...“It was almost like listening to an old friend,” said Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Il.), adding that he found Castro’s home to be modest and Castro’s wife to be particularly hospitable. “In my household I told Castro he is known as the ultimate survivor,” Rush said.Rep. Laura Richardson (D-Ca.) said Castro was receptive to President Obama’s message of turning the page in American foreign policy. "He listened. He said the exact same thing" about turning the page "as President Obama said," said Richardson. Richardson said Castro knew her name and district. "He looked right into my eyes and he said, 'How can we help? How can we help President Obama?'"...
(Politico, 4/7/09)
The seven "Congresspersons" (all Democrats) are back from Cuba and are shamelessly singing the praises of a brutal Communist regime which has raped and enslaved that nation.
The Democrats met with Fidel Castro and his "lovely" wife where they discussed their plans to work for the release of five Cuban spies who are currently in American prisons.
Amazing.
These American lawmakers are concerned about espionage agents who worked against the interests of the United States, spies who were justly, publicly tried and convicted in U.S. courts. They even met with family members of the agents and promised to pressure Team Obama for the release of those convicted.
But these hypocritical Democrats didn't bother to meet with the families of Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, Jorge Luis Perez Garcia or any of the other innocent Cuban people who the Castro brothers have had tortured and imprisoned in Cuba's barbaric jails. No, they didn't even raise the issue of human rights in their dainty meetings with the dictators.
It really is incredible. The senseless hatred that some Democrats have for the United States causes them to automatically embrace every anti-American thug they can find even, if in doing so, they have to conveniently "overlook" tyranny, cruelty and abject failure.
Cuba is an economic wreck. Her people are poorly fed, poorly educated, poorly doctored. There is absolutely zero freedom there: no freedoms of speech, assembly, religion, press -- nada. For crying out loud, there hasn't been an election there in 50 years!
And yet the Democrats of the Congressional Black Caucus are still smitten with Communist menaces like Fidel Castro?
Guys, you have to work very, very hard to be this stupid.
Blog for Cuba adds these observations:
While CBC members were enjoying the Cuban dictator's VIP propaganda tour, a black Cuban was denied employment in a health clinic for tourists. In Cuba, better jobs like this one are reserved for those with lighter skin, so as to not offend the tourists and risk losing dollars the regime depends on to maintain power.
While CBC members were enjoying the Cuban dictator's VIP propaganda tour, they didn't ask about Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, a 21st century Cuban Nelson Mandela serving a twenty-five year prison sentence for peacefully supporting democracy and human rights in Cuba.
The CBC members are hypocrites; sleazy poverty pimps living high off the oppression of their constituents, they flaunt their disregard for civil and human rights by endorsing a white dictator who enslaves millions of black Cubans...
And over at Hot Air, Ed Morrissey suggests:
Leftists just don’t know when to stop. One can argue that the Cuban embargo has been a failure without trying to turn Fidel and Raul Castro into heroes. Unfortunately, the Congressional Black Caucus couldn’t figure that out, and instead beclowned themselves by fawning over the two men who have oppressed journalists and democracy activists for 50 years...
Regarding the "hospitality" the CBC members praised, Morrissey says:
How sweet! Did they by chance ask whether the Castros offer that kind of hospitality and friendship to people who just want to vote freely in open elections? Or do they get thrown into prisons and accused of treason for their desire to have a representative democracy run Cuba instead of a military junta serving the dictators who suckered them into the meeting?
Apparently not. Supposedly, Democrats stand for human rights, but these Democrats went to a nation with one of the world’s worst records on human rights — and talked about Barack Obama. They demanded an end to the embargo. Apparently, they didn’t bother to demand an end to oppression and to dictatorship, which gives an indication of the CBC’s priorities.
I wonder if they got autographs from the Castros, too.
