Trade deal with Cuba a boon for state

[Osolomia]

By Nick Lackeos
Montgomery Advertiser
September 1, 2003

With a $10 million trade agreement in place between Alabama and Cuba, Tommy Rainwater is willing to let bygones be bygones.

Never mind that the United States has had a chilly relationship with the island nation for nearly 50 years and that it still is governed by a communist dictator, the Autauga County timber grower said.

"I would just think that they are our customers, and that they are going to be sending us cash money," Rainwater said. "I think it's going to open up a new market for Alabama goods. They are going to be buying the goods anyway from somebody. I'd rather they buy from us than other countries."

Alabama Agriculture and Industries Commissioner Ron Sparks struck the export deal last week with Cuban President Fidel Castro. Ralph Holmes, a spokesman for the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries, said Sparks had worked for months planning the trade mission to Cuba with a dozen or more Alabama producers.

Alabama is the 35th state to strike a trade agreement with Cuba.

More...
http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/NEWS/StoryLocalCUBA01W.htm

So why are so many 2004 Dem presidential candidates ignoring the will of the majority and bending over backwards to kiss the feet of a tiny minority of extremist right wing hatemongers in Miami instead?

Spineless hypocrits or what!

[oneighty]

1. Ending the Cuba embargo

will make the USA a better Democracy spelled (Democratic).

Not good for the right wingers.

There will be many delays, but it will happen.

180

[Osolomia]

2. With 2004 Dem presidential candidates like this: DREAM ON!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=92161&mesg_id=92161

[BayCityProgressive]

3. I have said before that I have not picked a candidate

but I appreciate Kucinich standing against the embargo.

[oneighty]

4. Dreaming is right!

I do not expect to see it happen.

Cuban sugar would ruin the sugar industry in Florida.

Cuba would STEAL tourist dollars from Florida.

Cuban expats living in the good old USA would lose their political power
their dreams of return to Batista times would be ruined.

I am sure you can mention more reasons.

180

[Mika]

6. Oneighty, the sugar, I don't think so. the rest, yes

"Cuban sugar would ruin the sugar industry in Florida."

US sugar is heavily taxpayer subsidized in order for US sugar to be cheaper than anywhere else on the market. That is what has forced Cuba's sugar industry to shrink by almost half.



"Cuba would STEAL tourist dollars from Florida."

That is why one of the largest PAC's to contribute to the anti Cuba campaign is the Florida tourism industry and the Caribbean islands tourism PAC's. (They want to keep us distracted by focusing the press on the "exiles".)




"Cuban expats living in the good old USA would lose their political power
their dreams of return to Batista times would be ruined."

That political power is in exchange for money to campaigns to both Dems and repukes.

Politicians go to S. Florida to campaign against Castro, rarely FOR American interests.


Q - Castro as head of state of Cuba has been a boon to the political coffers for 40+ years.. why would any pandering politician, or the "exile' foundations they direct our tax money to, really want to get rid of such a cash cow?

A - They don't.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

5. Alabamian Repugs hate the Commies!

(Unless the commies are buying. Then they are our good "customer.")

Signed,
an Alabamian :evilgrin:

[Judi Lynn]

7. How repressed are these guys?

An interesting "folksy" baseball article which indicates some Cuban baseball fans expressed some outright negativity about aspects of Cuban culture, and in the context, this didn't appear to be abnormal.

(snip)
Cuba’s Baseball Geeks Somehow Manage Without DiamondVision
The Havana Stat Kings
by Beth Kwon
September 3 - 9, 2003


HAVANA—It was better late than never for the Yankees last week when José Contreras made his first start in the Bronx after sitting out much of the season with a strained shoulder. The Yankees beat Baltimore 7-0, and Contreras struck out five with an old-fashioned forkball. But it was also a victory for Contreras's fellow Cubans back home.

On any given day, Cuban stat-heads mill about the José Martí statue in Havana's Parque Central, blind to the square's Grand Theatre, the 128-year-old Inglaterra Hotel, or the Plaza, where Babe Ruth stayed in 1920 while barnstorming. Their focus is 21st-century baseball. For them, Contreras's success is theirs, too—a gauge of the state of their country's unofficial national sport. They have nothing to do with Contreras's $32 million contract, but they are, just as they were with Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez and his brother Livan, entirely invested in a Cuban pitcher's future.

Many of the aggressive, chattering mass of stat-heads belong to the Peña, Cuba's answer to the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), but membership isn't required. American tourists are welcomed at the esquina caliente, or hot corner, because they may bring the most valuable commodity: news. A visit earlier this season by one group of Americans brought the Sporting News, week-old sports pages, and Street & Smith's, all of which the stat-heads eagerly gobbled up. "It was like a feeding frenzy," said Kit Krieger, a former Vancouver Mounties pitcher and president of Cubaball Tours. (snip)


(snip) Despite its rawness, Cuba still produces world-class pitchers. And back at the Parque Central, fans weren't being too ideologically correct about what happens to them. They supported Contreras's defection. "They weren't taking care of him here," said a Peña member named Raúl, "so he left." Contreras is looking good now to New Yorkers, but to the Peña, he's always looked great. After all, he left Cuba, but he didn't leave the mound. (snip/...)

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0336/kwon.php

[Judi Lynn]

8. California high school football coach takes his team to Cuba

Looks as if a lot of people are getting in there now, before the <sub>Bush administration closes 3/4ths of the opportunities which have been available to a very few Americans previously.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/preps/20030902-9999_1s2p-preptu.html</sub>