Who Is the Biggest Anti-Cuban Xenophobe in the Race? (You'll Be Surprised)

Which presidential candidate, as Assistant Attorney General, personally approved the first deportation in history of a Cuban refugee to Castro's island hell 13 years before the implementation of the "Wet Foot/Dry Foot" policy? (the repatriated Cuban was a stowaway on a freighter, not a "criminal").

Which presidential candidate was put in charge, in 1981, of running the detention camps for the Mariel refugees?

Which presidential candidate refused to release 950 Cuban refugees detained at Fort Chaffee, in Arkansas, who had no criminal record, and, when prodded by the president as to the reason, replied in a June 6, 1982 memo that they had "problems that prevent their release," categorizing them as follows: "250 mentally ill and retarded; 400 anti-social; 100 homosexuals; 100 alcoholics or drug users; 100 women, elderly and handicapped." Imprisoning "anti-social" elements appears to be an anticipation of Castro's own "preventative incarceration" of dissidents for "social dangerousness" except that these captives were to be detained indefinitely.

Which presidential candidate, in charge also of 1050 Cubans jailed in Atlanta who had been labelled "criminals" by the Castro regime, wanted to deport them en masse without reviewing their cases on an individual basis and even went to court to obtain an order to that effect?

Which presidential candidate, charged with overseeing INS operations, refused to allow 23,000 Cubans whose visas were approved by the previous administration to enter the U.S., including 1500 political prisoners and their families?

Which presidential candidate, as Assistant Attorney General, was the first to refer to Cubans fleeing Castro's tyranny as "entrants" rather than refugees?

Which presidential candidate refused for three years (his entire tenure at DOJ) to regularize the immigration status of the Mariel refugees, whom, apparently, he still had hopes of deporting en masse to Cuba?

Which presidential candidate, then in charge of filling vacant positions at the Justice Department, chose Doris Meissner, a holdover from the previous Democratic administration, as Acting Commissioner of INS, which position she held for a year until Reagan appointed his own man to the job; and then, unwilling to lose her services, secured her appointment as Associate Executive Commissioner, the #3 position at INS? Meissner, notoriously hostile to Cuban refugees, oversaw the implementtation of the "Wet Foot/Dry Foot" policy when Clinton appointed her INS Commissioner. It was Meissner, this man's protégé, who orquestrated the kidnapping and deportation of Elián González.

Who is this man, then an Assistant Attorney General in the Reagan administration and now a GOP candidate for president who hopes to revive his flagging campaign in Florida?

The notoriously pro-Castro Village Voice (Nat Hentoff exempted) dedicated its cover story this week ["Rudy's Alien Nation: Much as He Hates to Admit It, Giuliani Loved (Most of) Those Huddled Masses"] to reminding everybody that Rudy Giuliani was once partial to all immigrants except Cuban-Americans. Of course, the Voice has many accounts to settle with the former New York City mayor and is no doubt hoping that by turning Cuban-Americans against him they can secure his defeat in Florida, and, hopefully, his withdrawal from the race in which he was the front runner before the start of the primary season.

Although its motives are as dubious as its disdain for both Giuliani and Cuban exiles is apparent, the fact remains that Giuliani did everything which reporter Wayne Barrett enumerates in his article. It may be hard for Giuliani to transform himself into a xenophobe to conform to the expectations of a majority of Republicans. But, in the case of Cuban exiles, he was a xenophobe before it became popular to be one again, 15 years before even Newt Gingrich.

Something for Cuban-American voters in Florida to consider, certainly.

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0803,barrett,78878,2.html

Note to the Cuban Archive Project: There Are No "Common Prisoners" In Cuba's Jails

In Cuba, there is no such thing as a "common prisoner" because due process is not available there to any prisoner and all must therefore be assumed to be innocent, even those labelled "common prisoners" by the regime, until such time as their cases are reviewed, and, if necessary, adjudicated by a de jure state which obeys the Rule of Law. Moreover, it is often the practice of the Castro regime to label as "common criminals" persons whose actions would nowhere else subject them to prosecution or imprisonment.

In a list of Cubans killed "extra-judicially" in 2007 by the regime (that, too, is a misnomer since it supposes the existence of a competent judiciary in Cuba), compiled by the Cuban Archive Project and reproduced in Babalú by rsnlk, one prisoner's death is described thusly:

Manuel Diende Rosa, common prisoner, was reported to have committed suicide by hanging on September 2, 2007 in his punishment cell at the Kilo 7 prison in Camagüey. He was on a hunger strike to demand his rights.

At the very least, Diende Rosa should have been identified as someone "alleged to be a common criminal by Fidel Castro's outlaw regime," or, better yet, his patriotic conduct and martyrdom should not have been sullied by any reference to what his verdugos claimed he was.

Laudable as is the work of the Cuban Archive Project, it should be more careful not to create extraneous distinctions betweens Cuban prisoners or Cubans in general. This is precisely what the regime would want and what they should avoid doing.

Cuba's Political Prisoners: Forgetfulness Is Never Acceptable

Henry Defeats Evolution

Henry Gómez's evolution is over. It lasted less time than the sloth's and leaves him similarly situated — upside down, that is. We first perceived that things were not going right in his metamorphosis when he announced that Mitt Romney was his #2 choice for president after Fred ("Godhead") Thompson. Henry's #2 is Tom Tancredo's #1. But now Henry threatens that if Mike Huckabee is the GOP candidate he will write-in "Newt Gingrich" on the ballot in November. Gingrich is the original xenophobe. Worse than Huckabee, Romney, Thompson or even Tancredo, who are all xenophobes in utero compared to him.

So Newt is Henry's dream candidate? I predicted it last year. Many times.

Henry Gómez Crushed: Newt Gingrich Will Not Run in 2008

The Miami New Times "Honors" the Bay of Pigs Veterans

Perhaps because they are used to so very little in the way of praise or just common civility from the local media, the Babalunians, and especially Val, go into paroxysms of joy when even the smallest crumb of recognition is thrust at any Cuban(s). Today he recommended as "excellent" and "a must read" Janine Zeitlin's "Bay of Pigs Vets Fight for Home" in this week's Miami New Times. The article is far from excellent. The author has a misguided idea of the Brigade 2506's place in history. She knows that they were betrayed by the U.S. government but also believes they were betrayed by "their country," as if the hopes and prayers of their countrymen were not entirely with them from the moment of their landing. Kennedy betrayed the hopes of both the freedom fighters and the Cuban people. The traitors who benefitted by Kennedy's betrayal of the Brigade 2506 did not represent the "Cuban people" but the negation of cubanidad, national sovereignty and independence. Castro's cohorts were the "anti-freedom fighters" who prevailed because the freedom fighters were not allowed to succeed.

Zeitlan writes that the men of Brigade 2506 hope their efforts will "be known worldwide as more than a botched attempt by homesick immigrants and American mercenaries." Not "a botched attempt by homesick immigrants[?]" but "botched," certainly, by Kennedy and his "best and brightest" who regarded deniability as more important than victory, and halted the invasion, reneging on the promised aircover and cutting off resupply lines, not because the Brigade 2506 was losing [in fact, they dealt 30 times as many casualties as they sustained in 3 days of fighting] but because Kennedy feared that he would lose face and popularity if American involvement in this American-enterprise were discovered. Ironically, Kennedy's disastrous conduct earned him the highest approval rating of any U.S. president in history. The only Americans who didn't betray the freedom fighters were the handful who fought beside them for Cuba's freedom, the men whom Zeitlan calls "mercenaries."

This article does prove that a Bay of Pigs Museum, in Miami, is desperately needed to combat the disinformation which still lingers about the mission of the Brigade 2506. Kennedy himself fostered that disinformation and his acolytes perpetuated it. It is time that the truth was known and commemorated.

See also:

The "Fiasco" that Wasn't a Fiasco
The Bay of Pigs Museum on Biscayne Bay
Arthur M. Schlesinger: The Devil in Mr. Kennedy

The Continuing Saga of Mitt Romney, Mexican Anchor Baby

Courtesy of an Anonymous commenter on Salon, where I have lately been sparring, here is the story of Mitt Romney's Mexican cousins, who returned to Chihuahua after the 1910 Revolution and continue there to this day. These are the black — or , at least brown — sheep of the Romney family, though entirely honorable and proud of their Mormon and Mexican heritage, unlike the anchor baby who's running for president and away from his past:

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2008/specials/romney/articles/part2_side/
See also:

http://reviewofcuban-americanblogs.blogspot.com/2008/01/guess-which-presidential-candidate-was.html

Henry the Backslider: Still Warming the Pressure Cooker

"Would this [Hukabee's proposal to ban immigrants from terrorist states, such as Cuba] then possibly stoke a fire under some who would not have the recourse to escape and [would] then be forced to make a change? [...] — pototo, "Huckabee to Suspend Immigration from Cuba" (comment), Babalú, January 16, 2008

Pototo,

You are right, there might be some benefit to a moratorium on immigration from Cuba under the scenario you describe" [...] — Henry Gómez, Ibid

I was hopeful that Henry Gómez's recent evolution was irreversible and permanent. My hopes have been defrauded. It seems that Henry still has his little pressure cooker into which he proposes to stuff all the island's inhabitants. He is not as bad as pototo, however, who fantasizes with stoking a fire under them, or Val who has said that he literally wants the streets of Cuba to be awashed with the blood of dissidents, as if we needed more martyrs for martyrdom's sake. Confronting Castro's military is not like going down at lunch time to gawk at the CodePinkos although being caught in their "pressure cookers" would be no picnic.

See also:

Notable & Demonic: A Disagreement at Babalú on Whether Cubans Should Commit Collective Suicide

Notable & More Delusional Still: "Patrick Henry" Prieto Rides Again

Salon Coddles the Tyrant Fidel Castro and Defames Cuba's Freedom Fighters

Tristram Korten and Kirk Neilson are contract journalists. Left-wing organizations such as the Puffin Foundation and The Nation Institute, which are veritable "clearing houses" for dead traitors like Alger Hiss and Phillip Agee and training grounds for new ones, regularly hire mercenary scriveners like Korten and Nielson to do hatchet jobs on the enemies of their friends. This time it was the turn of the anti-Castro Cubans, the left's hatred for whom is as perennial as their evergreen lovefest with the Cuban Revolution. Korten and Neilson are well-suited to the task entrusted to them, since they both live in close proximity to Cuban exiles and can nurture on a daily basis their contempt for them while, at the same time, living off them.

Their latest screed, in Salon, compares militant anti-Castro Cubans in Miami to Hezbollah terrorists. This takes a great deal of chutzpah if you consider that Fidel Castro is the great sponsor of Hezbollah, the PLO and Hamas, all of which have training camps in Cuba; the PLO for more than 30 years. Three of the participants in the 9/11 attack were trained in Cuba under Castro's auspices. Hezbollah, as one Salon reader pointed out, has a budget of over $1 billion and once fired 10,000 rockets into Israel from Lebanon, which they effectively control. The septugenerarians who train in the Everglades to overthrow Castro, the supposed Cuban "terrorists" of Alpha-66, Comandos F4, Brigade 2506, and Acción Cubana, must hold chicken-and-rice dinners to pay for the ammunition which they use at the firing ranges. Their other big expense are the legal bills of their members, who, despite what Korten and Neilson claim, are regularly indicted by federal authorities and just as regularly exonerated when brought up on charges of conspiring to free their homeland against the expressed wishes of Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Khrushchev. Cubans are the only people on earth whose right to rebel against a tyrannical regime has been opposed for 50 years by both superpowers. Even the demise of the Soviet Union did not lead to the scrapping of the Kennedy-Khrushchev Pact, which is still sustained by Russia, successor to the treaty obligations of the Soviet Union. The Cold War continues in respect to Cuba and both the U.S. and Russia remain the guarantors of communism on the island.

Cuban exiles, of course, have always been damned if they do and damned if they don't when it comes to liberating their homeland. Their enemies accuse them of being cowards for not taking up arms against Castro while at the same time branding them as terrorists for doing so. But, of course, it is their critics who are morally bankrupt. They have defended for 50 years a regime which has killed more Cubans, proportionally, than Hitler killed Germans or Stalin Russians. The Cuban Revolution, in fact, was a terrorist war from beginning to end. There were no battles between Batista's army and Castro's rebel forces and only 128 casualties between them on those rare occasions when they happened to coincide against the wishes of both. The Cuban Revolution was waged in Cuba's cities, where the July 26th Movement placed hundreds of bombs in public places, including schools, buses, theatres and cabarets, maiming and killing civilians at random. The PLO kills Israelis, or at least targets them. Castro's terrorists killed their own people. The rebels were also responsible for the world's first domestic hijacking as well as the first international hijacking, conducting three altogether, one of which resulted in the deaths of 17 passengers (most of them Americans). These hijackings, incidentally, were carried out under the direction of Raúl Castro. Besides terrorizing their own people before and after the Revolution, the Castro regime has sponsored terrorism on four continents and is responsible for at least as many deaths abroad as at home.

But, of course, no effort is made by the authors to compare the provocation to the reaction. The provocation, 50 years of terrorist rule by the world's oldest terrorist state, which was built on terrorism and has maintained itself through terrorism to this day, would make what is imputed against its enemies seem a moderate reaction by any measure. Indeed, most of the anti-Castro Cubans cited by Korten and Neilson have never been indicted, had the charges against them dismissed by judges, been acquitted by juries or had their convictions overturned on appeal. That is why the authors are obliged to refer to them as "terrorists" in quotation marks. This is something that has upset the most diehard among their readers who obviously do not understand libel law. Korten and Neilson understand it well enough though I don't know how much protection those little quotations marks will afford them when their intent is clear and unmistakable — to libel these men and the community which acclaims them as freedom fighters and upholders of the dignity of the Cuban people.

Notable & Undecided: A Dilemma Easily Resolved

"You guys tell me which advances our cause better, fighting with idiots or BUCL?" — Robert Molleda, "No Quarter for Code Pink" (comment), Babalú, January 13, 2008

I believe you can fight both idiots and BUCL. You don't have to choose between one or the other. But if you feel that you can only tackle one, I suggest BUCL since it has both.

Fred Thompson Eats His Bistec Empanizado

I'm beginning to think that Fred Thompson really is a Reagan clone insofar as Cuba is concerned. No man — and certainly no president — ever did more for Cuba than the Gipper. No, he did not secure our freedom, as he secured that of all other Western communist countries. Cuba is still as much a captive nation today as it was in the Reagan era and the U.S. is still committed to keeping it so. But we Cubans are perhaps too concentrated on the political: there is much more to our nationality than freedom, democracy or human rights. Reagan recognized this as no other president had before, and by concentrating on one aspect of our national heritage and giving it his all, he positively impacted the course of Cuban gastronomy. Preserving the national cuisine is, according to Alex (formerly of SotP), the most important contribution that Cuban exiles have made to Cuban culture, and Reagan himself was at the center of it. He was introduced to it late in life but acquired an immediate taste for it, so much so that he had his favorite dish, frijoles negros (black bean soup), put on the While House menu and requested it up to three times a week. Very soon Campbell's had its own version and all 3+ star restaurants had added it to their menus, sometimes with rather odd improvisations. I especially remember "The Frugal Gourmet" making moros y cristianos on PBS, which constituted the only positive programming about Cuban-American shown on public television in the 1980s. Granted, he made white rice and frijoles negros separately and then tossed them in a bowl like a salad, but it was better than nothing.

I think when all is said and done, Ronald Wilson Reagan will be remembered as the best American president for the advancement of Cuban cuisine. I have no doubt, however, that if we cultivated Fred Thompson with suitcases of money (with nary a bomb in them), lit enough candles for him and plastered every surface in Miami with "Thompson for President 2008" stickers (including the flatland backsides of the CodePinkers), we could, no doubt, get him to say a good word about bistec empanizado.

Further proof of Thompson's affinity to Reagan is that his statements about Cuba sound exactly like Reagan's on an off day. That is, he is not able to ape Reagan's sincerity, which came naturally to him because he actually believed what he said however implausible; but Thompson has pinned down the empty grandiloquence and fervent noncommitalnesss that characterized Reagan's dialogue with our community.

We are indebted, again, to Babalú, and, especially, to the evolving Henry Gómez, for having solicited from Thompson a statement about his views on Cuba. He has likewise requested but not yet received statements from the other candidates for inclusion in his new blog dedicated to that purpose. Thompson is the first to provide such a statement, and he should have been ungrateful indeed if he had not been the first given Henry's marked preference for him. The statement, which I encourage you to read at http://candidatesoncuba.blogspot.com/ doesn't meet my expectations, but that's hardly news. What is of interest is that it falls much below Henry's. He neither praised nor criticized Thompson's words; others took care of that. Henry's response to abajofidel (fantomas) and other critics clearly shows that even Henry finds it difficult to commend Thompson's lack of candor. Despite its spirited rhetoric (the Cuban people are "oppressed, terrorized and murdered" by an "illegitimate [2X]" and "unaccountable dictator" and "tyrant"), Thompson manages to say nothing concrete about what he would do about so much illegitimacy. He doesn't even promise to enforce past punitive measures. Doesn't mention the embargo. Says nothing at all except to express yet again en passant his irrational fear of Cuban "suitcase bombers" (i.e. balsero double-agents). We have pointed out before that there has never been one of those. Ana Belén Montes and Juan Pablo Roque did not come here on rafts. They wouldn't have risked their lives for a watertight alibi that might have ended with them waterlogged.

Henry intends Candidates on Cuba to "serve as a clearing house for the official positions of the various presidential campaigns on the subject of Cuba. We are only going to post materials submitted by the campaigns specifically for this purpose." He wants to know everything that Fred did not tell him, to wit, "where each candidate stands on things like the embargo, Helms-Burton, indictments for the castro brothers, travel restrictions, the political prisoners, human rights, the succession, etc. etc." Perhaps other candidates will be more forthcoming than Thompson; I doubt it. None, I am sure, could be more oleaginous.

Now there is good and there is bad in this approach. It is good to have each candidate define himself on Cuba. What is not good, however, is to take such a declaration as the definitive word on the subject especially when it is tailor-made for us and would naturally avoid saying anything that might displease us. It is certainly conceivable that one or more candidates might have something to say on the subject that might cost him (her) the Cuban-American vote. But they are not likely to tell us. That's why I wish that the pro-Castro lobby had also solicited from each candidate a position statement on Cuba. Comparing both might be the closest that we ever get to the truth. If I had to choose between one or the other, I should prefer to read their statements to the embargo-busters than those directed at us.

We have already dedicated several posts to Fred Thompson's spontaneous statements on Cuba and nothing he says in his canned statement shall cause us to change our opinion of him.

Also see:

Fred Thompson Shoots Himself in the Foot (And Cuban "Suitcase Terrorists" Have Nothing to Do With It This Time)

Henry Explains Fred Thompson to Us

Fred Thompson: Cuban "Immigrants" Are Suitcase Bombers

Obama Needs This Like He Needs Another Cigarette: "Muslims for Obama '08"

It's not at all difficult to become a Muslim. All you have to do is utter one line and mean it: أشهد أن لا إله إلاَّ الله و أشهد أن محمد رسول الله ("There is only one G-d and Mohammed is His Messenger"). Of course, if you are the child of a Muslim (as is Obama), you don't even have to do that. Born a Muslim, you are a Muslim for life. Under Sharia (Muslim law), if you renounce Islam you are an apostate (murtad) subject to death. Apparently, Obama's Muslim followers believe that he is still a Muslim. Otherwise they would be apostates themselves for associating with an apostate.

His supposed Muslim brothers (the non-biological ones) have set up a new website, "Muslims for Obama '08:"

http://www.muslimsforobama08.com/

Notable and Darwinian: The Evolution of Henry Gómez

"You know what I'm done with pulling my hair and gnashing my teeth about things like this. No matter what anyone does, the exile community is never going to come out of it with positive press. Screw it. We can't control the actions of a few old men, and if the media is dumb enough to generalize, it's their problem. As far as those old men go, in my mind they've earned the right to tell those bitches exactly what they did and more. Don't come into the lions den with a stick, you might just walk out with it impaled in an orifice. Imagine if you had your house, your way of life, your country stolen from you and had to deal with some ugly broad telling you how great the guy who stole all of this from you is. You'd probably react violently too. — Henry Gómez, "CodePink's 'Big' Protest" (comment), Babalú, January 12, 2008.


We may not be able to keep up with the pace of Henry's evolution anymore. He seems to be evolving by giant strides now, like Darwin on roids. Still, we will try. Today we are inaugurating a new feature on Review of Cuban-American Blogs: "The Evolution of Henry Gómez." It will chronicle Henry's tortuous journey from "American-Cuban" to Cuban-American. Our hopes stop there, but he may yet surprise us.

What about Val Prieto? Well, evolution doesn't happen in tandem and some species do go extinct. In any case, Val's recent "vow of silence" is at least as satisfying as Henry's evolution.

CodePink Protests Posada Carriles in Miami (All Four of Them)

Henry Gómez continues his encouraging evolution. During the entire Posada Carriles trial, Babalú was conspicuous by its silence and its silence was echoed by the other Cuban blogs (yes, apparently silence can be echoed). Although they did not condemn Posada Carriles for the same reason that they didn't defend him (because they were afraid), their failure to stand up for one who has always stood up for Cuba, when he needed their support the most, was really shameful and inexcusable. If you are unwilling to defend the freedom of the most-maligned among us, then why bother to defend anybody else's? If some measure of injustice is acceptable to you, then you are not on the side of justice. If you are content only to fight the easy fights, you may forestall defeat but victory will always elude you.

I wish now that I had answered an e-mail which Henry sent me at the time, asking me if I thought Posada was guilty. I was just too indignant to answer. Was Martí "guilty" or Maceo "guilty?" Only an enemy of Cuban freedom or a complete imbecile would ask such a question. In retrospect, I should have answered him. Perhaps a timely rebuke would have clarified a lot of things for him and spared him many detours on the way to the truth.

Henry got there late but he got there, and as the the old Mexican song goes, "lo que importa es llegar." The ridicule which he heaps on CodePink, the San Francisco-based anti-war group which journeyed to Miami to protest Posada Carriles' freedom (not, of course, the Cuban people's lack of freedom), demonstrates the power of the well-placed adjective in a short sentence: "A pick-up truck draped with pink chiffon and a couple of ugly broads." It also shows, more importantly, that Henry finally got it. Posada Carriles' enemies are our enemies, whether they happen to be in Cuba, Venezuela or Washington, D.C., or obey Castro's, Chávez's or Bush' orders. Posada Carriles represents the right of the Cuban people to fight for their freedom. If that is unacceptable in him, then it is unacceptable in all of us, the struggle is lost and ignominy becomes the birthright of all Cubans in perpetuity. A people that does not reverence its heroes deserves none, and, as Martí put it, "is reared for the jackals."

Medea Benjamín and her ilk, besides being fit objects for Ripley's museum, are the living embodiedment of the moral corruption of our enemies; they literally drip with it and stink of it; you can cover them in pink lace and bathe them in a tub of Florida water and the result will only be more inhuman and offensive.

To hear them speak of freedom of speech, while behaving like performance artists whom you expect at any moment will introduce sundry objects into various orifices, is to experience the banality of evil. The pro-Posada counterprotestors, who witnessed the spectacle of their self-debasement, must have felt uplifted to think that these are our enemies, in the final throes of their satanic carnival (feast of the flesh-eaters).


POSTSCRIPT:

As he did when the racist commenters at Babalú started dumping on Mexican migrants (as if the xenophobes ever made any distinction between a Mexican and a Cuban), Henry came to Posada's defense when Ray and Robert Molleda defamed the old Cuban warrior in the Comments thread. These despicable cowards who wouldn't know dignity if it bit them on the heels as they were fleeing from the duty of defending freedom's champions, called Posada "a liability to the Cuban exile community" and "unstable" because he's supposedly "embarrassed the Bush administration, our congressmen and the late Jorge Más Canosa." In other words, Posada Carriles is not a political whore like they are and like their allies are ("our" congressmen, indeed!). Ziva was the first to point out that we should not abandon Posada because it is politically expedient as that would make us no better than opportunists. Henry agreed: "Posada Carriles is one of the few who has consistently put his life on the line to rid the world of the castro regime. fidel has fucking nightmares about the guy. I'd rather have Posada [on my side] than Cindy Shehan or that Meada bitch." Very true, Henry. May the world catch up with your thinking, or at least the other Babalunians.


Related posts on Posada and Babalú:

Henry Gómez Comes to Posada's Defense (Sort Of)

En Passant

Is Posada Carriles a Hero?

Babaloo's Waterloos: The Miami Herald Speaks for Henry Gómez on Posada

Mr. Prim and Mr. Proper Posada Carriles Is Free

Groundswell of Support for Posada Carriles at Babalú — Dignity Carries the Day


Posada and Oscar Corral:

The Wrong Reporter For the Posada Story

Oscar Corral: The Man Without Principles


Miscellaneous Posada Posts:

An Art Exhibit Worth Seeing

"Miranda Returns:" Hugo Chávez's Debut as a Sponsor of the Cinematic Arts (Chávez Is Also Producing a Film on the Life of Posada Carriles)


Humorous:

From Granma: More Toilet Humor

FLASH!!! African Jet with 114 Aboard Crashes

Ron Paul: "Where's My Hood At, Where's My Hood At?"

Sometimes a man is exactly what he represents himself as. And, sometimes, he is worse. Those of us familiar with Ron Paul's dismissal of the Cuban people's right to freedom, which he considers inferior to his own right as an American citizen to witness their enslavement at first hand, cannot be surprised that he holds or endorses equally contemptible views about blacks, Jews and everybody else who does not subscribe to his insane worldview. Although he was never a serious candidate, the fact that his fellow Republican contenders didn't sound very different from him on most issues concerned us because it indicated that the lunatic fringe of the party was now the mainstream. His exposure as a Klansman without a hood in The New Republic should have the salutory effect of encouraging other Republicans to distance themselves from his views, which are those of a severely disturbed and dysfunctional individual who should be submitted to the Ezra Pound cure before it's too late for him.

Read it at the source:

http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=e2f15397-a3c7-4720-ac15-4532a7da84ca

What Happened to Henry on Christmas Eve?

Did Henry Gómez receive a spectral visit on Christmas eve that changed his heart about illegal immigrants, because I've never seen such a transformation since Scrooge was reformed. He's now written a second post defending Mexican-Americans against the canards of Republican xenophobes, which he now recognizes are the greatest threat to the future of the GOP (and, I may add, this country).

If this trend continues, I may have to revise my opinion of Henry yet again.

I could link a half-dozen posts which I have written condemning Henry's support for xenophobes such as Newt Gingrich; but since I am hopeful that he has repudiated his former position for good (that is, for his own soul's good), I will instead link his latest post at Babalú entitled "Walk a Mile in Their Shoes."

POSTSCRIPT:

Having read the comments which Babalú's readers have left in response to Henry, I will never again be able to say that Cubans are not racist. They have learned racism in the greatest school ever established to teach it. It has seaped through their skins into their marrow. Castro has introduced it to the island's inhabitants and Cuban exiles have been contaminated with it here.

Sad, more than sad, tragic.

http://www.babalublog.com/archives/007028.html

Guess Which Presidential Candidate Was a Mexican Anchor Baby?

Guess which presidential candidate was an anchor baby whose father was born in Chihuahua, Mexico?

No, not Mike Huckabee. Irony is rarely distilled in such pure degree.

No, not Bill Richardson, either.

I'll make it easy for you.

He's a Republican who was endorsed by Tom Tancredo when the Coloradan withdrew from the race in December. You may recall that we observed then that whomever Tancredo chose would be the most xenophobic of the remaining candidates (a tight call for anyone but Tancredo).

Still don't get it?

OK, this guy belongs to a religion which he says is just like any other religion.

That's right. Mitt Romney.

Not only was his dad born in Chihuahua, Mexico, but three generations of the Romneys lived there and all four of his grandparents died there.

Why?

Because the U.S. Congress passed the Edmunds Act in 1883, which deprived polygamists of the right to vote, sit on juries or hold political office; in effect, it anulled their citizenship and made them renegades, subject to arrest upon detection. Diehard polygamists like the Romneys, who believed themselves to be latter-day Pilgrims as well as saints, fled from religious persecution in Utah to the promised land of Mexico, where polygamy was still tolerated. Since the Book of Mormon identifies the Aztecs as a lost tribe of Israel and God's chosen people, the Romneys must have had no qualms about resettling there with their multiple wives and legions of progeny.

Miles Park Romney, the literal patriarch of the family, established his extended family in Chihuahua, Mexico, in 1884. The Mexican government allowed the exiles to establish Mormon colonies there, which strikes us as odd since whenever Americans settled on Mexican territory (as in Texas or California) they usually set up their own outlaw republics and petitioned the U.S. Congress for annexation. I suppose the Mexicans must have thought that unlikely since the Mormons were fugitives from U.S. law who wanted no part of their native land and certainly didn't want the U.S. government to infringe on their asylum.

In 1895, Miles' son, Gaskell Romney, married Anna Amelia Pratt, whose family had also fled to Mexico ahead of U.S. federal marshalls. The couple, who were monogamous, were the parents of George W. Romney, Mitt's father, who was born in Colonia Dublán, near Galeana, in the Mexican State of Chihuahua on July 8, 1907.

In 1912, at the height of the Mexican Revolution, Anna and her son George were granted safe conduct by the rebels and left Chihuahua on the last train to Texas. To rejoin his family, Gaskell Romney had to undertake a perilous journey across the desert, walking hundreds of miles, until finally crossing the border at New Mexico, as migrants from Chihuahua still do today.

George W. Romney, the Mexican-born son of Mormon exiles, was the father of Mitt Romney. Mitt was George's "anchor baby" whose American birth and that of George's father created a bridge of citizenship for him.

George Romney, who became governor of Michigan and ran for president in 1968, was a champion of civil rights and an immigration advocate. His son Mitt would do well not only to recall his father's legacy but also his family's history, the generous asylum provided to the Romneys by Mexico and the protection afforded his family during the most tumultuous period in Mexican history. He should remember also that he, too, was an anchor baby.

And not only an anchor baby, but a Mexican, too. Under Article 30 of the Mexican Constitution, Mitt Romney, as the son of a native born Mexican, is himself entitled to Mexican citizenship and could run for president of that country if he fails to be elected here.

By the way, "Mitt's" real name is Willard.

See also:

Mitt Romney: The Buck Stops With the Landscaper (Dec. 6, 2007)

Notable & Commendable: Henry Gómez on the Side of the Angels

"These people" meaning the kids that are being born in the U.S. broke no law. Their parents arguably broke a law though as I pointed out it's not a criminal law, merely an administrative law. The simple act of being here illegally is not punishable with prison or fines. You simply get deported. But we are talking about the kids. Do you want to punish the son for the sins of the father? I think it is the bigotry of a Baptist that doesn't want to see his country overrun by Catholics. Spanish speaking Catholics no less. And, lastly, why a publicly funded windfall? If we did away with all these welfare programs and the education monopoly the only windfall to be had would be that which a person earned in a free country. The problem isn't the immigrants, it's the country they are immigrating to. Besides I don't believe the aspirations of the majority of illegal immigrants is to be live off of the state. That's merely empty rhetoric used by the nativists. The idea that "those people" could not conceivably make an honest living in America and pay taxes and be producers rather than recipients is certainly bigoted." — Henry Gómez, "Despicable Huckster" (comment), Babalú, January 8, 2008

When Henry Gómez expressed his sympathy for Newt Gingrich last year and averred that he was supporting Fred Thompson because Gingrich carried too much "baggage," I gave up on Henry completely. Any Cuban who could even consider supporting Newt Gingrich for president, the father of the "Contract on America," the original Hispanic pogrom, had lost his bearings forever (not to mention his dignity), or so I thought. I don't know what made Henry see the light (maybe I did), but now he has taken a strong stand against the xenophobes who have hijacked the Republican Party. Perhaps he realized that if they succeed in co-opting the party's agenda it will mean certain defeat for his beloved Thompson in 2008. Or perhaps the "Cuban" in "American-Cuban" has, for once, gained the ascendency.

Just as shocking, however, is that certain Babalú commenters, who had not hitherto evinced bigotted tendencies, such as pototo and Claudia4Cuba, have backed Huckabee's insane proposal to denaturalize native-born citizens because of the actions of their parents. Should the children of felons also be stripped of their citizenship as their parents are? How about the children of tax-evaders? Or of drivers with too many points on their licenses? The difference, of course, is that being an illegal immigrant is not a crime in this country — yet. Perhaps Huckabee's next proposal will be to imprison all illegal immigrants. That would be far more expensive than leaving them alone but would certainly prove as popular as deporting them with Republican xenophobes. What would be done with their children then? Maybe they would ship them to orphanages in Guantanamo.

One correction for Henry, though: "Those people" (meaning illegal immigrants) already make an "honest living" in this country and work longer and harder for less than does any other group. They also pay taxes to finance a social safety net from whose protections they (and legal immigrants) are excluded by law and so are already contributors not recipients.