Democrat Congresswoman Diane Watson Hearts Fidel Castro

by lounsbury | August 31, 2009 at 01:55 pm

1684 views | 29 Recommendations | 21 comments

California is the land of fruit and nuts. No really, it is! But one has to wonder how someone who talks like this, can sit in the US House of Representatives....

Quote

"It was just mentioned to me by our esteemed speaker, "Did anyone say anything about the Cuban health system?" And lemme tell ya, before you say "Oh, it's a commu-", you need to go down there and see what Fidel Castro put in place. <br><br> And I want you to know, now, you can think whatever you want to about Fidel Castro, but he was one of the brightest leaders I have ever met. [APPLAUSE] <br><br> And you know, the Cuban revolution that kicked out the wealthy, Che Guevara did that, and then, after they took over, they went out among the population to find someone who could lead this new nation, and they found...well, just leave it there (laughs), an attorney by the name of Fidel Castro..."

Only in America can you find a society that tolerates politicians who say things like that. Well, I'm sure it's okay in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, but they support communism because they are socialist states.

The good news is that Americans are watching the freak show and apparently aren't impressed or amused. But the reaction to catching folks like Diane Watson and Maxine Waters has been problematic for the Obama Administration, as it is clear that the American public has rejected these radicals and are in the process moving this country towards the Independent majority where our Constitution is once again respected and sought after to guide us as a nation through these troubled Waters. No pun intended.

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lounsbury

at 14:03 on August 31st, 2009

I honestly think that they believe that the American public is with them, and that the ONLY reason things aren't going well is because folks like Fox News still exist. They're working on that ugly detail as we speak.

Karl Gotthardt - albertacowpoke

at 15:50 on August 31st, 2009

I wonder why so many Cubans fled to Florida, if Castro's Cuba is so great.

lounsbury

at 18:12 on August 31st, 2009

I live in South Florida, and I don't know a single Cuban who loves Castro. They fled Cuba, many of them risking their lives, that ought to tell us all we need to know!

Uwe Paschen

at 20:58 on August 31st, 2009

ACP, a large number of European and South American went to Cuba to reside and live there. How many European left for greener pastures to the Americas? Ironically today the trend is reversed and more leave the Americas for Europe.

One thing Castro does get praised for around the Globe is the Cuban health care system, that is next to none and one of the best in the World.

One may not like Castro, Cuba or the political system and that is okay, however give credit where credit is due and critic where critics are appropriated.

Other wise it is just partisan rhetoric's and propaganda.

Cuba did rather well, taking into account that it has been black listed by the US and that it can not trade due to the longest enforced embargo against any country in Human History. The US paranoia towards Cuba is some what maladive.

I worked in Cuba for 6 month as a young Engineer and would I be given the choice between only the US and Cuba, I would rather live in Cuba then the US.

lounsbury

at 02:57 on September 1st, 2009

Probably why Castro went to Spain for his operation.

Uwe Paschen

at 06:13 on September 1st, 2009

That may have more to do with trust and politics rather then quality.

In 2007, the life expectancies at birth were as follows (World Bank data):
Cuba, 78.26 years;
World, 68.76 years;
Latin America and Caribbean, 73.13 years;
high income OECD countries, 79.66 years;
United States, 77.99 years.

The US embargo against Cuba is one of the main causes that hinder Cuba still today, from evolving. Cuba has one of the highest life expectancy rates in the region, with the average citizen living to 78.26 years.

The Cuban government operates a national health system and assumes fiscal and administrative responsibility for the health care of all its citizens.

In 2007, Cuba announced that it has undertaken computerizing and creating national networks in Blood Banks, Nephrology and Medical Images. Cuba is the second country in the world with such a product, only preceded by France.

According to the World Health Organization, Cuba provides a doctor for every 170 residents, and has the second highest doctor to patient ratio in the world after Italy.

lounsbury

at 07:13 on September 1st, 2009

I'll but you a one way ticket to Cuba, where should I send it?

Correction on your numbers...

United States: 78.11 years

Cuba: 77.45 years

Another thing to consider...

Obesity is rampant in the US, whereas it's not even on the radar screen in Cuba. We have McDonalds, they have rice and beans. Funny what folks can do with numbers when you just allow them to twist a little here, bend a little there, ain't it?

My offer stands for your plane ticket. I am a firm believer in the proof being in the pudding.

Uwe Paschen

at 15:34 on September 1st, 2009

My number are from the World Bank Data report of 2007, where are yours coming from?

We eat Rice and Bean as well here and do not eat Junk food. What is wrong with rice and beans? I think there are much better for you ten Mc Do would could ever be.

We also have a great health care system here and a Social Democracy that I would not want to trade for US still democracy wish is far less democratic in my view then many European and Asian Democracies are.

Look if you can not agree with UN stats, or WTO numbers and WHO reports then I suppose you wont agree with any facts nor do you seek to be objective and may lack insight here.

I work with countries like Cuba and did work in Cuba for a time. I would not mind working there again for some time. :)

lounsbury

at 03:21 on September 2nd, 2009

I live in a sea of Cubans in South Florida, and none of them have anything positive to say about Cuba or Castro. They typically speak of a brutal life in Spartan conditions. They love their country are extremely proud to be Cuban, and they view Castro and communism as a curse not a blessing.

You are aware that the Cuba that visitors see, and the one that foreigners see aren't the same right? Go to google maps and find the tourist areas. They're the ones that look like Miami with condos and swimming pools.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=cuba&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=29.992289,76.816406&ie=UTF8&ll=23.194817,-81.124259&spn=0.004241,0.009377&t=h&z=17

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=cuba&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=29.992289,76.816406&ie=UTF8&ll=23.126863,-81.288625&spn=0.002121,0.004689&t=h&z=18

The latter is where the folks that work in that resort area on an isolated peninsula (the resort complex) live.

erne (not verified)

at 07:35 on September 1st, 2009

And you have been a member of the Communist party since then... You have the right to spew this communist propaganda all day (which by the way if you were in Cuba you couldnt spew it for the other side risking being thrown in jail or killed by the regime) but I also have the right to set the record straight. You were there for 6 months, I spent 21 years of my life in the island. It is true that there are a lot of doctors. It was part of Castro's plan to export those doctor along with his communist revolution to Africa and South America. To achieve that the standard for medical school was lowered, so even though there are great doctors in Cuba no all those doctors that graduated are at even an acceptable level. Add to that that due to the economic disaster created by Castro missmanagement getting to a hospital when there are no medicine to be administered or even where maintining an average level of cleanliness is a challenge is nothing to brag about. And dont tell me it is free. It is not. Cubans paid with their Freedom and slave work. It is not free, there is nothing free in this world. As soon as we realize that and embrace real capitalism the better...

lounsbury

at 10:43 on September 1st, 2009

Great comment!!!

Uwe Paschen

at 16:42 on September 1st, 2009

Sorry erne, you may want to read Karl Marx before ranting. I am not a member of the Communist even though I was many years ago a member of the Socialist and now of the Green party.

Castro is far from perfect and yet you lack to stay with the facts here and just make US stile propaganda, not any better then Communist propaganda nor any more truth-worthy.

The Extremes of Capitalism are far more damaging and just as bad as the extremes of Communism.

Social Democracy is the best system we have today and the one that does not adder to any excesses of either sides, even though it is not perfect either and could use reforms as well, it is the best we have today and proved to be the fairest for all.

Cuba's main problem is not communism though, it is the US paranoia and threat. Cuba would most likely have evolved into a social democracy by now would it not have been for the US maladive politics and propaganda.

Grace H

at 20:00 on September 1st, 2009

There is no Communist rregime on the planet. Che may have been Marxist but Castro is far from it. The very fact tht he set up and then upheld a dictatorship proves this. What is real Capitalsim? This also does not exist.

chi hair straightener (not verified)

at 17:39 on August 31st, 2009

A man is driving up a steep, narrow mountain road.chi hair iron A woman is driving down the same road. As they pass each other, the woman leans out of the window and yells "PIG!!"chi 1 flat irons The man immediately leans out of his window and replies, "WITCH!!" They each continue on their way, and as the man rounds the next corner,buy chi flat irons he crashes into a pig in the middle of the road. If only men would listen.

JAMP

at 08:44 on September 1st, 2009

May be many of the 50 Millions of Americans without Health Insurance or some of the 18 000 people who die every year without medical care in the States do not satanize Maxim and Diane as "radicals".

In the XXI Century is a real shame that the most powerful nation in the World can not be able to guarantee medical care to its citizens.

No matter Fidel or Obama, just think about system inequalities.

Thanks, Fox, Greetings, Folks.

JAMP

lounsbury

at 10:41 on September 1st, 2009

We don't? Do you know of anyone who has been turned away?

The question is not whether they can get care, it is how we pay for it. That is a debate that the socialisze medicine now gang refuse to addres. They want socialized medicine and will say anything to get it.

JustAnotherIdiot (not verified)

at 12:39 on September 1st, 2009

Cuba is a communist country run by a dictator. Who cares if they get free BJ's on Monday and Pancakes on Tueday. These people aren't free. I don't care if they cured cancer down there. I would rather live and die free than to live 5 minutes under a dictator like Castro. Watson is a perfect example of ignorance run wild. For all the freedom that people who "look like her" fought for, why on earth would she back a man that puts people in prsion for their political views. Obviously she doesn't realize why people die on rafts trying to come to this country. It copied this from Wikipedia... just type in CUBA and read it for yourself: "By the end of 1960, all opposition newspapers had been closed down, and all radio and television stations were in state control.[39]:189 Moderates, teachers and professors were purged.[39]:189 In any year, about 20,000 dissenters were held and tortured under inhuman prison conditions.[39]:194 Groups such as homosexuals were locked up in internment camps in the 1960s, where they were subject to medical-political "re-education".[50] One estimate is that 15,000 to 17,000 people were executed.[51] The Communist Party strengthened its one-party rule, with Castro as supreme leader.["

Uwe Paschen

at 15:57 on September 1st, 2009

The difference between Cuban and American is simple, the Cuban know that there is no real freedom possible, where as the American believe that there are free when in fact they are just well brain washed by their own propaganda and fears.

A nation as paranoid, abusive and fearful as the US can hardly be free.

Voltaire said it well when he described freedom, "Freedom of the one begins where freedom of the other ends and freedom of the one ends, where freedom of the other begins, freedom is merely an elution for wish we manipulate and use to control the masses."

america the beautiful (not verified)

at 08:34 on September 3rd, 2009

you don't like the u.s. Fine. Don't come, live, here. You don't like our economic and social system. You don't have to experience it. But don't try to compare two lives that you haven't lived. We love our freedom and we will die to protect it just as our fathers died to achieve it.

Grace H

at 11:55 on September 3rd, 2009

"Die to protect your freedom"

Where and how is your freedom being violated? During the Civil War Lincoln put Confederates supporters and sympathizers in jail. During and after WWI xenophobia ruled. If you were accused of being Communist or Socialist you were blacklisted or kicked out of the country. An example of injustice is the "Sacco and Venzetti Trial." This continued an got worse with McCarthyism. During WWII we locked Japanese and other Asian peoples up in internment camps. If you didn't want to particpate in the wars in either Korea or Vietnam you could go to jail.

Compared to such action, where is the great persecution to American freedom by the government?