Free Republic

New York Honors Fidel Castro With Statue Humberto Fontova Monday, Oct. 30, 2006 He craved the nuclear incineration of the entire metropolis. "If the missiles had remained we would have used them against the very heart of the U.S., including New York City," admitted his sidekick Ernesto "Che" Guevara, thinking he was speaking "off the record" to London's Daily Worker in November 1962. But Fidel Castro first tried baiting his Soviet patrons into the act. A full-scale Yankee invasion of Cuba was hours away, Castro disclosed to Khrushchev on October 26th 1962. His agents had ready proof. Don't delay, he...

President Bush Is No JFK, Thank God Humberto Fontova Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2006 Kim Jong-il's atomic blast has some conservative pundits reminiscing fondly over JFK. His response to Khrushchev and Castro exactly 44 Octobers ago, we're now given to understand, was positively Pattonesque. "Now that's deterrence," writes Charles Krauthammer in a syndicated column hailing JFK's handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The column calls for "Kennedy-esque clarity" from President Bush and has been variously titled "Follow Kennedy's Lead to Deter North Korea," "We could use Kennedy's Clarity" and "It's Time for Real Deterrence." An article in National Review by Andrew...

Ernesto 'Che' Guevara: 39 Years of Hype by Humberto Fontova Posted Oct 06, 2006 Thirty-nine years ago this week Ernesto "Che" Guevara got a major dose of his own medicine. Without trial, he was declared a murderer, stood against a wall and shot. Historically speaking, justice has rarely been better served. If the saying, "What goes around comes around," ever fit, it's here. The number of men Che's "revolutionary tribunals" condemned to death in the identical manner range anywhere from 400 to 1,892. The number of defenseless men (and boys) Che personally murdered with his own pistol runs to the...

Hugo Chavez the Chump? by Humberto Fontova Posted Sep 22, 2006 Whoever doubts Fidel Castro's demise -- political if not physical -- need only look at Hugo Chavez recent monkeyshines at the United Nations. If Castro is sentient he's furious. The organ grinder gets laid up, the leash comes off and in no time the monkey makes a mess of things. Chavez even provoked harsh words from Charlie Rangel! In Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel (N.Y.), Fidel Castro has his main (of many) booster in the U.S. legislature. Sure, the accolades from Harry Belafonte, Steven Spielberg, Oliver Stone, Norman Mailer, Ted...

Mainstream Media Frenzy Over Bogus Scandal Humberto Fontova Friday, Sept. 15, 2006 Last week the headline flashed from the New York Times to USA Today and from the BBC to Drudge. Both the AP and Reuters ran with the scoop. Even Editor & Publisher ran a story. The breathless reports told of intrepid reporters at the Miami Herald – prompted only by ingenious hunches and inspired only by public spirit – uncovering a scandal of stupendous international import. The article in the Miami Herald that ignited the frenzy even included photos (mugshot-style) of the ten miscreant journalists. The Herald's findings...

French 'Justice' vs. Cuban 'Vengeance' Humberto Fontova Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2006 American GIs liberated Paris 62 years ago last week. But pay no attention to the French troops strutting at the fore of the liberation parades on newsreels. Sure, some fought, mainly Foreign Legionnaires. But Ike allowed their strutting because Ike was "politically correct" before political correctness was cool. The free world rejoiced at the time and the celebrations in Paris surpassed New Orleans' Mardi Gras – or so we hear. It so happens my father-in-law, a lifelong New Orleanian, helped blast the Nazis out of France and spent some...

Historians Have Absolved Fidel Castro Humberto Fontova Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2006 "You may pronounce me guilty," declared Adolf Hitler during the trial in 1924 for his failed Rathaus putsch, "but the eternal court of history will absolve me." "Condemn me, it doesn't matter," declared Fidel Castro during the trial in 1953 for his failed Moncada putsch. "History will absolve me." The young Fidel Castro was a keen student of Nazi pageantry, often seen around campus with his well-thumbed copy of "Mein Kampf" alongside his pistol. His title of Lider Maximo perfectly mimics the German term Fuhrer. Over the years a...

Media Embrace Military Dictatorship for Castro Succession by Humberto Fontova Posted Aug 08, 2006 So what's going on in Cuba? Nobody has seen nor heard from either Fidel or his supposed successor, Raul, in more than a week and all foreign reporters are barred entry to the island. In the meantime, Cuba's military is on combat alert and reservists are called up island-wide. The neighborhood spy and snitch groups (Committees for the Defense of the Revolution) are much more vigilant and obnoxious than usual. The goons of the Rapid Response Brigades (Cuba's version of early Nazi Germany's S.A.) roam the...

With Fidel Out, Cuba Is a Powder Keg by Humberto Fontova Posted Aug 01, 2006 Knowing the succession was imminent-- and as a clear warning to the Cuban people -- Cuba's Armed forces recently held massive maneuvers. While giving a speech hailing the maneuvers, Raul wore a bulletproof vest under his uniform (Fidel has never worn one.) Raul knows he's unpopular. His first official act in Jan. 8 1959, was lining up 150 potential regime opponents in front of a ditch and having them machine gunned and bulldozed into a mass grave. Most long-time observers doubt he can hold things...

U.S. Reporter Attacked by Castro Goons in Argentina Humberto Fontova Thursday, July 27, 2006 For the first time in 50 years a U.S. reporter actually asked Fidel Castro a pertinent question. This journalistic landmark took place last week while Castro visited Argentina. Castro (naturally) freaked. Why, the NERVE!! "You're a mercenary paid by the Bush!" he shrieked. "Who pays you? You'll probably try to assassinate me with a bomb!" As Castro yelled and sputtered, his bodyguards sprang into Kung Fu mode and pounced on the offending reporter chokeholding him and threatening much worse if he persisted in his impertinence. Did...

Behind the Scenes with Dan Rather by Humberto Fontova Posted Jul 17, 2006 Dan Rather is back. Mark Cuban recently signed the cashiered and disgraced anchor to host a weekly newsmagazine on his high-definition cable and satellite network HDNet. The deal came down not a moment too soon. Dan had seemed a bit cranky lately. "It took her (Katie Couric) 15 years to make the 'Today' show a hit," Dan told Art Buchwald in a recent interview. "I'm sure it will take her longer than that to beat Charlie Gibson and Brian Williams." Graciousness was never Dan's strong suit (except...

The ACLU and Miami's Book 'Ban' Humberto Fontova Tuesday, July 11, 2006 A children's schoolbook titled "Let's Go to Cuba" depicts Castro's fiefdom as a combination Emerald City and Willi Wonka's Chocolate Factory. Some American parents of Cuban heritage noticed it and filed a complaint with the Miami-Dade school board, which voted to remove the book from the public school library. The ACLU claims to be scandalized and filed suit to retain the book. "Today's precedent, if allowed to stand," said the ACLU attorney, Howard Simon, "opens the door to yank virtually any book off the shelf of a school...

Illegals Love Mexico and Che Humberto Fontova Tuesday, May 30, 2006 The 62 senators who voted "yea" on last week's immigration bill apparently missed all the May Day marches. Either that or these senators were blind to the marchers' symbols and deaf to the their chants. Describing our legislative magnificoes as "out of touch" misses it. The mainstream media showed us something akin to a Fourth of July picnic by Okies from Muskogee – but bloggers from Babalu to Michelle Malkin didn't let them get away with it. They pulled a quick end run around the mainstream juggernaut and showed...

Fidel Castro's True Wealth by Humberto Fontova When Forbes magazine named him among the world's richest heads of state in 2005, a furious Fidel Castro denounced it as "infamy!" "Do they think I'm some kind of Mobutu?" he raged. At the time Forbes estimated his fortune at $550 million. This year Forbes raised his ranking to the world's seventh richest head of state, with an estimated fortune of $900 million. "Repugnant slander!" Castro thundered on Cuban television (all 12 stations) this week. The "President" of Cuba's National Bank, Francisco Soberon, also chimed in: "The Cuban revolution and its Maximum Leader...

A 'Truly Repellent' Minority Humberto Fontova Wednesday, April 12, 2006 Imagine an exalted academic, author and Washington political adviser spouting – and for public consumption – any of the following phrases: "those truly repellent New York Jews" or "those truly repellent Detroit Negroes" or "those truly repellent Los Angeles Mexicans." Imagine the media hullabaloo, the orgy of indignant squawking, the affected frowns, the finger pointing, the gasps. Trent Lott, Earl Butz, Jimmy the Greek and John Rocker all caught hell for less. Would a "professor emeritus" at prestigious Georgetown University utter such insensitive blasphemies in a media interview? One has....

Movie Critics Aghast at Andy Garcia's 'The Lost City' Humberto Fontova Monday, May 1, 2006 Andy Garcia blew it big-time with his movie "The Lost City." He blew it with the mainstream critics, that is. Almost unanimously, they're ripping a movie 16 years in the making. In this engaging drama of a middle-class Cuban family crumbling during free Havana's last days, which he both directs and stars in, Garcia insisted on depicting some historical truth about Cuba – a grotesque and unforgivable blunder in his industry. He's now paying the price. Earlier, many film festivals refused to screen it. Now...

Ted Kennedy's New Book Hails JFK's Cuba Policy Humberto Fontova Tuesday, April 18, 2006 "In a forthcoming book, Senator Edward M. Kennedy invokes the leadership of his brothers during the Cuban missile crisis to launch a sharp new attack on President Bush," headlined the Boston Globe last week, "declaring that Bush should have followed the example of President John F. Kennedy and his attorney general, Robert F. Kennedy. ... He accuses the president of engaging in an 'unprecedented level of secrecy' about government operations, and bemoans the Republican 'culture of corruption' in Washington." The book's title is "America Back on...

How to Get More Oil, More Fish Humberto Fontova Friday, April 28, 2006 That clique of noisy, well-heeled and politically powerful south Florida voters is at it again. And as usual, Governor Jeb Bush and Sen. Mel Martinez are pandering shamelessly. Never mind the national interest. This cantankerous group's archaic prejudices still prevail. Never mind simple logic. Their emotions still guide our national policy to the frustration of the rest of the nation, to the detriment of our economic well-being and to the bitter amusement of much of the world. Never mind almost half a century of visible evidence against...

Viva PETA! NewsMax.com. Humberto Fontova. Friday, June 24, 2005 There they go again! I refer to PETA, once again saving us carnivores the cover charge to adult entertainment establishments with names like The Gold Club, Rick's Cabaret and Tiffany's. This week fourteen PETA "activists" protested in front of the Spanish Embassy in Washington D.C. "The animal-rights activists arrived wearing bullhorns - and little else," says the Knight-Ridder story. "The nine women and five men were bare-chested, clad only in underpants." It seems that Spain's famous Running of the Bulls has PETA's underpants in a serious wad. The annual event takes...

Viva PETA! June 23, 2005 by Humberto Fontova There they go again! I refer to PETA, once again saving us carnivores the cover charge to The Gold Club, Rick's Cabaret and Tiffany's. This week fourteen PETA "activists" protested in front of the Spanish Embassy in Washington D.C. "The animal-rights activists arrived wearing bullhorns - and little else." says the Knight-Ridder story. "The nine women and five men were bare-chested, clad only in underpants." It seems that Spain's famous Running of the Bulls has PETA's underpants in a serious wad. The annual event takes place during Pamplona's Festival of St Fermin...