Hello!

[Boris Godunov]

Sava is so gay it's not even funny. Okay, yes it is.

[SlowwHand]

When are you coming to San Antonio next?

[Az]

Welcome back, Fez.

[GePap]

Well, this should be interesting.....

Will we have to bring back "fezzed"?

[monolith94]

bienvenue! now just keep remembering to take those deep breaths before posting and you should do just fine!

[chequita guevara]

Fez has already caused something good, the banning of Spinky. It's only a week, but any week without Spink is a good week.

[SlowwHand]

Something on your hero, Che.


Cuba’s traditional supporters among the strongest critics of island’s crackdown on dissent
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Carlos Fuentes called Cuba a “suffocating dictatorship.” Jose Saramago said Fidel Castro “cheated his dreams.”

Leftist intellectuals and authors were shocked at Cuba’s recent crackdown on dissent, and many find themselves criticizing a government they spent years applauding. The backlash appears to have caught Cuba off guard, forcing officials to defend themselves in the Communist Party daily Granma.

Although still accused of human rights abuses, Cuba had largely halted the high-profile crackdowns on critics it was once known for. There were greater freedoms with the island’s growing tourism industry, and even Republican U.S. lawmakers were calling to ease more than four decades of U.S. imposed sanctions.

But that changed earlier this month, when Cuba executed by firing squad three men accused of terrorism in the unsuccessful hijacking of a ferry full of passengers. Just days before, it sentenced 75 dissidents to prison terms of up to 28 years on charges they worked with U.S. diplomats to undermine Castro’s government.

The actions prompted criticism around the globe.
In Sweden, Foreign Minister Anna Lindh said the trials and executions could harm the island nation’s prospects for a better relationship with the European Union. Protesters in the Czech Republic chanted “Shame on Fidel” and “Cuba si, Fidel no!” in front the Cuban Embassy in Prague. And both Canada and Italy condemned the actions, sending letters of protest to the Cuban government.

Puerto Rico’s secretary of state said the actions were a step backward for the region, and Nicaragua recalled its envoy in Cuba for consultations after the Cuban government accused several nations — including Nicaragua — of acting as the United States’ “lackeys.”

But some of the strongest criticism came from Cuba’s traditional voices of support.

Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano, who once praised Castro as a “symbol of national dignity,” wrote an essay in which he reluctantly acknowledged that the crackdown did nothing but fuel opposition claims that the Cuban leader was a brutal dictator.

“Must they learn the bad habits of the enemy they are fighting?” he said. “The death penalty is never justified, no matter where it is applied.”

Fuentes, a Mexican novelist known for his past support of Cuba, was even more disillusioned, declaring himself “against Bush, and against Castro.”

“As a Mexican, I wish for my country neither the dictates of Washington on foreign policy, nor the Cuban example of a suffocating dictatorship,” he wrote in a letter published in Mexico City’s Reforma newspaper.

He wasn’t alone. Saramago, a Portuguese writer who won the 1998 Nobel Prize for literature and considered himself a close friend of Castro, said Cuba “has lost my confidence, damaged my hopes, cheated my dreams.”

Colombian Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who lives part-time in Cuba, has been silent on the issue. But his magazine, Cambio, published an article saying that Cuba’s actions had alienated even the island’s friends.

“Few other repressive waves have left a government so isolated and rejected,” it said.

The communist government responded by publishing rebukes in Granma.

In one letter that appeared Saturday, a group of well-known Cuban intellectuals urged their colleagues to stop criticizing the island. The letter, entitled “Message from Havana to our friends in faraway places,” said the recent statements by leftist intellectuals “are being used in the great campaign trying to isolate us and prepare the stage for military aggression by the United States against Cuba.”

Still, Cuba has its supporters. The U.N. Human Rights Commission failed to get enough votes to condemn the recent crackdown, and instead called for a U.N. rights monitor to visit Cuba. And, despite recent events, the state of Maryland is sending the Pride of Baltimore II clipper ship to the island in an attempt to promote the state’s seafood, poultry, pet food, cake mix, juices and spices.

Also, it’s unclear how long Cuba’s traditional supporters will stay angry.

But Fuentes, for one, appears unapologetic. He accused Castro of needing “his American enemy to justify his own failings” and said the Cuban president was preparing “the way for his own exit from the world stage in a hail of flames.”

[Sava]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov
Sava is so gay it's not even funny. Okay, yes it is.

Nah, wishful thinking?

[SlowwHand]

You know, the price in your signature line isn't really out of line.

People don't realize that government contracts call for all kinds of Supplier Surveys and inspection requirements.
It's not like one runs down to Home Depot or something; but that's material for a different thread.

[chequita guevara]

What does that have to do with Fez, Sloww?

[Sava]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
You know, the price in your signature line isn't really out of line.

People don't realize that government contracts call for all kinds of Supplier Surveys and inspection requirements.
It's not like one runs down to Home Depot or something; but that's material for a different thread.

So you're a Halliburton apologist? Frankly, I figured a true patriot would be upset at a company defrauding the government.

You can create another thread so I can dismantle your silly logic. I don't want to ruin Fez's homecoming any more.

[Ben Kenobi]

Of course not. Home Depot supplies Canadian wood after all.

Fez:

You don't know me, but I've heard of you.

Welcome back

[Giancarlo]

Am I really this controversial? LOL... well my life has been kinda slow... sorry I haven't posted much in this thread.. I am at school right.

Thanks for the warm welcome, and I am glad to Speer is banned for at least a week. Maybe it should of been longer.

It has been 4 months approximately.

[GePap]

I though Spink was Bodd's, not Speer...?

Yes Fez, you are as controversial as they coem in the OT.

[Giancarlo]

Well somebody asked if I was mixed up or better now... well yeah I am feeling better... got everything in order.. got accepted into university... also in a relationship too..

Yeah I was mistaken... I meant Spink. Spink, Spear.. same type of persona.

[MRT144]

fez, to be honest, youre more like spear and spink than anyone else here.

[Giancarlo]

MRT, Well you are right... I probably was... but not right now...

[MRT144]

next thing you know youll post a picture of yourself wearing a che guevera t shirt

[Giancarlo]

you wish, mrt. I am a center right moderate now... I moderated my views. I will never go to the other side though. hehhee...

[MRT144]

please, i wish communism on no one. its the opiate of the desperate and deluded.

[Giancarlo]

Communims is the opposite of the desperate and deluded? Don't bait me. It is the desperate and deluded. Heheheh...

[VJ]

Wearing Che Guevara -shirts has nothing to do with political stance. It's just a good way to be 'hip' among 12-18 year old girls, who are brainless.

Welcome, Fez. We've been talking much about you when you were gone.

[SlowwHand]

Originally posted by MRT144
please, i wish communism on no one. its the opiate of the desperate and deluded.

Ain't it the truth?

[GePap]

Don't worry Fez..the extent of your conversion shall be tested mightly back here in OT land.

[Giancarlo]

Hehehe.. well I hope the talk about me was positive. Probably not.. but oh well... I gotta get to my classes... talk to you all later.

[Japher]

haha, Fez has class

[VJ]

All the negative comments about you got "special attention" from Ming... We really don't like talking bad about someone who has no chance to defend him/herself...

[MRT144]

there were at least 2 polls asking if people actually missed you

[Kontiki]

Originally posted by Fez
you wish, mrt. I am a center right moderate now... I moderated my views. I will never go to the other side though. hehhee...

A center right moderate? What the hell is that?

[Giancarlo]

I am in computer class... but 2 polls? LOL...

Well I am back... you better love me... or ignore me....