Salon.com > Alexandra Starr

Faithful to Fidel

Tue, 08 Aug 2006 12:59:00 +0000

As Cuba inches toward a post-Fidel existence, international attention has focused on the ailing leader and his brother Raul. But it's worth keeping an eye on Fidel's staunchest ally. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is likely to pour millions of petrodollars into keeping Cuba socialist.

Chavez is an avowed foe of the Bush administration and the most influential leader in Latin America today. His deep pockets have bankrolled Cuba for the past half decade and shored up the Castro regime. The Venezuelan wants to keep Cuba's power structure intact -- and keep the United States out. "Chavez's message to Cuba is: 'I love you just as you are,'" says Daniel Erikson, director of Caribbean programs at the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington think tank. "That's music to the ears of Raul Castro."

Guilty pleasures from China

Thu, 25 May 2000 19:51:00 +0000

In its zealous campaign to persuade wavering House members
to grant "permanent normal trade relations" status to
China, which they approved Wednesday, the Clinton administration adopted a
permanent
"message of the day." The mantra went something like this:
The Chinese, not the United States, made all of the
concessions in the bilateral accord negotiated between the
two countries last year. The treaty was hammered out with an
eye to China's imminent membership in the World Trade
Organization, and unless Congress granted China all of
the prerogatives that went along with that (e.g.,
relinquishment of Congress' yearly ritual of deciding whether
to grant China most-favored-nation status), the United States
would be shut out of the treaty's largess.

This suggested the Chinese were chumps. But while it may have
made concessions to the United States, China stands to gain
substantial economic benefits if it can swing WTO
membership. It's enough to make fashion behemoths like
Nike, Liz Claiborne, the Gap and the Limited salivate as
well.

Truly guilty pleasures

Thu, 25 May 2000 05:24:00 +0000

In its zealous campaign to convince wavering House members
to grant permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) status to
China, the Clinton administration has adopted a permanent
"message of the day." The mantra goes something like this:
The Chinese, not the United States, made all of the
concessions in the bilateral accord negotiated between the
two countries last year. The treaty was hammered out with an
eye to China's imminent entrance into the World Trade
Organization, and unless Congress grants China all of
the prerogatives that go along with membership (e.g.,
relinquishing the yearly ritual of deciding whether or not
to grant it most-favored-nation status), the United States
will be shut out of the treaty's largesse.

This suggests the Chinese were chumps. But while it may have
made concessions to the United States, China stands to gain
substantial economic benefits if it can swing WTO
membership. And it's enough to make fashion behemoths like
Nike, Liz Claiborne, the Gap and the Limited salivate, as
well.

The hands that rocked the capital

Mon, 15 May 2000 15:00:00 +0000

At the Million Mom March here Sunday, the T-shirts told the story. Shirts emblazoned with photographs of young
men and the dates of their births and deaths were
plentiful. Even more common was the slogan of the gathering: "We're looking for a few good moms."

And the good mothers turned out in droves. According to march
organizers, 750,000 people attended the Mother's Day rally, although official estimates put the number at a vaguer "tens" or "hundreds" of thousands. The crowd was predominantly white and female, strollers were ubiquitous and pink was the favorite hue of the day. Marchers hailed from everywhere from Sacramento, Calif., to Ithaca, N.Y., and were affiliated with groups ranging from Jewish Women International to the National Education Association.

Funny lady Rosie O'Donnell emceed the rally, but the comedic mien she radiates on her television talk show was not on display Sunday. O'Donnell was all business and outrage as she described the obstacles attendees would have to overcome to see their anti-gun-violence agenda passed into law.

"The NRA [National Rifle Association] is buying votes with blood money," O'Donnell lectured sternly. But, she added, the organization had "better get used to us. We will not go away."

Al Gore: Born to run

Mon, 14 Feb 2000 17:00:00 +0000

When Bill Clinton tapped Al Gore to be his running mate in 1992, Gore's father exalted to the New York Times: "We raised him for it." And it does seem that Gore was groomed for national office from the day his birth was announced on Page 1 of a Tennessee newspaper. By the age of 40, the vice president had passed through both houses of Congress and mounted a failed presidential bid. Four years later, he landed in the White House, albeit not in the wing he would have chosen.

But as the candidacies of both Gore and Republican front-runner George W. Bush indicate, being the annointed candidate of the establishment is no guarantee of smooth political sailing. Gore faced an early, well-financed challenge from Bill Bradley, though Gore seems to have regained momentum after victories in Iowa and New Hampshire. But the Bradley surge is indicative of Gore's flaws as a candidate.

Green-eyed monster

Fri, 21 Jan 2000 17:00:00 +0000

Al Gore is hardly known as a risk taker, but he definitely went out on a limb with his 1991 book "Earth in the Balance." His call to arms compared the degradation of the environment to Kristallnacht. And the erstwhile senator wasn't conservative in his remedies for saving the natural world: He called for eliminating the internal-combustion engine within the next 25 years and declared that "[w]e must make the environment the central organizing principle for civilization." The tough rhetoric won kudos from environmentalists, and they rallied to the Clinton-Gore ticket in 1992.

As a presidential candidate, however, Gore has displayed little of the fervor found in "Earth." The vice president has pounded issues like health care and education on the hustings; the environment, in contrast, has received short shrift. Instead of warning about the perils of global warming, the vice president's green pronouncements have essentially focused on "livability" issues like urban sprawl. The idea is to reach out to suburban swing voters who are sick of brutal traffic congestion and the eyesore of strip malls.