Obama’s Cuba Policy: Speak Softly, Carry No Stick
That's the headline for my latest column at Pajamas Media. Sometimes I submit a headline and sometimes I don't. They usually don't take my suggestion, that's the way it goes. In this case I guess they liked it.
Cigar Mike first posted about the USINT news ticker going dim a few days back. I was asked for a reaction by Pajamas Media and I contacted Ambassador James Cason who devised the idea for the ticker in the first place. Enjoy.
Outstanding editorial hermano. I knew I'd be missing President Bush, his policies,and Cason, but I had no idea how soon, and how much. I remember when those lights came on, what a proud moment for the U.S. Sadly, those are not the only lights dimmed, if figuratively, by the current administration.,
Did you read some of those comments? Goodness some of these people vote here.
What would cause such stupidity?
Henry, I've sat on the malecon and watched the ticker while having a few cigars with my Uncle Mel and some random Cubans and I can say that perhaps for once in a very long time I agree with you that Obama shouldn't have let it go dim. There was a place for the ticker and people do in fact watch it and comment on it and quite honestly it adds a bit of much needed innovative diversion in a country where too often people rely on sex and getting drunk for entertainment.
Now in regards to this being an indication that Obama is weak on Cuba, I couldn't disagree with you more. In a little over 6 months Obama has done more to advance the cause of freedom in Cuba than Bush managed to do in 8 fruitless years save the aforementioned ticker which was a good thing. The cause of freedom in Cuba starts with freedom from the hunger and basic economic misery that exists in Cuba and for which the Castro regime is no doubt responsible. By allowing Cubans to travel to Cuba as often as we want and send as much as we want without having to waste millions traveling and sending remittances through third countries, which is what we've been doing for decades, means that more money gets to our Cuban families who need these resources for basic economic survival. As such they now have more time available to organize and work towards achieving higher needs such as the need for free expression. What you and many of your friends on this blog have failed to realize even now is that helping the regime keep its people in poverty with a failed embargo which we Cubans are the first ones to violate only perpetuates the Castro regime. You've become accomplices to the very criminal regime which we all detest and that's not only unfortunate but sad. I don't question your motives brother but I do continue to question your judgement.
Great column. Honey , i read the comments. They are unbeleivable.
In a little over 6 months Obama has done more to advance the cause of freedom in Cuba than Bush managed to do in 8 fruitless years save the aforementioned ticker which was a good thing.
How do you figure, Manny?
What's your measurement system? How many times has Obama mentioned political prisoners in Cuba? How many of them has he mentioned by name? How many times has he asked the world to hold Cuba accountable?
No, what he's done is play the game that the castros want him to play. "Send more money!"
Yeah. Defeat a corrupt dictatorship my making it richer with a promise that some crumbs will trickle down to those being oppressed.
Every time I read your opinions I lose respect for Georgetown my friend.
This has nothing to do with Georgetown nor me personally so try to stay focused on the issue at hand. For Obama to focus on political prisoners and ask the world to hold Cuba accountable would be nice but would do nothing to change their plight nor that of 11 million others wanting real change both in Cuba and Miami. We don't need more empty rhetoric from either side we need action. Did Bush's talk of prisoners and accountabiity help prisoners in any way whatsoever. Carter initiated the first significant dialogue and lifted the travel ban which led to the release of hundreds of political prisoners. On the issue of money sent or brought to Cuba the money I bring with me is real and extremely helpful - hardly crumbs and it helps my cousin run her business which is also quite real and lessens her dependency on the system.
On a seperate note what are your thoughts on diversifying opinions on this web site? As it stands this is no different than Granma.
Manny,
If you read the piece I wrote about Obama's golden opportunity at Pajamas Media (it's linked within the piece you are now commenting on) you will see that my opinion is that as a leader from the left Obama could make a difference by calling the castro brothers out. You are correct, Bush highlighted many of Cuba's political prisoners including Biscet and it didn't do a lick of good. That's because Bush was unpopular internationally. The same is not true of Obama. But Obama doesn't care about Cuba. He wants to maintain his popularity by coddling the tyrants in Cuba as well as those in Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragua, etc. What good is having political capital if you don't use it for something?
And for you separate note, check your email buddy. Check our comments policies. We don't need to give your side equal time. Talk about a echo chamber. You are the one that's part of it. The media, academia and the "pundits" all echo the same garbage that you do.
Oh and by the way, if you think that comment about us being like Granma is original in any way, you are really clueless. Look at our hit counter. We've had 4 million visitors over the last 6 years. And quite a few cranks come here and say the same crap when we refuse to give them a venue to spout there propaganda.
Let me explain something to you. A blog is a private entity. We pay to have the server space and bandwidth. We pay for the domain name. A lot of us pay in sweat equity working on this blog. It's not yours. It's not a microphone for you. It's a microphone for us.
Get it?
We don't need more empty rhetoric from either side we need action.
Ok, Mr. Im Not Spewing Rhetoric Man, give us the playbook. What "Action" do we need?
And please, do try to stay away from hypotheticals, give us something you can prove with history.
Henry,
I want to take issue with you. I know the msm played the tune that Bush was hated everywhere and lost the world's respect for the U.S. And then they continue that Obama is loved all over the world.
I don't think Bush was all that hated once Europe began electing people like Sarkozi. I think leaders on the left hated Bush and for good reason. He was showing them up to be wrong. And I see little evidence of Obama's universal love except among nutcases like Chavez.
The Castros and their cronies will never be defeated until the world recognizes tyranny when they see it and wishes to oppose it. As long as Canadians and so many others tour and so many trade, and, by the way, as long as we continue to provide Cuba's leaders with food and medicines under this embargo, they will not be destroyed.
There is no stomach in what's left of the free world for aggression against anyone except if it is a threat to a country's sovereignty. MJ can pontificate against the right and we can disagree with his silliness, but Cuba will not be free until it suits the world to do something to bring good change about.
I see small hope of that happening.
And I fail to understand why it gripes those who don't see eye to eye with people here that their comments are less desired than those who understand the point of view of babalu.
I have zero interest in commenting on left wing or anti American blogs. And I am quite sure they can do without my absolutism as well. Where's the surprise?
Val: I'll speak a little s l o w e r so you'll understand. You didn't go to Belen did you? The actions I spoke of are those the President has already taken. These few actions have helped million of dollars get to the kitchen tables of Cuban families who use that money to take care of basic needs and in many cases run a micro business that continues to put food on the table. One simple question for you Mr. Hugo Chavez look alike - Do you have family in Cuba?
Damn shame Henry! You have an opportunity to be the change you seek on the island and instead you mimic the dictator once again. Well at least you present a good challenge for those of us who seek to model a more evolved political culture in Cuba and Miami. The way I see it you've become a complete idealogue which means relationships mean nothing to you - only the fact that people like Val agree with you. Why you'd partner up with an Hugo-Chavez look-alike come mierda is beyond me.
Bro, you're valuing loyalty and ideological purity over the creation of a free marketplace of ideas. That's exactly the political culture of elites in Cuba. This basically means you've become a part of the problem and are doing nothing to help us find a solution to 50 years of intransigence and pig-headedness. But thank God your comrades are becoming extinct both in Cuba and Miami. The sad fact though is that you'll still be relatively young when enough of your fellow ideologically pure brethren have passed on which means you're setting yourself up to be completely irrelevant in a Post-Castro/Babalu world. There's always the possibility of change especially for someone with a Belen education so if you do ever decide to be an agent for change instead of choir director for the echo chamber of Cuban dinosaurs let me know. You're my Belen brother and will always be my Belen brother regardless of what you say or do. I for one value relationships above all else.
PS: Is "honey" your wife. If so, give her my best.
I just saw a great video on youtube where Congressman, Jeb Hensarling explains why cash for clunkers is a wrongheaded policy. We borrow from the Chinese, billions, trillions of dollars, to give money to one industry, the auto industry. We have to steal this money now from other taxpayers to pay it to the auto industry. (Notice how it is currently being proposed that we will have to tax all taxpayers - this goes against another of Obama's pledges as we will tax the middle class big time.)
Hensarling says why not cash for cluckers? We could subsidize the chicken industry and pay people to buy chickens. Or why not cash for tv's or wood?
The point is, and I'll say it s l o w e r for MJ's benefit, it doesn't work.
Same idea with Cuba. Allowing individuals to give money to some Cubans so that Castro and Obama get to look good, does nothing to help the essential problem which is freedom of the Cuban people.
Selecting who gets a benefit never works. Only correcting the whole system works. Anything that selects who benefits from our government largesse prolongs the system that will keep our economy down. Selecting some who will benefit in Cuba cannot help all Cubans for the long term.
From what I understand Castro gets his big cut whenever money gets into Cuban hands. There is always a curse with the hope diamond. Anything that helps the Castros prolongs their power to tyrannize.
As I said before until the world recognizes this and starves out the Cuban government and speaks out against it unanimously, tyranny will reign in Cuba. If these millions are getting to Cubans,as MJ suggests, why do I see small evidence of it? Where are the businesses that he says are showing up? I thought Castro imprisons anyone who tries to do anything on his own?
The PS is what passes for humor among those like Bill Maher and MJ. Lame.
Henry, we will discuss this further when you get home tonight.
Manny,
No, Honey is not my wife despite her joke to the contrary. She is a longtime reader and commenter.
Secondly, if you disrespect Val, you are breaking the conduct code I already told you about. Keep your insults to yourself or be gone.
I'm done with you. You bring nothing new to the party. You think you are original but there's 50 million people spouting the same bullshit. Phil Peters, Carlos Saladrigas, Marifea, Lisandro, all of them. We're not going to give your side a trojan horse to come in here and make this place just one more tool of "dialogue" read capitulation.
I only see one stupid COMEMIERDA writing stupidity left and right on this blog and that is you MJHidalgo2.
The truth is that all you care is about attacking Val and Henry with the typical liberal line.
You talk so much about putting food on the table of regular Cuba with money sent from the US.
The honest truth that you're not willing to acknoledge is that responsibility sorely belongs to the Cuban government and not the exiles or the United States of America for that matter.
The Cuban government is the one and only entity sorely responsible for the welfare and individual freedoms of it's citizen, not one else, the rest is bullshit and stupidity.
What the Cuban government has been extremely successful at (with the help of the liberals in America and the many exiles, and comemierdas like you that send money there) is to blackmail the US and the Cuban-American community with the responsibility that sorely rests on the shoulders of that Cuban government.
Plus I don't see you attacking the regime in Havana for their fifty years record of murdering, imprisoning and total human rights violations on it's citizens.
You're only attacking us here as if we were responsible here for the Cuban Holocaust not the Castro brothers.
How pathetic you're in your views.
I guess that means shit to you as long as money remittances from here can be send to Cuba to sustain a dying regime that takes a big chunk out of those remittances and then you can travel to Cuba and enjoy your Cuban cigar while sitting on the Malecon.
You're so full of shit that is pathetic. You have no conscience, no principles, no soul, no values, and then have the fucking balls to come to attack Val and Henry here, talking a lot of garbage and call them comemierdas.
For someone who claims that went to one of the best schools in Miami you display utter imbecilic stupidity with your remarks and disdain for what we stand for.
I guess you went to Belen, but Belen and what it represents, the wishes and hopes of the Cuban population (and it's decendants)in exile did not get into your heart, mind and soul.
People like you are the ones who help perpetuate the Cuban reality by providing monetary assistance to that regime that takes a big chunk out of that monetary assistance to finance it's continued oppression on it's citizens.
Sorry but Val, Henry and I (and feel that I can speak for most of the people on this blog) are not willing to sell our souls to Communism like you already have.
I hesitate to intrude on what may be a private argument, but there appears to be an inordinate importance or significance being placed on a Belen education. Our dear dictator, FC himself, graduated from Belen, and I believe his delightful half-brother Raul also studied there. On that evidence alone, it seems rather untenable that Belen can magically transform base metal into gold, even if it can polish what was already gold to shine more brightly.
asombra,
As for the Castro brothers attending Belen maybe that was one of the few cases were the school failed.
I'm pretty sure raulita didn't go to Belen but I might be wrong. But I did attend Belen and so did Manny Hidalgo. But then he went to georgetown where the Jesuits weren't inoculated against the castro virus.
Henry, Raul aside, my point stands. As I expect you agree, no school, nobody, can make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. It may provide a certain veneer, which can be deceptive, but if you scratch that surface the true matter is revealed.
Your fellow alumnus, based on his comments above, appears to be at least guilty of the sin of pride and presumptuousness, and he indulges in the all too common ploy of moral equivalency--which is as odious as it is unconvincing (except to those already convinced or predisposed that way). If he represents what a Belen education accomplishes, I'm not at all impressed.
Manny,
Thanks for slowing down the boilerplate arguments, makes them easier to swallow, for the zillionth time.
Obama has done ABSOLUTELY NOTHING for the advancement of freedom for the Cuban people. Nada. Nick Jones. Ni COJONES.
Allowing more money into Cuba and hoping for democratic change is like trying to put out a fire with Amoco Premium Unleaded. What impetus does the Cuban government now have to change, if it gets its much needed cash WITHOUT HAVING TO MAKE ONE SINGLE CONCESSION?
For such a hoity toity Belen grad, you sure be stoopit and Id like to say "arrogant, pedantic, sophist and condescending" as well, but I dont near knows hows to spells 'em.
Ill let your kindergarten playground-ish remark about my looks go because from your arguments there's two things I know absolutely:
1) Im right and you're dead wrong.
2) You wouldnt have the balls to have made that comment about me directly to me in person. Because, being a "Belen grad", you might have been taught all that higher math and physics stuff. Whereupon you could easily calculate the speed (in ft/sec) my fist would travel, and it's angle and direction (using the Trigonometric ratios of your choice), and the amount of force at impact (in kips, please).
Now do us all a favor and go fart higher than your ass elsewhere, mmmkay?
Great reply Val!
Point 2 is hilarious!
So much for the code of conduct Henry. Your mafioso friend Val just threatened me with violence. You might want to let him know that I'd take him in a heart beat.Funny that he not only looks like Hugo Chavez but writes and threatens like him too. Does your mom approve of all these fine new friends you've made since Belen? You guys continue to have fun imitating the thugs of Havana and Carracas. I'll work on developing a web site that makes Cubans proud by being the change we need instead of more of the same old tired problem.
Manny,
Chica, I didnt threaten you with violence. I merely spoke of consequences with respect to hypotheticals. We all know you would never make such scurrilous statements in person. So it's a moot point now, isnt it?
As for your website, don't you already have one, Belen Boy?
Oh, and by the way, Manny.
Seriously, the powers that be in Cuba read this:
I'll work on developing a web site that makes Cubans proud by being the change we need instead of more of the same old tired problem.
And when the laughter subsided, and everyone picked themselves up from having slid off their chairs, there were chest bumps and high fives all around.
Val: Of course I'd tell you to your face that you look, talk, and act like your twin Hugo Chavez. What do you take me for, someone like Henry? In fact I'll be in Miami on a layover flight on the 12th. Meet me at La Carreta so we can chat. God knows you have little else to do with your time given the amount of mierda you pour on a daily basis into this pathetic web site.
HAHAHAHAHAHA.
Manny,
Ill meet you at La Carreta, Belen Boy.
Now let me give you a little lesson on friendship, here, publicly, in the hopes that you might actually learn something you can use in life.
It would take an exponential million Manny Hidalgos to replace - to even begin to think about replacing - one Henry Gomez.
Being a friend isnt about what high school you graduated from. It's about so many other things that you probably wouldnt understand. Grab yourself a dictionary and look up the words integrity, honesty, respect, love, understanding...hell, I dont even know if we have enough bandwidth here to highlight it all, as proven by your comments here.
Of course, Im sure youre completely incapable of accepting the above. But there you have it.
As far as Im concerned - and Im sure everyone else here - You, Belen alumnus, cant even begin to ponder the possibility of the thought of coming close to being the match in the matchbook that might actually get to light the candle that you couldnt hold up to Henry Gomez.
MJ,
I look forward to your developing that website and to my not visiting it. Unlike you I don't relish reading websites where people have opinions that are the exact opposite from mine. And I don't feel that I am so important that my opinions matter so much that I have to parade them on such websites.
When you have developed it, spend all of your time there with all of your cohorts and then you won't have time to visit here.
I will not miss you.
Val and Honey: It's nice to see how much you love Doofus. And now he has a little club of vanilla ice cream lovers he can watch Rush Limbaugh with on weekends. Ask him about that one. It had me laughing most of the afternoon.
OK Val so the 12th at La Carreta it is - don't be late.
Stay classy, Manny!
Well, this so called meeting at MIA's Carreta cafeteria sounds fishy to me for two reasons.
1. Under current airport regulations only travelers are allowed inside the airport terminal.
2. I don't think that layover travelers are even allowed outside the airport terminal for any reason either.
So someone seems to be bluffing here and I suspect is not Val.
Well I'm laying over on a trip back from Managua so I have to leave the customs area to catch a flight back to DC but you guys know MIA a lot better than I do. My plan was to walk over to the main terminal and have the cafecito summit with Val and Henry and then catch my DC flight. If they don't allow me to go through the main terminal then you're right, we'll have a problem. I'f that's the case then we'll save it for another time. Maybe a mojito summit the next time Val and Henry are doing some advocacy work on Capitol Hill. The whole point of my first email was to see if the possibility for collaboration was there and unfortunately it's not. Henry said something about my Georgetown education, I took it personally and the whole conversation descended into the gutter. Unfortunately it happens often when people who are passionate about Cuba disagree but it's nothing a few cafecitos or maybe some Hatueys at La Carreta can't take care of in my opinion. Ya veremos.
Manny
Manny,
Dude, I wouldnt have a beer with you even if Obama himself offered up the White House Lawn for another beer summit.
"The whole point of my first email was to see if the possibility for collaboration was there and unfortunately it's not"
Sorry,
I don't think that anyone at this blog is interested in collaborating with anything that in anyway, shape or form (even if disguised as helping the Cuban people) would throw a monetary life jacket to the moribund Castro regime.
No Castro, No Problem (and it is not negotiable), the rest is bullshit.
Suit yourself Val. Then I'll drink by myself. It will help me stomach your nauseating resemblance to Hugo Chavez.
Manny,
You know, for a Belen grad - and a hyperinflated one at that - you sure do display an absolute lack of manners.
Let me put it to you this way, asshole:
This is my house. I built it, I maintain it, I run it. And I will be damned if I let some elitist, snot nosed, childish little prick like you come here swinging his tiny pecker. Por que no me sale de los cojones que me falten el respeto en mi propia casa.
Had this been my real home and you had come into it acting like such a complete asshole, I would have pulled your sorry ass out by the teeth and tossed your ass out onto the street.
You are no longer welcome here. Please do everyone a favor and multiplicate por zero.
Henry, please ban this fuckwaste.
Val,
What took you so long?
Honey,
I was trying to be courteous. Besides, Id figure Id give Mr. Im Gonna Start a Website Against Yours a lesson on internet footprint and how one should never go to someone else's blog and make a total dick out of himself.
Perfect, MJ.
After your ignorant comments and persistent name calling, it is humorous that you again insult the man who has tolerated you for too long here with a description that fits you perfectly.
Typical example of the pot calling the kettle black.
And Manny, yeah, I just deleted your last comment.
Do some of you Miami guys actually come to D.C. from time to time? Maybe arrange a get together at Clyde's or someplace, sometime?
- Sandi
I second Honey,
Val you should have banned Manny the asswipe yesterday.
He could not even counter our arguments; he was just bent on insulting you.
What an asshole!
I wonder what was his real agenda, maybe he’s another “infiltrado” that attended Belen.
Who the hell knows and who the hell cares.
Good riddance!