Uncommon Sense

You say "migrant," I say "refugee" (UPDATED)

On immigration, and the difference between Mexican "migrants" and Cuban "refugees," Val at Babalú writes for me — even though I was born in this country — and if I may be so presumptous, two former Cuban refugees I kno w — my parents.

Contrary to what today's media prefers to call Cubans who risk their lives to reach US shores - lately the term has been "migrants" - those Cubans are fleeing political oppression and are, thus, refugees. As I stated in a previous pos t, when Mexican "migrants" are faced with systematic violations of every basic human and civil right as the people of Cuba are, then perhaps I would accept a similarity.

What I will never accept, however, is the undignified treatment of a symbol of the U nited States of America under the caveat that as a "latino" or "hispanic" it is done on my behalf. While this country may not be perfect, it offered me refuge and the freedom to be me and I take great umbrage when an American flag is desecrated supposedly in my name. That's my flag that was being burned. That's my flag that was being hung upside-down and below the flag of another nation on my own soil.

And to top it off for Val, some of these idiots go out dressed, like the woman in the middle of this photo, with a picture of a killer on their shirt.

UPDATED, 10:40 p.m.

Troubling signs

Michelle Malkin has more photos (like the one at bottom left) depicting the ridiculous Guevarist presence at one of the immigration rallies. If revolution, Ché-styled, is the solution to the immigration problem, you obviously don't understand the question.

"Vaffanculo"

No translation really needed

Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia goes to Mass, but he still finds time to flip off a reporter.

Freelance photographer Peter Smith, who was on the job for the Archdiocese of Boston's newspaper, got the shot, seen to the left.

The Boston Herald has the story:

Smith was working as a freelance photographer for the Boston archdiocese’s weekly newspaper at a special Mass for lawyers Sunday when a Herald reporter asked the justice how he responds to critics who might question his impartiality as a judge given his public worship.

“The judge paused for a second, then looked directly into my lens and said, ‘To my critics, I say, ‘Vaffanculo,’ ” punctuating the comment by flicking his right hand out from under his chin, Smith said.

The Italian phrase means “(expletive) you.”

Yesterday, Herald reporter Laurel J. Sweet agreed with Smith’s account, but said she did not hear Scalia utter the obscenity.

Meanwhile, the archdiocese's newspaper, which said it made a "journalistic decision" not to publish the photograph, has fired Smith for releasing it to the Boston Herald.

Smith's release of the photo has come into question, which is ridiculous. I don't know the particulars of his arrangement with the archdiocese, but as a freelancer, his work is his until someone pays him for it.

The photo may not have been particularly newsworthy — except that the person in it is a U.S. Supreme Court justice responding to a legitimate question about his faith and how it affects his public duties on the court.

Scalia crudely showed his disregard for the question, and the house of worship he was in.

As a judge and as a Catholic, he should be ashamed.

Cuban journalist threatened with prosecution

Via CubaNet, a couple of interesting stories about the Cuban government's treatment of dissidents:

Cuban independent journalist Ana Leonor Díaz Chamizo tells CubaNet that security officials have told her she could be charged with aiding the United States if she does not halt her work as a journalist.

Díaz, a former correspondent in Washington and New York for Prensa Latina, the official Cuban news agency, said the agents who interviewed her also threatened to take action against her family.

Read the whole story, in Spanish, here

|———|

Also, CubaNet reports that imprisoned dissident Léster González Pentón ended a three-day hunger strike after security officials assured him that his family would not be harassed.

Read the story, in Spanish, here.

González, 29, was the youngest of the Group of 75 dissidents arrested during the "black spring" crackdown in March/April of 2003. He is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

What happens when Castro dies

The rumor of Fidel Castro's demise appears to have been just that, but we all know that day is coming. I even had a fairly vivid, and somewhat weird, dream about it last night. I am tempted to share it now, because my wife says a dream recounted before breakfast will come true — in the dream, Castro dies in my house — but I'd rather not contemplate what the dream said about me. Even Freud would probably freak.

But seriously, who hasn't imagined what will happen in Cuba and in the United States when the dictator dies?

Sundries has an interesting scenario about how the mainstream media will report the news:

Depending on their ideological viewpoint, each news organisation will either completely ignore the tremendous evil this man had foisted on a nation of 10 million plus for almost 50 years, or to reduce their significance, by comparing the then and now, in as positive a light as they can.

The latter will include always mentioning the 99% literacy rates, and the free health care, his Socialist Revolution brought about.

No word about the lack of free elections during all this time; indeed, the fact this rich man's son, this ex-altar boy-turned lawyer-turned revolutionary, Fidel Castro has never once been elected to any position in Cuba, yet he, however, is the font of all power in his country.

They will not mention all the thousands and thousands of people he has imprisoned, nor the mock trials held to condemn his opponents to death, nor of the civil liberties he has taken away, such as freedoms of speech, assembly, association and religion, all these years.

The negative column is so bristling to capacity with infringements of the most basic kinds of liberties which most people not living in Communist dictatorships have, yet who are always prostesting they have little, or that that they are under siege by whatever current administration is in power.

If these self-same people had to endure EVEN ONE MOMENT of the very real lack of civil liberties Cubans have undergone these many years, they would find out how very lucky they truly are.

(Read the entire post here.)

When Castro dies, I may get to meet the author of the above passage, because it looks like we'll be headed to the same place.

Sundries continues:

Finally, I can tell you what would happen in South Florida, in Chicago, in New Orleans, in all the places where Cubans have been exiled, because this man took away their country from them.

IT WOULD BE CHAOS.

Glorious, happy, joyful, orgasmic, incredible chaos.

Waving Cuban flags! People outside of their cafecito bars! People dancing a conga in the streets, outside of Versailles.

Marvellous!

Furthermore, I pledge to all who read this, that wherever I am, when I hear that Fidel Castro has died, I will head immediately to 8th Street, La Calle Ocho, and shout to the heavens, giving thanks that this person has finally died.

It will be a dream come true.

(H/T to Babalú)

Cartoon jihad freaks out bookstore chain

The appeasement of Islamo-fascism continues to spread.

It's now hit one of America's biggest book store chains.

The Associated Press reports:

BUFFALO, N.Y. - Borders and Waldenbooks stores will not stock the April-May issue of Free Inquiry magazine because it contains cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed that provoked deadly protests among Muslims in several countries.

"For us, the safety and security of our customers and employees is a top priority, and we believe that carrying this issue could challenge that priority," Borders Group Inc. spokeswoman Beth Bingham said Wednesday.

The magazine, published by the Council for Secular Humanism in suburban Amherst, includes four of the drawings that originally appeared in a Danish newspaper in September, including one depicting Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban with a lit fuse.

At least the spokeswoman spared us claptrap about wanting to be "sensitive" to Muslims.

The lesson to be learned, writes Andrew Sullivan, is an easy one, albeit sad, too.

"It's obvious: violence against free writers and artists gets results. We have all but invited more."

Fortuantely, we have a way to respond.

"If you care about freedom of expression," Sullivan writes, "don't buy books from Borders or Waldenbooks."

I know I won't.

(H/T to Andrew Sullivan)

Signs make Castro nervous

Cuban independent journalist Guillermo Fariñas writes stories critical of the regime. The authorities turn off his Internet access.

Someone paints some signs screaming, "Abajo Fidel!" the cops go searching for the paint.

No matter how Cubans tired of Castro express their opposition, Castro finds a way to strike back.

From CubaNet:

Appearance of anti-government signs sparks repression

PALMA SORIANO, Cuba, March 30 (Virgilio Delat La O, APLO /
www.cubanet.org) - The recent appearance of anti-government signs here in Palma
Soriano and in the towns of Palmarito, Mella, San Luís , Alto Songo, La
Maya and the city of Santiago de Cuba has brought a wave of repression
against dissidents.

Anilla López, president of a block committee in Palma Soriano, last
week publicly blamed dissident Orlando Pérez Aguilera for signs saying
"Down with Fidel" and "Freedom for the 75" that appeared in town. Pérez
Aguilera was physically threatened.

Last week in the municipality of Mella members of the National
Revolutionary Police broke into the home of dissident Yunier Santos de la Cruz.
The agents said they were looking for paint and paint brushes used to
make anti-government posters.

During the search, they took a shortwave radio and literature from the
European Union.

Santos de la Cruz was taken to Santiago where he was told he could be
helped if he agreed to be a government informant. He was held for three
days.

A new contract on America

Just in time for this fall's mid-term elections, the Christian Right has a new manifesto.

Not surprisingly, it's not very Christian nor very American.

After a long preamble stocked with fire and brimstone rhetoric, the "Values Voters' Contract With Congress" details what signatories specifically want from Congress, the president and the judiciary. Calling for what essentially would be a rewriting of the Constitution, it's a vision for a more religious, less free America.

That sounds great to Tom DeLay.

Speaking at a conference in Washington entitled "The War on Christians," DeLay presumed to speak for Jesus Christ and enlisted Him in the cause.

"Sides are being chosen, and the future of man hangs in the balance!" he warned. "The enemies of virtue may be on the march, but they have not won, and if we put our trust in Christ, they never will. . . . It is for us then to do as our heroes have always done and put our faith in the perfect redeeming love of Jesus Christ."

DeLay was introduced by Rick Scarborough, the organizer of the conference and one of the "founders" behind the new manifesto.

Scarborough, a Texas Baptist minister, is ready for battle, but, as the Washington Post's Dana Milbank asks, is there really an enemy to be fought?

This would seem to be an odd time to declare Christianity under siege. A Christian conservative president has just nominated two Supreme Court justices who take an expansive view of religious rights, and religious conservatives are ascendant in a Republican Party that controls both chambers of Congress.

But, as Scarborough knows, believers will be more motivated to go to the polls in November (and to contribute money to his group) if they feel threatened. And so his forum offered all sorts of books and pamphlets proclaiming dire warnings: "The Criminalization of Christianity," "Liberalism Kills Kids" and "Same-Sex Marriage: Putting Every Household at Risk."

Scarborough knows that very well.

I had a run-in with Scarborough in 2004 when I wrote a couple of newspaper columns critical of Scarborough's mentor, the Rev. Jerry Falwell. At the time, Scarborough was trying to sell tickets for an appearance by Falwell in Lufkin, Texas, the base of Scarborough's Vision America organization.

Scarborough took up the challenge. In response, he bought a full-page ad denouncing me and the newspaper; submitted an op-ed column, which we published; and, surprisingly, invited me to dinner with him, Falwell and a couple hundred other people gathered for the event.

Sitting between Falwell and Scarborough, I had the best seat in the house.

Falwell was pleasant company, but when he got up to speak, he was as wrong as ever.

But that night I also got a vibe from Falwell that perhaps he thought Scarborough — who has modeled his organization after Falwell's Moral Majority and Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition — was not ready for prime time. Falwell had been scheduled to appear next night at another Vision America event in nearby Nacogdoches, but he ended up canceling.

Scarborough, though, has kept up the fight, only taking it to a bigger stage.

Hopefully, the new attention will be enough to counter his and his allies' frightening vision for America.

(H/T's to The Pine Blog and Andrew Sullivan.)

Juicy rumor of the day: Castro is dead

Oh, what a happy day this would be, but it doesn't look like it's today.

Be assured, though, his day is coming. I just hope it's on one of my days off so I can properly celebrate.

(H/T to Babalú.)

Cuban pastor arrested

Pastor Carlos Lamelas, a Church of God minister, was arrested last month and charged with aiding emigrants who sought to leave the country illegally.

Paxety has the details.

Kidnapped journalist released in Iraq

Finally, some good news from Iraq.