Claudia4Libertad

Human Rights for All... Except Cubans

On December 10, 1948, the United Nations adopted and proclaimed First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This declaration was created by Mrs. Roosevelt, a pioneer of human rights, to ensure that everyone in every country, but specifically those who signed it, had dignity, freedom, justice and peace. It took 60 years for Cuba, a flagrant violator of human rights for the past 50 years, (whether the rest of the world chooses to believe it or not) to sign this document, the defense of which landed Dr. Oscar Biscet in jail.

But signing it has been, so far, just a PR stunt for Cuba. Raúl Castro and his merry band of human rights-depriving thugs have done little to repair the damaged dignity of the Cuban people. They have done little to re-instititute the freedoms that the country had once enjoyed. They have done little to guarantee justice for the Cuban people who dare to speak out against the regime and end up in jail on trumped up charges. Instead of ensuring peace in Cuba, they have brought anything but- intimidating and roughing up those who congregate to express their apparently alienable right to protest, beating down those who dare to dissent. In spite of the blatant lack of human rights in Cuba, the Cuban people have maintained their dignity.

The leaders of the opposition continue to fight through words and images- Yoani Sanchez through her blog.           

Martha Beatriz Roque, who was beaten and jailed for “acts of independence against the state” through phone calls and letters.

Dr. Darsi Ferrer has made us aware of the disgusting and deplorable conditions of Cuba’s hospitals through through videos. He has also peacefully protested, only to be manhandled along with other demonstrators.  And punk rocker Gorki Aguila, jailed on trumped up charges, lets the world know Cuba’s suffering through his songs.

It is they who ensure the peace; it is they who choose to protest in a dignified manner, and it is the regime who chooses to destroy that peace by going after them to stifle their voices.

On December 10 let us take a few moments to be grateful for where we live and the human rights that we enjoy and may often take for granted. Let us also remember these individuals who languish in Cuban prisons and the many more like them whose voices may not be heard as loudly, but are nonetheless just as important. Let us remember the lack of human rights suffered by these men and women and others- some jailed secretly, some on made-up crimes, all because they dared to speak out for their own human rights and those of their fellow countrymen.

Arnaldo Ramos Lauzerique
Víctor Rolando Arroyo Carmona
Félix Gerardo Vega Ruiz,
Dr. Marcelo Cano Rodríguez
Norberto Dorta Sánchez
Majaíl Barzaga Lugo
Dr. Luis Milán Fernández

As a non-Cuban who has lived her whole live on American soil, I not only am outraged by the regime's lip-service to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights but I am also bowled over by the tenacity of the Cuban dissidents who remain steadfast in their devotion to see a free Cuba.

¡QUE VIVA CUBA LIBRE!

Sounding off on the NYT Magazine

The New York Times Magazine features an article by Roger Cohen in which he advocates lifting the embargo in exchange for the release of Cuba's political prisoners. This did not score points with exiles, as one can imagine. Ruth of Babalublog posted about it yesterday

Today, Jorge Ponce weighs in:

"I don't how you feel, but the following article on Cuba is of my disliking. As you'll remember, Herbert Matthews also worked for the New York Times and wrote about the wonderful leadership deeds (??!!) of a young Fidel in the Sierra Maestra.

 Lately, there has been a plethora of activity to lift the U.S. embargo against Cuba. For example, a Florida university conducted a survey that showed that 55% of Cubans in the US now favor the lifting of the embargo. However, when you see that only 800 participated in the survey, you have to question the whole thing. There are a heck of a lot more Cubans in Florida than just 800.

Moreover, the survey showed that Cubans who exercised their right to vote in US elections still favored the maintenance of the embargo. Ergo, the majority of those who want the embargo lifted cannot vote in US elections, and are willing to return to Cuba as soon as they are welcomed in the US. Considering that the Cuban Adjustment Act gives Cuban special preferences because of their political refugee status, going back to Cuba makes a mockery of this privilege -- not to say of its blatant unfairness and discriminatory impact on other non-Cuban immigrants. Therefore, I would give these Cuban a one-way ticket to go back to their Island Paradise, and I would stay with the real Cuban political refugees and freedom lovers.

My opinion is that what needs to be lifted is not the US embargo, but the smokescreen that insinuates that the embargo is the cause of all the Cuban woes. If Fidel has provided Cubans with an educational system that is the envy of the free world, then its highly educated citizens will realize that the embargo is not the cause of their privations. When Cuba traded with the Soviet Union, the living standard of Cubans did not improve. When European and Asian countries, Mexico, and other Latin American countries trade with Cuban, Cubans remain treated as immigrants in their own countries.

What will bring "Change" to Cuba are free elections, the freeing of all political prisoners, and the implementation of a market economy.

Everything else is "mental masturbation!""

With a Stroke of a Pen, ::Poof::: It's All Gone

As my mom would say when someone rushes her with something:

"Geez, jump in my grave, why don't you?"

Perhaps President Bush is saying the same thing as this story is released:

"President-elect Obama plans to use his executive powers to make an immediate impact when he takes office, perhaps reversing Bush administration policies on stem cell research and domestic drilling for oil and natural gas."

Wow, the man hasn't even been sworn in and he's planning on kiboshing things with his brand-spanking new executive orders? I know Bush did it and so did Reagan, not to mention Clinton, but I'm pretty sure they waited until they had their own presidental seal to make such announcements.

The way this John Podesta states this makes it look like Obama will take office and just willy nilly undo everything that has been done in the past eight years. I hope for the sake of "reaching across the aisle" that he carefully reviews each of these decisions before he proceeds to do the reverse simply because it was initiated under a Republican, rather than because he feels it is the best decision (whether or not we agree with it).

"John Podesta, Obama's transition chief, said Sunday Obama is reviewing President Bush's executive orders on those issues and others as he works to undo policies enacted during eight years of Republican rule. He said the president can use such orders to move quickly on his own."

"There's a lot that the president can do using his executive authority without waiting for congressional action, and I think we'll see the president do that," Podesta said. "I think that he feels like he has a real mandate for change. We need to get off the course that the Bush administration has set."

Frankly, these plans scare me. I can see ::shudder::: the partial birth abortion ban lifted, eighty-sixing drilling, embryos being conceived and harvested merely for destruction, maybe immediately removing BCIS from our borders, systematically issuing illegal aliens driver's licenses, all with a penstroke...who knows?

At the end of this article is a real funny note:
"In other transition matters, Obama's new chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, would not say whether Obama would return to the Senate for votes during the postelection session this month."

Does it matter if Obama returns to the Senate? Will a vote of "present" make a difference?

It's Only 4 Years

And if we still have voting rights then, we can vote him out.

Why I Won't Vote For Obama

I have voted across party lines more than once in my lifetime.  The last time was for Pennsylvania Governor Rendell, as a matter of fact. I vote for the candidate and not the party.  However, not everybody sees politics are I do. There are Republicans who would not vote for a democrat if their lives depended on it and there are democrats who would sooner stick a hot poker in their eyes than vote Republican.  I can appreciate that.  But it's not me.  I am not voting for Obama because he is not the better candidate and there are many reasons why I feel this way.

A friend of mine saw my McCain bumper sticker the other day and asked me why I wasn't voting for Obama. First, I warned her about getting into it with me and she said she really wanted to know.  So, I told her.

I'll keep it nice and simple, just like I did for her.  At this point, his gross lack of experience is at the bottom of my list of reasons. Here are just some of the things that don't add up to me.

1) The fact that the Governor of Hawaii has sealed Obama's official birth certificate bothers me.  If there were no issues with where he was born (possibly Kenya which makes him not a natural-born citizen; his mother is said to have been enrolled school in Washington state when he was born) then why is it sealed?  John McCain forked his over when asked.

2) His relationship with terrorist cum professor William Ayers.  He is not a casual acquaintance, nor was he just a guy he worked with a dozen times-Ayers is so significant to Obama that he hosted Obama's political coming out party in his home. Obama wrote a blurb for Ayers' book and they worked together on the failed school reform effort, The Chicago Annenberg Challenge. "Fact"check.org (Factcheck.org is a web site run by the Annenberg Public Policy Center) states that despite the newly released records, there's still no evidence of a deep or strong "friendship" with Ayers.  Wow, to me, having someone host a monumental event for someone, writing a blurb in someone's book (as Obama did for Ayers on his book's dust jacket) and putting someone in charge of millions of dollars (as Ayers did to Obama when he entrusted the new director Obama with Annenberg's millions) demonstrates a little more than a casual business relationship.  

3) His contributions ($800,000) to ACORN, the voter registration group that has had multitudes of problems with phony registrations this year.

4) His lies about his mother's religion- namely that his mother attended a Baptist church when she really attended a UCC church in Bellevue Washington- one that was so left-leaning that is was nicknamed "The little red church"  because of its communist leanings.  Is this a big deal? Yes- baptist churches are very conservative while UCC is probably the most liberal of the big churches. Why lie about that?

5) His relationships with people who would be happy to see Israel wiped off the map.  Louis Farrakhan and Jeremiah Wright (the latter a subscriber to the Black Liberation Theology, based on Marxism) and the former, the head of the Nation of Islam, which spreads the message of Black separatism and anti-gay, anti-Catholic, racist and anti-Semitic bigotry throughout the United States and the world." (source- Anti-Defamation League in statement to Senator Joe Lieberman.)  Obama has since publicly distanced himself from these two people in a move of political expediency, but the fact that it took him so long gives me pause.

6) He has stated that it was his mother who formed his political idealogy.  His mother, an anthropologist, was a Marxist. William Ayers is a self-described Marxist.  In his book, Obama says he sought out the Marxist professors.  Do I want a Marxist for president? No.

7) Reports of his campaign ordering/threatening/intimidating radio stations and tv stations who run negative ads about Obama disturb me.  Here's one story: http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0808/Obama_camp_blasts_National_Review_writer_as_slimy_character_assassin.html?showall

8)  His whole "share the wealth" notion, whether he gets away with it or not, scares me.

9) Other things that make my spidey senses perk up:

• He has the support of fidel castro, who stated that Obama "is the most-advanced candidate."

• Terrorist group Hamas endorses Obama.

• In March 2007, Sen. Obama stated that "Nobody is suffering more than the Palestinians."  

So, if you are undecided, if you are a friend of Israel, if you think Obama will save the country, ask yourself if any of the reasons I'm not going to vote for him bother you at all.  If they do, cast your vote for McCain.

 

Claudio E. Ponce, Que en Paz Descanse

Yesterday, Jorge Ponce's father, Claudio Emerio Ponce, passed away at the age of 87.  Jorge is a friend of mine and of this blog and has been interviewed on Radio Mambi and Babalublog.  

Mr. Ponce, Sr. brought his family here from Cuba in 1966 and moved to the D.C. area. A native of Caibarien, he worked for the Ministerio de Haciendas (Treasury Department) as an accountant in Cuba and then in the US and became the president of Casa Cuba in DC. In this capacity he brought famous Cuban musicians to D.C. like Miguelito Valdes (Mr. Babalu), Celia Cruz and La Sonora Mantancera (the first time that they were brought to the DC area), Xiomara Alfaro, Roberto Ledesma, Primitivo Santos and Vicentico Valdes.  In 1976 he planned an event to mark the bicentennial of the United States which was held at the Kennedy Center and brought entertainment luminaries like Don Pedro Vargas and Fernando Albuerne to perform.

Mr. Ponce moved to Miami after he retired to escape the cold and the snow. He had suffered several strokes before succombing to heart failure. He is survived by his wife, Hilda Mencia de Ponce, his sons, Jorge and Mateo; his daughter, Teresita, and seven grandchildren.  he will be remembered as a meticulous planner of social events, a man whose heart never forgot Cuba, and a great father.

My condolences to Jorge and his family.

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven;
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

                                                                                    "Ecclesiastics 3:1-8"

O'Reilly Gives the View Women a Dose of Their Own Medicine

O'Reilly takes the inarticulate and screeching Joy Behar down a peg.  He called Obama a communist (he later corrected it to Marxist) and Joy flipped out. He remained unflustered, although I did not like his explanation "sometimes communism is good," even if it was made in jest. The reason I am posting it is because someone FINALLY called these biased bimbos on their crappy treatment of Senator McCain when he was on the show- they basically ignored him when he was there.  Baba Wawa's response to that?  NOTHING. Check it out. You can see Joy and her filthy comment to the Senator here. Barabara cut him off, she rolls her eyes to Whoppie when he talks about town hall meetings, she doesn't ask questions like a journalist, she is snarky and partisan. Whoopi Goldberg doesn't even look at him. She calls him JMac and asks if he wants her to be a slave. Compare that to when Obama was on The View. Baba Wawa fawns all over him, calls him sexy, they are giddy with excitement over him. Joy almost pees herself sitting next to him. She is fascinated by his explanation of the UCC ("Is that so?"). When he claims that Jeremiah Wright never said anything offensive while he was in the congregation, nobody calls him on the sheer impossibility that he never heard racist remarks in the 20 years he attended services there. These women are not journalists (save Walters once upon a time) but they sure do fall all over a man who won't even wear a United States flag pin and instead give little or no respect to a man who made great sacrifices for his country.

Comparing Castro to Obama?

Alberto de la Cruz, a fellow contributing writer at Babalublog, made an interesting connection to Castro's rise to power in the 1950's and Obama's campaign.  As usual. Alberto hits the nail on the head.

"...With that said, it is quite disturbing to see how similar Obama and his campaign are to the campaign led by Castro and his thugs fifty-years ago. Just like Castro, they will say anything they need to say to ensure an Obama victory. If the public does not like the language of one of their policies, they simply pull out the thesaurus and use a different word. If the McCain campaign hammers away at a weakness in one of their proposals, they just change it to take the argument away from their opponent. They are not changing these things because they believe it is right to do so--they are changing it so that they can win."

Will those who vote for him realize too late what he's all about?  Read more HERE.

Sarah Palin Is a Good Sport on SNL

Check out the Sarah Palin Rap complete with back-up Eskimo dancers. Sarah sits there and goes along with it in good fun.

The Spy's Wife-- The Movie

Ana Margarita Martínez. ex-wife of the Cuban mole/double agent Juan Pablo Roque, has been hard at work with Lieutenant Colonel Chris Simmons, Cuban intelligence expert on writing her life story which will become a movie.  Here is the new website which has a great video that will give you the abridged version of what happened and how this man was connected to the Brothers to the Rescue Shootdown and the highest ranking Cuban spy in the US, Ana Belén Montés, who was arrested for giving intelligence to the castro regime which in turn passed it on to other countries.

Watch it all here.

Thanks to Ana Margarita for sharing the link!

Sign the Petition Against Voter Registration Fraud Before It's Too Late!

I don't know if this will help, but please click on the link http://www.rallycongress.com/voterid/1326/emergency-voter-identification/

and sign the petition to make sure EVERY VOTER shows proper ID when voting. 

Why the big fuss?  Well, here's a nugget from the Dallas News:

"The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now – ACORN – has been accused of compiling fake registration forms, including ones for the starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys, in Nevada."

From the Houston Chronicle: "Tony Romo is not registered to vote in the state of Nevada, and anybody trying to pose as Terrell Owens won't be able to cast a ballot on Nov. 4," said Secretary of State Ross Miller, referring to star players on the pro football team."

(Now, please don't give me another reason to hate the cowboys and someone fix this mess!)

Out of 5,000 new registrations that the ACORN volunteers "got," half of them have been found to be fraudulent- dead people, fake people who live at fast food places, etc.  Here is CNN's story on it:

If you don't know what this is all about, here are some links (among thousands available) to check out what is happening right under our noses.

http://stopacorn.org/

http://netrightnation.wordpress.com/

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2094069/posts

http://newsmax.com/insidecover/voter_fraud_acorn/2008/10/09/139107.html

Don't forget to sign the petition!

Almost Down for the Count

Yesterday I went to see "American Carol."  It was good and it was funny but of course, no liberal would ever go to see it, which makes it an inside joke for Republicans.  The fact that it was even MADE really shocked me, because when it comes down to playing dirty in the media, Republicans put on their gloves and stand there while the liberals and the MSM beat the crap out of us.  So the point of the movie only served to preach to the choir. And for me, all it did was remind me of how tired I am of liberals beating up on everything American and everything Republican.

It's not that we can't hold our own, we can and we do.  But the difference is, we don't antagonize, we don't try to spray DNC convention go-ers with bleach. We don't cause destruction. We don't need to be arrested.  We don't accost people because of the bumper sticker on their cars. (That happened to me twice.)  I should have to worry about exercising my right to free speech by having a bumper sticker on the car that says "McCain-Palin" for fear of getting harassed? Obama supporters where I live have their yard signs prominently displayed in the center of their lawns, defiantly daring anyone to say a bad word against him.  McCain supporters don't have yard signs at all (I know there are plenty of Republicans among the 150 houses in my development) because they are afraid to be baited into an argument or get booed.  Yes, that's right.  We remain silent, scared, afraid to piss someone off.

So watching "American Carol" did not make me feel all warm and fuzzy that there are others who feel the same way as I do about this country. It made me feel alone and outnumbered.  It made me feel like there are so many people in this country that have been taught to hate it, in particular since the war started, that I often feel put on the defensive when someone finds out I am Republican, when I should feel proud and be able to hold my head up high.

But it's getting harder and harder to hold up my head lately.  It's been 8 years and my head and shoulders feel like they are carry the weight of the world, if not my party, on top of them. It started with the 2000 elections.  Everyone assumed Gore would win, and frankly, after coming off of an 8 year term of economic prosperity and relative international peace as VP, he should have been able to win by a landslide.  But he didn't.  So therefore, Bush "stole" the election.  And Democrats have never, ever forgotten that.  And if you think that all of the hatred directed to Bush and Cheney is caused by anything other than that still-festering wound, then you think too highly of the Democrats. It's the grudge that will never go away. Going to war was just pouring salt into the wound and 8 years later, it remains open, raw and refuses to be healed.

So now with a decent chance to get their messiah into office, by any means necessary (voter fraud, refusal to present a legitimate birth certificate, denying questionable alliances) the Democrats have started pooping in their pants at the thought of Sarah Palin running the country. (Of course, everyone has John McCain dead and buried although he is healthy, while Biden has had 2 aneurysms, but who needs details?) Why are they worried? She's a pro-life, feminine, attractive, strong-willed woman.  She can shoot a gun, she can kill her own dinner, she cares for her family, she runs a state... face it, she's Super Woman,    

whereas Hillary is more like a man in pumps. (Although I would take Hillary over Obama any day, but that's another story.)  So now she is under attack... all the time!  She's a dummy, she's just a MILF, she thinks living in Alaska gives her foreign policy experience, she can't raise a family AND hold office-and those are the NICE things that are being said about her. Here's a sample of the nasty things (via Michelle Malkin) and George Moneo has more at Babalublog.com.

       

So after 8 years of bashing, attacking, harassing, antagonizing, bullying, movie-making, protesting and hate-mongering, I'm really tired.  I hate feeling like I'm the underdog.  I hate the liberals trying to make Republicans out to be monsters just because the MSM declared open season on us in 2000. I hate that people don't know the facts when they go on attack.  It's enough now to often close my mouth at work when people bash Governor Palin because I fear that one day I will get angry enough and become one of THEM:  the crazies, the lunatics, the uninformed, the gut-reacting looney tunes.  I can be that person, I really can, it's not hard to do.  But not only do I have self-control, I also know that it will get me precisely NOWHERE. 

In the meantime, I just don't know if I can take 4 more years of this.  It's enough to make me want Obama to win, just to make the screaming stop.  But then there are people who tell me to stop being a wimp and that now is not the time to give up.  This is when it counts.  I'd like to listen, really, I would, but I feel like Rocky when he fought Clubber Lang (Mr. T.) in Rocky 3 and he just put his hands in front of his face and let Clubber give him beating after beating until, swollen and bruised, he just gave up.  I'm sorry Mick, I may just be down for the count.

God Bless This Man For He Speaks the Truth

Barack- SHOW US THE RECORDS!! Obama Not a US Citizen

  Obama and the grandmother who is not a "typical white person-" his Kenyan grandmother who stated Barack was born in Kenya- with her present.

It has been dismissed by Democrats as a ploy to derail Obama's campaign but this is serious.  This is possibly, and it appears, probably, a flagrant violation of the constitution of the United States- Barack Hussein Obama was not born in the US AND also re-entered the United States form Indonesia as an Indonesian citizen, becoming naturalized here.  Either scenario makes him INELIGIBLE for the presidency because you must be a NATURAL BORN CITIZEN.

What?  You say this is all BS?  Fine.  All Mr. Obama has to do is PRODUCE HIS ACTUAL DOCUMENTS.  Not the birth certificate without the official seal.  Not the copy that fact check.org shows(he sat on the board of trustees for the parent company of this company-- CONFLICT OF INTEREST??)- Just do what John McCain did when the question of his birthplace came up (he was born in Panama to US parents when his dad was serving in the US military there)- SUPPLY THE ACTUAL DOCUMENTS!!

Don't believe me?  Well, believe this guy, Philip Berg, a lifelong DEMOCRAT from Pennsylvania and a staunch supporter of the US Constitution who is taking this case to court. 

I realize this doesn't matter to many Democrats-- don't think we don't realize that you are more than willing to even the score with the Republican party for "stealing" the 2000 election.  But remember something, if your candidate will lie and cheat this early on in the game, if the DNC is willing to back this guy, you are no better than what you have accused others of doing for eight years.  In fact, you are much, much worse.

H/T George Moneo of Babalublog

He's A Conservative Republican, and He's Black.

Thanks to George Moneo