Before the election, it was never mentioned. Now they’re even talking about it on the Weather Channel.
Steven Hayward sums my feelings in one sentence: DUMB AND DUMBER: THE STUPID PARTY MARCHES ON.
Go read the whole thing.
Archives for December 2012
Cuba: US won’t swap 5 spies for Alan Gross
Alan Gross, the American prisoner held in Cuba, won’t be released soon; he was arrested on December 3, 2009, and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
US official rejects Cuba’s offer to swap contractor Alan Gross for 5 Cuban spies
Cuba’s offer to swap U.S. government subcontractor Alan Gross for five Cuban spies convicted in Miami is not at all acceptable to Washington, a senior State Department official affirmed Monday on the third anniversary of Gross’ arrest.
Asked directly if a Gross-for-spies swap might be possible during President Barack Obama’s next four years in the White House, the official replied, “No, I don’t think so.”
“We reject the notion of linkage,” added the official, who met with several journalists in Miami but asked for anonymity under State Department procedures. “There is no parallel between the two cases.”
The US has put very little pressure on Cuba. Historically, the Communist regime ignores “pressure.”
Gross’s supporters
, called Friday on the U.S. government to send a high-level envoy to Havana and seek release of the ailing humanitarian worker.
The Gross family is also suing both the U.S. Agency for International Development and its contractor DAI, which sent him to Cuba, charging they failed to properly train and prepare him for a mission they likely knew was high-risk and possibly violated Cuban laws.
Neither agency has paid his salary to his wife and family while he has been for three years sharing a small cell with two other prisoners in a Cuban military jail for handing out Internet hardware and software to the small Cuban Jewish community — a USAID project aimed at moving the communist-ruled island nation toward democracy.
Alan Gross, 63, has lost over 100lbs and has a large lump growing on his back, which under the “excellent free healthcare” Cubans endure are considered “chronic illnesses that are typical of his age.”
Or, as they say in Cuba, achaques de la edad.
This is what he looked like before his imprisonment,
This is what he looks like now,
The Obama administration’s handling of the Gross case telegraphs a message: Ben Barber
When I served on U.S. aid projects overseas in places such as Yemen, Egypt and Pakistan, I was certain that in case I should be kidnapped or arrested that the U.S. government would stand by me and my colleagues in the field. Failure to do so in the case of Gross sends a devastating signal to thousands of Americans working overseas on U.S.-funded assistance projects.
In fact when I searched the USAID website for evidence it has vigorously tried to help Gross get out of jail, I found only one bland paragraph inside a speech before Congress by the Latin America assistant administrator Mark Feierstein on March 29.
Smart diplomacy, so smart it reminds us of Benghazi.
Cross-posted at Fausta’s blog.
Monday night tango: Things to do in NYC
by the delightful Yatango.
Introducing Liberty Unyielding
Friends Howard Portnoy, J.E. Dyer, Dustin Siggins and Libby Sternberg, all former Green Room contributors, kindly invited me to join them at the new blog, Liberty Unyielding.
My LU post today is Assange: Freedom of expression for me, but not for Ecuadorians…while he hides at the Ecuadorian embassy.
As you can see from the heading, the blog’s name was inspired by Thomas Jefferson’s quote,
The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.
Please visit LU daily, tweet, and tell your friends.
The Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean
ARGENTINA
Debt – Argentina’s long-festering wound
The Argentine Debt Saga Continues: A COHA Side-By-Side Report with The Pan-American Post
BRAZIL
Brazil Tepid Growth Disappoints
Brazil’s Image Takes a Beating
Gang violence, corruption, and blackouts have created a PR nightmare.
CUBA
Linguistic Reforms
Will a new German law cover Cuban prostitutes?
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
A rum do
The new president faces a tax revolt
Remembering the Mirabal Sisters
ECUADOR
‘Free speech champion’ Julian Assange silent on the assault on free speech in Ecuador
GUATEMALA
Probe finds horrific sexual, physical abuse in Guatemala psychiatric hospital
LATIN AMERICA
Briefing: Secretary of State Candidates and Their Views on Latin America
MEXICO
Departing Mexican Leader Leaves a Mixed Legacy
Mexico, In Hands of a New and Unknown PRI Commanded by Peña Nieto
PUERTO RICO
Camacho case spurs Puerto Rico to examine brain-death guidelines
The funeral: Matando Dos Pájaros De Un Tiro, Cafres Celebran Reunión Anual En El Velorio Del Macho Camacho
VENEZUELA
China’s Misguided Hugo Chávez Love Affair
Another ordinary night in Caracas…
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Battling Bone Metastasis, Report Says
The signs are piling, the end is near (?)
Chavez’ Authorized To Leave Country To Seek Health Treatment
The week’s posts and podcast,
Mexico: Obama not attending inauguration
Venezuela: Judge Afiuni’s detention UPDATED
Podcast:
As Silvio Canto’s guest.
The Crisis of American Self-Government
Famed political scientist Harvey Mansfield is the WSJ’s weekend interview,
The Crisis of American Self-Government
Harvey Mansfield, Harvard’s ‘pet dissenter,’ on the 2012 election, the real cost of entitlements, and why he sees reason for hope.
‘We have now an American political party and a European one. Not all Americans who vote for the European party want to become Europeans. But it doesn’t matter because that’s what they’re voting for. They’re voting for dependency, for lack of ambition, and for insolvency.”
For those who want to split hairs as to which European party, essentially all European politicians and their parties embrace dependency on government-funded social programs, be them public-funded college educations, pensions, or medical care.
Mansfield continues,
The welfare state’s size isn’t what makes it so stifling, Mr. Mansfield says. “What makes government dangerous to the common good is guaranteed entitlements, so that you can never question what expenses have been or will be incurred.” Less important at this moment are spending and tax rates. “I don’t think you can detect the presence or absence of good government,” he says, “simply by looking at the percentage of GDP that government uses up. That’s not an irrelevant figure but it’s not decisive. The decisive thing is whether it’s possible to reform, whether reform is a political possibility.”
What does he want the Republicans to do?
Conservatives should be the party of judgment, not just of principles,” he says. “Of course there are conservative principles—free markets, family values, a strong national defense—but those principles must be defended with the use of good judgment. Conservatives need to be intelligent, and they shouldn’t use their principles as substitutes for intelligence. Principles need to be there so judgment can be distinguished from opportunism. But just because you give ground on principle doesn’t mean you’re an opportunist.”
Nor should flexibility mean abandoning major components of the conservative agenda—including cultural values—in response to a momentary electoral defeat. “Democrats have their cultural argument, which is the attack on the rich and the uncaring,” Mr. Mansfield says. “So Republicans need their cultural arguments to oppose the Democrats’, to say that goodness or justice in our country is not merely the transfer of resources to the poor and vulnerable. We have to take measures to teach the poor and vulnerable to become a little more independent and to prize independence, and not just live for a government check. That means self-government within each self, and where are you going to get that except with morality, responsibility and religion?”
Words to live by, indeed.
Here’s a selection of Mansfield’s books:
Cross-posted at Liberty Unyielding.
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