fidel castro Death Watch, Take 2846

BREAKING NEWS:

Local news is reporting that fidel castro has "temporarily" handed power of the communist nation over to his brother Raul. Details are sketchy at the moment, but reports are that he was suffering from "intestinal ailments."

Maybe Presidents Bush's visit to Miami today gave the bearded bastard a bad case of runs. Whatever the outcome, lets all hope castro is presently wallowing in severe pain.

Remember folks, in the event that the dictator has finally begun to sing El Manisero, the public will not be informed until all elements of the government are in place to keep the Cuban people under strict and total control.

Ill be posting updates as news develops.

Update: All local stations are dispatching reporters to Little Havana as we speak. It is being reported that after the surgery, fidel castro would be out of commission for two months. Anyone that has had an elderly family member in the hospital knows that their frailty can and does lead to complications. Again, let's all hope that the complications are many and their outcomes fatal.

Update: Lots of talking heads on local tv now, lots of speculations and what ifs being tossed around. I feel I must urge everyone to take this news - however absolutely grand it is - with a grain of salt. castro has "died" many times before, only to then reappear like genital herpes. Let's all keep the champagne chilled, but let's not be popping any corks just yet.

Update: People have taken to the streets in Little Havana in Miami. Calle Ocho is packed with Cubans celebrating the news. Our phones here havent stopped ringing and we're unable to communicate with anyone in Cuba. Versailles Restaturant is packed with folks honking, screaming and waving flags. My wife insists that castro is dead.

On a personal note, I truly hope the bearded dictator bleeds, as Henry put it to me just now, like a stuck pig and that today, July 31, 2006 is the beginning of Cuba's future.

This may not turn out ultimately to be the occassion for me to write 'The Post", but at least I know now that day is getting closer rather quickly. Id like to ask you all out there to collect your thoughts about the death of the tyrant and what it means to you, to your loved ones and to Cuba. Write them down and send them to me. On the day that bastard finally kicks the damned bucket, Id like to post all of these so that everyone that comes here on that wonderful day gets the truth straight from all of you.

The Mrs. has just made a colada of cafe as I know I'll be here all night. There will be no sleep in Miami tonight.

Update: Good friend and blogger Enrique Rubio will be on Notiuno radio in a few minutes from Puerto Rico discussing this breaking news. You can listen live here.

Update: One guy at Calle Ocho being interviewed by local news said everything that needs to be said: "While we celebrate here, I urge the Cuban people in Cuba to take to the streets. This is the opportune moment. Now is the time."

Update: We have been unable to contact anyone on the island as yet. if any readers out there have communicated with their families or loved ones in Cuba, please shoot me an email and let me know what youve been told. Ill withhold all names for their safety.

Update: Congreswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is urging all Cubans in Miami with boats to NOT attempt to go to Cuba to bring family members over or for any other purpose. All vessels will be intercepted at sea.

Update: Bird Road in Miami is now reportedly closed because of the impromptu celebrations. WFOR has streaming video of the celebrations in Miami here.

Update: There are thousands of Cuban-Americans out on the streets of Miami right now, all of them celebrating the possible demise of fidel castro. All of them cheering and carrying Cuban flags alongside Old Glory. You can here the shouts of "Libertad! Libertad! Libertad!' in the background on the news reports. It is, indeed, a joyous occassion. But I'd like all of you to know that behind each celebratory scream, behind every smile, behind every feeling of unbridled joy and desperate happiness, there are 47 years of tears. Forty seven years of frustration. Of anger. Of pain. Of loss. Of separated families and drowned brothers and sisters. These celebrations have been paid for in blood. And they are more than well deserved.

Viva Cuba libre coño!

Update: Via Michelle, the following from AP:

Does that even look like castro's chicken scratch signature?

Delicious Irony Update: Aint it unbelievably ironic that today, of all days, President George W. Bush was in Miami, in Little Havana, and stopped to enjoy un cafecito cubano? Today. Of all days.

More:

Cuban American Pundit
Killcastro
26th Parallel
A Double Whammy from Michelle Malkin
Captain's Quarters
Dean Esmay
Ya No Mas!
It Comes in Pints?
Critical Miami
My blog brother David J. at Resurrection Song.
Plains Feeder
SondraK
Small Dead Animals

Willy, eres un profeta y un poeta

Hoy que mi pueblo vive ilusionado
yo me siento inspirado y un son estoy cantando
anunciandole a todos mis hermanos
que nuestro día ya viene llegando

Ya viene llegando

Apenas siendo un niño allá en la Antilla
Mi padre me vistió de marinero
tuve que navegar 90 millas
y comenzar mi vida de extranjero

Huyéndole a la hoz y al verdulino
corriendo de esa absurda ideología
pues nunca quise ser aperitivo
del odio, del rencor y la apatía

En la maleta traje un colibrí
un libro de Martí, un sueño y un danzón
Vino Beny Moré de polizón
junto a los Matamoros y a Cumin

Me traje una palmera y un bohío
y hasta a Pinar del Río lo relocalizé
en mi humilde lugar de alojamiento
por la doce avenida del southwest

Eh, eh.....

Ahí empezó la dura realidad, ¡Ay Dios!
de todo el que se tira la maroma
de sobrevivir fuera de su idioma
de sus costumbres y su identidad

Pasó lo que tenía que pasar
de mi nueva ciudad tome su abrigo
pues la resignación es fiel amigo
del hombre cuando tiene que emigrar

Y pese a la distancia y el ataque
del rigido almanaque yo vivo con la suerte
de sentirme CUBANO hasta la muerte
de ser amante de la libertad

Hoy que mi pueblo vive ilusionado
yo me siento inspirado y un son estoy cantando
anunciandole a todos mis hermanos
que nuestro día ya viene llegando

Oh, oh...
Oh, oh...
Ya viene llegando
Oh, oh...
Oh, oh...

Ya viene llegando
Ya todo el mundo lo está esperando
Ya viene llegando
Ay, Cuba hermosa y primorosa
Ya viene llegando
Porque somos un solo pueblo que va cantando
Ya viene llegando
Quiero ver volar mi bandera, Cuba nos espera

Voy a cantar mi canción de corazón
Ya viene llegando
En la glorieta del parque y la Consolación
Ya viene llegando
Cada día yo te quiero más mi Cuba bella te quiero más
Ya viene llegando
De San Antonio a Maicí, por Maceo y por Martí
Ya viene llegando

Nicaragua
¡LIBRE!
Polonia
¡LIBRE!
Hungría
¡LIBRE!
Checoslovaquia
¡LIBRE!
Rumanía
¡LIBRE!
Alemania Oriental
¡LIBRE!

CUBA
¡LIBRE!

Ya viene llegando
Ya viene llegando
Ya viene llegando
Ya viene llegando
Ya viene llegando
Ya viene llegando
Ya viene llegando

Lyrics Copyright Willy Chirino, el poeta musical de la diaspora Cubana

Venezuela and Human Rights

Carlos Sabino wrote an excellent editorial on Venezuela's Mari Pili Hernádez's recent remarks before the U.N. Council on Human Rights about her nations policy. Sadly, castro's Cuba is their model.

With surprising frankness, Venezuela's deputy minister of foreign affairs, Mari Pili Hernández, recently set out the guidelines for her government's views on the subject of human rights. Appearing before the new Council on Human Rights at the United Nations, Hernandez, who is directly connected with President Hugo Chávez himself, stated, "All rights are important, but it is a lot more important to feed oneself than to be part of a political party, to have an honorable job than to live in a democratic system, to know how to read and write than to have freedom of expression."

As if any doubt remained about the meaning of her words, the Venezuelan representative added that the "economic and social" rights should play a "predominant role" over the "civilian and political" rights during the Council's debates.

The ideas of the deputy minister, who represents the official position of the Venezuelan government, reflect the same views of totalitarian states that have darkened most of the 20th Century. Imagine a country where the people can read and write, eat every day and hold "honorable" jobs, but where they cannot form political parties, have no freedom of expression, and where there is no democracy. A situation where "economic" rights have priority over "political" rights, that is, where people are guaranteed some goods and services, such as education, health care or housing, but where no one can hold political meetings, no one can send news abroad, and it's forbidden to access the Internet or criticize the government.

Would you like to live in such a place?

Well, if you answered yes you can do so without much difficulty. All you need to do is ask for the proper visa and travel to fidel castro's Cuba. There, in exchange for an obsolete, primitive and very unequal system, as well as an education that is mostly government political propaganda, the citizens have no right to decide what their jobs will be, cannot engage in commerce or industry, cannot travel abroad or emigrate, and are obliged to show up at all the public demonstrations organized by the regime. This is also a country where people who commandeer a boat to escape from tyranny are sentenced to death, or are sentenced to 25 years in a grim prison for the "crime" of sending news reports abroad.

Read the rest at Mexidata.

Meanwhile back in the Straits...

12 Cuban refugees were rescued by a Carnival Cruise ship off the coast of Cuba over the weekend. They were turned over to the Coast Guard and transferred to a cutter where they remain on board. The refugees are receiving food, water, and medical treatment. Since they did not make it to dry land, they will most likely be repatriated.

Any word from President Bush on the wet foot dry foot?

The story is here.

Open thread Monday

Since this is the beginning of the work week and since Val is still AWOL enjoying sun and fun (damn him) I thought we'd start a free-for-all of topics and comments. So here is my list to start off:

• The war in Israel and Lebanon
• Chavez gets decorated in Iran
• The Security and Prosperity Partnership (look it up at spp.gov)
• Fans of 24: what will happen in Season 6?
• Will Tony Soprano get whacked in the seventh and final season of The Sopranos?

Why the U.S. should do more to help free Cuba

US Helps fidel Consolidate Power - 1959 by Charles Morse

American government officials and key media figures, along with pro castro partisans in this country, assisted castro in seizing power and then consolidating that power in the critical year 1959. The machinations of State Department officials William Wieland and Roy Rubottom, working with New York Times correspondent Herbert L. Matthews and others; resulted in a direct order to Batista to leave Cuba clearing the way for castro and his murderous gang. Few Americans realize the level of complicity with regard to how American official power, combined with friendly media, installed castro. This constitutes a disgraceful and indelible stain on American history. Those involved in this treachery have never been held to account.

castro's puppet President Urrutia was installed Jan. 1, 1959, the same day Batista fled to the Dominican Republic. Immediately, the island was engulfed in violence. It is commonly accepted that raul castro, fidel's brother, was involved, among other massacres, in personally machine-gunning 250 people into a ditch outside Santiago de Cuba. The castro government's act was returning the death penalty. The pretence of a trial was more often relinquished and the reign of terror raged. The left's response to this blood soaked regime, then and to this day, is dialectical rather than fundamental. Their opposition to political violence, usually expressed in insufferably high-minded tones, only applies if the accusations are directed at the so called "enemies of the people". If Communists, like castro are conducting the violence, according to their immoral "Revolutionary" logic, it serves "progress".

castro's activities were widely reported to a shocked world, and yet, castro's American friends continued to help castro consolidate power. castro's triumphal visit to the US, April 1959, was met by an astonishing degree of mass media pimping. Questions concerning mass murders and increasing Anti American rhetoric were left unanswered as castro was greeted to standing ovations at Harvard and a luncheon attended by Secretary of State Christian A. Herter. Herbert Matthews and other left wing media totems continued a hypnotic drumbeat of praise for the Communist dictator.

Also in April 1959, American ambassadors to Latin American countries met in El Salvador to discuss the growing Cuban crisis and its implications in the hemisphere. Even at this early stage, terrorists from Cuba had already landed in Panama and the Dominican Republic with the goal of butchering as many people as possible in the name of "peace". This meeting was "neutralized" by Wieland and Rubottom. The American ambassador to Cuba, Philip W. Bonsal, is on record as having stated "Cuba had needed a revolution".

In May 1959, under the "Agrarian Reform Law", castro began "expropriating" land from Cubans and foreigners. Typically, castro, the "workers hero" also abolished trade unions placing workers under the heavy handed state. Thus began the near starvation conditions and virtual slavery that sadly continues to this day. The New York Times declared, "An agrarian reform was overdue in Cuba". American Ambassador Bonsal continued a policy of appeasement and capitulation in Havana as did the State Department and President Eisenhower in his public utterances during this critical year.

On October 21, 1959, the conviction of the nationally respected Major Hubert Matos for treason was condemned both in Cuba and worldwide. Matos had resigned his post in protest of Communist indoctrination policy and was subsequently arrested. The coverage of the show trial by Herbert Matthews is quite revealing in terms of a leftist point of view. Matthews wrote, "By the logic of the Revolution, Hubert Matos was a traitor. Those who condemn the…way he was treated had to condemn the Revolution". In other words, truth and justice are defined by what is good for ""the revolution"

The year ended with Cuba in desperate condition.”Revolutionary courts" and busy firing squads had supplanted the court system, private property had been abolished, opponents had been driven underground or "liquidated", and schools and the press had been converted into tools of "indoctrination". "Forward thinking" Americans continued to support this "transformation" with heart skipping excitement. The evidence that key figures in our government and influential media figures knew that castro was a Communist is overwhelming. Understanding why Americans, who enjoy all the fruits of our free market Capitalist system, would support Communism in Cuba would, perhaps, lead us to a better understanding of our own times.

There’s more damning evidence from Senate hearings conducted in 1960 with former ambassadors to Cuba, Arthur Gardner and Earl Smith.

An excerpt:

First let me say that to date I have made no public statement regarding my experiences in Cuba because I did not feel that, as a former Ambassador, it was my function to say anything which might be interpreted as critical of the administration which I had served. I have only the greatest respect and admiration for President Eisenhower, whose integrity is beyond question.

However, the establishment of a Communist regime in Cuba involves the defense and safety of this country and as you asked me to testify before you, I do so, recognizing that the welfare of the United States must transcend personal desires and reticence.

From personal experience I have learned that many very influential sources in the United States are dedicated to the overthrow of all dictatorships. They are as opposed to anti-Communist rightist dictators, who are friendly to the United States, as to the Communist dictators whom they regard as progressive. They adopt a doctrinaire attitude toward this question which is so impractical that they ultimately unwittingly defeat themselves. If dictatorship versus democracy were the only question that faced us, it would not be difficult to make a decision. However, as we are in the midst of a struggle for survival, other considerations are pertinent.

If the policy of the United States is to bring about the overthrow of dictators in the hope that democracy will follow, then I believe that the United States must be prepared to take whatever steps are necessary to preserve law and order and prevent chaos during that interim period of transition. If free and open elections are to be held, when a dictator is overthrown, a provisional government must be formed and such government needs outside support to maintain law and order. To do otherwise leaves a vacuum for the Communists to gain control. Such a vacuum did not occur in Cuba while I was the U.S. Ambassador there. Instead, a group was ready to seize power -- a Communist group.

If we are to intervene sufficiently to bring about the overthrow of dictatorships, then we should intervene to whatever extent is required to fulfill our purpose. 0therwise, in my opinion, we must wait for the normal self-development of a people and not assist revolution. And we must be prepared to receive the criticism of supporting friendly governments recognized by the United States, although they have been labeled dictatorships. To make my point more clear, let me say that, we helped to overthrow the Batista dictatorship which was pro-American only to install the castro dictatorship which is pro-Russian.

The State Department's complicity in castro's takeover of Cuba is documented in numerous sources. For starters, read the Senate hearing transcripts at Latin American Studies.

Here we are 46 years later and the situation in Cuba, described as bad in 1960 has descended into a living hell.

The new policy report requests 80 million dollars in assistance for Cuba if they can somehow manage to free themselves of communist tyranny. Keep in mind we're giving 30 million to Lebanon. While I'm grateful to the U.S. for all this great nation has done for Cuban exiles, in my opinion, this offering is too little, too late.

For further reading:

Cuba: Internal Affairs and Foreign Affairs, 1945-4963: http://www.lexis-nexis.com/Academic/2upa/Ilas/sdCentralCuba1.asp

fidel castro’s climb to power: http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a39873a5266f3.htm

Terrorism’s True Roots: http://www.jbs.org/artman/publish/article_71.shtml

fidel castro supermole: http://www.amigospais-guaracabuya.org/oagsg022.php

Lazo, Mario. Dagger in the Heart; American Policy Failures in Cuba. New York: Funk & Wagnalls .

"Are you a Jew?"

There are seminal moments in life that will always be etched in memory, like acid to glass, that affect the very marrow of who a person is.

When I was nine I remember going to the beach with my mom, dad and some friends of theirs. In a foolish moment I yelled out to my dad's friend, "Heil Hitler," not knowing of course, since I was an idiot 9 year old, what that meant -- and what it meant to population of Jews that lived on Miami Beach. An eldery gentleman started yelling at me and I got very scared. My dad's friend came to my rescue explaining to the man that I was a kid and I didn't know what I was saying. For the life of me I don't know why I said it, except for the fact that I was then, and still am today, utterly fascinated by everything having to do with World War II history. After the fuss was all over, my dad's friend explained to me that Hitler was a very bad man who had killed many Jews and that the old man was obviously very upset because I had reminded him of this. I felt terrible. What the hell did I know? I was nine.

Two years later, during the Six-Day War, I marvelled, as any 11 year old fascinated by militaria would be, how such a little country could do so much against its enemies. These were people who were willing to do whatever it took to survive. When I went to see Fiddler on the Roof I remember asking the mom of one of my friends who took me why were the Jews always singled out for punishment? Why were they hated so much? She did not have an answer to my question that was prompted by that terrible final scene when Tevye and his family have to leave his village, simply because they are Jews. That scene affected me in the worst way -- I still choke up when I see it. I made up my mind then and there to learn more about these Jews and why they had been persecuted throughout history.

I admire the Jews. My defense of Israel (and by extension Jews everywhere) is single-minded and adamantine. They have taken everything the world has thrown at them and they are still here. They practice their 4,000 year-old religion, they raise families, they pass along vital traditions about everything in their culture. 4,000 years! I am appalled by the anti-Semitism I see on a daily basis here and around the world. Just yesterday, a drunken Mel Gibson reportedly said to a police officer "Fucking Jews! The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world." Gibson then asked the deputy, "are you a Jew?" I guess he's a chip off the old block after all.

In the introduction to the short story "The Ninth of Av" in the anthology Worlds Enough & Time Dan Simmons writes that he was trying to imagine the world one thousand years in the future. He wondered what would still be constant then? Of course, he wrote, someone would still be trying to kill Jews! Why the hatred? I don't know. It's a sad fact of life in our world. But I will repeat something that I have written before: the survival of our Western culture depends on the survival of Israel. I'll be right there next to them, trying to defend our world against an implacable enemy bent on our destruction.

If they go, we'll all go.

Not that I'm trying to make you hungry or anything...

At war since 1979

Are attacks on our military personnel overseas and on our embassies considered "acts of war" by international law? Well, if so we have had more than enough provocation for way over half of my life. In Ann Coulter's latest opinion piece, she lists the terrorist attacks the United States has suffered since the year I always count as the start of our war with Islamic fascism:

• November 1979: Muslim extremists (Iranian variety) seized the U.S. embassy in Iran and held 52 American hostages for 444 days, following Democrat Jimmy Carter's masterful foreign policy granting Islamic fanaticism its first real foothold in the Middle East.
• 1982: Muslim extremists (mostly Hezbollah) began a nearly decade-long habit of taking Americans and Europeans hostage in Lebanon, killing William Buckley and holding Terry Anderson for six and a half years.
• April 1983: Muslim extremists (Islamic Jihad or possibly Hezbollah) bombed the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, killing 16 Americans.
• October 1983: Muslim extremists (Hezbollah) blew up the U.S. Marine barracks at the Beirut airport, killing 241 Marines.
• December 1983: Muslim extremists (al-Dawa) blew up the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait, killing five and injuring 80.
• September 1984: Muslim extremists (Hezbollah) exploded a truck bomb at the U.S. Embassy annex in Beirut, killing 24 people, including two U.S. servicemen.
• December 1984: Muslim extremists (probably Hezbollah) hijacked a Kuwait Airways airplane, landed in Iran and demanded the release of the 17 members of al-Dawa who had been arrested for the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait, killing two Americans before the siege was over.
• June 14, 1985: Muslim extremists (Hezbollah) hijacked TWA Flight 847 out of Athens, diverting it to Beirut, taking the passengers hostage in return for the release of the Kuwait 17 as well as another 700 prisoners held by Israel. When their demands were not met, the Muslims shot U.S. Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem and dumped his body on the tarmac.
• October 1985: Muslim extremists (Palestine Liberation Front backed by Libya) seized an Italian cruise ship, the Achille Lauro, killing 69-year-old American Leon Klinghoffer by shooting him and then tossing his body overboard.
• December 1985: Muslim extremists (backed by Libya) bombed airports in Rome and Vienna, killing 20 people, including five Americans.
• April 1986: Muslim extremists (backed by Libya) bombed a discotheque frequented by U.S. servicemen in West Berlin, injuring hundreds and killing two, including a U.S. soldier.
• December 1988: Muslim extremists (backed by Libya) bombed Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 259 on board and 11 on the ground.

[. . .]

• February 1993: Muslim extremists (al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, possibly with involvement of friendly rival al-Qaida) set off a bomb in the basement of the World Trade Center, killing six and wounding more than 1,000.
• Spring 1993: Muslim extremists (al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, the Sudanese Islamic Front and at least one member of Hamas) plot to blow up the Lincoln and Holland tunnels, the U.N. complex and the FBI's lower Manhattan headquarters.
• November 1995: Muslim extremists (possibly Iranian "Party of God") explode a car bomb at U.S. military headquarters in Saudi Arabia, killing five U.S. military servicemen.
• June 1996: Muslim extremists (13 Saudis and a Lebanese member of Hezbollah, probably with involvement of al-Qaida) explode a truck bomb outside the Khobar Towers military complex, killing 19 American servicemen and injuring hundreds.
• August 1998: Muslim extremists (al-Qaida) explode truck bombs at U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 and injuring thousands.
• October 2000: Muslim extremists (al-Qaida) blow up the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Cole, killing 17 U.S. sailors.
• Sept. 11, 2001: Muslim extremists (al-Qaida) hijack commercial aircraft and fly planes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania, killing nearly 3,000 Americans.

And except for Ronald Reagan launching missles at Qaddafi and our current milquetoast war against Islamic Fascism (a/k/a "The War of Terror") we have been sitting on our hands for twenty-seven years without doing what needs to be done.

Just a reminder, folks, that "normalcy" is not what it seems.

Unbelievable

Without commentary, via Cubanet:

Rafters charge three times they were ignored

MOA, Cuba - July 25 (Juan Carlos Garcell, APLO / www.cubanet.org) - A group of five men who became stranded at sea as they attempted to leave Cuba charged their pleas for help were ignored in three separate instances by Cuban navy, coast guard, and merchant vessels.

The five, Miguel Molina, Nelson Ramírez, Leonel Tabares, Bismar Durán, and William Lafita, said they sailed from the north coast of Holguín at about 9 o'clock the night of July 18 in a rickety craft. The next day at about 4 in the afternoon the boat's engine broke down, stranding them they calculate about 14 miles from the Bahamas island chain.

It was after that, they said, that they were sighted by a Cuban coast guard vessel, to whom
they appealed for help in regaining land. They said coast guard personnel told them they would broadcast their position so they would be picked up, but they never saw them again.

On July 22 at about 7 in the morning, they said they were intercepted by a Cuban navy craft about 20 miles from the navy post at Dos Bahías. The five said the navy sailors also ignored their request for help. A little later, at 8:25 the same morning, they came across the El Jaruco, a Cuban merchantman, to whom they appealed saying they had sick and dehydrated persons aboard. The captain, they said, told them he had no resources to help them and left them to their own devices.

Finally the five said they made their way to a coast guard station north of Moa by means of
make-shift oars they fashioned from other parts of their craft. Once there, they said, they were arrested and taken to the Department of State Security in Holguín for questioning.

They were later tried and fined between six and nine thousand pesos for the illegal purchase of the craft, but were exonerated on the charge of attempting to leave the island illegally.

Ummm...

...I'll take "compounds" for a thousand, Alex.

Our new property is in town and literally right around the corner from the Peace House. It is a beautiful, wooded 5 acres of land that will be ideal for our expanding peace population and for hosting our growing family. We are looking forward to being good neighbors in Crawford whenever we are there and we are looking forward to having good neighbors, also.

I think the people of Crawford are beginning to understand that we come in peace and love and that we just have an issue with just one resident: George Bush. Even though we don't agree politically with many of our neighbors we hope to enjoy a cordial relationship with everyone.

Branch Davidians, anyone?

Why We're Here

Because stories must be told:

My Political Post

I normally don't 'do politics.'

But... today I have to make an exception...

Today is July 26th. It is the anniversary of that Commie's attacks on the Moncada Barracks. According to that Commie (no, he doesn't deserve his name mentioned on my blog), it is the anniversary of the beginning of La Revolucion. It's the day that Cuba began to lose itself to an ugly and diseased man.

I wasn't born in Cuba, but my parents were. They left Cuba as soon as they realized what was happening - and because of that, they were punished. For years, they lived alone En La Yuma, not knowing whether their loved ones in Cuba were living or dead. They missed weddings and seeing the births of their nieces and nephews.

They were robbed of the chance at saying goodbye to their own parents - my grandparents. And because I was their daughter, I was robbed of having aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents to share my life with. All I have are bits and pieces of stories - told to me by my father and mother, and then a few years ago, by my maternal grandfather, who was too old to remember much of anything.

This morning, my mother called me from her South Florida paradise: Good morrrrning, mi hija. How are joo? Felicidades - hoy es Santa Ana.

No mention of Cuba. Perhaps it's easier for her to not remember it.

Being my mother's daughter, I didn't mention it either: Gracias, Mami. Como estas? Y Papi? Mandale saludos. Te llamo por la noche.

We hung up.

But both of us knew: despite it being a day to celebrate todas las Anas, my grandmother and I included, it's also a very, very grim day.

To that Commie - I hope when you die, you rot in hell. Not only did you ruin a beautiful and magical paradise and its people, you stole my history from me. You stole the stories that I am supposed to tell my children. And not only did you do it to me, you did it to countless others. That is unforgivable.

Albeit it a bit late, Feliz santo, Ana!

From Ileana Ros-Lehtinen

The following is a transcript of Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen's remarks at the Western Hemisphere Sucommittee Hearing; "Report of the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba":

Remarks for the Honorable Ileana Ros-Lehtinen

Cuba Commission Report Hearing

Thursday, July 27, 2006, 2:00 p.m.
2172 RHOB

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for scheduling this important meeting on the "Report of the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba."

This report comes at a critical juncture in our efforts to support the Cuban people in their struggle for democratic transition.

It is with great pleasure to see my dear friend Caleb McCarry, with whom I have worked so closely over many years, on our shared goal of ending Castro's tyrannical regime and establishing a free and democratic Cuba.

Thank you for your valuable support on this issue when you worked for Chairman Hyde on the International Relations Committee and for continuing this mission in your current position as the State Department's Transition Coordinator for Cuba.

In particular, I want to thank you for coordinating this week's briefing on the Classified Annex of the report.

I, along with my fellow Members of the Committee who attended this briefing, are extremely pleased with what we heard and read, and are looking forward to the full implementation of the classified recommendations.

Please let us know how we can be helpful.

To reiterate, I am gratified by the Administration's commitment to a Democratic Transition in Cuba.

The second report, issued by the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, underscores the role of the U.S. in supporting the Cuban people to free themselves from the ruthless dictator and his equally oppressive proxies.

We are in a supportive role as the Cuban people reclaim their rights and sovereignty from a dictator who sells out the Cuban nation to other pariah states; who traffics Cuban women and children for tourism dollars.

Almost half a century of tyrannical rule could not break the spirit of the Cuban people.

Since the publication of the first Commission report, the voice of the people has grown stronger, their commitment has remained firm, their courage has strengthened.

Despite increasing intimidation practices of the ruthless dictator, opposition forces on the island are ready for:

A democratic government to replace the cruel dictatorship;

Freedom to replace torture, persecution, and oppression;

A free market economy to replace a collapsing planned economic system.

And the United States will provide its unwavering support to the Cuban "freedom fighters" in their fight for democracy, liberty, and an open market system.

Therefore, undermining Castro's succession strategy presents a key component of U.S. policy and, in turn, the Commission's report.

As he approaches the age of 80, Fidel Castro's time is wearing thin.

Anticipating his demise, Castro is plotting a "succession strategy" whereby his brother Raul, the so-called head of Cuba's Revolutionary Armed Forces, would continue the regime's iron grip.

Further, in order to maintain absolute power over all aspects of Cuba's social, economic, and political life, Castro is also establishing ever-closer ties with the equally oppressive leaders of Venezuela, Iran, and Syria.

The report, there advocates a diplomatic campaign to build international consensus for free and fair elections in Cuba that includes bilateral agreements with European nations and democracies in the Western Hemisphere, OAS members, the Community of Democracies, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and the ILO.

In addition to creating a coalition of democratic nations to support the aspirations of democratic forces in Cuba, the Commission also recognizes the role that former Communist countries can play in promoting Cuba's democratic transition.

By contrast, the Castro regime, with the help of other rogue states, seeks to gain the financial and energy resources to insulate Cuba from internal and international pressure for democratic transition.

This regime, which once served as a proxy of the Soviet Union, now increasingly threatens our national security interests in the region-this regime must end.

The aging tyrant must not be allowed to continue his cruel legacy.

As recommended by the Commission, vigorous enforcement of Title I of the Helms-Burton Act constitutes another fundamental piece in our policy towards the Cuban dictatorship.

By tightening the embargo, we deny the authoritarian dictator, the resources to keep its stranglehold on power, and help bring about a peaceful transition to a representative democracy and market economy in Cuba.

Yet, we must ensure that during a transition political protocol is returned to the Cuban people so that they may, once and for all, control their own destiny.

As the report states: "Cuba's legitimate future can only be decided by Cubans, for Cubans."

Cubans are the driving force in ending half a decade of oppression on the island.

Therefore, I am very interested in hearing more about this crucial component of the Commission's report.

But let these not only be words.

We must ensure that the recommendations outlined in this report are translated into action-a concrete mandate-rather than just words.

Again, I want to thank this Committee for holding and our panelist and friend Caleb McCarry for attending today's hearing on the Cuba Commission's Second Report.

So, what are your thoughts?

The Miami Heat

No, not the NBA World Champions, the other Miami heat. The one that's been around forever here. The actual go outside and stand in the sun and feel your brain fry heat.

It's been really hot here the past couple of days with no rain and very mild breezes. It is absolutely stifling outside. Like walking into a sauna. This morning, as I took out the trash at about 6 AM, before the sun had come up, I broke a freaken sweat.

Yesterday afternoon after getting home from work and finishing a phone interview, I basically ran to the bedroom, changed into my swim turnks and ran back outside hoping for a respite from the sun and heat with the nice cool waters of my pool. I didnt bother to dip a toe to check the temp. I just jumped right in.

The damned pool water was so hot it felt like I was swimming in soup. I ended up getting out and hosing myself down to cool off. That's how freaken hot it is down here.

I cant, for the life of me, imagine living with this oppressive heat and humidity without air conditioning.

And you can actually witness how debilitating the heat is. Just watch any workers doing their jobs outside. Theyr're relatively OK in the mornings, but when the afternoon heat sets in, they ... turn... into... sloths... It's like they're in slomotion. Each little task becoming the weight of the world on their shoulders and seemingly taking forever.

That's how damned hot it is now.

Beer sales should be through the roof right now. Which reminds me...

Something Fun

Do you have a favorite store? Is there one place you prefer to shop?

If you do, please help me out on a reseach project for school by filling out this survey. It will only take 10 minutes and you'll have the satisfaction of supporting a graduate student attain a Ph.D.

It doesn't matter if you are male or female, we all have one store we prefer!

Thank you!

The dictator's a coward

In todays Miami Herald, Andres Oppenheimer asks, "Is fidel castro a coward?"

Here's his answer:

You bet! Consider:

• Unlike every other Latin American and Caribbean leader, castro has not had the guts to allow a free election in 47 years.

• Unlike all other Latin American and Caribbean leaders, castro is the only leader in the region who doesn't have the courage to allow independent political parties. In his island, only one party -- his -- is allowed, and whoever doesn't join it is suspected of being an ''anti-social'' element. According to the latest Amnesty International report, there are nearly 70 prisoners of conscience in Cuban prisons, while Human Rights Watch puts the figure at 306.

• Unlike all other regional leaders, castro doesn't have the confidence to allow a single independent newspaper, radio or television station, or to allow people with different ideas to even appear on Cuban media. Cuba's laws specifically bar anybody in Cuba from publishing ''non-authorized news'' abroad, making those who do it liable to ''enemy propaganda'' charges that carry several years in prison.

• Unlike all other leaders in the region, castro is afraid of allowing most of his people greater access to the Internet. According to the World Bank's 2006 World Development Indicators, only 13 of every 1,000 Cubans have access to the Internet, compared with 267 of every 1,000 people in Chile, and 59 of every 1,000 people in Haiti. Regarding what Cubans can read on the Web, Reporters Without Borders, the Paris-based advocacy group, says Cuba's Internet censorship is worse than China's.

• Unlike all other regional leaders, castro bars his country's citizens from leaving the country without an official permit, which is most often denied. Non-authorized efforts to leave are punished with prison.

• Unlike most of his colleagues in Latin America, castro is so afraid of uncomfortable questions that he denies interviews by potentially critical reporters, and packs press conferences with his lackeys when forced to hold them during his foreign trips.

Maybe he's not; read the rest of Mr. Oppenheimer's editorial here.

When I grow up...

...I want to be Jeff Goldstein.

I dont know how Jeff comes up with them, but man, the following at Protein Wisdom had me rolling in laughter:

9 OTHER legends Code Pink leader Medea Benjamin considered scrawlng in marker on her t-shirt for when the cameras caught her disrupting Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s speech to a joint session of Congress today:

1. “War is bad for children and other living things. Except neocons—who make BILLIONS off of AMERICAN HEGEMONY and who I hope DIE IN LARGE NUMBERS”
2. “At Least My Bush Can Pronounce ‘nuclear’!”
3. “Bedraggled Wannabe Hippies for Peace”
4. “Daddy Never Hugged Me. So I Shot the Wretched Patriarch in His Nutsack”
5. “Aerosmith: ‘Back in the Saddle Tour ‘84”
6. “‘No Muff too Tough / We Dive at Five’ - The Bearded Clam Tavern, Wicomico St., Ocean City, MD”
7. “Cindy Sheehan’s son died in Iraq and all I got was this lousy t-shirt”
8. “Help the brown peoples with words and a lot of sanctimonious histrionics, not bombs!”
9. “I ♥ Vagina”**

That's better than a cup of coffee to get you goin' in the morning.

No gasten el espejo - Dont waste the mirror

So Im stopped at a light on my way to work when a Suburban pulls up next to me on my left. I look over and its a couple, both probably on their way to work as I am. The guy is driving and the girl has her sunvisor down and looking at herself in the mirror with the little mirror lights on. How typical, I think to myself, because when the Mrs and I go out, that little mirror sunvisor thingie is put to use immediately.

The light changes and the guy reaches over, grabs the sunvisor/mirror thing and slams it shut.

I couldnt help but laugh. I do the exact same thing. That sunvisor thing drives me crazy. I'm rather tall and I tend to sit very high in our car and that sunvisor, when down, blocks a good portion of my cone of vision while driving.

And here I was thinking I was the only one...

Fontova Strikes Again

Witness a thing of beauty:

U.S. Reporter Attacked by Castro Goons in Argentina

Humberto Fontova
Thursday, July 27, 2006

For the first time in 50 years a U.S. reporter actually asked Fidel Castro a pertinent question. This journalistic landmark took place last week while Castro visited Argentina. Castro (naturally) freaked. Why, the NERVE!!

"You're a mercenary paid by the Bush!" he shrieked. "Who pays you? You'll probably try to assassinate me with a bomb!"

As Castro yelled and sputtered, his bodyguards sprang into Kung Fu mode and pounced on the offending reporter chokeholding him and threatening much worse if he persisted in his impertinence.

Did you see this reported anywhere in the MSM (mainstream media)? But that was some obscure Latin American meeting, you say. That stuff is rarely reported anyway.

Actually, it was a major international summit for MERCOSUR (Common Market of the South), and Castro's visit was reported extensively by the international media, from the AP to Reuters, from the BBC to the Boston Globe to the Washington Post. A Google News search hits 500 stories of the event. But you will find no mention of this incident in any of this exhaustive reportage.

Now, can you JUST IMAGINE (!!!) the worldwide media reaction had President Bush (or Blair or Olmert) reacted that way to a question from the press in a foreign country and sicced their Secret Service men to Kung Fu the reporter? Imagine the glee with which the MSM would have pounced – the headlines, the pictures, the run after run after run after run after run of the film clip on CNN, ABC, MSNBC, the BBC, etc., etc., etc. Imagine the interview after interview after interview with the assaulted reporter, wearing a neck brace and grimacing piteously as he whispers hoarsely to Keith Olbermann, Larry King, and Christiane Amanpour. We'd never hear the end of it.

"Notice how Castro responds to a free press while visiting a foreign country in front of cameras," said the assaulted reporter. "Can you imagine what he does at home? Imagine what he does to Cuba's dissidents and political prisoners."

It says a lot about that "hard-nosed" Western media, about those "gallant crusaders for the truth," as Columbia School of Journalism hails its graduates, that they react identically to Castro's criminality abroad as his permanently shackled and chokeholded press responds at home.

Actually, you can't blame Castro for his shock and awe, for his shrieking and sputtering response to such reportorial disrespect. Any Cuban reporter who tried any monkey business has been long exiled, jailed, or shot. And for going on half a century now, he's had the international media eating out of his hand like trained pigeons, from Ed Murrow ("That's a cute puppy, Fidelito!") to Herbert Matthews of the New York times ("Castro is a strong anti-communist. He has strong ideas of liberty, democracy, social justice, the need to restore the Constitution, to hold elections.")

More recently, such journalistic Torquemadas as Dan Rather, Barbara Walters, and Andrea Mitchell have confronted Castro in lengthy and no-holds-barred interviews. From Dan we discovered that "there is no question that Castro feels a very deep and abiding connection to those Cubans who are still in Cuba; the affection for him seems real. He's Cuba's Elvis."

When in a 2002 interview Castro informed Barbara Walters that Cuba is "to be not only the most just society in the world but the most cultivated," Barbara Walters (whose ABC profile tells us "tackles the tough issues") responded with such punchy rebuttals as "Cuba has very high literacy, and you have brought great health to your country." Her ABC audience then learned that "his personal magnetism is still powerful, his presence is still commanding." When Walters first interviewed Castro in 1977, the "power of Castro's personal magnetism," many say, manifested itself in other than a strictly professional setting.

NBC's Andrea Mitchell described Castro as "old-fashioned, courtly – even paternal." When she visited Elian Gonzalez shortly after her Castro soft-soaping, she assured her U.S viewers that "Elian's only apparent concern was winning at games like musical chairs."

The U.S. reporter who provoked Castro's sputtering wrath in Argentina is Cuban-born Juan Manuel Cao, who works for a Spanish-language TV station in Miami. He simply asked why Castro refused to let one of his subjects, Mrs. Helen Molina, leave Cuba to visit her son and grandchildren in Argentina. Well, the same U.S. networks that worked themselves into a froth about those fiendish Miami Cubans' "kidnapping" of Elian Gonzalez show no interest in Castro's kidnapping of 11 million people.

Mrs. Molina, by the way, is an accomplished neurosurgeon who once headed Cuba's International Center for Neurological Restoration. In 1994, Castro's "nationalist" regime (as the MSM constantly parrots) told Dr. Molina that her center would treat only foreigners who paid in dollars – and to hurry up and boot out any and all Cubans then convalescing in the center to make way for the rich foreigners.

She balked and promptly got in trouble with Castro. So here's a strong, accomplished woman whose rights are trampled by a domineering, chauvinistic, brutal man. Just the type of thing, you might think, to work up such as Andrea Mitchell, Barbara Walters, and Christiane Amanpour. Can you JUST IMAGINE (!!!) the reaction from same along with the international media if, say, President Bush refused to allow Cindy Sheehan to leave the U.S. to visit – not her children and grandchildren, but her friend Hugo Chavez?

Imagine the international uproar! "Cindy Sheehan Under House Arrest by FBI – Fears for Life!" "Hugo Chavez Plans Parachute Commando Raid to Free Girlfriend from Yankee-Fascist Clutch!"

And speaking of Hugo Chavez, he was down in Argentina last week himself. In a Yankee-bashing harangue, he and mentor Castro worked up a crowd of Argentine pinks and reds to a fist-raising, foot-stomping frenzy. "Olé! Olé! Fidel!" roared the crowd, according to the AP story. Best of all was the setting: Che Guevara's childhood hometown of Cordoba, which allowed for much sightseeing and some touching photo ops.

"In an emotional journey," starts the AP story, "Cuban President [emphasis mine] Fidel Castro and Venezuelan ally Hugo Chavez toured the Argentine boyhood home of Castro's fallen comrade and legendary guerrilla, Ernesto 'Che' Guevara." The photos show Castro with the appropriate look on his face, too.

And why not? You'll recall that Don Barzini managed a similar look of bereavement at Don Corleone's funeral. Yet his hit had initially failed. Castro's went off without a hitch, perhaps accounting for the sardonic glitter some noticed in his eyes while touring Che's childhood home.

Today Hugo is certainly useful to Castro, much as Che was once useful to his Cuban kemosabe, much as Sal Tessio and Moe Green were once useful to the Corleone family. These things are subject to change. For heavens sake, Hugo, don't push uncle Fidel too far from the Latin American limelight. Some say you've been upstaging him lately, a serious no-no, as Che learned.

Why it Sucks to be Cuban: Venezuelan Edition

Because you get to relive the whole damned thing over again in a different century.

Am I the only one bothered by the fact that Venezuela just completed a major arms deal with Russia's Putin, including an agreement to manufacture Kalashnikov rifles in Venezuela?

Looks like somebody's still using that Communism for Dummies primer.

All I can say is: Venezuela, you're a rich country, wake up before you become just another Cuba.

Eye Candy Break (Updated again...)

Because one cannot live by politics alone.

Update #1 (Val): I...I..I just couldn't help myself.

Update #2 (Pitbull): Here are three more: 1, 2, 3.

Kick Its Ass

Ive mentioned Bill Whittle's work many a time here before, but you simply must read the first chapter of his book, which is posted at Eject!Eject!Eject!:

Then he gave me the best piece of advice I have ever received.

Kick its ass, he said. And that was it.

But that was all I needed to hear. God damn right! I’ll kick its ass!

That’s a decision you make…a decision to not be ruled by fear and panic. It is a decision to take all of those hard-wired instincts that have brought us so far – the fear of falling, the rising desire to just call for help then curl up in a ball – and put them away. Forget what the seat of your pants is telling you...

Do read the whole thing.

Right now, in the city where I was born

Right now, in the city where I was born but have never seen, thousands are gathered at the feet of a false prophet.

Right now, in the city where I was born but have never seen, a false prophet waxes nostalgic, heralding false victories.

Right now, in the city where I was born but have never seen, truth is slain and human dignity is vacant.

Right now, in the city where I was born but have never seen, there are people who can see who remain blind.

Right now, in the city where I was born but have never seen, there are people who can hear but cannot listen.

Right now, in the city where I was born but have never seen, there are voices who can speak only someone else's thoughts.

Right now, in the city where I was born but have never seen, the beatings my father took are forgotten.

Right now, in the city where I was born but have never seen, there are family graves unattended of loved ones I'll never meet.

Right now, in the city where I was born but have never seen, there are no more Bayamesas.

Right now, in the city where I was born but have never seen, all manner of history is refuted.

Right now, in the city where I was born but have never seen, liberty is a stranger.

Right now, in the city where I was born but have never seen, Bayamo, the death of the Cuban soul continues.

To be buried alongside Tia Amanda, who carried those eyes above and whose only wish upon her death was to be sung La Bayamesa.

In the city where I was born but will never truly see.

July 26 : Freedom mourns

Today is fidel castro's revolution's big day. The anniversay of the Moncada Barracks attacks which supposedly signal the beginning of "La Revolucion." Thousands of Cubans on the island will be forced to celebrate this day despite the absolute indignity of their lives. fidel castro will most assuredly come out and orate for hours on end, decrying the evil of the imperialist Yanquis, the beauty of La Revolucion, the treachery of the Cuban exiles and on and on.

For me, if death had a birthday, it would be today. July 26. I dont have much else to say other than one day, when truth blankets Cuba, July 26 will be a day of mourning.

Here are what others are saying:

The Conductor at Cuban-American Pundits:

Just like his role model, adolph hitler (who doesn't deserve capital letters either), castro was caught and jailed. castro followed hitler's example right down to his famous exclamation that history would absolve him.

Far from absolving him, history will remember him for being a blood thirsty, power hungry, totalitarian egomaniac. To borrow Ronald Reagan's words, he will be "consigned to the dustbin of history" just like the failed communist system that he embraces and his manufactured holiday.

Ziva at Blog for Cuba:

Today is the 53rd anniversary of the attack on the Moncada Barracks by the Movimiento 26 de julio, celebrated by fidel and his worshippers as the spark that ignited the "revolution". In truth, it was a terrorist action inspired by castro's youthful adoration of Adolf Hitler, and his insane attack on the War Ministry in Munich on November 9, 1924, which made him a national figure in Germany. This technique also worked for castro, catapulting him to national stature.

Instead of focusing on the events surrounding that day in 1953, let's take a look at that days legacy, Lets take a look inside Cuba's prisons, a good gauge of social justice before and after fidel.

Marc at Uncommon Sense:

Fidel Castro, if he survives the night, on Wednesday surely will offer his version of the legacy of July 26, 1953, and the start of the Cuban “revolution.” Same shit, different year, although a twist this year may be how he responds to CAFC II and recent reports of his biological demise.

It’s doubtful, however, that Castro will address the real legacy of his revolution, the betrayals and the repression, the lies and the broken dreams, the imprisonments and the death.

He will not talk about Che Guevara’s death squads.

He will not talk about how he brought the world to the brink of nuclear holocaust.

He will not talk about the Cuban families divided.

He will not talk about decades of subservience to his Soviet pimps.

He will not talk about the reality of Cuban health care.

He will not talk about his overseas misadventures.

He will not talk about the balseros.

He will not talk about the Brothers to the Rescue his pilots murdered.

He will not talk about Cuban apartheid.

He will not talk about his gulag.

He will not talk about his imprisonment of those who dare to tell the real story about his Cuba.

He will not talk about Guillermo Farinas.

Nor Oscar Biscet.

Not the Ladies in White.

On July 26, remember neither Castro nor his revolution, but the victims.

Our friends.

Our familes.

Elian Gonzalez.

The balseros lost at sea.

The Cubans we will never meet, but whom we should remember every day — especially on July 26.

Alfredo at El Cafe Cubano:

What is the significance of the 26th of July? We know what the media will do and certainly what the controlling apartheid regime will do and say. Now to the reality of what the 26th of July movement or date has accomplished. The answer to this question is very simple: Nothing.

Charlie Bravo at Killcastro:

Mean Mr. Kasstro lifted his most famous phrase from his Nazi idol: La historia me absolvera, history will absolve me. He lifted many others, like: Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Fuhrer (a people, a revolution, a leader), and Arbeit Match Frei (work will set you free, from the Auschwitz gates, transformed in "el trabajo los hara hombres" or "work will make you a man" from the gates of the UMAPs in Camaguey)

CalTechGirl:

For the Cubanos, a proud and once prosperous people, it is a day to pretend their want and hunger are absent, and for cagastro and his cronies, a day to ignore the facade crumbling around them.

Take a few moments today to read the posts linked above simply because you have the freedom to choose to do so. There are eleven million in people on that island south of us who dont.

"...misty water-color memories of the way we were."

Ahhhh. A lovely Mediterranean summer day, sunny and warm. There's no better time to go out in uniform and "sig heil" a little at a Hizbullah town meeting. Hummus and tea will be served shortly...

(H/T JSB)

Signs

A group of Cuban exiles is planning to come up with a series of signs that they hope will be disseminated throughout Cuba in a campaign of "passive resistance" against the castro regime.

Last year around this time, George "El Pitbull" came up with the Ya No Mas meme above as a way to inspire Cubans to put an end to 47 years of hell.

Perhaps this is a good time, on July 26th, to renew our efforts.

EXILES PLAN CAMPAIGN OF PASSIVE RESISTANCE

Three Cuban exile groups announced a campaign Tuesday to encourage a wave of passive resistance in Cuba to combat Fidel Castro's government peacefully.

The groups, M.A.R. for Cuba, Plantados until Freedom and Democracy in Cuba, and Cuban Democratic Directorate, unveiled posters that emulate street signs that they plan to smuggle into Cuba and disseminate on the island.

The signs, which are a striking red and yellow, say ''yo no,'' [I don't] followed by different words, sigo [follow], reprimo [repress], asisto [assist], chivateo [snitch], coopero [cooperate] and repudio [repudiate].

The groups said the signs will be circulated inside Cuba as stickers and fliers, although they declined to specify how they will sneak them in. Two of the groups, Directorate and Plantados, receive federal funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Group leaders said the campaign was launched after dissidents inside Cuba appealed to the exile community to help them spread the word of passive resistance inside the island. The groups believe there are signs from the island that passive resistance is growing. For example, they said, many people now refuse to engage in acts of repudiation against their neighbors.

Screw Julio 26

Tienen hambre?

Croquetas de pescado.

Tamales de pollo y tocino.

Sopa de platanos maduros.

Guizo de Maiz.

Fricase de pollo.

Lechon asado.

Buñuelos.

Merenguitos.

Torrejas.

Im sitting here salivating. I just received my advance copy of my good friends Jorge, Raul and Glenn's - The Three Guys from Miami - latest cookbook: Celebrate Cuban - 100 Great Recipes for Cuban Entertaining. Just from thumbing through the pages, I can honestly say that this will probably be a must have for any kitchen - Cuban or not.

The recipes look scrumptuous and the pictures...well...let's just say the pictures of these dishes will certainly make your stomach growl.

Like their previous book, I recommend you get two. One as a working cookbook to add to your collection and another to set on your coffee table for all to see.

I'm hoping to have a few images from the book for you soon, pa' que sufran un poco.

Hey Dhimmi Lane! This Bud's for you!

An addendum to Reason #532.

Sodano’s remarks also reflect what Parsi called the “pro-Arab prejudice” that “persists in some noteworthy exponents within Vatican hierarchy.” Few such exponents are more noteworthy than Sodano himself.

As secretary of state, Sodano is responsible for the Vatican’s communications outlets – including its newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, which constantly displays an anti-Israel attitude. The magazine from Sodano’s own office, Civilita Cattolica, complements L’Osservatore with anti-American rhetoric “after the fashion of the radical left of Noam Chomsky and Michael Moore,” Magister wrote.

Moreover, Magister describes Sodano as “a great admirer of Yasser Arafat” and “a supporter of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Michel Sabbah,” whose support for Palestinian extremists and opposition to Israel was explored in FrontPageMag.com's “Patriarch of Terror.”

"Da qualche fessura sia entrato il fumo di Satana nel tempio di Dio" ("The smoke of Satan has entered the very temple of God") --Pope Paul VI (at a homily on June 29 1972)

Well, at least the title of the essay sounds like good news...

The irreplaceable, indefatigable, compulsory, indispensible FrontPage Magazine has a bevy of great articles today, as all days. But this one just gives me pleasure reading the title: "Castro's Death Watch" -- sounds nice, eh?

(H/T Scott Gillies)

Good news?

Sorry, we're all out. Dont know when the new shipment will be arriving.

But at least, we can keep you well entertained. The latest chapter of La Pionera and the New Mango is now up at The Tears of Things. I cant recommend this excellent work of fiction highly enough. There's a list of chapters with links here.

Do yourselves a favor and get lost...in some really good fiction.

A Royal Blithering Idiot

From Michelle Malkin, we have the following image of Britain's Prince Harry:

Hat tip: Aaron.

UPDATE: If the photo above didnt turn your stomach, the ones here certainly will. Dont say I didnt warn you.

castroite "library" site abuses Stefania

Our lovely Sardinian friend Stefania, from Italy, has gotten a round of abuse from castro's odious agents, who have recently stepped up their Internet activity.

This, of course, is a badge of honor, and will live on in the annals of a Free Cuba, when the full story is told.

If you can stand to open a castroite Web site, see what they have written here about 'Estefania' (Being castroites, they can't spell Italian names) at this "library" site here.

So you want to deal with fidel castro, eh?

Lots of big business deals being announced lately with this government or that government or this entity or that entity trading with fidel castro's government. Seems there's tons of folks that want to reap the finacial rewards of trading with the island nation.

Ive got two words for those who look to fidel with dollar sign irises:

Caveat emptor.

fidel castro owes a sum of 15.438 Billion to numerous governments stupid enough to grant him credit.That figure doesnt take into account castro's Soviet era debt which stands at a measely 22.069 Billion.

Paxety has all the details.

fidel castro: malapaga.

It's not enough...

From the New York Post:

HILLARY GATHERS AN ARMY
By IAN BISHOP
Post Correspondent

July 24, 2006 -- WASHINGTON - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign army has increased its ranks to 50 staffers and more than 20 consultants, specialists in everything from fund-raising to speech-writing to hairstyling and makeup.

Clinton, the likely 2008 Democratic White House front-runner, ponied up nearly $3,000 in campaign cash for her blond tresses to get some presidential pampering from acclaimed D.C. stylist Isabelle Goetz.

Recently released federal fund-raising records show Clinton shelled out $1,500 in April for Goetz to carefully craft her coiffure and another $1,000 for a camera-ready clip in May.

She passed off both styling sessions as "media production" expenses.

Clinton was so desperate for Goetz to style her gilded mane, she picked up the scissor siren's $405 travel tab in April and a $38 expenses tab in May.

Goetz, a fixture at the swank Cristophe salon and the favored stylist of John Kerry, has been clipping the former first lady's locks for years - she's credited for updating Clinton's coif from country to chic. To complement the touch-up of her tresses, Clinton invested another $3,000 for makeup maestro Barbara Lacy to brush on some blush.

Lacy is a Tinseltown pro who applied the makeup to actors' mugs in movies including "Minority Report," "Runaway Bride," "National Treasure" and "In the Line of Fire."

She can also take credit for working the West Wing - the NBC version. Clinton paid Lacy an eye-popping $1,600 for some eye-lining in mid-May and another mind-boggling $1,300 for some makeup two weeks later.

Again, Clinton justified the makeovers as a media production expense.

Campaign spokesman Ann Lewis said the "costs represent several days' film production for campaign use" - including film that was shown at state conventions and at house parties, and can still be seen on Clinton's re-election Web site.

The sly salon sessions were just a sliver of the $3.4 million tab to keep her political machine running, including bills of $285,000 for political polling, more than $650,000 for direct mail and $200,000 for postage.

Miami, den of intolerance

Here's the latest news from the City of Miami, that den of intolerance, the hotbed of right wing fascism, where not agreeing with the stawart and unbending Cuban-American Miami Mafia will get you ostracized and criticized, where the extremists will protest you and your life, where they will plant bombs and make ATENTADOS:

FROM NO OTHER THAN GRANMA:

Cuban women in Miami to demand their right to travel to the island without restrictions

FOR the fifth time in the last 10 weeks, the Association of Christian Women in Defense of the Cuban Family is organizing a demonstration to demand that the government of George W. Bush respects their right to travel to Cuba and visit their families without restrictions.

On Saturday, July 22, starting at 10:30 a.m., outside the Torch of Friendship in Las Palomas Park on Biscayne Boulevard and Second Street N.E. in downtown Miami, these women, resident in this city, will hold their protest to express their disagreement with the restrictions imposed by the White House limiting their visits to Cuba to once every three years.

That's right folks, Cuban women in Miami DEMAND their rights to travel to Cuba! They DEMAND that President George W. Bush respects their right to see their families!!!! Right here, in oh so INTOLERANT Miami!!!

I wonder how many PROTESTS these women held in Cuba demanding anything? And what about the rights of Cubans to demand anything, especially their right to travel to see their families abroad? What about the DEMANDS of DR. HILDA MOLINA?

Fuck that shit. Either start making DEMANDS against the one person and government responsible for their shitty lives, one fidel castro and his revolution, or get the hell out and back to Cuba. Then we'll see what DEMANDS they'll have the courage to make over there.

A novel idea

Here's a thought: being that the CAFC II report has come at such an inoportune moment and that because of it fidel castro now has even more ammunition to hurt said dissidents with, perhaps, maybe, im just saying, because, you know, maybe, the Cuban people ought to get off their asses, stop waiting for checks from Miami and support the dissidents who are most assuredly about to get their asses kicked on their behalf?

There's a big party coming up on Wednesday, isnt there? Everyone's is expected, no?

What if noone showed up?

Or maybe we should all just shut up and send money?

Beach Towels

I have a thing for beach towels. We must have at least twenty of them at our home. My thing for them isnt because they're large and plush and come in all the colors and patterns of the rainbow. It aint because they have little fish on them, or say "Miami Dolphins" or carry the murcielago with the Bacardi Logo. The fact that we have a pool does weigh in on our beach towel munitions, but there's more to it than that.

Beach towels remind me of summer. They remind me of vacations. Of long, sun filled days at the beach with nary a care in the world. Summers filled with canonballs and body surfing; salt on your skin and Hawaiian Tropic. Ocean breezes, sand between your toes and girls in skimpy bikinis.

Beach towels remind me of childhood. They take me back to the Hilyard Manor Motel and Apartments in Surfside, Florida. I know I write about it often, usually around this time in the summer, but I just cant help it. Ive so many vivid memories of the place. From my own childhood complete with all of my summer friends who'd vacation at the motel at the same time each year to watching my nieces' generation each year complete with all their summer friends.

I kissed my first girl on the lips there. My cousin taught me to swim there by taking me out to the blue water and leaving me out there. "OK," he'd say. "Now swim back." I always spent two whole weeks wearing the same swim trunks, taking them off only to sleep at night. My grandparents were still alive and Id have breakfast and lunch with them every day. Both always giving me little nuggets of information, teaching me things I wouldnt understand til I was much older.

Oh, man. Beach towels. Beach towels bring it all back for me. My grandparents, the Hilyard, the beach, the pool, the family, the friends, walking around all day with swim hair and chancletas. Jumping off the hotel balconies into the pool. Sand fights. Shelling. Coconut ice cream melting down my arm.

I cant even begin to tell you just how much I wish I were a kid again right now. No cares, no responsibilities. Hearing my grandfather's voice that Ive all but forgotten. Walking around with a beach towel sarong all day.

Beach towels. It's not that they themselves remind me of the beach, they do. But there's something else about them that brings back the memories with a vengeance: Beach towels always smell like summer.

Because the Hilyard Motel only had one washer and one dryer. And if you were lucky enough to find them when they werent in use, you only washed the pure essentials: underwear and shirts, shorts and socks. Clothes. There was never any room in the washer and dryer for beach towels at the Hilyard.

So we rinsed them, the beach towels. And we hung them on bushes and railings. Draped them on lounge chairs and light poles. We let the summer dry them.

And when you came out of the ocean or the pool all dripping wet with summer, you'd pick a beach towel off a lounge chair or a railing, it'd be all nice and warm from the sun, and you'd bring it up to your wet face and right there, right there was the sweet smell of summer. Ocean breezes with a hint of suntan oil. Yesterday's pool adventures and shampoo from the girl in the bikini that borrowed your towel yesterday. The sun and the summer, right there in your hands, soaked on your beach towel.

I left a few beach towels out by the pool last night. Draped over some chairs, soaking in the sun so that today, when I get home from work, if perchance I jump in the pool, when I get out and I pick up one of those sun dried beach towels, Ill remember every summer of my life.