UPDATE: Ozzie Guillen suspended five games

No, you smooched at me. No taking that back.

 

Lots. It says something for the political clout of the Cuban community.

Is that a bad thing? We celebrate the political clout of other ethnic minorities. What's wrong with Cuban-Americans having political clout.

The Chinese community hasn't been nearly as politically active. That's actually changing in places like new York City, Seattle, etc. They're more organized.

Though, I'm not sure that they would endorse a trade embargo with China.

I hate our fucking policy towards China. It's a brutal, murderous, repressive, dictatorship.

That doesn't mean we should lift our embargo with Cuba. if Cuba wanted to open up, every cruise ship would stop there. Billions of dollars would be invested overnight. Tourism would be huge. Exiles would move home -- especially retirees who would want to live in their homeland once again, or even for the first time.

The ball is in their court, and has been for 50 years.

 

LOL. He edited his post to add that. Awesome.

 

No matter what, you just can't keep my name out of your mouth.

I challenge Shortbus to dispute that.

 

Really? You're going to make the Ozzie Guillen thread a referendum about China?

Go back to Joe Paterno.

 

This.

And further - the fact that people have tried to compare this to drug sentencing laws, child rapists, people using the "N-word" only strengthens my point because the argument for suspending him is so weak, that people must go to the ridiculous examples and use "apples to oranges" comparisons in order to try and muddy the central issue here.

Ozzie Guillen did not use a racial slur. He did not insult a race. He didn't commit a crime. He didn't advocate committing a crime. He didn't criticize officials of baseball or umpires.

He simply voiced his opinion about a dictator and since it isn't an opinion that the politically correct whiny asshole crowd agrees with, the powers that be were forced to pander and come up with this silly meaningless suspension.

It is an insult to the intelligence of anyone who was supposedly insulted.

 

It's possible to assert that it was a stupid thing to say, and still argue that the suspension was uncalled for.

 

OK, "they don't want to see the manager of their favorite ballclub admiring him."

Well, guess what? Short of firing him, that's exactly what they have. His (IMO) very qualified "admiration" was first noted in 2008 and has not changed and will not change, regardless of any fines or suspensions.

So what benefits, exactly --- TANGIBLE BENEFITS --- will the seething rank-and-file Cuban community receive when all is said and done?

 

So . . .

You think Cubans living in Miami need to be prodded to be upset that the manager of their local baseball team said something favorable about Fidel Castro? Your conclusion is that well-to-do movers and shakers have caused this outrage in the Cuban community?

If you're not making a feeble attempt at sarcasm or simple contrarianism here, you might wanna sit this discussion out.

Sure.

But I can see why the Marlins felt they had to make some kind of statement. Five games of 162 is a drop in the bucket. Now the Marlins can at least try to assure themselves that they have made a connection with the community's desires.

 

No. I'm not at all.

But lots of people -- including Jones & MacGregor on their twitter feeds -- have tsk-tsk'ed folks for being upset about this, as if it's childish, especially given our China policy.

So, is it our Cuba policy that's wrong, or our China policy?

We've created Congressional districts -- with crazy boundaries -- specifically to create African-American majorities, and Hispanic-American majorities. We claim to care about minority rights and issues, but when it comes to the issues of Cuban-Americans, we find fault. Its all about "pandering" politicians.

Maybe the folks who like minority politics & "diversity" only like them when we're talking about left wing politics. Let's face it, the political resentment aimed at the Cuban community is strictly based on their voting the "wrong" way. (Though they are not the Republican voting block they used to be. Their vote is much more in play now.)

If they voted Democrat, they would just be part of the beautiful mosaic that makes up the Democrat Party.

 

I agree.

It was a stupid thing to say. It is a dumb thing to believe. But this suspension is a sham.

 

And some of you thought he had no reading comprehension.