Cuban democracy funds spent on Game Boys (and other expensive stuff)

[Mika]

Cuban democracy funds spent on Game Boys
http://www.guardian.co.uk/cuba/story/0,,1948445,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=1

Cuban dissidents who were given millions of dollars by the US government to support democracy in their homeland instead blew money on computer games, cashmere sweaters, crabmeat and expensive chocolates, which were then sent to the island.

A scathing congressional audit of democracy-assistance programmes found “questionable expenditure” by several groups funded by Washington in opposition to President Fidel Castro’s rule on the communist Caribbean island.

The Miami-based Acción Democrática Cubana spent money on a chainsaw, Nintendo Game Boys and Sony PlayStations, mountain bikes, leather coats and Godiva chocolates, which the group says were all sent to Cuba. “These people are going hungry. They never get any chocolate there,” Juan Carlos Acosta, the group’s executive director, told the Miami Herald.

-

The audit analysed $65m of spending by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) from 1996 to 2005 and concluded that poor management was to blame for the waste. “There were weaknesses in agency policies and in programme office oversight, and internal control deficiencies,” the report states.

_____


Anti Castro is a huge industry.
Do you REALLY think that all of these financial and political profiteers want and end to Castro?
:eyes:


Is U.S. aid reaching Castro foes?
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/cuba/16014288.htm

Ten years ago, a Republican-led Congress pressed President Clinton to help bring democracy to communist Cuba in the wake of Cuban MiGs' shoot-down of two unarmed Brothers to the Rescue planes and mounting U.S. fears of yet another rafter crisis.

Today, the program -- funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) -- has spent at least $55.5 million, for studies on a future Cuba without dictator Fidel Castro, for exile groups to lobby foreign governments to sanction the island and to ship children's books, food, medical equipment, laptops and clothes to dissidents and their families.

None of that money has reached the dissidents in cash -- a policy designed to protect Cuba's opposition from being branded mercenaries and imprisoned.

Instead, most of the USAID money has remained in Miami or Washington -- creating an anti-Castro economy that finances a broad array of activities, ranging from university studies to spending millions to ship goods surreptitiously to the island's opposition. At least $13 a pound -- and as much as $20 per pound -- is paid to an intricate network of ''mules'' to smuggle medicines, laptops and books into Cuba. That's 13 to 20 times more than it costs to ship to many other Caribbean countries.

Several Cuba experts in the Bush and Clinton administrations blame arbitrary USAID rules that ban sending cash directly to dissident groups in Cuba for derailing the program's purpose.

Now that President Bush has promised $80 million over the next two years to amp up pro-democracy programs for Cuba -- a strategy announced before an ailing Castro ceded power July 31 to his brother, Raúl -- the philosophical battle over whether to send cash directly to Cuban dissidents endures. And the question of USAID's effectiveness in Cuba has become all the more relevant.

[Demeter]

1. ROTFLMAO

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:


My first Smilies! Did I do it right?


This was in fact probably the BEST use of any US funds outside the country, now that we don't do things like famine relief, disease prevention and the like.

[Dhalgren]

2. Looks like the Cuban ex-pat community has taken a page out of

the evangelicals' play-book. Pound the stage for you constituency and whip up moral indignation, then pocket the funds raised by your demagoguery. Nice...

[wholetruth00]

3. We are fighting each other over immigration policy, trying to keep out hard-working

Mexicans and spending a billion to build a fence to keep them out yet any Cuban who merely claims to be against Castro can come here, receive loans, financing, welfare, education, healthcare and no one gives a shit (unless of course they are the Cubans of color, many of whom are still in prison in TX). Now we find out that the well hidden Cuban welfare system is spending taxpayer dollars on luxuary items instead of items to help the health and welfare of Cubans. I wonder how much of the money was actually sent to Cuba and how much of the money was spent on items that were kept by the dissidents in Miami? Our foreign and immigration policies are screwed up in so many ways, but this takes the cake.

[Mika]

4. There's no way of knowing how much makes it to Cuba

I suspect not much.


http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/16015910.htm

The report provides the most detailed account to date on $65 million worth in USAID Cuba democracy assistance in 40 programs between 1996 and 2005, of which $62 million was allotted "in response to unsolicited proposals," meaning there were no competitive bids. The State Department used competitive mechanisms to award a separate $8 million to four other programs, the GAO said.

The GAO conducted "limited testing" of 10 programs and found "questionable expenditures" and "significant control weaknesses" in three. None of the 36 recipients of USAID and State Department grants was identified in the report.

-

The Bush administration has made additional democracy assistance to Cuba a centerpiece of its efforts to undermine the communist government of Fidel Castro, and the report is likely to fuel the debate on its effectiveness.

In a 2004 report, the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba recommended providing $36 million to USAID and other government agencies for Cuba. A follow-up report in July recommended an additional $80 million over two years and $20 million annually thereafter until "the end of the Castro regime."

[Rose Siding]

5. That's tactful

“There were weaknesses in agency policies and in programme office oversight, and internal control deficiencies,” the report states....When they just coulda said it's a big fat pork pot slush fund used to buy critical votes, operated brazenly by a one party govt.

[seafan]

6. And *guess who* is in the middle of it? Jeb Bush.

Governor Jeb Bush wants smooth transition after Castro's death



FL Governor Jeb Bush
Photo credit: Steve Gladfelter


Tampa Bay News 10
11/14/2006

Tallahassee, Florida - Governor Jeb Bush says he's preparing for Fidel Castro's death.

The U.S. believes the Cuban dictator probably won't see the New Year, but they're not completely sure.

The governor says his brother, President Bush has proposed steps to speed the transition to democracy in Cuba.

One of those proposals involves giving $80 million over two years to support dissidents in Cuba who oppose the Castro regime.

Well, look what is in the UK Guardian today:


Cuban democracy funds spent on Game Boys

Richard Luscombe in Miami
Wednesday November 15, 2006

Cuban dissidents who were given millions of dollars by the US government to support democracy in their homeland instead blew money on computer games, cashmere sweaters, crabmeat and expensive chocolates, which were then sent to the island.

A scathing congressional audit of democracy-assistance programmes found “questionable expenditure” by several groups funded by Washington in opposition to President Fidel Castro’s rule on the communist Caribbean island.

snip

It's time to drive out the * regime. All of them.

[The Deacon]

7. The "Dissidents"

Are mainly the old ruling families, aligned with the Mafia & Batista, who lost their property & cushy lifestyles when Castro took over. There has never been a democracy in Cuba - simply a corrupt & brutal dictatorship propped up by American gangsters. The Castro regime may be brutal - but most view it as an improvement over Batista.

[elehhhhna]

8. Game Boys? Is that what they're calling Congressional Pages now?

[Scurrilous]

9. Congressmen criticize U.S. aid to Cuba

<snip>

"Two congressmen who oppose sanctions on Cuba said today they will push for an investigation of U.S. programs to promote democracy on the island after a report uncovered poor oversight and indications of wastefulness.

''The conclusions are disturbing, to say the least,'' Massachusetts Democrat Bill Delahunt said of a report by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress.

The GAO report said more than 95 percent of U.S. Agency for International Development programs for Cuba were handed out without any competitive bids and were then subject to only perfunctory reviews. It cites questionable purchases of items like cashmere sweaters and crab meat for dissidents on the island.

Delahunt is set to become chairman of the Oversight and Investigations panel of the House Committee on International Relations when the Democratic-controled Congress reconvenes early next year.

He also is co-chair with Arizona Republican Rep. Jeffrey Flake of the Cuba Working Group, a bipartisan caucus that opposes many U.S. sanctions against Cuba. Flake and Delahunt requested the GAO study."

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16020182.htm

[DoYouEverWonder]

10. A policy designed to protect Cuba's opposition

from being branded mercenaries and imprisoned.

They sure will do whatever it takes to protect their own.

Tell me again, who are the terrorists?

[zreosumgame]

11. seeing that 'Cuban dissidents ' dream of restoring the idea of

slave labor, casino's (with low wage servers),brothels (guess who will be forced to work their?) and mega-hotels (more of those servers paid pennies a day) to serve the upper-crust while they (not the day to day Cuban's, just their little group) wallowing in mob money, well gee I am so surprised they wasted the dollars we lavished on them....

[Up2Late]

12. "...and said that the leather jackets and cashmere sweaters were bought in a sale...!"

OMG, this is so lame!

Yeah, lots of chilly nights in Cuba one, maybe 2 nights a year!

"...and said that the leather jackets and cashmere sweaters were bought in a sale. “They (the auditors)think it’s not cold there,” Mr Acosta said. “At $30 (£16) it’s a bargain because cashmere is expensive. They were asking for sweaters....”

[Judi Lynn]

13. They've used all kinds of ways of getting payoffs to the small group of "dissidents"

After _Bush stole the pResidency, and stepped up a pattern of heavy agression against Cuba, there was a crack-down on his "dissident" group in Cuba, and the trial brought to light information gathered by Cuban agents who had worked among the dissidents over the years, who had the goods on them! One of them was a woman who worked as a personal secretary for prominent dissident, former economics professor, Marta Beatriz Roque.

Arrests condemned as crackdown on rights

The arrests generated nearly universal condemnation. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the United States was "outraged," and Secretary of State Colin Powell demanded that Cuba release the "prisoners of conscience." Neither Boucher nor Powell explained away the evidence that the dissidents were paid agents of the United States.

The Cuban government has always maintained that dissidents are created and funded by the U.S. government. Under that rationale, Cuban law makes collaboration with U.S. policy, especially the 1996 Helms-Burton Act, a criminal offense punishable with lengthy prison terms. In 1997, the National Assembly passed the Reaffirmation of Cuban Dignity and Sovereignty Law as an "antidote" for Helms-Burton, and in 1999, the Protection of Cuban National Independence Law, which criminalized any act of cooperation with U.S. policy toward Cuba. These laws are similar to U.S. laws governing activities of unregistered agents of foreign governments. Evidence supporting the Cuban claim that dissidents are mercenaries of the United States is available on U.S. government Web sites. The Web site of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) lists recipients of U.S. funds to support dissidents, independent journalists, independent librarians, and human rights organizations in Cuba.
(snip)

U.S. admits/denies it funds dissidents USAID official Adolfo Franco said earlier this year that the agency had spent US$20 million dollar carrying out Helms-Burton mandates since 1997. Nevertheless, another USAID official, Alfonso Aguilar, denied that the agency funded dissidents, though he claimed it was legal to do so. He admitted that USAID gives money to nongovernmental organizations that in turn pay dissidents. But he argued that Perez Roque's accusations were "outrageous," because the payments did not come directly from the U.S. government.

Despite the implied USAID principal that indirect payments are a legitimate means to fund internal opposition in sovereign countries, the State Department said Perez Roque's accusation that the United States fabricated Cuban dissidence was "ludicrous."

Part of the case against Hector Palacios, a Varela Project supporter sentenced to a 25-year prison term, was that he had received US$3,000 in remittances from organizations in the United States as well as computers and other equipment donated by the Interests Section. Investigators found US$5,000 in cash hidden in a medicine bottle in his house. Another of the prominent writers arrested was Oscar Espinosa Chepe, who received a 20-year sentence. Interviewed on the Pacifica network's radio program Democracy Now (04/09/03), Miriam Leyva, Espinosa Chepe's wife, denied he had collaborated with the United States. She said he had only received US$15 per article from CubaNet in Miami. During the April 9 news conference, Foreign Minister Perez Roque displayed receipts indicating that Espinosa Chepe had received US$7,154 in such payments during 2002. At US$15 per article, Espinosa Chepe would have had to sell 477 articles or 10 every week that year. Perez Roque said that investigators found US$13,660 in Espinosa Chepe's closet and that he had not held a job in 10 years.

Dissidents were often paid with U.S. funds channeled through a Canadian bank. The bank allows Cubans to access U.S.-supplied funds with a Transcard (debit card).
(snip/...)

http://www.counterpunch.org/sandels04262003.html

[NorthernSpy]

14. "freedom fighters" driving welfare Cadillacs...

The Miami-based Acción Democrática Cubana spent money on a chainsaw, Nintendo Game Boys and Sony PlayStations, mountain bikes, leather coats and Godiva chocolates, which the group says were all sent to Cuba. “These people are going hungry. They never get any chocolate there,” Juan Carlos Acosta, the group’s executive director, told the Miami Herald.

LOL!

But I'm sure they're properly grateful to the American taxpayer for financing this dreamy lifestyle of theirs. Next time Acosta drives by you in his welfare Cadillac, he might even wave!

[Judi Lynn]

15. This is one great article, Mika.

Although no USAID funding is allowed to go to Cuba, at least one other taxpayer-funded program that promotes democracy in Cuba -- the National Endowment for Democracy -- allows its money to go to the island in cash. NED has sent about $970,000.
(snip)

Adolfo Franco, USAID's Latin America and Caribbean program director, said sending money to dissidents would result in a Cuban government crackdown, as happened in 2003 when 75 dissidents, independent journalists and librarians were jailed.
(snip)

The group sent $9,000 from NED directly to two women in Cuba -- only to learn they were Cuban agents, said Joel Brito, former director of Federacion. ''It's very difficult to tell from Miami who the people are that we help in Cuba,'' he said.

Vladimiro Roca, a pro-democracy activist in Cuba, said in a telephone interview from Havana that fax machines, computers and more can be bought on Cuba's black market. ''What we need most is money,'' he said.
(snip)

Simply amazing.

It's against our own laws for this arrangement to be made between people here and another government. Flat out illegal.

[pinerow]

16. Love the "let 'em eat chocolates" part...

you can't make this shit up....:beer:

[Vidar]

17. Big fun for the gusamos & Jeb.

[kskiska]

18. Dissidents blew American 'aid' millions on luxuries for Cuba

Cuban dissidents who were given millions of dollars by the US government to support democracy in their homeland instead blew money on computer games, cashmere sweaters, crabmeat and chocolates, which were then sent to the island.

A scathing congressional audit of democracy assistance programmes found "questionable expenditure" by several groups funded by Washington in opposition to President Fidel Castro's rule on the communist Caribbean island.

The Miami-based Acción Democrática Cubana spent money on a chainsaw, Nintendo Game Boys and Sony PlayStations, mountain bikes, leather coats and Godiva chocolates, which the group says were all sent to Cuba. "These people are going hungry. They never get any chocolate there," Juan Carlos Acosta, the group's executive director, told the Miami Herald.

He also defended the purchase of a chainsaw he said he needed to cut a tree that had blocked access to his office in a hurricane, and said the leather jackets and cashmere sweaters were bought in a sale. "They think it's not cold there," Mr Acosta said. "At $30 <£16> it's a bargain because cashmere is expensive. They were asking for sweaters."

more…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1948671,00.html

[roody]

19. Oh well. Better than spending it on killing people. eom

[AIJ Alom]

20. Sounds eerily similar to the Iraq Reconstruction Effort. n/t

[upi402]

21. bad dissidents, spend US dollars on bombs & guns dammit!

Ok, there was a chainsaw purchased...:eyes:
:sarcasm:

[aquart]

22. Lotta Merry Christmases in that godless island.

And, really, wasn't that our goal?

[Canuckistanian]

23. A chainsaw? I'm reminded of that scene in "Scarface"

And it's hard to get those bloodstains out of cashmere (or so I'm told).

[Lyric]

24. I think it makes sense, in a way.

(

To me, it seems like this was a very clever method that the dissidents used to demonstrate to the people of Cuba how much better it is to live in a free society than to live in an iron-fisted regime of any political flavor. It's oversimplifying of course--not all Americans can afford Godiva chocolate and cashmere sweaters, obviously. But we undoubtedly have a better chance of having luxury items here than Cubans do there, regardless of the reasons why.

You'd be surprised how effective a strategy like this can be. People living in repressive regimes can get used to being politically silenced--but going without creature comforts is what's *really* hard for the average Jose or Maria on a day-to-day basis. The great Revolutions of the past were usually brought on not by political posturing, but by simple people being forced to do without small luxuries and necessities--like bread or tea. As much as Castro rants about the trade/travel embargo, he'd probably be horrified if we lifted it and people could easily send luxuries to Cubans. He doesn't want his people reminded of what they're missing, because he knows that this will breed resentment and rebellion in the population--"Why can't we have these things HERE?".

If they really want to impress Cubans, try nationalizing healthcare. Until we have a universal healthcare system, the Castro regime will always have a reason to point to us and call us barbaric. We are not very good role models in that respect.

[Mika]

26. The people who would be horrified to have the embargo ended would be US/Cuban exile profiteers

Look at the millions of dollars of unaccounted for taxpayer money.

These so called 'anti Castro' and 'free Cuba' organizations and foundations have been sucking at the American taxpayer teat for decades. Without Castro the teat would dry up. They have little interest in seeing an end to the boogeymen (the Castro brothers). In fact, the best thing that could happen for them would be for Raul Castro to take over as Cuban Head of State.

No Castro = no millions of anti Castro taxpayer dollars.


--


Posted by oktoberain--> But we undoubtedly have a better chance of having luxury items here than Cubans do there, regardless of the reasons why.


Regardless of the reasons why?

You can't just simply brush off the reasons why. Think of how bad off the US would be IF we were subjected to an extra territorial embargo that included the ability to obtain credit.

The Cuban Revolution (one of the Great Revolutions) was undertaken by the masses not for some political posturings, but because their living conditions were so brutally bad.

As for the Cuban people not having cashmere sweaters or Godiva chocolates, believe me.. they would much rather have their world class universal health care and world class universal education for their families and children. Cubans don't live under a rock. They know the global health care and ed situation. They know that the US ranks very low in the rankings in these areas of social development. Cubans are ready and willing to make some sacrifices for their children's health and future - at the same time as America seems to be selling their own children's futures short (with massing debt, eroding health and ed infrastructures, massive prison pop, etc, etc). If they have to go without cashmere sweaters or Godiva chocolates (and other debt producing luxuries), then so be it. They have their priorities in order. Children first. Education first. Health care for all first.


--

Before the 1959 revolution

75% of rural dwellings were huts made from palm trees.

More than 50% had no toilets of any kind.

85% had no inside running water.

91% had no electricity.

There was only 1 doctor per 2,000 people in rural areas.

More than one-third of the rural population had intestinal parasites.

Only 4% of Cuban peasants ate meat regularly; only 1% ate fish, less than 2% eggs, 3% bread, 11% milk; none ate green vegetables.

The average annual income among peasants was $91 (1956), less than 1/3 of the national income per person.

45% of the rural population was illiterate; 44% had never attended a school.

25% of the labor force was chronically unemployed.

1 million people were illiterate ( in a population of about 5.5 million).

27% of urban children, not to speak of 61% of rural children, were not attending school.

Racial discrimination was widespread.

The public school system had deteriorated badly.

Corruption was endemic; anyone could be bought, from a Supreme Court judge to a cop.

Police brutality and torture were common.

___



After the 1959 revolution

“It is in some sense almost an anti-model,” according to Eric Swanson, the programme manager for the Bank’s Development Data Group, which compiled the WDI, a tome of almost 400 pages covering scores of economic, social, and environmental indicators.

Indeed, Cuba is living proof in many ways that the Bank’s dictum that economic growth is a pre-condition for improving the lives of the poor is over-stated, if not, downright wrong.

-

It has reduced its infant mortality rate from 11 per 1,000 births in 1990 to seven in 1999, which places it firmly in the ranks of the western industrialised nations. It now stands at six, according to Jo Ritzen, the Bank’s Vice President for Development Policy, who visited Cuba privately several months ago to see for himself.

By comparison, the infant mortality rate for Argentina stood at 18 in 1999;

Chile’s was down to ten; and Costa Rica, at 12. For the entire Latin American and Caribbean region as a whole, the average was 30 in 1999.

Similarly, the mortality rate for children under the age of five in Cuba has fallen from 13 to eight per thousand over the decade. That figure is 50% lower than the rate in Chile, the Latin American country closest to Cuba’s achievement. For the region as a whole, the average was 38 in 1999.

“Six for every 1,000 in infant mortality - the same level as Spain - is just unbelievable,” according to Ritzen, a former education minister in the Netherlands. “You observe it, and so you see that Cuba has done exceedingly well in the human development area.”

Indeed, in Ritzen’s own field, the figures tell much the same story. Net primary enrolment for both girls and boys reached 100% in 1997, up from 92% in 1990. That was as high as most developed nations - higher even than the US rate and well above 80-90% rates achieved by the most advanced Latin American countries.

“Even in education performance, Cuba’s is very much in tune with the developed world, and much higher than schools in, say, Argentina, Brazil, or Chile.”

It is no wonder, in some ways. Public spending on education in Cuba amounts to about 6.7% of gross national income, twice the proportion in other Latin American and Caribbean countries and even Singapore.

There were 12 primary school pupils for every Cuban teacher in 1997, a ratio that ranked with Sweden, rather than any other developing country. The Latin American and East Asian average was twice as high at 25 to one.

The average youth (age 15-24) illiteracy rate in Latin America and the Caribbean stands at 7%. In Cuba, the rate is zero. In Latin America, where the average is 7%, only Uruguay approaches that achievement, with one percent youth illiteracy.

“Cuba managed to reduce illiteracy from 40% to zero within ten years,” said Ritzen. “If Cuba shows that it is possible, it shifts the burden of proof to those who say it’s not possible.”

Similarly, Cuba devoted 9.1% of its gross domestic product (GDP) during the 1990s to health care, roughly equivalent to Canada’s rate. Its ratio of 5.3 doctors per 1,000 people was the highest in the world.

The question that these statistics pose, of course, is whether the Cuban experience can be replicated. The answer given here is probably not.

“What does it, is the incredible dedication,” according to Wayne Smith, who was head of the US Interests Section in Havana in the late 1970s and early 1980s and has travelled to the island many times since.

[NorthernSpy]

28. yeah, 'cause the Europeans who already vacation and do business in Cuba NEVER have chocolates...

:eyes:

Aw, come into the real world already!

Cuba isn't being embargoed by the entire globe -- just by one rapidly fading "superpower". The Cubans already know perfectly well what the rest of the world has to offer, because the rest of world routinely shows up on their doorstep, toting all manner of wares.

What's funny is that so many Americans still haven't noticed that try as it might, Washington simply hasn't the power to isolate Cuba. We just sort of take it for granted that if our gummint hates Mr. Castro, then it's a sure thing that all nations must be following our lead, obediently treating Cuba as a pariah. More delusions of omnipotence, I guess.

[gorbal]

32. Plus, godiva chocolate is so much cheeper in europe.

What kind of wingnut would by them from the us?

[Solon]

34. You think Cubans can't get Gameboys and stuff?

Most of the good products aren't even American, Gameboys included, and so they don't fall under the embargo. The items Cuba is short of are big ticket items, such as cars, industrial equipment etc. In fact, Cuba is famous, worldwide, for it vintage era automobiles, most are American made, but, since the embargo, they couldn't buy new ones, so the kept the old ones running, and, in most cases, in PERFECT shape. Since they are an Island, under an embargo by their closest geographical neighbor, things like Internet connections, buying big ticket items, etc. are extremely expensive.

[Mika]

39. Gameboys are included in the embargo

If they are sold in the USA then they cannot be sold to/in Cuba. That is how the sanctions work. Companies cannot sell their products to/in both the USA and Cuba. They must choose one or the other.

[Akoto]

25. Well, they can't afford their programs, but at least they can capture Pokemon.

[Scurrilous]

27. More shenanigans:

TV Martí executive indicted

<snip>

"A federal grand jury indicted a senior TV Martí executive, accusing him of taking more than $100,000 in kickbacks from a company that was doing business with the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, which oversees the Martí operation, prosecutors said Friday.

Jose M. Miranda, nicknamed ''Chema,'' received the money from Perfect Image Film and Video Productions, a vendor that was doing business with TV Martí, according to a federal statement.

''Miranda was accepting these monies during the same time that he approved requisitions and invoices for services rendered by Perfect Image to TV Martí,'' U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta said.

Miranda said in Spanish Friday night ``I haven't even talked to my lawyer. I can't say anything.''

Miranda is also charged with ``making false representations to the U.S. government, in that he falsely reported no outside income in financial disclosure reports.''

OCB Director Pedro Roig, who has run the radio and television operation since, could not comment."

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16042431.htm

[Judi Lynn]

30. I want to find out all I can about this! Very, very interesting.

You may remember hearing about Democratic Congressman from Colorado, David Skaggs, who said TV Marti was a black hole economically, inhaling millions and millions of American taxpayers' dollars annually, without actually ACHIEVING any goal or anything close.

Republican Miami Cuban "exile" Congressman Lincoln Diaz Balart threatened Skaggs, got right in his face and told him he would go after everything Skaggs was working for in Colorado, and got all his projects eliminated, then took out ads in Colorado papers telling Colorado citizens that Skaggs had lost the projects, and Skaggs was never re-elected.

7/1/93 After having funds for Radio and TV Marti deleted in a closed mark-up session, the House Appropriations Committee restores funds for Radio Marti but not TV Marti (CAC, 6/22/93; CM, 6/25/93; MH, 6/25/93). Rep. Diaz-Balart succeeds in cutting $23 million from the National Institute of Standards and Technology in an effort to repay Rep. David Skaggs (D-CO) for cutting $17.5 million from Radio and TV Marti. Rep. Skaggs complains, "I was greatly disturbed and saddened that the normal business of this House was subject to these retributive tactics. This is an example of how difficult it is to pull the plug on a program, even one as ineffective as this one." Skaggs believes the programs are unnecessary because Cubans are able to view commercial broadcasts from Florida.

http://cuban-exile.com/doc_126-150/doc0146b.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Washington Post
Monday, February 21, 2000; Page A02
Rifts in Hard Line on Cuba

~snip~
"You know that if you kick the Cuba issue, you're going to have a bad
day," said former representative David Skaggs (D-Colo.), who clashed
with the hard line on Havana, and paid for it with lost funding for his
district. "Other than to about 10 members, it doesn't matter that much.
when there are a few people who will die for the issue, and nobody
else gets anywhere close to that, they can have their way."
(snip)

The general public pays little attention to Cuba issues, said Skaggs, who
joined the Aspen Institute after his 1998 retirement from Congress. But
with the Elian case, he said, the public may have realized that the
hard-liners are "out of sync" with their values. "Maybe this will start to
contribute to some diminishment of their authority generally on Cuba
matters."
(snip)

Those who antagonize the foundation can expect a quick response. The
morning after Skaggs succeeded in temporarily killing funds for TV Marti
in July 1993, he was confronted by an angry Diaz-Balart who, Skaggs said
in an impassioned floor speech that afternoon, threatened "that if I followed
through with my plans, he would do all he could to go after everything he
could find that was important to me."

That same day, Diaz-Balart used a parliamentary "point of order" to ax
millions in federal funds for Skagg's Colorado district, as the foundation
was faxing a gloating press release detailing the maneuver, and the reason
for it, to every major newspaper in the state.

"We only go after people who come after us," Jose Cardenas, the
foundation's Washington director, said in a recent interview.
(snip/...)

http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/us-cuba/rifts.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If ANYTHING can work to separate the U.S. taxpayers from this Miami humongo PORK project, and save us millions annually, it's going to suddenly be a brighter, finer world!

It might get a boost from this dipstick "Jose M. Miranda."

Thank you, so much, Scurrilous. Can't wait to hear more.

On edit:

Adding photo of former Congressman, DEMOCRAT, David Skaggs, and Lincoln Diaz-Balart

[Scurrilous]

31. I live in the 21st Congressional District...

...and Lincoln Diaz Balart is my US Congressman. :thumbsdown:

I can remember when South Florida was represented in Congress by Claude Pepper, Dante Fascell, and William Lehman.

Now we've got the likes of the Diaz Balart bros. and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. Ugh...

[Judi Lynn]

29. I just found a song by Cuba's beloved singer, Silvio Rodriguez, on You Tube

The song is "Blancanieves."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEhNF7KGIrs

Here are the lyrics:

Silvio Rodriguez - Blancanieves Lyrics

Mi alma creció silenciosa y normal
hasta cuando cumplí cinco
años
crecía yo en mi pueblo natal
anhelando lo nuevo y
lo extraño
Fue entonces cuando hubo domingo
para una
matiné infantil
era marzo, era abril
era el color
y
era una luz del asombro
ilustrando el amor... el
amor
Soy de provincia y por eso tal vez
el seguro
de mi alma es tan leve
confieso que bien pasados los
días
volví al cine tras mi blancanieves
Aun me
estremece inmaculada
frente a la infamia y el horror
fue
mi primer amory fue
también
la única excusa
para
una alma ilusa que mientras vivió
dio a blancanieves su
leve, su primer amor

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sorry to say I have no idea what it means, but the music sounds wonderful.

[Mnemosyne]

33. "cashmere sweaters, crabmeat and expensive chocolates" - Says it all Mika. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

35. Hearings Promised on Cuba Aid

Hearings Promised on Cuba Aid
November 17, 2006
Andrew Zajac and Gary Marx

WASHINGTON -- A leading congressional critic of Bush administration policy toward Cuba said he will hold hearings next year on a government watchdog report critical of how federal funds are spent on a program to promote democracy in Cuba.

"This program is a poorly administered part of a badly flawed policy," said Rep. William Delahunt (D-Mass.).
(snip)

Delahunt is positioned to call hearings because he is in line to be chairman of the House International Relations Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee when Democrats become the majority party in January.

He requested the GAO report along with Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.). Both are members of the House bipartisan Cuba Working Group, which advocates an end to the U.S. government's 40-plus-year policy of squeezing Fidel Castro's regime through economic sanctions and limits on travel. Under President Bush, restrictions on trade and travel have been increased beyond already tight limits set by previous administrations.

Delahunt said the democracy promotion program is only a small part of a failed policy, but he wants to call attention to it through hearings "to examine what we're doing with the taxpayers' dollars."

Flake said he hopes Democrats will be more aggressive in investigating spending on Cuba than Republicans. "We've fallen down on this," he said. "I would be surprised if the administration would say that we can continue on like this. This is a scathing report."
(snip/...)

http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/news/newsbyid.asp?id=50002

[Mika]

36. ALRIGHT!!

Lets just hope the Dems don't plan to pull a "Lieberman" on this.

Time to stop lining the pockets of the anti Castro/ anti Cuba industry foundation honchos with millions of our tax dollars.

Time to end the useless, multi million dollar per year, Radio and TV Marti that broadcasts to no one.

Its time to put the sanctions and travel restrictions to bed.

Let's treat Cuba & the Cuban people like friends, not enemies. Its all that the Cubans want also.


:bounce:

[Scurrilous]

37. Cuban dissidents ask U.S. to lift travel, aid limits

<snip>

"Four of Cuba's most prominent dissident groups are calling on the Bush administration to lift at least some restrictions on travel to the island and direct U.S. aid to pro-democracy groups there, saying the restrictions "in no way help" their struggle.

The dissidents' statement was intended to support the Miami organizations that handle some of the U.S. aid but wound up causing a stir, particularly among hard-line exile groups that support the travel restrictions. It also raised a question of whether the administration would still push its plan for an extra $80 million to aid an opposition that disagrees with its principal policies.

The six-paragraph statement released over the weekend comes in the wake of a Government Accountability Office report that questioned oversight and spending in $65 million by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) for Cuba democracy programs.

The report showed that some agencies in Miami which send goods such as medicine to dissidents also made questionable expenditures on items such as Godiva chocolates or Gameboys for dissidents' kids.

"We deem it very important to achieve a greater efficiency in the use of said funds," the statement said. "We believe that one possible way to achieve this would be the elimination of a series of existing restrictions on the shipment of aid and travel to Cuba, which in no way help the struggle for democracy we wage inside our country."

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16111347.htm

[FreeStateDemocrat]

38. Time for criminal charges for misusing tax dollar that need to be spent on problems in our country.

[Say_What]

40. From Havana: A variant of Clue

Ah, yes. The very lucrative anti-Cuba industry at work.

<clips>

...I begin a game of "Clue"

Card 4: Elizardo Sánchez Santacruz, president of the Cuban Committee for Human Rights, told the French news agency AFP that "the big problem remains that most of those funds -- maybe half or more -- stay up there as 'administrative costs.'"

Three years ago, in an interview he gave me, which was published in Progreso Weekly in my old column "A Correspondent's Notebook," Sánchez also said that most of the funds "stay up there." At least in the past three years, didn't anybody notice?

I ask a simple question: Where must Washington create democracy? In Cuba or in Florida? Because if most of the money stays "up there," the answer is obvious and reveals a remarkable job on the part of USAID, which apparently knows about the need for democracy in Miami and uses Cuba as an excuse. Very intelligent, those USAID folks.

Card 5: "I never received any 30-dollar jacket," Martha Beatriz Roque, president of the Assembly to Promote Civilian Society in Cuba, told the Spanish news agency Efe. She also said that "the Cuban opposition does not receive money and is not on the payroll of the U.S. government, and they can do with their money whatever they want."

However, the cost for the celebration of the constituent assembly of the organization headed by Mrs. Roque, held in public in Havana in May 2005, was estimated at $130,000. Where did that money come from?

http://www.progresoweekly.com/index.php?progreso=Ramy&otherweek=1164693600

[Judi Lynn]

41. Everyone interested in the original article posted must read your link.

So MUCH has been hidden about US/Cuba policy, and everything which gets out almost has to be dug out with great effort!

F'r instance, the very idea of supporting these people financially while they work to destabilize the Cuban government is FORBIDDEN for other countries, were they to attempt the same thing HERE. It's ILLEGAL HERE, but WE'RE DOING IT THERE.

How honorable is that?

From the article:

the U.S. and its leading authorities have made public their policy to provide financial support to opposition groups in Cuba. And second, because -- with some exceptions -- the majority of the dissidents have told the international media that they're willing to accept it.
(snip)

An American accepting money from a foreign government under the same circumstances would be in deep trouble with the U.S. Government.