifting-just like the rest of the dissidents and dissident bloggers. His brother’s “government” had worked hard to ensure Spain’s cooperation and representation in Brussels. Fidel totally undermined his brother’s policies and publically humiliated Raul and the Spanish with his “diatribe.”

That got everyone’s attention. While he had their attention, Fidel went on to inform the world- that there was no rift in the Cuban Communist Party-of which he’s still Chairman. In this entry, what he’s saying is that it’s the party that rules, not Raul, and that no dissent is allowed-unless he’s doing it. He even threatened to stop blogging and watching sports on TV and devote that time to “other matters”. That’s a threat.

Today I read that the Chinese Communist Party’s head enforcer, He Guoqiang, who is visiting Cuba, had met with Fidel. The AP quotes Fidel as praising the Chinese style socialism:

Castro "underscored the advances of the Chinese people and the importance of socialism with Chinese characteristics" during a two-hour meeting with Politburo member He Guoqiang, according to Cuba's International Press Center.

That means that socialism with “Chinese characteristics” is not pure, egalitarian Marxist socialism. It’s not Fidelismo-and therefore not suitable for Cuba. It also means that Fidel is against any policies that recognize market mechanisms to regulate wages, production, supply and demand, dissenting from the small changes that Raul has tried to implement to save the crumbling revolution.

I look forward to read Fidel’s dissents on Cubadebate…unless they throw him in the cell next to Biscet for "peligrosidad."

Chairman Fidel In Charge

I go away for a few days….

And there’s my half dead blogging nemesis, El Compañero Fidel, blogging me under the table.

It seems he’s gotten his second or third or fourth wind. He was always full of wind, that one.

No sooner had the ink dried on the EU resolution lifting the symbolic sanctions-the Euros are all about symbolism - that Fidel was out there calling the Euros a bunch of enormous hypocrites. Finally! a truth escapes his lips- but for the wrong reasons.

The deal that Spain’s socialist government had worked so hard to broker for the last two years was skewered by the tyrant, because the land of Volvos and the crowded and obnoxious Ikea stores forced the Spaniards to include some annoying language about human rights-probably yet another symbolic gesture, but still annoying.

"From Cuba, in the name of human rights, they demand impunity for those that try to deliver... the homeland and the people to imperialism,"

What cads! The Euros symbolically demand that the regime do not harass, beat, imprison or otherwise silence those who think differently with impunity- while they sip mojitos and screw Cuban teenagers- symbolically, euphemistically and in the flesh.

Anyway, before his brother had a chance to celebrate and embrace the victory in Europe where Spain was able to convince the rest of the EU members to give Raul their symbolic seal of approval, Fidel was already raining on his little brother’s parade.

All Raul’s regime was able to get out was this little blurb before still Chairman Fidel put a big damper on the festivities:

"If it has happened (as described in the news), I think that, yes, it's a step in the right direction," Perez Roque told Reuters

"We've seen the news, but we'll take our time in evaluating the issue, knowing the official decisions and, in the appropriate moment, we will react in an official way," he said.

And that was that.

Then in his next blog entry which he made on Cuba Debate-a debate site where Cuban issues are "debated"-and where ordinary Cubans who have no internet access can’t read much less debate, Chairman Blogger announced to the world that there was NO rift in the Cuban Communist Party:

"I am not now, nor will I ever be at the head of any group or faction. Therefore, it can't follow that there is infighting in the party,"

That means he’s still in charge of the party and there will be no factions, infighting or dissent allowed.

In today’s reflection, where he denies that he his anti European reflection was a diatribe (as described by El Diario de Las Americas), he speaks of watching a lot of sporting events on TV and that perhaps he will “dedicate this time to other activities.”

Watch out Raúl, Chairman Fidel is feeling better... or then again...

Silent Lucidity

If you read the by-lines on the new Fidel video stories, it’s easy to see what the message that the regime was trying to deliver since the international press is more than happy and willing to serve as the regime's P.R. firm and advertising agencies. But that’s nothing new. That’s why we’re here.

The message was that Fidel was Vigorous, Lucid and engaged, no, not engaged to Hugo Chavez, engaged in world events and well enough to be outside in Cuba’s oppressive June tropical heat , wearing the now iconic Adidas warm-up suit.

That warm-up suit! It’s his new super-villain outfit. He’s almost always wearing that one. He’s also got a dark Wilson blue one too, but the Adidas suit is his new look. If you look at all the pictures and videos released of the tyrant, it’s hard to tell which was taken when because of the suit. I mean they could have all been taken the same day.

But we know that isn’t the case because previously…on The Vigorous and The Lucid Soap Opera…they always made sure to include, and very tackily obvious, by the way, a reference to date or current event as proof-proof of life, if you will- that the images weren’t pre recorded at an earlier time. We always got to see the tyrant in his retiree costume either with a newspaper or talking about a specific current event usually with Chavez wearing his junior dictator wannabe costume.

If it wasn’t for those painfully obvious proof of life moments, you would never know when those meetings took place since both super-villains always wear the same costumes.

Anyway, they have strayed from the script on this one and have decided to make this Fidel appearance a silent film. That’s probably because Fidel had such important and indispensible strategic advice for his protégé that it would have been and intelligence bonanza for the Empire if the words had been audible.

In that spirit, I asked a friend who claims she can reads lips to watch the video and try and make out what Fidel was saying. The look on her face was hilarious. She couldn’t make out what he was saying AT ALL. She said between her poor Spanish, the beard, all the gesticulating and the slow and labored way in which the tyrant now speaks it made it almost impossible to make out any words. (She probably just told me she was able to read lips to impress me, but really, all she had to do was pat her head and rub her tummy in a circle at the same time-I’m easily impressed.) She told me that she thinks she made out the words revolution and cow. ?!?!?

So there you have it. The crack team of experts at my disposal have authenticated the latest Fidel video as a silent movie shot at unknown time and location. Fidel in all his silent lucidity…

And since it’s Friday…….a little Silent Lucidity......

Mr. "Vigorous"

Best looking ghost I've ever seen...

Cuban TV shows Fidel Castro chatting with Chavez

HAVANA (AP) —

The 81-year-old Castro looks thinner, and his hair and beard are much whiter in the video images, which did not include any audio. But he nevertheless looks vigorous and animated as he talks with his younger brother, President Raul Castro, and Chavez.

Motor Mouth Reves It Up...

Hugo is saying that his mentor, Fidel, is “alive and well”

Then again, Hugo also said that Castro used to roam the Cuban countryside at night (maybe while dreaming?) and was at one point “almost” jogging, (away from the angel of death?), so you really have to take what the Venezuelan President says with, well, a bag of salt. He also claimed that he was not involved with the Columbian FARC terrorists, but there are some hard-drives that beg to differ with Chavez.

Chavez is an interesting guy who should really wave listened to some free regal advice he was once given and shut up.

When he announced he was going to visit Fidel for what could be the last time, given reports that the Cuban tyrant has undergone yet another intestinal surgery and is in “delicate” condition, he made sure to over explain his visit by making it very clear that it was just a “working” visit.

Now, when Chavez was asked about the visit with Castro, he automatically makes it sound like someone who just went to visit a very sick friend rather than for a "working" visit:

"Fidel is sitting there, alive and well, thinking, writing and dictating important strategies for Cuba and our Latin America,"

(Heaven help us)

What else did Raúl ask you to say, Hugo?

"Raul, he's holding the reins,"

And how about that Cuban revolution which has just made a giant u-turn on the freeway of Marxism and decided that egalitarianism-equal pay- is incovenient? You know the very same revolution that just last week was described by a party official to be in danger of self destruction if it didn’t adress its many problems.

"This (Cuban) revolution is marching on to a drumbeat ... it's more alive than ever,"

Very good, Hugo….but then instead of heading the free regal advice and shutting up, he keeps talking and offers up this gem:

"In the end, we're one and the same revolution,"(Cuba and Venezuela).

There you have it. An admission from the Venezuelan democrat himself that it’s his intention to turn Venezuela in a totalitarian police state just like Cuba since that is the only thing the Cuban “revolution” ever really accomplished.

Thanks for clearing that up, Hugo. I keep trying to convince folks that your 21st Century Socialism and 20th century Stalinism were clones, and now I have you doing it for me.

Rage

I don’t mean to come here and rant, but you have to understand, there are things I read that just make me want to scream.

Like today. I get an e-mail alert, then two, then three, than four: Cuban official says equal pay may not work.

Basically, it’s an article about an article in Granma where some “communist” bastard admits that egalitarianism, when it comes to salaries, doesn’t work or as he says it’s “not convenient”

Not convenient.

This system that they so non-chalantly call an “inconvenience” is communism, since egalitarianism, where everyone doesn’t own anything and has the same material goods as everyone else, is the cornerstone of communism.

Needless to say, this wretched system goes against human nature so the authorities have to force everyone to participate and partake in being equally miserable and un-free.

Fidel Castro and his merry band of thugs decided that they were going to institute this system in Cuba about fifty years ago, at gunpoint, for everyone’s own good, especially theirs.

It has been a disaster, plunging my country into slavery, poverty and misery-all in the name of Marx’s blessed egalitarianism. And all the while utopian idiots world-wide pretending that the Cuban experiment resembled Lennon’s “Imagine” more than Lennin’s executions and state fabricated famine.

So it’s incredibly insulting that after fifty years of destroying a country city by city, street by street, home by home, person by person, by forcing and enforcing this unworkable and brutal system, they have decided it’s “not convenient”

How’s that for cynicism?

Oops we were wrong! Sorry for the inconvenience!

Smashing Pumpkins - Bullet With Butterfly Wings

The world is a vampire, sent to drain

Secret destroyers, hold you up to the flames

And what do I get for my pain?

Betrayed desires, and a piece of the game

Even though I know - I suppose I’ll show

All my cool and cold-like old job

Despite all my rage

I’m still just a rat in a cage

I’m still just a rat in a cage

Then someone will say what is lost can never be saved

Despite all my rage I’m still just a rat in a cage

Now I’m naked, nothing but an animal

But can you fake it, for just one more show?

And what do you want, I want to change

And what have you got when you feel the same

Tell me I’m the only one

Tell me there’s no other one

Jesus was an only son

Tell me I’m the chosen one

Jesus was an only son for you

Despite all my rage I’m still just a rat in a cage

Then someone will say what is lost can never be saved

Despite all my rage I’m still just a rat in a cage

And I still believe that I cannot be saved

EU Sanctions?

Next week, the European Union is going to be reviewing whether to remove the sanctions they imposed on the regime in 2003 when under the cover of the United State’s invasion of Iraq, Fidel put 75 freedom minded Cubans in jail in what is now called the “Black Spring”.

The current Spanish government has taken it upon itself to work on behalf of the Castro regime to get the European Union to drop the sanctions in favor of what Spain calls “critical dialogue” which means they pretend to criticize the regime, while the regime pretends to listen and pretends to make changes and they both line their pockets with Euros.

The EU, however, has to unanimously vote to drop the sanctions. Fortunately, the Czechs and the Poles, who know full well what its like to suffer through a totalitarian dictatorship, will probably not choose to look the other way and be complicit in the continued enslavement of the Cuban people.

Needles to say, the Cuban dissidents are not happy with the possibility of the EU dropping the sanctions:

"What the (Cuban) government wants is for the opposition to be ignored so it can continue its human rights violations without even a single rebuke from the European Union," Agenda for Transition leaders Martha Beatriz Roque and Vladimiro Roca wrote in a letter.

The new dissident group said that any process to normalize relations between the EU and Cuba "must take into account the Cuban people, to whom the dissidents belong.

"Otherwise, it would mean punishing all of civilian society and especially those of us who are fighting for democracy."

Mission Impossible...

... This Revolution Will Self Destruct in...

Perfect Comeback

Senator O "se llena la boca de decir" that a McCain presidency would be akin to a Bush 43 3rd term.

For the most Liberal of Senators in the Senate, it's no compliment to compare his opponent the beleaguered 43rd President.

It's also an attempt to tie Bush's ever falling popularity around McCain's neck.

Fair enough.

But, McCain tonight gave it right back to the rookie Senator from Illinois by saying:

Sen. Obama says that I'm running for a Bush's third terms. It seems to me he's running for Jimmy Carter's second.

Ouch!

Lusting in the heart, Malaise and killer swamp rabbits part deux!

Irked

Che Guevara was born 80 years ago either this month or last month. His birthday is celebrated June 14th, but rumor has it he was born on May 14th and they made him a month younger on his birth certificate to make an honest woman out of his mother.

Since it’s the Argentine's 80th birthday this year, we are being treated to Che fest: Websites, movies and even an American Presidential candidate with Che-Essence.

Che, like Savior Faire, is everywhere, selling everything from vodka, to cars, to t-shirts - a free market system success story being exploited by the very system he destested.

This irony, though, profitable to Castro, Inc. is “irking” his progeny in Cuba. They are sick of their dad’s likeness being used “to make enemies from different classes.” His daughter, Aleida says “It's embarrassing," Maybe they are upset because they’re not receiving any royalties from their billboard of a dead dad.

I find it revolting that the image of a murdering despot like Che is mass-marketed to the unsuspecting masses, but I was there and I saw what he did.

Camilo Guevara, Che’s Cuban son who was named after Camilo Cienfuegos, has not seen Hollywood’s renditions of his father’s life. (Guevara other Cuba children are Aleida and Ceila who was named after Celia Sanchez-a Cuban revolutionary and Fidel Castro mistress)
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"I think Hollywood making its version of his life is positive, as long as they are objective and faithful to real life," Camilo Guevara wrote.
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Should Camilo Guevara ever find out he truth about their father’s life, they may a little more than irked and embarrassed, they might be repulsed. Especially when they find out that Uncle Fidel sent their dad to the Bolivian jungle without support and warning the communist supporters of the guerrillas not to give Guevara not even “one aspirin” in support.

How Does It Feel?

Ahh today we find that some folks went down to Cuba and asked the Cubans how it felt to live behind the Palm Tree Curtain. They were surprised to learn, apparently, that Cubans are like the rest of humans on the planet. And most of them are worried about where their kid’s next meal is going to come from. Imagine that. In a country where food is rationed and they are paid $15-$20 people are worried about their economic woes!

.

"Less than 10 percent listed lack of political freedom as the main problem facing the country" Well Fidel's plan of starving Cuba's citizen and keeping them destitude and isolated has had a 90% success rate. That's good and to think I like to boast that Fidel's been at failure at most everything he's ever tried.

I wonder how many Cubans responded to the survey by saying that their biggest worry was the lack of toilet paper. That’s what I would have said when they asked me : "How does it feel?"

A rare study conducted surreptitiously in Cuba found that more than half of
those interviewed considered their economic woes to be their chief concern

Once upon a time you dressed so fine

You threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn't you?

People'd call, say, "Beware doll, you're bound to fall"

You thought they were all kiddin' you

You used to laugh about

Everybody that was hangin' out

Now you don't talk so loud

Now you don't seem so proud

About having to be scrounging for your next meal.

How does it feel

How does it feel

To be without a home

Like a complete unknown

Like a rolling stone?

Since taking office, Raúl Castro has rolled out a variety of changes, lifting longstanding restrictions on the sale of cellphones and consumer items, access to tourist hotels and renting cars, among other things. The survey did not specifically ask Cubans about those changes.

You've gone to the finest school all right, Miss Lonely

But you know you only used to get juiced in it

And nobody has ever taught you how to live on the street

And now you find out you're gonna have to get used to it

You said you'd never compromise

With the mystery tramp, but now you realize

He's not selling any alibis

As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes

And ask him do you want to make a deal?

How does it feel

How does it feel

To be on your own

With no direction home

Like a complete unknown

Like a rolling stone?

As for the government’s ability to turn things around, Cubans were skeptical, with 70 percent of those interviewed saying they did not believe that the authorities would resolve the country’s biggest problem in the next few years.

You never turned around to see the frowns on the jugglers and the clowns

When they all come down and did tricks for you

You never understood that it ain't no good

You shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you

You used to ride on the chrome horse with your diplomat

Who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat

Ain't it hard when you discover that

He really wasn't where it's at

After he took from you everything he could steal.

How does it feel

How does it feel

To be on your own

With no direction home

Like a complete unknown

Like a rolling stone?

The study to be published Thursday found that young people were much more critical of Raúl Castro’s government than their parents and grandparents were. Nearly 70 percent of Cubans 18 to 29 said that if given a chance they would support a democratic system with multiparty elections, freedom of speech and freedom of expression. Among those 60 or older, support for such a change dropped to 44 percent.

Princess on the steeple and all the pretty people

They're drinkin', thinkin' that they got it made

Exchanging all kinds of precious gifts and things

But you'd better lift your diamond ring, you'd better pawn it babe

You used to be so amused

At Napoleon in rags and the language that he used

Go to him now, he calls you, you can't refuse

When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose

You're invisible now, you got no secrets to conceal.

How does it feel

How does it feel

To be on your own

With no direction

a complete unknown

Like a rolling stone?

.

How does it Feel?