Will the real champions of Cuban freedom please stand up?

To Tell the Truth was one of my favorite game shows when I was growing up. In case you're not familiar with it, it was a show in which three contestants purported to be a certain person. Perhaps it was the author of a famous song or something like that. One of the contestants actually was the person in question, while the other two were imposters. A celebrity panel would ask questions in order to try to determine who was the real deal and who was the fraud. At the end of the show the announcer would say "Will the real [so and so] please stand up?"

Well, the open letter from ENCASA US-Cuba that has been published in the newspaper and gotten some publicity, in which the organization asks the Bush administration to remove sanctions against Cuba, really got my goat. Why? Because these people are imposters. They claim to seek freedom for Cuba but many of the signatories of the open letter are simply Castro collaborators.

So I decided to write an open letter intended to speak for the great number of us who are not artists or scholars, we’re simply ordinary citizens, that disagree with ENCASA.

Please read the letter below. The actual typset PDF of the document can be found here. If you agree with the letter then I urge you to electronically “sign” it by posting your full name and your city and state of residence in the comments section or emailing me here.

The PDF document will be updated regularly over the next few days to reflect new signatures.

Please join us in standing up for Cuban freedom.

We are a group of ordinary Americans, many of us Cuban-Americans, who are united in our desire to see the people of Cuba completely free of the communist dictatorship that has dominated their lives since 1959. We stand behind the President of the United States of America, our elected Representatives in the U.S. Congress, and our Senators who have made the strengthening of sanctions against the Castro regime in Cuba a high foreign policy priority.

In forty-seven years since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution the United States has conducted twelve presidential elections, the Iron Curtain and the Soviet Union have fallen; in short the world has changed. In those forty-seven years the United States has on at least two occasions entertained a rapprochement with the Castro regime. In all instances, efforts to reach out and normalize relations between both countries have failed dismally.While almost every variable in the Cuban equation has changed one has remained constant and, of course, that is the leadership of the dictator, Fidel Castro.

Mr. Castro has sabotaged attempts at rapprochement because it would inherently mean compromising that which he refuses to compromise, namely his “right” to subvert other countries in Latin America, and beyond, with the goal of spawning violent revolutions and his “right” to use terrorist methods. It is plainly obvious to even the casual observer that the central theme of Fidel Castro’s policies always has been and continues to be anti-Americanism. In short, Castro’s contempt for the United States overrides any concerns he may have ever had about the Cuban people.

It defies logic to believe that after forty-seven years Fidel Castro will suddenly have a change of heart regarding the role of the United States in the world and conversely his role as its opponent. In short, there can be no meaningful dialogue with Cuba as long as Fidel Castro is in power.

We believe that rather than weakening or removing the embargo against Cuba, that the U.S. has a moral obligation to lead the free world in isolating its totalitarian regime. Cuba has been trading freely with almost every other country in the World for more than ten years and yet there has been no progress towards reestablishing human rights on the island nation. The unique structure of the Cuban economy is one in which the communist government sets the rules so as to capture as much hard currency as possible to preserve its hegemony, while at the same time limiting the natural democratizing effects of free trade.

Additionally, ordinary Cubans are not permitted to openly mingle with foreigners so as to avoid their being “corrupted” by outsiders. We denounce anyone from any country that visits Cuba as a tourist. We feel that it is cruel and inhumane to enjoy beaches and other recreational facilities that are off limits to Cuba’s own citizens which have essentially become a slave labor force.

The Castro regime has also devised a shrewd scheme in which Cuban exiles provide a significant amount of its lifeblood of hard currency through remittances and family visitations. While we certainly understand and sympathize with the desire of Cuban exiles to help their families in the short run, we feel that this system only helps to keep Castro in power by ameliorating the destructive consequences of Cuban economic policies. We therefore are in favor of the strict limitations on remittances and travel to Cuba currently in place.

Contrary to what some would have Americans believe, the United States currently trades with Cuba. In fact the United States is Cuba’s largest supplier of food and agricultural products. These transactions are conducted on a “cash up-front” basis. We sympathize with American farmers that would like to open and develop new markets. After all we are capitalists. But we believe that a free Cuba of the near future will be a much more viable business opportunity than today’s Cuba that has shown a propensity to default on all types of financial obligations. The last thing we would ever want is for American taxpayers to be left paying the tab, a tab that would prolong the life of the Castro regime and thereby hurt ordinary Cubans.

Our opponents would have one believe that we have no compassion for those ordinary Cubans and that we have dubious motives. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is because we so badly desire freedom for them that we advocate policies that will hasten the demise of Castro and his dictatorship. The blame for the failures of the Cuban economy can and should be put squarely at the feet of Castro and his sycophants. U.S. free trade with Cuba will be no more of a “magic bullet” in solving Cuba’s problems than Cuban trade with Canada, Mexico, Japan, the United Kingdom, or Russia has been to date.

Now that Fidel Castro has found a new economic sponsor in Venezuela, he has once again made subversion and furthering his internationalist agenda a top priority. His repression of the Cuban people has also worsened. We believe that it is the United States’ best interests to continue to view Cuba as a dangerous adversary, rather than a potential partner as long as a communist regime is in power there.

We would be unanimously in favor of removing economic sanctions against Cuba under the following eight conditions:

1. That all Cuban political prisoners and prisoners of conscience be released immediately and granted an unconditional amnesty.
2. That all Cubans be allowed to move freely within the country.
3. That the existing system of apartheid-like segregation be eradicated immediately, specifically that all Cubans be treated as equals to their foreign counterparts, such as “prominent scholars and artists” from abroad.
4. That all Cubans be granted access to all sources of uncensored information, whether in broadcast, print, or Internet immediately.
5. That all Cubans be granted the freedom to express their opinions freely without fear of repercussions.
6. That all Cubans be allowed to travel abroad freely.
7. That all Cubans be allowed to live, work, and seek a better life for themselves as they see fit.
8. That all Cubans be allowed to elect their leaders through verifiable, transparent democratic elections as allowed for in Cuba’s last legitimate constitution, the Constitution of 1940

In short, we want Cuba to adhere to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Since Fidel Castro has demonstrated that such reforms are repugnant to him, we feel that there is no other recourse for freedom- loving people than to try to accelerate the inevitable demise of Cuba’s current form of government.

Lastly, we would like to emphasize that ENCASA in no way represents the feelings of ordinary Cuban- Americans. The group is self-appointed and consists of some well meaning but naïve individuals as well some recognized leftists and Castro collaborators. The true leaders of the Cuban Diaspora are the ones that are elected democratically every two, four and six years.

Signed,

Valentin Prieto, Miami, FL
Maggie Prieto, Miami, FL
Henry Gomez, Miami, FL
Ana Ivette Gomez, Miami, FL
George Moneo, Miami, FL
Maria T. Moneo, Miami, FL
Robert Molleda, Miami FL
Amanda Dufau, Miami FL
Ziva Kathleen Sahl, Los Angeles, CA
Steven Sahl, Los Angeles, CA
Humberto Fontova, New Orleans, LA
A. Delgado, Miami, FL
A. Gutierrez, Titusville FL
Abraham Cardenas, Miami, FL
Adam Martinez, Hialeah, FL
Adelia Rodriguez, Miami, FL
Adriana M. Bóveda-Lambie, Rhode Island
Aida Suarez, Queens, NY
Aileen Abascal, Miami, FL
Al Bazail, Los Angeles, CA
Albert Gonzalez, Miami, FL
Alberto Quiroga, Boca Raton FL
Ale Cardenas, Miami, FL
Aleida Hornia, Elizabeth, NJ
Alejandro Diaz, Miami, FL
Alejandro Puig, Minneapolis, MN
Alex Hernandez, New York, NY
Alexander Salvador, Miami FL
Alexis Martinez, Hialeah, FL
Alfredo Cabrera, Arlington, TX
Alfredo Quintero, Miami, FL
Alisa S. Artigas, Alpharetta, GA
Alvaro De La Teja, Miami, FL
Amanda Solomon, Burbank, CA
Ana De Lamar, Miami, FL
Ana Frenero, Miami, FL
Ana Martinez, Miami, FL
Ana Rosa Delgado, Miami, FL
Andres Jimenez, Miami, FL
Anelle Martinez, Hialeah, FL
Angel Rodriguez, Phoenix, AZ
Angela Becker, Antioch,TN
Angelica De Lamar, Miami, FL
Antonia Silva, Duluth, GA
Antonio E. Leon, M.D., Bethesda, MD
Araceli Vazquez, Miami, FL
Armando Llechu, Miami, FL
Armando Quincoses, Weatherford, TX
Arthur Rivers, Mackinaw City, MI
Aymee Camayd Tokmakci, IOP, SC
Barbara Alonso, Miami, FL
Barbara Dezayas, Miami, FL
Barnabe Suarez, Jr. Queens, NY
Barnabe Suarez, Sr. Queens, NY
Beatriz Valdes, Miami, FL
Bernice Castro, Miami, FL
Berta Sangineto, Miami, FL
Beth Cleaver, Mobile, AL
Bob Glen, Plano, TX
Bridget Olson, Los Angeles, CA
Calixto M. Lopez, Miami Beach, FL
Camilo Martinez, Miami, FL
Carlos Dieppa, Miami, FL
Carlos M. Echerri, Norwalk, CA
Carmen Higgins, Marathon, FL
Carmen Kaba, Miami, FL
Carolina Pelleya, Miami, FL
Catherine King, Phoenix, AZ
Cecilia A. Sotomayor, Miami, FL
Celsa A. Echeandia, Leesburg, VA
Chadd Newman, St Petersburg, FL
Chantel Acevedo, Hamden, CT
Charlie Bravo, New York, NY
Charlinken Bendana, Miami, FL
Christina Crespo, Los Angeles, CA
Clara Quintero, Miami, FL
Coleen Clark, Miami, FL
Cristina Miyares, Miami, FL
Dalia Paganacci, Kendall, FL
Dalia Rosa, Miami, FL
Damaso Viñas, Miami, FL
Dana Flores, New Britain, CT
Daniel Garcia, Miami, FL
Daniel Hernandez, Miami, FL
Dariusz Byczkowski, Ontario, Canada
Darmon C. Thornton, Las Vegas, NV
David Zincavage, San Carlos, CA
Debra Torres, New York, NY
Delia E. Fernandez, Miami, FL
Demostenes Suarez, Miami, Florida
Dennis Martin, Miami, FL
Devin White, Miami, FL
Deyvis Caraballo, Miami, FL
Diana Cartaya Williams, Miami, FL
Diana M. Diaz, Miami, FL
Dominic P. Parise, Harmony, NC
Douglas Morris, West End, NC
Dr. Antonio de la Cova, Bloomington, IN
Eby Kaba, Miami, FL
Ed Suarez, San Antonio, TX
Eduardo Conde, Eureka Springs, AR
Elena Hernandez, Miami, FL
Elia Brito, Lake Worth, FL
Elisa P. Muñoz, Miami, FL
Elsa Ruiz, Miami, FL
Emily Nelson, Plano, TX
Emmanuel Navarrete, Miami, FL
Engracia Valdes, Miami, FL
Enrique L. Gomez M.D., Miami, FL
Enrique Leon, Miami, FL
Enrique Rubio, San Juan , Puerto Rico
Enrique Valle, Miami, FL
Enriqueta Suarez, Miami, Florida
Eric Alamo, West Covina, CA
Erik P. Bethel, Carmel, CA
Ernest E. Bennett, Centerville, GA
Estela Ramas, Miami, FL
Esther M. Garcia, Miami, FL
Esther Ochoa, Miami, FL
Eugenio A. Angulo, Miami, FL
Francisco Merino, Miami, FL
Frank Lujan, Miami, FL
Fredy Herrera, Miami, FL
Gabriel Prats, Miami, FL
Gail Delgado, Miami, FL
Gerardo H. Soto, Bethesda, MD
Gigi Fernandez, Dallas, TX
Gilbert Martin, Miami, FL
Gilberto Martin, Miami, FL
Gladys Cala, Miami, FL
Gladys Garcia, Hialeah, FL
Glenda Dieppa, Miami, FL
Glenn Lindgrew, Minneapolis, MN
Gloria M. Ramos, Miami, FL
Gonzalo Gomez, Miami, FL
Gregory O'Connor, West Palm Beach, FL
Haydee Morejol, Miami, FL
Hector Enriquez, Santa Ana, CA
Hector M. Garcia, Miami, FL
Heidy Quintero, Miami, FL
Henry Agueros, Highland Park, CA
Henry Ortuno, Queensbury, NY
Ignacio Martinez, Miami, FL
Ileana Arriola, Miami, FL
Ileana Leon, Miami, FL
Ines Eguino, Miami, FL
Iraida Valenzuela Miami, FL
Iris dela Osa, Avon Park FL
Isabel Herbach, Longwood, FL
Isabel León, Hialeah, FL
Isidro G. Balmaseda, Miami, FL
Izza Kaba, Miami, FL
J.Scott Barnard, Jacksonville, FL
Jack Hamilton, Knoxville, TN
James P. Seigler, Galveston, TX
Jan Conde, Eureka Springs, AR
Jan M. Frerrero, Miami, FL
Jan S. Ollis-Gillies, Grayson, GA
Javier Correoso, Miami, FL
Jennie Angulo, Miami, FL
Jerome du Bois, Phoenix, AZ
Jesus Brito, Miami, FL
Jesus Rodriguez, Miami, FL
Joanne Fernandez, Miami, FL
Joe Birchill, Houston,TX
John Delgado, Miami, FL
John Dickerson, Diablo, CA
Jordan Paul, Washington, D.C.
Jorge Abascal, Miami, FL
Jorge Brito, Miami, FL
Jorge Escala, Miami, FL
Jorge Frenero, Miami, FL
Jorge Machado, Palo Alto, CA
Jose A. Mendez, Miami, FL
Jose Cala, Miami, FL
Jose Gonzalez, Houston, TX
Jose I. Aguirre, Miami, FL
Jose Lopez-Varela, Miami, FL
Joseph Bethancourt, Phoenix, AZ
Josue Sierra, Arlington, VA
Juan Carlos Garcia, Miami, FL
Juan Diaz, Miami, FL
Juan E. Jimenez, Miami, FL
Juan Lopez, Miami, FL
Juan M. Fernandez, Miami, FL
Juana Cabrera, Hialeah, FL
Juana Machado, Miami, FL
Julie Green, Pelham, AL
Julio C. Perez, Chicago IL
Julio C. Zangroniz, Rockville, MD
Julio Cabrera, Hialeah, FL
Katherine LaPeer, West Palm Beach, FL
Kenneth G. Hahn, Placentia CA
Knox Gohring, Fullerton, CA
Kristi Voss, Miami, FL
Kristine Valdes, Miami, FL
Larry Daley, Corvallis, OR
Larry Muñoz, Los Angeles, CA
Laura Chiang, Miami, FL
Lee Laden, Philadelphia, PA
Leonardo Gonzalez Jr., Miami, FL
Leonardo Gonzalez, Miami, FL
Leonides Garcia, Miami, FL
Les Pantin, Coral Gables, FL
Lesley Varas-Caraballo, Miami, FL
Lidia Hernandez, Miami, FL
Liliana Quincoses, Weatherford, TX
Lisa Harriott, Homestead, FL
Lissette Navarrete, Miami, FL
Lloyd Briggs, Hallandale Beach, FL
Loida Gonzalez, Miami, FL
Loretta Guzman, Miami, FL
Louis A. Mayor, San Antonio, TX
Lourdes Argimon, Miami, FL
Lourdes Ruiz, Hialeah, FL
Lourdes Villadamigo, Miami, FL
Luis Castro, Miami, FL
Luis Diaz, Hialeah, FL
Luis M. Valdes III, Miami, FL
Luis M. Valdes Jr. Miami, FL
Luis Mayor, Colleyville, TX
Magaly Guzman, Miami, FL
Manuel Garcia, Coral Springs, FL
Manuel Morlote, Miami, FL
Mara Venegas, Miami, FL
Marc R. Masferrer, Bradenton, FL
Marcela Ayon-Siervo, Miami, FL
Marcia Pereira, Miami, FL
Marcos Angel Ramirez, Miami, FL
Marcos Ruiz, Miami, FL
Margarita Laza, Miami, FL
Margarita Villadamigo, Miami, FL
Maria Corredero, Miami, FL
Maria del Carmen Mayor, Colleyville, TX
Maria Elena Gomez, Miami, FL
Maria Elena Martinez, Hialeah, FL
Maria Isabel Fara, Miami, FL
Maria Isabel Sanchez, Miami, FL
Maria Julia Diaz, Miami, FL
Maria Mendoza, Miami, FL
Maria Salvador, Miami FL
Marilyn Fajin, Miami, FL
Mario Andres Pons Miami, FL
Mario Fleitas, Miami, FL
Mario Luque, Pembroke Pines, FL
Mario Ramirez, Wantagh NY
Mario S. Garriga Cazimajou, MSc, Burbank, WA
Marisela Soto, Miami, FL
Marta Quinn, Miramar, FL
Martha Garcia, Miami, FL
Martha Quinn, Miramar, FL
Martin Hague, Saint Louis, MO
Matt Gonzalez, Ft. Myers, FL
Max Lopez, Miami, FL
Michael Bryant, Fort Lauderdale, FL
Michael Pancier Esq., Fort Lauderdale, FL
Michelle Quesada, Miami, FL
Miguel F. Oyarzun, Newport, RI
Miriam Iturbe, Miami FL
Nayivis Pupo, Miami, FL
Nelly Castro, Miami, FL
Nereida Garcia, Hialeah, FL
Nicholas Diaz, Miami, FL
Nicholas DuBoyce, Garfield, NJ
Nicholas Dueno, West Palm Beach, FL
Nicolás Antonio Jiménez, Columbia, MO
O. J. Casas, Carrollton, TX
Ofelia Hernandez, Miami, FL
Ofelia M. Torres, Miami, FL
Olfa Garcia, Miami, FL
Olga Llechu, Miami, FL
Ondina Kaba, Miami, FL
Ondina Michelena, Miami, FL
Orlando Cespedes, Riverside, CA
Orlando Machado Jr., Burbank, CA
Oscar Brito, Lake Worth, FL
Patricia Cervera, Miami, FL
Patricio Texidor, Twin Lakes, WI
Paul Sepan, Centennial, CO
Paula Gonzalez, Bronx, NY
Pedro Garcia, Miami, FL
Pedro J. Gomez, Miami, FL
Pedro León, Hialeah, FL
Pedro Martinez, Miami, FL
Peter Torres, Key Biscayne, FL
Pia Gomez, Miami, FL
Radames Suarez, Queens, NY
Ramiro Ramos, Miami, FL
Ramon Fajin, Miami, FL
Ramon Sarmiento, Miami, FL
Ramona Quintero, Miami, FL
Raphael Cervera, Miami, FL
Raul Marquez, Miami, FL
Raul Musibay, Miami, FL
Reinier A. Potts, Davie, FL
Rey F. Arbolay, Lampasas, TX
Ricardo Fernandez, Miami, FL
Robert A. Deitich, Orlando FL
Robert I. Barrocas, Miami, FL
Roberto Aguirre, Miami, FL
Roberto del Rosal, Cuernavaca, Mexico
Rocio Arbelaez, Miami, FL
Roger Romero, Miami, FL
Rolando Garcia, Hialeah, FL
Rolando J. Navarrete, Miami, FL
Rolando Navarrete, Miami, FL
Rosa Alfonso, Miami, FL
Rosa Garcia, Miami, FL
Rosario Cejo Polewczak, Raleigh, NC
Ruth Maestre, Lyndhurst, NJ
Sandra L. Brity, Miami, FL
Santiago M. Sanchez, Miami, FL
Scott Gillies, Grayson, GA
Serena Marinucci, Sydney, Australia
Silvia Mendoza, Miami, FL
Sissy Willis, Chelsea, MA
Stephanie Bienstock, Miami Beach, FL
Steve Hogge, Coral Gables, FL
Steven Holland, Harrison, AR
Susana Machado, Miami, FL
Thomas Regnier, Garland, TX
Thomas W. Hall, New York, NY
Tom Grassia, Santa Fe, NM
Valerie Dieppa, Miami, FL
Victoria Frerrero, Miami, FL
Virgilio Dieppa, Miami, FL
Vivian Castro, Caracas, Venezuela
Vivian Cató, Hialeah, FL
Walter Villadamigo, Miami, FL
Wm. Picou, Weatherford, TX
Yamy Choy, Miami, FL
Yvette Valdes, Miami, FL
Yvonne Sargent, Crystal Lake, IL
Zeida F. Casas, Miami, FL

The Lost City Opens Today

Here's a list, via Uncommon Sense, of theaters running The Lost City today:

I've already had the pleasure of seeing it and all I can say is bring tissue with you.

The Religion of Peace?

Nicojones.

Good friend Aaron of Aarons cc has been hacked repeatedly for the past few weeks. He was down for close to ten days all because he exercized his freedom of expression and posted numerous Mohammed cartoons. All the hackers were traced to Saudi Arabia.

Today, these purveyors of peace via religion have hacked Aaron's internet host company Hosting Matters and taken down a slew of bloggers, including Instapundit, Captains Quarters, Powerline and many many others through Denial of Service attacks.

So, in solidarity with my buddy Aaron, I give you the prophet Mohammed:

And a brief message to those Islamist extremists out there:

It's the fucking twenty-first century, assholes, hurry up and catch up with the rest of us.

Michelle Malkin has more.

Oops...

I forgot to mention that I was interviewed the other day for an article on Blogs in this week's Miami Sun Post by Tiffany Rainey:

The ‘Cubiche’

Blogs first came to the attention of Valentin Prieto, editor of Babalú, when he heard an MSNBC report on the trend almost three years ago. But, according to Prieto, he could find no blog about Cuba anywhere on the Internet. So he borrowed a term made famous by Cuban, I Love Lucy character Ricky Ricardo, and started his own.

“Cubans in Miami have been voicing the crimes of Castro for years in Spanish,” Prieto, who only blogs in English, said, “but if you don’t do it in English then you don’t reach the people that can help.”

Babalú, which runs a mixture of culture and politics from a strictly Cuban perspective, draws readers from throughout the world, including the occasional coveted Cuban reader, and gets around 200 to 300 e-mails a day, Prieto said. Luckily the blog has a loyal following of readers who send links daily and is one of the few Miami blogs that has several staff writers, all with nicknames. Prieto is “El Bárbaro”.

“I’ve gotten a lot of support from fellow Americans,” he said. “They thank me for giving a different perspective that they don’t get from mainstream media.”

But, while Americans may applaud Prieto’s efforts, the Cuban government isn’t so happy. According to the blogger, the government in Havana monitors his and other political Cuban sites, many of which he refers to as his “blog kids,” on a daily basis.

“They can’t afford not to,” Prieto said. “The one thing Fidel can’t lose is control of information. I don’t know how big of a dent we’re making but we are getting it out there.”

Babalú can be found at www.babalublog.com. See also: http://the26thparallel.blogspot.com and http://cubanamericanpundits.blogspot.com.

We are living in strange times...

The California Senate has endorsed the "May Day" immigration boycott/protest/work stoppage in California. I don't know about you, but it seems to me that these folks are always boycotting the wrong things. Then, they turn around and criticise the folks who boycott the right things.

A couple more card designs

Sent in by Paul at Wanderlust:

Whaddaya think?

I want to SCREAM! (Updated)

Let's see if I can make sense of all this.

We have, as Henry posted this morning, the pro-fidel group ENCASA - a comingling of self-proclaimed scholars and artists - beginning a public relations campaign to lift the embargo and normalize relations with fidel castro's dictatorial communist regime from way up high in their Ivory Towers.

We have editors of major metropolitan newspapers like the Miami Herald making statements like:

We fell in love with it because it had the power to change lives for the better -- and we can do that on paper, on the web and over the airwaves with equal devotion.

The potential for having even greater impact than we have now is enormous.

Meaning, obviously, that it is now the journalist's job to "change lives and have greater impact" on society as opposed to ethically, realistically and honestly covering the news. The news now, you see, must have impact. It cant simply be just "the news." What fun would that be if you couldnt attempt to dethrone a sitting President with "fake but accurate" coverage?

And it's many of these same "scholars" and "journalists", sitting upon such high and mighty, self-aggrandized and self-serving perches that keep telling you, us, about the evils of the US embargo, about the evils of the travel restrictions to Cuba, about the repellance and intransigence of the Cuban-American community in South Florida, about the quaintness of Cuba as a vacation destination, about the wonders of Cuba's healthcare system, it's 100% literacy, its low infant mortality rate. These same "scholars" and "journalists", whose words are eerily reminiscent - echoing, even - of their comrades in arms in Cuba, those luminaries in Cuba's State Sponsored academia, the yes men and women of Granma, Peridodico 26, Ahora Cuba, to name a few, who sit in the luxury of their own particular freedoms with all the world at their fingertips.

Because they do, you know. Im absolutley certain that the spin doctors at the New York Times have access to the same information that those spin doctors of Granma, etal, have.

And with all information readily available, with the world at their fingertips, through their keyboards and monitors and hi-tech software and internet connections, they sit there and CREATE the news for you. Trying desperately to make an IMPACT on the way you perceive things. Trying, through their "journalism", to spoon feed you what you are supposed to think.

Yet to any discerning and reasonable reader said impact comes though not with a bang, but with a whimper.

You want to know what real impact is?

Real journalistic impact is when that reporter is embedded against his will. When that reporter sacrifices it all to bring you the truth. When he risks his life reporting what oppessors do not want reported. And he does so by whatever means. WHATEVER MEANS.

You want to see real IMPACT in reporting?

Here it is. And here.

I am humbled and awed by those two images linked above. They are from Jaime Leygonier, one of Cuba's many independent journalists, reporting on the arrest of Dr. Darsi Ferrer. Merely sitting down to type this report out in Cuba, on an ancient typewriter that has obviously seen its share of words, could get this man beaten and thrown in jail. His family could suffer repercussions, physical, emotional, psychological. His life could be swiftly ended for the crime of reporting the truth.

THAT, my friends, is IMPACT.

Update: The last few lines of the news story in the above links speak volumes:

The land baron's son.

From the Dominican Today, we see, once again, just how "dignified" castro's supporters and La Revolucion really are:

Shouting match mars anti-Castro lecture SANTO DOMINGO. – Sympathizers and followers of Cuba’s Government caused an incident in the Dominican Republic’s 9th International Book Fair, which prompted the intervention of security agents.

The pushing and shoving began when Fidel Castro sympathizers felt annoyed because the Fair’s organizers invited the exiled Cuban writer Zoé Valdes to dictate the conference "Cuba: fiction and reality," on Tuesday.

Supporters of Castro’s regime, who throughout the day had warned several media that they were against the writer’s presence, last night tried to prevent and spoil the activity, but the security prevented them from entering the National Theater’s Culture Salon, scene of the conference.

Several people were beaten and Clave Digital photographer Carmen Suàrez’s camera lens was flung off.

"It is a regime of a tremendous cruelty, he is a man (Fidel Castro) who simply has used the nation of Cuba to make it his property in the dirtiest tradition of his land baron father," Valdes said.

She affirmed that in Castro’s 47 years in power very little is known on the outside on the Cuban people’s sufferings, because his government has a complete control of the information and a great manipulative capacity.

She defended the writers’ right to speak of their own countries’ political subjects, citing the cases of Chile’s Isabel Allende, during Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship; Mario Benedetti, in Uruguay and Colombia’s Gabriel Garcia Márquez.

Several of the participants tried to boycott the writer from the audience, constantly interrupting or talking aloud, which forced the moderator, the writer Avelino Stanley, to speak firmly to end the disorder.

"Ah, I know this strategy: What you want do is speak and speak and not to let me speak. It is I who will speak now," the writer Valdés said in one occasion.

The room was filled, but many people, including international guests and journalists, deiced to skip the event when learning of the conflict.

In another moment a loud bang was heard from the main door and everyone looked back. The noise came when a Culture Ministry official slammed the door in Carmen Suárez’s face, which damaged her camera lens.

Way to go Zoe!

Hat tip Cherokee.

Dr. Darsi Ferrer arrested

One day after Martha Beatriz Roque was assaulted, Dr. Darsi Ferrer has been attacked and arrested by castro's thugs. The brutal dictator is going after the leading challengers to his odious regime. Dr. Ferrer is one of the most courageous. And castro's scared. He's lashing out.

Dr. Ferrer, right now, is desaparecido. As in a Dirty War.

This is an outrage.

Stefania Lapenna at Publius has the story here.

A Babalú Contest (Updated)

Winner gets a Che? Still dead! tshirt.

One of the things I overlooked last year during the Cuba Nostalgia Convention planning was business cards. I had thought about having some printed, but with all the other preparations, they fell through the cracks. And I didnt realize just how needed the cards were until we were actually at the convention and exhibit visitors kept asking for the URL so they could visit the blog from home. We kept having to scribble the URL on pieces of paper for everyone and that just wont do this year.

I am not only swamped with work and preparations, but I completely suck at graphic design and my Photoshopping skills are...um... shall we say somewhat lacking. So here's your chance to help:

You can design the Babalú cards that will be handed out at the Cuba Nostalgia Convention.

Here are the specifics:

- Standard business card size: 2"x3.5", portrait or landscape.
- Two colors maximum. Full color printing gets expensive so I'd prefer to keep the printing at two runs.
- Must say "Babalú" on them and have the URL "www.babalublog.com" prominently displayed.
- I'd prefer the use of the Babalú header font: Impact and should be blood red in color.
- They could say "an island on the net without a bearded dictator" or "fidel castro's internet nemesis" or "a spearhead righteous activism" or "blogging for a free Cuba" or any other phrase you can come up with. (I'm not too thrilled with displaying the words "fidel castro" on the cards.)
- Should have my email address shown as well.

I'll take any other suggestions you all have to offer into account.

We'll decide on the best design and whoever's is used will get a free Che shirt and a free Babalú eyes shirt, not to mention my neverending gratitude.

You can submit entries to val - at - babalublog dot com.

Gracias and buena suerte!

Update: I've received only two designs thus far, let's hear you chime in:

And:

Investigating ENCASA

Val posted a link to an article in the Herald about a group calling itself ENCASA that wants to change US policies toward Cuba and remove the economic emargo (what's left of it).

I decided to dig around a little bit to see exactly what kind of people are behind ENCASA. I did a google search for "ENCASA US-CUBA" and found what can only be described as a recruitment message sent out to an online newsgroup, Now the actual page of the message has since been removed but thanks to Google's cache there's a record of the message. I have pasted the message (up to the draft of the "open letter") below.

Newsgroups: soc.culture.cuba,soc.culture.latin-america,soc.culture.caribbean From: NY.Transfer.News@blythe.org Subject: Scholars & Artists for Change in US Cuba Policy Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2006 22:58:56 GMT Organization: NY Transfer News Collective -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1

Scholars & Artists for Change in US Cuba Policy

Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit

sent by Jane Franklin - Mar 15, 2006

Scholars and Artists for Change in U.S.-Cuba Policy
ENCASA/US-CUBA - March 12, 2006

Estimados amigos, colegas y compatriotas,

Attached below is a declaration by a newly formed group­-an Emergency Network of Cuban American Scholars and Artists for Change in U.S.-Cuba Policy (ENCASA/US-CUBA). The statement, which is self-explanatory, was drafted by a steering committee (listed below) that has met and worked over the past several weeks, with a sense of urgency, to mobilize the largely silent and silenced voice of Cuban American academics and professionals and to stimulate concerted action aimed to reverse a politically failed and morally bankrupt U.S.-Cuba policy­-as most recently reflected in the arrogant and extreme 2004 Report to the President: Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba (which had the temerity even to redefine away our own families in Cuba... como si fueran otros desaparecidos).

We ask you to join us and support this effort. If you agree in principle with the attached statement, please let us know, providing your name, title, and institutional affiliation/profession.

In addition, if possible, please forward the attached statement (with this e-mail or a note of your own) to your own networks of Cuban American scholars and artists, academics or professionals, and ask them to join this effort by e-mailing their names/etc. to: ENCASA .

Finally, as a separate step, we also want to collect the names of non-Cuban American intellectuals and academics, scholars and artists, who support our call for a reversal of U.S.-Cuba policy, and who want to see educational and cultural exchanges with Cuba and to exercise their right as U.S. citizens to travel to Cuba without the intimidation and prohibitions of current policy. If you can, please contact your non-Cuban American colleagues in your departments and networks and pass this on to them as well, asking them to support us by e-mailing their names/etc. to: NOENCASA .

We want to act quickly to generate as many names as possible, and continue this recruitment effort over the next few weeks, starting at the Latin American Studies Association meetings in Puerto Rico in a few days. U.S.-Cuba policy is expected to take yet another a turn for the worse come May; in anticipation of this we are planning to send a delegation to Washington DC in April, and to use what political and moral authority we can muster as scholars and artists, public intellectuals and professionals, to articulate a reasoned and forceful repudiation of current policy and to push for an alternative vision.

Let us not abdicate our moral responsibility to speak our truth to power, or allow a clique that does not represent our views to continue to claim that they speak for all Cuban Americans (or for all USAmericans, for that matter), or continue to remain silent and intimidated in our homes and ivory towers when an incessant stream of outrages continues to be perpetrated in our name. Let us instead speak up and act as moral agents and catalysts for change.

Members of the steering committee include: María Isabel Alfonso and Lillian Manzor (University of Miami); Marta Caminero-Santangelo (University of Kansas); Max Castro (Independent Scholar); María Cristina García (Cornell University); Liz Cerejido, Guillermo Grenier and Lisandro Pérez (Florida International University); Félix Masud-Piloto (DePaul University); Rubén G. Rumbaut (University of California, Irvine); and Silvia Wilhelm (Executive Director, Puentes Cubanos).

The sender of this message is Jane Franklin. You can see Ms. Franklin's ideology in her own words here, here, here, and here.

I also found it interesting that the draft of the statement by ENCASA was published, apparently in mid March, on the web site of Radio Progresso. Of course Francisco Aruca of Radio Progresso infamy and the operator of Marazul Charters has a lot to gain by liberalizing the travel restrictions to Cuba. If you had any doubts that the people behind ENCASA are hard-core fidelistas then you have just been disabused of those notions.

By the way ENCASA is planning a press conference at the Biltmore Hotel at noon today. Too bad I have to be in Miami Beach because I'd be interested to see what the cat drags in.

Transmogrification

Just received the following via an anonymous source:

From Miami Herald executive editor Tom Fiedler, sent to the Herald staff via e-mail on April 12, 2006:

To the staff,

All of you who have stepped off an elevator into the Miami newsroom in recent days cannot have missed the wall-mounted flat-screen monitor constantly displaying and refreshing the MiamiHerald.com site.

And if you've attended any of the morning or afternoon news meetings, you will have heard an opening discussion about what's on that site, how many hits each article has received, and what's coming to the site later in the day.

These may seem like the incremental markings of evolutionary change, mere head-nods toward on-line as we continue to think of ourselves as newspaper people first, foremost and -- perhaps for some -- always.

But that cannot continue to be. Today we change. Today, as in NOW.

Three years ago, on one of the anniversaries of our 100th year, we focused time, thought and effort into remaking the newspaper as part of the New Century Project. I have no doubt that it produced a more successful newspaper, one that incorporates all of the great journalism on which we've prided ourselves, presented in a more visually exciting and easier-to-use newspaper. Imitators are legion.

But time marches on and constantly improving the newspaper isn't going to guarantee success, either in journalism or in the marketplace.

I have two messages to deliver today.

First, my goal is to remain as relevant, as important and as influential to this community in the future as we have been in the past -- and to do it through world-class journalism. It's a goal we all share.

Second, we will make delivering that journalism on MiamiHerald.com and our other media platforms just as high priority as delivering it in The Miami Herald. Let me repeat that for emphasis: Just as high.

We are beyond being satisfied with incremental change and giving polite head nods toward other media platforms. We are going to execute fundamental restructuring to support that pledge. Every job in the newsroom -- EVERY JOB -- is going to be redefined to include a web responsibility and, if appropriate, radio. For news gatherers, this means posting everything we can as soon as we can. It means using the web site to its fullest potential for text, audio and video. We'll come to appreciate that MiamiHerald.com is not an appendage of the newsroom; it's a fundamental product of the newsroom.

No more will some people be strictly newspaper staff and others will be strictly on-line or multi-media staff. If you produce news, you'll be expected to produce it as effectively for the electronic reader or listener as you would for the newspaper reader. If you edit or design for the newspaper, you'll learn to edit and design for the web site.

We'll be creating and posting several new jobs that will be necessary to deliver on this mission. We don't have the luxury of waiting for new resources to do this, so we may need to find the wherewithal by dropping some of the less-important things we do now. Almost certainly we'll be changing the typical work schedule so we can deliver the news when our audience wants to get it. Of course we'll invest in training to help everyone succeed in new responsibilities.

The details will be worked out over the next few weeks and I invite everyone with ideas to be involved.

Let me stress that we aren't going to milk The Miami Herald to do this. This newspaper is what brought us here and it will remain very successful for many years. There is something special and unique about journalism on the printed page and we won't neglect that going forward. But we didn't fall in love with journalism because of ink and paper. We fell in love with it because it had the power to change lives for the better -- and we can do that on paper, on the web and over the airwaves with equal devotion.

The potential for having even greater impact than we have now is enormous. Although all of us are aware of the challenges we face in keeping newspaper readers, a few facts about MiamiHerald.com:

*In January 2004, our web site captured 100,000 unique local visitors. Last month, just 14 months later, it hosted 250,000 unique local visitors. In fact, between February and March of this year, our on-line traffic grew by 22 percent. Remember, of course, that only on the web site can we reach readers without regard to geographic boundaries, something we do very well and can do even better.

*Across the nation, newspaper web sites increased the share of 18-24 year old readers by 9 percent, and 25-34 year olds by 14 percent.

*We're making money. In the first quarter of this year, our websites exceeded even optimistic revenue estimates by $2.2 million.

When I entered this business 35 years ago, the way things were done in the newsroom wouldn't have been unfamiliar to someone doing my job nearly 100 years before. I scarcely can imagine what the newsroom will look like 35 years from now in terms of how we deliver our journalism.

What's exciting is that we are in the position today of shaping that future. What we do will largely determine how successful The Miami Herald will be in serving generations to come. As I said, that's exciting -- and daunting.

This much is certain: We won't be successful by standing still and lamenting what used to be. Three years ago this September we launched the New Century Project. Now we need to begin work on the next century and I need each of you to come along.

Tom

A quick response to Tom:

Using the internet and radio and every other source of exposure is fine, but if you really want discerning readers and customers, just cover the news ethically and honestly and keep the biases to yourselves. Dont insult your readers with speculation or innuendo and dont throw in that little statement or jab to "stir up some controversy." We see right through it and the last thing you want to do is insult the very same customer you're trying to attract.

I hope this isnt too much too ask.

And remember there's that new-fangled open source media out here on the net: An Army of Davids monitoring your every move.

JUST DO IT

In my previous post I linked to a Miami Herald article highlighting ENCASA, a group of "prominent" Cuban-American "professors and artists" who have begun a public relations campaign for the lifting of the embargo and travel restrictions to the island.

I'm all for it. With the following conditions:

- That all Cuban politcal prisoners and prisoners of conscience be released immediately and granted unconditional amnesty.
- That all Cubans on the island be allowed to go wherever they please on said island. The existing system of apartheid must be eradicated immediately.
- That all Cubans be granted access to all sources of information, whether broadcast, print, or internet immediately.
- That all Cubans be granted the freedom to express their opinions freely without fear of repercussions.
- That all Cubans be allowed to travel abroad as freely as Americans or any other human being immediately.
- That all Cubans be allowed to live where they please, work where they please and seek a better life for themselves as they please immediately.
- That all Cubans be treated as equals to their foreign counterparts, including "prominent scholars and artists" from abroad.
- That all Cubans be allowed to elect their leaders through verifiable democratic elections as allowed for through the Cuban Constitution of 1940.

It's not too much to ask.

Get to work on the above, ENCASA, and I guarantee you will have the full support of the entire Cuban-American Community. If not, shut the fuck up and let people that live in the REAL WORLD handle the real world issues.

Here's today's assignment:

Read this.

Then go here. Find the commies in the list. Set aside plenty of time, there's plenty of them.

Warning from a time traveler

There are some writers that routinely surpass the bounds of excellence and inhabit a land that only a few know. Among historians, Paul Johnson, Victor Davis Hansen, Stephen Ambrose and Shelby Foote* come to mind; in "fiction" -- so broad in scope that it defies categorization -- I have a small pantheon whose work I read religiously: J R R Tolkien, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Vladimir Nabokov, Ayn Rand, Tom Wolfe, Robert Harris, and Dan Simmons. (Stephen King -- a writer who is better than most folks give him credit for -- and I had a nasty divorce after the sixth and seventh volumes of The Dark Tower, but that is a story for another day.)

Dan Simmons is, first and foremost, a great novelist. Broad ideas, superbly written characters that are so well-defined that you cannot but help sympathise (or hate) them as intensely as you may a real person. He is also a very honest writer who does not surrender his writing to an agenda. The work is first. Among his novels, Song of Kali, Lovedeath, the superb Hyperion series (Hyperion, The Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, The Rise of Endymion), a masterpiece of science fiction that belongs in the top ten of all time in that genre, and the recent (and equally excellent) Ilium and Olympos (a retelling, sort of, of Homer's Iliad through the eyes of a dead and cloned 21st century historian, observing the events of the story unfold again on Mars with Zeus, Apollo, Hera and the other real gods!) I think he writes like a god and I devour his new books with pleasure.

On Simmons's website he publishes a monthly letter to readers that is always interesting. Being a former teacher he always picks a subject that interests him and then makes it so readable that we are his thralls until he is finshed telling us his stroy. A while back he mused about Melville; he wrote an essay that incorporated Virginia Woolf and Tony Soprano (!); this month he wrote about a visit he received from a time traveler. The time traveler's purpose was to shake him up and awaken him to the dire situation the West finds itself in. Here is a brief excerpt:

I sighed. I was sick of Iraq. Everyone was sick of Iraq on New Years Eve, 2005, both Bush supporters and Bush haters. It was just an ugly mess. “They just had an election,” I said. “The Iraqi people. They dipped their fingers in purple ink and . . .”

“Yes yes,” interrupted the Time Traveler as if recalling something further back in time, and much less important, than Athens versus Syracuse. “The free elections. Purple fingers. Democracy in the Mid-East. The Palestinians are voting as well. You will see in the coming year what will become of all that.”

The Time Traveler drank some Scotch, closed his eyes for a second, and said, “Sun Tzu writes – The side that knows when to fight and when not to will take the victory. There are roadways not to be traveled, armies not to be attacked, walled cities not to be assaulted.”

“All right, goddammit,” I said irritably. “Your point’s made. So we shouldn’t have invaded Iraq in this . . . what did you call it? This Long War with Islam, this Century War. We’re all beginning to realize that here by the end of 2005.”

The Time Traveler shook his head. “You’ve understood nothing I’ve said. Nothing. Athens failed in Syracuse – and doomed their democracy – not because they fought in the wrong place and at the wrong time, but because they weren’t ruthless enough. They had grown soft since their slaughter of every combat-age man and boy on the island of Melos, the enslavement of every woman and girl there. The democratic Athenians, in regards to Syracuse, thought that once engaged they could win without absolute commitment to winning, claim victory without being as ruthless and merciless as their Spartan and Syracusan enemies. The Athenians, once defeat loomed, turned against their own generals and political leaders – and their official soothsayers. If General Nicias or Demosthenes had survived their captivity and returned home, the people who sent them off with parades and strewn flower petals in their path would have ripped them limb from limb. They blamed their own leaders like a sun-maddened dog ripping and chewing at its own belly.”

I thought about this. I had no idea what the hell he was saying or how it related to the future.

This is the must-read for today.

*I just received the first five (yes, five) volumes of Time-Life's 40th anniversary edition of Foote's The Civil War: A Narrative. The addition of Civil War era photos to Foote's brilliant text is fantastic. Expensive, but fantastic.

It's a good thing...

...Cuban's have that vaunted free universal healthcare everyone raves about.

Otherwise, when an acto de repudio (act of repudiation) is forced upon someone by fidel's Rapid Response Brigades, like the one on Marta Beatriz Roque on Tuesday, they can take their badly beaten bodies to the nearest healthcare center and get all patched up.

Of course, in the case of Roque, since she is an outspoken dissident, she isnt allowed that great free healthcare.

Miami, See It Like a Native

On my way home from work just now i decided to swing by a drive through ATM as I had no cash on me at all. I pull into a local bank and drive up behind the BMW SUV that's at the ATM ahead of me and wait for my turn. A minute or so passes and I realize I havent seen the person driving the SUV in front of me stick out their arm and tend to the ATM machine.

But this particular ATM is a bit slow sometimes so I pay no mind to it.

Another minute or so passes and I see the person - a woman - stick her arm out the window and punch in a few numbers onto the keypad. Now, this tells me one thing for sure: she wasnt paying attention and despite being stopped at the ATM for at least 3 minutes, had not even started her transaction.

Anyone that's ever been in a car with me driving knows I can get pretty impatient, especially if Im on the way home after a long day's work. So I say to myself "Geez. For crying out loud" knowing that Id have to wait a few more minutes before Im back on my way home.

After another two or three minutes, the woman finally gets her cash and card back. I wait thinking she's about to take off. But after another minute or so, she still hasnt left so I give her that little soft heads up honk with the old car horn.

She looks at me through her rearview, does some little sorry thing with a hand gesture, puts her car in drive and moves on.

I go up to the teller, insert card, punch in pin, no to receipt, no to account balance, yes to Ill accept the fee, quick cash from checking, get my card back, get my money and Im outta there. In less than one minute.

I stick the car in gear and start to take off when I realize the SUV woman in front of me is stopped at the exit and I cant get out. So I wait again. Sometimes the traffic is bad there and you have to wait a bit.

Three minutes minutes later Im still there so I give her the polite heads up honk again. I get ignored so I honk again.

The woman still refuses to move after a couple honks so I let loose on the old car horn and barrage her with a WTF series of blaring honks. MOVE. YOUR. ASS.

She then rolls down the window, sticks her head out and screams: "CANT YOU SEE IM ON THE PHONE?"

I kid you not folks. Now there is a prime candidate for the Burnett School of Urban Etiquette if ever I saw one.

Cuba Nostalgia Convention Update (Updated)

I had wanted to make this year's Cuba Nostalgia Convention much more exciting this year. Bigger and better, as they say. More interactive with more computers, audio visual presentations, webcams, live streaming... the whole nueve yardas.

Unfortunately Ive been spread a little too thin these past few months and have been unable to dedicate as much time to the preparations as Id wanted to. I cant take as much time off of work as I did last year - almost a whole month - and I now realize that I just cannot do it alone again this year. This is no reflection on those of you who have helped and offered to help, but there's just too much to do.

As I type this, the plans for the Convention are in jeopardy. Primarily because of a lack of time, but also because the fundraising aspect is incredibly difficult. Good friend Julio Zangroniz came up with some excellent ideas for raising funds, but without any startup cash for these, it was impossible to see them through to the end. I also had a few sponsors last year that donated a good amount of money to help out, but this year I just havent had the time to do the legwork and make the calls and knock on doors and beg and plead. I cannot express to you how disconcerting it is to try to show someone what it is we do here, how important the work is for the cause, and have them beleive its simply not that important to fork over a few dollars to help out. I had doors slammed on my face many times last year and am simply not willing or able to live that again.

Ive also had a hard time lining up video presentations and other things that would help make the exhibit a success. i dont want to run the exact same thing I ran last year, and all the queries Ive made regarding new presentations have mostly been responded to with a "we'll see." Again, I dont have the time to hound everyone on a daily or weekly basis for these.

There are a few folks like Texidor Fine Art, the Ropa Vieja guys and Debra Torres Designs and Chantell that have offered a few of their products or autographed books to help with fundraising, but try as I might I cant get the logistics and techinical issues worked out. An auction would be great, as would a Tombola, but how do we get them to work? I have run the gammut on the logistics for these and have been unable to come up with a reasonable solution.

Good friend Mike H, who was instrumental with the tshirts last year and is busting his hump again this year - Gracias Mike! - is working on the tshirts as we speak, but I dont think they will bring in enough to cover all the costs. I spent over $2000 out of pocket last year and unfortunately, being that I still have a blue tarp covering my roof and windows that wont close because of the hurricane and other issues that require immediate economic attention, I dont have the money at hand to spend on the Convention.

You all know that Babalu isnt here to make money. I dont have advertisers here and I incur - gladly - all the costs to maintain the blog. I have been offered by a few companies some pretty good money to advertise on the site - one of which was an offer for a minimum of 20 links on the page at $20 per link per month - which I have turned down. This blog isnt about making money. Yet now, in retrospect, seeing how low the funds are for the convention - $100 from reader Robert G in Texas (Mil gracias Robert!) - I think perhaps I should have OK'd those advertising links, if only to ensure money for the convention.

I'm not asking you all for money. I know times are tough and Uncle Sam took his fair share of your income a few weeks ago, but I need help. Right now, I dont have the time to take care of every aspect of the convention. So if any of you out there have realistic ideas on how to procur more donations, how to get some more A/V presentations, procur a few more laptops, maybe a big flatscreen or two, some ideas to make the exhibit more user friendly, how to set up live webstream, etc... Please feel free to chime in.

The Cuba Nostalgia Convention exhibit isnt only about Babalú Blog, it's about the work that we all do daily on the net to help foster an understanding of Cuba and promote her people's freedom.

Update: I added a Paypal button to the sidebar for your convenience and am looking into creating a 501c and also upgrading Payapl account for easier use.

Tuesday Open Thread

While I'm swamped here at the office, please use this to post any interesting links, articles, editorials or whatever your heart desires.

Photo by Tom Stepp.

Nombres

I wrote the following back in February after visiting the Cuban Memorial. I never published it as I felt it did the Memorial no justice, but given yesterday's excellent Miami Herald article on the Cuba Archive and the Cuban Memorial, I thought today would be appropriate.

Nombres.

The names. They strike you the second you shut the car door after parking at the Cuban Memorial. The names.

Bienvenido Fuentes Leonard. Manuel A. Fuentes Lima. Alcadio Fuentes Martinez.

Each read aloud. Booming through the sound system, loud, clear. Constant. Unending. Echoing across the park.

Diosdado Garcia Arencibia. Mario Garcia Arroyo. Angel Garcia Azcuy. Alfredo Garcia Barroso.

As you pass the parking area and begin your approach towards the field you get brief glimpses of white. Little patches of white crosses in between parked cars and trees.

Julio Graveran. Alberto Graviel Lluch. Wade Carrol Gray. Jose-Misael Gregorio Igarza.

You make your way passed the cars, passed the trees. Pass in between the stage and the two tents where volunteers sit and folks are standing in line. Some stand with flowers, other empty handed. Still others clutch copies of photographs.

Ismael Heredia Jordan. Rafeal Heria. Rafael Heria-Bravo. Ray A. Hernandez.

An elderly couple walks away from one of the tents with a piece of paper in hand. they pause and squint at the writing on the sheet. It sounds as if they're arguing about what's written down, but they arent, really. They just want to see their loved one. A son, a brother. Un primo.

They look up from their note and out towards the field. You can see their souls draining. You follow their stare out out over to the field of crosses your soul drains as well.

The only thought you can muster is My God. There a so many crosses.

Caridad Landa Linda. Enira Landa Lima. Imara Landa Lima. Luis Eduardo Landa Lima. Ramon Landa Lima.

Something in you tells you it would be disrespectful to pass the old couple. Going on ahead of them just doesnt feel right. So you linger patiently a few steps behind them. They are old and it may take them a while to find their loved one, but it feels right to walk in their footsteps.

Luis Leon Montes de Oca. Felipe Leon Ortega. Baldomero Leon Pi񡮠Ulises Leon Ramos.

The old folks cant seem to decide which way to go. The old man wants to go one way, the old lady another. They stop. Argue some more. They both look at their piece of paper and then up over the crosses with indecision.

Zacarias Lopez. Berto Lopez. Justo Lopez Alvarez. Luis Lopez Aparicio.

You go up to the old folks and offer to help. Gracias joven, the woman tells you. No hay por que you respond as the old man hands you the little slip of paper. Seccion 23, fila 15 is all it says. Section 23, row 15.

Pedro Macias Lugo. Hans Macias Ozendi. Milay Macias Ozendi. Ruben Macias Ozendi.

You ask for their loved one's name. They give you two. You go on ahead of them towards Section 23 repeating the name of their loved ones not so much so you wont forget, but so the names from the loudspeakers wont erase them.

Reynaldo Mayo Salinas. Radames Mayo Sardi񡳮 Antonio Mayor. Ramon Maza.

You find Section 23 and count the first line of crosses until you reach 15. You look down the row and there's are hundreds of crosses. Each with a name. Each with a date. Each with the name of the city in Cuba that person was from.

In row fifteen there are hundreds of them. As far back as the eye can see.

My God, you say to yourself. There are so many names.

Jorge Agustin Novoa Andino. Pedro Noyola. Dionisio Nueva. Juan Nuez.

You make your way up row 15, reading each name one by one. So different, each. So the same. Each with its own city. Pinar del Rio. Havana. Matanzas. Camaguey.

You pass two or three crosses in your row that say "Bay of Pigs"..."Escambray"..."Florida Straights."

Tantas cruzes. So many names.

Cristobal Obregon Ramirez. Arnaldo Obregon Rodriguez. Manuel Obscina. Luis Ocala. Manuel Ocala.

Two thirds of the way up row 15 you read a familiar name. One you've been repeating and rerunning in your head as you read others, as other names blared through the sound system, not quite as loud now, but echoing still.

Fores Pelaez. Carlos-Rafael Pelaez Prieto. Blanco Pelegrin. Miguel Pelegrin Castellanos.

You signal the old folks who are at the begining of the row. They are walking slowly. Pausing at each cross, reading each name. It's not because they dont trust you to remember the name of their loved one. It's because to them, reading each name, even silently, pays homage to the person it represents.

Jose Sotolongo-Crespo. Julio Sotomayor. Jorge Sotus. Jorge Sotus Romero.

The old folks reach the symbolic cross placed for their loved one. The old woman appears to weaken a bit as if her soul wants her kneel right then and there. The old man, worried about the old woman, grabs her by the elbow. Offers her what little support his years can muster. You try to hold back tears as the scene unfolds before you.

Diego Sarmiento Vargas. Francisco "Paquin" Sarmientos. Candido Sarjosa Naranjo. Jean Sarps.

The old woman stands before that cross. Her lips move in prayer perhaps. Then she stops, lets out a long sigh. The styrofoam cross sways gently in the breeze. She glances over at you and tries to smile but her eyes say otherwise.

The old woman places her wrinkled hand delicately atop the cross and runs her fingers softly across it as if combing her child's hair.

And the names continue.

Caridad Solis. Orestes Lorenzo Solis. Jose Jorge Solis Cerezuela. Leonel Solis Cerezuela. Carlos Solis Shelton. Alonso Solis Villarica. Jose-Antonio Solorzano. Walfrido Solorzano....

A interesting take on the immigration crisis

Thank you, Mr. Homnick.

Why Simper to Fidel?
(from The AMERICAN SPECTATOR)
By Jay D. Homnick

Published 4/11/2006 12:06:19 AM

NORTH MIAMI BEACH -- Life is rife with little misunderstandings: look what happened when President Bush told Seymour Hersh that he was going to try to win over Ahmadinejad with a "new Koran"! Hersh reported that we were going to "nuke Iran," so we're off to the races. And poor Cynthia McKinney thought that detector was out to test her mettle, so we're off to the racism.

We need to be sympathetic. Haven't we ever made mistakes? All of us have once looked for our glasses when they were on our foreheads or our watches when they were on our wrists. So why can't we be more understanding of a Mexican who went on a bender and wound up on the wrong side of the border? Or a South American who gambled away his return ticket at a casino and had to overstay his visa by twenty years? There's eleven million of them, but they work hard: we're thinking of moving Labor Day to Sept. 11th.

So I'll tell you what. Here's my deal. If you guys in the Senate want to ram through an immigration bill to reach out and bring all these folks into the Big Tent of the Republican Party, I'll bite my lip and go along. I won't be legalistic or puristic or a nudnik. You want me to give you your short-order cooks and your lawn guys and your house painters, you got it.

But I want something in return. Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door, right here in Miami. Give me your Cubans. (No, not the cigars. Apparently Babbin copped all of those.)

HERE WE HAVE one of the great ironies. The one group of emigres with the most legitimate claim for asylum is the Cubans. The one law-abiding cadre that doesn't make large demonstrations is the Cubans. The one enclave that never presses for bilingual education but works to master English without complaint is the Cubans. (You would never hear them yelling "March!" in April.) And -- here is your full daily USDA RDA of irony -- the only reliable clique of Hispanic voters for the Republican Party is Cuban. Well, guess what? As things stand, the proposed immigration bill leaves the Cubans missing the boat.

These folks are living ninety miles from our shores under the longest-ruling dictator on the planet. While he jubilantly closes in on his jubilee, defiant in his autocracy, oppressive and restrictive and vindictive, we not only refrain from interfering in his internal affairs, we turn away his escapees. Plenty of hardy Cubans would hot-foot it here, but they get cold feet because of our "wet foot - dry foot" policy. This means that after days of baking in the sun on a makeshift raft made out of a car fender and a few pickle barrels, then swimming with labored strokes toward shore, throat parched, breathing stertorous, spirit flickering, if the Coast Guard can intercept you a foot from shore, back you go to the Communist paradise. Foot on shore, more sure of foot, you stay.

Whichever spineless State Department wonk thought that up in time immemorial has long since ossified and become fossilized in his chair. The original memo probably sits in a dusty, musty file somewhere in the National Archives under one of those classic one-word titles. It's undoubtedly called "Rapprochement" or some such elegant evasion, instead of its true name: "Tergiversation." What a sorry face to put on our noble nation!

The most recent travesty to emerge from this approach came a few months ago, when a few desperate Cubans managed to guide their ersatz craft onto shore at the base of a bridge in the Florida Keys. The Coast Guard turned them back anyway, because that bridge was no longer in service and they did not view that as an active extension of American soil. A court later reversed that ruling, but -- oops, too late -- the people are back singing "Havana, hold your hand."

The Cubans themselves are reluctant to press their case at this juncture, because they do not want to be thought of as being on an equal plane with illegals. They wonder, as we do, why the illegals are stealing the march on them, why the inmates are getting the asylum. We need to be courageous and advance their cause.

The old Cuban joke goes like this. Castro tells his people there are only wood chips to eat. They shout: "Give us wood chips! Give us wood chips!" Then he says they are down to the stones. "Give us stones! Give us stones!" Finally, one day he announces that humanitarian aid has arrived and there is food. "Give us teeth! Give us teeth!" How about a bill with some teeth?

Jay D. Homnick is a columnist for JewishWorldReview.com and a contributor to the Reform Club.

Blah, blah, blah, yada, yada, yada...

Osama left a new message, yada, yada, yada. America is waging war on Islam, yada, yada, yada. The American people had a chance to make a truce and we blew it, yada, yada, yada. What a one-note Charlie. It's too bad that he doesn't have the balls to come out and fight like a man. I guess all that pretending to be a man by subjugating women has finally caught up with ole' Osama, hidin' in the cave or in Iran, or wherever he is.

Candidate for Truth

"Adios Patria" released in 1997, explores the reasons why over a million Cubans have left their homeland since the 1959 revolution. It mixes poignant footage from the island with personal testimony from exiles and commentary by historians, politicians, and anti-Castro activists.

CORE, is a 64 year civil rights organization known for its 1960's demonstrations and the murder of three of its members as depicted in the movie “Mississippi Burning". Carl McGill is Assistant Western Regional Director of CORE and a candidate for the 35th California Congressional District, currently represented by Maxine Waters. To help raise funds for his candidacy, Mr. McGill is sponsoring weekly showings of "Adiós Patria" from Saturday, April 22 through Saturday, June 2, 2006. CORE seeks to raise awareness of the plight of balseros and the desperation that leads them to brave shark infested waters to seek freedom on America’s shores. They believe the false impression a large number of African Americans have of castro and Cuba would change if they knew the truth, that castro's Cuba is a racist apartheid society.

I viewed the documentary for the first time at yesterday's event. If you haven't seen the documentary it's worth hunting down a copy to view, it is a must see. It turns out Mr. McGill is from the same area in Connecticut as my husband, where we both lived for a number of years. When the event ended, Mr. McGill and I spent about an hour discussing a wide range of topics, including the old neighborhood, Cuba, and politics.

Carl McGill isn't your average politician seeking personal gain; he's a man on a mission to save his community from the devastating effects of decades of political misrepresentation, poverty and crime. He's a man who believes in personal sacrifice in order to do what's right. Currently running as a conservative democrat, this is not the first time he's taken on Ms. Waters. He ran against her on the Republican ticket back in 2000, and learned the hard way just how entrenched the Democratic Party is in the California's 35th Congressional District. Maxine Waters has never been challenged from within the Democratic Party. She has never faced an opponent in a primary, allowing her to easily defeat any Republican opponent in the general election. Carl McGill is a rock solid candidate, the real deal, a living example of the rewards of honesty, hard work and education.

Mr. McGill firmly believes that black leaders like Maxine Waters, Jesse Jackson, Al Shapton and Charles Rangel have betrayed their community. They promote a culture of violence, celebrating thugs who call their women "ho's", who have returned that abhorrent "N" word to popular jargon. Convicted criminals like "Tookie" are given hero status while hard working successful, educated, law abiding African Americans are denigrated. A defeat of Maxine Waters would carve a big chunk out of the Congressional Black Caucus members' current monopoly of African American politics. Imagine the impact of this change--the next time the LAPD arrests someone caught committing black on black crime, instead of Ms. Waters screaming racism and calling the police officers names and hinting of backlash/riots, Mr. McGill's media comment would support law enforcement and encourage adherence to law. Imagine the next time there's a vote on the Cuban Embargo and Mr. McGill passionately cites statistics on racism and apartheid in Cuba. What a difference one man could make given the chance.

Mr. McGill has roots in the Caribbean, and is a long time friend of the Cuban exile community. He traveled to Miami's Little Havana in 2000, to protest Maxine Waters' and the Congressional Black Caucus' support of fidel castro during the Elian affair.

Mr. McGill believes that fully informed educated voters will not support the Black Caucus or their friends, dictators fidel castro and hugo chavez.

Please support Carl McGill in his fight against Maxine Waters and the Congressional Black Caucus. Visit his website here.

The smell of Las Orishas

There's a popular Cuban rap band called 'Las Orishas.'

They live in Paris, but they remain pro-castro. That alone doesn't sound too normal. But now some other things are happening. They seem to be allowing themselves to be used as an instrument to advance Chavez's big drug plans for the region.

Local Venezuelans report here (it's in Spanish) that these Orishas are the stars of a government-paid-for concert in Caracas, and at it they are showing big pictures of Chavez and castro together, with sneering claims that Chavez will win 10,000,000 votes in December's election.

That isn't the only thing, though. They also are advertising it with little logos of pot leafs. Meanwhile, at their concert the air was alive with the smell of marijuana.

I am not gonna moralize heavily on marijuana, but I will say it's generally an illegal drug. That's why it's particularly bad for Venezuela. Venezuela has gotten itself a new reputation as the New Colombia, and this concert, paid for with the ample funds of the Chavista government, has a pretty odd way of doing political advertising.

Do they want to create a 'context' for the legalization of drugs, so that they can ship them any place they like? Already they are becoming the New Colombia as far as drugs go, and increasingly, huge drug shipments are being intercepted with Venezuelan origins. There's talk that Chavez is opening the gates to Bolivia's coca.

And now, at a government paid for concert, pot-smoking is endorsed. Doesn't sound too good.

Numbers

Back in January of this year, I was reading the latest edition of National Geographic when I came across a story on genocide around the world which offered some statistics on number of people killed in mass murders and genocide by country.

The data, provided to Geographic by the Strassler Family for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, showed China with 30 million, the USSR with 20 million, Germany and Japan with 11 million, Pakistan with 3 million, Iraq with 240,000, all the way down to Burma with 5,000.

As I worked my way down the list, I looked for Cuba.

Cuba was nowhere to be found.

Many of us have heard and read all about castro's executions in the Paredon, the beatings, the downing of boats leaving Cuba, and the numbers of dead reported to be in the thousands. How could a publication of the stature of National Geographic miss Cuba?

I don't have a clear answer to that question, although some of you might suspect that it was a purposeful omission, not an accident or oversight. However, that's not the point of this post.

I'm presenting this because of a story that came out in today's Miami Herald which Val alluded to it in his early AM post. It's by Frances Robles and it deals with Cuba Archives, an effort by two Cuban-Americans to archive all the deaths attributable to the Cuban Revolution. It's been a mostly thankless and tedious endeavor which has costed both money and time.

To date, Dr. Armando Lago and Maria Werlau have counted 31,173 victims.

I realize this topic has already been covered here, most recently last December. With the Herald article coming out today, however, I feel this important undertaking needs to be brought up again.

Why is this important? From the article:

Werlau said the idea of creating a more rigorous list of the dead came to her in 1997. Having been raised in Puerto Rico and studied in Chile, she was amazed that Gen. Augusto Pinochet's ill deeds were well-known -- his dictatorship has been blamed for 3,000 deaths -- while Cuba's weren't.

''This was important. There should be accountability,'' she said. ``People think of Guatemala, El Salvador, but never Cuba.''

That's it ladies and gentlemen. Accountability. The fact that the murders and mass killings at the hands of castro, che and their evil henchmen have largely gone by unnoticed is a crime in itself.

Through the efforts of Lago and Werlau, as well as those from the Cuban Memorial, we can only hope that people everywhere will begin to make the connection between castro and murder, just as with Pinochet, Stalin and Hitler.

The article states that Cuba Archives is sorely in need of donations to keep their project alive. Stop by their web site - www.cubaarchive.org - and make a donation. Let's show that we care.

20 prisoners of conscience - UPDATED

Not just 20 names, not just 20 faces, but 20 human beings currently in prison for doing nothing more than trying to report uncensored information.

That's right these men are rotting in Cuban prisons, as we speak, because fidel castro can't bear to have the truth about his Cuba reported. I mean what's the point in having "journalists" on your payroll spreading propaganda around the world if a handful of people are daring enough to tell the truth. So there you have it. Look at these faces and think about them tonight when you go to sleep.

When certain political elements in our country try to tell you that "we are losing our freeedoms" remember these men who have never had any freedom and live under the yoke of the same system those "guardians of our freedoms" would have us live under.

More information about these men and what you can do to help at Reporters Without Borders and PayoLibre.com.

UPDATE:

Marc Masferrer provides some Uncommon Sense about Cuba's independent journalists here.

Just call me Bubba!

It's 7:00 AM on a Sunday. In about 30 minutes I'm going to load the appropriate tools and materials onto my truck and head off to fix a fence at my in-law's school. After that I'll swing by my parent's house and fix their TV system that somehow got all topsy turvy and they've been unable to watch their usual shows the past couple of days and I'll also help Dad with a reja he's making for a client. Ill pick up a box of pastelitos on the way for the folks and a few copies of today's Miami Herald.

Once the chores are done, at around noon, Im gonna kick back and have a few beers at ManCamp. Steve will be by. And Tommy the Official Drunken ManCamp photographer. We're gonna smoke some ribs, grill some cajun angels, drink a bunch of beers and maybe do a little fishing. Chill out the rest of the day as Monday and another week at the office are just around the corner.

That's what ManCamp is all about. A place to relax. Not worry about a darned thing. Hang out with a few buddies and not worry about spilling any beers or burping or manners or anything. Life in general can be stressfull, but add the work on this blog and all the news about Cuba and the frustration that comes long with that and you need a place to open the old pressure valve and let off some steam.

Today I'll be doing some gloating though because ManCamp has been featured on the front page of today's Miami Herald Home and Design section:

No girls allowed: Men are staking out their own spaces in their homes, with a bit of style

BY JAMES H. BURNETT III
jburnett@MiamiHerald.com

You just can't make up scenes like this one in the large backyard of Val Prieto's Kendall home on a recent Monday afternoon:

Prieto and pal Steve H. Graham grin ear to ear and grip cold Pilsner beers as they proudly survey the eight-by-ten-foot, wood chip-covered space where they stand. Both men glance up and nod with satisfaction at the sight of the sturdy white awning covering their heads. A few feet away, gentle waves from a canal lick the bank of Prieto's property.

This is ManCamp, Prieto's answer to the Average Joe's age-old nemesis: lack of private, personal space at home. And ManCamp is enough to make Al Bundy and his fellow members of the Married . . . With Children's No Ma'am group cry tears of joy.

As crude as ManCamp's design may seem on the surface, trend experts say Prieto is ahead of the curve in a growing movement of guys -- mostly married men -- who want their privacy but not at the expense of their ''manly'' credentials.

CARL JUSTE/MIAMI HERALD STAFF THIS IS HIS SPACE: Val Prieto is proud of his 'ManCamp,' set among wood chips in the backyard of his Kendall home.

Indeed ManCamp, which was built and ''furnished'' with donated materials, boasts storm-proof ''counter tops'' constructed of railroad ties secured to the ground with steel rods. And there are five barbecue grills of different sizes and styles. On this day, two of the grills are loaded with Polish sausages and bacon-wrapped prawns.

On one side of the camp there is a homemade entertainment center, complete with cable TV, mini-fridge, a dart board mounted inside one cabinet door and a Miami Heat cheerleaders poster pinned to the other door. There's also a singing fish wearing a Miami Dolphins helmet.

Patio chairs and a couple of bar stools complete the actual furniture. Just a few feet away, two fishing rods are propped up on tree stumps, their lures bobbing gently in the water.

And just when you think ManCamp can't get any cooler, there's a slight rustling. A pair of eyeballs peers over the privacy fence separating Prieto's yard from the neighbor's. Then a section of the fence pops open like the entrance to the Bat Cave. And another man, a neighbor, also smiling big, slips through before the hidden gate swings shut.

So now you all know why blogging is sparse on Sundays. It's my day to finish up whatever work needs to be done around the house, help the parents and in-laws out and then kick back and chill.

The gloating, obviously, will be ubiquitous today. But it'll be extra special for me. Remember that run-in I had with that certain someone who shall remain nameless that wrote a post criticizing the Herald for not covering her book readings in Miami? The one that posted my picture on the net and denigrated me? Said I should be called "Bubba" and then criticized the entire "right wing extremist" Cuban-American community in South Florida?

I just can't help from laughing out loud in a smoked rib eating, cajun angel munching, beer drinking, Abajo fidel! just call me Bubba sorta way.

(By the way, you can visit James Burnett's blog -- Burnettiquette -- here.)

Have a great Sunday, folks! And swing by tomorrow. We'll be having some excellent extra special blogging.

Be sure to check out this piece also in today's Herald by Frances Robles on The Cuba Archives which we've written about here before.

Leakers, castro apologists and traitors Updated

What a bunch of vermin inhabit our government and mainstream media!

Now it looks like the CIA has just fired a leaker named Mary McCarthy who was in good with a far-leftist reporter at the Washington Post named Dana Priest.

Her crazy husband spent his time as a castro apologist! William Goodfellow is the director at the Center for International Policy, a heavy duty castroite think tank, and specialized in justifying castro and his depredations.

That is, until he got some antiwar gigs from god knows where but I am sure castro gave good references. He was his own Joe Wilson, going around debunking the war while our troops were fighting and dying in Iraq.

And his wife was out printing classified CIA leak information about secret terrorist prisons in Europe, which, given that this looks like an FBI sting operation, turns out to have not existed at all.

So, from sticking up for castro to HELPING castro by penetrating and discrediting the CIA, this really sounds like a lovely crowd over at the Washington Post.

Boy is this starting to smell. Priest won the Pulitzer Prize about a week ago for her CIA prison story that has since been proven to have been false. I wonder what pro-castro stuff we can find under this traitor's byline? She should be in jail with all the rest of these irresponsible, biased, castroite mainstream media! Does the WashPost have any conflict of interest standards at all?

As a correspondent in Beijing writes:

When are these news agencies going to start hiring professional journalists?

Now the greater question is: How many more castro apologists are out there in our mainstream media, and close to our government? Does anyone in Washington realize how out of the mainstream a castro apologist is? How many more legions does castro really have and why do they get so close to the government and the media? Does castro control everything in Washington, too?

Sweetness & Light has the dirt here.

Hat tip: Lucianne.com

UPDATE: Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit has an excellent, comprehensive roundup on all the news surrounding this sorry issue. Read it