Uncommon Sense

An interview with Paneque

An interview with journalist and former Cuban political prisoner Dr. José Luis García Paneque.

Memories

Cindy Sheehan quits her war

Memories,
Like the corners of my mind
Misty water-colored memories
Of the way we were

This made me cry

I dare you not to do the same when you check this out.

For more about John Gebhardt and the photograph, read this.

(H/T to Babalú.)

The "egocentric evil" of Saddam and Fidel

Saddam and Fidel, they really aren't that different, writes Jim Hoagland of the Washington Post:

Dictators die harder than most of us. Having wielded unlimited power in life, they seem to be sustained by a stubborn belief in their ability to stare down death, too. But secret police, arbitrary executions and torture finally provide no lasting defense against their own date with the grim reaper.

That lends a particularly morbid, even pathetic, quality to the last days of Saddam Hussein and Fidel Castro, as it did to those of Francisco Franco and of many other tyrants-in-extremis before el rais Saddam and el jefe Fidel were confronted, respectively, with a hangman's rope and the withering ravages of disease.

Survival is the dictator's primary occupation — as well as his justification for ruthlessness. "His main contribution to life, finally, is fear; but fear such as thunder, cancer or madness may provoke," author William Kennedy wrote of the fictional caudillo that Gabriel Garcia Marquez created in "The Autumn of the Patriarch." Facing death, the dictator is "the embodiment of egocentric evil unleashed," Kennedy continued in a masterful 1976 book review for The New York Times.

Read the whole thing here.

May they soon reunite

Undated photo, via Newsday.com

Not a good year for dictators

Pinochet and Stroessner are dead.

Castro is dying.

And Hussein is about to swing from the end of a rope.

Freedom has not come for the people formerly or currently under these despots' thumbs. Some are still waiting. But the demises, natural or otherwise, of these dictators illustrate that the only think inevitable about tyranny is that it cannot survive in the face of brave men and women willing to fight for their liberty.

And if the world is fortunate, tyranny and despotism cannot survive Mother Nature.

Cindy Sheehan arrested again

Well, sort of.

At least it wasn't for drinking beer.

The decline of Cindy Sheehan

Maybe, finally, we can hope, the "peace mom's" 15 minutes of infamy are over.

The Waco Tribune-Herald reports:

CRAWFORD — The Cindy Sheehan staying near here this weekend does not command the same attention or sympathy as the one who arrived near President Bush’s ranch as a furious, grieving stranger more than a year ago.

But even as fading fame, partisan criticism and growing nationwide concern about the Iraq war have contributed to make the Vacaville, Calif., “peace mom” a far less relevant figure, the importance of her first Crawford visit still lingers.

Her call for quick withdrawal represented a radical view that no prominent politician was endorsing. Thirteen months later, it is a serious Senate campaign platform in Connecticut and Virginia. Calls for withdrawal are now raised often by editorial page writers, politicians and even former military leaders.

All of which has left Sheehan herself more marginalized.

Well, maybe it's also because of her love for this guy.

And then there was this idicocy. (Which you can read more about here and here.)

There is no denying that Sheehan's protests in Crawford in the summer of 2005 galvinized the anti-war movement, giving it a momentum and face that it had previously lacked.

But there also is no denying that the the immediate withdrawl from Iraq that Sheehan wanted was the same as calling for a U.S. defeat in the war.

The mother of a dead soldier or not, that made Sheehan wrong.

Whatever the anti-war movement and the radical left think of Sheehan, she'll never get any special treatment in her new hometown of Crawford.

“I don’t know of anyone around here that respects her, I really don’t,” Crawford City Council member Charles Weithorn told the Waco newspaper, adding that Sheehan’s peace vigil has become irrelevant.

“I think she rode that horse way too long,” he said.

Hunger strikes fading fast?

The New York Times reports that thanks to the likes of Saddam Hussein and Cindy Sheehan, hunger strikes as a form of protest are not what they used to be. At least in the cases of Hussein and Sheehan, their hearts were not really into it. They were not interested in forcing change as much as they were in generating publicity for themselves.

Of course, the Times did not mention a hunger striker who might have challenged the premise of the article — Guillermo Fariñas.

(H/T to Malkin.)

Sheehan's porta-potty protests

Cindy Sheehan may have bought herself a piece of Crawford to host anti-war and and anti-Bush protests, but she is still fighting for the right to break the law and otherwise make a nuisance of herself to her new neighbors.

In the Waco Tribune-Herald, Sheehan's lawyer cut to the chase:

Fort Worth attorney David Broiles, who represents Sheehan’s group, said the lawsuit will continue because the protesters consider Camp Casey I, the original spot where Sheehan pitched her tent two years ago, meaningful ground.

“The lawsuit is not to achieve a venue where we can have large gatherings,” he said. “It is only to be able to re-create the small gatherings with some tents and porta-potties and parking.

“All the big activities will be at another venue, but Camp Casey I is an important symbol to us, and it is on the road to the president’s ranch. That is where Cindy first set up, and we have a right to protest there. The only issue is, can we have toilets, parking and small tents?”