A Humorous Note

to lighten up the evening. Monica Crowley has outdone herself as she imagines the Clintons' behind-the-scenes conversations in the past week or so. Here's a taste:

Sunday morning, Hillary in Tennessee, calling Bill, who was Lord-knows-where.

HER: "Bill, wake up you (horse's butt.) Get whoever you've got with you the (heck) outta there and listen up. We've got a huge (freakin') crisis here."

HIM: "(Gosh dang it), Hillree. Do you know how (freakin') early it is?"

HER: "Listen, (horse's butt). Ted Kennedy is about to endorse Obama. I cannot believe what an ungrateful
(horse's butt) he is. After all of the (gosh-dang) (stuff) we've done for him! That washed-up (freakin') (horse's butt) is pulling himself out of the (freakin') bar long enough to endorse somebody ELSE?!"

HIM: (whispering to someone else): "I'll be right with you, baby....Don't go."

HER: "BILL! Who the (freak) are you talking to?? We've got an emergency here, and all you can think about is Mr. Happy? You are unbelievable."

HIM: "I'm sorry, honey. What were you saying?"

HER: "Oh shut up. Just get on the horn with Kennedy and hold a (freakin') gun to his head. Show me that you're good for something besides (sleeping with) half of America."

Read the rest at Human Events here.

Greg Craig, Obama, and Cuba

What do the Clintons, Obama, and the castro's have in common? A lawyer named Greg Craig. Boy, I don't know how I missed this: Clinton Lawyer Who Orchestrated Elian Gonzalez Fiasco Now w/ Obama. That's right, Clinton's paid counsel during the impeachment proceedings, and the lawyer who represented Juan Gonzales, castro in Elian's asylum case, is Obama's foreign policy advisor.

We know Obama said he's in favor of meeting with castro, is he, like Clinton, in ADM's pocket? So far, I haven't found a money trail other than trips on the company's private jets, and a fondness for ethanol, but where there's a castro, you can almost guarantee there is corruption.

Stay tuned.

H/T: Ray

Let's talk about electability

I've already said why a McCain presidency and his policies would be a disaster for the Republican party and the conservative movement and I generally get an odd reaction. People say, of course he is more liberal than we would like but he can win. He can beat Hillary!

Much has been made about McCain's supposed electability. I do not buy that tall tale. I don't think the way to win over independents is to parrot liberal ideology. Some people point to polls that show McCain beating Hillary head-to-head as support for their electability theory. Now I work with surveys every day so I'm not the type of person who dismisses the science of polling. But polls are a snapshot in time and things change over time. The election is 10 months away. 10 months ago Rudy Giuliani had a commanding lead in the polls. What happened? Several things, but mainly people who were asked about candidates in a poll said they liked those candidates they were most familiar with. Answering a question in a telephone interview 10 months before the election is not the same as casting one's vote once one has had a chance to tune into what candidates are saying and what the media is saying about them.

Remember when Fred Thompson announced his candidacy? The South Carolina polls at that time had him leading in that state. As we all know Fred finished 3rd and ended his campaign.

Now I want everyone who is interested in this presidential race to watch some video of how Mitt Romney debated John McCain yesterday. In the clip McCain attacks Romney's record and then Romney corrects McCain with his version.

Now take a look at Hillary Clinton and imagine her in a debate with either of these guys. Who looks presidential? Who looks electable to you?

Colores - Documenting the Colors of Cuba

Hi all - Monica here from La Primera Generación. It's a great honor to contribute to Babalu, the site that sparked my interest in Cuba.

I posted the following on La Primera Generacion yesterday. This documentary about Cuba is a great propaganda-free picture of what life really looks like in Cuba. It's creatively structured around various colors in the images. If you have 15 minutes to watch this, I highly recommend it. While there are many great photographers that have captured similar images, video just gives it a more realistic feel.

I don't know anything about the filmmaker or her/his stance on Cuba, but to me, the last segment about the dog personifies the plight of the Cuban citizen. They sit there, completely jaded, as the rest of the world flies by and the government steps all over them. Or as raul rapidly ascends the "popularity ladder" while fidel drops back to #19 :)

(Video below the fold.)

The don't call him the "Great One" for nothing

From Mark Levin on National Review:

I don’t pretend to speak for President Reagan or all conservatives. I speak for myself. But I watched the Republican debate last night, which was held at the Reagan library, and I have to say that I fear a McCain candidacy. He would be an exceedingly poor choice as the Republican nominee for president.

Let’s get the largely unspoken part of this out the way first. McCain is an intemperate, stubborn individual, much like Hillary Clinton. These are not good qualities to have in a president. As I watched him last night, I could see his personal contempt for Mitt Romney roiling under the surface. And why? Because Romney ran campaign ads that challenged McCain’s record? Is this the first campaign in which an opponent has run ads questioning another candidate’s record? That’s par for the course. To the best of my knowledge, Romney’s ads have not been personal. He has not even mentioned the Keating-Five to counter McCain's cheap shots. But the same cannot be said of McCain’s comments about Romney.

Read the whole thing.

Decoding McCain

Let's take a look at some of what John McCain said at last night's GOP debate and see if we can figure out what it really means.

Now, suppose that the governor [Schwarzenegger] and I are wrong, and there's no such thing as climate change. And we adopt these green technologies, of which America and the innovative skills we have and the entrepreneurship and the free market which is embodied by Senator Lieberman's and mine cap-and-trade proposal is enacted, and there's no such thing as climate change. Then all we've done is give our kids a cleaner world.

McCain minimizes the implications of trying to live up to the conditions of the restrictive treaties that adherents to the man-made global warming religion are trying to foist on the U.S. Nobody has a problem adopting green technologies if that's what the market demands, what conservatives can't abide by is trying to manipulate the market using taxation. He also mistakenly mixes the idea of pollution with global warming. According to the man-made global warming crowd the problem with automobiles and industry is not the pollutants anymore (because the market demanded huge strides in cleaning up the environment) its CO2. That's carbon dioxide. What you and I exhale and what plants "inhale".

I think that we've got to return to the principal that you don't lend money that can't pay it back. I think that there's some greedy people on Wall Street that perhaps need to be punished. I think there's got to be a huge amount more of transparency as to how this whole thing came about so we can prevent it from happening again.

Notice how Wall Street is greedy according to McCain. As if trying to earn a profit were something to be ashamed of. Conservatives believe that bad decisions should be rewarded with bad outcomes. Not creating more regulations the encumber the economy or bailouts that put the burden of paying for those bad decisions on people who made good decisions.

If necessary, we're going to have to take additional actions and particularly in cleaning up a mortgage. A mortgage should be one page and there should be big letters at the bottom that says, "I understand this document."

We ought to adjust the mortgages so people who were eligible for better terms, but were somehow convinced to accept the mortgages which were more onerous on them. We need to fix the rating systems, which clearly were erroneous in their ratings, which led people to believe that there were these institutions which were stable, which clearly were not.

Again, here McCain calls for a big government solution to a problem that occurred in the private sector. Maybe I'm crazy but this kind of talk from the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party is scary to me. Anyone that has ever signed up for anything online and clicked the box that says "I have read and understand these terms and conditions" without reading and understanding the terms and conditions knows how naive and simplistic McCain's approach is. As if that were going to solve the problem. Here's a thought, people should hire lawyers to inspect legal documents that bind them with certain responsibilities.

In response to his voting against the Bush tax cuts because at the time he said that "they favored the wealthy too much" McCain dodged with this answer:

Actually, I think lower and middle income Americans need more help. Obviously, I think that's the case today. That's one reason why we're giving them rebates.

This right out of the liberal play book of class warfare. It's based on the false assumption that the rich are rich on the backs of the poor. This is probably the most heinous lie of leftist thinking. Wealth is created. We are no poorer because Bill Gates is rich. In fact Bill Gates employs a hell of a lot people that perhaps wouldn't be working if not for his innovations and leadership. Not only that, as a country we might be significantly less developed technologically and therefore have lower productivity if not for Microsoft. That's just a tiny example, but taken in the aggregate, big business is what makes our country thrive and creates an environment for small business to prosper. Rather than back off from the populist/leftist rhetoric (that Hugo Chavez might blabber on with), last night McCain entrenched himself in this false ideology.

And as far as Washington politics is concerned, I think my friend Governor Huckabee, sir, will attest the millions of dollars of attack ads and negative ads you leveled against him in Iowa, the millions of dollars of attack ads you have attacked against me in New Hampshire, and have ever since.

A lot of it is your own money. You're free to do with it what you want to. You can spend it all. But the fact is that your negative ads, my friend, have set the tone, unfortunately, in this campaign.

Here's McCain acting offended by Romney who had the temerity to spend his personal fortune on this campaign. Remember that in addition to his obvious contempt for the wealthy, McCain isn't big on freedom of political speech. His McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform act is an affront to the first amendment and limits who can say what within a certain time of an election. Besides that McCain is the pot calling the kettle black because it was he who lied about Romney's position on a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq on the eve of the Florida primary. A lie so egregious that almost every pundit, even the liberal ones that love McCain, called him on it. Yet McCain continued to lie about it even after Romney refuted the charge and essentially called McCain a liar. McCain doesn't like negative ads because he can't run on his record which is far more liberal than most Republicans think it is. His lifetime ACU ratings are deceptive because he's been in the Senate so long that his more recent liberal votes don't yet outweigh his earlier more conservative positions.

I led the largest squadron in the United States Navy. And I did it out of patriotism, not for profit.

Again, look at what McCain thinks is a cardinal sin: making money. While I respect anyone that puts on a uniform and serves the country honorably, like McCain did, that doesn't automatically qualify you to be a great president. I think we Cuban-Americans know a thing or two about that.

Oh, I'm sure that, as I say, he's a fine man. And I think he managed companies, and he bought, and he sold, and sometimes people lost their jobs. That's the nature of that business.

Here again the knock on big business. For the record, Romney made his personal fortune by buying sick companies, turning them around and then selling them for a profit. Many times those sick companies needed to lay off workers. That's why they were sick. I don't think there is a reader of this blog that would shed a tear for a single Federal employee who lost his job in a wave of government layoffs intended to make the bureaucracy more efficient and less expensive. Apparently McCain would.

These are the things that John McCain said at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on a night he was supposed to be REACHING OUT to his conservative base. Imagine what he'll do once he doesn't have to appeal to us.

Ladies and gentlemen, if a big government, anti-business, class warfare candidate is what you think conservatism is today then certainly the movement is dead or at least on life support.

To me conservatism is about doing what's best for the country, not what may (debatably) help win an election. If the way to win an election is to pander to people's worst instincts by blaming the free enterprise system and the first amendment for our country's troubles, then I'd rather lose now and regroup. The American people have shown time and again that when they are exposed to the reality of leftist policies that they reject them.

If you live in a Super Tuesday state I urge you to read the debate transcript and see what Romney had to say. The consensus is that he won the debate. While question marks surround him as well, he has at least articulated a conservative message and shown an awareness of what makes McCain a bad potential president and contrasted himself accordingly.

With rue my heart is laden...

This is an absolute must read.

To me, the only truly worthy candidate for President remains Fred Thompson.

Why McCain?

McCain won the Florida Primary with the help of defecting Cuban American Giuliani supporters. The question is why these voters broke for McCain and not Romney. Or perhaps a better question would be why they supported Rudy in the first place.

On Tues, the Weekly Standard suggested that the initial support for Rudy came from his tenure as “America’s Mayor” and his harsh stance against castro when the latter was in NYC. Can you hear it now: “el tipo no tiene pelo en la lengua,” uttered in admiring accents? Faced with his probable loss, huge numbers of primary voters then switched their allegiance to McCain. So why McCain and not Romney or Huckabee or even Paul?

The standard credits McCain’s military experience. I have my own theory, which is it was “the hair,” not McCain’s bald pate or Romney’s luxuriant, seemingly numerically arranged mane, but rather the metaphorical hair on McCain’s chest. McCain, whether you support him or not, most definitely does not have hair on his tongue and comes across as an hombre de pelo en pecho.

When he says he will follow Osama to the gates of Hell, he thrills Cuban hearts. When he imagines a meeting with the Cuban torturers who instructed his own North Vietnamese captors and hints, ever so dryly, that he would take matters into his own hands, it is a sentiment, that thirst for justice, or even revenge, they share.

So, it’s not surprising to me that the majority of Cuban American voters went for McCain, conservative or not. Faced with two viable candidates, neither of who had impeccable conservative credentials, I am sure that many made a reasoned choice; but I suspect that for a substantial number, the choice came down to one sentence-“el tipo tiene cojones.” All of which begs the question, how much have we really learned…

Disclaimer: The preceding does not constitute an endorsement or condemnation of any kind.

Cross posted at NinetyMilesAway.

PFFFFT

HAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE
HOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

PLEASE STOP...I CANT STOP LA...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE

OH MAN...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

MY SIDES HURT FROM LAU..HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

HEHEHEHEHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHOHOHOHOHOHO

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

OH DEAR LORD I CANT STOP HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

HAVANA (AP) — Acting President Raul Castro — not his older brother Fidel — was the top vote-getter in Cuban parliamentary elections, according to official results Wednesday.

Bespectacled, camera shy and far less charismatic than Cuba's ailing long-time leader, the 76-year-old Raul received 99.4 percent of votes cast in the family's base of Santiago in eastern Cuba — a percentage point more than Fidel got.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I swear, I dont know what's funnier, the actual "article" or the visual of the journalist actually trying to make it a serious story.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
ME MEOOOOOOOOO
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

OOPS.....

Cookoff from Marta's Cuban American Kitchen

I have to feed about a dozen football fans on Superbowl Sunday.

I would prefer to make one big pot of something rather than a bunch of little snacks.

My husband suggests chili. One pot. Hearty. Will feed an army. "It’s a Superbowl Classic," he argues.

Okay, I might have to agree there, but . . .

Me: “Chili? Really? I don’t know. It just sounds unimaginative. Not feeling it.“ (I pantomime a huge yawn)

Husband: “Chili has meat in it. Adds to the protein content. And did I mention it’s a Superbowl Classic?”

Still not convinced.

Husband: “What is your suggestion for a one pot, hearty souplike meal, oh Cuban kitchen goddess?” (I think he was going for sarcasm or flattery there, but I kind of like it when he calls me a goddess, but that’s not important right now. . .)

Me: ‘I was thinking of a beautiful, mouthwatering and hearty black bean soup.” (suggested, with multiple adjectives, in my most manipulative Cuban wife way. =D)

Husband: “Yes, I agree that your soup is wonderful, but it’s missing the meat!”

Me: “That’s because it’s not chili, silly, it’s soup. But if you have your heart set on chili, you can just add last night’s picadillo to my black bean soup. Duh.”

Ooh, snap! Time to do my victory dance in the end zone! and maybe an entire victory lap around the house. =D

Cuban Black Bean Soup/Chili

1 pound black beans, rinsed
4 cups chicken stock – homemade or canned
4 cups water
2 bay leaves
1 Tbsp. Cumin
1 Tbsp. Oregano
Olive oil – a little for sauté, plus 1/4 cup added later to soup
1 large sweet red pepper – cut in half – (1/2 coarsely chopped)
1 large yellow onion – coarsely chopped
1 large green bell pepper – coarsely chopped
4 – 6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup red wine
Salt and pepper to taste

1) Pour rinsed beans into a large stockpot with chicken stock.
2) Add bay leaves, cumin, oregano and 1/2 of the sweet red pepper.

3) Turn heat to high and bring to a boil.
4) Boil for about 3 minutes on high heat.
5) Cover and simmer on low for about 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until beans are tender.
6) Remove the red pepper.
7) In a small skillet, sauté onion, green and red pepper in olive oil until peppers are soft and onion is translucent. (this is your sofrito)
8) Take this sofrito, put it in a blender and puree.

9) Add the pureed sofrito to beans.
10) In the same skillet sauté the garlic until fragrant, but not burned.
11) Add garlic to the beans.
12) Add sugar, red wine and salt and pepper to taste.
13) Continue cooking on medium heat until it’s very thick – 45 minutes to 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
14) It will be very thick soup, but if you want to, you can seriously add last night’s picadillo and pretend you’re having chili. ;-)

WashPo: "Is McCain a Conservative?"

Robert Novak weighs in on our discussion.

According to exit polls, voters calling themselves "very conservative" supported Romney in Florida by two to one, and McCain still won in a state described as a microcosm of America. McCain survived a scathing conservative talk-radio assault led by Rush Limbaugh. Romney's appeal to the right on immigration backfired, triggering Sen. Mel Martinez's endorsement of McCain and a five-to-one margin for him in the Cuban[-American] community.

McCain as the Republican nominee would need those "very conservative" voters. He will encounter some of them at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington Feb. 7-9. His campaign asked yesterday for McCain to be able to speak there after rejecting an invitation to last year's meeting. At CPAC, he might well consider providing "straight talk" about Samuel Alito and promising to veto any tax increase passed by a Democratic Congress.

Not this Cuban-American.

"But I'm exempt, of course."

" 'We Just Have to Slow Down Our Economy' to Fight Global Warming."

UPDATE: Henry "Killjoy" Gomez did not allow me to enjoy this story for long:

I hate to be the one to burst the bubble but here's Clinton's remarks in full:

And maybe America, and Europe, and Japan, and Canada — the rich counties — would say, 'OK, we just have to slow down our economy and cut back our greenhouse gas emissions 'cause we have to save the planet for our grandchildren.' We could do that. But if we did that, you know as well as I do, China and India and Indonesia and Vietnam and Mexico and Brazil and the Ukraine, and all the other countries will never agree to stay poor to save the planet for our grandchildren.

Even the folks at NRO are saying this is a hatchet job on the philanderer in Chief.

My warning, that if these leftards take over we're doomed, still stands. :-)

Nancy Reagan for McCain, somewhat

From The Drudge Report:

EXCLUSIVE: NANCY REAGAN FOR MCCAIN, TOP SOURCE TELLS DRUDGE: 'SHE ADORES HIM, AND IS FULLY SUPPORTING HIM IN HER PRIVATE LIFE. SHE WILL NOT PUBLICLY ENDORSE'...

Code Pin*a (UPDATED)

I apologize for the effusive title, I just couldn't hold back.

A few weeks ago the Cuban-American community got raked through the coals for our "behavior" during a Code Pink "rally" at Versailles restaurant. I recall reading quite a few negative articles in the MSM about the incident, but also remember reading many comments in support of the community vis-a-vis the Bacalao Brigade.

You know what? Im glad we ripped their little pink crap off their truck. At least we aint Berkeley:

Members of the Berkeley City Council showed their opposition to a Marine Corps recruiting office in Downtown Berkeley last night.

Council members supported the two resolutions-one supporting anti-war protests and the other criticizing military recruitment practices-citing opposition to the war in Iraq, deceptive recruitment practices and the right to protest.

“By taking a stand against recruitment we are protecting the health and safety of our youth,” said PhoeBe sorgen, a member of the Berkeley Peace and Justice Commission. “I see the protest as taking a proud and courageous stand.”

Code Pink, a national anti-war grassroots organization, will be granted a parking spot for their regular Wednesday afternoon protests and will not need to apply for a sound permit for the next six months, under one resolution.

Yeah, we may be boisterous and intransigent, but at least we fight for what's right and dont let some commie Pinko Bacalao Brigadeers push us around. Much less relegate the very same military that fights and dies for our freedoms to being "uninvited and unwelcome intruders."

Note to the USMC: Screw Berkeley, come on down to Miami. We got your six.

Siempre Fiel

Via Michelle Malkin.

Update: I just couldnt resist lifting this image from A Newt One:

One monkey don't stop no show

As a result of the primary election here in Florida and the perceived likelihood that McCain will continue on to win the other primaries and the party’s nomination, it seems that come November those of us who hold dear our conservative ideals will end up having to vote against a candidate who is the antithesis of what we believe in instead of for a candidate who represents our interests. Because of this, many have begun to administer the last rights to the conservative movement in this country. Without a leader that believes in conservative ideals, who is not willing to compromise those ideals, many believe the movement cannot survive and will surely collapse.

These feelings among all of us, me included, are authentic. But we have to ask ourselves if we follow a person, or do we follow an ideal?

These past couples of days have been difficult for us. And the remainder of this election season will not offer any reprieve from the frustration. Nonetheless, we cannot lose sight of what our values consist of. They consist of ideals, beliefs, and convictions that we hold dear. So dear that no man, no political outcome, no adversarial movement can destroy it. They can badmouth it, they can attempt to discredit it, they can try to dilute it, but they will never be able to eliminate it, or us. Our movement is not weak, only our leadership is.

Keep this in mind: Through harassment, jailing, beatings, and murders, the Cuban regime has kept the movement to end tyranny in Cuba unorganized and without a leader. Yet they have continually struggled for their freedom for nearly fifty years. If we give up on our movement, how can we expect them to continue theirs?

Our beliefs and our ideals are bigger than any one man. John McCain will never be able to carry our movement forward, but neither will he be able to stop the show.

Here's your nominee....

Speaking about Global warming

USA Today, November 2004.

Sen. John McCain called on President Bush Tuesday to do more to fight global warming. McCain, R-Ariz., pointed to a study on rising Arctic temperatures as further evidence that changes in the earth's climate aren't being addressed seriously enough.

"Some of us believe that the accumulation of knowledge argues that we act, rather than continue to accumulate knowledge," McCain said in criticizing the Bush administration's climate strategy as research-heavy.

McCain said the study, which was released last week, "clearly demonstrates that climate change is real and has far-reaching implications for society." (Related story: Report on Arctic warming)

McCain has held more than a dozen hearings to build support for a bill he sponsored with Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., to impose modest mandatory controls on U.S. greenhouse gases.

Op-ed written by McCain and Joe Lieberman, February of 2007

THERE IS NOW a broad consensus in this country, and indeed in the world, that global warming is happening, that it is a serious problem, and that humans are causing it. The recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded there is a greater than 90 percent chance that greenhouse gases released by human activities like burning oil in cars and coal in power plants are causing most of the observed global warming. This report puts the final nail in denial's coffin about the problem of global warming...

The debate has ended over whether global warming is a problem caused by human activity. Consequently, we can and must act now to solve the problem, or else we will bequeath a dangerous and diminished world to our children and grandchildren.

The debate has ended says McCain and what's the solution to the problem according to McCain? According to National Review:

The proposed bill, co-sponsored with Joe Lieberman, mandates an energy-rationing scheme that all economists acknowledge is equivalent to a broad-based energy tax which is similar to Bill Clinton’s 1993 Btu tax proposal. Energy would be taxed through the back door by placing a cap on the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) that energy-producing companies can emit. It puts a legal limit on the amount of energy that can be drawn from conventional sources such as oil, coal, and natural gas.

The EPA has estimated what the McCain energy tax would mean to consumers. Since the bill’s provisions are phased in, the full cost of the tax would not be felt for a number of years. But in a letter to Senator McCain dated July 2007, the EPA estimated that the tax will be about $.26 cents in current dollars per gallon of gasoline by 2030 and $.68 cents per gallon by 2050. For electricity, the EPA estimates that the McCain energy tax would increase individual’s electric bills by 22 percent in 2030 and 25 percent in 2050.

Who needs the Democrats to implement regulation and taxation, under the pretext of helping to arrest rising temperatures that until very recently scientists believed were falling, when you have John McCain the paragon of conservatism to do it?

Friends, (as McCain is fond of saying when he puts on his "straight talker" mask) the communists that failed to beat us in open competition, that failed to beat us militarily, are back and they are trying to dismantle American industry and American competitive advantage and lower American standards of living through the cult that is modern-day environmentalism.

Why would anyone consider admitting this Trojan horse into the White House. If we're going to get screwed it might as well be by our enemies.

McCain Agonistes

Victor Davis Hanson of National Review's The Corner wrote his take on yesterday's Florida victory and what McCain needs to do woo the conservative base of the Republican Party:

I pray that John McCain can rally the base — since whatever anger conservatives hold toward him should pale in comparison to the specter of 16 years of the Clintons or Barack Obama’s European-style democratic socialism (with John Edwards as a possible attorney general). His acceptance speech seemed designed to do just that by references to tough judges, magnanimity shown his rivals, the evocation of conservatism, and a promise to stick to its principles, and I expect that will continue.

He might also:

--Either overtly or privately assure conservatives that his vice presidential pick will be a base conservative — someone, for example, like Fred Thompson. A possibility at a future date would be to consider the arch-rival Romney (in the manner that Reagan selected the younger bitter rival “voodoo economics” George Bush) as a VP candidate (especially key, given McCain’s age and Romney’s robustness).

--Drop the names of the sorts of Cabinet appointments he might make — Rudy Giuliani as attorney general, Joe Lieberman as secretary of defense, Romney as secretary of treasury, etc.

--Meet head on with the Right media — go on with Hannity, Rush, etc., talk with National Review, etc. — and take the blows and acknowledge past differences, occasional rifts, and promise conservative principles — and do so in a gracious manner

--Stress the common adversary, especially the far left-agenda voiced by Obama and Edwards, and the reprehensible tactics of the Clintons.

--Seek out more piling-on with Republican-establishment endorsements, which is a real likelihood given the human propensity to align with a perceived winner. Expect Thompson to fall in line soon.

A final note: Conservatives who are skeptical of McCain should realize that their reconciliation with him should be easier than that of moderates and independents with Clinton. The former disagrees over ideology, but considers McCain a principled person and a hero; the latter have no problem with Clinton’s politics, but are quite repelled by the lack of character and principles shown by Billary.

I would expect National Review to continue with its endorsement and promotion of Mitt Romney, but also I anticipate that should McCain win, and I think that he will, NR will rally to unify behind the nominee whom the Clintons rightly fear.

—Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and author, most recently, of A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War.

(H/T Wife of Pitbull)

Congratulations Raul!

Raul tops brother Fidel in votes

My most heartfelt congratulations to Raul Castro on his having become the next primary target for an entire nation of maligned, angry people. Better keep your eyes peeled. What's that old adage about reaping what we sow? I'm just sayin' . . .

La Florida

WaPo "staff writer" Libby Copeland hates Florida:

Florida is the place for dreams, political and otherwise. And for having your dreams dashed.

(Two words, as if they needed to be mentioned: Al. Gore.)

Perhaps, Libby dear, to compliment your disdain for the Sunchine Estate- whose actual sunshine died for you back in November of 2000 - your next column should be on the number five-hundred, thirty seven.

Via the ever excellent Newsbusters.

I Was Cuba

For those of you living in the New York City area, Ramiro Fernandez and Kevin Kwan, creators of the new book, "I Was Cuba: Treasures from the Ramiro Fernandez Collection," will be holding an open discussion on their recent work. The event takes place February 29th - 7:00 p.m. at McNally Robinson - 52 Prince Street, New York City.

For more information, please visit the McNally Robinson site.

And for reviews on the new book, simply visit Amazon.

Monument to Agression

An old Brazilian guy, Oscar Niemeyer, architect by profession and communist and castro idolater by stupidity, donated a “Plaza-monument” to the people of Cuba. It was inaugurated on January 28.

“The open plaza containing the monument has 20,000 square meters of grey concrete in an ellipse shape with a capacity for 13,500 persons seated” The monument consists of “a monster with its mouth open and a Cuban with a flag confronting it, as a symbol of the resistance of the Cuban people against US aggressions.”

When I came across this “monument’s” picture, my first thought was “well, there’s something else that needs to be leveled when the communist regime finally expires” (along with che guevara’s insidious face on the side of the building bordering the “Plaza Cívica”).

Here’s the picture of the hideous sculpture. Rodin it is not.

But then I started thinking…I know, ouch!…with a blowtorch and a little Cuban ingenuity, maybe we can … resolver….something: A true symbol of the Cuban people confronting the real aggressor. Here’s My proposed enhancement:

Maybe we can get Val’s dad to do the iron work.

CREW under the microscope

Very revealing piece in Roll Call yesterday about a so-called watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).

CREW has made a habit of filing bogus legal complaints against the US-Cuba Democracy PAC, Bacardi, Mel Martinez, Lincoln Diaz-Balart, et al.

Well it turns out that these people who are always complaining about the who donates to which candidates are really the ones with the sleazy donors including The Arca Foundation (which is the Bagley family foundation, the home where Elian was taken in DC) and The Christopher Reynolds Foundation which have spent millions of dollars pursuing any means to pursue engagement with the castro regime.

Arca Foundation board member Margery Tabankin told Roll Call that she believes the foundation was supporting CREW for general operations, and that there was no mention of Cuba in the foundation’s discussion of grants to CREW.

A likely story. It turns out that these CREW complaints are nothing more than politically motivated witch-hunts funded by fidelistas and dialogueros.

It's official...

There's only ONE America.

And it doesn't like John Edwards!

Those who control the past...

control the future: who controls the present controls the past.

Oceania - 1984

Cuba - 2008

One piece of good news from last night

ABC News GMA is reporting (can't find a link) that we may not have to see this swollen-headed girly-man jerk-off much longer.

Good to know

Forbes provides a list of tax havens where you can settle when the Clintons pull up to 1600 Pennsylvania avenue now that the GOP has immolated.

"It's over"

From Michael Graham at NRO's Corner:

So it is over. Finished. In November, we'll be sending out our most liberal, least trustworthy candidate to take on Hillary Clinton—perhaps not more liberal than Barack Obama, but certainly far less trustworthy. And the worst part for the Right is that McCain will have won the nomination while ignoring, insulting and, as of this weekend, shamelessly lying about conservatives and conservatism.

State of Florida Election SNAFU

I'm not a conspiracy theorist but what we saw tonight was unmitigated bullshit. We were doing the Babalu Radio hour and monitoring the election results from various sources. The State of Florida's web site, was for some reason behind the TV networks that apparently get their information from the ASSociated Press. The state results were showing Romney ahead while the TV networks were showing McCain ahead. Later I heard Brit Hume mention on Fox that the "discrepancies" between the AP totals and the Florida Department of State totals had been fixed. What? What the hell is that? This state never ceases to amaze me when it comes to fucking up an election.

Memo to John Edwards

There's only ONE America...

And it doesn't like you.

Speaking of the Cuban Voter...

While we're waiting for the nail-biter in Florida, there's an interesting article on the Miami Cuban vote in The Weekly Standard. This time it's an examination of how the Republican vote is going to break, with a heavy emphasis on the defection of Cuban voters from Giuliani to McCain. So far their predictions look accurate.

The Cuban Voter

Today is Primary Day in Florida, so last night my phone was ringing off the hook with political recordings. I was half expecting to get a phone call from the late John Paul endorsing some candidate or other. Politicians have been hitting town recently like a bad smell, and the media have been touting the changing Cuban and/or Latino vote.

Some points being made in articles like that in yesterday's El Pais are verifiably true. That is to say, Miami Cubans tend Republican; Orlando Puerto Ricans, Democrat. Of course, like all sweeping generalizations, they are subject to error. Overall, Florida is a pretty conservative state. Other assertions like this one are less certain. (my translation)

Los hijos del exilio ya no tienen tan en mente los libros de historia, sino nuevos problemas que les afectan como ciudadanos estadounidenses.

The children of exiles no longer have their minds in history books, but rather the new problems which affect them as United States citizens.

This is true to an extent. We are more American than our parents. But for years, the press and the Democrats have been running around like Chicken Little heralding the demise of the Cuban American Republican bloc. A favorite corollary is that younger Cubans tend to care about Cuba less. In response to this one, I'd like to share a little story to illustrate a point.

Recently, I met up with a cousin of mine I hadn't seen in years, probably the member of the family most likely to vote Democrat. I told him, as I do anyone who asks, that I write a right wing, reactionary, Cuban American blog. I was surprised when he asked, "When did you get so Cuban? I don't remember you being particularly that...." At that moment in the way of Cuban families, everyone was talking at the same time, and I never got to answer. Later, when I tried, he said, "No, it's all right. I have, too."

I offer this little story as a caveat of sorts to all those who are counting on the younger generation being more liberal. Beneath our shiny American exteriors, we carry all of the baggage of our fathers. I can prove the point. Let a candidate who favors normal relations with Cuba and who praises the "achievements" in literacy and healthcare of the regime run for anything and see how many votes he or she garners from Miami Cuban Americans of any age.

I wish I could remember college philosophy. Then I might say that for us a strong Cuba stance is a necessary but not sufficient condition.

H/T Penultimos Dias

Goddamit!

Florida is supposed to have closed primaries. Take a look at this Sun-Sentinel article:

In northern Coral Springs, near the Sawgrass Expressway and Coral Ridge Drive, David Nirenberg arrived to vote as an independent. Nevertheless, he said poll workers insisted he choose a party ballot.

"He said to me, 'Are you Democrat or Republican?' I said, 'Neither, I am independent.' He said, 'Well, you have to pick one,''' Nirenberg said.

In Florida, only those who declare a party are allowed to cast a vote in that party's presidential primary.

Nirenberg said he tried to explain to the poll worker that he should not vote on a party ballot because of his "no party affiliation" status.

Nirenberg said a second poll worker was called over who agreed that independents should not use party ballots, but said they had received instructions to the contrary.

"He said, 'Ya know, that is kind of funny, but it was what we were told.' … I was shocked when they told me that." Nirenberg said he went ahead and voted for John McCain.

This is total bullshit. John McCain has reached the very verge of becoming the nominee of the Republican party by appealing to Democrats and Independents and now the freaking Broward County elections people are trying to throw him a bone here to.

Reflectioneering

So the Cuban government, as far as I can tell, has still not announced the official results of the Jan 20 “elections.”

In the meantime, the repression continues with more emphasis on “catch, threaten and release".

Lula’s visit to Havana resulted in three reflections from the semi-retired, but newly “re-elected” dictator. In the second of those reflections, he seems to be warning the Cuban people that Raul’s promised “structural changes”, specifically those in food production are unattainable:

Our soil is not suitable for the large-scale commercial production of cereals, as required to meet the necessities of a population of almost 12 million people, and the cost in machinery and fuel imported by the nation, at today’s prices, would be very high.

Also, there’s this not-so-veiled criticism of the Chinese and Vietnamese economic models that the pragmatic and collegial Raul is rumored to favor:

Besides, we do not have the required labor force to intensively take part in cereal production as the Vietnamese and Chinese do, growing rice plant by plant and often reaping two or even three harvests a year. It has to do with the location and the historical tradition of the land and its settlers.

What I find interesting is that Fidel, whom I once described as the Ralph Kramdem of Dictators, because of his penchant for highly optimistic, low on specifics, always horrific get Cuba rich-quick schemes, now seems to have morphed into Scotty from Star-Trek with a very “it cont be dunn cap’n” attitude. Even in the face of the utter, (udder)(sorry for the pun), failure of his economic policies, Castro can’t help but to bring up one of his failed grandiose schemes, “White Udder”, (Ubre Blanca) complete with an excuse on why “it cont be dunn”:

I continued with my explanation saying that in Cuba, we had a cow that broke the world record in milk production, a Holstein-Zebu hybrid. Right away Lula named her: "White Udder!" (Ubre Blanca), he exclaimed. He remembered her name. I went on to say that she would produce 110 liters of milk per day. She was like a factory, but she had to have more than 40 kilograms of fodder, the most she could chew and swallow in a 24-hour period, a mixture in which soy meal, a legume that is very difficult to grow in Cuban soil and climate, is a basic ingredient

Aside from contradicting his little half brother’s supposed and highly anticipated “changes” -even though the word “change” in Cuba will get you beaten and thrown in the slammer-his answer to Cuba’s many economic woes seems to be to live on the kindness of other nations, to beg for subsidies from countries like Venezuela and Brazil who have developed their economies on sound economic principles and free markets and not on the ideologically, not logically, derived “Guevara Economics”:

Che studied the budgets of the big Yankee companies whose managers lived in Cuba, not their owners. He drew from this a clear idea about how imperialism worked and what was happening in our society and this enriched his Marxist ideas and led him to the conclusion that in Cuba we couldn’t use the same methods to build socialism.

But even the failure of their economic policies can be justified because they were in a war economy and could not pay attention to details:

Che used to argue with Carlos Rafael Rodríguez about the self-financed or the budgetary method, things we didn’t consider that important then as we were involved in the struggle against the U.S. blockade, its aggression plans and the 1962 October Missile Crisis, a real survival issue.

What the excuse is for keeping the Cuban people in poverty after1962-after Kennedy promised Khrushchev that the US would not invade Cuba- he doesn’t go into, but he mentions, the “blockade”, Cuba’s geography and climate and even global warming-never failed leadership; a leadership that has been solely in his hands for nearly a half century- unchallenged.

All in all, Mr. Reflective or whomever is penning these missives, is dead set against any change that will improve the everyday lives of Cubans. And the solution offered, sort of, is for other Nations who have managed to develop their resources to send their wealth down to Castro so that their citizens can also experience the joys of Cuba’s “socialized misery.”

Two days later, however, Juventud Rebelde, published the 3rd of a series of articles alerting the Cuban population on the problems they face in putting food on the table. Just in case their empty pockets, empty refrigerators and grumbling stomachs didn't already alert them.

The article quotes one Armando Nova, an Economics professor.

He theorizes, as Economists like to do, that the problem in Cuba lies in the lack of production-that is to say the supply side- with this Gem of a quote :

“..there are added prohibitions that conspire against ourselves. One of these taboos is not to recognize the existence of the market…”

That, is a beauty. How can you fix an economic problem if you, like Guevara, refuse to accept the most basic law of economics: supply and demand? If you refuse to acknowledge that human economic activity is governed by the market through the law of supply and demand, you are doomed to fail because you go against human nature.

Nova, as an economist, realizes that in order to increase the supply of agricultural products to meet demand and lower prices, there have to be other reforms to facilitate increased production. This can only achieved if production is incentivized-another one of those human nature things- people only tend to do things that benefit them in some way. Logically not ideologically, Nova, offers up private property reforms as an incentive to get farmers to produce.

He rationalizes his ideological impurity this way:

" Neither Marx nor Engels, although they always prioritized the cooperative form of property, were in discord with the forms of individual or private property, what they did repudiate was the exploitation of man by man, inherent to the capitalist property".

Ah! another taboo that needs to addressed –the infallibility of Marx and Engels . That would be to boldly go where only “Gusanillos” dare to tread and that “cont be dunn" in Castro's Cuba.”

'Shoot Down' at Reason.com

Reason.com, the web site for the libertarian magazine Reason, has written a very nice post about Cristina Khuly's documentary 'Shoot Down'. An excerpt:

Now, from first-time director Cristina Khuly, comes Shoot Down, a brilliantly rendered and scrupulously even-handed documentary revisiting the 1996 Cuban downing of two civilian planes over international waters, both piloted by Miami-based exiles from the group Brothers to the Rescue. Khuly, a 37-year-old sculptor, is the niece of shoot-down victim Armando Alejandre Jr.

An event soon overshadowed by the saga of Elian Gonzales, the attack on the unarmed Brothers to the Rescue planes is now largely forgotten outside Miami. And despite the smokescreen of misinformation presented by Castro and his foreign enablers, the facts of the story are rather straightforward and grimly characteristic of a totalitarian regime.

As three Brothers to the Rescue planes approached Cuban territory, the lead plane, piloted by the group's founder Jose Basulto, briefly breached Cuban airspace. While the planes were searching for refugees in the water, officials in Havana, tipped off by a mole in the Brothers leadership, scrambled Soviet-made MiG fighter planes to knock the planes out of the sky. Basulto's plane managed to escape. When the other two were vaporized by Cuban missiles, both were flying over international waters.

Do yourself a favor and read the whole article.

Click here for info about Shoot Down and where its playing.

Hillary flops on Cuba Family Travel Restrictions

Remember when Barack Obama came to Miami last year? Remember his strategy to get to the left of Hillary on Cuba by offering a relaxation of the restrictions regarding family travel to Cuba? Remember when Hillary said she would stay the course and keep present policy?

She's hoping Democratic voters won't.

Humanizing CDR Thugs

Call them what they are, SS type security agents guilty of brutalizing and oppressing the Cuban people, not "Block-Watchers," a friendly sounding name similar to our "Neighborhood Watch," citizen organized neighborhood groups whose purpose is to protect citizens from criminals.

Are we suppossed to feel for these worms?

Excerpted from the Washington Post:

Once, in a bygone era when revolutionary fervor was at its apex, they were muscular entities, dominating street life and cementing castro's hold on power. But over the years they have atrophied, becoming more creaking relic than shining showpiece, victim of the waning enthusiasms of a population weary of economic deprivation.

As castro's brother, interim President raul castro, prepares to take full control after his brother's death, party officials take visiting dignitaries on tours of the committees, and there are signs that the younger castro is trying to inject new life into a system that could be crucial to solidifying his hold on power.

Police call block leaders more often, pressing aggressively for information, according to interviews with current and former CDR leaders. Earlier this year, Cuba's state-run television network broadcast an exposé shaming several committees for failing to post obligatory round-the-clock sentries.

"We're working to lift up the committees," said Over DeLeon, a veteran of the Cuban Revolution who has been a block committee president in Havana for most of the past four decades. "People have not been demonstrating the same spirit, faith and enthusiasm. The population is tired. It has been battling for many years. But we must be vigilant."

Restoring the CDRs to their former glory might be a monumental task. For every unabashed enthusiast such as DeLeon, it seems, there are other CDR leaders whose passion for the system has tapered off.

"We know who the dissidents are, where they work, who they meet with -- we know everything that happens on this block," DeLeon said. "Anyone who is not a revolutionary is an enemy of the Revolution."

The article is here, complete with an excellent photo of DeLeon and his wife.

A sincere apology

This morning I did something really bad. I know I should not have done it—I have been warned against it countless times—but I just could not help myself. It was an uncontrollable urge that came over me that I found impossible to ignore. Although I am quite aware that by doing what I did, I would incur the righteous wrath of many, I succumbed to the craving.

This morning I voted.

I know, I know—Cuban-Americans are not supposed to vote. Even though many of us are US citizens, we are merely intransigent rabble-rousers that time and time again have foiled your liberal machinations. We have committed the most mortal sin any minority can commit: We have thought for ourselves, and advocated issues we find important.

To those of you I have offended by exercising my constitutional right, and all the other horrible things we Cuban-Americans have subjected you to, I beg your forgiveness. I know my act this morning was reckless and crazy, but you have to understand; this democracy thing is so irresistible.

And just so you know that come November, I don’t think I will be able to resist the urge either.

Why Rudy was never going to get the GOP Nomination

One word: abortion.

It's not a matter of where you, my fellow Republican voters, or I stand on the issue. Whether you are "pro-choice" or not the Republican party has had a pro-life plank in its platform since 1980. Rudy has many admirable qualities and the highest name recognition in the GOP field, which is what made him a tantalizing candidate back when the time to vote was a year away. America's Mayor was going to take on the Clinton machine and win. But getting closer in to the primaries one has to analyze the candidates and their stances much closer. And Rudy just doesn't stand up to GOP scrutiny on some issues, and one in particular.

Conventional wisdom is that Rudy lost this election when he bailed out of New Hampshire, a state where his "moderate" views should have appealed to independents and Democrats that could vote in the Republican primary, and decided to bet all his chips on Florida.

But the truth is that Rudy lost the election many years ago when he declared himself in favor of legal abortion. Perhaps it helped him burnish his non-Republican Republican credentials in New York City but it put a ceiling on him as a national candidate for the GOP.

Rudy, we hardly knew ya.

A little dab'll do ya, Joe.

I dont know what hair products Joe Garcia uses, but some of their chemicals may be seeping into his brain:

"I think the same way that the Castro regime is coming to its biological conclusion, the Cuban population is coming to a generational change,” said Joe Garcia, director of the Hispanic Strategy Center at the New Democrat Network, a think tank. “And that’s reflected in this election.”

Obama’s position likely would be more appealing to younger Cubans, some say. The senator has signaled a willingness to ease the trade embargo if Cuba takes steps toward democracy as well as meet with Castro in his first year in office.

Also breaking from Clinton, Obama has voted against U.S. funding for TV Marti, a television station that transmits pro-American views on Cuban airwaves, and is open to negotiating with Raul Castro after the death of his brother Fidel.

Nice. Let's sit down and chat all smoochy like with the very regime that's screwed the Cuban people for fifty years.

For the life of me, I cant understand how some people can be so completely naive, so completely oblivious to history and so completely out of touch with reality.

Great Column in NY Sun

Our Trivialized Cuba Policy By MAURICIO CLAVER-CARONE'

Excerpt:

The wording of the GAO report also irresponsibly implies that there are no terrorists, spies and/or criminals coming into this country from Cuba, as if the GAO had been tasked with producing national security and intelligence estimates.

The report takes no notice that, of the five nations remaining on the American list of countries that sponsor terrorism, Cuba is the only one in the Western Hemisphere and by far the closest to America.

In its "Country Reports on Terrorism," the State Department writes that "the government of Cuba provided safe haven to members of ETA [Basque terrorist organization], FARC and the ELN [narcoterrorist organizations in Colombia] and maintained close relationships with other state sponsors of terrorism such as Iran. ... The Cuban government continued to permit U.S. fugitives to live legally in Cuba and is unlikely to satisfy U.S. extradition requests for terrorists harbored in the country."

In fact, in the last decade, there have been more convictions in U.S. federal courts of individuals conducting espionage activities for the regime in Cuba than for any other country on that list. These include a senior analyst at the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency and various efforts to penetrate the Central and Southern Command of the U.S. Armed Forces. Furthermore, American indictments accusing Cuban regime officials of crimes ranging from narcotics trafficking to the murder of American citizens are also outstanding.

Mr. Claver-Carone is a director of the U.S.-Cuba Democracy PAC in Washington, D.C. He is an attorney who formerly served with the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and has served on the full-time faculty of the Catholic University of America's School of Law and adjunct faculty of George Washington University's National Law Center.

Here is what engagement with the Cuban regime gets you

Engagement with the murderous Cuban regime has long been touted by our European friends as the key to freedom in Cuba. However, it seems that when they got there to "engage," they were distracted by the quaint island village and its happy dancing people.

From the travel section of the UK's TimesOnline, we get this wonderful travelers review of Cuba, one of their "10 Perfect Caribbean Islands."

BEST FOR TOURERS

Cuba The great thing about Cuba is that it really lives up to its postcard. In Havana, crumbling Spanish palaces in pastel colours exfoliate gently beside the Capitol Building, sensuous salsa music slinks out of every bar, and 1950s Cadillacs cruise around town, horns honking at cigar-toting matrons in melon-print turbans.

The city is a fabulously schizoid mix of faded 1950s glitz and revolutionary bombast – don’t miss the Museo de la Revolucion, where the exhibits include “the genital tweezers used by Batista’s thugs”. Your cultural tour should also take in the Buena Vista Social Club, the Cohiba cigar factory and a mojito-fuelled bar crawl in the footsteps of Ernest Hemingway.

That’s just the capital. Cuba demands wider exploration – especially Trinidad, a cobbled cowboy town that must be the cutest colonial settlement in the Caribbean, and the Turquino National Park, the original guerrilla stronghold of Castro’s revolution.

Just what the Cadillac cruising, horn honking, cigar toting, melon-print turban wearing Cubans need - a little more "engagement."

Today is election day in Florida

The day has arrived where Republicans in Florida get to select their nominee for the office of President of the United States. This election season seems to have started years ago, or so it seems since it's been non-stop politics since the mid-terms elections of 2006. I have been very wary of who would run. I wrote then that I was not happy with the direction of the Republican Party, away from its core principles of conservatism, and I'm still not. But, we have made our bed and we are sleeping in it, tossing and turning uncomfortably.

I don't have a candidate that excites me and gives me hope for our party. I am involved because I fear that the alternative is so much worse than I can imagine, that not getting involved would be suicidal. I am sorry Fred dropped out of the race, and I am sorry that Rudy has faded. Despite my misgivings about Rudy's liberal positions, I like him. And I "liked" Fred, too. And "like" is an important factor, that warm and fuzzy that a candidate gives you in addition to the positions you have in common. I don't think I "like" any of the remaining candidates.

With that thought in mind I will go to polls in about ninety minutes and cast my vote for Mitt Romney. Of the remaining candidates he seems to be the one that echoes my core conservative principles the best. He's not an ideal conservative by a long stretch, and he's far from being an ideal candidate for me, but he's the one that I feel will do the best job considering the alternative(s). His curriculum vitae, businessman (read: capitalist) and governor, at least tells me that he can manage large, complex organizations. The others don't have this "real world in the trenches" experience, they are professional politicians. I am tempted to write in a vote for someone I would truly want to lead this country, but I swore to myself that I would never waste a vote again.

So there you have it. I am not happy about it but we make the best of what we have. If you are in Florida go out and vote. If you're a Democrat, well I'm sorry to say your party doesn't give a shit about you since the Dem delegates in Florida don't count. But vote anyway. It's your civic duty and the least we can do in this great country we live in.

Not on my Block!

As the new dictatorship parades around in its new clothes, tossing out terms like "discussions," "reform,' and "human rights," the true nature of that body is easy to spot. The repression continues unabated. Recently Marc at Uncommon Sense noted that both the President of Flamur (the group that spearheaded the petition drive to eliminate the apartheid two-tier currency) and her husband, as well as the spokeswoman for the group were treated to the catch, threaten, and release treatment. To some, this seems an improvement. But I think it was Skinner who came up with the idea of random reinforcement. With hundreds languishing in the Cuban Gulag, the threat is not an empty one. And release is not assured when the State flexes its muscles.

The other preferred tactic of the born again Regime is the harassment and intimidation of those who don't get with the program. According to a dispatch from Havana, dated January 24 and written by Jaime Leygonier‏, Dr. Darsi Ferrer awoke one morning to find "Viva, Fidel!" painted on the wall of his house. As he went to remove it, he was informed he couldn't. Darsi then added an "Abajo" or "Down with" to the sign, as he indicated, to establish equilibrium. The situation escalated with Darsi and his wife at their fence calling the security people "Nazis" and the arrival of a busload that included many people Darsi recognized as having been in the mob that beat them at the Human Rights march. It was at this point that his neighbors, many of them elderly, answered the mob leader's call for "any revolutionaries on the block" by interposing their bodies between Darsi and the State thugs. One elderly lady confessed that she had even used "bad words," while her daughter, worried the old lady was going to lose her pension, attempted to get her back in the house. According to her, the would be repudiators were forced to get back on the bus and retreat "with their tails between their legs."

A small victory.

She really, really, truly, deeply cares

She cares. Oh does she care.

Miami mayor Manny Diaz endorsed Democrat Hillary Clinton on Sunday as the presidential candidate appeared at a private fundraiser in Miami Beach.

"Because she cares about Miami," Diaz said. "Because she cares about cities, whether you're talking about economic opportunity or global warming, housing, education, health care, rebuilding our infrastructure -- not just here but throughout the country -- she is committed."

The corrected sentence should read "she [has to be] committed." Elian, please pick up the white courtesy phone at the Revolutionary Palace.