Cuba Archives

Obsessed with Democracy?

Filed under: Cuba ~ Russia

President Bush, surrounded by victims of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's oppression at the White House yesterday, delivered a blistering rebuke against the regime's decades of outrageous conduct, declaring that the U.S. would not relax its embargo if Castro attempts to pass power to his little brother Raul when he finally kicks the rusty communist bucket. He declared: "The socialist paradise is a tropical gulag. The quest for justice that once inspired the Cuban people has now become a grab for power. And as with all totalitarian systems, Cuba's regime no doubt has other horrors still unknown to the rest of the world." He actually made a direct call for insurrection, asking Cuba's military leaders: "When Cubans rise up to demand their liberty, you've got to make a choice. Will you defend a disgraced and dying order by using force against your own people? Or will you embrace your people's desire for change?" And he exhorted the people of the nation to rise up and show their true colors:

We will know there is a new Cuba when opposition parties have the freedom to organize, assemble and speak with equal access to the airwaves. We will know there is a new Cuba when a free and independent press has the power to operate without censors. We will know there is a new Cuba when the government removes its stranglehold on private economic activity. Above all, we will know there is a new Cuba when authorities go to the prisons, walk to the cells where people are being held for their beliefs and set them free. We will not support the old way with new faces, the old system held together by new chains.

He dismissed those who seek engagement with the dictatorship. The Miami Herald reported: "At a White House news briefing, Press Secretary Dana Perino was asked if Bush was 'obsessed with Cuba.'" Perino responded: "The president is obsessed with human rights -- if that is an accusation that they want to lodge against the president, we'll take it as a compliment."

That's all well and good, Mr. President, but there are two pretty big holes in your rhetoric that you'll need to address before your pretty words have any real significance.

First, you'd do well to read our two recent posts regarding the harsh reality that "people power" may fail in Cuba just as it has done recently in Burma -- both by Robert Mayer, one providing his own analysis and one touting that of Bo Nyein on Pajamas Media. You might then realize how long on verbal heat and short on the light of action your speech was. What if the people rise up, and Castro Jr. simply crushes them, and does try to shackle the nation into the old regime with new chains, just as you feared? What, specifically, will we do then, beyond just leaving a failed embargo in place? More terrifying a prospect, what if Cuba turns out to be like Russia, and the people don't rise up at all, but rather give support to a brutal regime and its oppressive ways? What then, Mr. President? What then?

Second, you really ought to take a look at your foreign policy beyond Cuba, and ask yourself whether it expresses a consistent message that would make Fidel Castro, and more importantly those who would rise up against him, believe you mean it when you say his scrawny Marxist goose is cooked. Most especially, you ought to review your benighted policy on Russia, a nation which is an egregious transgressor of human rights and democratic values which, for most of your presidency, you've swept under the carpet. Viewing it, many potential Cuban democratic revolutionaries -- to say nothing of those in Russia -- might think all you are offering is another Bay of Pigs.

Take Iran, for example. It was announced today by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and their Quds strikeforce were being branded terrorist organizations, their U.S. assets frozen and all contacts with U.S. citizens banned. Joining Rice, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson stated: "Iran funnels hundreds of millions of dollars each year through the international financial system to terrorists. Iran's banks aid this conduct using a range of deceptive financial practices intended to evade even the most stringent risk management controls." Rice added: "The Iranian government continues to spurn our offer of open negotiations, instead threatening peace and security by pursuing nuclear technologies that can lead to a nuclear weapon; building dangerous ballistic missiles; supporting Shia militants in Iraq and terrorists in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories; and denying the existence of a fellow member of the United Nations, threatening to wipe Israel off the map."

But where was the mention of Russia, which is supplying this rogue state with nuclear technology and missiles to defend it from NATO strikes, as well as vetoes in the UN Security Council blocking coordinated worldwide sanctions, favored by a majority of the Council? Where was the admission that President Bush has led us down the garden path on Russia, and that a course correction is needed and being made? Without dealing with Russia, no Iran solution can be effective. And where, pray tell, is the rhetoric about human rights. Both Iran and Russia are among the world's worst transgressors, making Cuba look small time by comparison. Did they just forget their obsession?

Kim Zigfeld · October 25, 2007 5:01 AM · Comments (6) · TrackBacks (0)

Weekend Update

Filed under: Cuba ~ Russia ~ US Elections ~ Venezuela

It was an eventful weekend. Democracy took it on the chin.

Despite recent revelations concerning deep flaws the factual presentation of his film An Inconvenient Truth, to say nothing of the lack of any apparent connection between global warming and global war (much less any life-risking courage shown by the recipient, much less any actual evidence that anything he's done has actually reduced climate change) it was announced that Al Gore would receive the Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel Committee no doubt believes that noted humanitarian Yasir Arafat is beaming widely up there in heaven, delighted to welcome his fellow traveler to the club.

Then, Fidel Castro came out of hiding and had a powwow with Hugo Chavez, including a joint broadcast on a Cuban radio program, and observers declared him to be on the track to regaining his health. Among other things, Chavez actually sang love songs to Castro.

Meanwhile, the New York Times reported that "Israel's air attack on Syria last month was directed against a site that Israeli and American intelligence analysts judged was a partly constructed nuclear reactor, apparently modeled on one North Korea has used to create its stockpile of nuclear weapons fuel."

And to round things out, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin snubbed a visiting delegation to Moscow comprised of Condi Rice and Bob Gates "by making them wait 40 minutes and then delivering a stern lecture before a room full of reporters." The pair were in Moscow to discuss U.S. plans to install a ballistic missile defense system in Europe, and Putin crazily declared: "Of course we can sometime in the future decide that some anti-missile defense system should be established somewhere on the moon. But before we reach such arrangements, we will lose the opportunity for fixing some particular arrangements between us." Echoes of Khrushchev and his infamous, self-destructive shoegate incident. Rice (who Putin, like his predecessor, may have forgotten leads a nation with an economy twelve times larger than Russia's and which leads a large group of powerful allies) promptly responded by issuing a stern blast against the Putin dictatorship and followed it up by meeting with his political opponents. This came on the heels of French President Nicolas Sarkozy giving Putin the business a few days earlier.

All that can be viewed as adequate preparation for today's main course: Putin is due to arrive in Tehran later today for another meeting with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. As world criticism of this conspiracy mounted, it was suddenly announced by Russian authorities that a plot to assassinate Putin during the visit had been discovered (Putin craftily cloaked the visit in the shroud of a regional conference on the Caspian Sea). Is it possible that Putin's KGB pals have cooked up this "threat" as a way of further distracting the world's attention from the outrageous nature of Russia's actions in Iran (providing nuclear technology, missile defense systems to protect it -- even while opposing such systems in Europe -- and diplomatic support against international sanctions in the U.N. -- and Russia is also supplying weapons to Syria)? Oh, it's possible alright. Last week, Putin's rubber-stamp legislature passed a law which will basically abolish referendum voting in Russia. The bill's sponsor stated: "There is, for example, a group of disgruntled people who get together and begin to disrupt society. We don't need this." Days earlier, it had been announced that Garry Kasparov's party would not be allowed to vie for seats in the upcoming parliamentary elections, and many others were facing the same fate. Welcome back to the USSR.

The net result of the Clinton administration in which Al Gore served was the rise to power of proud KGB spy Putin in Russia (shortly before that, Clinton became the first U.S. president to shake Castro's hand since he took power), resulting in a new cold war, and the most significant terrorist attack on U.S. soil by the Islamic extremists beloved by Ahmadinejad. Little wonder, then, that Gore is so fond of the subject of melting ice (even if he has to misdirect the conversation).

Kim Zigfeld · October 15, 2007 6:02 AM · Comments (0) · TrackBacks (0)

The Hammer and the Sickle

Filed under: Cuba

View more conservative political cartoons at TownHall.com.

Kim Zigfeld · August 30, 2007 5:37 PM · Comments (1) · TrackBacks (0)

Castro and Clinton Sitting in a Tree . . .

Filed under: Cuba

In case you are a at a loss to decide how to vote in the upcoming U.S. presidential elections, you may want to follow the sage advice of internationally beloved world leader Fidel Castro. Reuters reports:

Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro is tipping Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to team up and win the U.S. presidential election. "The word today is that an apparently unbeatable ticket could be Hillary for president and Obama as her running mate," he wrote in an editorial column on U.S. presidents published on Tuesday by Cuba's Communist Party newspaper, Granma.Castro said former President Bill Clinton was "really kind" when he bumped into him and the two men shook hands at a U.N. summit meeting in 2000. He also praised Clinton for sending elite police to "rescue" shipwrecked Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez from the home of his Miami relatives in 2000 to end an international custody battle. He said his favorite U.S. president since 1959 was Jimmy Carter, another Democrat, because he was not an "accomplice" to efforts to violently overthrow the Cuban government.

If it's good enough for Fidel . . .

Kim Zigfeld · August 29, 2007 1:13 AM · Comments (1) · TrackBacks (0)

Michael Moore Exposed as a Shameless Liar on Cuba

Filed under: Cuba

Whatever you do, don't get near the mouth . . .

Did you know that when Michael Moore bashed the USA for having a low score on medical care from the World Health Organization, pointing out that it is lower than many other developed countries and praising Cuba as offering better medical care, he neglected to mention* that Cuba actually has a lower score (#39 -- see page 152) from WHO than the USA (#37 -- see page 155) does? So when he packed up a bunch of sick Americans to take them to Cuba for treatment in his movie "SICKO," he was actually taking them to a place with worse medical care than the one they were in. Moonbat logic is a scary thing.

And that's not the half of it. It now turns out that the Cuban medical care he documents in his film SICKO isn't representative. Reuters reports:

Three New York rescue workers injured in the September 11 attacks got the best treatment Cuba can offer in Michael Moore's film critique of U.S. health care, the Cuban doctors who attended them said this week. Communist Cuba's universal free health system has achieved low child mortality and high longevity rates on a par with rich nations since Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution. But the hospital where SiCKO's patients were treated is an exception in Cuba, where patients of many other hospitals complain they have to take their own sheets and food.

It seems not to have occurred to anyone that the grotesquely obese Mr. Moore is hardly a role model for good health even if he told the truth; since he's a known pathological liar and propagandist, taking medical advice from him is probably the worst thing you could do for your health.

*A helpful reader has pointed out in the comments that this criticism, made by CNN, has been challenged by Moore on his website. What the reader, not so helpfully, fails to mention is that the website only says a picture of the list was shown in the movie. It doesn't have a transcript of how the film handles in information so as to show whether it emphasized this reality appropriately for the viewer.

Kim Zigfeld · July 19, 2007 4:09 PM · Comments (25) · TrackBacks (0)

Talk about Burned Toast: Russia, Venezuela and Cuba, the New Axis of Evil

Filed under: Americas ~ Cuba ~ Europe ~ Russia ~ Venezuela

During his visit to Moscow last week, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez revealed that when he and Cuban leader Fidel Castro last met in Havana, they had drunk a toast to Russian President Vladimir Putin for his famous speech at the Munich security conference in February that attacked Washington for imposing its will on the world community.

-- Asia Times, July 7, 2007 (above, a sign welcomes Putin to Cuba)

Kim Zigfeld · July 6, 2007 10:27 AM · Comments (0) · TrackBacks (0)

Michael Moore: A Big, Fat Sicko

Filed under: Americas ~ Cuba

A New York Post exclusive reveals that Michael Moore, for his new fraudumentary called "Sicko", is taking a bunch of 9/11 workers down to Cuba so that they can experience the joys of free national healthcare. Cuba's healthcare system is considered by many so-called experts and governments as the best in the world, so what Moore is trying to do is make the argument that America should mimic the Cuban system.

Only, it isn't the best. Not near it. Those foreigners and wealthy people who go to Cuba, including the people that Michael Moore are bringing down, are only shown the few top of the line facilities which probably are some of the best in the world. It's a huge propaganda campaign aimed at deceiving people into believing that Cuba does, in fact, have the best healthcare system in the world. This is totally false. The clinics and hospitals that the everyday Cuban sees, if they see one at all, are cockroach infested hovels that one might be wise to stay away from lest they get worse.

Michael Moore is just aiding in promoting Fidel Castro's mythology. If he gets away with it, he'll have all blue-state Americans believing it rather than just most of them.

In case you missed it nearly two years ago, here are the photos of real Cuban clinics accompanying a story written by Carlos Wotzkow and María Elena Morejón for Gentiuno.

Robert Mayer · April 16, 2007 11:35 AM · Comments (44) · TrackBacks (0)

Fidel: Philosopher Extreme

Filed under: Americas ~ Cuba

Did you know that Fidel Castro, as much as being a thug and a tyrant, is also a writer and philosopher? He had suggested it at his online dating profile on MillionaireMatch.com, but I didn't believe it until now. In an article published in Granma, "Castro" ponders the implications of the America use of converted ethanol from corn and sugar as fuel. After concentrating so hard that the universe (as well as those tender intestines of his) almost exploded, he came to the conclusion that should have only been obvious had we underlings had the brain capacity that he does: "Condemned to premature death by hunger and thirst more than 3bn people of the world!"

Cuban President Fidel Castro has strongly criticised the use of biofuels by the US, in his first article since undergoing surgery last year.

He said George W Bush's support for the use of food crops in fuel production would cause 3bn deaths from hunger.
[...]
In it, he says he has been "meditating quite a bit since President Bush's meeting with North American automobile makers".

During that meeting on Monday, Mr Castro writes, "the sinister idea of converting food into combustibles was definitively established as the economic line of foreign policy of the United States".

Yet the Darth Vader outfit keeping him alive now must be more of an echo chamber than an amplifier, because his intense meditations are entirely false. Fausta seems to know the deal, though, and I wonder if Granma would be willing to take a counter-editorial?

As more and more corn grain is diverted to make ethanol, there have been public concerns about food shortages. However, ethanol made from cellulosic materials instead of corn grain, renders the food vs. fuel debate moot, according to research by a Michigan State University ethanol expert.

Personally, I don't even eat corn all that often, so I guess in Castro's theoretical situation I'm safe. But what if, in fact, he's somehow correct about this and real science is wrong? What if three billion people are going to die from hunger? What will the poor and oppressed people of Cuba do, already living on the brink of existence due to the imperialist swine? The Northern invaders have a cunning plan indeed. From an article via Babalu blog:

Washington's sanctions choke off most trade with Cuba, but a law passed by Congress in 2000 authorized cash-only purchases of U.S. food and agricultural products and was cheered by major U.S. farm firms like Archer Daniels Midland Co. interested in the untapped Cuban market.

Cuba refused to import one grain of rice for more than a year because of a dispute over financing, but finally agreed to take advantage of the law after Hurricane Michelle in 2001 cut into food stocks.

Since then, Cuba has paid more than $1.5 billion for American food and agricultural products, said John Kavulich, senior policy adviser at the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council of New York.

Is there really anything to say after this? The only reason that the Cuban people aren't completely starving is because the United States is allowing the communist government to import food. The hilarity with which we can now reread his "article" is enormous. If anything, though, Fidel Castro is no philosopher. He is a fool.

Robert Mayer · March 29, 2007 7:51 PM · Comments (10) · TrackBacks (0)