I don't want to air dirty laundry in public but

[flamingdem]

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, was this really necessary?

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/22/2812587/castro-visa-issue-turns-into-political.html#morer

I guess she had to tow the line but please, over academics coming to the USA? This makes me
realize why they disallowed many Visas, the usual suspects dividing the party in an election year
could have been more extreme. Great. Land 'o the free and all that.

[DirkGently]

1. We don't seem to have any problem having China's communist leaders over for tea.

[flamingdem]

2. Yes, that's exactly why this is infuriating

They'll always come up with an excuse to explain that away. (They're capitalist!) Any gestures by Cuba are answered with a moved goalpost. All about those greedy Batista era thugsters and others who benefit by keeping families and nations apart.

[DirkGently]

3. It's well past time to stop isolating Cuba. (nt)

[KansDem]

5. Agree

We lost over 58,000 Americans in Vietnam, yet with Clinton normalized relations with that country, CorpUSA fell all over each other to get in their to set up their factories and fast-food joints.

Yet, no American life has been lost in Cuba but we still maintain this ridiculous embargo...

[flamingdem]

8. Good point about Vietnam

and usually the comparison to China is made -- but is Vietnam really capitalist? They are more centralized like Cuba, I believe.

[KansDem]

4. Not to mention representatives from regimes who financed 9/11

[PoliticAverse]

6. This is about Florida politicians wanting to get reelected. n/t

[Mika]

7. Its about CIA operative, Alan Gross.

The war against Cuba is bipartisan.

[hr]

| | | | |

[flamingdem]

10. I think he's the latest excuse

but if they give him up some other requirement will happen before normalization

I dislike the academics who insist Cuba doesn't want normalization. I do wonder
where they're going with Gross. They want something out of it, they caught him
and fair is fair. But they won't get the five.

[provis99]

9. "Politics has no place when we are standing up for human rights"

bullshit, Wasserman Schultz. You're a Florida representative who's blatantly pandering to Cuban exiles in your state.

How about dispensing with the pious lectures and admitting the truth about your own vote-groveling?

[flamingdem]

11. I wonder if she's really in trouble if she stops kissing up to the Miami gang

Cuban Americans are moving towards wanting normalization, she must get that.

She can't really be friends with those nut jobs, so what's her long term plan?

[Peace Patriot]

12. I don't think things like this are written for constituents. I think they're written for...

...the far rightwing powers who control the voting machines.

ES&S, which bought out Diebold, now owns and controls the 'TRADE SECRET' programming code in most of the voting machines in the U.S. including Florida's. ES&S has far rightwing connections that would make your hair stand on end. Virtually ALL of our office holders in the U.S. owe this far rightwing-connected corporation, and virtually ALL political candidates who hope to actually hold public office must also kow-tow to the far right because of this. There are NO effective controls on these voting machines--and Florida is one of the worst states, in this respect. But even the best states do only a 1% audit of the election results--totally inadequate to detect electronic fraud.

She is earning "Brownie points" with ES&S.

There are, of course, other "controls" on our public officials--the Corporate Media being the most obvious one. They can kill your campaign or destroy your reputation, if they so choose (that is, if a truly courageous representative of the people manages to overcome all obstacles and get into a position to threaten transglobal corporate/war profiteer interests). But direct control of the voting results is the latest and the worst "control" of all. There is no way to overcome it--no way to elect real representatives--short of a REAL "Boston Tea Party" (tossing these machines).