A big thank you

I have been remiss in not posting this earlier but I need to thank all of the folks who pitched in and sponsored the last BUCL.org campaign (check out their names below the fold). In the past, our campaigns have been stand-alone in nature.

We helped expose the nature of tourist apartheid in Cuba and how it's been enabled by Spanish companies.

We denounced the hypocrisy of Sting and his band, The Police (who never played that concert in Cuba they had announced).

And we helped support the efforts of Cuban dissident Dr. Darsi Ferrer as he marched on International Human Rights day.

This last campaign was different. Fortunately it was only a miniscule part of a gigantic grassroots effort undertaken on behalf of Gorki Aguila by many who are friends of ours and some who are not. But that's OK. What mattered was that the regime felt external pressure for the first time that I can remember.

I need to specifically thank two special people. The first is Fernando Villar Jr. I first met Fernando when he came to my house to film an interview with me for a documentary he was making about the merchandising of the image of Che Guevara. It turns out that also appearing in the documentary is Paquito D'Rivera, the Grammy-winning jazz musician and composer who is very outspoken about Cuban liberty. I was humbled to share the screen with such a great man.

So when we decided to put together a campaign to bring attention to the case of Gorki Aguila I immediately thought of Paquito and wondered if he could help us out. As luck would have I told Ziva about my idea and she forwarded me an open letter that Paquito had already written about Gorki. I was emboldened by the fact that Paquito knew what was going on with Gorki and so I contacted Fernando to see if Paquito would join us as the honorary chairman of the campaign. Fernando called Paquito and of course Paquito said yes. Fernando says Paquito was ecstatic to help however he could and he approved the press release in the blink of an eye. It should be noted that Paquito also signed Ernest Hernandez Busto's open letter to Cuban musicians asking them to speak out on behalf of Gorki.

I was always an admirer of Paquito D'Rivera but today I can honestly say he's my hero.

By the way, Fernando Villar Jr.'s documentary about Che merchandise has not been released yet though I have seen a cut of the short film. It's excellent and I will post more info about it here when it comes out.

Pushing the wall

As Yoani Sanchez prepared for the fury of Hurricane Gustav she found the opportunity to make a post at her blog in which she includes the following:

What I can not fail to mention is that never as in these last two days have I seen so many agree and be joined by international public opinion, the media and part of Cuban civil society. Yesterday we proved that we can push the wall if we do it together. We've forced it to retract, to undo an injustice, and this is a very good precedent for us and extremely dangerous for "them". The Internet proved that it can be, in the case of Cuba, as a virtual ground for joint efforts. I hope that these centimeters that we were able to push the limits are succeeded by meters and meters of freedoms recovered.

I wrote a piece about this exact premise for Pajamas Media and I expect it to be published early this week.

Hurricane Gustav

Right now, Im sure our friends and fellow Americans in Hurricane Gustav's way are too busy getting ready to or already getting out of Dodge, but I thought Id ask for all of us to keep those folks in our thoughts and prayers. Gustav appears to be a monster of a storm.

A Cat 4 or 5 hurricane is bound to cause some major damage and we'll all need to chip in somehow after the storm. Ill post links to charities and organizations and drives as soon as Ive gathered them up.

Bishops correct Speaker Nancy Pelosi

Church leaders issued a statement in response to Nancy Pelosi's fraudulent remarks made on NBC's "Meet the Press." When asked about the Church's standing on when life begins, Pelosi responded in her usual self-serving manner:

"I would say that as an ardent, practicing Catholic, this is an issue that I have studied for a long time. And what I know is over the centuries, the doctors of the church have not been able to make that definition . . . St. Augustine said at three months. We don't know. The point is, is that it shouldn't have an impact on the woman's right to choose."

Church officials respond, from Catholic Online:

The Diocese of Fargo released a letter Wednesday written by Bishop Aquila who said that while the remarks "created confusion in regard to Catholic teaching," those familiar with it "can easily recognize the flaws in her remarks."

Respect life

"The Christian teaching on abortion throughout history is unchanged," he continued. "Human life from the moment of conception is to always be respected, treated with dignity, and protected.

"Catholics who support so called abortion rights support a false right, promote a culture of death."

"Out of respect for the teaching of Jesus Christ and the Church," added Bishop Aquila, "any Catholic who supports abortion rights has placed himself or herself outside of visible unity with the Church and thus should refrain from receiving holy Communion."

From Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap. and Bishop James D. Conley representing the Archidiocese of Denver:

Of course, we now know with biological certainty exactly when human life begins. Thus, today's religious alibis for abortion and a so-called "right to choose" are nothing more than that - alibis that break radically with historic Christian and Catholic belief.

Abortion kills an unborn, developing human life. It is always gravely evil, and so are the evasions employed to justify it. Catholics who make excuses for it - whether they're famous or not - fool only themselves and abuse the fidelity of those Catholics who do sincerely seek to follow the Gospel and live their Catholic faith.

The duty of the Church and other religious communities is moral witness. The duty of the state and its officials is to serve the common good, which is always rooted in moral truth. A proper understanding of the "separation of Church and state" does not imply a separation of faith from political life. But of course, it's always important to know what our faith actually teaches.

Read the articles here, and here.

The left in all its glory

If Babalu readers want to understand why I despise modern leftist/liberals so much, why I think they are the scum of the earth, why I think they are despicable douchebags, watch this video. It's another riff on the Hurricane Gustav theme started by Michael Moore:

This is the former National Chairman of the Democratic National Committee Don Fowler and Congressman John Spratt of South Carolina. Let RedState tell you more:

On a plane from Denver to Charlotte following the Democrats' convention, I found myself seated behind former National Chairman of the Democratic National Committee Don Fowler and Congressman John Spratt of South Carolina. Their conversation was interesting to say the least.

For example, they made fun of Sarah Palin for several minutes, Fowler calling her "Dan Quayle" on steroids and Spratt creatively describing her as "just terrible." They both agreed that, "Other than the simple fact that she's a female," she has nothing to offer.

[...]

[I}t's funny. That New Orleans will get a hurricane. That's funny because it is due to hit when President Bush is scheduled to speak. Isn't that cool? Fowler isn't the only one who thinks so, just ask Michael Moore.

We all know Democrats used and use Katrina as a political football as callously as possible. Here's a candid moment showing some can hardly wait for another one.

All Class.

The definitive profile of a castroite "security guard"

Loosely translated from PenultimosDias.com:

Do you see the dark man to the left of Gorki with the yellow golf shirt that has a small logo of "Che" on it? His name is Orlando. He lives on 21st Street between 26th and 28th, in the Vedado neighborhood, in one of those houses the revolutionaries gave away during the early years as spoils of war.

The house was earned by his father for executing. He was a peasant who fought in the struggle against Batista, but he was disabled by alcoholism a few years ago. He died recently.

They say that in moments of drunkenness, which were common, he would make proud statements about the many counterrevolutionaries that he had shot at the beginning of the Revolution. Perhaps with many bullets he won his home… and so much alcohol. Perhaps.

But let's get back to the son, the one in the photo.

As a child, he was the typical "dog killer" from a dysfunctional family. As an adult, he's basically a lazy bum. He's fathered several children with different women. His wife is known for selling powdered milk on the black market. His only actual occupation (other than what's in evidence in the A.P. photo which identifies him as a member of the Rapid Response Brigades in the service of State Security): confronted with a growing crime problem in the neighborhood, the residents have contracted him as a private security guard for 30 pesos a night.

Journalists and Cubanologists: analyze these details, strictly true, and you will have the key to understanding the "Cuban problem".

Gorki speaks

In an interview with the Spanish newspaper El País published today, Gorki Águila refuses to mince words.

"Lo más democrático del régimen es que reparte bien la miseria"

("The most democratic aspect of the regime is that it does a good job of distributing misery.")

The interview is obviously in Spanish, and you can read it HERE.

Quotable quotes

“We may be seeing the first woman president. As a Democrat, I am reeling,” said Camille Paglia, the cultural critic. “That was the best political speech I have ever seen delivered by an American woman politician. Palin is as tough as nails.”

- Camile Paglia, as quoted in The Times

The Lyin' King

(H/T Hot Air)

UK Telegraph on Gorki's case

Read it here.

It seems that the international media has been shaken from its stupor and is finally starting to do its job.

Secretary Gutierrez Condemns Actions Taken By Cuban Regime

Commerce News
August 30

WASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez released the following statement on reports that Cuban security forces beat several peaceful protestors during a music concert in Havana . The security forces attacked the concert-goers for unveiling a sign calling for the release of rock musician Gorki Aguila and leading a chant of “Gorki, Gorki, Gorki,” among those attending the concert. According to press reports, one of Aguila’s fellow band members was arrested, while the other protestors were forced to flee into the crowd to avoid further injury.

Thursday’s peaceful protest was in response to the arrest of rock musician Gorki Aguila, Monday, on charges of “dangerousness,” “pre-delinquent behavior,” and behavior “contrary to the standards of the communist morality.” Aguila, who uses his music to denounce the regime’s repressive policies, was tried Friday and fined the equivalent of $28, which is approximately more than a month’s salary for an average Cuban.

“We condemn the regime’s violent attack on peaceful concert-goers and arrest of Mr. Aguila. These actions are clearly contrary to the UN covenant Cuba recently signed, which recognized the right to freedom of expression.* Mr. Aguila was unjustly detained and charged. The Castro regime has an obligation to respect the human rights of the Cuban people. These rights include free speech. The Castro regime must stop denying Cubans their rights.”

*The Cuban regime recently signed the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which specifies in Article 19 that “everyone shall have the right of freedom of expression.”

Secretary Gutierrez co-chairs the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, a U.S. Cabinet-level commission formed to explore ways the United States can help hasten and ease a democratic transition in Cuba .

Contact: Office of Public Affairs

202-482-4883

Posted by Ziva at 04:38 PM | Permanent Link to this Post | Habla (4)

Is Obama Talking Secretly With Raul Castro?

This topic struck me as immensely newsworthy last week:

Is Obama Talking Secretly With Raul Castro?

That was before Gustav drew a bead on Louisiana. Right about now procuring enough plywood to board up my (Katrina-demolished and rebuilt home)and enough gas to get us to a friends in central Alabama by tomorrow is the only thing that seems remotely newsworthy....We only moved back into our Katrina-totalled house in Dec. of 2006! It's all Global Warming's fault--So it's all Bush's FAULT!!

It's not easy to be GREEN...

and still be cool and comfortable.

Touted as the "the most environmentally-sustainable" gathering in the party's history, the Democratic Party's elite found it difficult to forgo the idling limousines and SUVs.

They're not the ones that are supposed to sweat--it's us.

By their own words condemned

Please forgive me if you've just eaten: "This hurricane [Gustav] is proof that there is a god in heaven." There you have it, straight from Michael Moore's mouth. He wishes for Gustav to hit New Orleans because it'll interrupt the Republican National Convention.

(H/T Hot Air)

Palin on energy, with added bonus of a Biden slam

(H/T Hot Air)

Gorki is out of jail!

To say he is free would be an overstatement.

A.P. Photo of Gorki being led to his trial earlier today.

But Ernesto Hernandez Busto is reporting that Gorki was fined 600 pesos (about $40 U.S.) and that they changed the charge from "dangerousness" to "disobedience". Ernesto quotes Yoani Sanchez as saying that "the pressure [exerted on the regime] was worth it."

Postscript: Does this mean the going rate for the right to call fidel castro a "come pinga" has been reduced to $40 in Cuba? If so, I expect a momentous lift in remittances to the island.

The Real Cuba on TV

George Utset of therealcuba.com is appearing on Mega TV (channel 22 in Miami and also available on DirecTV) right now.

Palin on Alaskan oil, global warming, and John McCain

News Max interviewed Sarah Palin before she was pegged as a running mate by McCain.

This women knows what she's doing. My favorite line from the interview:

"You can be a reformer and also be a conservative."

Buh bye Obama.

Read it here.

Brains, BRASS AND Beauty

A triple threat. I just found out that Governor Palin came in 2nd place in the 1984 Miss Alaska Pageant.

I'd say she has traded up in her competitions since then.

**original title edited so as not to offend

Hillary reacts to McCain's V.P. Choice

Someone just broke the news to Hillary...

Amnesty International on Gorki's case

Here.

GORKI Update: Ernesto reports that he's been in contcact with Yoani via phone from Havana and that Gorki's trial has been postponed until 2 pm this afternoon:

PD4: Nueva llamada a Yoani. El juicio ha sido postergado para la sesión de la tarde, que empieza a partir de las 14.00 hrs. La gran novedad es que acaban de llegar “los servicios informativos de la TV cubana” al lugar. El periodista a cargo: Bernardo Espinosa. Así que prepárense, habrá circo.

Penultimos Dias has continuous updates on the "trial" right here.

Keep all razors and sharp objects away from Hillary Clinton!

If this is confirmed, they may have to put Hillary on suicide watch.

Update: Confirmed. That hissing sound you hear is Barrack Obama's deflating media coverage.

Update: Great analysis on McCain/Palin from good friend and colleague Ed Morrisey.

John McCain Makes His Veep Selection

HERE SHE IS

CNN and FOX are reporting that McCain has chosen Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate.

She is a conservative Republican, pro-life, a free-trade capitalist, an NRA member. Oh, and she's a woman, if you missed that.

This should re-define the Obama's CHANGE slogan. The Republicans have a little change of their own up their sleeves, huh?

You can read more about her HERE and HERE

Update (Val): What else needs to be said?

I have difficulty imagining Obama handling a fish, much less catching one.

Is it Governor Palin?

Lots of buzz about McCain's VP pick on the Internet.

The buzz says it's Palin. A woman. A conservative woman. A gun-rights woman who hunts and fishes. Hillary just placed the order for the industrial strength Tums and her personalized B. Hussein Obama voodoo doll.

If this pans out, it'll be an easier vote for me on November 4. I may even refrain from holding my nose...

Me cago en la mierda!

This is just tooo damned good not to link to. In Spanish.

Paquito D'Rivera Joins BUCL.org in Denouncing Arrest of Punk Rocker Gorki Aguila

Bloggers United for Cuban Liberty and Cuban-born musician Paquito D'Rivera condemn the arrest of Porno Para Ricardo front man Gorki Aguila, who faces trial in Cuba on Friday.

Miami, FL (PRWEB) August 29, 2008 -- Grammy Award-winning composer, saxophone and clarinet player Paquito D'Rivera has joined Bloggers United for Cuban Liberty in condemning Monday’s arrest of dissident punk rocker Gorki Aguila by Cuban authorities. Cuban-born D'Rivera and Bloggers United for Cuban Liberty call for Aguila’s immediate release.

"The rockers have historically been the most courageous and honest musicians in Cuba, standing up to the Castro regime, and Gorki Aguila is the latest in that proud line," D'Rivera says.

Grammy-Award Winning Musician Paquito D'Rivera

A Wednesday article from Miami Herald reporter Frances Robles says Aguila, front man for the band Porno Para Ricardo, faces charges of "pre-crime social dangerousness." Bloggers United for Cuban Liberty says this is a catch-all charge often used by the regime to repress dissent. According to the Miami Herald article, Aguila will face trial today, Friday August 29.

"Make no mistake about it, the band's lyrics harshly criticize the Castro dictatorship, and that is the real reason Aguila is being detained," says Henry Gómez, spokesperson for Bloggers United for Cuban Liberty. "Aguila's arrest is a blatant case of musical censorship on the part of the regime and shows that nothing has really changed in Cuba under Raul Castro since Fidel disappeared from the public eye two years ago."

D'Rivera urges his fellow musicians around the world to publicly express solidarity with Aguila and denounce this case of repression and censorship.

"We need to stand together and honor these men with the guts to do what the vast majority of musicians in my impoverished country haven't done," D'Rivera says.

Born in Havana, Cuba, Paquito D'Rivera is the winner of nine Grammy Awards. D'Rivera is celebrated both for his artistry in Latin jazz and his achievements as a classical composer. His numerous recordings include more than 30 solo albums.

Bloggers United for Cuban Liberty is a confederation of blogs and Web sites that pool resources and ideas for use in campaigns to raise awareness of the Cuban reality.

For more information about Bloggers United for Cuban Liberty or the group's condemnation against the arrest of Gorki Aguila, contact Henry Gómez.

Contact:
Henry Gómez
Hgomez@bucl.org
http://bucl.org

# # #

The above press release will hit the PR Wire service at 3:01 AM EDT

It can't happen here?

It happened in Cuba, it is happening in Venezuela, and it is happening in Ecuador, but they tell us it can't happen here.

DENVER -- Sen. Barack Obama's campaign organized its supporters Wednesday night to confront Tribune-owned WGN-AM in Chicago for having a critic of the Illinois Democrat on its air. (Listen to the interview.)

"WGN radio is giving right-wing hatchet man Stanley Kurtz a forum to air his baseless, fear-mongering terrorist smears," Obama's campaign wrote in an e-mail to supporters. "He's currently scheduled to spend a solid two-hour block from 9:00 to 11:00 p.m. pushing lies, distortions, and manipulations about Barack and University of Illinois professor William Ayers."

Sounds eerily familiar, but we have nothing to worry about... it can't happen here.

Unless, of course, The One says "Yes We Can!"

You're right about that, Bill

"People the world over have always been more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power." --Bill Clinton

Yoani Tells Us What Happened At the Protest Tonight

Yoaní Sánchez has told her story of what happened at the protest of Gorki's arrest which was held during concert across from the US interests section. It is posted in its entirety at Penultimos Días, but here is an excerpt:

El concierto empezó poco después de las 19:15 hrs, en medio de una fuerte presencia policial. De cada cinco asistentes al concierto, calcula Yoani, tres eran de algún tipo de fuerza represiva. “Evidentemente, dice, lo estaban esperando”. Cuando el concierto llevaba una hora de empezado, justo al final de una canción que estaban entonando juntos Polito Ibáñez y Pablo Milanés, un grupo de seis personas aprovechó el fade in del audio para gritar tres veces “¡¡Gorki, Gorki!! y levantar un pequeño cartel que decía solamente el nombre del rockero preso: GORKI. Al instante se creó un círculo de violencia extrema, en el que policías de civil y otros vestidos de verde golpearon a las mujeres y se ensañaron con los hombres que estaban alrededor del cartel. Hubo tonfas, golpes de kárate, patadas, sobre todo con Ciro y Hebert, y una persona de nombre Emilio Marill, de quien hasta el momento se desconoce el paradero.

My loose and quick translation:

The concert began a little after 7:15 in the middle of a strong police presence. For every 5 people in attendance there were three people of the repressive forces, Yoani estimates. Evidently, they were waiting for it. When the concert had been going on for an hour, just at the end of a song that Polito Ibañez and Pablo Milanés were singing together, a group of six people took advantage of the audio fade to scream "Gorki! Gorki! Gorki! "and raise a small poster that said only the name of the imprisoned rocker: GORKI. Instantly, a circle of extreme violence formed in that which civil police and other green-dressed officials struck women and took no mercy on the men who were around the poster. There were karate hits, kicks, mostly on Ciro and Hebert and a person named Emilio Marill, whose whereabouts are unknown at the moment.

You can read the rest of the harrowing experience HERE

H/T Aymee

The Speech by Obama

Change? In a Pig's Eye by Michael Pancier

I just spent the last 2 hours going through his speech which I saw and these are my observations. Rather than a rant, I've analyzed what he said and compared it to reality. The public and the media are getting smoked by this guy: pure and simple.

After having witnessed the rock concert otherwise known as the shining moment for the One, all I can say is that I was disappointed. I expected something more. I didn’t get it. I was impressed with Hillary’s speech and surely, if the Dems used their brains rather than their bleeding hearts, they would have selected her as their nominee.

The event was historic and that alone was reason enough to witness the event. It was all-visual. Smoke and mirrors. Because underneath the luster of it all, I simply heard the same old liberal rhetoric that the Dems have been spewing for the last 28 years.

The Junior Senator from Illinois said nothing to tell me how he will save the world and our souls. All I got was political doublespeak or what some of us refer to as “horse hockey.”

If I accept everything the Senator said as true, then pass the heroin because the apocalypse is here. Everything is falling apart. The economy is crashing into the ground. The world is going to end. Everybody is out on the street and all hope is dead. I’m thinking of the words atop the hates of Hell in Dante’s Inferno, “Abandon hope all ye who enter here.” If I accept the Senator’s rhetoric as fact, then we’re on our way to the gates of hell because everything is miserable and we’re simply going to kill each other unless he, the Savior, can save us from ourselves. His vision like the Democrat’s vision is that of pessimism, despair and malaise. The Democrats vision is akin to being presented with the most beautiful woman on the planet, and rather than saying, “Damn, that woman is beautiful, I’d like to sleep with her,” the Dems would spend their time looking for faults in the girl as an excuse not to sleep with her. But that’s the Democratic Party’s tradition. They want things to go bad and look bad so they can obtain a political advantage. They ignored the 2nd quarter economic figures that came out today. They were good. But they don’t want you to see that. They want us to feel like things are bad and not going to get better, unless they’re given the keys to power.

But let’s go through some of the things that he said in his speech.

Obama says: “Tonight, more Americans are out of work, and more are working harder for less. More of you have lost your homes, and even more are watching your home values plummet. More of you have cars you can't afford to drive, credit card bills you can't afford to pay, and tuition that's beyond your reach.”

The median salary in the US in 2001 was $ 45,300. Today, the median salary is $50,233.00. So what the hell is he talking about where he says that you are working harder for less? He talks about unemployment. Unemployment is up 1.4% since 2000, however, the labor force has increased from 142M to 153M and our unemployment rate today at 5.4% is less than what the rate was from 1980-1988 and 1990-1996. But they would want you to believe that this is a doomsday scenario.

Obama says: “But the record's clear: John McCain has voted with George Bush 90 percent of the time. Senator McCain likes to talk about judgment, but really, what does it say about your judgment when you think George Bush has been right more than ninety percent of the time? I don't know about you, but I'm not ready to take a ten percent chance on change.”

Well the truth is that: “According to Congressional Quarterly's Voting Studies, in 2007 McCain voted in line with the president's position 95 percent of the time – the highest percentage rate for McCain since Bush took office – and voted in line with his party 90 percent of the time. However, McCain's support of President Bush's position has been as low as 77 percent (in 2005), and his support for his party's position has been as low as 67 percent (2001).” Obama’s voting record shows that he voted with Bush 40-49% of the time and voted in line with fellow Senate Democrats 97 percent of the time in 2007 and 2005, and 96 percent of the time in 2006, according to CQ. So when he talks of change, is he talking about someone who votes 97% of the time with Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid? The Democratic Line? That’s not change; it’s the same thing you would expect from a typical liberal politician. Obama is a hypocrite and disingenuous when he says that McCain “has been anything but independent,” Obama is not “independent”, he’s part and parcel with the liberal democratic establishment.

Obama says “We measure progress in the 23 million new jobs that were created when Bill Clinton was president, when the average American family saw its income go up $7,500 instead of down $2,000, like it has under George Bush.” This is just smoke and mirrors with statistics for as I’ve shown above, the median rather than the average income, the true middle, has gone up $5K since 2000. So this is typical hogwash.

Obama says: “We measure the strength of our economy not by the number of billionaires we have or the profits of the Fortune 500, but by whether someone with a good idea can take a risk and start a new business,” yet his tax plan which will sock to folks over $ 250K per year socks it to small business owners who are majority S-corporations. The corporate income passes through to the personal income taxes of the shareholders, even if they do not take the money out of the corporation, and will be taxed. So now the additional taxes the shareholders will pay will deplete additional funds, which can be used to purchase additional goods, capital investment, raises, and hiring new employees. The United States currently has the second highest corporate tax rate in the world, and this nitwit is using his class warfare dialectic to somehow convince that corporations are not paying their fair share. The upper 2% of Americans that Obama wants to rob using the internal revenue code pay over 90% of the taxes in the US Treasury. So when he says he wants to cut taxes on the majority of middle class Americans who is he fooling? These folks pay much less taxes and any tax break would amount to little.

In his speech, all this guy did was talk about misery. You would think there are no successes in this country, except of course, himself.

Obama says: “Our government should work for us, not against us. It should help us, not hurt us. It should ensure opportunity, not just for those with the most money and influence, but for every American who's willing to work.” This too is disingenuous from someone who went back on his promise to take public funding like McCain did and has money up the wazoo from all liberal interests. There were a bunch of fat cat lobbyists in Denver with money for the Dems, but there is not much talk about them, except for the ABC reporters who were arrested trying to cover that story.

Here’s perhaps the biggest bs I heard from Obama all night:

“

Change means a tax code that doesn't reward the lobbyists who wrote it, but the American workers and small businesses who deserve it.

Unlike John McCain, I will stop giving tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas, and I will start giving them to companies that create good jobs right here in America.

I will eliminate capital gains taxes for the small businesses and the startups that will create the high-wage, high-tech jobs of tomorrow . . . I will cut taxes — cut taxes for 95% of all working families. Because in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle-class.”

Yet his tax policy will hurt small business by his raising of taxes on income and payroll taxes. Also, contrary to the talking points from the dems, there are no tax breaks for corporations who ship jobs overseas. It’s a lie. There is nothing in the IRC that makes corporations take jobs overseas. They take job overseas because labor is cheaper there. And if they make labor even more expensive here by giving unions a free reign, with the new labor amendments to the NLRA that will abolish the secret election requirement and even higher mandatory minimum wages, then corporations will have no choice to go overseas or pass the price increases to the public and thereby increase inflation.

Since the Bush tax cuts will sunset automatically, tax rates will increase to 39.6% on all income over $ 288,350. Currently, the tax rates for married joint are 10% between $0-16,050, 15% 16,050-65,100, 25% 65,100 and 131,450, 28% 131,450-200,300, 33% 200,300 – 357,700 and 35% 357,700 and above. So if you’re a family with taxable income of $100,000, your taxes under the Clinton era 2000 tax rates which will be the rates under Obama would be: $ 23,300. Under current tax rates, the tax would be $ 17,688, or a tax increase of $ 6,000.00. Furthermore, Obama’s plan when you read it, you will see that other than eliminating taxes on seniors with incomes less than $ 50,000 (the current amount is $32K per year), all he is doing is adding additional tax credits which are phased out as income rises.

This is Obama’s tax plan right out of his literature:

“Obama will cut income taxes by $1,000 for working families to offset the payroll tax they pay.

* Provide a Tax Cut for Working Families: Obama will restore fairness to the tax code and provide 150 million workers the tax relief they need. Obama will create a new "Making Work Pay" tax credit of up to $500 per person, or $1,000 per working family. The "Making Work Pay" tax credit will completely eliminate income taxes for 10 million Americans.
* Eliminate Income Taxes for Seniors Making Less than $50,000: Barack Obama will eliminate all income taxation of seniors making less than $50,000 per year. This proposal will eliminate income taxes for 7 million seniors and provide these seniors with an average savings of $1,400 each year. Under the Obama plan, 27 million American seniors will also not need to file an income tax return.”

So under his plan, if you are a senior with income of $50K or less per year, you’re going to get a break. But that’s it. His credits will phase out as you hit joint incomes of $ 100K. So when he says he will cut taxes for 95% of Americans, he is lying. The tax rates will be the same as they were in 2000 with the exception of the additional standard deduction the elderly will get.

Now if you have joint income of $ 250,000, under current tax code, your taxes would be $ 61,229. Under the Obama plan, your taxes will be $73,049 or a tax increase of $ 13K. The man is selling you smoke and mirrors and fireworks, but he’s lying when he says that he will cut taxes. Tax credits are not a tax cut. And this does not take into consideration the AMT which will cause you to pay more taxes as well. The marginal tax rates will be what they were under the Clinton Administration. And this genius somehow that this tax increases will help jumpstart the economy? Beats the hell out of me. And these tax credits of course will be phased out so not everyone will benefit as he has promised.

Of course, Obama gives you the Pelosi talking points on energy.

He says:

“And for the sake of our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, I will set a clear goal as president: In ten years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East.

Washington's been talking about our oil addiction for the last thirty years, and John McCain has been there for twenty-six of them. In that time, he's said no to higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars, no to investments in renewable energy, no to renewable fuels. And today, we import triple the amount of oil as the day that Senator McCain took office."

Well folks, Canada and not the Mideast is our number 1 oil supplier. Second, Obama and the Dems are against drilling in ANWR and the Gulf Basin when the oil there can provide us with energy for 60 years or more. It is a short-term solution, but not drilling will not eliminate our demand for oil and likewise, his alternative fuel mantra is simply farm subsidies for corn ethanol which is a disaster.

Obama says:

“Now is the time to help families with paid sick days and better family leave, because nobody in America should have to choose between keeping their jobs and caring for a sick child or ailing parent.

Now is the time to change our bankruptcy laws, so that your pensions are protected ahead of CEO bonuses; and the time to protect Social Security for future generations.

And now is the time to keep the promise of equal pay for an equal day's work, because I want my daughters to have exactly the same opportunities as your sons.”

What this means is that he wants to amend the Family Medical Leave Act which currently provides qualified employee job security and unpaid leave up to 90 days. He wants to amend the law to mandate that employers provide paid leave. Sounds like socialism to me.

I agree with him that the bankruptcy laws should be amended, but he’s full of it when he says that CEO bonuses have greater protection than pensions. That’s not true. Bonuses do not have preference under the code. This again is the same class warfare bs you expect from rich liberals with a socialist agenda.
Now he makes reference to “equal pay”. There is an equal pay act against gender discrimination which has been in effect since 1963 and Title VII which has been in effect since 1964. What he wants to do is enact amendments to the law which changes the 2-year statute of limitation to and endless statute of limitations which will benefit trial attorneys and bankrupt business. (The Ledbetter Act).
Obama says: “We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country.” But he said that if elected, he will sign the freedom of choice act which is currently in the Senate and the House which codifies under Federal Law Abortion on Demand. This federal legislation will supersede all state laws and constitutions and will even penalize doctors who on moral grounds refuse to perform abortions. And more interesting is that the law provides a civil cause of action against anyone who interferes with abortion on demand. Under this law, all parental notification requirements for abortion will be superseded by federal law so a 12 year old will be able to have an abortion without notifying her parents.

The rest of his speech is “happy talk” as he phrased it, so I’m not going to comment on it. His promises are the same crap John Kerry and other liberals have promised. The same old tired policies of the past that did not work. He wants to revive Jimmy Carter’s Windfall Profits Act. It didn’t work then and won’t work now. So when he talks of new ideas, he’s fooling everyone with his cult of personality. Now the liberals are so happy they are passing the joint tonight. What I’ve written here tonight are facts; the truth about what he really says. He’s a disingenuous politician; pure and simple. He has no accomplishments as a civil servant. But to the lefties, they don’t care. He can give a great speech.

Michael Pancier is an accountant and a Board Certified Labor & Employment Attorney.

News from Porno Para Ricardo

COMUNICADO DE PRENSA
PORNO PARA RICARDO
Agosto 28, 2008, 21: 00

Acabamos de recibir el testimonio de una persona cercana a los integrantes de Porno Para Ricardo, dándonos su testimonio sobre los eventos recientemente ocurridos en La Tribuna Antiimperialista, en el Malecòn de La Habana:

“nos dieron golpes
no se donde están ni Hebert ni Ciro
Yoani escapo
creo que se llevaron a alguien pero no se a quien
la prensa lo filmo todo
llevamos una pancarta y gritamos
la gente corría en masa y la seguridad daba golpes
por unos segundos el concierto fue un caos”

Alertamos a la comunidad internacional a seguir de cerca el caso de Gorki Águila y del estado en que podrían encontrarse Ciro Díaz, Hebert Domínguez y Renay Kayrus, integrantes de Porno Para Ricardo, así como de la bloggera Yoany Sánchez.

Porno Para Ricardo
La Habana, agosto 28, 2008, 21: 00

Petition to Free Gorki Aguila

Commenter Jgomez65 brings to our attention the fact that there is a petition to free Gorki at:

http://www.freegorki.com/

National Review on Gorki Aguila

Read about it here.

Obama campaign: Free speech unacceptable

As the coronation was underway in Denver, back home in Chicago Stanley Kurtz went on Milt Rosenberg’s radio program, "Extension 720," to discuss newly released documents chronicling Obama’s association with Ayers while working on the Chicago Annenberg Challenge.

Obama lied about his relationship with Ayers:

Obama supporters risibly complain that shining a light on the Obama/Ayers relationship is a “smear” and smacks of “guilt by association.” A presidential candidate’s choice to associate himself with an unrepentant terrorist would be highly relevant in any event — does anyone think the Obamedia would keep mum if John McCain had a long-standing relationship with David Duke or an abortion-clinic bomber?

But we are talking about more than a mere “association.”

Bluntly, Obama has lied about his relationship with Ayers, whom he now dismisses as “a guy who lives in my neighborhood.” Ayers and Obama have made joint appearances together; they have argued together for “reforms” of the criminal justice system to make it more criminal-friendly; Obama gushed with praise for Ayers’ 1997 polemical book on the Chicago courts; and they sat together for three years on the board of the Woods Fund, a left-wing enterprise that distributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to their ideological allies. Most significant, they worked closely together on the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC).

The CAC was a major education reform project, proposed by Ayers, which was underwritten by a $49.2 million grant from the Annenberg Foundation, complemented by another $100 million in private and public funding. The project ran for about five years, beginning in 1995. As the liberal researcher Steve Diamond has recounted, Ayers ran its operational arm, the “Chicago School Reform Collaborative.” Obama, then a 33-year-old, third-year associate at a small law firm, having no executive experience, was brought in to chair the board of directors, which oversaw all “fiscal matters.”

By the time the CAC’s operations were wound down in 2001 it had doled out more than $100 million in grants but had failed to achieve any improvement in the Chicago schools. What little is known about the grants Obama oversaw is troubling. As Diamond relates, one of the first CAC awards in 1995 was $175,000 for the “Small Schools Workshop,” which had been founded by Ayers and was then headed by Mike Klonsky. It was only the beginning of the CAC’s generous funding of Klonsky — a committed Maoist who had been an Ayers comrade in the radical Students for a Democratic Society (the forerunner of Ayers’ Weatherman terrorist organization), and who hosted a “social justice” blog on the Obama campaign website until his writings were hastily purged in June after Diamond called attention to them.

The Obama campaign declined Rosenberg’s invitation to have a representative on the show, choosing instead to issue an “Obama Action Wire” encouraging supporters to disrupt Kurtz’s appearance which it deemed “unacceptable.” So much for free speech.

Read the National Review Online editorial here, and don't miss Michelle Malkin's coverage here.

Ouch.

Important Memo on What to Wear Tonight for Obama's Speech

Proper Attire For The Temple Of Obama ("The Barackopolis")
Click the link below for the memo.

Download file

And for something serious, read this from the National Review on Obama's thuggish attempts to stifle free speech regarding his ties to Ayers.

Yes, there is such a thing as a Cuban Pizza from Marta's Cuban American Kitchen

Labor Day is upon us and it's traditionally a day to celebrate the end of summer and also a "day off for working citizens."

I’m taking that to heart and so I’m keeping things really simple in the kitchen.

What could be simpler and tastier than a Homemade Cuban Pizza?
(umm… that was rhetorical…) =D

Happy Labor Day!

The Very Best Homemade Cuban Pizza EVER

2 pkgs. Pre-made pizza crust or you can also use the refrigerated dough (I use Boboli Original Pizza Crust)
Olive oil
6 garlic cloves – minced
1 small yellow onion – diced
1/2 green bell pepper – diced
1 small can tomato paste
1 small can tomato sauce
3 Tbsp. Dry white wine
1 tsp. whole cumin
1 tsp. Oregano
Salt & pepper to taste

3/4 cup grated Gouda cheese
3/4 cup grated Mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese

1) In a large skillet, sauté garlic, onion, and bell pepper in olive oil over medium heat. (yes, you’re making a sofrito for the sauce.)

2) Cook and stir until onion is translucent, but make sure not to burn the garlic.
3) Add tomato sauce, tomato paste, white wine, cumin, oregano, salt, and pepper.
4) Cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes or until well-blended and heated through.
5) Spread this sofrito sauce over pizza dough.

6) Mix the gouda and mozzarella cheeses together and cover the pizzas with these.
7) Sprinkle the grated Parmesan over all. (this is what makes it toasty)

8) Sprinkle lightly with a little bit more oregano.
9) Cook in a hot oven at 450 degrees for about 15 minutes or until cheese is melted and toasted.

10) WARNING: Resist the temptation to bite into it immediately, even though you will be enticed to do so by the blissfully amazing Cuban-food smell. =D

Lookie Here - Economy rebounds in 2Q

That's not good for the Dems, they want the economy to tank to help their chances ...... check it out ...

Economy rebounds at better-than-expected pace in the spring, mostly spurred by exports

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The economy shifted to a higher gear in the spring, growing at its fastest pace in nearly a year as foreign buyers snapped up U.S. exports and tax rebates spurred shoppers at home.

The Commerce Department reported Thursday that gross domestic product, or GDP, increased at a 3.3 percent annual rate in the April-June quarter. The revised reading was much better than the government's initial estimate of a 1.9 percent pace and exceeded economists' expectations for a 2.7 percent growth rate.

The rebound comes after two dismal quarters. The economy actually shrank in the final three months of 2007 and limped into the first quarter at a feeble 0.9 percent pace. The 3.3 percent growth in the spring was the best performance since the third quarter of last year, when the economy was chugging along at a brisk 4.8 percent pace.

Still, the growth pickup is not likely to be seen as a lasting sign that the fragile economy is back on solid ground.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke recently warned the economy will be weak through the rest of this year. A growing number of analysts fear that the country will hit another economic pothole in the fourth quarter, as the bracing impact of the tax rebates disappears. And there are concerns exports could tail off as other countries' economies slow down.

GDP measures the value of all goods and services produced within the U.S. and is the best barometer of the country's economic health.

The economy is the top concern for Americans. Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama favors a second government stimulus package, while Republican rival John McCain supports free trade and other business measures to energize the economy.

Housing, credit and financial troubles have pounded the economy.

In turn, employers have clamped down on hiring, driving the nation's unemployment rate up to 5.7 percent in July, a four-year high. The Labor Department said Thursday that the number of people signing up for jobless benefits declined last week for the third straight period, but claims remained above 400,000, an indicator of a slowing economy.

Employers have cut jobs every month this year and wage growth is trailing inflation. That combination raises concerns about the future of consumer spending, one of the pillars underpinning the economy.

The biggest factor in the second-quarter's rebound was robust sales of U.S. exports to other countries. The weaker value of the U.S. dollar has bolstered those sales. Exports grew at a 13.2 percent pace in the spring. That was much stronger than the government's initial estimate of a 9.2 percent growth rate, and more than double the 5.1 percent growth rate logged in the first quarter.

Imports, meanwhile, fell at a 7.6 percent annualized pace in the spring, as economic troubles in the U.S. crimped demand for foreign-made goods.

The improved trade picture added 3.1 percentage points to second-quarter GDP, the most since 1980.

U.S. consumers boosted their spending at a 1.7 percent pace in the second quarter. That was slightly better than the 1.5 percent growth rate initially report and marked the best showing in nearly a year. Government stimulus checks of up to $600 a person helped energize shoppers who had hunkered down amid the economy's problems.

One of the country's biggest problems -- the housing collapse -- was evident in the GDP report.

Builders cut back at an annual rate of 15.7 percent in the second quarter-- although that was a better showing than early this year and late last year.

Businesses trimmed spending on equipment and software in the spring. And, they reduced investment in inventories, but not as much as initially estimated by the government. That was another factor contributing to the improved GDP reading.

One measure of corporate profits showed companies losing ground in the second quarter. After-tax profits fell 3.8 percent in the spring, compared with a 1.1 percent increase in the first quarter.

An inflation gauge tied to the GDP report showed all prices rising at a rate of 4.2 percent in the second quarter, the same as initially estimated.

Taking out energy and food, prices rose 2.1 percent. That also was unchanged from the government's previous estimate but remained outside the Federal Reserve's comfort zone.

With the economy still coping with fallout from housing and credit problems, the Fed is expected to hold interest rates steady at its next meeting on Sept. 16, and probably through the rest of this year.

Gorki Aguila 1, castro Regime 0

I'm heartened by the support and exposure Gorki Aguila has received from not only the Cuban community in exile and on the island, but by the "outside world" as well. This has quickly turned into a major blunder by the castro regime and, right now, we're waiting for tomorrow's "trial" to see if said regime will tap out of this match it simply cannot win, or if it will continue to dig itself deeper into a public relations abyss.

The revolution has always boasted about everything being about a "battle of ideas" and we Cubaphiles have always known this to be a canard. Gorki's incarceration is absolute proof of this.

The castro regime isnt trying to stifle Gorki and Porno Para Ricardo's music, but the ideas behind it. And while castro and co. may, ultimately, silence the guitars and the drums and the keyboards, the lyrics will still be resonant and the ideas will still be heard.

Porno Para Ricardo's lead singer may have been muted for the time being, but many - via their support of and solidarity with Gorki - have, in essence, stepped up to the mic and made sure his ideas not be silenced.

Is Protesting Unpatriotic?

I received an email from Bruce Weinstein, PhD, known as "The Ethics Guy" for CNN's American Morning show, He asked me to consider his latest article, "The Ethics of Protesting," which is currently in Business Week. It deals with whether there is a right and wrong way to protest, especially in light of the protests at the Democratic and Republican Conventions. Is protesting unpatriotic? Or is it possible to protest in a way that is respectful to the group against which you protest and your country? Or does protesting exclude respect?

You can read the article HERE

Come back and let us know what you think about protesting after you read it.

Cross posted at Claudia4Libertad

A.P. and others pick up Gorki's story

Thankfully the mainstream media has picked up the story of Gorki Aguila. Normally these sorts of arrests go unnoticed by them. We are rightfully harsh when they get it wrong and when they are ignorant and when they are negligent but we'll take a minute here to congratulate them on taking this story on.

Babalu Radio Hour | Tonight 9:00 PM EDT

Join us tonight as we discuss Gorki Aguila's arrest and other current events. Click the icon below.

The call-in number is (646) 652-4506, or you can send an email to me with questions or comments. The show begins at 9:00 PM EDT. Don't miss the opportunity to call in and participate. Be there.

Thank you to Hot Air

For linking to our post about Gorki Aguila.

And thank you to Pat Dollard for also linking to us.

Latest news about Gorki Aguila

The latest news coming out from the people at Cuba Underground and Porno Para Ricardo is below (faulty translation mine):

Gorki Aguila, leader of the band Porno Para Ricardo is being detained at the "La Quinta" police station.

This Wednesday his father was finally able to see him and and confirmed that the musician was calm, until the authorities there began mistreating him psychologically by talking about his 11 year-old daughter.

It is known that the police from said unit do not have Gorki's file and, according them, they are only detaining him there to carry out their orders.

Additionally there is no "instructor" (prosecutor?) in charge of the case and the representative of the unit does not possess any information with regards to Gorki Aguila.

As a result the chief of the unit asked the family members to find an attorney and see the prosecutor's office to find out about where Gorki's case file is.

The trial is scheduled for Friday August 29th.

Please distribute the above information.

Real Clear World - Cuban Espionage

I have a variety of interests that I blog about. One of them is college football. Through my activities in that arena I came to know Sam Chi who goes by the pseudonym "the BCS Guru". Sam is a former sports journalist that runs a B&B on Amelia Island, here in Florida, that I've had the pleasure of staying at. Well Sam is now running Real Clear World which is world news sister site of Real Clear Politics. He asked me if I was interested in writing something about Cuba and so I submitted this piece about Cuban espionage in the U.S.

Enjoy and please bookmark Real Clear World.

Round-up of Gorki in the news.

Ziva put together this round-up of articles and blog posts about Gorki's arrest.

BBC

CNN

El Nuevo Herald

El Mundo

The Money Times

ABC (Spain)

UPI

NY Daily News - Latino

Blogs:

Penultimos Dias

Penultimos Dias again

Zoe Valdes

Global Voices

1326

Yoani

Rafael Martel

Defringing Latin America

No Me Parece

Contact Music

American Thinker

Gag Watch

The Latin Americanist

La Isla Grande

Let's move on

I have been in communication with someone from Cuba Underground, who represents Porno Para Ricardo in the U.S. and had a meeting of the minds. For that reason I have removed the post that was here and would like to say only that we can't allow ourselves to be distracted by things that do not pertain to Gorki Aguila and his current situation.

"You're gonna have some union problems; my client could make then disappear."

Happy Hump Day Infidels, I offer you the famous scene from the Godfather where Tom tells the Hollywood bigshot that if he hired Johnny Fontaine to do the picture, he could make the director's union troubles disappear. Why do I post this? Well it's because of the big comeback of the big unions especially with the new lefty democratic party. Here's what will happen under an all lefty democratic government -- (from the WSJ)

Big Labor's Comeback August 27, 2008; Page A14

Forget for a moment the media fascination with disgruntled Hillary Clinton delegates or Michelle Obama's makeover. One of the most underreported stories at this week's Democratic National Convention is that Big Labor is making a big comeback.

Not long ago, the labor movement was in a state of steady, seemingly unstoppable decline. A global economy and the information age made unions less relevant to more workers. The fall of industrial trades cut into existing union ranks, while service workers saw less need to join. Union membership as a share of the American workforce has been falling since the early 1980s, and today stands at 12.1%. In the more dynamic private sector, only 7.5% of workers carry the union label.

The paradox is that even as union numbers have declined, union political clout has increased, especially within the Democratic Party. That's in evidence in Denver, where no less than 25% of the 4,200 delegates are active or retired union members or belong to households with union members. More significant for the rest of America, labor has won the intellectual battle for control of the Democratic Party and is reasserting its agenda in a way not seen since the 1970s.

A decade ago, leading Democrats were willing, if not eager, to disagree with union priorities. Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Bob Kerrey pushed Social Security reform, and John Breaux took on Medicare. Even Al Gore, in his pre-Oracle phase, took on the task of "reinventing government," including the FAA and air-traffic controllers union. Bill Clinton promoted trade expansion, breaking with the AFL-CIO to do so. Still other Democrats pushed charter schools and more education accountability.

Those reform days are over. In Denver, there's no more talk of busting these "public trusts." The only reform idea for education is a tepid call for teacher testing. Free trade is in disrepute, with Barack Obama bowing to union wishes to rewrite Nafta, even unilaterally if Mexico and Canada don't bend. The party platform includes a passing reference to reviving the Doha Round of global trade talks, but nothing about the trade promotion authority that would be needed to pass more trade deals.

More tellingly, rewriting federal law to promote union organizing is now near the top of the Democratic agenda. The main vehicle is "card check" legislation, which would eliminate the requirement for secret ballots in union elections. Unable to organize workers when employees can vote in privacy, unions want to expose those votes to peer pressure, and inevitably to public intimidation. This would arguably be the biggest change to federal labor law since the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947. The Democratic House passed card check last year, and Mr. Obama has pledged his support. With a few more Senators, it might pass.

Card check is merely the start. Next on the agenda is a campaign to repeal "right to work" laws in the 22 U.S. states that have them. Right to work laws allow employees to decide for themselves whether to join or financially support a union. Former Michigan Congressman David Bonior told a union event in Denver on Monday that limiting right to work laws is essential both to lifting union membership and promoting more Democratic political victories. He pointed out that John Kerry didn't win a single right to work state in 2004, while Al Gore won only one -- Iowa -- and only by a few thousand votes in 2000.

This point is crucial to understanding labor's new Democratic clout. States with more union households tend to be more Democratic. And groups like the Service Employees International Union and the AFL-CIO will pour hundreds of millions of dollars, and endless man hours, into getting Democrats elected this year. Those resources have simply overwhelmed the 1990s New Democrat movement that tried to tug the party toward freer trade and public-sector reform.

The question for Americans more broadly is whether a return to widespread unionization is really the way to raise middle-class incomes. The case for card check is that, amid global competition, the balance of organizing power has shifted to business. Giving unions more power will redress this imbalance and let workers grab a higher share of corporate profits.

But this claim is highly suspect, given the record in autos, steel and the rest of unionized American manufacturing. The only sector of the U.S. auto industry that is prospering is the part not organized by the United Auto Workers. Likewise, Europe, with its high jobless rates and slow growth, argues against unionization as a way to lift middle-class incomes. To the extent a country like Germany has modestly reversed some of this, it has been the result of recent labor-law reforms and labor concessions.

As for the U.S., the states with right to work laws have performed better economically for workers of all types. The Mackinac Center for Public Policy has shown that right to work states over the past 30 years have lower unemployment, higher rates of job creation, and faster growth in GDP and per-capita personal income than states with compulsory union membership. Colorado is hoping to get in on this success, with a high-profile ballot initiative this fall that would make it a right to work state.

We have long believed that if workers want to form a union, they have every right to do so. And businesses that get a union often deserve what they get. What Americans need to know this November is that the Democratic Party wants to make it that much more difficult for them not to join a union.

Gorki

By Yoani Sanchez

They took him because nothing destabilizes the intransigents more than a man in his most free state. At the Fifth Police Station, 3rd and 62nd in Playa, where the criminals take turns and a toilet is a painful illusion, Gorki rips the strings of his rebelliousness. He is a weird guy, everyone notices it, even more weird in a society where the model of the “New Man” is the coloring book version of the idiot in the classroom.

Gorki concentrates the attraction that his critics do not have; he sings, sways, and shouts in his bloody rock lyrics what others mutter with fear. He has a room lined with egg cartons somebody gave him, because if we added up all the eggs he’s entitled to from the rationed market he would not have been able to wallpaper even a closet. He is accused of a crime from the script of the film “Minority Report,” charged under the euphemism of “pre-delinquent dangerousness.” Translated into the language of reality, it means they put you behind bars so you don’t commit the mischief that others see coming.

In the case of Gorki, the charge has been led by a delegate of the constituency with delusions of James Bond, a neighbor woman they “advised” to make the accusation, and by a community that avoids interceding for the “uncomfortable.” On Thursday he will have his preliminary hearing and only some clothes and toiletries brought by his father have managed to make it to him where they have him “guarded.” There is little chance of the defense lawyer convincing the strict prosecutor that Gorki’s long hair, his rock songs, and the noise of his guitar, are not more dangerous than the inertia, conformity and double standard in which everything is wrapped.

More details about the detention are at the site Porno Para Ricardo.

This was originally written and published in Spanish by Yoani Sanchez and translated and posted in her English version blog. Since the castro regime continues to curtail her internet access and continues to block access to her blog and other internet sites in and out of Cuba, we are posting Yoani's work in its entirety in solidarity and to help promote and distribute same.

Emergency activities on behalf of Cuban dissident punk rocker Gorki Aguila

We are launching a BUCL.org publicity campaign in support of the Cuban dissident punk rocker Gorki Aguila who was arrested in Havana yesterday and is reportedly going to stand trial for "dangerousness" on Thursday. Aguila could face up to 4 years in prison if the Cuban kangaroo court deems it.

For those who aren't aware, Aguila is the front man for a punk rock group called Porno Para Ricardo whose lyrics are harshly critical of the regime. That's why he's one of our heroes here at Babalu.

The purpose of BUCL.org is to pool resources (money) to amplify our message. In order to put an official press release on the news wires it takes about $500 and we also like to do a Spanish release on the Hispanic news wires which effectively doubles the cost. We are looking for 20 sponsors at $50 each. If you are interested drop me an email.

What happens when...

You are in the entertainment business, scratch that, when you are a Latino in the entertainment business and you come out and speak in favor of a Republican candidate? Well you get raked over the coals. You see Democrats don't like their subjects to wander too far from the reservation.

Daddy Yankee, a reggaeton artist, came out yesterday in favor of John McCain and it seems that he's taking a beating for it among some in the Latino entertainment industry and from other quarters.

Ah, the hypocrisy of Hollywood. We're supposed to separate the art from the artist when it's one of those America-hating leftists.

You can lend Daddy Yankee some support by logging on to the live chat that Univision is hosting at 7:00 PM eastern.

Obama + A Democratic Congress = The Freedom of Choice Act = Abortion on Demand

The One has averred that if he is given the Presidency, he with his pals in the House (Mistress Nancy) and in the Senate (Sen. Boxer and Reid), one of the 1st pieces of legislation he will pass is the Freedom of Choice Act (A copy of the text of the Bill is appended hereto).

This Bill if made law will supersede all state laws which place restrictions on abortion. This law will make abortion on demand a fundamental right in the United States regardless of age or of the viability of the baby. This law will remove all state and federal protections to doctors who refuse to perform abortions whether on moral or religious grounds. (I'm sure that a challenge on religious grounds would prevail if said doctor was punished). And to please ATLA, the provisions provides a civil cause of action against any entity, person, or government for damages as a result of being denied your abortion on demand. This law would in essence codify legal infanticide.

Now why is this significant? Because in the slim chance the US Supreme Court were to overrule Roe on Constitutional Grounds, this new law, would become the law of the land until such time as it is repealed by Congress.

Don't believe me? Read the text of the bill and see for yourself.

110th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 1173
To protect, consistent with Roe v. Wade, a woman's freedom to choose to bear a child or terminate a pregnancy, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
April 19, 2007
Mrs. BOXER (for herself, Mrs. MURRAY, Ms. STABENOW, Mr. BINGAMAN, Mr. MENENDEZ, Mr. LAUTENBERG, Mr. CARDIN, Mr. SCHUMER, Mrs. CLINTON, Mrs. FEINSTEIN, Ms. MIKULSKI, Mr. BAUCUS, and Ms. CANTWELL) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To protect, consistent with Roe v. Wade, a woman's freedom to choose to bear a child or terminate a pregnancy, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Freedom of Choice Act'.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

Congress finds the following:
(1) The United States was founded on core principles, such as liberty, personal privacy, and equality, which ensure that individuals are free to make their most intimate decisions without governmental interference and discrimination.
(2) One of the most private and difficult decisions an individual makes is whether to begin, prevent, continue, or terminate a pregnancy. Those reproductive health decisions are best made by women, in consultation with their loved ones and health care providers.
(3) In 1965, in Griswold v. Connecticut (381 U.S. 479), and in 1973, in Roe v. Wade (410 U.S. 113) and Doe v. Bolton (410 U.S. 179), the Supreme Court recognized that the right to privacy protected by the Constitution encompasses the right of every woman to weigh the personal, moral, and religious considerations involved in deciding whether to begin, prevent, continue, or terminate a pregnancy.
(4) The Roe v. Wade decision carefully balances the rights of women to make important reproductive decisions with the State's interest in potential life. Under Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, the right to privacy protects a woman's decision to choose to terminate her pregnancy prior to fetal viability, with the State permitted to ban abortion after fetal viability except when necessary to protect a woman's life or health.
(5) These decisions have protected the health and lives of women in the United States. Prior to the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, an estimated 1,200,000 women each year were forced to resort to illegal abortions, despite the risk of unsanitary conditions, incompetent treatment, infection, hemorrhage, disfiguration, and death. Before Roe, it is estimated that thousands of women died annually in the United States as a result of illegal abortions.
(6) In countries in which abortion remains illegal, the risk of maternal mortality is high. According to the World Health Organization, of the approximately 600,000 pregnancy-related deaths occurring annually around the world, 80,000 are associated with unsafe abortions.
(7) The Roe v. Wade decision also expanded the opportunities for women to participate equally in society. In 1992, in Planned Parenthood v. Casey (505 U.S. 833), the Supreme Court observed that, `[t]he ability of women to participate equally in the economic and social life of the Nation has been facilitated by their ability to control their reproductive lives.'.
(8) Even though the Roe v. Wade decision has stood for more than 34 years, there are increasing threats to reproductive health and freedom emerging from all branches and levels of government. In 2006, South Dakota became the first State in more than 15 years to enact a ban on abortion in nearly all circumstances. Supporters of this ban have admitted it is an attempt to directly challenge Roe in the courts. Other States are considering similar bans.
(9) Further threatening Roe, the Supreme Court recently upheld the first-ever Federal ban on an abortion procedure, which has no exception to protect a woman's health. The majority decision in Gonzales v. Carhart (05-380, slip op. April 18, 2007) and Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood Federation of America fails to protect a woman's health, a core tenet of Roe v. Wade. Dissenting in that case, Justice Ginsburg called the majority's opinion `alarming', and stated that, `[f]or the first time since Roe, the Court blesses a prohibition with no exception safeguarding a woman's health'. Further, she said, the Federal ban `and the Court's defense of it cannot be understood as anything other than an effort to chip away at a right declared again and again by this Court'.
(10) Legal and practical barriers to the full range of reproductive services endanger women's health and lives. Incremental restrictions on the right to choose imposed by Congress and State legislatures have made access to reproductive care extremely difficult, if not impossible, for many women across the country. Currently, 87 percent of the counties in the United States have no abortion provider.
(11) While abortion should remain safe and legal, women should also have more meaningful access to family planning services that prevent unintended pregnancies, thereby reducing the need for abortion.
(12) To guarantee the protections of Roe v. Wade, Federal legislation is necessary.
(13) Although Congress may not create constitutional rights without amending the Constitution, Congress may, where authorized by its enumerated powers and not prohibited by the Constitution, enact legislation to create and secure statutory rights in areas of legitimate national concern.
(14) Congress has the affirmative power under section 8 of article I of the Constitution and section 5 of the 14th amendment to the Constitution to enact legislation to facilitate interstate commerce and to prevent State interference with interstate commerce, liberty, or equal protection of the laws.
(15) Federal protection of a woman's right to choose to prevent or terminate a pregnancy falls within this affirmative power of Congress, in part, because--
(A) many women cross State lines to obtain abortions and many more would be forced to do so absent a constitutional right or Federal protection;
(B) reproductive health clinics are commercial actors that regularly purchase medicine, medical equipment, and other necessary supplies from out-of-State suppliers; and
(C) reproductive health clinics employ doctors, nurses, and other personnel who travel across State lines in order to provide reproductive health services to patients.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

In this Act:
(1) GOVERNMENT- The term `government' includes a branch, department, agency, instrumentality, or official (or other individual acting under color of law) of the United States, a State, or a subdivision of a State.
(2) STATE- The term `State' means each of the States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and each territory or possession of the United States.
(3) VIABILITY- The term `viability' means that stage of pregnancy when, in the best medical judgment of the attending physician based on the particular medical facts of the case before the physician, there is a reasonable likelihood of the sustained survival of the fetus outside of the woman.

SEC. 4. INTERFERENCE WITH REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH PROHIBITED.

(a) Statement of Policy- It is the policy of the United States that every woman has the fundamental right to choose to bear a child, to terminate a pregnancy prior to fetal viability, or to terminate a pregnancy after fetal viability when necessary to protect the life or health of the woman.
(b) Prohibition of Interference- A government may not--
(1) deny or interfere with a woman's right to choose--
(A) to bear a child;
(B) to terminate a pregnancy prior to viability; or
(C) to terminate a pregnancy after viability where termination is necessary to protect the life or health of the woman; or
(2) discriminate against the exercise of the rights set forth in paragraph (1) in the regulation or provision of benefits, facilities, services, or information.
(c) Civil Action- An individual aggrieved by a violation of this section may obtain appropriate relief (including relief against a government) in a civil action.

SEC. 5. SEVERABILITY.

If any provision of this Act, or the application of such provision to any person or circumstance, is held to be unconstitutional, the remainder of this Act, or the application of such provision to persons or circumstances other than those as to which the provision is held to be unconstitutional, shall not be affected thereby.

SEC. 6. RETROACTIVE EFFECT.

This Act applies to every Federal, State, and local statute, ordinance, regulation, administrative order, decision, policy, practice, or other action enacted, adopted, or implemented before, on, or after the date of enactment of this Act.

CNN on arrest of Cuban dissident punk rocker Gorki Aguila

CNN's Morgan Neil, who actually occasionally reports real news out of Cuba, has penned this article about the arrest of Gorki Aguila. I suppose this is the kinder and gentler castro dictatorship that we keep hearing about. You know, the reasonable folks that we should be negotiating with.

Got to hand it to Bill

I'm sure all the lefties including those butt licking lefty bloggers are cringing over this comment today from former President Clinton -- (from The Hill)

The former president, speaking in Denver, posed a hypothetical question in which he seemed to suggest that that the Democratic Party was making a mistake in choosing Obama as its presidential nominee.

He said: "Suppose you're a voter, and you've got candidate X and candidate Y. Candidate X agrees with you on everything, but you don't think that candidate can deliver on anything at all. Candidate Y you agree with on about half the issues, but he can deliver. Which candidate are you going to vote for?"

Then, perhaps mindful of how his off-the-cuff remarks might be taken, Clinton added after a pause: "This has nothing to do with what's going on now."

Yeah right. I must say that I do agree with Bill on this one that the One was the wrong choice, at the wrong time ....

Man, I'd love to see a brawl between the two camps....add some excitement to this political crap.

Heck, the One's Spouse's speech was so ponderous, I turned the channel to FX to watch the Butterfly Effect. More interesting that the swill they were pouring in Denver.

The leftist protest culture...

Is hilarious. What are we protesting today?

From Hot Air:

The un-nuanced approach of Raul Martinez' supporters

Ever since Raul Martinez and Joedilocks announced their candidacies they have been trying to sell a "nuanced" approach to Cuba. They are for the embargo, they claim. They just want people to be able able to visit their families in Cuba. It's all humanitarian you see. But the truth is that some of the most ardent anti-embargo advocates are among the financial backers of both of these clowns. Why are these people so opposed to Lincoln and Mario Diaz -Balart. It's not because they haven't been effective legislators. It's exactly the opposite. Lincoln and Mario have gone to Washington and represented the wishes of their constituents effectively. They have earned the support of members of both parties to try and keep a hard-line toward Cuba that does not compromise. That's right, no compromise, no negotiation with the castro brothers. But many of Raul and Joe's supporters are cut from a different cloth.

Here's a nice piece of electioneering material (Spanish only, sorry) from the Republican Party that exposes how these pro-castro individuals are moving in support of Raul Martinez behind the scenes. These people will never be satisfied with just returning the travel restrictions to the way they were before 2004. Are you kidding me?

DNC Superdelegate Raul Martinez

If any of those protesters in Denver gets out of hand, Martinez will be able to calm everything down. Just watch his methods...

How To Win Friends & Influence People

Dale Carnegie, it seems, had it all wrong. The would-be simian king of Venezuela has found a much more effective method to achieve this goal: He simply buys them.

"All the energy that they need ... in Honduras is assured for the next 100 years," Chavez told a cheering crowd of about 50,000 people in the Honduran capital.

Say hello to your new pimp, Honduras.

Someone Give Mistress Nancy An Education on Energy

A Carbon Education
August 26, 2008; Page A20

Nancy Pelosi recently diluted her opposition to offshore drilling, but we're beginning to wonder if the House Speaker even knows why she opposed increasing domestic energy supplies in the first place.

Ms. Pelosi appeared Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," where Tom Brokaw gently pointed out that the various Democratic alternative energy ambitions are "not going to happen overnight." Replied Ms. Pelosi: "You can have a transition with natural gas. That, that is cheap, abundant and clean compared to fossil fuels." Later, she again said that "I believe in natural gas as a clean, cheap alternative to fossil fuels," and that wind, solar, biofuels and "a focus on natural gas, these are the real alternatives."

Apparently Ms. Pelosi's new script is still being reworked, but it's a telling mistake. Not only is natural gas every bit as much a "fossil fuel" as oil or coal. More to the point, these concentrated organic compounds found beneath the earth's surface must be extracted by . . . drilling. And sometimes even drilling offshore, on the Outer Continental Shelf. But more drilling is what Ms. Pelosi had refused to allow just a few days ago.

Natural gas was once the toast of the Beltway, since it burns cleaner than oil and coal, though that was before Democrats became hostile to any form of carbon energy. But lately natural gas is making a comeback, thanks in part to the high-profile advocacy of T. Boone Pickens, who has been embraced by Democrats as the latest green champion. As a follow-up, we'd like to see someone ask Ms. Pelosi if she still supports more natural gas exploration once she learns that it's made from evil carbon.

See all of today's editorials and op-eds, plus video commentary, on Opinion Journal.

UPDATE: For Gigi -- here's a pic of the Mistress Nancy undergoing her weekly plastic surgery ---

Right on the money

Sorry for my lack of sympathy, but she's as lowdown as her husband. "Oleaginous" does not even begin to describe them.

Two weeks after a devastating revelation sent her husband into political exile, Elizabeth Edwards isn't getting the steady sympathy usually afforded to a woman scorned.

Instead, she's faced criticism from dedicated Democrats who think she was too willing to keep the affair a secret to help John Edwards' political ambitions, as well as her own.

At a time when she was expected to hold a prominent role in pushing an agenda of improved health care for Americans, she stands silent. While fellow Democrats converge in Denver to nominate Barack Obama for president, Edwards remains in seclusion in North Carolina.

It seems an odd way to treat a woman with incurable cancer wronged by a cheating husband, the latest in a series of deep hardships in life that includes the death of a teenage son.

But some former followers have questioned the recklessness of keeping the affair under wraps even though her husband - a former U.S. senator, two-time presidential candidate and the 2004 vice presidential nominee – said he confessed the affair in 2006, before the campaign began in earnest the next year.

NYC teacher in trouble over Cuba trip resigns

Remember last years story about NYC public school history teacher Natan Turner taking high school students to Cuba for spring break? The New York Post has an update:

A Manhattan public high-school teacher who twice took students on embargo-busting field trips to Cuba has resigned, The Post has learned.

Nathan Turner, a popular history instructor at the top-tier Beacon School, allegedly led dozens of students and teachers on at least two such spring-break excursions.

Department of Education officials last week confirmed the resignation, along with that of fellow Beacon teacher Geoffrey Hunt, who also made jaunts to Castro country, according to sources.

Officials declined to discuss whether Turner's departure was related to two ongoing investigations sparked by the April 2007 Post exposé of the outings.

The Treasury Department is exploring the trips' legality. Educational travel to Cuba is limited to college students, sources said. Each traveler could be fined up to $65,000.

And Special Commissioner of Investigation Richard Condon is looking into whether Beacon administrators and Education officials sanctioned as many as six trips to Cuba, starting in 2000.

Principal Ruth Lacey has denied approving last year's trip, the most recent, but prior outings were advertised on the school's Web site and documented in its yearbook, sources said.

No mention of Rev. Walker's testimony.

Maybe I'm wrong...

but it seems to me that the only discernible function of the Children's Trust is to air TV commercials in support of the Children's Trust.

A lot of commercials...

With a lot of politicians...

and a lot of local celebrities...

but very few details about what the Children's Trust actually does.

Anyone out there care to hazard a guess or disabuse me of my surely misplaced notions since I'm about to head out and vote?