Sparks touts open trade as solution for Cubans, Alabamians

[Osolomia]

By KYLE WINGFIELD
Associated Press Writer
21 December 2003

MONTGOMERY, Ala. --
State Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks on Tuesday called on the federal government to lift its economic embargoes on Cuba, saying Cubans and Americans alike could benefit from open trade.

Sparks, who last week made his second trip to the island nation to tout Alabama timber, cotton, poultry and other products, said the United States should normalize trade relations with Cuba as it has with Russia, China, Vietnam and Korea.

... Sparks, House Speaker Seth Hammett, Senate President Pro Tem Lowell Barron and other Alabama officials went to Havana last week for contract talks with Cuban leaders. The U.S. government allows American companies to sell agricultural and medical products to Cuba, which otherwise has been shut out of U.S. trade since the 1960s.

... "And every time we ship a ton of wheat or a bale of cotton down there, we're talking about creating some more jobs right here in Alabama," Barron said.

More...
http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20031223/APN/312230942

[Osolomia]

1. Dems have certainly backed themselves into the wrong corner on this issue

how on earth are they going to do an about face and get out while the party still has a chance?

[Mika]

2. This is getting so big even the Dems won't be able to stop it

The Majority of Americans poll
http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=770
-

Poll: Cuban-Americans focus is local
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/cuba/6269237.htm
_________________________-


Its too bad the leadership panders to the extremist minority on this issue, instead of listening to the majority of Americans & Cuban-Americans.

http://www.lawg.org/pages/new%20pages/Misc/prez-candidates1.htm



Sadly, only ONE candidate for US president openly states that he would end this unjust and insane policy against Cuba AND Americans.

That candidate is Dennis Kucinich.

-The Democratic Presidential Candidates on Cuba-
http://www.lawg.org/pages/new%20pages/Misc/prez-candidates1.htm

[Osolomia]

3. Pleading ignorance in this day and age is NOT going to sell well!

Funny how the farmers in the boondocks know what's going on and are making a stink about it but the Dem's political pundits in Boston etc. haven't an iota of a clue and don't give a darn!

[Mika]

4. Wow. A Dem gets it!

"And every time we ship a ton of wheat or a bale of cotton down there, we're talking about creating some more jobs right here in Alabama," Barron said.

Duh!

It is amazing, considering the weaknesses of the Bush Doctrine in the jobs department, that this doesn't resonate more with the Dem leadership. I mean, the MAJORITY of Americans want to open up relations with Cuba! Why doesn't the Dem party exploit the job killing aspects of continuing with the Bush Doctrine, re: the embargo on Cuba and the travel sanctions on Americans?

I guess the minority has more money, 'cause it ain't about democracy. :shrug:

[Osolomia]

5. It's shocking that the MAJORITY doesn't resonate with Dem leaders

Evidently freedom and democracy doesn't mean boo all to them and taking campaign donations from Mimai mafia organizations with known links to terrorism ought to be downright illegal.

If Dems cannot reconcile relations with their own neighbors by now then they're not fit to run a banana republic imho.

[Mika]

6. Cubans in Cuba wonder the same thing, but..

.. they know there is only one party in the US. The campaign party.

[Osolomia]

7. Open Letter to Sen. Kerry on Cuba

Senator Kerry distorts events in Cuba to court Miami Mafia for campaign contributions

September 23, 2003
The Honorable John Kerry
Attn: Foreign Affairs Aides
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator:

We write to express our concern about the statements made by you on the August 31, 2003 "Meet the Press". When asked by Tim Russert if you would vote to lift the travel ban to Cuba on study groups and citizens, you replied that, although you had previously been in favor of lifting the ban, you would not vote now to lift it due to what you characterized as recent repressions of dissidents in Cuba. You then continued with statements against the presidency of Fidel Castro.

These remarks, which we consider misinformed, were heard by a very large television audience and further recorded in other media reports of the show. We feel it is very important to present accurate, unbiased information about the sovereign Cuban government and the decisions rendered by the Cuban people.

Here are the incontrovertible facts. What you and the U.S. media represent as "dissidents" were none other than Cuban nationals paid by a foreign power to embarrass the Cuban government and to discredit it in the eyes of international public opinion. These so-called "dissidents," who are in fact foreign operatives, were found to be in violation of Cuban Law 88 which forbids receiving pay from a foreign nation to conduct political activities in Cuba.

If you believe that Cuban Law 88 is an instrument of dictatorial repression, you should be aware that it is the counterpart of Title 18, SEC 951 U.S. Code, which states, in relevant part: "Anyone who agrees to operate within the U.S. subject to the direction and control of a foreign government or official is subject to criminal prosecution and up to a 10 year prison sentence."

Furthermore, the relative swiftness of the convictions are not a reflection on the Cuban judicial system. The accused declined to rebut the charges, having been surprised by the fact that many among them, including persons in leading positions, revealed themselves to be agents of Cuban security.

The long sentences imposed on some are not excessive when taken into consideration that the ring leaders have been repeat offenders. They are also light compared to those levied by U.S. courts against 5 Cubans for monitoring the activities of terrorist anti Castro groups in Miami.

Collaborating with the authors of the Cuban embargo is considered a serious crime in Cuba, and rightly so, since that law has been proven to kill as surely as bullets and threaten the independece of the Cuban people.

Finally, if the media description of "massive repression against dissidents on the island" is true, you may also wonder why the most important opposition leaders in Cuba have not been charged with any crime.

The accusations described above are not only an injustice to Cubans in Cuba, but to many here in the U.S. they represent a key part of a larger plan to overthrow the sovereign Cuban government, including a U.S. military invasion. In these times, stranger things have occurred.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Latin America Study Group
Albuquerque, New Mexico

http://nm.indymedia.org/newswire/display/1632/index.php

[Judi Lynn]

8. I'm sure you can never forget the eternal right-wing extremists' charge

that Castro loves the embargo because it gives him a chance to blame everything that goes wrong on the U.S.

Well, a hell of a lot DOES go wrong because of the embargo. It's not any secret from people who take the time to read up on the subject, right?

Jeez! Sure hate to hear all these idiotic propaganda bits flying around which get answered over and over, but meet deaf ears. They don't realize that people who read the message boards DO see and read our links and information we bother to post, and take it all into account as they develop their OWN perspective.

Here's another Cuba article:

(snip) Cuba economics minister reports 2.6 percent growth for 2003


Tuesday, December 23rd, 2003.


HAVANA (AP) - A decade after many predicted Cuba's economy would collapse as it struggled with the abrupt loss of critical Soviet aid and trade, the communist island continues its recovery and registered 2.6 percent growth in 2003, economic planners said Tuesday.
Economics Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez credited this year's marked improvement in Cuban tourism for much of the growth as he gave his annual year-end report to the Cuban parliament.

President Fidel Castro, fresh back from a one-day surprise visit to Venezuela, and his younger brother and designated successor, Defense Minister Raul Castro, attended the session along with other high-ranking government officials.

The Castro brothers, along with virtually all other high-ranking members of the Cuban government, also sit on the parliament.

Speaking to nearly 550 Cuban lawmakers at the session, Rodriguez noted that Cuba's estimated growth for this year was far better than the 1.5 percent growth registered across Latin America and Central America during the same period.
(snip/...)

~~~~ link ~~~~

[Osolomia]

9. Today's news Dems* must ignore to maintain their bigoted fantasies

and hope no DUers notice the truth of the matter:

Cuba would be a great partner
By Heber Taylor
The Daily News
Galveston, Texas

Published December 24, 2003

The Port of Galveston’s recent agreement with Cuba is a big deal. And it would be a huge deal if the United States would do what’s in its best interest: end the embargo.

Port officials pledged to increase the amount of U.S. cargo shipped from Galveston to Cuba. The pledge came through a memorandum of understanding with Alimport, the Cuban government agency that imports food. While the U.S. has imposed a trade embargo on Cuba for decades, limited supplies of food are allowed as a humanitarian gesture.

Port officials deserve praise for effort and hustle. They’ve gone to Cuba twice and have made contacts that should prove helpful if the embargo is lifted.

But as long at the embargo is in force, not much is going to happen. The embargo is the longest in modern history. If it were going to work, it would have a generation ago.

More...
http://galvestondailynews.com/story.lasso?wcd=16337

[Mika]

10. Dem response: We don't need more jobs in America

America=good
Cuba=bad

See how easy it is?


http://www.lawg.org/pages/new%20pages/Misc/prez-candidates1.htm

[Osolomia]

11. Break The Embargo On Good Sense About Cuba

... The time is ripe to present serious issues so that the American voter might actually have a voice in policy decisions. In that spirit, I propose that some presidential candidate discuss lifting the Cuban embargo.

... Representative democracy works only if the candidates talk about issues before the election, not after. Fear of voter opinion should not be used to stultify debate on fundamental issues; otherwise democracy begins to flatten under a weight of distracting trivia and political gamesmanship.

Cuba is an example of the inertia now destroying honest debate in both Congress and the presidential campaign. This year, for example, overwhelming majorities in the Senate and the House voted to end the embargo against U.S. companies selling food and medicine to Cuba. Yet the leadership in both houses quietly eliminated the proposed changes. With no debate and no notice in the Congressional Record, Tom DeLay (R-Texas) in the House and Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and Robert Torricelli (D-N.J.) in the Senate overruled their colleagues under the guise of technical corrections. What cynicism and what an irony for the cause of bringing democracy to Cuba.

.... In effect, a small minority of anti-Castro voters in Florida have reversed the centuries' old Monroe Doctrine by keeping the U.S. out of Cuba. This, in turn, has paved the way for growing European and Canadian involvement through trade, travel and investment. That's why the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has made ending the embargo its top legislative priority so that its members--high-tech companies, grain producers, pharmaceutical companies and hotel chains--will get a fair shot at the growing Cuban market.

Fidel Castro has outlasted nine American presidents and every national leader alive at the time his revolution took power in 1959. Paradoxically, even the Cuban exiles now provide his economy $800 million annually by sending remittances home to their relatives. This sum almost equals the net dollar inflow from tourism and sugar exports combined. Current American policy is plainly incoherent.

... The American people have accepted trade with China and Vietnam despite human rights violations and single-party political systems. Surely voters would now appreciate the logic of extending normal trading relations with our neighbor, Cuba.

Break The Embargo On Good Sense About Cuba
by Jerry Brown, Former California Gov. and Mayor of Oakland.
Published on Thursday, August 17, 2000 in the Los Angeles Times
http://www.commondreams.org/views/081700-105.htm

Four years and another presidential campaign later and look at what the supposedly Democratic party has to offer: SHAME!SHAME!
SHAME!

[Mika]

12. Meanwhile, in Miami..

If you don't agree with the minority, you're outta here.



Staffers at UM think tank are abruptly fired
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/7560747.htm

''I still don't really understand the reason why this happened,'' said Ambler Moss, the center's director and former U.S. ambassador to Panama. ``None of the official reasons make sense.''

-

U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart said South Florida's congressional delegation didn't give strong support to the center because university administrators didn't ask for it.

''It seems the North-South Center has not been a high priority for the university,'' Diaz-Balart said.

Privately, numerous observers speculate that the center received lukewarm support in the House because it didn't focus enough on Cuba, and to the extent it did, didn't conform to more traditional Cuban exile ideological positions such as support for the trade embargo.

Bernardo Benes, a former banker who has advocated dialogue with the Cuban government, is one of the few who would make the charge openly.

''The existence of a center in Miami that is not right-wing concerns them,'' said Benes, who was not employed by the center but was hoping to develop a project with it.

Note that the article refers to the minority position among Cuban Americans -support for the embargo- as their 'traditional ideological position'.

Batista's America

[lumpy]

13. 'Castro loves the embargo'

This is a blatant lie. He has been pleading with US administrations to open up diplomatic relations and raise the embargo for many years.

[Osolomia]

14. But evidently most Dems cling to the lie to justify their bigoted fantasy

as the position of all the leading 2004 Democratic* p/residential contenders and many a DU thread on this issue goes to show.

[Osolomia]

15. Total lack of rebuttal to charges of Dem complicity with the Bush Doctrine

is very telling and indicative of Democratic* support for "Batista's America", to be ignored at your own risk.

[Mika]

16. Well, with UofM's Prez Donna Shalala setting the example..

.. what do ya expect. She parleyed her former position in the Clinton admin into a lucrative career move as president of the UofM.. center of anti Cuba think tank extremism. (After all, her former boss's campaign fundraiser in S Fla was Mas Canosa of the CANF.) She's busy getting mucho US taxpayer funding for UofM's Casa Bacardi and the Cuba Transition Project both of which are supported by the Bush admin, the minority of extremist exiles, and other apologists for the Bush Doctrine who want to overthrow Cuba and return it to the days of Batista.

You know what they say.. you can't spell scum without UM.