Thursday, October 30, 2008

Hanging on to stupidity


For the 17th consecutive year, the United Nations General Assembly has voted overwhelmingly to urge an end to the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba. According to the AP, Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque expressed hope that our next president will take a fresh look at the issue and respond to the international appeal. We'll see. Politicians, especially those in Florida and those who might need to win Florida in a presidential election, have cowered in fear of the Cuban-American population and refused to do the right thing. The only effect the embargo has had is to make life tougher on the average Cuban citizen. Do you really think Fidel Castro and his hierarchy suffered one iota as a result of the embargo? Of course not. And noted foreign policy expert George W. Bush has actually tightened the restrictions over the past eight years. Why? Well, U.S. diplomat Ronald Godard says it's the fact that the Cuban government is undemocratic and restricts political and economic freedom. Oh, I get it. We don't deal with governments that are undemocratic and restrict political and economic freedom. But, um, wait a minute. It seems to me that we still buy hundreds of billions of dollars worth of crap every year from China. Aren't those the same people who brutally repress their people, crush free speech and have billions of folks living in squalor? Hmmm. And it also seems that many of our major corporations are making huge investments in Russia. Did I read recently about them rolling tanks into a neighboring country, and about their leader becoming more and more of a dictator? And, wait a minute, aren't we still buying oil from crazy Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez? And it seems to me we have been pretty buddy-buddy with Saudi Arabia, the country that brought us most of the 9/11 hijackers. But trade with Cuba? Hell no! They're bad.

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10 Comments:

Blogger Ellipses said...

You know, Cuba has been "quarantined" for my entire life... We have gone from Regan to Bush to Clinton to Bush... the USSR collapsed, 9/11 happened, we found evidence of water on Mars... The internet went mainstream, every song I have ever heard can be stored on an iPod with room to spare, there is more processing power in my cable box than there was in the Apollo spacecrafts... "you can be anything you want when you grow up..." except, of course, a Florida-to-Cuba water taxi operator and tour guide...

October 30, 2008 at 8:40 PM  
Blogger Brant said...

E, thanks for commenting. I post one of these international affairs things every once in a while just for my own benefit, because I'm interested in these things, and you can almost hear the crickets chirping every time I do it. ;)

October 30, 2008 at 11:37 PM  
Blogger Ellipses said...

I like international stuff... and this seems like one of those issues that people would be apt to have and share an opinion on... Maybe Sarah Palin will say something about her experience with Cuba via her family's frequent visits to Taco Bell or something like that... You know, something to really energize your base :-)

October 31, 2008 at 12:26 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yeah, the embargo against Cuba is crazy because 1) Cuba is pretty toothless since the collapse of communism and 2) continuing the embargo could be counterproductive, since change might come to Cuban society much more quickly if they engaged more with the outside world. As it is, the embargo just maintains a status quo that isn't working.

--Brad Hundt

October 31, 2008 at 1:18 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

October 31, 2008 at 2:36 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

October 31, 2008 at 2:53 PM  
Blogger Brant said...

To the last two anonymous (of course) posters: Keep the wingnut stuff to yourself. If you have anything intelligent to add, come on back.

October 31, 2008 at 3:41 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I bet they posted something about Obama having been secretly born in Cuba, and Fidel Castro being his actual father...

--Brad Hundt

October 31, 2008 at 4:09 PM  
Blogger Brant said...

You mean he's not?

October 31, 2008 at 4:16 PM  
Blogger Ellipses said...

Communism/Socialism/Muslim(ism?) is genetic dontcha know?

October 31, 2008 at 4:43 PM  

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