Radio and TV Marti Request More Taxpayers' Money for Anti-Cuba Transmissions

[Judi Lynn]

Radio and TV Marti Request More Taxpayers' Money for Anti-Cuba Transmissions
Thursday, 12 March 2015 17:34
Written by RHC

Washington.– The U.S. Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB), which supervises the so-called Radio and TV Marti, has proposed to increase the budget for the anti-Cuba transmissions in 2016 to more than 30 million dollars, a greater amount than the figures requested for 2014 and 2015.

Such a budget would be over three million dollars more than in previous years, according to documents revealed by the "Along the Malecon" blog, cited by Cubadebate website.

The Broadcasting Board of Governors, a U.S. government entity that owns the OCB, made its fiscal budget request for 2016 on Tuesday asking for more than 30 million, 321 thousand dollars to what it described as increasing global participation, acting in a more aggressive manner in the televised and digital media and supporting high priority audience.

Radio and TV Marti are services financed by the U.S. administration, which maintain broadcasts in Spanish to Cuba from Miami in violation of international rules. The transmissions by the two stations, supervised by the Office for Cuba Broadcasting, have been blocked or jammed on the island.

Radio Marti was set up in 1983 by former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, marked by an aggressive programming, interference in the internal affairs of Cuba, the promotion of illegal departures from the island, and other anti-Cuba activities.

More recently, a report by the U.S. administration revealed that Radio and TV Marti suffer from a poor morale, lack of transparency, lack of management, security failures and other irregularities. (RHC)

http://www.periodico26.cu/index.php/en/cuba-news/27356-radio-and-tv-marti-request-more-taxpayers-money-for-anti-cuba-transmissions

(Short article, no more at link.)

[NBachers]

1. Isn't the time past due for Radio and TV Marti to go the way of Conelrad?

[Judi Lynn]

2. Good Democrats have been struggling to get it done for years, with no luck!

F'r instance:

Feingold: Radio, TV Martí Are ‘Wasteful’
11.24.2009

Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., wants to eliminate what he calls wasteful government spending. He’s introduced a bill, the Control Spending Now Act, that he says will reduce the deficit by over a half trillion dollars over a decade. Currently, the deficit stands at $1.42 trillion, according to the senator.

The first of 40 items Feingold has targeted for elimination, representing a potential $300 million in savings over 10 years, are Radio and TV Martí.

Originating in 1983 under President Reagan with the intention of hindering Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, Radio Martí is a U.S.-funded, 24-hour radio program directed at Cuba. In 1990, TV Martí was established for the same purposes. Radio and TV Martí are run by the Office of Cuba Broadcasting under the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees U.S. government broadcasting.

A January report by the Government Accountability Office found that the Cuban government still jams the broadcasts aired by Radio and TV Martí. “According to the GAO, the best available research suggests that the audience for Radio and TV Martí is small, and its effectiveness uncertain,” Feingold states on his Web site.

The senator says the political environment has changed significantly since the inception of the Martís, and “President Obama's commitment to international diplomacy and dialogue offers a more effective way to engage with the people of Cuba.”

http://www.rwonline.com/article/90952

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Dem. Rep. David Skaggs from Colorado, got murdered politically by slimy right-wing Miami Cuban Congressman, and Bush family puppet, Lincoln Diaz-Balart. From the Miami New Times:

Mr. Diaz-Balart Goes to Washington
When an unsuspecting Colorado congressman tries to cut funding to Radio and TV Martí, the freshman lawmaker gives a taste of exile politics, Miami-style

By Jim DeFede
Published on July 14, 1993As fourth-term Democratic Rep. David Skaggs walked to the podium on the evening of July 1, he was still bristling over the events of the past few hours. Cuban American politics had arrived with a vengeance in the halls of Congress, and it had just cost Skaggs's Colorado district $23 million in federal funds.

It had been a long, unpleasant day.
Right then, at a few minutes past 7:00 p.m., the House floor was empty; most members of Congress were already on their way home for the Fourth of July recess. But Skaggs was going to speak anyway, for the record. And standing a few feet away at a second lectern was Rep. Jose Serrano, a fellow Democrat from the South Bronx who was there to lend his moral support.

The trouble had arisen several weeks before. In a tough budget year, as a member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee -- specifically, of the subcommittee that oversees funding for the departments of commerce, justice, and state -- Skaggs had been looking for programs to cut from the 1994 budget. In Radio Martí and TV Martí, he believed he had found two prime candidates. And indeed, in mid-June, at Skaggs's urging, the subcommittee had voted to cut all funding for both programs, a total of nearly $28 million.

A week later, though, when the trimmed budget went to the full Appropriations Committee, Miami Rep. Carrie Meek successfully argued to allow $8.7 million in funding for Radio Martí, in spite of Skaggs's objections. Before the appropriations bill went before the entire House of Representatives for consideration, Meek, along with fellow Miami representatives Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, had met with Skaggs to persuade him not to do anything that would endanger Radio Martí. But as Meek had told the congressional newspaper Roll Call, Skaggs was unwilling to compromise; he promised to fight against Radio Martí funding on the House floor.

So it had come about that on that fateful first day of July, the day on which the appropriations bill was coming up for debate, Diaz-Balart paid the Rocky Mountain State congressman a visit. While other aspects of the bill were being discussed, the freshman representative from Miami confronted Skaggs and admonished him to abandon his crusade against Radio Martí. (Diaz-Balart's actions are characterized by one congressional source as "a very angry outburst" during which the Floridian warned that if Skaggs didn't leave Radio Martí alone, he would see to it that every program the Coloradan held dear likewise was decimated.)

Skaggs stood his ground.
Although the final House vote on funding for Radio Martí was postponed until the second week in July, Diaz-Balart had wasted no time in making good on his threat. That very afternoon, in a parliamentary move known as a "point of order," he axed a $23 million construction project that was heading for Skaggs's district.

The Cuban American National Foundation wasn't wasting any time, either. No sooner had Diaz-Balart killed the Colorado construction item when the political exile group issued a press release gloating over the pre-emptive strike. The statement, faxed to every major newspaper in Colorado, was entitled, "Opposition to Cuba Initiative Costs Boulder Rep Pet Project." (The foundation was keenly interested for several reasons. Not only do they believe the Martí broadcasts are vital to keeping the Cuban people informed, but foundation chairman Jorge Mas Canosa is also chairman of the President's Advisory Board for Cuba Broadcasting, which has been the unofficial governing board for both Radio and TV Martí.)

Of course, the fact that Skaggs was about to decry the day's events for the congressional record would not go overlooked.

Jose Cardenas, a Cuban American National Foundation spokesman, implies that Skaggs's response pegs him as nothing short of a bellyaching wimp. "When you throw three roundhouse right hooks at something that is so important to the Cuban American people and then you cry foul when somebody takes a poke back at you, well, it seems to me to be rather surprising behavior," Cardenas says. "He was the one who came looking for the fight. He kept coming back for more, so we gave him more. A person can only roll with the punches for so long."

"If anything, Congressman Diaz-Balart has gained a lot of respect," adds a Republican congressional staffer. "Skaggs never expected that a freshman would have the know-how or the guts to do this. Lincoln has placed himself in a position where he let people know, particularly more senior members of Congress, that they are not always going to get their way with him. Overall, this was good for his image on the Hill."

More:
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/1993-07-14/news/mr-diaz-balart-goes-to-washington/

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Can't wait to see these reactionary, right-wing, rabid Cuban "exiles" in Florida (Congressmen Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart, and Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen used to have their fathers, Rafael Diaz-Balart, who was a Minister in murderous, Mafia-connected Fulgencio Batista's cabinet after being the Speaker of their House, after being an attorney for United Fruit, and Ileana's sweet little rabid father running a regular program on Radio Marti, gibbering away about the good old days of death-squad loving, torture-happy Fulgencio Batista, for the citizens of Cuba to pick up on their radios. What a ####ing treat, hearing from the same Pieces of #### they thought had finally left the island!) as they finally run out of voters once they have failed completely, and have to take up running a Cuban Sandwich shop in Little Havana in Miami. "Do you want fries with that?"

[dballance]

3. Since we're in such desperate budget times how about we cut Marti completely?

Hasn't worked for over 50 years. Time to cut it out.

[NBachers]

4. Yeah, this place is welfare for propaganda broadcasters. Let 'em scream into megaphones.

[Judi Lynn]

5. For ages it was programmed by Cuban "exiles," staffed by "exiles" and controlled by "exiles."

All exiles, except for who pays the bill for all this colossal pork barrel spending.

It was a small battle getting them to loosen up and hire their first Argentinian, etc. They were keeping every cent within their own control.