White House Wants Carter to Push Democracy in Cuba

yahoo.com ^ | May 2, 2002 | Reuters

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Cuban President Fidel Castro speaks before hundreds of thousands of people during May Day celebrations at the Revolution Plaza of Havana, May 1, 2002. Castro delivered a strident defense of his revolution in a May Day speech on Wednesday before hundreds of thousands of people, and attacked Latin America critics for being U.S. lackeys and boot- lickers. "To those who stupidly talk and repeat the imperialist refrain that there is no democracy and no respect for human rights in Cuba, I say no one can question that our country is today the most independent on the planet, the most just and supportive of other peoples, and also by a long stretch the most democratic," Castro said. REUTERS/Rafael Perez - May 01 1:46 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Wednesday said it hopes former U.S. President Jimmy Carter will give Cuban President Fidel Castro a blunt talk about the virtues of freedom and democracy when he visits the Communist-run nation.

Carter, who is scheduled to visit Cuba May 12-17, will be the highest-profile U.S. figure to set foot on the island in the 43 years of enmity between the U.S. and Cuban governments since Castro came to power in the 1959 Cuban revolution.

"This would be a very good opportunity for former President Carter to remind President Castro of the need to bring freedom and opportunity and democracy to the people of Cuba, who have been oppressed," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.

"This would be very helpful in sending that signal that freedom and democracy are important in Cuba, and Cuba is one of the last nations left on this earth that has such an abysmal human rights record," he told reporters at his daily briefing.

During his 1977-1981 presidency, Carter promoted a rapprochement with Cuba, but the effort stalled. Washington maintains a four-decade-old economic embargo on Cuba, although there has been growing resistance to it in some U.S. business and political circles.

Carter, a critic of the U.S. sanctions, said last week his visit could help improve relations between the two countries, although he did not expect it to change the Cuban government or its policies. Under U.S. travel restrictions, he had to obtain permission for the trip from the U.S. government.

The White House said Carter had been in contact with the U.S. Interest Section in Havana as well as with State Department officials in preparation for his trip.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Fidel Castro - Cuba

[Lion's Cub]

Well...at least it will keep him from screwing up the Middle East...

[piasa]

Hope Ari isn't holding his breath...

[Cincinatus' Wife]

I guess he's slowing down.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Hope Ari isn't holding his breath...

I don't think he believes for one minute Carter isn't going to do anything but cozy up to the dictator.

[metesky]

Jimma will do nothing except kiss dictatorial butt.

Jimma: "Gosh, you're wonderful, Fidel."

Castro: "Don't talk with your mouth full, fool."

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Former President Jimmy Carter has received permission from Washington to visit Cuba and will likely travel to the communist-run island in May, a spokeswoman for Carter said April 9, 2002. Carter is seen during a press conference at the U.N. summit on financing development in Monterrey, Mexico, on March 19. Photo by Juan Carlos Ulate/Reuters - Apr 09 11:22 AM ET

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Former President Jimmy Carter has received permission from Washington to visit Cuba and will likely travel to the communist-run island in May, a spokeswoman for Carter said April 9, 2002. Carter is seen during a press conference at the U.N. summit on financing development in Monterrey, Mexico, on March 19. Photo by Juan Carlos Ulate/Reuters - Apr 09 11:22 AM ET

[The Raven]

Why would anyone support Communism? A brief look at history would be a head-scratcher indeed. Must be for the elite to remain in power.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Here's a good read. Excerpted from Hillary Clinton and the Radical Left - By David Horowitz. ***Ever since abandoning the utopian illusions of the progressive cause, I have been struck by how little the world outside the left seems to actually understand it. How little those who have not inhabited the progressive mind are able to grasp the ruthless cynicism behind its idealistic mask or the fervent malice that drives its hypocritical passion for "social justice."

No matter how great the crimes progressives commit, no matter how terrible the future they labor to create, no matter how devastating the catastrophes they leave behind, the world outside the faith seems ever ready to forgive them their "mistakes" and to grant them the grace of "good intentions."

It would be difficult to recall, for example, the number of times I have been introduced on conservative platforms as "a former civil rights worker and peace activist in the 1960s." I have been described this way despite having written a detailed autobiography that exposes these self-glorifying images of the left as so many political lies.

Like many New Left leaders whom the young Mrs. Clinton once followed (and who are her comrades today), I regarded myself in the 1960s as a socialist and a revolutionary. No matter what slogans we chanted, or ideals we proclaimed our agendas always extended beyond (and well beyond) the immediate issues of "civil rights" and "peace."

New Left progressives-including Hillary Clinton and her comrade, Acting Deputy Attorney General Bill Lann Lee-were involved in supporting, or protecting or making excuses for violent anti-American radicals abroad like the Vietcong and anti-American criminals at home like the Black Panthers.* We did this then-just as progressives still do now-in the name of "social justice" and a dialectical world-view that made this deception appear ethical and the fantasy seem possible.***

[The Raven]

Wonderful read !!

We have another seemingly liberal agenda article on the fall of Libetarians promoting government.

[metesky]

I never thought a picture of a dimwit could scare me, but...

[metesky]

Now I'm twice as scared.

[Always Right]

Fidel will tell Jimmy about their free health care and Jimmy will say how much better the Cubans have it.

[gunnedah]

Why is Jim Boy Carter in the news some much lately?Does the Communist Democrat Party not have anyone else to showcase.Carter should be remembered for peanuts,Billy Beer,gasoline lines and hostages.I guess he is like Clinton and trying to create a legacy.Clinton will eventually buy him one with ARAB money but I believe Jim Boys will have to stay in his own mind!

[Tom Bombadil]

Jimmy Carter is a Bozo and doesn't know it. He Bozo'd Iran and he Bozo'd Nicaragua. Now he's trying to Bozo Cuba.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Once was enough. I guess my finger was shaking too much.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Relegated to history**** On Jan. 1, 1979, following a dramatic and unexpected move by President Carter, formal ties between the United States and Taiwan were officially terminated in favor of diplomatic relations with communist China. Mr. Carter's surprise announcement was immediately denounced in Washington, not only by centrist and conservative Republicans, but Democrats who were not consulted.

In Taiwan, an angry mob of thousands of students went so far as to attack a U.S. motorcade, slightly injuring Deputy Secretary of State Warren Christopher, head of the U.S. mission. While at the U.S. Embassy in Taipei, Ambassador Leonard Unger stood silently as the flags of both nations were simultaneously lowered and ties severed. There hasn't been a U.S. ambassador in Taipei since, and if one should decide to go back anytime soon, he had better first find a place to live.

We read in the Taipei Update that the former U.S. ambassador's residence has now been designated a "historical landmark," reopening this summer as the "Taipei House," a space for public exhibitions. The building came under the custody of the Taipei city government in 1997 when it became clear the U.S. wasn't coming back. John Tkacik, the Heritage Foundation's Chinese authority, told us Friday that he hasn't heard from Mr. Unger since running into him about a year ago. Mr. Tkacik recalls the termination of ties with Taiwan - when Mr. Unger walked away from the embassy "with the flag under his arm," so to speak - as "a period of intense uncertainty and low morale" among the U.S. Embassy staff.****

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Why is Jim Boy Carter in the news some much lately?

Because Bush is not giving the Left what they want, SUBSIDIZED trade and unrestricted travel TO Cuba.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

.....Jimmy will say how much better the Cubans have it.

The communist party members do have it good compared to the average Cuban who can't afford to buy medicine with the pesos Castro pays for their labor (he keeps 100% - paid to him in dollars for their labor). They even have to bring sheets and supplies to the hospital if they want any.