The Sound of One Clue

The Sound of One Clue Dropping - The LA Weekly's Marc Cooper has been a frequent subject in this blog; he's sort of like the City Pages' Steve Perry with more tan than talent.

The boy's outdone himself. His current column, on Castro's judicial murder of three hijackers last week, earns Kerri-Strug-like scores in logical gymnastics.

He starts off...well, like Steve Perry with a tan:

Have you ever imagined what it would be like living in a society where, say, a John Ashcroft would be unrestrained by the niceties of constitutional law? Where draconian enforcement of a Patriot Act includes long prison terms for alleged thought crimes? Where, in the name of fighting “terrorism,” nonviolent prisoners are summarily executed after being denied even the trappings of due process?

"Have we ever imagined...?" Hell, I read The Gulag Archipelago; I needn't imagine anything.

Apparently, neither need Mr. Cooper:

Imagine no more. Just read the latest news reports, I’m sorry to say, coming not out of Guantánamo but out of Havana.

"He's sorry" to break the news to his left-wing audience - Castro's a murdering tyrant!

One wonders; does this mean that this is news to Mr. Cooper? Or does Mr. Cooper honestly think it's news to the LA Weekly's audience?

Last Friday, three men were lined up at dawn and executed by a Cuban firing squad after being convicted of “grave acts of terrorism,” according to a statement read on state television. Their executions came a mere nine days after they had surrendered in a failed attempt to hijack a Havana ferryboat to Florida. Their trial was, of course, secret. Even the Cuban state isn’t shameless enough to open to public scrutiny such a degrading and chilling sham — a capital trial that allows no serious defense. And both Cuba’s Supreme Tribunal and its governing Council of State, headed by Fidel Castro, immediately rubber-stamped the death sentences. I suppose when you don’t have a real trial, you don’t need any real appeals.

You think so?

These are the New Socialist Men that Che Guevara so glowingly evoked in his essay of the same title 40 years ago? This is a society superior to savage capitalism?

Not only are "these" indeed those men, but some of us on the right have been saying it for forty years.

The state murders in Cuba only punctuate what has been an equally sordid season of broader repression. A month ago, as the war in Iraq was breaking out, Cuban police arrested nearly 80 dissidents on charges of receiving money from and collaborating with U.S. diplomats to undermine Cuba’s government.

I suppose, if you look at this the right way, that this is good news; someone on the left has the balls to yell "the Emperor has new clothes"; finally, after all these years, someone in the "alternative" press is looking past Cuba's "Free health care" to actually call Castro's regime out.

Here's the money quote - or I guess since we're talking Cuba it's a "five year plan quote":

Some friends of mine urged me not to write this column, arguing that at a time when U.S. troops are occupying Iraq, this would only “play into the hands of the right.” That is, of course, ridiculous. There are many enemies of freedom in the world, and — no — not all of them live in Washington.

Gracious of him, isn't it?

The actions taken by Fidel Castro this past month, precisely in this moment of American belligerence, are guaranteed to only please the ultraright. They help confirm my longtime suspicion that Castro lives in mortal fear that his most powerful tool of social control, the U.S. embargo, will one day be lifted.

"The actions will only please the ultraright".

That's right - Castro is really in league with the right. Fascinating what you learn reading the Weekly, no?

Cooper ends by quoting from a letter - and yet another online petition - from a Leo Casey, a leftie union activist, that heats my bile red-hot:

“By its actions, the Cuban state declares that it is not a government of the left . . .[no, the left could never spawn a Castro...] but just one more dictatorship, concerned with maintaining its monopoly of power above all else.”

Shades of Reagan, huh?

It only took them forty years to figure this out?

Leave aside the attempted evasion of accountability - as if the left has been on to Castro's game all along, while the "ultraright" has been backing Castro sub rosa from the gitgo.

One step up, two steps back.

(Via Instapundit and Matt Welch)

Posted by Mitch at April 17, 2003 08:41 PM