Exiles strike back at Moore's writings

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Fri, Aug. 06, 2004




AP PHOTO
ON THE HOT SEAT: Filmmaker Michael Moore speaks to a crowd at a gathering of the Campaign for America's Future event last month. Moore is being sharply criticized for years-old writings on Miami's Cuban exiles.
U.S. AND CUBA


Exiles strike back at Moore's writings

BY GAIL EPSTEIN NIEVES

[e-mail]


Weeks after Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 became a controversial blockbuster in the United States, the film and its maker are generating a new wave of attention -- this time from Cubans on both sides of the Florida Straits.

In Cuba, where leader Fidel Castro is in a heightened war of words with President Bush, bootlegged copies of Moore's Bush-bashing documentary were shown to packed cinemas for a week, and the film was aired on state-run television July 29.

In Miami and elsewhere, Cuban Americans who support Bush are vilifying Moore on Spanish-language radio, the Internet and in e-mails. Their objection, beyond the new film: inflammatory pieces Moore wrote about Cuban exiles in 1997 and 2000 in which he called them ''Batista supporters'' and ''wimps'' who were wrong not to immediately send home child-boater Elián González.

The controversy has put Cuban-American Democrats in a sensitive spot: Moore's writings about Miami exiles are sure to offend some of them, but the filmmaker's anti-Bush message resonates strongly with Democrats eager to reclaim the White House.
(snip/...)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/9332301.htm
(Free registration required)

[displacedtexan]

1. Whatever... BushCo Minions

Duh.

Who were the Watergate burglars?

Who does BushCo's bidding?

[Downtown Hound]

2. Yeah, like those rabid anti-Castro exiles

were going to vote for Kerry anyway. Opinions on this matter have already settled. Moore isn't going to change them.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Found some reference made to Cuban "exiles" by Michael Moore

from "Downsize This!" as excerpted in Third World Traveller:

p193
Miami -- It is there that a nutty bunch of Cuban exiles have controlled U.S. foreign policy regarding this insignificant island nation. These Cubans, many of whom were Batista supporters and lived high on the hog while that crook ran the country, seem not to have slept a wink since they grabbed their assets and headed to Florida.

And, since 1960, they have insisted on pulling us into their madness. Why is it that in every incident of national torment that has deflated our country for the past three decades-the Kennedy assassination, Watergate, IranContra, our drug abuse epidemic-the list goes on and on-we find that the Cuban exiles are always present and involved? First it was Lee Harvey Oswald's connection to the Cubans in New Orleans. (Or was it the Cuban exiles acting alone to kill Kennedy, or Castro ordering the assassination 'cause he just got bored with Kennedy trying to bump him off? Whichever theory you subscribe to, the Cubans are lurking in the neighborhood.)

Then, on the night of June 17, 1972, three Cubans- Bernard Barker, Eugenio Martinez, and Virgilio Gonzalez (plus Americans Frank Sturgis and James McCord Jr.)-were caught breaking into the Watergate offices of the chairman of the Democratic Party. This covert operation eventually brought down Richard Nixon, (so I guess there is a silver lining to that particular Cuban-exile operation).
Today, Barker and Gonzalez are considered heroes in Miami's Cuban community. Martinez, later pardoned by Ronald Reagan, is the only one who feels bad. "I did not want myself to be involved in the downfall of the President of the United States." Oh, well, how nice of you!

When Ollie North needed a cover group to run arms into Nicaragua to help overthrow the government, who else could he turn to but the Miami Cubans? Bay of Pigs veterans Ramon Medina and Rafael Quintero were key managers of the air-transport company that supplied weapons to the Contras. The U.S.-backed Contra War was responsible for the deaths of thirty thousand Nicaraguans.
(snip/...)

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Michael_Moore/Downsize_This.html

(The quoted material starts around the bottom third of the page.)

[zbdent]

5. I can see why they want Castro out

Follow my logic:

They were kicked out.

The country is now filled with people used to working for "the state" (a.k.a. "very low wages").

Over the past few decades, the Caribbean has really exploded into a tourist spot, with constant cruise ships cris-crossing the waves between the islands.

If Castro were removed, and "Cuba freed", they would lay claim to their "homes".

As soon as they get their land back "as the proper owners prior to the Castro Regime", they will sell most of it to developers, and keep a small palace with practically slave labor, and live off their profits.

[TO Kid]

7. How would that be different from today?

Cuban workers in the tourism industry are being pimped by Castro. Foreign companies are not allowed to pay their employees directly; the wages are paid to the state, which passes on 5% to the worker and keeps the rest.

[tom_paine]

4. The Cubans have been beholden to the Imperial Family

since they helped the Bushes with their "Kennedy Problem".

[Crunchy Frog]

6. This just makes me

love Michael Moore even more than I did. I started really paying attention to the Cuban thing back during the Elian Gonzales kidnapping. I was absoluteley amazed at the sense of entitlement these people had, and the extent to which so many politicians pandered to it. Al Gore pandered to it as well, even to the extent of seeming willing to throw out the foundations of American family law in order to accomodate their desire to kidnap a 6 year old child. That was the point at which Gore lost my vote to Nader.

Everybody seems so afraid of these people, afraid of what will happen if they don't indulge them in their every whim. I remember watching them on TV and thinking that the people I was seeing reminded me of spoiled 2 year olds. I remember the giant tantrum on the streets of Miami which included incidents of flag burning. And I remember all the politicians tripping all over themselves to show solidarity with their "cause".:puke:

Thank God for Moore, and his willingness to call a spade a spade, and not let himself be intimidated by thugs.

PS. I'm not trying to stereotype an entire community. I know there are many good and decent Cuban Americans, some of them right on this board. I hope I am not offending anyone. If I am, I apologize.

[SoCalDem]

9. My family fled Cuba in the early 60's and MM is right

Luckily for MY family, they just accepted the fact that they had had it pretty good for many years by being friendsly with Batista...but it was OVER..and they needed to start over as Americans.

They never bought into that "angry Cuban" mantra..

They got educated..got naturalized, and got OVER it..
The angry ones who never got past it have been "picking that scab" for over 40 years now..

Castro will be in power until he is NOT.. When that happens, we will see what we will see..

Our country has been able to "deal" with every country on earth..friend OR foe, but the Florida/DC politicians are too greedy for votes to do what is needed..

[Billy Burnett]

8. They hate MM for a TV Nation episode on health care comparisons

When MM had a TV show (which ran for half a season) "TV Nation" he did a comparison of three nations' health care systems to see which one delivered to best 'value' - speed of treatment, quality of treatment, cost of treatment.

USA vs Canada vs Cuba

The show tracked 3 identical medical cases picked at random - an accidental broken leg.


Guess what country won on all three fronts (speed, quality, cost)?

1st place - Cuba
2nd place - Canada
last place - USA


Local Miami hard line exiles went nuts with fury over the 'commie' show, and formed a boycott of the network affiliate.

[Taverner]

10. Never...trust...the CANF

They are the US sponsored "dictatorship in waiting" in Miami. Part mafia, part terrorist organization - our tax dollars fund them.

They represent Cuban-Americans like the Likud represents Jews.

[Judi Lynn]

11. A revolutionary idea: Dump America's failed Cuba policy

A revolutionary idea: Dump America's failed Cuba policy
Gregory Kane


Originally published Aug 7, 2004

Gregory Kane
IT'S TIME WE started a new American tradition: Declare victory when victory has been achieved, and then go home. When it comes to the island nation that lies 90 miles south of our shores, we don't seem to be able to do that. President after president, from Dwight D. Eisenhower through George W. Bush, has treated Cuba as a pariah and Fidel Castro as the Antichrist.

There may have been some logic to that back in the days of the Cold War, when the Soviet Union armed Cuba and, at one time, put missiles aimed at America on the island. But the Soviet Union -- both the threat and the country -- no longer exists. Even Pat Buchanan, not exactly a Commie-loving icon of that wing of the American body politic that believed the Soviets could best be handled by pussyfooting with them and appeasing them, has said we've won the Cuba battle and need to move on.

Judging from reporter Jason Song's article "Sanctions force colleges to shift study programs away from Cuba" in Thursday's Sun, there are still supposedly conservative Republicans who don't believe that the late President Reagan won the Cold War. They've decided to replace the sanctions imposed on Cuba in the past 41 years -- that haven't worked -- with even more sanctions, some of which have forced some area colleges to give up educational programs on the island.
This is done in the name of "the Bush administration's crackdown on the amount of hard currency going into the country," to quote one source in Song's article.
(snip)

.....one Cuban woman -- who provides the sole source of income for her mother and her little sister -- told me that food, clothes and transportation are all problems in her country. When I visited a beach near Havana, other Cubans repeated the refrain. They also said they wanted normalized relations with the United States, the better to immigrate here or be able to buy more American goods there.
(snip/...)

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.kane07aug07,1,1331391.column?coll=bal-local-headlines&track=rss
(Free registration required)

[The Commie]

12. The Batista whores...

...can go f*ck themselves.

[mitchum]

13. The Batista-loving Miami crybabies never shut up, do they?

Fuck them and their nostalgia for feudalism, Meyer Lansky and donkey shows

[IndianaGreen]

14. Most of them are racists and anti-Semites

CANF is particularly notorious for anti-Semitism!

[Mika]

15. Ros Lehtinen is on House International Relations' Middle East committee

Ileana Ros Lehtinen is on the House International Relations' Middle East and Central Asia Subcommittee. :puke:


http://portlandme.ujcfedweb.org/content_display.html?articleID=102556

Ros-Lehtinen: Israel has the right to defend herself against terrorist attacks. Israel has gone overboard in trying to be a positive partner for peace in the Middle East. Yet we have seen that its hostile neighbors have done nothing to dismantle the terrorist network.

But, Cuba has no right to defend itself against the Miamicuban CANF terrorists (whom she supports).


Of note; Israel has several agricultural joint ventures with the Cuban government.
F-ing hypocrites, or what?

[IndianaGreen]

16. In 1959, Israel was among the strongest supporters of Cuban Revolution

While the US was imposing its embargo, Israeli farm experts and technicians went to Cuba to assist the fledging revolution in their farm reforms.

Prior to the Revolution, Cuban Jews were treated as second class citizens. Today, Cuba has a vibrant Jewish community and the Cuban government is spending their meager resources to restore some of the old synagogues, one that dates back to the 16th century.

[Judi Lynn]

17. I've seen articles by Jewish kids from Europe concerning their trips

to Cuba over the last few years. Very interesting. I believe American Jewish folks used to visit, too, quite a bit, before
_Bush nailed the door to Cuba shut.










Arturo Lopez Levy