Quote of the day, as seen in every other blog and now in this one, from Rudy Giuliani: “I took a city that was known for pornography and licked it to a large extent”.
He also assured a blind man that he has a 2nd Amendment right to bear and carry arms.
John Ashcroft, speaking at a Catholic college yesterday, said that detaining people in Guantanamo indefinitely without trial (which, oddly, he called, approvingly, “inordinate detention”) is “an act of humanity.” He added that inordinate detention is acceptable when weighed against the possibility of releasing someone who might then take up arms against the US again.
Bush gave a speech at the State Department today about Cuba, which he accused of many acts of humanity. For example, did you know that in Cuba it is illegal “to read books or magazines without the express approval of the state”? Did you know that “Housing for many ordinary Cubans is in very poor condition, while the ruling class lives in mansions.” Imagine, a country where the poor people have crap housing and the ruling class live in mansions, why that’s... uh, pretty much every single country.
“Many of the cars on the street pre-date the revolution...” he said. Dude, those cars are classics. “...and some Cubans rely on horse carts for transportation.” Dear lord, there are actually people deprived of the use of a gasoline-powered internal-combustion engine, how do they live with the shame?
“There are long lines for basic necessities -- reminiscent of the Soviet bread lines of the last century.” Or the United States during the Depression. “Meanwhile, the regime offers fully stocked food stores to foreign tourists, diplomats and businessmen in communism’s version of apartheid.” Yes, selling goods and services to tourists is just exactly like apartheid.
People, he said, are serving long acts of humanity in Cuban prisons for the crime of “dangerousness.” And he just happened to have the relatives of some of those prisoners with him, although he was rather vague about what it was they actually did – “advocating freedom,” “daring speak the truth about the regime,” etc. And of course he got several of their names wrong (speaking of names, he never uttered Castro’s once).
He even accused Cuba of probably doing other things that were pretty darned bad: “And as with all totalitarian systems, Cuba’s regime no doubt has other horrors still unknown to the rest of the world. Once revealed, they will shock the conscience of humanity.” Possibly it will be revealed that Castro doesn’t floss after every meal and occasionally scratches his balls. We just don’t know. But we do know it’s pretty darned shocking, whatever it is.
He called on all freedom-loving nations to help the Cuban people by letting them access the internet in their embassies’ lobbies.
And he generously offered “to invite Cuban young people whose families suffer oppression into the Partnership for Latin American Youth scholarship programs, to help them have equal access to greater educational opportunities -- if the Cuban rulers will allow them to freely participate.” In a program for “young people whose families suffer oppression.” I don’t know Cuba could turn down such an offer.
He reaffirmed his intention not to lift the economic sanctions on Cuba, which wouldn’t benefit the Cuban people anyway because “the source of Cuba’s suffering is not the embargo, but the communist system.” “As long as the regime maintains its monopoly over the political and economic life of the Cuban people, the United States will keep the embargo in place. ... America will have no part in giving oxygen to a criminal regime victimizing its own people.”
He told any Cuban schoolchildren who might be listening, “Do not believe the tired lies you are told about America.”
“The socialist paradise is a tropical gulag,” he said. So it’s a tropical socialist gulag paradise.
You know, Cuba may not be a paradise, socialist or otherwise, but it’s hard to take criticism of Cuba seriously when it’s so hyperbolic, and it’s impossible to forge a realistic foreign policy towards a cartoon version of a country that only exists inside George Bush’s chimp-like head.
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