NY Times on Cuba travel operators

Does it cost too much to fly from Miami to Cuba? This article in the NY Times says Yes, it costs too much. Should this be a surprise? Doesn't everything cost too much?

The Republican way of talking has gone completely uncivilized. Y'all know how Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity go wild at the slightest provocation. They're paid entertainers but still will have to pay the price when they get to the Pearly Gates. But why should one of our local Reps go over the top while talking about a modest change in Cuba policy?



You get that? "Bowing down to dictators." It's like Chamberlain capitulating to Hitler. Is there any sense of proportion in their brains?

Thanks goodness we have a reasonable guy like Joe Garcia to represent Miami Democrats.

Worrying about the "institutional gravities of Congress"

This explained something for me. To give it a little context, it’s from a radio program featuring a story about U.S. Rep. John Lewis, a hero of the civil rights movement, and why he was – unaccountably – in favor of military spending even though he had been against it.

For Rep. Lewis, the institutional gravities of Congress and the corporate-sponsored Democratic party were stronger than the living will of his constituents and the memory of the Freedom Movement combined. So the question for Black America now is, if a black congressman near the end of his career with a safe seat and the historical stature of a John Lewis could not speak and would not vote for truth against power in the Bush era, what can we expect from elected black Democrats now that a black face is in the White House?

This came to my attention in a daily email from opednews.com, a valuable aggregator website that prowls for news and comment useful to us progressive thinkers. You can sign up for it too.

As I said at the top, this explained something for me. One of the mysteries of political observing in South Florida is why our two Democratic members of the U.S. House, Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-20) and Kendrick Meek (FL-17), fall so neatly in line with their local Republican colleagues, the Diaz-Balart brothers (FL-21 and FL-25) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL-18), on Cuba issues such as the travel ban. This shows up in these days of changes in Cuba policy when both Meek and Wasserman Schultz are dubious about the modest changes ordered by Barack Obama. While the Diaz-Balarts put out a statement calling it a “serious mistake,” outgoing Republican Sen. Mel Martinez curiously was a little milder, at least in his recognition that the policy change would be good for Cuban families now permitted more contact between their branches in Cuba and the United States.

The two phrases – “the institutional gravities of Congress” and “the corporate-sponsored Democratic Party” – were apt and evocative in describing what we constituents are up against in the wishes we beam to our members of Congress. They sit up there stewing in the same office buildings and dining halls and debate chambers and grow away from their constituents, and then they go party with the lobbyists and big corporate donors and grow even further away from us. As John Lewis grows away from his anti-war constituents.

We need some help to break through these lines of thought that live in the minds of our members of Congress. These are issues of framing, how to word arguments. We’re not too far from the start of campaigning for the 2010 Congressional elections, which will be bigger than ever in Florida with an open Senate seat (Mel Martinez’) and the possibility of wholesale change in state government if Charlie Crist goes for Senate rather than re-election as governor. Time to be thinking not only of who will run but also how to help shape the candidates’ platforms, and how to reduce the importance of money in campaigning – now that we’re all so much poorer.

Will you have as much money to give to political candidates next year as you did in 2008? Not I.

Cuba policy loosened a little

Finally, the Obama administration has unleashed its modest changes in Cuba policy. Yes, let’s have Cuban Americans be our grassroots diplomats. I nominate Joe Garcia to lead the soft invasion. Joe, are you going? Well, you might not be welcome to the leadership over there.

The Miami Herald was ready for this. Its website already has travel tips (Carry lots of cash!), plus a place for people to upload their videos of trips to see their family. Reminds me that I have a Cuba video up, though it was taken here in Miami almost two years ago, when Barack Obama made a speech declaring his Cuba policy changes.
Here it is, from Aug. 25, 2007:

Policy in this country moves at glacial speed. This should have been done long ago.
UPDATE: Click here for the White House fact sheet on this policy shift.

Meanwhile, I, too, was preparing for this and have some stuff ready to amaze you. Weeks ago I started wondering what we were supposed to make of all the Cuba stuff in the news.

On April 8 the front page of the Miami Herald reported a federal indictment linking the aged Luis Posada Carriles to tourist-site bombings in Cuba in 1997. Didn’t say he did it. No, they say he lied when he denied being part of it. Such weasely indictments have plagued the American machinery of justice at least since Al Capone was run up for tax evasion rather than murder and mayhem. But I guess we will take what we get.

The timing, however, was what intrigued your blogger. This Posada is one of the most prominent bugaboos of the Castro regime, and for the U.S. to indict him could be seen as a gesture to the Cuban government. Or maybe it’s just the result of the slow grind of the wheel of justice.

Still, it emerged as President Obama was preparing to relax Cuba policy at least a little bit in advance of the Summit of the Americas to be held in Trinidad April 17-19. All we’ve been led to expect is that Cuban Americans will be able to make family visits to Cuba more easily and to send remittances more often – that is, to remove harsh rules imposed by George W. Bush at urging of the old guard Miami exiles. But much more is possible, and there’s the usual crescendo in Congress of talk about a more general easing of the Cuba embargo.

To declare an interest, your blogger reveals ownership of a sailboat – small but Havana-capable – as well as a strong belief that his human rights include travel anywhere. And not a speck of Cuba in my family background (though I do have a shirt inscribed Democrata Cubano – Y que?)

The Cuba travel bug hit a couple weeks ago with several news stories about the Havana Biennial:
It was on the front page of the Miami Herald, along with a riveting video showing Cubans yelling for freedom as part of an art happening. That’s what I want to go to Havana to see. Spare me the cigars and rum, get me some politics!

Also, in the NY Times was an arts-section story on all the artists and gallery people who can traipse over to Havana – while I can’t. WTF? At Havana Biennial, Chelsea Takes a Field Trip to Cuba - NYTimes.com

As I say, so much is going on that it must make our Republican members of the U.S. House dizzy with despair. They are so yesterday.

The Putney Challenge, and more from the news

The daily run through the Miami Herald was over 50 percent dispiriting on Sunday, and the list will appear below. But first here’s the pep-up item that hit at the end of Michael Putney’s Sunday morning show, “This week in South Florida,” on WPLG Channel 10.

He cast a sharp eye on wet foot/dry foot, the policy that lets Cuban migrants stay in the United States if they reach dry land but most likely repatriates them to Cuba if they are stopped at sea. I didn’t have a tape running on the show, so these aren’t direct quotes, but his argument ran as follows:

The people who run the smuggling boats are prosecuted, but those who are smuggled are not, though they participated in an illegal act. Also not prosecuted are their relatives who paid for the smuggling. Then there’s the fact that those who are smuggled would be likely to oppose the Castro regime if they remained in Cuba, so this U.S. policy amounts to a safety valve that lets the Castros get rid of opponents. This doesn’t make sense, and Putney looks forward to hearing from the candidates for Congress with new ideas.

Call that the Putney challenge. Let’s hear from Annette Taddeo, running in District 18, Raul Martinez in District 21 and Joe Garcia in District 25. Anyone got a new idea to replace wet foot/dry foot?

May I also ask our D friends among the incumbents, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, District 20, and Kendrick Meek, District 17. Any new ideas? Friends?

This policy is one of my favorites in declaring South Florida as having driven the United States slightly mad. Ethnic politics gone ‘round the bend. Think how this looks from Mars.

I’m not in favor of prosecuting more people – the jails are far too populous already. I AM in favor of having less organized crime around, and smuggling is part of that underworld. Where I do some of my recreation, in the Florida Keys with boating enthusiasts, theft of high-powered boats is a serious problem, to the point that my slow sailboat is not a target for thieves, nor is an ordinary powerboat with puny motors.

It seems pretty clear we need new thinking in this area. I’m waiting to hear responses to the Putney challenge.

Meanwhile, my list from the Sunday Herald:

Headline: Miami Cuban groups to get less aid.

This one presents opportunities for our Democratic challengers for Congress, though it would help if the Herald didn’t ignore our reasonable comments, e.g. what Joe Garcia said the other day when this began to emerge. In part: "Today's developments underscore the fundamental flaws of a policy designed to win votes in Miami and patronize partisan supporters -- not bring freedom to Cuba.” See the rest of his statement here.

Headline: Delegates seated in limbo.

Political writer Beth Reinhard once again mines the – for her – fertile field of how the Democrats screwed up the primary date and their participation in the Democratic convention. And once again never mentions that it was a Republican idea in the first place. Also doesn’t mention that the Republican-dominated legislature is in session and could be encouraged to do the right thing for all the primary voters whose votes were diluted or swept aside by the legislative foolishness of last year. Hey, Tallahassee! Let’s have another primary!

Headline: 10 great destinations to see before it's too late.

This was shocking. The Herald’s Travel section kisses off the Everglades by mentioning the environmental jewel of South Florida as one of 10 world destinations endangered by global warming. Go See These Places Now! And by the way, here’s two paragraphs about the ‘Glades.

Let me tell you: we’ve got some ideas about saving the Everglades, starting with electing Democrats to Congress and building the Skyway to help restore natural water flow in the River of Grass.

Headline: Don't trust this gang with our state's future.

On the positive side, Carl Hiaasen’s Sunday column identifies Jeb Bush as a central driver in the odd business that may get more religion into our politics in Florida. "The unseen hand behind this crusade belongs to former Gov. Jeb Bush ..."

Headline: Pleas to save homes put lawmakers in bind.

Back to the negative: If you, like me, opened the Sunday Herald to p. 5A and saw the little file shot of Lincoln Diaz-Balart on a story about the Foreclosure Crisis, you may have looked in vain for mention of the person running against the FL-21 incumbent. You may have noticed that the story, datelined Hialeah, was not from the Miami Herald’s own stable of writers or from the Herald’s owners, McClatchey. It was a NY Times news service article, so you could look it up online and see a more balanced report, including a photo of Democratic challenger Raul Martinez, and two paragraphs of comment from him, as follows:

Raul Martinez, a former mayor of Hialeah who is running against Mr. Diaz-Balart, said he planned to point out repeatedly that his opponent was slow to help homeowners in crisis.

“People are so concerned about taking care of themselves they might not call anybody,” Mr. Martinez said. “You may not want to let the world know you are losing the house. We have a lot of proud people in our community.” As for Mr. Diaz-Balart, he said, “If I was him, I wouldn’t be waiting. I would be out there leading.”

I can only wonder what Republican breakfast food it is that they eat at the Herald when deciding which words to cut from a piece like this. Let’s see, we’ll cut this guy, he’s a Democrat …

I call this one: Herald misuses NY Times article.

Debbie’s daily rip on DailyKos

Here, again, is DavidNYC, making a career out of analyzing our Debbie Wasserman Schultz’ remarks.

Down in the comments I’ve rung in again today. Someone asked if the Republicans used this sort of palship as a campaign ad. I pointed out that Mario Diaz-Balart used it just recently on CNN to buttress the hard-line policy on Cuba travel and family reunions. The Democrats support it, so it must be right – so goes his argument, specious to be sure, but there’s a logic to it that makes me and others furious. We admire DWS in many ways but this is a HUGE problem. Wake up.

Castro resigns -- early coverage not satisfactory

Fidel Castro resigns, and the biased and ill-informed stuff flows. Not everything, to be sure. And this one blogger can only look at so much. But a fair amount of early media coverage in South Florida seems to be excessively Republican, excessively defeatist when it comes to Cuba.

UPDATE: This also is posted on DailyKos, where one of the commenters made known another post on DailyKos, a short while earlier, which was from someone in Cuba, and very good it is. The link.

Most surprising to me was the number of Republicans in South Florida who seemed to think nothing had happened. Main spreader of this line was U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (FL-25), who stood in Little Havana and told NBC Channel 6 at midday that all the Cubans were doing was changing titles, and that as long as Fidel was alive he was in power. “He can call himself the queen of England. He’s still in power.”

Well, yes, wise to be cautious, but Castro says he’s too sick to continue and he won’t run for office.

I prefer the thoughts of the challenger for District 25’s seat in the U.S. House, Joe Garcia, as much a Cuban American as the incumbent.

"We are witnessing the beginning of the end of one of the most oppressive regimes in history,” Garcia said in a statement. “Despite the symbolism of this morning's events, the world community should remain cautiously optimistic and accept nothing less than the absolute freedom of the Cuban people. The transfer of power between brothers is not change, it is nepotism. The Bush administration should act immediately with an effective foreign policy that leads to real change in Cuba, not just empty rhetoric. To help advance democracy we need to allow for the reunification of Cuban families and the direct sending of remittances to the island's brave dissidents. It's time to break from the status quo."

I looked in vain to find a comment like Garcia’s in the Miami Herald’s supposedly exhaustive wrapup of local reaction to the Castro news. The main story online at midday Tuesday had three bylines and 12 other reporters contributing, but no coverage of the Democrats challenging the three incumbent Republicans in the U.S. House. Joe Garcia had been on the Air America station commenting already at 7:30 a.m., and the statement above went to media outlets before 10:30 a.m.

Rather than the Democrats’ moderate plea to break from the status quo, the local media relied more on keep the same line. Mario Diaz-Balart, his brother Lincoln Diaz-Balart (FL-21) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL-18) are the main proponents in Congress of the Bushite hard line – some call it cruel – that bars most Cuban family visits and sending remittances to Cuba. This is exactly what the Democratic challengers as a team are proposing should be changed: to permit family visits and the sending of remittances.

I should declare an interest here as a member of Joe Garcia’s media team as well as volunteer communications director and blogger for the Miami-Dade Democratic Party. But I still think it’s pretty clear that much of the media in South Florida had a hard time finding anyone to buck the official hard line on Castro.

The Miami Herald’s Naked Politics blog did run a few paragraphs of the Democrats’ plea for more family visits and remittances, but more space on that blog went to U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen’s odd comment:

"It matters nothing at all whether Fidel, Raul or any other thug is named head of anything in Cuba," she said, in part. "What the people want is freedom to express their dissent from the oppressive regime. The community machinery is enslaving them so it does not matter who the thug of the moment will be.”

She rambled on demanding indictments against the Cubans for shooting down Cuban American fliers 12 years ago.

Again from Naked Politics: “In Tallahassee, House Speaker Marco Rubio, the first Cuban-American to be elected Florida House Speaker, compared Castro to a "crazy uncle" and brushed off the news that he won't seek re-election as nothing but "40-plus years of smoke and mirrors.”

That’s another Republican saying nothing had happened. It spilled over onto CNN, where Jill Dougherty strode around in Little Havana saying on camera that few Democratic Party figures were willing to suggest changes in U.S. policy.

But Jill, what about the three Democrats running for Congress from Miami? What about Sen. Chris Dodd and others in Congress who say the whole Cuba embargo should end?

Early in the afternoon the Florida Democratic Party arranged a conference call for reporters with the chance to question Joe Garcia and his two fellow challengers for Congress, Annette Taddeo (District 18) and Raul Martinez (District 21), along with Luis Garcia, a Cuban American from Miami Beach in the Florida House of Representatives.

We can hope that from this some wider coverage will result – not so monolitihic, please.

During the conference call one reporter asked about the overall embargo – should it be lifted? Joe Garcia responded by saying the embargo was not very strong, since the United States had sold $435 million dollars worth of food to Cuba in the past year. “But it shows we stand against the brutal regime,’ he said, adding that it would be “too big a bite at once” to lift the embargo without “first steps” and signs of improved conditions in Cuba.

As always I’m too hopeful in expecting fair and broad coverage, I guess. One phrase stands out in my memory, from a Latina who called in to Nicole Sandler’s early-morning show on the Air America station, WINZ. She said she had been leery of speaking with her Cuba-born mother about the Castro announcement “because she’s so emotional about it.”

To be kept in mind: Emotional – not rational.

Miami Herald headline: "Bush to talk tough" on Cuba

They are catching on, even at the Miami Herald. This administration is not much good at getting things done, but enjoys talking tough.

W promotes numerous attitudes toward Cuba: aid “if Cuba takes a democratic turn,” as the Herald summarizes it. Well, that’s looking into the future, for sure. Just how is that democratic turn supposed to happen? Nothing done in that area.

Meanwhile, numerous suggestions for actually influencing events in that direction have come up and withered for lack of attention from Washington – and not only in this administration, one has to confess.

The human right of keeping family connections? No, under W we’re going the other direction – banning Cuban Americans from visiting family in the mother country more often than every three years.

Your blogger spent many years abroad as a news correspondent watching as the Soviet empire decayed, and it was not advanced by banning family visits. The direction went the other way: encouraging family visits, more often the better, so that Western ideals and ways of life could be seen by those behind the Iron Curtain.

And the Iron Curtain is no more. In fact, its life, measured from the end of World War II until 1989 when the Berlin Wall opened, was 44 years. How long has Castro been able to stay in power? I don’t know whether it’s because of – or in spite of – the U.S. policy on Cuba. It’s an ineffectual policy. Increasingly unpopular. It’s only ideology that keeps it alive.

Obama on Cuba travel

Barack Obama is for easing two important restrictions on human relations between the United States and Cuba. In an op-ed essay in Tuesday's Miami Herald, the Illinois senator wrote that he would grant "unrestricted rights" to Cuban Americans to visit relatives in Cuba and send remittances.

The Herald also published a news story on Obama's position, noting that he is the only one of the top contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination to opt to ease these restrictions. Hoever, Sen. Chris Dodd is on record, as a commenter reports in this blog's previous post on Cuba policy. The Herald has relegated Dodd to the also-rans, though on this issue he's running ahead of the pack and favors abolishing all restrictions on travel to Cuba.

Only four days until Obama will be in Miami for our fund-raiser Saturday afternoon. Do you have your tickets?

Bravo! Down with Cuba travel restrictions

More than Bravo may not be necessary. Here's what the Miami-Dade County Democratic Party issued as a policy statement this weekend:

MIAMI - Miami-Dade Democratic Party Chairman Joe Garcia issued the following statement today, August, 18, 2007, on behalf of the Miami-Dade Democratic Executive Committee regarding existing restrictions on travel to Cuba:

"We support real family values, not policy that only further damages families already divided. The travel restrictions that prohibit Cuban Americans from visiting family members in Cuba more than once every three years must be eliminated. The Bush administration cannot purport to tell individuals who they can or cannot consider to be immediate family members, nor how often they should visit them."