From Texas: Don't Aid the Castro Regime

Castro Monument

Saw this first at Babalu blog, my favorite anti-communist source, who got it via Capitol Hill Cubans. Its a good, short read by U.S. Representative Mike Conaway of Texas, a Member of the House Committee on Agriculture, in the San Angelo Standard-Times:

After reading the Standard-Times' recent editorial regarding legislative efforts to lift the travel ban to Cuba, I felt the need to respond. This is an issue that my colleagues and I on the Agriculture Committee continue to examine and in the newspaper's analysis of the issue, I believe some pertinent concerns were overlooked.

The U.S. Declaration of Independence asserts with no equivocation that liberty is an inalienable right, granted to us by our Creator. The government of Cuba unequivocally disagrees with us on this point.

Fidel and Raul Castro have erected, as their own sister once said, "an enormous prison surrounded by water." According to the U.S. State Department, Cuba is a state sponsor of terrorism, one of only four in the world.

The Cuban government, along with Syria, Iran and Sudan, has repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism and engaged in the trade of prohibited materials with other state sponsors. It has allied itself with Hugo Chavez, FARC rebels in Colombia and Basque separatists in northern Spain, and it continues to harbor U.S. fugitives.

Further, the government of Cuba consistently ranks as one of the most repressive, draconian and abusive regimes in the world.

Our relations with Cuba are not merely an economic question, but a moral question as well.

I support our current agricultural export policy with Cuba because I believe that supplying this nation with foodstuffs lessens suffering among the citizens and drains the Castro regime of funds to spend on more belligerent uses. The humanitarian goal of feeding innocent people and the strategic goal of exhausting the funds of a totalitarian government outweigh the moral hazard of trading with a nation as corrupt as Cuba.

Our agricultural producers should rightly be proud of the role they play and the profits they earn in helping to protect the Cuban people.

However, the question of lifting the travel ban presents a different set of moral concerns. Tourists traveling to Cuba to spend their money will enrich the Castro regime, largely without ever seeing the desperate poverty and crushing oppression that the average Cuban faces. The tourism industry in Cuba is, in fact, run by their military and they will, without question, enact and enforce laws restricting the interaction of the Cuban poor with Americans on travel.

The money American tourists would trade for sandy beaches and quaint, old hotels will be funneled into the state-run business and the Cuban government's coffers, where it can be used for malicious activity.

It is possible that this money could be used to buy food from Texans or Georgians, but the Cuban government has a proven track-record of violent political repression, financing Marxist revolutionary movements in Latin America and arming terrorist organizations.

In your editorial, you cited a letter written by 74 members of Castro's opposition who support lifting the travel ban. It is unfortunate that you were not able to also consider a response letter sent to the chairman of the Agriculture Committee, Collin Peterson, by several hundred former prisoners of Fidel Castro.

In their letter, they explained to Chairman Peterson: "We are former Cuban political prisoners, who have spent a combined 3,551 years in Castro's gulag. We are living testimony of the unspeakable tortures, cruelty and deprivations of the military dictatorship of the Castro brothers. (E)very dollar (this) legislation seeks to place in the coffers of the Castro regime will only be used to further repress the Cuban people."

The letter is a powerful statement about the true nature of the Cuban government and the lengths to which military dictatorships will go to maintain their grip on power.

As a Christian, I have a deeply held conviction that the oppression of the Cuban people by the brutal Castro regime is morally reprehensible. While I am a strong supporter of existing and improved agricultural export relations with Cuba, lifting the travel ban and opening Cuba to American tourism is an issue separate from those exports. Lifting the ban would strengthen the Castro regime and enrich a state-sponsor of terrorism.

In my travels and meetings in Congress, I have met with many Cuban refugees. I have heard the depths of their suffering and I look forward to the day when all Cubans live in a nation free from fear, repression and retribution.

However, unilaterally lifting the travel ban, with no commitment from the Cuban government to improve its record on human rights, political freedom and economic openness, will not meet this goal.

Our nation should work toward free elections in Cuba with every tool and resource at our disposal. When that day finally does come, Americans and Cubans alike will enjoy the freedom to travel between our countries; but most importantly, Cubans will finally get to enjoy true liberty, a God-given human right.

Without true liberty all the rum drinks taken in quaint old hotels while being served by quaintly oppressed peasants should taste bitter in the mouths of the thoughtless hypocrites and stooges who think they will be helping. For the ones who know the real score and still support a US policy that will give aid and comfort to our mortal enemies, the Communists: may Castro's rum turn to poison in their mouths.

No Fear

Freedom's Smile - (risky click)

Freedom is worth it. From Grant Wahl's Blog at FanNation:

I like freedom, and I am not afraid of fighting for it. A year ago I was in jail for 32 days. You are going to laugh when I tell you why. It was for having a satellite antenna in my house. I had it, but I have no interest in politics for anything. I just love sports. --- After I was in jail they fined me 800 pesos and said that every year they want 30,000 pesos more. And I am not going to pay. I don’t know what will happen, but I am not going to pay.

Manuel Díaz Rodríguez - a free man in an unfree nation

Hat tip: El Abuelo de todos los blogs Cubanos, Babalu Blog.

Who is Gorki Aguila?

Free Gorki!

White Swans to nest in Cuba?

Russian Strategic Bombers

Some folks have said that Russian political thug Vladimir Putin wants to tighten his grasp on power by reviving the cold war (see the feed trough). Recent news from Russia hints that they intend to base nuclear bombers in Cuba and Latin America. From the Mclatchy Report: Moscow paper claims Russian bomber crews visited Cuba. Here is the story as it appeared in Izvestiya, translated by Google. Russia seems ready to raise the volume of their nuclear saber rattling to a level not seen since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

Reaction to the bomber story from the Russia's Cuban lapdogs, the Castro brothers, has ranged from cryptic to taunting. Who knows which "Latin American" nations might also be under consideration for Russian nuclear bases, but there is no shortage of Rooskie sympathizers in the region. Think Chavez and Morales. They would love to have another pin to stick into their voodoo dolls.

It takes two superpowers to make a cold war, so General Norton Schwartz, newly nominated to be the US Air Force's chief of staff, has issued a stern warning to the Russians. Now we are in the game. Its an ugly, dangerous business. Get your fallout shelter plans right here.
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The old feeder recalls the Cuban Missile Crisis all too clearly. On the US side, JFK was hopped up on amphetamine shots he got from Hollywood's Dr. Feelgood. Holding down the Soviet side was Khrushchev, a Ukrainian boor with a bad commie attitude and a raft of H-bombs.

The kids in school had to practice ducking under their desks. Farmers built fallout shelters for cattle, one of which is near the feedlot. It was a bad time for all, and the final resolution had so many secret rooms that some have yet to be discovered. It wasn't just the Soviets that blinked.
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I wonder how a president Barack Obama would handle this threat to US security? Actually, I don't so much wonder as worry about it.
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Hat tip: Ben Dare

A day of solidarity with the Cuban people

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press SecretaryA DAY OF SOLIDARITY WITH THE CUBAN PEOPLE, 2008
- - - - - - -
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION
Freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of worship are among the liberties that Americans cherish. Our Nation fully supports the brave people who work to secure these liberties in the countries where they are denied. And on this Day of Solidarity with the Cuban People, we focus our attention on the men and women working to secure freedom, democracy, and human rights for the citizens of Cuba.

For half a century, the Cuban people have suffered under oppressive dictatorship. Under the rule of Fidel and Raul Castro, Cubans have seen their political freedoms denied, their economy reduced to shambles, and their families torn apart. The Cuban people deserve better ‑‑ and the American people stand with them as they work to achieve it.

The United States is rallying the free world to the cause of Cuban liberty. We continue to shine a bright light on the Castro regime's abuses ‑‑ and America calls on the Government of Cuba to immediately and unconditionally release all prisoners of conscience.

We keep these prisoners, their families, and all Cubans in our prayers. Especially on this Day of Solidarity, we ask the Almighty to comfort and strengthen those who suffer under the Castro dictatorship -- and to hasten the day when Cuba's suffering comes to an end.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim May 21, 2008, as A Day of Solidarity with the Cuban People to recognize those who are suffering in Cuba, especially Cuba's prisoners of conscience. I call upon the citizens of the United States to mark this observance with appropriate ceremonies and activities that demonstrate America's resolute support for those living under the Castro regime.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twentieth day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand eight, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-second.

GEORGE W. BUSH
(from Babalu Blog)
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Check out the President's speech on Cuban Solidarity Day. He is expected to deliver it this morning. Get the details from Babalu Blog. Several Babalu contributors have traveled to Washington D.C. to attend the speech.

If you can't get the White House live telecast to work, I'm sure the cats at Babalu will have plenty to help you reflect on the reasons we shouldn't forget our Cuban friends who suffer under the double whammy of Castro and Communism.

Be sure to visit some of the fine anti-communist blogs on the Babalu blogroll. These bloggers know the evils of Marxist thought first hand.
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Remember these two great chums?

Fred Thompson vs Mike Moore? No Contest!

Quintessential Democrat Michael Moore

I was visiting Babalu Blog, my favorite anti-castro blog, where I see Michael Moore has challenged Fred Thompson, our next President, to a debate on TV. Fred Thompson has this honorary Cubiche's vote.

Breitbart Video: Fred Thompson's response to Michael Moore's debate challenge.

Monstrous Mike's response to Fred's response is here for now.

Plains Feeder helps denounce Che Chic

For the Che idolizers on your shit list

The old feeder's design, based on this blog post (with the addition of an eye catching blood stain) has been made into the t-shirts pictured above. Val Prieto of the very excellent Babalu Blog saw the design and asked if he could use it in his anti-castro activities. I despise castro. Anything I can do to help... Well, Val is now selling these shirts to help fund the Cuba Nostalgia Convention. The convention, which Michelle Malkin describes as "commemorating the best of the island nation before fidel castro destroyed it", looks like an enjoyable event, to judge from the blog coverage.

As Val puts it, "Help a brother out, buy a damn tshirt. Or, put your money where my mouth is." We at the Plains Feeder already 'gave at the office'.
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Addendum: I don't think there are very many che guevara tee shirt wearing idiots here in Nebraska. I can't recall having seen one recently. Maybe they wear them on campus at the various universities and colleges. In my college days, it wasn't unusual to see students with Che books and pictures. But, in those bad old days, some students also carried NVA flags and burned the Armory. It 's good to live in a Red State.
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Update: Val reports that the image of che - even dead che - is still too disturbing for some. The commie bum earned every bit of this hate. On a more positive note, Felix I. Rodriguez, the CIA cat that hunted down che, appeared at the Cuba Nostalgia Convention. Babalu bloggers Henry "Conductor" Gomez and George Moneo describe meeting the man. Bay of Pigs, anyone?

Get on with it, already!

Castro Warns of Possible Assassination Plot Against Venezuelan President Chavez. Mr. Castro, long-time communist chump claims Olympic record for having survived hundreds of murder attempts orchestrated by Washington. Don't believe it! The scurrilous bloodsucker was smart to bring his own chickens to New York, but if "Washington" wanted him dead, he would be dead. Same goes for his little Venezuelan puppy, Che-vez. When "Washington" really gets serious about wanting someone dead, they don't put a reward on his head or try to slip him poison cigars, as the conspiracy folks would have you believe. The heavies from "Washington" don't even like to poison their target's soup or jab him with a poison umbrella, as the ComBlock skullduggers do.

They just see to it that the target gets shot dead.

Just ask Che.