Michelle Malkin » CBC: Congressional boot-lickers

CBC: Congressional boot-lickers

By Michelle Malkin • April 10, 2009 06:03 AM

My Good Friday column this week spotlights the religious oppression in Cuba that the Congressional Black Caucus tools of Fidel Castro choose not to see. If ignorance is bliss, the CBC members who went on tour with the tyrant are the most ecstatically happy people on the planet.

And just a reminder that I’m on a partial Easter break from the blog. Doug Powers and several Tea Party guest bloggers will be holding the fort down the next few days. Enjoy!

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CBC: Congressional Boot-Lickers for Castro
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2009

Congressional Black Caucus Democrats went to Cuba to see what they wanted to see. Not since New York Times reporter Walter Duranty traipsed around Stalin’s Russia, filing cheery travelogues whitewashing Communist-engineered famine, has America witnessed such disgraceful propaganda tourism.

Led around by the nose by the Castro brothers, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver declared “if there is repression in Cuba we didn’t see it.” Somehow, the gulags and slums got left off the itinerary. Go figure. The CBC members saw, instead, a land of milk and honey. Fresh air and freedom. Shiny, happy people cared for by a kindly, benevolent leader. As Comrade Fidel himself put it in his official statement on the visit: “Persons who move on the streets in an active and almost always happy manner do not match with the stereotyped images that most of the times are portrayed about Cuba abroad.”

Rep. Cleaver swallowed the Kastro Kool-Aid in one big gulp: “We’ve been led to believe that the Cuban people are not free, and they are repressed by a vicious dictator, and I saw nothing to match what we’ve been told.” Cleaver unabashedly basked in the cult of Castro’s personality: “He’s one of the most amazing human beings I’ve ever met.”

Lord, what tools these lawmakers be.

Accompanying Cleaver were radical left-wing House Democrats Barbara Lee, Laura Richardson, Bobby Rush, Marcia Fudge, Mel Watt, and Mike Honda. Rep. Rush was enraptured by the tyrant’s “keen sense of humor, his sense of history and his basic human qualities.” Lee fawned over the Castros like your neighborhood ‘tweens giggle over the Jonas Brothers. The aging dictator Fidel “looked directly into our eyes,” she delighted. Where was he supposed to look? Into their ears? He “was very engaging and very energetic,” she confided.

Yes, ask the dozens of independent journalists and dissidents jailed over the last six years: Fidel’s a veritable fuzzball.

It’s too bad Castro’s American boot-lickers jetted back home (why is it these fervent admirers of the Communist regime always buy themselves return tickets?) before Easter. They might have run in to someone with seeing eyes who could have reminded them of the religious oppression that the kindly Castros oversee. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom reported last year that “[r]eligious belief and practice remain under tight governmental control in Cuba…Both registered and unregistered religious groups continue to suffer official interference, harassment, and repression. Political prisoners and human rights and pro-democracy activists continue to be denied the right to worship.” The panel compiled reports of religious leaders “being attacked, beaten, or detained for opposing government actions.”

The Cuban Communist Party requires religious groups to register to obtain official recognition. They must inform the regime “where they will conduct their activities” and obtain official permission to travel. The distribution of Bibles is controlled by the government. Processions and worship services outside tightly-regulated religious buildings are not allowed without permission of the local ruling official of the Communist Party. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is expressly forbidden from proselytizing. Religious schools are banned.

Two years ago, the U.S. international religious freedom panel reported, a Pentecostal preacher and his family were evicted from their home and their church demolished. A month after that, police raided the Santa Teresita Catholic Church in Santiago de Cuba, beat several persons gathered for Mass who participated in a political protest earlier that day, and detained 18 worshipers.

Every Sunday in Havana, a brave group of jailed dissidents’ wives walk to a government-approved Mass at an old Catholic cathedral to pray for their husbands’ freedom. They are known as the Ladies in White. The group has been harassed and bullied by Castro’s henchmen at Easter time for demanding regime change. Their church is named for Saint Rita, the patroness of lost causes. The hopeless sycophants of the Congressional Black Caucus, willfully blind to Castro’s systemic brutality, could certainly use the saint’s intercession.

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#674045

On April 10th, 2009 at 9:00 pm, stonemeister said:

May we all remember how we got here, how we were delivered as a people, and never forget the price and nature of sacrifice…and that hardships inflicted by our Creator are not punishments, but have a higher purpose, regardless of our ability to understand that purpose. Unless we remember our common history, we are doomed to lose all that has been sacrificed in the past for us, and it can happen in a heartbeat!

Best wishes for an enjoyable and reflective holiday season!
#674047

On April 10th, 2009 at 9:16 pm, Joy said:

On April 10th, 2009 at 3:06 pm, chapoutier said:

You can faintly see the Northern edge of Cuba just below the glittering image of Florida in this NASA poster “Earth At Night”.

Not really fair comparison. Half that light in Florida is coming from the gay discotheques.
#674065

On April 10th, 2009 at 10:35 pm, travlinman said:

You can faintly see the Northern edge of Cuba just below the glittering image of Florida in this NASA poster “Earth At Night”.

Two other things got my attention on that satellite view. The wonderful and progressive country of North Korea seemed awfully dark, and someone left a light on in the Falklands.
#674159

On April 11th, 2009 at 8:28 am, cabrerski said:

On April 10th, 2009 at 11:16 am, tre said:
God will judge those congressmen one day.

And since our constitution allows for the right to a speedy trial, I say we streamline the process. Apply for an early court date, maybe?

Just sayin’…
#674163

On April 11th, 2009 at 8:38 am, cabrerski said:

On April 10th, 2009 at 10:35 pm, travlinman said:
The wonderful and progressive country of North Korea seemed awfully dark, and someone left a light on in the Falklands.

When you live in a bunker, light hardly escapes to overhead views.

As for the Falklands, we got the word out…apparently a sheep farmer lit up a cigarette when the satellite was overhead. Sorry, won’t happen again.
#674234

On April 11th, 2009 at 10:39 am, deadeye said:

If my memory serves me correctly, Bobby Rush was one of the original Black Panthers. Now wonder he’s enamored by the Castros.
#674274

On April 11th, 2009 at 11:18 am, happyscrapper said:

On April 10th, 2009 at 9:35 am, marsouin said:
There are scores of black leaders who sympathize with the likes of Castro. Is it any wonder that so many black-dominated cities are such hell holes? This is a perfect example of how the Cult of the Victim degrades the human spirit in which hating and blaming others takes precedence over one’s, and children’s, welfare. Sadly, this sentiment, as it so glamorized, will continue for many decades to come.

And did you hear that Laura Richardson said most Cubans live in better conditions than many of her constituents? Wow…that really says a lot for her ability as a congresswoman to get things done for her community! And why would she admit that? Because she is just plain stupid. Someone may have already mentioned this…one of the idiots said “We were even allowed to worship on Sunday”. Wow! So that means the rest of the inhabitants of that hell hole can also worship freely? These people have gone beyond stupid and right into the traitor category.
#674358

On April 11th, 2009 at 12:58 pm, cabrerski said:

‘Scapper…

Then what Richardson should do is introduce a bill that would allow her constituents to relocate to the wonderful paradise known as Cuba. That is one reparation-related bill I could back. But let’s make sure the tickets are one-way and they renounce their U.S. citizenship. Want to bet on the number of takers? Care to bet on whether Richardson joins them?
#674367

On April 11th, 2009 at 1:13 pm, Laree said:

This Video should go viral, really this is person towing the party line and is completely clueless to the sentiment in this country. I know people think this is a Republican or a Conservative movement, there are plenty of Americans that don’t fit into those categories that are joining tea parties.

http://youhavetobethistalltogoonthisride.blogspot.com/2009/04/neil-cavuto-what-we-have-here-is.html
#674431

On April 11th, 2009 at 3:10 pm, right_on said:

Rep. Rush was enraptured by the tyrant’s “keen sense of humor…

…as they laughed together while watching old 8mm movies of Comrade Che personally executing several “old guard” Cuban officials, in the courtyard of the newly established “People’s Justice Building,” following the successful overthrow of Batista’s evil government.”

Fidel was not only a lawyer, and idealist, he continues to be a great story teller, and re-writer of history!

The CBC yearns to take us back to the future…
#674448

On April 11th, 2009 at 3:33 pm, happyscrapper said:

On April 10th, 2009 at 3:06 pm, chapoutier said:Not really fair comparison. Half that light in Florida is coming from the gay discotheques.

Good one, Chap!
#674461

On April 11th, 2009 at 3:48 pm, happyscrapper said:

On April 11th, 2009 at 1:13 pm, Laree said:
This Video should go viral, really this is person towing the party line and is completely clueless to the sentiment in this country. I know people think this is a Republican or a Conservative movement, there are plenty of Americans that don’t fit into those categories that are joining tea parties.

I was watching Cavuto that day. That woman is dumb as a rock! But she is just exactly like all the other libtards out there. I don’t know if they are being purposely obtuse, or if they really are that dim! There is definitely a disconnect from reality going on there.
#674584

On April 11th, 2009 at 9:37 pm, ITookTheRedPill said:

Reminder: Comrade Obama
#674586

On April 11th, 2009 at 9:39 pm, ITookTheRedPill said:

The Convention carried out various measures. It voted to dissolve the Communist Political Association and to re-establish the Communist Party. It voted to re-dedicate itself to its revolutionary task of establishing a Soviet America. It voted to intensify Marxist-Leninist education from the leaders down to the lowliest member. It voted to oust Browder as leader. It voted to return to the use of the word “comrade.”

–From Chapter 13 of “School of Darkness”
by Bella V. Dodd, Ex-Communist
#674587

On April 11th, 2009 at 9:42 pm, ITookTheRedPill said:

Speaking of “comrades”…
Chavez’s Venezuela: Obama and Ayers