"The function of propaganda is, for example, not to weigh and ponder the rights of different people, but exclusively to emphasize the one right which it has set out to argue for. Its task is not to make an objective study of the truth, in so far as it favors the enemy, and then set [...]

I’ve been debating with myself for weeks whether or not to pay the bucks and attend this event.  Part of me felt I should, in order to offer an honest review.  I hate when people review things they haven’t watched, read, etc.,  but I also have a personal policy to do my best not to spend money [...]

From The Americano:
I write this short introduction for I know both Ernesto Fernández Travieso, the Jesuit priest who presents what his brother Tomás Fernández Travieso witnessed as a political prisoner in Cuba when he was 18 years old. I knew their mother who protected me while worrying about her two sons. This is a tale [...]

Carlos Eire discussing his latest book, "Waiting to Die in Miami" at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, Thursday, April 21 as part of the George Washington Forum on American ideas, politics and institutions.  It's fabulous, revealing, instructive, and heartbreaking. Take tissue.
Thank you Carlos for sharing your Cuban soul, and bearing witness to Cuba's true history.

H/T: [...]

"I am a Jew."  These words were spoken by Daniel Pearl moments before he was beheaded by Islamic fanatics.  I am also a Jew,  who through family history and personal serendipity am proud to count myself as a honorary member of the Cuban exile community.   My heart is split not among two countries, but three, Cuba, Israel, and the [...]

From Zelaya in Honduras, to Mubarak in Egypt, and now Qaddaffi in Libya, Obama seems to have selective dictator appreciation. But the most striking and stark dictator discrimination Obama apparently has is that of Cuba's castro and "Mini-Me" Chavez in Venezuela. Those two cats are A-OK to Barry ...
When Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez flew to Tripoli [...]

Por la libertad de Cuba, Zapata Vive y el Asesinato de Hermanos al Rescate

(Click twice to enlarge)
Friends from the Los Angeles based Cuban run periodico, 20 de Mayo, serving the local community since 1969, created the wonderful collage of photos shown above.   The link to this weeks fine edition is here.
If you look close you´ll see yours [...]

Once again, Nat Hentoff has taken a principled stand against the American Library Association's betrayal of its most cherished principle, the defense of intellectual freedom, and their silence on the repressive tactics of the Castro regime against  independent libraries and librarians in Cuba.
Via Bob Kent, Co-chair Friends of Cuban Libraries:
Endless shame of the spineless American Library Association
By [...]

Via Pinceladas de Cuba, with English subtitles a landmark documentary which screened this past summer in Miami on the life and activism of Orlando Zapata.  It's the first such project from the Institute  (Facebook),   that includes coordination with an opposition organization in Cuba, Plantados hasta la Libertad en Cuba.

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Since the February murder of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, his grieving  mother, Reina Luisa Tamayo, has wanted nothing more than to go to Mass on Sunday, and then to visit the grave of her son.  For this, she has been terrorized by the Castro regime.  She has been held prisoner in her home, surrounded by violent mobs, [...]

Luis Felipe Rojas, and Yoani Sanchez report on Twitter that Reina Luisa Tamayo and about 40 her followers were detained after being attacked by police  lying in wait outside the cemetery in Banes.   
I'll update as news becomes available.
Update: from Radio Martí:
Drama en Banes
Dama de Blanco Reina Luisa Tamayo.
(Radio Martí, 31/10/10) - Damas de Blanco y de [...]

I love it, perfect turn of words for the worthless thugs responsible for the ruin of Cuba.   According to Ralph R. Reiland, restaurateur and an associate professor of economics, it's an old Texas put-down about those who can't deliver.
Here' s what else he has to say about fidel & company in his excellent article Cuba:  A centralized failure:
Here's a [...]

Sign the petition calling for the release of Cuban prisoner of conscience Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet.

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Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet González, a devout Christian, follower of the philosophies of Henry David Thoreau, Martin Luther King, Jr., Mahatma Gandhi and the Dalai Lama, was arbitrarily detained 26 times from June 1998 to November 1999. This Cuban physician, a prisoner of conscience, has been mistreated physically and psychologically and has suffered beatings, threats, [...]

Oswaldo Payo received a phone call pleading for help as 500 government thugs terrorize a family of dissidents. Throwing eggs, beating and kicking people including the children. 
The message in Spanish:
URGENTE, informa Oswaldo Paya de acto de repudio masivo en guantanamo, 500 personas contra una familia de disidentes
Urgente via telefonica. acto de repudio masivo en guantanamo, 500 personas contra una familia de [...]

Fidel Castro beckoned Jeffrey Goldberg to Cuba for a chat, and Mr. Goldberg gladly accepted the invitation. With friend of Fidel Julia "Cuba Expert" Sweig in tow, he eagerly departed to Cuba, “the tropical socialist island paradise," to "get a glimpse of the great man." (Sic)
One of the resulting articles, Fidel to Ahmadinejad: 'Stop Slandering the Jews, is a surreal walk through Fidel [...]

Excellent segment on Cuba's Medical Brigades from CBN.

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Dear Sir or Madam:
We write to you worried about the police and paramilitary harassment denounced from Banes, a small town in the Cuban province of Holguín, by Reina Luisa Tamayo. She is the mother of Orlando Zapata Tamayo the prisoner of conscience who died on 23 February after a prolonged hunger strike that up to [...]

Always, I end my day quietly contemplating the passing of yet another day of Cuba's long nightmare, and the fact that the monster lives to inflict more suffering upon his victims.  How many more days must the Cuban people endure?  How many more days can they endure?
I bid farewell to 26 de Julio 2010 with these words from [...]

Cardenal Ortega is certainly looking out for his lord and master, castro, inc.   After Cuban state thugs beat the defiant and now paraplegic former political prisoner, and that negative news hit the Internet, the Cardinal helped the regime see the error of their ways, and now they've had a change of heart.  Bastards, the only reason he needs [...]