Cuba Gloats Over U.N. Vote, U.S. Republican Losses

[cal04]

The Cuban government gloated on Thursday about the latest United Nations vote to end a long-running U.S. trade embargo and was equally pleased by the heavy Republican losses in America's congressional elections.

Both events, along with Tuesday's election of leftist Daniel Ortega as president of Nicaragua, were viewed as a major slap in the face for President Bush.

``183 against 1,'' blared a headline in the state-controlled newspaper Granma, referring to the 183 countries that voted for a U.N. resolution on Wednesday calling for the U.S. to drop the four-decades-old trade embargo against Cuba.

(snip)
Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, appearing on state-run television, called the U.N. vote a ``tremendous victory'' and said it showed the weakness of the U.S. government's ``moral authority.''

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/washington/politics-cuba-usa.html

[pooja]

1. we are in massive deficit with china, yet we are afraid of little ole'

cuba? Just doesn't make sense.. no wonder people laugh at us.

[freethought]

2. Lift the embargo already!!

We were so close to doing just that when the Big Dog was in the Oval Office. Cuba does not represent a threat and is not strategically relevent to us. We only make ourselves look foolish.

[donsu]

8. agree

nt

[last1standing]

3. It's time for the Dems to force this embargo to be lifted.

Since Florida is turning redder and redder each election, there's less possible political fallout in normalizing relations with Cuba. The Cuban exiles already vote repub and the rest of the state seems to be following suit so it would probably be best just to get it out of the way now so we can come back into FL later and try to recapture any lost seats. It would probably be a popular move in the plains states where farmers are looking to increase exports, and would certainly be well received by the rest of the Hispanic-American community.

All in all I think it's a winning proposition for Dems.

[donsu]

9. agree

nt

[Mika]

11. Dems won't force it. It will take a revamping of campaign funding

From another thread


The pro and anti Cuba sanctions crowd is a mixed group of Dems and repugs on both sides.

Maintaining the status quo yields great campaign contributions from the various interest groups on both sides.

Ending the sanctions on Cuba only removes the impetus/platform for these contributions.

As long as the US political system is totally dependent on millions and millions of dollars for campaign funding from private/corporate groups, then it is more politically advantageous to maintain programs such as the US sanctions on Cuba.

The status quo benefits (politicians on) both sides on this issue.

The UN condemnation of the US sanctions is just as much a condemnation of our political (campaign funding) system.

______


These charts are a few years old, but still illustrates the issue..


charts from opensecrets.org

[last1standing]

13. Do you have any numbers for the 2001-2006 period?

From what I've heard, Cuban exiles have been tilting heavily toward the repubs since bush* got elected, but I could be very wrong about that.

[Cha]

42. "Redder and Redder and ol'

kathy harris still couldn't win a state wide election.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

4. 183 against 1.

I wonder who the "1" is?
























:sarcasm:

[JDPriestly]

6. 184-4 Palau, Marshall Islands and Israel voted with U.S.

By a 184-4 margin, the United Nations General Assembly condemned the U.S. embargo against Cuba and urged that it be ended as soon as possible.

Sure three stalwart allies - Palau, the Marshall Islands, and Israel - voted with us. But we lost everyone else. Our allies in NATO and the European Union voted against us. Africa, led by South Africa, voted against us. China and India and Indonesia voted and spoke against us. We even lost our hemisphere, two to one, with Canada and Mexico supporting Cuba and opposing us.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sarah-stephens/wipe-out-un-vote-on-usc_b_33773.html

[DearAbby]

5. Its been forty years for Cripe's sake

Do we hold a grugge for forty years? We trade with China (gasp Communists) we trade with vietnam. Why have we held this grudge for forty years, and who does it benefit?


Lift it already, we are just going to have to get along with people who are different than we are, with different beliefs. Time for America to grow up alittle. Lift the damn embargo already.

[donsu]

10. agree

nt

[Mika]

12. Its not about a grudge (except for a minority of Cuban exiles).

Its about campaign funding on both sides of the issue (which is a mixed group of both Dems and repugs).

No Cuba sanctions = much less campaign bucks to R and D pandering pols on both sides of the issue.

[Solon]

17. Actually, I think its both, Cuba was the U.S. playground for a while there...

First as a U.S. Colony, then as a U.S. controlled "independent" state. They actually fought the behemoth, and WON, that's the most likely reason why the embargo is in place.

[Mika]

20. Cuba has been trying to establish normalized relations from 1959 on.

Its the US gov that has been behind the standoff, and trade sanctions and travel ban on Americans.

[Matilda]

7. Bet Chavez has a big grin too.

Can't blame them.

[sebastianj333]

14. Talk about terrorism! That's what our policy towards Cuba is

and has been....
In fact, Cuba has the right to bomb the crap out of this country after all we've done and are doing to it...
Sad but true...

[Judi Lynn]

15. You're right. It has been a long, sad, brutal story which has been unheard

in the mainstream media, with only rare moments of clarity, like the New York Times interview several years ago with NY Times reporters, one of them Anne Louise Bardach, and the Cuban "exile" CIA operative/terrorist/bomber/mass murderer/Iran Contra international criminal, Luis Posada Carriles, who has been involved in murdering and murder attempts right up until a couple of years ago.

It's only the very few Americans who even pay attention to these truly rare flashes of information who even are aware of what has been going on all these many, many years.

Conspiracy of silence? It would appear that way. If enough Americans knew what has been happening, it would have been far, far harder for our politicians to keep the travel ban to Cuba in place, and the Cuban embargo, and the government funding to various anti-Cuban enterprises.

[0007]

27. I love it!

[Judi Lynn]

35. That's a beautiful 'toon! Painful to realize, too.

[gorbal]

34. I heared that Cuban Americans don't like the travel ban

As they have family there. Perhaps the Dems might try to end that at least?

[Mika]

37. Don't hold your breath.

Although I'd like to see the end of travel sanctions also, but I won't be packing my bags quite yet.

BTW, Cuban expats in the USA are allowed to visit direct relatives once every three years under *'s new rules.

American born Americans and non Cuban residents are not allowed to go without a special OFAC permit (nearly impossible to get since *).

[Judi Lynn]

38. Florida Cuban "exile" Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Tom Delay,

brother Mario Diaz-Balart, Cuban "exile" Congresswoman Ileana Ros Lehtinen, and former "exile" Congressman Robert Menendez used to easily derail the attempts to pass legislation ending the travel ban. As you can see, DeLay, their powerful friend is gone, and their other powerful House friends will be suffering from diminishing powers soon, so the coming time should be an EXCELLENT time to get started again.

The last few years, this ending the travel ban legislation was agreed upon by a good majority in Congress, and each time, Lincoln Diaz Balart was able to savage it, and kill it, after it was safely voted in, with a majority. Now he is losing his clout. That's gotta hurt his power to kill the legislation again.

Also, with so much new blood in Congress, it's very possible they'll be able to get a VETO PROOF MAJORITY, which will make it impossible to destroy. I almost dare to hope at this point.

From an earlier article on Diaz Balart and the travel ban:

Referring to the move in the Congress to lift travel controls, he says: "We're going to win. We've got President Bush. We've got the House leadership and we win."
(snip)

http://www.ciponline.org/cuba/opeds/let%20democracy%20work.htm

Recent articles on the Cuban travel ban:
http://www.afrocubaweb.com/news/cubatravelnews.htm



His younger brother, Mario, on Air Force One



Diaz-Balart brothers on the ends, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in the middle, and the really constipated looking one is _Bush's State Department official, (ex aide to Jesse Helms) Roger Noriega.

[dkofos]

16. 183 to 1 Wake up America, Cuba is not a threat.

[Judi Lynn]

18. Smooth move by Florida Cuban "exile," who should be nominated to the Clowns' Hall of Fame:

Donor Withdraws $20M Over 'Insult'

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: November 10, 2006
Filed at 3:58 p.m. ET

MIAMI (AP) -- A $20 million gift for a university medical school evaporated with a phone call after the donor thought the university president insulted him.

Herbert Wertheim took back the gift offer after the call last week and resigned from Florida International University's board of trustees.

''The conversation just wasn't what it should have been. There were things said that shouldn't have been said, and Humpty Dumpty is broken,'' Wertheim said.

The loss of the businessman's money also meant the loss of a matching $20 million grant from the state, and it means Wertheim's name will no longer go on the medical school.

Wertheim, who made his fortune manufacturing ophthalmic equipment, had wanted to defer some payments on the gift until 2009 for tax purposes, despite agreeing to deliver a lump sum within 30 days of naming the school for him on Sept. 29.

In the phone call, he said, university President Modesto ''Mitch'' Maidique told him he had gotten the naming rights ''on the cheap'' and that the university ''could now get $100 million for it.''
(snip/...)

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Donation-Withdrawn.html



Modeseteo "Mitch" Maidique

Modesto Maidique
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Modesto A. Maidique)
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Dr. Modesto A. "Mitch" Maidique (pronounced may-DEEK, born in Havana, Cuba March 20, 1940) has been the President of Florida International University since 1986, making him by far the longest serving University President in the State of Florida. During this time, Dr. Maidique has led FIU as the University's student enrollment doubled to over 34,000 students, and as the University acquired a School of Architecture, a College of Law, and a football team.

Maidique's father, Modesto Sr., was a Cuban politician, and was assassinated when Maidique was still a baby.

Maidique received a B.S. (1962), M.S. (1964), and Ph.D. (1970) in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and in 1975 graduated from Program for Management Development at Harvard.

In 1989, Dr. Maidique was appointed to President George H. W. Bush's Educational Policy Advisory Committee, and he serves in a similar capacity for President George W. Bush.
(snip/)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modesto_A._Maidique

[Zorro]

19. It is personal

So long as Castro remains alive, I doubt the US will lift the embargo. The US wants Castro's legacy to be one of impoverishing his country, and since Castro has been so vehemently anti-capitalist in his rhetoric, the US won't allow him to see the Cuban economy improve through US corporate efforts.

As soon as he's gone, it will be a sea change -- WalMarts for Cubans.

[Mika]

21. Impoverishing "his" country?

Seems as though some here have bought into the reichwing propaganda about Cuba.

Here's some actual stats..

Before the 1959 revolution

75% of rural dwellings were huts made from palm trees.

More than 50% had no toilets of any kind.

85% had no inside running water.

91% had no electricity.

There was only 1 doctor per 2,000 people in rural areas.

More than one-third of the rural population had intestinal parasites.

Only 4% of Cuban peasants ate meat regularly; only 1% ate fish, less than 2% eggs, 3% bread, 11% milk; none ate green vegetables.

The average annual income among peasants was $91 (1956), less than 1/3 of the national income per person.

45% of the rural population was illiterate; 44% had never attended a school.

25% of the labor force was chronically unemployed.

1 million people were illiterate ( in a population of about 5.5 million).

27% of urban children, not to speak of 61% of rural children, were not attending school.

Racial discrimination was widespread.

The public school system had deteriorated badly.

Corruption was endemic; anyone could be bought, from a Supreme Court judge to a cop.

Police brutality and torture were common.

___



After the 1959 revolution

“It is in some sense almost an anti-model,” according to Eric Swanson, the programme manager for the Bank’s Development Data Group, which compiled the WDI, a tome of almost 400 pages covering scores of economic, social, and environmental indicators.

Indeed, Cuba is living proof in many ways that the Bank’s dictum that economic growth is a pre-condition for improving the lives of the poor is over-stated, if not, downright wrong.

-

It has reduced its infant mortality rate from 11 per 1,000 births in 1990 to seven in 1999, which places it firmly in the ranks of the western industrialised nations. It now stands at six, according to Jo Ritzen, the Bank’s Vice President for Development Policy, who visited Cuba privately several months ago to see for himself.

By comparison, the infant mortality rate for Argentina stood at 18 in 1999;

Chile’s was down to ten; and Costa Rica, at 12. For the entire Latin American and Caribbean region as a whole, the average was 30 in 1999.

Similarly, the mortality rate for children under the age of five in Cuba has fallen from 13 to eight per thousand over the decade. That figure is 50% lower than the rate in Chile, the Latin American country closest to Cuba’s achievement. For the region as a whole, the average was 38 in 1999.

“Six for every 1,000 in infant mortality - the same level as Spain - is just unbelievable,” according to Ritzen, a former education minister in the Netherlands. “You observe it, and so you see that Cuba has done exceedingly well in the human development area.”

Indeed, in Ritzen’s own field, the figures tell much the same story. Net primary enrolment for both girls and boys reached 100% in 1997, up from 92% in 1990. That was as high as most developed nations - higher even than the US rate and well above 80-90% rates achieved by the most advanced Latin American countries.

“Even in education performance, Cuba’s is very much in tune with the developed world, and much higher than schools in, say, Argentina, Brazil, or Chile.”

It is no wonder, in some ways. Public spending on education in Cuba amounts to about 6.7% of gross national income, twice the proportion in other Latin American and Caribbean countries and even Singapore.

There were 12 primary school pupils for every Cuban teacher in 1997, a ratio that ranked with Sweden, rather than any other developing country. The Latin American and East Asian average was twice as high at 25 to one.

The average youth (age 15-24) illiteracy rate in Latin America and the Caribbean stands at 7%. In Cuba, the rate is zero. In Latin America, where the average is 7%, only Uruguay approaches that achievement, with one percent youth illiteracy.

“Cuba managed to reduce illiteracy from 40% to zero within ten years,” said Ritzen. “If Cuba shows that it is possible, it shifts the burden of proof to those who say it’s not possible.”

Similarly, Cuba devoted 9.1% of its gross domestic product (GDP) during the 1990s to health care, roughly equivalent to Canada’s rate. Its ratio of 5.3 doctors per 1,000 people was the highest in the world.

The question that these statistics pose, of course, is whether the Cuban experience can be replicated. The answer given here is probably not.

“What does it, is the incredible dedication,” according to Wayne Smith, who was head of the US Interests Section in Havana in the late 1970s and early 1980s and has travelled to the island many times since.

No one can say with any credibility that universal education and universal health care needs to be forced on any population, nor is a nation that has achieved world class stats in both areas "impoverished". Castro didn't give it to them either. Together, nearly all Cubans worked hard to create the infrastructure and systems that they felt were essential for any progressive system.

The Cuban people wanted universal health care for all Cubans, and they have it. They pushed for government that represented their ideals, and organized and formed infrastructure that enabled Cubans to create a fair and complete h-c system.

The people of Cuba wanted universal education for all Cubans, and they have it. They pushed for government that represented their ideals, organized and formed infrastructure that enabled Cubans to create a complete and world class ed system, and they have it.

Cubans want to assist the world's poor with doctors and educators, instead of gun ship diplomacy.. and that is what they have done WITH their government, not at odds with their government.

Can Americans make this claim about their own country? I'm afraid not.


Cubans want normalization between the US and Cuba, and they have thrown their doors open to us, but, it is our US government that prevents what the majority of Americans want their government to do - normalize relations. Worse yet, the US government forbids and has criminalized travel to Cuba by Americans - something that Cuba hasn't done.


Impoverished? Hardly. Now talk to American working class families that have a castrophic illness in the family, or have several kids to put through higher ed.

[Zorro]

23. Oh Pleeezzze

Spare me the twaddle about Cuba's utopian successes.

If you want to believe that Castro's Cuba is not "impoverished", go right ahead. It still doesn't change the fact that the majority of Cubans remain dirt poor.

[Mika]

24. Utopian? LOL

Not utopian, just the facts.

In Utopia everyone would be rich, right?



So, when were you last in Cuba?

[Zorro]

25. Can't tell you

'cause then I'd have to kill you. ;-)

[Judi Lynn]

26. I'm familiar with that great article you quoted, Mika.

It must have been a learning experience for the World Bank officials, who would dearly have loved to find a way to bind Cuba to them in debt to see they were actually so self-sufficient, considering the unbelievable undertow created by the embargo!

Also from that article:

Learn from Cuba, Says World Bank
By Jim Lobe, IPS, 1 May 2001
WASHINGTON, Apr 30 (IPS) - World Bank President James Wolfensohn Monday extolled the Communist government of President Fidel Castro for doing "a great job" in providing for the social welfare of the Cuban people.

His remarks followed Sunday's publication of the Bank's 2001 edition of 'World Development Indicators' (WDI), which showed Cuba as topping virtually all other poor countries in health and education statistics.

It also showed that Havana has actually improved its performance in both areas despite the continuation of the US trade embargo against it and the end of Soviet aid and subsidies for the Caribbean island more than ten years ago.

"Cuba has done a great job on education and health," Wolfensohn told reporters at the conclusion of the annual spring meetings of the Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). "They have done a good job, and it does not embarrass me to admit it."
(snip)

Indeed, Cuba is living proof in many ways that the Bank's dictum that economic growth is a precondition for improving the lives of the poor is over-stated, if not downright wrong.
(snip)

http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43b/185.html

It can't be emphasized too clearly that anyone who has studies Cuba's accomplishments realizes they have surpassed other Latin American countries in these vital areas, and matched more developed European countries in some areas, and even surpassed the U.S. in infant mortality, even with us in longevity.

I'm not finding anything a sober person can sneer at in these stats. Anyone who has outgrown that mentally awkward zone of utter gullibility in the face of rightwing propaganda already knows he/she's been loaded down with far more propaganda concerning Latin America and the Caribbean than he/she can assimilate. Only careful research and thought can get a person free of that garbage. Better late than never, right?

[Mika]

28. I guess that from the perspective ..

.. from a country who's government values health care and education with so little regard as the USA, then Cuba might seem "impoverished".

What's interesting is that most all of us know someone, some family, who would give their 'left one' to have access to what the Cuban people have ready access to (world class ed & h-c) - at little if not zero cost.

The US government is values impoverished, while the Cuban government works with the citizens to create a high value(s) infrastructure - putting children first, for one thing.


:hi:

[ozone_man]

22. They should gloat.

As should the rest of world, barring a few remaining U.S. puppet states. It's time to end this silly embargo. Mr. Bush, tear down this wall! ;)

[UTUSN]

29. I detest the WINGNUT FASCISTS Castro overthrew AND now CASTRO

Why does CASTRO have (X-millions) in (whatever banks), while the CUBANS have GODDAMNED poverty (laced with LITERACY and HEALTH CARE)?

CASTRO is a WHITE EUROPEAN bastard, O.K.?

[UTUSN]

30. Sorry, I meant CASTRO has HUNDREDS of millions/maybe BILLIONS

And, of course, when he THE BASTARD is gone, he will be replaced by B.F.E.E./Halliburton/Las Vegas/Mafia... It will be a veritable PLAYGROUND, and the native Cubans will just be THRILLED to be a SERVICE labor force-------cleaning, cooking, servicing...

[UTUSN]

31. But, of course, I am not taken seriously n/t

[Quantess]

32. what great visuals! EOM

[Judi Lynn]

33. Ah, the fabulous Castro hidden wealth! How well some of us recall

the bright idea from the U.S. psyops people working on Operation Mongoose who arrived at the decision it would be important to prepare a lot of phoney photographs showing Fidel Castro in the presence of two very sexy ladies, eating at a huge table heavily laden with an astonishing variety of amazing food items, and distribute these photographs around Cuba to help turn Cubans against him.

Very much in the same vein as deciding to slip in a chemical which would cause his beard to fall out. You probably know about Operation Mongoose, and if you don't, you'll find it interesting to look it up.

{On edit: I have saved you the trouble, looked it up, myself:

Other harebrained plans involved pretending that radio interference from Cuba would be responsible for a staged failed U.S. space launch; faking a Cuban attack on Guantánamo naval base to provide an excuse for U.S. armed intervention; and the incredibly childish idea of publishing a doctored photograph of Fidel Castro before a table replete with food, fawned over by two women in "any situation desired". (Pentagon representative Brig Gen William Craig memo to Lansdale, Feb 2, 1962)
(snip)

http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:8XOiXHXxfBkJ:resistance.chiffonrouge.org/article.php3%3Fid_article%3D245+Operation+Mongoose+Castro+food&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=8 }


Miami Cuban "exiles" have floated the "incredible wealth" story for years, and usually some of them are the only ones stupid enough to buy it. DU'ers got a look at the Forbes article the last time they brought it up. Forbes doesn't really have a great way of proving its assertion, of course. (By the way, that fabulous wealth Castro would have squirreled away in Swiss accounts is light a few billion, since Fulgencio Batista and his top officials made off with the contents of the National Treasury when they left town.)

Wealth
In 2005, American business and financial magazine Forbes (whose owner and editor-in-chief is the Republican Steve Forbes) listed Castro among the world's richest people, with an estimated net worth of $550 million. This was based on economic control of Cuban state-owned companies. In 2006, Forbes magazine increased their estimate of Castro's wealth to $900 million. but acknowledged in the article that the estimates for all the leaders are "more art than science."<123> Castro responded to the report by saying, "If they can prove I have an account abroad... containing even one dollar I will resign my post."<123>

Attempts have been made to provide a clear and in-depth overview of Castro's large economic influence and financial status.<124> Castro and loyalists are said to control several billions of dollars in real estate, bank accounts, private estates, yachts and other assets — called “the Comandante's Reserves” — in Europe, Latin America and Asia.<1><2><3> These attempts often must rely on the testimonials of defectors who were close to Castro and investigators have not been able to give hard evidence of his real worth. In addition, although the evidence is clear that Cuba as an entity must and does operate within the nexus of global capital markets as a "global conglomerate", it is difficult to separate the state from the individual and vice versa. Castro maintains that these activities are for the benefit of the state and not for personal gain. Whether or not the wealth that he controls as the head of state is to be considered personal wealth or not is a matter of controversy. What is generally accepted is the fact that the Cuban state, an entity over which Castro has wide-reaching influence, acts in world markets as any other financial and economic entity must.

In May 2006, British MP George Galloway, who has a history of supporting Castro,<125> made a live appearance on Cuban TV to defend Castro against the charges.<126>

"The Castro family's substantial wealth was in no way spared from the expropriations of the immediate post-revolutionary period.<4>"
(snip)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidel_Castro

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fidel Castro probably has several spiffy green military outfits to choose from every damned day of the week! Probably no end of those dapper little green hats, and those snappy boots. Yeah, he's really lived it up all these years, known as a high roller, right?

http://www.inthenews.co.uk/photo/fidel-castro-$9638$180.jpg

[Mika]

36. Castro isn't really sick..

.. he's off to do the ski slopes while staying at one of his many Swiss chalets.

If Forbes (and the intransigent Miami hard line "exiles") say it, then it must be true.

:sarcasm:

[Judi Lynn]

39. Surely! Then some gambling in Monte Carlo with the peoples' money!

Maybe sailing in a yacht in the Mediterranean. You just never know, do you?

Yep, it's a real shame the hard right extremists in Miami can set the policy for ALL Cuban Americans and their homeland, not to mention creating a total barrier to ALL ordinary Americans, forbidding them to travel to Cuba, while the rest of the world comes and goes there daily.

Crazy, sick, disgusting. Looks like the idle minds at Forbes simply don't have enough to do when they actually stoop to repeating inane Miami idiots' blather.

You recall it was discussed here earlier, that using the same rule of thumb, Presidents of countries which are wealthier are, by the same measure, ASTONISHINGLY WEALTHY, many, many times as wealthy as Cuba's President.

That's the trick with a captive audience: you can get many of them to believe anything, as long as they can't find a way to find out the truth for themselves. You can say ANYTHING about Cuba and mentally infirm people will believe it, if they don't have the brains gawd gave them to help them sort it all out.

[Billy Burnett]

40. Cuba Gloats? Typical US media smear against Cuba.

Definition,

Gloat: A feeling of great, often malicious, pleasure or self-satisfaction.

I somehow doubt that Cuba is gloating. They are the victims of this injustice. It would be like somebody deliberately and wrongly (maliciously) crushing your foot, causing you to limp for four decades - and gloating because they were wrong for doing so.
:crazy:

Maybe the BFEE is gloating for, once again, maliciously hurting the Cuban people and going against the grain of the free world.

What utter crapola from the NY Times. :puke:

[Judi Lynn]

43. Hi, Billy Burnett. It's a ridiculous word choice, isn't it?

There they go again, trying to mold public perception: they tell us what they want us to believe, nothing else. Their creative use of emotionally charged words goes right by a lot of people: it has no place whatsoever in news reporting. It's completely dishonest.

One always thinks of "gloating" as something enjoyed by a person or persons NOT under the heel of someone or something who/which has bullied and tormented (occassionally attacking, murdering) them endlessly.

What else can we expect from the same people who have foisted Judith Miller upon the American public, shoving the NeoCon Iraq agenda down our throats? Slippery, sneaky, disrespectful, dishonest.

[Cha]

41. "Gloated"? Doesn't the media use

that word when they want to denigrate someone or some country?

I can see how Cuba would be celebrating the repuke losses after dealing with the bushits for 6 years.

The bushits want to spread their brand of democracy to countries with OIL.

[Judi Lynn]

44. There's been a Bush in Cuba's history going back to this one's grandfather,

Preston, who used to own property there before the Revolution.

_{George H. W. Bush} gave two of his boats to the CIA to be used in the Bay of Pigs invasion. One was named after his wife.

Do you remember Richard Nixon's very best friend was a Cuban "exile" thug in South Florida, Bebe Rebozo?

Watergate plumbers were from this same hard core, and Iran Contra CIA operatives, and CIA operatives used in Viet Nam, and all over Latin America during the covert wars on "leftists," including the murder of Che Guevara, Iran/Contra, etc.

Eventually we'll know what they've done, if we live long enough. It looks bad enough already.