The Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) seems in disarray. In a recent press release reproduced in Progreso Weekly this week, the Miami once hard-right organization now turned towards the middle seem to take a step back, more to the right. My speculation, and it’s strictly that, there’s something going on within their four walls they’re not willing to discuss in public at this time. Remember, this is the same CANF who had a big falling out when Joe Garcia took over their helm and veered them, smartly I believe, towards the middle — when dealing with the Cuba issue. I say wait and see… there might be new developments coming when it comes to CANF.

And with President-elect Obama laying the groundwork for his Administration and setting up his cabinet and White House advisors, there is much speculation going on nationally with the issue of Cuba. Will he or won’t he? many are asking. During his drive for the presidency he promised to lift travel restrictions for Cuban American family members here in the U.S. We will see… but there is much more being discussed, including the issue of the embargo. What follows is an article that appeared in The Los Angeles Times on Saturday.

Alvaro F. Fernandez

To read the full article click here: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-uscuba13-2008dec13,0,6899785.story

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush — the younger brother of the president — is weighing a run for the Senate seat currently held by Republican Mel Martinez.

A source close to Bush said he’ll be thoughtful and methodical about the decision-making process. He will consider the impact a race would have on his family and his business and whether or not the U.S. Senate is the best forum from which to continue his advocacy for issues such as education, immigration and GOP solutions to health care reform.

To read the Politico.com story, click below:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1208/16155.html

President-elect Barack Obama promised that one of the first things he would do if elected president was to remove restrictions on travel and remittances to Cuba by family members living in the United States. There are many of us who voted for the new president desperate for Jan. 20, 2009, to arrive. The reasons are varied, including the relief of knowing we won’t have George W. Bush and his clan to sadly laugh at as they’ve slowly destroyed what used to be a pretty good place. But there’s also the promise to keep… I have a strong feeling we will not be disappointed.

Not only is this the right and humane thing to do, but Obama, who won in Miami-Dade County, bastion of Cuban-American republicanism, has timing and history working for him. A new poll made public yesterday shows that 65% of Miami Cubans favor lifting of restrictions. But most interesting may be the fact that a majority, for the first time, favors lifting the embargo which has been in place since the 1960s.

“The poll, conducted by Florida International University’s Institute for Public Opinion Research and funded by the Brookings Institution and the Cuba Study Group, indicates that 55 percent of those polled favor discontinuing the trade embargo imposed in 1962. Sixty-five percent favor reestablishing diplomatic relations with Cuba,” reported The Miami Herald’s Lisa Grosz.

For more information on the poll, read Lisa’s report at: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/story/796874.html.

Alvaro F. Fernandez

At approximately 10:30 a.m. today, several blogs (the first being The Miami Herald’s Naked Politics) started reporting that Florida Senator Mel Martinez would NOT seek reelection in 2010. Since the Obama victory in November, Martinez’ seat had been mentioned nationally by pundits as one that might be up for grabs — the senator’s numbers [A Quinnipiac University poll conducted last month showed 36 percent of Florida voters though Martinez deserved a second term while 38 percent did not — troubling numbers for any incumbent. In that same survey roughly three in ten (31 percent) of voters had a favorable impression of Martinez while 28 percent had an unfavorable view of the Florida Republican.] were not great and Florida’s showing in the presidential created hope for a Democratic victory in 2010.

If the Martinez announcement is true, then Florida (again) becomes ground zero during the upcoming midterm elections. A lot of names are being bandied about as possible contenders. Whoever it is, this looks like another heavyweight match coming up.

Might Jeb Bush be up for a fight?

Alvaro F. Fernandez

12/2/2008 — 11:40 a.m.

Blogs reporting:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2008/12/mel_martinez_to_retire.html?hpid=topnews

http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2008/12/martinez-not-se.html

I know so very little about economics. These days I wish I understood it better. So I am trying to make up for my lack of knowledge by reading people I respect. On Thursday, Progreso Weekly will publish a column recently written for The New York Times by Joseph Stiglitz. Today The Times ran this one by Paul Krugman. It’s worth reading. Here’s the first few paragraphs and the link to the newspaper.

Alvaro

Deficits and the Future

Right now there’s intense debate about how aggressive the United States government should be in its attempts to turn the economy around. Many economists, myself included, are calling for a very large fiscal expansion to keep the economy from going into free fall. Others, however, worry about the burden that large budget deficits will place on future generations.

But the deficit worriers have it all wrong. Under current conditions, there’s no trade-off between what’s good in the short run and what’s good for the long run; strong fiscal expansion would actually enhance the economy’s long-run prospects.

The claim that budget deficits make the economy poorer in the long run is based on the belief that government borrowing “crowds out” private investment — that the government, by issuing lots of debt, drives up interest rates, which makes businesses unwilling to spend on new plant and equipment, and that this in turn reduces the economy’s long-run rate of growth. Under normal circumstances there’s a lot to this argument.

But circumstances right now are anything but normal. Consider what would happen next year if the Obama administration gave in to the deficit hawks and scaled back its fiscal plans.

Click to read the entire Krugman column in The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/01/opinion/01krugman.html?hp

I recently read that the new baseball stadium idea for the Florida Marlins is now on hold till 2011. The Marlins had planned on moving in and start playing baseball at their new home in Little Havana at the site of the old (now demolished) Orange Bowl. The glitch: the back and forth of how much money will be afforded the Marlins from taxpayers (by way of the city, county and state) to make a retractable roof stadium a reality.

We’re talking somewhere in the neighborhood of half a billion dollars. Don’t be surprised if that figure goes to at least a billion by the time this is through. And the fact is that there are numerous politicians fighting to make this a reality for the Marlins. The holdup seems to be that the politicians pushing for this are not the bravest… with the economy in the tank there is so much pushing you can do in public in order to help build a palace with taxpayer dollars for a billionaire owner in a sport where shitty players must survive on a measly million or so a year.
In the meantime, social programs for the most needy (the elderly, children from impoverished families, and so many others), dollars for educational programs, health care solutions et al suffer from lack of state funds…

But at times there seems to be more debate regarding the Marlins stadium than the real problems we face here in South Florida. Priorities, priorities, who gives a rat’s ass about what’s really important in this town?
I say build the stadium; I love baseball! But don’t you dare use my money, dammit!

If they’re going to waste it, do so on some old man who needs medication that keeps him from eating. Or spend it on a child in East Little Havana who might need tutoring in school — being cut because there are no funds.

Alvaro F. Fernandez