http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=F5EBBE20-0A17-44CE-8ADD-801A912C1374
By Humberto Fontova
FrontPageMagazine.com | Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Those Che Guevara posters recently spotted in Obama's Houston
campaign offices were not hung by a young volunteer who dug the cool
looking dude's awesome guitar licks for the Smashing Pumpkins, nor by
an older one who thought she remembered the groovy guy with the beret
"hangin" with Wavy Gravy at Woodstock.
The campaign volunteer who hung the Che poster is named Maria Isabel
(second photo above) and according to the Lone Star Times, she hung
similar banners from her balcony at home. Apparently she's no
"low-level" volunteer either. She serves as a campaign 'precinct
captain" and the co-chair of the Houston Obama Leadership Team.
Most interestingly, she is a middle-aged woman who was born in Cuba
and lived there as a child during a period when Che Guevara was
Cuba's chief executioner and second in command. At the time Cuba had
the highest political incarceration and execution rate on earth, far
surpassing that of their Soviet mentors and suitors. Pictures have
surfaced (see Babalu blog.com) of Maria Isabel at several Obama
campaign functions; arm in arm with Barack, in a bear hug with
Michelle Obama, and apparently, very heavily involved in the Obama campaign.
Naturally, regarding the Che banner incident, the Obama campaign had
nothing to fear from the mainstream media, even though conservative
sites and talk radio spread the story.
Finally, there emerged a formal disavowal, of sorts. "We were
disappointed to see this picture," read the terse campaign statement,
"because it is both offensive to many Cuban-Americans -- and
Americans of all backgrounds -- and because it does not reflect
Senator Obama's views." Not a hint that the campaign honchos or
candidates themselves found Guevara "offensive."
Michelle Obama's recent speech at UCLA might provide a clue on the
lame tone of the Obama campaign's response. In fact, her rhetoric
rings with an express socialism that calls for a more perfect
individual and champions Obama as a social redeemer:
We live in isolation, and because of that isolation, we fear one
another... [Barack Obama] is going to demand that you shed your
cynicism, that you put down your division, that you come out of your
isolation.
... Barack Obama will require you to work....that you move out of
your comfort zones, that you push yourselves to be better, and that
you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as
usual - uninvolved, uninformed.
... We have to fix our souls - our souls are broken in this
nation..We can change the world!!..We can!..We can!..We can!"
In "Socialism and Man in Cuba," which is widely regarded as his
Magnum Opus, Che Guevara emphasized strikingly similar notes, calling
for a complete individual who throws off his lack of knowledge to
reach "total consciousness as a social being:"
The most important revolutionary aspiration is to see human beings
liberated from their alienation. Lack of education makes (some) take
the solitary road toward satisfying their own personal ambitions...
The mass will carry out with matchless enthusiasm and discipline the
tasks set by the government, whether in the field of the economy,
culture, defense, sports, etc..With ideological education the
individual will reach total consciousness as a social being.
We must create a new consciousness, a New Man. We recognize the
individual's quality of incompleteness, of being an unfinished
product. The vestiges of the past are brought into the present in
one's consciousness, and a continual labor is necessary to eradicate
them.....Society as a whole must be converted into a gigantic school.
By many media accounts, the Obama campaign plans inroads into the
traditionally and overwhelmingly Republican voting habits of
Cuban-Americans. Apparently these Cuban-Americans must -- in the
words of Michelle Obama -- "move out" of their Republican "comfort zones."
It seems, however, that Obama wants Cuban-Americans to move very far
out of their comfort zones, indeed. Besides proposing to meet Raul
Castro without pre-conditions as President, Obama also proposes to
lift the limited U.S. travel restrictions to Cuba. "Lifting the
travel ban to Cuba would be a gift to the Castros," explained Cuban
defector Alcibiades Hidalgo, who until 2002 served as Raul Castro's
Chief of Staff.
Fidel Castro has already endorsed his dream ticket for 2008:
Obama/Clinton. Nicaraguan Sandinista "leader" Daniel Ortega has also
endorsed Obama. "(The U.S.) is laying the foundations for a
revolutionary change," he predicted. So far, Obama indicates that he
does plan a revolutionary change in regard to Cuba. And Michelle
Obama's eerie depiction of her husband as a type of socialist
strongman requiring the American people to work doesn't suggest that
the Cuban people can expect that it will be change for the better.
---
Humberto Fontova is the author of Exposing the Real Che Guevara and
the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Him. Visit www.hfontova.com
.
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