Un par de discos rayados

I watched tonight's debate about the embargo between Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Jim McGovern on C-SPAN with disgust. I am a big supporter of Lincoln Diaz-Balart and his policies but his performance tonight was bad, and that's being kind. The only saving grace of the night was that Jim McGovern, Lincoln's debate opponent was almost as bad. Like a pair of broken records the two went on and on repeating the same talking points. I expected that from McGovern, that's all these anti-embargo douches do. But Lincoln really missed an opportunity to nail that clown to the wall.

McGovern's points can be summarized as follows...50 years...failed policy...cold war relic....try something new...family reunification...right to travel...complete failure......50 years...failed policy...cold war relic....try something new...family reunification...right to travel...complete failure......50 years...failed policy...cold war relic....try something new...family reunification...right to travel...complete failure...

Since Lincoln wasn't able to do anything except repeat some points which I don't think most Americans understand or can relate to I will take the liberty of destroying McGovern's arguments on Diaz-Balart's behalf:

First of all Mr. McGovern it's a cheap debate tactic to assign an objective to a policy, which was never its true objective in the first place, so that you can say that it's failed. As you well know Mr. McGovern the embargo was put in place as a punitive measure in response to the largest expropriation of American assets in history. Since no restitution has been made or even offered to the rightful owners of those expropriated assets there can be no removal the embargo. Since the original goal of the embargo was to punish Cuba for those unlawful expropriations you can't say that the embargo is anything but an unqualified success. The regime itself tallies the amount of lost revenue to its coffers in the billions of dollars.

As you also know Mr. McGovern, during the 45+ years of the embargo policy additional criteria have been added to the conditions for lifting the embargo. Those include the unconditional release of all the political prisoners, the legalization of political opposition and a call for free elections. I would co-sponsor a bill in congress with you tomorrow to remove the embargo if those three conditions were met. Perhaps in your admitted 10+ trips to Cuba you could have found a few minutes to explain to the oppressors of the Cuban people how simple it would be for the embargo to be lifted.

If there is a failed policy that has not worked in 50 years it's castro-style communism. Cuba has attempted to confront the United States since 1959 and has not been able to achieve its goal of having the embargo unconditionally lifted.

I would like for Mr. McGovern to explain what magical powers American tourists and church groups and cultural exchanges have that Canadian ones do not. That English ones do not. Mr. McGovern seems to think that lifting the embargo will act like a magic wand to free the Cuban people despite all the evidence to the contrary that only the regime and its top officials profit from Cuba's trade with almost every other country in the world. Or perhaps Mr. McGovern knows that no such magic wand exists and simply has other motives.

Mr. McGovern, you sure have a set of balls on you to say that you know better than 9 presidents and 25 congresses. I'm glad I wasn't drinking anything when you said that. Oh and that line about Cuba and human rights abuses "they can do better", well that was the understatement of the century.

Your pals in Havana will be happy that you brought up the case of Mr. Posada Carilles but fortunately here we have separation of powers and an independent judiciary. Mr. Posada's case in the U.S. has followed an orderly process and it has been determined that there is no grounds on which to hold him and that deportation to Cuba or Venezuela would not be appropriate given the the lack of such constitutional guarantees in those countries.

Mr. McGovern you pull out your violin and talk about family reunification but you don't condemn the reason those families were separated in the first place. You know as well as I do that if travel restrictions were lifted that many Cuban-Americans would be denied entrance to the island because of their stated opposition to the regime. So you would enact a policy that allows the Cuban government to extract cash from those it sees as no threat to its hegemony while denying access to those among us who might actually be the ones who would be outspoken in our criticism of the regime. The courts have ruled time and again that the Federal government is charged with the responsibility of implementing foreign policy and regulating trade and that that responsibility trumps any citizen's so-called right to vacation in a gulag.

No Mr. McGovern, the real failure over these 50 years has been the failure of you and your predecessors to recognize the true nature of the castro regime. You have failed though you have tried countless times to destroy this country's upright stance against the worst human rights abuser in the history of the western hemisphere. Mr. McGovern you have failed and will continue to fail because you carry water for a bankrupt ideology that has been rejected by hundreds of millions of people around the world that have been subjected to it. Mr. McGovern you are the failure. You have failed your constituents and you have failed the Cuban people. You have failed as a human being.

P.S. If you are one of those "moderate Democrats" that is for the embargo but against the travel restrictions for Cuban-Americans ala Joe Garcia, I would think twice before pulling that lever next November. Your Democrat colleagues don't draw a distinction between the embargo and the travel restrictions. Elect them to office and the embargo will be lifted. All these leftist assholes want to do is snatch defeat from the jaws of victory while that bearded bastard is on his deathbed.

Posted by Henry Louis Gomez at November 19, 2007 10:30 PM

Comments

Posted by: CubanBanker at November 20, 2007 12:27 AM

Posted by: rrrod at November 20, 2007 02:31 AM