Presidential candidates take on Castro in Florida
Republican White House contenders took the race to win their party’s nomination to Florida this week, where they tried to outdo each other on topics important to Floridians–including what to do about Cuba, the small, Communist, Spanish-speaking island that has long frustrated U.S. foreign policy.
In a debate on Monday in Tampa, the candidates took turns lambasting Castro and current U.S policy toward Cuba, striving to curry favor with conservative Cuban Americans who make up the majority of Florida’s 400,000-some Hispanic Republican voters.
Florida votes next in a primary race that has already had three different winners and is home to the country’s largest Cuban-American community–many of them former refugees who escaped the communist dictatorship under Fidel Castro. A 2011 poll by the University of Florida showed that 80 percent of Cuban Americans believe a decades-long U.S. trade embargo on the country has been ineffective.
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney said that if the Cuban dictator died he would, “Thank heavens that Fidel Castro has returned to his maker and will be sent to another land.”
He criticized Obama’s efforts to relax relations by opening up travel to the country for Cuban Americans to visit relatives. “This is the wrong time for that, with this kind of heroics going on,” he said. “We want to stand with the people of Cuba that want freedom. We want to move that effort forward not by giving in and saying we lost, but by saying we will fight for democracy.”
In his turn to answer, Gingrich made the point of one-upping Romney. “First of all…I don’t think that Fidel is going to meet his maker. I think he’s going to go to the other place.”
Gingrich said that as president he would try “aggressively to overthrow the regime,” using covert operations to bring about a “Cuban Spring” more exciting than the Arab Spring.
from Summit Notebook:
Berman: House may be “lame” after elections but won’t be paralyzed
The chairman of the House of Representatives committee on foreign affairs hasn't lost his sense of humor...yet.
Representative Howard Berman said he has been struggling for 24 years to get Congress to ease up on travel restrictions for Americans who want to go to Cuba. He's determined to get it through his committee this year, even if it doesn't happen until after the November election when the lawmakers are in "lame duck" session.
"We're lame but we're not paralyzed," he told the Reuters Washington Summit when asked if it was possible to still get bills out of committee and to the full House for a vote during the time between the November election and the beginning of the new session in January.
Berman said he does not want to bring the topic up for a vote until he knows it can pass. So far, that is apparently not the case.
Though he could joke about the lame duck session he got in a few digs about the conservative Tea Party movement and then fiercely defended House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
"She is always under-estimated. Yes she wants to get certain things done, and there are people who don't want to be pushed to do those things and so that can always cause a little bit of tension," he said.
"I think anybody who reaches the conclusion that she is part of our problems is really misreading everything about the last year and a half."
Is Venezuela the new Cuba?
It takes a brave man to mention the word Cuba among certain company in Venezuela.
For detractors of President Hugo Chavez, the island is synonymous with all they dislike in their country– the swing to socialism in the last decade; Chavez’s alliance with Fidel Castro; the stifling of private industry; and an increasingly authoritarian political system. So it is impossible in Caracas opposition circles to have any sort of rational conversation about Cuba — everything is seen through the perspective of Chavez. You like anything about Cuba, you think there’s any merit in anything on the island like its health or education services, then you’re ’comunista’.
For diehard “Chavistas”, it’s precisely the opposite. Cuba’s free health and school services, its record on sending volunteers around the world, and its thousands of workers in Venezuela, are to them a model of south-south cooperation. You think Fidel Castro failed to carry through the ideals of his revolution, turned the island into a dictatorship? You’re obviously a Yankee agent.
Yet one also gets the impression that many in the Chavista rank-and-file, while loyal to their man, are slightly embarrassed by the Cuba connection. Certainly the applause is getting lighter every time Chavez stops a speech to salute Fidel and the Cuban revolution. They love Chavez, but they don’t want Venezuela to turn into Cuba.
Chavez famously said in the past Venezuela was heading towards the same “sea of happiness” as Cuba, and President Raul Castro said this month that the two nations were now “the same thing”, united forever.
But beyond the rhetoric, just how close a path to Cuba is Venezuela taking? Does it pose dangers, as a retired Venezuelan general told Reuters this week. Or does the model bring tangible benefits, such as cheap food like Venezuelans enjoy in their “Socialist Arepera”?
Never happened, TyC. Propaganda from the right wing anti-Chavez media.
Cuba travel ban debate elicits strong feelings
No one can remember the last time they had a full House of Representatives committee hearing on whether to lift the U.S. travel ban on Castro’s Cuba.
Perhaps that’s why some strong feelings spilled out into the open.
Florida Republican Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a staunch defender of keeping the decades-old travel ban, told one witness who had advocated lifting it that she found some of his comments “shameful.”
The witness, retired U.S. General Barry McCaffrey, riposted that he was offended by Ros-Lehtinen’s “marginalization” of his viewpoint, adding that her line of questioning was “silly.”
The hearing Thursday of the House Foreign Affairs committee started out peacefully enough. Chairman Howard Berman said lawmakers should examine why Cuba was “the only country in the world where our people are not allowed to go.”
Most of the witnesses then spoke in favor of changing U.S. policy, which was launched in the 1960s in a Cold War bid to isolate Fidel Castro.
But Ros-Lehtinen, a Cuban-American born in Havana, was clearly determined to resist what proponents say is their best chance in years to lift the ban on travel to Communist Cuba, 90 miles from her state.
The Governor of Idaho – a staunch Republican – and his young young wife (why?) traveled to Cuba (apparently on taxpayer’s money) supposedly to promote business between his state and the communist island. How does that work? Why can he go to buy, sell, trade, or whatever with a communist state? http://gov.idaho.gov/mediacenter/press/p r2007/prapr07/pr_032.htmlOne newspaper noted that “Otter made his fourth trip to Cuba since 2000 — the others came while he was a U.S. House member — to persuade the Castro government to buy more Idaho foodstuffs.” http://www.spokesmanreview.com/breaking/ story.asp?ID=9831
from Environment Forum:
Calling Dr. Strangelove!
Perhaps you've heard about the Russian submarines patrolling international waters off the U.S. East Coast (if you haven't, take a look at a Reuters story about it) in what feels like an echo of the old Cold War. The Pentagon's not worried about this particular venture, but there are concerns from the U.S. energy industry about another Russian foray -- this one in concert with Cuba. In rhetoric that may ring a bell with anyone who saw the 1964 satirical nuclear-fear movie "Dr. Strangelove," the Washington-based Institute for Energy Research is sounding the alarm about a Russian-Cuban deal to drill for offshore oil near Florida.
"Russia, Communist Cuba Advance Offshore Energy Production Miles Off Florida's Coast," is the title on the institute's news release. Below that is the prescription for action: "Efforts Should Send Strong Message to Interior Dept. to Open OCS in Five-Year Plan." OCS stands for outer continental shelf, an area that was closed to oil drilling until the Bush administration opened it last year in a largely symbolic move aimed at driving down the sky-high gasoline prices of the Summer of 2008.
Environmentalists hate the idea. So does Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat who has made opposition to offshore drilling one of his signature issues. But as it turns out, it's unlikely that anybody -- from Russia, Cuba, the United States or anywhere else -- is going to get petroleum out of the OCS in the immediate future.
For a start, it takes time to set up a deep-water offshore drilling rig. And any Cuban effort would be further hampered by the need to use equipment with less than 10 percent American technology, to comply with the long standing U.S. embargo against Cuba. As my Reuters colleague Russell Blinch reported in June, there may be scope for possible U.S.-Cuban cooperation here but no Cuban drilling platform is likely to be in the area this year.
Reports of a Russian-Cuban deal to explore for oil in the Gulf of Mexico prompted a quick response from the Institute for Energy Research, self-described as a free-market energy think-tank.
"This agreement between Russia and Cuba should serve as a wake-up call to Congress and this administration, especially (Interior) Secretary (Ken) Salazar, who is slow-walking a new offshore energy blueprint for the nation," the institute's president, Thomas Pyle, said in a statement. "If we are to remain competitive in the global market, our government must take its foot off the brake, and expand domestic energy production of all forms, onshore and off.”
What's your take? Should the United States drill baby drill off Florida's coast, reasoning that if U.S. companies don't, Russia and Cuba will? Keep a congressional ban in place? Or wait and see?
Uighurs held at Guantanamo plead to Obama for release
A group of the 13 Chinese detainees held at the controversial U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba appealed directly to President Barack Obama for their immediate release, arguing that they have been cleared by the United States of any wrongdoing and they questioned why it was taking so long to go free.
The members of the Uighur ethnic group originally sent the appeal to Obama on March 8 but it was not cleared by the U.S. government for release until July 14, according to their attorneys. Two of the signatories have since been released to Bermuda, the lawyers said.
“After 6 years of investigations, the US military confirmed that we are innocent,” the Uighurs said in their letter. “We are innocent civilians, however, we are currently still being held in jail.”
In June four Uighurs were transferred from the Guantanamo prison to the Atlantic island of Bermuda. The entire group, who come from China’s largely Muslim far-west region of Xinjiang, were captured by the U.S. government during fighting in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in Washington and New York.
There has been some talk that the remaining 13 Uighurs held at Guantanamo Bay could go to the tropical Pacific island of Palau, where the government has agreed to take them temporarily as a humanitarian gesture. China has demanded that they all be returned to Chinese soil but the United States has said it could not return them because they would face persecution.
“The State Department, in coordination with the Defense Department and other interested agencies, is working to make appropriate arrangements to carry out transfers of these individuals in a manner consistent with national security and foreign policy interests of the United States, as well as U.S. policies concerning humane treatment,” said Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd.
These people are fugitives from perscution, ethnic and religious. In the finest historical traditions of our country a refuge for such people we should give them asylum here and help them resettle.
First Draft: CDC’s Besser does “The Full Ginsburg”
Dr. Richard Besser, acting chief of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has been everywhere in the media over the last several days, talking about swine flu. His calm demeanor and practical advice — cover your cough, wash your hands — showed up on every major television network this morning. It seemed like he was live, simultaneously, on several of them.
In some Washington circles, this kind of media blitz is known as “The Full Ginsburg.”
For those with long memories, when sex was the biggest scandal in the U.S. capital, William H. Ginsburg had 15 minutes of fame as Monica Lewinsky’s attorney. He represented the former White House intern in 1998 when she was called to testify about her relationship with then-President Bill Clinton. The case ultimately led to Clinton’s impeachment.
But when Lewinsky was flavor-of-the-month in Washington, Ginsburg controlled access to her, and that made him much in demand. He was an almost constant media presence, especially on morning television. In an age before tweets and blogs, when using the Internet was considered novel for much of official Washington, Ginsburg got coverage simply by showing up.
Times change and the world has changed, and a sex-and-lying scandal seems almost diverting compared to the possibility of a flu pandemic, Somali pirates and deep economic turmoil.
Besser is not the only voice on the swine flu situation. President Barack Obama speaks to the National Academy of Sciences this morning and the disease outbreak is expected to be mentioned there. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano explained that the U.S. declaration of a public health emergency was needed for free up government money and resources to tackle the problem.
Elsewhere in Washington, diplomats from 17 of the world’s biggest greenhouse gas polluters — including the United States — gather at the State Department to discuss the fight against climate change. On Capitol Hill, the Senate scheduled a vote to end a Republican roadblock against an anti-fraud bill and a House committee considers the status of trade with Cuba.
The First Draft: another day, another $30 billion
It’s not yet 9:00 on a Monday morning, and the federal government has already dumped another $30 billion into the tottering financial system. The money goes to insurer American International Group Inc., which just announced a fourth-quarter loss of $61.7 billion — the largest quarterly loss in corporate history.
For those keeping score at home, U.S. taxpayers have now pumped $180 billion into AIG.
Some good news: consumer spending and incomes rose in January, buoyed by salary increases for government employees.
The government will open two hours later in Washington as commuters cope with up to 10 inches of snow. DC residents awaiting more pooh-poohing from their president, who like many northerners is not impressed with the panic that accompanies snowflakes in Washington.
Obama is expected to name Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as his health secretary today. Sebelius will play a key role in Obama’s efforts to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system, but as the New York Times points out, she didn’t have much luck with that in her home state.
The Senate begins debate on a spending bill that includes a measure that could make it easier to travel to Cuba.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in Egypt for a conference about rebuilding the war-torn Gaza Strip, has said no U.S. funds will go to Hamas, the Islamist group that holds power there.
sebelius will always be a” red rag to a bull”to christian conservatives because of her support for the doctor in her state that was carrying out all the late term abortions nick named” hiller the killer”.he also donated a significant amount to her campaign as well.
McCain finds the coffee in Little Havana pretty strong
MIAMI – Republican John McCain’s “Straight Talk Express” bus took a little detour today, depositing McCain at a Cuban-American restaurant in Little Havana.
McCain, who likes to keep a cup of coffee at his side most of the time, decided to sample the espresso served up at Cafe Versailles, ordering a cup at a window for ordering items to go.
Taking a sip from the small ceramic cup, he must have found it a pretty strong brew. He pumped his fist as he tasted the coffee.
“Do I have any enamel on my teeth?” he asked. “Delicious!”
This was after McCain stopped at La Casa del Preso, a memorial to deceased and current political prisoners in Cuba. After a tour inside, he spoke to a group of Cuban-Americans gathered outside.
“Buenas tardes,” he told them, then admitted that was pretty much the extent of his knowledge of the Spanish language.
In English, he proceeded to criticize Cuba’s communist government and vowed that sooner or later the Cuban people would be free.
Let McCain pick a suitable retirement home.
That’s what really old folk do – don’t they?
As President, he may last a year or so. I bet.
He’s just too old!
Bet a cask that Newt winds up being a cellie with Fidel in the afterlife, LOL! Vote pandering at it’s finest (facepalm)
To a lot of the younger generation in Miami and South Florida, they think of that as a thing of “abuelitos”. The reality is they are more interested in work than whether Mr. Castro breaths or not.
Y’all will miss the old man when he’s gone, he gave you a lot of political capital over the years.