Nov 30, 2009

Vas bien, Honduras

Hondurans voted today, and their votes screamed "NO" to Chavez and his communist thugs. Go elsewhere with you pseudo-socialist and colonial goals, monkey!

A few hours ago, the Liberal Party candidate conceded and Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo, from the Conservative Party - a graduated from University of Miami, BTW - was proclaimed the winner of the presidential elections.

A tiny nation that has given a heck of a lesson to the evil axis of socialism that is has been brewing in Latin America, with help of castro, chavez and et al.

And the same message goes to Obama and his socialist cronies in the US, who first stuck all their feet in their mouths and some more, and then had to wait for several "official" reports to realized what everybody was saying ad nausea um: Hondurans are following their Constitution, there was no coup and castro, chavez & Co are trying to get hold of the country.

It was a mostly peaceful election in a country that won't accept the label the label of banana republic anymore - not even coming with the pressure of the US President.

The only idiot sycophant trying to say different was - guess what - Zelaya. I say that huge hat is blocking the already severely reduced neurone capacity the guy has... he is getting close to Biden, as to see who talks more nonsense.

As usual, Mary Anastasia O'Grady, at the WSJ, has masterfully summarized the crucial role these elections played, and the lessons to learn from the Hondurans.

For a more "insider" view, go to La Gringa's Blogicito.

As to who is Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo, well, time will tell. At the end, the first step taken by this small country to side with the rule of law is what really matters. For that, Felicidades, Honduras! Y buena suerte!

Nov 27, 2009

Thank you, hackers, for Climategate

Scientists lied and Kyoto died.

And, as I twittered yesterday, a pretty good chunk of politicians, legislators and et al got richer and even more corrupt in the meantime.

Did you for a nanosecond thought that Obama's Science Czar John Holdren was not gonna be involved - or deep sunk on it?

Think again.

In this post-Thanksgiving day, I want to thank those hackers again; and the Canada Free Press.
Gracias!

The 20 pages of health care reform legislation the US really needs

Yes, it can be done in +/- 20 pages. If you really want to reform that inefficiencies that exists in the best health care system in the world.

Because, yes, despite all the propaganda unleashed out there by The One and Co, it is the best health care system in the world.

Now, if you final goal is a power grab of 1/6 of the US economy, under the disguise that you are going to re invent the wheel - when, in real life, you wont - well, in that case you will definitively need those more than 4,000 pages (adding the two crappy pieces of legislation approved so far) rammed down every body's throat to hide the humongous government bureaucracy that it's being created, as well as the long strings of corruption deals behind it.

Charles Krauthammer, a former psychiatrist that has become the critic-in-chief of the boondoggle the Obama administration has turned into during its first year, have nailed down what type of health care reform the US really needs: step by step, targeting those areas where there is a real need of reform (including those political untouchables that need to be touched).

Read his column at Investors Business Daily here.

Nov 25, 2009

On going rogue, coicidences and great minds thinking alike...

My dear friend Marta, from My Big Fat Cuban Family, frequently tells me that "great minds think alike". And so true is this that last night, between FB exchanges, we realized we are both reading the same book. Again.

This is the third time in a row. It happened with "Liberty and Tyranny". It happened with "The 5000 Years Leap". And it happened again. Trust me, I don't believe in coincidences.

This time it was Sarah Palin's "Going Rogue", which I picked up at my local library last night, on my way home from work.

And I even had people at the library parking lot asking me how I got in the top of the waiting list to request the book. Not that I had any backstage connection, you know. It was probably good timing and that they probably acquired more than one copy...

Yes. Strangers talking about a book from a hockey Mom that changed the paradigm in the presidential campaign, that is shaking the liberal skeleton of this nation, that has become the worse nightmare of the US wannabe-corrupt-radical-communist-at-heart president, and has stepped up to the plate for what feminism really is: woman's freedom to choose.

Last night at the dinner table, my father, recently arrived from Cuba, enthusiastically asked: "Did you buy Sarah Palin's book?". "No Dad, this is borrowed from the library, but as I always do, if I like it, I already have it in my shopping cart on Amazon, so I'll buy it."

I immediately grabbed the opportunity to explain him how the MSM has played such a dirty role since Palin became the VP nominee for McCain, and how the media have consistently "gang raped" her and her family in public, in an unprecedented fashion that this country never saw before, with no political candidate whatsoever. Shameful, we both agreed.

Then I stumbled upon this masterful piece from American Thinker "The wilding of Sarah Palin", posted at Babalu Blog: the symbolic political rape of Sarah Palin the Marxist, radical, corrupt and communist left of this country is conducting, on a daily basis, and with the green light from the White House.

I agree; now everything makes senses.
Palin's political rape make one thing clear: we are not dealing with naive, tree huggers, useful idiots leftists anymore.

They have all shown their true faces of radical Marxists that don't believe a crap of woman's rights if it doesn't fit their sicko agenda.

The only thing I wish is that she really knew how much we, women and Americans at large, need her in the future of this country - if there is any hope left to don't lose it forever.

It was this hope on her which brought me to HillBuzz, an interesting and out of the ordinary blog written by a group of gay men in Boystown, Chicago, faithful followers of Hillary Clinton, outraged by the way the Democratic Party dealt with her candidacy, staunch critics of The Messiah (Dr. Utopia), Democrats who supported McCain/Palin after Hillary was out, and yes, fellow supporters of Sarah Palin.

See? This is what scares the living hell out of these Marxists perpetrators that are trying to hunt Palin alive.

The woman is able to bring together people from all walks for life, with all sort of political views, putting aside our disagreements on specific issues to unite for under one higher goal: common sense and the simple difference between doing the right thing, or doing the wrong one.

BONUS: The extraordinary thank you letter the boys at HillBuzz wrote directly to former President George W. Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush, on the days of the terrorist massacre at Fort Hood. Again, no matter the differences and disagreements, it is a simple fact of doing the right thing and being honorable.

Nov 23, 2009

Cuba: a fifty years old "1984"

Once upon a time, in a super-hot summer, in a tropical island. A young and strong man, sporting a plaided shirt, knocks in the door of the apartment.

It's the middle one, on the second floor, in an ugly block-type of building from the glorious years of the German and Soviet "fashion" in the island's construction.

It barely holds any color of its walls. For a building, the simple fact to exist merely feet from the shore of the Caribbean island is a challenge. A daily challenge to survive - more or less in the same line that its own human inhabitants.

The aforementioned young man asked for Lola. Her mother is in the kitchen, trying to fix something to eat in the middle of a murderous blackout.

Lola walks to the door and stands in the hallway - shared with other two apartments - with a face of really don't wanting to know anything about anybody. Summer heat it's not her best ally.
  • Digame? (Yes?)
  • See, we're coming from the municipal committee of the communist youth, because we're recruiting youngsters for the recently created "Rapid Response Brigades".
  • And?
  • Since you recently graduated from La Lenin, we thought you could be an ideal candidate -or something along those lines.

With her now more disgruntled face, Lola asks: what are those brigades for?

  • We need to step up to the plate in front of all these counter-revolutionary worms that are leaving in boats to la Yuma. We need to demonstrate them... bla, bla, bla...

At this point, Lola is not listening anymore.

Everything is blurred in her mind. It might be the hot. It's this damned hot August, no electricity, no fans in this house... my head is going to explode. There are the blurred memories from a four year old, seeing people marching to the amphitheater in the coastline neighborhood, people shouting things she can't remember, setting on fire huge fabric and wood dolls resembling the face of a man... they shouting "Reagan, cabron, acuerdate de Giron".

People are mad because other are living. This child wonders what's wrong with leaving. Herself is going to leave with her parents, in a matter of days, to a country somewhere in Africa, she is being told. She has no idea where is it. Will her neighbors also get mad at them? And there is the smell of the sea, right behind the amphitheater. It's a beautiful view, but nobody in that mob of people, she remembers, is paying attention to it.

And Lola's Mom voice jumps right in the memories. Memories that are flying through her head at light speed, while the young man in his plaid shirt is still staring at her. "I don't have to go to nobody house to throw eggs or anything like that," always shouted Lola's Mom. Out loud and clear, for every body to hear. "They did try to force us to go to Maria Elena Cruz Varela's house directly from work, and I refused. They will never get me to do that!"

Lola wanted to quote her Mom and her childhood memories directly to get rid of that annoying dude. She was thinking on her childhood friends she have seen leaving in home made rafts, right there, a few feet from her house. About the friend from elementary school that jumped in a raft, pregnant, and toting a two-year-old. About this super-cute friend from high school that also left and she later learned he died in the Florida Strait.

Lola wanted to scream in front of this plainly stupid sycophant from the communist party that she was among the ones that, hidden in the dark of the night and the blackouts, would scream with all her voice - fed with a fake ground beef made of textured soy of dubious origin - "Abajo Fidel!", "Me c&^% en la madre de este hijo de p%&$!", "Aqui lo que hay es que acabar de irse de esta m$#@%", "Me voy pa' Burundi!", every single time the electricity got cut off.

But she didn't.

The soft voice of her mother trying to keep her quiet during those outrageous moments was resounding in the back of her mind. "Mija, por tu madre, callate la boca, que te van a meter presa". "My dear, for the love of your mother, shut up, they are gonna get you in prison."

She rather told the guy she was way too busy with her studies at the university and that she didn't have time for any extra activities. He sported an ugly face and left. He was a neighbor who had recelty moved to Lola's building. It was around that time she decided she had to leave. Otherwise, sooner of later, she would ended up in prison.

I have never read "1984".

But I lived in Cuba until nine years ago.

I am Lola, and Lola is an entire generation of Cubans born under a regimen that knows no decency or shame, to say the least.

Lola and I, myself and Lola are the Cubans that blogger Lia Villares describes - so far only in Spanish - are living amidst a distorted set of moral values, in bizarre world of censorship, repression and government controlled-lives.

We are some of the ones that, due to a wide variety of reasons, didn't agreed with being forced to participate in those repudiation acts or rallies. Waving the little flag in la plaza? Well, yeah, we may be guilty of that.

We were being blackmailed to lose our jobs in the tourism industry, the survival of our families if we didn't go. Or that we would not received our graduated diplomas from the university if we didn't attend. Sometimes we just could nto sneak out on time and, at the end, we harmed no one.

We are the ones who early on saw the light and right there, knew we had to leave.

I didn't have a computer back then. I didn't even have any idea how computers looked like. Blogs and the internet didn't exist for us, back then in the gulag.

I just had my rudimentary and young gut instinct and the contradictions I saw between my books in law school and my real life, between my mother's advises and the political round-tables on TV, between utopia and the last advise my dear uncle, Tiototo, gave us - my three cousins and I - on his death bed:

"Get the hell out of this mess while you can, while you are young. This s#$% is not what I fought for. Get the hell out of here and don't you dare to look back. It is not worthy."

I am Lola.

And it is Cuba, between 1992 and 1995.

It happened again: don't beat them; they're just bloggers

Thought that going back to the blogging arena suffering from the flu was bad?
Think again.

That's nothing when you realize you're going back to your blogging routine while fellow Cuban bloggers are being beaten up in the streets of Havana, Cuba.



All for having the guts to dissent; and to blog about it.

I will need to repeat again that, despite the many differences in opinion and concepts that some of us may have with Yoani Sanchez, her husband and other bloggers in Cuba, those differences does not set us apart from our common goal of democracy and human rights for Cuba.

Those differences is what make us stronger and it is a fundamental building block of democracy in a future Cuba.

These Cubans are playing an invaluable role by breaking the government's censorship, while putting their own physical integrity at risk. We can only commend them for doing what they do.

And we need to spread the word all over the Internet about these attacks they are suffering, again, just for having the courage to dissent.

Friday was the second time that Cuban state security and the political police teamed up with all sort of thugs to publicly beat up dissident bloggers. Too bad for them; they don't know about Twitter, cell phone instant pics and other technical venues to circumvent the communist's censorship.

This time, even the foreign reporters present in the busy corner of 23 y G, in the Vedado district in Havana, got their ration of punches.

Believe it or not, many reported the incident, obviously including the official version that "the people took the streets to defend the revolution against the CIA-paid mercenaries" 50 years old crap that they always use as forefront to repress dissent.

These are not exactly the same the repudiation rallies from the 80's - previous to the Mariel boat lift - when only the nearby neighbors learned about it; this is the XXI century and we have technology on our side.

This time we have Twitter (@yoanisanchez, @claudiacadelo) this time we have photographic evidences and videos of the government's organization tool behind it.

The question is: is the world paying attention? Where are the useful idiots in the US Congress and Hollywood when you need them the most? Where are you now?

Here is a round up of sites that were on top of it:

Penultimos Dias - mostly in Spanish. But the videos and the images, Getty's included, don't need translation.

Yoani Sanchez, Reinaldo Escobar, Claudia Cadelo have already uploaded their own versions, both in their blogs and in Twitter.

Aguaya, at Desarraigos Provocados, has also been following the events, in Spanish. She has the best parallel ever: the images of Jews being repudiated in Nazy Germany. The differences? The pics from back then are in plain black and white

Babalu Blog has posted a great summary in English.

Capitol Hill Cubans have posted a one-of-a-kind message to Yoani Sanchez and other fellow Cuban bloggers.

Gina Montaner, in El Mundo. El Pais, using the headline "Heart attack days for Yoani Sanchez". ABC and O'Globo...

Reuters has its story with its customary sycophant portion - otherwise, they would lose their man in Havana. Following more or less the same line is AP, via El Nuevo Herald.

Once again, the dictatorship has enter panic mode. They are starting to lose the battle against information censorship. The the sole idea freaks the living hell out of them.

Nov 19, 2009

Where on Earth?

WELCOME, fellow Babalusians...

* * *

This Cubanita over here has been like living in a parallel reality for the last couple of months. Crazy. Busy. And trust me, it is not your standard “I’ve been too busy” kind of explanation.

Lots of work-related traveling. Countless flight-miles logged in, which made me camped out on Twitter @cbntaRMNP most of the time… Twitter is the best thing whne you have limited time to write blog posts. You’re welcome, Twitter, for the free commercial ;-)

In the middle of that, I lived invaluable once-in-a-lifetime experiences:

I met my now BCFE’s [Best.Cuban.Friends.Ever – trademark, please. I know. Shut. Up.] Marta, from MBFCF, and her oldest daughter Kikita. And I will need to devote an entire post to describe that afternoon: downtown San Diego completely taken by three (very opinionated, I should add) Americans of Cuban origin… women. Go figure!

It will never get old, what I told them both that day: I did felt we have known each other forever and I know we will remain MCFE's for the rest of our lives. Oh, boy, and we DID talked about plans!

Last but not least, I have my family together!
My old man, my dear viejo was finally able to get out of that hellhole that is Cuba (for regular, average Joe Cubans, BTW) and arrived to America in late October. Welcome, papi, to the land of the free!

Do I really need to elaborate on the immense peace of mind this working Mom over here has had since then? Just for starters, this will be the first time I have my family together for Christmas, in almost ten years. I know. It does not get any better.

That is also the main reason lying behind my prolonged on-and-off blogging hiatus and my conscious efforts to stay away from posting on Cuba’s issues for a while.

I decided to protect my father until he safely arrived to American soil, because with castro’s thugs, you never know. They have their Internet Rapid Response Brigade Trolls every where…

Now, I need to get back to (the blogging for Cuba) work.

You know... it is kind of curious; there is a huge similitude between the road to statism/socialism where the Obama administration is taking the United States, and the reality of my homeland, destroyed by a communist totalitarian monarchy that is, itself, the epitome of statism. So huge that when blogging about America today, I always feel that I am also blogging for the freedom of Cuba.

But, who cares? We're just crazy radical Cubans, soaked-rich batistianos from Miami and we don't know what are we talking about...

So, just to keep up with the mood, I will leave you with Exhibit #1: A medical record from Cuba, the paradise of free and universal health care. [No, I swear to God these are not documents stolen from a museum.]


Venezuela, brace yourself.

Americans, keep barking at the moon… or bowing to the world for that matter. It might be kind of late when you realize what have you got yourselves into.

Good bye, state-of-the-art medical care. Welcome to the socialized health care of the X Century! Ooops, I meant XXI Century! - Please, don't beat me. I am just a blogger. I mean, after all, what's so wrong with socialism anyway, right?

Nov 10, 2009

Trouble

We're in big trouble with news popping out of Congress last Saturday - what a day to "fundamentally change" the American society, don't you think?

It's not about reforming the parts of our health care system that do not work properly. I actually highly doubt that was ever the goal.

It's a government take over. Plain and simple.

If not - and since I am not very well versed in American politics, yet - I would reconsider if someone could enlighten me on a very simple issue:

According to Congress, if they didn't pass the reform legislation, some sort of Armageddon would come over and wipe us completely from the face of Earth.

But, if that's the case, why are they totally refusing to give up their own health care plan and enroll in the Eight-wonder-of-the-world bureaucracy they just shoved down our throats? ... you know, just askin' , since they defeated ALL 11 amendments requiring federal employees to quit their current Cadillac health plan and enroll in te public option they just created for "us".

So we're all equal... sure.

It is just that some are more equal than others... and I can't help to have de-ja-vu moments with the memories of the CIMEQ, the Amejeiras Hospital, the Cira Garcia clinic and its VIP clients from all walks of life... in the elites of the Cuban Communist Party, the military and the government.

Nov 5, 2009

KILL THE BILL

UPDATE:

The worst of this entire story is that this Botox-woman, Pelosi, is so full of her own stuff that she truly beliefs she owns the country, she owns our lives and that she should be one in the oval office - which she has been practically doing for the past year anyway. Just my thoughts...

KILL THE BILL!!!

It is happening.
Obama-Reid-Pelosi and their legion of thugs are trying to ram down our throats the goverment takeover of our healthcare.

Good bye freedom to choose.
Welcome the mother of all goverment entitlements.

Rep. Michele Bachmann called a protest on Capitol Hill. Mark Levin and John Voigh joined her. And countless Americans are melting the phones calling their representatives.

One quote comes to mind:
"A government big enough to give you everything you want is powerful enought to take everything you have."
- Thomas Jefferson.



Have at it.


Thank you, Michele Bachmann.


PS: I'm back to the blogging arena with a packed schedule, but today's event are above and beyond any other story idea. Stay tuned.