Redstate

Posted at 6:35pm on May 26, 2008 Castro, like Hamas, is for Obama

By Soren Dayton

Fidel Castro writes on Barack Obama:

What did he say in his speech in Miami, this man who is doubtless, from the social and human points of view, the most progressive candidate to the U.S. presidency?

Meanwhile Castro attacks John McCain personally:

Cuban leader Fidel Castro blasted Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Friday for his criticism of the Cuban government this week, saying McCain had shown why he finished near the bottom of his class at West Point.

[Note by Jeff: The fact that McCain went to the Naval Academy (at Annapolis, MD), not the U.S. Military Academy (at West Point) appears to be lost on either Mr. Castro or on the writer of the Reuters article. If the former, that shows why Mr. Castro "finished near the bottom of his class at" the Petty Dictators Academy, and the lack of a correction in-text shows that the Reuters writer is either too ignorant to know the difference, too lazy to care, or too biased to correct Castro in favor of McCain. Of course, if it was just a mistake by the Reuters writer (and editor), then that simply demonstrates why they "finished near the bottom of [their] class at" Wannabe Journalist School. Either way, poor job by the news bureau all-stars.]

One candidate is attacked by Castro. The other is praised by Castro. And Hamas. Sometimes you know a man by his friends and enemies.

Just saying.

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Cuba | Fidel Castro — Comments (7) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 2:37pm on Apr. 17, 2008 Why? Some questions about Obama's terrorist and communist fan club

It's like the Joker and Lady Vic campaigning for Lex Luthor for President. At some point it raises red flags.

By Erick

We have well documented Barack Obama's Marxist underpinnings. His wife, his preacher, his mother, his father, his childhood mentor, and his neighbor Bill Ayers all have underlying beliefs in marxism. They share a disdain for capitalism, capital, and job providers. They are all swept up in the call for social change. And Obama has been right there with them.

We get glimpses every once in a while -- Obama rails against corporate special interests and denies taking money from them, while using them to raise his money and while actually getting money from them. Obama expresses his distain for religion as a crutch for humanity, echoing Marx's view that religion is an opiate for the masses. Obama decries the unfairness of the rich while expressing his connection to the proletariat, despite not being one of them.

There is a growing sense though, both among some Clinton supporters and those of us on the right, that we're at a tipping point and it is a point that requires the press to dig a bit deeper.

Obama's ties to terrorist Bill Ayers and his terrorist wife are often played down by the Obama campaign, but they are only disputed by Obama's chief strategist. In fact, Obama's present successful political career was started in Bill Ayers's living room.

“I can remember being one of a small group of people who came to Bill Ayers’ house to learn that Alice Palmer was stepping down from the senate and running for Congress,” said Dr. Quentin Young, a prominent Chicago physician and advocate for single-payer health care, of the informal gathering at the home of Ayers and his wife, Dohrn. “[Palmer] identified [Obama] as her successor.”

Then, of course, we have his dealings with Tony Rezko and Saddam loyalist Nadhmi Auchi, with whom Obama tries to play down his relationship. Nonetheless, Obama appears to have yet again lied to cover up his toasting of Nadhmi.

Equally disturbing is Obama's willingness to take money from Code Pink activists, that particularly repugnant group that harasses our military, assaults our elected officials, and accuses our heros of being war criminals. Obama has no problem with their money or their support. In fact, his rhetoric frequently appeals to this group and its supporters because it is so anti-American military, or rather anti-imperalist.

Maybe all these things combined send signals to those who live in that world. The signals are seemingly so strong that Obama has a terrorist fan club of sorts. We should review the members.

Read on . . .

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Code Pink | Daniel Ortega | FARC | Fidel Castro | Hamas | Jimmy Carter — Comments (10)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 2:58am on Mar. 22, 2008 A Few Obvious Points About Cuba

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

And yes, it is amazing that we actually have to remind people of this:

In 1958, the year before Fidel Castro came to power in a revolution and promised prosperity, democracy and the restoration of Cuba's 1940 constitution, the Caribbean island, while troubled by poverty, a corrupt dictator and the American Mafia, was also better off than most developing nations.

While poor compared to the United States, Cuba in 1958 had a per capita GDP of $3,170 according to the OECD. (Canada's was $8,947.). But Cuba outranked all other Latin American countries except four: Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Venezuela.

Tellingly, in 1958, the island nation's per person wealth was higher than any East Asian country or colony, save Japan, which barely beat Cuba at only $3,290. Hong Kong had a per capita GDP of $2,924, Singapore's was $2,294, the Philippines' was $1,447, Taiwan's per person GDP stood at $1,387 and South Korea's was $1,112.

Thus in 1958, Cuba was almost as rich as Japan, one and half times as wealthy as Singapore, richer than Hong Kong, and three times as prosperous as South Korea.

Fifty years later, Cuba is one of the poorest countries in Latin America.

Read on . . .

Posted in Cuba | Fidel Castro | Foreign Affairs | Incompetent Leadership — Comments (13)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 12:43am on Feb. 23, 2008 Defiance

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

Passage of the day:

"He says Cuba has already changed, that it changed when he took power in 1959," said Rafael, an unemployed sea pilot who asked that his last name not be used. "What a joke."

A response to Fidel Castro's claim that he implemented positive change in Cuba. There are a lot more people in Cuba who believe as Rafael does.

Posted in Change We Can't Believe In | Fidel Castro | Foreign Affairs — Comments (0)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 8:06am on Feb. 20, 2008 MI MORNING UPDATE: McCain delivers great victory speech, Castro resigns

By saul anuzis

259 days until election day

MORNING UPDATE:

Senator John McCain wins Washington and Wisconsin, then delivers a great victory speech…a great line:

"I will fight every day in this campaign to make sure that Americans are not deceived by an eloquent and empty call for change that promises no more than a holiday from history and a return to the false promises and failed philosophy that trusts in government more than the people."

Posted in Fidel Castro | John McCain | Michigan Republican Party | Republicans | Saul Anuzis — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 1:38am on Feb. 20, 2008 The Long Goodbye

Fidel Castro Thinks He'll Go For A Walk. He Feels Happy! He Feels Happy!

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

It may have just gotten a little shorter:

An ailing, 81-year-old Fidel Castro resigned as Cuba's president Tuesday after nearly a half-century in power, saying he will not accept a new term when parliament meets Sunday.

The end of Castro's rule - the longest in the world for a head of government - frees his 76-year-old brother Raul to implement reforms he has hinted at since taking over as acting president when Fidel Castro fell ill in July 2006. President Bush said he hopes the resignation signals the beginning of a democratic transition.

"My wishes have always been to discharge my duties to my last breath," Castro wrote in a letter published Tuesday in the online edition of the Communist Party daily Granma. But, he wrote, "it would be a betrayal to my conscience to accept a responsibility requiring more mobility and dedication than I am physically able to offer."

My RedState colleague, Erick Erickson, believes that Fidel Castro will not survive the Bush Administration. I can only hope that Castro lives long enough to see Cuba regain its freedom at long last. Given the state of his health, that would not take long and beyond that, I couldn't possibly care less what happens to the despicable, destructive tyrant. Cuba cannot be rid of him too soon.

Posted in Contra Tyrannum | Cuba | Cuba Libre | Dictatorship | Fidel Castro | Totalitarianism | Tyranny — Comments (1)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 4:14pm on Dec. 26, 2007 Comical Quote Of The Day

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

We could say in Cuba we have two parties: one led by Fidel and one led by Raul, what would be the difference?" he asked. "That's the same thing that happens in the United States ... both are the same. Fidel is a little taller than me, he has a beard and I don't.

--Raul Castro, claiming that Democrats and Republicans are as difficult to tell apart as he and his brother Fidel are.

The mind reels.

Posted in Cuba | Department Of Bad Analogies | Fidel Castro | Foreign Affairs | Raul Castro — Comments (19)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 3:33am on Nov. 17, 2007 The Hilarity: 'Tis Overwhelming

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

Just the thing we all need as we go into the weekend . . . humor:

President Hugo Chavez demanded Friday that the king of Spain apologize for publicly telling him to "shut up" in a spat that has soured relations between the two nations and could endanger Spanish investment in Venezuela.

"The king of Spain, he has to offer some type of apology because he attacked me," Chavez said in an interview on state television Friday. "I'm not going to ask him to get down on his knees, but to in some way recognize that he went too far, that he did something inappropriate."

King Juan Carlos exclaimed "Why don't you shut up?" at a summit in Chile last weekend, as Chavez tried to interrupt Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. Zapatero was urging Chavez to show respect for other leaders after the Venezuelan called former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar a "fascist."

[. . .]

Chavez said he didn't hear the king during the heated exchange at the summit, because he was focused on responding to Zapatero.

"The king was lucky," Chavez said. "If I had heard him, I might have answered him ... shot an arrow at him like an Indian."

Um . . . what? Seriously, this is very giggle-worthy, but what on Earth was that last statement supposed to have meant? I mean, just how delusional is Hugo Chavez?

Whatever. Anything that gets Fidel Castro (he's still alive, evidently) all riled up at Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero can't be a bad thing:

Cuba's President Fidel Castro described as ``cowardly'' remarks that Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero directed at Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez during last week's Ibero-American summit in Chile.

Castro, 81, issued a statement today to side with Chavez, his closest ally, who was told to ``shut up'' at the summit by Spanish King Juan Carlos I after the Venezuelan leader called Spain's former Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar Lopez a fascist. Zapatero also defended Aznar from Chavez's attack, telling him that his predecessor was elected democratically.

The exchange was ``an unambiguous display of the genocidal ways and methods of the empire, its accomplices and the anesthetized victims of the Third World,'' Castro wrote in an e- mailed ``reflection,'' entitled ``The Ideological Waterloo.''

It's a shame someone has to win an argument between Castro and Zapatero. But at the end of the day, we know which two leaders will play Napoleon  in this Waterloo. One hopes that St. Helena will not be too luxurious for Castro and Chavez.

Posted in Fidel Castro | Foreign Affairs | Hugo Chavez | King Juan Carlos | Megalomania In General — Comments (2)/ Email this page » / Read More »