In Miami, a new vision of Cuba
The Díaz-Balart years will end at the polls; a Democratic opposition rises
By David Brooks
From La Jornada
MIAMI, Aug. 19 -- Demographic and generational changes in Miami, along with a political juncture that no longer favors the Republican Party, create an unprecedented opportunity for Democratic candidates to defeat the political hegemony of the conservative Cuban-American wing headed by the brothers Lincoln and Mario Díaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.
The latest polls done by Sergio Bendixen of Bendixen & Associates, specialists in the Latin vote, show that the Díaz-Balarts' challengers trail them by 4 or 5 percentage points, a virtual tie. In addition, during the recent quarters, the Democratic candidates have collected more donations than the three Republican legislators.
Although it is said that in the past decade there was a generational and demographic transformation in Miami, "those changes have not manifested themselves politically." Outside the state, many people say that the three Cuban-American representatives from Miami remain in power in Washington.
In an interview with La Jornada, Bendixen, one of the most outstanding analysts in...
The Georgian dogs of August -- or schmucks of our time
By Saul Landau
Stupid leaders interpret words to satisfy their political desires. They miss vital nuances in dangerous international relations. On August 7, Mikheil Saakashvili ordered Georgia’s armed forces to invade South Ossetia, a secessionist province bordering Russia. In so doing, he joined other heads of state who won dunce caps with disastrous decisions based on failure to understand the obvious.
Georgia’s President apparently counted on U.S. backing, albeit his “good friend” George W. Bush had not explicitly promised to send U.S. forces if needed. The Georgian Army assaulted a piece of its own country, causing tens of thousands of South Ossetians to flee into Russia. Did “Saaka” ask Bush the explicit question or merely extrapolate -- as in “good friend must translate into U.S. military support?”
By Manuel Alberto Ramy
No, Barack Obama has not traveled to Havana. But his campaign has. I learned this when I saw a T-shirt with a slogan in his favor, hanging from a clothesline in the El Cerro neighborhood, which, according to the old song, "has the key."
"It was brought to me by my son, who is an Obama fan," said the owner, a lady who asked that her name not be published because her son "lives in Miami and, as you know, things over there are not easy."
To many Cubans (not only to the Cuban government), Obama and McCain are the same when it comes to their general attitude toward the island. "A little tougher or a little kinder, but they want to mess with what we have achieved," says Rigoberto, who identifies himself as a transport retiree. "I am not an apapipio," an unconditional supporter of the government, he hastens to say, but "we have good things to retain, other things to change, like letting people make a better living because things are tough," he says, raising his arms and eyes toward the crumbling walls of his house.
Is McCain another George W. Bush?
By Jack Cafferty
From Truthout
New York - Russia invades Georgia and President Bush goes on vacation. Our president has spent one-third of his entire two terms in office either at Camp David, Maryland, or at Crawford, Texas, on vacation.
His time away from the Oval Office included the month leading up to 9/11, when there were signs Osama bin Laden was planning to attack America, and the time Hurricane Katrina destroyed the city of New Orleans.
Sen. John McCain takes weekends off and limits his campaign events to one a day. He made an exception for the religious forum on Saturday at Saddleback Church in Southern California.
I think he made a big mistake. When he was invited last spring to attend a discussion of the role of faith in his life with Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, at Messiah College in Pennsylvania, McCain didn't bother to show up. Now I know why.
It occurs to me that John McCain is as intellectually shallow as our current president. When asked what his Christian faith means to him, his answer was a one-liner. "It means I'm saved and forgiven." Great scholars have wrestled with the meaning of faith for centuries. McCain then retold a story we've all heard a hundred times about a guard in Vietnam drawing a cross in the sand.
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