Communist fighter McCain: 'I understand Cuba'

Hooray for McCain.

The one Republican candidate who both opposes torture and the last gulag in the Americas.

Will someone please ask him why it's OK to give money to the corrupt, freedom crushing nation of Pakistan and not to the corrupt, freedom crushing nation of Cuba?

His position has NOTHING to do with freedom. Pandering, pure and simple.

I wonder if old man McCain is going to join Grandpa Fred in the fight against the Soviet Union?

Will someone please ask him why it's OK to give money to the corrupt, freedom crushing nation of Pakistan and not to the corrupt, freedom crushing nation of Cuba?

Posted by: Luke | January 21, 2008 2:44 PM

I would like to answer your question in terms of reality. You see, Pakistan is providing us with assistance in the War against Terrorists. Pakistan's assistance is crucial because of where it is located (next to Afghanistan). It's that simple.

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend." This concept has held true throughout history. In WWII, we allied with the USSR (an evil country) to defeat a greater evil (Hitler's Germany). International politics is not always black and white, sometimes it requires doing things we are not comfortable with (e.g. siding with Pakistan) in order to obtain a greater benefit (e.g. defeating terrorists).

Cuba, on the other hand, offers the US no strategic position for anything. So why would we ally ourselves with them? Cuba is afterall, a Communist state that suppresses the civil rights of all its people. Not to mention that they have repeatedly threatened us and other nations in the past (Cuban Missile Crisis, Grenada).

Please allow reality to sink in before spouting Sean Penn's talking points.

McCain is the man I want in charge whenever increasingly fragile Fidel finally kicks the bucket just 90 miles from Florida and leaves a power vacuum, a 1950 economy and civil unrest in his wake.

I think McCain would help his bid as candidate if he were to say he understands Cuba, then break into the song "Cuban Pete".

Could someone please tell me why the US is so concerned with Cuba, other than the Cubans in Florida who keep the issue at the forefront?

It isn't as if Cuba is a threat to this country any more than Canada is a threat to this country.

Drop the embargoes and everything else. Watch how quickly Castro disappears.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/tijuana/20080120-9999-1m20agent.html

Hit that link, read about another Border Patrol Agent death, by an illegal that crossed the Border into Mexico.

Now, ask who has opposed building the fence, and the US. protecting her Sovereignty. It's a blood vote.

That's not just Republicans but also Democrats. These Politicians are playing a deadly game.

I have posted some of McCain's Neo-Con votes here:

http://bluecollarrepublican.com/blog/?p=2416

Geez, I dunno Dogjudge maybe the fact that the island nation is just 90 miles from our border.

Maybe that the totalitarian dictatorship there does not recognize human rights which has caused the U.S. to give immigrants from there political refuge since the '60s.

Maybe that Fidel's recent botched colostomy (great health care system Cuba!) has left him fragile and ever closer to death.

Maybe the fact that thousands of former Cubans live in Florida and long for the day they can see their homeland freed from dictatorship and see the relatives they've left behind again.

I honestly don't know what they're teaching democrats about history these days. Watch the power vacuum that ensues after Fidel's death and you'll see how quickly the situation in Cuba devolves until it's a threat to the U.S. and our military base there.

THE FIGHTER PILOT AND THE PRINCESS IN AMERICA’S PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARIES

The fighter pilot of this story is, of course, John McCain, but the princess is not Hillary Clinton as some readers might have guessed. The princess in the story is Britain’s late Princess Diana.

What possible connection is there between the late Princess Diana and John McCain? Well, as it proves, there are connections of serious importance to American voters and citizens of the world.

There is today an unpleasant but necessary, excruciatingly-detailed inquiry into Diana’s death underway in Britain. It is unpleasant because no one should have every private thought and act exposed this way, but it is necessary because the Princess’s own actions and words left millions believing dark, paranoid fantasies around her death. Her remarks and notes in private about believing she would be assassinated, her batteries of obsessive telephone calls, her reported private fits of moodiness and hysteria, her going public with private marital problems – these and other events point to a person with mental instability. Detailed revelations of the inquiry come as no surprise because many sensed something more than her wonderful public charm and grace, and her family does have other such cases in its history.

McCain has all the signs of a similar personality disorder. He can be charming in public, and he has a reputation as an interesting maverick. He is sometimes bluntly truthful, as when he talked about the Religious Right in his 2000 campaign for the Republican nomination.
But McCain has the same highly inconsistent pattern as Diana in public and private behavior. In private, he is famous for a colossally ugly temper. McCain has made some absurd claims over the years, reminding me very much of Princess Diana's whispers and notes about people in high places wanting to assassinate her, all the while smiling beguilingly in public.
Recently, McCain told us he would still have invaded Iraq, even without the excuse of "weapons of mass destruction." He has learned nothing from all that pointless death and misery.

McCain promised voters in South Carolina that he'd hunt down Osama bin Laden, even if it took him "to the gates of hell." And he swore he knows just how to do the job. Good Lord, if McCain knows, why has he kept it secret all these years?

“The gates of hell"? McCain in 2000 made fun of hellfire Christian fundamentalists’ role in politics, now he’s feeding them their own lines.

I think we know that Osama has long been dead, despite the CIA's phony periodic tapes released to intensify the public's paranoia to support the war on terror. The government hasn't wanted to claim credit because that would make Osama a martyr. His remains are buried under a million tons of rock in the mountains that had the destructive equivalent of World War II dropped on them. And were it possible that Osama did miraculously survive, would hunting him down now be a high priority to a rational person? Two unfinished wars are underway. McCain’s promise is just one for increased destruction and horror abroad.

Recently, he told a crowd in South Carolina that the state "was, hands down, the most patriotic in the nation." First, what does his utterance mean? Nothing, it is empty rhetoric of the worst kind. Two, keeping Dr Johnson's dictum on patriots in mind, who cares who is most patriotic? That way is the certainty of more war. Noisy patriotism is a valued characteristic only to the brain-washed, feeble-minded, and aggressors. Three, regardless of the meaning you attribute to McCain’s statement, if you account for the historical facts, quite the opposite is the truth. South Carolina was the state that started secession from the Union at the start of the Civil War. South Carolina was also "hot to trot" back in John Adams' day under the secret promptings of anti-federal opposition leader Jefferson. Again, in Andrew Jackson’s day, South Carolina pitched the national government into a crisis over a state’s right to nullify federal law. Jackson threatened troops to put an end to it.

Recently, too, McCain told us he would still have invaded Iraq, even without the excuse of "weapons of mass destruction." He previously had one of his tasteless, juvenile joking sessions before reporters about bombing Iran, complete with vicious, laughing antics. The man has learned nothing from all the death and misery of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Vietnam.

McCain simply loves death and killing, just as it can be argued Princess Diana regularly flirted with death. She had deliberately turned down requests to increase the level of protection about her. She needlessly drove off on wild adventures like the ride in Paris that killed her.
After seven years of the low-grade psychopath, Bush, and the destruction on every front he leaves as his legacy, the last thing humanity needs is the smiling death's head of John McCain as commander-in-chief.

Posted by: Ben R. | January 21, 2008 3:17 PM

Ben, How does aligning ourselves with a man who crushes his moderate democratic opposition help us in the War on Terror?

How is a man who signs a truce with our enemy an ally in the war on Terror?

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0906/dailyUpdate.html

How does aligning ourselves with a man who has stated that he will NOT allow the US to go after Bin Ladin within Pakistan helping us in the War on Terror?

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/01/12/pakistan.us/

Musharraf is not the "Enemy of my enemy". He is playing both sides against the middle strictly for his own benefit and to increase his power.

Please familiarize yourself with reality before you go spouting right wing talking points.

Do Cuban-Americans and Cuban refugees not have Televisions? Seriously, out of one side of their mouths the Republican Party attacks illegal immigrants and demands English only laws, and out of the other side of their mouths they say the support 100% Cuban refugees and Cuban-Americans bi-lingual culture.

Boy those sanctions againt Cuba sure ahave been effective, haven't they? That embargo really has Castro on the run. Another 3 or 4 decades and we'll see some real results.

Once again, McCain comes out fully in support of the failed policies of the past. McCain is the candidate of "More of the same."

"You see, Pakistan is providing us with assistance in the War against Terrorists."

Why is Pakistan cooperating? Oh because we are paying them to cooperate. Money makes people do the strangest things--cooperate.

Here is Pakistan cooperating.

10 million 6 years

"Fallon said Pakistan's military had started to switch from its traditional focus on an external threat from eastern neighbor India to waging a counterinsurgency campaign against the internal threat from militants."

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN16628450

January 16 2008
Took them long enough.

Ben R....I hardly think going to a country and saying, your with us or we will blow you into the stone age, is hardly something you would say to a "friend". He is simply playing both sides. He made deals with the tribes not to hunt Bin Laden.

We need McCain to help fight the Communists here.

from today' NYT. Nice Hillary. At least we know where she stands.

"Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton said that if she became president, the federal government would take a more active role in the economy to address what she called the excesses of the market and of the Bush administration.

Luke, if I may;

(1) Pakistan captured terrorists Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah, and Ramzi bin al Shibh in 2003.

(2) In 2004, Pakistan launched the FATA offensive in Waziristan which led to the capture and/or killing of 100s of former Taliban and al Qaeda forces.

These are two examples of positive things that would not have happened had we not gotten support from Pakistan. However, that is not to say that our relations with Pakistan should not change if Musharaff's action warrant it. If we need to break relations with him because it no longer benefits us, then so be it. If he is supporting terrorists, then we should break diplomatic relations.

But, I would not go as far as to invade Pakistan at this point, as your leader Obama has recommended.

If we need to break relations with him because it no longer benefits us,
Posted by: Ben R. | January 21, 2008 4:29 PM

This is somewhat telling. We call them friends until it no longer "benifits" us. This is the policy that has hurt us the most. Do you keep your friends only because it benifits you?

Since the Democrats at the Swamp cite poll results showing John McCain (their favorite Republican) doing well, to balance things out, here's a poll of Florida Republicans which has Mitt Romney leading John McCain:

"The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey finds Mitt Romney with a slight lead in Florida’s Republican Presidential Primary. John McCain and Rudy Giuliani are close behind in what may develop into a three-man race. It’s Romney at 25%, McCain at 20%, and Giuliani at 19%. Romney has picked up seven points over the past week while McCain and Giuliani each inched up a point.

Last week, before the Michigan and South Carolina Primaries, Rasmussen Reports polling found essentially a four-way tie for the lead in Florida. However, Mike Huckabee has slipped to 13% in the current poll. A week ago, he was the top choice for 17%."

You'd never know it if you only read the "Swamp", but Romney also leads McCain in both total primary votes and delegates won.

Do you keep your friends only because it benifits you?

Posted by: bill r. | January 21, 2008 4:43 PM

bill r.: Comparing the friends I have personally to friends in terms of international wartime diplomatic relations is like comparing apples to bicycles.

The term "Friends" in regard to international relations does not mean the same thing as the "friend" who comes over to my place on Sunday to watch a football game. Get real.

A "Friend" is a country who helps us in our time of need (i.e. War on Terror). It does not mean we condone everything they stand for. For example, Italy has supported us in our fight. But I do not agree with Italy trying to prosecute some of our CIA officials. But I certainly will not break diplomatic relations with them over this because the "benefit" of their support in the war outweighs the disagreement.

I can't believe Obama supporters are complaining about "more of the same" when he's been in office here for four years and we have more Robert Sorichs and Tony Rezkos in that time and Blagojevich, himself, is about to be indicted. Where's the "change" in Illinois?

How can he deliver it nationally if he can't clean up his own backyard?

People justifying the war against Cuba by citing human rights abuses? Cuba just does it to keep themselves safe folks, the same as we do here in the good ol' USA. Can we say Gitmo? Abu Ghraib? Secret renditions? Water boarding may not be torture? This is why decent, thinking Americans protested these tactics, only to be called traitors by those who defend human rights abuses to "keep them there, so they don't come here" but rail against some puny, insignificant communist country led by a geriatric . More hypocrisy from the most hypocritical republitards the universe has to offer.

Why stop at Cuba? Why not continue the fight against the communist Chinese who are getting a strangle hold on our country and those in South America?

...Oh, yeah, the friggin' Cuban-Americans that tried to kidnap a child a few years ago.

bill r.: Comparing the friends I have personally to friends in terms of international wartime diplomatic relations is like comparing apples to bicycles.
Posted by: Ben R. | January 21, 2008 5:06 PM

AHHHHHH..that old "international wartime diplomatic relations" kinda friend. Well why didn't you say that before. There's nothing like a good "international wartime diplomatic relations" friend. I thought you meant real friends.

Such a big harsh stand by McCain for such a tiny island. What are they going to do--beat us up with a bunch of 1950s cars? Or give us free health care?
It would be nice to have another fun, close vacation destination again. Fla is getting old. Why force Americans to fly to Cuba via Canada, or via some other country with common sense?

"because we don't want American tax dollars to go to a corrupt government headed either by Fidel or Raul Castro or anyone else who has denied freedom from the Cuban people."

huh?

What about the millions of US dollars pourring in Pakistan and Libya?
or even better, what about Saudi Arabia? A billion dollar a day is recieved by the Saudi's
My guess, as the Canadians and Brazilians are now drilling for oil of the Cuban coast, the US gov is panicking,
what if the embargo looes effect? Cuba is energy independent and create economic growth,
and that without the big US corp's being present?
wow,

Diaz Balart is a crook, dreaming of her and her family being part of the elite again in Cuba, they want to own it,

McCain's quest fro freedom is bogus, that is why there is the muslim world wholeheartedly believe, that this corrupt and morally bankrupt society has to be destoyed, this man is legitimizing their action,

where are the real statesment have gone like Roosevelt and Churchill?

Mobs, nothing's ever been proven about Gitmo. It's all media conjecture.

I'd like to see any of you who complain about Bush live in a REAL dictatorship like Cuba or Venezuela.

Tin hat dictator and Cindy Sheehan pal Hugo Chavez is threatening to seize Venezuelan farmers' land if they sell their milk on the open market rather rather than sell to the government. Ahhh, socialism. For everyone complaining about Bush, this is what real dictatorship looks like: http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/01/20/venezuela.farms.ap/

Long live Fidel & the Cuban Revolution. I think its obvious to anyone with half a brain that the revolution in Cuba will survive Fidel. Of that I am sure. These exiles need to come back to reality. you will never have Cuba again.

Conservatives still pretend they defeated communism.

Fifty years later, the longest serving modern dictator, still runs an island, communism alive & well less then a hundred miles from the US shores.

At least conservatives had fifty years to prove themselves.

Shorter St. John McCain:

I support useless, money wasting sanctions that benefit my corrupt Republic party members.

I think its obvious to anyone with half a brain that the revolution in Cuba will survive Fidel.
Posted by: Javier | January 21, 2008 7:48 PM

Well put. Good luck with your search for the other half of your brain.

Hey Canadian, why not go have some bacon, eh? This is the presidential election of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. There are animals in this country whose opinion matters more than yours.

Castro has defeated the fascists in Miami since 1959, and he will continue to do so in perpetuity. The transition in Cuba has already been made, and it is not to favor the Miami mafia, crooks, parasites, Batista clones. '
the elder Mas Canosas was ging to be president of Cuba; how long has he been dead? The Cuba people are not going to let these dirty, stupid gusanos return except to put them where they belong: in jail.

If the Gov't was serious about the war on terror they'd arrest Luis Posada and Orlando Bosh. Part of the Miami Cuban Maffia who brag on Miami TV about downing a Cuban Airliner with 73 people on board. The Miami Maffia says no crime against anyone is to great to get back their property and reinstall a new Batista.

Cuba trains nurses and doctors who serve the poor all over the world. America trains soliders and police who serve the Batista's all over the world.

Does McCain plan to contine the Safe Harbour for Cuban Terrorists policy? Something Bush said,"...no nation has a right to do."
McCain can slosh down a few Cuba Libres with Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada while they speak of their cowardly bombing a Cuban Civilian Aircraft on Miami Television again. A bombing that killed 73 people.
After that McCain can call for free elections in Miami for the new Batista!
Send Posda and Bosch to Gitmo and give them a well deserved chance to live off base.

Manuilsky, a prominent Soviet professor at the School of Political Warfare, said: "The bourgeoisie will have to be put to sleep. We shall begln by Launching the most spectacular peace movement on record. There will be electrifying overtures and unheard-of concessions. The capitalist countries, stupid and decadent, will rejoice to cooperate in their own destruction. They will leap at another chance to be friends." And Khrushchev, a more contemporary Soviet prime minister, said: "We cannot expect Americans to jump from capitalism to Communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving Americans doses of socialism until they suddenly awake to find out they have Communism.''
http://www.marianland.com/marx01.html