Today, I received the latest newsletter from Bob Kent, the co-chair of the Friends of Cuban Libraries. In it he outlines ways in which ordinary people (hint, hint) could help Cuba's independent librarians.

Among the many projects with a potential to alert and energize international public opinion are the following:

* Informing environmental activists of the harassment of the Green Cuba Library, a library in Havana devoted to environmental issues.

* Encouraging black librarians around the world to protest a recent raid on the Martin Luther King Library in Havana.

* Organizing medical groups to support the first independent medical library created in Cuba.

* Asking travelers to Cuba to take a few books to the island.

* Contacting intellectual freedom activists, such as the speakers at ALA and IFLA events, to educate them about the work of Cuba's pioneering independent library movement.

...buy a damn tshirt.

Or, Put your money where my mouth is.

These will be available next week in Large and Xlarge for the paltry sum of $12, Ill pay for shipping. All proceeds go to the Cuba Nostalgia Convention funds. Drop me a line in the comments or email me for payment info.

So, waddaya say? Isnt there some che lover you want to piss off?

A huge thanks to PTG for the image and to CB for the blood stain.

Update:Ok. So I hear that some folks think this tshirt may be a bit too "graphic" for their tastes. But you tell me, what would you prefer, the image on the shirt, or this:

Feeling the approach of death, castro wants to go out with the sight of the world burning.

That's why he seems so eager to trigger some kind of war.

Rarely have I ever seen so many warlike signs and signals from the murderous dictator. Note the sudden reappearance of battle fatigues, the repeated sneering at 'peace' and the insane behavior of his little buddy, whom he has got on a monkey-leash, barking about blowing up his own oil wells. The Cubans are clearly feeding Chavez this stuff, manipulating his emotions, because he clearly really believes it. They want him to get in a war with the U.S. And in the meantime, he is keeping up the steady drumbeat of war, hollerating about he won't 'beg' for peace, amid a sea of belligerance.

castro defiant on Bay of Pigs anniversary

Havana, Apr 20 (EFE).- Forty-five years after his government repulsed a U.S.-backed invasion at the Bay of Pigs, fidel castro decried here that Washington continues to harass Cuba, and while pledging to avoid provocations, the septuagenarian autocrat said he will not "beg" the United States for peace.

castro, dressed in his customary olive-drab uniform, presided over Wednesday night's event marking the anniversary of his regime's triumph at the Bay of Pigs or, as it is more commonly known on the island, Giron Beach.
"It has been an incessant battle for 45 years," he said at Havana's Karl Marx Theater before a crowd of more than 3,000 invited guests, many of them veterans of the fighting at Giron.

He said that since the foiled invasion by CIA-trained Cuban exiles, "there has not been a single day of peace, nor will there be, nor do we ask for it." "We do not provoke war, nor will we provoke war, but never will we beg for the peace (the United States) has deprived us of for so long, almost half a century," castro said.

Despite those 45 years of confrontation with Washington, he said, "Cuba is doing better than ever," (sic) before going on to claim that U.S. officials "have never once ceased to carry out plans for terrorism, for attacks." The Cuban leader also pointed to a shift in Latin America's relations with the United States.

"The hemisphere is falling from their (U.S.) hands, they cannot continue subjugating peoples ... and the feeling of independence grows stronger every day," castro said.

Much of Latin America has opted in recent years for leftist or populist governments critical of U.S. policies in the world.

Expanding on his critique of the United States, the Cuban mentioned the conflict in Iraq, saying that "the damage to the world caused by this empire is planetary," while adding that the Iraqi insurgency has left Washington "stalled on a dead-end street."

castro also blasted the Bush administration's approach toward Tehran's nuclear program, warning that a U.S. military strike on Iran "can give rise to a global conflagration without anyone's being able to avert it." He said continuing Middle East turmoil and spiking international oil prices could produce a crisis with the capacity to worsen social problems.

"The destabilization could be universal," castro said. EFE mar/dr

Why we blog:

Dear Val Prieto,

I discovered your blog this evening (4/19/06) and have registered for Google Alerts in order to receive your daily writings. You and your bloggers have finally provided me with the information I have been searching for as I try to put down on paper the extraordinary experience I had visiting Camaguey and Havana this past November. It had been 50 years since I had been in Cuba and after a week on an humanitarian mission to the Jewish communities, I returned to Philadelphia with a heavy heart and a resolve to educate myself about what has happened since 1955.

Fortunately, there are several web sites and numerous books, both fiction and non-fiction. However, reading your blog has given me a new perspective and I look forward to absorbing the comments of Cubans living in Miami.

It appears to me that most Americans are woefully ignorant about the revolution that has decimated this magnificent island and torn its people apart. Not only have we forgotten "The Maine" and all of the machinations of the US government, but we fail to fully understand what is really happening to Cuba and to the men, women and children living in a totalitarian state.

Please do not categorize me as one of those Americans who travels to Cuba "on vacation." It was anything but a vacation; it was a mission to deliver desperately needed prescription drugs and medical supplies. In both cities, I was able to visit people in their homes and synagogues; we shared meals, attended religious services and visited cemeteries where we prayed over the graves of loved ones. I do not speak Spanish, but this will be rectified as soon as the next beginners' class is offered at a nearby college this summer.

While surfing the web, I came across a truly awful site composed of Canadians who purchase all inclusive resort vacations in Cuba. It appears from their postings that Cuba is a playground to which they return several times a year. They rarely travel into the countryside and/or cities. The restaurants we visited were filled with European and South American tourists in Havana. I have since learned that they spend only a few hours or a day in these locales and then are transported back to the government tourist hotels and beaches.

Almost five months have passed since my trip and I am still overwhelmed by the experience. I look forward to learning more from you and your contributors.

Adios!

(name withheld)
Philadelphia, PA

Is Hugo Chavez a complete fucktard or what?

Chavez: Oil Will Be Destroyed if Attacked

By DEBORA REY
Associated Press Writer

ASUNCION, Paraguay (AP) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Wednesday again raised the specter of U.S. designs to oust him and promised that his government will blow up his country's oil fields if the United States should ever attack.

U.S. officials have repeatedly denied any military plans against Chavez, but also call him a threat to stability in the region.

Speaking to other South American leaders, Chavez said his conflict with Washington is rooted in the U.S. thirst to control oil. He said the Americans will be denied that in Venezuela, which is the world's fifth-largest oil exporter and one of the biggest suppliers to the U.S. market.

If the United States attacks, Chavez said, "We won't have any other alternative - blow up our own oil fields - but they aren't going to take that oil."

Some of Chavez's political opponents at home call his warnings about a U.S. invasion far-fetched and contend he pursues the verbal conflict with Washington to encourage a sense of struggle against a foreign enemy as he heads toward the presidential election in December.

Chavez cited what he called a regular flow of threatening statements and actions from the U.S. government, from U.S. naval exercises being held this month in the Caribbean to U.S. questions about Venezuela's deepening ties with Iran.

"The latest they've invented is that we're sending uranium to Iran, and what's more yesterday it came out in the Venezuelan press that we're making a secret plan to bring Iranian nuclear missiles and install them in Venezuela," he said.

In that report, the Venezuelan newspaper 2001 cited unidentified U.S. intelligence sources as saying Iran and Venezuela made a secret deal to ship missiles to Venezuela and Cuba aboard oil tankers. It did not provide any details about its sources, and the report was roundly denied by Venezuelan officials as preposterous.

Chavez accused the United States of "searching for an excuse for anything" against Venezuela, noting U.S. warship are holding exercises this month in the Caribbean - "there under our very noses."

In Caracas, meanwhile, Venezuela's defense minister, Adm. Orlando Maniglia, said Chavez's military plans to hold its own exercises soon along the coasts and with neighboring countries' armed forces.

"We already have planned some future exercises with the government of Curacao, and also with the Dutch, with the navy and armed forces of Colombia," he said, without giving any details.'

But Venezuela also has problems with neighboring Colombia. It demanded Wednesday that Colombian President Alvaro Uribe investigate a Colombian magazine's allegations that Uribe's secret police plotted to assassinate Chavez.

"The government of President Uribe is obligated to thoroughly investigate and share its investigation with the Venezuelan government," Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel told reporters in Caracas.

Uribe has denied the accusations.

Alek has more on Childish Chavez at Vcrisis.

Stefania in Sardinia has a disturbing long video documenting and exposing the torture - repeat, physical torture - that is practiced by the castro regime on its dissidents in Cuba.

This isn't Gitmo vacations. This is the real thing.

She has the link at Publius here.

I had the privilege of attending a private screening of Andy Garcia's "The Lost City" with my friend Mora.
Notice my use of the word privilege to categorize my participation, it was, a great privilege. I'm not a film critic, nor do I aspire to be that. But this film is special, this film fills the screen with the story that's always on our mind, this film rights wrongs committed by the Oliver Stones of Hollywood, this film tells the truth about Cuba, about che, and about that damned revolution a murderous dictator's imposed on Cuba for almost a half century.

It is beautiful, carefully filmed in the Dominican Republic, you forget it's not really Cuba. You can feel the warm breezes, smell the sugar cane, and sense the impending tragedy about to overtake the island.

Andy Garcia labored for sixteen years to bring this project to fruition, it was a labor of love dedicated to some special people in his life, including his father, who like so many exiles, never again saw his beloved Cuba. It's a gift for the exile community, a public validation of their story. Gone are the rose colored glasses Hollywood has used to portray castro and his executioner. This film hates them just as much as you do. Finally, we have a film portrayal of che that exposes his evil ugliness so vividly you almost have to turn from the screen in disgust, it's that palpable. The cinematography is wonderful, the costumes are authentic and wonderful. And the music, the music narrates this film. If you love Cuban music from that lost era as I do, be prepared to be its captive. It will carry you through the film and fill your heart with that special joy that only comes from Cuban music, and it will break your heart.

I also had the privilege of participating in a round table interview session attended by about ten members of the "Hollywood" press, along with Andy Garcia, Ines Sastre, Nestor Carbonell and Enrique Murciano. The actors came in one at a time, each one spending about twenty minutes answering questions and sharing their thoughts on the film. All of them expressed great pride and gratitude for being a part of the film. The three Cubans were united in their hope that viewers will leave the theatre with a better understanding of the Cuban exile experience. They were passionate about their love for Cuba, and made clear their politics. Several of the press members asked if they had considered filming in Cuba, or if they had visited the island. Not until castro is gone and Cuba is free was their unanimous answer. One reporter repeatedly asked Andy what he could remember of Cuba since he was so young when he left. He repeated his answer, the scene in the airport when they left, just like in the movie. She finally gave it up after he gave her a vivid account of the fright he experienced from watching castro's gun toting goons cutting off his sister's rings before they were allowed to leave. I'm not sure what, if any point she was trying to make.

Several reporters wanted to know exactly what common beliefs about Cuba are misconceived. Cumulatively, the three men gave them a stunning lesson about the reality of Cuba. The truth about castro and che, the revolution, the executions, the apartheid, the lack of human rights, the crackdowns, the rationing, the jinteras selling themselves for a glass of milk; these guys gave the Hollywood press an earful, and they did it with great Cuban panache. One of them joked that he hoped he would still be working after this. It was great.

I'll never again accept a critic's movie review knowing just what small, full of themselves uppity little toads these people can be. I hope they are not all like that. I won't be surprised if the reviews for "The Lost City" are awful, but don't believe them. Go see this movie.