Sirimba

Obama: Do As I Say, Not As I Do

2009-05-08T22:40:00.000-05:00

Here is a great video from Reason.TV on the DC voucher program. The Democrats have been trying to cut the program and leave many talented young DC students in the most expensive and most dysfunctional school system in the nation.

Apparently President Obama doesn't want to give parents a choice in their children's education. I think its a bit snobbish of him to have a 'do as I say, not as I do," mentality on the issues. Obama's own children attend private school in the district, knowing full well the quality of education in the nation's capitol. He himself was a recipient of a school scholarship.

I grew up in a sketchy area myself. After my parents divorced we had to move in with my grandmother. And though the area was good, the school district was not. Thankfully I was provided a scholarship to a private school during grade school and got out of a possibly very bad situation.

School choice is essential, especially for inner city children and those living in struggling school districts. Watch the video and it will tell you more.

thanks to Hispanic Pundit for the link.

Loretta Sanchez Facing Challenger

2009-05-07T17:18:00.005-05:00

Loretta Sanchez, better known for her risque Christmas cards, and being called out by colleagues, might be facing a significant challenger in her next election.

According to C.Q. Politics Asian American Republican Van Tran announced Wednesday he is forming a 2010 exploratory committee to run against Democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez in California's 47th District.

From C.Q.:

"I'm deeply concerned about our economy. California's unemployment is up 33 percent in the past five months, but we're not seeing solutions in Washington," Tran, a California assemblyman, said in a statement. "If I run for Congress, my first priority will be passing meaningful economic reforms to create more jobs and get Californians working."

Republicans in Washington have been working to recruit Tran for a congressional bid. Tran's election to the state assembly in 2004 made him the first Vietnamese-American in the country elected to a state legislature.

Officials in Washington (I am assuming the NRCC and RNC) hope that Tran will appeal tot he large Vietnamese constituency in the district, who are also strongly conservative Christians.

Sanchez, a Latina, whose sister is also in Congress, is whispered to be interested in running for the California Governor in 2010. But like usual, many are not taking her very seriously. She has taken no major steps toward seeking the mega office of California Governator. She isn't even a blimp in major statewide polls of the race.

George W. Bush narrowly carried the district in 2004. Shockingly Barack Obama received 60 percent of the vote in 2008. John McCain received 38 percent in CA-47.

LULAC National President Rosa Rosales Statement On Swine Flu

2009-05-07T13:54:00.004-05:00

The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the nation's largest and oldest Hispanic civil rights organization in the country, National President Rosa Rosales today issued a statement in response to recent human infections with a newly discovered type A (Swine flu) virus: http://lulac.org/advocacy/press/2009/swineflu.html

Also, more resources for Latino in Spanish: http://influenza09.wordpress.com/
.

Mexico City lets all businesses reopen Thursday

2009-05-07T09:49:00.002-05:00

So was the Swine Flu all hype? I think not but it does feel that way. I think it was important to try to protect the public as much as possible from an unknown illness. Now Mexico is re-open and they are taking about an economic recovery package to help the country after the government enforced shutdown. Read more from the Washington Post.

Here is some interesting information about the economic impact from the WSJ.

Shameless Senator

2009-05-07T09:44:00.005-05:00

Today in Capitol Hill Cubans an unknown Senator is blocking a resolution calling for the release of unjustly imprisoned journalists in Cuba. Sponsored by Senator Mel Martinez is trying to pass civil rights resolution in the Senate but apparently a Cuba loving Senator who is anti-Free speech and pro-torture is trying to block this peaceful resolution.

Read more here: Shameless Senator

Two Democrats on an Escalator

2009-05-06T10:04:00.004-05:00

I don't think much more is needed to say after watching this video. Here is the Democrat's vision of the world, waiting for someone to bail them out.

Pres. Lincoln to Mexico: Thanks for Cinco De Mayo

2009-05-05T11:29:00.004-05:00

Many Americans (gringos) incorrectly assume that Cinco De Mayo is Mexican Independence day. They are misinformed on the significance of May 5th to Mexicans and how the triumphant battle in Puebla, Mexico, which the celebration honors, helped assure American unity and victory for Union forces.

Watch the video:

Long story short, the French hated that the American were becoming a stronger national power. The Mexicans had defaulted on payment as the county went bankrupt. The newly elected President Benito Juarez made deals to pay the loans, the Spanish and English were satisfied, but the French had other ideas. The French wanted to take over Mexico and claim it as part of their empire. Peasant farmers in Mexico fought off the uber-organized French military, the most powerful army in the world. Before the French could take over Mexico and help the Southern Confederates create a divided America, a smaller threat to French interest, the Mexicans kicked thier Parisans booty and won the war.

Happy Cinco De Mayo!!

Pennsylvania Teens Acquitted In Murder of Mexican Immigrant

2009-05-04T16:07:00.000-05:00

Very sad news.... When people tell me there is no xenophobia I point to cases like this. Its sad I know more stories like this.

La Plaza: Pennsylvania Teens Acquitted In Murder of Mexican Immigrant

As reported by the Associated Press, an all-white jury late Friday acquitted two Pennsylvania teenagers of all serious charges against them from the fatal beating of an illegal Mexican immigrant named Luis Ramirez. READ MORE

Should you be angry at the “Republican Party” about backing Specter before he bailed on us?

2009-05-04T10:38:00.006-05:00

Great post today on the Next Right entitled : Should you be angry at the “Republican Party” about backing Specter before he bailed on us?

Chris Faulkner, who has worked on dozens of campaigns tries to explain Republican Party structure to the masses. Clearly there were many upset with the Specter defection. Some activists were upset at the NRSC (National Republican Senatorial Committee) for previously supporting Spector.

Many conservative activists don't understand the Republican party structure. They vote on ideology but don't understand the RNC, NRCC and NRSC are not ideological organizations. As noted by Faulkner:

"Keep in mind the RNC, NRSC and the NRCC are NOT issue driven organizations. They are member driven organizations with only ONE goal…majority status, that’s it, no other reason for being."

The NRSC and NRCC are organizations aimed at helping officials who have been popularly elected by their communities to represent them in Washington D.C. They aim to maintain the power of the Party.

I really liked Faulkner's call to action. Instead of complaining that the party doesn't represent you, become part of the party structure.

"So if you want the committee to be ideologically pure you should cool your jets. They are not think tanks, they are membership retention organizations. If you are mad at the NRSC for backing Specter in the first place call your own Senator and yell at him/her.

Is the RNC not conservative enough for you? Then check your state party. State Party too liberal for you? Work your county party."

Good luck to all and get involved. No one likes a political back seat driver.

Two cents on the House GOP video

2009-05-04T10:25:00.005-05:00

On Friday i wrote about the CHC upset they were in a video with Barack Obama.

While I still feel they are fair game I wanted to add some additional thoughts on the content of the video.

When I first saw the video I really wasn't taken back. Nothing new to see. Republican saying they are stronger on national security has been a mantra for some time now. I thought the timing was odd but I was distracted by the CHC's objections

While speaking to some friends on the west coast they made me realize something crucial about the video. On top of the timing is odd, how is it really helpful? What does it add to the debate?

Clearly liberal Hispanic/ Latinos have used it to their advantage. They have successful branded it as another example on how the "evil-privileged" GOP is demonizing the "poor-humble" democratic Latinos. While this is hog wash, the message got repeated in Spanish media.

At the end this is a message war. While I applaud the House GOP on trying to get ahead and be pro-active creating a video, they have to be more critical on what they are doing and think of every possible angle. And be more relevant to the current debate (i.e. economy!) It's not easy, but it could help if they diversified their staff a bit. Just sayin'.

Hispanic Democrats Mad They Are in Video with BHO?

2009-05-01T14:23:00.007-05:00

Apparently the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) is furious they are in a video with President Obama. And, of course, they are asking for an apology.

Yesterday Minority Leader Boehner put out a video (see below) asking "Do you Feel Safer?"

The Hispanic Dems quickly responded staying the Minority leader and the Republicans were insulting ALL Latinos by including an image of them in the video.

In an article from The Hill it quotes Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.), chairwoman of the CHC as saying:

“It’s disrespectful to the hard-working Latinos across the nation, serving in every sector of our economy and on our military’s front lines,” Velazquez’s statement continued. “The CHC demands an apology from the Minority Leader for this insensitivity and that the video be removed immediately.”

I applaud the communications staff at CHC for their quick thinking and trying to play the minority card here but this is the reality: All the members of the CHC are Democrats. They all voted for President Obama. A vast majority of them support his policy, including ending the war as soon as possible, taking down Gitmo, and not using the word "terrorism," and millions of other things.

I think it is fair for the Republicans, as they make the case that they are stronger on national security issues, to claim that members of CHC, as part of the Democratic Party and its leader President Obama, are contributing in making our nation less safe. It has nothing to do with thier nationality, ethnicity or color of skin, just thier voting record.

See the video here, the Hispanic Congressional Caucus (Democrats) comes out at 1:11

The BHO White House keeps Cuba on the state sponsors of terror, for now

2009-05-01T14:10:00.004-05:00

Today the Miami Herald's blog reported that the U.S. State Department still lists Cuba as a state sponsor of terror, but it is definitely on a path to play nice with the communist murdering dictator and company. The Herald called the language on the report "little less bellicose."

The report mentions the island ties with the FARC, ETA and harboring American felons. Read the rest of the MH post here: State Department: Cuba still a state sponsor of terrorism.

What gets me the most is their statement that Cuba can't be that bad beacuse little old Fidel has spoken publicly against the FARC. News flash people, Castro says one thing and does the other. Chavez is supporting the FARC and guess who is best buddy are, the Castro brothers.

Remember this world is a small place and meniacle, power hungry dictators stick together.

Mexican President on Swine Flue

2009-04-30T11:13:00.002-05:00

So I guess I am postpoining any trips to Mexico anytime soon. Here is what they are telling Mexicans.

What is "Conservative Enough"?: The Great GOP Debate

2009-04-30T09:36:00.005-05:00

In the wake of the Arlene Specter scandal (the switch from R to D) journos have been going goo-goo-gaga trying to put their twist on what this means to the future of the Republican Party.

The New York Times wrote a piece, "GOP Debate: A Broader Party of a Purer One?". In the article they ask: "Should [the GOP] purge moderate voices like Mr. Specter and embrace its conservative roots or seek to broaden its appeal to regain a competitive position against Democrats?"

For too long I have felt that the Republican party was slowing moving down a slippery slope, defining, with much precision, what it meant to be a "Republican." I felt it first hand in the immigration debate. The nativists / enforcement only folks wanted to portray anyone and everyone that didn't agree with them 100% as a RINO (Republican In Name Only.) And then I saw it more and more.

For many the word Republican and conservative is interchangable. But they are not. Conservatives are part of the Republican party. The Republican party is a coaliton of center right organizations.

In the conservative movement there are hundreds of groups. Each one thinks they have the formula to define Conservatism and Republicanism. Each organization will quickly (and most assuredly) call you out the minute they don't like what you are doing. With thousands of score cards, ratings and press releases. These conservative groups let EVERYONE know who has been good and /or bad.

With President Bush's declining numbers and elections on the horizon it felt like there was a "RINO flu epidemic." People got scared and tried to "boost" their conservative credentials. No one wanted to catch the "RINO flu."

While I think these score cards and ratings have value. (and believe me I have done but out a few of them myself!) They sometimes measure a particular issue or subject matter. At times they don't do the elected official justice because its such a small spectrum of focus.

What happened to Specter is quite sad (though COMPLETELY selfish). I am worried some activists in the GOP want the party to become more about purity to conservative idealogy, than representing the voters and providing real ideas/solutions.

Politico reported: "Republican Senators .... blamed the Club for Growth for imposing a right-wing litmus test that chased Arlen Specter out of the Republican Party."

Specter's move was all about self-preservation. Toomey, the former head of Club for Growth, was most likely to win the Republican primary. Yet, most pollsters unanimously agree, Toomey can't win statewide in Pennsylvania. The CLEAR reason is he is not representative of the voters of that state, he is seen as too conservative.

So here goes the question, what is more important in a representative democracy?

In the New York Times piece, Senator Lindsay Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said: “We are not losing blue states and shrinking as a party because we are not conservative enough. If we pursue a party that has no place for someone who agrees with me 70 percent of the time, that is based on an ideological purity test rather than a coalition test, then we are going to keep losing.”

I agree with Senator Graham. You can't have a winning coalition and only allow a small group into the party (pun intended). We do need to stick to our core values of limited government, national security, and personal responsibility. Yet we must realize that in a two party system, in a nation as large as America, there will be differences. You pick the party that has more people you agree with and has less people you'd likely strangle to death.

Yesterday the American Spectator's Doug Bandow put up a post entitled "The Great GOP Debate." Basically the Bandow tries to make make that point that the GOP is not conservative enough.

I think the problem is not that the GOP is not conservative enough. The problem is not only have the Republican strayed away from their principles but they are seen as hypocrites. Even if people agree with us, they don't trust us.

We must stay true to our Republican principles, but more important we must be honest.

If loosing Spector put us on a path to honesty, so be it. But enough with the double speak and the name calling and lets get back to the business and winning back America.

Swine Flue is NOT caused by illegals

2009-04-29T10:55:00.003-05:00

As a conservative sometimes it makes me cringe a little when I hear some of the statements that come from my right leaning colleagues. Case in point, recently a few have revved up their latest attacks on illegal immigration claiming that the sole reason for the U.S. swine flu outbreak is caused by undocumented Mexican immigrant crossing the border. Once again they are calling for a complete shut down of the border, at all levels, and stating that the government must do something about these "dirty" immigrants who they claim are causing this outbreak .....

One word for them, baloney!!

While I agree we need to severely restrict travel to and from Mexico, (Goodness knows I won't be going there anytime soon) and take steps necessary to protect our citizens form a possible epidemic, making this health issue another spring board for xenophobic commentary isn't helping anyone. In fact it will hurt us (GOP) in the long run.

The reality is most cases in the US of the swine flue have been caused by Americans traveling to Mexico for vacation and coming back with the virus. About half of the current cases coming from New York from a group of students who recently returned from a trip to Mexico.

The first person to die of the flu in America is a Mexican 22-month-old baby boy who came to the US for treatment.

Now if some want to use the death of this toddler as their rallying cry to shut the boarder, I think they may want to reevaluate their principles. I pray for the family of this little boy and the hundreds who are suffering through this virus.

C-Span Attracts Idiots

2009-04-28T10:05:00.001-05:00

Every once in a while I will tune into NPR or C-Span radio while running errands around the DC beltway. It's my consistent attempt to educate myself on the news of the day and multi-task.

And every time I loose more hope for humanity. The constant stream of conspiracy theorist and disillusion news junkies makes my head spin. I find myself talking to the radio and trying to rationalize with them. (... making me look like a crazy person.)

I don't mind a good debate of ideas but I feel that the callers act more like novice press assistants reading off talking points with no context or facts to back up their statements.

Working on campaigns I found these people often. (way too often.) They would tell me "I am not voting for McCain because he is Bush II and Bush lied and people died." I looked at them with a blank stare upset they had just taken away precious seconds of my life that I would never be able to replace.

Sometimes I would ask them to explain and that I was interested to learn more, usually they had no explanation just repeated the statement or rant about the war but could not tell me anything of substance. It easy to shut these people down when you read two or three actual news article instead of DNC talking points. Sometimes I would just let them be, stupid is as stupid does.

In general I must give it to people who want to learn more and listen to NPR and watch C-Span. Yet I wish they would take the time and read, research and educate themselves. The world can not be understood or explained in a sound bite, nor was it meant to be.

P.S. Reading now: Don't Know Much About History: Everything You Need to Know About American History but Never Learned (Don't Know Much About...) NOTE: It does have a liberal edge but I like learning the "other" perspective.

rants... missing home...

2009-02-02T16:19:00.002-05:00

So i am trying to get back into blogging. These days my mind is over taken by 2,000,000 thoughts and activities swiveling in my gray matter. Let see, between my new job, my new side business I am trying to start, moving into my new apartment, applying to grad school and trying to figure out my gringo boyfriend (that alone can give any Cuban girl a sirimba) I am, how would you say, overwhelmed.

As you can imagine the "arroz con mango" that is currently my brain is not a place most people would want to be in, or deal with.

I try to take it a day at a time. Deal with the curve balls live sends my way while living in a place I call "Gringo-landia" (a.k.a. anywhere in the US except Miami).

Sometimes I miss Miami more then one should. I would give anything for the warm sunshine and a cool ocean breeze while drinking a hot cafe con leche and tostada with lots of mantequilla. I'd be enjoying the warm company of my abuelos, parents and primos and talk of what I should do. They would give me more advise then I need. Tell me I am too fat or too skinny, or too something. They would bicker and laugh at each other, and me. I would go half insane and half loose it in fits of laughter and wonder why after 50 years in this country do we all still speak English with such thick accents. As much as I, or we, all occasionally complain of our loud over-bearing Latin families, there is nothing in the world better then the obnoxious loving questioning, the Spanish conversations, the familiar sound of radio Mambi's jingle as background noise and the sweet lingering smell of tabacco and cuban coffee.

So to my friends back home, cherish what you have.

For now I will just have to balance my sanity on long phone conversations while sitting under my painting of La Virgen de Caridad, sipping cafe and staring at pictures of my family.

The Idiot of Tom Tancredo

2007-12-09T17:21:00.000-05:00

Today I was watching Univsion's Al Punto, a Sunday morning news show. Some liberal Hispanics wanted to portray Republicans as anti-Hispanic, which is incorrect. The majority of Republicans support Hispanics and have similar values. The reality is there are stupid out of touch idiots in the GOP, and one is running for president (aka Tom Tancredo) , but this a minority in the party. The reality is his presidency is a HUGE long shot says alot about our country and the GOP.

Tom Tancredo is an idiot. This is proven by statements like these:

"Bilingualism is a great asset for any individual, but it has perilous consequences for a nation," Tancredo said.

Que CM!

While I completely belive that EVERY person planning on working and succcedding in this great nation MUST learn and speak English, Tancredo's statement of the evils of being multi-lingual is ridiculous.

America must compete in a global world. We must prepare ourselves to speak many languages. You can see how our lack of languages is even hurting us in the war on terror, where we do not have enough Arabic speaking Americans. YET this person who wants to run for President prefers we keep our heads in the sand and only speak English while the rest of the world competes against us. Bilingualism is not a peril for our society! Keeping ones culture is not a peril of our society! Ignorance is the problem. We in the Hispanic community must make sure we learn American culture (which we do! example ME) and and master the language, as do does every ethnic group in this country.

Speaking at a Spanish debate is not pandering, it's called communicating and using every opportunity. Maybe if Tancredo tried it, he wouldn't be in last place on every poll. But then again, his substance speaks for itself, and clearly the American people are not enchanted by this one trick pony.

And while I wanted to scream at some people speaking on "Al Punto," (and still do) I will focus now on watching the Univision debate tonight and relish in my happiness that I don't have to listen to the likes of Tom Tancredo. Instead I will focus on all the candidates who care about EVERY American voter, while still standing against illegal immigration and finding a real solution to the problem, care enough to talk directly to Hispanic voters.

Porter Goss resigns as CIA director

2006-05-05T15:22:00.000-05:00

Porter Goss has resigned as CIA director. The former 16 year Florida Congressman took over the agency in Sept. 2004. In a joint announcement with President Bush, the Goss stated he would step down, no exact reason was given.

This is very unfortunate. Goss, who was a CIA clandestine officer, was a good friend of the Cuban people. He worked on various issues regarding Cuba, Fidel and Che during his time as a CIA officer and truly understood the problems in Cuba. I fear that once he finally got comfortable in his position now he is leaving. This is a great travesty!

Cinco de Mayo

2006-05-05T13:47:00.000-05:00

Today is Cinco de Mayo. ... This Mexican celebration honors the Battle of Puebla (La Battala de Puebla ) . In 1862 the French army was the most powerful military force in the world. The French wanted to invade Mexico, but a small group of Mexican peasant, fought against the French and were victorious.

A little known fact is that La Battala de Puebla inadvertently helped the Union win the Civil War.

When the South succeeded from the Union they needed a government to recognize them. The English won't do it, as they had outlawed slavery. Yet the south made some agreements with the French, Emperor Napoleon was a sympathizer, and though the French did not openly recognize them, they made other agreements to help the South ..... Due to another situation, the French invade Mexico (even placing a king in Mexico - Maximillano). After invading Mexico they would continue through the North American continent North and help the South win the war against the North.

because the Mexican peasants prevailed, we now have a free country.

(the story is a bit more complicated then that but read more about Abraham Lincoln and Benito Juarez grate friendship)
More proof can be seen of this

Chairman Concerned about Bolivia

2006-05-05T13:45:00.000-05:00

Congressman Dan Burton (R-IN) expressed grave concern on the recent events occuring in Bolivia....

CHAIRMAN BURTON EXPRESSES DEEP CONCERN OVER THE FORCED NATIONALIZATION OF BOLIVIA'S NATURAL-GAS SECTOR BY PRESIDENT EVO MORALES
-CALLS ON PRESIDENT MORALES TO RE-EVALUATE HIS DECISION-

(Washington, D.C.) - Today, Congressman Dan Burton [R-IN-05], Chairman of the House International Relations Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere expressed his deep concern over the forced nationalization of Bolivia's natural-gas sector by President Evo Morales:

"Yesterday, following a trade mission to Communist Cuba where he signed a free trade agreement with Cuba and Venezuela, the newly-elected president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, announced the forced nationalization of Bolivia's natural-gas sector and ordered the Bolivian army to evict foreign companies from Bolivia's largest natural-gas fields."

"This Castro-Chavez inspired move heralds a troubling leftist slide towards state control and a hardening of nationalist social and economic policies in Bolivia, South America's poorest country. I strongly urge President Morales to re-evaluate his decision."

"Not only will forced nationalization hurt Bolivia's relations with its friends and neighbors, such as Brazil, but it could also have a negative impact on U.S. - Bolivia relations. Nationalization sends the wrong signal at the wrong time. Instead of fearing foreign investment and development aid, President Morales should welcome international companies into Bolivia and seek their assistance."

"I remain committed to improving U.S. - Bolivia relations in my capacity as Chairman of the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, and I am more than willing to work with President Morales and the people of Bolivia, so we can enhance and promote our mutual interests."
"However, in order to do so, I strongly urge President Morales to re-evaluate his forced nationalization decision, or I fear he risks further isolating Bolivia and its people."

International Venezuelan Council for Democracy (IVCD) is a non-profit organization comprised by Coordinators of multiple Venezuelan organizations around the world, working to strengthen Venezuelan Democracy in defense of human, political, and civil rights, committed to safeguard democratic values and institutions, promoting citizen participation, openness and accountability in government in accordance to the principles established and agreed upon in the Democratic Charter of the Organization of American States (OAS). IVCD is a civil and independent organization with no affiliation to political parties. P.O.Box 24 Erie, CO 80516 Phone 1-888-291-2093 E-mail ivcd@ivcdteam.org . president@ivcdteam.org . http://www.ivcdteam.org . http://www.blog.ivcdteam.org

IVCD
PO Box 24
Erie, CO 80516
1-888-291-2093

Living In DC and hating Socialist

2006-05-04T10:50:00.001-05:00

Over the last few days I have been looking for a new place to live. I currently live up in upper DC close to Maryland. While the neighborhood is great and the rent is amazing, my roommate and I want something more local (downtown) and private (less roommates).

I am not sure what is up with DC lately but I've been meeting alot of crazy, Che loving, socialists.

Take today for instance. I went to go look at a house in the transitional neighborhood of Colombia Heights. The ad made the place look great. It was 4 blocks from the Metro (subway). A nice 2 bedroom, 2 bath private home with a little backyard. I thought it would be great. I called to make an appointment with the current tenant and she seemed very nice.

Early this morning I met her to see the house. She seemed friendly but not what I was expecting. She was a small-framed, thin, fair-skinned gringita apparently still in her work out clothes. Bikes were piled outside on the front porch and I scrambled through them to get into the house. As we began to examine the location there was anti-Bush propaganda, socialist posters, Signs for the black Panthers and a pop-art rendition of Che Guevera a'-la' Andy Warhol. I figured me telling her I had an event in the White House later in the day wouldn't score me any points.

Somehow I managed to bite my tongue as the house looked great. Part of me figured I can just get it sanitized later and hope any negative socialist tendencies will leave with the tenants. And then the girl showing me the house raised her arm to brush her hair out of her face. For a second I wondered if I was in some French film or was it that all Che loving socialist women find it empowering to not shave their armpits. (clearly I don't know any personally.) I tried not to make a face ( I can be VERY expressive). I managed to keep myself from looking down and noticing if the same fate was given to her legs.

We chatted more for a bit and she gave me an application form, printed on what she called scrap paper. The paper was the reverse side of some school paper, she is majoring as a social worker. I tucked the paper in my bag. Trying not to read it too much. I thanked her for her time and left the location.

I quickly read the "scrap paper" (aka school project). It was enough to make me a little sick. If she googles me up, for sure I will have no chance at the house. Me a pro-Bush, anti-communist, socialist hating capitalist.

For your pleasure here is a small blurb of the paper:

"Title: Building Socialism, Fighting Racism"
"I worked with the international Socialist Organization (ISO) to fight racism in Washington D.C., and to build a socialist movement that will be able to fight against all forms of oppression.... My work consisted of logistical community organizing of protest and demonstrations, flyering, weekly tabling, mobilizing contact, fundraising, and chairing ISO meetings. I prepared a talk and discussion on the Communist Manifesto .... ""

It goes on but as you can imagine I ran away screaming in my head...... poor idealistic little white girl who thinks all the worlds problems can be solved in a constantly failing experiment....

Long Live A Free Cuba!!!! Long Live Capitalism!!!

Oh yeah, i am still looking for a place to live.....

Oh how I love those Australians!!

2006-05-04T10:47:00.000-05:00

If you missed here is a great article on the Wikipedia controversy!!! I've always love Australians. My cousin married one last year and they are great people and know Castro stinks. (also there is a semi-large Cuban community there, mostly by the last name Rodriguez.. yeah we are everywhere).....

Cuba entry in Wikipedia stirs controversy
BY PABLO BACHELET
Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - One editor complained that Havana sympathizers were transforming a scholarly enterprise into "their own private Fidel Castro fan page." A user was tossed out after threatening to sue another for libel.

The fuss is over the Cuba entry in Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia created, edited and administered entirely by volunteers with the aim of becoming a Web-based knowledge repository for humanity.

But the Cuba entry, like those on President Bush and abortion, has been snared in intense political divisions over everything from the impact of U.S. sanctions on the communist-ruled island to whether it should have a separate section on its human rights record. Russia and North Korea do not.

There have been so many dueling edits - 30 entries on April 27 alone - that the article has been placed off-limits to first-time or unregistered users. The article has notices alerting readers that the neutrality of four sections is under dispute.

A central tenet of Wikipedia is that articles must be written in a neutral point of view. But, as the debate on the talk page attached to the Cuba article demonstrates, neutrality is often in the eye of the beholder.

The debate over Cuba turned intense after Adam Carr, who identifies himself as having a Ph.D. in history from the University of Melbourne in Australia and a gay rights activist, introduced this sentence high in the article: "Cuba is a socialist republic, in which the Communist Party of Cuba is the sole legal political party, and is the only state in the western hemisphere that is not a democracy."

Read the full story and controversy

White House Correspondents Dinner

2006-05-01T16:25:00.000-05:00

The White House Correspondents Dinner provided a few laughs for President Bush.. Check it out at http://www.c-span.org/.... You'll find the 2 Bushs 52 min into the dinner (but some funny clips are found through out the event... enjoy)......

Latin Leftists Forge Cooperation

2006-05-01T14:22:00.000-05:00

Shouldn't be news to some of you but just in case here is an article talking about the trade agreements with the leftiest governements in Latin America (Cuba, Venezuala and Bolivia). Fidel keeps training Chavez.... and trying to stengthen thier power in the region...

Latin Leftists Forge Cooperation
Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba up the ante in challenging U.S. influence
Alex Argote (alexphil)
http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?no=288997&rel_no=1
Published on 2006-05-01 16:34 (KST)

Three leftist Latin American leaders recently inked an accord on Saturday which promises to strengthen their countries' economic and political ties against the macho posturing of the United States.

The trio -- Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, Cuba's Fidel Castro, and Evo Morales of Bolivia -- met in Havana late last week to discuss the future of their respective nations and of South America as a whole.

At the conclusion of their summit, the three decided to reject the American form of free trade and formulate a socialist version of regional economic and political cooperation. Dubbed as the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, the pact was ostensibly created as a counterweight to the U.S.-backed FTAA -- the Free Trade Area of the Americas -- and the Andean community bloc. By forming a strong trade alliance with Cuba and Bolivia, Chavez hopes to dilute the heavy North American influence and control in the region.

In the deal, Cuba promised to send physicians to Bolivia to offer medical help to indigents and educators to assist in literacy campaigns. Venezuela will send fuel to the nation and wrap up a US$100 million fund for development projects, as well as an additional $30 million for social support programs. Also, to alleviate Bolivia's agricultural market woes, Venezuela and Cuba agreed to buy the nation's soybean products after Bolivia was left in the cold with the signing of a free trade pact between Washington and Columbia.

Morales reportedly said, "In Cuba and Venezuela, we find unconditional solidarity." He added, "They are the best allies in changing Bolivia."

Garbed in his trademark olive-green uniform, Castro, who will turn 80 in August, said he was most happy in sharing the spotlight with younger leaders with the same mindset and principles.

The Cuban strongman led a brutal revolution in the late 1950s against the capitalist regime of Fulgencio Batista. Years later, the CIA launched an ill-fated counterrevolution and invasion by several hundred Cuban exiles in the Bay of Pigs.

A former military officer, Chavez led a failed coup d'etat in 1992. Undaunted, he changed tactics in ascending to the top job and founded the leftist Fifth Republic Movement, which greatly helped in propelling him to power in the presidential elections of 1998. Reelected in 2000, Chavez launched his pet organization, the enormous Bolivarian Missions, to fight malnutrition, illiteracy, disease, poverty, and other social problems. He also railed and acted against the imperialist Washington consensus by propping up alternative models of economic programs and called on Third World countries to develop their own economic forums and cooperation that will be fair to every one involved.

Increasingly vocal against American domination of South American affairs, Chavez earned the ire of Washington, and he strongly believed that the United States orchestrated the 2002 coup against him and the recall referendum to remove him from the presidency. Having survived both attempts on his political star, Chavez now firmly believes that the CIA is now plotting an elaborate, complex military plan to remove him from the picture.

In the meantime, Chavez is almost frantically working to shore up his defenses and regional support by encouraging the rise of ideologically friendly politicians in neighboring countries, particularly Bolivia, Peru, and Nicaragua.

According to Gary Hufbauer, an economist at the Institute for International Economics, "The agreement is a clever mixture of politics and commerce, and weighted toward the politics."

Being the world's fifth largest oil-exporter and a major gas supplier to the United States, Venezuela is quite awash with greenbacks and thus can afford to challenge the West. By seriously backing Peruvian candidate Ollanta Humala and encouraging the political rebirth of leftist Daniel Ortega in the Nicaraguan scene, Chavez is slowly, deliberately nurturing a socialist bloc in Latin America, which may be the ultimate political solution to oppressive Western control over the southern hemisphere.

What Killed the Immigration Bill? -

2006-04-12T10:20:00.000-05:00

In my continued effort to bring the truth to the light on immigration, I bring you this article published in the San Diego Union Tribune. No matter where you stand on the immigration issue we must all agree not passing immigration reform and border security legislation is just WRONG!!!! Not only do we leave our country without stronger national security, allowing hundreds to come into the country undetected each day, we endanger our economic well being, we also leave millions living in the shadows and increase the deep divides in this nation. (In future post I will show you some of the lovely hate mail I have been receiving.)

Read on, no matter what your position, you should be OUTRAGED that democrats would prefer to bow to party politics and political maneuvering then face the issues in this country...

Immigration bill trashed
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
by Ruben Navarrette
The San Diego Union Tribune

Who killed immigration reform? The autopsy shows it was Senate Democrats.
It's tempting to put a pox on both parties. But it wouldn't be fair. Republicans were tireless in search of comprehensive, and bipartisan, reform.

U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., joined with U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., to draft the guest-worker legislation, and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., made that legislation central to what his committee sent to the full Senate. U.S. Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. and Sam Brownback, R-Kan., were vocal in their support. Sens. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., and Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., offered a helpful compromise. And Republican Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., showed leadership by reaching out to the other side.
Democratic villain

Too bad you can't say the same for Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada, who was the villain
in this drama.

Hector Flores, president of the League of United Latin-American Citizens, told me he tried to impress upon Reid's office that it was important to get immigration reform done.

"Apparently, it fell on deaf ears," Flores said.

Reid claims it was GOP hard-liners who killed reform by running roughshod over Frist.
Baloney. The hard-liners had -- by all accounts -- no more than 30 votes, including those of conservative Democrats. On the other side, you had -- according to McCain -- as many as 70 votes.

A deal was at hand that would have offered legal status to some illegal immigrants. It would have made the GOP seem more Latino-friendly, but it would also have infuriated organized labor, which opposes something that was in the mix: guest workers.
After the Senate Judiciary Committee put out a guest-worker bill, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney issued a statement saying: "Guest-workers programs are a bad idea and harm all workers."

That did it. Senate Democrats sided with labor and sold out Latinos. The deal came undone because Reid refused to allow the legislation to go through the amendment process. Republicans had come up with as many as 400 amendments but whittled the list to 20. Reid agreed to proceed with debate on just three.
Calculated outcome

It was a masterstroke by Democrats. Labor is happy. And while Latinos are angry, there's always the chance that Democrats can fool them into channeling that anger toward Republicans.
Remarkably, it's working. At a protest in Washington Monday, one Latina held up a sign that read: "The GOP is losing my Latino vote." At another protest in Dallas, someone handed out registration leaflets urging demonstrators to vote Democratic.

Some Latino leaders don't think it'll be that easy. Cecilia Munoz, vice president of the National Council of La Raza, told me: "I don't believe that it's wise for Democrats to come to our community and ask for votes by saying: "Hey, we kept an immigration bill from going forward.' People understand when they're being used."

Even so, it looks like Reid and the Democrats orchestrated the perfect deception. Trouble is, they left fingerprints.

The Washington Post said in an editorial: "Democrats -- whether their motive was partisan advantage or legitimate fear of a bad bill emerging from conference with the House -- are the ones who refused, in the end, to proceed with debate on amendments, which is, after all, how legislation gets made."

Frank Sharry, the executive director of the liberal National Immigration Forum, said in a statement: "We cannot escape the conclusion that the Democratic Senate leadership was more interested in keeping the immigration issue alive in the run-up to midterm elections than in enacting immigration reform legislation."

And Kennedy told The Associated Press: "Politics got ahead of policy on this." He then refused, according to the article, to defend Reid's performance. The story noted that, "Outside the Senate, several Democratic strategists concluded that the best politics was to allow the bill to die."

The moral: Marches and Mexican flags don't equal power. Labor uses millions of dollars in political contributions to take care of Democrats, and so Democrats take care of labor.

After the bill died, Democrats rubbed salt in the wound by insisting that Latinos had no choice but to stay on the liberal hacienda. Susan Estrich, who served as campaign manager for Michael Dukakis in 1988, told Fox News that Republicans had blown their chance to win Latino votes and predicted that Latino support would help Democrats win both houses of Congress.

You see, in a twist on the famous words of one of their icons, Democrats no longer ask what they can do for Latinos, only what Latinos can do for them.

Cuban Food In DC

2006-04-11T17:00:00.000-05:00

umm Babalu made me hungry for Cuban food... being away from home in "gringo-landia" (as my family calls anything not Miami in the USA) it sometimes makes you really, really homesick for Mami's home cooking. Here are some Latin restaurants that include some Cuban comidita, they might not be the perfect, but it brings you a little closer to Cuban heaven...

Banana Café & Piano Bar * 500 8th Street SE 20003 * 202-543-5906 * Capitol Hill (under a new chef, they make awesome sandwiches and a great stuffed yuca. The Miami Members of Congress love this place).
Havana Café * 1825 First Street NW 20006 * 202-293-5303
Cuban Corner Restaurant * 825 Hungerford Dr., Rockville, MD* 301-279-0310 (considered the best place for Cuban food in the Washington DC area)
Cubano's * 1201 Fidler Lane, Silver Spring, MD * 301-563-4020 (owned by Cuban/Venezuelans, most dishes are great, others need a more authentic Cuban touch.)
Lauriol Plaza * 1835 18th St. NW, Washington, DC * 202-387-0035 * Dupont Circle (owned by a fellow Cuban patriot. Most of the dishes are Mexican/Spanish but their Masitas de Puerco are amazing!!)
Yuca * 1800 M Street NW, Washington DC * Farragut (nuevo-Cuban)
Ceiba * 701 14th St NW, Washington, DC * (high class Nuevo-Cuban and Latin menu, very nice)
Gua-Rapo * 2039 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, VA 22209 * Phone: 703-528-6500 (dinner only, Latin, middle-eastern and Nuevo Cuban food)
South Beach Restaurant & Bar * 7904 Woodmont Ave, Bethesda, MD
Caribbean Grill * 5183 Lee Hwy, Arlington * 703 241 8947 (Cuban sandwiches and picaditos)

I left one out on purpose - Don’t go to Havana Village in Adams Morgan. Not only does it have a big Che picture (crap) the Cuban Interests Section people hang out there, and we all know they suck.

Most of the time if I really want Cuban food I just go home and make it myself. If you are ever in town let me know, i might make you some of my famous arrozz con pollo.

America can be a nation of immigrantsand a nation of laws

2006-04-11T07:33:00.000-05:00

America can be a nation of immigrantsand a nation of laws
by Jack Kemp *

"My dear fellow immigrants," with these words President Franklin Delano Roosevelt sent greetings to the annual convention of the Daughters of the American Revolution, after the organization banned the great black contralto, Marian Anderson, from singing at their Constitution Hall in 1939 simply because of the color of her skin.

Marian Anderson chose the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to deliver her concert just days later, appropriately ending the concert with "God Bless America." Turning hate and ignorance into love and brotherhood is what marked the works of both Martin Luther King Jr. and Marian Anderson at the site of our American memorial to the Great Emancipator.

You ask, what's that to do with the immigration debate raging these past two weeks in Washington, D.C., and on talk radio all over America?

Well, to begin with, the voices of Roosevelt and Lincoln, preaching and practicing the American motto of "E pluribus unum," are all but absent these days, except for a few of those talking about fixing our broken borders and disabled immigration policies in humane, compassionate and progressive ways.

As President George W. Bush recently reminded us, America can still be a nation of immigrants while remaining a nation of laws if we treat people in the way we would want to be treated and find the right way of enforcement.

The most troubling aspect of this debate is the meanness of spirit toward immigrants, particularly those of Latino or Hispanic heritage. But, it's nothing new, as the Irish, Poles, Germans, Italians, Asians and others were treated the same decades and decades ago.
According to Michael Barone's "The New Americans," a closer look at the Great Migration of the 19th century reveals striking parallels to the current circumstances of the American immigration. The examples of two groups often cited by modern day advocates of restricting immigration - the Irish and the Italians - are particularly instructive.

During the last half of the 1800s and into the 20th century, more than 4 million Irish men, women and children immigrated to the United States. Fleeing the potato famine of the 1840s and seeking economic opportunity, Irish immigrants settled in urban areas starting in the Northeast and eventually spreading across the country. Many of these early immigrants did not speak English. One estimate held that at least one-third of them spoke little English.

What worries me first as an American and second as a partisan Republican from the Lincoln wing of our party, is the Republican Party. The House of Representatives is in danger of doing to itself in 2006, what it did in California in 1996 with Proposition 187 - turning into an anti-immigration party in a rather ugly way.

The House version of immigration reform would be a prescription for electoral and political disaster, not unlike what happened to our party in the presidential election of 1964, when Barry Goldwater, our nominee for president, voted against the Civil Rights Act.

The talk of 700 miles of walls, fences, federal troops, coupled with sending 11.5 million men, women and children back to their "home" countries is the equivalent of "police state" tactics advocated by the likes of Lou Dobbs and others who are not true leaders in the footsteps of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan.

Yes, we must control our borders with more and smarter technology, specially trained border security agents, and better enforcement in the private workplace. Yet, we shouldn't be surprised if immigrants don't respect our laws if our immigration laws aren't respected or even enforced.

We must pass an immigration reform package that not only works, but is reasonable, respected and responsible.

I believe the Senate Judiciary Committee bill recognizes the realties of a "guest worker" program that provides our country with the workers we need, while requiring workers and employers to operate with transparency.

The Senate bill also creates a path to permanent citizenship that will, no doubt, be labeled by critics as "amnesty," when far from it, it includes enforceable penalties and makes punishment fit the crime. Those who commit felonies should be deported, but most of our so called "illegals" are in America for freedom, family and faith in our "dream" of equal opportunity.

And by the way, the federal law that caps highly skilled H1B workers at 65,000 a year, down from 195,000 in 2003, has led to a "brain drain" from the U.S. to Canada. This is counterproductive and counterintuitive to a 21st century, high-tech, globalized economy.
As I wrote in 2004, "Looking to the fall campaign season, I am hopeful that other Republicans will stand against anti-immigrant policies, stand up for free trade and stand behind wealth creation for the little guy by allowing workers to put a significant part of their Social Security taxes into personal retirement accounts, where they can acquire assets, property and the capital necessary to launch their version of the American Dream.

* Jack Kemp is Founder and Chairman of Kemp Partners and a contributing columnist to Townhall.com.

Demand Comprehensive Immigration Reform

2006-04-10T16:52:00.000-05:00

For the last few weeks I have been bombarded in the immigration reform debate.

I advocate for comprehensive immigration reform. I believe this is the only way to truly deal with the immigration debate. I also believe

1) America’s immigration system is broken
2) The US needs to protect our borders
3) We need stricter interior enforcement and harsher rules on employers who hire illegal.
4) A program to push undocumented people out of the shadows.
5) I believe in stopping illegal immigration, not stopping immigration. New immigrants are necessary for our thriving economy.

Because of this I support comprehensive immigration reform. The United States needs to protect our borders and crackdown on employers. By forcing them to follow the law, the demand for employment will go down.

The reason the current immigration laws haven’t worked is because the laws go against the natural laws of supply and demand. It’s a reality of history, if a law goes against supply and demand, that law will not work.

1 million of the 2.5 million new jobs created in the U.S. in 2004 went to immigrants, mostly Hispanics. 1 in every 7 workers in the U.S. in 2004 was born elsewhere – 40 percent of these are Mexican. Possibly 6-7 million are here illegally.

Currently the United States is at about 4% unemployment. That means that America is practically fully employed. The economy has continuously increased for more then a dozen quarters. States with high immigrant populations have higher GDPs then many third world nations. States like Texas, California, Florida and New York are constantly outdoing themselves in production and economic growth.

In a study done by UCLA, each and every undocumented worker had a gross economic contribution of $45,000 in California during the 1990s

While we can not reward illegal behavior with a full blanket amnesty, which is the wrong message. We can provide programs and new laws that pushes these people out of the shadows.

Yet Immigrants are not a drain on the economy. Immigrant workers help continue the cycle of job creation and growth essential for America’s economy Illegal immigrant workers pay about $7 billion each year in taxes – including $2.7 billion into Social Security, which they will never be able to collect.

We need a program to push them out of the shadows because millions are being exploited and living in poverty. By providing program that allows them to come out of the shadows they can better provide for their families and contribute to the communities they are currently living in.

While some skeptics want illegals out of the country because they think they take away jobs from Americans, that is not true. The CATO institute has shown that immigrants do not take jobs away from Americans – instead, they fill segments in the job market where most Americans are either over- or under-qualified. Immigrants act as a safety valve for the U.S. labor market, allowing the supply of workers to increase relatively quickly to meet rising demand.

Deporting illegal immigrants is not only economically unintelligent (the US already spends $56 million deporting people back to their home) but physically impossible. It would take busses stacked back to back from Anchorage, Alaska to San Diego, California to send them all back. On top of the additional monies needed for law enforcement to find them. Why spend so much money on a large group of people who have no criminal offense.

Instead go after terrorist, drug dealers or real criminals. Spend all that money on enforcing the border, build strong virtual walls. God. No one is against immigration reform or border security, we just want a sound policy that is in order to the American principles and tradition.

Chavez continue to show his true colors

2006-04-04T14:18:00.000-05:00

From Cubas to Venezuelans and the rest of the world.... we told you so!!.... Chavez is just a fidelito Junior and is going to continue screwing people over, first is France and Italy, tomorrow it may be you....

Chavez Governement Seizes 2 Foreign-Run Oil Fields
- Pres. Hugo Chavez has tightened his grip on Venezuela's energy resources following through on threats to punish international companies that resist government control of the nation's oil fields. Venezuela sized two oil fields from Frace's Ttoal SA and Italy's ENi SpA after the companies failed to comply with a government demand that operations be turned over to the states oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA or PDVSA, Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said Monday (Washington Post)

Venezuela: The Sickly Stench of Corruption
The Economist
As a supporter of Venezuela's president, Hugo Chávez, in the country's National Assembly, Luis Velásquez Alvaray was the author of a law to pad the supreme court with a built-in government majority—and give himself a seat on it. He is now embroiled in an epic exchange of corruption claims that go to the heart of the Chávez administration. Accused of taking kickbacks of $4m for a new judiciary building, he has retorted that drug traffickers are running military intelligence, that the brother of Jesse Chacón, the interior minister, is illegally lobbying for a bank, and that the minister is a pawn of organised crime. Such is the rot that the “Palace of Justice should be blown up”, he says.

Both Mr Velásquez and Mr Chacón deny wrongdoing and claim to have tapes incriminating the other. Mr Chacón still has the president's backing. But the allegations come as no surprise to Venezuelans on either side of their country's bitter political divide.

Mr Chávez claims moral superiority for his “socialist revolution” over “savage neo-liberal” capitalism. He was first elected in 1998 on an anti-corruption platform. In power, he has revealed a taste for designer suits and Cartier watches. He has placed several members of his family in government jobs. Such foibles apart, there is no evidence that he is personally corrupt. But he has repeatedly said that corruption and bureaucracy are his revolution's greatest foes. Eustoquio Contreras, a chavista on the parliamentary audit committee, says bluntly that if the government does not put a stop to corruption, “corruption will put a stop to the government.”
Venezuela has long been notorious for corruption. But in the past, at least the opposition held the job of auditor-general and often that of attorney-general, while the judiciary was bipartisan. Mr Chávez has grasped all the powers of state into his own hands, and eliminated all independent oversight of his government. The opposition argues that the inevitable result of this is graft on an increased scale.

Last year, Transparency International, a Berlin-based group, placed Venezuela a lowly 130th out of 159 countries in its annual survey of perceptions of corruption. It was one of a dozen countries where more than half of respondents said this had “greatly” increased. The government's response was tetchy. José Vicente Rangel, the vice-president and once an anti-corruption campaigner, claimed that the group charges countries a “tariff” for their position on the corruption table.

Under Mr Chávez, no prominent official has been jailed for embezzlement. That may now change. A small but emblematic case involves the grandly titled Ezequiel Zamora Agroindustrial Sugar Complex in Sabaneta, Mr Chávez's sleepy hometown in the state of Barinas, where his father is governor. Officially touted as “the most modern sugar mill in South America”, it is now a monument to a different kind of sweetener: the $1.5m in bribes, kickbacks and commissions that have delayed its opening were exposed in parliamentary hearings in February (after a newspaper broke the story).

Mr Chávez, a former army officer, presides over a regime which is as much military as civilian. An engineering regiment was told to build the sugar complex. It contracted out some of the work and charged a 10% commission on all contracts, many of which went to companies belonging to friends and relatives of the regiment's officers. Many of these companies did no work at all. The regiment's commander paid for a $25,000 pick-up truck for his brother with a cheque from the mill.

The project's director, Antonio Albarrán, told parliament that although he had known about the kickbacks since early 2004, he kept quiet because “we were in the middle of campaigning” (to defeat a recall referendum against the president). By the end of 2004, Mr Chávez had been told, but chose to maintain the policy of secrecy, opting to deal with it as a matter of military discipline. He also promoted Mr Albarrán, making him agriculture minister in January 2005. Several suspects are under arrest, but Mr Albarrán, though no longer a minister, is not.
In half a dozen previous cases under the Chávez government, military officers have been accused by parliamentary committees, the auditor-general and others of embezzlement or misuse of public funds totalling hundreds of millions of dollars. None has yet been charged. Several still hold government jobs.

Civilians have not been immune to temptation. Mr Contreras cites half a dozen cases where the government's agricultural-development fund gave cheap credits to fake co-operatives, or which covered much more farm land than the village in question possessed.

Does the sugar-mill case presage a serious crackdown? Opponents note that a presidential election is due in December. At issue will be whether or not a massive increase in public spending, funded by high oil prices, is translating into better public services—or whether, as the opposition claims, much of the money is being skimmed off. A few show trials of scapegoats would be politically useful.

What needs to be established is whether such cases are the exception or the rule, and whether they involve petty pilfering or grand larcency against the state and, as Mr Velásquez claims, massive bribery of its agents. The only way to get an answer would be through the fearless application of the rule of law. There is little sign of that. Dalila Solórzano, a former police officer, was hounded out of the force for pursuing a case against the head of the investigative police. “We've been in this struggle since 2002,” she says, “and no one has done anything. They talk a lot of rubbish because it's an election year, but the political will doesn't exist.”

Source: The Economist

Guillermo Fariñas Hernandez

2006-03-27T18:19:00.000-05:00

Today the blog world is supporting Guillermo Fariñas Hernandez--- read other post at http://www.babalublog.com/

Help Fariñas Hernandez!!!!

STATEMENT BY CONGRESSMAN LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART REGARDING "MR. MAS' LETTER TO PRESIDENT BUSH"

2006-03-27T18:15:00.000-05:00

The following is a press release from Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart in response to Jose Mas-Santos letter to President Bush............

Miami, FL - Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL) issued the following statement today with regard to the "letter to President Bush" that Mr. Jorge Mas Santos and his organization are paying to have published in various newspapers:

"My phone number is in the telephone book and they would have saved themselves some confusion if they had called me.

I have never said that I would support unilateral changes to the Helms-Burton law, nor that I would accept a provisional government led by any of the Castro brothers.

I have fought intensely throughout the years against any changes to the Helms-Burton law and will continue to do so, including many much smaller changes than those.

Perhaps it would have been useful if they had called me, for they are taking as fact incorrect assertions in the press that have distorted my positions.

Precisely the reason for which I insist upon the return of sovereignty to the Cuban people through multiparty elections, is so that no transitional government that continues the dictatorship can be acceptable, led either by the Castro brothers, Alarcón, Colomé Ibarra, Ramiro Valdés, etc. To me there is no difference between any of them. None of them has nor would have any legitimacy. The only legitimate government would be one that is the result of free and multiparty elections.

I do not disagree with the positions on Helms-Burton in this letter by Mr. Mas. What is unfortunate is that he insinuates that our community is divided, when it is not. He could have prevented that insinuation with a simple telephone call. The saddest part of this is that Mr. Mas and his group spend large amounts of money to divide our community instead of trying to help us fight the dictatorship."

###

Guillermo Fariñas Hernandez

2006-03-27T13:27:00.000-05:00

This week Congress will debate the Online Freedom of Speech Act, sponsored by Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas).

It's a bit ironic that while Members in Congress fight on our freedom to blog, others are dying because they want to access the internet.

Today as we speak, a man sits in Cuba, holding on to his last moments on life. His name is Guillermo Fariñas Hernandez, an independent journalist and a freedom fighter who believes in the freedom of information. Guillermo Fariñas Hernandez has gone without food or water for 57 days!!

For years he has been attacked by the socialist government. Now he is on a hunger strike to show the world that freedom is not free and Cuba is not what Fidel makes it out to be.

Cuba is a place where a free thought is a dirty secret, and an independent soul is just as bad a death sentence. Cuba is a place where "happiness" only exisits in moments and the brutality of life are sometimes too much of a harsh reality for many to bear.

Please stand by Fariñas. Write or call your Congressman tell them about Fariñas needs freedom to explore the internet as well.

FIU Gets Med School!!

2006-03-23T17:28:00.000-05:00

Today is a VERY proud day to be a FIU (Florida International Univeristy) alumni.

The University just got approved to open a medical school!! Woohoo.... not only does this give access to thousands of students that want to pursue a degree in medicine but do not have the incomes to afford private institutions in the area, but it makes FIU so much better...

YEAH to all my gold panthers out there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you Matt Drudge

2006-03-23T12:38:00.000-05:00

On today's Drudge Report, front and center is a huge picture of Fidel Castro with the tag line reading: Former aide spills the dirt on Fidel Castro...

The Drudge Report maybe one the most read news bloggs in the country. EVERYONE reads it.

The tag line links to a good story about Fidel's ex body guard. The body guard, Fernandez, who appears regularly on Oscar Haza and channel 41 in Miami, talked about some Cuban realities like:

"What happened was, the course he took with the revolution was wrong. It has dissolved into this unstoppable, insatiable corruption without limits, a vast lie. The people are in misery. Cuba's people have been enslaved as cheap labor for foreign businessmen.''

The article appeared in today's Miami Herald (link below). Hopefully more people will learn the horrible truth about Cuba!!.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/14163977.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

Thank You!

2006-03-22T09:22:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to take a moment and thank all of those who have been so kind. Thank you for your prayers and your thoughts. God bless you.

A prayer for our fallen Patriots

2006-03-20T16:32:00.000-05:00

I have been away from blogging for a while, though I often found reasons to add my two cents to the virtual debate, my heart wasn’t in it. The reason because one of my greatest inspirations, and a wonderful Cuban patriot died recently, she was (is) my grandmother.

Last month the world lost a beautiful soul who radiated with life and love. Who taught her children, grand children and great grandchildren to be strong, independent, compassionate and to love a country they had never seen. Her stories made the brilliant tropical island come alive in our heads, and her food made it come alive to our senses.

In her youth my grandma flew planes over la Bahia de Nipe. She got to meet Amelia Earheart. She drove cars and won countless dance competitions. She ran a few businesses (in Cuba and the U.S). Cuban President Prio said she was “La estampa de la mujer Cubana.” A quote she was most found of, as you can imagine. She wrote poetry and short stories and often appeared on Spanish radio talking about Cuba. She raised a family while her husband was taken political prisoner in Cuba for 14 years.

For the last few weeks I have been overwhelmed with the possibility of her death, staying with her at the hospital and praying for a miracle. She passed after two weeks of being gravely ill. (the hospital care did not help!!) I know she is a much happier place now, at the side of the Lord, joined with my grandfather and family. Yet, my family here on earth will never be the same, as my grandmother was the light of our lives and the glue that kept us together.

She taught us to be proud Cubans. I can remember countless times reciting Jose Marti, being soaked with colognia de violeta and Mirta de Perales products, learning how to cook Cuban food and memorizing the history of our proud Caribbean island.

I often laugh that I am the typical Carmensita of “Que Pasa USA?”.And my grandmother was just like her abuela. She chaperoned me and made me always speak Spanish but wanted to be hip with her few English phrases. Like telling my “amigitos” things like “gate-oda-he” which really meant “get out of here.” Till her final days she joked around, danced and love to be silly while being the perfect portrait of a lady.

Not only am I torn with the reality that I will never see her again or hear her comforting voice. Not only do I pain over the fact I will I never receive her advice again. What I abhor the most, what hurts me the most, is the reality that she is another Cuban patriot who will never see a free Cuba.

Day after day members of our Cuban-American community die in exile, never seeing the native home they left behind so many years ago.

During her funeral services the Deacon leading us in prayer told us to pray for our Cuban brother and sisters, and to pray for a free Cuba. He also asked us to pray for the countless of families who have been separated by this revolution. The Deacon reminded that as much as we grieve over her death that we were lucky to have her. So many unfortunate families are never reunited.

I guess we are one of the lucky ones. Most of us at one point made it to the U.S. I was lucky to have her in my life. I was lucky to have such an inspiring and trailblazing woman in my life. I was lucky I could say goodbye and be there at her funeral surrounded by my family. But oh how I miss her.

Vaya con Dios querida abuelita. Te quiero con todo mi corazón.

Today try to pray for all of those families separated by the Cuban dictator. Pray for their peaceful reunification.

'7 Mile Bridge' Cubans To get Immigration Papers

2006-03-20T16:27:00.000-05:00

According to Miami CBS News 4 the 14 Cubans who reached land by landing on the 7 mile bridge ave been approved entry into the U.S.!!! (It's about time!! But the sad reality is what are the chances that castro allows the 14 to leave the island? It is a very sad reality that we must all face....)

Full story below

(CBS4 News) MIAMI --The Cubans denied entry to the US because they landed on a pier of the old 7-mile Bridge instead of on actual US soil are on step closer to returning to the land the were trying to reach.

A federal judge has approved an agreement granting the 14 Cuban migrants entry into the United States.The 14 Cubans, all of whom were repatriated to their homeland after decisions by the US Coast Guard and US Immigration officials, will be given proper immigration papers within ten days of the judge's approval of the agreement.

In return, the US government will drop its planned appeal of the judge's ruling that the Cubans had legitimately reached American shores at the bridge and that they had been illegally returned to Cuba.

The agreement also requires that the judge vacate his previous order against the U-S government, removing a potential legal precedent for lawyers to use against federal officials in future Cuban immigration controversies.

There are still no guarantees that Cuba will let the group leave the island. The Cubans thought they reached their destination in January when their boat landed at an abandoned bridge in the Florida Keys. Federal lawyers had argued that the bridge did not count as dry land because sections of the bridge are missing and it no longer connects to U-S soil. The U-S "wet foot/dry foot" policy calls for most Cubans who reach U-S soil to be allowed to stay, while those intercepted at sea are generally returned to Cuba.

(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

The Anti-Photo Op

2006-03-14T19:08:00.000-05:00

Too good not to post....Senator Stabenow on the senate floor with a very interesting sign. Keep your eyes open for a commercial on this later this year poking fun at her...

Novak, Bolton and Kirkpatrick OH MY!

2006-02-11T08:02:00.000-05:00

Last post on CPAC....

Friday night was just about Cuban praise I also got to meet Robert Novak, Ambassador Kirkpatrick, Ambassador John Bolton and many more (Delay, Gov. Perry, etc...)

When I introduced myself to Ambassador Kirkpatrick I thanked her for all her work on behalf of the Cuban people and her dedication to our cause. She shock my hand and said she did love us very much and then she hailed over Ambassador Bolton saying, "John, this is a Cuban-American come over and meet her."

I think at that moment I had to pinch myself. As I greeted the both of them and got a picture I must say, I felt like the luckiest person in the world.

Novak was larger then life. He is a robust man with a deep voice. Each feature on his face appears to be sculpted in with depth and purpose. That night at CPAC he was to be honored and Sam Donaldson was going to present him. I had a chance to pose for a picture with both and did so, but Novak wasn't excited, he tells me, loudly, "He shouldn't be here!' (Donaldson that is)... it was all in jest as the two reporters have known each other for years....

another great night at CPAC.

Cuban honored at CPAC

2006-02-10T23:48:00.000-05:00

At tonight's CPAC dinner a fellow Cuba, Manuel "Manny" Miranda, was honored for his work in the judiciary committee and standing up to Democrat in what is infamously known in DC as "Memogate."

In 2004 Miranda was working for the Judiciary Committee and was a top judicial aide for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.). While working on the committee he uncovered some memos written by the Democrats, and clearly the Dems were upset. They attacked Miranda.

Many Republicans, and especially Senator Hatch, buckled and fired Miranda. Though he did nothing illgeal.

What really brought Miranda to another level was when he created the National Coalition to End Judicial Filibusters from his lap top from home. The goup was built to pressure Republican senators to use the “nuclear option,” a parliamentary tactic that would takes away of the minority party - Dems- of filibustering judicial nominees.

to read more go to http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/110905/news4.html

When accepting his award at CPAC's dinner on Friday night Miranda was almost to tears. He thanked everyone that supported him during the last VERY hard few years. He also thanked the United States for accepting his family into this great country and providing him with the wonderful opportunities of a free society.

Also honored was Ms. Kilo of the US Supreme Court case about eminent domain.

The evil people of the Minute Man Project

2006-02-10T16:37:00.000-05:00

Still at CPAC and oh what a day what a day!

I just met Jim Gilchrist, founder of the Minute Man project.

For those of you that have the pleasure of not knowing Jim Gilchrist, his organization, the Minute Man Project, basically advocates deporting anyone whose last name ends in a vowel (aka Mexicans, aka Hispanics, aka anyone who speaks Spanish!) He and his followers say that Gilchrist “believes that he may have been chosen by God to protect our boarders from the 'invasion' and the “Reconquista” of America by “illegal aliens,” primarily Mexicans, who kill our children and endanger the American way of life.”

AHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Gilchrist came to meet me as my organization has been fighting tooth and nail against him and his ideas. Flanked by his political director and his executive director they came over to introduce themselves.

Their Executive Director, a taller fellow, dressed in a blue suit introduced Gilchrist. I am not sure if my expression of absolute abhorrent was overly apparent but I tried to contain myself. Gilchrist was proper, introduced himself. I was polite myself and shook his hand.

What I really wanted to say was “How do you feel after you lost the race?” as he recently lost in election in California in one of the most conservative districts in the nation. I contained myself as my mother told me if I didn’t have anything nice to say not to say anything at all. After our short introduction his political director introduced herself. Her bleach blond hair was overwhelming with its very “Barbie” characteristics. With her little dog in tow she was also polite game me her card.

I had run out of my cards but gave them my contact information. Part of me was upset I was doing so. My Cuban paranoid thinking feels they will now break into my email and corrupt my files!!!

I really do not like the Minute Man project and what they represent. On the surface they don’t sound that bad, they say they promote constitutional rights and the safety of America. But in reality they spew a message of hate, fear and intolerance.

Gilchrist said: "Illegal immigrants will destroy this country," Gilchrist said last May. "Every time a Mexican flag is planted on American soil, it is a declaration of war."

Some Cubans reading this will think, "why should I care??" ... Some Cubans think they came here legally and Cubans have worked hard to make a great economy in Miami. The reality is these people don't see Cubans and Mexicans differently. If you speak Spanish you are evil. If you are proud of your heritage and that is a Spanish speaking country, then your evil. But most importantly he is fostering hate in our wonderful nation of diversity. How many Cubans are proud of their Cuban flag? With him, he thinks that is a "declaration of war."

His group of vigilantes have lined themselves on the Southern border with guns and threatening to shoot anyone that crosses over. They claim that Mexicans are invading the US. They claim that we need to secure our borders because we are in the time of war, but no one is standing at the Canadian border. A border where most of the terrorist cross as it is basically NOT protected. What to learn more, read about them at :

http://www.ocorganizer.com/html/gilchrist.html

http://arizona.indymedia.org/news/2005/10/31154.php

http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?pid=972

http://www.mimnotes.info/news/20050723minutemanjim/

This is the Minute Man Project, with thier horrible imagery using our historic heroes to promote their message of hate. http://www.minutemanproject.com/

the creator of Che-Mart

2006-02-10T16:02:00.000-05:00

During CPAC I met the founder and creator of Che-Mart. (www.che-mart.com) As he promoted his shirt with slogan's of Che followed with the words "Murdering Communist Bastard," I was taken away by his accent- his IRISH accent.

Yup the guy who made bashing Che a comical art form is a tall Irish fellow who hates communist just as much as the group of Alpha 66 members hanging out on Calle 8.

We had a great chat and shared a wonderful story when he dressed up as communist during a Kerry for President Rally in New York.

He dressed as Fidel Castro and his friend dressed up like Che and carried signs something like "follow France", "bring down unemployment", "withdraw from Iraq" and many people clapped for them and many members of Kerry's team even asked to take pictures with them... it wasn't until a long while later that some people finally noticed that the dressed up communist were actually infaltrators.

And P.S. he reads Babalu all the time...

I got to meet the Che-Mart maker via another great idea, Contra Cafe (http://www.contracafe.com/). The coffe is a product of Nicaragua's former Contras - freedom fighters who fought against the Sandinistas in the 1980s. Today, these former freedom fighters struggle to get by on the profits from their coffee farms. Support them and buy their coffee today!!!

blogging from CPAC

2006-02-09T17:43:00.000-05:00

CPAC - the Conservative Political Action Convention is the largest meeting of conservatives in the nation. I am overwhelmed my the number of young people here at the convention. A few highlights and low lights:

- I LOVED the the many booths of anti-socialism shirts, like the Che with Micky ears. Got to love it.

- I HATED meeting Congressman Tancredo. This very narrow minded congressman is the worst thing ever to happen to the Republican party. I met him in a small group and he greated everyone else, EXCEPT ME!! He knew nothing about me, but looking at me you can tell I am Hispanic. I forced an introduction and he politely smiled. I think he wiped his hand afterwords. Once on stage he advocated stripping citizenship rights to children born in this country of illegal parents. UGGHHHH!!!!! Can someone please knock some sense into him??

Tonight is a dinner with VP Chaney... we will see how that goes

Fox, Castro and Bush

2006-02-08T12:39:00.000-05:00

Compassionate Conservatism Fades South of the Border?

By Eneas Biglione

The recent decision of the public relations firm Allyn & Company to take charge of the task of improving Mexico's image in the United States and Canada has angered some conservatives. They have labeled Rob Allyn -- Allyn & Company's president and CEO -- a traitor and have threatened to boycott the firm.

In a stern response, Allyn declared: "I have gotten so tired of the way people treat Mexico. I believe in the cause, so I love the opportunity to share my views. I've held these views for a long time. I relish the opportunity to help in some small way." He added stingingly, "The conservative movement I signed up for stood for tearing walls down, not building them."

Indeed, Allyn & Company's website boasts that Allyn's public relations team worked with great success on President George W. Bush's 2000 primary campaign. The firm later aided Vicente Fox in his successful bid for the Mexican presidency, the same Vicente Fox who is the first conservative president elected in Mexico after an unbroken 72 years of socialist governments controlled by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

Mexican voters entrusted Fox with the responsibility of overseeing great change: to tackle corruption, insecurity, and poverty and to promote improved relations with Mexico's neighbors. Fox perceived the broadening of NAFTA with the United States and Canada as a way to strengthen Mexico and confront the country's weaknesses. He never plundered or begged, but saw in the exportation of Mexican products and workers a possible solution to Mexico's woes. Fox's government stimulated the production and exportation of high-technology manufactured goods and used diplomacy to try to negotiate a temporary visa program that is more generous to low-skilled Mexican workers. Of course, the chronic corruption, wild public spending, and poverty that Fox's government inherited from the PRI are not easy conditions to reverse after only five years in office.

Fox has been at the United States' side during several international scandals: the first occurred when the Cuban dictator Fidel Castro revealed statements made during a private telephone conversation he had with Fox in March of 2002. During the call, the Mexican president requested discretion from Castro during the UN Summit in Monterrey and, more specifically, asked that he not insult President Bush or the United States during his stay in Mexico.

The second scandal is more recent. At the Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata, Argentina, Fox proudly declared that Castro and the Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez had not succeeded in their attempts to dissuade a majority of Latin American countries from signing bilateral free trade agreements with the United States. After hearing this remark, Chavez repeatedly insulted the Mexican president and even branded him a "puppet of the [American] empire". In both cases Fox risked much for the United States and paid dearly for it in his credibility in certain Latin American countries.

It is worrisome, then, that the United States -- the most powerful country in the world and an excellent example of the institutions that a country must adopt to achieve prosperity -- is devoting so much time and so many resources to the construction of a wall on its border with Mexico. The anti-Mexican hysteria does nothing more than add to the arguments of enemies of the United States and discourage the world's conservatives from working side-by-side with the United States on the true fronts of the fight against the Axis of Evil.

The contract between Allyn & Company and the Mexican government is far from treason. It exemplifies, instead, a search for better communication between countries whose conservatives ought to be natural allies in the fight against terrorism and drug trafficking, as well as on many other battlefronts as well.

Eneas Biglione is a Senior Fellow at the Hispanic American Center for Economic Research (HACER).

Looking for Hispanic Conservative Bloggers!!

2006-02-03T19:25:00.000-05:00

The Republican National Hispanic Assembly is looking for conservative Hispanic bloggers that believe in the principles of the Republican party. If you or anyone you know may be interested email them at info@rnha.org....

The issues can vary but the message has to be the same - conservatism and/ or republican party issues....

Cuba and State of the Union

2006-02-01T10:10:00.000-05:00

I have been reading many of the blogs and seen the reaction of the Cuban-American community to the Bush speech. In fact I work with lots of Hispanic Republicans and the outcry has been a little overwhelming.

As a Cuban American I was praying that President Bush would say Cuba when listing the tyrannies of the world. But he didn't. Yet I am not upset because I know he hasn't totally forgotten about us.... While some are about to club me with a big stick let me remind you that allt he rage on all these blogs is the Cuba News Ticker... we constantly talk about its message of freedom... so where did the money to build it come from? .... The Administration and this President...... The government is spending millions of dollars on TV and Radio Marti... where does that money come from? ... the administration..... The government is providing money to help the dissents in Cuba, the government is taking a hard stand against Fidel Castro... Mind you my friends it is not an easy task THE MAJORITY OF THIS WORLD is against the embargo and the president continues it because he believes in our cause.

As an ex-member of capitol hill staff I can tell you what an uphill battle is sometimes is to convince people to stand on the right side of Cuba. We have that leverage only cuz THE PRESIDENT STANDS WITH US..... so instead of the stupid messages I get from Cubans saying they are leaving the Republican party because Bush did not spend 1.2 seconds and say Cuba (Believe me I wish he would have!) Lets instead follow Babalu's advice. Educate more people around the world about Cuba. Make it a priority to them. Tell them it is not this lovely island paradise.

I know I will get some reaction about the wet-foot dry foot policy but that is a very special topic I will talk about another day. But I do have one advice for the Cuban people. Instead of screaming only at Bush why didn't the entire community ask for the resignation of the Coast Guard Chief of something to that affect... Other communities would have done that. Still scream and Bush but call for action that he can actually do quickly.... Again I will talk about wet-foot dry foot another day.

Many Cubans wish that many years ago we could have kicked Fidel's butt but yet this has not happened. We have to work with what we got if not we are never going to get any where just keep on preaching to the choir.

Why you wont hear "ethics" reform from the Dems...

2006-01-31T23:58:00.000-05:00

While the dems are scramabling to figure out how to attack the President one attack you won't find to often is "ethics reform." Democrats will breeze over the issue and you will hear buzz words like "culture of curruption" but don't let them fool you! Many House and Senate Donkey lovers have ties to high power lobbiest, like Jack Abramoff and many more- see http://www.noagenda.org/

So while Dems will be quick to point the finger now, they will do it quickly becuase they are to blame just as much as thier "friends" on the other side of the aile.

And while we are on the subject on lobbyist and things of the such, I think this issue has been blown up ALOT. While I understand and believe their are those who abuse the system and they have to be punished - this is not the majority of Members of Congress and staffers. I believe this is one of those issues the powers-that-be have used to devide poltiicians from thier constituents the "inside the beltway" people versus the rest of humanity. It really isn't that bad people are making it a big deal becuase of politics!

It's an election year, every and i mean EVERY issue, is going to be exaggerated for political reasons, so Americans be careful and read between the lines.

Before I analyze...

2006-01-31T23:32:00.000-05:00

Before I analyze the President's State of the Union speech, a few observations...

1 - Why was Senator Clinton chewing gum????

Luce como una vaca!! Didn't her mother teach her anything?
She also gave a stupid smirk when President Bush made a comment that two of Pres. Bush (41) were hitting medicare age - Clinton and himself
As long as I am talking about Medicare, what was up with the crazy reaction from the Dems when W said "congress did not act on fixing social security." What are the Dems proud they are letting the government go ot the gutter becuase of partisan politics?

2 - Did Representative Corrine Brown (D-FL) steal Bjork's swan dress?? I think she killed a bird and placed it around her neck?

Rep. Brown is a representative for the Jacksonville area - yes I am embarrassed she is from my state - she is probably the stupidest member of Congress I have ever met and the tackiest.
Too bad Celia Crus isn't around to teach a thing or two about how to whear crazy wigs. Rep. Brown's wigs are always about to fall off her head.
In the past Rep. Brownhas accused Hispanics as "looking all the same." During her rampage on then Secretary Noriega she was swaying her head so fast, her bad wig almost fell off her head.

3 - Was Maxine Waters' butt super glued to her chair? Because the liberal California practically communist Representative never stood up. I think I saw her staring at her nails?

I really do think Rep. Waters may be a card carrying member of the socialist party - if not a full on communist sympathizer. In my old jobs I use to get calls from people that lived in her area all the time saying to help them, that she was a crazy commuinist... if only I could do something I would... where is McCarthy when you need him?
She supports Castro and is one of the dilusional people who think he is great! BLAH!!)

4 - A bigger question - Why are the same member of Congress who talk smack about President Bush on "the floor of Congress" push through their colleagues to get a picture with the President and to hob-nob with him in private??

All I have to say is - Hypocrites!!

5 - Did you hear that Cindy Sheehan was arrested right before the State of the Union speech for protesting inside the House Gallery?

Sheehan had a poster and was planning on disrupting the speech - Which is against the rules of the House of Representatives.
Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) gave Sheehan a ticket to the speech, seated in Gallery 5, seat 7, row A. Sheehan was offered the ticket at an "alternative state of the union" press conference by CODEPINK, a group pushing for an end to the Iraq war. CODEPINK organizes trips to Cuba to defy US policy and as they say to "party in Cuba" -- see my old post "Stupid Pinkos")
Rep Woosley supports Fidel Castro and ALWAYS supports legislation to end the embargo!

6 - I think Judge Samuel Alito has the "best first day on the job" story ever!!!

Preview of State of the Union

2006-01-31T19:54:00.000-05:00

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release

January 31, 2006

STATE OF THE UNION EXCERPTS
As Prepared for Delivery

America is always at its best when we are shaping events, instead of being shaped by events. Tonight, the President will chart a clear path forward for our Nation:

“In this decisive year, you and I will make choices that determine both the future and the character of our country. We will choose to act confidently in pursuing the enemies of freedom – or retreat from our duties in the hope of an easier life. We will choose to build our prosperity by leading the world economy – or shut ourselves off from trade and opportunity. In a complex and challenging time, the road of isolationism and protectionism may seem broad and inviting – yet it ends in danger and decline. The only way to protect our people … the only way to secure the peace … the only way to control our destiny is by our leadership – so the United States of America will continue to lead.”

The President will talk about America’s leadership role in the world, and the importance of working together to better protect our country, support our troops, and advance freedom:

“Abroad, our Nation is committed to an historic, long-term goal – we seek the end of tyranny in our world… the future security of America depends on it.”

“In a time of testing, we cannot find security by abandoning our commitments and retreating within our borders. If we were to leave these vicious attackers alone, they would not leave us alone. They would simply move the battlefield to our own shores.”

“…Ultimately, the only way to defeat the terrorists is to defeat their dark vision of hatred and fear by offering the hopeful alternative of political freedom and peaceful change.”

“To overcome dangers in our world, we must also take the offensive by encouraging economic progress, fighting disease, and spreading hope in hopeless lands.”

To keep America competitive in a dynamic economy, the President will set out an agenda focused on the priorities that families are most concerned about. He will talk about the importance of having an educated, skilled workforce, reducing our dependence on foreign oil, and making health care more affordable, accessible, and portable:

“Here at home, America also has a great opportunity: We will build the prosperity of our country by strengthening our economic leadership in the world.”

On Competitiveness:

“The American economy is pre-eminent – but we cannot afford to be complacent. In a dynamic world economy, we are seeing new competitors like China and India.”

“We must continue to lead the world in human talent and creativity. Our greatest advantage in the world has always been our educated, hard-working, ambitious people – and we are going to keep that edge.”

On Energy:

“America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world… The best way to break this addiction is through technology.”

On Health Care:

“Our government has a responsibility to help provide health care for the poor and the elderly, and we are meeting that responsibility. For all Americans, we must confront the rising cost of care … strengthen the doctor-patient relationship … and help people afford the insurance coverage they need.”

Finally, the President will speak to the character and compassion of America:

“…our greatness is not measured in power or luxuries, but by who we are and how we treat one another. So we strive to be a compassionate, decent, hopeful society.”

# # #

We love you Greenspan!!

2006-01-31T09:04:00.000-05:00

Here is my Revolutionary leader - Alan Greenspan!!!!!

Long Live A Free Market Economy!!!!

After 18 years leading the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan is stepping down. The economic guru is practically the most loved man in the administration. More than seven in 10 Americans approve of the way Greenspan's handled his job as Fed chairman. Republicans, Democrats and independents alike all give Greenspan high marks. This far surpasses approval ratings for any other leader in the Administration. Ben Bernanke has been tapped to take over for Greenspan.

Can you only imagine if the Cuba's plazas were filled with images of this revolution instead of that idiota of Che. Most probably Cuba won't look like an ancient city of rumble stuck in time.

Viva Greenspan!! Viva La Economic Revolution! Viva Capitalism!

Tancredo wants to wear a speedo in Miami!!

2006-01-30T18:52:00.000-05:00

Immigration is the hot topic these days. Unfortunately a big part of the debate is created by Rep. Tancredo! (BLAH!!!!) The Republican from Colorado is an extremist who want to close ALL immigration to the country and deport every immigrant - most specifically Hispanic (Mexicans and OTM- Other Then Mexicans) back to their country.

This small minded man does have one redeeming quality, he loves the Cuban News Ticker outside of the US Interest Section in Havana. Rumor has it, he may even author a resolution supporting the news ticker. Supposedly he is all about Freedom for Cuba.....

But I don't trust this immigrant hater - I think he figures with Cuba free he can get rid of at least 3% of the Hispanic population in the United States and clean up Miami so he and his family (who are only second-generation Italian) can visit South Florida with out all of his "exotic people." I bet he is dying to wear a speedo on Miami Beach along with all the other wired tourist...

But with no latins around, who will wait on your over privileged white @ss???

I bet he is praying that Puerto Rico never becomes a state of the U.S.

The immigration bill, which already passed the House of representatives, is set to be debated in the Senate between President's Day and St. Patrick's Day.

So get ready folks, its going to get nasty.

Chaves supports Sheehan

2006-01-30T14:43:00.000-05:00

Venezuela's President, Hugo Chavez, just announced his full support of Cindy Sheehan for U.S. Senate!!!!

Sheehan, a resident of California, announced she will run against long time politician, Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein (news, bio, voting record) of California because the Senator will not support calls to immediately bring the troops home. Feinstein who does not support the President but felt with troops committed immediate withdrawal is not possible.

In the past Sheehan has thanked Chavez for "supporting life and peace." Sheehan also said she was impressed by his "sincerity"

This entire series of events make me laugh and cry!!! The only thing Chaves is "sincere" about is hit attempt to RULE TO WORLD. Thankfully I think that Sheehan has lost ALL credibility and people see here for what she is - CRAZY!

I bet people in the White House are laughing their asses off... Yeah Cindy you go win that Senate seat, good luck with that!!

Directly form Havana.... Viva Cuba Libre

2006-01-27T14:30:00.000-05:00

Thought you might be interested in some of the messages running on U.S. Interest Section's electronic display in Havana... You can see why Castro is all jumpy... come-mierd@....

TITULARES:

PALESTINOS PARTICIPAN EN PRIMERAS ELECCIONES LEGISLATIVAS DESDE HACE 10 ANOS.

ONG REPORTEROS SIN FRONTERAS ACUSA A LA JUSTICIA VENEZOLANA DE CENSURA A LA PRENSA.

A SOLICITUD DE CHILE, EEUU DETUVO A HIJA MAYOR DE PINOCHET.

ESTADOS UNIDOS OTORGO PERMISO AL EQUIPO CUBANO PARA
PARTICIPAR EN EL CLASICO MUNDIAL DE BEISBOL.
PRIMER PARTIDO DE CUBA SERIA MARZO 8 EN PUERTO RICO.

SEGUN LA OEA, EN HAITI TODAS LAS GARANTIAS ESTAN DADAS PARA QUE SE REALICEN ELECCIONES FEBRERO 7.

LEA LO QUE QUIERA, DIGA LO QUE PIENSA, HAGA LO QUE LE PAREZCA CORRECTO.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN: NINGUN HOMBRE ES LO SUFICIENTEMENTE BUENO
PARA GOBERNAR A OTRO HOMBRE SIN EL ACUERDO DE ESE OTRO.

INDIRA GANDHI: EL PODER DE CUESTIONAR ES EL BASE DE TODO DEL PROGRESO HUMANO.

VOLTAIRE: EL HOMBRE ES LIBRE EN EL MOMENTO QUE LO DESEA SER.

PRESIDENTE GEORGE W. BUSH: EL OBJETIVO DE EEUU ES AYUDAR A LOS DEMAS A ENCONTRAR SU PROPIA VOZ, LOGRAR SU PROPIA LIBERTAD, Y ABRIR SU PROPIO CAMINO.

WINSTON CHURCHILL: LA DEMOCRACIA ES LA PEOR FORMA DE GOBIERNO MENOS TODAS LAS DEMAS.

PORQUE LOS CUBANOS NO SE PUEDEN HOSPEDAR EN LOS HOTELES DE LUJO?

FIN.

Representing us well....

2006-01-12T09:31:00.000-05:00

Just to update you all on what's going on in Washington D.C. here is the letter co-authored by Congressmen Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart, and Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen.

Letter of The Members of Congress Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart to The U.S. Department of Homeland Security

January 10, 2006

The Honorable Michel Chertoff
Secretary
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
3891 Nebraska Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20528-0001

Dear Secretary Chertoff:

On September 17, 2003, while reiterating our profound opposition to the "Clinton Castro Migration Accord" (CCMA) of May 1995, we wrote to then Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega and Ambassador Otto Reich, with a series of recommendations to address the inconsistencies and arbitrariness of the "CCMA". At that time, we were informed that the "CCMA" was under review and that our recommendations were being considered.

Since we sent our letters, we have witnessed a record number of human trafficking cases from Cuba, a dramatic increase of Cuban nationals attempting to flee the island, an extraordinary amount of refugees repatriated without regard for the merits of their asylum petitions, and, basically, an overall process that constitutes an embarrassment to the United States.

The most recent repatriation of 15 Cuban refugees, who did reach U.S. territory by touching the Seven Mile Bridge in the Florida Keys, is simply the most recent example of an arbitrary process that uses any excuse to repatriate as many Cuban nationals as possible without due process.

Currently, 75% of all Cuban nationals who enter the United States and file for asylum have their applications approved. However, of the 11,137 Cuban nationals intercepted at sea from May 1995, through 2005, about 301 Cuban refugees were taken to the Guatanamo Naval Base (GITMO).

This means that less than 3% of Cuban nationals intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard were taken to GITMO having demonstrated a "credible fear of persecution." The disparity in the treatment of these two groups is most concerning, and underscores the severe inequities of the existing process on board the Coast Guard vessels.

We hereby reiterate our strong opposition to the immoral "CCMA" and urge that existing policy be reviewed forthwith. In an effort to remedy the obvious disparity outlined above, we, once again, recommend the following:

1. An immediate, through review of how the interviews of Cuban nationals intercepted at sea are conducted and "credible fear of persecution" is determined;

2. Legal counsel from recognized Volunteer Agencies should be allowed aboard the Coast Guard vessels in order to provide legal advice to refugees;

3. If it is determined that it is not feasible to have legal counsel on board U.S. Coast Guard vessels, all Cuban nationals intercepted at sea should be taken to GITMO for their cases to be properly evaluated and for the refugees to be afforded procedural rights consistent with Cuban nationals who seek asylum on land;

4. A percentage of the unallocated reserve of 20,000 refugees in FY 2005 should be reallocated to Cuban nationals who are not relocated to a third country after 120 days of the date they arrive at GITMO; and

5. The United States Interests Section should issue a report on the status of Cubans who have been repatriated to determine if they have sought and obtained refugee questionnaires as well as the status of their applications for refugee visas.

We believe that even though the very nature of this "Migration Accord" between the Cuban totalitarian regime and the United States runs contrary to the Cuban people’s aspiration for democracy and the United States’ rich tradition of granting refuge to the oppressed, these recommendations would significantly alleviate the detrimental impact of the "Migration Accord."
We urge you to review these recommendations, and hereby request a meeting with you as soon as possible to discuss their possible implementation.
Sincerely,

Lincoln Diaz-Balart Ileana Ros-Lehtinen Mario-Diaz-Balart

Viva Cuban Power!.... Letters authored by these three have helped many of Cubans stay in the country. I hope this makes a difference.

Cuba Paid Oswald to Kill Kennedy, New Film Says

2006-01-05T19:45:00.000-05:00

Cuba Paid Oswald to Kill Kennedy, New Film Says
By Mark Trevelyan, Reuters

BERLIN (Jan. 4) - Cuba lay behind the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy by Lee Harvey Oswald and its agents provided the gunman with money and support, an award-winning German director says in a new documentary film.

Wilfried Huismann spent three years researching "Rendezvous with Death," based on interviews with former Cuban secret agents, U.S. officials and a Russian intelligence source, and on research in Mexican security archives.

The film, shown to journalists in Berlin on Wednesday, says Oswald traveled to Mexico City by bus in September 1963, seven weeks before the Kennedy shooting, and met agents at the Cuban embassy there who paid him $6,500.

Oscar Marino, a former Cuban agent and a key source for the documentary, told Huismann that Oswald himself had volunteered for the assassination mission and Havana had exploited him.
"Oswald was a dissident. He hated his country...Oswald offered to kill Kennedy," Marino said in the film.

"He was so full of hate, he had the idea. We used him...He was a tool."

He said he knew with certainty that the assassination was an operation of the Cuban secret service G-2, but would not say if it was ordered by President Fidel Castro.

Oswald was shot dead by Jack Ruby two days after killing Kennedy in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.
The film argues Cuba wanted to eliminate Kennedy as the chief enemy of its Communist revolution, and portrays him and Castro as dueling opponents each trying to assassinate the other first.

What They Said

''Oswald was a dissident. He hated his country... Oswald offered to kill Kennedy. ...We used him.''-- Oscar Marino, a former Cuban agent, speaking in the documentary

Former CIA official Sam Halpern told Huismann: "He (Castro) beat us. He bested us. He came out on top, and we lost."

FBI PROBE ABORTED

Laurence Keenan, an officer of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) who was sent to
Mexico City immediately after Kennedy's death to investigate a possible Cuban connection, said he was recalled after just three days and the probe was aborted.

"This was perhaps the worst investigation the FBI was ever involved in," Keenan said. "I realized that I was used. I felt ashamed. We missed a moment in history."

Keenan, 81, said he was convinced Kennedy's successor, Lyndon Johnson, blocked further investigation because proof of a Cuban link would put him under irresistible pressure to invade the island, a year after the Cuban missile crisis had brought the United States and Soviet Union to the brink of nuclear war.

"Most likely there would have been an invasion of Cuba which could have had unknown consequences for the whole world," he told journalists at the screening, saying that was why Johnson preferred to accept Oswald was "a crazed lone Marxist assassin."

Interviewed for the film, Alexander Haig, then a U.S. military adviser and later secretary of state, quoted Johnson as saying "we simply must not allow the American people to believe that Fidel Castro could have killed our president."

"And the reason was that there would be a right-wing uprising in America, which would keep the Democratic party out of power for two generations," Haig said.

He added that Robert F. Kennedy, brother of the assassinated president and attorney general in his administration, had personally ordered eight attempts on the life of Castro, who is still in power to this day.

Cuban and Russian sources interviewed in the film say the KGB alerted the Cubans to Oswald in mid-1962 after he left the Soviet Union, where he had lived for three years, and returned to the United States with his Soviet wife and their daughter.

Cuban intelligence first made contact with Oswald in November 1962, according to the film.
Huismann also unearthed a U.S. intelligence report shown to Johnson which said Cuban secret service chief Fabian Escalante flew via Mexico City to Dallas on the day of Kennedy's assassination, and back again the same day.

Tracked down by the film maker, Escalante denied he had been in Dallas and evaded questions about Cuba's alleged role. "What is truth, what are lies?" he said, smiling.

Always looking over the ocean

2006-01-05T17:12:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year] all!!!

My short pause away from blogging was caused by my trip home to Miami.

There is nothing in the world like being home. And when that home combines warm sunny beaches, cool tropical breezes, great food and the people you love it's like heaven.

In the last three years I might have flown back and forth from Miami to DC about 20 times. Not only do I get home sick, but thankfully work sends me to Miami pretty often. Yet no matter how many times I fly over the Atlantic on my way to South Florida, each time I stare determined into the ocean's water. I look over every wave, every spot, always looking, just in case, I see a balsero.

Balsero's those brave men and women who risk life and limbs to reach the DRY lands of the United States.

Reports estimate that 6 Cubans die EACH DAY fleeing the Cuban island.

I have met many in my life. Even have some family members who arrived here on balsa. Unfortunately I have also been to many of their funerals, as most of them die at sea. Most of them never to be found again.

From hundreds of miles above the sea my little eyes look over the ocean wondering if I will spot one. Sometimes I think, if I did spot one, would I even say anything. Part of me thinks yes, so they can be saved but knowing the policy as it is now, if they get picked up by the Coast Guard, goodness knows what will happen. Most probably they will be sent back to Cuba.

I pray for these people and for the safe voyages. It's amazing to me to know that while some risk everything to leave Cuba, some tourist waste thousands to vacation there...

A prayer for the brave balseros, may the lord protect them on their voyage.

Learn more http://www.fiu.edu/~fcf/cubanrafters.html or http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y04/ago04/25e7.htm

In Case You Missed It

2006-01-04T17:02:00.000-05:00

December 30, 2005
THE AMERICAS
Counting Castro's Victims
By MARY ANASTASIA O'GRADYDecember 30, 2005; Page A17

"On May 27, [1966,] 166 Cubans -- civilians and members of the military -- were executed and submitted to medical procedures of blood extraction of an average of seven pints per person. This blood is sold to Communist Vietnam at a rate of $50 per pint with the dual purpose of obtaining hard currency and contributing to the Vietcong Communist aggression.

"A pint of blood is equivalent to half a liter. Extracting this amount of blood from a person sentenced to death produces cerebral anemia and a state of unconsciousness and paralysis. Once the blood is extracted, the person is taken by two militiamen on a stretcher to the location where the execution takes place."
-- InterAmerican Human Rights Commission, April 7, 1967

This weekend marks the 47th anniversary of the triumph of the "26th of July Movement," which many Cubans expected would return their country to a constitutional government. Fidel Castro had other ideas of course, and within weeks he hijacked the victory, converting the country into one of the most repressive states in modern history.

Waiting for Fidel to die has become a way of life in Cuba in the past decade. Conventional wisdom holds that the totalitarian regime will hang on even after the old man kicks the bucket. But that hasn't stopped millions from dreaming big about life in a Fidel-free Cuba.

Cuban reconciliation won't come easy, even if Fidel's ruthless, money-grubbing little brother Raul is somehow pushed aside. One painful step in the process will require facing the truth of all that has gone on in the name of social justice. As the report cited above shows, it is bound to be a gruesome tale.

The Cuba Archive project (www.cubaarchive.org1) has already begun the heavy lifting by attempting to document the loss of life attributable to revolutionary zealotry. The project, based in Chatham, N.J., covers the period from May 1952 -- when the constitutional government fell to Gen. Fulgencio Batista -- to the present. It has so far verified the names of 9,240 victims of the Castro regime and the circumstances of their deaths. Archive researchers meticulously insist on confirming stories of official murder from two independent sources.

Cuba Archive President Maria Werlau says the total number of victims could be higher by a factor of 10. Project Vice President Armando Lago, a Harvard-trained economist, has spent years studying the cost of the revolution and he estimates that almost 78,000 innocents may have died trying to flee the dictatorship. Another 5,300 are known to have lost their lives fighting communism in the Escambray Mountains (mostly peasant farmers and their children) and at the Bay of Pigs. An estimated 14,000 Cubans were killed in Fidel's revolutionary adventures abroad, most notably his dispatch of 50,000 soldiers to Angola in the 1980s to help the Soviet-backed regime fight off the Unita insurgency.

The archive project can be likened to the 1999 "Black Book of Communism," which documented the world-wide cost of communism, noting that "wherever the millenarian ideology of Communism was established it quickly led to crime, terror and repression." The Castro methodology, Cuba Archive finds, was much like that used in Poland and East Germany, less lethal than Stalin's purges, but equally effective in suppressing opposition.

In the earliest days of the revolution, summary executions established a culture of fear that quickly eliminated most resistance. In the decades that followed, inhumane prison conditions often leading to death, unspeakable torture and privation were enough to keep Cubans cowed.
Cuba Archive finds that some 5,600 Cubans have died in front of firing squads and another 1,200 in "extrajudicial assassinations." Che Guevara was a gleeful executioner at the infamous La Cabaña Fortress in 1959 where, under his orders, at least 151 Cubans were lined up and shot. Children have not been spared. Of the 94 minors whose deaths have been documented by Cuba Archive, 22 died by firing squad and 32 in extrajudicial assassinations.

Fifteen-year-old Owen Delgado Temprana was beaten to death in 1981 when security agents stormed the embassy of Ecuador where his family had taken refuge. In 1995, 17-year-old Junior Flores Díaz died after being locked in a punishment cell in a Havana province prison and denied medical attention. He was found in a pool of vomit and blood. Many prison deaths are officially marked as "heart attacks," but witnesses tell another story. The project has documented 2,199 prison deaths, mostly political prisoners.

The revolution boasts of its gender equality, and that's certainly true for its victims. Women have not fared much better than men. In 1961, 25-year-old Lydia Pérez López was eight months pregnant when a prison guard kicked her in the stomach. She lost her baby and, without medical attention, bled to death. A 70-year-old woman named Edmunda Serrat Barrios was beaten to death in 1981 in a Cuban jail. Cuba Archive has documented 219 female deaths including 11 firing squad executions and 20 extrajudicial assassinations.

The heftiest death toll is among those trying to flee. Many have been killed by state security. Three Lazo children drowned in 1971 when a Cuban navy vessel rammed their boat; their mother, Mrs. Alberto Lazo Pastrana, was eaten by sharks. Twelve children -- ages six months to 11 years -- drowned along with 33 others when the Cuban coast guard sank their boat in 1994. Four children -- ages three to 17 -- drowned in the famous Canimar River massacre along with 52 others when the Cuban navy and a Cuban air force plane attacked a hijacked excursion boat headed for Florida in 1980.

The horror of that event cost one more life: After visiting survivors in the Matanzas hospitals, the famous revolutionary guerrilla Haydée Santamaría, already in despair over the massive, inhumane boat exodus from the Port of Mariel, killed herself. That was a tragic admission of both the cost and failure of the revolution. The only riddle left is how, 25 years later, so-called "human rights" advocates like Argentine President Nestor Kirchner still embrace the Castro regime.

Copyright 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved

"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." - Plato

They got prostitutes but no Santa!!

2005-12-19T18:26:00.000-05:00

While Cuba has lots of jineteras they defiantly don't have much of a Christmas spirit. The communist island, which outlawed Christmas in 1969 in order to get people to work through Castro's attempt of a record sugar harvest, began celebrating the holy holiday in 1997 as a good will gesture to Pope John Paul II.

But till this day Christmas decorations are as rare as full noche buena dinner. Many Cubans don't know or understand the holiday on the atheist island.

Read this article "Santa blacklisted in Cuba, no Xmas spirit" for more information...

Yes Virginia Jineteras Do Exist in Cuba!!!

2005-12-19T14:29:00.000-05:00

Usually I try to write something new each post, unless it's an ongoing story. I have never responded to a comment on a post, until today!!

My last post I talked about UNICEF, sexual tourism in Cuba and child prostitution on the island..... One of the comments to my post stated that what I was saying was "absurd" The comment, written by Leftside, said that HE found no trace of prostitution in Cuba and that in fact the Cuban government crack's down on prostitution. ..... I want to know what Cuba did he go to????

While I don't doubt the Cuban government "tries" to give the impression they would never let children or adults prostitute themselves for some dollars, the reality is it happens every day. I can give you dozens of reports, articles and first hand accounts about such event that occurred in Cuba. (see below)

Yet my friend, Leftside, you say that I have no bases for my claims and from your personal experience on the socialist island that clearly I am a liar. As you said "I did not see ANY action when I was there last year."..... So what!!

Just because you claim that you didn''t see prostitutes in Cuba, it doesn't mean they don't exist? I don't see drugs or prostitutes in my daily life living in Washington D.C., but I do know they exist. So what you didn't see an overwhelming proof of sex rings in Cuba, but now you can read more about it and realize there are Jineteras in Cuba.

Or maybe you didn't see it because you are one of those idealist about Castro's Revolution. Here's the reality about the "great revolution" - IT FAILED!! Castro and Che's baloney propaganda failed miserably not only because it was a farce of an idea that could never actually take form in real life, but because their great plan was all about their own personal power and not the well being of the Cuban people.

In addition, though Castro can give the good talk at his old age, he would NEVER shut down an industry providing him moneEspeciallylly SOOOO much money. If you haven't noticed this communist/socialist/ believer in equality lives in a palace and is considered one of the worldrichestest men while millions of his people die and suffer.

Defending the Cuban government will get you no where here. And your claim that I "blame the problem exclusively on foreign tourists"... WELL DUH!!!! Tourist are the ones with the money!

The average Cuban on the island sometimes doesn't have enough to buy food, he usually isn't looking for prostitutes or jineteras.... and as far as the drugs comment, just because drugs are not a huge part of the prostitution circles in Cuba (which I am not sure if they are or if they are not... anyone want to help me on that one??) but that alone does not take away the fact that children are being abused on that island. I know that prostitution in Cuba is different that what we picture prostitution to be in the states, but again, it does not take away the raw in-humanity of the act and the desperation of the people doing such things as selling their bodies for money so they can feed their families.

The ECPAT Network - End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism - is a group of international organizations to end child prostitution and pornography all over the world published a study, "Child Prostitution and Sex Tourism: Cuba." It said that "In Cuba, the link between tourism and prostitution is perhaps more direct than in any other country that hosts sex tourists." ECPAT also said a higher ratio of tourists are drawn to Cuba for prostitution rather than for the beaches, the shopping or the cultural experience more than to any other country in the world.

It also said "With mass tourism came large-scale effective demand for prostitution. Since many Cuban people are currently experiencing enormous economic hardship, it is not surprising that a supply of prostitutes has emerged to meet this demand." (link below)

Even from the floor of the House of Representatives Members of Congress from both sides have commented about Cuba's child prostitution rings, thier market for sexual tourism and how the abuse the children of Cuba. Look it up in the House Congressional Record.

I can pick apart your argument word by word, but I figured i might left others post thier comments as well.

And for your reading pleasure:
(note, some of the pages have graphic pictures, please be carefull)

- http://www.protectionproject.org/ (Great report from the John Hopkins University. Go to Human Right Reports and then go to Americas and click on Cuba, President Bush has cited this report when talking about human trafficking in Cuba and prostitution.

- http://www.ageofconsent.com/comments/sextourism.htm

- http://www.worldsexguide.org/cuba.html

- http://www.cbc.ca/news/viewpoint/vp_fatah/20040212.html (GREAT ARTICLE)

- http://www.uri.edu/artsci/wms/hughes/cuba.htm (Factbook on Global Sexual Exploitation- Cuba)

- http://www.american.edu/TED/cubatour.htm (Cuba: The Thailand of the Americas)

- http://www.cuba-erleben.de/com/Mentality.htm (Getting to Know Cuba guide)

- http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/develop/2003/0326cuba.htm (Poverty Pushes Cuban Women into Sex Tourism)

I hope these are helpful. I don't doubt that you will comment on some problem with them. But they are the truth.

On more thing, I don''t know how the left always has a way to champion the cause of despicable things. You will defend Castro and his revolution, and the right of people to be self determined individuals, speaking their mind, but you won't admit to Human Right Violations in Cuba or the fact that thousands are rotting in Cuban jails. Boggles my mind, I guess that is why I'm a Republican.

Sometimes you got to laugh so you don't cry!

2005-12-16T13:25:00.000-05:00

As part of my daily routine, I browse through the Cuba news via goggle. The first 15 post or so are about the baseball situation that has been very well covered by Babalu (great job by the way!) and then I hit this title: "UNICEF Praises Cuba's Child Protection Policy."

Clearly I clicked on it to see what information was the being presented as news. The poster, the Cuban government via AIN, of course provided "their version" of the truth (special emphasis on THEIR VERSION. But sometimes you got to laugh to keep your self from crying.

Cuba is a source country for children trafficked internally for the purposes of sexual exploitation and forced child labor.

The AIN article cites that UNICEF has recognized Cuba for "the excellent protection of children by the Cuban government." .. The article also says that Cuba protects it's children against any type of violence and suffer maltreatment and exploitation.

This is appalling! Cuba is the same government that has one of the LARGEST ring of Child prostitution in the world. It constantly abuses the youth in Cuba for sexual reasons, promoting tourism through sexual tourism, and has a huge market for human trafficking, all with a focus on children.

The article states "there are no 'invisible" or excluded children, despite being located in Latin America -a region where the abysmal gap between rich and poor keeps on growing. " Of course there are no "invisible" children in Cuba! The socialist island makes sure to count each and every one of its slave (umm... I mean citizens). These children work in the fields, promote his propaganda and are part of circle of abuse, which tries to break their spirit and tries to pull families apart.

Cuban children are forced to work in the agriculture industry of the country for months at a time with no parent supervision, separated from the families starting around the age of 11 - 13.

It's amazing to me, and to many Cubans, that UNICEF praises a country that so clearly abuses of its most precious resources, its children.

We all hope one day the realities of Cuba will come to light to the entire world community.

Viva Cuba Libre!!

When do you know you’re a BIT too paranoid???

2005-12-15T14:58:00.000-05:00

I have been involved in the Cuban fight for freedom even before I was born. When my mother was pregnant with me, as a good patriota, she still went to meetings, protests and even organized a few rallies.

I guess the same way that some fathers make their pregnant wives watch football so their babies will love the sport, my mom’s activism subconsciously made her American born baby a super Cuban, with the same fervor as the winning quarter back in a Super Bowl game.

Some of my first childhood memories are comprised of me reciting long poems of Jose Marti to random crowds of people while handing out white roses, asking strangers to sign petitions to denounce Cuba’s Human Rights violations and of course participating in pageants for “Los Municipios de Cuba en el Exilio” (the municipalities of Cuba in Exile festival) . Even in college I helped organize student protests agsinst the Clinton administration because of Elian and another against Jose Serrano. So yeah I’ve been doing this for a while.

A dark reality for all Cuban-American activists is the existence of Cuban spies. Yes they do exists! and no I am not being overly paranoid (ok, maybe a little, but I will get to that) … and Yes they are everywhere. I have met some, heard of many, one even tried to brain wash me…. clearly he didn’t prevail; I saw what he was doing…. LOSER!!!

Even in Washington D.C. during my latest work for “La Causa,” I was taken aside and told about the presence of Cuban spies in DC and how they target people like me!!. Ahh!!! Clearly I have become a super paranoid person, to an existent that recently on a business trip to New York City I let my paranoia get the best of me.

On my only free day in New York City this fall I was just walking around the city. I realized there was a Hispanic parade and quickly got enthralled in the pageantry. Everyone had their national flags, so I went up to the nearest vendor and asked for “mi banderita Cubana.”

As I happily waved and saluted to the few Cuban floats, towards the end of the parade a guy comes up to me and starts asking me about Cuban floats in the parade. He then starts asking about Cuba. He keeps asking me questions. He is Cuban, my paranoia got the best of me. I quickly assumed he might be a spy. I asked him questions, trying to measure him up. I even ask him if he is a spy!!!!

How paranoid does our activism make us (ok me) and we (I) assume that some people we (I) meet might be spies!!!

I know they exists. I know where they might hang out (members of the Cuban government hang out at Havana Village in Adams Morgan - I don’t go there—and it also has a huge Che poster that makes me sick to my stomach). But I also know that I have to chill out, be cautious but chill out.

Thankfully the guy has a sense of humor and we laughed it out. That is after the poor guy spent 20 minutes trying to convince me he wasn’t a spy, showing me every piece of identification he had and telling me a short bio of his life. He was just a nice guy interested in me. …

I finally believed him….. Why not, he was a nice guy Cuban boy… Well, I really believed him after I made a few calls, just in case for peace of mind…. You know…..

Viva Cuba Libre!

Get Them Out Of Here!!

2005-12-14T15:11:00.000-05:00

So what the freak crawled up representative Tancredo #&^$*. Why does he want to pick up and ship out every person of Hispanic/Latin/Tejano (insert whatever politically correct term feels best to you) decent.

Unless you've been living in some cave (umm like me these days) you probably know the U.S. House of representatives is taking up immigration reform this week. Their is a bill by Rep. Sensenbrenner and Rep. King, Border and Immigration Enforcement Act of 2005, that address border security and internal enforcement but has no program to deal with the undocumented immigrants currently living in this nation. Unlike the President's proposal, the House bill focuses more on enforcement and less on dealing with the WHOLE problem.

representative Tancredo is a xenophobia out west who for the last few years has been advocating a "let's close the border and ship them all back where they came from" policy. Funny thing is, his grandfather immigrated here from Italy. Tancredo wants to even stop giving out HI visas, even for highly skilled, and high tech workers until the problems with immigration is resolved. In Tancredo's eyes, that is when we have a land of only light skinned English only speaking European descendents.

These days I feel that my black hair and brown eyes and slight Miami accent will force me start carrying a passport just in case Tancredo and his 80 something goonies move the nation in their direction.

If you think that as a Cuban you won't be effected. Think again. To many of these people all people from Spanish speaking countries are "Mexicans" they make no distinction and assume all of us are illegally here. Some of us maybe a bit more light skinned and have less of an accent but when you have the INS acting like a Gestapo all over Miami trying to deport people, let see how you feel about this.

The most disappointing thing is that I am a Republican!! For the last few months I have been fighting these policies. But the last few weeks it has been insane. Its like every freaking elephant lover in this city is about to use their passive feet to smash the other elephant into pieces.

Look I am all about securing our borders, stricter enforcement but does anyone truly realize what will happen to this nation if we send back every one of the 11 million undocumented immigrants in this nation, Mexican or OTM (what some love to call Other Then Mexicans).

Ay dios. The economy would crumble, hotels wouldn't get cleaned, fields won't be picked and half the people advocating immigrants return would be left with dirty houses and uncared for children.

Clearly Hispanics can do more, but as my grandparents needed some footing to move up, this current generation is doing the same. The reality is that some are just scared that these hard working Hispanics will have these menial jobs for the meantime and soon enough will take over the work place as we have done in so many other areas.

I'm Back

2005-12-14T15:07:00.000-05:00

I'm BACK!!!

I am sorry that for almost two months I have been missing in action...

Much like a kid napped victim for the last few months I have been secluded to little whole in the wall, mainly my new office, as I started a new job with new people and not as much Cuba news as I once got.

But alas that has all changed. Here I go again delivering my version of Cuba news with a Washington twist... Well not always Cuba news but as a Cubanita I go for my passion, the mother land of Cuba, as Fransico Vicente Aguilera once said, "Sine patria no tengo nada!"

Viva Cuba Libre!!

Rep McDermott's Iraq Trip Bought and Paid for by U.N. Scandal Money

2005-11-08T02:10:00.000-05:00

The following Press Release was brought to you by the NRCC. Jim McDermott is a super lefty, super commy and clearly always votes to end the embargo. I am not shocked one bit he is particiating in less the perfect situations...

Jim McDermott's Iraq Trip Bought and Paid for by U.N. Scandal Money
Congressman traveled to Iraq with accused friend

Washington – Just when it seemed U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott's (WA-07) ethical rap sheet couldn't get any more scandalous, it appears he's adding his ties to one of history's greatest scandals. When Paul Volcker's final report on the United Nations oil-for-food scandal was released recently, a friend of McDermott, who traveled with him to Iraq, was listed as a beneficiary.

Detroit-area businessman Shakir Al-Khafaji is alleged to have received oil money from Saddam Hussein's government under the failed U.N. program that was ravaged by illegal kickbacks and bribes. During a 2002 trip to Iraq, McDermott not only traveled on the dime of an organization financially supported by Al-Khafaji, but was actually accompanied by the scandal-ridden businessman with ties to Hussein's Baath Party.

"Jim McDermott will stop at nothing to be in the spotlight, even if it means traveling with one of Saddam Hussein's accomplices in the U.N. Oil-for-Food scandal," said National Republican Congressional Committee Communications Director Carl Forti. "Jim McDermott's cozy relationship with Shakir Al-Khafaji truly makes him the poster child of House Democrats' questionable ethics and shady friendships."

According to Crain's Detroit Business, "Al-Khafaji led a delegation of anti-war Congressmen to Iraq in 2002 that included former Rep. David Bonior and Jim McDermott. ... Al-Khafaji and his wife ... gave ... more than $5,000 to McDermott for a legal defense fund..." McDermott has since returned the money, though he has characterized his relationship with Al-Khafaji as "... a friend [who] gives me money."

"Sadly, the very money that Saddam Hussein bilked from the Iraqi people made its way back into the pocket of Jim McDermott's traveling partner and helped finance his Iraq adventure," added Forti.

-40-

EU AWARD FOR CUBAN ACTIVISTS WELCOME, BUT MORE PRESSURE NEEDED

2005-10-30T11:50:00.000-05:00

press realease from Freedom House.....

NEW YORK, October 27, 2005 -- The European Parliament's decision to award Cuban activists its annual Sakharov Prize is a highly deserved honor, but the European Union must do more to hold the Cuban government accountable for its ongoing human rights abuses, Freedom House said today.

The award, named for renowned Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, was given Wednesday to "Cuba's Ladies in White" (Damas de Blanco), a group of women who regularly demonstrate peacefully in Cuba on behalf of relatives jailed over two years ago during a widespread crackdown on Cuban dissidents and independent journalists. Nigerian human rights lawyer Hauwa Ibrahim, and the Paris-based organization Reporters Without Borders also received the award.

"The Ladies in White are the wives, sisters, and daughters of Cuban political prisoners, and through their dignified and courageous acts of defiance they have awakened the world's conscience to the brutal nature of the Castro regime," said Freedom House Executive Director Jennifer Windsor. "These women are the standard-bearers of Cuba's growing democracy movement."

Of the 75 Cuban citizens rounded up in March 2003, 61 remain confined to squalid prison conditions, serving sentences averaging 20 years.

Freedom House congratulates the award winners and praises the European Union's efforts to champion human rights defenders, especially those operating within closed and repressive societies.

The European Parliament's decision comes at a significant moment in EU-Cuba relations, as European pressure on the Cuban regime to uphold basic principles of human rights and democratic reforms has wavered over the past year.

"The EU's decision to honor and support the work of Cuba's Ladies in White, while commendable, must be followed by a renewed commitment by European leaders to support the peaceful work of Cuba's democracy advocates and to hold the Cuban government accountable for its continued violations of individual freedoms and the rule of law," said Ms. Windsor.
Every Sunday afternoon since April 2003, the Ladies in White, dressed in all white clothing, have been marching through the streets of Havana and other provincial Cuban cities. The women have often been compared to Argentina's Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, known around the world for their heroic demonstrations against the disappearance of Argentina's missing sons and daughters from the Dirty Wars of the 1970's and 80's.

The European Parliament's Sakharov Prize has now been awarded twice in the past three years to members of Cuba's democracy movement. In December 2002, Cuban dissident Oswaldo Payá was awarded the prize in recognition of the Varela Project, a grassroots initiative that to-date has collected over 30,000 signatures in support of a nationwide referendum on Cuba's socialist constitution. More than 40 Varela activists were among the 75 detained in March 2003.
Freedom House has consistently rated Cuba "Not Free" in its annual global survey of political rights and civil liberties, Freedom in the World, and in Freedom of the Press, its annual survey of global media freedom.

Bush to visit Miami

2005-10-27T09:50:00.000-05:00

President Bush will be visiting Miami, FL today with various members of the South Florida Congressional delegation. He lands at Miami International Airport at around 12:30 PM and will be having a meeting with key officials later in the day at the Hurricane Center at FIU.

God Help Us!

2005-10-24T15:54:00.000-05:00

For all those dealing with yet another hurricane... May the Lord look after you and your family.... estoy resando para todo!!......

Thankfully my family is safe, with the exception of a few dozen missing shingles, all things are good... and Dad, stop video tapping the storm in the middle of the street!! Get in the house already!!! Por Dios!!

Stupido Pinkos!

2005-10-21T18:37:00.000-05:00

The "Kumbaya"* team is back, this time its with CODEPINK.... these people have organized "friendship visits" to hug and love castro and party in Havana for New Years. Then a month later they will go and celebrate with Hugo Chavez in Venezuela..... (thank you Babalu Blog for bring this to our attention) ....

CODEPINK says they want to go to Cuba because it is their constitutional right to travel. I wish they would understand that those inalienable rights, granted by our fore fathers that they are seeking to express, is a foreign concept to the Cuban citizens.

The simple idea of “life, liberty and property for the pursuit of happiness” does not exists on the island. A Cubans life is not their own; it belongs to the government. Cubans have no liberty; they can not express themselves. They can not speak their minds (without going to jail that is) or even travel within their own country. Cubans can't own land; in fact, they can't even own a cell phone. The pursuit of happiness? What happiness? Though Cubans are a joyful people, they have learned to put up with a lot, for many of them, their happiest moments occur when they can escape the island and reach freedom.... The so-called itinary for Codepink states they will go “visit with farmers at their co-ops” (owned by castro, where many children are forced to work endless hours away from their families.); “[visit] doctors at their family clinics” (which don’t have resources to attend to their patients – but I bet that week there will be plenty of medicine to show off to the Americans); “ [to visit] dancers at the National Folklore Group, and young people at the ballpark.” (I wonder who will be chosen by the government to talk to these self professed freedom lovers”)….. We must all wonder, who exactly will Codepink meet with? A group of handpicked Cubans by the castro government? We all wonder if their trip will be constantly monitored by Cuban officials.

I want to ask Codepink, who are fighting so hard in this country for "progressive thought", Why do you not want to bring such progressive thought into the entire world. Why do you want to express your freedom to party at the expense of those that suffer each day at the hands of a murdering dictator? You state on your web page that "Codepink is a women-initiated grassroots peace and social justice movement working to end the war in Iraq, stop new wars, and redirect our resources into healthcare, education and other life-affirming activities."...

So, CodePink will: Why don't you help create social justice in Cuba? Will you meet with opposition leaders? Will you ask for the immediate release of political prisoners? Will you ask for the immediate release of journalist from the gulags? Will you ask for an immediate end to the apartheid system that exists between Cubans and tourist? Will you protest the child prostitution rings in Cuba? Will you ask that government allow the operation of libraries, and not imprison librarians? Will you ask for an end to the child labor camps? Will you force the government of Cuba to give their citizens life-affirming activities, and allow them to live in freedom and not in constant panic, hunger and suffering? .....

I bet not!!!!….. Your only mission in Cuba is your personal satisfaction and intoxication in the beautiful beaches my family was kicked out of. As you said yourselves “Don’t miss this historic chance to dance salsa, drink mojitos, and visit beautiful beaches”… I love how you have your priorities in order – there is no part to help the suffering of the Cuban people. If you want to do all that so badly, just go to Miami! In fact, I can make a pretty good mojito. Come to my house, I’ll make you a mojito and tell you the real Cuban story!!

Codepink's only mission to Cuba is a selfish excuse to go against a Bush policy, that will cause no positive impact in the world, but only lead to more human suffering by providing additional revenue to the Cuban dictatorship. Shame on you Codepink, for you do not stand for freedom, you only care about yourselves and not the suffering of thousands of people. This is just a lame attempt to "rebel" against the President because of your general distaste for him. Stop acting like a puberty stricken teenager and realize the consequences of your actions. As you fight to travel to the island, millions more die to leave. Congratulations on having a complete lack of consciousness.

For more information on these so called “friendship visits” go to babalu blog. As usual he has a wonderful insightful and informative commentary and hacks away at all these Pinko groups….

* Kumbaya team – I call them Kumbaya team, or Kumbaya-ers those people that want the world to hold hands and sign together in happiness and peace, who live in some idealistic reality that everyone loves each other and can get along. Who doesn’t understand there is real evil in this world. Those who do not see the evil that does exist because of their idealistic principles and their inability to see reality.

No Miers And Castro are NOT alike!!!

2005-10-21T10:12:00.000-05:00

I understand not every Conservative, and defiantly not every American, is super excited about the nomination of Harriet Miers as the next Supreme Court justice, YET comparing her to Fidel Castro is just a little out there!!! Miers may not be the perfect nominee, but comparing her to the devil himself goes way over the parameters of reason….

Today on Reason Magazine’s online blog, they had a post titled, " How Are Miers And Castro Alike? How Are They Different? " . In it, they list the few (and CLEARLY there are few) reasons the ruthless communist dictator can even be compared with this freedom loving, law abiding American. The magazine uses the issue of abortion as a means for the comparison… but come on people… How can anyone compare Miers trying to stay ambiguous on abortion (in a failed attempt to become a more viable option for both political parties) to dictator castro. His latest attempt to say abortion is bad and that he wants to stop sexual tourism is full of crap!!!

The socialist island lives off of tourism, and especially sexual tourism - providing over $2 billion a year to Cuba. The police don’t even imprison jineteras - prostitutes any more. It's part of the “cultural landscape.” Abortion has for a long time been a disgustingly abused way of birth control on the island. A practice allowed by Castro. Your going to tell me that this immoral, murderous dictator suddenly had some change of heart, and cares about the unborn and wants to stop one of the most popular means of revenue to the island! Yeah right! Money is money and Fidel Castro doesn't care where it comes from, as long as it's in his pockets. This is just another publicity stunt trying to show Castro as a nice guy, "Santo Fidel"…. Thankfully there are many of us that are not blinded by the smoke he is pumping out…

On another note, though Harriet Miers isn’t my ideal pick either -I would have much preferred a Hispanic on the court - I don’t think she is the monster that everyone is trying to portray her to be. Is she the most qualified for the court? No. Is she the worst decision ever? I don’t think so. She does have an impressive resume and has fought alot of opposition in her life. This won't be the first time she has had an uphill battle … I think that this view of this nomination, like most things in America these days (unfortunately) is based on perception. The White House blew the roll out of this nomination, probably because of all the scandals, but we will just have to wait and see how this possible Supreme Court Justice will do come November.

To read the post go to Reason - http://www.reason.com/hitandrun/2005/10/how_are_miers_a.shtml

Ok so now you have your stinkin’ picture!!

2005-10-20T16:31:00.000-05:00

Today Texan Representative Tom DeLay turned himself in to the Harris Country Sheriff's office. The deposed House majority leader was booked on conspiracy and money laundering charges and was finger printed and his mug shot was taken.

Ronnie Earle, the Travis Country District Attorney who has been attacking delay for years and got the indictment, must have cringed when the picture came out. Delay's mug shot looks better then his House of Representatives photo!!! Delay is all smiles, with a nice suit and his Member of Congress pin. ... Who ever got him ready for this picture is a GENIUS!

I know that Earle, and his democratic cronies, where hoping for a nasty horrible mug shot, a la' Pee Wee Herman. Oohh so sad. tear, tear for you!! What a shocker when the Congressman's mug shot made him look like the "Employee of the Month" and not the sketchy-creepy politico that Earl had dreamed up.

I wonder if he will have nightmares of Delay's smiley faces? ... We know that Earl and the Democrats were hoping of a picture/mug shot they could plaster in the mass media. Dreams of sugar plum fairies passing around pamphlets, flyers and national commercials highlighting a mug shot of guilt ridden Delay, forcing the image down the throats of Americans with a slogan- This Man Is A Criminal and so are ALL Republicans!.... umm ok, try to use that message with this picture... Delay looks great!... As my co-workers would say "this picture is brilliant!"

Delay is scheduled for his initial court appearance tomorrow. His bail is set for $10,000. His lawyer will ask the scheduled lawyer to step down. The judge is a active democrat.

Just for comparison sake, let's take a look at mug shots more in the likeness of the vision Earl had for Delay's picture (Nick Nolte, Paul Reubens - akaMr. Pee Wee Herman and Robert Downey Jr.)..... sorry Earl, no crazy hair, no nasty facial hair, not drug induced look...

For more information about Delay or stupid mug shots go to The Smoking Gun.

Why NOT me!!

2005-10-20T14:45:00.000-05:00

urrrrr.... didn't win the power ball lottery of a total of $340 million... oh the dreams I had.... Some person in Oregon won!!.... Oregon, how about a struggling young professional in D.C.!... Oh well it was only $5, maybe next time... Even a Senator from NH won $850,000....

on another note, the lottery does say a lot about the RIDICULOUS nature of our taxes... The jackpot of $340 million is a payout of about $130... ummm what happened to like half the money? Taxes! Yes there are way too many taxes in this country!

Ice Cream and Commies both give me headaches!

2005-10-20T13:46:00.000-05:00

Great Op-Ed from the Wall Street Journal. Long live Capitalism!!!

Ice Cream Hangover

By STEPHEN MOORE
October 20, 2005; Page A15

STOWE, Vt. -- I've always prided myself on conscientiously avoiding funding anti-free-market liberal causes in America, so you won't ever catch me pouring Newman's Own oil-and-vinegar dressing on my salad. But I confess to an addiction to Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey and the greatest flavor ever invented in ice-creamdom, Coffee Heath Bar Crunch. I draw the line, however, at the now-retired Rainforest Crunch. The name itself is nauseating. Eating a rain forest?

So this weekend, while in Vermont to speak at the Freedom Fest sponsored by the Ethan Allen Institute, a conservative state think tank (150 people showed up -- more freedom-lovers than I would have thought resided in the blue state that gave us Howard Dean and Congress's only avowed socialist, Bernie Sanders), I paid a visit to the world-famous Ben & Jerry's ice-cream factory.

To be in Vermont and not visit this landmark would be as unforgivable as visiting Rome and not going to the Colosseum. So I slapped down three bucks and waited in the gift shop where a pint of ice cream costs $3.99 -- which to me borders on price-gouging. (One of the supreme ironies of this socially conscious firm is that it is one of the best capitalists you'll ever come across.)

The tour itself is a 30-minute propaganda campaign explaining why the company's founders, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, deserve the Nobel Peace Prize for their unwavering commitment to the environment and economic justice.

Meanwhile, their factory is a monument to the efficiencies of capitalism and technological progress: Several dozen giant computer-operated machines churn out hundreds of thousands of cartons a day. I half expect the massive energy-gulping freezers to be solar-paneled or powered by green-friendly windmills, but no, they use lots and lots of conventional electricity. It turns out that if you want really good ice cream, you just have to tolerate a little more global warming. That's a trade-off that I personally am willing to make.

Most of my fellow tourists are a bit on the chubby side, and a few start wheezing as we climb the half-flight of stairs to the observation area. These folks need another scoop of Cherry Garcia like a hole in the head. Although this company touts its "wholesome and natural ingredients mixed with euphoric concoctions," the truth is that Ben & Jerry's ice cream mostly contains two hazardous ingredients: fatty cream and sugar.

Herein lies a second irony: This product is probably about as good for your health as a pack of Camel cigarettes -- and at least cigarettes carry the Surgeon General's warning labels. At Ben & Jerry's, the saying goes "if you can't eat a whole pint … in one sitting, you aren't really trying." But if you do, you might as well be injecting your arteries with Elmer's glue. And they have no qualms about marketing this dangerous product to children. If you want to know the definition of a liberal's dilemma, just wait till the trial lawyers slap Ben & Jerry's with a billion-dollar lawsuit.

Our guide is almost apologetic when he tells us that back in 2000 our lovable heroes got filthy rich by selling out to corporate food giant Unilever. But never fear: In the tour video, the new, aptly named CEO, Walt Freese, assures us that "our commitment to social and economic justice and the environment is as important to us as profitability. It's our heritage." I nearly have to wipe away tears streaming down my cheeks.

It is fortuitous that I am here the very week Ben & Jerry's announced that, for the first time in 10 years, it will get back to "leading with its values" by spending $5 million on a social awareness TV ad campaign. More than one analyst has wondered aloud whether this is just a slick Madison Avenue advertising gimmick to hike profits. After all, corporate responsibility has become the chic new marketing theme for Fortune 500 companies like British Petroleum, Starbucks and even GE. But Mr. Freese assures us that "this isn't a short-term strategy to drive up sales. These are issues that are important for our society to address."

And just what are those issues? Here our earnest tour guide raises his chin a bit and proudly declares that the first ads are dedicated to saving the family farm. When I burst out laughing, 22 sets of angry eyes glared at me. For the past 100 years, as the productivity of the American farmer has surged to unprecedented heights, the number of Americans working in agriculture to feed the world has fallen from 35 workers per 100 to two.

This is called progress. What is Ben & Jerry's proposed solution, anyway? To turn back the clock and abolish the tractor? Many Americans seem to be under the illusion that the small family farmer has lived a carefree idyllic lifestyle. In truth, this livelihood has traditionally involved backbreaking toil, work-days that last from sun-up to sundown, and monotony -- which is why sons and daughters have been fleeing the farm for five generations. The only people who actually want to save small farms are people who've never worked on a farm.

The Ben & Jerry's ads moan that the corporatization of farming is a horrid trend. I couldn't help asking our tour guide during the Q-&-A why, if corporatization of farming is such a bad thing, that isn't also true of the corporatization of ice cream. Those same 22 pairs of eyes glare back at me.

It's hard to feel sorry for the allegedly aggrieved farmers who have "lost their land" to corporate greed. In Northern Virginia, where I live (and in many other areas), the farmers have sold their acreage for about 20 times what they paid and now they own million-dollar bungalows in Palm Beach, while the rest of us get to shop at glorious-though-crowded strip malls. It's a win-win.

At the end of the tour -- which I highly recommend for the free scoops along the way -- it's a relief to know that of all the dimwitted, touchy-feely, left-wing social causes Ben & Jerry's could waste $5 million on, this one will probably do society and our beloved capitalistic system the least damage. So as a lover of freedom, I can, in good conscience, shell out $4 a pint for Coffee Heath Bar Crunch, eat it out of the carton in one sitting -- my arteries be damned -- and still feel good about myself in the morning.

Mr. Moore is a member of The Wall Street Journal's editorial board.

First Hispanic Member of Congress Honored with Portrait in the U.S. Capitol

2005-10-19T08:18:00.000-05:00

Today the U.S. House of Representatives honored Representative Rumualdo Pacheco (R-CA), the first voting Hispanic member of Congress, with an official Congressional portrait in the U.S. Capitol.

Representative Pacheco, a Republican, was born in California of Mexican parents. He served with distinction for three terms, first winning election in 1876. His portrait was revealed today by Representative Jerry Weller (R-Ill), who asked the portrait to be commissioned, Members of the Congressional Hispanic Conference (the Republican Hispanics), including Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, and Congressional Hispanic Caucus (the Democratic Hispanics) in a ceremony in the House Administration Committee Hearing Room in the Longworth building on Capitol Hill.

Congressman Rumualdo Pacheco was born in Santa Barbara, California on October 31, 1831 and lived a remarkable life. During his life time he served as a senior Civil War Military officer, was a successful landowner and rancher, elected to the California State Senate, became was the first and only Hispanic Governor of California, was a Member of Congress, First Hispanic as a Chairman of a Congressional committee, and was appointed to the U.S. Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Central American States. For more information about Pacheco

Why Latinos can't be terrorists (especially cubans

2005-10-17T12:58:00.000-05:00

Funny email I got from a friend...

WHY LATINOS CAN'T BE TERRORISTS............

1. 8:45 am is too early for us to be up.

2. We are always late, we would have missed all 4 flights.

3. Pretty people on the plane distract us.

4. We would talk loudly and bring attention to ourselves.

5. With food and drinks on the plane, we would forget why we're there.

6. We talk with our hands, therefore we would have to put our weapons down.

7. We would ALL want to fly the plane.

8. We would argue and start a fight in the plane.

9. We can't keep a secret, we would have told everyone a week before doing it. I'm a terrorist.. (Oye Pepe, tu sabes lo que esta haciendo Juan!!!)

10.We would have put our country's flag on the windshield.

The Sun shines some light on Cuba money launeering scandel

2005-10-11T15:27:00.000-05:00

How I do love Megan Clyne at the New York Sun... she is like a little Cuban American Patriota on the paper. She just moved her offices to Washington DC instead of NY and continues to kick commy ass and show the world the crap that Cuba is producing!! Go Megan!!
----

The New York Sun

October 10, 2005

UBS DEALINGS IN IRAN, CUBA TO BE PROBED

By MEGHAN CLYNE, Staff Reporter of the Sun

WASHINGTON, D.C. -The world's largest "wealth management" firm, UBS, will be investigated by Congress for possibly laundering money for two state sponsors of terrorism, Cuba and Iran, lawmakers here told The New York Sun.

The Swiss bank, which operates a large financial services business in America, will be pressed about $3.9 billion deposited in UBS accounts by the Castro regime, according to Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican of Florida, who first announced the impending investigation on Friday. Possible improper financial dealings with the Islamic Republic of Iran and Saddam Hussein's Iraq will also be subject to scrutiny, she said.

In 2003, American soldiers liberating Iraq discovered $762 million in American currency stashed in hideouts belonging to Saddam. According to Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, a Federal Reserve Bank probe traced the cash to UBS and other international financial firms. While investigating the Swiss bank's possible business relationship with Saddam's dictatorship, it was discovered that the firm - as part of a program with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, in which UBS allowed clients to retire old banknotes and replace them with fresh currency - had also conducted transactions with Cuba, Iran, Libya, and Yugoslavia.

The business relationships were a violation of the agreement with the Federal Reserve, which had stipulated as a condition of the program that UBS neither accept cash from nor transfer it to countries against which America maintains sanctions.

Cuba, Iran, and Libya are on the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism, and, according to UBS, employees of the bank had filed false accounting reports with the Federal Reserve to conceal the transactions with the prohibited clients. As a result, the Federal Reserve Board and the Swiss Federal Banking Commission sanctioned UBS, which settled the matter by paying a $100 million fine to the Federal Reserve.

To Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, however, the matter is anything but settled. The congresswoman, who is a Cuban-American and a member of the House International Relations Committee, said yesterday that the decision to go forward with the investigation resulted from nearly a year of unfruitful meetings with the UBS officials, including the bank's vice chairman, Phil Gramm, a former Republican senator from Texas.

For several months, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen said, she has pressed representatives of the Swiss bank for details surrounding the $3.9 billion, which, according to press accounts, was deposited by the Castro regime into one official Cuban government account with UBS. The deposits took place over the course of 1,900 transactions between 1996 and 2003.

While officials of the Castro regime have maintained that the deposits involve legitimate revenue derived from Cuba's tourism industry and remittances sent by Cuban-American exiles to their families on the island, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen told The New York Sun yesterday that the amount of the deposits far exceeds Mr. Castro's potential legal revenue in American dollars.

One of the Cuban-American congressional leaders involved in the discussions with UBS, Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, a Republican of Florida, said yesterday in a phone interview with the Sun that money laundering is "one of Castro's main businesses." In addition to funneling cash for drug traffickers, Mr. Diaz-Balart said, Havana's strongman abets Latin-American narco-terrorist organizations, such as the FARC and ELN in Colombia. Corrupt Latin American leaders, too, are clients of Mr. Castro's money-laundering operations, he said.

The mysterious $3.9 billion, Mr. Diaz-Balart added, is "just one tip of the iceberg." He expressed frustration that America's intelligence services had neglected to probe the dictator's money laundering services for terrorists, leaving the UBS investigation to Congress.

Ms. Ros-Lehtinen said that, since UBS's possible money laundering for state sponsors of terrorism posed a threat to American security, it was essential that the bank's alleged connections to Cuba, Iran, and Hussein's Iraq not be left unexplored, quieted by a $100 million fine.

In particular, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen told the Sun, she has consistently pressed UBS for more information about how the potentially illegal business relationships were entered into; whether the bank made any inquiries of the Cuban, Iranian, and Iraqi clients to ensure that the money deposited was obtained legally; and whether the Swiss bank has closed all of its accounts with Cuba and Iran.

On the last question in particular, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen said she has met with reticence from UBS, which, she said, is "really not forthcoming with information."

To get answers, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen said she and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican of California, will hold joint hearings on the transactions. Ms. Ros-Lehtinen is chairman of the House Subcommittee on the Middle East and Central Asia, which will probe the possible UBS connections to Iran and Iraq. Mr. Rohrabacher is chairman of the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, which will investigate the ties to the Castro regime, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen said. Both are part of the House International Relations Committee, and the congresswoman said she hopes to begin the inquiries before the second week of December, when Congress's session ends.

Rep. Sue Kelly, a Republican of New York, also will participate in the investigation, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen said. Ms. Kelly, the chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, has conducted previous UBS inquiries.

Ms. Ros-Lehtinen added that she is also inquiring about the status of a criminal investigation into the UBS matter she believes is being conducted by the Manhattan district attorney, Robert Morgenthau. Calls to Mr. Morgenthau's office and home last night were not returned.

The purpose of the House investigation, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen said, is to "discourage international banks, or any financial institution, from having these kinds of clients - Castro, Saddam Hussein, and their ilk." Moreover, "it will make it harder for the likes of Fidel Castro to funnel money to legitimate institutions" if the international financial-services industry understands that such business relationships will be investigated and that illegal activities will carry consequences, the congresswoman said.

A spokeswoman for UBS, Christine Walton, said yesterday that the bank had not been informed officially of the investigation, and declined to comment on whether UBS had begun any internal probe into the $3.9 billion from Cuba and the possible connections to Iran.

As for the violations of the agreement with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Ms. Walton said: "We've already paid a fine for it. If there's a separate line of inquiry from any other government institution, we're unaware of it." Since the bank had not been informed of any investigation, Ms. Walton declined to "speculate," but said it is UBS policy to cooperate with government inquiries.

In testimony before the Senate Finance Committee on July 21, 2004, Mr. Morgenthau said, "The banks need to do a better job. Some oversight failures at the banks may be due to ignorance or simple negligence. But it is difficult to discount the influence of the considerable fees that banks can earn through the international money transmittal business." In an editorial that ran shortly thereafter, the Wall Street Journal urged regulators and prosecutors to get tough on money laundering, which the newspaper said "has been aided and abetted by U.S. banks for years."

The Other Gitmo: Where's the Outrage?

2005-10-07T11:07:00.000-05:00

great article

The Other Gitmo: Where's the Outrage?
By MARY ANASTASIA O'GRADY
October 7, 2005; Page A17

Conditions at the prison at Guantánamo are inhumane. Inmates are deprived their right to religious worship, receive scant nutrition and suffer constant verbal and physical abuse from guards. It's a humanitarian outrage.

I refer, of course, to Castro's Guantánamo Provincial Prison in Cuba proper, the prison across the fence from the U.S. naval base compound holding the terrorists. Fidel's lock-up makes the U.S. prison look like a five-star tropical resort.

Torture, deprivation and isolation of political prisoners at the "other" Guantánamo -- or at any of Fidel's gulags across the island -- are no secret. They've been loudly denounced by prisoners' families and reeported by Cuba's independent journalists. But foreign journalists have paid little attention. It seems they're too busy shredding their hankies over whether enemy combatants at the naval base have enough honey glaze on their chicken.

International apathy toward the plight of the political prisoners is just what Fidel Castro counts on. As the dissident movement has expanded in the past decade, El Maximo Lider has found it necessary to strike at it with excessive force from time to time. But when his repression becomes too public, he has to back off.

A hunger strike at the Guantánamo prison, which ended earlier this week, makes the point. Political prisoners Victor Arroyo and Felix Navarro stopped eating on Sept. 10 and 13 respectively, to protest the extreme cruelty administered by Guantánamo prison director Lt. Col. Jorge Chediak Pérez and "rehabilitation" expert Juan Armesto.

As the strike headed toward a fourth week, dozens of Cuban human rights advocates from all over the island were on their way to the prison in a show of solidarity. On Sept. 29, the EU called on the government to "improve the conditions of detention of these individuals and other political prisoners who are being held in circumstances that fall below the U.N. Minimum Standards for the Treatment of Prisoners."

On Monday, as the strikers showed no sign of relenting, Fidel blinked. The two men were removed from Guantánamo. Mr. Arroyo was taken away in an ambulance because he was so feeble, while Mr. Navarro traveled by car. Sources on the island say that Mr. Arroyo is now at the prison hospital in Holguin and Mr. Navarro is at the prison hospital in Bayamo.

In an honest world, the cases of Mr. Arroyo and Mr. Navarro would have raised an international outcry a long time ago. The men were arrested along with more than 70 others in the regime's March 2003 crackdown on journalists, opposition leaders, librarians and writers. All were taken into custody, given summary trials and handed extreme sentences.

A review of the 53-year-old Mr. Arroyo's arrest record shows the regime's pathetic paranoia. One example: In 2000 he was jailed for possessing some toys that he planned to distribute to poor children. The charge? "Hoarding public goods." His real crimes are for things like being director of the Union of Independent Cuban Journalists and Writers and managing one of the most important independent libraries in the country. In March 2003, Mr. Arroyo was working as a journalist in Pinar del Río, when he was detained. On April 7, 2003, he was sentenced to 26 years in prison for "acts against state security."

Mr. Navarro, who is 52-years-old, has an equally "dangerous" profile. An educator for some 20 years, in 1999 he founded the Pedro Luis Boitel Democracy Movement, which led to numerous arrests. His April 2003 conviction for "acts against state security" won him a 25 year sentence.

Mr. Navarro's identification with the heroic Boitel explains a lot about the prisoners and about Fidel's decision to yield to their strike. Boitel was a close prison friend of Armando Valladares, who spent 22 years in Cuban gulags. In his memoir, "Against All Hope," Mr. Valladares wrote of Boitel that he was "the most rebellious of Cuban political prisoners." In 1972, he had gone on a hunger strike to protest prison conditions. After 47 days of no food Boitel was gravely ill. But it was Castro's decision to deny him water that sealed his fate. He died on day 53.

Later, according to Mr. Valladares, the prisoners learned that Castro had given the order to "get rid of Boitel so he wouldn't make anymore [expletive] trouble." In a telephone conversation from Miami this week, Mr. Valladares reminded me that through it all "the international community kept silent."

Like Mr. Valladares and Boitel before them, Messrs. Arroyo and Navarro protested Guantánamo's filth, beatings, bad food, lack of water and use of common criminals to terrorize political prisoners. And like their predecessors, their complaints were met with violence.

In December 2003, Mr. Arroyo's opinions earned him a savage beating by three jailers, who also slammed a door on his leg to cripple him. In September 2004, when he was told his cell would be searched, he asked to be present to ensure that nothing would be planted. For that request, the food that had been brought by his family was confiscated and his few belongings trashed. He was then placed in a "punishment cell," which is a solitary confinement cell too small to lie down in, with no windows and a steel door. He was kept there for 15 days. Mr. Navarro was also thrown in the punishment cells for objecting to inhumane conditions.

The men wrote letters to the government to draw attention to ruthlessness of Armesto and jailer Chediak Perez, but to no avail. That's when they took up the mantle of Boitel.

Castro didn't respond until it looked like the strikers might embarrass him by dying. On Tuesday, Mr. Arroyo's sister reported that Cuban officials in Holguin promised him "a just treatment." But the fact that it had to go so far before Castro would agree to basic humanitarian principles reveals much about the dictator that so many Americans admire.

Can we say "Brain Washed"

2005-09-29T13:35:00.000-05:00

Drudge posted an article on an upcoming special about Elian Gonzalez -- They quote Elian calling Castro a friend and father figure. .... I could hardly keep my food down when reading that... Its unfortunate this child has been used as a such a political pawn. I pray for him and his happiness and for peace to him and his family. DRUDGE REPORT FLASH 2005�

Congress Votes Against Castro Dictatorship

2005-09-29T13:27:00.000-05:00

Today the House of Representatives passed the Cuba resolution denouncing the Cuban government with HUGE bi-partisan support. The resolution is in reaction to the July arrests of members of the opposition in Cuba by the totalitarian dictatorship in Havana.

Rep. Diaz-Balart, the sponsor of the measure, stated the resolution demonstrated the solidarity of the U.S. Congress for all Cuban prisoners of consiouness and pro-democracy activists.

With a final vote of 393 to 31, H. Res 388, calls for the immediate release of all prisoners of consiouness and free elections in Cuba, urges the European Union to reexamine its policy toward Cuba, and calls on the representative of the United States to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights to ensure a resolution calling upon the Cuban regime to end its humanrights violations.

UPDATED: Here is the list of commies as per request.....

Carson
Clay
Conyers (he use to be on the good side, dont' know what happened.. urr)
Davis (IL)
Farr
Grijalva
Hinchey
Honda
Jackson-Lee (TX)(if i got a penny for everytime she talked i would be rich!)
Johnson, E. B.
Jones (OH)
Kucinich
Lewis (GA)
McDermott
McKinney
Meeks (NY)
Miller, George
Pastor
Paul (he's a libretarian on the Republican party - he has some political issues)
Payne
Rush
Schakowsky
Serrano (Shocker! - NOT yuck!)
Stark
Thompson (MS)
Towns
Velázquez
Waters
Watson
Woolsey
Wynn

Hispanics don't know about their resources

2005-09-29T13:26:00.000-05:00

Interesting article that once again proves we need to help our immigrant community learn about the resources available to him. Hispanics are a hard working group that only wants to improve their lives, yet they are pushed into the shadows because of current laws and are forced to uneducated decisions. We need to unite and empower our communities. local6.com - News - Man, 27, Poses As High School Student To Learn English

Delay Update --- Rep Blunt to serve dual roles

2005-09-28T15:04:00.000-05:00

Right now GOP leaders are meeting in the Conference figuring out who will lead the party in the House. According an article from Congress Daily Majority Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri is expected to serve dual roles, temporarily taking over the duties of Majority Leader Tome Delay.

There were early reports that Drier would take over the reigns of leader but those rumors have now fallen flat. (this may have been caused by some party leaders who disapprove of Drier.) In the hierarchy of House politics, Blunt is the next in line and is the safest and more likely choice. Most people believe Delay stepping down is only temporary.

All decisions must be made by the Speaker who is scheduled to speak now.

UPDATE: GOP Conference just got out. Blunt is now taking over the responsibilities of Majority Leader. No titles are being given, only people will be taken on more on their plates but no changes in power structure will take place. This is also a huge disappointment for Drier whose name was so prevalent as the next Leader, even if temporary. – I guess Lincoln Diaz-Balart will stay as Vice Chair of Rules. We will just have to wait another day to see the rise of Cuban power in Congress…

National Journal's CongressDailyPM

Delay indited must resign leadership ----- Diaz-Balart may become new Chairman of Rules Committee

2005-09-28T11:56:00.000-05:00

HUGE NEWS TODAY!!!!

Delay has been indited and must resign his post as Majority Leader. Now Hastert will recommend Rep. David Dreier of California step into indicted leader Tom DeLay's duties. Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart is the current Vice Chairman of the Rules Commitee... in the most likely of situations Diaz-Balart would rise to Chairman. This would make him one of the most powerful members of the House and the most important and powerful Hispanic in Congress....

more news to come....

BREITBART.COM - Just The News

UPDATED: Smoking Gun has the inditment documentation

Also from Drudge Report the following report:
Statement from the Office of the Majority Leader
Wed Sep 28 2005 13:03:09 ET

(WASHINGTON) - Kevin Madden, spokesman for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (TX) today released the following statement regarding today's announcement by the Travis County (TX) District Attorney's Office:

"These charges have no basis in the facts or the law. This is just another example of Ronnie Earle misusing his office for partisan vendettas. Despite the clearly political agenda of this prosecutor, Congressman DeLay has cooperated with officials throughout the entire process. Even in the last two weeks, Ronnie Earle himself had acknowledged publicly that Mr. DeLay was not a target of his investigation. However, as with many of Ronnie Earle's previous partisan investigations, Ronnie Earle refused to let the facts or the law get in the way of his partisan desire to indict a political foe.

This purely political investigation has been marked by illegal grand jury leaks, a fundraising speech by Ronnie Earle for Texas Democrats that inappropriately focused on the investigation, misuse of his office for partisan purposes, and extortion of money for Earle's pet projects from corporations in exchange for dismissing indictments he brought against them. Ronnie Earle's previous misuse of his office has resulted in failed prosecutions and we trust his partisan grandstanding will strike out again, as it should.

Ronnie Earle's 1994 indictment against Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison was quickly dismissed and his charges in the 1980s against former Attorney General Jim Mattox-another political foe of Earle-fell apart at trial.

We regret the people of Texas will once again have their taxpayer dollars wasted on Ronnie Earle's pursuit of headlines and political paybacks. Ronnie Earle began this investigation in 2002, after the Democrat Party lost the Texas state legislature to Republicans. For three years and through numerous grand juries, Ronnie Earle has tried to manufacture charges against Republicans involved in winning those elections using arcane statutes never before utilized in a case in the state. This indictment is nothing more than prosecutorial retribution by a partisan Democrat."

END

We Kill Commies, We Don't Vote for Them

2005-09-28T08:49:00.000-05:00

Yesterday in a very unlikely vote Congress rejected approving the naming of a US postal office in honor of a liberal activist and communist sympathizers, Maudelle Shirek

In a vote 215-190 vote they shot down the Democratic resolution and Republican Congressman made it very clear they were NOT going to honor someone with such radical ideals... WOOHOOO....House rejects naming post office after Berkeley activist

Congress Speaks Up Against Castro

2005-09-28T08:33:00.000-05:00

Today Congress will consider a resolution condemning the July arrests of members of the opposition in Cuba by the totalitarian dictatorship in Havana. The resolution is sponosored by Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart.

This piece of federal legislation comes in reaction to the July 22 events in Havana, Cuba when members of the Assembly to Promote Civil Society, were planning a peaceful demonstration in front of the French Embassy in Cuba and were victims of the members of the Castro's dictatorship government. At least 20 of them were arrested. Among those arrested were leaders Martha Beatriz Roque, Felix Bonne Carcasses and Rene Gómez Manzano. Gómez Manzano and other pro-democracy activists remain in prison.

The resolution should come to the house floor this morning.

UPDATE: The vote for this resolution has been pushed back till Thursday (probably with all the ruckus caused by the Delay situation)

The New York Sun wrote a great editorial.... please read....

The New York Sun Editorial
September 28, 2005

Congress Confronts Castro

Congress is scheduled to vote today on whether to get tough with the Cuban tyrant, Fidel Castro. It is now more than two months since Mr. Castro began his latest crackdown on his citizens. The measure the House is scheduled to vote on today, House Resolution 388, is expected to pass, categorically condemning Castro's regime, his imprisonment of his own people for the crime of wanting democracy, and the European Union's coddling of the despot.

After the crackdown began July 22, the number of dissidents arrested has reached at least 50, of whom more than a dozen remained in jail at last count. They join 61 of the 75 dissidents who were arrested in a similar wave of repression in 2003. A month ago, one of those arrested in July, Rene Gomez Manzano, started a hunger strike ["Cuba's Ganji," August 22].Since then, several others have adopted that form of protest, including a journalist, Victor Arroyo, who is now in the third week of his own hunger strike, and an activist, Felix Navarro. Messrs. Arroyo and Navarro were arrested in 2003.

In statements to The New York Sun in August, spokeswomen for both the White House and the State Department called for an end to the repression in Cuba. Now the House will issue a call of its own. The proposed resolution notes the plight of the jailed dissidents. It also reminds the world that Castro still jails anyone with the temerity to try to leave the island, that he still offers safe harbor to American lawbreakers, and that his regime is still listed by our state department as a state sponsor of terrorism.

The resolution also notes that throughout the latest repression, the European Union has been lifting, not tightening, its sanctions. After the 2003 crackdown, the EU countries had cut off high-level official contact with the regime and had started inviting dissidents to events at their embassies in Havana. The EU lost its nerve earlier this year, lulled by the release of 14 of the detainees arrested in 2003. By July, the French embassy in the enemy capital was inviting Castro's cronies to the very Bastille Day party that sparked the protests that led to the crackdown. A failure of feck is the best hope for despots like Castro, which is why today's vote in the Congress matters.

Library of Congress to show Motorcycle Diaries (aka serial murder babbling)

2005-09-26T15:22:00.000-05:00

It’s Hispanic Heritage Month in Washington D.C…. the city is a buzz with politically correctness trying to pay homage to the diverse Hispanic community…. From September 15 – October 15 Mariachi’s will be have extra employment, warm fajitas will be ramped and anything related to anything Latin will be popular….. yet, whatever liberal idiot over there at the Library of Congress decided to pick Motorcycle Diaries as the ideal movie to showcase the Hispanic Culture needs to go read a book … come mierda!

Thankfully our South Florida Delegation in Congress – Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, are outraged that they are highlighting the life of a murder, torturer, psychopath, communist and who has made so many suffer.

UPDATED: Thanks to the letter, the LOC will no longer show the movie!! YEAH!

Get to land Hermanos!!

2005-09-23T10:47:00.000-05:00

Developing story.... Cubans offshore, only 5 miles away from Florida shore, trying to get to dry land to be allowed to stay in the US. Live coverage on the web on NBC 6
NBC 6 Webcast

UPDATE -- unfortunatly 10 Cubans were captured only TWO miles off shore!!!!!!

damn wet foot - dry foot policy! stupid Clinton!

Viva Baseball! -- TONIGHT --- September 23 on Spike TV

2005-09-23T09:25:00.000-05:00

Viva Baseball!!

Turn on the TIVO, set your VCR or whatever you have but tonight at 9 PM be ready to watch one of the best baseball documentaries ever!!

“Viva Baseball” a movie by Dan Klores shows how Latinos shaped America’s favorite pastime – baseball. Starting from the early part of the 1900s to present day the movie does justice to so many talented Hispanic players who made baseball the great game it is today. It shows their struggles and battles and triumphs in American society and in the game. It makes you love and respect these major leaguers more then ever and makes you even prouder to be Hispanic.

Yesterday I was invited to a special screening of the movie in Washington DC with Hall of Famers Juan Marichal, Orlando Cepeda and the family of Roberto Clemente, his wife and two sons. Various members of Congress were part of the crowd, including Senator Mel Martinez, Senator Ken Salazar and unfortunately for me, Rep. Jose Serrano, among others.

No matter what Spanish country you are from you take so much pride in these Latin All Stars. From a Cuba perspective its especially wonderful, as the film rightfully credits Cuba as the country who spread baseball to the rest of the region. It also shows Castro in the correct light, as a horrible dictator, destroying baseball, separating families and destroying everything in his path.

It was even more wonderful knowing that Serrano was there, watching his little friend Castro shown in his real form, a communist dictator and harsh tyrant.

In addition the soundtrack to the movie is a gift to any Cuban enthusiast; I could just imagine my grandma in her prime in Havana dancing to the songs….

Yesterday was probably one of the greatest days of my life, I was in the presence of these baseball all starts. My father had told me stories of these dynamite athletes and I now, because of the movie, had a new wonderful appreciation of their legacy. As the movie ended, they all had tears in their eyes. I got to shake the hands and tell them of my gratitude and what an honor it was to meet them. My smile was ear to ear. I could hardly muster the right Spanish words to talk to them. They were so happy to hear me in their native tongue thanking them for their work, their commitment to our culture and baseball.

Mrs. Clemete was the sweetest women I had ever meet. Her sons were polite and modest. Mr. Cepeda took a liking to me and complemented me on my Spanish and took some time to talk to me. I was in heaven!!!

I even got two baseballs signed by Hall of Famers Orlando Cepeda and Juan Marichal - One for me, one for my dad.

This morning I talked to my father for half and hour, his excitement was just as exaggerated as mines. We talked about baseball, about American bigotry and the amazing ways that these men, paved the way for all Hispanics to be accepted in all levels of American culture.

The Hall of Fame has only inducted six Latin players, many hundreds have been neglected in history.

Yet for those given that honor --- , Thank you Mr.Roberto Clemente. Thank you Mr. Juan Marichal. Thank You Mr. Luis Aparicio. Thank you Mr. Rod Carew. Thank you Mr. Orlando Cepeda. Thank you Mr. Tony Perez. And thank you to the hundreds of others who made this country better for me to accomplish my dreams.

Please read this article to know more about daily_news_eng.jhtml">Viva Baseball

Also go to the Viva Baseball Web Page

Lincoln Diaz Balart : Polisario state doomed to be terrorist :: moroccoTimes.com

2005-09-21T16:42:00.000-05:00

Morroccan Sahrawi delegation share our hatered for Castro..... read previous blog and this article... Lincoln Diaz Balart : Polisario state doomed to be terrorist :: moroccoTimes.com

Anti-Embargo Politician Goes to Washington! - well at least trying

2005-09-18T14:04:00.000-05:00

A anti-embargo politico is trying to push himself into Congress....

Lobbyist seeks Davis seat
An advocate of opening up relations with Cuba joins a crowded Democratic field.
By ADAM C. SMITH, Times Political Editor
Published September 15, 2005

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TAMPA - Al Fox, a lobbyist best known for advocating opening up relations with Cuba, has quietly joined the crowded field of Democrats aiming to succeed Jim Davis in Congress.

The 61-year-old Tampa native and Washington lobbyist talked of running months ago, but said he held off while local and national Republicans talked to him about running as a Republican.

"The thinking was, "let the Democrats battle it out,' said Fox, who liked the idea of being in the majority party. "But at the end of the day, there was no way I could tell the national Republican party what they wanted to hear on Cuba."

Fox is founder of the The Alliance for Responsible Cuba Policy Foundation and a strong advocate for ending the U.S. embargo on Cuba. In 2002, he got local attention when he arranged for a Tampa Bay delegation that included then-Mayor Dick Greco to fly to Cuba and meet Fidel Castro.

Fox has said Cuba will be one of several top priorities, and that as a longtime Washington hand he best understands how the system works.

In a congressional district that includes parts of Hillsborough and South Pinellas, Fox faces a tough primary. No Republican is running, but Democrats include Hillsborough County Commissioner Kathy Castor; Tampa lawyer Scott Farrell; Tampa lawyer Michael Steinberg; and state Sen. Les Miller.

He quietly filed his campaign papers in late August.

Fox's first campaign reports are due in October.

Sheehan gives us another example why she is crazy - "Occupied New Orleans"

2005-09-16T15:41:00.000-05:00

After a few weeks of just being another American, Sheedan found a way to push her way back into the lime light. This time she called for Bush to "pull out troops out of occupied New Orleans and Iraq"

Let's stop and think about this for a second......

finished...

yes, me too... why exactly anyone paying attention to this women. Occupied New Orleans?????

lgf: Mama Moonbat: "Occupied New Orleans"

So what he needs to use the bathroom - SHOCKER!

2005-09-15T15:29:00.000-05:00

Can someone tell me what the big deal is about this note????? Becuase I don't get it!

So the guy needs to go to the bathroom!... Doesn't everyone need to use the toilet at one point or another????

The President of the US wanted to go to the “lue” and wrote a note to his aide. Ok. It's not like he was doodling or doing a puzzle. I really don't get what all the hoopla is all about! Maybe he thought it was a good time to go to the bathroom, instead of just abruptly getting up, (which would make Condoleezza ponder what was going on) he kinda stated/asked whatever... It’s the toilet not a secret meeting with the devil... Get over it!

Yahoo! News Photo

National GOP Woos Oregon Hispanics

2005-09-15T15:04:00.000-05:00

Interesting article showcasing the Republican party’s advancement in the Hispanic community. Throughout the years the GOP has made huge strides in this multicultural group. News

US jobless claims at 10-year high

2005-09-15T14:37:00.000-05:00

URGH!! US jobless population at an all time high, the reason Hurricane Katrina….

The Labor Dept. said 71,000 people signed up for benefits last week- 68,000 of those DIRECTLY claimed Katrina. These numbers are significantly higher then after the Sept. 11 terror attack.

In no time the left is going to start blaming Bush and the Republican Party for the effects of this natural disaster -- because CLEARLY Bush developed the hurricane with his personal secret stash of WMDs to directly attack New Orleans, because he hates blacks, and didn’t want to give any more money to the projects (section 8 housing)! CLEARLY!!!

Tada! – Bush’s master plan of getting more Republican states…. now Louisiana is clear of most of the black people and of the highly democrat population of pre-Katrina citizens that don’t’ want to come back and will now be back as Southern Republican state, as we all knew that all the Dems live in NOLA and this was all part of his really big master plan --- these crazy ideas are from the same people that say Bush is an idiot! If he can come up with all of this, he definitely isn’t an idiot! He’s a genius!

I can already hear the floor speeches and the angry squawking on morning television blaming Bush on the lack of job growth, while I will be growling about their lack of common sense! I’m sick of all these stupid conspiracy theories. People have to stop with all the finger pointing and find solutions…

BBC NEWS | Business | US jobless claims at 10-year high

Gov. Blanco takes the blame - FINALLY!

2005-09-15T10:45:00.000-05:00

Yesterday the Gov of Louisiana, Kathleen Blanco, finally took the blame of all the failures made by the state. Part to apologize, part to save her self from a total political funeral. (some said she was heading for a possible impeachment.) She went on TV and said "The bucks tops here, and as your governor, I take full responsibility." .... she finally had enough "cojones" to do what the President did a few days ago. Gov. Blanco even called the President a friend and partner..... Jeff Blanco has an interesting take on things, check him out.. Louisiana Conservative

Just because he is too funny not to share! - Carlos Mencia

2005-09-14T16:28:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I had the fortunate opportunity to see a show of the amazing comedian Carlos Mencia. Mind you its probably the 5th show I have seen him live (in addition to his new show on Comedy Central.)

The edgy Hispanic comedian, whose parents are Mexican and Honodurian, is one of 18 kids (yes 18!!!! Aye Mama!) His jokes are reflective of the entire Hispanic community and are in no way politically correct - as he says he speaks the truth. He calls all people hailing from a country with the Spanish Language in Latin and Central America and the Caribbean as a "beaner" as we all eat Beans. He understands that the different communities have problems with the labels of Hispanic or Latin or Central American or whatever - so we are all Beaners, but you understand he says it as a joining word.

He is patriotic, honest and refreshing. What you miss on his Comedy Central show is his lessons at the end of his live shows - telling people to be real, for Hispanics to empower themselves, to get an education, and for all the communities to unite. Telling us all we are an amazing, growing and strong force that make great change.

I love Carlos Mencia and happy the rest of the country is discovering this amazing talent!!!

Check him out!! Carlos Mencia

Good Day for Cubanitos Everywhere!

2005-09-14T15:26:00.000-05:00

It's official! Miami native Marco Rubio is Speaker of the Florida House!

This young (34 year old) and good looking Cuban-American is a rising star in Florida politics. Son of Cuban exiles, he has been taking center stage for years. During the last Bush Presidential campaign, many more people noticed his energy, eloquence and political power.

I remember being in Washington D.C. and my mother calling me to ask – “Do you know Marco Rubio? He is amazing!!” after she heard him give a speech at a Bush rally in South Florida…. A few weeks later while working on the Bush Campaign in Miami I heard him on the stump. It was then that I understood what the hoopla was all about!

Many campaign volunteers asked about Rubio. They were marveled by his charisma and presence. Most of them hailed from anywhere but Florida and had never heard of him, but they knew they won’t forget him.. During the campaign up-and-coming politicians were always buzzing around the various head quarters and rallies, but when Rubio took the microphone he stood out.

Rubio is the first Cuban-American Speaker of the House and is also, the second-youngest to hold the position. He is the first Miami legislator to become Speaker in 35 years. Rubio takes over for Panama City’s Allan Bense (R).

Gov. Jeb Bush has somewhat tapped Rubio to follow in his footsteps, with his aggressive agenda, taking on controversial issues and pushing people’s buttons.

In an emotional and energetic speech Rubio, broadcasted in Cuba via Radio Marti, accepted his nomination. During his acceptance, Rubio presented his colleagues with “100 Innovative Ideas for Florida's Future” asking them to fill the pages of the hard-bound blank book with ways to make Florida better, so that all Floridians can ``achieve financial security and leave for their children a better life than their own.''

Hear the Radio Marti Clip (Spanish)

UPDATED: Check out 26th Parallel's post on Maro Rubio for an example of the State Rep's style.

Help! Ayuda! - - Rolando Rodriguez Lobaina

2005-09-14T14:36:00.000-05:00

I was asked to post this, please help!

Friends

It is my unfortunate duty to write to you today to ask for your help on behalf of a friend to us all, Rolando Rodriguez Lobaina. Although you may not know him, he is a Cuban brother who was arrested last Wednesday by the Cuban National Revolutionary Police (PNR) as he traveled back home to Guantanamo from Holguin. Rolando, along with his brother Nestor, have an organization called the Democratic Cuban Youth Movement, whose centerpiece project is "Universidades Sin Fronteras", that calls for autonomy of all Universities in Cuba. They have always acted in a peaceful and non-violent way to promote their project and achieve their goals. Due to the lack of human rights and the freedom of expression in Cuba their project is considered hostile to the government and its socialist ideology as stated in the Cuban constitution.

Rolando is currently being detained in a prison in Matanzas. He was last seen by his brother, Nestor, but said that "Rolando was in a critical state, thrown on the floor, barely able to speak, threatened of a 'savage beating', and was on the third day of a hunger strike."

Nestor Lobaina was recently released from prison after serving 5 years for "committing acts against the state." Nestor has not heard from Rolando for the past 48 hours and fears for his physical health.

We ask all of you to join us in solidarity with Rolando and his family as they face the ultimate testament of courage in their valiant struggle for the freedom and respect of human rights for all Cuban citizens. There will be many events occurring worldwide to shed light on Rolando's situation. More information is forthcoming but, as a first step, we encourage you to (will only take a minute) and sign the attached letter and send to the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, D.C. It is our hope to inundate the mail boxes of all Cuban embassies throughout the world to let them know that Rolando does not stand alone and that we are aware of their systematic repression against their own citizens.

The members of the International Youth Committee for Democracy in Cuba (IYCDC) will be holding simultaneous press conferences in their respective countries tomorrow, Wednesday, September 14, 2005, to draw attention to Rolando's detainment and violation of his human rights. The members of the IYCDC will also fast for 24hrs on Tuesday, September 20, 2005 as a show of support and solidarity for Rolando. We hope you can all join us in our activities and pray for Rolando as he faces extreme physical conditions that we would never have to face in our country. If you have any questions or suggestions please feel free to email us at info@raicesdeesperanza.org.

Cuban Interests Section :
2630 & 2639 16th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20009

Email: cubaseccion@igc.apc.org

Fax: (202) 986-7283

Instructions: Please copy and paste the following letter and sign with your name. You can fax, email, or physically mail this letter using the information provided above.

SECCION DE INTERESES DE LA REPUBLICA DE CUBA EN ESTADOS UNIDOS:

ME DIRIJO A USTED COMO MIEMBRO DEL COMITÉ INTERNACIONAL DE JÓVENES POR LA DEMOCRACIA EN CUBA. NOTAMOS CON PREOCUPACIÓN Y ESPASMO LA DETENCIÓN DEL CIUDADANO CUBANO ROLANDO RODRÍGUEZ LOBAINA. SABEMOS QUE HA SIDO DETENIDO ARBITRARIAMENTE POR LA POLICÍA NACIONAL REVOLUCIONARIA CUANDO REGRESABA A GUANTÁNAMO DESDE HOLGUÍN.

ROLANDO RODRÍGUEZ LOBAINA ES COORDINADOR DEL MOVIMIENTO CUBANO DE JÓVENES POR LA DEMOCRACIA QUE TRABAJA POR LA AUTONOMÍA UNIVERSITARIA EN LA ISLA. ESTAMOS MUY PENDIENTES DE LO QUE PUEDA LLEGAR A PASARLE Y EN VIRTUD DE ESTO ES QUE SOLICITAMOS A SU DELEGACIÓN DIPLOMÁTICA QUE TENGA A BIEN BRINDARNOS INFORMACIÓN ACERCA DEL PARADERO DEL SEÑOR RODRÍGUEZ LOBAINA.

CASO CONTRARIO INICIAREMOS ACCIONES EN LA CORTE INTERAMERICANA DE DERECHOS HUMANOS.

HAGO PROPICIA ESTA OPORTUNIDAD PARA SALUDARLO ATENTAMENTE.

NOMBRE

Thank you for taking a couple of minutes to help Rolando and the Cuban people's struggle. Please feel free to contact us (info@raicesdeesperanza.org) with any queries and we will update you on any information we receive on his condition and events we plan on holding. Please feel free to forward to all those who sympathize with the Cuban people's struggle.

¡Cuba DESPIERTA!

¡Juventud DESPIERTA!

Tony Jimenez
Raices de Esperanza

www.raicesdeesperanza.org

Former Miami -Dade Fire Dept Chief will head FEMA

2005-09-12T17:08:00.000-05:00

Today Mike Brown formally stepped down as the director for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). To replace him the administration has tapped one of our native sons, R. David Paulison.

Paulison is a career firefighter from Miami, Florida with over three decades of firefighting experience. He was chief of the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department.

He has plenty of emergency management experience. He was an emergency worker during Hurricane Andrew, he also worked on the the ValueJet Flight 592 Crash in the Everglades and was in charge of Miami-Dade County's emergency management office. In addition, he has led the U.S. Fire Administration.

Paulison is much better prepared to handle the daunting task of leading FEMA. He is a person who has been constantly in the line of fire. He has been forced to deal in high pressure, life saving, emergency situations. His direction comes with much more of a grounded view on how to deal with the countries needs. We can all rest assured Paulison is much more equipped to handle the functions of FEMA then a former horse judge.

Yet, I still don't think that it was all Brown's fault. The blame can be laid on MANY, MANY heads. But someone in the administration had to be sacrificed to the poltical Gods.

Brown’s statements, and actions, after Katrina weren't exactly the politically savvy! t was clear he had to be removed, or moved around at least in order to safe the federal governments reputation. It was clear that the situation called for a take charge kind of person, someone with either a military or first responder experience, had to be set into the New Orleans recovery situation. And that is exactly what happened. They placed Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad W. Allen and USAF Lt. General Russel Honore. (my personal favorite – I felt so relived to see him in his military uniform talking direct and getting things done.) in charge.

Paulison can turn out to be the ideal candidate. America's first responders are our Firefighters and Police Officers. May it be a dirty bomb or an Earthquake, these public servants are the first one on the scene. Having someone that has been in their footsteps and has climbed the ladder from the bottom up will give a lot of weight to the position and the agency in these challenging times. And hopefully regain American’s confidence in the agency.

Brown made the right call by stepping down, or maybe being pushed down, but either way he is out of the picture. He is right when he stated a lot of the focus was being put on him and not enough on the Katrina situation in the Gulf. I don’t' think anyone was really surprised that this happened. I think everyone saw it coming when they took him off the Katrina situation, it was an indication that he would soon be seeing very little of Brown. Maybe this was the administration’s way to save him face, he could step down in stead of an all out public pink slip. Either way we can continue to focus on the recovery efforts.

Thankfully the American people are a very forgiving group. They understand people make mistakes – because they know, they themselves aren’t perfect.

We will all move forward from this stronger and more determined then ever. I think this was a wake up call to all America, we got to get our things in order and be prepared for the worst. What will you do if Armageddon comes to your home town?

P.S….. I bet the new guy knows some good Cuban stories and realizes that if Armageddon does happen, it’s not our fault!

BREITBART.COM - Just The News

The White House gets it!

2005-09-09T09:18:00.000-05:00

Miami Herald's PABLO BACHELET wrote this article today. Happy to see people in the White House get it!

CASTRO AID OFFER REPORTEDLY REJECTED

The Bush administration has rebuffed an offer by Cuban leader Fidel Castro to send 1,600 doctors to help in the Hurricane Katrina relief effort, three Cuban American Congress members said Thursday.

''We strongly support the decision by the Bush administration to reject the so-called offer from the Castro regime regarding the tragedy,'' said the statement signed by Miami Republicans Lincoln and Mario Díaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

Neither the White House nor the State Department would confirm that the administration had in fact rejected the offer. But the office of Lincoln Díaz-Balart, which coordinated the lawmakers' statement, said he stood by its contents and there were indications that the offer was in fact rejected.

''When it comes to Cuba, we have one message for Fidel Castro. He needs to offer the people of Cuba their freedom,'' White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Thursday when asked about the aid offer.

Castro last week offered to send the doctors and 36 tons of medical supplies in what critics said was a political ploy to put the Bush administration on the spot.

Martinez: Cuban aid should be welcomed

2005-09-08T08:46:00.000-05:00

I'm officially going to have a sirimba! I'm going to march over to Martinez's Senate office and shake the legislative aide doing Cuba policy and ask him - WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU THINKING!!!!!!!!!!!

The Miami Herald article states "Martinez said Wednesday that the U.S. government should accept Cuba's offer to send hundreds of doctors to treat victims of Hurricane Katrina, provided they are needed and 'reasonably well-trained." "

In addition Martinez advocates the US should accept money and oil from Venezuela. (not sure how I feel about that. what does this loser want in return! - clearly we aren't giving him anything!)

Martinez goes against all other Cuban Americans federal elected officials. For example. Rep. Ros-Lehtinen said: ``I see no need for us to accept the doctors, because we have many U.S. doctors who can meet the medical needs of Katrina's victims. Cuban doctors should take care of poor Cubans who lack proper medical care on the island.''

In the past, Cuba and Venezuela have rejected U.S. offers to send money and assistance after those countries where hit by natural disasters.

The US government has also rejected Iran's offer to send 10 million barrels of crude.

Though the US has accepted about $1 billion in aide, about $350 million are cash donations. (which are much easier to process) The majority of the donations are in kind donations, such as helicoptors, ready-to-eat meals, tents, baby formula and equipment.

Even though President Bush stated that he had not asked for foreign assistance and didn't believe the US needed it on national morning tv, a week later the international support came pouring in. The State Department said they were happily accpting the unprecedented support.

Here is some examples of support.

-Canada: sent 3 warships and one coast guard ship. Canadian divers to help repair the damaged harbor in Pascagoula, Miss.

- Mexico: army convoy and a navy ship stocked with food, supplies, baby clothes and specialists. First time in 159 years that the Mexican Military has operated in US soil. (The Mexico government feel very proud to help a country that assist them so much)

- France: a planeload of tents arrived in Little Rock, Ark., also a plane filled with food for Biloxi, Miss.

- Thailand: food aid and medical supplies from

- Germany: high-speed water pumps

- Isreal: first aid kits

- Netherlands: levee specialists

Accepting this money has symbolic and political implications. Some poor countries have provided $25 thousands. Clearly a small amount, but a symbolic gesture. (and every little bit helps.) Many countries feel proud to help their rich neighbor and show their support. Others believe accepting money from such poor countries is embarrassing. Even though we are happy to see the international support - we can't accept all donations. The US has currently accepted 48 of the 95 offers of assistance. When the US accepts the money, they accept the country. We do not accept the actions of Cuba or the missery of the daily life of the Cuban people.

Cuban's are dieing in Cuba. Fidel just wants to use this for political reasons, not because suddenly he is Mr. Nice Guy. There is nothing nice about Castro or Chavez. He should keep those doctors in Cuba and help the Cuban people, many who have not seen a doctor in months! The US should not, and can not, accept doctors or his so called 25 tons of medical supplies!!!

In reality if these doctors come to the US how many do you think are going back to Cuba. Even at our worst, the US is still better then living in Cuba.

Martinez needs to wake up and realize what he is saying. Who ever is doing Cuba policy in that office is CLEARLY out of touch with his constituency! And Martinez needs to think before he talks!

Walk around Miami and you'll see they all want give Martinez a piece of thier minds. And right now, Martinez is giving me a headache.

In a article in the Boston Globe, there is list of all foriegn donations. (see below). These are only Cash donations.

Kuwait: $400 million in oil and $100 million cash

United Arab Emirates: $100 million cash

Qatar: $100 million cash

Republic of Korea: $30 million cash and in-kind donations

Australia: $7.6 million

China: $5.1 million cash and relief supplies

India: $5 million cash

Ireland: $1 million to Red Cross

Iraq: $1 million cash

Bangladesh: $1 million cash

Azerbaijan: $500,000 cash

Gabon: $500,000 cash

Afghanistan: $100,000 cash

Armenia: $100,000 cash

Bahamas: $50,000 cash

Maldives: $25,000 cash

Sri Lanka: $25,000 cash

Bosnia: $6,414 cash

SOURCE: US State Department

Herald.com | 09/08/2005 | Martinez: Cuban aid should be welcomed