Cuban regime admires the dead mullah of Iran

Via the Persian Journal.

Cuban people admire cold-blooded murderer mullah of Iran

May 31, 2006, 16:53

The Most Hated Person in Iran Becomes Most Admired by Cubans
The member of Cuban Communist Party in charge of international relations Fernando Ramirez here Wednesday referred to the simplicity and sincere relations of the Founder of Islamic Infamy, the dead mullah Khomeini, with others and said the Cuban people admire his efforts to promote justice.

On the sidelines of a tour of the dead mullah's residence, Hosseinieh Jamaran, he told IRNA that his visit to Iran is aimed at expanding bilateral friendly relations and renew Cuba's solidarity with mullahs.

In a meeting with the mullah's grandson, Hassan Khomeini, Ramirez thanked him for being invited to attend the ceremony marking Khomeini's demise anniversary and said, "It is an honor for me to attend it. I will try to be there."

Turning to the dead Imam's attitude as a model for world nations, he said, "This is why all world people fight for justice and freedom."

Caption under Khomeini's Photo: "The Most Hated Person in Iran Becomes Most Admired by Cubans"

It does not matter if they are dressed in green olive garbs or dark robes, they are equally vile.

Fight them where you can (Update)

And the battle goes on!

Wednesday, May 31, 2006 9:23 PM CDT

Cuba not a Communist paradise

To the Editor:

Concerning Mr. Monton's letter to the Editor May 16, 2006. I was also born in Cuba and agree with the first letter Mr. Monton claims not all Cubans are Miami-driven anticommunists, in a sense he is right because those who are pro-communism like he is are paid agents of the Castro regime who have infiltrated our nation to spread the deadly communist propaganda just as he tried to do. Cuba indeed is a private plantation who is owned and governed by only one man. Its people go without the freedoms Mr. Monton enjoys so much in our America. I suggest that the readers research for themselves what hell the Cuban people have lived in for the past almost half century and visit http://www.therealcuba.com/. And I also suggest that Mr. Monton move to Cuban (sic) and live in his Communist paradise.

Carlos Orta
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I am not sure what article provoked these letters to be written, but there is centaintly a battle being wagered against misinformation about Cuba's reality. These letters were taken from the Selma Times, and at least one of the letters is from a familiar soldier in the fight for a free Cuba.

What does writer know about Cuba?

Tuesday, May 16, 2006 10:42 PM CDT

To the Editor:

In response to a recent letter, I would like to ask this person what does he truly knows about Cuba?

What right does he have to criticize a place that has its own right to self-determination?

Not all the people of Cuba are Miami-driven, anticommunist, as the press many times have portrayed the Cuban community.

I was born in Cuba, and lived out of Cuba for more than 23 years and I truly believe that is about time that the government of the United States realizes that the only victim of the embargo is the Cuban people, not the Cuban government.

So, to the person criticizing the senator for his noble deeds of trying to bring some understanding into this obsolete and cruel measure, I tell you get truly informed about Cuba and then you may know what you are talking about.

Nelson Monton
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Cuba only ruled by one person


Sunday, May 28, 2006 6:26 PM CDT

To the Editor:

I completely agree with the letter writer from Cuba who wrote that Cuba has a right to its own self-determination.

But the problem in Cuba is that there is no self determination.

Only one person rules in Cuba, Fidel Castro. He is a dictator, the Cuban people never elected him. Those rafts only go one way. I would ask the letter writer why he left Cuba, and why doesn't he return?

Cuba trades with the entire world, and nothing has changed. The U.S. is the largest supplier of food to Cuba. Exactly what does Mr. Monton think lifting the embargo would accomplish?

Ziva Sahl

San Pedro, Calif.
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Monday, May 29, 2006 4:35 PM CDT

To the Editor:

Today I read the Letter to the Editor sent by Ziva Sahl, And that is the best answer possible to the letter of self determination.

I was a teenager when Fidel Castro "defeat Batista."

Batista already lost the elections in November and Dr. Andres Rivero Aguero won the election and was supposed to be inaugurated on May 20, 1959.

What Batista did was a resignation before the change of power, and left the country, and if the constitutional transition happened, Castro did not have an excuse to continue the war. So he accelerated the offensive and took the country and changed history his way.

We, the Cubans who believed in the constitution, began an internal war. I was taken prisoner, and spent the next 14 years in forced labor concentration camps and prisons.

I saw many of my comrades executed for no reason, and just to talk about human rights violations, I need a thousand pages. He talks about embargo. There are over 150 countries that he has commerce with. Canada and Mexico sell to him everything he needs, the old Soviet Union gave Cuba more help than the Marshall plan gave to Europe after WWII, Europe flushed, and Cuba misused the money in expeditionary war.

The most important - Angola where 22,000 soldiers died out a population of 11 millions. For USA it's a problem, the loss of 54,000 out of 200 million in Vietnam. Based in that proportion, Cuba shall be traumatized. The bodies of fallen American troops - most of them are returned home and their families can go to place a flower. Cuban soldiers bodies were never returned. So this monster called himself President (non elected) is good for that person, and for a Senator that went to Cuba recently. That is impressive!

Thanks to your newspaper and to Ziva Sahl for that great letter.

Hector Aballi

Miami, Fla.

Piano man off key

This is a story that does not go away, it keeps resurfacing and showing up again, and again. It simply does not go away. It is the type of story that the MSM loves, one man against the evil Cuban embargo. Even the story's title "...hits right notes in Cuba" is sickening enough. That man Benjamin Truehaft is a piano tuner, whose one love is to give pianos to the music loving communist paradise of Cuba. The story claims that the pianos were donated; although, it does not indicate if these were donated exclusively for Cuba. Nonetheless, Mr. Truehaft (from that leftist enclave Berkeley, CA) has taken over 237 pianos and made over 20 trips to Cuba. Some embargo, eh? The gall of some of these people. To think that the US is the only place that Cuba can get pianos, piano wires, or piano tuners. I would call this utter arrogance.

Yes, Mr. Truehaft is providing and tuning pianos for musicians, composers and cultural groups in Cuba (communists otherwise they would not be allowed to practice their craft), but how many of those pianos end up in swanky piano bars in tourist only hotels (absolutely, never, nunca, jamás, Cubans not allowed). Does he stay at one of those swanky tourist hotels when he visits?

Here is the long ass story. Hopefully, it will die (the story and fidel) after this.

U.S. piano tuner hits right notes in Cuba

HAVANA, Cuba (AP) -- When American piano tuner Benjamin Treuhaft first visited Cuba in 1993 he found that years of neglect, humidity and termites were ravaging the island's dwindling piano population.

Thirteen years on, Treuhaft has helped send 237 old pianos donated by Americans to the communist-run island, filling a void in a musical country by providing instruments used for practicing piano concertos, accompanying tenor soloists and rehearsing ballet dancers.

"Most of the pianos here were Soviet-made: many of them from Moscow and Estonia, so they weren't that great to begin with," Treuhaft said during a visit this week. "Then, they met the Cuban termites. And then, they met the Cuban pianists, who are great, but strong, and can really destroy an instrument."

Treuhaft keeps returning to survey donated instruments and tune and restore others, striking an insistent chord against the U.S. trade embargo.

After nearly 20 trips to the island -- some without U.S. approval -- the jocular former hippie who sports a bandanna on his head and likes to tune pianos barefoot is now a personality in some Cuban music circles. Read the rest.

English only at Geno's

I'll hava that a cheezastaka sanwich.

The Philadelphia Enquirer via Michele Malkin

An old struggle to adapt to a new country's ways

By Gaiutra Bahadur
Inquirer Staff Writer

How do you say cheesesteak with in Spanish?

Joseph Vento, the owner of Geno's Steaks, doesn't know. And he doesn't care.

Just read the laminated signs, festooned with American eagles, at his South Philadelphia cheesesteak emporium: This is America. When Ordering, Speak English.

Vento's political statement - from a man whose Italian-born grandparents spoke only broken English - captures the anger and discontent felt by many Americans about illegal immigrants.

With a battle looming between the House and Senate on legalizing some immigration violators, the public backlash is framed by two complaints:

One, my grandparents came legally. How come these guys can't? And, two, my grandparents had to learn English. How come these guys don't?

"Go back to the 19th century, and play by those rules," said Vento, 66, whose grandfather became a U.S. citizen in 1921.

But history challenges many assumptions about the hurdles aspiring Americans used to face, say scholars of the last massive migration to the United States, which occurred between 1880 and 1920.

"There was no such thing as an 'illegal' immigrant," said Roger Daniels, a member of the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island History Committee and author of Guarding the Golden Door: American Immigrants and Immigration Policy Since 1882.

The Old Country often required exit visas, which created the possibility of illegal emigrants. But the United States did not issue entry visas until 1921.

Before that, no meaningful immigration restrictions existed, except for a bar on Chinese enacted in 1882. Congress imposed no other limits on the number of immigrants - from any one country, or in total. About a million arrived each year in the early 1900s. It wasn't until 1924 that Congress imposed an annual cap of 155,000 immigrants.

"If you could get here and weren't terribly diseased, you could get in," Daniels said.

By contrast, backlogs, country quotas and annual caps now make legal immigration a tortuous and nearly impossible process for many, said Thomas Conaghan, director of the Irish Immigration and Pastoral Center in Upper Darby.

Past immigrants, once here, faced a backlash fueled by anxiety about religions, languages and races that were relatively new to the United States. Fear of anarchist and "Red" ideologies and the competition for jobs also played roles.

Help-wanted ads limited applicants to native-born Americans, said Kathryn Wilson, director of education at the Pennsylvania Historical Society.

Current critics of illegal immigration echo earlier generations of nativists, say academic experts on ethnicity.

"A lot of the rhetoric was similar: 'They don't speak English. They don't want to be Americans,' " said Mae M. Ngai, a University of Chicago historian and author of Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America.

The Senate bill passed last Thursday, which gives some illegal immigrants a chance to become citizens, included an amendment that would make English the national language.

An English-only movement also took shape in the late 19th century, with an abortive attempt to require newcomers to read a passage in English at Ellis Island. In the end, the literacy test was administered, but in the immigrant's native tongue.

Joseph Vento's grandfather and namesake, a street-corner jeweler from Sicily, had trouble with English.

"They tried," Vento said of his grandparents. "They had a hard time. Look at the price they paid. They were limited."

The Ventos rarely left their South Philadelphia neighborhood. Now, in a way, the neighborhood has left the couple's descendants. Geno's sits at Ninth and Passyunk, the hub of Little Italy turned home to thousands of Mexicans.

Some try to order a cheesesteak. And it bugs Vento if they can't ask for American cheese, provolone or the classic - Cheez Whiz - without pointing.

"If you can't tell me what you want, I can't serve you," he said. "It's up to you. If you can't read, if you can't say the word cheese, how can I communicate with you - and why should I have to bend?

"I got a business to run."

Vento, who lives in Shamong, put up the signs when the immigration debate seized national headlines six months ago.

With Geno's Steaks tattooed on his arm, Vento is used to publicizing things, especially what's on his mind. Speak English signs also poster his Hummer. He has driven through South Philadelphia blaring through the SUV's P.A. system denunciations of neighborhood business owners who hire illegal immigrants.

"I say what everybody's thinking but is afraid to say," Vento said. More.

Memorial Day morning

Hey, it’s Monday and you are probably off from work, I hope. Make yourself a cafecito, relax and take the time to reflect on the memory of our fallen heroes. Remember the many around the world, and specifically Cuba whose freedom is but a thought and where even the most miniscule of privileges are denied. Then give thanks that we get to live in a free country, where freedom has been bought at a very high price, and the cost to maintain it is even higher. God Bless America and those who keep her free!

Don't forget to fly the Stars and Stripes [ABOVE ALL OTHERS].

Castro: Windbag running out of steam

Here is an article from the Toronto Star that starts with few good nuggets about the failing and aging Cuban dictator, and it quickly folds into a lamentation that their incoherent revolutionary windbag is slowy disintegrating.

Castro at 80: An obsessive autocrat
But who'd have guessed that Fidel Castro would become boring? By Oakland Ross

May 28, 2006. 07:45 AM
OAKLAND ROSS
STAFF REPORTER

A withering tropical sun beats down upon the teeming Plaza of the Revolution, where a familiar bearded gentleman in olive-green fatigues leans against a dark wooden podium and does what he does best.

He goes on and on and on.

How many rice-cookers did this Caribbean outpost of communism produce last year? (More than 3 million.)

How many electric stoves? (Some 2.4 million.)

How many refrigerators? (More than 250,000.)

By what proportion did the Cuban economy grow during the first trimester of this year? (A sprightly 12.5 per cent, if you believe the official figures.)

The hours plod past, slow as a splay-legged burro under a mountainous cargo of sugarcane, but the bare-headed man at the microphone scarcely seems to notice the passage of time, so engrossed is he in his words and ideas. No economic statistic is too inconsequential for him to highlight. No suspected act of U.S. aggression is too outlandish to denounce.

Meanwhile, a crowd officially estimated at 1 million swelters in the vast plaza and waits with almost superhuman patience for His Excellency Fidel Castro Ruz, first secretary of the Cuban Communist party, commander-in-chief of the Cuban Revolution, and president of the republic, to be done.

They have been waiting now for more than 47 years — and they are waiting still.

"The Cuban population is increasingly tired of the situation," says a European diplomat in Havana. "But they are accustomed to waiting."

Lately, however, the waiting has begun to wear thin, while the presidential lectures — albeit somewhat shorter than the five-hour epics of the past — have become downright painful.

"He goes around in circles now; he loses his place, forgets what he is talking about," says the European. "He is boring."

Fidel Castro — boring?

Autocratic, certainly. Obsessive, no doubt. Steadfast, to a fault. But boring?

Who could have dreamed it would one day come to this?

But so it has.

The land of salsa and cigars has travelled nearly 50 times around the sun since Castro and Ernesto "Che" Guevara marched down from the Sierra Maestra and advanced westward toward Havana, seizing power on Jan. 1, 1959.

Much has changed since then.

By any standard, Castro is an old man now — he will turn 80 on Aug. 13 — and he is definitely showing his age.

He can still soldier through one of his trademark marathon speeches — such as the magnum opus delivered at this year's May 1 celebration of Cuba's workers and the proletarian state — but his voice is reedy and he reads much of the text in an uninflected drone. He frequently loses his train of thought and sometimes fumbles helplessly among his papers in a state of pitiable confusion.

"He used to be like a magician, but he has lost a lot of power in his speech," says the European diplomat. "The end cannot be very far away."

Some observers might question that prediction, but everyone agrees aging is an irreversible process — and Castro is old. Read the rest of this long ass story here.

Cuban medicine, not so miraculous

Take a minute and visit The Real Cuba and click on the "Free Health Care?" banner, and then tell me if it is still worth it to go to Cuba for a free eye operation. Albeit, the squalid conditions that you will see are reserved for the Cuban people, foreigners will get slightly better attention, because such is the nature despotic beast. However, Jamaicans are finding out that "free" carries a high price.

Eye surgery hopes dashed Patients suffer complications after Cuba

LESS THAN a year after the 'Miracle Operation' programme, which allows Jamaicans with serious eye problems to visit Cuba free of charge to receive treatment from that nation's top ophthalmologists, several patients are now suffering from serious complications.

According to Dr. Albert Lue, head of the ophthalmology department at Kingston Public Hospital (KPH), several patients who have received eye surgery in Cuba are experiencing poor visual activity.

"The main complication that is causing this problem is the cornea," Dr. Lue said. "The front of the eye gets very cloudy and this is usually because of poor surgical techniques."

He said that in a survey of 60 patients who recently returned to Jamaica, three persons are now visually impaired, while 14 are suffering serious corneal damage. Read more.

Weekend Pic: Memorial

Washington D.C. WWII Memorial



2005.

Ha, ha, ha…wait, wait, ha, ha, ha!

That is ironic laughter, because the only funny thing about this story, is that it may not be true.

President Chávez discloses US plot against Evo Morales

Covered with a crimson poncho and wearing a flower wreath around his neck, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez denounced during a rally in Bolivia a plot to overthrow his Bolivian counterpart Evo Morales.

He charged US President George W. Bush directly with the attempt. "If the US President is worried because democracy is being eroded in Bolivia, this means that he gave already the green light to conspiracy."

The head of state urged Bolivians to take the streets. "Should anybody order to topple Evo, we ought to stop the coupster, send him to jail immediately, in accordance with the constitutional order. Should anybody willing to tumble Evo, the Bolivian people ought to go out to the streets, because the streets belong to the people and you know what to do."

Based on his personal experience, Chávez asked Bolivians to be on the alert. "I have undergone in Venezuela the ordeal of conspiracy, economic sabotage, oil strike, terrorist acts, all of this prompted from Washington."

Thank you Andy Garcia

Ninoska Pérez Castellón pays tribute to Andy Garcia and The Lost City.

`THE LOST CITY'
`The Havana of my dreams was a city of lights'

By NINOSKA PEREZ CASTELLON

I vividly remember the first time I read F. Scott Fitzgerald's essay My Lost City. Although his nostalgia was for me a familiar feeling, New York and his era were far from anything I could identify with. Then I came upon the sentence: All is lost save memory. I started to cry. I knew then, that my lost city, the beloved Havana of my childhood, would exist as long as I struggled to remember it.

Memories for an exile are everything. Yet for us Cuban Americans, whether we came as children or were born here, memories have to be recreated. Mostly during long talks at the dinner table with our parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles and from old family photographs that in time become our remembrance of a world that once existed and is now an illusion.

The Havana of my dreams was a city of lights. Not the garish neon lights that once were abundant. I remember crisp bright sunlight sneaking through the crevices of wooden shutters, intensifying even more the colors of old stained-glass windows. Dusk brought upon the city an amber glow that had the familiar warmth of a long embrace.

This time the tears came back as I heard the words: ''Havana has never known darkness at noon.'' The words pronounced by the senior Fellove in Andy García's film The Lost City were his affirmation that the revolution had become merciless, that Havana lay mortally wounded.

Some say that life is composed mainly of dreams, though few dare to turn them into reality. For years García carried Guillermo Cabrera Infante's script, knocking on every studio door in Hollywood without letting himself be discouraged. Despite the rejections, García persisted, convinced that this film was really his personal struggle to hold on to the soul of his people.

The Lost City is an epic. Yes, Cabrera Infante set out to write the script, but his passion for Havana made him write a poem instead. García dared to turn a poem into a movie. And as with every great poem, it shakes us to the core. It makes us quiver with emotion. The actors pains become those we have lived, real and imagined. The love is mesmerizing.

It is the love that comes once in a lifetime and is never to be forgotten. It is the tragic tale of two people who desperately love each other, but time is not to be on their side.

A tale of love that like the tide is never ending, returning to the shore sometimes to caress it, others to punish it with the intense fury of passion and betrayal. The Lost City is the story of a family that became trapped in the turmoil of a bygone era. Of a revolution that turned brother against brother. It is a story we know too well. We recognize it in the heartbreak of leaving behind all that was familiar and dear to us. It is the light we long for, the intensity of colors no longer there, the soft breeze that still caresses us when we close our eyes.

The Lost City is not fiction. It is as real as the experiences lived by generations of Cubans in the last 50 years. It is the story of a world that crumbled before our eyes. It is the profound sorrow felt in a goodbye that might have seemed temporary but became as final as death. It unveils the evil that destroyed families. But it is also proof of the resilience of a people crushed by the ambitions of tyrants.

Fortunately, The Lost City is also a movie to set the record straight. To do away with myths like Che Guevara: a cold-blooded murderer whose victims were real and their loved ones are still around, serving as a constant reminder of his callousness and the incomprehension of those who still wear his image on a T-shirt or a watch as if he were Mickey Mouse.

Thank you, Andy García. Thank you for being true to your roots, even if it is not in vogue. Thank you for the extraordinary music, for the poetry. Thank you for recapturing our lost city. A city we will always recreate in our dreams and preserve in our memory with the tenderness of the lonely children we will forever be. Refugees who, despite the generosity of America, will always carry the bittersweet burden of a lost city somewhere in our souls.

Ninoska Pérez Castellón is a talk-show host on WAQI-710 AM Radio Mambí

A dictator’s phobia

Cuba’s millionaire dictator cannot control himself. Castro continues to appear on Cuban television, going on for as long as seven hours, spewing out spit and flapping his dentures for the whole world to see. He is in rabid denial that he has accumulated a fortune (according to Forbes magazine) of as much as $900 million. What castro has not been able to separate is that Forbes is a business operating in a free enterprise world, a capitalist publication that competes to make a profit, and NOT a tool of the United States government, or the Miami Mafia. Nevertheless, it seems that this hysteria comes from holding the job of dictator, and Venezuela’s petromessiah is not exempt from it.

US video game angers Chavez allies in Venezuela
Thu May 25, 2006 8:53 PM BST

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan lawmakers are complaining that a video game to be marketed by a U.S. company next year provides a blueprint for violently overthrowing President Hugo Chavez.

The game, "Mercenaries 2: World in Flames," simulates a military invasion of the oil-rich South American nation and will be released by Pandemic Studios of Los Angeles.

"A power-hungry tyrant messes with Venezuela's oil supply, sparking an invasion that turns the country into a war zone," Pandemic says of the game on its Web site.

Venezuelan lawmakers who back Chavez called it the latest example of a U.S. government-inspired propaganda campaign against Chavez that could even help lay the psychological groundwork for an actual invasion.

"This could be a point of departure," lawmaker Luis Tascon said on Thursday. "The United States has an impressive media machine. In that machinery the gringos are always the heroes and their adversaries are always the villains."
An executive at Pandemic said the video game would be released in 2007 but declined to comment on its content. A public relations firm representing the company did not return calls for comment.

Chavez has been locked in a war of words with Washington as he pushes his leftist agenda in Latin America, with the United States charging that the self-proclaimed revolutionary is trying to destabilize the region.

President Bush said this week he was concerned about the erosion of democracy in Venezuela. Chavez accused the White House of planning to topple him to gain access to his nation's vast oil reserves.

Last week Venezuela, the world's No. 5 oil exporter, staged a mock invasion complete with naval landing craft and camouflaged tanks to train military troops and communities to defend against an attack.

Here is the link to Pandemic Studios, and from Los Angeles no less.

Fox: Coming to Alta California

Well he is here, el Presidente de Alta California is here for the official take over of the state. Folks California is ground zero, the front line in the illegal alien invasion. The state bleeds to the tune of $10 billion for entitlements and services provided to illegal aliens . You can classify that as “we are loosing the war,” and as for that I do not mind paying $1 more my lettuce. Shit, I just won't eat lettuce. Mexico’s economic growth is directly proportional to the number of illegal Mexicans crossing our border, which amounts to about $20 billion in remittances to Mexico. Building a wall on the border is not in Mexico’s best economic interest, but is it is in the US’ best security interest.

Governor says he'll talk immigration problems with Fox

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Governor Schwarzenegger says he'll tell Mexican President Vincente Fox that his government needs to do more to stop illegal immigration into the United States when the two meet tomorrow.

But Schwarzenegger says he won't get confrontational and suggest that Mexico should pay for health care, education, incarceration and other state costs incurred by undocumented immigrants.

Fox is scheduled to spend tomorrow and Friday in California at the tail end of a four-day trip to the United States. It will be his first visit to the state since 2001.

It comes as illegal immigration has resurfaced as one of the top political issues in the United States.

Meanwhile, Mexico has just deported 57 Cubans back to millionaire castro's plantation. Why? Because, Mexico is enforcing its laws? Cubanet has the story.

Ready, set...GAG!

This is some type of cubamentary to be shown in Australian tele. A Western Heart gets it.

Dateline

By Judy Adamson
May 23, 2006

Still in the grip of American sanctions, Cuba makes its own opportunities.

If you were asked which neighbour of the US had a lower infant mortality rate - and exported vaccines (for reasonable prices) to poor countries - you'd probably be hard pressed to come up with the answer.

Still in the grip of American sanctions, Cuba has had to make its own opportunities. Pharmaceutical companies won't sell vaccines there so the country manufactures its own and, with little high-tech medical equipment, the Cubans do a pretty impressive job.

Go to Detroit instead

Lets be honest, who the hell wants to travel to places like Syria, Iran, North Korea and the Sudan, no matter how leftist you are. Ah, but the communist paradise of Kuba is far more desirable to the fidel loving academia, and it really pisses them off that they cannot travel there as easily as they would like. Hey, Cubans are not allowed to freely travel ANYWHERE, including within their own country. If you really want to visit a place that is plagued by a leftist (way beyond liberal) government, is economically bankrupt, and absoluletely corrupt...go to Detroit!

Bush Plans To Sign Bill Limiting College Study Abroad

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Gov. Jeb Bush said he will likely sign a bill that would make Florida one of the most restrictive states in the nation for college professors and students interested in traveling abroad.

The bill bans travel to five countries identified as "terrorist states," including Cuba, WESH 2 News reported.

Professors and students alike are angered by a proposal to ban scholarly travel to five countries.

Cuba, Syria, Iran, North Korea and the Sudan would all be off-limits for college or university-sponsored research trips if Bush signs the bill passed by lawmakers earlier this month.

Florida A & M University student Dominique Drake is a double major in business and Spanish. Drake thinks limiting research travel is shortsighted and narrow-minded.

"Our economy is a global economy, and we can't just focus on what's going on in America," she said. "We need to know what's going on all over the world."

Supporters of the bill said the issue is terrorism. They don't think taxpayers' money should be used to pay for research trips to countries that sanction terrorist activities.

The bill also restricts college and universities from using privately-raised funds for trips to the five countries dubbed terror states. Bush thinks that money could be better spent.

"I think whatever research, legitimate research that has been done in the past, and I don't think it's a lot, it doesn't warrant the use of resources for travel," Bush said.

But opponents argue restricting academic freedom sends the wrong message in the war on terror.

State Rep. David Rivera sponsored the bill after two Florida International University professors were charged with being Cuban spies.

Once the bill arrives on Bush's desk, he'll have 15 days to decide whether to sign it.

How much is your blog worth?

Click here to see how much your blog is worth. Don't bother looking up mine, it doesn't even cover one month of my son's university tuition. Besides, I am in it for the long haul and I am speculating that realestate values will increase around here as time goes by. And if it doesn't, well, I like the neighborhood anyway.

My blog is worth $53,631.30.
How much is your blog worth?

Sometimes there is a litte justice

No movie about el Tapón Chavez.

Oliver Stone Denies Directing Venezuela Coup Film
Reuters

CARACAS, Venezuela - Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone said on Monday that he was not directing a movie about the 2002 coup in Venezuela despite an announcement to the contrary by President Hugo Chavez.

"Rumors that I am directing a film about the 2002 coup in Venezuela are untrue and unfounded," Stone said in a statement released by his publicist.

On Sunday, leftist firebrand Chavez told the South American country that Stone was making a film about the short-lived coup that Chavez says was planned by United States Washington denies the charge.

Relations between the United States and oil supplier Venezuela remain tense, particularly as Chavez cultivates alliances with U.S. foes like Iran and Cuba and blasts U.S. foreign policies as "imperialist domination."

"So there will be a movie," Chavez said during his weekly television talk show. "Could it be that the government of the empire will try to prevent the filming of a movie about a coup that they themselves planned and carried out? Let's see if they can."

Dissident military officers joined with opposition politicians to seize power in Venezuela on April 12, 2002, following reports Chavez had resigned. The power grab came after more than a dozen people were killed by gunmen during a huge opposition march.

Chavez, insisting he never resigned, was returned to power by supporters and loyal troops two days later. The coup has been a recurring theme in Chavez's war of words with Washington, which portrays the Venezuelan leader as a menace to democracy.

Stone won best directing Oscars for Vietnam War movies "Platoon" and "Born on the Fourth of July," and directed a 2003 documentary, "Comandante," about Cuban President Fidel Castro, a Chavez ally.

Tirelessly fighting ON!

This is Fermin Lorenzo, his wife Manuela is pictured below. These two tireless individuals represent the Cuban Freedom group "Jesucristo-José Martí-República de Cuba." The goal of the group is the legal return of Cuba to democracy via legal means. Folks this means through the courts, the Hague, the US Supreme Court, France and Spain, being that these are the countries that signed the Treaty of Paris. I do not critisize them, they do more in one day, than most of us do in a lifetime. Every Saturday the group (whose numbers I do not know), gather at the bust statue of José Martí in Echo Park, Los Angeles to pray, and to peacefully protest the "diabolic" regime that now runs the island.

Every year that I attend the Cuban Festival in Los Angeles, Fermin and Manuela are ever present. Fermin hands out the literature, while Manuela watches over their little information stand. Each year they are a little older, a litte slower, but the fire that pushes them forward in their desire for a FREE CUBA is never less extinguished.

Chavez: The Movie

Hugo "el Tapón" Chavez has announced that Oliver "I love dictators" Stone is planning in making a movie of the 2002 Venezuela coup. Herve "Tattoo" Vellachaize will brought back to life to play the role of the Venezuelan petromessiah.

H/T ¡Ya No Más!

P.S. No offense inteded to Herve.

Cuban Festival Los Angeles

DSC_2670
Originally uploaded by El Confeti.

It is fair to say that this festival goes by many names: Presencia cubana en Los Angeles, Cubans in Hollywood, Cubafest LA, etc., has one major ingredient missing...Cubans! The organizers may be Cuban, and the music may be Cuban, and the flavor may be Cuban, but the majority of attendees are certaintly not Cuban. It is primarily attented by Puerto Ricans, and people from Central America. Even in a city that is predominantly Mexican, they too are visibly missing.

One of my major gripes, in general are people who choose to wear the Cuban flag as a clothing garment. Call me old fashioned, but I believe that it is not dignified, and it denegrades our great symbol. I particularly hate the head scarfs.

We stayed at the festival for a very short time, which was followed by going to see The Lost City. I felt cleansed after that.

[Click on the photo above to see the rest of the album]

The world's new messiah

Hugo "el Tapón" Chavez emboldened (not that he wasn't already) from his trip around Europe and Africa professes that his Bolivarian revolution will save the world. I hope that he too will be one day crucified, and never to rise again.

"Every day the world places its expectations in the Bolivarian revolution (...) we know clearly the great responsibility that we have before the world, we cannot fail: it is on the success of this revolution that the world’s salvation depends”, he asserted.

- Dominican Today

Casañas suggests a new pledge

With all the immigration broo-ha ha, the re-writing of the National Anthem, and liberal judges graduating illiterate students, Domingo Ivan Casañas the author of Cuba, The Tarnish Pearl offers the following poem (prayer) in lieu of the Pledge of Allegiance, since that too is on the block to being banned in schools.

A POEM TO AMERICA...REGARDING OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Domingo Ivan Casañas
May 19, 2006
MY POEM TO AMERICA:
Since the Pledge of Allegiance and The Lord's Prayer are not allowed in most Public schools anymore. This is my Pledge that I endorse:
This should be the new Pledge at school, where praying is against the rule.
For this great nation under God finds mention of Him very odd.
If Scripture the class recites, they scream “it violates the Bill of Rights”.
The left and the liberals don’t want God in Schools, how sad for them, they are just being fools.
Our kid’s hair can be purple, orange or green, that's no offense; they say it's a freedom scene.
The laws are specific, the laws are precise, but when it comes to Praying they are not very nice.
For if you decide to Pray in a public hall, someone will be offended with no faith at all.
In silence alone we must meditate, God's name is prohibited in the State.
Kids are allowed to cuss and dress like freaks, and pierce their noses, tongues and cheeks.
I can’t seem to be able to pray, even though Abortions go on all day.
At schools we can elect a pregnant Senior Queen, and the 'unwed daddy,' our Senior King.
They can learn about condoms, drugs and what’s bad, but isn’t it sad and a shame we can’t Pray to God?
Instead of teaching our kids right from wrong, they never get the values needed to be strong. They study witchcraft, vampires and communism too,
But the Ten Commandments just won’t do.
No word of God must reach any crowd, and if it does, it cannot be very loud.
It's getting scary here in the U.S. I must confess, where chaos reigns and the school's are a mess.
So, Lord, this silent prayer I make:
”Allow the U.S. to change its way, before it’s too late”.
Amen!

Weekend Pic: Determined

New York City





May 2005.

Iran and the Muslim Nazis

Via Michele Malkin

Iran eyes badges for Jews
Law would require non-Muslim insignia

Chris Wattie
National Post

Friday, May 19, 2006

Human rights groups are raising alarms over a new law passed by the Iranian parliament that would require the country's Jews and Christians to wear coloured badges to identify them and other religious minorities as non-Muslims.

"This is reminiscent of the Holocaust," said Rabbi Marvin Hier, the dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. "Iran is moving closer and closer to the ideology of the Nazis."

Iranian expatriates living in Canada yesterday confirmed reports that the Iranian parliament, called the Islamic Majlis, passed a law this week setting a dress code for all Iranians, requiring them to wear almost identical "standard Islamic garments."

The law, which must still be approved by Iran's "Supreme Guide" Ali Khamenehi before being put into effect, also establishes special insignia to be worn by non-Muslims. Story continues here.

Meanwhile the moombats are working up reasons and collecting signatures against any attack on Iran by the US.

Oh, Jimmy your legacy perdures (obviously this is a reference to Jimmy Carter).

Sulking

The distance and the job (I rent myself) forbade me to travel to Miami to partake of the annual Cuba Nostalgia event. Many fellow bloggers, whose links are to the right of your screen will be attending and hanging out at the Babalú booth. The event starts Friday, May 19 and goes through Sunday, May 21.

Exhibitors will take visitors on a journey of Cuba's churches and architecture, and its magazines and newspapers will offer a look into its print world. Caricatures, cartoons, baseball jerseys, antique books, posters, school yearbooks, cigar boxes and coins will generate the same debates that would normally take place while waiting in line to buy a guava pastelito at just about any bakery in Miami. – Miami Herald.

Meanwhile in Los Angeles:
5/20/06 Demonstration; Hands off Venezuela & Cuba! ( I refused to provide link), and on 5/21/06 Cubans in Hollywood, Echo Park. I plan to attend the latter.

Cuba: World's largest plantation and its wealthy overlord

NewsMax via Babalú

According to Humberto Fontova, castro's estimated worth of $900 million is just spare change.

Castro's True Wealth

Humberto Fontova
Thursday, May 18, 2006

When Forbes magazine named him among the world's richest heads of state in 2005, a furious Fidel Castro denounced it as "infamy!" "Do they think I'm some kind of Mobutu?" he raged. At the time, Forbes estimated his fortune at $550 million.

This year Forbes raised his ranking to the world's seventh-richest head of state, with an estimated fortune of $900 million. "Repugnant slander!" Castro thundered on Cuban television (all 12 of them) this week. The "president" of Cuba's National Bank, Francisco Soberon, also chimed in:

"The Cuban revolution and its Maximum Leader are an example of honesty and ethical conduct in this chaotic and corrupt world into which the empire has cast humanity."

Actually, Castro has a point. He has no business being lumped in with measly millionaire chumps like Mobutu Sese Seko and Queen Elizabeth. Forbes admits that its estimate of Castro's wealth is "more art than science" and is based on his partial ownership of state enterprises, among them the Havana Convention Center, the Cimex retail conglomerate and Medicuba.

But as Cuban-American scholar Eugenio Yanez asks, why not include many other, and much larger, Cuban state enterprises like Cubatabaco, Artex, Cubacatricos, Cubatecnica, Gaviota, Acemex, Cubatur, Antex, Caribat, Cubatur, and many more? The list is much longer than those singled out by Forbes.

Another method Forbes used was calculating that Castro owns roughly 10 percent of the Cuban GDP. Why only 10 percent? Continued...

El Cucuy: the bogeyman is not funny

Senate Approves Border Fence, Path to Citizenship

Los Angeles radio personality Renan Almendarez "El Cucuy" Coello strolled the Senate halls, delivering a tacit warning to lawmakers by telling them about his campaign to register 1 million new voters before the November elections.

Therefore, the blackmail is, give the illegal aliens amnesty and they will not vote you (the lawmakers) out of office. I am assuming that the new registering voters are here legally, are citizens and their vote cannot be bought.

$53 goes a long way in Cuba

With $53 per month salary the frugal fidel castro has been able to buy several private planes, numerous luxury homes, enjoys the best wines, and eats the best Spanish olives and cured hams. Not to mention the 11 million slaves that are at his beck and call.

I earn only $53 a month: Castro

Castro, in power since a leftist revolution in 1959, says his net worth is nil and that he earns only 900 Cuban pesos ($53) a month.

Oh, and I almost forgot, his subscription to Forbes. And how come he is not objecting to being categorized a dictator?

Hit the auto destruct button

Too bad that the F-16's did not come with a remote control destruct button. Then we could have waited for Hugo "El tapón de bañadera" Chavez or fidel "cagalitroso and millonario" castro to go for a ride. Ahhh, dreaming!

Venezuela threatens to sell U.S. F-16s to Iran, Cuba
Associated Press
Last updated: Tuesday, May 16th, 2006 10:25:27 AM

CARACAS, VENEZUELA -- A Venezuelan military leader says his country is considering selling its US-made fighter jets to another country.

The general tells The Associated Press the F-16's may go to Iran.

The commander says he recommended to the defense minister that Venezuela sell the 21 jets in response to the US ban on arms sales to the country.

Even before the arms sales ban was announced Monday, the US had stopped selling Venezuela sensitive upgrades for the F-16's.

President Hugo Chavez has warned he may share the jets with Cuba if the US doesn't supply parts.

Arroz con Mango has posted on the US banning arms sales to Venezuela.

Psicopata mentiroso - castro the liar

The Forbes article "Fortunes Of Kings, Queens And Dictators," places castro amongst one the wealthiest leaders with a fortune estimated at $900 million. Castro went on Cuban television defiantly denying that he has any money stashed away in Swiss banks.

Later on the program, Castro pounded the table, saying, "If they can prove I have an account abroad ... containing even one dollar I will resign my post."

In the same way he has denied and lied about about everything else, what makes anyone think that he is telling the truth? See this little video.

H/T Blog for Cuba

On fidel's thuggery

Carlos Alberto Montaner writes in The Spain Herald.

Fidel Castro And His Cosa Nostra

When a mutual friend complained to Abel Prieto, the Cuban Culture Minister, about the beating administered by a mob to Mrs. Marta Beatriz Roque Cabello, an infirm 60-year-old economist, he lowered his head and begged out of the question, saying that those were "Fidel's doings." He was ashamed that such a cowardly act could be committed. He would have liked to prevent it, but the matter was out of his hands. All he could do was to resign from government, but he didn't have the nerve to do it. Continued.

Mr. President show some leadership.

President George Bush will appear on television tonight to announce his deployment of National Guard troops to the pourous US/Mexico border. I hope he shows true lidership by announcing a clear comprehensive plan to secure the border, and this is not just a water down last minute effort to save his sagging approval rating.

We can start by building the wall, and you can help.

Roque's "free" days may be numbered

When is jail not jail? For Marta Beatriz Roque there is very little distinction and the Cuban regime has seen to that. Roque is constantly harassed by castroit mobs and has even been assaulted and physically hurt right inside her own home. The jailers are posted right outside her home, watching her daily moves. And now a new threat! Roque has been told not to leave her house on May 20 (Cuba’s Independence Day from Spain), a condition that this brave and freedom-loving woman will not accept.

H/T ¡Ya No Más! , Uncommon Sense,

NEW THREAT AGAINST MARTHA BEATRIZ ROQUE CABELLO LINKED WITH THE DATE OF MAY 20TH

THE LEADER OF THE ASSEMBLY TO PROMOTE CIVIL SOCIETY IN CUBA URGENTLY REQUESTS INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY IN THE FACE OF A POSSIBLE PHYSICAL AGGRESSION AND INCARCERATION

Miami, Florida, May 12, 2006 – On May 10th, Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello was once again threatened by members of Castro’s “Fast Response Brigade” stationed near her home. She was informed that she could not leave her house on May 20th.

When Martha Beatriz was granted the leave from prison under an extra penal license in July of 2004, she was informed that there were no conditions placed on her leave. The pro-democracy leader would not have accepted any restriction or conditions on her prison release.

As a result of this new threat, Martha Beatriz has requested in writing that attorney Amelia Rodriguez Cala represents her before the Ministries of Justice and Interior, seeking an end to the daily harassment. If Martha Beatriz does not receive a prompt response to her request, she has instructed Ms. Rodriguez Cala to initiate the necessary steps for her to return to prison to complete the remainder of her 20 year sentence.

Last night Martha Beatriz contacted those of us listed below and the office of Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart to inform us about her position and to end us a copy of the attached letter.

In light of this new threat, it is of the utmost importance that all international media accredited in Havana and representatives of the government with Embassies in Cuba to monitor the situation closely and to be willing to visit Martha Beatriz during the course of next week, especially on May 20th.

We also call upon the local news media, as well as the international community, to denounce these new threats in support of Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello.

For more information:

Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello
011-537-406821 in Havana
www.asambleasociedadcivilcuba.info
mbrc1712@yahoo.es

Ángel De Fana Sylvia G. Iriondo Mario Martínez
305-269-1812 305-361-6800 1-954-547-8472

Roque's letter to her attorney.

Weekend Pic: El Guacamayo Dorado

Los Angeles County Fair



September 2005.

Cuba cares about its people and the environment

Not, abosolutely not. These are the same people that are going to be responsible for drilling for oil off the coast of Florida.

Sugar Mill Poses Explosive Risk

HAVANA, May 10 (IPS) - One of the main industrial sugar refining complexes in the province of Matanzas, in the west of Cuba, has been blamed for an underground build-up of methane gas and other violations of environmental law that are putting thousands of families in the area at risk.

Hispanics need to watch more television

I picked up the free USA Today this morning, which was left right outside my hotel room door and focused on the headline “U.S. – born Hispanics drive growth.” My first impression was that the article was about economic growth and that first generation Hispanics were prospering and excelling their parents. But upon reading the subheading, it strucked me that the article was referring to births, and that Hispanics are having more babies than the actual influx of illegal immigrants.

As debate over immigration policy roils the nation, government numbers show that 60% of the 1.3 million new Hispanics in 2005 are citizens because they were born here.

What the article does not explain is if all these births are all from illegal immigrant parents. Maybe they don’t want us to know, but the math is simple: 1,300,000 births x $15,000 per birth = $19,500,000,000 cost to tax payers, assuming that illegal immigrant parents are not insured. So the story is about economics after all, and the growth, well the growth is in the cost to the taxpayers.

Pobrecitos, is not their fault...

La verdad de Cuba has a post explaining how the US limits Cuba’s access to the Internet, with maps and all. This blog site and others like it exist only because they are at the service of the island’s nefarious overlord. No dissenting thoughts, writings or musings are tolerated, which is more in line with the blog's name "Cuba's Truth."

It is very interesting to see the Latin-American idiots who believe all the caca de toro, and eat it all up, line, hook and sinker. They are usually the ones leaving support comments. You rarely see Cuban make any comments, and if they do, it is a more of a simple hello rather than an opinion, less be it a contrary one.

The only block to the Internet is the Cuban regime. Just ask Guillermo Fariñas.

Peruvians don't care for Chavecito

Most Peruvians reject "el cerdo" from Caracas, I hope that they are elightened and decisive enough to reject Ollanta Humala.

Survey: Most Peruvians reject Hugo Chávez

Most Peruvians reject Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, who has repeatedly expressed his support for Peruvian nationalist presidential candidate Ollanta Humala and whom Lima accuses of interfering with Peruvian internal affairs, a survey disclosed Monday showed.

Sixty-one percent of 2,000 respondents nationwide in Peru said they had a negative image of the Venezuelan ruler, according to the survey conducted by pollster Apoyo.

On the contrary, only 17 percent claimed to have a positive idea about Chávez, while eight percent did not reply, and 14 percent said they did not know him, Apoyo said. The poll was conducted in May 3-5, and has 2.2 percent error margin, AFP reported.

Peruvians' negative view of Chávez is the result of the opinions the Venezuelan ruler has spread about the Peruvian presidential race, as Chávez has repeatedly expressed his support for Humala, the candidate of the Unión por el Perú party.

Dragon ladies of the airways

Being so distant from Miami, I don't get to listen to the voices of the defiant ladies of radio as often as I would like. But the Internet is a wonderful thing and once in a while, if I time it just right, I can tune in by simply going to the radio station's webpage and clicking on the "listen button;" WQBA or WAQI depending on whom or what I want to listen to. Ninoska Pérez Castellón is one my favorites; she is fire and brimstone and I pity the fidelista that crosses her. Marta Flores (La reina de la noche) is actually very boring, her show should be called El ronquido de la noche, at least during evenings when she uses her program to help listeners find their lost chihuahuas. A couple of years ago my daughter interviewed Alina Fernández for a National History Day project and we found her to be very amiable, informative and candid in her answers.

Women on airwaves setting the agenda on Cuba issues

The women of Spanish-language radio -- all of them professionals with a loyal following -- are not faint of heart: They're strong-willed and plain-spoken, can turn paupers into kings, poison the opposition and sweeten the stakes for their causes.

Evo "Chapita" Morales guarantees his gas

Bolivia Guarantees Argentina, Brazil Gas

The president of Bolivia's state-run hydrocarbon company said Wednesday that both Argentina and Brazil would be guaranteed their gas supplies.

But there will be a 65% increase in price. Ouch!

Weekend Pic: Monumental Love

Washington Monument



November 2005.

Cada día we go broker

I just paid $65 to fill my gas tank, and nowadays everytime that I do, it pisses me off. It is costing me approximately $400 per month to get to and from work; although, I try telecommuting as much as possible. But where is our President on this? He is celebrating Cinco de Mayo.

We pay tribute to that heritage, and we honor the warmth and importance of the friendship between our two nations. The United States and Mexico are united by ties of family and by commerce and by history and by culture and by values. Both nations believe in the rights and the dignity of all people. We share an important trade relationship. We have discovered that trade between our nations is good for our peoples. We believe in the ideals of freedom and independence that Cinco de Mayo represents.

Here in the United States, Mexican Americans have helped build our country and helped shape our culture. Mexican Americans have made our nation more vibrant and more hopeful cada dia. Mexican Americans have enriched the American experience with contributions to business and the arts and music and sports. Latino entrepreneurs are creating jobs across the country; the number of Hispanic-owned businesses is growing at three times the national rate. More Hispanic Americans own their homes than ever before in our nation's history.

Presidente Fox at the last minute decided not sign the drug law, pending further evaluation. Did Presidente Fox and Jorge W. Bush cut a deal: no drug law for an amnesty program for Mexican illegals?

Interview with Marta Beatriz Roque

Via Free Thoughts and interview with Marta Beatriz Roque by radio COPE. Marta talks about how she was recently attacked and beaten by castro's thugs in ther own home [click to listen].

President Fox yields to pressure

El Presidente of Mexico will not sign the drug law. The pressure from Washington was too much.

Fox's decision was unexpected, given that the legislation was initially designed by his office and introduced by his party. This week, his spokesman praised the law and insisted the president would quickly sign it, despite rumblings of discontent from Washington.

It was also criticized by authorities in Mexican tourist towns who worried about a flood of hard-partying U.S. thrill seekers attracted by the new, lenient rules.

Read the rest.

The people from Girl's Gone Wild videos and MTV can continue to produce their high quality videos and shows. Drug sedated co-eds will not be an issue at the next Spring break.

Hello customer service

yes, can you help me por favor? We keep looking out to sea, and see only balseros and no cement.

Promised cement from Cuba fails to show
Twenty thousand tonnes of cement scheduled to arrive from Cuba last week have not yet arrived.

This was revealed by Information Minister Colin Campbell at the weekly post Cabinet press briefing Monday afternoon.

According to the minister, it is not yet known when the shipment will arrive.

This disclosure follows concern expressed by the Incorporated Master Builders Association.

The association's President, Michael Archer, told RJR News that members are disappointed with the manner in which Caribbean Cement Company is dealing with the issue of compensation to persons affected by the recent faulty cement problem.

He said the Cement Company has not been providing timely information on how affected persons will be compensated.

Carib Cement's management says it is prepared to offer full compensation, where appropriate, to persons affected by the release of sub-standard product.

My day without illegal aliens

As I expected, today was an easy commute to work, a lot less cars on the road. A trip that typically takes me 1.5 hours one way, took only 50 minutes, truly a joy driving in Southern California today! Another pleasant surprise that could not have happened on a better day, I finalized negotiations on a $2 million project for my company. This project will contribute about $100K in taxes and fees to the economy, not to mention the number of employees that will create to complete the project.

Today, I also took the opportunity and replaced my home’s water heater. It cost me about $500 to purchase, including the additional parts that I needed for the installation. I paid 7.75% in taxes for this purchase, and I did the installation myself saving almost $400 in labor costs. At a minimum, I contributed more income into the economy in just one day, than 25 illegal aliens in one year, if they paid any taxes.

My two complaints for today. The price of gas,



and the car wash was closed. One less place to patronize.