Noche Buena Preparations - The Beginning

Well, the Noche Buena preparations have officially begun. We've already ordered our lechon - a nice little 130 lb porker. We've ordered the tables and chairs, table cloths and most importantly the keg.

The caja china has been taken out of the back of the shed - the way way way back of the shed - and is ready to be adapted for a pit style roasting. Im working on the reducing gears and bearing assembly for the motorized thingamabob and hopefully my old man will be able to get the framework and assemblies welded by next week. He's also got the electric motor that I was thinking I'd have to buy. Yes. No more manual turning of the spit.

There's still plenty of stuff to do in the yard and I'm sure the Mrs will have a honey-do list waiting for me somewhere, but at least I've got a bit of a head start. I just hope Steve doesnt want to do a practice run with the caja china/rotisserie pork roaster thingamajig.

Update: And speaking of pig roasts,lechon and Noche Buena, via Henry, the Three Guys from Miami will be on Rachel Ray's show in December:

The Food Network will be re-broadcasting our Noche Buena segment on "Christmas in America with Rachel Ray" again this year. Tune in to see our pigroast from start to finish. A great way to get some new ideas for your own Christmas celebration with some recipes from our Cuban cookbooks "Three Guys From Miami Cook Cuban" and "Three Guys From Miami Celebrate Cuban."

See our complete Noche Buena party on the Food Network!

Watch "Christmas in America" with Rachel Ray on the Food Network:

AIR TIMES:

December 01, 2006 9:00 PM ET/PT
December 02, 2006 12:00 AM ET/PT
December 12, 2006 9:00 PM ET/PT
December 13, 2006 12:00 AM ET/PT
December 23, 2006 5:00 PM ET/PT

Breaking news???? (Updated)

I just received a call from someone in the vicinity of Versailles restaurant stating that Miami Police Bomb Squad had just diffused one or two suitcase bombs near the famous restaurant. I can find no word on this on local news tv, radio or internet portals.

I hope its a false alarm and that this is only a rumor, but will stay on top of this to see if there are further developments.

Update: As is always the problem with second or third hand "news", turns out it was a false alarm. Gracias to ivancito for the link.

La Bandeja

Every Noche Buena, after everyone had had their fill of lechon and moros and yuca and casabe, my Mom or one of my Tias would be busy in the kitchen setting up "la bandeja." The tray. The contents atop the tray were always highly coveted, especially by my grandmother who loved sweets and I dont remember a Noche Buena ever having gone by without "la bandeja de turrones."

Which ones are your favorite?

If it walks like a zombie, and talks like a zombie...

...chances are it's an old decrepid ailing dictator wearing an Adidas Bionic Track Suit:

Shamelessly lifted from Penultimos Dias.

I've got the solution, fidel!

Child of the Revolution reports on a letter from fidel castro himself explaining why Internet usage is restricted in Cuba:

Fetch the Geiger counter

Now we know why the Castro regime insists that ordinary Cubans need a rarely-issued government permit before they are allowed to buy a personal computer.

And why Cubans are restricted from using the Internet.

It has nothing to do with the paranoid Communist regime wanting to keep a tight rein on what Cubans can and cannot read – or write.

Not at all.

It’s because Fidel Castro is worried about radiation from computers and mobile phones, according to message read out on Cuban television last night supposedly written by the seriously ill dictator.

That’s right. Radiation from computers and mobile phones.

You can read it here, in Spanish.

fidel should know, however, that for every problem, there is a solution.

Like, you know, I'm really, like, sorry he died

Here's a tribute to the late director Robert Altman, by that world-renowned thespian, Lindsay Lohan. Note the phrasing, the feelings! Damn, this girl's an effing literary genius!

I would like to send my condolences out to Catherine Altman, Robert Altmans wife, as well as all of his immediate family, close friends, co-workers, and all of his inner circle.

I feel as if I've just had the wind knocked out of me and my heart aches.

If not only my heart but the heart of Mr. Altman's wife and family and many fellow actors/artists that admire him for his work and love him for making people laugh whenever and however he could..

Robert altman made dreams possible for many independent aspiring filmmakers, as well as creating roles for countless actors.

I am lucky enough to of been able to work with Robert Altman amongst the other greats on a film that I can genuinely say created a turning point in my career.

I learned so much from Altman and he was the closest thing to my father and grandfather that I really do believe I've had in several years.

The point is, he made a difference.

He left us with a legend that all of us have the ability to do.

So every day when you wake up.

Look in the mirror and thank god for every second you have and cherish all moments.

The fighting, the anger, the drama is tedious.

Please just take each moment day by day and consider yourself lucky to breathe and feel at all and smile. Be thankful.

Life comes once, doesn't 'keep coming back' and we all take such advantage of what we have.

When we shouldn't..... '

Make a searching and fearless moral inventory of yourselves' (12st book) -everytime there's a triumph in the world a million souls hafta be trampled on.-altman Its true. But treasure each triumph as they come.

If I can do anything for those who are in a very hard time right now, as I'm one of them with hearing this news, please take advantage of the fact that I'm just a phone call away.

God Bless, peace and love always.

Thank You,

"BE ADEQUITE"

Lindsay Lohan

Folks, it amazes me that these people win elections and make millions of dollars in Hollywood. More from The Independent UK.

Just received news item (Unconfirmed)

I can't confirm the following, save to say it is from a source that's been reliable in the past:

Castro will be at the military parade, from 7AM to 8AM. Organizers have constructed a special reviewing stand that will allow him to arrive by car. Foreign press access will be limited during the parade. They will be on a press platform with line line of sight of Castro, but at 200 feet away. Video phones or live shots will not be allowed from the parade sight

The List

Those attending the dictator's farewell party:

Reverend Lucius Walker, leader of Pastors for Peace
Rene Burri, French photographer
Adolfo Perez Esquivel, Argentinean Nobel Peace Prize winner
Tomas Borge, Nicaraguan writer
Thiago de Mello, Brazilian poet
Pablo Gonzalez Casanova, Mexican sociologist
Alfonso Sastre, Spanish playright
Tarek William Saab, Venezuelan poet
Ignacio Ramonet, Venezuelan academic
Claudia Camba, coordinator of the literacy campaign in Argentina
Alexander Paunov Bulgarian, Cuba-Bulgaria Parliamentary Solidarity Group
Carmen Lirea, Mexican newspaper editor
Fernando Solanas, Argentinean filmmaker
Vladislav Kosarev, Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kazajshtan
Hans Otto dill, German writer
Javier Diez Canseco, Peruvian Socialist party
Marillia Guimaraes, Brazillian intellectual
Rodrigo Borja, former Ecuadorian President
Francois Houtart, Belgium sociologist and priest
Stella Callonni, Argentinean journalist
Nayef Hawatmeh, the head of the Damascus-based Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine
James Cockcroft, American author and New York State University professor
Evo Morales, President of Bolivia
Daniel Ortega, President-elect, Nicaragua
Rene Preval, President of Haiti
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Colombian nobel laureate
Andres Gomez, Miami resident
Diego Maradona, ex-soccer star
Maria Rojo, Mexican actress
Jorge Enrique Adoum, Ecuadorian writer
Gerard Depardieu, French actor
Miguel Bonasso, Argentinean writer

My pick for stomach turner of the day: Hebe de Bonafini, Argentinean president of the Association of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo.
Update: I just came across this quote from Bonafini, "Fidel is today what he was for our [missing] children - a clear thinker and one of the greatest men that has ever lived."

Message to Señora de Bonafini: ask fidel about Cuba's disappeared.

* I will be adding to the list as more names become available.

Ay, Noche Buena.

I'm putting up Christmas lights tonight and am feeling all Christmas-y and stuff, so I thought I'd offer up another Noche Buena blogpoll:

Exile Over "fidel's Kidney"

Here's a choice for you. Receive a kidney transplant, courtesy of the Cuban government, or risk your health by leaving the country.

For dissident Julio Antonio Valdes Guevara, the choice was easy.

"(The surgery) was a blackmail so that I would live with a permanent debt of gratitude'', Valdés Guevara declared yesterday after arriving in Miami with his family. "And I don't want to live thanking fidel castro for a kidney."

Valdes Guevara was one of the Group of 75 who were incarcerated in March 2003 during the wave of repression that swept Cuba during that "Black Spring".

Wilfredo Cancio Isla of El Nuevo Herald writes on the dissident's arrival in Miami, and gives us some interesting comments from Valdes Guevara regarding the situation in Cuba and of the dissident community.

Below the fold is the full article translated by yours truly.

Cuban Dissident Arrives in Miami in Fragile State

By Wilfredo Cancio Isla, El Nuevo Herald

Although Cuban medical services offered to submit him to a kidney transplant, dissident Julio Antonio Valdés Guevara opted for the exile route without having to thank the fidel castro regime for his survival.

"It was a blackmail so that I would live with a permanent debt of gratitude'', Valdés Guevara declared yesterday after arriving in Miami with his family. "And I don't want to live thanking fidel castro for a kidney."

Sick and fragile, but smiling, Valdés Guevara arrived yesterday at Miami International Airport (MIA) from Havana, via Cancún. Accompanying him were his wife Cruz Delia Aguilar, member of the Ladies in White movement, and their 7-year-old son Julio Antonio.

After remaining held by two years without receiving exit visas, the Cuban government finally authorized them to travel in response to a humanitarian request by the Catholic Church. The family resided in the city of Manzanillo, in the extreme eastern end of the island.

He is the second dissident of the "Group of 75" that has arrived in the United States as a political refugee after receiving a extrapenal license for health reasons. The journalist and poet Manuel Vázquez Portal preceded him in June of last year.

The case of 54-year-old Valdés Guevara was the subject of an intense international campaign to obtain his release from prison and later his exit from the island. The activist was sentenced to 20 years in jail during the big repressive wave of March 2003, but his worsening health forced his release only a year later.

His conditional freedom marked a significant precedent for the subsequent release of 14 other prisoners in successive months.

Put under hemodialisis treatments three times per week, Valdés Guevara experienced a rapid deterioration in his physical conditions while waiting for the permission to leave the country. He refused to receive a transplant on several occasions, particularly after Cuba's Attorney General, Juan Escalona, referred to his health in contemptuous terms.

"One of these 75 ingrates received a kidney transplant, paid for by the Cuban state", stated Escalona to the press during a Latin American meeting of public prosecutors in Paraguay in November 2004.

The dissident publically denied this, and preferred to come to exile without having the surgery performed.

"I know that life here is uncertain for me, but I prefer it to being a hostage of the regime", he confessed.

Valdés Guevara described to the present situation in Cuba as "dramatic" and "immovable" after power was transfered from fidel castro to his brother Raul on July 31st.

"The transfer of power has not caused anything in the population: people have accepted it like a family inheritance because they prefers to escape rather than rebel, he related. "The people live under double standards and terror due to the worsening repression".

He added that he is saddened by the fact that "hundreds of youths from Manzanillo and other parts are clandestinely making boats in order to leave the country".

"The people don't have a life, but they don't want to do anything to promote change", said Valdés Guevara, who is in favor of the economic embargo against Cuba.

"The embargo must be maintained, to lift it is to give oxygen to the dictador'', he asserted.

Asked about the status of the internal dissident movement, he recognized that "it has not been able to recover from the Black Spring of 2003''. "The Varela Project [ promoted by Oswaldo Payá in 2002 ] was a formidable shot to the regime, but it unleashed a fury of repression and it left to the opposition without the ability to mobilize nor space to act'', observed the dissident.

Exile activists and representatives of the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) welcomed him in the concourse at MIA.

"He was a brave and tenacious opponent within Cuba, and most important thing now is that the exile community lend him a hand and help him to recuperate his health", expressed Vázquez Portal who participated in the welcoming party.

I'm so loved....

Here's another great email from an ivettehot1@gmail.com that I just had to post for its sheer grammatical and poetic prowess. Or lack there of:

I am sure you didn't have any participation on writing this idiotic article..I am sure your little wannabe's Journalist on your blogroll did it for you, sense you can't seem to be able to write your own stories..Sad,Why you call yourself editor. Do you have any background in journalism? From what I saw on your blog.. You have zero...I agree with that guy who send you that email... You don't know shit about Cuba's issues..Only what you read and what other people spew-out. You write about stupid shit on your site..Noone care about your flu or how many roasted pigs you fucking ate. Your blog lacks news, You're not informative enough... I have seeing other bloggers site, they're outstanding..You suck, and you little fan clubs of writers suck too.

I...I...I just dont know what to say.

Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Right now, in Cuba, there's a massive gathering of intellectuals, world leaders and "prestigious personalities" to celebrate the birthday of their comandante fidel castro. These useful idiots - there really is no better term to describe them - will shower fidel castro and his revolution with accolades and praise. The rest of the world will witness this and believe that castro's revolutionary Cuba is nothing short of a utopia.

Yet none of these "presitigious personalities" have ever had their meals come via ration cards. None of them have ever had to stand in line for hours for a stale loaf of bread. None of them have ever had to worry about repercussions for voicing their thoughts or opinions. None of them have ever lost family members to the sea. None of them have ever had sons or fathers usurped form their homes never to be seen again. None of the have ever witnessed the indoctrination of their children. None of them have ever seen brother against brother for a handful of beans. None of them have ever had their individuality stifled. None of them have ever been slaves of the state. None of them have seen their daughters sell themselves to put food on the table. None of them, not a single one, has ever had to live in Cuba like an average Cuban.

Every word spoken at these celebrations will be another dagger through the Cuban heart. Every song sung will be a piercing of the Cuban soul. Every "Viva fidel!" will be another plunge deeper into the emptiness of deprivation.

I find these events hard to witness. Painful to the point of hearbreak. The world serving as eyewitness to the celebrations of a select few in Cuba while the rest of her population is left only to wonder when their hell will end.

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

Macbeth (Act V, Scene 5)

I'm a product of Miami hatred, don't ya know

Do you all remember the editorial I wrote for Townhall some months back about the plight of independent journalists in Cuba? Well I just received the following email regarding said editorial:

Mr. Valentin has no idea what hes talking about..Hes a miami puppet who only knows about cuba from what he hears..We all hear things..Just a few get to see them. Val is a product of Miami hatred.He is used by Miami anti castro groups to fill our internet with vile and violent words about Cuba.A confused young man that tries real hard to be a Cuban..He is neither that or an American..Like the majority in Miami he must write as many lies as possible about Cuba in order to get some kind of recognition on his block. This man has probably never been to any country except the Republic of Florida...Truth comes to him from the old guard that just wants to keep that federal money coming in for that "attack" on Cuba.Being anti castro in Miami means you have a pin number to the biggest cash machine Washington can produce..Its an industry folks.An taxpayers pay..Who me? Yes you! Mr Val is just a young dinasour feeding on the droppings of the older TREX..Great vocabulary,the guy is a THESAURUS!!!TOTALLY FULL OF DROOPINGS.

Incredible.

Some good news for the holiday season

The beast is too ill to attend his birthday celebration. Quel dommage. Maybe God will work a miracle again so he can die on Christmas Day, just like another piece-of-shit Communist did...

No Climbing for You

Today's Wall Street Journal has a report on Cuba's Rock Climbers:

Cuban rock climbers irk Castro & regime

VINALES, Cuba - Seventy feet up a sheer limestone cliff known as La Cuchillita, or Little Blade, 17-year-old Roylandi Gonzalez held onto a ledge by his fingertips. Then he glanced down to check the harness around his waist, grabbed hold of the rope that was tethered above him and started shimmying downward.

Over the past several years, adventurous Cuban youths such as Gonzalez, schooled by an influx of foreign rock climbers, have turned this western town into an extreme-sport mecca. Climbers test their mettle on dramatic crags, barely touched by man, which soar above a green valley designated as a United Nations World Heritage Site.

But climbers who have conquered Vinales's jagged peaks and imposing walls are now bumping up against a more formidable obstacle: the Communist political system. As Gonzalez touched earth and removed his hard hat, he cast a wary eye for park rangers and police. "They threaten us and chase us off the hills," he said. "There's something about rock climbing that really seems to worry our government."

It's not the climbing of rocks that bothers the Cuban government, it's the access to and commingling with foreigners that worries them

Slavery is Alive and Well in Cuba

From The Real Cuba, excellent commentary on the 3 Cuban exiles that escaped from a forced labor camp at the Curacao Drydock Company Inc and are suing the Cuba government in US courts:

For those who didn't watch "A mano limpia last night":

Adalberto Rodriguez, Fernando Alonso and Luis Casanova, the three Cubans who were able to escape from a forced labor camp at the Curacao Drydock Company Inc. and are now suing that company in US courts for conspiring with the Castro regime to exploit them and hundreds of other Cuban workers, were guests last night of "A mano limpia" with Dominican journalist Oscar Haza, on Channel 41 America Te Ve.

I posted the link to watch the program on the Internet last night. For those who missed it, here is a summary of what they said:

The reason why approximately 100 Cubans are working at the Curacao Drydock Company Inc. is that some time ago the company did some work for ships of Cuba's merchant marine and the Castro regime never paid the bill. When Curacao Drydock demanded payment, Castro offered to send Cuban slaves to work there instead. The Cubans work an average of 16 hours per day; have to do the work that the other workers don't want to do; sleep on hammocks at the same shipyard where they work; sometimes they have to work for 30 days without a day off; and on top of that, after ending their 16 hour shifts, they are forced to watch videos with speeches of the Cuban dictator.

The Cuban workers told Haza how they had to hide in Curacao for up to three months where they were helped by a Haitian coworker and several Cuban exiles who live there. When they went from Curacao to Venezuela, the National Guard stopped them and when they realized that they were Cubans trying to flee the Castro regime they asked for all their money they had in order to allow them to proceed to Colombia. They were set free after paying the bribe.

From Colombia they were finally able to reach the US.

One of the workers related how he was ordered by his Curacao Drydock supervisor to enter a gas tank that had not been completely cleared of all the fumes. When he complained that it was unsafe and inhuman to force him to work there, the supervisor, who works for Curacao Drydock, told him: "Remember that Cubans are supposed to follow orders, otherwise we kick their asses and send them back to Cuba."

The three Cubans also said that there workers from Colombia and other countries who were actually working as "helpers" for them, but were making 60 times as much money as they were because they were being paid directly, while in the case of the Cubans the Castro regime paid them an average of three and a half cents per hour, based on the number of hours that they had to work. Also, most Cubans had to work at night and also on weekends, when the pay is supposed to be higher.

They said that on December 31 of last year, the only workers who had to work that night were Cubans. They told Haza that once the Cuban debt to the Drydock Company is repaid, the Castro regime plans to continue to send slave workers to Curacao and have it as a new source of hard currency.

Another thing that they said is that many of the ships that are being repaired are American ships, including many of the cruise liners that sail from Miami and Ft. Lauderdale. This could be considered a violation of the embargo.

All three have their whole family in Cuba.

Merry "X" Mas, everybody

Well, the holiday that celebrates the birth of Jesus "X" is upon us. Unfortunately, since the name "X" -- and any mention of why the holiday is celebrated, i.e., the birth of "X" -- may offend some sensitive folks, the city fathers of Chicago decided to pull a Nativity scene for fear of offending "people of different faiths." Great move, guys! So what're you going to do about Easter? I guess the Minorah's out too, eh?

Let's remember this when we hear incessant news stories about how certain members of a certain religion of peace get offended by our actions...

Tuesday Flu Open Thread

The Mrs and I are walking pharmacies. I've been battling a cold/flu for over a week and it was only a matter of time before I passed it on to my wife. Had the worse sore throat Ive ever had yesterday with a nasty nasty cough and a skull splitting headache. This morning, I woke up and my right eye was completely shut with some kind of eye goo. Nasty nasty puss looking stuff.

Obviously blogging from my part will be a bit on the slow side until I beat the shit out of this freaken bastard cold/flu.

Use this post as an open thread for any links to interesting posts, articles, editorials or cures for the common cold.

The Herald needs to clean up its own house

This post, in its original form, has been removed as a result of a threat of legal action by the post's subject. The original post can still be found, however, at Herald Watch.

Reform Run Amok

As predicted, the new Human Rights Council, supposedly the flagship of Kofi Annan's promised U.N. reform is not as bad as the previous council. It's worse; a lot worse, even human rights groups that backed the formation of the council are appalled. So far, the new council is nothing more than a diplomatic lynch mob directed by the Organization of the Islamic Conference and supported by dictatorships like Cuba and China.

A MAJOR piece of the United Nations reform promised by Secretary General Kofi Annan was a new Human Rights Council. The idea was to replace the Commission on Human Rights, which had been hijacked by rogue states such as Libya and Sudan, with a body that could refocus attention on serious human rights violations around the world -- and in so doing remove what Mr. Annan said was "the shadow" cast by the old organization on "the United Nations system as a whole."

When the Human Rights Council was approved by the General Assembly in March, we were among the skeptics who doubted that it would be much of a change, mainly because the membership rules still allowed for the election of human rights violators. As it turned out, we were wrong: The council, which completed its second formal session last week in Geneva, has turned out to be far worse than its predecessor -- not just a "shadow" but a travesty that the United Nations can ill afford.

For all its faults, the previous U.N. commission occasionally discussed and condemned the regimes most responsible for human rights crimes, such as those in Belarus and Burma. China used to feel compelled to burnish its record before the annual meeting. The new council, in contrast, has so far taken action on only one country, which has dominated the debate at both of its regular meetings and been the sole subject of two extraordinary sessions: Israel.

Western human rights groups sought to focus the council's attention on Darfur, where genocide is occurring, and on Uzbekistan, where a dictator refuses to allow the investigation of a massacre by his security forces. Their efforts have been in vain. Instead, the council has treated itself to report after report on the alleged crimes of the Jewish state; in all, there were six official "rapporteurs" on that subject in the latest session alone. One, Jean Ziegler, is supposed to report on "the right to food." But he, too, delivered a diatribe on Israeli "crimes" in Lebanon.

Cuba's participation in the council all but guarantees its failure. The hand of castro's regime spoils everything it touches.

Read the Washinton Post story here.

When life gives you lemons...

Cuban economists make lemonade. Or so the media would have you believe. As Val kindly pointed out, I wrote something about the preposterous claim that Cuba defeated "Peak Oil" over at CubanAmericanPundits.com. Here's another believer in the Cuban economic miracle. Only this time it's Cuba's smaller ecological footprint that is the result of the harsh economic times Cuba faced in the 90's.

Of course no mention of the smokestacks belching filth into the sky (to borrow a line from Sting), no mention of the rampant prostitution, no mention of the waves of rafters risking their lives to leave the island. Why would there be? Cuba is an environmentally friendly version of Disney Land, the happiest place on earth. ;-)

Monday Morning Ajiaco

It's Monday, I'm at the office and Ive been battling flu symptons for almost a week now. Cant think of a better moment to post a linkfest.

Henry takes apart the "How Cuba Survived Peak Oil" bs at Cuban-American Pundits.

From Child of the Revolution, we learn that the Cuban government has a problem with narly waves and declares "Surf's not up."

El Gusano whips the Miami Herald on a Gameboy.

The Real Cuba has more photos and commentary on the Avalanche of anti-chavez demonstrations.

Jose at Cubanology has put together the 2006 Anti-Communist Blogger Awards.

Let me introduce you to the latest addition to the Cuban-American blogging community: Asymmetric, written by Cuban-American LA high school teacher, Iraq war veteran Nelson Guirado.

Anti-castro, Anti-Chavez Avalancha In Caracas

More problems at the Miami Herald

Breaking news...

It seems a disgruntled Miami Herald employee has holed himself up in the Miami Herald building in downtown Miami carrying weapons. All Herald employees have been told to evacuate. Details are still sketchy at the moment.

Update: The employee is former Herald cartoonist Jose Varela and is holding an El Nuevo Herald editor as hostage.

Update: Apparently, eyewitnesses are confriming that there is no hostage situation within the building, although Varela is said to be carrying some kind of a laser equiped automatic rifle and is at the El Nuevo Herald sixth floor offices.

Update: More at Herald Watch.

Back to business

I've told my brain-calcified liberal friends and acquaintances that the Soviet Union is not dead, that it has only gone through a, how shall we call it, a new marketing strategy. Vladimir Putin, a senior ex-KGB agent, as President, I said, did not bode well for the future of Russia.

Here as a measure of proof that the good ole days never left, are two stories: Radioactive Substance in Ex-Spy's Body and Russia sends air defense system to Iran.

It's so easy to delude people isn't it?

(H/T Drudge)

Is your kitchen closed today?

I know everyone probably has tons of leftover Thanksgiving fair today, with plenty of turkey and stuffing and yams and cranberry just sitting in the fridge waiting for you, and that chances are there wont be much action in your kitchens today, but I thought I'd tempt your tastebuds a bit, pa jode' na'mas.

Y despues un flan y un cafecito.

I Love Turkey Day

I am definitely with Glenn Reynolds on this one:

I think that Thanksgiving is actually my favorite holiday, because it's all about getting the family together. When I was a kid, I was bigger on presents. Now, that is the present.

Couldnt have said it better myself.

The Real Story of Thanksgiving

I thought I'd share this from Rush Limbaugh's show on Tuesday. We are so damned fortumate to be living in this country. I give thanks to all those who agree, and pray for an epiphany for those who don't.

Okay, time for the real story of Thanksgiving. I want to precede this by sharing with you -- and I want to bounce off of our last call, Suzie. Sometimes she has trouble being optimistic. Now, I don't know that this would qualify as something about which you can run around and feel really optimistic about. Something struck me the other day. (It strikes me a lot, by the way.) I went to a dinner party on Friday night, and it was a buffet here where I live before I had to go over to the Breakers Hotel and introduce Ann Coulter and give her an award for David Horowitz's Restoration Weekend. There were a lot of people at this bash, and walking through the buffet and looking at all of the food, the shrimp, all the vegetables and everything, the desserts, it just struck me.

I started flashing back to my trip to Afghanistan. I saw some of the most unbelievable human living conditions I have ever seen, and I can tell you for a fact that the number of average Afghanis who eat food in the way we take for granted is just astoundingly high. We hear all day long pessimistic stories about shortages of this or that, we're going to deplete the oceans of all edible fish in 30 years or whatever the hell stupid notion it was, and we've been hearing these kinds of stories for years, that we're destroying species. It always amazes me when I actually stop to think about it. Just visit a grocery store. Imagine how many grocery stores there are in this country. Look at the food production in this country alone, and look at the relative cheap price that food is in grocery stores.

You can find high priced items in there, but bare essentials, market basket prices. People have to eat. There's not a whole lot of room for price gouging there unless you go to gourmet places and that kind of thing, but even at that, they're available, if you want it. The amount of food that is produced in this country, the plenty of it, is astounding, when you stop to think that wherever you are, in your one grocery store or at your restaurant when you're having dinner, imagine millions of such places, with the same stuff, and then put it all in somebody's home, where they're having Thanksgiving or what have you, or in restaurants or whatever, it's just astounding to me. The ability of the earth to produce and provide all this, against all these predictions that we're going to starve or going to have a famine, that the population explosion is going to wipe out all of these luxuries and opportunities.

It's just... I don't know. Sometimes it just blows me away, because I don't have anything to do with producing it. There are people that do, and I'm just in awe. When you asked me why I am optimistic and so forth, it's because I am in awe of the country. Compared to the rest of the world and compared to the attacks that we endure and even our own internal bottles of people in this country that hate this country, still look at it, look at it, if you want just from the bare essentials. Look at how many automobiles there are in a used car lot, look at how many automobiles there are in junkyards. Those are the cars in junkyards that are being driven around in places like Afghanistan or Cuba, anywhere else. We're just spoiled I think in so many areas that just the basics are often so taken for granted that their value in what they represent is overlooked on occasion.

We can even satisfy oddballs that don't want to eat meat or who don't want to eat fish, whatever your culinary peculiarities are, somebody's out there making sure that you can get what you want, even with all the assaults on the food business that there have been. Anyway, leads me to the real story of Thanksgiving as written by me in my book "See, I Told You So!" We're on Chapter Six here: "Dead White Guys or What Your History Books Never Told You," page 70.

On August 1, 1620, the Mayflower set sail. It carried a total of 102 passengers, including forty Pilgrims led by William Bradford. On the journey, Bradford set up an agreement, a contract, that established just and equal laws for all members of the new community, irrespective of their religious beliefs. Where did the revolutionary ideas expressed in the Mayflower Compact come from? From the Bible. The Pilgrims were a people completely steeped in the lessons of the Old and New Testaments. They looked to the ancient Israelites for their example. And, because of the biblical precedents set forth in Scripture, they never doubted that their experiment would work.

"But this was no pleasure cruise, friends. The journey to the New World was a long and arduous one. And when the Pilgrims landed in New England in November, they found, according to Bradford's detailed journal, a cold, barren, desolate wilderness," destined to become the home of the Kennedy family. "There were no friends to greet them, he wrote. There were no houses to shelter them. There were no inns where they could refresh themselves. And the sacrifice they had made for freedom was just beginning. During the first winter, half the Pilgrims – including Bradford's own wife – died of either starvation, sickness or exposure.

"When spring finally came, Indians taught the settlers how to plant corn, fish for cod and skin beavers for coats." Yes, it was Indians that taught the white man how to skin beasts. "Life improved for the Pilgrims, but they did not yet prosper! This is important to understand because this is where modern American history lessons often end. "Thanksgiving is actually explained in some textbooks as a holiday for which the Pilgrims gave thanks to the Indians for saving their lives, rather than as a devout expression of gratitude grounded in the tradition of both the Old and New Testaments. Here is the part [of Thanksgiving] that has been omitted: The original contract the Pilgrims had entered into with their merchant-sponsors in London called for everything they produced to go into a common store, and each member of the community was entitled to one common share.

"All of the land they cleared and the houses they built belong to the community as well. They were going to distribute it equally. All of the land they cleared and the houses they built belonged to the community as well. Nobody owned anything. They just had a share in it. It was a commune, folks. It was the forerunner to the communes we saw in the '60s and '70s out in California – and it was complete with organic vegetables, by the way. Bradford, who had become the new governor of the colony, recognized that this form of collectivism was as costly and destructive to the Pilgrims as that first harsh winter, which had taken so many lives. He decided to take bold action. Bradford assigned a plot of land to each family to work and manage, thus turning loose the power of the marketplace.

"That's right. Long before Karl Marx was even born, the Pilgrims had discovered and experimented with what could only be described as socialism. And what happened? It didn't work! Surprise, surprise, huh? What Bradford and his community found was that the most creative and industrious people had no incentive to work any harder than anyone else, unless they could utilize the power of personal motivation! But while most of the rest of the world has been experimenting with socialism for well over a hundred years – trying to refine it, perfect it, and re-invent it – the Pilgrims decided early on to scrap it permanently. What Bradford wrote about this social experiment should be in every schoolchild's history lesson. If it were, we might prevent much needless suffering in the future.

"'The experience that we had in this common course and condition, tried sundry years...that by taking away property, and bringing community into a common wealth, would make them happy and flourishing – as if they were wiser than God,' Bradford wrote. 'For this community [so far as it was] was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort. For young men that were most able and fit for labor and service did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men's wives and children without any recompense...that was thought injustice.' Why should you work for other people when you can't work for yourself? What's the point?

"Do you hear what he was saying, ladies and gentlemen? The Pilgrims found that people could not be expected to do their best work without incentive. So what did Bradford's community try next? They unharnessed the power of good old free enterprise by invoking the undergirding capitalistic principle of private property. Every family was assigned its own plot of land to work and permitted to market its own crops and products. And what was the result? 'This had very good success,' wrote Bradford, 'for it made all hands industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been.' Bradford doesn't sound like much of a..." I wrote "Clintonite" then. He doesn't sound much like a liberal Democrat, "does he? Is it possible that supply-side economics could have existed before the 1980s? Yes.

"Read the story of Joseph and Pharaoh in Genesis 41. Following Joseph's suggestion (Gen 41:34), Pharaoh reduced the tax on Egyptians to 20% during the 'seven years of plenty' and the 'Earth brought forth in heaps.' (Gen. 41:47) In no time, the Pilgrims found they had more food than they could eat themselves.... So they set up trading posts and exchanged goods with the Indians. The profits allowed them to pay off their debts to the merchants in London. And the success and prosperity of the Plymouth settlement attracted more Europeans and began what came to be known as the 'Great Puritan Migration.'" Now, other than on this program every year, have you heard this story before? Is this lesson being taught to your kids today -- and if it isn't, why not?

Can you think of a more important lesson one could derive from the pilgrim experience? So in essence there was, thanks to the Indians, because they taught us how to skin beavers and how to plant corn when we arrived, but the real Thanksgiving was thanking the Lord for guidance and plenty -- and once they reformed their system and got rid of the communal bottle and started what was essentially free market capitalism, they produced more than they could possibly consume, and they invited the Indians to dinner, and voila, we got Thanksgiving, and that's what it was: inviting the Indians to dinner and giving thanks for all the plenty is the true story of Thanksgiving. The last two-thirds of this story simply are not told.

Now, I was just talking about the plenty of this country and how I'm awed by it. You can go to places where there are famines, and we usually get the story, "Well, look it, there are deserts, well, look it, Africa, I mean there's no water and nothing but sand and so forth." It's not the answer, folks. Those people don't have a prayer because they have no incentive. They live under tyrannical dictatorships and governments. The problem with the world is not too few resources. The problem with the world is an insufficient distribution of capitalism.

San Guibin

Just a quick note to wish everyone a great Thanksgiving. Hope you all enjoy your day with family and friends and loved ones.

Thanks to all of you for being a part of my life and sharing a bit of your day with all of us.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...ME MEOOOOO

HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHHEHHEHHEHHE

HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA

HOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOH

HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE

HAHAHAHA

HEHEHE

AY ME MEOOOOOOO

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

HAHAHAHAHA

HEHEHEHE

Sorry. I just cant...HAHAHA...stop...HEHEHEHE...HAHAHAHA laughing.

Via Uncommon Sense.

Noche Buena Preview

I know it's a bit early, but i figured I'd give you all a quick heads up on the Noche Buena celebrations this year. Yes, they will once again be held at the Prieto homestead/ManCamp. We're having the whole family over for the big pig cookout. Steve and I will be making yet another stuffed lechon - if youve never had congris stuffed lechon, then you have never truly eaten.

We've got a lot of people coming over for the festivities, so chances are it will be at least a 100-120 lb pig this year. I usually make the porker in the Caja China when it's that big, but since I want to served a stuffed lechon and that has to be on a spit, I may have to resolver this year's pig roaster.

While the previous stuffed pigs we've roasted have turned out quite well, the size of this year's pig complicates matters a bit. Ive got to design a system where the pig doesnt burst and spill all of its delicious steamy rice all over the place.

I also dont want to be slave to the pig any more than I have to and dont want to be turning the darned thing every few minutes on the spit so Ill be trying to motorize the whole cooking thing. Should be quite interesting. Ill have more posts to follow and will probably go ahead and blog the whole process if time allows.

I know everyone is probably starving for turkey and fixins tomorrow, but save some room for congris stuffed lechon on Noche Buena. You wont regret it.

It's Deja Vu All Over Again

Im about halfway through Anthony De Palma's "The Man Who Invented Fidel: Castro, Cuba, and Herbert L. Matthews of The New York Times" and to be honest am finding it incredibly difficult to read through without my blood pressure rising in anger.

We criticize the media a lot here, and with good reason as journalism is rife, infested even, with so called journalists and reporters who use their positions as bully pulpits to expound on, and, in some cases further, their ideological beliefs with no regard to balance, truth or integrity. Walter Durante did it with Stalin during his reign. Herbert Mathews all but handed fidel castro Cuba. Both men received Pulitzers for what can only be considered monumental displays of hubris and unabashed acts of bias. Dan Rather got caught with his whole arm in the cookie jar and elections today are more about public opinion - as formulaled and shaped through the MSM - than they are about issues.

Unfortunately, it appears as history is indeed repeating itself in the case of Venezuela, where not only are domestic journalists influenced, but where foreign "correspondents" are going the way of Durante and Mathews, painting their stories with their own ideological brushes. Today's journalists have this flawed view of themselves and their profession, believing that through their work they can "Do some good." But their job is not to do good, but simply to report the facts. A notion that seems alien in today's journalism education.

Alek Boyd of Vrisis, sitting in and among these altruistic "journalists" and "correspondents" covering Venzuelan elections, has published an open letter to foreign journalists covering Venezuela. I truly believe that were these journalists able to see past their arrogance, they might understand just how much it behooves them to read Alek's words.

I doubt they will, though. And that's a shame, as it will just go to prove how true the following joke really is:

How does a Journalist commit suicide?

He jumps off his ego.

Update: Michelle Malkin has a great post on what journalists should be thankful for.

In Today's "Journalism", it's not always about what's said...

..but what is not said.

From Hank Tester's "Follow File":

The recent two-part series produced by the Miami Herald asked some hard questions about U.S. funds to promote democracy in Cuba.

The point was that much of the money was being spent in Washington and Miami and not getting to Cubans on the island in the form of good and services. Questions were raised about what is being sent into Cuba. What made headlines were Nintendo Game Boys, Harry Potter books, an exercise bike, all sent by a group called Grupo de Apoyo a La Democrcia.

The charge was that only 13 percent of GAD’s funds were spent on products that got to Cuba. GAD was not the only local group whose spending was questioned, but I did hear from Frank Hernandez Trujillo, the organization’s executive director. Frank is hot as a skillet, claiming the Herald did not get the entire story out.

Here is a portion of his e-mail:

"The Herald reports we only spent 13 percent of our budget purchasing food and medications. The reason is we received over $3 million in food and medications donations, primarily from two well-known South Florida corporations.

"We have sent over 350,000 pounds of assistance in food, medications, clothing, short-wave radios, medical equipment, etc. The Herald mentions an exercise bike sent to Cuba. I explained to the writer of the article the exercise bike was sent to a doctor in Santiago, Cuba who maintains an independent clinic at his house and offered to provide him with the telephone number of the doctor so he could verify the facts. Also, that part of our budget is for medical equipment, so in any case the item was covered under the agreement. He chose to publish it without any explanation.

"We have sent over 100,000 books and magazines with over one hundred different titles. He chose to mention Harry Potter and The Alchemist and "forgot" to mention the rest.

This aint no Chickenshit drilling!

On this day, many many many years ago, our very own Pitbull was unleashed upon this world. Rumor has it that upon being spanked in the behind in order to force his first breath and subsequent cries, our very own Pitbull, in what would be the first sure fire sign of the true character of the man we all know and love, regaled the doctors and nursing staff with an impromptu oration of General George S Patton's Speech to the Third Army, which he concluded, in a blazing eyed animation of the Great World War II General as follows:

There is one great thing that you men will all be able to say after this war is over and you are home once again. You may be thankful that twenty years from now when you are sitting by the fireplace with your grandson on your knee and he asks you what you did in the great World War II, you WON'T have to cough, shift him to the other knee and say, "Well, your Granddaddy shoveled shit in Louisiana." No, Sir, you can look him straight in the eye and say, "Son, your Granddaddy rode with the Great Third Army and a Son-of-a-Goddamned-Bitch named Georgie Patton!"

George "Pitbulll" Moneo, happy birthday, my brother. It's an honor calling you friend and may you enjoy many many more birthdays and many many more battles to come. It's a privilege being in your ranks, sir.

Escape to reality

On my blog, Cuban-American Pundits, yesterday I made post about Che Guevara and, in it, I made an off-handed remark about the 9/11 conspiracy theory peddlers. I kind of knew it was going to attract the attention of at least one crank and sure enough it did.

Well the whole thing reminded me that I've been wanting to post about something here for a while. It's a podcast that I discovered a few weeks ago called The Skeptics Guide to the Universe.

The Skeptics guide is a very entertaining show that aims to debunk pseudo science and combat it with real science. When you listen to a few episodes you'll realize how much the average person is bombarded with pseudo science, whether it's herbal cure-alls, psychics, exorcisms, etc. etc. Unfortunately most of us aren't trained in critical thinking and that's why these things persist.

If you are intellectually curious, I highly recommend the Skeptics Guide. You may not agree with everything they say but it will open your eyes to the tactics used by cranks, quacks, shysters, and snake oil salesmen to hoodwink everyday people. Your ability to detect logical fallacies in people's arguments will also improve dramatically. Logical fallacies like those used by 9/11 conspiracy cranks (they have touched on that subject in the podcasts too).

You can download the Skeptics Guide podcasts directly from their web site or you can subscribe to their weekly podcasts at the iTunes Music store.

Please, stay retired

I will, in the spirit of the holidays, forego what I desperately want to say. But I think you can all imagine it.

Reno Files Challenge to Terror Law.

Le ronca

Because a military parade is exactly what starving slaves need to perk up their dreary lives.

Stupid is as Stupid Does

I'm not saying "we told you so" but add Minimi Chavez to the list of suckers hoodwinked by fidel. El Universal is reporting that two Venezuelan oil experts, Humberto Calderón Berti and José Toro Hardy have rejected a Cuba-Venezuela oil deal as a "swindle".

According to Calderón Berti, under the agreement Venezuela originally undertook to provide 53,000 bpd of oil, a figure that now exceeds 100,000 bpd. "And Venezuela is receiving no payment for these volumes of crude oil exported."

He added that Venezuelans were told Cuba would provide free healthcare services to Venezuela under the agreement, and so far the island has failed to meet this obligation.

Calderón Berti stressed that out of the oil exports from Venezuela to Cuba so far -which amount to USD 2.2 billion- USD 555 million are long-term debt, with a three-year grace period and a 15-year term for repayment, which he described as a bad debt.

"Venezuela will never get this money back. This debt is endorsed by promissory notes issued by the National Bank of Cuba at a 2 percent interest rate which mean nothing and have no value."

He added that Cuba is supposed to pay the remaining USD 1.66 billion by providing free healthcare services in Venezuela.

But according to Toro Hardy, and based on the first addendum to the agreement, dated January 1st, 2000, the institutions, agencies and companies of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela have to pay for Cuban healthcare goods and services, which means that "Cuba is not giving anything."

We haven't reached the end of castroism, but just maybe we are starting to see the beginning of the end. Maybe this year more than ever, with an end to the status quo, the regime really wants that embargo lifted....

Hypertension, anyone? Then don't read this!

Without commentary:

A Right to Health: Cuba’s Example and What it means for South L.A.

Please note the banner. Can you name them all? I can name a bunch, including Malcolm X, Noam Chomsky, Gandhi, Nelson Mandela. Isn't that Mother Jones next to che? What a pairing!

(H/T Fausta)

Real estate purchases of the rich and evil

NuevoAccion.com has a report of a rumor floating around Chilean financial circles that certain family members of the soon-to-be-worm-food leader of Cuba are looking to buy property in Chile. I wonder where they got the money, being equal under socialism and all.

Amigos de esta publicación residentes en Chile, nos han notificado de un rumor que rueda en estos momentos en círculos financieros chilenos, que trasladamos a nuestros lectores, como lo que son: rumores sin confirmar, sin asegurar que sean ciertos, pero las hacemos públicas, pues esto junto a la noticia de que las instituciones bancarias suizas han cancelado todas sus transacciones con Cuba, pueden guardar una cierta relación.

Según estas fuentes chilenas, Max “El Guatón“ Marambio, ha recibido instrucciones de la Sra. Dalia Soto del Valle,(en la foto arriba de estas líneas) esposa del “Emperador del Archipiélago cubano”, para que explore la posibilidad de adquirir para ella o algunos familiares un par de grandes haciendas en la Pampa Chilena, muy cerca de la Frontera Argentina, inclusive si fuera posible, que abarcara parte de la Pampa de ambas naciones.

Como ha publicado anteriormente “Nuevo Acción” Max Marambio, conocido en Cuba como “El Guatón” se ha hecho multimillonario realizando negocios con y para la tiranía cubana y sirviendo de testaferro para muchos de los incontables negocios que regados por el mundo, posee Fidel Castro.

Marambio quien fue jefe de la escolta personal de Salvador Allende e íntimo compinche de los jimaguas La Guardia con quienes participó en todas sus trapicherías, y hoy es un magnate multimillonario, gracias a sus negocios con la tiranía cubana, reside en Chile.

Here's a full translation in English by our ever-vigilant colleague, Henry Gomez:

Friends of this publication, who reside in Chile, have notified us of a rumor that is currently circulating in Chilean financial circles, which we transmit to our readers exactly as they are, as unconfirmed rumors, without knowledge as to their truth, but we make them public, because this news, along with the news that the Swiss banking institutions have cancelled all transactions with Cuba, may be related.

According to these Chilean sources, Max “the Guaton" Marambio, has received instructions from Mrs. Dalia Soto del Valle, (in the photo above) wife of the “Emperor of the Cuban Archipelago”, that he should explore the possibility of acquiring for her or some relatives, a pair of great properties in Chilean Pampas, on the border with Argentina, and if possible, that the properties include part of the Pampas of both nations.

As published previously in “Nuevo Accion”, Max Marambio, known in Cuba as “the Guaton” has become a multimillionaire doing businesses with and for the Cuban tyranny and serving as a front for many of the countless businesses scattered around by the world owned by Fidel Castro.

Marambio, who was a chief of the personal bodyguards of Salvador Allende and an intimate pal of the de la Guardia twins with whom he participated in all their sordid business, and today is a multimillionaire tycoon thanks to his businesses with the Cuban tyranny, resides in Chile.

Very interesting news indeed. I have a feeling they know they'd be persona non grata in Cuba after the fall.

(H/T mtm)

Those evil Republicans are at it again...

I'm a little confused. I need your help here. Did I imagine it? Isn't it true that for years I heard the left accuse us of wanting to restart the draft?

House Democrat Wants Draft Reinstated

Nov 20, 12:48 AM (ET)

By JOHN HEILPRIN

WASHINGTON (AP) - Americans would have to sign up for a new military draft after turning 18 under a bill the incoming chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee says he will introduce next year.

Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., said Sunday he sees his idea as a way to deter politicians from launching wars.

"There's no question in my mind that this president and this administration would never have invaded Iraq, especially on the flimsy evidence that was presented to the Congress, if indeed we had a draft and members of Congress and the administration thought that their kids from their communities would be placed in harm's way," Rangel said.

Rangel, a veteran of the Korean War who has unsuccessfully sponsored legislation on conscription in the past, has said the all-volunteer military disproportionately puts the burden of war on minorities and lower-income families.

Rangel said he will propose a measure early next year. While he said he is serious about the proposal, there is little evident support among the public or lawmakers for it.

In 2003, Rangel proposed a measure covering people age 18 to 26. It was defeated 402-2 the following year. This year, he offered a plan to mandate military service for men and women between age 18 and 42; it went nowhere in the Republican-led Congress.

Democrats will control the House and Senate come January because of their victories in the Nov. 7 election.

At a time when some lawmakers are urging the military to send more troops to Iraq, "I don't see how anyone can support the war and not support the draft," said Rangel, who also proposed a draft in January 2003, before the U.S. invasion of Iraq. "I think to do so is hypocritical."

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican who is a colonel in the U.S. Air Force Standby Reserve, said he agreed that the U.S. does not have enough people in the military.

"I think we can do this with an all-voluntary service, all-voluntary Army, Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy. And if we can't, then we'll look for some other option," said Graham, who is assigned as a reserve judge to the Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals.

Rangel, the next chairman of the House tax-writing committee, said he worried the military was being strained by its overseas commitments.

"If we're going to challenge Iran and challenge North Korea and then, as some people have asked, to send more troops to Iraq, we can't do that without a draft," Rangel said.

He said having a draft would not necessarily mean everyone called to duty would have to serve. Instead, "young people (would) commit themselves to a couple of years in service to this great republic, whether it's our seaports, our airports, in schools, in hospitals," with a promise of educational benefits at the end of service.

Graham said he believes the all-voluntary military "represents the country pretty well in terms of ethnic makeup, economic background."

Repeated polls have shown that about seven in 10 Americans oppose reinstatement of the draft and officials say they do not expect to restart conscription.

Outgoing Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told Congress in June 2005 that "there isn't a chance in the world that the draft will be brought back."

Yet the prospect of the long global fight against terrorism and the continuing U.S. commitment to stabilizing Iraq have kept the idea in the public's mind.

The military drafted conscripts during the Civil War, both world wars and between 1948 and 1973. An agency independent of the Defense Department, the Selective Service System, keeps an updated registry of men age 18-25 - now about 16 million - from which to supply untrained draftees that would supplement the professional all-volunteer armed forces.

Rangel and Graham appeared on "Face the Nation" on CBS.

The Dems have always been predictably stupid. But this is just too tasty. Let's see how the moonbats react to Chawlie and his call for the draft. Michelle Malkin nails it when she writes that this gesture is "a fitting symbol of what Democrat rule in Congress will be the next two years: A worthless, cynical expenditure of time and energy that accomplishes absolutely nothing."

Silencing Voices of Freedom

How is it possible that murderous dictators and thugs like the castro brothers and che guevara are adulated around the world?

The brilliant Carlos Alberto Montaner's recent article about how to get the voices of those silenced by dictatorial regimes heard is the most factual piece of writing I've read on this topic.

An excerpt:

They designed, and through the years were able to perfect, a complete strategy of international solidarity for their cause, as well as dedicating themselves to propagating their opinions and doctrines. They created “Friendship with the Peoples Institutes,” “Peace Organizations”, publishing houses and academic institutions, useful as liaisons and sounding boards for the various Communist groups around the world. They recruited friends and agents of influence in the media, at times paying for them and at times out of genuine sympathy for the cause—and at times for a combination of the two—that set out to simultaneously promote (or suppress) news stories helpful (or damaging) to the group and to its ideology. The Communists, therefore, had at their disposal a huge propaganda machinery that could uplift (or criticize) writers and artists, or applaud (or destroy) politicians and public figures.

From Firmas Press: "Is There Some Out There"

Update: For those unable to access Firmas Press, I've posted the entire aritlce in Spanish below.

¿Hay alguien ahí afuera?

Carlos Alberto Montaner
Unión Liberal Cubana
Vicepresidente de la LI
Liberal Internacional
54 Congreso
Marruecos, Noviembre 9-2006

La Internacional Liberal, organización a la que estoy vinculado desde 1990, me ha pedido que reflexione sobre cómo conseguir que en el plano internacional se tome en cuenta la voz de las sociedades silenciadas por gobiernos dictatoriales. Me parece un asunto extremadamente importante.

Permítanme una breve referencia personal para poder establecer mi experiencia en estos temas. Salí de Cuba en 1961 protegido por una embajada latinoamericana en la que había conseguido asilarme tras escapar de la cárcel. Tenía entonces 18 años y, junto a un grupo de estudiantes, intentábamos evitar el establecimiento de una dictadura comunista que ya era evidente que comenzaba a arraigar en el país. En la cárcel quedaron cientos de mis compañeros y amigos. Algunos cumplieron muchos años de presidio y luego marcharon al exilio. Otros fueron asesinados.

A partir del momento en que me encontré fuera de Cuba, septiembre de 1961, me juré a mi mismo que dedicaría una buena parte de mi vida a denunciar las atrocidades que ocurrían en mi país para tratar de devolverles la libertad y la democracia a los cubanos. Comprometido con esa tarea, he escrito miles de artículos en la prensa de muchas naciones, he publicado varios libros sobre la situación de Cuba, he participado en cientos de programas de radio y televisión, y hasta he escrito un par de guiones de películas en las que se muestra la verdadera cara de la dictadura cubana. Simultáneamente, he acudido a decenas de seminarios como éste y a una treintena de parlamentos y casas de gobierno de diversos países en busca de solidaridad y ayuda. Algo, pues, he aprendido en estos 45 años de lucha constante, y no todo lo que he conseguido descubrir es esperanzador o estimulante.

Tres lecciones amargas

He aprendido, por ejemplo, que los enemigos de la libertad, especialmente los comunistas mientras existía la URSS, defendían sus puntos de vista y atacaban los de sus adversarios con mucha más eficacia y dedicación que nosotros. Diseñaron, y a lo largo del tiempo fueron perfeccionando, toda una estrategia de solidaridad internacional con su causa, también dedicada a la propagación de sus criterios y doctrinas. Crearon “Institutos de Amistad con los pueblos”, “Organizaciones por la Paz”, editoriales e instituciones académicas que servían como enlace y cajas de resonancia a los diferentes grupos comunistas del mundo. Reclutaban amigos y agentes de influencia en los medios de comunicación, unas veces por dinero y otras por simpatías genuinas, a veces por ambas razones, que difundían (u ocultaban) simultáneamente las informaciones convenientes al grupo y a su ideología. Los comunistas, pues, tenían a su servicio una enorme máquina de propaganda y solidaridad que encumbraba (o denostaba) escritores y artistas, ensalzaba (o destruía) políticos y personas públicas.

Los demócratas, en cambio, no contábamos con nada parecido para defender las libertades. No existía un centro con vocación internacional dedicado a propagar las ideas de la libertad, y mucho menos las de la economía de mercado. Ninguna capital del mundo libre dedicaba grandes esfuerzos a la lucha por defender a las víctimas del totalitarismo de izquierda o de las dictaduras de derecha. No existe la menor coordinación internacional para estos esfuerzos. Algunas fundaciones alemanas, como la Naumann, por ejemplo, apoyan ciertas iniciativas, pero tienen muy pocos fondos y padecen numerosas limitaciones legales para actuar. Washington, es cierto, durante la época de la Guerra Fría asignó algunos recursos a estaciones como Radio free Europe o Radio Liberty, y hoy todavía lo hace con Radio y TV Martí, pero siempre en medio de una gran polémica nacional e internacional provocada por personas que rechazaban esa colaboración con las víctimas del totalitarismo, entre otras razones, porque Estados Unidos no establece una verdadera relación política franca y abierta con los demócratas de otras latitudes, sino suele hacerlo por medio de sus servicios de inteligencia, lo que inevitablemente le otorga un cariz negativo y vergonzoso a esos vínculos. Afortunadamente, en los últimos años, con las actividades del Nacional Democratic Institute (NDI) y del International Republican Institute (IRI), ambas instituciones financiadas en gran medida por el National Endowment for Democracy (NED), esas limitaciones se han aliviado.

En América Latina la situación era aún peor. El continente vivía convencido de las virtudes de la doctrina de la “no injerencia en los asuntos internos de otras naciones”, y a nadie parecía importarle las larguísimas y sanguinarias dictaduras de Juan Vicente Gómez (Venezuela), Rafael L. Trujillo (República Dominicana), Anastasio Somoza (Nicaragua), Alfredo Stroessner (Paraguay) o Augusto Pinochet (Chile), por sólo citar cinco de veinte tiranos que ha padecido a lo largo del siglo XX este conflictivo fragmento de Occidente parido por Europa. En fecha tan reciente como la semana pasada, se reunieron en Montevideo, Uruguay, los gobernantes de Iberoamérica, incluidos Portugal y España, y entre ellos estaba el cubano Carlos Lage, representante de la dictadura más larga de la historia de Occidente -cuarenta y ocho años consecutivos del mismo gobierno tiránico- y nadie pareció escandalizarse, ni nadie mostró la menor preocupación por los cientos de presos políticos que yacen en las cárceles. Ni siquiera se atrevieron a mencionar el hecho, reclamado por los demócratas cubanos dentro y fuera de la Isla, de que hace diez años, en una cumbre similar celebrada en Viña del Mar, Chile, el gobierno cubano, con la firma de Fidel Castro, se comprometió a aceptar el pluralismo político y las formas democráticas.

Las consecuencias.

La conclusión a que nos lleva este melancólico cuadro de indiferencia, temores e indolencia es inocultable: para los demócratas víctimas de diferentes tiranías es muy difícil hacer oír nuestras voces, y más aún lograr que nuestras denuncias se conviertan en cursos de acción. Sin embargo, hay algunas actividades que pueden brindar sus frutos.

Es importante forjar nexos políticos con los grupos afines. Mi experiencia con la Internacional Liberal ha sido muy positiva y sé que los democristianos cubanos también han recibido grandes muestras de solidaridad de sus correligionarios de diversos países, así como de la Internacional a la que pertenecen. Los