Bush just made a speech carried live on CBC about his plans for Cuba

[glarius]

I can't imagine why CNN didn't carry it...They seem to cover his every move...I only saw the end of it but he mentioned major restrictions on travel to cuba and he raved on about something with regards to the sex trade in Cuba, also he sounded like he would consider sending troops....Here's what CBC has to say:
http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/10/10/cuba031010


edit---I really have to say this...he had a really nutty glint in his eyes while he was talking...I think he is really nuts!!

[madmax]

1. He's obsessed with sex

Sex in Cuba, rape rooms in Iraq. The man needs to get laid.

[Champion Jack]

2. Maybe he needs a visit from his buddy in Knoxville

[nostamj]

5. 'hump the lump' ??? n/t

[madrchsod]

9. you mean lumpie

isn`t getting laid?

[morebunk]

3. If there is 'sex trade' in Cuba, guess who the customers are?

Just like with drugs...guess who the customers are?

[madrchsod]

10. sex trade?

i wonder how many blocks from the whitehouse there is a thriving sex trade???....

[ILeft]

15. ...and the troops have been running patrols there for years

I mean 14th street, not Cuba. Our tax dollars go to pay the troops who distribute the money to the thriving sex trade operations servicing soldiers around the world. It's just one of those things...

[Webster Green]

4. This list grows longer....

Iran, Syria, North Korea, Cuba, California, France?, Canada? WTF???

[morebunk]

6. So how dangerous is 'communism' to the US?

This makes you want to scream!!!
We went to Viet Nam to fight communism. We lost! Now we are selling planes to communist Viet Nam. So what the hell was it all about?

What did we lose by not winning in Viet Nam? We gained 1.3 million Viet Nam refugees...and lost 50,000 American lives to do it.

Now here we go again. Iraq is kicking our liberating butts so we must find a defenseless nation to invade to make ourselves feel good about it. If our Congress allows this every friggin one of them should be voted out when they come up for election! Castro will be dead in another five years just because it's his time...cheeze, even the Pope is getting older and closer to death. Can we not let these men die in peace? What the hell has Castro done to us except defend himself from our terrorism?

[kentuck]

7. He's on the campaign trail....trying to shore up those Florida voters...

He has the petal to the metal.

[LittleApple81]

8. If you want to watch it, CSpan has it on its video site

http://www.c-span.org/homepage.asp?Cat=Current_Event&Code=Bush_Admin&ShowVidNum=6&Rot_Cat_CD=BA&Rot_HT=&Rot_WD=&ShowVidDays=30&ShowVidDesc=


And here is part of the text:

Notice (bolded by me) his obsession with "sex trade" and "free elections"... not in Florida but in Cuba.

THE PRESIDENT: Hola. Sientese. Thank you for coming. Welcome to the Rose Garden. It's my honor to host you for an important policy announcement.

snip....

Last year in Miami, I offered Cuba's government a way forward -- a way forward toward democracy and hope and better relations with the United States. I pledged to work with our Congress to ease bans on trade and travel between our two countries if -- and only if -- the Cuban government held free and fair elections, allowed the Cuban people to organize, assemble and to speak freely, and ease the stranglehold on private enterprise.

Since I made that offer, we have seen how the Castro regime answers diplomatic initiatives. The dictator has responded with defiance and contempt and a new round of brutal oppression that outraged the world's conscience.

In April, 75 peaceful members of Cuban opposition were given harsh prison sentences, some as long a 20 years. Their crimes were to publish newspapers, to organize petition drives, to meet to discuss the future of their country. Cuba's political prisoners subjected to beatings and solitary confinement and the denial of medical treatment. Elections in Cuba are still a sham. Opposition groups still organize and meet at their own peril. Private economic activity is still strangled. Non-government trade unions are still oppressed and suppressed. Property rights are still ignored. And most goods and services produced in Cuba are still reserved for the political elites.

snip...

First, we are strengthening re-enforcement of those travel restrictions to Cuba that are already in place. (Applause.) U.S. law forbids Americans to travel to Cuba for pleasure. That law is on the books and it must be enforced. We allow travel for limited reasons, including visit to a family, to bring humanitarian aid, or to conduct research. Those exceptions are too often used as cover for illegal business travel and tourism, or to skirt the restrictions on carrying cash into Cuba. We're cracking down on this deception.

I've instructed the Department of Homeland Security to increase inspections of travelers and shipments to and from Cuba. We will enforce the law. (Applause.) We will also target those who travel to Cuba illegally through third countries, and those who sail to Cuba on private vessels in violation of the embargo.

snip...

By cracking down on the illegal travel, we will also serve another important goal. A rapidly growing part of Cuba's tourism industry is the illicit sex trade, a modern form of slavery which is encouraged by the Cuban government . This cruel exploitation of innocent women and children must be exposed and must be ended. (Applause.)

snip...


In addition to the measures I've announced today, we continue to break the information embargo that the Cuban government has imposed on its people for a half a century. Repressive governments fear the truth, and so we're increasing the amount and expanding the distribution of printed material to Cuba, of Internet-based information inside of Cuba, and of AM-FM and shortwave radios for Cubans.

Radio and TV Marti are bringing the message of freedom to the Cuban people. This administration fully recognizes the need to enhance the effectiveness of Radio and TV Marti. Earlier this year, we launched a new satellite service to expand our reach to Cuba. On May 20th, we staged the historic flight of Commando Solo, an airborne transmission system that broke through Castro's jamming efforts. Tyrants hate the truth; they jam messages. And on that day, I had the honor of speaking to the Cuban people in the native language.

snip...

De nuevo, Cuba libre. Thank you all. (Applause.)

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/10/20031010-2.html

[glarius]

11. Thanks...I only saw the last few minutes live...n/t

[iverglas]

12. the land of the free

From the CBC story:

WASHINGTON - U.S. President George W. Bush said he will crack down on Americans illegally travelling to Cuba in an effort to hasten the downfall of Fidel Castro's regime.

"Our country must understand the consequences of illegal travel," Bush said at a White House Rose Garden ceremony, adding that tourist money only helps to prop up Castro's government.

Uh ... so?


Now, the Canadian constitution says:

6. (1) Every citizen of Canada has the right to enter, remain in and leave Canada.

7. Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice.

The US constitution says about the same thing -- the "privileges and immunities of citizenship" automatically include the right to enter, remain in and leave the country, and USAmericans may not be deprived of liberty except by due process (one of the components of Canadians' "fundamental justice").

Rights and freedoms, of course, are subject to reasonable and justified interference. No shouting "fire" in a crowded theatre, go to prison if you commit a crime, and all that. Limits on liberty abound. But they must be justified.

So what exactly might be the justification for violating USAmericans' citizenship rights and liberty by prohibiting travel to Cuba?

That travel to Cuba "props up Castro's government"?

So the fuck what?

When did it become the business of the USofA what government another country has, or what US citizens do to prop it up? -- unless the US is at war with that country. What possible constitutional justification can any US government have had in the last 30 years, at least, for prohibiting this exercise of individual rights and freedoms and threatening people with punishment for exercising them?

Ditto for any kind of trade with Cuba. What constitutional justification is there for prohibiting it? What valid public objective, what compelling state interest, can the US government assert to justify this?

A whole lot of litigious Canadians would be flooding the courts with constitutional challenges if any Canadian government tried to pull shit like this on us.

Has no one in the US ever given it a shot?

.

[iverglas]

13. answering my question

I get curious.

I asked google for ACLU Cuba travel. Here's one find:

http://www.aclu.org/NationalSecurity/NationalSecurity.cfm?ID=9693&c=109

The Supreme Court has found that the ability to travel freely across the borders of the United States is a right protected by the First and Fifth Amendments of the Constitution. Former Supreme Court Justice William Douglas described freedom of movement as "the very essence of our free society, setting us apart.... it often makes all other rights meaningful."

The Court upheld the Cuba travel restrictions in 1984 but cited overriding Cold War national security concerns asserted by the government. But even the Department of Defense says that those concerns no longer exist and that the island nation poses little threat.

"The ACLU believes that the travel ban infringes on the constitutional right of Americans to travel freely across international borders and is not justified by any valid interest that could conceivably trump that right," Edgar said.

Me 'n the ACLU don't always see eye to eye, but we're in sync on this one.

.

[Dob Bole]

14. This will backfire, like everything he does...

Pubbies will be mad that they can't get their Cuban cigars anymore, and he'll be out.