http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm.../ap/20030321/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cuba_crackdown Have to admit he has good timing.
Wouldn't Ashcroft do the same to American dissidents accused of working with Iraqi diplomats to undermine the U.S. system?
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm.../ap/20030321/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cuba_crackdown SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Police arrested more than 1,000 people in San Francisco on Thursday -- the most demonstrators taken into custody on a single day in the city in 22 years -- as tens of thousands protested across America against the U.S. war in Iraq.
This is a pretty flimsy line of argument, Gringo. Why don't you go to east Germany and tell them that Stasi was just a bunch of cops doing their job? Or North Korea, that's an even better place for a comsymp. Why do liberals insist on denying the reality of communist police states? Oh yeah, I forgot, according to Pakovits they're not really communist, they just pay lip service to it. But then why would you comsymps bother to defend them?
How could you so misconstrue my post as to suggest that I'm defending Castro? CASTRO IS AN EVIL MAN. I'm tired of having to spell everything out for some people in here. I've been to a communist police state several times. I know what it's like. But you don't.
Yeah, but you went as an honored guest for your efforts on behalf of the dictatorship of the proletariat. So you only saw the good side.
Who is "defending" North Korea? Who is "defending" the monstrosity that the Soviet Union became or that China became under that loony Mao? The majority of the "left" here views the few remaining Stalininsts here the way most of the Right here views David Duke. I only defend Cuba aganist the worst distortions the US media usually makes about them because: a) The commies there actually improved the lot of your average Cuban from what they suffered under the US-supported Batsita regime, not that that took much, mind you. b) Nobody knows what would have happened with Cuba if the US hadn't supported the Bay of Pigs invasion, placed them under illegal blockade for a few decades, tried to murder Castro so many times and constantly tried to destabilize the country. The Cubans didn't even like the Soviets until the USA created the conditions under which the Soviets became Cuba's only trading partner. Even then, the Cubans habitually pissed off the Soviets by doing things their own way. c) Most of those who are the loudest ranters against Cuba are also the least informed about its history and current conditions there. That said, is Castro perfect? Should we all race to make Castro our leader? Is Cuba some utopian paradise of perfection? No. Cuba has its problems and contradictions like all other societies. The Castro regime's human rights record is not justified by their claims that they are reacting only to U.S. destabilization, although there is more truth to their claims than the US would like to admit. There's much I'd change about Cuba if I was made Supreme Ruler of the Universe. Does this mean then that Castro is as bad as the Krazy Kubans in Miami and their allies in misinformation here make it out to be? Nope. As usual, the truth lies somewhere in the middle.
Why do you say that? I am in downtown San Francisco, in the financial district. Where they just arrested thousands of political prisoners. Come on out here sometime, you can take the Alcatraz tour and imagine that you're back in the USSR.
But of course this thread wouldn't be complete without joe admitting that Castro isn't quite perfect.
Cuba was the communist police state I was reffering to as having been several times. It was terrible. Even the prostitutes are organized. I barely escaped with my dollars each time.
To pretend otherwise is not only stupid on its own but just gives those who want to distort the record more ammunition. He's not as good as some on the left would like us to believe and he's not as bad as some on the Right want us to believe. Is that view really controversial anywhere outside the US and Cuba themselves?
"What in the wide, wide world of sports is a-going on here? I'm paying you boys to get some track laid, not dance around like a bunch of Kansas City ************s!"