Last week, as NRO columnist Mona Charen has pointed out, six members of the Congressional Black Caucus went to Cuba and got a grand reception. They came back delighted, proving Charen’s apt characterization, that they showed themselves to be part of the grand tradition of old communist fellow travelers, all of whom were “useful idiots.”
As one might expect, the Caucus members asked nothing about the Castro brothers’ political prisoners, or asked to see the conditions in the well documented abysmal prisons in which they put their critics. Nor did they seek to visit the Damas de Blanco, The Ladies in White, who demonstrate weekly in protest against the imprisonment of their relatives. These women have borrowed the tactics used by the opponents of the old Argentinean junta, whose female relatives of their victims marched in front of government offices asking about the whereabouts of the “disappeared.”
Instead, the Black Caucus delegation cherished the chance to meet only with both Castros, and to sing their praises. They came back announcing that they would double their work to lift the U.S. embargo on Cuba and restore travel without conditions to the island. No comment by them on the existing policy of tying any relaxation to Cuba’s lessening of its political repression.
Now there is a case for lifting the embargo, one that has been made by many conservatives as well as liberals. Essentially, the argument is that the embargo has lasted almost as long as the Cuban Revolution, and has proved ineffective in bringing down the regime. Instead, it has allowed Fidel Castro and now Raul to blame their shortcomings on the U.S. blockade, and given them ammunition to reinforce nationalist sentiment.
The corollary to the argument is that with free travel, trade and U.S. investment in the island, the free market would work to slowly erode the power of the regime, and loosen it up so that an opposition could emerge that could not be contained.
The problem with this argument is twofold. First, Cuba is not Poland in the 80′s or the other Eastern European Communist bloc nations. The impending Soviet collapse made it all but certain that the internal opposition would succeed. The fact is that even though the Soviet Union no longer exists, the investment and trade with European nations has enabled Castro to bolster his regime. The nations who invest do so in collaboration with the Cuban government, and rather than weaken his government, it gives it control as well as hard currency. And, as we now, to some extent the help that used to come from the Soviets now comes from Venezuela and China, and may again come from Putin’s Russia.
Moreover, an independent movement has in fact already emerged in Cuba, including the brave democracy movement whose petition for free elections has been summarily crushed, and whose leaders have been thrown in prison or neutralized. The independent libraries, whose equally brave figures have created private lending libraries to allow Cubans to read forbidden books have also been crushed. Remarkably, they have been the subject of opposition by American left-wing librarians!
What does the present polling data show regarding American attitudes toward Fidel Castro’s Cuba? The question is especially important when discussing our college age
population. I suspect that we would be shocked by the results. Only recent Michael Moore released his movie “Sicko” wherein he literally praised the Cuban health care system! By all rights, the leftist filmmaker should have been laughed out of town. And yet, many take it seriously. We have a crisis on our hands. Far too many of our citizens are ignorant concerning the evil aspects of the Cuban Communist government. They have apparently been conned by left-wing professors to believe that Castro is a victim of reactionary conservatives. Communism really wasn’t all that bad. Joe McCarthy was supposedly a far greater threat.
The wife had KQED, San Francisco’s NPR outlet, on Friday night. Congresswoman Barbara Lee was being interviewed by a fellow from KPFA radio, the leftist Pacifica Foundation’s flagship station in Berkeley.
Lee made a couple of decent-sounding arguments, such as all the Latin American countries had already normalized relations with Cuba, so why not the US? Our position had brought down the Castro regime yet so why stick with an ineffectual policy? Her response was just because of presidential politics and the need to appease the Cuban expatriate population of Florida. One could ask, why would the people most knowledgable about Cuba still despise the Castro government?
Of course, this show was not the place for conservative criticism to be aired.
Most Democrats–Congressional Black Caucus–Glitterati all kiss butt to dictators. Why? Is it the ABSOLUTE POWER? This is the only thing I can ascertain for the murderers’ adulation. In other words, the Democrats & the Hollywood types wish to also have absolute power as well.
It’s sick.
it has allowed Fidel Castro and now Raul to blame their shortcomings on the U.S. blockade
There is no blockade — it’s a US-led embargo. No one is blocking goods to or from Cuba.
Cuba is a litmus test of clear and consistent thinking; it is impossible to be an honest liberal and still support or be in any way sentimental about the Castro regime; it is a vile, illiberal, murderous and oppressive tyranny.
People I meet who say stupid and indefensible things about Cuba are a dime a dozen both in this country and in much of Latin America, but I never tire of calling them for what they are: bootlickers and apologists for cold-blooded, Stalinist killers. That is exactly what the members of the CBC are and no-one with an intellectual conscience should mince words about it. Those idiots who went to Cuba should be publicly mocked, hounded, and derided for aiding the Castro brothers in their 5 decade rape of Cuba. Kudos to Mr. Radosh for standing up and speaking for the millions of poor Cubans who would be beaten and starved if they tried to do it themselves.
Someday, those people will be free, and when they are, I hope thousands of them come to the US and flood the offices of thugs like Bobby Rush and tell him and anyone who will listen what it was like to live in tyranny while he and his friends were being wined and dined by their oppressors and telling the American press what honorable men the Castro brothers were.
I hate to say it but I think it has a lot to do with skin color.
Even though I agree that the embargo has failed, I still believe that the Cuban government needs to be overthrown before it can become a new threat to the United States. Sooner or later Russia may again try to place nuclear weapons on the island. Take them out while their weak is the only way to remove the threat and free the Cuban people from this government.
Also if many Americans like Michael Moore, Steven Spielberg, Chevy Chase, Danny Glover, and others like them, believe that Cuba is a cool place for the Cuban “Slave” to live, then why don’t they move there or build a second home there? All of these left wing extremists have no clue what hell life is in Cuba. Dale A. Wilhite – Telluride, Colorado
“The fact is that even though the Soviet Union no longer exists, the investment and trade with European nations has enabled Castro to bolster his regime. The nations who invest do so in collaboration with the Cuban government, and rather than weaken his government, it gives it control as well as hard currency.”
I thought all the sanctions failed and only hurt the Cuban people while the dictator stayed in power and now his brother is ready to take the throne.
Is that a wrong outlook and if so why?
You are the idiot for thinking that your flimsy allegations against Cuba could be taken seriously when your obviously entrenched in the same dogmatic rhetoric, and the adamant cloak of ignorance that has defined our government’s stance for so many years.
How dare you call our fine CBC members idiots you poor excuse for a journalist, honorary old tard.
You offer no context for your allegations of torture other than to mesh them with recent travesties committed by the definition of idiocy (Boy Bush and friends).
And, you see fit to kick dirt on the Black Panther party and in the same breath wonder how someone could ascertain that America could still be racist after Obama’s election.
This is 2009 there is some thing called the Internet and people in America who speak Spanish can use it to talk to people in Cuba so naturally we will learn the truth. America is changing and you and your kind are being phased out. So know your role and shut your stupid yellow toothed hole.
Ron, unfortunately today most Americans know the goings-on of ‘American Idol’ than that of Cuba.
Many of the responses if asked their view of lifting the Cuban embargo would be, ‘What’s a Cuba’?
If a ‘White Caucus’ were to form, we Americans would call it ‘Supremacists’ and rightly so.
The Black Caucus represents ‘equality’. Sigh..
I always enjoy the insane comments of THE BLACK CAUCUS, especially maxine waters and major owens. They ARE idiots and really not up to it. You just have to watch, listen, and wonder how these people would support themselves if their constituents weren’t also IDIOTS.
Is it me, or is Bobby Rush almost brain dead? This group would have been eaten buy a neighboring tribe if not living in the U.s.
Supremly inferior and without a rightous cause? Oh the plight of the angry white man. Sigh…
By the way excuse me “ornery old tard” like so many other so called conservatives.
Cubans? Doesn’t one of them own a sports team down in Texas?
“American people need to be told the truth and they have been lied to for too long about the threat from Cuba.”
Finally, Rush is right.
What’s the Cubans got besides cigars and rum? Damn few hero’s.
None of the so-called African American leaders, or the NAACP, nor these 5 chimpanzees now, have ever raised their voice on behalf of Cuban political prisoner Dr.Oscar Elias Biscet, who is black and is in deteriorating conditions in Castro’s jail.
They were urged to so, to no avail.
http://news.prnewswire.com/DisplayReleaseContent.aspx?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/04-06-2009/0005001154&EDATE=
Cuba turns out threethousand more doctors per year than they can use. Because they don’t have all the modern medical equipment and aren’t up on all the new techniques, they rely on the old basics. If you ever meet one of these guys or gals you’ll find that they’re damn good. I wouldn’t mind if they exported some of these doctors over here.
Sounds like the Black Caucus is now formulating foreign policy. Isn’t that special. Just think a minority group of legislaturors is bypassing the rest of congress (and President) and dictating what our foreign policy is.
Vaughn hit the nail on the head, unless of course the neighboring tribe sold them to muslim slavers.
Cuba is a prison,and the Castro brothers are the cruel wardens. +++++++++++++++Fidel himself is one of the richest men in the world,net worth over 500 million$.+++++++ I do not think that these members of the CBC would dare go to “Lil Cuba’ in Miami and praise the virtues of Castro’s rule for the last 50 years.
Cybergeezer: Armando Valladares spent 20 years in Castro’s gulag and wrote a harrowing memoir about it “Against All Hope.” Now there’s a Cuban hero for you.(If Hollywood had any moral sense at all they would have filmed it years ago; instead they turn out dreck about Che.)
I’m sure there are many other Cuban heroes we have never heard of because they’re rotting in Castro’s prisons.
And the people who put them there get their butts kissed by the CBC and brain-dead celebs.
It’s sickening.
I’m still trying to figure out which part of these events from last week should be considered shocking.
The Castro family behaved exactly as I would have expected them to.
The black caucus behaved exactly as they always have, tittering at the attention they are paid by dictators and thugs.
Perpetual outrage at the antiAmerican antics of the black caucus isn’t very useful.
Unless there are enough Americans in the Congressional districts that these yahoos represent who are willing to vote them out of office, our options are diminishing.
that should be a change. castro advising the zero on foreign policy. it’s fresh and fun. can’t you just see it. a round table with the midget from iran included.
thing is, we don’t need another mariel boat ride coming over here. remember when castro opened his jails and sent all the criminals and mentally ill here? the black caucasses must have forgotten. guess he’s ready to unload on us again. that’s castro’s foreign policy.
Senator Al Franken
Al Franken….inexperience AND porn king! How much more dhimmi can you get.
No, we should change the acronym to BCC’s: Black Congressional Communists.
http://bluecollarphilosophy.com
If we want to overthrow cuban govt, send over a few mcdonalds, KFC, deli sub chain, some spare parts for their 1950′s vintage cars, rock and blues bands to tour the island, maybe Mariah Carey and a few of her peers…its working everywhere else in the world. Let them have the same stress and pressure of western life.
Get over it. You want to open relations with Cuba, not for the government, but for the citizens. Why do you want to overthrow foreign governments and get all upset if someone wants to change the US gov’t? Right now many Pajamers want to get rid of the Obama gov’t. And Cuba, and Iran, and N Korea, and China, and . . . you name it. Nobody is happy with anything. Change them and you will still won’t like them. Looks like a way of life . . . .
Vivo, as long as Cuba is a Communist country, an “open relations with Cuba, not for the government, but for the citizens” is impossible. North Korea has detained two journalists, yet the MSM silent. Where’s the outrage? None exist because the Democrats really want to be like Cuba & North Korea. Our Constitution prevents them from turning the USA into a Communist country, although Obama & Geithner are trying their best to undermine it.
Reginald Spence (#10), can you offer a sound rational reasons for the Congressional Black Caucus to even visit Cuba? Is this the job of the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton? What authority does the CBC have going to Cuba in the first place?
The CBC praised the Castro’s. What is there to praise? Cuba is rotting under their tyranny.
Communist regimes are tyranny; therefore, murder & genocide is a given. They are often behind in morden technologies than Democracies. All is true for Cuba. North Korea has people suffering famine. Statist regimes enact these as a result of unintended consequences for their need for absolute power. As the saying goes, “power corrupts & absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Because, Vivo, discernment is the kernel of wisdom, because some people actually presume to think clearly, and can tell the difference between a brutal and tyrannical regime (like Cuba and North Korea) and a largely benevolent one like the US. These people want to change the tyrannical regimes, just as the tyrannical regimes would like to undermine their critics and change the US. But in the past, honest liberals in the US didn’t pretend they could not tell the difference, or that one regime was just as good as another; they had too much intellectual self-respect to sink into that hole of equivocation. Today, things have changed; the tyrannical regimes are still what they are, but most of the honest liberals died, and their replacements pretend bad actors are just a political variation–for a while anyway.
Reginald says so many stupid things, but then follows up with the gem of them all, claiming that the Internet will link together the Cubans in Cuba with the outside world. Well, Reginald, it might, if the Cuban governemnt had any intention of allowing anyone on the island except foreigners who pay in dollars of using the Internet. Aside from the dire poverty that prevents anyone in Cuba except the party elite from having a computer that could access the web, and the hopelessly antiquated infrastructure, the Cuban government strictly monitors what information and what sites a Cuban ciziten can access through the web; there are only a small handful of servers and they are all heavily monitored by the goon squad. If you said the things you just said about President Bush online, in a web comment section, about Castro, you would find yourself whisked away to a very unpleasant jail for interrogation, and would probably get your meat rations for your whole family cut to nothing. After that, you would never be allowed to access the web again.
I think you will enjoy Cuba, Reginald, you can get prostitutes for next to nothing, eat like a king while the people serving you are sneaking your table scraps home to feed themselves, and pay peanuts for any hotels and services; to a westerner with money, it’s more than just a return to the past, it’s a perfect paradise where our currency allows any middle-class loser to imagine they are rich beyond Croessus. All you have to do is tell everyone what a gentleman Castro is, and how wrong the US government is about Cuba and you can sit on the beach for weeks while trained engineers who work as bartenders make you one rum after another. Since you are full of s%$@ already, I cannot imagine that little falsification will come too painfully.
#10 REGINALD:Listen Cretin:Did you know that the average Cuban is forbidden access to the internet?Do you know that in Cuba,17,000 people have been shot, and over 100,000 imprisoned in Gulags? Source:BLACK BOOK OF COMMUNISM p.664 by Martin Malia,Stephanie Courtois, and others.,Harvard University Press,1999.What is the CBC? A cretinous mob of corrupt, marxoid con-men,who have re-enslaved their constituents,my making them welfare dependents.These virulent clowns travel to Castro’s hellhole and pronounce it wonderful.Can one wish for a better example of mental/moral degeneracy? These people go beyond the typical” useful idiot” commie sympathizing: they are totalitarian lickspittle wannabees who hate freedom,and love power.They actually would like the USA to resemble Cuba:where an elite of thugs,live well by enslaving the masses of people. With “leaders”like these,is it any wonder that the Black -American community leads all ethnic groups,in criminality,poverty, an generalized social dysfunction?Get yourself an education Reginald!
#15CYBERGEEZER:You show embarrassing arrogance vis-a vis Cuba. Google “GENERATION Y” a blog by a brave Cuban heroine Yoanni Sanchez,and witness her heroic defiance of Castro’s terror state.
#25VIVO: Imagine: the Iranian people,freed by from a criminal,freedom -hating theocracy,The North Koreans liberated from the syphilltic madman who terrorizes and starves them;and a the establishment of a real democracy in China! What problems do you have with any of this?Why should any of us here “get over this”wishing to extend freedom to truly oppressed people.You gave yourself away here,you freedom-hating Castro sympathizer!
Vivo, when to you plan to renounce your USA citizenship & move to Fidel Castro’s Communist paradise, Cuba? Castro will confiscate all of your money & then you will indeed live like the other enslaved Cubans.
If you don’t like Cuba, you have your choice of North Korea, China, & Venezuela. Communism lives. You need to realize it’s not some sort of fairy tale; it’s a nightmare.
As someone always brings out the myth of Cuba’s advances under Castro, let me share with you what was Cuba before their world became RED. Incidentally, keep in mind that the Cuban Revolution was about political freedom, not economic injustice.
ECONOMICS
1. Cuba’s national income in 1956 had reached levels which gave the Cuban people “one of the highest standard of living in Latin America” as stated by the U.S. Department of Commerce, Investment in Cuba (Washington D.C.; Government Printing Office, 1959), p. 184.
2. Compare the following as presented in the Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1960.
(a) Cuba had 1 telephone per each 28 inhabitants in 1958 while Mexico had 1 for every 75.
(b) Cuba had 1 automobile per each 27.3 inhabitants; Mexico had 1 per each 52.4.
(c) Cuba had 1 radio per each 5 inhabitants; Mexico had 1 per each 11.0.
(d) Cuba had 1 television set per each 18 inhabitants; Mexico had 1 per each 70.
HEALTH SERVICES
1. As stated in the Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1960.
(a) In 1958 Cuba had the lowest mortality rate per thousand in Latin America 5.8, while Mexico’s was 11.6.
(b) In 1958 Cuba had also the lowest infant mortality rate in Latin America 37.6 per thousand, Mexico was number 10 with 80.0.
2. As stated in the United Nations Statistical Yearbook, 1958.
(a) In 1958 Cuba had one doctor per each 980 inhabitants while Mexico had 1 per each 2,200.
(b) Cuba was third in Latin America in the number of dentists per inhabitants. Mexico was not among the first six.
EDUCATION
As stated in the Annuaire International D’EduCation UNESCO, 1958.
(a) Cuba was number 1 in Latin America in total public money used for education; Mexico was number 7.
(b) Cuba had one university student per each 273 inhabitants, Canada had 1 per each 210 and Mexico 1 per each 334. The United States had 1 per each 61.
(c) In Cuba 45.0% of the student body were women while in the U.S 32.8% of the student body were women In Mexico only 27.9% were women.
(d) Cuba had the third lowest rate of illiteracy in Latin America United Nations Statistical Yearbook, 1959.
LABOR
1. According to International Labor Organization in Geneva, Cuba ranked fifth among all the nations in the world as concerns labor’s share in the national income. ILO Yearbook of Labor Statistics, 1960. Published in Geneva.
2. The Cuban Confederation of Workers had attained a much higher numerical degree of organization in proportion to population than the labor movement in the U.S. Ernest Schwartz, “Some Observations on Labor Organization in the Caribbean” in THE CARIBBEAN: ITS ECONOMY (Gainesville, Florida; University of Florida Press, 1954), p. 1670 In 1954 Ernest Schwartz was the Executive Secretary of the Committee on Latin American Affairs of the CIO.
3. Cuban manual and non-manual workers had by laws the right to a one month paid vacation for each eleven months worked during the natural year. “Labor Conditions in Communist Cuba,” (University of Miami Press; 1963), p. 93-94.
4. Cuba’s agricultural worker’s real wage was higher than was his counter- part’s in France, Belgium, West Germany or Denmark. International Labor Organization.s Yearbook of Labor Statistics, 1960
5. Cuban unions were so strong economically, that in some cases owned valuable properties. For example the Restaurant Workers Union partly owned the Havana Hilton.
6. By law Cubans were entitled to nine days sick leave per year (Decree #798 of 1938 as amended in 1950).
The Congress members??, of the Black Caucus visiting Cuba, were in their own element. They are believers and followers of the Castro Cuban Model. These people are at a minimum Socialist, but most are Anti Western, Anti Individual Freedom, big Government, Left Politicians.
All of the members of the Congressional Black Caucus are Tax and Spend Liberals. Especially, since they have contributed to the destruction of the Black Family & inter city school system. But most of all, they members such as Bobby Rush are Racist, pure and simple.
Living in Chicago, we get to witness every Black Congressional Member run as a anti White and Anti business, every election.
And the Democrat party of today, interested in POWER and being in control, above all other consideration, says nothing. As long as these Black Congressmen and Women, vote the party line. And they always vote with the Left Wing of the Party. Always.
The United States Congress does not represent the cross section of the American Voter, the politician through Gerrymandering of the districts have destroyed the integrity of this governing body. Politicians taking care of the Political Class over the interest of the Voter and taxpayer.
It may be too late to see any change for the better.
#38 EMPHASIS: BRAVO! REGARDS, DEGUELLO
I have met and read the stories of people who were tortured beyond belief in Cuban prisons. Not only do their stories agree with each other, but they have the physical marks to prove it. What was their crime? Were they political radicals? No, they were peace loving, law abiding ministers. They had never said one word against the government. It angers me to no end that the media has made Castro their darling. Don’t they realize that the first thing to go in a dictator/communist government is freedom speech.
37. Sebastian Shaw:
“If you don’t like Cuba, you have your choice of North Korea, China, & Venezuela. Communism lives. You need to realize it’s not some sort of fairy tale; it’s a nightmare.”
I have lived in countries with dictatorships and pseudo-democracies. It’s not that bad. The problems arise when one extreme challenges the other extreme and then the situation degrades as one of survival for one or the other. Survivors know how to deal with this.
This happens here in the USA. And it doesn’t have to be political . . .
No big deal. The CBCers went to Cuba to pick up new orders and bags of cash.
#41 VIVO Let’s see: Vivo has lived in Cuba and North Korea:places run by marxist psychopaths through terror,where dissenters are shot,sent to gulags or starved to death,and you say:”Its not too bad”? What kind of hallucigen are you taking?
43. deguello:
Cuello Loco speculating as usual . . .
Why don’t you try other countries yourself? You don’t have to go too far. Maybe your own neighborhood.
“…Embargo? – What Embargo? – you can buy a new Dell Computer in Havana – google “Tecun.” What CUBA is lacking in its economic relations with the US is CREDIT, not a denial of goods. Goods are readily available either directly from the US or through offshore subsidiaries of US Companies – witness the amount of Agricultural Products directly imported from the US. Realistically, the Castro Regime is treated more as a credit deadbeat than anything else – AND – For Good Reason – They Are.
As for the statistics quoted in #38 – I will throw in one more. Pre-Castro Cuba was the Second Nation in the world to have Commercial Broadcast COLOR TV’s (US,1st – Canada,3rd). Had things gone differently, Cubans might have been watching the Havana Sugar Kings winning their first World Series in the late 1960′s or early 1970′s on them.
45 VIVO Cuello Loco? Wow! Two Spanish words in a row!maybe the hallucigens you are addicted to,can ACTUALLY increase your intelligence,even if only marginally,and temporarily. Cuba and North Korea are hellholes,that’s a FACT, not speculation.Why don’t you visit what for you would be a foreign country :it’s called reality!.
isn’t it great…liers-cheats-thieves-terrorists and any other form of miscreant can be elected to the congress and think they deserve respect. is this supposed to make them relevent? O what a wonderful world.