From: Flexner, Allison
Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2008 7:46 AM
To: *CNN Superdesk (TBS)
Cc: Neill, Morgan; Darlington, Shasta
Subject: Castro guidance
Some points on Castro – for adding to our anchor reads/reporting:
* Please say in our reporting that Castro stepped down in a letter he wrote to Granma (the communist party daily), as opposed to in a letter attributed to Fidel Castro. We have no reason to doubt he wrote his resignation letter, he has penned numerous articles over the past year and a half.
* Please note Fidel did bring social reforms to Cuba – namely free education and universal health care, and racial integration. in addition to being criticized for oppressing human rights and freedom of speech.
* Also the Cuban government blames a lot of Cuba’s economic problems on the US embargo, and while that has caused some difficulties, (far less so than the collapse of the Soviet Union) the bulk of Cuba’s economic problems are due to Cuba’s failed economic polices. Some analysts would say the US embargo was a benefit to Castro politically – something to blame problems on, by what the Cubans call “the imperialist,” meddling in their affairs.
* While despised by some, he is seen as a revolutionary hero, especially with leftist in Latin America, for standing up to the United States.
Any questions, please call the international desk.
Allison
(For those who missed it – 537 days have elapsed since bionic Adidas man’s last exhalation.)
More turd-polishing…
h/t to reader “wnc” – “CTV leads with the fact (see website) that Castro outlasted nine US presidents. Never mind term limits, lack of democracy etc. Expect more hagiography over the next few days. Stay tuned for a CBC/CTV special on Trudeau’s ‘historic’ visit to Cuba.”
Perhaps Sasha can narrarate.
His intellect is one of the most broad and complete that can be found. He is an expert on genetics, on automobile combustion engines, on stock markets. On everything.
Combined with a Herculean physique and extraordinary personal courage, this monumental intellect makes Fidel the giant that he is.
(I advise you gird yourself with a shot of gravol before continuing with that link.)
CNN is just trying to position its coverage to be an honest assessment of the man, his times and his country, instead of the drivel which I’m sure Fox has spewed forth since this was announced.
IIH:
An honest and balanced assessment of Cuba would mean attacking him from the left as well as the right. He bans free unions. He’s wrong on gays who until recently faced severe persecution. He’s wrong on AIDS, victims of which are forced into isolated sanitariums. He’s wrong on speech, reporters are dying in his prisons. And unlike what CNN says, he’s wrong on race – black Cubans are excluded from the leadership and are systematically excluded from the ‘dollar economy’ and force to live on paltry state rations.
On race, on speech, on gays, on aids and on unions – Castro is the enemy of the left. So instead of aping CNN and fellating his ego and maybe you ought to reevaluate the honesty of your assessment.
Ian in Hamburg, have we got out knickers in a knot over a non-Leftard cable news service being allowed to exist?
Define Fox News “drivel” please.
Could it be talking about the brutal repression of the Cuban Secret Police? Or discussing the existence of the Cuban Gulag, which is getting ever more filled with journalists wanting to write freely and human rights activists ill-mannered enough to demand human rights in Cuba?
Could “drivel” include interviewing actual Cuban refugees in Florida, talking about the awful conditions under which most Cubans live?
Or could “drivel” simply mean journalists not kissing the late Fidel’s ass because he was a devout America-hater?
If we really want to know how bad things are in Cuba, just watch what Obama does with the US.
The quarter of the population of Cuba who live in Miami, and the ones who died but didn’t make it got it wrong, and would have been better of staying in Cuba?
Why do lefties love that island prison and its warden? I guess it reflects a life style which they claim to love; poverty, but with universal health care. And all status comes from the government.
Yep they hate Gitmo for locking up terrorists but the prison camp on the other side of the fence is ok.
“Please note Fidel did bring social reforms to Cuba”
…yes at the cost of 200,000 political deaths….a good down-payment on collectivist utopia but still little personal gain for the average Cuban.
There is now an established, privileged political class where there once was an established privileged planter class….except now the plantations are run by technocratic marxists and production quotas are enforced with a gun.
Yes it wouldn’t be fair and balanced to point out all that messy bayonetting of political prisoners thing.
It sure would be interesting to get the “terrorist/freedomfighter guidance” sheet from the CBC. Probably reads in much the same manner. It could be that CNN is “CBC South” but to me that is perfectly acceptable because not a single dime of government money goes to CNN. That is fair play – while in Canada with the Mother Corp – well now, that is a whole different story, isn’t it.
ian in hamburg – like most leftards, you rail against Fox News but probably never watch it. Like most leftards you are used to having the MSM give it to you in the slant you like. Fox gives it to you with much more balance – admit it or not. It is typical of leftards to cry foul when given all the facts – not just those that carry the day for you.
I am sure that “ian in hamburg” would be the first in line to fellate the resurrected corpse of the murdering thug, che”I mete out my own form of social justice, a bullet in the head” guevera.
These moonbats, and their commie thug hero worship, are truly a blast. Keep it up, LOSERS!
CTV leads with the fact (see website) that Castro outlasted nine US presidents. Never mind term limits, lack of democracy etc. Expect more hagiography over the next few days. Stay tuned for a CBC/CTV special on Trudeau’s ‘historic’ visit to Cuba.
Its a shame….
CTV leads with the fact (see website) that Castro outlasted nine US presidents. Never mind term limits, lack of democracy etc. Expect more hagiography over the next few days. Stay tuned for a CBC/CTV special on Trudeau’s ‘historic’ visit to Cuba.
Its a shame….
Cuba is a large jail, with walls of water instead of steel, where Liberty is absent, Totalitarianism is the rule and the people suffer without recourse.
The sooner he kicks out, the better. He can go to hell with Che & Mao & Stalin and laugh about their mass murdering regimes.
Hey ian, replace the names CASTRO with BUSH and CUBA with AMERICA and then let’s hear your opinion.
50 years in a communist prison. wow. the left likes dictators because they like power to be held by the smallest number of people. the people at the top in any communist country are the royalty. all people who wish to subjgate others to their will should be removed from this life.
Heard on breakenridge last night that it is estimated that Castro imprisoned more people on a per capita basis than Stalin. Bet we don’t hear that stat mentioned on the CBC/CNN.
“Heard on breakenridge last night that it is estimated that Castro imprisoned more people on a per capita basis than Stalin. ”
Gord, there’s this great Russian author named Solzhenitsyn who I definitely think you should read. When The Gulag Archipelago first came out many people disbelieved the accounts of mass arrests as they were too horrible to conceive; they were later verified (and often understated) post-1991 when documents were released.
Reading the comments in this thread I can understand why CNN felt the need to write a memo; nothing brings out the stupid like a room full of North American baby boomers with an axe to grind.
“Please note Fidel did bring social reforms to Cuba”
Social reform alright. The only well off cubans are government insiders and prostitutes. And most of those are still very poor compared to the average Cuban American.
Somebody should do a psychological study on leftists and determine how bad their pathology of denial is. Cuba is the worst case of leftists refusing to see what’s right before their very eyes. The mental illness is so bad it’s creepy.
Communism – The face of evil on earth.
Castro the communist.
Canada’s best known communist – Pierre Trudeau.
Dead 2702 days – today.
MSM, enablers of Canadian socialism, kissing cousin of communism.
Until one has actually visited Cuba and walked it’s streets and analysed the situation away from the ‘mirage’ of a resort, one cannot truly comprehend how miserable life can be if you are not a government worker there.
Some of the other said “privileged” ones are the resort workers. I tried many times to secretely leave a tip in our room…Unfortunately, there is always a room “pimp” unlocking the doors and thoroughly looking for these little treasures…The maids are not allowed that cash which a big portion goes back to the government.
I also tried to hand some money to a miserable looking little girl on the street…She took the dollar but looked very nervous…I was later told NOT to do this anymore as the peasants, and including myself, could get into serious trouble if caught.
One of the biggest mistakes I have ever done in my life was to help that communist regime by spending vacation money there…NEVER AGAIN!
I hope Fidel croaks soon so he can go wait in line for sand paper type toilet paper in Communist hell along with his sidekick Trudeau.
Conclusion: Do not trust most medias. CNN and CBC being among the worst there is.
Yes, one must always provide balance in today’s MSM. If they were doing a retro story on Hitler they’d add that he was a vegetarian and loved small children no doubt.
The smarmy snakes in the media are more toxic to our western values than any Islamofascist.
Good comment Grind a Grit,
I’ve never been to Cuba but an awful lot of Canadians go there and basically prop up the regime (this money does not go to the average joe or jose).
You’ve got 2 crowds that go there: the warm vacation on the cheap crowd, and the let’s talk to Cubans and learn about Cuba (and get some sun too) crowd.
Most people I know in the second crowd would never go back (no matter how cheap it is) because when you get Cubans to open up they will tell you straight out the situation and how they are cut off from the rest of the world and how they don’t see any money.
dfasfasfsaf – those who weren’t apologists and Marxist syncophants knew about the mass murdering of kulaks, murdered politcal enemies, the forced famines and all of the other evils of Lenin/Stalin long before Solzhenitsyn documented it. Read Martin Amis’ “Korba the Dread” (Stalin) to get a picture of the sheer arrogance and duplicity of the lefty elite apologists in Britain in his father’s day. They are still among us on college campuses across NA and Europe.
Forgot to mention that I was torturing myself the other day by reading the stupid BBC ‘have your say’ thing. They wanted to know what people thought of Castro and his legacy AND they invited Cubans to ‘have their say’. One of the comments stated that Cubans couldn’t reply because it’s illegal to own computers (and access the internet) in Cuba.
“His intellect is one of the most broad and complete that can be found.”
Well, he was smart enough not to allow elections. But that wasn’t too hard for him to figure out.
I have been going to Cuba 2 to 3 times a year on business since 1994. It is common to leave tips on your pillow for the maids. I have not seen the so called “room pimp” , This may be because I don’t frequent the resort hotels. I have developed some Cuban friends, and when I ask what could I bring them, it is usually Aspirin, Tylenol, Childrens vitamins, etc. They do have free health care but do not have basics like over the counter drugs.
An Austrailian friend of mine married a Cuban and have 2 kids. The little boy had a learning diability, and his doctor said he needed an MRI.
There is only 1 MRI on the island for some 11 million Cubans,
The MRI is Fidels, and he basically rents it out to rich Venezuelans (Hugo Chavez friends) and it is largely unavailable to the locals.
My Aussie friend went to his Embassy and got an appointment for the MRI. When his Cuban wife showed up with the boy, and realized they were Cuban he was denied and bumped by a Rich business man from out of country. 2 tiered health system in a communist country…. Oh no don’t tell me…….
Needless to say my Aussie friend now lives in Australia with his Cuban wife and 2 kids who are both doing well.
Without revisionism …. lefty would have NOTHING! This communication from CNN’s staff is just SOP for the MSM.
BBC – Reuters – AP – CP – CBC have ALL been churning out apologist garbage on Castro for the last two days. It just NEVER stops…..
BTW – Can you hear the tears fall and the sound of gentle weeping from the house of Trudeau??
Dr. Mengele Suzuki did a piece on sustainable agriculture in Cuba, lots of pastoral shots of donkeys plowing feilds. Maybe he discussed genetics with the great leader. I think the head of North Korea is also an expert on everything.
Sashas piece on Castro is almost homoerotic, Ive never seen Sasha speak, but I thought Justin was a poof by his delivery.
Superman expert on everything. Pretty well sums it up. Gravol wasn’t strong enough.
I have a friend who goes to Cuba 4 times a year to support several families with small children.
He reported the following many times:
-Extreme corruption of police and government officials. He has to bribe constantly to get through to those he wants to help.
-Families can be severely punished for taking money from tourists for any service they might provide including renting a room to a foreign friend.
-Cubans will rat on each other out of jealousy or out of fear.
-The average family is short on food and hungry most of the time.
– The best of the health care system is mostly reserved for the few connected families.(sound familiar)
– They hate Castro but are terrified to say it out loud.
If this is the left’s idea of a Utopian state I encourage all you lefties to move there.
We certainly won’t miss you here.
Looks like the communists are the good guy and US is the bad guy, how about news manufacturing?
To feeble minded, Castro is a veritable god in the pantheon of communist dictators, close to the supreme one, who ever that may be.
Trudeau/Castro about as tasty as raw sea urchins and lime juice.
Will there be anyone in Canadian MSM who will publicly call out Castro for the bloody human-subjugating tyrant he really is?
It bears internet repeating and poking in the eyes of the communist Castro “lickspittle” MSM, that we do not accept the sycophantic praise that they (MSM) heap on Pierre Trudeau’s buddy.
Or is the Castro fawning merely intended to poke more invective at, and further the Bush hating anti – Americanism by our Canadian media?
Let’s see now. Immigration good. Check. Cuba good. Check…
Immigration to Cuba? Um…. well, um….
CTV, Sasha, CBC, please explain the phenomenon that is “Cuba, Colosal Magnet For The World’s Best And Brightest”. Thanks.
Bill Whittle (http://www.ejectejecteject.com/)
wrote a compelling essay on critical thinking which demolishes all of these (insert vile adjective for the trudeaus here) arguments.
“Go up on deck, and see which way the rafts are heading”. I’m sorry, I don’t remember which essay it was, but you can’t really go wrong reading any of them.
While in Cuba, if you use your credit card for meals etc.. don’t fill in the tip portion of the Visa bill, as the tip then goes to the state as all businesses are owned by Fidel.
Give your tip discreetly to the waiter/ress in Cash, Then it’ll benefit the person who gave you the service.
I actually saved Sasha’s full page article in the Post because it was so unbelievable.
I’ve never kept a newspaper article in my life.
Still have it ,too.
I think it’s fair to say that the boys got their mothers brains and their fathers love of commies.
Perhaps they got both from thier mother because Drunk Drivin Maggee noted “Castro was the “sexiest” man she ever met”.
Slave owning is HOT!
I didnt want to read to far into the CTV(Tass) legacy of charm and wit… did they happen to mention that he brought the world to the brink of nuclear war by inviting the Ruskies to plunk nucks on the doorstep of the USA?
In 2002, spent a couple of weeks freely wandering around Cuba on my own, observing the extreme poverty and talking to ordinary folks. I never felt threatened, and was never asked to produce either my papers or a bribe.
I know Latin America fairly well and would say that Cuba is a fairly typical hell-hole – about on par with Guatemala or Honduras.
Castro y cia weren’t hesitant about killing their opponents – especially in the ’60s but 200,000? Ridiculous. Like the Somozas in Nicaragua they killed or imprisoned enough to keep the peones “in line” but they weren’t a bunch of crazy little Stalins. (Of course, they had the convenient safety valve of rafts and rowboats to Florida that removed thousands of dissidents, and there were periods when there was no serious attempt to stop the runaways, who Castro contemptuously referred to as “worms”.)
Castro dead? I doubt that very much. When he goes there will be one hell of a big parade, an open-coffin viewing and lots of bombastic speeches to squeeze as much propaganda benefit as possible from the maximum leader. Communists are like British royalty when it comes to pomp and ceremony.
Sasha-Sash wrote that this man of “monumental intellect” with a “Herculean physique” is “more in the vein of a great adventurer or great scientific mind…He is famous for not sleeping, instead spending the night studying and learning.”
It’s remarkable how that works. Kim Jong Il, as well, is famous for being the smartest, more clever, most physically fit, and for his feats of athletic prowess — shooting numerous holes in one in one round, for example.
BTW, it sounds like CTV and CBC are divvying up the word-pile. CTV says “Castro outlasted nine US presidents”, but the CBC won the toss: He “defied nine US presidents” — even more impressive, when you think about it. The National’s report opened with: “The Lion of Communism….”
Meow.
The CTV evening news had Fidel “outlasting 10 U.S. presidents,” which means they had him outlasting President Bush.
Whoever wrote that screed on sasha’s blog, I just want them to know: fidel is a steaming load of Excrement, as is that article and the mind behind it.
God Help Us if such people ever get to write the history of Cuba and / or the US, down the road.
Los compadres. Si.
http://tinyurl.com/2lxux6
“(Cubans) do occasionally complain, often as an adolescent might complain about a too strict and demanding father.”
Oh, yikes.
“Pierre Trudeau had a friendship with Fidel Castro that went beyond politics. It was a mutual admiration between two men who put their unmatched intellects at the service of their country.”
Jeez-o……
For those of you wishing to get the bad taste of Sasha Trudeau’s sycophancy off your eyeballs, I have just the thing.
The Cuban Worker’s Paradise from a gearhead perspective. What does it take to keep a 1957 Chevy as a daily driver right up to 2008? Ask a Cuban! They know!
Why do they know? Ask Fidel!!!
Vi-va Fidel! Vi-va Fidel!
Oops, forgot the URL:
phantomsoapbox.blogspot.com/2008/02/farewell-fidel.html
I even included pictures for Ian in Hamburg.
“Superhero” nonsense aside, Sasha does make a good point about the embargo:
It’s simplistic to only blame the targeted government (like Hamas in Gaza). Cuba isn’t Castro, it’s a whole lot of other history besides.
So Dilettant, the embargo is why Cubans can’t buy American cars.
Why can’t they buy Japanese cars? German? Indeed, why can’t they buy Chinese or Russian cars?