Cuba deal opens new opportunity for Montana By Sen. MAX BAUCUS (D)

[Osolomia]

Guest Editorial: Cuba deal opens new opportunity for Montana
By MAX BAUCUS
United State Senator
Sunday, October 12, 2003
Montanaforum.com

When I first suggested opening Cuba to Montana and American products a few years ago, it wasn’t the most popular idea in Washington.

But we kept pushing, kept fighting for what’s right for Montana. Now, here we are three years later with a signed agreement to sell $10 million worth of Montana agriculture products to Cuba, and we’re gaining momentum in Congress for lifting the decades-old embargo and travel restrictions the United States has in place on that country.

Traveling to Cuba in September, Rep. Denny Rehberg, seven other Montanans and I carved out a brand-new market for Montana’s high-quality agriculture products. For the first time ever, Cuba has signed an agreement to pay cash for Montana wheat, barley, cattle and dry beans over the next six months. I’m proud because this deal is the first of its kind, and it’ll help create jobs and boost our agriculture economy.

Although this deal is great news for Montana’s economy, we have some more work to do in Washington to change our government’s failed policy toward Cuba.

More…
http://www.montanaforum.com/rednews/2003/10/12/build/economy/cuba-op.php?nnn=6

About time for the 2004 Democratic presidential candidates and their supporters to pay attention to people like Baucus and get on board with the majority across the country don’t you think?

[Bombtrack]

1. the majority?

there are legitimate cases for the embargo. You may think that our deals with China are a double standard, but if you really studied international relations and forein policy, you would understand why it's pretty much impossible to cutt off and isolate China.

Liberals who think Castro is a decent leader are just dumb.

Our policy is flawed, but this issue is complicated. Cubans deserve freedom, period. I'm not saying Baucus's idea is wrong, it might not be, but I also know alot of the left's attitude about Cuba is wrong

[Mika]

2. Yep. 38 states so far. W* policy irrespective

"there are legitimate cases for the embargo"

Can you name some?




"but I also know alot of the left's attitude about Cuba is wrong"

What, exactly, are these attitudes that are wrong?


You posted generalities, without any specifics.

[Bombtrack]

3. alot of leftists think that Castro is a decent leader, and a good guy

he's not, he's an authoritarian thug, and has a deplorable human rights record. He promised elections 40 years ago. He has outlawed free speech.

The US would technically be supporting his communist party by alowing broad trade with him, which I believe the US shouldn't do.

Now, maybe this small trade deal would be ok,(I need to study it more) but I don't think that the US should give into him until he allows more freedoms for the Cuban people.

[Osolomia]

5. Straight out of Bush's propaganda manual eh?

Hook line and sinker, no questions asked. Good for you!

[Bombtrack]

7. No not at all

but I am friends with alot of Cuban-Americans, many of them otherwise liberal Cuban-Americans, and they think that the US needs to everything possible to encourage democracy for Cuba.

I've also studied foreign relations and history extensivly, and I've learned just how anti-US and anti-freedom Castro is, and why the US should never stop trying to give the Cuban people better

[Osolomia]

8. Ah, straight out of the CANF manual is even better

for swallowing hook, line and sinker no questions asked! Better keep those blinders on tight or you just might notice that even the MAJORITY of Cuban-Americans want the sanctions lifted and that the CANFerous extremist minority that Dems insist on pandering to are just that. What a shame, bigtime.

[Mika]

9. You know jack about Cuba

"He promised elections 40 years ago."



Hey bombtrack, before being so cocksure maybe you should do a little research before regurgitating things you know little about.


http://www.gksoft.com/govt/en/cu.html

* Partido Comunista de Cuba (PCC) {Communist Party of Cuba}
* Partido Demócrata Cristiano de Cuba (PDC) {Christian Democratic Party of Cuba} - Oswaldo Paya's Catholic party
* Partido Solidaridad Democrática (PSD) {Democratic Solidarity Party}
* Partido Social Revolucionario Democrático Cubano {Cuban Social Revolutionary Democratic Party}
* Coordinadora Social Demócrata de Cuba (CSDC) {Social Democratic Coordination of Cuba}
* Unión Liberal Cubana {Cuban Liberal Union}

Plenty of info on this long thread,
http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=6300&forum=DCForumID70


http://www.poptel.org.uk/cuba-solidarity/democracy.htm

This system in Cuba is based upon universal adult suffrage for all those aged 16 and over. Nobody is excluded from voting, except convicted criminals or those who have left the country. Voter turnouts have usually been in the region of 95% of those eligible .

There are direct elections to municipal, provincial and national assemblies, the latter represent Cuba's parliament.

Electoral candidates are not chosen by small committees of political parties. No political party, including the Communist Party, is permitted to nominate or campaign for any given candidates.

--

Representative Fidel Castro was elected to the National Assembly as a representative of District #7 Santiago de Cuba.
He is one of the elected 607 representatives in the Cuban National Assembly. It is from that body that the head of state is nominated and then elected. Raul Castro, Carlos Large, and Ricardo Alarcon and others were among the nominated last year. President Castro has won that position since 1976.

http://www.bartleby.com/65/do/Dorticos.html

Dorticós Torrado, Osvaldo

1919–83, president of Cuba (1959–76). A prosperous lawyer, he participated in Fidel Castro’s revolutionary movement and was imprisoned (1958). He escaped and fled to Mexico, returning to Cuba after Castro’s triumph (1959). As minister of laws (1959) he helped to formulate Cuban policies. He was appointed president in 1959. Intelligent and competent, he wielded considerable influence. In 1976 the Cuban government was reorganized, and Castro assumed the title of president; Dorticós was named a member of the council of state.

The Cuban government was reorganized (approved by popular vote) into a variant parliamentary system in 1976.

You can read a short version of the Cuban system here,
http://members.attcanada.ca/~dchris/CubaFAQ.html#Democracy

Or a long and detailed version here,
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0968508405/qid=1053879619/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/102-8821757-1670550?v=glance&s=books





"He has outlawed free speech."


What a f-ing joke. Only someone who has never been to Cuba, or a bought and paid for propagandist, would say such a ridiculous thing.

Have you ever heard of Oswaldo Paya, the representative of the Cuban Christian Democratic party, who won a Nobel prize this year.

[Osolomia]

4. Yes, the MAJORITY!!!!!

Just a few weeks ago for example, for the 4th year in a row, a BIPARTISAN MAJORITY in the House of Representatives voted for your freedom to travel to Cuba. A BIPARTISAN MAJORITY in the Senate is also expected to vote to lift the travel ban any week now despite the fact that Bush is threatening to veto it.

H R 2989 RECORDED VOTE 9-SEP-2003 7:10 PM
AUTHOR(S): Flake of Arizona Amendment
QUESTION: On Agreeing to the Amendment

AYES NOES PRES NV
REPUBLICAN 53 166 9
DEMOCRATIC 173 22 10
INDEPENDENT 1
TOTALS 227 188 19

http://clerk.house.gov/cgi-bin/vote.exe?year=2003&rollnumber=483

[Bombtrack]

6. I'm not against travel

i never said I was. I think that travel is a good thing

[Osolomia]

10. It's going to take yet another 3 years for Americans to be free

Since they've been sound asleep at the wheel for so long.

Former diplomat predicts improved relations with Cuba
Last Update: 10/12/2003 7:01:53 PM

(Mobile-AP) -- A former U-S diplomat to Cuba predicts that relations between the two countries will improve in the next three years.

The chief of the U-S Interests Section in Havana during former President Jimmy Carter's administration, Wayne Smith, says the current policy of restricting travel to Cuba is unimaginative.

Smith spoke last night at the Society Mobile-LaHabana's 10th anniversary conference in Mobile.

Smith criticized the Bush administration. He says progress can only be made when sanctions, such as travel restrictions, are rolled back.

http://wpmi.com/news/state/story.aspx?content_id=50E54720-044F-461E-BB68-7A5133AC8E05

I remember thinking that Smith was being awfully pessimistic when he said it would take 5 years to undo the Helms-Burton Act and that was 7 years ago! Dem's have barely progressed an inch since. What a shame!