The news comes, oh, about 48 years too late, but it nevertheless is there. Fidel Castro dropped hints he might be retiring soon, according to Reuters:
“My elemental duty is not to hold on to positions and less to obstruct the path of younger people,” the 80-year-old Castro said in a letter read on Cuban television.
Gee, why didn’t he think of this in 1959 and spare an entire nation nearly five decades of misery?
As an Army veteran myself, today I salute the United States Marine Corps on their 232nd birthday. Semper Fi and oorah!
Well, thank God the cop-killer Shawn Sherwin LaBeet, who had run lose in South Florida after murdering Miami-Dade Police Officer Jose Somohano–a married father of two–will no longer kill cops or anyone else for that matter. He himself was killed late last night by cops north of Miami.
The odd story took a few twists after police–in a rush to get LaBeet–were informed falsely by LaBeet’s girlfriend, Renee Dangelo, that his name was actually Kevin Wehner. Wehner turned out to be an innocent man whose identity LaBeet had stolen.
Shawn LaBeet also injured three other police officers: Christopher Carlin, Tomas Tundidor, and, most seriously, Jody Wright, who ended up losing part of the bone in her leg as a result of the shooting.
LaBeet apparently had been running from cops due to an open arrest warrant, related to drugs. He had gotten into a fight over some missing marijuana some years ago, apparently, and as he and another man wrestled for control over a shotgun he had pointed at a third man, it went off, accidently hitting his girlfriend–yes, the same stupid bit** who lied for him, Dangelo. She refused to press charges but the seriousness of the situation prompted the Broward Sheriff’s Office to charge him with both aggravated battery with a firearm and aggravated assault with a firearm. And now, a husband and father is dead as a result.
A handful of other scumbags actually helped LaBeet futilely put off capture for a few hours and now they’ve been rightfully arrested. Dangelo; LaBeet’s brother Shane LaBeet; his nephew Jaleel Torres (the family that gets busted together is mistrusted together?); Alba Bello; her son, Alain Gonzalez; and Lazaro Guardiola, Bello’s boyfriend.
And now the Cuba connection. Turns out Shawn LaBeet’s dad has been “getting his groove on” all over the Caribbean: he had a total of 19 children, according to one of LaBeet’s brothers, Keith LaBeet. One of Shawn’s older half-brothers, Ishmael Ali LaBeet, masterminded a robbery that ended with eight dead at a Virgin Islands resort in the ’70′s. This vile crime is still known today as the Fountain Valley Massacre.
Ishmael managed to escape from custody while enroute to New York from the Virgin Islands in the ’80′s. He hijacked a plane to Cuba and has been a fugitive ever since, although it’s not currently known if Ishmael LaBeet is in Cuba or elsewhere.
For that matter, there are a number of fugitives wanted by the FBI who appear to have been granted asylum by Castro. Visit The Real Cuba website for a comprehensive list. Meanwhile, Castro and his apologists whine about Luis Posada Carriles.
Anyway, back to the topic at hand.
Here’s a list of police officers from South Florida who have been killed in the line of duty.
Here’s a place where you can learn how to help injured police officers.
Sign Officer Jose Somohano’s guestbook on the Miami Herald’s website.
I’d like to take this opportunity to express my condolences to Officer Somohano’s family. If you find this and read it, may God comfort you in this time of trouble and pain.
Beasts of a feather flock together. The cadaverous caudillo named Castro chimes up and spews the same garbage the loose screws at Loose Change and Rosie O’Donnell have been spewing, that 9/11 was a “government conspiracy:”
An article attributed to Cuban leader Fidel Castro on Tuesday accused the US government of deceiving the world about the September 11 terror attacks in the United States.
The article, written on the sixth anniversary of the attacks, claimed that the Pentagon was hit not by an airplane but by a missile, and says that data on the World Trade Center destruction does not add up.
“We know that there was deliberate misinformation,” said Castro, 81, in a lengthy article titled “The Empire and Lies.” The Cuban leader routinely refers to the United States as “the empire.”
You’re right about one thing, Fidel. There’s been deliberate misinformation coming from you and your corrupt band of criminals for 48 years.
Cyril Richard Rescorla, better known as Rick. Born in England, he came to serve as an officer in the U.S. Army. He fought in Vietnam, in the battle of the Ia Drang Valley, made famous in the movie starring Mel Gibson, We Were Soldiers Once.
Rick was the VP of security for a brokerage firm on Wall Street–with offices at the World Trade Center. He was hardnosed and he took his job seriously, putting his companies employees through fire drill after annoying fire drill.
I’ll let Bill Gertz, author and Washington Times reporter, tell you the rest of the story:
On September 11, the evacuation was real. A fireball erupted in the nearby tower, and all of Morgan Stanley’s employees were making their way down and out of the other tower. By the time the second hijacked airliner hit the south tower at 9:07 a.m., most of the company’s employees were out. But Rescorla’s work was not finished. Three employees were missing. Rescorla and two assistants went back to look for them. Rescorla was last seen on the tenth floor of the burning tower. He died when the building collapsed a short time later. But he had saved thousands of lives. Out of 3,700 employees, Morgan Stanley lost only six, including Rescorla. R. James Woolsey, former director of Central Intelligence, sees Rescorla as the kind of person urgently needed by U.S. intelligence. An iconoclast and strategic thinker who wasn’t afraid to buck the system, Rescorla “is an example of somebody who should have probably been at the top of the intelligence community, but wasn’t,” Woolsey told me. “He’s a perfect example of the kind of guy that the Germans say has fingerspitzengefühl — fingertip feel” or intuition, he said. “God, it would have been wonderful if he had been the head of the DO’s [the CIA's Directorate of Operations] counterterrorist operations, but at least he saved 3,700 people.”
Read the rest of this fantastic excerpt here.
Don’t forget to fly your flag at half-mast today to commemorate those who lost their lives six years ago today.
Never forget…
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/09/20070904-6.html
Patriot Day, 2007
A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America
September 11, 2001, was a defining moment in American history. On that terrible day, our Nation saw the face of evil as 19 men barbarously attacked us and wantonly murdered people of many races, nationalities, and creeds. On Patriot Day, we remember the innocent victims, and we pay tribute to the valiant firefighters, police officers, emergency personnel, and ordinary citizens who risked their lives so others might live.
After the attacks on 9/11, America resolved that we would go on the offense against our enemies, and we would not distinguish between the terrorists and those who harbor and support them. All Americans honor the selfless men and women of our Armed Forces, the dedicated members of our public safety, law enforcement, and intelligence communities, and the thousands of others who work hard each day to protect our country, secure our liberty, and prevent future attacks.
The spirit of our people is the source of America’s strength, and 6 years ago, Americans came to the aid of neighbors in need. On Patriot Day, we pray for those who died and for their families. We volunteer to help others and demonstrate the continuing compassion of our citizens. On this solemn occasion, we rededicate ourselves to laying the foundation of peace with confidence in our mission and our free way of life.
By a joint resolution approved December 18, 2001 (Public Law 107-89), the Congress has designated September 11 of each year as “Patriot Day.”
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim September 11, 2007, as Patriot Day. I call upon the Governors of the United States and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, as well as appropriate officials of all units of government, to direct that the flag be flown at half-staff on Patriot Day. I also call upon the people of the United States to observe Patriot Day with appropriate ceremonies, activities, and remembrance services, to display the flag at half-staff from their homes on that day, and to observe a moment of silence beginning at 8:46 a.m. eastern daylight time to honor the innocent Americans and people from around the world who lost their lives as a result of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fourth day of September, in the year of our Lord two thousand seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-second.
GEORGE W. BUSH
Fidel warns of coming global recession
Fidel Castro warned on Tuesday that the world could be headed for a crisis reminiscent of the Great Depression and accused the United States of exploiting natural resources and countries around the globe.
”The picture is increasingly uncertain as we face the fear of a prolonged recession like that of the 1930s,” the 81-year-old leader wrote in an essay published in state newspapers.
So the dead dictator wants to drag the world economy into the hole with his corpse. Nice.
You should’ve stayed home in Mother Russia:
They were young women romantically drawn to Fidel Castro’s revolution, a breath of fresh air on a distant Caribbean island for those who were disillusioned with Soviet communism.
But when the Soviet Union fell apart in 1991, hundreds of Russian women who married Cubans and moved to Cuba were cut off from home and stranded in poverty as the Cuban economy plunged into deep crisis.
For those who had lived through the hardships of World War II in Russia as children, the long blackouts and the lack of food, medicine and fuel for transport were a cruel flashback.
Da, comrade, welcome to the harsh reality of Castro-world. But it gets worse:
The harshest aspect is not being able to travel home. Cuba used to grant them subsidized tickets every five years, paid for in pesos. But Cuba’s airline stopped flying to Moscow and tickets must now be paid for in hard cash few can afford.
“My father died in 1994 and I could not go to his funeral,” said Zita Kelderari, a Ukrainian gypsy, in tears.
The Flamenco singer fell for a Cuban helicopter pilot in Kiev in 1985 and sailed to Cuba on a Soviet freighter loaded with Yugoslavian butter. When he defected to the United States a few years ago, she was left penniless in Cuba.
Only the women lucky enough to receive money from their relatives get to travel these days. On a Cuban pension alone, it would take 10 years to gather the cost of a flight home.
At least one Russian woman had the sense to say nyet to Castro, though, even though it cost her:
Elena Verselova, who was struggling to get ahead after two Cuban divorces, took her activism in a different direction. She became a dissident on Cuba’s depressed Isle of Youth.
Verselova was deported by the Cuban government on July 26, according to her daughter Diana Aguilar, who arrived from Russia when she was a nine-month baby in her mother’s arms.
Verselova was harassed and threatened by Cuban police, and eventually arrested, her daughter said. The family had to sell hard-won electrical appliances to pay for her ticket to Moscow, where she arrived with $170 in her pocket to start a new life.
“They didn’t let us say good-bye to her,” said Aguilar, 22, a University of Havana student. She said the Russian consulate in Cuba refused to help her mother even locate family members in Vladimir, 115 miles east of Moscow.
“I hope to leave Cuba to join my mother. I want to return to my roots in Europe,” said the blond student.
Another family screwed over by the Castro Bros. Da svidanya and best of luck, Diana.
Castro’s ridiculousness reaches a new level now. It’s not enough that democracy is forbidden in practice; now the word itself is also verboten–even though it was only the name of a dance show:
However, working in Cuba has provided (Spanish choreographer Rafael) Bonachela with some unexpected challenges.
It was not the challenge of choreographing dancers from one of Cuba’s foremost dance outfits, Dance Contemporanea, which proved to be the problem.
Rather it was the name of the work – which was originally called Arsenal of Democracy.
Compromise
The choice of name was a pure coincidence.
The dance is based on music by an American composer Julia Wolfe, from her album Arsenal of Democracy.
Communist Cuba has a long history of both classical ballet and modern dance, art forms that have been fully supported by Fidel Castro from the earliest days of the revolution.
On arrival in Havana, though, Bonachela discovered that the Cuban dance company’s managers were not too happy about the name.
In the end a compromise was reached, and “Democracy” became “Demo-n Crazy”.
Communist Cuba also has a long history of preferring the demonic to democracy and freedom for its people.
The Miami exile who led the mission to capture Ernesto Ché Guevara in the jungles of Bolivia is auctioning a treasure trove of memorabilia from the iconic figure’s last days.
Among the items for sale: A lock of Ché’s long, wavy hair snipped minutes before the rebel leader was buried in a common grave 40 years ago.
”It’s time for me to put the past behind and pass these on to someone else,” said Gustavo Villoldo, 71, a now-retired grandfather, who led the joint CIA-Bolivian army mission to stop Ché’s aspirations to duplicate a Cuban-style revolution.
Villoldo has preserved a large scrapbook of his controversial assignment, but one he is proud of.
Villoldo, a Bay of Pigs veteran whose role in Ché’s demise is confirmed in unclassified secret documents, considers Ché a cold-blooded killer partly responsible for his father’s shattered life and suicide in the wake of the Cuban Revolution which brought Fidel Castro and Ché, his right-hand man, to power.
Read the rest of the story here. Kind of weird to make money off of a dead murderer. But then again, those other murderers–Fidel Castro and his band of thugs–have been making millions off of Cuba’s pain and suffering.
