Bush Predicts Democracy In Cuba

[Judi Lynn]

Bush Predicts Democracy In Cuba
OAS Session Is Focused On U.S.-Venezuela Rift

By Michael Fletcher and Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, June 7, 2005; Page A17

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., June 6 -- President Bush on Monday urged nations of the Western Hemisphere to strengthen their democracies by embracing free-market economies and cracking down on corruption, while pointedly predicting that Cuba will ultimately be swept up in the tide of liberty that has engulfed other countries in the hemisphere.

"Democracy is the rule rather than the exception among nations in the Americas," Bush told foreign ministers and diplomats from 34 countries gathered here for the general assembly of the Organization of American States, but "only one country in this hemisphere sits outside this society of democratic nations -- and one day, the tide of freedom will reach Cuba's shores as well."

Bush, who since becoming president has ratcheted up pressure on the government of Cuban President Fidel Castro, quoted the 19th-century Cuban writer and revolutionary Jose Marti in calling liberty a birthright. "La libertad no es negociable," Bush said.
(snip) :eyes:

Bush said countries of the OAS have a stark choice between two competing visions: one that includes representative government, integration into world markets and a faith in freedom, and another that seeks to roll back democratic progress by "playing to fear, pitting neighbor against neighbor and blaming others for their own failures to provide for their people."
(snip/...)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/06/AR2005060600185.html?nav=rss_politics

[MisterP]

1. nice sig pictures...

[robertarctor]

2. Democracy? Si! Bushfascista? No!

Bush said countries of the OAS have a stark choice between two competing visions: one that includes representative government, integration into world markets and a faith in freedom, and another that seeks to roll back democratic progress by "playing to fear, pitting neighbor against neighbor and blaming others for their own failures to provide for their people."

Gee, that second option sounds exactly like what that Orwellian prep-school pantywaist Bush and his wacko Christianist Republicans have done to this once fine country.

[Somawas]

13. I thought that exactly.

Maybe the democratic model for OAS states is Ukraine.

[marmar]

3. What kind of crack is he smoking?

Because it needs to be BANNED! Surely he doesn't believe his own bullshit. And that tide of liberty needs to sweep up the United States.

[cire4]

4. Translation: Cuba needs a dictator that is US sponsored....

I wonder if Bush and the Republicans would be pushing for Cuban democracy if Castro let American corporations run amok on the island...

[Solly Mack]

5. I predict Bush can't find Cuba on a map.

[maveric]

6. When he invades Cuba and arrests the "Bad, evil man" Castro.

Can you see this coming?

[Benhurst]

7. When does he predict democracy will return to the United States? NT

[AuntiBush]

10. We were thinking the same thing! Posted without seeing your line!

:thumbsup:

[Benhurst]

12. Great minds think alike.

:thumbsup:

[AuntiBush]

8. When does he predict the return of Our Own "Democracy?"

"F-W!"

[cascadiance]

29. Oh... but as a Rethug will tell you...

WE aren't a democracy! We're a republic and always have been! Saying that we should be a democracy is unAmerican. That's only for other countries to have! That's why we're more worried about exit polls of elections in the Ukraine than here too!

[Botany]

9. Hey bush .....

..... what about Ohio. i live here I know what your thugs did. You are
not smart enough to do it on your own, punk. How about putting
machines on trucks and driving 'em around all day when you had 6 hour
waits to vote.

And certainly not Republican Congressional Representative Peter King, who made an equally notable video statement on the afternoon of November 2nd, long before the polls closed, in the course of a White House function that seemed to have put him into a celebratory mood. "It's already over," he told the interviewer. "The election's over. We won." Asked how he knew at that early hour, King replied: "It's all over but the counting. And we'll take care of the counting."

fuck you bush and stay the hell out of Ohio punk .... not unless you want
to meet the folks in an unscripted meeting .... but you are too chicken .....

[AuntiBush]

11. He could leave the country, too!

"F-W!"

[BeatleBoot]

14. What's His Prediction for Here?

[warsager]

17. sounds like war to me

i bet those a$$holes are sitting around thinking about how they can invade, overthrow, and *democracize* Cuba and make themselves & friendsCo. billions of dollars. They need some way to keep up this little crusade of theirs.

[Miami Liberal]

15. No president is ever going to do a thing about Castro

Bush only said what the Cuban-American community (Major repugs who shell out mucho dinero for the party) wants to hear. He doesn't give a sh*t about democracy in Cuba and he won't spread "democracy" over there because there is no oil money to line his pockets with. As a Cuban democrat, I'm perplexed as to why the Cuban community in Miami can't see through the Bullsh*t. :banghead:

[ima_sinnic]

16. what about Haiti, scumbag?

the suffering YOU have caused with your meddling and death squads for "democracy" makes me weep. give it a rest shithead, because the world sees through you as a malevolent cancer on the ass of freedom and equality.

[EC]

18. The Bush's Have Always had their pants in a bunch for Fidel

it seems everyone of their hates are intergenerational, Preston and George 1 both hated FDR, George 1 hated Saddam, so of course his son does too. George 1 worked against Fidel back in the 60's and Jeb and George hate him...They are using our resources and military for personal vendetta's.

[Initech]

19. Is he secretly planning on forcing democracy on them just like Iraq?

Sounds likely!

[gtar100]

20. JHC - This guy is a walking lie machine

Say one thing, do another. The poor soul in that body has got be one contorted mess. And people still believe him, clap for him, shake his hand... that's the other part that seems so unfucking-believable. As soon as the neocon disease is through with him, I'm sure they'll just as easily eat him for lunch. Like when the time is ripe and the world's anger is too dangerous for the capitalist greed-heads, they'll feed ol' georgie to the masses. And the real snakes will creep off in silence to continue with their corruption.

[warsager]

23. gtar100

thats scary shit and too true.

[flordehinojos]

21. sitting at table on the dais at the Broward Convention Center on either

side of Condoliar Lice, as Bush misspoke, lied, and said whatever platitudes were his arrogant pleasure to mouth off, while in the process of throwing his chin out towards the microphone or, in other words jettisoning it out, and then swishing said protruded chin from side to side while licking his lips, i could make out from one of the news clips on local programming this afternoon, none other than ileana ros-lehtinen and lincoln diaz-balart...while out, in the protest pin, there were several giant cuban flags sticking out like sore thumbs ... all protesting, i think they were, the lack of freedom in cuba and their need for the removal of fidel castro so... when bush, " predicts democracy in cuba ", while standing on a florida soil which has been partly invaded by the cockroaches as was the case at the convention center yesterday, isn't it a case of bush,
singing to his *ss kissing choir???

it so, seems so to me!

[burrowowl]

22. Your pics

express my sentiments exactly.

[Vogon_Glory]

24. Republicans Will Hate Real Cuban Democracy

Barring US military intervention and a US-sponsored government imposed on the Cuban people at bayonet point, I suspect that Cuba IS marching towards Democracy. And when the Cubans get there, the Republicans are going to HATE it.

I believe that post-Castro Cuba will have genuine democratic leaders. It will also be social democratic in nature, keep corporations regulated, and look towards Europe for much of its commerce and ideological inspiration.

I suspect that the former Cuban exile leadership, or at least its right wing, are going to be left on the outside looking in.

I hope that many of the Cuban exiles will be reconciled to the new state of affairs. I suspect that the ones who will find an honored place there will be the ones who not only invest their capital in new businesses there, but also are the ones who put in millions of euros (We gringos know where the Banana Republicans are taking the US currency) into restoring Cuba's architectural heritage and dilapidated infrastructure.

[Judi Lynn]

26. Eusebio Leal!

King of Spain awards Eusebio Leal for Old Havana restoration plan


MADRID.- On behalf of the Royal Foundation of Toledo, King Juan Carlos I presented renowned Cuban historian Eusebio Leal that cultural organization’s award for the restoration of Havana’s historic quarter.

It was one of five awards conferred in the 10th edition of the Foundation, an organization whose honorary president is the Spanish king.
In a ceremony in Toledo’s Rijas Theater, the Royal Foundation’s president Juan Ignacio de Mesa called the Old Havana restoration program "an obligatory reference in the sector of heritage restoration on a sustainable basis."

The jury made its decision on the fact that for decades, the program has been "an experimental laboratory based on the best theory and practice of integral restoration and treatment in historic centers."
(snip/...)

http://havanajournal.com/culture_comments/A528_0_3_0_M/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Reviving Havana
A striking city crumbling from postrevolutionary neglect is being restored to attract tourists, whose dollars then finance social services, all under the watchful eye of the man some call the ''snake charmer.''
By DAVID ADAMS

© St. Petersburg Times,
published September 10, 2001



Times photos: David Adams
On San Ignacio Street in the Plaza
Vieja, a construction brigade
places braces under the balcony of
a building in need of restoration.
The building next door was recently
renovated.

HAVANA -- Dachel Martinez, 13, may not live to see his city rise completely from its ruins.

But at least he will have witnessed firsthand one of the great modern works of socialist restoration.

The rebuilding of Old Havana won't cure what he suffers from -- a degenerative disease of the central nervous system -- but it has made a big difference to his life nevertheless.

Eighteen months ago Dachel, confined to his home since birth, began attending a new pediatric rehabilitation center in a lovingly restored 18th century mansion in Havana's historic Old City.

The center has become a shining example of the latest utopian undertaking of the Cuban Revolution: restoring -- and in many cases entirely reconstructing -- the crumbling colonial heart of the city, known as La Habana Vieja, or Old Havana.

Critics say the ambitious project is Fidel Castro's latest Machiavellian scheme to prop up his revolution with tourist dollars.

Cuban officials don't deny they want much-needed foreign revenue, but something more noble than cash is also driving the restoration effort.
(snip/...)

http://sptimes.com/News/091001/Floridian/Reviving_Havana.shtml

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cuban Restoration Project Pins New Hopes on Old Havana
By Scott Wilson, Washington Post, Monday 25 December 2000;
Page A30

HAVANA - "In each neighborhood, revolution," reads the sign on a sooty Communist Party building in Old Havana. Just next door, there are signs of a different sort of revolution sweeping through the graceful stone buildings and broad plazas.

Workers are salvaging Havana's romantic old quarter from the ravages wrought by centuries on the Atlantic seafront, meticulously restoring block by block what was not destroyed by pirates or the privations of the U.S. trade embargo.
(snip)

With its antique American cars, shrines to Ernest Hemingway and ubiquitous revolutionary symbols, Cuba at times seems close to becoming a tourist theme park. But the history here is real, especially in Old Havana, which UNESCO named a World Heritage site in 1982. And so is the money emerging seven years after President Fidel Castro, Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque and Vice President Carlos Lage, in the depths of Cuba's post-Soviet financial crisis, decided to jump start Old Havana's revival with a $1 million investment.

The restoration project has been in full swing for two years, financed now by annual revenues of about $40 million generated by the government-owned refurbished hotels, galleries and restaurants. At the helm is Eusebio Leal, the city historian who has virtually unchecked power to carry out the work in a country of blanketing bureaucracy. He lectures around the world, reportedly breaks building codes with impunity and reports only to Perez Roque and Castro. More than 150 projects, most in partnership with foreign investors, are in the works under his bustling authority.

"It is the reason for my life," said Leal, 56, while conducting a recent tour of the old city.
(snip/...)

http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43b/196.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I heard it explained elsewhere that Cuba had to keep its priorities in order and attend to the more important problems of housing, medical treatment, food, and education for the Cuban population first before it could move on to matters like restoration, which was actually more a vanity thing than a screaming neccessity.

[Vogon_Glory]

28. Having Been To Cuba Myself...

I think it's delightful that so many old buildings in Havana and elsewhere on the island are being restored. But much still needs to be done. Having been to Cuba myself, I remember seeing a lot of buildings in Havana that were in desperate straights and a couple that were literally bare walls and vacant windows--no floor, no roof.

It is a howling shame that such as Ros-Lehtinen and other prominent Cuban exiles can't put aside their hatred for Fidel Castro and either help restore their architectural heritage--or at least have the decency to stay out of the way and let others do it.

I'd like to see legislation passed so that Cuban-Americans could work together with the Havana government to help restore some of these wonderful Spanish colonial buildings. I believe that some of the Czech exiles were willing to work with the Soviet-era authorities late in the Cold War--and did--to restore some of Prague's architectural treasures late in the Cold War. A pity that no such common efforts are being made on this side of the Atlantic.

[Vladimir]

25. Democracy will get to the USA one day too... n/t

[indepat]

27. If only the US could strengthen democracy at home by cracking down

on corruption in high places.