WANT TO HAVE SOME FUN...

Go to Google, type in "fuck fidel" and click IM FEELING LUCKY.


BTW "Comemierda" works perfectly as well.

HAHA

Sanitation poor at AIDS sanatorium

I'm sorry to have left! I've been extremely busy with the news urban clothing line I'm marketing. I haven't had a second to think about posting!

but we're back! st. bernardo is having a new year and blogging is what st.bernardo will do!

so get this!!!


HAVANA, Cuba - January 11 (Amarilis C. Rey, Cuba Verdad / www.cubanet.org) - A patient at an AIDS sanatorium in Menocal, Havana province, complained here that sanitation at the facility is so poor that it imperils patients' lives.
"The water is contaminated with trash, stones, and leaves. The tanks are not cleaned and neither is the drinking water boiled. One can often see cats, dogs, and even cattle ambling through the kitchens and dining area," said Frank Leal.
Leal, who said he had been struck with diarrhea along with other patients recently, pointed out a sample of what he said was the sugar used at the hospital. It was noticeably contaminated with foreign particles.
There are more than 100 patients at the sanatorium.


***Pray for Ramon Saul Sanchez, he's doing something that deserves the highest merit. God bless!***

Spike Lee to make documentary about Katrina

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Famed US filmmaker
Spike Lee' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> Spike Lee is reportedly to produce and direct a new documentary about the deadly aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in flood-stricken New Orleans.


Lee, 48, the maker of such hit feature films as "Malcolm X" (1992) and "Do the Right Thing" (1989), is to make "When the Levee Broke" for the US HBO cable television channel, the network told Daily Variety.
No details of the project were immediately available, however. Lee is currently putting the final touches on his latest film, "The Inside Man", starring
Denzel Washington

Terror tip for rich

By ALISON GENDARDAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU CHIEF



The city's rich and well-connected were tipped off to last week's subway terror threat days before average New Yorkers, the Daily News has learned.
At least two E-mails revealing the purported plot were sent to a select crowd of business and arts executives early last week by New Yorkers who claimed to have close connections to Homeland Security and other federal officials, authorities said.

The NYPD confirmed that it learned of the E-mails on Oct. 3 - three days before Mayor Bloomberg, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and the FBI went public with the threat.

"I have just received a most disturbing call from one of my oldest friends from growing up in Washington," one E-mail began. "He called with a very specific caution to not enter or use the New York City subway system from Oct. 7 through 10th."

A second E-mail sounded a similar ominous tone: "As some of you know my father works for Homeland Security, at a very high position and receives security briefings on a daily basis.

"The only information that I can pass on is that everyone should at all costs not ride the subway for the next two weeks in major areas of NYC."

One of the E-mails was dated Oct. 3 with a 6:05 p.m. time stamp, about 90 minutes before Bloomberg was fully briefed on the threat, a police source said.

The early warning infuriated several police officials, who noted that Homeland Security officials had challenged the credibility of the threat after the city and FBI warned the public.

"We're briefing the mayor, ratcheting up security, talking about when to go public - and Homeland Security is downplaying the whole thing while their people are telling friends to stay out of the subways," a police source said. "It's pretty bad."

NYPD investigators obtained copies of the E-mails on Oct. 4, as Bloomberg and Kelly were finalizing a plan to respond to the threat, and police officials gave the E-mails to the Homeland Security Department, police said.

'Members of our corporate security network informed the Police Department of the E-mails' existence days prior to any announcement of the threat," NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne said yesterday.

Homeland Security officials confirmed that they were told about the early E-mail warnings.

"We have looked into them, but do not consider them to be of great significance," Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said yesterday.

"At best, they were based on anecdotal accounts of very limited information," he added, declining to reveal whether the feds were investigating.

The News obtained copies of two E-mails, one with the foreboding subject line: "Alarming call from Washington." Unsigned versions were also posted on Snopes.com, a site that examines urban legends.

One of the E-mail senders, when reached by The News, declined comment.

The plot, calling for terrorists to detonate bombs hidden in briefcases, suitcases or strollers, has been largely discredited since the public warning.

Bloomberg has defended his response, arguing the city had no choice but to act on the "specific threat." He has said he held off alerting the public until Oct.6 to give authorities time to round up suspects in Iraq.

Ten Shots at Che

1. HE WAS AGAINST CAPITALISM. In fact, Guevara was for state capitalism. He opposed the wage labor system of “appropriating surplus value” (in Marxist jargon) only when it came to private corporations. But he turned the “appropriation of the workers’ surplus value” into a state system. One example of this is the forced labor camps he supported, starting with Guanahacabibes in 1961.

2. HE MADE CUBA INDEPENDENT. In fact, he engineered the colonization of Cuba by a foreign power. He was instrumental in turning Cuba into a temporary beachhead of Soviet nuclear power (he sealed the deal in Yalta). As the person responsible for the “industrialization” of Cuba he failed to end the country’s dependency on sugar.

3. HE STOOD FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE. In fact, he helped ruin the economy by diverting resources to industries that ended up in failure and reduced the sugar harvest, Cuba’s mainstay, by half in two years. Rationing started under his stewardship of the island’s economy.

4. HE STOOD UP TO MOSCOW. In fact, he obeyed Moscow until Moscow decided to ask for something in return for its massive transfers of money to Havana. In 1965 he criticized the Kremlin because it had adopted what he termed the “law of value”. He then turned to China on the eve of the Cultural Revolution, one of the horror stories of the twentieth century. He simply switched allegiances within the totalitarian camp.

5. HE CONNECTED WITH THE PEASANTS. In fact, he died precisely because he never connected with them. “The peasant masses don’t help us at all,” he wrote in his Bolivian diary before he was captured—an apt way to describe his journey through the Bolivian countryside trying to stir up a revolution that could not even enlist the help of Bolivian Communists (who were realistic enough to note that peasants did not want revolution in 1967; they had already had one in 1952).

6. HE WAS A GUERRILLA GENIUS. With the exception of Cuba, every guerrilla effort he helped set up failed pitifully. After the triumph of the Cuban revolution, Guevara set up revolutionary armies in Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Panama, and Haiti, all of which were crushed. He later persuaded Jorge Ricardo Masetti to lead a fatal incursion into that country from Bolivia. Guevara’s role in the Congo in 1965 was both tragic and comical. He allied himself with Pierre Mulele and Laurent Kabila, two butchers, but got entangled in so many disagreements with the latter—and relations between Cuban and Congolese fighters were so strained—that he had to flee. Finally, his incursion in Bolivia ended up in his death, which his followers are commemorating this Sunday.

7. HE RESPECTED HUMAN DIGNITY. In fact, he had a habit of taking other people’s property. He told his followers to rob banks (“the struggling masses agree to rob banks because none of them has a penny in them”) and as soon as the Batista regime collapsed he occupied a mansion and made it his own—a case of expeditious revolutionary eminent domain.

8. HIS ADVENTURES WERE A CELEBRATION OF LIFE. Instead, they were an orgy of death. He executed many innocent people in Santa Clara, in central Cuba, where his column was based in the last stage of the armed struggle. After the triumph of the revolution, he was in charge of “La Cabaña” prison for half a year. He ordered the execution of hundreds of prisoners—former Batista men, journalists, businessmen, and others. A few witnesses, including Javier Arzuaga, who was the chaplain of “La Cabaña”, and José Vilasuso, who was a member of the body in charge of the summary judicial process, recently gave me their painful testimonies.

9. HE WAS A VISIONARY. His vision of Latin America was actually quite blurred. Take, for instance, his view that the guerrillas had to take to the countryside because that is where the struggling masses lived. In fact, since the 1960s, most peasants have peacefully deserted the countryside in part because of the failure of land reform, which has hindered the development of a property-based agriculture and economies of scale with absurd regulations forbidding all sorts of private arrangements.

10. HE WAS RIGHT ABOUT THE UNITED STATES. He predicted Cuba would surpass the GDP per capita of the U.S. by 1980. Today, Cuba’s economy can barely survive thanks to Venezuela’s oil subsidy (about 100,000 barrels a day), a form of international alms that does not speak too well of the regime’s dignity.

WRONG T SHIRT

A Portland woman's flight home was stopped short in Reno, all because the message on the T-shirt she was wearing.

Lorrie Heasley claims it's a freedom of speech privilege, but airline officials say the message brings safety concerns.

Heasley, "There are bigger problems in the country, I can't believe people can be so petty."

Heasley boarded her flight Tuesday morning in Los Angeles, headed for Portland, Oregon with a stopover in Reno. But when Southwest Airlines employees asked her to cover her shirt, her stop over became a stop off her flight.

"I was told that basically that I had to cover my shirt, or I was told if I cover the shirt I can basically stay on the plane."

So she covered the shirt, but during a nap while passengers were boarding in Reno the cover came off. And Southwest employees insisted, change the shirt, or change flights. "I didn't feel that I should have to change my shirt, because we live in the United States, and it's freedom of speech and it was based on the move "The Fockers", and I didn't think it should have offended anyone."

But it did.

The shirt had pictures of members of the Bush Administration, and a phrase based on the movie "Meet the Fockers," but with one crucial vowel changed.

It was enough to cause complaints from other passengers and it's a problem the airline has had to deal with before.

Beth Harbin, Southwest Airlines, "We do get it occasionally. What someone is wearing, what someone is reading, what someone might be saying and it's very much a judgment call. But when other customers become concerned we do have to become involved in that and see what we can do to make everyone as comfortable as we can."

And while Southwest may have kept the peace on it's afternoon hop to Portland, a woman, not afraid to use her freedom of speech will now be using her freedom of choice.

"I most likely wont be flying Southwest Airlines again after this."

Southwest Airlines told Heasley she could take a different flight home if she changed her shirt. She refused and opted to rent a car and drive home.

Pulling of Guevara film sparks protest

A Broward public library was the target of demonstrators after it rescheduled a film about revolutionary Che Guevara during Hispanic Heritage Month.

BY NATALIE P. McNEAL

nmcneal@herald.com

About 20 protesters picketed the Southwest Regional Library in Pembroke Pines on Monday, upset that it postponed showing a film about revolutionary Che Guevara during Hispanic Heritage Month.

The library planned to show The Motorcycle Diaries, a biographical film about a young Che Guevara, who traveled throughout South America with a friend and witnessed poverty and injustice.

Guevara, an Argentine who was slain in 1967, was a Cuban guerrilla leader and an icon of left-wing political ideals. During the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, Guevara advocated a nuclear showdown with the United States.

Library officials pulled the film after patrons complained about showing the film as part of a ''celebration'' for Hispanic Heritage Month.

Demonstrators chanting outside the library's entrance shouted ''Libertad!'' and carried signs that read ''Defend Free Speech,'' ''Shame'' and ''No to Censorship.'' Some wore T-shirts with Guevara's face emblazoned across the front.

`KOWTOWING'

''The library system is kowtowing to the extreme right-wing elements in this community,'' said Jack Lieberman, a South Florida activist.

The library rescheduled the film to be shown Nov. 7, outraging Guevara supporters.

The library says it did nothing wrong.

''We did not censor the film,'' said Eileen Cobb, associate director for public service, Broward County libraries division.

The library system has 49 copies of the movie.

REPLACEMENT FILM

In place of The Motorcycle Diaries, the library showed Valentín, a film about a 9-year-old boy who lives with his grandmother in Argentina.

The peaceful protest was supported by the Broward AntiWar Coalition, Bolivarian Circle of Miami and Miami for Peace.

Protesters called for patrons to write library staff and contact Broward County Commissioners.

Paul Lefrak, a librarian at the Fort Lauderdale branch, spent Monday evening protesting his employer's position.

''I am disappointed in the library for capitulating to political pressure,'' Lefrak said.

Bad News

Monday, October 3, 2005; A16

MANY PEOPLE outside Latin America probably assume Daniel Ortega's political career ended 15 years ago when his ruinous attempt to install a Marxist dictatorship in Nicaragua ended with an election he decisively lost. The slightly better informed might suppose that his two subsequent electoral defeats, the allegations of corruption and child molestation that haunt him, or his single-digit rating in opinion polls have made him a marginal figure in Nicaraguan politics. Sadly, the truth is otherwise: Thanks to the weakness of the country's new democratic institutions, Mr. Ortega is close to regaining power and to broadening the Latin alliance of undemocratic states now composed by Cuba and Venezuela.

Mr. Ortega's comeback has been accomplished through a brazenly corrupt alliance with a former right-wing president, Arnoldo Aleman, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2003 for looting the national treasury. Mr. Ortega's Sandinista Party supported the prosecution, then abruptly switched sides and formed a pact with Mr. Aleman against President Enrique Bolanos, a member of Mr. Aleman's Liberal Party who bravely chose to tackle government corruption. The left-right alliance has used its majority in the National Assembly to rewrite the constitution and stack the Supreme Court. In the past week it has begun stripping the members of Mr. Bolanos's cabinet of immunity so that they can be prosecuted before Sandinista judges on bogus charges. If this power play succeeds, Mr. Bolanos will be next. Meanwhile, Mr. Aleman, who stole tens of millions from one of Latin America's poorest countries, was freed from house arrest last week.

Mr. Ortega's goal is to force Mr. Bolanos to accept his constitutional rewrite, which transfers almost all presidential powers to Congress. That would effectively deliver Nicaragua to Sandinista control without one of the elections that Mr. Ortega keeps losing. Scheduled elections next year could then be manipulated. Already, the corrupt alliance has lowered the percentage of the vote a presidential candidate needs to be elected to 35, and criminal charges have been brought against one of the leading candidates. The Sandinistas will have plenty of money to spend, thanks to Hugo Chavez. Mr. Ortega recently announced that he had arranged with Venezuela's self-styled "Bolivarian revolutionary" for a supply of subsidized oil.

Compared with Mr. Chavez's aggressive intervention, attempts by the Bush administration and other outsiders to save Nicaraguan democracy so far look feckless. The new secretary general of the Organization of American States, Jose Miguel Insulza, tried to broker a political compromise but pronounced himself frustrated when Mr. Ortega ignored his appeals to stop undermining Mr. Bolanos's government. The Bush administration managed to win congressional passage of the Central American Free Trade Agreement this summer, but Mr. Ortega has blocked its ratification by Nicaragua.

Deputy Secretary of State Robert B. Zoellick is due to visit Managua this week in what officials say will be an attempt to bolster Mr. Bolanos and persuade Mr. Aleman's right-wing supporters to abandon their self-destructive alliance with the Sandinistas. As happens so often in Latin America during the Bush administration, high-level intervention arrives late. It does have one thing going for it: Eighty percent of Nicaraguans say they oppose the Ortega-Aleman pact. Nicaragua's rescue will depend on people power, inside or outside the polls.

© 2005 The Washington Post Company

(H/T Mike Pancier)

6 Of 10 Cubans Stopped At Sea Returned

MIAMI -- Six of 10 Cubans whose capture was broadcast on television in Miami have been sent back to Cuba, officials said.


Now tell me? How can this government sleep at night... knowing that they've sent these poor men seeking freedom to a land of no hope and hurt?

We'll pray for them as well as for those who suffer under Fidel that are truly against the regime.