If you're in Miami on Monday, this is where you need to be...

My friend, Ana Quincoces (don't-hate-me-because-I'm-beautiful) Rodriguez has a fabulous new Cuban cookbook out called "Sabor!" And when I say fabulous, I mean that Every. Single. Wonderful. Recipe. is like-abuela-used-to-make perfect. Nothing frou-frou or nouvelle about it. Ana knows Cuban food and if you love Cuban food, you will want to own this book!

I had the privilege of meeting the lovely Ana when I was in Miami for Cuba Nostalgia this year. We had been corresponding by email for a while and got to be friends in that funny way that happens when you have "being Cuban" in common and start sharing your life, as we Cubans love to do. (In fact, my husband, Eric did some work for her husband, too, but that's not important right now.)

(she's the uber-gorgeous-super-model on the left, in case you were confused.... =D)

If I were in Miami, I'd definitely get myself over to her launch party at Books and Books in Coral Gables.

It's happening on Monday, December 1st, 2008 at 8 pm.

Obviously, I won't get to go, (sad for me) but if you are in the Miami area, please go to Books and Books and please, please, please! introduce yourself to Ana and please tell her that Marta, from My Big Fat Cuban Family and Babalú blog, sent you.

And when you get your hands on this fabulous cookbook, please turn to page 204 - 205, where you'll find this:

Yeah, Baby! My recipe for Torrejas a lo Refugiado, but we agreed that a better name would be My Big Fat Cuban Torrejas. ;-)

I'm telling you.... Ana knows Cuban food. =D

Felicidades y Buen Provecho, Amiga!

Dear editor,

I was greatly disturbed by your editorial about U.S. policy toward Cuba on Thursday November 27th.

If you recognize that our country's policies are being used by the Castro regime as a "scapegoat" then why should the policy change? The world, including Cubans on the island, recognizes it as a scapegoat. Keeping currency and credit from a regime that has always used its scarce resources to subvert other countries and repress Cubans instead of using it to help them is a legitimate objective. Changing policies to remove a scapegoat while strengthening the regime seems like a nonsensical approach to me.

But the truly disgusting part of your editorial is where you claim that "Mr. Obama owes nothing to those voters" meaning Cuban-Americans. Well the fact is that the president elect made promises to "those voters". Those promises included making changes to the family travel and remittance restrictions while maintaining the rest of the overall sanctions against the regime. You are shamelessly recommending that Obama break those promises. I guess the editorial board of the Palm Beach Post doesn't mind if politicians lie as long as it's "those voters" that get lied to.

Henry Gomez

Che Movie Debuts Miami this Week (Dec. 4)

On your marks!...get set!

And prepare for howls of "These Cubans favor censorship!" ..."These dinosaurs who grew up under Batista don't understand free speech!" etc....etc...etc...etc....etc.... .

Del Toro and Soderbergh's Che movies, (based on screenplays edited by Fidel Castro) open at Miami Beach's Carlyle Theatre this Firday. According to the theatre operators themselves: "the City of Miami Beach purchased the Carlyle Theatre for a price of $1.7 million dollars and it was refurbished at a cost of another $1.7 million dollars as a performing arts venue in 2002."

The people who paid those millions have every right to protest what the place shows. I hate to belabor the obvious but: CAN YOU JUST IMAGINE!!.....whoops! We don't have to imagine it.... it happened. John Cusacks movie "Max" about the young Hitler was due for release when the Jewish Defense League and Anti-Defamation League campaigned to have it banned from private venues.

Given the local demographics, can you imagine a "Max" showing at this same The Carlyle Theater?

just 'askin....

Herald Ombudsman Follows Up On Role of Newspaper Columnists

You may recall my post two weeks ago on an article by Miami Herald ombudsman Edward Schumacher-Matos which criticized a column written by right-leaning El Nuevo Herald columnist Adolfo Rivero Caro for lacking "ideological accuracy", and went as far as suggesting that columns of that nature be censored.

Today, Mr. Schumacher-Matos follows up with some responses by readers to his original article, including one by yours truly and another by Babalu reader Larry Daley (I'll assume it's OUR Larry unless he says otherwise).

The article follows below the fold (emphasis and additional commentary in italics mine).

There are many views on the role of columnists

BY EDWARD SCHUMACHER-MATOS
ombudsman@MiamiHerald.com

Fire and ire. That's what many opinion columnists in The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald inspire. When I wrote to slap the hand of El Nuevo's Adolfo Rivero Caro for being irresponsible with facts, many of you responded with passion about the freedom of op-ed columnists in both papers.

The excerpts below present good arguments. They also say something about the differences between what readers of the Spanish- and English-language papers are reading.

Most ombudsmen write only about news coverage, but I don't agree with that. Talk radio and Internet blogs are pushing all media to become more opinionated. Magazines with an ideological bent are proliferating. Cable television news is increasingly abandoning objectivity. The financial crisis in newspapers may soon force them to give up their independence and revert to being sponsored by parties and partisans, as in the 19th century. What all of this means for holding the nation together remains to be seen, but we should begin exploring the limits of responsibility under a more opinionated news model.

Readers already largely identify The Miami Herald by its op-ed and news columnists. I plan in my next column, in two weeks, to focus on the news columnists. Huh? News versus op-ed columnists? ''What's the difference?'' many of you ask. That's my point. These are the columnists who run in the news pages, as opposed to the opinion section. They include Andres Oppenheimer, Fred Grimm, Beth Reinhard, Myriam Marquez and Daniel Shoer Roth.

Is their role confusing? Should they be more or less opinionated? Send me your thoughts: ombudsman@MiamiHerald.com.

With the following letters, I have taken the liberty of editing for space and grammar.

•

You took El Nuevo Herald columnist Adolfo Rivero Caro to task for daring to write that Barack Obama is a far-left socialist. We can have a discussion on how far left or socialist Obama is, but your insinuation is that Rivero's column should have been modified, or in other words, censored. I thought that columnists were paid to make strong and often controversial opinions.

Your claim of ''ideological accuracy'' sounds good on the surface, but why does it seem to apply only to right-leaning columnists such as Rivero and Pat Buchanan? How about looking into the ''facts'' mentioned in columns by left-leaning Alejandro Armengol, who makes a living out of vilifying a large segment of the Cuban-American population?

Or Carl Hiaasen? Or Leonard Pitts Jr., whose column today titled ''Don't Let Fear Trump Hope'' makes no bones out of calling the GOP chauvinistic, racist and homophobic?

Robert Molleda
Miami

•

A conservative column writer -- or two -- is needed to keep the paper honest and healthy. Pitts is so bad at times he spews hate. There is no one there to challenge him. I think the problem is institutional.

It is ridiculous to compare the paper with the radio. One can change the station on the radio. There is no alternative to the local newspaper.

James Salerno
Plantation

•

Since El Nuevo Herald does not have a regular columnist who is the exact antithesis of Adolfo Rivero Caro, then it is nothing more than a right-wing propaganda sheet. A newspaper it is not, and eliminating it altogether would save McClatchy enough to keep The Miami Herald going.

Arthur J. Levin
Coral Gables

(Mr. Levin, you should become better acquainted with Alejandro Armengol, who's as close to the "exact antithesis" of Rivero as you're going to get, and his column appears every Monday. Do you realize that by "eliminating" El Nuevo Herald - talk about the ultimate form of censorship - you would be shutting Armengol up as well?).

•

The unfettered extremism with which Rivero Caro's column was written disillusioned me. Wouldn't it be great if Rivero Caro took up John McCain's message upon his defeat, instead of being part of the troubling show of intolerance, discrimination and savagery that is emerging all around? I agree with you that the latter is not a way to build this country that we live in. It is a way to destroy it.

Oscar Mas
Miami

•

Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts. Rivero Caro makes up his own ''facts'' to fit his Republican agenda. Armando Gonzalez does, too. They both are like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh, but in Spanish. Being an ''old'' Cuban ''refugee'' doesn't give Rivero Caro an excuse for his smears, hateful invectives, snide remarks and insidious misstatements. I am also an ``old Cuban refugee.''

Jose Villamil

(Mr. Villamil, how about the hate spread by liberal columnists, much of it towards "old Cuban refugees" such as yourself? Acknowledging that would only be fair.)

•

El Nuevo Herald is the closest thing to a joke among educated Cuban Americans. If you are sincere about looking for constructive criticisms, instead of reaffirming the unfounded prejudices of an older generation of Cubans, then El Nuevo Herald should aim to uplift the community by informing and educating it.

While I was with the League of Women Voters a few years back, I had developed a curriculum to educate voters in the factual differences between the political parties, so that when these new citizens exercised their vote at least they would know what they were voting for.

Graciela Catasus
Miami Beach

(Ah yes, the stupid and prejudiced "old Cubans" again. Sure, there's nothing wrong with disseminating all sorts of stupid and insulting things at those ideological idiots, but when someone has the gall to write a column from the right side of the spectrum, it's somehow a "joke".

Ms. Catasus, based on these words attributed to you, I shudder to think of the content of the information you're including in your education curriculum at the League of Women Voters.)

•

Hmmm. ''I think that El Nuevo Herald needs to encourage ideological accuracy in our community, not just for the sake of accuracy, but to prevent misdirected passions and wild misadventures.'' Ideological accuracy would seem to be a synonym for censorship.

Larry Daley

(Bingo!)

HA HA - Revisited

The only thing that ranks higher than female mud wrestling is liberals fighting themselves.

I'll give Obama credit, at least he's smart enough to realize that liberals are worthless when it comes to running national defense as evidenced by his picks at DOD and NSA.

The buttwipes are up in arms and their man hasn't even taken the oath of office. These buttwipes just don't get it. They think the joke is on conservatives because we predicted a left wing cabal under Obama. But this is why they are dopes folks (the same folks who thought I was serious about the Germans bombing Pearl Harbor when I quoted an Animal House scene), if it turns out that we were wrong re: this guy ruling like Jimmy Carter then that's good because the country benefits. We've seen this thus far on the issue of taxes (or so it seems). Believe me, I want to be proven wrong on taxes, on the free choice act, the freedom of choice act, etc. Time will tell. But in the meantime, let's laugh at these asswipes:

Liberals Angry over Obama's Pick of Gates, Jones

Saturday, November 29, 2008 5:06 PM

President-elect Barack Obama is under fire from liberals as he assembles his administration.

Obama is expected to keep Robert Gates, a President George Bush appointee, as secretary of defense. Retired Gen. Jim Jones, a John McCain supporter, is expected to be named national security adviser, reports Fox News.

Both moves have outraged liberal blogger Chris Bowers of OpenLeft.com, according to Fox News.

"The message would be clear," he writes in his blog. "Even Democrats agree that Democrats can't run the military."

Bowers says Gates was an advocate of such practices as waterboarding and the use of psychotropic drugs on terror detainees. He also calls Jones' selection "very disappointing."

"It is just so very frustrating," Bowers writes. "It seems like the only place progressives are making any gains is in the House. We are being entirely left out of Obama's major appointments so far. I guess everyone gets to play in Obama's administration, except progressives."

Another Democratic blogger, Brent Budowsky, writes: "It is unfortunate that on an issue so momentous as who runs the Pentagon at time of war, the views that were stated in the campaign, and supported so deeply by the base of the Democratic Party and the new voters and small donors who were the heart of the Obama campaign, are sacrificed so quickly, for Bob Gates."

The Washington Post says Gates' appointment "would probably disappoint some on the left of the Democratic party, who would prefer a clear and sharp break with Bush-era policies." Politico.com has echoed that sentiment, stating that "it could lead to criticism from his party's left wing that the lineup is more hawkish and less revolutionary than his supporters expected."

GOP strategist Dave Winston told Fox News that he isn't surprised at the reaction.

"The base is clearly going to say, where are you headed in terms of this policy?" he said. "And I think it will cause him some headaches with the base, although for the overall country, I think they will see it quite favorably."

A Legend in My Own Mind from Marta's Cuban American Kitchen

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Our family certainly did. And boy did we have leftover turkey!

The re-heated turkey meal started to get old really fast. So I suggested sandwiches.

Me: “Hey let’s make Elena Ruz’s.”

My kids: “Mom, use your words.” (smart alecks!) “What are EL-EY-NA ROO-ZES?”

I very patiently explain that apparently (as far as I know) Elena Ruz was a Cuban socialite who frequented El Carmelo, a restaurant in Havana, and always requested a turkey sandwich with cream cheese and strawberry preserves. They eventually put the sandwich on the menu and named it after her.

I look in my refrigerator and find that I have not only leftover turkey, but lots of cream cheese and also white bread. But alas, no strawberry preserves.

And then I think that if I were making this sandwich, I’d toast the bread, skip the strawberry preserves altogether and make it with some kind of guava instead.

Wait! What am I saying? I am making this sandwich and I always have guava!

And that, my friends, is how a legendary Cuban sandwich is born. ;-)

Presenting:

The Marta Darby Sandwich (=D)

2 slices lightly toasted white bread
3 oz. fresh cooked turkey
2 Tbsp. Cream cheese
2 Tbsp. Guava jelly or guava spread

1) Spread each slice of toasted bread with cream cheese.

2) Spread the guava jelly or spread over the cream cheese.

3) Add the turkey.
4) Enjoy!

Washington Post to Rangel: Step down, you're embarrassing yourself

Great editorial today from the WaPo about Charles Rangel, yes the Charles Rangel who's ring Joe Garcia found it necessary to bend over and kiss earlier this year:

The New York Times reported on Tuesday that Mr. Rangel helped preserve a valuable tax loophole for an oil and gas drilling company while the company's chief executive, Eugene M. Isenberg, was pledging $1 million to the Charles B. Rangel School of Public Service at City College of New York. Mr. Rangel insists that the mutual favors were entirely coincidental. And quite a coincidence it seems to have been. On Feb. 12, 2007, the Times reported, the day the tax legislation was being considered in his committee, Mr. Rangel met in New York City with Mr. Isenberg to discuss the businessman's support of the Rangel School. Then Mr. Isenberg escorted Mr. Rangel across the room to his lobbyist, Kenneth J. Kies, who wanted to make sure Mr. Rangel would not close the loophole.

The revelation is the latest in a litany that has come to light since the summer...

At a time when President-elect Barack Obama is holding frequent news conferences to reassure the markets and the American people that he is ready to lead the nation to economic recovery, the last thing he will need is a chairman of Ways and Means caught up in a swirl of serious allegations.

Of course anybody who would write a letter of apology to fidel castro because of Cuban-Americans that celebrated the tyrant's illness is just another pig. And Joe is worse than a pig, he's in the mud kissing the pig's ass.

Generación Y Wins The BOBs Best Blog of 2008

Yoani takes the top prize in the Deutsche Welle International Weblog Awards -- The BOBs. The jury said she "gives voice to an entire generation of Cubans and provides the world with a window into Cuba through her clear and poetic writing."

Her beautiful brave writing does much more than that; her writing bridges 50 years of violence enforced silence and separation of the Cuban people by the castro dictatorship. Her writing verifies the failure of the Revolution.

In her latest post, Yoani writes, "What more could one ask." Her answer is the same as for all Cubans, whether on or off the island: Freedom.

Well yes, but there is still much that I lack. Not exactly prizes, but rights long neglected, like the ability to be read within my own country. I must be able to say all this in reality and not just in the virtual world of a blog. To transform this civic plaza that is Generation Y into a concrete existence where trolls also abound and the consequences are much stronger than a simple hack. I need something more than kilobytes, I need realities.

We still lack that which is the most coveted prize: the right to dialogue, dissent and to dye ourselves in the political colors of our choosing within our Island. We must not let this phenomenon be limited only to the blogosphere, we have to go in search of the jackpot: free opinion.

All's fair in love and war

To many on the left the war against free market capitalism and individual freedom being waged in the form of the global warming hoax has become a religious one. When the theory was put forth that man was the cause for changes in global temperatures, the left saw this as an opportunity to rein in freedom and replace it with government control. Unfortunately, many others who are not on the left have bought into this ruse even though the science behind it (if you want to call it "science") is seriously flawed. Time and time again their findings have been shown to be manipulated and contrived to arrive at a predetermined result. Nevertheless, in what will soon be undoubtedly known as the Great Global Warming Hoax, the left sees a vehicle that they could use to force upon the world their views under the pretense of "saving the planet."

While science and facts continue to chip away at this concocted cataclysm and the world begins to doubt the doomsayers, the left has shifted away from the farcical scientific argument and more towards a religious one. If you do not believe that man causes global warming, you are a heretic. And not only are you a heretic, you are a dangerous heretic. And since all is fair in love and war, every tactic available, no matter how vile, will be used to silence your heresy.

The Sydney Morning Herald has a great article on this shift. You can read it right HERE.

Russian Soldiers Dying in Cuba?!

From the AP story on Medveded's visit to Cuba:

"Earlier Friday, Medvedev and Raul Castro laid a wreath at a monument to Soviet soldiers who died while serving in Cuba in the early 1960s,"

But....but that's IMPOSSIBLE?! But...but...but Castro's was a purely nationalist rebellion against foreign (Yankee) domination! But the use of Soviet occupation troops was....simply...simply unthinkable!.... But...but...but the Castro regime, the Russians, The Best and Brightest and every single "scholar and historian," from Jorge Dominguez to Marifeli and from Hugh Thomas to Jon Lee Anderson to Jorge Castaneda has insisted that no Russian troops took part in any anti-insurgency fighting in Cuba, in the Escambray rebellion and elsewhere?!

In contrast, writers who value the opinions (and valor and sacrifice) of Cuba's freedom-fighter heroes, and source them extensively in their books (if I do so say so myself) often use their accounts to highlight the Russian role in the slaughter of Cuba's freedom-fighters. This raised eyebrows and provoked snorts from all "scholarly" quarters regarding my books--shame on me for not relying on a Stalinist regime as the primary source for my research!

Well...? Then who were these "Soviet soldiers who died while serving in Cuba in the early 1960's?" Hunnnh?

And what exactly was their "service"?

For What It's Worth

Arlen Specter, our Pennsylvania RINO, finally responded to my email about Acorn voter registration fraud with a form letter. Unfortunately, I don't think there is a snowball's chance in hell that even if the investigation yields proof that ACORN is guilty of voter registration fraud, that anyone will demand a recount or anything of the sort.

Dear Mrs. Fanelli:

Thank you for contacting my office regarding alleged voter registration fraud. I appreciate hearing from you and other Pennsylvanians on this and other important matters.

I was troubled by the various and persistent reports of alleged voter registration fraud. As a result, on October 20, 2008, I requested a Judiciary Committee hearing to examine the widespread allegations of voter registration fraud involving the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). ACORN is currently under investigation by state and federal authorities for voter registration fraud in at least fourteen states, including California, Connecticut, Florida, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, New Mexico, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Wisconsin, and Texas. The proposed hearing would examine what actions Congress should take to protect the integrity of the electoral system in the upcoming election and beyond. Such a hearing is needed to assure the American people that their voting rights are being protected and their votes will not be diluted by fraudulent voters.

In his initial reply, Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy said he would take the matter under advisement. Understanding the importance of this matter, I again engaged Chairman Leahy in a letter on October 24, 2008 to stress the importance of a congressional inquiry into this issue. The letter emphasized the need to keep such an inquiry free of partisan politics and focused on having a neutral and public airing of the facts and an honest discussion of the law.

Some have sought to create a false choice between defending the integrity of the voter registration process and ensuring ballot access for those entitled to vote. Both are important. The right to vote is fundamental to our democracy, and it should be vigorously protected at every stage of the process. It is my hope that lawmakers will work together to resolve these issues in order to preserve and protect the vote of each and every American.

Thank you again for contacting me. The concerns of my constituents are of great importance to me, and I rely on you and other Pennsylvanians to inform me of your views. Should you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact my office or visit my website at http://specter.senate.gov.

Sincerely,

Arlen Specter

Obamunist internet CDRs are already doing their work

During the election we saw many disturbing patterns of attempts to silence anyone who tried to discredit Senator Hopeandchange. His campaign sent letters to TV stations warning of them of legal consequences for running ads that they didn't like, supposedly because they were inaccurate. And then there were the mobs of supporters who would comment on any negative blog post or article about Senator Hopeandchange. I guess they picked up that little technique from Ron Paul supporters.

Well tonight I got an email from a reader named Paul Zecchino:

My friends enjoy babalublog and value it as early warning system for dangerous times. We say, 'when sick, see the doctor as he knows patterns and symptoms of sickness. When we sense that our country is ailing, we turn to our Cuban-American friends who know first hand the patterns and signs of the disease called communism.'

Many noted as the election approached, acorn types scanned the net for posts they didn't like and tried to discredit if not silence the posters.

Found linked article on Drudge. Posted my comments at # 5. Several posted beneath, claiming to be me. They published my e-mail and home addresses as well as an old post from Naples News which they either googled or had at the ready - which begs more questions.

I posted a follow up which was held 'for moderation', not published. Rather than acknowledge those who posted private data, I asked readers if they noticed how leftists insult and try to stifle those with whom they disagree yet cannot truthfully refute.

Shortly following second attempted post, Drudge dropped link, no further comments were posted.

Attacks on Stanley Kurtz, numerous pests calling talk shows demanding 'give him a chance'', and now google's 'sandbox' censoring of http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com suggest those who fear truth are working intensely at many levels to bury it.

Old communists never die...

they just make believe that they never killed countless millions of innocent people and oppressed billions.

An online daily publication from Czechoslovakia, Aktuálně.cz, sent a questionnaire to five new regional councilors who are avowed communists and card carrying members of the Czech Communist Party. The questions were not difficult, and any middle school student who has managed to stay awake for any reasonable amount of time during their history class would know the answers. But after agreeing to answer the questionnaire, all five refused to answer the questions after they received them. It seems they found the questions to be a little too rooted in reality, and you know that when it comes to leftists, reality is a huge bugaboo.

Here is a sample of some of the questions:

* Was Joseph V. Stalin a dictator and mass murderer?

* Was Klement Gottwald [first Czechoslovakia's Communist president] Stalin's ally, helping him to strengthen his political power in postwar Europe?

* Do the current communist regimes in China, Cuba and North Korea murder, maltreat and oppress innocent people?

* Did the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia represent military aggression?

One of the communists, Zdeněk Dobrý, took a page right out of Barack Obama's campaign playbook. His response was that he was only interested in the future and sees no value in dredging up the past.

"... after looking at your questions, I will not respond. Unlike you, I want to focus on citizens' problems in the present and the future and not on my opinion on times long past."

It is a very convenient view for someone who has chosen to affiliate himself with an ideology that has arguably murdered more people and oppressed more nations than any other in the history of civilization. Why dig up all those horrid tales of gulags and tortures and executions and genocidal acts committed by the loyal followers of Marxism when we can just wipe the slate clean and make believe it never happened?

Heck, it worked for Obama, did it not?

Surprise!

NYT is for lifting the embargo.

Cuban Monk On Path to Sainthood

From the local mullet wrapper:

BY VIVIANA MUNOZ El Nuevo Herald

The Roman Catholic Church is set to hold its first beatification ceremony on Cuban soil this weekend, honoring a humble 19th century monk who helped the sick during a cholera epidemic.

Despite his death in 1889, Brother José Olallo Valdés of the Hospitaller Order of St. John of God is credited with performing a miracle in 1999 when a 3-year-old girl suddenly recovered from an inoperable abdominal tumor.

Cardinal José Saraiva, prefect for the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, is traveling from the Vatican to perform the beatification ceremony in the Plaza of Our Lady of Charity in Camagüey on Saturday.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to All, even to the Godless, vegetarian, tree hugging, America hating lefties out there. There's always hope that they will see the light one day.

I have to get the birds and the stuffing ready ....

Jeff Spicoli interviews the prince

Leave it to liberals to walk away from an interview with a despotic dictator who just insulted their country feeling all giddy with the hope of change. I emphasis the words hope and change because they seem to symbolize that ambiguous and nondescript feeling that led these liberals to vote for Obama even though they either knew nothing about the man, or what they did know was not enough to overcome their overwhelming desire for hope and change.

One of the poster children for the mindless liberal glitterati, Sean Penn, conducted an interview with the crown prince of Cuba for The Nation. As if sending biased and dedicated leftist journalists was not enough, The Nation decided to send a biased and dedicated leftist actor who has shown that his Jeff Spicoli character was closer to his own life than art.

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban President Raul Castro is open to meeting U.S. President-elect Barack Obama on neutral ground to try to resolve the island's four-decade-old feud with Washington, according to an interview with a U.S. magazine.

The interview for The Nation was conducted by U.S. actor Sean Penn, who traveled to Havana after meeting Cuban ally Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and before Obama won the U.S. presidential election on November 4.

"You asked if I would accept to meet with (Obama) in Washington. I would have to think about it. I would discuss it with all my comrades in the leadership," Castro tells Penn in the interview for a December 15 issue published on its website.

While Jeff Spicoli Sean Penn may have come away with a feeling of giddiness that the US may finally get along with its despotic, murdering, slave trading, oppressive, dictatorial neighbor to the south, the crown prince has a different idea of how this historic and monumental meeting should end.

"Perhaps we could meet at Guantanamo," Castro says, referring to the bay where the U.S. maintains a naval base, which Cuba considers a violation of its sovereignty.

"We must meet and begin to solve our problems, and at the end of the meeting, we could give the president a gift ... we could send him home with the American flag that waves over Guantanamo Bay."

Sure, it may be true that the prince just basically told Spicoli Penn, and all Americans, "don't let the door hit you on the ass on the way out," but old Jeff Sean just sparked up another doob and proclaimed to his publicist, "I'm so wasted!"

Surprise!

Cuba's new ag minister is a general.

People to People Contacts

Haven't done one of these in a while. In the following video a Canadian tourist try his best to explain representative democracy and human rights to a Cuban hotel worker WITH HIS FISTS.

If the American tourism ban on Cuba is lifted it'll only be a matter of time before similar educational activities begin rub off on the Cubans. I'm sure of it. After all Canadians are the closest thing to Americans without actually being Americans.

(Ed. Val): I embedded the video below the fold as the originally linked site has some NSFW stuff on it.

Another great Marco Rubio speech

Back in July we posted a video of Marco Rubio giving a speech at CANF. It's notable that Rubio, who is the outgoing Speaker of the Florida House, spoke at the same luncheon that Barack Obama spoke at however he had a very different message than the President Elect. Rubio's speech went viral and honestly we got a lot of new traffic to Babalu because of it.

Here's another speech that Rubio gave that touches on the same themes. This one however is from the day he took over as House Speaker. It's fitting to watch it now as his term ends and perhaps new challenges and opportunities for Rubio lie ahead.

No bailout for Castro, Inc.

My latest column at Real Clear World.

All Day I Dream About Squishing fidel castro

I meant to link to this yesterday but wasnt able to.

Ernesto has posted a great ADIDAS soccer ball game where you can control fidel...and...um...it's kinda hard to explain, but very, very addictive.

Ha ha - UPDATED

Looks like Obama has seen the light for now re: Taxes. Looks like for now, he's leaving the Bush tax cuts in place at least until their 2011 sunset. Smart move. But all those buttwipes are probably fuming that I will not have my taxes upped.

Looks like Obama is keeping Gates as defense secretary for a while. All those punks at the kos or on the local lefty blogs must be peeing in their panties that a Bush man would be in charge of defense.

I guess they expected some peacenik in there. I love all the broken promises and the Prez Elect hasn't even been sworn in ....

UPDATE (HENRY)

The "buttwipes" are definitely fuming. For evidence, read this great post from our friends at the DUmmie FUnnies. For those that are unfamiliar DU (Democratic Underground) is a message board for wacky left wing douchebags, the kind that got Obama the nomination precisely because of his affiliations with people like Jeremiah "God Damn America" Wright and Bill "we didn't bomb enough" Ayers. Their posts on the message board make for some great unintentional comedy.

Update # 2 - Cigar Mike - Amusing tit for tat between reporter and Obama re: "change"

Link:

Update # 3 - I love this typical quote from one of the hard left bloggers out there ...

“Is it true he is going to allow Bush’s tax cuts to continue until 2011? We voted for change, not to govern with the same old cronies”

(Nan2008, HuffingtonPost.com)

Amazing that these neanderthal liberals are just dying to have people's taxes raised and they're upset that it is not going to happen right away. They are dying to take my money away. They are all a bunch of wankers. Hope they rot in their squalor.

Scientists suddenly cooling to the incredibly flexible theory

From the Politico via Hot Air:

Climate change skeptics on Capitol Hill are quietly watching a growing accumulation of global cooling science and other findings that could signal that the science behind global warming may still be too shaky to warrant cap-and-trade legislation.

While the new Obama administration promises aggressive, forward-thinking environmental policies, Weather Channel co-founder Joseph D’Aleo and other scientists are organizing lobbying efforts to take aim at the cap-and-trade bill that Democrats plan to unveil in January. ….

The National Academy of Sciences and most major scientific bodies agree that global warming is caused by man-made carbon emissions. But a small, growing number of scientists, including D’Aleo, are questioning how quickly the warming is happening and whether humans are actually the leading cause.

Armed with statistics from the Goddard Institute for Space Studies and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Climate Data Center, D’Aleo reported in the 2009 Old Farmer’s Almanac that the U.S. annual mean temperature has fluctuated for decades and has only risen 0.21 degrees since 1930 — which he says is caused by fluctuating solar activity levels and ocean temperatures, not carbon emissions.

Data from the same source shows that during five of the past seven decades, including this one, average U.S. temperatures have gone down.

News the liberal asswipes will love

From Drudge:

RUSSIAN ANALYST PREDICTS DECLINE AND BREAKUP OF USA
Tue Nov 25 2008 09:04:22 ET

A leading Russian political analyst has said the economic turmoil in the United States has confirmed his long-held view that the country is heading for collapse, and will divide into separate parts.

Professor Igor Panarin said in an interview with the respected daily IZVESTIA published on Monday: "The dollar is not secured by anything. The country's foreign debt has grown like an avalanche, even though in the early 1980s there was no debt. By 1998, when I first made my prediction, it had exceeded $2 trillion. Now it is more than 11 trillion. This is a pyramid that can only collapse."

The paper said Panarin's dire predictions for the U.S. economy, initially made at an international conference in Australia 10 years ago at a time when the economy appeared strong, have been given more credence by this year's events.

When asked when the U.S. economy would collapse, Panarin said: "It is already collapsing. Due to the financial crisis, three of the largest and oldest five banks on Wall Street have already ceased to exist, and two are barely surviving. Their losses are the biggest in history. Now what we will see is a change in the regulatory system on a global financial scale: America will no longer be the world's financial regulator."

When asked who would replace the U.S. in regulating world markets, he said: "Two countries could assume this role: China, with its vast reserves, and Russia, which could play the role of a regulator in Eurasia."

Asked why he expected the U.S. to break up into separate parts, he said: "A whole range of reasons. Firstly, the financial problems in the U.S. will get worse. Millions of citizens there have lost their savings. Prices and unemployment are on the rise. General Motors and Ford are on the verge of collapse, and this means that whole cities will be left without work. Governors are already insistently demanding money from the federal center. Dissatisfaction is growing, and at the moment it is only being held back by the elections and the hope that Obama can work miracles. But by spring, it will be clear that there are no miracles."

He also cited the "vulnerable political setup", "lack of unified national laws", and "divisions among the elite, which have become clear in these crisis conditions."

He predicted that the U.S. will break up into six parts - the Pacific coast, with its growing Chinese population; the South, with its Hispanics; Texas, where independence movements are on the rise; the Atlantic coast, with its distinct and separate mentality; five of the poorer central states with their large Native American populations; and the northern states, where the influence from Canada is strong.

He even suggested that "we could claim Alaska - it was only granted on lease, after all." Panarin, 60, is a professor at the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and has authored several books on information warfare.

Developing...

More on the Che statue in Central Park

Most New Yorkers seem unaware that but for the grace of God thousands of them would have been Che's victims too.

"If the missiles had remained (in Cuba), We would have used them against the very heart of the U.S., including New York City. The victory of Socialism is well worth millions of atomic victims."
- Ernesto 'Che" Guevara, November 1962.

Imagine a monument to Hideki Tojo at the Arizona memorial in Pearl Harbor. Imagine one to Luftwaffe Chief, Herman Goering in London's Hyde Park. Heck, imagine one to Osama bin Laden in New York. In the fall of 1962 only Khrushchev's prudence and the FBI's competence saved New York from a Che-instigated murder toll that would have dwarfed Pearl Harbor's, London's during the Blitz , and 9/11's -- combined. The planning and will for the fiery mass-murder of thousands of New Yorkers were certainly there, only the means were foiled at the last minute. Morally speaking, this leaves the man honored in Central Park's Doris C. Freedman Plaza (from Nov. 20th 2008 till May 2009) culpable of crimes bin Laden envisions only in his sweetest dreams.

The rest here

Truth in Lyrics?

Here's a song you simply must listen to.

H/T Encinosa.

...or they wear nothing at all.

I could really use some English Leather right about now. Or some Old Spice or Polvo Maja. Any scent that reminds me of my grandparents, really, just to trigger memories. Recollections of Thanksgivings past that, at least to me, were always so perfectly simple.

Every fourth Thursday in November, no mater what I was doing in life or where I was at that particular moment in time, I knew Id go over to my Tia Lulu's house and spend the holiday with my entire family. Grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, family friends, parents, sister, nieces. The whole canalla.

Thanksgiving dinner was set in stone back then because my grandparents were still with us and they were the patriarchs. The elders. The ones that didnt necessarily call the actual shots, but who approved them. They were respected, as Cuban viejos are, and that demanded that their family be together on special occassions. Everyone, no exceptions.

Thanksgiving 2008 is around the corner and, in all honesty, I could use a little olfactory reminiscence via cheap cologne and spanish talcum powder. I can almost no longer recall what it was like to have everyone together like we used to on Thanksgiving back then.

Lately it seems like our family is spread all over the place. Where we used to enjoy the holiday in one place, year after year, now there really is no set tradition for Thanksgiving anymore. Every recent year the holiday has been turned into a quest to see what the heck we're going to do. Who's gonna cook? Whose house will be be going to? Who's coming or going?

Bah. Humbug.

Maybe it's just a generational thing as new families are started and grow. I dont know. All I know is that for me, Thanksgiving was never a vagabond holiday. I knew where I was going to thank God before wonderful meal and I knew that I would get to spend the entire day there with my entire family. Now, I have to travel from home to home like a Thanksgiving Willy Loman, por compromisos and necessity, peddling reserved joy.

I'll be bouncing from home to home come Thursday, when all I really want is to spend the day in one place, deciphering my Grandmother's "chitu chiti's" and infected with my grandfather's laughter, with the scent of roast turkey, congris and English Leather all around me.

The Main Event - The Dems vs. The Dems

It will be exciting come January. Can't wait to see the Main event of the one percenters (that's all they have left after all those years of using dope) as they take on each other. Interesting article of all places, from the Washington Post ...

Forget the Republican filibuster and the race to 60. The real fight in the next Congress is Democrats vs. themselves.

With nearly complete control of Washington for the first time in three decades, Democrats are entering a treacherous power zone in which many of their priorities could easily be undone by the geographic, demographic and ideological factions that compete for supremacy within the party.

Unless Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) can whip their caucuses into unity, numerous fault lines will be revealed: Southern Democrats vs. Northern liberals on labor law; California greens vs. Rust Belt Democrats on global warming; socialized medicine adherents vs. go-slow health care reformers; anti-war liberals vs. cautious centrists on national security. And don’t forget the anti-bailout crowd vs. the powerful Michigan Democrats in both chambers when it comes to money for Detroit . . .

Here’s a look at the top Democratic fault lines in the next Congress.

Waxman vs. the heartland

Two liberal Californians — Henry A. Waxman and Barbara Boxer — chairing the House and Senate committees that oversee global warming policy is an environmentalist’s dream come true.

But will Rust Belt Democrats bite back?

* * *

Laboring over union bill

Opponents call it “card check” and say it oversimplifies the unionizing process and takes away the secret ballot. Advocates call it the
Southern Democrats, meanwhile, might call it a trap.
Employee Free Choice Act and say it will open up new doors for labor protections.

Read it all here and don't forget to buy the popcorn.

Two years

My wife and I are enjoying a little vacation in Savannah, Georgia, and as we always try to do, we're staying in a nice, quaint, and friendly Bed & Breakfast. The cool thing about staying in B&Bs is not just the great breakfast prepared for us every morning, but also the intersting people you get to meet in this relaxed and cordial setting.

A couple of nights ago we met a couple originally from New York who are now retired and just enjoying themselves travelling. Over some afternoon tea and wine, we began talking and when they found out we were Cubans from Miami, the conversation turned to Cuba. Interestingly enough, the retired gentleman began to tell me about his corporate days in Manhattan in the 1960s and his experience with the Cuban refugees that were beginning to arrive in New York. It turns out that the company he worked for actively seeked out the recent Cuban arrivals because although they may have had a languange issue, the majority of them were well educated, had business experience, and were highly motivated to succeed. Everything they wanted of their new hires.

The funny part came when he told me the joke they used to say about the Cuban refugees amongst his friends and colleagues: Hire a Cuban as a building superintendant and within two years, he'll own the building.

I had to laugh because not only was it true, it was a compliment.

Surprise: Communists are ruthless liars

This opinion piece is not about Cuba but it could be. Why should it surprise anyone to learn that commies would rather have people starve to death than allow the genie of capitalism (and free thought that comes with it) out of the bottle?

The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Monday announced that from December 1 it would restrict movement across the border with South Korea, suspend an historic railway and "selectively expel" South Koreans based at two joint projects in the North, the Kaesong Industrial Estate and the Mount Kumgang tourist resort. This followed South Korea's "policy of confrontation", KCNA said...

The controversial park project is to be closed by North Korea, that is, by the people who benefit most from its activities to the tune of tens of millions of dollars a year...

Trouble has been brewing since mid-October, when North Korea said the South Korean government should stop the activities of South Korean non-governmental organizations (NGOs) which were sending air balloons with leaflets and hard currency to North Korea.

They made it clear that they would retaliate by closing down Kaesong. Pyongyang says the activities of the NGOs are in a breach of a 2002 agreement which explicitly prohibits both Korean governments from waging propaganda battles against one another...

The sending of leaflets by balloons, a standard practice before 2002, was stopped as well.

However, NGOs took over where the government stopped.

Imagine democratic activists being democratic activists? North Korea simply can't tolerate that. The author of the piece seems to thing that the leaflets are pretext and it's the people-to-people exchanges that North Korea wants to stop because of their "corrupting influence."

Perhaps but regardless of the reasons for it them, the conditions set forth by the North Korean regime and their subsequent actions are exactly the kind we can expect of Castro, Inc. if sanctions on Cuba are relaxed.

We've seen the Castro regime make minor reforms in desperate moments only to repeal them later.

Why would anyone think that these old school commies will allow the trojan horse of capitalism into their fiefdoms. If they really wanted the "Chinese model" they would have implemented it by now. That they haven't speaks volumes.

TURKEY TURKEY TURKEY, PART II

Many thanks to all those who chimed in with their turkey day turkey recipes. Now Im even more confused, but that's alright, I picked up a bak-up ham, which I'll toss in the smoker and smother with my cafe cubano glaze. Por si las moscas.

To show my gratitude, I figured Id post Adam Sandler's Turkey Song for your enjoyment:

Incredibly Flexible Theory may have upside

Canadians all for global warming:

Humankind's affinity for warmer weather is ancient and rational, says Peiser, an expert on how past civilizations have handled natural disasters. The world's temperature has fluctuated in the past and civilizations have struggled to adapt, but the big problem has always been global cooling. "In periods of warming you always had thriving societies, and the periods that were troubling for societies were the cold periods, obviously because that's when agriculture suffers."

More Brilliant Iowahawk satire

Here:

WASHINGTON DC - Ending weeks of speculation and rumors, President-Elect Barack Obama today named Bill Clinton to join his incoming administration as President of the United States, where he will head the federal government's executive branch.

"I am pleased that Bill Clinton has agreed to come out of retirement to head up this crucial post in my administration," said Obama. "He brings a lifetime of previous executive experience as Governor of Arkansas and President of the United States, and has worked closely with most of the members of my Cabinet."

...

"Let's face it, it's obvious I'm in way over my head here," explained Obama. "Anyone paying attention knows I am a disaster waiting to happen, and who can blame them? I mean, just look at the stock market. That's why I think it's in the best interest of the country that I hand over the reins to people who, whatever their ethical shortcomings, at least have a faint clue about what they're doing. Come on, man. I've got a 401-k, too."

Searching for "The Shift" Part 10

This is the tenth in a series of analyses of the election results to see whether or not the Cubans are abandoning the GOP. Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here. Part 3 is here. Part 4 is here. Part 5 is here. Part 6 is here. Part 7 is here. Part 8 is here. Part 9 is here.

In Part 6, I analyzed the precincts that are located in the 33010 zip code. According to 2000 census estimates (the latest info I could get) the zip code is 66.1% Cuban. We discovered that in those 10 precincts John McCain obtained 63.2% of the vote.

Well I went back to the 2004 election results and found that in the 6 precincts (there was a new one in 2008 that didn't exist in 2004) George W. Bush obtained 70.9% of the vote. That's a shift of 7.7%. This is more of a shift than we've seen in the other zip codes thus far. Consider that the proportion of Cubans in each zip code could also be shifting.

There are some other pretty big caveats to this analysis. First off some of the precinct boundaries have changed and even the locations of the precinct houses have changed. However the precincts still generally represent the same areas. The next caveat is that absentee ballots were reported differently back then. They had something called absentee precincts. Nowadays all ballots are attributed to the voters precinct regardless of whether the voted absentee or on election day (or early voted).

Until next time, I'll be searching for the shift.

UPDATE: This post was updated to reflect the county's revised election results as of 11/14/08.

Who Needs Turkey?

Yes, Turkey is mandatory for Sanksgeeveen. But I aways bring a few of these , smothered in onions and cooked with sweet potatoes (Boniato?) to the viejo's home for a delightful evening of feasting, imbibing and typically Cuban boisterous conviviality--as the "American" additions to the family cringe and cover their ears in the corner!

TURKEY TURKEY TURKEY

My family has put me in charge of cooking this year's Thanksgiving turkey. Now, Ive fried quite a few gobllers in my life but cant recall ever having made one in the oven. Thus, my trepidatious quandary.

Ive scoured teh internets and found plethoras of recipes, but, well, I just cant decide. Does anyone out there have a great turkey recipe?

Our Courageous Media

The effects of a full moon on a werewolf are nothing compared to the effects of an audience with a Stalinist dictator on a U.S. reporter. Questioning a Bush, a Reagan-- or OH!, a NIXON!!--they snarl and roar like Tigers. In comparison, Torquemada was a chump during his interrogations. But questioning Fidel Castro--as we've seen from Dan Rather to Andrea Mitchell to Barbara Walters-- they purr like little puddycats. Florence Nightingale was a sadistic beast in comparison....And a real shame considering the fun a genuine interviewer could have with Castro. So just in case some are reading this, here's a few famous Castro claims you might bring up during your next interview with him:

"Let me stress that power does not interest me in the least, and I have no intention of acquiring or exercising it. Be assured that you are not dealing with an ambitious person or a dishonest one." Fidel Castro Santiago Cuba, Jan. 1st 1959.

"A reporter works for the free citizens. He must only inform them, and the intelligent Cuban public will form their own conclusions. That is why dictators censor the news! As they did in Cuba! Freedom of the press also means freedom of assembly! (deafening applause) When we speak of freely electing, we don't only refer to Presidents--but also to union leaders, legislators, ALL representatives! When we speak of one right established by our revolution we refer to ALL RIGHTS!! These rights cannot be taken from the Cuban people!!" (deafening applause)
Fidel Castro in Camaguey Jan. 4th 1959.

Ninoska on policy

Don't Normalize Relations

Monday, November 24, 2008 5:59 AM
Symbols: GCI
(Source: USA TODAY)By Ninoska Perez

There seems to be a renewed interest in lifting the embargo and normalizing relations with Cuba, especially after the transfer of power from Fidel Castro to his brother Raul. To do so, would mean that the countless crimes committed by them would be ignored and, what is worse, the existing ones would become acceptable.

What is normal about a country that has condemned its citizens to a ration card for almost five decades, despite a generous subsidy from the former Soviet Union? What is normal about censorship, repression and the fact that the Castro dynasty has ruled with an iron fist for the past 50 years?

What is normal about depriving citizens of their basic freedoms? Should it be seen as normal that the communist ideology be imposed on a five-year-old child, based on the false premise that education is free? Or that a defector's child is denied an exit visa, simply because the parents opted for freedom?

In 2003, in what came to be known as "The Black Spring," the Cuban regime arrested 75 men and women seeking peaceful and democratic change. For attempting to write, defend human rights and create independent libraries to oppose the government's censorship, they were arrested and condemned to sentences ranging from 15 to 28 years.

Sixteen have been released; the remaining 59 are enduring the hardship of Cuba's gulags, along with hundreds of other political prisoners. That same year three young men stole a ferry boat to flee Cuba. No one was hurt in the attempt. After a swift and secret trial, the three faced a firing squad within 72 hours of their arrest. It was then that additional sanctions were imposed by the Bush administration on Cuba's totalitarian regime.

The fact is that for the embargo or the additional sanctions to be lifted, certain steps must be taken: Respect for human rights, the release of all political prisoners and free and democratic elections.

It's the Cuban regime that must change, not U.S. policy.

Miami radio and TV host Ninoska Perez is a leader of the pro-embargo Cuban Liberty Council. (c) Copyright 2008 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Sin comentario

H/T Ernesto.

Obama and Missile Defense - Be Afraid

This article should scare the living crap out of you. This article shows the need to move ahead with missile defense. Obama has been wishy washy on the idea of moving full speed ahead on missile defense. I'm afraid he may turn out to be worthless & weak so much so that our national security is at risk from, inter alia, EMP attacks and nuclear attacks from rogue states and terrorists. What's an EMP attack? Read on.

UPDATE: Even the Russian Prez is saying Obama is a lightweight on this issue. Just peachy.

The times they are a scary baby ....

What a Single Nuclear Warhead Could Do Why the U.S. needs a space-based missile defense against an EMP attack.

By BRIAN T. KENNEDY

As severe as the global financial crisis now is, it does not pose an existential threat to the U.S. Through fits and starts we will sort out the best way to revive the country's economic engine. Mistakes can be tolerated, however painful. The same may not be true with matters of national security.

Although President George W. Bush has accomplished more in the way of missile defense than his predecessors -- including Ronald Reagan -- he will leave office with only a rudimentary system designed to stop a handful of North Korean missiles launched at our West Coast. Barack Obama will become commander in chief of a country essentially undefended against Russian, Chinese, Iranian or ship-launched terrorist missiles. This is not acceptable.

The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, have proven how vulnerable we are. On that day, Islamic terrorists flew planes into our buildings. It is not unreasonable to believe that if they obtain nuclear weapons, they might use them to destroy us. And yet too many policy makers have rejected three basic facts about our position in the world today:

First, as the defender of the Free World, the U.S. will be the target of destruction or, more likely, strategic marginalization by Russia, China and the radical Islamic world.

Second, this marginalization and threat of destruction is possible because the U.S. is not so powerful that it can dictate military and political affairs to the world whenever it wants. The U.S. has the nuclear capability to vanquish any foe, but is not likely to use it except as a last resort.

Third, America will remain in a condition of strategic vulnerability as long as it fails to build defenses against the most powerful political and military weapons arrayed against us: ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads. Such missiles can be used to destroy our country, blackmail or paralyze us.

Any consideration of how best to provide for the common defense must begin by acknowledging these facts.

Consider Iran. For the past decade, Iran -- with the assistance of Russia, China and North Korea -- has been developing missile technology. Iranian Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani announced in 2004 their ability to mass produce the Shahab-3 missile capable of carrying a lethal payload to Israel or -- if launched from a ship -- to an American city.

The current controversy over Iran's nuclear production is really about whether it is capable of producing nuclear warheads. This possibility is made more urgent by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's statement in 2005: "Is it possible for us to witness a world without America and Zionism? But you had best know that this slogan and this goal are attainable, and surely can be achieved."

Mr. Ahmadinejad takes seriously, even if the average Iranian does not, radical Islam's goal of converting, subjugating or destroying the infidel peoples -- first and foremost the citizens of the U.S. and Israel. Even after 9/11, we appear not to take that threat seriously. We should.

Think about this scenario: An ordinary-looking freighter ship heading toward New York or Los Angeles launches a missile from its hull or from a canister lowered into the sea. It hits a densely populated area. A million people are incinerated. The ship is then sunk. No one claims responsibility. There is no firm evidence as to who sponsored the attack, and thus no one against whom to launch a counterstrike.

But as terrible as that scenario sounds, there is one that is worse. Let us say the freighter ship launches a nuclear-armed Shahab-3 missile off the coast of the U.S. and the missile explodes 300 miles over Chicago. The nuclear detonation in space creates an electromagnetic pulse (EMP).

Gamma rays from the explosion, through the Compton Effect, generate three classes of disruptive electromagnetic pulses, which permanently destroy consumer electronics, the electronics in some automobiles and, most importantly, the hundreds of large transformers that distribute power throughout the U.S. All of our lights, refrigerators, water-pumping stations, TVs and radios stop running. We have no communication and no ability to provide food and water to 300 million Americans.

This is what is referred to as an EMP attack, and such an attack would effectively throw America back technologically into the early 19th century. It would require the Iranians to be able to produce a warhead as sophisticated as we expect the Russians or the Chinese to possess. But that is certainly attainable. Common sense would suggest that, absent food and water, the number of people who could die of deprivation and as a result of social breakdown might run well into the millions.
In today's Opinion Journal

REVIEW & OUTLOOK

* Secretary of Bailouts
* Jindal's Medicine
* The Sidwell Choice

TODAY'S COLUMNISTS

* The Americas: Election Fraud in Nicaragua
– Mary Anastasia O'Grady
* Information Age: When Even Good News Worsens a Panic
– L. Gordon Crovitz

COMMENTARY

* The Fed Is Out of Ammunition
– Christopher Wood
* What a Single Nuclear Warhead Could Do
– Brian T. Kennedy
* Change Our Public Schools Need
– Terry M. Moe
* Bush Does the Right Thing for Darfur
– Kenneth Roth

Let us be clear. A successful EMP attack on the U.S. would have a dramatic effect on the country, to say the least. Even one that only affected part of the country would cripple the economy for years. Dropping nuclear weapons on or retaliating against whoever caused the attack would not help. And an EMP attack is not far-fetched.

Twice in the last eight years, in the Caspian Sea, the Iranians have tested their ability to launch ballistic missiles in a way to set off an EMP. The congressionally mandated EMP Commission, with some of America's finest scientists, has released its findings and issued two separate reports, the most recent in April, describing the devastating effects of such an attack on the U.S.

The only solution to this problem is a robust, multilayered missile-defense system. The most effective layer in this system is in space, using space-based interceptors that destroy an enemy warhead in its ascent phase when it is easily identifiable, slower, and has not yet deployed decoys. We know it can work from tests conducted in the early 1990s. We have the technology. What we lack is the political will to make it a reality.

An EMP attack is not one from which America could recover as we did after Pearl Harbor. Such an attack might mean the end of the United States and most likely the Free World. It is of the highest priority to have a president and policy makers not merely acknowledge the problem, but also make comprehensive missile defense a reality as soon as possible.

Mr. Kennedy is president of the Claremont Institute and a member of the Independent Working Group on Missile Defense

A Taste of Communism?

Cubanology-Biweekly No. 15 is out. This issue is Editor Jose Reyes' response to that new statue greeting visitors to New York's Central Park.

Read it here.

Clear and Present Danger

This essay from Bill Roggio's Long War Journal is probably the best I've read on why closing Guantanamo and releasing the enemies we have there is, like all liberal idée fixes, a dangerous move.

Whatever happens to the detainees, the important point for much of the commentariat is that Guantánamo will be shuttered. For Guantánamo's many critics, the facility long ago became a symbol of all that is wrong with the Bush administration's conduct of the war on terror-from its cowboy-like unilateralism to its alleged widespread torture and abuse of terrorist suspects. That many dangerous enemies lurk in Guantánamo's cells has often been a secondary concern, if a concern at all. Thus, when President-elect Obama spoke of regaining "America's moral stature in the world," he was endorsing the widespread perception of Guantánamo as an American sin that originated in the Bush administration's overreaction to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

This perception, however, was always skewed. The new administration will soon discover from its review of the Guantánamo files what motivated its predecessor: The scope of the terrorist threat was far greater than anyone knew on September 11, 2001. But for the Bush administration's efforts, many more Americans surely would have perished.

This conclusion is based on a careful review of the thousands of pages of documents released from Guantánamo, as well as other publicly available evidence. In 2006, the Department of Defense began to release the documents to the public via its website. The files had been created during the Combatant Status Review Tribunals (CSRT) and Administrative Review Board (ARB) hearings held for nearly 600 detainees. This unclassified cache includes both the government's allegations against each detainee and summarized transcripts of the detainees' testimony. Although the documents were released in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by the Associated Press, the intelligence contained in the files was largely ignored by the mainstream press for more than two years. Thus, the New York Times reported only the day before the recent presidential election that the files contain "sobering intelligence claims against many of the remaining detainees."

Indeed, they do. When the Obama administration reviews the Guantánamo files, here is what it will find.

Read the entire article it's worth your time.

Searching for "The Shift" Part 9

This is the ninth in a series of analyses of the election results to see whether or not the Cubans are abandoning the GOP. Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here. Part 3 is here. Part 4 is here. Part 5 is here. Part 6 is here. Part 7 is here. Part 8 is here.

In Part 4, I analyzed the precincts that are located in the 33144 zip code. According to 2000 census estimates (the latest info I could get) the zip code is 69.7% Cuban. We discovered that in those 7 precincts John McCain obtained 69.7% of the vote.

Well I went back to the 2004 election results and found that in the same 7 precincts George W. Bush obtained 70.4% of the vote. That's a shift of 0.7%.

There are some pretty big caveats to this analysis however. First off some of the precinct boundaries have changed and even the locations of the precinct houses have changed. However the precincts still generally represent the same areas. The next caveat is that absentee ballots were reported differently back then. They had something called absentee precincts. Nowadays all ballots are attributed to the voters precinct regardless of whether the voted absentee or on election day (or early voted).

Until next time, I'll be searching for the shift.

UPDATE: This post was edited to reflect the county's revised election results as of 11/14/08.

Without embargo, Cuba's leaders lose leverage

Of course, it's so simple. Wads of tourist cash and dozens of American businesses investing in Cuba on the regime's terms will SO force their hand. I mean they won't know what to do with all that money. They'd never spend it on arms, the repressive apparatus or building more political prisons. They'd JUST HAVE TO SPREAD IT AROUND. Better yet they would have to admit that they've been responsible for failed Marxist policies for half a century. They would do this out of the honesty that pumps through their veins.

Some day the clowns that write this garbage will be called to account.

For once I would like someone to explain to me how exactly giving castro, inc. unilateral concessions brings the country closer to democracy. All we know is that we're supposed to lift the embargo and some magic is going to transform raul castro and his henchmen from the murderous liars that they are into the Adam Smith and the Chicago Boys. How exactly does that work?

Babalu Radio Podcast

Hey folks, a quick plug for our latest Babalu Radio Hour podcast. George and I interviewed Carlos Frias, the Palm Beach Post sports journalist who wrote a memoir about his 2006 visit to Cuba called "Take me with you".

You can listen to the podcast here.

If you have iTunes you can subscribe to the podcast here for free.

Hope and Change

I try to keep my political leanings separate from my sporting interests but there is something I wholeheartedly agree with our president elect on: college football needs a playoff.

Yesterday a column was published in the NYT by Bryan Curtis characterizing Obama's position on the issue as a "fumble":

Yes, Mr. Obama’s proposal would spread the wealth around. Instead of one game that matches two upper-crust contenders like Alabama and Oklahoma, a playoff could include teams from football’s neglected working class, like Utah and Boise State. Unfortunately, it would also ruin what is great about college football.

The part of the sport to savor is not the finale but the regular season. In college football, every game has the fierce urgency of now. The uncertainty of what lies at the end makes the 12-game gantlet all the more nerve-wracking. Lose once, and your team finds itself at the mercy of the voters and the dreaded computers...

Under the B.C.S., college football is about the pursuit of four perfect months. Under Mr. Obama’s risky playoff scheme, college football would be about the pursuit of three perfect weeks.

Hardly an original argument, does this clown actually get paid to write this tripe?

First of all a team would still have to have a damned good regular season in order to be one of 8 or 16 teams to qualify for a berth in a such a system (out of 119). But the real stupidity of this line of thinking is betrayed by history. Just last season LSU won the national title, not with an undefeated record, not with one blemish on their record, but with TWO losses. Meanwhile Hawaii capped a perfect season by getting blown out in their BCS bowl game.

The current bowls/polls system encourages teams to play inferior out of conference teams, it encourages teams to run up the score in search of style points, and it tells teams that even if they do everything right that there might not be a spot at the table for them because some pundit somewhere has a different opinion.

On the issue of a playoff for college football I am with President Elect Obama, bring on the change.

Secret Ballot Hypocrisy

I've written extensively how the Congressional Dems and their butt kissing progeny like Mr. Limpet (who'd rather fantasize to Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank over Megan Fox and Jessica Alba), are dying to pass this free choice act which will allow unions to muscle into the workplace by eliminating the secret ballot which has been part of the law since the NLRA was passed in the 1930's. Heck, even liberal George McGovern (seen above in commercial) opposes the anti-democratic legislation that eliminates secret ballots. Of course the congress uses secret ballots just like they did when the had their coup d'etat against Cong. Dingell from Michigan. But the Dems don't see that they're covered in so much horse sh*t and have gotten so used to the stench that all seems normal for them. John Fund nicely describes the stench. But what do expect from these types. They're dope smoking dopes! I wonder if Obama will join them at the bong line or if he'll show some coglioni.

This week's 137 to 122 vote of House Democrats to replace John Dingell with liberal Henry Waxman at the energy and commerce committee would likely not have happened but for the secret ballot. Even Rep. Louise Slaughter, chairwoman of the House Rules Committee, told Congressional Quarterly she was relieved the vote would be a private one: "It's a secret ballot. . . . Thank the Lord."

After all, the fearsome Mr. Dingell, who will become history's longest-serving House member next year, has been known to hold grudges.

Yet the obvious irony is that Democrats now will try to deprive workers of the same privacy privilege in workplace unionization battles. So-called "card check" legislation would require an employer to sign a union contract as long as a simple majority of workers sign a form authorizing a union to represent them -- a move that necessarily makes workers more vulnerable to coercion and intimidation than if they are voting by secret ballot.

And the ironies keep piling up. The leading House sponsor of card check is Rep. George Miller, who also served as campaign manager of Mr. Waxman's race against Mr. Dingell, settled by secret ballot. What's more, along with 10 House Democrats, Mr. Miller wrote a 2001 letter to Mexican government officials encouraging the "use of secret ballots in all union recognition elections." The letter states: "We feel that the secret ballot is absolutely necessary in order to ensure that workers are not intimidated into voting for a union they might not otherwise choose."

Rep. Miller and the other signers now say their demand was for secret ballot votes only when "workers seek to replace one union with another union. " Funny. Their letter made no mention of that specific situation and instead referred to "all union recognition elections."

A better explanation is that Democrats' principled support for a secret ballot flies out the window when it comes to union organizing efforts sponsored by the special interests who helped them win control of Congress.

Pretty Pictures: A Bit More

Missed this one. The WWF- no, not that one- has decreed Cuba as the only country that meets the criteria for sustainable development. I'm guessing that means development in reverse. Oh, well, I'll look on the bright side. If Canada learns from Cuba, then I'll be able to buy Florida tomatoes at Publix instead of Canadian ones. Go here for beautiful National Geographic footage and equally beautiful, but clueless, narration.

Update: Got an email from a reader I'd like to share because it highlights an ecological hot spot.

I was appalled when [reading] the post in Babalu in regard to the WWF’s position on Cuba’s “sustainability practices.” I believe that Cuba’s practices, from “every stand-point,” not only wildlife, is frankly one of the world’s most “unsustainable.” And if the WWF’s choice is to reinforce and further its Cuban sustainability subject, why don’t they go to Moa, and film a special report on the health conditions of the nickel mine workers and the town population’s general “health status”?

Talk about un-sustainability, Moa’s people and their mine workers should be the first ones to be rescued, once the “unsustainable cuban castroist regime” falls from its unsustainable practice of totalitarian exploitation of the Cuban people…

Amen.

Wow. I'd be uber-proud to be associated with these folks...

The company you keep.

The National Committee of the Communist Party USA calls on all of those concerned about the crisis that has gripped our country and the world to close ranks; unite and fight for the election mandate.

We hail the 10’s of millions who came to the polls and registered an historic defeat of the ultra right. These voters saw through the direct and indirect appeals to racism and voted for Obama. We salute those who rejected the Republican anti-communist, anti-immigrant attacks and numerous other slanders and voted their hopes and not their fears. Their votes represent the highest expression of patriotism.

Our party has a proud history in the fight against racism, for unity and full equality. We fully appreciate what this election represents in term of the ongoing freedom struggle.

(A personal note. I thought I'd post this before I went to celebrate my birthday at one of America's great steak houses. A fine meal of seared, prime bovine flesh, slightly bloody -- and cruelly killed, of course -- accompanied by spears of asparagus, screaming about their agonizing plight, the distilled essence of grains from around the world, and all washed down with fine coffee and a cigarette, and maybe, a cigar. And all of it without a bit of guilt, angst, worry, or hand-wringing. It's great being a conservative...)

VI Day

I've been remiss in publishing this. Since it fortuitously fell on my birthday I am glad to promote what other bloggers are writing: Today is VICTORY IN IRAQ DAY. Blackfive says it best:

Today is the appointed day for rejoicing about the victory in Iraq. This has been a different kind of war and I think we all have had a tough time getting our arms around what victory actually means. I will stand with security conditions that allow the Iraqis to govern themselves. They seem to be doing so and we continue to move back as they step forward. Congratulations to all who were part of those efforts and godspeed to all who gave their lives or were wounded in the cause. Those who fought knew they could win, and they did.

And to the liberal bloggers, local and otherwise, who have fought against a victory in Iraq, all the while shedding crocodile tears about our troops without caring one whit about them, FUCK YOU. Twice.

Thanks for your consideration.

More here, here, here, and here.

JFK assassination 45 years later.

Make sure you read George's essay about the JFK assassination at CubanAmericanPundits.com.

For Those Who Turned 39 Years Old Today

Happy Birthday George

Up in smoke

Journalist Bob Woodward, of Watergate fame, made an interesting comment regarding Obama's choice of Hillary Clinton as his Secretary of State. Woodward finds the choice perplexing, and questions the state of mind of Obama and his advisers for choosing the senator from New York.

"Being president is about control, and tell me who ever controlled Bill or Hillary Clinton. They can't control each other. ... I think it's because Warren Buffett and Paul Volcker and others have convinced Obama, 'You're going to have to focus like a laser on the economy. That's issue Number One. And give Hillary and Bill the world.' ... I think people are fantasizing or smoking something if they think Joe Biden's going to call Hillary Clinton up and say, 'This is what we want you to do.'"

Well, Bob, I can't say I know what they are smoking, but I bet you it's some good shit! Perhaps Labrador shit.

November 22, 1963

La musica y los amigos

The endless stream of bad news from Cuba, the election, and don't even mention LA traffic. You get to the point where you just want to pull your hair out. What to do? I've found the perfect antidote; a dark jazz club packed with Cubans listening to Andy Garcia and the Cineson Allstars. I'm talking roof raising la musica Cubano; Son, Danzon, Rumba, Mambo, Conga.

Oye la Conga! Kikita was there, and blogged it at My Big Fat Cuban Family.

Searching for "The Shift" Part 8

This is the seventh in a series of analyses of the election results to see whether or not the Cubans are abandoning the GOP. Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here. Part 3 is here. Part 4 is here. Part 5 is here. Part 6 is here. Part 7 is here.

In Part 1, I analyzed the precincts that are located in the 33175 zip code. According to 2000 census estimates (the latest info I could get) the zip code is 56.6% Cuban. We discovered that in those 14 precincts John McCain obtained 68.7% of the vote.

Well I went back to the 2004 election results and found that in the same 14 precincts George W. Bush obtained 71.8% of the vote. That's a shift of 3.2%.

There are some pretty big caveats to this analysis however. First off some of the precinct boundaries have changed and even the locations of the precinct houses have changed. However the precincts still generally represent the same areas. The next caveat is that absentee ballots were reported differently back then. They had something called absentee precincts. Nowadays all ballots are attributed to the voters precinct regardless of whether the voted absentee or on election day (or early voted).

Until next time, I'll be searching for the shift.

UPDATE: This post was edited to reflect the revised election results as of 11/14/08.

You gotta be fucking kidding

My apologies for stealing the title from John Carpenter's The Thing but no other phrase came close: Michael Jackson converts to Islam.

Beleaguered pop star Michael Jackson has converted to Islam and changed his name to Mikaeel, it has been claimed today.

The 50-year-old singer, who has previously been photographed wearing a traditional Arab women's veil, reportedly became a Muslim in a ceremony at a friend's house in Los Angeles.

The singer, who was raised as a Jehovah's Witness, is said to have sat on the floor and worn a small hat while an imam officiated at the home of Steve Porcaro, who composed music on his Thriller album.
Michael Jackson

He is said to have been encouraged by Canadian songwriter David Wharnsby and Phillip Bubal, a producer, who both approached him after he appeared 'a bit down'.

A source told The Sun: 'They began talking to him about their beliefs, and how they thought they had become better people after they converted. Michael soon began warming to the idea.

'An imam was summoned from the mosque and Michael went through the shahada, which is the Muslim declaration of belief.'

His brother Jermaine Friday, previously hinted Jackson was considering converting to the religion.

'When I came back from Mecca I got him a lot of books and he asked me lots of things about my religion and I told him that it's peaceful and beautiful,' said Friday, who embraced the faith in 1989.

'He read everything and he was proud of me that I found something that would give me inner strength and peace.

'He could do so much, just like I am trying to do. Michael and I and the word of God, we could do so much.'

Meanwhile, Jackson is scheduled to give evidence in person at London's High Court to defend allegations that he owes an Arab sheikh £4.7 million.

His barrister, Robert Englehart QC, told Mr Justice Sweeney today that he was withdrawing his application for Jackson to give his evidence via video link from Los Angeles because of health fears.

'He has been cleared by his medical advisers to travel in two days' time,' he told the judge.

Jackson is expected to arrive in the UK over the weekend to give his evidence on Monday afternoon.

Un. Fucking. Believable. //cue Rod Serling//

(H/T DhimmiWatch)

The end of America

Guess who gets a statue in New York City? To borrow a comment from one of my colleagues here at Babalu, "If I lived in New York that statue would be without a head tonight."

Fucking unbelievable:

Contact info for the Commissioner, Department of Parks and Recreation: http://nyc.gov/html/mail/html/maildpr.html

Contact info for Mayor Bloomberg:

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg
City Hall
New York, NY 10007
PHONE 311 (or 212-NEW-YORK outside NYC)

FAX (212) 788-2460

E-MAIL:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/mayor.html

Serious H/T to Maggie at Pat Dollard.com

Liberals All Over the World Are Grieving

Image © 1997 by Michael A. Pancier

Amsterdam moves to close a fifth of 'coffee shops' By TOBY STERLING, Associated Press Writer Toby Sterling, Associated Press Writer 2 hrs 26 mins ago

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands – Amsterdam will close almost a fifth of its marijuana cafes to comply with a national ban on having them near schools, the mayor said Friday.

Another city, Eindhoven, said it would start issuing permits to marijuana growers in order to better regulate the trade — if the national government approves.

The plans were announced as 33 major Dutch cities held a "weed summit" to discuss the nation's long-standing policy of tolerating marijuana use while routinely arresting growers.

Marijuana is technically illegal in the Netherlands, but can be sold in small amounts in designated cafes — euphemistically known as "coffee shops" — without fear of prosecution. More than a quarter of the country's cafes are in Amsterdam, where they are a major tourist attraction.

But Mayor Job Cohen said the city would close about 20 percent of its cafes.

Those included some landmarks, such as The Bulldog — a high-traffic shop operating since 1985 in a former police station on one of the city's main squares.

Yes folks, all the lefties will have less coffee shops in Amsterdam to get stoned out of their minds. A moment of silence for the closing of the Bulldog ....

Read it all here.

AND ... while we're on the subject of smoking, it seems that legendary Watergate Reporter Bob Woodward thinks that Obama has been smoking the wacky weed as evidenced by him picking Hillary Clinton as SOS, which reports say she has accepted:

Now that it's considered a foregone conclusion that Sen. Hillary Clinton will be the next secretary of State, the chattering class is weighing in, including legendary reporter Bob Woodward. FishbowlDC has obtained an advanced transcript of this weekend's "The Chris Matthews Show", in which the famed Washington Post reporter had this to say about Clinton's nomination as SoS:

Being president is about control, and tell me who ever controlled Bill or Hillary Clinton. They can't control each other. ... I think it's because Warren Buffett and Paul Volcker and others have convinced Obama, 'You're going to have to focus like a laser on the economy. That's issue Number One. And give Hillary and Bill the world.' ... I think people are fantasizing or smoking something if they think Joe Biden's going to call Hillary Clinton up and say, 'This is what we want you to do.'

I guess they'll do what JFK did before the embargo (i.e., where he stocked up on Cuban cigars before he signed the embargo) by stocking up on weed before the coffee shops close down ....

Obama's objectionable choices

As a U.S. citizen, I am stuck with Obama as president, and I will do my best to respect that office, but I will never accept him as my personal president. I cannot stomach his complete lack of ethics and integrity, and his obvious contempt for traditional American values. During the campaign he may have distanced himself from unsavory associates, lest they hamper his electability, but it is my opinion that his affinity for criminals and thugs mirrors his own questionable character. It is my opinion that Obama has a radical agenda, and does not respect the constitution or laws of our great nation. Who one chooses to associate with is an indication of ones character; an honest law abiding citizen does not keep company with criminals.

Two of Obama’s choices for positions in his administration, Eric Holder and Greg Craig are, in my opinion lackeys for the castro dictatorship, and I fear a chilling indication of his agenda for “change”.

This is their idea of justice:

H/T: Enrique

Note: Links are working now

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The New Pelosi GTxi SS/Rt Sport Edition eats AMC Gremlins for breakfast.

Cigar Mike on Orthinology

It's Friday and here's a photo of my favorite bird, the Roseate Spoonbill. (Platalea ajaja). This bird is a wading bird of the ibis and spoonbill family Threskiornithidae. It is a mainly resident breeder in South America, the Caribbean, and the Gulf coast of the USA. For those who live in Florida and Louisiana and Mississippi, especially on the Gulf Coast, you are lucky to see these beautiful birds. Many folks mistake them for wild flamingos.

You can also see them in some swamp areas in the tri-county area here in South Florida and in the Everglades, near Flamingo and in Florida Bay.

They are endangered, but hopefully making a comeback since the last set of hurricanes we had down here destroyed many of their breeding areas. So the next time you're at the beach in Fort Myers or St. Pete, or in the Louisiana swamp, and you see one of these, you can show off to all your friends and say, "that's a roseate spoonbill. Thanks Cigar Mike."

Have a great weekend folks.

Happy Friday!

What say we start out today's Happy Friday blogging with, oh, I dont know..how about a video of Cuban Police mercilessly beating a Cuban citizen on the street?

H/T Ernesto.

Searching for "The Shift" Part 7

This is the seventh in a series of analyses of the election results to see whether or not the Cubans are abandoning the GOP. Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here. Part 3 is here. Part 4 is here. Part 5 is here. Part 6 is here.

In Part 3, I analyzed the precincts that are located in the 33165 zip code. According to 2000 census estimates (the latest info I could get) the zip code is 61.3% Cuban. We discovered that in those 16 precincts John McCain obtained 68.6% of the vote.

Well I went back to the 2004 election results and found that in the same 16 precincts George W. Bush obtained 71.5% of the vote. That's a shift of 2.9%.

There are some pretty big caveats to this analysis however. First off some of the precinct boundaries have changed and even the locations of the precinct houses have changed. One precinct house was actually was moved to a neighboring zip code. However the precincts still generally represent the same areas. The next caveat is that absentee ballots were reported differently back then. They had something called absentee precincts. Nowadays all ballots are attributed to the voters precinct regardless of whether the voted absentee or on election day (or early voted).

Until next time, I'll be searching for the shift.

UPDATE: This post has been edited to reflect the county's revised election results as of 11/14/08.

Aren't you the Christ?

Save yourself and us!

Luke 23: 39

The Incredibly Flexible Theory takes another hit

The incredibly credible theory of man-made global warming took another hit with a recent Cornell University study:

Soils include many forms of carbon, including organic carbon from leaf litter and vegetation and black carbon from the burning of organic matter. It takes a few years for organic carbon to decompose, as microbes eat it and convert it to carbon dioxide. But black carbon can take 1,000-2,000 years, on average, to convert to carbon dioxide.

By entering realistic estimates of stocks of black carbon in soil from two Australian savannas into a computer model that calculates carbon dioxide release from soil, the researchers found that carbon dioxide emissions from soils were reduced by about 20 percent over 100 years, as compared with simulations that did not take black carbon's long shelf life into account.

The findings are significant because soils are by far the world's largest source of carbon dioxide, producing 10 times more carbon dioxide each year than all the carbon dioxide emissions from human activities combined. Small changes in how carbon emissions from soils are estimated, therefore, can have a large impact.

Of course it being the incredibly flexible theory this study will be discounted and those responsible for it will be excommunicated from the scientific community.

More on the incredibly flexible theory here and here.

More on Cuba travel restrictions

I know there have been many, many posts here at Babalu about the travel restrictions, and many of you believe that they should end. When it comes to family visits, I think there is a legitimate argument to be made for both sides of the debate. However, when you’re talking about lifting the restrictions for Americans in general, I have to ask, why anyone would want to visit a country that treats its citizens like this:

Cuban man's family kept on island, despite U.S. visas

El Nuevo Herald, by JUAN CARLOS CHAVEZ

A Cuban man who lost both of his arms -- after he tried to escape from prison following a failed attempt to reach Florida -- denounced the Cuban government Wednesday for keeping his family on the island even though they have been issued visas to join him in the United States.

In March 2007 Jorge Albart Rodriguez detailed how he injected petroleum into his own arms during the 1980s in an attempt to escape from a Cuban prison.

''All of the frustration and pain I felt while locked up does not compare to the suffering of not having my family reunited,'' he said Wednesday. ``They should already be in Miami, but the Cuban government has delayed the authorization for their exit without offering an explanation.''

He said he suspected that the publicity given to his ordeal never sat well with Cuban authorities who have blocked the departure of his wife, Judith, and their sons Jury, 9, and Jorge, 19. His family had been due to arrive to the United States in September.

''The nightmare is not over and I don't know what else I can do,'' Albart said.

This was not Albart's first tangle with the Cuban government. He was arrested at age 16 for trying to reach Florida aboard a precarious vessel. He said he was sentenced to four years in prison, and kept in isolation.

The conditions he was subjected to prompted Albart to take risky actions without thinking of the consequences. He injected petroleum into his arms so he would be taken to the emergency room -- hoping he would be able to escape from there.

He did not count on the jailers not believing him, and denying him immediate medical attention. The result was a serious infection and the subsequent amputation of his arms.

Years later, Albart tried twice to flee Cuba, but did not succeed. He finally paid smugglers to take him to Mexico, though they robbed him of what little he had just before he crossed the border into the United States.

''It was nearly a monthlong voyage in search of a better future, for the idea of one day being happy with my family. Despite everything, I haven't lost hope of seeing them,'' said Albart, who earns a living by selling avocados and flowers on the street.

Some of our readers may remember a previous Babalu post about Mr. Albart. Unfortunately, his story is one among so many illustrating the abject ruthlessness of the castro regime. In my opinion, if U.S. citizens lack the humanity necessary to avoid aiding and abetting such, then I have no problem with the government’s restrictions. They limit travel to other countries for much less compelling reasons. Americans should demand that Cuba lift their travel restrictions before we even consider lifting ours.

Vatziz ziz "bubble?"

H/T Ace.

Obama Recruits Castro's Lawyer

A dog-eared-eared story for many of us, but mostly unknown in middle America.

"After interviewing Pedro Porro for my book, Fidel: Hollywood's Favorite Tyrant, this writer was asked to confront Gregory Craig in a radio debate by Accuracy In Media regarding the accusations of Craig's shilling for Fidel Castro.

"You betcha," I replied.

"But Gregory Craig responded in print that Fontova's charges were completely fabricated and utterly unsound. Rest of story here

Socialism: Irrefutable Perfect Track Record

(Editor's Note (Val): here's another good opinion piece by my good friend and colleague Arnaldo Rodriguez.)

NEVER MET AN INTELLIGENT SOCIALIST
By: Arnaldo Rodriguez

“In communism the tyranny of socialism is much worse than the tyranny of its dictatorship.”

Azuno Rodriguez

I have never met an intelligent socialist and I don’t think I ever will, even though I have met a lot of them in my lifetime.

Let’s take Fidel Castro, the great orator. He could move the masses in a manner way above Obama’s pay grade, and without a teleprompter or speech writers. But when he decided to socialize Cuba he acted the role of an imbecile. In 1959 he came to power in Cuba when it was 4th country in standard of living in the Americas, just behind the US, Canada and Argentina and with a higher per capita income than Italy, Spain and Belgian, to name a few. He “changed” Cuba to a country as poor as Haiti. He brought it to the bottom of poverty, or full socialism, which is essentially the same. Only a moron could accomplish that.

Many will surmise that sort of “change” could only occur in a small country like Cuba. How about Hitler’s historically brief but horrific leftist socialist rule of Germany, the long-lived poverty of Lenin’s Soviet socialism, or the misery of Mao’s socialist rule of China? All countries which ruled over immense geographic regions with superbly rich cultures were “changed” into poverty-stricken socialist states. In a striking contrast Great Britain ceded Hong Kong, a center of pure capitalism, back to China. But, rather than socializing Hong Kong, the free enterprise system in this tiny region spread like wild fire and transformed China into a world economic power.

Just for fun and for the benefit of some very dumb socialists let’s mention Chavez from Venezuela, Correa from Ecuador, Ortega from Nicaragua and Evo from Bolivia. All cartoonish characters with a collective I.Q. under 100 have ruined many of our world’s peoples and cultures. They are all an embarrassment to humanity.

Socialism has an irrefutably perfect track record of total failure. Any socialist has to be blind or stupid to believe that such an economically barren system could actually function to the benefit of anyone other than these moron leaders that infect their societies with ignorance.

When you hear anyone promoting socialism you can safely assume he is a moron. On the other hand let’s cite an example of mental clarity. After the fall of Allende’s Chilean communist regime the new government sought out the advice of Milton Freeman, the Nobel prize winner in economics, whom is famous for his “Free to Choose” program. By implementing a few of Freidman’s free market tenets Chile’s economy went from rags to riches in just a few years. So much so that it became the leading economic power in all of Latin America. That is intelligence. If instead they had called William Ayers for advice Chileans would probably be bargaining for food stamps from Haiti.

Here is an anecdote to prove my point: In 1960, during much of my last 10 months living in Cuba, I worked for the Castro regime as an engineer in charge of purchasing light industrial equipment. The Communist Block often sent many representatives to sell Cuba their industry and machinery. They usually came in groups of 3 to 5 men. On the first day of the visit I would ask the group, “Which one of you is communist”? In most cases they would point one out. Soon I was able to discover on my own which one was the communist. When we had a technical discussion the one that didn’t know his head from his ass was the commie. He was always the dumb one. The Polish were my favorites if I asked each individually: Are you communist? The answer was always; “No, I am Catholic” except for the dumb one. I met many dumb socialists during those months and have not yet had the misfortune of meeting a smart one. Based on that experience I can safely believe that if the president-elect is socialist then he lacks intelligence.

It is my firm belief that if the socialist president-elect is not dumb, then he is intent on destroying this country in the name of our enemies. Either way, dumb or smart, this Country of ours will lose.

Todd Schnitt, on his radio talk show, said, “Former FBI and CIA officers told me that Obama could never pass the scrutiny of their vetting process and could never be hired by either agency, because his past record would make him a security risk”. Now he is our next commander-in-chief. If you are not scared yet, then you are the dumb one.

I cant write

I've sat with the word editor open I dont know how many times these past few weeks, wanting to write one of those tear jerker posts that you all love - and that I love to write because they come from the heart - but havent been able to string the sentiments into coherent language. Too many things on my mind right now. A very full plate, as they say, preventing me from concentrating and clouding the needed focus.

Havent had much time either, spending most of the day at work and the rest chasing down the Big Heads needed to make ends meet. No es facil y no esta facil la cosa. "Making ends meet" has taken on an all new and exponentially important meaning for me lately.

Im still in the process of sending all who made a donation a personal note of thanks - as, believe me, right now, every little bit helps and is incredibly appreciated - and if youve donated and havent received word from me, I apologize but I will get to it as soon as I can. Just know how thankful I am and how privileged I feel having folks like you as family.

Im posting the donation button below in case there's anyone outh there that hasnt had the chance and have been wanting to darnos un cabo. I wish this werent he case and that I ddnt have to ask you all for a few bucks to keep things afloat, but, unfortunately, it is what it is.

A huge thanks for the bottom of the old corazon.

The Obama Health Care Plan - Socialized Medicine

For 17 months or so, Obama and his followers have been raving how he is going to provide health care for every American. Trouble is that until now, no one has had a clue as to how he plans to do it. Well, here it is as outlined in today's WSJ.:

Read it here.

This is what is troubling:

The Obama-Baucus solution to this slow-motion catastrophe is to add tens of millions more people to the federal balance sheet. Because the public option will enjoy taxpayer sponsorship, it will offer generous packages to consumers that no private company could ever afford or justify. And because federal officials will run not only the new plan but also the "market" in which it "competes" with private programs -- like playing both umpire and one of the teams on the field -- they will crowd out private alternatives and gradually assume a health-care monopoly.

I guess for some folks who voted for Obama and pray to him because he's the messiah this is ok, but the reality of it all is that his plan is simply socialized medicine folks. And who's going to be running this system? Folks that make Barney Fife look like Albert Einstein ... heck I'd prefer Barney Fife over Barney Frank ... but this government run healthcare is frightening folks ....

I have felt this before

All the hyperbole surrounding the upcoming Obama presidency and the wildly unrealistic expectations of his supporters has given me a sickening feeling. He has been compared to FDR, Lincoln, and even to the Son of God Himself, Jesus Christ. This nauseous sensation seemed familiar though, and I have spent the last two weeks since the election trying to figure out why. And then yesterday, it hit me; I have experienced this queasy feeling before in my life, and it has always involved people I care about.

I would venture to say that most of you reading this have encountered the same ill effect sometime in your lives—it is quite common, actually. It is that feeling you get when you see someone you care about make a bad decision and there is nothing you can do about it. It is the same feeling you got when you watched your sibling, or your cousin, or your best friend marry a person you knew sooner rather than later, would hurt them deeply. You tried to warn them before it was too late, but they were in love with a perception that to everyone but them, betrayed reality. So you smiled, wished them well, and prepared yourself to be there for them to offer support and to help them pick up the pieces when their fantasy eventually came crashing down. That is what family members and friends are for; to be there in good times and bad.

A little over half of America—our brothers and sisters, our friends and co-workers—have fallen in love with someone we know will eventually hurt them. And since we all have to live together, we will also be hurt by their choice. We tried to warn them, and we tried to show them the eventual consequences of their decision. But they were in love with a notion; they were enamored of an imaginary image created to capture their hearts instead of their minds. And so they took the plunge and said “I do.”

As Americans, all we can do is smile and wish them well; to wish them otherwise would be to wish the same on ourselves. We can only hope that things will not turn out as bad as we think they will, but for certain we will be there to pick up the pieces when this fantasy comes crashing down.

Havana Winter

By Yoani Sanchez

The sky is not always that precious blue of the tourist postcards. Thank goodness, because I can not imagine a year with scorching sun without the pause of these weeks that bring cold fronts. Since Monday a cloud has come, bringing London to Havana and severe flooding in the east of the country. The streets are remarkably empty at night because the cold scares away the usual denizens of the parks and sidewalks. Boarding a crowded bus is no longer the fastest way to acquire pests in one’s armpits, rather the entrance to a warm and friendly space. With the low temperatures, humor and tolerance improve; for the old, their bones ache and hot chocolate becomes a recurring hallucination. December is so close that it’s not worth starting anything, say those who have postponed projects throughout the year. The time to spend more is coming, presaging that pockets will be especially empty this Christmas. However, the most sensitive topic is that of coats and blankets, the little protection from the damp cold that enters through the gaps in the windows.

I see people on the street with sweaters and thick, padded synthetic coats, but none of these garments could be purchased with the wages they earn from their work. One has a leather coat sent to him by a sister who lives in New York and the striped one was given to the girl as a gift from a tourist passing through the city. A young boy has a waterproof raincoat inherited from his brother, who in turn got it from an uncle who confiscates luggage at customs. The old woman crossing the street is careful of her half-wool coat, which she got from a neighbor in exchange for a blender. Only the guard at the hotel boasts a denim jacket, with shiny new buttons.

I like the winter and the affability it awakens in people, but I know that for many it’s the season of certain worries and shame. Of not being able to sleep on the park bench, where the rest of the year one gentleman with raggedy clothes has his only home. Of children mocked in school for wearing a coat purchased during the rationing of the 1980s. The cold emphasizes the differences between those who can close the door and those who don’t have a house with windows that shut. It highlights the contrast between those with a long-sleeved garment and those who wear two sweaters because they don’t have a coat. Everything depends on the thermometer and its not dropping another ten degrees, because the housing and clothes of the poor will not withstand a single snowflake.

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.

This just in...

...Not a damned thing has changed in Cuba since yesterday. SSDD

The BabaluBlog Radio Hour | Special Guest Carlos Frias | Tonight 9:00 PM EDT

We have a very guest special guest on the BabaluBlog Radio Hour starting at 9:00 PM. Journalist Carlos Frias will talk to us about his memoir, Take Me With You. Here's a concise review from our good friend Carlos Eire:

"Take Me With You really does take you with it, on an unforgettable journey, not just to Cuba -- a forbidding place unlike any other on earth -- but also to that mysterious, nameless part of the human soul that yearns for home and for lasting bonds with kin. At once gritty and transcendent, this is one travelogue that soars. Frías lays bare his heart and in the process exposes the Cuba few tourists or journalists ever get to see: a labyrinth of ruins haunted by the ghosts of those who escaped from it." -- Carlos Eire, National Book Award-winning author of Waiting for Snow in Havana

Here's the link to Carlos' book on Amazon.com:

Carlos Frías, an award-winning journalist and the American-born son of Cuban exiles, grew up hearing about his parents' homeland only in parables. Their Cuba, the one they left behind four decades ago, was ethereal. It existed, for him, only in their anecdotes, and in the family that remained in Cuba -- merely ghosts on the other end of a telephone.

Until Fidel Castro fell ill.

Sent to Cuba by his newspaper as the country began closing to foreign journalists in August 2006, Frías begins the secret journey of a lifetime -- twelve days in the land of his parents. That experience led to this evocative, spectacular, and unforgettable memoir.

Take Me With You is written through the unique eyes of a first-generation Cuban-American seeing the forbidden country of his ancestry for the first time. Take Me With You provides a fresh view of Cuba, devoid of overt political commentary, focusing instead on the gritty, tangible lives of the people living in Castro's Cuba. Frías takes in the island nation of today and attempts to reconstruct what the past was like for his parents, retracing their footsteps, searching for his roots, and discovering his history. The book creates lasting and unexpected ripples within his family on both sides of the Florida Straits -- and on the author himself.

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

The Holidays Are Coming

Yes folks, what would be better than to give as a Xmas gift, an original signed photograph by yours truly, Cigar Mike.

I just got some of my Maine landscapes printed in 24 x 36 mounted on double weight matte and they look unreal.

Just take a look at my photo library on Flickr and let me know if you'd like a particular image and what size and whether you want it mounted on canvas, matte board, or stretched canvas and you have them framed and hang them in your home and offices.

Besides birds and wildlife, I have images from Florida, the Glades, Maine, and the American Southwest, and other locations as well. Much better than giving a sweater or socks, or a bottle of El Bochero.

"I hear most Cubans voted for Obama!!"

We voted AGAINST Obama by (best I can tell from Henry's superb analysis) the most lopsided margin of any ethnic group in America. We consistently vote Republican by the same lopsided margins. Please note the second comment on this thread

And please remember this is from a rigidly conservative site. Yet many such people STILL THINK MOST Cuban-Americans VOTED FOR OBAMA!...I give up!!

Since Cubans keep getting lumped together(culturally and politically) with other "Hispanics," I say all Semites should get lumped together (culturally and politically.) Hey, fair is fair. I'd love to see how THAT would play out in media headlines:

"David Duke gets rousing reception from Semitic-American crowd at CAIR-Hamas convention."

"Semitic-American voters disturbed by Israeli intransigence during Mid-East talks"

No room for RINOs in GOP - Now with working link!

Today's Wall Steet Journal:

South Carolina's Mark Sanford is one of three GOP governors now being widely mentioned as potential saviors of the Republican Party between now and 2012. All are conspicuous for calling on their own party to live up to its principles. Most notably, none have advocated the GOP move to the left...

The country hasn't so much moved left as it has abandoned a GOP that abandoned its own principles. In Ohio, Barack Obama actually won about 40,000 fewer votes than John Kerry did four years ago. Mr. Obama took Ohio only because John McCain pulled 350,000 fewer votes than George W. Bush did in 2004. Republicans and Republican-leaning voters stayed home.

That's not an endorsement of the ideas of the left. It's a lack enthusiasm for a party that failed to deliver the smaller government it promised in Washington. At least the GOP, in settling on future leaders like Governors Jindal, Sanford and Palin, seems to understand that.

Pitts: GOP is Racist, Homophobic

Pulitzer Prize winner Leonard Pitts wrote this in today's Miami Herald (emphasis mine):

They'll be back. Don't think for a minute that they won't.

These things run in cycles, and death in politics is about as permanent as death in Marvel Comics, which is to say, not very. Yes, Team Red had its butt kicked and its lunch money taken a few weeks back, yes Team Blue stands at the prow of the ship, arms wide, screaming ''king of the world!,'' yes the GOP slinks off into the wilderness now amid grumbles of recrimination and remonstration.

They'll be back. Count on it.

Indeed, they are already plotting their return, pundits and polls debating the best way of regaining favor. Shall they be more like Reagan or less, less socially conservative or more? Shall they groom Sarah Palin or forget they ever heard the name?

Allow me to insert into the discussion one tiny hope. Namely, that the GOP will plot a path back to power that does not require stepping on scapegoats to get there.

Ever since Richard Nixon's infamous ''Southern strategy'' of 1968, Republicans have won power largely by convincing voters that strange and exotic others were to blame for all their ills. It's the feminists' fault, they said. Or the blacks. Or the Hispanics, the Muslims or the gays.

And this:

Indeed, ''let us save you from them'' has been arguably the GOP's most enduring message for four decades, a promise to people shaken by change that the party will repeal the '60s and reinstate the '50s. And never mind that this would mean returning women to the kitchen, Muslims to invisibility, gays to the closet and blacks to the back of the bus. Never mind that it was about as likely as returning toothpaste to the tube.

What can be said in response to this hateful diatribe? It shows that Leonard Pitts, behind all the flowery talk about unity and hope and equality, is a hypocrite who doesn't have a clue what the vast majority of Republicans and conservatives really stand for. That's because he probably doesn't know more than a handful of Republicans/conservatives.

BTW, I would love to get Edward Schumacher-Matos' reaction to this column. Of course, he would probably say that it's "ideologically accurate".

Pitts is right about one thing: the GOP will be back. These type of hateful columns will just make it that much easier to get back in the game, trust me.

The entire column, if you dare, can be read here.

castro Caption Contest

The latest released photo of the cadaver en jefe just begs to be captioned:

Have at it, folks. Here's mine:

Hintao: Confucious say Old man with muculent hands has two feet in grave.

fidel: Who is this guy and why is he holding my hand? And what's wrong with his eyes? Think! Ive got to think!My hair feels funny. Hey, is this guy La China? I like my ADIDAS sweatsuit. He's holding my hand, should I kiss him?The trails, man. I can see the trails. Far out. What is this heavy bag hanging from my side? Who is this guy and why is he holding my hand? And what's wrong with his eyes? Think! Ive got to think!. . .

No More Bailouts - Let Detroit Go into Chapter 11

Great article by Gov. Romney on the Detroit fiasco. Romney is one to know about the car business since his dad was the one who turned AMC around when it was in tatters. By going into Ch. 11, the big 3 can get rid of those union contracts that are killing the industry You give these folks a government bailout, they will continue to perpetuate the same policies that have killed them with our tax money. They need to reorganize into better, leaner, more efficient corporations. Hey the US Automakers can make great cars. Heck, I own one (see above) and have driven Chrysler/Dodge vehicles now for nearly a decade. I will continue to support them by buying their cars, not with my tax money. Here's the article which was published today in the NY Times:

Let Detroit Go Bankrupt By MITT ROMNEY

IF General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won’t go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed.

Without that bailout, Detroit will need to drastically restructure itself. With it, the automakers will stay the course — the suicidal course of declining market shares, insurmountable labor and retiree burdens, technology atrophy, product inferiority and never-ending job losses. Detroit needs a turnaround, not a check.

I love cars, American cars. I was born in Detroit, the son of an auto chief executive. In 1954, my dad, George Romney, was tapped to run American Motors when its president suddenly died. The company itself was on life support — banks were threatening to deal it a death blow. The stock collapsed. I watched Dad work to turn the company around — and years later at business school, they were still talking about it. From the lessons of that turnaround, and from my own experiences, I have several prescriptions for Detroit’s automakers.

First, their huge disadvantage in costs relative to foreign brands must be eliminated. That means new labor agreements to align pay and benefits to match those of workers at competitors like BMW, Honda, Nissan and Toyota. Furthermore, retiree benefits must be reduced so that the total burden per auto for domestic makers is not higher than that of foreign producers.

That extra burden is estimated to be more than $2,000 per car. Think what that means: Ford, for example, needs to cut $2,000 worth of features and quality out of its Taurus to compete with Toyota’s Avalon. Of course the Avalon feels like a better product — it has $2,000 more put into it. Considering this disadvantage, Detroit has done a remarkable job of designing and engineering its cars. But if this cost penalty persists, any bailout will only delay the inevitable.

Second, management as is must go. New faces should be recruited from unrelated industries — from companies widely respected for excellence in marketing, innovation, creativity and labor relations.

The new management must work with labor leaders to see that the enmity between labor and management comes to an end. This division is a holdover from the early years of the last century, when unions brought workers job security and better wages and benefits. But as Walter Reuther, the former head of the United Automobile Workers, said to my father, “Getting more and more pay for less and less work is a dead-end street.”

You don’t have to look far for industries with unions that went down that road. Companies in the 21st century cannot perpetuate the destructive labor relations of the 20th. This will mean a new direction for the U.A.W., profit sharing or stock grants to all employees and a change in Big Three management culture.

The need for collaboration will mean accepting sanity in salaries and perks. At American Motors, my dad cut his pay and that of his executive team, he bought stock in the company, and he went out to factories to talk to workers directly. Get rid of the planes, the executive dining rooms — all the symbols that breed resentment among the hundreds of thousands who will also be sacrificing to keep the companies afloat.

Investments must be made for the future. No more focus on quarterly earnings or the kind of short-term stock appreciation that means quick riches for executives with options. Manage with an eye on cash flow, balance sheets and long-term appreciation. Invest in truly competitive products and innovative technologies — especially fuel-saving designs — that may not arrive for years. Starving research and development is like eating the seed corn.

Just as important to the future of American carmakers is the sales force. When sales are down, you don’t want to lose the only people who can get them to grow. So don’t fire the best dealers, and don’t crush them with new financial or performance demands they can’t meet.

It is not wrong to ask for government help, but the automakers should come up with a win-win proposition. I believe the federal government should invest substantially more in basic research — on new energy sources, fuel-economy technology, materials science and the like — that will ultimately benefit the automotive industry, along with many others. I believe Washington should raise energy research spending to $20 billion a year, from the $4 billion that is spent today. The research could be done at universities, at research labs and even through public-private collaboration. The federal government should also rectify the imbedded tax penalties that favor foreign carmakers.

But don’t ask Washington to give shareholders and bondholders a free pass — they bet on management and they lost.

The American auto industry is vital to our national interest as an employer and as a hub for manufacturing. A managed bankruptcy may be the only path to the fundamental restructuring the industry needs. It would permit the companies to shed excess labor, pension and real estate costs. The federal government should provide guarantees for post-bankruptcy financing and assure car buyers that their warranties are not at risk.

In a managed bankruptcy, the federal government would propel newly competitive and viable automakers, rather than seal their fate with a bailout check.

Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, was a candidate for this year’s Republican presidential nomination.

Help the economy!

Go out and buy some hollowpoints today.

It is, after all, National Ammo Day.

Moral "Relativism"

Seems that the regime which felt so strongly the parent-child bond that they mounted an international hue and cry to retrieve young Elian Gonzalez has had a change of heart. They are essentially holding hostage in Cuba the children of health care professionals who have sought asylum in the United States. The distraught parents are now taking the case to international courts. It's a shame it looks like Mr. Craig is going to be tied up for the next few years. It would be a case right up his alley. Herald story here.

Meet the Obamaniacs

On November 4th, over 52% of American voters cast their votes for Barack Obama and placed the future of this nation with a relatively unknown candidate with virtually no experience. It was an historic moment for it brought us not only the first black president ever to be elected in American history, but also the least qualified person to ever be elected in American history.

A decision to put the fate of our great nation during such tumultuous times in the hands of a novice with a questionable past should not be taken lightly. And one would hope that most voters who chose to take this unprecedented and risky chance would take the time and make an effort to be well informed.

One would hope. Well, meet 12 Obamaniacs.

Scary, isn't it? Well, one can always say that these twelve incredibly misinformed Obama voters are just an anomaly and not representative of your typical Obama voter. Unfortunately, a Zogby poll shows this problem appears to be more the rule than the exception among Obama supporters.

Zogby Poll

512 Obama Voters 11/13/08-11/15/08 MOE +/- 4.4 points

97.1% High School Graduate or higher, 55% College Graduates

Results to 12 simple Multiple Choice Questions

57.4% could NOT correctly say which party controls congress (50/50 shot just by guessing)

81.8% could NOT correctly say Joe Biden quit a previous campaign because of plagiarism (25% chance by guessing)

82.6% could NOT correctly say that Barack Obama won his first election by getting opponents kicked off the ballot (25% chance by guessing)

88.4% could NOT correctly say that Obama said his policies would likely bankrupt the coal industry and make energy rates skyrocket (25% chance by guessing)

56.1% could NOT correctly say Obama started his political career at the home of two former members of the Weather Underground (25% chance by guessing).

And yet.....

Only 13.7% failed to identify Sarah Palin as the person on which their party spent $150,000 in clothes

Only 6.2% failed to identify Palin as the one with a pregnant teenage daughter

And 86.9 % thought that Palin said that she could see Russia from her "house," even though that was Tina Fey who said that!!

Only 2.4% got at least 11 correct.

Only .5% got all of them correct. (And we "gave" one answer that was technically not Palin, but actually Tina Fey)

You can read more about this interesting (and in all honesty, terrifying) profile of Obamaniacs at the creator of this video's website: www.howobamagotelected.com

We Warned Ya -- Obama Picks Eric Holder as AG

You'll remember him from the Elian days. Now Obama has Craig and Holder on his team.

WASHINGTON – President-elect Barack Obama's aides have privately asked senators whether Washington attorney Eric Holder would be confirmed as the next attorney general, according to a person involved in the talks.

The talks suggest that Obama is deeply interested in Holder, who served as the No. 2 official in the Justice Department under President Clinton.

In the past week, Obama aides have asked Senate Republicans whether they would support Holder. In particular, the aides questioned whether Holder's confirmation would be delayed because of his involvement in the 2001 pardon of fugitive Marc Rich by President Bill Clinton.

Newsweek, quoting unidentified legal sources close to the presidential transition team, reported Tuesday that Obama offered Holder the job and he accepted. Newsweek said Holder still has to undergo a formal "vetting" review by the Obama transition team before the selection is final.

One person involved in the talks told The Associated Press that the Obama team has received some assurances that, while the Rich pardon would certainly come up during hearings, the nomination likely wouldn't be held up over that. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the private conversations.

On the last day of Clinton's term, Holder was asked whether the president should pardon Rich, a wealthy commodities dealer who had been spent years running from tax charges. Holder said he was "neutral, leaning towards favorable" on the pardon. Clinton later cited that as among the factors that persuaded him to issue the pardon.

Holder has publicly apologized for what he said was a snap decision that he should have paid more attention to. Had he taken more time to review the case, he would have advised against a pardon, he said.

A former U.S. attorney, Holder is among Washington's most prominent defense attorneys. He would be the first black attorney general in U.S. history.

A simple question

As a Cuban living outside of Cuba....

fidel and the Amish

Chrisopher Hitchens on fidel's recent sojourn with religion:

I have been in Cuba many times in the past decades, but this was the first visit where I heard party members say openly that they couldn't even guess what the old buzzard was thinking. At one lunch involving figures from the ministry of culture, I heard a woman say: "What kind of way is this to waste money? We build a cathedral for a religion to which no Cuban belongs?" As if to prove that she was not being sectarian, she added without looking over her shoulder: "A friend of mine asked me this morning: 'What next? A subsidy for the Amish?' "

Read the whole excellent thing, right here.

H/T Ernesto.

"No Excuses for Liberals"

This is a damn good op ed in today's WSJ by Bret Stephens. One of the best I've read in a while. It is being reproduced here in its entirety. A Must Read!

"I make no excuses, I only wear them." Remember that? It was the pitch made by Donna Rice for a pair of tight-fitting stonewashed jeans some 20 years ago. Too bad the brand is long gone, since we're at yet another No Excuses moment in American politics.

Specifically: a liberal No Excuses moment. With the election of Barack Obama and huge Democratic majorities in Congress, liberals must now practice something other than the politics of nostalgia and what-if.

This is a politics that has been in the making since at least 1968, though its real origins probably go back to 1944 and the first great liberal what-if: What if an ailing FDR had died nine months earlier, and been succeeded by the great progressive icon and polymath (and original moonbeam), then Vice President Henry Wallace?

In that case, perhaps, desegregation would have happened sooner, universal health care would be with us today, and the "century of fear" that Wallace predicted as the outcome of the Truman Doctrine would have been avoided by means of a more conciliatory policy toward the Soviet Union.

From that moment on, the liberal what-ifs multiply in dizzying profusion. What if John F. Kennedy had dodged the bullet in Dallas and lived to get the U.S. out of Vietnam before it fully got into it? What if Robert F. Kennedy had dodged the bullet in L.A. five years later? What if Jimmy Carter hadn't been so earnest, truthful and unlucky? What if Ronald Reagan hadn't proved such an adept political mythmaker? What if Donna Rice hadn't been pictured on Gary Hart's lap? What if Willie Horton hadn't been given a furlough? What if Bill Clinton hadn't squandered his political gifts with cheap trysts? What if Bush v. Gore had gone 5-4 the other way? What if 9/11 hadn't intervened to give the Bush administration its mandate for another bout of the politics of fear? What if John Kerry hadn't been sandbagged by Osama bin Laden's last-minute video intervention?

This liberal narrative of its own near-misses, bad luck and tragic interventions of fate is supplemented by a parallel liberal tale of unbridled conservative malevolence. Republicans may be the stupid party, but they've been fortunate in their evil political geniuses -- Lee Atwater, Newt Gingrich, Karl Rove -- all of whom have succeeded in bamboozling the public into voting against its own economic interests.

As for conservative electoral successes, these are explained almost entirely as a function of political dirty tricks (cf. "October Surprise") jingoism (Star Wars, Grenada et al.) and racism ("Southern strategy"). "The legacy of slavery, America's original sin, is the reason we're the only advanced economy that doesn't guarantee health care to our citizens," writes Nobel laureate Paul Krugman in "The Conscience of a Liberal." Who knew that a straight line connects the ideas of Jefferson Davis and Milton Friedman?

(Only lately has this history been turned on its head, so that liberal pundits now bemoan the passing of those great conservative ideas men who presumably are crying tears in heaven over the GOP's capture by the likes of Sarah Palin.)

The upshot of all this has been an amazing lack of introspection among the frequently wronged, but never wrong, liberal American hard core. Politically, this hasn't yielded such great results: The number of Americans who self-identify as liberals continues to fall, to 21% in 2008 from 22% in 2004, according to CNN. (The number of self-identified conservatives held steady at 34%.) Then again, without that hard core Mr. Obama's primary triumphs would never have been possible.

Now the long wait is over, and the liberal ship has come in. In Mr. Obama, liberals have a president who seems to have stepped out of the last episodes of the West Wing. He has the Congress in his left pocket, the news media in his right pocket (or is it the other way around?), and he floats on a tide of unprecedented international enthusiasm. The Republican Party has no obvious standard-bearer, as it did in Ronald Reagan after Gerald Ford's defeat in 1976. It could well spend the next four years, or eight, tearing itself to pieces.

Instead, the only things that stand in Mr. Obama's path are what Marxists like to call "objective factors": the financial crisis, the mess in Detroit, the disposing of Guantanamo detainees, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Russian hostility, Chinese assertiveness, maybe the disintegration of Pakistan.

Mr. Obama will get, and deserves, a period of political grace. Let's say a year. After that, it will become increasingly difficult to attribute whatever mistakes he makes to the legacy of his predecessor. American liberalism, such as it is, is finally being put to the test that fate has denied it these last many decades. Succeed or fail, this time there can be no excuses.

Coming soon to a rear bumper near you

The latest in Obamaphernalia: The "O" bumper sticker.

Two words, 5 letters... it just seems to say it all.

Sometimes....

...when the world around you seems to be going to shit, all you really need is a hug.

No plantains, no pineapples, no human rights

Did anyone else find this Miami Herald article about how Cuban’s retain their sense of humor in spite of the devastation and hardship from hurricanes offensive?

Political oppression? Hunger? Homelessness? Never mind, because those light hearted humor filled happy natives of Cuba will just laugh it off.

Don’t worry, be happy, and joke:

First came Gustav, then Ike and now No Hay, Spanish for "there isn't any.''
No hay plantains.
No hay pineapples.
No hay sufficient amount of construction supplies to dole out for all those looking to rebuild and repair their homes.

So what exactly is left?

''We still have our sense of humor,'' quipped Carlos Humberto, a silver-haired man in his 60s who rents rooms to tourists.

Now, with almost one third of the country's crops destroyed during the first two storms, plantains are hard to find.
Even tourists hoping to score plantain dishes from restaurants are told to choose another dish on the menu.
''We're able to get malanga but plantains are hard to come by,'' said Duniel, 23, who shuttles tourists around on a bicycle taxi throughout the Old Havana neighborhood. ``If you get some, they are all black, overripe.''

Also hard to come by are various kinds of fruits, especially pineapples. Many of the agricultural fields where they grow also were destroyed by the storm. Carlos Humberto, the man who rents rooms to tourists, is used to providing his guests with fruit salad for breakfast each morning.

Now, he apologizes for only serving a few slices of pineapple.

''Even to get the pineapple, I had to ride my bike from market to market,'' Carlos Humberto said.

Humberto riding his bike from market to market to deliver pineapple to the tourist. What a good native, so accommodating, I wonder what his family is eating.

And what about those left homeless? Here’s the word from the (sic) president.

''We will rebuild, but logically we will not build so close to the water,'' (p)resident (r)aúl (c)astro told the afflicted residents during a recent visit to the university. "What's the point of rebuilding next to the water if we're going to have to rebuild with the next storm?''

No building near the water? Just watch how fast those areas fill up with new tourist facilities while the people are relocated away from prime beachfront property.

Apartheid in Cuba?

I’m not laughing.

Media shills for Obama

No! Really?

But what happens when adulation gives way to the messy, incremental process of governing? When Obama has to confront a deep-rooted financial crisis, two wars and a political system whose default setting is gridlock? When he makes decisions that inevitably disappoint some of his boosters?

Cuban done good, and dies tragically

The story is here.

You can donate to the Scholarship Fund that's been set up in his memory here.

H/T: Marc

A personal note

Last month, while on a cruise celebrating my 10th wedding anniversary, I found out that my employer had lost it's biggest account. The account that I worked on. As a result, our office in Miami was to close.

Fortunately, I was very very lucky and landed an even better job than my last. The downside is that I am very busy and will be traveling a lot. So you'll see my contributions mainly at night.

As always I want to thank you, our loyal readers, for giving us the incentive to keep going.

Will Obama keep his word to us?

In my latest piece for Pajamas Media I wonder out loud if Obama will keep his word on maintaining the embargo with Cuba or if he'll be one of the typical politicians he mocked when he was holding court with his buddies at CANF.

Havana Harbor Circa 1910-1915

The Library of Congress has a bunch of public domain images on Flickr including these real old ones from Cuba from the early 20th Century. You may want to check some of them out. You can print them out if you like as well.

Below is one of native Cuban troops from the same era.

Maybe Delacova or some of your historians may have some more background on the identity of these "troops".

Greg Craig: Equal Opportunity Opportunist

In the real world, the naming of Greg Craig as White House counsel would say a lot about the President-Elect--but we are not living in the real world when it comes to Obama. His past statements, associations, and votes or non-votes mean nothing. His slate was wiped clean and anything and everything he did in the past is, as we are told, inconsequential.

The Republican National Comittee has a press release detailing Craig's prior clientele. We all know about his work for the Castro regime in representing Juan Miguel Gonzalez, but just for fun, let's take a look at Counselor Craig's inconsequential past clientele.

• John Hinckley Jr.: Tried to assassinate President Reagan

• Pedro Miguel Gonzalez: President of Panama's Legislature who was indicted for the 1992 Murder of a U.S. Soldier.

• Carlos Sanchez-Berzain: Bolivian Defense Minister accused of human rights abuses for heavy-handed tactics to put down labor riots, which led to 67 deaths.

• Fradique De Menezes: president of Sao Tom and interestingly enough, a cocoa plantation owner accused of corruption.

• The Mevs family of Haiti: One of only a handful of families that rose to great wealth during the dictatorship of Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier with a monopoly on the country's sugar industry

Don't get me wrong, everyone has the right to legal representation regardless of how vile or heinous they are. But it seems that Craig has an affinity for these types. I guess you have to take opportunity however it comes, and for Craig, a murderer's money is just as green as everyone else's.

Dodd's 'Democrat' Tightens His Grip

Great op ed piece by our friend Mary Anastasia O'Grady on El Burro Chavez, the same guy Chris Dodd called a "Democrat" ... well looking on how the US Democratic party is today, Hugo would fit right in.

Hugo Chávez's threat last week to bring tanks to the streets if his side does not win key states in Sunday's gubernatorial elections is chilling. But it is not surprising. It is only the next logical step in what is the Venezuelan president's drive to seize all power and silence all dissent. * * * Venezuelans saw this coming. From his earliest days as president in 1999, Mr. Chávez began working to destroy any checks on his power. On April 11, 2002, after weeks of street protests against this effort, hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans marched again in Caracas. Nineteen people were shot dead in the streets by government supporters. When Mr. Chávez asked the military to use force against the crowd, the generals refused and instead told him he had to step aside.

One might think that all Americans would have supported the demand to stop the bloodshed. But Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd threw a fit over Mr. Chávez's removal. The self-styled Latin America expert insisted that since Mr. Chávez had been initially "democratically elected" in a fair vote, he should have been immune from challenges to his power, no matter the abuses. To this day the senator calls the event a U.S.-backed coup, even though a State Department Inspector General's report found that the charge was false. Even the Organization of American States accepted the change in power.

Read the entire article here.

Herald Ombudsman Flirts With Censorship?

Hidden deep in the Miami Herald web site is a column by Herald ombudsman Edward Schumacher-Matos published yesterday titled “Facts Should Be Foundation for Published Opinion”. In the piece, Schumacher-Matos responds to a letter from a reader of Spanish-language El Nuevo Herald who is upset at a recent column written by El Nuevo columnist Adolfo Rivero Caro titled “Suicidio Nacional” (National Suicide). The ombudsman shares the reader’s concerns about Rivero's “smears” of Barack Obama and Democrats and wonders whether facts (as defined by the editors, of course) should trump a columnist’s job to be opinionated.

For background, here is Rivero's column (in Spanish) which is consistent with the archived El Nuevo Herald version I dug up online.

Schumacher-Matos' column follows below the fold, along with my reaction and comments.

(Emphasis mine)

Marián Prío, a reader from Key Biscayne, was upset. She had just read a column in El Nuevo Herald, the newspaper of record for the substantial segment of South Florida that is Spanish dominant.

''Are you aware of the dishonest article by regular columnist Adolfo Rivero Caro titled National Suicide?'' she wrote. ``It is chock-full of the very smears all serious newspapers have condemned.''

The Oct. 24 column was about candidate Barack Obama, and her complaint struck at the heart of an explosive issue since Cuban refugees began an exodus of Latin Americans to Miami 48 years ago. What is their civic culture, and how can The Miami Herald help integrate that with the culture of the United States?

El Nuevo Herald was founded as an answer. The Spanish and English papers share some content, but are so editorially independent that many English readers have little idea of what is being said on the other side.

El Nuevo Herald in fact has been successful as a bridge to help waves of Spanish-speaking immigrants adapt to their new country, while leaving their mark on it. The Rivero columns reflect how we still haven't all arrived at common ground.

''Obama is the least American of all the candidates who have aspired for the presidency of this country,'' Rivero wrote. ``To begin with, even though he has converted to Christianity, he was raised as a Muslim.''

The 73-year old Cuban refugee, who said he came to this country 20 years ago, violates a national consensus about what being an American is, but he doesn't see it. He writes that Obama is a ''radical leftist activist,'' adding: ``All of the U.S. radical left is housed in the Democratic Party.''

There is more: ``It is a fact that his entire political career has been exceptionally linked to radical Muslims.''
''Obama insists he is a great unifier,'' writes Rivero. ``By the way, haven't you noticed that the extreme left is always underscoring the importance of unity? I don't think it's coincidental. It seems to me the roots of that emphasis, apparently trivial, are found in the Marxist concept of class struggle.''

Meanwhile, the American press is ''mostly socialist.'' And ''journalists, historians and teachers have received an essentially Marxist formation in which the United States is always at fault.'' There is baseless conspiracy theory here, even though some anti-Obama readers in English would surely agree with Rivero. But he admits that his opinions are based on his Cuban experience. ''I lived all my life in Cuba and know what it means,'' he told me of a slide toward communism that he so fears.

Rivero, who is an intellectually interesting libertarian writer, loves America, or his idea of it. Still, whatever his personal motives, to classify American liberals as ''socialists'' and ''radical leftists'' is inflammatory and patently wrong. As a result, he is not building his new country that we now share together; he is tearing it down.

As Prío, the reader from Key Biscayne, wrote: ``Such columnists, who do not distinguish between opinions and facts, violate your newspaper's integrity.''

How, then, do you draw the line between muzzling opinion and correcting facts?

''I do not accept racism or lies'' said Andrés Hernández Alende, coordinator of El Nuevo Herald's opinion pages. He said he checks facts he is not sure of. But a problem is that a segment of Cubans in Miami have shared Rivero's life experience and mix liberals and socialists together, almost as a reality. ''If I don't publish those columns, I am missing a way of thinking among my readers,'' he said.

His is a tough issue. But I think that El Nuevo Herald needs to encourage ideological accuracy in our community, not just for the sake of accuracy, but to prevent misdirected passions and wild misadventures. For those Cuban readers who might think this means going soft on real communists and the Castro brothers, it does not. The English Herald grapples with similar issues. Joe Oglesby, editor of the editorial pages, noted that a recent column by Patrick Buchanan asserted that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, which there weren't.

Oglesby was concerned about propagating a myth among people who continue to believe that there were such weapons. In the end, he decided the phrase was ambiguous enough to let Buchanan's wording stand.

Columnists are given ``leeway to express their point of view even when they stretch the facts.T.T.T (sic) We let them have their say. But we also try to have balance by publishing comments from both sides.''

First of all, Schumacher-Matos decided to include a few quotes from some of Rivero's other columns in addition to the one the upset reader is reacting to, with only a very subtle indication that he is doing so. This is, at best, confusing and at worst, purposely misleading.

As an occasional reader of Rivero’s columns, I acknowledge that he has a tendency to be over the top and provocative in his categorization of liberals and others whom he disagrees ideologically with, and has a less than favorable view of Obama, to say the least. The issue here isn’t whether you agree with him or not, or even about the “facts”, whatever they may be or however they're defined. It’s about the ability of a columnist to express an opinion, even a strong one. Schumacher-Matos’ assertion that the Herald needs to “support ideological accuracy” tells me one thing: that he’s willing to condone the censoring of columns and columnists that don’t fit his definition of ideological accuracy.

OK, but then who’s looking over Alejandro Armengol's facts when he viciously attacks the traditional Cuban exile community in the same El Nuevo Herald? How about the endless drivel we had to endure courtesy of Ana Menendez? Carl Hiaasen? Are their facts simply “ideologically accurate” according to Schumacher-Matos?

By no means am I suggesting that these columnists be censored, but this smells like a double standard to me.

Another disturbing aspect of Schumacher-Matos’ column is his opinion (repeated a few times) that views such as the ones held by Rivero are un-American and only serve to divide. Again, I refer you to columnists such as Armengol, Menendez and Hiaasen who appear to get paid for each divisive comment they make, or so it seems. Where’s the outcry of “common ground” and “national consensus” in response to their often-inflammatory opinions?

Ever heard of "freedom of speech"?

Then again, perhaps Rivero’s own words are closer to reality than what many would like to admit:

“By the way, haven't you noticed that the extreme left is always underscoring the importance of unity? I don't think it's coincidental. It seems to me the roots of that emphasis, apparently trivial, are found in the Marxist concept of class struggle.”

The bottom line here is that the Miami Herald has ZERO ground to stand on when it comes to demanding accuracy of certain columnists which happen to be on the right, when so much of their Op Ed and reporting is either factually incomplete or just plain incorrect. Any way you look at it, Schumacher-Matos' latest piece smacks of support for censorship for certain columnists and opinions that don't fit a certain ideology.

Good morning

I've got a pretty full plate this week so I may not be posting all that much, but Id like to take a few moments for the following:

- Hey, how about them Dolphins? I would have slapped anyone silly had they told me at the beginning of this season that the Phins would be 6-4 at this stage in the game. Even though most games have been nail biters, the boys in aqua and oranage need be commended for their heart and determination.

- Keep your eyes on the 2008 Weblog Awards, folks, as voting is set to start soon. Let's see if we can get Yoani of Generation Y that blog trophy for her blog mantle.

- I'm told there's a pretty nasty virus/trojan out there that resides on some infected websites and lodges itself into your computer once you enter said site. Apparently, there's no cure for this particular cyber monster as it basically crashes your computer and I was told it can be found on some sites linked through Google alerts, specifically with election results content. Be careful out there.

- A huge thanks to the folks that have been so generous and made a donation to the Babalu funds. Im in the process of emailing and thanking everyone personally and, if you havent recieved a personal note of thanks from me yet, please know that Im incredibly grateful and that I'm not being malagradecido. Im just swamped with "aint nothing going on but the rent." If you havent donated a buck or two and want to help out, here's the Paypal button, por si las moscas:

Thanks for your support and I hope you all have a great week.

Another Cuban done good story

This one fled Cuba at the age of five, with his mother, and is now an NFL referee:

On the wall behind the desk chair is a map of Cuba — Riveron and his mother have never returned. There is Cuban currency, framed, and other personal mementos of a country Riveron says he does not really remember.

The Obama Barf Bag

This might come useful after eating all those Obama cookies .... or when he gives a speech.

UPDATE: CHECK OUT THIS ARTICLE ON THE PHENOM AND THEN USE BARF BAG.

Please Make It Stop

Obama cookies? Yep. The only thing on a Thanksgiving table I can guarantee you I won't eat.

By the way, only $59.50 for 16 cookies. What a bargain.

Update:

Melek has found the stuff nightmares are made of.... Ojamas. Yes, I said OJAMAS. Somewhere in hell, che guevara is really jealous.

"Pajama day at school or on campus? Make it Ojama day!
Inauguration eve pajama party? Make it an Ojama party!
Christmas morning pajams? So much better in your Ojamas!
Supporting the President-elect even in your sleep? Only in Ojamas!"

Please, I beg of you, make it stop.

2 Million Tourists, 11 Million Slaves, and 2 Autocrats

On the heels of press reports that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will be gracing Havana with his presence on November 27 comes the announcement that China's President Hu Jintao will be doing likewise on the 17th. As there are no co-incidences, perhaps the Chinese have become concerned at the much hyped thawing of relations between the Ruskies and the regime, particularly when there is much owed to the "People's Republic." Certainly on the agenda for the Hu's visit are the sizeable loans to Cuba now coming due with the seemingly obligatory restructuring to follow.

Thoughts of the Day

From legendary coach John Wooden:

Why are there so many who want to build up the weak by tearing down the strong?

Why is it that so many nonattainers are quick to criticize, question and belittle the attainers?

Surfcasting at Sunrise

While everyone's sleeping, I'm out chasing the light. Yesterday morning at South Miami Beach, this was the scene.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday folks. I'm cooking a boliche roast for the next 3-4 hours which should be ready by kickoff. Go Fish!

2 million tourists - 11 million slaves

Can Castro, Inc. throw a party or what? On Friday, the regime welcomed its 2 millionth tourist of 2008 with free drinks and free music.

Mojitos, salsa greet Cuba's 2 millionth tourist

HAVANA (AP) — Cuba welcomed its 2 millionth tourist of 2008 on Friday with a salsa band, strong mojitos and word that the island expects to set a record this year for foreign visitors despite three hurricanes and a global economic crisis.

Authorities hung a red-and-white banner reading "welcome visitor" in five languages just outside the customs area as Air Canada Flight 370 from Toronto touched down at Havana Airport.

"Is this a nice way to start? I'll say!" said Helen Lueke, a secretary in her 60s from Sherwood Park, Canada, who comes to Cuba about once a year — but has never been greeted at the airport with mojitos.

Meanwhile back at the plantation, the regime also throws a party for Cuba's 11-million+ residents every day. But instead of salsa music and mojitos, every morning Cubans are welcomed with a fresh new batch of oppression and misery.

What was that again about how tourism and foreigners will bring about an end to the Cuban dictatorship?

New White House counsel announced

The first slap in the face of many more to come:

Gregory B. Craig, a well-known Washington lawyer who quarterbacked President Bill Clinton’s impeachment defense, has been chosen White House counsel by President-elect Barack Obama, according to Democratic officials.

[...]

Among Craig’s other high-profile cases: successfully representing Elian Gonzalez' father, a Cuban, in his efforts to regain custody of his son; and representing U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan in connection during the Volcker Commission's investigation of the Oil-for-Food Program at the United Nations.

[...]

"For five years (1984-1988), he served as Senator Edward Kennedy's Senior Advisor on Defense, Foreign Policy and National Security issues."

That's one hell of a resume...

Can you JUST IMAGINE!!

Imagine the MSM hysteria and back-to back reporting with videos everywhere from NBC to CNN, to Comedy Central, to David letterman if an elderly and peaceful gay rights activist had attempted to peacefully protest--say--a pro-life rally... and had a bunch of scowling, screaming rednecks yank down her rainbow banner, stomp on it, shout her down, shout insults, and physically abuse her!!!

Alas, it was screaming, scowling sodomites abusing an elderly and peaceful pro-traditional marriage activist. Hence the total MSM BLACKOUT!! Roles reversed, think it mighta made it past a little local tv station?

It's THAT time of of the year!

Come November and us hopeless yahoos who "cling to guns" revel in nature's beckon to the "fang and claw," as Hemingway (a fat pinko, Fidel-lover, but that's another story) termed it. Note the demented grin on this Bambi-slaying, beer-guzzling SINVERGUENZA!!

Cigar Mike Reaches the Easternmost Point in the Continental United States

It's finally Saturday infidels. Today I show you the Easternmost Point in the Continental United States, West Quoddy Lighthouse in Lubec, Maine. Just across the bay within a stone's throw is New Brunswick, Canada.

The light was originally built in 1807, under the orders of Thomas Jefferson, then rebuilt in 1858. It's red and white stripe pattern makes it one of the most recognized lighthouses in the USA.

I've now been to the Southernmost Point in Key West and the Easternmost Point in Lubec. Now I need to get to Northwest Angle, Minnesota for the Northernmost Point in the Continental USA and Ozette, Washington for the Westernmost Point and I can then say, "I've been everywhere man."

Adios, I'm a ghost as I continue to explore the 4 corners of the Continental United States.

America held hostage: Day 11

Just kidding. It hasn't really started. Yet.

Want some cheerful Saturday reading? Here goes:

• Obama: Fear and the Security Force

• Waltzing on the Titanic

Melancholy Friday

Thinking about Cuba, and the U.S.

As the ship sets sail, by Paolo Malizia, via Penúltimos Días:



As the ship sets sail from Paolo Malizia on Vimeo.

Book Daze: I'm Late!

The Miami Book Fair has been under way for days, but the best is yet to be. A few familiar names will be among the authors. First, scholar Dr. Antonio Rafael de la Cova will be signing and speaking about his The Moncada Attack: Birth of the Cuban Revolution , now into its second edition, on Sunday, November 16 at 4:30. Should be most interesting, as Dr. de la Cova dispels the myths surrounding the event.

Another author of interest is Carlos Frias whose Take Me With You resulted from the exploration of his Cuban roots and is described as a look at the "gritty" lives of people in castro's Cuba. More here. Presentation and signing on Saturday, November 15 at 3:00.

Also on Sunday, you can see among others Wendy Guerra (Todos se van), Senator Mel Martinez (A Sense of Belonging), and Zoe Valdes (La Ficcion Fidel). More information at the website here.

Paulito “El Chico Bonito de Cuba” professes admiration for el comandante

In a GenTV press release sent today, the channel says Paulito admitted admiration for the dictator in an interview with Patricia Arbulu on the show Entre Nos.

"Believing in (f)idel to a certain point has been fortunate,'' he said. "All our lives we have been people who have believed in the comandante and we have lived peacefully and honorably making our artistic dreams. If I have been able to make my music in my country, it's because (f)idel has not tricked me, and because the system permitted it.''

The channel says the interview did not last much longer.

He did not last the hour as a guest on Entre Nos because he walked out of the studios where the show is taped, because the popular Peruvian presenter asked the singer tough questions after said declarations.

Paulito is scheduled to perform at La Covacha Friday night, at Kaffe Krystal on Saturday and Club Rancho Grande in Hialeah on Sunday.

He was supposed to perform last week at La Covacha but encountered visa problems, so the show was canceled. His handlers say he last performed locally a decade ago. The 90's salsa star now lives in Italy.

Univision has the story, and you can watch the clip at GenTV. Click on Sala de Videos at the top of the page, and then choose the show Entre Nos. You'll see the link on the right.

From the "You Don't Say" Dept.

Paranoia is on the rise.

To paraphrase a line from the film, Strange Days, the issue's not whether you're paranoid, the issue is whether you're paranoid enough.

Friday Funny: Football are my life...

It's Friday, folks, so here's a little oldie but goodie comedy clip to help get you all into the weekend mood:

For the ladies...

Since Cigar Mike keeps posting his great photos, I figured Id post one of my own.

Who is that cool cat?

It can't happen here?

Think again.

Derogatory remarks toward President-elect Barack Obama made on a social networking Web site are now the subject of an internal police investigation.

A police department employee claims the statements were made on the MySpace pages of two Durham officers.

"There's no exact words that were said," said Police Chief Jose L. Lopez Sr. in a telephone interview Wednesday from San Diego, where he is attending the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference. "It wasn't a racial slur, but we're still investigating it." [My emphasis.]

The truth shall set you free

A commenter on PatDollard.com left this very thoughtful short essay that has to be shared with everyone you know. All of us are sounding warnings of what America may be like in a few years. I pray that we are heeded before it's too late for our country.

Friends,

Will you please take the time to read this, and if you think it worthwhile, pass it along to your email list, and ask them to read it? Even if they voted, with all good intentions, for Mr. Obama?

I am a student of history. Professionally. I have written 15 books in six languages, and have studied it all my life. I think there is something monumentally large afoot, and I do not believe it is just a banking crisis, or a mortgage crisis, or a credit crisis. Yes these exist, but they are merely single facets on a very large gemstone that is only now coming into a sharper focus.

Something of historic proportions is happening. I can sense it because I know how it feels, smells, what it looks like, and how people react to it. Yes, a perfect storm may be brewing, but there is something happening within our country that has been evolving for about ten - fifteen years. The pace has dramatically quickened in the past two.

We demand and then codify into law the requirement that our banks make massive loans to people we know they can never pay back? Why?

We learn just days ago that the Federal Reserve, which has little or no real oversight by anyone, has “loaned” two trillion dollars (that is $2,000,000,000,000) over the past few months, but will not tell us to whom or why or disclose the terms. That is our money. Yours and mine. And that is three times the 700B we all argued about so strenuously just this past September. Who has this money? Why do they have it? Why are the terms unavailable to us? Who asked for it? Who authorized it? I thought this was a government of “we the people,” who loaned our powers to our elected leaders. Apparently not.

We have spent two or more decades intentionally de-industrializing our economy. Why?

We have intentionally dumbed down our schools, ignored our history, and no longer teach our founding documents, why we are exceptional, and why we are worth preserving. Students by and large cannot write, think critically, read, or articulate. Parents are not revolting, teachers are not picketing, school boards continue to back mediocrity. Why?

We have now established the precedent of protesting every close election (now violently in California over a proposition that is so controversial that it wants marriage to remain between one man and one woman. Did you ever think such a thing possible just a decade ago?). We have corrupted our sacred political process by allowing unelected judges to write laws that radically change our way of life, and then mainstream Marxist groups like ACORN and others to turn our voting system into a banana republic. To what purpose?

Now our mortgage industry is collapsing, housing prices are in free fall, major industries are failing, our banking system is on the verge of collapse, social security is nearly bankrupt, as is medicare and our entire government, our education system is worse than a joke (I teach college and know precisely what I am talking about)–the list is staggering in its length, breadth, and depth. It is potentially 1929 x ten. And we are at war with an enemy we cannot name for fear of offending people of the same religion, who cannot wait to slit the throats of your children if they have the opportunity to do so.

And now we have elected a man no one knows anything about, who has never run so much as a Dairy Queen, let alone a town as big as Wasilla, Alaska. All of his associations and alliances are with real radicals in their chosen fields of employment, and everything we learn about him, drip by drip, is unsettling if not downright scary (Surely you have heard him speak about his idea to create and fund a mandatory civilian defense force stronger than our military for use inside our borders? No? Oh of course. The media would never play that for you over and over and then demand he answer it. Sarah Palin’s pregnant daughter and $150,000 wardrobe is more imporant.)

Mr. Obama’s winning platform can be boiled down to one word: change.

Why?

I have never been so afraid for my country and for my children as I am now.

This man campaigned on bringing people together, something he has never, ever done in his professional life. In my assessment, Obama will divide us along philosophical lines, push us apart, and then try to realign the pieces into a new and different power structure. Change is indeed coming. And when it comes, you will never see the same nation again.

And that is only the beginning.

And I thought I would never be able to experience what the ordinary, moral German felt in the mid-1930s. In those times, the savior was a former smooth-talking rabble-rouser from the streets, about whom the average German knew next to nothing. What they did know was that he was associated with groups that shouted, shoved, and pushed around people with whom they disagreed; he edged his way onto the political stage through great oratory and promises. Economic times were tough, people were losing jobs, and he was a great speaker. And he smiled and waved a lot. And people, even newspapers, were afraid to speak out for fear that his “brown shirts” would bully them into submission. And then, he was duly elected to office, a full-throttled economic crisis at hand [the Great Depression]. Slowly but surely he seized the controls of government power, department by department, person by person, bureaucracy by bureaucracy. The kids joined a Youth Movement in his name, where they were taught what to think. How did he get the people on his side? He did it promising jobs to the jobless, money to the moneyless, and goodies for the military-industrial complex. He did it by indoctrinating the children, advocating gun control, health care for all, better wages, better jobs, and promising to re-instill pride once again in the country, across Europe, and across the world.

He did it with a compliant media–did you know that? And he did this all in the name of justice and . . . change. And the people surely got what they voted for.

(Look it up if you think I am exaggerating.)

Read your history books. Many people objected in 1933 and were shouted down, called names, laughed at, and made fun of. When Winston Churchill pointed out the obvious in the late 1930s while seated in the House of Lords in England (he was not yet Prime Minister), he was booed into his seat and called a crazy troublemaker. He was right, though.

Don’t forget that Germany was the most educated, cultured country in Europe. It was full of music, art, museums, hospitals, laboratories, and universities. And in less than six years–a shorter time span than just two terms of the U. S. presidency–it was rounding up its own citizens, killing others, abrogating its laws, turning children against parents, and neighbors against neighbors. All with the best of intentions, of course. The road to Hell is paved with them.

As a practical thinker, one not overly prone to emotional decisions, I have a choice: I can either believe what the objective pieces of evidence tell me (even if they make me cringe with disgust); I can believe what history is shouting to me from across the chasm of seven decades; or I can hope I am wrong by closing my eyes, having another latte, and ignoring what is transpiring around me.

Some people scoff at me, others laugh, or think I am foolish, naive, or both. Perhaps I am. But I have never been afraid to look people in the eye and tell them exactly what I believe–and why I believe it.

I pray I am wrong. I do not think I am.

Best regards

tps

Cigar Mike Rediscovers America

Happy Friday infidels. It's now been 10 days since the election. I've thrown all my 401K and portfolio statements into my banker's box unopened and I've stopped watching the news, opting instead for NBA basketball, and College and Pro football. I've gone back to my photos.

The above image was taken a few weeks ago while I was in Northern Maine. The cliffside Bass Harbor Head Light in Tremont marks the entrance to Bass Harbor on the southwestern side of Mount Desert Island, Maine. It was built in 1858, stands 56 feet above mean high water and is accessible by car on Acadia National Park land.

It is a heck of a climb to get down on the rocks to shoot the light, but worth it. Even scarier climbing out of there at night!

Have a great weekend folks.

The 2008 Weblog Awards

Good friend and colleague Kevin Aylward has once again put together this year's Weblog Awards and the nomination period has begun.

Babalu had the honor of winning in the Best Latino, Caribbean or South American Blog category a few years back and having that trophy displayed on our mantle is both a privilege and, indeed, an honor.

That said, I have just nominated Yoani Sanchez and Generation Y for this year's contest in the same category and I hope you all will offer your support and help with your votes once the voting period begins.

Not only is Yoani one of, if not the, best writers in blogdom right now, but her work is vital to the freedom of that island down south. One lone blogger writing the truth from within the gulag that is Cuba is worth a million bloggers from the outside doing the same.

You can check out all the categories and nominate your favorite blogs in each, right here.

Test Obama at your own risk

There is an interesting editorial today in the Arab daily Asharq Alawsat, written by Amir Taheri. In a very objective and factual manner, Mr. Taheri examines the history of recent young and inexperienced presidents who have been tested by America's enemies.

Much of the political talk in Washington these days is centered on one question: when will Barack Obama be tested as the new President of the United States?

The idea that Obama will be tested early in his presidency was first launched by his Vice-Presidential running mate Joseph Biden, before polling day. Since then, the political microcosm has been abuzz with theories regarding when, where, how and on what issue the expected testing might materialize.

In a sense, the testing started 48 hours after Obama's victory when Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced the installation of a new missile system in Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave between Poland and Lithuania.

Medvedev's move was presented as a response to American plans for a missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic. The move showed that the Russians think that Obama would be easier to bully than Bush.

It is a very interesting read and shows all the consequences America and its enemies have suffered because of untested and inexperienced presidents. At the risk of spoiling it before you read it, I will leave you with the ending statement.

The Machiavellian advice to America's enemies would be not to test Obama but rather encourage his illusions that he can transform foes into friends simply by talking to them.

If Obama is tested in a way that could not be fudged, he would either be forced to react, or would be kicked out like Carter or would lose control of the Congress and the senate as Clinton did.

America's enemies should think twice before trying to test Obama.

Check out today's must-read piece HERE.

Ummm...

Dude?!

Suckers

Turns out, the sky isnt falling.

Paging Al Gore... paging Al Gore....

Nordlinger on Obama

Jay Nordlinger, a friend of Babalu and a friend of all who want freedom for Cuba's people, has posted 20 thoughts about why the election of Obama is bad for our country. Some excerpts with which I agree wholeheartedly:

I worry that the Obama years, like the Carter years, will be a field day of adventurism for the worst regimes. Some presidents are willing to stand up to bullies; some presidents are not. And we should all know what weakness invites: aggression.

The conventional argument is that McCain was the best possible Republican nominee, even the only possible Republican nominee with a chance of winning. I don’t believe that, for a second. There was a case to be made against Obama, and for McCain: and McCain was poor at both.

There may be some positive outcomes to Obama’s election victory. It could be, now, that the Left will help us in the War on Terror. Some people said, for years, that they would never be onboard until they were in charge. Until now, they have done everything possible to thwart Bush. The New York Times delights in exposing clandestine programs, designed to keep the innocent safe. Will all that end now?

Also, maybe the Left will feel better about the country itself. Some of my neighbors (Manhattan) have gloated with me about November 4. And I’ve said, “Yes, America is a good country, isn’t it? Good constitution, good system, don’t you agree?” That leaves them a little nonplussed or annoyed.

Kennedy-Khrushchev

I was having a discussion today with someone who tried to sell me on the idea that the Kennedy-Khrushchev Pact is in fact a figment of the imaginations of intransigent Cuban-Americans.

The truth is that Kennedy-Khrushchev pact or the "Kennedy-Khrushchev Understandings" as they are better known by historians are series of 24 letters exchanged between Kennedy and Khrushchev between October and December 1962. Some may pretend that this little chapter in history never happened but like Elvis once said, "truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away."

Here's some relevant excerpts from the letters courtesy of the United States State Department. Emphasis is mine:

Telegram From the Embassy in the Soviet Union to the Department of State Moscow, October 26, 1962, 7 p.m.

You once said that the United States was not preparing an invasion. But you also declared that you sympathized with the Cuban counter-revolutionary emigrants, that you support them and would help them to realize their plans against the present Government of Cuba. It is also not a secret to anyone that the threat of armed attack, aggression, has constantly hung, and continues to hang over Cuba. It was only this which impelled us to respond to the request of the Cuban Government to furnish it aid for the strengthening of the defensive capacity of this country.

If assurances were given by the President and the Government of the United States that the USA itself would not participate in an attack on Cuba and would restrain others from actions of this sort, if you would recall your fleet, this would immediately change everything. I am not speaking for Fidel Castro, but I think that he and the Government of Cuba, evidently, would declare demobilization and would appeal to the people to get down to peaceful labor. Then, too, the question of armaments would disappear, since, if there is no threat, then armaments are a burden for every people. Then too, the question of the destruction, not only of the armaments which you call offensive, but of all other armaments as well, would look different...

Let us therefore show statesmanlike wisdom. I propose: We, for our part, will declare that our ships, bound for Cuba, will not carry any kind of armaments. You would declare that the United States will not invade Cuba with its forces and will not support any sort of forces which might intend to carry out an invasion of Cuba. Then the necessity for the presence of our military specialists in Cuba would disappear...

There, Mr. President, are my thoughts, which, if you agreed with them, could put an end to that tense situation which is disturbing all peoples.

Letter From Chairman Khrushchev to President Kennedy
Moscow, October 27, 1962.

We, in making this pledge, in order to give satisfaction and hope of the peoples of Cuba and Turkey and to strengthen their confidences in their security, will make a statement within the framework of the Security Council to the effect that the Soviet Government gives a solemn promise to respect the inviolability of the borders and sovereignty of Turkey, not to interfere in its internal affairs, not to invade Turkey, not to make available our territory as a bridgehead for such an invasion, and that it would also restrain those who contemplate committing aggression against Turkey, either from the territory of the Soviet Union or from the territory of Turkey's other neighboring states.

The United States Government will make a similar statement within the framework of the Security Council regarding Cuba. It will declare that the United States will respect the inviolability of Cuba's borders and its sovereignty, will pledge not to interfere in its internal affairs, not to invade Cuba itself or make its territory available as a bridgehead for such an invasion, and will also restrain those who might contemplate committing aggression against Cuba, either from the territory of the United States or from the territory of Cuba's other neighboring states...

The means situated in Cuba, of which you speak and which disturb you, as you have stated, are in the hands of Soviet officers. Therefore, any accidental use of them to the detriment of the United States is excluded. These means are situated in Cuba at the request of the Cuban Government and are only for defense purposes. Therefore, if there is no invasion of Cuba, or attack on the Soviet Union or any of our other allies, then of course these means are not and will not be a threat to anyone. For they are not for purposes of attack.

If you are agreeable to my proposal, Mr. President, then we would send our representatives to New York, to the United Nations, and would give them comprehensive instructions in order that an agreement may be reached more quickly. If you also select your people and give them the corresponding instructions, then this question can be quickly resolved.

Telegram From the Department of State to the Embassy in the Soviet Union
Washington, October 27, 1962, 8:05 p.m.

Dear Mr. Chairman:

I have read your letter of October 26th/1/ with great care and welcomed the statement of your desire to seek a prompt solution to the problem. The first thing that needs to be done, however, is for work to cease on offensive missile bases in Cuba and for all weapons systems in Cuba capable of offensive use to be rendered inoperable, under effective United Nations arrangements.

Assuming this is done promptly, I have given my representatives in New York instructions that will permit them to work out this weekend--in cooperation with the Acting Secretary General and your representative--an arrangement for a permanent solution to the Cuban problem along the lines suggested in your letter of October 26th. As I read your letter, the key elements of your proposals--which seem generally acceptable as I understand them--are as follows:

1) You would agree to remove these weapons systems from Cuba under appropriate United Nations observation and supervision; and undertake, with suitable safeguards, to halt the further introduction of such weapons systems into Cuba.

2) We, on our part, would agree--upon the establishment of adequate arrangements through the United Nations to ensure the carrying out and continuation of these commitments--(a) to remove promptly the quarantine measures now in effect and (b) to give assurances against an invasion of Cuba. I am confident that other nations of the Western Hemisphere would be prepared to do likewise.

Letter From Chairman Khrushchev to President Kennedy
Moscow, October 28, 1962.

DEAR MR. PRESIDENT: I have received your message of October 27./1/ I express my satisfaction and thank you for the sense of proportion you have displayed and for realization of the responsibility which now devolves on you for the preservation of the peace of the world.

And just like that President Kennedy, a hero to fools, stabbed Cubans in the back for the SECOND time.

A Thursday quiz

Before I get on the road to the Miami Hurricanes game -- GO CANES! -- I thought I'd leave you with a little quiz. No prizes, except satisfying an intellectual itch...

I was raised in one country but my father was born in another. I was not his only child. He fathered several children with a number of women.

I became very close to my mother because my father showed little interest in me. Then my mother died at an early age from cancer. Later in life, questions arose over my real name. My birth records were sketchy and no one was able to produce a reliable birth certificate.

I grow up practicing one faith, but converted to Christianity because this was widely accepted in my country. But I practiced non-traditional beliefs and did not follow mainstream Christianity.

I worked and lived among lower-class people as a young adult before I decided it was time to get serious about my life and I embarked on a new career.

I wrote a book about my struggles growing up. It was clear to those who read my memoirs that I had difficulties accepting that my father abandoned me as a child.

I became active in local politics when I was in my 30s and then burst onto the scene as a candidate for national office when I was in my 40s. I had a virtually non-existent resume, very little work history, and no experience in leading a single organization. Yet I was a powerful speaker who managed to draw incredibly large crowds during my public appearances.

At first, my political campaign focused on my country's foreign policy. I was critical of my country in the last war. But what launched my rise to national prominence were my views on the country's economy. I had a plan on how we could do better. I knew which group was responsible for getting us into this mess.

Mine was a people's campaign. I was the surprise candidate because I emerged from outside the traditional path of politics and was able to gain widespread popular support. I offered the people the hope that together we could change our country and the world.

I spoke on behalf of the downtrodden including persecuted minorities such as Jews, but my actual views were not widely known until after I became my nations leader. However, anyone could have easily learned what I really believed if they had simply read my writings and examined those people I associated with. But they did not.

Then I became the most powerful man in the world. And the world learned the truth.

Who am I?

The Money Hole

In The Know: Should The Government Stop Dumping Money Into A Giant Hole?

The Latin Grammy's Tonight

The 9th Annual Latin Grammy Awards will take place Nov. 13 at the Toyota Center in Houston and will be broadcast live on the Univision Network from 8–11 p.m. ET/PT (7 p.m. Central).

Among the nominees I'll be rooting for are Cubans Paquito D' Rivera, Bebo Valdés, Albita, and the great Aurelio de la Vega.

New Blog on Cigars & The Law

My law partner Frank just started a new blog called cigar law which will feature news regarding the cigar industry, trademarks, and other interesting features. You'll be shocked, or maybe not, on how much litigation the Cuban government is engaged in here in the US over trademark registrations and how they've been challenging American company's rights to use certain trademarks that were stolen by fifo and friends.

Have a cigar folks.

Dennis Miller goes to town

Via Gateway:

An apology and a retraction

It seems we here at Babalu were duped the other day when we posted a photograph of fidel castro - supposedly his latest photo - along with an Orthodox priest. It has now come to our attention, through very very reliable sources, that said photograph had been doctored.

The orginal, unmanipulated photograph, showing fidel castro in his precise and exact recent environs, can be found right here.

Again, our apologies and we regret any inconvenience.

It's the Little Things from Marta's Cuban American Kitchen

If you’re Cuban, you know that we love to refer to things diminutively.

For example, we don’t just have café. We have a cafécito.

And to my big, fat Cuban family and friends, I’m not always Marta, I’m Martica. Which is totally fine by me. The diminutive form of the word makes people and things friendlier and, I don’t know… cuter, somehow. =D

So today I pulled out my trusty crockpot to make some baby-back ribs, or costillas, or in true Cuban form, costillitas.

That way, you can eat a dozen and it’s no big thing. ;-)

Martica's Costillitas de Puerco

3 – 4 lbs. Baby back pork ribs, split into individual ribs
8 oz. chicken broth
8 oz. dark beer (I like Newcastle Brown Ale)
1 Tbsp. Olive oil
2 Tbsp. Honey
2 tsp. Oregano
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup ketchup
5 garlic cloves – minced
2 tsp. Smoked paprika (or pimenton)
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/4 tsp. Pepper

1) In a large skillet, quickly brown ribs in olive oil over medium high heat.
2) Place browned ribs in 5 quart crockpot.
3) In a medium size bowl, mix all the other ingredients together.

3) Pour into a saucepan and bring just to a boil.
4) Pour this sauce over ribs.
5) Cook on high for 4-5 hours. Or on low for 6-8 hours. NOTE: You can also cook in a pressure cooker for about 25 minutes.
6) When the ribs are cooked, remove to a serving platter and keep warm.
7) Skim the fat off of the liquid and pour into a saucepan.
8) Bring to boil over medium-high heat.

9) Reduce heat and simmer until sauce is reduced.
10) Spoon the sauce over the ribs.

And speaking of Cuban families and food, here's a little thing I wanted to share with you, my Babalú family - look who is enjoying my cookbook:

Yes, that’s Desi Arnaz, Jr. (be still my foolish heart... *sigh*)
I know. Shut up!
I feel so accidentally cool. ;-)

You can order your own copy of My Big, Fat Cuban Family Cookbook by clicking the link below:

My Big, Fat, C...

A celebration of Cu...

By Marta M. Darby

Book Preview

Cuba, Healthcare and Yoani on BTR

Fausta is dedicating her Blog Talk Radio today to reading Yoani's latest post Hospitals: You bring everything?/Hospitales ¿lo llevas todo? in both Spanish and English.

You can listen to the show by clicking right here, from 10 to 10:30 AM.

And, if you want to call in and join the fray, the number is 646 652-2639.

The Leaves Have Fallen

The leaves continue to fall as we approach an uncertain winter. What is on the horizon?

A Barack bear market:

The substance of what Mr. Obama has promised for the economy is bearish for stocks. The threat of higher tax rates, especially on capital gains and dividends, now may be getting priced into the market. Add that to investor doubts about Democratic policies on unions, health care and trade -- and no wonder stocks are falling. Lower stock prices in turn reduce household net worth, thus slamming consumer confidence and contributing to what appears to be a consumer spending strike.

Yes folks, I've stopped reviewing my portfolio statement, it's simply sickening. And more sickening is the prospect that this clown wants to stick it to me even more simply because I choose to work hard.

What else is on the horizon? The Russians planning on putting missiles on the Polish border to get Mr. Personality to back down on missile defense. I guess we'll find out if Mr. President Elect Obama is a man of steel and steadfast, or a Jimmy Carter progeny -- i.e., a political pansy. Read about it here

On the total BS front, the Peruvians have offered the Obamas a hairless dog that looks like something from the Austin Powers movies, however, my sources indicate that the new White House dog will look something like this - click here.

I'm outta here. See you out in the field.
.

Disrespect for the Presidency

(Ed. note (Val): The following was written by a very good and dear friend and colleague of mine and I felt it needed to be posted as it expresses some fundamental truths.)

DISRESPECT FOR THE PRESIDENCY

By Arnaldo Rodriguez

It has been said many times that in this Land of ours, we can do or say anything we want as long as we stay within the law:

We can be disrespectful to our elders, even though we should not.
We can be disrespectful to our neighbors, even though we should not.
We can be disrespectful to our elected officials, even though we should not.
We can be disrespectful to our President, well, maybe in this case we should.

This new penchant for blatant outspoken disrespect for our President began after the 2000 presidential election. The Democratic Party claims that the 2000 Presidential was somehow stolen. Actually, it was the Democratic Party’s nominee that did try to steal it by asking for a recount only in three Florida counties which are overwhelmingly democratic instead of the entire State, which has been largely republican. A very shrewd mathematical maneuver whereby any re-count would likely result in a net gain for Al Gore. Subsequently an independent recount proved Bush was in fact the winner of Florida’s 27 electoral votes.

George W.Bush has been fiercely attacked during his presidency, not just for his policies. The personal attacks by the media and supposed prominent officials have been constant, vicious and subjective. He has been called a liar, a fool, an idiot, an assassin, a warmonger, stupid, Hitler, fascist and much more and much worse. The media has been the willing biased mouthpiece for these vulgar and acerbic democratic tongues. The Democrats ultimately believed every single epithet directed at Bush. What they did was bring the presidency down to the gutter.

They set the bar so low that any one could look presidential. The democrats probably though that “if the Republicans could get a fool, an idiot, etc. elected they could also, after all the democrats are more numerous than the republicans.” This is how the Democratic Party was able to bring into the election an unproven unknown. Being black is the only good trait he brings to the White House.

Since the democrats and the liberal media made disrespect for the president a way of life in our Country it is time for those who oppose the president elect to do so. And from what we have seen the opportunities for disrespect will be abundant.

As an example: the president elect made an idiotic and stupid remark at his press conference in which he related that he had talked to all of the “living” former Presidents, as “I didn't want to get into a Nancy Reagan thing about, you know, doing any séances.” (Séances, French meaning: seating session with a medium in order to talk with ghosts). Not even a community organizer from Hialeah (no pun intended) or a vastly unprepared and uneducated man should make such an insulting to the widow of a former president, only a fool would. Yet, Nancy Gibbs of Time magazine speaks of the elected president in terms as “A Prince like Jesus is born”, placing Jesus deep in the gutter where they have rendered the presidency.

PESD

It's been over a week now and I still feel like the day after the worst hangover ever. And I'm talkin' a Jack Daniels with beer chasers and tequila shots hangover. Conservatives have a severe case of Post-Election Stress Disorder.

I'm going to keep it pithy and short: starting next year -- no, right now! -- conservatives have to mobilize and restore the luster and popularity Republicans once enjoyed when Ronald Reagan led the party. Screw the RINOs, the "moderates," the country-club liberals masquerading as Republicans, the idiots who protest about "right-wing extremism" and the "evangelicals." Screw them all. We must rebuild our party based on the core principles we believe in. Personal responsibility, low taxes, small government, state's rights, less Federal control, no abortion, gun rights, a strong, no-nonsense, pro-active defense that does not brook sensitivity or hesitation, a staunch pro-Israel stance, defense of marriage. You can add whatever to that list you think are core conservative principles, but these are my litmus tests. President Bush and Captain Electability (a/k/a John McCain) let us down terribly, but we cannot dwell on that. It's in our hands, now.

As for the opposition, I'll paraphrase a quote I read at another blog: "You can’t teach morons to stop being morons. Why not? Because they’re morons."

Go forth and fight like hell.

It aint even January yet...

...and it already feels like socialism.

Sorry to be the purveyor of negativity and all, and my apologies to any Obama supporters out there but...

I cant even watch or read the news lately without the hairs on the back of my neck rising. Things are getting ugly and fast. I suppose I could list everything that's on the horizon for us that will bring the ideals and values of this country to their knees, but what would be the point, really? The fringe, along with their naive counterparts, has spoken and elected a socialist to lead this country.

I'd like to be gracous like my fellow contributors here and state - believe - that a President Obama will be my president. And I suppose I could force myself to swallow that purgante and "support" the new President elect. But you know what? I'd be lying, to you and above all else, to myself. Truth is, Obama is everything that I think a President shouldnt be.

So, for the record and so we all know at least where I stand, personally, that guy that will be sworn in as president come January? Yeah, him. He doesnt represent what I believe in in the least and he certainly doesnt represent me.

"Socialist ideology, like so many others, has two main dangers. One stems from confused and incomplete readings of foreign texts, and the other from the arrogance and hidden rage of those who, in order to climb up in the world, pretend to be frantic defenders of the helpless so as to have shoulders on which to stand."

~ Jose Marti

Searching for "the shift", a partial recap

So far, since the election, I have analyzed six of the most high density Cuban zip codes in Miami-Dade County. The aggregate Cuban density in these zip codes is 64.5% according to 2000 census data.

As the table above indicates, 67.6% of the votes cast for president in these six zip codes were cast for John McCain. Remember that McCain only got 41.7% of the vote in the county. This a testament to the continued identification of Cuban-Americans with Republican candidates.

Assuming that Cuban-Americans are more likely to vote for the GOP candidate than the non-Cuban 33.5% living in these zips, and also assuming that the electorate resembles the overall population, then it follows that McCain's percentage for these zips is a baseline and that Cuban-Americans voted for McCain at a rate higher than the the baseline with the non-Cubans bringing it down to the baseline.

I'll be trying to do a comparison to 2004 (although the precinct boundaries changed a bit). To see how much movement there was toward Obama relative to what Kerry got in those same zips. I suspect there was some movement but questions still remain:

1. Was the movement "generational"?

2. If so, was it ideological or simply a reflection of the generalized (but perhaps temporary) anti-GOP sentiment out there, discontent with economy, and the general appeal of Obama?

This second point is an important distinction. Remember that proponents of the "shift" basically allege that.

Older Cubans are Republicans because of the Cuba issue and young US-born Cuban-Americans don't care about Cuba therefore young Cuban-Americans are "smarter" and more willing to embrace flaming liberalism.

I don't believe that young Cuban-Americans (as a whole) have embraced flaming liberalism any more than than the rest of the country. We shall see.

Searching for "The Shift" Part 6

This is the sixth in a series of analyses of the election results to see whether or not the Cubans are abandoning the GOP. Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here. Part 3 is here. Part 4 is here. Part 5 is here.

Each time I will be examining a different zip code with a high proportion of Cuban-Americans living in it. This time it's 33010.

As you can see from the map above this zip code is basically the southern end of Hialeah.

Unfortunately the demographic data that I can obtain is somewhat dated (2000 census):

Total pop: 45,353 (100%)
Hispanic: 41,439 (91.4%)
Cuban: 29,982 (66.1%)
Median age: 39.4

So this an area that is more than 60% Cuban (at least in 2000).

There are 10 different precincts located in this zip code that reported results. For reference they are: 333 335 339 340 342 376 380 381 382 and 387.

A total of 10,414 votes for president were cast in these precincts.

John McCain received 6,583 of those votes or 63.2%

Barack Obama received 3,800 or 36.5%

Again we don't exactly know how many of those votes were cast by Cubans or the median age of those Cubans but it's pretty clear that this area like the others we've looked at thus far with it's large Cuban population was firmly in McCain's camp.

This is another zip where McCain's percentage is lower than Cuban pop. That would suggest that the Cubans in this zip were (at least slightly) less likely to vote for McCain than in other zips. But again the census data is from 2000 and doesn't necessarily reflect voters but population instead.

Until next time, I'll be searching for the shift.

Stuck on the Palmetto?

Good. It's patriotic, dontchaknow. Cause the Oracle...er...I mean Obama is looking to tax you for it.

The new programs would be paid for with massive new tax hikes, including a per-mile driving tax that would begin with “proof of concept” trials as early as 2010. The tax would initially be one cent per mile to generate an estimated $32.4b a year. An extra one cent per gallon in the federal gasoline tax would generate another $1.8b, and a national sales tax on cars of one percent would generate $7.6b.

If the circumstances werent so dire, Id almost look forward to seeing all those people that voted for the Messiah realize just what complete idiots they are.

This Election Has Not 'Realigned' the Country

Great piece in today's WSJ on the myths being promulgated by the loony left about how the country has now turned to the extreme left. It states in pertinent part:

The 2008 election was an important election. But it can hardly be considered realigning.

Mr. Obama won by portraying the Bush presidency as a series of mistakes that need to be avoided in the future -- essentially encouraging voters to think about the short-term past, not the long-term future.

Put another way, Mr. Obama got about 40,000 fewer votes in Ohio than John Kerry got four years ago. Mr. Obama carried the state when Mr. Kerry did not because Republicans stayed home. Nationally, the anticipated record turnout didn't materialize. About the same percentage of registered voters came out this year as in 2004. And was that a realignment year?

In the same way that 1980 did not yield a generation-long period of Republican dominance, those on the right can take heart that 2008 does not represent the beginning of an era of Democratic supremacy.

The times, they've been a changin'

Take fifteen minutes of your day to watch this 1985 Interview with ex-KGB officer Yuri Bezmenov then remind yourself who will be in office come January - and his afiliations and political tendencies - and then let it scare the pants off you:

Video posted at Colleen Hammond, h/t Mavi.

Hospitals: You bring everything?

By Yoani Sanchez

A bucket in one hand, a pillow under my arm, and a fan balanced on my hip. I enter the door of the oncology hospital and the backpack over my shoulder blocks the custodian from seeing my face. It’s of little importance because the man is used to the fact that the patients’ families must bring everything, so my Baroque structure of fans, bucket and pillowcase doesn’t surprise him. He doesn’t know yet but, in a bag hanging off me somewhere, I’ve brought him bread and an omelet so he’ll let me stay after visiting hours.

I come into the room and Mónica is holding the hand of her mother, whose face is increasingly haggard. She has cancer of the esophagus and there is little that can be done, although the woman still doesn’t know it. I’ve never understood doctors’ refusals to inform one, directly, how little time is left before the end; but I respect the decision of the family, although I don’t join in the lie that she will soon be well.

The room has a thin light and the air smells of pain. I begin to unpack what I’ve brought. I take out the little sack of detergent and the aromatic with which I’ll clean the bath; its aroma floods everything. With the bucket we can bathe the lady, using the cup to pour, because the water faucet doesn’t work. For the great scrubbing I brought a pair of yellow gloves, afraid of the germs that spread in a hospital. Mónica tells me to continue unpacking and I extract the package of food and a puree especially for the sick. The pillow has been a wonder and the set of clean sheets manages to cover the mattress, stained with successive effluvia.

The most welcome is the fan, which I connect to two peeled wires hanging from the wall. I continue to unpack and come to the little bag of medical supplies. I have obtained some needles appropriate for the IV, because the one in her arm is very thick and causes pain. I also bought some gauze and cotton on the black market. The most difficult thing—which cost me days and incredible swaps—is the suture thread for the surgery they are going to do tomorrow. I also brought a box of disposable syringes since she yells to high heaven when she sees the nurse with a glass one.

To distract her, I’ve come loaded with a radio, and a nearby patient has brought a television. My friend and her mom can watch the soap opera, while I look for the doctor and give him a gift sent by the sick woman’s husband. When bedtime comes a cockroach crosses the wall near the bed and I remember that I also brought some insect spray. In the backpack I still have some medicines and a little gift for the girl in the lab. I have money in my pocket, because ambulances are for the most critical cases and when they send her home, evicted, we will need to take a Panataxi.

In front of our bed there’s an old woman who eats the watery soup she’s been given by the hospital staff. Around her bed there’s no bag brought by her family and she doesn’t have a pillow for her head. I position the fan so that she will also get the cool air and talk about the arrival of another hurricane. Without her realizing it I touch the wood of the door frame, whether to expel the fear of disease or in horror at the conditions in the hospital, I don’t really know. A woman passes by shouting that she has bread and ham for sale for the visitors and I lock myself in the bathroom which smells like jasmine after my cleaning.

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.

Catharsis

What better way for a freedom loving Cuban-American to release tensions and frustrations than the fidel castro piñata.

Hat Tip Mr. Bingley.

Babalu: where journalists get their news

Today, on November 11, McClatchy, the Miami Herald and WFOR all ran a picture of fidel castro that was posted on a Russian web site on October 20.

Funny, we posted that image here yesterday, November 10.

You're welcome, lazy ass reporters.

Searching for "The Shift" Part 5

This is the fifth in a series of analyses of the election results to see whether or not the Cubans are abandoning the GOP. Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here. Part 3 is here. Part 4 is here.

Each time I will be examining a different zip code with a high proportion of Cuban-Americans living in it. This time it's 33013.

As you can see from the map above this zip code is basically the eastern side of Hialeah.

Unfortunately the demographic data that I can obtain is somewhat dated (2000 census):

Total pop: 33,365 (100%)
Hispanic: 30,134 (90.3%)
Cuban: 24,388 (73.1%)
Median age: 41.2

So this an area that is almost 3/4 Cuban (at least in 2000).

There are 8 different precincts located in this zip code that reported results. For reference they are: 314 315 329 330 337 338 378 and 379.

A total of 9,406 votes for president were cast in these precincts.

John McCain received 6,441 of those votes or 68.5%

Barack Obama received 2,920 or 31.0%

Again we don't exactly know how many of those votes were cast by Cubans or the median age of those Cubans but it's pretty clear that this area like the others we've looked at thus far with it's large Cuban population was firmly in McCain's camp.

This is the first zip that I analyze where McCain's percentage is lower than Cuban pop. That would suggest that the Cubans in this zip were (at least slightly) less likely to vote for McCain than in other zips. But again the census data is from 2000 and doesn't necessarily reflect voters but population instead.

The high cuban density zips I've analyzed thus far suggest that Obama probably topped out somewhere below 30% for Cubans.

Until next time, I'll be searching for the shift.

UPDATE: This post was edited to reflect the county's election results as of 11/14/08.

The top ten most irritating phrases

The top ten most irritating phrases, according to the UK telegraph:

1 - At the end of the day
2 - Fairly unique
3 - I personally
4 - At this moment in time
5 - With all due respect
6 - Absolutely
7 - It's a nightmare
8 - Shouldn't of
9 - 24/7
10 - It's not rocket science

With all due respect to the Telegraph, I personally think that their selection is a fairly unique compilation to bring together at this moment in time. At the end of the day I know I shouldn't of tried to copy this article, since it's a nightmare, but I work 24/7 here at Babalu to bring you the absolutely best content. It's not rocket science, after all.

Nothing to worry about. Not a thing. No sir, nothing at all.

I bet a nice-sized subsidy will be on the negotiating table...

Cuban President Raul Castro will visit Russia next year, the Kremlin said on Tuesday, in a new sign that Moscow is reviving a Cold War-era trade and military alliance.

Moscow also repeated calls for Washington to lift the economic embargo imposed on the Caribbean island in 1962 when Castro's brother, Communist revolutionary Fidel Castro, was in power.

"Next year we await ... Raul Castro in our country and this will be yet another contribution to the development of ties," Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque in Moscow.

"Your visit is yet more evidence that relations between Cuba and Russia are developing in a very dynamic way," NTV television showed Medvedev saying.

This is the real "new tone" Mr. President

Mr. President, you are a good man. Of that I have no doubt. Although I voted for you twice, I've disagreed with you on basic policy and fiscal issues. But I'll repeat now what I've said before: you cannot befriend a rattlesnake.

BUSH ANGER: OBAMA AIDES LEAK CHAT DETAILS
Tue Nov 11 2008 09:28:10 ET

Just hours after President Bush and President-elect Obama met in the Oval Office of the White House, details of their confidential conversation began leaking out to the press, igniting anger from the president, sources claim.

"Senator Obama would be wise to keep close counsel," a top Bush source warned.

"BUSH AND OBAMA AT ODDS OVER AID FOR AUTO INDUSTRY," splashed the NEW YORK TIMES in an exclusive Monday evening, quoting "people familiar with the discussion."

The two met at the White House in private, without staff.

"Bush indicated at the meeting that he might support some aid and a broader economic stimulus package if Obama and congressional Democrats dropped their opposition to a free-trade agreement with Colombia," claimed the TIMES.

MORE

The ASSOCIATED PRESS quickly followed with details of the conversation, citing "aides who described the discussion on grounds of anonymity, citing the private nature of the meeting."

Bush advisers view the leaks as an effort to undermine the president's remaining days in office.

"Senator Obama may not be familiar with a long-standing tradition of presidents holding their private conversations, private," a senior adviser explained to the DRUDGE REPORT.

Developing...

The Republican Party & the Conservative Movement - On Losing

By Ronald Reagan

[Ronald Reagan wrote this piece for the December 1, 1964, issue of National Review, where it first appeared after the defeat of Barry Goldwater. It still holds true today.]

By now a new cliché has been added to the time-worn lit, but I know of no other way of comment on the election than to open with the by now familiar — "Well, it's over and we lost."

Yes, we did; we lost a battle in the continuing war for freedom, but our position is not untenable. First of all, there are 26 million of us and we can't be explained away as diehard party faithfuls. We cross party lines in our dedication to a philosophy.

There are no plans for retreating from our present positions, but we can't advance without reinforcements. Are reinforcements available? The answer is an unhesitating — "Yes!" They are to be found in the millions of so-called Republican defectors — those people who didn't really want LBJ, but who were scared of what they thought we represented. Read that sentence very carefully because in my opinion it tells the story. All of the landslide majority did not vote against the conservative philosophy; they voted against a false image our Liberal opponents successfully mounted. Indeed it was a double false image. Not only did they portray us as advancing a kind of radical departure from the status quo, but they took for themselves a costume of comfortable conservatism. Read again their campaign fiction and you will find their normal flamboyant Liberalism hidden under the protective coloration of "the great society," or as Hubert Horatio Humphrey (who can't ask what time it is without conducting a filibuster) put it: "We don't want a planned society — we want society planning."

Unfortunately, human nature resists change and goes over backward to avoid radical change. It's a head shaker, I know, but the whole Liberal apparatus which can be quoted ad infinitum on "the wave of the future, the need for new approaches to old problems, adopt new rules for complex new problems, forget the Constitution," was able to campaign in a last-year's model, singing, "The old songs — the old songs are good enough for me."

Very shortly, though, they'll bring the show into town for a four-year run, complete with a new score — words and music by Reuther, Joseph Rauh, and the "Great Society Chorale." Time then for the music critics — that's us. We must dwell unceasingly on the change of tune. Our job beginning now is not so much to sell conservatism as to prove that our conservatism is in truth what a lot of people thought they were voting for when they fell for the cornpone come-on.

In short — time now for the soft sell to prove our radicalism was an optical illusion. We represent the forgotten American — that simple soul who goes to work, bucks for a raise, takes out insurance, pays for his kids' schooling, contributes to his church and charity and knows there just "ain't no such thing as free lunch."

I'll add a postscript — I don't think we should turn the high command over to leaders who were traitors during the battle just ended.

An open letter to my liberal friends

Dear Liberal Friends:

First and foremost, I would like to congratulate you on your candidate’s victory this November 4th. After eight years in the periphery of American politics, most of you must feel vindicated to a certain degree. Although I wholeheartedly disagree with your candidate’s policies and ideology, I can recognize that he ran a deft and aggressive campaign, which rewarded him with victory in the end.

With that said, I will now turn to the main subject and reason for my letter.

As you have all let it be known, the past eight years has been to many of you a hell here on earth. Your candidate’s victory, however, should put an end to this torment and now is the time to look ahead. Things are looking up for you and those that share your ideology, for the moment at least, so go ahead and celebrate. Leave behind the hatred you have allowed to consume you for these last two presidential terms.

It is alright to be happy; it is alright to be gleeful; it is alright to be giddy; it is even alright to gloat. You guys won, so celebrate that victory.

Do not allow yourselves to be trapped in that hatred and loathing you clung to for so long. Just ask your mental healthcare professional and they will tell you; it is not healthy. Winning is a joyous occasion, a cause for celebration. Victory was your goal, and you attained that goal. So go ahead, my friends, revel in your triumph; pump your fists up into the air and let out a triumphant growl. You earned it.

But keep in mind that your success comes with consequences. Some of which you have not had to contend with for quite a while.

With your man in the White House and your party controlling both houses of congress, the onus falls completely on your shoulders now. There will be no Republican bogeyman to pin the blame on. With your candidate’s promise for quick and drastic change, this country will have to see sweeping improvement sooner rather than later. And if it fails to materialize, you are all in for a very grueling four years.

You will be hit from all sides relentlessly, and unlike a political campaign, slogans and rhetoric will not save you. “Yes We Can” was a brilliant rally call, it meant something different to everyone while not really meaning anything at all. But those heady campaign days where emotions spilled over and women swooned are over, my friend. “Now We Must” has taken its place, and from experience I can tell you that doing is a lot different from talking.

As the old adage says, be careful what you wish for, you just may get it. Well, my liberal friends, you have gotten what you wished for, and now you must do something. I know it is tempting to think this will be easy, but as you will soon find out, nothing is easy when half the country disagrees with you. You will be challenged at every turn and every failure you experience will be magnified and picked apart. Your triumphs will be talked about, too, but not nearly as much. You see, it is not our job to extol your successes, but to point out your defects. This should come as no surprise to you since that is what you have all been doing for the past eight years.

I realize this may all sound dreadful, but there is something good that can come of this; you can show your conservative friends, and the world, that you can lead and take the blows with the best of them. You can finally shed this persona of whiners and grumblers and show that you, too, have leadership qualities. It will not be easy, by any stretch of the imagination, but hey, if conservatives can do it, so can you.

This past election was an historic moment and all the eyes of the world were upon us and will remain there for the next four years. Do not let this country down, my friends. Cast off those feelings of hatred and despair and stand tall for America. Show the world you are just as tough as conservatives. Regardless of our differences in ideology and party affiliation, we are all Americans, and if you look bad, you make the rest of us look bad, too.

You guys won, so please, act like winners.

Kindest regards,

Alberto de la Cruz

Cross posted on albertodelacruz.com

Veterans Day 2008

To all veterans, past and present:

Thank you. This nation is the greatest nation on Earth because men and women like you have always answered her call to duty. We will forever be in your debt for your service and sacrifice and for your love of your country and your willingness to give it your all. You all are more than Veterans, you are Heroes.

Thank you for shedding your blood, your sweat and your tears for the freedoms of your fellow Americans.

I urge all reader to take some time today to honor our Veterans. You should also take a few minutes to visit the Veteran's History Project of the Library of Congress.

Update: Welcome Michelle Malkin readers and thank you for paying tribute to America's Heroes: our Veterans. I hope you all will take a few minutes to read two previously posted Veterans Day tribute linked below that are near and dear to my heart : At the Mall and Thank You Veterans.

Previous Veteran's Day reading:
At The Mall
Gracias.
Honoring Cuban American Veterans
Veteran's Day 2005
Thank you, Veterans.
For Our Troops, Past and Present
The Good Guys and Gals

November 11, 1918

Ninety years ago, at 11:11, the war to end all wars ended. World War I was probably the most unnecessary war ever fought, and we are still living with the repercussions of that conflict to this very day. A holiday was declared to celebrate its end called "Armistice Day." With time, the holiday morphed into our holiday of Veterans Day, an altogether more fitting memorial to honor all the men and women who have served our country so honorably, protecting us throughout the long history of America. My fervent hope is that the next four year term of a man and his cronies, who have have not demonstrated a love and affection for our military brothers and sisters, is not as painful as we all think it will be.

Searching for "The Shift" Part 4

This is the fourth in a series of analyses of the election results to see whether or not the Cubans are abandoning the GOP. Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here. Part 3 is here.

Each time I will be examining a different zip code with a high proportion of Cuban-Americans living in it. This time it's 33144.

As you can see from the map above this zip code is basically West Miami and Flagami (insert Oscar Corral joke here). The western boundary is 87th Avenue, the eastern boundary is 57th avenue. The southern boundary is 16th street and the northern boundary is Flagler.

Unfortunately the demographic data that I can obtain is somewhat dated (2000 census):

Total pop: 25,332 (100%)
Hispanic: 22,451 (88.6%)
Cuban: 17,451 (68.9%)
Median age: 44.5

So this an area that is more than 2/3 Cuban. It's the oldest zip we've examined so far.

There are 7 different precincts located in this zip code. For reference they are: 341 404 424 426 552 553 and 555.

A total of 8,555 votes for president were cast in these precincts.

John McCain received 5,964 of those votes or 69.7%

Barack Obama received 2,556 or 29.9%

Again we don't exactly know how many of those votes were cast by Cubans or the median age of those Cubans but it's pretty clear that this area like the others we've looked at thus far with it's large Cuban population was firmly in McCain's camp.

As I've said before, Cubans are the most likely group in Miami-Dade to vote Republican (that is undisputed) and they made up 68.9% of the people in this area. Then it stands to reason that the Cubans in this area voted in significantly greater proportions for McCain than the average for the whole zip code (69.7%). We can therefore deduce again that the Cubans voted somewhere in the 70% - 80% range for McCain and that the average was brought down by the non-Cubans in living in the zip who are less likely to have voted for the GOP candidate.

Until next time, I'll be searching for the shift.

UPDATE: This post was edited to reflect the county's election results as of 11/14.

El coma andante

Check out what death warmed over looks like:

That picture comes courtesy of this Russian web site from a report dated October 20, 2008.

Notice that he has to grab on to the Orthodox priest's arm to keep from falling and his gaze is in outer space.

This is the second major church to give the regime it's figurative and literal blessing this year. Makes one want to become an atheist.

H/T: De la Cova

Change?

What change? What are you talking about? Who said anything about change? Where in the world would you get a crazy idea like that? I mean... gosh... change? What does that even mean? Why would anyone say anything like that? That would be crazy! You must be confused with someone else--no one said anything about change. It's probably just something you made up in your own mind. Or maybe it's one of those rumors being spread by those right-wing crazies.

Change? Please, get real, no one has said anything about change. For real, I'm serious. If it were true, it would be on the website silly. Look, it's not. See?

Agenda disappears from Obama Web site

Gone are the promises on how an Obama administration would handle 25 different agenda items - everything from Iraq and immigration to taxes and urban policy - all items laid out on his campaign Web site, www.BarackObama.com.

Instead, the official agenda on Change.gov has been boiled down to one vague paragraph proclaiming a plan “to revive the economy, to fix our health care, education, and social security systems, to define a clear path to energy independence, to end the war in Iraq responsibly and finish our mission in Afghanistan, and to work with our allies to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, among many other domestic and foreign policy objectives.”

“We are currently retooling the Web site,” said Obama spokesman Nick Shapiro.

The site went active on Wednesday and was available to the public Thursday. The agenda items, which were active for at least part of the weekend, appear to have been deleted by late Saturday.

Obamas Announce Selection of New White House Puppy

They found a mutt like him who's hypoallergenic.

The new puppy shall be known as Lenin.

They are just words... stop worrying

I know, I know, all of us here are way too sensitive when it comes to Obama. We really should not be taking everything he and his mouthpieces say so literally. These are just words--nothing more. We really need to stop assuming every word and every phrase they say means anything. Just forget it, move along.

We need to embrace the Obamania and rejoice in the dawning of the age of Obaquarius. The last thing we want is for anyone to accuse us of actually paying attention to what Obama and his people are saying.

Change South Florida Can Believe In

The only thing more frightening that the Axis of Taxes (Obama, Pelosi, and Reid) or more hideous than the face of leftist blogsphere is the Madagascar Hissing Cockroach. I met one at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. They are huge man. I can imagine the crunch under my chancleta. I wonder if my secret weapon (Lysol Kitchen Cleaner) works on these? Or if we will have to use Powerful "Flea." I can hear the screams from the homes of Cuban women all throughout South Florida. I can imagine that 3:00 a.m. call from mom to come over to kill a roach.

This is real change we can believe in ... thanks Obama

run away run away .......

You think palmetto bugs are big? New 'hissing' cockroach may head to South Florida

Mark Pino, Orlando Sentinel

If you think palmetto bugs are big, wait until you come face to face with a Madagascar hissing cockroach. It can stretch up to 5 inches and, when threatened, exhales air and sounds like a snake.

University of Florida researchers are alerting pest-control operators and homeowners to be on the lookout for several new species of Florida's least-favorite character, the cockroach.

Along with the "hissers," the newest trespassers could include the Turkestan cockroach, lobster roach and the orange spotted roach. All could inadvertently be introduced to the state, UF entomologist Phil Koehler warned. And once here, they would thrive.

Lizard owners may be aiding the import of the new varieties, according to a pair of UF scientists at the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. Roaches make a good replacement for crickets -- which are noisier, smellier and more expensive -- as reptile food. Florida has banned the sale of new roach varieties for about 20 years, but the Web makes them easy to buy.

And where you have roaches, there are bound to be escapees. After all, they haven't survived 300 million years for nothing. Of the 69 species of cockroaches in the U.S., 29 were brought in from other countries.

"This is not good news for anybody," said Koehler, who recently co-authored a magazine article for pest-control operators, warning them to watch for the potential invaders. Koehler said he found a Web site listing Madagascar hissing roaches at 50 for $89.99.

Though none of the new species has yet been spotted in the state, Koehler recalls how the Asian cockroach quickly established itself in 1985 in Lakeland. At the time, Koehler speculated that it came through a commercial port or was brought in packing material by an overseas traveler.

And the Turkestan cockroach hitched rides with military personnel and equipment from the Middle East before settling in the southwestern U.S.

Bob Belmont, an entomologist and director for pest prevention at Massey Services in Orlando, said employees in the field check monitor traps and send in anything they deem unusual. But until a new breed is found he said, "I'm not that concerned."

What's next? Mandatory posters in each cubicle?

This is ridiculous.

Happy Birthday, Marines!

Thank you for 233 years of service and sacrifice.

Change We Can Hullucinate In

Some random thoughts.

The President Elect campaigned heavily on change. That he wanted to change politics as usual. That the problem was the Washington insiders and lobbyists. You heard the spiel. Well nearly all his insiders and WH picks are not newbies .... they are all former Clinton folks. These are the folks you'd have expected to see in a Hillary administration. These are folks who I'm sure bear loyalty to the Clintons, no? I heard that Rahm is a notorious leaker that would leak anytime Clinton rejected one of his ideas. I wonder how he and the anointed one will get along. Here's a good take on this by Dick Morris.

Seeing Paul V. last week was reassuring. He is the Godfather of the Fed. and the only Fed. Chairman who knew what he was doing. (He was appointed by Carter, but he was kept on by Reagan. At one point, Paul V. was known as the most powerful man in the world. He smoked cigars and didn't care where or with who especially in meetings. My type of guy. If he were in any cabinet post, it would be reassuring. But we shall see.

I hear that the new admin will create new types of Courts to try all those scum bags that are now in Gitmo. Secret courts outside the regular criminal justice system. I wonder if the lefties will give him a pass.

And now there are folks wanting to make a national holiday for Obama? Are you kidding me? He hasn't served a day yet and they want a national holiday? Hmm, how about these folks who don't have national holidays, "Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Adams?" just to name a few. Oy vay!

Oh And how about this? Obama has created the office of the President Elect? Check out the seal at the news conference? The thing is, the office does not exist.

Some interesting reading for your Monday (I've been out of the loop as mom has been in the hospital) but here's a good one from my favorite NPR/Fox Correspondent, Juan Williams on what an Obama victory means for racial politics.

And here's another op ed from today's WSJ by Mr. Pollster who shows us that contrary to the opinion of the elitist lefties, Reaganism is not dead. Interesting note:

Mr. Obama won the White House promising tax cuts, but he will be governing with a Democratic Congress bursting with desire for a more activist government. As he faces this challenge, he might remember the fate of another man who made taxes the central part of his campaign: the first President Bush, whose most memorable campaign line -- "Read my lips, no new taxes" -- was as central to his victory as Mr. Obama's promise to cut taxes for 95% of Americans. George H.W. Bush famously reneged on that promise. Voters rejected his bid for a second term.

Mr. Obama ran like Reagan. Will he be able to govern that way, too?

To Answer Mr. Rasmussen, don't count on it. But pigs have been known to fly on occasion, so I'll wait and see.

Hey....

...where is everybody?

Obama plans new court system

Do the words, "new court system,” and "administer justice" strike fear in your heart as they do mine? It's all part of Obama's plan for dealing with the Guantanamo detainees. No details yet, but this is what gave me pause:

"There would be concern about establishing a completely new system," said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a member of the House Judiciary Committee and former federal prosecutor who is aware of the discussions in the Obama camp. "And in the sense that establishing a regimen of detention that includes American citizens and foreign nationals that takes place on U.S. soil and departs from the criminal justice system — trying to establish that would be very difficult."

Obama has said the civilian and military court-martial systems provide "a framework for dealing with the terrorists," and Tribe said the administration would look to those venues before creating a new legal system. But discussions of what a new system would look like have already started.

"It would have to be some sort of hybrid that involves military commissions that actually administer justice rather than just serve as kangaroo courts," Tribe said. "It will have to both be and appear to be fundamentally fair in light of the circumstances. I think people are going to give an Obama administration the benefit of the doubt in that regard."

What do you think, should "the people" give Obama the benefit of doubt?

The article is here.

He'll Sign His Name and ::POOF::: It's All Gone

As my mom would say when someone rushes her with something:

"Geez, jump in my grave, why don't you?"

Perhaps President Bush is saying the same thing as this story is released:

"President-elect Obama plans to use his executive powers to make an immediate impact when he takes office, perhaps reversing Bush administration policies on stem cell research and domestic drilling for oil and natural gas."

Wow, the man hasn't even been sworn in and he's planning on kiboshing things with his brand-spanking new executive orders? I know Bush did it and so did Reagan, not to mention Clinton, but I'm pretty sure they waited until they had their own presidental seal to make such announcements.

The way this John Podesta states this makes it look like Obama will take office and just willy nilly undo everything that has been done in the past eight years. I hope for the sake of "reaching across the aisle" that he carefully reviews each of these decisions before he proceeds to do the reverse simply because it was initiated under a Republican, rather than because he feels it is the best decision (whether or not we agree with it).

"John Podesta, Obama's transition chief, said Sunday Obama is reviewing President Bush's executive orders on those issues and others as he works to undo policies enacted during eight years of Republican rule. He said the president can use such orders to move quickly on his own."

"There's a lot that the president can do using his executive authority without waiting for congressional action, and I think we'll see the president do that," Podesta said. "I think that he feels like he has a real mandate for change. We need to get off the course that the Bush administration has set."

Frankly, these plans scare me. I can see ::shudder::: the partial birth abortion ban lifted, eighty-sixing drilling, embryos being conceived and harvested merely for destruction, maybe immediately removing BCIS from our borders, systematically issuing illegal aliens driver's licenses, all with a penstroke...who knows?

At the end of this article is a real funny note:
"In other transition matters, Obama's new chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, would not say whether Obama would return to the Senate for votes during the postelection session this month."

Does it matter if Obama returns to the Senate? Will a vote of "present" make a difference?

Cross-posted at Claudia4Libertad.com

Shootdown DVD release

New York, NYRogues Harbor Studios - The controversial documentary SHOOT DOWN
is available for the first time on DVD beginning today on Amazon.com, the
studio announced today.

Shoot Down - Winner of 2007 Sonoma Film Festival honors for Best Documentary-was theatrically released in January 2008 amid a wave of controversy. While receiving critical praise for its balanced treatment of the events
that led to the downing of two U.S. civilian planes by Cuba in 1996, the film was denied bookings in most theaters in the United States. Despite this handicap, Shoot Down was still one of the top grossing documentaries of the
year.

The great thing about a thorough and fact-based documentary is that people can watch the film and make up their own minds, without any filters, said Douglas Eger, the films producer. There is still a great deal of resistance
to the full story of what happened back in 1996 reaching the public.

Eger continued, We have been successful licensing the TV rights internationally but still no domestic TV outlet will broadcast Shoot Down that amazes me! DVDs might be the only way Americans will be able to see
this film. There are powerful interests that just dont want this story to be told.

The award-winning documentary is the first feature-length film to take on the true and gripping story of the 1996 shoot down of two unarmed U.S. civilian planes by Cuban fighter jets.

The DVD includes many bonus features, including never-before-heard audio tapes from the cockpits of the planes, and footage of Raul Castro discussing the incident.

Director Cristina Khuly, commented, U.S. Civilian aircraft were shot down by a foreign government and not may people know about it, let alone why it happened. I cant think of many issues where you would find Amnesty
International, The European Community, conservative Republican Cuban- Americans, and Al Sharpton on the same side of an issue and it doesnt make headlines wow.

Khuly continued, saying, With a new administration in Washington, it is critical that we remind the public of this important piece of history. DVDs are the primary way independent films reach their audience.

SHOOT DOWN DVD SPECIAL FEATURES

Spanish Version

Never-before available version of Shoot Down with Spanish subtitles.

Raul Castro Recording

A 12-minute unedited recording of Raul Castro commenting on the incident.

BTTR Cessna Cockpit Recording

The unedited 30-minute cockpit voice recording of the lead Cessna, which includes conversations between this plane and the two shot down.

Cuban MiG & Military Control Intercept

The unedited voice recordings (1 hr., 30 min.) between the Cuban MiGs and Cuban Military Control intercepted

Thanks to Ana Margarita

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

You wanted change? Be careful what you wish for...

From The Wall Street Journal:

If you have a 401(k) or equivalent retirement plan, you've probably been watching nervously the past few weeks as your nest egg has shrunken owing to the current turmoil in the markets.

Well, it could be worse. But don't take heart, for what we mean is it could get worse. The market turmoil has some politicians on Capitol Hill eyeing the end of the 401(k) as we know it. Workforce Management reports on a hearing of the House Education and Labor Committee earlier this month.

From The Carolina Journal:

Democrats in the U.S. House have been conducting hearings on proposals to confiscate workers’ personal retirement accounts — including 401(k)s and IRAs — and convert them to accounts managed by the Social Security Administration.

Triggered by the financial crisis the past two months, the hearings reportedly were meant to stem losses incurred by many workers and retirees whose 401(k) and IRA balances have been shrinking rapidly.

The testimony of Teresa Ghilarducci, professor of economic policy analysis at the New School for Social Research in New York, in hearings Oct. 7 drew the most attention and criticism. Testifying for the House Committee on Education and Labor, Ghilarducci proposed that the government eliminate tax breaks for 401(k) and similar retirement accounts, such as IRAs, and confiscate workers’ retirement plan accounts and convert them to universal Guaranteed Retirement Accounts (GRAs) managed by the Social Security Administration.

Read both articles and govern yourselves accordingly. Do I trust the Dems with my money?

No. End of discussion.

Hurricane Paloma Strikes Cuba

Image courtesy of NOAA

Hurricane Paloma made landfall last night near Santa Cruz Del Sur, Cuba as a Category 3 hurricane. So far, media reports don't indicate massive destruction on the scale of Gustav and Ike, but it's still early and no doubt that areas along the southern coast of Camaguey and Las Tunas provinces got hammered last night. Let's hope and pray that Cubans won't go through the misery that they've already had to endure the past 2 months.

Some good news: Paloma is falling apart right over Camaguey, so it looks like the worst is over as far as the storm is concerned.

The New York Times struggles to explain civility

The relative civility demonstrated by most prominent figures in the Republican Party as well as its presidential nominees after losing last week’s election has taken the New York Times by surprise. After a hard-fought battle between the presidential candidates where harsh accusations of the other were lobbed by both, the New York Times expected the Republicans to sulk and continue their attacks against Obama. When the opposite occurred, the newspaper was left mystified by the conciliatory tone of the losing party.

There is a great tradition of paint-peeling political hyperbole during presidential campaign years. And there is an equally great tradition of backing off from it all afterward, though with varying degrees of deftness.

But given the intensity of some of the charges that have been made in the past few months, and the historic nature of Mr. Obama’s election, the exercise this year has been particularly whiplash-inducing, with its extreme before-and-after contrasts.

After watching Democrats and the liberal establishment in this country suffer from Bush Derangement Syndrome for the past eight years, and in turn lose all manner of composure, it is somewhat understandable that the New York Times would expect the same mean-spirited and vitriolic response from Republicans and conservatives that the Democrats and liberals exhibited in their consecutive losses. When it failed to materialize, though, they were left dumbfounded. Still, the New York Times had to find a reason why Republicans and conservatives have not responded to losing this election in the same manner Democrats and liberals responded to George W. Bush’s 2000 and 2004 election victories.

The shift in tone follows the magnanimous concession speech from Mr. McCain, of Arizona, who referred to Mr. Obama’s victory Tuesday night as “a historic election” and hailed the “special pride” it held for African-Americans. That led the vice president-elect, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., to get into the act. During the campaign, Mr. Biden said he no longer recognized Mr. McCain, an old friend. Now, he says, “We’re still friends.” President Bush, in turn, also hailed Mr. Obama’s victory, saying his arrival at the White House would be “a stirring sight.”

Whether it all heralds a new era of cooperation in Washington remains to be seen, and it may be downright doubtful. But for now, at least, it would seem to be part of an apparent rush to join what has emerged as a real moment in American history. [emphasis mine]

So, according to the New York Times, if the Republicans and the conservatives are being magnanimous, it must mean they want to be invited to the big party the Democrats are going to be throwing these next four years. For the liberal establishment, which the New York Times is a part of, any demonstration of high-mindedness in defeat must mean you have some ulterior motive. American conservatives must be planning something underhanded and devious because that is what liberals have always done when defeated.

As usual, the New York Times just does not get it, and they have once again shown their inability to view this country, and the world, objectively.

Class and dignity is a foreign concept to liberals, so it is no surprise the New York Times fails to see it.

F150 XLT

The impact jarred one of the motor mounts out of place. The Toyota Tercel struck the front passenger side tire of my Dad's truck and must have hit it in the precise spot where a small David could kill that Goliath. Nobody was hurt and Dad was just glad that his old Ford had protected him and that the cops had made the women that sold fruit at the corner house close down shop. Had they still been there, Dad's truck would most certainly have taken one or both of the women,along with oranges and papayas and malangas and platanos, through the fence and crushed them all into the air conditioning condensing unit on the side of the house.

"This old truck saved my life," Dad said yesterday, one foot on the rear diamond plate bumper and both welder's hands grasping, firmly, the tailgate door.

"I'm just glad no one got hurt, dad."

"Oh," he said. 'I wasn't just talking about the accident. But yes, I'm glad no one was hurt."

I then understood what Dad had meant. That Ford F150 was his workhorse. His business partner that shared the heavy lifting. On any given day that truck would have been loaded with rejas or steel fencing or gates along with his arc welder, drills, grinders, chipping hammers, picks, shovels, toolboxes, extension cords, boxes of screws, anchors, nut and bolts. In the corner of the bed,right behind the driver's seat you'd always find my Dad's little work cooler, all dinged up, with paint smears and drips all over, holding a couple bottles of Gatorade, a couple bottles of water and that one 16 ounce Budweiser, "For when the job is done."

That truck was more than like my Dad - strong as an ox,dependable, always there when needed and a little banged up from years of hard work - after all the years of working together, it was like an extension of my father.

And yesterday morning, there I was sucking the gas from both its tanks. Taking apart the steel frame that Dad built and installed on the bed sides. I pulled out ten year's worth of hard work from under its seats: anchors bolts, screwdrivers and a couple of missing wrenches, welding rods, materials receipts and a small bag of self tapping screws that Id gotten chewed out for leaving at the shop about five years ago when I was helping him install a small gate at a house in Westchester.

With each miscellaneous piece of hardware or tool that I'd remove from the old Ford, with each gallon of gas I sucked out from its tank, it felt like I was taking away pieces of my old man. Little pieces of his soul being extracted by way of 3/4" by 6" anchor bolts and self-tapping screws.

And Dad didn't look sad, he wasn't lamenting the necessity of basically striping his old friend and partner down before the junkman cometh. He was just there handing me tools or passing me another plastic gas tank when I needed it. He was quiet. Stoic. Resigned to getting the job done quickly. Ready to pull the plug on a loved on on its deathbed.

Mom sat on the porch and watched Dad and me pull years out of the truck. She watched Dad and I stare at the engine with Dad pointing out that new alternator or the new cap and spark plug cables. The master cylinder, I was told, had been recently replaced, not because it wasn't working, but because it wasn't working perfectly.

I suppose that Dad knew he was like the old master cylinder, still working,but not working perfectly and perhaps that's why, despite the damage from the accident the other day he chose not to repair the old F150. It was time to retire the old work horse.

As I kissed Mom before leaving their house, Dad was on the phone. "Is Tony in?" he asked. "It's Jesus, the one with the old F150 XLT. Tell him it's ready for pickup."

We had poured all that gas we'd siphoned from the old Ford into my truck. It, Dad, filled my tank

Un voto que no vale gran cosa

You must read the excellent essay by John Roche at Cuban-American Pundits.

Searching for "The Shift" Part 3

This is the third in a series of analyses of the election results to see whether or not the Cubans are abandoning the GOP. Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here.

Each time I will be examining a different zip code with a high proportion of Cuban-Americans living in it. This time it's 33165

As you can see from the map above this zip code is basically Westchester. The western boundary is the turnpike, the eastern boundary is 87th Avenue. The southern boundary is Miller Road and the northern boundary is a few blocks south of 8th St.

Unfortunately the demographic data that I can obtain is somewhat dated (2000 census):

Total pop: 57,079 (100%)
Hispanic: 46,400 (81.3%)
Cuban: 34,997 (61.3%)
Median age: 40.5

So this an area that is 60% Cuban and still relatively young.

There are 16 different precincts located in this zip code. For reference they are: 415 419 421 435 436 437 438 439 708 709 710 712 713 714 715 and 731.

A total of 25,802 votes for president were cast in these precincts.

John McCain received 17,701 of those votes or 68.6%

Barack Obama received 7,969 or 30.9%

Again we don't exactly know how many of those votes were cast by Cubans or the median age of those Cubans but it's pretty clear that this area with it's large Cuban population was firmly in McCain's camp.

As I before, Cubans are the most likely group in Miami-Dade to vote Republican (that is undisputed) and they made up 61.3% of the people in this area. Then it stands to reason that the Cubans in this area voted in significantly greater proportions for McCain than the average for the whole zip code (68.6%). We can therefore deduce that the Cubans voted somewhere in the 70% - 80% range for McCain and that the average was brought down by the non-Cubans in living in the zip who are less likely to have voted for the GOP candidate.

Until next time, I'll be searching for the shift.

UPDATE: The post above was edited to reflect the county's revised election results dated 11/14/08.

EU Conference on Cuba Upcoming

As far as I can see, this one has gotten little attention anywhere. The Czech Republic and the European Commission have announced that they will be holding a conference on the situation in Cuba during the first half of 2009. The role of the Czech Republic as president of the EU is reassuring. They were against the lifting of sanctions by the EU at first and only acquiesced when promised an annual review of the human rights situation. They promise to make human rights a focus. We'll watch and wait, although quite a few of the 75(6) whose plight elicited the sanctions remain in prison.

Obama vs. Pelosi

Coming this January, in a Chicago style cage match, Obama vs. Pelosi.

Interesting note by John Fund in today's WSJ to once again point out the power struggle the new Prez will have with his party. He can simply be Pelosi's whipping boy or he's gonna have to slap her around a little bit and show her who's the new boss in town .... should be fun

"Barack Obama obviously has thought carefully about mistakes made by previous Democratic presidential winners who wrongly believed a Congress controlled by their own party would help make them a success.

Pollster Doug Schoen, who helped Bill Clinton win re-election in 1996 over overwhelming odds after the 1994 Democratic debacle, recently warned in a Journal op-ed: "If the Democrats govern as if there is no Republican Party, they are likely headed to the kind of reaction that Bill Clinton faced when he made the same misjudgment after the 1992 election victory." Mr. Schoen cites specifically a meeting in Little Rock after the election with Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell and House Speaker Tom Foley, when Mr. Clinton agreed to defer to Congress on key elements of his legislative agenda. The subsequent lurch to the left did incalculable damage to his presidency.

That may be one reason why Mr. Obama has chosen Rahm Emanuel, a respected member of the Congressional leadership, to become his new White House Chief of Staff. Mr. Emanuel has a reputation as a tough partisan, but he has also exhibited impatience with left-wing members of his party who have overly ambitious ideological agendas. A likely first assignment for Mr. Emanuel will be reminding House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that, after only two years of Democratic control, Congress already has a lower approval rating than even President Bush's.

To the extent Mr. Obama becomes a successful president, it will be because he remains his own man and trusts the brilliant political instincts that have gotten him this far, this fast."

Truly, deeply stupid

From Jonah Goldberg at NRO's The Corner:

Hilarious

Michael Graham forwarded me this. From CBS MarketWatch:

How Obama Can Win Over The Media

Next in the series: "How Obama Can Win Over Blacks, Upscale White Liberals and Chicago Activists."

Flying The Flag

Here is a very good post by South Florida blogger Ripclawe of Narcissistic Views on News/Politics on the sudden increase in interest in flying the Stars and Stripes among certain circles in the wake of the elections. Please make sure to check it out.

The post struck a nerve with me as I have noticed the same phenomenon in my own neighborhood where Obama supporters who have rarely, if ever, flown the flag are suddenly not ashamed to show their patriotism. That's fine and well, but I find it sad when decent people feel that it's OK to express pride in your country only when "your guy" is president. That's the only reasonable conclusion I can draw. BTW, the same rules apply to all sides.

I don't consider myself more patriotic than these folks. Trust me. Maybe I need to see this as a sign that we're truly becoming united when it comes to supporting and being proud to be Americans, but please excuse my skepticism. Especially when some of these same people didn't have a problem openly displaying their hate for President George W. Bush these past four to eight years with bumper stickers and the like, while the Stars and Stripes stayed ensconced inside their homes. I guess that's where my feelings originate from.

The Stars and Stripes has been proudly flying (right side up - the only acceptable way) in front of my house every single day for the past 2 years or so (I'm sorry I didn't start flying it earlier). It's the least I can do to express my unwavering support for this country and especially for those who wake up every day fighting for freedom all around the world.

And it's not coming down anytime soon, regardless of who my president is.

Paloma poised to strike Cuba

AP reports that Paloma is now an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane poised to strike hurricane-ravaged Cuba as a major storm. It's expected to make landfall in Cuba late Saturday or early Sunday with maximum sustained winds of at least 111 mph (178 kph).

God help Cuba, more here, and in español here.

Washington Post Ombudsman: Oops, our bad

Deborah Howell, the Washington Post's ombudsman will admit in Sunday's Washington Post that her newspaper's coverage of the presidential campaign was tilted towards Obama.

The Post provided a lot of good campaign coverage, but readers have been consistently critical of the lack of probing issues coverage and what they saw as a tilt toward Democrat Barack Obama. My surveys, which ended on Election Day, show that they are right on both counts. * * * ... Obama deserved tougher scrutiny than he got, especially of his undergraduate years, his start in Chicago and his relationship with Antoin "Tony" Rezko, who was convicted this year of influence-peddling in Chicago. The Post did nothing on Obama's acknowledged drug use as a teenager.

Quite an admission, but it is too late for mea culpas when the Washington Post and most of the mainstream media knowingly played such an instrumental role in getting Obama elected. But now that their man is in the White House and their mission is accomplished, it is time now to try and recoup the little credibility they had left and spent up to get their candidate elected. All the apologies in the world cannot make up for the way the media gave up all semblance of impartiality and openly rooted and campaigned for Barack Obama.

During Election 2008, they sold their souls to The One--they would like to buy it back now, but when it comes to soul-related transactions, all sales are final.

Class You Can Believe In

Governor Palin is still coming under fire for her campaign wardrobe. I know, it has been a slow news week. This most recent attack is that not only did the RNC spend $150,000 on her campaign wardrobe, but now that she is no longer running for office, the RNC had to send lawyers to Alaska to retrieve the clothes. (Because this is part of an attorney's job description?) She responded to the claims with class:

"It's ridiculous," she told reporters. "You guys report based on anonymous sources, so it's hard to have a defense...It's not happening. Nobody's told me that they're coming to my house to look through closets, to look through anything. The belly of the plane that had clothes in it, and those clothes being packed up and sent back by staffers, perhaps that's what they're talking about, but these aren't attorneys."

She also pointed out how stupid the MSM is to be focusing on this in light of the election results. (Because there are not enough stories about the Messiah to go around?)

"This is Barack Obama's time right now, and this is an historic moment in our nation and this can be a shining moment for America and our history, and look what we're talking about. Again, we're talking about my shoes and belts and skirts. It's ridiculous."

She also said she would not pursue a seat in the Alaskan Senate if one opens up.

Here is the video of Governor Palin addressing the MSM and how hard it is to trust what is reported.

The bigger question for me is, will Narciso Rodríguez ask for that hideous frock Michelle Obama wore on Tuesday? That's what's really important to me. I think Americans want to know.

Cuban Memorial on Internet TV

The Sixth Cuban Memorial is currently being shown on GlaLiveTV 24/7.

To watch, click here.

Obama’s victory was made possible by Chavez

I am sure that for most Americans who voted for Obama on November 4th, Hugo Chavez was the last thing on their mind. But it seems the power of suggestion was lost among these voters who according to Chavez’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, were inspired to cast their votes for Obama by the wonders and advances of Venezuela’s socialist dictatorship.

Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela - Ministry of People's Power for Foreign Affairs – Communiqué

(Unofficial Translation).-

In this day of hope for the American people, President Hugo Chávez, on behalf of the people of Venezuela, congratulates the people of the United States and President-elect Barack Obama for his important victory in an election that has captured the attention of international public opinion.

This historic election of an African American to lead the most powerful country in the world is a sign that the change of era which has taken root in South America could be reaching the doorstep of the United States.[emphasis mine] From the homeland of Simón Bolívar, we are convinced the time has come to establish new relations between our countries and in our region, based on the principles of respect for sovereignty, equality and true cooperation.

From every corner of the world cries have rung out calling for change in international relations and the construction, as the Liberator Simón Bolívar would have said, of a world of balance, peace and of human coexistence.

The government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela reaffirms its will and determination to build a constructive bilateral agenda, founded upon the absolute respect of sovereignty, for the well-being of the peoples of Venezuela and the United States.

Caracas, November 5, 2008

I cannot necessarily blame Chavez for wanting to take credit for Obama’s presidential election victory. From promising to redistribute the wealth, to organizing a Civilian National Security Force, Obama’s policies do not sound all that different from the policies forced upon the Venezuelan people by their populist leader. To most Americans who voted for Obama, however, the similarities are lost upon them.

Nevertheless, it seems that Chavez has been heartened by the victory of The Black Man, and in Barack, he has found a comrade in arms.

No class, Mr. President-Elect

When I heard Mr. Obama's news conference today, I was taken aback by his flippant insult to Nancy Reagan about her holding "séances" in the White House. The scoop from the Politico:

Obama apologizes to Nancy Reagan for 'careless' joke

President-elect Barack Obama called Nancy Reagan this afternoon to apologize for a joke about her having held "séances" in the White House, an Obama aide said.

“President-elect Barack Obama called Nancy Reagan today to apologize for the careless and off handed remark he made during today’s press conference," said transition spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter. "The President-elect expressed his admiration and affection for Mrs. Reagan that so many Americans share and they had a warm conversation."

Obama was asked at his press conference today if he'd spoken to all the "living" presidents.

"I have spoken to all of them who are living," he responded. "I didn’t want to get into a Nancy Reagan thing about doing any séances."

He was apparently confusing stories about Reagan's consulting with an astrologer with those about other First Ladies -- from Mary Todd Lincoln to Hillary Clinton -- who tried to make contact with figures from the past.

Making a disparaging remark about a living First Lady, who defines class and dignity, the widow of a President that many Americans, myself included, revere. So this is how our four-plus year Obama journey into socialism, disrespect and classlessness begins.

One thing's for sure: He'll succeed in making Bill Clinton look good...

"What will you black conservatives tell your grandchildren?"

Baldilocks answers the question in her usual superb manner:

When a voter picks a candidate to serve in an office, that voter is essentially saying “Of all the choices available, I think that this person will do a better job in that office that all of the other available candidates.” In this case we are, of course, talking about the office of President of the United States and Commander-in-Chief of the United States Armed Forces. We are talking about a person whose job it is to support and defend the U.S. Constitution, the American land and the American people.

In order to make that decision the American voters need information and during the campaign season we are presented with information designed to allow the voters to make an informed decision as to which of the candidates will be the most competent in fulfilling the objective particulars of that office. By November 4th, we are supposed to come to a conclusion about this matter and record that conclusion in the voting booth.

[...]

I concluded that the things which I know about Barack Obama which are relevant to his possible abilities to adequately support and defend the U.S. Constitution, the American land and the American people —his political background, his expressed political/social ideas and his overall judgment were either of lower quality than John McCain’s or that those things would be overtly detrimental to the well-being of this nation. I also concluded that either man’s ethnicity/race/color was insignificant factor in making a judgment as who was able to better serve this nation and, therefore, was irrelevant to making that decision.

I made my decision by making judgments about the following:

• Barack Obama’s decisions about the Surge conducted in Iraq
• His words regarding the success of that Surge
• His words about the US Constitution in 2001
• His words to Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher.
• His voting record in the Illinois Senate
• His voting record in the US Senate
• His words about his association with domestic terrorist William Ayers
• His adherence to Black Liberation Theology as formulated by James Cone and as articulated by Jeremiah Wright, Emeritus pastor of Trinity United Church of “Christ”
• His claim to not know the nature of Wright’s theological stance and to not have heard the latter’s more incendiary sermons after sitting in the pews of Wright’s church for twenty years.
• His stance on abortion and on the “Born Alive” provision in Illinois law.
• His stated intention to conduct presidential-level negotiations with rogue heads of state
• His promise to accept public funding for his campaign

Read the whole piece.

And now, for some Friday GOOD news...

Oh, yeah baby:

While the rest of the league has feasted on the inept, the NFL’s playoff picture has become more muddled than ever. Fourteen teams have records of 4-4 or 5-3, including the entire AFC East and the top three teams in the NFC North – two divisions expected to be in dead heats over the length of the second half.

With that in mind, and coming off a month of election projections, we’ve looked into the crystal ball and predicted how the playoff seedings will play out. It’s hardly scientific beyond the comparison of schedules and weighing of current injuries. But with eight weeks left in the NFL schedule, we’ve boiled down how the final records, division winners and playoff seeds are likely to shake out over the next two months.

Are you ready?

Starting with a surprise to many observers …

1. Miami Dolphins

Final regular-season record: 10-6, No. 3 seed in the AFC

Skinny: Miami climbs out of the basement with wins over Seattle and Oakland, then completes a stunning season sweep of New England at home. The four road games in the final five are daunting, but Miami manages three wins in the final five, and then Chad Pennington leads the Dolphins to a division title by beating Brett Favre and the Jets in the season finale.

Oh, sweet sweet seer and prognosticator of the football world. From your lips to the football god's ears.

A journalist's job

According to Chris "tingling feeling down my leg" Matthews, it is a journalist's job to help the president be successful.

As Matthews has made obvious however, this does not apply to all presidents, just Obama.

Sometimes you wonder if these people actually listen to the words that come out of their mouths.

Palin People Start Hitting Back

And refuting the buckets of snotty BS being dumped on this FINE (in both the literal and the slang meaning of the term for hyper-glandular males of a certain age) woman--without whom the Republicans would have suffered not a loss--but a ROUT!

"I've been working over 20 years in Washington and I've been around literally dozens and dozens of politicians. She is among the smartest, toughest, most capable politicians I've ever dealt with," Scheunemann said. "She has a photographic memory."

The whole thing here

As always when a deal goes sour, people start sniping. Happened big-time in Cuba with the "Revolution-betrayed" types. The Cuban-Revolution was not "betrayed." Fidel, Raul and Che knew exactly where they were taking it from day one. But too many opportunists, scoundrels and idiots fell for their BS. When the deal went (SERIOUSLY!) south , they started scrambling, desperately trying to exculpate themselves from the mess. Same thing here.

More on Cuban-American Voting Patterns

The oft-used theory of a generational shift which was supposed to come to fruition in the recently concluded general elections continues to evolve, according to our favorite South Florida daily. The past two days, it was revealed that it was really non-Cuban Hispanics, not Cuban-Americans, that gave Obama a boost, but exit polls suggested sizable Obama support from young Cuban-Americans. However, it looks like the results of the three congressitional races involving Cuban-American incumbents has at least some in the Miami Herald rethinking the whole generational shift theory.

The latest theory being trotted out: The power of incumbency.

Give Myriam Marquez credit. While not totally discounting the idea of a shift among young Cuban-Americans, she expresses doubt as to its existence, while acknowleding that the traditional Cuban factor could very well still be in play. From her column today:

Standing in front of the big screen in the Kendall sports bar, Democrat Joe Garcia congratulated U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart for a hard-fought win, as the image of Republican John McCain giving his concession speech flickered behind him.

It was election night, and the crowd of college students, black activists and white and Hispanic supporters had been counting on Garcia's win in what polls showed as a nail-biter. This was supposed to be the year that tested Cuban-American voters' fierce allegiance to the GOP. Yet all three Cuban-American incumbents in Congress won handily even as Democrat Barack Obama made inroads among younger Cuban Americans and seized the non-Cuban Hispanic vote statewide.

Did the Cuba issue really fall from the political radar as some pollsters told us?

Or have Cuban Americans not budged an inch, as the Republican winners now tell us?

The answer is more nuanced.

In fact, Garcia's loss -- by 6 percentage points in a district with about 25 percent Cuban Americans -- has more to do with non-Cuban whites and Hispanics and blacks in his district, which covers Southwest Miami-Dade and a chunk of Collier County. Thousands embraced Obama but didn't bother to vote in that congressional race.
...
Martinez, a hugely popular mayor in heavily Cuban blue-collar Hialeah for years, won in only one precinct in his ''city of progress.'' Even if many of the voters in Hialeah are more recent arrivals who would prefer to see Bush administration travel restrictions lifted to visit family they left behind, the majority chose Lincoln, one of the architects of the restrictions. But many split their vote, handing the presidency to Obama, who has promised to ease those limits on travel and remittances.

Florida International University professor Dario Moreno, whose preelection polls on the congressional races proved more prescient than any santero's seashell clairvoyance, said the results prove the power of incumbency.

He thinks Garcia lost in the tightest of the three races because the Democrat didn't do enough on Miami Cuban radio to make his case. ``He didn't try to peel off Cuban votes from Mario.''

Mario's district, which has seen a seismic shift in voter registration that has lost about 20,000 Republican voters, still managed to deliver. Bottom line, said Moreno: ``People underestimate how hard it is to unseat an incumbent.''

Nor can we underestimate the passion and pain of exile.

Henry's analysis of Hialeah zip code 33012 contradicts Marquez's assertion of a split vote. We'll see when the full analysis of the votes is concluded. Professor Dario Moreno does make a good point about Garcia failing to make his point on Cuban radio. Perhaps that's because of his condescending attitude towards listeners of those stations. Obviously a strategy and attitude that sunk his chances of winning.

Let's see what theory the Herald can come up with next.

Change DOT gov

Read this from Michelle Malkin about the new site (possibly violating domain name rules) started by The Messiah. Although it appears to be just another fund-raising scheme, the "service" aspect of it is rather scary. I hope all the Kool-Aid drinkers do their duty and serve. Without pay.

Another hurricane heading for Cuba

Hurricane Paloma is forecast to make a beeline through Cuba in the early morning hours of Sunday.

We all know what that means:

1. More suffering and misery for the Cuban people.

2. More free food and building supplies for the regime so that they can restock their US dollars-only stores where they have been selling the donated relief supplies from the previous storms this year for triple their market value.

3. More cold hard cash in the form of foreign aid for the regime to steal and stash away in their Swiss accounts.

4. More drivel and rhetoric from Castro apologists taking advantage of the misfortune of the Cuban people to advance their political agendas.

Out of the woodwork

Boy, there sure are a lot of Cuba "experts" out there, dontcha think?

Much Grass

Just a quick note to thank those that answered the call for Babalu help yesterday and donated a few bucks. Your donations and support are greatly, greatly appreciated. Muchas Gracias. You all are the best.

With the exception of a few drives for charity or for the Cuba Nostalgia Conventions, we've never had the donations button permanently placed on the blog, but, as you can see at the top of the sidebar, it is there now.

Personally, I hate seeing it there and hate even more that Ive had to place it there. But like I stated yesterday, times are tough in Babalu Land, folks. And as the old cliche goes: desperate times call for desperate measures.

Much grass to those that have already dropped a few dollars in the till and I hope that others that come by here every so often consider a small donation for the cause.

Los quiero y me quedo en chor.

Cubans reject Joe Garcia

So I ran the same precinct analysis in the 21st district race for zip code 33175 and found this:

Mario Diaz-Balart: 14,403 - 70.7%

Joe Garcia: 5,972 - 29.3%

Another ass kicking on Cuban turf.

Hialeah repudiates Raul Martinez

As I was looking at the data for the 33012 zip code (a big chunk of Hialeah) for the presidential election I decided to take a peek at how the same 19 precincts voted in the 21st congressional district race. The results were extremely surprising:

Lincoln Diaz-Balart: 14,008 - 64.0%

Raul Martinez: 7,894 - 36.0%

Remember the whole strategy was to win Republican Hialeah by wide margins and appeal to the Anglo Democrats outside of Hialeah.

Martinez got his ASS kicked. Plain and simple. It's fitting that a bully like him got manhandled.

But hey, there's a shift going on dontcha know.

Searching for "The Shift" Part 2

This is the second in a series of analyses of the election results to see whether or not the Cubans are abandoning the GOP. Part 1 is here.

Each time I will be examining a different zip code with a high proportion of Cuban-Americans living in it. This time it's 33012

As you can see from the map above this zip code contains a large swath of Hialeah. The western boundary is the Palmetto expressway, the eastern boundary is Palm Avenue. The southern boundary is W. 29th ST and the northern boundary is W. 68th St.

Unfortunately the demographic data that I can obtain is somewhat dated (2000 census):

Total pop: 74,948 (100%)
Hispanic: 67,475 (90%)
Cuban: 49,613 (66.2%)
Median age: 40.2

So this an area that is 2/3 Cuban and still relatively young.

There are 20 different precincts located in this zip code. For reference they are: 316 318 319 321 323 324 325 326 328 331 332 336 354 361 362 363 374 375 377 and 386. Curiously, no votes were tabulated for 386.

A total of 22,313 votes for president were cast in these precincts.

John McCain received 14,862 of those votes or 66.6%

Barack Obama received 7,353 or 33%

Again we don't exactly know how many of those votes were cast by Cubans or the median age of those Cubans but it's pretty clear that this area with it's large Cuban population was firmly in McCain's camp.

As I mentioned in the comments on my first post about this matter, Cubans are the most likely group in Miami-Dade to vote Republican (that is undisputed) and they made up 66.2% of the people in this area. Then it stands to reason that the Cubans in this area voted in significantly greater proportions for McCain than the average for the whole zip code (66.6%). We can therefore deduce that the Cubans voted somewhere in the 70% - 80% range for McCain and that the average was brought down by the non-Cubans in living in the zip.

Until next time, I'll be searching for the shift.

UPDATE: The post above was edited to reflect the county's revised election results dated 11/14.

Hannity's Top 10 Items of Conservatism

Hannity's Top 10 Items of Conservatism

1) To be the Candidate of National security:

a) Victory in Iraq
b) Fully support NSA, Patriot act, tough interrogations, keeping Gitmo open
c) A Candidate that pledges to NOT demean our military while they are fighting for their Country. eg Harry Reid: "the surge has failed", "the war is lost"
d) Candidate that promises to ensure that our veterans can live out their lives in dignity.

2) The Candidate who pledges to oppose Appeasement:

a) The Candidate will oppose any and all efforts to negotiate with dictators of the world in places like Iran, Syria, N.Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela without "pre-conditions"

3) The Candidate Pledges to support Tax CUTS, and fiscal responsibility:

a) The American people are NOT under taxed, Government Spends too much
b) The Candidate who Pledges to ELIMINATE and VOTE AGAINST ALL Earmarks
c) The Candidate pledges to BALANCE the budget

4) The Candidate Pledges to be a supporter of "Energy Independence"

a) supports Immediate drilling in Anwar and the 48 states
b) Building new refineries
c) Begin building and using Nuclear Facilities
d) expand coal mining
e) realistic steward of the environment

While simultaneously working with private industry to develop the new energy technologies for the future, with the goal being that America becomes completely energy independent within the next 15 years.

5) The Candidate pledges to secure our borders completely within 12 months:

a) build all necessary fences
b) use all available technology to help and support agents at the border
c) train and hire agents as needed

6) Healthcare:

The Candidate will look for Free-Market solutions to the problems facing the Healthcare industry, and will vigorously oppose any efforts to "nationalize healthcare".

a) The Candidate will fight for Individual health savings accounts, that includes "catastrophic insurance" for every American, so people can control their own healthcare choices.

7) Education:

a) The Candidate pledges to "save" American children from the failing educational system
b) The Candidate will fight to break the unholy alliance of the Democratic party and teachers unions, which at best has institutionalized mediocrity, and has failed children across the country
c) fight for "CHOICE" in education and let parents decide
d) fight for vouchers for parents

8) Social Security and Medicare:

a) The Candidate will "save" social security and medicare from bankruptcy.
b) Options will include "private retirement" funds so people can "control" their own destiny.

9) Judges

a) The Candidate vows to support ONLY judges who recognize that their job is to interpret the Constitution, and NOT legislate from the bench.

10) American Dream:

The Candidate accepts as their duty and responsibility to educate, inform, and remind people that with the blessings of Freedom comes a Great responsibility. That Government's primary goal is to preserve, protect and defend our God given gift of freedom.

That Government's do not have the ability to solve all of our problems, and to take away all of our fears and concerns. We need their pledge that we will be the candidate that promotes Individual liberty, Capitalism, a strong national defense and will support policies that encourage such...

It is our fundamental belief that limited Government, and Greater individual responsibility will insure the continued prosperity and success for future generations.

We the people who believe in the words of Ronald Reagan, that we are "the best last hope for man on this earth," "a shining city on a hill," and that our best days are before us if our Government will simply trust the American people.

Objective: 2010 - What we can do right now

Ladies and gentlemen, our party, the party of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Reagan was soundly defeated because our elected representatives in congress and our president abandoned the conservative principals that made our old party truly grand.

We've lost the battle but not the war. The time is now to reassess our situation, regroup and marshal our resources. We do not have to wait around for FOUR YEARS to achieve our next victory. We've seen this movie before in 1992. Clinton was elected as a "new Democrat" and overreached with attempts to propagate liberal policies. In 1994 Republicans were swept into power in both the House and Senate. Clinton was forced to revert to more centrist (and in some cases conservative) positions. He took the credit for prosperity that followed but that's OK. The truth is that we prospered and our party was effective as Clinton's opposition.

The wacky leftists carried a message of "recreate 68" through this election cycle, longing for the some of the darkest years of our nation's history. Well I'm here to tell you that our goal should be to recreate 94.

So what's the plan?

First, of all this election cycle isn't over. Georgia Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss will competing in a run-off against Democrat Jim Martin. Chambliss has been a reliable conservative with a composite National Journal score of 83.5. You can donate to the Chambliss campaign here. I don't have to tell you how important each Senate seat is.

The next thing you can do is visit the American Solutions web site. It's a conservative think tank headed up by Newt Gingrich. If anyone can lead us out of the wilderness it's Newt Gingrich. He's done it before. I urge you to sign up for their mailing list and donate to American solutions.

We need another Republican Contract with America and the architect of the first one is the best candidate to draw up the next one.

Now is the time the wrest the control of GOP from the namby pamby RINOs that have been running it for the last decade. We need a new RNC chairman. Fred Thompson just might be the man for the job.

Among our priorities should be the complete reform of the primary system in our party. We should move toward closed primaries and push states that don't allow them to the back of the line. We can't allow our party's nominees to be picked, even partially, by Democrats and Independents.

In order to regain control of the House of Representatives we're going to need to pick up about 50 seats in 2010. A tall order to be sure, but we've done it before. And here's the thing, if Barack Obama does what he'd really like to do, our nation's problems are going to be exacerbated. I'm not hoping for bad news for our country but they are inevitable if he and Pelosi and Reid enact liberal policies. You know as well as I do that big government solutions don't work.

Mid-term elections have a different dynamic. The turnout is never even close to general elections in presidential years. We can use that to our advantage by mobilizing a large number of conservatives on election day. Almost 57 million people voted for McCain. As Mark Levin said, we can certainly start a movement with 57 million people. Obama and his Hope and Change Musical Review won't be on the ballot and by that time we will have had two years of experimenting with socialism.

The first seats we need to target are the ones we lost in 2006 which the Dems won by running relatively conservative candidates against big spending Republicans. By 2010 they will have been in office for four years. We'll run against their party's liberal stances and they'll be toast. The other seats we need to target are those held by RINOs. These putzes need to know that we're not afraid to run conservative Republicans against them. These won't result in net gains for us but will serve notice that liberals need not apply.

Conservatism is not dead, but the failed strategies of the liberal wing of our party are.

Don't get mad, people. Get even. And if you can, get the majority.

Sticker available here.

Amerika, 2008 style

If my son were browbeaten like this by a teacher, she'd be fired within a week for harassment. Hope you like this liberal assholes. This is the world you've made. Low standards indeed.

Post-election gear

This one's for George.

A Sartorial Irony

I almost choked on my coffee this morning when I read a story oozing admiration for Michelle Obama's election evening dress. It was scandalous that the Republicans spent $150 thousand on Palin's wardrobe, because she didn't own candidate wear, but now it is quite acceptable to drool over a Narciso Rodriguez dress. Oh, and now we find out that BO wears Hart, Schaffner, and Marx. Le double standard, non?

While I'm on the topic, some may remember that Rodriguez was the designer of the wedding dress worn by the ill-fated Carolyn Bessette when she married the similarly ill-fated John F. Kennedy, Jr. What he was thinking of when he designed this one, I don't know. He probably had an empacho. Here's a pretty interesting profile of said designer who happens to be of Cuban heritage.

Of course, the Obama's don't need anyone to pay for their wardrobes. The way designers work, even they may not have to pony up the bucks. Article about Michelle's fashion sense here.

Cruzando el Niagra en bicicleta

Times are pretty tough in Babalu Land, folks. We could really use "un cabo" right about now. If you appreciate what we do here day in and day out and if you're able, please give me a hand in keeping the lights on here at Babalu.

You all know how much I hate asking for your hard earned cash, and I do so reluctantly, but right now, any little bit helps.

You can think of it ala Wayne Huizenga, better that Babalu gets it than Uncle Obama.

Acute Obamalitis

I just recieved the following email, aptly titled "Note from a Bomb Crater," from our esteemed Professor of Theology at Yale University Carlos Eire:

Dear Val:

I thought I would share two items with you, because they have shaken me to the core.

You are lucky enough to live somewhere with other Cubans, in a large city with lots of diversity. But I live in a bubble, surrounded by leftists, some of them of the rabid sort. Last week, for instance, I had to shout down some colleagues who were criticizing a book on the Gulag as "unbalanced" and overly emotional "commie-bashing" . I told them their views were reprehensible and nauseating and even managed, somehow, to insert the word "bullshit" in my remarks, which will be carefully preserved in the minutes of that meeting. Anyway, in many ways I should thank them all, for it was my constant exposure to their intellectual duplicity and robot-like, unreflective support of Fidel & company that drove me to write Waiting for Snow in Havana. But seeing their behavior over the past 24 hours has tested me to the extreme. As you can imagine, everyone around me is thrilled, fully infected with Acute Obamalitis.

First, there is this item:

Yesterday I went to a lecture on "The Beauty of Jesus", by Father Gerald O'Collins, a Jesuit Priest who taught at the Gregorian University in Rome for over thirty years, and lived for a while next door to Joseph Ratzinger, the current Pope. It wasn't much of an academic lecture: it was more like a spiritual meditation on how truth, beauty, and goodness are inseparable from one another, and on how beauty naturally attracts us all. In the question and answer period, some Obamaton in the audience had the audacity to ask the speaker: "Well, what about the beauty of Obama?" Jesus H. whip-wielding Christ, my head and heart nearly exploded. The sheer idolatry of it all, making comparisons between Obama and Christ -- and all this at the Catholic chapel at Yale.

This idolater kept going on and on with his "question" (which was not really a question, but a tribute to the new Christ), heaping praise on all of Obama's wonderful qualities, which have already done so much to heal the world. And you could hear a low hum of approval from many in the lecture hall, accompanied by the nodding of heads. As I restrained myself from retching, a small miracle occurred: the speaker was partly deaf, and didn't hear all the Obama crap, so instead of answering the Obamaton's "question" he elaborated on the sheer beauty one can find in the real Christ, and in his suffering. The deaf Jesuit gave the only answer that could be given: the question vanished, as if it hadn't been asked.

Then, there is this other item: the email my daughter Grace sent yesterday morning, in which she describes what it was like to be in the heart of Obamaland, at Skidmore College. It speaks for itself, especially the last line.

i didnt even watch it when it happened - i didnt know who to call to watch it. i was in a girls room who didnt have it on cause shes in my building but she didnt have the tv on. then when i got a call from a friend and i went to watch mccain talk, then i went to a rally on the green. it was scary. and surreal. i felt so unreal. it felt like a movie. then i someone on the ground crying to his mother in spanish.

dont know exactally why, but i can only imagine it had to do with the election? then i went and watched him give his speech in the student union, Case center. Everyone was cheering and crying and staring in awe and i just wanted to go home, but i also wanted to be where everyone else was. but really i wanted to call dad. i wouldnt know what to say but i really wanted to call him. then i cried to my roommate, who really must think im insane by now. i do not want to sleep. i do not want it to be tomorrow.

So there we are.

I'm taking my cue from the small miracle that took place at the lecture. The idolatry will burn itself out and disappear, just like sound waves in a deaf man's ear, and so will Obama. Time to trust in God, and to stand firm. Now, more than ever.

Once more, your site is keeping me sane....

thanks,

Carlos

Change and hope

From Ziva comes this link from a lively thread at The Telegraph UK:

You wanna know what CHANGE means? Is that what you want? For a bunch of people who were so in the tank for this guy, don't you think that you mighta, shoulda, been thinking about this BEFORE? Why would you be all Gung Ho for change, without knowing what the CHANGE was gonna be? How STUPID are you? Well, since you ARE so stupid, I'LL tell you what CHANGE means. For the Good Guys-(US)-it means we can kiss our money goodbye. It means our beloved MILITARY-( which we built up, from the ground, after 8 years of neglect and abuse from the last Democrat Administration, in to the FINEST MILITARY the world has EVER SEEN)-is about to be DECIMATED once again. For the Bad Guys, it's a Green Light. And green means GO. GO in to Ukraine. GO take back your 'Near Abroad'. GO take your JIHAD in to Europe. Who's gonna stop ya? And as for YOU, the so-called Free World, YOU are on your own. Israel, if you thought you were alone before, you ain't seen nothing yet. And speaking of ALONE. I wouldn't wanna be Colombia right now. You know what I mean? So. What do ya think? Do ya get it now? Now, let's talk about "HOPE". --Posted by Timothy L. Pennell on November 6, 2008 1:46 PM

Bullsesye.

Feelings....nothing more than feelings....

Yesterday, in my "No hard feelings" post, I congratulated President elect Obama and his supporters and thanked Senator John McCain not only for a good campaign against all odds, but for decades of sacrifice and service to this nation. I also felt it was necessary to point out that America elected its first African-American black President, and thus is proof positive that today's America is not the supposed racist America of yesteryear.

Seeing the exhuberance and joy among African-Americans did make me happy. It still does. Say what you will about the reasoning behind their voting for Barrack Obama, you have to admit it has been an incredibly hard, arduous road for African-Americans in ths country and I believe it's important to note that African-Americans are completely different from most, if not all, other minority groups.

Most, if not all other minority group's predecessors or forefathers came to this country as either immigrants or, as in the case of Cuban-Americans, exiles. African-American's predecessors or forefathers were brought to this country as cargo. It is imperative that we remember that and the inhumanity of it and everything that it entails.

So, my personal feelings on Barrack Obama as President aside, I needed to express what I felt right then and there.

That said, I, too, am angry and somewhat disgusted by this election for myriad reasons. And Id like to assure those commenters and others that, while I wont go to the extremes our liberal lefty counterparts have gone to for eight years - like, say, photoshopping images of the President of the Unites States as a chimpanzee or monkey, or equating him to Hitler, or referring to him as chimpy mchitlerburton, or promulgating absolute lies - I will be taking a President Obama to task for everything and anything I feel the need to take him to task for. From his association with terrorists and America haters and anti-semites and affirmed communists and Marxists, to his fraudolent electoral campaign via ACORN and violation of FEC rules, to his flip flopping on most issues, to his socialist tendencies, to his false prophetness, to his similiarities to someone we all know and everything else.

I hope there's no hard feelings.

Do as I say, not as I do.

I cant recall who it was it that came into the blog some days back and started complaining about his constitutional rights being shattered by the Bush administration and the violating of his right to privacy...

...But, whoever you are, take this and shove it up your ass.

The Democrat mantra: Do as I say, not as I do.

Obama's Real Opposition - The Democratic Congress

I can't wait for the two to beat the crap out of each other, but it will happen. Mistress Pelosi, Leatherboy Frank, and Reid the Mafiosi will try to make Obama submit to their whims. Great article in today's WSJ on the battle about to start in 2009:

Mr. Obama may appreciate the threat, because yesterday he offered Clinton White House veteran Rahm Emanuel a job as his chief of staff. But even that savvy, relatively sane liberal will have difficulties grappling with the fearsome committee chairmen and liberal interest groups that did so much to sabotage Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter. Meet the President-elect's real opposition:

David Obey. The Appropriations Chairman wants to slash defense spending as a money grab for more social programs and entitlements. Fellow spender Barney Frank recently added that a military budget cut of 25% was about right. A military crash diet wouldn't leave the funds for the surge in Afghanistan that Mr. Obama advocates, and it's a sure way to hand the national security issue back to the GOP.

Chuck Schumer. The Senate Democrat and his friends are already threatening banks if they don't lend more money instantly under the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Other political masters want to use Tarp to nationalize large swaths of U.S. industry such as the Detroit auto makers or to bail out states like New York that are in debt. If Mr. Obama doesn't want to have to pass a Tarp II, he'll have to say no.

George Miller. Some Democrats are starting to target the tax subsidies for 401(k)s and other private retirement options. Mr. Miller, who heads the House Education and Labor Committee, calls them "a big failure" and recently held a hearing to ponder alternatives, including nationalizing pensions and replacing them with special bonds administered by Social Security. The proposal has also caught the eye of Jim McDermott, who chairs the relevant Ways and Means subcommittee. Mr. Obama won big with his promise of tax cuts for the middle class, which doesn't square with attacks on middle-class nest eggs.

John Conyers. The man running House Judiciary is cheerleading the Europeans who want to indict Bush officials for war crimes. Other Democrats are thinking about hearings and other show trials. This is far from the postpartisan reconciliation that Mr. Obama preaches.

Henry Waxman. With President Bush soon to be out of office, the Californian's team of Inspector Clouseaus at House Oversight won't have any "scandals" left to pursue. The word in Washington is that Mr. Waxman is looking to unseat John Dingell as Chairman of Energy and Commerce, in order to shove aside a global warming moderate. That could pave the way for huge new energy taxes. Voters will punish Mr. Obama if they get hammered every time they fill up the gas tank or buy groceries.

Pete Stark. The Chairman of a crucial House subcommittee dealing with health care doesn't think Mr. Obama's proposal to significantly federalize the insurance market goes far enough. He wants a single-payer system like Canada's. Mr. Obama may want to strike a deal with Senate Republicans on health care, but Mr. Stark will be pulling him left at every turn.

All of these feudal lords -- and many others -- also come with their own private armies: the interest groups that compose the money and manpower of today's Democratic Party. The American Civil Liberties Union, Human Rights Watch and others on the anti-antiterror left want Mr. Obama to limit the surveillance and other tools that have prevented another terrorist attack on U.S. soil. The Natural Resources Defense Council and Environmental Defense will insist on onerous caps -- that is, taxes -- on coal and other carbon energy. Those won't help Mr. Obama carry Ohio and Indiana again in four years.

The trial bar wants an end to arbitration in disputes in return on its Senate investment, while the National Education Association will try to gut No Child Left Behind accountability standards. And organized labor will insist on a major push to pass "card check," which would end secret-ballot elections for unions. If Mr. Obama wants to mobilize the business community against him while squeezing moderate Democrats, he'll go along with that right from the start.

While many voters may think they've voted for "change" in Mr. Obama, they also handed power to the oldest forces in the Old Democratic Party. Jimmy Carter campaigned as a moderate and outsider, but Congressional liberals quickly ran his budget director, the economic centrist Bert Lance, out of town. Then they overrode Mr. Carter's veto of a pork-barrel water bill. Mr. Carter referred to the tax committees as "ravenous wolves" after they transformed his tax reform into a special-interest bouquet. Next came Reagan.

Bill Clinton also campaigned as a moderate, but in his first two years he was unable to govern as Congress pursued liberal priorities, including a big boost in taxes and spending. Recall Roberta Achtenberg as the scourge of the Boy Scouts and Joycelyn Elders calling for the legalization of drugs? Mr. Clinton chose -- or was forced -- to take up gun control and HillaryCare before welfare reform. Next came Newt Gingrich.

Maybe Mr. Obama has absorbed these lessons, but even if he has he'll have to be tough. The Great Society liberals who dominate Congress are old men in a hurry, and they'll run over the 47-year-old neophyte if he lets them.

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters to Realize How Empty Their Lives Really Are

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

Where's the change?

Is the One who promised change loosing his nerve? Is the momentous responsibility he faces giving him pause? Is he going to walk the walk or was his promise of change all talk?

His initial picks for the transition team are from the Clinton fold. How is that change?

I don't recall the NYT questioning Mr. Obama's qualifications for the job during the campaign, and now that Obama is scrambling to put together a team that actually knows what its doing the Times still isn't pointing out the obvious truth to the American people. Obama has no executive experience. Why can't they say that?

Instead we get this pandering byline:

"President-elect weighing his pledge to change politics versus need for expertise in choosing transition team"

Poor Obama, what's a president-elect to do?

"They're torn," a prominent Democrat close to the campaign said of Obama's team. "There's half of them that think, 'We're in the midst of a huge economic crisis; let's get the most experienced people out there.' The other half think, 'Hey, we're the change candidate.' "

My favorite:

"As he looks to build a presidency from scratch, Obama knows he needs at least some of the expertise of the Clinton circles, advisers said. Most telling was his decision even before the election to tap Podesta, founder and president of the Center for American Progress, a Washington group considered Hillary Clinton's government-in-waiting until she lost."

So why didn't they just elect Clinton?

The media doing its job, just like Goebbels

This is why journalism is dead:

Even after nearly two years in the spotlight, little is understood about the 47-year-old first-term senator's approach to leadership. His resume: community organizer, eight years as state legislator, and less than four as U.S. senator.

And

Personally, [Obama]'s a bit of an enigma, too.

You think? As the RedState columnist asks, "now you tell us?!" I propose that every time a liberal tells you there is no bias in the media you pour a big pitcher of cold water on their heads. Unbelievable.

(H/T RedState)

Satire about Tueday night from South Park

South Park skewers our side and "them" better than anyone else. As Parker and Stone have said, "we hate conservatives, but we really hate liberals." You can view the entire episode here. The idiot running around the TV at the beginning of the episode and yelling "Obama! Obama!" reminds me of somebody. I just can't place who it is...

Ann Coulter on Captain Electability

The two conservative pundits I read and listen to religiously are Ann Coulter and Mark Levin, respectively. I consider them my kind: Reagan conservatives, not shy about expressing opinions that would shock the tea party set, and, always right on the money about the conservative movement. Read Ann Coulter's column from yesterday in Human Events. I'm proud to say we've been saying a lot of the same things in this blog for a long time...

The Reign of Lame Falls Mainly on McCain
by Ann Coulter

Last night was truly a historic occasion: For only the second time in her adult life, Michelle Obama was proud of her country!

The big loser of this election is Colin Powell, whose last-minute endorsement of Obama put the Illinois senator over the top. Powell was probably at home last night, yelling at his TV, "Are you KIDDING me? That endorsement was sarcastic!"

The winner, of course, is Obama, who must be excited because now he can start hanging out in public with Bill Ayers and Rev. Jeremiah Wright again. John McCain is a winner because he can resume buying more houses.

And we're all winners because we will never again have to hear McCain say, "my friends."

After Bill Clinton won the 1992 presidential election, Hillary Clinton immediately announced that, henceforth, she would be known as "Hillary Rodham Clinton." So maybe Obama can now become B. Hussein Obama, his rightful name.

This was such an enormous Democratic year that even John Murtha won his congressional seat in Pennsylvania after calling his constituents racists. It turns out they're not racists -- they're retards. Question: What exactly would one have to say to alienate Pennsylvanians? That Joe Paterno should retire?

Apparently Florida voters didn't mind Obama's palling around with Palestinian activist Rashid Khalidi and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, either. There must be a whole bunch of retired Pennsylvania Jews down there.

Have you ever noticed that whenever Democrats lose presidential elections, they always blame it on the personal qualities of their candidate? Kerry was a dork, Gore was a stiff, Dukakis was a bloodless android, Mondale was a sad sack.

This blame-the-messenger thesis allows Democrats to conclude that their message was fine -- nothing should be changed! The American people are clamoring for higher taxes, big government, a defeatist foreign policy, gay marriage, the whole magilla. It was just this particular candidate's personality.

Republicans lost this presidential election, and I don't blame the messenger; I blame the message. How could Republicans go after B. Hussein Obama (as he is now known) on planning to bankrupt the coal companies when McCain supports the exact same cap and trade policies and earnestly believes in global warming?

How could we go after Obama for his illegal alien aunt and for supporting driver's licenses for illegal aliens when McCain fanatically pushed amnesty along with his good friend Teddy Kennedy?

How could we go after Obama for Jeremiah Wright when McCain denounced any Republicans who did so?

How could we go after Obama for planning to hike taxes on the "rich," when McCain was the only Republican to vote against both of Bush's tax cuts on the grounds that they were tax cuts for the rich?

And why should Republican activists slave away working for McCain when he has personally, viciously attacked: John O'Neill and the Swift Boat Veterans, National Right to Life director Doug Johnson, evangelical pastors Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and John Hagee, various conservative talk radio hosts, the Tennessee Republican Party and on and on and on?

As liberal Democrat E.J. Dionne Jr. exuded about McCain in The Washington Post during the Republican primaries, "John McCain is feared by Democrats and liked by independents." Dionne proclaimed that McCain "may be the one Republican who can rescue his party from the undertow of the Bush years."

Similarly, after unelectable, ultraconservative Reagan won two landslide victories, James Reston of The New York Times gave the same advice to Vice President George H.W. Bush: Stop being conservative! Bush was "a good man," Reston said in 1988, "and might run a strong campaign if liberated from Mr. Reagan's coattails."

Roll that phrase around a bit -- "liberated from Mr. Reagan's coattails." This is why it takes so long to read the Times -- you have to keep reading the same paragraph over again to see if you missed a word.

Bush, of course, rode Reagan's ultraconservative coattails to victory, then snipped those coattails by raising taxes and was soundly defeated four years later.

I keep trying to get Democrats to take my advice (stop being so crazy), but they never listen to me. Why do Republicans take the advice of their enemies?

How many times do we have to run this experiment before Republican primary voters learn that "moderate," "independent," "maverick" Republicans never win, and right-wing Republicans never lose?

Indeed, the only good thing about McCain is that he gave us a genuine conservative, Sarah Palin. He's like one of those insects that lives just long enough to reproduce so that the species can survive. That's why a lot of us are referring to Sarah as "The One" these days.

Like Sarah Connor in "The Terminator," Sarah Palin is destined to give birth to a new movement. That's why the Democrats are trying to kill her. And Arnold Schwarzenegger is involved somehow, too. Good Lord, I'm tired.

After showing nearly superhuman restraint throughout this campaign, which was lost the night McCain won the California primary, I am now liberated to announce that all I care about is hunting down and punishing every Republican who voted for McCain in the primaries. I have a list and am prepared to produce the names of every person who told me he was voting for McCain to the proper authorities.

We'll start with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Florida Gov. Charlie Crist. Then we shall march through the states of New Hampshire and South Carolina -- states that must never, ever be allowed to hold early Republican primaries again.

For now, we have a new president-elect. In the spirit of reaching across the aisle, we owe it to the Democrats to show their president the exact same kind of respect and loyalty that they have shown our recent Republican president.

Starting tomorrow, if not sooner.

An oldie but goodie

I get hundreds of these, but this one is by far the most comprehensive:

You know you are Cuban-American when:

In no particular order:
1) you have ever been hit by a "Chancleta. "
2) you grew up scared by something called "El Coco"
3) others tell you to stop screaming when you are really just talking.
4) you light a candle to Virgin Mary on the night before your big test.
5) you use your lips to point something out.
6) you constantly refer to cereal as "con fleys".
7) your mother yells at the top of her lungs to call you for dinner, even if it's a one bedroom apartment.
8) you can dance merengue, cumbia, or salsa without music.
9) you use "margarina" instead of olive oil and can't figure out why your butt is getting bigger.
10) you are in a five passenger car with seven people in it and a person is shouting "subanse, todavia caben!"
11) whenever you feel under the weather, you compulsively dab on some "vapor rub" (vivaporu) all over your chest and inside your nostrils.
12) Your mom packs your "lonchera" every day even though you've just turned thirty-two.
13) you call the North Americans "gringos", including Canadians, and call all Asian people "chinos" or "chinitos" and you call the corner store "the chinito store".
14) you can have 5 different conversations at the dinner table and remember everything
15) you have un cafecito before going to sleep
17) you hang the cuban flag from your rear view mirror
16) on christmas you have ever gotten socks and underwear from your grandparents
17) you have been drinking cafecito for breakfast since you were in diapers
18) your mom or dad prononces "ch" like "sh" and "j" like"y"
ex: sherry, shop the onions, yellow yacket, yello
19) your grandpa brought puerco to every family event
20) you know for a fact that even if you weighed 800 pounds your abuela would still yell at you: "Ay Dios! Too skinny!" and proceed to put more food in front of you.
21) you're convinced that iodine (mecumocrombo) will cure everything from a cut to a hangover
22) you feel compelled to offer food to anyone who walks in your door, and are heartbroken if they insist they aren't hungry. But that's ok, because you feed them anyways.
23) there is a portrait of Jose Marti hanging somewhere in your house along with a full map of Cuba.
24) you know what the Holy Leg of Pork is and it's your favorite part of Noche Buena
25) when mixing with gringos you have to fight the urge to give them a kiss on the cheek hello or touch them in any way. Because for some reason that you can't quite figure out, physical contact seems to scare the hell out of them or convince them you're hitting on them.
26) you have 80 people you call your cousin, and no idea how you are actually related to any of them.
27) every time you meet another Cuban you do a mental run through to see if there is any way you're related or any of you relations have ever met. Ever. You then proceed to talk about this for the next fifteen minutes.
28) every time you meet another cuban, you are instantly become good friends and act if you've known each other for a long time
29) the smell of Agustin Reyes "agua de violetas" brings back lots of memories
30) you have at least once been involved in some kindof ritual involving agua florida that your abuela found out would cure you of all your ills from the lady at la botanica
31) you run like hell when you see a coconut randomly on the street
32) it really pisses you off when people wear che guevara tshirts because you know what he was really about
33) you are the shit at dominoes and think that dominoes is the coolest game ever
34) when you walk in the house and the first thing to greet you is mama's flying chancleta
35) "coño" is a way to describe pretty much any way you could possibly be feeling... sad, angry, happy, excited, nervous, etc.
36)You know the meaning of ''no da pie con bola''
37) You have ever left grass for the camels on the night of january 6th instead of cookies and milk for santa on christmas eve.
38) You have ever used your nose or lips to point something out.
39) You have ever drop food on the floor, picked it up, and ate it after saying ''lo que no mata engorda''
40) Your house has all of those little figurines that take every inch of space in the house, and you have either one of the following: a porcelain cat, dog, or elephant in your living room
41) You just cant imagine anyone not liking CuBaN food.
42) You have at least 30 cousins
43) You consider platanos to be a food group
44) You constantly say.. ''En cuba eso era mejor, en cuba no pasa eso''
45) You have been seen on channel 7 shouting ''No castro no problem''
46) Your idea of formal is wearing a ''guayabera''
47) Your favorite words are ''Oye'' or ''Ven aca'' when you are right next to a person.
48) Your tradition is to kill a pig and roast it in your back yard on christmas eve.
49) You are registered Republican
50) You have used the words '' Acere, mi socio, consorte, oye men, chico'' within the last week
51) Your favorite milkshakes flavors are ''mamey, papaya, or guanabana''
52) Your favorite sunday sport is dominoes
53) You constantly say.. ''Fidel se mata este año''
54) You have been in the USA for 10 years and still dont speak english
55) You buy a lotto ticket every saturday
56) You go to your family or friend`s funeral to tell jokes and socialize
57) You pay money you dont have for your daughter`s ''quinces''
58) You look forward to ''Sabado Gigante'' every saturday
59) You clean your teeth with a toothpick in public after eating
60) You tell your wife ''mami, hazme cafe y traeme agua''
61) You say ''La vaquita'' instead of farm stores
62) You dont believe in ''brujeria'' but respect it anyways
63) You use redundant expresions like ''Me cago en la mierda''
64) You have use of the word ''Jeva''
65) You have a particular passion for wrist watches
66) You call publix; ''el puble''
67) Your furniture is still with the plastic cover
68) You know how to sing ''el yerberito'' of Celia Cruz
69) You grew up thinking that going swimming after lunch could cause you a ''sirimba'' , so it was best to wait at least 3 or 4 hours.
70) When your mom gets mad she yells ''Me cago en la madre que te pario''
71) To describe a place that`s far away you say it`s ''en casa del carajo''
72) You cut of words at the end but still like to criticize boricuas.
73) Theres a big picture of your daughter`s ''quince'' along with everybody`s wedding picture or communion in the living room.
74) Theres a little bucket next to the sink in the bathroom.
75) You know why Hialeah is '' La ciudad que progresa''
76) If you refer to your mother, sister, cousins, girlfriend, wife and every female in your life as ''mami'' "Mama" or "Mamita
77) By popular demand...If at every family function there is always a side of arroz con gri
78) You have a cake and sing happy birthday to Jesus on Christmas eve
79) Your whole family is running on "Cuban time"
80) Even when you have glass doors for your shower, you still put up a shower curtain
81) for breakfast, lunch, and dinner you have a side of rice
82) your papa has ever worked at a cigar factory and came home smelling like sweet tobacco (RIP Louis Carlos Carrera)
83) it's perfectlyacceptable for every member of the media, political opponent, cultural minority, or anyone in particular to criticize, denigrate and demean you

Searching for "The Shift" Part 1

This is the first in a series of analyses of the election results to see whether or not the Cubans are abandoning the GOP. Each time I will be examining a different zip code with a high proportion of Cuban-Americans living in it. First up is 33175

As you can see from the map above this zip code is in western Miami-Dade County. The eastern boundary is the Turnpike, the western boundary is 147th Avenue. The southern boundary is Miller Road (S.W. 56th Street and the northern boundary is just south of Tamiami Trail (S.W. 8th Street). I actually had to go to a birthday party in this area on Saturday and was astounded by McCain sign after McCain sign.

Unfortunately the demographic data that I can obtain is somewhat dated (2000 census):

Total pop: 52,581 (100%)
Hispanic: 44,300 (84.3%)
Cuban: 29,738 (56.6%)
Median age: 37.5

So here is an area that's more than half Cuban and relatively young.

There are 14 different precincts located in this zip code. For reference they are: 413, 707, 459, 451, 449, 440, 457, 441, 414, 773, 706, 444, 704, and 705.

A total of 21,028 votes for president were cast in these precincts.

John McCain received 14,443 of those votes or 68.7%

Barack Obama received 6,497 or 30.9%

Now of course we don't exactly know how many of those 14,443 were cast by Cubans or the median age of those Cubans that cast them vs. the ones that were cast for Obama but it's pretty clear that this area with it's large Cuban population was firmly in McCain's camp.

Until next time, I'll be searching for the shift.

UPDATE: This post has been updated to reflect the county's latest election results dated 11/14/08.

The BabaluBlog Radio Hour | Election Post-Mortem Edition Tonight 9:00 PM EDT

I know you all are politicked out, but give us a listen when tonight, we have our Election Post-Mortem Edition of the BabaluBlog Radio Hour starting at 9:00 PM. Obviously, we'll discuss yesterday's election defeat for John McCain. But more importantly, we're going to talk about the future of the Republican Party and how we can bring back the principles, the excitement and, most importantly, the victories, of the Reagan years.

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

Start Now and Get Ready for 2012

Look, we can bemoan the loss of the presidency all we want but it won't do anything. Let's start now and use our noggins to get ready for 2012. Sound premature? How long do you think Obama had his game plan set out?

If you are a Facebook member, join the group Galvanize the Republican Party for 2012- Start NOW. If you're not a member, you're gonna have to sign up. It has messaging, a bulletin board (wall) for group discussions and capability for photos and videos.

Hey, someone has to start somewhere.

Jorge Mas Santos continues to discredit himself

Even if you believe the exit polls that indicate that 35% of Cuban-Americans voted for Obama (which I am skeptical of), that means that 2/3 of Cubans feel that CANF was wrong to ostensibly endorse Obama and the three clowns that ran against Mario, Lincoln, and Ileana.

Mas Santos is on TV right now defending himself and repeating his attacks on President Bush.

We can honestly say today that CANF no longer represents the interests or views of the majority of Cuban-Americans.

Huffpo blogger to Obama: It's OK to stab Cuban-Americans in the back

Sarah Stephens agrees that Obama won without the help of Cuban-Americans. And since we didn't turnout for him, she argues that he's under no obligation to live up to campaign promises he made:

In fact, three Miami-area Congressional candidates who agreed with Obama's minimal reforms on Cuba were all defeated in their campaigns by the Cuban-American Representatives who supported John McCain and President Bush's hard-line on Cuba.

This disposes of the argument, once and for all, that a presidential candidate couldn't carry Florida or win the White House unless he bowed to the hard-liners and supported the harshest possible approach to U.S.-Cuba relations...

President-elect Obama, you proved them wrong, and now you have the freedom to make even bigger and better changes in a policy that everyone knows is a failure.

President Bush put cruel restrictions on the rights of Cuban-Americans to visit their families on the island and limits on the financial support they can provide. You have already promised to repeal those restrictions. Now is the time to go further.

Every American should enjoy the constitutional right to travel freely to Cuba.

That was then, this is now I suppose.

Miami Herald now realizes that Cubans are complex human beings

Like everyone else.

The bogus myth of the "generational shift" was predicated on the belief that Cubans are single issue voters and that younger Cuban-Americans don't care about that issue and therefore aren't as dumb as their parents and therefore more likely to believe in the soft-sell socialism being peddled by the Democrats.

Of course it's a lot more complicated than that. People primarily get their political preferences (like their religion) from their parents. Of course people can go their own way based on their experiences but Hispanics tend to rebel less against their parents.

Many Cubans of my generation and younger were brought up to be Republicans not just because of Cuba but because our parents worked hard and succeeded in this country and that success brought about punitive taxation. We were brought up to respect the family, etc.

Are there Cuban-American Democrats? Yes, of course there are. There always have been. Are they greater proportionally today than ever before? The jury is still out on that. The state of Florida only keeps track of ethnicity for registered voters not country of origin. We only have surveys to examine and the surveys I've seen show a remarkably steady proportion of Republican party affiliation of between 66% and 69% over the last 15 or so years. A poll by a democrat pollster last year put that number at an even higher 72%.

Did Barack Obama do better among Cuban Americans than John Kerry? The preliminary evidence points to yes. I've seen a couple of articles claiming exit polls indicate that Obama carried 35% of the Cuban vote. That's equivalent to what Bill Clinton got in 1996. I'm not certain that the exit poll figures are weighted to reflect absentee ballots where McCain actually beat Obama in Miami-Dade by a wide margin of 59% to 40%. So best case scenario for the Dems is that Obama got 35% of the Cuban vote but more than likely something south of 30%.

In either case you'd have to look at the extraordinary circumstances of this election with the economic atomic bomb that went off a month before it. How much did that (and not a generational shift) have to do with the Democratic candidate having his best day in our community since 12 years ago?

One thing is certain, Cuban Americans didn't put Barack Obama over the top in Florida. While the rest of the country lost its mind, Cuban-Americans held steady.

Florida's 21st Congressional District

This contest was another manifestation of the Democratic strategy of trying to turn Cubans against Cubans. In this case the hand-selected candidate was long-term Hialeah mayor, and Luca Brasi look-alike, Raul Martinez. The Miami Herald billed this race as a "the battle of titans" but Martinez went down like the Titanic against Republican incumbent Lincoln Diaz-Balart.

Lincoln Diaz-Balart won this race easily with 57.8% of the vote (133,351) compared to 42.2% for Martinez (97,492), a difference of almost 36,000 votes.

Like Joe Garcia, Martinez was well-funded, raising more than $1.75 million. Theoretically Martinez was going to win Hialeah where he is very popular because, despite his history of corruption, many saw improvements in quality of life during his reign as the capo di tutti capi in that city.

The problem was that the same Hialeah voters that put Martinez into a non-partisan office time and again had also voted for Lincoln Diaz-Balart time and again. It wasn't a sure thing that their personal loyalty to their former mayor would override their conservative viewpoints about national issues and their loyalty to the GOP. And Lincoln had never embarrassed them in Washington the way Martinez was liable to. This was guy who threatened talk radio show host Hank Goldberd, spit on a debate opponent and pummeled a protester in front of TV news cameras. The Anglos in the district may have been reluctant to vote for Martinez. At my polling place yesterday a gentleman in line was talking to another gentleman and said "I can't vote for that scumbag Martinez, even though I'm a Democrat." I suspect that was the case with quite a few voters.

One of the major flaws of the three Democrat challengers was that they tried to make the election a referendum on the war in Iraq and President Bush. The thing is those are non-starters among most Cuban-Americans. Being against a war that toppled a tyrannical dictator, are you kidding me? Many detractors say Bush has done nothing on the Cuba front, which is patently false, but Cubans recognize that it's not just what you do but what you don't do and what you don't allow to happen. Castro did not get over on the U.S. during the 8 years of President Bush, something he has done with every Democrat president since 1960.

Lincoln Diaz-Balart, like his brother, enjoyed a 2-1 lead among Cubans in an October poll conducted for Telemundo.

Interestingly, Martinez never conceded the race last night. It figures. It's not like he was going to suddenly become classy.

Test of Maturity

I was going to be gracious. I really was. Last night I heard the President-elect say:

And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn, I may not have won your vote tonight, but I hear your voices. I need your help. And I will be your president, too.

Foolish me, I thought he might actually mean it. Nah. Then I find out that among those being considered for national security advisor, etc. is Greg Craig. Cuban Americans of the intransigent kind will know the name, as Mr. Craig putatively represented Juan Miguel, the father of Elian Gonzalez. I write "putatively" because we don't need a "weatherman" to tell us who he was really representing.

So despite my best intentions, as well as my desire to support my African American brethren who are walking on air at the moment, I have to wonder. If President-elect Obama who has already demonstrated the post partisan style of his leadership by tapping uberpartisan Rahm Emanuel for chief of staff truly meant what he said, he will keep Craig around but under wraps. Stuff him in a closet if he has to. Otherwise, Cuban Americans are going to recognize it for what it is. See picture above.

Florida's 25th Congressional District - UPDATED

In the closest race of the three we were watching here in South Florida, Mario Diaz-Balart proved wrong those that believed GOP support among Cuban-Americans was waning. He obtained 52.8% of the vote (127,060) compared to 47.2% for Joe "the fro" Garcia (113,495). This is remarkable for several reasons:

1. In 2006, a virtually unknown Democrat named Michael Calderin obtained 41.5% of the district's vote after spending a paltry $30,000 on his campaign.

2. Joe Garcia has much more name recognition in South Florida, he was the chairman of the county's Democrat party as well executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation.

3. Joe Garcia raised almost $1.5 million dollars on this race.

4. The Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee spent significant sums as well targeting Mario's seat.

In other words they gave Mario their best shot and still it was not enough. He won by 13,500 votes.

The Democrats tried a faulty strategy of tying the Diaz-Balart brothers to President Bush. That only works on the die-hard Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents, the type of people that were going to vote for Garcia anyway. If Garcia were really trying to capture Cuban-American votes he would have avoided that argument.

Also I spoke with a Garcia campaign insider that said that the rednecks in Collier county (which makes up a small part of the district) would not vote for spic like Mario Diaz-Balart. When I countered that Garcia is every bit the spic that Mario is, he said that the rednecks would stay home. They didn't stay home. They actually gave Mario slightly greater percentage of their votes than the folks in Miami-Dade County.

MORE:

Another faulty strategy in this race was an attempt to "take the Cuba issue of the table". That's the actual language that was used on an invitation to a Garcia fundraiser in New York. You see, Garcia and his cohorts believed that we would be the Trojan horse that would allow for a Democrat victory based on his time at CANF. The truth is that Cubans that care about Cuba (not all of them do, I admit) abandoned CANF when it abandoned them. A poll conducted for Telemundo in October showed Mario leading Joe Garcia 2-1 among Cubans.

Not only that, the strategy was incoherent. On the one hand you had Joe saying that Mario Diaz-Balart was a one-trick pony that didn't care about anything talking about Cuba while at the same time saying that he (Garcia) has had more debates with Charles Rangel (Garcia's castro-loving fundraising pal) than Mario. You can't have it both ways.

And lastly, Joe Garcia was a carpetbagger. He lives very, very far from the district he wanted to represent. The local media made no attempt to reveal that about him. People in wester Miami-Dade didn't buy his Miami-Beach Spiel.

Post Election Humor for Star Wars Fans

Omerica

From the excellent Jules Crittenden blog: "Omerica"

Upside to a McCain loss? He would have faced a very hostile Democratic Congress, and an even more embittered and frustrated opposition in society at large. Forget his very legitimate history as a maverick able to reach across the aisle. His ability to accomplish anything would have been severely diminished by these factors, not least because many Republicans who should have known better viewed the 2008 election as a fashion statement. America rejected McCain’s vision of moderate conservatism and bi-partisanship and has voted for “change” as vaguely defined by Obama. At the end of four years, America will still be here. America may be changed, but it will still be the greatest nation on earth, and probably still the most powerful, any setbacks not withstanding. Yes, it will.

But now Obama has to govern. I’ve heard a lot of people say he’ll do that from the middle: The “socialist” thing was a desperate GOP canard, and Obama, cognizant of his desire to be re-elected in 2012, will become the moderate he attempted to portray himself to be in the 2008 campaign. I see no reason to expect that. He has already made it clear that he wants to raise taxes and share the wealth. He wants to introduce government-managed universal healthcare. There will be Supreme Court appointments, and they will be advocates of bench legislation. There are any number of social policy issues that can be dealt with administratively or with the assistance of the Democratic Congress. Entire populations of special interests yearning to be advanced. Gay marriage, federally enforced anti-discrimination policies, new classes of hate crimes, abortion policy, all that. Reasonable people may disagree over a lot of it, but the conversation is effectively over. Look for growth in the hate-crime industry. No, I don’t mean actual crimes of hate, I mean the definition of freedom of speech as one. OK, maybe it already is.

Read it all on Jules's site.

Yipeee!!!!!!

Some good news. I have just been offered a contract for Assistant Professor starting next fall 2009!!!!!

Now all I need to do is finish my dissertation before my start date. Academia here I come!!!!!!!!

Dime con quien andas...

H/T: TheRealCuba.com

Some wisdom on Bush

One of the rules I have when I do my analysis of a person is what I call the "barbecue" test. In it, I try to determine whether or not I would invite someone to my house to share a meal with, have a drink or two, share good honest conversation. Val's ManCamp is an embodiment of this. There are people who I would not invite to my house to clean my cat litter box, let alone my grill. President Bush is not one of those. I like him. Always did. I always thought he was a decent guy, who had lived a full life, full of victories and defeats and mistakes. And, he had received that most elusive gift of all: redemption.

I've been the first to criticize our current President when I thought he was not being true to the principles Ronald Reagan instilled in the Republican party. I think he is a good man, in a dirty business, led astray by his innate sense of decency. His decency and character are the prime reasons for the so-called "new tone" he wanted to bring to Washington. It was a dismal failure.

The Treatment of Bush Has Been a Disgrace: What must our enemies be thinking?
By Jeffrey Scott Shapiro

Earlier this year, 12,000 people in San Francisco signed a petition in support of a proposition on a local ballot to rename an Oceanside sewage plant after George W. Bush. The proposition is only one example of the classless disrespect many Americans have shown the president.

According to recent Gallup polls, the president's average approval rating is below 30% -- down from his 90% approval in the wake of 9/11. Mr. Bush has endured relentless attacks from the left while facing abandonment from the right.

This is the price Mr. Bush is paying for trying to work with both Democrats and Republicans. During his 2004 victory speech, the president reached out to voters who supported his opponent, John Kerry, and said, "Today, I want to speak to every person who voted for my opponent. To make this nation stronger and better, I will need your support, and I will work to earn it. I will do all I can do to deserve your trust."

Those bipartisan efforts have been met with crushing resistance from both political parties.

The president's original Supreme Court choice of Harriet Miers alarmed Republicans, while his final nomination of Samuel Alito angered Democrats. His solutions to reform the immigration system alienated traditional conservatives, while his refusal to retreat in Iraq has enraged liberals who have unrealistic expectations about the challenges we face there.

It seems that no matter what Mr. Bush does, he is blamed for everything. He remains despised by the left while continuously disappointing the right.

Yet it should seem obvious that many of our country's current problems either existed long before Mr. Bush ever came to office, or are beyond his control. Perhaps if Americans stopped being so divisive, and congressional leaders came together to work with the president on some of these problems, he would actually have had a fighting chance of solving them.

Like the president said in his 2004 victory speech, "We have one country, one Constitution and one future that binds us. And when we come together and work together, there is no limit to the greatness of America."
In Opinion Journal Today

To be sure, Mr. Bush is not completely alone. His low approval ratings put him in the good company of former Democratic President Harry S. Truman, whose own approval rating sank to 22% shortly before he left office. Despite Mr. Truman's low numbers, a 2005 Wall Street Journal poll found that he was ranked the seventh most popular president in history.

Just as Americans have gained perspective on how challenging Truman's presidency was in the wake of World War II, our country will recognize the hardship President Bush faced these past eight years -- and how extraordinary it was that he accomplished what he did in the wake of the September 11 attacks.

The treatment President Bush has received from this country is nothing less than a disgrace. The attacks launched against him have been cruel and slanderous, proving to the world what little character and resolve we have. The president is not to blame for all these problems. He never lost faith in America or her people, and has tried his hardest to continue leading our nation during a very difficult time.

Our failure to stand by the one person who continued to stand by us has not gone unnoticed by our enemies. It has shown to the world how disloyal we can be when our president needed loyalty -- a shameful display of arrogance and weakness that will haunt this nation long after Mr. Bush has left the White House.

Mr. Shapiro is an investigative reporter and lawyer who previously interned with John F. Kerry's legal team during the presidential election in 2004.

When will Cuba have the chance to elect a leader of color?

For the past 50 years, Fidel Castro has accused the United States of America of being a racist country where people of color were disadvantaged. He convinced the vast majority of the Cuban population and the rest of the world that Cuba is a paradise where all its citizens are equal.

The United States of America has just elected a mixed-race President. All of Cuba was watching. All of Cuba was talking about it.

The question I have now:

What will all of Cuba do about it?

If Cuba is in fact a paradise where everyone is treated equally, why have they never been given the opportunity to elect a leader of color?

I pray they ask themselves this question and I hope the answer fills them with the anger and motivation to do something about it. Cambio.

History

Do not have any other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them.

Yes we have....

Our future President is just a man. I hope that the people come to realize this. He will be our President, not our god. He needs to be treated as the former and not the latter. When are leaders are treated as gods, you end up with despots.

The above having been said, Mr. Obama has been entrusted with the most powerful position in the world. He ran a brilliant campaign and lucked out with the economy. Someone told me today, "in retrospect, I wish Kerry would have won 4 years ago, then a Republican would have been elected today." He was partially right.

I hope things will be better in 4 years for the country's sake. If they are, I'll give him credit. If they are not, he needs to be a man and accept the blame. Cause at the end of the day, that's all he is, a man.

As the Wall Street Journal noted today ....

Republicans can console themselves that soon Democrats won't have George W. Bush to kick around anymore. They'll now have to take responsibility if the economy stays in recession, or if Iraq turns chaotic again after an abrupt U.S. withdrawal. Americans have entrusted Democrats with what will essentially be unrestrained power, and we'll soon see if liberals have learned to govern.

No hard feelings

Local radio and TV news were running clips this morning of ecstatic Obama supporters voicing their joy over their victory. And, despite my guy having lost and whatever negative feelings that brought upon me, I couldnt help but smile as I watched and listened to fellow Americans rejoicing for being Americans. Believe it or not, it made me feel good. This is, indeed, the greatest country on Earth.

So, despite some trepidation over President elect Obama's possible future policies, and despite a few folks stating overtly that anyone that voted for McCain had to be "stupid", I'd like to congratulate the President elect and his supporters. It was by no means a pretty race and there are still some bones to pick regarding same, but for the moment, enjoy your victory. You earned it.

Regardless of any future Presidential policy issues that I may not agree with or that I deem, as an American, to be bad for America, I do think there is one undeniable good that has come from an Obama victory: let it never be said that this country is racist. Barrack Hussein Obama, and African-American, was elected as President "fair and square." As an official "minority" and having been on the receiving end of racism a few times in my life, I know the sense of pride, the sense of justice, the sense of relief and the sense of happiness African-Americans - and Americans in general - must be feeling right now. A glorious day, indeed.

John McCain deserves every Americans thanks and blessings, not only for his run for the Presidency, but for his grace, class and his unending devotion and stalwart service to this great Nation. We may not have liked his policies and decisions, but his dedication to this country is unmatched and his sacrifices unrivaled. Thank you, John McCain, for your service and sacrifice so that today could be the day that it is. You are an officer and a gentleman and true patriotic American in every sense.

What we all witnessed and experienced last night was truly historic and before we go any further, before we start to argue and debate about issues and policies and decisions forthcoming, let's all take a day or two to revel in what can only be known as the absolute beauty of this country. A country where any man or woman, despite their background, beliefs, race can rise to greatness and success.

God Bless America, land that I love.

Final electoral map

Just like any other day

I awoke this morning and just like yesterday, the sun rose in the east and the birds in the trees chirped. A major shift in the American political landscape may have taken place last night, but my dogs went into the backyard this morning and went about their business as they do every morning. To millions of Americans, however, today is much different than yesterday.

For whatever the reasons may be, approximately 6-million more Americans voted to elect Barack Obama as president of the United States than they did John McCain. Over the next few weeks and months, pundits and analysts will break down those numbers and examine every aspect of the vote to a microscopic degree. They will analyze the trends and voter profiles to find out who voted for whom and why. Then they will break it down by race, age, gender, income levels, educational levels, and perhaps even by their preference in beer brands. These studies will be talked about and discussed on news shows, variety shows, newspapers, radio, and magazines and much will be discussed about how America elected its first black president.

In the meantime, the sun will continue rising in the east every morning and my dogs will continue to step out into the backyard and go about their morning business. Just like every other day.

Roughly half of the American voters are disappointed this morning; their candidate lost a tough election to an opponent who holds views and an ideology that most of them fear. This feeling of dismay is understandable and expected, but to dwell on those feelings for the next four years, as the liberal establishment has for the past eight, will only make matters worse. We all saw and experienced the ravages of Bush Derangement Syndrome and Palin Derangement Syndrome inflicted on the committed leftists of this country. They became caricatures of themselves, frothing at the mouth and spewing hatred. To them, after Bush’s election in 2000, there was no new day; they remained trapped in a black hole, feeding each other hate and derision and consequently, they missed eight years of sunrises and birds chirping.

As conservatives we should not follow the example the liberals set for us during the Bush administration. Unlike them, we do not base our values on hate and contempt—we base our values on freedom and honesty. Regardless of what a President Obama attempts or achieves during his term, nothing he does can take those values away from us. While our liberal counterparts allowed themselves to be overtaken by their hate and hid themselves in a dark pit of desolation, we will continue to get up every morning and greet the new day just as we have done so all our lives.

Let those who are celebrating the victory of their candidate enjoy today; for many, it is the first time they have seen sunlight in eight years. But to us, to those who embrace freedom and abhor hatred, today is just like any other day. We greet the morning sun just as we did yesterday.

We will not live in darkness and that, my friends, is what frustrates them the most.

Well, look on the bright side...

At least we know President elect Hopeandchange will fill our gas tanks and pay our mortgages without us having to lift a finger and work. Unless, of course, you make over $120,000 per household per year, then you have to go out and work some more so your increased taxes pay for my gas and my mortgage.

Im really excited about all this. Really. I am.

It has begun

Front page on Yahoo:

Obama win raises Cubans hopes for change

By Jeff Franks – Wed Nov 5, 12:06 am ET

HAVANA (Reuters) – U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's promise of change reached across the Florida Straits on Tuesday as Cubans said his victory over John McCain gave them hope for better relations with the United States and improvement in their own lives.

Obama's campaign vow to ease the 46-year-old U.S. trade embargo against Cuba and his willingness to consider dialogue with the Cuban government were a breath of fresh air after almost eight years of tough talk and hard-line policies from the Bush administration, Cubans said.

"I think with Obama we will have some improvement. We're going to breathe a little, because if the other (McCain) had won we would be in bad shape -- and not just the Cubans," said housewife Cristina Recio, 50.

There you have it, folks.

A Pep Talk For Conservatives

Just got up after a fitful night of sleep, and something strange happened. No, I'm not referring to the fact that Barack Obama will be sworn in as the 44th president of the United States on January 20th. I looked outside, and you know what? The sun is rising in the east. You know what else happened? My 7 and 3 year-old daughters woke up at their normal times being their normal chipper selves (although the older one wasn't too happy to hear Obama won).

(Cue Patton music)

Something else important happened. The American flag which has hung just outside my front porch for the past few years is STILL there. And it's not going anywhere anytime soon.

What's the point of this post? No matter how dejected and worried we feel this morning, today is a new day. So is tomorrow. So is the day after. Conservatives had the spotlight shine down on us for 8 years, and for a myriad of reasons already discussed and to be discussed, the spotlight has shifted to the other side. My advice to giddy Obama fans: wear lots of sunblock - the spotlight can burn.

We absolutely, positively cannot let our frustration, anger and dejection get the best of us. We saw how normally decent and highly-educated liberals totally lost their minds during the past few years accusing President George W. Bush of being a murderer, a Nazi, or just a mere idiot. Whatever we do, please let's not fall into that same trap. We're conservatives! We're strong-minded and strong-willed, and above all, we're principled. We value integrity and character.

Most of all, let's remember this one simple but crucial fact, we're AMERICANS. Keep on flying our flags. Let's hope and pray for the best during the next 4 years. This includes supporting the next president, as hard as that may seem right now. Don't be mistaken, this isn't a call for compromise and surrender of our ideals and values. We will watch Obama like a hawk, hold him accountable, and criticize him when warranted. That's our duty as Americans. Too many people on the left voted "present" during the past 8 years of the Bush presidency. The results of that negligence are as plain as the sun rising this morning. We're conservatives. We show up to the office. We do our part.

A quote from Cigar Mike's post yesterday pretty much sums up my feelings:

At the end of the day, whomever wins shall be our President on January 21, 2009 for the next 4 years. And whether I agree with any of his policies or not, I will support him. It is our duty to support the President as an institution, even if we have fundamental disagreements with their policies. We have a right to make our disagreements heard and have a duty to challenge policies we disagree with. And if we don't get our way, then it is up to us that we elect more folks in Congress with our beliefs and a new President in 4 years.

Let's hang our heads high this morning. Let's get to work. If you need any reminders of what needs to be done, just take a glance at that American flag flying outside your front door.

End of the Diaz-Balart Dynasty

That was the laughable headline of a laughable article by Francisco Alvarado in the Miami New Times from October 23rd. The subheadline was even more laughable:

The Republican brothers are headed for defeat, and Cuban-American politics will change forever.

In less than two weeks, a South Florida political dynasty will almost certainly disappear. Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart, fierce anti-Communists who are indeed Castro’s nephews by a failed first marriage, will likely lose — victims of the anti-Republican discontent sweeping America. They are scions of a family that has dominated politics in both Havana and Washington for more than a half-century.

Until now, the Diaz-Balarts have skated through elections. But two Democratic challengers seem to have their number. Former Hialeah Mayor Raul Martinez and onetime Cuban American National Foundation chief Joe Garcia have raised more than $2 million. Recently released polls by Telemundo 51 and the Rothenberg Report show the Republican siblings trailing the Dems or locked in a dead heat. The November 4 election will tip their way if Obama voters show in force, which is likely.

Giggle, giggle. Senator Hopeandchange's voters did show in force yet Martinez and Garcia hit two immovable objects.

That result will forever alter U.S. policy toward Cuba. And it might signal a shift of the Republican party’s staunchest South Florida allies — Cuban-Americans.

Wrong again, bucko. Let's remember that President-elect Hopandchange came to Miami and proclaimed that he would keep the embargo and that his policies would be guided by LIBERTAD! Of course you can't trust President-elect Hopeandchange any farther than you can throw him so perhaps Alvarado is right on that one count. But that would guarantee that he'd be wrong on the other. Another betrayal of the Cuban community by a Democratic president is exactly what we need to galvanize around Republicans once again.

About Joe Garcia Alvarado says:

During his second tour with CANF, Garcia became disillusioned with the Bush administration and Miami-Dade's Cuban-American Republican representatives. "It was all about creating the appearance of doing something to bring change to Cuba," Garcia says. "It was just about getting votes." That prompted Garcia to register as a Democrat and work for the party.

He left CANF to join the New Democrat Network — a Washington, D.C. advocacy group — and manages efforts to recruit Latinos into the party.

He fails to mention that Garcia DESTROYED CANF. And speaking of CANF I will demonstrate in the coming days how CANF no longer speaks for the Cuban-American community in south Florida. I'm sorry to report that Jorge Mas Santos has totally discredited himself and the once-great organization his father founded.

As for Alvarado. He'll be at the New Times a while longer. I don't think the New York Times will be calling anytime soon.

Who's electable now?

I created the above image when McCain became the presumptive nominee of the GOP. What you don't know is that I picked that font for a reason: it's called "Hero of Fools"

At the time I stated my grave concerns as to whether this man and his strategy to capture the middle could work. To me, we needed a strong conservative voice that could connect with the average American. Yes, Ronald Reagan is the gold standard and no, there's nobody else like him out there. But there are politicians out there that would have hit back when they'd be hit by the media and Obama campaign.

The fact of the matter is that our president-elect is a blatant and habitual liar. He lied about his relationship with Bill Ayers, he lied when he said "that's not the Jeremiah Wright I know" he REALLY LIED when he pledged to accept the public financing of his campaign and the spending limits that come with it, he lied about McCain's tax credit for healthcare, he lied to seniors about McCains position on social security. Yet not once did McCain call Obama the lying sack of shit that he is. He could barely even defend his own incoherent policies. That's because, SURPRISE, he's no conservative.

If McCain would have won tonight it would have been a victory for our country and a defeat for conservatism. As it is, the big winner tonight is conservatism. Hopefully our party has gotten the bipartisan bug out of its system and will begin to think about WINNING rather than compromising for a change. The campaign for the mid-term elections of 2010 begins tomorrow morning.

I believe that Obama and his far left of center ideology will be fully discredited in the fullness of time. Jimmy Carter did us that favor and it lasted for 30 years. A veces hay que probar el mojón para saber que sabe a mierda.

One more thing

Before I lamely attempt to sleep fitfully tonight, I have a message to all the fuckhead liberal pundits and RINOs who claim that Sarah Palin was a drag on the McCain ticket:

She's the only reason McCain came close in the popular vote to President-Elect Hopeandchange you fucking fools! You are deathly afraid of her and her popularity with the conservative base Reagan built. I know it and you know it. That's the only reason you tried to destroy her. And you failed. Believe me, you failed.

So, please, just shut the fuck up. Enjoy your victory tonight, and your undivided government that'll bring us God knows what horrors. Because if there's one thing I'm certain of is that we Conservatives will be back.

With a vengeance.

Herald backtracking already from generational shift theory

The metaphorical bodies of Annette Taddeo, Raul Martinez and Joe Garcia aren't even cold yet and Herald is already slinking away from the "Generational Shift" theory with regards to Cubans it began propagating in 1983. At least for now that is:

With Barack Obama heading the Democratic ticket and a newer, more moderate generation of non-Cuban Hispanic voters emerging throughout Miami-Dade, the Democrats had targeted the Diaz-Balart brothers for defeat.

Now the shift is among "non-Cuban" Hispanics. I see.

UPDATE: I was wrong. They're still peddling this inane bullshit.

Obama's win was no landslide *Updated

No doubt in the coming days and weeks we will be hearing the word mandate. To put a little perspective on the vote count and to illustrate what a real mandate looks like, take a look at the map depicting the landslide vote Reagan received in 1980.

This my friends is a what a landslide electoral mandate looks like:





*Update: The MSM didn't waste any time. From AP via Yahoo News: "Barack Obama swept to victory as the nation's first black president Tuesday night in an electoral college landslide that overcame racial barriers as old as America itself." (My emphasis)

Here is the Obama "electoral landslide" map.

More on why we lost

From RedState, I wholeheartedly agree with this writer's assessment: stop trying to be friends with those who want to crush you. Maybe, after two disastrous years of Obama and buyer's remorse -- and mark my word there will be buyer's remorese -- we'll grow a pair and win back Congress and then the White House in 2012.

We lost this because of our own obsession…

I intentionally embargoed myself from posting this because I didn’t want to be an example of “depressing” the vote.

So therefore, as I sit here and watch election results come in, and I see an Obama victory. I have one question to ask: [continued]

Are all you “redstate.com’ers” happy about your obsession with nominating McCain because he was “the only one that could beat Hillary or Barack?”

I was a Romney supporter... don’t you think that he would be doing much better right now given the economic situation? Not that any of us could have foreseen the meltdown, but Romney was not an active member of the House or Senate nor attached to the sitting President. (And please… no one start talking about Romney’s Mormonism. I am a Catholic... and I did/would have voted for him)

So what happened to the “maverick”... how are you a “maverick” when you won’t even attack your political enemy for things that are BLATANTLY obvious? (J. Wright, Pflager, coal industry, redistribution of wealth, etc, etc)

Palin was a good add on... maybe because he knew he was sinking with conservatives, but after the convention, they muzzled her... badly. When I voted, I voted for Palin... because she will be the torch bearer from now on.

I am not trying to “Monday morning quarterback” here, but I remember back in January how many people on this site were saying “McCain is the only one that can beat Hillary...” and “McCain is the only one that can be Barack.”

Hillary beat herself, and Barack was a sitting duck on so many things. McCain claimed to be a foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution. Reagan would have kicked Obama’s butt on the issues that came to light. He wouldn’t have treated any of these with kid gloves. He would have done it with respect and dignity, but he still would have addressed them in some form that would have resonated with the people.

I sincerely “hope” that you people that have been obsessed with defeating a candidate with a GOP’er because of their ability to “reach across the aisle” have learned you lesson.

You get nothing from reaching across the aisle... unless it is to crush the larynx of your vocal opposition.

We – as REAL Conservatives – have got to go back to basics. Stop reaching across the aisle. Stop walking across the aisle to only get your butt kicked.

Don’t be a product of the media... defy the media... from the get go. Don’t run an honorable campaign... run a campaign. Call your political enemy what he/she is.

The rebuilding begins tomorrow.

I hope you people who wanted someone who could woo independents and moderates are happy... it just got us four years of Barack.

May God have some sort of mercy on this country I defended for almost 10 years.

May God have mercy on the 50 million unborn babies who were murdered because of abortion... and that number is about to expand.

May the Immaculate Heart of Mary triumph...

May God have mercy on us all...

Cubans live up to promise to never get fooled again

I'll follow up with the data over the coming days and weeks but it is apparent to me that the Cuban-American community in South Florida is one of the few groups of people that rejected Obama and his Kool-Aid en masse. The first obvious statistic is 3. That's number of Cuban-American Republican congresspersons being returned to Washington despite huge fund-raising efforts and various strategies and ploys including attempting to "take Cuba off the table".

Joe the Fro went down. Raul Martinez was totally discredited. And poor Anette Taddeo spent $350,000 of her own money to get mopped up.

Did these dumbass libs think we were going to vote their way when ignorant fucks like Markos Mouliewhateverhisnameis says shit like this. Fuck you Kos and the horse you rode in on.

Yes, it's a pyrrhic victory since we're going to have to endure 4 years of President Hopeandchange and at least two more years of Pelosi and Reid. But it's a victory nonetheless and a vindication against the mainstream media that was so full of shit about this community.

Obama esta es tu Casa!

Just getting my ducks in a row, amigos. You never know when Obama's own Ministerio de Recuperacion de Bienes Malversados might come a 'knockin.

Why we lost

I hate to say this, but