Friday, July 20, 2007

Babaloo's Waterloos: Has There Been a Coup at Babalú?


Has there been a coup at Babalú blog? The long dormant or neutralized George Moneo has suddenly begun to blog furiously while the other editorialists are holding back (or being held back). George also has taken over The Babalu [Faux] Radio Hour and banished Henry from the show and even kept Val waiting on the phone for 15 minutes because he could. Is the monumental failure of BUCL's campaigns — which has brought so much discredit to Babalú that even its regular commenters have abandoned it in disgust — the reason that Henry has been shunted aside as Number 2?

Whatever his new role may be — the Raúl who subs for the ever ailing Val, whose hypochondria is one of the charms of Babalu? — George has taken over with a vengeance, relegating Cuba to the back of the bus while placing his Crusade Against Islamo-Fascism at the front alongside his Campaign to Canonize Ronald Reagan, the two passions of his warped life. When a commenter objected, and rightly so, that Reagan had done nothing for Cuba, Moneo roared back that Cuba did not matter in the great scheme of defeating Communism. This is what we have always suspected was Moneo's position. Cuba is a prop to him. Nothing he feels or loves.

Ronald Reagan, whom Moneo considers the greatest American president of his lifetime, did help to liberate the Western World from Communism, but appeared to forget that Cuba was also a part of the West. In fact, Reagan even sent General Vernon Waters to Cuba to talk detente with Castro and actually hoped to make Cuba his "China." As far as Cuba was concerned, Reagan was a complete accommodationist. He may not have been afraid of Gorbachev, but he was afraid of Castro. How ridiculous and inexplicable! All that Reagan did for us was to put frijoles negros on the White House menu and for this he is still idolized as a demigod by many of Más Canosa's crowd.

As he stated on The Babalu [Faux] Radio Hour yesterday, Moneo believes that "Jimmy Carter is the worst president of my lifetime and that's saying a lot considering we have Lyndon and Bubba [Clinton] to consider." George is 50 years old. His lifetime encompasses both Eisenhower, whose government handed Cuba over to Castro, and Kennedy, who betrayed the freedom fighters at the Bay of Pigs and codified that betrayal in the Kennedy-Khruschev Pact, wherein the U.S. agreed to act as the guarantor of Communism in Cuba (one treaty, at least, which the U.S. has kept even after ther implosion of the Soviet Union).

But, remember, George thinks and speaks as an American, not as a Cuban. George may well be the only Cuban his age who doesn't speak Spanish. This alone confirms how completely detached he is from his Cuban roots because this could not have been anything but a conscious choice on his part.

It is no secret to anyone that most Cubans consider JFK the worst U.S. president, not Jimmy Carter. As it happens, JFK's monumental ineptitude, which the Cuban crises gave him the chance to demonstrate in all its dimensions, makes Kennedy even a worse president than Warren G. Harding, who was corrupt (like Kennedy), dimwitted (like Kennedy), a satyr who turned the White House into a brothel (like Kennedy) but not ineffectual, nor an abettor of Communism, nor a threat to world peace.

Yes, John F. Kennedy was the worst American president as Cuban exiles were the first to see.

As for Jimmy Carter, he may have been a "horrible president," but he has been an even worse ex-president. As president, however, he admitted 125,000 Cuban refugeees into the U.S. within a matter of months without questioning their right to seek asylum here. What would Clinton have done with (or to) those 125,000? After he was booted from the presidency (for, among other reasons, giving the marielitos asylum), Carter became the marionette of Castro and every other America-hating despot, that is true. But his calamitous presidency will be judged by his tenure as president, not the prelude or the sequel to his presidency. All of Carter's good works with Habitat for Humanity will mean absolutely nothing in judging his presidential years, just as his shilling for despots after his presidency will not impact (how could it?) the fact that he was the second American president to be held hostage by a foreign government. The first, of course, was JFK, whom Nikita held more tightly by the balls than even the Ayatollah did Carter.

As for Lyndon B. Johnson, I recently posted a tribute to him on the occasion of Lady Bird's death in which I acknowledged the debt of gratitude that all Cubans owe him for opening the doors of liberty to us. I stated that LBJ was our Statue of Liberty, a man who understood the nature of Communism and who did not think that Cubans or the Vietnamese were unworthy of freedom. Moneo, who is free, like the rest of us, because of LBJ, reciprocated with a hate-filled post accusing Johnson of the usual "crimes" which appeasers and adherents of the Viet-Cong still level at him. For George, it doesn't matter that LBJ was the first U.S. president to make the Constitution protect all Americans regardless of color and the first to embrace the poor and marginalized and give them the tools (such as education grants) to improve their lot and realize the promise of America.

As for Bill Clinton, we are surprised that George also classes him among the worst American presidents of his lifetime since nothing that Clinton did can be said to be outside George's moral universe. In fact, at one time, George even supported the "Wet Foot/Dry Foot Policy," as did Val Prieto, as a means to exclude "undesirables" and even defended, as did Val Prieto, the Coast Guard's predations on the refugees.

18 comments:

Vana said...

Manuel:
I have to agree with you, JFK was the worst American President, what he did to us at the Bay of Pigs is unforgivable, I read that Kennedy said: So what if the invasion fails, we're sending them to Cuba, is that not where they want to go? how sick, similar to what Clinton did with the wet foot-dry foot policy, all aimed at screwing Cubans, one thing I thank Carter for, regardless of what he has done after his presidency, is that he allowed the Mariel boat lift to happen, thus freeing 125 + thousand Cubans.

I cannot believe that Cubans, ahem American-Cubans, such as Val and company actually want the wet foot-dry foot law to stay in place, to weed out the riff raff, my God! who is that riff raff they speak of? they are human beings, Cubans like us, seeking the same things we did, mostly freedom, to escape the inhumanity they suffer in the Island, the repression, why should freedom be given to some, while denied to others is beyond me.

Manuel A.Tellechea said...

Vana:

Over the years, I kept hammering at them, and eventually Val repudiated his support of the
"Wet Foot/Dry Foot Policy." Not formally, of course. He just made one of his drastic u-turns and set himself on the right road. Val, at least, is amiable to correction. It is not easy to re-program the wires in his brain, but is is at least possible. Henry and George present another case altogether. Reason at times will fail Val, but his sentiments, which he wears on his sleeve, eventually steer him in the right direction if there are enough markers set up for him. George and Henry are not governed by their feelings as Val is. It is not possible to call out the angels of their better nature.

Vana said...

Manuel:
Too bad they no longer have you to hammer at them, seems you were a good influence there, at least helped Val to see the light, if as you say Val has feelings, I certainly hope he influences others in his blog with those feelings, which seems some are lacking

Manuel A.Tellechea said...

Vana:

Yes, Henry was the greatest disappointment. I misjudged him completely and had a rude awakening when he refused to utter even one word on behalf of the abused 4-year old Cuban girl whose father is petitioning a Florida Court to let him take her back to Cuba so that Castro can have a matched set of political marionettes — "Elián and Eliana."

Henry went so far as to accuse me on another blog of being the only one who was "stirring up" this situation, which, of course, wasn't true, since others on Babalú had expressed similar concerns. Nevertheless, I shall always consider that the greatest (unintentional) compliment that I was ever paid.

Henry is more concerned with The Miami Herald exploiting this case than with Castro exploiting this child. The last thing Henry wants is to be embarrassed again in the eyes of his Anglo neighbors and judges; because Henry, you see, is still ashamed of the old ladies dressed in black saying their rosary beads in front of Lazaro González's house and of the noble indignation of Cubans who were not afraid to be themselves rather than what Henry expected them to be. Such an attitude I can only regard as inhuman and monstruous.

From George I never expected anything and was never disappointed by him.

Vana said...

Funny you should mention the little Cuban girl, gusano posted about her today at Babalu, you mention Henry not wanting to be embarrassed, yet what do you call BUCL, if not an embarrassment, I don't know what is...lol

Manuel A.Tellechea said...

Vana:

Yes, I just noticed it. It seems to me that Gusano is trying to reconcile God and the devil with the usual results. On the one hand he doesn't want the girl's case to become politicized by The Miami Herald (shades of Henry) but on the other hand he's upset that the Florida Dep't of Children & Family Services is keeping politics out of it (that is, ignoring the fact that the real petitioner in this case is the Castro government). I find such muddled thinking uncharacteristic of Gusano and see Henry's hand all over this post.

Ziva, to her credit, has referenced an old post where she says a few things that neither Gusano nor Henry have the intellectual honesty to acknowledge.

I'm very disappointed in Gusano now. I didn't think that he would be corrupted so soon, but I guess that if you live in a house with intellectual cripples you too will soon be limping.

Fantomas said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Manuel A.Tellechea said...

fantomas:

Your comment was removed to The Madhouse, where it belongs. Do it again and you will be removed to The Madhouse again yourself.

Manuel A.Tellechea said...

It seems reverse psychology still works because George Moneo is now on the side of the angels:

From Babalú:

Once again, our pain will be laid bare for all to see. Once again, the slanders, the outright lies, the calumnies against us will begin in earnest. And our sole goal, once more, will be to save a child from a tyrant. Despite all we may go through it, go through it we must if we have to do the right thing. I don't care what they call us. Right makes might.George Moneo

Vana said...

Wow that's a good comment by Moneo, I think they are listening to you Manuel, ah if only they would

Manuel A.Tellechea said...

fantomas:

Your inappropriate comments on this thread have again been removed to The Madhouse where they belong.

Fans of fantomas should read and answer him there, which is again his domicile and will remain so until further notice.

Sharpshooter said...

Manuel,
here I thought he was cured and we had a gentler kinder Fanto, in his own words. I guess it was a relapse and he was not totally cured. Back to the drawing board, or should I say, the Madhouse.

I guess the folks at that other Dean of CA Blogs have gone off the deep end in this praise for the megalomaniac in the island. Shrewd politician? Charisma? Wow! Now I heard it all. If one calls charisma to lie and betray, getting rid of one's former friends expediently by shooting them or jailing them, destroying a flourishing economy and driving it into an abysmal state, creating a police state with a huge personality cult with only one party and no competition, and stifling all dissent, then he is charismatic. How easy they throw those words around without knowing their full meaning and the implications of what they say. What else are we to hear next?

Manuel A.Tellechea said...

Vana:

As I said, Vana, I am their well-wisher and benefactor, even though they choose to look upon me as an enemy. In the past, I have praised without hesitation when they deserved it; praised them, perhaps, less judiciously than I have criticized them.

I always do justice to my enemies, or, rather, to those who declare themselves my enemies. It is the fact that I praise them when they deserve it that gives me the right to castigate them when they require it.

Manuel A.Tellechea said...

Agustín:

You are exactly right. Though their impulse to attack Castro and expose him is commendable — especially in those who have not suffered firsthand the full extent of Castro's savagery — it is not a license to be stupid. If they want to attack Castro they must do it effectively. Nothing less will do. And they must not, under any circumstances or under any plea, repeat and sanction the putrid old myths that have been concocted about Castro in order to show that they are "impartial" by their willingness to "give the devil his due." Fire and brimstone is the devil's due, nothing else. Praising the devil will not defeat him. In fact, it is what gives him life. There is no excuse for it and it rightly discredits them in the eyes of those who know the truth that they only barely comprehend, as their remarks have shown.

Fantomas said...

Me despido de todos ustedes en este post . This will be my last post here. Nothing to do with the mazorra house ni nada por el estilo

i have found a better outlet to bring my denuntiation of the cuban problem to a potencial audience of 6 million people live every day

Ayer fue un gran dia en un espacio de several hours i hosted two radio shows live with over 100 people from all walks of life ..desde professors , empresarios hasta politicos , many of them defienden la revolucion y es la tarea de fantomas reeducarlos y traerles la verdad

Sinceramente the direct interaction with my public is far more exciting than writting after all Iam more of a practical person

Ustedes represent the past , i thank you for the opportuninty you all gave me to post my comments here

shortly i will publish where my dayly shows ( 5 hours daily show live ususlly from 10-pm until 3 am ) is broadcast so that you can join me or just listen to it... It is not like blogtalkradio you cant recorded it. It is just a live event...all you need is a microphone and something to say

si no tienen el microfono vayan comprandolo hoy en Target o en walmart ( estan baratos)

thnks again and good buy

MY show is in spanish only mode now, considering doing it bilingual in the near future

I have removed myself from your page thru my server this is my last official visit to your blog

I will only return here to give you the link of my shows so that you can tell all your readers how to join me

Manuel A.Tellechea said...

Fantomas:

I hope you are a man of your word.

Yes, I think you owe the world your wisdom for 5 hours a day. It can hear you for one minute and then try to figure out what you meant for 4 hours and 59 minutes.

I thank you also for mooring here. You inspired many pages of humor. This is your gift to the world: to inspire laughter in others just by being yourself.

In virtue thereof I hereby award you the Second Annual Luís Ortega Journalism Prize. The previous recipient of this dubious honor was Oscar Corral.

Fairwell, fantomas, until we meet again — somewhere else, I hope.

Vana said...

I hope he's a man of his word, I wish him luck, and good riddance

Anonymous said...

J'ai appris des choses interessantes grace a vous, et vous m'avez aide a resoudre un probleme, merci.

- Daniel