Reply #5: Lots of editorials on the tin-pot dictator Bush--even at the GOP USA site [View All]

From GOPUSA.com

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Cuba a Threat or an Opportunity?

...Now, Bush wants to point the finger at a defiant tyrant, not because he is a cruel despot; but because he is not on the same page of the long term program. Has the Monroe Doctrine evolved to such an extent that the prevailing fear is that another Mariel boat invasion is the most effective flanking move for an opposing enemy? In a world where the nexus of a continuous foe drives policy, one must find a fresh adversary or reinvent an old one. Castro may well hang on to the reigns of power longer then his true antagonist the Pope. However, John Paul II won't be offended because of being passed over for the Nobel Peace Prize. If such awards were meaningful, the legacy of Bush II could never be considered . . .

Most staunch Yanks, true believers in their government as a substitute for country, refuse to deal with reality. Without national outrage, the policy of pre-emption has become and will remain routine. Connecting the dots to encircle a genuine national security defense is counter to the master plan. Cuba should be for Cubans. Hopes for a massive exodus back to their homeland are illusory. Osiel has too many cousins named Gonzalez, playing dominos. South Beach may be the dream export for developers, after Castro; but Havana has already arrived in Dade County. Expatriation means electing Republican Representatives. Miami has become a foreign trade zone, where Yankees require a visa and a pocket translator.

All this is just fine with the Bushes as brother Jeb wants to retain the title of viceroy. Elian Gonzalez was sent home, while next of kin Osiel remains angry at electioneering. Cuban-American legal scholar Dr. Alberto Luzarraga said: "It is the Clinton administration that is violating the rule of law with regularity and seeming impunity". What Cuban will now speak out against their adopted Republican Party monarch? Continuation of Janet Reno oppression under John Ashcroft doesn't make the DoJ just. Castro has never ruled with justice, so why should America vote for our own homemade version of a tin horn dictator? A true conservative won't listen to radio Marti with a Spanish speaking Sean Hannity want-a-bee, praising Bush.

http://gopusa.com/sartre/sartre_1020.shtml

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From the Boston Globe

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Cuba's needless isolation

PRESIDENT BUSH, unwilling to tackle the difficult issues between the United States and Cuba, has imposed new restrictions on Americans' travel to the island. This will do nothing to loosen Fidel Castro's grip, but it will diminish the contacts that might, in time, lead to better Cuban-American relations.

"I've instructed the Department of Homeland Security to increase inspections of travelers and shipments to and from Cuba," Bush said in a speech this month. But Cuba does not pose a threat of terrorism to the United States. Bush's speech was a sop to Cuban-Americans in Florida, a likely swing state in the 2004 election, as of course it was in 2000.

The number of people violating travel restrictions is small compared to the thousands of Cuban-Americans who visit the island and who will still be permitted once-a-year trips to help out their relatives. For the last six months, however, the Bush administration has been cutting back on the "people-to-people" tours first allowed by the Clinton administration in 1999. Alumni associations and other groups of like-minded people are now denied an opportunity to interact with Cubans. Some participants, to be sure, were mainly interested in sampling Cuban cigars, but even the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce could not get government approval to go to Havana for its annual city-to-city goodwill mission.

Last month, as it has for two previous years, the House approved a proposal that would effectively allow travel to Cuba by preventing the Treasury Department from enforcing the restrictions. This proposal was pushed forward by a bipartisan coalition led by Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona, and William Delahunt, Democrat of Massachusetts. The US Senate has never endorsed an end to travel restrictions, and Bush has promised a veto should that ever reach his desk.

<http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2003/10/20/cubas_needless_isolation/>