Freedom Before Charity

The Bush administration continues to show their arrogance and bad judgment at every bend in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Cuban President Fidel Castro generously offered to send over 1,500 doctors and 34 tons of medicine to help with relief efforts, but the Cubans had to wait several days before the US even responded. And of course you know what the answer was. This is what the White House spokesman (master of snide comments) Scott McClellan had to say about Castro’s kind offer:
“In terms of Cuba, we would certainly hope that Castro would offer freedom to his people.”

And that’s that. What jerks these Bush-ites are! A neighboring country offers to help victims of the biggest disaster in US history, and the Bush administration allows petty politics to prevent that aid from ever materializing.

While we are on the subject of this much vaunted concept of “freedom,” let’s ask Bush and Scotty this question:
Why won’t the US allow its citizens the freedom to travel to Cuba?