HAVANA: Fidel Castro has told a visiting American journalist that Cuba's economic model does not work any more, a rare comment on domestic affairs since stepping down from the presidency four years ago.
Hasn't worked since January 1, 1959, I reckon ...
The blunt economic assessment by the father of Cuba's 1959 revolution is sure to raise eyebrows, particularly from his younger brother, Raul, the country's President since 2006.
Jeffrey Goldberg, a national correspondent for The Atlantic magazine, asked if Cuba's economic system was still worth exporting to other countries. Dr Castro replied: ''The Cuban model doesn't even work for us any more,'' Mr Goldberg wrote on Wednesday in a post on his blog.
Poor Mr. Goldberg then was seen hunched over a stiff drink at the bar down the street from the Atlantic offices, wondering why he'd chosen a career as a progressive journalist and whether he should have listened to his mother and become an accountant ...
He said Dr Castro made the comment casually over lunch following a long talk about the Middle East and did not elaborate. The Cuban government had no immediate comment on Mr Goldberg's account.
Julia Sweig, a Cuba expert at the Council on Foreign Relations who accompanied Mr Goldberg on the trip, confirmed the former Cuban leader's comment. She said she took the remark to be in line with President Raul Castro's call for gradual but widespread reform, and a comment on too big an involvement of the state in the domestic economy.
The Cuban state controls well over 900 90 per cent of the economy, paying workers salaries of about $US20 ($21.82) a month in return for free healthcare and education, and nearly free transportation and housing.
We all understand that none of all that is 'free', but the writer at smh has to regurgitate what's been spoon-fed ...
Since stepping down in 2006 Dr Castro has focused on international affairs and has said very little about Cuba and its politics, perhaps to limit perceptions he is stepping on his younger brother's toes.
#1
In a thousand faculty lounges across the nation, distraught professors are wailing, gnashing their teeth, rending their garments, and collapsing into pathetic sobbing heaps. Not since Shoeless Joe Jackson confessed to fixing the World Series, not since it was revealed that Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus of Milli Vanilli weren't actually singing, has a beloved hero uttered such disillusioning words and crushed the faith of his adoring fans.
Posted by: Mike ||
09/09/2010 12:50 Comments ||
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#2
"Dr." Castro?
As in Demento? OR maybe a reference to the fact that the caudillo's tears cure cancer too bad he never cries
#4
Given all the Hollyweird slugs who wax about the 'Cuban Model' but who do not move there, is anyone really surprised? White courtesy phone for Michael Moore.
#5
In a thousand faculty lounges across the nation, distraught professors are wailing, gnashing their teeth, rending their garments, and collapsing into pathetic sobbing heaps.
#7
Jeffrey Goldberg is a low-cal neocon of some standing, FYI. The invite to Havana was issued because Fidel read Goldberg's epic "the Israelis feel they have to do something about the Iranian Bomb" article in the Atlantic last month.
Apparently Fidel's playing his hand at "elder
statesman" now that he's unexpectedly survived his resignation as murderous tyrant, and is playing at anti-anti-Semitism. I'm not sure if this new anti-Iranian game of the elder Castro's is a Cuban initiative, something he's doing in his dotage on his own hook, a rift in the Cuba-Venezuela-Iran chain of alliances, or a break-up between Cuba and Venezuela done at two removes.
The "Cuba doesn't work" strongly suggests a divorce between Cuba and Venezuela, since that's essentially the Chavez plan, with a bit of Bolivarian showmanship to distract the rubes and campus creatures. Castro's determined that the Bolivarian republic is about to go smash, and wants to negotiate an "out"?
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
09/09/2010 15:40 Comments ||
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#8
The Soviets maintained the illusion in Cuba for a long time, particularly during the start up period. Hugo has no similar sponsor for his economic blackhole. Now the Chinese might be willing to chip in some resources in return for oil concessions, but they're already massively committed to the blackhole at the US Treasury.
#9
Poor Mr. Goldberg then was seen hunched over a stiff drink at the bar down the street from the Atlantic offices, wondering why he'd chosen a career as a progressive journalist and whether he should have listened to his mother and become an accountant ...
michael douglass' character in Romancing the Stone
Plastic surgeon - $500k a year and up 2 my neck in tits and ass.
#2
It's sad that we have a Secretary of State who actually believes such codswallop, BUT- even if she knew better, she would still be saying the same thing. "Nice doggie..." (and no, not referring to the socialist-in-chief.)
#3
She's just lining up the correct soundbites for unhorsing President Obama. Hilliary is tailoring her resume for a 2012 run for the White House. She is despicable in any form.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
09/09/2010 9:21 Comments ||
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#2
"According to the VA, combat-injured veterans do get a higher priority rating for care, but that rating only impacts whether a veteran has to pay any co-pays or not. "
I think this is wrong. The issue is whether the disability is considered "service connected". I have a service connected disability because my disease came up while I was in the Navy. No co-pay.
For her not to understand the term "service connected" is ignorance on her part. Saying what she did to that veteran was wrong. She should publicly apologize.
#4
AS a woman and a latina, she's way further up in line than me anyway.
I've learned to live as a second class citizen, being a white male, since I started looking for work some months ago.
A senior aide for Sen. Barbara Boxturtle Boxer (D-Calif.) whatever you do, don't call her "Ma'am"
was arrested Tuesday for attempting to bring marijuana into the Hart Senate Office Building, according to U.S. Capitol Police reports.
Marcus Stanley, who served as a senior economic adviser That would explain a lot
and at one time worked on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee -- chaired by Boxer -- was stopped by a police officer Tuesday morning when he allegedly tried to bogart "remove and conceal" a leafy green substance from his pocket during a security screening at the Constitution Avenue door of the Hart building around noon, according to a Capitol Police report. I've been to a Senate office in DC. The security is pretty strict. You'd have to be stoned to think you could slip drugs past the screening.
Police confiscated the stash substance, which later tested positive for primo bud marijuana, and Stanley quickly threw himself under a passing bus in a last noble sacrifice for the Progressive cause resigned. Bummer.
"Marcus Stanley is no longer with this office," Boxer spokesman Zachary Coile told POLITICO. "He submitted his resignation, and Sen. Boxer accepted it because his actions yesterday were wrong and unacceptable." "...and not very bright."
Posted by: Mike ||
09/09/2010 05:48 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
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#2
...zombie like stupor, oblivious to the world around them, in which the user ignores the pleas of friends and family to get a clue and real life. You sure most of Congress isn't already on it?
#4
Legalize it. At least in government buildings. Stoned legislators and staffs would have to be an improvement. At least they'd be slower in screwing stuff up. And the text of the bills would be more comprehensible. Oh, and I want the Twinkie concession.
#6
I'll provide the Hand Trucks, both to wheel in the twinkies and to wheel the stoners to and fro in the building(s).
I'll make a killing on fees.
(If you don't know wht I'm talking about, reference "Young Mister Grace")
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/09/2010 10:43 Comments ||
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#7
...zombie like stupor, oblivious to the world around them, in which the user ignores the pleas of friends and family to get a clue and real life.
And yet, somehow, Babs didn't seem to notice.
But don't look for this to give Carly Fiorina any advantage in the November election. Hmmmm. Maybe this a subtle, underhanded way for Babs to gain the support of Proposition 19 proponents while saying for the record that she opposes it.
#2
That is a very good find lex. I don't buy into the ideas that anti-colonialists espouse. At least, not since the 20th century. Obama though, he was never raised as an American, and grew from a, "I am a victim," standpoint, whether it be true or not. He is also not about moving forward. He dwells in a past and want retribution for it, even though he is not a victim of his perceptions.
#3
A professional shrink needs to psychoanalyze this man. Narcissism, grandiosity, projection, and then garden-variety evasiveness and intellectual laziness combined with a proclivity for bullsh!tting his way up the American social pyramid.
#4
He's a fascinating character, for sure, and would make a good protagonist in a coming-of-age novel. But this BS artist has absolutely no business running anything of any meaningful scale. He's utterly out of his depth, and even his own partisans are now admitting that he was ever and always a lightweight. A Jay Gatsby charmer with nothing behind the silk shirts and charming facades.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
HAVANA: Fidel Castro has told a visiting American journalist that Cuba's economic model does not work any more, a rare comment on domestic affairs since stepping down from the presidency four years ago.
