Florida companies send goods to Cuba under embargo exception

[Judi Lynn]

Florida companies send goods to Cuba under embargo exception

Thu, Jul 29, 2004

BY JOHN PAIN

The Associated Press


MIAMI — Richard Waltzer doesn't hesitate when asked to name his beverage company's best customer — Fidel Castro, of course.

"He's paying cash up front," said Waltzer, president of Splash Tropical Drinks of Fort Lauderdale. "It doesn't get any better than that."

Splash has sold more than $1 million in cola and juice concentrates, ice cream and daiquiri mixes and other food products to Castro's Cuba since the United States eased its trade embargo on the communist nation four years ago.

As Florida exports to Cuba increase, the state's farmers, ranchers and businesses are joining counterparts elsewhere in the United States to push for an end to the embargo that has been in place for more than four decades to topple Castro.
(snip/...)

http://keysnews.com/288640975248109.bsp.htm

[Judi Lynn]

1. Kerry to court Cubans unhappy with president

Posted on Wed, Jul. 28, 2004


FLORIDA VOTERS

Kerry to court Cubans unhappy with president

BY LESLEY CLARK
[e-mail]


BOSTON - John Kerry's campaign pledged Wednesday an all-out effort to woo Cuban-American voters to its side, hoping to exploit an emerging division in the once reliably Republican voting bloc.The outreach effort includes making South Florida one of the first post-convention stops for vice presidential candidate John Edwards, who is scheduled to meet with Cuban-American leaders Monday at a private reception in Miami, according to sources close to the campaign.

Campaign officials would not confirm the Edwards visit, but said they have hired a Miami field organizer and plan advertising and other means of courting Cuban Americans -- some of whom have assailed President Bush's recent crackdown on Fidel Castro as harmful to Cuban families.

''They gave us an unbelievable opportunity and we have a policy that gives us an opportunity to take advantage of that,'' said Tom Shea, Kerry's Florida campaign manager.

Several polls have suggested some softening of support for Bush, mostly among younger Cuban Americans, presumably those with family still on the island.

''We plan on going after that vote aggressively,'' Shea said. ``They've left themselves very vulnerable.''
(snip/...)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/nation/9258698.htm?ERIGHTS=-6479243883011322406miami:&KRD_RM=3mkmlmmlnkjppmjjjjjjjjjsko|
(Free registration required)

[Mika]

3. How many times have we been bullshitted?

How many time a day do we hear Al Franken, Ed Shultz, Randi Rhodes, Guy James, etc etc etc, babble on that Florida hispanics "traditionally" vote repug? (As part of their "observations" on the Fla felon purge list that had almost no hispanics.)

They are dead wrong w/their false stereotyping.




A strategy for Kerry: 'Wind up' Cuban vote
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/9267955.htm

But even more threatening to the White House: A survey of registered voters by the New Democratic Network done by Miami pollster Sergio Bendixen earlier this month found a cavernous divide in party loyalties between Cubans who arrived in the United States before 1980 and those who came later or who were born in the United States.

Those in that first wave, who comprise about two-thirds of the total vote, still favor Bush over Kerry by an incredible 92 percent to 6 percent.

But the post-Mariel Cubans favor Kerry over Bush by 55 to 20 percent. And those born here back the Democrat by 58 to 35 percent.

-

The long-term implications of this aside, if that survey is accurate and nothing changes between now and Election Day, Bush could lose 100,000 Hispanic votes from his 2000 total. That's a seismic shift in a state that was officially decided by 537 votes.

FYI,

charts from opensecrets.org

[Mika]

2. Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that Castro this Castro that

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Richard Waltzer doesn't hesitate when asked to name his beverage company's best customer — Fidel Castro, of course

Of course. :crazy:



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