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Mika Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 10:06 AM
Original message
McCain blasts Obama's offer to meet Cuban leader
Source: Miami Herald

Barack Obama's offer to meet face to face with Fidel Castro's successor is ''dangerously naive,'' Republican presidential candidate John McCain said Friday, testing out a potential fall campaign strategy to cast the Democratic presidential candidate as too inexperienced for the world stage.

Obama, who made the comment at a Thursday night debate with rival Hillary Clinton, rapidly returned fire, saying McCain ``would give us four more years of the same Bush-McCain policies that have failed U.S. interests and the Cuban people for the last 50 years.''

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Asked at Thursday's debate in Texas whether he'd meet with Raúl Castro, his brother's likely successor, Obama said he would. ''I do think that it's important for the United States not just to talk to its friends, but also to talk to its enemies,'' he said. ``That's where diplomacy makes the biggest difference.''

Though Obama said he would be willing to meet with the Cuban leader ''without preconditions,'' he added that the encounter would happen only after both sides came up with an agenda that included human rights, the release of political prisoners and freedom of the press.


Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/457/story/429861.html



Strange notion of ''without preconditions".

Mr Obama said that the encounter would happen only after both sides came up with an agenda that included human rights, the release of political prisoners and freedom of the press.

IOW, conditions.



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BlueManDude Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 10:10 AM
Response to Original message
1. Anyone here still think that McCain isn't just a cookie cutter, garden variety RWer?
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Tuttle Donating Member (919 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 10:20 AM
Response to Reply #1
2. McCain is a liar (and maybe a philanderer)
n/t

Tut-tut
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olddad56 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 11:38 AM
Response to Reply #2
24. McCain is McBush
A cross between George Bush and Ronald McDonald.
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jaxx Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 10:21 AM
Response to Original message
3. Oh McCain knows he's just too old to make the trip to Cuba.
"my friends"
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The Croquist Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 10:38 AM
Response to Reply #3
6. Why don't we just leave Cuba alone?
It's none of our stinking business.

I don't care if Obama wants to meet with them or not but at least he's consistent. He's pretty much said he's willing to talk to every country; North Korea, Iran, Syria, Venezuela. Why should Cuba be any different?

Let's buy their cheap sugar, lower prices here and stop subsidizing the rich republicans who own the Florida sugar farms.

Let's vacation there if they want us. Canadians and Europeans love the place.

Let family members freely visit each other.

We screwed up with the Bay of Pigs.
The USSR and Cuba screwed up when they tried to put nukes there.
Right now the biggest threat I see to us from Cuba is cheap labor and they're minor leaguers compared to Mexico..

Is Cuba really that dangerous? More to the point, are they really worth the effort to care about?
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jaxx Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 11:23 AM
Response to Reply #6
15. None of that will happen without ironing out the wrinkles in the current policy.
Leave it alone and we stay the same.
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The Croquist Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 04:05 PM
Response to Reply #15
39. Scrap the current policy
New President.
New policy.
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TheCowsCameHome Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 05:08 PM
Response to Reply #3
43. He thinks improvised rafts are the sole means of transport
He is from the stone age, and it's showing.
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bulloney Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 10:35 AM
Response to Original message
4. Need any more convincing that McCain would just continue the same old shit that's gotten us nowhere
with Cuba for over 50 years?
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nuxvomica Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 10:37 AM
Response to Original message
5. We'll need to turn around the GOP's rhetoric of fear
Phrases like "dangerously naive" betray a fearful attitude that should be countered with the assertion that if we really are the greatest country in the world we shouldn't be afraid to talk to anyone. I don't want the Republicans in control of the government but damned if they wouldn't be the perfect company for sitting around the campfire and telling scary stories.
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Mika Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 11:26 AM
Response to Reply #5
16. Then we need a different policy. Can't do it with the same policy as repug candidates.
The sanctions are an abysmal failure that have harmed, as usual with sanctions and embargoes, the general population.

That needs to change if we are to take the high road re: Cuba policy.

Mr Obama, revise your policy on Cuba.

End the sanctions.

YES WE CAN!



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marias23 Donating Member (256 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 10:47 AM
Response to Original message
7. Obama Naive on Cuba?
Edited on Sat Feb-23-08 11:06 AM by marias23
Naive? Yeah, like the embargo has done anything - except make alot of innocent people's lives miserable. Remember the revolution was in the 1950's so most Cubans had nothing to do with it - but our heartless country doesn't mind punishing them - to NO RESULT. NOTHING. NADA. Of course the truth is that while Cuba is no military threat to the US it is an economic threat - they are smart folks (capable of being an offshore Japan) with a beautiful island that will compete with American resorts. Obama is so refreshing in his willingness to try something new.
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Billy Burnett Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 10:59 AM
Response to Original message
8. I don't get it. Both McPain and Obama have set conditions for talks.
Edited on Sat Feb-23-08 11:02 AM by Billy Burnett
It seems as though posters, so far, don't seem to see the hilarity and hypocrisy in McPain's criticism.

He and Obama have essentially the same preconditions for talks with the Cuban government.

Obama isn't dropping the embargo, or normalizing relations in any way.

It's the same ol' same ol'. He has set preconditions for talks with Cuba. Cuba must bend over and take it up the @$$ prior to any discussion with the almighty holier_than_thou US government.



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Mika Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 11:12 AM
Response to Reply #8
13. Absolutely correct. Yet another fake outrage by McBush supporters.
Almost all of the candidates who ran for preznit had the same Cuba policy - continue the embargo and sanctions. Preconditions for any discussions.
Gravel, Kucinich, and Paul supported normalization with Cuba.




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Roland99 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 11:00 AM
Response to Original message
9. I guess Nixon was naive, too, when he met with China.
McCain is just a bitter old man.
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Billy Burnett Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 11:04 AM
Response to Reply #9
10. Did Nixon set pre conditions for that meeting? What did he demand of China prior? n/t
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soupkitchen Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 11:11 AM
Response to Reply #10
11. To allow us to mine Hai Phong Harbor
Edited on Sat Feb-23-08 11:13 AM by soupkitchen
That was the deal
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ristruck Donating Member (124 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 11:35 AM
Response to Reply #9
22. Great Point
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BearSquirrel2 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 01:00 PM
Response to Reply #9
31. Why only Nixon could go to China ...

You've heard the old adage. Only Nixon could go to China because Nixon wasn't on the outside criticizing him for going to China!!!!

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aquart Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 03:25 PM
Response to Reply #9
38. Agism is just as sucky as sexism, btw.
You might want to try NOT alienating the most dependable voting bloc.
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Catch22Dem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-24-08 12:02 PM
Response to Reply #38
54. There is a such thing as bitter and old though (n/t)
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jpak Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 11:11 AM
Response to Original message
12. McFuckwad is a coward - Miami Republics wag that dog...
Obama, however, is a True Statesman that recognizes the Failed Policies of the Past - and will change things for the better...
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soupkitchen Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 11:16 AM
Response to Original message
14. Does Obama know Cuba is a pawn of the Soviet Union?
Or, more importantly, doesn't McCain know the Soviet Union dissolved some time ago?
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still_one Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 11:26 AM
Response to Original message
17. mccain has said he wants a draft, he calls it mandatory service for two years
to the country, not using the word draft, but it is the same thing

mccain was for the South Dakota abortion law, which would have made abortion illegal, EVEN IF THE LIFE OF THE MOTHER WAS AT STAKE

macain want to occupy Iraq permanently

mccain will appoint judges like scalia and thomas, all the repuke candidates said that

mccain's campaign staff is loaded with lobbysts

mccain voted against making Martin Luther King day a holidy

mccain was up to his neck in the S&L crisis and part of the keating 5

I could go on, but you get my point


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Mika Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 11:28 AM
Response to Reply #17
18. And the Dems have pretty much the same policy on Cuba as McCain.
Failed policy no matter who supports it.



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still_one Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 11:36 AM
Response to Reply #18
23. no question about it. The biggest joke is that bush made fun of bill clinton
for the sunshine talks between north and south Korea, and when he took office, broke up any negotiations between the north and south. six plus years later, he went back to where Clinton had left off

These jerks have short memories about China, and it was Nixon who had direct talks, which most likely helped prevent a major world conflict

We are dealing with some very STUPID people who do not learn from history. Not only is talk cheaper than bullets, and more ethical, but it is the way to go

If we talked instead of going into Viet Nam, MILLIONS of lives would NOT have been lost, and Viet Nam, which is now market driven is so, because we left, not because of the war and pain we inflicted on that country

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Bacchus39 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 11:29 AM
Response to Original message
19. an agenda is conditions?? are they supposed to meet just to say hi?
I'm sure Raul would have an agenda too.
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TwilightGardener Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 12:01 PM
Response to Reply #19
27. Right--an agenda of what Obama plans to pursue is NOT preconditions.
Edited on Sat Feb-23-08 12:01 PM by wienerdoggie
Preconditions are demanding that Cuba start implementing elements of that agenda BEFORE we'll even meet with them. OP is wrong-o.
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bhikkhu Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-24-08 02:08 AM
Response to Reply #27
50. Has that ever worked?
How long have we had this embargo going on?
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tomg Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-24-08 01:32 PM
Response to Reply #19
56. Actually, I imagine that Raul's pre-conditions
could very well be pretty much the same, at least with McCain. I mean, if you are talking about

"human rights, the release of political prisoners and freedom of the press." the ol U.S. of A under George "Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid" Bush hasn't exactly got the best track record in the world. Maybe they should just talk baseball for starters.
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Bacchus39 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-25-08 08:46 AM
Response to Reply #56
64. talk baseball and throw back a couple of Cuba Libres maybe??
Edited on Mon Feb-25-08 08:46 AM by Bacchus39
its a start
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tomg Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-25-08 12:43 PM
Response to Reply #64
66. Actually, sounds like a great start. nt
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PSPS Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 11:32 AM
Response to Original message
20. Good way of framing it: The "Bush-McCain policies"
McCain "would give us four more years of the same Bush-McCain policies that have failed U.S. interests and the Cuban people for the last 50 years."

Keep tying McCain to his huggy-buddy. McCain wants to run as "Bush's third term," so tie Bush around his neck and let him drown.
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Hulk Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 11:34 AM
Response to Original message
21. "be afraid....be very afraid...:" When is this country going to wake up???
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ConcernedCanuk Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 11:46 AM
Response to Reply #21
26. When it is too late, that's when.
.
.
.
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fascisthunter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 11:42 AM
Response to Original message
25. McCain is a BAD Soldier... Takes Orders No Matter How Bad Those Orders are
and no matter whom they are from.
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BearSquirrel2 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 01:04 PM
Response to Reply #25
33. No that's a GOOD soldier ...

A soldier's job is to take orders. That's the only way the machine works.

An officer on the other hand ... they're supposed to think about it.

I would have no problem with McCain being the head soldier. But I had a big problem with him being the Commander in Chief.

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defendandprotect Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 09:51 PM
Response to Reply #33
47. Soldiers have to reclaim conscience ---
WE have to give them back their right to their conscience and their bodies ---


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BearSquirrel2 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-24-08 08:54 PM
Response to Reply #47
57. No, this protects enlisted men ...

The principle of HAVING to obey orders protects enlisted men from any legal consequence. In truth, they serve under the command of men who can order them to their deaths. They are not in a position to argue.

The fact that they ARE in this position means that they can shoot to kill (often an unpleasant but necessary task) without facing either legal or moral consequence. When the war is over, these same men can greet each other and talk about the battle knowing that it was all "just business" ... no grudges. They are the tools of the state.

The burden of having to disobey orders is pushed up to the officers. They have the moral conundrum, it comes with better pay and the option (for some) of resigning their commands. They also have the unpleasant burden of potentially shooting insubordinate soldiers during battle.




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defendandprotect Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-25-08 04:01 AM
Response to Reply #57
62. You need a SARCASM sign with that .... or are you nuts?
Edited on Mon Feb-25-08 04:03 AM by defendandprotect
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LTR Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 12:03 PM
Response to Original message
28. Yeah, because we all know how much progress has been made in the past 50 years
Edited on Sat Feb-23-08 12:05 PM by Fighting Irish
The blockade ain't working.

Quite frankly, I think it's time for a different approach toward Cuba. Too bad no candidate or politician has the balls to lift it. I say the best way to enact change there is to end the boycott and pound 'em with captalism.
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BobTheSubgenius Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 06:42 PM
Response to Reply #28
45. Are you kidding? It worked flawlessly.
Castro stepped down, didn't he? :D
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ReformedChris Donating Member (252 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 12:06 PM
Response to Original message
29. "Dangerously Naive". Yeah, maybe he should have told Bu$hie that before Iraq
I don't see the harm in talking to other world leaders, even ones we disagree with. The Cuba policy has been pointless and has only allowed the Castro stranglehold to continue. There is no danger in talking to the Cuban regime or finding common ground. I feel strongly that negotiations could help release Cuban political prisoners and loosen things up there a bit. People like McCain are forever stuck in the Cold War rut, having to draw a pointless line in the sand and never being creative enough to cross it.
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BearSquirrel2 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 12:58 PM
Response to Original message
30. Yeah, just looked what stonewalling Castro I accomplished ...

Yeah, we can all see what the US accomplished by giving Castro the hand for 50 years. That produced SOOO much change.

The idea that we shouldn't meet with our enemies is ridiculous. It's as if Castro, Amidenijad and Kim-Jeun Il somehow NEED to meet with a US president to consolidate their power or something.

BTW, this whole "TV" argument is ridiculous. Their media is so over the top propagandized that everybody knows it's bullshit. They believe their media far less than our rubes believe Faux News. It doesn't matter except for to "getting down to business" and figuring out a way forward.

Hopefully, Barak O'Bama would be able to sit down with Raul Castro and negotiate a reform deal that would trade democratic reforms for trade access. BTW, this is the same deal that we probably should have had with China. Reform for trade!!! Of course, we all have to remember that the people who broker US foreign policy have NEVER been concerned with Democracy. This is obvious from looking at our policies on the Husseins vs the House of Saud.






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Vinca Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 01:03 PM
Response to Original message
32. McCain is definitely running for Shrub's third term.
They've never explained why it's fine to be bosom buddies with China - a Communist nation with a sorry human rights record - and then treat tiny Cuba like it's a leper colony. Oh . . . wait . . . it's the money China's got that we want. Oh . . . wait . . . that used to be our money before our jobs were outsourced and cheap Chinese merchandise filled our shelves.
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peacetalksforall Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 01:10 PM
Response to Original message
34. "Dangerously naive" !!!! That is hilarious.
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Peace Patriot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 01:46 PM
Response to Original message
35. The truth is that U.S. policy toward all of Latin America has been the shits for 50 years
and more. It ain't just Cuba. Why do you think the Cuban revolution occurred? It was the heinous Batista regime, fully supported by the U.S., that inspired armed revolution there. And now, although other South American countries have taken a different path--political democracy--toward social justice, Cuba remains an inspiration with regard to ECONOMIC democracy, has exported its best programs--medical care and literacy programs--to many South American countries, has the lowest infant morality rate and one of the highest literacy rates in the world, and has become a tourist destination of choice for many foreign tourists, because that beautiful island has remained unspoiled by the horrors of development and corporate profiteering that we see in Miami and Hawaii.

"Dangerous naivete," my ass. What is dangerous to our interests, as a people, is our government's failure to recognize and support the aspirations of the vast poor population of Latin America to fair, democratic governance and social justice, and our support for global corporate predators in horrible exploitation of Latin America and the installation of horrible fascist governments, which continues to this day in Bushite plotting AGAINST democratic, leftist governments in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Argentina, and their arm-twisting, kneecapping, "divide and conquer" tactics against all the new leftist governments, including Brazil, Chile, Uruguay and Nicaragua (and their probable interference in the Mexican election in 2006, which resulted in the leftist losing by a hairsbreadth margin).

You want to know what the Bushites are up to, still. Read Donald Rumsfeld...

"The Smart Way to Beat Tyrants Like Chávez," by Donald Rumsfeld, 12/1/07
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/30/AR2007113001800.html

He is planning Oil War II: South America--economic warfare against Venezuela and other countries, with the U.S. acting "swiftly" in support of "friends and allies" in South America (fascist thugs planning coups).

The consequence of these policies has been good for South America, actually, and bad for us. The South Americans are in total rebellion against U.S./fascist/corporate domination. And they are creating alliances and new regional institutions, such as the Bank of the South, and the ALBA and Mercosur trade groups, that are driving our global corporate predators, including the World Bank (and Exxon Mobil, Bechtel, et al) out of the region. They are even talking about creating an OAS without the U.S. as a member, and a South American "common market" and common currency (to get off the U.S. dollar). They are in rebellion, also, against the corrupt, failed, murderous U.S. "war on drugs." The new president of Ecuador has promised to throw the U.S. military base out of his country this year, when its lease comes up for renewal. It is used for the "war on drugs" and other nefarious purposes. (He said that he will permit U.S. boots on the ground in Ecuador when the U.S. permits Ecuador to have a military base in Miami!). (Rafael Correa--a funny guy, but steely-spined like Chavez in Venezuela, Evo Morales in Bolivia and the Kirchners in Argentina.)

The issue in South America is SOCIAL JUSTICE--the foundation of prosperity! Education for the poor majority; medical care; infrastructure development; jobs, small business loans; manufacturing capability; land reform; use of local resources to benefit local people. And we are going to be cut out of the new prosperity that these leftist democracies are creating in South America--cut out as cooperators, cut out as partners, cut out as traders and business people, and cut out morally, politically and in every other way--by our government's insane hostility to Cuba, and continued support of FASCIST PLOTTERS and corporate thugs like Exxon Mobile throughout the region.

The people of South America have chosen a peaceful path to the revolution--democracy. Real democracy--not this pathetic tatter of democracy brought to us, here, by corporate news monopolies and corporate-controlled voting machines.

One fact sums it all up: In Venezuela, they use electronic voting, but it is an OPEN SOURCE CODE system--anyone may review the code by which the votes are counted--and they handcount a whopping FIFTY-FIVE percent of the votes, as a check on machine fraud. Here, we have electronic voting run on TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code, owned and controlled by rightwing Bushite corporations, with virtually NO audit/recount controls. Many states have NO handcount as a check on machine fraud, and even the best states do only a 1% audit. A 55% audit vs. a ZERO to 1% audit. You tell me who has the better democracy. And Donald Rumsfeld dares to call the man who has been repeatedly elected in highly transparent, and also highly monitored, elections in Venezuela, a "tyrant." A man who has a 70% approval rating, after ten years in office--compared to our president, who has a 19% approval rating, after eight years of war, torture, death and massive theft of our treasury.

Our government's--and our political establishment's--failure to recognize what is really going on in South America--is going to do us in, more than their godawful crimes in the Middle East, more than their infamous support of the Saudi dictators, and the Pakistani dictator, more than their alienation of our European allies, more than anything else they have done. They have DIVIDED the Western Hemisphere, and pitted the vast poor population of DEMOCRATS with a small d, in the southern portion, from their natural allies, we, the people of North America--the majority, the poor, the working class and the middle classes--who ALSO seek democracy with a small d. Fairness, upward mobility, majority rule, and lawful, fair and just government, which champions us against the corporate predators who would rob and enslave us. The South Americans have "gotten" it. They know what's what. They are decades ahead of us in achieving critically needed reform of predatory capitalism. And we are going to be left in the dust, as their reforms and new alliances begin to produce results.

Cuba's economic democracy without political democracy is not a system that most of us would choose. It is not a system that the rest of South America has chosen. But we do need to understand why it is admired throughout South America--admired for what it is, a successful experiment in social justice. Cuba weathered the collapse of the Soviet Union, which had subsidizing Cuba. Cubans faced it bravely, tightened their belts, and doubled their efforts to create a non-subsidized economy. They succeeded--which has to be one of the economic miracles of the last hundred years. Cubans are not rich, but neither have they been devastated, with vast populations of displaced peasants crammed into shantytowns in urban areas, like other Latin American countries, stripped of their sovereignty, their resources and prosperity by "neo-liberalism" (Clinton/Bush "free trade" and World Bank/IMF policy). So, to South Americans, Cuba is an ikon of social justice. And Castro, as the grandfather of that success, is revered. They don't want to imitate Cuba. They just admire it as an effort in the right direction--and one that occurred in spite of every effort of the U.S. government to undermine and topple it.

We need to understand this. We are a divided hemisphere, in which the bulk of the people, living in the south, admire Cuba, and in which our delusional government and media promote the nutso, anti-communist ideology of the 1950s, that regards the Cuban revolution as evil. And, guess what? The fascist meat-heads are building A WALL on our border, to concretize this divide!

Well, let's hope that we still have enough of a democracy to elect a SANE MAN to the White House, who can begin deconstructing that wall, literally and metaphorically. And TALKING TO our NON-enemies in Cuba...and Venezuela, and Bolivia, and Ecuador, and Argentina, and Brazil, and Chile, and Uruguay, and Nicaragua--all the new leftist majority governments--and to the leaders of the still-repressed leftist majorities in central America, would be a good place to start. For one thing, THEY have the oil!

Do we want a war over it? Or, do we want to be fair and just--and act creatively to help us ALL convert to a "green" economy?

The Cuban people are NOT our "enemy." But Donald Rumsfeld IS. He would have us kill for oil. Is that who we are? Is that what we want?


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indypaul Donating Member (896 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 02:37 PM
Response to Original message
36. Harry S Truman -" Plain Speaking"
I strongly suggest reading President Truman's response to
Merle Miller's question regarding Cuba and our diplomatic
relations with Castro and Cuba. "Now when Castro came into
power, if I'd been President, I'd have picked up the phone and
called him direct in Havana. I wouldn't have gone through protocol
or anything like that. I'd have called him up, and I'd have said,
Fidel this is Harry Truman in Washington, and I'd like to have
you come up here and have a little talk." This continues with
President Truman's response regarding any conversation with Castro,
but essentially President Truman suggested he would have told
Castro that there were two places for him to obtain assistance
and he would have been willing to assist Castro in obtaining that
help rather than turning to the "other place" Very interesting
reading and highly recommend same.
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struggle4progress Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 03:17 PM
Response to Original message
37. I guess the mob will never forgive Castro for shutting down Meyer Lansky's Cuban operations.
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Judi Lynn Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 04:26 PM
Response to Original message
40. It's good to remind people that Cuba didn't seek protection from Russia militarily until AFTER the
Bay of Pigs invasion. They were aware that the U.S. was actively continuing to plot new ways to overthrow them.

By the way, I heard a lie brandished last week freely, as if it were the truth, as always, when someone claimed Cuba had taken the poor little "exiles" who invaded Cuba and executed them. Not true. The prisoners were returned to the U.S., in exchange for medical materials, food, and there had been an attempt to include tractors for producing food in Cuba. The tractor part appears to have fallen through.
MAY 1961: Responding to a public offer by Fidel Castro to exchange the Bay of Pigs prisoners for farm machinery, President Kennedy begins making phone calls to form the Tractors for Freedom Committee. The Committee, made up of Milton Eisenhower, Walter Reuther, Joe Dodge, and chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, is to privately attempt to raise the needed money to make the exchange for the prisoners. (Paterson, p.139)
(snip)

DEC 23?24, 1962: Castro releases the Brigade prisoners of the Bay of Pigs invasion to the United States and they arrive at =ad Air force base in Florida. He also allows 1000 relatives of the prisoners to leave by ship, the African Pilot, "as Xmas bonus." Twenty-three United States citizens remain in prison in Cuba. Castro says that, after 80% of shipments of $53 million in food and medicine arrive, he will examine each case individually. (James B. Donovan, Chronology?'The Bay of Pigs, James B. Donovan Papers)
(snip)
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/bayofpigs/chron.html
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Frisbee Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 04:37 PM
Response to Original message
41. McCain hoping Castro dies
From CNN:

As McCain put it during a campaign stop in Indiana Friday, "I hope he has the opportunity to meet Karl Marx very soon."

How Christian of him. :sarcasm:
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TheCowsCameHome Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 05:06 PM
Response to Original message
42. "If you liked Bush, you'll love McCain"
Bumper sticker idea.
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icnorth Donating Member (954 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-24-08 08:05 AM
Response to Reply #42
53. You should put this into production immediately. eom
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BobTheSubgenius Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 06:41 PM
Response to Original message
44. Hopelessly naive!
To TALK with leaders of other countries when you have the wherewithal to bomb them flat? What is he thinking???
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defendandprotect Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 09:42 PM
Response to Original message
46. "Dangerous and naive" . . . because Cuba has been so violent towards America --- !!! ???
Edited on Sat Feb-23-08 09:49 PM by defendandprotect
Rather it's Cuba which should consider America "dangerous" given our imperialism, warmongering
and violence around the globe --- !!!
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daleo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 10:16 PM
Response to Original message
48. Do both sides have to release political prisoners? n/t
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still_one Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-23-08 11:15 PM
Response to Original message
49. I guess he must have been against Nixon meeting with the Red Chinese
maybe he flew one to many missions dropping napalm on the Vietnamese, and inhaled too much of the fumes


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Judi Lynn Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-24-08 03:12 AM
Response to Original message
51. Next-Gen Cuban Leaders to Emerge Sunday
Next-Gen Cuban Leaders to Emerge Sunday
from The Associated Press

HAVANA February 21, 2008, 03:09 pm ET · A technocrat whose reforms are credited with saving Cuba's economy after the Soviet collapse. A former Fidel Castro aide who persuaded the U.N. to condemn Washington's embargo. The Communist Party's international relations man.

These men are the next generation of Cuba's leadership, and their fortunes in the government shake-up coming Sunday will say a lot about where the island is headed now that the 81-year-old Fidel is giving up the presidency.

Parliament will almost certainly keep the Castros in charge by replacing Fidel with his younger brother, Raul. Raul, 76, has been first in line for the presidency for decades and has been acting president since his brother took ill in July 2006.

Already, Raul has spoken of unspecified "structural changes" and called for an open discussion of problems with the system. But it is unclear what kind of economic openings Cuba's communist leadership is willing to allow, and its choice of vice presidents will be crucial in determining whether the president has a mandate for change.

More:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19242107

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Judi Lynn Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-24-08 07:01 AM
Response to Original message
52. McCain's historical amnesia
McCain's historical amnesia
John McCain forgets to mention in his critique of Cuba that the United States is also a historic state sponsor of terrorism.
February 23, 2008 8:00 AM

Here's John McCain attacking Barack Obama's response Thursday night during the Democratic debate that he would meet with Cuba's new leader "without preconditions":
I think it's naive to think you can sit down and have unconditional talks with a person who is part of a government that has been a state sponsor of terrorism, not only in the hemisphere, but throughout the world.
Fair enough - this is an area where genuine disagreement can occur - and Cuba has been a state sponsor of terrorism through its export of revolutionary communism in Latin America and Africa. However, as a historical side note and rejoinder to McCain, the United States is also a state sponsor of terrorism. One of its targets for the last 40-odd years has been Cuba. And just staying within the Western Hemisphere, let's also not forget the U.S.' support for the violent overthrow of the democratically elected regimes of Arbenz in Guatamala in 1954 and Allende in Chile in 1973, ironically on the date of September 11.

The U.S. also supported the reactionary and repressive Contras against the Sandinistas in Nicaragua and the Salvadoran government against the FMLN guerrillas and its supporters throughout the 1980s. Washington's newest Latin American target throughout the 1990s into the new century has been Colombia, where U.S. aid has gone to a military widely accused of horrific human rights abuses and collusion with right-wing paramilitary death squads.

If John McCain applied the same diplomatic standard to Washington that he does to Havana, the U.S. would be an international pariah, which isn't far from reality today when considering the U.S.' image under President Bush.

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/usa/2008/02/mccains_historical_amnesia.html
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chelsea0011 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-24-08 01:26 PM
Response to Original message
55. China, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan...any complaints about meeting these
Edited on Sun Feb-24-08 01:26 PM by Feeney2
leaders who control repressive regimes and lock up dissidents?
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RBInMaine Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-24-08 09:18 PM
Response to Original message
58. Kay Bailey Hutchison said she would too. SO there McCain.
On ABC's "THIS WEEK" show this morning, TX Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison said she'd do the same. So McCain can start attacking her too. She also said she would not run at VP with McCain. Interesting.
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mwb970 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-24-08 09:29 PM
Response to Original message
59. McCain reminds me of someone, but I'm just not sure who it is.
Tsk, tsk. Now who could it be? Who, who, who. Could it be....



S A T A N ! !
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margotb822 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-24-08 10:28 PM
Response to Reply #59
60. What a disturbing picture
Mickey looks like he's in love. Ugh, I feel unclean just looking at this picture...
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mwb970 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-25-08 08:31 AM
Response to Reply #60
63. That's why we have to keep posting it!
Like you, I get sick to my stomach even looking at it. The blissful submission on McCain's face, the phony "strong commander" stance of the idiot bush, the brain-dead spectators. Yuck!

This picture belongs on America's grave.
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Zorra Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-24-08 11:47 PM
Response to Original message
61. McCain is an egomaniacal phony. He'd be a worse leader than Bu*h.
He's flat warmongering dangerous.
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bdamomma Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-25-08 09:13 AM
Response to Original message
65. McCain, just another extension of the * evil empire.
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