What Embargo?

From the New York Post:

April 16, 2007 -- A group of Manhattan public high-school students and a history teacher with a soft spot for Cuba flouted federal travel restrictions by taking a spring-break field trip to the communist nation - and now face up to $65,000 apiece in fines, The Post has learned.

Comments

[victor]

The embargo is only for people..Coca-cola,marlboro,winston,general electric,westinghouse,tyson,cargill,bic,pepsicola,those guys get to go..Whenever we get a group that want to see for themselves..thats a "fine" The U.S. doesnt want us to go cause products bring money,and people bring problems..Problems being questions about the "embargo". Hey,I see my family on aregular basis..No embargo,no problem.

[curt]

Those students need to request a jury trial which will absolve them of any guilt because THERE IS NO PROOF THAT THEY SPENT ANY MONEY IN CUBA. A jury will aquit them for lack of evidence. In this country you are innocent until proven guilty.

[usambcuba]

It is ridiculous our taxpayer resources get spent on this. The embargo is a failure. The restrictions are wrong and hurt ourselves. Now we are going to go after schoolkids for going to Cuba???

Curt makes a good suggestion but their cases will be treated administratively (if it reaches that)before an Administrative Law Judge. Only after they exhaust the administrative process can they go to the courts as my attorney friends advise.
If the case went before a jury, there is something called jury nullification wherein a jury nullifies a law that it believes is wrong or misapplied.

[victor]

It will reach no where. To much attention to the case..They only fine little old ladys who bike Cuba,and travelers that dont know better than to pay fine...Great P.R. for their school and any future projects.Waste of our tax dollars.....KEEP YOUNG GIRLS OUT OF BABALU BLOG.

[Mike Hunter]

The embargo that's preventing me from grabbing a direct flight to Havana. You know the one that allows crooked bueracrats to extort $65,000 a piece from children going on a school sponsored trip.

[victor]

ZIVA!!!! Stop with your rabid valium enticed rants about the letter from the Gov. in regards to the school trip..Again,c'mon out here and take me on,and others where you cant censor us..C'mon you "I wannabe a Cuban".C'mon out and play..Stop hiding behind those pigs over at Babalu Blog..We,or I should say,I will curse and say vile things just to make you feel at home....KEEP YOUNG GIRLS OUT OF BABALU BLOG!!!!

[Manuel A. Tellechea]

They say that the trip to Cuba was an "enriching experience," so prove it. Tell us exactly how much you were "enriched." Surely at least $65,000 dollars' worth.

What is most shocking about this story is the sheer hubris of the teacher and principal, who knowingly violated the regulations of the NYC Education Department and the laws of the United States. Like it or not the law is the law, and it is cravenly to use children to promote a political agenda, much less induce them to violate the law to do it. The principal and teacher should be fired immediately (which in NYC means a permanent paid sabbatical).

[curt]

According to the late, great Mahatma Gandhi, man has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. Bravo to the high school teacher and his students who were brave enough to take the trip!

[Manuel A. Tellechea]

Curt:

So what do you do when peaceful resistance is impossible? Gandhi had the answer and he offered it as advice to Europe's doomed Jews. According to Gandhi, the Jews should have committed collective suicide prior to the Holocaust in order to teach the world yet another "great moral lesson." Considering their deaths as inevitable, Gandhi did not want their sacrifice to be also "wasted" when it might serve to advance the cause of humanity. Gandhi himself never contemplated committing suicide; he had other ways to teach "great" moral lessons to half-wits like you, Curt.

Gandhi also wrote "Dear Adolf" letters to Hitler where he assured the Nazi psychopath of his friendship and good-will and even intimated that he didn't think that Hitler was the "monster" portrayed by the British. Perhaps his neutral stance towards Hitler might have changed if he knew that Hitler had advised the British in the 1930s that he would support any attempt to crush Gandhi's movement or eliminate Gandhi himself. In Hitler eyes, at least, Gandhi was no better than a Jew.

Now, I know Curt that none of this will shake your faith in the "Mahatma." So I am tempted to quote his pronouncements against Communism. That should certainly win him your disdain.

[Mambi Watch]

Actually, Gandhi has a point. People are able to point out injustices where they see them, even when they are codified laws. I believe that people can see contradictory principles applied in our everyday laws, and in the US embargo.

But, where injustices are seen, then people must organize and create movements to address and reveal these injustices.

With every injustice there is also a certain and appropriate social context. Therefore, I am not gonna set myself on fire just so I can challenge my parking ticket.

People know what is reasonable and what isn't. But, we need forums where these things can be discussed. We need more discussion on the injustices of the US embargo. Only then will it finally go away.

[Mike Hunter]

It looks like Baboon Blog has started cracking down on dissidents again. It seems that they banned me again.

Actually it's pretty funny how they wail on about freedom of expression one moment and then do everything that they can to restrict it in the next. I predict that this blog will start seeing more traffic as they crack down more. That is of course until they realized that they're loosing viewers because of their policies. At which point they'll try and flood The Heralds forums with spam to render them useless AGAIN. And will start allowing different points of view AGAIN. Until the cycle starts all over.

[victor]

folks,stop it with the Ghandi...I start eating every time you post more..Another dissident of BLABLALU BLOG!! "then there were many". This blog is a sinking ship.This are the guys that couldnt get into the fight because of "flat feet"..The folks whose lives are so lacking of attention that shock is their only way to achive that.Where the right to shoot your mouth of is only for "MANKAMP"members..they are our Cuban KKK. Forget that "mafia"crap they love to call themselves..To many movies and to much cafecito at Vesalles.Pawns for the hardliners.Censorship is their motto,if it dont swing their way..folks who dont know a thing about the land they say they fight for..folks that dont remmember its sounds or smell or have even felt the spray of the Malecon on their faces..They are like rap.only they spell it crap...KEEP YOUNG GIRLS OUT OF BABALU BLOG.

[curt]

Manny, you may be a complete ignoramus but you have a great imagination. Peace out brother!!!!

[Manuel A. Tellechea]

Curt, Victor and all habitues of Miami's Cuban Conection::

You may be interested in knowing, as will no doubt A.T., noone, longfellow and others from this blog's golden days, that I have started my own blog, entitled the REVIEW OF CUBAN-AMERICAN BLOGS, to denounce censorship and personality cults on Cuban-themed blogs. I begun the blog as a response to Val Prieto and Company's contempt for freedom of speech as shown not only in their summary expulsions and anathemas but also in their ultimatums to their readers not to touch on certain topics which are off-limits at Babalú.

To those of you who would enjoy expressing yourselves without strictures, and with the peace of mind that your opinions will never get you booted from my blog, I invite you to visit:

http://reviewofcuban-americanblogs.blogspot.com/

[victor]

Hail to the pig of pigs...He is among us..Evil lurks in the city of pigs...

[victor]

of course I mean POSADA....Manuel,yes your blog will be a welcomed one no matter which side I sit on your fence..Let our voices be heard.