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My Evening With Castro (mocking of the Hollywood elite who kiss Castro's posterior)
National Review dot com ^ | May 2003 | Cheryl Flake

Posted on 08/02/2006 1:37:59 PM PDT by doug from upland

May 22, 2003, 8:45 a.m. My Evening with Castro The experience of a lifetime.

By Cheryl Flake

Oliver Stone calls him "one of the earth's wisest people." Jack Nicholson has dubbed him a "genius." "An experience of a lifetime" is how Kevin Costner described his own meeting.

I recently spent an evening with the same man, Fidel Castro. I came away convinced it must be more than Cuban cigars that these Hollywood types are smoking on their visits to Havana.

Two months ago I accompanied my husband, Rep. Jeff Flake, and seven other members of Congress on a visit to the island. The program consisted of meetings with U.S. government officials, Cuban government officials, nongovernmental organizations, and Cuban dissidents. Of course, Fidel Castro is always willing to hold court with visiting dignitaries, so an evening meeting was arranged. My husband declined, as he had on a previous visit, to meet with Castro, but encouraged me to do so hoping that my presence without him might be viewed as even more of a slight.

It was the experience of a lifetime all right — the longest experience of mine. For over four hours, without a break, Fidel Castro offered nothing but contradictions. He was popularly elected, he said while dressed in fatigues. Every Cuban is taught English, he insisted through his translator. The evening went on and on with little input from his guests. We were there to listen.

Is Castro a genius? The Wall Street Journal reported nearly a year ago about Castro's efforts to clone Cuba's world-record-holding milk cow, Ubre Blanca. According to Boris Luis Garcia, formerly a molecular biologist with Cuba's Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Castro wanted to shrink cows to the size of dogs. Castro's idea was to get around the scarcity of milk in the cities by providing Cuban families with miniature milk cows they could keep in their apartments. According to his plan, the miniature cows would graze on grass to be grown in drawers under fluorescent lights.

Now, our Hollywood friends might argue that Castro's cow-in-every-apartment version of the old "chicken in every pot" is simply evidence of Castro's environmental sensitivity. But my guess is that most Cubans had higher aspirations for the revolution. Most would probably have preferred a refrigerator.

Of course, what Castro lacks in good sense he more than makes up for in ruthlessness. This despite Oliver Stone's insistence that Castro is "very concerned about his country." Just days after my evening with Fidel, we learned that he had undertaken a massive roundup of nearly 80 dissidents. These peaceful, pro-democracy activists have now been sentenced to terms of up to 28 years. Three of the dissidents we had met with days before were among those given long prison terms. And just days later, three hapless hijackers of a Cuban ferryboat were summarily executed by Castro's government. The only surprise in Castro's recent behavior is that anyone has been surprised by it at all. It is a pattern that goes back 40 years.

Back on the streets, one can't help but wonder what will finally break that pattern. It takes no effort at all to find Cubans who openly oppose their government's policies and express a desire for greater freedom. But for all the courage and stamina the Cuban people display every day, it's very hard to get a sense that they're about to change their government, or even that they expect to do so in the foreseeable future.

Cubans welcome Americans enthusiastically, even though for the past 40 years, our peoples have been isolated from each other as never before in our history. Maybe they are just being neighborly, or maybe they like the idea of freedom that America represents — but either way, they do not blame Americans for the effects of our trade embargo. Under that embargo, there are travel restrictions that make it very hard to get to Cuba unless you're a Hollywood type or have other contacts or credentials. Somehow I doubt that Oliver Stone or Kevin Costner spend much time walking the streets, meeting Cubans, exchanging ideas. And it's hard to see how America can influence Cuba's future if we continue to keep Americans and Cubans isolated from each other.

Maybe it's time to try something different. Castro won't break his 40-year pattern, but we can break ours — by granting all Americans, not just Hollywood stars in Armani and rose-colored glasses, the right to travel to Cuba. Democracy starts with ideas. And there are no better representatives of the American idea than the American people themselves.

— Cheryl Flake is married to Rep. Jeff Flake (R., Ariz


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Cuba; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: adiostime; castro; cuba; dictator; gastro; hollywoodleft
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1 posted on 08/02/2006 1:38:02 PM PDT by doug from upland
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To: doug from upland

And to think of all the many nitwits who hang on every word of these fruitcakes who play make-believe for a living.


2 posted on 08/02/2006 1:44:52 PM PDT by mrsmel (Men possess talent. Genius possesses men. Chocolate cravings possess women.)
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To: doug from upland

Actors deal in fantasy.


3 posted on 08/02/2006 1:46:13 PM PDT by OldArmy52 (China & India: Doing jobs Americans don't want to do (manuf., engineering, accounting, etc))
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To: mrsmel

I agree. Open the island up to AMericans. LEt the Cuban Cigars flow out. Let's talk and meet. THe island will be democratized and wealthy overnight....

There are so many Cuban Americans here, doctors, teachers, scientists, writers, good people...that will jump at the chance to go back and help rebuild their country...


4 posted on 08/02/2006 1:49:16 PM PDT by nikos1121 (Thank you again Jimmy Carter.)
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To: doug from upland

Socialism is slavery by givernment.. amazing those that don't know that..


5 posted on 08/02/2006 1:56:52 PM PDT by hosepipe (CAUTION: This propaganda is laced with hyperbole..)
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To: doug from upland
We know who these people are, and what they want. They are the committed reds, fellow-travelers, and the willing dupes.

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Louise Bryant wrote about her travels through the bolshevik's worker's paradise. It was all lies, but these political pilgrims thought they were helping midwife the future...the new soviet man. That it ended in murder, dicatatorship, and gulags would have made no difference to most of these rabid utopians. No matter, that's the leftist idea of progress, and being a "progressive" means being a national or an international socialist. They'll take either one. Hu, Fidel, or Hugo it's all the same to the braindead left.

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Thank you Doug for the post and your excellent response.

6 posted on 08/02/2006 1:58:11 PM PDT by AdvisorB (For a terrorist bodycount in hamistan, let the smoke clear then count the ears and divide by 2.)
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To: doug from upland
I was working in Cancun during spring break of 1996. A group of us flew into Havana in late April. we stayed a week. It was mostly depressing. people had no conection to the outside world. everybody talks about '57 Chevy's, but i did see many. All i saw were a bunch of commie built travie's. I asked a taxi driver, "No mas Fidel?" I was told to shut the f up....Cuba has ears.

can't wait until the phony SOB dies.
7 posted on 08/02/2006 1:59:00 PM PDT by polarbear6
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To: nikos1121
Hold on a kick, look at Jack Nicholson's quote, they talked about everything. Does that include rich are rich because they take from the poor in the Marxist philosophy? How much is Jack worth now? Castro has an excuse that he is taking cair of the "people's money" but I don't think any of these are maroons talk about THEIR money the same way.

I swear these people are so incredibly arrogant. It's ok for them to be rich, just not those mean jerks who run large businesses and are accountable.
8 posted on 08/02/2006 1:59:34 PM PDT by mojo_the_migo
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To: doug from upland

Mrs. Flake has written a very amusing article about a very sick a vicious man. Right now let us hope he is very sick in the medical sense of the word. I hope one day Cuba will be free, but as much of Latin America seems to be sliding once again towards Communism, it may not be as soon as we'd like to think.


9 posted on 08/02/2006 2:01:07 PM PDT by jocon307 (The Silent Majority - silent no longer)
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To: doug from upland
Thats right,Chevy Chase,Richard Belzer and Ed Asner all self avowed Socialists.
10 posted on 08/02/2006 2:02:15 PM PDT by cmsgop ( President Mahmud Ahmadinejad Must Purify Himself in The Waters of Lake Minnetonka)
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To: polarbear6
If someone can get me the address, this will be sent from my card service, SendOutCards.com.




11 posted on 08/02/2006 2:05:24 PM PDT by doug from upland (Stopping Hillary should be a FreeRepublic Manhattan Project)
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To: nikos1121
There are so many Cuban Americans here, doctors, teachers, scientists, writers, good people...that will jump at the chance to go back and help rebuild their country...

I seriously doubt that.

No doubt there will be a bunch of Cubans (born in Cuba) or Americans of Cuban descent (noticed I didn't call them Cuban-Americans), who will go back to their native country, but the great majority of those "Cuban" lawyers, doctors, businessmen, engineeers, etc, that have been successful in the U.S., will go back to visit but not to live. Those Americanized "Cubans" will probably take the opportunity to finally bring to the states the family members that they were desiring all along to bring to live with them.

You don't give up a succesful life in a succesful country to start all over again; especially when it probably will be a lot easier to visit the home country.
12 posted on 08/02/2006 2:08:10 PM PDT by adorno
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To: doug from upland

Wanna bet that at least 4 out of the 5 hollyood lefties in the pictures go to his funeral?


13 posted on 08/02/2006 2:09:52 PM PDT by Leftism is Mentally Deranged (Leftism is the ideology of nihilism, despair, nothingness and death.)
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To: mojo_the_migo

Nicholson likes Castro because he gives him free Cubans to smoke...


14 posted on 08/02/2006 2:11:30 PM PDT by nikos1121 (Thank you again Jimmy Carter.)
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To: doug from upland

Great collection of sub-mental midgets. They have all the intellect of a constipated flea. To hell with Hollywood!


15 posted on 08/02/2006 2:11:32 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY ((((Truth shall set you free))))
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To: Leftism is Mentally Deranged
Wanna bet that at least 4 out of the 5 hollyood lefties in the pictures go to his funeral?

But, all their prayers will be with Castro, and they all will cry their eyes dry.
16 posted on 08/02/2006 2:13:44 PM PDT by adorno
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To: adorno

I didn't say to live, but I wouldn't be surprised. Why not? It's a beautiful island. I'm saying that if the country is free, you will have private entrepreneurs there..restoring the island to its brilliance.

Eisnhauer screwed up. We should have stayed close to our friends there and even closer to our enemies...No reason for that island to remain communist this long...


17 posted on 08/02/2006 2:14:06 PM PDT by nikos1121 (Thank you again Jimmy Carter.)
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To: doug from upland
Castro's idea was to get around the scarcity of milk in the cities by providing Cuban families with miniature milk cows they could keep in their apartments.

Yeah but all you'd get would be condensed milk HAW HAW HAW

18 posted on 08/02/2006 2:15:44 PM PDT by jiggyboy (Ten per cent of poll respondents are either lying or insane)
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To: doug from upland
It's interesting that when I speak with my mother-in-law, who lives in Hollywood and hangs out with the likes of Ariana Huffington and other Dem "leaders and thinkers", she now is saying that the evolving thinking is that Democracy is no longer appropriate for us. These people are starting to talk (at least in her very busy living room) about making efforts to scrap our constitution for a "better and more fair" system. By this I assume either communism or socialism.

I guess this isn't much of a surprise, except in that the thinking is starting to gel and people are starting to form a strategy with this goal in mind.

19 posted on 08/02/2006 2:17:37 PM PDT by Cementjungle
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To: nikos1121
"Cuban Americans here, doctors, teachers, scientists, writers, good people...that will jump at the chance to go back and help rebuild their country..."

Yeah sure! If they want to end up in what they fled when they left. That can only occur when Cuba has returned to a free and open society. Don't forget that Castro and his elk have been active in the past few weeks fomenting hate and discontent in Venezuela and other South American countries.

"Can't we ALL just get along?"

20 posted on 08/02/2006 2:22:54 PM PDT by dvan
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