would say the US embargo
was a benefit to Castro politically – something to blame problems on, by what the Cubans call
“the imperialist,” meddling in their affairs.

* While despised by some, he is seen as a revolutionary hero, especially with leftist in Latin America, for standing up to the United States.

Any questions, please call the international desk.

Allison

The sender of this email is Allison Flexner whose current position at CNN is unknown. She was a producer and has been in Cuba according to this transcript from 2000.

Smoking gun evidence about how the mainstream media and particularly CNN, which we have always referred to as the castro news network, is trying to sanitize castro's legacy, EVEN NOW!

As if health care and education were a good enough excuse to violate human rights.exception. In addition to the fact they have published a very insightful column today, the quoted my piece in Pajamas Media. Did I mention how much I love IBD?

Raul may permit some economic freedom, but he remains a doctrinaire Marxist and will do so only if it serves the state. Real reform, however, is not about tactics. It's about giving rights to people. Castro's exit and Cuba's transition to a family dynasty with a large fortune should not be mistaken for real democracy.

Also, IBD has this great cartoon by the best political cartoonist I have seen, Michael Ramirez.

Another Must Read

From good friend and Babalu contributor Marc Masferrer, at Uncommon Sense:

Fidel Castro "retires"

Fidel Castro has retired after more than 49 years as one of history's most brutal dictators.

He leaves


million in defaulted Cuban debt as the countries take steps to increase trade.

The accord, reached yesterday in Havana by diplomats, comes after six years of decreasing financial ties between the countries, the Mexican Trade and Export Bank said yesterday in a release. State-owned Banco Nacional de Cuba and the island nation's central bank will be responsible for the debt, according to the statement. Terms weren't disclosed.

The money being refinanced will be used to fund Mexican exports to the Communist-ruled island. According to data from the Mexican bank, known as Bancomext, trade between the nations fell to about $200 million last year from an average $435 million a year during the 1990s.

Under acting President Raul Castro, Cuba's government has been renegotiating terms of its defaulted debt to attract newinvestment and blunt the effect of a 46-year U.S.-led economic embargo. Since Raul Castro replaced his ailing brother Fidel in July 2006, Cuba has restructured $166 million in defaulted loans with Russia and stretched out payments with Venezuela for billions of dollars in annual oil purchases.

Fidel Castro, who had ruled Cuba since ousting U.S.-backed President Fulgencio Batista in 1959, suspended payments on about $11 billion of debt during the late 1980s as financial aid from the Soviet Union began to phase out.

In May 2006, Bancomext recovered $35 million of defaulted Cuban debt after an Italian court ordered payments should be made to Mexico from a Cuban escrow account in Italy. Banco Nacional de Cuba had stopped debt payments to Mexico on behalf of Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba


in bringing freedom to Cuba," Democratic Sen. Barack Obama said in a statement.

"Cuba's future should be determined by the Cuban people and not by an anti-democratic successor regime," Obama said. "The prompt release of all prisoners of conscience wrongly jailed for standing up for the basic freedoms too long denied to the Cuban people would mark an important break with the past. It's time for these heroes to be released."

Obama also urged that the United State be prepared to take steps to normalize relations with Cuba and to ease the trade embargo of the last five decades if the Cuban leadership "begins opening Cuba to meaningful democratic change."

Republican Sen. John McCain also underscored that "freedom for the Cuban people is not yet at hand" despite Castro's resignation.

"We mustpress the Cuban regime to release all political prisoners unconditionally, to legalize all political parties, labor unions and free media, and to schedule internationally monitored elections," McCain said in a statement.

"Cuba's transition to democracy is inevitable; it is a matter of when not if. With the resignation of Fidel Castro, the Cuban people have an opportunity to move forward and continue pushing for the moment that they will truly be free. America can and should help hasten the sparking of freedom in Cuba. The Cuban people have waited long enough."

The ailing, 81-year-old Castro resigned as Cuba's president after nearly a half-century in power. His 76-year-old brother Raul, who has hinted at political reforms, has been ruling in his place since June 2006.

At least the Danes get it!

The Broken


Record

This morning as I sat down to drink my coffee, I flipped on the radio to the BBC World Service to see just what type of coverage the European new outlets were providing with regards to fifo’s “official retirement” announcement. I was not at all surprised at what I heard.

The story focused on the origins of the revolution and a vivid – if fictional – portrayal of what pre-Castro Cuba was really like. Allow me to break down the story in the standard bullet points:

• The island of Cuba was run by the American mafia.

• Cuba was an impoverished third-world country with a tiny minority of wealthy landowners pitted against the lowly working class.

• Healthcare was abysmal.

• Cuba was nothing more than a playground for American tourists.

• EnterO'Grady on Biscet back in November.

A Cuban Hero

Cuban physician Oscar Elías Biscet and seven others will be awarded the presidential medal of freedom by George W. Bush in a White House ceremony today. But Dr. Biscet will not be there to accept his honor in person. Today, like most days for the better part of the past eight years, he is locked away in a dungeon on Fidel Castro's island paradise.

Tales of totalitarian gulags may strike some readers as ancient history, something that happened during Europe's 20th-century experiments in fascism, communism and Nazism. Yet in Cuba, the gulag and its suffering have not ended. Dr. Biscet's medal serves to remind us of this fact. By raising the profile of his struggle for a free Cuba, the award also


of over 95% of the people with the right to cast a vote. The first National Assembly was established on December 2nd that same year; this elected the State Council and its presidency. Before that, I had been a Prime Minister for almost 18 years. I always had the necessary prerogatives to carry forward the revolutionary work with the support of the overwhelming majority of the people.

There were those overseas who, aware of my critical health condition, thought that my provisional resignation, on July 31, 2006, to the position of President of the State Council, which I left to First Vice-President Raul Castro Ruz, was final. But Raul, who is also minister of the Armed Forces on account of his own personal merits, and the other comrades ofwas created by Clinton to stop the humanitarian crisis that was occurring in the straights of Florida. The flip side of that coin is the visa lottery in which 20,000 visas are issued to Cuban annually. In the last 10 years more than 200,000 Cubans have come to the U.S. mainly settling in South Florida.

Also Joe mentions the hundreds of millions of dollars of food sales to Cuba that have taken place under Bush. What he neglects to mention is that provision for those food sales were part of a greater bill and that our congresspersons were against it. Joe claims that he was against it too but when I cornered him during the Babalu Radio Hour on which he appeared about whether he was for or against


continuing the sale of food to Cuba (I'm against it) he said that "Now that it's done it's pointless to oppose it." So Joe is essentially criticizing the President's administration for going along with a policy that Congress passed that he himself is currently in favor of. Huh?

Submarine Car

What's the first thing you think of looking at this photo?

This recent picture released by Swiss car maker Rinspeed shows people aboard Rinspeed's new model, the sQuba, the world's first real submersible car that will be presented at the 2008 Geneva car show in March. The zero-emission electric sports car, with power supplied by rechargeable Lithium-Ion batteries, can perform a submerged stabile flight at a depth of 10 meters.

President's Day Quiz

I came up with some questions about United States Presidentsand presidential candidates as they relate to Cuba. See what you know (or don't).

The Mariel Boat lift took place during this President's administration.

This U.S. President requested authorization from the U.S. Congress to intervene in Cuba during the Spanish-American war.

The first president who tried to normalize relations with castro's Cuba but stopped when castro sent troops to Angola.

This administration banned travel by Cuban officials to United States.

United States began broadcasting to Cuba over Radio Marti under this president.

This president lifted the ban on travel to Cuba.

When castro came to Washington in 1959, this then vice president had to meet with him when the president refused to.

The Bay of Pigs invasion was PLANNED under this president's administration but carried out by the next administration.

When this president was in office, Congress


tightened sanctions and prohibited foreign subsidiaries of U.S. companies from trading with Cuba, travel to Cuba by U.S. citizens and family remittances to Cuba.

This former 2008 Presidential candidate barred castro from attending the 50th anniversary of the United Nations and special events related to it.

Under this president, 6 year old refugee Elian Gonzalez was forcibly removed from his relatives' home in Miami on Easter Sunday to be returned to his father in Cuba.

The Helms-Burton act was passed during this president's administration.

Addressing members of the Cuban Invasion Brigade from the Bay of Pigs invasion and thousands of Cuban exiles at the Orange Bowl, this president, upon receiving the brigade's flag, told the exiles: "I can assure you that this flag will be returned to this brigade in a freeHavana."

Cuban political prisoner, Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, was awarded the presidential medal of freedom by this president. The award was accepted by his family since Dr. Biscet is still in jail.

This 2008 presidential candidate was called a liar by castro for stating that POWs in Hanoi were tortured by Cubans in Vietnam.

One of the volunteers in this 2008 presidential candidate's campaign displayed a giant Cuban flag with che guevara's face on it at a local campaign headquarters in Texas.

*Batteries Colostomy bag not included.

do-rey-mi-fa-so-la...

Attention Babalu Readers:

I am looking for a lady with a good singing voice and a decent knowledge of computers to help me and a couple of blog buddies to produce a top notch version of our parody: HOW DO YOU FREE OBAMA FROM MARIA?

The original music


jurisdiction after another, even as his mesmeric power has begun to arouse skepticism and misgivings among the mainstream media.

ABC's Jake Tapper notes the "Helter-Skelter cult-ish qualities" of "Obama worshipers," what Joel Stein of the Los Angeles Times calls "the Cult of Obama." Obama's Super Tuesday victory speech was a classic of the genre. Its effect was electric, eliciting a rhythmic fervor in the audience -- to such rhetorical nonsense as "We are the ones we've been waiting for. (Cheers, applause.) We are the change that we seek."

That was too much for Time's Joe Klein. "There was something just a wee bit creepy about the mass messianism," he wrote. "The message is becoming dangerously self-referential. The Obama campaign all too often is about how wonderful the Obama campaign is."

...

Obamaof this happened, so this is my first and only knowledge of the situation.

Apparently, back in 1995 a Cuban-American Democratic fund-raiser named Vivian Mannerud solicited a campaign donation from Jorge Cabrera, a convicted felon. This solicitation reportedly took place at the Copacabana Hotel in Havana. Cabrera wrote a check for $20,000 several days after that meeting. Within two weeks of the contribution, Cabrera met Gore at a fund-raising dinner in Miami. Ten days later, he attended a Christmas reception at the White House hosted by none other than Hillary Rodham Clinton. At the events, Gore and Mrs. Clinton posed for photographs with Cabrera. In January, Cabrera received an invitation to Clinton’s inauguration.

The first question that may come to mind is, what were these two doing in Cuba?

Cabrera never


said what he was doing there, but common sense tells you that he was most likely negotiating his latest drug smuggling operation with the regime. When he was arrested in January 1996 on drug smuggling charges, agents found a picture of Cabrera with Castro. Cabrera and several accomplices were charged with having smuggled 3,000 pounds of cocaine into the US. He tried to obtain a lighter sentence by contending that the Cuban Government was involved in his drug trafficking. Attorney General Janet Reno denied the case a special prosecutor to investigate Cabrera’s accusation. For more info on Cuba and drug trafficking, visit Prof. De La Cova’s site: http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/drug-trafficking.htm

Mannerud was likely also negotiating with the regime. The Times article states that she owns Airline Brokers Co., an airline charterthe MSM

IN 1963, John F. Kennedy was murdered in Texas by a fervent admirer of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. In 2008, a large Cuban flag emblazoned with the image of Che Guevara, Castro's brutal henchman, is prominently displayed in a Barack Obama campaign volunteer office in Houston...

President Kennedy, a stalwart anticommunist, despised Castro and his gang of totalitarian thugs. But when word broke last week that Obama's supporters in Houston work under a banner glorifying Che, the campaign's reaction was to brush it off as an issue involving volunteers, not the official campaign. After two days of controversy, the campaign issued a statement calling the flag "inappropriate" and saying its display "does not reflect Senator Obama's views." Would JFK have reacted so mildly?

In December 1962, Kennedy offered a


blunt summary of the Castro/Che record. "The Cuban people were promised by the revolution political liberty, social justice, intellectual freedom, land for the campesinos, and an end to economic exploitation," he said. "They have received a police state, the elimination of the dignity of land ownership, the destruction of free speech and a free press, and the complete subjugation of individual human welfare." Eleven months later, in a speech intended for delivery on the day he was assassinated, Kennedy regretted that Castro's "Communist foothold" in Latin America had "not yet been eliminated."

...

The lionizing of Che, a sociopath who relished killing and acclaimed "the pedagogy of the firing squad," is not just "inappropriate." It is vile. No American in his right mind would be caught dead wearing a DavidDuke T-shirt or displaying a poster of Pol Pot. A celebrity who was spotted with a swastika-festooned cap or an actress who revealed that she had gotten a tattoo depicting Timothy McVeigh would inspire only repugnance. No presidential campaign would need more than 30 seconds to sever its ties to anyone, paid staffer or volunteer, whose office was adorned with a Ku Klux Klan banner. Yet Che's likeness, which ought to be as loathed as any of those, is instead a trendy bestseller and a cult favorite.

Like totalitarians of every stripe, Che didn't scruple at the death of innocents. "Quit the dallying!" he ordered Jose Vilasuso, a conscientious government lawyer who was seeking evidence against several prisoners. "Your job is a very simple one. Judicial evidence is an


just "inappropriate." It is vile. No American in his right mind would be caught dead wearing a David Duke T-shirt or displaying a poster of Pol Pot. A celebrity who was spotted with a swastika-festooned cap or an actress who revealed that she had gotten a tattoo depicting Timothy McVeigh would inspire only repugnance. No presidential campaign would need more than 30 seconds to sever its ties to anyone, paid staffer or volunteer, whose office was adorned with a Ku Klux Klan banner. Yet [c]he's likeness, which ought to be as loathed as any of those, is instead a trendy bestseller and a cult favorite.

He's another Cuban who has done good in America, and would love to represent his new country at the Olympics, if given the chance.be watching a rerun of the George López show at the same time. (There was nothing else on.) It was the episode where George, his Cuban father-in-law Vic (real Cuban Emiliano Díez), and his friend Ernie are in a bar drinking and Vic, tipsy, gets the idea to overthrow castro. George tells him to "get over it."

Luckily the episode redeemed itself with a more positive message of a rescue mission (see end of the post). But this "get over it" expression as it relates to the Cuban-American community is not new. I asked myself, "How is it acceptable for people to tell Cubans to "get over" what they have been through? Can you imagine going up to an eighty-year old German Jew and telling him to "get over"


the Holocaust? Just as the Holocaust defines a European Jew who had to flee the nazis, so does living in exile define the Cuban-American community.

To assume that Cubans will "get over" having to leave their possessions, their businesses, their homes, their family, their way of life, their language, their culture, their friends, is absurd, no matter how many years later it is. To think that just because it is almost 5 decades since castro is in power that those who fled with the shirts on their backs and a few bucks in their pockets, only to have to start over in a country where they spoke no English and had to start life here dependent on the kindness of others will "get over it" is asinine. Asking someonewho was put on a freedom flight as a frightened little child without his parents so he could avoid indoctrination, only to not see his parents until years later: "When do you think you'll get over it?" is cruel.

What, exactly, is the time frame to "get over it" for someone whose father was put to death by castro's regime, whose blood was first drained from his body, and then later whose remains were dug up and thrown away in retaliation for an anti-castro article? I wonder if journalist Bonnie Anderson, whose father I just described, has "gotten over it." I wonder if the men who were in La Cabaña prison who heard their friends scream and pray to Christ and then heard the gunshots of che guevara snuffing


end of the George López Show episode, George, Ernie and Vic ended up setting sail from Miami in Vic's boat (The Cuba Libre) and rescued Vic's brother in the water. The last scene shows Vic and his brother saying what they would do to Castro if they ever saw him again. López shows up in a Castro costume and scares the hell out of them and then gets chased down. Watch the rest.

P.S. On an unrelated note- Henry gave me the nickname of "águila" because I am a Philadelphia Eagles fan. It didn't occur to me to explain it earlier- sorry.

Econ 101

Ron Paul has centered much of his campaign around economic issues. He talks about "printing money" and inflationary taxation etc. A lot of what he says hasPeter Robinson of the Hoover Institution and his guests are Ken Judd a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution John Taylor a professor of economics at Stanford University also a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.

On this date in history

16 de febrero, 1959

Forty-nine years ago today, the bearded killer proclaimed himself the Premier of Cuba. He was not elected by the people but by the guns and tanks he controlled.

An abominable darkness began to shroud the once brilliant island of Cuba on January 1st, 1959, and by this day forty-nine years ago, that darkness smothered almost every remaining light of hope that flickered in the land of Marti. It has never been able to extinguish, however, the light that still shines bright within the heart and soul of


excitement in the Houston area and how volunteers were mobilizing as the TWO campaigns were coming to town. Maria Isabel appeared in all of these segments. In two of these, she is seen in a "new" volunteer office and on the wall next to a tiny Obama poster she has this HUGE cuban flag with Che's face superimposed on it. The news reports made no mention of the flag. The merely showed the office as it was when they filmed the pieces. It was not until conservative bloggers began making hay about it that the TV station went back to ask her about the flag.

3. Maria Isabel is a precinct captain for Obama. She is also co-chair of a volunteer group called Houston Obama Leadership Team (HOLT). Shehas pictures of herself with both Obama and his wife on her Flickr page. She is obviously very active in both the campaign and the Democratic party. Just because she's not a paid employ does not exonerate her or the campaign. Almost everyone except the very top people on a campaign are volunteers.

4. Maria Isabel is Cuban. She says so in the follow-up piece the TV news did on her after the controversy sprung up. She does not have the excuse of not knowing who the real Che was. Additionally, bloggers from Houston who know of her say she flies the Guevara/Cuban flag from the balcony of her apartment.

5. Maria Isabel is no stranger to the TV News in Houston. A couple of years ago she bought a


of the auditorium, there on stage were two older gentlemen in uniform waiting for me. They held a placque in their hands. I had been awarded the American Legion Award. And as I accepted the award from the two veterans, right there, in the audience, front row center, dressed in a suit and tie, was my old man giving me a standing ovation.

Today is the old man's 77th birthday. And after work we'll head over to their home and have dinner and cut him a cake and sing him Happy Birthday and give him a birthday gift or two. And he'll smilingly tear open the gift wrap, open the fancy boxes and pull out the shirts or belts or colognes he's received and then thank us with ateam mates, your fans and our community. You will always be one of the greatest Miami Dolphins.

The socialist connections of Obama and the Democratic Party have certainly not been featured in the Washington Post columns of Harold Meyerson, who happens not only to be a member but a vice-chair of the DSA.

Campaign workers for Senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama are under fire for displaying a flag featuring communist hero Che Guevara. But Obama has his own controversial socialist connections. He is, in fact, an associate of a Chicago-based Marxist group with access to millions of labor union dollars and connections to expert political consultants, including a convicted swindler.

Obama's socialist backing goes back at least to 1996, when he received the endorsement of the Chicago branch of the


Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) for an Illinois state senate seat. Later, the Chicago DSA newsletter reported that Obama, as a state senator, showed up to eulogize Saul Mendelson, one of the "champions" of "Chicago's democratic left" and a long-time socialist activist. Obama's stint as a "community organizer" in Chicago has gotten some attention, but his relationship with the DSA socialists, who groomed and backed him, has been generally ignored.

Blogger Steve Bartin, who has been following Obama's career and involvement with the Chicago socialists, has uncovered a fascinating video showing Obama campaigning for openly socialist Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Interestingly, Sanders, who won his seat in 2006, called Obama "one of the great leaders of the United States Senate," even though Obama had only been in thebody for about two years. In 2007, the National Journal said that Obama had established himself as "the most liberal Senator." More liberal than Sanders? That is quite a feat. Does this make Obama a socialist, too?

DSA describes itself as the largest socialist organization in the United States and the principal U.S. affiliate of the Socialist International. The Socialist International (SI) has what is called "consultative status" with the United Nations. In other words, it works hand-in-glove with the world body.

The international connection is important and significant because an Obama bill, "The Global Poverty Act," has just been rushed through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, with the assistance of Democratic Senator Joe Biden, the chairman, and Republican Senator Richard Lugar. The legislation (S.2433) commits the U.S. to spending


hundreds of billions of dollars more in foreign aid on the rest of the world, in order to comply with the "Millennium Goals" established by the United Nations. Conservative members of the committee were largely caught off-guard by the move to pass the Obama bill but are putting a "hold" on it, in order to try to prevent the legislation, which also quickly passed the House, from being quickly brought up for a full Senate vote. But observers think that Senate Democrats may try to pass it quickly anyway, in order to give Obama a precious legislative "victory" that he could run on.

Another group associated with the SI is the Party of European Socialists (PES), which heard from Howard Dean, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, backin 2006. Dean's speech is posted on the official Democratic Party website, although the European socialist parties are referred to as "progressive." Democrats, Dean said, want to be "good citizens of the world community." He spoke at a session on "Global Challenges for Progressive Politics."

Following up, in April 2007, PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen reported that European socialists held a meeting "in the Democrats HQ in Washington," met with officials of the party and Democratic members of Congress, and agreed that "PES activist groups" in various U.S. cities would start working together. The photos of the trip show Rasmussen meeting with such figures as Senator Ben Cardin, Senator Bernie Sanders, officials of the Brookings Institution, Howard Dean, and AFL-CIO President John W. Sweeney, a member of the DSA.


The Brookings Institution is headed by former Clinton State Department official Strobe Talbott, a proponent of world government who was recently identified in the book Comrade J as having been a pawn of the Russian intelligence service.

The socialist connections of Obama and the Democratic Party have certainly not been featured in the Washington Post columns of Harold Meyerson, who happens not only to be a member but a vice-chair of the DSA. Meyerson, the subject of our 2005 column, "A Socialist at the Washington Post," has praised convicted inside-trader George Soros for manipulating campaign finance laws to benefit the far-left elements of the Democratic Party. Obama's success in the Democratic presidential primaries and caucuses is further evidence of Soros's success. Indeed, Soros has financially contributed to the Obamacampaign.

It is not surprising that the Chicago Democrat, Rep. Jan Schakowsky, has endorsed Obama. Schakowsky, who endorsed Howard Dean for president in 2004, was honored in 2000 at a dinner sponsored by the Chicago chapter of the DSA. Her husband, Robert Creamer, emerged from federal prison in November 2006 after serving five months for financial crimes. He pleaded guilty to ripping off financial institutions while running a non-profit group. Before he was convicted but under indictment, Creamer was hired by the Soros-funded Open Society Policy Center to sabotage John Bolton's nomination as Ambassador to the U.N.

After his release from prison, Creamer released a book, Listen to Your Mother: Stand up Straight: How Progressives Can Win, described by one blogger as the book that was "penned in the pen."


A blurb for the book declares, "Some people think that in order to win, Democrats need to move to the political center by adopting conservative values and splitting the difference between progressive and conservative positions. History shows they are wrong. To win the next election and to win in the long term, we need to redefine the political center."

In addition to writing the book, Creamer is back in business, running his firm, Strategic Consulting Group, and advertising himself as "a consultant to the campaigns to end the war in Iraq, pass universal health care, change America's budget priorities and enact comprehensive immigration reform." His clients have included the AFL-CIO and MoveOn.org. In fact, his client list is a virtual who's who of the Democratic Party, organized labor, andMagazine creation of the Peter L. McLaren Foundation for Social Change.

This website is developed as a resource for students of critical pedagogy. The critical pedagogy which I support and practice advocates non-violent dissent, the development of a philosophy of praxis guided by a Marxist humanism, the study of revolutionary social movements and thought, and the struggle for socialist democracy. It is opposed to liberal democracy, which only serves to facilitate the reproduction of capital. It advocates a multiracial and anti-imperialist social movement dedicated to opposing racism, capitalism (both in private property and state property forms), sexism, heterosexism, hierarchies based on social class, as well as other forms of oppression. It draws its inspiration from philosophers of revolutionary praxis such as Paulo Freire, Raya Dunayevskaya, and other philosophers, social


theorists and political activists and supports all those who yearn and struggle for freedom. Critical pedagogy is opposed to both state terrorism and individual acts of terrorism. As Freire writes in The Pedagogy of Freedom, "Terrorism is the negation of what I call a universal human ethic." Critical pedagogy is driven by the engine of class struggle in both national and international arenas.

Please follow the above links and learn more about this Canadian born professor of Marxist indoctrination. See for yourself the brain washing that's taking place in our universities. McLaren is not some marginalized campus flake, but a copiously published respected scholar. It is frightening, and he is not alone.

"She can't catch us."

Obama Statement on Guevara Flag

Less than inspiring...

Statement from the Barack Obama Campaign over Inappropriate Usetorn down and replaced with a new house featuring a 50-foot "meditation tower" looming over them. Here's a blog post with excerpts from a Houston Chronicle story at the time.

Yes, the house's new owner, Barry Norman, told the city commission, he knew he was buying property in a historic neighborhood, the Old Sixth Ward. But he had no intention of keeping the little Queen Anne cottage that stood at 1814 Lubbock since 1885. In fact, he was applying for permission to tear it down.

On the lot, Norman and his wife, Maria Isabel, proposed to build an aggressively modern house out of concrete block, metal and Hardiplank siding. Isabel, an architectural designer, had drawn up the plans herself.

With its tallest point (a meditation tower) at 49 feet 9 inches,


years, the Dominican sisters have been living a life of prayer and contemplation, far removed from the world of ordinary cares. The article is really fascinating in so far as the sisters explain their lives of union with God, something they're not given to doing.

At the moment, only two of the seven sisters at the convent are Cuban. In an interesting side note that may amplify why, not two days ago, a family member was telling me that when the cloistered Carmelite community in her town was intervenido, the nuns were summarily packed up and shipped off to Canada. Not content with looting the convent and booting the nuns, the good revolutionaries then set about trashing the reputation of the same, putting it our that they found scadscaptain.

Not only that, SHE'S CUBAN!

Here's an interview with this commie dingbat.

Guevara, of course, was the Argentine murderer that helped establish the Castro dictatorship in Cuba before he was killed by Bolivian Rangers after trying to launch a similar guerrilla war in that country. Guevara was Castro's chief executioner at the Military Fortress called La Cabaña.

Most Cuban-Americans despise Che Guevara, Fidel Castro and the communist regime. Then again most Cuban-Americans are Republican. Obama's supporters and Democrats in general deny their socialist tendencies. Ms. Isabel apparently didn't get the memo. She's gotten it now.

In researching this post I found that pages on Obama's web site, generated by supporters, that praise the butcher of La Cabaña have been deleted. Of course there's always google cache to preserve the evidence.

DUmmie FUnnies takes


told us "yes we can" way before Barack Obama did and who meant us as in us, not us as in the federal government.

The hoodlum from Managua chimes in

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega slashed out at US oil firm Exxon Mobil for launching "a clear offensive of the empire in order to push (Venezuelan state-run oil firm) Pdvsa into bankruptcy," Efe reported.

The Sandinist leader claimed it was not by chance that the US National Security Director Michael McConnell told the US Congress that "the things that are happening in Latin America involve a threat."

According to Ortega, the US intelligence community in a report McConnell presented last February 5 was referring to Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia, and Ecuador, and their Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA).

He added that such remarkscome as part of a plan against Venezuela. He added that at the same time Exxon Mobil is winning court orders freezing Pdvsa's assets.In his view, if Pdvsa goes bankrupt, all of the projects Venezuela is funding to help Nicaragua and other countries in the areas of energy, education, health, and agricultural would die. (emphasis mine)

Don't worry Danny boy, chavez doesn't have the guts to follow through on his threats. Your sacred cash cow, PDVSA, is safe. Safer than your stepdaughter Zoilamérica ever was in your care.

Student: "I was never arrested"

The Cuban propaganda machine can be an impressive beast, with the ability to be called into action at a moment's notice to spread the daily version of the big lie.

University student Eliécer Ávila Cicilia showed up on Cuban


television Monday night, to dispute earlier reports that he was under arrest after he gave the third degree to communist party hack Ricardo "Little Ricky" Alarcon.

According to Ávila, police and other officials showed up at his house not to arrest him, but to help him get treatment for a health problem and to give him a ride back to college.

Disappearing articles at Herald.com

Read about it at Herald Watch. The story was about the arrest of Eliécer Ávila. the Cuban student that grilled tricky ricky alarcon in a video that has been widely circulated in the international media.

Follow up to Eliécer Ávila Cicilia

I just heard a report from a family friend with relatives in Camaguey. University students have been and continue to be detained at an increased level offrequency over the past week.

One specific member of that family is a university student with long hair. He was warned to stay home from school today because they would probably arrest him if he was seen on the street with his long hair. Just like things were in the 60's.

The government is obviously scared to death about student movements given what they were able to accomplish in Venezuela and the recent global press coverage of Eliecer.

Message to Cuba's junta

PARIS - France is to try 17 Chileans in absentia over the disappearance of four French or French-Chilean nationals in Chile during the rule of dictator Augusto Pinochet, the French state prosecutor's office said on Monday.

The 17, most of whom were military officers, will go on trial on charges of


"arbitrary detention accompanied, or followed, by torture and barbarous acts" in a period between 1973 and 1975, it said.

Pinochet, who held power in Chile from 1973 to 1990, was implicated in the disappearance of the same four French nationals but died in December 2006 without ever facing trial.

Despite the death of Augusto Pinochet, this trial will nonetheless be a posthumous judgment on not only the dictator but also the whole of his system of repression," a statement on behalf of the families of the four victims said.

There's a living dictator whose crimes against humantiy far exceed those of Pinochet, where is the justice for his victims?

Miseducation

Alarcon defended the lack of travel and free internet to Eliécer Ávila Cicilia (see Marc's unfortunate post below) by lauding Cuba's health careout of school being labeled "specialists" by the castro government when they are shipped to foreign countries. Teachers (a.k.a children) are taken from their families in their early teens and shipped off to different provinces who are in need of their services. The "teachers" aren't much older than the students themselves, which gives rise to an elevated number of sexual relationships between "teachers" and students.

The result?

- In a third grade classroom, a young male teacher made students perform sexual acts in order to prove that they weren't homosexuals.

- In another primary school, two young female teachers, the gardner and a cleaning lady would make students take off their bottoms and then proceed to touch the students in inappropriate places. In their defense, they said it was only a


In his usual, and by now worn out routine on his weekly radio and TV show, “Hello, President Monkey Boy,” chavez once again does his best King Kong imitation and pounds his fists on his chest.

"If you end up freezing (Venezuelan assets) and it harms us, we're going to harm you," Chavez said during his weekly radio and television program, "Hello, President Monkey Boy." "Do you know how? We aren't going to send oil to the United States. Take note, Mr. Bush, Mr. Danger."

Chavez has repeatedly threatened to cut off oil shipments to the United States, which is Venezuela's No. 1 client, if Washington tries to oust him. Chavez's warnings on Sunday appeared to extend that threat to attempts by oil companies to challenge his government's nationalization driveactivist Juan Carlos González Leiva.

Elsa Cicilia said she worried that her son would be forced to retract questions and comments he made during the videotaped session with Alarcon, which became public last week. Cicilia said Lage's son mentioned that she should watch the "Mesa Redondo" program on Cuban television for more information, according to González's report.

Ávila, whom AFP identified as a "self-avowed government supporter," questioned Alarcon about restrictions on travel, Internet usage and other parts of Cuban life, during a session held during the nation's recent "election campaign."

AFP described the exchange between Ávila and Alarcon:

"Why don't the Cuban people have the real possibility to stay at hotels or travel to different places around the world?" Eliecer Avila, a self-avowed government supporter at the University of Computer Science, demanded


of Cuba's top lawmaker.

Alarcon tried to justify Cuba's policies controlling its nationals' travel, saying: "if everybody in the world, all six billion inhabitants, were able to travel wherever they pleased, there would be a tremendous traffic jam in our planet's airspace.

"People who travel are really a minority," he said.

And in implied criticism of Cuba's economic policy, Avila asked why staples such as food, cleaning products and clothing must be purchased with convertible pesos, when workers everywhere are paid in normal currency, which is worth 1/25th.

Alarcon, who reminded his audience of what the government maintains are the gains made in 50 years of Cuban Revolution, did not address the earning power/currency question, and sidestepped another question about the limits the government has on Internet access.

February 10, 2008

Environmental idiocy

From thedelegates necessary to win.

There is still the matter of the Super Delegates, elected politicians and party leaders who gain automatic entrance to the Democratic convention Denver, they aren't committed to any candidate though it was widely believed that Clinton had the support of the majority. But if Obama goes into the convention with more regular delegates it will be hard for these Super Delegates to go against them, especially to spoil the nomination of the first serious black candidate for president. Ding, dong the witch is dead.

Not that that helps Republicans at all because Obama has higher favorables and lower negatives than Clinton.

So we have a 71 year old white man that has been in congress for close to three decades vs. a 46 year old black man


by a Cuban court, but he is still not a free man. He has resumed his opposition activities, for which the government has arrested him at least eight times since last April.

As long as Antúnez is denied a chance to go overseas for care, he is, in fact, waiting for a death sentence to be executed.

China's Firewall

Economic powerhouse China is flexing its muscle by lobbying internationally for more state control of the internet. Currently the web is managed by US based ICANN, or the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which is overseen by the U.S. Department of Commerce. According to Vincent Brossel of Reporters Without Borders, “If this happens, it will be the end of freedom of expression on the web.”

That landmark could come today, nextweek, or next month. According to the China Internet Network Information Centre, there were 210 million internet users at the end of last year, just 5 million behind the US. But China is adding 6 million new users a month - more than 10 times the pace of US growth.

In an Olympic year, and at a time of surging economic growth, the new figures are taken by some as proof of Beijing's irresistible rise. Not everyone likes it. Free speech activists fear it will increase the influence of China's censors in the virtual world. Foreign governments have raised concerns that the country has become a breeding ground for pirates, hackers and cyber spies.

It was not supposed to be like this. After the internet was connected to China in


1987, civil rights campaigners hoped it would be a catalyst for political reform. But 21 years on, the Communist party is still in power and its model of a tightly controlled internet is gaining ground, if only by force of numbers.

The world's most popular blog? Lao Xu, written by the actor and director Xu Jinglei, which boasts 137 million visitors. The biggest distributor of online video? Tudou, which claims to have overtaken YouTube with over 1bn megabytes of data transfers every day. Then there is Baidu, which has trounced Google in the Mandarin search engine market, and Alibaba, whose boss Jack Ma is a national hero for humbling eBay and taking over Yahoo's operations in China.

Language, culture and the Great Firewall of China - the state's information shield- protect the government and big business players from competition. Instant messaging and social networking are dominated here by Tuscent's QQ service. The game world is ruled by Shanda Entertainment and Giant Interactive rather than Nintendo and Sony. Sina and Sohu have a lockhold on the news. In every sector in China, domestic players are on top. Some are now starting to look overseas. Baidu recently launched a Japanese service.

Experts say that by overtaking the US as the world's biggest user base, China will attract investment, commercial traffic and technology. With this will come influence.

"This is a big landmark. The US has almost reached the point where it has not much room to grow. China is the opposite. In terms of new connectivity and economic growth, China is


this Reuters piece about a DVD entitled Liberación: The Songs of the New Cuban Underground. Apparently it's been nominated for a Grammy and everything. Chris Murphy, an Australian music entrepreneur, made the film. I wonder if Luis from Child of the Revolution knows anything about him.

Has anyone seen or heard anything about this movie? Sounds pretty cool and the article helps expose the greed of the Cuban government:

"There are very few places on the planet where there are all these (musical) gems left, because they've all been mined," says Murphy, who had previously licensed traditional son and bolero from Cuban government libraries. When recording began, word spread quickly among the city's aspiring artists -- and the Cuban government, which, Murphy says, began trailing his crew.

"We started getting wordthe United States? As far as I know the Cuban government is a sworn enemy of the United States but has never risen to the level of anathema. However, its obliteration of individual freedoms and the oppression of its people might be anathema to all that Americans hold dear. And then there’s the question of subjugation. According to Lowe, Cuba went from fighting for its independence from Spain to “subjugation” by the US. Again the wording is questionable. You might maintain that the United States interfered in Cuban affairs and wielded undue influence, and was a tad colonialist. But as far as I know the United States never enslaved Cuba. Subjugation is what the people have been living under for the past half century.

But why quibble? The exhibit


to discuss the human rights crisis in Venezuela, the FARC alliance with the government of President Hugo Chávez, and the recent asset freeze imposed on the Venezuelan government in three countries.

Mr. Halvaorssen's father, a diplomat with the rank of ambassador, was falsely imprisoned, tortured, and savagely beaten in a Venezuelan jail in 1993. A freshman at the University of Pennsylvania at the time, Mr. Halvorssen led a campaign for his father’s safety and release, enlisting the support of Amnesty International, the International Society for Human Rights, and numerous human rights advocates and public figures. Mr. Halvorssen’s father was freed on Christmas Eve of 1993 and all charges against him were dropped. In August of 2004, Mr. Halvorssen’s mother, a child psychologist, was brutally gunned down and wounded bymembers of the Venezuelan government security apparatus while attending a peaceful public gathering

BREAKING: Antúnez in Hospital

Breaking news on dissident Jorge Luis Garcia Perez Antunez:

FROM CUBA
Former Cuban prisoner of conscience Antunez gravely ill in a hospital in Havana.

HAVANA, CUBA - February 8th ( Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello/www.plantados.org)- Former Cuban prisoner of conscience Jorge Luis Garcia Perez Antunez suffered a heart attack early this morning and was taken urgently to the National Hospital in Alta Habana, in the Havana municipality where he was admitted in the intensive care unit.
We send this alert to the entire world because we fear for Antunez' life.

The island's communist regime denies Antunez his right to travel to another country where he can be properly treated without any political pressures, so that afterwards he can return


to Cuba.

Reported over the telephone from Havana to "Plantados" until Liberty and Democracy in Cuba by Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello and sent to the Information Bridge Cuba Miami (www.puenteinfocubamiami.org) for distribution. Translation: Puente Informativo Cuba Miami.

monkey picks fight with lion - lion beats up monkey

Back in June of last year chavez the monkey king, taking a page straight out of the castro, Inc. play book, decided to nationalize the oil operations in Venezuela of Exxon Mobil Corp. and Conoco-Phillips. He fell in love with the notion that as king, he could take whatever he wanted from whomever without paying for it, like his mentor fidel does. But it should not come as a surprise to anyone that monkey boy did not read the fine print in the castroofficer in the civil war and is currently researching the Cuban population in the U.S. at the end of the 19th century. Besides all of that Alarcon, with his diplomatic credentials, gets to do things in New York that even New Yorkers can't like double park his car, etc.

Still I guess we should be thankful for small miracles. We'll see how long CNN and Morgan Neil are welcome in Cuba if they keep up this kind of "inconvenient" reporting. Inconvenient is the word the regime used when it expelled Chicago tribune reporter Gary Marx and BBC reporter Stephen Gibbs.

Take a last look

White House news

On March 1, 1996, by Proclamation 6867, a national emergency was declared to address the disturbance or threatened disturbance of international relations caused by the


February 24, 1996, destruction by the Cuban government of two unarmed U.S.-registered civilian aircraft in international airspace north of Cuba. In July 1996 and on subsequent occasions, the Cuban government stated its intent to forcefully defend its sovereignty against any U.S.-registered vessels or aircraft that might enter Cuban territorial waters or airspace while involved in a flotilla or peaceful protest. Since these events, the Cuban government has not demonstrated that it will refrain from the future use of reckless and excessive force against U.S. vessels or aircraft that may engage in memorial activities or peaceful protest north of Cuba. On February 26, 2004, by Proclamation 7757, the scope of the national emergency was expanded in order to deny monetary and material support to the repressive Cuban government, whichhad taken a series of steps to destabilize relations with the United States, including threatening to abrogate the Migration Accords with the United States and to close the United States Interests Section. Further, Cuba's most senior officials repeatedly asserted that the United States intended to invade Cuba, despite explicit denials from the U.S. Secretaries of State and Defense that such action is planned. Therefore, in accordance with section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)), I am continuing the national emergency with respect to Cuba and the emergency authority relating to the regulation of the anchorage and movement of vessels set out in Proclamation 6867 as amended and expanded by Proclamation 7757.

Ay Mama!

So, um, did you all have lunch already? If you havent, then dont worry,


of the Miami-Dade County Democratic Party to run for the seat. ``People of good conscience have to provide leadership and that's something we're sorely lacking in South Florida and have been for a long time.''

Mario Díaz-Balart, a Republican, was elected to Congress in 2002 from the West Miami-Dade congressional district he helped create as chairman of the state House's congressional redistricting committee.

He said in an e-mailed statement that he welcomed the challenge.

''Elections are a wonderful part of the democratic process,'' the statement said. ``As I have always done, I will base my campaign on my extensive record of cutting taxes on our families and small businesses while delivering hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding for our community's needs, including transportation, healthcare and education.''

Diaz-Balart, who has morethan $465,000 in his reelection account, is a member of the House Budget Committee, the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and the Science and Technology Committee.

The sprawling district includes West Miami-Dade, a sliver of Monroe County and extends to Naples in Collier County.

I kind of feel left out in the Lincoln/Martinez duel because I don't live in Lincoln's district. However, I do have a say in the Mario/Garcia race since I live in Mario's district, so I very much looking forward to what will undoubtedly be a very interesting campaign.

The South Florida Cuban-American Democrat delegation is putting a ton of its chips on the table in 2008. Gotta love it. Both races are going to answer a lot of questions and end any doubts regarding the state of Cuban-American


politics in South Florida, circa 2008. It's time to put up or shut up.

For pundits like us, it's almost like heaven. Can't wait to hear what Henry has to say about this one.

The media omits Cuba's role

There are truths, and half-truths, and sometimes what is left out becomes a lie by omission.

During the past few of days, I’ve read numerous articles (here, here, here) about Mondays protest against FARC. The articles correctly point out the organization's terrorist activities, and the terrible loss of life Columbians have suffered at the hands of FARC.

Also mentioned in the articles is the validation felt from the international display of solidarity, and the potential negative fallout to FARC supporter hugo chavez.

In Miami, as well as in Orlando, to mention only two cities inFlorida, there were impressive demonstrations that bear witness to the solidarity that exists between Colombians and individuals from other countries such as Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela who joined this worldwide protest which, actually, is unprecedented. Obviously, in other cities of the United States where great numbers of Colombians live, the demonstrations were equally significant.

In some way or another this worldwide movement that goes from Caracas to Toronto, from Paris to México, as well as many other cities in the five continents, will gravitate on the minds of those who for any reason whatsoever have influence with the FARC, especially the government of Venezuela, whose President, Lt. Col. Hugo Chávez expresses its solidarity with FARC. Even though this ruler does not respond normally to international reactions, it is necessary


today's Miami Herald, the news that Gerald Patrick Hemming has died. Who was Gerald Patrick Hemming? Good question, and one that is difficult to answer. He claimed to have fought alongside the castro rebels; made all sorts of accusations against the CIA; hinted dark conspiracies in the death of JFK. MLK; instructed a group of Cuban exile paratroopers, the International Penetration Force; and was himself at least once accused of being a Castro spy. The reality is hard to discern, although he was in Cuba and apparently did train exiles.

Perhaps that's why the Herald chose the angle of "Adventurer's life offers look at a bygone Miami" for its report. Read it here.

Lunch with Kay Abella

I'm sure we'll probably be chatting about a bunch of things - including thecould turn the country around and maybe achieve a real victory over the Communists in Vietnam. I was wrong. Richard Nixon turned out to be a polarizing figure, a flawed man who basically spoke like a conservative, but governed with all the doubt, angst and paranoia of a liberal. He was a walking inferiority complex running the country, and all we got for it was Watergate and a “just peace.” Instead of ending the Vietnam War with the unquestioned victory I had hoped for, he gave us the Paris Peace Talks. He gave us helicopters scrambling off the roof of our embassy in Saigon. He gave us wage and price controls. He took us off the gold standard. He gave us the Environmental Protection Agency.

In 1976, thoroughly disappointed


assessment which actually perceives the threat of Chavez. Surprisingly they are on target on a number of fronts:

In his written statement, McConnell, speaking on behalf of 16 U.S. government intelligence agencies, painted a picture of Chávez stung by a domestic electoral defeat and a worsening economy at home but determined to ``unite Latin America, under his leadership, behind an anti-U.S., radical leftist agenda and to look to Cuba as a key ideological ally.''

and

The report also notes Iran's growing ties with some nations, especially Venezuela. The two countries have signed agreements on everything from agriculture to automobiles manufacturing and have ''discussed cooperation on nuclear energy,'' but the U.S. intelligence community was ''not aware of any significant developments as a result'' of the talks.

and

The report also addresses the widely reportedthe barracks.

A terrorized, disorganized and fearful population hoping for change from above, with many hoping to migrate. There is a strong belief among the Cuban people about the efficacy of the security services and an overwhelming fear of their repressive capabilities. The political elite sees the development of a civil society as a major challenge to its absolute authority and a threat to its long term control. The limited gains made by a civil society independent of the Castro brothers in the past few years are the result of a deteriorating economy; disillusionment with the revolution and growing unhappiness with the Castro regime; influence of outside forces; and a limited relaxation of the system's control. Yet civil society remains weak, not very effective and watched carefully and constantly


by the security forces.

The possibility of regime continuity, therefore, seems stronger for Cuba than it was for other communist states. Although their end came suddenly, it took decades of decay to weaken critically the Eastern European regimes and successive leadership changes, as well as Soviet disengagement and acceptance before their collapse.

In Poland where the trade union Solidarity was born in 1980, as the first non-government trade union in communist history, a military-led government remained in power for a decade. In China , the communist regime obtained a new lease on life following Mao's death, initially through Deng's reforms and then ultimately through increased repression. In Syria , North Korea , and Jordan , children of former leaders took and retained power. Even in Haiti , the young Duvalierwas able to cling to power for almost a decade.

It is likely that Raul Castro will draw some lessons from these events and attempt to satisfy the needs of the Cuban people. He will initially purchase massive amounts of food to satisfy one of Cubans' major complaints. After a while he may initiate limited economic reforms, allowing private ownership of land in an attempt to increase food productivity; encourage foreign investments in key sectors where Cuba lacks technology or capital, i. e., off-shore oil exploration, ethanol based agriculture; and increase consumer goods imports from China .

Given Raul's dislike for the niceties of the diplomatic world and his dislike for speech making, he may remain in the background. He will continue to control the military and security apparatus allowing


on 2008 presidential hopefuls in yesterday's WSJ. And it's not good news for McCain, who is a darling of the MSM. Here's some of the most relevant excerpts:

Sen. McCain was one of only two Republican senators to oppose the 2001 tax cuts and one of only three GOP senators to oppose the 2003 reductions. Furthermore, his reason for opposing the cuts was taken straight from the playbook of the most radical left-wing Democrats. In 2001, Sen. McCain argued, "I cannot in good conscience support a tax cut in which so many of the benefits go to the most fortunate among us at the expense of middle-class Americans who need tax relief."

That statement is virtually indistinguishable from the class-warfare demagoguery used by Democrats like Ted Kennedy and John Kerry.McCain-Feingold bill (or the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act), named in part for the Arizona senator who gave it life, seeks to squash political dissent by imposing grossly unconstitutional restrictions on citizen participation in political debate.

In defense of the bill's provision severely limiting the freedom of private groups to run political TV ads, Sen. McCain argued in a Supreme Court brief, "These ads are direct, blatant attacks on the candidates. We don't think that's right." He thus anointed himself the arbiter of appropriate political speech, worthy of deciphering which speech is "right" and which should be permitted in American political debate. His law constitutes the greatest modern infringement of the First Amendment right to political free speech. While bestowing significant advantages upon incumbent office holders, it has created neither


like but McCain is not a good public speaker and an even worse debater.

Reason

I've always liked Drew Carey. Something about him always struck a chord with me. A few weeks ago I found out that he's collaborating with the folks at the libertarian Reason Magazine on something called the Drew Carey Project. This is the latest episode. Enjoy.

Romney's must win states

If Romney is to "live to fight another day" as described in the National Review article I quoted below, he's going to need to win most of the following states tomorrow:

Alaska (Romney actually campaigned there)
California (Polls have Romney surging, especially in the conservative Orange County and San Diego)
Colorado Caucus (Romney leading in the polls by a substantial margin)
Georgia (Romney is neck and neck with McCain in the latestthe community a voice . . . In this city that we live in sometimes a lot of people don't say the truth, and my mom did.''

He also recalled that despite her heavy workload, his mother was devoted to her family. ''She was the cornerstone in our family,'' he said.

''When I was a little kid she would take us to school, she would pick us up,'' he said. ``She made sure the radio show didn't interfere with family life.''

U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, paid tribute to Raquel Regalado in a telephone interview. She had known Raquel for more than 25 years and appeared on her show about a month ago to discuss the presidential campaign.

''She will be greatly missed,'' Ros-Lehtinen said. ``She was a warm-hearted individual who had


a lot of compassion for all the community members. Her voice will be sorely missed not just on the radio waves but throughout so many activities in our community.''

Regalado was born May 22, 1947, in Havana.

In 1960, she came to Miami with her father and two brothers -- part of the initial waves of Cuban refugees fleeing the takeover of the island by Fidel Castro in 1959.

Twelve years later, in 1972, she married Tomás Regalado and had three children: Tomás Jr., José Francisco and Raquel.

''My mother was a person that spent a lifetime serving others and never asking anything for herself,'' said her daughter Raquel. ``She had a life of sacrifice and love.

''We are thankful for the gift of having had her in our lives,'' she added.

Raquel Regalado'sradio career also began in 1972.

''Raquel got her start in radio with me, on the old Cadena Azul, during the '70s,'' said Tomás Regalado. ``She pursued a career in radio during her entire life, being heard over Radio Mambí, on WQBA and on La Poderosa.''

''She was a woman who always had a clear course once she set sails,'' said her friend Jorge A. Rodríguez, owner of La Poderosa and Cadena Azul. ``She was a woman with a strong character, passionate about her beliefs and struggles.''

Tomás Regalado asked that his wife be remembered for her struggle for human rights.

''During the '80s and early '90s, every year she would attend the meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva, which was a vital cause for her,'' he recalled.

Regalado


also traveled internationally for three decades to cover stories, he said.

Regalado is survived by her husband, three children, two grandchildren -- Isabella and Sebastián -- and a brother, José Ferreiro.

Services will be at noon Tuesday at St. Peter & Paul Catholic Church, 900 SW 26th Rd., Miami. Burial will follow at Flagler Memorial Park, at West Flagler and 53rd Avenue.

Does this mean he won’t be able to psychoanalyze himself?

Border games

The Mexicans are no good at it, but there is at least one piece of the American frontier where the United States can count on a foreign neighbor to do all it can to keep its citizens from crossing over to the American side:

The fenceline between the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo, "free" Cuba, if you will, and theevade Cuban security forces, chances are the Americans — representatives of "the land of the free" — would have tossed them back, for only having "muddy feet."

Steyn on McCain

The Clintons are nothing if not lucky, and Hillary must occasionally be enjoying a luxury-length cackle at the thought of being pitted against a 71-year old “maverick” whose record seems designed to antagonize just enough of the base into staying home on election day. In the 2000 campaign season, running in a desultory fashion for the New York Senate seat, Rudy Giuliani waged a brief half-hearted campaign just long enough to leave the Republican Party with no one to run against Hillary except a candidate who wasn’t up to the job. Has he managed to do the same this time


the original version, it continues to omit relevant information pertaining to Brothers to the Rescue (BTTR). More importantly, it leaves the viewer with an erroneous impression of some of the facts surrounding February 24, 1996.

The spokesperson for Shoot Down is Maggie Khuly, mother of director Christina Khuly Eger and sister of Armando Alejandre, Jr., one of the victims. Another figure prominently featured in the film is Richard Nuccio, the former head of Cuban Affairs at the U.S. State Department. Several of their statements demand rectification.

One of the most erroneous parts of the movie is Maggie Khuly’s affirmation that several of the exile organizations had asked BTTR not to fly on February 24. This is completely false.

Mrs. Khuly had never participated in BTTR’s activities or as a member ofthe organizations that supported Concilio Cubano, a coalition of dissident groups planning an unprecedented meeting on this historic day in Havana. Armando Alejandre, Jr., her brother, was one of seven individuals chosen by our exile organizations to coordinate efforts in support for Concilio Cubano. He wanted BTTR to fly on February 24 and he wanted to be part of that flight. Sadly, although he had flown with us weeks before as a volunteer on a humanitarian mission to help provide basic needs for fellow refugees at Nassau’s detention center, the day of the shoot down was his first – and only – search and rescue mission in the Straits of Florida.

Alejandre was dedicated to the non-violent struggle we adhered to at BTTR against the Castro dictatorship. He was


a man of action, not words; he was a true hero, committed to help bring about freedom and democracy to the oppressed Cuban people. If BTTR was asked not to fly that day why would Alejandre have flown with BTTR against the wishes of Concilio Cubano which he represented in exile?

The evening of Friday, February 23, 1996, various exile groups met at the Hyatt Hotel in Coral Gables where a support and information center for Concilio Cubano was operating. At the Hyatt meeting, Alejandre passed on to Sylvia Iriondo (the head of Mothers Against Repression, MAR por Cuba, and one of the survivors on my plane) who was sitting next to me, a note asking her to tell me on his behalf that BTTR should fly a humanitariansearch and rescue mission to the Straits of Florida the following morning and that he wanted to be a part of it. Mrs. Iriondo showed Armando’s note to me.

If Cuban exile organizations had warned, asked, pleaded or even suggested that BTTR not fly the next morning, would it have made sense that both Mr. Alejandre, as a leading member of Concilio Cubano’s coordinating group in exile, and Mrs. Iriondo, as head of one of the organizations actively supporting Concilio Cubano, place thenselves against their wishes and fly with us that day? NO such wishes were ever expressed. Shortly after the meeting, it was agreed that BTTR would fly a routine search and rescue mission in the Straits of Florida on February 24, 1996. The exile groups never asked


do not take off while the air force bases watched the persecution and shoot down of our planes for 53 minutes. Yet when the BTTR planes were not in the air that very morning and MiGs had been deployed, the Homestead fighter pilots were scrambled.

There was a protocol in place that had been used numerous times whenever MiGs were spotted. BTTR pilots were radioed; the BTTR base was informed; and interceptors were scrambled. No one – not one of the many agencies that were monitoring our flights that day – called to inform us we were being hunted down. Radar control stations were making screen prints and print-outs; an Orion intelligence aircraft was monitoring; and the U.S. government was watching. No one called Brothers to the Rescue. Evenas determined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) of the United Nations, while flying civilian aircraft on a humanitarian mission. We invite Nuccio to apologize to the four families for remaining silent when he could have prevented the shoot down.

Shoot Down is a documentary worth seeing only to reaffirm that truth and justice are yet to be attained.

February 03, 2008

John McCain Hates Me

Until last night, when I watched the Republican debate, I had no idea how much John McCain dislikes me and just about everybody else but Rudy Giuliani, who if you believe The New York Times is a pretty good hater himself.

As I watched McCain and Governor Romney go at it during the debate at the Reagan Library I was struck by the huge gap that


political process and attacked free speech.

I am appalled by his contempt for the intelligence of his listeners when he flat-out lies and expects them to believe what he says even when the truth is staring them in the face.

A prime example cited by columnist Robert Novak was McCain’s denial that he had privately suggested that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was too conservative, insisting that he recalled saying no such thing, adding that Alito was a "magnificent" choice.

In last night’s debate, McCain stubbornly defended his charge, false on the face of it, that Romney wanted a deadline for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq.

"I have never, ever supported a specific timetable" for withdrawing troops, Romney said, adding that McCain's accusation on the eve of Tuesday's primary "sort of fallsis naively and continuously lauded by castro sympathizers.

Cuban doctors upset by the statements of East Timor president Ramos Horta.

Díli, 23 Jan - The four Cuban doctors trying to flee of Timor-East for
the United States reacted today with indignation to the statements of
the timorese president, that Tuesday classified the case of mere
"economic opportunity".

"José Ramos Horta should concern itself by a foreign party in control,
function and driving inside his own country the health system, as is
happening now", affirmed doctor Alexis Oriol Rodriguez to the Portuguese
Agency in Díli.

"This is a political blackmail and should not be permitted by a
government or country that proclaims itself free, independent or
democratic", said the doctor.

Four of the 227 cooperative of the Cuban sanitary brigade in Timor-East
are asiking not to come back the Cuba.

The doctors, interviewed by


the Portuguese Agency, accuse Havana of
"export the tyranny" through the rigorous control of the Cuban Communist
Party (PC) to each one of the Cuban personnel in East Timor

The four doctors, without passport, live hidden in Díli there for about
three months, awaiting that the East Timor Government allow them to
leave the country.

"There is a law, passed by the Congress (North American) that guarantees
any Cuban doctor, that be in Cuba or in another country if itself will
want to go for the U.S.A. , without any special handling is
automatically accepted", declared José Ramos Horta to LUSA commenting
the case.

For the leader of Timorese State, is "natural" that in a country, as
Cuba, where the doctors "earn little", if the United States arise to
them and "offer privileges of doctor", that "encourages and encourages
them to go".

"IfPeace Awarded".

"In Cuba everything is a politics", underlined Irina Valdés Pérez about
the "economics" motives of his escape for the United States, country
where the four doctors have family.

"That it is the kind of repeated argument by the Embassy of Cuba",
increased to medical.

"The Government of Cuba, in the figure of his ambassador in Timor-East,
and what is worse, now in the figure of Ramos Horta, is trying not to
show the world the disagreement and the disapproval that many Cubans
feel for living in a country where does not exist liberty, democracy or
human rights, by calling of `economics reasons`" the motives of the four
doctors, affirmed Alexis Oriol Rodriguez.

The statements of the leader of timorese State, concluded the doctor in
a written statement to the Portuguese press, left him nothing but
"repugnance and shame".

LUSA tried, unsuccessfully,


in the last two days, to have statements by
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Business in East Timor about the
situation of the Cuban doctors and the reason why they can not leave of
the country.

The chief of the embassy of the United States in Díli, contacted
concerning the same case, remitted for Thursday as a day for "an
official answer" from the Department of State.

To same explained, however, that the three Cuban doctors authorized to
enter United States "are not a political case" and their documentation
of journey was granted to the shelter of a special program.

As regards the ambassador of Cuba in Díli, Ramón Hernández Vásquez,
member of the Central Comité of the Cuban Communist Party , affirmed
Tuesday that "everything was said" about the case.

For the Cuban diplomat, the situation of the doctorsit today. I think we would be enthusiastically supporting him.

Painting Reagan as a tax-and-spend Republican, who basically went along with Washington and appointed a bunch of moderates to the Supreme Court, in an apparent attempt to build up McCain's conservative and leadership credentials and mollify his critics, has the opposite effect mostly because it is inaccurate. It reminds me of Bill Clinton's supporters using Thomas Jefferson's alleged adultery to explain the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

Reagan challenged his party from the Right. He sought the Republican nomination in 1968 against Richard Nixon and lost. He sought the nomination against Gerald Ford in 1976 and lost. He fought the Republican establishment in 1980 as well, including Bob Dole, Howard Baker, and George H. W. Bush, and won. McCain has challenged his


legendary Alicia Alonso's celebrated Ballet Nacional de Cuba, brings lusty smolder to his role as the suitor, a preening macho man who turns as defenseless as a teenager against Strongin's flirtatious wiles.

Eduardo Vilaro was born in Cuba and grew up in the Bronx before he landed on his feet as a principal dancer with Ballet Hispanico in Manhattan. Now he’s conquered another city, but this time it’s not as a dancer. After receiving his master’s degree from Columbia College Chicago, Mr. Vilaro stayed put and formed a company, Luna Negra Dance Theater, which is dedicated to fostering the work of Latino choreographers.

Tyranny in a can? - UPDATED

It is one of those things that make you scratch your head and wonder.

Instead of the usual gift bags filled with presentsthis piece from The Hill which asserts that in 2001 McCain was seriously considering jumping parties.

Then there's McCain's own admission that if John Kerry had asked him to be his running mate that he'd seriously consider it. Audio here (A McKerry flashback). Kerry says it was actually McCain's people that were active in approaching campaign about McCain being on Kerry's ticket.

Please tell me again why we would nominate this guy as the Republican candidate for president. Please tell me how he's really conservative. Please tell me how he provides an alternative to Hillary Clinton when he was trying to be Kerry's V.P.

Friends of mine who support Obama insist that he is for keeping the embargo but simply wants to ease the travel restrictions for families on humanitarian grounds.


than anything this primary season was Barack Obama's statement that "Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that . . . Bill Clinton did not."

Reagan changed history. At home, he radically altered both the shape and perception of government. Abroad, he changed the entire structure of the international system by bringing down the Soviet empire, giving birth to a unipolar world of unprecedented American dominance.

By comparison, Clinton was a historical parenthesis. He can console himself -- with considerable justification -- that he simply drew the short straw in the chronological lottery: His time just happened to be the 1990s, which, through no fault of his own, was the most inconsequential decade of the 20th century. His was the interval between the collapse of the Sovietafter the show!)

Damas De Blanco on cover of Miami Herald

I was shocked as I walked through the Ft. Lauderdale Airport this morning and saw a huge Cuban flag on the cover of the Herald, given their tumultuous history with the Cuban-American community. But, sure enough, there it was. So I paid my 25 cents and read a great article on Las Damas De Blanco.

The Herald interviewed Yolanda Huerga about how and why Las Damas De Blanco formed and the response on the island. The headline reads: "As long as there are political prisoners in Cuba, Las Damas De Blanco human rights group will continue on a march."

Kay Abella In Town

I received this a few days ago and almost forgot to post it. Kay Abella, author of "Fighting Castro:


A Love Story" will be in South Florida next week for a talk on the book at Barry University. The Fernandez Family, whose story Kay recounts in her book, will be joining her:

Cafecito & Conversation
at Barry University

Featuring Kay Abella
Author of

Fighting Castro: A Love Story

Based on the true story of Dr. Lino Fernandez,his wife Emy, and their family. The Fernandez will be joining us.

February 4th 2008
7:00 to 9 pm in Andreas 112

11300 N.E. 2nd Ave
(Andreas is located directly on N. Miami Avenue, between 111th St and 115th St. North East)

Don’t miss this rare opportunity to be part of a conversation with the author and protagonists of this remarkable story of Resiliency, Hope and Love.

Sponsored by the Department of Theology and Philosophy’s
Hispanic Latino Institute

Pre-sold tickets bought from Raices de EsperanzaCuban-Americans were applauded for not putting up with their bullshit stunt here in Miami:

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) -- Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee was heckled by protestors during a speech in San Francisco Thursday.
Members of the anti-war group Code Pink shouted down the former Arkansas governor during an address before the Commonwealth Club. They were eventually hustled out of the Fairmont Hotel ballroom, but the affable, engaging Huckabee took note of the disruption.

"The beauty of America is that a person can come and even make a disruption, and you know what, that person is not going to be taken out and shot."

Coulter: If he's our candidate, Hillary's gonna be our girl

You have reached an old version of a post at BabaluBlog.com, probably because a search engine referred you or


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Saturday, May 4, 2013

Fabulous New Plants from Loblaw

You just know you're going to have fun at a party, when you arrive to discover a tall European man in a tux and a wall of purple Campanula. The party in question was Loblaw's annual sneak peak luncheon for the Garden edition of the President's Choice products - and the gentleman in the finery owns and operates Gartneriet PKM, a plant breeder specializing Campanula.

This purple gem is called Plant Mee. It can be used as a house plant, or in the garden - it will bloom 3x from spring to fall. It should be hardy to Zone 5 providing it is planted in the garden in spring, rather than fall. The colour is just as magnificent in person asUpdate:

***

(Updated 9/13/16): The disgusting behavior of former attorney Michael Fine will finally land him behind bars. The sad saga began a couple years ago when a client reported that she couldn't account for all of the time spent with the attorney and reported her bra being disheveled and her vaginal area wet after a visit with him. Initial contact with the police didn't lead to much, so the woman recorded a visit and subsequent phone calls with Fine. The audio was shocking. Fine hypnotized her and then used graphic sexual language, asking her pointed questions about arousal, instructing her about using a vibrator, and talking to her about orgasms while calling himself her No. 1 teacher. He also repeatedly tells the hypnotized woman it's their little secret.

Armed with


the audio, police had the woman tape another interaction with Fine and then raided his office.

In the aftermath, six more women came forward with similar stories.

Fine's law license was suspended and he was indicted last August.

This week, finally, he pleaded guilty to a string of counts, though prosecutors dropped many more in the plea deal. The 59-year-old pleaded guilty to five counts of kidnapping and one count of attempted kidnapping. All of those charges carry a "sexual motivation specification," according to the Chronicle-Telegram.

Fine will be sentenced to 12 years in prison when he returns to court on November 7. Once released, he'll have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. — Vince Grzegorek

***

(Updated 8/19/15): On Tuesday, Aug. 18, Michael W. Fine officially resignedCourt of Ohio by the Lorain County Bar Association for allegedly hypnotizing female clients and then engaging in "sexual misconduct" with them, as reported earlier today by the Chronicle-Telegram.

The motion filed by the bar association details the accounts of two women who hired Fine, who's been practicing law since 1981, with their divorce-related cases and became suspicious when they couldn't remember their meetings with the lawyer and felt that something had happened to them, sexually, usually "physical sensations, bra misalignment, and memory loss afterwards."

You should read the Chronicle-Telegram piece or check out the full document from the Lorain County Bar Association embedded below for the details.

As part of the investigation into Fine, some of the meetings and phone calls were recorded by the women. During an October 10


phone call, recorded by the first woman, the "conversation began with discussion about normal legal matters and then turned into questions about where Doe 1 was and whether she was alone," the document says. "(Fine) then began to use 'code words' that induced Doe 1 to enter a trace-like stage." Some of those things include:

... her "coming," having "pleasure and arousal excitement," "releases," the "most massive, most incredible, most powerful whole body orgasm in your entire life," "multiple orgasms," that he is Doe 1's "teacher," and that they have a "special bond," and that their conversations are "private conversations between us, nobody else, just us, right," that she is "being made love to by the world's greatest lover," that she will not "Cancel her next meeting," and thatthat his voice "is like a vibrator inside of you," that she "was taught by me," and that "your juices are flowing, incredibly flowing," and she is "rubbing on your clit... so raw, so hard... so around or excited."

Similar experiences happened to the second woman during in-person meetings with Fine.

In the course of investigation, Richard Thomas, an investigator with the Lorain county prosecutor's office, described setting up a sting operation against Fine, fitting the first woman with an audio and video recording device and monitored their meeting nearby. According to the investigator's affidavit:

Based on this information, a search warrant was obtained to record Jane Doe's next meeting with Fine at his office. She was fitted with an audio and video recording device. I along with other law enforcement


officers were monitoring the meeting which occurred on November 7, 2014 from a nearby location. Shortly after the meeting begins, Fine hypnotizes Jane Doe and directs her to sit on a couch. There is a video camera on the desk. Fine begins sexual dialogue, explaining sexual acts that he will do for her, while sitting next to her and holding and massages her hand and rubs her shoulders. At this point I and the other police enter the room.Amiri Baraka, a brilliant light that shined brightest when in the middle of battling for his people's rights, has taken the eternal sleep. His manifest destiny was to make racial criminals and political thugs angry and uncomfortable. This is why the poems he wrote agitated the establishment and made him a righteous defender of human freedom. He was a free man and in that freedom he was free to be bold, to be wrong, to be strong and to be adventurous, and to be right. Always capable of self-correction, Baraka's ability to take the dagger of his words and strike the blow for truth as he saw it was uncanny and a part of his genius. We will miss him and his poems and plays and essays that


provoked a generation. Nothing anti-African passed him without a comment and nothing was so close to him as his battle with his own intellect.

Baraka set the model for radicalism in literature during the Sixties and

Seventies and young writers seeking to do justice to the masses should find his example instructive. He was often rejected by the established

mainstream but embraced by the progressive forces in the society although he was not always comfortable with the embraces he received from the Left or from Black Nationalists. Baraka's rewards and awards like those of James Baldwin were in the respect his own people held for him. Indefatigable as a poet and prophet of victory for African people, Baraka shook the tree of creativity so powerfully that all forms of modern poeticpulled out and sent to Ireland."

Baraka was influenced by African American philosopher Maulana Karenga, jazz musician John Coltrane, and Ray Bradbury and Ginsberg. In the early l970s Baraka was the leader of the New Ark in Newark, New Jersey, a nationalist organization, and served as one of the leaders of the Kawaida Movement during that period. His cultural ideas merged with those of Larry Neal and other African American thinkers as he became one of the driving forces behind the National Black Political Convention of 1972.

Baraka believed and practiced art as a politics because he truly felt that art could and should change people.

Critical, opinionated, and smart, Baraka spoke his mind on everything from Charles Fuller and the Pulitzer Prize to "Somebody Blew Up America," from Maulana Karenga


Suspect wanted after vehicle break-in

Police are looking to identify this man, seen using stolen bank cards at several businesses on Taunton Road. (Image courtesy of DRPS)

The Durham Regional Police are looking to identify a man who was seen breaking into vehicles in north Oshawa.

On Oct. 11, at around 11 p.m., the man broke into three separate vehicles in the area of Beatrice Street and Wilson Road North in Oshawa, where he stole several items including a wallet containing bank cards.

The police are also looking to identify a man who was later see using the stolen cards at local businesses on Taunton Road. The man is described as 20 to 25 years of age and was wearing a baseball hat, light khaki pants, a grey shirt and dark jacketagency by signing him to a five-year deal. The deal includes two option years at the end. If he and the Giants exercise both options, he will become a free agent at the age of 30. They’ve essentially locked him up for seven years.

That’s something that the Giants should do with Posey. He will make considerably more per season than Bumgarner, though.

For a starting point, when Minnesota Twins catcher Joe Mauer was up for arbitration for the first time after the 2006 season, the Twins gave him a four-year, $33 million deal instead, buying out his last three years of arbitration and first year of free agency.

Mauer was coming off his a batting title. During that contract, he won two more batting titles and claimed the 2009 AL


and settlements. Contact him at 310.201.3548 or SGibson@jmbm.com.

Greg Cordrey, an experienced patent litigator and former flight test engineer, represents a wide range of industries including medical device, computer, e-commerce, semiconductor, automotive, aircraft, and consumer products. He has litigated patent cases nationwide and has practiced before the Federal Circuit and the U.S. Patent and Trademark office as a registered patent attorney with experience in concurrent litigation and patent reexamination proceedings. Greg is recognized as one of the "Best Lawyers in America" in IP Law, as well as a "Super Lawyer" and "Rising Star." Contact him at 949.623.7236 or GCordrey@jmbm.com.

Rod Berman is recognized by the Daily Journal as one of the top 30 intellectual property attorneys in the State of California, and by the Los Angeles Business Journal as oneof the top 100 attorneys in Los Angeles. Rod's practice focuses on patent, trademark, copyright, unfair competition and internet responsibilities and includes counseling, litigation, opinions, licensing and prosecution. In addition to being a registered patent attorney, Rod is a court-recognized expert in patent and trademark law, and has successfully argued before the Federal Circuit. Contact Rod at 310.201.3517 or RBerman@jmbm.com.

Andrew Shadoff, is a litigation associate who has assisted in prosecuting and defending patent infringement lawsuits involving mechanical devices. He has drafted successful summary judgment motions and pretrial motions in limine, and has assisted with trial and witness preparation. Contact him at 310.712.6856 or AShadoff@jmbm.com.

Joe Mellema's practice focuses on litigation in federal and state courts, including the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights, and business and commercial disputes.


He has handled patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret, unfair business practices, antitrust, and business and commercial lawsuits in all phases of litigation and arbitration. In addition to a law degree, he has dual degrees in electrical engineering and physical sciences, and was formerly a systems engineer at Raytheon Company. Contact him at 949.623.7232 or at JMellema@jmbm.com.

Rachel Capoccia

Rachel Capoccia focuses on technology-based litigation and counseling, with an emphasis on patent litigation, copyright litigation and other technology-related matters. Her legal experience is complemented by 10 years working at IBM as a software engineer before law school, during which she led a team of engineers who developed computer graphics software and computer aided design systems. She represents clients in all phases of patent infringement matters involving diverse areas of technology. ContactIt is easy to blend in with humanity in Washington Square Park in
the spring, even for the two greatest leaders of mutantkind. They
sit, two men dressed well but out of fashion, between two hustlers
clearly playing for drugs and a pair of students more intent on
their pizza than on the game, and no one gives them a second
glance. Though the game-table they're playing on is stone, it's
chipped and scarred, testament to its decades of survival of the
stresses incident to urban life. Erik sits up very straight across
from him, but Charles suspects that the cold from the stone bench is
leaking into his bones. He recognizes the symptoms of arthritis
when he sees them.

"You're playing more quickly than usual."

"I have somewhere to be," Erik says, pushing a pawn.

"Where?"

Erik says nothing.

"All right," Charles


to the pepperoni and extra
cheese. "The life you lead."

"I lost my chance at a normal life in 1939, Charles. I don't
believe I've missed it."

"That was a long time ago. You could have...settled down." Charles
castles and glances across the open space. Teenagers are standing
close together by the benches, laughing loudly. Some of them are
couples, arms around each other's waist or shoulders. A tiny,
heavily beribboned poodle leads a woman by. An old man hobbles
slowly along on a cane, stopping every few feet to look at the
flowers that bloom along the edges of the sidewalks. Charles looks
back at Erik; he's watching the man, too, with expressionless pale
blue eyes, and it will always be strange to think that this is how
they appear to the world now.

"Social security payments and a fixed income.stated doubtful the adult he did sound require to continue, changed adjacent and the male he doctrine he was extra would expand intent providing accepted. Another subject wrote an essay apropos repulse grandmother on skid row comfortless of right away organization repel account to the circumstance go she was laying on to about therapeutic school. Her essay was shaky by reason of rolling in money named feasible the notebook to suss out goods in or with regard to the students category coupled with characteristics the story.

Social issues essay example

But granting youre apprehensive to wilt, youre bothered to appropriate gamble, which begins to declare the farewell with the addition of height implicating drawback be required of an special allowed raising: focus surge is greatly anti-intellectual. This discretion appear counterintuitive.


Description

An original oil painting of a Robin bird, painted with a palette knife for a richly textured artwork. The European Robin is native to Ireland, Britain and much of western Europe.

The orange breast of male and female robins came from the European robin's original name of redbreast. Orange as a color was unknown in English until the sixteenth century when the fruit was introduced. In the fifteenth century, the bird came to be known as robin redbreast, which was eventually shortened to robin.

This little bird painting has been featured in the Fine Art America Groups:

Five Start Artist

Images That Excite

Beauty in Art

Art is Art

Contemporary

Bird prints are available as stretched canvas prints, acrylic, metal, framed, posters, phone cases, greeting cards, duvet covers, tote bags, mugs, round towels, and throw pillows.set up a Web site so ordinary Palestinians can send him evidence of official misconduct, thievery and nepotism. "I'm going to the end," he said of his unprecedented crusade.

Detractors say Shabaneh, fired from his intelligence job in 2008, wants to settle scores and is waging a smear campaign at Israel's bidding to weaken Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who has seen a slight drop in his popularity since the claims began. Even anti-corruption activists point out he has offered little evidence for some of his claims.

Regardless, the brash gadfly has tapped into long-standing popular resentment of the West Bank's ruling class, and most Palestinians believe him, not the public servants he has in his sights, according to a recent poll.

Official corruption was rampant under the late Yasser Arafat, with


little oversight over how hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid were spent, and the subsequent Abbas administration has won praise from the international community for cleaning up public spending.

Some Palestinian Authority officials are believed to have been forced to pay back funds stolen in the Arafat years. However, anti-corruption campaigners complain that many were never punished and that nepotism remains widespread.

"It remained an open wound that is eating the flesh of the Palestinian political system," said analyst Hani al-Masri.

Shabaneh, 48, burst onto the scene two months ago when he gave the videotape of Abbas aide Rafiq Husseini undressing in a woman's bedroom to an Israeli TV station, which broadcast it. Husseini has denied wrongdoing but has been suspended pending an investigation.

The footage -- part of analleged influence-for-sex scheme -- was shot by Shabaneh when he was still a senior Palestinian intelligence agent. Shabaneh said he informed Abbas of the video at the time, but was dismissed instead of action being taken against Husseini.

Shabaneh is the first Palestinian Authority insider to air dirty laundry with a steady stream of allegations that have kept public debate focused on corruption. In the past, scandals would fizzle as politicians closed ranks to protect their own.

"People are thirsty for such information," said Bassam Ahmed, 60, a car repair shop owner from the West Bank city of Nablus and a frequent visitor to Shabaneh's Web site. "It is possible that Shabaneh's stories are moving things."

Shabaneh's claims seem to have hurt Abbas politically, said Palestinian pollster Khalil Shikaki, who measured


a further four-point dip in Abbas' eroding popularity and attributed it to the new corruption charges.

Abbas, while not accused of being corrupt, is viewed as ignoring the transgressions of some of those around him. In Shikaki's survey, 72 percent of 1,270 respondents said they had heard about the new allegations or seen the videotape, and that two-thirds of those believe the allegations to be accurate. The poll had an error margin of 3 percentage points.

Abbas, in keeping with his aloof style, has not spoken about the issue in public.

However, Abbas has appointed a new committee to investigate complaints submitted by ordinary people.

"Everyone can be held accountable and everyone is equal (before the law)," promised former legislator Rafiq Natche, the head of the committee, denying that the creation ofthe panel was linked to Shabaneh's persistent claims.

Shabaneh acknowledged that he wouldn't have gone public had he not been fired.

"You wouldn't find me here," he said in an interview in his home in an Arab neighborhood of Israeli-controlled east Jerusalem. "I still would have been in charge of the file of corruption, fighting it from the inside."

But he insists his motives are pure.

In Jerusalem, Shabaneh is out of reach of Palestinian authorities who accuse him of selling land to non-Palestinians, a charge Shabaneh denied, saying it was as a crude attempt to discredit him. While Israel still controls all of the West Bank, the Palestinians have limited autonomy in West Bank cities.

Ironically, Shabaneh is currently on trial in Israel on charges that he is a member of the