AP: U.S. Nixes Cuba for Baseball Classic

[cire4]

NEW YORK - Cuba won't be allowed to send a team to next year's inaugural World Baseball Classic, the U.S. government told event organizers Wednesday.

The decision by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control was conveyed to Major League Baseball on Wednesday, according to Pat Courtney, a spokesman for the commissioner's office.

A permit from OFAC is necessary because of U.S. laws governing certain commercial transactions with Fidel Castro's communist island nation.

<snip>

"It is our policy that we do not confirm, deny or discuss licenses," Treasury spokeswoman Molly Millerwise said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "Generally speaking, the Cuba embargo prohibits entering into contracts in which Cuba or Cuban nationals have an interest."


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051215/ap_on_sp_ba_ne/bbi_classic_cuba_denied


It's a good thing the US isn't hosting an Olympics during Bush's reign of terror....

[madrchsod]

1. fuck heads

cuba has been playing organized baseball since 1878- that`s two years after the national league started here. is there anything these bastards won`t do to make themselves look like complete fucking assholes to the latin american countries? boy oh boy, is chavez going to have a field day with this!

[Captain Hilts]

2. Well, then the title has no meaning. nt

[FlemingsGhost]

3. Cuba would have likely taken the title. ... Can't have that, now.

I guess the Dominican Republic will have to show up the Gringos.

[ingac70]

4. Petty and hateful....

Didn't the US do something similar to a musical group wanting to come and play the Grammys a couple of years back?

When will the @ssholes running the gov't learn that it isn't always about political ideology.

Heaven forbid we be brought together by sport or music!:sarcasm:

[Captain Hilts]

8. Really petty. What are we afraid of? Losing? Players defecting to Cuba?

[against all enemies]

5. We suck. What a pitiful country we now live in.

[0007]

6. Hey wait man! Don't go off on a complete hate trip, we do talk

about a loving brotherhood every Sunday.

After all this is God's country and He did shed his love on us. At least those are the words we sing in "God Bless America"

[GatoLover]

7. Tihs was at the behest of Cuban-Amer ican Congressmen

So reported CBS Radio a few minutes ago. Foolish and short-sighted, IMHO.

[Mika]

9. Robert Menendez for one.

That will score him much money from the hard line Miamicubano anti Castro "exiles" for future campaigns.


http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/13380084.htm

The day before, the 51-year-old Cuban-American congressman stood in the frosty shadow of Ellis Island as Gov.-elect Jon Corzine declared Menendez his choice to serve out the last year of his term in the U.S. Senate.

By Saturday, he was in sunny South Florida, schmoozing would-be Democratic and Republican donors and candidly calculating that he needed $20 million to run for the seat in his own right, next year.

-

But he says his positions on Cuba are the same as those of ''Díaz-Balart and Ros-Lehtinen,'' referring to Lincoln, Mario and Ileana, the Republican Cuban Americans from Miami in Congress.

He backs the U.S. economic embargo and advocates greater support for island political dissidents, human-rights activists and independent journalists there.

[Judi Lynn]

22. I don't know how he does it. It must be very hard pretending to be a Dem.

while being in bed with one of the most racist, most reactionary, violent right-wing lunatic groups in the country: a group which has sought the patronage of Jesse Helms, Tom Delay, Dan Burton, for crissakes. They will pay anyone who'll carry their banner, like the ultra-dirty Robert Torricelli, but they are most assuredly right-wing people.

Menendez is so compromised in this area. What a jerk.

They made asses of themselves when the Baltimore Orioles hosted a game with a Cuban baseball team, and went to Cuba to play there. The Cuban Congressclowns couldn't find a way to interfere, but the rightwingnuts still chartered trips to Baltimore hoping to fly a plane over the game with banners, and harrass the Cuban team.

They also travel to the Olympics to harrass the Cuban Olympic baseball team. I've seen them on tv.

Cuban "exile" terrorists murdered an entire plane-load of people containing the Cuban Olympic Fencing Team, as well as medical students from Guyana, etc.,etc.

Here's Menendez with his South Florida rightwingnut idiot Congressional compatriots, Lincoln Diaz-Balart, and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.





He's standing behind Dan Burton here:

[cantstandbush]

10. We have a hateful government, let's face it. n/t

[GatoLover]

11. Have we had a hateful government for this past 45 years?

I think this was stupid, but I don't think it justifies being anti-American.

[redqueen]

20. "anti-American"?

WTF are you talking about?

[GatoLover]

23. I'm talking about saying we have a hateful government

We may have bad leaders, and the government may do a lot of stupid things, but I don't accept that the American government is hateful.

[redqueen]

24. Well not the entire government, just the party in charge.

Remember why they refused to honor Bruce Springsteen, an American icon?

There's LOTS more examples...

[GatoLover]

26. Really!? I'm totally naive about this! How did they diss Springsteen?

eom:)

[redqueen]

31. Oh, you missed that display of pukes holding a petty grudge?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1934802

[Bridget Burke]

25. Our government's Castro policy has always been stupid....

We dealt with the USSR & Nixon went to China. We invaded Cuba unsuccessfuly. Then we tried to pretend that it didn't exist.

However, Our Cuban policy has taken a downturn since Bush assumed office. I'm anti-Bush, but I'm not anti-American.

[GatoLover]

27. I agree that US-Cuba policy has always been stupid

but I really haven't followed it enough lately to know how far downhill it's gone under Bush. In a way it's probably gone downhill with every succeeding administration, since a failed policy just gets dumber and dumber as the years -- decades! -- go on. I guess I thought that, as the emigrant generation which fled the island ages out, their children and grandchildren, who are highly assimilated, would have reduced the political support for the boycott. Silly me.

The only reason I jumped into this thread was that I'm a baseball fan (see avatar) and this particular application of the boycott just seemed especially pathetic.

[Judi Lynn]

28. Jimmy Carter removed much of the travel ban, Reagan reinstated it.

Bill Clinton increased person-to-person programs with Cubans, loosened some restrictions, allowed more travel for students,etc., _{George W. Bush} removed all travel for ordinary Americans except with rare exceptions for government authorized trips, and reduced the travel Cuban immigrants had previously to one trip per every three years, even if it means they cannot go to the bedsides of critically ill loved ones.

Americans have been refused travel to attend funerals of relatives, or to be present in time to see relatives who are dying. Cuban immigrants in the service have also been refused permission to travel to Cuba to see their children.

[GatoLover]

29. OK, I accept this

I guess Florida politics have pushed the Repubs down this unfortunate path more than the Democrats.

[Swede]

12. U.S. tells Cuban team: 'You're out!'

Boy these guys are petty.

Cuba's hopes of playing in the World Baseball Classic next spring have been dashed -- the U.S. Department of Treasury denied Major League Baseball the license required for the team to participate.
The move came after Cuban-American members of Congress urged the Treasury to veto the license


http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/cuba/13410018.htm

[brentspeak]

13. Dumb

Why harm the Cuban people because Castro is their dictator?

[bahrbearian]

15. "Stupid is, as stupid does"

[Democrats_win]

14. Baseball 0, Big Brother Bu$sh fascism 10.

Of course the drug addicts in MLB couldn´t beat the Cubans anyway. Wouldn´t want to upset the myth makers.

[DinahMoeHum]

16. Ain't they ever heard of "baseball diplomacy"??

Like "Ping-Pong Diplomacy" over 30 years ago? Nixon-in-China, and all that??

Candy-ass chickenshits.

:evilfrown:

[daleo]

17. Cuba won't issue visas for this EU human rights event

And the U.S. won't issue visas for this baseball event.

Kind of amusing really.

[rinsd]

18. Shhhhhhh.......

Some people may actually notice the parallels.

[onenote]

19. pander pander pander

Chimpy and gang aren't even consistent. Cuban teams have been allowed to come the US to participate in international competition for years. For example, Reagan didn't stop the Cubans from sending atheletes to partipate in the 1990 Goodwill Games and just this year, a Cuban soccer team participated in international competition in Seattle.

Just pandering their little hearts away....

onenote

[KamaAina]

21. Maybe Cuba could play its first-round games elsewhere

some games are being played in Japan, for instance:

The sport's first World Cup-style tournament was jointly organized by the commissioner's office and the players' union. It includes 16 teams and runs from March 3-20 in the United States, Puerto Rico and Japan.

Another possibility is the Dominican, right nearby. Thanks to Ozzie Guillen and the White Sox, baseball is also riding a wave of popularity in Venezuela... oh, right, Oceania has always been at war with Venezuela, too. :sarcasm:.

Of course, given the quality of Cuba's amateur teams, they'd probably end up in the final stages, anyway...

edit: or Canada? At one point the Blue Jays were seriously considering drafting Cuban star Pedro Linares; even though he would have been barred from all the Jays' road trips, he would have given them an edge in their home games, which are played in a civilised country.

[Name removed]

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