Sires erupts on Obama after Castro handshake incident U.S. Rep. Albio Sires (D-8) wasn’t happy with President Barack Obama for shaking the hand of Cuban President Raul Castro at a South African memorial service for the late Nelson Mandela earlier today.
“I’m very disappointed that the President would shake the hand of someone who stands for the opposite of everything Nelson Mandela stood for,” said the Cuban American Congressman from Hudson County. “Castro stands for the abuse of human rights and lack of freedom. It was just very hyprocritcal of the President to go and honor Mandela and then turn around and shake hands with Castro.”
Sires said he doesn’t expect an apology.
“This president doesn’t apologize,” he said.
In a sane world, freely elected presidents wouldn’t attend state funerals for dead communists that cozied up to dictators, but hey, that’s just me.
Correction, this president does indeed apologize. He apologizes to others for being American. He just doesn’t apologize to Americans. Cuban-American included. Nothing this low-life president does surprises me.
Pototo, exactly, and what is making me nuts with the Mandela circus is the PC, why are people who know better, or should, citing crap such as what Mandela stood for. What exactly did he stand for? Celebrating Castro’s mass-murdering revolution? Embracing all dictators? Covering up murders committed or sanctioned, and real agenda? I expect nothing more from the MSM and usual useful idiots, but it seems everyone is repeating the mantra. If Hitler had lasted 20 years longer, and hired a good PR firm, would he too now be PC? This is all just wrong.
On the other hand (pardon the pun), in 1971 President Richard Nixon shook hands with Chairman Mao, responsible for the deaths on millions of Chinese, and Cuban exiles were not as perturbed about it.
Antonio, back in 1971, there was no Internet, social media, Facebook, blogs, tweet, etc… to really ascertain whether Cubans were perturbed by Nixon shaking hands with Mao. Also, since we didn’t have any elected Cuban-American politicians, no public statements were made like the ones that Sires just made. If circumstances were similar to what they are now, I’m sure that many Cubans would have expressed their disappointment.
Hey, Albio, you’re confused, or something. Mandela always stood up for everything Castro, Inc. stands for. You’re either a clueless idiot or a hypocrite yourself. Oh, and btw, aren’t you too white to be Cuban?
Asombra,
In the real world, not the hypocritical, politically correct, Kool-Aid drinking, still plagued by the the scourge that was communism universe that we inhabit, it would be political suicide to say it like it is: Mandela was a terrorist and South Africa today is a mere shadow of what it was yesteryear. Today, South Africa has become the murder capitol of the world and rape is also rampant. There is a reverse racism that permeates the nation and whites are constantly targeted. If the country is still somewhat vibrant, its because of what the Boers built. Just like Cuba, if the country was still somewhat inhabitable in the 60’s, its because castro had just freshly inherited a prosperous country. Give South Africa a few more years and it will continue to slip into thirdworldism. Thank you Mandala! But of course, it would political suicide to say the truth.
I have less to lose than Sires, and I wouldn’t dare say that–except to a few trusted friends— in the politically correct environment where I work. I’m sure that Sires knows better. Alas, we are living in times that are not dissimilar from the Middle Ages when Galileo had to admit under pressure that the earth was flat!
Oh by the way, Asombra, you are right, Sires is too white for a “person-of-color!” He must be one of those batistianos who used to govern over the masses of non-white Cuban peasants that existed in Cuba before castro [the Cuban Mandela] came to power and gave us “dignity” [as I’ve seen PBS say this] and saved us from U.S. dominated neo-colonialism.
Rayarena: the photo of Nixon shaking hands with Mao was big news and appeared on the front page of most international newspapers and on TV media. Cuban exiles were aware but they were so enamored with Tricky Dick that they hardly criticized it.
Ray, there’s also the little matter of the horrific Winnie Mandela essentially getting away with murderS, literally, because of who her husband was or had been. Mandela did divorce her, officially due to infidelity, but a bigger reason may well have been that Winnie had become too much of a liability to Mandela’s international image and standing. However, her crimes were definitely not duly prosecuted (again, probably because stirring up that pot would have been against Mandela’s interests in terms of his image).
Asombra, I agree with you 100% Nelson and Winnie were horrors, I’m just saying that in today’s world, its almost as risky to mention this as it was for Galileo to say to the earth was round. I mean, nobody is going to kill you, but you will be dragged through the mud, eviscerated by the gatekeepers of political correctness, i.e. the New York Times and the rest of the mainstream media, and you will likely lose you job if you are an elected official. Hideous, yes, I know, but its the reality and I’m sure that nobody wants to be a martyr in order to make a point.